The Word of God
Bible Study Time 8-27-06
Church links:
Bible Study Time 8-27-06
In Luke, Chapter 11, the Lord Jesus told His disciples that when they were praying, they should call God Father. Up to this point, the Jewish people knew God only as the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, but the Lord Jesus wanted His disciples to know that they had been called into a close personal relationship with God.
In Luke, Chapter 6, the Lord said to the crowds:
Luke 6:35-36 (NKJ)
35 " . . . love your enemies, do good, and lend, hoping for nothing in return; . . . and you will be sons of the Most High . . .
36 "Therefore be merciful, just as your Father also is merciful.
To be accepted as a Son of God based on good works, we would have to be perfect even as God is perfect, but the disciples had already been accepted as Sons of God because of their relationship with Jesus Christ. The fact that they believed in Jesus Christ gave them this special position of favor in God’s sight. The Apostle John later revealed that Jesus Christ is, in fact, the way, the truth and the life and that no man can come to the Father except through Christ.
The Lord also taught His disciples to pray that the kingdom would come so that God’s will might be done on earth as it is in heaven. In this we see the central focus of the Lord’s earthly ministry. As Jesus Christ went preaching the kingdom of heaven, He did miracle after miracle to prove that He was the promised Messiah and that the kingdom of heaven was at hand. All who believed in Jesus were called to be the Sons of God.
Then, after telling His disciples to pray for the kingdom, He taught them to pray that God would give them their daily bread, and this is what I would like for us to focus on for the rest of our time together this morning.
We know that God is the One who supplies our daily needs. We can all attest to the faithfulness of God in doing so. Paul said, “My God shall supply all of your needs according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.”
It is interesting that Christ instructed His disciples to pray for their daily bread. While most of us feel a little better if we have enough food in the refrigerator for at least a couple of days, we know that God is able to provide for us even on a day by day basis if that’s in keeping with His plan and purpose. Actually, that is exactly what He did when He provided manna for the children of Israel in the wilderness.
Exodus 16 says that when the children of Israel grumbled in the wilderness because they were hungry, God sent down bread from heaven. It says:
Exodus 16:1316,19-21 (NKJ)
13 . . . in the morning the dew lay all around the camp.
14 And when the layer of dew lifted, there, on the surface of the wilderness, was a small round substance, as fine as frost on the ground.
15 So when the children of Israel saw it, they said to one another, "What is it?" For they did not know what it was. And Moses said to them, "This is the bread which the LORD has given you to eat.
16 . . . Let every man gather it according to each one's need, one omer for each person, according to the number of persons; let every man take for those who are in his tent.'"
19 And Moses said, "Let no one leave any of it till morning."
20 Notwithstanding they did not heed Moses. But some of them left part of it until morning, and it bred worms and stank. And Moses was angry with them.
21 So they gathered it every morning, every man according to his need . . .
God wants us to work hard and save during the good times so that we will have plenty during the hard times. Joseph advised Pharaoh to do exactly that. They stored the surplus grain that was produced during the seven years of plenty so that they would have grain for food during the seven years of famine. As a matter of fact, it was this stored grain which provided for Joseph’s family during the famine.
The Bible also tells us that we can learn a good lesson from the ant. The New Living Translation interprets Proverbs, Chapter 6, this way:
Proverbs 6:6-8 (NLT)
6 Take a lesson from the ants, you (who are lazy). Learn from their ways and be wise!
7 Even though they have no prince, governor, or ruler to make them work,
8 they labor hard all summer, gathering food for the winter.
So God may allow us to store up and save for the future, or He may provide for us one day at a time, but either way, our faith in His ability to provide is something that has to be renewed by the Spirit of God on a daily basis.
Now as we look a little closer at Luke, Chapter 11, it seems that the Lord Jesus was probably alluding to some even deeper spiritual truths as He spoke of our daily bread. First, we know that Jesus is the bread of life. In John 10 He told the Jews:
John 6:49-51 (NKJ)
49 "Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, (but they) are dead.
50 "This is the bread which comes down from heaven that one may eat of it and not die.
51 "I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread that I shall give is My flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world."
The Lord Jesus is the true bread which came down from heaven so that we might partake of Him, or more literally, so that we might partake of His spiritual life and receive spiritual nourishment from His Spirit. Then Jesus said something that was and is very hard to understand. He said:
John 6:53-54 (NKJ)
53 . . . "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you.
54 "Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.
Now these are strange words, and John said that when Jesus said these words some of the people who had been following Him went back home and “walked with Him no more.” Nevertheless, those who were true believers listened carefully as Jesus explained the actual meaning of His words. He said:
John 6:63 (NKJ)
63 "It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life.
