The Sequential Path of Thought in This Book – Lesson Eighteen

The Sequential Path of Thought in This Book

Introduction

The scriptures in each lesson in this book have been presented to help Christians establish for themselves a pivotal point in their Bible study, level of faith and spiritual growth.  Christians need to know where we stand in all three categories.  After we know where we stand, we can move upward on our sequential path of Bible study in order to open wider our spiritual “Door of Faith” into the kingdom of God.  Christians are citizens of Jesus Christ’s kingdom. His kingdom functions within the sphere of God’s will and kingdom.  Christians’ faith in the scriptures in Lesson One establishes our identity as God’s children with citizenship in His kingdom (Rom. 8:16; Phil. 3:20).  Our identity and citizenship is a power of God’s kingdom in our “selves.”  I Cor. 4:20.  These blessings propel Christians up the path of spiritual growth “from glory to glory.”  II Cor. 6:18.  A Christian who has not developed faith in the scriptures in Lesson One will have trouble developing faith in the scriptures in the remaining lessons.

The aim of this lesson is to make a concise statement about the topic of each lesson.  The purpose for following a “sequential path of thought” is to develop a method of Bible study that will enhance our spiritual growth.  This theory is based on the curriculum of study in secular schools all over the world.  Certain topics must be understood before students can enroll in the next course.  Spiritual learning follows the same pattern in secular education as it does for Bible students because God designed the way all people learn.  Christians must understand God’s word in our minds and develop faith in our hearts in what we learn.  Our mind and heart learning become internalized into our personality and character; therefore, we practice righteous behavior.  The practice of righteousness is Christians’ learning exercise to ensure the internalization of what we learn in our minds and hearts.  For instance we learn from Jesus, “Blessed are the merciful for they will be shown mercy.”  Matt. 5:7.  If we want to be a Christian who is merciful, we must practice being merciful to others.  See Jas. 2:12, 13.

Developing the emotional attitudes of Jesus is the only path to heaven.  The grace of the cross gives us freedom from the power of sin and death, so we can re-invent ourselves by putting off the old self and putting on Christ (Rom. 8:1; Eph. 4:22-24).   “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this not from yourselves, it is a gift from God, not by works, so that no one can boast.”  Eph. 2:8, 9.   Satan wants religious people to think they are saved to go to heaven by grace.  Christians have peace with God by grace through faith so we can develop in the way we were created – “to do good works.”  Eph. 2:10.  We cannot develop as children of God by merely attending Bible classes and worship services.  They are important, but God is love.  Christians must do love to be love.  Just as faith is “made complete” in us, by practicing love, “love is made complete in us.”  I John. 4:12.

The purpose of this book is to help Christians who may be struggling with their Bible study, faith and spiritual growth.  Their problem may have developed because they have “passed over” some vital topics for their “faith to faith” growth (Rom. 1:17).  This would cause them to fail to spiritually develop “from glory to glory.”  Christians can examine ourselves to know why and where we are failing “to do good works.”  A Christian who is “ineffective and unproductive” has a problem with their faith or with being a willful sinner.  See II Peter 1:8, 9.

A protracted Preface and Introduction have been presented in preparation for the study of the lessons in this book.  The following are statements of intent about the Preface and Introduction.

Lesson

Preface:  This is the commission Jesus Christ gave the Apostle Paul on the road to Damascus:

I will rescue you from your own people and from the Gentiles.  I am sending you to them to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive the forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in Me.  Acts 26:17, 18

Reference to this scripture has repeatedly been made in this book.  Paul’s commission contained information that prefaces a study of what was before time, is now, and will be when time is no more.  Before time began, the kingdom of God was, it is now, and it will be after time is no more: God and His kingdom are spiritual and eternal.  At some point before, or during the creation of mankind, Satan was allowed to maintain a kingdom inhabited by demons.  He has now taken captive into his dark kingdom a large number of the seven billion human beings living on earth.  The two kingdoms Jesus presented in Paul’s commission must be clearly perceived by faith in order to know what Jesus planned to do when He said, “I willl build My chruch.”  Matt. 16:17-20.  What He is now doing is described in Ephesians 2:19-22.  Jesus is building a temple on earth for His Father with redeemed sinners He called out of Satan’s kingdom.

