78th Post Jesus Teaching on Eternal Life Con't. - John 3: 16 - 21.

John 3: 16 21. This passage comes very early in Jesus earthly ministry, not long after Jesus encounter with Nicodemus. John 3:16 is very familiar to most Christians, it was probably one of the first verses you committed to memory. However, verses 17 - 21 are not so familiar, so I will print them here. 17."For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. 18. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. 19. And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their deeds were evil. 20. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. 21. But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his deeds have been carried out in God." It is funny that we don't look at these four verses together more often. When we do, we see this is the plan of God to reconcile man back to God after man brought sin into the world. When you read the Bible you can follow this plan from its beginning to its end in Revelation. Since the fall of man, we have been trying to find out way back to God on our own. God shows us how to get back into communion with God. All we have to do is walk back into the light and stay there by doing the will of God. It is God that draws us back into the Light, so that we can not boast in the fact that we found it. Where are you in this struggle?

77th Post Jesus Teaching on Eternal Life - Matthew 19: 17 - 21.

Matthew 19: 17 - 21; Mark 10: 18 - 21; Luke 18: 19 - 22 The rich young ruler.
By the location of this passage in the book of Matthew, you know this took place toward the middle to end of His earthly ministry. While Jesus was teaching a young man came up and said "Good Teacher what good deed must I do to have eternal life?" Jesus responds with "why do you call me good?" Jesus asked this question to remind the people that God alone is the one who is always good. Man because of our sinful nature are not completely good. Only God can be called good all the time. After establishing that fact, Jesus goes on to answer the young man's question. Jesus tells him to keep the commandments. This is quite interesting. Some New Testament teachers, tell us we don't have to pay attention to any of the Old Testament teachings. Jesus clearly is reemphasizing what He said in the Sermon on the Mount, "He did not come to do away with the Law and the Prophets but to fulfill." The young man said, that he has kept those faithfully from his youth. Jesus then told the young man to sell everything he had, and follow Him. At this the young ruler went away very sad, he could not bear to give up his wealth and power. This is where a lot of us who are witnessing get off track. Jesus let the young man go on his way. Jesus did not go after him and continue to try to convince him to follow Jesus. We forget that people have a choice to accept and reject the message. We will be looking at more passages that seem to remind us of this fact. Are you ready to make a decision to follow Christ?

76th Post Jesus Teaching New Birth Con't. - John 3: 5 - 8

Jesus continued His teaching on being reborn in the Spirit as follows. Jesus tells Nicodemus that unless you are born of water and the Spirit, you can not enter the Kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. What does this mean? We are born into this world as humans, how can we reborn into the Spirit? This is exactly the same question Nicodemus had over 2,000 years ago. How is this possible! For the answer you need to go back to Genesis chapter 3. In the Garden, God separated the seed of the woman from the seed of the serpent (man). Man is born with the knowledge of good and evil. When man lives by worldly standards, he is living as the seed of the serpent. This does not mean, he is a rapist or a murderer. He can live by the world's standards and still look good. The problem is that God has a different standard all together. When you are born in the Spirit, you have the Spirit of God living in you, this provides you with extra will power to say "no" to the will of the world and you start to live in the Will of God. This does not mean that you become sinless, what happens is that you "sin less." When you decide to put Jesus first in your life, this is when you are truly born again. This can happen after you have been Baptized. If this happens, you do not have to be Baptized again. The Apostle Paul said one Baptism for the remission of sins. You can be baptized again, but it is not necessary. When you start to live in the Will of God, people will start to see a change in you; and you will not be the same person you were before. This is what is meant by born again! Where are you on your walk with God??

75th Post Jesus Teaching on New Birth Con't. - John 3:3.

Jesus tells Nicodemus that unless one is born again he can not see the kingdom of God. Nicodemus then asked how is this possible, for he was an old man and could not enter his mother's womb again to be born. This will be a common problem that will plague Jesus through the rest of His earthly Ministry. Jesus was talking about Spiritual things, and Nicodemus was thinking in terms of physical things. There has been a lot of bad teaching with regard to being born again. Jesus was talking about Baptism. If you have been Baptized and you have made an effort to follow Jesus Christ, you are born again. To be called a Christian, and you are practicing, you are born again. This is the key. If you are a Christian in name only, and your walk does not match your talk, you are not born again. Baptism was a difficult thing for the Jews to do. In the Old Testament, only non-Jews were baptized. Jews believed that they were exempt, it was part of being the chosen people. They could not understand why they would have to submit to this. Baptism is a sign of the "new covenant" that Jesus was proclaiming. The religious leaders, believed that they were the only ones who knew the mind of God, so they should be exempt from baptism, just like in the Old Testament. You can imagine how this news hit Nicodemus. Nicodemus did not argue this point any further. We will meet Nicodemus again, and you will see which way he went in regards to Jesus and His new teaching. When we receive information different than what we were taught, will we react like Nicodemus? Or will we be more like the religious leaders that chose not to believe this new information. The choice is yours!

