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Posted by Pastor Greg Allen on July 29, 2020 under AM Bible Study | 
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AM Bible Study Group: July 29, 2020 from Luke 9:37-43a
We can’t do the work of Jesus Christ without Jesus Himself.
(All Scripture is taken from The New King James Version, unless otherwise indicated).
Posted by Pastor Greg Allen on July 26, 2020 under 2020 | Be the First to Comment
Bethany Bible Church Sunday Message; July 26, 2020 from 2 Corinthians 1:23-2:4
Theme: When dealing with hard matters in God’s family, we must soften our approach with the love of Jesus.
(All Scripture is taken from The New King James Version, unless otherwise indicated).
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Posted by Pastor Greg Allen on July 19, 2020 under 2020 | Be the First to Comment
Bethany Bible Church Sunday Message; July 19, 2020 from 2 Corinthians 1:21-22
Theme: The God who has saved us for Himself has also provided for our safekeeping in salvation.
(All Scripture is taken from The New King James Version, unless otherwise indicated).
Click HERE for the live-stream archive of this sermon.
Posted by Pastor Greg Allen on July 15, 2020 under AM Bible Study | Be the First to Comment
AM Bible Study Group: July 15, 2020 from Luke 9:21-26
Theme: Because our Lord gave His life on the cross for us, we must take up our cross in order to follow Him.
(All Scripture is taken from The New King James Version, unless otherwise indicated).
Click HERE for the live-stream archive of this Bible Study.
In our last time in Luke’s Gospel, we read of an important conclusion that the disciples had come to concerning the Lord Jesus. It came about because of a question that puts us all on the crossroads of a decision.
In that passage—in Luke 9:18-20—we found that the Lord Jesus asked the disciples who people said that He was. The disciples responded that other people were saying that He was this, or that He was that. Everyone, it seemed, had their opinion about Him. And then Jesus asked, “But who do you say that I am?” That’s a question that we must all answer.
Now; the disciples had seen many things about Him firsthand. They had heard His teaching. They had seen Him perform miracles. And most immediately, they had seen Him feed a multitude of people with only five loaves of bread and two small fish—resulting in twelve baskets of leftovers. They knew that He was much more than what people were saying about Him. And so, when asked who they thought He was, Peter answered for all of the disciples and said, “The Christ of God.” This was Peter’s way of affirming that Jesus is the Son of God in human flesh. It was a conclusion that all who look carefully and honestly into Jesus’ life and teaching must inevitably come to.
But what do we do with that? Is it enough simply to make that declaration? No. It also requires action from us. If we confess that He is who He truly is—the Son of God in human flesh—then, as a consequence, we must respond to that confession with appropriate devotion. Luke goes on to tell us how Jesus described that devotion:
And He strictly warned and commanded them to tell this to no one, saying, “The Son of Man must suffer many things, and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised the third day.”
Then He said to them all, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it. For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and is himself destroyed or lost? For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words, of him the Son of Man will be ashamed when He comes in His own glory, and in His Father’s, and of the holy angels (Luke 9:21-26).
This passage is quite a jolt; isn’t it? Many people decide to follow Jesus because they believe that following Him will make their life better. And in many ways, it does. But really, following Jesus means much more than that. It means that we suffer the loss of our lives for something better. The way that Jesus put it was that we must take up our cross—the instrument of our own death to self—and follow Him.
* * * * * * * * * *
Perhaps you’ve heard of the great theologian from the mid-twentieth century Dietrich Bonhoeffer. In his famous book, The Cost of Discipleship, he spoke of what happens when we come to terms with who Jesus really is. He put the matter this way:
“The cross is laid on every Christian. The first Christ-suffering which every man must experience is the call to abandon the attachments of this world. It is that dying of the old man which is the result of his encounter with Christ. As we embark upon discipleship we surrender ourselves to Christ in union with his death—we give over our lives to death. Thus it begins; the cross is not the terrible end to an otherwise god-fearing and happy life, but it meets us at the beginning of our communion with Christ. When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die” (p. 79).
