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Tag: repent

Who Welcomes His Ministry? – 2

Returning now to the Gospel of Luke, we look back from Jesus’ move to His fast-growing early ministry in Capernaum on the Sea of Galilee to His hometown of Nazareth and the event of His departure.

Luke 4

English Standard Version (ESV)

15 And he taught in their synagogues, being glorified by all.

22 And all spoke well of him and marveled at the gracious words that were coming from his mouth. And they said, “Is not this Joseph’s son?” 23 And he said to them, “Doubtless you will quote to me this proverb, ‘Physician, heal yourself.’

What we have heard you did at Capernaum, do here in your hometown as well.”

24 And he said, “Truly, I say to you, no prophet is acceptable in his hometown.

Let us pause here to speak of an earlier Prophet of the Old Testament (approx. 850-870 B.C.): Elijah.

1 Kings 16:

21 Then the people of Israel were divided into two parts. Half of the people followed Tibni the son of Ginath, to make him king, and half followed Omri. 22 But the people who followed Omri overcame the people who followed Tibni the son of Ginath. So Tibni died, and Omri became king. 23 In the thirty-first year of Asa king of Judah, Omri began to reign over Israel, and he reigned for twelve years; six years he reigned in Tirzah. 24 He bought the hill of Samaria from Shemer for two talents of silver, and he fortified the hill and called the name of the city that he built Samaria, after the name of Shemer, the owner of the hill.

25 Omri did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, and did more evil than all who were before him…

NOTE the proximity of this area in the two maps between this area of divided Israel and the beginning ministry of Jesus in Nazareth.

Ahab Reigns in Israel

29 In the thirty-eighth year of Asa king of Judah, Ahab the son of Omri began to reign over Israel, and Ahab the son of Omri reigned over Israel in Samaria twenty-two years. 30 And Ahab the son of Omri did evil in the sight of the Lord, more than all who were before him.

(It’s an ongoing theme in scripture: ‘And __ did evil in the sight of the Lord.’

Against this the Prophets called all to repentance.

1 Kings 17

English Standard Version (ESV)

Elijah Predicts a Drought

17 Now Elijah the Tishbite, of Tishbe in Gilead, said to Ahab, “As the Lord, the God of Israel, lives,before whom I stand, there shall be neither dew nor rain these years, except by my word.” 2 And the word of the Lord came to him: 3 “Depart from here and turn eastward and hide yourself by the brook Cherith, which is east of the Jordan.

7 And after a while the brook dried up, because there was no rain in the land.

The Widow of Zarephath

8 Then the word of the Lord came to him, 9 “Arise, go to Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon, and dwell there. Behold, I have commanded a widow there to feed you.” 10 So he arose and went to Zarephath. And when he came to the gate of the city, behold, a widow was there gathering sticks. And he called to her and said, “Bring me a little water in a vessel, that I may drink.” 11 And as she was going to bring it, he called to her and said, “Bring me a morsel of bread in your hand.” 12 And she said, “As the Lord your God lives, I have nothing baked, only a handful of flour in a jar and a little oil in a jug. And now I am gathering a couple of sticks that I may go in and prepare it for myself and my son, that we may eat it and die.” 13 And Elijah said to her, “Do not fear; go and do as you have said.

Returning now to Nazareth and Jesus’ mention of this Prophet after His hometown asked for miracles:

Luke 4

24 And he said, “Truly, I say to you, no prophet is acceptable in his hometown. 25 But in truth, I tell you, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the heavens were shut up three years and six months, and a great famine came over all the land, 26 and Elijah was sent to none of them but only to Zarephath, in the land of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow.

And of successor to Elijah, the Prophet Elisha, Jesus said:

27 And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, and none of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian.”

Yes, Jesus is preaching an active and insistent call to the people of Nazareth: REPENT!

And Luke continues to tell us how well Jesus’ call to his own best known and most beloved neighbors responded to His call to repent:

28 When they heard these things, all in the synagogue were filled with wrath.

Angry at the hometown Messiah? (Think of the tourist possibilities… Well, maybe in a few centuries we can whitewash the truth of Jesus reception in Nazareth.)

29 And they rose up and drove him out of the town and brought him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, so that they could throw him down the cliff.

30 But passing through their midst, he went away.

What people would welcome the ministry of one of their own by seeking to kill him?

Does Jesus’ ministry and call to repent not meet with the same reception in our own town in these last days?

February 15, 2014
Who Welcomes His Ministry?

Luke 4:

Jesus Begins His Ministry

14 And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee, and a report about him went out through all the surrounding country. 15 And he taught in their synagogues, being glorified by all.

