Walk With Me

What Are You Actually Believing When You "Believe in Jesus"?

• JJ

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Speaker 1:

Hello everybody and welcome to today's episode of Walk With Me. I'm your host, jj. It's so good to have each and every one of you here. Thank you so much. Thank you all for liking and sharing and telling others about it, even posting it on the social medias. Thank you so much. Thank you, I love each and every one of you. I am eternally glad that you are with us today. I know a lot of podcasts say that, but I really am and also, speaking of which you could be listening to any other podcast, but you've taken a few moments to walk with us today and I really do appreciate that. A big shout out to our sponsors. We bought the lyricists with the intro and the outro, exquisite Creations with the tumblers, and thank you all so much. Thank you all who showed up for the polo event. That was a really great event. Polo with the peeps that was a really good event. Second time I had gone to see polo and it was a really wonderful thing. Thank you all so much for your kind words and your encouragement. Thank you all, thank you, thank you, thank you.

Speaker 1:

We're going to go and jump into today's episode today because there's no way I can get it all in one episode. So we're just going to go through it and get as far as we get Now before we get started. Understand that I enjoy biblical questions, I enjoy biblical debating. What I have to say, though, just to be in a moment of honesty, I don't like useless debating. So if we're going to talk about Jesus' name, water, baptism, let's talk about that. But one of the things that I think we get in the world a lot now is that, in order for us to debate anything or discuss anything or teach anything, we have to recognize the authority of the Bible. I know I haven't said this a lot and I haven't said this in a while, but we have to recognize the authority of the Bible. Everything that I I cannot. I cannot bring my opinions in, I can't bring JJ's opinions in, I cannot bring my feelings into it, because my opinions or feelings will not save either you nor me, and it also won't condemn you or condemn me. My feelings don't really count. The only thing that counts is the word of God, and to that end, to that end, I have to also while I'm on that subject, you know discuss the one rule of the podcast.

Speaker 1:

The one rule of the podcast is we talk a lot of scripture here, and that's good. However, it is easy to twist scripture out of context. It's easy to take two scriptures from two different places in the Bible and make a whole doctrine out of them or a sermon out of them or a point out of them. So we have a rule here, and that rule here is always read a verse or two above the scripture that I'm talking about or we're talking about today, or verse or two below, but preferably the whole chapter. Why? Because context is key, and what we're going to talk about today is going to really begin to expose some of that, and hopefully that helps a lot as far as why context is so key.

Speaker 1:

I was talking to somebody the other day and I said you know, every single word has a different context, has a different meaning in a different context. So we can't just naturally say that a word is what a word is without knowing the context. For instance, if I say boom, you might actually think I'm talking about an explosion, because an explosion goes boom. But what if I say the microphone guy held the boom? He's not holding an explosion in his hand, he's holding the piece of pipe that holds the microphone, out of the distance to be closer to the subject being recorded. It's a boom mic. It's not an exploding mic, it's just a mic with a boom on it. Cranes have booms, boom on it, cranes have booms. So it's important to understand that every word has its context and we have to understand what God is saying. We have to be able to read everything in context. So, verse two above, verse two below, but preferably the whole chapter. Okay, that being said, and also one more thing, because I'll get into it and I'll forget the best way to send me questions If you don't have my personal text number, the first, the best way To get questions to me Is walkwithmebiblestudy At gmail.

Speaker 1:

Walkwithmebiblestudy At gmail. Every once in a while I get time, I can go to the YouTube channel and look at some of the comments and look at some of the questions in the comments. I, honestly, have not been to the YouTube channel and that's because I work a lot on my 9-to-5. But I do. This is the best way because that comes right to my phone. I can stop and make a note of it and then, you know, start to.

Speaker 1:

I'll either send you a message back I got your question or I can just answer it really quick. If it's a quick answer, I'll answer it quick, but if it's a long answer, I would generally tend to make an episode out of it because it has to be done in depth. Quick answers sometimes is not biblical. That being said, this question is one of those questions and if you want your name to be read when I'm addressing the question, put it in the subject line. Most people don't, because you know people prefer to be anonymous or non-in-kind needle in some of these discussions, and I understand that, because you know you'll walk with God. But you'll walk with God, but you'll walk with God as a matter of the word of God, okay.

