Scroll down to find Lessons 1-5 notes.
Lesson 1 is at the very bottom of this page. Lessons 2-6 are above Lesson 1.
SESSION 6: “PENTECOST”
Pastor Robert says the word Pentecost scared him for years. Maybe it has had the same effect on many of us as well. The reason it scared him is because it is close to another word. It sounds like Pentecostal. For him, that was a scary word because he knew some Pentecostals. One weekend when Pastor Robert was growing up, he went to spend the weekend with his Great “Ant Prudie” and Great Uncle Smokie.
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On Sunday morning he went with them to their Pentecostal church. Pastor Robert was raised as a Baptist and he remarked that there was not a lot of talking going on in Baptist churches. He had never been to a Pentecostal church before. That experience scared him to death! He said the people were completely normal until the music started. Then they went crazy, shouting and running around the sanctuary. |
He said there was one guy that would run around the pastor every once in a while as he was preaching . The people also talked back to the pastor as he was preaching. The preacher spat, yelled, and wiped with a handkerchief while he was preaching. He said the people also spoke in tongues, very, very loudly. He said one man who was right in front of him, would turn to him and yell at him in tongues. Robert said he was eight years old at the time and he concluded one thing: He did not want to be a Pentecostal when he grew up. He said when they said Amen at the end, they all went back to normal.
That was Pastor Robert impression of Pentecostal.
He says that he is not saying anything negative about a Pentecostal denomination or Pentecostal church. That is just the experience he had when he was eight.
Pastor Robert says that when you read the word Pentecost, you might associate it with something that makes you afraid, or makes you think you’ve got to act a little weird in church. He goes on to say that unfortunately, then we might associate that with the person of the Holy Spirit. We might think that we are glad that we invited Jesus into our life, but we don’t really want to invite a person who would want to make us loose our minds.
He is just saying what we might think.
Again, he states that he is not trying to be negative about anyone.
So, we are going to talk about Pentecost.
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Spoiler: The definition of Pentecost is not scary.
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Pentecost was the Jewish celebration of the giving of the law on Mount Sinai.
It occurred 50 days after Passover, when they took the blood of the lamb, put it on the door post, and they were delivered from the death angel. Then they were delivered out of Egypt, out of bondage. 50 days later, God descended on Mount Sinai and gave the law.
But it was 50 days after Passover.
Pentecost was 50 days after the resurrection.
Passover was on Friday and that was when Jesus was crucified, then the Sabbath was the next day, and then 50 days from the resurrection.
So, how did that change?
Pastor Robert says he doesn’t know if we ever thought about that.
He says, as a math guy, when you hear Jesus was on the earth 40 days and then it was 10 days until Pentecost, you think, wait, there is something wrong with this math because Pentecost is 50 days after Passover.
Pastor Robert explains that way back in Leviticus 23:15-16,
God changed it to the day they celebrated it.
The Feast of Weeks
15 ‘And you shall count for yourselves from the day after the Sabbath, from the day that you brought the sheaf of the wave offering: seven Sabbaths shall be completed. 16 Count fifty days to the day after the seventh Sabbath; then you shall offer a new grain offering to the Lord.
Leviticus 23:15-16
Pastor Robert continues by saying that God knew He wanted the Holy Spirit to come 50 days after the resurrection, not after Passover. He knew that He wanted His son to be on the earth 40 days, and that He wanted the disciples to wait 10 days until Pentecost, so back in Leviticus, He changed it. Even though the law came 50 days after Passover, He wanted His people to now celebrate this. It was called the Feast of Weeks, seven weeks plus that day. He wanted them to celebrate the Feast of Weeks fifty days from the first Sabbath after the Passover. So, Passover now is on Thursday or Tuesday or Wednesday or Friday like it was when Jesus was crucified. God did not want them to start the 50 days until the day after the Sabbath, and they were to count. Because He knew His Son was going to rise on the day after the Sabbath.
God put it all together.
That is why we have the phrase in Acts 2:1, “And when the day of Pentecost had fully come.”
In other words, when the day of 50 had fully come.
Remember, this is the celebration of the giving of the law,
but it is when the giving of the Holy Spirit was.
Pastor Robert exclaims that we have to see how wonderful God is in this!
At the giving of the law, there was a sound from heaven.
God wrote His law on tablets of stone and 3,000 people died.
At the giving of the Spirit, God wrote His law on tablets of flesh (peoples’ hearts).
There was a sound from heaven and 3,000 people were saved!
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But Pastor Robert says that he does understand that we don’t want our family and friends to think we have gone crazy if we start going to a church where they lift their hands and they talk about the Holy Spirit.
He said that when he and Debbie started going to Shady Grove Church (which is Gateway Church’s Grand Prairie campus now), his mother (who is in heaven now), got kind of concerned and asked him why they had to talk so much about the Holy Spirit? Is it a Pentecostal church? Was he going to become a Pentecostal? He told his mom that if you think about it, all the disciples would have probably been more Pentecostal than Baptist.
She reminded Robert that John was a Baptist.
2. What happened at Pentecost?
Pastor Robert says before he shows us Acts 2, he wants to go back and show us a fulfillment of something that happened in the Old Testament. But before he gets to that scripture, he wants to show us another scripture.
“For then I will restore to the peoples a pure [a]language,
That they all may call on the name of the Lord,
To serve Him with one accord."
Zephaniah 3:9
Pastor Robert asks us to remember the phrase, “ one accord”
When the Messiah comes, the Lord is going to restore to the nations, all nations, a pure language so they can worship Him and call on Him with one accord.
Also notice, “a pure language”
Every language in the world has curse (filthy, dirty) words in it.
But God said He would restore a pure language.
So, is the Lord talking about the language of heaven?
Because. when we get to heaven, they’re aren’t going to be any dirty words.
No filthy speech in heaven.
No impure, immoral words.
Restore is the big word that Pastor Robert wants us to see in this verse.
God did not say that He was going to give a pure language.
God said that He was going to bring back.
He is going to restore a pure language so they can be in one accord, to all the nations.
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Which language did they speak before the Tower of Babel?
It was not Hebrew because God didn’t start the Jewish nation until Genesis 12 with Abraham.
But they all spoke one language and God will bring back a pure language.
The Tower of Babel
11 Now the whole earth had one language and one [a]speech. 2 And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar, and they dwelt there. 3 Then they said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks and [b]bake them thoroughly.” They had brick for stone, and they had asphalt for mortar. 4 And they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower whose top is in the heavens; let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth.” 5 But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men had built.
Genesis 11:1-5
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This is what the Lord said:
6 And the Lord said, “Indeed the people are one and they all have one language, and this is what they begin to do; now nothing that they propose to do will be withheld from them.
Genesis 11:6
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Pastor Robert shows us that in Acts 2, they get a language, that everyone can understand, and they’re all in one accord.
Pastor Robert points out one more time, that if the Lord could get His people in unity, in one accord, and using this pure language, nothing they propose to do will be withheld from them!
And in Zephaniah, the Lord said when the Messiah comes, He is going to restore (bring back), the pure language that He took away!
Pastor Robert says that this is so incredible!
He asks why we think Satan fights this so much?
He said when the first church understood this, they turned the world upside down!
7 Come, let Us go down and there confuse their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech.” 8 So the Lord scattered them abroad from there over the face of all the earth, and they ceased building the city.
Genesis 11:7-8
“Us” - Remember in Genesis 1:26, when God says let “us” (God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit), make man. Notice, God the Holy Spirit is a part of this conversation.
In this verse, it says, “Let us go down.”
Remember what happened on the day of Pentecost?
The Holy Spirit came down.
Remember on the day of Pentecost, they all, from every nation, could understand.
vs. 8 - The Lord scattered them.
In Acts 2, they all came together.
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Remember the words “one accord.”
They were confused and scattered.
Coming of the Holy Spirit
2 When the Day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all [a]with one accord in one place. 2 And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting.
Acts 2:1-2
The Crowd’s Response
5 And there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men, from every nation under heaven. 6 And when this sound occurred, the multitude came together, and were confused, because everyone heard them speak in his own language.
Acts 2:5-6
Pastor Robert reminds us that they were all in one accord and in one place in Genesis 11.
vs. 5 - people from every nation
vs. 6 - the multitude came together
Remember at the Tower of Babel, they were confused.
Now, they are together, still confused from 2,000 years before.
Heard means understood.
They understood them speak in his own language.
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Why?
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God determined that He would have to take the language away from them and have to scatter them.
But after His Son comes, and dies on the cross for their sins and redeems the, He will be able to come and bring them back together and give the language back.
We can’t be in unity if we can’t understand a person’s language.
How many of us have tried to communicate with a person who speaks a different language and we just can’t understand each other?
3. Can I experience Pentecost?
Pentecost happened 2,000 years ago, 50 days after Jesus’ resurrection,
but we weren’t there.
There’s a real popular line of thinking in the body of Christ that it was a one-time event that none of us can experience because we weren’t there.
Pastor Robert would like to use a different word for happened.
Instead, he would like to say that it was fulfilled 2,000 years ago.
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Remember that Passover was fulfilled on the day Jesus died.
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So even though we weren’t alive when the Holy Spirit fulfilled Pentecost, we can still receive the fulfillment of Pentecost by simply receiving the Holy Spirit into our lives.
