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Jesus Is The Word
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Transcript
Welcome to the 52 Greatest Chapters of the Bible. John Barnett here. If it’s your first time joining us, you’re actually in our small group. Bonnie and I are full-time traveling missionaries. We teach in Bible institutes, and seminaries, and Bible colleges. Right now, we’re doing a lot during this COVID season, we’re doing a lot of online classes and you’re right in the middle of our small group Bible study. We do them with those that pray for us and go with us as we are journeying around the country, and around the world.
We’re in the Gospel of John chapter 1, but I want to read to you the ending of the Gospel of John. Chapter 20, the second to the last chapter, verse 31, says, “but these are written.” That’s the whole book of the Gospel by John. “I have written that you may believe Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name.” We’re beginning the study of the Gospel by John. As you see in your slide, this is our 29th week and we’ve gotten to John chapter 1.
The method we’re using is a survey of the whole Bible. You can read in the description for this lesson the tools we use, but we get a journal. This is my journal right here. In the front of the journal, I have one of the resources I downloaded from our website. If you go to Facebook to the 52 Greatest Chapters of the Bible this two-page document is there and you can paste it in your journal, just a plain old Moleskin. Again, my favorites are down in the description. I have a two-page spread for every one of our assignments. Let me get to John chapter 1. This is what I’ve worked on all week long. I’ve written down the title, as you see on this slide right here, and the lessons. Then, an application prayer. I’m going to go through all of those with you and show you. I’ve typed them out because it’s hard to read my scribbling.
For me, The 52 Greatest Chapters, after reading the Bible over a hundred times, are the chapters that when you put them all together give a complete overview of the message of the Bible. All the great themes of the Bible, proper theology, understanding of the doctrine of God, and all the major Christian doctrines. They’re covered in these 52 chapters, as well as an overview of all the key parts of the Christian life the Lord wants for us.
When we got to week 25, we got into the New Testament. We’ve looked at Christ’s birth, the Sermon on the Mount, the Great Commission, we studied parables. We looked at Jesus’ 36 parables, what He was attempting to do, and why He switched over to only teaching in parables. That was last week. Look where we are. The eternal Word is Christ. The Gospel by John is unique. There are four Gospels. The first three, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, are synoptic, which means they see the same group of events. John is different. John is looking at what I just read to you. The seven signs that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. I’m going to show you those seven signs and explain that. That’s where we are.
We have three more incredible weeks in the Gospel by John. We’re going to look at the new birth and Nicodemus. We’ll look at how Jesus incorporates the Old Testament into the New. Then we’re going to see Jesus walking around the temple, teaching the Good Shepherd and the overlay of all the feasts. It’s going to be so exciting to see the backdrop, to understand the bigger picture of the New Testament. Then looking at the Gospel, the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ.
One of the resources that I recommend often, that’s also available on our website discoverthebook.org, is the resource called The 250 Events of the Life of Christ. What is in front of you are the four Gospels. Remember Matthew, Mark, and Luke are the Synoptics, John is that unique divine perspective. If you take everything Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John record about Christ and put them in chronological order, you get 250 events. They go from number one, Luke’s purpose in writing, that’s the first event, see it’s Luke 1:1-4. Then we go right into the incarnation of Jesus, John covers that in God becoming a human being, John 1:1-18. Then we find the births, or the ancestors, of Jesus in Matthew 1 and Luke 3. Do you see what I mean? It’s the events in order showing where they occur.
Some events only occur in particular books. This one is only in Luke. This one is only in John. Matthew and Luke cover the third event. Why I’m telling you that is look, we’re looking at John chapter 1, which is these three events down here and this event up here. That’s what this chart does. It shows you if another one of the Gospels covers what we’re covering. I want you to have that in the back of your mind because over the years, for decades, when I’ve taught the Bible, I would say, oh and of course, you know that Luke said this. People would say, how did you know that? I said, you use one of the life of Christ chronological charts and you see the life of Christ in sequence. A lot of them say I don’t know, where do you buy that?
