Show Us the Father Sunday, Mar 31 2019

The Scripture for today may be found in the gospel according to John, chapter 5, verses 37-38:

Witness of the Father

³⁷ And the Father who sent Me, He has testified of Me. You have neither heard His voice at any time nor seen His form. ³⁸ You do not have His word abiding in you, for you do not believe Him whom He sent.

I would like to dedicate this bible study to my grandson, Aiden who at this writing is 13 years old.

Jesus asserts His claim as the Son of God. This is the most important assertion ever made.

You cannot honor God unless you Honor Him. You must believe what Jesus said as well as what He did.

There are many people in the world today that say they believe in God but they do not believe that Jesus of Nazareth was the only begotten Son of God. They reject the atonement. They reject Jesus.

What if you had to die today? What would your position be?

You cannot be right with God and not be right with Jesus Christ.

That is ignorance and arrogance. I read it to you just a few days ago in John 1: ¹⁸ No one has seen God at any time; the only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him.

Job 42:2-6

“I know that You can do all things,
And that no purpose of Yours can be thwarted.
³ ‘Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge?’
Therefore I have declared that which I did not understand,
Things too wonderful for me, which I did not know.”
⁴ ‘Hear, now, and I will speak;
I will ask You, and You instruct me.’
⁵ “I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear;
But now my eye sees You;
⁶ Therefore I retract,
And I repent in dust and ashes.”

Listen to Job because he has heard God.

Genesis 32:24-30

Jacob Wrestles

²⁴ Then Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him until daybreak. ²⁵ When he saw that he had not prevailed against him, he touched the socket of his thigh; so the socket of Jacob’s thigh was dislocated while he wrestled with him. ²⁶ Then he said, “Let me go, for the dawn is breaking.” But he said, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.” ²⁷ So he said to him, “What is your name?” And he said, “Jacob.” ²⁸ He said, “Your name shall no longer be Jacob, but ^[n]Israel; for you have striven with God and with men and have prevailed.” ²⁹ Then Jacob asked him and said, “Please tell me your name.” But he said, “Why is it that you ask my name?” And he blessed him there. ³⁰ So Jacob named the place ^[o]Peniel, for he said, “I have seen God face to face, yet my ^[p]life has been preserved.”

Listen to Jacob for he became Israel because he dealt with God, and he heard God.

Exodus 34:4-8

⁴ And he hewed two tables of stone like unto the first; and Moses rose up early in the morning, and went up unto mount Sinai, as the Lord had commanded him, and took in his hand the two tables of stone.

⁵ And the Lord descended in the cloud, and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the Lord.

⁶ And the Lord passed by before him, and proclaimed, The Lord, The Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth,

⁷ Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children’s children, unto the third and to the fourth generation.

⁸ And Moses made haste, and bowed his head toward the earth, and worshipped.

Listen to Moses for he saw God pass by and heard God.

Judges 6:17-23

¹⁷ And he said unto him, If now I have found grace in thy sight, then shew me a sign that thou talkest with me.

¹⁸ Depart not hence, I pray thee, until I come unto thee, and bring forth my present, and set it before thee. And he said, I will tarry until thou come again.

¹⁹ And Gideon went in, and made ready a kid, and unleavened cakes of an ephah of flour: the flesh he put in a basket, and he put the broth in a pot, and brought it out unto him under the oak, and presented it.

²⁰ And the angel of God said unto him, Take the flesh and the unleavened cakes, and lay them upon this rock, and pour out the broth. And he did so.

²¹ Then the angel of the Lord put forth the end of the staff that was in his hand, and touched the flesh and the unleavened cakes; and there rose up fire out of the rock, and consumed the flesh and the unleavened cakes. Then the angel of the Lord departed out of his sight.

²² And when Gideon perceived that he was an angel of the Lord, Gideon said, Alas, O Lord God! for because I have seen an angel of the Lord face to face.

²³ And the Lord said unto him, Peace be unto thee; fear not: thou shalt not die.

Believe Gideon, the mighty man of valor, because he saw Him and heard Him.

