~Dave Parks

The Case for Glory

Posted on December 18, 2022 by PastorDave

JOHN | Lesson 3 | Lesson Notes/Talking Points

Read John 2.1-25

I / INTRODUCTION: THE CASE FOR GLORY

1 / Our lesson text is from John 2.1-25. I’m calling it ‘The Case for Glory’ because that’s what John declares Jesus Himself was doing by the miracle-signs that He performed. Read ch 2.11: This, the first of His signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested His Glory. And his disciples believed in Him. This was Jesus’ miracle of turning the water into wine [more on that later…]. John declares that by performing this miracle, Jesus ‘manifested His Glory.’ To ‘manifest’ means ‘to reveal, make visible.’ So Jesus was making His Glory visible by His miraculous works.

2 / What then is this ‘Glory’ that Jesus is revealing? ‘Glory’ can have several shades of meaning. [1] It can mean ‘praise’ that someone earns and receives. [2] It can mean to ‘boast’ in something. [3] Most of the time it means ‘excellence, superiority, and perfection.’ All of those apply here and to all of Jesus’ miracles. But here, most specifically, ‘Glory’ means Jesus’ very Deity – that He is God. John uses ‘Glory’ in this way in ch 1.14: And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. Here, ‘Glory’ means His Deity – that He is very God incarnated in human flesh. Jesus Himself will talk about His ‘Glory’ as the Deity that He is as God … and the Glory that He enjoyed with the Father before the creation of the world / see John 17.1-5, 20-24.

3 / So, when Jesus turned the water into wine, He was publicly revealing His Deity – He, as God, was working what only God can work.

4 / So what John is really saying is that “Jesus performed this first miracle-sign and made the case for Himself that He is God.”

II / JESUS MIRACLE-SIGNS / WORKS: WITNESSES TO HIS GLORY / DEITY

1 / Jesus will refer, not only to this first miracle, but to all the miracle-signs and works that He performed as just one of the many undeniable witnesses that make the case that He is Deity – God revealed and incarnated in human flesh. Read, for example, what Jesus said in John 5.30-47. What He is saying here is listing at least these witnesses to His Glory, His Deity, that He is God:

[1] v 31 / Himself
[2] vv 32-35 / John the Baptist
[3] v 36 / the works that the Father was working through Him
[4] v 37 / the Father Himself
[5] vv 38-44 / the Scriptures
[6] vv 45-47 / Moses

2 / But for our purposes right now, I want to note especially #3, the works that the Father was working through Him. Jesus says that those works testify and witness to His Deity – that He has come from the Father, and even that the Father Himself was doing the works through Jesus that He [Jesus] was doing / see vv 17-18.

3 / So if all of Jesus’ works were witnesses making the case for His Glory, His Deity, then this one in ch 2.11 was the first that John will write about in his Case for Jesus’ Glory.

4 / And if you connect this ch 2.11 with ch 20.30-31, you will be able to see John’s template and outline he will follow for the rest of his book here. Let’s just put these two verses together:

ch 2.11 / This, the first of His signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested His Glory. And His disciples believed in Him.

ch 20.30-31: Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; ³¹but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in His Name.

III / THE CASE FOR GLORY: ALSO THE THEME OF THE WHOLE GOSPEL

1 / Also, in a very real sense, you could not only give the title ‘The Case for Glory’ to this chapter 2, but it would also serve very well as a theme and title for the whole Gospel of John. That’s what John is presenting here in this Gospel: the case for Jesus’ Glory/Deity.

2 / In chapter 1, John has already introduced Jesus to us in vv 1-18 as The Word who is God … who became flesh and dwelt / ‘tent’ed / tabernacled among us. He was ‘making known to us’ in visible flesh the God we have never seen [ch 1.18].

3 / Then in vv 19-51, John presents a series of personal encounters with Jesus and some of those first believers who saw His Glory and believed in Him for eternal life. These encounters are all themed on the phrase ‘Come and see!’ These first disciples/believers came and saw Jesus’ Glory / Deity – and they believed in Him.

4 / In the rest of this Gospel, John will continue to introduce us to a number of others who ‘came and saw’ Jesus’ Glory / Deity … and believed in Him as the Son of God. John writes this book so that you and I – and all others who read these testimonies – will come and see … and believe.

IV / JOHN, CHAPTER 2: THE CASE FOR GLORY

1 / So, with all that being said, let’s open up chapter 2 … The Case for Glory.

2 / Chapter 2 is actually a collection of two short stories and a brief commentary – all of which have the common theme of The Case for [Jesus’] Glory. We will notice that all three sections have these elements in common:

[1] they all contain reference to a ‘sign-miracle’ that Jesus performed;
[2] they all reveal and manifest some witness to Jesus’ Glory / Deity – His God-ness;
[3] they all make mention that His disciples and followers ‘believed in Him’ as God and Savior when they saw His Glory / Deity in His signs-miracles.

V / vv 1-12 / TURNING WATER INTO WINE

1 / Jesus and His whole family [Matthew 13.55-56] were obviously family friends with these wedding party families. They were all invited and they all attended together. [We will note at the end of the story that some of His disciples were also present and with Him there – and they witnessed this sign-miracle.]

2 / During the course of the festivities [which often went on for days…], they ran out of the wine they were serving. Jesus’ mother, Mary, brings the need to His attention. Although Jesus will perform the miracle, He very respectfully establishes His life’s and ministry’s priorities – to fulfill a specific purpose and work that He simply calls here ‘My hour’ / v 4. This is a phrase that He will reprise at least six times during this Gospel [2.4; 7.30; 8.20; 12.23-27; 13.1; 17.1].

3 / Also what Jesus is doing here is clearly differentiating between having come into the world to do His earthly mother’s will [as here] and doing His Father’s will [see John 17.1-5 & Hebrews 10.5-10].

4 / Then, what Jesus proceeds to do is command the servants to fill some water jars they had with water. They did. Then he told them to begin serving it to the master of the feast and the guests. The master of the feast had no idea where it had come from. He had not witnessed the transaction. But when he tasted it, he knew that it was fine wine. He complimented the bridegroom who was in charge of the activities for his choice of the fine wine.

5 / This act of supernaturally and miraculously changing one element into another was the first and the beginning of these sign-miracles that Jesus would perform over the course of His ministry. By doing so, He clearly, unmistakably, and undeniably demonstrated, evidenced, and revealed His Glory / Deity – that He is God!

6 / And when His disciples witnessed that miraculous work, “they believed in Him.” This does not mean that they weren’t believers before – but what it does mean is that they witnessed this demonstration of His Deity and their faith in Him and commitment to Him as the Son of God and the Christ/Messiah was confirmed beyond all doubt!

7 / So, here you have John’s first witness and testimony to ‘The Case for Jesus’ Glory.’

VI / vv 13-22 / THE ‘CLEANSING’ OF THE TEMPLE

1 / Just so you will see John’s pattern here, after Jesus drives out the money-changers and livestock merchants, the Jews [elders, officials, leadership] will ask Him for a ‘sign’ to validate and credentialize His authority to do what He has just done / v 18. That’s one of the common threads and keywords that will tie together John’s Case for Glory.

2 / We are told that this occasion is the Passover feast. Before we get into this story, this same event is also recorded in Matthew 21.12-17; Mark 11.15-19; Luke 19.45-48. Except that they all place this event during the final week of Jesus’ life after His ‘triumphal entry’ into Jerusalem.

3 / John here seems to place this event at the very beginning of Jesus’ ministry. So this has posed a number of questions: [1] was it at the first or at the end of Jesus’ ministry; [2] or were there two such events?

4 / There really doesn’t have to be but one event, and it has all the evidences of having occurred in the final week of Jesus’ ministry. John’s purpose is not to give us a chronological sequence of events in Jesus’s life and ministry, but rather group his witnesses to Jesus’ Glory according to the themes he wants to emphasize.

5 / Especially also when we consider how even John here relates it to Jesus’ resurrection which would have occurred only a very few days from that day. Also, while Jesus was hanging on the cross, those around the cross mocked Him for what He had said during this event [see Matthew 26.61 & 27.40].

6 / So what is going on here? Jesus is ‘cleansing’ the Temple from all of this sacrilegious activity that is defacing God’s Glory that should have been worshiped in the Temple. The Shekinah Glory or Presence of God had always been the Glory of His Temple. But they had defaced, defiled, and desecrated that Glory centuries before.

7 / Yahweh had also declared in Isaiah 56.7: “…these [Gentiles] I will bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer; their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be accepted on my altar; for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples.” But what the Jewish leadership had done was to exclude the Gentiles from worshiping in the Temple at all and had replaced the Court of the Gentiles with these livestock bazaars. The pilgrims who came to the Temple to make their annual sacrifices couldn’t always bring their sacrificial animals with them. So the Sadducees [primarily along with the chief priest’s family ‘mafia’] had formed a racket selling these animals to the worshipers at exorbitant prices … as well as exchanging their local currencies for the Jerusalem currency, again at exorbitant exchange rates.

8 / God had decreed that only He should be worshiped and glorified in His Temple … but they had hijacked God’s Temple for their own commercial services and profits.

9 / And so Jesus comes to His Temple [as Malachi 3.1-4 prophesies] to purify it, cleanse it of all these defiling activities – and to restore the Glory of God to His Temple by His Presence. By so doing, Jesus was declaring that He Himself is the True Temple of God – the Presence of God who is to be worshiped!

10 / He calls the Temple ‘my Father’s house,’ thus calling God His Father and making Himself equal with God [see again ch 5.18 & 10.30-33].

11 / In all these expressions, Jesus was making the Case for His Glory … declaring and demonstrating His Glory / Deity. Jesus was also declaring that He Himself was the Temple of God. He proclaimed that truth when He made the statement, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up!” The Jews mocked Him and scoffed at Him for such an incredulous and outlandish claim. Herod had been in a construction project already for forty-six years remodeling and beautifying that Temple – and it would be going on for another thirty-five years or so before it was destroyed by the Romans in 70 AD.

12 / But Jesus wasn’t referring to that physical architectural temple at all – He was referring to the Temple of His very body. This would be fulfilled just a few days later when He was crucified and then raised from the dead three days later – just as He promises here!

13 / His disciples will remember this mysterious [at that time] exchange and claim that Jesus made when He was raised. They would also remember that the Psalmist prophesied in Psalm 69.9: “For zeal for Your House has consumed Me, and the reproaches of those who reproach You have fallen on Me.” Jesus was re-claiming the Glory that belongs only to God – and since He was God, it belonged to Him.

VII / vv 23-25 / MORE SIGNS-MIRACLES … MORE BELIEVERS

1 / v 23 / Now when He was in Jerusalem at the Passover Feast, many believed in His Name when they saw the signs that He was doing. Notice how John continues to weave this thread of Jesus’ signs in this brief commentary.

2 / John is simply relating here how Jesus continued to perform His miracles of healing, casting out demons, and all the other gracious works He performed – all of which demonstrated His Glory / Deity.

3 / One of the most notable miracles Jesus performed, especially during these last weeks of His life was the raising of Lazarus in ch 11. The effect of this miracle was that many of those who witnessed this miracle believed in Him [see ch 11.45].

4 / However, Jesus also demonstrates His Glory / Deity by knowing what really goes on in people’s hearts when they claim to believe in Him. Many do – truly and sincerely – and they are saved from their sins. Others claim to be believers, but they do so hypocritically, superficially, or to gain some kind of physical benefit for their own advancement or enrichment. Jesus knows the difference: “But Jesus on His part did not entrust Himself to them, because He knew all people and needed no one to bear witness about man, for He Himself knew what was in man.”

5 / Only God can make such a claim as this. And so Jesus makes the case for His own Glory when He is able to discern the difference between those who truly believe in Him and those who only pretend to. The pretenders may be able to deceive and fool their peers who can’t see past their façade, but Jesus knows.

VIII / MORE TO COME…

1 / Now that John has given us some markers and pointers to look for as we continue to read, he will proceed on in the following chapters to relate some more encounters with people who will come and see Jesus’ Glory.

2 / Some will believe and be saved … others will continue to not believe and will be condemned and lost.

3 / Now that you have read this part of John’s Case for Christ’s Glory, you, too, have come and you have seen His Deity. You have witnessed His God-ness. You have had your own encounter here with the Living God in the Person of Jesus Christ.

DO YOU BELIEVE?

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“Come and See – and Believe!”

