The First Letter of Peter- 6

Subtitle: A New Spiritual People- part 3

1 Peter 1:22-25; 2:1-3.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on Sunday, December 28, 2025.

We continue in this section where Peter admonishes us to be a part of the new spiritual people that Jesus is creating.  He does this through a series of imperatives, or commands.  We have looked at the first three.

1. Fix your hope completely on the grace that will be brought to you at the Second Coming of Jesus Christ (1:13).
2. Be holy like obedient children of God (1:15).
3. Conduct yourself in the fear of the Lord during this time of your sojourn on earth (1:17).

Of course, there are more things that are attached to these three commands, but they are the core points.  Let’s look at our passage as Peter gives some more commands.

Fervently love one another from the heart (v. 1:22-25)

Peter gives them the same command that the Lord Jesus gave to his disciples, particularly in John 13 to 15 on the night of his betrayal.  It is probably fresh in Peter’s mind just how wrong-headed he had been that night.  Yes, he believed in Jesus and was following him.  Yet, his flesh kept side-tracking him from where Jesus was leading.

We are to love one another as Jesus loved us.  On the night of his betrayal, we should first recognize that Jesus had risen and washed their dirty feet, something a servant should have done.  He loved them enough to do the lowest task among the group. Once we have absorbed this lesson, then we can move to the fact that Jesus physically was willing to die for them that they might live. 

Does this sound like something that is easy?  No, it is not!  One of the problems with American society is that we have exalted the idea of “falling in love” beyond any usefulness.  Today, people fall in and out of love without much thought.  They are simply led by the desires of their heart, which are often only lust.  Jesus is talking about a motivation that comes from Jesus Himself, rather than our own heart.  The love that Jesus gave to me when I didn’t deserve it becomes a motivation to give love to those others that he commands me to love.  In this case, he is talking about other disciples of Jesus.  If I have been forgiven much, then I should love Jesus much, so much that I am willing to love his other followers.  This is not a love of feeling, but a love of choice, a love of sacrifice.  Feelings will come and go, some good and some bad, but always we should make the choice to love.

Peter adds that this love is to come from the heart.  Some manuscripts have “from a pure heart.”  Both of these would be true.  There is an intellectual part to this choice to love, but we must not let hypocrisy and ulterior motives lead us.  Our heart has to embrace the decision.  We are not just intellectually seeing the vision that Jesus is laying before us but also capture that vision and making it our own.

We could say that acts which look loving, but are done in hypocrisy, are not truly loving at all.  They are self-serving actions in disguise.

Verse 22 starts off with “since you have in obedience to the Truth purified your souls…”  Peter reminds them of this prior action.  It is not in question, i.e., “since,” but the latter action of loving each other from the heart is in question (at least until we follow through).  The prior action is that they have purified their souls.  This may sound wrong.  Isn’t it Jesus who has purified our souls?  Yes, Jesus is the Purifier of our souls.  However, his work of purification involves the work of putting our faith in the “Truth” of the Gospel of Jesus. 

This is what is meant by “in obedience.”  The Gospel is first good news of what Jesus has done and has made available to us.  However, it is also a challenge.  Will you embrace this Jesus as God’s answer to your sin-sick soul?  Thus, it can be said that we purify our souls when we put our faith in Jesus.  It is understood that we could not do that, i.e., our works of faith would be useless, if Jesus had not done the foundational work of providing the foundation upon which we are putting our faith. 

There is also a work of the internal battle against sin that we are to engage with the help of the Holy Spirit, who was made available to us by the work of Jesus as well.  Like the Israelites taking possession of their inheritance in the Promised Land, believers are to take possession (purify) their souls that have been overrun by the giants and strongholds of sin.

We might not think about it in this way, but Peter says that we have purified our souls “for a sincere love of the brethren.”  The grammar depicts the sincere love of the brethren as a target, or goal, of the purifying.  

Think of it this way.  Jesus commands us to love one another, but my heart is filled with things that make it difficult to obey that command.  I am not enough like Jesus to do it.  However, I have put my faith in Jesus both for salvation and for the strength to war against the lusts that are in my own heart, all of this so that I can actually follow through on the work that Jesus has given me.  If you are going to do the hard work of fighting sin in your life, then follow through with the target of loving other believers.  This is what Jesus would do if he were here in the flesh.

Christians are not hypocrites that pretend to love people.  Instead, we are up front that without Christ none of us would love others.  It is his love for us that is transforming us and leading us in saying, “No” to our flesh, and “Yes” to the Holy Spirit.  We who have followed Jesus have also joined this new spiritual people.  Jesus wants it to be a community of love between one another just as the Father and He have always existed in a community of love between themselves and the Holy Spirit. 

We should not blame our lack of love for others on them.  Of course, we all have things that are hard to love, and we have things that are easy for us “to love.”  Our society has a sense of feeling good when helping others (the poor and powerless, etc.).  However, in our flesh, our target is not high enough.  Making yourself feel good is on the same level as drinking alcohol so that you can forget about your woes.  Jesus wasn’t making himself feel better when he loved us.  He was paying a price so that we could be set free from our sins.  His target was much higher than just his own human feelings.  This is why people can be so “loving” to one group but then spew vile hatred towards others.  Christians are not to be like this.  If someone spews hatred towards you, you are to love them as Jesus would love them.

Peter also brings up in verse 23 that they have been born again.  We should fervently love one another from a sincere heart because we have been born again.  We have been born from above, born of the Spirit of God, born of the will of the Father.  This spiritual life that has begun within us is working to express itself in our life through actions that are inspired by Jesus, by the Holy Spirit.

He goes on to point out that this new birth did not come from an imperishable seed.  This ties back to the phrase in verse 22, “in obedience to the Truth…”  Peter is helping them to see this metaphor that Jesus used in his parables in which the seed represents the Word of God, the Truth.

There are all kinds of seeds of “truth” in this world, but only the Word that comes from God the Father is “Truth.”  What word is planted in your heart and growing there?  The words of this world are all impotent and destined to fail, to perish.  However, the Word of God is imperishable.  Even when we ignore it, it accomplishes what it was sent to do.  Its living principle is not dependent upon us believing it.  Yet, we should believe it if we want to be on the good side of its potency.

