Epaggelia

The idea of being faithful, usually falls into three different contexts for our modern vocabulary. Firstly, marriage, secondly, worship and lastly, we sometimes use the word faithful in the context of allegiance in support of an athletic team. Christ is the perfect example of what it means to be faithful from God’s perspective. He always did the will of His Father, see John 8:28-29, this is the very essence of faithfulness as a virtue, it is pleasing!

Matthew 7:21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter into the kingdom of heaven – only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven.” 

This shows us clearly, the command of Christ is to faithfully obey the will of God in Him, without this, we will not be saved in His Kingdom!

Christ was, is and will always be faithful in doing the will of God in our lives. Jesus said, 

(Matthew 23:23-24) “Woe to you, experts in the law and you Pharisees, hypocrites! You give a tenth of mint, dill, and cumin, yet you neglect what is more important in the law – 

justice, mercy, and _________________________. You should have done these things without neglecting the others. 

Jesus often spoke of faithfulness as the exact opposite of honesty, see Luke 16:10-11.

“The one who is _________________ in a very little is also faithful in much, and the one who is dishonest in a very little is also dishonest in much. If then you haven’t been 

_______________________ in handling worldly wealth, who will entrust you with the true riches? 

So to be honest with the gifts God gives us, and also to be obedient to the commands Christ has for us, is the essence of faithfulness as a virtue of Christ in the Christian.

Are we honest with our spouse?

Are we honest with our income?

Do we have integrity in ourselves, when faced with the commands of Christ? Faithfulness is not measured by the number of times we attend worship services in a year, but it is measured by what we do during worship. Loyal love in our hearts towards Christ for all he is, has done and will do is the driving force behind real faithfulness.

The answers to these questions help us evaluate our own faithfulness. A virtue the world does not emphasize. We must rely on Christ’s Spirit to grow His fruit, Gal. 5:22-23, which includes faithfulness.

Luke 1:17 quotes Malachi. 4:6, The success of John the immersionist is not measured by longevity, because his life was cut short, not by riches, because he lived in poverty and ate poor, not by miracles because he didn’t perform a single sign, but by the acceptance of God’s word into the hearts of many Israelites, (Lk. 3:21 “ALL”). Jesus said John the immersionist was the greatest of men born amongst women because of his ability to practice what he preached in holy living (Matthew 11:8-11).  The word “Turn” is a great word for describing the emphasis of John’s message of repentance, Mark 1:4 & Luke 3:3. In John’s ministry, baptism was immersion expressing a changed lifestyle in exchange for forgiveness, however in Christ’s ministry, baptism is immersion expressing death to sin and being raised to new life in exchange for a forgiven heart that can receive the gift of the Holy Spirit, Acts 2:37-39.

Luke 4:18-19 quotes Isaiah 61:1-2, The success of Jesus Christ (Anointed) – ‘Masah’ Isa. 61:1, would be emphasized in preaching, the word “Preaching” is repeated 3 times in this passage. Proclamation of God’s word, not necessarily the acceptance of His word. The miraculous healing and many other powerful signs was simply the proof or confirmation of power from God in the word’s message, see Mark 16:20 & Hebrews 2:3-4. The preaching is described by two words, firstly, “Euangelizo” which is a reference to the inherent goodness of the message. Secondly ‘preaching’ or proclaim is “Kerysso” which is a reference to publication of the message. This kind of message is always public, never private. The fact that the Christ (Anointed) one did the preaching fulfilled the prophetic promise in Isaiah to make the “year of the Lord’s grace” known. Grace and truth came by Jesus Christ, Jn 1:17, not Moses or any other prophet or religious leader of any kind, it was only Jesus who can deliver gracious words and absolute truth, see Luke 4:22.

Luke 23:30 quotes Hosea 10:8, Jesus points to the destruction of Jerusalem impending with warnings, from prophets of the past, to his own generation. A sign of mercy to those who accept his word as God’s word, to flee and escape the judgment of God. Reference Matthew 24:15 & Daniel 12:11. If non-believers stay in Jerusalem to see this wrath they will cry out for creation itself to fall upon them, see Revelation 6:15-17, because the destruction is so thorough there will be no hope anywhere else but under the earth, i.e., dead!

Luke 24:27 quotes “all the prophets”.., after Cleopas said “but they did not see him”, v24. Jesus replied with a rebuke towards their wondering curiosity and wherever in the Old Testament Christ was spoken of prophetically, Jesus explained his fulfillment. What is amazing about this encounter, is that Christ’s knowledge did not open their eyes, but rather it was fellowship and prayer over dinner! A prayer of blessing opened their eyes, v30-31. Do you pray about what you read in the Bible?