Reformed Sermons

For God So Loved the World

2012-01-22T15:57:00.000-05:00

Today, we look at what has to be one of the best known verses around: 'For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.' I'm guessing that the only competition that this verse has for popularity is the first verse of 23rd Psalm. 'The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want.' There may be some others, but it's clear that we are in exclusive territory.

There are lots of ways to approach a text like this. What we are going to do this morning is to look at some of its key words. There are six that I'll talk about. I am persuaded that there are profound things being described in this verse. It is my hope that you will see them a bit more clearly and that seeing them will change you in ways that people will notice.

The first key word is obvious. It's 'God'. I am finding that so many of the problems that crop up and cause Christians such troubles are related, in some way, to their understanding of who God is. So much would be very different if believers today understood their God better. So, this first key word really is key and not just for understanding one verse.

As you would expect, the Westminster Shorter Catechism has a question about the nature of God. 'What is God?' And here is the answer it gives. 'God is a spirit, infinite, eternal and unchangeable in his being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness and truth.' Knowing this God is the goal of life. And the right kind of pursuit of that goal will lead to the adoration and fear of God. What I'm going to do at this point is to pick two qualities from that catechism answer: this God is holy and just. So, to translate, our God is pure goodness, and he always does what is right. As we work our way through the text, we'll come back to these two aspects of God's character.

The next key word for us here is the word 'world'. I think that it's safe to say that when folk think about this word, especially in the context of this verse, the focus is on 'how many'. And that makes sense. 'World' refers to all the people alive on this globe. But, since this is John, we need to ask whether there's another layer here. And, as expected, there is. 'World' for John is not just about 'how many'. It's also about 'what kind'. So, there's this from one of the letters John wrote. 'Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world - the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride in possessions - is not from the Father but is from the world.' You see, for John, the 'world' is also about how evil this place is. The goals of the 'world' are all about 'the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride in possessions'. The 'world' is about the way of life that is absolutely opposed to the God who runs this universe. So, we're back to Genesis 6 which I've mentioned before. This is God's assessment of things during Noah's days: '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 'world' with its devotion to evil and its hostility to God. It's not just how many but also what kind. Layers.

That leads to the next word for us to look at: 'perish'. Isn't it odd that even in a modern translation like the ESV, it still has 'perish'? You expect 'perish' in the old KJV. Why not use the more modern word 'die'? There's a reason. The Greek word that John used includes more than just the idea of dying. It has this undercurrent being destroyed. Demons used this word when they spoke to Jesus. 'What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are - the Holy One of God.' The demons understood. It's more than just dying. The holiness of God has to crush evil. So, it just seems obvious to the demons that Jesus, the Holy One, has come to destroy them. And in that, they are absolutely correct. Evil must be destroyed. So, it's not just 'die' but 'perish'.

And now we have three key words that we can put together to understand a part of the verse. John writes about the holy God and the evil world. So, it's not just demons that must be destroyed. The world must perish. Think back to Genesis 6 and God’s assessment of what was going on in Noah's day. What happened next? The flood. Destruction. The holy God condemned an evil world. He destroyed it. Holiness demanded it. This evil world must 'perish'. And it's not as if the flood were the only example of this attitude of God to evil. Here's a verse describing Joshua and the army of Israel obeying what God commanded as they conquered the Promised Land. 'Then they devoted all in the city to destruction, both men and women, young and old.' They all perished at God's command. There are lots of folk who squirm when they read this. But should they? How else should a holy God respond to evil? 'But he could just ignore all of that, you know, let it slide. Who would know?' And that's why I also mentioned that God is just. To ignore evil might be something that we might do, but not a just God. Evil must be crushed. Holiness requires it. And justice will make sure that it happens.

This is a sobering thought, one not to be handled carelessly. But it is one that you need to grasp. Do you know why? If you don't get this, there will be parts of the Gospel that you will not understand. As a result, there will be blessings of the Gospel that you will not be able to enjoy. And that is really bad because your life will not honor Jesus as well as it might. There are parts of God's Word that are difficult, but we must work to understand them because they are part of God's Word. Evil must perish.

Now, let’s step back a bit. What is our text about? It's about what won't happen. There are some who won't perish. And why is that? Why won't these face destruction? What does John say? Here's our next word. It's because God loved the world. I hope that that sentence is so very jarring. I hope that the thought of a holy and just God loving a world that hates him and is completely given to evil will seem wrong - because, in a way, it is wrong. There really should have been another flood. And if the survivors of that flood didn't get it right, there should have been another. And then, if necessary, another and then another, until humanity gets it right; the destruction of evil. But that's not what happened. Why? Because this holy and just God also loves. And right there it should be clear that understanding this God is not quite as simple as so many think. It's easy to say that he loves everyone with one big hug and everybody's story will end ‘happily ever after’. But what about the evil? And likewise, it's easy to say that God hates them all and they’re all going straight to hell. But then what about this love of God for the world? There is much more to God than what most people think.

So, this holy and just God, in the face of clear hostility against him by an evil world, loves. How? What does he do? He gives his Son. That's what Jesus was talking about when he told Nicodemus, 'And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.' God gave his Son to be lifted up on a Cross. Can you imagine doing something like that? There is one person who almost can. Abraham almost gave his son, Isaac. Almost. It didn't happen, but it was close enough for him to feel something. The angel stopped him just in time and provided a ram to sacrifice instead. I remember back when Seth was in a school play. He was in the 3rd grade. The play was about Abraham almost sacrificing his son Isaac. Seth wasn't Abraham, nor was he Isaac. He was the ram, the ram that was the substitute for Isaac. That ram is an Old Testament picture of Jesus, our substitute, who wasn’t almost sacrificed. I watched Seth as he lay on the altar about to be killed. I thought not so much about Abraham who almost gave his son, but about God who did give his Son. I understood the Cross a little bit better. God so loved the world that he gave his only Son.

Understand what was going on as Jesus was sacrificed on that Cross. Jesus perished. Destruction. I have read different articles about the physical suffering that Jesus endured, about how he was suffocating and how the nails went through not his palms but the bones of his wrists and all the rest. Horrible. But how can any of that compare to perishing at the hands of the God who was venting all of his holy anger at the hostility of an evil world? Our evil. That's the love that John 3:16 is talking about. It's not some sentimental tripe. Because he loved, the Father gave his Son to suffer the destruction we should endure. So, here are some words that need to go together: God, world, perish, and then love.

