20200209 Where are You From?

Good morning and welcome to First Baptist. I am glad that you are with us this morning. I wanted to spend some time before we get into the sermon pointing out that our church has a new website. It is still the same address (www.fbccreedmoor.org) but we have completely redesigned it and added some things that will hopefully make it more useful and helpful to our church members. You can see our calendar events, you can listen to past sermons (we are working back all the way to the beginning of 2019 to include sermons on our website from January 2019 until now). We are still trying to streamline this process, but hopefully we will be able to get each week’s sermon posted early on Monday so that if you ever miss a Sunday, you can listen to it online. A couple of weeks ago I also had a sermon where I was covering A LOT of information about prayer and meditation, and some people who like to take notes came to me afterwards and told me they couldn’t keep up because I was going too fast. Well now, not only can you go back and re-listen to the sermon and fill in the places you missed, I will try to put a copy of my outline with the points that come up on the screen on the website. This will let you go back and look at that outline on your computer, and even print it out if you want to so that you can have something to supplement your notes. Finally, let me point out that our new website makes it very easy to give online, so that you can submit your tithes and offerings that way, or if you are sending your kids to summer camp, or signing up for the Academy Fun Run at the end of March, you can pay for all of those things online through a secure service we’ve partnered with over the past few months called “EasyTithe”. So I encourage you to check out our new website this week. You can do it on your computer, but you can also do it on your phone or tablet if you have one. Little by little we will be adding more and more stuff on the website, so keep checking it out on a regular basis. Okay...

Today we are continuing in John chapter seven. Last week we saw that Jesus had spent several months doing ministry in Galilee after the incidents in chapter six where many of his disciples left Him due to the difficult challenge that Jesus made about what it took to be His follower. Then, when the Festival of Shelters, or Feast of Tabernacles was almost there, Jesus’ brothers tried to get him to go to the festival with them, and try to gain a large following again by doing miracles and speaking to the large crowds that would be in Jerusalem for the feast. Jesus said He wasn’t going up to Jerusalem, but a few days after his brothers had left, John tells us that Jesus also went up, but secretly. I tried to explain last week how for some people this is confusing, and they have a hard time understanding why Jesus told His brothers that He wasn’t going, but then He did go a few days later. I pointed out that Jesus’ brothers had a specific idea of what they thought Jesus should do when He went to the festival, and what His goal should be by going to the celebration. Jesus refused to do what they suggested. When He told His brothers that He wasn’t going to the festival, He was referring to the fact that He wasn’t going to the festival in the way and with the purpose that His brothers were asking Him to go. A few days later, God called Jesus to go to the festival with a different purpose and do things in a different way than His brothers wanted Him to do it.

Some of the problems that come up when we study the Bible is that we are studying something that was written in another language (in this case Greek and sometimes a language called Aramaic, which was the common language in the area at that time). When scholars and translators take on the task of putting the text into English, they do their best in using the English word that means the same thing that the original word meant. However, often words have complex meaning, and there is an entire culture, a way of doing things, and a context of meaning behind many of the words that doesn’t always come across in the translation. That’s one of the things that happens in this case. For example, the phrase in the original language where Jesus said, “I am not going up to this festival, because my time has not yet come,” the original words translated “not going up” also often carries the meaning of “not going up AT THIS TIME” or “IN THIS WAY”. Those subtle meanings are important, but they don’t always get included when the translators are doing their work. Some translations in English add the word “yet” to this verse to help capture that meaning, saying, “I am not going to the feast yet.” So a reader who lived at the time that John wrote this book, and read it in its original language, would not have thought that there was anything inconsistent with what Jesus told His brothers and what He did a few days later.

Anyway, I wanted to revisit these few verses because I know some people were still left wondering about what was going on in this situation, and some people still had questions.

As we shift our focus to today’s study, I want to have us think about the answer to a question we have all had to answer at some point or another:

This is one of those questions that can bring about a quick and simple answer, or it can open the door to a much deeper conversation that reveals a lot more about a person. One of the questions that I’ve always struggled to answer all my life is the question, “Where are you from?” If someone from work asked you about your church and wanted to know where your pastor is from, I bet many of you would say something like, “Well, he and his family are from California.” You would be partially right. Our family most recently moved from California after being there eleven years. But whenever I’m asked the question, my answer is something like: “My mom is from Costa Rica, and my dad is American, but I was born in the Dominican Republic when my parents were living there. However, at age seven, our family moved to Mexico, and I mostly grew up there. But every fifth year we lived in Norman, Oklahoma. After high school I went to college in Washington D.C., and after college I’ve lived in Mexico, China and California. That tells you a lot more about who I am, doesn’t it? It might be more than you were looking for, but you’d have a better understanding of who I am. Well, today we’re looking at how Jesus answered that question and what it means for us as His followers.

