Welcome back to
Books of the Book.
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When we left off, Mark, we
were talking about how Judas was
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replaced there in the early
church. But these uneducated
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apostles who in many ways
were not quite as polished and
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perhaps not as eloquent as Judas
continued on. You know, Jesus
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handpicked those apostles and
so we have to think that he knew
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what he was doing. And as we
look at his own experience we
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see something very similar.
Maybe you can start us off
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with that. Well
yeah absolutely. In the
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gospel of John chapter 7
we're going to look at verse 15.
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We'll find that in the ministry
of Jesus, Jesus also was accused
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of being uneducated and kind
of marginalized for that reason.
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In John 7:15 after some of
Christ's teaching the Bible
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says: And the Jews marveled
saying how does this man know
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letters having never studied?
In other words, he never went to
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our school. How does this guy
know anything. It's interesting
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when you look at Jesus' response
Verse 16: Jesus answered them
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and said my doctrine (or my
teaching) is not mine but his
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who sent me and if anyone wills
to do his will he shall know
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concerning the doctrine whether
it is from God or whether I
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speak on my own authority. So
what Jesus does here is he says
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in essence it doesn't matter
whether I went to your schools
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of learning or not. My doctrine
isn't from me, it's from my
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Father and anyone who wills to
know him and do his will, will
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have an understanding that is
unlike the understanding of this
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world. It's
almost as if he's saying
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you know there's a tendency to
make people feel like they can't
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be a part of the mission of
Christ but he's saying anyone
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who's willing, anyone who's
willing to follow me to do my
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will, they will know because my
Father will reveal it to them.
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That's powerful. You know that
makes me think of the apostle
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Paul. Because the apostle Paul
was very different from these
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fishermen that we look at here
in Acts chapter 1. I'd like to
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look at his own description
of his background in Philippians
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chapter 3. If you look at
Philippians 3 beginning in verse
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3, he says: For we are the
circumcision who worship God
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in the Spirit, rejoice in Christ
Jesus and have no confidence in
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the flesh though I also might
have confidence in the flesh.
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So Paul says I could have
confidence in my background, in
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my credentials. He goes on
to list them out: If anyone else
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thinks he may have confidence in
the flesh I more so. Circumcised
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the eighth day, of the stock of
Israel of the tribe of Benjamin,
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a Hebrew of the Hebrews,
concerning the law a Pharisee,
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(that was of the highest
order or the highest education)
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concerning zeal persecuting
the church, concerning the
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righteousness which is in
the law blameless. Now verse 7:
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But what things were gain to me,
these I have counted loss for
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Christ, yet indeed I also
count all things loss for the
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excellence of the knowledge of
Christ Jesus my Lord for whom I
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have suffered the loss of all
things and count them as rubbish
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that I may gain Christ and be
found in him. And then he speaks
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of not having his own
righteousness but that which
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comes from Christ. So here
he describes his own wonderful
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credentials which truthfully
were very helpful to him in
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his ministry. I mean, if we
were to really look at it, we
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wouldn't see such
clear, distinct explanations,
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expositions, of the gospel as we
see in the letters of Paul if he
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didn't have that type of
education and background.
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But what he's saying is that
when it comes right down to it
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that is not what qualified him.
What made his ministry powerful
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and effective and what he would
give the world for and count
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everything else loss to have is
the excellence of the knowledge
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of Christ Jesus his Lord.
Simply having that close abiding
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relationship with Christ
where he could receive fresh
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revelations from the Father was
qualification enough for him.
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The thing that I fear, Jim, is
that some people have a concern
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today that they are not going
to be able to be witnesses for
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Christ because they don't
have all of these credentials.
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Now Paul didn't negate his
credentials but he saw where
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his credentials had to him been
a source of pride and his pride
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then became a reason for him
to distrust the simple truth.
