Christ Is Risen! 🌞
For more information on the quote from the prophet
Isaiah (Isaiah LIII, 7-8), see the following link:
12042023.html
The story of the subsequent preaching of one of the first 7 deacons, Saint Philip, to a high Ethiopian nobleman who knew the Old Testament and believed in the One God.
We can note both the humility of the nobleman and his openness to accepting the truth.
At the same time, Philip’s actions are described as being directly
guided by the Holy Spirit and God (including through an angel). The
Spirit of the Lord took him away
is a similar description of the
prophet Elijah, which shows that the apostles had the gift of the Holy
Spirit, just like the honoured prophets of the Old Testament. But unlike
the latter, they had to give it to the other people, which means that
they had a greater fullness of grace. Similarly, the sacraments of
salvation in the New Testament are something that did not exist in the
Old Testament.
And while the meaning of the Old Testament ministry of the prophets was mainly about preparation, here Philip shares the joy of the coming of the Saviour and the fulfilment of all those prophecies about Him.
A continuation of yesterday’s and the previous
several readings.
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John VI, 40 – and I will raise him up at the last day
– all those
who are dead at the time of the Second Coming of Jesus Christ will be
raised by Him, but here these words mean not just resurrection and
participation in it, but also spiritual renewal and likeness to the Son
of God, similar to the way He resurrected. In other words, in the
language of the same Gospel, it will be a resurrection of life
, not a
resurrection of judgement
. That is, such a person will be resurrected
to an eternal blissful life with Christ in the Kingdom of God.
The difficult question is whether all such people will be dead at the time of Jesus’ return. In some places, the Lord says that there may hardly be believers who are truly deeply faithful before His return. At the same time, He also says that there will be believers at His return. Given these last words, we must assume that most of the believers Jesus mentions in these words will be dead at that time, and He will resurrect them. Attempts to clarify the estimation in the light of God’s will will not succeed until the Lord Himself comes and reveals everything.
This also denies a sudden increase in the number of deeply faithful
people before Jesus’ return – no, there will be no such sudden
explosive
increase in their number (mass deep conversion).
Christ goes on to speak about the misunderstanding of His words that arose among the people. Most people did not know how Jesus was born and that He was the Son of God. Only those to whom the Father had revealed it knew.
Why is this so? Why does Christ not tell the story of His birth here?
This is a difficult question.
But one might think that if a person does not see the Divinity in
Jesus, then the story of the Christmas will seem like little evidence
for that person – he or she did not see these events, and even the
prophecies that came true will not be decisive for him or her, because
he or she needs to see them fulfilled in Jesus. In other words, most
people see Jesus as Lord not through the story of His Birth, but
primarily through His preaching, miracles, Passion, Death and
Resurrection. That is why the Lord is not telling them the story of the
Christmas, which confirms His words, but is speaking of the Father’s
revelation about the Son. See also:
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It must be said that if a person cognises the Son of God with love, then he or she becomes like the Father, Who knows and loves the Son, Who sent Him into the world. A person can accept the Son if he or she loves Him like the Father, and accepts God’s intention for the salvation of people and so on. This means that he or she is like the Father in this, and this is only possible if the Father gives it to him or her.
Therefore, one can come to Jesus only if the Father brings him or her.
Glory be to Thee, our God, glory be to Thee!