Fellowship in the Word

Jason Gebhardt: Today on Fellowship in the Word, Pastor Bill Gebhardt challenges you to become a fully functioning follower of Jesus Christ.

Bil Gebhardt: The power of resurrection. Paul writes to the Ephesians and he says that I would pray that you would come to really know Christ, and if you really knew him, you would begin to understand the power that you have within you. The power, it's called resurrecting, resurrection power. That's what we all have. Doesn't feel like it some days, does it? It doesn't seem to do that, but he said that's the power that we have. Because there could be no greater power. Creation's a tremendous power. The universe is massive. But to take someone or some living thing that's dead and make it alive, that's real power, and that's the power that Jesus Christ has.

Jason Gebhardt: Thank you for joining us today on this edition of Fellowship in the Word with Pastor Bill Gebhardt. Fellowship in the Word is the radio ministry of Fellowship Bible Church, located in Metairie, Louisiana. Let's join Pastor Bill Gebhardt now as once again he shows us how God's Word meets our world.

Bil Gebhardt: Jesus Christ is omniscient. He is also omnipresent. Go with me first to Psalm 139 in the Old Testament, a Psalm of David. A Psalm of David, and David is writing, and he's sort of telling us, yeah, you can't escape God. That's what he's trying to say. Look, I can't escape you, no matter what. He said, verse 7, where can I go from your spirit? Or where can I flee from your presence? If I ascend to heaven, well, you're there. He said, if I make my bed in Sheol, the grave, behold, you're there. If I take the wings of the dawn, and if I dwell in the remotest part of the sea, even there your hand will lead me, and your right hand will lay hold of me.

He said, I cannot get away from you because everywhere I go, there you are. And that's God's omnipresence. Now watch how Jesus demonstrates this. Go with me to John chapter 1 and verse 44. John 1 and verse 44. Now Philip was from Bethsaida. He was from the same city as Andrew and Peter. And Philip found Nathanael, and he said to him, we have found him of whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph. He's trying to say we found the Messiah, but he said it's Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph. Well, Nathaniel, he's a pretty smart guy. Nathaniel says to him, can any good thing come out of Nazareth?

What are you telling me? Nazareth? I never even, I don't even know of an Old Testament prophecy that talks about Nazareth. Well, Jesus wasn't born in Nazareth, was he? He is born in David's city, Bethlehem. But Nathaniel said, there's no good thing coming out of Nazareth. And Philip said, look, you come and see. So Jesus saw Nathaniel coming to him, there went over a pretty long distance, and he said to him, behold, an Israelite in whom there's no deceit. Let me paraphrase it. This is the kind of guy, you can't fool this guy. He's going to speak up. You see, I know you spoke up about this. See, how do you know what he said?

He knows everything. So he said, and there's no deceit in you at all. Nathaniel said to him, how do you know me? Nathaniel was overwhelmed that he knows his name. But you, why'd you say I'm this kind of guy, I'm no gu or deceit? Jesus answered and said, before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you. Now please understand, that wasn't his conversation with Philip. That was before Philip called him. He said, before you went and talked to Philip, I saw you under the fig tree. What? How could you do that? How would you do that? Nathaniel answered and said, Rabboni. He said, you are the Son of God.

You're the King of Israel. He makes him immediately Messiah. Jesus answered and said to him, because I said to you that I saw you under the fig tree, do you believe? You're going to see a lot more than that in the future. I can do a lot more than that, but notice he responds to it because of Jesus, in his truest sense, is omnipresent. He says these kind of things over and over again. We know Jesus is everywhere. We have a phrase that we use often, and you've seen it in the New Testament concerning us as a believer. Christ in you, the hope of glory. So is Christ in you? Yeah. Okay. Paul says in Ephesians, Christ is seated in the heavenlies.

Is he in the heavenlies? Yeah. Is he in you? Yeah. Well, how do you, how do you assume that? He's everywhere. That's because he has the same attribute that God has, and you think about this in so many different ways, if you want it from that point of view. Jesus gives the Great Commission at the end of Matthew. Go and make disciples of all the peoples of the nations, baptizing them, teaching them all that I have commanded you. But he says something at the end of this, and he says, hello, I am with you always. Wherever you go around this world to spread the gospel, guess where I am? I'm with you.