That’s why I started working from the MacArthur Study Bible. There is a chronology of the life of Christ, all the events, here in the study Bible. I took that as my template then I put in all of these, you notice the temple, Nazareth, Ein Kerem, the signs, the life of Christ events. The first event is Christ’s birth, and then His baptism, and then His temptation is the third event. Notice that I’ve taken just the typical events of the life of Christ, and I’ve overlaid it for teaching, both geography and history, as well as theology. I wanted you to see this chart and specifically, this part is what we’re covering today.
Let me show you my journal. This is my journal. I wrote as a title, The Divine, God the Son, Jesus Is All I Need. I wrote a summary, the seven titles of Christ, and then the prayer that I’m going to read to you at the end. I did all of those, but for you, as you’re working on it this week, what I would suggest is that first, you read John chapter 1. Before you read, I’ve told you this many times, I pray Psalm 119 verse 18 every time I read the Bible. This is what I do. I say Lord open my eyes that I might behold wonderful things from Your word. That’s what Psalm 119 18 says, that’s the prayer of the Bible student. That’s the prayer of the sheep wanting to hear the voice of their Shepherd. My sheep, Jesus said, hear My voice and they know Me, and they follow Me. That’s my cry to my Good Shepherd. Teach me from Your word.
Then, whatever I’m studying, after I pray, I read the whole chapter. Let me show you my Bible. Do you see all the colors and marks, and everything? I read aggressively. Some people drive aggressively, some people talk aggressively. Some people are aggressive business people. I’m not into much aggression other than reading aggressively. By that I mean, I can hardly read without having a pen in my hand, my highlighters close by. You notice that I’ve highlighted these pages, but they don’t come through the other side. Get pigment highlighters and you mark up your Bible. I have all these different colored pens because I want to interact and be learning from the scriptures every time I read them. Read the whole chapter, John’s Gospel, the Gospel by John, John chapter 1. Read it through each day. You’re going to end up reading this first chapter seven times. Each time you read, mark things. I’m going to show you what to look for. I’ve read it 125 times because I’ve read the New Testament more than the Old. Each time I have found something different. I’m going to share with you the best stuff that I’ve found.
Here we go. This is my journal. At the top, I’ve written the 52 Greatest Chapters, week 29. We’re in John 1. Each time I read I give a different title, but I don’t want to bore you with my titles. Just one is Jesus Is The Eternal Word. The one on the blackboard that I wrote is Jesus is the word. That’s what I titled this lesson. What I want you to realize is there’s no one, right answer. A lot of people labor. They don’t even want to write in their journal. They definitely don’t want to write anything in their Bible. They’re afraid they’ll make a mistake. You’re not going to make a mistake. This is your personal exploration and discovery of God’s word. You’re starting to invite the Lord to speak to you. Then by faith, you’re believing He’s anointing and illumining you, and you start reading.
I’ll show you my aggressive reading, the tracks in my Bible, in just a minute. I summarize the chapter, John introduces Jesus as God the Son, the eternal Word. He’s witnessed to by John the Baptist and near the end of the chapter, He’s the Lamb of God. Then I start listing off the lessons. I have the title, the summary, then I write lessons. I have numbered them. The first lesson is from the first five verses. Jesus is the eternal God, the Son, He is Creator. He is life and light. I wrote a note to myself that if Jesus is the light, I want to turn toward the Light. You can’t see it, but there are 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 lights set in this little studio we’re in where we’re serving this week. There are seven lights and if you want the light to affect you, you turn toward the light. Jesus said I’m the Light turn toward Me.
I love to see the effects of the lights on my plants. It’s called phototropism, there’s geotropism and phototropism. Geotropism is if you turn a plant upside down, it will grow the direction that up is with gravity. I wonder what they do out in outer space when there’s no gravity. Phototropism is a plant that, if you keep turning it, will always grow toward the light. See, God has built into plants something we need to learn. We need to go toward the Light, so I wrote that. Turn to the Light. Do you see how simple it is?
