The Master‘s Class, LifeChange Church Wichita

THE RESPONSIBILITY OF KNOWLEDGE (Romans 3:1-8)

Knowledge is power.  When you know something that others do not, you have an advantage over them.  That is why gossip is so enticing.  For that moment when you know something nobody else does, it makes you the smart one, the one on the inside, the one who has control of where that knowledge goes.  You get to choose who you will allow to join you in this exclusive club for those who have this knowledge.

At the workplace, knowledge is a leverage point.  When people refuse to share knowledge at work, it makes the company less efficient and less productive, but it can be viewed as job security for the person who has the knowledge.  If you are the one with all the knowledge of how things work, it makes it more difficult for the company to let you go.  It makes you more valuable than somebody who does not have this knowledge.  That value gives you leverage.  

Scientific knowledge is often the deciding factor in war time.  The country with the best weapons, the best training, and the best strategy, is usually the one who defeats the other.  Knowledge of how to make a nuclear bomb was the deciding factor in ending the war with Japan in WWII.  The country who got the bomb first was the victor.  

Knowledge is also power in the religious world.  When the Jews returned from the Babylonian captivity, most of them did not know how to speak Hebrew anymore.  They spoke Aramaic which was the official language of the Babylonians.  This meant that the priests and the scribes would have to translate the Scriptures during the worship services for the people.  If the priests could declare what was right and wrong, regardless of what the Scriptures really said, then they had power over the people.  Nor could the people challenge their interpretation of the Law for they could not read the Scriptures themselves.  The religious leaders used this power to control and to mislead the people.

As Christians we have been given knowledge the world does not understand.  We have been given the light of the gospel of Jesus Christ.  This is tremendously powerful knowledge, for it is the secret of how to have eternal life with Jesus Christ in heaven.  The Holy Spirit lives within our hearts and He shares the knowledge of God with us.  He opens the Word of God and He explains it meanings, it promises, and most all what God has done for our salvation.  God wants us to use that knowledge to lead others to Christ.  He has tasked us with the awesome responsibility of being His ambassadors on earth.  We have the knowledge that can help bring others into this group of believers that God calls His own.  

Our lesson today is about how those with that knowledge failed to share it with the world.  When God gave the Mosaic Law to the Jews, He gave them the knowledge of right and wrong.  He gave them something more valuable than gold or silver.  He gave them the light of God.    

TO BE PATIENT TO THE END (James 5:8-11)

We live in a world today where more Christians are being killed for their faith than at any other time in history.  Countries in the Middle East, like Pakistan, Iran, Syria, and Saudi Arabia daily beat and execute Christians just because their faith does not match their own Muslim religion.  Places of Christian worship are destroyed by the religious intolerant.   What is sad is that the mass media and the other governments of the world have, for the most part, ignored what is going on in these countries. 

The U.S. is also following this trend.  While it is currently possible for preachers and teachers of the Word of God to tell what God has defined as the absolute truths of right and wrong, I see a time coming very soon when these same sermons will be considered as hate speech by our own government.  Preachers will be silenced from telling the world what the Bible teaches, even in their own churches.  Imprisonment, lawsuits, and persecution, will be applied to those who choose to preach and teach Biblical truths.  Our government has systematically removed God, Jesus Christ, and the Bible, from our government meetings, our schools, our universities, and the public square.  

I believe as Ronald Reagan once said, "Without God, there is no virtue, because there's no prompting of the conscience. Without God, we're mired in the material, that flat world that tells us only what the senses perceive. Without God, there is a coarsening of the society. And without God, democracy will not and cannot long endure. If we ever forget that we're one nation under God, then we will be a nation gone under." -- Remarks at an Ecumenical Prayer Breakfast in Dallas, Texas, 23 August 1984 (President RONALD WILSON REAGAN)

Listen to this study of the book of James to learn that even in the face of the harshest persecution, God has a happy ending for us as believers.  We have the promise of the Lord’s return.  

We have the promise that the Lord will come in power and judgment.  

We have the promise of an eternity in heaven with the Lord Jesus welcoming us with the words well done.  

We have the promise of joy, unspeakable and full of glory.  

This is why we can be patient.  Why, when we are subject to religious intolerance and persecution, we can be still, and why we can be strong, for we know the day of the Lord is coming soon.  