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What it makes me think of is
something that really alarms me
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today in Christianity in some
ways we're returning to the dark
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ages in our relation to
scripture and this is what I
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mean. In the dark ages, the
common man wasn't allowed to
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have his own copy or her own
copy of the Bible because the
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medieval church was concerned
that if you had your own copy of
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scripture and you didn't have
the priest to guide you in your
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understanding you couldn't get
it right and that was not the
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position of the Protestant
reformers who like John Wycliffe
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had said, it wasn't Wycliffe,
it was William Tyndale who said
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to those leaders, I'm going to
make it so that a boy who drives
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the plow knows more of
the scriptures than you do.
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And that's exactly what he
did by putting the Bible in the
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hands of the common people and
you saw that explosion of the
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reformation. But what's
happened in our day is that many
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Christians are falling into
that same mode, not because they
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don't have the Bible; they have
many copies of the Bible. But
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when push comes to shove they
back off and they say well I
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don't really know. I'm not sure
about this. I have to go ask
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somebody who's got a degree.
I got to ask somebody who is
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educated in the languages of
the Bible. There's this mind set
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that I need this certain human
qualification so that I will be
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able to understand. It goes back
to what Jesus had said there in
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John 7. If any man wills to
do his will he'll know of the
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doctrine. We need to understand
that the understanding of
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scripture comes from the Lord.
I think of the same apostle Paul
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in 1 Corinthians chapter 1 and
in verse 26 he says: For you see
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your calling brethren, that not
many wise according to the flesh
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not many mighty, not many noble,
are called but God has chosen
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the foolish things of the world
to put to shame the wise and
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God has chosen the weak things
of the world to put to shame the
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things which are mighty and the
base things of the world and the
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things which are despised God
has chosen and the things which
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are not to bring to nothing the
things that are that no flesh
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should glory in his presence.
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You know I hear him saying
not many wise according to this
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world and it makes me think.
You know sometimes when we start
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to know something and feel that
we know something we can get too
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smart for our own good. I know
in my own marriage I had that
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happen every now and then where
it's hard when you think that
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you're right and you
start getting confident about
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something to yield that. And the
more we feel that we need some
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special qualification the
more it can put us into a box
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sometimes. I think of Jesus who
said, You know you can't take
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new wine and put it into
old wine skins and we have to be
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careful that we don't have a
certain mindset that prevents
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us from learning. I love how the
apostle Paul says it. He says
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I think it's 1 Corinthians 8
verses 1 and 2 where he talks
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about if anything think that he
knows anything he knows nothing
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yet as he ought to know it.
And whether we're educated or
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uneducated or whoever we are
we need that attitude. That's
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the only attitude that will make
us open to the Spirit of God.
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That's right. It's interesting
you brought this situation up
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with your wife and whether it's
husbands and wives or whatever
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situation we find ourselves
in where we want to maintain our
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rightness, it's interesting
how in many situations like that
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we don't base our rightness on
the logic of our argument or the
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reasonableness of what our
position is but on who I am or
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what my qualifications are. You
know this is it. Hey, I've got
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a PhD or hey I've got a this
or that or hey I've been here or
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there and we tend to fall back
too often on the flesh and we
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glory in the flesh, our own
credentials, instead of looking
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to bring glory to God and
glorify him and stand on his
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truth. You know,
when I was looking
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here in the book of Acts in this
first chapter you see Judas and
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he's replaced. That's
right. Let another take
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his office. It just
helps to remind us that
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none of us in the work of God
is irreplaceable. But as we're
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talking about qualifications and
the tendency that we see today
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I think that really the heart of
this for especially our viewers
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is that sometimes when we don't
have a wealth of experience or
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knowledge we shrink from
the task of being witnesses for
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Christ and what we see here in
the book of Acts is that these
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were normal people who from time
with Jesus they learned what it
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took to be witnesses and it
doesn't require a PhD for our
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viewers to witness for Christ.
They don't need to even have
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a mastery of the original
languages of scripture to be
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able to share the message that
has gripped their soul and won
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them to the Lord Jesus.