Now; let’s make a few things clear. First, this is not talking about salvation. We are not saved by suffering for Jesus. We are not saved by taking up our cross. Rather, we are saved by placing our faith in the suffering He underwent for us on His cross—when He took the full guilt of our sins upon Himself and paid the death penalty on our behalf. Instead of salvation, this is talking about discipleship. This is talking about what it means to follow Him. We follow Him by—in love—doing as He did for us, and by taking up the very instrument of our own death to self, and following where He leads. That has to happen if we encounter Him as He really is. There is no discipleship with Jesus without knowing Jesus; and there’s no knowing Jesus without taking up the cross. There is no life with Him without death to self.
But another thing to remember is that ‘taking up our cross’ isn’t what people popularly mean by that phrase. That phrase—unfortunately—has come to mean, in the minds of some, the whole idea of suffering one’s lot in life. “Oh well; I guess this is just the cross I must bear.” That’s not what Jesus meant at all. What He meant was that we willingly take up our instrument of self-execution. We take ‘self’—that very thing which everyone in the world says that we need to pursue and exalt and gratify—and nail it to the cross.
That’s not a popular message today. It’s the opposite of what many want to hear. But it is an unavoidable requirement of following Jesus. And in the passage from Luke that is before us, our Lord makes this very clear. He literally took up His cross in order to save us. And now, we must figurative take up our cross if we would follow Him.
Now; notice how our Lord put this to us. First, He plainly set before us …
1. THE PRICE HE WOULD PAY TO SAVE US (vv. 21-22).
The disciples had just announced—rightly—that He is the Christ of God. They recognized the truth of what His works had declared concerning Him; and rightly concluded that He is the Son of God in human flesh. But strangely, we then find these words in verse 21: “And He strictly warned and commanded them to tell this to no one …”
Why would He say this to them? In fact, why would He sternly warn them not to say who He was? Aren’t we supposed to tell the world about Him? Well; it’s important to see this command in the context of where He was at this time in His earthly ministry. At this point, He was doing the works the Father had sent Him to do in order to show forth who He was. But His greatest work was yet to be done. He would soon lay down His life on the cross for us. He went on to explain:
“The Son of Man must suffer many things, and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised the third day” (v. 22);
and that must happen. Nothing must be allowed to interfere with that important, saving work.
Do you remember when John—in his Gospel—told us about Jesus’ feeding of the multitude? We’re told that He looked at the crowds and “perceived that they were about to come and take Him by force to make Him king” (John 6:15). He departed from them; because that was not why He had come. He would indeed eventually be their King; but first, He must be their Savior. He had to suffer many things, and be rejected by the leaders of His people, and be killed, and be raised on the third day. It was absolutely necessary that He minister to us by becoming the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.
Now; Jesus paid that price for us. And He paid it to the full. We do not now need to die in order to atone for our own sins. He has already accomplished that atonement for us. But if we recognize that He is the Son of God in human flesh, and if we recognize that He—as the sinless Son of God—paid the death penalty for us on the cross; then it leads us to the matter of our discipleship.
He went on to explain …
2. THE COST WE MUST NOW EMBRACE IN ORDER TO FOLLOW HIM (vv. 23-26).
And we can see this in three ways. First, it is required that we die daily to self. In verse 23, we read, “Then He said to them all, ‘If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me.’” We can see plainly from this that Jesus is not calling upon us to take up a literal cross; because it must be done ‘daily’. Nor do we understand Him to be speaking necessarily of a literal ‘dying’—because He describes it as an expression of denying one’s self. Rather, it is describing a perpetual, regular, repeated laying of one’s own self upon the altar of whole-hearted commitment to Him and following where He leads.
If you were to be living in those days, and if you were to see a man staggering down the road as he carried a heavy cross, you would not have been impressed with his Christian testimony. Instead, you would have understood that this man was a condemned criminal being marched to his own execution. He was on his way to die. All of his own plans and ambitions—all of his own pursuit of his own agenda—were gone. He had nothing for himself and he was nothing unto himself. And that’s what the Lord Jesus says is required if we would follow Him.