Let’s look at today’s passage, which is a continuation of last week’s passage. It is found in .

Christian Standard Bible Chapter 7

25 Some of the people of Jerusalem were saying, “Isn’t this the man they are trying to kill? 26 Yet, look, he’s speaking publicly and they’re saying nothing to him. Can it be true that the authorities know he is the Messiah? 27 But we know where this man is from. When the Messiah comes, nobody will know where he is from.”

28 As he was teaching in the temple, Jesus cried out, “You know me and you know where I am from. Yet I have not come on my own, but the one who sent me is true. You don’t know him; 29 I know him because I am from him, and he sent me.”

30 Then they tried to seize him. Yet no one laid a hand on him because his hour had not yet come. 31 However, many from the crowd believed in him and said, “When the Messiah comes, he won’t perform more signs than this man has done, will he?”

32 The Pharisees heard the crowd murmuring these things about him, and so the chief priests and the Pharisees sent servants to arrest him.

33 Then Jesus said, “I am only with you for a short time. Then I’m going to the one who sent me. 34 You will look for me, but you will not find me; and where I am, you cannot come.”

35 Then the Jews said to one another, “Where does he intend to go so we won’t find him? He doesn’t intend to go to the Jewish people dispersed,ag among the Greeks and teach the Greeks, does he? 36 What is this remark he made: ‘You will look for me, and you will not find me; and where I am, you cannot come’?”

Christian Standard Bible Chapter 7

25 Some of the people of Jerusalem were saying, “Isn’t this the man they are trying to kill? 26 Yet, look, he’s speaking publicly and they’re saying nothing to him. Can it be true that the authorities know he is the Messiah? 27 But we know where this man is from. When the Messiah comes, nobody will know where he is from.”

28 As he was teaching in the temple, Jesus cried out, “You know me and you know where I am from. Yet I have not come on my own, but the one who sent me is true. You don’t know him; 29 I know him because I am from him, and he sent me.”

30 Then they tried to seize him. Yet no one laid a hand on him because his hour had not yet come. 31 However, many from the crowd believed in him and said, “When the Messiah comes, he won’t perform more signs than this man has done, will he?”

32 The Pharisees heard the crowd murmuring these things about him, and so the chief priests and the Pharisees sent servants to arrest him.

33 Then Jesus said, “I am only with you for a short time. Then I’m going to the one who sent me. 34 You will look for me, but you will not find me; and where I am, you cannot come.”

35 Then the Jews said to one another, “Where does he intend to go so we won’t find him? He doesn’t intend to go to the Jewish people dispersed,ag among the Greeks and teach the Greeks, does he? 36 What is this remark he made: ‘You will look for me, and you will not find me; and where I am, you cannot come’?”

THE PROMISE OF THE SPIRIT

37 On the last and most important day of the festival, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me,ak and drink. 38 The one who believes in me, as the Scripture has said, will have streams of living water flow from deep within him.” 39 He said this about the Spirit. Those who believed in Jesus were going to receive the Spirit, for the Spirit had not yet been given because Jesus had not yet been glorified.

THE PEOPLE ARE DIVIDED OVER JESUS

40 When some from the crowd heard these words, they said, “This truly is the Prophet.” 41 Others said, “This is the Messiah.” But some said, “Surely the Messiah doesn’t come from Galilee, does he? 42 Doesn’t the Scripture say that the Messiah comes from David’s offspring and from the town of Bethlehem, where David lived?” 43 So the crowd was divided because of him. 44 Some of them wanted to seize him, but no one laid hands on him.

DEBATE OVER JESUS’S CLAIMS

45 Then the servants came to the chief priests and Pharisees, who asked them, “Why didn’t you bring him?”

46 The servants answered, “No man ever spoke like this!”,ba

47 Then the Pharisees responded to them: “Are you fooled too? 48 Have any of the rulers or Pharisees believed in him? 49 But this crowd, which doesn’t know the law, is accursed.”

