There's been a lot of fear this year, hasn't there? A lot of unknowns, a lot of conflicting information, a lot of chaos.
Wouldn't it be great to get some information that you could absolutely know you could trust and have a hope that would never change regardless of what anyone says? Well, that's today on Living on the Edge. Stay with me. Welcome to this Edition of Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram. Living on the Edge features the Bible teaching of Chip Ingram, helping Christians live like Christians.
I'm Dave Drouy. And in this program, Chip continues his series called The Hope of Christmas. You know, Christmas is a time of celebration, right? I mean, prophecy was fulfilled. The Messiah was born.
Amazing. Here's the thing, though. When we move beyond the manger, we find even more prophecies Jesus fulfilled, which is where we pick it up in this program as Chip continues to show us real reasons to hope.
Now, if you have a Bible handy, open it now to John chapter 14, and let's join Chip for part one of his message, Everlasting Father. Christmas is one of those seasons that I see as a paradox. For some, it is like joy, family, happiness, little kids, presents, traveling to see grandparents, great food.
I mean, it's an awesome time of year. And for others, it's one of the most sad, painful times of the year. For many, it'll be the first Christmas that they've had without the dad or the son or the wife or the grandfather that died. For others, it'll be the first Christmas that after many, many years of marriage, you find yourself divorced.
For some, it'll be kids that can't get back, you won't see them. For others, it'll be the clock ticking and you've longed to be married and it's one more Christmas, you're alone. What's your biggest fear this Christmas? We've talked about kind of our hope for Christmas, you know, what we wish and our expectations, but what's your biggest fear? And I'd like to kind of move beyond the level of, well, I'm really afraid I didn't get the right present for so and so, okay?
Well, let's move on. I mean, if you really were honest with yourself, we all have fears and fears are almost always a hypothetical thing that might happen in the future. What's your fear this Christmas? Is your fear you won't do well by yourself? Is your fear that there'll be a big family squabble? Is your fear that maybe this will be the last Christmas with someone that you love because it is stage four cancer? Is your fear that your marriage isn't working and this might be the last one that you're married?
What is it? Maybe it's more macroscopic, maybe your fear is like, what's happened to the world? Or maybe you're a future thinker and you're thinking, well, what's going to happen to my kids the way the world's going or my grandkids or fear paralyzes us. When God came to the earth to save us from our sin, He also came to deliver us from our fears. And so He wasn't just a wonderful counselor and a mighty God. He is eternal Father. In Hebrew, literally, that's Father of eternity.
There's no confusion here. It's not like Jesus is eternal Father and there's God the Father. It's that Jesus is the author, creator of life, the sustainer of life, and He is the one who will father or prepare us for eternity. And when you get eternity really cleared up well, the worst thing that can happen in this life is you die.
And if there's an eternity that is real, that Jesus is prepared, it does amazing things for your everyday fears. Interestingly, the very last night when Jesus was with His closest friends, the disciples, they were scared to death. They were paralyzed with fear.
Their future was completely uncertain. They'd sung a hymn. He'd washed their feet.
They'd taken the Lord's Supper. He was telling them all these crazy things like, I'm going to die. Hours later, He'd be arrested. He'd be beaten to a pulp. They would watch Him hung up on a cross. They would all be people that are going to get arrested as His followers. And on the very last night, He takes on the role of the Father of eternity and He wants to anchor their hope in something that can never be shaken.
And He wants to do that for you and me. Turn in your Bibles, if you will, to John chapter 14. And here we have Jesus as the Father of eternity relieving their uncertainty, giving them hope in the midst of a world that is far crazier than ours right now. He says to them, let not your hearts be troubled. Don't fear.
Don't be uptight. Believe in God. Believe also in Me. And then notice where He goes. Where does He relieve their fears? In My Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go and prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to Myself. And notice the purple clause.
That where I am, you may be also. A good father does four things. You read the Old Testament, New Testament or psychology. A good father provides for his family. A good father protects his family. A good father instructs his family. And a good father listens and takes care of the hurts and the needs in the process. And so he's telling them, I'm going to provide for you. I'm going to a place and I want to be close to you. Notice the assumption and you know the way to where I go.
I've been teaching for three years. Thomas said to him, Lord, we do not know where you're going. How can we know the way? Jesus said to him, I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you had known me, you would have known my father also. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.
