Twelve Things (But Not Everything) You Need to Know

Twelve things you need to know about God 

1.  God is the Creator and Supreme Being of everything that there is.

2.  God is totally righteous beyond anything we can begin to imagine.

3.  God is sovereign, that is, He can act on His own without man’s permission.

4.  God knows everything there is to know…everything…no exceptions.

5.  God is everywhere at once.

6.  God is more powerful than all of the atoms of the universe.

7.  God exists in a triune nature: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

8.  The concept of the trinity cannot be fully understood but is imminently Scriptural.

9.  God is perfectly fair. If He and I disagree about fairness, I am wrong.

10. God totally loves His creation in a way that His creation will never understand fully.

11. God loves individuals (including you) as much as He loves all of creation.

12. God wants a personal relationship with you.

Twelve things you need to know about Jesus Christ 

1.  Jesus is 100% God.

2.  Jesus was 100% man.

3.  You will drive yourself crazy if you try to understand that.

4.  The man who was born in Bethlehem was named Jesus.

5.  Christ is the title given to the one who would bring salvation to the world.

6.  Christ is the Greek translation of the Old Testament Hebrew word for Messiah.

7.  Jesus was God incarnate and came to show us God, to live among us without sin, to be crucified, to die, to be buried and to rise from the grave. By Him sin is atoned for.

8.  Jesus is God; the Second Person of the trinity.

9.  Jesus is the Living Word through whom God created all that exists. (John 1:1-ff)

10. If you know Christ, you know God.

11. To know Christ, you must repent of sin, place your trust in, and only in, His finished work at the cross of Calvary.

12. By God’s grace you are saved when you place your trust in His Son, Jesus, Christ.

Twelve things you need to know about the Bible

1.  The Bible is God’s written Word and was inspired by Him.

2.  There are 66 books in God’s Word, written by 40 different men of different ages and at different times.

3.  The Bible contains things about you, but it is not about you…it is about God.

4.  Everything you need to know about God is in the Word of God. Nothing you need to know about God is not in the Word of God. Anything you think you know about God that is not in the Word of God, you just made up.

5.  The books of the Bible are in the Bible because each of them totally conforms to all of the others. (Many other books, such as the “Apocalypse of Peter,” the “Gospel of Thomas” and other writings are not included because they do not conform to the others.

6. The Bible is God’s revelation of His character, His love for His creation and His plan for its redemption.

7.  The Bible is divided into two parts: the Old Testament and the New Testament.

8.  The Old Testament’s purpose is to record God’s choice of Israel as the nation through whom the Messiah (Christ) would come to bring salvation to the world and to point to Him.

9.  Both the Old Testament and the New Testament are about Christ.

10. Old Testament believers were saved the same way New Testament believers are saved: by trusting in Messiah. 

11.  There were 7 covenants in the Old Testament: The Edenic Covenant; the Adamic Covenant; the Abrahamic Covenant; the Noahic Covenant; the Land Covenant (Palestinian); the Mosaic Covenant and the Davidic Covenant. Some were irrevocable, some were revoked by Israel.

12.  There is 1 covenant in the New Testament: The covenant made through Jesus Christ. The New Covenant supersedes all other covenants and renders them obsolete. (Hebrews 8:13)

A Study Esther-Session 01

Esther – An introduction

Part 1

The book of Esther is an account written in story form. It would be very unfortunate to try to interpret any part of it without putting it in its place in the narrative.

The account of Esther took place between the events of Ezra 6:15 and Ezra 7:9.

How do we know God was in the book of Esther, even though His name does not appear in it? Three Old Testament passages lead to that conclusion:

Zechariah 12:10-14 "And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and supplication. They will look on me, the one they have pierced, and they will mourn for him as one mourns for an only child, and grieve bitterly for him as one grieves for a firstborn son. On that day the weeping in Jerusalem will be great, like the weeping of Hadad Rimmon in the plain of Megiddo. The land will mourn, each clan by itself, with their wives by themselves: the clan of the house of David and their wives, the clan of the house of Nathan and their wives, the clan of the house of Levi and their wives, the clan of Shimei and their wives, and all the rest of the clans and their wives.”

Nehemiah 7:6-7 “These are the people of the province who came up from the captivity of the exiles whom Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had taken captive (they returned to Jerusalem and Judah, each to his own town, in company with Zerubbabel, Jeshua, Nehemiah, Azariah, Raamiah, Nahamani, Mordecai, Bilshan, Mispereth, Bigvai, Nehum and Baanah.”

Zechariah 3:8 "Listen, O high priest Joshua and your associates seated before you, who are men symbolic of things to come: I am going to bring my servant, the Branch.”

There are certain passages that are often used for inspiration. “…for such a time as this” (Esther 4:14) is one of those. While it is an inspirational line, in this instance it is to be applied to Esther. Hers was a significant and dangerous action. In this instance it indicates the importance of her decision where your salvation and mine are concerned.

Esther 4:14 does not place importance on my decisions because God has chosen me for such a time as this. It places importance on Esther’s decision to take the steps necessary to save the Jews from extinction. There is likely little any of us can do that will save the Jews from destruction. Esther’s decision changed the course of human history.

