John & 1,2,3 John | Lecture 3 : BC301-John-20260817

almost getting set. It's done. Yeah. Okay. Um can we have one of the students begin for us with a word of prayer? Anyone here in the class? Um yeah, anyone who wants to if you can please commit our class into the Lord's hands. Let's pray. [clears throat] Our gracious heavenly father, love, we thanks for this wonderful class that you have been appointed as Jesus. Lord, I submit the commandment into your hand Jesus. Lord, you use uh you use her as in vessel to deliver your word Jesus. Lord, you bless each and everyone here. Lord, you give us the knowledge to understand. Lord, you give us a spirit of wisdom, Jesus. Lord, you bless each and everyone. Lord, in Jesus precious name I pray and ask. Amen. >> Amen. Amen. Thank you. So, yeah. Uh last week we started off with the first portion of John chapter 1. Uh we started the prologue you know that introduc introductory portion which was actually composed in the form of a hymn so that the believers would be able to sing it in the church every week and that way they would get byarted and those truths which are mentioned in that prologue would be completely imprinted on their hearts. So um the first 18 verses are the prologue. We were able to cover only 13 of those verses. We'll finish the rest today and move into Jesus' public ministry. Uh so we looked in those verses which we have covered so far. We saw that John uh talk you you know devotes the first three verses to establishing that Jesus is God that he is divine and then about the next five six verses he talks about how Jesus is life and that life becomes light inside us and overcomes the darkness which is there in our situations. And then uh he gives about four reasons why Jesus is extremely important and why John the Baptist says that this Jesus surpasses everyone. So we looked at one reason the only way you can become a child of God is by believing in Jesus. Simply being a descendant of Abraham does not help. Uh so belief in Jesus is what makes us children of God. And then there are another three reasons which show why Jesus is completely supreme and surpasses everyone else and we must place our faith in him. So we have come into verse 14. Uh yeah if you if you could maybe one of you read out just verse 14 alone. And the word became flesh and dwelt among us. And we beheld his glory and the glory as of the only begotten of the father full of grace and truth. >> Yeah. So if you remember when John started writing this gospel, he had both the Jewish people and the gentile people in his mind. And so he starts off with the word logos which the Greek people would have been familiar with uh you know because they thought of the logos as this impersonal intelligent power that was there in the beginning. Uh so uh so when John says that this force was not just a power but it was an actual person they might have been open to what he is saying you know he's captured their curiosity but now when we come into verse 14 he's making a statement which the Greek would have Greeks would have found very very difficult to swallow because here in verse 14 he's you know um John is saying that this logos is not just some impersonal power. It's a person and this person did something. This word he became flesh and he made his dwelling among us. Now that's something that the Greeks would have found difficult to accept because in their Greek philosophy spirit is pure. It is uncontaminated. But anything which is made up of matter according to them according to their philosophy automatically is corrupted. It is evil. So even our human bodies you know it's made up of matter. So it it is impure. It is contaminated. And so when when John is making this statement this logos who was there in the beginning and through whom everything was created this logos he became flesh he be he chose to become matter and he came and he dwelt among us. When John makes a statement like this, many of the Greeks would have, you know, um, nodded their heads in in a very, okay, not nodded their heads, they would have shaken their heads in a very disapproving manner because in their philosophy, anything which is made up of matter is corrupt. It is so it is so substandard compared to spirit which is pure. So um it would have shocked them to hear uh to read John saying something like this. But the fact is uh the living God does not regard matter as something impure or corrupt. For instance, this table which is there in front of me, it's made up of matter, but it's not contaminated or corrupt just because it is made up of material things. uh you know so we don't accept that philosophy. So when uh B chose to become human and you know uh live inside a human body there was nothing contaminating about it because this basic physical body there is nothing evil in it. In Romans, we will get to know that there is sin living inside our bodies and it's that sin which is of course very very corrupt and the sin forces our bodies to do things which are against the Lord. So it is sin which is corrupt but the basic flesh and the veins running you know inside my body there's nothing contaminated or evil about that. So this word of God, this logos, he chose to put on a human body. He chose to become flesh. Why? So that he can come and dwell with all us human beings who are living in the flesh. And um so he was willing to uh restrict himself to a human body because as a spirit there are no limitations. He can be everywhere all at once. Uh you know um omniresent would be the word. God is omnipresent. He's everywhere. But when Jesus chooses to become