Now; this kind of talk is not something that would inspire people to follow Jesus casually. In fact, it would turn some people away. The Lord said a similar thing precisely to put people on the fork of the road; and to make them decide whether or not they would go with Him any further. Luke 14:25-33 tells us;
Now great multitudes went with Him. And He turned and said to them, “If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple. And whoever does not bear his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple. For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not sit down first and count the cost, whether he has enough to finish it—lest, after he has laid the foundation, and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish’? Or what king, going to make war against another king, does not sit down first and consider whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? Or else, while the other is still a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks conditions of peace. So likewise, whoever of you does not forsake all that he has cannot be My disciple” (Luke 14:25-33).
Do you notice His words? He plainly said, “cannot be My disciple”. He said it three times. It’s not that we would simply find it hard. Rather, it’s that it cannot be done at all unless we take up the cross, completely die to self, and follow where He leads.
Are we willing to pay that price in order to follow Him?
Another thing we find is that it requires that we let go of the benefits of this world. Jesus put the matter this way: “For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it” (v. 24). He was not necessarily talking about the actual loss of physical life—although, for some of us, He may call us to pay that ultimate price. Rather, He is saying that we must let go of our desire for the ‘good life’ of this world—the things that this world considers to be a part of a fulfilling existence—in order to follow Him. We must follow the hard path that He leads us on, even if that path leads to what looks—from this world’s standpoint—as an utter and tragic waste of life. Jesus asks in verse 25, “For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and is himself destroyed or lost?”
Jesus told a parable that illustrates this. In Luke 12:15-21, He said;
“Take heed and beware of covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of the things he possesses.”
Then He spoke a parable to them, saying: “The ground of a certain rich man yielded plentifully. And he thought within himself, saying, ‘What shall I do, since I have no room to store my crops?’ So he said, ‘I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build greater, and there I will store all my crops and my goods. And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years; take your ease; eat, drink, and be merry.”’ But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul will be required of you; then whose will those things be which you have provided?’ So is he who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God” (Luke 12:15-21).
Jesus is not saying that we must not have any of the comforts of life. He is not calling all of His followers to a life of poverty and asceticism. Rather, He is telling us that following Him is to take precedence over everything else in life. He calls us to take up our cross and follow Him with such a loose hold on the things of this world that—if He calls us to leave them behind—we do not cling to them but open our hand and let them drop.
Are we willing to follow Him at the cost of everything else in this world?
And finally, we find that following Him requires that we chose to suffer shame for His sake. In verse 26, He said, “For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words, of him the Son of Man will be ashamed when He comes in His own glory, and in His Father’s, and of the holy angels.”
In the eyes of this world, it is a shame to follow Jesus. It is an embarrassment to this world whenever anyone is devoted to Jesus as they should be. It is a contemptible thing to identify ourselves with His death on the cross. One of the most worldly men of modern times—Ted Turner—once declared that Christianity is a religion for losers. And from a perspective of life viewed from this world only, he was right. If we take up our cross and follow Jesus as we must, that’s how the world will think of us.
The apostle Paul wrote about this in 1 Corinthians 1:18-25; and said,
For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written:
“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise,
And bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent.”
Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world through wisdom did not know God, it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. For Jews request a sign, and Greeks seek after wisdom; but we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men (1 Corinthians 1:18-25).
But what greater foolishness it would be to be ashamed of Jesus—the Son of God in human flesh; crucified, raised and exalted—who will one day rule as King of kings and Lord of Lords! How foolish to be ashamed of Him who the Father in heaven exalts to His right hand; and who the angels of heaven fall down and worship! We suffer shame for a time; but we look ahead to sharing in His glory at His return throughout eternity.
Are we willing to follow Him if it means we must suffer shame for a brief while?
* * * * * * * * * *
It costs to follow Jesus. He has told us so in advance. It involves nothing less than daily death to self, the denial of the pleasures and riches of this world, and the enduring of shame from a Christ-hating world. If someone were to look it all over and decide that they didn’t want to pay the price, then they should not think that they may become one of His disciples.
But if you are like me—and you know that you must follow Him as imperfectly as you may; and that love for Him and for His sacrifice on the cross compels you—then we should pray together that we may be helped by Him to grow increasingly to pay the price.
As the apostle Paul wrote;
Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus (Philippians 3:12-14).