New people join us every week. I’ve noticed that the class is getting bigger and bigger in the number of people that are joining us. If you have never done this before, what you write in your journal is what is between you and the Lord. This is not a class you’re going to get the Pulitzer Prize for. This is what you’re going to get the God illumined blessing of Bible study from. I just wrote, it’s so simple, point two, verses 6 to 13, God sent John to point to Christ. That’s what I saw when I read it. You might see something different, something else will jump out. It’ll be about the same topic, but write it down. We must receive Him. That’s what verse 12 says “as many as received Him,” I wrote, we must receive Him to become His children.
By the way, that’s one of my convictions. I’m an evangelical, you know what that means? It means that I was born lost, and I had to be saved. In other words, just because I was born into a Christian family where my mom and dad had been attending church for a long time, just because my parents went to church. I went to church my whole life, did not make me a Christian. That’s why verse 12 is so important. We must receive Him. “For whosoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” Jesus was calling people to receive Him. Have you ever received Christ? Have you ever called on the name of the Lord or are you thinking that your parents christened you or baptized you or confirmed you or something? No, we have to go from being lost to being saved. Jesus in chapter 3, we’re going to see that next week, calls that the new birth. He said just like you have a birthday when you were born the first time you have to have a birth the second time, the new birth.
The third lesson I found is from verses 14 to 17, Jesus is full of grace and truth. From Jesus, we have grace upon grace and truth. Look at this. I wrote my responses. I want to receive the Son. That by faith I receive His word. I receive all the benefits of sonship. I just want to be receptive to all that the Son of God is offering. My first reception was salvation, but I feed. See, Jesus said truly born again people keep feeding on Him. You say that’s weird. No, it’s turning toward the Light. Photosynthesis, the light interacting with the plant causes the whole system to work. That’s what feeding on Him is. He is the source of light, and truth, and life. He is the bread of life, that’s what John explains to us. I want to encourage you to grow in that this week. The fourth thing I learned is in verse 18, God is invisible, but Jesus reveals Him. Then I continued. My fifth lesson is John was a voice unworthy to do even the lowliest service. He was very humble. We are, verse 23, to choose to make our paths straight.
I was thinking about that this week when I was reading Drudge, that news aggregator called Drudge. Whatever aggregator you use you might’ve noticed that they had a big article. The article this week was The Pornification of Netflix. I thought, what is that? It was an article, a news update, a business article saying that Netflix has found that to keep people watching all the in-house series they have to get them racier and racier. Look at this. Do you see what I’m writing on the screen? We’re supposed to choose the straight path, the narrow road. In other words, do you know what the psalmist said? “I will set nothing”, that’s Psalm 101, “I will set nothing wicked before my eyes.” Some of you might need to look that verse up.
Did you know that’s a choice? If Bonnie and I are watching anything and all of a sudden we start seeing the telltale signs of something that is going to happen we grab that remote so fast and turn it. It doesn’t matter if you miss something. You go past it, or you turn it off depending on what you’re seeing. God is not pleased when we look at gratuitous bloodshed, He is not pleased when we look at anything to do with demonic activity and wickedness, other than in a way of teaching, and warning, and understanding spiritual things. To be entertained by demonism, to be entertained by immorality, to be entertained by gratuitous murder. By the way, the headlines right after Pornification of Netflix said that there’s a new horror movie coming out that says it far surpasses any other movie as far as its lavish murders, and bloodshed, and cruel stuff. We are to make our paths straight and set nothing wicked before our eyes.