50 Nicodemus—the one who came to him previously and who was one of them—said to them, 51 “Our law doesn’t judge a man before it hears from him and knows what he’s doing, does it?”

52 “You aren’t from Galilee too, are you?” they replied. “Investigate and you will see that no prophet arises from Galilee.”

Let’s pray.

As Jesus engaged the different groups of people in the Temple, it’s clear that there were different groups involved, with different attitudes towards Jesus. When we rejoin the story in verse 25, here is what was going on.

Christian Standard Bible Chapter 7

25 Some of the people of Jerusalem were saying, “Isn’t this the man they are trying to kill? 26 Yet, look, he’s speaking publicly and they’re saying nothing to him. Can it be true that the authorities know he is the Messiah? 27 But we know where this man is from. When the Messiah comes, nobody will know where he is from.”

As we come to verses 25-27, we see some of the people who had a little bit of knowledge of what was going on. Earlier in the chapter (verse 20), when Jesus had mentioned that they were trying to kill him, some of the crowd responded, “You have a demon (you’re crazy)! Who’s trying to kill you?” but now we’re hearing from some of the crowd that is more familiar with the conflict that’s going on.

These were people who knew some things about Jesus. They had heard some people wonder if Jesus might be the Messiah, the Savior God had promised to send long ago, but their information about the Messiah was not based on accurate information. They were not very familiar with the prophesies of the Old Testament. They say, “we know where this man is from. When the Messiah comes, nobody will know where he is from.” Well, that’s not true. There were prophesies that told about where the Messiah was supposed to be from. That’s how Herod found out where Jesus was born when the wise men came many years earlier looking for the one who had been born King of the Jews. Just like many people in churches today, their understanding of their faith was shallow and not grounded in a personal study and understanding of Scripture.

Christian Standard Bible Chapter 7

25 Some of the people of Jerusalem were saying, “Isn’t this the man they are trying to kill? 26 Yet, look, he’s speaking publicly and they’re saying nothing to him. Can it be true that the authorities know he is the Messiah?

Christian Standard Bible Chapter 7

25 Some of the people of Jerusalem were saying, “Isn’t this the man they are trying to kill? 26 Yet, look, he’s speaking publicly and they’re saying nothing to him. Can it be true that the authorities know he is the Messiah? 27 But we know where this man is from. When the Messiah comes, nobody will know where he is from.”

But still, they were not people who were very familiar with the prophesies of the Old Testament. They go on to say, “we know where this man is from. When the Messiah comes, nobody will know where he is from.” Well, that’s not true. There were prophesies that told about where the Messiah was supposed to be from. That’s how Herod found out where Jesus was born when the wise men came many years earlier looking for the one who had been born King of the Jews. Just like many people in churches today, their understanding of their faith was shallow and not grounded in a personal study and understanding of Scripture.

There are people today who have an idea about who Jesus is, what Christianity is all about, and what the Bible says, but they are completely misinformed about these things. They think that the Bible says things that it doesn’t actually say. Here are a few examples of statements that people think are in the Bible that are actually nowhere to be found:

God helps those who help themselves.

Cleanliness is next to godliness.

These things aren’t in the Bible, but our culture has repeated them to us so often that we automatically think it’s true and don’t even bother checking to see if that’s what the Bible really says.

Many of these people make a decision about Jesus and about Christianity based on what they’ve picked up and learned from the culture around them, and unfortunately many of them decide to ignore Jesus and ignore Christianity because they don’t like what they’ve heard or been told, but they never investigate it for themselves and truly give God a chance.

God a chance.

How did Jesus respond to these people? He didn’t try to correct their misunderstanding directly, but used a form of irony to point out that what they knew about him was just superficial. “You know where I’m from. You know I currently live in Galilee and you think that’s where I’m from.” But then he goes on to tell them the most important thing about where He is from. He tells them “ I am from the one who sent me.” Remember, in the first part of this chapter Jesus had just made it clear that His teaching was from God, and that God had sent Him. He says, “I know Him because I am from Him.” What John is telling us by quoting Jesus’s answer to the crowds is that...

