Speaker 1: Most of us eat every day, some of us too
much because yesterday's food is not enough to supply energy
for today's needs. Why then, do some of us expect
yesterday's portion of heavenly manna the word of God to
keep us through today's challenges. On this program, we are
going to change all of that. Let's experience God's words
today and receive the power we need to live healthy,
vibrant lives. Welcome to Your Daily Portion with your host,
author speaker, Elle David Harris.
Speaker 2: Good morning, Good morning, good morning. It is Monday, November eighteen,
twenty twenty four. Hello, my name is El David Harris.
I am your host, and this is your Daily Portion
where we give you God's Word every single day, and
today is no exception. We are continuing in our lesson
study series themes in the Gospel of John with our
caption the Authoritative Role of Scripture. The Authoritative Role of Scripture.
We'll get into that in just a moment, but first
I'd like to say welcome to you and ask you
to please go over to your Daily Portion dot com.
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continue to build faith and fellowship. Let's go ahead and pray,
and then we will get underway. Father and Heaven, thank
you for giving us this new morning and giving us
the opportunity to look into the past and see how
you have led us since. Then help us Father to
see ourselves in relationship with you, and indeed surrender our
will in Jesus name. I pray, Amen and a man
again the authoritative role of scripture. Now I want to
caution us, just really quickly. I need to throw up
a word of caution. The goal every time we open
God's Word, especially when we are looking at historical things,
is to connect with God. I need to say that
one more time. The goal is to connect with God.
The goal is not simply to understand what the words say.
It's not simply to be able to maybe teach a
class or give a clinic on what Jesus said. It
is it is so that we can actually connect with
God and be transformed. You'll note that often I keep
talking about being transformed by God, transformed by God, transformed.
The metamorphosis must take place, or else what we're doing
doesn't make sense. It doesn't make sense for us to
just be more into actually stimulated here. And so when
we go into the history of what Jesus is referencing
in the Old Testament, we need to now put ourselves there.
What is God saying to me? What was Jesus saying
that will impact my life and then by extension the
life of others through me, you see. And so now
we go into the Bible Book of John chapter five,
and it's very interesting. We're going to begin at verse
thirty nine, so we'll do verses thirty nine, forty forty six,
and forty seven. Okay, And so verse thirty nine search
the scriptures, And in other translations it says you search
the scriptures. So Jesus is speaking to a set of
people who were supposedly leaders in the fellowship of God's people. Right,
They're supposed to be the elite of the elite and
the ones who are shepherding people through the scriptures so
they can connect with God. Okay, And so he said
you search the scriptures for in them, ye think ye
have eternal life. And I need you to just pause
right here and hear what Jesus is saying. Hear what
he's not saying. What he's not saying is that by
reading the scriptures you have eternal life. That's what he's
not saying. And I know, like we are Bible students,
we are Bible readers, we study God's word, we are
people of the book. This movement is of people of
the book, you understand. And so it says here that
ye think ye have eternal life by what searching the scriptures? See,
they wore it on their bodies, they wore it on
their heads, they wore it in different ways and wanted
people to know that they knew and understood the law.
And Jesus is saying that is not the purpose of
searching the scriptures. Well, what is the purpose, Jesus? Okay,
let me start from the beginning. You search the script
for in them, ye think ye have eternal life. Now
let me add a different conjunction. But they are they
which testify of me? You see. So now there's a contrast,
it says, and and they are they which testify of me.
So when you're searching the scriptures. You should be looking
for Jesus. Jesus is the one that gives eternal life.
Looking for a relationship with Jesus, looking for a way
to surrender our will to Jesus, to emulate Jesus, to
love and embrace Jesus, to see how Jesus points us
to Ah God, our Father, how Jesus, through the power
of the Holy Ghost, is transforming our lives. And so
Jesus emphasizes the importance of the scriptures, pointing out that
not only do they hold the keys to eternal life, yes,
but they testify of Jesus. This underscores the validation of
scriptures as authoritative because the scriptures are pointing to Him,
authoritative and essential for understanding God's plan of salvation through Christ.
So it's not just intellectual. It's not just that we
feel better when we study the scriptures. It's not just
that we have the right answers like we do when
we're like doing Bible studies like these and more extensive ones.
That's not enough. What we're looking for is a connection
with God. They are they which testify of me, even
historically verse forty and ye will not come to me.
See this is how I know that we're on the
right track. And ye will not come to me that
ye may have life. So we're saying you have in
your mind that if you go into the Bible or
the scriptures, the scrolls, you will have eternal life by
your actions there, your activity, your assent to the truth.
But you won't come to me, so you can actually
have life. Let me say it with another accent. And
ye will not come to me that you may have life.
You think by going to the written text that is
where life is. I'm telling you that the written text
is about me, and you should be coming to me
for the life, for the life. And so here Jesus
is criticizing the listeners for their unwillingness, unwillingness to come
to him to receive eternal life. Let me ask you
a question. When you see Jesus in the scriptures, are
you are you coming closer to him when you see
that he is teaching corrective things where where our lives
are concerned. Are you running to him or running away
from him? That's the question that I have to ask myself.
Verse forty six, For had ye believed Moses see the scriptures?
He's talking about the scriptures. The prophetic writ the scriptures,
ye would have believed me, for he wrote about me.
He wrote about me. So you say that you believe Moses.
You say that you are students of the law. You
say that you and embrace the law Torah. You say this,
but if you really were about that life, then you
would be embracing me. You wouldn't be trying to kill me.
You wouldn't be running around trying to trick me in
words and cause people to walk away from me. If
you really believed in Moses, then you would believe in me. Now,
let me ask you a question. If you really believe
the New Covenant scriptures, Ah, the New Covenant Scriptures where
he writes them, writes them, what the laws of God,
the laws of God, the ten Commandments on our hearts
and in our minds, Then you would espouse all of
the ten Commandments. You wouldn't turn away from them if
you believed Moses. If you believed those scriptures, you believed
in the New Covenant. Let me just add it to today,
then you would embrace the truth that Jesus has manifest
concerning his law, love for God, love for humans, all ten,
not five, not six, not three, not the ones you
like all ten verse forty seven. But if ye believe
not his writings, ye shall how shall ye believe my words?
And so when Jesus is teaching, and he is teaching
in so many places in Luke chapter eight, Luke chapter four,
he is speaking of a prophecy in Isaiah chapter sixty one,
where he delivers the captives and he gives he preaches
the gospel to the poor, and he's sent to the
broken hearted. You're not going to believe that from Isaiah
chapter sixty one, because I'm right in front of you
and you're disrespecting me. You won't believe that I'm the
good shepherd, hearkening back to Ezekiel chapter thirty four and
so many other places. What I'm saying is that the
authoritative role of scripture is to say that this is
the way.
Speaker 1: Walk in it.
Speaker 2: Peace.
Speaker 1: Thanks for joining us listening. Friends, Always remember we cannot
live by bread alone, but by every word that comes
from the mouth of God. This has been your daily
portion with el David Harris. Make it a great day. Yeah,