The setting was the table of Communion of the ‘last supper,’ our picture of the scene most likely too Italian and not accurately set in first century Jerusalem. So for a moment let’s take a closer first century look at Jesus with His Disciples. But first, let’s define discipleship.
The Lord God has given Me the tongue of disciples, That I may know how to sustain the weary one with a word. He awakens Me morning by morning, He awakens My ear to listen as a disciple. 5 The Lord God has opened My ear; And I was not disobedient Nor did I turn back.
Isaiah here refers to himself as a disciple of ‘AdonayYĕhovah.
‘disciples’ – לִמּוּד – “taught, learned, discipled, from לָמַד – lä·mad’ – to learn. teach, exercise in
That is to learn and exercise the teaching of the Lord God as in:
Then Moses summoned all Israel and said to them: “Hear, O Israel, the statutes and the ordinances which I am speaking today in your hearing, that you may learn H3925 them and observe them carefully.
Deuteronomy 5:1 – Strong’s H3925 – לָמַד
Has the Lord God given you ‘the tongue of disciples’ ‘to sustain the weary one?’
And are your beloved brothers and sisters in the Lord not weary ones in need of encouragement in the Word?
Even Jesus’ example of obedience to our Father God can be seen in this same prophecy of Isaiah.
Prophecy of the Suffering Servant
6 I will offer my back to those who whip me and my cheeks to those who pluck hairs out of my beard.
I will not turn my face away from those who humiliate me and spit on me.
Who accuses me? Let him confront me!
9 The Almighty Lord helps me. Who will find me guilty?
11 But all of you light fires and arm yourselves with flaming torches. So walk in your own light and among the torches you have lit.
“Listen to me, you who pursue righteousness, Who seek the Lord:
Isaiah 51:1a NASB
“It is written in the prophets, ‘AND THEY SHALL ALL BE TAUGHT OF GOD.’ Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father, comes to Me.
Of course we correctly speak of Jesus’ twelve “Apostles” or “Disciples” (with a capital ‘D’), even appropriately adding Matthias who replaced Judas and Paul, the “Apostle to the gentiles” (though he was a Jew among jews in all his jewish learning).
These were all chosen by our Lord as an intimate inner circle of teachers to be sent into the world with the Gospel (except His betrayer, Judas Iscariot).
The Greek, Hebrew and other concepts imply that a disciple is a student and follower of a teacher. The ONE teacher IS JESUS, Son of God, Son of Man, a Personal Teacher to His disciples.
This, of course, includes the Twelve, includes Paul and also includes the many diciples who witnessed Jesus in the flesh (both before and after His resurrection of the Body).
Those who call Him Master and Lord AND obey the Very Word of God.
So Jesus was saying to those Jews who had believed Him, “If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.”
John 8:31-32 NASB
Jesus is speaking to all the disciples following Him (just like now), however His lesson and command speak only to those who truly believe and obey our Master and Lord, the Teacher Who IS the Word.
Disciples include those who continue to believe Jesus as our Lord, our Master and Teacher, those pupils schooled by the Living God.
Therefore, Jesus’ disciples include any of all generations of faith who belong to Him, those who obey our Lord and Savior.
The saints (small ‘s’) of the Church belong to Christ and therefore must obey the Lord’s command – including a new command to the church:
a new commandment from our Teacher and Lord that we LOVE ONE ANOTHER as Jesus has loved us.
And to emphasis the importance of this relationship of pupils our Teacher Jesus adds His reason for giving us a new commandment:
Why does Jesus give his disciples a NEW COMMANDMENT so specific to His Own love?
So that we also love each other.
Roger Harned – talkofJesus.com – on John 13:34
To be continued, Lord-willing...
What Jesus' New Commandment means to the church.
Life has not been progressing even remotely how we had planned.
Here we are locked up as if in the prison of death. All normal life interrupted by events of recent days. Yet what next — what now?
For the church in the year of our Lord, 2020 of these last days, it was Easter we could not celebrate in our familiar gathering of all who believe (as well as some who would like to hope in something other than death).
In the first century, this waiting by the Apostle Thomas to see Jesus once more was somewhat different. For the other Disciples had given reliable first-hand witness of the Good News of the resurrection of the Messiah Jesus, their friend and Lord!
Many of us have recently taken an entire day to worship the Lord Jesus on Resurrection Sunday or Easter Sunday.