Jesus stated the most important thing about who He was when He told the people that He was from God. He had not originated on this earth. He had come from God and taken a human form when He was born, but He knew His eternal origin, and He knew that He would soon be returning to where He was from: God. When the religious leaders heard that answer, they were furious and tried to arrest Jesus, but Jesus was able to get away. John goes on to tell us that many people believed in Him based on the signs Jesus performed. John doesn’t tell us if these were new miracles and signs that Jesus was doing then and there, or maybe some of these signs were things people had seen and witnessed in the past, or things they had heard others tell about what Jesus had done. Either way, some from among the crowd allowed their encounter with Jesus change them. As they heard Him speak, and heard Him talk about who He was, they believed.

That tells you a lot more about who I am, doesn’t it? Well, Jesus stated the most important thing about who He was when He told the people that He was from God. When the religious leaders heard that answer, they were furious and tried to arrest Jesus, but Jesus was able to get away

Today, there are people who maybe started with an idea of who Jesus is based on what the world told them about Him, but they somehow have an encounter with Jesus. Maybe it’s a friend or co-worker who is a Christian, and that person’s life is different from other people they know. It makes them curious, it makes them want to understand why their friend is different. And this opens the door to conversations or an invitation to church, or to study the Bible together, and as the person encounters Jesus in the life of their friend, and in the Bible or in the experience of Church, Jesus becomes real to them and it changes their lives. It doesn’t just change their lives now, it changes them for eternity.

Well, Jesus stated the most important thing about who He was when He told the people that He was from God. When the religious leaders heard that answer, they were furious and tried to arrest Jesus, but Jesus was able to get away. John goes on to tell us that many people believed in Him based on the signs Jesus performed.

We are different from Jesus in that Jesus has always existed as part of the Trinity (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit). His has always been from God, because He IS God. Every other human being that has ever existed began their existence on this planet. Only Jesus has an eternal past as the Son of God which was who He was before He took on human form. The rest of us started with earth as our home, but when we put our faith in Jesus and follow Him, the Bible says that we have a new citizenship in heaven with God. says:

Christian Standard Bible Chapter 3

20 but our citizenship is in heaven, and we eagerly wait for a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Christian Standard Bible Chapter 17

15 I am not praying that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. 16 They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.

And says:

Christian Standard Bible Chapter 17

15 I am not praying that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. 16 They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.

There are some religions that believe that we existed in heaven before we were born, and then we were given human bodies for a while. This is completely contrary to what the Bible teaches. Our origin was not in God or in Heaven, God created us and our existence began as soon as we started growing in our mother’s uterus. But thanks to God’s love and grace, He adopts us as His children when we put our faith in Jesus, and our home and eternal destination changes from this world to God’s Kingdom.

The passage tells us that some people believed in Jesus because of the things he DID. The miracles and signs He performed were the basis of their faith. I want to point something out that I think is important for us to understand based on chapter six of John, the chapter before the one we’re studying today.

Jesus often used miracles to minister to people he encountered and to draw people to Himself, but it was the relationship that grew after that which really led to strong disciples who were willing to stick with Jesus when things got hard. Remember that in John chapter six many of Jesus’ disciples left Him after he started teaching some pretty difficult lessons about what it takes to be a true disciple of His. Those disciples had witnessed the miracles and experienced the thrill and benefit of what Jesus was DOING, but they had not become true followers of Jesus. They had not allowed themselves to draw close to Jesus, to know Him personally, and to submit their lives to His teaching and allow Him to transform their lives from the inside out. Without that, their faith had no lasting root. They weren’t willing to suffer and sacrifice for Him because their relationship was one of receiving from Jesus whatever He wanted to hand out, but they were not willing to submit to Jesus when He asked for sacrifice and faithfulness in times of suffering.

People today are faced with the same danger. Some people believe in Jesus on a superficial level based on something Jesus did for them, or something they saw or heard about that Jesus did or was. But there is a difference between that level of belief and the true faith that results in healthy and growing followers of Jesus.

The disciples that had stuck with Jesus were those who were close to Him and knew Him in ways that had changed the way they viewed the world and viewed their lives. When Jesus told them that the price of following Him was to take up their cross daily and follow Him, he wasn’t talking about a fashionable necklace to wear as an accessory to their outfit. It was an instrument of torture and death. Jesus was telling them, “Suffer for me and die to yourself every day so that you can follow me.” This is not a religion that goes to church on Sunday and then leaves and ignores God in the day-to-day routine of life. It doesn’t matter that the world says it’s okay. Too many Christians have avoided allowing God into the areas of their lives that they want to keep control over. They buy into the world’s perspective of how life should be lived. “Of course you have to live with your boyfriend or girlfriend, how else will you know if you’re sexually compatible, or if you’ll be able to handle living together before you’re married?” “What’s wrong with writing that expense off as a tax-deductible business expense, everyone does that kind of thing. It’s not like the government does that great a job of using my tax money, so what’s wrong if I keep more of my money to myself?” “So what if I fib on my résumé, I have the skills to do the job even if I don’t have the actual experience or education.”