This Word of the Lord is essentially the Gospel that they received.  Simultaneously, the Gospel, even all Scripture, is an analog of Jesus, the Son of the Most High, who is the Truth.  To obey the word of God (Scripture) is to obey the Word of God (Jesus Christ).  In fact, we can tie this back to prophecies in the Old Testament that refer to seed, but in this case, the seed is the offspring.  Genesis three promises that the Seed of the Woman would crush the serpent’s head.  Later in the same book, God promises that the Seed of Abraham would bring blessing to the whole world.  We also find the importance of the Seed of David that would eventually come forth to rule over Israel and the Nations.  In Jesus, this promised Offspring (the Anointed One) is also the One who is the Seed (Truth) of God.

Jesus is the Imperishable Seed.  If you believe on him, his imperishable nature will make you imperishable too!

Peter fills out what is meant by this imperishable seed by calling it the “living and enduring word of God.”  God’s Word is living versus dead.  It has life in and of itself because it comes from the Author of all life.  The words of men may make us feel alive, but they will not bear out in the end to be true life.

God’s Word is also enduring.  It remains, or stays, when all else fails and falls aside.  God’s Word remains as a stalwart signpost pointing back to Him, back to life, even as we stand on the cliffs of destruction.

This brings Peter to quote Isaiah 40:6,8. It emphasizes the contrast between humans, who are like grass, and the Word of the Lord, which endures forever!”  Sometimes in Scripture God emphasizes that the wicked are like grass (see Psalm 92:7).  They may look intimidating and substantial to us, but they are here today and gone tomorrow.  Theirs is temporary power, temporary success.  However, the grass imagery can also be applied to all humans (wicked or righteous).  Our time to impact this world is brief and short.  What we do is important, but we will also quickly be gone. 

This may sound cynical, but those who have placed their faith in the Word of the Lord, Jesus, will find that His enduring life is greater than our mortal, grass like nature.  Jesus will not leave us behind.  We have been born again by the Spirit of God because we have believed the Word-Become-Flesh that was sent by God the Father to us.  Though we are perishable in our flesh, the Word of the Lord will raise us up!  We will live because we are connected to the living Word of Life!

All of this is about loving one another.  It may feel like a worthless life, just loving other grass-people.  However, we can trust God and offer it up as an offering of worship unto Him.  We have truly born the grass image of Adam, but we shall also bear the image of Jesus, which is anything but grass!

Peter reminds them at the end of verse 25 that this is what they have received, the Living, Enduring Word of the Lord!  This really is the only thing we have to offer people.  My ideas, my thoughts, are here today and gone tomorrow.  But, when we proclaim the Word of the Lord to people, we give them something that will never fail them!  It is this Life of God that should drive our ability to fervently love one another from the heart as Jesus has commanded us.

Long for the pure milk of the word like newborn babies (v. 2:1-3)

A spiritual person needs to live upon spiritual food.  The Scriptures are our spiritual food because they speak of Christ and are from him.  To read and to embrace the Scriptures is to embrace Jesus Himself.  This spiritual food will enable them to grow.

Peter particularly speaks to them as newborn babies.  Many Gentiles were completely unfamiliar with the Word of God.  When they believed in Jesus, there were many things they did not understand and in fact were too hard for them to understand quickly.  Easier to understand things from God are like spiritual milk.  Newborns exist only on a diet of milk because their stomach is not able to digest more complex foods.

So, what are these easier to digest things of God’s Word?  In short, the Gospel itself is based upon an elementary understanding of God’s Word.  The Creator of humanity loves us.  Our sin has separated us from Him and brought about the pain and suffering we see.  He has sent Jesus to remove that separation and bring us back into a loving relationship with the Creator.  We need to share this good news with others.

Of course, there are things that are harder to digest, or understand.  In 1 Corinthians 3:1-3, Paul expected the Corinthians to be able to eat “solid food” by now.  Though Peter does not address solid food, we might ask ourselves this question.  How do spiritual babies get to a place where they can eat meat?  They do so through a steady diet of milk.  Peter is reminding them to desire the milk of the word, not so that they will remain in that state, but so that they will grow spiritually.  Believers are called to long, to yearn, for the pure milk of the word.

For what are we hungering?  A believer may start out hungering for the milk, but then other things that are not spiritual food draw our attention.  A new believer can become distracted by harder to digest truths that they are not ready to eat, but they can also become distracted by unspiritual food, the philosophies of this world etc. 

Here is another question.  Do adults still drink milk?  Of course, they do.  However, they will not be able to do adult work on a diet of milk.  As you grow spiritually, you are going to need to grow in understanding the Word of God.  This will take time, but it will also take intentionality and focus.  Make sure you are hungering for God’s Word at the appropriate level and not going after supplements that come from the devil, the world, and our flesh.

This spiritual growth is mentioned in verse 2 (“so that by it you may grow in respect to salvation”).  Babies take on the image of the ones by whom they were born.  We ought to take on the image of Jesus more and more.  We should be taking more and more possession of our soul as an inheritance given to us by God.  Our discipleship in this life is important, even though we have a greater inheritance in the age to come.

A person who is listening to the Word of God and being led by the Holy Spirit will grow in becoming more like Jesus.  This is not without difficulty and spiritual battle, but it is the work Christ is committed to doing within us.

Peter lists up front (vs. 1) some of the negative things that we need to battle against within our hearts.  These things not only get in the way of doing everything Peter has commanded so far, but they also get in the way of our desire for the Word of God.

We need to put aside all malice.  This is a general term for any ill-will (literally bad will) that we might have for others.

We need to put aside all deceit.  This is the type of activity that the devil employed against Eve in the garden.  Deceit has an ulterior motive underneath a nice-looking veneer.

We need to put aside hypocrisy, which is putting on an act rather than being sincere.

We need to put aside envy, which is often a source of hypocrisy and deceit.  We envy others when we desire what they have more than what God has for us.  There is nothing wrong in desiring something, but it becomes an idol when we sacrifice relationship with God in order to get it.

He ends with telling us to put aside all slander.  This word is more general than how we use it.  It simply means to speak evil of another person.

These are the things that we need to put aside or take off like filthy clothes.  We saw this language in our study of the Letter to the Colossian Church.  When these things fill our heart, we will not long for the word.  We need to take hold of them and expel them from our heart, but we also dare not let ourselves act upon their leading.

If my heart is not longing for the Word of God, then the response is to start cleaning while asking God for help.  None of us can do these things without the help of the Holy Spirit.

