Talk of JESUS .com

Tag: prophets

  • Members in Christ’s body the Church

    Members in Christ’s body the Church

    And when he had given thanks, he brake it, and said, Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of me.

    1 Corinthians 12:11 KJV – Paul quoting the Lord Jesus

    Paul now draws a picture of the human body in order that members of the body of believers might see our own part in the larger Church in Corinth and all places where the saints gather in Christ’s Name.

    Spiritualities – ‘I would not have you ignorant’

    Previously, when we departed from here in the Apostle’s instructions to the Corinthians, Paul instructs:


    And there are differences of administrations, but the same Lord.

    1 Corinthians 12:5 KJV

    One Body, many Members, different spiritual Gifts

    Now to each is given the manifestation of the Spirit, for the common profiting.

    1 Corinthians 12:7 BLB

    The first implication of this: EACH member of the body of your church and mine will show (manifest) some fruit of the Spirit.

    But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually just as He wills.

    1 Corinthians 12:11 LSB

    Who belongs as members? 

    IF someone in your church does not yet manifest any fruit of the Spirit, is it possible that the Lord has not given them the Spirit OR made these a part of His Body - a member of His Church? 

    Are even the best spiritualities of faithful jews and religious adherents of Islam connected to the body of our Lord Christ Jesus? 

    Do the best of Hindus Buddhists and other pagan worshipers not oppose Christ? 

    Yet some are drawn by the Spirit.

    The Body of Christ

    For just as the body is one, and has many members, and all the members of the body being many are one body, so also is Christ.

    1 Corinthians 12:12 Berean Standard Bible

    Jews and Gentiles

    map of the Aegean ~200 BC Corinth in the Achean League between Alexander the Great and Julius Caesar 
    What is the overriding context of this epistle Paul writes to a church on the Achaian peninsula of Greece ? 

    The Apostle to the Gentiles (Hellenists or Greek or Roman) -- seeks to heal long-standing differences in this large Roman city of Corinth situated in the philosophic and cultural center of ancient Europe.
    • To one there is given through the Spirit a message of wisdom – v.8 (quite Hellenist)
    • to another faith.. to another gifts of healing v.9 (the One God of the Jews and ignored signs of the Messiah)

    For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free—and have all been made to drink into one Spirit.

    1 Corinthians 12:13 NKJV

    Invisible fruit pictured in the body

    brain and connection to the body

    For the body does not consist of one part, but of many. 1 Corinthians 12:14 BSB

    If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body?

    And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body.

    • If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be?
      • (Now think of the body of Christ, the church.)
    • If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be?
    Laughable! Hyperbole, yet logical.

    But now hath God set the members

    (And the Spirit of God has distributed your spiritual gifts.)

    But now hath God set the members every one of them in the body, as it hath pleased him.

    How strange a body would be if it had only one part!

    1 Corinthians 12:18 KJV and 12:19 NLT 

    Do you get both the seriousness and Paul's practical ridicule of members di-vi-ded by spiritualities God granted to others? 
    The Apostle to the gentiles continues his illustration:
    • The eye cannot say to the hand, “I do not need you.”
    • Nor can the head say to the feet, “I do not need you.”

    Here is Paul’s appeal to draw near to your members divided by opinions concerning spiritual gifts and an order of regulating the body (so to speak).

    On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and the parts we consider less honorable, we treat with greater honor. And our unpresentable parts are treated with special modesty, whereas our presentable parts have no such need.

    But God has composed the body and has given greater honor to the parts that lacked it, so that there should be no division in the body, but that its members should have mutual concern for one another.

    If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.

    1 Corinthians 12:22-26 BSB

    Has the Great Physician not set the parts of the body into their proper place?

    Appointment of the Greater Gifts 

    The Apostle sent out to the Corinthians, Achaeans, Greeks, Romans and displaced Jews suggests an order of importance in the A.D. first century church. Yet Paul has just instructed the saints that it is the Spirit which places us in our place in the Church -- and that spiritual GIFTS are not ours to choose.

    27 Now you are the body of Christ, and each of you is a member of it. And in the church God has appointed

    1. first of all apostles,
    2. second prophets,
    3. third teachers,
    4. then workers of miracles,
    5. and those with gifts of healing, helping, administration, and various tongues.

    A local (Corinthian) understanding of roles and spiritual gifts

    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
    Acts of the Apostles 1-28
    1. ἀπόστολος – apostolos
    2. προφήτης – prophētēs
    3. διδάσκαλος – didaskalos
    4. δύναμις – dynamis
    5. χάρισμα – charisma 

    Apostles, Prophets and Teachers

    ἀπόστολοι (apostoloi)
    Noun – Nominative Masculine Plural
    Strong’s 652: From apostello; a delegate; specially, an ambassador of the Gospel; officially a commissioner of Christ.