EA
Posted by Angella Diehl, Webmaster on July 12, 2020 under 2020 | Be the First to Comment
Bethany Bible Church Sunday Message; July 12, 2020 from 2 Corinthians 1:15-20
Theme: The promises of God are all ‘Yes’ and ‘Amen’ in our Lord Jesus Christ.
(All Scripture is taken from The New King James Version, unless otherwise indicated).
Click HERE for the live-stream archive of this sermon.
Posted by Pastor Greg Allen on July 8, 2020 under AM Bible Study | Be the First to Comment
AM Bible Study Group: July 8, 2020 from Luke 9:7-20
Theme: The works that Jesus did confirm to us that He is the Son of God.
(All Scripture is taken from The New King James Version, unless otherwise indicated).
Click HERE for the live-stream archive of this Bible Study.
The different writers of the Gospels—Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John—all tell us accurately the same basic stories of what Jesus did and taught. But the Holy Spirit led each of those writers to tell these stories in ways that were unique to who they were, and to arrange them in ways that were consistent with their particular purpose of writing. And so, under the Holy Spirit’s guidance, these different writers arranged the events they reported in such a way as to bring particular emphasis to particular truths about our Savior.
This morning, in Luke 9:7-20, we come to some stories about the Lord Jesus that are told to us in most of the other Gospels. But Luke recorded his account of these stories in such a way—and grouped them together in such a manner—so as to teach us an important lesson about our Lord. By putting the pieces together in the particular manner that Luke has given them to us, we arrive at an ‘inductive’ conclusion about Jesus’ identity.
* * * * * * * * *
Now; let me explain that word “induction”. There are two main types of direction that we can go into developing a reasoned argument. One way is ‘inductively’, and the other is ‘deductively’. Inductive reasoning is when we gather the evidence together—make careful observations about it all—and then come to a conclusion. Deductive reasoning takes the opposite course. It states a conclusion at the beginning, and then gathers the evidence together to prove that the conclusion is correct and accurate. (A handy way of remembering this is that a deductive argument is like a rhinoceros, because it makes its point at the beginning; and that an inductive argument is like a bumble-bee, because it makes its point at the end.)
In Luke 9, we find both kinds of arguments being used to think about Jesus. In the first case, King Herod had some conclusions about Jesus that he had arrived at ‘deductively’. He had an idea about Jesus that he formed at the very beginning—mostly by deriving his opinion from other people. His idea about Jesus happened to be wrong, because he had not developed it by examining the facts—but rather by listening to what other people had to say. And in the second case, the disciples came to a conclusion about the Lord Jesus that they made ‘inductively’. They had observed the things that He did, and came to a conclusion about who He is. And in their case, their conclusion was correct. And the thing that Luke places between those two different conclusions is the story of a great miracle that Jesus performed—something that the disciples looked at, but that Herod never saw.
And when we put the pieces together—as Luke has arranged them for us—we learn an important spiritual principle. Many people think about Jesus with conclusions that they have already set in place for themselves. They heard from someone—perhaps through tradition, or through a lecture they heard in college, or through popular opinion—that He was this or that He was that. And then, they simply view Him from the standpoint of the conclusions they have already made. They thus see Him incorrectly. But it is by carefully observing the works of our Lord—and believing those works—that we come ‘inductively’ to an accurate conclusion about who He is.
We know that this is the way to do learn about Him, because Jesus Himself said,
“The works that I do in My Father’s name, they bear witness of Me” (John 10:25).
* * * * * * * * * *
So; let’s begin by looking at the first story; the story of
1. THE CONCLUSION OF HEROD (vv. 7-9).
This story is told to us right after the story of how the Lord Jesus had sent His disciples out to the ‘lost sheep of the house of Israel’ to preach the kingdom and to testify of Him. And while they were away in their mission, we’re told this about King Herod:
Now Herod the tetrarch heard of all that was done by Him; and he was perplexed, because it was said by some that John had risen from the dead, and by some that Elijah had appeared, and by others that one of the old prophets had risen again. Herod said, “John I have beheaded, but who is this of whom I hear such things?” So he sought to see Him (Luke 9:7-9).
