Sermon: Hebrews (Part One): The Stage Is Set

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Given 02-Feb-19; 66 minutes

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A paradox widely extant in the First Century Church of God was that the early converts from Judaism claimed to accept the Law but had difficulty accepting Jesus Christ (the Lawgiver). A variant of this paradox exists to this day: Nominal Christians claim to accept Jesus Christ, but have difficulty accepting His Law. The setting aside of circumcision as a pre-condition to conversion caused real turmoil in the Church, as Christ began to gather Gentiles into the spiritual commonwealth of Israel. Similar turmoil and persecution occur today as converts from 'Christianity' learn that Christ did not do away with the Law. A primary objective of the writer of Hebrews (most certainly the Apostle Paul) was to explain the terms of the New Covenant. Hebrews and Leviticus are parallel works defining our responsibilities to the Covenant with Almighty God. Both the Old Covenant and New Covenant define responsibilities. As we fulfill the terms of the New Covenant, we are carrying out the same responsibilities as our ancestors in building the Old Temple, except now we are actively working with Christ to build the New Temple, which consists of us as the building materials. We are the church, fashioning what we become under Christ's workmanship. We dare not make alterations or skip steps in our responsibilities as some of our ancestors did. Our penchant to follow instructions poorly or to bypass uncomfortable steps points out the necessity for God's grace. Our calling, initiated by hearing and yielding to God's Word, laid the spiritual foundation—a literal beginning of a God-life, requiring us to diligently tend to our spiritual responsibilities.


transcript:

All my sermons on the subject of Hebrews up to this time, I have titled as "Hebrews: Its Background" (Parts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10). The previous sermon was the last of the series of full messages regarding the background of how the epistle of Hebrews came to be written for the guidance of the church membership. And it was at least partly because so many people were being called and converted by God, especially from Judaism.

We are going to go back to where I began the previous sermon to Acts the 21st chapter, and what we are going to read there occurred to the apostle Paul before he ever got to Jerusalem. So we are going to begin there but this time with a clearer biblical record of the turmoil that was triggered by the cultural changes that God orchestrated by the many conversions taking place in the area of Jerusalem.

Now we saw that many conversions do not necessarily mean full acceptance of the church or even by the families of converts to the church. Many of those people lost their interest when they began to learn the further extent of what was being required of people under Jesus Christ. But at best, those people even who had converted members in their homes, gave a highly qualified and skeptical approval to what those members of their family were accepting and getting themselves involved in. And that helped trigger the reaction that was made against the church.

This historical example shows that the total acceptance of the church was lacking once people became more fully aware of all that was involved in truly being converted.

Acts 21:12-13 Now, when we heard these things, both we and those from that place pleaded with him not to go to Jerusalem. [He was not in Jerusalem by this verse here in the 21st chapter.] Then Paul answered, "What do you mean by weeping and breaking my heart? For I am ready not only to be bound, but also to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus."

He had his mind set. He was going to go regardless of what people said, warning him that his presence there was not going to be accepted because of what those people thought of the apostle Paul, that he was a traitor to the Judeans.

Acts 21:14 When he would not be persuaded, we ceased, saying, "The will of the Lord be done."

Then in between the next thing we are going to read takes place whenever the people in Jerusalem say, "Well, this is a way maybe we can convince the Jews that the Christian church is not anti-Moses or anti the law of God." They accepted it for what it was, but it was no longer required of them.

Acts 21:19-20 When he had greeted them, he told in detail those things which God had done among the Gentiles through his ministry. And when they heard it, they glorified the Lord. And they said to him, "You see, brother, how many myriads of Jews there are who have believed, and they are all zealous for the law."

Now let us read what follows. You would think a lot of Jews were zealous for the law. We have to ask the question here. These were Jews and what law were they zealous of?

Acts 21:21 "but they have been informed about you that you teach all the Jews who are among the Gentiles to forsake Moses, saying that they ought not to circumcise their children nor to walk according to the customs."

What law were they zealous to? It is what we commonly call the law of Moses. They were not zealous of the law of God as it had been delivered to the Christians by Jesus Christ. When Paul got to Jerusalem, the Jews were ready for it. So he was warned even before his presence there that he would not be accepted.

