Episodes
Saturday Feb 28, 2015
Valentine's Day; 4 Loves
Saturday Feb 28, 2015
Saturday Feb 28, 2015
4 Greek Words for Love
2 used in the Bible
The Word Love.
English: Applied to anything humans have any sort of affection or affinity.
Love pizza
Love your sports
Love your dog
Love Songs
Romantic Love
Valentines Love
The word love has multiple meanings.
That’s not bad.
The Hebrew word is the same thing.
The 'ahab 'ahabah
Hebrew Word It’s more like our word for love. Lots of meeting.
'ahabah אַהֲבָה
love
human love for human object
of man toward man
of man toward himself
between man and woman
sexual desire
God's love to His people
OT
[Deu 6:5 ESV] You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.
The Greek words for ‘love’
It appears that, in New Testament times, there were at least four different Greek words that we translate as the English word ‘love’.
Storge not found in Scripture
Storge (στοργή storgē) means "love, affection" and "especially of parents and children"[9] It is natural affection, like that felt by parents for offspring
[Eph 6:1 ESV] Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right.
[Eph 6:2 ESV] "Honor your father and mother" (this is the first commandment with a promise),
[Eph 6:3 ESV] "that it may go well with you and that you may live long in the land."
[Eph 6:4 ESV] Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.
Eros Love
EROS: this Greek word was not used in the New Testament. It refers to sexual love and probably derived its name from the mythical god of love.
In Song of Solomon; She is looking for him.
[Sng 3:3 ESV] The watchmen found me as they went about in the city. "Have you seen him whom my soul loves?"
[Sng 3:4 ESV] Scarcely had I passed them when I found him whom my soul loves. I held him, and would not let him go until I had brought him into my mother's house, and into the chamber of her who conceived me.
[Sng 3:5 ESV] I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, by the gazelles or the does of the field, that you not stir up or awaken love until it pleases.
Chapter 4 begins with a description of Her beauty that begins with her face and moves downward.
It’s been suggested that this book is an allegory of Jesus Christ and His Bride.
I would disagree.
Scripture does compare Christ and the Church to a Husband and Wife. With Agape Love
[Eph 5:22 ESV] Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord.
[Eph 5:23 ESV] For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior.
[Eph 5:24 ESV] Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands.
[Eph 5:25 ESV] Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her,
[Eph 5:26 ESV] that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word,
[Eph 5:27 ESV] so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.
[Eph 5:28 ESV] In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself.
[Eph 5:29 ESV] For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church,
[Eph 5:30 ESV] because we are members of his body.
[Eph 5:31 ESV] "Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh."
[Eph 5:32 ESV] This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church.
[Eph 5:33 ESV] However, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.
This book is the celebration of the Love God has designed for men and women. Just as God intended in the Garden. Gen 2.
The first marriage was officiated by God Himself and it was Holy and Good.
[Gen 2:21 ESV] So the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh.
[Gen 2:22 ESV] And the rib that the LORD God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man.
[Gen 2:23 ESV] Then the man said, "This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man."
[Gen 2:24 ESV] Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.
[Gen 2:25 ESV] And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.
Philos Love
phileō
to love
to approve of
to like
sanction
to treat affectionately or kindly, to welcome, befriend
Philadelphia city of brotherly love
[Jhn 21:15 ESV] When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, "Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?" He said to him, "Yes, Lord; you know that I love you." He said to him, "Feed my lambs."
[Jhn 21:16 ESV] He said to him a second time, "Simon, son of John, do you love me?" He said to him, "Yes, Lord; you know that I love you." He said to him, "Tend my sheep."
[Jhn 21:17 ESV] He said to him the third time, "Simon, son of John, do you love me?" Peter was grieved because he said to him the third time, "Do you love me?" and he said to him, "Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you." Jesus said to him, "Feed my sheep.
Agape Love
of persons
to welcome, to entertain, to be fond of, to love dearly
the highest love of God
[Jhn 13:35 ESV] By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another."
[Jhn 14:15 ESV] "If you love me, you will keep my commandments.
[Rom 5:6 ESV] For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.
[Rom 5:7 ESV] For one will scarcely die for a righteous person--though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die--
[Rom 5:8 ESV] but God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
[Mar 12:30 ESV] And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.'