    Am I not an apostle? G652 am I not free? have I not seen Jesus Christ our Lord? are not ye my work in the Lord? If I be not an apostle G652 unto others, yet doubtless I am to you: for the seal of mine apostleship are ye in the Lord.


    1 Corinthians 12:1-2

    1 Corinthians 12:28 – And God has set…

    You’ve just studied the list.

    So what does the Apostle Paul (#1 on the authoritative list) ask as he further questions the Corinthian saints of differing opinions about their own roles in the local church?

    1 Corinthians 12:29-30

    • Are all apostles? (#1)
    • Are all prophets? (#2)
    • Are all teachers? (#3)
    • Do all work miracles? (#4)
    • Do all have gifts of healing?
    • Do all speak in tongues?
    • Do all interpret?
      • (these 3 grouped in #5)

    SO WHERE DO I FIT IN?

    and Who is in charge of who, here in our local gathering of saints in Corinth?

    Perhaps in the hearing of Paul’s first letter being read to the Corinthian Church these saints might have wondered what the APOSTLE would prescribe next as a solution to OUR divisions. 

    READ the literal Greek text below.

    12:31 ζηλοῦτε δὲ τὰ χαρίσματα τὰ κρείττονα Καὶ ἔτι καθ᾽ ὑπερβολὴν ὁδὸν ὑμῖν δείκνυμι

    But covet earnestly the best gifts: – 31a KJV

    Now eagerly desire the greater gifts. – 31a NIV

    But earnestly desire the higher gifts.- 31a RSV

    But now let me show you a way of life that is best of all.

    1 Corinthians 12:31 b – NLT

    NEXT – Paul’s connection of GIFTS

    Beloved fellow saint, you may know where the Apostle proceeds in his much-quoted list from 1 Corinthians 14.

    Perhaps with love in mind you may have a COMMENT here on what the Apostle Paul has instructed us so far.

    Comment on Scripture + Share the Gospel

  • take up a song of mourning: the coastlands shake

    take up a song of mourning: the coastlands shake

    Take up a song of mourning for what God is about to do to you;

    For a nation led by the ungodly was never great

    And a nation will never build again an altar to Molech or a goddess of the virgin Earth.

    The earth quakes and Empires crumble

    Take up a song of mourning for all the people shaken and crushed as the Lord makes the earth and sea to quake.
    NOTE 21st c. Gaziantep, Turkiye beyond the path of Paul’s 2nd missionary land journey from Antioch to Derbe with Silas.

    TODAY, we interrupt the earthquakes and witness of Paul’s second missionary journey in Philippi from ACTS of the Apostles to re-post a 4-part series from two years ago.

    Rejoice that I am no prophet

    (For the only prophesy I ever imagined may have been from God has not yet happened.)

    My song of mourning echoes God’s indictment spoken to falling nations of the Old Testament and the New Testament warning of Hebrews. For my own heart mourns ahead for what is to become of this land of so much promise.

    And allow me to add an unpalatable and unspeakable truth: Muhammed was no prophet of God, Joseph Smith was no prophet of Jesus Christ and no political leader I know even comes close to speaking the hallowed word of God.

    Source: Middle East Monitor:

    Gaziantep, Turkiye on March 02, 2023 [Adsız Günebakan/Anadolu Agency]

    SHAKEN! – a 4-part continued warning

    SHAKEN ! PRAYER IN DIFFICULT TIMES – Psalm 60
    SHAKEN! part 1 – Jan. 22, 2021 – “God, you have rejected us – Psalm 60
    SHAKEN 2 “Think carefully about your ways
    January 25, 2021 – ‘Who is left among you who saw this house in its former glory? – Haggai 2:3
    SHAKEN 3 a great cloud of witnesses over our head
    January 27, 2021 – “Today if you hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts.” Hebrews 4:7b CSB
    SHAKEN 4 – His voice shook the earth
    January 29, 2021 – but now He has promised, saying, “Yet once more I shake not only the earth, but also heaven.” – Hebrews 12:26b

    A song of mourning through Ezekiel

    Picture a Prophet, faithful to the Lord God, lamenting the downfall of nations including his own. Ezekiel speaks a song of mourning for nation after nation and leader after leader.

    WHY have these listened to false prophets?

    What consequence for those who have turned against the LORD.

