Pastor John,

Wednesday night was absolutely wonderful…   I love what God is revealing to us!  Just to begin to see how great the Son is!  I can’t even get it across here.  It is just so sweet to feel the blood flowing like it is.  And then to hear (again) that God was just tolerating, in compassion for them, the Jews who had the Spirit continuing to observe the law.  As soon as the spirit was sent down, the Law was as filthy rags!  Amen!  I had never looked at it that way before.  Something in me thought the Law was still holy for a little while for the Jews after the spirit came.

Anyways, last weekend when my parents were up here in Boone working on the house with Abby and I, we read 1 and 2Peter.  While we were reading through it, it really stuck out to us some of the things that Peter was telling the Gentiles!  I went back through it this week and read it, knowing where Peter had come from and trying not to take for granted that Peter was saying these things to the Gentiles.  What Peter told the Gentiles was really good.  It felt like Peter understood by this point the greatness of the Son.

Thank you!  I hope God lets us share what we are learning with His people.

Aaron

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My notes from 1Peter:

1Peter 1:1-2

• Peter actually wrote to the Gentiles: “to the strangers scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia…” 
• Peter tells the Gentile believers that they were chosen by God! …
• … through sanctification of the Spirit! Not included or necessary: circumcision, laws, just water baptism or even John the Baptist’s baptism.

1:10

• The prophets prophesied of God turning to the Gentiles.

1:15-16 

• The Gentiles, by the Spirit, can be holy and please God.

1:17 

• The Father has no “respect of persons”, but judges according to every man’s work.  What good news for the Gentiles!  Paul’s doctrine being preached, and what God had tried to get across to Peter before he went to Cornelius’ house: “What God has made clean, don’t you call common!” (Acts 10:15). And then what Peter told Cornelius when he went, “Of a truth, I perceive that God is no respecter of persons, but in every nation, whoever fears Him and works righteousness is acceptable to Him” (Acts 10:34b,35).

 1:23 

• They had been born again of incorruptible seed (unlike the corruptible seed of man that the Jews had been born of).

2:5, 9–10 

• These Gentile believers “are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ… ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people… Which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God: which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy.”

This would have been considered (the highest?) heresy by devout Jews in Jerusalem.  A very bold thing to say!  Peter seems to have learned his lesson from Paul, that Paul told Peter in Galatians 2:11-21.  Galatians 2:16:“Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.”

3:6 

• Peter calls Gentile women who had the Spirit, Sarah’s daughters, “as long as you do well and are not afraid with any amazement”.

5:2 

• The Gentile believers were part of “the flock of God”.

John,

On Wednesday night when you were passing on to us what Jesus showed you, there were times when the feelings that went through me felt like a current going through my chest and out my arms.

Reading Galatians, Philippians, Romans or just thinking about scriptures since then, I see the gospel Jesus gave to Paul everywhere, that the law is no longer the thing! Jesus didn’t suffer, die, and send back the holy Ghost in vain. He wants us to live in his power and Spirit! His gospel is alive and it is making us alive!

I feel thankful to have heard and felt what he sent to you for us.

Bess

http://www.goingtojesus.com/text/books/fatherandson.pdf

Pastor John

The feelings last night were so sweet you could taste it and smell it! And of course it stirs up many good thoughts. I loved understanding that it was the goodness of God that tolerated Peter and the others keeping those old things of the law.  I think to this point I had been trying to work it all out in some kind of mechanical way, but what you said put it all in the light of the love of God for His people.  It adds something to Paul’s statement, “God formerly overlooked the time of ignorance.”  Paul was saying that God was doing that for Gentiles, but we learned last night that He was doing it for the earliest believers as well.

I don’t think this was mentioned in particular last night but it came to mind and I looked it up from “The Father and Son” book: The gospel is another thing that the Son is.

Nobody comes to the living God by means of a dead thing, a what. In the kingdom of God, His word is a who (Jn. 1:1), His wisdom is a who (1Cor. 1:24; Prov. 8), as well as His righteousness and His light (2Cor. 5:21; Mt. 5:14; Jn. 8:12).  Even the gospel is a who. In Galatians 1:15–16, Paul magnified “God, who called me by His grace, to reveal His Son to me so that I might preach him among the Gentiles.” Several times, Paul uses the phrase “preach Christ” (1Cor. 1:23; 2Cor. 4:5; Phip. 1:15–16), which tells us that in Paul’s mind, the gospel was​​ Christ and that to preach Christ was to preach the gospel. 

But the following, last line of that paragraph is really, really good in the light of last night:

Before the Son was revealed, it was impossible for anyone to preach the gospel because no one knew who the gospel was.

As you said, Peter and the other “first” apostles did not know how great the Son was, and so they could not preach this gospel. I feel a need to re-read the F&S book.