[Mar 12:31 ESV] The second is this: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no other commandment greater than these."
[1Co 13:1 ESV] If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.
[1Co 13:2 ESV] And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.
[1Co 13:3 ESV] If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.
[1Co 13:4 ESV] Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant
[1Co 13:5 ESV] or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful;
[1Co 13:6 ESV] it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.
[1Co 13:7 ESV] Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
[1Co 13:8 ESV] Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away.
[1Co 13:9 ESV] For we know in part and we prophesy in part,
[1Co 13:10 ESV] but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away.
[1Co 13:11 ESV] When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways.
[1Co 13:12 ESV] For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.
[1Co 13:13 ESV] So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
[Heb 10:24 ESV] And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works,
[Heb 10:25 ESV] not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.
We are to love the church ON PURPOSE. Agape Love.
Guess what, it’s inconvenient.
These are not my suggestions, these are God’s commands.
Agape Love
[1Jo 4:7 ESV] Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.
[1Jo 4:8 ESV] Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.
View the SlideShow!
Sunday Feb 22, 2015
Acts 6: Zombie Attack
Sunday Feb 22, 2015
Sunday Feb 22, 2015
Things are looking great! Until . . . . . . . .
A little info about the Day of the dead.
What does God think of death?
[1Co 15:20 ESV] But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep.
[1Co 15:21 ESV] For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead.
[1Co 15:22 ESV] For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.
[1Co 15:23 ESV] But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ.
[1Co 15:24 ESV] Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power.
[1Co 15:25 ESV] For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet.
[1Co 15:26 ESV] The last enemy to be destroyed is death.
Even the Earth hates “the circle of life”
[Rom 8:19 ESV] For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God.
[Rom 8:20 ESV] For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope
[Rom 8:21 ESV] that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.
[Rom 8:22 ESV] For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now.
[Rom 8:23 ESV] And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.
Church Organization Issues ie Growing Pains
[Act 6:1 ESV] Now in these days when the disciples were increasing in number, a complaint by the Hellenists arose against the Hebrews because their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution.
Hellenists were Greek Jews.
A couple observations.
Lake of organization VS hypocrisy (sin)
Was the church being hypocrites because there was unfairness?
Or was the church not organized to handle new believers from all over the world?
[Act 6:2 ESV] And the twelve summoned the full number of the disciples and said, "It is not right that we should give up preaching the word of God to serve tables.
This statement was not sin, not ego or pride, it was simply fact.
As the Apostles point out, it is not right for them to do that ministry.
Let’s get that ministry set up.
[Act 6:4 ESV] But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word."
[Act 6:3 ESV] Therefore, brothers, pick out from among you seven men of good repute, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we will appoint to this duty.
[Act 6:5 ESV] And what they said pleased the whole gathering, and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit, and Philip, and Prochorus, and Nicanor, and Timon, and Parmenas, and Nicolaus, a proselyte of Antioch.
[Act 6:6 ESV] These they set before the apostles, and they prayed and laid their hands on them.
This ministry of organization and serving physical needs was very important.
There was a special service of inauguration.
The calm before the storm.
[Act 6:7 ESV] And the word of God continued to increase, and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests became obedient to the faith.
Stephen doing everything Right
[Act 6:8 ESV] And Stephen, full of grace and power, was doing great wonders and signs among the people.
Still there is problems
[Act 6:9 ESV] Then some of those who belonged to the synagogue of the Freedmen (as it was called), and of the Cyrenians, and of the Alexandrians, and of those from Cilicia and Asia, rose up and disputed with Stephen.
[Act 6:10 ESV] But they could not withstand the wisdom and the Spirit with which he was speaking.
Stephen was more wise,
had all the right answers,
backed with supernatural signs to boot.
So The Freedmen, attacked with deception, lies and hate.
[Act 6:11 ESV] Then they secretly instigated men who said, "We have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and God."
[Act 6:12 ESV] And they stirred up the people and the elders and the scribes, and they came upon him and seized him and brought him before the council,
[Act 6:13 ESV] and they set up false witnesses who said, "This man never ceases to speak words against this holy place and the law,
[Act 6:14 ESV] for we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place and will change the customs that Moses delivered to us."
[Act 6:15 ESV] And gazing at him, all who sat in the council saw that his face was like the face of an angel.
