Welcome to Connect with Skip Heitzig Weekend Edition. We're glad you've joined us for today's program. Connect with Skip Heitzig exists to connect you to God's never changing truth in ever-changing times through verse-by-verse teaching of His Word. That's why we make messages like this one today available to you and others on air and online. Before we kick off today's teaching, we want to let you know that you can stay in the know about what's happening at Connect with Skip Heitzig when you sign up for email updates. When you do, you'll also receive Skip's weekly devotional email to inspire you with God's Word each week. So sign up today at connectwithskip.com.
That's connectwithskip.com. Now, let's get into today's teaching from Pastor Skip Heitzig. So in the Old Testament, the name of God, Yahweh, means I am that I am. And every Jew knew He was the great mighty powerful I am that I am.
But Jesus took that name and made it more approachable, more understandable, more manageable. He said things like, I am the bread of life. I am the living water. I am the good shepherd. I am the door to the sheepfold.
In other words, He brought God down to the level where we can understand Him, and God becomes to us whatever we need. If you're thirsty, I'm the living water. If you have spiritual hunger, I'm the bread of life.
So you might say, Jesus Christ is God spelling Himself in a language that we can understand. So Jesus said this, if you have seen me, you what? You've seen the Father. Philip, have I been with you so long? Don't you know if you've seen me, you've seen the Father.
What could He mean by that? Well, when you see Jesus, for example, teaching the multitude, in effect, you're seeing God who cares that we know certain truths about Him and about us. That's God. When you see Jesus healing people who are sick, in effect, you are seeing a God who cares about human suffering.
When you see Jesus weeping over Jerusalem, in effect, you're seeing God who is brokenhearted over the rejection He has received from His very own people. If you've seen me, you've seen the Father. So the Father reserves, the Son, Jesus reveals the nature and character of God. You want to know what God is like?
You look at Jesus. And it's more than just the nature and character of God. It's the truth about life.
It's the truth about us. It's the truth about God. He gives us not just the nature of God, but the truth in His words. Look at verse 8. For I have given to them the words, notice that, the words that you have given me. Go down to verse 14.
Skip ahead. I have given them your word and the world has hated them because they are not of the world just as I am not of the world. Observe verse 17.
Sanctify them by your truth. Your word is truth. Not only is Jesus the living Word, going back to John 1-1, in the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, and the Word was God, and the Word became flesh. But more than that, Jesus also authenticated the written Word. If you've read through the Gospels, you know that Jesus on many occasions referred back to the older testament. And saw that as the very Word of God. He said the Scripture cannot be broken, and He would often quote it, but He'd always speak of it as being the true inspired Word of God.
That's how He saw it. He said don't think that I have come to destroy the law or the prophets. I came to fulfill, not destroy. And then He also anticipates the writing of the New Covenant, the New Testament.
I want you to look at that. Go back a couple chapters. Go back to chapter 14 in John. I know we've covered it, but it's a good time to remind ourselves because John 14 was probably a year ago. John 14, look at verse 26. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, He will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all things I said to you.
That's a very helpful verse. It's helpful because we sit here today and wonder how could those disciples or fishermen, how are they going to remember all the things Jesus said and did and do it so it's like accurate? How are they going to do that?
I forget what happened yesterday. How are they months later going to write these things down and have it corroborated with other sources? Not without the Holy Spirit. It's the supernatural work Jesus anticipates. The Holy Spirit is going to assist you and help you and cause you to remember all things.
So that the gospels that were written were thus written. Now look at chapter 16 for a moment on your way back to chapter 17. Stop up verse 12 of John 16. Jesus speaking, I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. Interesting. A lot of truth I want to give you guys.
You guys can't handle it. However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on His own words.
He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears, He will speak and He will tell you things to come. I believe Jesus is suggesting the writing of the epistles that Peter and John will write. And the book of Revelation, things to come that John will write.
