First the Question: In the Gospel of John, God is called....FATHER....122 times. True or False?
Please take a moment to respond at the LLM Question of the Day
And now the answer to the LLM Question of 8-8-2011
Question: The LORD Jesus Christ in anticipating Calvary, called it His Baptism. True or False?
Answer: TRUE! Out of the 738 responses we received 51.7% of you got it right! But that also means that 48.3% got it wrong. We have work to do in this area. Therefore,
Today let us consider, THE GOSPEL OF JOHN....THE GOSPEL OF CHRIST, pt. 6 of 12
THE FATHER SENT and THE SON CAME
Hear these words of the LORD Jesus, in John 6:38, “I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of Him that ‘SENT’ Me.”
The LORD Jesus would still say to religious, unsaved church‑members, “if God were your Father, ye would love Me: for I proceeded forth and came from God: neither came I of Myself, but He SENT Me.” (John 8:42). “Then said Jesus unto them, Yet a little while am I with you, and then I go unto Him that SENT Me.” (John 7:33).
Less than four years was The LORD of Glory, the Creator of the heavens and the earth, in the midst of Israel, as Jesus of Nazareth, a Man approved of God by miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by Him. (Acts 2:22). But He finished the work which the Father gave Him to do. (John 17:4). Then said the Father’s Beloved Son to His Father, “Now I am no more in the world, I come to Thee.” (John 17:11-13). “O righteous Father the world hath not known Thee: but I have known Thee, and these have known that Thou hast SENT Me.” (John 17:25).
There is wonderful news, good news, for sinners in John 3:17 and John 12:47, “For God SENT not His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world, through Him might be saved”, and, “For I came not to judge the world, but to save the world.”
In order to save the world God’s only begotten Son had to be lifted up on Calvary’s cross, and cry “FINISHED.” Was He tempted to pray to be saved from the agony of Calvary when He said, “shall I say save Me from this hour?” “But for this cause came I unto this hour?” (John 12:27). Then He said, “now is the judgment of this world.” (John 12:31). The Son came down from heaven to do His Father’s will. This meant Gethsemane and Calvary. When the LORD Jesus said, “now I go My way to Him that SENT Me” (John 16:5), He KNEW that He had to be lifted up, as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness. (John 3:14).
The LORD Jesus is indeed the Lamb of God Who beareth away the sin of the world. (John 1:29). Believing sinners are redeemed by the precious shed blood of this spotless Lamb, Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world. The shed blood of the Father’s Apostle is indeed ‘the pool of Siloam’. Unbelievers, religious and moral, or otherwise, must remain blind and unregenerated until they wash in that pool.
“And THIS is life eternal that they might know Thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ Whom Thou hast SENT (apostello).” (John 17:3).
I AND MY FATHER ARE ONE
In John 10:30 we have the testimony of the LORD Jesus, “I and my Father are ONE.” Note what followed: “The Jews took up stones to stone Him, because that Thou, being a man, makest Thyself God.” Now note John 5:17, the words of the LORD Jesus, “My Father worketh hitherto and I work.” Note what followed: “The Jews sought the more to kill Him, because He said also God was His Father, making Himself equal with God.” Again hear this testimony of Christ in John 8:58: “Before Abraham was I AM.” Note what followed: “they took up stones to cast at Him.” After repeated unsuccessful attempts to stone their Messiah to death the Jews said to Pilate: “it is not lawful for us to put any man to death.” (John 18:31). The reason the Jews could not stone Him to death was because THAT was NOT the Will of God. This is explained in John 12:32, “The Scripture saith, they shall look on Him Whom they pierced.” (Zechariah 12:10, Psalm 22:16, and Revelation 1:7).
In all of these Scriptures and in the greatest story of the ages recorded in Philippians 2:5-11, the truth that Christ Jesus was first in the form of God and then took the form of man to become obedient unto the death of the cross, we think of Christ’s words in John 10:17, “therefore doth My Father love Me, because I lay down My life, that I may take it again.” In John 13:3 we read that Jesus knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that “He was come from God and went to God.” So we can surely believe 1 John 4:14, that the Father SENT the Son to be the Savior of the world!
As we read all of the twenty‑one chapters of John’s Gospel we see the truth of 1 John 4:14, just quoted, running all through the Book, and also the truth of John 1:18, “no man hath seen God at any time: the only begotten Son, Who is in the bosom of the Father, He had declared Him.” Yes, all through John’s Record the Son is revealing His Father, declaring God’s Grace and God’s love, and the truth that the Father and the Son are ONE. (John 17:22). Hear the words of the Son, Who was obedient unto death, Who always did the things that pleased His Father, “the cup, which My Father hath given Me, shall I not drink it?” (John 18:11). The Son’s meat was to do His Father’s will (John 6:38), “to finish the work.” (John 4.34). “The works which the Father gave Me to finish.” (John 5:36). “I have finished the work which Thou gavest Me to do.” (John 17:4).
