BIBLICAL ISSUES - Getting in Touch with His Daily Grace, Part 2
2. Great Expectations & the Real Jesus
How would you answer
a brand new Christian who asks, "What does God expect of me?"
How do you respond to
1Jn 5:3 "For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments; and His
commandments are not burdensome."
Does this square with
your idea of what you have been taught Jesus expects with you?
Yes / No Other_____________
So What's the Bible Say?
What do the following
passages tell you about how God responds when you feel overwhelmed?
How does God respond
when you feel overwhelmed?
How does God respond
when you feel overwhelmed? Isa 42:3 "A bruised reed He will not break And a
dimly burning wick He will not extinguish;"
How does God respond
when you feel overwhelmed?
Luke 11:46 Jesus replied, "And you experts in the law, woe to you, because you
load people down with burdens they can hardly carry, and you yourselves will not
lift one finger to help them.
How does God respond
when you feel overwhelmed?
Mat 11:28 -30 "Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.
Jesus frees us from burdens.
A yoke is a heavy wooden
harness that fits over the shoulders of an ox or oxen. It is attached to a piece
of equipment the oxen are to pull. A person may be carrying heavy burdens of
- sin
- excessive demands of religious leaders (Matthew 23:4; Acts 15:10),
- oppression and persecution, or
- weariness in the search for God.
Jesus frees people from
all these burdens. The rest that Jesus promises is love, healing, and peace with
God.
Salvation a Burden?
Is Salvation - redemption
and relationship with God something we work for? Or is it something where we rest
in Christ's finished work upon the cross?
Read: John 19:30 Therefore when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, "It is finished!" And He bowed His head and gave up His spirit.
What does it mean for
you that Jesus declared "It is finished?"
"It is finished!" Receipts for taxes found in the papyri have written across them this single Greek word, which means "paid in full."
If you pay for a car "in full," how much more do you have to pay before you receive the title?
The
complete price for our salvation - from beginning to end - was
paid in full by our Lord's death. The Greek word in John 19:30 is, TETELESTAI,
and is in the perfect tense. The 'perfect' emphasizes the fact that it is a completed
act - in the past and also points to the continuing present state as a result
of what was finished in the past.
So. . . Is it finished?
The work of salvation
is finished, Jesus finished it once for all!
Underline "once for all" in the following verses.
Heb 9:12 Through His
own blood, He entered the holy place ONCE FOR ALL, HAVING OBTAINED ETERNAL REDEMPTION.
13 For if the blood of goats and bulls... sanctify ...14 HOW MUCH MORE WILL THE
BLOOD OF CHRIST... CLEANSE YOUR CONSCIENCE FROM DEAD WORKS TO SERVE THE LIVING GOD?
1 Pet 3:18 CHRIST ALSO
DIED FOR SINS ONCE FOR ALL, the just for the unjust so that He might bring us to
God.(2)