We have watched (even online) a sermon entirely dedicated to the Gospel of Jesus Christ being raised by God the Father from the tomb after His Sacrifice — His real and human suffering in the flesh –His sacrificial spilling of His Blood on the Cross for our sins.
He IS risen indeed!
Yet what now? What in this long time of waiting will happen next? God only knows.
And what, for Christ’s sake (yes, for the Messiah’s sake), must we do?
My own study of the Gospel of John in the year of our Lord, 2020, has reached briefly into the doubting thoughts of all concerning death and what does follow.
Today is the eighth day since Thomas received the reliable Good News that Jesus had appeared to the other Disciples after DEATH.
The Apostle Thomas must have greatly anticipated the time (whenever it might finally come) to witness the risen Lord Jesus in person. (Most of us know the story already mentioned from the Gospel of John.)
It’s just been eight days of the fifty days during which the risen Lord Jesus bodily appears at various times to more than 500 witnesses. For Thomas, just about six more weeks to once again personally see and hear the Lord, the Son of Man risen from the grave.
If you follow talkofJesus.comdid eight days seem like a long wait after the rapidity of the events leading up to the Crucifixion and Resurrection of Jesus?
And if you’re anything like me (and likely Thomas) even eight days, thirty or forty days must seem like an eternity. Remember, it is not.
Today we take not the liturgical path leading to Pentecost, the chronological path of detailed witness of the Apostles, nor do we simply return to what we did before, recognizing that things have changed since we planned our year.
Like Thomas and the Disciples, we did not come to this day anticipating it to be any different than the last three years.
Life changed for the Apostles once Jesus rose from death.
And now life changes for the 21st century church caught in a diaspora of faith and witness.
All seems lost for the Lord’s chosen Disciples once Jerusalem’s religious authorities and powerful Roman governor crucify the Messiah Jesus. Even those who had believed, been healed and followed Jesus to Jerusalem’s gates were left in despair. But then prophecy is fulfilled.
The Sacrificial Lamb for our sin completes that for which the Son of Man was sent by God the Father.
Jesus IS risen!
After instructing the Disciples to take the Gospel into all the world, He ascends into the heavens from which He came. He will return once again in glory at the end of the age!
Those same men who sought to preserve their own flesh by cowering behind locked doors now boldly witness the risen Lord Jesus in the public place.
All the Apostles would eventually be martyred for their witness of Jesus Christ, except John (though he would be tortured and exiled). For now and until their earthly deaths the Apostles’ witness and preaching, emboldened by the Spirit of God, convicted sinners and attracted believers by faith in the Lord Jesus.
Peter and the Apostles, filled with the Holy Spirit of the Lord God, preach to the crowds in the Jerusalem!
The crowds are amazed, then Peter directs his preaching directly to the Jews, a remnant of faithful Jews recognizing the fulfillment of prophecy in what they have just witnessed.
Acts 2:
‘In the last days,’ God says, ‘I will pour out my Spirit upon all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy.
Take now to heart, fellow 21st c. believer, that which Peter preached to those who had not seen the Lord raised from death on the Cross.
Most had not been among the more than five hundred to witness the risen Christ Jesus, before His ascension on Pentecost just a few days prior to Peter’s preaching.
23 But God knew what would happen, and his prearranged plan was carried out when Jesus was betrayed. With the help of lawless Gentiles, you nailed him to a cross and killed him. 24 But God released him from the horrors of death and raised him back to life, for death could not keep him in its grip.
Isolated, then sent out
Do you suppose that the locked doors of your church surprise God?
Could the Lord have a purpose in all of this — a purpose central to the Gospel of Jesus Christ crucified, buried, risen and returning again in glory?
Of course God knew it! – the Lord God knows everything that has happened and will happen, even those unseen things which require our faith and glorious things beyond our grasp.
Peter now recognizes this through the Holy Spirit of God, the same Holy Spirit he witnessed in Christ Jesus our Lord.
God the Father and the Son of Man are ONE in the Same with the Holy Spirit!
And Peter preaches the GOOD NEWS with anointed confidence to those with ears to hear.
Son of David, Son of God!
31 David was looking into the future and speaking of the Messiah’s resurrection. He was saying that God would not leave him among the dead or allow his body to rot in the grave.
“God raised Jesus from the dead, and we are all witnesses of this.
33 Now he is exalted to the place of highest honor in heaven, at God’s right hand. And the Father, as he had promised, gave him the Holy Spirit to pour out upon us, just as you see and hear today.