74th Post Jesus Teaching on the New Birth - John 3:3

Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he can not see the kingdom of God. John 3:3
This passage takes place soon after Jesus cleanses the Temple. By the location in the book of John, of this passage, you know that this is very early in Jesus ministry. Jesus has not called all of His disciples yet. The beginning of chapter 3, tells us that a man named Nicodemus, who happened to be a Pharisee; came to Jesus at night to talk to him. There has been a lot of speculation as to why he came to see Jesus at night. If you look at the text carefully, it will tell you exactly why he came at night. Nicodemus was a Pharisee, as such he was a teacher in the Temple, he had position, and respect within the Jewish community. It is interesting what Nicodemus says to Jesus. "Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do "unless God is with him". Nicodemus used the word "signs" plural, if you look back at chapter two, Jesus turned the water into wine, and cleansed the Temple. Jesus turned the water into wine in the town of Cana in the Northern region of Israel almost 100 miles away. How could Nicodemus know about these? The Bible does not tell us but somehow he knew. At the time of Jesus, there had been "false messiah's", Nicodemus I don't think thought Jesus was one of these, because of his statement to Jesus "for no one can do these signs unless God be with him". Clearly Nicodemus believes that Jesus is sent from God. He is not sure of what capacity yet. Nicodemus knew that Jesus was sent from God, and came to see Him early in His Ministry. This we know from the text. I have run out of space again, so will have to get into the passage John 3:3 in next post.

73rd Post Jesus Teachings on Warnings Con't. - Luke 6: 24 - 26.

"But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation. Woe to you who are full, for you shall hunger. Woe to you who laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep. Woe to you when all men speak well of you, for so did their fathers to the false prophets." Luke 6: 24-26.
This is part of Luke's version of Jesus Sermon on the Mount; I printed the verses so that we can refer to what Jesus actually said in order to discover the meaning of His Words. To put these words into context, Jesus was reminding the people, that they are required to not only listen to the words but also discern if they are true or not. This goes hand in hand with the Beatitudes Jesus told them about earlier in this chapter of Luke. Jesus has been teaching the people the ways and words of God. Some of Jesus teachings were quite different from what the Sadducees and the Pharisees taught. Jesus was likening this misunderstanding to what the Jews forefathers had faced when they were confronted with true and false teachers and prophets. They also had to decide which of the teachings was correct and which was false. The Jewish forefathers chose the wrong people to believe, because they were discerning on their own understanding. The Old Testament is full of their mistakes. Jesus is asking them to discern according to God's Word, God will tell you who is right. As the Jews of old, they were well off before Nebuchadnezzar actually took the Southern Kingdom by force. You need to discern according to God's understanding not yours.

72nd Post Jesus Teachings on Warnings - Matthew 18:7; Luke 17: 1

To better understand this passage, we need to look at the beginning of Matthew Chapter 18. The disciples were arguing amongst themselves, which one is the greatest, and which one will be the greatest in Heaven. This would be a normal happening in the world, but this is taking place amongst the disciples, Jesus chosen ones whom He is training to take over for Him when He returns to Heaven. The location of the passage Matthew 18, tells us that this takes place late in Jesus earthly ministry, right before He was to suffer and die. You would expect this discussion to happen early in Jesus' ministry, but not now! The disciples should know a lot about the Kingdom of Heaven and how it works; after hearing Jesus teach and watching Him interact with the people for 3.1/2 years. Jesus taught that God gets the Glory, not us. We are only the messengers, and it is not our words we deliver. This is a problem area for everyone who is in a position of leadership in the Church. People listen to us because we are in charge of bringing God's Word to the people. We are responsible to make sure our message is correct; and we can not become boastful or proud, thinking that the crowd is there to see us. God is to get the Glory Always!!

This is not the only way we can be a problem. As Christians, we are to be a good example of what is right, not an example of worldly pollution (sin). To whom much is given, much is required; if we cause others to sin, we are held more accountable. Your walk should show the attributes of Christ. If it does not, then you need to examine your life and make the appropriate changes.