Now think about this. He's been teaching him for three years. He's modeled it. They've been through the Old Testament text. They've watched miracles. He's raised people from the dead. He's prepared them. He's going to turn over the mission of God to probably the youngest one was maybe 17 or 18 years old and the oldest, maybe 23, 24, maybe 25 years old. These are young men.
They matured much earlier in those days. And this is the last night and he's assuming by now you get it. You understand really who I am, where I'm going. If you've seen me, you've seen the father. Notice Philip says, Lord, show us the father and that will be enough for us.
And Jesus said, have I been with you so long and you still don't know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the father. How can you say, show us the father? Do you believe that I am in the father and the father is in me? The words that I say to you, I do not speak on my own authority, but the father who dwells in me does his work. Believe me that I am in the father and the father is in me. Or at least believe me on the basis of the work that I do.
Now here's what I want you to get. He expects them to get it. Yes, he's the wonderful counselor. Yes, he's obviously the mighty God. He does miracles that no one can do. He's claimed to be God. He's taught them on the way, on the truth and the life. John 1.18 says, no man has seen God at any time, but Jesus has explained him. Literally the word, he exegeted him.
If you've seen me, he says you've seen the father. And it's the last night and they don't get it. He's wanting to give them hope. He's wanting to know, look, you don't have to be afraid because no matter what you go through in this life, I've prepared a place for you and all the promises I've made, they're going to come true. Why didn't they get it?
I mean, this is the last night. Why didn't they get it? What part of who God really is didn't they understand?
And before I go there, could I just tease your thinking just a bit to say, why don't we get it? What I'm going to suggest is that they had a warped view of God, a very warped view. That they grew up in homes like we grew up in homes. And they got an idea about what a father's like from their fathers and their fathers were imperfect just like ours were. And I can tell you that the imprint that a dad has, for better or for worse, is huge on a child. Moms and dads both have major impact, but in all this sociological research, I wrote a thesis on this. The dad has the major impact in a child's moral development, and the father has a major impact on a child's sexual identity. The mother and father have about equal impact in terms of their self-concept or self-image. And so we get this warped view of what God is through our dad and through our parents. But there's also a culture. We live in a culture where there's lots of ideas about God, right? You have a God, I have a God, you have your God, I'm okay, you're okay.
Well, it was even worse then. I did some research actually that I had never read this before. And I found some research about some documents that tell us the view of God during the time when Jesus came to earth. The Jewish concept of God was based on a traditional interpretation of the law and not the teaching of the Old Testament and the prophets. The concept of God is that he was very, very far away, he was abstract, transcendental, but you couldn't touch him. In fact, as the culture changed and the Greek world changed, the Old Testament was translated into Greek so the common people could read it more easily.
In about the third century BC. And when they translated from Hebrew to Greek, three or four of the major passages where God has contact with men. Like when Moses goes up on the mountain, the Hebrew talks about him seeing God face to face. They change it.
They actually change it and say, well, he went up on a mount. Or when God came down with Abraham in Genesis 18, it says it seemed as though. Their concept of God was he was so far away, so distant that he was a law keeping rule maker, but you could never be close to him. That's how these Jewish boys grew up.
But it gets worse. There was a group called the scribes and the teachers and the scribes removed God from all contact with man. And their view of God was not only unscriptural, but not even spiritual. Listen, can you imagine as a little boy or girl growing up, this is how they pictured God. He's pictured in the Talmud of Jerusalem as the great Rabbi. This is God. God studies the law three hours each day and he observes the ordinances. He keeps the Sabbath. He makes vows and on their accomplishment, he's released by the heavenly Sanhedrin.
Can you imagine thinking that's what God is like? Thus the external ceremonial concept of religion at last took complete possession of the future world. It threw a mesh of its enslavement to the letter even around God himself. The prophets spiritual concept of Jehovah was lost. The glow of loving kindness which beheld the face of God faded utterly away. There only remained in Judaism of that day a being who was called the Holy One.
Interesting perhaps to a scribe, but whom no one could really love or get close to. So what did Jesus do? He came to explain the Father. He explained it to them, but here's the deal.
He wants to explain it to you. Every problem that you have and I have and they had goes to this one core issue. When you have a faulty view of God. Your warped misconceptions as innocent as they may be, as sincere as they may be. Whenever you're wrong about what God is like, it impacts every relationship. It impacts how you think. It impacts all your relationships with others. It's how you view yourself. Some of you have a God. It's almost unconscious that he's so hard to please. It doesn't matter what you do.
