Jesus toyed with Pharisees about death & life
 
John 8:51-59
51 Truly I tell you, if anyone keeps my word, he will never see death.”
52 Then the Jews said, “Now we know you have a demon. Abraham died and so did the prophets. You say, ‘If anyone keeps my word, he will never taste death.’ 53 Are you greater than our father Abraham who died? And the prophets died. Who do you claim to be?”
54 “If I glorify myself,” Jesus answered, “my glory is nothing. My Father—about whom you say, ‘He is our God’—he is the one who glorifies me. 55 You do not know him, but I know him. If I were to say I don’t know him, I would be a liar like you. But I do know him, and I keep his word. 56 Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day; he saw it and was glad.”
57 The Jews replied, “You aren’t fifty years old yet, and you’ve seen Abraham?”
58 Jesus said to them, “Truly I tell you, before Abraham was, I am.”
59 So they picked up stones to throw at him. But Jesus was hidden and went out of the temple. [1]

• We have always been fascinated with death & the afterlife.
• Death Education Class in China
• “Heaven is For Real”
• In all created things God has created this incredible symphony.

 
1 Corinthians 15:35–58 (NLT)
The Resurrection Body
35 But someone may ask, “How will the dead be raised? What kind of bodies will they have?” 36 What a foolish question! When you put a seed into the ground, it doesn’t grow into a plant unless it dies first. 37 And what you put in the ground is not the plant that will grow, but only a bare seed of wheat or whatever you are planting. 38 Then God gives it the new body he wants it to have. A different plant grows from each kind of seed. 39 Similarly there are different kinds of flesh—one kind for humans, another for animals, another for birds, and another for fish.
40 There are also bodies in the heavens and bodies on the earth. The glory of the heavenly bodies is different from the glory of the earthly bodies. 41 The sun has one kind of glory, while the moon and stars each have another kind. And even the stars differ from each other in their glory.
42 It is the same way with the resurrection of the dead. Our earthly bodies are planted in the ground when we die, but they will be raised to live forever. 43 Our bodies are buried in brokenness, but they will be raised in glory. They are buried in weakness, but they will be raised in strength. 44 They are buried as natural human bodies, but they will be raised as spiritual bodies. For just as there are natural bodies, there are also spiritual bodies.
45 The Scriptures tell us, “The first man, Adam, became a living person.” But the last Adam—that is, Christ—is a life-giving Spirit. 46 What comes first is the natural body, then the spiritual body comes later. 47 Adam, the first man, was made from the dust of the earth, while Christ, the second man, came from heaven. 48 Earthly people are like the earthly man, and heavenly people are like the heavenly man. 49 Just as we are now like the earthly man, we will someday be like the heavenly man.
50 What I am saying, dear brothers and sisters, is that our physical bodies cannot inherit the Kingdom of God. These dying bodies cannot inherit what will last forever.
51 But let me reveal to you a wonderful secret. We will not all die, but we will all be transformed! 52 It will happen in a moment, in the blink of an eye, when the last trumpet is blown. For when the trumpet sounds, those who have died will be raised to live forever. And we who are living will also be transformed. 53 For our dying bodies must be transformed into bodies that will never die; our mortal bodies must be transformed into immortal bodies.
54 Then, when our dying bodies have been transformed into bodies that will never die, this Scripture will be fulfilled:
“Death is swallowed up in victory.
55 O death, where is your victory?
O death, where is your sting?”
56 For sin is the sting that results in death, and the law gives sin its power. 57 But thank God! He gives us victory over sin and death through our Lord Jesus Christ.
58 So, my dear brothers and sisters, be strong and immovable. Always work enthusiastically for the Lord, for you know that nothing you do for the Lord is ever useless.[2]

• It’s important to remember that resurrection after death was not a new idea:
• In the Fall, leaves drop from the trees and the plants die. They turn brown, wither, and lose their life.
• They remain that way for the winter – dormant, dead and lifeless.
• And then Spring comes, and they burst into life again. Growing, sprouting, producing new leaves and buds.
• For there to be Spring, there has to be Fall and Winter. For nature to spring to life it first must die.
• Death then resurrection.
• It’s true across our environment with ecosystems, food chains and seasons.

