Participants: Charles Byrd (Host), Andrea Endries, Levi Longoria, Stephen Fowler
Series Code: THL
Program Code: THL000004
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00:01 There are some things.
00:02 Okay, there are many things that I don't understand, 00:06 but they put me in all. 00:08 Take this phone for example. 00:09 I've been told there is more computing power in this phone 00:13 than there was in the Apollo Lunar Modules 00:16 or take sound for example. 00:19 The trumpet has a certain sound produced by the metal 00:22 and its unique shape. 00:26 A dog on the other hand is made of different material, 00:28 flesh and his voice box is shaped 00:31 different than the trumpet, so it sounds different. 00:37 And then there is the violin with four strings, 00:40 a wooden shoe and a horse hair bow. 00:43 It has a unique sound unlike the trumpet or the dog. 00:50 But here's what I don't understand. 00:52 Take the speaker with a cone of paper, 00:54 put sound through it and this one shape can reproduce 00:58 the sound of a trumpet, 01:01 a dog or a violin. 01:06 And then it can sound like all of them at the same time. 01:13 But this is made of just one material 01:16 and only has one shape. 01:18 How does it do that? 01:21 In the same way there are things 01:23 that are hard to understand in the spiritual round, 01:26 especially if you're human. 01:29 One of those things was a teaching of Jesus 01:31 found in John 10:30. 01:34 "I and my Father are one." 01:38 That caused some serious thunder in the holy land 01:42 because this teaching of Jesus up ended a core understanding 01:46 that made the Jews 01:47 unique throughout the entire world or did it. 02:44 Yep, there are things I just don't understand. 02:47 I don't understand how the human eye can see. 02:50 I don't understand how the human ear can hear. 02:53 And I don't understand how the phone, radio or T.V. 02:56 can receive signals through the air. 02:58 But that doesn't stop me from experiencing these things. 03:03 The same is true in regard to deity. 03:05 I don't understand God either, 03:08 but that doesn't stop me from experiencing Him. 03:11 And when I say Him is that one Him, or two Him, or three Him. 03:17 While the world all around them was worshiping 03:20 a whole pantheon of Gods. 03:22 The Jews as a nation taught that there was only one. 03:27 So you can imagine how Jesus stirred things up by saying 03:31 "I and my Father are one." 03:35 He sure did, Charles. 03:36 Today I'm standing at top of the very steps 03:39 that Jesus and the Jews have climbed 03:41 to enter the Eastern Huldah Gate 03:43 to go the temple mount and worship God. 03:45 This study concerns that God had 03:47 and Jesus is teaching on the subject. 03:49 So today let's start with the known fact. 03:52 Jesus who claimed to be the Son of God 03:55 was rejected by the Jews, but why? 03:58 After healing the sick, raising the dead, being morally good, 04:02 why would they want to kill Jesus? 04:04 They had stated a reason and I'll share that in a moment, 04:07 but first I want to share the real reason. 04:09 When the Jewish leaders brought Jesus to Pilot, 04:12 he knew that for envy 04:13 they had delivered Jesus to him to be crucified. 04:17 Not for morally wrong, not for some great evil, 04:20 they were simply jealous. 04:22 Keep that in mind as we consider the reason 04:24 they gave to Pilot. 04:26 "The Jews answered, we have a law, and by our law 04:30 He ought to die, because He made Himself the Son of God." 04:34 And what law were the Jews talking about? 04:37 Most likely the one in Deuteronomy 6. 04:39 There we have the most famous Jewish prayer, The Shema. 04:44 Observant Jews consider the Shema to be 04:46 the most important part of the prayer service in Judaism. 04:49 By religious commandment that is by tradition, 04:52 the Shema should be recited twice a day. 04:54 It is traditional for the Jews to say the Shema 04:56 as their last verse before death 04:58 and for parents to teach their children to say it 05:01 before they go to sleep at night. 