Talk of JESUS .com

Tag: jews

  • Your Mistake – Leaders Handling Controversy

    Your Mistake – Leaders Handling Controversy

    Jesus replied, “Your mistake is that you don’t know the Scriptures, and you don’t know the power of God.

    Matthew 22:29 NLT

    An Answer to Controversy

    How do leaders under constant scrutiny of the public eye handle controversy?

    Perhaps a leader or two from our times may come to mind. A typical scenario: A leader makes a statement, then media analyze endlessly, opponents criticize constantly and the controversy recycles. It’s always an “us versus them” scenario, with spins in the marketplace of public opinion. What is true, what’s best, what is or should have been required?

    I could point out the obvious that God is a ruler or leader above all things and all mankind. Yet many would question even this prerequisite to leading others in the paths of righteousness and prevailing in the truth.

    No man has ever been such a controversial leader as Christ Jesus. He was proclaimed as ‘King of the Jews.’ We won’t see many leaders follow in His example; for our Lord was crucified on a Cross.

    The crucifixion of Jesus Christ seems like our biggest loss of any leader ever, but in truth His Sacrifice is a victory over sin. No other man could do that!

    Jerusalem in the time of the Passover

    Few places become more important for celebrations of religious festivals than Jerusalem. Israel’s most important celebration is the Passover, a celebration of the miracles of the Lord in Egypt. When the Hebrew people escaped Pharaoh they could not have done it without the Lord. Moses may be given much credit, but the scriptures record how many miracles of God made freedom possible.

    Two-thousand and some years ago an upcoming leader among the captive jews in their own land challenged the teaching of Jerusalem’s authorities. Jesus of Nazareth made pilgrimage to Jerusalem for the Passover festival from another captive part of Rome’s empire.

    No man was ever so controversial as Jesus and even to this day no man is more controversial than Jesus.

    Jesus, Son of Man, has been teaching among the Jews for three years. He had taught in Jerusalem before, but by now Jesus has crowds following Him. Christ Jesus creates not only converts but also controversy.

    A Triumphal King of Controversy

    Jesus a King of controversy approaches Jerusalem

    Crowds of worshipers lay palm branches before this King of the Jews, followed by multitudes to the gates of Jerusalem guarded by Romans. The good news spreads quickly to those who do not know Him. Jesus spoke truly the words of controversy many suppressed in their hearts. His words ignited a new hope in their down-trodden lives.

    Furthermore, many followers witness the recent resurrection of Lazarus in nearby Bethany to others in the crowd. Here comes a King with power!

    On Monday Jesus storms into the Temple, overturning the tables of its merchant money changers. The crowds have all heard of Jesus controversial teaching of the past three years. Followers echo His words.

    Matthew 10:

    34 “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword… 36 And a person’s enemies will be those of his own household… 38 And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me.

    Matthew 11:

    16 “But to what shall I compare this generation? …18 For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon.’ 19 The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Look at him! A glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ Yet wisdom is justified by her deeds.”

     20 Then he began to denounce the cities where most of his mighty works had been done, because they did not repent.

    Matthew 12:6 I tell you, something greater than the temple is here. 7 And if you had known what this means, ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the guiltless. 8 For the Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath.”

    38 Then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered him, saying, “Teacher, we wish to see a sign from you.” 39 But he answered them, “An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah.

    Jesus IS Controversial

    No human intellect can stand against the immeasurable knowledge of God. Yer many attempt to find flaws in scripture or in the answers of Jesus. In fact, the religious authorities do not even agree with each other.

    For three years Jesus of Nazareth challenges pharisees, sadducees, scribes and rabbis. He taught on the mountains, by the seashore and in synagogues throughout Galilee, Samaria and Judea. Even the names of these Roman provinces differed from cultural references by the captive jews.

    Controversy: who rules over this captive promised land?

    After making the entrance of a King and entry into the Temple with all Authority, Jesus will answer accusations of those in power. He answers with truth, even though Jerusalem’s powerful leaders seek to murder the innocent Son of Man.

    Matthew 22:

    15 Then the Pharisees went and plotted how to entangle him in his words. 16 And they sent their disciples to him, along with the Herodians, saying, “Teacher, we know that you are true and teach the way of God truthfully, and you do not care about anyone’s opinion, for you are not swayed by appearances. 17 Tell us, then, what you think…

    The Passover Sacrifice

    The true controversy of Christ will be a Passover Sacrifice which changes the relationship of Almighty God to created sinners.

    Jesus Christ IS the Good News of Easter and the resurrection. The King or Kings and Lord of Lords leads His subjects differently than every man.

