Apart from the symbolic aspect of the gifts that the three wise men presented before infant Jesus the Gospel is replete with symbols so the similitude works as principle. "Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven,"in the Lord's prayer sets the rock compare heaven with the earth. Matthew presents the rock as a witness while Jesus presented the Sermon on the mount. He compares it to himself. "And whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken: but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder."(21:44) Parable of the wise builder is about the kingdom building to which his words bring those blessed of his Father before the foundation of the world. "Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock." (7:24)
The rock hewn tomb of Joseph of Arimathaea was foreordained. This Alpha aspect of Christ we can find Isaiah referring, "And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death."(Is.53:9). God refused Moses his request instead he showed the cleft in the rock and it refers the brightness of his Glory in his Son. Isaiah annotates why 'backparts' instead. It is the difference between the hole and the pit. "Hearken to me, ye that follow after righteousness, ye that seek the Lord: look unto the rock whence ye are hewn, and to the hole of the pit whence ye are digged." His glory was for those new creation who were buried with his Son and who live by faith.(Is.51:1;Ex.33:21-23)
In so many ways Gospel of St Matthew resonates with the everlasting covenant entered between God and Man than with his Jewish sensibilities as often made by Bible scholars.
For this reason Matthew begins the Book referring to the generation of Jesus Christthat is pendent on Ge.2:4. So when he tells, it is to the generation of vipers "Verily I say unto you, All these things shall come upon this generation."(23:36)
1:1 The first line encapsulates the generation of Jesus Christ which delineates the Alpha and Omega mode of the holiness of God. As provided for man his blessings surely are let in his Son. So he is the son of Abraham whom God blessed. (Ge.12:3). He is also the son of David whom God blessed by equal measure,"and I will stablish the throne of his kingdom for ever."(2 Sa.7:12). These blessings did not begin with Abraham but from the everlasting covenant. It is set down as the driver so both Gentiles and Israel are to be allowed in the Fellowship of God with Man.(Ge.1:28) This universality of the Word become flesh we see in the arrival of the Magi and his attitude towards the Gentile centurion. (8:10) He was looking for faith in the world before whom he appeared as the Apostle.
The Sermon on the Mount presents him state the holiness of His Father as perfect. "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect."(5:48) He shall prove with his life that it was doable. Blessings presented in this discourse carry for those who refused it. In Ch.23 his discourse 'Woe to ye' was condemnation to the nation that shortchanged Mercies of his Father for the traditions of their fathers. "Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers./Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell?"(23:30-31) The parables are a literary devise that the Spirit uses with telling effect to separate the chaff from the good seed. "And when the chief priests and Pharisees had heard his parables, they perceived that he spake of them."(21:45)
Fulfillment of the Scriptures is a notable feature of the Gospel so Alpha and Omega aspects of the kingdom of heaven keep the Son of man in the crosshairs from beginning till the end. Jesus began his ministry where the quote from isaiah served as a cue. "From that time Jesus began to preach, and to say, Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand."(4:14-17)
Dear Lord God, we come to You in prayer today asking that You heal Suzannes' back pain as You did mine. I pray that You will bless her with rigorous strength and health for the years to come. I pray that You bless her financially so that her needs will be met well without worry and trouble. You have made us rich in You in all things, and you told us to ask You for our daily needs. So we do that today for Suzanne, and all on this forum. Thank you for the way You have provided for us all of our lives and for Your goodness towards us. You are great and nothing is outside of Your control or providence, so we rest in You today, Maker of heaven and earth. We ask these things of You, Father, in the name of Your wonderful Son. Jesus. Amen.
"All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth"
Jesus came to fulfill the law. He was the Word become flesh. When he presented the doctrine of his Father he was presenting himself as its fulfillment. He said with vehemence what he as the Man the message would do. "For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled." His death was in dishonor but in his resurrection he proved the Power of the Word Simon Peter addressing men of Israel speaks,"Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain:/Whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death: because it was not possible that he should be holden of it."(Ac.2:23-24). He opened a new way, the path of righteousness. "But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption."(1 Co.1:30). All who followed him shall have a standard which is affixed by faith and not by praditions or by precepts of men. "For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven."
This is the power given to men.
"And, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen." Here we have a demonstration of what one means by Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and forever. Mark 16:18 supplied us signs and 'in my name' what happen. "They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them." St Paul in Malta proved the viper did not hurt him in fulfillment of the word. Elisha in Gilgal was told by sons of the prophets, "O thou man of God, there is death in the pot." They were not hurt because Jesus Christ was the fulfillment of the Law or the Word. (2 Ki.4:38-41) "I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending."
"And this saying is commonly reported among the Jews until this day."
Hypocrisy of the chief priests and elders is vile in that they profess faith, without backing it with their whole heart. "Forasmuch as this people draw near me with their mouth, and with their lips do honour me, but have removed their heart far from me, and their fear toward me is taught by the precept of men." (Is.29:13) They covenanted with Judas for a sum to destroy an innocent man. But they would not take what he returned. Knowing money as blood money they use it yet to buy silence from soldiers. Their respect for money was learned from the precepts of men. If this nation was a bundle of prejudices and shallow opinions what they really believed in? Their heart was like "a cage of every unclean and hateful bird" with least attention span to commune with God in truth and quietness, As soon as Moses turned his back they were urging Aaron "Up, make us gods, which shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we wot not what is become of him."(Ex,32:1) . When the ten spies brought back an evil report, they were so overwrought, "And wherefore hath the Lord brought us unto this land, to fall by the sword, that our wives and our children should be a prey? were it not better for us to return into Egypt?/And they said one to another, Let us make a captain, and let us return into Egypt."(Nu.14:3-4)
'Until this day' refers to the Son so what is written of him must be fulfilled as well as the kingdom appointed for him fill both heaven and the earth. " For it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell;/ And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven."(Col.1:19-20)
"All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth"
The Spirit in organizing the Alpha and Omega aspects of the Son brings out the word of God as true which is validated in his Son. The world made flesh and the word revealed by the humanity works equally well with all those who believe in him. An example we have in the Gospel of St Mark. In the last chapter the risen Christ gives the signs that shall follow the believers. It is valid only, 'in my name' for example "They shall take up serpents." ( Mark 16:18), the Spirit adds "And it shall not hurt them."
The Spirit gives us an example in the case of St Paul on the isle of Malta.
"And when Paul had gathered a bundle of sticks, and laid them on the fire, there came a viper out of the heat, and fastened on his hand./And when the barbarians saw the venomous beast hang on his hand, they said among themselves, No doubt this man is a murderer, whom, though he hath escaped the sea, yet vengeance suffereth not to live./And he shook off the beast into the fire, and felt no harm./Howbeit they looked when he should have swollen, or fallen down dead suddenly: but after they had looked a great while, and saw no harm come to him, they changed their minds, and said that he was a god." (Ac.28:3-6)
From lack of understanding with regards to the Holy Spirit and the purpose of the scripture there are some children of Belial in our times who handle serpents as a test of their spiritual prowess. Is God to be tempted by serpent handling?
v.1 End of sabbath and beginning of the Lord's Day.
