0:00 Welcome once again to Words of Life. In our study through the Bible, we have now reached the Gospel of John. And just like we saw in the other three Gospels, in the first sentences of the Gospel, we 0:20 see what is the main theme. Here, John is speaking about the existence of Christ right from eternity. In the beginning was the Word. 0:43 Now, it's very difficult for our human minds to understand the concept of God existing eternally. An almighty, eternal God who knows all the future and everything, who can do everything. That's very difficult for our minds to 1:08 understand. That's not surprising. Even a dog cannot understand everything a human being understands. And the distance between us and the dog is much less than the distance between us and God. So, if a dog can't understand a human 1:34 being, it's not at all surprising that we can't understand God fully. Who can understand a human being? Another human being. You have to be God in order to understand God fully. So, even in eternity, won't understand 1:57 him fully. But, we are so thankful that God Bible has revealed God as love. That is what brings comfort to us. That 2:15 whatever he does is for our good. So, from all eternity Christ existed equal with the Father and the Holy Spirit. So, the word Jesus called the word here 2:32 because he is an expression of God. We don't have to look for complicated meanings when we read scripture. John's mind was a fisherman's mind, a simple mind. And so, we don't have to look for any 2:55 complicated meanings. What is the word What is the word mean? Why is Jesus called the word? See, right now, you can understand what is going on in my 3:14 thoughts because I I'm speaking words. But, if I kept quiet here you wouldn't have a clue what's going on in my thoughts. So, words, audible words, are the 3:34 expression of inaudible thoughts. So, in the same way the invisible God is made visible in Christ, and that's why he's called the word. It says that in verse 18. 3:57 No one has seen God at any time. But the only begotten who is in the bosom of the Father, he has explained him. So Jesus came here not only to die for our sins, but to explain to the world what God was like. Why are there so many religions in the 4:23 world? Here's the answer. No one has seen God at any time. Supposing you went to a country where nobody had ever seen an elephant or seen a picture of an elephant. And you go there and ask 4:42 100 men to draw an elephant. They may draw some animal. None of them will think of an elephant with a long trunk or so big. So there'll be 100 different pictures because none of them have seen an 5:02 elephant. If you get a thousand people to draw, you'll get a thousand different pictures. None of them will be alike. And none of them will look like an elephant. It's the same here. 5:23 Thousands of people through the centuries have tried to explain God. None of them have seen God. So how can they explain him? That's why we believe Christianity is the only true revelation of God. Because Christ alone came from heaven 5:48 and he is God. He was not a prophet trying to explain what God was like. He was not a man to whom an angel or someone came and gave a revelation of what God was like. That itself would have been good. 6:10 He was God himself. And when he lived on earth, he was just manifesting the nature of God. So when we see Jesus putting his arms around a leper or washing the disciples' feet, we see what God is like. When you see when we see him driving out 6:35 people who make make money in the name of God, we see what God is like. So if you want to be like God, you got to be like Jesus. And it's that image of Jesus which the devil is trying to hide from Christians. There was no love of money in Jesus. 6:57 It's very obvious from the Gospels. How many Christians want to be like that? A lot of Christians say they want to be Christ-like, but they're just imagining. So the word is an expression of God. 7:17 The word was with God means he was separate from the Father. But at the same time, we don't have three gods in heaven. The word was God. There's no doubt Christ was God. That's why cults that don't believe that 7:36 Jesus was God have modified this verse in their translations. They say Jesus the word the word was a god. They put it like that in that translation so as to deceive people that Jesus was not God. This is how cults deceive people. 8:04 But God's word is clear. Jesus was God. He was in the beginning with God. So they're separate person but one God. Everything in this universe came into existence through him. And there is nothing. He repeats it. 8:24 Nothing that came into existence apart from him. Just to emphasize the fact that Jesus Christ is God. So that's what John is trying to say. In him was life. 8:43 And the life was the light of men. Today when people talk about getting light what they're talking about is getting an understanding of some truth. Well, that is also light. But here more than that is the light is 9:01 life. It's not just understanding. A lot of people get understanding who have no life of Christ in them. When can you say that you've got light? 