Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Good afternoon. We are here at Community Media of South Central Pennsylvania.
[00:00:06] My wife Sherry and I, every Wednesday we meet here to discuss the Holy Bible and Jesus Christ. That's what we're going to do, is talk about Jesus Christ and the gospel and the Bible. Each week I'm going to open in prayer because faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. And the word of God will not return empty. It'll always accomplish the what he sends it forth to accomplish for his purposes. And that's important. So, Father, we thank you for this time.
[00:00:37] We thank you for the opportunity to gather today at Community Media of South Central Pennsylvania to speak about the good news in this world, which becomes more and more stressful for a lot of people each day. But every Wednesday we're going to talk about the good news and hope. There is hope, but it only comes in one source and his name is Jesus, the Christ.
[00:01:08] So we thank you for this message this evening. We thank you that it will not return empty and that it will draw people into Christ in Christ for your purposes, for the church of God bought by his blood and for his purposes.
[00:01:27] So we pray in Jesus name. Amen.
[00:01:31] If you have your Bible, open it up to the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 16.
[00:01:37] In a little bit I'm going to get into beginning with verse 13. And we're going to go through verse 20.
[00:01:46] And this is going to be the subtitle for these scriptures, the context I call Peter's confession of faith.
[00:01:54] And you will find this in these verses. You'll also find it in the gospel of Mark 8, 27, 29, and in the gospel of Luke, 9, 18, 20. These are called the Synoptic Gospels.
[00:02:12] Now before I get into that, the message title for tonight is called the Christ.
[00:02:20] So we're going to look at these verses. I'm going to give you an understanding of what it is that we're to gain, what understanding we're to get from this knowledge. And then we're going to look at some definitions.
[00:02:34] But before I do that as an introduction, and I'm hoping we have time tonight, if we don't have time today, we'll do this. Pick this up next Wednesday.
[00:02:44] But I want to talk about a Galilean wedding.
[00:02:50] Now, there's a term that you may have heard called human hermeneutics.
[00:02:57] And what that means, the technical definition is that hermeneutics is the branch of knowledge. Now remember, this class is focusing on knowledge of Jesus Christ, knowledge of God. Hermeneutics is the branch of knowledge that that deals with theory, methodology and principles of interpretation.
[00:03:22] While initially associated with analyzing biblical and wisdom texts, it is widely applied to literature, law, philosophy, and general human communication to understand messages within their proper historical and cultural context. That's a long definition.
[00:03:46] The Bible version of that is we're going to study the word of God, rightly divided.
[00:03:53] That would be the shorter version, God's version of what this long definition of hermeneutics means. Now, the reason I'm speaking that way tonight or with this definition is when we go through the scriptures and we won't get to them tonight, but I'm going to give you the cultural and historical background for a Galilean wedding so that when we look at the Scriptures, you will see as the eyes of your understanding are opened, that the disciples that were with Jesus at the time were Galileans, they would have understood what he was talking about, that the context of these parables we'll talk about was a wedding. And it's important that you understand the cultural and historical background when we get into this, that they would have understood what this meant. And it'll open your eyes considerably to some of the parables in the Bible and some of the other scriptures on what Jesus was actually saying, what he meant, and, and the audience that he was speaking to. So we need to, when we're looking at the Bible or anything, as we saw in the general definition, we need to look at the target audience. What is the audience, who's speaking, what is the audience they're speaking to, and what is the cultural and or historical context within that scripture?
[00:05:29] If we don't do that, you will see what you will find. If you go do basic searches on the Internet for explanations of different, I'll just say biblical doctrine, you'll see people in the church in the body of Christ, and they're all over the board. Now, some of that's going to be because that's what they were taught.
[00:05:54] If you go to a college and you learn information, that's your base of knowledge until you get out into the workforce. And as you grow in your job and your field, you're going to start to learn things through your own experience or you'll gain knowledge that you'll realize that what you learned in the academic world doesn't apply anymore to today.
[00:06:19] So it's important that we look at things in context.
[00:06:26] So in the Gospels, Jesus used this term follow me or close variance 21 times. In these three Gospels, he used that term in 12 separate conversations.
[00:06:44] And later, after Jesus crucifixion and he ascends to heaven.
[00:06:51] Apostle Paul becomes a spokesperson for the Gentiles. He becomes the apostle or the teacher for the Gentiles, which is anybody other than a Jew.