You can never measure up to it. And you live with constant guilt, constant guilt. For others, you have a God that you're afraid of. And you live with fear, fear, fear. And all you're trying to do is manage all the stuff.
And how do I do more right? And what about this and what about that? The God of the world that we live in, in some places you got to make pilgrimages.
And pray five times a day or seven times a day or give this or do that. And there's list of rules and rules and rules and rules that basically people have no idea who the God that made the earth is. But Jesus came to let you know exactly who God is.
Now here's, we're going to go on a journey. And it might be a very profound one for many of you. Because what Jesus did for those disciples that gave them hope, he's going to do for us. Instead of all those things that I just read, Jesus took them back to the truth, the word of God. And he showed them in the prophets and in Moses and from the Psalms, this is who God is. And then he gave them a snapshot, he told a parable where he says this is what God is like. And he actually called him a father in Luke 15. And he tells them a story that this is what God is like.
That absolutely blew their mind, would be unlike any father they've ever, ever experienced. And then later, when they heard him and saw the intimacy of how he prayed, he taught them to pray and use some words that they would just think it's blasphemous. You could never talk to God like that.
And so here's the journey I want to take you on. I want to walk you through an Old Testament picture of God and show you how Jesus modeled every aspect of it. Would you turn to Psalm 103? Psalm 103. It's one of the classic Psalms. And in the first five verses, it's a call to remember. Bless the Lord, O my soul, bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not one of his benefits. It talks about he heals all your diseases, he forgives all your sins, he renews your youth like the eagle.
It's just this picture of let's remember how good and kind and loving God is. And then if you skip down to verse 7, it says he made known his ways to Moses, his acts to the sons of Israel. If you remember, his acts were mighty, you know, the parting of the Red Sea, the manna. His acts were powerful. There was a fire by night and a cloud by day and it moved.
There was water out of the rock. They saw all those acts and yet almost all of them didn't believe. And yet Moses said, I don't want just the benefits or the acts of God. I want to know your ways. Remember he prayed, show me your glory. I want to know you.
I want personal, deep interaction. And in verse 8, what we have is God beginning to reveal his ways inspired by the Holy Spirit. As David says this phrase and it's repeated all through the Old Testament, the Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in loving kindness. That's sort of like a canopy of you want to know what God's like in a sentence? The other prophets will say this. It'll be throughout the Psalms.
The minor prophets will say this. Do you want to know what is God really like? He's compassionate. He feels. He cares. He's gracious.
The root word, he's generous. He's slow to anger. He's not down on people. He's not rigid. He's not distant. He's not unapproachable. In fact, he's abounding.
It's a picture of overflowing like water flooding out of something. He's abounding in steadfast love. And it's this key Hebrew word called hesed. It's a loyal covenant love that you're bound to someone and love them regardless, no matter what. And then as though he wants to explain what this God is really like, he says he won't always strive with us, verse 9, or keep his anger forever. He doesn't treat us as our sins deserve.
Or reward us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those of us who fear him. As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our sins from us. For just as a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him.
He's mindful of our frame, our frailty, our humanity, that we're merely dust. And in that picture, you have a picture of God and God the Father that is 180 degrees different than what all these good Jewish boys following Jesus for the last three years have ever, ever understood. And what Jesus did with his life was he modeled the compassion, the graciousness of God.
And so what I want to do for you, I want to take you on a little journey. I want to walk through those verses and I want to just quickly show you the God that those disciples begin to understand. And then the anchor of hope, that he is a wise counselor, that he's a powerful God, but he's also, he's the father of eternity that you can trust for this life and for the next. Verse 8, he says, the Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in kindness. The word compassion, remember when Jesus saw the multitudes? He came down and he saw the multitudes and the text says in Matthew 9, and he had compassion on them because they were like sheep without a shepherd. And it says compassion, the Greek word is splokna, it's literally, it's something literally from the bowels.
