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.
Today, in the first of a 2-part look at ordinary men chosen as extraordinary Prophets speaking for God, we will glance briefly at Moses and Elijah.
Prophets Before Christ
Recall that true Prophets of God speak for the LORD God.
NOT every man who claims to be a be a Prophet of God truly speaks God’s word. Nor is every mortal who speaks a prophesy of God is a worshiper of the LORD.
And not every prophesy of a true Prophet is an oracle into the future or an eschatological look into the fulfillment of days.
Yet many prophesies do point us to places and times not yet seen by any man but the appointed Prophet of the LORD.
The Prophet Moses
What could be more prophetic than the written words of the man who encountered the 'I AM' speaking the very commands of the Almighty?
Moses brought the Law – the very words of the LORD – to the Hebrew people.
The LORD had called Moses, age eighty to lead the Hebrews out from Egypt. Moses was 120 years old as the Hebrews prepared to cross the Jordan.
Before he led them from bondage in Egypt into Arabia for forty year prior to crossing the Jordan into Canaan, Moses instructed God’s chosen in the LORD’s ways and means of redemption.
So Moses went and spoke these words to all Israel.
“It is Yahweh your God who will cross ahead of you..
Yet the LORD instructs Moses with a prophecy of what the Hebrews will surly do:
a Prophesy through Moses:
.. and this people will arise and play the harlot with the foreign gods of the land, into the midst of which they are going, and they will forsake Me and break My covenant which I have cut with them.
“Then My anger will be kindled against them in that day, and I will forsake them and hide My face from them, and they will be consumed…
Deuteronomy 31:16c-17a LSB
When the Most High gave the nations their inheritance, when He divided the sons of man,He set the boundaries of the peoples according to the number of the sons of God.
This general reference to humanity and God's 'chosen' would be worthy of your separate study, but we cannot cover it here.
from Canaan to Babylon
Let’s go quickly across the Jordan through the years(centuries, really)with the chosen sons until fulfillment of a foreseen time of Hebrew prophesy from Babylon.
In order to move so quickly we must overlook and pass many important scriptural milestones.
Moving past Joshua,
the capture of much of the promised land
14th c. B.C.
a time of the Judges
14th-11th c. B.C.
a king of the people (Saul)
11th c. B.C.
David King of Judah united with Israel
David united Israel and Judah
~1000 B.C.
Solomon expands his influence back to Egypt and east to Babylon and beyond
973-931 B.C.
then, a civil war between Solomon’s sons and their heirs,
A quick glance at the timeline below will reveal the book of 1 KINGS where we will find Elijah’s story.
Old Testament Books timeline
The Prophet Elijah
~870 B.C. – 849 B.C.
Later, as prophesied:
defeat of ISRAEL the Northern Kingdom
722 B.C.
eventual fall of JUDAH the Southern Kingdom…
586 B.C.
The Man of God
The LORD sent powerful Prophets to both Israel and Judah during a divisive time when most every leader (king) “did what was evil in the sight of the LORD.”
This includes EVERY KING of ISRAEL for a little more than 200 years !
Wouldn’t a NATION claiming GOD repent — when confronted by the man of God showing great signs and even raising a man from the dead?
Furthermore the Kings of JUDAH fared no better in their 334 years with only eight of twenty kings who “did right in the eyes of the LORD.”
Elijah was a man of God WARNING the evil LEADERS of a NATION.
Taking a brief stop on our timeline Before Christ, we proceed past Moses and beyond the break-up of the Kingdom of David to a time of evil kings infamously represented by King Ahab of Israel who reigned for about twenty years from 874 B.C. until 853 B.C. when he was killed in battle.
Jezebel, the King's wife - arguably a head of Ahab - also proved infamous with her own evil legacy.
Elijah’s Prophetic proofs:
Now Elijah the Tishbite, from the Gilead settlers, said to Ahab,
“As the LORD God of Israel lives, in whose presence I stand, there will be no dew or rain during these years except by my command! ”
The severest of droughts - over one thousand dry days in the land - people and animals will die.
Elijah left and lived at the Wadi Cherith where it enters the Jordan.
1 Kings 17:4b CSB
So Elijah got up and went to Zarephath. When he arrived at the city gate, there was a widow gathering wood…
But she said, “As the LORD your God lives, I don’t have anything baked — only a handful of flour in the jar and a bit of oil in the jug. Just now, I am gathering a couple of sticks in order to go prepare it for myself and my son so we can eat it and die.”
1 Kings 17:10a, 12 CSB
Drought. Famine everywhere — and for days upon end.
Have you ever considered the gravity of the fragile mortal lives of those already suffering under the evil reign of Jezebel and Ahab?