Jesus' claim, "The Son of man is Lord even of the Sabbath" is shown to be true. (12:8) The Lord of the heavenly and he returns to the rest as was before. With regards to the Alpha and Omega provisions the scripture was fulfilled in him. "Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief." (He.4:11).He is the forerunner and our faith must be stedfast to enter into His rest.
v.2 "And, behold, there was a great earthquake" Angel descent from heaven has its consequential effect. Jesus gave up his Spirit while on the cross and the result was evident:the vail of the temple was torn from top to bottom.. A worldly man given to the ways of the world believe only his rational mind and the error of it we find in the conspiracy theories. The Spirit expressly gives evidence to the pre-eminence of the Son in the earthquake. No different than the darkness at noon at the hour of crucifixion. St Paul says, "And by him all things consist," and yet how man shall believe our report? "Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?"
vv.2-3 "And came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat upon it./ His countenance was like lightning, and his raiment white as snow" The Angel of the Lord or His presence refers to the same: the Word revealed. "But after I am risen again, I will go before you into Galilee"(26:32) More or less what Jesus had mentioned earlier. This is how the Spirit of Christ worked with holy men of old,- and the angel and man constitute a single measurement by truth.(Re.21:17) Thy word is truth, It is now demonstrated before the woman who were present that morning.
vv.8-9 They obeyed the angel and went back to tell the disciples, "behold, Jesus met them, saying, All hail. And they came and held him by the feet, and worshipped him."
A good example is likening God to a tap of water. We drink as much as we wish. We turn the tap as much as we want, The tap is there, the water is there, but we drink as much as we turn that tap. The more we turn it the more we drink. It is up to us. God is always there. As simple as that.
About the kids brother, the problem with kids nowadays is not only a matter of overprotectiveness and lack of punishment. I think it is mainly of what people teach to their children. On top of that nowadays kids get their standards in life, not from the family, or the church and the Word of God, but mostly from the internet. Often from the rich and famous, the celebrities, who usually are drug or alcohol addicts, violent (don't you see how the gangsters are heroized on TV?) with broken families where fornication and adultery are the usual thing. Sex and violence is what the Kkids eat nowadays. As there is no censorship on the net, kids see and learn all sort of weird things there and then spread them to others.
And as there are no borders nowadays the sin is propagating from one country to another very easily. Sin is like a virus, a spiritual covid, that goes from a place to another easily if there is nothing to stop it. And nowadays there is nothing to stop it. It is written that the people of the end times will be the worst of all times. And we see that in our countries, don't we?
Wel,l maybe I say the same thing as you do but with different words. GBU
Well, I understand love a bit different than you do. I believe that man's love and God's love are not different things. The difference is in the "quantity" of love. Man's love is finite. Depending on the person it can be "as much" as to "love themselves" ("philautia" is extreme love for oneself that leads to selfishness and lack of concern for other people), then love for their own, like their children, then love for their friends or relatives and as love increases a man can love more and more people. So love expands from loving myself (or not even myself) to love everybody else, even my enemies, people that make my life tough. So it is a matter of quantity (or quality). If we try to make a scale of love from zero to infinity, the far end is God's love, it is infinite, God is actually love. Somewhere inbetween, depending on the person, man's love can be placed. Even loving my enemy can be variable. Just think. Can I love one who swears at me? If yes, then can I love somebody who hurts me? If yes, can I love someone who hurts my child? If yes then can I love someone who killed my child? On a cross? And going even further can I love all people and give my son to death to save them? This is what God did for us. So you see there is a scale of love.
Since love originates from God and it is an aspect of His character, the only way one can increase their love for others is through God. The fruit of the Holy Spirit is, among others, love. So when one is filled with God's Spirit then their love increases. So it is something that is given by God's Spirit. There is no other way that we can love our enemies. A man who is not born again can never love their enemies, the most they could do is forget what they had done to them, but definitely not love them.
Inside the church firstly we learn how to love our brothers and sisters. When we realize that we lack in love we just have to go and ask God to provide love to us. We can not manage anything on our own.
Agape still comes from the Spirit; if I understand correctly it is equivalent to the fellowship or communion of the saints hence a commandment to love one another. It is part of His body; with Christ the head being the source of all things and the head of that body. I appreciate your expertise in Greek.
My point is as you can tell that all other loves in themselves have no inherent good in them without the Lord in control of us. It is like anything else in the sense that there is nothing bad in itself provided that God's laws are followed with a covenant marriage for instance in expressing the deepest human love. Even in that context; however when we allow any human passions to be in charge of our souls our sin nature utilizes these innate desires to steer us in the wrong way. The issue; of course is that there is no eternally lasting love that is in the human soul that can live outside of the life of Christ in us; and in 1 John 2:17 we see evidence of that truth. Doing the will of God is of course impossible ultimately in our human understanding. The world system for instance steers people toward a mindset that any punishment is too harsh and is judging someone and taking away their inherent value. Thus the innocent aren't vindicated and the guilty forced to deal up front with their issues and allow God's chastisement to take effect; which according to scripture can even lead believers to an early demise in taking communion unworthily; for instance. We can also look to the thief on the cross; his salvation came when dying for what he justly deserved which he himself stated to the other thief mocking Christ. Overprotectiveness for kids also is related at least in this country where kids who are spoiled and underworked find all kinds of trouble (drugs; sex; theft) rather than being in a household where there is a value of respect for parents; a work ethic; etc. Agape love presents the truth so one can be saved not make people content in sin.
The proper translation of that Hebrew word is "being feared". In the ancient times the mighty people were being feard, because they were poweful and could do to other people anything they wished. As you said it actually shows the power of God, the almighty God. The Bible says that God is love but He also is a "consuming fire" (Hebr 12:29)
"He went to Pilate, and begged the body of Jesus. Then Pilate commanded the body to be delivered." Joseph would have no need to seek permission to be buried in his own tomb. He walked an extra mile to revere the body of of his master. He was a believer with firm conviction. His action was similar to Mary who anointed the body of Jesus in preparation for burial.
The Spirit has in so many ways and in several instances what anyone did good because the word bore fruit in them. 'This seed in itself' (Ge.1:11) in the process brings the glory that Moses sought to the pit from which all saints in light owe, to use a mathematical term, their locus for their everlasting life.
"Hearken to me, ye that follow after righteousness, ye that seek theLord: look unto the rock whence ye are hewn, and to the hole of the pit whence ye are digged."(Is.51:1). Isaiah refers the natural man, who is earthy to have been dug up from a hole; on the hand whoever is created new in his Son is said to be hewn from the rock.
"And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground:(Ge.1:7) Flesh and blood shall not inherit the kingdom of heaven. So their locus is entirely different. Dust to dust and ashes to ashes is their testament. For those who are buried with Jesus in faith and abides with him the pit carries yet another inscription on their headstone:"And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God."( Job 19:26).
59 And when Joseph had taken the body, he wrapped it in a clean linen cloth,
60 And laid it in his own new tomb, which he had hewn out in the rock: and he rolled a great stone to the door of the sepulchre, and departed.
"Agape" is grk for "love", no matter where it comes from, God or man. There isn't any specific grk word for God's love.