I love the very first sentence of the book. If Paul’s gospel was Christ then it was Paul that God used to reveal the Son.  Right now I’m not sure, or can’t recall, whether the book makes a plain statement as to when, and how, the Son was revealed.  There is this:

The truth that John was attempting to convey in the opening lines of his Gospel is also the essential point of this book, and of the gospel itself; namely, that God had a Son with Him in glory from before the beginning of the world.

That fact really is the good news, the sweet message, and sweet is how it was last night!

On the other hand, things like this (the underlined sentence) need thinking through in the light we now have:​

With that revelation, we are offered two bedrock truths of the New Testament. The first is that the Son of God was the first thing created. The second is that the Father is greater than the Son because He existed before the Son did. Both the Oneness and the Holy Trinity doctrines contradict these simple truths. The former claims that the Father and the Son are one and the same being, and the latter claims that the Father and His Son are co-equal and co-eternal. But Jesus knew nothing of such doctrines. He said that his life had been given to him by the Father (Jn. 5:26), and he also said that the Father was greater than he (Jn. 14:28).

The gospel preached by the apostles took both those facts for granted. Paul saw no problem at all in the Son falling down before the Father – something impossible for the Son to do if he were the same person as the Father, and something illogical for the Son to do if he were his Father’s equal

And this:

Peter walked and talked with the Son for several years, but only after being born of the Spirit on the day of Pentecost did Peter refer to Jesus as “the Prince of life” (Acts 3:15). Before God’s kind of life entered into Peter and created within him the knowledge of the Son, Peter would not have dared to refer to anyone but God as the “Prince of life”. The revelation of the Son that God’s life brought into Peter taught him that there was someone with God who was to be praised as God, someone sitting beside God before whom he must also bow, and beginning at Pentecost, Peter preached that message without fear of displeasing God! With the revelation of that other divine being, Peter and all the righteous in Israel began to honor as God both the Father and the Son, knowing that the revealed Son was the “Prince of life” but never forgetting that the Father remained the King of it.

Peter regularly said things that were beyond what he understood, so it is a little tricky to separate it all, but the revelation Peter operated under is dwarfed by what later came through Paul.

Damien

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I agree​. Some sentences in the “Father and Son” book ​will ​need to be reviewed and tweaked so as to reflect ​the ​earliest apostles​’​ ​incomplete understanding of the Son​,​ even after they were born again on the day of Pentecost​.

Sister Wille m​ight be right after all​, Damien​. ​ ​The Father and Son book may really be an endless project​ – but the journey surely has been exciting!

Pastor John

http://www.goingtojesus.com/site/php/thoughts.php?tname=tfe10-01

What a great Thought for the Evening (10-1)!  I always looked at Jesus being the Shepherd and the preachers as the Care Takers that is assigned to care for the flocks. The problem is that there are many care takers that are not caring for the flock and leading them astray.  Leading them astray due to not listening to, and delivering the word of God to the sheep.  I love the “Home for our Spirits while we are living in this world.”  I love the deepness of the word and the daily thoughts.

Karl

http://www.isaiah58.com/music/DarrenPrater/Darren%20Prater%20-%20Beyond%20The%20Cross.mp3

Hey John,

I was thinking about the Sacrifice of Christ today, and how if it wasn’t for Jesus saying yes to his Father, that he was willing to go to the cross and suffer and die for us, then He would not have ascended to his Father and offered himself as the sacrifice for us, and there would not have been a sacrifice for us at all. Jesus was the only one worthy, and if it wasn’t for Him, God’s Baptism of the Spirit would not have been made available to us, and we wouldn’t be where we are today. There is no way to understand the things the Lord has given you for us, and all of God’s people, on the other side of the cross. It really did take Jesus for us to have what we have!

That made me think of my song “Beyond the Cross”, so I sat down at my desk and pulled it up and sang through it. These lines really stood out to me:

Beyond the cross is mercy, beyond the cross is fire

Beyond is understanding, that’s meant to take you higher

Beyond the cross is knowledge, wealth and wisdom too

Beyond the cross, salvation, that’s meant for me and you

These words come from the “higher power” that Brother Earl sings about, far greater than any thoughts I could have on my own. Without God having mercy on us, there would be no understanding of anything. I am thankful He gives it, and thankful to have it. I believe that there has been a lot of good for everyone to come out of these readings in Acts, among all the other good readings we have done together. Thank you for all the work you have done to get it to us.

Darren

John,

As we go thru this new understanding, quite often thoughts come to mind of words and events that the disciples experienced with Jesus.  When you mentioned Peter being the rock, the scene came to mind where Jesus told him, “Flesh and blood have not revealed this to you, but my Father which is in heaven,” and “Upon this rock I will build my called-out ones.”