a human, now he is stuck. He's restricted. He is limited to that one physical body. So he can only be inside that one single body. So if he goes to Galilee, he cannot be in Jerusalem at the same time. He can only be in Galilee. So the almighty god chose to humble himself and limit himself to one frail human body which would get hungry, which would get tired, uh which would you know sweat. Um he he chose to humble himself to that extent where he is restricting himself his almighty self to a frail human body. That was the level of love which we see God displaying towards us humans you know and uh so for the Jewish people also this would have been a shocking statement because there are words which John is using over here which would have made them think about the old testament because you know here he says the word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. This is a terminology which we find in our in our Exodus where uh God tells Moses he says I will come and live among you and I will make my dwelling among you. That same word is which is used over there in the Hebrew that same word is being used over here in the Greek and um in the Old Testament the Hebrew word word would have been Mishkan. That was the word for tabernacle. Here in the New Testament, it's the word scanu. And that same word is being used over here where he's saying that this logos came and he made his scenu among us. He made his tabernacle among us. So here John is equating Yahweh and Yahweh's tabernacle with this Jesus and his human body. The same way the almighty God came and lived in that tabernacle in the Old Testament. Now Jesus is coming and putting himself in a human body. In the same way Yahweh tabernacled and lived among the people in the Old Testament. Here now you know Jesus is dwelling and tabernacling inside one human body. And so John is very clearly saying that Yahweh and this Jesus are equal in stature. And moreover he says we have seen his glory because um you know the Jewish people and all their ancestors would say you know what our ancestors literally stood there in front of the tabernacle and they saw the glory of God come down on the tabernacle. We our ancestors have have with their own physical human eyes seen the glory of God. So for them this whole thing about God coming down into the tabernacle and dwelling among them and talking to Moses face to face all these are very very big things because no other nation experienced that. All the other nations were busy worshiping idols which they had made with their own hands. But here these people were so proud that they are having interactions with a living God who can come down in power and glory and you know uh where uh you can literally feel his glory and see his glory. And here John is saying yes that was old testament but the same thing has happened in the new testament this Jesus is equal to the Yahweh of the old testament and he came and he tabernacled that's the specific word which he uses you people are you know so proud about the old testament tabernacle you know what the tabernacle happened even in the new testament Jesus came he lived in a human body he tabernacled and dwelt among us and we saw his glory. When did um James, John, Peter, Andrew, all these disciples did they see Jesus divine glory at any point of time? >> The transformation transfiguration. >> Exactly. The transfig mount of transfiguration. So John he says you know some of us went up with Jesus to the mountain and we actually saw his divine glory. So it's not just Moses and the people of that time who saw the glory coming down upon the tabernacle. We too have actually seen it is what John says. So he says we have seen his glory the glory of the one and only son who came from the father full of grace and truth. [clears throat] So um he is making a statement that Yahweh and this Jesus are the one and the same. It's the same glory which those people saw which we have also now seen on the mount of transfiguration. Um yeah so having said that he talks about this this Jesus who is equal to Yahweh who has the same glory as Yahweh. He says that he has now come full of grace and truth. So he makes a contrast between what you know Moses gave them and what Jesus is now giving them. Uh he's he makes a contrast between these two things to show that what Jesus is offering is far superior to what Moses had offered in the Old Testament. So that's basically what your verses 15-1 17 talk about. So if someone could read out for us uh John 1:15-17 yeah so if those here in the class are unable to read anyone online if you could just step in and do it for us that would be helpful. Okay. So it doesn't matter whether you you guys are reading it here or online but if you could just you know keep the ball rolling. Yeah. Go ahead. John bore witness uh of him cried out saying this was of uh who whom I said he who comes after me is preferred before me for he was before me and of his fulfillness we have all received and grace for grace for the law was given through Moses but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. So the contrast that uh John makes here is the law was given by Moses and you people are very proud of that law because uh it was a written law which God gave to the people. Um no other nation in the entire world was given a written law by God himself directly. These are the only people the Jewish people are the only ones who wrote who received a written law from the hands of God. And in fact 10 of those particular laws were written by the hand of God himself. You know he wrote on those two uh stone