FOUNDATIONAL TRUTH
One Greater Than Me
The book of John is such a wonderful and powerful book as are all the Gospels, but I want to bring your attention to John 14:28-31. Please remember that everything Jesus spoke was not from Him but from His Father in heaven, so we need to see what is being said with spiritual eyes and not from a natural, fleshly stand point as to miss what the Spirit is saying.
28 You have heard Me say to you, ‘I am going away and coming back to you.’ If you loved Me, you would rejoice because I said, ‘I am going to the Father,’ for My Father is greater than I.
Why did Jesus say if you loved Me, you would rejoice because He is going to the Father?
If you go back and look at John 14:15-31 you see that Jesus had to leave so that He could go to the Father on our behalf; that we would receive the Holy Spirit. What we need to truly see is what it meant to love Jesus.
Jesus Promises the Holy Spirit
15 “If you love me, keep my commands. 16 And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever— 17 the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept Him, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him. But you know Him, for He lives with you and will be in you. 18 I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.19 Before long, the world will not see Me anymore, but you will see Me. Because I live, you also will live. 20 On that day you will realize that I am in My Father, and you are in Me, and I am in you. 21 Whoever has My commands and keeps them is the one who loves Me. The one who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I too will love them and show myself to them.”
Jesus said “If you love Me keep My commands” and many people HAVE NOT done this one thing.
WHY? They did not love nor believe.
We have glorified Jesus and lifted up His name in dead works; because of this we have left God out of the picture and dishonored Him as well as disowned Him as the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
Why have we dishonored and disowned God?
2 Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind. 2 Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, 3 now that you have tasted that the Lord is good.
The Living Stone and a Chosen People
4 As you come to Him, the living Stone—rejected by humans but chosen by God and precious to Him— 5 you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. 6 For in Scripture it says:
“See, I lay a Stone in Zion,
a chosen and precious Cornerstone,
and the one who trusts in Him
will never be put to shame.”
7 Now to you who believe, this Stone is precious. But to those who do not believe,
“The Stone the builders rejected
has become the Cornerstone,”
8 and,
“A Stone that causes people to stumble
and a Rock that makes them fall.”
They stumble because they disobey the message—which is also what they were destined for.
1Peter 2:1-3 speaks of the fact that we have not allowed God to bring us through deep spiritual cleansing and repentance, so that we may hear His voice without hindrances as Jesus heard His Father. Hearing was not enough though, we have to grow in maturity through OBEDIENCE in all areas of our life. Because we have failed to obey the voice of God, trusting in what He wants of us, we have created our own doctrines and continue to glorify ourselves and made acceptable sin, which leads to death.
We should be working towards righteousness through total obedience. Let us enter through the Door / Gate (Jesus) (John 14:6, John 10:9, John 10:7) that we may have Life and life everlasting. Jesus has now become a stumbling block and MANY have fallen (Isaiah 8:15-17). They have glorified Jesus with false teachings, false doctrines, and self worship when we were commanded to do one thing… OBEY. Study also Isaiah 8:11-18….
22 So Samuel said:
“Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices,
As in obeying the voice of the Lord?
Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice,
And to heed than the fat of rams.
Satan Tempts Jesus
4 Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. 2 And when He had fasted forty days and forty nights, afterward He was hungry. 3 Now when the tempter came to Him, he said, “If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.”
4 But He answered and said, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.’’
When Jesus was being tempted by the tempter, His response was that we were to live by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. THIS is obedience to God through the leading of the Spirit and not dead works. One other thing that stands out clearly in this Scripture as we continue to build precept upon precept, Man shall not live by bread alone (Jesus). We cannot live on speaking Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, and think that we are honoring and glorifying God. Obedience Glorifies the Father, the father will glorify the son and the Son has glorified the father through His finished work (John17:1, John 14:21).
50 But here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which anyone may eat and not die. 51 I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live forever. This bread is My flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.”
8 Again, the devil took Him to a very high mountain and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. 9 “All this I will give You,” he said, “if You will bow down and worship me.”
10 Jesus said to him, “Away from Me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve Him only.’
11 Then the devil left Him, and angels came and attended Him.
It is time to now STOP glorifying Jesus in dead works and worship the Lord Your God by following in Jesus’ example: Serving Him only in obedience.
28 just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve (GOD), and to give His life as a ransom for many.”
HERE IS WHAT IT MEANS TO SERVE AND WORSHIP GOD….
A Living Sacrifice
12 Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.
ALWAYS IN OBEDIENCE TO HIS VOICE….
24 “Very truly I tell you, whoever hears My word and believes Him who sent Me has eternal life and will not be judged but has crossed over from death to life. 25 Very truly I tell you, a time is coming and has now come when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live. 26 For as the Father has life in Himself, so He has granted the Son also to have life in Himself. 27 And He has given Him authority to judge because He is the Son of Man.
It is time to start Glorifying the Father in obedience to His voice and when the appointed time comes it will be the Father that Glorifies His Son in Him and this we should not do in dead works and disobedience.
Jesus Prays for Himself
17 Jesus spoke these words, lifted up His eyes to heaven, and said: “Father, the hour has come. Glorify Your Son, that Your Son also may glorify You, 2 as You have given Him authority over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many as You have given Him. 3 And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent. 4 I have glorified You on the earth. I have finished the work which You have given Me to do. 5 And now, O Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was.
God, through His Son, asked us to do one thing and one thing only, that was to listen to Him and Obey. We have failed by not following the example of Jesus. We have not finished what was started by His Son and we have dishonored The Living God by continuing to walk in sin, not fulfilling the law through obedience.
When the time of testing comes and is now here will you be found blameless in His eyes by glorifying the Father and walking through that door (Jesus) in total obedience to God? If not, your case (testimony) and you will not stand.