[00:07:04] And he says in First Corinthians 11, One, be imitators of me as I imitate Christ.
[00:07:15] So you'll notice the Christ Jesus teaches people and now they have to teach others. But the message and the context and what they're going to speak about hasn't changed.
[00:07:30] Paul is telling his people that are following him, who are now disciples, learners, and we're going to look at that definition shortly.
[00:07:40] The same thing Jesus said, only follow me as I follow Christ. Now in the Bible, Paul is going to commend a church in this area called Berea. And he says they're very noble because every time Paul spoke and gave them a message, they did not take that information, no pun intended, as gospel at the time. They went and searched the Scriptures to confirm what Paul was saying was the actual truth.
[00:08:14] Now we're going to look at some scriptures really quick. I'll give you the context, and then we'll look at some key phrases in those where Paul makes a comment about he was speaking the whole counsel of God. And that's part of what this hermeneutics is going to look at over the course of these teachings is we cannot cherry pick scriptures and try to shoehorn them into a topic or a message that we're trying to put out to people. It has to be the truth in the context of where it was given.
[00:08:55] And if we really do that, what will happen is if you understand this concept of hermeneutics, you'll have a better understanding. When you read the Bible, you'll begin to look at, you'll want a study Bible, you'll begin to look at the outline for it, and you'll start to read the context and the information that they put together before you even get into the scriptures.
[00:09:24] Now, I saw a testimony that was very interesting this week online.
[00:09:30] It was somebody that's in leadership in the Christian Church, and they were talking about how they struggled when they took a class on hermeneutics.
[00:09:40] There was 12 people in the class and they were struggling with their assignments.
[00:09:46] They struggled when they were asked questions. And they noticed there was a woman sitting in the back of the class that responded only when she was spoken to.
[00:09:57] And there's a reason for that.
[00:10:00] But she handled all the difficult questions the instructor was asking.
[00:10:07] It turns out that this woman was a Muslim.
[00:10:12] She took the class because she was interested in learning who Jesus was. She heard about him, but wanted to understand the Bible. And the fascinating thing about that was when the person that did the testimony approached her after six weeks and said, how is it that you can answer these questions?
[00:10:33] She said, I don't know who Jesus is yet, but I was taught this concept called hermeneutics. And when I read the Bible, I read it from that context. So she would learn later that this is a spiritual book and how that impacted her. But she had the basic foundational understanding of how to read this and at least be able to convey to people who it was speaking and, and the cultural and the context of what it was given.
[00:11:07] So without any other understanding, she understood what hermeneutics was and she was able to answer questions.
[00:11:19] So several things happen when we do a Bible study.
[00:11:23] When I, Sherry and I are called to teach the word of God.
[00:11:29] We are called as missionaries.
[00:11:33] When we go and speak, two things will either happen because both of us are going to give the whole counsel of God.
[00:11:44] Paul wrote in the book of acts, in chapter 20, that, there's no person's blood on my hands because I gave you. I didn't hesitate to give you the whole counsel of God.
[00:11:58] Now I go and I listen to different messages weekly to see what's happening in the body of Christ.
[00:12:10] And there has been a trend, I don't want to call it a fab, to if there's a lack of understanding from the person delivering the message, that more than likely the message will become a motivational speech rather than allow the Holy Spirit to convict us in our hearts, to change us.
[00:12:37] And again, we're looking at Jesus the Christ, names and titles for him.
[00:12:43] You're going to see what that means in a minute because that term is going to show up in the Scriptures we're going to look at. But I want to, from a hermeneutical point of view, give you a broad, sweeping kind of understanding before I get into that.
[00:13:00] So when this happens in the Book of acts, in chapter two, verses 36 to 38, this is what we refer to as Peter's sermon at Pentecost.
[00:13:14] So the Holy Spirit, and this is one of the parts of the Godhead we're going to look at in the future.
[00:13:22] He's referred to as the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of holiness, the Spirit of God, the Spirit of truth.
[00:13:30] That's who we have today, while Jesus sits at the right hand of the Father, because he is the Christ and that's his rightful place. So in the book of Acts at Pentecost, when the Spirit of God came upon these people, Peter began to speak.