tablets. So the Jewish people were very proud of the fact that through their leader Moses the written law had been given to them including two stone tablets which were personally written by the hand of God. So for them that's a very big thing. But now here John is saying you know what this Jesus who has come. John the Baptist said this Jesus surpasses me. He's much greater than I am. And why? Because he is bringing grace and truth. Moses could only bring the law. Moses could only give us the law. But this Jesus is giving us grace and truth. And what kind of a grace is it? He says it is grace upon grace. You know, it's one one one portion of grace on top of another portion of grace. So what Jesus is giving is far superior to what Moses had given in the Old Testament. So what is this whole business about how grace and truth is supposed to be greater than the law? Why why is the law not equally great? What is what is the meaning of all of this? Let's look at that. Um maybe we could read out Romans chapter 3 verse 20. Why? Why is the law not such a nice thing? Romans 3:20. [clears throat] Therefore, by the deeds of the law, no flesh will be justified in his sight. For by the law is the knowledge of sin. >> Yeah. So, when Moses gave the law to the people, they were very excited. they received uh 613 laws totally. uh you have those 10 which are written on stone tablets but then you got to add another 603 because you know it's there in the first five books or if you count exactly it comes to approximately 613 and so the people try to start keeping those laws and they keep failing again and again and every time they fail you literally have the written law in front of them telling them see what you did is wrong you're a sinful person you're a bad person you're evil God's judgment is going to come upon you he's angry with you you he will not hear your prayers. So the law is daily pointing a finger at them, condemning them and telling them how rotten they are. Because before the written law was given, people were thinking, "Oh, I'm such a nice person, you know. I'm not like those like those murderers who go around killing people. I'm not like those robbers who break into innocent people's houses and steal their money. I'm not like that. I'm a nice person." So they people had a very good opinion about themselves. But then when the written law was given by God and then the people began to see, oh this rottness even inside me, I'm not as wonderful as I thought I was. So the written law was given to show people how rotten they are. Because people were thinking, "Oh, my standards are pretty high." But God said, "Look at those 613 laws. That is my standard and you better meet those standards." So every day the law was condemning the Jewish people and telling them how bad they are and they better buck up and improve a little bit and they better go and you know offer sacrifices in the temple for all the sinful things which they have done otherwise God's punishment is going to come down upon their heads. So that is what Romans 3:20 says. No one will be declared righteous in God's sight by the works of the law. Rather through the law we become conscious of our sin. We who thought we were doing very very well in life actually begin to realize that oh I'm actually this sinful. So the law was given us a good thing to show people how they what their state actually is on the inside. On the other hand this Jesus who came with grace and truth what did he do? What was he offering? Um let's look at some verses which will talk about that. Uh Romans 5 20 and 21. If you can read out Romans 5 20 and 21. Moreover, the law enter that the offense might abound. But where sin abounded, grace abounded much more, so that as sin uh reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. So all these people were sitting you know uh the Jewish entire Jewish community realizing how rotten they are, how sinful they are. So the law when it was brought in the trespass increased in the sense their awareness of what they were increased. They realize that they're all trespassors who have trespassed onto the uh territory which God has laid. God said you need to be here righteous and there they were happily trespassing around in their sinful condition. So the law made it very very clear what we are. And so people were beginning to feel how helpless they are. How on earth can people like us meet God's standards? So when the situation was like that when sin had increased God came bringing his grace which increased all the more. The more a person realizes how sinful they are God says my grace is available to you in even greater quantities than your sinfulness. So no matter how sinful you are through my grace you can overcome. I will empower you. I will help you. I will show you how you can, you know, overcome this sinfulness and actually live at my level, you know, according to my standards. And so through Jesus Christ, this amazing grace was given to us. And that is the great difference between law and grace and truth. Law can only condemn and criticize us and tell us how bad we are. Law is good. It's a good thing which is pointing out to us how rotten we are. But Jesus, he tells us, admit what you are, admit how sinful you are, but have hope because through my grace, through my empowering, you can live in a way which Old Testament people could never live because now you have my empowering grace within you. So that is why in your verse 16, you know, he says, you know, when you cry out to God and say, "Oh Lord, my grace is running out. I can't overcome this particular