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Tag: Psalms

Crucifixion! – Scripture Fulfilled
Crucifixion! – The Spirit of Grace

.. this Man, delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put Him to death. Acts 2:23
And how is this the Spirit of Grace?

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that He might suffer and die on a Cross for sinners like us, that we should not perish, but have everlasting life.
Roger Harned – talkofJesus.com – on Christ’s Crucifixion & John 3:16

The Apostle John presents the Good News of Jesus Christ in light of the love of God the Father.

Yes, the LORD of Old Testament Scripture to which John will point IS the Almighty God who must judge sin! Yet John testifies of Jesus who reveals God as the Father, the One of relationship who willingly shows mercy for the sake of the Son and saves sinners like you and me by grace.

A brief reintroduction to John

John had unique access to witness the questioning of Jesus by the High Priests of Jerusalem. At the beginning of our journey through the Gospel of John we introduced the Apostle, this youngest Son of Zebedee who we now know was also known in the house of Herod.

It is important to note here that the Apostle John later became the last surviving Disciple of Jesus Christ, living more than fifty years more until nearly the next century.

John wrote the gospel during his residence at Ephesus in Asia Minor when he was advanced in age (Against Heresies 2.22.5; 3.1.1) – source

John’s Good News is NOT a News Alert to our phone, a BREAKING NEWS HEADLINE interrupting our life at home or even a well-researched story for an Ephesus News Courier.

The Apostle, therefore, has not written the Gospel of John as events unfolded at the horrific scene of the crime of Jesus’ Crucifixion.

In Conclusion

The beloved Apostle and recognized authority of witness to these historical events some decades ago will soon assure the reader of John’s Good News (Gospel): Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book;

.. but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.
John 20:31 ESV

John now begins the conclusion of his Gospel even before the climax of the Good News of Jesus’ resurrection.

Intermingled with John’s conclusive evidence, he includes reporter-like facts (which we will address in a later post), but his purpose now is to reveal why Jesus did some of what the Lord came to accomplish.

Every mention of Scripture (of course) refers to the Old Testament. John links the events of Jesus’ crucifixion to Old Testament prophesy.

John 19:

Then Pilate took Jesus and had him flogged. 2 The soldiers also twisted together a crown of thorns, put it on his head, and clothed him in a purple robe. 3 And they kept coming up to him and saying, “Hail, king of the Jews!” and were slapping his face.

Isaiah 50:

6 I gave My back to those who strike Me,
And My cheeks to those who pull out My beard;
I did not hide My face from insults and spitting.
7 For the Lord God helps Me,
Therefore, I am not disgraced;
Therefore, I have made My face like flint,
And I know that I will not be ashamed.

14 It was the preparation day for the Passover, and it was about noon…

17 Carrying the cross by himself, he went out to what is called Place of the Skull, which in Aramaic is called Golgotha. 18 There they crucified him and two others with him, one on either side, with Jesus in the middle.

23 When the soldiers crucified Jesus, they took his clothes and divided them into four parts, a part for each soldier. They also took the tunic, which was seamless, woven in one piece from the top. 24 So they said to one another, “Let’s not tear it, but cast lots for it, to see who gets it.

This happened that the Scripture might be fulfilled, John tells us.

Scripture includes more than the Law, which Jesus promises will be satisfied; but also the Psalms (or songs of worship), historical scrolls and also writings of the Prophets who Jerusalem’s religious leaders seldom heeded and like now, rarely taught.

Here is this Scripture, a Psalm most descriptive of Jesus’ crucifixion.

Psalm 22:

READ ALL of Psalm 22, if you dare. And looking upon the scene of the Place of the Skull, with Jesus’ Blood pouring forth from His broken Body on the middle Cross, know His suffering for our sin endured for the grace of God’s love.

¹⁸אֲסַפֵּ֥ר כָּל־עַצְמוֹתָ֑י הֵ֥מָּה יַ֝בִּ֗יטוּ יִרְאוּ־בִֽי׃

18 They divide my garments among them,
And they cast lots for my clothing.

This is what the soldiers did, John tells us.

John 19:

28 After this, when Jesus knew that everything was now finished that the Scripture might be fulfilled, he said, “I’m thirsty.”

