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Tag: jonah

  • Scandalous Faith – a Millstone around our neck

    Scandalous Faith – a Millstone around our neck

    Lent 2023 AD + 

    Original post date: 29 March, in the year of our Lord 2022

    Today’s topic is scandal!

    ASH WEDNESDAY in the year of our Lord 2023, we begin with TODAY’S subject:

    cross hanging from car mirror - Christians wear a symbol of a scandalous faith in Jesus Christ as God and Lord

    Christians in the shoes of Jonah

    Repent, Jonah!

    It’s raining and you are NOT Noah who will save only his own family from the flood.

    The ground is shaking in the year of our Lord 2023 and you are NOT Abraham who will rescue only his family from the evil and the fate of Sodom or the judgment of Gomorrah.

    This is what the LORD of Heaven’s Armies says:
    “I, myself, have risen against Babylon!
    I will destroy its children and its children’s children,”
    says the LORD.

    Isaiah 14:16 NLT

    Yet the Prophet Jonah REFUSED to preach to the few who could be saved from the wrath to come to the city of destruction.

    CROSS Remember man that you are dust and into dust you shall return

    Ashes of Ash Wednesday + a Preparation of Repentance

    So YOU claim to be an evangelist of JESUS to the nations?

    GO into all the world and preach Good News, the Gospel of forgiveness and eternal life for those who will REPENT of their sinful past and FOLLOW Jesus Christ as our Lord.

    The Good News of Jesus’ death and resurrection, however, becomes BAD NEWS to any who turn the other way – in the direction away from God’s grace.

    Such bad news for evangelicals! christians who suddenly turn in the other direction + a direction of SELF and a gospel of what God has done for ME (and should do for you).

    • Have you turned to a path AWAY from the word of God, even like Jonah?
    • Won’t sailing away from the command of the Lord have dire consequence?

    I WON’T PREACH THAT, Jonah responded by sailing away from the command of God.

    But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumblingblock, and unto the Greeks foolishness

    1st letter of Paul to the church at Corinth 1:23 KJV

    Christians proclaim a scandalous faith. Our Cross worn as jewelry may well be a millstone worn around our neck.

    Repent, Jonah! Lest Christ who hung on a Cross hang a millstone around your neck.

    For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness;
    but unto us which are saved it is the power of God.

    1 Corinthians 1:18 KJV

    Jesus Warns disciples

    As we have learned in ACTS of the Apostles, disciples are followers of Christ Jesus.

    Evangelical christians who claim His Name but turn away from God’s command become obstacles to the Lord saving others from the cities of destruction.

    At the moment Jonah turned away from Nineveh even this Prophet of God was not an obedient disciple ‘chosen‘ for eternal life.

    A last-days appeal to the Evangelical

    Evangelicals who claim other cause of the world above Christ cannot boast of the burden of the millstone placed around their necks.

    And evangelicals who embrace condemned cultures of the cities of destruction without revealing the cost of the Cross may find the weight of the Cross around their neck weighing down their witness with veiled hope while singing of ME and JESUS.

    Scandal – Do you recognize it in the warnings of Jesus?

    Luke 17:

    Then He said to the disciples, “It is impossible that no offenses should come, but woe to him through whom they do come!

    “It would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were thrown into the sea, than that he should offend one of these little ones.

    Luke 17:2 NKJV
    Rembrandt - Jonah before the walls of Nineveh

    “Take heed to yourselves. If your brother sins rebuke him; and if he repents, forgive him.

    Luke 17:3

    But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he became angry.

    Jonah 4:1 NKJV

    Then the LORD said, “Is it right for you to be angry?”

    So Jonah went out of the city and sat on the east side of the city. There he made himself a shelter and sat under it in the shade, till he might see what would become of the city.

    – Jonah 4:4-5

    The Millstone

    “It would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck..

    • Does this punishment (even self-inflicted) remind you of Jonah?

    And he said to them, “Pick me up and throw me into the sea; then the sea will become calm for you. For I know that this great tempest is because of me.”

    Jonah 1:12 NKJV

    So what’s the scandal?

    Returning to the Gospel of Luke (NASB20) and Jesus’ warning:

    “It is inevitable that [temptations to sin] stumbling blocks come, but woe to one through whom they come!

    σκάνδαλον – skandalon

    the movable stick or trigger of a trap, a trap stick

    (And evangelicals with ears to hear, now hear this:)

    any person or thing by which one is (entrapped) drawn into error or sin

    Scandal: fig. applied to Jesus Christ, whose person and career were so contrary to the expectations of the Jews concerning the Messiah, that they rejected him and by their obstinacy made shipwreck of their salvation

    Is your faith scandalous because you dare Talk of JESUS?