One reason why I am showing you this is that it is entirely possible, this is what I am leading up to, that when God allows the message of the church of God to be preached here in our times, in our day, we will witness a similar result from those calling themselves Christian here in the United States. That kind of a response from the public Christians. This response will also be founded upon the continued rejection of full obedience to the laws of God, even as occurred regarding circumcision not being required.

But in our times, rejection may occur because many of today's Christians are attempting to worship Christ through the basis of a false Christianity that accepts the Savior, but rejects His laws. Just the opposite. And they are not going to accept it because we are going to tell them they have to be obedient to the laws of Jesus Christ. But this thing about no law is so cemented in their brains, they are not going to be able to accept the adjustment. So we will see, in a sense, the opposite hand of what happened in Jerusalem at that time. But it is still a rejection of a source and the laws of God. He is the source.

Now, when I say they will do this on the basis of a false Christianity that accepts the Savior but rejects His laws, my emphasis is on the personal pronoun "His," Christ's laws, because in His gospel we are going to tell these people they have to obey those Old Testament laws. They are Christ's laws. He gave them and He expects His followers to be obedient to them.

Maybe the most obvious example is the Sabbath. Do you think they are going to respect and accept the Sabbath like the Jews!? No, it will not be like the Jews. It will be like Christ, He kept the Sabbath, it is His law. And so are all those hundreds of other laws that are in the Old Testament. They are His laws which He gave to Moses and other prophets as they came along.

So right near the top of those reasons, then, was the cultural turmoil caused by the introduction of the gospel of the Kingdom of God in a very strong way, spectacularly accompanied by God's demonstrations of His miraculous powers as on Pentecost. And besides that, the verbal inspiration He gave to those who were speaking. Now, if it happens in our time, it will be the same two things. It is going to be an unleashing of some of God's powers, whatever they are at the time, and also the inspiration of those who are speaking the gospel at God's behest.

But then I think we can pretty well accept that many of the people considering themselves to be Jews, I mean honestly so, will reject it because of the law being a part of it. That is one reason I went through this whole thing about how the Jews rejected (almost ten sermons), one way or another, the law of God whenever they heard it associated with Jesus Christ. It just did not fit their way of thinking. It was false news to them because their mind was in a different narrative altogether and they could not make the adjustment.

So we are getting a lesson in what is happening in the United States today regarding false news. The airwaves are filled with it and it is awfully hard to deal with because when we hear it, we are not sure whether it is true or false. It takes time to seek out what the answer really is.

They are going to have the same problem. And I think their first reaction is going to be a reaction against those who are speaking this about laws of God being part of the gospel of Jesus Christ. They will think it is false news and related to the kind of thing that we are hearing in our time right now. (Satan is really slick.) And so they will make the wrong relationships because the narrative of their thinking is different from what they are hearing and they will do just what the Jews did. They will persecute those who are telling the truth.

In addition to the verbal inspiration that God gave on that Day of Pentecost, and of course that verbal inspiration continued right on, there were also healings that were done through the apostles, mysterious releases from imprisonment, but also perhaps most of all was the very large number of conversions that were upsetting the culture right in people's homes, dividing families and separating people from worshipping at the Temple, and that was hurtful sociologically because it was the center of religious and social life in Jerusalem. These things threw the city into a cultural turmoil that continued for decades. You got me? Decades of time. It was not over with the snap of a finger or was not over two months down the road or anything. It went on for decades of time.

Those kind of things that led up to the circumcision decision at that conference that was held there in Jerusalem, as far as we know happened in 49 AD. When was Jesus put the death? When was His crucifixion? When was His resurrection? And when did that Pentecost take place? 31 AD. From 31 AD, likely in late May or early June when that Pentecost took place, and it was not until 49 AD that the meeting that decided whether circumcision was going to be set aside as no longer required by us

And you know what brethren? All during that time, the church members had no assistance from the epistle to the Hebrews. That book we are studying, according to those who search into those things, was not completed until around four or five years prior to, before, 70 AD, whenever the Temple was destroyed. So it was from 31 AD to 65 AD (as a round figure), before the epistle to the Hebrews came to their rescue by having written instructions of why Jesus Christ was so very important to their salvation.

