12-8-2018 CELEBRATING JESUS
God is Love
Jesus is the manifestation of that
love
Our pastor
usually assigns bible study topics and teachers at the end of one month for the
coming month. Of course, she asks for
volunteers so no one person is bringing the lesson each and every week so we
can get a variety of how the Holy Ghost has been speaking to people on a
specific topic or on various topics. You
know, it’s like a quarterback spreading the passes out to multiple receivers,
everyone gets a shot. Now, our bible
studies are interactive. Someone has a
question, they ask, if the Spirit has shown someone an insight pertaining to
the subject, they can share it. This
past Sunday and this coming Sunday are “Celebrating Jesus”. In light of the current season (Christmas) we
are sharing something about our Lord and Savior and what the celebration of His
birth may mean to us. The following is
basically what I shared last Sunday.
In celebrating
Jesus, understand, that we also celebrate the fullness of God, including the
Father and the Holy Ghost (the Godhead).
John 1:1-4, 14. 16-18
1 In the beginning was the Word and the
Word was with God and the Word was God
2 The same was in the beginning with God
We know that the “Godhead” consists
of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost.
Knowing that they are one is not the issue but ‘how’ they are one is
often discussed. What Father has shown
me, briefly) is that when He created all things God (the Father) spoke the Word
(Jesus) and the breath of God (the Holy Ghost) carried that Word into action.
3 All things were made by Him and there
wasn’t anything made without Him
4 Life is in Him and that life is the
light of men
14 And
the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld His glory, the glory
as the only begotten Son of the Father full of grace and truth.
(Jesus is the only one without
earthly dad since Adam (Gen. 1:26-27,
Gen. 2:7)
Death came into the world with Adam
and Eve’s disobedience (Gen. 3:1-24)
All
things were created through Jesus and Father sent Him to earth to show us how
we can come back into the kingdom of God – John
3:16)
16 And
we all have received of His fullness, grace for grace (by grace we are saved!, Eph.
2:8-9)
17 For the law came by Moses but grace and
truth came by Jesus Christ
18 For
no man has seen God at any time except the only begotten Son who is in the
bosom of the Father and has declared Him
(Moses didn’t see God’s face. Like us, Moses experienced Him Exod. 33:17-23) but he did ‘literally’
experience God. Father allowed him to
see His backside. The glory of God is so
awesome, that even Moses had to cover his face, after having been in the
presence of God, when he came before Israel (Exod. 34:34-35)
That Word is the light
of man. He shows us and is the way into
eternal fellowship with Father by Coming into this world and living as we do
for a season. He brought grace into this
world. He gave us grace, enabling us to
attain that fellowship thereby experiencing the Father in our own lives.
I got curious about that word ‘bosom’. I know what I think about first so I checked
out Strong’s Concordance. The Greek word
is kolpos (2859) means bosom or creek (like a bay). Now
when John lay his head on Jesus’ bosom (John
13:22-23) I assumed that the word meant ‘chest’. I wasn’t totally wrong. I understand Strong’s definition to indicate
‘running’ or ‘living’ ‘water’ yet ‘all encompassing’. I envision like a Wellspring of Life with
protecting arms surrounding us. Then
Father said take a look at Webster’s definition and as I did, the Holy Spirit
said “what do you see?”. I did and I
said “oooh”. The part of the definition
citing ‘center of secret thoughts and emotions’ and ‘close relationship” caught
my attention. Can we get any closer in a
relationship than that? ‘Nuff said?
That explains the relationship
between the Father and the Son. Well,
for me anyway and now we bring in the Holy Ghost
John 14:23-26
23 …
If a man loves me, he will keep My words.
My Father will love him and we will come and make our abode with him
24 He
who doesn’t love me does not keep my sayings.
But the word you hear is not mine, but the Father’s who sent me
25 I’ve spoken these things being in your
presence
Jesus said “I’ve spoken the things”
trying to get the light to come on in our hearts that He wants the same type of
relationship with us as He has with the Father.
which is why He says:
26 But
the Father will send you the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, in my name and
He will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance whatever I have said
to you
The NIocene Creed, which the church
generally refers to as the Apostle’s Creed and is what the Christian church generally
believes, states in part:
We
believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds
from the Father and the Son. With
the Father and the Son he is worshipped and glorified.
Thus identifying the fullness
of the Godhead (Father, Son and Holy Ghost) which dwelled completely in the
body of Jesus Christ (Col. 2:8-10)
as He walked this earth.
