Jesus Unfiltered - Believe - Jesus - The Authorized Biography, Part 2

What is your greatest concern? A fractured relationship? A health issue?

A financial setback? What if you could pull back the curtain of heaven and hear directly from God about your situation? I'm going to share with you how you can learn to hear God speak to you about the most important issues facing your life.

Stay with me. Thanks for joining us for this Edition of Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram. Chip's our Bible teacher for this international discipleship ministry focused on helping Christians live like Christians. Well, in just a minute, Chip will pick up where he left off in his message, Jesus, The Authorized Biography. He'll unpack why the Bible isn't just an ancient collection of stories with the inspired Word of God that's still relevant and applicable to us right now.

Well, there's a lot to get to today, so here's Chip to continue our series, Jesus Unfiltered. He begins in John chapter 1. Next, John is going to give some information about the disciples. The next day, John was there again with his two disciples, and when he saw Jesus passing by, he said, Look, the Lamb of God, these guys are following John.

He's prophesied, I'm not the one. Jesus walks by, and a couple of the guys are here. He says, There he is.

So notice what happens. When the two disciples heard him say this, they followed Jesus. Turning around, Jesus saw them following and asked, What do you want? They said, Rabbi, which means teacher, where are you staying?

Answer, Come, he replied, and you will see. By the way, they weren't saying like, you know, are you staying at the Motel 6 or the Holiday Inn? They were, when you were a disciple, you would find a rabbi who's teaching that you wanted to learn, and you would ask to be his follower, or a rabbi would tap you on the shoulder and say, I want you to be my follower. And it was a real commitment, and you would live together, and we get our word academic. And so they would live and learn together. So they're asking Jesus, Where are you staying?

Basically, can we be followers of yours? And he says, Well, let's come and check it out. And what you're going to find from the text is they must have had some very significant conversations about his identity. So they went and saw where he was staying, and they spent the day with him.

It was about the tenth hour. Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, was one of the two who heard what John had said and followed Jesus. The first thing Andrew did was to go find his brother Simon and tell him, they learned something, we have found the Messiah, that is, the Christ. When he brought Simon to Jesus, Jesus looked at him and said, You are Simon, son of John.

You will be called Cephas, which is translated Peter, or Rock. The next day, Jesus decided to leave for Galilee, and finding Philip, he said to him, Follow me. Philip, like Andrew and Peter, was from the town of Bethsathia.

Philip found Nathanael and told him, We have found the one Moses wrote about in the law, whom the prophets also wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph, Nazareth. You know, Old Testament history, man, can anything good come from there? Come and see.

Do you see what the gospel is doing? Check it out. Check it out yourself. Don't take other people's word for it. Two disciples. John says, You're the Lamb of God.

Are you? Come and see. Explore for yourself.

Don't take someone else's word. They spend all day together. After the day, they go, Man, I got to go get my brother. The next day, they asked to follow him on this time. Peter says, Philip, I want you to come with me. Here he follows. After some time, he goes to get Nathanael. Nathanael, we're going to find out, is meditating and praying. Says he's under a fig tree. That's where you would go Old Testament times if you wanted to go to have some personal time with God. So that's what he's doing. And so he says, his brother says, Hey, we found the Messiah from Nazareth. But he's going to go check it out, see what happens. When Jesus saw Nathanael approaching, he said, Here is a true Israelite in whom there is nothing false. Literally, the old word is, there's not guile.

There's not duplicity. He's got a tender heart. He's open. He's a man of integrity.

He's a man of genuine devotion to Yahweh. How do you know me? Nathanael asked.

Jesus answered, I saw you while you were still under the fig tree before Philip called you. I mean, they do not have FaceTime, okay? There's no technology.

There's no little cameras. Who is Nathanael talking to under the fig tree? God.

How does Jesus know he doesn't have any guile? They just had a conversation. Rabbi, you are the Son of God. You're the King of Israel.

