Results 41 - 60 of 77
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Results from: Answers On or After: Thu 12/31/70 Author: jonp Ordered by Verse |
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Results | Verse | Author | ID# | |||
41 | Matthew 18:18 | Matt 18:18 | jonp | 184281 | ||
Hi The power of binding and loosing was given to a Rabbi when he received 'the key of knowledge' on graduation. It meant that in interpreting the Law, for which he was now seen as qualified he could either bind people to the strict letter of the Law or could loose it a little by giving it a different interpretation. Thus Hillel loosed the Law when he said that a man could divorce his wife if she displeased him. Shammai insisted that it could only be for uncleanness found in her. Thus here the Apostles were being given the authority to make binding regulations for the Christian church and interpret the Scriptures in term of God's requirements with their interpretations being binding on the church because they would be confirmed by Heaven. But this did not of course entitle them just to decide what they liked. In order to fulfil this role they were given a special enduing of the Holy Spirit in the Upper Room (John 20.21-23) when their minds were opened to understand the Scriptures (Luke 24.45) in accordance with Jesus' promises to them earler (John 14.26; 16.13). It was not an authority that was ever passed on. Best wishes Jonp. | ||||||
42 | Eunuchs incapable of marriage? | Matt 19:12 | jonp | 184417 | ||
Hi, this verse has nothing to say about whether eunuchs can marry. Jesus is illustrating the example of a person who like He did Himself remains single in order better to further the work of Christ, and He does it by comparison with genuine eunuchs who were either born that way or were made that way by men. These 'eunuchs by choice' are not strictly speaking eunuchs at all. They are men who remain single for Christ's sake. There is nothing in the Bible which actually says that eunuchs cannot marry, although clearly there might be problems in consummating the marriage. Under the new covenant God says, 'to the eunuchs which keep my sabbaths, who choose the things that please Me, and hold fast My covenant, I will give in My house and within My walls a monument and a name better than sons and daughters, I will give them an everlasting name which shall not be cut off' (Isaiah 56.4-5). In other words they are accepted on the same level as anyone else. I cannot doubt that such a eunuch who marries and adopts children in order that he might bring them up to know the Lord is as pleasing to God as an ordinary husband. The exclusion in Deuteronomy 23.1 probably refers to those who had been made eunuchs for religious reasons by following Canannite ideas. Best wishes Jonp | ||||||
43 | Once saved, always saved? | Matt 25:14 | jonp | 184459 | ||
Hi Azure. They are professing Christians, people who call Jesus 'Lord, Lord'. But some 'do not do what He says' (Luke 6.46). Thus not all are true believers. Jesus point about the deposit was that this servant had failed to have any concern about the interests of his master. Not even enough to put his money on deposit so that his master could benefit. He was totally unconcerned about his master's concerns and purposes. Thus he was only a professing servant, not a real one. The idea of the outer darkness is that it is away from the true light. Where God is, there is light. To be in outer darkness is to be totally away from God. Best wishes Jonp | ||||||
44 | Baptized in name of Jesus or Trinitarian | Matt 28:19 | jonp | 184416 | ||
Hi The Name of the Triune God as mentioned in Matthew 28.19-20 is in Hebrew YHWH and in Greek Kurios. The Name of Jesus is YHWH/Kurios (Philippians 2.8-11). Thus to be baptised in the Name of the triune God and to be baptised in the Name of Jesus is precisely the same. It is however not true to say that the Pentecostal faith teaches baptism only 'in the Name of Jesus'. When I was younger I regularly attended a large Pentecostal church (Elim) which baptised in the Name of the triune God. Baptism can in fact not affect a person's salvation one way or the other. That is why Paul said, 'Christ sent me not to baptise but to preach the Gospel' --- 'lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power' -- 'the Gospel -- which is the power of God unto salvation to all who believe' (1 Corinthians 1.17; Romand 1.16). Yes, before you ask we should be baptised, but it should be because we have been saved, not in order to be saved. Best wishes Jonp | ||||||
45 | Follow up to : Baptized in name of Jesus | Matt 28:19 | jonp | 184457 | ||
Hi It is the tendency of human beings to place the emphasis on the physical rather than the spiritual. By that means they seek to get the spiritual under their control. It gives them a feeling of certainty and makes men look up to them and even depend on them. But Paul lays the emphasis on the spiritual. He did not want people to look up to him and depend on him. He wanted them to look to Jesus and His cross and the Gospel of salvation. He was afraid that people might rather look to baptism as having some magical power which would in men's minds replace the cross and thus 'empty it of its power' because as a result the cross became ignored. And that is the great danger for people today. We must give baptism its due place as the means by which we make clear our desire to die with Christ and rise with Him, but we must not see it as actually accomplishing that purpose. That happens through faith alone when we 'reckon ourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus' (Romans 6.11). The triunity of God is something which is difficult to deal with in a short space, for it is something not within men's conceptions. It is true that there is only one God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, but within God (if we can use the word 'within' of the infinite) there are inter-personal relationships. Thus Father Son and Holy Spirit intercommunicate and reveal love to one another, and reveal God in different ways at the same time. Jonp | ||||||