Matthew 17:1-3

The Transfiguration

17 Six days later Jesus *took with Him Peter and ^[a]James and John his brother, and *led them up on a high mountain by themselves. ² And He was transfigured before them; and His face shone like the sun, and His garments became as white as light. ³ And behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them, talking with Him.

Believe Peter, James, and John because they saw the transfiguration of Jesus Christ.

John 14:8-9

Philip *said to Him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.” ⁹ Jesus *said to him, “Have I been so long with you, and yet you have not come to know Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?

Believe Philip because he saw Him and heard Him.

The spiritually dead cannot see God nor hear God even when He speaks.

It is “The Word” that reveals God to us. If the Spirit of God dwells in you then “The Word” is in you also because He wrote it all. Listen to “The Word” because John 1:

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

A man can do nothing in exchange for his own soul.

I can say with Peter, “I am not telling you cunningly devised fables.”

My prayer for you is that you will both see and hear “The Word” that is able to save your soul.

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What of Miracles? Saturday, Mar 30 2019

The Scripture for today may be found in the gospel of John, chapter 5, verse 36:

Witness of Works

³⁶ But the testimony which I have is greater than the testimony of John; for the works which the Father has given Me to accomplish—the very works that I do—testify about Me, that the Father has sent Me.

I would like to dedicate this bible study to my grandson, Joey who at this writing is now 5 years old.

Today, we are going to talk about the importance of a right attitude.

Jesus has a greater witness than that of John the Baptist. Remember how in times past I read to you the story of John the Baptist who baptized Jesus at the Jordan river? Do you remember who Jesus is and what He is?

The New Testament is all about Him. He is more important than His teaching. He is more than just a great teacher or a great man. Jesus claimed that He was the Son of God and did what His Father told Him to do.

His works were told throughout the gospels. He worked miracles, He taught, He live a sinless life, He died on the cross, He rose from the dead.

Consider His miracles: John 10: ²⁴ The Jews then gathered around Him, and were saying to Him, “How long will You keep us in suspense? If You are the Christ, tell us plainly.” ²⁵ Jesus answered them, “I told you, and you do not believe; the works that I do in My Father’s name, these testify of Me.

Luke 7: ²⁰ When the men came to Him, they said, “John the Baptist has sent us to You, to ask, ‘Are You the Expected One, or do we look for someone else?’” ²¹ At that very time He cured many people of diseases and afflictions and evil spirits; and He gave sight to many who were blind. ²² And He answered and said to them, “Go and report to John what you have seen and heard: the blind receive sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, the poor have the gospel preached to them.

Acts 2:
²² “Men of Israel, listen to these words: Jesus the Nazarene, a man attested to you by God with miracles and wonders and signs which God performed through Him in your midst, just as you yourselves know—

Hebrews 2: ³ how will we escape if we neglect so great a salvation? After it was at the first spoken through the Lord, it was confirmed to us by those who heard, ⁴ God also testifying with them, both by signs and wonders and by various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit according to His own will.

His miracles prove who He was and why He came. Miracles are not the result of secondary causes. Miracles are not produced from natural causes. Miracles are instantaneous. Miracles do happen.

If you say they don’t happen, you are not up to date. They used to say the atom was inert but they didn’t know about nuclear power. The atom is not inert but dynamic, teaming with activity.

Jesus turned the water into wine without grapes, without time. He fed the 5,000 by multiplying 2 fishes and 5 loaves without fishing, without baking, without time.

What folly to think we know better than God.

Remember the story I told you of Nicodemus?

John 3:² this man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, “Rabbi, we know that You have come from God as a teacher; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him.”

Sign and wonders are the same as miracles.

Remember that Jesus said:

John 10: ^37″If I do not do the works of My Father, do not believe Me; ³⁸ but if I do them, though you do not believe Me, believe the works, so that you may know and understand that the Father is in Me, and I in the Father.”

Apostles did miracles in the name of Jesus. Jesus did miracles in His own name. He raised up Lazarus. He is the giver of life.

Jesus prayed for us in John 17

John 17: ⁴ I glorified You on the earth, having accomplished the work which You have given Me to do. ⁵ Now, Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was.