He's going, How could you know this? And Jesus kind of, I think he kind of leaned back and smiled. He said, You know what? You're one of the best early disciples. And if you believe in me on this one, fasten your seatbelt, buddy, because it gets way better than this.

That's sort of the Chip Ingram version. You believe in me because I told you that I saw you under the fig tree? You will see greater things than that, he added.

I tell you the truth, you shall see heaven open and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man. Now, I spent, this is a long chapter, and most of them aren't this long, but I wanted to actually do what we're talking about. We just read it. All we did is read it. And then I read it a little bit slowly, and I made just a couple observations so that we go from, I think this is general what it says, now we're moving a little bit to what it means. And in order to move beyond what it just says, you've got to move from some observations that are general to make some specific observations. Third, make specific observations about one section of the chapter at a time. And so I want to kind of model and give you an example of what this looks like just in the verses that we read in 1 through 18.

And again, this is not rocket science. This isn't like, man, I really, I had some really amazing... Any English lit people in the room today? You didn't like just read Macbeth once and go, okay, we got it.

What do you do? You spend a whole semester, and you learn about Shakespeare's life, and then you chart out all of Macbeth, and what are the words that are repeated, and where does the plot rise? And he introduces this concept here, and he brings it back over here, and the underlying message, right? Here's the problem with Christians. We get this idea, I'm supposed to read the Bible, those of us that do it, okay? I got that you version, chapter one, chapter two.

Boy, I'm glad that's over. It's a lot like vitamins. I'm not sure how they work, but just take them. Really, or like me, I use the Venture Journal. You know what I love about the Venture Journal? As soon as I get it read, I pull out my pen, I go, check.

I checked it off. I have news for you. That's really good, okay? But you're not gonna learn what Shakespeare meant by reading quickly Macbeth, and you will not know what God wants to personally say to you by reading quickly and checking it off. Now, it's good, okay? It's good.

It's just not enough. Here's what the Scripture says. God wants to speak powerfully to you, and you're gonna learn in just a minute how this can happen. But he says, if you really want me to speak, if you want to know me, if you want to experience me, not just intellectually, not just cognitively, if you want to know what to do about this struggle in your marriage, you want to know what to do with this financial problem, you want to know how to resolve this conflict with someone at work, you want direction and vision, here it is. If you seek me as silver and search for me as hidden treasure, then you will discern the fear of the Lord and discover the knowledge of God.

It's Proverbs 2. The wisest man in the world says, God wants to speak, but the jewels are not on the top of the ground. He says, I want to see that your heart isn't just to use me. I want you to dig, because I want to know you, and I want to reveal myself to you. And you start by observation, and then you make some clear observations, and then we'll move to how he speaks. But are you ready for this?

Here's a few observations, and, okay, just tell me if these are fair. I read chapter 1, verses 1 through 18. The Word was before time began, verse 1.

True or false? Okay. You can agree or disagree, but that's what it says. All we're trying to figure out is what it says. The Word is God and was with God.

Might cause a few problems, but is that what it says or not? Okay. The Word created everything. Observation. The Word is the source of all life, verse 4. This life is the light of men. That's what it says. The Word is Jesus. The Word became flesh, verse 14. And Jesus reveals what God is like. That's what it says, right? Now, think about this.

Just moving to, wow. So would this mean, like, in all of heaven, when those angels are going holy, holy, holy, and the seraphim cover their eyes, and in the Book of Revelation, when we hear who was and is and is to come, and when everyone comes in contact, they fall on their face before him, and if he's created the source of all of life, then he made my DNA and every animal that breathes and every solar system, and he heals all things by the word of his power, and he's the king of glory, and he filled all these prophecies, and he's all-knowing, and he's all-powerful, and his light shines out that expresses to every human being, and God is wooing and drawing individuals. That's who I get to pray to. See the difference? All I did is make a couple observations. It's what it says.

Fourth, the observations help us see what's really being said. It's the truth. It's what I call the answer.