In verse three of chapter two, Peter says, “If you have tasted the kindness of the Lord.”  I don’t think Peter is questioning whether they have “tasted the kindness of the Lord.”  He knew that the Gospel had drawn them into putting their faith in Jesus.  They had even believed in the face of difficulty and persecution, which supports the reality of their faith.  Peter is actually reminding them or challenging them to remember.  Don’t let yourself be sidetracked from the original drawing to the Lord that you had.

To taste something requires you to take it into yourself.  It is one thing to know about apples, but it is quite another thing to eat one.  Taste is about intimate knowledge.  Of course, Peter is talking about spiritual things.  To taste the kindness of the Lord is to hear about it and then to take it into yourself by putting your faith in it, in Jesus.

The idea of tasting the nature of the Lord comes from Psalm 34:8. There, the psalmist refers to the “goodness of the Lord.”  When we trust the Lord, we will no longer only know about Him.   We will come to have the knowledge of experience.  Yes, there are bitter-sweet things that we experience in the Lord, but the Lord works them to the good for those who trust in Him!

God doesn’t just want us to know about Him.  He wants us to know the goodness, the kindness, that He desires to lavish upon us.  He wants us to experience His love by faith.

How does this relate to these mostly Gentile Christians?  God had cast off the Gentiles and handed them over to the false gods that they worshipped.  Yet, now, He was drawing them near to Him like children to a Heavenly Father.  We might accuse God of not being kind when He cast them off (us off), but then, we didn’t experience the wickedness and evil that was happening because of a rejection of His wisdom.

God is good even when He lets us go into the results of our choices.  Even in His judgment, He is bringing us to a place where repentance is possible.  His grace is without bounds, but it will not believe for us.  We must believe for ourselves.  The Word of God helps us to do this.

New Spiritual People 3 audio

The Word Became Flesh

John 1:1-5, 9-14. This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner during our Christmas Service, December 21, 2025.

We are pausing on our study of 1 Peter today in order to focus on the Incarnation of Jesus.  The Messiah would not just come to fix Israel, but he would also come to fix the Creation through a process of re-creation.  Matthew and Luke emphasize the human genealogy of Jesus.  However, John focuses on the fact that Jesus was an incarnation of the eternal Word of God that was revealed in the very first Word, “Let there be Light!”  The Word that brought forth all of creation in accordance with the will of the Father is the same Word that comes into the fallen world in order to bring about a re-creation.

This opening passage of John is intended to point us back to Genesis chapter one, helping us to understand the connection between Jesus and the Word of God.  The original creation is pictured as a world covered with darkness and water, i.e., not a good place for humans to live.  The destructive forces of sin brings us back to this state in a very real way.  We become stuck in darkness and the systems of our own making that are not good for us as humans.  At a particular point in time, however, God the Father sent the One True Light into the world so that we could see, believe, and be re-created.

Let’s look at our passage.

Jesus was the Word of God at creation (v. 1-5,14)

Jesus is the name that was given to a human who was unlike any other.  In some respects, this name only references the event in which the second person of the Godhead took on the additional nature of a human.  Yet, God had planned for this incarnation from the very beginning.  If Jesus is the Lamb, slain from the foundations of the earth (Revelation 13:8), then he was also incarnated from the foundations of the earth.  What I mean is that the Incarnation was the plan from the beginning.  The Father knew that it would become necessary.

Thus, there is nothing wrong with talking about Jesus being the Word of God back in Genesis one, as long as we don’t think of him as being a human being at that time.  Jesus is not a man who became God.  He is God who has become a unique man.  John is tying this back to the first light that came forth from the Word of God in the beginning.  He is showing us the backstory to the reality of who this Jesus truly was.

We should note the closeness of Jesus, the Word, to God in this section.  John uses four statements to reveal this.

1. The Word existed at the beginning of creation.
2. The Word was with (right up next to) God.  Before we go on, I would note that verse 18 refers to him being “in the bosom of the Father.  This pictures The Word, Jesus, within the embrace of the Father.  It is a picture of intimate relationship.
3. The Word was God.
4. The Word was in the beginning with God.

There is no clearer way to say that the Father and the eternal Son are both distinct and yet, one.  Like words that proceed from the inner part of a man, so the Son proceeds from the Father.

This passage is both mysterious and very clear.  The One True God has existed from before creation as a unity of plurality, a community of loving relationship.  God is not dependent upon creation, but He does desire relationship with it, with us.  He created this universe, and He can uncreate it.  He is the only uncreated thing that exists.

Genesis 1 pictures God creating through a series of commands, “Let there be light,” and so on.  By referring to Jesus as the Word of God, John shows us that there is a distinction of activity with God.  The Father wills and sends, but it is the Word, Jesus, who comes forth to do the will of the Father.  This makes Jesus the active agent of creation.  Verse 3 tells us that all things came into being through him.  To be clearer, apart from Jesus, the Word, “nothing came into being that has come into being.” This shuts down the argument that the Father must have created Jesus, or that a contradiction exists in which it looks like John says that the Word created the Father.  The Father and the Word are not a created being.  Rather, they are an eternal unity that existed before time itself was created.

Imagine a man walking on this earth knowing that everything on it owes its existence to him.  There are many powerful people on this planet who act like everyone owes their existence to them, but this is only true of Jesus.  All of creation owes its existence to Jesus, the Word of God.

We can also see the personhood of The Word in this passage.  John clearly sees the Word not as an impersonal force that comes from the Father, but as a person.  He refers to “the Word” as a means of helping us make the tie to Genesis chapter one.  Notice verse 14 expressly states that the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.  Even before this, the passage uses masculine personal pronouns of the Word (“through him,” “by him,” etc.).  This continues in the next verses as well.

He became a man to redeem and recreate humanity (v. 9-13)

The story of creation is not yet complete.  God has purpose and meaning for everything that exists, and humans are at the middle of that purpose.  Genesis chapter three shows how everything went sideways.  Mankind has lost its place and ability to image God the Father.  The Word become flesh, i.e., Jesus, came in order to redeem and re-create humanity.

Jesus pays the price to give us back what has been lost.  This has two stages to it.  Stage one involves us remaining mortal and learning to battle our sin, while growing in the ability to image God the Father within a fallen world.  Stage two comes into play when we inherit a new, immortal body and step into a restored Eden, a new heavens and a new earth.