thing which is troubling me. Oh, this this particular temptation is too great. So the sin, you know, the temptation is increasing. The sin is increasing. And Jesus says, relax. My grace is greater than this temptation, greater than this sin. I can enable you to overcome if you will just walk with me. So that is the beautiful gift which Jesus is offering us. And um um that's why you know in one one one person uh he writes it like this in his book. He says God's grace to his people is continuous and it is never exhausted. Even as one piece of divine grace is receding it gets automatically replaced by the next you know next serving of grace. So it's like you never run out of grace. There is always enough grace available to help you overcome every sinful pattern in your life. This is the promise that you know um Jesus makes to us. And that is why we are told in Hebrews 4 15 and 16. What are we told? If someone can read out Hebrews 4:15 and 16. For we do not a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. >> So this throne of God is given a name over here. It's called the throne of grace. So you don't have to, you know, if you're a believer, if you're, you know, you've been washed by the blood of Jesus. You don't have to be scared to come in front of this throne because now this is a throne of grace. You are covered by his blood. So you can with confidence come in front of this throne and plainly tell your God what condition you are in. Um because you know you have you now have a high priest sitting over here at the right hand of God. And this high priest has gone through every kind of temptation. He knows what the temptations feel like. You know someone just sitting in heaven would not understand what temptation really feels like. You and I, we know the pull of those temptations, the desperation that we feel when we are in a circumstance where we think only if I break God's law, I can get out of this. Only if I lie, I will be able to escape. So, we know the pull of the temptation. We know the struggle involved in overcoming it. We know what it feels like. We know the helplessness. And this high priest who lived on the earth in a human body with us, dwelt among us, he knows exactly what it feels like. The pressure, the the tension, the fear and the desperation. When you when you when you think that the only way I can get out of the situation is by sinning, he understands the struggle of it all because he went through it all. And it says even though he was tempted in every way just as we are, yet he did not sin. So he knows exactly how he can help his brothers and sisters in overcoming. That is the great thing about this Jesus. He has gone through it. So now he can help us with our own temptations. So we can go to the go before God's throne not in a scared way but with confidence and openly tell him Lord yes in these areas I can still see sin controlling me. Yes, Lord. I still have all this jealousy inside me when I see other people doing better in ministry. I'm it's an ugly thing. Lord, I don't want this this filth inside me anymore. So Lord, I'm coming to your throne of grace. You show me, Lord, how to start overcoming this. Or you can say, you know, I have this great lust for money, Lord. I mean I'm earning six figures salary per month but oh Lord all I'm always always driven by to get one more promotion to get one more raise it's controlling me I have no time for Bible no time for church nothing this is my obsession I don't want to be like this Lord you know you you're standing in front of the throne of grace so you stand there with confidence because you have a high priest who was tempted in every way as you are and confess to him these are the areas Lord where I need to overcome. Now you said you promised that we would receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need. I need that. So show me, show me how to overcome. And the Lord starts giving you the ideas. You know that you know he will show you. He will lead you step by step in overcoming your weak areas. And yesterday at central you know just before the entire you know service started the English service. I don't know which service you guys attend but the English one. Uh so the just before that English service started uh you know there was this voice over you know they just play a few seconds of some some from some sermon and they were playing this particular thing uh you know from Romans 8:26. Let's read out that verse and then see how that you know how this grace upon grace is working for us. Romans 8:26. In the same way, the spirit helps us in our weaknesses. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. >> Yeah. So, it's this Holy Spirit who helps us in our weaknesses. We do not know what we ought to pray for. Sometimes the things that you you know that you that are uh attacking you doesn't have to be only temptation to sin. It can even be other situations. You know you your you you and your family are stuck in places where you don't even have words to pray. I mean how do you pray about something that complex? From which angle do you start praying for this problem? It's like such a complex thing. So when you're in situations like that, the spirit helps us in our weakness. So he begins to intercede for us with wordless groans. Why is he using wordless groans? Because there are no words which have been created to actually express the depth of that situation that you're facing or that addiction which is which has dug into your life so deeply that you cannot even begin to pull it out. So these are the kind of situations that you and I