Church, I know we’re not perfect, but the Bible is very clear about warning Christians who try to take advantage of God’s grace as an excuse to keep doing things they know are wrong. Jesus is very clear that those who love Him and want to be His true followers are also those who obey Him. God knows that we aren’t perfect, but He desires us to be in an ongoing process of transformation and growth with Him.

The final group in this story are the Pharisees and religious leaders who were opposed to Jesus. They weren’t on the fence, trying to decide if they believed in Him or not (at least not most of them). They were convinced they had the right approach and method to get to God, and Jesus was just causing trouble for them. Sadly, their rigid belief in rules and religion not only kept them from seeing the truth of Jesus’ message, it kept many ordinary people who wanted to come near to God far away from Him because they could never be good enough for the religious leaders.

When they saw more people putting their faith in Jesus they decided they needed to put a stop to this, so they sent some of their servants to arrest Jesus. Jesus responded to their move by declaring that He would be going back to God, the One who sent Him. He punctuates His response by telling the religious leaders that where He is going, they cannot come. In other words, since Jesus was going back to God, the religious leaders would have no access to God Himself. Their solution to the question of how to get to God was to follow a set of laws and rules of behavior. They were relying on their personal righteousness to get them to God. Ultimately, Jesus was declaring to them that this was not going to be enough to get to God.

Today there are still people who confuse following rules and religious ritual with true faith. They think that their sincere efforts to be good people will earn them God’s approval, and they look down on those who are less perfect than they are. When someone comes looking for a way to draw near to God, they are turned away because they aren’t dressed right, their lives are too messy, they don’t look like the kind of people that are part of that group, or any number of other things that aren’t just right. This past week I was talking with someone who was telling me about an experience he had at another church he attended before he came here. He was a greeter at this other church, and a trucker walked in and asked if he would be welcome in that church even though he was wearing Jeans and a casual shirt. The trucker then went on to tell this person how they had tried to go to a different church, but the greeters there had turned them away because he wasn’t dressed right. Those people were relying on their idea of what made a good Christian, dressing right, doing the right things, singing the right songs, etc., to help them earn the favor of God. Their faithfulness to their religion was going to get them to heaven.

Over and over in the Gospel of John, John keeps hammering away at this idea over and over again. I sometimes worry that I’m repeating myself too much as I preach each Sunday, but each Sunday, it seems, John tells us how Jesus was confronting the same issue over and over again in His teaching and in His interactions with the people He came across.

The reason Jesus had to repeat Himself over and over again so often is probably the same reason we need to hear it too. There is something about our human nature that gravitates towards fairness and justice. There’s something built into us as people that makes us want to earn things, and it makes us want to see people get justice when we think they deserve it, and it makes us react negatively against injustice.

But the amazing message of Jesus is that God was able to both satisfy His requirement to see justice accomplished while at the same time satisfying His great love and mercy towards the people He created. In a seemingly great act of INJUSTICE, God offers us forgiveness and healing and eternal life with Him forever if we will put our faith in His Son, Jesus. Jesus’ message keeps pointing out that we can’t earn our own way into the presence of God. We will never measure up. We can’t erase our mistakes and sins, no matter hard we try. But He can pay for our mistakes and sins if we accept His sacrifice and make Him the boss of our lives.

The reason Jesus had to repeat Himself over and over again so often is probably the same reason we need to hear it too. There is something about our human nature that gravitates towards fairness and justice. There’s something built into us as people that makes us want to earn things, and it makes us want to see people get justice when we think they deserve it, and it makes us react negatively against injustice.

But the amazing message of Jesus is that God was able to both satisfy His requirement to see justice accomplished while at the same time satisfying His great love and mercy towards the people He created. In a seemingly great act of INJUSTICE, God offers us forgiveness and healing and eternal life with Him forever if we will put our faith in His Son, Jesus. Jesus’ message keeps pointing out that we can’t earn our own way into the presence of God. We will never measure up. We can’t erase our mistakes and sins, no matter hard we try. But He can pay for our mistakes and sins if we accept His sacrifice and make Him the boss of our lives.

