Radio Broadcast Tuesday 08/08/2023

 

Join Bob George in this chapter by chapter exposition of the gospel of John. Available for download the complete series on the Book of John. Realize why Christ, Himself, is REAL LIFE and how He personally offers hope in daily living that you may:

• Discover an abundant and meaningful life as a Christian.
• Overcome fear with His assurance that you have His eternal life.
• Experience joy during adversity.
• Apply God’s wisdom in decision making, no matter how big or small.
• Experience freedom as you walk by faith in His love and acceptance. 

 

Purchase Online at Shop.BobGeorge.net

 

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
In chapter 13, we pick up in these last hours of the Lord Jesus Christ, were at the preparation for the Passover Supper, where Jesus showed us the meaning of servitude, and of having a heart of a servant, as he came to this earth, God coming to this or is taking upon himself our Earth suit, and came here to serve us in love. And there’s and therefore said to go, do likewise, to serve one another in love. And he gave the example of that in the washing of the feet, which was the lowest thing that a servant could do it back in those days. And he realized that no servant is greater than his master, and told us to go do likewise. And so during that period of time, and in chapter 13, He also predicted his or predicted His betrayal by Judas, in that chapter, he also predicts the denial by Peter, in his top 12, so to speak, you had Judas who betrayed him. You had Peter who denied him, you had Thomas, who’s who certainly doubted him, you had almost every kind of emotion that you could possibly have in regard to this person called Jesus of Nazareth. In the midst of talking about being betrayed, in the midst of talking about being denied, he said, that let your heart not be troubled, because he told us the fact that in him is where peace is going to be. And then he promised the Holy Spirit of God to us. He said to His disciples that I’m going away, but it’s good for you that I am going away. Because when I do, I’m going to send my Spirit to live in you. And you are going to be my body, just like my Spirit lives in me. And this is my body, the body is going away. And it’s going to take on a mystery form, and you are going to become my body here on this earth. And that, quite frankly, is why he said greater things than these will you do, we have not done greater things, we don’t raise people from the dead, and walk on water or drink poison and all that other stuff that people talk about. He’s not talking about spectacularism, he’s talking about the fact that I’m going to be all over the world at the same time, where right now I’m confined to Israel. In a few days qnd in a few years, I’m going to be all over the world at the same time, because you now are going to be my body here on this earth. And we’re called the body of Christ to be a reflection of the love of God to this world around us. To, so people can see the love of God, in and through us. And that’s why he said the world will know that you’re my disciples if you love one another.

And again, we’ve substituted everything else except love. We’ve substituted our tithing record, church attendance, speaking in tongues, everything else, except going out and loving people as God told us to do. If anybody thinks those other things, impress God, we got another thing coming to us. God is not impressed with those type of things. What he is impressed with, is if we are living in a dependent enough relationship, to allow Christ Jesus who lives in us to live his life in and through us and love one another. What did he say? The only thing that counts, he didn’t say one of the things he said the only thing that counts is faith, expressing itself through love, period. That is what he is looking for, out of you and obey. And that is to exercise faith, who alone in Christ, who alone can produce that kind of love, in and through his body here on this earth. And so he announced the fact that the Holy Spirit of God was going to come. We then say, well, okay, now if I then am indwelt, by the Holy Spirit of God, how do I live this life? Do I go out now and grunt and groan? The Christian life in the energy my flesh? Do I go out and work for Jesus and try to do things for Jesus? Or do I allow Jesus to do things in and through me? And in order to give us an illustration that we can grab a hold of and understand because Jesus had to give us these kinds of illustrations, he gave us the most phenomenal illustration, in my opinion in the Bible of how to live the Christian life. He said, I’m a vine, and you’re the branch. I am the true vine. Israel is not the vine, I Jesus am the true vine, and you’re a branch. And if you abide in me, and I abide in you, you will bear much fruit and apart from me, you will do what? Nothing. Now the fruit is the fruit of the Spirit. What is he interested in us, bearing out to the world around us? Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, long suffering and against these things, there is no law. The only way it can be produced is by abiding in the source of those things. And if you’re not abiding in Christ, Jesus, there is no way in the world for you and me to go out and produce on our own love, joy, peace, patience.