9:19 When something of the life of Christ has come into When Jesus said you're the light of the world he wasn't saying that we have got to present a doctrine to the world. Light is life. Now in the Old Testament that's not 9:38 true. But in the Old In the Old Testament, we read in Psalm 119, verse 105, "Thy word is a light unto my path." So, the God's word was a light there. 9:56 Written statement. There was no person who could say, "Look at my life. It is the light of God." God's word was the only perfect thing in the in the world at that time. But, in the New Testament, 10:16 it is more than God's word, it is Jesus who is the word made flesh. Says in verse 14 of this chapter, "The word became flesh." So, this life 10:33 was manifested in in Jesus, and that is the light of the world. And that is the light we are to manifest, also. And this light, or the glory of God, was 10:50 seen verse 14, full of grace and truth. Grace and truth are like flesh and bones in our body. Which do you One or both? 11:08 If you were only bones, that would be like the Pharisees, full of truth alone. Flesh on top of the bones. No grace over the truth. How would you feel if you saw in the middle of the night a skeleton walking 11:27 towards you? You're not going to be attracted to it. You are not attracted You'll run away. That's exactly how people run away from the Pharisees. But when a pleasant looking person comes towards you flesh and bones 11:49 then you're attracted. That's how people are attracted to Jesus. At the flesh. I mean if there were no body You wouldn't be able to stand. You wouldn't even be able to sit. You'll be like jellyfish. You'll just collapse to the ground. 12:10 Of course you would have one advantage that you can go through any opening whether it's a round opening or a square opening or a small opening. So some Christians are like that. Some Christians are like that. They don't 12:19 have any strong convictions on truth. So they can fit in in any opening. They would even say all religions are the same. We can fit in anywhere. They have flesh but no bones. It looks like an advantage. But it's a disadvantage. 12:37 So grace without truth there's no glory there. Truth without grace there's no glory there. The glory of God was fully seen full of grace and truth. And in our lives we can't all have it full in fullness like Christ had. That's 12:53 why he gives us one another in the body of Christ. in the church we balance out each other. That's why we must value fellowship with other believers. I may be strong in truth. I may be I 13:27 may be strong in truth. I might not have much grace. But then I work with another brother who has a lot of grace and not much truth. Both of us can balance each other out. That's why the church is called the body 13:46 of Christ. There's only one person who was fully the body of Christ himself. That was Jesus himself when he came in a body. There there was a perfect balance of everything. But no other person, not even Paul since 14:06 then has ever been that like that. We all have our strong points and our weak points. Our salvation is the body of Christ. It says in verse 17, "The law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came 14:25 through Jesus Christ." The law was written words. Grace and truth is a life. Moses couldn't give life. Jesus came to give life. There was no grace in the world till 14:44 Christ came. Please remember that. Some people say grace is the unmerited favor of God. That's not true. Because every human being gets unmerited favor in the whole world. When God gives health to an atheist, 15:09 he doesn't deserve it. I don't deserve it when I get health also. Every human being gets unmerited favor. But every human being doesn't get grace. Grace is the power of God to help us to 15:27 overcome sin. You know when you got it when you overcome sin. Then he speaks about the baptism of the Holy Spirit in John's Gospel chapter 1. He says 15:48 in verse 29 and 33 about the two ministries of Christ. One is to take away sin and the other verse 33 to baptize in the Holy Spirit. John chapter 2. 16:07 We read about the first miracle that Jesus did. And that's a very interesting to see. It was turning water into wine. It wasn't a spectacular miracle like raising Lazarus from the dead. It was a very ordinary thing related to 16:29 food. Because a lot of people their religion consists of various rules on food. Some people think that if they fast they're more holy. And 16:48 they don't believe in eating rich food. Jesus could do both. He fasted for 40 days. And he could enjoy a good meal. That is true Christianity. Where you can do both. So here we see him making an abundance of wine to show 17:08 that that's perfectly okay. He was not against clean enjoyment in life. Like for example, 17:26 enjoying a wedding feast. And to enjoy it, that we don't have to feel convicted about. The first miracle Jesus did was to help people enjoy a wedding feast. He teaches that in true Christianity, 17:48 you can enjoy good food. You can enjoy a good wedding feast. At