Radio Broadcast Tuesday 08/22/2023

 

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 0:29

Now it says in verse 31, it was the day of preparation. And the next day was to be the special Sabbath. That’s what we just talked about. Got your day of preparation on Thursday. You have your special Sabbath, which was the first day of the Feast of the Unleavened Bread the next day. And because the Judeans did not want the body left on the cross during the Sabbath, which was the regular Sabbath day, they asked Pilate to have his legs broken and the bodies taken down and the soldiers therefore came and broke the legs and the first man who had been crucified with Jesus and then those of the other. But when they came to Jesus and found that he was on already dead, which was a miracle in and of itself. They didn’t break his legs. Instead, one of the soldiers pierced Jesus side with a spear beginning with a sudden flow of blood and water. And the man who saw it has given this testimony. That’s John. And his testimony is true. He knows that he tells the truth and he testifies, so that you may also believe. These things happen, so if the scripture would be fulfilled, Not one of his bones will be broken. And then as another scripture says, they look on the one whom they have pierced.

Now later, we’re told that Joseph of Eramathea, asked Pilate for the body of Jesus. Now Joseph was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly, because he feared the Judeans. With PIlate’s permission, he came and took the body away. Guys, we don’t understand the fear that these people had of the Judean leadership. Christ Jesus, first of all, they came from Galilee, which was a seedbed for resurrection. It was a place where all kinds of, of opposition to Orthodoxy was bred in that part of the country. So that didn’t make him real popular. He also came and, and was not a real friend of the Pharisees. Because the Pharisees were the ones whose job was to keep the law and make sure you kept the law and hope that you never found out that I don’t keep the law. They were the law keepers, they felt that the purpose of a Jew on the face of this earth was to preserve the law. That was their purpose. That was the only reason they were there was to preserve the law of Moses, diligent at that. And Jesus came up and said to them, in essence, you’re a white washed, sepulicar. Because you can’t keep the law and yet you command others to do so. Paul wrote that no man will ever be declared righteous in the sight of God through obedience to the law. So if you’re trying to obtain righteousness in the sight of God, God’s already told you, there’s no way you’re going to do that. No man will ever be declared righteous in the sight of God, no man will ever be justified in the sight of God through obedience to the law, so you can’t be justified, you can’t be declared righteous. And if the law could bring life, then Christ died for nothing. So the law can’t give you life. What was the purpose of the law? To show you that you’re a sinner so that you’ll turn to Christ for salvation. If you don’t see that you’re a sinner, what does the cross mean to you? If you don’t need total forgiveness? What benefit is the cross? If I if I think that I’m 50%, okay, then I only need a 50%, Jesus. And just think maybe one of these days you can get so good that you don’t need him at all. And so the law could do nothing for you, except show you what it came to do. And that is to show you you’re a sinner. How come? Jesus was headed to a cross to do what? Die for sinners. He didn’t need to come to die for the righteous if you thought you were but to die for sinners. And so Jesus had to get under the skin of people. People could say, well, I don’t commit adultery. And he says, Look, I’m telling you, if you look at a woman with lust in your heart, you’ve already committed adultery. You said, God doesn’t look on the outside, he looks on the inside, he knows what’s going on, in your My life under the skin. That’s why he said, Your whitewashed sepulicars. Because you’re all clean on the outside, you look pretty good. But on the inside, you’re dirty. The law says don’t kill I say if you’re angry at somebody you’ve already committed murder in your heart. If you’re capable of getting angry, you’re capable of killing. He got under our skin. And that made the Pharisees angry, because they wanted to be patted on the head for how well they kept the exterior of the law. And Jesus didn’t do that. And he said, You’re hypocrites. So he became an enemy of the Pharisees because of his attitude toward their attitude of the law. He also wasn’t very popular with the priests whose job was to keep the temple going, and to be sure that all of the the things that are done in the temple are done properly, including the sacrificial system. And Jesus said to them the chief priests who were a part of the Sadducees. You had the Pharisees and the Sadducees. And those chief priests, he said to them, tear down this temple and I’ll build it up in three days. That’s how much I think about it. And he said to his sacrificial system is going to be over, it’s going to be done, should there be no need for it. So he became an enemy of the chief priests, and the Sadducees because of his attitude toward the temple, and became an enemy of the Pharisees because of his attitude toward the law. So he wasn’t very popular by anybody. But these people have unbelievable control over the populace.

