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1 “Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. 2 In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. 4 And you know the way to where I am going.” 5 Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” 6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7 If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him” (John 14-1.6).[1] Memory Verses: Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. (John 14.6). As we walked through the gospel, we found three parts of the gospel we needed to understand better for us to be effective in sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ. Understanding the spiritually needy, knowing how people listen, and showing them the privileges of believing in Jesus Christ. We have looked at understanding the needy, more specifically the spiritually needy, which at some point we all fall into this category, and yesterday we discussed how people receive the gospel and respond. What kind of privileges are affords believers of the gospel of Jesus Christ? Do they not just have Christ living inside of them, and get to go to heaven when He returns for His church (I Corinthians 15.51-56). Of course, the answer is “No” there is so much more to living in Christ, or as Paul would say, “Christ now lives in me” (Galatians 2.20). We have forgiveness and salvation through the power of Christ’s sacrifice on the cross and His resurrection (John 3.16; Romans 5.8, 6.23, 10.9-10, 13; I John 1.9). If we will confess with our mouth that Jesus Christ is Lord and believe in our Hearts that God has raised Him from the dead then we can be saved. Confession leads us to a place of understanding the mistakes we have made and who we have made them. We must understand all sin is against God, David clearly pointed to this in Psalm 51.4, “I have sinned against You and You alone O Lord.” We must not forget those we have committed the sinful acts against but first we must confess our sins before a holy and righteous God asking for forgiveness, and “He is faithful and just and will forgive us all of our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness (I John 1.19). When we confess our sins, we then are in the right place to allow Christ to come into our life and be our Lord and Savior. Could He come in without asking for forgiveness? Where would a holy God live in a sinful life? We must allow the cleaning power of Christ’s blood to cover our sins, so we will have been “washed clean and made white as snow, though our sins be red like crimson, they shall be as wool (Isaiah 1.18). It is through Christ’s sacrifice that all the rest of the privileges are opened up to us. Yes, it starts with confession and salvation, but without Jesus Christ’s sacrifice on the cross, His shed blood and resurrection we still would not have anything. There are so many things that we as believers benefit from by being a follower of Jesus Christ that we do not have the time to list them all. So, we will just hit the highlights: First, God promises to always provide for us. He never says we will always have the best, or be without anything, but He does say that we do not need to worry about what tomorrow will bring. He also promises to protect us throughout life. We might think this means we will never be hurt or go through any troubles or problems. But that is not what God means, it means He will watch over us, guide us and allow us to suffer for His sake helping us to handle whatever He sends our way, we just need to trust in Him (Matthew 6.25.34, 7.7-14). Second, we do not have to be anxious about anything and we can have peace within our life. Along with this mindset, we can learn to live at peace with others, no matter what they might do to us. Christ said, “Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me (John 14.1),[2] later on He encouraged us by telling us He would send the Holy Spirit to help guide us throughout our life (John 14.26-28). Along with the Holy Spirit to help guide us, Christ promised to us peace, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you (John 14.27).[3] Christ’s peace must flow through us to help us handle all of life’s problems and situations. When we look at the world’s kind of peace, it fails but Christ’s peace will never fail, because He never fails. Therefore, we must rely on His gift and employ it at every turn in our daily lives. There are so many other privileges we could talk about but here is the third and final one, eternal life and the opportunity to reign with Him in glory. Every person who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved (Romans 10.13). However, just calling out Jesus Christ’s name or even believing in Him is not enough, for the demons believe and they tremble (James 2.19). We must take Him into our lives, He must become us, we must allow Him to become Lord over our lives, and shine through all we do (Romans 10.9-10). It is through Christ’s shed blood we are cleansed and made whole again, and given eternal life. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth on Him would have everlasting life (John 3.16). God gave up His only Son, so each one of us could have a chance of salvation and eternal life with our Heavenly Father. However, we have heard this verse many times and sometimes it loses some things; but God showed, proved, demonstrated His amazing, power, wonderful, awesome love for us in that while we were still in our uselessness, sinfulness, worthlessness, hopelessness, God sent His Son, His Only Son to die in our place (Romans 5.8). Why would God do such a thing? Because there was a price to pay for sin, “The wages of sin is death…” (Romans 6.23). We were going to have to die to pay the price, problem is even in our death we could not cover the debt. It required someone holy, pure, without any spots, blemishes or sin and that was not us. So, Christ came, and was the “Lamb who would take away the sins of the World” (John 1.29). Hence, we have a choice to make saying, “Yes” to the free gift of eternal life in Christ (Romans 6.23), or rejecting Christ’s gift and spending eternity in the lake of fire (Revelation 20.11-15). For those who choose to accept Christ as their Lord and Savior they will reign with Him forever and ever in Heaven. He will return and call them home to be with Him one day, but until that time we are to live for Him every day (II Corinthians 15.51-58; Revelation 19.5-10, 20.1-10, 21.1-5, 27, 22.1-5). Application
Prayer Thank You Lord for saving my soul, for Your Son, and His sacrifice on the cross. Thank You for Your power in raising Your Son from the grave so I might have eternal life through Him. Lord continue to give me strength to live each day for Your glory and honor. Help me to be a shining light into the dark places for You. Always ready to tell others about Your amazing love and glory whether in word or action. Lord always make me a bold testimony of what You have done in my life that I might share it with others; with boldness not being ashamed of You or what You are doing in me. All this I pray in Your Son Jesus Christ’s Name, Amen. [1] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (Jn 14:1–7). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles. [2] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (Jn 14:1). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles. [3] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (Jn 14:27). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles. You Can Download This Blog Here – November 19 – John 14.1-6
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