Children of God
Do you guys know how the human Eye works?
Basicaly see this light here
the energy from the light touches every thing and relects off objects. The The human eye can obsorb all of the relecting light particles and tells us its colors, shapes and distance. Because of light we have depth perseption: how close or how far something is. Its an amazing phenomenon that all this is possible through the human eye.
Light rays enter the eye through the cornea, the clear front “window” of the eye. The cornea’s refractive power bends the light rays in such a way that they pass freely through the pupil the opening in the center of the iris through which light enters the eye.
The iris works like a shutter in a camera. It has the ability to enlarge and shrink, depending on how much light is entering the eye.
The Iris helps us focus when light comes
Now this was an extensive study but there are two very important things we need to see with our eyes. Light and blood. Your eye fuctions because of the blood pumping through it. By whats called the optic nerves. The bible says there is life in the blood. Last time I spoke we talked about Jesus being the life and light of men. And John the Apostle is going to tell us about John the baptist. John the Baptists Job was to be like the Iris of the eye to focus the true light: Jesus the light of the world.
And john the baptists job was to act like an Iris and focus that light so that the world wiould properly define it.
Now the purpose of the Gospel of John is to convince people that Jesus Is the Christ. It is so important that That Apostle John talks about John the Baptist. Because John the Baptist had a very special purpose. John the Baptist was to be the forerunner of the Messiah. That is he was to proclaim to the people the Coming of the King, God the son; coming into human history. In this study we will look at John the baptist's proclamation: God is Light; light to the world, And how his light makes us children of God.
John Chapter 1:6-14
There was a man named John
who was sent from God.
He came as a witness
to testify about the light,
so that all might believe through him.
He was not the light,
but he came to testify about the light.
John was sent from God.
John was to grow up in the wilderness as a young boy until his public appearance and ministry, at night it was very dangerous and you would need light where ever you go. We must remember a few things about John. He was a reverent man, he was not a crazy person. He was from a family of priests that worked in the temple. His family was righteous in the eyes of God, so he had a discipline. He would have had to be disciplined to survive living in the wilderness. During this time it was just Him and God. His family was wealthy so he had the education needed to read and write. And during that time with him and God in the wilderness he had no outside influence. He grew in the knowledge of God and the Bible says he became powerful in the spirit. He his message was simple “Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” It was something simple that everyone could grasp and with this message he was sent out.
He was sent out to share as a witness of the light that shines from God has come. The Greek word for send is Apostellos to send off or drive away. in my bible, it says he was driven out of the wilderness by the spirit. John had a relationship with God that was so powerful he knew when God would send him to a new place. Immediately his ministry took off. And his message was drawing attention from thousands of people.
He was to declare through testimony; that is to bring forth evidence as a witness. Using the scriptures, as the revelation of God's will of Jesus Christ. in the Gospels; in John 1:23 and Mark 1:3 he quotes
Isaiah 40:3 A voice of one calling: "In the wilderness prepare the way for the LORD; make straight in the desert a highway for our God.
And so with this message he choses to bring it for using light as an anologyTo reveal to us the coming messiah as light and he is the shutter that brings Jesus into focus. In john chapter one we see God choses to reveal himself and his purposes the gospel message as both the light and the word.
In Psalms 119:105 Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, a light unto my path. In verses one through four we saw that Jesus is the word and here we see him declared as light so light points us to Jesus Christ. In the Easton Bible Dictionary, They say that Light is the offspring of Gods command.
In Physics if you do a basic study on optics; the study of light; you will find that light is needed for plant life, they rely on light, without light the trees die and won't produce oxygen which is what we need to breathe. We are dependant on light John is drawing attention to the need of God, like the need of light. To have life and be sustained we must have a strong dependency on God and his light.
Let's continue on verse 9-11
The true light, who gives light to everyone,
was coming into the world.
He was in the world,
and the world was created through Him,
yet the world did not recognize Him.
John 8:12 When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”
We need to recognize our dependence on God and the light he gives so we can share it with the world.The word World means Kosmos its where we get our English word cosmetics; see they're worldly. Jk. it refers to this world and the universe but it has another meaning as well it also means:
The religious affairs people are interwoven into among the nations.
Thats where we get the term “worldy”
See from here we are looking at God's heart for the world. We are looking at what God sees. God sees the people interwoven into religions that have nothing to do with him among the nations. The world religions are darkness.
We can never compromise the fact that he is the true light to the world. You will find “believers” who will say Jesus is just one of many lights to the world.” Rebuke them. It's blasphemy. I have heard immature believers say“Buddha is also light, Mohammad was a light.” Our God made light the bible says Jesus is surrounded by light. If anything else claims to be the true light it is not. It is demonic. 2 Cor 11:14 says even Satan masquerades in light so guard your self-do not compromise. The world religio1ns are darkness.