But a miracle of God through Elijah: the widow’s flour and food never ran out. But then —
Her son becomes ill and dies. (Probably a common occurrence in these desperate conditions of a three year drought.)
She said to Elijah, “Man of God, what do you have against me?
Have you come to call attention to my iniquity so that my son is put to death? ”
That’s some accusation from the widow who has just lost her only son. Yet note the widow’s contrite acceptance of God’s authority to punish sin (iniquity).
עָוֹן
Note the long list of Scriptures [above] from the Law of Moses (beginning with Cain) pointing to punishment for our iniquity.
Elijah raises the widow’s son from the dead!
He cried out to the LORD and said, “LORD my God, please let this boy’s life come into him again! ”
So the LORD listened to Elijah, and the boy’s life came into him again, and he lived.
Then the woman said to Elijah, “Now I know you are a man of God and the LORD’s word from your mouth is true.”
A Son of David, theSon of Man, rides victoriously into Jerusalem now captive of Rome, challenging Jerusalem’s leaders to a duel to the death –
+ His +
–for the redemption of sinners.
“King Jesus, King Jesus, King Jesus, Hosanna!, they cry out…
And within a few days their KING of the JEWS will be crucified on a Roman cross.
An Uplifting Recollection
The Son of Man walked once more toward a familiar hillside covered with an olive grove.
What must Jesus have recalled as the Lord approached Gethsemane with His eleven dear friends one last time?
Remember?
After six days Jesus took Peter, James, and John and led them up a high mountain by themselves to be alone. He was transfigured in front of them, and his clothes became dazzling — extremely white as no launderer on earth could whiten them.
Elijah appeared to them with Moses, and they were talking with Jesus.
“always connotes the ideas ofinvisibility and of power. ..it is in fact an after-Pentecost word.
the activities Godward of regenerate men are ‘spiritual sacrifices,’ 1Pe 2:5; their appointed activities in the churches are also called ‘spiritual gifts,’ lit., ‘spiritualities,’ 1Cr 12:1; 14:1;
Vine’s Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words Adjective Strong’s Number: g4152 Greek: pneumatikos
Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I would not have you ignorant.
I want to begin HERE by proceeding with the Apostle’s letter to the church in Corinth because SPIRITUAL GIFTS seem not only mysterious, but frequently misused in preaching and therefore confusing to Christians growing in our faith.
So in addition to working our way through 1 Corinthians 12 we will also examine and hopefully clarify the context of these spiritualities of which the Apostle writes throughout his epistle.
The Corinthian connection of Spiritualities
Now concerning spiritual gifts, brothers, I do not want you to be ignorant.
You know that when you were pagans, to mute idols you were led, as being carried away.
Therefore I make known to you that no one speaking in the Spirit of God says, “Jesus is accursed,”
and no one is able to say, “Jesus is Lord,” if not in the Holy Spirit.
Ignorant?
21st century Common Era christians don't use such offensive self-evaluation of ANYONE in our church, do we? Yet the Apostle Paul did in asking church members to examine themselves.
We may eventually acknowledge what we formerly did not know or did not understand. But how we avoid confession of current err and continuing sin.
Yet the Apostle consistently corrects the Corinthian church in these things pointing to Christ in a Spiritual sense:
For I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud and all passed through the sea; and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea; and all ate the same spiritual food; and all drank the same spiritual drink, for they were drinking from a spiritual rock which followed them, and the rock was Christ.
1 Corinthians 10:1-4 :: Legacy Standard Bible (LSB)
Now to each is given the manifestation of the Spirit, for the common profiting.
For truly, to one is given a word of wisdom by the Spirit, and to another a word of knowledge according to the same Spirit, and to a different one faith by the same Spirit, and to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, and to another working of miracles, and to another prophecy, and to another distinguishing of spirits, and to a different one various kinds of tongues, and to another interpretation of tongues.
Now one and the same the Spirit works all these things, apportioning individually to each as He wills.
From his call by Jesus Christ after the Lord's resurrection and consequent authority 'through the will of God' the Apostle Paul will proceed to instruct Christ's body (the Church, as he will illustrate) in the humility and nature of the gifts of their spiritualities.
And God G2316 hath set some in the church, first apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, governments, diversities of tongues.
Throughout his letter Paul reveals the unseen unfolding mysteries of Christ through the Spirit of the Triune God.
The Corinthian saints are no more like the communities in which they live who have spiritualities of their own.
Were the communities and spiritualities of Corinth so different from our own 21st century C.E. gatherings and communions which include all with great diversity, yet with considerable ignorance of the Spirit?
And there are differences of administrations, but the same Lord.
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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)
