WE THE PEOPLE do NOT like to be told what WE have done wrong.
You may claim in the public square that your ‘ONE NATION’ is ‘under god,’ but what if its leaders never listen to the Lord God, let alone obey?
Prophets, false prophets, anti-Christs and demagogues all deliberate in the public square. Yet like nations before, WE THE PEOPLE will wail at our destruction while stopping up our ears to Truth.
WE tend to avoid the PROPHETIC BOOKS of the #Bible, God’s Holy Word.
The prophets were extremely nationalistic. They rebuked sin in high as well as low places. They warned the nation. They pleaded with a proud people to humble themselves and return to God.
Amos’ name means “burden” or “burden-bearer.”
A “sheepbreeder” (1:1; cf. 2 Kin. 3:4) and a “tender of sycamore fruit” .. Politically, it was a time of prosperity
Amos addresses Israel’s two primary sins: 1) an absence of true worship, and 2) a lack of justice.
Source: Commentary of John Macarthur
(As you can see, I shared a brief series from Amos as recently as March 2020.) Did you Comment on it in the ‘public square’ of your Social Media?
Stephen commented on Amos in the public square of his trial in Jerusalem eight centuries later!
ACTS of a first century Martyr (who also quotes Amos)
Did you have any thoughts to SHARE your witness for the Lord in the public square of #twitter or Facebook for any Scripture from this series in ACTS of the Apostles?
But let justice roll on like a river, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.
From the footstool of one shot on 15 April, 1865, to the steps of a Nation yet divided seven score and sixteen years hence, WE neither remember nor proclaim the Lord WE claim.
The Lord Jesus does NOT instruct followers to ‘love the world’ (as God so loved-the world…), but HIS first NEW commandment is to LOVE ONE ANOTHER.
Jesus asks the Apostles who have been together for three years as a church, iterate followers in community with and taught by the Lord Jesus, to love one another.
We know from story after story how competitive His Disciples are, but now that Jesus will return to the Father His command is that they MUST love each other.
Church
Previously we examined the possibility of who Jesus commanded in:
We may also point ahead to more obvious application of his warning to the church of these last days.
Have you ever really met the ‘christians’ who come to your church?
It’s really difficult in this impersonal 21st century #social environment!
Our relationship to others of the Church pales by comparison to the close personal relationships of the Apostles to each other or even that of the saints of the first century church. Yet have we, the church’ possibly missed a relational community commanded by the Lord Jesus?
Let’s first look to a definition of church and scriptural application.
from ek, “out of,” and klesis, “a calling” (kaleo, “to call”), was used among the Greeks of a body of citizens “gathered” to discuss the affairs of State, Act 19:39. In the Sept. it is used to designate the “gathering” of Israel, summoned for any definite purpose, or a “gathering” regarded as representative of the whole nation. In Act 7:38 it is used of Israel; in 19:32, 41, of a riotous mob. It has two applications to companies of Christians, (a) to the whole company of the redeemed throughout the present era, the company of which Christ said, “I will build My Church,” Mat 16:18, and which is further described as “the Church which is His Body,” Eph 1:22; 5:23,
(b) in the singular number (e.g., Mat 18:17, RV marg., “congregation”), to a company consisting of professed believers, e.g., Act 20:28; 1Cr 1:2; Gal 1:13; 1Th 1:1; 2Th 1:1; 1Ti 3:5, and in the plural, with reference to churches in a district.
Since “It has two applications to companies of Christians, it’s worth restating from this definition of church:
(a) to the whole company of the redeemed throughout the present era, the company of which Christ said, “I will build My Church,”Mat 16:18, and which is further described as “the Church which is His Body,”Eph 1:22; 5:23,
(b) in the singular number (e.g., Mat 18:17, RV marg., “congregation“), to a company consisting of professed believers, e.g., Act 20:28; 1Cr 1:2; Gal 1:13; 1Th 1:1; 2Th 1:1; 1Ti 3:5
Church briefly defined then is:
ALL of the CHURCH, every true follower of Jesus, Master and Teacher of the Church.
EACH true believer joined to the CHURCH personally, relationally, locally and beyond all measure of both distance and time.
This is the Church which the Lord Jesus commands by saying, “Love one another, as I have loved you.”
We are called to Him, therefore we are called into relationship with Jesus AND His church.
And we are called out – to take His love, visible to seekers of the Lord in His Body the Church, the Personal Love of Jesus in the Holy Spirit by which He builds us into His eternal love.
A New Commandment
John’s Gospel builds the case of Jesus’ Authority, questioned by the Jews to whom He was sent.
Before addressing Jesus’ New Commandment given to the Disciples just after the last supper, take a brief look at His explanation about His obedience to God the Father.
A Chain of Command from the Father
John 10 & 12:
“I am the good shepherd, and I know My own and My own know Me…
… they will hear My voice; and they will become one flock with one shepherd.
