Sandy Warner ~ ~ swauthor777@usa.net ~ ~ www.thequickenedword.com


QUICKENED SCRIPTURE:  BLESSED IS HE WHO IS NOT OFFENDED BECAUSE OF ME  4/04/11

 

I was listening to scripture on my iTouch and when it came to the following passage, I was saddened by the statement of John the Baptist.  Previously John had strongly declared that Jesus Christ was the Lamb of God Who takes away the sin of the world.  John witnessed the Spirit descending upon Jesus and testified that Jesus was the Son of God.

 

John 1:29-36

The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, "Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! 30 This is He of whom I said, 'After me comes a Man who is preferred before me, for He was before me.' 31 I did not know Him; but that He should be revealed to Israel, therefore I came baptizing with water." 32 And John bore witness, saying, "I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and He remained upon Him. 33 I did not know Him, but He who sent me to baptize with water said to me, 'Upon whom you see the Spirit descending, and remaining on Him, this is He who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.' 34 And I have seen and testified that this is the Son of God."  35 Again, the next day, John stood with two of his disciples. 36 And looking at Jesus as He walked, he said, "Behold the Lamb of God!"

 

Now John is in prison for having confronted Herod of his sin, and he has digressed, doubting Who Jesus is.  John asks, "Are You the Coming One or should we look for another?"

 

Matt 11:1-3  NKJV

Now it came to pass, when Jesus finished commanding His twelve disciples, that He departed from there to teach and to preach in their cities.  2 And when John had heard in prison about the works of Christ, he sent two of his disciples 3 and said to Him, "Are You the Coming One, or do we look for another?"

 

Jesus responded with verses from the Old Testament [Isa 35:5,6; 61:1] that John the Baptist knew and had fed upon, having looked forward to the day they would be fulfilled.

 

Matt 11:5 AMP

The blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed (by healing) and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up and the poor have good news (the Gospel) preached to them. [Isa 35:5,6; 61:1.]

 

Luke 4:16-22 NKJV

So He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up. And as His custom was, He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up to read. 17 And He was handed the book of the prophet Isaiah. And when He had opened the book, He found the place where it was written:  18 "The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, Because He has anointed Me To preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted,  To proclaim liberty to the captives And recovery of sight to the blind, To set at liberty those who are oppressed;  19 To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord."  20 Then He closed the book, and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all who were in the synagogue were fixed on Him. 21 And He began to say to them, "Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing." 

 

After Jesus quoted those scriptures, He ends His personal message to John by saying, "Blessed is he who is not offended because of Me."  Jesus was exhorting John to not allow himself to be offended because he was in prison.  The admonition was also probably addressing John's expectations in his faith of what it would be like when the Messiah came.  Something wasn't lining up for John and it caused his faith to doubt his calling, himself, Jesus and the spiritual experiences he'd had in order to believe Jesus was indeed the Lamb of God Who took away the sins of the world.  Every bit of it was all connected together, along with the testimony and faith of his mother who had carried him in the womb.

 

Matt 11:4-6

Jesus answered and said to them, "Go and tell John the things which you hear and see:  5 The blind see and the lame walk; the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear; the dead are raised up and the poor have the gospel preached to them.  6 And blessed is he who is not offended because of Me."

 

NT:4624  OFFENDED

skandalizo (skan-dal-id'-zo) ("scandalize"); from NT:4625; to entrap, i.e. trip up (figuratively, stumble [transitively] or entice to sin, apostasy or displeasure):

KJV - (make to) offend.

 

NT:4625

skandalon (skan'-dal-on) ("scandal"); probably from a derivative of NT:2578; a trap-stick (bent sapling), i.e. snare (figuratively, cause of displeasure or sin):

KJV - occasion to fall (of stumbling), offence, thing that offends, stumblingblock.

 

Luke 9:23-25

Then He said to them all, "If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me.  24 For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it. 

 

One of the Greek definitions of the word offended means to become entrapped or ensnared.  This in itself describes being in a cage or prison.