    ‘But I have a few things against you, because you have some there who hold the teaching of Balaam, who kept teaching Balak to put a stumbling G4625 block G4625 before the sons of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols and to commit sexual immorality.

    The Revelation of Jesus Christ to John 2:14 LSB
    + for one of the most influential churches of 1st c. AD Christianity at Ephesus

    OR will your reluctance to share the Good News of Christ, including the cost of His CROSS, leave you in the same boat as Jonah?

    ‘Therefore repent. But if not, I am coming to you quickly, and I will make war against them with the sword of My mouth.

    ‘He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

    Revelation of Jesus Christ to the Apostle John 2:16-17a LSB
    Your comment on this post and these Scriptures encourage the witness of this author. RH  (original post date 29 March in the year of our Lord, 2022)
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  • Nineveh – Preaching to a cruel enemy

    Nineveh – Preaching to a cruel enemy

    Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it; for their wickedness is come up before me.

    Jonah 1:2 NASB20

    Repent (They did.)

    Remove your masks of hypocrisy, claimants of Christ. Let God’s enemy see your true face — that you DO NOT want them to be saved.

    Nineveh initially didn’t even see the back of Jonah’s head as the man of God faced away from the will of the LORD.

    Yet the LORD God wants to save sinners like us — Even other sinners not of us, that they too might come to know His love and grace.

    (If you’re going to preach Jonah you probably ought to hear God’s message of repentance and obedience. You with ears to hear, hear the LORD — His will, before you just connect it to your missions or draw the picture for a Children’s Bible.)

    HINT: It’s not about the whale.

    • Is Jonah and the Whale just a children’s Bible story to you?
    • Perhaps it is just an Old Testament parable predicting the resurrection?

    NO. It is more than that.

    For the LORD commands the Prophet Jonah to PREACH repentance to sinners. Yet this ‘religious man’ sails off on what he believes will be an easier journey. Jonah sails away from the troubles of others in favor of his own mission.

    Who is this cruel enemy of Nineveh?

    Even having read some ancient history background of the middle east at the time of Jonah, I again marveled at the contemporary look of those ancient people. Are we so different you might ask?

    It was Sennacherib who made Nineveh a truly magnificent city (c. 700 BC). He laid out new streets and squares and built within it the South West Palace, or “palace without a rival”.. 80 rooms. A foundation of 3.5 million cubic yards with walls more than six stories high.

    The stone carvings in the walls include many battle scenes, impalings and scenes showing Sennacherib’s men parading the spoils of war before him. .. he wrote of Babylon: “Its inhabitants, young and old, I did not spare, and with their corpses I filled the streets of the city.”

    “And Hezekiah of Judah who had not submitted to my yoke…him I shut up in Jerusalem his royal city like a caged bird. Earthworks I threw up against him, and anyone coming out of his city gate I made pay for his crime. His cities which I had plundered I had cut off from his land.”

    .. the total area of Nineveh (1,730 acres), and (15) great gates .. an elaborate system of (18) canals brought water from the hills to Nineveh..

    The enclosed area had more than 100,000-150,000 inhabitants, about twice as many as Babylon at the time, placing it among the largest settlements worldwide.

    Source: Wikipedia

    The Enemy viewed from Jerusalem

    Sennacherib siege of Jerusalem painting with army outside wall

    In case (like me) you missed the connection between Nineveh and Jerusalem, you will need to go back into the wars recorded in 2 Kings.

    2 Kings 18-19

    13 Now in the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah, Sennacherib king of Assyria marched against all the fortified cities of Judah and seized them…

    In fact, you are NOT Jonah; but the gentile of Nineveh to whom Jonah preaches repentance!

    • Will you respond to God’s message as did the people of Nineveh?
    • Or are you as faithless as the religious ones of Nazareth who turned away Jesus? (We will visit Nazareth also on this brief journey.)

    Scriptures

    Ezekiel 18

    Matthew 12

    Jonah 3

    Original talkofJESUS.com post

    Beyond Nineveh
    Original post March 30, 2017 – Topic: Repentance
    Summer Reruns! with picture of sun wearing sunglasses
    Summer 2021 AD {Scriptural} Reruns
    • CLICK “…Continue reading ” above,
    • THEN Ask a question or comment at the end of this post
    • OR email Roger@talkofJesus.com with your reaction, questions & comments.

    Stay tuned from more Summer of 2021 Reruns from talkofJESUS.com

    (ditto: Summer 2022 – more to come)

  • Another Day of Silence at the Grave of a Loved One

    Another Day of Silence at the Grave of a Loved One

    It’s a familiar scene — loved ones mourning their loss in silence once the dead body can no longer be embraced by eyes or arms.

