Beholding God in the Face of Jesus – DVD 4
The Adult Sunday School is in a new series that is based on DVD’s and the name of the series will be at the head of every lesson. It is not easy to transcribe an entire lesson from the lecture on DVD, but I’ll attempt to take notes and let you know the primary topics and main points in every message. From there, you will have to fill in the blanks.
It will generally take two weeks to cover each DVD since there is the message, which is about 45 minutes, and there is a practical application, which will be covered the following week. I will make notes of some of the more memorial quotes and if this sounds interesting to you, you might do some research and find the series online. The primary instructor is John Snyder.
Email Intro: Since I have found myself feeling fairly good lately, I tend to find projects to do. Between you and me, I’m driving my wife nuts but not on purpose. I’m well intentioned, I assure you. Well, today I resolved to solve the problem of the blinds in the study. One of them broke a few weeks ago and I never really liked them anyway. So I went out, found what I wanted and purchased my replacements. (Why do they call it faux wood, instead of fake wood? Everyone knows it’s fake wood!) Anyway, every home project seems to turn into an adventure, but I’ve hung blinds before. Not that I remember the details, but things were going pretty good but the day was warm, so rather than do the smart thing (why should this project be any different) I left the ceiling fan on. Didn’t get in my way for the first blind but when I pulled the second old blind off, I heard something that I wondered – hmm what is that? An instant later, that rebellious fan whacked me right in the side of the head. Guess what the first thing I did after that? I turned the fan off. I guess you could say getting whacked in the head made me smarter. Yep, now I realized the cost of being hit in the head by the fan was greater than the pleasure of the cool air generated by the fan. I knew before I got hit that the danger was there, and yet I ignored it. Before you smile and say to yourself, – That Bob, what a dope! Remember that many of us are ignoring dangers all around us by permitting the world or our personal wants to define who Jesus is. This danger (of trying to hold onto a non-biblical Jesus) has a much greater danger than a bump on the side of the head. Maybe the bumps of life are there to remind us – we’re not as clever as we think we are?
Week Four – Beholding God in the Face of Jesus
Week one begins with a biography about Samuel Rutherford. Some of the high and low points of his life and a little about what drove him. Pastor in Scotland in 1627, his focus was the beauty and majesty of Christ. In the early years of the ministry, he lost his children and his wife was very sick. He fell out of favor with the crown and was banished from the pulpit but during his banishment, he wrote many letter and these have been gathered together and published to show his teaching about Christ.
The Lesson: Beholding God in the Face of Jesus
It is important to use the resources that God has provide to get the proper understanding of the Himself. Those are:
- The Scriptures
- The Person of His Son
- The Work of His Son
Psalms 45:1-2 – My heart overflows with a good theme; I address my verses to the King; My tongue is the pen of a ready writer. You are fairer than the sons of men; Grace is poured upon Your lips; Therefore God has blessed You forever.
Isaiah 9:6-7 – For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us; And the government will rest on His shoulders; And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. There will be no end to the increase of His government or of peace, On the throne of David and over his kingdom, To establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness From then on and forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will accomplish this.
Gal 2:20 – I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.
St. Ignatius “Apart from Christ, let nothing dazzle you”
Spurgeon – “I’d rather be blind, deaf and dumb and lose my taste and smell than not to love Christ. To be unable to appreciate Him is the worst of all disabilities.”
John Snyder – “You do not know the person of God unless the person of Christ is dear to you.”
Books that are popular reflect the health of the church at that particular time, both positively and negatively. Christianity that was focused on Christ used to be the norm. But in our day, books appear to be mainly focused on what we can get from Christ, not about the loveliness of Christ. He mentioned several books from the past that focus on Christ including 1) Christ in Song by Philip Schaff; 2) Looking Unto Jesus by Isaac Ambrose; 3) Rejoicing in the Lord Jesus by Robert Asty; and 4) Christ All in All to Believers by Philip Henry.
Why are the top sellers of our day not about Christ? Knowing Jesus is not an important PART of the Christian life, IT IS THE CHRISTIAN LIFE. What we tend to hear is what Christ can do for us, not about who Christ is. We must pray to God to reveal Christ to us! These books of our modern day are not evil, but it shows us where we are focused. We are focused not on Christ, but rather on what Christ can do for me.
A lowered view of God cannot occur without it affecting your view of Christ. The church is uninterested in Christ and at times to the point of bored with Christ. And with our small view of God, it is no surprise that we are not assured that we need Him in our life. If we have a small view of God, and the fullness of the deity dwells in Christ, is it any wonder that we are not dazzled by Christ? We appear that we are big enough to know all of God – but that is because our God is too small.
John 1:18 – No one has seen God at any time; the only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him. 2 Cor. 4:6 – For God, who said, “Light shall shine out of darkness,” is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.
Have you asked yourself the question: What have I learned about Christ this day, this week, this month, or this year? We should expect the Church, the bride of Christ to spend more time looking to Christ than gazing in a mirror.
- We must determine to not have a narrow view of Jesus.
- We don’t want a Jesus of our own invention. We want the Christ of the Bible. We don’t want a diminished view but a living, real knowledge of Him.
Do we determine to know Christ not matter the cost?
Do we determine to know Christ better than anyone else.