    He IS God With Us! Controversial to any created man or flesh, who will not bow down to the Creator King.

    To be continued…

    Your Mistake – You don’t know the Scriptures

  • The Burden of the Word of the Lord

    The Burden of the Word of the Lord

    The burden of the word of the LORD to Israel by Malachi.

    מַשָּׂא דְבַר־יְהוָה אֶל־יִשְׂרָאֵל בְּיַד מַלְאָכִֽי׃

    We have heard it before: a ‘burden,’ a weight laid upon the back of a mortal soul, an oracle from the LORD laid upon the tongue of a Prophet. Malachi was the last Prophet of Judah. Israel (Samaria) had already fallen. Defeat of the Jews and a silence of the LORD prevails until the voice in the wilderness of John the Baptist.

    The LORD had spoken severely to disobedient sons and daughters through many Prophets. In fact, the argument of the burden of leading the LORD’s chosen goes all the way back to Moses.

    Numbers 11:11

    Moses said to the LORD, “Why have you dealt ill with your servant? And why have I not found favor in your sight, that you lay the burden of all this people on me?

    Leading a people or a family steeped in our own righteousness is not an easy thing.

    How quickly we forget what the LORD has done to redeem us, how He saves us from the slavery of our past.

    Before the Lord came to us in a manger in Bethlehem in the Person of the Messiah, a great silence would follow the chastening of the Prophets.

    Malachi wrote to the Jews of the Persian province of Judea about 500 years before the Christ. The burden of the LORD on Malachi is a heavy correction even of our own thinking.

    persian-empire-chartMalachi 1:

    2 “I have loved you,” says the Lord. But you say, “How have you loved us?”

    Isn’t that our own question to God our Father? Are we not disrespectful in asking how God has loved us? We are impudent spoiled children to ask our Creator, “How have you loved us?”

    The Priests’ Polluted Offerings
    6 “A son honors his father, and a servant his master. If then I am a father, where is my honor? And if I am a master, where is my fear? says the Lord of hosts to you, O priests, who despise my name. But you say, ‘How have we despised your name?’

     

    If Moses had been burdened by the leading of a rebellious people, surely these rebellious sons of Levi offered no purification for our sins before God our Father. Who could even imagine that the LORD would allow His Chosen People, the Jews, to be ruled by Egypt once more!?

     

    10 Oh that there were one among you who would shut the doors, that you might not kindle fire on my altar in vain!  I have no pleasure in you, says the Lord of hosts, and I will not accept an offering from your hand. 11 For from the rising of the sun to its setting my name will be great among the nations, and in every place incense will be offered to my name, and a pure offering. For my name will be great among the nations, says the Lord of hosts. 12 But you profane it…

    14b For I am a great King, says the Lord of hosts, and my name will be feared among the nations.

    Malachi 2:

    Judah Profaned the Covenant
    10 Have we not all one Father? Has not one God created us? Why then are we faithless to one another, profaning the covenant of our fathers? 11 Judah has been faithless, and abomination has been committed in Israel and in Jerusalem. For Judah has profaned the sanctuary of the Lord, which he loves…

    Minor-Prophets-Timeline

    The Messenger of the Lord
    17 You have wearied the Lord with your words. But you say, “How have we wearied him?” By saying, “Everyone who does evil is good in the sight of the Lord, and he delights in them.” Or by asking, “Where is the God of justice?”

    Malachi preaches repentance to the Jews, captured by Babylon and now ruled by Persia. The word of the LORD is a hard burden on the Prophet, in these days prior to re-building a Second Temple by Ezra and Nehemiah. Yet even the Second Temple would fall.

    Judea of Persia:
    • Alexander the Great will conquer Persia in 331 B.C.
    • Alexander the Great will conquer Egypt a year earlier in 332 B.C.
    Judea of the Macedonian Kingdom:
    • Ptolemy I rules Judea
    • Alexander the Great rules the world
    • The Hebrew Bible is translated into Greek (Septuagint) in Egypt
    Judea of the Ptolemaic Kingdom:
    • The Ptolemy successors of Egypt rule Judea once more until 198 B.C.
    • Political upheaval brought the Seleucids to power from 321 B.C. until 64 B.C.
    • Ptolemy VIII (170-163 B.C.) and Cleopatra II (170-142 B.C.) vie for political power in Egypt
    • The Maccabean revolt in Judea defeats the Seleucids (166-142 B.C.)
    Judea of the Hasmoneans
    • Judas Maccabeus begins the line of Hasmonean rule (166-160 B.C.)
    • Pompey annexes Judea to Rome (63 B.c.)
    Judea under Rome
    • Augustus CaesarC. Octavius (later Augustus) was born on 23 September, 63 BC
    • Herod the Great (37-4 B.C.) gains political power in Judea as an ally of Rome.
    • Egypt, under Cleopatra VII, falls to Octavian (30 B.C.)
    • Rome (27 B.C.- A.D. 395) rules much of the world under Octavian
    • Judea is under the jurisdiction or Syria, part of the Roman Empire under Caesar Augustus.
    • Herod, funded by Rome, builds strategic roads for his Roman administration and rules over Judea with ruthless political savvy.