The sixth thing that I learned is that Jesus is the Lamb of God and I trust Him as my sacrifice. The disciples followed Jesus as the Lamb and I want to follow Him. Jesus is the Messiah, the king, that we’re to follow and serve. It’s interesting. He alludes to the stairway to Heaven. Remember Jacob had this dream in the Old Testament, the patriarch Jacob, he was sleeping with his head on a stone as his pillow. All of a sudden in his dreams, he saw a ladder reaching to Heaven and the angels coming back and forth. That’s what Jesus is. He is the ladder, the stairway to Heaven. If you want to get to Heaven you grab Him. He’s the one that takes us and we follow Him. That’s what was in my notes.
Let me just show you the first chapter geographically. One of the principles of interpretation is that the more we understand the grammar, the history, the culture, the background, the words that God chose, the more fully we understand the message. Let’s look at the geography. We’re in the Autumn of 26, the beginning of Christ’s ministry. He begins in the city of Nazareth. That’s where it is. He goes down to Bethabara and He’s baptized. Look, that’s what it talks about in John 1:28. It says, “These things were done in Beth Abra.” Look in your Bible and you’ll see that. If you look at the parallel passage on that chart it’s in Matthew 3 and Mark 1. Then Jesus goes to His temptation. That’s down outside of Jericho where He’s 40 days in the wilderness, that’s in Matthew 4 and Luke 4. Then it says in John 3, we’re not covering that chapter, that he’s in Salem after that. Look at what John 1:13-51 is about. It’s about Jesus and His first disciples, Nathaniel’s hometown, Cana, and how Jesus meets them. Then of course, Jesus goes up here to Cana after His baptism. He’s launching His ministry as He goes to Galilee.
The bigger picture of John’s Gospel is all of the sign miracles. As you study your study Bible and look at that 250 event chart, I have noted all of these sign miracles. What are the sign miracles? It says in chapter 20 verse 30, “These signs were given.” What signs? There are seven of them. Here they are. In chapter 2 it says, “this beginning of signs”. In chapter 2, the turning water into wine. In chapter 4, it says this was the second sign. The Gospel by John is being built around this grid. It’s like this framework. It’s the fabric being sewn together around seven signs. The third sign is the curing of the Bethesda paralytic when he was laid out by the pool. The feeding of the 5,000, Jesus walking on the sea of Galilee, giving sight to the man born blind and the raising of Lazarus.
What are the signs for? This is what I wrote in my journal and I’m not expecting everyone to see this. Most of you are maybe just starting. I know because I get notes from you. I just got a note from, I don’t remember what country she was from, but she said, I do ladies ministry in Australia or wherever and we’re doing the 52 Chapters. She said you haven’t posted this week yet. I said, yeah, Bonnie and I are full-time missionaries, sometimes we don’t have Wi-Fi, I’m trying to get them posted on time. This woman said, I’m a Bible teacher and I’ve studied the Bible all my life. You might be like that. Maybe you are like this pastor I know who is leading his church through the 52 Greatest Chapters and there are many small groups. Some of you, you just found this video. Like I hear in the notes section, they said that YouTube dropped it into your feed. Actually, I think the Lord did. I don’t know if I would blame YouTube for giving you a Bible lesson.
Back to the signs, this is what I wrote in my notes. The first three sign miracles show how we get saved, how salvation comes to the sinner. The first one is water into wine. Here’s where they are so you can look them up and mark them in your Bible. This is a great exercise to mark those seven signs. Salvation is miraculous. It was a miracle that plain water turned into wine. Why is it a miracle? Because water can become wine if you add grape juice and add a lot of time and fermentation, but He did it instantly. Jesus is Lord of time and creation. Nothing exists apart from Him. The next sign of the nobleman’s son, where Jesus spoke a word and this far away event took place. Salvation is by faith, Jesus is Lord of space, no distance hinders Him. That means I can pray right now for the Lord to be at work in faraway places. Both Bonnie and I regularly do this. We pray for the other side of the world, for the people who are often working in Asia. We’re 12,000 miles away, but we pray. Space, distance, and time does not hinder the Lord. He is at work. The third sign is the paralytic. Salvation is by grace, it is miraculous, it’s by faith, it’s by grace. That’s how it comes to us. Jesus is our healer. Nothing is impossible to Him.