"Philautia" is grk for "self love". It comes from the verb "philao" or "philo" which means "to love" and the noun "eautos" which means "self" (masc.). The modern word "auto" comes from this word, which means something that does something by itself, like an automatic machine. "Philao" is used for" love" between friends, hence "philos" is grk for "friend". "Storge" does not mean love but it is something that originates from love. The nearest Engl. word for it is "affection". It includes warm feelings, tenderness, care and love for another person. It is used for members of a family, mainly (if not only) from parents to children.
"When the even was come, there came a rich man of Arimathaea, named Joseph, who also himself was Jesus' disciple."
Joseph interring Jesus in his tomb earmarked for his own reminds us of Isaiah who foretold his burial. "And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death."(Is.53:9). There were two other malefactors on the cross. So the first part of the verse refers to them as well as to the rich man who let his own tomb at his disposal. So much so for the carcass and after spirit has left it is an empty shell. The rich and the poor meet in death fulfilling the natural law. Piety of Joseph stands in stark contrast with those chief priests and the Pharisees who also required to get a hearing from the Governor.
The Spirit gives us the spiritual depth of the rock pointing out to the Alpha aspect of the Son. He was the cornerstone while for his enemies, the rock of offense. Wisdom principle determined the house with seven pillars (Pr.9:1) "The Lord possessed me in the beginning of his way, before his works of old./ I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth was."(Pr.8:22-23) Everlasting covenant is between God the Father and the Son which requires no other covenant. Wisdom and Power define God. Their covenant when simply put means the Power and glory that we refer every time we say the Lord's Prayer, refers to God the glory of the Son, ("Who being the brightness of his glory"-He.1:3,)
"And he said, I beseech thee, shew me thy glory." In the case of Moses who wanted to see it God replied, "And it shall come to pass, while my glory passeth by, that I will put thee in a clift of the rock, and will cover thee with my hand while I pass by."(Ex.33:18-23). The Spirit was pointing to this rock from where he would be lifter by His power. So Isaiah warns us, "look unto the rock whence ye are hewn,"(Is.51:1) Did not God see Joseph before the worlds began?
"Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land unto the ninth hour."
Three hours as the Spirit records it intends the darkness as a sign independent of natural cause of a solar eclipse. The number Three decidedly favors the spiritual darkness enveloping in their rejection of the Son; by the same token we have another sign, of graves letting out their contents as though in protest; The torn veil of the temple is a symbolic act as the word of God fulfilling as in the case of the hour of darkness that had now taken over the land. Jesus was correct in the timing. "I sat daily with you teaching in the temple, and ye laid no hold on me./But all this was done, that the scriptures of the prophets might be fulfilled." (26:55-56) The word of God zeroed in, that the Word become flesh could not have missed. (To digress a little, obedience of Jesus Christ was perfected in letting the word of his Father work with him.)
The voice came from heaven and in the Gospel of John Jesus explains it clearly. "Jesus answered and said, This voice came not because of me, but for your sakes."( John 12:30). It was while he was alive. By the same token the death of the Son could not have passed on without some visible signs of it. There are so many strange signs and bizarre light and sound show in the sky. What does the man on the street say,"UFO sighting." His reasonable mind wants to hitch his mind to anything however silly it may be. But he rejects any suggestion that rejecting the word concerning shall have serious consequences. The mind of the centurion who witnessed the events, was much more of noble cast. " they feared greatly, saying, Truly this was the Son of God."(v.54) Consider the chief priests and the Pharisees who would hush up his resurrection, what was their mind like? (vv.62-66) Do you think the modern churches shall disband their churches or abjure their heresies in the face of truth revealed?
Psalm 22 gives us a graphic account of the agony of Jesus on the cross. Jesus knew well that he was hung up not only on two wooden crossbeams but also between his deity and humanity,- and St Luke pithily sums it up: "For I say unto you, that this that is written must yet be accomplished in me, And he was reckoned among the transgressors: for the things concerning me have an end." ( Luke 22:37). Gospel of St Luke does well in dwelling on the Man component while John and Matthew give us the Alpha aspect of Christ.
Ps. 22:6-9 " But I am a worm, and no man; a reproach of men, and despised of the people./All they that see me laugh me to scorn: they shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying,/He trusted on the Lord that he would deliver him: let him deliver him, seeing he delighted in him." Isaiah also refers more or less the same. "He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him;"(Is.53:3)
In real time he was despised and they 'laugh me to scorn'. "And they that passed by reviled him, wagging their heads,/And saying, Thou that destroyest the temple, and buildest it in three days, save thyself. If thou be the Son of God, come down from the cross." while some, "let him now come down from the cross, and we will believe him." Chief priest befitting their holier-than- thou stance, "He trusted in God; let him deliver him now, if he will have him: for he said, I am the Son of God."
"He was despised, and we esteemed him not." His death did not mean much to the man on the street other than a spectacle of three 'malefactors'. Unless one makes 'the word' in his heart as the truth God has planted and unless you daily care for it do you think you would have been any different than the passersby? We are marvelously created and set on two timescales and blessed in his Son to be his witnesses.
"And ye have respect to him that weareth the gay clothing, and say unto him, Sit thou here in a good place; and say to the poor, Stand thou there, or sit here under my footstool:" James 2:3 KJV
The people in the back should be sitting in the front. The very front so they can get the help and support they need and become stronger and overcome. The people in the back might be struggling with very weighty issues and those with the weightest of issues need to sit closest to the front. So that the stronger ones can pray for them and show their love, support and compassion with hopes of making those that were sitting in the back that are now in the very front, overcomers.
Respectfully submitted in the name of our precious Lord and Savior Jesus, the Christ.
"A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, vigilant, sober, of good behaviour, given to hospitality, apt to teach;" 1 Timothy 3:2 KJV
Being blameless means having the ability and capacity to be responsible to duties and obligations; and be an example for others on how a responsible person should act or carry themselves.
Earlier in I Timothy 3 it states that if one desires the office of a Bishop. "This is a true saying, If a man desire the office of a bishop, he desireth a good work." 1 Timothy 3:1 KJV. Any good desires a man (or woman) has comes from God. "Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning." James 1:17 KJV The desire itself to become a Bishop comes from God. According to scripture only men (or males) can become Bishops.
We have in this chapter a few dilemmas created by wicked men.
1.Dilemma of 'other man's riches'
v.5 " And he cast down the pieces of silver in the temple, and departed, and went and hanged himself." Judas realized all too late his actions were irrevocable. Thirty pieces of silver did not help him to clear his name or conscience. Money was other man's riches so the chief priests hired him to do a job would not want to touch it; the enormity of guilt over betrayal of an innocent man's blood, no money could handle. Satan is the designated 'other man' since value of thirty pieces of silver has also changed. Who shall price an abstract thing as conscience? Chief priests whose piety was in observing traditions of their fathers set a price accordingly as 'unclean'. "And the chief priests took the silver pieces, and said, It is not lawful for to put them into the treasury, because it is the price of blood." Instead bought the land thereby fulfilling the scriptures. "Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremy the prophet."
