Category: Abide

Easter '19

4/21/2019

Teacher: Rusty Kennedy
Series: Easter

Gospels (66) - John 15:7-14

8/5/2018

Teacher: Rusty Kennedy
Series: Gospels

Rusty's Notes

John 15
6 If anyone does not remain in me, he is thrown aside like a branch and he withers. They gather them, throw them into the fire, and they are burned.

1 Corinthians 3:12-15 - 12 If anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay, or straw, 13 each one’s work will become obvious. For the day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire; the fire will test the quality of each one’s work. 14 If anyone’s work that he has built survives, he will receive a reward. 15 If anyone’s work is burned up, he will experience loss, but he himself will be saved—but only as through fire.[1]
Judgment Seat of Christ – Is for believers and is a judgment of their works based upon done by self or “in Christ”.

It’s the fruit that burns… not the believer

Romans 14:23 - …everything that is not from faith is sin. [2]
Romans 8:1 - Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus,[3]
Will our selfish works even be in heaven because they are sin? Or will they be listed without any penalty?

7 If you remain (abide) in me and my words remain (abide) in you, ask whatever you want and it will be done for you.

Abide – Live my life by another source.
It means to keep in fellowship with Christ so that His life can work in and through us to produce fruit.[4]
Describe what living by faith looks like for me.
This is what we hear… “This abiding relationship is natural to the branch and the vine, but it must be cultivated in the Christian life. It is not automatic. Abiding in Christ demands worship, meditation on God’s Word, prayer, sacrifice, and service—but what a joyful experience it is! Once you have begun to cultivate this deeper communion with Christ, you have no desire to return to the shallow life of the careless Christian.”[5]
This is not about memorizing the Word of God… This is about knowing your Father so well that you know what His will is for your life and it greatly impacts how you communicate with Him.
This is not a formula for getting what you want.
This is the result of knowing the Father.
1 John 2:13-14 – 1) Children understand forgiveness, 2) young men understand how to overcome the evil one and 3) the fathers know the One who is from the beginning.
There is an intimacy with the Creator.

8 My Father is glorified by this: that you produce much fruit and prove to be my disciples.

How is fruit born through our lives?
Father through the Son through our lives (while we rest).
Who produces the fruit? The gardener through the vine through the branch.
You can think you do a lot but hopefully it is the Father doing it through you.
Yield to His life and much fruit will be produced and God is glorified.
It is impossible in the flesh but only works in the Spirit.
Many of these things could be counterfeited by the flesh, but the deception would eventually be detected, for real spiritual fruit has in it the seeds for more fruit.
Man-made results are dead and cannot reproduce themselves, but Spirit-produced fruit will go on reproducing from one life to another.
There will be fruit—more fruit—much fruit.[6]

CHRISTLIKE LOVE
9 “As the Father has loved me, I have also loved you. Remain in my love.

To the 11 disciples.
There is only 1 way to do this… yield their life to another.
Christ’s love becomes their love for each other.
Unity – You will never see unity in the Church (body of Christ) until they learn to live their life by another.
When we have been opposed, hated, belittled, even irritated by others… we are given a free pass.
This is our thinking in the flesh.
Christ says, love them as I have loved you.
I know you can’t do it… you’ve already proved that.
So yield your life to me and I will do it for you.
Remain (abide) in me and I will do it for you.
I got you!

10 If you keep my commands you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love.

What are his commandments?
Love the Jesus and others – I John 3:23
Do you view this as a command (as you were probably taught… so as to control your behavior)?
Or do you see this the result of abiding in Christ?
Jesus perfected the Law…
Did he do this in His own strength to prove His obedience to the Father?
Or was Jesus obedient as a result of abiding with His Father’s love?
You always start with intimacy…
Out of intimacy comes obedience.
We are taught to start with obedience.
I’m convinced that I can have a lot of sad breakfast with men and women who have entered into difficult circumstances.
But my response to each person will always be the same.
Get to know the Father.
This is trusting that God’s Word will be true.

11 “I have told you these things so that my joy may be in you and your joy may be complete.
12 “This is my command: Love one another as I have loved you. 13 No one has greater love than this: to lay down his life for his friends.

What is a friend?
It is not accountability partner.
It is knowing the other person so well that you don’t have to ask them the personal questions.
Who were Jesus’ friends?
Not only the disciples (and us), but also the Father and the Spirit.
No greater love was ever displayed than what Jesus did for us at the cross.