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Peter said what makes this possible is Jesus the Messiah coming and dying on the cross for our sins.
The peoples’ response:
37 Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Men and brethren, what shall we do?” 38 Then Peter said to them, “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the [a]remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Acts 2:37-38
Peter tells them 3 things to do:
1. Get saved.
2. Be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins.
3. Receive the gift of the Holy Spirit
Jesus called the gift, the promise in Acts 1.
Pastor Robert says to notice once again, this popular line of thinking in the body of Christ is that it was for them, but it is not for us.
Notice what Peter says here…..
And you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call.
Acts 2:38-39
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When they believed Phillip is when they got saved.
They believed and they got baptized.
Acts 8 is years after Acts 2.
12 But when they believed Philip as he preached the things concerning the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, both men and women were baptized.
Acts 8:12
14 Now when the apostles who were at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent Peter and John to them, 15 who, when they had come down, prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit. 16 For as yet He had fallen upon none of them. They had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. 17 Then they laid hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit.
Act 8:14-17
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Paul at Ephesus
19 And it happened, while Apollos was at Corinth, that Paul, having passed through the upper regions, came to Ephesus. And finding some disciples 2 he said to them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” So they said to him, “We have not so much as heard whether there is a Holy Spirit.” 3 And he said to them, “Into what then were you baptized?” So they said, “Into John’s baptism.” 4 Then Paul said, “John indeed baptized with a baptism of repentance, saying to the people that they should believe on Him who would come after him, that is, on Christ Jesus.” 5 When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. 6 And when Paul had laid hands on them, the Holy Spirit came upon them, and they spoke with tongues and prophesied.
Acts 19:1-6
Pastor Robert adds that Pentecost was in 30 AD.
Acts 19 is 54 AD, 24 years later.
24 years after Pentecost.
They believed and they were baptized.
Isn’t that all they needed?
Pastor continues by saying that you would think the preeminent apostle of the New Testament would know if there is not a third step.
24 years later.
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Pastor Robert says that because of the crazy stuff,
many of us kind of stiff-arm the Holy Spirit.
Jesus said that He would not leave us as orphans.
He said that He would send someone to us who would lead us into all truth, who will tell us of things to come, who will guide us, who will remind us of everything He said, and who will walk beside us, which is what the Greek word for Holy Spirit means. (Who will walk beside us, a comforter, a Parakletos, -one who will come along beside us and walk.
Pastor Robert says, yet we don’t really want anything to do with Him because we’ve seen some weird things.
“Have you received the Holy Spirit since you believed?” asks Pastor Robert.
Pastor Robert says that a friend of his, Peter Lord, who he knew of for many years before they met and became friends, did a great teaching that went around the world. He wrote a book about it called Turkey and Eagles. His whole idea was that if God made you an eagle, why would you walk like a turkey? He talked a lot about quiet times with God and how to have a devotional. He went to be with the Lord at 91 years old last year. He came to Gateway Church a few years ago and asked Pastor Robert to write an endorsement for one of his books. That blew Pastor Robert away because Peter was one of his champions in the faith. Peter pastored a Baptist church all his life and went to Baptist schools. One day, he was reading and having his quiet time. He comes across Acts 19, and read “Have you received the Holy Spirit since you believed?” Then the Lord asked him this same question. Pastor Robert said that it was funny when Peter would tell this story because he would say it was kind of crazy that we would give God a theological answer, as if we know more theology than He does! Peter answered the Lord’s question by telling Him that God was a triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. So, when he received Jesus, he received the Holy Spirit. He said the Holy Spirit lives in me. He came to live in me when I received Jesus. So, He lives in my house. Peter the said that then the Lord told him that his mother-in-law came to live with you 18 months ago and asked if Peter has received her? Peter said that he thought nope! The Lord continued by telling Peter that that was the way a lot of His children are. He told Him yes, the Holy Spirit lives in you once you get saved, but of lot of His children have never received the Holy Spirit. They have never told the Holy Spirit that they were His and to do anything with them that He wanted.
Pastor Robert says that his burden for this message is not for hundreds or thousands of people to receive the Holy Spirit.
His burden is for everyone to receive the Holy Spirit!
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Robert is asking every person to receive the Holy Spirit, to open our hearts to Him, and to not be afraid of Him because we may have seen the excesses of a few people.
Pastor Robert wants to lead us in a prayer to ask Jesus to fill us with the Holy Spirit and to receive the Holy Spirit.
He asks that in our hearts will we say this to Jesus.
He says if you want to, to turn your palms upward in your lap in a receiving motion as you pray.
"Dear Jesus, I ask you to baptize me today (baptize just means immerse),
with the Holy Spirit.
And Holy Spirit, I ask you to forgive me for having preconceived thoughts and fears about you.
By an act of my will and in faith, I receive you today.
I receive the Holy Spirit fully in my life."
PASTOR ROBERT’S ENDING PRAYER:
Lord, I want to tell you thank you, thank you, thank you, that you did not leave us as orphans, that you sent one like yourself, one who leads us, one who guides us, one who loves us, one who protects us, one who warns us, and one who blesses us. Lord, we want to tell you thank you for sending the promise of the Father, the Holy Spirit, and we receive the Holy Spirit today. And Holy Spirit, we tell you thank you for filling us and walking beside us from this day forward in Jesus’ Name. Amen.
SESSION 5: “WAITING FOR THE PROMISE”
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Pastor Robert asks how many of us have ever waited for something?
How many of us have ever waited for someone?
How many of us have ever waited on God for something?
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Pastor Robert wants to give us a theological truth to help us as we wait on God.
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During this message, Pastor Robert will be talking about these 10 days.
He tells us the last words of Jesus before Jesus ascended.
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40 days Jesus is on the earth and right before He ascends, He tells His disciples to do something, but most people get it wrong!
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Not true.
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49 Behold, I send the Promise of My Father upon you; but tarry in the city [a]of Jerusalem until you are endued with power from on high.”
Luke 24:49
The Holy Spirit Promised
4 And being assembled together with them, He commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the Promise of the Father, “which,” He said, “you have heard from Me; Acts 1:4
Pastor Robert does not like to wait and he hates hurrying up to wait even more!
In this message, Pastor Robert will answer the question of
why God makes us wait.
Why couldn’t Jesus have stayed 50 days?
Why did He stay 40 days and make them wait 10 days?
Pastor Robert will also answer a couple of other questions that we may have never even thought about.
Where did they wait?
How did they wait?
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In other words,
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1. Where did they wait?
Pastor Robert says not to answer that question because we will get it partially right.
The Upper Room is a partially right answer.
The Upper Room is not the room where they had the Last Supper.
That was an upper room. It’s not the same one, because this upper room held 120 people.
There were 120 people there on the day of Pentecost.
There were 11 disciples. They nominated another one and then there were 12. They also had the 70 others.
Then the Bible makes mentions the ladies where there too, as well as Mary, the mother of Jesus. It’s the last time she is mentioned in scripture.
The Upper Room Prayer Meeting
12 Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a Sabbath day’s journey. 13 And when they had entered, they went up into the upper room where they were staying: Peter, James, John, and Andrew; Philip and Thomas; Bartholomew and Matthew; James the son of Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot; and Judas the son of James.
Acts 1:12-13
Pastor Robert says that is why people think that they were in the upper room for 10 days and never left the room.
Pastor Robert will show us that they did leave the room.
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A Sabbath’s day journey was not on the Sabbath. It was the day before the Sabbath when they were waiting.
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It was a made up law that on the Sabbath, you could only walk 2000 cubits or 1000 steps.
52 And they worshiped Him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy, 53 and were continually in the temple [a]praising and blessing God. [b]Amen.
Luke 24:52-53
They were continually in the temple not continuously.
Continuously means they never left, never ceased, no breaks.
Continually means frequently, often.
Most of the time they were in the temple and they were in the upper room.
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The church began in the temple and in the house.
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46 So continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart,
Acts 2:46
42 And daily in the temple, and in every house, they did not cease teaching and preaching Jesus as the Christ.
Acts 5:42
Pastor Robert points out that this is all through scripture, that they met in the temple and from house to house.
Paul said about 5 times, to greet the church that is in their house.
But is there a deeper principle?
Yes. Pastor Robert says the deeper principle is when they asked Jesus what the greatest commandment was.
Jesus told them the greatest commandment was to love the Lord you God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength.
The second, He said is like it.
That is to love your neighbor as yourself.
Pastor Robert sums up these two for us by saying its relationship with God and relationship with godly people.
Pastor Robert is answering the question, where did they wait.
He is also answering the questions where should we wait if we are waiting on a promise from God.
He says we all are waiting on a promise from God in our marriage, our business, our health, with one of our kids, etc. We are all waiting on a promise.
Where should we wait?
Pastor Robert is not saying in the temple and from house to house.
He is using the principle.
The principle is that we need to wait in relationship with God
and
in relationship with God’s people.
We need to maintain our relationship with God and our relationship with God’s people, if we are waiting for a promise.
It is very, very important, or we might not keep waiting for the promise.
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Pastor Robert says that Dr. Henry Cloud has been to Gateway Church several times.
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Jesus said on these two commandments, hang the whole law and prophets.