05:03 The Shema starts with these words. 05:05 "Hear, Israel, the Lord is our God, The Lord is one." 05:10 This teaching made the Jews people 05:12 distinct from every other polytheistic religion. 05:15 For the God of Israel was one. 05:18 Unfortunately they took these words absolutely literal. 05:21 This was repeated fall of theirs. 05:23 Jesus told him, "you must be born again." 05:26 Nicodemus asked, how could a man 05:29 going to his mother and be born again? 05:31 Nicodemus tried to take these teachings completely literal, 05:34 but this teaching was not physical, it was spiritual. 05:38 And spiritual things must be spiritually discerned. 05:42 The same is true of this passage in John 10:30. 05:46 Let's take a moment to really look at this teaching, 05:48 this doctrine of Jesus that so disturbed the Jews leaders. 05:53 "I and my Father are one." 05:57 This angered the Jews, but this anger was born 06:00 of an over literal reading of the Shema. 06:04 What Jesus is doing here is putting 06:06 a new and clear meaning on the word one. 06:10 And for years they had been saying 06:12 the Shema thinking one God meant one being, 06:16 but what if the word God is a family name. 06:19 You could have one family 06:20 and that would mean more than one person. 06:24 In John 1:18 Jesus used this earthly terms 06:28 to try to explain something beyond our understanding, 06:32 but not beyond our ability to experience. 06:36 He talks about God as a father in intimate terms. 06:39 "No man hath seen God at any time, 06:43 the only begotten Son, 06:44 which is in the bosom of the Father, 06:46 he hath declared him." 06:49 And Jesus claimed to have seen the Father, 06:52 to have been embraced in the bosom of the Father. 06:54 And Jesus being here with us 06:57 was a declaration of the Father Himself. 07:00 This oneness was very singular and Jesus taught His followers 07:04 that He and the Father were virtually the same thing. 07:08 Look at this in John 14:9. 07:10 "He that hath seen me hath seen the Father." 07:13 I know the Jewish people don't accept the teachings of Jesus, 07:17 but what He was teaching 07:18 wasn't merely a New Testament doctrine. 07:21 In fact if you study the Old Testament 07:23 with your Strong's Exhaustive Concordance, 07:26 you'll discover this teaching of Jesus is clearly taught 07:29 in the original language of the Old Testament. 07:32 And there is no excuse for the Jewish leaders 07:34 not to have known this, 07:36 neither is there an excuse for Christians not to know this. 07:40 You can have more than one being and still have one God. 07:45 Following is some Biblical evidence 07:48 that affirms this radical teaching of one. 07:52 And there are three primary names for God in Old Testament. 07:55 One, El, two, Elohiym and three, Yehovah. 08:01 Some who claimed the name of Christian suggested 08:04 these three names are three separate beings, 08:08 but only one represents the creator God of the universe 08:12 and that is Yehovah or Jehovah or some pronounce it Yehowah. 08:17 But this is not at all the case, 08:19 they are just different names for the same God. 08:22 In fact there are 19 verses where all three come together 08:27 and here are just two of them. 08:29 Second Samuel 22:32 says, "For who is El save the Yehovah 08:35 and who is a rock, save our Elohiym. 08:39 And Nehemiah 1:5 says, "I beseech thee, 08:42 O Yehovah Elohiym of heaven, the great and terrible El, 08:47 that keepeth covenant and mercy 08:49 for them that love him and observe his commandments." 08:54 We're not talking about greater Gods and lesser Gods here. 08:58 No, here El, Elohiym and Yehovah are all interchangeable 09:03 as were referring to the same one and only God. 09:07 In other words the names are all equal, 09:10 the same and referring to the same God. 09:14 You're right, Levi. 09:16 El, Elohiym and Yehovah are names 09:19 for the almighty God of the Old Testament. 09:22 Now Jesus said that He and His Father were one. 09:26 When we allow scripture to interpret itself, 09:29 an amazing discovery unfolds, backed up by fulfilled prophecy. 