Tag: mark

  • Prophesying the unseen future

    Prophesying the unseen future

    Prophets as light 
2 Peter 1:19
    Prophets predicted the Messiah of God, Christ Jesus

    Acts of the Apostles 21:

    Dr. Luke continues his account of their return to Jerusalem and Paul's stay with Philip the Evangelist in Caesarea.

    Now this man had four virgin daughters who prophesied.

    And as we were staying there for some days, a prophet named Agabus came down from Judea.

    And coming to us, he took Paul’s belt and bound his own feet and hands, and said, “This is what the Holy Spirit says: 

    Now some of you are NOT going to believe this

    Who is the true prophet of the LORD God? The one who speaks and reveals truth in fear of God to speak for Him.

    BEFORE we hear 'what the Holy Spirit says' to the Apostle Paul through Agabus, LET'S take a quick look ahead at PROPHESY, Prophets and Prophetesses and SEE if YOU even believe in such predictions. 

    προφητεύω – Strong’s G4395 – Prophesy

    to prophesy, to be a prophet, speak forth by divine inspirations, to predict

    Luke has already used this same word describing a scene back in Ephesus.

    And when they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.

    And when Paul had laid his hands upon them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they began speaking with tongues and prophesying.

    Now there were in all about twelve men.

    Acts of the Apostles 19:5-7 LSB

    Here Luke reveals that Philip, one of the seven deacons who had received the Holy Spirit at Pentecost and was later sent out with the Apostles’ teaching, had four daughters known as prophetesses.

    In fact, prophesy is not so much given as positive prediction but more frequently as WARNING of some unseen future event.

    And when He had entered Jerusalem, all the city was stirred, saying, “Who is this?”

    And the crowds were saying, “This is the prophet Jesus, from Nazareth in Galilee.”

    Gospel of Matthew 21:10-11 LSB

    The Greek New Testament word used here for prophet is prophētēs.

    • in Greek writings, an interpreter of oracles or of other hidden things
    • one who, moved by the Spirit of God and hence his organ or spokesman, solemnly declares to men what he has received by inspiration, especially concerning future events, and in particular such as relate to the cause and kingdom of God and to human salvation

    προφήτης – Strong’s G4396 – prophētēs

    JESUS had been received as a PROPHET and King by the Jews. It was Christ as Priest and SACRIFICE for our sins they rejected.

    Roger@Talkofjesus.com

    ARE PROPHETS TRUE? CAN THEIR PROPHESY PREDICT?

    Now the men who were holding Jesus in custody were mocking Him while they beat Him, and they blindfolded Him and were asking Him, saying,

    “Prophesy, who is the one who hit You?”

    And they were saying many other things against Him, blaspheming.

    Gospel of Luke 22:63-65 LSB – Prophesy g4395 prophēteuō

    Prophesy G4395 to us, O Christ; who is the one who hit You?”

    Gospel of Matthew 26:68

    And some began to spit at Him, and to blindfold Him, and to beat Him with their fists, and to say to Him, “Prophesy G4395!” And the officers received Him with slaps in the face.

    Gospel of Mark 14:65 LSB
    • Jesus the King is opposed by the Herod’s.
    • Jesus the Prophet is opposed by those adorned in false robes of righteousness.
    • And Jesus the Priest is opposed by the false intercessors claiming coins of indulgence before altars of idolatry.

    And He said to them, “Rightly did Isaiah prophesy G4395 of you hypocrites, as it is written:

    ‘THIS PEOPLE HONORS ME WITH THEIR LIPS,

    BUT THEIR HEART IS FAR AWAY FROM ME.

    Gospel of Mark 7:6 LSB

    THE APOSTLE PAUL PREACHES CHRIST CRUCIFIED AND RISEN!


    ‘..Bind the man who owns this belt..’

    Once again, true prophesy through the Holy Spirit provides a vision of further suffering awaiting the Apostle who had been blind even as Philip had received the Holy Spirit years before.

    a prophet named Agabus came down from Judea

    “The Holy Spirit says,
    ‘In this way the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem will bind the owner of this belt and will hand him over to the Gentiles.’”

