Category: Saturday Study

Saturday Study

Stephen (12-17-12)

In Acts 6:1-15, we read about the elders’ selection of the seven deacons. Stephen was highlighted above the rest as a man “full of faith and of the Holy Spirit”. While we don’t know about Stephen’s family or past, we know he worked hard to make converts among other Jews. While many Jews were converted, opposition arose from members of the Freedmen’s Synagogue.  They tried to debate Stephen, but were always defeated. Thus, they decided to bring false charges against him and Stephen was arrested and put on trial before the Sanhedrin. It was here that he was falsely accused of speaking against the law of Moses and against the temple.

Acts 7 is the record of Stephen’s telling what could be the most detailed and concise history of Israel and their relationship to God of any others in Scripture. God inspired him to speak without fear while rightly accusing Israel of their failure to recognize Jesus as the one true Messiah by rejecting and murdering Him as they had murdered Zechariah and other prophets and faithful men throughout their generations. Stephen’s speech was an indictment against Israel and their failures as the chosen people of God who had been given the law, the holy things of God, and the Messiah and they messed it up. As you can imagine, these were not well received by the Jews. Throughout his speech, he continually reminded them of their ongoing rebellion and idolatry, in spite of the mighty works of God to which they were eyewitnesses, thereby accusing them with their own history which only irritated them until they did not want to hear any more.  They set up to stone him for what they considered was blasphemous talk according to the law of Moses which states the sin of blasphemy deserves death usually by stoning (Numbers 15:30-36). Stephen was also charged with speaking against the temple. He pointed out that the tabernacle and temple of the old covenant were only types and symbols of God’s heavenly temple and that, in the new covenant, the types have been replaced with the reality (vv. 44–50).

In Acts 7:54-60 we read, “Now when they heard these things they were enraged, and they ground their teeth at him. 55 But he, full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. 56 And he said, ‘Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.’ 57 But they cried out with a loud voice and stopped their ears and rushed together at him. 58 Then they cast him out of the city and stoned him. And the witnesses laid down their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul. 59 And as they were stoning Stephen, he called out, ‘Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.’ 60 And falling to his knees he cried out with a loud voice, ‘Lord, do not hold this sin against them.’ And when he had said this, he fell asleep.”

Stephen is about to be executed for his faith and he raises his eyes to heaven and (verse 55) says he was filled with the Holy Spirit and what does he see? “But he, full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God.  56 And he said, ‘Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.’ 57 But they cried out with a loud voice and stopped their ears and rushed together at him.” (Acts 7:55-57)

While they were stoning him, Stephen prayed, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.”

-Stephen is praying here!!!  And by the power of the Holy Spirit what Stephen knew with his mind became real in his heart. He saw Jesus standing at God’s right hand.

– At the very moment while an earthly court was condemning him, he realized that the heavenly court was commending him.

In other words, he was experiencing the covering of the gospel in a crazy moment of pain.

At that moment, he got an extremely vivid, powerful sight of what he already knew intellectually which was that in Christ we are beautiful in God’s sight and free from condemnation.  (Col. 1:22)

But the Spirit took that intellectual concept and electrified his entire soul, mind, heart, and imagination with it.

In his yielding to God by the power of the Holy Spirit, Stephen was able to exhibit the new humanity that God was creating.

-He had courage.

-He forgave his oppressors.

-He faced his accusers not just with boldness, but with calmness and joy!

-He was living spiritual renewal.

May we follow Stephen’s example to preach truth boldly despite the consequences and to trust in God to the very end as each of us, his adopted ones, will be taken up into glory with our risen king.  Lord, our lives are yours.  Do with them what is best for your eternal plan and glory.

