God Steps In
James 4; 6- 6 But He gives more grace. Therefore, He says: “God resists the proud, But, gives grace to the humble. 7 Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.
In our walk w/ the Lord, the realization of; 6 enables us to better live out ;7. Zach Adams richly blessed us yesterday as he shared that God’s grace, w/ the gift of salvation, the Lord doesn’t give us the punishment we deserve-mercy, and instead, bestows upon us a gift we can never earn, grace.
When you and I walk in/meditate upon, allow God’s grace to marinade our minds & our hearts, then we become free from ourselves. We’re not serving our God to earn His love, we serve Him b/c we’re loved, never earning, never deserving, which in turn, should humble us. When that does, our closeness to Christ becomes the key to resisting the devil, or more than likely, some buck private demon, not the devil himself.
Simply put, resisting the devil/taking captive evil thoughts that come into your mind/better defined/thoughts that conflict w/ the bible, is a matter of walking in who you are in Christ. 2 Cor. 5; 17-tells us that we have a new nature. The HS has come into us, & thus, since it is not within God’s nature to sin, so it is not within our nature to sin as well. Resisting the devil- Sheep ranchers have tried just about everything to stop crafty coyotes from killing their sheep. They have used odor sprays, electric fences, & scare-coyotes. Have placed battery-operated radios near them. Corralled them at night, herded them at day.
Then they discovered the llama - the aggressive, funny-looking, afraid-of nothing llama. Llamas don’t appear to be afraid of anything, when they see
something, they put their head up and walk straight toward it. That is
aggressive behavior as far as the coyote is concerned, and they won’t have
anything to do with that. Coyotes are opportunists, and llamas take that
opportunity away.
Apparently, llamas know the truth of what James writes: “Resist the Devil, and he will flee from you”. The moment we sense his attack through temptation is the moment we should face it and deal with it for what it is.
You are either resisting the devil or resisting the Lord! Which one? Take thoughts captive & quote the Word like Jesus in Matt. 4.
Intro to the Chrono-Gospels- The word gospel derives from the Old English gōd-spell , meaning "good news" or "glad tidings", and is a word-for-word translation of the Greek word, euangelion. The Septuagint (a Greek translation of the Old Testament) uses the word in 2 Sam 4:10; when a man told me, ‘Saul is dead,’ and thought he was bringing good news, I seized him and put him to death in Ziklag”.
THE 400 YEARS BETWEEN THE OLD AND NEW TESTAMENTS
Where we left off-Ray Stedman equates the writing of the book of Malachi at about 435 B.C. The 400 years of silence refers to the time between the Old Testament and New Testaments, during which God did not speak to the Jewish people. The 400 years of silence began with the warning that closed the Old Testament:
“Behold, I am going to send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and terrible day of the LORD. He will restore the hearts of the fathers to their children and the hearts of the children to their fathers, so that I will not come and smite the land with a curse" (Malachi 4:5-6)
And ended with the coming of John the Baptist, the Messiah’s forerunner. Between the time of Malachi and the coming of the Messiah, several prophecies were fulfilled, including the 2,300 days of desecration between 171 and 165 B.C. (Daniel 8:14), but neither the fulfilled prophecies nor the 400 years the nation was given to study Scripture, to seek God (Psalm 43-44) and to prepare for the coming Messiah, was put to good use.
In fact, those years blinded and deafened the nation to the point where most of the Jews could not even consider the concept of a humble Messiah (Zechariah 9:9; Isaiah 6:10; John 12:40).
The Origin of the Gospel/gospels: Gen. 3 is the seed-bed for the truths that run through the rest of Scripture. It is the seed-bed for 6,000 years of human history. It is in this chapter that the gospel is first mentioned: technically it is called the Proto-Evangelium. Proto=first, Evangelium=gospel.
In 3, Adam & Eve have fallen, Eve was tempted by Satan, who inhabited the form of a serpent, who we believe was still upright, and in my opinion, looked a lot different than now. I can’t imagine myself corresponding w/ an upright Anaconda, you?
Once the fall of man has occurred, Adam blamed Eve, Eve blamed Satan, & this is what the Lord has to say to Satan:
15 And I will put enmity/hostility
Between you and the woman,
And between your seed and her Seed;
He shall bruise your head,
And you shall bruise His heel.”
