Change

Today's sermon is part two to last week's. Last Sunday we looked at Jesus' warning to the Jewish leadership. They were to judge Him rightly. I told you that they were partially right in their understanding of who Jesus was. They could see that Jesus was dangerous. But they didn't get it completely right. What they needed to do, but didn't do, was to submit to Him as Messiah. They needed to become His disciples. That was last week's sermon. This week I want to follow that up with a question. It's the simple question, 'Why?' Why didn't they get it completely right? Why didn't they become His disciples? And to answer that question we're going to turn back a couple of chapters to John 5. Now, fair warning: we're going to start in John 5, but we're not going to stay there. We're going to be looking at several different portions of Scripture as we work our way through some questions to come to a helpful answer. Please listen as I read John 5.39-44.

So, according to this bit of Scripture, why didn't they become Jesus' disciples? Why didn't they believe? Jesus is quite clear about this.

How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the only God?

Now, that's clear but maybe not as clear as we need it. I’m concerned about 'church words'. The original NIV sees that and makes adjustments.

 How can you believe if you accept praise from one another, yet make no effort to obtain the praise that comes from the only God?

'Praise' instead of 'glory'. That's helpful. But let's go a step further. What's the basic concept Jesus talks about here? He's talking about looking for the approval of others. So, to translate even more loosely, 'You guys will never believe because being approved by your friends is more important to you than being approved by God.' That's what Jesus is talking about. The Jewish leaders that dogged Jesus' steps would not believe - could not believe - because they were caught in the trap of wanting the approval of their colleagues. They knew that anyone siding with this upstart would be chastened by the rest. That's exactly what happens to Nicodemus later in John's Gospel.

So, because of this desire to look good in the eyes of others, these men did not believe. Let's take that apart a bit. It's important that you see that this is not something necessarily conscious. When the group was confronted by Jesus, the men didn't have to go through the steps, 'So, what do I think about this Jesus fellow? Well, the group seems to have a dim view of Him. And I don't want to look bad. So, I guess I'll reject Him also.' No, this is more subtle. This is about one of those attitudes of the heart that quietly determines behavior. And while there are those times when someone is aware of those attitudes deep within, he doesn't need to be for them to affect how he acts. Consider your own experience. There are times when you react strongly to something. You really like it, or you really don't. Why? Did you go through some conscious process of deciding how to respond? No. You just reacted. You reacted in the way that you did because of what goes on within your soul. The soul holds the hidden root system beneath our thoughts and actions. People rarely see or even look for the roots of why they think and act in the ways that they do. The lust for approval was one particular root that went deep within the souls of these leaders. And it was because of this root that these men would not believe. This lust in their souls determined how they responded to Jesus.

Now, the fact of the matter is that these men are not unique. Not at all. Left to ourselves, none of us would believe Jesus. Listen to how the Scriptures describe the natural 'root system' of all of us.

The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.

That's the natural state of every heart because of the sin inherited from Adam. So, if anyone is going to believe, those dynamics of the soul need to be changed. And that is exactly what the Spirit has done in the souls of those who do believe the Gospel. A person's root system must be changed so that he will believe, so that he can believe.

The book of Acts is the record of lives being changed in this way. Here's one example of that from Acts 6.

And the word of God continued to increase, and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests became obedient to the faith.

Now, were any of these priests members of that group of Jewish leaders who rejected Jesus and failed to judge Him rightly? I don't know. But it's entirely possible that they were since these converted priests lived in Jerusalem where the Jewish leadership resided. Regardless, this much we know. If they believed, it's because the dynamics of their souls had been changed. Those who were controlled by some lust in the soul, whether that was the lust for approval or any other lust, had that root dealt with. Whatever attitudes blocked the way to their believing in Jesus were removed. The dynamics of their souls were changed. They would not believe, and then they did. This is because of the invisible work of the Spirit changing their hearts.

God speaks through His prophet Ezekiel to describe this work in a way that fits here.

I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.