Psalm 69:

21 They also gave me a bitter herb in my food,
And for my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.

30 When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, “It is finished.” Then bowing his head, he gave up his spirit.

31 Since it was the preparation day, the Jews did not want the bodies to remain on the cross on the Sabbath…

32 So the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first man and of the other one who had been crucified with him.

33 When they came to Jesus, they did not break his legs since they saw that he was already dead.

John 19:

Jesus’s Side Pierced

34 But one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once blood and water came out.

Isaiah 53:

The Suffering Servant

Yet we ourselves assumed that He had been afflicted,
Struck down by God, and humiliated.
5 But He was pierced for our offenses,
He was crushed for our wrongdoings;
The punishment for our well-being was laid upon Him,
And by His wounds we are healed.

John’s Testimony is True

Jesus replied [to Pilate]. “I was born for this, and I have come into the world for this: to testify to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.”
“What is truth? ” said Pilate.
John 18:37b-38 CSB

The Apostle here answers Pilate’s earlier question before he pronounced the sentence of DEATH ON A CROSS for Christ Jesus.

John 19:35 He who saw this has testified so that you also may believe. His testimony is true, and he knows he is telling the truth.

John 19:

36 For these things happened so that the Scripture would be fulfilled: Not one of his bones will be broken.

37 Also, another Scripture says: They will look at the one they pierced.

Psalm 34:

But the Lord rescues him from them all.
20 He protects all his bones,
Not one of them is broken.

Zechariah 12:

12:10 וְשָׁפַכְתִּי עַל־בֵּית דָּוִיד וְעַל יוֹשֵׁב יְרוּשָׁלִַם רוּחַ חֵן וְתַחֲנוּנִים וְהִבִּיטוּ אֵלַי אֵת אֲשֶׁר־דָּקָרוּ וְסָפְדוּ עָלָיו כְּמִסְפֵּד עַל־הַיָּחִיד וְהָמֵר עָלָיו כְּהָמֵר עַֽל־הַבְּכֽוֹר׃

Here is John’s Gospel GOOD NEWS of Scripture fulfilled.

“I will pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Spirit of grace and of supplication, so that they will look on Me whom they have pierced;
and they will mourn for Him, as one mourns for an only son, and they will weep bitterly over Him like the bitter weeping over a firstborn.
Zechariah 12:10 NASB

The Spirit of Grace

John began his Good News speaking of grace. He begins his conclusion by quoting Zechariah’s imagery of the Spirit of grace and of supplication.

For of His fullness we have all received, and grace upon grace. For the Law was given through Moses; grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ.
John 1:16-17 NASB

Yet rather than supposing that we know what grace is, let’s look at grace through John’s eyes.
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Technical NOTE on Strong's Concordance linked here.
H-#'s = Hebrew equivalent & G-#'s = Greek equivalent 
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χάρις – charis

Even Pilate would share some understanding of this Greek concept of grace.
- that which affords joy, pleasure, delight, sweetness, charm, loveliness: grace of speech
- of the merciful kindness by which God, exerting his holy influence upon souls, turns them to Christ, keeps, strengthens, increases them in Christian faith, knowledge, affection, and kindles them to the exercise of the Christian virtues
  - (This, of course, is that love of the Lord Jesus which John frequently shares freely as grace.)
John later greets his fellow beloved believers in his second letter (mailed in about A.D. 90–95):

Grace, mercy and peace will be with us, from God the Father and from Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father, in truth and love.

About 5-10 years earlier in about A.D. 80–90 John would have had his Gospel delivered to these same saints of the churches where he quotes Zechariah (from about 520 BC, five centuries after David and before Christ), whose name means: “The LORD remembers.”

“I will pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Spirit of grace..,” John encourages from Scripture, as one who witneesed and had mourned for his beloved friend Jesus near the foot of the Cross.

chen – חֵן

The Hebrew meaning of grace from Zechariah understood by Jews is:
- favour, grace, elegance, kindness, acceptance, (even beauty, preciousness or gratitude)
  - But Noah found favor H2580 in the eyes of the LORD.
  - The LORD said to Moses, “I will also do this thing of which you have spoken; for you have found favor H2580 in My sight and I have known you by name.”
You are fairer than the sons of men;
Grace H2580 is poured upon Your lips;
Therefore God has blessed You forever.
Psalm 45:2 – A Song Celebrating the King’s Marriage.