Not everyone is rescued from this destruction. And that gets us to the next key word 'believe'. '… whoever believes in him will not perish…' Jesus death for evil is for any who believe in him and only for those who believe in him. But why would God select this? Why believing instead of something else? He could have said that 'whoever loves will not perish' or 'whoever does good will not perish' or something else. Why believing? It is actually a good thing that he didn't choose love or doing good. If either of them were necessary for being rescued from perishing, we would all be destroyed. Who has loved according to God's standard, or has done good in the way that God thinks it should happen? No one. Actually, that's not true. There is one who did meet those conditions. Jesus. So, he is the only one who did not deserve destruction. How ironic that he was the one who was destroyed.

It's a good thing that what’s needed is believing. Believing isn't loving. It isn't even doing good. At the heart of believing is the admission that you cannot meet any condition. Believing is acknowledging that there is no hope of being able to do anything to satisfy any requirements. Believing understands that it all depends on someone else meeting the conditions. So, the question everyone has to answer is, 'Whom will you believe in?' Some believe in themselves, thinking that they can meet any conditions. Others choose some other person or thing to depend on, to believe in. But we believe in Jesus. We look to him. We acknowledge that he must fulfill all the conditions so that we might not perish. And that means, of course, believing is an all or nothing kind of thing. A person believes in Jesus, or he doesn't. Either he acknowledges his complete failure to do what is required, or he doesn't. Either he expects Jesus to do all that is necessary, or he doesn't. There is no third option. Whoever believes in Jesus will not perish. So, here's an important question for you. Do you believe in Jesus? That question is not about how well you might do at that. All Christians do a terrible job when it comes to believing. That's part of what is acknowledged in this believing. Christians can't even believe very well. But they do believe. Do you? If you don't, you need to be thinking about perishing. But if you do, you should be so encouraged. The promise of this verse is yours.

And that gets us to our last key word: 'life'. The promise of the Gospel is that all who believe in Jesus will gain life, eternal life. I've mentioned that there is a lot going on here. Let me point to one thing that seems clear about this eternal life, something that sets it apart from any other kind of life: the love of the Father. Listen to something from Jesus' prayer in John 17. 'I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them…' The point of Jesus' mission here is love. His goal is that the Father might love those who follow him. But did you note how Jesus describes the love that the Father has for his disciples? '… the love with which you have loved me…'

The Father loves us. We know that, but it doesn't have the impact that it might. And do you know why? It's because we do not understand the nature of that love. So, understand what Jesus is talking about here. The Father loves you with the same love that he has loved his Son for an eternity before there even was a creation. The same passion, the same intensity, the same everything. This is astounding! The Father loves you with a love that goes beyond anything that you can imagine. And he loves you with that love not because you've been good enough or you've read your Bible each day for a week or you've avoided that particular sin that you struggle with or met some other condition. There aren't any conditions for you to satisfy. None. He loves you with that kind of love because Jesus has met all the conditions. And so, the Father loves you all the time with the love with which he has loved his Son. And that's just a fact. This is a part of - and only a part of - the eternal life that the Father promises to all who believe in Jesus. This is something you need to take home with you and mull over. This is something that will dramatically change you as you learn how to believe it in the different areas of your life. The Father loves you.

I have one last thought. And to get at that let me remind you that the holy and just God still loves this evil world. But that will not continue forever. There really is a last day. At that point, everything changes for the people of the world. So, the need of the day is for the world - your neighbors, your family, your co-workers - to see that this God and his love are real, not just true but real. Remember that your neighbors have all been told that religion, any sort of religion, is not much more than a security blanket. It doesn't make a real difference, but it's comforting. Only things that you can see and touch make a real difference. The people around you have been told that over and over, and they believe it. What they need to see is that love of God in Jesus is not some security blanket. It is comforting, but it's comforting because it is real. It makes a difference. They need to see that so that they might also believe in Jesus.

So, how will they see that? They need to see it in you. They need to see that all of this makes a difference in your life. And by that I don't mean that you show how nice you are because you're religious. They need to see that your life really does work because you follow Jesus. And that will mean doing things that will make absolutely no sense to them. To use a concept from Paul, you will need to become a fool for Jesus' sake. Being confident of the love of the Father and in obedience to the Spirit's guiding, you will make 'foolish' choices, or at least that is what it will look like to them. And yet, as they will see, your life works well. In fact, they will see that your life works in ways that theirs don't. They will see in you the fruit of eternal life. Our neighbors are perishing. Our culture is perishing. Out of love for them, we need to act. They need to see us believe the Gospel.

An Old Testament Look at the Gospel

2012-01-15T15:49:00.000-05:00

This morning we're going to be looking at a text within a text. Let me read our text in John, and then I'll explain what I mean. It’s John 3.14-15. Jesus is speaking to Nicodemus. 'And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.' Jesus, here, points to something that Moses did when Israel was in the desert. He does this to illustrate the Gospel to Nicodemus. What we're going to do this morning is take a look at what happened in that OT text to see what it has to say about the Gospel. Then, we'll come back to John 3 for one final thought. So, listen as I read Numbers 21.4-9.

The situation is pretty straightforward. Israel is in the desert. They have left Egypt and are on their way to the Promised Land. And along the way out comes a complaint. There's no water, and the people are tired of what they call 'this worthless food'. They were talking about the manna that God provided every day. God hears their complaints. And he responds. He sends poisonous snakes. Some of the people are bitten, and they die. Seeing this, others of the people quickly admit their sin and appeal to Moses. 'Pray to the Lord, that he take away the serpents from us.' Moses prays. But God doesn't get rid of the snakes. Instead, he tells Moses to make a metal snake and then to set it on a pole for all to see. Once he does that, Moses is to tell the people to look at the snake. If someone who is bitten looks at this snake, he will live. God's promise. And what we find is that those who did this, in fact, live. This, according to Jesus, is an illustration of the Gospel.

There are a bunch of things I want you to see from this. Let's start with this. The events recorded in the OT are intended to teach you about Jesus and his Gospel. So, when you're reading about David and Goliath, or Noah and the flood, or Daniel and those lions, the question you need to be asking yourself is this: 'How does this help me understand the Gospel better? Where is the Gospel in this text?' The OT is about the Gospel. So, working to become more familiar with your Bible means reading the OT also, reading it and then thinking about how whatever you've just read teaches the Gospel. This will not be easy. Growing in your understanding here will develop by lots of little steps. Be patient and chip away at it. Seeing the Gospel in the OT will be a great help to your walk with Jesus. So, keep at it. Get to know your Bible. And bear in mind that the goal is not to know the right answers so you can pass some test. The goal is to be able to enjoy the Gospel more and more. And as that happens, you will do a better job of fulfilling the reason God made you: to make Jesus look as good as really he is to those around you.