Posted on December 10, 2022 by PastorDave

JOHN | Lesson 2 | Lesson Notes/Talking Points

Read John 1.19-51

INTRODUCTION / MAKING THE CONNECTION

1 / The riddle has often been posed: “What is shallow enough for a child to wade in yet deep enough for an elephant to swim in?” And the answer is: “The Gospel of John!” On the surface, John seems to be so simple and straightforward. The language used in writing John [both in Greek and English] is simpler grammatically and uses a smaller vocabulary in comparison with the other three Synoptic Gospels. Very frequently, first year Greek students will begin their elementary translating work using passages from the Gospel of John [or 1 John].

2 / That’s why we say John is shallow enough for a child to wade in. We often use The Gospel of John to reach out to unbelievers to introduce them to Jesus Christ. And we recommend new believers to read this book. That is a testimony to its simplicity.

3 / But the truths that are contained in The Gospel of John are so deep, so expansive, so eternal, so sublime, so ethereal – so beyond our ability to comprehend and relate to our human experiences – that it will require eternity itself to really begin to grasp and plumb the true meanings of so much that is written in this book. We’ll have to take what Jesus said to Nathanael in chapter 1.50 for ourselves…and wait for later: “…do you believe? You will see greater things than these!”

4 / Every time we come back to this book to read and study it again, we will discover so many more truths that manifest and magnify the greatness of Jesus Christ. And so it is with this current study. That is why we have titled this lesson ‘Come and See – and Believe!’ … because I am so newly impressed as we begin this survey and study of the Gospel of John that this is at least one of John’s primary purposes and plans for what he included in this Gospel and how he has laid it out in the writing of it.

I / ‘COME AND SEE!’

1 / This is the personal invitation that is repeated twice in the end of chapter 1 – in verses 19-51. This is after John has written this introduction to who Jesus Christ is: THE WORD.

[1] The invitation was given by Jesus Himself [ch 1.39] to two of John Baptist’s disciples…after he had called out to his disciples to ‘behold … look at … see for yourself’ the Lamb of God! [ch 1.29, 35-36]. This also is just another way to say ‘Come and See – and Believe!’
[2]The second invitation to ‘Come and See!’ was given by Philip to his friend Nathanael in ch 1.46 after he [Philip] had already spent some ‘come and see’ time with Jesus for himself.

2 / And yet, this call and invitation to ‘Come and See’ is one of the many prominent key words and theme-threads that runs all throughout the Gospel of John and ties it all together. [PERSONAL NOTE: we are only finishing up chapter 1, and I have already written down more than twenty prominent theme/key word threads that I know John will weave all throughout this book]

3 / In fact, what I’m going to propose here is that we take this theme of ‘Come and See!’ and use it as a kind of guide to lead us through the reading and study of John throughout these lessons. Let’s use ‘Come and See!’ as one of our primary ‘Sherpas’ to lead us and point out many of the lessons we will learn during this study.

4 / There is no ‘only one way’ to read The Gospel of John. What we do know for sure is that John is not just a random streaming of stories, recollections, or memories that John recalled and decided to write down here at the end of the first century – as the last living apostle of Jesus Christ. NO! John clearly had a stated purpose for writing this Gospel account. And he plainly tells us what his purpose was from the beginning to the end of his book – “Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; ³¹but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in His Name.” [ch 20.30-31].

John wrote about a series of selected signs [miracles] that Jesus performed;
All of these miracle-signs were ‘witnesses’ and ‘testimonies’ (same word in Greek) and pointed to Jesus’ Deity, His God-ness, that He is ‘the Son of God’ – in other words, every one of these miracle-signs that Jesus performed was His call and invitation to ‘Come and See Who I AM!’;
Every one of these miracle-signs that Jesus performed was also a call to faith in Him, to ‘Believe in Me!’ (as they did, for example, in ch 2.11 – and will throughout this book)

5 / This theme of ‘Come and See – and Believe!’ will be announced by the keyword theme/thread that John will use all throughout this Gospel to tie together all these personal encounters that Jesus will have with others as He calls them to believe in Him. That keyword is: WITNESS/BEAR WITNESS [both verb and noun] and its twin word TESTIFY/TESTIMONY [both verb and noun]. These twin words are the same in the Greek language…

6 / If you will follow just this one keyword all throughout John’s Gospel, you will begin to see the purpose, theme, and scheme John has in mind as he writes all of these accounts he references in ch 20.30-31.

7 / And then, if you add what John says about himself being a true eyewitness to all these things, his purpose and plan in what he writes here will come into sharper focus…

ch 19.35: He who saw it has borne witness—his testimony is true, and he knows that he is telling the truth—that you also may believe.

ch 21.24: This is the disciple who is bearing witness about these things, and who has written these things, and we know that his testimony is true.

II / THE FATHER SAYS: ‘COME AND SEE – AND BELIEVE!’ WHO I AM … IN MY SON!

1 / Jesus repeatedly says ‘the Father sent Me’ into the world. Or refers to Himself as ‘He whom the Father has sent.’ see for example John 17.1-5

2 / So, why did the Father send the Son into our world? The Father sent His Only Son into the world to make Himself visible and known in Him and through Him. The Father wants us to know who He is, to know Him in eternal life, and be with Him forever.

3 / So, He sent His Only Son from His own Presence and Glory, and then calls us to ‘Come and See – and Believe!’ in Me … in My Son! ch 1.14: And the Word became flesh and dwelt [tabernacled / tented] among us, and we have seen His Glory, Glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

4 / So much so, that Jesus will declare in John 14.7: If you had known Me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know Him and have seen Him.

III / THE SON SAYS: ‘COME AND SEE – AND BELIEVE!’ IN THE FATHER … IN ME!

1 / Jesus’ expressly stated purpose for coming into our world was to manifest [make visible] the Father. John declares that purpose and the fulfillment of it in ch 1.18: No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, He has made Him known.

2 / And again, in John 14.8-11, Jesus emphasizes to Philip that he [Philip] had seen the Father by seeing Jesus Christ: Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.” ⁹Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? ¹⁰Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works. ¹¹Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else believe on account of the works themselves.”

IV / JOHN THE BAPTIST [BAPTIZER] SAYS: ‘COME AND SEE – AND BELIEVE!’ IN JESUS … AS OUR LONG-EXPECTED AND ANTICIPATED MESSIAH!

1 / Over and over, John the Baptist bore witness to Jesus Christ and called out for everyone who heard him to ‘Come and See – and Believe!’ in Jesus as the Son of God and their Savior / see ch 1.6-8; 15; 19-28.

2 / In fact, John the Baptist was ‘a man sent from God’ [ch 1.6] for this very purpose: so that God could publicly and visibly reveal Jesus Christ as Deity – the Son of God – and Israel’s Messiah / see ch 1.29-34. His ministry in general and his baptism in particular served to [1] introduce; [2] identify; and [3] inaugurate Jesus Christ into His ministry.

3 / After Jesus had been baptized by John the Baptist, every time John sees Jesus or speaks of Him in any way, he is always calling on everyone who heard him to ‘Come and See – and Believe!’ in Jesus Christ / ch 1.29 & 35-36.

4 / Jesus will again later on commend John the Baptist for the witness and testimony John bore to Him / ch 5.32-35

Now we come to the two more specific ‘Come and See’ witnesses in our lesson text…

V / ch 1.35-42 / JESUS CALLS TO TWO OF JOHN THE BAPTIST’S DISCIPLES TO ‘COME AND SEE – AND BELIEVE!’ IN HIM … AS THEIR MESSIAH [CHRIST]!

1 / v 35 / Some of the disciples who had been following John the Baptist from the days when he was announcing that Christ was about to be manifested and seen … they were still following John now even after Jesus had been baptized, revealed, and made to be seen. But John knows that his calling and ministry has now been fulfilled.

2 / vv 36-37 / So he emphatically draws attention to Jesus and calls on His disciples to now ‘Behold … look … see the Lamb of God!’ As if to say, ‘He is the One you must now see, and believe in, and follow!’ So two of his disciples do just that – they begin to follow Jesus.

3 / v 38 / Jesus turns to them with a question: ‘What are you seeking?’ He asks this question in all sincerity. He wants to test the genuineness and integrity of their interest in Him. Are they seeking Him only for the novelty or out of a merely human curiosity? Or are they genuinely interested in seeing more intimately into what John the Baptist has been declaring about Him?

4 / v 38 / So they reply to His question about what they are seeking with “Rabbi [this word means ‘Teacher’ or even more ‘Master’], where are You staying?” What they are saying in this response question is: “Rabbi, we want to spend some time with you. We want to learn more about who you are. We are genuinely interested in seeing into your character and message.”

5 / v 39 / Jesus responds with His gracious invitation: “Come and you will see.” Jesus is more interested in our seeing Him than we could ever be in seeing Him as we think we need to and want to. So that’s what they did. Jesus was staying with someone as their guest. They followed Jesus to where He was staying. At this time, it was around 4pm, so they stayed overnight with Jesus in the guest home. Who knows if they got any sleep at all that night!

6 / vv 40-42 / One of these two of John the Baptist’s disciples was Andrew. Andrew was Simon Peter’s brother. We will later on become more familiar with Peter than with Andrew. But Andrew was the one who went searching for Simon and brought him to Jesus. John doesn’t use these words here in his account, but surely at some time in their conversations, Andrew excitedly gestured and exclaimed to his brother, Simon, ‘Come and See! See for yourself! We have found the One who is prophesied and promised all throughout the Old Testament – our Messiah, our Christ!’ [‘Messiah’ is the Hebrew word that means ‘Anointed’ and ‘Christ’ is the Greek language equivalent for the same word].

7 / v 42 / When Jesus saw Simon coming to see Him, He knew the plans He had for him in the short years to come. So He named Simon ‘Cephas’ [in the Aramaic commonly-spoken language of their day] which means ‘Peter’ [in Greek] … both of these names mean the same thing: Rock.

8 / NOTE: how welcoming Jesus is to our desires to know Him more and better – and how willing He is to show and tell us as much about Himself as we are interested to learn. NOTE ALSO: that when we truly come to see Jesus and believe on Him, we must be telling others what we have seen and heard / see Acts 4.13-20.

VI / ch 1.43-51 / PHILIP CALLS TO NATHANAEL TO ‘COME AND SEE – AND BELIEVE!’ … THAT JESUS IS THE SON OF GOD & KING OF ISRAEL!

1 / v 43-44 / Jesus migrates now from the Jordan River area where He had been baptized and where the previous encounters had taken place. He now goes a few miles north to Galilee – maybe to Bethsaida up on the northern coast of the Sea of Galilee. “He found Philip and said to him, ‘Follow me!’” … indicating that whereas in the previous encounter, they followed Him out of interest in learning more about Him, in this instance, Jesus takes the initiative to seek out Philip and call him to follow Him. “Philip, come and see Me for who I AM!” Philip does just that – and he becomes a believer in Jesus’ Deity! He is convinced that Jesus of Nazareth is their Promised Messiah!

2 / vv 45-46 / So what does Philip do? He goes to find another friend of his – Nathanael! Philip excitedly tells Nathanael that ‘We have found Him of whom Moses in the Law and also the Prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph!’ Or at least, that’s how they knew Jesus in this first introduction. They would come to know Him better in days to come – that He was, in truth, the Son of God! Deity! Conceived by God the Holy Spirit and virgin-born! But for now, they knew Him by His earthly and human origins. But Philip is convinced that Jesus is their Promised Messiah!

3 / Nathanael is not so sure. He is still skeptical. He can be convinced – but he must be sure for himself. “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Whatever the then-current and local prejudices were against Nazareth, Nathanael isn’t sure that the Messiah they were long-expecting would come from a lowly village like Nazareth. So Philip again exclaims, “Come and See!” Nathanael sets out to do just that.

4 / vv 47-49 / REMEMBER: Jesus knows all things about all people – we’ll be told this about Jesus just a little later on [ch 2.24-25]. But here He witnesses to His own Deity by demonstrating His omniscience: He had full and intimate knowledge of where Nathanael was when Philip told him about Jesus – and He knew what Nathanael was thinking. Jesus commends Nathanael’s genuine and sincere interest in knowing the truth about what Philip had said about Jesus when He greeted Nathanael’s approach with, “Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no deceit!”