the same time, a true Christian will also learn to fast like Jesus. But notice something we can learn in this miracle. How Jesus did not do the miracle 18:06 himself. He always cooperated with others. Every miracle that he did, there was something that human beings had to do also. Because he works in partnership with us. Think of this incident as a situation in 18:25 your life where there's no joy, no wine. Or in your life. No joy. No victory. No power. That's a picture of no wine. Your life is a very ordinary life like 18:46 water. Maybe your preaching ministry is so tasteless like water. What's the answer? First of all, go to Jesus and say, "I don't have any wine." Lord, I don't have any joy in my life. 19:08 I don't have any victory. I don't have power. Lord, my preaching is absolutely boring. How many preachers honestly confess that? 99% of boring preachers will not admit that their preaching is boring. That means they will not say uh 19:34 there's no wine. Then of course you won't get any wine. That's the first step. Confess your need. And you don't have to produce the wine. Take your water to Jesus. Say, "Lord, you do something about this." 19:53 And he will make it into wine. John chapter 3 We read about Nicodemus coming to see him. And this wonderful thing about it is that Nicodemus felt he could disturb Jesus at night. It was 11:00 at night perhaps. 20:14 How many preachers in the world can you go and disturb at 11:00 at night? Jesus was so different. He made people feel you can come and disturb me anytime you like. And Nicodemus was a big bishop. 20:33 Jesus said you must be born again. Jesus didn't say that to the woman in Samaria. It was to a bishop who thought he was okay. Do bishops need to be born again today? Sure, even archbishops need to be born 20:51 again. The Pope needs to be born again. The prostitute needs to be born again. Every human being in the world, big or small, whatever his rank, needs to be born again to become a child of God. John chapter 4 21:14 We read of this woman of Samaria whom Jesus lovingly drew towards God. He didn't embarrass her by asking too many questions about her personal life. When she admitted that she had 21:37 uh five husbands like Jesus made it uh said to her in verse 18. She didn't deny it. She said, "You're a prophet. That's how you know." And then she changed the subject to worship in verse 20. 21:56 Because she was embarrassed. See the beauty here that Jesus never brought back that subject again. Jesus was so gentle in dealing with men and women. That converted her. 22:16 It's through gentleness that we bring people to Christ. Through that despised woman, the whole city of Samaria we read came to Christ. And further we read in John chapter 5 about a man who was paralyzed for 38 22:36 years. In the pool in Bethesda, verse two, there were many, many sick people, verse three. But Jesus went in and healed only one person. Some people say that Jesus healed everybody wherever he went. Yeah, he didn't even heal 1%. 23:01 If there were 300 people It was not 10 or 15 people lying there. It says a multitude, verse three. What is a multitude? 600? 1,000? We may not even call 300 a multitude. 23:21 There may have been a thousand people there. And he healed only one. Didn't the other people need healing? There were blind, sick, so many people there. He healed one. There must have been a reason. When he saw faith only in one. 23:40 Sometimes only one person in a thousand has faith. Another thing we see in John chapter 6. Another miracle. Again, Jesus does it in partnership. He could have 23:57 fed the multitude from nothing. But he said, "No, let's do it in cooperation with man." So, here is a boy with just five loaves and two fish. And Jesus says to that boy, "Give that to me." 24:15 And he takes that and multiplies it to feed everybody. So, that that little boy has a satisfaction, "I also cooperated with Jesus in this work." That's the satisfaction he wants to give 24:34 us. We do very little. Five loaves, one person's lunch. We give that and the Lord blesses it and feeds thousands. So, there we see examples of how Jesus 24:53 always cooperated with others. And at the marriage in Cana, he told the So, he said, "You bring the little bread you have, I'll feed the 5,000." That's the message of the gospel. 25:12 You do the easy part, the Lord says, "I'll do the 99% difficult." So, Christian life is easy. If you trust God. God bless you. Welcome once again to Words of Life program. We are studying through the Bible and we 25:33 have come to the Gospel of John. We don't have time to look at everything in this Gospel. But, looking at some of the major points. In John's Gospel, chapter 4, we read 25:55 about a a centurion, a royal official, who was son was sick in Capernaum in verse 46. And when he heard that Jesus was in 26:17 Judea, he went and asked him to come and heal his son. And so, Jesus just spoke a word to him saying, fifth verse 50, "Go your way, your son lives." The distance from Cana to Capernaum 26:41 is only about 15 miles. He came to Jesus at Cana. His home was in Capernaum. His home was in Capernaum. Now, supposing your child is sick. Seriously sick. 27:02 And you travel 15 miles, which may take about 5 hours. He probably had a chariot. Being a royal official, it would take even less than that. He would have taken 2 or 3 hours. And he met Jesus saying, 11:00 in the morning. 