Talk of JESUS . com

Tag: Jesus

  • Fully Trained – 3

    Fully Trained – 3

    The gospel of Luke carefully records truth from eyewitness accounts of numerous historical citizens of the first century.

    The following is a fictional representation continued from our previous episodes of eyewitness by one of Jesus’ first disciples.

    Jesus continue to show His authority, not just over demons and spirits, but over flesh itself. We began to see the Messiah as a healer of our diseases, our sorrows, yes, even our sins.

    Simon Peter was a leading local fisherman. He and his wife eked out a tenuous living dependant on the winds of the sea, a few small fishing boats and hand-repaired nets which might hold a more than meager catch from time to time. Like so many of us, family members lived near by or even in our homes.

    One of these was Simon’s mother-in-law, a strong-willed woman mostly. But one day Simon’s wife sent word to him that her mother was very ill. Simon and his brother Andrew were with us in the synagogue, learning from Jesus as had quickly become our routine.

    Luke 4:

    38 And he arose and left the synagogue and entered Simon’s house. Now Simon’s mother-in-law was ill with a high fever, and they appealed to him on her behalf. 39 And he stood over her and rebuked the fever, and it left her, and immediately she rose and began to serve them.

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    She was in obvious pain and barely conscious when we had arrived. Jesus looked at the frail old woman and spoke to her with authority, just like when He had commanded the demons out of the man in the synagogue. Immediately her fever left her body. Simon’s wife’s mother just sat up and immediately returned to her usual household routines.

    Wherever Jesus went, people in town (and out-of-towners like us) quickly followed our Master from place to place. A buzz of witness of the good news quickly spread from house to house in Capernaum.

    40 Now when the sun was setting, all those who had any who were sick with various diseases brought them to him, and he laid his hands on every one of them and healed them…

    Miracles! That’s the only explanation. Not just Peter’s mother-in-law, but several others witnessed by many of the town’s people. Miracle upon miracle. Jesus had authority and the power of God.

    … And the people sought him and came to him, and would have kept him from leaving them, 43 but he said to them, “I must preach the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns as well; for I was sent for this purpose.”

    Jesus had prayed about His mission and told us He would go south from Galilee to Judea. That was a longer trip. If we were to follow the Messiah Jesus, there would be few trips back home. It was a tough decision. Many of us joined Jesus for His journey to Jerusalem – dozens of us.

    We just had to learn more about the Christ promised by God. We just had to follow Jesus as our Lord.

    To be continued…

  • Who IS this man?

    Isaiah 42:1-3

    Behold my servant, whom I uphold,
    my chosen, in whom my soul delights;
    I have put my Spirit upon him;
    he will bring forth justice to the nations.

    He will not cry aloud or lift up his voice,
    or make it heard in the street; a bruised reed he will not break,
    and a faintly burning wick he will not quench;
    he will faithfully bring forth justice.

    He will not grow faint or be discouraged
    till he has established justice in the earth;
    and the coastlands wait for his law.

     Hebrews 1:3-4

    He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power.

    After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs.

    John 12:

    28 Father, glorify your name.”

    Then a voice came from heaven: “I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.”

    29 The crowd that stood there and heard it said that it had thundered. Others said, “An angel has spoken to him.”

    30 Jesus answered, “This voice has come for your sake, not mine. 31 Now is the judgment of this world; now will the ruler of this world be cast out. 32 And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” 33 He said this to show by what kind of death he was going to die.

    34 So the crowd answered him, “We have heard from the Law that the Christ remains forever. How can you say that the Son of Man must be lifted up?

    Who is this Son of Man?”

    All the questions had been asked before. “Where did this man get these things? What is the wisdom given to him? How are such mighty works done by his hands?” [Mark 6:2]

    Luke 9:

    18 Now it happened that as he was praying alone, the disciples were with him. And he asked them, “Who do the crowds say that I am?”

    19 And they answered, “John the Baptist. But others say, Elijah, and others, that one of the prophets of old has risen.”

    20 Then he said to them, “But who do you say that I am?”

    And Peter answered, “The Christ of God.”

    21 And he strictly charged and commanded them to tell this to no one, 22 saying, “The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised.”

    23 And he said to all,

    “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.

    24 For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.

    Who IS this Jesus?

    We ask even now, who is Jesus? What man of flesh and blood has ever been raised from the dead? Who has more than five hundred witnesses of His resurrection that men might die rather than deny that Jesus IS… Jesus was not just a son of man like other men, Jesus IS the very Image of the One God!

    He IS the Existing One, the I AM, Jehovah, LORD!

    No man has ever demonstrated the very power of God on earth as did Jesus. Yet for us, the evidence of Jesus’ power and Jesus’ miracles are the fullness of the Lord’s compassion and love for those who are still sinners.

    No man can stand before a Holy God. No good work can replace the sins of our measured mortal days.

    It took God Himself to come to us as a Perfect Sacrifice for our sins.

    Christ Jesus IS the Living God sacrificed for our sins, for this is the love offers for us.

    Jesus suffered as a man, despised and rejected by those He came to save. He became the Lamb of God, the Perfect Sacrifice given for our sins. Christ died. Jesus was buried… just like you and I will be buried. His lifeless flesh was put in a tomb and laid to rest…

    He was sinless,

    Unlike you and me.

    He suffered yet more.

    He died as a man does die.

    He became sin on a cross.

