Talk of JESUS . com

Tag: messiah

12 Men Texting as their Messiah approaches – Part 1
If you could TEXT 12 men or women about Jesus Christ, would you? Do you SHARE the Good News of JESUS with a ‘christian’ friend or 12 men you know or dozens of men and women who have questions about the Gospel?

Worship of the Son of God!

You likely know the narratives of 21st century holidays such as Palm Sunday, Easter or even Passover [Pesach – פסח (in Hebrew)] all too well – perhaps too well to worship the Lord God in the context of a first century Jerusalem.

A dear Jewish friend of ours, one of many since my wife is a Messianic Jew, commented just last week on the troubling events of these last days. He said something to the effect that it looks like it could be getting close to the time of the return of the Messiah.

Perhaps our Jewish friend is right. Indeed, if you examine the context of the first coming of the Messiah Jesus you will see promise after His bodily resurrection of a return once more.

Yet I ask you to consider in my agreement with our Jewish friend (a social jew just like many “christians” have become social christians) a deeper look into Scripture – Jewish Scripture. What you read here I offer based on what Christians call, the “Old Testament” or the ‘former Covenant.’

The Former Covenant – בְּרִית

How many Christians OR Jews truly value the solemn witness of Covenant with the LORD our God?

Sadly, too few — and the LORD in these last days seems all-but forgotten in the hearts and lives of those ‘religious’ who claim covenant with the Lord our God. I trust that by your own study of my exposition of prophecy of the Messiah and especially all other Scripture (yes, christian, including the Old Covenant) you seek cleansing and redemption for your sins.

Although ancient writings of the Talmud & Mishna, (in various translations), the Apocrypha (with 14 books Jewish in origin) and other extra-Biblical teaching may be enlightening, these do not stand up to Scripture alone, the inspired word of the Lord God.

We might easily veer off course, sidetracked from the Lord’s application of Scripture in our own lives by even unintentional misdirection and misinterpretation by teachers of the past.

In this brief look of connection between the Old Covenant and New we will look back to two brief passages from three chapters of Daniel.

The New Covenant

Our purpose here is focused only on the Sacrifice of the Son of Man – the Messiah of Israel – and not specifically the broken covenant compared to a new and better covenant. If the Spirit of the Lord draws you to further study the following translations of the book of Hebrews may help.

Hebrews 9:
```
Please note that you may LISTEN to three of these translations as well as READ it in Hebrew.
```
Daniel 9:

… I, Daniel, observed in the books the number of the years which was revealed as the word of the LORD to Jeremiah the prophet for the completion of the desolations of Jerusalem, namely, seventy years.

24 …
- to finish the transgression,
- to make an end of sin,
- to make atonement for iniquity,
- to bring in everlasting righteousness,
- to seal up vision and prophecy
- and to anoint the most holy place.
What mere mortal, what man even a priest of the Lord can do this with permanence?

Only the Son of Man, the Holy One of Israel – the One Messiah Jesus!

25 Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince…

You with ears to hear, understand: Jerusalem does not surpass the Messiah the Prince of God our Father in importance. For by His Sacrifice worship of the LORD is sanctified and perfected in Jesus the Son of Man and Only Son of God.

… It will be rebuilt with a plaza and a moat,
but in difficult times.
26 After those sixty-two weeks
the Anointed One will be cut off
and will have nothing.
The people of the coming ruler
will destroy the city and the sanctuary…

Daniel 10: Vision of a Glorious One

Better-learned men than me have studied Daniel’s vision of the Messiah and understood more, but even the Prophet Daniel confessed that he did not understand its full meaning.

I will add one additional look at Daniel after deferring to Sir Isaac Newton.

On the Bible:

“I have a fundamental belief in the Bible as the Word of God, written by men who were inspired. I study the Bible daily.”

On atheism:
“Atheism is so senseless.

When I look at the solar system. I see the earth at the right distance from the sun to receive the proper amounts of heat and light. This did not happen by chance.”
TEXT COMMENTARIES :: SIR ISAAC NEWTON – BluedLetterBible.org

If you count in Judaic years commencing in autumn, and date the reckoning from the first autumn after Ezra’s coming to Jerusalem, when he put the King’s decree in execution; the death of Christ will fall on the year of the Julian Period 4747, Anno Domini 34; and the weeks will be Judaic weeks, ending with sabbatical years; and this I take to be the truth…

Daniel 12:

Many of those who sleep in the dust of the ground will awake, these to everlasting life, but the others to disgrace and everlasting contempt.
Daniel 12:2 NASB

7 Then I heard the man dressed in linen, who was above the water of the river. He raised both his hands toward heaven and swore by him who lives eternally that it would be for a time, times, and half a time.