By His grace and for His glory,

Pastor Joshua Kirstine

Olive Drive Church

Saturday Study

Paul (12-10-16)

1. Saul before Paul

Before Paul was renamed Paul, he was born as Saul. Saul was born in Tarsus in Cilicia (modern day Turkey). He was of the Benjamite lineage and had Hebrew ancestry. His parents were Pharisees (who we studied about last week) who adhered strictly to the Law of Moses.  In his young teens, Saul was sent to Palestine to learn from a rabbi named Gamaliel, under whom Saul mastered Jewish history, the Psalms and the works of the prophets. Saul became zealous for his faith, and this faith did not allow for compromise. It is this zeal that led Saul down the path of religious extremism.  Saul eventually turned his focus to a ruthless pursuit of Christians, as he believed he was eradicating them in the name of God. Arguably, there is no one more frightening or more vicious than a religious terrorist, especially when he believes that he is doing the will of the Lord by killing innocent people. This is exactly what Saul of Tarsus was: a religious terrorist. Acts 8:3 states, “He began ravaging the church, entering house after house, and dragging off men and women to put them in prison.”

Saul was like many who we might look at today and say, “They are just too far out there.  There is no hope for them.”  As Christians, we can even become jaded and give up hope in praying for these kinds of people or even develop feelings of hatred towards them.  The good news is our God will have whom He wants. God saves both the prodigals, who are irreligious and consumed with the secular world’s ways, and the zealots, who are super religious and consumed with self-righteous methods and self-salvation.  It is good for us to remember that our gospel testimony needs to be to those who are lost on both ends of the spectrum.  The parable of the prodigal son is a good example of this.  Both the younger brother (irreligious) and the elder brother (religious) were lost in their own way and needed to see the gospel of the Father’s grace for salvation. Both of these extremes exist in our culture today, and both need the gospel of Jesus Christ.

2. Paul’s Conversion

God had great redemption for Saul. In Acts 9:1-22, we see that Paul met the “resurrected Jesus” on the road to Damascus. He hears the words, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” He says, “Who are you Lord?” Jesus answers directly and clearly: “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting” (vv. 4-5).  Wow. What a moment. God saved Saul and gave him faith in and submission to Jesus Christ.  From this moment on, Saul’s life was turned upside down. As a result of this miraculous transformation, Saul became known as Paul (Acts 13:9).

As a result, Paul devoted his life to Jesus’ glory and become one of, if not the most, influential pastors of the early church!  He planted churches and wrote most of the New Testament.  Most theologians are in agreement that he wrote Romans, 1 and 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Philippians, 1 and 2 Thessalonians, Philemon, Ephesians, Colossians, 1 and 2 Timothy and Titus. These 13 “letters” (books) make up what are known today as the “Pauline Epistles.”

3. Where is Paul’s authority from?

In Galatians 1, Paul introduces himself this way: “Paul, an apostle—not from men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead— and all the brothers who are with me.”

Paul is sent (the word apostle means “one who is sent”) by Jesus Christ Himself who converted Paul’s life on the road to Damascus. Not only is his authority given by God Himself,

But it is confirmed by the body of believers (his bothers) who are with him.

So we see here, Paul’s authority is by God and confirmed in godly people.

*Trust me, if Paul was not sent of God, there is no way the early Christian Church would have backed a guy who devoted his life until that point to having Christians arrested or killed.

In his opening words of the book of Romans, Paul’s says this of himself:

Romans 1:1-6  Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, 2 which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy Scriptures, 3 concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh 4 and was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord, 5 through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations, 6 including you who are called to belong to Jesus Christ.

First, Paul refers to himself as a “slave of Jesus Christ.” The Greek word for servant here is actually slave.  Paul counted it his greatest joy to be a slave for Jesus.  WHY?  Because he understood the slavery from which he was freed and for whom he now serves.

All of us are formerly slaves to sin. We were literally dead and in bondage to nothing but sin and deserving of nothing but eternal damnation apart from the glory of God.  To be saved is to be set free from the bondage of sin, but we are never free in the sense that our flesh longs for total control.  In Christ we become slaves to righteousness (Romans 6:16-18).  Slaves to Jesus.  He is our lord. He is our master.