09:34 These three Hebrew names referred to Jesus as well. 09:38 Check it out. 09:39 In Exodus 3:14 we find the story of the Elohiym God 09:43 talking to Moses at the burning bush. 09:45 On my recent trip through the deserts of Egypt and Israel 09:48 and I saw some of those bushes. 09:52 Moses told God or Elohiym that if he went back to Egypt 09:55 and told the people that he had been sent 09:57 by the God of their fathers to free them. 10:00 They would ask what is His name. 10:03 So he asked God, what should I tell them. 10:06 And God said unto Moses, "I am that I am. 10:11 And He said, thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel. 10:15 I am hath sent me unto you." 10:19 Let me pause for just one moment 10:21 and take you back to Genesis 1:1 to point out 10:25 that the God who is from the beginning, 10:27 the God who created the heaven and the earth is also Elohiym. 10:32 The God of creation 10:34 and the God of the burning bush are the same God. 10:37 And this is the God of the Exodus. 10:40 So you can imagine what thunder was causing in the holy land 10:44 by Jesus words in John 8:58. 10:46 "Jesus said unto them, verily, verily, I say unto you, 10:50 Before Abraham was, I am." 10:55 What Jesus was claiming here is that He is Elohiym 10:59 and that claim was not lost on the people that hurt Him. 11:01 To them those words were blasphemous 11:04 and they took up stones to stone Jesus. 11:08 But I believe they were too hasty. 11:10 You see, Jesus claimed to be Elohiym, 11:13 the God of creation and the Exodus was backed up 11:17 and proven for all time by the fulfillment 11:20 of an amazing prophecy. 11:23 That's why I'm a Christian, Andrea, 11:25 because Jesus wasn't just an egotist with grandiose claims. 11:30 His assertions were confirmed by fulfilled prophecy. 11:34 Another term for God in the Old Testament was Holy One. 11:39 When we compare scripture with scripture, 11:41 we discover the term holy one is equal 11:44 to the other three names of God, 11:46 El in Psalms 78:41, Elohiym in Psalm 71:22, 11:51 and Yehovah in Isaiah 47:4. 11:54 Prophecy declares Jesus to be that Holy One 11:58 through the most compelling evidence. 12:01 In Psalms 16:10 we find a messianic psalm 12:05 that is a psalm referring to the Messiah who was to come. 12:09 Let's read it together. 12:11 "For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, 12:14 neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption." 12:17 I first studied this out in 1976 as a senior in academy, 12:22 but I didn't realize until later 12:24 how significant this passage was. 12:27 When I studied this out what I wanted to know was, 12:30 who is thou, who is my, 12:33 what is hell, and who is this Holy One. 12:37 Fortunately for us Peter uses this passage 12:40 from Psalm 2 as his key note address 12:43 on the day of Pentecost in Acts Chapter 2. 12:46 And thanks to his prophetic insight 12:48 we can fill in the blanks 12:51 with scripture interpreting scripture. 12:53 We now know that thou is God the Father, 12:57 My is Jesus, and hell is simply the grave. 13:03 We know this because Peter laid this prophetic text 13:06 over the recent history of Jesus in verse 31, 13:10 "He, David seeing this 13:13 before spake of the resurrection of Christ, 13:16 that his soul was not left in the grave, 13:18 neither did his flesh see corruption." 13:22 Jesus didn't stay in the grave like everyone else does. 13:25 He didn't rot away eaten by worms, oh, no. 13:29 He rose from the dead. 13:31 "This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we all are witnesses." 13:37 This is not just an exciting prophecy, there is more here. 13:41 You see, this Holy One was none other than Jesus Christ 13:46 and we've already learned that the term Holy One 13:48 is just another name for Elohiym, 13:51 the creator God, the God of the Exodus. 13:54 But the Holy One, the one who rose from the dead 13:57 is also the El God and this name is also embraced by Jesus. 14:03 Steven is standing by in Bethlehem to explain. 14:07 Thanks, Charles. 