The Spirit of Supplication

.. and of supplication, which John adds from the prophet Zechariah,

Do we even know what that is?
ἱκετηρία –hiketēria

an olive branch
supplication

Hebrews 5:

In the days of His flesh, He offered up both prayers and supplications with loud crying and tears to the One able to save Him from death, and He was heard because of His piety.
tachanuwn– תַּחֲנוּן

earnest prayer:—intreaty, supplication.
supplication for favour

Give ear, O LORD, to my prayer;

And give heed to the voice of my supplications!
Grace by God in the Person of Christ Jesus

John began his Gospel by hope in the Messiah who was hung on a Cross.

No one has ascended into heaven, except He who descended from heaven: the Son of Man. And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, so that everyone who believes will have eternal life in Him.
John 3:13-15 NASB

As Jesus gave up His Spirit while John and other witnesses sat beneath the Bloodied Cross with the corpse of their Messiah and Savior they must have wondered why.

John 3:35–36 “.. The Father loves the Son and has entrusted all things to His hand.

The one who believes in the Son has eternal life; but the one who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.”

“It is finished.”
Then bowing his head, he gave up his spirit…
They will look at the one they pierced.
The Gospel of John 19:30b,37b NASB
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To be continued... 
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November 7, 2020
70 Years (or so)?
70 years (or so)…

In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread
Till you return to the ground,
For out of it you were taken;
For dust you are,
And to dust you shall return.”
Genesis 3:19 NKJV

Remember… you are dust

We’ve all heard it:

“Remember, you are dust” or some graveside equivalent from the Law of Moses or another ‘humble thyself before the Lord thy God’ quote from the Bible.

In the days of his trouble Job pleads to the LORD:

Remember, I pray, that You have made me like clay.
And will You turn me into dust again?
Job 10:9 NKJV

‘Lord HELP ME,’ some of us have prayed;

‘God help me,’ ‘Help me Jesus!”

And we hear the executioner proclaim to the condemned man and all witnesses: “May God have mercy on your soul.”

You and I know deep down and ALL flesh knows in our heart of hearts — our days will end!

But the LORD abides forever;
He has established His throne for judgment,
And He will judge the world in righteousness;
He will execute judgment for the peoples with equity.
Psalm 9:7-8

Why all this talk about the judgment?

… it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment…
Hebrews 9:27b NASB

NOTE: Roger turned 70

Although my thoughts now gather more urgency, they tend to come to the page just a bit slower.

Change ahead in my Christian Social Witness to you and the world.

Yet as always, my thoughts will remain well-considered in light of scripture before you read it here. (Bear with me and help me by your comments, please.)

I do have a reflection or two on my three score and ten, which I will share with you more gradually than before.
Roger Harned – reflection on continued writing at 70 years old

How many score remain?

Those accustomed to the language of King James Bible may take account of their days by the same measure of years used by Lincoln.

Lincoln and Gettysburg Address

“For score and seven years ago,” Lincoln began on November 19, 1863. He looked back to the year of our Lord 1776 (as they used to say) just 87 years before.

You may also recall from Lincoln’s memorial to those killed:

… that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.
Abraham Lincoln – Gettysburg Address

Lincoln could not have known then that an assassin’s bullet would soon end his own life five years short of just three score years, at age 54.

All flesh shall perish together, and man shall turn again unto dust.
Job 34:18

Abraham Lincoln and Job were both highly successful men of integrity in life who encountered tragedy. Lincoln no doubt had read in his own King James Bible of Job’s struggles.

If you’re keeping score

Only a few of you will know what I once chose as a ‘life verse’ and that it comes from Job.

{IF you want to know my life verse, just click the link to it above and it will open in a new tab or window.} It may help you to understand more about my purpose and gifts.

It just so happens that in this year of our Lord {Anno Domini} A.D. 2020, I have, by God’s grace, lived three score and ten years.

a bit of biography
- My mother, Marie Hall Harned, lived more than four score years, though her father lived only to three score and five and her mother, Vera Tyler Hall not even to three score.
- My father William E. Harned, his siblings and father William Alba all lived past four score years.
Praise God from whom all blessings flow!