(That means the Bible).
Here’s the whole Bible summed up:
Have a relationship with God,
and
have a relationship with God’s people.
2. How do you wait?
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14 These all continued with one [a]accord in prayer [b]and supplication, with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with His brothers.
Acts 1:14
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Pastor Robert wants us to notice how prayer continued through the New Testament.
Just in the book of Acts are many, many examples of prayer:
Acts 7 - Stephen prayed as he was stoned.
Acts 8:14-17 - Peter prayed for the Samaritans to receive the Holy Spirit.
Acts 9:11 - Saul of Tarus prayed after this conversion.
Acts 9:36-43 - Peter prayed before he raised Dorcas from the dead.
Acts 10:1-4 - Cornelius prayed that God would show him how to be saved
Acts 10:9 - Peter prayed and God told him to answer Cornelius’ prayer.
Acts 12:1-11 - The believers prayed for Peter when he was in prison.
Acs 13:1-3 - They fasted and prayed before sending Barnabas and Paul.
Acts 16:13-14 - They were praying, and God opened Lydia’s heart.
Acts 16:16-18 - On the way to prayer, Paul cast a demon out of a girl.
Acts 16:25 - Paul and Silas were praying ,and God opened the prison doors.
Acts 20:36; 21:5 - Paul prayed for his friends before leaving them.
Acts 27:35 - During a storm, Paul prayed for God’s blessing.
Acts 28:8 - After the storm, Paul prayed that he could heal a sick man.
Prayer was a major part of the New Testament church.
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Do we want to see how the Holy Spirit comes through prayer?
Pastor Robert will show us again in Jesus’ life and in the church.
John Baptizes Jesus
21 When all the people were baptized, it came to pass that Jesus also was baptized; and while He prayed, the heaven was opened. 22 And the Holy Spirit descended in bodily form like a dove upon Him, and a voice came from heaven which said, “You are My beloved Son; in You I am well pleased.”
Luke 3:21-22
Most people miss those three words - while he prayed
…while He prayed, the heaven was opened.
The Holy Spirit descended when Jesus prayed.
31 And when they had prayed, the place where they were assembled together was shaken; and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spoke the word of God with boldness.
Acts 4:31
The Holy Spirit comes when we pray!
Pastor Robert says that he knows that we are thinking, but I already have the Holy Spirit.
He says, yes, we do.
But you need the Holy Spirit right now in some situation that you can think of.
He is waiting to intervene in that situation.
He’s waiting for us to pray.
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Pastor Robert and Debbie have three grown children.
Josh was their first born.
Two years later, Pastor Robert was praying, and he though they would have a daughter next. He was praying for a daughter. Every night, he and Debbie prayed. After they prayed, the Holy Spirit spoke to Robert and told him that one year from today, they would have a son and they were to name him James Robert Morris, James after James Robinson and Robert after him. The Holy Spirit told Robert that James’ ministry would surpass both of his ministries put together. The Lord also said the enemy would try to take his life, but He would save James. They felt like James was supposed to be born at home. Josh had been a C-section. Pastor Robert and Debbie talked to doctors and mid-wives, and they felt like it would be okay. Pastor Robert and Debbie said they are not advocating home birth. But they had a word from God. When James was born, the umbilical cord was wrapped around his neck twice. His head and face were blue. The mid wife removed the umbilical cord. He’s still alive today.
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Elijah prophesied that it was not going to rain until he said so.
Then the scriptures say that Elijah went away and prayed earnestly.
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So Pastor Robert prayed earnestly for James because the Lord had said that one year from today, he would have a son. He and Debbie wrote it down… May 9th.
And May 9th, one year to the date later, James was born.
Not only did God speak, but Pastor Robert and Debbie prayed.
In Review:
So where did they pray?
They stayed in relationship in the temple and from house to house.
How did they wait?
They waited in prayer.
3. Why did they wait?
This is the big question.
Why did Jesus stay only 40 days?
Why did he make them wait 10 days?
(They didn’t know it was going to be 10 days.
Jesus didn’t tell them to wait for Pentecost.
There were no Pentecostal churches at the time, so they didn’t know what Pentecostal meant. They didn’t know how long they would be waiting).
Pentecost means the day the Holy Spirit comes.
Why does God make us wait?
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You can use the word why and ask God a lot of questions such as:
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Why did God make them wait?
Pastor Robert says this is a tough question,
but it’s an easy answer.
He says we might not like the answer until he explains it.
Pastor Robert says sometimes God make us wait because He is God.
Here’s what Pastor Robert means by that.
It’s because God knows more that we do.
God is all-knowing.
Pastor Robert says this is the good part; not only is He all knowing, He’s all loving.
So God’s decision to make us wait is because He loves us.
He is doing it for our good.
He’s also making us wait to build our faith.
Pastor Robert says we need to understand something about faith because he is going to take it a step further that maybe we have never thought about.
First of all, we have to understand faith.
Hebrews 11:1 has the famous definition of faith.
By Faith We Understand
Now faith is the [a]substance of things hoped for, the [b]evidence of things not seen.
Hebrews 11:1
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24 For we were saved in this hope, but hope that is seen is not hope; for why does one still hope for what he sees? 25 But if we hope for what we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with perseverance.
Romans 8:24-25
26 It is good that one should hope and wait quietly
For the salvation of the Lord.
Lamentations 3:26
Why is it good?
By the way, if we already have everything we want, they we actually have no hope.
People who have everything, don’t hope for anything. That’s why we hear about a lot of people who have a lot, committing suicide because they have lost all hope. If we have everything, we hope for nothing.
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God has given us a promise,
but we can’t handle the promise yet.
He is building His relationship with us, and our relationship with Him, so that when the promise comes, we can handle it.
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Pastor Robert wants us to catch this!
When we say God is building our faith, He is building our relationship with Him. He’s putting a depth in our life, so that when the promise comes, we have enough faith in Him, that we can handle the promise.
We won’t fail because of the promise.
For example, it maybe a business thing where we know that God is going to bless us financially one day. But if He give us the financial blessing, before we are mature enough to handle it, it may ruin us. God knows that so He makes us wait.
Now, the question is if God wasn’t going to give the promise to Abraham and Sarah for 25 years, why did He tell them 25 years before? Pastor Robert says it seems a little mean to him. If God wasn’t going to give them a child for 25 years, why didn’t He wait and tell them at year 24.
God thought, no, it would take them 25 years of knowing, and waiting, and hoping to have enough maturity to handle it.
That is one reason God waits.
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So, Abraham and Sarah’s child was named Isaac.
One day Abraham sent his servant to his brother’s household, to find a wife for his son Isaac. On the exact day he sent his servant, his servant got to a well, and Rebecca came to the well on that day. If Isaac had been born 25 years before,
Rebecca probably had not even been born yet.
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We have to catch this!
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Pastor Robert knows a specific couple who tried to conceive for 12 years. Then they conceived and they came him to ask him to pray for them. When Pastor Robert was praying for them, he got this word. Pastor Robert told them that they were going to have a son. This was 35 years ago that he prayed for them. Just a few years ago, they came to Pastor Robert and introduced their son’s wife to him. The son met his wife his freshman year in college. They were both freshmen. It he had been born 12 years earlier, he would have missed her.
She was the right one.
Pastor Robert pleads with us to please hear him. He says God is smarter than us. He knows.
He is doing it for our good!
So, Abraham has Isaac at the exact right time, so Isaac can meet Rebecca. Isaac and Rebecca had Jacob at the exact right time, so Jacob can meet Rachel. God does not open Rachel’s womb, until it is exactly the right time for her to have Joseph. And this continues all the way to a virgin named Mary.
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Here’s the good news...
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God had Mary born at a certain time. So the angel could come to her at a certain time. Scholars believe between the ages of 13 and 16. She was very young.
So that Jesus could be born on a certain day. So He could begin His ministry at 30. So at 33, He could die on Passover. So that 50 days later the Holy Spirit could come on Pentecost on the exact day. It started with Abraham and Sarah having to wait 25 years for the promise.
IN REVIEW:
WHERE?
Pastor Robert says he knows that we are waiting for a promise, but where we need to wait is in relationship with God and relationship with His people.
HOW?
How we need to wait is in prayer.
WHY?
Why we need to wait is because God is doing it for our good.
Pastor ends this message with one more story.
It’s about a young lady, that we know, whose 2nd grade teacher thought it would best for her to repeat that grade in order to strengthen her reading skills to be ready for third grade. There was also a boy and because his birthday was a few days before the cut off to attend school, he turned school age and could start school that year. As a result, the two ended up in the same sixth grade. Forty-one years ago, they got married. Twenty-one years ago, they started a church in their living room called Gateway Church.
God was working it all out!
Everyone here is waiting for a promise from God, waiting for the Holy Spirit to move in some area of our life. Pastor Robert states that he promises God loves us, that He is working it out for our good, and that He has a good plan for us. Pastor Robert wants us to stay in relationship with God. He wants us to keep our personal relationship with God strong. He wants us to keep our relationship with God’s people strong in the temple and from house to house. He wants us to stay in prayer. He wants us to believe God and intensely and fervently pray for the promise. He wants to have a confidence that God loves us and is having us wait for our good. Pastor Robert wants us to wait for the promise. Because the Holy Spirit will come into our situation on the appointed day.
