F4F | Debunking Bill Johnson RE: Emulating Jesus' Miracles
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- 00:14
- Welcome to another installment of Fighting for the Faith. My name is Chris Roseborough. I am your servant in Jesus Christ.
- 00:20
- This is the channel that compares what people are saying in the name of God to the Word of God. So Bill Johnson, I mentioned this in my recent interview with Jesse Westwood, who continues to churn out videos on his
- 00:36
- Breaking Bethel series. If you are not subscribed to Jesse Westwood's channel, you need to be subscribed to it.
- 00:42
- Wow. His recent video that he did talking about the textbook that he had written by Chris Vallotton about how to learn how to prophesy and operate in the prophetic.
- 00:54
- Whoa. Yeah, you need to see that. Anyway, but in my interview with Jesse Westwood, see
- 01:01
- I distract myself sometimes. In my interview with Jesse Westwood, one of the things he pointed out is that, and we talked about it, was that Bethel is talking out of both sides of their mouth.
- 01:13
- And they are prone to, as they say, making messes and then having to clean them up. And one of the big messes that they've made over the years has to do with what's known as the canonic heresy.
- 01:24
- In the book The Physics of Heaven, Bill Johnson legitimately says that Jesus laid aside his divinity.
- 01:31
- Now, they've since said, no, no, no, no, he's always been fully God, fully man. But the whole point, the whole thrust of what it is that he was saying is all about this idea that we need to follow
- 01:43
- Jesus' example in performing miracles. And we're going to take on the new cleaned up statement where he affirms the deity of Christ and then talks about why we need to be emulating
- 01:58
- Jesus' miracles. And we're going to take apart his twisting of Scripture and we're going to note something.
- 02:05
- Nowhere in the Bible are we told to follow Jesus' example when it comes to being miracle workers.
- 02:13
- And if you're sitting there going, well, what about that text in John 14 that says greater works will you do?
- 02:18
- Well, we're going to talk about that as well along the way. In fact, we'll even take a look at the so -called passion translation,
- 02:26
- TPT, the toilet paper translation. Yeah, that's the best way to think about it. And their mistranslation of this text and show you that's not what this text is going to be about.
- 02:34
- And so, we got a lot of Bible we got to cover. So, let's whirl up the desktop.
- 02:40
- This is one of my Winterscapes that I took a few years ago, north of Oslo, Minnesota. And let's pull up the web browser.
- 02:49
- And this was preached by Bill Johnson, I mean, really recently.
- 02:57
- So, this is from Victory Tulsa and this was published nine days ago as of the time I recorded this episode.
- 03:03
- And I am recording this on, what, the 25th of January 2023. And so, this is him preaching at the
- 03:11
- Victory Conference 2023 at Victory Tulsa. And we're gonna listen in context.
- 03:19
- And I'm gonna do my best to not interrupt him very much, if at all, as he explains this kind of cleaned -up language where he's no longer spewing the kinetic heresy, but talking about that this means we have to follow
- 03:33
- Jesus' example in performing miracles. And we're gonna note, he's going to twist a biblical text along the way, and we're going to pull this thing apart.
- 03:44
- So, grab a Bible, something to write with. You're gonna need some notes. But let's let
- 03:49
- Bill Johnson make his case. And again, we always have to, we're required to transmogrify
- 03:56
- Bill Johnson because Bill Johnson thinks that he's above the laws of fair use.
- 04:02
- So, that being the case, we distort his voice in the video so that he can't just automatically be notified and copyright strike us.
- 04:11
- Because the reality is that everything we're doing is under fair use. The reason
- 04:17
- I'm bringing this up is for the purpose of criticizing it, which is actually protected under the doctrine of fair use, just to let you know.
- 04:24
- So, here's Bill Johnson. He'll affirm that Jesus was always
- 04:29
- God, but watch where he goes with this. Did you know that Jesus, Jesus, first and number one, is eternally
- 04:37
- God? Never stopped being God, never took a vacation from being God. But the great mystery of scriptures, he became 100 % man while maintaining his 100 % divinity.
- 04:46
- I can't explain it. But Jesus told us of himself, he said, the son of man could do nothing of himself.
- 05:00
- Now, we're going to fact check this verse, just to let you know. The son of man said he can do nothing of himself. Remember the three rules for sound biblical exegesis.