[00:13:52] He addressed an audience that you don't hear a lot of people speak about today. These were the very people and he gave them the truth. He told them who Jesus was and he said, and you, you people were the ones that crucified him.
[00:14:10] Now the Bible says when they heard the message, remember the opening prayer. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God.
[00:14:20] It says, the Bible says they were pricked in their hearts. That was the spirit of God.
[00:14:26] Peter spoke the truth, which is now recorded in the Bible and the Holy Spirit moved and they were convicted.
[00:14:35] Now when we look at some scriptures later this evening, you're going to see some scriptures that say blessed are they that are poor in spirit. Well who are these people?
[00:14:47] They're the people that are the ones that you would want to be speaking to or what you may hear a phrase called I want to go speak to the low hanging fruit, the ones that will receive this message. That's why it's important that we understand the Holy Spirit and we ask each day, God, what is it you want me to do?
[00:15:09] Because we learned about the Great Commission last week. But, but I don't want to go on my own somewhere and start speaking to a crowd that doesn't want to hear that. I will do that sometimes on my own, but I want to go where God says, there's a group of people over here and I've already plowed the hard rocky ground. All you need to do Peter, is get over there and give them this message that I gave you and, and you'll see the results that I'm looking for. Well that's because God knows those people. He knows their hearts, he knows their spirit.
[00:15:51] So as we're speaking, whether we're preaching or teaching, you will either be pricked in your heart or as in the Gospel of John, chapter six, you'll say this is a hard saying, who can hear it? And you'll walk away cause you're not ready for it. You may never be.
[00:16:11] My prayer is that every morning when I get up that God reaches out into this lost and dying world and moves on people's spirit and their hearts so that they can receive this good news and have hope.
[00:16:28] Because the world is on a biblical timeline right now.
[00:16:34] We're living in a prophetic time where going to talk about that over the next couple weeks, which is why this understanding of the Galilean wedding and what that means is important.
[00:16:48] So I believe as this message goes out today, now God said in the Bible, his will is that all would come to repentance. But it grieves him because he knows most will not.
[00:17:04] And I saw a survey a month ago, two months ago, that said the church, the people that attend church don't understand.
[00:17:13] They could not answer what repentance meant when they were asked in a survey, there is no salvation without repentance.
[00:17:23] So as I prayed, my hope is my belief, my faith is because I'm where I'm supposed to be this evening, that more people will be pricked in their hearts and this will stir you in your spirit, and you'll seek us out and ask questions.
[00:17:42] Now, I was watching a TV show on Tuesday night, and from a demographic standpoint, what I saw happen was people that were calling in and asking questions were no longer what we would say. The mature believers in Christ that were looking at certain doctrines, that the church as a whole, the universal church, hasn't come to unity on what they mean.
[00:18:11] It was all new people going into churches, and they were calling into this ministry because they were available to answer questions.
[00:18:21] And it was question after question where I just felt like I needed to go to church. They would give a little testimony about when they were growing up and they would have questions because they started to read the Bible. They would hear something in a church service and they were calling in, they were being a berean saint and asking, I'll just say, a third party whether that was a truthful statement.
[00:18:50] And these people were very professional. They asked the context to make sure that when they answered the question, they had the information that they needed.
[00:19:03] And sometimes they were able to confirm, sometimes they had to do what a lot of people will not do. And that's answer the difficult question and say, that's not biblically correct.
[00:19:18] My heart says I can't do that because I have to stand before the Christ one day and he's going to ask me, how come you spoke on this? Or how come when this person asked, you gave them the good news, but you didn't tell them what the consequences were if they didn't do it.
[00:19:40] So you'll either be pricked in your heart every Wednesday or you'll say, this is a hard saying. Who can hear it?
[00:19:50] Most of the people that say that will say that for the same reason the people in the Bible did.
[00:19:57] They didn't understand what the meaning was.
[00:20:01] They didn't have an understanding.
[00:20:04] And that's what the teacher's role is in the church.
[00:20:08] So open your Bible to the Gospel of Matthew.
[00:20:12] I'm gonna read you eight scriptures and then we're gonna talk about them. And then I'll get into the Galilean wedding, beginning with verse 13 in chapter 16 of Matthew.
[00:20:27] Now, when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea, Philippi, he asked his disciples, who do people say that the Son of Man is? Now that's one of his titles. In the future we'll look at.
