To Believe in the Relationship And so, having completed this brief survey of passages related to how Jesus wanted people to respond to his ministry, we return to our theme verse, the one in which Jesus encouraged the Apostles to believe in his relationship with the Father. Remember: This is where Jesus said that it was okay for his disciples to believe in his relationship with the Father even if only on the basis of his ‘works.’ That is, Jesus said that the disciples didn’t n

Crowds Inspired The crowds which observed Jesus believed that God was at work in him. In Christ they saw a man who was anointed by God and they praised God for what they saw in that man, Jesus. They glorified God because it was obvious that Jesus was not acting alone. They were certain he was sent and empowered by the Almighty—and they were right! Those crowds joined the people Jesus healed, and they worshipped God. They were often inspired to praise God by the gratitude of t

Source of Strength The Pharisees denied that the source of Jesus’ strength was God. They ignored his prayer life, denied his love for God, and would hear nothing of his expression: ‘I am in the Father and the Father is in me’ (John 14:11). Any time the Lord Jesus spoke of his relationship to the Father, they would get edgy. In fact, it was a topic that annoyed them so deeply, that it drove them to anger, wrath, and eventually homicide! They crucified the Lord. Today we'll con

Higher/Lower Order of Belief You would think that the Apostles had a strong faith, but the reality is that even after three years together, Jesus still had to encourage them to believe in his tight relationship with the Father, a relationship he described as him being ‘in the Father’ and ‘the Father in him.’ The Lord Jesus defined two levels of belief in this relationship: 1) belief on the basis of his words, and 2) belief on the basis of his works (his miracles). That’s why

Does He Trust You? The greater question regarding your salvation was never so much “Do you trust in Jesus?” but rather “Does he trust in you?” In fact, in John chapter 2, John explicitly tells us that Jesus did not trust most of his followers when he writes: Jesus, on his part, was not entrusting himself to them, for he knew all men. But, why not? Why did Jesus not entrust himself to people? What was his reason for not trusting those who followed him? Well, their reason for b

The Right Reason to Trust in Jesus Right after the Apostles told Jesus that they believed he came from God (John 16:30), Jesus prayed to God for them. And he prayed a happy prayer! Can you guess what he was happy about? Guess what Jesus’ joy was regarding the Apostles... We'll tell you: The Lord Jesus rejoiced that the Apostles had ‘come to know’ that everything God gave him had its origin in God. Let’s repeat that. Jesus was overjoyed that the Apostles had ‘come to know’ tha

The Chain Link Principle The Son is subordinate to the Father. The Spirit is subordinate to the Son. If we can’t understand how the cosmic hierarchy functions, then how will we play a role? How will we serve God at all if we don't understand how the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit interact? And we must serve God if we'll ever add value to our existence. We must serve God if we'll ever get a reward. But where do we fit in? We fit in after Jesus. We obey our Lord Jesus in the powe

A Dynamic You Must Grasp Have you come to believe that Jesus proceeds from God? Have you, after sufficient opportunity to study Scripture, drawn the conclusion that Jesus is “of” God? In other words, do you believe that God sent him ? The Apostles definitely did! They believed that Jesus was sent by God. Note closely what they said to Jesus right after many of his disciples turned away from him. Right after many refused the invitation to eat of his flesh and drink his blood,

A Healthy Search To follow the argument that Jesus got his deity from the One God to its logical conclusion, we must eventually ask...

Both Called God Here There is no reason for us to confuse God with Jesus. People treat the Bible as if it were confusing, but it’s...

Some Hesitation Although Jesus is not the One God, he is God. Now, as we've proven again and again, the One God is the Father--so there's...

Jesus Lives Because of God Here is a great truth that if you understand it rightly, will make it clear who Jesus is: Jesus lives because...

Sprinkled with Blood When the Old Covenant was established at Mount Sinai, Moses sacrificed bulls, ‘took half of the blood and put it in...

Jesus Offered Himself to God Jesus ascended into Heaven—we all know that. But what did he do when he got there? The Bible tells us what...

The Righteous Wrath of God God is angry with sinners every day. He will condemn them to Hell when they stand before him in judgment. The...

My Chosen One Consider what the Scriptures say about Jesus’ relationship to God. What is his position in God’s economy? His position is...

1 + 1 + 1 = 3 Let’s consider how the New Testament speaks of the One God. The expression One God means that there is only one God in the...

A Prayer for the Apostles Jesus made five statements about his Apostles you’ve got to hear. Jesus summarized the most important things he...

An Unpleasant Truth for Many Chances are that most people will not like the title of this post. They won’t like it mostly because they...

The Object of God’s Love Have you ever asked yourselves “Who is Jesus for God?” When God looks at Jesus, what does God see? How does he...