The following Scriptural Rerun, although not a part of our current Apostolic Faith SERIES, will provide additional context for our look at the Gospel of John written about five years before the Elder's Epistles.
READ any post linked below from our 2020 SERIES from the Gospel of John
Scriptural exposition in the context of A.D. 85-90,
19 March AD2020 Churches ordered closed..while during recent months:
some sought to stream the stage of worship
some sent seeker-friendly scripture into our homes
some church communities disintegrated while others diminished & distanced (like our 2020 remote office meetings complete with slides).
To review the Gospel of John, simply click on any link in the outline below& it will open in a new window.
Roger – author of A.D. 2020 series on the Gospel ‘Good NEWS’ of John
I hope you were blessed by the secure links to reliable sites for further study of Scripture, as well as insight into the 1st century church of John’s Gospel (written ~A.D.- 90).
IN THE BEGINNING was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God.
ALL THINGS came into being through Him, and apart from Him not even one thing came into being that has come into being. In Him was life, and the life was the Light of
MANKIND.
And the Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not grasp it.
14 And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us; and we saw His glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
The Book of the Prologue
John’s Prologue [1:1-18], from which the Apostle next proceeds to the testimony of John the Baptist and the Messiah’s calling of the Twelve, states many important theological themes & along with his Epilogue [21:1-25 {linked below}] provides additional depth of purpose of John’s Gospel.
‘My Father’s House – John 2“You must be born again.I am the Messiah – John 4Before Abraham was, I AM John 11“..and he who hates his life in this world will keep it to life eternal.also love one another-John 13Jesus prays – John 17Jesus answered him – John 19:11 Jesus said:
Gospel of John
“Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! – John 1:29b
As Jesus passed by, He saw a man who had been blind from birth. – John 9:1
Are you greater than our father Abraham who died? And the prophets died. Who do you claim to be?” – John 8:53
“But you do not believe because you are not of My sheep.
My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me;
and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand. – John 10:26-28
Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise from the dead.”
.. “I am the resurrection and the life; the one who believes in Me will live, even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die.
Hear all the unrelenting bad news of yesterday or today or any future year in the Common Era of these last days.
For followers of Jesus, His death diminished life’s hope in eternal life;
that is, until the GOOD NEWS of the Lord’s resurrection reached the eyes and ears and touch of His dearly beloved friends.
John and the Disciples witnessed the Lord Jesus in His Risen Flesh several times after His resurrection, as had hundreds of other disciples also seen their risen Christ!
but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name.
And when He had said this, He showed them both His hands and His side. The disciples then rejoiced when they saw the Lord.
John 20:20
Their sorrow had turned into joy and so must ours; for in Christ Jesus his disciples of every generation have eternal life through His sacrifice for our sins. This is our Gospel, John’s Good News to those who would believe.
John’s Epilogue
John 20:30 Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples that are not written in this book.
But these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.
John 20:21 CSB
Go in Peace and Believe
I pray that the Lord has blessed you through the Gospel of John in A.D. 2020 and now I might add, the Good NEWS of John by God’s grace continuing these last days in 2023 of the Common Era ..
May our Lord Jesus Christ
draw you into His grace,
giving you new hope of Eternal Life in the remaining years of our Common Era of 2023 and beyond if it is God's will,in the Name of the Father and the Son Christ JESUS, Who IS and Was and will judge all things when the Lord returns, and the Holy Spirit who sustains saved sinners in these last days.
AMEN.
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?
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 Himdon’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:
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?
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?
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.)
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.
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.
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?
Some children (it seems) never say ‘I’m SORRY,’ after they do bad things to you. But I know that you do because you are a kind child of God.
Sound familiar? The parental leading or teacher’s prayer of repentance for your unkind words?
“Be kind to one another, BEFORE you must repent.”
A Lenten Short Take on Scripture
That’s NOT in the Bible, is it?
No, not in those exact words but this advice to the children of the Lord God resounds throughout the Bible.
Some of us have been thinking about Lent as a time we should pray for forgiveness for all of our shortcomings — sins of commission and omission — things we have said that we ought not to have said..
Sins of ours for which JESUS was NAILED TO THE CROSS!
Yet wouldn’t we do better to behave a Christ?
To act like JESUS in our relationships with others?
Kindness OR Repentance?
Be kind to one another, compassionate, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you.
What were your most recent unkind words for which you must repent?
If our hearts would only have heeded the wise words of Scripture prior to allowing our tongues spew out unkind darts toward another, then our repentance and I’m sorries would not have been so required this day.
When it is My desire,
I will discipline them..
Sow for yourselves, with a view to righteousness; Harvest in accordance with kindness. Break up your uncultivated ground, For it is time to seek the LORD Until He comes and rains righteousness on you.
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![“He who loves his [fn]life loses it, and he who hates his [fn]life in this world will keep it to life eternal.](https://talkofjesus.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/triumphal-entry.jpg)
