Archive for the ‘Jesus Christ’ Tag
“A Divine Calling!”
Word of Life Devotional by Sherwin Scott
Therefore, holy brothers [and sisters], you who share in a heavenly calling, consider Jesus, the apostle and high priest of our confession…
Hebrews 3:1 (ESV)
Many people consider themselves to be called to a specific profession or service. They believe that they have been called to be doctors, lawyers, and teachers, or to serve in the armed forces or the local or national government of their country. Maybe they feel they are called to be the leader of a nation as president or prime minister.
Believers in Jesus Christ have received a specific and definite calling into his fellowship. The Apostle Paul explains in 1 Corinthians 1:9: ‘God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.’ What exactly is ’the fellowship of his Son’? It is the holy, loving relationship of God the Father, Jesus the beloved Son and the Holy Spirit – a divine relationship that has existed from eternity and will continue forever!
Believers are blessed, privileged, and honored to be called to participate or share in this wonderful relationship. It doesn’t get any better – it is finding the pearl of great value (Matthew 13:45-46), the ultimate calling! And an amazing truth about this special calling is that it cannot be revoked as explained in Romans 11:29: ‘For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.’
Relationships are very important to God, for God is in relationship: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, a communion of love. And he wants us as his children to participate in the divine relationship, which will continue forever. With this divine calling there is no going back, for God takes no pleasure in anyone who draws back (Hebrews 10:36-38). There is only one way – marching forward into the fullness of God’s glorious kingdom.
Prayer
Heavenly Father, thank you for the invitation to participate in your beautiful relationship. Please help me to respond in a manner that is pleasing to you. In Jesus’s name I pray, Amen.
Study by Sherwin Scott
Photo Compliments: WorldChallenge.org
“Who is The Father Revealed in Jesus?” Pt. 2
Part 2A:
Part 2B
Full Message:
Scripture:
2 Cor 13: 14, Matthew 23: 8-11, John 17
Summary and Goal:
This sermon discusses the importance of understanding the relationship between God the Father, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit. It emphasizes the deep love and joy that comes from being united with the Father through Jesus and the Holy Spirit.
“What I mean is this. An ordinary simple Christian kneels down to say his prayers. He is trying to get into touch with God. But if he is a Christian he knows that what is prompting to pray is also God: God, so to speak, inside him. But he also knows that all his real knowledge of God comes through Christ, the Man who was God—that Christ is standing beside him, helping him to pray, praying for him. You see what is happening. God (THE FATHER) is the thing (ONE) to which he is praying—the goal he is trying to reach. God is also the thing (ONE) inside him which is pushing him on—the motive power. God is also the road or bridge along which he is being pushed to that goal. So that the whole threefold life of the three-personal Being is actually going on in that ordinary little bedroom where an ordinary man is saying his prayers. The man is being caught up into the higher kind of life—what I called Zoe or spiritual life: he is being pulled into God, by God, while still remaining himself.” (P.163) – Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis
Highlights:
👨👦👦 The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are distinct persons in the Godhead.
👻 The Holy Spirit is not a commodity, but a person who hears, speaks, sees, inspires, and moves.
🎁 Everything we receive and do comes from the Father through Jesus and in the Holy Spirit.
😇 Joyous days in the Father surpass mere happiness and can be experienced even in affliction and distress.
❤️ The love of the Father is deep and unbreakable, even in the face of trials and persecution.
✝️ The Father’s love was demonstrated through Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross, which reconciled and saved humanity.
🤝 The relationship with the Father is shared through the participation in the Holy Spirit’s fellowship.
“Who Is The Father Revealed In Jesus?” Pt. 1
Pt 1A:
Pt 1B:
Full Message:
Scripture: Isaiah 40: 18-31, Isaiah 46: 3-13, Hebrews 1: 1-3, 1John5, Mark 12, John 17
Summary and Goal:
This sermon is about the importance of knowing and understanding the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. The speaker emphasizes the supreme advantage and relevance of having a relationship with the Father-Son-Holy-Spirit-God as Revealed in Jesus Christ the God/Man.
Highlights:
🙏 Praying to the Father before the message
🌟 The twin doctrines of faith: Who is the Father? What is He doing?
👨👧👦 Father’s Day celebration and addressing everyone
🏛️ The foundation of Jesus Christ and the importance of building on it
📖 Scripture references and teachings on the Father
🌍 The Importance of God the Father for every family
💞 Implications of understanding and relating to God the Father
💡 Knowing the Father gives supreme advantage and relevance in life.
Photo compliments: smoodock45.wordpress
“Jesus: ‘Look, I Am Making Everything New!'”, Part 2
Scripture: Revelation 21:1-8
Introduction:
The Lord Jesus Christ Is Risen! He is Risen Indeed! So, “Who is Jesus Christ?” “Who are you Lord? And the answer he gives is that He himself is the Resurrection and the Life! The scriptures themselves testify to Jesus Christ as the person around whom all things revolve and the One to Whom we should all turn and be directed.