So what I try and do, remember the little box on the front? First century, truth delivered, 90 AD. You know what this is? This is the answer to big issues that were happening in AD 90, right?

Gnosticism, materialism, fears, struggles, persecution. Timeless principle. I now know the truth. How does this truth apply to me as, then you fill it in, a single mom, an overworked dad, a single person wanting to get married, a person with an addiction, a person who just really needs some direction.

How does this apply to my life, okay? God, okay, I get it. You're the creator, blah, blah, blah, blah.

I heard all that stuff Chip said. Fourth, here's how you discover this. Play spiritual jeopardy with the text to clarify what relevant questions God's truth is answering, okay?

How many of you have ever seen on TV the game show Jeopardy? You know what I'm talking about? Okay, what if you now know the answer? Answer, this is who Jesus is, and it was addressing issues then. What if I played spiritual jeopardy?

Now I know the answer. What question in my life and in my world does that truth answer? You follow me?

Let me give you an example. Here's four questions that I pulled out of John 1 through 18 that were pretty normal. So I pretend, I don't really pretend because it's probably not a good word at all because Jesus is not was, is. I can have a conversation with him. And so if I wanted to have a personal conversation out of what I just read and observed, I would say, who exactly are you and where did you come from?

Is it fair to say that verses 1 through 5 answer that? Who exactly are you? In the first century, who is this Jesus you're telling me about? In the 21st century, you're at work and someone says, you're a follower of Jesus?

Like, are you kidding me? Who is he and where did he come from? Jesus would say, this is who I am. I am the Logos. In the Old Testament, the Logos was the personal divine personality of God, the communication. John took from the Greek world and the Logos was the divine source of reason and truth that's behind all of the universe and all reality. Kind of the infinite reference point. They may not know who a God was, but the Logos was whatever this communication, whatever the core behind all of life is.

So the Apostle John takes this Old Testament concept, knowing where people are living with all this Gnosticism, and he gives Jesus this name of the Logos, the living God, and Jesus would say, I am the God who was and is and is to come. I'm the creator of all that there is. I'm the source of all life, your life, your future. I know the beginning from the end. I'm in charge of all history.

In fact, it's his story, Jesus. I'm all-powerful. I'm all-knowing. I'm the King of Kings. I'm the Lord of Lords. Angels bow down to me. I have no beginning. I have no end. My purposes cannot be thwarted, and I personally am committed to you.

Whoa. That's who you are and where you came from? And then I kind of followed up with an application question, like, okay, if all the angels, if all of history, if all of time, if all eternity, if every knee will bow and every tongue will confess, and you are the CEO of the universe and the creator and the source of all life, do you have the same place in my heart that you have in the universe?

Isn't that the logical question? So, and then I ask that out loud, just in my little time with God, and then I sit quietly. And often I'll hear little, you learn to hear, I'll hear whispers of the Holy Spirit. You know what? It is in your marriage now, Chip.

I'm really proud of you. Or, Chip, you know what? Yeah, you really have surrendered your money. You have trusted me with your finances. You know what? Yeah, you know what?

You are really fearful about these things, and you are really, and then he'll whisper some other things, right? And you're pretty controlling when it comes to this. Well, why? I thought you trusted. I'm in control. I'm God.

I live inside of you. And as I listen to that, do you understand what happens here? We've gone from reading a chapter, trying to be a good moral person and come to church semi-often and somehow I'm gonna get my life worked out to a personal, living, dynamic relationship with the Lord of Lords and the King of Kings who will speak to you and whose word is written, who becomes living, and it's sharper than a two-edged sword, and it pierces the division of soul, of bone and marrow, and divides the intentions of the heart and will begin to speak to you and give you direction and wisdom and conviction. Question number two. In view of verses six through nine, I don't want to be disrespectful, but can anyone corroborate your story?