71st Post Jesus Teachings Con't. - Luke 11: 28 Con't.

After casting out the demon. Jesus then tells them a story about the return of an unclean spirit (Luke 11: 24). Jesus cast a demon out of a person, the spirit then tries to find someone else to enter. Finding none, he returns to the person that he was thrown out of, and finds the place swept out and clean, but most of all empty! The spirit then takes up residence again and this time invites seven more demons to join him, making the situation much worse than before Jesus cast the demon out. What was Jesus trying to say? Having a demon cast out is only the first step, you must ask the Holy Spirit to come in and to stay. This is done by not only hearing the word of God, but also by practicing it. If this person had been practicing the Word of God, the demon would have found it swept out and clean, but not empty! We tend to go to Church and to listen to the teaching, but when we return home we forget everything that was said, so no changes take place in our lives. This is what Jesus meant when He said "Blessed are those who hear the Word of God and keep it!" When we make a decision to follow Christ, we start a journey with Him. We are to start taking off the attributes of this world and start putting on God's Attributes, as we do this people will start to see a change in us. When we die, we will be the most Christ-like that we can be until God finishes the work He started in us. How is your walk?

70th Post Jesus Teachings Con't - Luke 11: 28.

This passage comes at the end of several teachings of Jesus in this chapter. Chapter 11 opens with Jesus giving the disciples The Lord's Prayer. Then Jesus goes on to cast out a demon, some in the crowd say that Jesus could do this through the power of Beelzebul (Prince of Demons). Jesus tells the story of the "Return of an Unclean Spirit." Then a woman raises her voice and proclaims "Blessed is the womb that bore you, and the breasts at which you nursed!" But Jesus replied, "Blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it!" (Luke 11:28).

If you just look at the last line of the paragraph mentioned above, you can understand the passage; but if you look at what was said from the beginning, you will see that Jesus, was facing a difficult crowd and they were not listening to what He was saying. Let's start with the Lord's Prayer, the disciples asked Jesus to teach them to pray. In this prayer Jesus was showing the disciples how to talk to God. This will be covered in more detail when we look at the Lord's Prayer later. After this Jesus casts out a demon, people in the crowd were probably not there when Jesus taught the disciples the Lord's Prayer. They tell each other that Jesus could do this through the power of Beelzebul the prince of demons. Jesus has been spending a lot of time telling the people that "if you have seen Me, you have seen the Father". Jesus was casting out demons through the Power of God, not demons! I am running out of space again so I will continue next post.

69th Post Jesus Teachings - Beatitudes Con't 3rd Post.

The previous post defined the meanings of these. Now we will look at this list compared with the Fruits of the Spirit, that Paul told us about. There are nine Fruits of the Spirit and eight Beatitudes. Listed below are how they stack up. I have not seen this discussed anywhere else, but this is based on my years of studying the Bible, and years of Bible teaching.
1. Poor in Spirit could match with Gentleness, both of these deal with humbleness and meekness.
2. Mourn could match with Kindness, When you mourn you are crushed under the weight of that which is causing the pain. It could be dealing with death, it could be dealing with life, and it could be dealing with failure. In all these cases you need compassion and understanding. The Fruit that best applies to that could be kindness. When you are kind you are compassionate, and can give to those who mourn what they need.
3. Meek could match with Faithfulness, To be found faithful that means to God. When you live by His rules, you will not fight when the world challenges you to fight. By backing down, you look weak.
If you look at the Fruits listed in Galatians 5:22 - 23, you will notice that to do all the mentioned in the Beatitudes requires one or more fruits of the Spirit; for each Beatitudes. To acquire these traits should be the goal of all Christians.

