LISTEN to one of the best arguments of Christians to refute the nonsense of supposedly “scientific” skepticism about the RESURRECTION OF JESUS CHRIST after 3 days in a guarded grave.
“So if they were interested in affirming the fact of his death, all they had to do was take the body and put it in the middle of Jerusalem and say,
“Look, don’t let anybody live with any nonsense. Jesus is dead.”
BUT the body of JESUS was not in the tomb!
Pastor Begg makes a notable case about the RESURRECTION which makes so much more sense than EVERY objection by those who REFUSE to believe in Jesus Christ for their own selfish excuses.
Original post date: 29 March, in the year of our Lord 2022
Today’s topic is scandal!
ASH WEDNESDAY in the year of our Lord 2023, we begin with TODAY’S subject:
Christians in the shoes of Jonah
Repent, Jonah!
It’s raining and you are NOT Noah who will save only his own family from the flood.
The ground is shaking in the year of our Lord 2023 and you are NOT Abraham who will rescue only his family from the evil and the fate of Sodom or the judgment of Gomorrah.
This is what the LORD of Heaven’s Armies says: “I, myself, have risen against Babylon! I will destroy its children and its children’s children,” says the LORD.
So YOU claim to be an evangelist of JESUS to the nations?
GO into all the world and preach Good News, the Gospel of forgiveness and eternal life for those who will REPENT of their sinful past and FOLLOW Jesus Christ as our Lord.
The Good News of Jesus’ death and resurrection, however, becomes BAD NEWS to any who turn the other way – in the direction away from God’s grace.
Such bad news for evangelicals! christians who suddenly turn in the other direction + a direction of SELF and a gospel of what God has done for ME (and should do for you).
Have you turned to a path AWAY from the word of God, even like Jonah?
Won’t sailing away from the command of the Lord have dire consequence?
I WON’T PREACH THAT, Jonah responded by sailing away from the command of God.
But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumblingblock, and unto the Greeks foolishness
As we have learned in ACTS of the Apostles, disciples are followers of Christ Jesus.
Evangelical christianswho claim His Namebut turn away from God’s command become obstacles to the Lord saving others from the cities of destruction.
At the moment Jonah turned away from Nineveh even this Prophet of God was not an obedient disciple ‘chosen‘ for eternal life.
A last-days appeal to the Evangelical
Evangelicals who claim other cause of the world above Christ cannot boast of the burden of the millstone placed around their necks.
And evangelicals who embrace condemned cultures of the cities of destruction without revealing the cost of the Cross may find the weight of the Cross around their neck weighing down their witness with veiled hope while singing of ME and JESUS.
Scandal – Do you recognize it in the warnings of Jesus?
Then He said to the disciples, “It is impossible that no offenses should come, but woe to him through whom they do come!
“It would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were thrown into the sea, than that he should offend one of these little ones.
Luke 17:2 NKJV
“Take heed to yourselves. If your brother sins rebuke him; and if he repents, forgive him.
Luke 17:3
But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he became angry.
Then the LORD said, “Is it right for you to be angry?”
So Jonah went out of the city and sat on the east side of the city. There he made himself a shelter and sat under it in the shade, till he might see what would become of the city.
– Jonah 4:4-5
The Millstone
“It would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck..
Does this punishment (even self-inflicted) remind you of Jonah?
And he said to them, “Pick me up and throw me into the sea; then the sea will become calm for you. For I know that this great tempest is because of me.”
the movable stick or trigger of a trap, a trap stick
(And evangelicals with ears to hear, now hear this:)
any person or thing by which one is (entrapped) drawn into error or sin
Scandal: fig. applied to Jesus Christ, whose person and career were so contrary to the expectations of the Jews concerning the Messiah, that they rejected him and by their obstinacy made shipwreck of their salvation
Is your faith scandalous because you dare Talk of JESUS?
‘But I have a few things against you, because you have some there who hold the teaching of Balaam, who kept teaching Balak to put a stumblingG4625 blockG4625 before the sons of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols and to commit sexual immorality.
Your comment on this post and these Scriptures encourage the witness of this author. RH (original post date 29 March in the year of our Lord, 2022)Thanks.