Let's move on. To understand the Gospel you need to understand sin. So, consider the sin here. What was it? Well, the people complained. And what did they complain about? One thing they complained about God's gift, the manna. Isn't that amazing? There was a miracle every morning, and all they could think was, 'Ugh, manna again.' On top of that they complained about the lack of water. But was that really a problem? The text says nothing about anyone dying because of this. There was enough water. That's not the problem. What's really going on is that they didn't like having to trust God to provide the water that they would need for each day. That's what they were complaining about.

So, what was the sin? It wasn't that they broke some rule about complaining. Rather, Israel was telling their God, 'We don't like your gifts, and we don't trust you to take care of us.' This text illustrates, when you get right down to it, what all sin is. In one way or another, sin is a rejection of God. It's like a husband telling his wife, 'I'd rather have somebody else.' You who are married, can you imagine your spouse saying that to you? 'I don't like you. I don't trust you. I don't want you.' How would you like to hear something like that? Do you think that it’s any more enjoyable for God to hear? This verse from Paul fits here: 'Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God.'

But there is more here. Their complaining was only part of the problem and not the most significant part. Did you notice this: 'And the people became impatient on the way'? That’s when they began complaining. So, you see, the complaining is not the real problem or maybe I should say it's not the root problem. The complaining is simply a result of something deeper: impatience. The people were impatient with God. Some sins are on the level of behavior, like complaining. These are easily seen. But there is always something deeper going on, something in the soul. Here, it's impatience. So, there is the root as well as the fruit of sin. The root of impatience produced the fruit of complaining.

Why is seeing this important? Jesus came not just to deal with the obvious sins. He came to deal with all of your sin. So, it's not just the fruit but the roots also. If you are going to work with the Spirit to deal with some sin of yours, like complaining, you will also need to consider the deeper issues. You'll need to see what's going on in your soul. If you don't do that then the sins of the soul will just show up in some other way. So, a person might learn how not to complain, but his impatience will just show in some other wretched behavior. So, part of your repentance needs to include the sins of the heart. And if they are is not clear to you, then repent of what sin you can see, but also pray for the ability to see what's going on in your soul. Pray and the Spirit will show you.

Let's move on. The people of Israel see the dying among them. They ask Moses to pray that God would take away the snakes. Moses prays, but God does not remove the snakes. (We’ll see why later.) Instead, there's all this about the metal snake on the pole. What's this all about? How is the Gospel revealed in this? Let’s be clear about one thing. There is no magic power in the snake. It's just another example of a sacrament. God is using something visible to accomplish something that is invisible. He uses this metal snake to deal with the souls of his people.

So, let’s look at this metal snake. What’s going on here? First, the people need to see things clearly. It's not good enough to say, 'I was just bitten.' If that's the real problem, then what you need to do is think back to your Boy Scout training and get out that tourniquet and sharp knife. But any who may have opted for that kind of method died. The real problem wasn't the snakebites. The real problem was the insult to God. That's the problem that must be dealt with. Thinking only about surface issues will not work, and many do exactly that. But the people - at least some of them - understood what had happened. The real problem wasn't the snakes. It was their sin. They knew that and said so. 'We have sinned.'

So, Moses tells them to look at a metal snake on a pole. How does that make any sense? 'Moses, can that work? Surely not! Tell me something that makes sense.' Anyone who said that also died. A person does not believe the Gospel because he has figured out how it works. He believes for the same reason that some of those Israelites believed. God made a promise to them. So, in effect, they were saying, 'I have no idea how this works. But I trust you, God. I believe your promise. I'll do what you tell me.' And so, they looked at that metal snake. And, as a result, they lived. For many today the motto is, 'I understand first. Then, I'll believe'. But one of the old guys of Church history got it right. 'I believe so that I can understand.' Christian faith is always this kind of a personal response to God. 'I hear what you say. I'm not sure that I understand all the ins and outs. But I do know that you have never lied to me. So, I'll trust you and do what you've told me to do.' We trust God first, and do what he tells us. Understanding follows.

Those Israelites believed, and it worked. They lived. And did you notice that their believing worked all by itself. There was no, 'Look at the snake, do these five things, and then you'll be healed'. No, it was just, 'Look'. And those who did lived. Faith alone saves. These Israelites knew that there was no way that they could save themselves from the poison of the snakes. Someone else must save. Jesus must save. The snake on the pole is Jesus on the Cross. Only looking to Jesus as the crucified Savior can save. Adding something to the looking creates a different kind of faith. And that kind of faith will not save. You are saved by looking to Jesus. Period.

Now, let's include here something that has come up in other contexts. Was this sending of the snakes a matter of discipline or was it punishment? I've told you before that a Christian will never be punished for his sins. Jesus has suffered the punishment for all of your sins. The Father does discipline you, but it is never about punishment for sin. Discipline is about love while punishment is about justice. So, God was dealing with his Church in the desert. That means that this was discipline and not punishment, right? Well, not exactly. The people sinned. The snakes came. They cried out to God through Moses their representative. God provided a way to deal with the snakebites. Those who looked lived. Those who didn't died. And so, what we need to say was that for the first group, the group that looked, this was discipline. A situation came up where they had to choose to believe God or not. They believed. They looked. So, they lived. But the rest were in the same situation, with the same choice. But they chose not to believe God. They didn't look. So, they died. For them, this was not discipline, but punishment. When the time came for faith to show itself, it didn't. They rejected God's promise. Remember from last week: there's believing and then there's believing. Christians are not saved because they expressed faith once in the past. Christians are saved because, day by day, they express faith. Day by day, they believe their Father. Day by day, they entrust themselves to his promises. To be sure, we all stumble in this. But when the Spirit points that out, the saints do repent. And that repentance is more evidence of the right kind of believing, the kind that saves.

So, while it was punishment for some, it was discipline for the rest, and it worked. This is the last time we hear of any complaining from Israel in the desert. The people are not perfected, but they are making some progress. The discipline has achieved some important goals. And that is why he said, 'No' to their prayer. God did not remove the snakes. Those snakes were useful for God's purposes. God sometimes allows evil, even the evil of our own sins, to teach us about holiness. That’s why sometimes God says, ‘No’.