46 | can someone make Mark 2:21 more clear? | Mark 2:21 | jonp | 184044 | ||
Hi The point is that the Pharisees and the disciples of John asked why Jesus' disciples were not fasting. Presumably this must have been because it was a regular feast when fasting was expected by the pious in order to encourage the arrival of the day of the Messiah. Jesus is pointing out that with His coming everything has changed. The fasting was aimed at bringing in the age of the Messiah. But as the Messiah had come the old ways no longer applied. So the old ways were incompatible with the new, just as an old cloth was incompatble with a new patch. Best wishes Jonp | ||||||
47 | Cont radiction??? | Luke 2:11 | jonp | 184006 | ||
Hi If you refer to Philippians 2.8-11 you will discover that Jesus was given the Name above every Name. This is the name of YHWH. In Matthew 28.18-20 Jesus told His disciples to baptise in 'the Name' of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. This is the Nme of YHWH. Thus the Name of the Son is YHWH. In Isaiah 43.11 it is YHWH Who is the Saviour. Thus there is no contradiction. The name Jesus in fact means 'YHWH is salvation. Best wishes Jonp | ||||||
48 | Test the spirits | Luke 8:28 | jonp | 184261 | ||
Hi, 1 John 4.2 is referring to testing the spirits of the prophets. The point is that when a prophet speaks you can test his spirit by what he says about Jesus Christ. That is a very different thing from a testimony wrung out from a tormented spirit face to face with the Master and unable to deny Him. Behind His back he would almost certainly have denied Him. Best wishes Jonp | ||||||
49 | Same supper as John 12? | Luke 10:38 | jonp | 184355 | ||
Hi The incidents in Luke 10 and John 12 are very different incidents. In the first case Mary and Martha had welcomed Jesus into their home somewhere in the middle of His ministry. Martha was the practical one and was very busy looking after twelve hungry disciples. But Mary was sat at the feet of Jesus. To her this was an opportunity not to be missed during which she could learn from her Lord. It is little wonder that Martha was a little upset, for she badly needed help. Her view would be that the women should be busy about the practical things while the men talked. But Jesus gently pointed out to her that Mary had chosen the better part. In fact His reply was quite revolutionary. For a Rabbi to favour a woman listening to Him was quite unusual. He was quietly bringing out that women were equally as important as men, and had as much right to be with Him and to hear His word as men had. And a further important lesson that comes home to us all from this is how important it is that we put our feeding on His word before the feeding of our bodies. Martha was providing daily bread (11.3) but Mary was seeking the Bread of life (John 6.35). However we must still remember that the church needs both Marys and Marthas. Martha must not be disparaged. It was just that she had not discerned the time. The second incident was totally different. That was in the house of Simon the Leper and Martha had been called in to help out. (She could always be depended on wherever hard work was called for. She was a marvellous example of faithful service). But no one thought of Mary. However Mary had her own agenda. No one asked her to serve. She was totally impractical, but she did love her Master. So she decided to serve in her own way. She went and found a precious jar of perfumed oil that she had probably treasured for years, and came and poured it on Jesus' head and feet. It was an act of pure love. Although she did not realise it (but He did)the anointing on the head spoke of His Messiahship, the anointing of the feet was preparing them to walk the way of the cross. To some of the disciples this appeared to be a total waste and they protested. All they could see was the externals. (It is salutary to think that they did not rejoice that their Master was honoured). Jesus, however, silenced them by pointing out what a good work she had done on Him. For He saw in her action the confirmation that His Father was watching over Him. He knew that those feet would soon walk the way of the cross and that that anointed brow would soon bear the crown of thorns, and that that body would soon be lying in its tomb. And He was saying 'My Son, none of those who are with you know what lies ahead for you. But I know. And in this act I am preparing you for what lies before you. Do not be afraid. This is an assurance that You walk the way ahead under My care.' No wonder Jesus said, 'she has wrought a good work on Me'. Again the lesson is that we should ensure that we are not so taken up with practicalities that we miss the opportunity for pure worship. It is that we must ever remember to keep Jesus Himself before us and not allow secondary things to take our eyes off Him. This was Mary's forte. Best wishes Jonp | ||||||