We are free from the eternal bondage of our former slavery to sin and our sentence of death.

But we are never free, meaning apart from rule.  God created man to be under rule.

It is the sin of man to ever think that we are free from any kind of rule or authority.

We are ruled by sin or we are ruled by God. 

The difference is: it is life to be a servant of God. It is joy to be a slave of God.

There is no higher or greater role we could ever play.  Like Paul, do you value the fact that in Christ you are a slave to Christ?  Is your life His? Is your purpose to do His will for His glory?

The other thing we see here in Romans 1 is the scope of Paul’s ministry.  He says he is doing all this “for the sake of his name among all the nations.”   The great commission of Jesus commands His people to go make disciples of all nations. Paul saw that the nations were his scope of ministry.  How could one man get the gospel to all nations?  He couldn’t, but he could train up disciples who then went and made disciples who could.

This is a picture of the glorious birth and work of the early church.  Paul was a critical leader and teacher used by God to spread the gospel and to plant churches.  Do we see and value our mission the same as Paul, or are our daily focus and priorities all too set on our little lives and self-made kingdoms?  May we repent of making this life about ourselves and give way more of our time and energy to being discipled so that we can truly go and make disciples unto the nations!

4. Paul’s suffering:

One of the biggest highlights of Paul’s ministry and focuses of his teachings was the reality that as Christians in this time and place, we will suffer for the name of our Lord.  Paul didn’t run from this; instead, he embraced it as the reality of the eternally important call on our lives that God has given us. 

Take a moment and read the following passages again and be reminded of what Paul went through in his life and ministry for our Lord.  2 Corinthians 1:8-9,    4:8-12,    6:4-10,   11:23-29,    12:7-10

Wow. We thought we had a hard time.

It is so important that we learn from Paul in this area.  He went through so much and yet remained joyful and on mission despite his struggles and sufferings.  He knew who his God was. He understood his mission and purpose for this life.  He let his theology shape his thinking and attitude in all that he went through.  Here is just a taste:

• I rejoice in my sufferings (Col 1:24)
• Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you (1 Thes 5:18)
• Giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ (Eph 5:20)
• Rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor (Acts 5:41)
• But we rejoice in our sufferings (Romans 5:3)

Sometimes it is easy for this to be agreed with in the good times and forgotten in the bad.

So how do we keep the joy of the Lord despite our sufferings like Paul did?

Let’s look at Romans 8:31-39

Paul says, “If God is for us, who can be against us?   32 He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?”

This is saying: Since God paid the infinite price of His Son by sending Jesus through the ultimate suffering for you, if He did that,  will He not then surely carry through in providing everything you need?  Then it goes on to say this in verse 35, “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?   Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?” These are gnarly forms of suffering, right?   But he goes on to say in verse 37, no, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.  So you’ve got persecution and murder of Christians. And then he says in all these sufferings we are more than conquerors through Christ who loved us!

This is how we are able to find JOY in our suffering.

A conqueror has his enemies lying subdued at his feet.    Right? 

So your sufferings are conquered… they are defeated… distress, famine, nakedness, peril, sword, persecution… there they are, conquered at my feet.

Now “more than conquerors” means these things are not just in chains at my feet– they are serving me.

My tribulation, my distress, my persecution, my famine, my nakedness, my danger, the swords against me…

As painful and tearful as they are… They are serving me in Christ.   God is working them all together for my good.

The good is the key.  The good is the foundation of our JOY.

The good that God works in and through our suffering is the foundation of my JOY.

I trust in God who is over all things.  I trust Him completely.  This is how we walk in joy even when you can’t see through the fog or the pain or you’re barely staying afloat.

The joy is not the circumstance.  Hear me: The circumstances of our suffering is full of tears.

In Christ we can have joy in our suffering. This doesn’t mean that when we are in the thick of it that there are not tears!