[00:20:44] We're not going to do that tonight. We're going to focus on Christ, the term Christ.
[00:20:50] So Jesus asks, who do the people say I am?
[00:20:55] The audience are his few disciples.
[00:20:59] And he's asking, when you're out there in the world, what are you hearing people say about me? Who do they think I am?
[00:21:08] And they said, some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others say Jeremiah or one of the prophets. So Elijah and Jeremiah were Old Testament prophets. John the Baptist comes to pave the way before Jesus comes. And if you read the Gospel of Matthew, you'll see in chapter 13 he starts preaching. And the first thing he says is, repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
[00:21:42] There were people pricked in their hearts.
[00:21:45] They received him in the beginning, and then it was a hard saying they couldn't do. And they martyred him, they beheaded him.
[00:21:54] Someone got offended and they beheaded him because he didn't hesitate to give him the whole counsel of God. Right after that, because God's purpose is not going to be empty. Jesus starts his Galilean ministry and he says the exact same thing. Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. So he's been out there speaking, his disciples are following him and they're watching and listening to him.
[00:22:23] And he asks who the people say he is.
[00:22:27] So in verse 15, he, Jesus said to them, but who do you say that I am?
[00:22:36] So he point blank looks at them and says, okay, that's who the people said I am. Now who do you say that I am?
[00:22:47] And Simon Peter replied.
[00:22:51] And highlight this. If you have your Bible open, you are the Christ, the Son of the living God.
[00:23:00] If you haven't listened to the message last week, I'd encourage you to go back. You heard a scripture in the Gospel of John, chapter 17, verse 3, where Jesus said, and this is eternal life, that they know you, Father, the one true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you sent.
[00:23:23] You are the Christ, the Son of the living God. And Jesus answered him, blessed are you, Simon bar Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven, a person did not tell Peter that that was an Inspirational revelation knowledge, we call it, that he received from the invisible God, who you heard last week, Jesus is the express image of the invisible God. And Jesus said, if you see me, if you've seen me, you've seen the Father.
[00:24:05] And then Jesus says, and I tell you, you are Peter. So Simon gets a new name and on this rock I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
[00:24:24] That's an important scripture to remember when we look at the Galilean wedding and some of these parables that you're going to get an understanding of in the future.
[00:24:35] I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven. And whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.
[00:24:47] Then he strictly tried, charged the disciples to tell no one that he was the Christ.
[00:24:55] Everything has to be done in God's timing.
[00:25:01] When Community Media of South Central Pennsylvania had Sherry and I come in and they interviewed us and then we spoke briefly to Ray Galker about this show that you're now seeing.
[00:25:19] Ray was going to put me in contact with Mark.
[00:25:23] And six weeks went by.
[00:25:26] However, in the back of my mind, every day I would pray, lord, I haven't heard from Mark yet.
[00:25:32] Should I call him? And every week it was, no, no, no, I don't know why that is. I've never spoken to anybody about that. But six weeks went by and Ray called me and he said, hey, did Mark ever call you? And that was God's timing for us to meet.
[00:25:52] It was that timing.
[00:25:54] So it was important that everybody involved knew that this was going to happen and we were talking about it. But it had to start in God's timing.
[00:26:06] And after that interview, it sent people to our website.
[00:26:11] And after last week, there was a surge in how many people were looking at Eyes to See ministries, on Facebook and YouTube on our website.
[00:26:23] And it's probably, I'm going to say in just a week there's over 100 people that had gotten that and a lot of them, which I don't know who they are, it just said they forwarded this on. So this message is going out.
[00:26:45] Had the disciples gone out and did what Jesus asked them not to do, things would have become very different.
[00:27:00] Now there's an interesting thing. When I went and started to look on the Internet about these Scriptures and my mind was looking at what Jesus said and I thought, what are the people saying that the rock means?
[00:27:23] And I found four different camps, theologians in the Christian church have not come to agreement with what that word means.
[00:27:35] Now there's a conservative camp, we'll say, and today most people over time have gravitated to one of these, which I'll talk briefly about today.
[00:27:52] And I don't want to give you the other three camps because I know when someone comes up to me and they say, hey, will you listen to this? If I start to listen to it and I hear something that's not, it doesn't resonate in my spirit. I don't want to hear the whole thing because I don't want that in my mind. I don't want to be thinking maybe they knew something I didn't yet that's what the Holy Spirit's job is going to be for now.