    Act of the Apostles 21:11b – NIV
    Luke, who of course is traveling with Paul by now records an account of his own reaction:

    When we heard this, we and the local believers all begged Paul not to go on to Jerusalem.

    But he said, “Why all this weeping? You are breaking my heart!

    I am ready not only to be jailed at Jerusalem but even to die for the sake of the Lord Jesus.”

    Acts 21:12-13 NLT

    hyper ho onoma ho kyrios iēsous

    The King James Version is even a bit more pointed in its rendering from the Greek:

    for I am ready not to be bound only, but also to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.

    Acts 21:13b King James Version

    YES, these early apostles and many disciples of Christ Jesus proclaimed their faith in ‘the Name of the Lord Jesuskyrios iēsous.

    This beloved apostle to the Gentiles, as one drawn later to his faith had asked the risen Christ on a road to Damascus,

    “Who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest: [Acts 9:5 excerpt KJV}

    As all disciples traveling with Paul knew, he had once sought the deaths of many brothers and had been present at the execution of Philip’s fellow deacon and friend, Stephen.

    the acts of Saul begin as witness of the stoning of Stephen in Jerusalem .. and a young man Saul of Tarsus held the cloaks of the men who stoned him

    And they stoned Stephen,

    calling upon God, and saying,

    Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.

    Acts 7:59 KJV


    NOW their beloved apostle to the gentiles pleads with them that he too may accept Stephen’s fate ‘in the name of the Lord Jesus.’


    14 When he would not be dissuaded,

    we gave up and said, “The Lord’s will be done.”

    After this, we started on our way up to Jerusalem.

    Some of the disciples from Caesarea accompanied us and brought us to the home of Mnason, where we were to stay. He was a man from Cyprus and one of the early disciples.

    And when we were come to Jerusalem, the brethren received us gladly.

    Acts of the Apostles 21:17 KJV

    google earth map of third missionary journey of Paul - TalkofJESUS.com
    A.D. 52-57

    Acts of the Apostles – To Be Continued… – in Jerusalem

  • Thanks-taking feasts of C.E. humankind

    Thanks-taking feasts of C.E. humankind

    A BIG meal of little thanks in a long season of thanklessness.

    Giving Thanks to the LORD

    1 Chronicles 16: KJV – v.34

    16:34 הוֹדוּ לַיהוָה

    We know the concept well — yāḏâ Yᵊhōvâ, from the Hebrew. This instance from a Psalm of David given to the priest for worship before the Ark of the Covenant. It is sometimes translated as ‘confess‘ (rather than ‘thank‘) the LORD.

    We also find Biblical lessons of thanks where God is involved but the ‘thanks‘ points to another or some provision by God.


    The New English Translation uses a negative application of thanks referring to original sin.

    But to Adam he said, “Because you obeyed your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat from it,’ cursed is the ground thanks to you; in painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life.

    Genesis 3:17 NET
    What has fallen away from the grace of God on YOUR account?

    ‘When He had given thanks..’

    Our New Testament images of ‘thanks-giving’ mostly recall meals and feasts.

    Mark 8:6 KJV

    Some will recognize the Greek root from which we derive this:

    εὐχαριστέω – eucharisteō

    from G2170; to be grateful, i.e. (actively) to express gratitude (towards); specially, to say grace at a meal:

    Gospel of Luke 17:19-20 KJV
    Don't miss that feasts of the Lord God (by various names and in every season) ought to glorify God as WE give thanks for His provision, salvation and mercy.

    Recent Thanksgivings of the Common Era

    Scrooge - A Christmas Carol

    Any who have READ my Thanks-giving posts of previous years may observe that occasionally I am haunted by ghosts of holidays past. Indeed most recently I have chosen to neglect Thanksgiving more than Christmas.

