Classic Christianity – Book of John Part 6 (04-10-19)
Bob George shares from John 2 about the miracle of water turned to wine. This was Jesus first miracle when he started his public ministry at age 30. Many have heard what John had spoken concerning Jesus as the Messiah. They heard him say, “behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.” When they saw this miracle there were those who believed in him. For no one can do what he did.
Bob also shared several passages in the synoptic gospels showing that Jesus had brothers and sisters. John 2:12, Matthew 13:55-56, Mark 3:31-32, John 7:1-6, and Mark 3:20-21 all record that Jesus had brothers or sisters. How important it is to stand firm in the word of God for truth and not rely on the traditions of men. When people deny what is so clearly stated and obvious in the scriptures, then what other errors are people willing to believe. That is the case with Catholic teaching that claims Mary was always a virgin and also that Mary is a co-redeemer with Jesus. That is heretical teaching. Such teaching is not found in the word of God.
Bob then shared about the scene where Jesus overturned tables. Bob made a point to emphasize how Hollywood can add to the scripture and make John the Baptist out as a raging maniac and Jesus as an out of control angry person overturning tables. That is taking liberty of the scriptures while characterizing who they are as something different than reality and casting doubt on truth of scripture. Jesus is without sin and would not be out of control. John the Baptist is not insane but a man proclaiming truth.
Bob continues now in John 2.
John 2:23-25
23 Now while he was in Jerusalem at the Passover Festival, many people saw the signs he was performing and believed in his name.[d] 24 But Jesus would not entrust himself to them, for he knew all people. 25 He did not need any testimony about mankind, for he knew what was in each person.
Many people saw the miraculous signs he was doing and believed in his name. Many of us would say they were saved. They believed in his name but Jesus would not entrust himself to them for He knew all men. He did not need man’s testimony about man for he knew what was in a man.
Colossians 1:15-20
15 The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 16 For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. 17 He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18 And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. 19 For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, 20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.
John 1:18
No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known.
John 4:24
God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”
You cannot put flesh on God. For you and me to understand God, God sent Jesus. Everything we want to know about God we can know by Jesus.
John 14:9-10
9 Jesus answered: “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? 10 Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you I do not speak on my own authority. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work.
What does firstborn among the dead mean? Jesus is the first person born alive spiritually. Adam was created. Jesus was born. Jesus is the only man who had a life to lay down for you and me because he was the only one who was born alive spiritually to have a life to lay down. Adam was created alive but sinned and died spiritually. Jesus was born alive. He is the firstborn of all creation.
Who is the church? The church is the born again believers called the body of Christ with Jesus as our head.
We are dealing with a person called Jesus of Nazareth. He did not need man’s testimony. Who created mankind? Jesus. So does he know mankind, what we are made of? Yes. We are born in the likeness of the creation of Adam. He does not need the testimony of Freud to tell you how to think. Or Skinner or Lang or any other so-called guru of psychological thought. They are messed up as we are. If you are a Chevrolet and broken down you do not go to another Chevrolet and say “fix me”. You go to the manufacturer. You and I have a body, a soul and a spirit. In the soul and spirit we can have emotional problems. He created those and he alone knows how to fix those things. We can go to all kinds of quack doctors. We can take any kind of pill we want to but in the final analysis you are depressed because you are thinking depressed thoughts not because it is a disease. Everything is a disease according to the world. Anxiety is a disease? No. They are not diseases. Your body can be diseased. But your soul, your mind, will and emotions can be controlled by Satan or God. You are not in control of any of them. It all depends on who you yield them to. Scripture instructs us not to seek the counsel of the ungodly, but what do we do? Is it unusual to be anxious? Just think about what might happen tomorrow and you will be anxious. Worry is about thinking about what bad things can happen tomorrow. My emotions are dumb as a mule. Emotions are designed by God to respond to what you put in your head. Just watch a scary move and the mind responds as if it is reality. You jump out of the shower thinking a psychopath is after you, but it was just a movie and after you get out you realize there is no one there. Man is led by the five senses, sight, smell, feeling, touch and sound. I cannot tell you what a rose smells like but put a rose in front of my nose I can tell you what it smells like. If the physical presence is not there I cannot bring it back. I can recall sights and sounds years ago. I can project music in my head from things I have heard. Things heard and seen we can recreate scenes of. Satan knows that. All he has to do is recall those things to you, and he beats you to death, and emotions think it is real. If that not good enough think about bad things that can happen tomorrow. I am driving myself crazy by preoccupation of what happened yesterday or what might happen tomorrow. That is why get dissatisfied in a relationship by just thinking of all the things of what was done or said in the past. Today is the only time you can live. Forget the past. It is over. Tomorrow is God’s country. You do not belong up there.
Philippians 3:12-14
12 Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. 13 Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.
Everything is a scenario. You have a teenager drunk then you imagine him to be a drunkard all his life. We paint pictures, or create fantasies in our mind, of what is going to happen. That is how you have panic attacks. If you think about what might happen panicky tomorrow then you will be panicky today. We all have this tendency. No one is exempt.
Therefore, we are instructed not to worry, and not to be afraid.
Matthew 6:25-26, 34
25 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? 26 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?
Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
Isaiah 41:10
So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.
Romans 8:12
The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.”
1 John 4:18
There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.