As the True Light (v. 9), Jesus comes into the world to enlighten us just as we see in Genesis chapter one.  There are many forces from within humanity and from the fallen angels that promise to enlighten humanity.  The enlightenment of the 1600s forward projected the idea that there is no God and that the world around us can be disenchanted from such antiquated notions.  These are false lights that only mislead and bring humanity into greater and greater bondage, into blindness.  Only Jesus can truly enlighten us to our true purpose, which is to image God, and to the means by which all things can be fixed, which is to put your trust in him.  This world pretends like Jesus is a nice story but can’t really affect this world.  Jesus was sent to open our eyes to the reality of the Father’s love for us.

John tells us that the Word that had become flesh was not recognized and received for who he really is.  Verse 5 tells us that the light shined in the darkness but the darkness did not comprehend it.  The word translated “comprehend” also has the connotation of overcoming it.  When a person mentally grasps something, they comprehend it.  However, people often try to take hold of messaging and turn it to their own ends.  This is an overcoming and repackaging of Jesus, which John declares doesn’t work. 

We are all in the dark to the plans and purposes of God the Father without Jesus.  In him, we can step into the light and know the truth.

Verse 10 tells us that the world he made did not know him.  Verse 11 states that those who were his own did not receive him.  This is not just about Israel, although they are the initial example of this.  We become so blinded by the systems of this world that we cannot recognize the one who made us and gave us a purpose, meaning, value.  Thus, Jesus was treated as a common heretic by Jews and as a common rabble rouser by the Romans.  Yet, this was not the truth about who he was.

Verses 12 and 13 lay the path of redemption for humanity as a whole, but also for us as individuals.  We are to receive Jesus as sent by God to us.  We are to believe in His name.  That is, we are to live our life by faith in who He is.  We are not to trust in our genetics, our family wealth, our technology, and our ability to will things into being.  We are to embrace being spiritually reborn by the will of God the Father.

One day we will be also physically reborn by the will of God the Father, and through the Lord Jesus, King Messiah.  Do not lose heart.  Things are not falling apart.  God is simply birthing new children into the world, until the day that He brings this world into judgment.

May God strengthen your faith this year in the One who became human in order to save us from our ruined condition.  The world may not look like it is being redeemed by Jesus, but he is focused on our hearts first.  Fear not!  The day will come when Jesus will take up the thrones of this earth and bring all things into the glorious rule of the One True Light!

Word Became Flesh audio

The Perfect Son

Hebrews 1:1-3.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on Father's Day Sunday, June 15, 2025.

The relationship between father and son is a powerful one.  Every father was once a son, in the sense of being a child, but are generally still an “adult” son while raising their own son.  The child is destined to grow up and generally become a father too.  This cycle is not just powerful when a father is present and good.  It is powerful when a father is present, but uncaring for the child.  And, it is powerful when the father is absent.

It is not the kind of power that makes immediate and miraculous changes.  It is a powerful influence that builds up on itself over time.  That influence even carries a certain momentum to it when a kid becomes an adult and moves away.

An adult child goes through a transitional time.  They have been used to seeing their father through the immature eyes of a toddler, child, and then teenager.  As a adult, we gain an adult perspective of our father.

Let me say this to parents.  If you approach parenting with the goal of raising the perfect child, and  you are willing to do whatever it takes to make it happen, then may God help your child.  Nothing in our parenting and their child-life is going to be perfect.  However, God does His perfect work through our imperfection.  Of course, I am not saying it doesn’t matter what you do.  No, the biggest thing a child needs is God’s love expressed through their parents.

With that in mind, I would challenge us not to only think of this cycle as a process of physical and emotional maturation.  I believe that we are intended to see it as a shadow of God’s heart for humanity.

Let’s talk about one more thing before we look at our text.  In the story of the prodigal son (Luke 15), we can see different types that sons often fall into.  There is the Golden Son who takes on responsibility at a young age and works closely with their father.  We also see the Prodigal Son, or Black Sheep.  This is the troubled son who turns from responsibility and is lost no matter where he goes.  Yet, as the story progresses, we can recognize that neither of these sons were perfect sons.  In fact, they were both prodigals in different ways.  The elder son was close to his father, but his heart was not like his fathers.  For all of his appearance, he had so far wasted the opportunity to take on his father’s heart, to become like his father internally as well as externally.

Of course, no sons are perfect.  This is because only Jesus is the perfect son.  However, in Jesus, imperfect sons and imperfect fathers can become adult children of God who are perfected before Him.

Let’s look at our passage.

God is speaking to us through Jesus.  Who is He?

Many powerful things are packed into these three verses, but the overall point is the comparison of Jesus to all those prophets who came before him.  When it comes to knowing God, He must reveal Himself if it is going to happen.  Yet, the Bible is proof that God is a revealing God.  Francis Schaeffer made the great points that “God is here, and He is not silent.”  He may not be revealing new doctrines, but He is still helping us to understand what has been written down in Scripture.

Up until Jesus, God had spoken through prophets who were imperfect men, though they were loyal to God and sought to live righteously.  Still, they were all imperfect in imaging Father God to their people.  Before we turn to Jesus, we should recognize that God has always used imperfect people to impact the life of other imperfect people for His perfect purpose in their lives.  This is true whether we are talking about the prophets of the past, or about human fathers trying to raise a son.  We are given the job of imaging God’s love to our kids, to our world, and none of us do this perfectly.

This brings us to Jesus.  This passage has two aspects to it.  We will look first at just who Jesus was, is.  Essentially, he is the perfect revelation (imager) of God the Father.  There is no discrepancy between what we see in Jesus and the heart of God the Father.

In fact, by sending imperfect imagers and then a perfect one, God has hemmed us in.  We can’t complain that the prophets were not a good enough image, nor can we complain that Jesus was too perfect.  “I just can’t relate with his perfection.”  Thus, Jesus is the perfect image of the heart of the Father, both how He feels and what He desires (of us and for us).

This reiterates what I was saying earlier.  The prophets did not have to be perfect to affect God’s perfect work in the world, and neither do parents.  Still, we don’t use that as an excuse.  This is a serious task for God, and it has eternal consequences.

So, Jesus is God’s perfect word to humanity.  What else is he?  Jesus is the Son.  This is not a statement about how he came into being, but about his status among humanity.  It is a title that is found in the Old Testament, particularly in the prophecies to David about one of his descendants (2 Samuel 7), and in the prophecies of Isaiah.  It became equivalent to the Anointed One of God (Messiah or Christ).

