Bible Myth #4 The message is more important than the messenger

[unbelievable1]

John the Baptist proves how important the messenger is:
Matthew 11:10 This is the one about whom it is written:
“‘I will send my messenger ahead of you,
who will prepare your way before you.’[a]
11 Truly I tell you, among those born of women there has not risen anyone greater than John the Baptist; yet whoever is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.

There was literally no messenger better. Now if God sent a thief and a murderer, we could see that the messenger matters not. Instead, God sent the greatest man who ever lived to that point.

John the baptist was referring to the message and the messenger of The new covenant
john was a herald and a voice crying in the wilderness:

make straight paths for THE messenger

 

[Peter J Barban]

John the baptist was referring to the message and the messenger of The new covenant
john was a herald and a voice crying in the wilderness:

make straight paths for THE messenger

Matthew 11:10 This is the one about whom it is written:
“‘I will send my messenger ahead of you,
who will prepare your way before you.’

John is the "messenger." John was the greatest of all men until Jesus.

Jesus is the "you". Jesus, too had a message, and Jesus is greater than his message.

I think the myth that the message is more important than the man has been promoted to justify those who admit the truth but refuse to submit. In other words: hypocrites and sheep in wolve's clothing.

 

[unbelievable1]

Matthew 11:10 This is the one about whom it is written:
“‘I will send my messenger ahead of you,
who will prepare your way before you.’

John is the "messenger." John was the greatest of all men until Jesus.

Jesus is the "you". Jesus, too had a message, and Jesus is greater than his message.

I think the myth that the message is more important than the man has been promoted to justify those who admit the truth but refuse to submit. In other words: hypocrites and sheep in wolve's clothing.

John was born of woman

The least in the kingdom (reborn of Jesus life-giving spirit) is (still) greater than John

The man and his message is very important

So important that the question:

Who do the people say that I am

Remains very crucial to the foundation of our faith and whether our feet will remain steadfast on the Rock of that foundation


Or fall

(Edit -typo: "in" the Rock to "on" the Rock)

 

[Peter J Barban]

Honestly, most of us are not good at judging messages any more than we are good at judging people's hearts. That is why Jesus tells us to judge a person's fruit:

Matthew 7:15“Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. 16By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? 17Likewise, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. 18A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. 19Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them.

If the messenger's life has bad fruit, don't trust the message even though it seems good. And if you want to be a trusted messenger of God, first produce good fruit that your listeners can judge for themselves.

 

[pescador]

John the baptist was referring to the message and the messenger of The new covenant
john was a herald and a voice crying in the wilderness:

make straight paths for THE messenger

Your posts mention THE messenger. It's a term that you have invented, whereas the Bible describes Jesus as THE message: the Word of Life. It is wrong to degrade our Lord to the level of a delivery person.

 

[unbelievable1]

Your posts mention THE messenger. It's a term that you have invented, whereas the Bible describes Jesus as THE message: the Word of Life. It is wrong to degrade our Lord to the level of a delivery person.

And the Bible also mentions him as the messenger of the covenant whom you desire will suddenly come to his temple
(That's not John)
Malachi is speaking of the lord and Jesus is both John's message and the messenger who will suddenly come to his temple

John was a herald to Jesus

 

[pescador]

John was born of woman

The least in the kingdom (reborn of Jesus life-giving spirit) is (still) greater than John

The man and his message is very important

So important that the question:

Who do the people say that I am

Remains very crucial to the foundation of our faith and whether our feet will remain steadfast in the Rock of that foundation


Or fall

You're jumping all over the place, with no reference to Scripture. First you (add to or interpret) what Scripture says, then you jump to the question Jesus asked his disciples much later in his ministry (without a question mark), then talk about our feet remaining "in the Rock of that foundation".

Regarding the (unscriptural) last phrase, nobody's feet are stuck in a rock. It's bizarre. Jesus is the cornerstone upon which his living temple of believers is built.

"So then you are no longer foreigners and noncitizens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of God’s household, because you have been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone. In him the whole building, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord" Ephesians 2:19-21

 

[unbelievable1]

John didn't speak of himself
Johns outward appearance looked far from noble. Yet he didn't drink strong wine

Then comes Jesus eating and drinking and even with sinners!

Imagine that!

Ye shall know them by their fruit yes of course

Unless of course one can't make a right judgement and you are looking more at the external fruit that doesn't last to base your judgement on

And here we are on a website
So how should we convince one another of our good fruit?

Should we start listing our fruit so that we can justify ourselves before the ears of men?

Theres a catch 22 in that since we're not supposed to announce ourselves

John didn't announce himself

The messenger of the covenant was more important and John pointed to him and him alone

 

[unbelievable1]

You're jumping all over the place, with no reference to Scripture. First you (add to or interpret) what Scripture says, then you jump to the question Jesus asked his disciples much later in his ministry (without a question mark), then talk about our feet remaining "in the Rock of that foundation".

Regarding the (unscriptural) last phrase, nobody's feet are stuck in a rock. It's bizarre. Jesus is the cornerstone upon which his living temple of believers is built.

"So then you are no longer foreigners and noncitizens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of God’s household, because you have been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone. In him the whole building, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord" Ephesians 2:19-21

You think standing on the rock of the foundation is unscruptural and not allowing man made material to be added to the foundation is unscruptural

yet you claim to be built up in his body?

There's only one foundation sir
When someone comes adding to that foundation, it should be recognized for what it is...manmade directives

1 Corinthians 3

This man is professing the witnesses as more important than the truth of whom they should be witnessing to

He has made the witnesses more concerned about themselves than just preaching the gospel

Christ would have said
Whoever is for me is not against me...he who gathers does not scatter

What is the point of this discussion?