Jesus Rejected at Nazareth

16 And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up.

Generally, Doctor Luke provides us with great detail of proof from eye witness accounts of Jesus and the Acts of the Apostles; however in this chronological glance at the beginning of Jesus’ three-year ministry on earth after being led into the wilderness by the Holy Spirit a look through the eyes of the Apostle Matthew is more helpful.

Matthew 4

English Standard Version (ESV)

Jesus Begins His Ministry

12 Now when he heard that John had been arrested, he withdrew into Galilee. 13 And leaving Nazareth he went and lived in Capernaum by the sea, in the territory of Zebulun and Naphtali…

Jesus of Nazareth, as He was known, then moved to and lived in Capernaum by the sea of Galilee.

17 From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

Let us speak to the vocation and mission of the Prophet for a moment.

To begin, God appoints Prophets, generally separate of the Priestly office and official leadership of God’s own people. Prior to John the Baptist, the Prophet spoke and wrote to and of the fallen Nations: Israel, Judah and the gentile nations who God used to humble and punish His own people into repentance.

Isaiah was probably an aristocrat with influence of kings. He lived about 700 years before Christ.

Jeremiah and Daniel ( both about 600 B.C.) were both young when God used them as prophets to their own people and both older as God used them to show His glory to the rulers of conquering gentile nations. Ezekiel is also an exile around the same time.

These men are not in charge; yet all, through the voice and power of God, call men to repentance.

Amos is just a farmer and a shepherd in Judah (about 800 B.C.) who God uses to announce the fall of the northern Kingdom Israel. Micah was just a countryman in Israel who lived near the Philistine border about this same time.

Hosea gets his marriage advice from God who instructs him to marry a whore, as His people have become. Jonah did not even want to be God’s Prophet and ran away (though God pursued and saved him.) We know almost nothing about the Prophet Joel.

Although Zechariah and Haggai were connected to the office of Priest, it was at a time after repentance during the rebuilding of the Temple by Ezra and Nehemiah (about 500 B.C.). Malachi warns of too casual of an attitude toward worship of God (about 460-430 B.C.).

The Second Temple is destroyed. God keeps silent for over 400 years – 20 generations!

Herod the Great, by alliance with gentile Rome, builds yet another Temple in captured Jerusalem.

Along comes John the Baptist telling another Herod, Pharisees, Sadducees, Scribes, Temple authorities and the people everywhere: REPENT!

He dresses and acts like a madman and lives in the wilderness; but the people believe and follow John. He baptizes and witnesses that Jesus of Nazareth is the one on whom the Spirit of God descends. He IS the Promised One.

Now Jesus, who they all knew since boyhood, a man raised as a carpenter moves away from His hometown. He travels a few miles, moving His belongings to a little inland fishing village, Capernaum. And what was Jesus’ first message to his new hometown?

Matthew 4:17 From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

Jesus left His mother and brothers and family, their carpenter business and comes to a fishing village. Jesus doesn’t look like the wild Prophet John. He is gentle. He looks like his new neighbors. He dresses like them. He eats with them. And Jesus worships with them.

Why would Jesus have that same crazy message for these new neighbors and new friends as He had for his family back home in Nazareth? Repent, you of Capernaum (also known as Chorazin). Repent Bethsaida (a neighboring fishing town on Chinnereth (the Sea of Galilee.)

Jesus calls His Disciples to leave their fishing businesses to follow Him. They do. And among them another local resident, resented by almost every working man: Mathew Levi, a tax collector, who continues his narrative Gospel:

Jesus Ministers to Great Crowds

23 And he went throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction among the people. 24 So his fame spread throughout all Syria, and they brought him all the sick, those afflicted with various diseases and pains, those oppressed by demons, epileptics, and paralytics, and he healed them. 25 And great crowds followed him from Galilee and the Decapolis, and from Jerusalem and Judea, and from beyond the Jordan.

We, too, focus on these wonderful miracles witnessed by many and refuted by none. We look to follow this Jesus;He IS the same Jesus who comes to us, as did John the Baptist, saying: Repent!

To be continued…

February 14, 2014
Redeeming the Time
See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil. –Ephesians 5:15-16 NKJV

Are your sunday-christian sensibilities shocked by the everyday images of the world in these last days?

Oh, the subtleties of Satan engineering constant bombardment of entertainment vulgarities as desirable mentoring of women and children and young men. Oh, the subtleties of Satan to suggest special rights for perversions abhorrent to God. Oh, the subtleties of Satan renaming life given to the growing seed of a man in the womb of a woman to the purpose of calling a child a choice. Oh, the subtleties of Satan for the greed of intrusion of corporate performance-improving pharmaceuticals within the hearing of our children with a medical disclaimer for physiology once not mentioned to toddlers or young teens.