[00:28:19] If you are a believer in Christ as a very new believer, you could go to a church as I did and hear things and never have known the scriptures. I never read the Bible. When I made this commitment to Christ, that's who I made the commitment to. And yet I knew that seems right or this seems different when I would hear somebody else, somewhere else speak that. And that's the helper we have and that's for a whole other teaching.
[00:29:00] But I want to take a look at.
[00:29:06] As Christ promises to build his church, what is he going to build it on? He's going to build it on the truth of what Peter just said and what the other disciples confession will be on who Jesus is as the Christ, the son of the living God.
[00:29:27] That's a foundation. So that rock. And we'll take a look at some of these definitions.
[00:29:34] When you look at this, and I've heard Peter say that the name Peter means rock.
[00:29:46] If you look this up in the Greek language, the word Peter is a different word, it's a root word, but it's different than what rock means.
[00:29:58] And that word rock means a massive rock.
[00:30:03] And Peter, the name Peter means a small rock. So Jesus is the cornerstone and we are lively or living stones. As Peter would later write in his letter to the church to be built upon the foundation who is Christ? The truth. Jesus said, I am the way, the truth and the life.
[00:30:26] So if we do in our study and our reading what I gave you as a definition of hermeneutics, if you do that and you look up the culture, the context, these definitions, what they really mean, you will be able to eliminate three of these theological trains of thoughts and come to what I would say would be you'll come to the logical conclusion in your own mind and in your own heart. What Jesus said here, what it really means.
[00:31:04] It's that profession of faith that he said. And who is that faith in? It's in Jesus Christ, the son of the living God, the word of God, which is the truth.
[00:31:19] So this is actually.
[00:31:21] Jesus is using what you could call a play on words here.
[00:31:27] So Peter, the name Peter in Greek means petros, which means a piece of a rock.
[00:31:35] And then when he uses the word rock that means Petra. P E T R A means a massive rock. So we can see, and you'll see later in the book of Psalms where Jesus is referred to the rock of my salvation.
[00:31:54] He's the chief cornerstone.
[00:32:02] So if you go somewhere to a meeting and you're not hearing about Jesus, you need to question why did I come here? Now maybe there's a teaching that's important, but most importantly, if you're going to a church that's professing to be a Christian church, and I say that because the word Christian is only referred to in the Bible twice. It was from people outside the church. So the church itself, the body of Christ, what we call the body of Christ today, did not refer themselves as Christians, the outside world did. And it was being given to us, I'll say as a derogatory statement because they murdered Christ, they didn't believe him.
[00:32:59] That's why this ministry as an organization, a non profit organization, and Sherry and I individually as people, members of the body of Christ.
[00:33:12] If somebody would say what religion are you a Christian would say that. I would say I'm non denomination, I'm of the Way.
[00:33:21] That's what the Christians early church referred to themselves. And what did that mean? Jesus said, I am the Way, the truth and the life. And Peter said, you are the Christ, the son of the living God.
[00:33:34] That doesn't mean we can't help other churches but, but we are very limited and our hands are tied to go into certain places as doors get closed, to be able to even speak or teach at certain areas because we're not professing to be a certain denomination.
[00:33:58] And I see ministries as a ministry to open the eyes of your understanding to the Holy Bible.
[00:34:11] It has to be all about Jesus. And it can't be under any organization other than itself because we report to God.
[00:34:25] He's the living God. We believe that both of us could give you testimonies about radical encounters we had early on. So nobody could either. No one could convince Peter or Sherry that God is not real, that Jesus is not real because of the manifestation of him that we've experienced.
[00:34:56] It is Jesus Christ who is the rock with a capital R.
[00:35:01] He's the first and the great foundation of the church. Remember, it's his church bought by his blood for his purposes.
[00:35:14] That's 1 Corinthians 3, 11. He's the rock. Peter stated in his first letter that Jesus is the living stone, a cornerstone, the stone that the builders rejected. That's 1 Peter 2, 4. And then he says it again in verses 6 and 7 at the same time.
[00:35:38] Peter and all other Christians, followers of Christ disciples. Remember last week I said, at some point you're going to learn the difference between a disciple and a Christian.
