Am I Just a Fan or a Follower of Jesus?

Hey, Pastor Adriel here, and we want to hear from our podcast audience specifically. Give us a call at 1130 Pacific Time, 833-843-2673. That's 833, the CORE, with your question about the Christian faith.

Well, hi, this is Bill Meyer, along with Pastor Adriel Sanchez, and this is the radio program where we answer your questions about the Bible and the Christian life every day. Our phone lines are open right now, and you can call us for the next 25 minutes or so with your question. Here's the number. It's 833, the CORE. You might want to make a note of that. 833, the CORE.

Or if you want to use real numbers, it's 1-833-843-2673. You can also post your question on our Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter accounts. You can watch Adriel in the studio live right now on YouTube and send us a message that way. And of course, you can always email us a question at questionsatcorechristianity.com. First up today, let's go to a voicemail we received from one of our listeners in Indiana. My name is Fred in Revelation 5, verse 6. I'd like for him to explain that to me.

Hey, Fred, thank you for that question. I love opening up the broadcast with this vision in Revelation 5. It's a vision that John had, John the Apostle. It's actually a series of visions that he receives from the Lord about things that were going to take place. And here, his eyes are set on Jesus, the triumphant one.

Let me just give you some of the context here. I'll start in verse 1 and I'll read down to verse 6. Then I saw in the right hand of him who was seated on the throne a scroll written within and on the back, sealed with seven seals. And I saw a mighty angel proclaiming with a loud voice, who is worthy to open the scroll and break its seals? And no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll or to look into it.

And I began to weep loudly because no one was found worthy to open the scroll or to look into it. And one of the elders said to me, weep no more. Behold, the lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David, has conquered so that he can open the scroll and its seven seals. And between the throne and the four living creatures and among the elders, I saw a lamb standing as though it had been slain with seven horns and with seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth.

That was verse 6, that last portion right there. Now, just think about this vision. He hears about the lion of the tribe of Judah. You don't have to weep anymore.

You don't have to be afraid. Behold, the lion of the tribe of Judah. And so he's getting ready to see, to have this vision, and he's imagining this great and mighty lion. But when he looks between the throne and the four living creatures and among the elders, he sees a lamb that is standing, but it had been slain or as though it had been slain. So this is a wounded lamb standing is a picture of the resurrection, having conquered death. Jesus is the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. But there are other sort of strange things about this image of Jesus that John receives here in Revelation chapter 5, like he has seven horns and seven eyes.

Now, what is that all about? Well, in the Bible, a horn or horns were a symbol of strength. You think about the, you know, the ancient world, these horned animals roaming about using their horns to fend off predators or to impale people.

You had to be careful around these things. These these horns, these enormous horns were a picture of strength, of power. Well, this lamb has seven horns, seven being the number of perfection in the Bible. That is to say, Jesus, the lamb of God, is all powerful. And he's all seeing, all knowing seven eyes, the seven spirits of God, which I think is a reference ultimately to the Holy Spirit that proceeds from the father and the son sent out into all the world. And so John, I mean, is given this glorious picture of Jesus.

He's encouraged, saying you don't have to weep. This is the Lord who has conquered death. He's like a lamb who's standing and he's all powerful and all seeing. And that's, frankly, brothers and sisters, what we need to remember today in this day and age as well, that we serve the lion of the tribe of Judah, the lamb who is standing, who is all powerful and all seeing.

Great imagery and great explanation for that. Adriel, I know you've preached on the Book of Revelation in the past, one of your favorite books of the Bible, and we actually have a great Bible study from Core Christianity, which you can get on Revelation. You can find out more by going to corechristianity.com forward slash revelation to learn more about our excellent Bible study on the Book of Revelation. OK, here's the number to call if you have a question for Adriel. And again, we're open to questions about the Bible, the Christian life, Christian doctrine, theology, cultural issues and how they intersect with our Christian walk.

Anything is open game. And here's the phone number to call, 833-THE-CORE. We'll be taking calls for the next 15 minutes or so at that number, 833-THE-CORE. That's 1-833-843-2673. You can also leave us a voicemail on that same number, 24 hours a day.

Here's a voicemail we received from one of our listeners named Larry. My question is, I think there's a difference between saying that you believe and actually having true faith in God, and sometimes it can be separated as being a fan or a follower of Jesus. In your opinion, whether when the rapture happens, would it potentially be just those Christians who are actually followers, who actually have their faith fixed in God, and then some others would still have an opportunity to make it in heaven? That's my question.

