Feb. 10, 2023 - Just Informed Talk - Craig James
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| God's Grace is Greater segment and I'm your host Craig. | |
| Thanks for joining me. | |
| We have a lot to do today in this episode. | |
| We're picking up where we left off. | |
| Yesterday we left off in Luke chapter 9 and we were talking about Jesus feeding the 5,000. | |
| Very powerful set of verses that again taught us about faith and I think faith is kind of One of the major themes here, especially in these parts of Luke that we're going through lately. | |
| And now today, we're going into a few different exchanges. | |
| The first one is between Peter, as he is confessing that Jesus is the Messiah, because there is still doubt amongst the disciples and just the people in general as to who Jesus really is. | |
| then Jesus gives us a direct description of what he's about to face to his disciples, and we're going to see how they react to that. | |
| And then we're going to hear this powerful, powerful description of what it means to follow Jesus, where he tells us to take up our cross. | |
| And what does that truly mean? | |
| What kind of faith does that take? | |
| Because we're still in this major theme of faith here. | |
| We're going through it. | |
| So I'm hoping that you guys are ready... | |
| Let's just read through these verses. | |
| We're in Luke chapter 9, verse 18 through 27, picking up where we left off. | |
| We left off at the feeding of the 5,000 and that incredible miracle performed by Jesus where he took five loaves of bread and two fish and fed 5,000 plus people. | |
| It was an incredible story of faith that he used to show us What the power of God truly is and how the impossible becomes possible with Jesus. | |
| Now let's get into these next few sections and then we'll talk about it. | |
| It says here... | |
| Luke 9, verse 18, going up to 27. | |
| It says, And Peter answered, God's Messiah. | |
| It goes on, Whoever wants to save his life will lose it, | |
| but whoever loses his life because of me will save it. | |
| What is a man benefited if he gains the whole world, yet loses or forfeits himself? | |
| For whoever is ashamed of me, in my words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his glory, and that of the Father and the holy angels. | |
| I tell you the truth, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the kingdom of God. | |
| Now, is that not another powerful description of the faith necessary to follow Jesus? | |
| Now, starting back to the beginning of this reading, we look at this exchange between Peter and Jesus. | |
| He's, again, after this incredible miracle has been performed in front of this crowd of thousands and thousands of people, where he's performed this amazing miracle. | |
| He goes to privately pray, which is another lesson I think we see. | |
| It's a theme we see recurring throughout all of the Gospels because I think it's meant to show us that even the Messiah, the Son of God, the Son of Man, had to go to his Father and contemplate a prayer and meditation and prayer on a regular basis to center himself, to find insight and wisdom and spiritual guidance. | |
| And if the Messiah has to do it, then imagine how much we need to do it. | |
| Probably a lot more, I would imagine, which is why we're instructed to pray always in all things. | |
| But going on beyond that, we have this incredible exchange where Jesus first asks his disciples, namely this is him asking Peter, who do the crowds say I am? | |
| So he's saying, who do these people think I am? | |
| And they say, well, this is the same response we had earlier in this chapter, too, with King Herod, who had been hearing the same thing. | |
| They tell him, some people think you're John the Baptist. | |
| They think that you might have been a reincarnated version of that, or some long-form iteration of it. | |
| I don't know how that would have worked, essentially, but some think that he was Elijah, another brought-back old prophet. | |
| Because I believe in the book of Elijah, we never actually see Elijah die, which is very interesting. | |
| We'll definitely hopefully get to that, God willing, someday in the future when we cover those ancient stories from the Old Testament. | |
| But it says, still others think you're one of the ancient prophets that have come back. | |
| Interesting. | |
| So, to that he goes further and asks his disciples, but you, who do you say that I am? | |
| And Peter asks, answers clearly, distinctly, and without hesitation, he says, you are God's Messiah. | |
| And that is a powerful moment, and that shows the faith they have. | |
| But what's fascinating about that is that, remember, in those days, the disciples believed in this Messiah, not just disciples of Jesus, but the general teaching among Jews at that time was that the Messiah would come and be a great leader, a great king, that he would come but the general teaching among Jews at that time was that the Messiah would come And they all envisioned the Messiah as being a figure that would be a king, like some of the kings of the Old Testament, | |
