God's Workshop, The Inventory of Tools

Christ’s work for us

1 Corinthians 11:23–24 ESV

For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”

1 Corinthians 11:25–26 ESV

In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.

God’s work in us, and God’s work through us.

Ephesians 2:10 HCSB

For we are His creation, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared ahead of time so that we should walk in them.

But, let’s get even more direct...

Philippians 2:13 HCSB

For it is God who is working in you, enabling you both to desire and to work out His good purpose.

One night...

Valkerie

John 14:12–13 HCSB

“I assure you: The one who believes in Me will also do the works that I do. And he will do even greater works than these, because I am going to the Father. Whatever you ask in My name, I will do it so that the Father may be glorified in the Son.

John 14:14 HCSB

If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it.

The vine - God’s work in us and through us

John 15:1–2 HCSB

“I am the true vine, and My Father is the vineyard keeper. Every branch in Me that does not produce fruit He removes, and He prunes every branch that produces fruit so that it will produce more fruit.

John 15:3–4 HCSB

You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. Remain in Me, and I in you. Just as a branch is unable to produce fruit by itself unless it remains on the vine, so neither can you unless you remain in Me.

John 15:5–6 HCSB

“I am the vine; you are the branches. The one who remains in Me and I in him produces much fruit, because you can do nothing without Me. If anyone does not remain in Me, he is thrown aside like a branch and he withers. They gather them, throw them into the fire, and they are burned.

John 15:7–8 HCSB

If you remain in Me and My words remain in you, ask whatever you want and it will be done for you. My Father is glorified by this: that you produce much fruit and prove to be My disciples.

Rule 1 and everything else - Christlike love

John 15:9–10 HCSB

“As the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you. Remain in My love. If you keep My commands you will remain in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commands and remain in His love.

John 15:11–12 HCSB

“I have spoken these things to you so that My joy may be in you and your joy may be complete. This is My command: Love one another as I have loved you.

John 15:13–14 HCSB

No one has greater love than this, that someone would lay down his life for his friends. You are My friends if you do what I command you.

John 15:15 HCSB

I do not call you slaves anymore, because a slave doesn’t know what his master is doing. I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything I have heard from My Father.

John 15:16–17 HCSB

You did not choose Me, but I chose you. I appointed you that you should go out and produce fruit and that your fruit should remain, so that whatever you ask the Father in My name, He will give you. This is what I command you: Love one another.

“Because of You, we are being put to death all day long, we are counted as sheep to be slaughtered.”

John 15:18–19 HCSB

“If the world hates you, understand that it hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own. However, because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of it, the world hates you.

John 15:20–21 HCSB

Remember the word I spoke to you: ‘A slave is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you. If they kept My word, they will also keep yours. But they will do all these things to you on account of My name, because they don’t know the One who sent Me.

John 15:22–23 HCSB

If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have sin. Now they have no excuse for their sin. The one who hates Me also hates My Father.

John 15:24–25 HCSB

If I had not done the works among them that no one else has done, they would not have sin. Now they have seen and hated both Me and My Father. But this happened so that the statement written in their scripture might be fulfilled: They hated Me for no reason.

The testing

Acts 4:8–10 HCSB

Then Peter was filled with the Holy Spirit and said to them, “Rulers of the people and elders: If we are being examined today about a good deed done to a disabled man—by what means he was healed— let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene—whom you crucified and whom God raised from the dead—by Him this man is standing here before you healthy.

Acts 4:11 HCSB

This Jesus is the stone rejected by you builders, which has become the cornerstone.

Acts 4:12 HCSB

There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to people, and we must be saved by it.”

Acts 4:13–14 HCSB

When they observed the boldness of Peter and John and realized that they were uneducated and untrained men, they were amazed and recognized that they had been with Jesus. And since they saw the man who had been healed standing with them, they had nothing to say in response.