- 05:07
- What are they? Context, context, context. Second rule is that scripture interprets scripture.
- 05:13
- So, he's basically claiming that Jesus here is saying that he is powerless to perform a miracle unless God the
- 05:23
- Holy Spirit is doing it through him. That's how he's using, misusing this text.
- 05:30
- I have looked it up, and the word nothing there actually means nothing. He was telling us, he was letting us know that all the stuff that he was about to do, the miracles, the deliverance, the walking on water, the multiplying food, all the stuff that he did, he couldn't do.
- 05:52
- Okay. He's clarifying. What did Jesus mean? He could do nothing. That means all the miracles, he couldn't do them.
- 06:00
- Now, obviously, as God, he could, but he so restricted his activities. So, he's saying that Jesus is saying he's going to restrict his activities so that he won't do anything except for by the power of the
- 06:10
- Holy Spirit. His processes, he so restricted them that he could only do what he saw the
- 06:15
- Father do if the Holy Spirit helped him to do it. It's another good point there,
- 06:24
- Bill. Just don't quit. The Son of Man can do nothing of himself, so he chose to so restrict what he could do to give us an example that could be followed.
- 06:39
- So, if he does everything, if he multiplies food as God, if he heals the sick as God, I'm still impressed, but I'm not compelled to follow.
- 06:48
- I'm permanently the spectator going, yay, God, do it again. But when I find out he does it as my Savior, as my elder brother, then suddenly
- 06:57
- I discover, no, wait a minute, he's setting an example that can and must be followed. If I, so note, he's not saying there's a biblical text that says that we have to follow
- 07:09
- Jesus' example of being a miracle worker. He says that that's the logical conclusion of what
- 07:16
- Jesus said when Jesus said he can do nothing of himself. Uh -huh.
- 07:22
- And by the way, there is no biblical text, not one. You're going to look throughout the entire Old and New Testament and you'll find nothing that says that when it comes to Jesus' miracles, that Jesus left us an example that all
- 07:36
- Christians should follow. No biblical text says that. So, we're going to fact check.
- 07:42
- So, let's get into the Bible. You've seen how he's using this text, and now we're going to fact check it.
- 07:52
- So, what I did here to begin with is we're going to note that John 5, 19 is the passage in question,
- 08:01
- John 5, 19. But what are the three rules for sound biblical exegesis? Context, context, and context.
- 08:10
- So, let's put it back into context, because you're going to note here, what I did is I pulled up three passages from the
- 08:17
- Gospel of John where Jesus talks in this same way. Okay? So, context is going to help us, and the cross -references are going to help us.
- 08:26
- And what we're going to do is we're going to fact check. We're going to fact check to see whether or not Jesus is saying here that I can't perform any miracles.
- 08:35
- God, the Holy Spirit has to perform them through me as I'm yielded to the Holy Spirit, and that this then can become an example for you to follow.
- 08:44
- That's what we're going to fact check. So, in order to put this into context, we are going to take a look at chapter 5 of the
- 08:53
- Gospel of John, starting at verse 1. Yes, this is part of the fuller context. And here's what it says.
- 08:59
- And there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now, there is in Jerusalem by the sheep gate, a pool in Aramaic called
- 09:06
- Bethesda, which has five roof colonnades, and in these lay a multitude of invalids, blind, lame, and paralyzed.
- 09:14
- Now, I'm going to note something here. Over the past 10 to 15 years, archaeologists have found the pool of Bethesda.
- 09:23
- But one of the more interesting bits that they've discovered is that the pool of Bethesda, more than likely, was an
- 09:32
- Asclepion. Now, if you don't know what an Asclepion is, let me explain. That means that this is a temple made for the
- 09:41
- Greek god Asclepius, who is, well, the best way I can put it is the occult of Asclepius is a lot like today's
- 09:48
- Word of Faith heretics. They were health and wealth preachers and teachers, and for a fee, if you had an illness, they would, they claimed that they would be able to heal you.
- 10:00
- So, that's part of the subtext here. Now, I don't think it's 100 % certain that it's an
- 10:06
- Asclepion, but let's just say that if it is, then this gives a little bit more of the historical context that we need to better understand this text, all right?