[00:35:51] A disciple is a Christian, but a professing Christian may not be a disciple of Christ.
[00:35:58] That we are living stones who become part of the structure of the spiritual house that God is building.
[00:36:11] Now, before I get into the definitions, I just want to go over some notes really quick that I had come up with this morning. The Christ.
[00:36:25] So Jesus himself had been the disciples.
[00:36:30] He'd been their leader, their teacher, their mentor, their revelator, their miracle worker, their healer, their pastor. He's the great shepherd and their Lord.
[00:36:47] They would learn later that he would be their Savior.
[00:36:52] And as a follower of Jesus, I would say, Jesus is my Savior, but he's my Lord. I give him his sovereign authority to Lord over my life, which means I need to be in a personal relationship with him that starts with the Bible. And then we will give you, over time, experiential manifestations that we've had with God, experiences with the living God.
[00:37:28] So Jesus is the express image of the Father, whose name is holy. God's name is holy, capital H. You see that in Isaiah, chapter 57, verse 15.
[00:37:41] And at least nine times in the Bible, God said, be holy, for I am holy.
[00:37:47] Why is repentance important? Because God said, be holy, for I am holy. Separate yourself from the world. That means whatever is in you that's not of me, that's not holy, that still is of the world.
[00:38:03] Separate yourself from that.
[00:38:09] That becomes sin, that separates us from God.
[00:38:14] So the disciples did nothing without Christ.
[00:38:17] And everything they did, he showed them how to do it.
[00:38:22] He's the ultimate manager, leader.
[00:38:26] He never asked them to do anything that he didn't do. And a picture is worth a thousand words. So they saw him heal the sick. They saw him cast out devils. They saw him cleanse the lepers. They saw. They saw him do everything that as believers in Christ, we are commanded and commissioned to do ourselves.
[00:38:50] So what is it that today's church does?
[00:38:56] Some of them preach the Gospel, but I don't hear reports of healing or demonic possessions being dealt with.
[00:39:10] So are we as a universal church, are we doing the Great Commission, or do we just think we are because we're putting the Gospel out and that has to go out.
[00:39:24] God said he'd confirm the Gospel with signs, wonders and miracles following because it's the gospel, it's the power of God unto salvation.
[00:39:36] So he was the center of their life.
[00:39:38] The definition of the word mentor means containing someone, containing advice or admonition. And all these titles that I gave you are of Jesus.
[00:39:51] He's the word of God.
[00:39:55] Now, the word Christ, that term, that word is in the Bible 555 times. Now I've taken this from the King James version of the Bible. So if you use a different version, there might be.
[00:40:13] There could be, depending on what version, you're looking at less of this because some versions have removed for whatever reason, their scriptures, not in them that were in the original manuscripts.
[00:40:27] 555 times in 522 verses.
[00:40:34] Now, the Gospel, the good news. We'll see that definition shortly.
[00:40:39] Christ is recorded in Matthew 17 times, 8 times in Mark, 13 times in Luke, and 20 times in John, 30 times in the book of Acts, 58 times in 1st Corinthians and 42 times in 2nd Corinthians, 100 times. Apostle Paul, who said, imitate me as I imitate Christ, used that word to the church 67 times. He used it in the book of Romans.
[00:41:18] And then it goes on.
[00:41:20] It's only going to show up in the New Testament. And almost every book has that word in it.
[00:41:29] He is the word of God. And that's what the good news is. He's the good news. Who he is the person of him. And what is it that he did?
[00:41:40] Now, that word Christ is Christos.
[00:41:45] Its definition is very short.
[00:41:49] It means anointed.
[00:41:51] That is the Messiah, which is an epithet of Christ. It's his title, not his last name.
[00:42:01] He was the Messiah that his own people murdered. They didn't know. They missed their visitation. They didn't know when he was here. And that is why he told the disciples and. And he also told people when he healed lepers, go give the offering to the priest as commanded in our law. But don't tell them where this came from because he hadn't finished the work the Father gave him to finish.
[00:42:34] Anointing.
[00:42:40] Last week we heard Luke 4:18 and I'll read that in a minute to you.
[00:42:50] The Spirit of the Lord is upon me. The Spirit of God because he has anointed me to preach the Gospel to the poor. He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, those that are bound up with strongholds, or whatever else, and to preach the acceptable year of the Lord. That was his first message in the synagogue.
