Jesus was certainly considered a fanatic by those Jews and to this day religious people would take Jesus’ message as fanatical, in fact they do. Today Jesus would be called a fanatic by 99 % of the existing churches because He said, He would build only one church, “…I will build My church…” (Matt. 16:18), He said there is only one way, “…No one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:6), He said, “…He who believes in Me will live, even though he dies.” (John 11:25). To the point of the lesson, the overwhelming majority of “believers” who are literally fanatics about Jesus, praising Him everywhere they go, claiming unabashedly their love and devotion to Him, will one day see their joy turned to joylessness…

Was God ever late? What Jesus ever late for anything? When the fullness of time came, He was there on time. He had an appointed time for the cross, and He was early in the garden. We are supposed to be imitators of Christ (1 Cor. 11:1) so why do still struggle with being habitually late? In this lesson we will address this very important issue straight on because when we think about God, he was never late, think about Jesus, never late, not even for the cross. Therefore, we must conclude that we should not make a habit of being late, especially for worship…

What kind of faith leads “to the saving of the soul” (Heb. 10:39)? “We are not people who turn back and are lost. Instead, we have faith and are saved.”  It is Faith that Pleases God…Faith that has confidence and conviction in things hoped for, in things unseen…Faith that believes God is, and that He rewards those who seek Him…Faith that worships like Abel, walks like Enoch, and works like Noah. In the book of Hebrews we learn of the faith of others and of faith we want: That is “Faith That Embraces The Promises”…

Our perspective on things is very important to our understanding. When considering any subject, the perspective you are looking from can either lead you to fight to the death whether you are right or wrong. Our perspective can cause us to sin or not sin, to fight or run, and this all depends on perspectives origin. Imagine David’s “perspective” in facing Goliath. If David had a worldly perspective like the other Israelite’s he would have been crying and cowering in fear just like they did. But David’s perspective was not from man, but from God. Little David looking up at this giant of a man in comparison to himself, saw right past the giant all the way up to the all powerful God. David’s perspective: “I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel…This day the Lord will deliver you into my hand…that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel. 47 Then all this assembly shall know that the Lord does not save with sword and spear; for the battle is the Lord’s, and He will give you into our hands” (1 Sam. 17:45b-47)

Some day the Lord’s people will be in that land where they’ll never grow old. This is one of the great and precious promises that every child of God looks forward to and the older you are on this side of the grave, the more clearer is the hope. But we must understand that the older we get, the wiser we should be concerning life and godliness which means the older we get the better we should be at teaching about Christ, salvation, about the hope that is in us. What we must be doing with all that experience, with all the knowledge concerning spiritual things is to be passing it on to those who are coming up behind us. Yet, so many as they retire from work in this physical world, they also retire from working in the kingdom of the Lord. Is this right? We will talk about this in this lesson…

When we study today we will see more about what Jesus came to do, that is to punch a hole in the darkness. He came to be the Light of the world and His light, is the only thing powerful enough to “punch a hole in the darkness of sin”. Jesus came and “In Him was life, and the life was the light of men” (John 1:4) so that mankind might see his own sin and be saved. So, if Jesus is the light of the world, what is darkness…

Robert Louis Stevenson author of Treasure Island, one night, as a young child looking out of his window at the lamp lighters was asked of his parents, “Robert, what in the world are you looking at out there?” With great excitement he exclaimed, “Look at that man! He’s punching holes in the darkness!” The scripture declares of Jesus, “In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.” (John 1:4). Jesus came down from the glory of Heaven to punch a hole in the darkness, He came to be the Light of the world and His light is the only true light powerful enough to “punch a hole in the darkness of our sin”, so that mankind might see his own sin and be saved…

The saints in Christ are all “alive together with Christ” (Eph. 2:5) and nothing could be more valuable to our spiritual wellness that to know more about Jesus which is what we have been doing since this year began. We started in John chapter one and are now in chapter 7 and we have come to know wonderful and powerful things concerning our Lord and Savior Jesus. In this lesson Jesus, who was in secret at the feast in Jerusalem, hears among the crowds, “much complaining among the people concerning Him” (v.12).    At verses 14 and 15 we read, “Now about the middle of the feast Jesus went up into the temple and taught. 15 And the Jews marveled, saying, “How does this Man know letters, having never studied?” This lesson picks up at verse 25 where we learn the answer to the question, could this be the Christ?

From John’s record in John chapter 7 we see that, God is Always There (vs.10-13), Everything Taught in the Bible is from the Father (vs.14-16), We Must Strive to Do God’s Will Not Ours (vs.17-18), and Judge with Righteous Judgement (vs.19-24)…

Jesus is now in Galilee and the Feast of Tabernacles is at hand. Jesus isn’t going directly to the feast and for good reasons one of which is the fact that He knows the Jews are seeking to kill Him (John 5:16, 7:1).John by the Spirit mentions the Feast of the Tabernacles, which has three significant points of interest for us today, Also, there are the brothers of Jesus who don’t believe in Him and selfishly try to push Jesus into doing something at the feast to “show off” His abilities, but Jesus tells his brothers, “My time has not yet come, but your time is always ready”  (7:6) from which we observe two important points of contrast between the heart of those brothers, and the Lord’s purpose which was predetermined before by God…