Jesus is the perfect son of David who was a Son of God.  All the sons of David had failed and the monarchy had been broken for over 5 centuries.  When Jesus came forth, there was an expectation that he would restore the monarchy and deliver Israel from the Romans.  However, he came to save them from their sins (and us from ours).  Our moral failings had separated us from God, but through Jesus, we can be brought close to Him.

In fact, we are told in Romans 3:23 that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”  Yet, we can be justified freely by His  grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.

Jesus is also the Heir of all things.  We see this in verse 2.  In Scripture, Jesus is the only One who perfectly stood against the lies of the devil and lived out loyal love towards God the Father.  The failure of Adam and Eve had brought the dominion of humans over the earth in jeopardy.  Through our sins, the devil was able to exercise his dominion over the earth.  The Garden of Eden was a test of loyalty more than it was a test of knowledge.  Humans were not created with omniscience- neither were the angels by the way.  Jesus came forth as the Worthy One who can take up the dominion over the earth.  He inherits it.  Of course, he could keep it all to himself, but in his mercy, he shares it with those who come into a loving loyal relationship with him.

Of course, our enemy tries to get in our heads and use our unworthiness to sidetrack us, or derail us.  Yet, Jesus didn’t come to take the prize away from us.  He came to save us from our lost and plundered state.  This world belongs to Jesus just as much as your life belongs to him. 

The writer goes on to mention that God made the world through Jesus.  He is the creative agent of creation.  In case this verse isn’t clear enough for you, the Apostle John makes is abundantly clear in his Gospel, chapter 1 verse 3.  “All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.”  This shuts down the idea that Jesus is also a created being.  Of course, the body he used in the first century was created within time.  However, he has existed from eternity past as the Word of God.  Thus, John is interpreting Genesis chapter 1 in John chapter 1.  He is showing us that God the Father spoke, “Let there be light,” and the Word of god (the eternal Son of God) went forth and brought it into being.  Everything that is in the class of created things was made through the Word of God (who would later be called Jesus in his incarnation).    Thus, it is illogical to say that he is also a part of the created class.

Some people are confused by the phrase in Colossians 1:15 that calls Jesus the “Firstborn over all creation.”  Just like the term “Son,” the term “Firstborn” was often used of kings to refer to a status.  It was common in the ancient near east for emperors to refer to kings that had sworn fealty to them (often after being defeated in battle) as “sons.”  Similarly, the emperors would refer to a particular king as their firstborn.  This wasn’t a reference of their biology and birth order.  It was a reference to their status within the Kingdom.  They were the one who would inherit it all, and had a double-portion over all the others.

Think of it.  Everything that we see on this planet and throughout the cosmos is the perfect work of a perfect Son doing the will of a perfect Father.  Any imperfections have come about by the activity of other agents, whether fallen angels or fallen humans.

This is who hung on the cross for us.  God’s wasn’t suffering only in Jesus, and only while he was on the cross.  First, we see Jesus suffering through many things leading up to the cross, both physical pain and the emotional pain of rejection and persecution.  Yet, Jesus is only revealing to us that the heart of the Father has been suffering all along.

Of course, we can pretend like it was easy for him because he was God.  We can think that it is no big deal for God to suffer because He can handle it.  Perhaps, you are thinking about it backwards.  It is most likely that God’s suffering is far more acute because of being God.  Nothing is hidden from Him.  Whereas, we humans are limited creatures, and therefore, our suffering is limited.  Just as we cannot handle the full glory of God without being undone, we cannot handle the full suffering of God.  It would destroy us.

Verse three gives us two phrases that point to Jesus as the perfect imager of God the Father.  This is another way to see the failure of Adam and Even in the Garden.  They failed to image God even though He had made them in His image and likeness.  As descendants of Adam and Eve, we all fail in our imaging of God.  However, in Christ, we are being redeemed back to a perfect image of God.

Of course, you are not perfect yet.  Only Jesus is the radiance of God’s glory.  A good picture of what this means is the sun.  It glory projects forth in an electromagnetic sea of wavelengths and particles.  Jesus isn’t just mimicking God.  He comes forth from God very nature.  Just as Jesus healed people, taught people, and loved people, so he is showing us that God is a healer, a teacher, and the One who loves us.

At the cross, Jesus isn’t just revealing what God would do.  No, the Father already had a crucified heart back at Creation.  He had counted the cost, and He had agreed to pay the price.   It is the very nature of God to suffer with our sin for long periods of time.  He is slow to anger and willing to take our pain upon Himself in order to redeem us.  When Jesus says, “Father, forgive them.  They don’t know what they are doing,” he is revealing the very desire and purpose of God.  It is exactly what He wanted to do, and the cross was the mechanism for rectifying, justifying, that very act!

The second way that this is pointed out is in the phrase “exact representation of God’s nature.”  To see Jesus is to see the very nature of God.

Next, we are told in verse three that Jesus upholds all things by the word of his power.  Everything would fall without him.  This is similar to the phrase in Colossians 1:17.  There it says that in Him all things hold together.  He holds it up and holds it together.  He is the very power that holds the universe in a unified system doing the will of God.

Think about that when he is hanging on the cross, being kissed by a betrayer, and having a high priest cry out, “Blasphemy!” while tearing his robe.  He held the world together that day just so we could spit in his face. 

Welcome to fatherhood.  You are called to be the adult.  But even better, you are called to be the reflection of our heavenly Father, to take on suffering for the good of those who will die if you don’t do it, to do it because you love them!

Jesus is also the one who made purification for sins. He was not just showing us God’s heart for us in the sense of only giving us an example.  He truly was making a way for our sins to be covered and the guilt of it to be removed from us (purified).  This is the foundation of the Father’s ability to allow those who have sinned to become Children of god, dwelling with Him forever, and inheriting that for which we are disqualified.  Jesus paid the price for our redemption.  He lays his perfect life down so that we can no longer be disqualified from our inheritance.

Finally, Jesus is the one who sits at the right hand of the Father.  This too speaks to status.  He is in a position to exercise the authority and power of the Father.  He is there in order to give humanity time to respond to the Gospel of peace.  Through us, God is offering terms of peace to His enemies.  Of course, this puts the ball in their (our) court.  What will we do?  How will we choose?

God is speaking to us through Jesus.  What is His message?