2 Dilemma of duty imposed by ungodly man.
Pontius Pilate despite of honor and authority was a pawn or a loser. " For he knew that for envy they had delivered him." He was a clever and worldly wise to have risen the ranks of a brutal regime, where dog eats dog principle prevailed. Envy killed you as well as slip of the tongue cast you down at any moment. He saw through the hypocrisy of the religion. He believed that Jesus was innocent. All he could do was wash his hands. "When Pilate saw that he could prevail nothing, but that rather a tumult was made, he took water, and washed his hands before the multitude, saying, I am innocent of the blood of this just person: see ye to it."(v.24). If life was as simple as that but Judas realized it was not. He as well as Pilate were accountable to a Just God who could cast their soul to death and hell. Man in honor abides not.(Ps.49:20)
Hi Jazzmanrd. Not sure whether you're wanting to better understand this phrase in Nehemiah 1:5, or not. In case you are, Nehemiah, in his anguished prayer to God, described how he viewed this mighty God, Who alone could save His people & prosper his (Nehemiah's) request to the Babylonian king, Artaxerxes.
Sometimes, our present understanding of English words have changed as culture & word usage evolves. So here in this verse, Nehemiah describes the Almighty God as "great and terrible". In Hebrew, the word used for 'terrible' is 'yare', which means 'to take fright'. One might think, why should we be frightened or terrified of a God Who is merciful, kind & gracious? Though many Christians today hold only to such a view of God, we know from reading all the Scriptures, that God is also a God of Wrath & of Justice, all within His Glorious Holiness. So, in confronting such a God, anyone whose heart is not right with Him, would do well to tremble & shake in His Presence, even as Nehemiah knew this God Who had the Power to consign all of Israel to destruction for their many sins. Even the Hebrews writer could state, "It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God" ( Hebrews 10:31).
So the word we could use today instead of 'terrible' would be 'awesome', not as the world uses the word, but unto the Living God before Whom we would stand struck with awe in both His Power, but also His great Grace.
Love is patient; love is kind. ( 1 Corinthians 13:4-8). This section of scripture gets into all of the attributes of true love which characterizes "agape" which is the deepest kind of love which we can experience coming from heaven itself. Every other type of human affection is stereotyped by a particular relationship; but cannot stand the test of time truly without the Lord's love being in the mix. "Storge" for instance is defined as a type of familiar bond; which I would think describes a kinship with family members.
This is often flipped as to the responsibility and frustrations of a parent for a child then later on for a caretaker as myself the burden of assisting family members losing their physical stamina; mental acuity; as well as the emotional volatility that can result from such deterioration. fThere is another term for "self love" which up until now I am unfamiliar with called "philautia" which I suspect is retlated to "philia" which is a sort of plutonic affection (without eros) for others. As a Christian; of course we are instructed to die to self and live out the new life of Christ; nonetheless the law itself says to love your neighbor as yourself ( Leviticus 19:18 as well as quoted in the Gospels. There are other passages that state we should care for our wives as our own body ( Ephesians 5:29).
What is necessary; of course is to honor what God has given us stewardship over; whether it is our own bodies; our finances; marriages; or anything else the Lord has given us. Trusting God to provide; as well as guide us through self deprivation; fasting; and suffering even leading to death needs to be done trusting that God has the best ultimately even if it means martyrdom in terms of our eternity. This allows us to have the proper commitment to others entrusted to our care as well as having a love for the brothers and sisters both in our midst and abroad preaching the Good News. We need to trust God in maintaining what He has provided for us
God sent his only begotten Son to the world. St Matthew presents him deliver the doctrine of his Father. Sermon on the Mount in ch.5 gives it as the Word become flesh. As the Word there was no higher authority than what he signified in his person. John speaks of his deity thus, "All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made." ( John 1:2).
The Gospel presents him in the following chapters as Man is the Message. Evangelist traces a subtext why he was not received by his own." He came unto his own, and his own received him not"( John 1:11). Conflict between light and darkness must be resolved and it comes to a head on the charges of blasphemy. "I sat daily with you teaching in the temple, and ye laid no hold on me./But all this was done, that the scriptures of the prophets might be fulfilled."(26:56-57)
When Jesus told the truth, "Hereafter shall ye see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven" the council that tried him was certain,"Then the high priest rent his clothes, saying, He hath spoken blasphemy; what further need have we of witnesses? behold, now ye have heard his blasphemy." Their entire process was illegal but his role as the Lamb to his slaughter was right on track. "he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth."(Is.53:7)
"And he answered him to never a word; insomuch that the governor marvelled greatly."(27:14). Grace and truth came by Jesus Christ in denying the truth they were proving that they were unworthy of the other. So the mob crying,"Then answered all the people, and said, His blood be on us, and on our children."(v.27) illustrates what precious gift had they trodden underfoot. Holocaust wiped out some six million in the process. Has it sobered them up? Without grace beauty is blind and truth is darkness. We are warned what a terror awaits us if we neglect it.
"Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremy the prophet, saying, And they took the thirty pieces of silver, the price of him that was valued, whom they of the children of Israel did value;/And gave them for the potter's field, as the Lord appointed me."(vv.9-10)
Here St Matthew refers to a quote from the book of Zechariah. In order to give them its proper context we shall consider the v.10. "And I took my staff, even Beauty, and cut it asunder, that I might break my covenant which I had made with all the people.' This covenant with Israel refers to the Law of Moses. Beauty symbolic sign for Jesus ("For if they do these things in a green tree, what shall be done in the dry?"- Luke 23:31) In cutting off the Son they were repudiating the covenant and God. Jeremiah then smashing the potter's vessel at the east gate in Je.19 was a public event. Now the crucifixion was going to be a public event.
The inspired writing of the Evangelist did not err, an example of which we have seen in the preceding chapter. The verse"that the scriptures of the prophets might be fulfilled" referred both Isaiah and Zechariah.(26:56) The Spirit presented the potter's vessel as a sign for the Son and where Prophet Jeremiah had begun we have Prophet Zechariah leading to the field, which in general sense signifies the whole land. "The land is mine" and the divine potter "O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter? saith the Lord. Behold, as the clay is in the potter's hand, so are ye in mine hand, O house of Israel."(Je.18:6)
" Wherefore that field was called, The field of blood, unto this day.
"And he (Isaac) called it Shebah: therefore the name of the city is Beersheba unto this day."(Ge.26:33)The Spirit uses the phrase 'unto this day' signifying the day decreed for the Son. "Unto this day" as well as "on that day" (In that day there shall be a fountain opened to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and for uncleanness-"Ze.13:1) are tags used to refer the Alpha Omega aspect so there shall be much blood spilt for what the nation of Israel did to him. Here is another verse, "For this city hath been to me as a provocation of mine anger and of my fury from the day that they built it even unto this day; that I should remove it from before my face."(Je.32:31)
God heard the voice of Abel. He told Cain, "the voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto me from the ground./And now art thou cursed from the earth, which hath opened her mouth to receive thy brother's blood from thy hand."(Ge.4:10-11) Abel's righteous blood cried from the ground and Jesus in his passion "and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground."( Luke 22:44). 'As it were' does not necessarily mean literal blood but the sweat is as meaningful. His cry of agony was like the Amen we say at the Lord's prayer and his Father has respect for his dear Son. "That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar./Verily I say unto you, All these things shall come upon this generation."(23:35-36). For this reason the field of blood or Akeldama (Ac.1:18-19) could be well applied to the whole land of Israel.
"Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremy the prophet, saying, And they took the thirty pieces of silver, the price of him that was valued, whom they of the children of Israel did value."
Apart from the symbolic aspect of the gifts that the three wise men presented before infant Jesus the Gospel is replete with symbols so the similitude works as principle. "Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven,"in the Lord's prayer sets the rock compare heaven with the earth. Matthew presents the rock as a witness while Jesus presented the Sermon on the mount. He compares it to himself. "And whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken: but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder."(21:44) Parable of the wise builder is about the kingdom building to which his words bring those blessed of his Father before the foundation of the world. "Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock." (7:24)
The rock hewn tomb of Joseph of Arimathaea was foreordained. This Alpha aspect of Christ we can find Isaiah referring, "And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death."(Is.53:9). God refused Moses his request instead he showed the cleft in the rock and it refers the brightness of his Glory in his Son. Isaiah annotates why 'backparts' instead. It is the difference between the hole and the pit. "Hearken to me, ye that follow after righteousness, ye that seek the Lord: look unto the rock whence ye are hewn, and to the hole of the pit whence ye are digged." His glory was for those new creation who were buried with his Son and who live by faith.(Is.51:1;Ex.33:21-23)
In so many ways Gospel of St Matthew resonates with the everlasting covenant entered between God and Man than with his Jewish sensibilities as often made by Bible scholars.
For this reason Matthew begins the Book referring to the generation of Jesus Christthat is pendent on Ge.2:4. So when he tells, it is to the generation of vipers "Verily I say unto you, All these things shall come upon this generation."(23:36)
1:1 The first line encapsulates the generation of Jesus Christ which delineates the Alpha and Omega mode of the holiness of God. As provided for man his blessings surely are let in his Son. So he is the son of Abraham whom God blessed. (Ge.12:3). He is also the son of David whom God blessed by equal measure,"and I will stablish the throne of his kingdom for ever."(2 Sa.7:12). These blessings did not begin with Abraham but from the everlasting covenant. It is set down as the driver so both Gentiles and Israel are to be allowed in the Fellowship of God with Man.(Ge.1:28) This universality of the Word become flesh we see in the arrival of the Magi and his attitude towards the Gentile centurion. (8:10) He was looking for faith in the world before whom he appeared as the Apostle.
The Sermon on the Mount presents him state the holiness of His Father as perfect. "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect."(5:48) He shall prove with his life that it was doable. Blessings presented in this discourse carry for those who refused it. In Ch.23 his discourse 'Woe to ye' was condemnation to the nation that shortchanged Mercies of his Father for the traditions of their fathers. "Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers./Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell?"(23:30-31) The parables are a literary devise that the Spirit uses with telling effect to separate the chaff from the good seed. "And when the chief priests and Pharisees had heard his parables, they perceived that he spake of them."(21:45)
Fulfillment of the Scriptures is a notable feature of the Gospel so Alpha and Omega aspects of the kingdom of heaven keep the Son of man in the crosshairs from beginning till the end. Jesus began his ministry where the quote from isaiah served as a cue. "From that time Jesus began to preach, and to say, Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand."(4:14-17)
He whom the Son has made free is free indeed! See John 8:36. You are freed, my brother!
Dear Lord God, we come to You in prayer today asking that You heal Suzannes' back pain as You did mine. I pray that You will bless her with rigorous strength and health for the years to come. I pray that You bless her financially so that her needs will be met well without worry and trouble. You have made us rich in You in all things, and you told us to ask You for our daily needs. So we do that today for Suzanne, and all on this forum. Thank you for the way You have provided for us all of our lives and for Your goodness towards us. You are great and nothing is outside of Your control or providence, so we rest in You today, Maker of heaven and earth. We ask these things of You, Father, in the name of Your wonderful Son. Jesus. Amen.
"All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth"
Jesus came to fulfill the law. He was the Word become flesh. When he presented the doctrine of his Father he was presenting himself as its fulfillment. He said with vehemence what he as the Man the message would do. "For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled." His death was in dishonor but in his resurrection he proved the Power of the Word Simon Peter addressing men of Israel speaks,"Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain:/Whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death: because it was not possible that he should be holden of it."(Ac.2:23-24). He opened a new way, the path of righteousness. "But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption."(1 Co.1:30). All who followed him shall have a standard which is affixed by faith and not by praditions or by precepts of men. "For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven."
This is the power given to men.
"And, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen." Here we have a demonstration of what one means by Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and forever. Mark 16:18 supplied us signs and 'in my name' what happen. "They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them." St Paul in Malta proved the viper did not hurt him in fulfillment of the word. Elisha in Gilgal was told by sons of the prophets, "O thou man of God, there is death in the pot." They were not hurt because Jesus Christ was the fulfillment of the Law or the Word. (2 Ki.4:38-41) "I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending."
"And this saying is commonly reported among the Jews until this day."
Hypocrisy of the chief priests and elders is vile in that they profess faith, without backing it with their whole heart. "Forasmuch as this people draw near me with their mouth, and with their lips do honour me, but have removed their heart far from me, and their fear toward me is taught by the precept of men." (Is.29:13) They covenanted with Judas for a sum to destroy an innocent man. But they would not take what he returned. Knowing money as blood money they use it yet to buy silence from soldiers. Their respect for money was learned from the precepts of men. If this nation was a bundle of prejudices and shallow opinions what they really believed in? Their heart was like "a cage of every unclean and hateful bird" with least attention span to commune with God in truth and quietness, As soon as Moses turned his back they were urging Aaron "Up, make us gods, which shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we wot not what is become of him."(Ex,32:1) . When the ten spies brought back an evil report, they were so overwrought, "And wherefore hath the Lord brought us unto this land, to fall by the sword, that our wives and our children should be a prey? were it not better for us to return into Egypt?/And they said one to another, Let us make a captain, and let us return into Egypt."(Nu.14:3-4)
'Until this day' refers to the Son so what is written of him must be fulfilled as well as the kingdom appointed for him fill both heaven and the earth. " For it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell;/ And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven."(Col.1:19-20)
"All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth"
The Spirit in organizing the Alpha and Omega aspects of the Son brings out the word of God as true which is validated in his Son. The world made flesh and the word revealed by the humanity works equally well with all those who believe in him. An example we have in the Gospel of St Mark. In the last chapter the risen Christ gives the signs that shall follow the believers. It is valid only, 'in my name' for example "They shall take up serpents." ( Mark 16:18), the Spirit adds "And it shall not hurt them."
The Spirit gives us an example in the case of St Paul on the isle of Malta.
"And when Paul had gathered a bundle of sticks, and laid them on the fire, there came a viper out of the heat, and fastened on his hand./And when the barbarians saw the venomous beast hang on his hand, they said among themselves, No doubt this man is a murderer, whom, though he hath escaped the sea, yet vengeance suffereth not to live./And he shook off the beast into the fire, and felt no harm./Howbeit they looked when he should have swollen, or fallen down dead suddenly: but after they had looked a great while, and saw no harm come to him, they changed their minds, and said that he was a god." (Ac.28:3-6)
From lack of understanding with regards to the Holy Spirit and the purpose of the scripture there are some children of Belial in our times who handle serpents as a test of their spiritual prowess. Is God to be tempted by serpent handling?
v.1 End of sabbath and beginning of the Lord's Day.
