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Tag: peter

Defending GOD!
Apologetics

You may know of a Christian ministry or witness whose stated purpose is to defend God.

RZIM.org and others focus on apologetics witness Jesus Christ to unsaved souls, comparing Christianity to other religions — even to atheism. Some have come to Christ through these ministries by learning the logic and love of the Lord God calling sinners to Christ.

Yet think of the irony of it:

If any have NO NEED of defense, it would be ALMIGHTY GOD.

“I and the Father are one.”
Christ Jesus
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(Apologetics is not really defending God, 
but answering those who question God - unbelievers
and those who refuse God's love - apostates.) 
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Defending God and Christ Jesus to unbelievers is not my purpose, which is to grow your faith IF you are a Christian follower of the Lord.

As I have stated recently, talkofJesus.com is not focused on unbelievers, but on followers of Christ who want to talk of Jesus in the context of scripture.

Continuing in the Gospel of John we move on from the betrayal of Jesus by Judas to the defense of Jesus by Peter in the Garden of Gethsemane.

John 18:

8 Jesus answered, “I told you that I am He; so if you seek Me, let these go their way,” …

10 Simon Peter then, having a sword, drew it and struck the high priest’s slave, and cut off his right ear; and the slave’s name was Malchus.

11 So Jesus said to Peter, “Put the sword into the sheath; the cup which the Father has given Me, shall I not drink it?”

Who is Malchus?

Malchus is δοῦλος doulos of the High Priest, perhaps better translated in the KJV and other translations as ‘servant.’

In fact, Judas had left the upper room in Jerusalem to betray Jesus to the ruling council headed by the High Priest Caiaphas.

The chief priests and the whole Sanhedrin were looking for testimony against Jesus to put him to death, but they could not find any.
Mark 14:55 CSB – of the Sanhedrin, religious rulers of Jerusalem

Malchus’ name means ‘king,’ from a Hebrew origin pointing to the tribe of Benjamin. (The priests of course were Levites as prescribed by Law.)

How ironic that Peter should defend Jesus, King of the Jews, by lopping off the ear of this man Malchus, whose name meant king.

More about Malchus

Malchus would have been ordered to lead these armed police officers of the Sanhedrin, guided by Judas, to bring this popular Messiah back to them for trial.

John has already told us:

But one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, “You know nothing at all, nor do you take into account that it is expedient for you that one man die for the people, and that the whole nation not perish.”
John 11:49-50 NASB –

Malchus would have been a personal servant to Caiaphas, an assistant with some authority assumed by his role in serving the High Priest. The Temple police held similar authority. And add to that a few Roman soldiers in the entourage lead by Malchus whose role was to see that the Jews did not get out of hand in this area governed by Pilate.

Judas is, no doubt, among the men sent to bring Jesus to the justice of the Sanhedrin, but Malchus, servant of the High Priest is the man leading them into Gethsemane under the cover of night.

Luke’s account

Of course John, Matthew and Peter would have been among the awakened Apostles present in Gethsemane. Peter, who would later lead the church until his own crucifixion, responded by cutting off Malchus’ ear just after Judas’ kiss of betrayal of Jesus.

Brash as always, Peter will defend the Lord – an ironic gesture defending the One who could instantly have angels present to ‘smite’ the lot of them – IF, that is, defeating men of dust was Jesus’ will.

Of course, it wasn’t.

Luke 22: KJV

And while he yet spake, behold a multitude, and he that was called Judas, one of the twelve, went before them, and drew near unto Jesus to kiss him.

But Jesus said unto him,

Judas, betrayest thou the Son of man with a kiss?

When they which were about him saw what would follow, they said unto him,

(The Eleven have now drawn near to Jesus…)

Lord, shall we smite with the sword?

And one of them smote the servant of the high priest, and cut off his right ear.

Details of witness from John:
- As soon then as he [Jesus] had said unto them, I am he, they went backward, and fell to the ground. John 18:6
- A second time Jesus answered them (probably their leader): I have told you that I am he: if therefore ye seek me, let these go their way John 18:8
- Simon Peter drew the sword… John 18:10 & 11
- The name of the High Priest’s slave (servant) is Malchus. John 18:10
Luke’s detail of a miracle

But Jesus answered and said, “Permit even this.”
And He [Christ Jesus]
touched his {Malchus’} ear
and healed him {the servant of Caiaphas, High Priest of the Jews}.
Luke 22:51 NKJV

Jesus heals the ear struck by Peter’s sword! His enemy, head of an armed force sent by the Jews to apprehend their Messiah Jesus to be tried and convicted covertly under the cover of night. The Lord just betrayed by one of His Disciples shows mercy to the men Judas led to apprehend Him.