Wherever you go, I go. That's kind of an amazing thing when you think about it from that point of view. You've heard this phrase. Jesus said, wherever two or three of you are gathered in my name, where am I? Right in the midst. I'm there. I'm right where you are. You see, Jesus is making those kinds of claims. It's just what Isaiah the prophet spoke of, and we shall call his name Emmanuel, God with us. The fourth thing is Jesus is omnipotent. He has all powerful. Go with me to Colossians chapter 1. Colossians chapter 1. One of the things Jesus demonstrates all through the Gospels is this: He has complete power over nature.

He calms the seas, he can do anything he wants. He has complete power over disease. If you're leopard, blind, paralyzed, doesn't matter. He has complete power over all those. He has complete power over demons. They're terrified of him. He can exert them, take them out, put them out of a body, put them in a herd of swine. He has complete power over them, and most of all, he has complete power over death. No one but God has that. No one but God has that kind of authority or power. Now notice one of the things that Paul writes about Jesus. He says in verse 16, for by him, Jesus, all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible, invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities, all things have been created through him and for him.

Now we read in Genesis when it started out, it says, and God created ex nihilo, he spoke and there was a creation. But we know from John chapter 1 and Colossians 1, well, who did the creating? Genesis is Elohim, but this is more specific, the Son of God. It's Jesus, the Son of God. In the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, and the Word went to God. He created all things. So here in Colossians, he said everything was created by him. Notice it was all created through him, and now how about this? It was all created for him. That's Jesus. He is before all things. There he is eternal. And in him all things hold together.

That's an amazing thing. That's his power. I love astronomy and all that and play around with it quite a bit when I can, but one of the things over the last 20 years, the astrophysicists are having this, it's a really interesting thing from a science point of view, and that is they believe the majority of the universe is a matter of black matter. Okay, now they have no idea what black matter is, none. They call it black matter, but they don't even know if it's matter. They just know it has to be there because of the way the universe is, and it holds everything together. I don't know, maybe I think I know who black matter is.

You see, the sun holds everything together. We call it the laws of physics, but that's just Christ. Now he acts in a very reasonable way. Once you understand your whole body is made up of all these atoms with all the space, and you've got protons and neutrons with electrons floating around, it's like, nah, come on. That's really what I am? Yes, you're almost all space and then water and then the rest, what we call material, but you're all held together perfectly. Some of us better than others, I agree, you know, from that point of view, but the point is, he says everything was created through him and it was all created for him.

He's also the head of the body of the church. He's the beginning, the firstborn of the dead, so that he himself will come first in every place and everything. Jesus Christ is that guy. It's an amazing thing when you think about this. In John chapter 10, go with me there for a moment. John 10. I want you to see something about his power, because sometimes people say things, I just had a woman say this to me not long ago. She was saying what a terrible thing it was that the Jews and the Romans had crucified Jesus. Look what they did to him. Okay.

that's not exactly true. They were the agent Jews, but notice what Jesus says. He says in verse 17 of John 10, for this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life so that I may take it up again. I'm going to lay down my life, and I'm going to resurrect myself. Now he says the Father resurrects him, but I can do that myself. Now watch. No one has taken it away from me. I lay it down on my own initiative. I have authority to lay it down. I have authority to take it up again. This commandment I received from my Father. You see, the Romans can't kill Christ. You can't. He's eternal. The Jews can't kill Christ.

The only way you can kill Jesus Christ is for Jesus Christ to say, I lay it down by my own initiative. That's why he told his disciples, I must go to Jerusalem, I must be arrested, I must be abused, I must be crucified. That he's orchestrating the whole thing. They're the agents that are used and they have a certain amount of responsibility, but he laid it down. And it's so interesting to show you how he laid it down, there's no bad feelings. What's the first thing he says on the cross? Father, forgive them. Why? They have no idea what they're doing. But they did it. See, Jesus has that kind of omnipotence.