Speaker 1:

So, that being said, the question was why don't you preach, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ Now, on the surface, that seems like a very easy question to answer, but when you start digging into it and you have to backtrack to fill in the blanks, it gets to be very complicated. So, with that being said, I'm just going to go ahead and start from the beginning, and it's probably going to last about two episodes. So buckle up. We're going to talk about Believing in the Lord Jesus Christ Now. In John 20, 29, basically, it says Blessed are they that have not seen and yet and have believed.

Speaker 1:

Now what we're doing here is we're saying you know, thank God for the resurrection, because if there's no resurrection and we have no resurrection day, we have no tomb in Jerusalem, gospels, myths, and what we have done is we've believed in the life. So if Christ is not resurrected, then all we have done is preached in vain because of what he said. You will know me because I will go and I will come back every day and what we're doing then is we're praying to a dead savior, if Christ does not, is not raised again, and basically we're praying to a dead savior, we're praying for somebody that doesn't exist anymore. If he doesn't resurrect, we're still in our sins. There is bloodshed, but there's no remission of sins, there's no rite of Christ, there's no millennium, there's no rapture, the prophets died in vain, the martyrs leave in vain and it's all complete hoax, that's all. If there's no resurrection, if the dead rise, and the Bible is the worst. If the dead rise not, if there is no resurrection, then the Bible is the worst. If the dead rise not, if there is no resurrection, then the Bible is the worst thing that humanity has ever known. It's the worst curse, because all of the hope that we put into the Bible, everything, the way we change, the way having the Holy Ghost fills us and changes us and causes us to be, it's nothing, it's all made up.

Speaker 1:

Now, once you start exploring that, you start to think, well, there's no such thing as right and wrong and there's no moral code and people just might as well live how they want to live and then do what they want to do. As a matter of fact, it starts in the Old Testament, right before a judgment of God, where men kind of did what was right in their own eyes. And if you read those scriptures you're thinking, probably, because you're a pretty good person, you're probably thinking, oh well, you know, I may do a little wrong thing, but it was kind of right, but I thought it was right. When the Bible talks about it, though, it's in the context of if I felt like I wanted to burn your house down, I could burn your house down Because it was right in my eyes and I dare you to stop that kind of thing. Dare you to stop me that kind of thing. If I wanted to take your sheep because it grazed on my land, I could take your sheep and graze on my land, and then you could have war with my men, and it was always conflict. What people did was brighten their own eyes. Always conflict, always bloodshed.

Speaker 1:

And one of the other problems with that kind of thinking is that it matters. It changes how we deal with each other. We don't deal with each other with the mindset hey, you know what? There's Christ? There's Christ that has to guide our thinking. There's no right and wrong, it's just what we think. And there's another thing too If there's no resurrection of wrong, this is what we think. And here's another thing too If there's no resurrection of the dead, there's no resurrection of the wicked dead either, and no one will have to be responsible for sin.

Speaker 1:

Now, I know a lot of places don't say anything about these things. They don't preach about these things anymore, but that is still in the Bible. The baptism becomes void, our faith is empty, we're preaching a false report and sin is just some sort of weird mental illusion. And, believe it or not, you see people marching in the streets right now with that exact mentality. Sin is just a mental illusion, or they'll use the term societal construct Now.

Speaker 1:

But ask yourself something what kind of meaning would be to life if there was no resurrection? How many ways would that really affect the way we live? How many ways does that change how we feel about our fellow man, how we interact, all the things we do? What if, when we read the account of the resurrection of Matthew, mark, luke and John, that there may seem to be some discrepancy or contradiction in the scripture? But how do we deal with that? Now, understand that all the four writers and I'm going to go into a different subject, I'll come back to the other subject understand that all the four writers and I'm going to go into a different subject, I'll come back to the other subject.

Speaker 1:

When the four writers wrote these events, they all had their own perspective, even though they were under the direction of the Holy Ghost, and they were very careful to write about the thing they were telling and telling it how it took place. But if there's no Holy Ghost, then how are they all writing the same thing unless they're standing at the same place at the same time? And the Bible clearly says that they weren't there. And they all had different experiences after that, up until they went to the mountain of what we call the mountain of transfiguration, in other words, john sort of begins it in the beginning, when it was yet dark. So it was still dark outside In the light of the moon, it was still dark, the night wasn't over yet.