5 / Nathanael was more than just taken aback … he was incredulous! “How do you know me … and my heart … and my thoughts?” Then Jesus astounded him even further: “Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you!” [We have an expression nowadays when someone makes a statement that threatens to identify something we think internally and privately – we say, “I feel seen!”] Nathanael recognizes that Jesus knows him intimately! He has come and he has seen! And he believes! “Nathanael answered Him, ‘Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!” All of these titles, descriptors, and names are ascriptions of Deity! [see ch 5.17-18 & 10.31-33 just for two examples].

6 / vv 50-51 / Nathanael is a believer in Jesus’ Deity just because Jesus has revealed to him that He has all knowledge of us – both physically and spiritually. Jesus promises Nathanael that he will see even greater evidences of Jesus’ Deity than he had just witnessed. As he continued to follow Jesus, he would see greater displays and demonstrations of Jesus’ Deity. What Jesus recalls here in verse 51 is a reference to the dream Jacob had in Genesis 28.10-17. Jacob’s dream was a kind of ‘Come and See – and Believe!’ event for him, too. The dream revealed that Yahweh was there in that place with him! That’s what Nathanael would see also.

7 / Interestingly, the only other time Nathanael is named [by this name] is in John 21.2. He certainly saw clear evidences of Jesus’ Deity that day also.

HERE’S CALLING EACH ONE OF US TO ‘COME AND SEE – AND BELIEVE!’

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The WORD

Posted on December 3, 2022 by PastorDave

JOHN | Lesson 1 | Lesson Notes/Talking Points

Read John 1.1-18

INTRODUCTION

1 / As you know, there are four Gospel accounts. Four presentations of Jesus Christ: who He is, how He came into our world, what He did while He was here, what He said during His earthly life and ministry – and most importantly, how we should know, understand, interpret, and respond to Him.

2 / John’s Gospel is different that the other three ‘synoptic’ Gospels. Synoptic means: to see the same way. The other three Synoptic Gospels focus more on the earthly acts of Jesus. They told of His genealogy, His birth, His miracles, His interactions with others, the parables He taught – and then conclude with His death by crucifixion and His resurrection. This is the story of His Gospel.

3 / John is different in that: he doesn’t begin with Jesus’ birth … John begins instead with Jesus as the Word of God who had no beginning – who was already existing from eternity when everything else began. In truth, Jesus Christ as the Word of God is the One who created and began everything else besides Himself. John does not record Jesus’ baptism nor His temptations. He tells us nothing about the Last Supper, Gethsemane, or the ascension. There are no accounts of the healing of people possessed by demons and evil spirits. John records none of Jesus’ parables, but he does include numerous much longer sermons Jesus preached and taught … many of them to interpret the meaning and significance of the miracles He performed as they declare and manifest who He is.

4 / What John does record is a series of Jesus’ miracles or ‘signs’ that He performed, all of which will demonstrate His Glory, meaning His Deity or Godhood [see ch 2.11]. And just as His disciples saw who He truly is and ‘believed in Him,’ so John writes everything he writes here so that we, too, may know who Jesus Christ is, see His Glory and God-ness, and believe and trust in Him for our salvation from sin and eternal life.

5 / John will tell us when he gets to the end of his Gospel account why he wrote everything he wrote: “Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; ³¹but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in His Name.” [ch 20.30-31].

6 / This author, John, is the apostle John, the brother of James. He is one of the original twelve disciples of Jesus, and is often mentioned along with Peter and his brother James as one of the three who formed the closest and most trusted inner circle of Jesus’ disciples. Also, although John never identifies himself by name as the author of this Gospel, he is most certainly referring to himself as the one who ‘has borne witness’ to all these things [see ch 19.35 & 21.24]. He himself is also the one he refers to as “One of His disciples, whom Jesus loved…” in ch 13.23. John’s authorship is also testified to by numerous early writers who knew him and this Gospel account.

7 / John was an old man when he wrote this Gospel account. He was probably around 90+ years old. He had migrated by this time from Jerusalem to Ephesus where he pastored in his later years. He wrote this Gospel during the last decade of the first century, 90-100 AD. Matthew, Mark, and Luke had already been written and were in circulation. So John wanted to write this distinctive account of Jesus’ ministry to establish these truths about who Jesus was – and the Heavenly, spiritual significances of His Person, ministry, works, and messages.

8 / So John begins with this opening section which is often called The Prologue to his Gospel account. THIS is who Jesus Christ was…and is – and how and why He came into our world!

9 / DISCLAIMER: There is so much to fill in here in terms of explaining these words, why John chose these particular words, how these words and truths related to the culture in which John first delivered them, and how these spiritual descriptors of Jesus Christ are related to one another, the Gospel, and the purpose of this book. So all I can do here is give you the headings of the truths, and we’ll flesh them out more in our comments during the lesson…

I / vv 1-2 / JESUS CHRIST IS ETERNAL AND DEITY

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

²He was in the beginning with God.

1 / Jesus Christ is not named by His Name until v 17. Throughout this opening message, He is called The Word [Logos]. This word ‘Logos’ means ‘word’ as in ‘message.’ The ‘logos’ was the message that was being delivered. It was a common word in the Greek-culture world in which John lived and ministered. To the Greek-culture world, Logos referred to the oracles and messages their ‘gods’ delivered to them. Or it referred to the ‘wisdom’ and the ‘reason’ by which the world existed and was sustained and maintained. In other words, in the Greeks’ way of thinking, the ‘Logos’ was how the world came into being and how everything in the world is ordered. Watch how John now takes ‘Logos’ and preaches the Gospel in Jesus Christ!

2 / It was also a very prominent truth among the Jews. It goes back to what kind of God Yahweh is: He is a God of infinite and superior intelligence, knowledge, and wisdom; He is a God of language and communication…He is a ‘speaking God’; and His word is always spoken with omnipotent and invincible power. In other words, the ‘Logos’ of God is His Word by which everything in the world has been created [Psalm 33.6-9], and by which everything runs, works, and is sustained and maintained [Hebrews 1.3].

3 / So with this statement, John declares to the whole world that Jesus Christ whom he will name later in this message is ‘The Logos.’ John makes three statements about Jesus Christ: [1] He already existed when everything else began (John is placing Jesus Christ before and at Genesis 1.1); [2] He was ‘with God’ when everything else began (this is not making Him separate from God, but taking His place ‘with’ God); [3] He was God – in nature, character, existence, Being. Whoever God is, Jesus Christ was and is. Verse 2 is just a summary/mirror restatement of verse 1…

II / v 3 / JESUS CHRIST IS THE CREATOR OF ALL THINGS

All things were made through Him,

and without Him was not any thing made that was made.

1 / In verses 1-2, when John refers to ‘in the beginning,’ he is referring to the creation of all things. All things were created by God, who is Himself uncreated. Again John uses mirror phrases to restate the same truth: that The Word was the One who created every single other atom, molecule, element, body, and being that is in the created universe … other than Himself.

2 / And that Creator was the Word – and Jesus Christ is that Word. See Colossians 1.15-16.

III / vv 4-5 / JESUS CHRIST IS THE LIFE AND LIGHT OF THE WORLD

In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.

⁵The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

1 / John will introduce two more words that will become threads that run all throughout this book and serve as the themes he wants to proclaim about Jesus Christ … so we can know Him and believe in Him.

The two word-themes are ‘life’ and ‘light.’ Both life and light will be highlighted, demonstrated, and preached on by Christ throughout this book. But for the purposes of brief introduction here: ‘life’ is the very life of God which He will share with us by the new birth. ‘Light’ is knowing God and having a grace relationship with Him in the Truth of who He is.

2 / Light is contrasted with ‘darkness’ which is another theme-word that John will weave throughout this book. Darkness is to be without God, Christless. Darkness is being separated from God who is Light. Darkness is the domain of sin, death, and Satan. Jesus comes as The Word and victoriously conquers the darkness by His very Presence and by His Word.

IV / vv 6-8 & 15 / JESUS CHRIST WAS ANNOUNCED, INTRODUCED, AND PROCLAIMED BY A HUMAN WITNESS

There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. ⁷He came as a witness, to bear witness about the light, that all might believe through him. ⁸He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light.

v 15 / (John bore witness about Him, and cried out, “This was He of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me ranks before me, because He was before me.’”)

1 / This is obviously another ‘John,’ John the Baptist [Baptizer]. John is introduced here because He was chosen by God and sent by God to announce the Christ was coming on the scene. John the Baptist came as a ‘witness,’ another key theme-word just like the apostle John is writing this book as a witness to Christ. And the purpose of the ‘witness’ to The Word, Jesus Christ, is that everybody who hears the message The Word will bring will believe on Him – trust Him and Him only as God’s appointed and sent Savior of the world.

2 / As we go through this book, we will note that every time John the Baptist is mentioned, he is always presented as ‘lesser than’ Jesus Christ. That’s because by the time John wrote this book, there were already sects that had arisen to idolize and promote John the Baptist to the ranks of being the most superior figure in the kingdom of God. Jesus Christ will honor John the Baptist and give him his rightful recognition and appreciation, but never to the eclipsing of the Glory that belongs to Jesus Christ and Him only. See ch 1.8; 1.20; 3.25-30; 4.1; 10.41.

V / vv 9-11 / JESUS CHRIST WAS NOT RECOGNIZED, RESPECTED, OR RECEIVED IN THE WORLD HE HAD CREATED – AND AMONG HIS OWN ETHNIC PEOPLE

The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. ¹⁰He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, yet the world did not know Him. ¹¹He came to His own, and His own people did not receive Him.

1 / After proclaiming The Word, Jesus Christ, as being the Creator of all things [including the first light], and after declaring that Jesus Christ is the True Light of God [by being God Himself & by revealing God in Himself], John then declares Jesus Christ as the Light-Giver to the world. And the ‘world’ into which Christ, The Word, came was the world of lost humanity, the lost nations and peoples of the world. He is the only Light of Truth, Life, and salvation.

2 / But when He came into His world that He Himself had created and sustained, they did not recognize or confess Him as their Creator and Light – they did not acknowledge Him for the God He is. See Romans 1.18-32. He even came to His own nation, the Jews, who had the Old Testament Scriptures announcing His coming, promising His coming – but they did not receive Him.

VI / vv 12-13 / JESUS CHRIST IS THE WAY THROUGH WHOM BELIEVERS BECOME THE CHILDREN OF GOD

But to all who did receive Him, who believed in His Name, He gave the right to become children of God, ¹³who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

1 / But some did receive Him. They did recognize Him. They did acknowledge that He is God. They trusted in Christ and Christ only for their acceptance with God. They knew they were in the darkness of ignorance, sin, estrangement from God the Light, and death. They saw Christ for who He is: The Word of salvation that God had sent in His Son. They believed and trusted Christ to make them good enough for God.

2 / Who gets the credit for their faith? NOT their ethnicity or heritage or tradition or bloodline; NOT the will, choice, or decision of their own reasoning or moral assessment; NOT the will or choice some other person made for them and imposed it upon them or by proxy; BUT OF GOD! In other words, God Himself is the One who is the Giver of their very faith, choice, and decision to see the Glory of Jesus Christ and receive Him as the Word of God’s salvation from sin. See 1 Thessalonians 2.13 & 2 Thessalonians 2.13-14.

VII / v 14 / JESUS CHRIST, THE ETERNAL GOD-WORD, BECAME FLESH AND WAS INCARNATED TO TABERNACLE [TENT] AMONG US

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his Glory, Glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

1 / NOW we come to the pith, crux, core, climax of John’s declaration of The Word. HERE is a Gospel truth that is contained in NO OTHER false deity mythology: that the very God who commanded and demanded that we be saved from our sins would come Himself to save us.

2 / The Word, Jesus Christ, would not save us from afar. He would not save us merely by sovereign fiat. He couldn’t because He is Holy God. As Holy God, He requires the same holiness and righteousness from us that He is if we are to be in covenant relationship with Him. There is only one way we can be saved from our sins and made to be good enough for God. God Himself must come, become like one of us, and do in our place and stead what He commands us to do…except we cannot. God must become like one of us in order to make us like Him as His children [see v 12].

3 / So this eternal, Deity The Word, Jesus Christ, was born into our world as one of us. See Romans 8.3-4; Galatians 4.4-7. God could not command us to be like Him…because we cannot. God must come and become like one of us…and then raise us up by His Grace to be like Him. But only through the substitution of Jesus Christ and the vicarious merits of His grace and truth being imputed to us can we be saved from our sins.

