Luke (Program #5) – The Preparation of the Man-Savior (3 & 5)

In the opening chapter of the gospel of Luke there is the account of two miraculous conceptions.  First John the Baptist was born to Zachariah and Elizabeth who both being well advanced in age were beyond any hope of conceiving a child short of the miraculous power of the Holy Spirit.  The other conception  of course is that of the Lord Jesus, who also was conceived in a miraculous way.  But the conception of Jesus involved much more than mere divine power because it brought forth the mingling of two natures; the divine and human to produce not just an unique man as John the Baptist surely  was but a God-Man, who became our Savior, the Man-Savior Jesus.  John’s father Zachariah saw much of what was involved in this greatest of all miracles.  We will look at it in His prophecy on our life study today.

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Luke (Program #4) – The Preparation of the Man-Savior with His Divinity (2)

The gospel of Luke tells the story of a wonder meeting between two mothers to be – Elizabeth, the mother of John the Baptist and Mary, of course who was the mother of our Lord Jesus.  Listen to this marvelous account given in chapter 1 “And Mary rose up in those days and went to the hill country with haste, to a city of Judah, And entered into the house of Zachariah and greeted Elizabeth. And when Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. And she lifted up her voice with a loud cry and said, Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! And how has this happened to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?  For behold, when the sound of your greeting came to my ears, the baby leaped with exultation in my womb. And blessed is she who has believed, because there will be a completion of the things spoken to her from the Lord.”

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Mark (Program #59) – A Life Fully According To and For God’s New Testament Economy (19)

During the last few months we have been given a memorable and wonderfully clear picture of “A Life Fully According To and For God’s New Testament Economy” as it is portrayed through the gospel of Mark.

This life embodied in our precious Lord Jesus in the gospels is developed through out the entire New Testament, ultimately a peak is reached in the book of Revelation, as we see the final consummation of God’s economy in the New Jerusalem. That final consummation is no longer just a picture of God or Christ alone, but we also as His redeemed and regenerated people are included. What a transformation from our pitiful fallen condition at the time we first received His saving grace to the glorious outcome that awaits all of us to participate in for eternity.

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1 Peter (Program #1) – An Introductory Word

Of all the disciples called by the Lord Jesus in the gospels, probably the one we can most readily identify with is Peter. Simon Barjona as he was known before the Lord changed his name to Peter. In John chapter 1 was as impetuous as he was fervent and often found himself as the target of the Lord Jesus’ reprove.

Recall for example in Matthew chapter 16, Peter’s sympathetic suggestion to the Lord that He should keep Himself from the suffering of death that He knew awaited Him. “get behind Me, Satan” was the Lord’s reply. “You are a stumbling block to Me, for you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of men.” How could Peter possibly recovered from such a stinging rebuke?

And of course it was also Peter, who denied the Lord three times during the hour of trial preceding the actual crucifixion. Yet only days later it was this same Peter who stood on the day of Pentecost and usher thousands into the kingdom with his powerful and dynamic speaking.

And not only so, in his two epistles, Peter uses language and phrases so rich and full of high and profound meaning that we can’t help but marvel at the power of God’s full salvation. That this unlearned fisherman could write such thing. Listen to his word in 1 Peter,

1:18 “Knowing that it was not with corruptible things, with silver or gold, that you were redeemed from your vain manner of life handed down from your fathers,”

19 “But with precious blood, as of a Lamb without blemish and without spot, the blood of Christ;”

Welcome to our first life-study of the book of 1 Peter.

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Ezekiel (Program #24) – The River Flowing from the House

An outstanding feature that appears again and again throughout the pages of the Bible both in the Old Testament and the New is a river. The river was prominent in Genesis and the river appears in the books of history and the books of the prophets in the Old Testament. This river is still flowing in the gospels especially in the Gospel of John where the river flows out of the pierced side of the Lord Jesus. And it continues to flow right through the final chapters of Revelation where it is seen proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb in the New Jerusalem. In all of these mentions the river is a very positive factor, very much related to the matter of the divine eternal life. One of the more striking appearances that this river makes is in Ezekiel 47 where it’s seen flowing out of the house of God. In this chapter it becomes a deep river – too deep and too wide to be passed over. The one that we have no choice but to abandon ourselves to and swim in.