So here is Jesus who revealed the character and nature of God, but also authenticated the words of God from the Old Testament and anticipates the writing of scripture in the New Testament. And this is why whenever we gather together, we say, open your bibles too. And we turn to a scripture and we discuss and meditate upon scripture. And somebody might be wondering, why is that every time I come to church, Skip always has to do a Bible study.
Can't we like have a dance one day or something? Because this is pure truth. And if you want to grow in your faith, you are exposed to pure truth.
That's how we develop. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. In fact, that principle is found in verse eight. Look at it of John 17. For I have given to them the words which you have given me and they have received them and have known surely that I came forth from you and they have believed that you sent me. See, receiving the words of Christ generates faith. You don't close your Bible and pray for faith. You open your Bible and that's how you develop faith. So Jesus reveals the truth.
And there's a sense of authority and I'd say for me calmness, calm knowing the scripture. I've always loved the story about the clock tower in that Austrian village, the glockenspiel. Everybody could set their watches on their wrist to what the time was on the clock tower. Until one day the glass broke in the clock tower and someone looked at the wristwatch and said that's not what my wristwatch says. That clock tower must be wrong and reached in and changed the time. Someone came by a couple hours later and saw the time up there and saw his own wristwatch and said that clock must be wrong and set it back. The next day somebody came by and she said it can't be right and changed it and somebody else changed it. Well eventually no one in that village knew what time it was. All authority had been lost. It was all up to whatever you think time it is, that's what time it is. It's all relative. So the Father reserves, the Son reveals.
Here's the third and final component as we bring this to a close. The follower responds to what is revealed. You should ask yourself a question every time you enter a room where a Bible study is being given or hear a radio program or open the Bible on your own and read something. You should ask yourself this question, so what? Really, so what?
What am I going to do about this? You know why you should ask yourself that question? Because frankly most people don't ask that question. Honestly there are a lot of people who listen to truth casually, forget it immediately, and thus never grow spiritually. They listen to it casually. They forget it immediately. I know people that don't even bring Bibles to church. It's like I'm coming out with a bucket but a thimble.
They come with a thimble and they fill it up and then it's spilled by the time they get to their car. That's about it. That's my expectation. Just listen casually, forget it immediately, and never grow spiritually. I suggest a better way. A true follower will do this and follow it here in the text. In verse 8, number one, by receiving the truth. By receiving the truth. Jesus says, Jesus says, I have given them the words that you have given me and they have received them.
Receive them. Pause with that thought for a moment. You're listening to Connect with Skip Heitzig, Weekend Edition. Before we return to Skip's teaching, misunderstandings about Jesus abound. Some see him as a prophet, others as a moral teacher, and still others as just a myth or mere historical figure. But the Bible tells a different story about who Jesus is. We want to help you know the real Jesus of the Bible by sending you Skip Heitzig's nine-message CD series, Who Is This Jesus? In this eye-opening series, Pastor Skip addresses common misconceptions about Jesus, clarifying both Jesus' humanity and his divinity to equip you to confidently answer questions about who Jesus really is. We'll send you the Who Is This Jesus? series, as well as Skip's booklet for new believers titled Life Change, as thanks for your gift of $50 or more to reach more people with God's love through Connect with Skip Heitzig. Go to connectwithskip.com slash offer or call 800-922-1888 and request your copy when you give.
Now, let's get back to Skip for more of today's teaching. If you get a phone call, not during service, I hope your phone's off right now. When you pick it up, there's a receiver in the phone, in your cell phone, in your home phone.
There's a little transmitter on one end and a receiver on the other. When you have a conversation, you, most people typically just don't go and hang up. They listen. They're receiving words through the receiver. The word here, receive, is the Greek word lombano, which means to accept. It means also to catch or collect, and here's a better word. It means to grip.
I like that. Get a grip of those words. Ponder them to grip them. In football, there's a wide receiver. When the ball is passed, the wide receiver doesn't catch it like this. If you're seeing a wide receiver, just grabs it. Grip, grab it, receiving the ball.