VIII / vv 16-17 / JESUS CHRIST IS THE FULLNESS OF GOD’S GRACE AND TRUTH – AND GIVES THAT FULLNESS TO HIS PEOPLE

For from His fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. ¹⁷For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

1 / Draw connections between v 14, Jesus’ ‘full of grace and truth,’ and v 16, ‘from His fullness we have all received.’ Also between all the thread of ‘believe’ and ‘receive’ in vv 7, 11, 12, 16. Also between all the references to ‘grace’ in vv 14, 16 17. ALL grace and ALL truth is in Jesus Christ!

2 / And now that Jesus Christ has finally been named, draw connections between ‘Word’ in v 1, ‘God’ in v 1, ‘became flesh’ in v 14, and ‘Jesus Christ’ in verse 17. WORD = GOD = FLESH = JESUS CHRIST. Jesus Christ is The Word who is God who has become flesh. The Word who is God has incarnated [in-fleshed] Himself in a human Person and has ‘pitched tent’ among us. That’s what the word ‘dwelt’ means: tented/tabernacled. It refers to the Tabernacle Yahweh instructed Moses to build in the wilderness so His Glory could dwell among them – so God could be with them where they were.

IX / v 18 / JESUS CHRIST IS THE ONLY BEING WHO HAS EVER SEEN GOD … AND MADE HIM FULLY KNOWN TO US

No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, He has made Him known.

1 / Now that John has declared to the best of his ability who Jesus Christ is in His human Person, how he makes another summary statement about WHY Jesus Christ came in our flesh … why He chose to come and live among us as one of us – but without sin.

2 / It was so that we could know, not only who God is, but also know God personally in a loving grace relationship. Jesus Christ is the ONLY One who has seen God – because He is God. He was ‘with God’ when everything else had its beginning through His creation.

3 / But now He has come to us so He can live among us as God, having been sent from the Father, and make Him known to us! And THAT is what the rest of this book will be about. THAT is the story that will be told in the rest of this book: And THIS is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent! / John 17.4

May we all testify as we study these lessons together: “It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is indeed the Savior of the world!” / John 4.42

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The Testimony of a Repeat Offender

Posted on November 26, 2022 by PastorDave

MICAH | Lesson 3 | Lesson Notes/Talking Points

Read Micah 7.18-20

I / INTRODUCTION: RECIDIVISM

1 / RECIDIVISM: the tendency of a convicted criminal to re-offend / or more fully, it refers to a person’s relapse into criminal behavior, often after the person receives sanctions or undergoes intervention for a previous crime. [It comes from the Latin word ‘recidivus’ meaning ‘to fall back’]

2 / That’s why I’m calling this lesson “The testimony of a repeat offender.” Because that’s precisely what Micah is confessing here – that they [the kingdoms of Israel and Judah both] have repeatedly re-offended by committing the same sins, iniquities, and transgressions … over and over again … for centuries and generation after generation … even from the first and earliest days when Yahweh had delivered them from bondage and slavery in Egypt – right up to this very day when Micah is delivering these messages and penning these prophetic words.

II / ISRAEL’S HISTORY AND RECORD OF RECIDIVISM

1 / We have seen this pattern over and over again as we have surveyed, summarized, and studied these Minor Prophets over the recent weeks. We also saw this recidivism brought to their attention by Yahweh by His prophet Jeremiah in Jeremiah 7.22-26:

For in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, I did not speak to your fathers or command them concerning burnt offerings and sacrifices. ²³But this command I gave them: ‘Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be my people. And walk in all the way that I command you, that it may be well with you.’ ²⁴But they did not obey or incline their ear, but walked in their own counsels and the stubbornness of their evil hearts, and went backward and not forward. ²⁵From the day that your fathers came out of the land of Egypt to this day, I have persistently sent all my servants the prophets to them, day after day. ²⁶Yet they did not listen to me or incline their ear, but stiffened their neck. They did worse than their fathers.

2 / And again in Jeremiah 11.6-8:

And the LORD said to me, “Proclaim all these words in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem: Hear the words of this covenant and do them. ⁷For I solemnly warned your fathers when I brought them up out of the land of Egypt, warning them persistently, even to this day, saying, Obey my voice. ⁸Yet they did not obey or incline their ear, but everyone walked in the stubbornness of his evil heart. Therefore I brought upon them all the words of this covenant, which I commanded them to do, but they did not.”

3 / Perhaps the most convicting and damning of indictments against the southern kingdom Judah was also delivered by Jeremiah … this one was delivered during the days of Josiah when they were going through a short season of superficial reformations, though Yahweh exposed that their hearts were not in them – they were only done in pretense. But the indictment is brought against them that they should have learned from the judgments that fell upon their brethren in the northern kingdom Israel when the Assyrians came against them and destroyed their capital city and carried them off into captivity … but did Judah do any differently? No! They persisted in their recidivism – and continued to perpetuate their repeat offenses against Yahweh. Listen to this scathing indictment! Jeremiah 3.6-11:

The LORD said to me in the days of King Josiah: “Have you seen what she did, that faithless one, Israel, how she went up on every high hill and under every green tree, and there played the whore? ⁷And I thought, ‘After she has done all this she will return to me,’ but she did not return, and her treacherous sister Judah saw it. ⁸She saw that for all the adulteries of that faithless one, Israel, I had sent her away with a decree of divorce. Yet her treacherous sister Judah did not fear, but she too went and played the whore. ⁹Because she took her whoredom lightly, she polluted the land, committing adultery with stone and tree. ¹⁰Yet for all this her treacherous sister Judah did not return to me with her whole heart, but in pretense, declares the LORD.” ¹¹And the Lord said to me, “Faithless Israel has shown herself more righteous than treacherous Judah.”

4 / So, you understand now what recidivism means … and what it means to recidivate – and how the kingdoms of Israel and Judah repeatedly and consistently relapsed into the same practices and patterns of disobedience, transgressions, disobediences, lawlessness, faithlessness, treachery, betrayal, and rebellion against Yahweh … even as He was just as repeatedly and consistently loving them, teaching them, instructing them, warning them, and calling them back – to return to Him with confessions of their sins and repentance from them. But they would not!

5 / Therefore, the judgments Yahweh had warned them would come … did come upon them. Yahweh must be true to His own character of Holiness and righteousness. Sin must be punished.

III / BUT MERCY IS ALWAYS PROMISED, ALWAYS IN VIEW – YET TO COME!

1 / But, at the same time, even while Yahweh was condemning their sins and bringing His Holy and just punishments upon them for their faithlessness … He was also promising them His full, complete, and perfect salvation that would be given them in times to come. He would call these future times to come ‘the latter days,’ or ‘in that day.’ These are the days that would come ‘in the fullness of time’ … and they would be fulfilled in Jesus Christ and His Gospel!

2 / Just here in the Book of Micah, even as Yahweh issues His indictments, witnesses, evidences, judgments, and sentences against them … He also points ahead to His promised salvation that would come ‘in the latter days’: ch 4.1-8; 5.2-5; 7.11-17 – and especially here in this concluding hymn and prayer in ch 7.18-20.

IV / THE TESTIMONY OF A REPEAT OFFENDER

1 / This is, first of all, a personal confession by Micah. He is taking his own place among his recidivating people. He is confessing that he himself also is a repeat offender. And who among us has not often done the same thing? Every one of us has had to come to God with our confession of sin with words like: “Father, I have sinned again. I knew better. I have sinned like this over and over, and I have again. I confess…I repent. You have forgiven me for this sin over and over … but here I am again. I have done it again” – or similar words to that effect. Micah is joining in with ‘the remnant of His inheritance’ who have been saved and spared from final death and destruction. He is admitting that he himself is one of these whose repetitive sins have been repeatedly pardoned.

2 / It is also a wordplay on his own name as he recognizes and extols the uniqueness of this pardoning God. Micah’s very name is a rhetorical question: “Who is like Yahweh?” When Micah asks this question: ‘Who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity…,’ he is acknowledging that there is no other god like Yahweh our God! And what sets Yahweh apart from all the rest of the false/fake gods is that He is a God who forgives sinners! Every one of these descriptors of Yahweh pivots and hinges on His ‘mercy’ or ‘steadfast love’ as the word is variously translated. The word that Micah uses here is ‘hesed’ [or ‘chesed’] and it means a love that will not let the beloved one go. The love that tenaciously holds on. The love that persistently, consistently, faithfully, and repeatedly forgives … but without compromising its own Holiness, character, or integrity.

3 / No other god among all the myriad pantheons of the idolaters could claim such a pardoning God like Yahweh, our God! And the glory and splendor of His pardoning, forgiving, redeeming love is one of the most unrivalled of all His graces!

4 / One of my very favorite songs for over 50 years is Great God of Wonders by Samuel Davies [1723-1761]. I’ve made a blog post about it that you can access here: https://daveparksblog.com/2022/11/26/great-god-of-wonders-who-is-a-pardoning-god-like-thee/

Here is what I have written:

Another hymn we learned and sang in our church back during the 70s when we committed to learning every hymn in our hymnal. This hymn is never far from my mind and memory. I have preached on this text before and called it “The Testimony of a Repeat Offender.” Here are the words to the verses…

1. Great God of wonders! All Thy ways

Are matchless, Godlike and divine;

But the fair glories of Thy grace

More godlike and unrivaled shine,

More godlike and unrivaled shine.

[Refrain]

Who is a pardoning God like Thee?

Or who has grace so rich and free?

Or who has grace so rich and free?

2. Crimes of such horror to forgive,

Such guilty, daring worms to spare;

This is Thy grand prerogative,

And none shall in the honor share,

And none shall in the honor share. [Refrain]

3. Angels and men, resign your claim

To pity, mercy, love and grace:

These glories crown Jehovah’s name

With an incomparable glaze

With an incomparable glaze. [Refrain]

4. In wonder lost, with trembling joy,

We take the pardon of our God:

Pardon for crimes of deepest dye,

A pardon bought with Jesus’ blood,

A pardon bought with Jesus’ blood. [Refrain]

5. O may this strange, this matchless grace,

This godlike miracle of love,

Fill the whole earth with grateful praise,

And all th’angelic choirs above,

And all th’angelic choirs above. [Refrain]

5 / Micah also wrote this hymn in an ancient literary arrangement called a chiasm. A chiasm is a series of lines or ideas that are lined out one after the other until they reach a climactic summary … and then they are repeated again in reverse order from how they were first expressed. For example: here in Micah 7.18-20, the statements of God’s unrivalled uniqueness are lined out this way:

Who is a God like you that…

A. pardons iniquity

B. passes over transgression

C. does not retain anger

D. delights in steadfast love [hesed] (this is the climax)

C’. shows compassion

B’. treads down iniquities

A’. casts away sins.

So, A – C build up to D, and then repeat/re-state themselves in other words and reverse order in C’ – A’. ALL climaxing in “Who is a God like you … because He delights in steadfast love?” All of this is another reiteration of Yahweh’s glory that He revealed to Moses in Exodus 33.17-23. On that occasion also Yahweh distinguished Himself as the only God – and certainly the only God of His kind – who pardons, forgives, and shows steadfast love in forgiveness.

6 / But still…all of this begs the question: “But wait…if Yahweh is a God of justice, righteousness, and Holiness who demands and requires that every sin must be punished and paid for through the death of the transgressor… then how can He pardon iniquity? How can He pass over transgression? How does He tread all our iniquities under His feet? How can He be Holy and yet just cast all our sins into the depths of the sea?” These are fair questions, but Yahweh provides the answers in ways that only He can!

7 / The promise of hope, redemption, forgiveness, pardon, and salvation can be accomplished ONLY by Yahweh’s bearing of the guilt and the moral, legal payment for that guilt UPON HIMSELF! And that’s exactly what He is promising and what He provided for us in Jesus Christ through His Gospel! One of the rich keys can be found in that word ‘pardoning…’ The same word for ‘pardon’ here is the common word used all throughout the Old Testament for ‘lift up,’ ‘bear/carry away.’ In fact, Micah himself uses the same word throughout his messages to mean these other things [see ch 2.4; 4.3; 6.16; 7.9]. Then he comes here to ch 7.18 to mean ‘pardon.’ The way God ‘pardons’ our iniquities and transgressions and sins is by ‘lifting them up, bearing them and carrying them away upon Himself’! Micah’s contemporary, Isaiah, uses the same word in Isaiah 53.4 & 12: ‘Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows…’ and ‘…He bore the sin of many.’ Isaiah is prophesying and promising that Jesus Christ, Yahweh’s Suffering Servant, would come ‘in the latter days’ ‘in the fullness of time’ and lift up, bear, carry away upon Himself the guilt and punishment of our sins! Jesus Christ would be punished by the very wrath of God that our sins deserved – the sins we have repeatedly committed … our personal recidivisms!

