Tag: Jesus

Tribulation? Cheer up.
2017: Keep on for Christ’s sake.

I’m not invoking a phrase of cursing here, rather I call on the saints who hold fast to Jesus Christ to continue in faith. This is no new calling out in times of difficulty or anticipated times of trouble. We anticipate tribulation in the world.

Solomon may have come up with this calming wisdom for some new year [about 2900 years ago]:

History merely repeats itself. It has all been done before. Nothing under the sun is truly new. – Ecclesiastes 1:9 NLT

We begin this new year of expectant change by those with troubling temperaments leading us into the unknown. Certainly Rome ruled with a harsh hand. When the Messiah Jesus knew that His drama of suffering was imminent, the Lord offered true hope to His followers.

John 16:

“I have said all these things to you to keep you from falling away…

Jesus is not speaking to non-believers here, but to those followers, saints of the church. In fact, our Lord adds a vaguely familiar motive for these troubles ahead.

“… Indeed, the hour is coming when whoever kills you will think he is offering service to God.

The world sees and overlooks routine persecution in Africa, the Middle East, Asia and in the slums of our rich cities. (Nothing new under the sun.)

[ctt title=”The world remotely headlines the very sufferings, persecution, expulsion and genocide of many who refuse to bow down to idol false gods and violent dead prophets.” tweet=”We pray for persecuted Christians, Jews and Muslims of the wrong sect in places controlled by hopeless men.” coverup=”2IbK7″]

Tribulation Defined

South Sudan Nov. 2015

Oxford defines tribulation (usually tribulations) as: 1 A cause of great trouble or suffering or 1.1 A state of great trouble or suffering.

A look into the Greek root of Jesus’ word used here is more revealing.
θλῖψις [thlipsis] –
1. a pressing, pressing together, pressure
2. metaph. oppression, affliction, tribulation, distress, straits
refugees driven from their cities in Syria & Iraq

Photos of war and refugees define our present pressing in of evil. Distant news reveals affliction all too well, therefore the world’s loss of hope leads us to believe we cannot have peace – ever.

Think about it: Jesus Christ, God in the flesh, offends those who deny God and perpetrate evil.

[ctt title=”Followers of causes opposed to the LORD most often claim false gods, false traditions and false men offering false hope.” tweet=”GOD offends the godless!” coverup=”IbtST”]

Life’s evils do and will again repeat themselves.

“But I have said these things to you, that when their hour comes you may remember that I told them to you.

– John 16:4”

Tribulations define a pressing in of sin by a fallen world opposed to God.
- When you are in tribulation, and all these things come upon you in the latter days, you will return to the LORD your God and obey his voice. – Deuteronomy 4:20
- “Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and put you to death, and you will be hated by all nations for my name’s sake. – Matthew 24:9
Yes, Jesus, the incarnate Messiah of the LORD God, is hated by all nations, because the world hates the LORD. Tribulations for Christians and others will continue in the 21st century, as in the 20th and the first centuries. History of the church reveals the truth of Jesus’ warnings to followers. We do not have to look far to see those who refuse the Holy Spirit of the LORD God.

Acts 14:19-22

… they stoned Paul and dragged him out of the city, supposing that he was dead. But when the disciples gathered about him, he rose up and entered the city… they had preached the gospel to that city and had made many disciples.

… encouraging them to continue in the faith,

and saying that through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God.

The Pressing In

As we anticipate the inevitable tribulation of this upcoming year, Christians would do well to heed the cheery advice of our Lord. Jesus has overcome the world and its troubles; therefore in Him we can have peace in our hearts.

We have Gospel good news! God came to man in His own Perfect Image as a living perfect sacrifice for our sins. After Jesus returned to God the Father He sent the Holy Spirit of God to be with those who love the LORD.

8 And when he [the Helper] comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment: 9 concerning sin, because they do not believe in me; 10 concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you will see me no longer; 11 concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.

Christians and non-christians alike experience sin pressing in. Judgment, therefore, awaits every living soul and each deceased failed body of mortal flesh.

20 Truly, truly, I say to you, you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice. You will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn into joy…

… but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you.

29 His disciples said… “Now we know that you know all things and do not need anyone to question you; this is why we believe that you came from God.”

31 Jesus answered them..

[And the Lord answers us as we anticipate with some trepidation of the year to come.]