"The death of one living thing for the life of another." (Circle of Life)
What are some examples of death leading to life?

• Genesis – Produce from the trees – Died.
• (Death entered the world.
• Adam & Eve’s spirits died.
• Animal was the first sacrifice.
• Skin cells die and flake off daily and after 30 days we have a new skin.
• Firemen at 9-11
• Now these oranges were originally alive; they were connected to the tree which has its roots in the soil.
• They grew from the earth.
• They were once all receiving nutrients from the earth, but then they were harvested, thrown on a truck, brought to the farmer’s market, and eventually ended up in our kitchen.
• When they were harvested, they were severed from the tree, they were pulled from the soil, they were disconnected from their life source, and they were brought to us so that we could eat them.

 

• And if we don’t eat, we don’t live.
• This food …this dead food …gives us life,
• The more recently food has been living the more life it gives us. Fresh food is better for us.

John 12:24 - Truly I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains by itself. But if it dies, it produces much fruit.[3]

• Jesus teaches us how to die so that we can really live.
• Jesus invites parts of us to die to our flesh.
• This is what holds us back from living – like the part of us that constantly tries to make ourselves look good, or the part of us that always has to be right, or the part of us that always has to be better than others, or the part of us that always tries to look like we have it together.

 
What Jesus is teaching with the use of the metaphor is that we must undergo a process of transformation ...a change from death to life.

Admittedly, we resist the process. It is hard to give up our agendas, our objectives, our aspirations, our interests—our ego. Yet this is what we have been called to: the new life of Christ in us. That is a marvelous exchange!

• In our dying, Christ is alive within us.
• In our brokenness Christ is seen clearly. The way to fullness is brokenness; the way to life is by death.

Two points seem unmistakably clear to me here: the first is that this is hard; the second is that this is glorious.

• We don’t need to miss either of these. If we only see the hard part, we will miss the power and the freedom.
• If we only see the glorious part, we will minimize the sacrifice.
• The seed must die. ―Unless a seed falls to the ground and dies, it cannot bear any fruit.

 
Jesus refers here to his own impending death and resurrection. Jesus makes a promise.

• His death will result in life, not only for his crucified body, but for all humankind.
• I hope we all understand the truth Jesus is sharing: our hope for life is in his death, burial, and resurrection.
• To receive God’s free gift of eternal life, we must die to our own efforts to earn or control our destiny and put ourselves totally in Jesus’ hands.

 
In Luke 9:23 Jesus says, ― “If anyone wants to follow after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow me.”[4]

• Denying ourselves is dying to self.
• What we allow to die in our lives
• We’re invited to trust Jesus because we’ve been told we can never do it alone.
• But some people refuse to die.
• They relentlessly cling to their egos and false selves and keep propping up that version of themselves that they think is desirable, and trust in their own efforts to accomplish this somehow, someday.

 
Is this you holding on to your life so tightly that you are actually losing it? And you can’t really experience it?
 
“All men die… Not all men really live.” – William Wallace
 
Trying to kill the flesh through our flesh always fails!

• Truly dying to self means saying no to the flesh and its attempts to decide what's good for us apart from God. 
• It means coming under the authority of God's Word and submitting to the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. 
• The Holy Spirit is the one who leads us down the path of death to self-rule. 
• As we entrust ourselves to Jesus, the Spirit enables us more and more to die to self and live to Christ. – (Jeff Pokone)

 
In a supreme act of faith, a farmer opens his hands and drops his seed into the earth.

• It lies there dead and buried, and he waits throughout the long winter for some sign that there will be a crop in the spring.
• Scientists cannot explain this mystery.
• A dead seed lies buried in the soil for weeks.
• And then, defying all logic, it comes alive.

We want to control everything.

• The problem with this picture is that it is not about living …it may be about existing, but it is hardly the abundant life that Jesus said he had come to bring.
• May we remember that if we die to self …if we die with Christ …we will also be raised to new life in Christ …that death leads to life.

 
Our Lord's cross is the gateway into His life.

• The tomb was the beginning... Not the end.
  