There’s plenty of tears.  The Bible tells us in Isaiah 53:3 that Jesus was “a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.”

Paul says in 2 Cor 6:10 that he was “sorrowful, yet always rejoicing.”

God wants us to be joyful.  But He doesn’t do it with circumstance; He does it with Himself.

He does it with the Gospel. And we must trust that He does it in and through the circumstances.

This is what Paul understood, and I pray you do too.

Oh, I could go on for days with all we can take way from Paul. Like how to live the sacrificial life in the here and now.  How to be satisfied in plenty or little.  But for time, I will just leave you with one of my favorite Paul quotes from Galatians and pray you see what I do in the power of these words and what they mean for those of us walking in Christ:

Galatians 2:20 “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”

By His grace and for His glory,

Pastor Joshua Kirstine

Olive Drive Church

Saturday Study

Pharisees/Sadducees (12-3-16)

The Sadducees and Pharisees comprised the ruling class of Israel. There are many similarities between the two groups, but important differences between them as well.

First, the Sadducees: During the New Testament era, the Sadducees were aristocrats. They were wealthy and held powerful positions in society, including that of chief priests and high priest, and they held the majority of the 70 seats of the ruling council called the Sanhedrin. Israel at this time was under heavy Roman rule and had the job of trying to keep the peace. This made them very politically motivated and affected their religious priorities. Because of their power and position, they did not relate well to the common man nor did the common man hold them in high opinion.  This is much of the way we feel about our elected officials today.  The common man related better to those who belonged to the party of the Pharisees. Though the Sadducees held the majority of seats in the Sanhedrin, the Pharisaic minority was very influential because they were more popular with the masses.

While the Pharisees gave oral tradition equal authority to the written Word of God, the Sadducees were more held to the Word of God as their authority. The Sadducees preserved the authority of the written Word of God especially the books of Moses (Genesis through Deuteronomy).  The problem was they still were very misguided in their doctrine and practice because of many unbiblical positions they formed and lived by.

The Sadducees played a major role in the arrest and murder of Jesus as he brought major political and religious threat to their ways of life. (John 11:48-50; Mark 14:53; 15:1) They ceased to exist in approximately A.D. 70. Since this party existed because of their political and priestly ties, when Rome destroyed Jerusalem and the temple in A.D. 70, the Sadducees were also destroyed.

The Pharisees: In contrast to the Sadducees, the Pharisees were mostly middle-class businessmen and therefore were in more contact with the common man. They participated in the Sanhedrin and held positions as priests.  While they accepted the written Word as inspired by God, they also gave equal or even higher authority to oral tradition.  The oral tradition was man-made laws and governing traditions that the Pharisees majored on and held the people to. Even though they knew Deuteronomy 4:2 which says, “You shall not add to the word that I command you, nor take from it, that you may keep the commandments of the Lord your God that I command you”, they did anyway.  Some of the examples of the Pharisees treating these traditions as equal to God’s Word are found throughout the gospels. (Matthew 9:14; 15:1-9; 23:5; 23:16, 23, Mark 7:1-23; Luke 11:42)

While the Sadducees ceased to exist after the destruction of Jerusalem, the Pharisees, who were more concerned with religion than politics, continued to exist. In fact, the Pharisees were against the rebellion that brought on Jerusalem’s destruction in A.D. 70 and they were the first to make peace with the Romans afterward.

Both the Pharisees and the Sadducees earned numerous rebukes from Jesus. Perhaps the best lesson we can learn from the Pharisees and Sadducees is to not be like them. Unlike the Sadducees, we do not look to man-made politics as our driving influence on the culture but the gospel of our Lord Jesus and his living word. Unlike the Pharisees, we are not to treat traditions as having any kind of equal authority as Scripture and we are not to allow our relationship with God to be reduced to a legalistic list of rules and rituals.  We are desperate for the gospel of Jesus Christ to be our power and salvation.