We don’t know whether Satan thought at this place in time,” that’s it, I got man away from God & reproduction will be in my hands & not only do I have 1/3 of the angels that rebelled, I’m gonna raise up an army on earth, that will be in rebellion against God also”.
But God steps right in & says, this is what is going to happen, there will be enmity/hostility between you & the woman. The majority of people don’t like snakes, most women are not fans of snakes. “And between your seed” he says to Satan and her seed” singular.
There is no doubt this is a prophecy of Jesus’ ultimate defeat of Satan. God announced that Satan would wound the Messiah (you shall bruise His heel), but the Messiah would crush Satan with a mortal wound (He shall bruise your head).
The heel is the part within the serpent’s reach. Jesus, in taking on humanity, brought Himself near to Satan’s domain so Satan could strike Him. This prophecy also gives the first hint of the virgin birth, declaring the Messiah – the Deliverer – would be the Seed of the Woman, but not of the man.
When Adam/Eve were driven out of the garden of Eden, it says the Lord put Cherubim there to guard the way to the tree of life/Gen. 3; 24, so a Cherubim was always there.
What is a Cherub? Cherubim/cherubs are angelic beings involved in the worship and praise of God. The cherubim serve the purpose of magnifying the holiness and power of God. This is one of their main responsibilities throughout the Bible. They serve as a visible reminder of the majesty and glory of God and His abiding presence with His people.
In the tabernacle, when set up, embroidered on the curtains that separated the Holy place from the Holy of Holies where the Ark of the Covenant was, there were the Cherubim, embroidered on there, guarding the way/Ex. 36; 35.
Over the top of the mercy seat, there were the Cherubim w/ their wings touching/Ex. 25; 20. The camp of Israel, if you’d look at it from an aerial view, it was very interesting b/c the outside tribes that were there, the flags were the face of a man, which was Reuben. The face of an ox-Ephraim, the face of an eagle-Dan, & the face of a lion-Judah. Never forget that history, is His story. Jesus can be found in form or type on every page of the bible, from Gen-Rev.
The imagery is there throughout the bible.
Early Christians that were persecuted, that met in the Catacombs, in some of the places they met, they put up the Ichthys, the Christian fish. In some of the places, they put up the 4 faces of the Cherubim b/c the early church
understood that Matthew portrayed the lion of the tribe of Judah. That Mark portrayed that Christ came not to be served, but to serve, to lay down his life as a ransom, the ox. They understood that Luke portrayed the humanity of Christ, as the face of a man. And they understood that John displayed the deity of Christ, the face of an eagle. They understood it in the four faces of the Cherubim, that the gospels were represented. And so, these faces marked some of the places where the early Christians would meet.
This is reflected in works such as the Book of Kells, an ornately illustrated work containing the four gospels written in approximately A.D. 800. The artwork of the cover page of the Book of Kells shows that the monks recognized a correspondence between the faces of the cherubim seen by Ezekiel and John and the four gospels Ezek 1:10; 10:14; Rev. 4:7.
The Church Fathers-like Clement of Rome who were contemporaries of the apostles and were probably taught by them, carrying on the tradition and teaching of the apostles themselves, identified them with the four Gospels.
The lion also represents Jesus' resurrection (because lions were believed to sleep with open eyes, a comparison with Christ in the tomb), and Christ as king. This signifies that Christians should be courageous on the path of salvation. eagle – a figure of the sky, and believed by Christian scholars to be able to look straight into the sun.
Rev. 4; 6 Before the throne there was a sea of glass, like crystal. And in the midst of the throne, and around the throne, were four living creatures full of eyes in front and in back. 7 The first living creature was like a lion, the second living creature like a calf, the third living creature had a face like a man, and the fourth living creature was like a flying eagle.
John described four cherubim, each with a different face. From comparison with Ezekiel 1:6-10, we can see that each of the cherubim have four faces, and at the moment, John saw each one of the four different faces pointed in his direction. The significance of these four faces has been interpreted in many ways.
The four faces have been said to represent the elements, the cardinal virtues, the faculties and powers of the human soul, the patriarchal churches, the great apostles, the orders of churchmen, the principle angels, and so forth.
Some commentators say these four creatures speak of the ensigns of the head tribes as Israel camped in four groups around the tabernacle in the wilderness.