… the Father loves Me, because I lay down My life so that I may take it again…
I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This commandment I received from My Father.”
excerpt John 10 NASB
And Jesus cried out and said, “He who believes in Me, does not believe in Me but in Him who sent Me. He who sees Me sees the One who sent Me.
John 12:44-45 NASB
49 “For I did not speak on My own initiative, but the Father Himself who sent Me has given Me a commandment as to what to say and what to speak.
50 “I know that His commandment is eternal life; therefore the things I speak, I speak just as the Father has told Me.”
John’s Gospel has already set the scene for Jesus’ New Commandment. Let the church hear what our Master and Teacher Christ Jesus says to the church.
By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
John 13:34 CSB
Beloved believer, does everyone know that Christ Jesus is your Teacher and friend? Does the world see your Lord and Savior by your love for one another of His Church?
Are you truly, my fellow saint, a disciple of Jesus?
Do you and Christ’s Church love one another?(And remember, they know us by our love of one another or deny Christ by our lack of love for each other).
“Do not let your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me.
6 Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you know me, you will also know my Father. From now on you do know him and have seen him.”
10 Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on My own initiative, but the Father abiding in Me does His works. Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me…
“If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.
John 14:15 NASB
The Spirit of Obedience
Witness by the Holy Spirit of the LORD
Recall that John’s Good News of Jesus Christ, the Apostle’s Gospel of witness begins before time:
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
2 The same was in the beginning with God.
The Apostle John was first a young disciple of John the Baptist, known to many as a Prophet of God. John witnesses:
32 John testified saying, “I have seen the Spirit descending as a dove out of heaven, and He remained upon Him. I did not recognize Him, but He who sent me to baptize in water said to me, ‘He upon whom you see the Spirit descending and remaining upon Him, this is the One who baptizes in the Holy Spirit.’
34 I myself have seen, and have testified that this is the Son of God.”
John also opens his Gospel testifying to the Authority of Jesus through the same Holy Spirit of the Lord God.
Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
34 For He whom God has sent speaks the words of God; for He gives the Spirit without measure.
35 The Father loves the Son and has given all things into His hand. He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.”
Do you hear the Spirit of Truth?
“… but he who does not obey the Son will not see life!…
Do you, beloved disciple of the risen Lord Jesus recall this?
Do we, HIS CHURCH, have ears to hear Christ’s commandment to the Church – “Love one another, as I have loved you:” is this not for us?
Verily, verily, you may know is a Hebrew tool of emphasis by saying something twice, here meaning truly, truly. The youngest of Jesus’ Jewish Apostles now emphasizes the strong personal relationship of our Lord’s NEW COMMANDMENT a third time.
Here was John recalling this most important time preceding Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection. Do you recall the intimicy of this setting in the upper room?
John 13:
So when He had washed their feet, and taken His garments and reclined at the table again, He said to them, “Do you know what I have done to you?
“You call Me Teacher and Lord; and you are right, for so I am…
“Truly, truly, I say to you, a slave is not greater than his master, nor is one who is sent greater than the one who sent him.
John 13:16 NASB
There was reclining on Jesus’ bosom one of His disciples, whom Jesus loved… He, leaning back thus on Jesus’ bosom, said to Him, “Lord, who is it?”
This is the Apostle John, youngest of the Lord’s young Disciples, laying at Jesus’ breast as they all reclined at table. Consider what John means to have recalled Jesus’ emphasis on a New Commandment to love one another.
THE KING OF THE JEWS is about to become the SACRIFICE for sin on a Cross in Jerusalem!
Prophesy of Isaiah
Therefore, hear the word of the LORD, O scoffers, Who rule this people who are in Jerusalem…
Therefore thus says the Lord GOD, “Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a tested stone, A costly cornerstone for the foundation, firmly placed. He who believes in it will not be disturbed.
And Jesus said of the church:
… upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades will not overpower it.
Jesus, of Simon Son of John, who the Lord then called ‘Peter’ or ‘the rock’ – Matthew 16:18b
In the intimacy of an upper room meal with the Lord Jesus, who had washed the Disciples feet, it was Simon Peter who motioned to John to ask Jesus who His betrayer would be. Judas departs then the Lord COMMANDS three times that they must LOVE ONE ANOTHER.
This is My Command
12 “This is my command: Love one another as I have loved you.
13 No one has greater love than this: to lay down his life for his friends.
14 You are my friends if you do what I command you…
Are you, beloved, a friend of the Lord Jesus? And do you, fellow disciple, love one another – His Church?
“This is what I command you: Love one another. “If the world hates you, understand that it hated me before it hated you.
Comman and encouragement of the Lord Jesus – John 15:17-18 CW
‘He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’
The Revelation of Jesus Christ to John (numerous times)
I mentioned previously in “Jesus said,” that God’s love for the world to which the Lord came in the Person of the Messiah is conditional.
The same Disciple John who witnessed John 3:16 continues by urging us to also love Jesus. In other words, you must follow Him.
John 3:36 The one who believes in the Son has eternal life, but the one who rejects the Son will not see life; instead, the wrath of God remains on him.
