Pastor's Bible Study

We can never truly extend kindness to others until we realize and know just how much kindness we've received from God. Kindness is His nature. He is good and kind to the just and the unjust. It is His kindness that leads us to repentance.

The Greek word "chrestotes" is translated “good,” “kindness,” “gentleness.” Kindness (gentleness) is the grace which pervades the whole nature, mellowing all which would be harsh and austere. The word is descriptive of one’s disposition and does not necessarily entail acts of goodness. It really speaks to the spirit in which an act is done, not necessarily the act itself. 

 There are two words in Greek that are translated as either “longsuffering,” “endurance,” “perseverance” or “patience” in the Bible: makrothumia and hupomone.  Makrothumia is patience in respect to persons, while hupomone, endurance, is putting up with things or circumstances.

Longsuffering is a characteristic of the character of Jesus and a quality of the Fruit of Spirit that we can demonstrate in our lives as we surrender to the Spirit. We can learn how to suffer long with difficult people and difficult circumstances. In doing so, we can grow in our spiritual maturity.

The author of our joy is God. The avenue through which God brings joy into our lives is Jesus. The agent that makes it possible is the Spirit. And it is our faith that activates the process which brings about the fruit of joy in our lives.

Others will know that we are the disciples of Christ when we love the way Christ loves. What kind of love is this? And who do we do it?
This lesson focuses on love as a fruit of the Spirit and how we can express love to others in our actions and behaviors.

It is important that disciples in a church participate in the observance of the Lord’s Supper. Why? Because we are commanded to do it. Remembrance brings reflection, appreciation, communion, adoration, proclamation, and confession.

Baptism is a public declaration of our faith and trust in Christ, and it is vitally important to being a disciple, a follower of Jesus. Baptism doesn't save us. Baptism is a testimony of the reality that Jesus has saved us. In terms of being a believer in Christ, our very first act of obedience to Jesus is to follow His example and be baptized. We’ll have a tough time truly following Jesus personally and privately if we don’t follow Jesus publicly.
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Jesus didn’t come to call us simply as individual, private, personal disciples of Himself. He calls us collectively, corporately to follow Him as a part of a local church. A local church is a called out assembly of believers covenanted together to carry out the great commission. Faithfulness to one another in the context of a local church is vitally important to our being faithful to Jesus as disciples.

Hell is real. It is as real as Heaven. If we can believe what Jesus spoke about the reality of heaven, the we can trust what he spoke about the reality of hell. Hell is a real place where real people spend an eternity when they refuse to accept the grace of God offered to them through the finished work of Jesus.

The truth of the Second Coming of Jesus should influence our lives and behavior greatly. The King is coming. Will we be ready? Let us be loving His appearing, looking for His appearing, labor until He appears, and live like He could appear at any moment.

Jesus was raised from the dead, and because He was, every believer will be too. Our resurrection is assured by His resurrection. He is the first to be raised to never die again. He is not the only one to be raised and never die again. The truth of His resurrection is vitally important to how we live. Because He lives, we can live with peace, power, purpose, praise, etc.