are in. And so when we go before the throne of grace and humble ourselves and kneel down and say Lord yes this is the condition of my spiritual life and this is the condition of the situations which I'm facing which my family is facing. So you go there in all humility and you say Lord you promised that we will receive mercy and we will find grace. So now Lord give us what we need. And even as you're you know kneeling before him in his presence with confidence the Holy Spirit intercedes on our behalf because we don't even know how to express what we are going through. He groans on our behalf with words with without words because there are no words to express this. And you know the next verse actually which we have we haven't read out goes on to say God the father who understands what the you know spirit is expressing he will help us in those situations. So this is what this grace upon grace is all about. This is the way God is now um involved in our lives interacting with us uh inter interceding on our behalf. That is the total involvement that we see because of what Jesus Christ did on the cross. Otherwise, there was always this gap between God and his people. This huge gap of sin which was sitting there like one block in the middle and um the communication was not fully completely clear. Jesus came, he made a sacrifice, removed that block. Now there can be an actual direct connection between God and us. And that is why Jesus says don't be like you know little fools. Abide in me. Stay connected with me. As long as you stay connected great things are going to happen for you. You disconnect from me. You know your life will not go the way you it was meant to. You'll not have that abundant life that I came to give. Okay. So this grace upon grace has been released upon us in the New Testament through Jesus so that we can live at a far superior level than those poor old testament could live old testament people could live. Okay. So um first the only way you become a child of God is through Jesus. Second this Jesus he literally is the same glorious God who was there you know in the tabernacle. Third, what he is offering is far superior to what Moses offered. And the fourth one, uh, which would be your verse 18, you know, why Jesus should never be rejected. Uh, verse 18, if someone could read out, no one has ever seen God, but God, the one and only who is at the father's side, has made him known. So he is the one and only person who has ever actually seen God uh Jesus you know has is the only one who has ever seen God the father. Um why? Because let's look at 1 Timothy chapter 6 verse 16. This is how our God lives on a daily basis. This is who he is. 1 Timothy 66:16. Who alone has immortality, dwelling in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see, to whom be honor and everlasting power. Amen. >> That is how our God is on a momentby-moment basis. He lives in unapproachable light. You can only go this so so much close to that light. You go beyond that, you you literally probably become ashes, you'll probably just vaporize. He is that powerful. And these angels who are standing around him, you know, like around the throne, they just catch small glimpses of who he is and they go they go like, you know, holy, you know, it's their version of saying, "Wow, that word holy, it's talking about just how amazingly different and unique he is." Uh so they just catch glimpses of him each moment. Uh and they've been doing it for centuries and and they still haven't run out of new things to see because he's infinite, you know. So they'll never actually fully be able to see all that he is uh because he's infinite. So So he's that kind of a god. So the only one who actually has seen him and understands him is Jesus the son. And that Jesus chose to live inside a frail human body and sweat like us and be thirsty like us and be tired like us. Isn't that amazing? That was the level of our God's love towards us. Okay. So um so these are four reasons that yeah you know um in this hymn which they would sing every week in their in their churches uh you know these are the points the truths which John establishes right in the beginning of his gospel. So from there on he will start telling us about Jesus public ministry. You know what and all happened? Who are the people that Jesus went and met? Who are the ones that he had conversations with? All that he will start describing from verse 19 onwards. So we are now entering into the second main section of the gospel. Jesus public ministry verse 19. Chapter 1 verse 19. It'll go on all the way up to your chapter 12. end of chapter 12 1250. So 119 to 1250 is your second main section. Um so uh the first four chapters, chapters 1 to 4 is where um yeah uh in chapter 1, you know what is left of chapter 1, you'll basically have John the Baptist saying some particular things about Jesus. He's kind of giving an intro about who Jesus is and all of that. John the Baptist. Um so an intro by John the Baptist is what you'll be seeing in the in the rest of chapter 1. And then chapter 2 3 4 is where different groups specific groups of people have an encounter with Jesus. So you know John was inspired to write about Jesus encounters with this specific groups of people. Okay. So that's basically what we're going to be looking at. And then your chapters 5 to 12 you'll see a different categories of people rejecting Jesus for different different reasons. Okay. So chapters 1 to 4 you have an intro and Jesus is has an encounter with specific groups of people. Chapter 5 to 12 you'll see him being rejected by different