Herod, whose full name was Herod Antipater, is called ‘the tetrarch’. That meant that he was a ruler over a quarter of the land of Israel. After his father Herod the Great had died, Caesar Augustus put this man—nicknamed Antipas; which means “In Place of Dad”—in charge of the regions of Galilee and Perea. This man Herod had heard about the things that Jesus was doing in his region; but we’re told that he was ‘perplexed’ about Him. That’s really a mild way of putting it; because the word itself suggests that he was thoroughly at a loss over Jesus.
And the reason why he was so perplexed was because he was listening to the talk that was going around about Jesus. Some folks were saying that—because He was preaching the same message that John the Baptist preached—He must be the reincarnation of John. Others were saying that this man Jesus—because He performed the sort of miracles that Elijah had performed—must be the reappearance of Elijah. Others still were saying that He must be one of the Old Testament prophets who had risen and was ministering on the earth again. You might remember that folks were saying some of the same sorts of things about John as he baptized and ministered.
But Herod Antipas had a particular reason for being so perplexed. It was because he had beheaded John. Mark 6:14-29 tells us the gruesome story:
Now King Herod heard of Him, for His name had become well known. And he said, “John the Baptist is risen from the dead, and therefore these powers are at work in him.” Others said, “It is Elijah.” And others said, “It is the Prophet, or like one of the prophets.” But when Herod heard, he said, “This is John, whom I beheaded; he has been raised from the dead!” For Herod himself had sent and laid hold of John, and bound him in prison for the sake of Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife; for he had married her. Because John had said to Herod, “It is not lawful for you to have your brother’s wife.” Therefore Herodias held it against him and wanted to kill him, but she could not; for Herod feared John, knowing that he was a just and holy man, and he protected him. And when he heard him, he did many things, and heard him gladly. Then an opportune day came when Herod on his birthday gave a feast for his nobles, the high officers, and the chief men of Galilee. And when Herodias’ daughter herself came in and danced, and pleased Herod and those who sat with him, the king said to the girl, “Ask me whatever you want, and I will give it to you.” He also swore to her, “Whatever you ask me, I will give you, up to half my kingdom.” So she went out and said to her mother, “What shall I ask?” And she said, “The head of John the Baptist!” Immediately she came in with haste to the king and asked, saying, “I want you to give me at once the head of John the Baptist on a platter.” And the king was exceedingly sorry; yet, because of the oaths and because of those who sat with him, he did not want to refuse her. Immediately the king sent an executioner and commanded his head to be brought. And he went and beheaded him in prison, brought his head on a platter, and gave it to the girl; and the girl gave it to her mother. When his disciples heard of it, they came and took away his corpse and laid it in a tomb (Mark 6:14-29).
Herod Antipas—a man who was already paranoid and confused because he had wickedly murdered John the Baptist—was becoming a little freaked out by all of these different opinions about Jesus that he was hearing. The other Gospels tell us that he believed that Jesus was—somehow—John risen from the dead. But his conclusions were all based on unbelieving presuppositions and not on observable facts. We’re told that Herod sought to see Jesus—but it was mostly out of curiosity. We’re told in John 19 that, after Jesus was arrested, Pilate sent Jesus to Herod—and so, Herod finally did get to see Him. But it was mostly in the hopes that he could see Jesus perform a miracle for him. Jesus remained silent as He stood before Herod; and so—in unbelieving contempt for Jesus—Herod sent Him back to Pilate to be crucified.
Herod’s approach to Jesus is like a lot of people’s today. They don’t base their conclusions about Him on the things that He actually did or said; but merely on the basis of popular opinions or personal preferences. They approach Jesus—you might say—on the basis of ‘faulty deductions’; and so, they never come to know the truth about Him.
But that leads us to the actual facts about Him. Those facts are shown to us through the report of His works. He did what only the Son of God in human flesh could do. Luke goes on to show us, then, one example of this:
2. THE FEEDING OF THE MULTITUDE (vv. 10-17).
It’s a very familiar story to us. Luke tells us;
And the apostles, when they had returned, told Him all that they had done. Then He took them and went aside privately into a deserted place belonging to the city called Bethsaida. But when the multitudes knew it, they followed Him; and He received them and spoke to them about the kingdom of God, and healed those who had need of healing (vv. 10-11).