Jesus' claim, "The Son of man is Lord even of the Sabbath" is shown to be true. (12:8) The Lord of the heavenly and he returns to the rest as was before. With regards to the Alpha and Omega provisions the scripture was fulfilled in him. "Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief." (He.4:11).He is the forerunner and our faith must be stedfast to enter into His rest.
v.2 "And, behold, there was a great earthquake" Angel descent from heaven has its consequential effect. Jesus gave up his Spirit while on the cross and the result was evident:the vail of the temple was torn from top to bottom.. A worldly man given to the ways of the world believe only his rational mind and the error of it we find in the conspiracy theories. The Spirit expressly gives evidence to the pre-eminence of the Son in the earthquake. No different than the darkness at noon at the hour of crucifixion. St Paul says, "And by him all things consist," and yet how man shall believe our report? "Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?"
vv.2-3 "And came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat upon it./ His countenance was like lightning, and his raiment white as snow" The Angel of the Lord or His presence refers to the same: the Word revealed. "But after I am risen again, I will go before you into Galilee"(26:32) More or less what Jesus had mentioned earlier. This is how the Spirit of Christ worked with holy men of old,- and the angel and man constitute a single measurement by truth.(Re.21:17) Thy word is truth, It is now demonstrated before the woman who were present that morning.
vv.8-9 They obeyed the angel and went back to tell the disciples, "behold, Jesus met them, saying, All hail. And they came and held him by the feet, and worshipped him."
A good example is likening God to a tap of water. We drink as much as we wish. We turn the tap as much as we want, The tap is there, the water is there, but we drink as much as we turn that tap. The more we turn it the more we drink. It is up to us. God is always there. As simple as that.
About the kids brother, the problem with kids nowadays is not only a matter of overprotectiveness and lack of punishment. I think it is mainly of what people teach to their children. On top of that nowadays kids get their standards in life, not from the family, or the church and the Word of God, but mostly from the internet. Often from the rich and famous, the celebrities, who usually are drug or alcohol addicts, violent (don't you see how the gangsters are heroized on TV?) with broken families where fornication and adultery are the usual thing. Sex and violence is what the Kkids eat nowadays. As there is no censorship on the net, kids see and learn all sort of weird things there and then spread them to others.
And as there are no borders nowadays the sin is propagating from one country to another very easily. Sin is like a virus, a spiritual covid, that goes from a place to another easily if there is nothing to stop it. And nowadays there is nothing to stop it. It is written that the people of the end times will be the worst of all times. And we see that in our countries, don't we?
Wel,l maybe I say the same thing as you do but with different words. GBU
Well, I understand love a bit different than you do. I believe that man's love and God's love are not different things. The difference is in the "quantity" of love. Man's love is finite. Depending on the person it can be "as much" as to "love themselves" ("philautia" is extreme love for oneself that leads to selfishness and lack of concern for other people), then love for their own, like their children, then love for their friends or relatives and as love increases a man can love more and more people. So love expands from loving myself (or not even myself) to love everybody else, even my enemies, people that make my life tough. So it is a matter of quantity (or quality). If we try to make a scale of love from zero to infinity, the far end is God's love, it is infinite, God is actually love. Somewhere inbetween, depending on the person, man's love can be placed. Even loving my enemy can be variable. Just think. Can I love one who swears at me? If yes, then can I love somebody who hurts me? If yes, can I love someone who hurts my child? If yes then can I love someone who killed my child? On a cross? And going even further can I love all people and give my son to death to save them? This is what God did for us. So you see there is a scale of love.
Since love originates from God and it is an aspect of His character, the only way one can increase their love for others is through God. The fruit of the Holy Spirit is, among others, love. So when one is filled with God's Spirit then their love increases. So it is something that is given by God's Spirit. There is no other way that we can love our enemies. A man who is not born again can never love their enemies, the most they could do is forget what they had done to them, but definitely not love them.
Inside the church firstly we learn how to love our brothers and sisters. When we realize that we lack in love we just have to go and ask God to provide love to us. We can not manage anything on our own.
My point is as you can tell that all other loves in themselves have no inherent good in them without the Lord in control of us. It is like anything else in the sense that there is nothing bad in itself provided that God's laws are followed with a covenant marriage for instance in expressing the deepest human love. Even in that context; however when we allow any human passions to be in charge of our souls our sin nature utilizes these innate desires to steer us in the wrong way. The issue; of course is that there is no eternally lasting love that is in the human soul that can live outside of the life of Christ in us; and in 1 John 2:17 we see evidence of that truth. Doing the will of God is of course impossible ultimately in our human understanding. The world system for instance steers people toward a mindset that any punishment is too harsh and is judging someone and taking away their inherent value. Thus the innocent aren't vindicated and the guilty forced to deal up front with their issues and allow God's chastisement to take effect; which according to scripture can even lead believers to an early demise in taking communion unworthily; for instance. We can also look to the thief on the cross; his salvation came when dying for what he justly deserved which he himself stated to the other thief mocking Christ. Overprotectiveness for kids also is related at least in this country where kids who are spoiled and underworked find all kinds of trouble (drugs; sex; theft) rather than being in a household where there is a value of respect for parents; a work ethic; etc. Agape love presents the truth so one can be saved not make people content in sin.
The proper translation of that Hebrew word is "being feared". In the ancient times the mighty people were being feard, because they were poweful and could do to other people anything they wished. As you said it actually shows the power of God, the almighty God. The Bible says that God is love but He also is a "consuming fire" (Hebr 12:29)
"He went to Pilate, and begged the body of Jesus. Then Pilate commanded the body to be delivered." Joseph would have no need to seek permission to be buried in his own tomb. He walked an extra mile to revere the body of of his master. He was a believer with firm conviction. His action was similar to Mary who anointed the body of Jesus in preparation for burial.
The Spirit has in so many ways and in several instances what anyone did good because the word bore fruit in them. 'This seed in itself' (Ge.1:11) in the process brings the glory that Moses sought to the pit from which all saints in light owe, to use a mathematical term, their locus for their everlasting life.
"Hearken to me, ye that follow after righteousness, ye that seek theLord: look unto the rock whence ye are hewn, and to the hole of the pit whence ye are digged."(Is.51:1). Isaiah refers the natural man, who is earthy to have been dug up from a hole; on the hand whoever is created new in his Son is said to be hewn from the rock.
"And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground:(Ge.1:7) Flesh and blood shall not inherit the kingdom of heaven. So their locus is entirely different. Dust to dust and ashes to ashes is their testament. For those who are buried with Jesus in faith and abides with him the pit carries yet another inscription on their headstone:"And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God."( Job 19:26).
59 And when Joseph had taken the body, he wrapped it in a clean linen cloth,
60 And laid it in his own new tomb, which he had hewn out in the rock: and he rolled a great stone to the door of the sepulchre, and departed.
