Category Archives: Bible Study

Topics and Themes from the Bible

The Bible Leads People to Jesus Christ

Bible Book of Revelation - Mediterranean Sea off Israel

Bible Book of Revelation – Mediterranean Sea off Israel.
The book of Revelation was written by John on the Island of Patmos about 600 miles east of where this picture was taken.

The Bible Leads People to Jesus Christ

What is the book of Revelation all about? Why would we want to study this book? Well, I mentioned before that the book of Revelation is a proper conclusion to the Bible, but that is not really why it is there. When I was putting the outline of this book together I was concerned about giving the proper message and about how I could help you understand this book. There are twenty two chapters. There are a lot of mysterious things in this book. It talks about prophecy, antichrists and tribulations. There is a city at the end of the book called,” the New Jerusalem”. You have God’s judgment on the world, a lot of heavy and kind of mysterious things. I wondered how I could present these matters, but when I got into this book I discovered that the focus or central theme of this book is really about a person, about Jesus Christ.
When I looked at the Greek version of the book of Revelation I noticed that the first three Greek words are, “Revelation, Jesus Christ.” That means the focus of this book is not prophecy and tribulation although those things are covered. The main point of this book is not even the mysterious things. The main point of this book is Jesus Christ. So if you really want to understand this book, and see it for what it really means, you need to see this person, Jesus Christ.
Let’s talk about another place in the Bible where Jesus Himself gave a real indication that the Scriptures, the Bible, should point people to Christ. I don’t know if you remember the time in John 5 Jesus was talking to the religious people. He rebuked them and said, “You search, research and study the Bible but you won’t come to Me.” This indicates that those religious people knew the Bible, they studied the Bible and they knew about the things in the Bible. They could probably quote a lot of verses, and yet when the Son of God, Jesus Christ was right there in front of them, they wouldn’t come to Him! A lot of times this can happen to us. We may have heard stories from the Bible or we, ourselves, may have read it or parts of it. I have heard of people who picked up the Bible and read parts of it, and that was it! Well, the Bible should lead people to Christ. The Bible should lead people to know Christ and to experience Christ. If your reading and study of the Bible, or your memorization of some Bible stories and verses doesn’t lead you to Jesus Christ, then the purpose for doing so has been defeated. This John 5 passage is very important. Jesus told the religious leaders, “You guys have searched the Scriptures because you think you are going to find life (and you should find life), but you won’t come to Me that you might have life.” In other words when we read the Bible, when we read the Scriptures, this should lead us to know Jesus Christ in a real and living way.

Pray by Being Filled with Him

Pray by being filled with Him

Now I want to give you an example, another way to look at prayer.  I have a glove.  This glove is made in the image of my hand.  My hand has four things here and one thing there. And the glove has four things here and one thing there. So this glove is made in the image of my hand. This glove was designed to do things for my hand. On it’s own it’s very flimsy. Yes, it looks like my hand but if you try to do anything like pick up this pen it’s very flimsy.  It doesn’t have the ability to do anything.  A lot of times we, in ourselves, don’t have the ability to do what we know we should do.  God never intended for us to do it on our own. God intended us, like the glove, to be filled. The best way to use this glove is to let it be filled with your hand.  Not only, then, does the glove more fully express the hand, but it can do things like hold onto this marker. In the same way, God created man to be filled with God so that man could express Him and represent Him on this earth. There is no way you and I could love somebody that we just don’t love. We can try for a while, and for a while we can do it, but eventually our human love gives out—or else we don’t even have any love at all.  It is also hard to pray until we let God fill us with His prayers. But when God comes in, we don’t just get some guy telling us to do this or not to do that.  We receive God’s love. When Jesus comes in we get Jesus, Who is God, Who is man, Who died on the cross, and Who rose from the dead. So pray by being filled with God.

Preparation for Prayer – Getting Right with God

In the Bible it says:  If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins, and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.   If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.  (1 John 1:9-12)

So there is something to admitting we all are sinners and getting right with God. God is holy, we are sinners.  So one of the preparations for prayer is getting right with God.

