Review of the Cincinnati Conference

Well, I had an enjoyable trip over to the Columbia area, actually over into Fulton, as I usually do on Sabbath morning. And thankfully, even with all of the snow that we've had this past year, it's been... it's always been nice, always been clear. The roads have always been open and available every Sabbath morning when I've headed over there. So I'm thankful for that and thankful to see the people that we have over in the area. It's always a delight. And of course, as I tell them, I hate to always feel like that I'm running away, because that's what I always feel like, because I have to leave shortly after services. Usually, I try to stop about 1130 up there.

We start at 10. I try to stop about 1130 so that I can be there for 15 or 20 minutes. And if I leave at 10 till I can get here before 230, that's just kind of the way it is. So that is kind of what I've been doing each Sabbath morning. I know they they encouraged me to work out one time a month where I don't have to come back.

And so I'm trying to figure out how to do that. We've got a new schedule coming up, and hopefully I can take these things into consideration, figure out how to do that, and be able to stay up there. I know it'll be helpful to me to be able to spend more time with the brethren up there in that area. I did want to kind of follow up on at least one of the things that I was mentioning to you last week during the sermon last week where we were going through the book of Philippians, or going through the encouragement that Paul was offering the brethren there.

I wanted to focus on what we covered in Philippians chapter 3. As I mentioned last week, Paul at that time was in jail. He was clearly having more difficulty than he had had before that, and yet he wanted to encourage the brethren to increase their efforts in doing the work. He wanted to encourage them to understand that their need for growing spiritually and their need for spreading the gospel was great as great or greater than it had been before he had been imprisoned.

I think it's certainly encouraging information to us to be able to take a look at that. I know this is part of what was focused on in our conference that we had a little over a couple of weeks ago. It was an encouraging conference, an uplifting conference. I think Mr. Crosby, Mr. Hudson, Mr. Johnson have mentioned those things to you as far as the way that they felt that the conference went.

And yet the focus, as you surely have read, as far as just what was being covered, the focus was to continue to do our job, continue to do our work, figure out maybe even different ways to do that work, but to look to Jesus Christ, to look to him as the head of the church, and to benefit from that spiritual connection. Now that comes back to each of us. It comes back to each of us individually. It's not talking maybe totally, all of us collectively, although it is talking collectively as far as the work that the church is to do, but every one of us, each of us, have to look to Christ.

We need to cultivate that relationship individually to where we are closer and closer in our relationship with Jesus Christ. I want to look at that here in chapter 3 of Philippians, chapter 3, and in verse 7, Paul is talking about this. He's actually pointing out something about his life. He's pointing out that he very well knew.

And of course, if you look back in Acts, I think it's chapter 9, you find how it was that Paul was called into the church. A little bit unusual. Nothing that any of us, I think, at least not exactly like that. He was struck down blind, and he was blinded for a period of time before he was ever released from that blindness, and actually shown that what you have been doing in killing the church, you need to quit.

You need to stop doing that, and then you need to realize that you need what I have to offer, which is what Jesus Christ was telling him. You need me. You need what I have to offer. And actually, my Father and I are calling you to be an apostle to the Gentiles. I don't know if he directly said that, but that was what was communicated to Paul, and he understood that responsibility, and he understood that his role was to help, for the most part, the Gentile world that he was sent to, to come to know Jesus Christ.

Now, he describes this as far as his own inner thinking, here in Philippians 3, verse 7. He says, "'Yet whatever gains I had.'" Well, we could even back up, I guess. Actually, verse 5 and 6, he talks about his past. He talks about how accomplished he was. He talks about how excited he was in doing what he was doing, in being a Pharisee, in being a persecutor of the church.

And he says, regarding righteousness under the law, I am blameless. See, he had quite the record.

