Radio Broadcast Monday 05/01/2023

Classic Christianity – The Book of John P37 (05-01-23)

Have You Placed Faith in Jesus? Or Are You Placing Faith in ALL the Wrong Things?

~ Jesus said, “I am with you for only a short time, and then I am going to the one who sent me. You will look for me, but you will not find me; and where I am, you cannot come.” ^{John 7:33,34}

~ On the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.” By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified. ^{John 7:37-39}

~ “And so then Jesus still teaching in the temple courts cried out, yes, you know, me, and you know where I’m from. I’m not here on my own, but he who has sent me is true. You do not know Him. In other words, you said you don’t know my Father. You don’t know God. But I know Him. Because I’m from Him. And He sent me. Now that would surely hack off some people wouldn’t it? You telling me that I don’t know God, why haven’t you seen what all I’ve done? And don’t you see how religious I am and how faithful I am and how I pray? And how I do all of these things? He said, No, you don’t know him. You know why you can say that? Because if you knew him, you’d know me. Because I and the Father are one. Now after this that angered them so much that he would be making a claim that he knew something that they didn’t know. And that’s horrible to deal with, we have been to all the training, Jesus. Now, they didn’t realize that he’s the one who originated the training. He’s the one who gave the where to begin with. It didn’t make any difference. We’ve been to the training, we’ve got all of our laws down, and you’re telling me that you know more than I do? And I don’t even know where you from. They tried to seize him. But for some reason, no one laid a hand on him, because again, it says his time had not yet come. God would not allow it. Still many of the crowd, put their faith in him. There were people who heard what he said, and believed. Why did they believe? The Bible says, because they want to know the will of God. And when you want to know the will of God, you’ll know what the teaching about Jesus is true.” ~ Bob George

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Announcer 0:12
Welcome to Classic Christianity Radio with Bob George Bob’s clear, timeless teachings on the complete forgiveness and unconditional love of Jesus Christ will transform your life as you learn about God’s amazing grace. Let’s join Bob as he teaches us from God’s Word.

Bob George 0:28

And so then Jesus still teaching in the temple courts cried out, yes, you know, me, and you know where I’m from. I’m not here on my own, but he who has sent me is true. You do not know Him. In other words, you said you don’t know my Father. You don’t know God. But I know Him. Because I’m from Him. And He sent me. Now that would surely hack off some people wouldn’t it? You telling me that I don’t know God, why haven’t you seen what all I’ve done? And don’t you see how religious I am and how faithful I am and how I pray? And how I do all of these things? He said, No, you don’t know him. You know why you can say that? Because if you knew him, you’d know me. Because I and the Father are one. Now after this that angered them so much that he would be making a claim that he knew something that they didn’t know. And that’s horrible to deal with, we have been to all the training, Jesus. Now, they didn’t realize that he’s the one who originated the training. He’s the one who gave the where to begin with. It didn’t make any difference. We’ve been to the training, we’ve got all of our laws down, and you’re telling me that you know more than I do? And I don’t even know where you from. They tried to seize him. But for some reason, no one laid a hand on him, because again, it says his time had not yet come. God would not allow it. Still many of the crowd, put their faith in him. There were people who heard what he said, and believed. Why did they believe? The Bible says, because they want to know the will of God. And when you want to know the will of God, you’ll know what the teaching about Jesus is true.

Now, he goes ahead to say in here, that they tried to seize him, no one laid a hand on him. Many people put their faith in Him. And then they said, when the Christ comes, he will do more miracles? Will he do more miraculous signs than this man? Guys, this is a question that we have to ask people as an example, in the Jewish realm. In the Orthodox Jewish teaching, they believe that the Messiah is going to come they don’t deny a Messiah, they believe Messiah is going to come. Now, the issue is, if you’ve ever dealt with any rabbis, the issue with that is rabbi, do you believe that the Messiah is going to come? Yes, I do. Well, let me ask you a question. How are you going to know who he is when all of the genealogies are gone? And the Messiah has to come from the bloodline of David, how are you going to know? You don’t have any genealogies to find out to prove that point. And then another point is the one that is made right here, how many more miraculous signs? Is this Messiah that you say is coming is gonna do then Jesus did? Just how much more loving? Is this Messiah gonna have to be that you’re looking forward to? Then Jesus was? How many more miracles is he going to have to do then Jesus? did? I ask a rabbi in San Bernardino. What if the day comes when the Messiah shows up? And he happens to be Jesus? And he looked at me and said, it wouldn’t surprise me one bit. Isn’t that amazing? And so these are questions that you have to ask yourself, either forget the Messiah story. Or if you do believe that the Messiah is going to come just how much greater is He going to have to be than Jesus was?