  

1 Corinthians 15:26 - 26 The last enemy to be abolished is death.[5]
 
Oswald Chambers - The Cross was the place where God and sinful man merged with a tremendous collision and where the way to life was opened. But all the cost and pain of the collision was absorbed by the heart of God.

[1] Christian Standard Bible (Jn 8:51–59). (2020). Holman Bible Publishers.
[2] Tyndale House Publishers. (2015). Holy Bible: New Living Translation (1 Co 15:35–58). Tyndale House Publishers
[3] Christian Standard Bible (Jn 12:24). (2020). Holman Bible Publishers.
[4] Christian Standard Bible (Lk 9:23). (2020). Holman Bible Publishers.
[5] Christian Standard Bible (1 Co 15:26). (2020). Holman Bible Publishers.

Romans 5:12--21
https://youtu.be/06ecQHtOWTM
2 Peter 3:16
16       as also in all his (Paul’s) letters, speaking in them of these things, in which there are some things that are hard to understand, which the untaught and unstable distort, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures, to their own destruction.
 
Romans 5:12
12       Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned--
 
Genesis 1:1 &2
1         In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
2         And the earth was a formless and desolate emptiness, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters.
 
Isaiah 45:18
18       For this is what the Lord says, He who created the heavens (He is the God who formed the earth and made it, He established it and did not create it as a waste place, but formed it to be inhabited…
 
Ezekiel 28:12 - 15
12       “Son of man, take up a song of mourning over the king of Tyre and say to him, ‘This is what the Lord God says:
“You had the seal of perfection, Full of wisdom and perfect in beauty.
13       You were in Eden, the garden of God; Every precious stone was your covering:
The ruby, the topaz and the diamond; the beryl, the onyx and the jasper; the lapis lazuli, the turquoise and the emerald; and the gold, the workmanship of your settings and sockets, was in you.  On the day that you were created they were prepared.
14       You were the anointed cherub who covers, and I placed you there.  You were on the holy mountain of God; you walked in the midst of the stones of fire.
15       You were blameless in your ways from the day you were created until unrighteousness was found in you.
 
Isaiah 14: 12 - 14
12       How you have fallen from heaven, you star of the morning, son of the dawn!  You have been cut down to the earth, you who defeated the nations!
13       But you said in your heart, ‘I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above the stars of God, and I will sit on the mount of assembly in the recesses of the north.
14       I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.
1 Peter 5:8
8         Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.

 
Man is a Three Part Being
1Thessalonians 5:23
Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, (1 Thessalonians 5:23)
 

Choose LIFE!

• I have an urgent matter to point out. 
  • These bodies we carry about are temporary.  They have 70-80 years on average.  It’s a sign that God is merciful, so let this body serve your true godly being.  This pleases God more than you may ever know!
  • In order to do that, stop listening to the rumblings of this world and focus your thoughts on the things of God!  Then you will hear Him more clearly!!
• The nation of Israel in the Old Testament seems to live out this Bible verse in their cultural experience.
  • Check out these verses in Deuteronomy 30:19,20
  • I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse.  So choose life that you may live, you and your descendants, by loving the Lord your God, by obeying His voice!
    
    
• Choose LIFE that you may live!
  • What is life?
  • Is it the absence of death?
  • Is it a span of time?
  • Is it something more?
  • What do you think? 
• I am the Way, the Truth and the Life!     John 14.6
• I can so you would have Life!  John 10.10
  
• Apostles were in a public Jail, ‘Go an speak to the people the whole message of this Life!’  Acts 5.20
  
• For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God.  Christ is our life!    Colossians 3.3,4
  
• Believers pass out of death and into life!  John 5.24
• I no longer live, the life that I live, I live by faith!  Galatians 2.20
  
• This is eternal life that they may know you the one true God!  John 17.3
  
• First Adam became a living soul, the last Adam became a life-giving spirit.                         1 Corinthians 15.45
  
• The letter kills, but the Spirit gives life!        2 Corinthians 3.6
  
• You were dead, but are now alive.
• You are the true person disguised by this body.  It imperfectly expresses the life hidden inside.
• 2 Corinthians 4:7-10 We have this TREASURE in an earthen vessel, so that the surpassing greatness of the power will be God and not us.  We are always carry about in the body the dying of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may be displayed in our bodies!!!

