The tenth leper

This is a case study of the healing received by the tenth leper.
Once Jesus was going through an area between Samaria and Galilee.
On the way He was met by ten lepers.
They cried for mercy and Jesus healed them.
All of them, except one, rushed to show themselves to the priest to be declared as clean.
Only one of them, the tenth leper, returned to Christ to give a personal thanks.
This story is recorded by Luke and none other gospel writes have narrated it.
This miracle emphasizes the importance of faith. The account is full of salvific meaning.
And in this message we are focusing on the salvific meaning of this incident.
Let us read the story according to Luke:

Letters to 7 Churches

The book of Revelation in the New Testament is a record of end time events leading up to the return of Jesus Christ.
This is a record of a vision that Apostle John received while he was in the lonely island of Patmos.
There, Jesus Christ appeared to John and instructed him to: "Write on a scroll what you see and send it to the seven churches: to Ephesus, and to Smyrna, and to Pergamum, and to Thyatira, and to Sardis, and to Philadelphia, and to Laodicea.”
These seven churches were seven local congregations of early Christians living in each city.
The seven Churches are named for their locations.
All of them are located in the Asia Minor, present-day Turkey.
The order of these cities corresponds to the route along which a courier from Patmos would have carried the scroll.

Anointing of Jesus with oil

This is a short study about the anointing of Jesus with oil.
Our question is that how many times was Jesus anointed with oil?
A description of this incident is recorded by all the four gospels.
We read about the incident in Matthew 26: 6-13; Mark 14: 3-9; Luke 7: 36-50 and John 12:1-8.
But these descriptions are not about one and the same event. They are about three separate occasions of different women anointing Jesus.

Born Again

What is the meaning of the Biblical phrase ‘born again’?
This is the question we intend to discuss today.
The best passage to learn about born again is the famous conversation between Nicodemus and Jesus Apostle John recorded this conversation his gospel in 21 verses.
Let us read certain passages from this conversation and try to understand the real meaning of ‘born again’ experience.

Crucifixion and the Roman Triumph

Mark 4:11 says:
And He said to them, "To you it has been given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God; but to those who are outside, all things come in parables,” (NKJV)

Certain mysteries of the Kingdom of God is wrapped in parables so that the chosen people may know it and the outside people may not understand it.
Such a mystery is presented by Mark in his narration of the crucifixion of Jesus.
This study is intended to unveil the mystery in Mark’s narration for those who are chosen by God to receive His Grace and salvation.

Son of Man and Son of God

Theologians have been trying to decode the meaning of the expressions “Son of Man” and “Son of God” for a long time.
Even after long discussions for centuries, interpretation of the terms remains a challenge.

“Son of Man” and “Son of God” are two titles that Jesus used to speak of Himself.
They are not equal or similar terms; their meaning is different and unrelated to each other.
So let us discuss these terms under different categories.

Daniel’s vision of four beasts


The book of Daniel is mainly considered as a prophetic book which speaks about the last days.
Daniel’s interpretation of the king Nebuchadnezzar’s dream in chapter 2 and Daniel’s visions in chapters 7 belong to a genre of prophecy termed "apocalyptic."
The word comes from the Greek apokalypsis, which means "revelation, making fully known, take the cover off,"

Nebuchadnezzar’s Dream


Nebuchadnezzar was the king of Babylon from approximately 605 BC until 562 BC.
He is considered as the greatest king of the Babylonian Empire.
He greatly expanded the Babylonian Empire and conquered Jerusalem in 586 BC
Nebuchadnezzar receives attention in the book of Daniel, chapters 1 - 4, appearing as the main character, beside Daniel.

Secrets of Successful Christian Living

In this short study, we are intending to discuss 5 secrets of a successful Christian life.
In another video, available in our video channel, naphtalitribetv.com, I have discussed in detail, why should we live a successful Christian life.
It is a two part video. I request you all to watch that video also along with this.

I believe that it is very important to live a successful Christian life.
When I say success, I mean success in the spiritual realm as well as in the physical realm.
I do not support a dichotomy between spiritual life and secular life.
For a true Christian believer who is born again by faith in Jesus Christ, there is no dichotomy between spiritual life and secular life.
Everything is spiritual for him, because he is seated in the right hand side of our Lord.
So a successful Christian life is a successful Kingdom living.
A successful Kingdom living is necessary for the “the increase of His government”. (Isaiah 9:7)

Boundaries

Today we are going to discuss about boundaries that we hate and like at the same time.
We fight to destroy and at the same time construct boundaries; we are afraid to live without it.
Boundaries limit our freedom, but freedom is meaningless without boundaries.
Boundaries are real.

We always feel in our life the presence of boundaries of traditions, beliefs and values.
Some of them are created by humans and some others exist from time immemorial.
We can break some, we do not like to break some and we cannot break some other.
Boundaries influence, limit, control and give meaning to our life.