Just like there were different kinds of people with different attitudes towards Jesus back then, the same is true today. There are those who have their own ideas about Jesus and Christianity based on what they’ve been told and what they’ve heard, and they never give God a real chance and don’t try to find out the truth because they think they’ve already got the truth without ever asking God to show them. Then there are those who think they have earned their way into heaven by being a part of the right church, or the right group with the right beliefs and the right rules, and the right traditions, but they have really put their trust in themselves and not in the grace of God. Finally, you have those who have experienced Jesus in some way, and they have let that experience become the beginning of a lifelong process of transformation and growth where they submit more and more areas of their lives to God.

The religious leaders in Jesus’ day were hard-headed and refused to let the message of mercy and grace break their worldview based on law and justice. Not only that, they were trying to keep others from following God too. Their minds just couldn’t, or wouldn’t give up a system they thought was working for them, because they were the ones in power and with influence. Maybe that’s why Jesus was so hard on them. They were trying to prevent those who wanted to follow Jesus, who recognized their inability to save themselves, and recognized their need for salvation and their need to be transformed from the inside out. Jesus desired for the Pharisees to change too, but most of them decided to trust in their system of rules and regulations instead of admitting their need.

As we think about the kinds of Christians we want to be and the kinds of Christians we want to make, we have to be intentional about how we teach and approach what we believe and how we live. We have to be careful about how we do discipleship.

It is sometimes easier to give people a list of rules to follow than to walk through life with them and help them develop a relationship with the God who came to Earth to save them. It’s easier to have people sit in a class and spoon feed them lessons about who God is than it is to teach them to engage God’s Word for themselves and learn to feed themselves spiritually. It’s easier to pretend we have it all together when we come to church, or get together with other Christians, than to be real and honest about our questions, doubts and struggles even after years of following Jesus. But easy discipleship doesn’t produce the kinds of disciples who can endure the storms of life. It doesn’t produce disciples who let Jesus transform them and obey Him even when it’s hard and it costs them something dear.

But Jesus insists on having people who love and obey Him, and who allow Him to transform their lives. He will not be satisfied with people who simply follow a set of rules and rituals as their religion. He wants so much more for us than that. Will you allow yourself to become that kind of disciple, and will you be willing to invest in others so that they can become that kind of disciple too? It’s the only kind of disciple Jesus wants. Your answer ultimately reflects the answer to the question where is your Home?

Let’s pray.

As we come to our time of invitation, I encourage you to respond to what God is asking you to do. If you need someone to pray with you, not is the time to come forward. Maybe someone here has made that decision to follow Jesus, but you have never been baptized. If you want to be baptized, I invite you to come forward and make your decision known, and we can start talking about a time for you to take that important step of obedience to Jesus.

If you want to be baptized, just like we saw today, please come forward during the invitation time and we can talk about this important decision.

We know that the Twelve had stayed with Jesus, but we also know that there had been some outside of the twelve who had remained faithful. Later when the disciples went to choose a twelfth disciple to replace Judas, they chose from among the disciples that had been with Jesus from the beginning of His ministry. These had remained faithful along with the Twelve even when the large masses of other disciples had left. So even though at this time, some of the people in the crowd were believing in Jesus it would take a deepening of their faith and a relationship with Jesus to become true disciples.

20200209 Where are You From?

(February 9, 2020)

Where are You From?

1. Some people are from the World. Their faith and worldview is based on the culture around them. They never find Jesus and they remain from the World.

Jesus is from God, which means He is God.

2. Some people are from the world, but they encounter Jesus, believe in Him, and their home and citizenship is transferred to a new place, Heaven.

For a Christian, the question of our identity shifts away from “Where are you from?” to “Where is your Home?”

The things Jesus DOES is a good starting point for our faith, but it isn’t a good ending point for our faith.

True followers engage Jesus in an ongoing relationship that transforms their lives from the inside out.

3. Some people are from the World, but they hope religion will get them a new citizenship in heaven. Unfortunately, religion isn’t enough.

Our own righteousness will never be enough to get to God. We need Christ’s righteousness through faith in Him.