He encouraged His disciples to look beyond the normal earthly meaning of His words to see the spiritual meaning behind His words. The Lord said, “The words that I speak to you are spirit.”
He was not saying that we have to eat His physical body or drink His literal blood in order to have eternal life, and neither was He saying that we have to eat or drink anything that represents His body or His blood. No, He said, “The words that I speak to you are spirit.” Jesus Christ is the living bread which came down from heaven so that we could eat and drink of His spiritual life and live forever.
This gives us a clue concerning the daily bread for which the disciples were instructed to pray. When the Lord told His disciples to pray for their daily bread, He was referring to Himself and to the Word of God. To be filled with Christ is the same as being filled with the Word of God. Paul said in Ephesians 5:
Ephesians 5:18-20 (NKJ)
18 . . . be filled with the Spirit,
19 speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord,
20 giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,
Then in Colossians, Chapter 3, he said:
Colossians 3:16-17 (NKJ)
16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.
17 And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.
Now, those of you who love math are going to love these two verses because in them we see the transitive property. The transitive property says that if A=B and B=C then A=C. Since being filled with the Spirit and being filled with the word of Christ both result in the same thing, they must both be equal to each other. These two expressions, being filled with the Spirit and being filled with the word of Christ, can essentially be used interchangeably since being filled with the Spirit will result in a desire for the word and being filled with the word will result in a heart that is open to the Spirit of God.
Therefore, when Jesus taught His disciples to pray for their daily bread, He was asking them to pray for a daily portion of the Spirit of Christ. There is no such thing as storing up enough of the Spirit today so that we will have enough to last us for two days or two weeks. We need a fresh supply of the Spirit of God moment by moment as we serve the Lord.
This means that we need the Word of God on a daily basis. We can’t just read the Bible through one time, and then say, I’ve already read that book. We need to take in the Word of God on a daily basis so that our hearts will be open to the working of the Holy Spirit.
As we look at the rest of Luke, Chapter 11, we do see what appears to be an emphasis upon the Word of God. In verse 5 Jesus said:
Luke 11:5-10 (NKJ)
5 . . . "Which of you shall have a friend, and go to him at midnight and say to him, 'Friend, lend me three loaves; (Again, we see the bread, and you say lend me three loaves,)
6 'for a friend of mine has come to me on his journey, and I have nothing to set before him';
7 "and he will answer from within and say, 'Do not trouble me; the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot rise and give to you'?
8 "I say to you, though he will not rise and give to him because he is his friend, yet because of his persistence he will rise and give him as many as he needs.
9 "So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.
10 "For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.
Notice that in this story, the Lord says that if you are seeking some bread, or in other words if you are seeking to understand the Bible, you may have to be fairly persistent. You may not be able to just pick up the Bible and understand everything you read right at first. But don’t give up. God does want you to understand the word of God. He wants you to understand every word of it, but the Word of God is the kind of bread that you have to digest a little bit at a time.
God chided Israel in Isaiah, Chapter 55, saying:
Isaiah 55:2-3 (NKJ)
2 Why do you spend money for what is not bread, and your wages for what does not satisfy? Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good, and let your soul delight itself in abundance.
3 Incline your ear, and come to Me. Hear, and your soul shall live . . .
But in Isaiah, Chapter 28, Isaiah said:
Isaiah 28:9-10 (NKJ)
9 "(To) Whom will (God) teach knowledge? And whom will he make to understand the message? . . .
10 . . . precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little, there a little."
Yes, God wants us to understand the Word of God, but it will become clear to us one precept at a time. Here a little and there a little. We must be persistent in our desire and persistent in our asking. If we seek, we will find; if we ask, we will receive.
Then, down in verse 27 of Luke 11, a woman cried out after hearing the wonderful words of the Lord Jesus. She said:
Luke 11:27-28 (NKJ)
27 . . . "Blessed is the womb that bore You, and the breasts which nursed You!"
But what did Jesus say in response? He said:
Luke 11:28 (NKJ)
28 . . . "More than that, blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it!"
Our family relationships on this earth are the most cherished relationships that we have in all the world, but we have to realize that they are of this world. Jesus said that hearing the word of God and keeping it is more important than even our family relationships. Our family relationships are for the here and now, but the Word of God will stand forever. In fact, the best way for us to enjoy and secure our family relationships is to hear the word of God and keep it.
I see that our time is almost gone for this morning, but as we close I’d like to remind you that if you don’t know Jesus Christ as your personal Savior, you can’t come to God as your heavenly Father. You do not have personal access to the Father because no one comes to the Father except through Jesus Christ. But if you put your faith in Christ and believe that He died on the cross for your sins, God will forgive your sins and accept you as one of His sons and then you can experience the blessing that it is to come to the God of the universe and call Him Father.