- 10:16
- So, in these lay a multitude of invalids, blind, lame, paralyzed. One man was there who had been an invalid for 38 years.
- 10:24
- When Jesus saw him lying there, and he knew that he had already been there a long time, notice he had no faith, he said to him, do you want to be healed?
- 10:34
- And if this is an Asclepion, Jesus asking this question is like, well, if you want to be healed, why are you in the temple of a false god, right?
- 10:43
- The sick man answered him, sir, I have no one to put me in the pool. When the water is stirred up and while I'm going, another steps down before me.
- 10:51
- And Jesus said to him, get up and take your bed and walk. And at once the man was healed, and he took up his bed and he walked.
- 10:58
- Now, the day that day was the Sabbath. So, the Jews said to the man who had been healed, it's the
- 11:05
- Sabbath. It's not lawful for you to take up your bed. But he answered them, the man who healed me, that man said to me, take up your bed and walk.
- 11:15
- So, this guy's like, I'm just doing what the guy told me to do. So, they asked him, well, who is the man who said to you, take up your bed and walk?
- 11:22
- Now, the man who had been healed did not know who it was for Jesus had withdrawn as there was a crowd in the place.
- 11:29
- Afterward, Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, see you are well, sin no more, so that something worse may not happen to you.
- 11:38
- The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had healed him. Notice the guy rats on Jesus.
- 11:44
- All right. It was Jesus. He's the one who told me to take up my bed. So, this is why the Jews were persecuting
- 11:50
- Jesus, because he was doing these things on the Sabbath. But Jesus answered them, my father is working until now, and I am working.
- 12:01
- This is part of the context. This is why the Jews were seeking all the more to kill Jesus, because not only was he breaking the
- 12:09
- Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own father, making himself equal with God, because that's what
- 12:15
- Jesus is. So, note here, they're claiming that Jesus broke the
- 12:20
- Sabbath. Can Jesus sin? Nope, not at all. And so, watch where Jesus goes.
- 12:27
- So, Jesus said to them, and you'll note the un here in Greek, you can translate this as therefore, it's translated in the
- 12:37
- ESV as so. Therefore, Jesus said to them, this is in direct result of their claim that Jesus was breaking the
- 12:45
- Sabbath. So, Jesus said to them, truly, truly, amen, amen, I say to you, the son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the father doing for whatever the father does that the son does likewise.
- 13:02
- Jesus here is answering the charge that he was breaking the Sabbath by healing on the
- 13:08
- Sabbath. And he says, I can do nothing of my own accord. Now, it's true in the
- 13:14
- Greek, one of the valid translations is you could translate this, the son could do nothing of himself.
- 13:21
- Okay? But here's the thing, this is not in the context of I'm doing my miracles by the power of the
- 13:28
- Holy Spirit. Jesus is saying, I'm doing nothing of my own accord. I only do what
- 13:34
- I see the father doing. In other words, if you're claiming that I'm breaking the Sabbath, you're saying that God is breaking the
- 13:40
- Sabbath. That's the point that Jesus is making. Not that he is giving us an example of what it looks like for a man perfectly yielded to the
- 13:50
- Holy Spirit to be able to perform miracles. So, truly, I say to you, the son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the father doing for whatever the father does that the son does likewise.
- 14:03
- For the father loves the son, shows him all that he himself is doing and greater works than these will he show him, so that you may marvel.
- 14:12
- For as the father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the son gives life to whom he will.
- 14:19
- The father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the son, so that all may honor the son just as they honor the father.
- 14:25
- Whoever does not honor the son does not honor the father who sent him. So, truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life.
- 14:36
- He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.
- 14:42
- Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming and is now here when the dead will hear the voice of the son of God and those who hear will live.
- 14:50
- For as the father has life in himself, so he has granted the son also to have life in himself. And he has given him authority to execute judgment because he is the son of man.
- 15:00
- Do not marvel at this for an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and come out and those who have done good to the resurrection of life and to those who have done evil to the resurrection of the dead.
- 15:11
- I can do nothing of my own on my own as I hear I judge and my judgment is just because I seek not my own will, but the of him who sent me."
- 15:23
- So, note here, Jesus says he can only do what he sees the father doing, and he can only do what he hears the father say, what the father is saying.