Certainly not the record that I have. I don't know if that's the record you had. I doubt any of us could really say that about ourselves, because when we come to recognize our need for God, we see a lot of our flaws. And yet, what Paul was saying was, you know, I was very, very rigorous in the way I lived, in what I did, and yet he says I've come to see something that I need even more than that. Yet, verse 7, whatever gains I had, these I have come to regard as loss because of Jesus Christ. More than that, I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Jesus Christ, my Lord. See, this was something that Paul undoubtedly had time to think about. He had time to, at times, you know, here he's in jail, doubt that he, you know, I'm sure he had some spare time to be able to think about it.

And yet, here he pointed out that knowing, coming to know Jesus Christ, coming to know Christ intimately, was what he wanted to teach and preach, you know, to the Gentile world. He says, for his sake, I have suffered the loss of all things and I regard them as rubbish. In order that I may gain... See, here he explains what it is that he wanted to do. In order that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but one that comes through faith in Jesus Christ, a righteousness from God that is based on faith. See, here he was pointing out how it was that he recognized that his own effort could produce some good. He could be obedient. He tried to do that. He said, I did that blamelessly. I observed the law blamelessly. And yet he said, I want to do that. I do want to do that. I do obey the law. I am. He's going to point this out a little later. I am doing that. But I want to seek a righteousness that comes from God. I want to seek a divine nature that comes from the Father, that comes from through Jesus Christ, through faith in Jesus Christ. He says, I want... He goes on in verse 10 to know Christ. I want to know the power of His resurrection and I want to know the sharing of His suffering by becoming like Him in His death. See, these are statements that I think each of us need to... we need to think about individually to realize that, well, this is what gives me stability. Jesus Christ is the one who brought me into the Church of God. He's the one who brought you to a point that you wanted to be a part of God's Church. And clearly He's the one who shows us, you know, that He can give us the salvation, you know, that we so desperately seek. And this is what Paul was mentioning. He actually goes on down, and here he, just following this section, he says, not that I've already attained or that I've already reached the goal, I press on to make it my own because Christ has made me His own. See, here he was saying, I'm continuing to work.

It's not that I've already achieved. I need to continue to overcome. I need to continue to draw closer to God. I need to continue to... you know, how do you gain Christ? That's the way it's termed here in this, I believe it's the same way in the New King James. How do you gain Christ?

Well, you grow in understanding. You grow in appreciation of what Jesus Christ did for you. You grow in an understanding of how it is that He provides strength, how it is that He provides encouragement, how it is that He lifts us up, how it is He empowers us with the Holy Spirit.

I think that would be the way I would describe gaining Christ. And yet, He goes on to say, and in verse 14, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the high calling of God in Jesus Christ.

And in verse 15, He said, let those of us who are mature be of this same mind.

We want to have that same type of mind. And that, actually, brethren, was what was being focused on in our conference. It was showing us, telling us, we want to look to Christ as the head of the church. We want to understand Him and understand that it is because of Him that we are a part of the Church of God today. And clearly, He is the firm foundation on which we are to have our spiritual house built. Another analogy that was mentioned, and one that I thought about since then, several years ago, actually, it's been probably 20 years ago. I think many of you may recall massive fires up in Yellowstone National Park. I think it's been about 20 years ago, because it was 20 some, or close to 20 years ago, when we were there. And it was sad. It was sad to drive up into an extremely massive, large national park, and to see just acres and acres of blackened hillside and forest and trees that, of course, I had come there hoping to see beautiful, lush, you know, gorgeous. And certainly the areas that were not burned were very beautiful. They were very gorgeous. But see, what had happened when that fire went through, or I don't recall exactly how long that fire existed. It took a while before they ever contained it and actually put it out. But what had happened was that that ground and those trees were charred. You know, they were certainly ugly. It didn't look beautiful. It didn't look like you thought a national park should look. But what you found after that fire was that, and this is the case, I think, in almost any fire anywhere, but it just stands out when you see big trees that are kind of burned to the stump and are only, you know, just, you know, almost need to just be knocked over. And yet what you found in that case, because I know I've seen pictures of this same area that was very burned whenever I was there, starting to grow back.