God is NOT for everyone. Some will continue to choose sin until their death of the flesh and accounting of their soul.
Our choice, not a command
Whoever serves me must follow me; and where I am, my servant also will be. My Father will honor the one who serves me.
The words of the Messiah Jesus from the Good News of John 12:26 NIV
But since you do not believe what he [מֹשֶׁה] wrote, how are you going to believe what I say?” – John 5:47
Not so good news for any who do not believe Jesus IS the Messiah, Christ, the only Son of the Father God.
We have a choice from the LORD.
Will we believe the Good News (Gospel) that Jesus came to the world to save sinners like you and me?
Though we may choose to wander in the darkness in our mortal days, like in Eden, we cannot hide our sin in the guise of good acts. For excuses cannot clothe our malice toward the LORD God and the Person of His only Son, Christ Jesus.
He sacrificed His body and blood for our sins.
The LORD God Eternal will judge the dust of our flesh and harvest our souls in the Court of the Supreme Judge of Heaven!
And I saw another angel flying in midheaven, having an eternal gospel to preach to those who live on the earth, and to every nation and tribe and tongue and people; and he said with a loud voice,
“Fear God, and give Him glory, because the hour of His judgment has come; worship Him who made the heaven and the earth and sea and springs of waters.”
Do we understand that the meaning of Revelation is akin to the same revealing of the sin of man to the Person of God in earthly Eden?
Revelation or ‘apocalypsis‘ is literally:
laying bare, making naked
a disclosure of truth, instruction
concerning things before unknown
used of events by which things or states or persons hitherto withdrawn from view are made visible to all
manifestation, appearance
“Follow me,” Jesus asks of us (for this ever-so-brief mortal life). Yet the judgement reminds our souls the consequence of refusing God’s grace. Jesus cautions us:
“Now judgment is upon this world; now the ruler of this world will be cast out. And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to Myself.”
John 12:31-32 NASB
(Need a context for His conditional argument?) READ John 3:14-15
So what must I do?
One question the Person of Jesus answers is posed by a man who approached this teacher of the Jews and gentiles alike asking:
“Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life? ”
Jesus answers Personally and individually. Now the Person of the Holy Spirit speaks to each soul of those called to eternal life.
Your response must be more than “I believe in Jesus.” We must heed the calling of the Lord to “follow Me.”
The Lord Jesus speaks to Andrew and John, both disciples of John the Baptist who heard him say of Jesus, “Behold, the Lamb of God!”
When Jesus turned and noticed them following him, he asked them, “What are you looking for?” They said to him, “Rabbi” (which means “Teacher”), “where are you staying?”
Again and again we hear the same answer (though our sinful self may not have had ears to hear the Lord before).
The following day Jesus wanted to go to Galilee, and He found Philip and said to him, “Follow Me.”
John 1:43 NKJV
Philip became an Apostle & disciple of Jesus not by believing in the Lord and living his mortal life as he always had done. Rather he followed Jesus and would later die as his ‘Christian Social Witness’ to the world.
“My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.
“If anyone serves Me, let him follow Me; and where I am, there My servant will be also. If anyone serves Me, him My Father will honor.
The words of the Messiah Jesus – John 10:27; 12:26 NKJV
Yet Jesus, Shepherd of the sheep and Sacrifice for their sins calls out to many.
“Follow me,” this gentle Lamb of God beckons to the humble of a first generation of followers and also the 21st century, in the year of our Lord 2020.
The Apostles following the Lord
Before His Sacrifice on the Cross for our sin, Jesus speaks to Peter about the difference between following Him by faith and also after the proof of His glorious resurrection from the grave.
Simon Peter said to Him, “Lord, where are You going?”
Jesus answered him, “Where I am going you cannot follow Me now, but you shall follow Me afterward.” – John 13:37 NKJV
John first witnesses Jesus teaching of His own death and resurrection, a message of death, which like us, the Apostles received with great difficulty.
Later John witnesses one of Peter’s encounters with the Lord after His resurrection. And what does Jesus ask of Peter once more?
Jesus said, “… Very truly I tell you, when you were younger you dressed yourself and went where you wanted; but when you are old…
Then he said to him, “Follow me!”
Jesus’ words to Peter after His resurrection – John 21:19b NIV
The risen Lord asks Peter (in effect), “Follow Me to the Cross.”
Are you willing to witness Jesus even to the death, knowing the certainty of resurrection in Him?
Following Jesus in A.D. 2020
What is your CHRISTIAN SOCIAL WITNESS for Christ Jesus?
Do your social ‘friends’ online hear Jesus in your social posts and see Jesus in the witness of online pictures of your daily mortal life?
Let’s Talk.
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SHARE the Gospel and talkofJesus.com in your social circles as you chat online about the ordinary stuff of our everyday mortal life.
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THANKS.
May the Lord shine His Light into your days ahead in the year of our Lord, Christ Jesus, 2020.
Roger