After the LORD Jesus had finished His prayer for His disciples He went with them to Gethsemane to be betrayed. In Matthew, Mark, and Luke, it is recorded that the obedient Son prayed to His Father in Gethsemane, “if Thou be willing, remove this cup from Me; nevertheless not My will but thine be done” (Luke 22:42, Mark 14:36, Matthew 26:42). But his prayer is not found in John’s Record. Christ answered His own question in John 12:27. His soul was troubled and He asked, “what shall I say? Father, save Me from this hour: but for this cause came I unto this hour.” Note again John 18:11, what the Son said when Peter cut off the ear of Malchus, “Put up thy sword; the cup which My Father hath given Me, shall I not drink it?” Christ did indeed drink that cup when He received His baptism on the cross. (Luke 12:50).
When Christ told His Father, in John 17:4, that He had finished the work which His Father gave Him to do, the Savior knew that Gethsemane and Calvary were ahead of Him. Christ testified in Matthew 26:53 that He could call on His Father for sufficient angels to deliver Him; but He added: ‘How then shall the Scripture be fulfilled, that thus it must be.” (Matthew 26:54). ‘Thus it must be.” “Thus it is written and ‘Thus it behooved Christ to suffer’, and to rise from the dead the third day.” (Luke 24:46). About fifteen years later the apostle Paul said; “Christ must needs have suffered, and risen from the dead.” (Acts 17:3). Note the truth that follows the statement concerning Christ in Hebrews 10:9, “Lo, I come to do Thy will, O God”, “By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.” (Hebrews 10:10). Christ bare our sins in his own Body on the tree. (1 Peter 2:24).
Thus we see the meaning of 1 John 4:14 and John 6:38, that the Father SENT the Son to be the Savior of the world; and the Son came down from heaven to do His Father’s will. The Father loved the Son from before the foundation of the world (John 17:24): and the Father loved the Son for going to the cross (John 10:17), where He, by the Grace of God, tasted death for every man. (Hebrews 2:9). Christ suffered on the cross for sins, the Just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God. (1 Peter 3:18).
We read in Isaiah 53:10, “it pleased the LORD to bruise Him, and make His soul an offering for sin.” If this means that it pleased the holy, righteous God, according to His determinate counsel and foreknowledge, to have His only begotten Son put to death on the cross (Acts 2:23), then according to Christ’s words in John 8:29, it pleased that Son to be obedient unto death, it pleased Him to be bruised; for He said, “I do always the things that please Him (the Father).” (John 8:29). Christ died to save sinners, this is true, but He died to please the Father.
We understand something of His agony in His words in Mark 14:34, “My soul is exceeding sorrowful unto death.” In Luke 12:50, as Christ anticipated Calvary, which He called His ‘baptism’, He was straitened till it was accomplished.
After Christ bare our sins in His own body on the tree and His Father made His soul an offering for sin His body was buried in Joseph’s tomb. Then Psalm 16:10 was fulfilled, “For Thou wilt not leave My soul in hell; neither will Thou suffer Thine Holy One to see corruption.” So we read in Isaiah 53:9 of the ‘deaths’ of Christ. In Hebrews 2:14-15 and in 2 Timothy 1:10 we read that Christ, by His death and resurrection, destroyed Satan’s ‘death’ power and abolished death, and in the Gospel has brought to light, life and incorruptibility!
It is by the resurrection of Christ from the dead that believers are begotten into a living hope. (1 Peter 1:1-3). In Romans 10:9 we are told that sinners are saved by confessing with the mouth Christ as LORD and BELIEVING in the heart that God raised Him from the dead. “This Man (Christ) after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on the right hand of God.” (Hebrews 10:12). We read in Ephesians 1:19-23 of God’s “mighty power which He wrought in Christ when He raised Him from the dead, and set Him at His own right hand in the heavenlies, above all power and might, and gave Him to be Head over all to the Church, Which is His Body.” In Ephesians 4:10 we read that Christ ascended far above all heavens, that He might fill all things.
Surely we agree with the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 15:14-18, “if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is vain, our Faith is also vain, and we are yet in our sins.”
“Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved” Acts 16:31, while there is still time!
So There You Have it!
Spread this message to everyone you know, far and wide. The time is short
Grace be to you and peace, from God: our Father, and The LORD Jesus Christ.
In The LORD Jesus Christ,
The Lion and Lamb Ministry
Pastor David Picos, D.D.
Minister and Ambassador for Christ in the Ministry of Reconciliation (2 Cor. 5:18-20)
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