I think that you can see why Jesus pointed Nicodemus to this incident in Moses' day. There are all these lessons about the Gospel: sin as offending God, behavioral sins as an expression of the deeper sins of the soul, sacraments, discipline and punishment, God saying no to a prayer request for a good reason, the simplicity of faith as just looking. And, of course, the key lesson: the snake on the pole pictured Jesus on the Cross. The OT was teaching the Gospel.

This leaves one last lesson for this morning, something that I will only touch on. 'And if a serpent bit anyone, he would look at the bronze serpent and live.' The result of looking at the metal snake was life. The result of looking to Jesus is also life. 'And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.' The life offered through Moses was physical life. But the life offered by Jesus is different. It is 'eternal life'. Those of us raised on the King James are used to hearing about 'everlasting life'. As a result, it's easy to think about eternal life in terms of ‘how long’. But the life Jesus promises, eternal life, is not about 'how long’. Eternal life is about ‘what kind’. This is a very different kind of life. And that provokes the obvious question: ‘What kind of life is this eternal life?’ Let me tell you what I’ve been thinking as I try to answer that question. Eternal life is the life of God. The promise of Jesus to all who look to him is that they will experience, on a creaturely level, something very similar to the life that God experiences. I’m still working on this, but it seems that this is a key to answering the question, ‘What kind of life is eternal life?’ It would be good if you prayed for me as I work on this.

What happened so long ago speaks to us because we are also the Church in the desert. We are the people of God who have been freed from the slavery of our sins, and we are on our way to the Promised Land. And as we make our way through the desert there are lessons for us to learn, lessons about how to live as Christians. For one example, we will learn to enjoy more and more the blessings of the Manna Principle. We will also be faced with some hard lessons that God will send our way to discipline us. But our coming enjoyment of the Promised Land is a certainty. Jesus promises to lead us there. And being assured of that keeps us going.

Believing or Believing

2012-01-08T15:10:00.000-05:00

It is sometimes helpful to remember that the writers of the Bible did not write in chapters. In fact, the English translation of the Bible was not separated into chapters until the 1200's. And, as it turns out, the person who decided where one chapter ends and the next begins sometimes made mistakes. The last couple of verses of John chapter two are more connected with what we call chapter three than with the rest of chapter two. In those verses John makes a comment about believing and men in general. In chapter three John writes about one particular man and what Jesus had to say to him about believing. And that's what today's sermon is going to be about, this thing called believing. Our text is John 2.23-3.16.

Let's take a look at the first verses of our text. It's helpful to note that the word translated ‘believed’ ('many believed') is the same word that is translated ‘entrust’ ('Jesus on his part did not entrust himself to them'). So, you could say that John's point is that those men believed in Jesus, but he didn't believe in them. Jesus saw their believing, and yet he was cautious. He had some questions. And that provokes a question. Why did Jesus respond in this way? This goes back to something that I've mentioned before. As you work your way through John, you will read about people who believe in Jesus - and then don't. Consider what John wrote in chapter 6. ‘After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him.’ These disciples believed in Jesus - and then they didn't. You'll find this sort of thing in more than just John's Gospel. And Jesus knows this about people. So, he has questions about their believing. And isn't it interesting that John does not write something like, ‘They seemed to believe in Jesus’, or ‘They said they believed in Jesus.’ What did he write? They ‘believed’. But, there's believing, and then, there's believing.

After setting things up in this way, John presents a conversation between Jesus and one particular man who believed in him. Nicodemus believed, and like the others mentioned in the end of chapter two, he believed because of the signs Jesus did. Remember what he said. ‘Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.’ Nicodemus believed. But Jesus pushes him a bit, doesn't he? Why? Well, there is believing, and then, there is believing. It's a good thing that John includes this topic. It can be very hard to see any difference between the believing that so many have and the believing that Jesus calls for. I think that this why John doesn't label a person's believing as true or false or that they only said that they believed or anything like that. Sometimes you can't tell by just looking. And knowing that can be very helpful.

Jesus cuts to the chase on this issue when he tells Nicodemus, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.’ Let me put this into the terms that I used last week. There is a huge part of reality that will remain unseen, invisible, unknowable to a person, unless he is born again. He will have no sense of the kingdom of God. None. So, those who are not born again are limited to seeing only part of the picture. And that will dramatically affect how they live. So, here's the question John is dealing with. Nicodemus believed, but is he born again? There's believing, and then, there's believing.

Now, what is this ‘born again’? John is fond of saying things in layers. You might see one layer quite clearly, but there is more going on beneath it. Remember when Nathanael called Jesus ‘King of Israel’ and ‘Son of God’? There are layers in what he said. John writes in layers. The word that is translated ‘again’ can also be translated ‘from above’. John knew that, and he intends both. A person needs to be given new life - being born *again* - and that life is something that God gives - being born *from above*. In all of this Jesus is talking about the work of the Holy Spirit. ‘That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.’ Everyone experiences a physical birth. But there is also, for some, a birth by the Spirit. It is the Spirit who causes this being born again, this being born from above.

Jesus explains something about this work of the Spirit by comparing him with the wind. ‘The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.’ The work of the Spirit in this new birth is mysterious. Who knows where the Spirit will go and what he will do? Who knows whom he will give this new birth to? The new birth is not something that can be controlled or even predicted. The Spirit acts as he sees fit. And yet, you can see the effects of the Spirit as he does his work. It's like hearing the wind. So, although his work is mysterious, it becomes obvious. It becomes as obvious as a tree bending before the winds of a hurricane.

Let's move on. So, what exactly is it that the Spirit does? What is this work of his that Jesus points Nicodemus to? It's birth. Last year at this time, there was no Henry Nelson. But today there is. Similarly, the Spirit creates life where there was no life. That's being born again. But be careful. Get the relationship between physical birth and Spiritual birth right. It's not that physical birth is what is real, and that talking about Spiritual birth is using a metaphor drawn from this physical event. That makes Spiritual birth merely a matter of a change of mind or something like that. But that's backwards. Spiritual birth is the original. In his kindness, God pictures it for us in physical birth. So, it's Henry's birth that is the metaphor. It's a picture of what the Spirit does. The Spirit creates life in a way that physical birth can only picture.

