Grace Messages

Hear from Bobby Burdett, a missionary we support here at GCF, as he discusses how God can use everyday people for incredible things.

This morning, we are moving forward in “momentous week” in the life of Jesus, John the Baptist, and others. Remember last week, the first day of this seven-day sequence, the Jewish religious leaders interrogated John the Baptist about his identity. WHO was he and WHY should we listen to him?! In closing out that conversation, John the Baptist had just told the religious leaders that the Messiah was among them and they did not know Him. And now, on the VERY NEXT day, John evidently sees the Lord Jesus walking, and He is NOW ready to be identified to the world! This was the PINNACLE of John the Baptist’s ministry!

Today, we begin a larger section of the Book running through John 12:50. This section contains Jesus’ public ministry, including the seven signs, hand selected by John, and Jesus’ seven discourses. Again, all of these were recorded so that we might believe in Jesus Christ and have life in His name (John 20:30-31). Our sub-section this morning introduces one momentous week in the life of Jesus, John the Baptist, and future disciples. The first day of this week records an interrogation, by the Jewish religious leaders, of John the Baptist as to his identity and purpose for his preaching and baptism ministry.

The last couple of weeks we saw that John the Baptist’s unique prophetic ministry was NOT 100% effective. His purpose was to get everyone to believe in Jesus Christ – but only some did and most didn’t. This morning, we are going to continue to consider the uniqueness of God the Son – Jesus Christ! The apostle John is laying the groundwork for the rest of the book, so that when he begins describing His miracles, we are able to say, “I believe what John said about Him earlier! These miracles testify that John’s identification of Him is true.”

Last week, we looked at John the Baptist’s ministry – he shined the light on the LIGHT - he spotlighted the LIGHT! And yet, even though he identified Jesus Christ as the Messiah, we considered one of the most tragic passages in all of the Bible…John 1:10-11. After thousands of years of divine communication through oral and recorded prophecy predicting WHEN the Messiah would be born, WHERE He would be born, and WHAT He would be doing when He got here, the Jewish people (as a whole) rejected Him as their King – as their Savior! But NOT “all” did, and that is what we will look at this morning…

Last week as we introduced John, we considered the purpose statement of the book (John 20:30-31)…but we will not fully understand Him or the good news about Him if we do not know who He is – and when we know WHO He is – we will NOT be surprised by what He alone can do! He always existed as God, He created everything in the world that we see, and He has an acute and heartfelt interest in the human race.

Last week as we introduced John, we considered the purpose statement of the book (John 20:30-31)…but we will not fully understand Him or the good news about Him if we do not know who He is – and when we know WHO He is – we will NOT be surprised by what He alone can do! He always existed as God, He created everything in the world that we see, and He has an acute and heartfelt interest in the human race.

“Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” John the Baptist repeats this phrase twice in chapter 1:29 and 1:35-36 of this book. In this study of the Book of John, this is what we simply want to do, because we know incredible things happen when you are occupied with Jesus Christ. (See 2 Corinthians 3:18) But, before we take a deep dive into the book verse by verse, we want to spend this morning considering the backdrop, so that we can continually refer to the CONTEXT as we work through the book.

This week we will continue to read the PROPHETIC NEWSPAPER known as Nahum! As we wrap up the book this morning, we will read multiple illustrations of the futility of Nineveh’s defense. This is God’s final nail in Nineveh’s coffin. This is where the ink runs out on Nahum’s prophecy…God has said enough and in 50 years from the date of this writing, He would execute His plan!

Last week, we mentioned that we would be reading a PROPHETIC NEWSPAPER for the rest of Nahum! The detail and precision of what he recorded 50 years before it happened is nothing short of miraculous. This morning, we are going to get additional destructive details. This can have a great effect on us and how we view the rest of the Scriptures. To see this amount of detail given, and fulfilled prophetically, should increase our overall confidence in the Word of God.