A human life is bound in the womb of eternity. In one sense a child is not fully born by its mother into the fullness of life — but only into a helpless and limited mortal life — where babe may become child, child may become man or woman — this quick-passing human life bound in the confines of mortal time followed inevitably by death and judgment.
Born once in a human womb
And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.
adam bore both sin and death conceived in a womb of measured time, incomplete and nourished in the blood of our mother — growing to burst forth into a glory beyond the bounds of this place to which we have clung for such a brief time — measured time ended beyond the bounds of our dark inner existence.
What once was death separated from our mortal time within these bounds inevitably becomes life beyond humanity’s brief prison lifted into a glory of the everlasting Light beyond.
And inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment,
“BEHOLD, THE VIRGIN SHALL BE WITH CHILD AND SHALL BEAR A SON, AND THEY SHALL CALL HIS NAME IMMANUELG1694,” which translated means, “GOD WITH US.”
Christians (and even many unbelievers who have witnessed an annual Christmas pageant) know the Scripture well. But think of its implication as well as the impact of Almighty God entering measured time and mortal flesh.
An anointed Virgin of the Eternal God will have a son by the Holy Spirit of God!
This Son of the Everlasting One IS actually GOD [theos] WITH US [in mortal flesh and blood], BORN — as are all mankind AND who must suffer DEATH as is appointed to EVERY son of man.
Emanu–el – Hebrew Gospel announced in Matthew’s manger
Matthew addresses the genealogy of JESUS EMMANUEL as he would any line of adam.
The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham:
I will not detail this linage of the promise of God through Abraham (who was childless) and David (whose Kingdom ended in defeat by Babylon) or that in his Gospel lineage Matthew designates Joseph as the husband of Mary. Matthew then adds that before she conceived JESUS, that is GOD WITH US, by the HOLY SPIRIT [v.18], however note that by these important names Matthew introduces of the LORD GOD in a fragile frame of a HUMAN CHILD.
Χριστός Christós, khris-tos’; from G5548; anointed, i.e. the Messiah, an epithet of Jesus:—Christ. – BLUELETTERBIBLE.ORG
The Christ child
NO other term in the New Testament is used more than CHRIST [500+x] to characterize JESUS. ‘Christians‘ should not take lightly any replacement of CHRIST in Scripture with some less characteristic human title.
Roger@TalkofJesus.com
The Good News of Matthew:
Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows:
when His mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child by the Holy Spirit.
And Joseph her husband, being a righteous man and not wanting to disgrace her, planned to send her away secretly [divorcing his betrothed {with whom they ‘had not come together’}]. But when he had considered this, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying,
“Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife; for the One who has been conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. And she will bear a Son; and you shall call His name
Jesus,
for He will save His people from their sins.”
Did you catch that?
The angel of the Lord appears to Joseph in a dream as commands his to call the child, JESUS.
JESUS, unlike Joshua of the same name before, “Jehovah is salvation,” not only is not born of an earthly father but is NOT sent to SAVE the sons of Abraham from earthly enemies or lay claim to an earthly land as a king.
NO, Jesus, a son of man ONLY by the virgin Mary, “will save His people from their sins,” a mercy ONLY God can grant to a condemned son of adam.
The Good News of John
We began consideration of the Apostle’s Christian logic behind the birth of Jesus into time and human flesh. Today I end with his explanation of what also seems convincingly logical from the Savior who John calls ‘The Word‘ (λόγος – logos).
“Rabbi, we know that You have come from God as a teacher; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him.”
“Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born [from above] he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
“How can a man be born when he is old? ..
Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?”
Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.
“That which has been born of the flesh is flesh, and that which has been born of the Spirit is spirit.
“He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
Will you be born again (though we are old)?
“Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words [logos] will not pass away.
A word of Jesus Christ from the Gospel of Matthew 24:25
Here is the significance of the Christ child in a manger and the Son of Man Jesus on the cross who was born to save His people from their sins.
Pilate said to them,
“Then, what shall I do with Jesus who is called Christ?”
Gospel of Matthew 27:22a LSB
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