Jacob, God’s Israel

Jacob is the towering, complex and more than life size character in the Old Testament.
His life was one of scheming, frustrations, pain, loneliness and yet spiritual.
None of his contemporaries understood his pain and despair during his life.
He had none to share his heart. He lived alone, fought alone and won alone.
He is the nation “Israel”, but he is often neglected between Abraham and Moses.
He had moments of fear and strong faith.
His family was in disorder, he silently fought to set it straight.
He was born in the Promised Land but spent most of his life in foreign lands and died in a foreign land.

Inheriting the Kingdom of God

Who shall inherit and who shall not inherit the Kingdom of God?
This question and its answer are the core subject of this discussion.

When we discuss the topic, let us keep few things in our mind about the kingdom of God.
Kingdom of God is not a democratic kingdom; it is the rule of a King who is the only authority in the Kingdom.
He is the only one King and He has no misters to discuss the rule of the Kingdom.
He is the creator and sustainer of the Kingdom.
His Will and His values are the laws of the Kingdom.
Thus the King is the Kingdom and the Kingdom is the King.

New Heaven and New Earth

(All verses quoted in this study are from the New King James Version, if not otherwise mentioned).

 

The new heaven and new earth, as seen by John the apostle in a vision, is the final fulfillment of the Kingdom of God. John’s revelation has immense importance in eschatology. This is the climax of God’s plan for the restoration of the Kingdom of God.

 

According to the revelations recorded by John, the establishment of the new heaven and new earth will happen only after the white throne judgment, after the rapture of the saints and the millennial reign of Christ. References to this new creation is found in the Old Testament as well as the New Testament books. So, this revelation is an authentic truth.

 

My intention in this study is not confirming any existing interpretations or not prescribing any new interpretations to the revelation. My intention is to explain the vision as John has recorded it, in the light of other scriptures. Different interpretations of scholars are also cited, for the enrichment of the believers.

Shouts of Victory

When you meet a real soldier next time, ask him whether he likes war time or peace time.
My experience is that, he will answer that he likes war time.
War is a time of action and peace is a time of idleness.
No soldier wish to get wounded or killed in war, but he dislikes peace time.
Soldiers may not wish for war, but real soldiers like war, because it is a time of action.

Real believers like war. We have fight, a war to win. We are in a war.
But our war is different from the wars between nations on this earth.
Our weapons in the war and our intention of the war are also different.
In truth, the war of a born again Christian believer is already fought and won; the victory is declared.
We are now only effecting or implementing the victory.  
This is the core thought of this message.

I never knew you

This is a short expository message intending to study a verse from the scripture.
Matthew chapter 5 to 7 are all about the Kingdom of God.
In Matthew 7, Jesus is telling a series of short parables about the entry to the Kingdom of God.
The scripture under study is as follows:

Matthew 7: 22, 23 (similar passage is seen in Luke 13:23 - 30)
22   "Many will say to Me in that day, 'Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?'
23   "And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!' (NKJV)

Inaugurated Kingdom


What is “inaugurated Kingdom” and what are the characteristics of this age?
This is the topic we intend to study in this message.

Daniel’s prophecy

Over 2,500 years ago, God gave a Jewish prophet named Daniel, special under­standing of future world governments.
While serving in the court of Nebuchad­nezzar, the king of Babylon, God revealed to Daniel that throughout the course of human history there would be three more world ruling empires following the Baby­lonian empire-the Persian, Greek and Roman empires.
God then inspired Daniel to write:

Daniel 2:44  "And in the days of these kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed; and the kingdom shall not be left to other people; it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever. (NKJV)

Lord's Supper, the Passover and the Marriage of the Lamb

Adamic Covenant was the proto-gospel which announced God’s plan of redemption of humans and the restoration of the Kingdom of God.
Passover evokes the story of the Exodus and God’s delivery of the Jewish people from slavery.
Jesus and His disciples celebrated the Passover, while Jesus explaining and revealing its salvific significance and its eschatological fulfilment.

Word Became Flesh - Professor Jacob Abraham

Let us let us start this short study with a brief introduction to the four gospels.
They are called the Gospel according to Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.
They were written by four authors, between AD 66 and 100.
All four Gospels are anonymous; the names were added in the 2 century.
The Gospel of Mark was the first written, may be around AD 66 - 70.
Matthew and Luke were written around AD 85 - 90.
John was written around AD 90 - 110.

The apostles Matthew and John witnessed Jesus’ ministry from its inception through His death and resurrection.
Mark, a younger man was present at least during the later events of Jesus’ life, was taught by the apostle and eyewitness Peter.
The Gospel according to Luke is a report by a meticulous historian who claimed to have “carefully investigated everything from the beginning”