The Master‘s Class, LifeChange Church Wichita

DO YOU SEE THE SIGNS? (John 3:22-36)

I am just going to say this, I am terrible at reading the signs that people give off about how they are feeling about something. Whether it is that they are hurt by what I have said or done, or I am not picking up some cue that that they are giving off. They think it ought to be obvious, but it just isn’t to me. If you want me to know something, you are going to have to tell me.

Now, to be honest, this is a fairly common difference between men and women. Men are more direct about communicating what they want you to know, and women are less so. I see this difference at work, at church, and at home. I am missing signs everywhere I go, and it gets me in trouble. There are times that I wish that robot from the science fiction show would be around to say “Danger Will Rogers.” I am better now than I used to be, but I am still not very good at it.

This concept can apply in our daily Christian walk as well. The truth is that most of us are not evangelists. We don’t spend a lot of time out walking up and down the sidewalk telling the gospel story to every person we see. Some of you might, and if you do, more power to you, I think that is great. But for a good share of us, we share what Christ has done for us by how we live our lives. How we handle our emotions, our language, our daily activities, and most of all, how we handle tragedy.

That is ok, up to a point. To be an effective witness for Christ, you have to watching for, and recognizing when the Holy Spirit is working on someone and it is time to vocalize your witness more directly. There will be a hesitation in how they are speaking about their problems, or there will be indirect questions about how you would handle a problem. The sadness on their face when the problems of the world just seem to be overwhelming them.

It will rarely be a direct question about God, or how to become a Christian. Don’t get me wrong, that certainly occurs, but I am willing to bet that you could count the times it has happened to you on one hand and still have fingers left over. If that is what you are waiting on before you witness to somebody, then you are missing the signs that God is putting before you in the people He brings you in contact with, and you are failing to fulfill the task that God has put you here to do.

You need to be watching for the signs. It will most likely be subtle things. Sometimes it is just curiosity, but other times it is something more. As a Christian, whose main assignment from God is to share the gospel of Jesus, you have to be watching for the signs that God is giving you.

Click on the link below to hear a message on the signs that our Lord Jesus Christ gave to those that He came in contact with. He told them that He was the Promised Messiah, that He was the Son of God, that He would die and then rise from the grave in three days, and He spoke with the full measure of the Holy Spirit. Jesus spoke directly to man, yet man rejected His words, they ignored the signs that Jesus gave them.

Amen.

WHY YOU MUST BE BORN AGAIN - PART II (John 3:1-7)

In the first part of this series on why you must be born again, we talked about the deficiency of our natural birth. Why is it deficient? Because we are born into the natural world, we are bound to the sinful world, and we are blind to the spiritual world. So, why did Jesus come as God in man? Because of the deficiency of our natural birth.

How did Jesus Christ come into this world? He came through the portals of a virgin's womb. He is the only begotten Son of God. There never was, nor will there ever be, another like Him. He is the God man. He is God's only begotten Son. That which was conceived in the womb of Mary was conceived by the Holy Spirit of God, and He is the only begotten of Son of God. He is the virgin born Son of God. That is what it means when we say He was virgin born.

He came as He did, born of a virgin, to be what He was, sinless. He was what He was, sinless, to do what He did, die for our sins. A sinner could die for nobody's else's sin except his own. He had to be sinless to be a substitute. He came as He did, to be what He was, to do what He did, that we might be what we are, sons and daughters of God. He came to earth that we might go to heaven.

He was born of a virgin that we might be born again. "For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but should have everlasting life." That is redemption. Thank God for the virgin birth. Don't think it's incidental. Don't think it's mythological. It is the foundation stone of our faith that God became man. This is the incarnation, the Second Adam from above, who came to reinstate us in God’s love.

Click on the link below to hear a message on the three types of miracle births that we are studying about in this third chapter of the Gospel of John. The natural birth, the virgin birth, and the new birth. All three are miracle births created by God.

Amen.

ARE YOU LOOKING FOR A SIGN? (John 2:12-23)

Has God ever given you a sign to tell you something or to confirm something for you? Have you ever asked for a sign, and God did not give you one? Was the lack of a sign from God, in itself, a sign from God?