“Do you now believe?

32 Behold, the hour is coming, indeed it has come, when you will be scattered…

33 I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace.

In the world you will have tribulation.

But take heart; I have overcome the world.”

Welcome 2017

2 Corinthians 1: NKJV

To the church of God… with all the saints…

2 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort,

4 who comforts us in all our tribulation,

that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble,

with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.

5 For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also abounds through Christ.

Beloved believer, cheer up; for Christ our saving hope from tribulation, from death and from judgment returns for those who love the Lord – for the chosen ones, saints for all time, this year and forever.

Amen.
January 2, 2017
Voices of Angels for Shepherds near Bethlehem

He shall feed his flock like a shepherd: he shall gather the lambs with his arm, and carry them in his bosom, and shall gently lead those that are with young. – Isaiah 40:11

In case you missed part 1 of our story, you can read about the shepherds of Bethlehem here.

The Shepherds and the Angels

Luke 2:

⁸And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. ⁹And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with great fear. ¹⁰And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. ¹¹For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. ¹²And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.”

¹³And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying,

¹⁴“Glory to God in the highest,
and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!”

¹⁵When the angels went away from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us.”

¹⁶And they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in a manger.¹⁷And when they saw it, they made known the saying that had been told them concerning this child. ¹⁸And all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them. ¹⁹But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart.

²⁰And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.

An angel of the Lord approaches from the night sky with a message of good news. How will you respond?

Fear first? Certainly! But this messenger of the Lord says, “Fear not.”

Shepherds have never seen the king, even those those who serve the king. Heavenly beings now appear to shepherds on a hillside near Bethlehem. Why have angels come to lowly shepherds to proclaim the birth of the Messiah?

Then the Angels tell these shepherds to see the Lord Incarnate with their own eyes!

By their first witness, these most humble among men announce the arrival of the Most Humble Lord of Lords and King of Kings, born of a humble virgin and laid in a manger used to feed animals in this same lowly place.

It would have been the pinnacle event of their lives to have witnessed angels, singing to the glory of God. Yet even more, the lowest proclaim first the birth of the Highest One to men not privileged to behold our newborn Savior, Jesus the Messiah, born a son of man to a virgin in lowly Bethlehem of Judea.

“‘And you, O Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,
are by no means least among the rulers of Judah;
for from you shall come a ruler
who will shepherd my people Israel.’” – Matthew 2:6

A lowly shepherd tells us, “I have seen the Lord.” The Messiah is born to us in a manger. How unlikely, that God should send a Son to be born and sacrificed for our sins. Yet Shepherds and Magi have witnessed the glory of angels proclaiming this moment…

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

John 1:14

For God So Loved the World

[ctt title=”“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” tweet=”John 3:16-17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. ” coverup=”8N4eb”]

¹⁸Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.

Where is your witness this Christmas? Is your love for the Lord this same worship of the angels of heaven and redeemed lowly shepherds of this earth?

Glory to God in the Highest and one earth peace, good will towards men, though Christ Jesus, our Lord.

Amen.

December 25, 2016

and new things I now declare – 1

What’s new?

Certainly not Christmas, for we now trivialize a pivotal time in human history with never-ending ‘holiday’ things. “Where are our new toys,” ‘holiday season’ commercials lead us to ask?

Most years I share a series celebrating the Advent of the joyous season of Christmas. This year’s four-part Advent series will focus on the prophecy of Isaiah, a book written about 700 years before Christ.

Oh, by the way, you do know that B.C. is our delineation of time meaning, “Before Christ?” Go ahead and time stamp this series properly: In the year of our Lord, 2016.

Travel through time with us between first century Palestine, under the rule of a powerful Roman Empire and the same area of the middle east threatened years prior by a powerful Assyrian Empire and an emerging Babylonian empire. (Nothing new under the sun.)

Historical resource: Assyria, 1365-609 BC

About the Author

Isaiah the Prophet

Isaiah was a man who was from the Southern Kingdom of Judah. The Prophet of the Lord, Isaiah, was alive during a time when the Northern Kingdom of Israel was destroyed by the Assyrians. He was a mouthpiece of God and spoke during the reign of several kings of Judah: Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah (around 765-695 B.C.). He continually wore a coarse linen or hairy overcoat of a dark color, which was typically worn by mourners.