Jesus Christ will terminate Satan and the citizens of his kingdom by casting them into the lake of fire when He returns.  “The lake of fire is the second death.”  Rev. 20:14.   God’s kingdom and Satan’s kingdom should actively and powerfully function in our “faith scene” as the spiritual context for all of our Bible studies.  God is the protagonist and Satan is the antagonist in God’s story in the Bible.  The story starts in Gen. 1:1 and ends in Rev. 22:21.  When God’s and Satan’s kingdoms are missing as the context for Christians’ Bible study, we cannot follow the chain of events in the Bible.  From first to last the Bible is God’s story.  He is the protagonist and Satan is the antagonist; consequently, we must keep them in mind at all times as we read God’s story in the Gospels and during the last days of time.

Christians develop a view of the church that is not revealed in the Bible when we think of the church without the place from which we were called and the place to which we have been transferred.  They tend to make the church something like a third entity.  The result is an institution built according to “mere men wisdom.”  See I Cor. 3:1-10.  The church is a group of people who have been transferred out of Satan’s kingdom by being born again.  The word church means “called out.”  Christians’ new birth gave us a place “among those who are sanctified” in the kingdom of Jesus Christ and God (Eph. 5:5; Col. 1:13, 14).

Jesus was given a specific mission by God.  God gave Him the authority of a king and high priest within the sphere of His Father’s kingdom to fulfill His mission.  See Heb. 1:8; 2:10; 4:14.  Jesus is the head of these “called out” people.  Christians are citizens in God’s kingdom under the kingship of His Son (I Cor. 15:24; Phil. 3:20, 21).  By the “wisdom of men” the world has made something out of the word “church” that goes beyond the word of God.  This will always happen when people study the Bible without an understanding of the kingdom of God and the kingdom of Satan.  A review of the Preface may be needed before shifting our minds to the next thoughts.

Introduction:  “Born in a Box.”

We all understand about being born into a family we did not choose, a circumstance we wished could have been better and a nation we accepted as home.  This is what is being called a person’s “box of life” in the Introduction.  We also understand how culture powerfully affects our taste, dress, language and our preference about so many things.  The circumstance of being born into a religious family is generally why people identify as Christian, Hindu, Muslim, Buddhist, Judaism or with another religion.  Having been born into a religious or non-religious family has a captivating influence on the “box of life” in which people live.

So we ask ourselves, “Where did I get my answer for ‘what is a church?’” Was it from my study of God’s word or from the world culture?  Many of us would quickly say, “I got it from my Bible study.”   Please consider this assumption:  “Most people, who read the Bible regularly, make the scriptures say what we already believed they said.”  Most people believe what the religious group they identify with believe.  What is commonly found about a group who identify as a church is their beliefs can be traced back to an individual person or movement.  This is the “box” from which Christians must free our “selves” because it is where Satan “masquerades as an angel of light.”  II Cor. 11:14.

A good teacher will try to control what he or she thinks a scripture means by first seeking to understand what the scripture meant in its original setting.  Until we understand what a scripture meant we are not in a position to know what it means.  It will be the task of each person who reads these lessons to make their own determination about what the scriptures mean.  The author has presented his hypothesis.

A concise statement will be made in regard to the scriptures in each lesson.  These statements form  The Sequential Path of Thought from lesson to lesson in this Book.

Lesson One:   

For those God foreknew He also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brothers.   Rom. 8:29

No, we speak of God’s secret wisdom, a wisdom that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began.      I Cor. 2:7

Jesus Christ preached the kingdom of God to call sinners out of Satan’s kingdom into His own sphere of rule and priesthood; so we could have freedom from our sins and divine fellowship to help us develop as sons of God.  This is the only purpose for God’s creation of mankind; consequently, Christians’ identity as sons of God is the beginning of our personal faith.