    The Perfect Priest became a Sacrifice.

    He IS the Lamb of God.

    What love has the LORD for us, that God our Heavenly Father would send His only Son to the Cross for the sins of the world.

    Yet Jesus IS now, risen from the grave after three days separated from God the Father by death. A Perfect Son of Man sacrificed and redeemed. He IS and will return in victory, not only over death but over all sin and unrighteousness.

    Are you prepared to meet Christ Jesus?

    Jesus will judge every soul, separating those for eternal reward from souls receiving punishment for evil.

    Are you ready for the resurrection of the last day?

    Praise to our Lord Jesus Christ for bearing our sin on the Cross.

    Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit!

    As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, world without end.

    Amen.

    Jesus Christ IS LORD!

  • A King Unexpected

    A King Unexpected

    Then Pilate said to him, “So you are a king?”

    Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.” – John 18:37

    We want a King to fix what is wrong. The economy demands hard work, which is difficult to find and pays little. We demand a different leader. Forget that tyrant in charge now. What does the present King or Emperor or President or Chairman or Pharaoh care about us? What does God have to do with us? After all, our nation is devastated by the greedy and oppressed by the strong.

    Oh… does this sound a bit too much like our 21st century life and not like the same old politics of Jerusalem, Rome and the Nations for centuries long past?

    In truth, the Jews then and Christians now easily miss the point. We miss the significance of Jesus because He is not the King we expected.

    In fact, the Jews only begged for a King to be in charge so that they could escape direct obedience to the LORD. (Are we so different?) Moses had warned them, as Jesus has cautioned us to be prepared for His return to a new Jerusalem – as He has prophesied perfectly of the new heavens and the new earth.

    Deuteronomy 17:

    14 “When you come to the land that the Lord your God is giving you, and you possess it and dwell in it and then say, ‘I will set a king over me, like all the nations that are around me,’ 15 you may indeed set a king over you whom the Lord your God will choose.

    Years Later in the Promised Land

    1 Samuel 8:5b ” Now appoint for us a king to judge us like all the nations.”

    … 7 And the LORD said to Samuel, “Obey the voice of the people in all that they say to you, for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from being king over them.”

    Saul was a popular King until things went wrong. David was even more respected as King, for David was a man after God’s own heart. Solomon became one of the most powerful kings on earth, yet Israel separated into two weaker kingdoms as his sons abandoned the LORD. The LORD even set kings of enemies of Judah and enemies of Israel against his own disobedient fallen kingdom and chosen people.

    It is the LORD who rejects those who reject Him. It is the LORD who rejects those who refuse the sacrifice of the Son, Christ Jesus. Let the reader understand the surpassing love of God and the final judgment of every man’s sin.

    Hosea was a prophet who lived and prophesied just before the destruction of Israel in 722 BC. He preached to the northern kingdom. https://bible.org/seriespage/1-hosea

    NASB (UPDATED) TEXT:13:9-11
     9It is your destruction, O Israel,
     That you are against Me, against your help.
     10Where now is your king
     That he may save you in all your cities,
     And your judges of whom you requested, “Give me a king and princes”?
     11I gave you a king in My anger
     And took him away in My wrath.

    The LORD punished by the hand of God’s enemies.

    Rome we know. Babylon and Persia and Egypt… Israel was no more.

    Judea, Syria, Palestine all provinces of conquering generals, pompous emperors and corrupt caesars. Ungodly men leading enemy countries by the might that would make right, the conquest that brings glory only to a mere mortal.

    They use religion as tolerance of diversity and intolerance of righteousness and truth. The fallen fall into the snare of the conquering culture, offering the bribe of peace and the negotiation of principle.

    Into Rome, into Washington, into Moscow, into Beijing, into Mumbai, into Lagos… into Jerusalem a man comes.

    Armies have destroyed and conquered before him. Kings and rulers have been killed and taken away in chains before. It is time to negotiate under the terms of our captors. We are not free to live in peace… to have hope for food and families and homes of our own. We serve no King. We serve noone… yet we cry out for a new King to our liking.

    Will this man overthrow Rome? Will he use His evident power to defeat the enemies of our own lusts for sin?

    Into Jerusalem rides a King who will act when He will.

    He came once as the Son of Man to be sacrificed on a Cross for our sins. He was raised from the dead, in body and soul! He IS and will be.

    The Revelation of Jesus Christ to John:

    1:7 Behold, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him, and all tribes of the earth will wail on account of him. Even so. Amen.

    Revelation 5:worthy is the Lamb
    6 And between the throne and the four living creatures and among the elders I saw a Lamb standing, as though it had been slain, with seven horns and with seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth. 7 And he went and took the scroll from the right hand of him who was seated on the throne…

    Revelation 15:

    3 And they sing the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying,

    “Great and amazing are your deeds,
    O Lord God the Almighty!
    Just and true are your ways,
    O King of the nations!

    4 Who will not fear, O Lord,
    and glorify your name?
    For you alone are holy.
    All nations will come
    and worship you,
    for your righteous acts have been revealed.”

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    Is Jesus the King you expect?

    Therefore I ask you, as we celebrate a weeklong festival of Passover about to be celebrated by the crowds entering Jerusalem… a conquered Jerusalem without a godly king some two millennia ago:

    Do you expect Jesus to return as our King?

    By your life and witness, is Jesus your King?

    For He IS and will return unexpected.

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