Thank you. There are really two questions there. One about what is true faith, which is really the one that I want to answer, but then the latter part of your question pertaining to this idea of the rapture of the church. People get this idea from 1 Thessalonians 4. If you listen to the broadcast here at Core Christianity, you know that my position is that there's actually only one second coming of Jesus. There aren't two comings of Jesus, one at the rapture and then the second coming at a later point. I think oftentimes the verses in the Bible that people will point to to make a case for the rapture are actually just about the second coming, the final judgment.

Where you can read about that is 1 Thessalonians 4 in particular. The big question here in my mind, and I think one that all of us should ask ourselves and that many people are concerned with, is what is the nature of true faith? It's one thing to claim that you believe in Jesus, but we all know people who say, oh, yeah, I'm a Christian. I believe in Jesus, but whose lives don't reflect the teaching of scripture. They are not members of local churches.

They don't really follow Jesus. How do we define true faith? Well, faith has three parts. Knowledge, there's a knowledge about what it is that we believe in.

There's an ascent. We're assenting to these truths. You can't have faith without knowledge, but then there's also this third piece, which is really important, and it's trust. It's trusting in Jesus personally for your salvation, for the forgiveness of your sins, not just enough to say, oh, yeah, I believe he existed.

He was a historical figure like Abraham Lincoln or George Washington. It's are you personally trusting in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins? There's this beautiful story in the gospels that I think paints the picture of what this is like perfectly. I just want to read this because, again, it's so important. It's from Mark 5.

Listen to this. A great crowd followed Jesus and thronged about him. There was a woman who had had a discharge of blood for 12 years and who had suffered much under many physicians and had spent all that she had and was no better but rather grew worse. She had heard the reports about Jesus and came up behind him in a crowd and touched his garment, for she said, if I touch even his garment, I will be made well. Immediately the flow of blood dried up and she felt in her body that she was healed of her disease. Jesus, perceiving himself that power had gone out from him, immediately turned about in the crowd and said, who touched my garments? His disciples said to him, do you see the crowd pressing around you and yet you say, who touched me? He looked around to see who had done it, but the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came in fear and trembling and fell down before him and told him the whole truth.

He said to her, daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace and be healed of your disease. What I love about this story is here you have this woman who's tried everything. She's gone to all these physicians. Things have only gotten worse and worse and worse. She's hopeless.

There are many people like this today who just feel hopeless. She's crushed. She's in this state of uncleanness.

She has this flow of blood. Under the law, she would have been ceremonially unclean. She's, in one sense, cut off from the worshiping community. She's an outsider. And yet she thinks, if I can just lay hold of Jesus's garments, I'll be made well.

And she does. She clings to him and she's healed. And Jesus says, your faith has made you well.

It's a beautiful picture of faith because that's what faith is. It's an unclean hand. It's our unclean hand, unclean because of our sins, laying hold of the righteous robes of Jesus Christ. Yeah, a lot of people in this story were around Jesus, bumping into him into the crowd, bumping into him in the crowd, but only this woman by faith laid hold of him.

And so I would say that's what it's like to sort of be a fan of Jesus, as you say in your question. You want to be around Jesus, around the things of the Christian faith, but you don't really lay hold of them for yourself. We need to lay hold of the righteous robes of Jesus Christ for ourselves. And how do we do that? We can do that right now by faith, by trusting him, by entrusting ourselves to him.

And that's what true faith is. Hey, thanks for that question. Thank you for that great explanation, Adriel.

Very helpful. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez and, you know, Halloween coming up here in just a couple of weeks. And whenever we start approaching Halloween, we start getting a lot of questions about demons and Satanism. We also get a lot of questions about angels throughout the year here on Core Christianity. We actually have a free resource that answers many of those questions. And Adriel, tell us a bit about that right now.

Yes. The free resource is called Nine Frequently Asked Questions About Angels and Demons. And as we've said on the broadcast before, especially when you think of things like the New Age movement, there's all sorts of confusion about angels, the role of angels, the role of demons, you know, what they're doing in the world today, spiritual warfare in particular.

There's a lot of confusion about this. And so we've made this free resource for you, Nine Frequently Asked Questions About Angels and Demons. And it's a free resource, as I said. You can get it at our website, corechristianity.com.

It's a free PDF download. And if you go to corechristianity.com forward slash offers, you can find it there. Just look for Nine Frequently Asked Questions About Angels and Demons. Well, let's go back to our phones. If you have a question for Adriel, here's the number to call. We'll have the phone lines open for the next 10 minutes or so.