So what do we do, we substitute happiness for joy. And again, you can go out to a mountain stream and find some happiness, you can travel to some place and find happiness. And people never are satisfied with the joy, Jesus always looking for something to make them happy. And again, the issue is that happiness comes from a word, an Anglo Saxon word, Hap. So you’re happy because things are happening the way you want them to happen. But there’s only one problem with that you are unhappy when things are not happening the way you want them to happen. That’s why in the Bible, there is the word joy, there is no such word as unjoy. There’s a word unhappy, and there’s a word happy, there’s no such word as unjoy. Because Joy doesn’t come from what’s going on around you. Joy comes from what’s inside of you. Joy has to come from the source the vine, and you as a branch get a chance of bearing that fruit, but you cannot produce that fruit. And so he introduced that concept. To us, that was a new concept. Because everything in religion is go do things for God so that he’ll accept you. And guys, you know, and so do I we live with an insatiable desire for acceptance. We’re born wanting acceptance, we want our parents acceptance, we want kids acceptance, we want to be accepted, the school will knock ourselves out to be a part of the crowd, Whoever named him the crowd, but we want to be a part of it. And so we live with that will God said to us that the only acceptance is ever going to satisfy your heart is to be accepted by Christ Jesus, and we’re told we’re accepted in the Beloved. And if I’m accepted by Christ, Jesus, that ought to free us from having to go out and tenaciously try to be accepted by one another. And to realize if someone wants to reject a child, a king, that’s their problem. But if you’re a child of the King, you walk in that and walk faithfully in that. And don’t worry about the opinions of other people. Now, that doesn’t mean to go out and be obnoxious. And then say, it’s your problem, because you don’t like me. But it means to go walk in love, and let the results land and read and remain into the hands of God. And so he explained that to us, he said that, if you’ll just learn that you’re indwelt, by the Spirit, who will now produce the life in and through you, if you let it, we have a choice to allow the Spirit of God to live his life in and through us. Or we have the choice to try to live it in the energy of our flesh. That’s why people take off and all of these radical things is trying to live the Christian life and trying to show everybody how spiritual I am. Who cares how spiritual somebody thinks you are? That is not the issue to go through life trying to impress people with your spirituality. The issue is to be satisfied with a God who lives in you. And be satisfied the fact that if Jesus Christ lives inside of me, and he wants to produce fruit in me, then let him do it. And it enables business how I’m doing. You know, branches don’t sit there looking at other branches, and you’re not doing too well branch. And we should not be looking at each other the same way. They say a man who judges himself by himself is a fool. And so we need to get our eyes off of other Christians. And we need to get our eyes on the Lord. Not to be looking how he’s doing with Oh, Jim over there, but how’s he doing with you and me? And you see that many times and you see it especially for my angle. When you say you got a point. You know, that husband wants the wife to hear why you see him go, do you hear that and vice versa? He wasn’t talking to your wife, he’s talking to you. And we have to understand the truth of that. Forget about other people. Get your eyes on you and Jesus and let him produce in and through you what he wants to produce.

I heard a guy called the other last week, he said, you know, how do I go out and get to be a powerful witness for Jesus and a strong witness for Jesus? I said, you got a terrible goal. In other words, if you want to be a strong witness for Jesus, how strong do you have to be for you call yourself strong? And if you ever got to be strong, you don’t want to happen to you’d be so proud of yourself, you wouldn’t know what to do. And you know what else had happened to you, you’d start looking down other people that aren’t quite as strong as you. So in both of those cases, it’s either pride or self condemnation, and both of them come from hell. And so quit trying to worry about how strong you are, and this type of thing. That what God said, the strength that he’s looking for is the strength to understand the love of God. And he told us in Ephasians, I pray that out of his glorious promise, he’ll strengthen you with power in your inner being, so that Christ may be at home in your heart to faith. And I pray that you being strengthened with the power of God may understand the height and depth and breadth and width of the love of God. And to know this love that surpasses knowledge, how come? So that you might be filled to the major with all the fullness of God. Want to ask you a question, guys? Would it be possible to be filled to the major with all the fullness of God and not be filled with the Spirit? Would it be possible to be filled with the Spirit and not be filled to the measure is all the fullness of God? No. Then why do we camp on Ephesians five, Be not drunk with wine wherein his excess will be filled with the Spirit, and then make that to mean anything you want it to mean? And the one group over there means to roll around on the floor and bark like dogs and giggle. Another place that means to babble in a tongue and other place that means to do something else. And Ephesians tells us exactly what it means to be filled with Spirit. It means to be filled with the love of God, which ties into what he said the only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love, all this other stuff is garbage to God, if we don’t have love, and we’re told that. Love is what he is called us to is to love one another with the love that I gave to you, as the Father has loved me. So I have loved you, therefore go love one another. And that’s what he is focusing on here guys at the last hours of his life. He’s telling us what is important from God’s vantage point. He’s told us to serve one another. He told us that you’re going to have trials and tribulation, you may have somebody betraying you, you may have someone denying you. But if you’re abiding in the vine, you’re going to be able to bear the fruit of the vine. And he told us how to live. He told us about the work of the Holy Spirit. He also told us that when you’re walking in dependency upon Christ, you’re going to be hated by the world. And Brother, do we not see that today? Hated by the world, all you have to do is to get out and say, I’m a Christian who believes the Bible is true. And everybody says, oh, man, it’s one of those right wingers, one of those Christians, one of those Christians who believe in the Bible, they’re dangerous folk. And you’re hated by the world, and by the media.