- 15:35
- Yeah, the whole point here is not that, oh, well, you know, miracles are the, you know, that he only can perform his miracles by the power of the
- 15:44
- Holy Spirit. That's not what Jesus is saying. So, Bill Johnson, in defending this doctrine of his that we need to follow the example of Jesus because he said,
- 15:57
- I can do nothing of myself, or the son of man can do nothing of himself, that means we have to follow
- 16:04
- Jesus' example as a miracle worker. It's a total twisting of God's word.
- 16:10
- And I would note, it puts a heavy, heavy burden on people. This isn't what the text says.
- 16:16
- So, let me back over here and then you'll note here. So, there are three times in the Gospel of John where Jesus talks this way.
- 16:23
- Truly, truly, I say to you, the son of man can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the father doing, okay?
- 16:30
- And then I can do nothing of my own as I hear I judge, 530, which we read.
- 16:36
- And then 828, when you have lifted up the son of man, then you will know that I am he and that I do nothing of my own authority, but speak just as the father taught me.
- 16:48
- None of these verses say that Jesus is saying he could not perform miracles except by the power of the
- 16:55
- Holy Spirit because he was incapable of actually doing them. That's not what this text says at all.
- 17:03
- In fact, I would note that the Gospel of John chapter two, the very first miracle, the first sign recorded in the
- 17:12
- Gospels, it says specifically that Jesus did it. Listen to what it says. On the third day, there was a wedding at Cana in Galilee.
- 17:19
- The mother of Jesus was there. Jesus also was invited to the wedding with his disciples. And when the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus said to him, they have no wine.
- 17:28
- And Jesus said to her, woman, what does this have to do with me? My hour has not yet come. His mother said to his servants, you do whatever he tells you.
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- Now there were six stone water jars there for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding 20 or 30 gallons.
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- Jesus said to the servants, fill the jars with water. They filled them up to the brim. And he said to them, now draw some out and take it to the master of the feasts.
- 17:52
- So they took it. And when the master of the feasts tasted the water, now become wine and did not know where it had come from, though the servants who had drawn the water knew the master of the feasts called the bridegroom and said to him, everyone serves the good wine first than the poor wine, but you have kept the good wine until now.
- 18:10
- This is the first of his, watch the word, signs, semeyon. Miracles are signs.
- 18:19
- Watch this. First of his signs that Jesus did at Cana in Galilee and manifested his glory and his disciples believed in him.
- 18:28
- Hmm. This is the first of his signs that who did? Jesus did.
- 18:34
- Mm -hmm. It doesn't say that the Holy Spirit did through Jesus. It says that Jesus did it and note it here, by doing so, he manifested ten dokson autu, his glory.
- 18:50
- Yeah. So, uh, there's Jesus' first sign miracle. He's the one who performed it.
- 18:56
- This contradicts what Bill Johnson says, uh, John five is about because this
- 19:03
- John five we showed isn't saying that Jesus saying, I can't perform any miracles except for by the power of the
- 19:08
- Holy Spirit that therefore this is an example for you to follow. By the way, we will talk about a clear text by the apostle
- 19:16
- Peter telling us in which way we are to emulate or follow the example of Jesus.
- 19:23
- Stay tuned. Don't go anywhere. You're going to want to hear this because we're not commanded to emulate the example of Jesus as a miracle worker.
- 19:31
- We are commanded to follow the example of Jesus very clearly and I'll explain. All right.
- 19:36
- So let me then kind of throw this into the mix. I said, well, you would talk about it. So let's talk about it here.
- 19:42
- Cause I hear all of our charismatic NAR, uh, friends going, but what is, what about John 14, 12, truly, truly,
- 19:50
- I say to whoever believes in me also will do the works that I do in greater works than these. Well, he do because I am going to the father.
- 19:58
- Yeah. It says, ergo works. It does not say miracles and nor does it say signs say may on.
- 20:06
- And I would note here, there is nobody on the, in the entire history of planet earth who has done more or greater signs than Jesus has.
- 20:18
- And I would note the big sign that Jesus did, the big miracle that Jesus did was raising himself from the dead, but I'm getting ahead of myself.
- 20:27
- Let me explain what signs are for. When we go back into the book of Exodus chapter four, you got
- 20:35
- Moses being commissioned by God at the burning bush. And Moses is a little worried that they're not going to believe him.