[00:43:23] And when he said, now that you have heard this with your ears, this scripture is fulfilled, that's when they thought we didn't get pricked in our hearts. This is a hard saying. And they wanted to throw him off the brow of the cliff right off the bat, because they knew what that meant. That meant he was the Messiah, anointed by definition.
[00:43:51] These are definitions from what's called the concordance, Strong's concordance, to consecrate or to separate someone to an office or religious service.
[00:44:06] Christ said, the Spirit of God is upon me because he's anointed me. He's separated me.
[00:44:14] And you'll see in some of Paul's prayers later when we teach you how to pray effectively, that Paul said in prayer that the church would separate themselves.
[00:44:28] That was one of his prayers.
[00:44:35] So if I look up the word Messiah, guess what the definition is?
[00:44:43] Anointed.
[00:44:44] A consecrated person as a king, priest or saint with a little S.
[00:44:51] Specifically the Messiah with a capital N, the anointed one.
[00:44:56] So that's the same thing.
[00:45:02] What is the gospel?
[00:45:04] By definition, it's a good message.
[00:45:08] That is the gospel.
[00:45:11] That's what we're supposed to proclaim as believers, the gospel.
[00:45:17] The definition of church.
[00:45:19] That word shows up in the Bible 80 times. It's the ecclesia. You may have heard that word.
[00:45:26] What is the church?
[00:45:29] It's a calling out. We've been called out to be separated and consecrated from the world.
[00:45:36] It's a popular meeting, especially a congregation, Jewish synagogue or Christian community of members on earth, were saints in heaven, or both. It's the assembly.
[00:45:51] That's what we are, the assembly of God.
[00:45:58] The word Christian, I said, only shows up twice in the Bible. What is a disciple?
[00:46:06] That word singularly shows up 29 times. And plural, it shows up 243 times.
[00:46:18] It means a learner, that is a pupil.
[00:46:23] But it also means that you are going to do what the teacher, the leader, the mentor told you to do.
[00:46:32] In the book of James, James wrote, by inspiration of God, be a doer of the Word and not a hearer, only deceiving your own self.
[00:46:42] So you're given the knowledge tonight what you do with this knowledge is whether you exercise wisdom or the opposite of that.
[00:46:51] If I have the knowledge and it's the truth and I don't do it, I'm being a foolish person, not a wise person, a learner or a pupil.
[00:47:04] Now, I'm not going to get into the Galilean wedding tonight, but I do want to give you one other set of scriptures before we close, and that's in the Gospel of John, chapter 6, verses 67 to 71.
[00:47:20] Five verses. This is Peter's other confession.
[00:47:26] Jesus healed 5,000 people.
[00:47:30] They followed him across the lake, and now they're looking for him. And he's going to have a conversation with them and. And he's going to try to teach them. They're following him because their bellies are full.
[00:47:43] They're looking for natural food, and he's trying to get them to understand the word of God is a spiritual thing.
[00:47:53] They all left, except probably a few more than the original disciples that he had.
[00:48:02] So beginning in verse 67, so Jesus said to the 12, do you want to go away as well? Do you want to leave me as well?
[00:48:13] The same person that said, you are the Christ, the Son of the living God, is here.
[00:48:19] And Simon Peter answered him, lord, to whom shall we go?
[00:48:25] You have the words of eternal life.
[00:48:28] They were beginning to get it, who he was the Son of the living God, the express image of the invisible God who was sent by the Father to offer anybody who would believe, both Jew and Gentile, this gift of eternal life.
[00:48:51] And then Peter says, and we have believed and have come to know that you are the Holy One of God.
[00:49:01] Notice how that's worded. We believed their faith came first, but now they've come to know they have the knowledge, too. Now, faith will get you to move many times before you have an understanding of what God told you to do before. The understanding can come later. But faith will get you to move without the understanding.
[00:49:30] That's why when Sherry and I go speak, we believe in faith in our heart that God will confirm that message with signs, wonders and miracles.
[00:49:42] It doesn't matter which one of the two of us is speaking boldness in Christ and not being ashamed of him.
[00:49:53] That boldness will come out when you stand behind the pulpit, look at a gathering, an assembly of people, and say, I'm going to give you an opportunity to respond to the Word of God today. Open up the altars, and those that have the faith to come forward will experience signs, wonders and miracles.