And so they were fearful, just like Nicodemus had to go to Jesus at night and say, I know that you must have come from God, no one could do all the miracles you do unless you came from God. And Jesus just looked intently into the eyes of Nicodemus and said, Nicodemus, you must be born again. That you’re born physically. But now you have to be born spiritually. And the Bible tells us First came the natural, that’s physical birth, and then came the spiritual, that’s spiritual birth. You were never alive spiritually, before you were alive physically. Now there are some Johnny come lately is to teach it you are floating around up there in a spirit, and needed a body to live in. But that’s nonsense, according to the Word of God. That you have to first be born physically. And that’s what he said, unless a man is born of the water. Now, some people come along. So that’s baptism. Come on, guys. How can you be born a baptism? You’re born in a sack of water. And he explains that and yet we go out to all of these harebrained ideas about what born in the water is, he explains it, that we’re just flesh is flesh. You’re born out of your mother’s womb, in a sack of water, that’s called flesh. And now you have to be born of the Spirit, you got to have a natural birth, then you have to have a spiritual birth, and the natural comes first and then the spiritual. And so they were afraid of these things. They were afraid of these things. Nicodemus, you know, here I am a Hebrew, I’m doing all these things. You said it’s not going to make an ounce of difference. You gotta be born again. You mean all my deeds aren’t gonna get me to heaven? No, remember the passage of the Hebrews? You’re telling me that the Hebrews or the Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness have obtained it? And yet we who have followed the law have not? Said Yep, you got it. Why? Well, because you pursued it not by faith, but by works. You’re not gonna get a place by your works got in impressed with our works. I don’t think God was sitting up in heaven. yesterday said ooh, you see all the people that seminar? You see how many radio stations I own? Don’t you know that I got a church with 20,000 members in it? He said big deal. I’m not interested in your works. I’m interested in your heart. You can speak in the tongues of men and angels. You don’t have love, you don’t have anything. Allow your body to be burned at the stake. You don’t have love. It doesn’t have any meaning to it at all. I’m not looking at your outward I’m looking at your inward but the Judeans were looking at the outward. So they were fearful. And so with Pilat’s permission, he came in he took the body away Joseph of Arimathea took the body away and he was accompanied by Nicodemus, the one who came to Jesus at night. And the man who earlier had visited Jesus at night Nicodemus brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes and about 75 pounds of materials to bury him in.

So taking Jesus body, the two of them, wrapped it with the spices, in strips of linen. And this was in accordance with the Hebrew burial commission customs, so he was wrapped in 75 pounds of material. Think that would be a little hard to get out of whouldn’t you? At the place where Jesus was crucified, there was a garden. For those of you who have been with us to Israel, and those of you that hopefully will go with us when we go next year, you will see that garden there’s no question at all in my mind as to where that is. He was crucified outside of the city in a place called Golgotha. The big stone is there where you see the eye, the eye sockets, and the nose just looks like a face of the skull. And right behind that is the Garden of Gethsemane. And it’s a garden. That’s where the tomb is. It’s got water all the way through it. It was a beautiful garden. It still is. And there was a tomb in there that had never been opened, never been laid in. And so at the place where Jesus was crucified, there was a garden and in the garden a new tomb in which no one had ever been laid. Now, because it was the Hebrew day of preparation back to that Jewish day of preparation, and since the tomb was nearby, they lead you they laid Jesus there.

Now early on the first day of the week, while that was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance. And guys, if you ever see the way those stones were, they are huge. And they were rolled down into a hole, where to get them out of there would take the strength of a number of men to do so. She came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one that Jesus loved, who’s John and said, they’ve taken the Lord out of the tomb. And we don’t know where they’ve put him. Her first thought was someone stole the Lord. So Peter and the other disciples started for the tomb. And I guess John just had to say this, both were running but the other disciple out ran Peter, got to the tomb first, probably is a little proud of his speed. And he bent over and looked at the strips of linen line there but he didn’t go in. He got there first but he did go in. And Peter who is behind him and arrived and man, he goes right in and open ballsy Peter, he just went right into the tomb, and He saw the strips of linen lying there, as well as the burial cloth that had been around Jesus head. All of this was in this wrapping 75 pounds that would harden in three days, would hardened, and yet I believe it was there, as if someone was in it, but no one was in it. The cloth was folded up by itself separate from the linen. Finally, the other disciple who had reached the tomb first, John went inside. And he saw and he believed, what did he believe? That Jesus will surely raise from the dead just as he had said he was.