8 / This, my friend, is the Good News of the Gospel of Jesus Christ! The recidivisms of us repeat offenders – ALL of it has been laid on Jesus Christ! And He has lifted it all up and borne it all on Himself on His Cross … and by making satisfactory payment for it by His death, He has carried it all away! In truth, our sin that He has paid for by His substitutionary death on His Cross is so gone … so far away gone … so gone for good … that it may be said: “You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea.”

9 / THAT is how pardoned you are by believing in the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. Yahweh did all this in faithfulness to the covenant promises of steadfast love that He made to Abraham [see v 20 here]. That promise was that He, Yahweh, would give the blessing of His eternal covenant love to Abraham’s ‘seed’ or offspring [Genesis 12.1-7]. Yahweh must do that! He said He would! He promised! Paul will tell us in Galatians 3.16 that this ‘seed’ or offspring to whom Yahweh made these promises was none other than Jesus Christ Himself! God will keep His promises to His Son! And when we commit all our faith and trust on Him to save us from our sins, then we become pardoned by this very same grace!

She will bear a son, and you shall call His Name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins. / Matthew 1.20

…as He spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets from of old, that we should be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us; to show the mercy promised to our father Abraham… / Luke 1.70-73

I have also attempted to tell this same story in this poem:

By His Stripes We Are Healed! A poetic parable of substitution

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Posted in Bible Studies, Forgiveness, HYMNS, Lesson Notes, MICAH, Sunday School lessons | Tagged Bible Studies, Forgiveness, Great God of Wonders, MICAH, Micah 7.18-20, pardon, recidivism, Sunday School lessons, the testimony of a repeat offender | Leave a comment

Great God of Wonders (Who is a pardoning God like Thee?)

Posted on November 26, 2022 by PastorDave

~Samuel Davies | From Micah 7.18

“Who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity and passing over transgression for the remnant of His inheritance? He does not retain His anger forever, because He delights in steadfast love. He will again have compassion on us; He will tread our iniquities underfoot. You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea. You will show faithfulness to Jacob and steadfast love to Abraham, as you have sworn to our fathers from the days of old.”

Micah 7.18-20

Another hymn we learned and sang in our church back during the 70s when we committed to learning every hymn in our hymnal. This hymn is never far from my mind and memory. I have preached on this text before and called it “The Testimony of a Repeat Offender.”

Here are the words to the verses … followed by a representative vocal rendition.

1. Great God of wonders! All Thy ways

Are matchless, Godlike and divine;

But the fair glories of Thy grace

More godlike and unrivaled shine,

More godlike and unrivaled shine.

[Refrain]

Who is a pardoning God like Thee?

Or who has grace so rich and free?

Or who has grace so rich and free?

2. Crimes of such horror to forgive,

Such guilty, daring worms to spare;

This is Thy grand prerogative,

And none shall in the honor share,

And none shall in the honor share.

[Refrain]

3. Angels and men, resign your claim

To pity, mercy, love and grace:

These glories crown Jehovah’s name

With an incomparable glaze

With an incomparable glaze.

[Refrain]

4. In wonder lost, with trembling joy,

We take the pardon of our God:

Pardon for crimes of deepest dye,

A pardon bought with Jesus’ blood,

A pardon bought with Jesus’ blood.

[Refrain]

5. O may this strange, this matchless grace,

This godlike miracle of love,

Fill the whole earth with grateful praise,

And all th’angelic choirs above,

And all th’angelic choirs above.

[Refrain]

Posted in HYMNS, SONGS OLD & NEW | Tagged Great God of Wonders, Hymn, HYMNS, Micah 7.18-20, Songs old and new, Who is a pardoning God like Thee? | Leave a comment

The Old Testament: pre-enactment of Christ

Posted on November 25, 2022 by PastorDave

Here’s a good rule to remember any time you are reading anywhere in the Bible … and especially the Old Testament.

In the Old Testament, every time you read about and see:

a human failure and need to be saved: sin, disobedience, lostness, faithlessness
an act of mercy
a demonstration of salvation and deliverance
a provision for forgiveness
a promise of hope

…every one of these is a pointer, picture, prophecy, prequel, and a pre-enactment of Christ who will come and what He will do when He does come.

We learn this rule from Jesus Himself:

John 5.39 / You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me…

Luke 24.25-27, 32, 44-46 / And He said to them, “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! ²⁶Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into His glory?” ²⁷And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, He interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself … They said to each other, “Did not our hearts burn within us while He talked to us on the road, while He opened to us the Scriptures?” … Then He said to them, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.” ⁴⁵Then He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, ⁴⁶and said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead…

1 Peter 1.10-12 / Concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours searched and inquired carefully, ¹¹inquiring what person or time the Spirit of Christ in them was indicating when He predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories. ¹²It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves but you, in the things that have now been announced to you through those who preached the good news to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things into which angels long to look.

Posted in Bible Reading, Bible Studies, I've been thinking | Tagged Bible Reading, Bible study, Old Testament, Old Testament Pre-enactment of Christ | Leave a comment

‘Beulah’ songs (and Fiji rugby)

Posted on November 24, 2022 by PastorDave

I grew up in rural West Virginia churches [that’s a good ways from Fiji, by the way … which is where this is going] singing lots of songs about ‘Beulah.’ I also knew that ‘Beulah’ means ‘married’ and comes from Isaiah 62.4 [KJV]:

“You shall no longer be termed ‘Forsaken,’ nor shall your land any more be termed ‘Desolate’; but you shall be called ‘Hephzibah,’ and your land ‘Beulah’; for the LORD delights in you, and your land shall be married.”

I learned this at an early age because our leaders in worship explained things in the songs we sang that may not have been commonly known from our daily experiences.

We don’t have to forsake our Scriptural and historical traditions in the interests of being cultural ‘contextual’; sometimes the ‘contextual’ just needs to be schooled and brought up to date on our Scriptural and historical traditions.

So, singing about ‘Beulah’ was frequent in our hymnody … except we didn’t call it ‘hymnody’ – we called it ‘The Broadman Hymnal.’ The Broadman Hymnal was the hymnal of choice for us independent Baptists who were more doctrinally inclined toward the Doctrines of Grace and the local church. It was the more formal hymnal in a wider culture that tended more toward the Stamps-Baxter Southern Gospel genre.

For example, some of the ‘Beulah’ songs we sang were:

Beulah Land

“I’ve reached the land of corn and wine, and all its riches freely mine / Here shines undimmed one blissful day, for all my night has passed away / O Beulah land, sweet Beulah land, as on thy highest mount I stand / I look away across the sea, where mansions are prepared for me / and view the shining glory shore, my Heaven, my home forevermore.”

And, yes, we sang the fourth verse about “The zephyrs seem to float to me sweet sounds of Heaven’s melody / as angels, with the white-robed throng join in the sweet redemption song.” When I would sing that verse and wonder what ‘zephyrs’ are, I would ask Mom; and she would give us her stock reply: “Go look it up in the dictionary.” Thus we learned new words and how to use the dictionary.

Is Not This the Land of Beulah?

“I am dwelling on the mountain where the golden sunlight gleams o’er a land of wondrous beauty far exceeds my fondest dreams / Where the air is pure, ethereal, laden with the breath of flowers / They are blooming by the fountain, ‘neath the amaranthine bowers / Is not this the Land of Beulah, blessed, blessed land of light / where the flowers bloom forever and the sun is always bright?”

And yes, it was by singing this song that I early learned the meaning of ‘ethereal’ and ‘amaranthine.’ I wouldn’t discover until a few years later that ‘amaranthine’ is the Greek word ‘ἀμάραντον / amarantos’ that Peter uses in 1 Peter 1.4 to refer to our inheritance that ‘does not fade away.’ The amaranth was a flower that “never withers or fades, and when plucked off revives if moistened with water; hence it is a symbol of perpetuity and immortality (see Paradise Lost iii. 353 sqq.)” [Greek Lexicon, Joseph Henry Thayer].

Dwelling in Beulah Land

But the ‘Beulah’ song I’ve had brought back to my memory here of late is C. Austin Miles’s “Dwelling in Beulah Land” which begins with…

“Far away the noise of strife upon my ear is falling, then I know the sins of earth beset on every hand / doubt and fear and things of earth in vain to me are calling, none of these shall move me from Beulah Land / I’m living on the mountain underneath a cloudless sky (Praise God!) I’m drinking at the fountain that never shall run dry / O yes! I’m feasting on the manna from a bountiful supply / For I am dwelling in Beulah Land!”

Now when we sang these songs about ‘Beulah Land,’ we understood that we have not yet come fully into the enjoyment of these experiences. We have been introduced into them and enjoy the firstfruits of them by our present salvation and the Grace of Jesus Christ, but we are still living only in the ‘now’ – and longing for the full enjoyment of the ‘not yet.’

But still, we sing about ‘Beulah Land’ and long with hope for that day and that land!

So, as I say, I still recall and sing these songs from memory in my mind and soul to encourage myself.

So … what does that have to do with Fiji rugby?

But then, a couple days ago, I saw a post on Twitter featuring the 7-man rugby team from Fiji, and they were singing. I was mesmerized by their singing. Here are strong, rugged men who play physical old-fashioned ‘footy’ rugby, crashing and slamming against each other with no helmets or pads, getting bruised, bloody, and broken – and they sing! And they sing a lot! And they sing out…give it all they’ve got! They sing like they play rugby – leave it all on the field! And they sing good! They sing before their matches [the Fijian hymn ‘This is My Prayer’] and after their matches [‘We have overcome…by the blood of the Lamb and the Word of the Lord’].

So I just spent more time than I should have and did some searching on YouTube for ‘Fiji rugby team singing.’

I so enjoy watching these strong grown men singing with passion, gusto, throwing their heads back and belting out their songs with all they’ve got. Often with tears of feeling and emotion streaming down their faces. I appreciate their unabashed patriotism and love of their homeland and country. And I most appreciate how they recognize and confess God in their singing. Their common and favorite post-game song as they gather, link arms, and sing with all their hearts: “We have overcome! We have overcome! By the blood of the Lamb and the Word of the Lord, we have overcome!”

Then, as I was playing some of their singing, I came across the rendition of their national anthem before a match. As I listened and watched these guys belting out their national anthem, I immediately recognized the tune from the first measure. I kept listening, and sure enough … their national anthem is sung note for note to the tune of C. Austin Miles’s “Dwelling in Beulah Land.” So my first thought was, “Well, C. Austin Miles must have adopted an older, more historical tune for his song.” But, no … when I looked up ‘Fiji national anthem’ I discovered that they adopted the tune of Miles’s song for their national anthem when it was adopted in 1970.

So, I’ll have to admit, I have really formed a strong personal appreciation, affection, and bond with these guys I’ve never met and never will. But it wouldn’t be beyond me – if such a thing were conveniently possible – to make a bucket-list wish that they would let me join and sing with them just one time. I already know the English to that post-game song they sing. Hey, I’d even be willing to try to learn the Fijian lyrics so I could keep in time with them.

[In case you’re interested, here are the lyrics to that pre-game hymn they sing: “Noqu Masu / This is My Prayer.”]

Posted in I've been thinking, songs | Tagged Beulah, Beulah songs, Dwelling in Beulah Land, Fiji rugby team, sing like a man, strong men singing | 1 Comment

The Mountain of the House of the LORD

Posted on November 19, 2022 by PastorDave

MICAH | Lesson 2 | Lesson Notes/Talking Points

Read Micah 4.1-8

I / INTRODUCTION / MAKING THE CONNECTION

1 / In our first lesson from Micah in this current short survey series, we studied Micah, chapter 3.1-12, in which Yahweh hands down a summary indictment against every class of leadership in the nation of Judah at that time. We called the lesson The Curse of Failed Leadership. In that indictment, Yahweh details the failures of their civil leaders [vv 1-4], their religious leaders, particularly their prophets [vv 5-7], and their leaders in aggregate, this time including their priests [vv 9-12].