    November 26, 2020 of the Common Era
    November 17, 2017 of the Common Era
    the Grinch who first stole then celebrated the 'holidays'

    Dr. Seuss
    Scrooge, Santa & the Grinch in days of sadness

    Thanksgiving toast by the turkey

    “Watch for the coming ‘blitzchris’ of ads and marketing this week leading with holiday headlines of Thanksgiving and Christmas. From television to social media, mega-marketing messages will be unavoidable and ruthlessly relentless.

    Thanksgiving turkey telling off Santa to wait till December

    Thanks-taking

    It all started when the ‘back to school’ specials came off the shelf.

    Guess who I found on my own site when I searched for Santa?

    Thanks-giving in the days of our Lord by the ghosts of our Christmases past were long-ago lured into hurried holidays of Thanks-TAKING easily consumed in a ‘joy OF the world.’


    Taking it all in with OUR own spin

    Christ Jesus (of the former years of our Lord) after all, has no place at the table of sinners here briefly today to give thanks for all of our taking. AND

    Every American at the table this Thanksgiving must seek freedom FROM religion (rather than becoming a Pilgrim fleeing persecution for the faith of our forefathers).

    WE are no Dickens or Spurgeon of the A.D. 19th century observing the hopeless tide of poor children begging blessing just beyond the churches of London.

    WE are no A.D. 18th c. Washington (an Anglican), Adams (a Congregationalist), Witherspoon (a Presbyterian signer of the Declaration of Independence) or Jonathon Edwards, President of the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University) who famously preached “Sinners in the hands of an angry God.”

    Source above: The Founding Fathers, Deism, and Christianity

    SINNERS IN THE HANDS
    OF AN ANGRY GOD
    “Their foot shall slide in due time” (Deut. xxxii. 35)


    Shall WE thank God for our Thanksgiving?

    Common Era culture including many 'christians' have eliminated our previous acknowledgement of the Lord Jesus Christ as the center-line of our world's history. 
    
    Before Christ NOW becomes B.C.E. (meaning INSTEAD of Christ). 
    
    Before Thanksgiving became 'Thanks-taking' Before Christmas 
    (Make that: Before the holiday crowds).
    
    Yet B.C.E. perhaps most appropriately refers to the centuries of these last days when Christians could thank God at Thanksgiving, that is:
    + IN THE YEAR OF OUR LORD = centuries A.D. 1- A.D. 20.

    A previous Thanksgiving

    You decide from the link above or brief excerpts below.
    • Who does the heathen, the unbeliever, thank?
      • Do you thank yourself for what you have given yourself this past year… for your successes in this brief moment of your mortal time in human flesh? … Why would you have gratitude to any, if you have not gratitude to God?
    • 2 Samuel 22
      • Is there any question who David is thanking for his life – for his deliverance from Saul? David thanks God. David praises the Lord for saving him. David takes refuge in God. Do you?

    “We give You thanks, O Lord God Almighty,
    The One who is and who was and who is to come,
    Because You have taken Your great power and reigned.

    from the Revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ to the Apostle John 11:17 NKJV

    Today, on this Thanks-giving of the Common Era, I praise our Lord God; the Father, Son and Holy Sprit Who IS, and Was and Will BE worthy of our continual THANKS and praise.

    And I thank YOU, dear reader and student of Scripture, for sharing your thanks with others of this Common Era in these Thanks-taking last days of 2023.

    Roger

    Comment on Scripture + Share the Gospel

  • Acts 14 Pursued through Lycaonia

    Acts 14 Pursued through Lycaonia

    Fleeing Persecution

    After having fled Pisidian Antioch, Roman capital of the Galatian district of Lycaonia, Barnabas and Paul must again go into hiding as they escape persecution in Iconium.

    Luke’s detailed account of Paul’s first missionary journey in Acts 14 shows us what will frequently take place in many cities throughout the world. His historic account of the Apostles provides background for understanding of the intense hatred of Jesus Christ by many unbelievers.