- 20:42
- So Moses said, behold, they will not believe me or listen to my voice where they will say, Yahweh did not appear to you.
- 20:49
- Yahweh said to him, well, what is that in your hand? He said, a staff. He said, throw it on the ground.
- 20:55
- So he threw it on the ground and became a serpent and Moses ran from him. Yahweh said to Moses, we'll put out your hand and catch it by the tail.
- 21:02
- So he put out his hand, caught it. And it became a staff in his hand that they may believe that Yahweh, the
- 21:08
- God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob has appeared to you. And again,
- 21:13
- Yahweh said to him, put your hand inside your cloak. And he put his hand inside his cloak. And when he took it out, behold, his hand was leprous like snow.
- 21:22
- Then God said, put your hand back inside your cloak. So he put his hand back inside his cloak.
- 21:27
- And when he took it out, behold, it was restored like the rest of his flesh. If they will not believe you, God said, or listen to the first sign, they may believe the latter sign.
- 21:35
- And if they will not believe even these two signs or listen to your voice, then you shall take some water from the Nile and pour it on the dry ground.
- 21:42
- And the water that you shall take from the Nile will become blood on the dry ground.
- 21:47
- Note here, the very important word, sign.
- 21:53
- Okay? So when we look at the thesis statement for the gospel of John, John writes these important words in John 20, verses 30 and 31.
- 22:06
- Now, Jesus did many other semeion, signs, not ergon, semeion.
- 22:12
- Ergon are works, semeion are miraculous signs. Jesus did many other semeion, signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book.
- 22:22
- But these, these what? These signs are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the
- 22:28
- Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name. So when
- 22:34
- Jesus says in John 14, the believers who follow him, they will do greater works, he wasn't saying greater miraculous signs.
- 22:44
- That's not what this text is talking about. In fact, I would note that the
- 22:49
- TPT, the toilet paper translation, some people call it the passion, but it is not a translation.
- 22:54
- It is a complete apostate mess. All right. The toilet paper translation says, let's see, according to it, the person who follows me in faith, believing in me will do the same mighty miracles that I do and even greater mighty miracles than these, because I go to be with my father.
- 23:14
- That is a flat out false translation. Jesus said,
- 23:21
- Ergon, works. He did not say semeion, miraculous signs.
- 23:27
- What, what the, the passion translation has done here is put something in there that doesn't exist.
- 23:35
- They have twisted God's word. And this isn't what Jesus meant at all.
- 23:40
- And I would note, okay, if you think you can perform greater signs than Jesus, well, then you're going to have some splaining to do because Jesus raised himself from the dead.
- 23:52
- You sit there and go, no, he didn't. Jesus didn't raise himself from the dead. Yeah, he did. Check this out.
- 23:58
- When Jesus cleared the moneychangers out of the temple, okay, in John chapter two, here's what it says.
- 24:04
- The Passover of the Jews was at hand and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the temple, he found those who were selling oxen and sheep and pigeons and moneychangers sitting there and making a whip of cords.
- 24:14
- He drove them all out of the temple with the sheep and the oxen. And he poured out the coins of the moneychangers and overturned their tables.
- 24:21
- And he told those who sold pigeons, take these things away. I, and do not make my father's house, a house of trade.
- 24:28
- His disciples remembered that it was written zeal for your house will consume me. So the Jews said to Jesus, what sign, semeion, what sign do you show us for doing these things?
- 24:42
- Moses had signs. Elijah and Elisha had signs. They expect Jesus to have signs.
- 24:48
- So Jesus answered them, destroy this temple. And in three days, I, I, I will raise it up.
- 24:55
- Does Jesus ever lie? Nope. So the Jews then said to him, well, it's taken 46 years to build this temple and you would raise it up in three days.
- 25:04
- But he was speaking about the temple of his body when therefore he was raised from the dead. His disciples remember that he had said this and they believe the scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.
- 25:15
- And you'll note all three members of the Trinity, father, son, and Holy spirit were active in the, in the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
- 25:24
- So it's absolutely true that Jesus raised himself from the dead. So you'll know nobody in all of human history has performed signs and wonders like Jesus has.
- 25:34
- No one even comes close. Not even Peter, not even the apostle Paul. In fact, they, they performed some notable signs demonstrating that they were truly apostles of Jesus Christ, but nobody has performed the signs and wonders that Christ did.