34 For David himself never ascended into heaven, yet he said,
‘The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit in the place of honor at my right hand until I humble your enemies, making them a footstool under your feet.”’
36 “So let everyone in Israel know for certain that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, to be both Lord and Messiah!”
37 Peter’s words pierced their hearts…
His words pierced their hearts
Do they pierce yours?
Does the Gospel of Christ Jesus, sent to save sinners from death ring out to the crowds beyond the locked doors of a church building where once you gathered?
A response of faith
… and they said to him and to the other apostles, “Brothers, what should we do?”
What must we do?
If now the Holy Spirit finally pierces our own tech-brittled 21st century hearts, what is our response while we wait for the LORD’s return?
Or even our response in this brief time before our own inevitable DEATH?
For like this time of waiting for the Apostles, this life will no longer be the same for you and me.
A former perspective of Church
We have put on our ‘Sunday best’ for Easter for all these years. And we call ourselves, “Christian.”(Always from within the walls of our ‘church,’ and occasionally even in this world where we live, work and play.)
What witness of Jesus yet resounds in the hearts of those who hear us claim — the Holy Name of the Lord?
For they no longer may enter the building of our gathering, the place to which we once gladly invited:
“Let’s go to church.“
It seems that everything has changed and our vision for the church building no longer applies.
Could a prosperous and comfortable church of these recent centuries have wandered aimlessly into a by-path meadow? It has remained an enduring challenge to the church.
May God’s Grace preserve you from straying into Bypath Meadow!
The man who professes to be a Christian must not expect God’s angels to keep him if he goes in the way of worldliness. There are hundreds, and I fear thousands, of church members who say that they are the people of God, yet they appear to live entirely to this world. The great aim is moneymaking and personal aggrandizement—just as much as it is the aim of altogether ungodly men.
The Acts of the Apostles witnesses the boldness of the early church even in the face of DEATH for their confidence and love in Christ.
Unbeliever you know in this 21st century world of chaos look near and far for an example of men and women who exemplify the ‘god’ we claim by the witness of our lives.
We tell some that Jesus died on a Cross for our sins.
While our witness makes them wonder of YOU ‘so love the world’ that YOU would die for THEM.
‘Where is the Christian who does not fear death,’ they ask?
Yet when some agendized so-called ‘christians’ act boldly in ways repugnant to their own ideals, good-seeking souls of this world ask,
‘Why would I want to be a fool like THEM?’
IF GOD SO LOVED THE WORLD, WHY DON’T I SEE IT IN CHRISTIANS?
THEY are after our money to build their grand cathedrals of prosperous vanity.
How are their corporate jets any different than those of the world’s great philanthropists who would save our world for another generation?
Are these so-called ‘christians’ banned from their big gatherings any better than the man isolated in a cave or on a mountaintop?
Really, are Christians any different than me?
Fair questions of the world to any who claim faith.
In our witness they observe a discrepancy between claim of Christ and our inability to differentiate between you and the world, because of Christ.
Assuming God (against Whom the world rebels), how must those obedient to the Lord act when the world seemingly slips rapidly back into the chaos preceding creation?
Fortunately, scripture provides not only answers, but also direction. For we are SINNERS LIKE THEM seeking justice, yet offering solace in LIFE after DEATH.
Are you the Christian who fears not DEATH (yet is no fool)?
Proverbs & Prophecy
When the wicked die, their hopes die with them, for they rely on their own feeble strength.
We find that those who do not believe may well accept the comfort of Scripture as hope for their own future. Proverbial advice, however, need not come exclusively from scripture.
Others may have it right as well, so our random words of wisdom from scripture may make no more difference than those from a worshiper of stone living in the lies of idolatry. The Lord our God is One!
The Prophet Isaiah, who we so often quote concerning the Messiah of God also promises a glorious future:
Behold, a king will reign righteously…
No longer will the fool be called noble, Or the rogue be spoken of as generous.
For a fool speaks nonsense, And his heart inclines toward wickedness: To practice ungodliness and to speak error against the LORD, To keep the hungry person unsatisfied And to withhold drink from the thirsty.
33 Little children, I am with you a little while longer. You will seek Me; and as I said to the Jews, now I also say to you, ‘Where I am going, you cannot come.’
“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another.
35 By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”
Does the church obey this new commandment of Jesus?