Grass, you know, native grasses, small bushes, bigger trees, some of those trees having to be re-populated. But nonetheless, growing back, being green, being lush, and being, again, once again, beautiful. In a sense, you know, we're regrowing right now. We are, you know, we have been, we have gone through a difficulty. And then we are in the process of regrowing. We're going to have to depend on the source of growth, the source who's going to be able to pick us up. And that's what I'm mentioning here. When Paul points out that, you know, they, he wanted the people in Philippi, he wanted them to understand the source. He wanted them to appreciate the source. He wanted them to go to the source and to thrive. That's what he really wanted. He wanted them to thrive.

And that, of course, is, I believe, what God wants for us today. He wants us to thrive. He wants us to be able to look forward. And as Paul mentioned, I press toward the goal for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ. I'm pressing toward that mark. And I think that's clearly what all of us want to do. In Matthew 16, you have an example, and this is one that I want to focus on a little bit.

In this sermon today, just about the theme of the conference, looking to Christ and advancing the work that He has given us to do. You know, many times we focus on Jesus Christ as we get toward the Passover time. We are all, in a sense, rededicating ourselves. We are examining ourselves. We are looking at our lives. Hopefully, at that time, we become more aware. We become more intensely desirous of a closer walk with God, of an understanding of what God has offered, what He has given us to forgive us of our sins. And actually, the more you think about that, the more you understand the enormity of it. At least, that's what I'm finding.

I'm learning some things here, even in the last few months, about me that are pretty sad.

It's sad as far as the way I see myself. And certainly, the things that I see, where I fall short and where I need to be forgiven and I need to draw closer to God. Those are things that I think we see the more that we think about our closeness to Jesus Christ. Here in Matthew 16, you have an illustration here in chapter 13, or verse 13 of Matthew 16.

Matthew 16 verse 13, it says, When Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, He asked His disciples a question. Who do people say that the Son of Man is?

To His followers were there. They were following Him. They were certainly connected with Him to a certain degree. They understood that they had been drawn to Him for some reason. Somehow, they had been called. They had been brought into a group to be educated. That's what the disciples were. They were learners who were following Jesus. Yet here Jesus is asking them, who do people say I am? It's interesting the setting that He is doing this in. Because, again, I think most of you know what we're going to read. Yet the setting was right outside of, or as they were going into the area of Caesarea Philippi. Now, one of the things that we need to know about that setting is some of the geographical surroundings of Caesarea Philippi.

Because this was an area that had, amazingly, this huge, massive rock cliff that everybody was familiar with. During the day of Jesus, the time of Jesus, this rock cliff stood out as a notable symbol of the Caesarea area.

And out of the bottom of that cliff, this massive cliff was flowing a stream of water. A stream of water. That, in a sense, I guess it was one of the sources. It wasn't the only. There are numerous others, but it was one of the sources of the water that flows into the the Jordan and later the Sea of Galilee, and ultimately down to the Dead Sea. One of the sources of the water that would flow into the Jordan River.

And then, apart from that massive rock, and this water gushing out, were, as you might imagine, numerous smaller stones. They were scattered all through the area. And, of course, that water is flowing down from the rock, out of the base, through and over the stones, and on into the river.

Now, that particular setting is actually where Jesus asked His disciples an important question.

And it may be reason why He explained it the way He did. He says, Who do people say the Son of Man is? And they say, well, some of them say that you're John the Baptist, and some say you're Elijah. Still others say you're Jeremiah, or maybe one of the other prophets. See, people had all kinds of ideas. And He said to them, well, who do you say that I am? He was actually pointing out to them that, you know, your perception may be different.

Your perception is different. That's what He was really telling them.

People can call me or say whatever they want. They can call me an imposter. They can call me, you know, demon-possessed, which they did. They can call me whatever they want. They can call me John.

And, amazingly, you know, this was actually shortly after John had been beheaded. And so, Herod was moaning over the fact, well, here I beheaded John. Here, you know, is he John? Did he come back to life? You know, he didn't know what was going on. He really wondered about that. You see that mentioned in another place. But here he says, people think I might be John or Elijah or Jeremiah, but who do you say I am?