2 / The priests were particularly guilty because they were the ones who were in charge of administering all the sacrifices and services associated with their Temple. All of their sacrifices, offerings, and services were given to them by Yahweh to teach them and show them who He was. All of the offerings and sacrifices ‘preached’ and demonstrated in some way that Yahweh is Holy and that we, the worshipers, are sinful. But Yahweh is merciful to us in providing the sacrifices that make atonement for our sins.

3 / ALSO, and we must not overlook this, the whole sacrificial system of the Old Testament were designed and prescribed by Yahweh to point to Jesus Christ, the Messiah who was to come in the fullness of time! Every detail of every sacrifice and service was a picture, promise, prequel, and pre-enactment of the Gospel that Jesus would “finish” when He appeared! That goes for all the sacrifices and services that were performed in both the Tabernacle and later in the Temple.

4 / I have given this introductory summary of all these Old Testament things to bring us to the theme of Micah, chapter 3 … because in Micah, chapter 3, all of these services that were being offered to Yahweh by all their leaders were failures. In fact, all of their history from the time that Yahweh had brought them up out of bondage and slavery in Egypt had been a consistent record of faithlessness, disobedience, rebellion, and failure.

* They had failed to love Yahweh their God with all their hearts.

* They had failed to obey His law and commandments.

* They had failed to sanctify themselves and keep themselves holy, pure, and distinct from the pollutions, defilements, and corruptions of the pagan nations around them.

* They had failed to worship and serve Yahweh and Him only.

* They had failed to hallow His Name and reverence His Holiness.

* They had failed to represent Him in their civil, religious, and social lives and conduct.

* They had failed in every way they could fail.

5 / For all these reasons, Yahweh was telling them in Micah, chapter 3, that they were going to lose it all! Their pride, identity, and distinctive ‘entitlement’ was most represented by their beautiful Temple. Their Temple had been the sign and promise of Yahweh’s very Presence and Glory dwelling among them [1 Kings 8.10-13]. But now, Yahweh was promising to plow it under! “Therefore because of you Zion shall be plowed as a field; Jerusalem shall become a heap of ruins, and the mountain of the house a wooded height” [Micah 3.12]. Micah had delivered this very threat and dire warning from Yahweh to King Hezekiah [see Jeremiah 26.16-19], causing Hezekiah to institute some sweeping reforms during his years as king. But it was only superficial and temporary, and Judah reverted back to their old idolatrous ways shortly after Hezekiah’s death during the reign of his wicked son, Manasseh.

6 / So – the end of Judah’s kingdom, independence, and the destruction of their beautiful Temple was inevitable … as it came to pass in 606/586 BC. Jerusalem and their beloved Temple were desecrated, desolated, destroyed, and burned to the ground, and they were carried off into captivity to Babylon.

7 / BUT – as is always the case in these Old Testament prophecies – when Yahweh promises and brings to pass the judgments He must enact because of their sin, He also promises to fulfill His covenant of sovereign mercy and grace in days yet to come … when Christ comes! Yahweh will be faithful to all the promises He has made to Christ! [See 2 Samuel 7]

8 / In truth, Christ is the only One who can be faithful enough to Yahweh to fulfill all the responsibilities that Israel and Judah had failed to fulfill! That is the story of the Old Testament! [remember again Hosea 11.1 w/ Matthew 2.15]

9 / And so, Micah here – and all the prophets – pronounce the judgments that must fall upon them at that time because of their sins and failures … and then immediately turns their attention to a future time yet to come. At that time, in those days, Yahweh will perfectly fulfill and bring to pass the redemptive purposes He has set out to complete from before the very creation of the world!

* we have already seen numerous examples of this salvation purpose, like for example: Hosea 2.16-23 compared with 1 Peter 2.9-10 & Romans 9.22-26; and Amos 9.11-12 w/ Acts 15.12-17.

10 / It shall come to pass in the latter days… and the ways it will come to pass is through Jesus Christ, His coming into our world, and through the Gospel He will proclaim!

11 / That is what we will explore in this lesson passage from Micah, chapter 4.1-5. So let’s do this first … even before we open up the first words of chapter 4. Read again that last verse of chapter 3 [verse 12]: “Therefore because of you Zion shall be plowed as a field; Jerusalem shall become a heap of ruins, and the mountain of the house a wooded height.”

* ‘Zion’ was that part of the city of Jerusalem where the Temple was located. ‘Zion’ means ‘stronghold,’ and so their Temple was the symbol of their strength, even their invincibility [or so they thought] because Yahweh was among them.

* ‘Jerusalem’ was their capital city.

* ‘The mountain of the house’ was the elevated site of their beloved, beautiful, glorious Temple.

BUT all of this would be plowed under by the invading hordes of the Babylonians. The site of their glorious Temple would be turned over to be overgrown by underbrush. What a sad end for what had been such a site of pride, trust, and confidence. [see Psalm 48].

12 / BUT [again] … Yahweh will raise it up again and establish it as a place where He will be worshiped, obeyed, and served. Here is Yahweh’s promise of the Gospel of Jesus Christ!

II / ‘THE MOUNTAIN OF THE HOUSE OF THE LORD’

We need to observe also that this passage here, Micah 4.1-5, is recorded again pretty much verbatim by Micah’s contemporary prophet, Isaiah, in Isaiah 2.1-5. Maybe one of them repeated what the other prophet had preached or written … or maybe Yahweh gave the same prophecy to both of them independently of the other. It really doesn’t matter. Yahweh delivered it to Judah – and to us – through them both because He is going to do this … and he wants us to know He’s going to do it!

It shall come to pass in the latter days…

Yahweh has purposed it, and He will do it! It shall come to pass! It is coming. It will happen. And, of course, it has!

In the latter days…

1 / So when are these ‘latter days’? ‘Latter’ is just another word for ‘later,’ meaning it will come in days after when the promise is being spoken. A lot of confusion arises over the timing of God’s prophecies, and a lot of speculation ensues over trying to put dates or at least ranges of dates on when the ‘latter days’ or ‘last days’ are. See again Hosea 2.16-23 & 3.5.

2 / So let’s put a lot of the speculation to rest by just saying what the Scriptures say: the ‘latter days’ or ‘last days’ are the times that began when Jesus Christ came into our world and appeared among us.

* Hebrews 1.1-2: Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, ²but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world.

* Hebrews 9.26: But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.

* 1 Peter 1.20: He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you

* 1 John 2.18: Children, it is the last hour, and as you have heard that antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come. Therefore we know that it is the last hour.

3 / Now, of course, this is not to say that these current days and times are the very last days there will be … because there are many more later and last days after these that are yet to come. But when the Bible speaks of ‘the latter days’ or ‘the last days,’ it is referring to the days from the appearing of Jesus Christ in our world until the very last consummation of all days and time.

4 / So any time we find ‘latter days’ or ‘last days’ in the Old Testament Scriptures, we can understand it as referring to ‘days later than this one’ [at the time of the writing], or ‘later days yet to come,’ or ‘the very last days of time.’ The Bible writers often compressed ages or years of time into a single perspective or reference just because they couldn’t necessarily see the intervening events that would come to pass between the highlights and high points they were looking at. It would be like looking at a range of mountains with all of the peaks of those mountains lined up straight before your line of vision. It might look like some of the peaks even blend into one another. Or it might look like they are really close together. But if you begin pivoting around them and looking at them more from the sides rather than straight on, you will begin to see valleys and space and distance between them allowing for more events to take place in the meantimes. So it is here.

…that the mountain of the house of the LORD shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and it shall be lifted up above the hills…

1 / So what is Yahweh going to do in these ‘latter days’? NOTE that this is the very same ‘mountain of the house of the LORD’ that had been previously plowed under and overgrown by underbrush because of Yahweh’s judgments against their faithlessness and failures. But NOW in these ‘latter days,’ it has been rebuilt and re-established [see Acts 15.12-17 w/ Amos 9.11-12]. Yahweh has firmly established His permanence, prominence, and preeminence.

2 / How has He done this? He has done this by introducing His Gospel into the world in the Person of Jesus Christ. This ‘mountain of the house of the LORD’ is the Temple in Jerusalem – except that that Temple had been desecrated, desolated, and destroyed. The Temple was where the Glory of Yahweh dwelt in the Holy of Holies. The Temple was where Yahweh dwelled among His people. The Temple was where Yahweh was worshiped and where He revealed Himself. But it had been so violated and prostituted out to the worship of all the false gods that Yahweh had to destroy it.

3 / But now, in Jesus Christ, it has been restored, re-built, re-established, and re-inaugurated.

* Remember how Jesus Himself said that His body was the Temple that would be destroyed and raised in three days! John 2.13-22. He Himself is the dwelling-place of God, and He came and ‘tabernacled’ among us.

* Moreover, Jesus established His church during His earthly ministry. The Lord’s New Testament local churches are a holy temple in the Lord…a dwelling place for God by the Spirit [Ephesians 3.19-22].

* And the apostle Paul plainly stated that the New Testament church is God’s temple: Do you not know that you [plural] are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you? ¹⁷If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple [1 Corinthians 3.16-17].

So God has re-established His Temple in the Person and Body of Christ, both in His physical body and in His spiritual body, the church.

…and peoples shall flow to it, and many nations shall come, and say: ‘Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob, that He may teach us His ways and that we may walk in His paths.’ For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.

What is this – but the Great Commission of Jesus Christ?

And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. ¹⁹Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, ²⁰teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” [Matthew 28.18-20

He shall judge between many peoples, and shall decide disputes for strong nations far away; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore;

1 / There is a sense in which we could say that this kind of peace between ‘nations’ is characteristic of healthy churches when they are abiding by the teachings of the Gospel and of Christ our Lord / see Ephesians 3.11-18, for example.

2 / But, it also seems to indicate that this kind of peace between peoples will be universally enjoyed even in a civil and social context – like among real nations of people living in the physical earth at the same time – something, of course, that doesn’t exist is our contemporary world. This universal peace will come only under the immediate and direct sovereign rule of Jesus Christ.

3 / So we have reason to believe that Jesus Christ has established and inaugurated by His Gospel in His churches will yet in the future be realized in a wider, universal earthly context. We may be foggy and uncertain about how, when, and in what order this universal peace will be enjoyed, but as the final fruition and consummation of the proclamation of the Gospel, it shall come to pass in the latter days.

…but they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree, and no one shall make them afraid, for the mouth of the LORD has spoken.

1 / Again, this promise is one of universal prosperity and contentment. It would be like the old campaign slogan from generations past: “A car in every garage, and a chicken in every pot.” In other words, everybody will enjoy the contentment of having enough.

2 / You’ll find this expression in 1 Kings 4.25 where it describes the prosperity, safety, security, and contentment that the people of Judah and Israel enjoyed under the early years of Solomon’s reign. Those days had been long gone when Micah wrote this prophecy of the ‘latter days,’ but it surely was something to long for and look forward to when it came!

For all the peoples walk each in the name of its god, but we will walk in the Name of Yahweh our God forever and ever.

1 / It is plain from Micah’s admission here that their present and current condition in Judah was no where near what he had just been promising from Yahweh. NO! at that time, they were all still devotedly following their own preferred false god.

2 / But Micah calls on them – and he calls on us – to return to the LORD with all our hearts. Commit to love Him, obey Him, fear Him, serve Him, and worship Him only!

…UNTIL THAT DAY, WE WILL WALK, WORSHIP, AND WAIT IN HIS NAME!

micah.l2.micah-4.1-8.the-mountain-of-the-house-of-the-lord Download

Posted in Bible Studies, MICAH, Sunday School lessons | Tagged Bible Studies, Gospel in Micah, Gospel in OT, MICAH, Micah 4.1-5, Sunday School lessons, The Mountain of the House of the LORD | Leave a comment

The curse of failed leadership

Posted on November 12, 2022 by PastorDave

MICAH | Lesson 1 | Lesson Notes/Talking Points

Read Micah 3.1-12

My apologies for the brevity of the notes for this lesson. This week has been extraordinarily preoccupied with issues and projects which have given me no extended breaks of time for my attention to be focused on quiet study or recording notes for this lesson. I have studied, read, meditated, and prayed over the text, mostly in small snatches of time … but haven’t had sufficient time or access to my computer to commit any more than these scant notes to writing. We’ll fill it out much more during our lesson time…

INTRODUCTION

1 / “The book of Micah is found in the middle of the Minor Prophets, and in fact it contains the middle verse of the twelve minor prophets: a prophecy of judgment on the holy city of Zion and its temple (3.12). Within the Minor Prophets, Micah is in the middle of a trio of books (Jonah, Micah, Nahum) dealing with the nation of Assyria and with Israel’s and Judah’s relation to this hostile power. Jonah and Nahum deal with the salvation and judgment of Assyria, respectively, while Micah deals mostly with the impending judgment on Judah at the hands of the Assyrians, as well as with the eventual judgment of Assyria itself.” Stephen G. Dempster, Expository Commentary.