27:19 Um actually, it was 1:00 in the afternoon he met him. And and Jesus says, "Your son is well." 1:00 in the afternoon, you hear Jesus say that. You would want to rush back home. 27:45 At least by 4:00 or 5:00 in the evening, you're home. Now, I want you to notice something here. says here, "After Jesus said it, the man believed the word. And he started off. went off to his house. Then, as he was going towards his house, 28:03 his slaves met him. He asked them, "When did he get better?" And they said to him, "Yesterday afternoon at 1:00." And he said, "The fever And the father knew that was the same time, 1:00 in the afternoon, when Jesus told him, "Your son lives." And he said, 28:19 "The fever left him." And the father knew that was the same time, 1:00 in the afternoon, when Jesus told him, "Your son lives." And he said, "The fever left him." And the father knew So, he didn't go home the same Yesterday. 28:50 So, he didn't go home the same day. What was he doing for one whole day? He must have gone and slept in an inn or something. What does that prove? That man was absolutely convinced his 29:08 son was okay. See, you wouldn't go to sleep in a hotel unless you're sure your son is okay. See, that's faith. Faith is where you know when Jesus had said something, it's done. That's 29:25 an amazing example to me. He didn't rush home even though his home was only 15 miles away. relax, sleep the night. Only the next day on the way home his servants tell him, "Yesterday the son 29:45 was healed." It's a great example of faith. In these little things in scripture, you find how our faith is challenged. In John chapter 6, 30:06 we read some words that Jesus spoke. Verse 37, for example. All that the Father gives to me shall come to me. No one who comes to me I'll will I cast out. A lot of people are in the business of 30:26 trying to get more and more people into their church. Even trying to grab people from other churches, which is called sheep stealing, into their Even trying to grab people from other 30:46 churches, which is called sheep stealing. into their church. I've been in the church planning ministry for 30 years. And we have planted number of churches. Not once in these 30 years have I ever 31:04 been even interested in getting somebody out of another church into our church. I have never believed that our church is the best church in India. Or that there are no good believers in 31:23 other churches. Or that there are no good pastors in India. don't believe these things. I in many denominations. I believe there are some fine believers in the Roman Catholic church, too. You may not agree with me, but I believe 31:44 it. I don't agree with their doctrines. Doctrine is a head problem. Conversion is a heart matter. And some people whose head is wrong, their heart is right. Just like some people who have their doctrines right in their head, their 32:00 heart is all wrong. Don't you know people whose doctrines are all correct, but who live immoral lives? So, God is no respecter of persons. And he has got his people in every denomination. 32:18 Not in the but in the And no church can say we are the best church. Nobody can tell other people you must join our church. If you trust in God, you'll believe what Jesus says Those 32:37 whom the Father gives me will come to me. I have seen that in 30 years from every part of the world, not only India. Those whom the Father says I want you 32:55 to help these people. God will bring them to me. And then I can help them. If that's only 10 people, that's all I want. Jesus got only 12 and he was happy with that. 33:14 Why do we want 1 lakh? If 12 are enough, that's all God gives us. So, your life will be at rest when you believe this verse. Every single person whom the Father gives me will come to me. You don't have to be afraid. 33:39 And those are the only people you'll be able to help. When you try to build a big church just to get a name for yourself and you want to show that you are a great man of God, you will have no anointing in your life. We must work like Jesus worked. 33:58 Be satisfied with 12 if that's all God wants you to have. I've been in a Christian 47 years. And I say I'm perfectly happy if God gives me only 12 people. Because Jesus is my example. I'm not in competition with any church 34:17 in the whole world. If God has ordained 12 people for me to serve, I will not get 11, I'll get all 12. If God has 5,211 people I will not get one less than that. 34:39 And I don't want one more. Only those whom the Father has given to me. That's all I want. My dear friends if you are in the ministry work like Jesus worked. Don't go grabbing other people's sheep. 