I praise God for good health of this aging flesh and might easily boast (and speculate) of more years to come.

Yet I remember well so many struggles of the lives of loved ones, their end which came upon us sooner or suddenly.

Therefore like Job I consider that my end will be dust and strive to live for the life of my saved soul — in worship and love of Christ Jesus, One with God our Father.

Take to heart your own possible suffering to come from Psalm 22. It precedes one we know so well about ‘the valley of the shadow of death‘:

Be not far from me,
for trouble is near,
and there is none to help…
… you lay me in the dust of death.
But you, O Lord, do not be far off!
excerpt Psalm 22 ESV listen

Psalm 22 was part of our celebration of the wife of my youth, Becky Rice Harned. We considered our end — knowing how she had suffered to survive just her fiftieth birthday.

She went to the Lord in spirit in that same year of our Lord, 1999, on the 10th of February, her disintegrating frame now returned to dust.

Other beloved ones suffer in the flesh even now. Some endure pain known to us, while others, like Becky, suffer in silence.

This frail frame will fail. So will yours, yet be encouraged in the Lord.

Though our aging flesh contains the image and essence of our Holy God, our dust is not our living soul.

A few family and long-time friends know a partial history of my life in this world. And I suspect a handful know yours as well.

Most of you know my own failures and disappointments, as we all have in varying degrees at different times. Yet I do not expect to receive Job’s double blessing before I draw my last breath.

Job suffered much, as some we know — even as Jesus Christ suffered severely for our sins.

I am no righteous man – only in Christ’s righteousness – but like Job I have sought to live my life in integrity. I could not have lived through it all without the encouragement of the Holy Spirit through Christ Jesus, when finally I relented from my sins and sought the Lord for help for this helpless flesh.

Looking back & ahead

Reflecting back on my three-score and ten, as well as looking forward into the light of life given to my own spirit of hope, I continue in God’s grace.

I continue in purpose, perhaps more directed toward that which lives within reach of my limited mortal touch.

Leaving behind each dream and soul beyond my reach, I press on to preach to Gospel exclusively to those whom the Lord has chosen. (You may not be one of these.)

Those not saved by the grace of God have most likely scrolled past the Light of their salvation already.
Roger Harned – reflection on why most will never talk of Jesus Christ

Social Media is not the world

Based on technical data, talkofJesus.com has reached readers in many countries on at least four continents so far. My Christian Social Witness may yet by God’s grace reach some soul who has doubted the only Son of God as the Way and Truth of Scripture.

So often Jesus taught His followers, that is, believers who loved the Lord God and one another, and also preached to multitudes which included many who failed to have ears to hear or eyes to see.

Though in Christ, I am certainly not Christ Jesus. I can no longer preach the Gospel to those who refuse the Good News of Christ Jesus. They have no interest in a relationship with the God of love and life!

Therefore, Christ’s purpose for my witness of the Gospel to a 21st century church, wrought with ‘christians‘ who witness something other than Christ, pales by comparison. Never-the-less:

No soul has more need for the true Gospel of Christ Jesus than the 21st century christian.
Roger Harned – talkofJesus.com

Although we will soon return to my 2020 series on the Gospel of John, you, beloved reader, will be in for a new and more pointed relational look at scripture as we speak exclusively to the church.
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To be continued... Lord willing... 
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August 21, 2020
From This World to the Next – Truth
Jesus continues to pray for those the Father has given Him:
And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth.
John 17:19 KJV

What is truth?

‘What is truth?’ Pilate will soon ask the Creator of all things who came to this world of His creation.

Yet prior to the tragic truth of the trial of His righteousness sacrificed for us, Jesus prays for those given to Him:

“For their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they themselves also may be sanctified in truth.” [CSB]

Christ Jesus, sanctified for us, prayed about truth. So just as we previously defined sanctification [in our last post linked above] let’s define truth as used in scripture.