I want to highlight a few things related to the Pharisees and Sadducees that help us not only have a right view of them in our Bible reading, but help us to avoid falling into the same traps they did.

In Matthew 5: 17-20 we read, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. 18 For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished. 19 Therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. 20 For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”

To understand this, we must first start by asking:  What is the law?

The word “law” in the New Testament has at least three different meanings when used in different contexts.

1. It can refer to the whole Old Testament…

as in Romans 3:19  Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God.  (This is in reference to the entire Old Testament because the preceding quotations come from the Psalms and prophets).

2. It can refer to the particular commands of the Old Testament given to Moses…

as when Jesus says, “I have not come to abolish the law and the prophets” (Matthew 5:17).

Here the reference is to the law separate from the prophets.

Specifically, the law here refers to that part of the Old Testament written by Moses, the first five books, called the Torah. (Torah is the Hebrew word for law, commandment or statute).

3. It can refer to “works of the law” that the Pharisees added to build their man made religion…

as mentioned in Romans 6:14  “You are not under law but under grace”

So, whenever you read the word “law” in the New Testament, we must ask:

is this a reference to the entire Old Testament or just the writings of Moses (Torah) or the legalistic distortion of Pharisees (the works of the law)?

The law of God is meant to give knowledge of sin and by showing us our need of pardon and our danger of damnation in order to lead God’s people at God’s appointed time into repentance and faith in Christ.

So, when Jesus says he came to fulfill the law, he is not saying he came to do away with it, but to be the central agent we need to survive the condemnation that the law rightly brings.

Our inability to fulfill it requires someone to stand in obedience on our behalf.

Praise God for the promised one, Jesus Christ!

What we must understand is that the moral law still stands today as God’s will and command for mankind to honor him and live rightly. In this regard, that fact that the Pharisees were very devout in their obedience to God’s law is to be commended.  In our Matthew 5:19-20 text, Jesus goes so far to tell us that “Therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. 20 For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”

Here we see the part of the Pharisees that was good. They were a very right living, obedient group. They were the most righteous of men. The most devout rule followers.  For this, they were highly respected.  God demands our obedience and wants us to honor him with our days and our ways.  We need to not throw out the command on us to live righteously when speaking of the failure of the Pharisees. Here, Jesus Himself says this is something we all must strive to do better. Better than the Pharisees.  That’s a tall order.

Now, with that said, where the Pharisees got into major trouble and why they were a lost people in the end was because they went beyond God’s law and added their own rules and regulations.  Even worse, the most damning fact was that they looked to their self-righteous adhering to the laws for their identity and for their salvation.

While we are called by God to obey his law, our utter failure to do so on our own should make us utterly desperate for one who can in our place.   This is the good news.

Only Jesus fulfills the demands of the law which called for perfect obedience under threat of a “curse”.

Galatians 3:10 & 13 For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse; for it is written, “Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law, and do them.” Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us–for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree”.

While the Pharisees were good, they were not perfect and that is what the law demands- to have a right relationship with the holy God.   Jesus took on what we deserve and gave us his righteousness to be reconciled to God. 

Only Jesus fulfills the law in that he releases his people who were once held captive by the law.

Galatians 3:23-26 Now before faith came, we were held captive under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed. 24 So then, the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith. 25 But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian, 26 for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith.

Trying to make their own way via right living and religion is the lostness that many are stuck in today.  Well, even the best of the best (the Pharisees and Sadducees) were damned and accused of falling short because they lacked the most important thing.

Perfection!  We only have perfection in Jesus Christ. In opposition to self-righteous living and empty religion we need the gospel.  We need Jesus to be our righteousness and our power for living.

The Pharisees say, “Obey so that you can be accepted”.

The gospel says, “You are accepted so that you can obey”.