When the power of the holy people is shattered, all these things will be completed.

8 I heard but did not understand…

Whether texting 12 men and women OR simply sharing the Gospel in person you can bet that THEY do not understand either. Why not start your Christian Social Witness here?

Comment on Scripture – Share the Gospel
```
To be continued...
```
April 2, 2020
Lazarus – the Dead Man came out!
Witness of a Dead Man

What must it be like to be dead? (Have you ever thought about it?)

You get sick and perhaps pain increases. Your loved ones begin to look at you in a different way than when you participated in life with them.

Although John’s Good News focuses on Jesus, dear friend of Lazarus (who just happens to be the Messiah), the mourners present for this funeral now would see Lazarus in a new light. He becomes a dead man walking out of his own grave!

The Messiah Jesus, after having been to Jerusalem for a festival (and likely Bethany) receives a message from Mary and Martha asking for help. Jesus continues His mission while returning to Bethany, arriving four days after Lazarus’ death. The Messiah mourns publically the death of His friend.

But then a turn of events for the dead man unexpected by the mourners of Lazarus.

John 11:

38 Then Jesus, again groaning in Himself, came to the tomb.

It was a cave, and a stone lay against it.

Jesus said, “Take away the stone.”

One does not go into the place of the dead to pray for their soul. And what else can a mere man do to help one that has died?

Martha, the sister of him who was dead, said to Him, “Lord, by this time there is a stench, for he has been dead four days.”

40 Jesus said to her, “Did I not say to you that if you would believe you would see the glory of God?”

This goes back to their conversation about death and resurrection when Martha first spoke with Jesus as He and the Apostles approached Bethany.

“If only you had been here, Lord,” said Martha, “my brother would never have died… “Your brother will rise again,” Jesus replied to her.
John 11:21-23 excerpt PHILLIPS

41 So they removed the stone.

Witness of a prayer

Then Jesus raised His eyes, and said,

“Father, I thank You that You have heard Me.

I knew that You always hear Me;

but because of the people standing around I said it,

so that they may believe that You sent Me.”

Does God hear you?

If the Lord God hears you, then your public witness to the world around you had best be true.

43 After Yeshua had said this, he shouted as loudly as he could,

“Lazarus, come out!”

The Messiah Jesus (Yeshua) has just shouted into an open tomb to a dead man!

Does God the Father, Whom Jesus thanked for hearing Him, hear the Lord Jesus’ loud cry to Lazarus? Can a man dead for four days hear the loudest shout of earth or heaven?

Resurrection of a dead friend

“Lazarus, come forth.”

44 The man who had died came forth…

… bound hand and foot with wrappings, and his face was wrapped around with a cloth.

A dead man walking. This very sight of Lazarus bound in the wrappings of death must have terrified those present!

These sort of things do not happen.

“Now unbind him,” Jesus told them, “and let him go home.”

Some brave soul complied with the command of their Lord and Lazarus, a man dead in the grave, would walk weakly in amazement to the door of his own home, his sisters Martha and Mary at his side.

The Messiah Jesus, his friend, would accompany the one He had just saved from a death already experienced.

… for an hour is coming, in which all who are in the tombs will hear His voice, and will come forth;
those who did the good deeds to a resurrection of life,
those who committed the evil deeds to a resurrection of judgment.
John 5:28b-29 NASB– the words of the Messiah Jesus
```
You with ears to hear, 
hear the voice of Jesus 
calling out to your dead soul...

To be continued...
```
March 30, 2020
Lazarus – Death and Resurrection
```
Death and Resurrection
 Hosea 13:4 I have been the Lord your God
 ever since the land of Egypt;
 you know no God but me,
 and no Savior exists besides me.
 5 I knew you in the wilderness,
 in the land of drought.
```
“Moses didn’t give you bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. God’s bread is the man who comes from heaven and gives life to the world.”
Yeshua told them, “I am the bread of life…
John 6:32b,34a NOG

The Death and Resurrection of Lazarus

John has already introduced us to those Jesus loves. Lazarus – HELP from the grave.

Now after a considerable walk from somewhere beyond Judea, Jesus arrives in Bethany.