Going thru this study of Acts gives you a taste of how it must have felt when the words of the Lord would come back to the disciples’ remembrance.  Even with the holy Ghost, they still needed a revelation to understand what God had said and was doing. What mercy God shows to his people!  Since the disciples witnessed and felt the  power of the Spirit, and still missed some things, I can’t help but ponder over this question: is what we are learning part of a preparation to help us not follow in those footsteps but to learn to just go with the spirit and forget what we think?

Until just a couple of meetings ago, I really didn’t know that Christianity and the Roman Empire were the same thing. I would have confessed that I knew it was true, but I really didn’t understand that I didn’t KNOW it was true.

Sitting here, I have to wonder, if you don’t really know something is true that you have learned is true, is that doubt, unbelief, or just a tradition?  I can’t explain how that precious experience makes me feel. Events like this are so sweet to my soul!  God, please give  me more anchors so I can’t be moved by things around me or by my own thoughts.

I remember Uncle Joe said the only thing a person knows is their own experiences with God.

Thanks for feeding us.

Wendell 🙂

God Keep My Heart Open To What You Are Saying:

Hey John,

Greetings from California. So far from you all. :o(  Wish I could beem myself out there just to chat over a cup of coffee.

Anyway, just wanted to tell you how I loved the lesson about Psalm 119, how I could read it switching any word about the law with “the Spirit.” How it came alive for me! I love what you have taught me, what the Spirit is showing me. The Word of God has come alive. What a different experience it was reading the Bible before. Love to you all!

Patty

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Good to hear from you, Patty!

Yes, learning the truth is exciting, isn’t it?​  The first step is learning what is in the Bible (that is our part), and the second is for the Spirit to put what we have learned together for us.  What riches of wisdom there are in the Spirit!  Keep sowing the seeds you are sowing, the seeds of time and effort to get to know the Bible, and the harvest of revelation will come in!

Love for all of us here.

jdc

Pastor John,

I had a short dream the other night where the Lord was giving you so many new thoughts you could hardly write them all down. Then I heard, “This knowledge and understanding increases the bloodflow through the body!”

See you tonight,

Amy F

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Well, Amy, that certainly is the way things are right now!  Pray for me, that i can get it all done as I work on the Acts notes.  But it is so good!  The blood (of Christ) certainly was flowing freely last night, wasn’t it?

I love what the psalmist wrote:

Psalm 139

17.How precious  are thy thoughts unto me, O God! How great is the sum of them!

18a.If I should count them, they are more in number than the sand.”

 It is a wonderful thing to me, to have such faithful and wise saints as you in the body here, ​all of us rejoicing in the wisdom, power, and goodness of God.  Sometimes I feel so rich, and fellowship with saints who know and love God is my treasure!

Pastor John

Hi John,

My, my, what wonderful feelings tonight!  I had never had that thought about the disciples not even knowing there was a new covenant when it came – even years afterwards.  Wow.  Tonight felt just like what Amy F. said she heard the Lord tell her in her dream: “This knowledge and understanding increases the blood flow through the body.”  You could just feel it coursing through you tonight!

I love it when you feel the Spirit moving in you like that, that it answers questions you may have before you even finish asking.  Towards the end of the meeting tonight, I was thinking on the things that were said.  In my mind I was asking, “Didn’t God require the Jews to keep the Law, even after they had received the holy ghost?”  Before I could even finish thinking my question, I felt the Spirit ask me, “Where are the nine?”  I knew immediately what Jesus was saying.  Like that Samaritan man in Luke 17 – who, unlike the other nine lepers who were also healed, disobeyed the law, and instead, returned to give glory to God by honoring the Son – if one of the Jews who received the holy ghost had, from the heart, stopped following the precepts of the Law and lived only according to the new life that God had given him, God would have been pleased.

Wow – makes you hardly able to wait for what God has to show us next!

Vince

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John,

What an amazing meeting this evening.  Throughout the night, while you were preaching, it felt like syrupy-honey to me.  Real “honeycomb”….  It was just rolling down, such feelings of sweetness in the air when we talk about Him!

When the Son is honored, there is going to be truth, and healing and power present, just as you said.  That’s all the things He is!  Lifting the Son up tonight felt so good, so holy. Oh, I love to magnify Him. 

When the Son is lifted up like you lifted Him up tonight John, it’s going to be exciting.  We are going to be built up.  We are going to feel that joy.  I loved what I felt tonight….  And I loved what you said about us telling him what we are, and believing that He will keep correcting us, keep moving in us, and keep us growing in this.

I love Jesus.  I love Paul.   The Son makes us love them all.   He is great. 

Thanks for digging it out for us!

Gary