Galatians 2
11 But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face because he stood condemned. 12 For he regularly ate with the Gentiles before certain men came from James. However, when they came, he withdrew and separated himself, because he feared those from the circumcision party. 13 Then the rest of the Jews joined his hypocrisy, so that even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy.[1]
------
14 But when I saw that they were deviating from the truth of the gospel, I told Cephas in front of everyone, “If you, who are a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you compel Gentiles to live like Jews?”

• 1) Circumcision 2) Food laws & 3) Calendar observances
• Paul is separating Peter’s personal convictions vs Truth of the Word.
• Suppose Peter and Barnabas had won the day and led the church into legalism? What might the results have been?
• Would Antioch have continued to be the great missionary church that sent out Paul and Barnabas? (Acts 13)
• Would they, instead, have sent out the “missionaries” of the circumcision party and either captured or divided the churches Paul had already founded?
• You can see that this problem was not a matter of personality or party; it was a question of “the truth of the Gospel.”
• And Paul was prepared to fight for it.[2]

 

• What was the purpose of Paul confronting Peter in front of everyone?
• Was there emotion involved?
• What is the difference in communicating truth with anger vs no emotion?
• The same message is communicated.
• It never says what Paul’s emotions are… we just assume.
• You realize your reaction to news/information or the correction given will impact future exchanges of a relationship.
• Between a husband and a wife
• Between a parent and a child
• Between a boss and an employer
• Between friends or even siblings.
  ​
  

15 We are Jews by birth and not “Gentile sinners,”

• They were “Gentile sinners” from birth because they were not given the Law like the Jews were.

16 and yet because we know that a person is not justified by the works of the law but by faith in Jesus Christ, even we ourselves have believed in Christ Jesus. This was so that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law, because by the works of the law no human being will be justified.

• “How should [a] man be just with God?” (Job 9:2) was a vital question, because the answer determined eternal consequences.
• “The just shall live by his faith” (Hab. 2:4) is God’s answer.
• Justification is not simply “forgiveness,” because a person could be forgiven and then go out and sin and become guilty.
• Once you have been “justified by faith” you can never be held guilty before God.
• Justification is also different from “pardon,” because a pardoned criminal still has a record.
• When the sinner is justified by faith, his past sins are remembered against him no more, and God no longer puts his sins on record.

 

• So important is this concept that three New Testament books explain it to us: Romans (see 1:17), Galatians (see 3:11), and Hebrews (see 10:38).
• Romans explains the meaning of “the just”;
• Galatians explains “shall live”;
• Hebrews explains “by faith.”[3]
• Christ died one time and based upon our belief in the Son of God, we were justified one time.
• Proven “not guilty”
• Double Jeopardy – Cannot be tried twice for the same crime.

17 But if we ourselves are also found to be “sinners” while seeking to be justified by Christ, is Christ then a promoter of sin? Absolutely not! 18 If I rebuild those things that I tore down, I show myself to be a lawbreaker. 19 For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live for God.

• If a man is justified by the works of the Law, then why did Jesus Christ die?
• What died?
• The Law demanded death for those who broke it, but Christ paid that death penalty for all sinners. [4]
• To go back to Moses is to return to the graveyard!
• We have been “raised to walk in newness of life”[5]

20 I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God,

• Paul does not refer here to physical death, but to the death of his former self (see Eph 4:22).
• The self-righteous, self-centered Saul died.
• Paul’s understanding of union with Christ begins with the cross of Christ.
• This enables Paul to endure shame, contempt, and false accusations like Jesus, God’s Suffering Servant (Col 1:24; Phil 1:29).
• Christ lives in me Refers to new life in Christ as well as the presence of God’s Spirit, which empowers obedience to the gospel (Gal 3:2; 4:6; 5:16–18, 22–25).
• the Son of God Faith in the Son of God transforms a person from a slave to a child of God.

who loved me and gave himself for me.