Jesus walks into a scene of death visited by mourners who loved Lazarus but also religious officials from Jerusalem who sought to accuse their Messiah of blasphemy for previous signs on the Sabbath.

As reminder of both heavy hearts and hard hearts in the crowds:

John 6:

30 So they said to him, ‘What sign are you going to give us then, so that we may see it and believe you? What work are you performing?

… 40 My Father wants all those who see the Son and believe in him to have eternal life. He wants me to bring them back to life on the last day.”

John 11

17 When Jesus arrived, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days. Bethany was near Jerusalem (less than two miles away).

He arrives at the funeral of Lazarus. No talk of death and resurrection here, just wailing and mourning his loss.

19 Many Jews had come to Martha and Mary to comfort them about their brother. When Martha heard that Yeshua was coming, she went to meet him.

“Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask him.”

Lord God

Ἰησοῦν κύριε – Iēsous kyrios – Jesus Lord

Martha addresses their Messiah and friend.

“I know that God, theos in greek referring to any gods, but for Jews and followers of Christ (a Greek word for Messiah), Martha’s confidence in God includes a mysterious relationship between this Son of Man and the HOLY SPIRIT of the LORD God!

“God with” – ὁ – ho – with the Holy Spirit, the very breath of life which hovered over creation.
```
Gen 1:2
וְהָאָרֶץ הָיְתָה תֹהוּ וָבֹהוּ וְחֹשֶׁךְ עַל־פְּנֵי תְהֹום וְרוּחַ אֱלֹהִים מְרַחֶפֶת עַל־פְּנֵי הַמָּֽיִם׃
```
“Who are you with,” we would ask?

Jesus, God with us, frequently answered religious critics with personally relational replies like,

“God is spirit, and those G3588 who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”

Now, out of compassion for a deceased friend and love for the family of Lazarus, the Messiah Jesus returns to Judea with nothing more to prove. (For the Lord had already raised others from death and healed some near to death of likely life-ending ailments to a cleansing of the flesh with life!)

Death and Resurrection

Death and resurrection always have connection. Will you rise again from the grave?

For Jesus’ friend Lazarus, temporary restoration of health and life in his case. Yet all understand judgment by the Lord God requires a raising of the spirit of your soul to life.

After flesh fails and bones decay to dust and ashes will the Lord also breathe life into a new body of each soul?

“..even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask him.”

23 Yeshua told Martha, “Your brother will come back to life.”

24 Martha answered Yeshua, “I know that he’ll come back to life on the last day, when everyone will come back to life.”

25 Yeshua said to her,

“I am the one who brings people back to life, and I am life itself. Those who believe in me will live even if they die. Everyone who lives and believes in me will never die.

The Messiah of God!

Do you believe that?”

Pause to think:

“I am life itself!” Those who believe in Jesus ( יְהוֹשׁוּעַ ) will live even though we die. The Lord God IS our Salvation!

27 Martha said to him, “Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one who was expected to come into the world.”

She has said this – that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God – with witnesses surrounding her home — Jews who believe and Jews looking for excuse to kill Jesus.

… she went away and called Mary her sister, saying secretly,

“The Teacher is here and is calling for you.”

When Mary heard this she sprang to her feet and went to him.

30 (Yeshua had not yet come into the village but was still where Martha had met him.) The Jews who were comforting Mary in the house saw her get up quickly and leave. So they followed her…

The Messiah approaching death and resurrection

Compelling drama! – with much expectation.

Those who loved this family and mourned the loss of Lazarus would not have expected Mary’s sudden joy. Rather, they followed her to continue their expected public mouring for the death of a fellow Jew.

Imagine their surprise at the scene about to unfold.

33 When Yeshua saw her crying, and the Jews who were crying with her, he was deeply moved and troubled.

34 So Yeshua asked, “Where did you put Lazarus?”

They answered him, “Lord, come and see.”

35 Yeshua cried.

36 The Jews said, “See how much Yeshua loved him.”

An appropriate witness of the true personal compassion of the Lord Jesus. Yet listen to the dissent of hardened hearts.

37 But some of the Jews asked, “Couldn’t this man who gave a blind man sight keep Lazarus from dying?”

Jesus hears our complaints and the Messiah hears our kind words. All those comments of the crowds did not matter to the Son of Man sent to this place to weep – sent here to suffer for our sins.

38 Deeply moved again, Yeshua went to the tomb.

It was a cave with a stone covering the entrance.

39 Yeshua said, “Take the stone away.”
```
To be continued...
```
March 28, 2020