Lesson Two:  The design of living beings is compliant with God’s purpose for creating us.  God created mankind for a glorious role in His eternal kingdom; therefore, He created within each individual’s spirit a strong need for glory, honor, social acceptance and security.  Our spirit is our “self” endowed with the capacities of mind, heart and conscience.  Mankind has been created in two parts.  Our bodies are instruments of our “selves,” with which we “speak and act.” Jas. 2:12; Rom. 6:13.  Our bodies also have inherent needs, but the life of our spirits are of utmost importance (Matt. 6:25).

The driving force from within all people is our quests to seek satisfaction for our God-given needs.  Jesus is now offering programs in God’s kingdom to give Christians satisfaction for each innate need.  His program gives us hope for the satisfaction of all of our needs.  Satan is offering lies.  He will offer programs to satisfy one need that will shut off hope for the others in an individual.  This causes disintegration and frustration in a person’s life that produces anxiety attacks.  The result is weakness in a person’s power to move effectively to be productive (II Pet. 1:8).  The power of a human being to be productive is generated between the needs God created in us and His goals for their satisfaction.

Lesson Three:  Children must be given choices; therefore, God gave Adam and Eve a choice.  The complex narrative in Genesis Chapters One through Three introduces us to the protagonist, the antagonist and the plot in God’s story in the Bible.  The resolution of the plot will happen when Jesus returns for those of us who are still alive.  For those who have died physically the resolution of the plot has been settled.  They all will return to God.  Little Children and the “children of promise” will be invited to remain.  “If anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he will be thrown into the lake of fire.”  Rev. 20:15.

Christians’ faith in why and how God created us will determine how we deal with what we received because all peoples’ gene path goes back to Adam.  Mankind has the endowment of “knowing good and evil.”  Gen. 3:22.  Our two lists about what we believe is good or evil begins to be scrutinized by our consciences after we reach maturity.  Christians experience a feeling of guilt when we choose what we believe is evil.  Evil is what is not good – not beneficial.  Mature people, who do not have faith in why and how they were created, must deal with their guilt for “not doing what they know they ought to do” for their remaining days, or until they develop faith in why and how they were created. This is the sequential path of thought in Lesson One – Three.  It leads us to God’s story about redeeming mankind from sin and death by grace in order to attain His purpose in creation.  Christians who have not followed this path for their faith will not be able to understand the topic of grace in their Bible study.

Lesson Four:  Mankind’s capacity for “knowing good and evil” created a different relationship between themselves and God: Conflict developed.  Conflict develops in the “selves” of maturing people between their lists of good and evil they have acquired in their minds and the function of their consciences.  Each person, after their maturity, examines his or her “self,” especially, their behavior.  We declare our “selves” guilty when we do what we believe is not good.  Guilt on our consciences causes conflict in our fellowship with God.  Instead of running to God for social acceptance people want to hide from their Creator.

From God’s standpoint all mature people became sinners; therefore, conflict developed between man and God.  God is “Majesty in heaven.”  Heb. 1:3.  “All people have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”  Rom. 3:23.  Why?  We have the capacity of “knowing good and evil.”  The problem:  Mature people are being held responsible for choosing good or evil while we learn what is good and evil.

God’ solution for the conflict problems is grace through faith.  God counted people righteous because of their faith in His covenants before Jesus Christ came; preached the kingdom of God and offered Himself as God’s “atoning sacrifice” for our sins.  He now offers the grace of a new birth by which Christians have been transferred to the kingdom of Jesus.  Faithful Christians enjoy justification by faith while we grow spiritually (Rom: 4:25).  All other mature people remain in Satan’s kingdom.

Lesson Five:   A person who has faith in the scriptures presented in the first four lessons will be in a healthy position to easily read God’s story in the Bible.  The sequential faith building value for reading God’s story in the Old Testament is for preparing Christians to properly follow the plot into the New Testament.  Since the plot in God’s story involves His purpose to develop children, Satan will be working to thwart God’s will for mankind.