• Paul describes the sacrificial love of Christ in personal terms.
• Christ’s willingness to die on behalf of sinners brings deliverance from the power of sin for those believe in Him (1:4).
• Grace says, “There is no difference! All are sinners, and all can be saved through faith in Christ!”
• But Peter’s actions had said, “There is a difference! The grace of God is not sufficient; we also need the Law.”
• Returning to the Law nullifies the Cross: “If righteousness came by the Law, then Christ is dead in vain” (Gal. 2:21).
• Law says DO! Grace says DONE! “It is finished!” was Christ’s victory cry (John 19:30). “For by grace are ye saved through faith”[6]
• In essence Paul affirmed, “If He loved me enough to give Himself for me, then He loves me enough to live out His life in me.”[7]

21 I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died for nothing.[8]

• Faith in the Son of God transforms a person from a slave of the Law to a child of God.
• Paul’s opponents had accused him of using God’s grace to justify unrighteous living.[9]
• We have no record of Peter’s reply to Paul’s rebuke, but Scripture would indicate that he admitted his sin and was restored to the fellowship once again.
• Certainly when you read his two letters (1 and 2 Peter) you detect no deviation from the Gospel of the grace of God.
• In fact, the theme of 1 Peter is “the true grace of God” (1 Peter 5:12); and the word grace is used in every chapter of the letter.
• Peter is careful to point out that he and Paul were in complete agreement, lest anyone try to “rob Peter to pay Paul”
  
  
• Ask yourself:
  1) Have I been saved by the grace of God?
  2) Am I trying to mix Law and grace?
  3) Am I rejoicing in the fact that I have been justified by faith in Christ Jesus?
  4) Am I walking in the freedom of grace?
  5) Am I walking by the Spirit (that aligns with the Truth of the Gospel)?
  6) Am I willing to walk by the Spirit in defense of the Gospel?

[1] Christian Standard Bible. (2017). (Ga 2:11–13). Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers.
[2] Wiersbe, W. W. (1996). The Bible exposition commentary (Vol. 1, p. 694). Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.
[3] Wiersbe, W. W. (1996). The Bible exposition commentary (Vol. 1, p. 695). Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.
[4] Campbell, D. K. (1985). Galatians. In J. F. Walvoord & R. B. Zuck (Eds.), The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures (Vol. 2, p. 596). Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.
[5] Wiersbe, W. W. (1996). The Bible exposition commentary (Vol. 1, p. 695). Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.
[6] Wiersbe, W. W. (1996). The Bible exposition commentary (Vol. 1, p. 696). Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.
[7] Campbell, D. K. (1985). Galatians. In J. F. Walvoord & R. B. Zuck (Eds.), The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures (Vol. 2, p. 596). Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.
[8] Christian Standard Bible. (2017). (Ga 2:1–21). Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers.
[9] Barry, J. D., Heiser, M. S., Custis, M., Mangum, D., & Whitehead, M. M. (2012). Faithlife Study Bible (Ga 2:21). Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software.

ANOTHER COUNSELOR PROMISED
15 “If you love me, you will keep my commands.
 - Last week…
16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with (abide) you forever. 17 He is the Spirit of truth. The world is unable to receive him because it doesn’t see him or know him. But you do know him, because he remains (abides) with you and will be in you.

• Old Testament – The Spirit follows and rests upon them.
• After Acts 2 – The Spirit comes and dwells in the believers.

 
THE FATHER, THE SON, AND THE HOLY SPIRIT
18 “I will not leave you as orphans; I am coming to you. 19 In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me. Because I live, you will live too.

• How did Jesus live? Father through the Son.
• John 10:10 – “I came that you might have life… abundant life.”

20 On that day (Pentecost) you will know that I am in my Father, you are in me, and I am in you.

• Envelopes

21 The one who has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me.

• Believe & love – Spirit through the Son through the Father.
• I John 3:22-24 - and receive whatever we ask from him because we keep his commands and do what is pleasing in his sight. 23 Now this is his command: that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one another as he commanded us. 24 The one who keeps his commands remains in him, and he in him. And the way we know that he remains in us is from the Spirit he has given us. [1]
• “As you go…”
• I said if you want to know how to make your marriage better… believe/know Him
• If you want to grow churches… believe/know Him
• If you want to change a particular behavior… believe/know Him
• If you want to impact the world – believe/know Him
• Knowing Christ is our only goal.