The Spirit changes the dynamics of the soul. He changes the heart. The Spirit takes that dead hunk of rock that is masquerading as a heart and replaces it with a heart that is alive. And He has done this work in the life of everyone who is a Christian. That means that He has done this in your life. You may be able to point to a date when it happened or maybe you can't. That doesn't matter. What does matter is that at some point or other in the life of the Christian the Spirit made this most basic change in his soul so that he would believe the Gospel.

That's all I want to do with John 5. It is an example of how the root system in the soul affects a person. And I've used it to present to you this idea of the dynamics of the soul.

Now, here's where I want to go with this. You have been changed, that is, your souls have been changed. They have been powerfully changed, deeply changed - but not completely changed. The deep taproot of evil has been removed from your souls, but there are still all these other little roots that linger and affect how you live. And Jesus wants to get rid of them. He wants to dig out of your soul all the remnants of the evil that once ruled you. He wants to completely change you so that the dynamics of your soul are as pure and clean and holy as the dynamics of His own soul.

Now, why does He want to do that? There are several reasons, but here is the one that I want to focus on this morning. Because of all those little roots that linger, there are aspects of Jesus and His Kingdom that you are still rejecting. This is not a conscious thing. But the reality is there. There are parts of Jesus' plan that you are not buying into. That's wrong and evil and it’s just no good for you. But the only way that that will change is as the Spirit does His work within your souls rooting out those bits of evil that remain. He needs to continue to change the dynamics of your souls.

So, just to pick one example, the Apostle Paul wrote this to the Colossian Christians.

Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.

Consider Paul's list of sins. It's not a list of certain behaviors. He does that elsewhere but not here. This list of sins is about attitudes of the heart. These sins are all dynamics of the soul - even the immorality. And his point is clear. These have to go. To use his language, they have to be put to death. To use my language, they have to be rooted out of the soul. And this, to use the language of the theologians, is all about sanctification.

Here, let me quote something else from Paul

And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.

It is no longer true that 'the thoughts and intentions of [your] heart [are] only evil continually.' The Spirit has made a striking change in you when He changed your heart so that you could believe in Jesus. The dynamics of your soul have been altered and that in a most profound way. But the Spirit is not done with you. What He has begun He desires to finish. There is more soul work that He wants to do.

Now, I want to get to some practical aspects of all of this. But before I do, I think I need to explain why this is important to you. Why should you care about the dynamics of your soul? Why should it be important for you to see the Spirit's work of change continue and grow in your soul? There are several things going on here. But here's just one. Jesus didn't come just so that a bunch of people could make it to Heaven. The rescue that He pursued and is pursuing is so much more than that, so much richer than that. And while the completed work of change awaits His return, there is so much more that He intends for you to enjoy now. And your enjoying that now is really important to Him. For one thing, this is tied to the Father's desire to see you flourish. The Father wants to give you more good gifts than He already has. Like any good Father He wants to see His children mature and thrive. But we live in a time when people - Christians! - are distracted from this and satisfied with just a little. 'Getting to heaven is good, no? Isn't that enough?' Well, the fact of the matter is that it isn't enough. And many feel it. They sense that something is missing. Their attitude about their lives is, 'Well, it's okay, I guess', but not much more than that. This is the evidence that just waiting around for Heaven isn't good enough. And that's why it's so good to know that Jesus has intended more than just that. He wants to change you completely from the inside out. And He will. And so much of that change can happen and be enjoyed in the here and now. And the result of experiencing that? If I may dare to use the term, it results in Christians who are happy. There is an emotional contentment. The soul finds rest. There is more of the Gospel for you to enjoy. And God - Father, Son and Spirit - wants you to enjoy it. And so do I. And that's one really big reason why this is important to you.

Now, we're ready for some practical aspects. So, another simple question. 'How?' How does the Spirit change a soul? How does He complete the work of altering the dynamics of your soul so that they are just like the dynamics of Jesus' soul?