This is the final take away I want to give you today.  Many times we say, someone is being Pharisaical when they uphold the law of God.  Let’s be very careful here.  We all are called to uphold and obey the law of God.  Grace doesn’t mean we stop being obedient.  What the Pharisees and Sadducees got wrong was they added to God’s law and rejected Christ as savior and instead tried to obey the law on their own.  This we cannot do and we must not try to do.  We are desperate for Jesus alone.

Romans 1:16-17 “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, ‘The righteous shall live by faith.’”

By His grace and for His glory,

Pastor Joshua Kirstine

Olive Drive Church

Saturday Study

Matthew(11-26-16)

Matthew is the next New Testament figure we are studying. He is most famously known as one of Jesus’ disciples and the author of the Gospel of Matthew.

According to Matthew 9:9; 10:3, before Matthew became a disciple of Jesus Christ, he was a tax collector in the town of Capernaum.  Matthew was also called Levi, the son of Alphaeus, by Luke and Mark (Mark 2:14; Luke 5:27). Although Luke and Mark do not come out and say “Levi and Matthew are the same person”, we can see the names refer to the same individual.  Also, Matthew’s account of his call matches exactly the accounts of Levi’s call in Luke and Mark. It was not uncommon for a person to be given a new name after an encounter with God. Abram became Abraham, Jacob became Israel, Simon became Peter, and Saul became Paul. It is likely that Matthew which means “gift of God” was the new name Jesus gave to Levi after his conversion.

Interestingly, the only gospel that mentions Matthew’s former occupation as a tax collector is Matthew’s own.  This is a mature thing to be willing to share because as tax collectors, they were absolutely despised. They worked for the Roman government and enriched themselves by collecting taxes from their own people.  They all too often dishonestly collected excessive amounts and took advantage of the lowly. (Luke 19:8).

Additionally, tax collectors like Matthew were seen by the religious elite as very sinful people. They were seen as so sinful that even spending time with them could destroy a good person’s reputation (Matthew 9:10–11). One of the accounts we read was when Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house.  There were many other tax collectors and sinners present and the Pharisees questioned the disciples about Jesus’ choice to hang out with them. Jesus’ response is one of the clearest explanations of God’s heart and His gospel to man: “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners…” (Matthew 9:12–13).

Matthew was one of the tax collectors whom Jesus saved. When called by Jesus, Matthew immediately left his tax collection booth and followed the Lord (Matthew 9:9).  In this he left behind his source of riches and his position of security and comfort.  He did this to enter into a life changing relationship with Jesus that would mean lowly accommodations, lots of travel and even persecution that would lead to martyrdom.
What an example of the crucified life disciples like Matthew give us.

Paul says in Galatians 2:20, “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”

What have you given up to serve and follow Jesus?

What do you still need to give up?  What idol or fleshly pursuit is holding you back from living the crucified life for Jesus?

Let us not forget the amazing transformation God is able to do in his people.  Matthew not only received a new name, but lived a completely different life the remainder of his days.

When we give our lives to the Lord we truly die to ourselves and now love him.

May we be ready to sacrifice it all to take up our cross and follow Jesus to whatever he has for us for His glory and others’ good!

I remind you of the passage we read on Tuesday. May we see it and receive it in a new light today and for the rest of our lives.

Matthew 10:16-23

“Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves. 17 Beware of men, for they will deliver you over to courts and flog you in their synagogues, 18 and you will be dragged before governors and kings for my sake, to bear witness before them and the Gentiles. 19 When they deliver you over, do not be anxious how you are to speak or what you are to say, for what you are to say will be given to you in that hour. 20 For it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you. 21 Brother will deliver brother over to death, and the father his child, and children will rise against parents and have them put to death, 22 and you will be hated by all for my name’s sake. But the one who endures to the end will be saved. 23 When they persecute you in one town, flee to the next, for truly, I say to you, you will not have gone through all the towns of Israel before the Son of Man comes.”