And the one who loves me will be loved by my Father. I also will love him and will reveal myself to him.”

• What does it mean to live by His life? - John 14:10 - The Father who lives in me does his works.[2]
• Romans 6:6 - For we know that our old self was crucified with him[3]
• Romans 6:11 - So, you too consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.[4]
• Romans 6:13 - But as those who are alive from the dead, offer yourselves to God,[5]
• The goal is to believe and love… when we do this, God reveals himself to us.

 
22 Judas (not Iscariot) said to him, “Lord, how is it you’re going to reveal yourself to us and not to the world?”

• Judas is still thinking from a physical perspective.

23 Jesus answered, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.

• This sounds like LAW.
• How do you keep the Word?
• Just as Jesus did… You live your life by the source of another. Jesus did by the Father… we do by Jesus.
• Romans 8:4 - in order that the law’s requirement would be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.[6]
• We are no longer under the Law but under the Spirit.
• All 3 of the Trinity come and make a home in us.

24 The one who doesn’t love me will not keep my words. The word that you hear is not mine but is from the Father who sent me.

• It was an act of mercy that He did not manifest Himself to the world, because that would have meant judgment.[7]
• We get emotionally charged when we see people sin.
• As we grow in Spiritual maturity we get less emotional about others sin.
• We understand it is natural for a sinner to sin.
• We understand that believers are making a choice to walk in their flesh (even if they think they are free).
• Does this mean we are light on sin?
• Absolutely not… It’s not my issue… unless the Spirit makes it my issue.

25 “I have spoken these things to you while I remain with you. 26 But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and remind you of everything I have told you.

• The Spirit will never tell us to do anything that contradicts God’s Law.
• The Spirit’s revelation will always align with the Word of God.
• Who wrote this book of “John”?
• Acts 4:13 - When they observed the boldness of Peter and John and realized that they were uneducated and untrained men, they were amazed and recognized that they had been with Jesus.[8]
• Yet they were the one who wrote the New Testament books.
• They would have to know the Old Testament word for word for their writings to align with the law, history and prophecy.
• Luke 2 – Jesus is referenced as “The Glory” – The Glory of the Lord shown around about them.
• Ezekiel 11 – Not
• Exodus 3 – Glory was in the bush
• Exodus 19 & 20 - on Mt. Sinai
• Exodus 40 – The Glory was in the Tabernacle
• 2 Chronicles 5 – King Solomon’s Temple
• Ezekiel 11 – Gone back to heaven
• Then Jesus has to be crucified at a specific day and time.
• Jesus has to be raised in 3 days
• “they were amazed and recognized that they had been with Jesus.”
• Being with Jesus makes all the difference.

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

• Jesus’ peace before He goes to the Garden of Gethsemane.
• Worst thing He could ever face in His life and yet He still had peace.
• This family that drowned in Branson. How does this lady survive?
• My friend, Becky Novakoski, is laying in a hospital in Knoxville, TN clinging to her life but I know that Jesus has given her His COMPLETE peace.
• My friend, Todd, is in the back of the room… and Jesus gives you HIS peace.

I do not give to you as the world gives. Don’t let your heart be troubled or fearful.[9]

• You have to know that peace.
• It has been made available to you.
• It is accessible.
• It is a fruit of the Spirit.
• You’re probably not going to experience unless you can figure out what Sabbath Rest is.
• We learn about peace through pain.
• We even learn through other’s pain.
• I’m taking notes on Becky & Todd

[1] Christian Standard Bible. (2017). (1 Jn 3:22–24). Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers.
[2] Christian Standard Bible. (2017). (Jn 14:10). Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers.
[3] Christian Standard Bible. (2017). (Ro 6:6). Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers.
[4] Christian Standard Bible. (2017). (Ro 6:11). Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers.
[5] Christian Standard Bible. (2017). (Ro 6:13). Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers.
[6] Christian Standard Bible. (2017). (Ro 8:4). Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers.
[7] Wiersbe, W. W. (1996). The Bible exposition commentary (Vol. 1, p. 353). Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.
[8] Christian Standard Bible. (2017). (Ac 4:13). Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers.
[9] Christian Standard Bible. (2017). (Jn 14:15–27). Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers.