The Pharisees heard the crowds whispering such things about him. And then the chief priests and the Pharisees sent temple guards to arrest him. So now they’re going to take some action. Jesus said, I am only with you for a short time. And then I go to the one who sent Me, you will look for me, but you will not find me. And where I am, you cannot come. I want to ask you a question, guys. Do you think that after the resurrection of Christ Jesus, that the Pharisees and the Sadducees, and all of the Hebrew leadership was trying to find Jesus? You think they were looking for him? You better believe they were looking for him. Because the story was he’s been raised from the dead. And the way you disprove that is to find the body, isn’t it. So don’t ever think that the Hebrew people, the leadership was not diligently looking for Jesus. There was an empty tomb. They knew he wasn’t in it. The question is, how to get out of there. And where is he? And Jesus, I believe, is just pointing to that in a short time, I’m going to be going away you’re going to be looking for me. You’re not going to find me. And where I am you cannot come. The Judaean’s said to one another. Back to the human realm. Where does this man intend to go that we can’t find him? Where’s he gonna go? Will he go to where our people are scattered among the gray Is he gonna go into other areas where our Hebrew people have have scattered among the Greek population as you’re going to go there? And teach the Greeks? Is that what he’s going to do? Is he going to not teach us anymore? And go someplace else? Natural questions, aren’t they? Nothing wrong with those questions, he’s going away, Where’s it going? What did he mean when he said, you will look for me, but you will not find me? And where I am, you cannot come?

On the last and greatest day of this feast, Jesus stood and said, in a loud voice, If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him. And by this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were later to receive. Up to that time, the Spirit had not been given since Jesus had not been glorified. Now, folks, Jesus had said to his disciples, that it’s good for you that I’m going away. He announced that to them. Because he said, when I do go away, then I am going to send my Holy Spirit to come and live in you. And you are going to be my body here on the face of this earth. Friends, the body of Christ that we are today is in what’s called a mystery form. Our king is exiled, so to speak. And he lives in us. And we’re a body, that although we appear to be organized, his church is not organized. His Church is people. We may belong to some organization. But his church is made up a born again, people his body is only those people who are in Christ Jesus, only those who have come to Christ Jesus by faith, for his death, and His burial, and His resurrection. And so that’s what he’s dealing with here. Now, the way that he was going to make us a part of his body, is he said, I’m going away. But when I do, I’m going to come and live in you. He isn’t going to come and live a side of us as some people teach. Jesus doesn’t live in you, he just stands beside you and helps you to obey the law. Jesus didn’t come to help us nice what we say in Texas, you guys say, Hey, hep each other, to help us to obey the law. He came to live his life in and through us. The life that Jesus lived was a life of love. He wasn’t out trying to obey the 10 commandments, he obeyed the 10 commandments by walking in love. And so he said, I’m going to send, my Spirit to live in you. In other words, I am coming to live inside of you, not alongside, inside. In the Old Testament, the Holy Spirit would come alongside people for divine service, Paul Saul. And that’s why you will hear in the Psalms of David praying, please don’t take your Holy Spirit from me. Why? Because he could and did. Would you pray that as a born again believer today, who is indwelt by the Spirit, the Spirit who says I’ll never leave you nor forsake you? Would you pray? Don’t take your Holy Spirit from me when he’s already told you never leave you nor forsake you? No, you wouldn’t pray that. But they did back then.

And so he’s saying there is an event that is going to take place where I’m going to send my Spirit to live and you were told, are we not in the scripture that we literally have the mind of Christ. We’re also told that we have the privilege of participating in the divine nature that lives not with us, but in us. It’s a reality. It’s a miracle that Jesus comes to indwell you and me. He lives in you and me. That’s why we’re told that our body is the temple of God, the Holy Spirit of God. What do you do at the temple stand outside of it or go in it? The Spirit lives in you. The Spirit of God is alive living in you, and we’re told is our only hope of glory. He doesn’t come to live alongside of us, many people teach. He comes to live in you and to indwell you forever. And so he says up to that time, this Spirit had not been given. Now again had the Spirit prior to that time come alongside Saul, David for divine service? Yes. But had the Spirit at that time been given? No. Given to who? You and to me and to any born again believer on the face of the earth. And the reason that hadn’t been given is because Jesus had not yet been glorified.