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Ezekiel (Program #20) – The Temple and Side Chambers

The gospel of John gives us the unforgettable picture of Jesus coming into the temple in Jerusalem. And in the display of the most righteous anger, the sight of God’s house being turned into a place of merchandise and commerce, He cleanses the temple – overturning the tables and chasing the peddlers away. Immediately following this comes a profound exchange between the Lord Jesus and the religionists. In John 2:18-21, “The Jews then answered and said to Him, What sign do you show us, seeing that you do these things? Jesus answered and said to them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. Then the Jews said, This temple was built in forty-six years, and You will raise it up in three days? But He spoke of the a temple of His body.” What makes this word so meaningful is that John clearly identifies Jesus as the real temple, the real house of God. This means even as we consider the temple in the Old Testament such as in Ezekiel’s great vision in chapters 40 to 48, we must realize that this is a type of the Lord Jesus Himself and of the church, the New Testament, the enlargement of God’s house.

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Ezekiel (Program #10) – The Man on the Throne

After the revelation of the four living creatures and the great wheel of the move of God in Ezekiel chapter 1, we are presented with the striking description of the spiritual sky above these four living creatures. In 1:22, Ezekiel writes, “And over the heads of the living creature there was the likeness of an expanse, like the sight of awesome crystal, stretched forth over their heads above.” This vivid picture conveys that when God’s people are fully experiencing Him in Christ and are connected to one another in a way that expresses and glorifies Him, then they have a clear sky above them – so clear that they can see without limitation into the very third heavens where our dear Lord Jesus sits so preeminently on the throne. Verse 26, “And above the expanse that was over their heads was the likeness of a throne, like the appearance of a sapphire stone; and upon the likeness of the throne was One in appearance like a man, above it.”

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Jeremiah (Program #25) – The Foundation of the New Covenant

The Bible reveals that God’s heart desire is to have close and intimate contact with man, to be one with man and even to come into man, as His life.   In order to accomplish this, God has made many covenants or promises with man throughout history.  But of all these covenants only two are counted by God.  The Old Testament covenant of the law given by God to Moses on Mount Sinai and the New Testament covenant of grace enacted by the Lord Jesus on the cross on Calvary.  Although this New Covenant was not enacted until hundreds of years later, it is clearly foretold in the Old Testament book of Jeremiah.  In chapter 31, “Indeed, days are coming, declares Jehovah, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, Not like the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day I took them by their hand to bring them out from the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, although I was their Husband, declares Jehovah.But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares Jehovah: I will put My law within them and write it upon their hearts; and I will be their God, and they will be My people.”  Marvelous New Covenant seen in the Old Testament book of Jeremiah.

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Jeremiah (Program #3) – Crucial Aspects of the Divine Revelation in Jeremiah

The Lord Jesus in the gospel of John chapter 5 speaking to the religionists of His day told them, “You search the Scriptures, because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is these that testify concerning Me. Yet you are not willing to come to Me that you may have life.” (John 5:39-40) Well, the clear message in this strong word to them and to us is that the whole Bible – both Old and New Testament – reveal Christ and should bring us to the very Christ it reveals every time we touch it. How crucial it is for us to keep such a view in mind whenever we come to the word of God especially in the Old Testament book such as Jeremiah.

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1 Thessalonians (Program #19) – Our Heart to be Established Blameless in Holiness and our Body to be Preserved Clean in Sanctification

Proverbs 4:23 says: Keep your heart with all vigilance, For from it are the issues of life.

So, how do you keep your heart? Well, if you are a seeker and lover of the Lord Jesus, and that you want to stay with us for a special life study program from 1 Thessalonians today, entitled “Our Heart to be Established Blameless in Holiness.”

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