These are fantastic claims. Isn't that a fair question? I mean, if I was back there, I would say, well, like, is there someone that can tell me that this wild story about God coming to the plan? Oh, yeah, John the Baptist.

Huh. It's not just John the Baptist, though. He quoted Isaiah. There's 700 prophecies about Jesus coming he fulfilled. The role of Isaiah 40. 2,000 years of testimonies of people.

How do you... Personal testimonies of billions of people whose lives have been transformed. Or part of it, you know, we get so narrow, we think how we think. Let's get back to A.D. 90. You know what virtue was? Ruthlessness and power. It's the Roman world. We take over the world.

We just crushed Jerusalem, A.D. 70. What's it mean to be a real man? You treat women like dirt.

Kids are just... You can take them, throw them on the dump if you don't like them. It's ruthlessness, power, selfishness. I am a Roman. But in 60 years, 50 to 60 years, instead of ruthlessness being a virtue, mercy is a virtue. Women, instead of being pieces of property to be used and abused and thrown away, are co-heirs with the grace of God. Children, instead of being thrown on the pile because they weren't a boy or a girl or some defector, you just didn't want one, the Christians went to the dumps daily and they would take the little children and raise them as their own. Instead of... Three plagues happened in the first century. I mean, plagues were millions of people died.

The only people that stayed in the cities were the Christians. And they're willing to march her and give their life following Jesus. And they would nurse both Christians and non-Christians and they love people. You're listening to Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram and Chip will be back in just a minute to finish today's talk. But quickly, this program is supported by the generosity of listeners like you. And right now, during our year-end match, it's a great time to partner with us. Between now and December 31st, every gift we receive will be doubled dollar for dollar.

You can give today by going to livingontheedge.org or by calling 888-333-6003. Well, with that, here again is Chip to continue his message. Rodney Stark in his book, The Triumph of Christianity. Sociologist, I have no idea where he's coming from. It's a historical book. It says by the year 300, of the 60 million people in the Roman Empire, 33 million were followers of Jesus. And he says in large measure, because they were the only people, as populations were devastated, you were a person who was loved by a Christian or you were a Christian and survived or you had a relative of someone that the only one cared were these crazy followers of Jesus. You have an amazing testimony. The testimony of law.

The testimony of government. The 2,000 years of wherever Christianity... Is there some black marks on Christianity? Absolutely. Are the people in the name of Jesus have done terrible things? Absolutely.

But step back and taking as a whole, wow. And so I would say to myself, okay. I would ask something like, if John was a testimony for Jesus, so people could believe, who do I know that draws me to Christ like more than anybody else? You ever thought about that? Maybe I'll jot them a note.

Someone's gonna get a call and get love today because of this passage, because God's speaking to me. And then I might ask a question like, what kind of testimony am I for you? How are we doing? What people at work? What would my kids say? What would my roommates say?

What would my husband or wife say? How am I doing in terms of communicating in a way that really demonstrates you're who you really said you are? And then I sit quietly.

And usually I get some attaboys, and I usually get a few not-so-attaboys, right? And you know what I do? I thank God that there's progress, and then when he whispers, you know, in that situation last week when, you know, you were in a real hurry and you did this and you did this, I think maybe dropping by and apologizing to that person would be a very Christ-like thing to do.

And I get out my pen and my journal and, oh, really? Can I just say I'm sorry? I'm good.

You good? Oh, no. Okay. You know, are you seeing what happens?

Third question. He says, you know, I would ask him, so, you know, in your time on earth, what was your greatest disappointment? What was your greatest joy?

What's his greatest appointment? What did he say? He came to his own, and those who were his own rejected him. His greatest joy had to be, but as many as received him, he gave the right to become children of God, and they got related to him, and they turned from their sin and they loved him, and I just think to myself, wow. And then, you know, are you guys kind of getting the idea of how you begin to say, okay, that's what it says. That's what it means. You know where I'm at now is, what's this really mean to me? And so I would ask this question, Lord, I'd like to start with a positive. What's your greatest joy with me right now?