Now, folks, we all know from the book of Acts, and if you want to turn back with me for a moment to the first chapter of Acts. In my former book, book Theopolis, I wrote all about all the Jesus began to do and to teach until the day he was taken up into heaven. Now that’s where he was going away, that we couldn’t go. After giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles he had chosen. After his suffering, he showed himself to these men and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive. He appeared to them over a period of 40 days, and spoke about the Kingdom of God. On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them his command don’t leave Jerusalem. But wait for the gift my Father promised. Now what is the gift the Father promised? The Holy Spirit. Wait for the gift that my Father promised. Which you have heard me speak about. For, now he’s gonna give a contrast here, John baptize with water. But now, folks, when there is a but, there means there’s a before and an after. For John baptized you with water, but in a few days, you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.

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Bob George 13:53
Now, folks, you’re talking about two baptisms. You’re talking about a water baptism that John gave for cleansing, ceremonial, it says ceremonial washings, which was very prevalent in the Hebrew community. And then you’re talking about a final spiritual baptism, and we keep always getting hung up on the physical things. But he said, there’s a spiritual baptism that is coming and that is the time when the Spirit of God is going to come and live in you and then baptize you into the body of Christ. That’s how we became a part of the body, the Spirit placed us into the body of Christ. In Paul’s writings, we’re told that although the body is one is made up of what? Many parts and though its parts are many, and those are diversified, we can have unity when we plug into the head. And so he said, in a few days, the Holy Spirit will come upon you.

Now you go over to the second chapter you see when that took place. And in the second chapter, you have a recordation of the day of Pentecost, when the Spirit of God came, and he came upon those men. Now we have pictures of a huge group of people. And all of them sitting around there just holy, holy, holy. But it says that the Spirit of God came upon these men. In verse seven, utterly amazed, they said, are not these men who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear each of them in our own native language? And then names the languages. We hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues. What is tongues? Languages, we hear them, declaring the wonders of God in our own language. If you came from Europe, you would know that that’s the what is declared. when you speak a language. What tongue Do you speak? I speak French. What tongue do you? I speak German. What tongue do you? I speak Italian. What tongue do you speak? Texan. What tongue? It means a language never has been anything else except a language. This was the miracle of Pentecost, was on the day of Pentecost, the Spirit of God came and indwelt those men who, a few days earlier, 10 days earlier were living as cowards, cowards behind closed doors, scared to death for their life. And after the indwelling of the Spirit, where I’ve saying you killed the Son of God, what happened to Peter from being in a room, scared for his life and speaking boldly to 1000s of people, you killed the Son of God. What was the difference? He was indwelt by the Spirit of God. indwelt by the Spirit of God, and those men started proclaiming the good news of the gospel. In all of these different languages of Parthians, Medes and Elamites; residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, b 10Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene; all of these places. And there he was speaking in their language, the gospel, not babbling, communicating the gospel, communicating truth to these people. In one language. Is that amazing? That’s a gift of tongues. So again, evangelistic gift given to a body of Christ of people, to go into foreign languages and foreign lands where you don’t know the language and be able to communicate the gospel in their tongue. And so the Holy Spirit of God, and that was only a sign it said it was assigned to the unbelieving Hebrew. That’s not the essence of things. The gospel is the essence of things. What we ought to be excited about is the fact that they heard the gospel, we get all excited about the fact that we’re speaking in tongues. They were declaring the gospel to people in their own language.

Verse 14, Peter stood up for the 11. So we don’t have to wonder who it was that was filled and controlled in the Spirit of God and His and raised his voice and address the crowd. He said, fellow Hebrews and all you live in Jerusalem, let me explain this to you. Listen, I say carefully. Listen carefully what I say these men are not drunk, because you suppose it’s only nine in the morning. It was six, maybe, but no, it’s only nine. And then explain that what this was was really a fulfillment of prophecy. We don’t need to go into that anymore. The issue is that what was taking place here. He said that the Spirit of God that later on, you’re going to receive the Spirit of God. And up to that time, the Spirit had not been given Son Jesus had not been glorified. So when asked another question What role did the Spirit of God have in your salvation? Was the role of the Spirit to forgive your sins, or to give you life? To give you life, that’s how you came alive. The Spirit the living spirit came to live in you, which is your hope of glory. Was anybody spiritually regenerated prior to the day of Pentecost? Were the apostles same as were saved today? Where they? No, hadn’t been indwelt by the Spirit, hadn’t been brought alive, hadn’t been made alive spiritually. Did they believe in the person of Jesus? The sure did. But up until the time that they saw what Jesus came to do, which was take away the sins of the world, be buried enter into our death with us, we raised so that we could be raised from the dead. They understood who he was, but they didn’t understand what he was going to have to come to do to save us. On the day of Pentecost, they understood all those things, they had now seen him. They had all touched him and talked to him they had been through all of the doubting Thomases and everything else. And there are now ready to see the completion of his work. And so they saw the completion of his work to His death, burial and resurrection. They had some days to ponder this truth. And on the Day of Pentecost, they were ready to be born again. They weren’t ready to get a second blessing. They weren’t saved back then. And then it gets something new on the day of Pentecost, they were there to be saved on the day of Pentecost, to be saved by the life of Christ coming to indwell them permanently forever. I’m gonna give you my Spirit, and he’s gonna live in you forever. And that could not be done until Jesus had been glorified till he had completed all of his work. And was then seated at the right hand of the Father where he said, when I go there, I’m going to send my Spirit to you on that day. On that day, I’m going to send my spirit to you, delivered you forever.