THE ASCENSION OF OUR LORD (Mark 16:19-20)

There are many things that I am grateful to God for, the love of my family, the love of a wife that I have been married to for 35 years, and a loving God that uses me to teach and preach the Word of God.  God has truly been gracious to me and my family, but most of all He has been gracious to each believer for we serve a risen Lord.

Listen to this podcast to learn how the ascension of our Lord is as significant to our faith as the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus is.  Jesus is alive and working for us today.  Jesus did not just go off into heaven and leave us never to be heard from again.  His work on earth has provided us with a perfect and complete salvation.  His work in Heaven continues our salvation as our great High Priest in the Holy Tabernacle in Heaven.

Jesus is alive.  Jesus is working for us in Heaven, and Jesus is coming back.  These are things that distinguish our faith from all other religions. These are things we base our faith on.  Join me as we give thanks to a gracious and loving God.

THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST PART II (Mark 16:6-18)

One of the most important events in the life of a believer is the resurrection of our Lord and Master, Jesus Christ.  The resurrection of Jesus Christ provides each believer with a living Jesus Christ sitting on the right hand of God the Father.  He is sitting because He has accomplished the work of our salvation.  

The resurrection of Jesus Christ provides us with a message to tell others about eternal life, about power over sin in our lives, and about our ability to stand before God clothed in the robe of righteousness purchased with the precious blood of Jesus Christ. 

Listen to this podcast to learn the message that Jesus has commanded us to go out into the world and preach about the gospel of His death, burial, and resurrection, baptizing them in the name of the Lord.  

This is why the death of Christ and the resurrection of Christ are so important to us as believers.  Jesus Christ is alive and because He is alive, and I have made Him my Savior, I know that I know, that I know, that I am going to be with Him for all of eternity.

It is my prayer that each of you will be there with me.

THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST-PART I (Mark 15:38 to 16:6)

Do you have any core beliefs that you will not compromise on, that you cannot be dissuaded from, and that you will stand up and proclaim no matter the audience, no matter the danger, and no matter the consequences to you?

Such beliefs must be important to you personally for them to have such meaning.  They must be things like your integrity, your belief in the inherent rights of the individual to life, liberty, and their ability to choose how they will exercise that liberty.  For many they include the right to worship God freely in the manner they choose without interference from the government or others.  

These core beliefs are what define you as an individual.  They define how you will react in a given situation, what you stand for, what you will tolerate from others, and what you will choose to put your life at risk for.  They are what drive a young lady to stand when a cowardly man with a gun in his hand demands that all Christians are to stand up.

Every true believer in the gospel message of Jesus Christ has at their foundation two such beliefs:

(1) The death of Christ.  Jesus Christ was crucified on the cross for our sins.  It is the blood of Jesus that was shed on the Cross that makes our salvation possible.

(2) The resurrection of Christ.  Christ rose bodily from the dead.  He conquered death and sin with His resurrection, and because of this, we can have eternal life in heaven with Jesus.

The gospel declares that Jesus was made sin for us, (this means that He took on our sin, He paid the penalty for our sin,) that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him, (our ability to stand before God, clothed in the righteousness of God, is only because Jesus died for us and was raised again for our justification.)

The unique fact of the gospel is the Resurrection. All other religions record the death of their leader. Only the Christian faith records the Resurrection of its Founder. 

All other religious leaders are dead. 

Only Jesus is alive.  Listen to this podcast to learn why this is absolutely important and imperative for you to know and believe.

WHY JESUS HAD TO DIE (Mark 15:33-37)

Have you ever asked the question, Did Jesus really die on a cross or is that just some story from the Bible?

And if Jesus did die on a cross, What does that have to do with the things that I may have done during my life?  How can something that Jesus did have any effect on me and my eternal life?  

These are the basic questions that form the foundation of the gospel message of Jesus Christ.  The answers to these questions are told, retold, and symbolized over and over again, in the Bible from Genesis to Revelation.

God specifically provided an inerrant and infallible book, called the Bible, so that man could know and understand what the life, death, burial, and resurrection, of Jesus Christ means to each of us.  