| who would come and overthrow the Romans who were subjugating and enslaving to a degree the Jews and ruling over them, and that he would create this great kingdom on earth, and that that who would come and overthrow the Romans who were subjugating and enslaving to a degree the Jews and ruling over And what does Jesus tell them right after they assign this God's Messiah? | |
| when they call him Christ the Messiah, when they address him as the Messiah? | |
| What does he tell them to do? | |
| Well, the very next line, he says, do not tell anybody about this. | |
| And then he gives them the direct insight into what's going to happen. | |
| He says, the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests, and scribes, be killed, and be raised on the third day. | |
| Now we'll see, going further on in the Gospel, that the disciples don't necessarily believe him at first. | |
| Because in their mind, they have a hard time understanding what Jesus means. | |
| Because in their mind, they see Jesus as a king. | |
| They see him as a ruler. | |
| They see him as an earthly ruler who will bring together all of us on earth. | |
| Now, in a way, he does. | |
| But as Jesus tells us later, the kingdom that he's building is in heaven. | |
| And that the kingdom that he will rule over is in heaven. | |
| Not the kingdom of this earth. | |
| And that we need to prepare ourselves for the next kingdom more than what we need to prepare ourselves here for this worldly existence. | |
| But then, he gives us this incredible insight, right? | |
| Telling us how we should follow him. | |
| He says, if anyone wants to come with me, he must deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow me. | |
| That's what Jesus tells us. | |
| Now, what does it mean to take up your cross? | |
| Well, as we learn through the crucifixion story of Jesus that What the Romans did in their ancient practices was they would force the accused, those who were being sentenced to death, to carry the cross on which they would be hung and crucified. | |
| They would make them carry it to the destination in which they were going to be crucified. | |
| And that was essentially seen as a further punishment for those who were suffering from the punishment in the first place of being sentenced to death. | |
| But what Jesus tells us in that first short sentence there is the three things we have to do. | |
| He says, if you want to come with me, you must deny yourself. | |
| Now, what does that mean? | |
| Why are we supposed to deny ourselves? | |
| Well, because our own selfish ambition can get us into all kinds of trouble. | |
| It usually is our own selfish ambition that leads to sin in our lives in the first place. | |
| It usually is our own selfish ambition that leads us down the path that we should not go on because we're either being lustful for something we shouldn't lust after, we're either desiring money and riches that we shouldn't be putting first above our spiritual connection to God, | |
| or we're desiring some other It's an addiction that we're being drawn to, or it's some kind of affliction that we continuously try to fight in a way that doesn't honor God, whatever it may be. | |
| He says, deny yourself. | |
| So that's the first thing he tells us. | |
| So we must deny ourselves. | |
| And then what? | |
| And then take up his cross daily. | |
| Take up our cross daily. | |
| Now, like you see in this picture of all the men following Jesus with their cross, it is a good portrait of what we're called to do, called to take up our cross and follow Christ, understanding that the third is to follow him, and it gives us an understanding of what we should expect. | |
| He says, whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life because of me will save it. | |
| And you think, well, how does that make sense? | |
| Is he saying I should be suicidal? | |
| No. | |
| Absolutely not. | |
| What Jesus is saying here is pretty simple. | |
| He's saying that if you care more about your own life in this world than you do about following Jesus and doing what's right in As per what we've learned through his teachings in the gospel and through the Bible that teaches us how to live, then you've already lost. | |
| Your life is already lost. | |
| You will not make it to the eternal salvation that's been given to you. | |
| But, if you lose your life because of Jesus, it will be saved. | |
| Because when we give everything to God, And a lot of people say that the phrase, you know, Jesus take the wheel, right? | |
| That's a good phrase. | |
| That's a funny phrase. | |
| But it is true in a way. | |
| You turn it over to Christ and let him be in control. | |
| And recognize in humility toward God that you don't have what it takes to win this battle here on earth. | |
| That only with him and his son, our Lord Jesus Christ, can you overcome the things that you're going to face. | |
| And that's what I think Jesus is telling us because he goes on and says, what does it benefit you if you get the whole world yet lose yourself? | |