Certainly, the Bible tells us that God does use signs to show people His will, or to strengthen their faith. The Gospel of John is full of them. If you remember the story about Paul in the book of Acts. Paul wanted to go to Ephesus, but God had other plans for him. Paul kept asking for a sign on which direction he was to go, whether it was north, south, east, or west, and finally God told him to go to Macedonia. So, is it right or wrong to ask God for a sign? As we will see in our lesson today, the answer to that question, is found in your motive for the sign.

Click on the link below to hear a message about the Lord Jesus going to Jerusalem, and announcing that He was the Messiah, and the Jews asking for a sign to prove that it was true. We will find that their motive was wrong in asking for the sign.

Amen.

JOHN PREPARES THE WAY OF THE LORD (John 1:24-34)

This was the task that John the Baptist had been given by God. From the day he was born, God had been preparing John the Baptist to make the way clear for the coming of the promised Messiah. John the Baptist was the son of a priest, and he was a priest himself. He was of the tribe of Levi, from which all of the priests of the Jewish religion came from. He was also a prophet. He was the last prophet of the Old Testament order of prophets, and he had a single message, repent for the King is coming.

John the Baptist leaves no doubt about who Jesus was. He states unequivocally, that Jesus is the Son of God. Not just a man from Nazareth. Not the son of a carpenter. His Father was the almighty God. Jesus was the Christ. The Promised Messiah, and He is the Second Part of the Triune God, God the Son.

The Jews were looking for a Messiah, but they thought that a human person, not Moses or Elijah but a human like them, could be raised up be that Messiah. That is why the Pharisees asked John the Baptist if he was the Christ. The Messiah was, literally, "the anointed one." In the Old Testament, prophets, priests, and kings were anointed with oil. In like manner, Jesus was anointed with the Holy Spirit.

The Jews were looking for a messenger, one who would come in the tradition of David or Daniel, one who would come after these men, the prophet to end all prophets. Yet, Jesus was not just one who came after these men; He was before them.

The Jews were looking for a monarch. They wanted a militant leader, one who would break the power of Rome and build an empire ruled from Jerusalem. Jesus was not just a ruler; He was a redeemer. He had come not just to set people free from servitude, but also from sin.

John proclaimed Jesus as both the Lamb of God and as the Son of God. He lifted the thoughts of people to much higher ground than they had envisioned. Jesus is the Son of God in an absolute sense that is true of no other human being. His sonship, as set forth particularly in this gospel, is rooted in His eternal sonship. In other words, He whom John the Baptist proclaimed to be the Son of God is the one we proclaim to be God, the Son, the second person of the godhead.

Click on the link below to hear a message on how John the Baptist bore witness that Jesus is the Son of God.

Amen.

WHO ARE YOU, JOHN? (John 1:18-23)

Have you ever had people trying to figure out who you are?

When you fly back into the U.S. after traveling abroad, and you are arriving from a city like Amsterdam where drugs are legal, and you step up to that customs agent with your passport, he knows which flights have just landed, he looks at the stamps on your passport, so he knows where you have been and he is already on point. The questioning about who you are, where did you come from, why were you in Amsterdam, did you buy any drugs while you were there, can get pretty intense. Especially, if you are abrupt in your answers, look tense, sweaty, or seem evasive as you reply. If you are not careful, they have this room off the side that you really don’t want to go to.

Who we are is defined by different things. A police officer is identified by the authority he has as a law enforcement officer, the uniform he wears, and the badge that he carries. A preacher is identified by the One he preaches the gospel for, and by the authority he has been given to be the under-shepherd of the local church. A college student is identified by the school he goes to. Is he a wildcat, a Jayhawk, or a Shocker, and the major that he is studying.

Many of us are identified by our job or our profession. A baker, a butcher, an accountant, a lawyer, or a doctor. These are well defined professions and people have an image in their minds as to what type of person has each role. When you think of an accountant you think of green eyeshades, ledger books, and a 10 key calculator with a tape. A butcher is a big guy, with a white apron with red stuff all over it. Right?

