35 By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”
In case you missed it
Christ Jesus, the Messiah of Israel who has said, I AND THE FATHER ARE ONE, commanded HIS FOLLOWERS to LOVE ONE ANOTHER as the JESUS has loved them.
In While we wait… DEATH and Resurrection we examined this love of Jesus from the Good News of John at length. However, friend, our 21st century ‘christian’ attention span seems to stretch only about 30 seconds.
I ask (not command) you, friend, to love me enough to follow me, because I love you as our Lord Jesus has loved us. (You can do it now before my 30 seconds is up or whenever you finish reading my talk of Jesus, even without your much desired comment.)
What’s the point?
The Gospel of Jesus Christ may have more to say to you than just a few seconds of scrolling will allow if your heart has not become like that of Judas. For the Lord gave us a new command to “love one another, just as I have loved you.”
And before you hastily dismiss the Lord’s command, who does Jesus command here?
Is He talking to the CHURCH?
Now you may not be a Judas in the room where the Lord gave this new command, but we are at least like Peter, Thomas and other Disciples with frequent failures to pay attention to the Word.
So one of us is bound to ask a “Who is my neighbor” question of the Lord’s new command:
Who does Jesus command?
And thinking that it may be just the Eleven faithful Apostles in the room you dismiss this NEW COMMANDMENT in one of two ways:
Since the Lord was speaking to those who had followed already for three years, ‘love one another as I have loved you,’ applied ONLY to the Disciples. OR
Jesus new command, “that you also love one another,” is no different than His general command to “love your neighbor” or “love your enemy.”
Whether Jesus new command was just to the Apostles or a broad example I’m not going to be the one to ask, ‘And who should I love like You, Jesus?’ I’m really not up to that.
AND besides, who is the church? Who are ‘christians‘ that we should somehow be in the middle of this ‘new commandment?’
Whether for first century followers or a 21st century world of neighbors and enemies, Jesus command just applies to YOU and ME generally… RIGHT?
Ah, dear friend and saint, WHAT IF JESUS IS COMMANDING you and also commanding ME directly?
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.
“Eli, Eli, lama” are Hebrew words in the Hebrew Bible (Ps. 22:2)
David said “lama azavthani” (why have you forsaken me?) and
Jesus said “lama sabachthani” (why have you sacrificed me?).
-source [2016 site not secure]: http://messiah-study.net/sabachthani.htm
Jesus from the Cross
So the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first man and of the other one who had been crucified with him. When they came to Jesus, they did not break his legs since they saw that he was already dead. But one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once blood and water came out.
Is your own heart pierced by the cry of death — the death of a loved one, that of your own inevitable failing flesh?
Would your soul cry out even from the grave that the death of God’s own Son should have been your own?
What those imprisoned in the dark dungeons of death must have thought as Jesus cried out as Sacrifice of Blood and Flesh from the Cross!
Who is the Son of Man entering the Jerusalem of the Jews?
In the year of our Lord, 2020, of these last days of a new covenant, I have been sharing the Good News of John.
We cannot cover all of the nuances of reactions to the Messiah entering Jerusalem for the Passover some two thousand years ago, but look back to some of the thoughts of those encountering Jesus between Palm Sunday and Easter Sunday which the church celebrates with great joy.
The context of their first century perspective also includes witnesses of many signs of the Messiah including healing the sick, giving sight to the blind, miraculously feeding crowds of followers and raising the deadwho include recently Lazarus of Bethany.
The Apostle Philip & the crowds
John 12:
9 Then a large crowd of the Jews learned he was there. They came not only because of Jesus but also to see Lazarus, the one he had raised from the dead.
10 But the chief priests had decided to kill Lazarus also, because he was the reason many of the Jews were deserting them and believing in Jesus.
The Apostle Philip, of course, travels with Jesus when the Messiah returns to Bethany. Crowds follow them into Jerusalem and friends of the Apostle hear about Jesus the Rabbi of their friend Philip.
21 So they came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and requested of him, “Sir, we want to see Jesus.” Philip went and told Andrew; then Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus.
23 And Jesus answered them, saying,
“The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified…
Jesus has much more to say and then this witness before them:
“…and what shall I say, ‘Father, save Me from this hour’? But for this purpose I came to this hour. Father, glorify Your name.”
John 12:27b-28a NASB
Then a voice came out of heaven:
“I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again.”
29 So the crowd of people who stood by and heard it were saying that it had thundered; others were saying, “An angel has spoken to Him.” Jesus answered and said, “This voice has not come for My sake, but for your sakes.
Philip witnesses this truly awesome scene after Jesus had said,
“Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit…
John 12:24 NASB
Thomas: ‘Lord, we know not..’
