Rome 50AD. Physically not much different to how it is today. Bustling. Chariots then and cars now. Magnificent buildings. Many streets and houses. Looking out from there towards the Eastern Mediterranean shores where decades previously and still in this time much trouble had ocurred and decades before extraordinary events had ocurred. Into this city come two men arriving in separate circumstances but perhaps living there at the same time in the next decades after 50AD and these two witnessed back there in the Eastmost lands around the Mediterranean the same extraordinary - most extraordinary - man. Not just man but Son of Man. They witnessed what He did like the changing of water into wine, the giving of sight to the blind and the blinding by heavenly glory of the violent opponent on the Damascus Road. These two men each had aliases having had changed names after being changed by this amazing Son of Man. One became known as Peter (Rock) and the other became known by his own choice as Paul (Small). This Rome was a city of immense reutation for tyranny but this Son of Man is still alive having been slain by the army of this city in response to demands by leaders out there in the Eastern Mediterranean who wanted to put to death the Son of Man whose Father in Heaven had first formed their nation centuries earlier.
So there in Rome these Jews who knew the resurrected Christ were far from Jerusalem where Christ had died then risen and returned to the Heaven from which God had sent Him. The people around them maybe mostly knew not much of Jerusalem nor this Christ and perhaps their memories of the events of Christ on Earth and places where they had all been happening in the sight of all were now a bit distant. What was their focus? The Church was in no way hindered in its growth in Rome as these men aided the preaching and growth of faith. In no way did the paling memory lead to waning of the Churches being built for God. Why? What focus did not pale or fade? The Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit who took things from the there and now Heaven over the clouds where Christ reigned with His God, His Father, and made such things known to the here and now people of that time there in Rome far from Jerusalem and long after the Christ had gone away to His Father's Throne. The life of the Spirit which did not fade and was always here and now.
So this life of the learning from the Holy Spirit is not one which fades and dies with time. It is a life for here and now whenever and wherever we are who willingly follow this messenger of God in Christ Jesus' name. This Lord the Holy Spirit is today and for ever to bring the things Christ sees before Him and present them to us as the Father presents them to Christ His Son. Those who follow the Spirit of God are sons and daughters of God. He is truth and light and love and He never dies and neither really do His faithful followers even those who die physically in one manner are never really ever fully dead and love and faith and hope remains in them and the resurrection is ahead of them. Indeed some in future will never die completely who remain at Christ's coming again and become immortal in His power.
So there in Rome these Jews who knew the resurrected Christ were far from Jerusalem where Christ had died then risen and returned to the Heaven from which God had sent Him. The people around them maybe mostly knew not much of Jerusalem nor this Christ and perhaps their memories of the events of Christ on Earth and places where they had all been happening in the sight of all were now a bit distant. What was their focus? The Church was in no way hindered in its growth in Rome as these men aided the preaching and growth of faith. In no way did the paling memory lead to waning of the Churches being built for God. Why? What focus did not pale or fade? The Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit who took things from the there and now Heaven over the clouds where Christ reigned with His God, His Father, and made such things known to the here and now people of that time there in Rome far from Jerusalem and long after the Christ had gone away to His Father's Throne. The life of the Spirit which did not fade and was always here and now.
So this life of the learning from the Holy Spirit is not one which fades and dies with time. It is a life for here and now whenever and wherever we are who willingly follow this messenger of God in Christ Jesus' name. This Lord the Holy Spirit is today and for ever to bring the things Christ sees before Him and present them to us as the Father presents them to Christ His Son. Those who follow the Spirit of God are sons and daughters of God. He is truth and light and love and He never dies and neither really do His faithful followers even those who die physically in one manner are never really ever fully dead and love and faith and hope remains in them and the resurrection is ahead of them. Indeed some in future will never die completely who remain at Christ's coming again and become immortal in His power.
