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Tag: Luke

  • Signs of Release from the Bondage of Culture

    Signs of Release from the Bondage of Culture

    The Bondage of Culture and Corruption

    .. that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.

    This is only reference to ‘bondage’ in the English Standard Bible — BONDAGE is not a very popular word of cultural correctness — and “bondage of culture” does NOT occur in any version of the Bible (though the NKJV mentions bondage more than two dozen times).

    The Shaking of Earthquakes

    IF you will examine the events of ACTS of the Apostles carefully as has Luke, then you will see what some would call ‘natural events,’ such as the Philippi earthquake in Acts 16 by which Paul and Silas had the bondage of their shakles released, as one of many signs of power over nature, the idolatrous ‘mother‘ of many proclaiming the bondage of culture.

    The Keeper of the Philippian Prison

    About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them, and suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken.

    And immediately all the doors were opened, and everyone’s bonds were unfastened. – ACTS 16:25-26 ESV

    Wooden bonds shackled to their feet – a chain bondage to a stone floor or base of the wall of their deep prison cell. THEN AN EARTHQUAKE!

    Just then? (What a coincidence of ‘mother nature.’)

    Just when the witness of Paul and Silas heard by the prisoners had been singing to God?

    σεισμός – seismos

     Even the idolaters of the bondage of culture know this, yet minimize God’s power.

    “For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and in various places there will be famines and earthquakes G4578.

    Signs by the One God of Power!

    and there will be great earthquakes, and in various places famines and plagues; and there will be terrors and great signs from heaven.

    Gospel of Luke 21:11 LSB –

    “But before all these things, they will lay their hands on you and will persecute you, delivering you to the synagogues and prisons, bringing you before kings and governors for My name’s sake.

    Gospel of Luke 21:12

    Isn’t this what has just happened to the apostles Paul and Silas in a Philippian prison?

    Acts 16:

    • .. a slave girl who had a spirit of divination and brought her owners much gain by fortune-telling.
    • Paul .. said to the spirit, “I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.” And it came out that very hour.

    A spiritual bondage to the darkness of evil forbidden by Almighty God. And a bondage of culture to profit from knowledge unavailable to others.

    • ..her owners saw that their hope of gain was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace before the rulers.
    • The crowd joined in attacking them, and the magistrates tore the garments off them and gave orders to beat them with rods. 23 And when they had inflicted many blows upon them, they threw them into prison

    These magistrates were Roman leaders. The slave girl’s owners may also have been Roman OR these evil masters of the girl may have been Hellenist (Greek) men of Philippi clinging to the bondage of culture, not only theirs but that of their Roman overseers.

    If you missed it previously READ more about the Culture of Philippi

    The slave girl of spiritual bondage AND the local bondage of culture of her Philippian owners had proclaimed prophetically:

    “These men are servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to you the way of salvation.”

    Yet the local Philippian owners of this girl bound to sin and under the bondage of culture – the slavery of differences:

     “These men are Jews, and they are disturbing our city. 21 They advocate customs that are not lawful for us as Romans to accept or practice.” 

    Is it customary for culture to beat its prisoners without a trial?

    Yes, if the loudest of crowds can rule over their rulers with impunity.

    It is our own bondage of culture which refuses the Savior Jesus Christ who sent his apostles and Gospel into all the world to free sinners from death.

    Sorry, my public judgment was a mistake

    So just go quitely away from our culture of bondage (to what we insist on doing).

    35 But when it was day, the magistrates sent the police, saying, “Let those men go.”

    (We are moving down the cultural commanding chain of command here.)

    36 And the jailer reported these words to Paul, saying, “The magistrates have sent to let you go. Therefore come out now and go in peace.”

     But Paul said to them,

    “They have beaten us publicly, uncondemned, men who are Roman citizens, and have thrown us into prison; and do they now throw us out secretly?

    No! Let them come themselves and take us out.” 

    Acts of the apostle Paul 16:37, sending out his reply to Philippian Roman magistrates through their jailer

    The Legacy Standard Version [below] may be more helpful in understanding the cultural connection of this injustice.

    But Paul said to them, “Having beaten us in public without trial, men who are Romans, they have thrown us into prison. And now are they sending us away secretly?

    No indeed! But let them come themselves and bring us out.”

    Church doctrine a line in the sand. - How will a leader or council of leaders choose what the Church will teach?

    Paul now draws a line in the sand by his refusal to go away quietly.

    He challenges a Roman bondage of culture claiming public justice of their Pax Romana.

    (Working back up the Roman chain of command ruling Philippi.)

    38 The police reported these words to the magistrates, and they were afraid when they heard that they were Roman citizens.

    39 So they came and apologized to them. And they took them out and asked them to leave the city. 

    The political leaders of this leading Roman city have publically punished men for crimes and having served an overnight sentence in the stocks they ordered their punished prisoners to go away and don’t come back.

    But Paul’s witness of righteousness in Christ demands that these apostles remain in town after this public incident.