    The compelling scenes of Ezekiel’s encounters with the Lord God will seem familiar to those of you who have also discovered the Revelation of Jesus Christ to John.

    Most of what God has to say should bring even a 21st century observer of these last days to mourn for the lost righteousness the LORD has intended. Once again the faithful must sing a song of mourning for so many cities and every nation.

    Mar. 16, 597 B.C. – Babylon, led by Nebuchadnezzar beseiged Jerusalem a second time and took captive King Jehoiachin and a group of 10,000, including Ezekiel.

    – Source (paraphrased) John MacArthur :: Bible Introductions – Ezekiel

    .. Such was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the LORD. And when I saw it, I fell on my face and heard a voice speaking. Then He said to me,

    “Son of man, stand on your feet, and I will speak with you.”

    And as He spoke to me the Spirit entered me and set me on my feet; and I heard Him speaking to me. Then He said to me,

    “Son of man, I am sending you to the sons of Israel, to a rebellious people who have rebelled against Me; they and their fathers have revolted against Me to this very day.

    Ezekiel 1:28b-2:3 NASB20

    “But you shall speak My words to them whether they listen or not, for they are rebellious.

    Then I looked, and behold, a hand was extended to me;

    and behold, a scroll was in it.

    When He spread it out before me, it was written on the front and back,

    and written on it were songs of mourning, sighing, and woe.

    Excerpts from Ezekiel 2

    Ezekiel - When He spread it out before me, it was written on the front and back, and written on it were songs of mourning, sighing, and woe.

    Shall WE speak more woe to those who are perishing?

    Ezekiel 19:

    “As for you, take up a song of mourning for the leaders of Israel..

    ‘Your mother was like a vine in your vineyard..

    ‘But it was uprooted in fury;
    It was thrown down to the ground;
    And the east wind dried up its fruit.
    [fn]Its strong stem [fn]was torn out
    So that it withered;
    The fire consumed it..

    ‘And fire has gone out from its stem;
    It has consumed its shoots and fruit,
    So that there is no strong stem in it,
    A scepter to rule.’”

    This is a song of mourning, and has become a song of mourning.

    Ezekiel 25:
    • Prophesy Against Ammon
    • Prophesy Against Moab
    • Prophesy Against Edom
    • Prophesy Against Philistia

    “So I will execute great vengeance on them with wrathful reproofs; and they will know that I am Yahweh when I lay My vengeance on them.”’”

    Could there be a Prophecy Against US?

    “As for you, take up a song of mourning for the leaders of … - Ezekiel
    a song of mourning
    Prophesy Against Tyre
Ezekiel 26

    Thus says Lord Yahweh to Tyre,

    “Shall not the coastlands shake at the sound of your downfall when the wounded groan, when the killing occurs in your midst?

    Lament over Tyre
    “O Tyre, you have said, ‘I am perfect in beauty.’
“Your borders are in the heart of the seas;
Your builders have perfected your beauty.

“Your wealth, your wares, your merchandise,
Your sailors and your pilots,
Your repairers of seams, your dealers in merchandise,
And all your men of war who are in you,
With all your assembly that is in your midst,
Will fall into the heart of the seas
On the day of your downfall.

    ‘Who is like Tyre,

    Like her who is silent in the midst of the sea?

    Ezekiel 28:

    “Son of man, say to the ruler of Tyre, ‘Thus says Lord Yahweh,

    “Because your heart is lofty
    And you have said, ‘I am a god;

    I sit enthroned in the seat of gods
    In the heart of the seas’;

    Yet you are a man and not God,

    Although you make your heart like the heart of God—

    debate stage Trump, political idol of the extreme right and Biden, political idol of the extreme left.

    “You had the seal of perfection,

    Full of wisdom and perfect in beauty…

    “Your heart was lofty because of your beauty;

    You corrupted your wisdom by reason of your splendor.

    I cast you to the ground;

    I put you before kings,

    That they may see you…

    “All who know you among the peoples
    Are appalled at you;

    You have become terrified,

    And you will cease to be forever.”’”

    Ezekiel 28:19 Legacy Standard Bible

    Revelation

    The revelation of Jesus Christ that God gave him to show his servants what must soon take place. He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John,

    Look, he is coming with the clouds,

and every eye will see him,

even those who pierced him.

And all the tribes of the earth

will mourn over him.

So it is to be. Amen.

    Could a song of mourning be for US?

    For all the nations have drunk[fn] the wine of her sexual immorality, which brings wrath. The kings of the earth have committed sexual immorality with her, and the merchants of the earth have grown wealthy from her sensuality and excess. - Revelation 18:3 CSB

    The kings of the earth who have committed sexual immorality and shared her sensual and excessive ways will weep and mourn over her when they see the smoke from her burning.