    All that remains are our fleeting memories of a life which has passed into lifeless dust. I have been there. Likely you have as well.

    two Roman soldiers standing by fire at night by Jesus' tomb

    It happens that the Beloved Body laid to rest previously is Jesus Christ.

    Perhaps you missed these mourners outside the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea where the remains of Jesus were sealed. In our own grief we lament how such a public spectacle of Jesus’ Crucifixion on a Roman Cross could have been inflicted on the Son of God.

    A Day of the silence of the Passover Lamb

    “An evil and adulterous generation demands a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah.” Then he left them and went away.

    Matthew 16:4 CSB

    Now the LORD had prepared a great fish…

    (Certain death: Three days & three nights away.)

    Now the LORD had appointed a great fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah spent three days and three nights in the stomach of the fish.

    Jonah 1:17 – with commentaries

    Perhaps the bereaving Apostles or distraught mourners had recalled this and other sayings of Jesus.

    “A little while, and you will no longer see Me; and again a little while, and you will see Me.”

    John 16:16 NASB
    body of Jesus outside tomb of Joseph with others

    Christ :: The Three Days and the Three Nights

    Don't become too immersed in the discussions of 'days' or 'dates' of Christ's Crucifixion and Resurrection, but for the curious here is an article discussing some of the Jewish calendar issues involved.

    After a brief time of carrying His pierced body from the Cross, Joseph and the others must wait until the completion of the Passover feast and until the day after the Sabbath to return and dutifully complete their burial task.

    We noted several witnesses to Jesus’ crucifixion previously in It is finished.. + Death’s witnesses. John does not list everyone nor does the Apostle include some additional events.

    John has not mentioned Judas Iscariot since his betrayal of the Lord in Gethsemane. Yet Matthew’s Gospel reveals the death of Jesus’ betrayer, the 30 pieces of silver purchasing the field of blood and how it fulfills prophesy.

    3 When Y’hudah, who had betrayed him, saw that Yeshua had been condemned, he was seized with remorse and returned the thirty silver coins to the head cohanim and elders..

    “I sinned in betraying an innocent man to death.”

    the confession of Judas Iscariot – Matthew 27:4 HNV

    5 Hurling the pieces of silver into the sanctuary, he left; then he went off and hanged himself.

    From Crucifixion until Christ’s Resurrection

    Before we proceed to John’s witness of Christ’s Resurrection, let’s linger just one more day to note events and witnesses beyond the tomb where Jesus’ body lay.

    Matthew 27:

    59 And when Joseph had taken the body, he wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, And laid it in his own new tomb, which he had hewn out in the rock: and he rolled a great stone to the door of the sepulchre, and departed.

    two Roman soldiers standing by fire at night by Jesus' tomb

    61 And there was Mary Magdalene, and the other Mary, sitting over against the sepulchre.

    What a sorrowful scene…

    And Matthew records:

    62 Now the next day, that followed the day of the preparation, the chief priests and Pharisees came together unto Pilate..

    64 Command therefore that the sepulchre be made sure until the third day..

    65 Pilate said to them, “You have a guard; go, make it as secure as you know how.” And they went and made the tomb secure with the guard, sealing the stone.

    Luke 23:

    And a man named Joseph, who was a member of the Council, a good and righteous man (he had not consented to their plan and action), a man from Arimathea, a city of the Jews, who was waiting for the kingdom of God; this man went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus.

    And he took it down and wrapped it in a linen cloth, and laid Him in a tomb cut into the rock, where no one had ever lain. It was the preparation day, and the Sabbath was about to begin.

    Now the women who had come with Him out of Galilee followed, and saw the tomb and how His body was laid. Then they returned and prepared spices and perfumes.

    (Note the brief amount of time these women John names had to see the tomb, return with spices and just begin the wrapping of Jesus’ slain body.)

    • Luke tells us (Luke 23:56b) why they had to leave Jesus’ body until later.

    And on the Sabbath they rested according to the commandment.

    But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they came to the tomb bringing the spices which they had prepared.

    Luke 24:1 NASB
    3 crosses, cave tomb with stone rolled away
    • The Apostle Matthew tells how Joseph wrapped Jesus’ crucified body in a clean line cloth and laid the Lord in a place he had prepared for his own death.
    • Then Matthew tells us (27:60b NASB):

    and he rolled a large stone against the entrance of the tomb and went away.

    • Matthew, the Disciple of Jesus also records the sad scene of silent mourning, where Joseph must have recalled these two women who lingered there.

    61 And there was Mary Magdalene, and the other Mary, sitting over against the sepulchre.

    Joseph rolled a great stone to the door of the sepulcher, and departed.
    To be continued..
.. at dawn the first day of the week ...
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