By His grace and for His glory,

Pastor Joshua Kirstine

Olive Drive Church

Saturday Study

John (11-19-16)

John, also known as the beloved disciple, was probably the youngest apostle as well as the only one of the twelve who did not die a martyr’s death. Not only was he special to Jesus and a part of His most inner circle of three, John was also used by God to do great things. Especially in writing the gospel and letters that he penned under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.

In the gospel he wrote, he calls himself “the disciple whom Jesus loved.” This makes sense to me because if you had the choice between calling yourself “John” and calling yourself “the disciple whom Jesus loved”, you would probably pick the latter. Right?   He was always in wonder and awe over the fact that he was so loved by Christ.

His portrait of Jesus is written by an eyewitness who was part of these infinitely important events.

Five times in this gospel we find the unusual words “the disciple whom Jesus loved” (13:23; 19:26; 20:2, 7, 21:20). For example, at the very end of John 21:20 it says, “Peter turned and saw the disciple whom Jesus loved following them.” Then four verses later (John 21:24) it says, “This is the disciple who is bearing witness about these things and who has written these things.”

So the one called “the disciple whom Jesus loved”—the one who was there leaning on his shoulder at the Last Supper (13:23)—is the one who wrote the Gospel of John and the letters of 1, 2 and 3 John.

John starts out as the son of thunder. He has a brother, an older brother named James. They are called “sons of thunder.”   This has to be one of the coolest nicknames in scripture.

John is known in history as the apostle of love.  The reason he’s known as the apostle of love is because he makes reference to love eighty times in his writings- eighty times.

The call of God on John’s life to write the Gospel of John has been celebrated by many through the centuries as the holy of holies of the New Testament. Meaning it is one of the most sacred places you can go to know God. In fact, one of the most sacred chapters in the entire Bible is the seventeenth chapter of John. This is the only place we witness our Lord Jesus praying to the Father in that intimate inter-Trinitarian high priestly prayer.

John is often called the holy of holies of the New Testament because in this gospel the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ is fully displayed. Think about this with me for a moment.

What is NOT accessible to people in the Old Covenant?  Answer- the Holy of Holies.

But it has become accessible to God’s redeemed people in the New Covenant because the veil is down, the way is open, and Christ our promised redeemer is now our perfect intercessor.

In Jesus alone, we come boldly into the presence of the almighty God.

So, as we enter the Gospel of John, we—like the priest of old on the Day of Atonement—have access to the Holy of Holies to see the glory of Christ.  I want you to really treasure with me the word of God and especially this word of God- this good news testimony of Jesus Christ. I want you not to miss how utterly and most supreme this treasure is to us- that Jesus is to us.  We know Jesus in this precious Gospel of John in a very sweet and unique way.

There are four gospels that tell the story of Christ. The first three, Matthew, Mark and Luke are known as the “synoptic” gospels because they “see together with a common view” (the word synoptic literally means “together sight”).

Matthew, Mark, and Luke cover many of the same events in Jesus’ life—most of them from Jesus’ ministry in Galilee. They even do it in much the same order. Nearly 90 percent of Mark’s content is found in Matthew and about 50 percent of Mark appears in Luke.

All of the parables of Christ are found in the Synoptics because there are no parables of Christ told in John.  The first three gospels look at the birth, life, experiences, travels, the calling of Jesus upon His followers, His arrest, His trial, His execution, and His resurrection. John doesn’t give us the historical view of the life of Christ. John gives us the heavenly story.  He gives us the supernatural view of Christ. And in that way, John is unique. Ninety-percent of what is in John is not in Matthew, Mark, or Luke. Ninety percent of this is John’s alone to declare under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.

John does not include Jesus’ genealogy, the testimony of his birth, his baptism, his temptation in the desert, his casting out of demons, his parables, his travels, his transfiguration, his instituting of the Lord’s Supper, his agony in Gethsemane, or his ascension into heaven.

