AF-S66-041705 1 John F
Alêtheia Christian Fellowship (Sermon 66, 04-17-05
3 Songs:
Prayer & Baptism:
Luke 7: 29When all the people and the tax collectors heard this, they acknowledged God’s justice, having been baptized with the baptism of John. 30But the Pharisees and the lawyers rejected God’s purpose for themselves, not having been baptized by John. Matthew 3: 11“As for me, I baptize you £with water for repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, and I am not fit to remove His sandals; He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. 12“His winnowing fork is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clear His threshing floor; and He will gather His wheat into the barn, but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.” Mark 16: 15And He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. 16“He who has believed and has been baptized shall be saved; but he who has disbelieved shall be condemned.Romans 6: 1What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? 2May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it? 3Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? 4Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. 5For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection, 6knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; 7for he who has died is freed from sin. 8Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, 9knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him. 10For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. 11Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus. 12Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts, 13and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. 14For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace.
3 Songs:
Offering & Announcements:
Clarification:
1- Universal Body of Christ. It’s like a marriage.
2- Separation is not necessarily divorce.
3- Infidelity.
4- Why do you need to worry about your growth/being feed?
5- Relationship!
An annointing from the Holy One is the other paraclete, the literal, living, Breath of God in you.
The Holy Spirit reveals Truth and it is only possible to recognize Truth if the Holy Spirit is in you.
1- The Truth is the Bible is perfect as we have it for God’s desire in you.
2- The Bible clearly teaches that there is one and only one path to Almighty God.
Many people scoff at these ideas and it is because they don’t have the Holy Spirit and they don’t have the Holy Spirit because they scoff.
1 John 2:25-29
This is the promise which He Himself made to us: eternal life. These things I have written to you concerning those who are trying to deceive you. As for you, the anointing which you received from Him abides in you, and you have no need for anyone to teach you; but as His anointing teaches you about all things, and is true and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you abide in Him.
Now, little children, abide in Him, so that when He appears, we may have confidence and not shrink away from Him in shame at His coming. If you know that He is righteous, you know that everyone also who practices righteousness is born of Him.
The NLT says, “In this Fellowship we have eternal life as He promised.”
The whole concept is that those who seek God earnestly and honestly will find what they seek. It is a relationship and due to this relationship we can know God’s Truth through the action of the Holy Spirit.
Heaven is a relationship with God, if that kind of relationship is not your cup of tea right now then don’t whine about going into the lake of fire. Jesus calls it a place of weeping and gnashing of teeth. It is complete absence of God just as you desired.
If you are genuinely saved you don’t need someone to tell you how it is, because God’s Spirit will teach you everything you need to know. Now that’s true if you cling or as John says abide in Him seeking Him and His will, not your own. You must desire and therefore avail yourself of resourses, but remember in a true Christian community you grow by giving of what you take.
Here John is encouraging, if you desire God, God will not disappoint.
Now John exhorts by reiterates that they must abide in the imperitive tense, you must cling and if they choose to abide then they will have no cause for shame.
Imminence!
Then He gives us a key, you know God is Righteous so then it follows that everyone trying to be righteous is a Christian.
To understand the key we have to understand the term, “righteous.”
Righteous literally means to be right di>kaio>v, evokes the concept of Justice therefore a just person is not under codemnation, they are alright with the other entity, government, court or in this case God.
To be righteous means that God holds nothing against you.
Well, hows that possible?
By His mercy based on His plan. So for the Christian today, just as with Father Abraham 4,000 years ago Righteousness is faith and faith alone.
Now just as with Abraham, if we really believe there will be evidence in our life that support that reality.
Are we perfect?
Jesus says in John 3:18-21
“There is no judgment awaiting those who trust him. But those who do not trust him have already been judged for not believing in the only Son of God. Their judgment is based on this fact: The light from heaven came into the world, but they loved the darkness more than the light, for their actions were evil. They hate the light because they want to sin in the darkness. They stay away from the light for fear their sins will be exposed and they will be punished. But those who do what is right come to the light gladly, so everyone can see that they are doing what God wants.”
Transparent and the integrity to be who you really are.
1 John 3:1-3
1See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we would be called children of God; and such we are (KJV). For this reason the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. (NLT the people who belong to this world don’t know God, so they don’t understand that we are his children.) 2Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is. 3And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.