Jesus had drawn His disciples away for a time of rest. But when the crowd found out about it, and gathered in great numbers to meet Him, He wasn’t angry with them. Instead, He welcomed them and ministered to their needs.
When the day began to wear away, the twelve came and said to Him, “Send the multitude away, that they may go into the surrounding towns and country, and lodge and get provisions; for we are in a deserted place here.” But He said to them, “You give them something to eat.” And they said, “We have no more than five loaves and two fish, unless we go and buy food for all these people.” For there were about five thousand men. Then He said to His disciples, “Make them sit down in groups of fifty.” And they did so, and made them all sit down. Then He took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven, He blessed and broke them, and gave them to the disciples to set before the multitude. So they all ate and were filled, and twelve baskets of the leftover fragments were taken up by them (vv. 12-17).
I have been to the place where this happened. I even got to open the Bible in that very place and read this story. One woman came up to me afterward and told me that she believed that the way a little boy had given his humble lunch of five loaves and two fish to the Lord was what inspired everyone else to share their food; and that’s how everyone was fed. But I had to remind her that Jesus didn’t tell the disciples, “Let everyone take the food they have and give to one another something to eat.” He told the disciples, “You give them something to eat.” That was because there was nothing else to draw from but those five loaves and two fish.
How did it happen? How did Jesus do this? What did it look like? We’re not told. But everyone—five thousand men; and possibly with many women and children—were all full; and there was an abundance of food left over. Only the Son of God could do this.
And it’s right then that Luke goes on to tell us another story. It is meant to be seen in the light of the wrong conclusions that Herod had come to—wrong because he never looked at the facts or had a heart to believe the works that our Lord did. Luke goes on to show us …
3. THE CONCLUSION OF THE DISCIPLES (vv. 18-20).
We’re told;
And it happened, as He was alone praying, that His disciples joined Him, and He asked them, saying, “Who do the crowds say that I am?” So they answered and said, “John the Baptist, but some say Elijah; and others say that one of the old prophets has risen again” (vv. 18-19).
They were answering Jesus’ question. They were telling Him what they have heard people say about Him. They were reporting the same incorrect conclusions that people had been coming to because of their presuppositions and misguided opinions. Even Herod was saying the same things.
But then Jesus asked them the question that you and I must answer:
He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Peter answered and said, “The Christ of God” (v. 20).
“The Christ of God” is another way of saying ‘the Promised Messiah’. In Matthew 16:16, we’re told that Peter said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” And Jesus responded to his answer by saying, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven” (v. 17). Peter, in other words, gave the right answer. He and the others had seen the works that Jesus had done, and they rightly ‘induced’ that He was the Son of God in human flesh—the promised Christ sent from God—because only the Son of God could do what Jesus did.
* * * * * * * * * *
Do you have questions about who Jesus is? You should wonder about Him. He’s the most controversial figure in all of human history. He is presented to us in the Bible as the Son of God in human flesh; and what you do with Him will determine the destiny of your soul. He is worth asking about.
But don’t simply believe what everyone else says about Him. Don’t draw your conclusions about Him from the opinions of people who are as in the dark about Him as Herod was. You’ll never come to the truth about Him by just picking and choosing from the smorgasbord of opinions. Instead, go to the Bible and read about His works from those who saw them. Let His works testify of Him.
Luke, at the beginning of His Gospel, wrote;
Inasmuch as many have taken in hand to set in order a narrative of those things which have been fulfilled among us, just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word delivered them to us, it seemed good to me also, having had perfect understanding of all things from the very first, to write to you an orderly account, most excellent Theophilus, that you may know the certainty of those things in which you were instructed (Luke 1:1-4).
And the apostle John, at the end of His Gospel, wrote;
And truly Jesus did many other signs in the presence of His disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name (John 20:30-31).
Don’t come to your conclusions about Jesus on the basis of the opinions of others. Instead, be ‘inductive’. Go to the Bible and read the eyewitness accounts of His works for yourself. Because as Jesus Himself said, “The works that I do in My Father’s name, they bear witness of Me”
EA