68th Post Teachings of Jesus Con't - Beatitudes Con't

Matthew 5: 3 -12; Luke 6: 20 - 23.
1. Poor in Spirit. If you are rich in spirit, you are prideful, and may be conceited. Jesus said "If anyone would come after Me, let him first deny himself; then pick up his cross daily and follow Me."(Luke 9:23). To be a follower of Christ, Jesus should get the glory.
2. They that Mourn. Be crushed with disappointments. God promises to be with you, when you are mourning. This is usually the time your friends and relatives forget about you, but God never will forget you. This is the promise in the poem "FOOTPRINTS" at the lowest times in his life there were one set of footprints and he asked God why He left. God answered, "I never left you, where you see one set of footprints, it was then that I carried you."
3. Meek. The world looks at meekness as weakness. Moses and Jesus are said to be the meekest people in the Bible. Jesus could have stood up to the Roman soldiers when they were mocking Him before His crucifixion. If Jesus would have attacked the Romans how would God's Will been fulfilled? In life coming from a weaker position, can keep a misunderstanding from escalating into a full blown argument. Sometimes it is better to be right and silent, than to prove your right and cause hurt feelings. In this study we will be following Jesus' Words and actions; when He shows His meekness I will try to remember to point it out.
4. Hunger and Thirst after Righteousness. These are the ones that get Jesus' Teachings, they hear the message and then start to live their life according to Jesus' commands. They read the Bible on their own, without being pushed. They mold their life after Christ.
5.Mercy. This is another trait the world looks on as weakness. The world teaches "Its a dog eat dog" world. You hurt people first, because they will try to hurt you. Mercy is compassion, this is what was at the base of every angry altercation between Jesus and the Scribes, Pharisees, and Sadduccees. The religious leaders only saw the rules and not the times where rules were meant to be broken in order to provide relief. Church should be a place to be built up, not a place to be torn apart. This is why Churches are used as places of sanctuary in old movies.
6. Pure in Heart. When you are Pure in Heart, you only look for the good in things. You revert to having a heart of a child. You approach the world with innocence.
7.Peacemakers. To be a peacemaker, you don't antagonize but build up. You don't start arguments or fights, you don't look for reasons to complain. You look only on the good. When fights break out you look for ways to stop the conflict, instead of making it worse.
8. Persecuted for righteousness sake. These are the people that stand for God. This is the other half of that Bible verse I quoted earlier. "Take up your cross and follow Me."(Luke 9:23). The world hates Jesus and anyone who takes after Him. Those of you who are the only Christians in your family, know this all to well. They watch you waiting for you to stumble in your walk and then they pile on top of you for being weak. You answer them this way. "I am not perfect, just forgiven." Focus on Christ He is your model, not my life.
9. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad. When you have made it your life's work to adopt as many of these traits into your life, you will have found the narrow path, and reached your goal.
We will look at the Beatitudes and the Fruits of the Spiirit in my next post. I ran out of space here.


4.

67th Post Jesus Teachings - The Beatitudes- Matthew 5:3- 12: Luke 6: 20 - 23.

We are starting a new section called Jesus teachings; it starts with Matthew 5: 3 - 12; Luke 6: 20 -23. When you read these verses for the first time, you see a list of people types, and you think Jesus was blessing people with these traits. This is true Jesus was blessing people with these traits, but Jesus was also giving you a list of attributes He wants us to acquire as we mature in our walk with God. Matthew 5 is the first chapter of the Sermon on the Mount, if you follow Jesus life after He gave this sermon, you will notice that Jesus exhibited each one of those traits at different times in His earthly life. This is the model. When you re-read this list, you notice that these traits, are not the traits the world would think are important. In fact, some of those traits would receive scoffing (ridicule) from the world. Jesus asks us to be in the world, but not of the world.
If you look at this list and then look at the fruits of the Spirit, Paul talks about, you will notice something interesting. The fruits are the results from living these traits. How are we to get these fruits? We are taught that some fruits you are born with, and others we acquire from walking with God. There is something else that we should remember when we see or hear the Beatitudes, for Christians they should be our "BE ATTITUDES". We should strive to have everyone of them as part of our personality. When we do this we will start to emulate Christ and we will have earned the right to be called "Christians". After all, the word Christian means Christ Like. We need to examine ourselves, and be sure that if we were arrested for impersonating a Christian, would they find enough evidence to convict you?? If the answer is no, then you need to examine your life and see where you fell off the path. Ask God for the strength to make the necessary changes and it will be done. I am not through with the Beatitudes yet, in my next post we will look at them individually and try to explain them.

66th Post Jesus and the Fulfillment of Prophecy - Luke 24: 44,46-48.

This passage takes place in the upper room on Easter Evening. The disciples were hiding from the authorities; trying to put all of their feelings of the last three days and the new information given them on this day, into some kind of perspective. While they were processing the information of the last three days; Jesus suddenly appears out of nowhere into their midst. They knew Jesus did not use a door or a window (because they were locked) to enter the room, but all could see Him in their presence. Some saw and still could not believe that Jesus was in fact ALIVE! Put yourselves in their (the disciples) place. You witnessed Jesus mutilated body hung on a Roman Cross, and watched his life drain out of Him. There was no doubt in your mind that Jesus died that day. Now Sunday evening Jesus is giving you (the disciples) the same lesson, the two disciples received on the Road to Emmaus. Jesus takes them on a tour of the Old Testament, the Law of Moses, and the prophets, and the Psalms must be fulfilled. Jesus told them that all these things had to happen in order for the Scriptures to be fulfilled. Jesus had to suffer and die, rise on the third day, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in His (Jesus) Name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. Just like the disciples at the time of Christ, you have been learning about Jesus and at some point you will have to make a decision, on whether He is Who He Said He was on not. The choice is yours.

