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Advent Productions

Encounters With Jesus

Benjamin Ng

Jesus’ Encounter With The Devil

Father in heaven, thank you so much for this time that we have to study.

Thank you for seeing us safely through this week.

And Lord, as we're about to open the Bible to read, I pray that you'd please be with us, guide us with your Holy Spirit, and help us to have an encounter with Jesus that would bring us closer to heaven this day.

You know this is the first encounter that Jesus has after he is baptized, when he first enters into full-time ministry.

And we're starting with a familiar text over in Matthew chapter 4, starting in verses 1 and 2.

The Bible says this, then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil.

And when he had fasted 40 days and 40 nights, he was afterward unhungered.

You know, Jesus, he went into the wilderness to fast.

He had just been baptized and he was praying about his future ministry and how God would be guiding him in this area of his life now.

It was a change for 30 years of his life.

He'd been growing up in the home of Joseph and his mother Mary, and he'd been working in the carpenter's shop.

He'd been working there with his father, his dad, and now the tenor of his life is about to take a major shift.

He's gone from someone who's been in obscurity all this time, working in a humble trade, now into public ministry.

And so as he is about to embark in this ministry for which he was sent to the earth, he needs to spend even more time with God.

And so that's why the Spirit led him into the wilderness, not exactly to be tempted of the devil, but the Father knew that this was going to happen.

But he needed there time to fast and to pray and to seek God's will.

You know, friends, there are physical as well as spiritual blessings that come with fasting.

That's the longest I've ever fasted and I'm telling you it was difficult.

You know some people they can't even fast 1 meal right?

Not for health reasons as many of us do to lose weight, to renew our immune system and different research that has come out in the modern era that shows us the benefits of fasting, right?

He did not fast for 40 days just because he was overweight, not for health reasons.

He was fasting to know God's will, to be strengthened, to do his will when the plans are made clear to him.

And so he's been fasting 40 days and 40 nights.

In verse 2 it says at the end there that after that he was hungry.

And at the end of 40 days we can imagine anything would appear hungry to you.

Verse 3 of Matthew chapter 4, And when the tempter came to him, he said, if thou be the son of God, command that these stones be made bread.

It's at this point that the devil comes to him when he's at his weakest, when he's been fasting already for 40 days and the first temptation that Satan presents to Jesus is to turn the stone into bread.

Look, first we have to look at Why would there have been anything wrong with turning stone into bread?

I mean, why would Jesus have sinned just by following the devil's suggestion by turning this rock into something he could eat because he was so hungry?

Well, it actually begins with the first words that Satan actually says to him.

If you are the Son of God, turn this stone into bread.

So what the devil was actually asking was for proof that Jesus would prove himself that he is the Son of God.

Why would there be anything wrong with Jesus proving that he was the Son of God?

But look, it's because of what the devil said, if you are the Son of God.

What had happened just before Jesus went up into the mountain to fast for 40 days?

Well, let's go back to Matthew chapter 3.

At his baptism, look at what it says here in verse 16 and 17.

And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water, and lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and lighting upon him.

And look at this, verse 17, and lo a voice from heaven saying this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased.

When Jesus was baptized and he came up out of the water, not only did the Holy Spirit descend upon him, He heard audibly, at least to him, he understood what was spoken from heaven.

This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased.

Jesus already had evidence that He was the Son of God.

He did not have to turn the stone into bread to prove that fact.

He had heard the voice from heaven saying, You are my Son.

He heard this before he went up into the mountain.

He heard this before he fasted for 40 days.

He heard this before the devil came to him to ask him proof of his divinity.

And friends, Jesus, he relied upon and he had to rely upon the voice of God or the words that he heard from God.

Faith comes by hearing, hearing by the Word of God.

He had to live by faith in the fact that what he had heard was true and real.

Jesus had to exercise faith in regards to this temptation that the devil was throwing at him and it wouldn't be the last time that he would be tempted by these words.

But you see friends, if Jesus had turned the stone into bread it would have shown that he was doubting the words of his father at his baptism.

We see the same words will be repeated again in the next temptation.

So 2 times it would have been wrong, trying to get Jesus to doubt his divinity, his connection with heaven, the mission upon which God had sent him.