| Think about it. | |
| Isn't that what Jesus was tempted with by the devil when he was in the wilderness for 40 days and nights? | |
| The devil took him up to a high peak and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and said, I'll give you everything in this world if you'll just bow down before me. | |
| And Jesus denies him. | |
| And in the same way that this quote tells us, what would it benefit you if you did take it all? | |
| What would it benefit you if you had everything? | |
| What would it benefit you if you were the richest and most powerful man or woman in the world? | |
| And you lost your soul. | |
| And you didn't have Jesus. | |
| I'm not saying that you cannot become rich and powerful by being a Christian. | |
| There are plenty of Christians who can find that. | |
| And if that's God's will, then yes, it will happen. | |
| But I am telling you that if you think it would be worth it to give up your soul and to lose that connection with Christ to get those things... | |
| And you've lost the whole thing altogether. | |
| Because think about it. | |
| There's a lot of things in this world that if we took the easy way, if we didn't do it the way that God calls us to do it, it might be a little easier. | |
| It might be a little easier at work to get ahead if you didn't have such good morals and ethics. | |
| If you could cheat here and there, if you just did the wrong thing when no one was looking and nobody ever caught you, you could get ahead. | |
| You could be better than the guy you're competing with or the girl you're competing with. | |
| But is that going to get you what you need in the end? | |
| What you truly desire, which is eternal salvation? | |
| This grace, this undeserved forgiveness that we get from God? | |
| I tell you, it's not worth it. | |
| And we're meant to learn from Jesus' example that he sets for us. | |
| Because he tells us, if you're ashamed of Jesus, if you're ashamed of him and the word of God and the gospel, then when he comes back, which he will, he will be ashamed of you. | |
| Now, do you think you're going to find that eternal salvation if the Son of Man, Jesus our Savior, the Messiah, if He's ashamed of you? | |
| Perhaps. | |
| God's grace is truly greater. | |
| Forgiveness is real. | |
| There is always a possibility for somebody to come back to God. | |
| I would never close that door. | |
| But I'd say this. | |
| That it's better to take the opportunity now while you still have it before it's too late to turn your life over to God and give everything you have to Him and say to yourself that it is better for me to lose everything I have than to lose my connection to Christ, my Savior. | |
| And then he goes on and tells his disciples there with him that there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the kingdom of God. | |
| And that is a teaser for our next God's Grace is a Greater segment where we're going to talk about the transfiguration. | |
| And if you want to learn what that is all about, make sure you tune in for the next one where we go into Luke chapter 9 verse 28 and talk about the transfiguration of Christ. | |
| So, I hope that you guys took something away from this episode that's powerful, and remember that, as Jesus says, if you want to save your life, you will lose it. | |
| But, if you lose your life because of Him, if you give everything you have to Jesus, and you lose something along the way, you'll get back that and then some when the Kingdom of Heaven arrives. | |
| So, have faith. | |
| Have faith, brothers and sisters. | |
| Have faith. | |
| Let's say a prayer and then we'll wrap it up. | |
| Lord and Heavenly Father, thank you for giving us this incredible, powerful story of faith and belief in you. | |
| We pray you'll guide us and help us remember every day that our lives are only worth Having, if we have you, and Lord, we give everything to you freely. | |
| You are the Messiah. | |
| You are the way, the truth, and the light. | |
| And we thank you for all of your gifts and blessings and the grace of God that is greater than anything we could imagine and anything that we truly have in this world. | |
| We thank you for that. | |
| And we thank you for, most of all, the sacrifice on the cross for our sins. | |
| In Jesus' name we pray. | |
| Amen. | |
| All right, guys. | |
| Well, we're going to wrap it up there. | |
| Thanks for watching. | |
| I hope you enjoyed this episode. | |
| And essentially, you know, make sure you do a few things. | |
| Like the video. | |
| There's a little thumbs up if you're watching this anywhere. | |
| If you're watching on YouTube, I remind you guys, there are links in the description to my Rumble channel and my BitChute channel where I do a live stream pretty much every day, Monday through Friday, where I go into the news that I can't talk about on YouTube. | |
| Otherwise, they would ban the channel because when you speak truthfully on YouTube, We'll see you on the next one. | |
| Until then, my name is Craig. | |
| Godspeed. |
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