Friday, April 6th
2018
Octave of Easter
Acts 4:1-12
Psalms 118:1-2 & 4, 22-24, 25-27
Psalms 118:24
The minds of the Apostles comprehended, and their hearts witnessed: Christ Jesus; “It is the Lord!” Remember Christians, Jesus tells his Apostles, “Do not rejoice that the spirits are subject, unto you, but rejoice in this… [the hope] that your names are written in heaven.” Now the Apostles had been, blessed in the Holy Spirit; they received the baptism of the Holy Spirit; they were born again: one day as they were being servants, disciples of Christ Jesus, a Sadducees confronted them…. He, the Sadducee was disturbed that they were teaching the people, and proclaiming, in Jesus, the resurrection from the dead; on top of this, the Sadducee may have been furious, thinking, “Here we go again with the healings?” Peter and John cured a crippled man, and this was no phony faith healing…. For the man was known by others, and they knew him to be, crippled, as we ourselves know people whose legs have withered and are crippled…. Digression for clarification: when Jesus healed a person, he seemingly, makes this constant point, “By your faith you were healed;" therefore, we should understand that if we receive a healing, it is partly because we had the faith, in God, the Heavenly Father, and the faith in Jesus, to receive this healing. Now back: Peter and John were put in custody for proclaiming the resurrection, of the Lord Christ Jesus…. Can you imagine, try to imagine what Peter and John must have been thinking? This following text is an imagination of what they are thinking: Peter and John, may have been, speaking, “We know that Christ Jesus has risen from the dead.... Our brother, known as, doubting Thomas put his fingers in the whole of his hands, and we know -- this was and is, the same man who has been our Master these many years; furthermore, he told us beforehand that he would rise from the dead, as he told others too.... If you remember he said, “This temple will be destroyed, and in three days it will be raised again.” However, you did not know what he was speaking about, and you mocked him, saying, “This temple took years to build and you say you will rebuild it in three days – hah, you must be crazy.” Now Christians, many people, the Jewish citizens of Jerusalem, and no doubt there were legal immigrants, of other nationalities too, and they did believe the words and teachings that Peter and John were speaking: the number was about five thousand…. The following day after John and Peter had been held for the night; they were brought before the high-priestly class: Annas, Caiaphas, John, Alexander are the names given, likely there were others too: Saint Peter being filled with the Holy Spirit says, “We healed this crippled man in the name of the Lord Christ Jesus.” Saint Peter, being filled with the Holy Spirit becomes adamant in is speaking, and in his manner: "Yes, brothers and sisters, and to you Honored Levites and Priests… of the Most High, the God of Abraham, you ask by whose name we have this authority, and I, Apostle Peter, who was named Simon tell you, 'It is, by the name of the Promised Messiah, by the name of the Messiah our forefathers, our Prophets – God’s Prophets, from Samuel to Hosea have told us about…. Those Prophets, who many of you, those of previous generations of priests, dismissed in a similar manner, to how you did have Christ Jesus crucified; those Prophets, who told us that God, our Heavenly Father would give unto us a Messiah who was of our own heart, but you failed to recognize him, because you preferred your unholy piety to the light of truth; you preferred being Jewish, to being servants of the way, the truth, and life, of God, our Heavenly Father, the God of Abraham….. Yes! Most honored priest and Levites, you rejected the cornerstone; the foundation, from where all life and truth proceeds…. Yes, yes, it was by the name of the Lord Christ Jesus that we have this authority to heal." Now Christians, let us give thanks to the Lord our God, our Heavenly Father for he is good; his mercy endures forever…. Let the house of Israel, say, “His mercy endures forever.” Christians, pray that the Lord grants us salvation; pray that he will grant us prosperity…. Christians, it should be said here that, “The statement – working out our salvation has a meaning of not only daily consequences, but eternal consequences…. Although in this text, from these Psalm verses, the statement, “Grant us salvation” is directed at the Israelites, overcoming their earthly enemies; it should also be understood, with the working out of our salvation in Christ Jesus…." Now Christians, the Sun did rise this morning, and no matter the trouble of the day; let us remember, Jesus says, “Take no thought for tomorrow: for tomorrow will take thought for things itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.” So Christians, let us remember, “This is the day the Lord, our Heavenly Father has made; let us be glad and rejoice in it.” Now Christians, after the net was filled with fish, to a point that their strength could not pull it from the water; they, the Apostles came to shore to a charcoal fire, and a meal that the resurrected Christ Jesus had prepared for them…. Jesus said, “Bring some of the fish you have just caught!” After Saint Peter finally dragged the net to shore, Jesus and the Apostles sat and enjoyed a breakfast of fish and bread: this was the third time that Jesus was revealed to his disciples, after being raised from the dead.... Now Christians, in the name of the Lord Christ Jesus let us pray and be thankful.... Amen.