As you get older, you realize that none of that really matters, because it doesn’t last very long, and it can all be taken from you, all of those material things you have worked for and earned, your shop, your business, your job, can all disappear in less than a heartbeat. As you get older, after having that happen to you a couple of times, you realize that is not who you are at all, and you choose to be identified as something more important, more eternal, you, and what you do for God.

You learn that there needs to be a balance between, what you do for God, what you do for work, what you do for your family, and then someplace there has to be time for who you are, and yes, I am speaking from personal experience. I used to be proud of talking about what I did for a profession. No more, it truly is nothing more to me than a means to an end. I am grateful for it because God has blessed me with that job, and I have a role in God’s plan to bring salvation to the world to play there, but it does not define who I am. It is not what I want to be known for. Today, I am most honored when somebody tries to describe me and they say, “There goes Keith, he is a good teacher of the Word of God, or a good husband and father.” Those are thnigs that are more enternal in their result. But those were hard lessons for me to learn, and to this day, God continues to do remedial training on me.

Our lesson today is about the Jewish religious leaders trying to figure who John the Baptist was, and by what authority he was practicing a religious ritual not sanctioned by the leadership. The interesting thing that we will see about John the Baptist is that he didn’t care if they knew or accepted who he was, or his authority. He was willing to tell them, but he wasn’t going to put up with any nonsense. He knew who he was, he knew his authority came from the almighty God, and he knew his role in God’s plan to bring salvation to the world. He understood how he wanted to be identified. He wanted to be identified as the forerunner of the promised Messiah.

Click on the link below to hear a message on who John the Baptist was.

Amen.

JESUS, FULL OF GRACE AND TRUTH (John 1:14-17)

If I were to ask you to name the one quality about God that you cherish the most, what would it be?

God’s love? Surely, this is the one quality about God that you cherish the most. God loved us enough to send His Son that we might live through Him.

God’s mercy? It is God’s mercy that causes Him to help us when we are at our most despicable in the eyes of God. It was God’s mercy that was shown to Saul of Tarsus.

God’s holiness? I had to think about this one for a moment. However, if God was not absolutely holy, then He would not be God. If God was not holy, we would not have a God that could do all things.

God’s wrath? For God’s love to be real, His wrath must also be real. This is certainly a quality about God that I want to avoid. Although, I have to admit there are some truly evil people out there in the world that I know will someday face the terrible wrath of God, which gives me a sense of balance in the world. This is a quality of God that I have come to trust and have faith in.

God’s glory? God’s true glory is beyond our ability to even conceive of. Yet, we were given a glimpse of this glory in the person of Jesus Christ, who stepped out of heaven, and for a brief time made Himself a little lower than the angels, just so that we might have our sins forgiven. Is this the quality of God that you cherish the most?

God’s grace? Imagine a God that could save us even though we rejected Him and nailed Him to a cross. God’s grace is the quality about God that I cherish the most, because it is through the grace of God that I can have eternal life with Him.

Amen.

WOULD YOU RECOGNIZE JESUS? (John 1:10-13)

If Jesus walked up to you today, dressed in the current millennial age fashion, narrow pant legs, long pointy shoes, hair trimmed short on the sides and bushy on top, would you know Him? Why not? Because He didn’t look like the images from the paintings we are all familiar with, in long white robes, sandals, long hair and a beard? Is it because He wasn’t what you had been taught to expect by the media, by teachers, preachers, and religious tradition?

What if He went over to a park courtyard and started teaching out of the Word of God with great insight? Would that be enough to make you think He was Jesus?

What if a sick person came up to Him and He healed them? Would that be enough to make you think He was Jesus?

What if He claimed to be the Son of God? Would that be enough to convince you?

Would you ask Him for a sign to convince you that He was truly Jesus? That is what the Jews did.

Matt 12:38-39
38 Then certain of the scribes and of the Pharisees answered, saying, Master, we would see a sign from thee.
39 But he answered and said unto them, An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas:
KJV

In the Book of Revelation, it tells us that Jesus will come for us at the Rapture and that will we meet Him in the air. It also gives us a description of what the Lord looks like in His resurrected form, full of glory and power. So, that is what we are expecting, that is the Lord that we are expecting, but what if, and there is nothing in the Bible to say that this will occur, I am just making an illustration here, what if the Lord chose to come speak to you one day as you were on your way to work? Would you recognize Him?

