Do You Know Me?
John 14
8Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.”
9Jesus answered: “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? 10Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you I do not speak on my own authority. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work. 11Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the works themselves.12Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. 13And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.
Jesus Promises the Holy Spirit
15“If you love me, keep my commands. 16And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever— 17the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be c in you.18I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. 19Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. 20On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. 21Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love them and show myself to them.”
The disciples struggled with who Jesus was and he was walking, talking and eating with them daily.
What about the pharisees why didn’t they know?
Pharisees understood the law, tradition and the power of and pride that comes with that knowledge.
Even today people revel and give glory to leaders of religious sects, the Pope has a lot of sway in the world today.
His position comes with human given perks, like many of other religious leaders.
So Jesus warned against the idea of pride
Matthew 23:2-5
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"The teachers of the law and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat.
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So you must obey them and do everything they tell you. But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach.
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They tie up heavy loads and put them on men's shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them.
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"Everything they do is done for men to see: They make their phylacteries [1] wide and the tassels on their garments long;
Why didn’t the Pharisees know Jesus wasn’t the Messiah, because of their attachment to tradition and the lack of a relationship with God.
Knowledge can actually interfere with your understanding of who God is.
Sometimes ignorance is bliss, like its easier to teach a new behavior then change an old behavior.
Rooted in ideas of tradition and passed down concepts of who God is there is the idea that he will fit a particular box that we have perceived to be how it all works.
Jesus doesn’t actually fit into the box of prophecy that the Jews believed in.
Isaiah 11:1-5
A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse;
from his roots a Branch will bear fruit.
2 The Spirit of the Lord will rest on him—
the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding,
the Spirit of counsel and of might,
the Spirit of the knowledge and fear of the Lord—
3 and he will delight in the fear of the Lord.
He will not judge by what he sees with his eyes,
or decide by what he hears with his ears;
4 but with righteousness he will judge the needy,
with justice he will give decisions for the poor of the earth.
He will strike the earth with the rod of his mouth;
with the breath of his lips he will slay the wicked.
5 Righteousness will be his belt
and faithfulness the sash around his waist.
There are at least 44 prophecies fulfilled by Jesus’s presence on earth.
Born in Bethlehem Micah 5:2
Born of a Virgin Isaisah 7:14
Come from King davids lineage 2 Samuel 7:12-1 and Isaiah 9:7
A massacre of children would happen at messiahs birthplace Jeremiah 31:15
A messenger would prepare the way for the messiah Isaiah 40:3-5
Messiah would be silent before his accusers 53:7
Messiah would be spat upon and struck Isaiah 50:6
Messiah betrayed Psalm 41:9 Zechariah 11:12-13
Messiah would be crucified with criminals Isaiah 53:12
Once you get out of that form of prophecy then it begins to meld into future aspects of what will happen when Jesus returns again, the rapture ect… we going to leave all of that for future studies because there is a lot to unpack.
The point is the Jews believed this would all happen at the same time so Jesus fulfills some of what they were looking for but he doesn’t check all the boxes.
So lets evaluate where we are right now.
Jesus who has been cruising around for a hot minute has healed, forgiven, taught and ministered with care, love and conviction but when his disciples still don’t fully know who he is.
When Jesus was crucified the disciples went back to what they were doing before, they didn’t fully believe yet.
We get impatient don’t we, we think because God doesn’t answer questions, prayers or prophecies immediately then it just isn’t going to happen.
So their fishing and Jesus got up and was like “where everybody at?”
Now the timeline here can be all over the place and it’s a fantastic puzzle for preacher which then leads to several rabbit holes.
So heres what were going to do, were going to focus on John 21
21 Afterward Jesus appeared again to his disciples, by the Sea of Galilee.[a] It happened this way: 2 Simon Peter, Thomas (also known as Didymus[b]), Nathanael from Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two other disciples were together. 3 “I’m going out to fish,” Simon Peter told them, and they said, “We’ll go with you.” So they went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing.
Now some of you may think well they were just passing time, if your fishing to pass time it’s not about throwing a net, the net itself serves a purpose it has a goal of catching enough for sustenance or profit.
And it they didn’t recognize Jesus at first which indicates that they had not seen him yet.
Toward the end of that engagement Jesus gives Peter the directions to spread the gospel.
What we have heard so far is wild right.
So how do we know that were hearing from God
Well that’s a personal question and one that I can’t answer for everyone.
First we need to align his voice with the word of God and not just the glance
God will never put on you more than you can handle.
