1 & 2 Kings (Program #8) – The Reign of Ahab Over Israel (1)

In the Old Testament we find the record of the deeds of many of the great and powerful men of God.  Of all of these, perhaps none was more mighty and performs more miracles than the prophet Elijah.  In a way Elijah typifies and represents all of the prophets of the Old Testament, even appearing with Moses on the mount of transfiguration when the Lord Jesus revealed His glory to some of His disciples.

The first appearance of Elijah in the Bible is in 1 King 17, where he is called by Jehovah to confront the evil King Ahab, whose heart had been fully turned away from the God of Abraham to the idols of Jezebel, his wife.

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John (Program #48) – Life Processed for Multiplication (3)

I really like this marvelous term here. “Go tell my brothers.” In the Gospel of John, He was with these disciples a lot, but He never referred to them as brothers. He always called them either by name or referred to them as friends. But, after His resurrection for the first time, He calls them brothers.

In this Gospel, the presentation of the crucifixion is really more complete and more meaningful than you have it in the other three Gospels. First, the account here brings out the two aspects of the Lord’s death by mentioning two substances, which came out of the Lord’s side when the soldier pierced Him. When the soldier pierced Him, out came blood and water. The blood of Christ there is to answer to our need for the dealing with sin. The blood of Christ cleanses us from every sin. And, the water that came out is really meeting the need for our life. Water in the scripture is often a picture of life. There’s the water of life that’s in the book of Revelation. And, there’s the water that flowed out of the rock in the Old Testament. So, water really means life, the imparting of life.

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John (Program #35) – The Dispensing of the Triune God for the Producing of His Abode (3)

People think that the Lord Jesus has gone to prepare a big mansion for us in heaven. As though God had two dwelling places, or two buildings, God only has one building. Not one on heaven and one on earth. He has one building.

This chapter (John 14) is very mysterious I admit, and it’s very misunderstood. But, this chapter is really the last message that the Lord gave to His disciples. And, here He’s talking about going away. Many people misunderstand this. But, He’s just talking here about His going to the cross. And, when He goes to the cross, He is also promising that He will come again. His coming again of course is after His resurrection. He will come back to them. And when He comes back to them, He will be the Spirit because in His resurrection He becomes the life giving Spirit.

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John (Program #10) – An Introduction to Life and Building (6)

Christ as a man is the letter that opens the heavens, that joins the earth to heaven, and that brings heaven down to earth.

When John the Baptist said, “Behold, the Lamb of God”, two disciples were attracted. Not two thousand, but two. Not even twenty, but two. Two of John’s disciples got attracted, and John was happy. Who were these two? One of these two was Andrew. Who was the other one? John. And then Andrew got attracted, and Andrew went to catch his brother Peter. And, Peter came. The Lord Jesus changed his name from Simon to Cephas, which means Peter. And Peter, or Cephas, means a stone. The book of John is a book of allegories. The Lamb, the dove, the stone. This signifies the Lamb plus the dove produces the stone. Redemption plus regeneration and transformation produces stone…

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Luke (Program #64) – The Man-Savior’s Ascension (1 & 2)

The final Chapter of the Gospel of Luke is marvelous. It begins with the Lord Jesus revealing Himself to His dear ones, that He had resurrected from the dead. Then we see Him in resurrection appearing and disappearing repeatedly in order to train them to experience His invisible presence and finally He brings us to this concluding words that He uttered to His disciples:

Chapter 24:46, “And He said to them thus it is written that the Christ would suffered and raised up from the dead on the third day, and that repentance for forgiveness of sins would be proclaim in His name to all the nations beginning from Jerusalem. And behold I send forth the promise of my Father upon you. But as for you stay in the city until you put on power from on high.”

24:51 “And while He blessed them, He parted from them and was carried up into heavens.” Here was His promise that He would cloth them with power from on high. But not before His visible ascension to the third heavens.  What happen in that ascension? And why is it important for us to know about it?

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Luke (Program #50) – The Resurrection and Ascension of the Man-Savior (2)

Following the Lord’ Jesus resurrection, He first appeared to two disciples as they were traveling on the road to a village called Emmaus. After revealing Himself to these ones and then disappearing, they hurry back to Jerusalem to make the account to Peter and the other disciples. And as they were telling this incredible story, the resurrected Lord miraculously appears again. Not as a ghost or as a Spirit, but with a physical body that can be handled and touched. But then in the midst of their astonishment, just as He had done to the two men traveling to Emmaus, He not only open their eyes to recognize that it was truly Him. He also open their eyes and minds to understand the scriptures, it was this unveiling that would stay with them and enable them to stay in His invisible presents long after His physical presence were no longer with them. How we need the same opening and unveiling even today.

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Luke (Program #40) – The Ministry of the Man-Savior in His Human Virtues with His Divine Attributes from Galilee to Jerusalem (20)

The Bible is so marvelous.  Not only do the teachings convey truths to us, the parables and the stories illustrate those truths and even more marvelous, eventually we discover that even the arrangement and sequence of the story and accounts in the Bible help to underscore those truths. One example is found in Luke 18, where the Lord Jesus for the third time tries to unveil His coming death and resurrection to His disciples, but they simply do not have eyes to see or ears to hear. Then the Lord Jesus in a wonderful display of His sovereign arrangement heals a blind man. Who, in reality were the blind ones in this passage?

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Luke (Program #31) – The Ministry of the Man-Savior in His Human Virtues with His Divine Attributes from Galilee to Jerusalem (10)

As Christians, we are instructed by Scripture to do many things.  Of course among them to love our wives as ourselves, to honor our mother and father and to be careful how we treat our own bodies because they are a Holy Temple of the Holy Spirit.  But then we run into a section of the Bible such as found in Luke 14 where the Lord Jesus says “If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, and moreover, even his own soul-life, he cannot be My disciple.”  Well, does the Bible in fact as alleged by many unbelievers contradicts itself?  Of course we know better.  But what does it mean for us to “hate” such cherished one, even to hate ourselves as the Bible intends?

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Luke (Program #27) – The Ministry of the Man-Savior in His Human Virtues with His Divine Attributes from Galilee to Jerusalem (6)

Consider for a moment the religions of the world whether or not you agree with the various approaches in teachings, it’s fair to say that all religions begin of good intentions and noble ideals.  But inevitably, one common condition befalls all religions over time – hypocrisy.  The difference between those high ideals and teachings and the eventual practices and living of its adherence.  The one striking exception to this universal is the life and the living of the Lord Jesus Christ.  His living on earth was in stark contrast to the hypocrisy of the religion of that day and the reality of His divine life live out in His members remains in the same contrast today.  As we fellowship on chapter 12 of Luke and three warnings that we are going to get into today.

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Luke (Program #26) – The Ministry of the Man-Savior in His Human Virtues with His Divine Attributes from Galilee to Jerusalem (5)

We are all familiar with the Lord’s prayer.  It is covered in both Matthew and Luke.  But it’s interesting that here in the gospel of Luke immediately following the Lord’s marvelous training of His disciples not just merely in how to pray but how to pray themselves into God, He find Himself in a conflict with demons and dealing with mass rejections.

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