Studying God's Word

In his Sermon on the Mount Jesus gave us a series of beatitudes. A beatitude is a pronouncement of blessing, a state of well-being for the faithful because of God’s divine favor. The beatitudes show us the spiritual path to true faith. A beatitude is basically a promised blessing from God for those who exude the character described. It’s up to each of us to work on obtaining the character necessary to cause God’s blessing to flow to us. God never breaks a promise but we must have goals and the willpower to reach them.

1. BLESSED are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven,

A person who is poor in spirit is one who is humble. He realizes he is a sinner lost in his sin, admits it and has a repentant heart. The humble person understands life is meaningless apart from a right relationship with God. He knows he is weak and can do nothing himself but must rely on God’s mercy and grace unto eternal life. You cannot enter heaven without a humble, contrite heart.

2. BLESSED are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.

By mournful Jesus is not talking about chronically unhappy people or those wallowing in self-pity. Jesus is talking about those people who are ashamed when they sin and genuinely grieve over their sinful state. Sin is no longer enjoyable and is now a source of misery in most cases. Ask God to forgive your sins daily and he will give you his peace.

3. BLESSED are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.

Meek as used here does not mean timid people. Jesus is referring to people who get along peaceably with everyone and who quietly live a life of devotion to God by following the commandments of God. While being poor in spirit involves being humble because of one’s self-assessment, being meek in this context means being humble because of our right relationship with God and other people. Being meek means having no personal agenda, seeking no personal gain, and living a life that emulates Jesus Christ. The meek simply place their total trust in the Lord. Those that live to please God will rule with Jesus when he sets up his millennial kingdom on the earth.

4. BLESSED are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.

There is such a thing as an unquenchable thirst for God’s Word and the righteousness of God. There is such a thing as a hunger for the will of God in your life. Scripture says to seek God diligently and you will find him. If you hunger and thirst after God you will be satisfied.

I do what I call passive witnessing by Christian blogging plus I hand out Christian Chick tracts I buy from www.chick.com. The only one I pass out is the one titled “This was your life”. I love these little cartoon booklets because they have a salvation message. As you look at these booklets and read the accompanying Scripture the Holy Spirit is present to convict you of your sins if your heart is ready. The thing I like best about these tracts is at the end of each one is a step by step sinner’s prayer to guide the reader to salvation. The reader can follow the guidance and accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior on their own. They don’t really need a witness to guide them to eternal life. Of course afterward the person may want to go to a pastor and confirm again in their presence they have given their life to Jesus just for their peace of mind if nothing else.

Here is the last page of every Christian tract:

NOBODY ELSE CAN SAVE YOU. TRUST JESUS TODAY!

John 14:6 – I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man comes to the Father but by Me.

Romans 10:9 – That if you shall confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and shall believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved.

1. Admit you are a sinner. See Romans 3:10
2. Be willing to turn from sin (repent). See Acts 17:30
3. Believe that Jesus Christ died for you, was buried and rose from the dead. See Romans 10:9-10
4. Through prayer, invite Jesus into your heart to become your personal savior. See Romans 10:13

WHAT TO PRAY:

Dear God, I am a sinner and need forgiveness. I believe that Jesus Christ shed His precious blood and died for my sin. I am willing to turn from sin. I now invite Christ to come into my heart as my personal Savior.

IF YOU TRUSTED JESUS AS YOUR SAVIOR, YOU HAVE JUST BEGUN A WONDERFUL NEW LIFE WITH HIM. NOW:

1. Read your Bible (KJV) every day to get to know Jesus Christ better.
2. Talk to God in prayer every day.
3. Be baptized, worship, fellowship, and serve with other Christians in a church where Christ is preached and the Bible is the final authority.
4. Tell other about Jesus Christ.

You see, God loves us all and He wants every single person to have eternal life in heaven with Him which is why God has made it so easy to be saved. We are saved by faith and not by works. We are in the end times and God is waiting until the last minute before He raptures the saints in order to save one more for Jesus. If you haven’t put your trust in Jesus yet don’t wait too long or you’ll be left behind.

God intentionally created the four gospels to show the four faces of God portrayed in the Old Testament. In Zechariah Jesus is called both king and man. In Isaiah Jesus is called both God and servant. In Matthew Jesus is a king. In Mark Jesus is a servant. In Luke Jesus is a man. In John Jesus is God. Notice in the following Old Testament Scriptures when God say “behold” he is letting us know something important is being said:

Zechariah 9:9 – Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.

Jesus fulfills this prophecy in His triumphal entry into Jerusalem (Matt. 21:7-11, Mark 11:7-10. Luke 19:35-40, John 12:12-19).