God used the Melchizedek Priesthood to maintain fellowship with mankind by offering covenants from Adam to Moses.  His covenants contained laws of life and promises (Gen. 26:4, 5).  The law of life, like the law of nature, does not impute sin; however, death did reign over those who did not have faith in God’s covenants from Adam to Moses.  See Rom. 5:12-14.  The Priesthood of Jesus Christ is on the order of the Melchizedek Priesthood.  A Christian’s faith must include a functional priesthood in order to approach God.  Jesus Christ’s priesthood consists of Himself as high priest, His own blood for the sacrifice for sin, the law of life and the promise of Christians’ inheritance (Heb. 8:10-12).  Jesus Christ serves Christians as our high priest twenty four hours a day (I John 2:1-3).

Lesson Six:  God’s story in the Old Testament includes His major moves to separate His people who were living by faith in His covenants from the ungodly mass of humanity.  All of these ungodly peoples’ spirits came from God.  They all have the capacity of knowing good and evil; therefore, they are dealing with guilt after the maturity of their minds and consciences.  They all have innate God-given needs with no viable program to give them a hope for satisfaction.  For a summary of the results of sin and death ruling their lives please read Rom. 1:18-32; 5:21.

God made a major move in Noah’s time and again with Abraham.  The promises God made to Abraham in Genesis 12:1-3 must be understood, believed and accepted by faith by all people who have lived after Jesus returned to His Father.  Christians are children of God but we are also children of Abraham.  We cannot be one without the other (Gal. 3:26-29).  Christians are “children of promise” because we accepted the “covenants of promise” God made to Abraham.  Along with all little children, “children of promise” are the only people on earth who have citizenship in God’s kingdom.  The promises to Abraham included both Jews and Gentiles; therefore, the church Jesus is building for His Father is identified as the “Israel of God.”  Gal. 6:16.

Lesson Seven:  The topicabout “God’s Kingdom Within His People” is one of the most profound ethical precepts taught by Jesus Christ.  Yet, it’s so simple.  Understanding, believing and accepting by faith the kingdom of God being in us, requires Christians to have pushed wide open our “Door of Faith” by becoming disciples of Christ.  Being a disciple means we learn His teachings about life in the kingdom in our minds, hearts and practice.  A major practice of Christians is to join Jesus’ mission to seek and save the lost.  We have had our faith “tested by fire;” we became equal to our tests by conforming to the likeness of Jesus in our character, personality and behavior.

The topic in Lesson Seven has no precise sequential position on a Christian’s growth path.  It is a goal.  The goal of having the kingdom of God within Christians is the reason Jesus Christ was sent to earth from heaven.  The scripture in Luke 17:20, 21 over shadows our lives in regard to God’s purpose in our creation from birth to grave.  It also foreshadows our inheritance (Rom. 8:18-25).  Jesus presented young children as representative of the kingdom of God.  Christians have been adopted as God’s children; therefore, we inherit His kingdom and the life therein. (Rev. 21:7).

Lesson Seven has been placed in this sequential order in this book to motivate Christians to practice “deeper thinking,” or perhaps even, “profound meditation” along with our reading the Old Testament.  We see God working with people.  He was working to develop the life of His kingdom in people who had faith.  There was a remnant of people who had His kingdom in them.   Some have been identified in Hebrews, Chapter Eleven.  At each encounter in the narratives of the Old Testament, God revealed Himself.    We consider how each individual narrative reveals what God is doing in a particular situation.  We ask, “Why was this story placed here in this context?”  Then “How does what God did relate to why and how He created us?”  After Christians understand all of God’s major moves, especially through Jesus Christ, we will be ready to accept Jesus’ simple but profound declaration about where to find the kingdom of God (Matt. 6:10).  Christians have the life of the kingdom of God in our “selves” and in our behavior patterns.  This provides us with hope for the satisfaction of our needs for honor, glory and peace (Rom. 2:6-11).  We live in the hope our “selves” will have eternal honor, glory and peace when Jesus is revealed (I Pet. 1:7).  A human who does not have hope for the satisfaction of one of our innate needs will be disturbed and unhappy.