Theological Theme:
Holding this two all together we can say that the Gospel is the Good News about Jesus Our Resurrection, and therefore the Resurrection is primarily about a personal relationship with Jesus Christ (personal doesn’t mean individual! It means sharing in Jesus relationship with his Father, the Spirit and all things!) It IS also about a glorified body! But it must be clarified in our day that Easter/Resurrection is a proclamation of the Fact that: You’re not just going to rise from the dead, you’re going to rise before, and accountable to Jesus Christ!
Christ Connection:
Relationship with Jesus is a priority ahead of receiving a new and glorified body! Because Jesus is not only the Resurrection but the Father’s Son, He is God and therefore present to us now in the Holy Spirit! He is Not first far off, but up close! He is “The God who made the world and everything in it—he is Lord of heaven and earth— [and he] does not live in [things] made by hands. 25 Neither is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives everyone life and breath and all things. 26 From one man[e] he has made every nationality to live over the whole earth and has determined their appointed times and the boundaries of where they live. 27 He did this so that [we] might seek God, and perhaps [we] might reach out and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. 28 For in [the Father, Jesus and the Holy Spirit] we live and move and have our being,” – Colossians 1:24-28a
The picture you should have in your head about God is one where the Father embraces and seeks to embrace you through his arms of Jesus and the Holy Spirit! And Jesus is central because he is the one who takes us to the Father and sends us the Holy Spirit, so…
“We proclaim him, warning and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone mature in Christ. 29 I labor for this, striving with his strength that works powerfully in me.” (Col 1:28-29)”
Missional Application:
In participation with Jesus Christ, by the Spirit, and to the Glory of the Father, we continue to proclaim Jesus to all and encourage all to place their faith in Him and enter a trust relationship with Him!
“the ministry of the Holy Spirit is personal and personally transforming—it is dynamic and interactive, bringing about receptivity, responsiveness and participation. And the result is that we are on a journey towards spiritual maturity and full sanctification, being changed into the likeness of Christ. But this journey is not automatic, causal, or impersonal. It is not mechanically imposed on all believers…receptivity and participation do make a difference, [and so] the New Testament indicates the differences it makes and encourages, exhorts and even commands us to be receptive to the Word of God and the ministry of the Spirit out of trust in God’s faithfulness through the Son and in the Spirit. As Paul exhorts in Eph. 5:18, we are to be “filled with the Spirit.”
These personal distinctions related to personal participation should not be taken to mean that God is faithful to some but not to all. The difference our personal responsiveness makes does not condition God into changing his purpose and aim for us and all humanity. It does not make God for some and against others, and it certainly does not lead him to want to see those who are unresponsive perish.
Our personal response (or lack thereof) to God cannot undo the fact that Jesus is and remains Lord and Savior of all. The character and purpose, mind and heart of God remain just as they have been revealed in Christ. The finished work of Christ is never undone—God remains, in Christ, reconciled to all people, no matter their response. He has and holds out forgiveness for them, is ready to receive them back into fellowship with him, and in that sense accepts them. However, while God accepts them, he does not accept their rejection, their sin, their rebellion, but accepts them in order to do away with what is against them and against their participation in the reconciliation accomplished for them in Christ. Nothing changes that reconciliation (with all it means), not even a person’s complete or partial rejection of God’s gift. However, our personal response (participation) does affect the quality of our lived relationship with God and thus our personal experiencing of the benefits of Christ.”
-Dr. Gary Deddo
Photos compliments: etsy.com
The Most Important TASK Done For Everyone Everywhere – JESUS CHRIST! (Our Christmas and Biblical Worldview)
Part A:
Part B:
Full Message:
Bible Verse: Luke 2
Introduction:
Can you see from reading this section of the Nicene Creed what would be missing if as Christians we ONLY spoke about Jesus in terms of His birth (Christmas), His suffering, death and resurrection?
Excerpt about Jesus from the Nicence Creed
“We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father, God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, of one Being with the Father. Through Him all things were made. For us and for our salvation He came down from heaven:
by the power of the Holy Spirit, He became incarnate from the Virgin Mary, and was made man. For our sake He was crucified under Pontius Pilate; He suffered death and was buried. On the third day He rose again in accordance with the Scriptures; He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and His kingdom will have no end.”
What happens if we leave out His incarnate life for 33 years? What if after speaking about His Resurrection we stopped and never addressed His human Ascension and Bodily Return?