    40 So they went out of the prison and visited Lydia.

    Paul and Silas then visit Lydia and their NEW church in the place where Christ’s apostles were first sent and welcomed — Philippi at the eastern edge of Europe and in the very heart of the Roman Mediterranean Empire.

    What’s just happened?

    FAITH of two apostles singing at midnight in a prison in Philippi and THEN an earthquake!

    They might have been killed in a collapsing cell in the lowest part of this jail!

    BUT it’s more than just a shaking of the ground — this pivotal sign from the All-powerful God of heaven to whom Paul and Silas had prayed and praised. The prison doors are also opened yet no prison trys to escape. They wait in the darkness for the light of the hope of Paul and Silas.

    Returning to the Jailer

     27 When the jailer woke and saw that the prison doors were open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself, supposing that the prisoners had escaped..

    ..the prison doors were open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself..

     “Do not harm yourself, for we are all here.”

    29 And the jailer called for lights and rushed in, and trembling with fear he fell down before Paul and Silas. Then he brought them out and said,

    “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” 31 And they said,

    “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.”

    Acts of the Apostles 16:31b – Paul’s reply to his jailer in Philippi who asked, “What must I do to be saved?”

    And they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house. And he took them the same hour of the night and washed their wounds; and he was baptized at once, he and all his family. 

    34 Then he brought them up into his house and set food before them. And he rejoiced along with his entire household that he had believed in God.

    We have already examined the cultural bondage of the public court and its magistrates, who later attenpted to apologize and send them away quietly.

    The faith of the apostles had been public before prison, public in prison, public at the house of Lydia and the house of their Philippian Jailer.

    FAITH in the Lord Jesus is a matter of PUBLIC witness every day and in every place.

    And when they had seen the brothers, they encouraged them and departed.

    Acts of the apostles 16:40b

    To be continued…

  • 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)
Thanks.

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  • 5 friends, a few mentors and family

    5 friends, a few mentors and family

    Paul – Barnabas and other Friends

    Recalling our journeys with friends

    How many friends have you had in this brief journey of your life?

    • Who are the first friends YOU remember?
      • And where are they NOW?

    In the cover photo from my copy of “Friendship” Emerson suggests that we miss much and mostly undervalue those dear souls we briefly encounter in life.

    Acts of the apostles’ friends

    Acts Apostolos - Acts 1 of the Apostles begins a 28 chapter account of the chronicles of Christ's Apostles - a history of Christ's Church

    Barnabas, I remind us here, was also an apostle (one sent out), from the Greek word indicating the authority of a delegate or messenger sent forth with orders.

    The mission of apostles sent by the Holy Spirit does not diminish any importance of their individual relationships — men maturing together as brothers of the family of Christ.

    The apostle Paul

    Chronologically the apostle’s account (from later in Acts) will recall what Luke recorded previously in Acts 9 and illuminates the timeline of Paul’s journeys as I noted last time.

    “I am a Jew, born in Tarsus in Cilicia, but brought up in this city, educated at the feet of Gamaliel according to the strict manner of the law of our fathers, being zealous for God as all of you are this day.

    Acts of the Apostles 22:3 ESV – Paul recounting his pervious conversion to Christ ~ AD 37

    We will return to Paul’s second mission shortly & proceed observantly ahead from our half-verse of Acts 16:1a near the beginning of the apostle’s 2nd missionary journey.

    Yet something about the recent split between Paul and Barnabas still bothers me..

    39 And there arose a sharp disagreement, so that they separated from each other. Barnabas took Mark with him and sailed away to Cyprus, 40 but Paul chose Silas and departed, having been commended by the brothers to the grace of the Lord. 

    Acts of the Apostles 15:39-40 ESV

    What was it about the friendship of Barnabas and Paul breaking up that I found somewhat disturbing?

    WHY did these friends separate after this second argument?

    • Was it how Barnabas insisted on John Mark joining them — a young man who deserted these friends previously now replacing Paul as Barnabas and now has departed for Cypress with Mark?
    • Did the apostle simply expect loyalty to a co-worker in the Gospel?
    • Or perhaps loyalty of Barnabas to Paul who had witnessed the risen Christ Jesus?

    Recall from earlier, just before their first missionary journey:

    So Barnabas went to Tarsus to look for Saul, and when he had found him, he brought him to Antioch. For a whole year they met with the church and taught a great many people.

    Acts of the Apostles 11:25-26a ESV

    We know that Barnabas had been Paul’s mentor. And now this ‘son of encouragement’ seems to abandon the apostle for a new and younger co-worker in the Gospel?

    Did Joseph of Cypress now choose John Mark or perhaps witnessing to his family on Cypress over his long-time disciple and friend Saul of Tarsus?

    (‘How dare he,’ we mistakenly think while not considering roles best-known to the Holy Spirit.)

    We all question former choices of a friend when something goes amiss in the relationship don’t we? ESPECIALLY when something does NOT go according to plan.

    Yet the Apostle knew his Scripture well:

    And though a man might prevail against one who is alone, two will withstand him—a threefold cord is not quickly broken.