Our lesson today is about how Jesus came to this earth, and some recognized Him for who He was, and others rejected Him. Now, reading this with 20/20 hindsight, we can be pretty quick to judge those who did not recognize Jesus as the promised Messiah. But the question is, if you were a Jew living in that day, would you recognize Jesus for who He was?

Click on the link below to hear a message on how the light of the world, Jesus Christ, came to the world that He had created, and they knew Him not.

Amen.

WE ARE CHRIST'S CANDLE (John 1:5-9)

Today’s message is about our role, as born again believers in Christ, of being a candle for Christ. We have been commanded by our Lord to allow His light to shine through us. We are to be Christ’s candle for the world.

Mark 4:21
21 And he said unto them, Is a candle brought to be put under a bushel, or under a bed? and not to be set on a candlestick?
KJV

When you stop and think about it, a candle, in and of itself, really is a remarkable invention. When it was created, its whole purpose was to serve as a simple instrument for dispelling darkness. It enabled man to work, or rest, in the dark. It allowed him to see the dangers that used the darkness to prey upon him. If it was put into a lantern casing, it became a mobile source of light and protection as man traveled along the road. It guided man along the pathway or trail that he was following. If you placed the candle in front of a reflective surface you could focus the light and cast it out for greater distances enhancing the protection, and utility, that it gave.

Darkness, with all of its power to frighten and bewilder, is no match for the light. The faintest gleam, the smallest candle, will dispel the deepest darkness. The function of the candle is to provide the light that dispels that darkness. But notice that the candle performs this function at a great expense to itself. It has to give itself up to the flame and be consumed. The light of the sun and stars is provided on the same principle. As they shed their light upon us, they consume the energy that is within them.

Now, the Word of God tells us that in the spiritual realm, the Lord Jesus is the Light that dispels darkness. The light that He brings has been provided at an infinite cost. Yet, when we come to Him, He kindles that light in us. The fact that we are now His light bearers means that we, too, must pay the price of shining. Our light is not to be hidden. It is not a secret light. It is to be placed where it will be seen of men. Many people hate and resent the light of Christ and will try to extinguish it. On the other hand, many other people will be drawn to it.

It is important for us to understand that it is the light itself that is the miracle, we are just the candles. We are sowers, and we are light bearers. We are to be a light unto the world.

Click on the link below to hear a message on the role of a believer to be Christ’s candle to the world.

Amen.

JESUS IS THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD (John 1:1-5)

John tells us that Jesus Christ is the light of the world when he says, “In him was life; and the life was the light of men.” Jesus is the Light of the world, that is why He came to this earth as a Man, to be the Light of the World. The world was in darkness when He came, and it is even darker today because mankind rejected that Light. We are in a desperate condition, but, thank God there is Light. God’s light floods our hearts. Jesus, who turned a chaos into a cosmos at the creation of the heavens and the earth, turned the chaos of our lives into something wonderful when He made us a new creation.

John 8:12
12 Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.
KJV

We have life everlasting only because of the light of Jesus Christ.

Click on the link below to hear a message on who Jesus Christ is and the impact that He can have in your life.

Amen.

GOSPEL OF JOHN INTRODUCTION (John 1:1-2)

The reason that John wrote this book is, “that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name.” John wanted you to know that Jesus was the Christ. John wanted you to know that the Man, who had no origin, no beginning, is the Son who comes out of eternity.

John wrote this book because so much was still unsaid. Based on the simplicity of the language that John uses, it is generally assumed that the Gospel of John is easy to understand. Often you hear the statement describing John as the simple Gospel. It is written using mostly one and two syllable words. Yet, the simplicity of the language has deceived many. On their face, the words seem easy to understand, but the truth is, we are dealing with the most profound Gospel of the four. This gospel is intended to help the believer to become stronger in their knowledge of what the Lord Jesus has done for them.

Click on the link below to hear a message on the Introduction to the Gospel of John as we start a new series of messages on this wonderful gospel.

Amen.