Friday, April 13th
2018
The Second Week of Easter
Acts 5:34-42
Psalms 27:1, 4, 13-14
Matthew 27:4:4
Christians, yes Jesus came with the power to cure the
sick, and the people saw the signs, the deeds, the miracles that he performed….
Still Christians, many did not see the true miracle, the true grace, the
majesty of life, and similarly to previous generations, the Israelites did not
listen or hear or accept the true healing, the true gift of life… that being,
Christ Jesus’ Gospel of life….
Now
Christians,
Gamaliel, a teacher of the law, respected by the people, or respected by
many people is likely closer to the truth, spoke, saying, “If we try to stop
these men, we may be fighting God, our God, the God of our Fathers, the God of
Abraham, but if they are another group exerting themselves, this group will
simply destroy themselves:” Christians, some two thousand years later, this
group has not yet destroyed themselves, and in some regard is closer to the day
of Christ Jesus’ return than ever….
Therefore, be of good cheer, Christians, and seek first the kingdom of heaven
and the Heavenly Father’s Righteousness…. Christians, Gamaliel expounded upon
various groups of men who had rose, against the rule of the Romans;
interestingly, in this history of Israel, there were some who saw capitulation
with the Roman Legions as, only being practical, and they willingly gave up
their brothers and sisters who would not capitulate to Roman Rule….
In a more recent history, we saw how some of the French, the Vichy
government collaborated and capitulated with the Nazi regime, of the third
Reich, of Germany….
Now no person,
who is not wrongheaded, would think that overthrowing and defeating, the Nazis
was a bad thing, and through this World War we learn and see that the way of the
cross is, “For the light to overcome the darkness and not for evils, such as the
Roman Empire or the Nazi Regime to be left to spread their hate: to every man,
woman and child;” yes, sometime the right and moral, and the answer in Christ
Jesus is to bend those plow shears back into weapons and to defeat the evil…
Still this act of defeating evil is against a people, so as fighting
ensues we must remember to be as clever as a snake, but as gentle as a dove, and
love our enemy….
For the Gospel of
Christ Jesus is about the whole creature being in fellowship with Christ Jesus:
recognizing that some prefer darkness to the light, and that we cannot allow
evils, such as the Nazi Regime or the Roman Empire to dictate to people what
they should believe….
Furthermore
Christians, like true Christians, Saint Peter and the other Apostles said, “That
we must obey God rather than men," and they, Peter and his brothers, the Apostles
rejoiced that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for the name of the Lord
Christ Jesus....
Again Christians, like
true Apostles, Saint Peter and his fellow disciples, in the light of Christ
Jesus, they knew and understood, “The only way to love the Lord God our Heavenly
Father is not only, to listen to his words and teachings, but by keeping them,
by living in accordance with them, living in accordance with Christ Jesus’
Gospel of life….”
Now Christians in
these Psalm versus, we see what is life; what is truth; what is goodness; what
is love; and what is charity: for not only does the Psalmist say this to the
people, Christ Jesus also teaches us the same, yet much more clearly and
directly....
For Jesus teaches, “Seek,
first the kingdom of heaven and the Heavenly Father’s Righteousness; whereas,
the Psalmist sings, ‘One thing I seek: is to dwell in the House of the Lord, our
Heavenly Father.’”
The Psalmist
sings the Lord is my light and my salvation, and in the Letter from John, the
Apostle, we learn that in Christ Jesus there is only light: we learn that if we
say that we have fellowship with Christ Jesus, but walk in darkness, then we are
liars and we do not know the truth….
For in Christ Jesus there is only light, and in Christ Jesus there is no
darkness at all….
Now Christians,
the Psalmist sings about -- of whom, should I be afraid… for the Lord our Heavenly
Father is our refuge.
Still, if we
are honest with ourselves; we most certainly know that many temptations, of
fear, sound in
our conscience, and we need to learn how to lovingly overcome, our fears: not
being politically correct is one fear; not living the Gospel because some hate
Christ Jesus is another fear; and there are fears of many things, each of us
having our own list of fears….
Still, the Psalmist sings in prayer, "The Lord is my Shepherd, I will fear no
evil...."
Again Christians, Jesus
teaches us who and what to fear and for all the other fears that exist, in the
flesh, and in the world, we must choose faith in God; for the Lord Christ Jesus’
words and teachings are our salvation, our life and our refuge....
Yes
Christians, there is only one name, under the Sun where we, humankind may
find salvation, and that name is,
Jesus of Nazareth,
the only begotten Son of the Heavenly Father, the God of Abraham; therefore,
pray continuously, for the strength to live in the great pearl of life and to
recognize that Jesus is the great pearl of life, and that fear is but a
temptation to overcome….
Now
Christians, we work and scramble and seek things that are perishable, but all
the while Jesus teaches, if only you would listen to my words and teachings –
these things you normally and typically do, will be peacefully yours: man,
humankind, a person does not live by bread alone, but on every word that comes
forth from the mouth of God, our Heavenly Father….
Now Christians, in the name of the Lord Christ Jesus pray and be
thankful....
Amen….
Friday, April 20th
2018
The Third Week of Easter
Acts 9:1-20
Psalms 117:1-2
John 6:56
Christians, whoever eats the bread of life and drinks
from the cup of salvation, the words and teachings of Christ Jesus, Jesus’
Gospel, remains in Christ Jesus’ way, truth, and life, and if we consume the
words and teachings of Christ Jesus’ Gospel, then Christ Jesus remains in us….
Now Christians, while Saint Paul was still Saul, before his Road to
Damascus experience, his mind was filled with murderous threats, and he spoke
and breathed these murderous threats against the disciples of the Lord Christ
Jesus; Saint Paul’s mind as Saul of Tarsus could not see, truth….
Now we read in the Book of Acts, the happenings and events of the
Apostles, which supposedly it should be expressed that the Book of Acts is not a
chronological history of the Apostles; it is a book telling us the history, of
acts, of the Apostles that happened over, their, Christ Jesus’ disciples, entire
lifetime: Saint Paul as Saul, the Pharisee, is spending his days with murderous
intentions….
At this point in Acts,
he has already rounded up some Christians, and is known by the Christians: “As a
man on a vengeful mission of stamping out the Christians.”
Still, as we will see in the coming verses, “Christ Jesus, the risen
Lord, Messiah, and Christ, reaches out from heaven and blinds Saul with a flash
of light.”
Before this happens, the
Road to Damascus Act, Saul, of Tarsus, is busy in Jerusalem planning for a trip
to Damascus, to round up more Christians: he was securing papers for their
arrest, so he could bring, the “People of the Way” back, to Jerusalem, in
chains....
Saul of Tarsus thought:
“He was serving God,” but he was only serving: the Jewish Temple, the High
Priests, the Pharisees, and the Sadducees and his own divisive emotional hates,
and his service to God’s Gospel was no where in his heart or mind; although it
was upon his lips….
Now from
Jerusalem to Damascus travelling at about five(5) miles per hour; it would take
about thirty-six(36) hours, and somewhere along this journey, in the perfect
place for Jesus to reach out from heaven, “Saul is suddenly flushed with a flash
around him.”
Saul falls to the
ground; we do not know if he fell from a horse, a donkey or simply went limp
while walking, but he also heard of voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are
you persecuting me?”
Now after this...
the spiritual Jesus reveals, the truth, and tells Saint Paul to get up and to go
into the city: where his mission in his life would be revealed to him....
Christians, this passage of text contains this, specific, witness: “The
men travelling with Saint Paul were held speechless, for they could hear the
voice, but could not see any person, speaking;” it could be acquainted to when
the Heavenly Father speaks out about Jesus as he was being baptized, by John the
Baptist: “This is my Son in whom I am will pleased.”
Now when Saint Paul gets up; he is blinded, and has to be led to the
place where he would be told what to do….
It may be of some value to understand and pray about the men who
witnessed the voice from heaven; these men were likely Roman Soldiers employed
by the Pharisee, Saul of Tarsus to round up and bring back the people, from
Damascus, who were speaking and living Christ Jesus’ Gospel of eternal life....
Now Saint Paul is praying at the house, of a man named Judas, and has a
vision about a man named Ananias who will come and lay his healing hands upon
his eyes, so that Saint Paul can regain his sight: Saint Paul being blinded for
about three days; three days in which he neither ate nor drank....
Ananias also had a vision from God, the Heavenly Father, in which God
tells Ananias, “That Saint Paul has been chosen to be an instrument of the Lord
Christ Jesus:” Saint Paul was chosen to bring the name and Christ Jesus’ Gospel
before Gentiles, kings, and the children of Israel, which includes the adults of
Israel....
Now when Ananias has been
assured by God, to act, he proceeds to the House of Judas to where Saint Paul is
waiting, and lays his hands on him, saying, “Saul my brother, the Lord, God of
Israel, Israel who was once known as Jacob, has sent me. Yes, the Jesus who appeared to you,
on the way by which you came has sent me to you: that through, the laying on of
my hands your sight will be restored.”
It is important to differentiate between, the flashing of light that
blinded Saint Paul and God working through Ananias to bring Saint Paul’s sight
back to him: for God does work through individuals to bring about his Will, his
purpose….
Ananias lays his hand on
Saint Paul, and his eyes were immediately opened, and his vision was restored.
Now Christians, let us do a little meditating and considering – what if
Saint Paul would have rebelled, against the truth, after God, the Lord Christ
Jesus imparted the truth to him, the undeniable truth – what might have happened
to Saint Paul?
He could have fell
over dead, like Sapphira and her husband, Ananias did, (likely a different Ananias), when they
lied to Saint Peter about a piece of property, a property, with which they had every right
to do as they wished. However, they were filled with Satan and being in the Holiness
of Saint Peter; their hearts stopped beating....
Now Christians, Jesus teaches his Disciples what quickens, that is what
gives life; Jesus says the flesh profits nothing, that the flesh is of no avail;
and that it is his Gospel, the words and teachings that he has spoken... to
them, that this is what gives life; Jesus teaches, it is his word, his Gospel
that is spirit and life....
Now
Christians, in the name of the Lord Christ Jesus pray and be thankful….
Amen….
Friday, April 27th
2018
The Fourth Week of Easter
Acts 13:26-33
Psalms 2:6-11
John 14:6
Christians, listen and hear and conceive and be, and
accept what Jesus, our Messiah has taught: “Do not let your hearts be troubled.”
Now Christians, do not miss this understanding…, Jesus says, “Where I am
going you know the way!”
Yet, our
beloved doubting Thomas said to him, “Master we do not know where you are going”
and to this Jesus replies, not only to Thomas, but unto all creation, saying,
“Thomas: ‘I, the Lord Christ Jesus, I am the way and the truth, and the life.’”
Now Christians, Saint Paul tells the people, of Antioch, and yes he is
telling us too this very day that the word of salvation has been given to us: by
and through the Lord Christ Jesus.