PASTOR ROBERT’S PRAYER:
Lord, I pray that you would take this word and that you will encourage us. Lord, there are some people here who have been waiting, not just 10 days, but 10 years or longer. I pray that you will encourage their hearts. I pray Holy Spirit that you will put something within us that we will stay in relationship with you and with your people, that we will fervently pray, and that we will know that we know that we know that you love us and you’re working it out for our good. Lord, please apply this message to each of us.
In Jesus Name, Amen.
SESSION 4: “BELIEVE”
At this point in our study, Pastor Robert says we are focusing on the 40 days Jesus was on the earth after the resurrection and before His ascension.
What was Jesus trying to do during these 40 days?
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Pastor Robert reminds us that last week that we discussed how Jesus wanted to explain the scriptures to the disciples. He wanted to open their minds to understand scripture and to bless them.
The week before that we talked about how Jesus did not want them or us to judge according to the flesh (according to appearance, or age, or ethnicity, etc).
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He tells us that if we want to read about the 40 days, we can read in the last chapter of Matthew, the last chapter of Mark, the last chapter of Luke, the last chapter of John, and the first chapter of Acts. The first chapter of Acts is the 10 days the disciples fasted and prayed and waited.
Mary Magdalene Sees the Risen Lord
9 [a]Now when He rose early on the first day of the week, He appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom He had cast seven demons. 10 She went and told those who had been with Him, as they mourned and wept. 11 And when they heard that He was alive and had been seen by her, they did not believe.
Mark 16:9-11
Pastor Robert says this scripture is talking about the unbelief of the original 11 disciples, who were the 12 before Judas hung himself. They are referred to as the “11” during these 50 days before Pentecost. These are the 11 disciples that have walked with Jesus for the past 3 1/2 years.
Pastor Robert shows us that the Bible says they did not believe. It is not just him telling us that the disciples did not believe.
Pastor Robert remarks about how many times that Jesus had told them that He was going to Jerusalem, that the Son of Man would be scourged, beaten, mocked, and crucified, but would rise again on the 3rd day.
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Jesus Appears to Two Disciples
12 After that, He appeared in another form to two of them as they walked and went into the country. 13 And they went and told it to the rest, but they did not believe them either.
Mark 16:12-13
(That’s the Emmaus Road disciples that we discussed in last week’s message).
the rest- are the 11
Pastor Robert remarks that these are the 11, that Jesus has spent the last 3 1/2 years with!
The 11 did not believe Mary, or the two disciples on the road to Emmaus.
Pastor Robert says that is why Jesus had to stay 40 stinkin’ days to get these guys to believe!
9 Then they returned from the tomb and told all these things to the eleven and to all the rest. 10 It was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the other women with them, who told these things to the apostles. 11 And their words seemed to them like [a]idle tales, and they did not believe them.
Luke 24:9-11
(These are the group of ladies)
Pastor Robert says this is our Bible that tells us that Jesus rose and they didn’t believe.
So here are….
3 APPLICATIONS TO BELIEVE
1. Believe Jesus is God.
We are not to believe that Jesus is just the Son of God because we are told God in three persons.
Pastor Robert shows us this next passage to show us how we can strengthen our belief.
A Boy Is Healed
14 And when He came to the disciples, He saw a great multitude around them, and scribes disputing with them. 15 Immediately, when they saw Him, all the people were greatly amazed, and running to Him, greeted Him. 16 And He asked the scribes, “What are you discussing with them?” 17 Then one of the crowd answered and said, “Teacher, I brought You my son, who has a mute spirit. 18 And wherever it seizes him, it throws him down; he foams at the mouth, gnashes his teeth, and becomes rigid. So I spoke to Your disciples, that they should cast it out, but they could not.” 19 He answered him and said, “O faithless[a] generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I [b]bear with you? Bring him to Me.” 20 Then they brought him to Him. And when he saw Him, immediately the spirit convulsed him, and he fell on the ground and wallowed, foaming at the mouth. 21 So He asked his father, “How long has this been happening to him?” And he said, “From childhood. 22 And often he has thrown him both into the fire and into the water to destroy him. But if You can do anything, have compassion on us and help us.” 23 Jesus said to him, “If[c] you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes.” 24 Immediately the father of the child cried out and said with tears, “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!”
Luke 9:14-24
clarification: If we go up a few verses, Jesus goes up on the Mount of Transfiguration. He took Peter, James, and John with HIm. He is transfigured before them. Now Jesus is coming back down. There are 9 disciples are the bottom of the mountain, because He took 3 with Him.
This scripture above is when Jesus came back to the 9 disciples.
faithless generation - unbelievers
Pastor Robert loves the three words: “Bring him to me”.
He says that this is the Creator and Sustainer of the universe.
Jesus says for them to bring Him the boy and He will take care of this.
The first thing that Pastor Robert wants us to notice is how calm Jesus is.
Jesus tells them to bring the boy to Him. When the boy comes, the spirit throws the boy down. The boy is wallowing on the ground and foaming at the mouth. Pastor Robert doesn’t want this to be in any way inconsiderate of what the boy is going through, but he just wants us to think about this. The boy is going all over the ground. Jesus is not rattled and talks to his father asking how long this been happening to the boy. Pastor Robert says he knows that the scripture doesn’t say this, but he wonders if Jesus just continues a discussion with his father because He is calm. Remember Jesus is in the boat one day when the boat is sinking and He is sleeping.
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What Pastor Robert is trying to tell us is that Jesus is not unconcerned with the boy, but He is totally unimpressed with the demon.
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Something very important is that this father asks Jesus if He can do anything (Mark 9:22). Jesus says to the father that if he can believe (Mark 9:23).
Jesus is saying that the “if “ does not regard Him. The “if” is not about Him.
The question is not if Jesus can do anything.
The question is, if you can believe.
Because Jesus can do it!
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Pastor Robert says the man gives the best answer in the world to this.
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Pastor Robert remarks that probably all of us could say that like the man did.
He says that probably everyone of us could say in our business, our family, our marriage, our health, for our kids, for our grandkids, we believe; help our unbelief.
We could say that we do believe to the Lord, but we’d like more belief.
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28 And when He had come into the house, His disciples asked Him privately, “Why could we not cast it out?” 29 So He said to them, “This kind can come out by nothing but prayer [a]and fasting.”
Mark 9:28-29
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We get more faith by pressing into God.
You needed more faith and you didn’t have enough faith, because you haven’t spent enough time in prayer, or enough time fasting.
Pastor Robert reads the famous passage in James about faith and works
(“Faith without works is dead) in the Message Bible.
Pastor Robert encourages everyone to get the Message Bible and read it as our daily Bible, because it puts the scripture in a new light.
21-24 Wasn’t our ancestor Abraham “made right with God by works” when he placed his son Isaac on the sacrificial altar? Isn’t it obvious that faith and works are yoked partners, that faith expresses itself in works? That the works are “works of faith”? The full meaning of “believe” in the Scripture sentence, “Abraham believed God and was set right with God,” includes his action. It’s that weave of believing and acting that got Abraham named “God’s friend.” Is it not evident that a person is made right with God not by a barren faith but by faith fruitful in works?
James 2:21-24
works of faith - Notice that it is not works of the law because its not talking about salvation.
Pastor Robert points out that in Romans, Paul says that Abraham believed God and it was counted to him for righteousness. James comes along and says, Abraham put his faith to work and it was counted to righteousness. Pastor Robert ask if these two scriptures are contradictory? He says that scripture is never contradictory.
It’s complimentary.
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Pastor Robert states that if we want to build our faith,
if we say we believe, but help our unbelief,
do something.
Pastor Robert reminds us that we don’t get saved because we do something.
But we do something because we got saved.
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Pastor Jonathan Evans was at Gateway Church’s Men’s Summit.
Tony Evans is his dad. Jonathan played in the NFL for five years and now is the chaplain of the Dallas Cowboys. Pastor Robert said Jonathan made a great point at the Summit about action to your faith.
Jonathan talked about that at their church, they’ve installed motion lighting, so that when you leave a room, the light goes off.
He said that the reason that they installed it was because people who don’t pay the light bill, don’t turn off lights.
The point that he made was that there is nothing wrong with the power.
Even though the room is dark, there is nothing wrong with the lights.
It is just that the light doesn’t come on until there is activity in the room.
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2. Believe Jesus loves you.
Pastor Robert says that a lot of people have a problem believing that Jesus loves them.
He said that he did for years.
Pastor Robert said that he didn’t understand why God would ever love him.
He finally had a counselor, coach type guy say to him that
God could love him because God is loving.
He told Robert that the reason God loved him was definitely not because Robert was lovable. He said that’s why Robert didn’t understand it, because he thought that he was not lovable. But God loving Robert had nothing to do with whether Robert was lovable one week and not lovable the next.
It’s because God is loving all the time.
Pastor Robert shows us, after the resurrection, a disciple who understood this.