And, of course, Peter answered in verse 16, and he said, you are the Messiah.

You are the Christ. You are the Son of the living God.

See, do people really know who the disciples know who they were associated with? Well, yeah, to a degree. In a way, they knew the answer. They knew something that the other folks didn't.

And this is basically what I want to point out. Jesus answered him and said, blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, Simon the son of Jonah.

For flesh and blood has not revealed that to you, but my Father in heaven.

See, here he was pointing out to them that you didn't just come up with that on your own.

And see, brethren, we didn't just come up with our calling on our own.

We're the beneficiary of it. We're the recipient of the blessings of the calling of God.

But we didn't just come up with that on our own. That was revealed to us through God the Father and regarding our Savior, Jesus Christ. And see, he was telling the disciples, you know, you need to understand that the calling that I've drawn you to, he had taken a number of fishermen, he had taken a tax collector, he had taken, I don't know what the occupations of some of the others were, but at least you know that about 5 of the 12.

He had taken and brought them into a setting that was unfamiliar to them.

But he said what he had revealed to them, what the Father had revealed to them, was who the Messiah was. Who Jesus Christ was. That they could have a close and intimate relationship with Jesus Christ and that they would need that as they lived their lives.

And you know, they had Christ around for quite a while. They did, of course, have several years with him teaching or learning as he taught and then following his instructions and going out and doing some teaching themselves and being amazed at what God could do. That was what the disciples learned. That was part of the training that Jesus was giving his servants. He would send them out on a mission. He'd tell them kind of what to do. They'd come back amazed. How come the demons even do what we say? They didn't do that before. This was something that Jesus had. He was involved. He was His authority. His power was involved in being able to help them do their mission.

And yet He was intricately working with them. And a major part of that was that God was revealing to them who He was. They were coming to believe that. And they were coming even though they had failings. They all had failings. Many times if you read through the Bible, you'll see and know Peter had failings clearly. All the others did too. There were numerous difficulties. There were distractions. There were problems with the treasury. Judas was always having some kind of difficulty with that. There were problems with infighting. Problems with who's in charge. Who's going to be in charge later? A lot of human nature was clearly still there with the disciples.

But Jesus didn't discount that. He didn't say, well, I can't use you. You're carnal.

He says, I can use you because you are carnal. I can change that. I can help you overcome that.

I can empower a work through you if you just learn to yield to me. You learn to gain Christ. Know Christ. Gain Christ. Share in His suffering the way that Paul described it there in Philippians.

And so here, he points out flesh and blood does not reveal that to you, but my Father in heaven. And I tell you, so he goes ahead and tells him something. Again, within the backdrop of this massive cliff, I tell you in verse 18, you are Peter. Peter, meaning a small stone, is what the reference is to the name of Peter, Petros. And yet, on this rock, on this Petra, the Greek word describes not just a little stone, but a massive cliff. On this rock, and again, this is the terminology that Jesus uses in several places in the New Testament, where He talks about Himself. On this rock, I will build My church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. Here, He was telling them, the church is founded on the rock. It's founded on Me. It's founded on the massive cliff. It's not founded on the stone that Peter was. It's founded on the huge rock. And that, of course, is the same for all of us today. All of us are to be lively stones. That's something that we read, I believe, it's back in Peter, where we are to be living stones, lively stones, who are actually flourishing with the power of the water of the Holy Spirit that comes upon us as we recognize the source, as we recognize the rock, as we acknowledge the role of Jesus Christ in our lives. See, I think it's fabulous to see that Jesus, in this account, pointed out to them that that information is special.

That information is uplifting. That information is moving. That information is to empower the rest of your life. And, of course, the disciples went forth to do the work that they were to be given to do following the death of Jesus. And yet, He had given them this type of training. He had given them this education. He also told them in Matthew 7, and we've covered this before, but I want to look at it again. In Matthew 7, He says in verse 21, Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the ones who do the will of my Father in heaven.

