Archive for Posted by Jeff W.
The Son of Man and His Kingdom
The deity of Jesus Christ is one of the essentials of the Christian faith. Jesus who is 100% God and 100% man is clearly taught throughout Scripture. Jesus is God the Son the second person of the Holy Trinity. We as Christians believe that there is one God in three distinct persons God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. But there is often many who challenge that view; Jehovah Witnesses, Mormons, and even some “Christians”. Jehovah Witnesses believe that Jesus is Michael the Archangel, Mormons believe that Jesus is a created being the firstborn of heavenly father, and even some say Jesus is a Son of God, but not God. The Bible is clear in it’s teachings about Jesus, that He is not a created being(John 1), He’s not Michael the Archangel(I challenge anybody to find that in Scripture), and while Jesus is called the Son of God, He’s not a Son like we would think of one. God didn’t have a baby, Jesus is everlasting(Rev. 1:8) just like His Father and the Spirit. The Son of God is His role in the Holy Trinity. Glory to the Father, Glory to the Son, Glory to the Spirit. Three in essence one in unity.
One of the biggest arguments against the deityof Christ, especially in evangelism, is that Jesus never claimed to be God. So here is my challenge to everyone. Just in the 7 chapters we are currently studying comment verses that you see that show the deity of Christ. Here is mine. First we know that heaven is often called the kingdom of God, remember, who’s kingdom is it? Gods!! Mattthew 13:41 “The Son of Man will send out His Angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all things that offend and those who practice lawlessness.” Jesus called it His kingdom because He is God. There are plenty more verses that show the deity of Christ, so comment me yours. God bless you all!!
Build Your House On the Rock
Matthew 7:24-27
24 “Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock: 25 and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock.
26 “But everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand: 27 and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it fell. And great was its fall.”
We had a visitor at our church a couple of weeks ago named Frank Zitzman, and he shared something I thought was interesting about these verses. Over the last couple years I’ve learned more and more that understanding the original language is very critical in properly interpreting the scriptures. I’ve heard that in the English language there is only about six thousand words contrasted to the Greek language which has over ten thousand words. So some times when your reading the scripture in English you might miss something.
So notice in verse 25 the phrase beat on, this phrase is also found in verse 27, the same phrase in English, right? Well when you study those two phrases in the Greek you will notice that they are two different Greek words. In verse 25 the Greek word is prospipto which means to violently fall upon; attack; or to rush upon. In the context of the verse with that phrase it means when a global type flood comes or a huge amount of water comes, the house that is built on the rock will stand. Contrast to verse 27 the Greek word there is proskopto which means dash against or surge against. In the context of the verse with that phrase it means when a small amount of water like a creek comes, the house that is built on the sand will fall, and the fall will be great.
So the question is, is your house built upon the Rock Jesus Christ and His Word or is it built upon the sand of the world system? We know that as Christians that the Bible promises trials and tribulations and it will not be too long until heavy persecution comes are way. These verses are a promise and a warning. So build your house on the Rock, so that when the heavy floods come your house will stand.
Here is an excerpt from John Pipers book Spectacular Sins (And their global purpose in the glory of Christ). I think that this drives the point home. Also I would definitely suggest reading this book, you can go to desiringGod.org and read it on line for free. God bless!!
“Christianity is not a game; it’s not a therapy. All of its doctrines flow from who God is and what He has done in history. They correspond to hard facts. Christianity is more than facts, but not less. There is faith and hope and love. But these don’t float in the air. They grow like great cedar trees in the rock of God truth.
And the reason I make this one of my aims in this book is because I am deeply convinced from the Bible that our eternal joy and strength and holiness depend on the solidity of this worldview putting strong fiber into the spine of our faith. Wimpy worldviews make wimpy Christians. And wimpy Christians won’t survive the days ahead. Rootless emotionalism that treats Christianity like a therapeutic option will be swept away in the last days. Those who will be left standing will be those who have built their houses on the rock of great, objective truth with Jesus Christ as the origin, center, and goal of it all.”
Was He King?
This is the question that the Jews would want to know the answer of anyone claiming to be the Messiah. This is the main question that Matthew tackles in his gospel. He starts out the most basic and first way a Jew would to see if a person had rightful heir to the throne.
The genealogy. We so often look at the genealogy when reading the Word and skip over it so quickly, maybe thinking it’s insinificent. But to the Jewish mind it was very important. It was a family tree or even like a family photo album. So very important indeed. Matthew used it to show how Jesus Christ was not only the rightful heir to the throne, but also the fulfillment of the promise of the coming Messiah, the Seed of Abrahman(Gen. 22:18, Gal. 3:16).
Interesting enough if you claimed to be Messiah you needed the genealogy to prove your throne right! Well in 70 a.d. the Temple where all genealogies were kept was destroyed by the Romans, making it impossible for anyone to prove their right to the throne! Leaving Jesus Christ as the only possible Messiah!! Wow I think the genealogy just got pretty interesting!! Who are some of the interesting characters you see in the genealogy. Take a closer look!! God bless.
Different theological backgrounds means different views on scripture. We can differ on secondary issues and still have fellowship. So keep theological debates centered on the text in our reading plan (unless needed to cross reference of course) so as not to veer off to far & be a one issue blog. But Truth is important to dialog about, so communicate effectively.
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