Community Baptist Church
Sunday, June 28

      • Psalm 46:1HCSB

      • Psalm 31:7–8HCSB

  • I Will Call Upon The Lord
  • Count Your Blessings

      • Romans 5:12–15HCSB

  • Tis So Sweet to Trust in Jesus
  • Lord I Need You

      • Matthew 10:24–33HCSB

  • John 14:8 HCSB
    “Lord,” said Philip, “show us the Father, and that’s enough for us.”
    ‘Show us the Father….’ How many times have you or I prayed that prayer…’Father, make your presence known….’
    From the opening pages of the Bible people have been seeking to know, to experience, the reality of God’s presence.
    The generations after Noah, building a tall building, seeking to know and discover the reality of God; Moses, begging God to see His glory (the glory of God being
    …the self-revelation of God, the unveiling of His being, as the final end of the creation of the world….
    Robert Duncan Culver, Systematic Theology: Biblical and Historical (Geanies House, Fern Ross-shire: Great Britain, Christian Focus Publications, Ltd,, 2005), 294).
    John’s gospel highlights Jesus’ claim to be ‘one with the Father’ multiple times: John 5:17; 8:28; 10:38; etc….
    On that night when Jesus was preparing His followers for His imminent departure (see 14:1-3) Jesus offers them a promise that God’s work, that which God had been doing since before the foundation of the world (Eph 1:4), is not over.
    God’s not done.
    Or, as we have chosen to beleive:

    God Is Up To Something

    God is and always has been at work around us
    One prevailing myth among believers is that God’s work started with them as individuals and could very well die out if they are ni longer involved. I call this the
    Burn Out or Rust Out Theory
    Sometime before the events recorded in John 14 occur JEsus healed a lame man, a many who had laid at the Pool of Bethesda for 38 years. Since Jesus did this on a Sabbath, he was quickly accused of violating various ‘Sabbath’ laws, and by asking the man to pick up his mat the man was guilty of violating Sabbath law.
    Jesus’ simple response,
    John 5:19 HCSB
    Then Jesus replied, “I assure you: The Son is not able to do anything on His own, but only what He sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, the Son also does these things in the same way.
    Several truths become clear when we examine this assurance:
    a. Though God ‘rested’ on the Seventh Day (the Sabbath) His work of sustaining and caring for His creation has never ended.
    b. As Creator, God is not limited by ‘time.’ He created time, He rules over time, His understanding of ‘time’ is different than ours (2 Peter 3:8).
    Jesus’ promise to those early followers still hold true until the end of ‘time:’

    God’s works are evidence of His presence

    What are we really asking when, like Philip, we ask to see the Father?
    Usually, though not always, we are asking for some physical evidence - like a vision, or an ecstatic experience that is made known in our physical bodies. Let me state: those requests are not necessarily wrong, but also, those requests, like Philip’s, miss the point.
    Jesus’ response: John 14:9 “Jesus said to him, “Have I been among you all this time without your knowing Me, Philip? The one who has seen Me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?”
    We typically look in all the wrong places. Philip, like those before him and those since was seeking something that he already had!
    Jesus’ works, the very acts of healing’ Jesus’ words, His call to follow Him, His teaching regarding the Kingdom of God - these were all the evidence for the presence of God that is needed.
    Why do we continue to look in all the wrong places?

    Because Christ is one with the Father and we are one with Christ we are to work the works of Jesus