Defending Jesus

John is about to tell us more of the saga of Peter on this night in which our Lord was betrayed. In fact, as you know, away from Jesus Peter could no longer defend Jesus even by admitting to be a follower.

If that how it is for you, beloved believer in Christ Jesus?
- How do you defend Jesus when confronted by the multitudes?
- Is your defense of God an aggressive agenda of man, a political position of proving that Jesus wants what you do?
  - (For that was what Judas expected of his King Jesus.)
- Do you praise the Lord in the church building, yet deny your God on trial in the rise and fall of blame by the darkness of this world’s accusations?
  - Even Peter struggled with that, dear friend, but the risen Lord Jesus restored Him again and again.
How ironic that we would defend the LORD God, that we want to defend Christ Jesus who came into the world to save us.

In these last days, which began under the darkness of a night in Gethsemane, God has defeated sin and death for us

— by the grace of the Lord’s love

for those He has chosen.

We believe in the One Son the Father sent to suffer for our sins, the Messiah Jesus.

For Christ Jesus our Lord, we make no apologies to a world without ears to hear the Good News — a world directed by Satan for just a time more.

Jesus IS LORD!
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To be continued...
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September 16, 2020
the son of perdition vs. The Son of Man
“While I was with them, I was keeping them in Your name which You have given Me; and I guarded them and not one of them perished but the son of perdition, so that the Scripture would be fulfilled.
John 17:12 NASB – High Priestly Prayer of Christ Jesus

Judas vs. Jesus

We have entered Gethsemane with Jesus and eleven of the Apostles.
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Jesus – The Last Prayers of Gethsemane
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As Jesus prayed to our Father God they fell asleep.

Just hours before in Jerusalem the Lord had prayed for all of them except Judas.
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Protect them from the evil one
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Jesus had acknowledged in His High Priestly Prayer that Judas, who had left the upper room quickly, was not included in His protection.

John 18: Judas betrays Jesus

2 Now Judas also, who was betraying Him, knew the place, for Jesus had often met there with His disciples.

Judas then, having received the Roman cohort and officers from the chief priests and the Pharisees, came there with lanterns and torches and weapons.

4 So Jesus, knowing all the things that were coming upon Him, went forth and said to them,

“Whom do you seek?”

They answered Him, “Jesus the Nazarene.”

He said to them,

“I am He.”

And Judas also, which betrayed him, stood with them.

6 So when He said to them, “I am He,” they drew back and fell to the ground. Therefore He again asked them,

“Whom do you seek?”

And they said, “Jesus the Nazarene.”

8 Jesus answered, “I told you that I am He; so if you seek Me, let these go their way,” to fulfill the word which He spoke, “Of those whom You have given Me I lost not one.”

Observation by an awakened Apostle John, witness to this sad scene and seeing Jesus’ betrayer leading the lantern-lit faces into Gethsemane:

And Judas also, who was betraying Him, was standing with them.

The Beginning of the End

Now we turn the page to focus on Judas, the son of perdition (a description long forgotten) and how evil enters into those professing Jesus as their Master and Teacher and Lord.

John adds additional detail to the beginning of the dark night, while Matthew and others witness Jesus’ betrayal from their perspectives.
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September 11, 2020
The Tongue is a Fire! – Religion
The Fire of the Tongue, the Rhetoric of Politics and Religion

In our previous look at public controversy in the media we began with the clash of politics, mentioning the trial of Socrates in 399 B.C. Today we begin coverage of the clashes of religion and the church with everyday culture.

For, “THE ONE WHO DESIRES LIFE, TO LOVE AND SEE GOOD DAYS,
MUST KEEP HIS TONGUE FROM EVIL AND HIS LIPS FROM SPEAKING DECEIT.
First Letter of Peter to the Church 3:10 NASB

Without digging a hole into some serious divisions of the church in our brief look at this opening quote of the Apostle Peter to the church, let me just remind us:

Political parties and the church are all gatherings of disagreeable people more or less united in one thing.
Roger Harned – talkofJesus.com

Can you think of an application for followers of Christ in current election rhetoric for the (U.S.) election year to come?

The church (saints or people) of this day and the past are all like you, like me and just like every candidate of every party in every country on earth. We are ALL SINNERS.

Therefore, regardless of our politics of the moment or religion of the past, we all speak and do evil.

