Obedience John 13:16 - Verily, verily, I say to you, The servant is not greater than his lord; neither he that is sent greater than he that sent him. Today’s message talks of obedience that we should have towards God. The Greek word ‘doulos’ translated as ‘servant’ actually means ‘slave’ or ‘bondman’ and comes from the word ‘deo’ which means ‘bind’ or ‘tie’. The Greek word ‘kurios’ translated as lord does not mean master like in a supervisor or boss but ‘someone to whom one belongs to’ therefore mostly translated as ‘Lord’ for we do not belong to any human but to God alone. We are born from our parents but are not created by them therefore we do not belong to them but belong to God alone. Thus our obedience to God is above our obedience towards our parents or anyone else. Jesus here gives us an example about Himself and His obedience to His Father. We see many scriptures state He came of His own will but in this scripture He states His Father sent Him, they do not contradict for He also says He and His Father are one. We also find He calls His own Father ‘Lord’ and thus has total obedience to His Father. To understand this relationship we need to understand the ‘Godhead’ also known as ‘Trinity’. The word ‘Trinity’ was made famous by the Roman Catholic Church and by Mohammad in the Quran (but Mohammad misunderstood Trinity as God the Father, the man Jesus and Mary His earthly mother since the Catholics and Orthodox call her ‘Mother’ and Jesus called God ‘Father’). The Muslims (especially Shia) also call her mother and the other woman most important to them is Fatima the most loved woman and daughter of Mohammad whom they refer as sister. The definition of Trinity for the Catholics refers to God the Father, the man Jesus and the Holy Spirit which is also not right therefore Christians should preferably use the word ‘Godhead’ and not the word ‘Trinity’ to avoid confusion in the definition. Both the Muslims and Catholics think in sense of human and worldly thinking. We read God is spirit and yet He has a Spirit. For man to understand spirit is nearly impossible for the word means breathe which connects to life and a life does not have a natural form. A spirit being can take any form and we read in scriptures the Angels did that. When God the Son became man it was not just He took a form of man. The scripture says He humbled Himself and then become man, that means He gave up His Godly powers and His glory (not His Nature) and then became His creation so when He became man He had none of His Godly powers, all that He did as man was by the authority that man was given by God before man sinned and by the power of the Holy Spirit (He was without sin therefore was called Son of God - one having the image of God). Everywhere He used the term ‘Son of Man’ was to state He did by authority as man without sin (Son of God) and not by the power of the Holy Spirit. He came on a mission to make sinful man (man with a corrupt image) free of sin (overcome sin) and regain the uncorrupted image of God that is become Sons of God again and thus enter Heaven (the upper Heavens) again. Both man and woman will become Sons of God for in Heaven there is neither gender nor any earthly relationships. To understand Godhead we need to understand John 1:18, John 8:42, John 16:27 and John 6:38 where Jesus uses words like ‘I proceeded forth and came from God‘, ‘I came out from God‘, ‘I came out from thee‘, and in John 1:18 He uses the Greek word meaning ‘creek’ but translated as ‘bosom’, so He says through all these scriptures He was in the Father and came from within the Father. There is no word like ‘begotten son’ in scriptures as defined as most Christians but just the word son. The Hebrew word ‘ben’ translated as ‘son’ comes from the word meaning ‘of’ therefore we seen when scriptures were translated in some places even though the Greek word ‘huios’ meaning ‘son’ does not exist and only the word ‘of’ exist yet the word ‘son’ is added like in Luke 3:38 to define the relationship between Adam and God. Both Adam and God the Son are called Sons but in case of Adam he was created, but in the case of God the Son He existed in the Father since the beginning and therefore was neither created nor formed. He being part of the Father has all the properties of the Father yet is not equal to the Father. One needs to understand mathematical terms like subset and infinity to understand this. The Son is a smaller subset of the Father but since the Father is infinite therefore the Son also is infinite, that is why the Son being God yet calls the Father as His Lord. The complication between understanding them more comes when one has to understand the Holy Spirit since the Spirit of the Father is the Spirit of the Son (God the Son) and their Spirit is an individual by Himself. Like the Son humble and became man so did His Spirit became 7 Spirits as listed in Isaiah 11:2. Every being has to have a bodily form to have a spirit. God the Father and God the Son both being Spirit yet have a form and that form is what constitutes them. The Body of the Father consists of the Son and the Spirit and the Body of the Son consist of the Heavenly beings like the Cherubs and the Angels. When we enter Heaven after Judgment Day our marriage to the Son simple means we will become part of the Son who is part of the Father. That is why the scriptures state the Father whom no one has seen leaving for the Son had separated Himself in the beginning since He being Holy and had not humbled Himself (like the Son and Spirit did), will dwell back with the Body of the Son (Temple that is us and the Heavenly Angels) when the Son returns in glory (the New Jerusalem). Most of the time ‘Elowahh’ singular of ‘Elohiym’ referring to God was referring to YHWH / Yahweh (6510 times the word occurs) and if one notes the YHWH is an ideogram which translates as ‘Behold the Hand Behold the Nail’ and thus refers to the Son (who became the man Jesus Christ). So we see most of the time it was the Son who is in the scriptures, it was He who was instrument in the creation of this world and it was He who mostly interacted with man along with the Holy Spirit. Today’s message tells us because the Son knew He came from the Father and it is the Father to whom He owes His origin therefore His obedience also He owed totally to Him. We too should owe our obedience to the Son and His Spirit since we came from Him for He created us. We may have not understood His instructions in the Old Testament but in the New Testament He came as man and spoke to us as man, in our dialect, in simple human words, so now we cannot give an excuse to our disobedience by saying we did not understand. [Prayer Starter] Lord You are a Righteous God who does not compromise, but at the same time you are a Merciful God full of Love and would not like to see man being destroyed therefore made a way for man to be saved. Lord, You loved us so much that You gave up your glory for a period and became one among us to make a way for us and enable us to walk that way. Lord we pray we obey You as You obey the Father. We surrender unto You as You surrendered to the will of the Father and be one with You as You are in the Father... This prayer we make in Jesus’ Name, Amen. [Reference Scriptures] John 8:42 - Jesus said unto them, 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 16:27 - For the Father himself loveth you, because ye have loved me, and have believed that I came out from God. John 17:8 - For I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me; and they have received them, and have known surely that I came out from thee, and they have believed that thou didst send me. John 6:38 - For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me. John 17:1-5,20-23 1 These words spake Jesus, and lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, Father, the hour is come; glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee: 2 As thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him. 3 And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. 4 I have glorified thee on the earth: I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do. 5 And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was. 19 And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth. 20 Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; 21 That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. 22 And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one: 23 I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me. 24 Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me: for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world. 25 O righteous Father, the world hath not known thee: but I have known thee, and these have known that thou hast sent me. John 6:46 - Not that any man hath seen the Father, save he which is of God, he hath seen the Father. 1 John 1:2 - (For the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and shew unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us;) John 8:58-59 58 Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am. 59 Then took they up stones to cast at him: but Jesus hid himself, and went out of the temple, going through the midst of them, and so passed by. Philippians 2:5-11 5 Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: 6 Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: 7 But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: 8 And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. 9 Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: 10 That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; 11 And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Isaiah 11:2 - And the spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD;
Posted on: Mon, 17 Nov 2014 11:50:22 +0000
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