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Tag: John

Sanctification – saints washed in Christ’s Holiness
Sanctification occurs only 5-10 times in the New Testament, while “sanctify” occurs 70 times in 65 verses in the KJV throughout the Bible.

Doesn’t sanctification require someone or something to be ‘sanctified?’

What is sanctification?

How is it different since Christ Jesus?

Sanctification in the Old Testament

Moses on Sinai

Exodus 19 NKJV excerpt

And Moses went up to God, and the LORD called to him from the mountain..

‘Now therefore, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant,

… ‘And you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’

Exodus 19:3-6 except NKJV

So Moses went down from the mountain to the people and sanctified the people, and they washed their clothes.

קָדַשׁ qâdash,

to be (causatively, make, pronounce or observe as) clean (ceremonially or morally):—appoint, bid, consecrate, dedicate, defile, hallow, (be, keep) holy(-er, place), keep, prepare, proclaim, purify, sanctify(-ied one, self),

Exodus 21:5-7

“Also let the priests who come near to Yahweh set H6942 themselves apart H6942 as H6942 holy H6942, lest Yahweh break out against them.”

And Moses said to Yahweh, “The people cannot come up to Mount Sinai, for You [testified to] warned us, saying, ‘Set bounds about the mountain, and set H6942 it apart H6942 as H6942 holy H6942.’”

Exodus 19:22-23 LSB – noting H6942 meaning Sanctify or Hallow

שְׁמֹות (Exodus) 19 :: Masoretic Text

19:22 וְגַם הַכֹּהֲנִים הַנִּגָּשִׁים אֶל־יְהוָה יִתְקַדָּשׁוּ פֶּן־יִפְרֹץ בָּהֶם יְהוָה׃
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19:23 וַיֹּאמֶר מֹשֶׁה אֶל־יְהוָה לֹא־יוּכַל הָעָם לַעֲלֹת אֶל־הַר סִינָי כִּי־אַתָּה הַעֵדֹתָה בָּנוּ לֵאמֹר הַגְבֵּל אֶת־הָהָר וְקִדַּשְׁתּוֹ׃
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Does this washing for holiness before God bring any sanctifying fear over you before facing the LORD your Maker?

An Old Testament Word

You may recognize the same word in a couple of important places in the Bible.

Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified H6942 it, because on it He rested from all His work which God had created in making it.

Genesis 2:3 LSB

זָכוֹר אֶת־יוֹם הַשַּׁבָּת לְקַדְּשׁוֹ׃

“Remember the sabbath day, to keep H6942 it holy H6942.

Exodus 20:8 WLC, LSB
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AND perhaps like me, you recall a similar sanctification from the Word of the Gospels. 
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Pray then like this:
Our Father who art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.
Matthew 6:9 RSV

Sanctification then prepares unholy sinners to face the Most Holy.

Sanctification in the New Testament

The A.D. first century Greek verb Jesus and the Apostles use is hagiazō.
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verb - From ἅγιος (G40) adjective (most holy thing, a saint) 
- From hagos adjective (an awful thing) [cf ἁγνός (G53) adjective, properly, clean, i.e. (figuratively) innocent, modest, perfect:—chaste, clean, pure. 
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- to render or acknowledge, or to be venerable or hallow
- to separate from profane things and dedicate to God
- to purify
  - to cleanse externally
  - to purify by expiation: free from the guilt of sin
  - to purify internally by renewing of the soul
    
    Strong’s G37 – hagiazō
The Apostle Paul, in referring to a long list of sins of the Corinthians writes:

And such were some of you; but you were washed,

but you were sanctified G37,

but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.

1 Corinthians 6:11 LSB

Therefore, dear chosen of Christ Jesus, do you see yourself as:

a most holy thing, a saint ?

The A.D. first century Greek adjective of the same root is hagios.

Are YOU a HOLY Saint of JESUS Christ, therefore sanctified to Him in your mortal AND eternal life?

Sanctified saints

“For their sake I sanctify Myself, that they themselves also may be sanctified in truth.

Gospel of John 17:20 LSB

In bringing many sons to glory, it was fitting for God, for whom and through whom all things exist, to make the author of their salvation perfect through suffering.

For both the One who sanctifies and those who are sanctified are of the same family. So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers.

Hebrews 2:10-11 BSB

Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth.

John 17:17 CSB – Jesus’ prayer for disciples

Sanctification of children learning to walk in Christ

To the saints in Galatia:

Formerly, when you did not know God, you were enslaved to those that by nature are not gods.

But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how can you turn back again to the weak and worthless elementary principles of the world, whose slaves you want to be once more?

Paul’s letter (epistle) to the Galatians 4:8-9 ESV

To the saint sitting with you in church:

In conclusion, the best way to examine some of the jargon of Scripture like anointed, consecrated, sanctified, justified and holiness is in prayerful time in the Bible itself.