The last four of the seven show what happens when we get saved. This is how we get saved; this is the result of getting saved. The feeding of the 5,000 shows salvation brings satisfaction. Did you know that’s part of the advertisement for Christ that all of us are supposed to be? I still remember when Bonnie and I were eating when we were backpacking. You know how you have these dreams of what you can do in life. I said, honey, I want to take you back to Denmark. You lived in Denmark before you were Christian and I want to take you back to visit, see your relatives and your friends. We saved up our money and took one of those cheap flights where you are so cramped. We had backpacks and we traveled, visited all around Europe. We slept on the trains while traveling and finally, one night, we had slept on the trains one too many times. I was greasy and sweaty, so I said, honey, let’s pay for a room. I need to shave and take a shower. Sleeping on trains is too much for me. So, we did. It was so nice. I shaved and everything.
We even went to the restaurant of our hotel, and we found the cheapest thing on the menu. We sat there because we couldn’t believe we were sitting still and not rocking on the train. We read our Bibles to each other. As newlyweds, we used to read a chapter a day. We would alternate verses; it was very fun. We still do that. After two hours, we noticed a couple walking up to our table and they said, excuse us. I looked up and boy, they were dressed for dinner, and we weren’t. They said, could we sit with you? I thought, sure and they sat down. The man said, we’ve watched you for two hours, why are you so tranquil? This was in Bavaria. This was in Germany. We were at the base of the castle that Disney world has at the center, only it’s the real one. This European couple sitting over there watched us for two hours. Look at this, salvation brings satisfaction. When you eat the Bread of Life, you’re different and unsaved people can see it. We got to share the Gospel with this couple. We got to give them a Gospel tract.
If you’ve never given out a Gospel tract, I keep one always in my wallet, but down in the description of the video, I put some links to just a few of my favorite tracts. You ought to be satisfied in Christ and share the Gospel. The storm that Jesus calms shows that salvation brings peace. They saw that too. The blind man shows that salvation brings Light. Remember we turn toward the Light. Salvation brings life, and Jesus said not just life, but life more abundant.
Also, not only are there seven of these sign miracles but there are seven I AM statements. Here, I did them all for you. In chapter 6, 8, 10, 10, 11, 14, and 15. Jesus said I am the bread of life. I am the Light of the world. I am the door of the sheep. I am the Good Shepherd. I am the resurrection and the life. I am the way the truth and the life. I am the true vine. You say, wow, what do you mean by all those? Check your study Bible. There’s a whole section on every one of these I am statements, on every one of these sign miracles. This study Bible is equivalent to getting a first-year seminary education if you read the scripture and the footnotes at the bottom, there are 25,000 of them. It’s like going to school.
Next, and this is what I’m going to conclude with. Chapter 1, see John 1, 1, 1, 1. This is what I found as I read through chapter 1. As I noted everything I found, I started seeing a pattern. There are seven, look on your screen, titles of Jesus. He is called the Word, the Light, the Son of God, the Lamb of God, the Messiah, the King of Israel, the Son of Man. Do you know what I wrote in my Bible? He is the word, so I wrote in my Bible, I want to listen to Him. He is the Light. I want to turn toward Him; I wrote in my Bible. Let me show you how I did that. This is my Bible. Then, I’m going to read my application prayer. Let’s turn to the Bible and you can look there with me.
This is my Bible and I’m reading it. “In the beginning was the Word.” That’s the first of the titles. “And He was the light.” That’s the second title. You notice highlighters that don’t bleed through the page. I love marking in my Bible because look how that jumps out at you, and you see them. There’s another one. I’ll show you the rest in a bit. This is what I wrote, “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God.” Listen to the Word. Then by reading the footnotes and doing some cross-referencing I wrote down Romans 10:17 right there. Do you know what that says? “So then faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word.” Our whole salvation comes by listening to what God says and receiving His Word.