If you call us at 833-THE-CORE. Let's go to Viola in St. Louis, Missouri. Viola, what's your question for Pastor Adriel? Hi, Pastor Sanchez, I would like to know why John the Baptist in Matthew 14 told King Herod it was not lawful for him to have his sister-in-law. Was it because her husband was still alive or was it because he was dead and they were just fooling around and had not gotten married? And I'm asking because Judah slept with his daughter-in-law, Tamar, because she couldn't wait for him to have another son for her to marry, you know, for her to get wed. So can you answer that for me, please?

Yeah, thank you for that question. So Matthew chapter 14, at that time Herod the tetrarch heard about the fame of Jesus and he said to his servants, this is John the Baptist. He has been raised from the dead and this is why these miraculous powers are at work in him. For Herod had seized John and bound him and put him in prison for the sake of Herodias, his brother Philip's wife, because John had been saying to him, it is not lawful for you to have her.

And so it seems like this was an adulterous relationship. And John the Baptist is speaking the truth to power here. He's calling this guy to repentance and as we know, when you do that, you're not going to be liked when you call people to repentance. And as a result, John the Baptist is martyred, but he was essentially calling out the broader sins of society. He was rebuking them and he was calling Herod to repentance and it ended up in his martyrdom.

And so that's really the simple answer there. It was an adulterous relationship that he was calling out. Not good. And Herod didn't like the response very much as we learn in that particular Gospel story. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. Let's go to Selah in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Selah, what's your question for Adriel? Hi, Pastor.

Thank you so much for you guys taking my call. My question is mainly what the Bible says about praying for an ill person or someone. I went last night to pray for my friend I've known for 20 years and I was pumped and I knew the truth and everything. And I know she's a Christian and I just wanted to go and give faith and then when I saw her, I just couldn't do nothing. I just got succumbed by her loss of fear and it was just too sad for me, I guess.

I didn't know what to do, so I don't know what the Bible says about what we should do. When we are confronted with the reality of death, it's overwhelming. And too often in our culture today, people try to treat death as just this sort of natural thing.

It's just a normal part of life, that kind of thing. But that's not what the Bible teaches us about death. The Bible teaches us that death came into the world through sin. Paul in 1 Corinthians chapter 15 calls it the last enemy to be destroyed. Death is a monster.

It's a monster. And when we see that monster firsthand, we can become overwhelmed. As you experienced, sister, we can feel this overwhelming sense of what can I do in this situation. The reality is we can't solve the death problem in and of ourselves. We don't have the means. A lot of people in the world right now are trying to do that. They're trying to come up with new ways via science and technology to overcome death, to expand the human lifespan and so on and so forth. The answer to death was in the past, in Jesus Christ. This is why Christ came, to put away our sins and to conquer death, to rise again from the dead. A couple of passages that you can meditate on are the one that I already mentioned, 1 Corinthians chapter 15, where Paul talks about the reality of the hope that we have in Jesus's resurrection.

You see your friend, her body broken down because of disease and sickness. We know, you know, we have the hope that that's not our final state, that Jesus has conquered death and that one day all those who are in Christ are going to be raised incorruptible, perfected in holiness with no more sickness or sin. So I would say meditate on that chapter in the Bible, 1 Corinthians chapter 15. Another passage that I think of, just in light of what you said, is what Paul said in 2 Corinthians chapter 4. He says, Do not lose heart, verse 16, though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen, but to the things that are unseen.

For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal. May the Lord bless you as you continue to minister to your friend as you come alongside of them. And maybe reading some of these passages of scripture can be an encouragement, but fixing your eyes on the one who conquered death, Jesus Christ.

God bless you. You know, Adriel, I really do appreciate the fact that whenever we talk about death on this program, you do correct this false assumption that it's, you know, as you said, somehow just a natural part of life. And going back to, you know, the biblical roots of sin and death and just saying, no, it's not a good thing. It's Jesus said it was not a good thing. And we need to remember that when the world is giving us a very different message. Religion, friends, is man's way of coping with death so often.

Right. That's what it is. The Christian faith, which is the true religion, is God's revelation of what death is and not just a way for us to cope with it, to feel good about ourselves, to feel a little bit better. It's how God sent his son into the world in history to conquer death. That's true.