The Judeans said to one another, again, where talked about where’s this guy going? Where’s he gonna go? Is he gonna go into Greece or into places Greek speaking places? What did he mean when he said you will look for me but you will not find it? You can’t come? On hearing these words, some of the people said, Surely this man is a prophet. So again, they were going to start identifying who is this guy? They say, Oh, maybe he’s a prophet. Other said, No, now he’s the Christ. And still others said, Well, if he is the Christ, how can the Christ come from Galilee? See, they did not know all of the scriptures or hadn’t put them together that Jesus was going to be born in Bethlehem, live in the Galilean area. They didn’t know that. So they were asking, they certainly knew that the Messiah or the or the Christ was coming. But they were saying, How can this be? How can how can it come from Galilee? Does not the Scripture said that Christ will come from David’s family and from Bethlehem? See, they understood that. What didn’t they know? They didn’t know Jesus was born in Bethlehem. The town where David lived. Thus the people were divided because of Jesus. And some wanted to seize him, but no one laid a hand on him. And finally, the temple guards went back to the chief priests and the Pharisees who asked them, Why didn’t you bring him in? Why didn’t you bring this guy in? And their answer would no one ever spoke the way this man does the guard, the guard declared.

I remember when Amy’s dad came to visit us from Russia. Probably one of the greatest miracles that I’ve ever experienced in my life of a man who had been living in slave camps and living in poverty and everything else all through his life thinking his family was dead, his family thinking he was dead. And after a period of 40 years, getting a phone call one night from Amy’s mom telling her to sit down and she’s got news for her, that her father was in America after 40 years. Seeing this little guy that was born, an orphan, broken his leg when he was a little kid and was adopted. And then the Russian Revolution came along and his parents left him in the hospital again, orphaned, grew up on his own put his way through law school. And then was taken in by the communist as being an enemy of the state, as they did with anyone who has had a hint of being an intellectual in any way, shape or form, had knowledge of anything were put away. And again, during that period of time, Amy’s family had taken into Germany as slave labor. He came to our house and He was a little bit afraid at the time of coming to our house. Because I was an American, he didn’t know how I was going to respond to him. But our whole family loved him to death. But I remember the reason for bringing this story up, I remember when Amy would, would read the Scripture to him. And he would say, little daughter, where did you hear these words? And say, well, they’re from from Jesus. Well, who’s Jesus? No one ever spoke this way to me. He said, over in Russia, they throw rocks at you over here, your friends are bringing flowers to me. I don’t understand this. I never heard anybody speak like this before. These are words of love. I’ve never heard them before. And when Amy translated what he was saying, my mind flashed back to this passage of scripture of these people what they must have been thinking, Who is this man?

No one’s ever spoken the way this man does. I’ve never heard these kinds of words before. They say you mean he’s deceived you also? really open to the Gospel. He’s deceived. You also the Pharisees reported? Has any of the rulers or the Pharisees believed in him? Have any of our theologians taught this? What’s the pastor have say about this? I don’t care what Jesus said. What are the rulers say? What are the biggies say? has any of the rulers The Pharisees believed in him? Nah. But this mob, you bunch of people, you don’t know anything about the law. You got a curse on you. We do. We know about it. We’re the teachers of it. But you don’t know anything.

Thank you so much for tuning in to Classic Christianity, with Bob George. We hope you’ve enjoyed today’s program. We truly hope that today’s message has inspired you to walk a life of faith in the Lord, find more information online at shop.BobGeorge.net. There you’ll also find available CDs, DVDs, and bible studies available for purchase. It’s through your help that we are able to spread the good word of Jesus Christ. Until next time, walk in faith, be good to one another and praise the Lord. Amen.