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Bob George 13:46
So he told us that he already warned us about that. And then he warned it again, about what the Holy Spirit’s work is. The work of the Holy Spirit, He said, Is this, to convince the world wrong about sin, and about righteousness, and about judgment. And then he told us what sin is from God’s vantage point. Not from ours, not from Moses. But from God’s standpoint. What is sin? The world sin about sin is unbelief in me. The only sin that will be attributable to man is what did you do with my Son? The only question that God will ever ask you in me is what did you do with my Son who came to this earth to solve your problem? Who came to this earth seeing you in a situation in a condition of spiritual death and of finding a way to offer you eternal life through His resurrection. And to be able to take away the cause of death which was sin. And what did you do with it? No man will ever go to hell because of his sins. Are we together? Why is that so? Because of what we’re going to be studying in a minute, the cross of Jesus Christ, were there He who knew no sin, became sin for us, so that in him in his resurrected life, we could become the righteousness of God. He took away the sins of the world, God was in Christ reconciling the whole world unto Himself, not counting their sins against them. Do you believe that? Well, then why do we hear if you continue on in your sin, you’re gonna go to hell? Why do we hear that? If you keep on sinning the way you’re doing, you’re gonna go to hell. Is that true? If it isn’t true, then we’re being taught by a liar. Or someone who doesn’t know better. That is not true. We would look at it as it should be true. But then you say, Okay, if it shouldn’t be true, then how much do you have to sin or not be sinning before you be acceptable? And how bad do you have to be before you’re not acceptable? That’s why he just reduced the whole world down to one condition of death, spiritual death, and said, the only life available to you is the resurrected life of Christ Jesus. What did you do with my Son? That’s the question. And so we concentrate on sin that Christ is already finished, and already taken away and already dealt with. And we concentrate every Sunday, every Sunday on sin, sin, sin, sin, sin. Instead of life, life, life life. And instead of teaching people, that your sin has been removed from the eyes of God, but that’s forgiveness provided is only received in the resurrection of Christ. It is only received in life. The death of Christ is only received in the life of Christ. And when you come to Jesus for His resurrection, in him, you have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. Where is the forgiveness that was provided for you 2000 years ago received? In Him in His resurrected life, you don’t come to Christ to get your sins forgiven. You come to Christ, to get life. And in that life, you have forgiveness.

Why do we have such poor discipleship? Because we have poor evangelism. We streamed people down the aisles every Sunday to get their sins forgiven. Instead of teaching people know your sins are already forgiven. But that forgiveness that was provided for you is only received and it was open arms of Christ Jesus who said, Come unto me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, I’ll give you rest in peace for yourself. Come unto me, not come into my forgiveness, it’s already occurred coming to me. And I’ll give you life. What kind of life? Eternal life.

So he told us about the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit didn’t come to make a silly. The Holy Spirit didn’t come. So that will be more spiritual than somebody else. As a matter of fact, we told that the Holy Spirit did not come to even bring attention to himself and people that pay too much attention, to the Holy Spirit or paying too much attention to the wrong thing. The Holy Spirit came to glorify Jesus, not himself. And so when the Holy Spirit of God came, he came to show us our sinfulness. If he ever could get that done the Christian community, it’d be a miracle just to show you what sin is, rejection of Jesus. And then he said about righteousness. Why? Because the righteous one came. And he said, because I go to the Father, when you see me no more, you’ve seen righteousness. Now I’m going away. And the only righteousness you’ll notice you will ever see in yourself is the righteousness that I give you. Just, like the only Holy Spirit you’ll ever see in yourself as a Holy Spirit that I give you. And then about judgment, because the prince of this world has already been judged. So Jesus prepared us, he prepared us for what he was about to do.

And again, with that in verse 17, or chapter 17, we studied last week was the prayer of Christ Jesus. The last thing he did in that supper was to pray to God and ask them to preserve his people, and that he prayed this not only for them, but for all of us who were here today. And now we pick up in chapter 18. When he had finished praying, Jesus left with his disciples and crossed over the Kidron Valley. If you had a picture of Israel, you would have seen that where the supposed and I think that is where it was his last supper was was being held, that they had to cross over was approximately a mile and a half, going out of the city walls of Jerusalem, to the east of Jerusalem, crossing over what’s called the Kidron Valley and then up north to the Mount of Olives. And so he crossed over the Kidron Valley. And on the other side, there was an olive grove, that’s what is called the Mount of Olives. We all know about that. And his and his disciples went in to the Mount of Olives. It is a it’s just a group of olive trees, a beautiful setting right across from the Temple Mount, beautiful, beautiful setting.