The Empty Tomb
20 Now the first day of the week Mary Magdalene went to the tomb early, while it was still dark, and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb. 2 Then she ran and came to Simon Peter, and to the other disciple, whom Jesus loved, and said to them, “They have taken away the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid Him.” 3 Peter therefore went out, and the other disciple, and were going to the tomb. 4 So they both ran together, and the other disciple outran Peter and came to the tomb first. 5 And he, stooping down and looking in, saw the linen cloths lying there; yet he did not go in. 6 Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb; and he saw the linen cloths lying there, 7 and the [a]handkerchief that had been around His head, not lying with the linen cloths, but folded together in a place by itself. 8 Then the other disciple, who came to the tomb first, went in also; and he saw and believed.
John 20:1-8
The disciple that Jesus loved is John. John refers to himself throughout his gospel as the "other disciple". So, when we are reading and we see the words “the other disciple, ” John is writing about himself. But notice, he says, “whom Jesus loved.”
Pastor Robert finds humor in writing that “the other disciple” outran Peter.
There was one of the 11 who believed!
That is what the Bible says.
Pastor Robert says that we have to remember that the Holy Spirit is inspiring writers of the Bible.
John couldn’t say that he believed if he didn’t believe.
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Pastor Robert says the punchline is that the reason John believed is because
he knew that Jesus loved him.
That is what caused John to have a breakthrough!
Pastor Robert is talking about how to have a breakthrough.
One is to put action to your faith.
The other is to believe that Jesus loves you.
Pastor Robert shows us scriptures in the book of John just so we know that John believes that Jesus loved him.
23 Now there was [a]leaning on Jesus’ bosom one of His disciples, whom Jesus loved.
John 13:23
26 When Jesus therefore saw His mother, and the disciple whom He loved standing by, He said to His mother, “Woman, behold your son!”
John 19:26
7 Therefore that disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, “It is the Lord!” Now when Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put on his outer garment (for he had removed it), and plunged into the sea.
John 21:7
The Beloved Disciple and His Book
20 Then Peter, turning around, saw the disciple whom Jesus loved following, who also had leaned on His breast at the supper, and said, “Lord, who is the one who betrays You?”
John 21:20
John knew that Jesus loved him.
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Pastor Robert says that he still gets a little tickled about John writing this about himself. He says that it is kind of like Numbers 12:3 when Moses writes about himself.
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So, Pastor Robert says that he can either conclude that Moses and John were egotistical, or again, they were led by the Holy Spirit, so they weren’t saying something prideful. They were just saying something factual.
It doesn’t mean that Jesus didn’t love the other disciples.
It just means that John knew that Jesus loved him.
John had that revelation.
By the way, Pastor Robert shares that John is the only gospel writer who recorded the 11th commandment.
Pastor Robert asks if we know there are 11?
He says that Jesus gave us another one.
34 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another.
John 13:34
12 This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.
John 15:12
17 These things I command you, that you love one another.
John 15:17
21 And this commandment we have from Him: that he who loves God must love his brother also.
1 John 4:21
John was the only disciple of the 11, after Judas, that was not martyred.
John lived to be over 100 years old.
Of the other 10,
Matthew was killed with a sword.
Phillip was hung.
Peter was crucified upside down.
James, the Lesser,
was thrown from the temple and beaten to death.
James, the Great was beheaded.
Simon, the Zealot was crucified.
Bartholomew was flayed to death with a whip.
Thomas was stabbed with a spear.
Thaddeus was killed with arrows.
Andrew was whipped by seven soldiers and then crucified.
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The reason John wasn’t martyred was that they tried to, and he didn’t die. They had the whole Roman Colosseum filled. The big event of the night that they had advertised, after they had done all sorts of killing Christians, was that they were going to burn John in burning oil. They had a cauldron of burning oil. They put John in it and he preached the Gospel to them. They pulled him out and he suffered no harm. That’s when they exiled him to the Island of Patmos, and he wrote the book of Revelation.
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John knew Jesus was God!
He knew Jesus loved him!
Pastor Robert explains one verse to us from John.
He says it's one of the greatest scriptures that you have may never thought of.
The last verse in the book of John says,
“And many more things Jesus did, that if they were written in books, I suppose the world itself could not contain the books.”
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But the first verse in John says, “In the beginning,” the exact same way that Genesis began.
”In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”
What John was saying was that if you write everything Jesus has done since the beginning of time for every human being, the world could not contain those books.
See John knew Jesus was God.
That’s the revelation that he had.
3. Believe that you love Jesus.
Jesus Restores Peter
15 So when they had eaten breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of [a]Jonah, do you love Me more than these?”
He said to Him, “Yes, Lord; You know that I [b]love You.”
He said to him, “Feed My lambs.”
16 He said to him again a second time, “Simon, son of [c]Jonah, do you love Me?” He said to Him, “Yes, Lord; You know that I [d]love You.”
He said to him, “Tend My sheep.”
17 He said to him the third time, “Simon, son of [e]Jonah, do you [f]love Me?” Peter was grieved because He said to him the third time, “Do you love Me?” And he said to Him, “Lord, You know all things; You know that I love You.”
Jesus said to him, “Feed My sheep.
John 21:15-17
This scripture occurred during the 40 days.
Three times Jesus asked Peter, “Do you love me?”
Pastor Robert reminds us that Peter was the most human of all the disciples.
When Jesus was walking on the water and identified Himself.
Peter replied by saying “if it is you…”
On the Mount of Transfiguration, Jesus took Peter, James, and John with Him so someone could witness it and write it.
Jesus was transfigured.
His face was as bright as the sun.
Moses and Elijah showed up and talked with Jesus.
And Peter remarked that it is a good thing that he was there.
The Lord had to speak from heaven and say that Jesus is His beloved Son and to hear Him.
In other words, “Shut up Peter!”
Then Jesus asked the disciples one day who everyone was saying that He is?
The disciples respond by saying He was Jeremiah, Elijah, John The Baptist?
(Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist! Jesus was probably thinking that He did not baptize Himself!)
Peter said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.”
Jesus told him that flesh and blood did not reveal that to him. He said His father in heaven did.
What Jesus was saying was that it was a miracle that Peter got the right answer!
And then at the Last Supper, He told the disciples that all of them would deny Him and the reason why is because the scripture said they would. Jesus quoted the verse from the Old Testament. “The Shepherd’s going to be slaughtered and the sheep are going to be scattered.”
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He said that they would all deny Him that night. Peter said he wouldn’t deny Him. Jesus told him that he would deny Him 3 times before the rooster crows.
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Pastor Robert wants us to know that because of the resurrection,
we do love Jesus,
even though in word and in deed we have all denied Him at some point in our lives.
Some of us have denied Jesus at school.
Some of us have denied Him at work.
Pastor Robert is very transparent with us and says some of us have denied Him in a bar.
Some of us have denied Him in a hotel room.
But that doesn’t mean that we don’t love Jesus.
That just means that we blew it just like Peter did.
Pastor Robert wants us to believe that
Jesus is God,
that He loves us,
and
that we love Him.
Pastor Robert asks us to bow our heads and close our eyes.
He wants us to take a moment and ask the Lord what He is saying to us personally.
Pastor Robert says that some of us have had a difficult time believing that God loves us, because we are not lovable in our mind, and in our eyes.
God loves us not because we are lovable, but because He is loving.
Some of us have had a difficult time believing that we love Jesus because of our actions. Because we have blown it just like Peter did.
Pastor Robert wants us to know that our love is not based on our actions and if we do everything right.
It’s based on if we believe Jesus is the Son of God.
Do we believe that Jesus died on the cross for our sins and rose again on the 3rd day?
If we do, then we do love Jesus.
Pastor Robert tells us not to let Satan tell us that we don’t love Jesus because of how we live. Don’t let him tell us that because if we do, then he just keeps us in bondage, fear and shame just like he did with Adam. He had Adam hiding from God.
Jesus died on the cross so we don’t have to hide from God anymore.
We can come to Jesus even after we have blown it three times.
Pastor Robert’s Prayer:
Lord, I want to say thank you, thank you, thank you that you rose and that you spent 40 days teaching the disciples lessons that we still need to learn today.
And Lord, we commit in our hearts that we are going to believe.
We are going to believe you’re God.
We are going to believe that you love us.
We are going to believe by faith that we love you.
In Jesus Name. Amen.
SESSION 3: “BENEFITS OF THE RESURRECTION”
Luke 24 and Acts 1 both record the ascension of Christ.
Jesus was on the earth 40 days after He rose from the dead.
The disciples prayed in the Upper Room for 10 days after that.
Then the Day of Pentecost occurred. It is recorded in Acts 2. Pastor Robert states that we will discuss that later in this series.
In this message, Pastor Robert will point out 3 benefits of the Resurrection.
Luke 24:13-35 tells the story of the two disciples on the road to Emmaus.
Pastor Robert explains that these two disciples are not any of the original 12 because one of them is named Cleopas. None of the original 12 were named Cleopas.
Some people say that the other disciple in the story was Peter or John. Pastor Robert points out that the only problem with that is that those 2 disciples went back and reported to the 11. (The 11, being the 11 disciples after Judas hung himself, leaving 11 left).
These 2 disciples were probably part of the 70 disciples in Luke 10.
Luke talks about Cleopas like everyone knew him.
The 2 disciples were walking down the road. Jesus appeared to them while they were walking on the road and they did not recognize him. They did not recognize Him after the resurrection.