 

QUICKENED MEMORY: 

 

RHEMA 3/31/11  PRISON DOOR OPENS

PIX:  I saw a prison door of a cage that had been opened by an angel.  It looked to be like a giant bird cage.

 

Ps 124:6-8  NKJV

Blessed be the Lord, Who has not given us as prey to their teeth. Our soul has escaped as a bird from the snare of the fowlers;  The snare is broken, and we have escaped.  Our help is in the name of the Lord, Who made heaven and earth. 

 

CONFIRMATION AH:  I ordered a new Bible in large print and it arrived today.  I was in the midst of writing this post when Wayne brought the new Bible to me. When I opened it for the first time, my eyes fell on the following scripture.  This was when the angel of the Lord delivered Peter from prison:

 

Acts 12:11 NKJV

And when Peter had come to himself, he said, "Now I know for certain that the Lord has sent His angel, and has delivered me from the hand of Herod and from all the expectation of the Jewish people."

 

 

BEING OFFENDED BY JESUS

 

Matt 13:54-58

Where did this Man get this wisdom and these mighty works? 55 Is this not the carpenter's son? Is not His mother called Mary? And His brothers James, Joses, Simon, and Judas? 56 And His sisters, are they not all with us? Where then did this Man get all these things?" 57 So they were offended at Him. But Jesus said to them, "A prophet is not without honor except in his own country and in his own house."  58 Now He did not do many mighty works there because of their unbelief.

 

Matt 15:12

Then His disciples came and said to Him, "Do You know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this saying?"

 

Matt 24:10-11

And then many will be offended, will betray one another, and will hate one another. 

 

Matt 26:31-34

Then Jesus said to them, "All of you will be made to stumble because of Me this night, for it is written: 'I will strike the Shepherd, And the sheep of the flock will be scattered.' 32 But after I have been raised, I will go before you to Galilee."  33 Peter answered and said to Him, "Even if all are made to stumble because of You, I will never be made to stumble."  34 Jesus said to him, "Assuredly, I say to you that this night, before the rooster crows, you will deny Me three times."

 

Luke 2:34-35

Then Simeon blessed them, and said to Mary His mother, "Behold, this Child is destined for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign which will be spoken against.

 

John 6:60-62

Therefore many of His disciples, when they heard this, said, "This is a hard saying; who can understand it?"  61 When Jesus knew in Himself that His disciples complained about this, He said to them, "Does this offend you? 

 

John 6:66-71

From that time many of His disciples went back and walked with Him no more. 67 Then Jesus said to the twelve, "Do you also want to go away?"  68 But Simon Peter answered Him, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. 69 Also we have come to believe and know that You are the Christ, the Son of the living God."  70 Jesus answered them, "Did I not choose you, the twelve, and one of you is a devil?"  71 He spoke of Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon, for it was he who would betray Him, being one of the twelve.

 

Rom 9:32-33

Why? Because they did not seek it by faith, but as it were, by the works of the law. For they stumbled at that stumbling stone. 33 As it is written: "Behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling stone and rock of offense, And whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame."

 

1 Cor 1:22-25

For Jews request a sign, and Greeks seek after wisdom; 23 but we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness, 24 but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25 Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.

 

1 Peter 2:7-8

Therefore, to you who believe, He is precious; but to those who are disobedient, "The stone which the builders rejected Has become the chief cornerstone," 8 and "A stone of stumbling And a rock of offense."  They stumble, being disobedient to the word, to which they also were appointed.

 

 

PRAYER:  Lord we pray that when offenses come, that You will grant us Your grace to not become offended by You, Your will, Your Word and Your way.  Allow us Your heart to see and understand how we may align ourselves with You.  We ask that we not be given over to temptation, but be delivered from evil.  We ask that we may be given the honor of becoming Your friends and giving You pleasure.  Lord we know our weaknesses and it is only through Your grace that keeps us from falling.  Keep us from falling, oh Lord!

 

 

 


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Words from the The Quickened Word are excerpts from the journals of Sandy Warner.  To better understand how God speaks, read Sandy’s book, “101+ Ways God Speaks, And How to Hear Him.”  Website:
www.thequickenedword.com    Email:  swauthor777@usa.net  
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