Why Four Gospels?
Many have wondered why there are four gospels? Especially if three of the four (the synoptic gospels) have so much in common. There are at least two primary answers which can be given to this question:
Multiple Witnesses:
Multiple independent eye-witness accounts establish the reliability of the testimony concerning the life and ministry of Jesus.
Varied Perspectives:
Each author recorded the events of Jesus’ life and ministry from a different perspective with different goals and objectives.
Both of these answers explain why there are four gospels.
Matthew - The Bridge - This book is appropriately placed at the beginning of the N.T. - right next to the O.T. - for it bridges the two. Matt. quotes from or alludes to the O.T. 129 times. He also shows fulfilled Prophecy, & that Jesus is the Messiah. This book does Not unfold Chronologically but Topically. Matthew = Gift of the Lord. The Author, was a tax collector. His was a tax station in Capernaum on an important trade route. Traveling from the Roman province to the N/E the 1st town a traveler would come to was Capernaum. Thus, the tax office was placed on this busy thoroughfare.
His original name linked with the Tribe/Levi, yet he couldn’t have gotten farther away. No longer a patriot of his country. Often would have to work on the Sabbath, thus they were forbidden to enter the synagogue. James & John, Peter & Andrew could always go back to fishing…as they did later. But not for Matthew, he burned his bridges completely. He staked everything on Christ.
“God never goes back on the person who stakes his all on Him.”
Mark is the most translated book in all the world. No other book appears in as many languages. Marks aim? It’s the Gentile ear. Whose ear do you have? Who is your audience?
His full name was John(Heb) Mark(Latin). He was the Cousin of Barnabas(Col.4:10). He was the son of Mary, a leading woman in the Jerusalem church. 1st Pet.5:13 suggests he was converted through Peter’s ministry. Peter calls him, Mark my son.
WHY WAS HE WRITING? Many Bible Scholars believe that his gospel is a record of Peter’s reports of the ministry of Christ. Justin Martyr (100-165)-an early Christian apologist, referred to Mark’s gospel as the “Memoirs from a similar point of view). He wrote w/the Romans in mind. Possibly even written in Rome, to the Romans (the believers there). Note: Mark omits a number of things that would not have been meaningful to Gentiles.
He interpreted Aramaic words. He used a number of Latin terms in place of their Greek equivalence.
Irish evangelist Gypsy Smith said, “There are five Gospels: Matthew Mark, Luke, John, and the Christian, and some people will never read the first four.”
Thinking about this quote, what people group has God brought your way? Coworkers, relatives, neighbors, people you used to party w/ that have seen the change in you? You simply do not realize where God will take you & the gospel;
In this church, people God has used have taken the gospel to: East Hills Mall, a one room school house in KS, various cities in CA, Moscow/Ramenskoye/a small island in Volgograd, Mound City, Troy KS, Indianapolis IN, Blue Springs MO, Olathe KS, Singapore, Waterloo IA, Israel, Egypt, to rural towns like Carrolton, Agency, Berlin MO, to name a few.
Luke- Lk.1& 2 = 30 yrs of Jesus’ life; Lk.3 - 19:28 = 3 yrs of Jesus’ life; Lk.19:29 - 24:53 = 1 week of Jesus’ life. Only 8% deals with Jesus life before ministry, 25% deals with His last week before He died, it is the longest single book in the NT. Luke & Acts constitute 28% of the NT, making Luke the most prolific of its contributors. It is written in the most refined Greek in the NT, giving it unsurpassed literary richness & beauty!
It contains 4 beautiful hymns, Key Word: Jesus the Son of Man. Luke: A physician; prob. a Greek; a companion of Paul on some of his journeys. He writes as a Christian historian. He wrote 2 volumes which go together like 1 volume dealing w/the beginning & growth of the early church. They are records of journeys: His Travelogue! The Gospel of Luke (Jesus journeys to Jerusalem); And Acts {Luke part 2, or the Sequel!} (Paul’s journey to Rome)
He writes with the Greeks in mind – thus he translates the Aramaic terms, & explains Jewish customs & geography.