    Revelation 18:9

    Rejoice over her, heaven,

    and you saints, apostles, and prophets,

    because God has pronounced on her the judgment she passed on you!

    Revelation 18:20 CSB

    Washington DC mall
    White House and lightning

    For a nation led by the ungodly was never great

    And a nation will never build again an altar to Molech or a goddess of the virgin Earth.

    Woe, woe, the great city,

    dressed in fine linen, purple, and scarlet,

    adorned with gold, jewels, and pearls;

    for in a single hour

    such fabulous wealth was destroyed!

  • REPENTANCE! Rated ‘R’ – but Not for Revival

    REPENTANCE! Rated ‘R’ – but Not for Revival

    I will ransom them from the power of the grave;

    I will redeem them from death:

    O death, I will be thy plagues;

    O grave, I will be thy destruction:

    repentance shall be hid from mine eyes.

    Hosea 13:14 KJV

    a Gathering of the Dead with NO Hope of Revival

    When the Prophets spoke a convicting word of repentance to the professed chosen of the LORD, WHY didn’t THEY repent?

    Could it be that THEY refused to hear ANY word of conviction – an accountably of the GOD’s indictment of SIN?

    (And like THEM, who among us is not GUILTY of hiding OUR sins from the Lord as we would like to think on occasion after occasion?)

    Are those ancient LEADERS and PEOPLE of Judah, Israel and the nations JUST LIKE US?

    Repent therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out - Acts 3: Peter preaching repentance
    Repentance!

    Repentance oft’ served bitterly in the King James

    (Of course most shepherds of Christ's 21st c. churches resist a call of evangelism by reading the KJV. Most will not preach any convicting word of God given to fallen people through His PROPHETS from ANY translation of the Holy Bible.) 

After all, who comes to church to REPENT?

    The Prophets use severe terms that a pastor hardly dare preach

    – the ‘R’ rated word of the LORD –

    NOT ever to be spoken to a sweetened Sunday flock of young christians, gracefully posing alongside a remnant of the faithful, as sinless sheep.

    AND IF you are not repentant about your continued sins against Him don’t think that your preferred personal designation of ‘King Jesus’ will save you from the grave.

    We certainly wouldn’t want our Jesus-lovers sent home sorrowful [נֹחַם] over our sin.

    Yet this is exactly the other meaning of the repentance of which the Prophet speaks in saying that the LORD will hide YOUR sorrow from His eyes.

    Hosea and other ‘minor’ prophets will often rail on bitterly in a specific call of repentance.

    The LORD reminds Israel through Hosea’s words and obedient unexpected actions of their former disobedience to obey their promises to Him.

    The LORD’s word by the mouth of His Prophets may not only be bitter and offensive, but rated ‘R’ in the church gathering of culturally inclusive Sunday audience.

    So would you with ears to hear prefer to hear the LORD in easier English than the King James? 
(Any translation of Scripture can be convicting to a heart open to receive the word of the Lord.)

    It is your ruin, O Israel,

    That you are against Me, against your help…

    I gave you a king in My anger
    And took him away in My wrath.

    Hosea 13:9.11 LSB

    The LORD laments over Israel when He sorrowfully gave them Saul as a king —

    and then David, a man after God’s own heart

    — and Solomon who built the Temple

    — and his sons who as kings of Israel and Judah lost favor, because these kings and their subjects most often refused to repent.

    Returning to Hosea's calling and also the King James:

    Hosea 1:

    The word of the LORD that came unto Hosea, the son of Beeri, in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash, king of Israel.

    The beginning of the word of the LORD by Hosea.

    And the LORD said to Hosea,

    Go, take unto thee a wife of whoredoms and children of whoredoms: for the land hath committed great whoredom, departing from the LORD.

    • Would you like to go tell your President or king THAT?
    • Dare you call your congregation and country ‘children of whoredoms?’ [v.2]
    • Will you warn them “.. ye are not my people, and I will not be your God?” [v.9]

    AND from there, the LORD gets even more graphic in HIS imagery of nakedness of the sin of his CHOSEN PEOPLE who bear witness to HIS NAME (supposedly).

    IS THAT how we witness JESUS when we whisper to Him gracefully on Sunday?

    “‘King Jesus,’ WE love what you have done for US,”

    Christ gets little mention.. no honor.. no priority in six and a half days of our weekly life?

    When do YOU ever Talk of JESUS outside of the walls of a ‘worship’ service?