When I first Got saved my church was in a City called Arcata. It is known for having lots of hippies. Hippies believe in all religions. That all paths lead to heaven. All things are light. I would go to the park after church and share with people in the plaza about Jesus. They have strong opinions and there is a true temptation to compromising what you believe so that you don’t offend. But Light true light is offensive to darkness. I found that what I had to say about light was very offensive to them because what they believed really was darkness. They responded to it with rejection. Like darkness responds to light is how they responded to hearing me say Jesus is the true light.
There are only two ways the world responds to light. People are either searching or want to be found or want to be in darkness. Say your looking for something precious do you look for it in the dark or the light. When you are searching for something you need light you are not offended by the light you naturaly depend on it. Now if you want to sleep someone turns that light on errr. People either want to be found or they want to stay hidden. Now In these next verses has to deal with when someone comes out of the darkness into the light. It deals with a change of his nature. We can also look at this portion of scripture to encourage new believers to maintain their new nature.
Verses 12-13
He came to His own,
and His own people did not receive Him.
But to all who did receive Him,
He gave them the right to be children of God,
to those who believe in His name,
who were born,
not of blood,
or of the will of the flesh,
or of the will of man,
but of God.
To be a child of God 2 things should happen
1.Recieve-They need to receive the Light of God
2.To be or become- to be children of God.
3.Believe-They needs to believe in the truth of Jesus in his name this means what he stands for. His name Yahweh means the God who saves from sin. When we call upon the name of Jesus we do so for salvation to over come sin and thus the world. There is no name higher by which man can be saved. And so they come to trust God at his word.
So Imagine God light their candle- boom they have the light, by this light they know they are children of God, then with this light they begin to see things that God reveals by the light through himself and the word
Jesus wants us to trust his word so much he became the word, The word became flesh.
A believer should believe in the work and Power Jesus did in his life. Everything God promised he would do for us in the bible was fufilled through Jesus or will be fulfilled.
If the person recieves, becomes and believes; From that point their nature will then begin to change, from the will of the flesh and the will of man to becoming children of God.
Notice the intentonal words but of God and not of the will of God.
New belivers have no clue what the will of God is yet. That is something that does not take place till the future so that they grow. Notice they become children of God before they belived. Jesus says manny are called but few are chosen. We look at the parable of the sower it explains why. They need to grow as children. hard heart, not anough depth, affairs of the world, or be snatched away by sin. We need to be faithfull with the administration of the gospel and nurture young belivers.
In 1 thess 2:7 Although we could have been a burden as Christ’s apostles, instead we were gentle among you, as a nursing mother nurtures her own children.
God is really concerned about this early development stage of a new believer.
Once we belived we became born into a new life of the the Spirit not of blood. In order that our relationships with God not become suerficial
Not born of blood
God gave us his spirit. It helps us connect to God in truth, so that we can grow into body of Christ our new family. Our motives change, for the jews they would cling to the fact that they were children of Abraham; and its good but its not enough. In some cultures to be born of a high class or noble familiy was to be favored by the gods or God. But thats not true either. We have no identy in our race, ethnicy or culture. These things are under the curse. We are not known by our family ties. Their identy is not our identy we are taking on the image of Christ. We become Born again as children of God.
We know we are living as children of God when we are governed by him through not being governed by the will of the flesh, and not dedicated to the will of man or the pursutes of man. The will of the flesh is the disire to satisfy our every want and desire. The people of the world naturally seek to satify the will of the flesh. If it means sinning to accomplish this then they will do it. When we become children of God we recieve the Holy Spirit and because of God the Spirit living inside us we recieve conviction when we want to satify our flesh. God will convict us even as we do it. He will convict us till we stop doing it.
The will of man is a contrast to being a child of God dependant on the father. In John chapter 6 we see Jesus feeding the 5000 with a few loaves of bread. He tested his disciples in chapter 6:6 we see phillips response was The will of man says it takes half a years wages for each person to have a bite. If we did it by our own power it would take half a years wage. But God fed 5000 of his children with a few loaves of bread and a few fish.
The child of God should not be confident with the work of his own hands because a childs hand are weak.
When I was little in America their was a police festival. In the festival a Police officer was at a booth and he was letting children shoot a police pistol. I was in the 3rd grade of elementary school. I stepped up to the booth and he tried to let me hold the gun my hands were to small. I griped the pistol but my finger was not strong enough to pull the trigger. I had to rely on his strength to pull the trigger and hit my target.
So John message was simple. He points us to the light of God that has come into the the world to make us children of God so that we no longer live in this world full of darkness. But have light. Everyone one here has a tremendous potential to continue on this work. As we walk in the light we can allow God to send us to do his work. Johns Ministry is the result of becoming mighty in the spirit, He had a close relationship with God through the Spirit of God.
Lets Pray..
Thank you for your light. Thank you for coming into this world even though we don’t deserve it.
Lord you said there was no one greater than John the baptist
Lord help us become mighty in your spirit and be as humble like John
Help us grow and not take forgranted every oppertunity to walk to you.
Help us be faithful and fruitful with new believers
Help us encourage them and build them up.
Help us be good examples of being your children.
Tenshi Taijyo Community Member 
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