John - John declares Jesus’ deity & belief; To the World; Portrays Jesus as “Divine”. (1) Tells us what Jesus was! Read - Jn.20:31(Key verse) Deity - “Jesus is the Christ” (to make His deity crystal clear). Coin: 2 sides of a coin are both valid, so Jesus has 2 natures, both valid! Belief - “that believing you might have life in His name” (forgiveness & brought near to God) [Believe is key word; 98 x’s]
John writes topically not chronologically. We also get 6 miracles we didn’t know about; the upper room teachings ch.14-17; And we learn over 90% of John is unique to his gospel!!!
The Gospel of John was probably the last of the four written, and written in view of what the previous three had already said. This is one reason why John’s account of the life of Jesus is in many ways different from Matthew, Mark, and Luke. The first three Gospels center on Jesus’ ministry in Galilee. John centers his Gospel on what Jesus said and did in Jerusalem.
· John shows us who Jesus is by highlighting seven signs (miracles) of Jesus. Six of these miracles are not mentioned in the first three gospels.
· John shows us who Jesus is by allowing Jesus to speak for Himself in seven dramatic I Am statements, which were not included in the first three gospels.
· John shows us who Jesus is by giving the testimony witnesses who testify about the identity of Jesus. Four of these witnesses speak in the first chapter alone.
So please read ahead for next week-the verses will be both on the sandwich board & FB each week. Don’t forget to walk in Grace!
James 4; 6- 6 But He gives more grace. Therefore, He says: “God resists the proud, But, gives grace to the humble. 7 Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.
Grace-God’s riches at Christ’s expense. We can’t earn it, we don’t deserve it, we know that we’ve received it as we give it to others. People often wonder humility means or what is the definition of humility. In the Bible, humility or humbleness is a quality of being courteously respectful of others. It is the opposite of aggressiveness, arrogance, boastfulness, and vanity. Rather than, "Me first," humility allows us to say, "No, you first, my friend."
Note, James makes a humble sandwich between vs.7-10. What’s in-between these “humble buns” are 4 slices of cold-cut commands, that help us in becoming humble. [Submit to God; Resist the Devil; Draw near to God; cleanse & purify] These are steps to breaking off our love affair w/the world!
Submit to God! - Cease fighting & surrender your will to His control. Resist the Devil! - resist his promptings-
James 4; 6- 6 But He gives more grace. Therefore, He says: “God resists the proud, But, gives grace to the humble. 7 Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.
In our walk w/ the Lord, the realization of; 6 enables us to better live out ;7. Zach Adams richly blessed us yesterday as he shared that God’s grace, w/ the gift of salvation, the Lord doesn’t give us the punishment we deserve-mercy, and instead, bestows upon us a gift we can never earn, grace.
When you and I walk in/meditate upon, allow God’s grace to marinade our minds & our hearts, then we become free from ourselves. We’re not serving our God to earn His love, we serve Him b/c we’re loved, never earning, never deserving, which in turn, should humble us. When that does, our closeness to Christ becomes the key to resisting the devil, or more than likely, some buck private demon, not the devil himself.
Simply put, resisting the devil/taking captive evil thoughts that come into your mind/better defined/thoughts that conflict w/ the bible, is a matter of walking in who you are in Christ. 2 Cor. 5; 17-tells us that we have a new nature. The HS has come into us, & thus, since it is not within God’s nature to sin, so it is not within our nature to sin as well. Resisting the devil- Sheep ranchers have tried just about everything to stop crafty coyotes from killing their sheep. They have used odor sprays, electric fences, & scare-coyotes. Have placed battery-operated radios near them. Corralled them at night, herded them at day.
Then they discovered the llama - the aggressive, funny-looking, afraid-of nothing llama. Llamas don’t appear to be afraid of anything, when they see
something, they put their head up and walk straight toward it. That is
aggressive behavior as far as the coyote is concerned, and they won’t have
anything to do with that. Coyotes are opportunists, and llamas take that
opportunity away.
Apparently, llamas know the truth of what James writes: “Resist the Devil, and he will flee from you”. The moment we sense his attack through temptation is the moment we should face it and deal with it for what it is.
You are either resisting the devil or resisting the Lord! Which one? Take thoughts captive & quote the Word like Jesus in Matt. 4.