"Agape" is grk for "love", no matter where it comes from, God or man. There isn't any specific grk word for God's love.
"Philautia" is grk for "self love". It comes from the verb "philao" or "philo" which means "to love" and the noun "eautos" which means "self" (masc.). The modern word "auto" comes from this word, which means something that does something by itself, like an automatic machine. "Philao" is used for" love" between friends, hence "philos" is grk for "friend". "Storge" does not mean love but it is something that originates from love. The nearest Engl. word for it is "affection". It includes warm feelings, tenderness, care and love for another person. It is used for members of a family, mainly (if not only) from parents to children.
"When the even was come, there came a rich man of Arimathaea, named Joseph, who also himself was Jesus' disciple."
Joseph interring Jesus in his tomb earmarked for his own reminds us of Isaiah who foretold his burial. "And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death."(Is.53:9). There were two other malefactors on the cross. So the first part of the verse refers to them as well as to the rich man who let his own tomb at his disposal. So much so for the carcass and after spirit has left it is an empty shell. The rich and the poor meet in death fulfilling the natural law. Piety of Joseph stands in stark contrast with those chief priests and the Pharisees who also required to get a hearing from the Governor.
The Spirit gives us the spiritual depth of the rock pointing out to the Alpha aspect of the Son. He was the cornerstone while for his enemies, the rock of offense. Wisdom principle determined the house with seven pillars (Pr.9:1) "The Lord possessed me in the beginning of his way, before his works of old./ I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth was."(Pr.8:22-23) Everlasting covenant is between God the Father and the Son which requires no other covenant. Wisdom and Power define God. Their covenant when simply put means the Power and glory that we refer every time we say the Lord's Prayer, refers to God the glory of the Son, ("Who being the brightness of his glory"-He.1:3,)
"And he said, I beseech thee, shew me thy glory." In the case of Moses who wanted to see it God replied, "And it shall come to pass, while my glory passeth by, that I will put thee in a clift of the rock, and will cover thee with my hand while I pass by."(Ex.33:18-23). The Spirit was pointing to this rock from where he would be lifter by His power. So Isaiah warns us, "look unto the rock whence ye are hewn,"(Is.51:1) Did not God see Joseph before the worlds began?
"Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land unto the ninth hour."
Three hours as the Spirit records it intends the darkness as a sign independent of natural cause of a solar eclipse. The number Three decidedly favors the spiritual darkness enveloping in their rejection of the Son; by the same token we have another sign, of graves letting out their contents as though in protest; The torn veil of the temple is a symbolic act as the word of God fulfilling as in the case of the hour of darkness that had now taken over the land. Jesus was correct in the timing. "I sat daily with you teaching in the temple, and ye laid no hold on me./But all this was done, that the scriptures of the prophets might be fulfilled." (26:55-56) The word of God zeroed in, that the Word become flesh could not have missed. (To digress a little, obedience of Jesus Christ was perfected in letting the word of his Father work with him.)
The voice came from heaven and in the Gospel of John Jesus explains it clearly. "Jesus answered and said, This voice came not because of me, but for your sakes."( John 12:30). It was while he was alive. By the same token the death of the Son could not have passed on without some visible signs of it. There are so many strange signs and bizarre light and sound show in the sky. What does the man on the street say,"UFO sighting." His reasonable mind wants to hitch his mind to anything however silly it may be. But he rejects any suggestion that rejecting the word concerning shall have serious consequences. The mind of the centurion who witnessed the events, was much more of noble cast. " they feared greatly, saying, Truly this was the Son of God."(v.54) Consider the chief priests and the Pharisees who would hush up his resurrection, what was their mind like? (vv.62-66) Do you think the modern churches shall disband their churches or abjure their heresies in the face of truth revealed?
Psalm 22 gives us a graphic account of the agony of Jesus on the cross. Jesus knew well that he was hung up not only on two wooden crossbeams but also between his deity and humanity,- and St Luke pithily sums it up: "For I say unto you, that this that is written must yet be accomplished in me, And he was reckoned among the transgressors: for the things concerning me have an end." ( Luke 22:37). Gospel of St Luke does well in dwelling on the Man component while John and Matthew give us the Alpha aspect of Christ.
Ps. 22:6-9 " But I am a worm, and no man; a reproach of men, and despised of the people./All they that see me laugh me to scorn: they shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying,/He trusted on the Lord that he would deliver him: let him deliver him, seeing he delighted in him." Isaiah also refers more or less the same. "He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him;"(Is.53:3)
In real time he was despised and they 'laugh me to scorn'. "And they that passed by reviled him, wagging their heads,/And saying, Thou that destroyest the temple, and buildest it in three days, save thyself. If thou be the Son of God, come down from the cross." while some, "let him now come down from the cross, and we will believe him." Chief priest befitting their holier-than- thou stance, "He trusted in God; let him deliver him now, if he will have him: for he said, I am the Son of God."
"He was despised, and we esteemed him not." His death did not mean much to the man on the street other than a spectacle of three 'malefactors'. Unless one makes 'the word' in his heart as the truth God has planted and unless you daily care for it do you think you would have been any different than the passersby? We are marvelously created and set on two timescales and blessed in his Son to be his witnesses.
"And ye have respect to him that weareth the gay clothing, and say unto him, Sit thou here in a good place; and say to the poor, Stand thou there, or sit here under my footstool:" James 2:3 KJV
The people in the back should be sitting in the front. The very front so they can get the help and support they need and become stronger and overcome. The people in the back might be struggling with very weighty issues and those with the weightest of issues need to sit closest to the front. So that the stronger ones can pray for them and show their love, support and compassion with hopes of making those that were sitting in the back that are now in the very front, overcomers.
Respectfully submitted in the name of our precious Lord and Savior Jesus, the Christ.
"A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, vigilant, sober, of good behaviour, given to hospitality, apt to teach;" 1 Timothy 3:2 KJV
vigilant means alert (not disillusioned about reality); able to avoid danger (having the wisdom to keep God's people safe).
An example of thinking and doing right, a good decision maker.
Being blameless means having the ability and capacity to be responsible to duties and obligations; and be an example for others on how a responsible person should act or carry themselves.
Earlier in I Timothy 3 it states that if one desires the office of a Bishop. "This is a true saying, If a man desire the office of a bishop, he desireth a good work." 1 Timothy 3:1 KJV. Any good desires a man (or woman) has comes from God. "Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning." James 1:17 KJV The desire itself to become a Bishop comes from God. According to scripture only men (or males) can become Bishops.
A Bishop must be blameless (responsible).
We have in this chapter a few dilemmas created by wicked men.
1.Dilemma of 'other man's riches'
v.5 " And he cast down the pieces of silver in the temple, and departed, and went and hanged himself." Judas realized all too late his actions were irrevocable. Thirty pieces of silver did not help him to clear his name or conscience. Money was other man's riches so the chief priests hired him to do a job would not want to touch it; the enormity of guilt over betrayal of an innocent man's blood, no money could handle. Satan is the designated 'other man' since value of thirty pieces of silver has also changed. Who shall price an abstract thing as conscience? Chief priests whose piety was in observing traditions of their fathers set a price accordingly as 'unclean'. "And the chief priests took the silver pieces, and said, It is not lawful for to put them into the treasury, because it is the price of blood." Instead bought the land thereby fulfilling the scriptures. "Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremy the prophet."