Isaiah 42:1 – Behold my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my souls delights; I have put my Spirit upon him; he will bring forth justice to the nations.

Zechariah 6:12 – Thus says the Lord of hosts, behold, the man whose name is the branch: for he shall branch out from his place, and he shall build the temple of the Lord.

This Scripture is telling us Jesus will establish the church and it will spread out to the entire world. Each indwelt member of the church will become a temple of the Lord.

Isaiah 40:9 – Go up on a high mountain, O Zion, herald of good news; lift it up, fear not; say to the cities of Judah, “Behold your God”.

The four-faced cherubim described in Ezekiel 1:5-10 also portrays the four faces of God which correspond to the four natures of Jesus. One face of the cherubim is man. One face is a lion representing the king. One face is an ox representing a servant. Several places in Scripture the ox is clearly used to portray a servant so we assume the same here. The last face of the cherubim is an eagle representing God. Again, the symbol of an eagle is used in other Scriptures clearly identified with God. Each face of God is clearly presented to man as a separate gospel. God is prophetically showing us the four faces of Jesus to be revealed in two stages. Jesus came to the earth the first time in the incarnation as servant and man. When Jesus comes the second time it will be in all his glory as God and king. Jesus fulfilled the first half of the prophecy concerning his coming which confirms he will also appear at the second coming in all his glory. Praise the Lord!

The synoptic gospels were written years before the Apostle John wrote his gospel. John was illiterate so he had to dictate his writings. God kept John alive until his old age in order to allow John to write his gospel, his epistles and the book of Revelation which was completed around 95 AD. God allowed time for the first three gospels to circulate among the people and be accepted as truth. John’s gospel tied the other three gospels together and dispelled the false information being circulated about Jesus after the first three gospels were written. By giving his eyewitness testimony about the miracles and resurrection of Jesus John added his confirmation to support the church’s claim of the deity of Jesus as the eternal Son of God. Each of the four gospels looks at the life of Jesus from slightly different points of view and each had a specific audience they were addressing. Matthew presents Jesus as the King, Mark as the suffering servant, Luke as a human being and John as God. The gospels were not exactly the same but many of the stories were overlapping. The gospels when viewed together give a comprehensive description of the life of Jesus.

The book of Acts was written by Luke to record the history of the early history church. The next 21 books of the New Testament are epistles (letters) that were written by church leaders to provide further church doctrine and ethical instructions to the churches. Although usually addressed to individuals or churches the letters were intended to be read and shared with all Christians. Letter writing was a common and accepted method of sharing information in those days. The epistle writers were aware they were writing Scripture that would last for the ages to come.

The first 13 epistles were written by the Apostle Paul. The other eight epistles were written by the Apostles Peter (2) and John (3) plus the brothers of Jesus, James (1) and Jude (1). The writer of the epistle of Hebrews is unknown. Revelations is also an epistle written by John but is usually listed in a category on its own. When thinking about the New Testament think of it as broken up into four categories. We have the four gospels (life of Christ), we have the book of Acts (early church history), we have the 21 epistles (church doctrine and instruction), and finally we have Revelation (end time tribulation) which is the last book in the Bible.

Matthew was not the first gospel written but it comes first in the New Testament for obvious reasons. Matthew was the only disciple of Jesus who was literate so he was an obvious choice to write about the life of Jesus. Matthew is the most Jewish of the gospels because it was written by a Jew writing to a Jewish audience to convince them Jesus was the promised Messiah. Matthew did this by linking the Old Testament prophecies with fulfillment of those prophecies in the life of Jesus. This made the gospel of Matthew the perfect bridge between the Old and New Testaments and linking them together as one Word of God.

The gospel of Mark was written by a Jew named John Mark who was a disciple of the Apostle Peter. Peter preached in Rome and believers there, both Jew and Gentile, wanted a written record of the gospel message being preached by Peter. Peter was illiterate so it fell to Mark to write down all that Peter was preaching about the life of Jesus. Mark went with Peter everywhere he preached so he knew all that Peter was preaching by heart. Mark is recognized as the first of the gospels to be written. You may wonder why the gospel isn’t named for Peter. Peter didn’t dictate the gospel to Mark. Mark wrote the gospel himself based on his memory of what Peter preached. I’m sure Mark read the gospel to Peter for his approval before finalizing it. Let’s not forget Mark was a powerful preacher in his own right and preached the gospel to all nations alongside the Apostles and was himself martyred for preaching the gospel message.