He has what is called in the Bible the power of resurrection. Paul writes to the Ephesians and he says that I would pray that you would come to really know Christ, and if you really knew him, you would begin to understand the power that you have within you. The power, it's called resurrecting, resurrection power. That's what we all have. Doesn't feel like it some days, does it? It doesn't seem to do that, but he said that's the power that we have. Because there could be no greater power. Creation's a tremendous power. The universe is massive. But to take someone or some living thing that's dead and make it alive, that's real power.

And that's the power that Jesus Christ has. One last one, go with me to Hebrews chapter 13. Hebrews chapter 13 and verse 8. Just a statement by the writer of Hebrews. Here's a statement. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, forever. He is immutable, just like God, unchanging from eternity past to eternity future, he is the same. His character, his perfections, his purposes never change. That's who Jesus Christ is. So we see these attributes of God. He's eternal, he's omnipresent, he's omniscient, he's omnipotent, or all powerful, and he's immutable. And this is extremely important for us.

One last passage I want you to go to is 2nd John, right at the end of the Bible, and verse 7. 2 John, verse 7. John is writing, and he says, for many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh. This is the deceiver and the anti-Christ. Wow. He says, watch yourselves that you do not lose what we have accomplished, but you may receive your full reward. Anyone who goes too far and does not abide in the teaching of Christ does not have God, and the one who abides in the teaching has both the Father and the Son. If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive them into your home, do not give them a greeting, for the one who gives them a greeting participates in their evil deeds.

It's the Antichrist. This is where all these other viewpoints come from. They are all Antichrist. They all come from the enemy. And he's very subtle about this. You see, the whole idea of the enemy is just to never give you the accurate idea of who Jesus Christ is. So that's why every religion in the world says things about Jesus that seems pretty nice. I mean, he's a good teacher. He's a fine example. He was a great philosopher. The Muslims, he was a good prophet, not as good as Muhammad. He's a... That's not who Jesus is. You see, every one of those, it doesn't even matter in Christianity. The Mormons say that, the Mormons say we are the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

You say, who is Jesus Christ? Well, he's the brother of Adam and Lucifer. That's the three boys. And he was created by a God who used to be a man just like us and became a God, and you can become a God. That's the nonsense of this. That's Mormonism. Jehovah's Witnesses say, no, he's the Archangel Michael. That's not, none of those are what the Bible says. Every one of them is designed to diminish Jesus Christ. You see, that's the whole point of all these. In the first 4 centuries of the church, every single heresy was over Jesus Christ, every one of them. Every one of them tried to come up with a new explanation.

See, and here's the reason why. Jesus Christ is the litmus test. You see, Jesus Christ is the bedrock. If you're wrong about Jesus Christ, you're wrong, period. You can't be wrong about him and say, but we're right about it. No, you're wrong. You see, that's why Jesus said, if you don't honor me, you can't honor the Father. Don't tell me you do, because you don't. You see, that's his point that he's making. So in those four source, four centuries, there were so many, I'll just give you a couple. Sabellianism, they basically said that he was, that Jesus Christ was just a mode of God. He was never a man.

He just looked like one, a different mode. God put himself in different modes, and he looked like a man, but he wasn't, he was only God. That was one. The Docetist said that Jesus Christ was not human. Again, very similar to that. Nestoris said that Jesus Christ was a really good man, a totally righteous man, and he was so good and righteous by all the choices he made, when he was 30, God adopted him into the family. That was Nestorus as explaining Jesus Christ. And then there's Apollinarianism, and basically said that Jesus was neither man nor God. He was a complete aberration, not either. The last one, the most damaging, was Arianism, and he said that he was simply a creature created by God.

These were first 400 years. That's why the church had to write all those creeds and everything. The whole idea, why is Satan doing that? Because if I get you wrong about Jesus, you're wrong, and you'll stay wrong forever. That's the point of the enemy. That's what he's trying to say. And it's still prevalent today. When I was talking about all this today, I was amazed at all this. Almost everything you find in the first four centuries, you still find today. And what's even scarier about it, you find it, and I'll use the very loose quote of evangelicalism, and you find things just like this. Now, some of the things of these great leaders, and I'm going to talk mostly about some things I read about the Word Faith Movement.