Just kind of where we're at. But what is it about how I think, how I live, how I love, that just puts a smile on the very God of heaven? And I sit and I listen. And then, Lord, is there anything that disappoints you right now? I mean, I know you love me. I know you're not down on me. I know I live by grace. I know you're patient.

I know I'm human, but is there anything that just is kind of disappointing you right now? If you ask that and I ask that out of this, do you think God would speak? See, what I'm trying to explain to you is that God, he will give you graphic, clear direction, and he wants to affirm you, but as he even points something out, if you act on that light, Jesus said he'll give you more light.

And his voice gets louder and louder and louder. Every time you, you know, when you kind of hear it, we've all had these, right? I think I should stop and help this person. I'm too busy. I think I should stop and jot a note to so and so.

Oh, I will later, and you don't do it. Every time God speaks to me and I say no, the voice gets fainter and fainter and fainter. And every time I say yes, he says, them that have light, I'll give more light.

Them that say no to the light that I give them, eventually I take away the light that I've given them. God wants to speak to you. He loves you. He wants to interact. Believe me, I mean, he's got software solutions. He's got company solutions. He's got childhood solutions. He's got medical solutions. He wants to whisper in your ear and give you direction and wisdom and help and encouragement.

He loves you. And finally, the question is, why did you choose to come to earth the way that you did? What was your purpose or mission? And the answer why?

Because the answer is in 14 through 18. And I think in my own words, this is what Jesus would say, I chose to come because I made you and I want to be with you and I miss you and I really love you. And I wanted you to really know what I was like. And so I thought if I took on human flesh and I walked around and you could see how I respond and how I live and what I say, you'd really know who.

God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit is. And ever since the garden, you've been in rebellion with all those other humankind, but we created you for us. Let us make man in our image and we love you. And I just, I came and I came and lived a perfect life and I fulfilled that law because it came through Moses. I fulfilled it completely. I never sinned and thought word or deed. And then I came to bring truth and grace. And so after I lived that perfect life, I died. But I was innocent. But because I am perfect, my death had infinite value. But because I was human, fully human, fully God, the hypostatic union, I was able to die. And when I died, I took your sin and the sins of all people of all history of all time and they were placed on me and I covered them.

They're done. So that whosoever, you don't have to, but whosoever would say, I want what you did for me on the cross to count for me, they could receive Jesus and have their sins forgiven and begin a relationship with me. That's why I came. I miss you. I want to direct you, I want to love you, I want to help you.

And then I would probably say something like, Lord, have I received that gift? If you want to be with me, if I've received the gift of eternal life, do I like hanging out with you? Do we spend any time together? Is this sort of a theological set of things that someone told me I should believe and maybe or maybe not I filled out a card or prayed a prayer or did this or did that? Is this like coming home?

Is this like being loved? Is this like not just believing the facts but believing and trusting and entrusting and accepting forgiveness? And like Nathaniel and Philip and Andrew and Peter, I just want to follow you and get to know you and I want to take as many people the moment I find out with me. Do you understand now who Jesus is? Who He is to you?

What difference He makes. We've modeled this, but the final point is to ponder deeply the implications and the application of the truth to your personal life, circumstances, and relationships. And I did that just a little on each one and sometimes I spend 15 or 20 minutes doing this and sometimes I look up and it's been an hour, but isn't that what you do when you have coffee with a friend? Sometimes you only have time to, you know, catch up.

Sometimes you spend a half a day together. The gospel is the good news. You are deeply valued and He longs not just to forgive you but to do life with you in ways beyond your wildest dreams. You're listening to Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram and the message you just heard, Jesus, The Authorized Biography, is from the first volume of Chip's series, Jesus Unfiltered, titled Believe. Chip will join us in studio to share some insights from today's talk in just a minute.