2 / Micah. Micah’s name is a short form for the longer name Micaiah, or Michaiah. That name is actually in the form of a question: “Who is like Yahweh [The LORD]?” [Most of the time when you see the ‘ah’ or ‘iah’ ending on a name, it is a reference to God’s personal Name, Yahweh … just like the names ending in ‘el’ refer to the common word for God ‘El.’] Micah himself will make a play on his own name in ch 7.18 when he extols the compassion, grace, and forgiveness of Yahweh by asking the question: ‘Who is a God like you…?’

3 / From Moresheth. Micah identifies himself by where he comes from [not by who his father is…as several other prophets are identified]. He is from Moresheth. This town is located in the foothills of Judah, sometimes called the Shephelah. It is also called Moresheth-Gath in ch 1.14. Moresheth was located about 25 miles SW of Jerusalem on the border of Judah and Philistia, near Gath. This was a rural, agricultural region, so Micah very likely was like Amos in that he came from a rural region, yet found himself thrust into the epicenter of national politics and religion. He probably identifies his hometown because everybody would have known him from his associations with Samaria and Jerusalem – which were the capital cities of the two kingdoms of Israel and Judah.

4 / During the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah. You will find these same kings of Judah named in Amos and Isaiah – especially Isaiah. Micah and Isaiah were close contemporaries, not only in time, but also in the content of what they wrote. In fact, if you read Micah 4.1-5 and Isaiah 2.1-5, you will find that they are almost the same message verbatim. Which has led people to question and speculate, ‘Who copied whom?’ Really, neither had to necessarily copy the other. If they were prophesying at the same time and delivering much the same messages [Isaiah being the longer and fuller of the two], then why couldn’t and why wouldn’t Yahweh have given the same message to both prophets?

5 / Micah…prophet to Hezekiah. This last king of Judah who is named here is Hezekiah. Micah also delivered warning messages from Yahweh to Hezekiah about the judgments that would come upon them [Jerusalem] if they did not repent and change their ways. Hezekiah listened to Micah’s warnings and moved to institute many of the reforms he enacted during his reign [see Jeremiah 26.16-19]. The specific message that Micah delivered to Hezekiah is quoted from Micah 3.12.

6 / Which he saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem. Samaria has fallen to the Assyrians by this time. But Yahweh is not done with the Assyrians, either. They will face their own destruction from Yahweh in the years to come. But for now, Yahweh is warning Jerusalem and Judah [the southern kingdom] that they, too, must repent. Judah’s sins are like Samaria’s sins. They too must be judged – and will be. This is the prevailing theme of chapters 1-2.

7 / Here are just a few of their specific sins Yahweh indicts them for:

[1] idolatry, ch 1.7; 5.12-14

[2] seizure of property, ch 2.2, 9

[3] the failure of civil leadership, ch 3.1-3, 9-10; 7.3

[4] the failure of religious leadership, ch 3.11

[5] the failure of prophetic leadership, ch 3.5-7, 11

[6] the belief that personal sacrifice satisfies Divine justice, ch 6.6-7

[7] corrupt business practices and violence, ch 6.10-12.

8 / The word of Yahweh that came to Micah… So these messages that Micah will deliver from Yahweh are His evaluations and judgments against them for all their sins and injustices they were committing – both against Yahweh and against each other. HOWEVER, like in Hosea, Amos, and especially Isaiah, along with these messages of certain judgment and destruction, there are also the promises of redemption, reconciliation, and restoration that will be fulfilled ‘in the latter days,’ in days yet to come. These messages of salvation are pointers and prequels to the Gospel of Jesus Christ! We are in those ‘latter days’ and there are more to come!

9 / The messages that Micah delivered from Yahweh can be broken down into three units … each section begins with ‘hear’:

[1] chapters 1-2: “Hear, you peoples, all of you; pay attention, O earth, and all that is in it, and let the Lord GOD be a witness against you, Yahweh from His holy temple…”

[2] chapters 3-5: “And I said, ‘Hear, you heads of Jacob and rulers of the house of Israel! Is it not for you to know justice? you who hate the good and love the evil…”

[3] chapters 6-7: “Hear what Yahweh says…Hear, you mountains, the indictment of Yahweh…”

II / Micah, chapter 3: The Curse of Failed Leadership

1 / We will focus our attention for this lesson on chapter 3: The Curse of Failed Leadership. [we will offer background, explanation, and make applications of these verses during our lesson…]

2 / Chapter 3 also will break down into three shorter messages within the larger one:

[1] verses 1-4, Yahweh’s judgments against the ‘rulers,’ that is, the civil authorities;

[2] verses 5-7, Yahweh’s judgments against their prophets – their religious leaders;

verse 8 will interject Micah’s own personal testimony concerning how his ministry and message differs from the others … He has received his authority, power, message, and boldness from Yahweh Himself: “But as for me, I am filled with power, with the Spirit of Yahweh, and with justice and might, to declare to Jacob his transgression and to Israel his sin.”

[3] verses 9-12, Yahweh’s judgments against all their ‘heads,’ leadership, rulers, prophets, and including their priests in this section.

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I will love them freely (Redemption, Reconciliation, Restoration)

Posted on November 5, 2022 by PastorDave

HOSEA | Lesson 4 | Lesson Notes / Talking Points

Read Hosea, chapters 11.12-14.9

INTRODUCTION

Our first lesson, ‘faithless wife-FAITHFUL HUSBAND’ from chapters 1-3 serves to give us a summary of the whole Book of Hosea – it is the ‘short’ story of what will be explained in more detail in the remainder of the Book.
The second lesson, ‘When I would heal Israel…’ from chapters 4-7 begins as Yahweh convenes His court of justice against faithless Israel – He will produce witness after witness and pronounce and publish evidence after evidence of their betrayals of His covenant love toward them. Hosea himself will interject himself into the narrative in chapter 6.1-3 to implore and plead with Israel to “Come, let us return to Yahweh; for He has torn us, that He may heal us; He has struck us down, and He will bind us up. After two days He will revive us; on the third day He will raise us up, that we may live before Him.” This is a not so oblique promise and pointer to the Gospel of Christ that will come ‘in the latter days’ that have already been announced in ch 2.16-23 & 3.4-5. [For New Testament references to these words see Luke 24.46 & 1 Corinthians 15.4]
The third lesson was from ch 8.1 – 11.11, ‘How can I give you up, O Ephraim?’ That is the heart-broken cry Yahweh Himself screams out in ch 11.8-9. Yahweh can’t give them up for good, forever, because He has made a covenant of faithfulness to Israel … and He must keep His word. But, He will give them up for that moment in time … He must – He will send them off into exile into Assyria in just a very few short years from the time Hosea is delivering His warnings. But again remember the promises He has made in ch 2.16-23 and 3.4-5. Israel will once again be ‘betrothed’ and married to Yahweh in faithfulness. That Gospel promise is reiterated in Hosea’s own personal plea to his fellow countrymen to “Come, let us return to Yahweh…” Lesson 3 ended in ch 11.11 with Yahweh promising “and I will return them to their homes, declares Yahweh.”
Once again in Lesson 3 [as all throughout this Book], we see that the ONLY way these promises can be fulfilled and delivered is through Jesus Christ and His Gospel. We see how ch 11.1 points to Christ and His fulfillment of this historic picture. Matthew quotes this verse in Matthew 2.15. Yahweh called Israel ‘my firstborn son’ [Exodus 4.22-23]. Where national Israel failed and proved to be a faithless ‘son’ from the get-go, Jesus Christ came as a faithful Son of God and the True Israel. “For all the promises of God find their ‘Yes’ in Him. That is why it is through Him that we utter our ‘Amen’ to God for His glory.” / 2 Corinthians 1.20
So now we come to the concluding lesson of this survey/summary series on the Book of Hosea. This fourth lesson is titled ‘I will love them freely’ from ch 14.4. This is what Yahweh promises to do ‘in that day’(see ch 2.16-23) that was yet to come in Hosea’s day.
1. However, in our day, that day is HERE … that day is NOW! See 1 Peter 2.9-10 & Romans 9.22-26.
1. What Yahweh promises Israel [and us] is fullness of Redemption, Reconciliation, and Restoration! ‘That day’ has come! Israel’s faithlessness has been healed! Yahweh has loved Israel freely [by His Grace] and has included us! His anger against their sin has been expended, exhausted, satisfied.
1. And it has come IN CHRIST! Jesus Christ is the ONLY Israel who could – and who did – please the Father by His faithful love, obedience, and service. Jesus Christ is the ONLY Israel who could – and who did – receive upon Himself the full measure of Yahweh’s wrath against OUR sin and pay the price in full that OUR sin and faithlessness deserved. He did this on His Cross when He died in our place, as our Substitute.
1. When Jesus Christ died on His Cross, He was punished in our place. Read what Hosea’s contemporary prophet Isaiah wrote prophetically about Yahweh’s Suffering Servant in Isaiah 53. So when Yahweh’s anger has been poured out Christ – His Holiness has been vindicated, His Justice has been executed, His Righteousness has been demonstrated – then He can forgive and return His wayward human Israel back to Himself in Redemption, Reconciliation, Restoration. See 1 Peter 2.24-25.

I / MICROCOSM OF THE MACROCOSM

I have introduced this principle of interpreting the Bible before, but I want to bring it up again here as we conclude the Book of Hosea. This principle – the microcosm of the macrocosm – will help you to understand the message, not only of the Book of Hosea, but also of the entire Old Testament, and especially as it relates to God’s purposes in Christ and His Gospel.
To begin with, we need to be sure we understand what ‘microcosm’ and ‘macrocosm’ mean. ‘Micro,’ of course, means small, tiny, miniature. ‘Macro’ means ‘large, big.’ ‘Cosm’ is short for ‘cosmos’ which means ‘the orderly arrangement of a thing.’ So when we speak of the world, we call it the ‘cosmos.’ It is the orderly arrangement of the created world. Same thing for when we use the words ‘cosmetic’ or ‘cosmetology’ or ‘cosmology.’ We’re just talking about the orderly arrangements of those things we’re talking about.
So when we say something is a ‘microcosm,’ we mean that it is a miniature or small-scale representation of something that is much larger than it. The ‘macrocosm’ is the larger full-scale reality of the representative ‘microcosm.’ Think of a snow globe. You hold it in your hand and look into it. It is a microcosm of the macrocosm it represents. You can have a village in the snow globe, or a landscape, or a city skyline. It is a true representation, but it is in miniature. The macrocosm will be the real larger, full-scale object. Or I’m looking here in my study at a world globe. It is a miniature representation of the surface of the earth and all the seas and countries, etc. But it is only a microcosm of the real-world macrocosm.
So this is how we need to look at and read and understand the Book of Hosea. In chapters 1-3, Yahweh tells Hosea to go marry a wife who will prove to be unfaithful to him and become a promiscuous adulteress. Hosea’s own marriage and home life becomes a microcosm of the larger macrocosm: Israel’s faithlessness toward Yahweh who had ‘married’ her and been a faithful Husband to her in every sense of the word. So Hosea’s personal experience became the microcosm of the macrocosm of Israel’s historical national conduct toward Yahweh.
But we can make another application – which is just as true as this immediate application in the Book of Hosea. We can also understand that Israel’s faithlessness toward Yahweh is a microcosm of mankind’s faithlessness toward Yahweh, our Creator. In fact, Hosea may be alluding to that very macrocosm in chapter 6.7: “But like Adam they transgressed the covenant; there they dealt faithlessly with me.” In other words, Israel’s faithlessness toward Yahweh was only the microcosm of the macrocosm of the whole human race’s faithlessness toward Him. Yahweh created Adam and established a covenant with him. Yahweh would love him, bless him, dwell with him, provide for him, care for him, and commit to be faithful to his every need and desire. All Adam must do is love Yahweh in return, obey Him, faithfully serve Him, fulfill His desires and pleasure in every activity of his life. But Adam transgressed the covenant, disobeyed, and rebelled against Yahweh. And every single one of us in the human race since Adam’s disobedience has been born into this human life and world as a rebel against God.
God has been wooing us back ever since Eden with His promises of Redemption, Reconciliation, and Restoration – all throughout the Old Testament and finally fulfilled in Christ! / Galatians 4.4-7.
So THIS is what we are looking for – and wanting to see and understand – as we study this Book of Hosea – what does this Book say about God’s promises to send Christ into the world to redeem us, reconcile us unto Himself, and restore us to His grace and favor?