Remember who you are!
KJV- Older mss omitted two words kai< ejsme>n, that translate literally “and we are.”
The world lovers are self-lovers and they don’t even know who they are let alone who we are!
Verse two is amazing because what it says is no one has perfect theology! Even the Beloved Disciple who rested his head upon Jesus and cared for his fleshly mother and led the church into the second century didn’t know what to expect as to the details.
What John did know was that we would be like He really is someday, but in the meantime we who have this faith in this hope will conform ourselves to that tiny bit we do understand!
Luke 22:
19And he took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, AThis is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me.@ 20In the same way, after the supper he took the cup, saying, AThis cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.
LK 22:7-22 ~ 7Then came the day of Unleavened Bread on which the Passover lamb had to be sacrificed. 8Jesus sent Peter and John, saying, AGo and make preparations for us to eat the Passover.@ 9AWhere do you want us to prepare for it?@ they asked.
10He replied, AAs you enter the city, a man carrying a jar of water will meet you. Follow him to the house that he enters, 11and say to the owner of the house, >The Teacher asks: Where is the guest room, where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?= 12He will show you a large upper room, all furnished. Make preparations there.@
13They left and found things just as Jesus had told them. So they prepared the Passover. 14When the hour came, Jesus and his apostles reclined at the table. 15And he said to them, AI have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. 16For I tell you, I will not eat it again until it finds fulfillment in the kingdom of God.@ 17After taking the cup, he gave thanks and said, ATake this and divide it among you. 18For I tell you I will not drink again of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.@ 19And he took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, AThis is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me.@ 20In the same way, after the supper he took the cup, saying, AThis cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you. 21But the hand of him who is going to betray me is with mine on the table. 22The Son of Man will go as it has been decreed, but woe to that man who betrays him.@
MT 26:26-30 ~ 26While they were eating, Jesus took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to his disciples, saying, ATake and eat; this is my body.@ 27Then he took the cup, gave thanks and offered it to them, saying, ADrink from it, all of you. 28This is my blood of the_ covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. 29I tell you, I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it anew with you in my Father=s kingdom.@ 30When they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.
MK 14:22-26 ~ 22While they were eating, Jesus took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to his disciples, saying, ATake it; this is my body.@ 23Then he took the cup, gave thanks and offered it to them, and they all drank from it. 24AThis is my blood of the_ covenant, which is poured out for many,@ he said to them. 25AI tell you the truth, I will not drink again of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it anew in the kingdom of God.@ 26When they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.
1CO 11:17-34 ~ 17In the following directives I have no praise for you, for your meetings do more harm than good. 18In the first place, I hear that when you come together as a church, there are divisions among you, and to some extent I believe it. 19No doubt there have to be differences among you to show which of you have God=s approval. 20When you come together, it is not the Lord=s Supper you eat, 21for as you eat, each of you goes ahead without waiting for anybody else. One remains hungry, another gets drunk. 22Don=t you have homes to eat and drink in? Or do you despise the church of God and humiliate those who have nothing? What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you for this? Certainly not! 23For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, 24and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, AThis is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me.@ 25In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, AThis cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.@ 26For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord=s death until he comes.
27Therefore, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord. 28A man ought to examine himself before he eats of the bread and drinks of the cup. 29For anyone who eats and drinks without recognizing the body of the Lord eats and drinks judgment on himself. 30That is why many among you are weak and sick, and a number of you have fallen asleep. 31But if we judged ourselves, we would not come under judgment. 32When we are judged by the Lord, we are being disciplined so that we will not be condemned with the world. 33So then, my brothers, when you come together to eat, wait for each other. 34If anyone is hungry, he should eat at home, so that when you meet together it may not result in judgment. And when I come I will give further directions.
JN 13:2 & 26-27 ~ 2The evening meal was being served, and the devil had already prompted Judas Iscariot, son of Simon, to betray Jesus.
26Jesus answered, AIt is the one to whom I will give this piece of bread when I have dipped it in the dish.@ Then, dipping the piece of bread, he gave it to Judas Iscariot, son of Simon. 27As soon as Judas took the bread, Satan entered into him.