When Priscilla and Aquila heard him preaching boldly in the synagogue, they took him aside and explained the way of God even more accurately.
�Acts 18:26
I have said it before, and I will say it again. You have a choice before you as a Christian: evangelize or fossilize. I fear there are many believers who know God's Word, yet they pretty much think that everything revolves around them. It is all about them being blessed, all about them growing, and all about them learning. Obviously there is a place for that. But it is also about our taking these newfound truths and sharing them with others.
The truth God has given you is not designed to be hoarded; it is designed to be shared. You have been blessed to be a blessing to others. And if you only take in and don't give out, you are running the risk of entering into a place of spiritual stagnation.
We have a new baby in our family, the daughter of our son Jonathan and his wife Brittni. I am just amazed at the things she does. She claps her little hands, and when she sees me, she starts jabbering. It is so fun hanging around with a baby. It is fascinating to me how much babies learn every single day.
It is also exciting to watch my older grandchildren grow and mature. I like to hang around kids. You see things differently when you are around a little one, things that you maybe would take for granted otherwise.
That is how it is with a new believer. You are sharing things that, quite frankly, you are starting to take for granted. And as they are discovering them for the first time, you rediscover them again.
We all have a part to play. You may think, Well, I just don't know all that much. But you know more than a brand-new believer. And God can do a lot with a little.
Had God preordained the exact length of life for man or woman from the very beginning?
In the Bible, the apostle Paul says of the Jewish King David: �For when David had served God's purpose in his own generation, he fell asleep; he was buried with his fathers� (Acts 13:36). David, great a man as he may have been, served his purpose in his own generation, and then was taken off the scene. David was a godly man and every Jew and Christian loves and esteems him. Why do we love him? Because he was a godly man, the prophet of God and God spoke through Him. The other day we have analyzed a prophecy told by God through David that Jesus is holy and He should not see corruption, i.e. death. This prophecy said that God will not allow that His Son would be left in the hell/prison and die what means that the Messiah should be resurrected/raised from the dead.
We expect that person to live a much longer life. But who is to say that it wasn't his or her appointed time to go? Who is to say that it wasn't the exact length of life that God had preordained for that man or woman from the very beginning?
We don't know when our day will come.
You may or may not be the healthiest person, but you will live to the time that God has appointed for you. And even your worrying about it won't extend your life for one moment.
As the apostle Paul said, �For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain�. (Philippians 1:21).
On the other hand, you will be around until God is done with you.
You won't go before your time.
Let�s meditate on the Holy Scripture together:
Psalm 110:1-2
Psalm 110
�A Psalm of David.
The LORD said to my Lord,
�Sit at My right hand,
Till I make Your enemies Your footstool.�
The LORD shall send the rod of Your strength out of Zion.
Rule in the midst of Your enemies!
Psalm 110
�A Psalm of David.
1 The LORD said to my Lord,
�Sit at My right hand,
Till I make Your enemies Your footstool.�
2 The LORD shall send the rod of Your strength out of Zion.
Rule in the midst of Your enemies!
3 Your people shall be volunteers
In the day of Your power;
In the beauties of holiness, from the womb of the morning,
You have the dew of Your youth.
4 The LORD has sworn
And will not relent,
�You are a priest forever
According to the order of Melchizedek.�
5 The Lord is at Your right hand;
He shall execute kings in the day of His wrath.
6 He shall judge among the nations,
He shall fill the places with dead bodies,
He shall execute the heads of many countries.
7 He shall drink of the brook by the wayside;
Therefore He shall lift up the head.
In this ancient Scripture we read the following Jewish words:
הוָ֨ה ׀ - the LORD (Yahweh)
The word יהוה Yahweh is the incommunicable name of God. It is never given to a created being.
Who is the Lord Adonai in this verse?
We believe that here God is talking to His Son/Messiah.
This word Adonai was used in the Scripture for God.
Why then the Orthodox Jews believe that the proper name of Messiah is ה׳ צדקנו (Adonai Tzidkenu � �the Lord our righteousness�) (Midrash Lamentations 1)?
Orthodox Jews consider this Psalm 110 as speaking about the Messiah. How the Messiah could be called by the name of God in Hebrew?
Two points are clear:
(1) That David wrote this Psalm by the inspiration of God and
(2) That it is a prophetic declaration of the Messiah.
Let�s listen to Jesus now:
Jesus: How Can David Call His Descendant Lord?
While the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them, saying,
�What do you think about the Christ? Whose Son is He?�
They said to Him, � The Son of David.�
He said to them, �How then does David in the Spirit call Him �Lord,� saying:
� The LORD said to my Lord,
� Sit at My right hand,
Till I make Your enemies Your footstool��?
If David then calls Him �Lord,� how is He his Son?�
And no one was able to answer Him a word, nor from that day on did anyone dare question Him anymore. Matthew 22:41-46
Brothers, why did Jesus say that the prophet King David called the Messiah as the Son of David? What does it mean that Jesus is the son of David?
Seventeen verses in the New Testament describe Jesus as the �son of David�. But the question arises, how could Jesus be the son of David if David lived approximately 1000 years before Jesus? The answer is that Christ (the Messiah) was the fulfillment of the prophecy of the seed of David.
God said to the King David:
�When your days are fulfilled and you rest with your fathers, I will set up your seed after you, who will come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for My name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be his Father, and he shall be My son. If he commits iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men and with the blows of the sons of men. But My mercy shall not depart from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I removed from before you. And your house and your kingdom shall be established forever before you. Your throne shall be established forever.��� 2 Samuel 7:12-16
Jesus was the promised Messiah, which meant He was of the seed of David. In Gospel (Matthew 1) we can read the genealogical proof that Jesus, in His humanity, was a direct descendant of Abraham and David through Joseph, Jesus' legal father. The genealogy in Luke chapter 3 gives Jesus' lineage through His mother, Mary. Jesus is a descendant of David, by adoption through Joseph, and by blood through Mary. Primarily though, when Christ was referred to as the Son of David, it was meant to refer to His Messianic title as the Old Testament prophesied concerning Him.
As we have see, Jesus confounded the scribes and Pharisees by asking them to explain the meaning of this very title. How could it be that the Messiah is the son of David when David himself refers to Him as �my Lord�? Of course the teachers of the law couldn�t answer the question.
Jesus Christ, the only son of God and the only means of salvation for the world.
He is also the son of David, both in a physical sense and a spiritual sense.
"Yes, it is as you say," Jesus replied. "But I say to all of you:
In the future you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven." Matthew 26:64
Since that time he (the Son of God) waits for his enemies to be made his footstool..
Hebrews 10:13
When will you see that the Son of God sits at the right hand of the Mighty God?
In God�s Kingdom.
When will you see the Son of God coming on the clouds of heaven?
When He and His angels will come to protect Jesus during the Third World War.
Knowing that the time is near, repent of your sins! Confess your sins to God in a prayer! Abandon your sins! And believe in the Son of God!
He died on the cross to take your sins and make you a holy man living in righteousness and true faith in God.