This leads to two thoughts that are very important. Here's the first. Think about the process of choosing a candidate for some political office. There is a choice between Candidate A and Candidate B. Some voter considers the pros and cons of each. He might hear a rousing speech that helps him to see the issues more clearly. After due consideration, he makes his decision: Candidate B. One might try to describe the new birth in that way. So, a Christian explains the Gospel to an unbeliever. He presents Jesus. His unbelieving friend listens and considers the pros and cons. Maybe he hears a sermon that helps him see the issues more clearly. Then, after due consideration, he makes a decision. He will follow Jesus. Is that what Jesus is getting at? There is truth here, but it is truth that Jesus ignores in his conversation with Nicodemus. Instead, Jesus focuses on a different truth. A person follows Jesus, he believes, because of the Spirit. It was the Spirit who decided to perform his work in that person's life. He has created life where there was no life before. Jesus says nothing about any decision a person makes. We've already seen this in John. Listen again to this from chapter 1. ‘But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.’ Back to Henry. How much input did Henry have into the creation of his life? None. Life was given to him. Likewise, those who receive Jesus, who believe in his name, do so because God the Spirit has created new life in them. He causes a new birth. And that is what Jesus is telling Nicodemus. Becoming his disciple is not about some decision or series of decisions that someone makes. At its most basic level, believing in Jesus is about being born, about being given life, by the Spirit. That’s what Jesus is telling Nicodemus.

But that leaves the second important thought. Consider what we have seen in our text. Jesus tells Nicodemus about this work of the Spirit, how the Spirit creates new life all on his own and how he cannot control this nor predict it. ‘You must be born again.’ So, what is Nicodemus to do? What does Jesus want him to do? Should he just stand there like a bump on a log waiting to see if the Spirit does this mysterious work in his life? Sadly, there have been some who have drawn this conclusion. The Spirit blows where he will. Believers are born, ‘not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.’ So, they say, just sit still and, if you're lucky, the Spirit will work his magic in your life. Is that what we are to conclude? Is that what Jesus is telling Nicodemus? I hope that it is clear to you that this cannot be right. And I hope that it's clear because of some verses that are coming to mind. Here is one that I thought of. ‘Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.”’ Time and again in the NT, there is the call, the command, to repent and believe the Gospel.

But we don't have to go to elsewhere in the NT to see that Jesus is not expecting Nicodemus just to sit and wait. It's right here in our text. Jesus said, ‘And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.’ Jesus is calling for believing here. That's why he talks about ‘whoever believes in him’. If our friends who counsel waiting were right then Jesus would have been talking about ‘whomever the Spirit gives life to’. Jesus has no interest in people waiting around to see if the Spirit does his work. Jesus calls for action. He calls people to believe.

And that, of course, leads to this. So, all that Jesus has said here about the new birth, the necessity of the work of the Spirit in a person, takes nothing away from the call to believe. Fine. But then, why bother with all of this about the Spirit? Why bother talking about being born again? Why not just say, ‘Nicodemus you have to believe in me’? Is this just about having some fun playing with theological words and concepts that make no real difference? Is that what Jesus is doing? Does any of this make any difference?

And this is where it's good to remember where we started. ‘Now when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover Feast, many believed in his name when they saw the signs that he was doing. But Jesus on his part did not entrust himself to them, because he knew all people.’ You see, there is believing, and then, there is believing. There is a believing that does no good on the last day. And then, there is the believing that is the result of being born again. At first glance, they may look much the same, but where it counts they are nothing alike. When Jesus calls for believing, he wants the kind that is the result of the Spirit's work. The other kind is worthless.

And now we're ready for the practical question of the sermon. I am not going to ask you if you believe. I'm going to ask you a different question. Have you been born again? There is believing, and then, there is believing.

I want you to know that I do not raise this question lightly. I realize the danger in doing so. Asking that kind of question can be unsettling. It can lead to doubts. That question might result in some of you becoming very anxious and distressed. I know that. But at the same time, not asking that question can be dangerous, too. What good is it spending years and years convinced that you believe, but then find out that it was the wrong kind of believing? Hell is real.

Some of you are afraid of the question. You are afraid of what the answer might be. You're afraid that your answer might be, ‘I don't know if I am born again.’ But the way to deal with that fear is not by trying to avoid the question. If you don't ask it Satan will. The way to deal with that fear is to face the question. Face the question trusting Jesus to take care of you. Face the question trusting Jesus to give you whatever you need to be able to honestly and accurately say, ‘I know that I have been born again.'

And let me be clear: the point of the question is not whether you have fulfilled some requirements. The question is asking whether something has happened to you. This is not about what you have done. It's about what the Spirit has done. Has the Spirit given you life? Have you been born again?

Now, that is a very unhelpful question unless you remember Jesus’ description of the Spirit's work. ‘The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound …’ While there is great mystery in this work of the Spirit, it is a work that shows itself. The new birth becomes obvious. We can see and hear Henry. So, how does the new birth become obvious? Jesus speaks to this later in John. ‘I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit.’ Abiding in Jesus is just another perspective on being born again. That means you can translate my question, ‘Have you been born again?’ into, ‘Can you see in yourself any fruit of the new life of the Spirit?’ Please, don't interpret this to mean something like, ‘Have you become superChristian, someone just as perfect as Jesus?’ Actually, some of the fruit of the new birth points in the opposite direction. Let me give you some examples: A deeper awareness of sin in your life. Increasingly serious thoughts about repentance. A growing desire for the things of God, along with a degree of frustration because your desire for the things of God is so far from being satisfied. The fruit of the new birth isn't some list of superChristian traits. It's simply going further and further into the Gospel and thus seeing more and more clearly what is, what ought to be and what can be. We are sinners. That is just a basic fact of the Gospel. But are sinners who are in the process of being saved by the grace of the Holy Spirit. One day we will be as perfect as Jesus. And that means that another fruit of the new birth is joy.

So, don't be afraid of the question. Ask it, trusting Jesus to hold your hand while you do. As you do that, I think that you will be surprised at what happens. What I am hoping for is a growing sense that something has actually happened to you. You've been born again. You are alive. And so, you are assured that Jesus is yours and that you are his. Out of this will come an even greater desire to follow him. Another good result will be the growing sense that since you have been born again you have the Spirit's power. And as that grows, your expectations of what you might do for Jesus will also grow. There are also results that will show in us together as a church. It will be increasingly obvious that the Spirit is at work in our midst and that will produce a witness that the world will not be able to ignore. But it all turns on this: there is believing, and then, there is believing. Have you been born again?