Luke was a Gentile physician and disciple of The Apostle Paul who based his gospel primarily on the preaching of Paul. There were other eyewitness testimonies, facts and other evidence Luke uncovered by his own investigation. Who better to write a gospel to a Gentile audience than another Gentile? By using Luke in this manner God was showing his salvation was inclusive, that God’s mercy and grace was for all people who believe in Jesus, not just the Jews. Luke and Matthew were written about the same time. Nobody knows which came first but it doesn’t really matter. Both were written after Mark. The gospel of Luke stressed Jesus’ humanity.

Christians should never ever allow any doubts to enter their heads that the Bible isn’t God’s Word. Not only did the Holy Spirt inspire the 40 writers of the Bible to write down every word God intended but God also made sure the Old Testament and New Testament canons have only the books authorized by God. The Old Testament can be summed up in two words, Christ promised. The New Testament can also be summed up in two words, Christ delivered. This theme is woven throughout both Testaments and binds them together as the unerring Word of God. Todays focus will be on the New Testament and God’s progressive revelation from the Gospels to Acts to the epistles and to Revelation. In the New Testament God reveals that the Lord Jesus Christ is the Son of God and the Savior of fallen mankind. Every Christian owes it to himself, and to God, to read the entire New Testament until they know it like the back of their hand.

Every story, every act of Jesus and every spiritual truth spoken or revealed should be absorbed into your soul so it becomes a part of you. Of primary importance is knowing the gospels. The New Testament is not arranged in chronological order. Instead, God has arranged the New Testament so His truth is revealed to us progressively which is why I personally like to read the New Testament in the order presented in the Bible. Let’s review the four most important books in the New Testament and the entire Bible, the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. the first three gospels are referred to as the synoptic gospels because they chronicle the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. The synoptic gospels give us the visible aspects of Christ’s person and ministry. The gospel of John was written much later than the other gospels and focuses on Jesus’ divinity as the Messiah, God in the flesh.

Very few ancient writings were preserved and handed down to us. It’s remarkable that we have portions of New Testament manuscripts that are only 100 years older than the original texts. Ancient Christians writings are by far the most numerous writings preserved from that time. There was no printing press so everything had to be copied by hand one at a time. There are 28,000 copies of ancient Christian manuscripts in existence. When these copies were compared with our Bible it was found that the New Testament was 99.9% accurate with the original documents. Those errors found were minor like spelling and syntax which had no impact on the spiritual message.

Satan stirred up competing cults and false information in an effort to discredit the Bible as God’s Word. Competing documents on the life of Jesus were created to throw up a smoke screen and prevent people from recognizing the word of God. Fortunately the people living at that time were witnesses to the life and resurrection of Jesus and they fully recognized the glory of God so the false writings and teachings were debunked quickly as the frauds they were. God took extraordinary steps to ensure the Bible’s pedigree was unchallenged. Historians for the most part accept the Bible as true because of the overwhelming evidence that supports it.

By about 400 AD it was clear to Satan he couldn’t destroy God’s Word or keep people from believing it. Satan then decided to compete with God for the worship of man by establishing a competing religion so around 600 AD Satan sponsored Islam. Scripture says Satan has the ability to appear as an angel of light so no doubt when he appeared to Mohammed in the cave it was easy for Mohammed to be fooled into thinking he was dealing with god. No matter what the politically correct say Christianity is in a death struggle with Islam because they are bent on destroying Christianity.

Before the time of Christ Satan did his best to divert man from the truth of God by creating other fake religions like Buddhism and Hinduism in the eastern world. In the western world polytheism prevailed (idol worship). Satan is the god of this world and he has inflamed other current fake religions against Christianity and also those with no religious beliefs. Satan’s most dangerous ploy is to sow lies and discord within the church itself in order to get us to doubt God’s love and God’s Word. False Christs and false teachings are coming in the end times according to Scripture so we have to be ready. We must study God’s Word so we know false doctrine when we hear it. We must ignore what is false and keep on the true path by not turning to either the left or the right.

Before God laid the foundations of the world he knew everything we would ever think and do because God made us. It’s the same with Satan because he’s a creature of God the same as we are. That’s why God will always be ten steps ahead of Satan. Satan is the second most powerful being in the universe behind God but God has more power than Satan in his little pinky. Satan taking on God is like an ant taking on an African bull elephant but the ant doesn’t realize he can’t win.

God has given us the Holy Bible as a revelation of himself and his salvation plan for man through the coming of his Son Jesus Christ to redeem mankind from their sins. Satan has predictably tried to stop the Bible from being completed and believed by the people by stirring up competing cults with false doctrines and sowing doubt with fake written accounts of the life of Jesus. Satan failed because God has made sure the documentation of the Bible as God’s Word is beyond reproach. Nobody can thwart the will of God. God does as he pleases.