See, brethren, we want to be about doing the will of the Father. See, that's what Jesus said. I need to be doing the work of the Father. We need to be doing the will of the Father.

On that day, many will say to me, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name and cast out demons in Your name and do many deeds of power in Your name? Then I'll declare to them, I never knew You.

I never knew You. See, we want to be those that He knows. We want to be those who know Jesus Christ. And that, of course, was initiated. That was started with a connection that He made with us, just like He did with His disciples. Just like He did as He called and drew them.

When you go back and you read the accounts of the disciples being drawn, some of them, it seems kind of unusual that they'd all of a sudden just be fishing and then walk off and follow Christ. And yet, He was able to show them that there was more to life than just fishing. There was more to life than just making a living. That there's something spiritual. There's a dimension that they didn't have. And that dimension was going to come to them through the Son of God. It was going to come to them through Jesus Christ. Of course, this goes on in verse 24 to say, everyone who hears these words of Mine and who acts on them will be like the wise man who builds his house on what? Who builds his house on the rock. See, brethren, that's where our stability comes. That's where each of us individually can have unshakable stability. If our house, if our spiritual house, if our lives, if our thinking is built upon the rock, and that rock, of course, referring to Jesus Christ, because He then shows that if you build a house on a rock, when the rain fell and the floods came and the winds blew and beat on the house, it won't fall because it's founded on the rock.

And He says, everyone who hears these words of Mine and does not act on them will be like a foolish man who built his house on sand and the rain fell and the floods came. The winds blew and beat against the house and it fell and great was its fall. See, Jesus actually, pretty much at the end of His teaching regarding a sermon on the Mount that He's given here through Matthew 5 and 6 and 7, He was concluding. He was actually concluding the statements that He had made and remarkable statements and ones that we want to study and thrive on because they tell us what to do. He tells us how to live, but He says you want to have a firm foundation. You want to wisely build your house upon the rock. And that, of course, is what the Church wishes to do. It's what each of us individually need to do in order to be successful in our spiritual endeavors. I'd like for us to go back to John 6 as well because John 6 is a very special section of Scripture because here in John 6 it talks about our calling. In John 6, Jesus is talking about being the bread of life.

He's actually fed thousands of people with very little food, and so He's gotten everyone's attention. They're all, I guess, fat and happy right then. At least they've all had something to eat. They've had something to sustain their physical life for a little while. But Jesus is talking about being the bread of life, and that, of course, is a different topic altogether, but comes back to the same individual, not just being the rock, but being the bread of life. But down in verse 41, the Jews were complaining about Him. They complained that He said, I'm the bread that came down from heaven. They said, isn't this just Jesus? And we know His Father and Mother. And Jesus answered them and said, don't complain among yourselves.

So He told them, don't be moaning and groaning and complaining about all of this, because no man in verse 44 can come to Me unless drawn by the Father who sent Me, and I will raise that person up on the last day.

So He made that statement that the Father, just like the Father had revealed to the disciples who it was that Jesus was, who He was. He was the Messiah. He was the Christ. The others couldn't figure it out. It wasn't just humanly discernible. It was something that had to be revealed.

And what He is saying is that no one comes to Me unless drawn by the Father who sent Me. And a little later in verse 60, many of the disciples heard it, or when many of the disciples heard it, they said, this teaching is difficult. He had said several other things that were very difficult for them to figure out. But they said, this teaching is difficult. Who can accept it? And Jesus, being aware that His disciples were complaining about it, said to them, does this offend you? Well, then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascend to where He was before?

It's the Spirit that gives life. The flesh is useless. The words that I have spoken to you are Spirit, and those words are life. And so He was trying to help His disciples to see, well, you were appointed in the right direction. You have your eyes on the right individual. You have your eyes on the rock. You have your eyes on the Son of God. Don't take your eyes off of Him, or what He can do, or how He can help you do the work that you're commissioned to do.

He says in verse 64, among you are some who do not believe. And so certainly our belief in Jesus Christ was a fundamental part of us coming to accept God's calling.