Intro to the Chrono-Gospels- The word gospel derives from the Old English gōd-spell , meaning "good news" or "glad tidings", and is a word-for-word translation of the Greek word, euangelion. The Septuagint (a Greek translation of the Old Testament) uses the word in 2 Sam 4:10; when a man told me, ‘Saul is dead,’ and thought he was bringing good news, I seized him and put him to death in Ziklag”.
THE 400 YEARS BETWEEN THE OLD AND NEW TESTAMENTS
Where we left off-Ray Stedman equates the writing of the book of Malachi at about 435 B.C. The 400 years of silence refers to the time between the Old Testament and New Testaments, during which God did not speak to the Jewish people. The 400 years of silence began with the warning that closed the Old Testament:
“Behold, I am going to send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and terrible day of the LORD. He will restore the hearts of the fathers to their children and the hearts of the children to their fathers, so that I will not come and smite the land with a curse" (Malachi 4:5-6)
And ended with the coming of John the Baptist, the Messiah’s forerunner. Between the time of Malachi and the coming of the Messiah, several prophecies were fulfilled, including the 2,300 days of desecration between 171 and 165 B.C. (Daniel 8:14), but neither the fulfilled prophecies nor the 400 years the nation was given to study Scripture, to seek God (Psalm 43-44) and to prepare for the coming Messiah, was put to good use.
In fact, those years blinded and deafened the nation to the point where most of the Jews could not even consider the concept of a humble Messiah (Zechariah 9:9; Isaiah 6:10; John 12:40).
The Origin of the Gospel/gospels: Gen. 3 is the seed-bed for the truths that run through the rest of Scripture. It is the seed-bed for 6,000 years of human history. It is in this chapter that the gospel is first mentioned: technically it is called the Proto-Evangelium. Proto=first, Evangelium=gospel.
In 3, Adam & Eve have fallen, Eve was tempted by Satan, who inhabited the form of a serpent, who we believe was still upright, and in my opinion, looked a lot different than now. I can’t imagine myself corresponding w/ an upright Anaconda, you?
Once the fall of man has occurred, Adam blamed Eve, Eve blamed Satan, & this is what the Lord has to say to Satan:
15 And I will put enmity/hostility
Between you and the woman,
And between your seed and her Seed;
He shall bruise your head,
And you shall bruise His heel.”
We don’t know whether Satan thought at this place in time,” that’s it, I got man away from God & reproduction will be in my hands & not only do I have 1/3 of the angels that rebelled, I’m gonna raise up an army on earth, that will be in rebellion against God also”.
But God steps right in & says, this is what is going to happen, there will be enmity/hostility between you & the woman. The majority of people don’t like snakes, most women are not fans of snakes. “And between your seed” he says to Satan and her seed” singular.
There is no doubt this is a prophecy of Jesus’ ultimate defeat of Satan. God announced that Satan would wound the Messiah (you shall bruise His heel), but the Messiah would crush Satan with a mortal wound (He shall bruise your head).
The heel is the part within the serpent’s reach. Jesus, in taking on humanity, brought Himself near to Satan’s domain so Satan could strike Him. This prophecy also gives the first hint of the virgin birth, declaring the Messiah – the Deliverer – would be the Seed of the Woman, but not of the man.
When Adam/Eve were driven out of the garden of Eden, it says the Lord put Cherubim there to guard the way to the tree of life/Gen. 3; 24, so a Cherubim was always there.
What is a Cherub? Cherubim/cherubs are angelic beings involved in the worship and praise of God. The cherubim serve the purpose of magnifying the holiness and power of God. This is one of their main responsibilities throughout the Bible. They serve as a visible reminder of the majesty and glory of God and His abiding presence with His people.
In the tabernacle, when set up, embroidered on the curtains that separated the Holy place from the Holy of Holies where the Ark of the Covenant was, there were the Cherubim, embroidered on there, guarding the way/Ex. 36; 35.
Over the top of the mercy seat, there were the Cherubim w/ their wings touching/Ex. 25; 20. The camp of Israel, if you’d look at it from an aerial view, it was very interesting b/c the outside tribes that were there, the flags were the face of a man, which was Reuben. The face of an ox-Ephraim, the face of an eagle-Dan, & the face of a lion-Judah. Never forget that history, is His story. Jesus can be found in form or type on every page of the bible, from Gen-Rev.
The imagery is there throughout the bible.