Now somehow or another, they had to make it through that almost 40-year period of persecution taking place in the area of Judea. They did it, and if they did it we can do it too through the power, the help, the knowledge, the understanding that we can get from Jesus Christ. Because He said the gates of the grave will never prevail against the church. And so if they did it under Jesus Christ, we can do it under Jesus Christ.

But I want to make sure that we are preparing ourselves for that time that comes, if it happens in our time that the Father decides and said, "Jesus get ready! You're going any day now." He is the one the Father is going to give the word—to the Son.

So the membership of the church needed guidance and spiritual support during that time that their newfound and growing faith was beginning to build. That need began in Jerusalem which literally extended on for several decades but there was no epistle to the Hebrews to turn to. However, Christ continued His guidance as High Priest spiritually from heaven. And so what did He do? He inspired the apostles to begin to understand the wealth of spiritual knowledge and understanding needed to support the converts' faith through the turmoil. The people did not lose their contact with Jesus Christ, He was still there. There was just no written Word to follow, but He was still there and He could still help them. And thus the apostles began to give sermons and Bible studies and private counseling. They were around the area there of Jerusalem to support the new converts through what turned out to be four decades of upset lives.

Can you imagine that? About forty years of persecution! Now it was not always intense to the place where people being were run down in the streets. It would build and then it would abate, and it would build and then it would abate, and then it would build again off and on during that period of time when some hot brand stirred things up against the church.

It was those elements of collected understanding slowly but surely building within the apostles and other strong figures within the church from the people's experience, combined with what the Bible— the Old Testament—prophesied about Jesus Christ as Messiah, that enabled the apostles leadership to write Hebrews under Christ's inspiration. And I will tell you, the more I look at that book, Hebrews, the more I am convinced that the apostle Paul is the writer, the author under Jesus Christ. He did not sign his name and there was a reason for that. We just saw one. Everywhere he went around Judea, his life was being threatened. So it took over a generation of time to accomplish this, pretty close to two generations of time before the book they needed was written.

Now we are the beneficiaries of the pains that God permitted them to go through while that was being written, and the memories of the experiences and notes of the experiences of people going through it, were collected and became what is now the epistle to the people of the Hebrews. The apostles were not shirking their responsibilities to the membership. There was simply much to do and it was not in God's mind yet that it was really needed at this time, and He would take care of things through Jesus Christ as they were.

As we move forward, I am going to repeat what I believe regarding one of the major doctrinal issues in Christ's mind as the discussions went back and forth to decide the issue regarding circumcision during the Acts 15 conference. Now, consider this. Circumcision was no minor worship practice on two major counts.

First, the practice had stood the test of time—all the way back to Abraham. It was really rooted in the people's minds, all the way back to Abraham. From the first century back to Abraham. Second, the Israelites were, for some reason, reasonably faithful in carrying it out. It was like a memory that they were born with and so they did it. Do you know that was a period of over 1,800 years that almost every Hebrew boy was circumcised. You do not throw a tradition like that out on the street in the blink of an eye. Circumcision was a very distinctive sign of who you, men, were.

But let me give you a surprise. The Israelites were not the only ancient people who circumcised. Actually, just this week, I read in an encyclopedia, they used the word "many." Many nations also circumcised. Not with the thing in mind that the Israelites had in mind when they did it. To them it connected them with Abraham and therefore the people, that is, that came out of Abraham, and that was generation after generation for about 1,800 years. It identified them uniquely with Abraham and the Israelite people and the Israelite people's faith, as weak as it was.

This might be a surprise to you that this source that I read said one of the people who regularly circumcised were the Egyptians. I wonder where the Egyptians got that idea? What the Egyptians had to go through in their history because of the Israelite people burned itself, I am sure, into the Egyptian history. Now they did not say everybody was circumcised, but they said it was strongly recommended in their culture that they circumcise their male children. They probably did pick it up from the Israelitish people and things the Egyptian history said about the Israelitish people and some of the things that their ancestors had to go through because of the Israelite people. God made an impression on the Egyptian people's minds.