14 You are my friends if you do what I command you. [7]
Believe in Jesus’s name and love others.

[1] Christian Standard Bible. (2017). (1 Co 3:12–15). Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers.
[2] Christian Standard Bible. (2017). (Ro 14:23). Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers.
[3] Christian Standard Bible. (2017). (Ro 8:1). Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers.
[4] Wiersbe, W. W. (1996). The Bible exposition commentary (Vol. 1, p. 355). Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.
[5] Wiersbe, W. W. (1996). The Bible exposition commentary (Vol. 1, p. 355). Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.
[6] Wiersbe, W. W. (1996). The Bible exposition commentary (Vol. 1, p. 356). Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.
[7] Christian Standard Bible. (2017). (Jn 15:1–14). Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers.

Gospels (65) - John 14:27 – 15:6

7/29/2018

Teacher: Rusty Kennedy
Series: Gospels

Rusty's Notes

JESUS’S GIFT OF PEACE
John 14
27 “Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you.

Shalom means wholeness, completeness, health, security, even prosperity in the best sense.
The world bases its peace on its resources, while God’s peace depends on relationships.
How do you get that peace?
Yielding to His life
It’s not by knowing the Word
You cannot generate the peace Jesus is talking about.
The Scripture is not our life… It is Jesus who is revealed through the Word.
The Spirit uses the Word to give us His peace (John 14:27), His love (John 15:9–10), and His joy (John 15:11). If that does not calm a troubled heart, nothing will![1]
We have to live by His life.
You have to know this… but it is not by knowing that you have peace… it is by living your life by another source.
Christ in you.
Police Chief Thompson

I do not give to you as the world gives.

There will always be only two responses:
1) From the world (based on circumstance) – Condemnation
2) From Jesus – Grace, comfort and peace.

Don’t let your heart be troubled or fearful. 28 You have heard (not understood) me tell you, ‘I am going away and I am coming to you.’ If you loved me, you would rejoice that I am going to the Father,
- If they only knew what was to come!
- He returned to the Father different than when He came from the Father.
- Came as a prophet but left as a high priest.
- He had to have blood to offer.
- He will return as King!
because the Father is greater than I.
- Not in deity but in the limitations of human flesh.

Hebrews 10:20 - He has inaugurated for us a new and living way through the curtain (that is, through his flesh)[2]
Philippians 2:5-8 - 5 Adopt the same attitude as that of Christ Jesus, 6 who, existing in the form of God, did not consider equality with God as something to be exploited. 7 Instead he emptied himself by assuming the form of a servant, taking on the likeness of humanity. And when he had come as a man, 8 he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death— even to death on a cross. [3]

29 I have told you now before it happens so that when it does happen you may believe.
- “Oh, wow!!!!”
30 I will not talk with you much longer, because the ruler of the world is coming. He has no power over me.

Two things: The evil one is the ruler of the world.
The evil one has no power over Jesus Christ.
The safest place to be is “in Christ”.
The evil knows no Truth – He told the 1st lie.
No Truth = No wisdom
No wisdom = No discernment
Truth possesses wisdom
With wisdom there is discernment
Jesus and the evil one can’t even be compared.
No authority over Jesus.

31 On the contrary, so that the world may know that I love the Father, I do as the Father commanded me.
Get up; let’s leave this place.” [4]

Matthew 26:30 - After singing a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.[5]

14. Hallel: The singing of the Psalms 113-118Current practice:

These Psalms sung over the 4th cup (cup of praise)

15. Nirtzah: Current practice: Nirtzah means “accepted”

Modern day addition
Someone states that God is pleased with how the Seder was performed

Since 600 AD, scholarly Jews have debated whether there were 4 or 5 cups.

A 5th cup was poured but never consumed
They agreed to leave it that way until Elijah comes and settles the dispute.
It is now named the Elijah cup.
The door is opened to accommodate his return.

THE VINE AND THE BRANCHES
15 “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener.

Who is responsible for producing fruit?
The gardener.

2 Every branch in me that does not produce fruit he removes (lifts up – Olive Trees), and he prunes every branch that produces fruit so that it will produce more fruit. 3 You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. 4 Remain (abide) in me, and I in you. Just as a branch is unable to produce fruit by itself unless it remains on the vine, neither can you unless you remain (abide) in me.

Abiding is learning to live your life by another.
Read your Bible? Go on a mission trip? Praying?
NO!
Living your life in Christ. Letting Him doing those things for you.
You have heard us say you either do things by the Spirit or do things by the flesh.
You realize you can do “religious things” in your own flesh and it is sin.
Figure out how to “rest”… a Sabbath Rest is to come.
Relax, breathe, enjoy Jesus. Abide!
Take a break from Christianity!
Just be…

5 I am the vine; you are the branches. The one who remains in me and I in him produces much fruit, because you can do nothing without me.