people for different reasons and those things are given. So the whole point which John is trying to make is you know don't be like that second category of people who you know who who kept making excuses uh and kept finding faults to try and avoid accepting Jesus. So don't be like that rather be like those people who had an encounter and their lives were changed you know. So that's the point that he's making in this entire section. So we'll begin with John the Baptist's intro you know what he is saying about this Jesus. Uh so verse 19 onwards is where we would be looking at that. Um let's just read 19 and 20 just the verses 19 and 20. Now this is the testimony of John. When the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him who are you? He confessed and did not deny but confessed I am not the Christ. >> Yeah. I and I like the way um you know NIV puts it you know he says uh John when they asked him who are you did not fail to confess but he confessed freely. He had no issues telling about exactly who he is. He made it very very plain I am not the Messiah. He was not pretending to be someone greater than he is because this was one man who was so comfortable and secure in his identity of who he is. you know, he knows that he's uh he's he's been chosen by God uh to come and perform a certain task and he's very he knows that he's deeply loved. He knows that he has great value and worth in God's eyes. So, he's so comfortable in who he is, he doesn't have to pretend to be somebody greater. So a lot of people that we see today, a lot of believers, a lot of people in ministry, the reason they're always struggling to, you know, show that they are somebody great is because they are not secure on the inside. They feel a little ashamed about who they are. They are in um they they feel that God is uh not very pleased with them. uh they feel that people are not valuing them. They have all these complexes and insecurities and that is why they struggle so hard to to show themselves as that great preacher or this wonderworking you know miracle worker. There's this need to try and pretend to be someone bigger better because they feel that what they are as they are is not good enough. That's the really sad fact. John the Baptist didn't have any of those issues. He didn't have any of those complexes. He knew exactly who he is and he was very happy with who he is. He didn't need to be anyone else. The beautiful thing which I only began to learn you know just last year onwards which I somehow never knew. I mean with all my Bible knowledge I never knew is I am absolutely beautiful and absolutely precious and absolutely important to God just as I am. It's just somehow the truth escaped me till I know I read some books and got to know about it. Till then I had the same insecurities which I see all the other people carrying. You know where you feel a deep need to somehow show that you're bigger and better because you're not secure in who you are. But the thing is when God looks at you, he sees someone that you know Psalm 139 says he spent the the the formative moments of your you know when you were actually formed in your mother's womb. He dedicated those moments to creating you exactly the way you are. He decided what height you would be, what coloring you would have, the things that you would be talented at, the things that you would not be talented at. He had a plan for your life. All the days ordained for your life were written in his book at that time. You are extraordinarily special. And so when he looks at you and he sees all the all the sinful patterns in your life, it's not like ah this disgusting person. No, he's inviting you again and again every day saying come to me. Come to my throne of grace with those sinful patterns. Stop hiding them. I can see them. I know what you are. So I always felt that I had to hide what I am from God because what will God think? God already knows what I am. He rather wants me because this grace upon grace awaiting me, right? He just wants me to go there, kneel down in front of his throne and say, "Lord, this is what I am now. Holy Spirit, you grown on my behalf because I want to come out of these things. He starts changing you. God is only thinking love. He's only thinking celebration. He's only thinking joy. When he look looks at you, he's not thinking anything negative because Jesus Christ took care of all of that. Everything, all the wroth which was supposed to come upon you came upon Jesus. He finished pouring out all of the wroth upon Jesus. There isn't even one iota of anger left to pour out on you. It's all already been poured out on Jesus, the atonement sacrifice. So now when God looks at you, he's highly satisfied with you. He loves you. He knows all your defects. He's not pretending. He knows your defects, but he knows how to bring you out of every one of them because there is grace upon grace upon your life. So all you need to do is come to him wide open just as you are and begin to discover on a daily basis how beautiful you are, how special you are. And then you'll be as secure as John and you'll not have to go around pretending that you're somebody bigger than who you are. You can frankly say this is who I am. These are my talents. This is the ministry for which I've been called. It's true I'm not an apostle. It's true I'm not some, you know, great healing and deliverance person. I am who I am. And you know what? I'm perfect the way I am because this is what God wanted me to be. There's such great freedom and there's such great um beauty in what we are meant to be. So John has no