A.W. Tozer once said, What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us. In this series, Chip's going to help us get a clear, accurate picture of Jesus by studying John chapters one through five.

Discover what this passage reveals about Christ as our Savior, Messiah, and the truth. If you've missed any part of this series or want to learn more about our resources, visit LivingOnTheEdge.org. Well, I'm joined in studio now by Chip, and Chip, I don't know about you, but I'm meeting more and more Christians who are deeply discouraged by the direction our society is heading and feel a bit hopeless. Now, do you have a word of encouragement for him that you'd like to share with us?

Absolutely, Dave. With all that's going on in the world, it's easy to get discouraged, be fearful, get overwhelmed, but no matter what is going on around us, God will orchestrate his plan to successful completion. God will not fail. Job, in the midst of his most horrendous circumstances, said, I know, O Lord, that nothing is impossible or too difficult for you. None of your purposes can be thwarted.

And here's the second part. Not only will God not fail, but we must do our part. Whatever we're called to do, God just doesn't do things on his own. He's chosen each one of us to be a part of his bigger story. I want you to remember, whenever God's agenda is championed, there will be resistance, but how we respond, not react, makes all the difference in the world. Here's my question.

Do you want to be a difference maker in this world? Do you want to be greatly used by God? Maybe it's praying at a new level. Maybe it's deepening your relationship with Living on the Edge.

Maybe it's giving a gift like never before, or just saying you can count on me every single month. We have great opportunity right now. If we'll get side by side, if we'll refuse to listen to all the negativity, not put our heads in the sand, but be realistic and trust God's promises instead of looking at all of our problems, the Spirit of God will turn this world upside down the way he did it in the first century and many times in the past. It's time to take bold action. It's time to partner together to make a difference in this fallen, confused, and ever more corrupt world. We are not victims. Greater is he that is in us than he that is in the world. Let's trust that, and let's press ahead together.

Great challenge, Chip. And let me just tell you that some close ministry friends have already taken a bold step this month by funding our year-end match. Well, this means between now and December 31st, every gift we receive will be doubled. Your $25 gift becomes $50, $100 becomes $200, and $500 becomes $1,000. So if you feel God is calling you to partner with Living on the Edge, go to LivingOnTheEdge.org or call 888-333-6003. That's 888-333-6003, or go to LivingOnTheEdge.org.

App listeners, tap Donate. We'll hear again as Chip with a few final words. As we close today's program, let's come up with a little plan together for you to begin to read God's Word every day in a way that'll make sense and in a way that little by little by little God is going to speak to you. So don't get discouraged early.

In fact, the first chapter of John is the most difficult. Okay, here's the plan. Number one, let's decide on a time. When are you going to do it? It might be first thing when you get up. It might be your lunch hour. It might be before you go to bed. Personally, I do it first thing because my best intentions often just get blown away at lunch or I fall asleep at night.

Why don't we just say, let's 15 minutes, that's all it's going to take, just 15 minutes. Next, let's decide where you're going to do it. I don't know your living situation, but you need a place that's quiet, a place that's alone. I have a favorite chair.

You might designate a place in the house or a favorite chair, or there's been times in my life where I had roommates and stuff. I literally went out in my car. But just for the next couple weeks, we're going to meet with God. We're going to ask those questions. What does it say? What does it mean? What does it mean to me? We're going to commit 15 minutes.

Decide in advance where you're going to do it, when you're going to do it. We're going to ask those questions, and I'm going to tell you something. God wants to speak to you. Are you ready to make that commitment? Let's start the journey together. Thanks, Chip. And as we close, would you pray for those feeling challenged to respond to Chip's encouragement right now?

There's always a spiritual battle when we feel prompted to draw near to God. Thanks for taking a minute to do that. And if there's a way we can pray for you, let us know. Call 888-333-6003 or email chip at livingontheedge.org. We'd love to hear from you. Well, for Chip and the entire team here, this is Dave Druey thanking you for listening to this Edition of Living on the Edge. .