But then coming back to the first temptation of what Satan said right?

If you are the son of God, I want you to turn this stone into bread.

And what a strong temptation that would have been.

You know, as I said, I fasted for 5 days before, and that was over 10 years ago to be honest.

The last time I fasted for a longer period of time than just 1 day was about 2 to 3 years ago.

I don't know, I just struggle with fasting.

But I remember at the end of the fast, just plain bread tasted so nice.

At the end of my fast, all I ate, all they gave me was bread and soup.

But I tell you, it was the tastiest meal I ever had.

For those that have fasted before, anything, just the mention of any type of food would make you hungry.

And many people, I'm telling you, when it comes to appetite, which was what Jesus was tempted on in this first temptation for the devil, Many people have failed the test, allowing appetite to control you.

Jesus, he was being attacked on 2 fronts.

First, the temptation to doubt the Father's word as to whether he really was the Son of God.

Secondly, the temptation to simply turn the stone into bread because he was hungry.

Friends, why was this the first temptation?

In 1 Corinthians 15 and verse 22, the Bible says this, For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.

You see, Christ, He had to overcome where Adam and Eve fell and where humanity failed in general, which was what?

Jesus’ Encounter with the First Disciples

Father in heaven, thank you so much for this time that we can come and study your Word together.

We just ask for your presence to please be with us, to guide us and lead us with your Spirit, O Lord.

And I pray that you would please help us to understand the message that you have, the words that you have for us this evening.

May you guide us with your spirit that he may illumine our minds and not that we just understand but we'll have wisdom to know how to apply these words to our lives that we might increase in faith this evening and that truly we might know that we have been in your presence and that you've been with us today.

Thank you, O Lord, for we pray in Jesus' name.

So our study for this evening is entitled Jesus' Encounter with the First Disciples.

This is already the second study of the Encounters with Jesus, a series of studies that my brother and I had written quite a few years ago, but as we're going through it, this is something that we study every Friday night.

We just finished Hebrews 11 together and I pray that you were blessed and this is our second study this evening.

Jesus's encounter with the first disciples.

Last week we studied about Jesus' encounter with the devil.

We started there because it was right after his baptism.

Jesus went into the desert, into the wilderness to pray for his future ministry, to prepare himself personally for what God had sent him forward for the work that he had been sent to the earth for and of course the devil came to tempt him at his weakest moment and Jesus would overcome the devil in every temptation that was thrown him with it is written And that was in Matthew chapter 4.

Now, this is what we read right after the encounter in Matthew chapter 4.

From that time, Jesus began to preach and to say, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

And Jesus walking by the sea of Galilee saw 2 brethren Simon called Peter and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea, for they were fishers.

And he said unto them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.

And they straightway left their nets, and followed him.

And going on from thence, he saw other 2 brethren, James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, in a ship with Zebedee their father, mending their nets.

And he called them, and they immediately left the ship and their father, and followed him." Jesus, He began to preach to start His ministry.

He was preaching the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

This was right after He was baptized and it's a similar message that we should be preaching today For truly the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

1 of those signs that we are seeing in a great degree today is what?

And we truly see that the signs really in our days are much, much, much closer as every day draws closer, right?

But you see, after his preaching he calls the first disciples and in Matthew we get this big overview.

He calls Simon Peter who we know usually just as Peter and his brother Andrew, and then he calls also James and John brothers as well.

And I see here that OBS has disconnected my software.

If you're there please say you can hear me or something like that but it just disconnected.

Okay I hope you're all all able to follow.

But anyways Jesus after he's preaching He calls Peter, Andrew, James and John all together and these are the first 4 people that Jesus calls.

In Matthew chapter 4 here, we just see a brief overview, a brief encounter and what we're gonna do is we're gonna go over to Luke where we are going to see more detail.

So Luke and we're gonna start there in chapter 5 but we're gonna end, go to the end of this story so I can show you that this is the same story that we're looking at in Matthew chapter 4.

It says here in Luke 5, 10 to 11, And so was also James and John, the sons of Zebedee, which were partners with Simon.

And Jesus said to Simon, Fear not, from henceforth thou shalt catch men.

