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Tag: witness

  • for our God is a consuming fire

    for our God is a consuming fire

    Hebrews 12:18 For you have not come to what may be touched, a blazing fire and darkness and gloom and a tempest 19 and the sound of a trumpet and a voice whose words made the hearers beg that no further messages be spoken to them.

    22 But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, 23 and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, 24 and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant…

    25 See that you do not refuse him who is speaking.

    For if they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, much less will we escape if we reject him who warns from heaven.

    26 At that time his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised, “Yet once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens.”

    … thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, 29 for our God is a consuming fire.

    How much reverence and awe do you have for God Almighty?

    Do you, dear believer, sometimes fail to remember in fear and trembling the Power of the risen Lord, Christ Jesus?

    (It is no wonder that Jesus greeted fearful Apostles with the assurance: “Peace.”)

    It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. – Hebrews 10:21

    The Disciples finally realized that Jesus had not established God’s Kingdom in Jerusalem at the time He entered its gates prior to His crucifixion; yet the Apostles knew that Jesus will return on the clouds as Judge of the Heavens and earth!

    Prior to becoming Disciples of Jesus, some were disciples of John the Baptist who had preached:

    Matthew 3:

    10 Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.

    11 “I baptize you with water for repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.

    12 His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”

    If the burning fire of the conquering Christ was prepared by John; if the burning fire of the conquering Jesus was prepared by the Cross; if the Judgment and Kingdom were close at hand; then how much nearer now? You with ears to hear, hear.

    Jesus’ Disciples wanted to know when, but the Lord would not reveal it.  Never-the-less as Jesus rose into the clouds promising His return, the Disciples were filled with awe and reverence for the risen Son of Man.

    Well they knew all of what our Lord Jesus had warned and cautioned:

    John 15:6 If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned.

    Luke 24:51 While he blessed them, he parted from them and was carried up into heaven. 52 And they worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy, 53 and were continually in the temple blessing God.

     

     

  • Until He Was Taken Up – 3

    Until He Was Taken Up – 3

    It’s evening. Cleopas and another disciple of Jesus have left Jerusalem, broken bread with a fellow sojourner in Emmaus. The risen Jesus is revealed in the breaking of the bread. They return to Jerusalem with the Good News.

    Luke 24:

    And they found the eleven and those who were with them gathered together, 34 saying, “The Lord has risen indeed, and has appeared to Simon!”

    (Women have seen the empty tomb. The women ran to the Apostles Simon Peter and John with the Good News the empty tomb. They witnessed the empty tomb and embalming linens, then returned to their own home. Mary has wrapped her arms around her risen Lord, whose crucified body she had partially wrapped in the linens of death.)

    35 Then they (Cleopas and the disciple who had stopped in Emmaus) told what had happened on the road, and how he was known to them in the breaking of the bread.

    36 As they were talking about these things, Jesus himself stood among them, and said to them, “Peace to you!”

    37 But they were startled and frightened and thought they saw a spirit.

    38 And he said to them, “Why are you troubled, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? 39 See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself.

    Touch me, and see. For a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.”

    40 And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet.

    41 And while they still disbelieved for joy and were marveling, he said to them, “Have you anything here to eat?” 42 They gave him a piece of broiled fish, 43 and he took it and ate before them.

    44 Then he said to them, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.”

    45 Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, 46 and said to them,

    “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, 47 and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.

    48 You are witnesses of these things.

  • The Ascension

    The Ascension

    Acts 1:3 He presented himself alive to them after his suffering by many proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God.

    4 And while staying with them he ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which, he said, “you heard from me; 5 for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.”

    The crucified and risen Christ Jesus walked with, ate with, and instructed the disciples for more than a month.

    We know that Jesus spent these precious forty days not only instructing the Apostles how to take the Gospel into all the world, but also instructing other true disciples of the early church.

    1 Corinthians 15: … Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, 5 and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve.

    6 Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time…

    Jesus’ instruction to the Apostles, now to be led in unity of Christ’s purpose by Peter, would have been frequent and private as He had done throughout His three-year incarnate mission leading to the Cross.

    These same Apostles had witnessed Jesus transfigured and standing with Moses and Elijah. These same Apostles had witnessed the love and power of hundreds of miracles. These same Apostles had witnessed Jesus (and then Peter briefly) walking on the Sea of Galilee!

    The Apostles, disciples of the Way, Jews and Romans had witnessed His horrific crucifixion; and now more than five hundred had witnessed Jesus’ glorious resurrection.

    Acts 1:6 So when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?”

    7 He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority. 8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

    9 And when he had said these things, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight.

    road-to-emmaus10 And while they were gazing into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes, 11 and said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven?

    This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.”

    The Power and Majesty of God Almighty: once again evident to mere mortal men.

    MapBethanyJerusalemReturning to Luke’s description of Jesus’ ascension in his first scroll:

    Luke 24:

    48 You are witnesses of these things. 49 And behold, I am sending the promise of my Father upon you. But stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.”

    50 Then he led them out as far as Bethany, and lifting up his hands he blessed them.

    51 While he blessed them, he parted from them and was carried up into heaven.

    52 And they worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy, 53 and were continually in the temple blessing God.