Secondly, “In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overwhelm it or comprehend it.” It means overwhelmed. If you look down at the little a right there, that’s down at the bottom of the page, that’s a footnote. Look what I wrote. Jesus is a light, turn toward the Light. Then here’s my favorite verse about that Acts 26:18. It says, “To open their eyes, in order to turn them from darkness to the light.”
Then look at the next one. Right there it is. “No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him”, declared God. I wrote, and this is just me. I’ve spent all week long looking at this. I spent all week long praying and saying, God, show me something. I wrote my response to Him being the Son. Receive the Son. It says in Hebrews 1:3, that Jesus Christ is the brightness of His glory and the express image of God. I want to receive His truth, His light, His life, His joy, His peace, the cleansing of all my sins. Do you know what it says in 1 John 5:9? It says that Jesus Christ is the only begotten of the Father. He is the one that brings us life and endless light. He is the true and living God.
Keep going right there. Let me see if I can get this in the center so I can see it too. “The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him, and he said, ‘Behold! The Lamb.’ “ Notice it’s blue again, just like all the others. Once I find a pattern, I put them in the same color. Jesus is the Lamb who takes away the sin of the world, that’s verse 29. Look at this. If He’s the Lamb, I want to trust the Lamb. I’m trusting that He is my sacrifice for my sins.
Here’s the next one. Verse 41. “He first found His own brother Simon.” This is talking about the two that heard John speak with Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother. Andrew found his brother Simon “and said to him, ‘We have found the Messiah’, (which translated is the Christ).” Another title. Look what I wrote. If he’s the Messiah the Christ, seek the Messiah. Look, you notice it’s a different color because the longer I had to think about it, I wrote what is Messiah? Jews are always talking about the Messiah. What is Messiah to me? The Bible teaches that the Messiah is the one who keeps all the promises of God. Jesus is the one who brings to pass and accomplishes in the world, and even more specifically in my life, all the promises of God.
Next, verse 49. “Nathaniel answered and said to Him, ‘Rabbi, You are the Son of God!'” We’ve already covered the Son back over there in verse 18. Look at this. It’s a little blurry, I need to hold still here. “Nathaniel answered and said to Him, ‘Rabbi, You are the Son of God!'” We already covered that in 18. “You are the”, and look, I put it in blue, another title, “the King of Israel.” This is my response. Remember, the response is how I’m going to apply this to my life. This part you’ll see in my prayer in a minute. I will follow and serve the King. He’s my King. If He’s my King, I want to serve Him and follow Him. I wrote this verse, Matthew 6:33, “Seek ye first, the kingdom of God”, Him being my king.
Then, look at verse 51, “Most assuredly, I say to you, hereafter you shall see Heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.” That’s a reference. I looked it up and you can do that in your study Bible and your footnotes too. It’s a reference to Genesis 28:12 is where that happened, where Jacob saw that ladder. Then I thought about He’s the Son of Man. In the cross-reference I saw in Daniel 7 verses 9 to 14, He is called the Ancient of Days and the Son of Man. Remember He represents and is the exact representation of God. He’s the ladder to Heaven. Do you know what I wrote? My response is I’m going to spend my life grabbing and holding onto the ladder. I want to cling to the Son of God. You can see that now we’re in chapter 2. That’s my Bible and I hope that you’ll take some time this week to mark your Bibles.
Let’s go back to the slides, and then I’m going to read this prayer. I typed this last night and then I even wrote more in my journal, so I’ll read both of them. This is what you need to have in your journal. The application prayer, Jesus, You are the Light that came to me in the darkness of my sin and shined in my heart. I turn and seek You as my light today. I want to receive Your grace upon grace today. One of the parts of chapter 1 says, “And of his fullness we have received, and grace upon grace.” Did you know that in the Greek language, the way that’s written, it’s written like waves, like the ocean. You don’t have to catch one wave because right behind it is another. What he’s saying is that God’s grace is just one wave after another. There’s no limit to His grace.