You can look that up on your own. There's a whole bunch, they're very famous worldwide. They probably have at least 100 million people that are into word faith. I mean, they're very, very popular in that sense. But some of the things they said were kind of silly. One of the founders of the Word Faith Movement said he met Jesus, and Jesus was 900 feet tall. Now we, that's trouble, because remember the book the little boy wrote that went to heaven? He said Jesus was short and that he was even shorter than Gabriel. Now, which is it? 900 feet tall or shorter than Gabriel? No, those things are kind of goofy, but those are the kind of things that happen.

And then you have this whole idea of someone from a local point of view that said, Jesus appeared to me in my bathroom while I'm shaving. Okay, I was shaving and he just, hey, what's up? You know, and then you start talking, you start talking to Jesus, and I just talked to him, we had a good conversation. Now, this is interesting to me because Isaiah, Ezekiel, and John saw Jesus, and all three of them fell as dead men. Isaiah, woe am I done. I'm a sinful man and a holy person. I wouldn't be like, hey, what's up? What are we talking about? One of them said that when he went out and laid on his lawn and he was praying and Jesus walked in and laid beside him on the one side, just while he was laying looking at the sky.

And that God the Father came later and laid by on him, beside him on the other side. Well, if all the fullness of the deity dwells in Jesus, I don't think that was God the Father and God the Son. That might have been something else entirely. As they go on with some of these, one said that Jesus is never, Jesus is clearly not who that the Bible said he was. Then who is he? Another one said that he came, Jesus never came as God. He came as a perfect man, and he achieved righteousness by living perfectly, by all the choices he made, not by his nature, not by the way he was. they go so far as to say, when Jesus went to the cross, one of the most famous ones, he became the nature of Satan.

He became Satan on the cross, a little, he said, sort of wormy, small, defeated creature, and was being punished by God, and then was punished in hell by God as well. Now these are people all within the context of evangelicalism. And if you go to a bookstore, you'll find books that are orthodox and write about Jesus on the shelf, and right beside them you'll find books written by these guys, the same books. If you listen on the radio and you think, oh, that's a good show, and you say, what's the next show? It's oh, and they see that it may not be any good at all. You see, if television's the same way, it's exactly the same way from television.

Some of the most popular pastors in America on television are very, very wrong about Jesus Christ. And you and I need to be discerning about this. And that's why when it comes to this and I say, why are you doing this series? I'm going to tell you it's simple to get it right. You see, the only way to describe who Jesus is, is allow the Word of God to tell you who he is. You see, you need to understand that because if you're wrong about Jesus, you're wrong. You see, there's no neutral ground here. That's the way this works. And so my prayer is for each and every one of us that by the end of the series, when Jesus says to you, who do you say that I am?

You'll be able to tell him what you think the word says. Let's pray. Father, it's reasonable to understand why the enemy does not want human beings understanding the answer to all human dilemma, the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus was as clear as he could be. He made that statement when he said, I am the way, the truth, and the life, and no one can come to the Father but through me. And yet we find now that there are so many around the world that have been deceived by the deceiver himself, and they redefine Jesus Christ. And he's not the way, he's just a way. And there are many, many others. He is wrong about what he said, or even worse, he lied about what he said.

Father, I pray that we see Jesus Christ for who he is. And once we see that, we do everything we can to know him better. And in our knowledge, we fall deeper and deeper in love with him. And that becomes the inner motivation of our lives, our love for the Lord Jesus Christ. For everything that we are comes through his grace and his mercy. Everything that we have is his blessing, and our future is completely in his hands. Father, I pray that we demonstrate with our lives and with our voices the greatness of our Lord Jesus Christ. In his name we pray. Amen.

Jason Gebhardt: You've been listening to Pastor Bill Gebhardt on the radio ministry of Fellowship in the Word. If you ever miss one of our broadcasts, or maybe you would just like to listen to the message one more time, remember that you can go to a great website called OnePlace.com. That's OnePlace.com, and you can listen to Fellowship in the Word online. At that website, you will find not only today's broadcast, but also many of our previous audio programs as well. At Fellowship in the Word, we are thankful for those who financially support our ministry and make this broadcast possible. We ask all of our listeners to prayerfully consider how you might help this radio ministry continue its broadcast on this radio station by supporting us monthly or with just a one-time gift.

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