The Tongue of the ‘Christian’

But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be guilty before the court; and whoever says to his brother, ‘You good-for-nothing,’ shall be guilty before the supreme court; and whoever says, ‘You fool,’ shall be guilty enough to go into the fiery hell.
Caution of Christ – Matthew 5:22 NASB

Jesus Christ asks the crowds to examine our own hearts. So before we get to the controversy of Christ, let’s work back from Peter’s last point in this one verse [1 Peter 3:10] instructing “Christians.”

Peter asks or suggests to followers of Jesus:
1. If you desire LIFE, what is life?
2. Do you desire LOVE, what kind of love?
3. So you want to SEE GOOD DAYS, what path do you seek?
4. Do you KEEP YOUR TONGUE FROM EVIL?
5. Would others find you guilty of SPEAKING DECEIT because you have fooled yourself?
Do you speak foolishness in angry answers to others – your loved ones, those you work or worship with, a politician inciting opposition?

How can you judge their speech when you do not even judge your own?

The root meaning of deceit here is to decoy. In other words, deceive another by your words. Of course no politician would do that!

But Jesus speaks to those who want to speak truth. When we do not, like the politicians and leaders of cultural religion we also become hypocrites, as are our accusers.

Hypocrites
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Their audience is US.
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ὑποκριτής, ὑποκριτου, ὁ (ὑποκρίνομαι, which see);
1. one who answers, an interpreter (Plato, Lucian).
2. an actor, stage-player (Aristophanes, Xenophon, Plato, Aelian, Herodian).
3. in Biblical Greek, a dissembler, pretender, hypocrite:
Followers of Christ must look in the mirror first.

If you catch yourself speaking deceit you had best shut your mouth and seal your lips. (Nevermind the hypocrisy of your opponent, just find the beam in your own eye and fire of your own tongue.)

The tongue of Evil

The tongue of evil could be our own!

Paul writes to church of the Romans:

as it is written,
“THERE IS NONE RIGHTEOUS, NOT EVEN ONE;
Romans 3:13

He continues in speaking of Jews and Hellenistic culturists (Greeks):

THERE IS NONE WHO DOES GOOD,
THERE IS NOT EVEN ONE.

“THEIR THROAT IS AN OPEN GRAVE,
WITH THEIR TONGUES THEY KEEP DECEIVING,”
“THE POISON OF ASPS IS UNDER THEIR LIPS”;

“WHOSE MOUTH IS FULL OF CURSING AND BITTERNESS”…

“THERE IS NO FEAR OF GOD BEFORE THEIR EYES.”

Could this be a political treatise against Christians, Jews, Muslims, and ANY claiming God without love on their lips even in this day?

Like Peter, Paul also shows why politics and religion mix in a murky cloud of hypocrisy.

How do you seek GOOD DAYS?

What is the platform of your faith? Your religion? Traditions? Good deeds?

Your works of goodness certainly can not sway the politics of a fallen world or misled nation.

Do you seek an honest path to righteousness? It would be a religion of works and false morality, a religion of philanthropic leading in your own ideals.

… and I’m NOT going to take it anymore!

Do any recall our ‘must elect my candidate’ arguments of religion for the 2016 election?

How will you, being evil, do good for anyone?

My fellow Christians, is your witness for the Gospel of Christ?

Or is your shout to the crowds that you’re mad as hell as if Christ would be swayed by the fire of your tongue?

Perhaps your opponents think that you feign madness before the media.

What good is your shouting into the whirlwind? For the fire of your words fails to witness the compassion of our Lord Christ Jesus.

Mere religion and righteousness never equate.

Love of words or love of the Word?

Here’s a question for so-called ‘christians’ embroiled in the politics of the day: Do you have a love of words or love of the Word?

Surely the politician loves the stage of the world. Certainly the media twists words meant to incite supporters into indictments of political opponents.

Satan works no differently than the internet in spreading false accusation of the believer; for Christ is the only Word of love who can save the sinner.

The Apostle John instructs the church:

Do not love G25 the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves G25 the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
1 John 2:15 NASB – Strong’s G25 ἀγαπάω agapaō

Life – ζωή – zōē

Life’s meaning described by Peter is:
1. life
  1. the state of one who is possessed of vitality or is animate
  2. every living soul
2. life
  1. of the absolute fullness of life, both essential and ethical, which belongs to God, and through him both to the hypostatic “logos” and to Christ in whom the “logos” put on human nature
  2. life real and genuine, a life active and vigorous, devoted to God, blessed, in the portion even in this world of those who put their trust in Christ, but after the resurrection to be consummated by new accessions (among them a more perfect body), and to last for ever.
Peter points not only forward to Christ, but by scripture back to David, a man after God’s own heart.