One important question will settle whether Esther should have canonized: What would have happened if King Xerxes had done as Haman wanted and killed all of the Jews?

We would have no Jesus. 

A Study in Hebrews-Week 13

(Get your Bible out and read the verses as we study )Hebrews Chapter 13

The Verses
Verses 1-3 – We are to love each other. Paul also emphasizes the importance of loving strangers, in order that we might witness to them as he admonished us in chapter 12:15. That would not have occurred to many “religious” Jews.

Chapter 10 was the “privileges” chapter; chapter 11 was the “faith” chapter; was the “hope” chapter. And now we come to chapter 13, which is the “love” chapter. You will remember that it was chapter 13 of I Corinthians that was its “love” chapter. In Romans, it was chapter 12. In II Corinthians chapter 8 was the love-in-action chapter, as was Galatians 6. In Ephesians the practical aspect of love was emphasized. Paul was big on love. And so he is in Hebrews.

Jews had the idea that you should love your friends and hate your enemies. Jewish Christians might have had a hard time throwing off this concept. Jesus had taught “love your enemies” (Matthew 5:44). Here Paul addresses the need to love self, each other and strangers.

Verses 4-6 – Here Paul speaks of marriage as he did so often, particularly in Ephesians 5:21-32 and Colossians 3:16-25. Because he is speaking to Jews, he keeps it short and to the point: you be personally responsible for keeping your marriage honorable…free from adultery (in thought or deed), and don’t make money the central theme around which it is built.

Verses 7-8 – This love is to extend to your leaders (and here he is talking about your church leaders). You owe “followship” to your spiritual leaders, so long as they do not lead you away from God’s Word, into illegality or to immorality.

Verses 9-10 – DO NOT BE INFLUENCED BY THOSE WHOSE DOCTRINS ARE DERIVED FROM SOME PERVERSION OF THE MEANING OF GOD’S WORD OR BY SOME VISION OR “SPECIAL” REVELATION. 1 Timothy is ALL about being sure to teach right doctrine and to pick leaders who will do so.

Christian fellowship is when we gather around the Word of God and it brings you to the person of Christ.

Verses 11-14 – The priests of the Old Covenant made their sin offerings in a specific place, at the altar in the temple. There is no New Covenant altar. Our altar is the sacrifice of ourselves at the Throne of Grace. Jesus made His sacrifice outside of the city. He was the sin offering. We are to go to Him.

Verses 15-16 – The only sacrifice we have is ourselves as living sacrifices (Romans 12:1-4) and our praise that confesses His name.

Verse 17 – We are to make our pastor’s work an absolute joy. We are to help him and stand beside him.

Verses 18-19 – Paul desired the prayers of God’s people.

Verses 20-21 – Paul asks that God would equip us with everything we need to accomplish His will, and that we will strive to do what is pleasing to Him.

Verses22-25 – Paul actually had much more to say, but he wanted to get this much out immediately. He reminds the reader to lovingly greet their leaders and God’s people from Italy, who send their greetings. He closes with a prayer for God’s GRACE to be with every one of them.

That’s love.

The case for Paul’s authorship of Hebrews.

The writer was known by the readers            Paul was known by the readers

The writer was in Italy                                     Paul was in Italy

The writer knew Timothy                               Paul knew Timothy (and was his spiritual father)

The writer had to understand Judaism         Paul would have understood the Hebrew mind set

The writer had converted from Judaism        Paul converted from Judaism going to Damascus

The writer followed Paul’s usual pattern       Hebrews is a perfect commentary to Jews on Romans

A Study in Hebrews-Week 11

(Get your Bible out and read the verses as we study )

Hebrews Chapter 12 Part 1

As your study this chapter, try to put yourself in the place of a Jewish reader. Try to understand this passage from a Jewish perspective.

The Verses

Verse 1 – Once again Paul uses his signature connective “Therefore” (“Wherefore” in KJV). Since all of these Old Covenant people had joined us in their faith in Messiah, as “witnesses” (not spectators, but active in their lives), we are to throw off those things that attach us to the world.

Verse 2 – “Let us fix our eyes on Jesus” is a continuation of the “therefore” in verse 1. He is the Pioneer (KJV “author”). That is He is the originator of and the focus of our faith. He authored our faith before the beginning of time. He is also the “Perfecter” (KJV: “finisher”) of our faith. He has finished the work of redemption and now sits at the right hand of God.

Verse 3 – Believers are now in both a contest and a conflict. Jesus knows our struggle and the hurdles we have to overcome.

Verse 4 – There is still a struggle with sin in our lives and we are tempted just as He was in His 40 days in the wilderness. But the shedding of our blood is insufficient to cover sin.  Only the shedding of HIS blood is adequate.

Verse 5 & 6 – We have been made God’s children.

It is a mistake when the world says, “We are all God’s children.” Only those who have received the gift of His salvation through faith in, and only in, the finished work of Christ at the cross of Calvary are His children.