Thank you for listening to another broadcast of Bible Study Time. I’ll look forward to being with you again next week at this same time..
Write me at: jimjoan77@juno.com
In Luke, Chapter 6, the Lord said to the crowds:
Luke 6:35-36 (NKJ)
35 " . . . love your enemies, do good, and lend, hoping for nothing in return; . . . and you will be sons of the Most High . . .
36 "Therefore be merciful, just as your Father also is merciful.
To be accepted as a Son of God based on good works, we would have to be perfect even as God is perfect, but the disciples had already been accepted as Sons of God because of their relationship with Jesus Christ. The fact that they believed in Jesus Christ gave them this special position of favor in God’s sight. The Apostle John later revealed that Jesus Christ is, in fact, the way, the truth and the life and that no man can come to the Father except through Christ.
The Lord also taught His disciples to pray that the kingdom would come so that God’s will might be done on earth as it is in heaven. In this we see the central focus of the Lord’s earthly ministry. As Jesus Christ went preaching the kingdom of heaven, He did miracle after miracle to prove that He was the promised Messiah and that the kingdom of heaven was at hand. All who believed in Jesus were called to be the Sons of God.
Then, after telling His disciples to pray for the kingdom, He taught them to pray that God would give them their daily bread, and this is what I would like for us to focus on for the rest of our time together this morning.
We know that God is the One who supplies our daily needs. We can all attest to the faithfulness of God in doing so. Paul said, “My God shall supply all of your needs according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.”
It is interesting that Christ instructed His disciples to pray for their daily bread. While most of us feel a little better if we have enough food in the refrigerator for at least a couple of days, we know that God is able to provide for us even on a day by day basis if that’s in keeping with His plan and purpose. Actually, that is exactly what He did when He provided manna for the children of Israel in the wilderness.
Exodus 16 says that when the children of Israel grumbled in the wilderness because they were hungry, God sent down bread from heaven. It says:
Exodus 16:1316,19-21 (NKJ)
13 . . . in the morning the dew lay all around the camp.
14 And when the layer of dew lifted, there, on the surface of the wilderness, was a small round substance, as fine as frost on the ground.
15 So when the children of Israel saw it, they said to one another, "What is it?" For they did not know what it was. And Moses said to them, "This is the bread which the LORD has given you to eat.
16 . . . Let every man gather it according to each one's need, one omer for each person, according to the number of persons; let every man take for those who are in his tent.'"
19 And Moses said, "Let no one leave any of it till morning."
20 Notwithstanding they did not heed Moses. But some of them left part of it until morning, and it bred worms and stank. And Moses was angry with them.
21 So they gathered it every morning, every man according to his need . . .
God wants us to work hard and save during the good times so that we will have plenty during the hard times. Joseph advised Pharaoh to do exactly that. They stored the surplus grain that was produced during the seven years of plenty so that they would have grain for food during the seven years of famine. As a matter of fact, it was this stored grain which provided for Joseph’s family during the famine.
The Bible also tells us that we can learn a good lesson from the ant. The New Living Translation interprets Proverbs, Chapter 6, this way:
Proverbs 6:6-8 (NLT)
6 Take a lesson from the ants, you (who are lazy). Learn from their ways and be wise!
7 Even though they have no prince, governor, or ruler to make them work,
8 they labor hard all summer, gathering food for the winter.
So God may allow us to store up and save for the future, or He may provide for us one day at a time, but either way, our faith in His ability to provide is something that has to be renewed by the Spirit of God on a daily basis.
Now as we look a little closer at Luke, Chapter 11, it seems that the Lord Jesus was probably alluding to some even deeper spiritual truths as He spoke of our daily bread. First, we know that Jesus is the bread of life. In John 10 He told the Jews:
John 6:49-51 (NKJ)
49 "Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, (but they) are dead.
50 "This is the bread which comes down from heaven that one may eat of it and not die.
51 "I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread that I shall give is My flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world."
The Lord Jesus is the true bread which came down from heaven so that we might partake of Him, or more literally, so that we might partake of His spiritual life and receive spiritual nourishment from His Spirit. Then Jesus said something that was and is very hard to understand. He said:
John 6:53-54 (NKJ)
53 . . . "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you.
54 "Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.
Now these are strange words, and John said that when Jesus said these words some of the people who had been following Him went back home and “walked with Him no more.” Nevertheless, those who were true believers listened carefully as Jesus explained the actual meaning of His words. He said:
John 6:63 (NKJ)
63 "It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life.
He encouraged His disciples to look beyond the normal earthly meaning of His words to see the spiritual meaning behind His words. The Lord said, “The words that I speak to you are spirit.”