II / HOW THE MESSAGE OF HOSEA IS A MICROCOSM OF THE MACROCOSM OF THE GOSPEL OF JESUS CHRIST … AND INCLUDES US!

We have already noted several instances in the messages of Hosea where the promises that Yahweh makes to faithless Israel are realized and fulfilled in the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Hosea 2.16-23 … especially verse 23 / “And I will have mercy on No Mercy, and I will say to Not My People, ‘You are my people’; and he shall say, ‘You are my God.’”
1. You’ll find a specific, word for word reference to this promise in 1 Peter 2.9-10. Peter is referring to us believers here in the New Testament ‘latter days’ who are believers in Jesus Christ. Through faith in Christ, we have been constituted into the True Israel [‘favored by God’]. We have been granted all the blessings, privileges, and identity of those who are the people of God. Yes, even we who are Gentiles! That’s the whole point Peter is making. THIS is who we are now as opposed to who we used to be – this is how we are now identified as opposed to how we used to be identified … and Peter quotes Hosea here to prove that WE are now the fulfillment of the covenant promise Yahweh made in Hosea 2: But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. 10 Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. Do you see that? Yes – Yahweh made and fulfilled this same promise to those faithful believers who were in the faithless nation of Israel at that time – but they served only as the microcosm of what He would do ‘in the latter days’ through Christ and His Gospel and those who would believe in Him! That’s us!
1. Paul even quotes Hosea by name in Romans 9.19-26. The larger discussion is about whether God is sovereign to do with any person or people as He pleases to fulfill His purposes of showing grace in salvation. God is the Potter who has absolute sovereignty and control over the clay creations He makes – that’s us. If He wants to make one human being serve His sovereign purpose for displaying His Holiness and power through His wrath against their sin…He can. He has that sovereign authority, right, prerogative. Or if He wants to make a clay human being to serve His purpose of displaying His sovereign grace and mercy in choosing and saving them…He can. That is His sovereign authority, right, prerogative. And this is exactly what He has done when He executed His wrath against faithless Israel for all their betrayals, disobedience, rebellion, covenant-breaking [see all the warnings Yahweh issued against Israel in the Book of Hosea…and they were fulfilled by the Assyrian invasion and exile]. And yet, even in that display of His wrath and justice, He has also reached out into the Gentile world and saved those whom He has prepared beforehand for glory – even us whom He has called, not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles? As indeed He says in Hosea, “Those who were not my people I will call ‘my people,’ and her who was not beloved I will call ‘beloved.’” ²⁶“And in the very place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’ there they will be called ‘sons of the living God.’” Do you see how Israel in Hosea’s day served as a microcosm for how Yahweh would reach out to the Gentile world and save those whom He would and who would believe – through faith in Jesus Christ and His Gospel?! We are that macrocosm!
Hosea 6.1-3 / Here is another Gospel promise in the Book of Hosea that has been fulfilled in full-scale macrocosm here ‘in the latter days’ by the Gospel. Notice especially verse 2: “After two days He will revive us; on the third day He will raise us up, that we may live before Him.” Those of us who are on this side of the Cross and Jesus resurrection see clear references here to that Gospel event by which we have been saved. It is true that this Hosea reference isn’t named specifically in the New Testament, there are certain statements Jesus and Paul made that would make it very likely they are referring to this promise.
1. For example, Jesus said in Luke 24.45-46, “Then He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, and said to them, ‘Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead…’” But there is no other specific Scripture that is written that Christ should ‘on the third day rise again from the dead’ except for Hosea 6.2. Plenty of Scriptures about Christ suffering and dying … but not rise from death on the third day.
1. Or Paul in 1 Corinthians 15.3-4: “For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that He was buried, that He was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures…” Again, the only ‘in accordance with the Scriptures’ that Christ would be raised ‘on the third day’ is here in Hosea 6.2. Hosea was speaking in microcosm about the raising from the dead and the return of the remnant from the exile into which Yahweh was sending them…after a few days. But he was prophesying in macrocosm of the Gospel days in which we now live – and the raising of Christ from the dead on the third day!
Hosea 13.14 / Here is another promise we all will recognize. And again, the New Testament quotation of this Hosea Scripture is in 1 Corinthians 15 – which certainly leads us to believe that Paul has Hosea on his mind as he writes this chapter [see the previous paragraph…]. The Hosea quote from Yahweh can actually be read two different ways: [1] Positive promise of assurance, “I shall ransom them…” or [2] as a question that demands a negative answer, “Shall I ransom them from the power of Sheol? Shall I redeem them from Death?” Because in the immediate microcosm context, Yahweh would NOT save, deliver, prevent them from the coming invasion and destruction of the Assyrians against them. “Compassion is hidden from my eyes.” HOWEVER, ‘in the latter days’ of Christ and the Gospel, HE DOES! This is the promise that the apostle Paul exults in when he quotes Hosea in 1 Corinthians 15.54-57. Here again, the microcosm of Hosea’s day serves to illustrate just how glorious will be the macrocosm of the Gospel – and not just the days today, but the days of eternity forever when sin, death, the grave, and hell itself will be conquered through the Cross of Jesus Christ and His resurrection! And all because Jesus died for us in our place and bore the wrath of God against the sins we had committed. And when we believe in Him and trust in Him for our deliverance from the wrath of God against our sins, “on the third day He will raise us up, that we may live before Him!” This is both the eternal life we now enjoy through the new birth … and the fullness of eternal life we will enjoy in His Presence after the Day of the Resurrection at His Second Coming and Kingdom!

III / YAHWEH’S CALL TO YOU … PERSONALLY!

Hosea 14.1-3 / So now we finally come to the conclusion of the Book of Hosea and this final lesson. So may I charge you with the same call and invitation Yahweh gave to the microcosm of Hosea’s day – and the same invitation is for us in the macrocosm of these ‘latter days’!

REPENT OF YOUR SINS / Return, O Israel, to the LORD your God, for you have stumbled because of your iniquity.
BELIEVE ON THE LORD JESUS CHRIST / Take with you words and return to the LORD; say to Him, ‘Take away all iniquity; accept what is good, and we will pay with bulls the vows of our lips.’ The ‘words’ we must confess are “Christ died for me!”
RENOUNCE ANY OTHER HOPE YOU HAVE TO SAVE YOU / Assyria will not save us; we will not ride on horses; and we will say no more, ‘Our God,’ to the work of our hands.
REJOICE IN HIS PROMISE OF GRACE AND MERCY / In you the orphan finds mercy.

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I / INTRODUCTION: THE CASE FOR GLORY

II / JESUS MIRACLE-SIGNS / WORKS: WITNESSES TO HIS GLORY / DEITY

III / THE CASE FOR GLORY: ALSO THE THEME OF THE WHOLE GOSPEL

IV / JOHN, CHAPTER 2: THE CASE FOR GLORY

V / vv 1-12 / TURNING WATER INTO WINE

VI / vv 13-22 / THE ‘CLEANSING’ OF THE TEMPLE

VII / vv 23-25 / MORE SIGNS-MIRACLES … MORE BELIEVERS

VIII / MORE TO COME…

DO YOU BELIEVE?

INTRODUCTION / MAKING THE CONNECTION

I / ‘COME AND SEE!’

II / THE FATHER SAYS: ‘COME AND SEE – AND BELIEVE!’ WHO I AM … IN MY SON!

III / THE SON SAYS: ‘COME AND SEE – AND BELIEVE!’ IN THE FATHER … IN ME!

IV / JOHN THE BAPTIST [BAPTIZER] SAYS: ‘COME AND SEE – AND BELIEVE!’ IN JESUS … AS OUR LONG-EXPECTED AND ANTICIPATED MESSIAH!

Now we come to the two more specific ‘Come and See’ witnesses in our lesson text…

V / ch 1.35-42 / JESUS CALLS TO TWO OF JOHN THE BAPTIST’S DISCIPLES TO ‘COME AND SEE – AND BELIEVE!’ IN HIM … AS THEIR MESSIAH [CHRIST]!

VI / ch 1.43-51 / PHILIP CALLS TO NATHANAEL TO ‘COME AND SEE – AND BELIEVE!’ … THAT JESUS IS THE SON OF GOD & KING OF ISRAEL!

HERE’S CALLING EACH ONE OF US TO ‘COME AND SEE – AND BELIEVE!’

INTRODUCTION

I / vv 1-2 / JESUS CHRIST IS ETERNAL AND DEITY

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

2 He was in the beginning with God.

II / v 3 / JESUS CHRIST IS THE CREATOR OF ALL THINGS

All things were made through Him,

and without Him was not any thing made that was made.

III / vv 4-5 / JESUS CHRIST IS THE LIFE AND LIGHT OF THE WORLD

In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.

5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

IV / vv 6-8 & 15 / JESUS CHRIST WAS ANNOUNCED, INTRODUCED, AND PROCLAIMED BY A HUMAN WITNESS

There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. 7 He came as a witness, to bear witness about the light, that all might believe through him. 8 He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light.

v 15 / (John bore witness about Him, and cried out, “This was He of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me ranks before me, because He was before me.’”)

V / vv 9-11 / JESUS CHRIST WAS NOT RECOGNIZED, RESPECTED, OR RECEIVED IN THE WORLD HE HAD CREATED – AND AMONG HIS OWN ETHNIC PEOPLE

The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. 10 He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, yet the world did not know Him. 11 He came to His own, and His own people did not receive Him.

VI / vv 12-13 / JESUS CHRIST IS THE WAY THROUGH WHOM BELIEVERS BECOME THE CHILDREN OF GOD

But to all who did receive Him, who believed in His Name, He gave the right to become children of God, 13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

VII / v 14 / JESUS CHRIST, THE ETERNAL GOD-WORD, BECAME FLESH AND WAS INCARNATED TO TABERNACLE [TENT] AMONG US

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his Glory, Glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

VIII / vv 16-17 / JESUS CHRIST IS THE FULLNESS OF GOD’S GRACE AND TRUTH – AND GIVES THAT FULLNESS TO HIS PEOPLE

For from His fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. 17 For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

IX / v 18 / JESUS CHRIST IS THE ONLY BEING WHO HAS EVER SEEN GOD … AND MADE HIM FULLY KNOWN TO US

No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, He has made Him known.

May we all testify as we study these lessons together: “It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is indeed the Savior of the world!” / John 4.42

I / INTRODUCTION: RECIDIVISM

II / ISRAEL’S HISTORY AND RECORD OF RECIDIVISM

III / BUT MERCY IS ALWAYS PROMISED, ALWAYS IN VIEW – YET TO COME!

IV / THE TESTIMONY OF A REPEAT OFFENDER

She will bear a son, and you shall call His Name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins. / Matthew 1.20

…as He spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets from of old, that we should be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us; to show the mercy promised to our father Abraham… / Luke 1.70-73

Micah 7.18-20

Beulah Land

Is Not This the Land of Beulah?

Dwelling in Beulah Land

I / INTRODUCTION / MAKING THE CONNECTION

II / ‘THE MOUNTAIN OF THE HOUSE OF THE LORD’

…UNTIL THAT DAY, WE WILL WALK, WORSHIP, AND WAIT IN HIS NAME!

INTRODUCTION

II / Micah, chapter 3: The Curse of Failed Leadership

INTRODUCTION

I / MICROCOSM OF THE MACROCOSM

II / HOW THE MESSAGE OF HOSEA IS A MICROCOSM OF THE MACROCOSM OF THE GOSPEL OF JESUS CHRIST … AND INCLUDES US!

III / YAHWEH’S CALL TO YOU … PERSONALLY!

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²He was in the beginning with God.

⁵The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. ⁷He came as a witness, to bear witness about the light, that all might believe through him. ⁸He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light.

The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. ¹⁰He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, yet the world did not know Him. ¹¹He came to His own, and His own people did not receive Him.

But to all who did receive Him, who believed in His Name, He gave the right to become children of God, ¹³who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

For from His fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. ¹⁷For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.