ἀλήθεια – truth
1. objectively
  1. what is true in any matter under consideration
    truly, in truth, according to truth
    of a truth, in reality, in fact, certainly
  2. what is true in things appertaining to God and the duties of man, moral and religious truth
    in the greatest latitude
    the true notions of God which are open to human reason without his supernatural intervention
  3. the truth as taught in the Christian religion, respecting God and the execution of his purposes through Christ, and respecting the duties of man, opposing alike to the superstitions of the Gentiles and the inventions of the Jews, and the corrupt opinions and precepts of false teachers even among Christians
2. subjectively
  1. truth as a personal excellence
    that candour of mind which is free from affection, pretence, simulation, falsehood, deceit
The Truth of Eternal Life

All of us have sinned and fallen short of God’s glory.
Romans 3:23 CEV

This includes you, fellow sinner.

Eternal God and Mortal Man
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A reflection of Psalm 90:
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3 You return mankind to the dust,
saying, “Return, descendants of Adam.”

7 For we are consumed by your anger;
we are terrified by your wrath.
8 You have set our iniquities before you,
our secret sins in the light of your presence.
9 For all our days ebb away under your wrath;
we end our years like a sigh.

But what next?

‘The days of our years are threescore years and ten… OR perhaps eighty, the Psalm reminds us… (OR perhaps a score more, but maybe just 50 years… or a death more sudden).

‘… Yet their pride is but labor and sorrow;
For soon it is gone and we fly away.” – Psalm 90:10b NASB

Returning to the night of Jesus’ betrayal

The Messiah Jesus came to man — living among us and teaching God’s way.

The Lord looks toward heaven on this night on which He was betrayed. From an upper room in Jerusalem Jesus prays to God our Father. This perfect High Priest stands before His own Altar of suffering and Sacrifice on behalf of those the LORD has chosen.

For their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they themselves also may be sanctified in truth.
John 17:19 NASB

You will die and I will die.

The Son of Man did die… for those whom He sacrificed for Himself.

The witness of Scripture and the Gospel confirm what happened next to the Messiah of God. What will be next for you?

Hebrews 9: excerpt:
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A New Covenant
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Behind the second veil there was a tabernacle which is called the Holy of Holies… only the high priest enters…

11 But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things to come, He entered through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this creation..

.. through His own blood, He entered the holy place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption.

… sanctify for the cleansing of the flesh …

… “THIS IS THE BLOOD OF THE COVENANT WHICH GOD COMMANDED YOU.” …

For Christ did not enter a holy place made with hands, a mere copy of the true one, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us
Hebrews 9:24

… at the consummation of the ages He has been manifested to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself.

And inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment
Hebrews 9:27 NASB

AND YES, fellow sinner, you know well from Scripture what is NEXT after DEATH.

28 so Christ also, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time for salvation without reference to sin, to those who eagerly await Him.

Do You await HIM?

As Jesus our High Priest interceded for them, the Apostles only had hint of what would come next. Certain sacrifice of their Lord and ours! Probably persecution and death for each Disciple of Jesus, the only question being when.

Yet by the Lord’s prayer of protection He sent disciples into a world which hates Jesus, the Christ of GOD; a world which hates the very GOD it denies.

No question about it, ALL will die; but few await death with joyous expectation. Do you await the resurrection of our flesh and joining of your soul and the Spirit of the LORD GOD?

NONE want to face the Judgment of sin – an evil nature woven into our being which cannot face the Very Light of the Lord GOD.

Those who deny God or claim Christ falsely must, in time, face the judgment of having chosen darkness over the Light and Glory of God and of having refused God’s grace of a new choice to turn back to the path of righteousness which leads to life in paradise.

What is True of Christ Jesus?

The Good News of John about Jesus our Savior:

Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
Truth from the Gospel of John 14:6
- The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. We observed his glory, the glory as the one and only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
- “Anyone who believes in him is not condemned, but anyone who does not believe is already condemned, because he has not believed in the name of the one and only Son of God.
  - “This is the judgment: The light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than the light because their deeds were evil…
    “But anyone who lives by the truth comes to the light, so that his works may be shown to be accomplished by God.”
- Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
- “I sanctify myself for them, so that they also may be sanctified by the truth.
As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent.
The Revelation of Jesus Christ to John 3:19 KJV

Do you hear your Savior’s voice and open the door to Him?

Will you receive eternal life?

He has sanctified those He calls to eternal life.

How will you get to the paradise of God without the righteousness of Christ Jesus?

‘He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. – Revelation 3:22 KJV

Amen.
July 31, 2020