Seeing the Whole Picture

2012-01-01T13:24:00.000-05:00

Well, we're back in John, in the section about Jesus in the Temple. We've looked at the first part of this already. So, today we're going to take a look at the last part where Jesus interacts with the Jewish leadership. 'Interact' is such a gentle word. Actually, Jesus and the Jewish leadership bang heads here. This is the first of many battles between them. And the question that I want to raise is, 'Why?' Why these conflicts? Why don't they see eye to eye? There are many ways to answer why questions because there are many causes behind any event. What I'm going to do is look at one particular answer to this why question. In answering this I want to encourage you and challenge you. Our text is John 2.13-22.

So, what happened? Jesus enters the Temple, and he pitches a fit. After he tosses people and animals out, the Temple leadership confronts him. 'What sign do you show us for doing these things?' They are, in effect, asking for Jesus' credentials. 'Are you a prophet from God that you do such things? If so, prove your claim!' So, Jesus provides proof. 'Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.' But these Temple leaders miss Jesus' point entirely. They think that Jesus is talking about the building they were standing in. Jesus was talking about his body. From one perspective, we can understand why they interpreted Jesus' words as they did. Every other time that these leaders spoke about the temple the word had meant 'building'. So, Jesus is using a familiar word in an unfamiliar way.

They didn't understand. But should they have understood Jesus? Did Jesus actually expect them to understand what he was saying? Absolutely! Jesus didn't come to be confusing. He wanted people to understand him. He expected these men to understand him. Maybe they needed to stop and think about it a bit, but they should have understood what Jesus was talking about.

They didn't. Why? There is a disconnect here, a big one. And the reason for this disconnect explains a lot. These men don't understand Jesus because they are seeing only part of the picture, though they were sure that they were seeing all that mattered.

Consider their logic. It must have gone something like this. Through Moses, God had told them to construct a place of worship, a place where they were could perform their religious rituals. So, they did. They built the tent in the wilderness we call the Tabernacle. In time they built something more permanent, a building of bricks and mortar. That was the Temple. I'm sure that they were thinking that they were on solid ground. After all, they did all this in obedience to God.

What they missed was the point of the Temple. It wasn't about bricks and mortar. It wasn't even about ritual. The Temple was about the presence of God with his people. The Temple was a place for God and his people to connect. But just as the Tabernacle led to something else, something more permanent, the Temple was also intended to lead to something else, something much more permanent. If those men had thought about the Temple in the context of the rest of the Old Testament, they would have understood this. They would have understood that the Temple was supposed to be replaced by a Person, someone who would be the presence of God with his people, the place where God and his people could connect. The Temple pointed to Jesus. He is the true Temple of God.

Isn't this a key point in the book of Hebrews? That was written to a group of Jewish Christians thinking of going back to the Temple and its ritual. But what does that author say? The Temple was fine for its time, but Jesus has come. He is the new and living way to the Father that the Temple could only point to. And that author uses a lot of OT to prove this.

Jesus is making that same point in our text. He is the real Temple. But those leaders didn't get it. All they understood was bricks and mortar and ritual.

So, here's my answer to our question, 'Why this conflict between Jesus and these men?' They didn't see the whole picture. They saw a part, and they thought it was the whole. They understood that the Temple was for worship, for meeting with God. But they completely missed that God also intended the Temple to point to something else. The Temple was intended to be a pointer to Jesus. That's why they didn't understand what Jesus was talking about. That's why they opposed him.

Now, I want to take that concept about seeing the whole picture and show you how it makes a practical difference. A couple of examples. First, there's what happened to the servant of Elisha, the prophet. One morning he wakes up to find that the town is surrounded by an army of soldiers looking to kill Elisha. So, he runs to his master to report the bad news. And what does Elisha tell him? '"Do not be afraid, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them.” Then Elisha prayed and said, “O Lord, please open his eyes that he may see.” So the Lord opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw, and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.' Angels. Was there anything to fear? No. Seeing the whole picture makes a difference.

Here's another example and this one isn't about seeing invisible angels. Consider what happened to the rich, young ruler. He comes to Jesus with the right question. 'Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?' And how does Jesus ultimately answer him? 'You lack one thing: go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.' And the rich man's response? 'Disheartened by the saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.' What was his problem? Why did he respond in that way? Why did he reject Jesus? He only saw part of the picture, part of reality, his many possessions. What he didn't see was what Jesus promised him: the measureless treasure awaiting him in heaven. Seeing only a part of reality, he chose poorly and turned away from Jesus. He is paying for that now.

Seeing all of reality, the whole picture, is of such critical importance. The fear that Elisha's servant felt when he saw those soldiers ready to pounce was completely removed when he could also see the armies of God. The rich, young ruler would have chosen so very differently had he seen the heavenly riches, and he'd be happy now. And those Jewish leaders would have come to enjoy the real point of the Temple. Life is dramatically changed when someone can see all of reality and not just a part of it.

Now, a question. Why is it that only some can see and others not? Listen to something Paul wrote.

Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. … The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.

Being able to see all of reality – to understand – is a gift from the Spirit to every Christian. But the person who is not a Christian, Paul calls him 'the natural person', does not understand. He cannot understand because he doesn't have the Spirit. So, he is limited to only part of reality. He sees only part of the picture. As a result, makes some very poor choices. But you are able see the whole picture. You have the Spirit.

So, there is a distinction between those who have the Spirit and those who don't. Those without the Spirit are not able to see the whole picture. But you can. So, there is a distinction between the Church and world. You are able to see what they cannot.

But, sad to say, there is also a distinction within the Church. To explain this, I'm going to use something from last week. The Christian can know that he has a Father who loves him deeply. The Christian is able to see this part of reality. And that makes an incredible difference in how he is able to live each day. However, not every Christian sees this as clearly as he might. Some, sad to say, barely see it at all. They live their days much like Elisha's servant before he was able to see the angels. Some Christians see reality more clearly than others. And that explains a lot. But it doesn't have to stay this way. Just as that servant was enabled to see more of the picture, every Christian can also.

You can see this in something else that Paul wrote. Here, he describes his prayers for some Christians he was writing to.

I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might.

Do you see what Paul was praying about? He wanted the eyes of their hearts enlightened. That is, he wanted these Christians to see more of reality. There were some things that they were not seeing as clearly as they might: the hope of the Gospel, the riches that awaited them, the awesome power of God. I think that you will agree that seeing these sorts of things with greater and greater clarity changes how you live. Paul wanted that change for these Christians. He wanted them to enjoy more of the blessings of the Gospel so he prayed for that.