So in celebrating Jesus, we also
celebrate all that God is. That means
abiding in His love for which he has given us His example. So, as the Holy Spirit dwells in our lives
(through salvation), Jesus has not only told what type of a relationship He
wants with us, but through the Holy Ghost, He has given us the ability to
accomplish this – as we yield our lives to Him.
So, in celebrating Jesus, there are some
things we need to know and do.
1 John 4:7-19
7 Beloved, let us love one another for
love is of God and everyone that loves is born of God and knows God.
8 He that doesn’t love doesn’t know God
for God is love
Our connection with the Father is His
love which He showed us in and through Jesus and shares with us through the
Holy Ghost. As we love God, we will show
that love in our own lives – to some degree as we grow.
9 God’s love was manifested towards us
because He sent His only begotten Son into the world that we might live through
Him. (while
we were yet sinners – Rom. 5:8)
10 This is love, not that we loved God, but
that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation (atonement/replacement) for our sins (no
greater love than to lay our life down for our friends, John 15:13)
Don’t get me wrong
here. This doesn’t necessarily mean
literally dying for someone else. It could but it also means setting our own
egos aside and not withholding the Love of Christ from people. It also means that when we interact with
them, we do what is best for them
and not ourselves. We don’t forget
ourselves but we consider others first (Phil.
2:3)
11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we should
also love one another
How can we show this? God
told Abraham to sacrifice his most beloved son.
As Abraham readied to plunge the knife into his son’s body, God sent an
angel to stop him and showed him a ram caught in the bushes nearby to use
instead. Earlier, Abraham had told Isaac
that God would provide Himself a
lamb for sacrifice (Gen. 22:1-14). Abraham showed his obedience to God was more
than even his love for own beloved son, Isaac.
12 No man has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwells in us and
His love is perfected in us
As God’s love abides in our hearts,
He enables us to love those around us. Need
any further explanation?
13 This is how we know that we dwell in Him
and He in us because He has given us His Spirit
(Ezek.
37:12-14 [God’s Spirit in us], John 15:1-12 [the vine], Acts 1:8 receipt of HG).
We receive His Spirit with our
confession of faith that Jesus is Lord and Savior as the Holy Spirit takes up
residence within our heart (John
20:22-23). But we receive power
through the baptism of the Holy Ghost (Acts
1:8, Acts 2:1-4).
14 We have seen and do testify that the
Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world (Apostle John speaking but ought we not do the same?)
15 Whoever
shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwells in him and he in God
16 We
have known and believed the love that God has towards us. God is love and he who dwells in love, dwells
in God and God is in him.
Where does God live, and why? In case you missed it – God (through the Holy
Ghost) lives in our hearts to we can give our love back to Him and share that love with those around us.
17 This is how our love is made perfect
that we may have boldness in the day of judgment because as He (God) is so are we in this world
We reflect who God is by living in Him and for Him in front of the world.
18 There is so fear in love because perfect
love casts out fear because fear has torment.
He who fears is not made perfect in love.
Fear is being afraid and when we love
God with all our heart, we fully trust Him for anything and everything. If we are afraid to die in this world, our
love for Father still needs perfecting because we aren’t trusting Him for
everything. When we truly love God with
all our heart natural death is spiritual gain for when we die physically in
this world we gain presence with Almighty God (Phil. 1:20-24). It just
might happen a little quicker with some than with others. Martyrs, etc.
but we don’t take ourselves out of this world. All is in God’s timing and for His purpose (Ecc. 3:1-14).
19 We love Him (Father/Son) because He first loved us
Amen?
This lesson
was presented to our fellowship on December second. It is fitting that this lesson coincided with
this day of this month.
December is the twelfth month. Twelve is governmental
perfection (authorities over us), God’s
power and authority
It was the
second day (#2) of the month. Two
represents union and/or witnessing
This reading
from 1 John helps us to understand the Father’s power and authority, which He
has given us, in partnering with Him to be witnesses for Jesus.
We celebrate
Jesus because He is the Father, come in the flesh, into this world and after
His departure He has given us the Holy Ghost so that the love of the Father can
dwell within our heart.
The best way
we can celebrate Jesus is by living
in His love and expressing that love towards those whom we encounter. Christians are the only image of the living
God the world sees – until they give their hearts to Him. Once we’ve let Jesus into our heart and we
seek His love, He will grow us and mature us so we can be His effective light
in this dark world. We celebrate Jesus
with everything that we are and that we have (Psalm 150:1-6).
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