Religion questions God.

May I add that the politics of the world deny God’s saving grace. By our knowledge of good and evil we lost the fruit of the tree of life in Eden. Mankind spoiled God’s paradise by disobedient sin.

Psalm 34: A Psalm of David

when he feigned madness before Abimelech, who drove him away and he departed.

David looks back at these dark days and praises the LORD.

I will bless the LORD at all times;
His praise shall continually be in my mouth.
Psalm 34:1

9 O fear the LORD, you His saints;
For to those who fear Him there is no want.

13 Keep your tongue from evil
And your lips from speaking deceit.

14 Depart from evil and do good;
Seek peace and pursue it.

From advice for the saints of the Lord, David proceeds to the justice and redemption of the faithful.

21 Evil shall slay the wicked,
And those who hate the righteous will be condemned.

22 The LORD redeems the soul of His servants,
And none of those who take refuge in Him will be condemned.

The Fire of the Tongue, the Politics of Jesus

Now it was Caiaphas who advised the Jews that it was expedient that one man should die for the people.
John 18:14 NKJV

Jesus against religion

John 2:

14 In the temple courts he found people selling cattle, sheep and doves, and others sitting at tables exchanging money. 15 So he made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple courts, both sheep and cattle; he scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. 16 To those who sold doves he said, “Get these out of here! Stop turning my Father’s house into a market!”

John 8:

42 Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love me, for I have come here from God. I have not come on my own; God sent me. 43 Why is my language not clear to you? Because you are unable to hear what I say. 44 You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies. 45 Yet because I tell the truth, you do not believe me!

54 Jesus replied, “If I glorify myself, my glory means nothing. My Father, whom you claim as your God, is the one who glorifies me. 55 Though you do not know him, I know him.

58 “Very truly I tell you,” Jesus answered, “before Abraham was born, I am!” 59 At this, they picked up stones to stone him, but Jesus hid himself, slipping away from the temple grounds.

a Word of witness to followers of false religion

Jesus answered him,
“I have spoken openly to the world; I always taught in synagogues and in the temple, where all the Jews come together; and I spoke nothing in secret.
John 18:20 NASB

Jesus continues:

“Why do you question Me? Question those who have heard what I spoke to them; they know what I said.”

Truth has witnesses; yet how do unrighteous leaders of religion react?

When He had said this, one of the officers standing nearby struck Jesus, saying, “Is that the way You answer the high priest?”

Jesus answered him, “If I have spoken wrongly, testify of the wrong; but if rightly, why do you strike Me?”

So Annas sent Him bound to Caiaphas the high priest.

Political reaction to Righteousness

Pilate said to Him, “What is truth?” And when he had said this, he went out again to the Jews and said to them, “I find no guilt in Him.
Pilate said to them, “Shall I crucify your King?”
The chief priests answered, “We have no king but Caesar.”
John 18:38; 19:15b NASB

Righteous reaction to the Political

Mark 12:

Is it lawful to pay a poll-tax to Caesar, or not? 15 Shall we pay or shall we not pay?”

But He, knowing their hypocrisy, said to them,

“Why are you testing Me? Bring Me a denarius to look at.”

¹⁷And Jesus said to them, “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.”

Is Politics your Religion OR Religion your Politics?

Psalm 2:

The Messiah’s Triumph and Kingdom

Why do the nations rage,
And the people plot a vain thing?
2 The kings of the earth set themselves,
And the rulers take counsel together,
Against the Lord and against His Anointed saying,
3 “Let us break Their bonds in pieces
And cast away Their cords from us.”

Christ Jesus, the Messiah of the Lord God, warned of our anger against God.

⁷אֲסַפְּרָ֗ה אֶֽ֫ל חֹ֥ק יְֽהוָ֗ה אָמַ֘ר אֵלַ֥י בְּנִ֥י אַ֑תָּה אֲ֝נִ֗י הַיּ֥וֹם יְלִדְתִּֽיךָ׃

⁸שְׁאַ֤ל מִמֶּ֗נִּי וְאֶתְּנָ֣ה ג֭וֹיִם נַחֲלָתֶ֑ךָ וַ֝אֲחֻזָּתְךָ֗ אַפְסֵי־אָֽרֶץ׃

10 Now therefore, be wise, O kings;
Be instructed, you judges of the earth.
11 Serve the Lord with fear,
And rejoice with trembling.
12 Kiss the Son, lest He be angry,
And you perish in the way,
When His wrath is kindled but a little.
Blessed are all those who put their trust in Him.
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To be continued...
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November 9, 2019