34:58 And don't covet what God has not given you. Be happy with the ones God gives you. There may be some good brothers whom God has called to work in some other group. Don't covet him and say, "Oh, I want him in my group." That is like these multinational 35:18 companies who try to grab officers from other companies. It's happening in Christianity because people don't know God. The other thing, the second part of that verse Jesus said "When anyone comes to me, I 35:36 never cast him out." If you have any doubt about your salvation you feel you have come to Jesus, you're not sure whether he has accepted you. 47 years ago, this is the verse that helped me to be sure of my salvation. I believe this word. 35:57 For six years, I was tossed about. Then one day, I believed this word. I have come to Jesus. I believe he has not cast me out. It's like a ship dropping an anchor, I never drifted after that day. Then another wonderful verse is verse 36:16 38. Where Jesus said Jesus said words which are in autobiography of the entire 33 and 1/2 years he lived on Earth. If you were to ask Jesus, "Can you tell me what you did in your entire life on 36:34 Earth?" He would say it in one sentence. This verse. I came from heaven not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me. He denied his will. And he did his father's will. 36:52 That means he took the cross. He died to his own will. He did the father's will. Every day of his entire life. He denied many pleasures as a little boy in order to study the scriptures. Which other boys would have liked to do. 37:18 He denied his own will to obey Joseph and Mary for so many years. And whenever he was tempted, he denied his own will, so he never sinned. We sin because we don't take up the cross. Anyone who takes up the cross will die 37:38 to sin. He cannot A dead person cannot sin. And that's the meaning of taking up the cross. Like Romans 6 says, "We who died to sin, how can we ever live in it anymore?" Every time you sin, it's because you don't take up the cross. 37:59 Jesus never sinned. Because he never did his own will. Sin is to do your own will. Holiness is to do the will of the Father. And so we see here in John chapter 6, verse 38. 38:18 The secret of overcoming sin is a holy life. found here in John 6:38. And one part of the will of the Father to save people from sin and to preserve them. 38:38 And he says, "All those whom the Father has given me, verse 39, I must lose nothing but raise them up on the last day." This is perfect eternal security. Jesus keeps us. That's why I know I will never be lost. 38:57 My confidence is not in myself. But the proof of it is that I endure in devotion to Jesus till the end of my life. I don't endure in devotion to Jesus till the end of my life. Then that would prove that I'm not one 39:18 of the elect at all. A lot of people imagine that they are born again. But are they devoted to Jesus? Do they want to do His will? Do they want to follow Him? 39:35 Have they got the same life that He has? When we say we are born again, we're saying just like in our first birth we got a life from our parents. Born again means now I got another birth and I got a life from God. And just like the life I got from my 39:56 parents was not the life of a snake or a dog, it is the life of a human being. And when I was born again, the life I got was the life of God. The life of Christ. And that is not to do my own will but 40:16 the will of the Father. So, if I don't have that desire, I have to question whether I'm born again. We have a battle in our life. But do you have that desire that's been 40:32 planted in you to do the Father's will? See what Jesus said in John chapter 5. Verse 19. There's nothing I can do on my own. Only what I see the Father do. In verse 30. 40:53 I do nothing on my own initiative. Even my judgment, I listen to the Father and then I judge. And my judgment is always right because I never seek my own will. If you seek your own in anything, even 41:12 your judgment will be wrong. The only way to have a correct assessment and discernment of things is to say I don't want to do my own will. So, there is something that we need to 41:30 learn from Jesus. He never did his own will. Let's turn to John chapter 6 now in verse 60. John chapter 6 is a wonderful chapter. It's a chapter where we read of how begins with a great multitude in 41:49 verse 2. And ends in verse 70 with 11 people. So, we can say John chapter 6 is the chapter where Jesus teaches us how to reduce the size of your church from a multitude to 11 people. A lot of people are interested in the 42:12 opposite. How to make my 11 people church into a multitude? Multitude of compromisers. Jesus had a multitude of compromisers and reduced them to 11 disciples. He told this great multitude 42:35 in verse 26 is I know you wanted material blessings and that's why you came to me. Not because you want to follow me. You got loaves and fish and that was good food and now you want to follow me. There are a lot of people today also 42:53 like that. There is a gospel of loaves and fishes being preached today. It is come to Jesus and he will meet your physical needs. Your material needs. And Jesus says some of you are coming for that. 43:10 What did Jesus do with such a crowd? He preached the cross to them. He told them verse 53 It's no use just eating the loaves and fish. You must eat my flesh and drink my blood. Do you know what that means? 