I got it. So the idea of receiving truth is to be open to ponder it. Let it grab your heart.
Let it do something inside. That's step one. Step two, believing the truth. Again, verse eight, he continues, I've given them the words which you have given me. They have received them and have known surely that I came forth from you, and they have believed that you sent me.
That's the second part. Not just receiving, but believing. Now that's how we began this thing called the Christian walk. That's how we began following Christ. We received certain truths that we heard. We were there.
We listened when somebody told us or we read in the Bible that we all are sinners and we need to be forgiven. We go, huh? Let me think about that a while, okay?
I'm pondering that. And then we heard that Jesus Christ is a great savior and will forgive us based upon his perfect life and substitutionary death. We thought, huh, okay.
I'm receiving that. There came a point where we cashed it in. We believed it.
We said yes to it. Now that process must continue. If you're a follower of Jesus, it's much more than saying amen to those truths once and then saying amen to those truths once and just moving on with your life. It means that when you hear truth, you receive it and you believe it. And you hear more and you receive it and you believe it. And you keep repeating that over and over again, and that eventuates in a mature follower of Christ. Do you know that it is possible to listen to Bible teaching and not grow at all? You know it's possible to listen to great Bible teaching and not grow at all?
You know who I'm thinking of in my mind when I say that? Judas Iscariot. Would you say he listened to good Bible teaching? Oh yeah, let's see. God was teaching.
That's pretty good. He was like unfolding what he meant when he said this. You've heard that it was said, but I say unto you, and he's just pushing it all together.
And those disciples heard that and Judas heard that. Didn't really receive it. Didn't grab it. Didn't believe it. Didn't catch it. Didn't change him. He's plotting.
He was plotting all behind the scenes. Remember that Jesus told a parable about this? He said a sower went out to sow some seed. Some of it fell on the path. Didn't even spring up. Didn't have a chance to take root. Then some seed fell upon stony places. It sprung up immediately, but the sun came out and it withered.
Other seed fell upon a place where there were weeds that grew up and choked up the seed. Later on, the disciples came to him and said, what do you mean by that? Explain to us that parable, that cool little story.
What does it mean? Jesus said, the seed that is sown on the wayside are those who listen, but as soon as they hear it, he said the devil comes and steals away the truth. As soon as they hear a truth, they marginalize it. They rationalize it. They don't even ponder it long enough to let it sink in, to even believe it.
Then he said there are those who listen. They're like the people on the stony places. They get all emotional, all excited.
There's an immediate reaction, but there's no depth in their lives. So they last for a while, but when tribulation and persecution arise, they're gone. When the heat gets hot, they're out. Then there are those, Jesus said, who are sown, and they start to take root, but the cares of this world, like the weeds, choke out the seed. The desire for other things choke out the seed. The distractions of life choke out the seed. It becomes unfruitful.
But Jesus said there are those, 25 percent in that parable, a minority, who listen, who believe it. It takes root, and they bring forth fruit, some 30, some 60, and some 100 fold. You understand the process? First of all, receiving, and then second, believing.
Here's a third. It completes the process. It completes the response. Behaving according to what you've received and believed. Verse six, I've manifest your name to the men whom you have given me out of the world. They were yours. You gave them to me, and they have kept your word. Allow that word to just seep right now into your heart.
They've kept your word. It's not enough to appreciate the Bible. It's not enough to just hear the Bible. It's not enough to underline the Bible. It's not enough to memorize the Bible.
There comes a point where you say, I'm going to try that on for size today. I'm going to apply it. I'm going to behave according to it.
Did you notice in verse six how Jesus words this? They were chosen out of the world. They were yours. They're chosen out of the world. You've given them to me. Does your life reflect the fact that you've been chosen out of this worldly system, or does your life mirror the worldly system?