The branch cannot produce its own life; it must draw that life from the vine.
It is our communion with Christ through the Spirit that makes possible the bearing of the fruit.[6]

6 If anyone does not remain (abide) in me, he is thrown aside like a branch and he withers. They gather them, throw them into the fire, and they are burned. [7]

1 Corinthians 3:12-15 - 12 If anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay, or straw, 13 each one’s work will become obvious. For the day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire; the fire will test the quality of each one’s work. 14 If anyone’s work that he has built survives, he will receive a reward. 15 If anyone’s work is burned up, he will experience loss, but he himself will be saved—but only as through fire.[8]
Judgment Seat of Christ – Is for believers and is a judgment of their works based upon done by self or “in Christ”.
It’s the fruit that burns… not the believer.

Video from Becky Novakoski

[1] Wiersbe, W. W. (1996). The Bible exposition commentary (Vol. 1, p. 354). Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.
[2] Christian Standard Bible. (2017). (Heb 10:20). Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers.
[3] Christian Standard Bible. (2017). (Php 2:5–8). Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers.
[4] Christian Standard Bible. (2017). (Jn 14:6–15). Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers.
[5] Christian Standard Bible. (2017). (Mt 26:30). Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers.
[6] Wiersbe, W. W. (1996). The Bible exposition commentary (Vol. 1, p. 355). Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.
[7] Christian Standard Bible. (2017). (Jn 15:1–6). Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers.
[8] Christian Standard Bible. (2017). (1 Co 3:12–15). Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers.

Words Defined - Part 1

2/26/2017

Teacher: Rusty Kennedy
Series: Words Defined

Rusty's Notes

Atonement
- Old Testament The word “atonement” occurs nearly one hundred times in the Old Testament, usually rendered “make an atonement” (cf. Lev. 16:20, “atone”). kpr “cover” and Akk. kapāru “spread over,” “wipe off” Given the context at Gen. 32:20, Heb. kpr can most directly be translated “cover” (RSV, KJV “appease”; JB “conciliate”; NIV “pacify”; cf. Prov. 16:6, 14) or “to blot out” guilt (cf. Isa. 6:7).
- The New Testament retains the Old Testament meaning of atone (ment), though it uses the word specifically only once, at Rom. 5:11
Forgiveness
- One of the constituent parts of justification. In pardoning sin, God absolves the sinner from the condemnation of the law, and that on account of the work of Christ, i.e., he removes the guilt of sin, or the sinner’s actual liability to eternal wrath on account of it. All sins are forgiven freely (Acts 5:31; 13:38; 1 John 1:6–9). The sinner is by this act of grace forever freed from the guilt and penalty of his sins. This is the peculiar prerogative of God (Ps. 130:4; Mark 2:5). It is offered to all in the gospel.[1]
Faith
- Human belief in and reliance upon the divine.
- Old Testament It is said of Abraham, the first patriarch, that he believed God (Gen. 15:6), and that God “reckoned it to him as righteousness.”
- In the New Testament, however, the focus is not so much on God’s providential care as manifest in various historical events (e.g., the Exodus, the return from exile) as on the coming of his son Jesus Christ, who would establish the kingdom of God.
Abide
- John 15:6 (HCSB) - 6 If anyone does not remain in Me, he is thrown aside like a branch and he withers. They gather them, throw them into the fire, and they are burned.[2]
- John 15:6 (NASB) - “If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away as a branch and dries up; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire and they are burned.[3]
- John 6:37 - 37 Everyone the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will never cast out.[4]
- John 10:27-30 - 27 My sheep hear My voice, I know them, and they follow Me. 28 I give them eternal life, and they will never perish —ever! No one will snatch them out of My hand. 29 My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all. No one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. 30 The Father and I are one.”[5]

[1] Easton, M. G. (1893). In Easton’s Bible dictionary. New York: Harper & Brothers.
[2] The Holy Bible: Holman Christian standard version. (2009). (Jn 15:6). Nashville: Holman Bible Publishers.
[3] New American Standard Bible: 1995 update. (1995). (Jn 15:6). LaHabra, CA: The Lockman Foundation.
[4] The Holy Bible: Holman Christian standard version. (2009). (Jn 6:37). Nashville: Holman Bible Publishers.
[5] The Holy Bible: Holman Christian standard version. (2009). (Jn 10:27–30). Nashville: Holman Bible Publishers.

Easter '19

Gospels (66) - John 15:7-14

Rusty's Notes

Gospels (65) - John 14:27 – 15:6

Rusty's Notes

Words Defined - Part 1

Rusty's Notes

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