43:31 It means what exactly what we thought of in verse 38. I don't do my will but the will of my father. This is not breaking of bread. No, breaking of bread only is is only a symbol of this. When we eat the bread, that's not the 43:49 flesh of Jesus. Does it taste like meat? No, it's like bread. So, it's a symbol of the flesh of Jesus. And to eat his flesh and drink his blood 44:06 means to participate in his death. Very few Christians are crucified physically. You and I may never be crucified. But that type of punishment is not given 44:24 anywhere in the world now. But inward cross where I die to myself which has to take place every day like in the life of Jesus. That is what it means to eat his flesh and drink his blood. You see here 44:46 that when he spoke about the cross they got offended. They said, "No, this is a difficult statement. Who can listen to this?" And Jesus, did he explain to them? He says, "Let me explain to you. No, no, no, I didn't mean that you have to 45:01 actually eat my flesh." He just said, "The words I speak to you, verse 63, are spirit and life." His statement was testing who all really wanted to follow him. Many of them left, verse 66, and didn't 45:25 walk with him anymore. Most of them. The great multitude finally became only 12, verse 67. Everybody went away. And to the 12 Jesus said, "You want to go away, too?" 45:45 He didn't say, "Oh, I hope you will not leave me." No, no, no, if you want to go, you go. Jesus was so secure. So many pastors are disturbed when somebody leaves their church. Many people have left To me it's like the weeds being pulled 46:08 out of a garden. You don't get upset if the weeds are pulled out. People are not whole-hearted disciples of Jesus. Why should they be in the church? It's better they go. It's better the devil pulls them out and 46:27 takes them somewhere else. If a man's not willing to repent and follow Jesus, it's better he leaves our church. He doesn't want to be a disciple of Jesus. Let him go and join the multitudes of dead churches there are in the world. 46:47 Why should we waste our time with rotten apples and spoil the others? So, Jesus let them go. Once a rich man said, "I can't give all of my money to the poor." Jesus let him go. And different people who wanted to go 47:07 home and do this and that before following Jesus, Jesus said, "Go." He knew that all the Father has given him will come to him. And then Simon Peter said in verse 68, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You got the words of eternal life." 47:30 And they stayed with him. Peter was rebuked saying, "Get behind me, Satan." He calls that the words of eternal life. And Jesus said, "I is one of you still a devil." But he didn't drive him out. One day Judas Iscariot fell away on his 47:50 own. You know, in the church we don't drive out people. If they live in sin and they don't repent, If they live in sin and they don't repent, we discipline them for a period. Say you can't come to the church 48:10 until you repent. Then you can come back. But we don't drive people out permanently. Unless they don't want to be with us. Always there is hope. And Jesus did not drive out Judas Iscariot. Even the multitude, he didn't drive them 48:31 out. They went away on their own in verse 66. But his standards were high. That's how it must be in our church. Our arms must be open. Our standards must be very high. 48:50 That doesn't mean that a person who comes in the kindergarten must immediately reach that high standard. But are you willing to come up to that standard? That is how it must be in the church. In John chapter 7, 49:09 we read of a feast that was coming up and the disciples asked Jesus, "Are you going there?" He said, "No." Jesus didn't were trying to kill him. There's no virtue people are trying to kill you. You can go to a place where 49:25 people are trying to kill you and say, "I'm not afraid." That's no virtue. He said, "I'm not going." So that is brothers went. But after they went, it says in verse 10, "He himself also went." Why was that? Because Jesus lived by moment-by-moment 49:44 direction from his father. When his brothers asked him, "Are you going to the feast?" He hadn't got any directions from his father. He hadn't got any directions from his father. So, he said, "No, I've got no directions from my father. I'm not going." 50:03 Five minutes later, father didn't tell a lie. He lived by moment by moment. He said in verse six, "My time is not come." You folks are always ready. You can do what you like. That's why he went after his brothers 50:24 went. Sometimes God doesn't allow us to go with other people. He knows that the entire six hour or one 12 hour journey they'll be talking all useless stuff. God doesn't want us to mingle with people who are just going to waste our 50:39 time. That's why the father did not allow Jesus to go with his brother. It's good to learn to God bless you.