So far, we have focused on who Jesus is, but the whole point of these verses is that God has spoken to us through Jesus.  The message of Jesus is the message of the Father.  This is what Jesus was talking about in John 7:16-17 and 12:29.  He was not teaching his own things.  He was teaching what the Father had sent him to teach.  The same is true of the deeds and miracles that he did.

So, what was Jesus saying, and therefore, what was the Father saying?

First, He is telling us, “I haven’t abandoned you.”  Israel’s problem was never that God was taking too long.  It was always that they were tone deaf to the message He was giving them.  The problem wasn’t Gentile powers, Serpents in the Garden, or giants.  The problem was always their inability to trust God, and the sin that resulted from it.  Sin always leads to separation from God and the good that He intends for us.  The separation is not just God turning from us because it starts with us turning from Him.

Yet, God does not and has not abandoned us.  It can feel like it.  Adam and Even were kicked out of the Garden.  Yet, they were also given a promise.  God was saying to them, “Will you trust Me now?”  When the people at the Tower of Babel were disowned by God and handed over to the Spirit-beings that they were seeking, it could feel like God had abandoned them.  Yet, His call of Abraham was all about blessing the nations.  God gives a promise through Abraham that would impact the whole world.

In Christ, a remnant of Israel was raised up, filled with the Spirit of God, and sent out to the nations with a message of peace. 

In the midst of a world that is full of the pain of sin, both our own sin and that of others, it is easy to think that God has abandoned us.  We want God to keep the pain from ever touching us, but sin is pain.  Instead, God joins us in the pain and suffering and gives that suffering meaning and purpose.  Our suffering can be redeemed and become a trophy of God’s saving power.  But, it can also be a strengthening in a person’s life.  They can become a warrior to help and to fight for the souls of others who are suffering.

A second part of what God is saying is this.  “I have paid the price to redeem you.”  The love of God is not just about good feelings and warm thoughts toward us.  It is about dealing with the unsolvable predicament that we have created with our own sin.  No amount of good works can make up for past sin.  Yet, in Jesus, God has stepped in and paid the price for your spiritual and physical freedom. 

Lastly, God is saying, “If you trust Me, I will help you overcome all that stands in your way so that you can sit with Me on My throne!”

In Jesus, it doesn’t matter what has happened to us.  No matter how painful, or how much failure we have done, He will help us to overcome it!

There have always been horrible things in this world since the Fall.  Yet, instead of them destroying you, God will destroy its destroying effects through your faith in Jesus.  What the devil, the world, or any individual, intends for evil in our life, God will turn it to the good if we will only trust Him.

The cross speaks a powerful word about the faithfulness of God in the face of “losing it all.”  If we listen to Him, though it leads to a cross, He will raise us up to sit with Him and inherit all things.

This is what Paul means when he talks about us being seated with Jesus in the heavenly places.  We are not physically there now, but it becomes our status when we put our faith in him.  He will help us to overcome all that stands in our way. 

We may be frustrated today as imperfect dads pointing imperfect kids to a perfect Son who images a perfect Father.  Yet, this is God’s perfect work in us!  He is not removing us from the problem, but rather, He is spotting us through the heavy lifting and bringing us into a glorious future.

Perfect Son audio

The Kingdom of God- 4

Subtitle:  Living in the Kingdom of God

Various passages.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on April 6, 2025.

We have talked about the means of entering the Kingdom.  We do so by putting our faith and trust in Jesus.  We trust in who he is as the Lord and Savior.  It is he who has taken our sins upon himself so that we can be free from them.  He is giving us a taste of eternal life through the Holy Spirit, and will raise us up in the Resurrection of the Righteous in order to make us a completed testimony of His eternal life.

We are citizens of this strange, spiritual kingdom, that is very much unlike any other kingdom on this earth.  Today, we will look at what it means, what it looks like, to living in this spiritual kingdom.

Let’s look at some passages.

The Holy Spirit gives us life (Romans 8:11-14)

In this chapter, Paul is describing how our spiritual life is a result of the work of the Holy Spirit.  Verse 14 lays out the reality that we can only become the sons of God through the help of the Holy Spirit.  This is part of the life giving work of God’s Spirit.

He first leads us to see who Jesus is and our need to trust in him for salvation.  When a person responds with faith in Jesus, the Holy Spirit does a real work of making us spiritually alive.  Thus, the Spirit works to put the life of Christ in front of us, and He does a spiritual work of making us a new creation, born from above.

This is foundational to our new life in this new kingdom.  I can know for certain, I can have faith in the fact, that the Spirit of God is giving me life, and will continue to supply spiritual life to me.  No newborn baby brings themselves into existence.  God is the One who makes us spiritually alive.  However, in the case of spiritual birth, there is a cooperation between God and the one becoming a spiritual newborn.  Thus, by our faith in Jesus, God gives us spiritual life.  Also, by our continued faith in Jesus, the Spirit continues to lead us in this new spiritual life.  Over time, this spiritual nourishment causes us to become more and more spiritually mature.

This is what Paul is talking about in verse 12.  He uses the idea of a debt on the heels of all the life that the Spirit of God is giving us.  The Spirit has brought us to Jesus, made us spiritually alive, and continues to nourish us with spiritual life daily.  We are in debt to this great act of love. 

On the other hand, some people live as if they are in debt to their flesh.  What has the flesh ever done for us?  The flesh drew us into sin and bondage.  It makes us guilty before God and without any power to save ourselves.    A Christian knows that the gracious work of God’s Spirit is giving us life over the top of a life of the flesh that only brought death into our lives.

Now, this is not a debt in the sense that we need to pay it off in order to come into the Kingdom, etc.  Rather, Christ died for us so that we might live.  We owe him our lives, so we live life for his purposes.  The Holy Spirit supplies that spiritual nourishment for us to do this work and become more like Jesus, a maturing process.  This is a debt of love that is never intended to be “paid off.”  He first loved us.  We will never fully reciprocate that love.  Yet, He still loves us!

Paul’s point is that a Christian should no longer live in order to satisfy the lusts of their flesh.  This self-focused life is a part of our old life before Christ.  We are to put those lusts to death, and choose to follow the leading of the Holy Spirit.  We are led by the Holy Spirit in putting our fleshly desires, and the deeds that flow out of them, to death and replacing them with life-giving righteousness.