You've been chosen out of the world. Do you see now, true disciples, followers, are more than learners. They're livers.
I don't mean that in the organ sense, the spleen and the liver. They're not just those who learn. There are those who live the truth.
Here is the problem, and I include myself in this. I'm preaching to myself, not just you. Our problem is that we don't really believe what we believe what we believe sometimes. We have two sets of theological books. We have our formal theology, but we have our practical theology. This is what we say we believe. This is how we live our lives, and a lot of times they don't even match. In our formal theology, we say Jesus is Lord, but in our practical theology, our lives say I am Lord. It's all about me, and Jesus will be my Lord as long as he doesn't upset my little deal. Now we have a discrepancy.
What we say is not what we live, but Jesus said the response is receiving, believing, and behaving. I want to close with something that I read. Now, at first you're going to think what does this have to do with this? It's about dogs and cats, first of all, and really it's a little piece written by a parent raising teenagers, and I'll apply it at the end.
I'll tie it together hopefully. This parent begins by saying, I just realized that while children are dogs. Now let me don't tune off today. I can't believe he said that. Listen to the context. I just realized that while children are dogs, loyal and affectionate, teenagers are cats. It's easy to be a dog owner. You feed it, you train it, you boss it around, and it puts its head on your knee and gazes up at you as if you were a Rembrandt painting, right?
That's a dog owner. It bounds indoors with enthusiasm when you call it. Then around age 13, your adoring little puppy turns into a big old cat. When you tell it to come inside, it looks amazed as if wondering who died and made you emperor. Instead of dogging your doorstep, it disappears. You won't see it again until it gets hungry.
And then it pauses on its sprint through the kitchen long enough to turn up its nose at whatever you're serving for supper. When you reach out to ruffle its head in that old affectionate gesture, it twists away from you and gives you a blank stare as if trying to remember where it has seen you before. You, not realizing that the dog is now a cat, think that something must be desperately wrong with it.
It seems so antisocial, so distant, sort of depressed, it won't go on family outings. Since you're the one who raised it and taught it to fetch and stay and sit on command, you assume that you did something wrong. Flooded with guilt and fear, you redouble your efforts to make your pet behave. Only now you're dealing with a cat.
So everything that worked before now produces the opposite of the desired result. You call it, it runs away. You tell it to sit, it jumps on the counter.
The more you go toward it, wringing your hands, the more it moves away. Instead of continuing to act like a dog owner, you could learn to behave like a cat owner. Put a dish of food near the door and let it come to you. But remember that a cat needs your help and affection too. Sit still and it will come, seeking that warm, comforting lap that it has not entirely forgotten. Be there to open the door for it, and one day your grown-up child will walk into the kitchen, give you a big kiss, and say, Mom, you've been on your feet all day, let me get those dishes for you. And then, and then, and then you'll realize that your cat is a dog again.
That's raising teenagers. When I read this little piece, what went through my mind is, I want to be like a dog before the Lord. I don't want to be like a cat, aloof, and like, I want to just, you want me to sit? Okay. You want me to jump?
All right. Gazing up like he's a Rembrandt. That kind of immediate loving response. We're glad you joined us today. Before you go, remember that when you give $50 or more to help reach more people with the gospel through Connect with Skip Heitzig, we'll send you Pastor Skip's series, Who Is This Jesus?, and his booklet Life Change to help you better understand both who Jesus is and why you can trust what the Bible says and who you are as a believer in Christ. To request your copy of these resources, call 800-922-1888.
That's 800-922-1888. Or visit connectwithskip.com slash offer. For more from Skip, be sure to check out the many resources available at connectwithskip.com slash store. We'll see you next time for more verse by verse teaching of God's word here on Connect with Skip Heitzig weekend edition. Make a connection. Make a connection at the foot of the cross and cast your burdens on His word. Make a connection. Connection. Connect with Skip Heitzig is a presentation of Connection Communications, connecting you to God's never changing truth in ever-changing times.