Why are these religious people fighting Stephen?
What did he do wrong?
Stephen Preached Jesus Christ.
Why is that so bad?
Humans hate God who made us.
[Psa 14:1 ESV] To the choirmaster. Of David. The fool says in his heart, "There is no God." They are corrupt, they do abominable deeds, there is none who does good.
[Psa 14:2 ESV] The LORD looks down from heaven on the children of man, to see if there are any who understand, who seek after God.
[Psa 14:3 ESV] They have all turned aside; together they have become corrupt; there is none who does good, not even one.
Humans fight God.
[Rom 1:18 ESV] For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.
[Rom 1:19 ESV] For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them.
[Rom 1:20 ESV] For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.
[Rom 1:21 ESV] For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened.
[Rom 1:22 ESV] Claiming to be wise, they became fools,
[Rom 1:23 ESV] and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.
Humans without the Holy Spirit are zombies.
[Eph 2:1 ESV] And you were dead in the trespasses and sins
[Eph 2:2 ESV] in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience--
[Eph 2:3 ESV] among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.
How do Christians fight zombies? Preach and Pray
[Rom 1:16 ESV] For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
[Rom 1:17 ESV] For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, "The righteous shall live by faith."
1. Speak Jesus’ Name
[2Ti 4:1 ESV] I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom:
[2Ti 4:2 ESV] preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching.
[2Ti 4:3 ESV] For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions,
[2Ti 4:4 ESV] and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.
2. Pray
[Luk 18:1 ESV] And he told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart.
[Luk 18:2 ESV] He said, "In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected man.
[Luk 18:3 ESV] And there was a widow in that city who kept coming to him and saying, 'Give me justice against my adversary.'
[Luk 18:4 ESV] For a while he refused, but afterward he said to himself, 'Though I neither fear God nor respect man,
[Luk 18:5 ESV] yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will give her justice, so that she will not beat me down by her continual coming.'"
[Luk 18:6 ESV] And the Lord said, "Hear what the unrighteous judge says.
[Luk 18:7 ESV] And will not God give justice to his elect, who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long over them?
[Luk 18:8 ESV] I tell you, he will give justice to them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?"
God brings zombies to life! God gets the Glory!
[Eph 2:4 ESV] But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us,
[Eph 2:5 ESV] even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ--by grace you have been saved—
That is what Grace is.
[Eph 2:6 ESV] and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,
[Eph 2:7 ESV] so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.
[Eph 2:8 ESV] For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,
[Eph 2:9 ESV] not a result of works, so that no one may boast.
[Eph 2:10 ESV] For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
Monday Feb 09, 2015
Acts 5; Stay and Preach part 2
Monday Feb 09, 2015
Monday Feb 09, 2015
[Act 5:12 ESV] Now many signs and wonders were regularly done among the people by the hands of the apostles. And they were all together in Solomon's Portico.
When in Good Standing, Two Groups
[Act 5:13 ESV] None of the rest dared join them, but the people held them in high esteem.
[Act 5:14 ESV] And more than ever believers were added to the Lord, multitudes of both men and women,
Constant Miraculous Signs.
[Act 5:15 ESV] so that they even carried out the sick into the streets and laid them on cots and mats, that as Peter came by at least his shadow might fall on some of them.
[Act 5:16 ESV] The people also gathered from the towns around Jerusalem, bringing the sick and those afflicted with unclean spirits, and they were all healed.
A Group of Religious people became Jealous
[Act 5:17 ESV] But the high priest rose up, and all who were with him (that is, the party of the Sadducees), and filled with jealousy
[Act 5:18 ESV] they arrested the apostles and put them in the public prison.
An Interesting Escape
[Act 5:19 ESV] But during the night an angel of the Lord opened the prison doors and brought them out, and said,
[Act 5:20 ESV] "Go and stand in the temple and speak to the people all the words of this Life."
[Act 5:21 ESV] And when they heard this, they entered the temple at daybreak and began to teach.
A Miraculous Escape
Now when the high priest came, and those who were with him, they called together the council, all the senate of the people of Israel, and sent to the prison to have them brought.
[Act 5:22 ESV] But when the officers came, they did not find them in the prison, so they returned and reported,
[Act 5:23 ESV] "We found the prison securely locked and the guards standing at the doors, but when we opened them we found no one inside."