It means, you know that deep, you know in your gut when you feel something like you feel so sorry for someone, it almost, something happens down deep in here, that's this word. But unlike our concept, it's not empathy, it's not like oh I really feel bad for you. Biblical compassion is you feel it and you always act. Every time the text says Jesus has compassion, he acts so he teaches them first, then he feeds 5,000. And then he talks about the Old Testament manna and then he says I'm the bread of life. And so he's helping them see that was the father, a good father does what? He delivers out of Egypt, he provides the manna, he protects from evil. And so what does Jesus do? He's in the synagogue as he starts his ministry, he opens the text of Isaiah and he reads about the Messiah. And then he sits down and says it is fulfilled in this day, he's claiming to be the Messiah. And there's a demon possessed man and he casts out the demon, he delivers the very first act, he delivers, he's powerful. And then he feeds 5,000 and how many, remember 12 baskets to represent the 12 tribes I've come to provide for my people. Remember everyone had as much as they wanted to eat and there were 12 baskets left over, then he feeds 4,000. And it's in the Gentile, the Greek area and there's seven, the perfect number. I came, I'm compassionate, I care, I'm gracious, you can have as much as you want.
I'm not down on you, I'm slow to anger, I'm patient, I care, I'm abounding. If you could fathom that God is like that, that he's your heavenly father. And if that made it from your intellect to your psyche to your emotional imprints, your life would be completely different.
Your fear level would dissipate, your anxiety level would vaporize. Because the creator of the world is your personal wonderful counselor who has supernatural power, who's going to guide you as the father through eternity and promises to take care of you. And then in the next verses what we see is how Jesus modeled this through his life. Notice he will not always strive with us nor will he keep his anger. The word strive in some translations is chide, literally it is he won't accuse you and bring you into court. He might just jot down, he's merciful.
You ready for this? When you mess up, when I mess up, right, and we do, what this is saying is he doesn't want to punish you. If there's any way that he can sort of delay justice or take you off the hook or not give you what you deserve, that's his desire. He won't always strive with us, he won't bring us into court, nor does he keep his anger forever. Unlike some of those people that are problem people in your life, God doesn't hold grudges.
Can you imagine if you could just get out of your mind, his arms aren't crossed. He's not down on you. He doesn't remember the stuff that you did and remember that big mistake and when you were younger and gosh that abortion you had or that unbiblical divorce over there.
You know, no one knows about this thing that you did here that lives in the back of your mind. He doesn't strive. He's just, he's holy, but his heart's desire is to forgive, to care. He's not dealt with us according to our sins nor rewarded us according to his iniquities. I mean, there's times I try and visualize in my mind what it would be like to be Peter or John or James and have this picture of this rigid, distant, pretty angry, upset God that you've got to do all this stuff and no matter what you do you can never live up to it and living with this guilt and then this Jesus comes along and he does these miracles and then he gets tested and the religious leaders want to kill him and so they set a trap and a woman is caught in adultery and figure this one out.
What are you just walking around? Oh wow, we've got an adultery situation here. It was a trap and they caught them but only one person ends up at Jesus' feet.
Remember the woman? Thrown at his feet. And Jesus, so is he going to break the law? The law says she should be stoned. And Jesus in his winsome wisdom as the divine counselor says, I didn't come to break the law. I'm going to fulfill it and so those of you here without sin pick up the stones and you start. You fulfill the law. And it says the older ones begin to walk away because if you've been around for a while and you have even a remote level of honesty you realize you've sinned a lot and they left and then everybody left.
Woman, where's your accusers? Does no one condemn you? No, neither do I. He doesn't deal with you according to your sin or reward you according to your iniquities. Is he just?
Yes. Now, go and sin no more. Is that the God that you serve? Or do you have stuff stuck in the back of your mind or what you did last week or last month or last year or ten years ago? And somehow thinking, in my warped view of God, especially in the early years, I'm doing better. In the early years, when I would sin and really mess up, it was like I just would like, I had to punish myself for at least two days. I feel terrible, I feel terrible, I feel terrible. And then, you know, I don't want to go to church because those Christians, you know, just made me feel more guilty. And so I would try to do some good things and like, okay, I'll read like double the chapters as normal. Right? I'll read more of the Bible.
Maybe I'll give someone some money. Am I okay now? I had such a warped view of God.