And when they had brought their ships to land, they forsook all and followed him.

So James and John, they were brothers who were called after Peter and Andrew who were also brothers as well.

But these 4, Peter, Andrew, James and John, they were all partners together in this fishing quote-unquote business I guess but the 4 of them were working together when Jesus calls them and Matthew seems to indicate that Peter and the brother were called first and then James and John but we see here that they all came together at the same time.

Okay, but now let's go back to the beginning of Luke chapter 5.

What can we learn from Jesus' encounter here with the first disciples in their call from being fishermen to be fishers of men.

Luke chapter 5, and we're going to go to the beginning now.

And it came to pass, that as the people pressed upon him to hear the word of God, He stood by the lake of Gennesaret and saw 2 ships standing by the lake.

But the fishermen were gone out of them and were washing their nets." So Jesus At this time, as we knew from Matthew chapter 4, he was already preaching.

And he had only been a short time in ministry.

We don't know how long, for a couple of days, for a few weeks, we don't know exactly.

But As he began to preach, people began to flock to him to listen to him.

Because people had never heard such amazing preaching before.

Or in the words of what the Roman soldiers had said, man had never spoken like this man before.

They were bringing many people to repentance.

Such power that attended the preaching was rarely heard.

Yes, John the Baptist preached that way, but apart from that, this man was different.

The messages that he brought was different.

And so crowds would come in the days where there was no social media, in the days where people were not saying, hey I'm in the area please come.

The word of mouth brought flocks and flocks of people to come and listen and as Jesus was standing there, there was so many people that were pressing up against him.

Made it difficult for him to minister to them, made it difficult for him to preach.

Well Luke chapter 5 verse 3 tells us, and he entered into 1 of the ships, which was Simon's, and prayed him that he would thrust out a little from the land, and he sat down and taught the people out of the ship.

He got into 1 of those ships that was sitting there at the shore and this ship just happened to belong to Simon Peter or Peter as we know him.

And he asked Peter to push away from the shore so that Jesus could sit there and teach the people and be able to minister to everybody.

Had he had not done that he probably would have been able to minister just to only 25% of the people that were present because the crowd was just pressing in on him and he would not have been able to preach to the people that were standing far back.

And so he gets into the boat and he's able to teach and to preach from the comfort of the boat.

Now look, Peter was helping the gospel cause.

Peter, just by letting Jesus into the boat, was helping Christ and the work of the gospel so that Jesus could be the 1 that would teach everybody.

And you know friends, at the beginning, Jesus doesn't always come to me or come to us I should say and just say look I want you to teach, I want you to preach.

At the beginning, maybe he's just telling you today, hey, why don't you open your house?

Why don't you open the doors of your home and let people come in?

And then show them a video or get the pastor to come and teach or preach or get your neighbor or someone, your elder, whoever it is.

But there is an importance of the gift of hospitality.

Peter was allowing Jesus into his personal space.

Peter was allowing him to come into his his boat when no 1 else had dared to enter.

They were cleaning their nets, they had done.

But Jesus came into his boat and maybe, maybe today Jesus is asking you, why don't you let me in to your personal space?

Maybe God is asking you, hey, if you want to help in the gospel cause, maybe you can't teach and preach.

Maybe you can't be an Evangelist, but you can open your home.

Maybe you can bring the food The gift of hospitality is a gift that is underrated in many ways They say the power of the spoon does a lot of power for good It is sometimes more powerful than the pen.

Jesus’ Encounter with Philip and Nathanael

Father in heaven, thank you so much for your watch care over us this past week.

As we're about to start our time together now, just ask for your Spirit to lead and guide us.

Help us, O Lord, that we might understand Your Word.

Fill us with Your Spirit and speak to our hearts so personally, so tenderly, that we might hear Your voice speaking to us as well.

This evening we are continuing our studies on the encounters with Jesus.

So last series that we looked at was Hebrews 11.

If you not had a chance to listen to that series, you can go back, whether you're listening to this from YouTube or Facebook, there is a playlist there just for those studies that we've had together on Friday nights.

But this evening, we're going to be looking at Jesus' encounter with Philip and Nathaniel.

