I thought ya'll might enjoy getting a glimpse into some of our lectures. This is the 2nd part of a series that is ongoing. Rob Whitaker, the principle is giving it. Hope you enjoy...
Prayer: Help us to move this from just an intellectual experience to a heart practice.
Benefits of this series cont.
for those who may not know Him yet
for those early on in knowing Him
for those who are struggling
well on in knowing Him
those who want to introduce others to Christ
We are all dysfunctional- but when we try to put on a performance for non-Christians we are doing our faith an injustice. People want to see honesty. ALL of those that Jesus met were dysfunctional.
1 John 2:12
Notice that there are several different categories of people. Not by age, how long we have been a Christian. It is by there spiritual maturity.
Spiritual Qualifications given in this verse:
A child- you know that you are forgiven, you know God as your dad.
A young man (teenager) (vs. 13)- overcome the evil one aka- things that used to trip you up before don't anymore. That doesn't mean that you are perfect and never mess up but that you are growing and improving- working through the temptations.
A father- (vs 14)- you have a deep, intimate relationship/knowledge of God. This is on two levels: intellectual knowledge which involves intimacy “know” in Greek means- to deeply experience.
The people who struggled most with Jesus were religious people. The average “Joe” was drawn to Him.
Examination of Friendship with Jesus in the Bible
The more important a concept is to a culture, the more words for that concept the culture has.
English is rather limited in its words for love.
Two major N.T Greek words for love.
Agape (noun:love) Agapeo (verb: to love)
Philos (noun:love) Phileo (verb:to love) This is the word used in the text we are examining.
Phileo/Philos love is used many, times w/reference to Jesus especially in relationship to friendship.
Description of Phileo.
family love- Matt. 10:17
friendship love- John 11:13
fond love- Luke 15:20
It indicates attraction to a person or thing. Deals with feelings.
Your concept/understanding of God determines your Christian life and experience.
Is your picture of Jesus Phileo?
Jesus had degrees of friendship:
With the crowds- Matt 11:18-19
with the disciples (in a deeper way)- John 15:11-15 (3x uses the word “friend”)
with a small number of people- John 11:3; 20:1-2; 21:20 (Jesus desires friendship with us)
Dynamics of His friendship:
the crowds- over 70x the Bible mentions Jesus with crowds, often large. Luke 14:25.
to men- in an honorable way men were attracted to Jesus. These guys were tough men. (fishermen, tax collectors...) Jesus did not emasculate the men, they didn't become “saps” when they started following him, if that was the case why would other men want to follow him. Matt 14:20-23 This is the only miracle that is recorded in all three gospels.
To women- in an honorable way women were attracted to Jesus. Jesus was open, vulnerable and sensitive which is attractive to women. He was relational- are you? Luke 8:1-3
Children- again in an honorable way children were attracted to Jesus, not afraid of Him, children have a very sensitive intuition but they ran to Him.
To individuals- some of the encounters He has one-on-one are spectacular. “follow me” and they leave everything and come with Him. Mark 2:34;1:16-20.
The greater the range of people you can relate to, the more whole/integrated you are as a person.
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1 comment:
love this! Ive heard some of these thoughts before but it is so timely as prayer seems to be my topic of late. Thanks for sharing. Keep up the posts. They are great! :)
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