The imagery of combat and sex in video and print and talk invades the minds and conquers the heart and soul by every intrusion into the lives of our growing children and the workplaces and shopping places of every adult. Philandering weak sunday-christians wander six-days and twenty-three hours in the filth of the world without the purity of Christ. Oh, the subtlety of Satan to have christians accept evil as normal and reject Christ’s righteousness as abhorrent witness to a fallen world.

Satan’s advances through cellphones , i-pods, cartoons; by television and radio into every place of work and business; and the filtering of Christ and God from every tolerance of the world goes well beyond what was considered proper and acceptable to any man or woman or child, let alone a Christian struggling to mute the evil messages and cover the obscene sights of our everyday life in the world of these last days.

The temple prostitutes of Ephesus had nothing on those of this day who live for the moment of their next hook-up and share in the desires of the flesh against which the letter cautions Christians so vehemently. Some of these now do even claim Christ on an occasional Sunday, while the world knows they covet the buzz of the moment and relationship of the night.

Ephesians 5

New King James Version (NKJV)
Walk in Love

Therefore be imitators of God as dear children. 2 And walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma.

3 But fornication and all uncleanness or covetousness, let it not even be named among you, as is fitting for saints; 4 neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor coarse jesting, which are not fitting, but rather giving of thanks. 5 For this you know, that no fornicator, unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. 6 Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience.7 Therefore do not be partakers with them.

Walk in Light

8 For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light 9 (for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, righteousness, and truth), 10 finding out what is acceptable to the Lord. 11 And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them.12 For it is shameful even to speak of those things which are done by them in secret. 13 But all things that are exposed are made manifest by the light, for whatever makes manifest is light. 14 Therefore He says:

“Awake, you who sleep,
Arise from the dead,
And Christ will give you light.”

Walk in Wisdom

15 See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, 16 redeeming the time, because the days are evil.

17 Therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is. 18 And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation; but be filled with the Spirit, 19 speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord, 20 giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, 21 submitting to one another in the fear of God.

Marriage—Christ and the Church

22 Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. 23 For the husband is head of the wife, as also Christ is head of the church; and He is the Savior of the body. 24 Therefore, just as the church is subject to Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything.

25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her, 26 that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, 27 that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish. 28 So husbands ought to love their own wives as their own bodies; he who loves his wife loves himself. 29 For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as the Lord does the church. 30 For we are members of His body, of His flesh and of His bones. 31 “For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” 32 This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church.33 Nevertheless let each one of you in particular so love his own wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.

Is marriage not under attack?

By women divorcing their Christian husbands? By adultery of husbands who claim Christ? By re-definition of twenties and teens “in a relationship,” before never being in a commitment by their words and their true acts of true love?

Why not re-define marriage in the courts to conform to the sinful desires of sinful man?

Oh, ‘single mom’ and lustful man: it is not the husband or wife of your vows you witness against. Your sin and witness is against Christ Jesus by claiming His Name, while living the subtle lies of the life of your flesh!

When David sinned and was finally convicted after a year, he repented and did all he could to get right before God once more.

Psalm 51:

4 Against You, You only, have I sinned,
And done this evil in Your sight—

Therefore, forgive the sinner

And repent you fellow sinner

For the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ

And for the redemption of your sinking soul.

2 Timothy 3

English Standard Version (ESV)
Godlessness in the Last Days

3 But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty.

2 For people will be:

lovers of self,

lovers of money,

proud,

arrogant,

abusive,

disobedient to their parents,

ungrateful, unholy,

heartless,

unappeasable (impossible to satisfy),

slanderous,

without self-control,

brutal,

not loving good,

treacherous,

reckless,

swollen with conceit,

(And occasional sunday-christians unrepentant, take note of these:)

lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God,

having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power.

AND the advice of the letter to the Church?
Avoid such people.

Redeem your time spent so foolishly with non-Christians and unbelievers; but AVOID those who CLAIM Christ Jesus, while living a pagan and unbelieving life of witness against Christ and His bride, the Church.

6 For among them are those who creep into households and capture weak women, burdened with sins and led astray by various passions, 7 always learning and never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth…

12 Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, 13 while evil people and impostors will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.

Remove your shades of the blind man,

O you christian distracted by the world.

Remove Satan’s loud ear buds

From pounding the evil in your ears.

Hear once more the Gospel.

Receive the love of our Redeemer.

Turn again and follow once more

Christ Jesus, our Lord;

Redeeming your time,

For the days are evil.
February 11, 2014