14:09 This will only take a moment, 14:10 because scripture is absolutely clear on this. 14:13 Let's look at another messianic prophecy from Isaiah 7:14. 14:16 "Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign, 14:21 Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, 14:25 and shall call his name Immanuel." 14:28 For anyone who has taken the name of Christ, 14:30 Christian, this passage 14:32 is understood to be fulfilled in Jesus. 14:35 Let's compare Isaiah 7 with Matthew 1. 14:38 Listen to these words of an angel from heaven. 14:41 "The angel of the Lord appeared unto Joseph in a dream, 14:45 saying, "Joseph, this pregnancy was done," 14:49 that it might be fulfilled 14:50 which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, 14:52 saying, "Behold, a virgin shall be with child," 14:57 and shall bring forth a son, 14:58 and they shall call his name Emmanu'el, 15:02 which being interpreted is, with us is El or God with us." 15:08 That little boy born in a grotto stable 15:10 right here in Bethlehem was not just an ordinary child, 15:14 He was El, He was God with us. 15:17 Jesus is Elohiym and Jesus is El and while we read it, 15:22 Jesus is also Yehovah. Isaiah 54:5 tells us. 15:26 "For thy Maker is thine husband, 15:29 the Yehovah of hosts is his name, 15:31 and thy redeemer the Holy One of Israel, 15:33 The Elohiym of the whole earth shall he be called." 15:37 Notice that the maker is the God of Genesis 1:1, 15:40 He is also Yehovah. 15:42 This was also the conclusion of the New Testament 15:44 Pharisee Paul in Colossians 1:16. 15:48 "For by him that is Jesus were all the things created, 15:52 that are in heaven, and that are on earth, 15:54 visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, 15:57 or dominions, or principalities, or powers, 16:00 all things were created by him." 16:03 Contemporaries of Jesus who compared His life 16:06 with the prophecies of the Old Testament 16:08 also came to the conclusion that this man 16:11 was the creator as was testified in John 1:3." 16:14 All things were made by him, 16:17 and without him was not any thing made that was made." 16:21 There are other texts that say the Father created all things, 16:25 but then we find this amazing messianic prophecy 16:29 in Isaiah 9:6 that says, "Jesus is the father." 16:33 "For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, 16:38 and the government shall be upon his shoulder, 16:40 and his name shall be called Wonderful, 16:43 Counselor, The mighty Elohiym, 16:45 The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace." 16:50 The Bible is clearly bearing out the truth of Jesus' words. 16:54 "I and my father are one." 16:58 That's exciting, Steven. 17:00 And this plurality of the Godhead 17:03 is not just something we find comparing 17:05 scripture with scripture as you've just so aptly done. 17:08 Did you know, the Bible uses 17:10 plural nouns in talking about God. 17:13 "Let us make man in our image. 17:17 Behold the man has become like one of us. 17:20 Come let us go down." 17:24 But if God is one, how can He be plural. 17:27 And Paul explains in Romans 1:20. 17:30 "For the invisible things of him 17:32 from the creation of the world are clearly seen, 17:35 being understood by the things that are made, 17:38 even his eternal power and Godhead, 17:41 so that they are without excuse." 17:44 Paul tells us, that we can clearly see 17:47 and even understand deity or the divine nature of God 17:51 or as the King James says, 17:52 The Godhead by the things that He's created. 17:56 Everything in nature tells us something about God 17:59 and as such it also tells us something about Jesus, 18:03 for He is Emmanu'el, God with us. 18:07 And Jesus is not a lesser God, 18:09 He is fully God. 18:11 And Paul told the believers in Colossians, 18:13 "For in him that is Christ dwelleth 18:17 all the fullness of the Godhead bodily." 18:20 In other words, if you've seen one you've seen the other. 18:24 Some folk said, I don't understand 18:27 how you can have one God and three beings 18:30 as part of the Godhead. 