IF YOU HAVE LOVE FOR ONE ANOTHER…
Is this not the witness of Christ which builds His CHURCH — soul by sinful redeemed soul?
Has the world not seen our white-washed building without seeing Christ?
“Go into all the world,” the Lord commanded the disciples. Yet Jesus never suggested that we bring all of the world into our building of worship.
Let your hearts, imprisoned in cells away from each other, hear what the Lord through Scripture says to the Church.
For when once more we gather together, to ask the Lord’s blessing, perhaps those wandering lost souls of our neighbors will see that Christ’s Church is in fact, us.
Don’t we hate to hear it? While occupied in our own daily trespasses we stop up our ears to any who would warn of our sins: “Thus the Lord GOD showed me, and behold…”
And to make things worse, in the day of our demise the seer such as Amos could well lament, “I told you so, but you refused to listen.”
Now the seer shows signs he tells Israel’s leaders ‘the Lord GOD showed me.’
Would a leader – a king, premier or president – dare ignore something that a seer [Amos] says the Lord God showed me?
How could a priest serving a people pledged to God not hear Amos when he demonstrates ‘what the Lord God showed me?’
Wailing in the streets
16 Therefore thus says the Lord God of hosts, the Lord,
“There is wailing in all the plazas, And in all the streets they say, ‘Alas! Alas!’
… For I will pass through you,” Says the Lord.
It is not as if the LORD leads them out of their troubles as before from Egypt through the wilderness and before Israel subduing her enemies in the promised land.
Woe to you who long for the day of the Lord! What will the day of the Lord be for you? It will be darkness and not light.
Amos 5:18 CSB
The seer shows the fear of the LORD that will consume a man fleeing an enemy arrived safely at home, but there bitten by a snake.
Are we not all prey of the serpent of eden without the Lord God?
Rather than consuming Israel’s offerings for sin on the altar the Lord would consume Israel!
The Day of the Lord
20 Will not the day of the Lord be darkness instead of light, Even gloom with no brightness in it?
21 “I hate, I reject your festivals, Nor do I delight in your solemn assemblies.
We will have more about festivals to consider
when returning to the Gospel of John shortly.
22 “Even though you offer up to Me burnt offerings and your grain offerings, I will not accept them…
The Lord will no longer accept Israel’s worship!
23 Take away from me the noise of your songs!
25 “House of Israel, was it sacrifices and grain offerings that you presented to me during the forty years in the wilderness?
Amos reminds that they had nothing to offer there before the pillar of fire of the LORD!
Idolatry
NO OTHER GODS!
The Law of the Living LORD our God is quite clear: He IS GOD and idols (even of good “Saints” or a Jesus of stone) are not. Yet Israel became a whore on the mountaintops of the stone images of idolatry.
27 Therefore I will send you into captivity beyond Damascus,” Says the Lord, whose name is the God of hosts.
Woe to those at ease
We have heard this before from the Prophet Isaiah who also preached against rituals and idolatry after Amos. The true prophet so often warns, “This is what the LORD God showed me.”
Warning & Advice to Scoffers Who Rule Isaiah speaks to scoffers of God. Yet are your ears this day so filled with twisted speech that you do not even understand the significance of his warning?
Amos now warns the rich who govern and direct worship in Israel.
3 Woe to you who put far off the day of doom, Who cause the seat of violence to come near; 4 Who lie on beds of ivory, Stretch out on your couches, Eat lambs from the flock And calves from the midst of the stall; 5 Who sing idly to the sound of stringed instruments, And invent for yourselves musical instruments like David; 6 Who drink wine from bowls, And anoint yourselves with the best ointments, But are not grieved for the affliction of Joseph.
… now go into exile … And the sprawlers’ banqueting will pass away…
Judgment on Jacob
8 The Lord God has sworn by Himself, The Lord God of hosts says: “I abhor the pride of Jacob, And hate his palaces; Therefore I will deliver up the city And all that is in it.”
I will leave it to you to read the five signs Amos tells us, ‘the Lord God showed me.’
Let the Holy Spirit convict the church!
The Lord Jesus, Redeemer of Israel, later showed signs no other Prophet could ever do. Yet even the Messiah Jesus was not believed.
So how do you think Amos was received by the leaders of the land and their appointed teachers and priests?
The five signs build in intensity and importance.