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Bob George 13:43
You see, they still he said did not understand the Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead. Now guys, here again, did Jesus tell them that he was going to be raised from the dead? But you see, being told something and knowing the meaning of it is two different things. That all kinds of ideas what he was talking about, One lady said that too. He said, Yeah, yeah, I know what the end times that’s gonna take place. But Jesus said, When he raised Lazarus, and again, Jesus was resurrected, Lazarus was raised from the dead. He said, I am the resurrection. And I’m the life. And whosoever believes in me, though he were dead spiritually, yet shall he live spiritually. And whoever lives and believes in me, will never die. And he said, Do you believe this? So Jesus had told them about the resurrection and still we’re told they didn’t understand from the scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead. They were still looking for him to to be there. They were totally in shock and disappointment at the death of Christ. They were waiting for the reigning Messiah.

To this day, I talked to a Jewish person this weekend, they were looking for the reigning Messiah. Not the suffering Messiah, not realizing that the coming of the Messiah was like looking at two mountain peaks, one 100 miles away and another 50 miles away. And yet in a perspective, it looks like they’re right next to each other. They didn’t understand that there was the suffering Messiah that was going to come first and then later will be the reigning Messiah. The Jews today are still looking for the reigning Messiah. They’ll tell you when the Messiah comes and takes over Israel. And we that’s that’s I believe him. But I don’t believe that suffering Messiah.

So he saw and he believed. Then the disciples went back to their homes, but Mary stood outside the tomb crying. And as she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus body had been one at the head, and the other at the foot. And they asked her Woman, why are you crying? She said, they’ve taken my lord away. And I don’t know where they put him. And at this, she turned around, and she saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize it was Jesus. Remember that the last time that she saw Jesus, he was beaten beyond recognition. His face battered as no man, his beard plucked, crown of thorns on his head, streams of blood coming down, beaten, as no man was the very last time she saw Jesus, and now she sees him in a glorified form. Why are you crying? He said, Who is it you’re looking for? Thinking he was the gardener or the probably somebody else. She said, Sir, if you’ve carried him away, you can hear the compassion and passion in her voice, Lord, if you Sir if you’ve carried him away, tell me where you’ve put him. And I’ll get him. I just want to know where he is. And then Jesus said to her, Mary, and I think are many times it’s a way in which a person pronounces your name, that you know who that is. You know, many times you call people on the phone, somebody says, Hi, this is so and so you know immediately who they are you, you hear the way they pronounce your name, or say hi. He’s said to her, Mary, and she turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means “Teacher”), Rabbi. And Jesus says, don’t hold on to me, for I have not yet returned to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them I returning to my Father, and to your father, and to my God and to your God. And Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with a noose I have seen the Lord the resurrected Lord, and she told them that he had said these things to her.

On the evening of the first day of the week, when the disciples were together with the doors locked, and again, in fear of the Judeans, these now are the 12 apostles, the disciples, sitting behind doors with the doors locked, fearful of the Judeans. Still fearful of the Judeans, they had been with Jesus for three years. They knew Jesus. But guys, one thing they didn’t possess, yet, you know what it was, the Holy Spirit of God living in them. That didn’t happen till Pentecost. And when you see the contrast between Peter and the disciples hovering behind closed doors one day, and within a very few days indwelt by the spirits standing in front of the very people that crucified Jesus and said, You are the people who day of Jesus to across what was the difference between the two, the indwelling, of the Holy Spirit of God. The thing that many, many people do not have a clue of all they know is we’re law abiding. And they don’t have a clue that they’re indwelt by the Spirit, maybe because they’re not. But if they are, they need to understand what that means. It’s the power that God gives us to go out into the world and boldly proclaim the good news of the gospel to people of salvation by grace, not by works. A salvation by doing nothing more than believing and putting faith in the fact that Jesus died for me forget about the world he died for the world, but that includes me. And until I internalize it, it’s just something for you, but not for me. Jesus died for me. He died to take away my sins. He was raised from the dead for me, so that I could be raised from the dead. That’s what salvation is. And so, Jesus comes into these fearful people. The doors were locked and all of a sudden Jesus shows up. He walks through the walk, walks through the wall and says, Peace be with you. It cracks me up. Sure Peace be with you be scared to death. After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side said, look. And the disciples were overjoyed. Can you imagine the joy of that, of watching Jesus beaten to death on a cross, and in three days standing in front of you saying, it’s me. Again, Jesus said, Peace be with you. And then he said, As the Father has sent me, I’m sending you. And with that, it says, He breathed on them. That’s a poor interpretation, what it literally says he took a deep breath, and said, received the Holy Spirit. Now did he mean to receive the Holy Spirit, then, when no one received the Holy Spirit until the day of Pentecost, it’s just an announcement that when the time has come, and on the day that the Holy Spirit comes receive Him when he comes receiving.