    Ecclesiastes 4:12 ESV

    SO did Paul ask himself,

    ‘Might I need more than one friend to walk alongside and encourage me on my next journey life?’

    Reflections on Friendship

    ‘What ever happened to ___?’

    Not that you want to hear any stories of my missing friends, but this lament of mine for Paul’s loss of the companionship of Barnabas leads me to share such common wonderings. Perhaps my reflections could help us answer unasked questions of our own hearts about the roles of Very Important People in our lives.

    SO allow me to answer my own opening QUESTIONS.

    1. How many friends have you had in this brief journey of your life?
    2. Who are the first friends YOU remember?
    3. Where are they NOW?
    I would love to hear about YOUR friends in a COMMENT at the end of this post.
 
Reminder that no PRIVATE comment will be posted publically.
I may repost your PUBLIC comment as 'anonymous' if you include any identifiable information along with your COMMENT about your friend, mentor or anything else. - RH
    1. I thank God for more than a handful of close personal relationships over many years with several who at one time I cherished as a close friend, a near brother or a beloved sister.
    2. Several I first counted as a friend were classmates in school. Others in college. And still other first encounters of a best friend in a new workplace, local neighborhood or a new church. (I have recalled some recently: some in quiet times, others on a visit home with frequent memories recalled at a wedding or funeral.)
      • 5 friends who God brought to encourage me include:
        • a family friend from our church who mostly journeyed with me from elementary school through high school in the same class
        • a boy who moved to our school and became my best friend as we participated in the same things – in and after school, school and community groups, memorable journeys with other friends in the formative years of our early lives.
        • a mutual new friend who moved into our town whose affable intellect intrigued us
        • another young man whose seat landed alphabetically near mine and whose humor and wit brought joy to my heart. (I later asked this best friend to be the best man at our wedding.)
        • a mentor – actually several of a group of older friends in high school connected by mutual activities and interests who were close and valued friends of my earliest journeys toward commencement.
    3. Mostly, I have lost track of these friends, some with whom I hope to renew an even more glorious friendship in our eternal time together with the risen Christ Jesus. Now most are retired, a few working in places far distant from my everyday mortal life, some I have not and will never see again and others perhaps I might briefly touch before the inevitable failing of the moral flesh.
      • I might add that the mentor-friend who gave me the Friendship book married another friend of this mentor group and another played ‘taps’ a few years back at my father’s funeral.

      Paul’s friends and Mentors

      What was it about the friendship of Barnabas and Paul breaking up that we find somewhat disturbing?

      I miss many friends whose paths have parted from my own journey in life.

      Certainly as I miss my grade school, high school and college friends of so many years ago, Paul will miss his friend, mentor and fellow apostle Barnabas.

      In fact, Paul has had close friends before including teachers such as Gamaliel and Ananias, called by Christ to lead the blind Saul persecutor of disciples to apostles and disciples of Jesus in Damascus, Antioch and Jerusalem.

      Gamaliel and Ananias had more importantly been mentors to Saul of Tarsus, but Paul is about to become a friend and mentor to many new disciples of The Way of Jesus Christ.

      Will Silas become an equal friend to Paul, even as Barnabas had proven to be over the past few years?

      Jesus’ friends, followers and family

      We do well to consider the preciousness of every friendship, relationship and familial connection to others even as the Lord Jesus gives clear instructions to His friends and disciples, the Apostles, His earthly family and any heart yearning for the love of God.

      Gospel of Luke

      5:10b-11 And Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching men.” And when they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed him.

      8:20-21 And he was told, “Your mother and your brothers are standing outside, desiring to see you.” But he answered them, “My mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and do it.”

      No special place for family, even His mother Mary or half-brothers James and Jude.

      9 And he called the twelve together and gave them power and authority over all demons and to cure diseases, 2 and he sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal.. 6 And they departed and went through the villages, preaching the gospel and healing everywhere.

      Jesus is a mentor to his apostles, yet more than that – with the authority of God their Teacher sends them out to begin the healing of sin.

      Later Jesus, their Teacher, will warn his Disciples of the rejection they too will suffer.

      Their friend and Master is about to be delivered up as a Sacrifice on a Cross.

      21:16 You will be delivered up even by parents and brothers and relatives and friends, and some of you they will put to death.

      QUESTIONS for each of us to ask.

      Who is an apostle, a disciple, a brother, a mentor, a friend?

      .. he called his disciples and chose from them twelve, whom he named apostles:

      Luke 6:13b ESV

      A disciple is not above his teacher, but everyone when he is fully trained will be like his teacher.

      Gospel of Luke 40 ESV – μαθητής – disciple or pupil; διδάσκαλος – a teacher

      Acts of friends & apostles of Jesus

      Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you.

      No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.

      Gospel of John 15:13-15 ESV
      Friend, how will you ACT when a brother in Christ asks you to Talk of JESUS?

Won't you comment about your friends? SHARE the Gospel with a friend by quoting my encouragement of friendship with you. Who is your friend who needs some Good News?

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