Now Judas who betrayed him, knew the place because Jesus had often met there with His disciples. So Judas came to the Grove, guiding a detachment of soldiers and some officials, from the chief priests and Pharisees, and they were carrying torches and lanterns and weapons. Weapons, what in the world do you need weapons for? When you’re coming for Jesus? Jesus, knowing all that was going to happen to him went out and asked him, Who is it that you want? Jesus of Nazareth, they replied. I am here, Jesus said, and Judas, the trader was standing there with them. And when Jesus said I am he, they drew back and fell to the ground.

Now folks, that is what some people today are using so much out of context. It’s unbelievable of slaying people in the spirit. Well, I guess if you don’t like Jesus, and you’re coming to get him arrested, and you fall back, well, then maybe that is slaying in the Spirit. But the Spirit of God didn’t come to slay people, the Spirit of God came to give life to people, and they’re isn’t any place in a Bible talking about going out blowing on people and having them fall over into the arms of people with the gift of catching. That is utter nonsense. And yet, you can draw 1000s upon 1000s of people with that kind of nonsense. People look at that. So Ohh, what a man, what a guy, he must have some kind of a spatial relationship with God where he can just go blow on people, and they fall over or hit him in the head they just fall over. must have some kind of a real relationship with God. Well, if that isn’t an ego booster I don’t know it’d be you guys. Kind of stuff irritates the living daylights out of me. To see people deceiving people with that kind of utter, unadulterated nonsense. Most of them come to what they deserve, sooner or later.

I told you Jesus said, I am here. If you’re looking for me, then let these men go. This happened. So the words he had spoken would be fulfilled. I have lost no one except those that you gave me. Then Simon Peter, who had a sword. And again, this not a fleshly move. These people are coming to take by Jesus and I’m going to defend him. sounds noble, doesn’t it? So he drew the sword and struck the high priest servant cutting off his right ear. The servant’s name was Malchus. It doesn’t record that in the book of John, but it does in the other books of the Bible where Jesus restored that ear to Malchus. Now Jesus commanded Peter put up your sword away, shall I not drink the cup the Father has given Me. In other words, you’re trying to stop what the Father has sent me to do. And then the detachment of soldiers with its commanders and the Jewish officials arrested Jesus. They bound him and brought him first to Annas who is the father in law of Caiaphas, the high priest that year. And Caiaphas was the one who would advise the Jews that it would be good if one man died for the people. Simon Peter and another disciple, were following Jesus because this disciple was known to the high priest. He went with Jesus into the high priest courtyard, but Peter had to wait outside at the door.

Now, the disciple he’s talking about that went inside there is the apostle John and Peter waited outside at the door. The other disciple who was known to the high priest came back and spoke to the girl on duty there and brought Peter in. So John was inside was known by the high priest, and so he went back and brought Peter into where the activity was taking place. You’re not one of the disciples are you the girl at the door asked Peter? And how did he answer? Not me. I am not. It was cold and the servants and officials stood around a fire that they had made to keep warm. And Peter was also standing with him warming himself. You can imagine him be as nervous as can be in this situation.

I believe at that time, and it certainly was depicted by Mel Gibson’s film on the life of Jesus, that there had already been terrific beating that had taken place, by by the officials to Jesus by then. And I’m quite sure that no one was very interested in joining in in that activity. And I would imagine there would have been fear connected with that and wanting to identify yourself as one of the followers of Jesus.

And meanwhile, the high priest questioned Jesus, about Jesus about his disciples and his teaching. And Jesus said I’ve spoken openly to the world. I always taught in synagogues or at the temple where all the Jews come together. Why question me? Ask those who heard me surely they know what I said. When Jesus said there’s one of the officials nearby struck him in the face. Is this the way you answer the high priest he demanded. Now he’s in the house of Annas. And we have to assume and I think that’s a proper assumption that Annas was a high priest, before Caiaphas, was named high priest, and yet was still known as a high priest, I think it would be something like a President of the United States that even after he’s out of office is still called President Reagan, or, or President Bush or whoever it might be. And it would have been the same thing still referred to as a High Priest, even though he did not carry that office at that particular time. And so, he says is struck him in the face, you imagine is one of these officials struck him hit him right in the face? Hit who? God hit God right in the face, and said, Is this the way you answer the high priest? Seems to me that Jesus was a high priest, but unknown to them.

Announcer 27:16
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 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 in praise the Lord. Amen.

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Listen to the Salvation message today!

Stand on the firmness of truth. Don’t keep going back and forth. Thank Him that the forgiveness issue is settled.

Let’s pray together:

• Lord Jesus,
• I thank you for taking away my sins on the cross,
• never ever to see them again.
• Having done that, I now thank you for giving me eternal life,
• through your resurrection.
• I now receive that life.
• And I am going stand in the fact that I am a child of the living God.
• In Jesus Holy name I pray.
• Amen

All believers are now brothers and sisters in Christ.

John 3:3
³ Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.”

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