He was not saying that we have to eat His physical body or drink His literal blood in order to have eternal life, and neither was He saying that we have to eat or drink anything that represents His body or His blood. No, He said, “The words that I speak to you are spirit.” Jesus Christ is the living bread which came down from heaven so that we could eat and drink of His spiritual life and live forever.
This gives us a clue concerning the daily bread for which the disciples were instructed to pray. When the Lord told His disciples to pray for their daily bread, He was referring to Himself and to the Word of God. To be filled with Christ is the same as being filled with the Word of God. Paul said in Ephesians 5:
Ephesians 5:18-20 (NKJ)
18 . . . be filled with the Spirit,
19 speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord,
20 giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,
Then in Colossians, Chapter 3, he said:
Colossians 3:16-17 (NKJ)
16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.
17 And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.
Now, those of you who love math are going to love these two verses because in them we see the transitive property. The transitive property says that if A=B and B=C then A=C. Since being filled with the Spirit and being filled with the word of Christ both result in the same thing, they must both be equal to each other. These two expressions, being filled with the Spirit and being filled with the word of Christ, can essentially be used interchangeably since being filled with the Spirit will result in a desire for the word and being filled with the word will result in a heart that is open to the Spirit of God.
Therefore, when Jesus taught His disciples to pray for their daily bread, He was asking them to pray for a daily portion of the Spirit of Christ. There is no such thing as storing up enough of the Spirit today so that we will have enough to last us for two days or two weeks. We need a fresh supply of the Spirit of God moment by moment as we serve the Lord.
This means that we need the Word of God on a daily basis. We can’t just read the Bible through one time, and then say, I’ve already read that book. We need to take in the Word of God on a daily basis so that our hearts will be open to the working of the Holy Spirit.
As we look at the rest of Luke, Chapter 11, we do see what appears to be an emphasis upon the Word of God. In verse 5 Jesus said:
Luke 11:5-10 (NKJ)
5 . . . "Which of you shall have a friend, and go to him at midnight and say to him, 'Friend, lend me three loaves; (Again, we see the bread, and you say lend me three loaves,)
6 'for a friend of mine has come to me on his journey, and I have nothing to set before him';
7 "and he will answer from within and say, 'Do not trouble me; the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot rise and give to you'?
8 "I say to you, though he will not rise and give to him because he is his friend, yet because of his persistence he will rise and give him as many as he needs.
9 "So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.
10 "For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.
Notice that in this story, the Lord says that if you are seeking some bread, or in other words if you are seeking to understand the Bible, you may have to be fairly persistent. You may not be able to just pick up the Bible and understand everything you read right at first. But don’t give up. God does want you to understand the word of God. He wants you to understand every word of it, but the Word of God is the kind of bread that you have to digest a little bit at a time.
God chided Israel in Isaiah, Chapter 55, saying:
Isaiah 55:2-3 (NKJ)
2 Why do you spend money for what is not bread, and your wages for what does not satisfy? Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good, and let your soul delight itself in abundance.
3 Incline your ear, and come to Me. Hear, and your soul shall live . . .
But in Isaiah, Chapter 28, Isaiah said:
Isaiah 28:9-10 (NKJ)
9 "(To) Whom will (God) teach knowledge? And whom will he make to understand the message? . . .
10 . . . precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little, there a little."
Yes, God wants us to understand the Word of God, but it will become clear to us one precept at a time. Here a little and there a little. We must be persistent in our desire and persistent in our asking. If we seek, we will find; if we ask, we will receive.
Then, down in verse 27 of Luke 11, a woman cried out after hearing the wonderful words of the Lord Jesus. She said:
Luke 11:27-28 (NKJ)
27 . . . "Blessed is the womb that bore You, and the breasts which nursed You!"
But what did Jesus say in response? He said:
Luke 11:28 (NKJ)
28 . . . "More than that, blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it!"
Our family relationships on this earth are the most cherished relationships that we have in all the world, but we have to realize that they are of this world. Jesus said that hearing the word of God and keeping it is more important than even our family relationships. Our family relationships are for the here and now, but the Word of God will stand forever. In fact, the best way for us to enjoy and secure our family relationships is to hear the word of God and keep it.
I see that our time is almost gone for this morning, but as we close I’d like to remind you that if you don’t know Jesus Christ as your personal Savior, you can’t come to God as your heavenly Father. You do not have personal access to the Father because no one comes to the Father except through Jesus Christ. But if you put your faith in Christ and believe that He died on the cross for your sins, God will forgive your sins and accept you as one of His sons and then you can experience the blessing that it is to come to the God of the universe and call Him Father.
Thank you for listening to another broadcast of Bible Study Time. I’ll look forward to being with you again next week at this same time..
Write me at: jimjoan77@juno.com
Church links:
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