John 17:²⁰ “I do not ask on behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word; ²¹ that they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me.

My prayer for you is that you would believe in Jesus and in miracles and that the evidence is true.

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Brilliant Friday, Mar 29 2019

The Scripture for today begins in the Gospel of John, chapter 5, verses 31-35:

³¹ “If I alone testify about Myself, My testimony is not true. ³² There is another who testifies of Me, and I know that the testimony which He gives about Me is true.

Witness of John

³³ You have sent to John, and he has testified to the truth. ³⁴ But the testimony which I receive is not from man, but I say these things so that you may be saved. ³⁵ He was the lamp that was burning and was shining and you were willing to rejoice for a while in his light.

I would like to dedicate this bible study to my grandson, Logan, who at this writing is six years old.

Let us begin specifically with verse 35:
“He was the lamp that was burning and was shining and you were willing to rejoice for a while in his light. “

Now in the King James Version it says “for a season” instead of “for a while”. I like that so much better since we have just started into a new season of spring and all around us are the signs of “life”, green bursting forth everywhere.

Soon everyone will be out enjoying the spring air. Nature holds so many joyous sights and sounds.

Our story begins with a man named “John the Baptist”. He was a man who lived in the days of our Lord, Jesus Christ. And in those days, it had been over 400 years since the prophets of God had spoken to the people of Israel.

When the people of Israel heard about John the Baptist, they were very eager to go and see him and to hear what he had to say. They had heard that he wore a camel hair shirt, and ate only wild locusts and honey. So they went to see him and to hear what he had to say. There was a certain general appeal and they wanted to be a part of what everybody was talking about. It is kind of like nowadays when there are fads that come along and everybody tries them out. But alas, they soon turn away. The “newness” wears off, they get bored with it all, and move on to the next “new thing.”

Ezekiel foretold about this in Chapter 33, verses 31-33:

³⁰ “But as for you, son of man, your fellow citizens who talk about you by the walls and in the doorways of the houses, speak to one another, each to his brother, saying, ‘Come now and hear what the message is which comes forth from the Lord.’ ³¹ They come to you as people come, and sit before you as My people and hear your words, but they do not do them, for they do the lustful desires expressed by their mouth, and their heart goes after their gain. ³² Behold, you are to them like a sensual song by one who has a beautiful voice and plays well on an instrument; for they hear your words but they do not practice them. ³³ So when it comes to pass—as surely it will—then they will know that a prophet has been in their midst.”

It is the very same with Jesus. Many fell away from him when His truth became difficult to understand.

John 6:60 ⁶⁰ Therefore many of His disciples, when they heard this said, “This is a difficult statement; who can listen to it?”

John 6:66-69 ⁶⁶ As a result of this many of His disciples withdrew and were not walking with Him anymore. ⁶⁷ So Jesus said to the twelve, “You do not want to go away also, do you?” ⁶⁸ Simon Peter answered Him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have words of eternal life. ⁶⁹ We have believed and have come to know that You are the Holy One of God.”

This is a common thing with religion. People tend to follow for awhile, but then for many reasons, they fall away. They get drawn to anything and everything that they think will give them answers to their problems in life. But the minute they find that what they wanted isn’t there they move on and try the next one. Some people come to Christ because they want to be part of a happy crowd and they see people in church singing and rejoicing. But the minute they are asked to help out they flee. Because you see, they are in it for themselves. They are compelled by what is called the “crowd mentality.”

They think to themselves, “Surely this must be good, look how many people are here.”

But when John the Baptist said, “Repent and be baptized”, they rejected him.

When Jesus said, “You must be born again”, they rejected him.

These messages weren’t what they wanted to hear. They were looking for worldly answers, something political or military perhaps. The same people who laid down palm branches on Palm Sunday, later yelled, “crucify Him!”

They became an angry mob.

Even at the cross they asked Him, “If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross.”

But you see in order to be saved persistence is a necessity. Repentance is a necessity. We must “follow Him” though the whole world turn against us.

My prayer for you is that you never fall away.

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