We need to put two things together here. I think that it's clear that it is God, the Spirit, who does this work of change. He began it and He will finish it. So says Scripture. But at the same time it is also clear that there are things for you to do. Paul was quite clear in that command I quoted earlier, 'Put to death therefore what is earthly in you...' He expects you to be doing something. So, who does this work of change? The Spirit does. It really is a matter of grace. We do not save ourselves even when it comes to our sanctification. But the Spirit does not just zap someone out of the blue. He uses means, tools. So, He has given you the Bible, promised to hear your prayers, works wonders in you through the sacraments. But you impede the progress He desires, the changing of your soul, if you do not make use of these means that He has provided. The Spirit does the work of changing you, but He uses means: the Bible, prayer, the sacraments. Your job is to use His means so that He can do His job.

Let's talk about the Bible as a means for the Spirit to change your soul. We'll leave talking about prayer and the sacraments for another time. And this is how I'm going to do this. I'm going to use my own experience with the Bible as the Spirit's tool, and I'm going to limit that to daily Bible reading, what we used to call the 'quiet time'. In doing this I'm not saying that you have to do it like I have. We are all different so there is no one 'right way'. I just want to illustrate some aspects of using the means of the Bible so the Spirit can change your soul.

I started the habit of regular daily Bible reading when I was nineteen. I learned about this in college through InterVarsity. I still have the first book I used for this. Each week the book dealt with a topic, 'Knowing God's Will', 'Evangelism' and the like. And each day of that week there was some appropriate Scripture followed by questions to answer - with space to write them out - along with some comments to guide you. I have fond memories of my taking this book along with my King James Bible to a private spot in the dorm so that I could read and pray. That habit of daily reading developed until I no longer used a study book. I just read my Bible. My focus in reading was content. There were plenty of parts of the Bible that I knew nothing about. I wanted to read it and get to know what it said and then, to understand what it meant. And that led, of course, to putting the pieces together so that I could understand how it all fit together. Over the years I've followed various plans to read the Bible. As one example, at the beginning of this year I started a plan to read something like ten chapters a day. I had mentioned that to you in a sermon. But early in the year, I decided to stop pursuing that plan. I could sense that something was missing. There was an itch that wasn't getting scratched. As a result, I made what for me was a big change. I've gone back to using a book, or actually a set of three books, The Divine Hours. Each day has four separate sets of readings: the Morning Office, the Midday Office, the Vespers Office and the Night Office. Each of these is a collection of verses from various Psalms, a short Gospel reading, sometimes words to a hymn and then some brief prayers, always including the Lord's Prayer. Each office is no more than two pages long. I always read the Morning Office, and I usually read the Night Office before I go to bed. Doing it this way is significant in that I no longer read for content - not during my quiet time. Now, I read for reflection. In particular, this has helped me to reflect on who God is and especially who He is toward me. So, if someone were to ask me about my 'quiet time' I'd tell him about what I read in one of those three books.

Over the years Jesus has used my habits of daily Bible reading to deal with my soul. I still remember how He used that first book back in college, sometimes in rather striking ways. And when I read the Morning or Night Office now, I just know that He is going to use what I am reading to change my soul, at least a little. I don't have to feel anything, and I don't have to come away with some profound thought, but I know that He will use what I am reading to change my soul. I know that not just because the Bible teaches that. I know that because I've experienced it. Over the years He has dug out more and more of those little roots of sin that remained. He has changed me in ways that I could never have guessed ahead of time.

Here's the big point. Jesus wants to change your soul. There is more of the Gospel for you to enjoy, and He really wants you to enjoy it. He has decided to do that by the use of means: the Bible, prayer, the sacraments. So, it is to your advantage to use these means. Doing that doesn't have to take large chunks of time. Quality trumps quantity. Slowly reading through the Morning Office takes me something like five or ten minutes. The issue isn't amount of time. The issue is just doing it.

For some of you this will hopefully function as an encouragement to continue your daily Bible reading habits, whatever style they may take. Keep at it. Jesus will use your reading as a means to change your soul. For others of you this will hopefully function as an encouragement to begin, maybe begin again, the habit of daily Bible reading. Do this in the hope that Jesus will use it as a means to change your soul. He will.