Lesson Eight: Since three quarters of the Bible has been dedicated to the Levitical Priesthood era; it encumbers Christians to know why God ordained the Levitical Priesthood with a category of law that became a “yoke of slavery.”  Gal. 5:1.  The law enslaved those who did not keep it because “through the law we become conscious of sin.”  Rom. 3:20.  See Paul’s explanation in Romans 7:7-25 how sin becomes an “enslaving yoke” after mature people become aware of their sins.  The Israelite people who lived during the Levitical Priesthood were placed under “tutors and governors” until the time was right for God to send Jesus Christ.  Gal. 4:2.  Christians need to understand God’s “Purpose of the Levitical Priesthood” to intelligently follow God’s story in the New Testament.

The following thought illustrates one reason why this topic must be approached in a sequential path of study by Christians and people who want to learn how to read the Bible.

Please consider: The law of the Levitical Priesthood was changed from the law of the Melchizedek Priesthood that did not convict sinners to the law God gave Moses that did convict sinners.  When God changed the Levitical Priesthood to the Priesthood of Jesus Christ, the law was changed back to the law of life (Heb. 7:11-17).  The law of life, like the law of nature, does not convict law breakers; both of these laws describe life.  A person who does not know the law of life for our spirits would be in the same condition as a person who did not know the law of nature: Neither can have life.

A person who does not know why and how they were created; what they have as a part of their mental endowments because Adam and Eve broke covenant; their identity as a child of Abraham; the new covenant; the law of life God wants to write on our hearts and minds: These people are not in a position to understand the purpose of the Levitical Priesthood.  It would be unwise to try to explain God’s purpose for changing the priesthood unless the subject is approached in a sequential order of studies.  Many false ideas have been presented by people who present the Levitical Priesthood out of context.

Christians who have faith in the scriptures presented in the Preface and the foregoing lessons are prepared to discuss the purpose of the Levitical Priesthood.  They understand God made promises to Abraham for his seed through Jacob to maintain His program to eventually have children from all nations.  Abraham had “faith made complete.” Jas. 2:22.  Therefore, God committed the remainder of the history of mankind on earth to the promises He made to Abraham.  We understand most of the Israelites Moses led out of Egypt were sinners; however, most did not know it.  The Law of Moses made them conscious of their sins.  God’s faithfulness to the “children of promise” through Abraham is why He made the major move with Moses and the Israelites.  See Rom. 3:1-4.

Lesson Nine:  The topic of “God’s Nation” and Lesson Ten, “God’s Use of Prophets,” should be studied in the same context with Lesson Eight; however, we need to study them in a sequential order.  For instance, the nation of Israel was formed several years after the system of “tutors and governors” was arranged by God for the people that would be citizens of His nation.   The various laws God gave Moses for the people while in the wilderness were the laws for the nation that developed later.  The national leaders of Israel did not need to write their own constitution.  Along with what God wrote on stone, Moses wrote in a book the laws for the leadership and the individual lives of the people (Deut. 31:24-26).

God’s wanted His nation to be His evangelism tool for the Gentiles; even though they failed miserably.  The Israelites were organized as a nation with physical boundaries to stave off the danger of being influenced by the culture of the Gentiles.   This also failed, but God patiently worked to develop the spiritual life of His heavenly kingdom in those who lived by faith.  Israel, the nation, was the “man dimension” of God’s kingdom; even though He allowed men like Solomon “to sit on the throne of the kingdom of the Lord over Israel.”  I Chron. 28:5.

Lesson Ten:  Christians read God’s stories in the Bible to understand how God thinks and feels about a particular situation.  Prophets spoke for God, not themselves.  We can hear God speak to “everyday reality” through the prophets to Israel in particular situations at times when they were not obeying His will.  In these scenarios we can set aside the prophet and the Israelites so we listen to God speak directly to people.  Try this:  Remove Micah and the Israelites while reading Micah 2:1-11.  We can hear God saying the same things to similar situations today in most nations.  We need to hear God so we can know God.   One purpose for the Son of God’s incarnation was to reveal God (John 14:7).  Jesus chided the Israelites; “Why is My language not clear to you?”  John 8:43.  The Jews would have known Jesus if they had known God.  They should have known God because they grew up with His stories about what He did with Israel.  Even though Israel rejected God as king, He spoke to them through the prophets.