18:31 I don't understand it well either, 18:33 but remember the invisible can be clearly seen 18:38 by what he's created, 18:39 so let me take a run at this 18:41 with something from nature that God created. 18:45 This is ice, we make it to keep things cool. 18:51 Nature also makes a lot of ice. 18:54 Ice is a solid. This is water. 19:02 We use it to drink, to bath, to work, to clean and to play. 19:06 There is approximately 19:08 326 million trillion gallons of water on this planet 19:12 and 98% of the water on the planet is in the oceans. 19:16 Water is a liquid. Then there is steam. 19:24 When water gets hot enough, it turns into steam. 19:27 Steam is a gas. Now follow this. 19:32 A gas is neither a solid nor liquid. 19:35 A liquid is neither a gas nor a solid. 19:38 So all three items are completely different 19:42 and yet each of these items is fully and completely H2O. 19:46 H2O is one thing. 19:50 God is one thing, but a solid is not a liquid. 19:54 God the Father is not Jesus. 19:57 The Shema is true. Our God is one. 20:02 And Jesus also told the truth. "I and my Father are one." 20:07 In your illustration, Levi, 20:09 you used H2O to illustrate the oneness of God. 20:13 The different forms H2O can take are solid 20:16 which you used to represent the Father 20:18 and liquid to represent Jesus. 20:21 Well, what about H2O as gas. 20:25 Could that represent the Holy Spirit 20:27 and is the Holy Spirit a living part 20:30 of the Godhead or just a force. 20:33 Investigation reveals that from the beginning of creation, 20:37 the Spirit was already there. 20:40 You can read about it in the second verse of the Bible. 20:43 "And the earth was without form, and void, 20:47 and darkness was upon the face of the deep. 20:50 And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters." 20:55 However a careful read of 273 verses in the Bible 20:59 reveal some straddling insights. 21:01 Not once in the whole Old Testament 21:04 is the personal pronoun He associated with the Holy Spirit. 21:08 This is perhaps part of the reason the Jews 21:11 even today reject this plurality of the Godhead, 21:15 even some who claimed the name of Christian 21:18 have come to believe that the Spirit of God is simply 21:20 some divine power or a force that emanates from deity. 21:25 But once again that conclusion does not fit 21:28 the entire reading of the Bible. 21:31 If you consider all the verses of the Old Testament 21:33 regarding the Spirit of the Lord, 21:35 I can see how one might be tempted 21:38 to believe the force theory, 21:39 though it's not stated as such. 21:42 Well, when Jesus came to His earth as the Messiah 21:45 in direct fulfillment to so many prophecies of the Old Testament. 21:49 He also brought added light and truth 21:51 on the subject of the Holy Spirit. 21:53 And if we are going to be Christians 21:55 that is followers of Christ, 21:58 then we must embrace His teaching 22:00 and doctrines on this subject. 22:02 So what did Jesus said about the Spirit of God? 22:06 Well, for starters, at least 18 times in the book of John, 22:11 Jesus used the personal pronouns He, Him and Himself, 22:16 in referring to the Spirit of God. 22:18 Jesus wasn't thinking of the Holy Spirit 22:20 as some spiritually electrical force, 22:23 but rather a personal being. 22:26 It was represented to Him 22:28 at His baptism as a living creature. 22:30 Matthew 3:16 says, "And Jesus, when he was baptized, 22:35 saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, 22:38 and lighting upon him." 22:41 And Jesus announced that His powerful life of service 22:44 was a direct fulfillment of the prophecy in Isaiah 61:1. 22:49 "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, 22:52 because he hath anointed me 22:53 to preach the gospel to the poor, 22:56 he hath send me to heal the brokenhearted, 22:58 to preach deliverance to the captives, 23:00 and recovering of sight to the blind, 23:03 to set at liberty them that are bruised, 23:06 to preach the acceptable year of the Lord." 23:09 Over and over the Bible attributes personality traits 23:13 to the Holy Spirit casting Him in the light of a living, 23:17 thinking, feeling and being. 