[00:50:15] You better believe that if you're going to proclaim that we do.
[00:50:20] And guess what happens when they come forward?
[00:50:23] The manifestation of God's glory is present in however way God decides to do that. Many times it's in healings, deliverances.
[00:50:34] Sometimes people don't even know what they got set free from until weeks later when they feel light.
[00:50:42] They don't feel a burden on them anymore, and they begin to pray and they realize, I'm not depressed anymore, or whatever. God does it sovereignly.
[00:50:53] And then Jesus answered the disciples, did I choose you, the 12, and yet one of you is a devil.
[00:51:01] He spoke of Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, for he, one of the 12, was going to betray him.
[00:51:11] So Peter makes two confessions of faith in my heart. When I speak in a church or an assembly meeting, I'll just say what I believe is we are commanded to baptize people. The Bible says, go baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son of the Holy Spirit. The church understands, understands pretty much what that means. It's a symbol, it's a confession of their faith in what they just received.
[00:51:47] So my question to the church as a whole or those that are interested in seeking Jesus, who is the healer?
[00:51:57] If you heard a message in a church and there was an altar call for healing, you could get healed back in your seat.
[00:52:07] But wouldn't that be a confession, an outward confession of your faith, what you believed in your heart? Because you're not coming up to a person to get healed. You're coming to Jesus.
[00:52:19] And many times in the Gospels, Jesus said, you are healed by your faith.
[00:52:29] So someone can get healed on the faith that Cherry and I have, or they can get healed many times before they ever get to there.
[00:52:40] God's already healing them, and they just haven't realized it yet.
[00:52:46] So the Christ, the son of the living God, the anointed one, he is the anointed one. He's the holy One.
[00:52:57] You've been given that knowledge.
[00:52:59] And I encourage everybody because there are a lot of new people seeking to know, who is this Jesus I keep hearing about?
[00:53:11] He's a person.
[00:53:13] He's the express image of the invisible God. And the Bible says there's no excuse.
[00:53:19] God's glory is all around us.
[00:53:22] So I'm going to pray and then we'll learn about a Galilean wedding next week.
[00:53:27] Why a Galilean wedding?
[00:53:30] What's the importance of Jesus being Jesus of Nazareth? Why was the meeting.
[00:53:36] Why was most of his ministry in this one area called Galilee, in an area that's no bigger than the state of New Jersey? In America.
[00:53:47] So, Father, we thank you that as we open our hearts, as our minds are open to seek you, to seek righteousness and Christ, is that righteousness that you said. Blessed are they that do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled. So as I spoke, this message that you put on my heart, and it goes forth over community media of South Central Pennsylvania, I thank you now for every heart that's been pricked, all those that thought this was a hard message and they couldn't listen to it. I thank you that you're already working on their spirit to draw them back, because you draw all people into you.
[00:54:40] You said you'd never believe us nor forsake us, but you gave us another scripture, another truthful biblical statement that said, if we draw near to you, you will draw near to us.
[00:54:54] So that is my prayer, that those that heard this message are seeking Jesus. There's people out there right now that have already heard this.
[00:55:06] Some of it's made sense, and they may be ready to make that confession.
[00:55:12] So if you can confess, if you believe in your heart tonight, and you can confess verbally with your mouth that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God, and that salvation, eternal life can only come through him, that he is that door, that he was the son of the living God, that he was crucified, died and was buried, but he was resurrected on the third day and sits at the right hand of the Father.
[00:55:50] That statement to the Gentiles is what Paul gave utterance to.
[00:55:57] For you to receive God's gift. But you need to be separated.
[00:56:04] So if you're ready to do that, you're going to have to do a lot of work because that's just the beginning. And now you need to seek people that can give you an understanding of what the word of God says. So, Father, I thank you for all those people.
[00:56:21] I bless those people tonight. We bless you tonight, Lord. Blessed is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in the heavenly places in Christ because we chose to separate ourselves.
[00:56:38] We followed your commandment. We're being obedient to you. And I bless this TV station for their faith, for what they do in our community, to give our community a purpose.
[00:56:58] So all these things, God, we ask in spirit and truth and in faith that works with love, because God is love and love cannot fail. In Jesus name, who is the Christ. Amen.
[00:57:11] It's.