As we move through the Gospels, we have watched Jesus come as a prophet and is now entering His time as a priest and will eventually get to Jesus as a king.

​JESUS REVEALS THE FATHER
John 14
6 Jesus told him, “I am the way,
 - The only way to the Father.
the truth,
 - Not his philosophies
and the life.

• Christ’s life in us is the difference.
• Jesus becomes your life.
• Not just as Savior that gets you out of hell.
• Jesus wants an intimate relationship with each believer.
• Not only will the Spirit come live in you, but Jesus and the Father will also.
• Colossians 3:4 – When Christ, who is your life…
• Romans 5:10 - … having been reconciled, will we be saved by his life.[1]

No one comes to the Father except through me.
 - Exclusivity – Just like all other faiths.
7 If you know me, you will also know my Father. From now on you do know him and have seen him.”

• They will always give the same answers.
• You ever experience identical twins were they finish each other sentences?

8 “Lord,” said Philip, “show us the Father, and that’s enough for us.”
9 Jesus said to him, “Have I been among you all this time and you do not know me, Philip? The one who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?

• “Observe the Master”

10 Don’t you believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me?

• Envelopes

The words I speak to you I do not speak on my own.

• The Father speaks through the Son.
• Three individual persons who are one.

The Father who lives (abides) in me does his works.

• Jesus performed no works
• Jesus didn’t perform any miracles.
• Jesus allowed the Father to LIVE His life through Him.
• The Father does life through the Son who does it through me.
• How does that look? How does that work?
• God never saved you for you to do things for Him.
• God saved you so that He could live through you.

 

• When Adam was placed in the Garden he was given a choice to eat from two trees: 1) The Tree of Life or the 2) Tree of Knowledge and Good and Evil.
• Adam chose to eat from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.
• If Adam would have eaten from the Tree of Life he would have roamed this earth with God living His life out through Adam.
• Jesus came along and showed us what that would have looked like. For the Father to live out life through Himself.
• Jesus died so that the Father could live out His life through Jesus and Jesus through us.
• We don’t imitate… we actually live out life.
• Adam missed out on living life through the Father.
• We now live a life through another.

11 Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me. Otherwise, believe because of the works themselves.

• Only the Father could have done the Messianic Miracles:

1. Healing a Jewish leper
2. Healing a blind man born blind
3. Casting demons out of a mute

 
PRAYING IN JESUS’S NAME
12 “Truly I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do.

• As a pastor for the majority of my life, I have seen people saved, healed and walk in freedom.
• It definitely was not because of me.

And he will do even greater works than these, because I am going to the Father.

• The Fathers works will be multiplied through the many believers.

13 Whatever you ask in my name, I will do it so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.

• Understanding God’s will is understanding His person.
• His name determines His will.
• God’s will is derived (originates) from His name.
• Know the Father.
• What is God’s Truth and will for my life? Know Him and you will know God’s will.

 
ANOTHER COUNSELOR PROMISED
15 “If you love me, you will keep my commands.

• Which commandments?
• We teach that you are no longer under the Law.
• The 10 commandments were not even given to the Gentiles.
• Romans 5:20 – The Law came along to increase sin.
• I John 3:22-24 - and receive whatever we ask from him because we keep his commands and do what is pleasing in his sight. 23 Now this is his command: that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one another as he commanded us. 24 The one who keeps his commands remains in him, and he in him. And the way we know that he remains in us is from the Spirit he has given us. [2]
• How do we love one another?
• Only the Father working through Jesus and Jesus working through us.
• It’s the only way it works.
• I will never understand how to “love” Michelle properly.
• But the more I know my Father, the more I learn to live my life by another who is able to love Michelle through me.
• If I am not loving to my wife… what does that say about me?
• Momentarily selfish… focused on me.
• The only way to love one another is by allowing the Father/Son to work through me.
  
  

[1] Christian Standard Bible. (2017). (Col 3:4, Ro 5:10). Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers.
[2] Christian Standard Bible. (2017). (1 Jn 3:22–24). Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers.