Oracles of God, chapter 6
To: 38,648 subscribers we pray God is making Temples of His spirit. 8/20/22, God’s 6th month, Av 23, 5,782. The Sabbath until sunset.
Continuing the ‘Lord’s-day’ subject from chapter 5 it should be obvious even to fleshly minds that Jesus’ apostle John is speaking of the Sabbath at Rev 1:10. The New Covenant is with a chosen people spiritually ‘born again.’ A people emersed in and clothed with Jesus; that is, ones ‘believing in’ Jesus as the Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joshua, Moses and David. The One who was with, the Father at creation, supernaturally, physically birthed from a virgin’s womb to fulfill all that the prophets, Moses and David wrote about Him. Jesus personified Himself as the Son of God to called believers, by doing miracles no one had ever done before. As we approach the third holy season of the year, containing the last four of seven annual Sabbaths we’ll share Jesus’ spiritual magnification of these perpetual to Israel and Christian statutes.
‘Believers That’ generally agree that evangelicals and denominations evolve with political correctness. Few believe Jesus’ Way and deity are manifested as absolute in the Holy Scriptures, or that Jesus’ oracles, commandments and holy times are absolutes for believers. ‘Believers in’ are gifted with a loving desire to be Christ like, ‘immersed in and clothed with Jesus.’ They recognize the value of Jesus’ ten commandment, oracles, and holy seasons. Each knows gifted faith is built on His prophets, apostles, with Jesus the Cornerstone; the Re-Creator, Creator, Deliverer, Mediator, resurrection and our soon coming king of kings.
Jesus emphatically and repeatedly said; ‘He came from above to do the will of His Father, that He’d spend three nights and days in a tomb, as Jonah was three days in a fish’s belly, be resurrected to be our heavenly Mediator.’ Jesus’ apostles were spiritually led to proclaim Him as the first born and that Believers in Him would be in the first resurrection to rule with Him. Followers of Jesus got lots of flack, for believing in God the Father and God the Son.
Study Col 1:15-20, John 1:1-5, 1Corinthians 15: Revelations 20: & 21: to discern the above overviews. (Acts 17:1-3; After they, (Dr. Luke, Paul & companions) traveled through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, (Where Paul, later wrote a letter of encouragement to these Thessalonians.) where there was a Jewish synagogue. Paul went to their synagogue, as he customarily did, and on three Sabbath days he addressed them from the scriptures, explaining and demonstrating that the Christ had to suffer and to rise from the dead, saying, “This Jesus I am proclaiming to you is the Christ.) (His teaching was from the old Covenant, its prophecies, Genesis, Deuteronomy and Psalms.
Jealously causes a world of hurt. –(Acts 17:4-9; Some of them were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, along with a large group of God-fearing Greeks and quite a few prominent women. But the Jews became jealous and, gathering together worthless men from the rabble in the marketplace, they formed a mob and set the city in an uproar. They attacked Jason’s house, trying to find Paul and Silas to bring them out to the assembly. When they did not find them, they dragged Jason and some of the brothers before the city officials, screaming, “These people who have stirred up trouble throughout the world have come here too and Jason has welcomed them as guests! They are all acting against Caesar’s decrees, saying there’s another king named Jesus!” They caused confusion among the crowd and the city officials who heard these things. After the city officials had received bail from Jason and others, they released them.) (Divisionary religions give comfort zones to unbelievers.)
Paul and Silas at Berea, where citizens examined the scriptures.
(Acts 17:10-15; The brothers sent Paul and Silas off to Berea at once, during the night. When they arrived, they went to the Jewish synagogue. These Jews were more open-minded than those in Thessalonica, for they eagerly received the message, examining the scriptures carefully every day to see if these things were so. Therefore. many of them believed, along with quite a few prominent Greek women and men. But when the Jews from Thessalonica heard that Paul had also proclaimed the word of God in Berea, they came there too, inciting and disturbing the crowds. Then the brothers sent Paul away to the coast at once, but Silas and Timothy remained in Berea. Those who accompanied Paul escorted him as far as Athens, and after receiving an order for Silas and Timothy to come to him as soon as possible, they left.) (Judaism is still looking for their Messiah. One likened to Moses, through whom God will make Israel a great nation again. If they could only believe that Jesus is their Messiah.)
Athens, a city full of idols.
(Acts 17:16-21; While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, his spirit was greatly upset because he saw the city was full of idols. So, he was addressing the Jews and the God-fearing Gentiles in the synagogue, and in the marketplace every day, those who happened to be there. Also, some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers were conversing with him, and some were asking, “What does this foolish babbler want to say?” Others said, “He seems to be proclaiming foreign gods. (They said this because he was proclaiming the good news about Jesus and the resurrection.) So, they took Paul and brought him to the Areopagus, saying, “May we know what this new teaching is that you are proclaiming? For you are bringing some surprising things to our ears, so we want to know what they mean.)(All the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there used to spend their time in nothing else than telling or listening to something new.) (Epicureans were followers of the philosophy of Epicurus, who founded a school in Athens about 300 B.C. Although the Epicureans saw the aim of life as pleasure, they were not strictly hedonists, because they defined pleasure as the absence of pain. Along with this, they desired the avoidance of trouble and freedom from annoyances. They saw organized religion as evil, especially the belief that the gods punished evildoers in an afterlife. In keeping with this, they were unable to accept Paul’s teaching about the resurrection.) (See any parallels?) (A Stoic was a follower of the philosophy founded by Zeno (342-270 B.C) A Phoenician who came to Athens and modified the philosophical system of the Cynics he found there.) (Stoics rejected the Epicurean ideal of pleasure, stressing virtue instead. The Stoics emphasized responsibility for voluntary actions and believed risks was worth taking but thought the actual attainment of virtue was difficult. They also believed in providence.)
Evangelicals, like these Epicurus and Stoic views, are more prevalent today than Jesus’ good news regarding the resurrections. (Paul taught that Jesus’ good news included the resurrections.)
(Acts 17:22-34; So Paul stood before the Areopagus and said, “Men of Athens, I see that you are very religious in all respects. For as I went around and observed closely your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: ‘To an unknown god.’ Therefore, what you worship without knowing it, ‘this I proclaim to you.’
The God who made the world and everything in it, who is Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by human hands, nor is He served by human hands, as if He needed anything, because He Himself gives life and breath and everything to everyone. From one man, “Adam” He made every nation, of the human race to inhabit the entire earth, determining their set times and the fixed limits of the places where they would live, so that they would search for God and perhaps grope around for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us. For in Him we live and move about and exist, as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we too are His offspring.’ So, since we are God’s offspring, we should not think the deity is like gold or silver or stone, an image made by human skill and imagination. Therefore, although God has overlooked such times of ignorance, He now commands all people everywhere to repent, because He has set a day on which He is going to judge the world in righteousness, by a man whom He designated, having provided proof to everyone by raising Him from the dead.”
Now when they heard about the resurrection from the dead, some began to scoff, but others said, “We will hear you again about this.” So, Paul left the Areopagus. But some people joined him and believed. Among them were Dionysius, who was a member of the Areopagus, a woman named Damaris, and others with them.) (Jesus’ teachings through Paul, causes NO Believer any difficulty.) (Paul to Corinth, “he’d later write two letters to the Corinthians.)
(Acts 18:1-4; After this Paul departed from Athens and went to Corinth. There he found a Jew named Aquila, a native of Pontus, who had recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla, because Claudius had ordered all the Jews to depart from Rome. Paul approached them, and because he worked at the same trade, he stayed with them and worked with them (for they were tentmakers by trade.) He addressed both Jews and Greeks in the synagogue every Sabbath, attempting to persuade them.”)
NOTE the world’s contempt for Jews is since their bondage in Egypt. So why have ‘Jews’ particularly been persecuted by gentile populations since? They’re entrusted to keep God’s oracles! Holy Days - calendar etc.) (See Rom 3:1-4, it’s a Quote from Psalms 51:4.)
(Acts 18:5-11; “Now when Silas and Timothy arrived from Macedonia, Paul became wholly absorbed with proclaiming The Word, testifying to the Jews that Jesus was the Christ. When they opposed him and reviled him, he protested by shaking out his clothes and said to them, “Your blood be on your own heads! I am guiltless! From now on I will go to the Gentiles!” Then Paul left the synagogue and went to the house of a person named Titius Justus a Gentile who worshiped God, whose house was next door to the synagogue. “Crispus” the president of the synagogue, believed in the Lord together with his entire household, and many of the Corinthians who heard about it believed and were baptized. The Lord said to Paul by a vision in the night, “Do not be afraid, but speak and do not be silent, because I am with you, and no one will assault you to harm you, because I have many people in this city.” So, he stayed there a year and six months, teaching The Word of God among them.) (Again, Paul was teaching the old covenant text with gifted revelations about the New Covenant. (Paul Before the Proconsul “Gallio.)
A proconsul was a Roman official who ruled over a province traditionally under the control of the senate. Gallio, was proconsul of Achaia from A.D 51-5, one of the firmly established dates in Acts. “Lucius Junius Gallio” was the son of the rhetorician Seneca and the brother of Seneca the philosopher. The date of Gallio’s rule is established from an inscription (W. Dittenberger, ed., Sylloge Inscriptionum Graecarum 2.3 no. 8). Thus, the event mentioned here is probably to be dated July-October A.D. 51.
(Acts 18:12-17; Now while Gallio was proconsul of Achaia, the Jews attacked Paul together and brought him before the judgment seat, saying, “This man is persuading people to worship God in a way contrary to the law!” But just as Paul was about to speak, Gallio said to the Jews, “If it were a matter of some crime or serious piece of villainy, I would have been justified in accepting the complaint of you Jews, but since it concerns points of disagreement about words and names and your own law, settle it yourselves. I will not be a judge of these things!” Then he had them forced away from the judgment seat. So, they all seized Sosthenes, the president of the synagogue, and began to beat him in front of the judgment seat. Yet none of these things were of any concern to Gallio.)
Jesus’ apostles & called out teachers in every age, like Moses and Samuel long before, were constantly opposed by stubborn strong-willed people, (Israelites and gentiles) who preferred living superstitiously. Hostiles yield to the demonic way that seemed good to their fleshly self-serving nature inherited from Adam. Democracies left to themselves can’t stand for long without God’s intervention, because they end up serving the will of a selfish populations, so a digression is inevitably.