A brief glance
7:2 When the locusts finished eating the vegetation of the land, I said, “Lord God, please forgive! … So the Lord relented…
4 The Lord God showed me this: The Lord God was calling for a judgment by fire. It consumed the great deep and devoured the land. 5 Then I said, “Lord God, please stop! …
“This too shall not be,” said the Lord God.
7 Thus He showed me: Behold, the Lord stood on a wall made with a plumb line, with a plumb line in His hand. And the Lord said to me,
“Amos, what do you see?”
And I said, “A plumb line.”
Opposition
10 Amaziah the priest of Bethel sent word to King Jeroboam of Israel, saying,
“Amos has conspired against you right here in the house of Israel. The land cannot endure all his words…
12 Then Amaziah said to Amos, “Go away, you seer!
Amos responds to the priest with the anointing of the Lord in his calling.
“I was no prophet…, But I was a sheepbreeder.
I will spare them no longer
What do you think?
The Lord has relented from punishment for sin. Will you repent?
And once again, the Lord holds back and does not punish. Will you now repent?
So the Lord measures the place of your worship, the people of His pasture. It is a time for harvest, a festival of blessing in times before.
3 In that day the temple songs will become wailing”—this is the Lord God’s declaration.
“Many dead bodies, thrown everywhere!
Silence!”
Do you now FEAR THE LORD?
4 Hear this,
you who swallow up the needy, And make the poor of the land fail…
10 I will turn your feasts into mourning and all your songs into lamentation; I will cause everyone to wear sackcloth and every head to be shaved. I will make that grief like mourning for an only son and its outcome like a bitter day.
11 Look, the days are coming— this is the declaration of the Lord God— when I will send a famine through the land: not a famine of bread or a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord. 12 People will stagger from sea to sea and roam from north to east seeking the word of the Lord, but they will not find it.
SILENCE! of the LORD. Do you hear it?
God’s Judgment Unavoidable
Did you repent when you heard the word of the Lord?
And did you bow down when the Lord showed you mercy?
Now, therefore, the Lord stands beside the holy altar of worship and Amos speaks the unspeakable judgment of the Lord upon the people of His Own covenant.
I saw the Lord standing beside the altar, and He said,
“Strike the doorposts, that the thresholds may shake, And break them on the heads of them all. I will slay the last of them with the sword. He who flees from them shall not get away, And he who escapes from them shall not be delivered.
“Though they dig into hell, From there My hand shall take them; Though they climb up to heaven, From there I will bring them down;
The word of the LORD – Amos 9:2 NKJV
The further words of the Lord paint a fearful judgment and death of the people of His promise, a covenant Israel has broken.
The Prophet Amos confronts you and says, God showed me all this that you might repent. Do you?
All the sinners of my people shall die by the sword, which say, The evil shall not overtake nor prevent us.
Amos 9:10 KJV
The ending that is not yet the end
Amos offers only a distant glimmer of hope.
“On that day I will raise up The tabernacle of David, which has fallen down, And repair its damages; I will raise up its ruins, And rebuild it as in the days of old…
The Lord God will once again accept worship by the sons of David. Yet how?
We will learn more of this next in returning to the Good News of John.
Used to monitor number of Google Analytics server requests
10 minutes
__utmb
Used to distinguish new sessions and visits. This cookie is set when the GA.js javascript library is loaded and there is no existing __utmb cookie. The cookie is updated every time data is sent to the Google Analytics server.
30 minutes after last activity
__utmc
Used only with old Urchin versions of Google Analytics and not with GA.js. Was used to distinguish between new sessions and visits at the end of a session.
End of session (browser)
__utmz
Contains information about the traffic source or campaign that directed user to the website. The cookie is set when the GA.js javascript is loaded and updated when data is sent to the Google Anaytics server
6 months after last activity
__utmv
Contains custom information set by the web developer via the _setCustomVar method in Google Analytics. This cookie is updated every time new data is sent to the Google Analytics server.
2 years after last activity
__utmx
Used to determine whether a user is included in an A / B or Multivariate test.
18 months
_ga
ID used to identify users
2 years
_gali
Used by Google Analytics to determine which links on a page are being clicked
30 seconds
_ga_
ID used to identify users
2 years
_gid
ID used to identify users for 24 hours after last activity
24 hours
_gat
Used to monitor number of Google Analytics server requests when using Google Tag Manager
1 minute
_gac_
Contains information related to marketing campaigns of the user. These are shared with Google AdWords / Google Ads when the Google Ads and Google Analytics accounts are linked together.