Now, this is just my guess. I think that one of the reasons that Jesus did not require circumcision is because He wanted to separate in the Israelitish people's mind that in one sense they were absolutely no better than any other person. No better than the Gentiles. You know what the New Covenant brought in with it. Both the Gentiles and Israelites came to God on the same terms and there was no circumcision within those terms. So the Israelites were made, in a sense, to understand they were no better than anybody else.

The conference and its decision were a test to see whether the apostles in attendance would choose to follow Christ rather than the world of Judaism over a doctrinal change that might cost them virtually their entire membership and potential for growth, that is, within the church. So the circumcision issue was a major, major test. Would (here was what was in, I am sure, Christ's mind), they rightly divide what they experienced in Christ's direct presence in addition to the Bible, in addition to the Old Covenant? Now remember, they knew who Christ was, but I am sure this would present them with a challenge, because the Bible, the Word of God, the Word of Jesus Christ, said that Israelites were to circumcise their male children. But on the other hand, Jesus in the flesh, when He actually preached to them, never mentioned circumcision even one time as a requirement.

Well, that could bring a person pause to think. "I saw," they could say to themselves," Jesus Christ, God in the flesh, and He never mentioned we should be circumcised." So let me read that statement again: Would they rightly divide what they experienced in Christ's direct presence, in addition to the Bible? Well, the outcome was that they were found to be true and dedicated to Christ, the person teaching, and passed the test with flying colors.

Now, I do not know what all preceded that. I do know for sure that the conversation that He had with the woman there at the well and He let those people who were listening and watching at that time know that there were going to be some changes made. And so they undoubtedly discussed that and felt in concluding that circumcision issue, that that was a change that He was instituting.

Hebrews in the New Testament and Leviticus in the Old Testament are two books that are frequently compared, but I believe that the introductory sermons that I have given should help lead you to see that they are not only of major differences in their spiritual content, but also in the manner of how they came to be part of the Bible. And I think that, again, discerning this is helpful to our broader understanding of things.

Both books are similar in terms of their overall purpose. Both provide detailed worship instructions regarding covenants, but they are designed, prepared, and given regarding two different covenants. Now, even the Bible itself clearly states in Hebrews 8, and I want you to turn there because I want you to read that in your own Bible, something you may already know, but I want you to see it.

Hebrews 8:6 But now He [Christ] has obtained a more excellent ministry, inasmuch as He is also Mediator of a better covenant.

There you have it right in the Bible that the New Covenant is better than the Old. If it is better, there is probably going to be some differences between the two covenants, because there is something that makes them better.

And thus the two books are far, far different in many specifics concerning obedient worship activity, but also how each was given to the Israelites. Leviticus was dictated by God, that is, by Jesus Christ, before His incarnation, to Moses. It was dictated to Moses, and was then taught by Moses to the Levitical priests and to the worshippers.

What they did next is helpful to understand. That is, what those who heard these terms was helpful to them. The book of Exodus shows the worshippers then participated in literally making or building the implements, the tools, needed to apply and carry out the verbal instructions that they were given. That even included making the Tabernacle itself, its furniture and its implements, but all according to the instructions. Now what forms from this method of teaching is a rigid system of worship fulfilled by physically following the verbally God-given instructions.

Now, it could be so rigidly and meaningfully overseen by God, that at one time He executed the two sons of the high priest, Aaron, because they did not use coals of fire from the proper source for performing their responsibilities. On another occasion, God executed the servant of His beloved David because David did not properly oversee transporting Tabernacle worship implements as God instructed.

That too on the surface seems rather minor. But those executed really had no excuses. The instructions were indeed written and those people were clearly guilty. They were to follow the letter of the law in that system and they carelessly did not do that. I am sure that what they died because of seemed silly, nothing, to them. Well, this fire over here is just as good as this fire over here. That is the way they reasoned. But what was wrong with that? They left God's instruction out of it. Hang on to this thought.