Lesson Eleven:  This lesson is a summary of the foregoing sequential topics.  It has been prepared to enable Christians to read the four Gospels with understanding.  The great advantage present day Christians have over God’s people who lived before Christ, as well as the first Christians; we have the full story in written form.  We can see the end at the beginning while doing each new round of our studies of God’s story.  Christians’ Bible study can be a new experience in each round of study because our “Door of Faith” will have been opened a little wider by our previous studies.  Sequential Bible study will be a new and exciting experience because our minds and hearts have already been written upon by God with the laws of life (Heb. 8:10).  “Written upon” means the culture of the kingdom of God is developing in our minds and hearts.  We are able to see God and His kingdom by our faith in His word and by the application of our imagination.  Mankind’s capacity of imagination is a special God-given endowment enabling Christians to imagine ourselves enjoying daily what we read in the Bible about God and what He is doing for us.  Our faith becomes a reality in our daily lives (Heb. 11:1, 6).

We can use this lesson to “examine ourselves” to see if we have the perseverance to press on to be “mature and complete, not lacking anything.”  Jas. 1:4.  Perseverance is the result of faith testing.  As Christians make higher and higher test marks, our faith is being made complete.  This means, our faith in divine spiritual truth becomes who we are – like Abraham, the man of faith.

Lesson Twelve:  God’s story in the four Gospels belongs in the Levitical Priesthood age.  Jesus served Israel as God’s prophet like Moses (Acts 3:22, 23).  Because Jesus of Nazareth was the “Christ,” what we learn from Him about the kingdom of God was written in the Gospels for the church at a later date.   His teachings became the apostles’ gospel in Acts, Chapter Two, and beyond.  The four Gospels were developed by four Christian writers who were inspired by the Holy Spirit (John 16:12, 13).  The writers chose individual narratives to develop their stories in a sequential manner.  Since the divine literature they produced was presented in a story form, Bible students apply the “three-level” principle for reading a narrative.

We read the individual narrative.  We consider what God was doing and then we seek to understand how what He did relates to the reason for our having been born.  Bible students who are ignorant of these simple facts will stumble over them, again and again.  A stumbling block for Christians will be their failure to understand the application of Jesus’ teachings in the Gospels for three groups of people:

One, Jesus’ original audience, was the Jews.

Two, life principles were taught for all people based the scriptures in Lessons One through Three.

Three, the theology, ethics and practices Jesus taught only for Christians and those who desired to become Christians.

 A reader of a biblical document must know what the author assumed the recipients knew; otherwise, he or she cannot read the document with understanding.  Christians need to carefully follow Gods moves in the Old Testament in order to read and understand His moves in His story in the Gospels and Acts.  For instance, we need to know what the recipients of the writings knew about Abraham and David because the New Testament writers often assumed we knew about them.  The aims of Lesson Twelve and Thirteen are to connect the Gospels to the Old Testament in such a way Christians can perceive how God’s story is a continuous story about Jesus “bringing many sons to glory.”  Heb. 2:10.  Lesson Twelve is dedicated to John’s Gospel. His prologue sets forth the nucleus of a Christian’s faith and spiritual growth:

1:4, 5.    “In Him was life, and that life was the light of men.  The light shines in darkness, but the darkness has not understood it.”

1:12.      “Yet to all who received Him, to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to be sons of God.”

1:17.      “Grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.”

John recorded several conversations where Jesus repeatedly declared; “it is not about Me, it is about My Father’s will being done on earth as it is in heaven.”  John introduced the blessing of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit and the “towel and wash basin” mentality for Christian leadership (John 7:37-39; 13:2-5).