Here Paul quotes from Proverbs 3:11 & 12.

The word “discipline” does NOT mean “punishment.” It is the same root as “disciple,” one who trains Himself to follow Christ. However the word for “punishment” used in verse 6 means to train (Greek-paideuo) and the word “punishes” or “scourgeth” (Greek-mastigoo) means to press into your mind by force, in a whip-like manner.

(NOTE: Almost all translations try to make this verse mean “gives a whipping to,” which is not the picture it is conveying).

Verse 7 – This really clears the matter up, as it is a continuation of the same thought and tells us that when hardships occur we should see them as opportunities to deepen our faith.

Verse 8 – Further explains that if you are not disciplined (properly trained), you are a fake Christian. (Could this be a strong argument for a Discipleship Training Ministry?)

Verse 9 – Fathers discipline [train (as in Proverbs 22:6)] their children. Properly disciplined (trained) children respect their fathers more than untrained children do. Likewise, we should be trained by God and should submit ourselves to His training.

Verse 10 – As with high school or college, there is an end to the training period, but the learning never stops.

Verse 11 – Discipline is hard to endure. An football player must train for his sport with weight lifting, running, pushing the blocking sled, etc., and it is tough. But the rewards are great when he gets to play in the Super Bowl. Discipline in God’s ways produces “…a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who are trained by it.”

Verses 12-13 – Do what it takes to strengthen yourself so you can be useful in the healing of others by introducing them to God’s salvation.

A Study in Hebrews-Week 5

(Get your Bible out and read the verses as we study.)

Hebrews Chapter 05

The definition of a priest is important, because Paul calls Christ a priest. A priest engages in Sacrifice; Substance; and Prayer. A Priest is one who offers gifts and sacrifices. He must be: 1) Taken from among men…he must be a person; 2) Be acceptable to God…ordained by God and 3)Be ordained for man…Representing man to God

A priest goes from man to God to represent man to God. A prophet comes from God to man with a message from God. A priest does not tell us what God has to say. He represents us before God. The only one who can represent us is the Lord Jesus, Christ. The priesthood is not for lost sinners but for saved sinners.

We tend toward either an emotional or a ritualistic approach to worship. We need to come to Him simply and rid ourselves of the meaningless trappings.

The verses:

Verse 1 - The gift Christ offers to God for the forgiveness of our sins is Himself. No other gift would have been sufficient. He is our advocate (lawyer), and the best advocate there is.

Verse 2 - Jesus was sinless, but can have compassion on those who commit sins of ignorance (Leviticus 4:2.). Christ takes care of those sins. He does not lecture us about how badly we have behaved…he just cleanses us from all unrighteousness.

Verse 3 - The priest had to make sacrifices for himself as well as for others. Christ did not have to make an offering for Himself.

Verse 4 - He is the highest priest because He is acceptable to God

Verse 5 - The beginning of His priesthood has to do with the resurrection.

Verse 6 - Aaron’s order is not adequate…Christ is a Son, Aaron was just a servant. Melchizedek is only mentioned in Genesis 14. He brought forth food and wine for Abraham as the priest of the Most High God. Psalm 110 the prophecy of Christ in the order of Melchizedek.

Verse 7 - Three occasions Jesus wept: At the grave of Lazarus; over Jerusalem; In the Garden of Gethsemane. Some theologians teach that “Let this cup pass” refers to His dying in the garden; that He did not want to die there. Actually, if when He prayed in the garden to “let this cup pass” and that meant He didn't want to die on the cross, His prayer was not heard. In a very real sense, He wanted to go to the cross! He found the cross joyful…He submitted to God. That is unfathomable to us.

Verse 8 - He only offers eternal salvation. If you can lose it tomorrow, it wasn’t eternal, was it? (See John 3:16)

Verse 9 - Why did the Son of God need to learn obedience by suffering? The only answer is that God got something out of  the death of Christ that has made Heaven more wonderful.

Why did the one who was perfect need to be made perfect? These are two significant mysteries. Lots of theologians have given their answers, but none of them can even begin to be satisfactory.

Verse 10 - “Designated” comes from the word for “salute.” Melchizedek was a “type” of the priesthood of the Lord, Jesus, Christ.

Verse 11 - As a group, we are not very good learners. We are “dull of hearing.”

Verse 12 - We think we are teachers, when we, ourselves still need to be taught. What we need to learn is not the depth of the Word. Paul says we need to learn the elementary truths of the Word…milk, not solid food. And we need it again and again. We may move to more solid food, but we will forever need the milk as well, to remind us of what Christ has done for us.

Verse 13 - Turn this around and realize that too many of us teach what we call “righteousness” when it is really nothing more than “behaviorism.” Not the same thing at all. Righteousness is imputed to us by Christ, not something we achieve.

Verse 14 - Ask yourself the question: Am I mature enough to absorb the solid food of the Word?

If we are not growing, we are dying, both personally and corporately as the church. Let us grow as the Body of Christ, into mature, Word-filled people of God.

Is Jesus Equal to the Babylonian Moon God?