How better to explain sanctification (or any ‘Christian’ jargon) to a new child of the faith with whom you worship than with Biblical text?
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READ any of the links provided in the Scriptures above. 

OR For more on the topic of Sanctification you may search it here on TalkofJESUS.com OR simply read the earlier post below with my closing thought. 
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Sanctification – a refining of our holiness in Christ

For this is the will of God, your sanctification.. For God did not call us to impurity,

but in sanctification.

Consequently, he who sets this aside is not setting aside man

but the God who gives His Holy Spirit to you.

1 Thessalonians 4:3a, (3b-6 short list of our impurity) 7-8 LSB

~A.D. 51 – Paul writes to encourage the Thessalonian Church
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A look back from 2025 CE to an earlier look at Sanctification
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Paul’s unfinished encouragement of the Thessalonians

Comment on Scripture – Share the Gospel
February 8, 2025
The Idolatry of Baptism – the Idolatry of Communion – 2
TODAY we continue in Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians continuing to apply the communion of the body of Christ as ceremony, community and witness.

Paul has just compared Moses leading the Hebrews through the sea to baptism in Christ and communion in Christ.

First Letter of the Apostle Paul to the Corinthians 10:
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2 They were all baptized into Moses.. 3 They all ate the same spiritual food 4 and drank the same spiritual drink..
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Nevertheless, God was not pleased with most of them; their bodies were scattered in the wilderness.

a Contemporary Look at Communion
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And NOW, continuing in Paul's BIBLICAL TEXT, although not as the Apostle sequenced it to his first century Corinthian audience, PLACE yourself in a comfortable contemporary 21st century church for the Apostle's Sunday sermon.
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Picture Paul Podcasting to your Common Era church gathering..

WORSHIP will begin soon.

PLEASE silence your mobile devices.
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Today's BIBLICAL references and paraphrases taken mostly from the Berean Standard Bible or New International Readers Version. PLEASE open the BIBLE on your silenced mobile device to 1 Corinthians 10.
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Good morning, beloved saints.

I’m Paul and have been chosen to be an apostle of Christ Jesus just as God planned. And our brother Sosthenes joins you in person at your local gathering today.

Today I will begin by addressing you, along with all of the saints sharing in the Lord’s Supper and communion in your community.

Following my broadcast message for you and your church, Sosthenes will lead you in the breaking of the bread of Holy Communion, along with your beloved local pastor and your fellow saints sharing in the sacrifice of Christ our only Savior.

I speak to you as reasonable people.

So judge for yourselves what I say.

God was not pleased with most of the church of Moses (if you will), because most of them desired the sins of worshipping idols once their GOD-appointed PREACHER Moses went up the hill to receive the LORD’s Holy LAW.

It is God’s LAW, the LORD’s Commandments meant to sanctify and separate a Holy people from an evil world overflowing in sin from every city and nation.

YOU have been chosen to separate IN CHRIST JESUS as a Holy People to be in communion with a HOLY LORD GOD – our merciful Father.

My dear friends, run away from statues of gods. Don’t worship them.

1 Corinthians 10:14 NIRV

I know through your own pastors, shepherds of your faith, that most of you do not.

You don’t have little Buddhas in your home OR place some Pope or Prophet on a pedestal.

Yet every unholy message on your numerous devices reaches to lure you saints of the Lord into the inclusion of innumerable IDOLS.

IDOLS of:
- of self and sport,
- inner-self and gods of nature,
- sexual indulgence and sensual entertainment,
- ageless health and never-to-be mentioned DEATH and then the Judgement.
Our Lord Jesus, who sent me to YOU with the Gospel urges YOU:

“Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life.

Gospel of John 5:24 LSB

Good NEWS in the palm of your hand.

GO ahead and LOOK at it on your device, (the Apostle would urge you IF he could).

There’s much MORE

2 RESURRECTIONS !

and not one jot or tittle of the Good News JESUS proclaims is idolatry;

but rather, Christ speaks truth.

23 You say, “I have the right to do anything.”
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(After all, you're a FREE CHURCH because of JESUS and the CROSS.)
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But not everything is helpful.

Again you say, “I have the right to do anything.”

But not everything builds us up.

So what’s a Common Era christian to do?

In fact, my fellow saint of Christ and in Christ, regardless of all of our songs praising SELF – MY god and MY lord and MY royal blessings as part of JESUS’ resurrection —

I can tell you (AND I SAW THE LORD JESUS AS ONE CALLED – an Apostle to YOU) – The Lord did not CALL you to celebrate His Kingdom as your own (as the pagans do when WE wander off to celebrate with their gods at their feasts and festive occasions).

Christian Evangelism by Example

24 No one should look out for their own interests. Instead, they should look out for the interests of others.
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Do YOU do that for those the Lord seeks? 