issues whatsoever admitting who he is, he says, I am ne definitely not the Messiah. So when they question him. So they ask him further, you know, further questions. They say okay, are you at least Elijah? Because you see in Malachi there was something told about Elijah which kind of gave them a little wrong idea about who Elijah is going to be in the New Testament and so they have a question about that. Let's look at Malachi 4:es 5 and 6 which talk about Elijah and who will be reading for us Can we have more online people reading? Because um um you know if if someone here is unable to start reading, someone online can read. >> First four vers Malachi 4 vers 5. will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord. And he will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, the hearts of the children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the earth with a curse. >> Yeah. So here, you know, this is prophecy which God gives. And he says, "I will send the prophet Elijah to you before that great and dreadful day of the Lord comes, you know, before the day of judgment comes." So they were kind of thinking that Elijah would literally come back in the flesh, but actually it meant that someone would come in the spirit of Elijah, you know, someone who is like Elijah and that it was actually referring to John the Baptist. So they were kind of waiting for an actual literal Elijah to come back. But actually it was it was actually this prophecy was referring to John the Baptist. And so he's the one who comes back. He doesn't come back. I mean he's born. Yeah. Sorry. Uh so he he's born and he's he has the spirit of Elijah in the sense you know there's this mission which is resting upon his life and so he fulfills that mission. So they ask are you Elijah? And he says no I'm not Elijah. No, I I he's only come in the spirit of Elijah. Uh then they ask him a third question. Are you the prophet? Now what is this? I mean who what prophet are they talking about? That would be in your Deuteronomy 18. Um maybe you can read out Deuteronomy 18 verse1 15 first. Uh yeah Deuteronomy 18 verse1 15. The Lord your God. >> Yeah, we had someone starting here. Go ahead. Yeah. Who was it? >> Right. >> The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your midst, from your brethren. Him you you shall hear. >> Yeah. Yeah. So you know here this is Moses speaking and he says God will raise up for you a prophet like me. Okay. And then read verses 18 and 19 also. 18 and 19. Same chapter. Deuteronomy 18. 18 and 19. >> Deuteronomy 18. We read out verse 15. If you can also read out verses 18 and 19. >> I will rise up for for them a prophet like you from among their brethren >> and will put my words in his mouth and he shall speak to them all that I command command him. And it shall be that whoever will not hear my words >> which he speaks in my name I will require it of him. >> Exactly. So this is a prophecy which was given all the time from the time of all you know right from the time of Moses where he says God will raise up another prophet like me and God will put his words in that person's mouth and anyone who does not listen to that person God will literally hold them to account okay so here it's actually referring to the messiah who will come so they ask him okay if you're not Elijah if you're not the messiah if you're not Elijah are you at least this prophet you know that was being talked talked about and then uh John the Baptist says no I'm not that person either. Uh so um because over here actually the prophet was actually the messiah that was being referred to. Uh they were thinking that the prophet and me Messiah are two separate persons. Uh so the the old testament prophecies they were not very clear about exactly what those prophecies meant. Uh so now Jesus begins to reveal what each of those prophecies means. Okay. So um so finally they say to John the Baptist, who are you? give us an answer to take back to those who sent us. What do you say about yourself? So John is very very clear about who he is because that is something which the Holy Spirit would have revealed to him from the Old Testament. And so he quotes this verse from the Old Testament, Isaiah 40:3. Because at some point in his childhood, the Holy Spirit would have told to John, John, you know what? You you please go and read Isaiah 43. what it says over there. You're the guy who's going to be doing that. So that's how John must have discovered that, you know, he's the person who's going to fulfill what is written in John in in Isaiah 40:3. Um so um yeah, maybe don't we don't need to read that verse because it's quoted over here in your uh John 123. So he says, "I am the voice of one calling in the wilderness, make straight the way for the Lord." Don't you think that's really cool? At some point, John, you know, God would have told John, you go read that Old Testament verse, Isaiah 43, what it says in that verse, that is going to be your calling. You're the guy who's going to be fulfilling that. So, John had a very clear idea about who he is. In the same way, God has got a calling upon each person in the class. Those of you sitting over here, those of you who are online, even those who will be watching this on the e-platform, God has got a very clear purpose for each of us. Because it says in Psalm 139, all the days ordained for your life have already been written in his book. He has a purpose. Now, instead of you waiting for a voice to call from heaven and saying, "Oh, so and so, this is your mission." You have to humble yourself and start asking the Lord