50 | study notes on the woman at the well? | John 1:1 | jonp | 184320 | ||
Hi, You can access commentaries on John by IVP and Dr Constable at http://www.geocities.com/petepartington/ | ||||||
51 | woman at the well impact women today | John 4:10 | jonp | 184294 | ||
Hi Only in that it brings home three of the most vital factors which can affect the world today. Firstly because in it Jesus reveals Himself as the spring of eternal life of which he who drinks will never thirst again (John4.10-14), secondly because it reveals that those who worship God do not have to go to any special holy place but can worship Him in Spirit and in truth (John 4.20-24) and thirdly because it reveals that Jesus is the Christ, the Saviour of the world (John 4.42). Best wishes Jonp | ||||||
52 | what does it mean; look to Bethesda? | John 5:2 | jonp | 184375 | ||
Perhaps it signifies looking to what happened at the pool of Bethesda and learning from it. At that pool many hoped for a miracle based on superstition. But the lame man learned there that he should rather look to Jesus. And when he did so he was made whole. He also learned that he must go and sin no more. Here is the essnce of the Christian message. We were all 'lame', but when Jesus comes to us and calls us we are made whole as a free gift, and this is always followed by the command 'go and sin no more'. Best wishes Jonp | ||||||
53 | The Passover Celebration | John 6:53 | jonp | 183742 | ||
In context in John 6.35 Jesus described what He meant by eating and drinking. 'He who comes to Me will never hunger, and he who believes on me will never thirst. So we eat of Jesus' body and drink of His blood by coming to Him as the One Whose body was broken for us and by believing on Him as the One Whose blood was shed for us. We do celebrate the Passover but the Passover lamb is now Christ our Passover who was sacrificed for us (1 Corinthians 5.7), the Lamb of God Who takes away the sins of the world (John 1.29). Jesus was partly using Old Testament pictures which depicted killing people in term of eating bread (or flesh) and drinking blood. In order to fully appreciate this we need an awareness of vivid Jewish imagery. In the Old Testament the Psalmist spoke of those who ‘eat up my people like they eat bread’ (Psalm 14.4; 53.4), and Micah describes the unjust rulers of Israel as ‘those who hate the good and love the evil --- who eat the flesh of my people’ (Micah 3.3). Thus ‘eating flesh’ or ‘eating people’ signified killing them or doing them great harm. In Zechariah 9.15 the LXX speaks of the fact that the victorious people of God ‘will drink their blood like wine’ signifying a triumphant victory and the slaughter of their enemies, and David used a similar picture when three of his followers had risked their lives to fetch him water. He poured it out on the ground as an offering to God and said, ‘shall I drink the blood of the men who went at the risk of their lives?’. Isaiah brought both metaphors together when he said of the enemies of Israel that God would ‘make your oppressors eat their own flesh, and they shall be drunk with their own blood as with wine’ (Isaiah 49.26), signifying that they would destroy themselves. Thus in Hebrew thought drinking a person’s blood meant killing someone or benefiting by their death. This can be paralleled elsewhere in the New Testament for in Matthew’s Gospel the people said of their 'fathers' that they were 'partakers in the blood of the prophets’ (Matthew 23.30), because they contributed to their deaths. Thus when Jesus spoke of ‘eating my flesh and drinking my blood’ He was using easily recognised metaphors which signified the fact that He must be violently killed and that the benefit of His death must be received by believing on Him.. |
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54 | John 10.3The sheep hears his voice | John 10:3 | jonp | 184020 | ||
Hi Sorry for my lack of clarity. YHWH is the name of God in the Old Testament (Yahweh; Jahweh; Jehovah). The four letters which represent His Name are in fact unpronounceable. The Jews consider it blasphemy to speak the Name, thus the Hebrew text represents it with the four letters together with indicators that when read another word should be used, either LORD or GOD. So when in such translations as AV, RV, RSV etc you see GOD or LORD in capital letters it is an indication that they are translating the sacred Name of YHWH. The reason why it is unpronounceable is because as it was never pronounced eventually everyone forgot how it should be pronounced. So now no one knows!. It is often called the Tetragrammaton. Hope this clarifies the situation. Best wishes Jonp |
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55 | How does God glorify His name? | John 12:28 | jonp | 184389 | ||
Hi In context the idea is probably that He has glorified His Name in sending the Messiah into the world and will glorify it again in sending Jesus to the cross, followed by His resurrection and enthronement. Although He has of course also glorified it throughout His Old Testament deliverances and will glorify it at the Consummation of all things Best wishes Jon p | ||||||
56 | only through suffering, He is revealed | Rom 8:18 | jonp | 184444 | ||