Are you kidding me right now?
I may have quoted that somewhere in my time.
Nothing in the word aligns with that.
The actual scripture is 1 Corinthians 10:13
No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.
Judas was tempted, Judas was given multiple ways out of that temptation, he chose his own greed.
Peter was put into the place of possibly being accused and crucified with Jesus when he was accused of being a disciple, that was a lot for him to face he failed. Yet he was still chosen to be the rock that the church is founded on.
Jonah and the whale, you know we have no idea if he was swallowed by a whale but my point is that we hear things and that becomes our idea of who God is.
Three wise men, there is not one statement that said 3 wise men or kings in all actualality the magi could have numbered quite a bit more, typically groups were 12 or more. Yet we settled on 3 it is suggested that this was due to the gifts they brought but overall heres the point it’s a concept that someone came up with and it makes it easier for us to cast 3 instead of 12 or more for our Christmas plays.
These are simple ideas and concepts but my point is this, without digging into the word ourselves we rely on someone else’s relationship with God never fully hearing his voice to apply it into our own world.
Romans 12:2
Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.
John 10:27 ESV / 615 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful
My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.
Hebrews 4:12
For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.
Things that limit your relationship with God and messes with the voice that your hearing.
Sin is one of those elements.
We are sinful creatures so understand aint noboby got this on lock.
You human, you breathin, you sinning.
The difference is the active battle that we are in with sin.
If we are allowing ourselves to be consumed by sin then we will most likely only the voice of God as a whisper or not at all due to all the noise that’s in our life.
Parents its important that we surround our kids with positive things.
We don’t listen to anything but Christian music, do I think that all other secular music is terrible no but music is very powerful and Christian music has positive messages concerning Gods love it’s a good thing to surround our kids with.
Secular artist do not have the interest of my children in their mind, im sure their music is poppin but is it what I need to hear or them.
Now I like instrumental music so I listen to a variety of that but its something that plays in the background normally when I’m writing.
If we are drowning out God’s voice with
Break up with your girlfriend, I’m bored Ariana grande
Jessie ware whats your pleasure
S & M by rihanna
How many licks by lil kim
And before any of us old timers conjure up well I don’t know whats wrong with kids these days heres a few dated ones for you
From the 80’s
Physcial olivia newton John
70’s
Lets get it on marvin gaye
Tonights the night rod stewart
We have to be careful what were bringing in our homes our kids are going to hear some of this stuff but if we allow that to the be loudest noise in their head how will they ever find their way to connect with God.
So we need to quiet down the noise of sin in our lives, we do that by getting into the word.
Practical application helps you understand God’s voice.
You want to enhance that experience even more Pray!
Your personal time.
I’m not saying you have to run and do back flips that’s up to you how you engage with God.
The church sometimes puts to much pressure on our outward actions, that’s a pride thing we don’t need you to amen us it just makes us feel good because it sounds like someone is listening.
You don’t have to do backflips in the church if you want to go ahead but the most important thing is that you hear something this house today that you can apply to your life in a benefical way.
And even if you didn’t I learned some more stuff by studying into the concepts talked about today.
Here are some things I want to share as I’m wrapping up.
This may sound like I’m minimizing church time I’m not.
I’m minimizing the traditional idea of how a service needs to go.
You see if you want to get everything out of our time together then what you do before you get to this place is the most important thing.
If every saint in here spends time in preparation, prayer and the word before they step into the church then you will be primed for everything God has instore during this time.
You may hear some good word to take home with you but when someone makes their way to the altar you have prepped the soil where God can speak to you and give you guidance as you prayer for someone, why because you have quieted some of the noise in your life.
Its his voice you hearing and the more you hear it the more confident you will be.
Heres the other thing what god tells you may not be for anyone else, it may not even align with traditional Christian thought processes.
Does it align with the word of God, not a surface knowledge but the deep word.
I’ve made decisions based off of my relationship with God when others didn’t agree with what I was hearing.
But you know God’s hand was on me and my family and that’s all I need.
If your relationship with God is right here in this place, first that’s messed up.
That’s a lot of pressure to put on other human beings, your ability to hear gods voice relys completely on the pastor, teacher, praise and worshippers.
Your relationship is yours.
Yes we need the word
Yes we need the lessons
Yes we need to praise God
No its not their job to talk to God for me.
Its my responsibility.
The enemy will be working against you.
He’s a slut, trying to steal you away from God.