What did David allow to be done regarding the Tabernacle and its furniture? He allowed it to be pulled on a cart. Brethren, it was supposed to be manually carried, all broken down into its various parts, but everywhere they went it had to be carried. Their temple, their Tabernacle, went right along with them on their journeys and they carried it. There is a lesson there. Wherever they went, it did not matter, that covenant was to be obeyed.

Now, if one just concentrates on these two examples that I gave to you, an impression that one can get from Leviticus is that if one follows through doing the ceremonial requirements, salvation was his. However, that would be a wrong impression because there is much more required of them than obeying ceremonial regulations. The truly critical question is, did the worshippers actually live the way of life that God commanded apart from what the ceremonial observances portrayed? Well, Bible history shows the Israelites fell far, far, far short.

There is a reason why I went through that section and I want you to get the picture that is contained here for you and me. It is that, in one sense, in fulfilling the New Covenant, we are carrying out the same basic responsibilities given our ancestors who built the old Tabernacle. There is a difference though. All the responsibilities that Exodus depicts were types of our spiritual responsibility under the New Covenant, and under the New Covenant, we are described as parts of Christ's body. Brethren, we are the Temple. Do you get that? Those things were types.

Let us turn again and see the proof here to the book of Ephesians.

Ephesians 1:19-23 [We are breaking into the middle of a thought that Paul had.] And what is the exceeding greatness of His [that is, Christ] power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at the right hand in heavenly places, far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in that which is to come. And He put all things under His feet, and gave Him [that is, Christ] to be the head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.

So, speaking metaphorically, we are the church and we are working together with Christ and the Father in fashioning what we are and what we become. Now when you read it in Exodus of what they had to make, you see yourself being described and the times that Christ emphasized to Moses, "Make it exactly what I said, and the way I said it, with the perfection that I want." Does that mean anything to you in your life as a Christian, knowing that you are working, in a sense, with Christ in making yourself a part of it? Are you doing a good job or are you skipping details along the way, like David did, not noticing that it had to be done exactly the way the Bible said it had to be done. The Tabernacle had to be carried.

Do we make alterations? Do we shift gears because of our humanity? We all do it and we have to admit it, that is the way we do it. The Israelites never really came to actually doing things, in many cases, with the care that Christ insisted that it be done. Because we have a proclivity to skip responsibilities and in many cases they are real—we get too tired, we get lazy. There are times when we would rather do something else or what we are working on at this time, we are just going to skip a little bit and not do that part of it. Well, I will tell you, we really need God's grace. I mean, really, really, really need God's grace.

Now, you can be sure that He is not a workman like we are and that He is going to make efforts on His part to put the pressure on us to work toward being polished and firmed and finished the way He wants us to be. Along with Jesus, we are the spiritual temple, working on it and within it, and thus we are required to do our part spiritually in and through our relationship with Christ, making and building the characteristics God intended the temple instruments teach the Israelites to understand.

An additional aspect is that we must not forget that we too, who lived thousands of years following these Israelites, are to learn from Leviticus. Are we not to live by every Word of God? Leviticus, brethren, is still part of the Bible. So I think you can see what David went into that came out of Leviticus the 16th chapter, but a little while later God inspired Isaiah, a prophet, to write things that pertain to what was written in Leviticus and so forth. It is threaded through the entire Bible and each place where it is threaded through the Bible, it is adding something to the picture that God wants us to understand and to perform in our lives.

Those lessons then in Leviticus are written to support us in our relationship with both Christ and fellow man, even though we have made the New Covenant with God. This requires that we study into many practices that are no longer required of us in order to broaden and deepen our understanding. So never lose sight of a salient fact. It is that everything under Jesus Christ as our guide and teacher is preparing us for our responsibilities after Christ's return.

A major overall lesson we can derive from an overview of Leviticus is that God is to be respected regardless of the times or the covenant made with Him.

I will shift gears here. I believe that what I learned while studying through Ecclesiastes is that one of the major teachings of Solomon is that, though he begins in Ecclesiastes 1 by saying, "Vanity of vanities, all is vanity," he is in reality teaching throughout the book itself those who are spiritually-minded, that everything in life matters to some degree. Did you hear what I said? "Everything matters" is what comes out of the book of Ecclesiastes and that is why it is in the Book.

Now, everything does not mean the same thing at all times in our life. There are times that we can shove some things off and really do them a little bit later or conquer them or whatever, or build it a little bit later. But we do not want to lose the principle that Solomon, who seemingly had everything, really did not have everything, and there were things in life that he let slide and now, to us anyway, there is a question as to whether he actually made it into the Kingdom of God because those things that he overlooked or shoved aside meant a lot more to God than they did to Solomon.

I know, brethren, that this is sobering. But God wants people in His Family who are thoughtful and they are engaged in His way. We may not do things perfectly, but He wants to see us doing them, attempting them, those things that are right and good and pleasing in His sight because we are associated with Him and with Jesus Christ and we have become His representatives in our family. So that is something that is on us. And though He is merciful to an extreme toward us, He wants to see us making every effort we can to do it.

We have just gone through actually a small portion of Leviticus regarding our attitude toward us. So as we begin comparing it with Hebrews, let us make a few more comparisons with Leviticus. It is first, not dictated by God but by one human person appointed to lead, such as He did with Moses. Notice, instead, God sent His Son. That gives us some sort of an inkling of how important this covenant is. He did not entrust it to anybody but His Son. That is where the New Covenant ranks in importance to us.

Instead, God sent His Son, His only Son, preceded by John the Baptist, and His Son did not dictate the worship methods as was Leviticus. Instead, again, pointing out this covenant's importance, He, the living Word of God, lived them directly before people's eyes. God knew that you could not trust man to read, even. And so He pinned us to the wall by sending His Son where multiple millions of people had some availability to see Him. And the Twelve that Jesus showed were with Him for three and one-half years. What they were going to do in their life was right up there to what Jesus did with His life, except for the crucifixion and the resurrection. Because they went out doing the same things that Jesus did after witnessing Him doing it. And so it added to their faith, the solidity of their faith with the Word of God lived before their very eyes.

And so Leviticus in this sense is in reality a preface for Hebrews and thus right from the get-go Hebrews is already vastly different from Leviticus. Instead, Jesus began His ministry by preaching the gospel of the Kingdom of God, which details the aim, the goal, for God's way of life and by personally demonstrating by His life the conduct and purposes of God's way of life literally before their eyes. He literally shared His life in a combination of physical/spiritual relationships with His disciples and others as they viewed Him as He was preaching there for three and one-half years.

Now, it is right at this point in this sermon that we turn much more directly towards the beginning of the epistle to the Hebrews. However, we are not going to begin there but at the beginning of the book of John. You might wonder, why there? It is because I want us to first experience reading a tiny overview of some of the magnitude of the awesome qualities of the One whom God entrusted this teaching responsibility. Now it is He who is the promised Seed of the Genesis 3:15 prophecy. And I want to go all the way back there. I know that you are aware of it, but this is something not to be passed up.

Genesis 3:15 "And I will put enmity [this is God speaking to Satan] between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed [You will notice in your Bible that seed following her is capitalized. The translators understood who that Seed was.]; He [that Seed] shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel."

A bruise to the head is deadly. A bruise to the heel cripples one. But it is not necessarily deadly.

Who was this person, this Jesus, that God says: He is the promised Seed, the One who is going to bruise Satan's head. In addition to that, as we shall see in just a moment, He is the Creator, He is the Messiah who becomes our teacher, who becomes our Savior and is now our Elder Brother and King. That is quite a pedigree. But this is the One He entrusted the New Covenant to.

It is because Jesus, God's only begotten Son, was the one directly dispatched by God the Father to be His personal witness, revealing both the Father and the Son, clearly revealing Their purpose, being a living example of Their love to mankind, and He is now assigned the position of heir as well. He is the heir of all things.

John 1:1-3 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.

So Jesus is introduced in the first paragraph as the actual, literal Creator of the universe and therefore mankind's Creator, mankind's Life-giver, and the Creator of all other life forms in addition. And that all by itself must have been a stunning truth of awesome magnitude for the apostles to hold in their minds, as it should be for us as well. God did not spare when He made the New Covenant with mankind. It is of supreme importance because it cost the life of His only begotten Son in order to secure it for us who needed our debts to God paid.