Speaker 1:

John and Matthew says is that as it begins dawn and you know that there's a difference between when it was dark and when dawn is coming where the sky turns that pretty shade of deep blue before the sun comes up and it's just like a and you see that little faint glow of orange on the horizon. That's towards the beginning of dawn. And again, this is what we go back to earlier when we're talking about how words have to be taken in context, because, because I could describe the same thing to you and your ears can see or your mind can see, based on what you hear something differently from what I am trying to portray to you, if I leave out various important pieces that I don't think is important, but it's important to you the way you perceive it. Luke says it's very early in the morning. Now that can mean anything To people who get up at 11 o'clock. 8 o'clock is very early in the morning. For me, being that I generally work nights. 4am is very early in the morning, but Most people, when dawn is well broken, like with Mark, very early in the morning, at the rising of the sun, we already have the breaking of day there. So all four times Seem quite different, and it was Stated clearly To show us the exact time of their Reckoning. So this is why it's important when you read in the Bible, stated clearly to show us the exact time of their record. So this is why it's important when you read in the Bible, you always read the entire chapter.

Speaker 1:

We all know that it was in the morning, and this is where a lot of people begin to start to quibble. Well, it was still dark and it was just breaking of day. Now, it was just breaking of day and now it was early dawn and we start quabbling over things that make no sense. And then, well, not that it makes no sense, it's not as important as what happened. We start quibbling about when it happened. We start hearing people using terms like hermeneutics and hermeneutics and cross-referencing Greek and and hebrew and latin scriptures, and oh my god. And then and then you'll do something like jay-z does, say hey, wait a minute, that word doesn't belong there, not in the king's name, it shouldn't be there, like the word easter, you know. So now I'm going somewhere with this, so trust me when I tell you believing in the lord jesus christ is not just being able to say it, if there's a thing that has to happen with it.

Speaker 1:

Now, after the crucifixion, right, anis is still afraid of Jesus and he goes to Pilate with new orders and he says hey, man, why don't you put a guard to watch the tomb for three days? Because the disciples already believe this guy. This guy is a fake and fraud. Put some guards over there and I want you to watch the tomb and make sure nobody goes and takes them. As a matter of fact, it's really wonderful to talk about this because I just had a sermon about for Resurrection Day, about people, about this whole scenario, about the guards and how they lied, and I think it's posted on YouTube. So if you're watching this on YouTube, it'll be on that resurrection. Okay, he says the guards are going to say, hey, jesus is risen, but in actualityity, we stole the body so you can come and see and we can fake it all because we believe so much. This would still be believing on the Lord Jesus Christ, would it not? Because now, if the resurrection that we were just talking about earlier did not happen. We are now going to believe a lot.

Speaker 1:

So Pil pilot says okay, um, go ahead and make yourself some, make yourself a platoon of guys, squad of guys, go and sit on the tomb and and just kind of um, just kind of observe it. It's kind surveillance and I'll tell you right now, I used to actually do private investigations and surveillance is some of the most boring work you'll ever see in your life. It really is. It really is. You just sit in a spot and you watch, and you watch and the moment you blink and you close off, the thing that you're waiting to happen happens. So surveillance is a crazy thing. Blink and you doze off, the thing that you're waiting to happen happens. So being surveillance is a crazy thing. So the other thing that's important about these guards is that they're life dependent on that body not being dragged out of the cell. So that's why they really had to go to the lot.

Speaker 1:

Again, we're talking about just leaving on the Lord, jesus Christ. Now they sealed the body up in the tomb. They rolled a heavy stone on it. They used a sealant on the tomb, because that's how they did in those days, they sealed the body in the tomb because as the body decomposed, they didn't want the smell to come out and be all over the place. So that was pretty bad. So they would literally put you in the tomb and then they would seal the stone up and you would just be in there. Now that would be Seal the stone up and you would just be in there. Now, that would be like Telling let's just say, I walked up to a cop that I don't want the sun to rise tomorrow. Make sure the gates of heaven are closed. Gates of the morning are kept closed.

Speaker 1:

Now, I know that sounds a little weird to say, but even that would be easier, keeping God in that. But we're talking about believing in the Lord Jesus Christ. What exactly are you believing? On See, just saying believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. And I think we say it in a way that makes it so simple oh, yeah, yeah, jesus exists, yeah, yeah, he's God, he's son of God. He walked around, he threw flowers everywhere and yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I believe, I believe. Yes, yes, yes, I believe. But what are you really believing? Yes, I believe, but what are you really believing? And when you consider what you're really believing. You're believing on the Lord Jesus Christ. You are believing and right now we're just talking about the resurrection, because the resurrection proved everything that he said. I know he did miracles and some people, when they say I believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, they're simply believing on the miracles that he did Turning the water into wine, giving sight to the blind, raising people from the dead. This is what they say when they believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. This is what comes to their mind. Are you really believing in the Lord Jesus Christ or are you believing on the fact that he was crucified for our sins and rose again? So John sort of tells us what happens.