- 25:50
- He stands in a league all by himself. There's no one who even remotely comes in closely second, especially today.
- 25:58
- So Jesus didn't mean that. And what, so what did he mean then? Do greater works? Well, I would note that if you want an example of the greater works thing that Jesus is talking about, you can already begin to see that in play in Acts chapter two.
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- All right. So here's what it says. This is after Peter gave his great sermon at the feast of Pentecost and proclaimed
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- Christ in him crucified for our sins. And all the people gathered from all the nations that were there for Pentecost in Jerusalem.
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- It says this, that when they heard this, the preaching of Peter, they were cut to the heart.
- 26:34
- The Holy Spirit was convicting them of their sin. And they said to Peter and to the rest of the apostles, brothers, what shall we do?
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- And Peter said to them, repent and be baptized. Every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins.
- 26:47
- And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit for the promises for you and for your children and all who are far off and everyone whom the
- 26:54
- Lord God calls to himself. And with many other words, he bore witness and continued to exhort them saying, save yourselves from this crooked generation.
- 27:03
- So those who received his word were baptized and there were added that day, about 3000 souls in all of Jesus's lifetime.
- 27:13
- He never preached a sermon that resulted in 3000 people being baptized. Yeah, it's true.
- 27:21
- In fact, when Jesus dies on the cross, how many believers are there in Jesus?
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- Roughly 100, 120 -ish? Not very many. When Peter is crucified upside down and he's finally martyred for his
- 27:36
- Christian faith, how many Christians are there as a result of the preaching of the good news through the mouth and the ministry and the work of the apostle
- 27:46
- Peter? Tens, hundreds, thousands, right? Same with Paul.
- 27:54
- I would note both Peter and Paul, their ministries are noted by doing greater works than Jesus.
- 28:02
- Jesus only ministered for three years. Each of those men labored as apostles for decades.
- 28:09
- And so they did do greater works than Jesus, but neither of them did greater signs than he did.
- 28:17
- So keep that in mind. Now, here's another text to consider. If we are supposed to follow the example of Jesus, the miracle worker, then you would expect that the apostles would have taught the grassroots
- 28:32
- Christians that they needed to perform signs and wonders and follow the example of Jesus in signs and wonders.
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- But that's not what happened. Let me give you a notable example. In the book of Acts chapter nine, we get the account of a woman by the name of Tabitha, who also goes by the name of Dorcas.
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- I always say this, if you are looking for a girl's name to name your child and you're looking for a biblical name to name your girl, do not name her
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- Dorcas. I went to school in junior high with a girl who was named Dorcas because her parents wanted to give their baby girl a biblical name.
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- Don't do that because in English, that's not a good... it sounds too much like dork.
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- And as a result of it, that poor girl was teased horrifically, mercilessly.
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- Don't give this name to your girls, just saying. All right, so here's the account. Now there was in Joppa a disciple named
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- Tabitha, which translated means Dorcas. She was full of good works and acts of charity.
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- And in those days she became ill and she died. And when they had washed her, they laid her in an upper room.
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- And since Lydda was near Joppa, the disciples hearing that Peter was there, sent two men to him, urging him, please come to us without delay.
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- So Peter rose and went with them. And when he arrived, they took him to the upper room and all the widows stood beside him, weeping and showing tunics and other garments that Dorcas had made while she was with them.
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- But Peter put them all outside and knelt down and prayed and turned to the body and said, Tabitha, arise.
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- And she opened her eyes. And when she saw Peter, she sat up. And then he gave her, he gave her his hand and raised her up.
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- And then calling the saints and the widows, he presented her alive. And it became known throughout all
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- Joppa and many believed in the Lord. And he stayed in Joppa for many days with one Simon Tanner.
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- Now you're thinking, well, what does this have to do with what you're talking about? Notice here, if the expectation was that, you know, grassroots
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- Christians are supposed to follow the example of Jesus, the miracle worker, because they're supposed to do greater works.
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- And by works, we mean miracles than Jesus. Then why didn't
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- Peter rebuke and chastise these women? Let me explain.
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- It says that Dorcas or Tabitha, that she became ill and she died.
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- Why didn't they heal her? I mean, after all, Jesus said greater works, right?