Oh, there they are!
[Act 5:24 ESV] Now when the captain of the temple and the chief priests heard these words, they were greatly perplexed about them, wondering what this would come to.
[Act 5:25 ESV] And someone came and told them, "Look! The men whom you put in prison are standing in the temple and teaching the people."
[Act 5:26 ESV] Then the captain with the officers went and brought them, but not by force, for they were afraid of being stoned by the people.
The Name of Jesus
[Act 5:27 ESV] And when they had brought them, they set them before the council. And the high priest questioned them,
[Act 5:28 ESV] saying, "We strictly charged you not to teach in this name, yet here you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching, and you intend to bring this man's blood upon us."
Obey God
[Act 5:29 ESV] But Peter and the apostles answered, "We must obey God rather than men.
[Act 5:30 ESV] The God of our fathers raised Jesus, whom you killed by hanging him on a tree.
[Act 5:31 ESV] God exalted him at his right hand as Leader and Savior, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins.
Let’s unpack the Gospel Message: Means Good News.
You do not want God to judge you according to your works.
Everyone human being is basically bad, not basically good.
We all broke God’s moral law.
Lying, Stealing,
Blasphemy,
Hating,
[1Jo 3:15 ESV] Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.
Idolatry. Making up our own god, who likes our sin and expects nothing of us.
[1Co 6:9 ESV] Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality,
[1Co 6:10 ESV] nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.
[1Co 6:11 ESV] And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.
If God is Good & Loving, then He is Must punish Evil.
God is Just.
So now we have a problem.
A Just God is going to be completely FAIR and punish evil, but oh oh, I am evil according to His moral code.
I can never repay my debt to God.
God sent Jesus.
Jesus lived a perfect life and never did anything evil.
God put Jesus on a cross as punished Him as an evil doer.
Jesus is a substitute for you and me.
Now that God’s Justice is satisfied, He can now legally declare you and me, “not guilty”.
Benefits:
You are allowed Heaven despite your inability to be perfect
God sends to the Holy Spirit to indwell and empower you.
Your whole world view will explode with meaning and purpose.
Everything will start to make sense.
Hope and Joy.
But you have to let God give you new glasses so you can see what is really going on.
We need to ask Jesus to rescue us from our inability to be perfect.
We need to ask Jesus to save of from God’s righteous judgment.
We need to trust our lives to Jesus as our leader.
It’s not religion,
It’s not this church
It’s Jesus
[Act 5:32 ESV] And we are witnesses to these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey him."
Violent Reaction
[Act 5:33 ESV] When they heard this, they were enraged and wanted to kill them.
What about the miracles?
No one in the religious leadership said the miracles were fake.
What about the response of the people?
[Act 5:34 ESV] But a Pharisee in the council named Gamaliel, a teacher of the law held in honor by all the people, stood up and gave orders to put the men outside for a little while.
[Act 5:35 ESV] And he said to them, "Men of Israel, take care what you are about to do with these men.
[Act 5:36 ESV] For before these days Theudas rose up, claiming to be somebody, and a number of men, about four hundred, joined him. He was killed, and all who followed him were dispersed and came to nothing.
What are the religious leaders afraid of?
Drawing unwanted attention from the Romans
Disruption of the Jewish religion
Being exposed as the bad guys who killed Jesus
[Act 5:37 ESV] After him Judas the Galilean rose up in the days of the census and drew away some of the people after him. He too perished, and all who followed him were scattered.
A momentary light of Wisdom.
[Act 5:38 ESV] So in the present case I tell you, keep away from these men and let them alone, for if this plan or this undertaking is of man, it will fail;
[Act 5:39 ESV] but if it is of God, you will not be able to overthrow them. You might even be found opposing God!" So they took his advice,
So instead of killing them, a beating.
[Act 5:40 ESV] and when they had called in the apostles, they beat them and charged them not to speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go.
Reaction of Christians: Worship!
[Act 5:41 ESV] Then they left the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name.
[Act 5:42 ESV] And every day, in the temple and from house to house, they did not cease teaching and preaching that the Christ is Jesus.
To not stop speaking the name of Jesus Christ.
Maybe we need to start?
Acts 5 Staying and Preaching
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