Hi It would just not be true to say that Jesus Christ is only revealed through suffering. He is revealed through His life (John 1.14; 1 John 1.1-4). He is revealed through His teaching. He is revealed through the Scriptures (John 5.39). But above all He is revealed to us through His cross and resurrection (compare Philippians 3.10) and through His enthronement (1 Corinthians 3.18) What is, however, true is that through suffering we can come to know Him better and are made more like Him. 'We rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces patient endurance, and patient endurance produces character and experience, and character and experience produce hope, and hope does not disappoint us because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts through the Holy Spirit Who is given unto us' (Romans 5.3-5). But even here we should note that this is a result of our first having been accounted right in the eyes of God through faith so that we have access by faith into the grace (compassion and love of God exercised towards us) in which we now stand and rejoice in the hope of the glory of God (Romans 5.1-2). So first we have the access and the confidence and the certainty of God's gracious presence. All provision is made. Then the suffering follows in order to polish up the jewel, but even this is accompanied by the presence of the Holy Spirit. He does not leave us comfortless. He comes to us (John 14.18). Compare also 'if we have died with Him, we shall also live with Him, if we suffer patiently we shall also reign with Him' (2 Timothy 2.11-12). Again, note first the vital union with Him by dying with Him and receiving new life. Then the need for endurance because of what will follow. The one follows the other. First thepreparation, then the process. As James says, 'count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet with various trials, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness, and let steadfastness have its full effect so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing' (James 1.2-4). And we should not be surpised at this because out Great Trek Leader was prepared for His task through suffering (Hebrews 2.10) so that He could lead us to glory. How much more then we must expect the same. Best wishes Jonp | ||||||
57 | word saved definition in Romans 10:9 | Rom 10:9 | jonp | 184295 | ||
Hi An appreciation of the significance of the word 'saved' in this verse is better discovered by a study of the whole letter to the Romans which defines and expands on it. What it is declaring is that God's salvation in Jesus Christ is available to everyone who confesses that Jesus is Lord (both God and Master) and believes that God raised Him from the dead, thus vindicating Him and revealing Him as God's saving solution for the world. Through Him is offered the power of God unto salvation for all who believe (Romans 1.16). And Paul then goes on to demonstrate that it is effective in two ways. First of all in having us 'declared righteous' before the court of Heaven through faith in His sacrifice for us on the cross (3.24-25), and secondly through the imparting of the Spirit of God to work mightily within us delivering us from sin (Romans 5-8).And all this as a result of our putting our trust in Jesus Christ as our Saviour. The word sozo means to make whole, whether physically or spiritually. Here it is in the future indicative passive indicating that for the person in question who has not yet confessed Jesus as Lord, or believed in the resurrection, that is the way in which he can enter into and experience God's salvation from sin and its consequences. Best wishes Jonp | ||||||
58 | what will happen to all of israel | Rom 11:25 | jonp | 184317 | ||
Hi All the true Israel, the Israel of God (Galatians 6.16; John 15.1-6), will be saved Best wishes Jonp | ||||||
59 | insight on Romans 12:5-9 wanted | Rom 12:5 | jonp | 183892 | ||
Hi, This passage refers to God's gifts to members of His church through The Holy Spirit because each of us have a different function in the church. Each receives gifts in accordance with God's purpose and love. These include speaking in the power of the Spirit (prophecy), the comparative success of which will depend on faith, teaching with the guidance of the Spirit, exhorting and encouraging others, serving the church or others in differing ways through the Spirit, Christian giving which is to be done liberally, helping others which is to be done zealously, performing acts of compassion, which is to be done cheerfully, and so on. The important thing in each case is that the heart is in it. It is to be done for Christ in genuine love. Best wishes jonp | ||||||
60 | Have you heard of the bemis seat ?? | Rom 14:10 | jonp | 184374 | ||
Hi The Bema is the Greek for a judgment seat. Such a judgment seat is referred to in Romans 14.10-12. It is the place where Christians will have to give account to God, not in order to determine their eternal destiny but in order to be measured up and commended or otherwise. There Jesus will bring to light the things hidden in the dark and will disclose the purposes of the heart, and it is where every Christian will receive some praise from God (1 Corinthians 4.5). There each of us will receive good or not so good depending on what we have done in our bodies (2 Corinthians 5.10). There all we have done will be tested in the fire, some will survive as gold, silver and precious stones, other will be burned up because it is wood, hay or stubble (1 Corinthians 3.10-16). Best wishes Jonp |
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