23:20 In the both the Old and New Testaments, 23:22 the Holy Spirit is portrayed as one 23:24 who can be vexed and grieved. 23:27 Paul taught in Romans 8:27, 23:29 that the Holy Spirit has a mind 23:32 and one would need a mind to do 23:34 what Jesus said the Holy Spirit does in John 16:13. 23:38 "Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, 23:43 he will guide you into all truth, 23:45 for he shall not speak of himself, 23:47 but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak, 23:52 and he will show you things to come." 23:55 Not only does Jesus used 23:57 seven personal pronouns in this one verse, 24:00 He also attributes traits of character 24:02 and personality to the Spirit. 24:05 This being will guide you, speak to you, and hear you. 24:11 Four times in the book of John, 24:13 Jesus refers to the Holy Spirit as the Comforter. 24:17 "But when the Comforter is come, 24:20 whom I will send unto you from the Father, 24:22 even the Spirit of truth which proceedeth from the Father, 24:26 he shall testify of me." 24:29 There is so much more I'd like to share about the Holy Spirit, 24:33 but time will not permit just now. 24:35 So let me encourage you to find our study aid 24:37 from the qlp.tv website. 24:40 I believe that study aid will help you 24:42 in your further investigation of the Holy Spirit. 24:45 The Bible is clear. 24:47 The Holy Spirit is the third person of the Godhead. 24:51 The Bible clearly presents all three as God. 24:54 The true reason Christ was spurned is love of self. 24:59 love of sin and envy. 25:01 For the same reason, Christ is still rejected today, 25:04 but at what cost. 25:07 The kingdom was taken from the Jews 25:09 and their spiritual house was left desolate 25:12 and it is still desolate, but Jesus is still offering 25:16 a real and vibrant relationship with God today. 25:19 That conviction is born impart from the doctrine 25:23 or words of Jesus Himself in Matthew 28. 25:27 "Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, 25:30 baptizing them in the name of the Father, 25:33 and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." 25:37 Biblical baptism is not just being baptized into Jesus. 25:41 Oh, no, we are baptized into the entire Godhead, 25:45 Father, Son and Holy Ghost. 25:48 After all, all three were present at Jesus baptism 25:53 and this does not contradict the Shema. 25:56 In Deuteronomy 6:4 the word one comes from 26:00 the Hebrew word echadh and it means united or one. 26:06 This is the same word used in Genesis 2:24 that said, 26:10 Adam and Eve were one flesh. 26:12 If our first parents could be two separate people 26:16 and yet one or echadh, 26:18 then Jesus and the Father could also be One God. 26:23 Even in ways He cannot yet fully comprehend. 26:27 Now listen and listen carefully to this doctrine, 26:30 this powerful teaching of Jesus. 26:33 Before Jesus went back to heaven, 26:35 He prayed for you and me, His followers. 26:38 He prayed for every person who would hear His truths 26:42 taught by His disciples. 26:44 He prayed for everyone who would believe, 26:46 listen with your heart to His prayer in John 17:21. 26:51 "That they all may be one, as thou, Father, 26:56 art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us, 27:02 that the world may believe that thou hast sent me." 27:06 He is asking the Father to make us one with each other 27:10 and one with the Father and Himself 27:12 just like He and the Father are one. 27:15 What Jesus is inviting us to is a profoundly spiritual 27:20 and other worldly experience. 27:23 Imagine echadh, one in the same way 27:27 Jesus and the Father are one, that's intimate. 27:32 It doesn't matter if you're Jewish, Christian, 27:34 or Muslim, or anything else. 27:36 We're all invited to be one, 27:39 one with each other and one with God. 27:42 What choice will you make? 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Revised 2014-12-17