Don’t you have to love a guy who just has to ask the questions you want to ask the Lord?
Peter was one of these sometimes clueless Disciples who asked Jesus the obvious. We have heard much preaching on Peter, this anointed Apostle of the early church, about his denials and restorations in this Holy Week.
Like Peter, a man of bold faith, Thomas, a man of bold questions often gets a bad wrap for questions and doubt exactly like ours.
The Lord got up from supper, and laid aside His garments; and taking a towel, He girded Himself, after which Jesus washes his feet along with the other eleven.
[Later]He became troubled in spirit, and testified and said,
“Truly, truly, I say to you, that one of you will betray Me.”
22 The disciples began looking at one another…
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…’
36 Simon Peter said to Him,
“Lord, where are You going?”
Jesus answered,
“Where I go, you cannot follow Me now; but you will follow later.”
37 Peter said to Him,
“Lord, why can I not follow You right now?
[Thomas must have also have wondered what Peter so typically blurts out.
Again, fellow believer, consider the gravity of Jesus’ exclusive claim.
For the Lord draws a line in the dust we often omit, when witnessing to win others to Christ through our own blurred vision of this life.
“I am the way, and the truth, and the life;
no one comes to the Father
but through Me. –
John 14:6
Jesus’ exclusive ____line____ in the dust between death and eternal life
7 If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; from now on you know Him, and have seen Him.”
8 Philip said to Him,
“Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.”
9 Jesus said to him, “Have I been so long with you, and yet you have not come to know Me, Philip?
Let’s pause a moment there, fellow saint of Christ:
Has Jesus been so part of your routine that you have failed to know your Lord?
Jesus continues instructing Thomas:
He who has seen Me has seen the Father; how can you say,
‘Show us the Father’?
Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me?
John 14:10a NASB
The words that I say to you I do not speak on My own initiative, but the Father abiding in Me does His works. Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me; otherwise believe because of the works themselves.
12 Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do, he will do also; and greater works than these he will do; because I go to the Father. Whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it.
15 “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.
Between Gethsemane & Doubt
We know that Thomas and the Disciples fail to keep alert in the late hours after Jesus shares the New Covenant Cup of communion and broken bread symbolizing and making memorial of what is about to happen to His broken Body and shed Blood of Sacrifice for our sins.
Jesus prays, is betrayed by Judas as the eleven stand near, then bound and taken away to appear in secret before those who will judge their Messiah. They will then sentence their Redeemer to death on a Cross — ALL in fulfillment of Scripture.
We may self-righteously go on about Peter denying Jesus as he also attempts to run away from death for a time.
In fact, all of us may only escape death — for a time.
CHRIST DIED!
The Apostle John relates more details of these events worth your perspective on DEATH from the darkness of these days.
Perspectives of these first witnesses of Jesus’ resurrection
Mary of Magdala (a small village on the shore of the Sea of Galilee) discovers Jesus’ tomb EMPTY!
“They have taken away the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid Him.”
Mary tells Peter and John
They all return to the tomb with the sealed stone rolled away.
“Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?”
“Sir, if you have carried Him away, tell me where you have laid Him, and I will take Him away.”
16 Jesus said to her, “Mary!”
She turned and said to Him, “Rabboni!” [My great teacher, master.]
Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father: but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God.
Later Appearance to the Disciples
When it was evening of that first day of the week, the disciples were gathered together with the doors locked because they feared the Jews.
Jesus came and stood in their midst and said to them,
“Peace to you.“
20 Having said this, he showed them his hands and his side. So the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord.
21 Jesus said to them again,
“Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, I also send you.”
22 After saying this, he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit…
Did you miss the RESURRECTION OF JESUS?
Don’t some of the most important things in life often happen when you least expect?
Returning later to the scene of the Disciples (but not all of them) in the locked room), Thomas returns.
He missed it! (and perhaps was somewhat sceptical when he heard the witness of his fellow Disciples).
“We’ve seen the Lord!”
“Unless I see in His hands the imprint of the nails, and put my finger into the place of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe.”
Eight more days pass
What disappointment. To have followed Jesus the Messiah as He walked the earth for three years of His ministry prior to His fulfillment of Scripture. AND you missed HIS return!
His disciples were again inside, and Thomas with them. Jesus came, the doors having been shut, and stood in their midst…
“Peace to you.“
And the Lord, turning to Thomas,
“Reach here with your finger, and see My hands; and reach here your hand and put it into My side; and do not be unbelieving, but believing.”
“My Lord and my God!”
And yet again…
John tells us:
30 And many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book…
3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying,
“Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them, and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away.”
אָמֵן אָמֵן
amen, amen.
Even so, Come Lord Jesus.
AMEN.
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