That's real. Regardless of what you think, regardless of how you feel, Jesus Christ came into the world and conquered death and sin by his life, death and resurrection from the dead. That is our hope, brothers and sisters, as Christians.

And so we have the revelation of our hope, but we also have the clear picture that the Bible paints for us of the terrible thing that death is. So let's stop pretending like it's fine. It's not that big of a deal. People just pass on.

It's a natural part of life. No, it is the last enemy to be destroyed. And we know who has the victory. It's Jesus. Amen. This is Core Christianity.

Let's go to Christine calling from Walnut Grove, Missouri. Christine, what's your question for Adriel? Yes, I have a question. Are we as Christians responsible in any way to bring on the reign of Messiah?

Thank you for that question, Christine. I mean, my view is that the Messiah, Jesus Christ ascended into heaven and is currently reigning. I was just talking about 1 Corinthians 15. It says he must reign until he has put all of his enemies under his feet and the last enemy to be destroyed is death. And so right now, King Jesus is seated at the right hand of the father and he is reigning.

How? Well, through the church by his word and spirit as the gospel goes out, the kingdom of Messiah is growing even now. But that's not a kingdom that you and I build.

We can't. Jesus is the one who said, I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. Now we are called to, with the gifts that God gives us, edify one another, edify the body of Christ.

But here's what we need to understand. We are first and foremost recipients of God's kingdom. This is something that God is giving to you and to me through the grace of the gospel. Think about what the author of the Hebrews says in Hebrews chapter 12.

Therefore, let us be grateful. This is verse 28 of Hebrews 12. Let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken. And thus let us offer to God acceptable worship with reverence and awe for our God is a consuming fire. You see this reality of the fact that the kingdom is something that's given to us. It's this gift throughout the Bible and Luke's gospel in particular in Luke chapter 12 verse 32 and Luke chapter 18 verse 16.

Even in the book of Daniel, go to Daniel in Daniel chapter 7 verse 27. The kingdom is not something you and I build. It's something we receive by the grace of God. And that's just a beautiful reality.

And boy, doesn't that take the pressure off. Now we're called as citizens of this kingdom to reflect the righteous rule of our king, to preach the message of the kingdom, to share that with those who are in need, a message of forgiveness, a message of grace. And that's how the kingdom advances. It's not by taking over the institutions of this world.

It's not by forcing people to think like we do with regard to moral issues. That's not how the kingdom of Jesus advances. The kingdom of Jesus advances by the word and spirit of God.

And it's through the word and spirit that we receive this kingdom that God gifts to us. God bless you, Christine. Thanks for that question. You're listening to Core Christianity. One of the ways you can ask a question is by emailing us. Here's our email address. It's questions at corechristianity.com.

Got this email from Megan. She says, my sister attends a church where they call the leadership apostles and give personal prophetic words. I'm skeptical and I feel like people giving prophetic words seems like fortune telling. Is giving a personal prophetic word biblical and what if in a prophetic word given the person knows information about you that they weren't given previously?

Yeah, that's a great question. Well, in scripture, you do have prophets. In the Old Testament, these prophets were a part of the theocracy in Israel.

They were bringing to bear the truth of God's covenant to the kings, often the rebellious kings. In the New Testament, you also see prophets like in the book of Acts, one individual named Agabus in particular. And then Paul talks about the gift of prophecy in places like First Corinthians chapter 14. The question is, are those gifts, those sign gifts like prophecy still around in the church today? Paul says in Ephesians chapter 2 verse 20 that the church is built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets.

Now, I know that we don't have a lot of time to get into this right now, but I take that to mean that the prophets that were there even in the time of the New Testament were foundational. And Paul mentions for that early period as the gospel was going out, ordinarily what you should have in the church is not apostles and prophets, but pastors and teachers. And that's why Paul gives us qualifications for pastors and teachers, elders, deacons in places like First Timothy 3 and Titus chapter 1. It's as if he's setting the church up for, hey, this is what the perpetual life and ministry of the church is going to look like. It's going to look like faithful Bible teachers, people who are committed to the word of God, to the prophetic scriptures as they've been delivered to us, fixing our eyes on Jesus. And that's where we've got to focus, back to the word of God and growing in Christ. When you contact us, please let us know how you've been encouraged by this program and be sure to join us next time as we explore the truth of God's word together. Thanks for listening to today's episode of Core Christianity. Adriel and I love our podcast audience, and we'd love to take your questions. Give us a call Monday through Friday at 11 30 a.m. Pacific time at 833-843-2673. That's 833 the core.