WHY? Because John is not focusing on the history of his life. Instead John’s gospel stands unique and gives us a beautiful and powerful look at who the Son of God, Jesus Christ is and what he came to do.

A major body of the Gospel of John is what is referred to as the “Book of Signs” (chapter 2:1- 12:50) which testifies of seven miracles or “signs” which proclaim Jesus as the Messiah- the Son of God.  Another notable and exclusive feature of John’s gospel is the seven “I am” statements that were made by Jesus identifying him as God and an equal part of the Holy Trinity.

Further, the testimony of Jesus’ dialogue with Nicodemus which includes the famous John 3:16 passage and his ministry in Samaria (including the woman at the well in John 4) are not found in any Synoptic counterpart.

Also, the resurrection of Lazarus, Jesus’ frequent visits to Jerusalem, and his extended dialogues or discourses in the temple and in various synagogues are all included in the Gospel of John alone.

So the point is, God did something very unique in and through John to write these important testimonies of Jesus Christ down for us.

Later, John penned three short letters that have become for us today a beacon of hope and our grounding of certainty in a hopeless and uncertain world. Let’s look at 1 John 2:12-14 today to build on what we read this week and remind ourselves of the certainty we need to have in this uncertain world.

1 John 2:13a I am writing to you, little children, because your sins are forgiven for his name’s sake.

First of all, he is writing to the church, to those showing evidence for salvation.  He said your sins ARE forgiven. You can be certain of this.  Nothing more to prove. Nothing more to accomplish. It has been done by Jesus.

1 John 2:13b I am writing to you, fathers, because you know him who is from the beginning.

Notice he says you know!  You know is affirmation language.

These are reminders of who we are.  It is a plea for certainty.  He is saying to those of us who are alive in Christ…YOU KNOW.

1 John 2:13c-14 I am writing to you, young men, because you have overcome the evil one. I write to you, children, because you know the Father. 14 I write to you, fathers, because you know him who is from the beginning. I write to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the evil one.

Don’t forget… You know!   You have!   You are!

John is saying to his brothers and sisters in Christ, be certain!

Remember, you overcame the evil one. You are strong in Christ. The Word of God abides in you!

He wants them to be so certain that he says 2 of these things twice:

1. You know him who is from the beginning and 2. You have overcome the evil one.

1 John 2:14b “I write to you… because you are strong, and the word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the evil one.”

Notice 2 things:    1- the evidence of strength      2- the evidence of victory over temptation and sin

WHY do they have these evidences? Because the Word of God abides in them!

How does one navigate this uncertain world?     How do you grow in maturity in faith and life in Christ?

–The Word of God!

Don’t minimize the crucial place of the Word of God here.

We need to receive it and we need it to abide in us.  When we do this, we abide in Christ. We abide in his great accomplishment on the cross that defeats the accusations of the devil.

We overcome the evil one by the Word of God because day by day this word is abiding in us.

It is living in us. The gospel—the great story of redemption, the great Christ of redemption, the great God of redemption, the great process of redemption, and the great effects of redemption—this gospel, this Word of God, is not something believed once and left behind.  We believe the Word of God and then it “abides” in us.

Some of you really need this today. 

You need to stop trying to fight the evil one and all his lies and temptations against you on your own.   

John is saying, know who you are in Christ.  Know that in Christ you have defeated the evil one. 

Don’t kind of know it.    KNOW IT.     CLAIM IT.    LIVE OUT OF IT.   ABIDE IN IT!

BE CERTAIN IN HIS VICTORIOUS WORK ON YOUR BEHALF!  

John was the beloved of Christ.  The scriptures say again and again that we who are in Christ are also his beloved.

May we live our lives certain of these truths that change everything about us and give us a confidence even when the world is coming at us all of the time.  I am praying for you.

“Endure suffering along with me, as a good soldier of Christ Jesus.”  2 Timothy 2:3

By His grace and for His glory,

Pastor Joshua Kirstine

Olive Drive Church