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While they were walking, Jesus asked them what they were talking about. They were surprised He asked that. They asked Him if knew about the things that had just happened in the last few days concerning Jesus. Jesus answers, “What things?”
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Pastor Robert says that Jesus then does something that we need to know if we are one of HIs disciples.
25 Then He said to them, “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken! 26 Ought not the Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into His glory?” 27 And beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, He [a]expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself.
Luke 24:25-27
1. He explains.
The first benefit of the resurrection is that Jesus explains (expounds) the Bible to us.
Expound means explains.
NIV translation:
25 He said to them, “How foolish you are, and how slow to believe all that the prophets have spoken! 26 Did not the Messiah have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?” 27 And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.
Luke 24:27
If you are a disciple, if you believe in Jesus,
Jesus will explain the Bible to you!
You don’t have to Hebrew and Greek, or know the difference between Exegesis and Eisegesis.
Pastor Robert has to know these things because he is called to be a teacher in the body of Christ.
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Whatever teacher we are sitting under, will affect the way we read the Bible.
If we are sitting under someone who is prideful and arrogant, the church will become prideful and arrogant.
So it’s very important that Pastor Robert as a pastor, understands these things and can tie scripture together.
Pastor Tommy Briggs is a good friend of Pastor Robert. Pastor Tommy did a lot of counseling. The Lord gave him a gift in this area. He told Pastor Robert one time that his job was to identify obstacles in peoples’ lives in their relationships with Jesus and help them remove those obstacles so Jesus could speak to them.
For example, we may have an obstacle of legalism that is trying to influence the church today. Pastor Robert would remove that obstacle by teaching us about grace. So that when we read the Bible, we can read through the lens of grace.
In the Message translation:
25-27 Then he said to them, “So thick-headed! So slow-hearted! Why can’t you simply believe all that the prophets said? Don’t you see that these things had to happen, that the Messiah had to suffer and only then enter into his glory?” Then he started at the beginning, with the Books of Moses, and went on through all the Prophets, pointing out everything in the Scriptures that referred to him.
Luke 24:27
When Jesus says Moses and all the prophets, He is referring to the Old Testament.
Moses wrote the first 5 books.
All the prophets are the major and minor prophets. That’s the way they were referred to at the at time.
We must also understand that when the New Testament talks about the scriptures (other than a couple times when it is talking about the entirety of scripture which would later become the New Testament), they are talking about the Old Testament.
Pastor Robert makes this point because so many times we write that off, because we read the Old Testament through the lens of law.
Here’s what Jesus does for His disciples after the resurrection. He shows up and starts with Moses and goes through the entire Old Testament and shows them grace, and how everything was pointing to the Messiah and grace.
He shows them Himself in the Bible.
He might have even showed them a scripture like Psalm 22:16-18
16 For dogs have surrounded Me;
The congregation of the wicked has enclosed Me.
They[a] pierced My hands and My feet;
17 I can count all My bones.
They look and stare at Me.
18 They divide My garments among them,
And for My clothing they cast lots.
Psalms 22:16-18
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Pastor Robert challenges to think about all the things the disciples realized as Jesus pointed out the scriptures about Himself.
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Jesus wants to go through and expound, or explain the Bible to us.
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Pastor Robert points out that when we are reading the Bible, Jesus wants to ask us if a certain verse reminds us of another verse we have read maybe last week?Jesus wants us to see the completion of the Bible - the beginning of it and the fulfillment of it.
Jesus expounds.
Pastor Robert continues by saying that we don’t have to go to seminary to understand the Bible! We just have to meet Jesus, the resurrected Christ!
Jesus explain the scriptures to us!
2. He opens.
The two Emmaus disciples go back to the 11 and tell them that they saw Jesus.
Then Jesus shows up and this is what He does for all the disciples in Luke 24:44-45:
The Scriptures Opened
44 Then He said to them, “These are the words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms concerning Me.” 45 And He opened their understanding, that they might comprehend the Scriptures. 46 Then He said to them, “Thus it is written, [a]and thus it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day, 47 and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.
Luke 24:44-45
The word understand is most times translated as mind.
The word comprehend is most times translated as understand.
Here are the same verses in the NIV translation:
44 He said to them, “This is what I told you while I was still with you: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms.” 45 Then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures. 46 He told them, “This is what is written: The Messiah will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, 47 and repentance for the forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.
Luke 24:45
Pastor Robert’s question to us is if that would be okay to us, if Jesus opened our minds (the way we think) so that we could understand the Bible instead of reading a chapter before we go to bed and not understand the meaning of it?
Below is the Message version of Luke 24:45-47:
45-47 He went on to open their understanding of the Word of God, showing them how to read their Bibles this way. He said, “You can see now how it is written that the Messiah suffers, rises from the dead on the third day, and then a total life-change through the forgiveness of sins is proclaimed in his name to all nations—starting from here, from Jerusalem! You’re the first to hear and see it. You’re the witnesses.
Luke 24:45-47
What way?
The way that you see Jesus on every page because Jesus started with the law and the prophets and He showed them every scripture that referred to Him.
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You must read the Bible as a love story about God redeeming a fallen, sinful people.
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Pastor Robert wants us to fall in love with the whole Bible, not just the New Testament.
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3 But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, 4 whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them.
2 Corinthians 4:3-4
So, if you believe, your mind is opened and you can understand the Bible.
But, if you don’t believe in Jesus, your mind is blinded and you can’t understand.
Pastor Robert believes that God takes a truth and then He wants to apply it a certain way for us.
So, how should we relate to people who don’t believe in Jesus?
How should we relate to people who vote differently that we vote?
How should we relate to people who don’t understand the benefits of a free market system and yet they actually believe and are convinced that Socialism is the best way to help the poor?
How do we treat people who have differences in their view points?
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Pastor Robert gives us a really good illustration because the Bible says that they have been spiritually blinded.
Pastor Robert challenges us to think about a person who is visually impaired.
How do we treat that person?
Do you criticize them or mock them or do you have empathy?
If a blind person bumps into you, do you get angry at him?
No, you treat that person with kindness, because he can’t see.
How should we treat people who are so strong in their anti-Christ, anti-biblical opinions?
We treat them with love, and compassion because they are blind.
The only reason we that we can see is that we believed and Jesus opened our understanding.
Their understanding has been opened yet.
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Pastor Robert tells of a time when he was greeting people in the lobby of the church. A lady came up to Pastor Robert and Debbie. She was new to the church. She had just started coming and she told them that she liked the music and Pastor Robert’s peaching. Then she leaned up to Pastor Robert to tell him something in confidence. She was worried that she had a different view on something than she thought Pastor Robert did. She told him what it was and almost with tears in her eyes, she asked if she was welcome there. Immediately, Pastor Robert felt like he wanted to give her a big hug. So, he did. It was like a healing hug. She melted into his arms and started sobbing.
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Three or four months later Pastor was greeting people in the lobby again and she came up to him with a big smile. She wanted to tell him that she had accepted Christ and gotten baptized. Then she leaned up and told him that she changed her view on the subject that they had talked about.
Pastor Robert said why are argue with her about it, before her mind is opened about it?
Why not just show her the love of Jesus?
and
let Jesus
talk to her about her views?
Jesus is better at it than us!!
3. He blesses.
The Ascension
50 And He led them out as far as Bethany, and He lifted up His hands and blessed them.
Luke 24:50
So what does it mean to be blessed?
Pastor Robert states that so many people relate this to finances. He does believe that God blesses us financially and provides for us, but he wants to give us a little different definition of being blessed.
He thinks it means that things just work out.
All of us can give testimony of how we were just in the right place at the right time, or we thought we wanted something and didn’t work out and now we look back and are thankful to God that it didn’t work out.
It seems like things just work out miraculously, like someone has planned it!
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Pastor Robert tells of a time that he and Debbie and James and Bridget were looking for a house in a certain area. They couldn’t find anything. James said that they should give it one more try. Sure enough the realtor said that while they were walking through a current house, that he had gotten an email about an older house that had gone back on the market. It had been on the market one day and was purchased. |
The buyer who put the contract on it, did not exercise his option by the 10th day and now on the 11th day, it was back on the market. Pastor Robert and his family went to look at it and it was just the style they wanted.
Pastor Robert gave us these three points to show benefits of the resurrections. He says he has a clincher for us. He says as a believer, as a disciple of the resurrected Christ, Jesus explains the scriptures to us, He opens our minds so that we can understand, and He blesses us.
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Pastor Robert asks is there anything though,
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In Luke 24 and Acts 1, record the ascension of Christ. Right before Jesus ascends, He has to again adjust the disciple thinking.
6 Therefore, when they had come together, they asked Him, saying, “Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” 7 And He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority. 8 But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be [a]witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”
Acts 1:6-8
Pastor Robert says that they are the disciples, that have spent 40 days with Jesus. He has opened their understanding, explained the scriptures to them, and blessed them. Then they asked Him if He was now going to let them rule and reign again, let them be in charge, and was He going to build their kingdom now?
Jesus told them no, that it was not about building their kingdom. It’s about building His kingdom.