And that gets us back to our text. Did you notice what happened to the disciples? John tells us, 'When therefore he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the Scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.' At the time when Jesus spoke to the Temple leaders, his disciples did not see reality very clearly. They did not understand Jesus. And, if truth be told, that describes much of their time with Jesus. But when we get to the end of their three years with Jesus, they could see reality much more clearly. And the book of Acts shows some of the fruit of this. They were changed. We are like the disciples. There is much that we miss, but we can be changed.

Consider our situation. We have been taught by words and actions that the part of reality that we need to focus on is the part that we can see and touch and weigh. This, according to the wisdom of our day, is what is real. That is what matters. 'Being realistic' means focusing on these sorts of things. And we've also been told, in effect, that if we want to dabble in religion, that's fine. But, as they tell us, in the business world we are to deal with what is real. 'When you come to work, you leave your religion at the door.' That is, we are to leave Jesus at the door. We are to leave a major part of reality at the door. 'They' have told us how this world works and how we are to fit in. 'They' have told us that we are to live based on only part of the picture, only part of reality. And that, of course, has consequences.

We are all in danger here. We all feel the pressure to conform. But we are not trapped. We can be changed. We have the Scriptures, and we have the Spirit. And as the Spirit uses the Scriptures, we will see more and more of reality and make better and better choices.

But this being changed is not automatic. There are things that you will need to do. The Spirit uses means. Let me summarize some of them with four words: read, think, pray, talk.

Read. Read your Bible. The Spirit uses the Word. His ability to show you more of reality is tied to how much of the Scriptures you know and understand. Your goal should be to become very familiar with your Bible. With that goal in mind, you should also be reading quality Christian books that explain and apply the Scriptures to different questions, different aspects of the whole picture. One example of a quality Christian book is what we are reading in the adult class, A Praying Life. Growing Christians are reading Christians. Read your Bible and read about your Bible.

Think. I was reading Psalm 1 the other day, and it struck me that according to that Psalm the basic difference between the righteous and the wicked is that the righteous person meditates on the Word. He thinks. So, as you read your Bible and as you read what others have to say about the Bible, think about how it applies to you in your situation. The goal is not to try to become one of the smart people. The goal is a life being changed by the Spirit, a life that is seeing and enjoying more of the Gospel, more of reality. As you think, the Spirit will guide.

Pray. You cannot change yourself, regardless how hard you might try. Change is something the Spirit does. And he does that in response to your prayers. That is what is behind Paul's prayer that I read to you earlier. Prayer is a habit for me for one basic reason. I am convinced that my life will not work unless God acts. So, I spend time talking to him about my life and how to get it to work. A sense of desperation can be a very helpful trait. I commend it to you.

Talk. Tell others in your family, in the church, what you have been reading and thinking about. Mention whatever it is that you are seeing a bit more clearly. You need to talk about the change that is happening. Why should you do this? One reason is love. You speak of these things for the benefit of the others around you. Your talking to them can help them to see more clearly. You also talk about these things because you know that you need others to help you to see more clearly. We do not grow on our own. Growth is a group project. Too often I have found that husbands and wives do not talk about these things very much. Make sure that that is not true of you.

Read. Think. Pray. Talk. Doing these things will cost you. It will take time and energy. It will take discipline. It may require some hard decisions about where you will invest yourself. But consider the prime motive for working on this: the honor of Jesus. Far too many Christians today live just like their neighbors, and they do that because they base their lives on the same part of reality that unbelievers do. How is Jesus honored if we look just like them?

I know that some of you are working on these things. I hope that I have encouraged you to keep at it. I know that it's hard, but it's worth it. The example that kept coming to my mind this week was Elisha's servant. Seeing more of reality made a tremendous difference to him. It will do the same for you. Read. Think. Pray. Talk.

I'm guessing that some of you are not working on these things. I hope that I have challenged your decision to live that way. I hope that there will be change in your priorities so that you might live better and honor Jesus more with your life.

The Christmas Gift

2011-12-25T13:12:00.000-05:00

Today is Christmas. It is a day to celebrate. Part of that for many is the giving of gifts. And one reason for that is the fact that what we celebrate today is God's gift to us in Jesus. What I’d like to do today is help you see that gift a little more clearly so that you can enjoy it a little more. Our text is Mark 1.9-11.

So, what’s going on? Here is Jesus. He is about to start his ministry. And he does that by being baptized by his cousin John. What happened to him was just like what happened to so many others whom John baptized - that is, until Jesus hears the voice. It's the voice of his Father. And by that I don't mean Joseph, but his heavenly Father. Jesus' Father speaks to him at the beginning of his ministry. 'You are my beloved Son; with you I am well-pleased.' There are many things going on in those few words. But we are so familiar with them that getting to really hear them is a bit of a challenge. So, let's consider our text a bit at a time so that we can take a more careful look.

First, there is this: 'You are my Son.' In one sense, this is a simple statement of fact. Jesus is God’s Son. And yet, behind this simple statement there is the reminder of a bond. Here is a father reminding his son who he is. 'You are no orphan trying to make his way in this world all on his own. You are my son.' Jesus knows this, but it is still good for him to be reminded of it. There is something to be said for being reminded of what we know. It can be very encouraging. And what better time for this to happen to Jesus. He is about to begin what promises to be three very difficult years. This is a really good time for his Father to remind him whose Son he is. Jesus needs to feel the emotional lift that goes with having a father, this Father. Life is going to get hard, but Dad is still near. That's good for any son to remember.

Then there is the word 'beloved'. 'You are my beloved Son.' That's a great word, except for the fact that we don't use it anymore. And that makes it an archaic word that has lost much of its punch. So, let's re-translate what the Father has said to Jesus. 'You are my Son, and I love you.' The connection between father and son here is so much more than simply some genetic bond of being family. This father loves his son, and he wants him to know that. Again, Jesus had no doubts about this. He knows this, but he needs to hear it again. If you remember that Jesus is human just like you are, then the Father's reminders of love makes sense. And who will rebuke a father for telling his son too often that he loves him?

Now, why does the Father love the Son? Is it ‘just because’, or did Jesus do something to gain this love? From one perspective, it doesn't really matter. And yet, if truth be told, it's probably a little of both. The Father loves his Son 'just because'. It's what good fathers do. But it's also that Jesus has loved his Father for the last thirty years. That's what his perfect obedience was: an expression of love for his dad. So, just because and also as a response to his Son's love, the Father reminds him of his own love.