    John 14:11–14 HCSB
    Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me. Otherwise, believe because of the works themselves. “I assure you: The one who believes in Me will also do the works that I do. And he will do even greater works than these, because I am going to the Father. Whatever you ask in My name, I will do it so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it.
    Most Christians have heard messages on vs 12 several times in their lives. Most believers inwardly sigh when they hear those words because we try to evaluate our ‘works’ with those of Jesus. We are doomed to fail! John himself would write towards the end of his gospel:
    John 21:25 HCSB
    And there are also many other things that Jesus did, which, if they were written one by one, I suppose not even the world itself could contain the books that would be written.
    Greater works than these…
    As many others have noted, how can the followers of Jesus do ‘greater’ works? Jesus has raised individuals from the dead. He has healed people who had spent their entire lives as invalids; He Himself had walked on water, provided enough food for thousands of people with just a few loaves and fish…and we couls go on and on.
    Jesus is not telling us we will do more spectacular things than He did. Yet, His words are pretty clear:
    John 14:12 HCSB
    “I assure you: The one who believes in Me will also do the works that I do. And he will do even greater works than these, because I am going to the Father.
    If greater works does not mean more spectacular or more in quantity, then what is Jesus promising?
    A. When Jesus sits at the right hand of the Father and the Holy Spirit is available to all who believe, Jesus’ works are multiplied beyond belief.
    Peter, having been filled with the Spirit (see Acts 2) speaks, 3,000 people are added to the 120 gathered in the upper room. Shortly after this we read that “every day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved (Acts 2:47).” In Acts 4 we read Acts 4:4 “But many of those who heard the message believed, and the number of the men came to about 5,000.”
    Eerdmans Commentary on the Bible Introduction

    Rodney Stark (an eminent historian of Christianity) estimates that at the turn of the first century there were only about 7,600 Christians in the Roman Empire (Stark 1996: 5–9).

    That may not sound impressive till you think that less than 10,000 people were used of God within 150 years of so to literally turn the Roman Empire into a Christian one - one that lasted for hundreds of years.
    More importantly, those believers shared their faith in evangelistic efforts all across the world, they wrote about their faith, they wrote textbooks, and other works that profoundly impacted the world in which we live!
    B. During His active ministry Jesus spent it all in a small, obscure part of the world that may have encompassed a distance of several days of walking. Yet today, Jesus name is being proclaimed literally across the globe - and yes, even in space between here and the moon!

    REFLECT AND RESPOND: GOD IS UP TO SOMETHING

    In a couple of Sunday’s Pastor Charles and I will be studying the NT book titled, Acts of the Apostles.
    That’s really not a good title. Rather, it is the account of God’s work through believers from Jerusalem to Egypt to Rome and beyond.
    Before we open that book on July 12, there are a some questions you and I need to settle.
    Are we even looking for where God is at work around us?
    We take the same route from home to church, from home to town, from home to shopping, doctors appointments, family visits and so on. When was the last time you took time to actually look at the surroundings? When my kids, who were raised here, travel through Roseburg and Winston they see businesses, stores, and othr places I just miss.
    Will you commit with me to ask God to open our eyes to see Him at work around us?
    Is our faith and trust in what God can do or in what we can do?
    I find it interesting that we claim to be people of faith and more often than not we are people of practicality (I am included in that!)
    Jesus says, pray for your neighbors - I don’t have time to do that…I’ve got errands to run, gardening to do, friends and family to visit, dr’s to see,,,and on and on we go.
    Jesus says pray for those who persecute you for His name…and we rally to protest elected officials, we gather signatures on petitions (both of which are great things) but when was the last time we prayed specifically by name for an elected official with whom we seriously disagree?
    Jesus says ‘Go and make disciples’ and we hang back…I’d not know what to say to a non-believer; I’m sure my neighbors know I go to church…they see me leave on Sunday…certainly they know where I’m headed…if someone came to me and said, ‘show me the Father’ I’d panic and call the pastor!
    Jesus says I have a future plan for CBC and we look around on Sunday and well, we are old, tired, and weary. We say, Lord we’ve done all we can do? Really?
    Will you commit with me to simply ask: Jesus, what do you have for me today?
    Just one day at a time. What is ahead of you today, tomorrow…could it be that in your errands, in your dr’s office waiting room, in the checkout line at the store there might be someone asking the same question Philip asked - Let me see the Father?
    Will you listen? Will you allow the indwelling Holy Spirit to prompt you and guide you?

      • John 14:8HCSB

      • John 5:19HCSB

      • John 14:11–14HCSB

      • John 21:25HCSB

      • John 14:12HCSB

      • Revelation 1:8HCSB

Community Baptist Church
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5416799569
http://www.winstoncommunitybaptist.com
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