Bible Study

John 5:24-27

[24] Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.

[25] “Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. [26] For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself. [27] And he has given him authority to execute judgment, because he is the Son of Man.

John 8:51

[51] Truly, truly, I say to you, if anyone keeps my word, he will never see death.”

John 20:31

[31] but 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.

1 John 5:5-13

[5] Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?

Testimony Concerning the Son of God

[6] This is he who came by water and blood—Jesus Christ; not by the water only but by the water and the blood. And the Spirit is the one who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth. [7] For there are three that testify: [8] the Spirit and the water and the blood; and these three agree. [9] If we receive the testimony of men, the testimony of God is greater, for this is the testimony of God that he has borne concerning his Son. [10] Whoever believes in the Son of God has the testimony in himself. Whoever does not believe God has made him a liar, because he has not believed in the testimony that God has borne concerning his Son. [11] And this is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. [12] Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.

That You May Know

[13] I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life.

Whose Responsibility Is It to Build the Church?

PRAY OVER THIS

“Knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.”

1 Peter 1:18-19

 

PONDER THIS

A pearl is formed by an irritant in the side of the clam or the oyster. And then it is covered with a beautiful substance called nacre, layer upon layer upon layer until it becomes something beautiful. A diamond can be divided, and an emerald can be divided, but not a pearl. For the Church is one body indivisible in the Lord Jesus Christ, and Jesus is the One who, with the silver of His tears and the gold of His blood, bought the pearl of great price. And just as a pearl is taken from the depths of the ocean to realms of light, Jesus lifted us. As the pearl goes from something ugly to something beautiful, that’s what the Lord Jesus Christ has done for you and me. Jesus has paid the price. If He has done all of that, you can trust Jesus to build His Church.

Christ is and will be victorious. The frustrations with the world do not need to discourage you. Jesus is building His Church. You can bank on it.

Why is it important to continually remember the great cost Jesus paid for our sin?

What are some things that discourage you about the Church? How does the hope that Jesus has promised to build His Church encourage you?

PRACTICE THIS

Share with someone today the hope that Jesus is building His Church.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Enduring When Obeying Hurts

Looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross. (Hebrews 12:2)

What faith performs is sometimes unspeakably hard.

In his book Miracle on the River Kwai, Ernest Gordon tells the true story of a group of POWs working on the Burma Railway during World War II.

At the end of each day the tools were collected from the work party. On one occasion a Japanese guard shouted that a shovel was missing and demanded to know which man had taken it. He began to rant and rave, working himself up into a paranoid fury and ordered whoever was guilty to step forward. No one moved. “All die! All die!” he shrieked, cocking and aiming his rifle at the prisoners. At that moment one man stepped forward and the guard clubbed him to death with his rifle while he stood silently to attention. When they returned to the camp, the tools were counted again and no shovel was missing.

What can sustain the will to die for others, when you are innocent? Jesus was carried and sustained in his love for us by “the joy that was set before him.” He banked on a glorious future blessing and joy, and that carried and sustained him in love through his suffering.

Woe to us if we think we should or can be motivated and strengthened for radical, costly obedience by some higher motive than the joy that is set before us. When Jesus called for costly obedience that would require sacrifice in this life, he said in Luke 14:14, “You will be blessed, because they cannot repay you. For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the just.” In other words, be strengthened now in all your losses for Christ’s sake, because of the joy set before you.

Peter said that, when Jesus suffered without retaliating, he was leaving us an example to follow — and that includes Jesus’s confidence in the joy set before him. He handed his cause over to God (1 Peter 2:21) and did not try to settle accounts with retaliation. He banked his hope on the resurrection and all the joys of reunion with his Father and the redemption of his people. So should we.

John Piper 

Bible Study

Philippians 2:8-11

[8] And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. [9] Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, [10] so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, [11] and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Isaiah 53:11-12

    [11] 

    Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied;

    by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant,

        make many to be accounted righteous,

        and he shall bear their iniquities. 