By the way, what is grace? Grace is the unlimited favor of God giving us what we don’t deserve. That’s His grace. Mercy, see, there’s a difference. Grace is getting the unlimited favor of God, getting what we don’t deserve. Mercy is different. Mercy is not getting what we do deserve. See, I deserve death, and Hell, and punishment, and eternal separation from God. God’s mercy gives me relief. I don’t get what I do deserve, punishment. I do get what I don’t deserve His mercy and His grace and His love.
Continuing with my prayer. Reveal your Father, even more to me today. Jesus reveals God. Jesus said, if you’ve seen Me, you’ve seen the Father. The more we see Him, the more we truly see God. Remember “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” We saw that two weeks ago or three when we were in Matthew 5 through 7.
I trust You as my Lamb of God who takes away all my sin. I seek to follow You through all of life and through this day before me. I wrote a little bit more. Some of you are eager beavers and you like to do a lot of work. I did all the titles in this one. I said You are the Word I trust and listen to. You are the light I turn and follow. You are the only Son I have received. You are my Lamb who took my sin. You are the Messiah that dispenses God’s promises. You are my King who I will follow and serve. You are the Son of Man who came to rescue me. I cling today to You and through life. In your precious name, Amen.
Just before we go, by the way, we were a little team here. This couldn’t come to you if Bonnie also didn’t come after our long day of work and record this. She’s sitting over there capturing it. I wanted to give you some prayer requests. We just finished a whole month of teaching Old Testament theology. It’s two classes a day and it’s been amazing, a blessing, and the students are wonderful. We’re starting in just, I don’t know exactly what the date is today, but we’re starting in just two days a month of teaching elements of biblical interpretation. We already have students that are registered from the UK, Canada, South Africa, the Netherlands, and the United States. Many of them are frontline, serving the Lord, missionaries, and pastors. The other half of them are next-generation students.
Among these students, some are what we call tentmakers. Do you know what that means? They can’t leave what they’re doing for the Lord and go somewhere to school. They’re actually registering and attending online classes, we’re just one of their online classes. If you want to pray for us, pray for this month of elements of biblical interpretation, theology. It’s called hermeneutics, how to properly interpret the Bible. I teach that, I illustrate that, and I show that. This fall we get to teach for two months, a survey of all of Paul’s epistles. History, geography, theology. Wow.
That’s my journal. This is our 52 Greatest Chapters of the Bible small group study. Let’s close in a word of prayer. I look forward to seeing you soon. Father in Heaven, I pray for each of these students. I launch them now by faith in Jesus’ name to a week in the Gospel by John chapter 1. I pray they’d get as many blessings out of it as I did. I pray that you would open their eyes to behold wonderful things. Help them as they write those prayers of application. Then I pray that they would share it with someone, in Jesus’ name, amen.
Before you go, my two final challenges. Find someone. I’m not joking. You won’t grow if you don’t find someone that you’re accountable with, where you say, what are you reading in the Bible and you show them what you’re reading in the Bible. If you do that, you’ll help them, and they will help you. Share your findings. Show them what you’re finding, show them how you’re reading and marking the word. Pray that prayer of application.
Then, start memorizing. Down in the description of this video, I tell you about the Navigator verse memorization that I work on constantly. One last postscript, this is my wonderful wife, Bonnie, we’re a team. We are missionaries serving in Sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East, Central Europe, and across Asia. We are teaching, and mobilizing, and equipping partners. Europeans reaching Europe, Asians reaching Asia, Africans reaching Africa. Pray for us as we serve the Lord. God bless you. See you back next week.
Slides
Check Out All The Sermons In The Series
You can find all the sermons and short clips from this series, 52 Greatest Chapters In The Bible here
Looking To Study The Bible Like Dr. Barnett?
Dr. Barnett has curated an Amazon page with a large collection of resources he uses in his study of God’s Word. You can check it out here.