Wednesday, February 22, 2017

Believe Me (LS04)

        'Last Sermon of Jesus'

John 14:1  "Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me."
    Our Lord Jesus knew that at His death, His disciples' faith would be badly shaken.
They witnessed first-hand how the crippled walked, the blind saw, the deaf heard, and the dead resurrected and they believed that He is the Son of God. Their misconception led them to believe that the Messiah was the king who would deliver Israel. 
    Therefore, it was preposterous that an immortal God can suffer and even die eventually. The disciples' hope and dreams died along with Jesus on that day.
    The truth is, God did not die. The flesh that God came in must suffer, for by His stripes we are healed; and then killed, for by His death we are redeemed.
    Regrettably, His disciples believed only what they saw for to them 'seeing is believing'. Disoriented, His disciples including Peter went back to fishing.
John 13:1  Now before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that His hour had come that He should depart from this world to the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end.

You believe in God
John 1:29  The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, "Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!"
    John the Baptist proclaimed Jesus as the sacrificial Lamb of God.
John 1:35-36  Again, the next day, John stood with two of his disciples. And looking at Jesus as He walked, he said, "Behold the Lamb of God!"

You also believe in Me
Mat 16:21  From that time Jesus began to show to His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised the third day.
    Our Lord constantly reminded His disciples that as the sacrificial Lamb of God, He must suffer many things and then be killed, and on the third day, He would resurrect.

Mat 20:18-19  "Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests and to the scribes; and they will condemn Him to death, and deliver Him to the Gentiles to mock and to scourge and to crucify. And the third day He will rise again."
    Our Lord was trying to raise their faith level by telling them things to come so that they could believe.

John 20:29  Jesus said to him, "Thomas, because you have seen Me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed."
    Brethren, we must not be like the heathens or those without the Helper or Spirit of truth, who could only believe what they see. Let us move on to the next level of faith, whereby we believe the promises of God in accordance to His words and will.