If one isn't born again of Christ's spirit they will not hear as they should hear if they are looking more at the external image of the witness than the truth of what the witness is testifying of

And what the witness should be testifying of is christ

Not himself

 

[unbelievable1]

By the way

Whoevers feet are on the rock will never stumble


You pointed to Ephesians
It is in this letter that you will understand who the foundation and the head are

 

[unbelievable1]

in the end, there will be a really great, clean looking wonderful messenger...but pay close attention to his message.

then come back and answer this "bible myth"

is the message more important than the messenger?

you better believe it!.

no bible myth:

the message is more important than the messenger


(unless of course the messenger is also THE messenger of THE message).

 

[pescador]

in the end, there will be a really great, clean looking wonderful messenger...but pay close attention to his message.

then come back and answer this "bible myth"

is the message more important than the messenger?

you better believe it!.

no bible myth:

the message is more important than the messenger


(unless of course the messenger is also THE messenger of THE message).

You're changing what you said earlier, you're jumping all over Scripture (with no references), and you're making absolutely no sense.

I'm not going to discuss this subject more with you. Capiche?

 

[Peter J Barban]

Another reason why the messenger is more important than the message:

Shattered faith: Nearly 100 sex abuse suits against Catholic priests rock island of Guam

I assume these ordained men gave standard orthodox messages so as to gain the trust of the sheep. Wake up, sheep! A good message does not guarantee a good man.

 

[unbelievable1]

You're changing what you said earlier, you're jumping all over Scripture (with no references), and you're making absolutely no sense.

I'm not going to discuss this subject more with you. Capiche?

Oh yes that would be fine

I'd appreciate that

 

[unbelievable1]

Another reason why the messenger is more important than the message:

Shattered faith: Nearly 100 sex abuse suits against Catholic priests rock island of Guam

I assume these ordained men gave standard orthodox messages so as to gain the trust of the sheep. Wake up, sheep! A good message does not guarantee a good man.

You have a beef with certain men
Wake up sheep

Sheep don't bite at their brothers and sisters and stir up trouble if they are in the fold

They do what all sheep should be doing

Keep their eye on The shepherd and look only to him for their food

 

[unbelievable1]

Lord what about him?

Does anyone ever know from the scriptures what John the beloved did that Peter (after having been restored) had to ask the lord what was the fate of John?

I don't know if we ever really know exactly what John did

Could it be that because he was involved in the trial and went in when Christ was questioned before pilate that he didn't speak up at all?

And what did Christ say to Peter?

What is it to you that i should let him tarry until I come

You Peter follow me

That means Peter (and every other sheep) should keep their eyes on only one message and that messenger through whom the message has come

Christ and him alone

For many wil come in his name and if one does not know the voice of The shepherd they will listen to other "shepherds"

That's why his sheep knowing his voice

Don't

 

[Sola1517]

The demon possessed girl had the right message. What she said was true and important. But since the messenger was demon-possessed and the message was coming from a demon, Paul rejected the demonic promotion of the gospel and removed the demon well in order to stop her. Good message + bad messenger = not doing the will of God.

As a traveling missionary, eventually Paul would move on, but the demon possessed girl would remain and have the ability (from a position of trust) to corrupt the message and destroy the local fellowship.

I'm pretty sure the reason why Paul got annoyed was because with the ability that demon possession gave the girl there was also spiritual oppression in the girl's life. That's the reason why Paul did something about it.

 

[SkyWriting]

A lot of Christians think that the message is all important. The messenger doesn't matter. While I agree that the social importance of the messenger doesn't matter, the messenger's life must be in harmony with the message.

Still, the message is more important regardless of the source.
Babe in a manger and all that....

 

[Ron Gurley]

Jesus the Divine Messiah was BOTH the "messenger" and the "message"..

The Message:.

Matthew 24:35
Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will not pass away.

The Messenger:

John 1: 4-18 ...Jesus: the spiritual LOGOS...extracts + annotations in parens mine
And the Word (spiritual LOGOS) became flesh (sarx), and dwelt among us, and
we saw His glory, (heavenly)
glory as of the Only begotten ("not made" /ultimate, epitome New Adam) from the Father,
full of grace and truth...
For the Law was given through Moses;
grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ.
No one has seen God at any time;
the ONLY begotten God (-Man) who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him.

Jesus the Christ "APPEARED" via the miraculous incarnation. Luke 1 through 2.

Galatians 4:4
But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law,

Q: And for WHAT PURPOSE(s) was he manifested?

Here are some of His completed "missions":

Jesus the Christ, The Divine Messiah, Son of God, Son of Man, True God, True Man
CHANGED the world because of HIS "works" / words / messages/ missions:
1. Message...spiritually true WORDS
2. Miracles...spiritual and super-natural ACTS to AUTHENTICATE His message AND:
3. Prophesies...spiritual fore-sight
4. Teaching...of spiritual principles, sometimes in parables
5. Preaching...the Law and interpreting it, adding precepts, warning unbelievers
6. Ministry...a perfect example to follow...sin free

MISSIONS:

Matthew 20:28
just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.”

1 Corinthians 15:3... Christ died FOR our sins according to the Scriptures,

1 Peter 3:18
For Christ also died FOR sins once FOR all,
the just (JESUS) for the unjust (US),
so that He might bring us to God,(RECONCILIATION!)
having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit;

 

[SkyWriting]

Jesus the Divine Messiah was BOTH the "messenger" and the "message"