But He said, there are some among you who do not believe. For Jesus knew from the first who were the ones that did not believe, and who was the one who would betray Him. See, He knew Jesus Judas Iscariot was there sitting among them. He knew that. And yet He went ahead to say, in verse 65, For this reason, this is what I told you, that no one can come to Me unless it is granted by the Father. See here He repeats that twice. He goes over it once, kind of in connection with the Jews who weren't understanding it at all. And He goes over it more intimately with His disciples to realize that the Father has revealed something to you that others do not understand. Now, there are many people who use the name of Jesus as He described.

And yet, rather than God has selected, He has drawn, He has encouraged us to come to Jesus Christ.

And I hope that we can appreciate that. I hope that we can thrive with that.

This goes on in verse 66 to say, Because of this, many of His disciples turned back and no longer went about with Him. Who were those folks? Well, they were apparently people who didn't fully comprehend, didn't fully understand. Maybe God had not really, truly revealed to them what it was that they needed to know about Jesus Christ. And so they turned back.

And Jesus continued to work with the Twelve. I mean, obviously there were others of the disciples, other disciples around, not the Twelve, but others who decided, well, we don't get it. We just do not comprehend that.

But He went ahead to say, or He said to the Twelve in verse 67, Do you also wish to go away?

And again, Simon Peter answers. He's often the spokesman for the group and stepping up, whether he tells Christ what He would like to hear, or whether he tells Him something that turns out to be really bad and being reprimanded for it. Nonetheless, Peter said, Lord, where should we go? There isn't anywhere to go. Where can we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe, and we have come to know that You are the Holy One of God.

And so, the disciples verified, at least in Peter's statement as he understood it, we don't have anywhere to turn. We've been revealed something very special. God has revealed a calling. He's revealed an appreciation for His forgiveness. He's revealed an appreciation for the plan of God. We rehearse that plan as we celebrate the Holy Days every year.

We do the Holy Days. We observe those throughout the year. We do them in the spring and summer and fall. And yet, more than just simply observing those days, we're thinking about the plan of God. We're thinking about how God is working with us. We're thinking about how God drew us to Jesus Christ.

And we often talk about that. We share that with one another because it's important. It's important for us to have that verification and to have that uplift from knowing, as Peter did, there is nowhere to go. You have the words of eternal life. Your words are spirit. Your words are life. That's what Jesus had, of course, told them in the other section that we were reading.

In John 14, verse 6, we read this of several weeks ago. Jesus says that I'm the way, I'm the truth, I'm the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. So here He kind of turns it around. The Father is the one who revealed who Jesus was.

He's the one who explained how our lives are to be devoted to Jesus Christ, how we are to be the children of God, how we are to be His devoted disciples and to followers.

But here He says, no one comes to the Father except through me.

And if you know Me, then you will know My Father also.

From now on, you will know Him and you have seen Him.

See, He created a setting. He created a situation where we could know the Father better than ever. And maybe, you know, in an extraordinary way that we could truly know the Father and we can know, you know, our relationship and closeness with the Son and our appreciation of the working of the Holy Spirit.

See, those are things that all have to come together in our spiritual lives. And of course, you know, these statements that Jesus makes are absolutely fabulous. And clearly, as Paul said, it wasn't because of any works on my account that you decided to do that.

And he pointed that out to Timothy. He said, it wasn't because of any of your works that God chose to work with you. It was because He chose you. He gave you that introduction. He gave you that calling. Over in the book of Acts, chapter 14, you see some verification of this in the disciples who were... Acts chapter 14. This is another interesting illustration, but one that I'll just quickly read through. In verse 19, it says, the Jews came from Antioch in Iconium, and they went over the crowd, and then they stoned Paul, and they drug him out of the city, thinking he was dead. And when the disciples surrounded him, he got up and went into the city, and the next day he went on with Barnabas to Derby. Now, did God perform a miracle? Well, it looks to me like He did. It would appear that He did, but what was happening? Well, those disciples were gathering around Paul, and I would imagine praying more fervently, more emphatically, more excessively than they had been up to that point. Because here, you know, the individual that God was using to help them and to draw them into a closer walk with Him had just been stoned, and they fought to death. And yet, I'm sure they were emphatic in their prayers.