2 Dilemma of duty imposed by ungodly man.
Pontius Pilate despite of honor and authority was a pawn or a loser. " For he knew that for envy they had delivered him." He was a clever and worldly wise to have risen the ranks of a brutal regime, where dog eats dog principle prevailed. Envy killed you as well as slip of the tongue cast you down at any moment. He saw through the hypocrisy of the religion. He believed that Jesus was innocent. All he could do was wash his hands. "When Pilate saw that he could prevail nothing, but that rather a tumult was made, he took water, and washed his hands before the multitude, saying, I am innocent of the blood of this just person: see ye to it."(v.24). If life was as simple as that but Judas realized it was not. He as well as Pilate were accountable to a Just God who could cast their soul to death and hell. Man in honor abides not.(Ps.49:20)
Sometimes, our present understanding of English words have changed as culture & word usage evolves. So here in this verse, Nehemiah describes the Almighty God as "great and terrible". In Hebrew, the word used for 'terrible' is 'yare', which means 'to take fright'. One might think, why should we be frightened or terrified of a God Who is merciful, kind & gracious? Though many Christians today hold only to such a view of God, we know from reading all the Scriptures, that God is also a God of Wrath & of Justice, all within His Glorious Holiness. So, in confronting such a God, anyone whose heart is not right with Him, would do well to tremble & shake in His Presence, even as Nehemiah knew this God Who had the Power to consign all of Israel to destruction for their many sins. Even the Hebrews writer could state, "It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God" ( Hebrews 10:31).
So the word we could use today instead of 'terrible' would be 'awesome', not as the world uses the word, but unto the Living God before Whom we would stand struck with awe in both His Power, but also His great Grace.
This is often flipped as to the responsibility and frustrations of a parent for a child then later on for a caretaker as myself the burden of assisting family members losing their physical stamina; mental acuity; as well as the emotional volatility that can result from such deterioration. fThere is another term for "self love" which up until now I am unfamiliar with called "philautia" which I suspect is retlated to "philia" which is a sort of plutonic affection (without eros) for others. As a Christian; of course we are instructed to die to self and live out the new life of Christ; nonetheless the law itself says to love your neighbor as yourself ( Leviticus 19:18 as well as quoted in the Gospels. There are other passages that state we should care for our wives as our own body ( Ephesians 5:29).
What is necessary; of course is to honor what God has given us stewardship over; whether it is our own bodies; our finances; marriages; or anything else the Lord has given us. Trusting God to provide; as well as guide us through self deprivation; fasting; and suffering even leading to death needs to be done trusting that God has the best ultimately even if it means martyrdom in terms of our eternity. This allows us to have the proper commitment to others entrusted to our care as well as having a love for the brothers and sisters both in our midst and abroad preaching the Good News. We need to trust God in maintaining what He has provided for us
God sent his only begotten Son to the world. St Matthew presents him deliver the doctrine of his Father. Sermon on the Mount in ch.5 gives it as the Word become flesh. As the Word there was no higher authority than what he signified in his person. John speaks of his deity thus, "All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made." ( John 1:2).
The Gospel presents him in the following chapters as Man is the Message. Evangelist traces a subtext why he was not received by his own." He came unto his own, and his own received him not"( John 1:11). Conflict between light and darkness must be resolved and it comes to a head on the charges of blasphemy. "I sat daily with you teaching in the temple, and ye laid no hold on me./But all this was done, that the scriptures of the prophets might be fulfilled."(26:56-57)
When Jesus told the truth, "Hereafter shall ye see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven" the council that tried him was certain,"Then the high priest rent his clothes, saying, He hath spoken blasphemy; what further need have we of witnesses? behold, now ye have heard his blasphemy." Their entire process was illegal but his role as the Lamb to his slaughter was right on track. "he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth."(Is.53:7)
"And he answered him to never a word; insomuch that the governor marvelled greatly."(27:14). Grace and truth came by Jesus Christ in denying the truth they were proving that they were unworthy of the other. So the mob crying,"Then answered all the people, and said, His blood be on us, and on our children."(v.27) illustrates what precious gift had they trodden underfoot. Holocaust wiped out some six million in the process. Has it sobered them up? Without grace beauty is blind and truth is darkness. We are warned what a terror awaits us if we neglect it.
"Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremy the prophet, saying, And they took the thirty pieces of silver, the price of him that was valued, whom they of the children of Israel did value;/And gave them for the potter's field, as the Lord appointed me."(vv.9-10)
Here St Matthew refers to a quote from the book of Zechariah. In order to give them its proper context we shall consider the v.10. "And I took my staff, even Beauty, and cut it asunder, that I might break my covenant which I had made with all the people.' This covenant with Israel refers to the Law of Moses. Beauty symbolic sign for Jesus ("For if they do these things in a green tree, what shall be done in the dry?"- Luke 23:31) In cutting off the Son they were repudiating the covenant and God. Jeremiah then smashing the potter's vessel at the east gate in Je.19 was a public event. Now the crucifixion was going to be a public event.
The inspired writing of the Evangelist did not err, an example of which we have seen in the preceding chapter. The verse"that the scriptures of the prophets might be fulfilled" referred both Isaiah and Zechariah.(26:56) The Spirit presented the potter's vessel as a sign for the Son and where Prophet Jeremiah had begun we have Prophet Zechariah leading to the field, which in general sense signifies the whole land. "The land is mine" and the divine potter "O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter? saith the Lord. Behold, as the clay is in the potter's hand, so are ye in mine hand, O house of Israel."(Je.18:6)
" Wherefore that field was called, The field of blood, unto this day.
"And he (Isaac) called it Shebah: therefore the name of the city is Beersheba unto this day."(Ge.26:33)The Spirit uses the phrase 'unto this day' signifying the day decreed for the Son. "Unto this day" as well as "on that day" (In that day there shall be a fountain opened to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and for uncleanness-"Ze.13:1) are tags used to refer the Alpha Omega aspect so there shall be much blood spilt for what the nation of Israel did to him. Here is another verse, "For this city hath been to me as a provocation of mine anger and of my fury from the day that they built it even unto this day; that I should remove it from before my face."(Je.32:31)
God heard the voice of Abel. He told Cain, "the voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto me from the ground./And now art thou cursed from the earth, which hath opened her mouth to receive thy brother's blood from thy hand."(Ge.4:10-11) Abel's righteous blood cried from the ground and Jesus in his passion "and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground."( Luke 22:44). 'As it were' does not necessarily mean literal blood but the sweat is as meaningful. His cry of agony was like the Amen we say at the Lord's prayer and his Father has respect for his dear Son. "That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar./Verily I say unto you, All these things shall come upon this generation."(23:35-36). For this reason the field of blood or Akeldama (Ac.1:18-19) could be well applied to the whole land of Israel.
"Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremy the prophet, saying, And they took the thirty pieces of silver, the price of him that was valued, whom they of the children of Israel did value."