    Roger@TalkofJesus.com

    Repent & Turn back to your Savior

    Here’s the idea of Repentance when you have an argument with God:

    COMPLAINT!
    Job 6: “my complaint is just.’ BUT finally the LORD answers Job in a whirlwind (think tornadic pillar of fire!)

    Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.

    Job 42:6

    And Job was a righteous man!

    But to the unrighteous kings, princes and people God warns Israel and commands his last Prophet of Israel, Hosea:

    Go, take unto thee a wife of whoredoms and children of whoredoms: for the land hath committed great whoredom, departing from the LORD.

    Hebrew – נָחַם

    KJV Translation Count — Total: 108x
    The KJV translates Strong’s H5162 in the following manner: comfort (57x), repent (41x), comforter (9x), ease (1x).
    Outline of Biblical Usage [?]
    to be sorry, console oneself, repent, regret, comfort, be comforted

    Source: BlueLetterBible.org

    Repent – Greek – μετανοέω

    Do you recognize the comfort of having your guilt removed by God when you repent of sin?

    Of course YOU are not alone. For your witness of Christ our Savior ought to be that WE are included with THEM in that all have sinned [Romans 3]. JESUS paid the full price the justice of God requires (even for repentant sinners like you and me).

    Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent.

    The Revelation of Jesus Christ to John 2:5 KJV – THIS to the 1st c. CHURCH at Ephesus 
    Shepherds of 21st c. churches also resist the New Testament repentance of preaching Jesus' Revelation of THE END to sheepish christian congregations more entertained than revived.

YES, JESUS is KING of Kings and Lord of lords! Is your worship of the KING appropriate to His call to obedience?

    Lexicon :: Strong’s G3340 – metanoeō

    Outline of Biblical Usage [?]
    to change one’s mind, i.e. to repent

    to change one’s mind for better, heartily to amend with abhorrence of one’s past sins

    “Repentance (metanoia, ‘change of mind’) involves a turning with contrition from sin to God; the repentant sinner is in the proper condition to accept the divine forgiveness.” (F. F. Bruce. The Acts of the Apostles [Greek Text Commentary], London: Tyndale, 1952, p. 97.)

    Source: BlueLetterBible.org

    Repent ye G3340 therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord;

    Acts of the Apostles 3:19 KJV

    This is how Peter and the Apostles preached.

    Peter Replied: Signs Preached from Solomon’s Porch
    Yet Peter replied also inviting their response.

    Howbeit many of them which heard the word believed; and the number of the men was about five thousand.

    Acts 4:4 KJV

    Revival?

    I shall ransom them from the power of Sheol;
    I shall redeem them from Death.
    O Death, where are your plagues?
    O Sheol, where is your sting?
    Compassion is hidden from my eyes.

    Hosea 13:14 ESV

    Aren’t followers of Jesus — Ἰησοῦς His NAME means: “Jehovah is salvation” — ransomed from the cost of sin and the power of Sheol by the price He paid on the Cross?

    Since JESUS IS GOD, aren’t His followers redeemed by Him from Death?

    Whoever is wise, let him understand these things;
    whoever is discerning, let him know them;
    for the ways of the LORD are right,
    and the upright walk in them,
    but transgressors stumble in them.

    Hosea 14:9 ESV – the Prophet’s closing cautions to the wise in the Lord.

    The root of revival is ‘to live!’ – חָיָה

    Yet Hosea warns that transgressors will stumble into Sheol and Death.

    AND David sings out in Psalm 37: He Will Not Forsake His Saints

    v.38 But transgressors shall be altogether destroyed;
    the future of the wicked shall be cut off.

    Shall the transgressor of Christ’s grace receive carte blanche revival from the grave without witness of the saving Cross of JESUS?

    In fact, what did the King of kings and Lord of lords have to say about such revival?

    Gospel Truth (and the Way and the Life)

    “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord.. And then will I declare to them,

    ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’

    Matthew 7:21-23 excerpt ESV

    The word for lawlessness Jesus uses is: ἀνομία – anomia – its definition:

    contempt and violation of law, iniquity, wickedness

    When a man thought a family obligation should delay his discipleship to the Lord Jesus he received an unexpected answer from the Son of Man who could actually revive the dead:

    And Jesus said to him, “Follow me, and leave the dead to bury their own dead.”

    Matthew 8:22 ESV

    NO, I do not believe that we will have REVIVAL in the Church (people, and not the building of certain Shepherds) WITHOUT first witnessing the fruit of REPENTANCE by the crowds from which Jesus fled.

    What do YOU think, my fellow follower of Christ Jesus?

    Repentance OR Revival?