If you pay attention to the argument throughout the chapter, you will see that Paul has more in mind in verse 11 than spiritual birth and spiritual maturity.  He is looking ahead to a point in the future when Jesus Christ will resurrect the righteous by that same Spirit that raised him from the dead.  Paul is reminding us that this is a real spiritual work that impacts not only how we live today, but also our eternal future.  Our Christian life on this mortal plane will some day come to an end in death.  Our bodies will be laid in the grave, but our spirits will go to be with Jesus in heaven.  There we will await the day of resurrection.  When that occurs, we will receive a glorified body that does not grow old and die.  We will be immortal as Jesus is.  This is pictured as an inheritance that has been reserved for us by God.

Think of it.  If the same Spirit that raised Christ from the dead dwells in you, then you have nothing to worry about.  The Spirit is our source of life, even if our mortal bodies die.  We will live eternally in perfect fellowship with God.  We have fellowship now, but it is not perfect yet.  When we step into the eternal state, we will not have to take God by faith.  Instead, we will dwell with Him within His blazing glory and immediate presence.

Notice that Paul is using battle imagery here.  We do not fight against people and put human enemies to death.  Rather, we battle against our fleshly lusts, which are easily stirred up by this world and wicked spiritual forces.  Even bringing the Gospel to others can be seen as setting captives free from slavery in a wicked kingdom.

This may feel like a hopeless battle, but we are not doing this alone.  The more I learn to rely upon the Holy Spirit’s help, the better I will do at removing sin and replacing it with the righteousness of Jesus.

Our heart is like a garden.  In this mortal life, we will always have to weed out these lusts. We would like to believe that we could weed the garden of our heart so well that we never had a stray thought or desire ever again.  This is not the case.  You will not be perfect and complete like that until the resurrection.  Yet, we should take heart.  The task of putting our lusts to death becomes easier with daily focus.  Once a garden has been weeded, it requires much less energy if we check it every day.  However, if you “take a break from weeding,” or only periodically have a fit of weeding, you can expect that it will be spiritually taxing all of the time. 

Matthew 7:24-25.  At the end of the sermon on the mount (Matthew 5-7), Jesus gave us a different image of this same thing.  Our life is pictured as the building of a house.  If we build our life by trusting in the teaching of Jesus, then our house, our life, will withstand the coming storm.  However, if we do not build our life upon the teachings of Jesus, then our house will be destroyed by the coming storm.

The storm can be applied to the difficulties of this life.  The cares and difficulties of life can test our faithfulness to the teachings of Jesus.  They come along and test just how well we have been building.  Yet, I do believe that Jesus has a different storm in mind.  He is speaking of the time of judgment after this life is done.  We will stand before God.  This is the ultimate test of whether our house will stand or not.  My house is all of the ways that I have lived and the reasons for why I have done what I have done.  Only those who have truly listened to Jesus will survive it.  Of course, none of us do it perfectly.  Jesus is not talking about a person who never made a mistake.  In fact, building can sometimes be analogous to warfare.  You wrestle with the imperfection of the building materials in order to get things in a good relationship to one another.  A perfect house that has no imperfections, subtle or otherwise, doesn’t exist.  However, many good houses do exist.  No matter how beautiful the house, if it is not built upon the foundation of the teachings of Jesus, it will not survive the Judgment.  These two images of a spiritual battle and a spiritual building are both important and simply two different ways of looking at the same thing.

A disciple of Christ is devoted to Jesus

As a disciple of Jesus, we need to stay close to the master so that we can learn from him.  A disciple is devoted to the master and his wisdom, his way of life.

A disciple will be a student of the Bible.  In 2 Timothy 3:14-17, Paul encourages Timothy in the work ahead of him.  He speaks of the “sacred writings” that Timothy had known from his youth.  In verse 16, he refers to these sacred writings as the Scriptures.  Of course, Paul is talking about the Old Testament (note: the New Testament was being written at that time).  The same is true of the New Testament, but let’s put that point aside.

Paul wants Timothy to remember that the Bible is given to us to do several things in our life.  He first points to the teaching we receive through the Bible.  The disciples of the days of Jesus were taught directly by him.  Each day, he would take time to teach them his way of living versus the way they had been living on their own.  We do not have the luxury of this same relationship.  Of course, Jesus teaches us through the Holy Spirit, but he is not physically in our lives.  Thus, the Word of God becomes even more critical for us.  The Bible is a confirmed and sure teaching from God through Jesus and his apostles.  We don’t have to guess at how to live for Jesus.  We can read it and obey.

All Christians should make sure that they are reading the Bible each day.  The Spirit of God will help it to be profitable to us spiritually.  It teaches us those things that we don’t know.  Not all of us were like Timothy, being taught the Bible by a mom when we were young.  It will take time to learn what Christ wants us to learn.  However, a little each day will slowly build up over time.  We will not just grow in what we understand, but then the Holy Spirit will teach us how to live those things out in our life.

The Bible is also profitable for reproving us.  This is the idea of convincing us, or proving something to us.  This is a natural part of all learning.  It is not enough to be able to regurgitate an answer on a paper test.  We have to be convinced of the truth, the wisdom, of Christ in order to live life as he commands.

The Bible is also good for correction.  It can correct bad ideas, poor choices, and bad habits that we have built up through the years.

Lastly, Paul mentions that it is profitable for training in righteousness.  There are two ditches that Christians can fall into in this area of righteousness.  We can make the mistake of thinking that our salvation and hope is based upon how well we live righteously.  We can focus on lists of things that we can’t do and things we can do.  The emphasis is that it is all on me.  The other mistake is the opposite.  This view basically surrenders to the point that we cannot be righteous like Jesus.  Jesus died on the cross to be my righteousness.  Therefore, I shouldn’t diminish his perfect work by trying to do righteousness myself. 

This sounds better and sees everything resting upon Jesus.  However, it misses one thing: the purpose of God.  God did not set us free from our sins so that we could just go on sinning, but now without consequences (tongue-in-cheek “Praise the Lord!).  Yes, only the righteousness of Jesus can pay the price of our sins and save us.  Yet, God saved us in order for us to be trained in the righteousness of Jesus.  Training involves a lot of messing up, but also, getting up and going back into the battle of learning.

Some people shy away from this out of a strange sense of trying not to diminish God.  They are stuck in seeing all righteousness about being saved.  However, once we have been made alive in Jesus, we can now follow the Spirit as He leads us to do the righteousness of Christ.