And at that time, here’s a passage that has confused many people, especially in Catholicism, where they have apostolic succession, and believe that the apostle has the same authority as Peter and the rest of them, which is not true. He says, If you forgive anyone, their sins they are forgiven, they say, see, we got the right to forgive sins. Now, that’s not what it says. It says, If you forgive anyone their sins, it’s because they’re already forgiven. In other words, you have the authority here on this earth to carry out what I took care of in heaven. And if I took away the sins of the world, from the eyes of God, then you have the authority that I’ve given to you to go into the world and tell people your sins are forgiven. Do you have the authority to tell a person that? Based on God Himself, it’s like the state of Texas, putting a star on you and saying, Go arrest somebody, and you go, and you say, in the name of the state of Texas, I’ve been given the authority by the state of Texas, to arrest you. And when Jesus Christ said, I’ve been given all authority in heaven and earth, Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them, identifying them with the name of the Father, and the Son of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey all the things I’ve taught you, and lo, I’m with you always, even to the end of the age.

And it says, we have been given that authority now to pass on, in the name of Jesus, the things that Jesus taught. And so do you. And do I have the authority given by God to go to any man on the face of this earth and say, Sir, Your sins have been taken away? Do we or not? We got the authority to do that. Why? Because they’re already forgiven in heaven. Would we have any authority to do that? If your sins were not taken away in heaven? If the forgiveness was left up to you and me, how do we know which ones Jesus forgave and which one he didn’t? The reason that you and I have authority to go to a person and say, Your sins are taken away is because they’ve all been taken away. Well, then what does this mean? If you don’t forgive them? It’s because they’re not forgiven? What’s the only sin it’s not forgiving? The sin of denying the provision of God for the forgiveness of your sins and for the imputation of life. Do we have the right to say that to people, that the world’s sin is unbelief in Jesus. And my friend, it’s not how bad you’ve been. Or how good you’ve been. It’s how dead you are. Do we have the right to say that to a lost person? Who gave you the authority to do that? Jesus. So I have the authority and so do you to say to any man, Your sins have been taken away at the cross, no man will ever go to hell because of his sins. The only question that God will ever ask you is what did you do with my Son? Did you accept the provision that I gave to you as a gift? Or did you reject it? Did you reject it when Jesus said it’s finished? Or did you accept it? Did you accept it when I said that you’re dead in your sins? But God gave you life? Did you accept that life or did you reject it? The only thing you’ll be asked? He neutralized the whole world, the Hebrews who were in bondage to the law, the Gentiles were never given the law to begin with. Never were given the law. We just went over and took it and said, We’ll do better than the Hebrews and take a look at that. Never gave us the law. But the issue is, are you going to go to God saying I deserve to be in heaven because was my marvelous law abiding? Are you gonna go to heaven, because I didn’t do anything except accept what Jesus did for you?

I told the person, the end of the day, I want to tell you something. If Jesus is not the only way to God, I am going to hell. Because I’m not going to put my confidence in anything else except Jesus. If I’m wrong, I’m going to hell. And I don’t think there’s too many people want to go to hell, they might want me to go there. But I don’t think there’s too many that want to go to hell. And I want to tell you, that’s a total repentance. That’s a total conviction of heart, that if Jesus is not 100%, right, and what he has told me, number one, he’s deceived the whole world. And I’m a part of that, and I’m not going into heaven. That’s how confident he wants us to be, we’re not going to go there and say, Jesus, I’m gonna go there, because I put my faith in you. But I was also law abiding. He said, I’m sorry, that doesn’t work. That didn’t, how you get into heaven. You do what Paul did. And so I consider all of that stuff, garbage and dung, compared to knowing Christ, considered to be all dung. All of my activities, all of my praise that I consider to be worthless compared to that of knowing Christ. And the only way that I’m going to walk into the presence of God is accepting the forgiveness that God has given me at the Cross didn’t deserve it didn’t earn it. But I’m going to receive it. And I’m going to recognize the fact that I’m dead I want life. And when I put my faith in that I’m born again, of the Spirit of God. So Father sent me, I’m sending you he sent me to save the world. I’m sending you to tell the world about me. And so we have the authority to say that to people don’t have to be a priest to do that. Just a saint.

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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