Lesson Thirteen:  God’s story in the Synoptic Gospels revealed a raging battle between Jesus Christ and Satan.  God sent His Son to earth as the “Son of man” to teach life and remove the power of death from Satan by His own death on the cross.  Jesus chose a few good men and women to train for battle against Satan’s forces.  Satan’s people had taken control of God’s arrangements He had made through the Levitical Priesthood for His people.  Although a skeleton of the system remained, it had been corrupted by religious/political parties.  Even so, Jesus still preached the kingdom of God to the Pharisees and Sadducees along with the Israelite people.  He used parables about nature and the peoples’ corrupted practices to teach the law of life in the kingdom of God.  God’s story in the Gospels revealed God’s love for every person on earth.  His will was to have His only Son crucified so He could have more children like Him in His eternal kingdom.

Lessons Fourteen – Seventeen:  Lessons One through Thirteen were designed to prepare our minds and hearts for a study of the four Gospels.  It is in the Gospels we understand “grace and truth.” Jesus taught both for His reign as “Prince and Savior.”  Acts 5:31.   Jesus, as king, revealed the truth about life for His citizens.  Jesus, our high priest, prepared Himself to serve as high priest by living on earth “in Adam.” He sacrificed Himself for Christians’ grace “in Christ.”

God’s major move in the Gospels was to send the Christ He had promised.  It would be difficult to organize Jesus teachings in a precise sequential order for His reign.  The new realm, identified as “in Christ,” required Christians to have faith in “every spiritual blessing.”  God, our Father, arranged for faithful Christians to enjoy all of these blessings through Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit.  They are for our spiritual growth.  See Eph.1:3-14.  However, Luke did present certain topics in a sequential order in Acts, Chapters One and Two:

First, Jesus returned to heaven to take His place “at the right hand of God.”  Acts 7:56.  Note, He did not sit on the throne of God’s kingdom (I Tim. 6:13-16).  Next, the Holy Spirit descended to help the apostles get their message right about the kingdom of God.  With the Son of God back in heaven and the Holy Spirit working with the apostles in Jerusalem, Jesus’ mission was “kicked off” with a gospel meeting for the Israelites, including those who had Him crucified.

The results: Three thousand were called out of Satan’s kingdom.  They were transferred to Jesus’ kingdom.  These people were referred to as the church because of what had happened to them.  They were the people who were “called out.”  This is the meaning of the word “church.”  Christians did not form a separate institution.  We were directly transferred, by our new births, into the kingdom of Christ.  Church is never used in the Bible to form a proper name such as “church of God” or “churches of Christ.”  It is used to identify the people who were transferred from Satan’s kingdom to Christ’s kingdom.  Christians identify as citizens of God’s kingdom because this is what Jesus taught the apostles to preach to call sinners into His kingdom.

My prayer is that the previous lessons have been helpful for each person who has considered the scriptures in the previous lessons and my hypotheses about their application.  The main aim was to encourage Christians to see how simple it is to study the Bible for their own understanding, beliefs and faith.  False prophets and greedy men have taken captive what is projected as “Christianity.” Consequently, Christians must be true disciples of Jesus.

A sequential approach has been made for our Bible study to help Christians who may be having trouble with their spiritual growth.  They need to consider the topic of each lesson as it has been placed in this book.  If they have not clarified their selves and placed their faith in any one of the topics, this may be the reason they are struggling to develop as a child of God.  A study of the scriptures listed in each lesson is for the clarification about the topic.

Christians who understand every person on earth has been created to be a son of God can easily understand the different Biblical terminology used to identify God’s people.   Lessons Fourteen through Seventeen have been presented for a study of Christian theology, ethics and practice taught by Jesus in the Gospels.   Our prayer is for those who have not yet learned how to read the Bible in a sequential order for their faith building and spiritual growth.  May God bless all faithful Christians as we help those who ask about our hope (I Pet. 3:15).  Let us join Jesus Christ’s mission to “seek and save the lost;” those who may not ask about our hope.

No comments yet.

Leave a Reply