It says in verse 21, after they had proclaimed the good news to that city, made many disciples, see, this empowered the work. It wasn't something that was a setback. Whenever Paul went through something like that, it clearly looked like a physical setback. But, as we see in verse 21, they proclaimed the news of the city and made many disciples. They returned to Lystra and Iconium and Antioch, and there they strengthened the souls of the disciples and encouraged them to continue in the faith, saying it is through many tribulations or persecutions or much tribulation that you must enter the kingdom of God. And after they had anointed elders' prayer and fasting, they entrusted them to the Lord in whom they had come to believe. This was the working of Jesus Christ. This was a power that He was enabling to be thriving in the Church.

He was the one who was. It talks about them having come to believe. What did they believe? Well, they believed in Jesus Christ. They believed He was the Son of God. They believed He was their Savior. They believed that He was their Redeemer. We can kind of wrap this up here in John 1, because this is what in the Church we are striving to reignite, striving to reengage, striving to appreciate more than ever. And I'm not saying that we have not done that, and yet that's an individual thing. That's an individual thing that every one of us want to have that close walk with God and a close walk with our Savior Jesus Christ that actually comes from what I mentioned as far as knowing Him, gaining Him, being actually wanting to know about the power of His resurrection. See, what is it about the power of the resurrection of Jesus Christ that is so fabulous? Well, part of it is that you can be raised from the dead. That's part of it. I don't know that I know all of it. I know a little of it. I know that God has the power to raise people from the dead. I know God has the power to transform human life into a spirit being. I know He has that ability. And also, along with that, to be willing and able to share in the suffering. So He says it's not always going to be easy. It's not always going to be a smooth sail. It's going to be through much tribulation that we go through and make it and be a part of the kingdom of God. But here in John 1, this is a section that is certainly revealing, but in a sense it only just wraps up what I am talking about. About Christ being our foundation and being the one that we want to look to and that we want to to draw closer to because He clearly has the ability to help us. Here in John 1, verse 10, we realize that John is talking about the one who was the Word, the one who was with God, the one who was God. He was in the beginning with God in verse 2, but in verse 10, it says, He was in the world and the world came into being through Him.

This is actually after John having testified to Him to be the true light. See, that's another description, another category of how it is that Jesus is described, but it says Jesus was in the world and the world came into being through Him. He had created the entirety, the physical and the spiritual universe, and yet it says He came into the world. He had created that world and yet the world did not know Him. See, for the most part, Jesus' involvement, His existence, His name was not known in the world, and He came in verse 11 to what was His own. His own people did not accept Him. See, this is a record of what Jesus did when He came into this world. He came among the people of Judah. He came among the Jews, but of course, most of them not only didn't accept Him, they hated Him. They hated Him for what He did. They hated Him for what He said. They hated Him for who He was. And yet in verse 12, to those who received Him, who believed in His name, He gave the power to become the children of God. He gave the power to become the children of God, those who were born not of blood, or the will of the flesh, or the will of man, those who were born of God. Brethren, that is the calling that we've been given. We are in a category of believing. We are a category of receiving. We're in the category of understanding His calling. We simply want to continue to grow in that close and intimate relationship with Jesus Christ. See, that's not something that I think can be stated too often. It's clearly something that was emphasized in our conference. It's something that we want to use in doing the work that we've been called to do because we've been called to do a work. We've been called to preach the gospel.

We are striving to do that to the best of our ability, but ultimately, how well we're going to be able to do that probably depends on how close we are to Jesus Christ, how close individually we are to the one who drew us to Him and to the one who says He will work through us. So I encourage us to continue to develop a close relationship with Christ. Certainly, not to misunderstand that, He asks us and tells us to obey Him, but that's individually something that we need to do. Yet, we want to draw closer to Him as we live our lives, as we serve one another, and as we clearly are involved in doing His work.