Each of us has come short of the mark of absolute perfection demanded by a holy, perfect, God.  The penalty for that failure is death.  

As a just God, God must condemn those that have failed to meet this mark of absolute perfection.  

As a loving God, God sent His Son to pay the penalty of death that we deserve.  Jesus willingly took our punishment for us.  

Listen to this podcast to learn Why Jesus had to die.  Jesus tells us that Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.  Listen and learn just how much Jesus loves you.

ATTITUDES THAT CAUSED JESUS TO BE CRUCIFIED-PART II (Mark 15:16-32)

Over the last several weeks our politicians have demonstrated the power of a person’s attitude to do things to hurt others and our nation.  We have seen self-righteousness, hypocrisy, and cowardly compromise, on full display by people who are elected to represent the needs of the people rather than their own enrichment.  We have also seen the courage of a few to demand changes, even in the face of overwhelming condemnation from those in their own party.  

A person’s attitude can also be used to draw people to you, or drive them away.  It is the same in politics as it is in matters of faith.  If your message of faith is positive, affirming, and compassionate, then it will draw people to you.  On the other hand, if your message is negative, condemning, and filled with words of anger and hate, it will drive most people away from you.  Most of all, your attitude must be matched by the way you live your life.  Hypocrisy is in every area of life, and it is easy to spot.  The most dangerous part of hypocrisy is what it does to those around you.  Many people will walk away from the gospel message of Christ because of what they see in counterfeit Christian.  

Listen to this podcast to hear the second part of a lesson on how the attitudes of those around Jesus caused the Creator of all things to be rejected and crucified on a cross.

ATTITUDES THAT CAUSED JESUS TO BE CRUCIFIED (Mark 14:66 to 15:15)

A person’s attitude is a powerful thing.  It has a great deal to do with how we act while we are doing a task, how we think about that task, and how we speak about it.  A simple example is how we approach our job, if our attitude is one of enjoyment, or one of passion for that job, it makes the days go quicker, and we have a true feeling of accomplishment about our job.  You feel good about yourself and who you are.  

On the other hand if our attitude is one of dreading our job, or it is just a thing we do to pay the bills, it creates stress in our lives which has an effect on our health, the days drag on and on, and we are just looking forward to quitting time so we can go and do something we love.

But our attitude about something is even more powerful than that, for it can be used to drive us to do things that we would not ordinarily be capable of.  Consider the attitude a person would need to have in order to knowingly condemn a man to die a horrible, painful, death for a sin that He did not commit.

Listen to this podcast to learn the seven attitudes that lived in the hearts of the people responsible for the death of Jesus Christ.  As you listen, look for these same attitudes in your own heart.  

THE OBEDIENCE OF THE LAMB (Mark 14:37-65)

On a human level it is very hard for us to willingly take the blame for what somebody else has done.  Our natural reaction is to defend ourselves, to make sure that everyone knows who is rightfully to blame, especially when the punishment for the crime carries with it a heavy penalty, such as years in prison, or even death.  It would take a great deal of love for one person, who was innocent, to willingly take the blame for a crime they did not commit to save another from facing that penalty.    

Yet this is what Jesus Christ did for each of us.  

Listen to this podcast to learn why Jesus stood silent before His accusers when He was falsely accused of crimes He did not commit.  Learn why Jesus would allow a mob of men to take Him to be crucified without putting up a fight to resist them.

Jesus did all of this, including dying on a cross, so that you could have everlasting life.  Jesus died in your place. He took your punishment.  He suffered so that you would not have to.  Jesus did all of this because He loves you.    

THE LORD'S SUPPER (Mark 14:22-24)

When was the last time that you participated in taking the Lord’s Supper? 

How did you go about preparing yourself to participate?

Why is the Lord’s Supper an important part of the believer’s life?

Listen to this podcast to find out what the Bible says about the Lord’s Supper.  Jesus instituted this ordinance of the church for us to remember what He has done for us.  Later, Paul tells us that we are to be serious, and not casual or flippant, in our preparation and participation is this very important ceremony.   

This is to be a time of remembrance of the love that God has for us, and it is to be a time of self-assessment and repentance. 

Don’t miss the wonderful message that is to be found in the believer’s heart as they remember the finished work of salvation that Jesus has done for you.