Bible scholars agree Christ died between 30-33 AD and all four gospels were written down between 25-50 years later, which was very fast for the oral culture in Palestine at that time. In ancient Israel most information was memorized and retold because writing was scarce. There were no writings about the life of Jesus for many years so the preaching in the early church followed the oral tradition of retelling, or preaching, the account of the life, death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus. The explosive growth of the church was achieved without any written documents.

More important than anything in the oral histories and later in the writings were the eyewitness testimonies of the Apostles and others who had seen the miracles performed by Jesus and those who knew the true facts of the life of Jesus. More important than either the oral histories or the writings were the verifiable historical facts surrounding the life of Jesus. Everyone realized that the witnesses would not always be with us to tell the tale and facts dim over time so it was important to capture the events of Jesus’ life for future believers while the eyewitnesses were still alive to write down their stories.

The New Testament books were a written account of what the people already knew and what the churches had already been preaching for many years as the truth of God. When the church council met in 397 AD to confirm New Testament canon as the completed revelation of God the 27 books of the New Testament had already been accepted by the faithful and used for preaching in the churches for many years. The council by nearly unanimous consent merely ratified what was already accepted by the people as God’s Word.

Buddha was agnostic toward a belief in god and thought god and the universe were the same. Buddhists believe our world is an illusion. Hindu’s also believe the world is an illusion. To Hindu’s reality is spiritual and invisible. Hindu’s believe in millions of gods and Brahma is the main god, the universal soul of which all people are a part. In Islam Allah is totally removed from people, capricious in all his acts and responsible for evil as well as well as for good. Jehovah is the God of both Christians and Jews. The difference is the Jews don’t believe Jesus Christ is the Messiah, the Son of God. The Jews think Jesus was a great Jew and a great prophet but not deity. The Jews are still waiting for their promised Messiah to appear. Only at the Second Coming of Christ will the Jews finally realize Jesus was their Messiah.

Of the great religious leaders of the world, Christ alone claims to be deity. Other religions tout the teachings of their founders. Christ alone made himself the focal point of his teachings. The grave of Jesus is empty because He is risen. All the other founders of the world’s great religions are still in their graves because they are all fake religions sponsored by Satan to fool man and lead him away from the gospel of truth.

John 6:29 – The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.

We must all be tolerant of other religious points of view and respect their right to be held and heard. No one should be silenced or feel threatened with violence for their beliefs. In the name of tolerance nobody should be forced to agree that all religious points of view are equally valid when they are obviously mutually contradictory.

John 14:6 – I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.

All world religions tout the golden rule but only Jesus came to help us keep it. To even begin to understand the nature of God you must reconcile the three seminal characteristics of God. We all know God is loving, holy and just. God never stops loving us even when our sins separate us from a holy God who cannot abide sin. God never stops loving us even when His justice requires that He judge us for those sins. God’s love, holiness and justice all intersect at the cross to become one for our redemption.

John 3:16 – For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

Matthew 1:21 – And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.

The work of Jesus on the cross is complete. We aren’t required to do anything else to receive eternal life. We need only accept God’s gift of salvation by accepting Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. All other world religions require men to do things to earn their way to heaven and there is no way to determine if you’ve done enough. That is no way to live. It’s spiritual bondage. Christianity is the largest religion on earth with two billion believers.

Buddhism began with Gautama Siddhartha, “Buddha”, who was born in 563 BC in India. He taught nirvana was achieved by the soul being absorbed in to the supreme spirit through the emptying of self, through eliminating desire. There are 520 million Buddhists. In Hinduism there are millions of gods but Brahma is the main god. Nirvana is the reunion with Brahma by a continuous cycle of birth, life, death and rebirth based on living a good life. You could move up or down from man, animal or insect. Hinduism has no single founder and there are 1.5 billion believers.

Heaven in Islam is a life of luxury with plenty of food and sensuous delights like 72 virgins for personal pleasure. Sounds like a man’s idea of heaven and not God’s. The way to reach heaven in Islam is to follow the five pillars of the faith which are repeating a creed, making a pilgrimage to Mecca, giving alms to the poor, praying five times a day and fasting during the month of Ramadan. Other than that, you’re free to kill, rape, pillage and plunder to your heart’s content. This sounds like something invented by someone bent on enslaving others for their benefit. Mohammed and Satan both qualify on that score. Islam began around 600 AD and today believers number 1.6 billion.