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By definition a witness is not
somebody who has such and such
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credentials. A
witness is somebody who has
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experienced something, who
has seen and heard. If you look
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right where we left off in verse
20 of Acts chapter 1 in verse 21
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they're talking about replacing
Judas and it says: Therefore
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of these men who have
accompanied us all the
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time that the Lord Jesus went in
and out among us beginning from
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the baptism of John to that
day when he was taken up from us
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one of these must
become a witness with us of his
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resurrection. It's interesting.
There are certain criteria that
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they needed and that criteria
in this setting was it had to be
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somebody who had first hand
knowledge and experience of the
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ministry and resurrection of the
Lord Jesus. And really when you
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go through the New Testament
you find that is in a little bit
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different way but very similarly
the qualifications for being a
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witness for Christ no matter
who you are. And you mentioned
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that really being a witness
is not about a PhD but it's
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something else. I'd like to look
at a couple of scriptures here.
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Let's look at 1 John and see
what John had to have in order
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to be a witness. Yeah,
I was just looking at that
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You're already there; you're
ahead of me. Why don't you go
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ahead and read that.
That's one of the witness texts.
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You know John says... I
think it's verse 3 of chapter
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1. Well starting right there in
the first verse of 1 John 1 he
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says: That which is from the
beginning which we have heard
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which we have seen with our eyes
which we have looked upon and
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our hands have handled
concerning the Word of life
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The life was manifested and we
have seen and bear witness and
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declare to you that eternal life
which was with the Father and
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was manifested to us, that
which we have seen and heard we
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declare to you. Again and again,
we've seen, we've heard, we've
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touched, we've handled. So
this was part of the criteria
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for those apostles. They had to
see and hear. When you look in
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Acts 22 where it describes
the apostle Paul and his calling
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again Paul was called to bear
witness to what he had seen and
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heard. Later, and we'll soon get
to this, in Acts chapter 4 when
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Peter and John were standing
before the council they again
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had to say we cannot but speak
what we have seen and heard.
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That's right. This is not a
requirement that we don't have
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access to. That's
right. Even the demoniac
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of the Gadarenes Jesus said go
and tell what great things God
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has done for you.
That's right. And so personal
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experience. We don't have
to share any more than what we
00:12:58.65\00:13:02.09
ourselves know. But boy we sure
ought to share what we do know,
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what we have experienced. We
cannot but speak what we have
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seen and heard and that's where
the heart of this concept of
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being a witness, the
qualification for being a
00:13:13.85\00:13:16.04
witness is personal experience
with Christ. I may not have seen
00:13:16.08\00:13:20.16
him walking on the streets of
Jerusalem, I may not have heard
00:13:20.19\00:13:24.71
the Father's voice speaking from
the clouds, but I have by faith
00:13:24.75\00:13:29.19
seen the Lord Jesus through the
scripture. I've heard the voice
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of the Spirit of God speak to
my heart and make it plain to my
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heart and that is a witness
and if I'm going to bear witness
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that means that I need to be
sharing that same scripture with
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others and telling them just
exactly what the Lord revealed
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to me. That's
right. We've had the
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experience of Jesus deliverance
in our lives. I think of Acts
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chapter 4 and verse 13 where
the leaders did encounter Peter
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and John as transformed men
and the Bible says that they
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perceived that they were
uneducated and untrained men and
00:14:03.85\00:14:06.87
they marveled and they realized
that they had been with Jesus.
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Wow! That's incredible. They saw
the boldness of Peter and John.
00:14:10.83\00:14:14.89
They thought to themselves, Wow,
the last time we saw someone
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with this kind of authority, the
last time we saw someone with
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this kind of power in their
preaching it was the Lord Jesus.
00:14:21.90\00:14:25.46
And they said these men must
have been with the Lord Jesus.
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How is it with you friend.
Are you spending time with Jesus
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every day? Do you have a
personal experience with him?
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If you do, then you
too can be a witness.
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