65th Post Jesus On Fulfillment of Prophecy con't - Luke 22-35 - 37.

Luke 22: 35 - 37.
This passage takes place late in the 3.1/2 year ministry of Jesus. Toward the beginning of His ministry, Jesus had sent His disciples out in groups of two, and they were not to take any provisions with them. This was to make them believe that God would take care of them. At that time, Jesus told them to go only to the House of Israel, and leave the Gentiles alone. Now Jesus is sending them out and this time to all the world with provisions, and Jesus told them to arm themselves. This is quite different, then the first time they were sent out. When Jesus was still with them, the world took aim at Him. Jesus is going to be leaving them, and the world will start to take aim at them instead. Why does the world hate Jesus and His disciples so much? No one likes someone telling you, you are doing wrong. You don't like it when your parents, teachers, pastors, etc. tell you you are doing wrong. We would rather do whatever we want, whenever we want. We don't care that the reason they are telling you is that they care and love you. We only see the restrictions, and stifling of our freedoms.

Jesus was numbered with the transgressors, in order to fulfill prophecy. (Isaiah 53:12). Anyone who tries to do the work of the Lord, will be persecuted, so praise God when that happens, because it means that you are doing the right thing. If you are not ready, don't worry about it, keep studying, when the time is right God will give you the courage and the fortitude. Praise God!

64th Post Jesus The Fulfillment of Prophecy -Matthew 26: 52 - 56.

Matthew 26: 52 - 56; Mark 14: 48 - 49; Luke 22:52 - 53.
This starts a new section in our study, concerning Jesus and fulfillment of prophecy. This passage takes place in the Garden of Gethsemane, at the time the mob came to arrest Jesus. The Matthew account reports that one who was with Jesus reached out grabbed his sword and struck the servant of the high priest. The Mark account is much the same as Matthew's except he added that the servants ear was cut off. Luke's account tells us which ear was struck-off, the right ear. John's account that was not part of this book, (but part of the Bible) gives the most detailed description. John 18: 10 - 11. John tells you which disciple it was (Simon Peter), and what the servants name was that lost his ear (Malchus). The more you know about the Bible, the more information you will be able to glean from its pages. The Matthew account goes on with Jesus reprimanding Peter for drawing his sword. Jesus tells Peter, I could ask My Father and He at once would send Me more than 12 Legions of angels. Based on the numbers used by the Romans at the time of Christ, a legion would be a force of from 3,000 to 6,000. Multiplied by 12 that makes God's force of 36,000 to 72,000 strong. More than enough to handle this mob that was sent out to capture Jesus. Then Jesus goes on to say, "but how would the Scriptures be fulfilled"? Jesus had to fall into the hands of sinful men for the Promise of God to be fulfilled. Isaiah reminds us that God's ways are not our ways. I can not think of another God, who did such a thing to save us. Can you? Jesus earned the right to say "I am the ressurection and the life, no one comes to the Father except through Me." Choose today whom you will serve, as for me and my house we will serve the Lord!!

63rd Post Jesus His Mission Con't - John 15:22.

John 15: 22. When you turn to this passage it goes along with what Jesus was saying in the previous post. When I came this time, I did not come to judge, but My words will judge them on the last day. "If I had not come and spoken them, they would have no sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin." Jesus is talking to His disciples in the upper room, hours before He is to be betrayed. Jesus is telling His disciples, that the people that have rejected His message, now know that He (Jesus) is the Messiah; and they have chosen to reject Him and stay in their unbelief. They have been made aware of their sin (rejecting the truth), and this will count against them on the last day. These people that rejected Him will have no excuse (no ground to stand on), that will protect them against reaping the cost of their sin. This sounds very hard to us. The people who rejected Jesus were the Pharisees and the Sadducees, both of these parties were the religious heads of the Jewish Temple and teaching. These two groups should have been the first ones to recognize that Jesus was Who He said He was! Instead, they were His biggest critics. Some of the Pharisees, did recognize Jesus as Messiah and came to believe, but not all. Jesus message is the same now as it was then. Believe I am the Truth and live, or reject Me and die. We have to make the same decision. What will you do???