Early Christians that were persecuted, that met in the Catacombs, in some of the places they met, they put up the Ichthys, the Christian fish. In some of the places, they put up the 4 faces of the Cherubim b/c the early church
understood that Matthew portrayed the lion of the tribe of Judah. That Mark portrayed that Christ came not to be served, but to serve, to lay down his life as a ransom, the ox. They understood that Luke portrayed the humanity of Christ, as the face of a man. And they understood that John displayed the deity of Christ, the face of an eagle. They understood it in the four faces of the Cherubim, that the gospels were represented. And so, these faces marked some of the places where the early Christians would meet.
This is reflected in works such as the Book of Kells, an ornately illustrated work containing the four gospels written in approximately A.D. 800. The artwork of the cover page of the Book of Kells shows that the monks recognized a correspondence between the faces of the cherubim seen by Ezekiel and John and the four gospels Ezek 1:10; 10:14; Rev. 4:7.
The Church Fathers-like Clement of Rome who were contemporaries of the apostles and were probably taught by them, carrying on the tradition and teaching of the apostles themselves, identified them with the four Gospels.
The lion also represents Jesus' resurrection (because lions were believed to sleep with open eyes, a comparison with Christ in the tomb), and Christ as king. This signifies that Christians should be courageous on the path of salvation. eagle – a figure of the sky, and believed by Christian scholars to be able to look straight into the sun.
Rev. 4; 6 Before the throne there was a sea of glass, like crystal. And in the midst of the throne, and around the throne, were four living creatures full of eyes in front and in back. 7 The first living creature was like a lion, the second living creature like a calf, the third living creature had a face like a man, and the fourth living creature was like a flying eagle.
John described four cherubim, each with a different face. From comparison with Ezekiel 1:6-10, we can see that each of the cherubim have four faces, and at the moment, John saw each one of the four different faces pointed in his direction. The significance of these four faces has been interpreted in many ways.
The four faces have been said to represent the elements, the cardinal virtues, the faculties and powers of the human soul, the patriarchal churches, the great apostles, the orders of churchmen, the principle angels, and so forth.
Some commentators say these four creatures speak of the ensigns of the head tribes as Israel camped in four groups around the tabernacle in the wilderness.
Why Four Gospels?
Many have wondered why there are four gospels? Especially if three of the four (the synoptic gospels) have so much in common. There are at least two primary answers which can be given to this question:
Multiple Witnesses:
Multiple independent eye-witness accounts establish the reliability of the testimony concerning the life and ministry of Jesus.
Varied Perspectives:
Each author recorded the events of Jesus’ life and ministry from a different perspective with different goals and objectives.
Both of these answers explain why there are four gospels.
Matthew - The Bridge - This book is appropriately placed at the beginning of the N.T. - right next to the O.T. - for it bridges the two. Matt. quotes from or alludes to the O.T. 129 times. He also shows fulfilled Prophecy, & that Jesus is the Messiah. This book does Not unfold Chronologically but Topically. Matthew = Gift of the Lord. The Author, was a tax collector. His was a tax station in Capernaum on an important trade route. Traveling from the Roman province to the N/E the 1st town a traveler would come to was Capernaum. Thus, the tax office was placed on this busy thoroughfare.
His original name linked with the Tribe/Levi, yet he couldn’t have gotten farther away. No longer a patriot of his country. Often would have to work on the Sabbath, thus they were forbidden to enter the synagogue. James & John, Peter & Andrew could always go back to fishing…as they did later. But not for Matthew, he burned his bridges completely. He staked everything on Christ.
“God never goes back on the person who stakes his all on Him.”
Mark is the most translated book in all the world. No other book appears in as many languages. Marks aim? It’s the Gentile ear. Whose ear do you have? Who is your audience?
His full name was John(Heb) Mark(Latin). He was the Cousin of Barnabas(Col.4:10). He was the son of Mary, a leading woman in the Jerusalem church. 1st Pet.5:13 suggests he was converted through Peter’s ministry. Peter calls him, Mark my son.
WHY WAS HE WRITING? Many Bible Scholars believe that his gospel is a record of Peter’s reports of the ministry of Christ. Justin Martyr (100-165)-an early Christian apologist, referred to Mark’s gospel as the “Memoirs from a similar point of view). He wrote w/the Romans in mind. Possibly even written in Rome, to the Romans (the believers there). Note: Mark omits a number of things that would not have been meaningful to Gentiles.