Paul addresses the people at Antioch’s synagogue, “My brothers, and children of
the family of Abraham, and those others among you who are God-fearing.”
Christians, at this point, we should also recognize that Saint Paul
teaches us that there are people, who are not God-fearing, but who will play
upon our love for Christ Jesus, in trying to achieve their ungodly end….
Saint Paul teaches us that there are individuals, who liked not to have
God in their knowledge….
That there
are people, who are filled with all iniquity, malice, fornication, avarice,
wickedness, full of envy – being covetous, there are murderers, and individuals
who hate God....
Now Saint Paul, in his
discourse, at the Antioch synagogue continues to articulate that the leaders and
inhabitants failed to recognize… the Messiah that the Heavenly Father’s prophets
had spoken of for millennium....
They
did not recognize that this man, Jesus of Nazareth, the man who is the Son of
God and who is God -- was and is the promised Messiah, for they were looking for
something else; they were looking for another King David….
Instead, they were sent the words of salvation: what they received was
the fulfillment of the law; what they received was a peace that goes beyond all
understanding; and what they received was a way to work out their individual
salvation in the way, the truth and the life of the Heavenly Father’s Gospel
that being the Lord Christ Jesus….
Still what the people and the leaders of Jerusalem wanted was nothing other,
than what all people want, who do not have the spirit of truth in them; they
wanted a leader who would crush their enemy, but instead they received a King
who taught them to love their enemy….
Still Christians, although there is no doubt Jesus wants us to love our
enemy, there is also no doubt that he wants us to be obedient to his Gospel;
therefore, given these two truths we readily realize that Jesus does not want us
to give into sin; nor to capitulate with lawlessness; nor to acquiesce with
immorality; we cannot become complacent and fail to seek: what is just, what is
good, and what is right….
Christians, one of the things we need to acknowledge and become aware of -- during
our seeking the kingdom of heaven and the Heavenly Father’s Righteousness is,
Jesus was an innocent man who was crucified because the authority, of the day,
did not like him: Jesus was a light that exposed their darkness and they
preferred their darkness, to the light of truth; they preferred their darkness,
to the life of Christ Jesus who is truth and life….
Saint Paul tells the people of Antioch, in Pisidia, “Even though they
found no grounds for a death sentence, they, the inhabitants of Jerusalem and
their leaders, asked Pontius Pilate to have him put to death.”
Christians this is also an example of how well God, the Heavenly Father
knows his creation, for he had prophets, a thousand years before Christ Jesus
came into the world, prophesy many things, written, about Jesus, all of which
came to pass: they condemned him; they hung him, an innocent man on a tree; and
they placed him in a tomb.
Still
Christians, God had different plans than what man had for his Son, the Lord
Christ Jesus….
It was God’s plan to
raise him from the dead to take away the sin of the world, through Christ Jesus’
his Son’s sacrifice, and to show man, giving evidence, of life after death:
there is only one name upon which humankind can find salvation, and that name is
the Lord Christ Jesus....
Saint Paul
continues his discourse with the Antiochians; saying, “For many days the risen
Saviour Jesus appeared to those who had come up with him from Galilee to
Jerusalem” – talking about the Apostles, and the many disciples male and female....
Paul continues to say, “These who came up with him are now witnesses
before all people.”
Christians it is
important to recognize, the truth, and clarity of this following statement:
Saint Paul says, “We ourselves are proclaiming this good news… that what God,
our Heavenly Father promised to our fathers he has brought to fulfillment for
us, their children, by raising up Jesus, as it is written in the second psalm,
‘You are my Son; this day I have begotten you:’” Jesus’ message is the fulfillment of the law that the God of Abraham,
promised; it is not some foreign doctrine of some false prophet....
Again Christians, and still and over and over and over again, Jesus says,
“I am the way, the truth and the life, says the Lord Christ Jesus; no one comes
to the God, of all creation, except through Jesus.”
Now Christians, in the name of the Lord Christ Jesus pray and be
thankful....
Amen…..