It was a complete performance orientation. I had no idea that when you have a broken spirit and a contrite heart and you just own your stuff and say, God, I've got no excuses. I blew it. Will you forgive me? Chip will be back with his application, but just a quick reminder, you're listening to part one of his message, Everlasting Father, from his series, The Hope of Christmas. Seven hundred years before Jesus was born, the prophet Isaiah wrote to God's people to give him hope. Chip used a little bit of that text for this series because the hope Isaiah wrote about is for us, too. Here's what he said, For those who live in a land of deep darkness, a light will shine, and they will rejoice, for unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, the government will be upon his shoulders, and he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Now that's hope that'll keep you going.
This Christmas season, God wants you to know he has a plan, and it's a good one. You know, this would be a great series to listen to every now and then. With the Chip Ingram app, it's always handy. If you like CDs, take advantage of the current discounts online at LivingOnTheEdge.org.
And remember, the MP3s are always free. Chip, you know, one of the great blessings of radio or podcasts, or even listening on the app, is that it's usually a very private experience. I mean, you can focus on the teaching and have God really speak to you. Well, that's right, Dave, but it's more than just a private experience. For those that listen to the radio, listen to the app, listen online, over 44 million times people listen to the teaching of Living on the Edge in 2020.
Now think about that, 44 million times. Now, that doesn't even include satellites and things that we're doing all around the world. But the question that always comes to my mind is, when people get ministered to in that way, I wonder if they really recognize all that goes into making that broadcast, that podcast, that app a reality.
What people may not understand is that it's a very expensive proposition to buy airtime, to pay a staff, to do the technology, to upload things on satellites. But you know what? We love to do it. Here's what I would ask. If this ministry, if those broadcasts have been a blessing to you, if they've helped you draw closer to God or have a better marriage or learn how to forgive someone, would you partner with us? Would you give to Living on the Edge this month? And here's the good news. It's a great month to give because thanks to a small group of friends of the ministry, every dollar you give in December, it gets doubled.
Ten goes to 20, 100 goes to 200, 1,000 goes to 2,000. It's phenomenal. It's a group of people that believe in what we're doing. And if we've helped you, would you help us help others? Dave, would you take a minute and tell people how they can get on board today?
Absolutely. If Living on the Edge is making a difference in your life and you'd like to help others receive the same blessing, we'd love to have you join us. To send a gift, just go to livingontheedge.org, tap donate on the app, or give us a call at 888-333-6003.
Again, that's 888-333-6003. And thanks for doing whatever the Lord leads you to do. As we wrap up today's program, you know, sometimes I think it's helpful to sort through or reduce the complexity of what we hear or read or study. And in the teaching, there was one core phrase that I use that I think is really worth remembering. And every time I struggle, and I do struggle with, you know, getting my mind around who God really is, right?
It gets foggy for all of us. I remember this phrase. It comes right out of John chapter 1. Jesus came to explain the Father.
Literally, I love the little Greek word there. It says Jesus exegeted the Father. And for those Bible students, you know, the word exeget means to explain something, to make real, to make plain, to make understandable. So if Jesus explained the Father, then Jesus' compassion with Peter when he betrayed him is how God feels about us. Jesus' patience with Nicodemus and his lack of understanding is how God is patient with us.
Jesus' wrath at hypocrisy and the money changers who are taking financial advantage of others is how God responds to hypocrisy today. Jesus' unwavering spotlight on the Pharisees who accused the woman of adultery is how God the Father looks past things and says what's at the heart of things and what's going on in people's lives, as opposed to this letter of the law, accusation entrapping her. And finally, his broken heart when Lazarus dies reminds us when those we love die, because sin brings death, breaks the Father's heart, and he feels our pain with us. All of those are little snapshots of, in the Christmas season, we call Emmanuel. It means God with us. So he came so we could know exactly what the Father's like.
Jesus reveals what God is really like. So you could know this Christmas season, you are loved, you are valued, he's provided forgiveness, and he wants you to walk with him and walk with him in power and truth and integrity, and that he actually understands everything you're going through right now. So why don't you bow your head, get some time away, and just have a very private conversation with your Heavenly Father who loves you. Well, just before we close, I want you to know that as a staff, we ask the Lord to help you take whatever your next faith step is. Now, if there's a way we can be helpful, we'd love to do that. Maybe give us a call at 888-333-6003, or connect with us at LivingOnTheEdge.org. And while you're there, you'll find resources on all kinds of topics, many of them absolutely free. Well, I hope you'll join us again next time when Chip continues his series, The Hope of Christmas. Until then, this is Dave Druey saying thanks for listening to this Edition of Living on the Edge.
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