Why do Christians do the things they do?  If we are simply doing good things so that our Christian friends will remark how much like Jesus we are (for social image), then we are only trying to live a Christian life from the leading of our flesh.   Getting our name on a building and feeling good about ourselves around other Christians are not the “good works” for which the Holy Spirit is equipping us.  A true disciple of Christ does what they do because the Spirit of God is prompting them as they read the Word and in other ways that we will see.  They are being led by the Spirit out of love for Christ.  This is what makes their works acceptable to God.

A disciple of Christ is devoted to the teachings of Jesus and his apostles.  This is given to us in the Bible.  Thus, the Bible can be seen as our textbook, and life can be seen as our homework.  Yet, there is another area that is important for a disciple.

A disciple will be a person of prayer.  Philippians 4:6-7 points to the importance of prayer for the disciple.  Prayer is communication with God.  It may seem strange at first because God is Spirit and speaks to us in ways different than we have experienced.  In truth, we should prayerfully read the Word of God.  It is a spiritual book breathed forth by God through faithful men.  We should not think that we can understand it without God’s help.  “Lord, help me to hear what you are saying to me today.  Lead me; guide me, and help me to live for you!  Give me some homework today so that I know what I should be working on.”  This is how we should approach the Bible.

That said, a disciple of Jesus needs to set aside time to pray.  There are different kinds of prayer.  This passage really focuses on 2.  An acronym that is used for types of prayer is ACTS:  prayers of Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, and Supplication (Petitions). 

Paul is focusing on the anxiety that believers can have in this life.  He points to our ability to request, or petition, God for the things we need, or at least, we think we need.  The believer who lays such requests before God should also do so with a heart of Thanksgiving.  Paul sees this as a great source of peace for the believer.

Requests by their very nature can easily deteriorate into whining and complaining.  We can grow angry with God when He doesn’t do exactly what we want, or even does the opposite.  This is why Thanksgiving is so important, as well as prayers of adoration and confession.  These kind of prayers keep us grounded in the truth of who we are when we approach God to ask Him for something.  In the end, we are the recipients of His great love.  Before you ask God for anything, make sure that you take time to thank Him for all that you have.  In fact, a thankful heart never treats a request as a means for God to prove His loyalty and love.  Jesus proved the heart of the Father at the cross.  Prayers of Thanksgiving ground our requests in the goodness and faithfulness of God.  Like a child, we can ask our heavenly Father.  Yet, we can also rest in the knowledge that that request will be filtered through His love and wisdom.

Intercession is prayer for someone else.  This too is the kind of prayer that helps ground requests to ourselves in something other than fleshly desires.  As we pray for others, we also see ourselves in them.  We recognize why God may say no to us at times.  He might even say yes, but not now.  Regardless, it is ours to make our request known, and then to rest in the peace that His Holy Spirit wants to give to us.  This peace will guard our hearts and minds from the thoughts and fears that we can have.  Thoughts and fears like Eve had when she listened to the serpent.  “God doesn’t really care about you.  He only wants to hold you back from something good.”  This is a lie that the serpent spun for our first parents, and he is still spinning that yarn to this day.  Have you ever believed it?

Prayer is the ground where we humble ourselves and talk with God.  No one prayer time will fix all our questions and problems.  It is a daily and lifelong communion with Him that will only be perfected as we go into eternity.  If we don’t spend time touching base with the master, then we will not become more like him.  Thus, it is not enough to read about Jesus.  We need to spend time in prayer talking with him.

A disciple will take their place in the family of God.  In Hebrew 10:24-25, the writer tells believers not to forsake the assembling together.  He even points out that some people in those days were doing exactly that.  They became believers, joined the Church for a season and then, they walked away.

This can be for various reasons.  Some people are walking away from Jesus, and so, walking away from the his Church is the natural second action.  Others convince themselves that they still believe in Jesus, but they think they don’t need other believers.  Perhaps, someone said something that hurt them.  Or, maybe, they are just reclusive.  The writer of Hebrews tells us that part of being together is to “stimulate one another to love and good deeds.”  We should be prayerfully considering how we can encourage other believers, and they should be prayerfully considering how to encourage me. 

This is what the Holy Spirit is leading you to do.  Thus, a person who walks away from a body of believers is refusing the leading of the Spirit.  Of course, there are some churches that you may need to flee.  They are a cult or have allowed the flesh to corrupt the leadership and activity of the church.  Regardless, we need to go somewhere.  You can say that you can’t find a place, but that is usually a cop-out.  The Holy Spirit will lead you somewhere, and that somewhere will not be a place peopled by perfect Christians who never make a mistake.

Why will you not step up and let the Lord work through those relationships to make you more like Jesus and to make them more like Jesus?  The answer is in our flesh.  The solution is in dying to the desires of our flesh and saying yes to the desires of Jesus.

The Church is like a family, a family of God.  We have to learn how to say that we are sorry.  We have to learn how to say that we forgive.  This is not easy, and we can be stubborn.  Yet, may God help us to become quicker and quicker at yielding to the teachings of Jesus.  There is life in it.

When we humble ourselves through prayer, we may with frustration say that we don’t see what God sees in those other people.  However, the Holy Spirit will remind us that we also don’t see what God saw in us.

When we give mercy to others (even undeservedly), we are actually making the case for why others should have mercy on us.  If you don’t have mercy on others, do not think that you will receive mercy from God when you stand before Him on Judgment Day.

All of this to say that a true disciple will learn to take their place in the body of Christ.  They will learn to receive and give stimulus that leads us all to love others and to do the good works that God has for us to do.

Of course, this is a hard thing to do.  It can be intimidating and uncomfortable.  We may even fear doing it.  However, this is God’s signature.  You were made to be able to do things far beyond your comfort level.  Every little boy who thinks about growing up and working 40 to 60 hours a week can balk at growing up.  Every teenage girl who thinks about giving birth to a baby and raising a child can be intimidated at the thought.  However, God made little boys and little girls to grow up into men and women.  It may be scary, but there is a greater good in it that we can’t understand until we’ve done it.

In the end, it is the same as our salvation.  A disciple who has faith in Jesus will trust that Jesus will help them to join other Christians and live for him.  Somehow and someway, we can become family by the help of God’s Holy Spirit.

These are not the only ways to show our devotion to Jesus.  However, they are very important things that we need to embrace by the Spirit’s help.  May God help us to be devoted followers of Jesus!

Kingdom of God 4 audio