In fact, as Jesus commanded, 

Do YOU put your fellow saints FIRST in loving one another, even as Christ JESUS has loved US? 

Therefore, 
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25 Eat anything sold in the meat market. Don’t ask if it’s right or wrong.

26 Scripture says,

“The earth belongs to the Lord. And so does everything in it.” (Psalm 24:1)

YES, the earth and all creation belong to the Lord’s!

And JESUS IS Lord!

IF you are a humble saint of His body the Church.

NOT Mother Nature (who has no realm of wind or fire, NO majesty over seed and sinew from dust).

NOT some fanciful angelic cherub of erotic love.

NOT some Bacchus of Mardi Gras beads for debauchery.

NOT even some dead saint of our own or any Super-PASTOR of the big screen broadcasting christian charity or podcasting christian politics into every cultural corner of the world.

NO, we worship the One Lord Jesus, God from God, begotten not made and One with the Spirit.

NO idol has power over us.

SO WHY WOULD WE honor that which is not?

Let us not test Christ as some of ‘Moses’ church’ did. (And do not grumble as some of them did.)
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And here's your Common Era application little different than with the Corinthians.
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Paul would ask a 21st century christian:

Are Hindu gods false?

How about Buddha and a worldly yoga of SELF?

Would the Mormons Moroni and Smith of the Utahpian christian sect?

And Mohammed, false prophet veiled in hatred opposing YHWH, Jacob and Christ, with adherents bowing only to their god of Allah?

Is Mary, mother of our Lord Jesus and James and Jude our mediator before the Holy Spirit?

Should we plea though dead Saints of the Church already with our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ?

Must you consult and hold high a Pope to interpret God’s Holy Scripture?

Is God’s Earth your IDOL or the Heavens HE created IN THE BEGINNING?

Does some philosophy or practice of the past fill your head and weekly routines of this mortal life? Has that become YOUR idol?
- idolatry – formal sacrificial feats held in honour of false gods
- of avarice, as a worship of Mammon
Just as baptism is a PUBIC witness of YOUR permanent CHANGE to our faith, why do YOU imagine that participation in the PUBLIC ceremonies of their idolatrous false faith is not witness against our Lord Jesus Christ into whose Name YOU have been baptized?

And so too of

Holy Communion.

Are not those who eat the sacrifices fellow partakers in the altar?

1 Corinthians 10:18b BSB
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And allow me to ask you this:
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- Do we saints of Christ LITERALLY drink HIS mystery of cleansing by that shed for us on the CROSS?
- Must communicates of CHRIST LITERALLY eat a mysterious leaven broken unceremoniously for us on a bloody cross of Calvary?
- AND is this the purpose of an Apostle to point out a prescribed practice to ‘Do this in remembrance of Jesus as often as we share in the feasts and cup of blessing?
Because there is one loaf, we who are many are one body; for we all partake of the one loaf.

1 Corinthians 10:17 BSB

Christ’s Body the Church

And that BODY is the Church

of which Christ is the Head — Jew, Greek, Asian, African, American;

YET ONLY those called to the communion of the saints of Christ Jesus our Lord, whose blood was shed and body broken for us.

You can’t drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons too. You can’t have a part in both the Lord’s table and the table of demons.

Are we trying to make the Lord jealous? Are we stronger than he?

1 Corinthians 10:21-23 NIRV

If an unbeliever invites you to a meal and you want to go, eat anything set before you without raising questions of conscience.

But if someone tells you, “This food was offered to idols,” then do not eat it, for the sake of the one who told you and for the sake of conscience—the other one’s conscience, I mean, not your own.

For why should my freedom be determined by someone else’s conscience?

If I partake in the meal with thankfulness, why am I denounced because of that for which I give thanks?

1 Corinthians 10:27-30 BSB

In whatever you do…

do it all to the glory of God.

Do not become a stumbling block.. to [worshipers of other religions] or to the church of God—

Follow my apostolic evangelical example:

as I also try to please everyone in all I do.

For I am not seeking my own good, but the good of many,

that they may be saved.
- excerpt paraphrase from 1 Corinthians 10:31-33 BSB
Follow my example, just as I follow the example of Christ.
1 Corinthians 11:1 NIRV

Comment on Scripture – Share the Gospel
February 3, 2025
What is the Gospel? What are the Gospels?
Ask five Christians,

What is the Gospel?

And you may hear THREE different answers, see an empty puzzled look and perhaps hear an honest, “I don’t really know; how do you define the gospel?”
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Go ahead: EMAIL ME your definition BEFORE you read the following OR add your definitive COMMENT at the bottom of this Christian Jargon post. 
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Gospel & Gospels – Two Definitions

You have probably heard from one version of this Scripture:

“Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation.