Source: Bible History Online

Think back from Roman occupied Judea 700 years before Christ. For you and I, it would be like recalling the A.D. 1300’s, before European ‘civilization’ discovered and colonized this ‘new world.’ Isaiah lived long before Christ Jesus. In most generations between Isaiah and John, the voice of God’s Prophets kept a still and dark silence.

Some scholars suggest that the later chapters of Isaiah 40-66, the point of our focus here, may have been written by disciples of Isaiah even into the sixth or fifth century B.C. Even so, would you like to accurately predict a major event in the Year of our Lord, 2500? We marvel at Isaiah’s descriptions of, among other things, the Messiah of Israel to come.

Source: The Center for Bible Studies

A Voice in the Wilderness

Time: First Century A.D

Place: desolate shores of the Jordan river valley.

People: the Essenes, a group of conservative Jews living beyond the liberal power brokers of a less-than-pure King Herod, power-broker between Rome’s legions and various rulers of the Temple of every religious persuasion and varying belief.

Scene: Representatives of Herod’s Temple come to confront John, asking about his authority to preach to crowds of disciples coming to be baptized.

John 1:

19 And this is the testimony of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him,

“Who are you?”

20 He confessed, and did not deny, but confessed,

“I am not the Christ.”

21 And they asked him, “What then? Are you Elijah?”

He said, “I am not.”

“Are you the Prophet?”

And he answered, “No.”

Powerful religious leaders travel from Jerusalem to interrogate a new rabbi gaining disciples, an odd sort of man living on the wild plants and animals of the desolate places away from the cities of man. Even away from the capital of all religion this becomes a sort of discussion to determine where this John, popular among the people, stands politically with the constantly bickering powerbrokers of the Temple.

Perhaps this chart from the Jewish Virtual Library will help clarify the scene. (It may be helpful for you to understand that King Herod was a Hasmonean ally of Rome.)

Disputes Among the Three Parties

	Sadducees	Pharisees	Essenes
Social Class	Priests, aristocrats	Common people	[Unknown]
Authority	Priests	“Disciples of the Wise”	“Teacher of Righteousness”
Practices	Emphasis on priestly obligations	Application of priestly laws to non-priests	“Inspired Exegesis”
Calendar	Luni-solar	Luni-solar	Solar
Attitude Toward:
Hellenism	For	Selective	Against
Hasmoneans	Opposed usurpation of priesthood by non-Zadokites	Opposed usurpation of monarchy	Personally opposed to Jonathan
Free will	Yes	Mostly	No
Afterlife	None	Resurrection	Spiritual Survival
Bible	Literalist	Sophisticated scholarly interpretations	“Inspired Exegesis”
Oral Torah	No such thing	Equal to Written Torah	“Inspired Exegesis”

Continuing in the interrogation of John the Baptist as recorded in John 1:

22 So they said to him, “Who are you? We need to give an answer to those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?”

John 1:23 He said, “I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord,’ as the prophet Isaiah said.”

24 (Now they had been sent from the Pharisees.) 25 They asked him, “Then why are you baptizing, if you are neither the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?”

26 John answered them, “I baptize with water, but among you stands one you do not know, 27 even he who comes after me, the strap of whose sandal I am not worthy to untie.”

28 These things took place in Bethany across the Jordan, where John was baptizing.

The old comfortable times have ended

What is a Prophet like John the Baptist saying by preaching baptism and repentance from a desolate place in the wilderness?

Actually, John preached a repentance needed now, needed in the first century and needed in the days of the Prophet Isaiah. Listen to the prediction of Isaiah 700 years before John.

Isaiah 24:

Behold, the Lord will empty the earth and make it desolate,
and he will twist its surface and scatter its inhabitants…

5 The earth lies defiled
under its inhabitants;
for they have transgressed the laws,
violated the statutes,
broken the everlasting covenant.
6 Therefore a curse devours the earth,
and its inhabitants suffer for their guilt;
therefore the inhabitants of the earth are scorched,
and few men are left.

and new things I now declare -Advent 1 – 2016 – To be continued..

November 27, 2016

Tag: Jesus

2017: Keep on for Christ’s sake.

Tribulation Defined

Tribulations define a pressing in of sin by a fallen world opposed to God.

The Pressing In

“Do you now believe?

Welcome 2017

The Shepherds and the Angels

For God So Loved the World