Speaker 1:

It was still dark, no one had been sleeping, jesus was gone. Mary, mary Macklin, had some other women that had been on the grave Almost non-stop, and then they Watched them seal the tomb, they watched them prep the body and they had only been gone Long enough to observe the Sabbath. Now, me personally this is what we're being told They've only gone long enough to observe the Sabbath. The Sabbath would have had to have been Sunday. Why is that? Because that was the seventh day of the week. The first day of the week Would have been Monday Because Passover was on a Thursday. Okay, alright, so the Passover in which the Lamb was slain, in which Jesus was crucified, has to have been on a Thursday. Why he was in the tomb for three days, three nights. So you got Friday, saturday, sunday, that would be the third day. So that Sunday would have been the past, would have been the Sabbath JJ. What are you talking about?

Speaker 1:

Understand that we are considering this whole timeline as a Roman calendar, and on a Roman calendar our first day of the week was Sunday, but in the Hebrew calendar it was not. The Hebrew calendar first day of the week was Sunday, but in the Hebrew calendar it was not. In the Hebrew calendar the beginning of the week starts with Monday, not Sunday. Okay, now that we've got that established and you see I'm almost out of time. So they came around the first day of the week. They had left just long enough to observe the Sabbath, because you couldn't move, you couldn't do anything, you couldn't work. I mean, if you did, it would be trouble for you, for you and mary magdalene also had to be concerned about somebody stealing the body and maybe even dissipating the body, because she comes down and she's walking through jerusalem when it's still dark and she knew that at some point right about this time, or at least between 6 am and 6 pm, which is the jewish day. Well, 6 am and 6 am at some point that's the third day after three days he was going to rise again. So mary wanted to get down there fast, did not want somebody to do something with the body and make it a line. Why was Mary so stressed about getting down there? Really, we're talking about Mary Magdalene. We're not talking about Mary Joseph's wife. We're talking about Mary Magdalene. Mary, we're not talking about Mary Joseph's wife. We're talking about Mary Magdalene.

Speaker 1:

Mary Magdalene was a person who had had so many things that Jesus had done for her. He had forgiven her of so many sins. He had forgiven her and had so many demons cast out. So many demons cast out. The Bible says it was seven demons and we also know, if we're reading the Bible, what Jesus said if you don't take care of your temple, once the demons are cast out, each one goes and gets seven works. So if you start off with seven, you'll have 49 before you realize it, and then it gets worse. From there it gets exponentially worse, and after Jesus had cast those seven demons out of her and forgiven her of her sins. She had followed him steadfastly.

Speaker 1:

There we're still talking on believing on the Lord. She had her sins forgiven and the demons cast out of her. So and we have to stop here today because, as we already see, believing on the Lord Jesus Christ is not just something you say, it's something you really believe and understand and know what it is that you are believing in and why you're believing in and why you're believing it. You're not saying I believe in the Lord Jesus Christ because, well, I just don't want to be a sinner. No, you're believing that he died for your sins, you're believing that his blood remits your sins, and that's going to play a lot into what we talk about, what that really means. So this is going to be probably a couple episodes, but I don't want to put it all in one episode because I don't want to bore you to death. So I love each and every one of you. We will be continuing this next week and, as we get ready to go on our family reunion, I will probably be broadcasting remotely, but I love you all so much. God bless each and every one of you. Thank you.

Speaker 1:

Tell somebody about the podcast. Thank you for sharing it. Thank you for engaging and sending me questions. You thought you probably thought when you sent this question it was just going to be a simple answer. Thank you for engaging and sending me questions. You thought you probably thought when you sent this question it was just going to be a simple answer. But this kind of question takes a lot of answers because we kind of dealt with it in such a lackadaisical manner when it comes to church. But I thank you for sending me the questions. Any questions? Comments? Walkwithmebiblestudy at gmail. Walk with me BibleStudy at Gmail. Walk with me BibleStudy at Gmail. I'm almost to the point now where I think I want to see if I haven't guessed on, but we'll see how that works. God bless each and every one of you. Tell somebody you love them and tell somebody that God loves you. God loves you and them. All right, god bless you all. See you next time.