And so, you know, last week we studied about the calling of the first disciples.

4 people were called to leave their fishing nets to follow Jesus.

And Jesus, He's not done yet with the calling of the disciples.

And we are going to start there in John chapter 1 verses 43 to 44.

The Bible says this, The day following, Jesus would go forth into Galilee, and findeth Philip, and saith unto him, follow me.

Now Philip was of Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter.

So very clearly here Jesus goes forth into Galilee, he finds Philip and he makes a direct call straight to Philip.

And the first thing that Philip does is, he goes, well, the background is he's from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter.

And you know, we don't know whether they knew each other, whether they're fishermen together, we don't know much about his background at all.

When Jesus calls him, he doesn't just get up and leave and go follow Jesus.

Verse 45 of John chapter 1, Philip findeth Nathanael and saith unto him, We have found him of whom Moses in the law and the prophets did write, Jesus of Nazareth the son of Joseph.

Philip goes and finds Nathanael And who is Nathanael?

We don't know whether they're brothers or not, whether they're related in any way, but they're definitely good friends, seeing that Philip goes and looks for Nathanael straight away.

So he doesn't just get up and follow Jesus, but he goes and looks for his friend, Nathaniel.

I mean, Luke chapter 6, if we go there and start reading in verse 13, it actually talks about the 12 disciples, and look what it says.

And when it was day, he called unto him his disciples, and of them he chose 12 whom he also named apostles.

Simon whom he also named Peter, and Andrew his brother, James and John.

Those are the first 4 that we've already looked at.

But then it says Philip and Bartholomew, Matthew and Thomas, James the son of Alphaeus and Simon called Zealots, and Judas the brother of James, and Judas Iscariot which also was the traitor.

What I want you to see here is notice that Philip, whom we've already seen in John chapter 1, and Bartholomew are put together.

And then notice what it says in John 21, verses 1 and 2.

After these things, Jesus showed himself again to the disciples at the Sea of Tiberias, and on this wise showed he himself.

There were together Simon Peter and Thomas Caldinemus and Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and 2 other of his disciples.

Here we see the disciples and Jesus appears to them and Nathanael is mentioned again as 1 of those disciples and we didn't see Nathanael mentioned back in Luke chapter 6 when it listed out the 12 disciples but we do see Bartholomew.

What we can definitely link together is most likely Bartholomew was Nathaniel, okay, who would eventually become 1 of the disciples of Christ.

Look, What lessons can we learn here from Philip though?

He was actually excited about finding someone that matched the description of whom the Bible spoke about.

That would be the Messiah that was soon to come.

Philip was actually a student of the Word of God, of the Bible.

He actually went to his friend Nathaniel and said, hey I found somebody that Moses in the law and the prophets did write about.

He was talking about the Old Testament, but he was a student of the word of God.

That when Jesus came walking along, he saw in him the fulfillment of what the Bible had spoken about.

We need to be searching our scriptures today, friends.

Because we need to see how the Bible will reveal itself in how prophecy is being fulfilled today, such as this pandemic.

It is a big sign to tell us, to wake us up, to shake us, not just because we lost a job, not just because our studies have been totally different as in previous years, not because we've had to change job or change our studies or change whatever it is, not because there's been major shift in our life, but because there's a major fulfillment of prophecy that we have never seen before.

Sure, we talked about pandemics such as AIDS and the swine disease and the mad cow's disease, the swine flu, sorry.

You know, we've seen all of those things, but not at this scale before.

We've got to be students of the Word, not just for the sake of, oh, it's got to change my heart and my life, but to see how prophecy is being fulfilled today.

And look, the people that were living before the times of Christ, even though they only had the Old Testament, they had enough evidence of his first coming as we do today with the Old and the New Testament of his second coming.

Not only was Philip a student of the Bible, he was sharing his faith with his friends.

When he sought fulfillment, he went looking to share his faith with probably his best friend or his brother.

You know the importance of sharing what you find in the Bible is necessary to growth in faith.

But today we also need to be searching the Scriptures, not just for God help me to be a better person, God help me to know your will and your way, but to see how today things are being fulfilling Scripture to show us the nearness of Christ's second coming.

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