    Iconium lies to east of Lake Egirdir on a plain bordered by the Taurus Mountains

    Acts 14: Fleeing Iconium

    5 And when an attempt was made by both the Gentiles and the Jews with their rulers to mistreat and to stone them, they became aware of it and fled to the cities of Lycaonia, Lystra and Derbe, and the surrounding region; and there they continued to proclaim the gospel.

    Lycaonia and the surrounding region

    route through Lycaonia
    A 21st c. satellite view of the plain east of the Taurus mountains.
    (A large man-made lake later provided irrigation to this arid region but would have been a river in earlier centuries.)

    Λυκαονία – Lycaonia

    Luke mentions that they fled to the cities of Lycaonia.. and the surrounding region. Although Lycaonia was also a city in the southern region of this district set on a plain near the Taurus Mountains, he names the next two cities where they will preach the gospel in addition to other more remote towns of Lycaonia.

    Lycaonia = "wolf land"
    
    a region in Asia Minor, situated between Pisidia, Cilicia, Cappadocia, Galatia and Phrygia, whose chief towns were Derbe, Lystra and Iconium
    metaph. of cruel, greedy, rapacious, destructive men 
    - Source: BlueLetterBible.org.

    Barnabas and Paul will eventually enter Lystra where Luke records yet another miracle among the gentiles.

    περίχωρος – períchōros

    • signifies “country round about,” Luk 8:37; “country about,” Luk 3:3, AV (RV, “region round about”)

    NOTE Luke’s Gospel mention of the Lord Jesus using this same reference also points to rejection of the Gospel.

    And all the people of the country G4066 of the Gerasenes 

    and G4066 the G4066 surrounding G4066 district G4066 asked Him [Jesus] to leave them, for they were gripped with great fear. And He got into a boat and returned.

    Gospel of Luke 8:37 LSB – Strong’s G4066 – perichōros

    Rejection of the Gospel of Jesus Christ

    “THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD IS UPON ME,

    BECAUSE HE ANOINTED ME TO PREACH THE GOSPEL TO THE POOR.

    HE HAS SENT ME TO PROCLAIM RELEASE TO THE CAPTIVES,

    AND RECOVERY OF SIGHT TO THE BLIND,

    TO SET FREE THOSE WHO ARE OPPRESSED,

    TO PROCLAIM THE FAVORABLE YEAR OF THE LORD.”

    Gospel of Luke 4:18-19a - Jesus Christ quoting the prophet Isaiah 61
    “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your [ears].” - The words of Jesus from Luke 4:21
    

    Acts of the Apostles

    And the word of the Lord was published throughout all the region.

    But the Jews stirred up the devout and honourable women, and the chief men of the city, and raised persecution against Paul and Barnabas, and expelled them out of their coasts.

    ACTS of the Apostles in Pisidian Antioch 13:49-50 KJV

    But they shook off the dust of their feet against them, and came unto Iconium.

    Acts of the Apostles 13:51 King James Version

    And whosoever shall not receive you, nor hear you, when ye depart thence, shake off G1621 the dust under your feet for a testimony against them. Verily I say unto you, It shall be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrha in the day of judgment, than for that city. – Gospel of Mark 6:11 KJV


    And it came to pass in Iconium..

    ACTS 14:3-7 KJV

    Long time therefore abode they speaking boldly in the Lord, which gave testimony unto the word of his grace, and granted signs and wonders to be done by their hands.

    But the multitude of the city was divided: and part held with the Jews, and part with the apostles. And when there was an assault made both of the Gentiles, and also of the Jews with their rulers, to use them despitefully, and to stone them,

    They were ware of it, and fled unto Lystra and Derbe, cities of Lycaonia, and unto the region that lieth round about:

    And there they preached the gospel.

    Acts 14:7 KJV

    “The one who listens to you listens to Me,

    and the one who rejects you rejects Me.

    And he who rejects Me rejects the One who sent Me.”

    Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ – Luke 10:16 LSB

    To be continued…

    NEXT: Lystra

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