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What Jesus is saying to them is, why do they think He is leaving them here on earth? He was about to ascend to heaven and He was not taking any of them with Him. Why? Because there are a whole lot of people out there that don’t know about the resurrected Christ. Jesus told them that they needed to go tell those people about Him. They needed to go tell them that He died for their sins and rose again. They needed to go be His witnesses. They needed to go build Jesus’ kingdom! |
Pastor Robert tells us what will stop the flow of these benefits our lives as believers.
He says God will stop the daily mana, cause the water from the rock to stop, and cause the rain from heaven to stop when we start trying to build our own kingdoms instead of His kingdom! It all stops!
Pastor Robert continues by saying that there is something neat that happens during these 50 days that changed the world. It’s something maybe that we have never noticed about the 50 days.
In Luke 24 it says that the two disciples returned to the eleven. In Acts 1, it says then the eleven got together and then chose another disciple to take Judas’ place.
Before the resurrection, the disciples were always referred to as the twelve. After the Holy Spirit came in Acts 2, the disciples are always referred to as the 12, but for these 50 days, they were always referred to as the 11. Why? Because one guy got concerned about building his own kingdom and it was downhill from there.
Pastor Robert says that he has seen people that are wanting to build the Lord’s kingdom. Then the Lord blesses them and then it becomes about the blessing instead of about being a blessing. When that happens, Pastor Robert has watched the heavens shut.
Because the reason that Jesus wants to point out scripture to us, open our understanding of scripture to us, and bless us is because He wants His kingdom built on the earth.
Pastor Robert says if the Bible is not jumping off the page to us when we read it anymore, or if we don’t understand what is going on in our life right now, and if we don’t feel like everything is working out, we might need to see if we are building our own kingdom, and not His kingdom.
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Pastor Robert said that when he first got saved, all that he cared about was wining people to Jesus, and that is what is wants to do is to be the Lord’s witness on this earth.
If we repent, the Bible will start jumping off the page to us again, we will start understanding what we are reading and the heavens will open.
Pastor Robert asks us to take a moment, bow our heads, and ask the Holy Spirit what He is saying to us through this message.
Pastor Robert feels like many of us maybe going through a dry season. He says he has gone through a dry season, where he got his focus off. He says we are not bad people if this is happening to us right now. He says that he feels like many of us need to say we are sorry to the Lord for getting our focus off Him. We need to ask the Lord to help our focus to be about the Lord and His kingdom again. We need to tell the Lord that we want the Bible to jump off the page again when we are reading it, and we want to understand the scriptures when we read it. We want to understand what you, Lord, are doing in our lives right now and we want to you Lord to bless us, so we can be a blessing to others.
Pastor Robert’s Prayer:
Thank you Jesus that you rose from the dead, that you explain the scriptures to us, that you open our understanding, and that you bless us so that we can be a blessing.
In Jesus Name, Amen.
SESSION 2: "ACCORDING TO THE FLESH"
In this study, we are talking about the 50 days between Passover and Pentecost.
Jesus was on the earth 40 days after His resurrection.
In this message, Pastor Robert wants us to understand that the disciples did not recognize Jesus after the resurrection and that we will tie that into a truth that we can apply to our lives.
Mary Magdalene Sees the Risen Lord
11 But Mary stood outside by the tomb weeping, and as she wept she stooped down and looked into the tomb. 12 And she saw two angels in white sitting, one at the head and the other at the feet, where the body of Jesus had lain. 13 Then they said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” She said to them, “Because they have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid Him.” 14 Now when she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, and did not know that it was Jesus.
John 20:11-14
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The Apostles Commissioned
19 Then, the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were [a]assembled, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in the midst, and said to them, “Peace be with you.” 20 When He had said this, He showed them His hands and His side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord.
John 20:19-20
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Pastor Robert is trying to tell us that there is something different about Jesus’ appearance.
30 Now it came to pass, as He sat at the table with them, that He took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them. 31 Then their eyes were opened and they knew Him; and He vanished from their sight. 32 And they said to one another, “Did not our heart burn within us while He talked with us on the road, and while He opened the Scriptures to us?”
Luke 24:30-32
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17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.
2 Corinthians 5:17
But look at verse 16...
16 Therefore, from now on, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him thus no longer.
2 Corinthians 5:16
We knew Christ according to the flesh because He became human and walked on the earth 33 years, but we don’t know Christ according to the flesh anymore. We are also making a decision as believers to regard no one according to the flesh.
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Pastor Robert asks us when we imagine Jesus, do we imagine a human form?
He says sure we do and we are not wrong for doing that.
Remember though, Jesus was only human 33 years.
If we are imagining a human form of Jesus, then aren’t we knowing Him after the flesh?
Pastor Robert gives us an example:
He said that Gateway Church started television in 2007, so now people recognize him from that. Prior to that in 2001, his first book The Blessed Life came out and then he released From Dream to Destiny and The Power of Your Words after that. They all three were best sellers. People read his books and listened to his cds, but no one knew what Pastor Robert looked like. The internet wasn’t that big back then. When Pastor Robert got up to preach or talk, he finally started telling the audience that they didn’t look like he thought they would either! They had read his books and imagined what he looked like. Back then he didn’t have white hair. Many people, after reading his books, imagined him as an older man, but he wasn’t back then.
The point is, they knew Pastor Robert in human form.
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Pastor Robert says we don’t know what Jesus looked like, but when we imagine Him, do we still imagine Him according to the flesh?
Pastor Robert asks what if we did what Paul said and we don’t regard Jesus according to the flesh anymore? Remember when Jesus showed up to the disciples and no one recognized Him.
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4 APPLICATIONS OF THIS OF THIS TRUTH:
1. Ethnicity
Ethnicity comes from the Greek word ethnos,
which means nations, languages, regions of the world.
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9 Then the woman of Samaria said to Him, “How is it that You, being a Jew, ask a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?” For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans. 10 Jesus answered and said to her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.”
John 4:9-10
Do you know what Jesus was saying to the woman? He said that she was judging Him after the flesh. She was pre-judging Him. (Pre-judging - pre-judice)
Prejudice is a judgement without the facts.
Jesus said if she judged Him after the spirit instead, she would realize that He could give her living water and that all these ethnicities don’t matter.
Jesus was telling her that she was a person and she needed a savior.
He told her that He was the Savior.
She had to get past the racial thing.
Pastor Robert challenges us to just think what would happen if we made that decision.
It would completely solve the problem.
Pastor Robert says that he is not talking about that we don’t see, or notice a different ethnicity than us. What he is saying is that we don’t regard someone.
Regard means to judge,
To get to know means to interview, to discern.
In other words, we must get to know others not after the flesh.
Pastor Robert will interview us not according to the flesh. He will get to know us as a person. He challenges us to do the same with others.
2. Gender
Pastor Robert says there is a huge prejudice in our world with gender.
28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
Galatians 3:28
Neither Jew or Greek - (that’s race again)
Neither slave or free (that’s status)
Neither male nor female ( Pastor Robert says some of us are going to have to deal with this because some men are prejudice. (Gender-biased).
There’s no difference in Christ.
Pastor Robert asks how a woman is less capable than a man?
Pastor Robert says that if a woman walks into a business meeting and you have any type of a negative thought, you are biased.
Pastor Robert continues that if you have decided from now on (which he read in the Bible) to regard no one according to the flesh, then you are not talking to a female, you are talking to a person.
Pastor Robert realizes there are differences. He is again saying that we choose not to judge that person according to ethnicity or gender. We will get to know others not according to the flesh. We will try to know people after the spirit.
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But he says, we should not regard anyone in a demeaning manner when they are different than we are.
3. Age
Take Heed to Your Ministry
12 Let no one [a]despise your youth, but be an example to the believers in word, in conduct, in love, [b]in spirit, in faith, in purity.
1 Timothy 4:12
The word despise in the Greek means contemn. It’s where we get the word contempt.
It means to regard as unworthy of one’s notice or consideration.
Pastor Robert states that this is a prejudice to judge someone younger than you as unworthy of your consideration. It’s an age discrimination.
1 Timothy 5 has a phenomenal truth that most people read over and never even see.
Treatment of Church Members
5 Do not rebuke an older man, but exhort him as a father, younger men as brothers, 2 older women as mothers, younger women as sisters, with all purity.
1 Timothy 5:1-2
Paul says first that he doesn’t even want us to rebuke an older man. We must exhort him, even if we have to speak correction. We must speak to him in an honoring way as a father.
Pastor Robert points out that Paul then says an unbelievable phrase.
He tells the older men to speak to the younger men as brothers, not as sons.
He told the younger women to speak to the older women as mothers.
He told the older women to speak to the younger women as sisters, not as daughters.
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Pastor Robert says this is huge!
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It’s okay to respect our elders, but it is not okay to disrespect our youth.
They are our brothers in Christ.
They are our sisters in Christ.
Pastor Robert reminds us that many times he meets with a coach. One time, he and his son Josh both met with the coach. He said the coach asked who Josh was sitting next to on the couch. He replied that he was sitting next to his dad. He asked Robert who he was sitting next to. Robert replied that it was his son. The coach told them no, that according to the Bible, they were both sitting next to their brother. He continued by telling Josh that if continued to see his father as higher than himself for the rest of his life, and if Robert continued to view Josh as lower that himself for the rest of his life, then the two of them would have problems for the rest of their lives. He said that they had to begin to see each other as a brother.