He interpreted Aramaic words. He used a number of Latin terms in place of their Greek equivalence.
Irish evangelist Gypsy Smith said, “There are five Gospels: Matthew Mark, Luke, John, and the Christian, and some people will never read the first four.”
Thinking about this quote, what people group has God brought your way? Coworkers, relatives, neighbors, people you used to party w/ that have seen the change in you? You simply do not realize where God will take you & the gospel;
In this church, people God has used have taken the gospel to: East Hills Mall, a one room school house in KS, various cities in CA, Moscow/Ramenskoye/a small island in Volgograd, Mound City, Troy KS, Indianapolis IN, Blue Springs MO, Olathe KS, Singapore, Waterloo IA, Israel, Egypt, to rural towns like Carrolton, Agency, Berlin MO, to name a few.
Luke- Lk.1& 2 = 30 yrs of Jesus’ life; Lk.3 - 19:28 = 3 yrs of Jesus’ life; Lk.19:29 - 24:53 = 1 week of Jesus’ life. Only 8% deals with Jesus life before ministry, 25% deals with His last week before He died, it is the longest single book in the NT. Luke & Acts constitute 28% of the NT, making Luke the most prolific of its contributors. It is written in the most refined Greek in the NT, giving it unsurpassed literary richness & beauty!
It contains 4 beautiful hymns, Key Word: Jesus the Son of Man. Luke: A physician; prob. a Greek; a companion of Paul on some of his journeys. He writes as a Christian historian. He wrote 2 volumes which go together like 1 volume dealing w/the beginning & growth of the early church. They are records of journeys: His Travelogue! The Gospel of Luke (Jesus journeys to Jerusalem); And Acts {Luke part 2, or the Sequel!} (Paul’s journey to Rome)
He writes with the Greeks in mind – thus he translates the Aramaic terms, & explains Jewish customs & geography.
John - John declares Jesus’ deity & belief; To the World; Portrays Jesus as “Divine”. (1) Tells us what Jesus was! Read - Jn.20:31(Key verse) Deity - “Jesus is the Christ” (to make His deity crystal clear). Coin: 2 sides of a coin are both valid, so Jesus has 2 natures, both valid! Belief - “that believing you might have life in His name” (forgiveness & brought near to God) [Believe is key word; 98 x’s]
John writes topically not chronologically. We also get 6 miracles we didn’t know about; the upper room teachings ch.14-17; And we learn over 90% of John is unique to his gospel!!!
The Gospel of John was probably the last of the four written, and written in view of what the previous three had already said. This is one reason why John’s account of the life of Jesus is in many ways different from Matthew, Mark, and Luke. The first three Gospels center on Jesus’ ministry in Galilee. John centers his Gospel on what Jesus said and did in Jerusalem.
· John shows us who Jesus is by highlighting seven signs (miracles) of Jesus. Six of these miracles are not mentioned in the first three gospels.
· John shows us who Jesus is by allowing Jesus to speak for Himself in seven dramatic I Am statements, which were not included in the first three gospels.
· John shows us who Jesus is by giving the testimony witnesses who testify about the identity of Jesus. Four of these witnesses speak in the first chapter alone.
So please read ahead for next week-the verses will be both on the sandwich board & FB each week. Don’t forget to walk in Grace!
James 4; 6- 6 But He gives more grace. Therefore, He says: “God resists the proud, But, gives grace to the humble. 7 Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.
Grace-God’s riches at Christ’s expense. We can’t earn it, we don’t deserve it, we know that we’ve received it as we give it to others. People often wonder humility means or what is the definition of humility. In the Bible, humility or humbleness is a quality of being courteously respectful of others. It is the opposite of aggressiveness, arrogance, boastfulness, and vanity. Rather than, "Me first," humility allows us to say, "No, you first, my friend."
Note, James makes a humble sandwich between vs.7-10. What’s in-between these “humble buns” are 4 slices of cold-cut commands, that help us in becoming humble. [Submit to God; Resist the Devil; Draw near to God; cleanse & purify] These are steps to breaking off our love affair w/the world!
Submit to God! - Cease fighting & surrender your will to His control. Resist the Devil! - resist his promptings-