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- And you got to follow the example of Jesus, the miracle worker, but she became ill and she died.
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- And why did they send to Peter? Because Peter, as an apostle of Jesus Christ, one who could legitimately do business in Jesus's name as an apostle and give commands of the
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- Lord, that's the authority he had as an apostle of Jesus Christ. He could operate in the signs of the apostles.
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- He had the ability given by Christ, the authority given by Christ to raise the dead and to heal the sick.
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- These women, they didn't have that authority. That is not an authority given generally to Christians.
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- And as a result of that, they were dependent upon Peter coming and exercising his apostolic authority to raise
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- Dorcas from the dead. And the fact that he didn't rebuke them for not following Jesus's example and stretching out with their faith and declaring
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- Dorcas's healing and raising Dorcas from the dead, that speaks volumes.
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- Okay? But there's one other thing to consider in all of this. And that is, is that we actually have a clear biblical text that tells us in what way we are to follow the example of Jesus.
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- There are no biblical texts that say we are to follow the example of Jesus as a miracle worker.
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- And we've noted that John 14 is twisted when you say works and make them into miraculous signs because they're not.
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- So what is the way in which Christians are to follow the example of Jesus? Well, the apostle
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- Peter lays that out for us. In fact, it's in first Peter chapter two.
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- And it's in the context of what you should do if you have a really bad boss.
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- Okay? I've worked in the corporate world before, and I've had some pretty terrible bosses.
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- Okay? So what if you have a boss who is short -tempered, prone to screaming and yelling, mistreating employees and things like this, and you don't have the ability to immediately go and find another job?
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- It's What do you do? Right? Well, listen to what
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- Peter writes in first Peter chapter two. Servants, be subject to your masters with all respect, not only to the good and to the gentle, but also to the unjust.
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- For this is a gracious thing when mindful of God, one endures sorrows while suffering unjustly.
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- And you'll note, if you have a bad boss and they're mistreating you, you are suffering unjustly.
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- What credit is it if when you sin and you are beaten for it, you endure. But if when you do good and you suffer for it and you endure, well, this is a gracious thing in the sight of God.
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- For to this you have been called because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example so that you might follow in his steps.
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- He committed no sin. Neither was the seat found in his mouth. When he was reviled, he didn't revile in return.
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- When he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly.
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- So note here, Jesus is suffering on the cross. How many sins did
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- Jesus commit? Zero. How many crimes did he commit? Zero. You'll note
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- Jesus only did good. And yet he suffered horrifically being murdered on the cross.
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- But he laid down his life in order that you might be forgiven and reconciled to God.
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- So you'll note then we as Christians are specifically told to follow the example of Jesus by suffering for doing good.
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- That is the way that Christians are called to follow the example of Jesus. And I have a clear text that says it.
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- So note here, for this you have been called, all of us have. We've been called because Christ also suffered for you.
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- He has left you an example that you might follow in his steps. He committed no sin. Neither was the seat found in his mouth.
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- When he was reviled, he did not revile in return. When he suffered, he did not threaten, but he continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly.
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- He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness by his wounds.
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- You have been healed for to you, for you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the shepherd and the overseer of your souls.
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- So hopefully you found this helpful. Does Jesus want us to follow in his footsteps and be miracle workers?
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- Nope. In fact, Bill Johnson had to twist the gospel of John chapter five to try to make it appear that Jesus is saying he performed all of his miracles only by the power of the
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- Holy Spirit, but that's not what John five says. And then he extrapolated from that false statement of his, that therefore
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- Jesus left us an example to follow by being miracle workers. And I will point this out over and over and over again.
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- Miracle worker. Do you notice that Bill Johnson wears glasses?
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- His son is deaf, partially deaf.
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- His wife died of cancer. Has he, is he doing greater miracles than Jesus?
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- Not on your life. And putting a vacuum cleaner bag full of glitter into the air conditioning ducts at Bethel to claim that the glory cloud has appeared.
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- That's a false sign, false wonder, and not at all what Jesus would do. So just saying, so hopefully you found this helpful.
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- If so, all the information on how you can share this video is down below in the description. And until next time, may
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- God richly bless you in the grace and mercy won by Jesus Christ and his vicarious death on the cross for all of your sins.