    The Prophet Malachi has foretold with accuracy these difficulty for the Jews in the time between the Temples and the coming of the Messiah.

    Malachi 3:  “Behold, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me. And the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple; and the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, behold, he is coming, says the Lord of hosts.

    To be continued…

    This post is part of a series in preparation for Christmas in the year of our Lord, 2015.

     

  • What’s the DIFFERENCE between Christians & non-Christians?

    What’s the DIFFERENCE between Christians & non-Christians?

    So as not to reinvent the wheel or simply understate what others have taught previously, I share with you the Christian witness of a wonderful background history of context, culture, and some geography of Paul’s Letters to the Thessalonians as HOMEWORK for a Bible Study I will be teaching, God willing, next Sunday, 9:15 a.m. at Bender’s Mennonite Church.  Please pray also for me.

    The following is for benefit of ALL believers. Please SHARE YOUR COMMENTS.

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    What’s the DIFFERENCE between Christians & non-Christians?

    This is essentially the question by residents of every city and every town to first century Christians as they preached the Gospel.

    “What makes YOU different from US?

    How do you answer this question in your town for your 21st century non-Christian neighbors and unsaved relatives?

    Do you get it right?  Do you TELL them how DIFFERENT you are from them?  Do you suppose that this DIFFERENCE sounds like “Good News” to unbelievers?

    Many Letters of the New Testament make much mention of ‘Jews and Gentiles,’ from the language and cultures of the first century.  What we fail to realize of this distinction is an important one of Holiness that requires separation to God from the evil and sin of the world.

    • The Jew was separated to the Holiness of God.
    • The Gentile was not yet adopted for separation to the Holiness of God. Gentile is a term meaning Nations or Ethic Peoples other than Jews.
    • The Gospel, consistent throughout ALL Letters to the first century church, is Good News:

    “The Perfect Sacrifice of Christ Jesus on the Cross is for ALL Peoples – Jew and Gentile.

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    So in a nutshell, what was the first century Christian answer?  Essentially:

    There is NO difference between me (a follower of Christ Jesus) and you (an unbeliever).

    You may read of it in great detail in Paul’s Letter to the Romans; or you may read succinct summary in Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians; OR you may study your Old Testament and the History of the first century Church as detailed by Luke in The Acts of the Apostles.

    With some homework and study of the background leading up to the Letters to the Churches, God will reveal much more than the former and current relevance of all Scripture, including the Good News of these New Testament Letters.

    The familiar New Testament story of witness is that a Jew from Judea, with Jerusalem as home of their God, travels to a town.

    Take for example, Thessaloniki, Macedonia on the Aegean Sea, with local gentiles (Greeks) of their own traditions and culture.  Thessalonians (as they are called) are ruled by the same empire (country) Rome, on the Tyrrhenian Sea, on the Italia peninsula across the Adriatic Sea from Macedonia, with power over all the lands of the Mediterranean.

    (The embedded PowerPoint Slideshow by Cooper Church of Christ in Cooper, Texas, US is our homework.)

    Thessalonica of Macedonia

    For 21st century readers of Thessalonians: Consider the hostile environment of the Roman Empire as compared to our current environment in all the world, hostile to Jesus Christ.

    • Jews who had dispersed into the Nations (Gentiles) tended to act as if they were morally better than their native hosts.
    • ALL Gentiles had in common a civil authority and local culture inclined toward godlessness, unless some rule of god could help maintain the political power of local, state, national, and international rule.

    (Of course, 21st century governments are so much different in their attitudes toward religion and God.  Right?)

    These first century Christians acted different from other “religious” people.

    HOW ARE CHRISTIANS DIFFERENT?

    WHY would a non-believer WANT to accept our GOOD NEWS?

    Learn a lesson from the first century evangelists.

    We are ALL the same WITHOUT Christ.  Yet ALL believers of every NATION are equal in CHRIST OUR LORD.