what exactly is your calling for my life. For some people it may be full-time ministry. For for someone else it may be you know running a business. For someone it may be you know heading a charity. It can be different things. It can be different things for different people but there is a calling upon each person and we have to take the initiative. Step one, start asking God, Lord, what is your specific calling for my life? And then you'll have you'll get a kind of maybe very vague general idea about who you are. Because for me, the first when I when I'm long back when I was young, I was young once upon a time. So long long long back when I was young, I asked the Lord, I said, "Lord, what is your calling?" And I just got this very general idea that I would be a teacher. what kind of teacher where what exactly would I be teaching what would be the specifics all that was not given but at least now I had a vague idea of what my calling is that's how it starts so on day one you'll not know all the details okay so that's totally all right but at least you should have an general idea you know that this is what god wants for my life so start asking him for that and as the years go by the details will anyway start getting filled in you know god will lead you to certain people he will make you go to certain uh uh you know there'll be there'll be there'll be people who will come to you and they will have a need and you'll be able to pray for them and start helping them in those areas and you'll realize oh cool I have this gifting I can really help people when they come to me with this you know with these specific things because not everyone ends up in full-time ministry right but they all in their own circles God sends people to them and they're able to be a blessing to them and they start realizing over time oh cool I'm really gifted in these things I can actually help people and make a difference you know in their lives and point them towards Jesus by just doing this this this because there are people who are in offices and for some reason you know people come to them with their problems because God has anointed them to really help those people who come to them with their problems and they're not even in ministry. So as you start you know as the years go by you start realizing okay this is really my calling these are the giftings that I really have right now in my workplace wherever I am and then also um you will discover that there'll be uh that there'll be phases of life that he will take you through for so let us say that no that you are meant to be an evangelist uh in your early times in your early days as an evangelist you may just simply be evangelizing to the people whom you know you know your friends and all that and then as the years go by and you enter into your 30s then maybe people will actually one or two people will call you and say you know I would like you to come we'll have a small meeting in our colony you know you come and be the preacher so now it's like a different area you're still an evangelist but now you know you're being called to people whom you don't know you'll be standing in front of people whom you don't know on a stage and you'll be talking and then maybe a few years after that you know God may say you know I'm going to be taking on business trip you know your your office will be sending you to so and so place and over there there are some people who will come and you need to share the gospel with them. So you at different phases of your life you'll be entering into different um stages of your calling. So you'll not always just be the person who you know who's sharing um the gospel with your friends. So whatever your calling is, whether you're a pastor or whether you're meant to be a you know a person who's influencing your home circle, you know, in your family's among your relatives or whether you're somebody who's going to be working in an office and impacting whatever your area is, he will take you into these different different phases of your life where you will start entering into different areas of responsibility which he has placed upon your life. Okay. So, uh, that's the way God will work out his calling for each of us in the same way that he did for John the Baptist. Okay, we're out of time. Um, so verse 24 onwards, we will take it up next class. Let's just close with a word of prayer. We thank you, oh Lord, for the scriptures which we were able to cover today. We see, oh Lord, that at the center of everything is Jesus. He's the one who gets the uh process going because of him in our life. Everything starts changing. Now we are people under grace. And because we are under grace, there is a purpose for our life. There is power in our life. The darkness will never be able to overcome us. And because of that, we can begin to walk in confidence, in victory. We can start becoming what we are meant to be in this Jesus under his grace. Thank you oh Lord for all these beautiful things which you have given to us freely. We don't have to do anything to earn it. You already love us. We are already special in your eyes. You already have dreams for us. We don't have to do anything to win your approval and somehow make you like us. You're already eager and excited to do works in our life. So Lord, we are inviting you to come and do something beautiful in each of our lives. So Lord in all of our students both here in the class in the Google classroom on the e platform we are committing ourselves into your hands. Thank you Lord in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. Amen. Thank you.