Gospel of Mark 16:15b NIV

I mention ‘Gospel‘ in two different contexts here:
1. Gospel from a quote of the risen Lord Jesus Christ
2. Gospel identifying the written account of the disciple John Mark
Four Gospels recorded by four witnesses

Briefly:
1. Matthew
2. Mark
3. Luke
4. John
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We've quoted these four writers of the Gospels many times AND we cross-reference these Scriptures in other accounts as well. 
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TalkofJESUS.com treats the GOSPELS as a single category due to the connected importance of the Good News of Jesus Christ reported LIVE and IN PERSON from different perspectives.

Gospel of Matthew 28:30 – Quote of JESUS after the Lord’s resurrection.

Gospel of LUKE 1:4
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John Mark (mentioned above) and Luke, the physician who continued his detailed account of Jesus and the early Church with Acts of the Apostles, were both gentile (non-Jewish) believers who interviewed the Twelve and other witnesses of JESUS. 

Matthew (quoted above) and John are two of the Twelve Apostles. Jesus includes John and his brother James along with Simon Peter in the Lord's inner circle of closest confidants and friends. 
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The GOSPEL of JOHN
- INTRO – Gospel of John
- INTRO 2 – John, son of Zebedee
Luke also introduces himself in both volumes of his accounts Luke-Acts.

The Gospel: Definition

εὐαγγέλιον
Strong’s G2098 – euangelion

a reward for good tidings

good tidings

And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people.

Topical Encyclopedia

The term “Gospel” originates from the Old English word “godspel,” meaning “good news” or “glad tidings,” which is a translation of the Greek word “euangelion.”

In the context of the Christian faith, the Gospel refers to the message of salvation through Jesus Christ, encompassing His life, death, resurrection, and the promise of eternal life for believers.

gos’-pel (to euaggelion): The word gospel is derived from the Anglo-Saxon word which meant “the story concerning God.”

The Gospel is simple really, yet with the mysterious depth of God proclaimed as the good Word of saving sinners.
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I have written topically about the Gospel at least twice: 
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Go into all the world (and SHARE the Gospel) – 1

(Go into all the world and) SHARE the Gospel – 2

Further Study

Vine’s Expository Dictionary of NT Words offers a deeper study of biblical words used in the English language. English entries are mapped to each applicable Greek root according to the Strong’s reference numbers, and include biblical usage, main occurrences in the Bible, English transliteration, and definitions.

εὐαγγελίζω – euangelizō – verb

Strong’s Number: g2097

Gospel (Noun and Verb: to Preach):“to bring or announce glad tidings” (Eng., “evangelize”), is used

(a) in the Active Voice in Rev 10:7 (“declared”) and Rev 14:6 (“to proclaim,” RV, AV, “to preach”);

Some claiming Christ, christians or even churches, will claim the Gospel without understanding.

OR worse, pulpits may proclaim the Gospel while hiding behind it.

AND some christians and churches take no action at all in evangelization or preaching the Gospel to our own personal need of Christ Jesus for salvation.

Good News before our inevitable end

death — and the JUDGMENT of ALMIGHTY GOD!

2025 of the Common Era seems to have begun with story after story and yet more of the continuing BREAKING NEWS of our fallen world.

Common Era NEWS begins with the same old sins of the world wrapped in the false idolatry: MOTHER NATURE and a world out of control * and a human-created environmental apocalypse – impending DISASTER out of reach of all their hand-holding gods.

Fire Maui Hawaii US

1945 dead slave labors

And the seven angels which had the seven trumpets prepared themselves to sound…

.. but in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he is about to sound, then the mystery of God is finished, as He proclaimed^G2097 good^G2097 news^G2097 to His slaves, the prophets.

The Revelation of Jesus Christ to John 10:7 LSB

WHAT NEWS TODAY?

How many died THIS TIME? And how many were SAVED for nothing more than BAD NEWS? (And for how long until the inevitable return of each broken body into the dust of the grave?)

Does the world’s news end with a feel-good story? *Do YOU feel good about YOURSELF now?

What percentage of us will die sometime soon?

What does the Gospel of JESUS CHRIST mean to your eternal soul

— your deeper human created in God’s image — the YOU by which so many souls you love in this world (or perhaps just a few) know you well as more than flesh and blood?

DON’T YOU think, mere mortal, that God in his Only Son Jesus Christ enbraces and knows your soul more than any?

Of course! the GOSPEL proclaims.

Repentance!

and BELIEVE the Gospel.

“Many false prophets will arise and will deceive man.

And because lawlessness is multiplied, most people’s love will grow cold.

But the one who endures to the end, he will be saved.

Gospel of Matthew 24:11-13

Talk of JESUS . com

“And this gospel of the kingdom shall be proclaimed in the whole world as a witness to all the nations,
and then the end will come.
Matthew 24:14 Legacy Standard Bible

Comment on Scripture – Share the Gospel
January 11, 2025