God created us to express Him and God created us to represent Him on this earth.  How does man do this? Can man do it on his own? Do you think you and I can express God on our own? For instance God is love. The Bible tells us that God is love. Is there somebody in this universe that you can’t love? I have trouble with this sometimes. I sometimes find myself incapable of loving certain people. What is this? This is like a defect in me. I sometimes have an inability to express God.  The Bible has a good word to describe this problem that keeps us from experiencing God and from expressing God. This word is called sin.  Paul gives us an excellent definition of sin. Paul says “We all have sinned and fallen short of God’s glory”. Now what is God’s glory? This passage says we are missing out on, or have fallen short of God’s glory. This means what? God’s glory is simply the expression of God.  We have all sinned and fallen short of expressing God or expressing God’s purpose for us.  For instance, when your automobile is not functioning properly, when it’s not a vehicle suited for travel, you become frustrated.  You wish you could go someplace. You’re going to be late for work and you’re going to have to pay money to get it fixed.  It’s a big hassle and it becomes a big frustration for you. In the same way, when we are not functioning properly we become frustrated and unhappy. When we can’t love someone because we’re depressed and we’re just out of it, we are not happy. You could say we are broken down. God has a provision for this problem. God has a provision for sin. By the way, sin does not just mean doing something evil or bad.  That is normally what we think of when we think of sin. Yes, it includes that, but sin encompasses more than being bad or evil. Sin encompasses the inability in us to express God. Sometimes we just can’t do it. We’re depressed. We’re out of it. We just can’t love somebody.

God’s Provision for the Sin Problem 

What is God’s answer to this problem? What’s God’s answer to this dilemma? God knew sin was going to be a problem for man. So what did God do? Well, God has an answer. God has made provision for this sin problem. God’s answer is Jesus Christ. Who is Jesus Christ? I’m sure you’ve heard about Him. Maybe you’ve gone to church and read Bible stories about Him.  Maybe you know He’s a historical figure who lived about 2000 years ago.  But who is this Jesus? We need to see some very definite points concerning who Jesus is. First of all we’re going to make a diagram on the board here. And the first point we want to see is that Jesus is God. At the very top of our diagram we have God.  God is up in the heavens.  The Bible tells us that God didn’t just stay up in the heavens but He also became a man.  He came down to the earth and became a man. That means Jesus is not only fully God but also fully man. He didn’t just became man for five minutes and tell us a few do’s and don’ts, tell us to do the best  we can, and then take off back to heaven!  He came to us a babe, grew to be a child, then a teenager, and finally an adult.  Jesus had a short three-year ministry at the end of His life.  He was here for about 33 years. Then at the end of that life He did something very interesting. He died on the cross. So we’ll draw a cross here. Now why did Jesus die on the cross?  Jesus died on the cross in order to deal with every negative thing in this universe, including the problem of sin, including the problem of our inability to do what we know we should do, including our problem of not being able to express God, including the problem of the devil, and including the problem of sickness. Jesus on the cross dealt with many negative things—even more beyond what I already told you. Then, after three days, as He promised, He rose from the dead. He was resurrected.  Why did Jesus rise from the dead? Was it just so we could have Easter? Well, I think it’s more then that.  Jesus rose from the dead to be able to impart into us His resurrected life. That is the life of God that passed through death.  Jesus went into death and came out into resurrection. You know when we’re down or depressed or just out of it, sometimes we are really frustrated and do not know what to do.  The strongest negative thing that can happen to any human being is death. You may not have time or ability or resources to do something and you might be frustrated, but once you’re dead you have total inability. Our Jesus passed through death into resurrection and He wants to impart into us His resurrection life. That is the life of God that can pass through death.

After He rose from the dead He also ascended, and when He ascended He became Lord and Christ.  He became Lord of lords and King of kings. This Jesus Who is God, Who is man, Who died on the cross and rose from the dead, is now Lord of Lords. You could say He has the highest management position, or He has attainted the highest executive position in the entire universe! Then as He promised, He didn’t just stay there in the heavens but He got poured out as the Spirit. The Bible says He became the life-giving Spirit. Why did He become the life-giving spirit?  He became the life-giving spirit so He could get into our spirit.  Jesus is fully God and fully man, lived on this on earth for 33 years. I am sure that while He lived on the earth He passed through many frustrating situations. I’m sure there were times He wanted to lose His temper but He lived a perfect human life. He died on the cross. He rose and He ascended, and became the Spirit to get into our spirit. This is how God solves the problem of sin.

Why God Created Man with spirit, soul and body

Purpose for Our Body, Soul, and Spirit  

Now what are these three parts of man for? Our body, of course, is designed for us to experience and contact the physical realm.

Our soul enables us to contact the psychological realm.  The Greek word for soul is the word from which we get our English word, “psychology”. So man’s soul is man’s psychology. The Bible helps us to see what man’s soul is. The Bible indicates that our soul is comprised of our mind for thinking, our will for making decisions, and our emotions for feeling things, like love, joy and peace and so on.  So, we have these three things in our soul or psychology: our mind, our will, and our emotions. That describes our soul.

We’ve talked about man’s body and man’s soul. Why did God give man a human spirit? God gave man a human spirit so that we could contact, experience and enjoy God. You see the Bible says that God is Spirit.  It’s like saying God’s substance is Spirit or what God is made of is Spirit.  So if we want to contact God, if we want to experience God, and if we want to enjoy God, we need to use our human spirit.