    [12] 

    Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many,

        and he shall divide the spoil with the strong,

    because he poured out his soul to death

        and was numbered with the transgressors;

    yet he bore the sin of many,

        and makes intercession for the transgressors.

Isaiah 53:3

    [3] 

    He was despised and rejected by men,

        a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief;

    and as one from whom men hide their faces

        he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

Hebrews 1:2-4

[2] but 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. [3] He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, [4] having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs.

Whose Job Is It, Anyway?

Pray Over This

“Then He spoke many things to them in parables, saying: ‘Behold, a sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seed fell by the wayside; and the birds came and devoured them. Some fell on stony places, where they did not have much earth; and they immediately sprang up because they had no depth of earth. But when the sun was up they were scorched, and because they had no root they withered away.’”

Matthew 13:3-6

Ponder This

As you share Jesus with others, expect many to reject the Gospel, but don’t think that you have failed. I used to feel ashamed if I preached and there was not a response. As a matter of fact, as a younger preacher, when I would preach and give an invitation and there was no response, I felt that I had failed God horribly. I felt so much like a failure that I did not want to go to the door and shake hands with anybody. I wanted a back door to get out of, and if somebody were to tell me afterward it was a good sermon, it would make me angry. I would think, “What did I do wrong? How did I fail?” And then it finally dawned on me that I’ve not failed if I’ve preached the Word of God.

There was nothing wrong with the seed. Some seed falls on stony ground, some seed falls on shallow ground, some seed falls among weeds. The truth is, if you’ll keep on giving the Gospel, some folks will get saved. Don’t get weary. Don’t get discouraged. People will come to know the Lord Jesus Christ. Your job is to scatter the seed. It is God’s job to make it germinate. It is others’ responsibility to open their hearts and receive the good Word.

What responses have you received as you’ve sought to share the Gospel?

How does this passage give you hope as you share with others?

Practice This

Pray for the boldness to continue sharing the Gospel when the response is not what you desire.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers

A Hiding Place for the Helpless

How abundant is your goodness, which you have . . . worked for those who take refuge in you. (Psalm 31:19)

The experience of future grace often hangs on whether we will take refuge in God, or whether we doubt his care and run for cover to other shelters.

For those who take refuge in God, the promises of future grace are many and rich.

None of those who take refuge in him will be condemned. (Psalm 34:22)

He is a shield for all those who take refuge in him. (2 Samuel 22:31)

Blessed are all who take refuge in him. (Psalm 2:12)

The Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble; he knows those who take refuge in him. (Nahum 1:7)

We do not earn or merit anything by taking refuge in God. Hiding, because we are weak and need protection, is not a work to commend our self-sufficiency. All it does is show that we regard ourselves as helpless and the hiding place as a place of rescue.

In all those promises I just quoted, the condition of great blessing from God is that we take refuge in him. That condition is not a meritorious one; it is the condition of desperation and acknowledged weakness and need and trust.

Desperation does not demand or deserve; it pleads for mercy and looks for grace.

John Piper 

Bible Study

Isaiah 55:10-11

    [10] “For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven

        and do not return there but water the earth,

    making it bring forth and sprout,

        giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, 

    [11] so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth;

        it shall not return to me empty,

    but it shall accomplish that which I purpose,

        and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.

Matthew 13:34-35

Prophecy and Parables

[34] All these things Jesus said to the crowds in parables; indeed, he said nothing to them without a parable. [35] This was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet: 

    “I will open my mouth in parables;

        I will utter what has been hidden since the foundation of the world.”

Isaiah 40:7-8

    [7] The grass withers, the flower fades

        when the breath of the LORD blows on it;

        surely the people are grass. 

    [8] The grass withers, the flower fades,

        but the word of our God will stand forever.

1 Peter 1:20-21

[20] He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you [21] who through him are believers in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.