Theological Theme:
“Christ does not heal us as an ordinary doctor might, by standing over us, diagnosing our sickness, prescribing medicine for us to take and then going away, leaving us to get better as we follow His instructions. No, He becomes the patient. He assumes that very humanity which is in need of redemption, and by being anointed by the Spirit in our humanity, by a life of perfect obedience, by dying and rising again, for us, our humanity is healed in Him, in His person. We are not just healed through Christ, because of the work of Christ, but in and through Christ. Person and work must not be separated.” – James Torrance
Christ Connection:
Christ emptied himself so we may be filled
“The very Son of God, older than the ages, the invisible, the incomprehensible, the incorporeal, the beginning of beginning, the light of light, the fountain of life and immortality, the image of the archetype, the immovable seal, the perfect likeness, the definition and word of the Father: he it is who comes to his own image and takes our nature for the good of our nature, and unites himself to an intelligent soul for the good of my soul, to purify like by like.
He takes to himself all that is human, except for sin. He was conceived by the Virgin Mary, who had been first prepared in soul and body by the Spirit; his coming to birth had to be treated with honor, virginity had to receive new honor. He comes forth as God, in the human nature he has taken, one being, made of two contrary elements, flesh and spirit. Spirit gave divinity, flesh received it.
He who makes rich is made poor; he takes on the poverty of my flesh, that I may gain the riches of his divinity. He who is full is made empty; he is emptied for a brief space of his glory, that I may share in his fullness. What is this wealth of goodness? What is this mystery that surrounds me? I received the likeness of God, but failed to keep it. He takes on my flesh, to bring salvation to the image, immortality to the flesh. He enters into a second union with us, a union far more wonderful than the first.” – St. Gregory The Theologian
Missional Application:
Just as Jesus took on all the parts of our human nature and flesh through the history of a human life to bring us Salvation, as those in union with Jesus in the Spirit we participate with Him in all the parts of His human history and continued Lordship, pointing others to Him as their Salvation also!
Photo Compliments: slidetodoc.com
Becoming An Ethically Responsible Christian Disciple! Part 4 (Our Christian/ Biblical Worldview)
Part 4A:
Part 4B:
Full Message:
Bible Verses: Colossians (various scriptures)
Introduction:
In Jesus, God’s Elect One, you and every other person you know have been elected/chosen to be at the highest place of honor and privilege possible for a human being, participating with Jesus in his union and relationship with His Father, in the Holy Spirit. In fact, all of what it means to be truly and fully human is seated, truly and mysteriously, with the Father, and in Jesus who share in our humanity. Jesus represents and substitutes for each and all of us human beings before the Father not so we don’t have to participate but so that we can, with him!
Theological Theme:
Because of the Reality of Jesus in our humanity, now glorified, we are invited and urged to share more deeply in in the humanity of Christ by the Spirit Christ than in the divided humanity of those who reject God! In the worshipful and relational way of Jesus, we who trust and believe in him, prioritize and live out the Great Command to love God with our all, first, and then, at His direction and lead in the Spirit, to love our neighbors as ourselves.
As the late George MacDonald has written: “God can no more than an earthly parent be content to have only children: he must have sons and daughters—children of his soul, of his spirit, of his love—not merely in the sense that he loves them, or even that they love him, but in the sense that they love like him, love as he loves. For this he does not adopt them; he dies to give them himself, thereby to raise his own to his heart; he gives them a birth from above; they are born again out of himself and into himself.” ― George MacDonald
Christ Connection:
There is a call from the Father for us to be different and to be transformed in Christ in the Holy Spirit; to begin and keep becoming and growing up in Him, right here and right now! To keep sharing in the mind of Christ about our world, that we are forever going to be relating with and oversee with Jesus in a larger more fulfilling way! We’re not in a pretend mode right now just because everything here on earth will one day be transformed! In believers, and by the Holy Spirit, Jesus has an earthly body that still resides in our present history, interacting with his Father and our neighbors in love. Obeying Jesus right now is as vital as it was vital when he actually walked the earth in his distinct human body because he is the Risen Lord and still has an ongoing and present ministry!
Missional Application:
Jesus, being our Great Ethic, has pointed out what it means to participate with him in relation to God and our neighbor:
A lawyer asked [Jesus] a question to test him. “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” He said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.” (Matt. 22:35-40, NRSV)
As Dr. Gary Deddo points out in his article “Theological Ethics”:
“When we love God with all we are and have, there shines forth a reflection of it towards those who are not God. We love God because God first loved us (1 John 4:19). Our love for God is a response, the right and appropriate response, to God’s love for us. We first receive God’s love and we first love God. When we love the neighbor in the way God would have us, then like Jesus, we are passing on to others what we have received from God. Think of the offering of the Lord’s Supper and Paul’s words: “For I received from the Lord what I also handed on to you” (1 Cor. 11:23). In God’s economy, we can pass on only what we have first received. First things must remain first, otherwise, as C.S. Lewis reminds us, we will lose both the first and the second things.”
Photo Compliments: https://www.quoteslyfe.com