In fact that same verse that says God is Spirit, also says that they who worship Him, or (or would contact or enjoy Him) must do so in Spirit and in reality. This is why God gave us a spirit. Here is a table. This table is made of wood. In order to see the table and to feel the table I have to use my proper organs to sense the table. I have to use my eyes and my hands. The Bible says God is Spirit, God’s substance is Spirit. So if you want to see or experience God you have to use the proper organ and that proper organ is the human spirit. Now some people are looking for God in their mind. They think, “If I could only figure things out, then I could find God.”  The Bible says God is Spirit. Some people are looking for God in good feelings, beautiful feelings.  Now sometimes God comes in that way, but God is Spirit and in order for us to find God we have to use our human spirit.

God created us to express Him and God created us to represent Him on this earth.  How does man do this? Can man do it on his own? Do you think you and I can express God on our own? For instance God is love. The Bible tells us that God is love.

John 15 – Abiding in the Lord and How to Pray

John 15 – Abiding in the Lord and How to Pray video’s are now posted on YouTube and Vimeo.

John 15:7 says, “If you abide in Me”, that is, if you are following the Lord, remaining in the Lord, doing what God wants you to do, and you are up to date with your obedience to God, and, “My words abide in you”, then you can ask what you will, and it shall be done unto you. What does this mean?

What Happens When I Die

What Happens When I Die

There is a day on the calendar when we are appointed to die. God knows the day. He gives life and He takes life. We try to extend life with diets, exercise, and doctors, but life and death is in the hand of God.  The day of our birth and death is set by God, not me. The fact is that all of us are born, we die and we all pay taxes. None of us choose when we are born and when we die. Everybody faces God.  After death we all face God to determine eternity. Some for eternal rewards some for eternal punishment.

So what happens when I die?  When we die, we at some point will face God to give an account for our life.

1. For the believer it is to inherit eternal life.
2. For the un-believer it is to receive eternal punishment.

Here are some verses from the Bible on death and what what happens after we die.

John 5:24 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.
Daniel 12:2 And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame, to everlasting contempt.
John 3:36  He that believes on the Son has life eternal, and he that is not subject to the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides upon him.
Psalms 39:5 Behold, thou hast made my days as hand- breadths, and my lifetime is as nothing before thee; verily, every man, even the high placed, is altogether vanity.

When we die, we at some point, will face God to give an account for our life.

1. For Believers, there is the Judgment Seat of Christ.

2 Corinthians 5:10 For we must all appear before the Judgment Seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.
Romans 14:10 But thou, why judgest thou thy brother? or again, thou, why dost thou make little of thy brother? for we shall all be placed before the judgment- seat of God.

The judgment seat of Christ does not determine our eternal destiny; that issue is decided the moment we receive Christ. Knowing that in the future we will stand before Jesus Christ and face a personal review of our lives should always motivate us to love the Lord, grow in the Lord, obey the Lord, live righteously and live faithfully in the present.

2. For un-believers, there is the Great White Throne.

The “Great White Throne” judgment described in Rev. 20:11–15 is for unbelievers. This final exam for all un-believers is a picture of God’s holy rule and requirements.

20:15 Only God’s elect, those whose names are written in the Book of Life, will escape the lake of fire. To be written in the book of life is to believe on Jesus for eternal life.

Man has Three Parts – spirit and soul and body

Man Has Three Parts

Now everything that is designed or built today has a specific purpose.  An automobile, for example, is designed to be a comfortable vehicle for travel.  Just like a car has parts and functions, you can also say a man has parts and functions as well.  The beginning of the Bible reveals to us the three main parts and functions of man:  body, soul, and spirit.  Let’s put a diagram on the board to represent these three parts. First of all, we’ll draw a large circle to represent man’s body. Second, we’ll draw another circle inside that, representing man’s soul. Third, we’ll draw a circle inside that to represent man’s human spirit.  In the beginning of the Bible when God describes how He created man, He tells how He formed man out of the dust of the earth. Then it says that God breathed into man the breath of life and man became a living soul. This passage shows us the three parts of man.  Now it says that God breathed into man the breath of life. This phrase, “breath of life” can also be translated, “spirit of life”. Now another place in the Bible says, “The spirit of man is the lamp of the Lord”. So we see that man has three parts. Later in the Bible, the Apostle Paul also mentions these three parts. He is praying for the sanctification of believers.  He prays that God would, “Sanctify us wholly—our whole being; our body, and our spirit and our soul.”

Prayer – Let The Word of Christ Dwell In Us

We have a passage in the book of Colossians.  Colossians 3:16, “Let the word of Christ dwell (or remain) in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs , singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.” Just the first part of that verse says, “Let the word of Christ remain or dwell in you richly”.   I believe that this is talking about the Word of God referred to, here, and the word that God speaks to us personally. By the way, the word God speaks to us personally should always correspond to this Bible. It should never contradict it. That is a good test.