I do not know when the apostles found out who it was they were consorting with. I do believe that it was before their conversion and their baptism as well. There are intimations of that that are right in the Bible. In fact it was Andrew who came running to Peter and said, "We have found the Messiah." So they knew some things even as they began. But they had one element that we do not have. In a way we are introduced to Him long after He was sent to this earth and we have histories that we can look into in the Bible itself and familiarize ourselves with some things about Christ. But what we learned in many of our occasions about Him were not true.

Now the apostles had to learn these things as they went along that the one that the Old Testament was talking about was this One who was right in front of them and they believed it. They had this element that we do not have. They could literally hear His voice as He literally taught. They could see Him reach out, and they too could reach out and touch Him. Do you ever think you would like to do that? Touch the One who was the actual Creator of everything? That is awesome! Well they did not know all of this as an absolute certainty from the beginning, but they learned as they continued following Him.

We too, as we continue on reading, will learn as we go along as well. We are going to pretty much skip over the brief introduction of John the Baptist preceding Jesus. So we will end on these verses.

John 1:6-13 There was a man sent from God whose name was John. This man came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all through him might believe. He [John the Baptizer] was not that light but he was sent to bear witness of that Light [Jesus]. That was the true Light which gives light to every man coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

What John is doing is he using the physical nature of light emanating from the sun, which God also with Jesus Christ created, and it is being used by the apostle as a metaphor representing what Jesus, with His unique combination of preaching, conduct, and spiritual help enabled before the very apostles' eyes to see it and believe it and accept it and make it part of their life.

Light in the natural world around us, enables us to not only have vision, but also along with it a measure of perception, of understanding. It enables us, using the eyes God gave us to see the things within the world—the shapes, the compositions, and functions of what we observe. It thus gives one direction to move and conduct our life into the space and time with which at least some of us have a small measure of understanding. And thus in the metaphor the apostle is using the spiritual light that emanates from Jesus' words and conduct is distinctive and true above all that of others who have ever lived. That is what he is heading towards.

It enables us to comprehend using the spiritual gifts God gave us (that is why I emphasized to you that God created the light too) to understand life as the Creator intends it to be lived with greater clarity than anybody else ever. This is the One He sent. But as the apostle John states in verses 9-11, those of mankind He went to—to purposely give light to—overwhelmingly rejected Him! That is mind boggling!

God purposely sent John the Baptist preceding Jesus' arrival, to give those Jesus was going to be sent to an even better opportunity to listen to and accept Jesus' witness of His truth only He had in super-abundance to share. He has knowledge only He can share as the Creator. So we find that only a very few accepted His message and that low level of understanding is normal for Jesus. Those who rejected what He said remained in spiritual darkness as if He had never passed before them.

However, not everyone rejected Him. Some individuals accepted Him and His message, and in those individuals faith, belief in Jesus and what He was preaching, took root and began to grow. And at that time the Father and the Son gave them a wondrous spiritual gift. It very well was not something that they could feel but was nonetheless a spiritual reality. True vision, spiritual vision began. And they were given, here is what the scripture says, "They were given the right," the permission, the authority through regeneration, as the apostle Paul terms it, to start a new life. "You must be born again." But it had to start somewhere, even as a baby begins as an egg and sperm out of sight, within a woman's womb when the conditions are right.

Well, God is telling us when the conditions were right spiritually, it was when people heard the Savior and began to make a connection with Them in their mind. And that is the time that a spiritual foundation that permitted a transformation to begin. And the transformation for them and now to us was to become children, not of Abraham or any other human, but of God. The transformation is the impartation of God-life. Literally of God-life—a literal spiritual beginning that transforms one into the image of God through a slow, gradual process.

But we are required to faithfully adhere to our responsibilities after we are given God's Spirit, thus making us acceptable into the God Family by means of adoption, as the apostle Paul wrote in Romans 8:12-17. God-willing, that is where we will begin the next time.

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