4. Appearance
Pastor Robert reminds us that we don’t judge people according to ethnicity, gender, age, or appearance. He said there could be many more. He said he just chose four.
God told Samuel to go and anoint the next king of Israel.
Samuel didn't know who it would be. He just knew that it would be one of the sons of Jesse.
This is when Samuel saw the oldest son of Jesse….
6 So it was, when they came, that he looked at Eliab and said, “Surely the Lord’s anointed is before Him!” 7 But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look at his appearance or at his physical stature, because I have [a]refused him. For[b] the Lord does not see as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”
1 Samuel 16:6-7
Do not regard according to his appearance.
The Lord does not see according to the flesh.
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Pastor Robert is not saying that is not wrong to notice appearances.
We cannot help but notice, but to judge according to appearance is wrong.
Our society is taken by appearance, but we are not to judge according to appearance.
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Here are the verses in the Message Bible:
16-17 Because of this decision we don’t evaluate people by what they have or how they look. We looked at the Messiah that way once and got it all wrong, as you know. We certainly don’t look at him that way anymore. Now we look inside, and what we see is that anyone united with the Messiah gets a fresh start, is created new. The old life is gone; a new life emerges! Look at it! All this comes from the God who settled the relationship between us and him, and then called us to settle our relationships with each other.
2 Corinthians 5:16-17
Pastor Robert says that they have a really good friend at Gateway Church.
His name is Nick Vujicic.
He was born with no arms and no legs.
When Pastor Robert met him for the first time many years ago,
Nick said four words to him.
He said, “Give me a hug.”
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Pastor Robert remarks what if from now on Gateway Church and Christians around the world would say, from now on we will regard no one according to the flesh?
Instead, we are going to get to know everyone according to the spirit.
Pastor Robert asks everyone to bow their heads and ask the Holy Spirit what He is saying to us personally through this message.
Pastor Robert states that he believes that this is a truth from the Bible.
The disciples didn’t recognize Jesus.
Mary and Thomas didn’t recognize Him.
Even when Jesus asked the disciples, while they were fishing if they had caught anything, they didn’t recognize him until He said cast your nets to the other side of the boat. As a result, they caught 153 fish. Then John said to Peter that it was the Lord. They did not recognize His appearance.
In other words, something happened through the resurrection, that we are not supposed to judge anyone according to the flesh anymore.
Pastor Robert’s Prayer:
”Lord, I pray for all of us.
This is such a problem in our world; the prejudice, the bias, the judging, the criticism, the racism.
God, I pray that not just Gateway Church but that the body of Christ would stop regarding people after the flesh. I pray that we would take the time to get to know people and love them as God’s wonderful creation.
Lord, we ask you to do a work in our hearts in Jesus’ name.
Amen.
SESSION 1: “PASSOVER”
50 DAYS THAT CHANGED THE WORLD!
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Passover was more than a specific day on the Jewish calendar.
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50 days later, Pentecost occurred. The Holy Spirit came and fulfilled Pentecost.
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The Day of Atonement - This is the judgement.
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2 things are for sure
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Pastor Robert believes that we should not focus on trying to know the day of Jesus’ return..
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3 Festivals - 7 Feasts
Three times a year Israel was to come together: Planting, First Fruits, Harvest
Passover comes from two words: pass, over
Implementation of Passover:
23 For the Lord will pass through to strike the Egyptians; and when He sees the blood on the [a]lintel and on the two doorposts, the Lord will pass over the door and not allow the destroyer to come into your houses to strike you.
Exodus 12:23
Lintel: upper door post
2 doorpost - 2 sides
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What was the 10th plague?
Every plague was a judgement on the 10 major gods and goddesses of Eygpt.
4 For the Egyptians were burying all their firstborn, whom the Lord had killed among them. Also on their gods the Lord had executed judgments.
Numbers 33:4
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Judgements are plural.
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God brought judgement. The Destroyer came, but passed over God’s people.
13 Now the blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you; and the plague shall not be on you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.
Exodus 12:13
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Pastor Robert states that he would have thought that God would have said, the blood would be a sign to Him to pass over the house. But, God doesn’t need any outward sign because He knows our hearts. It took faith to kill a lamb and put blood on the doorposts. It took faith to do a lot of things that God told Israel to do, such as walk around the city seven times and not talk and then on the seventh day to shout. God was trying to see their faith. He knows what is in our hearts. He said this blood would be a sign to you.
The blood of Jesus is a sign to us that the Destroyer can not come into our houses; that the plague can not come into our houses!
It’s a sign to us!
When the word Passover is used in scripture, it is referring to one of three subjects.
It’s either
the Festival of Passover,
the Meal of Passover,
or
the Lamb of Passover.
1. The Festival
Pastor Robert will show us the scripture in Exodus 12 and then a New Testament scripture referring to the festival.
14 ‘So this day shall be to you a memorial; and you shall keep it as a feast to the Lord throughout your generations. You shall keep it as a feast by an everlasting ordinance.
Exodus 12:14
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2 “You know that after two days is the Passover, and the Son of Man will be delivered up to be crucified.”
Matthew 26:2
Jesus is referring to the Passover Festival.
This is what Pastor Robert states that he got out of this scripture:
He states that God wanted His people to come together and celebrate and feast.
Pastor Robert says there is a lot of preaching on fasting, which is good, but he wonders where is the preaching on feasting! Lol!
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Jesus was resurrected on the day after the Sabbath. He was crucified on Passover, in the tomb of the Sabbath, and rose the day after the Sabbath. (First Fruits)
Pastor Robert shows in the New Testament the fulfillment of the First Fruits, the Unleavened Bread, and Passover.
7 Therefore [a]purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, since you truly are unleavened. For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed [b]for us.
1 Corinthians 5:7
We are unleavened. In other words, God has taken the leaven out which represents sin. (The death that the law brought). God has taken it out of us. We have fulfilled the Feast of the Unleavened because Jesus did it for us. Jesus fulfilled all three, Unleavened, Passover and First Fruits.
The Last Enemy Destroyed
20 But now Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the firstfruits of those who have [a]fallen asleep.
1 Corinthians 15:20
Every week there is a Sabbath meal that Jewish people observe. It points to Christ. On the Passover, they take 3 pieces of unleavened bread (Father, Son, & Holy Spirit). They take the middle piece (the Son) and break it.
(Jesus, at the Passover supper, broke bread and said that it was His body broken for us).
The Jewish people were to break the middle piece of bread and then wrap it in a cloth.
(Remember, when they took Jesus’ body off the cross, they wrapped it in a cloth).
The Jewish father then takes this broken, wrapped bread and hides it somewhere in the house. On the day after the Sabbath, in the early morning as the sun is coming up, the children look for this bread. When they find it, they bring it out, unwrap it, and wave it before the Lord as a First Fruits offering.
(Jesus was sacrificed on Passover, wrapped in a cloth and brought out on the day after the Sabbath at sunrise.
Jesus fulfilled every scripture Himself!
2. The Meal
11 And thus you shall eat it: [a]with a belt on your waist, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand. So you shall eat it in haste. It is the Lord’s Passover.
Exodus 12:11
The Israelites were to eat quick with their belts tied around their waists, and the sandals on because they were leaving in a hurry.
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15 Then He said to them, “With fervent desire I have desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer;
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Jesus Institutes the Lord’s Supper
26 And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, [a]blessed and broke it, and gave it to the disciples and said, “Take, eat; this is My body.” 27 Then He took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you. 28 For this is My blood of the [b]new covenant, which is shed for many for the [c]remission of sins.
Matthew 26:26-28
Jesus gave thanks at this Passover meal before He was crucified.
Eucharist means gave thanks.
Three years before, during the first year of His ministry, crowds were beginning to follow Him. He made a statement that was pretty strong.
Many people still don’t understand this statement.
53 Then Jesus said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you.
John 6:53
Pastor Robert states that if you come from a background where you receive the Eucharist every day or every week, this might upset you a little bit. He asks that you stay with him. This is not referring to the Lord’s Supper because the Lord’s Supper doesn’t save you. In other words, you can’t live a horrible, sinful life and walk in and take a wafer and juice or wine and live however you want.
This scripture is referring to salvation.
This is three years before the Last Supper.
Pastor Robert asks if this is a type of communion.
He says yes, but this scripture is referring to salvation.
How does Pastor Robert know?
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If you search the scriptures, you will see all types of treasure!
The Bible is a hunt.
The first thing to do when trying to figure out the meaning of scripture is to read it in context.
56 He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him.
John 6:56
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This made Pastor Robert immediately think of John 15.
He searched the word abide in the Bible.
15 Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God.
1 John 4:15
“eat His flesh and drink His blood” -
You confess Jesus as the Son of God.
You need to confess Him publicly.
Confess Christ Before Men
32 “Therefore whoever confesses Me before men, him I will also confess before My Father who is in heaven.
Matthew 10:32
Don’t be a secret disciple.
Jesus died for you publicly, so you need to live for Him publicly.
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3. The Lamb
The Lamb of God
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 1:29
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Passover is the 14th day of Nisan. On the 10th day, they were supposed to separate the Passover Lamb from the rest of the lambs.
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Exodus 12:7
lintel - mantel
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free graphic on Pixabay