This leaves that last phrase: 'in you I am well-pleased'. And again, we have archaic language. How often do you say, 'I am well-pleased'? We don’t use it because it feels a little stiff, a little formal. What comes to my mind is the stereotypical British lord having a formal interview with some faithful subordinate. But that's not what's going on at Jesus' baptism. Another Bible translation has this as, 'I delight in you.' That's a bit better, but it’s still not warm enough. So, taking a measure of liberty, let me suggest a different way of expressing this idea of 'well-pleased'. 'Whenever I think about you a smile comes to my face. I am so glad that you are my son.' I think that that gets it a bit better.

All of this is quite remarkable. We are privileged to get a little bit of a peek into this very personal relationship between Jesus and his Father. We have not stolen this peek. They have allowed us to see it. No walls. There is something beautiful here: a father who loves his son and isn't afraid to say so because he knows his son needs to hear him say it.

Now, it's time to see what this has to say to you - though I could stop here and there would be more than enough for you to meditate on. Last week I referred to Martin Luther's very helpful phrase 'the Great Exchange'. Let me briefly go over that again for any who weren't here last Sunday. There has been a Great Exchange between Jesus and us. We all are horrible sinners. You'll remember that last week I quoted this from Genesis: '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 describes us. And because of that, God should be incredibly angry at us. It would be one thing if we sinned by accident, if we slipped up once in a while. But that's not what happens. That verse isn't about some occasional slip into sin. It accurately describes everyone's basic orientation. We deserve God's holy anger for our rebellion. But in the Great Exchange, it's Jesus who suffers the just rage of God that our rebellion deserves. That's what the Cross is about. Now, put that picture of Jesus on the Cross suffering God’s justice next to the picture of Jesus' baptism that we just looked at. Something terrible happened to Jesus on that Cross. No more tender words of love and affection from the Father. No more, ‘You’re my Son and I love you.’ Only anger. For all the hours that Jesus spent on that Cross, God was no longer his loving Father. He was a very angry Judge. Jesus took on himself what we should be suffering. While Jesus was on that Cross, God hated his Son.

But now, let me remind you of the other side of the Great Exchange. Yes, Jesus got the Cross. But that means that you get a loving Father who speaks tender words of love and affection. He says to you, 'You are my beloved Son in whom I am well-pleased.' The Father speaks those words to you. And whatever he meant when he said them to Jesus at his baptism, he means the same thing when he speaks them to you. What did he tell Jesus? 'You are my Son, and I love you. Whenever I think about you a smile comes to my face. I am so glad that you are my Son.' He says all of that to you. All of the affection behind the words that he said to Jesus, he intends for you. All the joy that he has in his relationship with his Son, he has with you. This is not a metaphor or some symbolic language or a way of talking about something that is kinda, sorta similar to what Jesus enjoyed. Jesus heard words of love from his Father. The same words are spoken to you and with the exact same meaning. The Great Exchange.

I do not blame you if you're having a hard time believing what I just said. 'The Father loves me and enjoys me just as he loves and enjoys Jesus? That can't be.' But it is. You get to enjoy what it means to have God as your Father in the same way that Jesus enjoyed having God as his Father. Isn’t that what Jesus meant when, at the tomb, he said this to Mary? ‘Go to my brothers and say to them, “I am ascending to my Father and your Father."’ Jesus’ Father is your Father because of what he did on that Cross. So, consider what that means. At any moment in your life, your Father can - and does - say, 'Whenever I think of you, a smile comes to my face. I'm so glad that you are mine. I love you.'

This is so hard for people like us to believe because we are so used to meeting conditions. Time and again, we remind ourselves that people, family – God himself! – will be good to us, will love us, if… While that may be true of how other people deal with you, it isn't true of your Father. There are no conditions for you to meet. None. Jesus has met them all. The Father loves you.

As your heart comes to believe this, comes to trust this truth, life changes. So, consider your sin. What's the common thought here? What do so many Christians tell themselves?

When I sin, when I've blown it, God becomes less a father to me and more a judge. He may not become an angry judge, but at the least he becomes a judge who is annoyed with me. Instead of a smile there's a scowl. He's fed up with me. And who can blame him. Look at what I've done.

Is that you? Am I a little bit close? But let's ask the important question. Is it true? Does God switch hats from loving Father to annoyed Judge because of your sin? Is the relationship that he has with you based on how well you do? Is that how it works? Absolutely not! Even when we have done something really stupid, our Father's attitude to us is the same. 'I love you. Whenever I think about you a smile comes to my face. I'm so glad you're mine.' This is the Father's attitude to all of his children all of the time. It doesn't matter what you do. The Father's love for you never changes. Never. Even when you've done something really bad, the Father's attitude to you is the same. He loves you in the same way that he loves Jesus.

Sad to say, there are some Christians who get very nervous when they hear things like this, when preachers tell their congregations that God loves them regardless of what they do. These folk say that this will just encourage laziness and disobedience. People won't care about pleasing God and doing the right thing. It will lead to chaos and sin. Or, to translate that, they are saying that if a preacher is going to get his people to obey, what he needs to do is threaten them with dire consequences. 'If you aren't careful how you live you're going to mess up. And then, God won't love you.'

Well, the Gospel disagrees. And a good thing too, because there is no way that we can obey well enough to meet God's standards of holiness. We sin. We do that all the time. And so, we're good at it, really good at it. But Jesus has come for sinners like us. And because of him, we get a Father who loves us all the time with a love that is, quite frankly, beyond what we understand. We get a Father who is so glad that we belong to him. And his love for us does not change even though we still do some pretty stupid things.

I know that believing this in the details of life, down in the deep recesses of your heart, is hard. So, here are some things to do to help you see more clearly this fact of the Father's love.

The next time the Spirit points out some sin to you, right before you offer up your prayer of repentance, do this. At that moment, remind yourself that your Father in heaven has a smile on his face. He is not annoyed with you or anything like that. He's thinking, 'I love you, and I'm so glad that you're mine.' Remind yourself of that when you're at your worst and feel as if he should be really mad at you. Because of Jesus, all the anger is gone. There isn’t even any annoyance. All that is left is his love – all the time.

Here's another thing that you might do. The next time you get ready to pray, before you start, remind yourself whom you are going to be talking to. Remind yourself that the person on the other end of that conversation is your smiling Father.

Ultimately, it will take the Spirit's work of changing your heart to get you to believe these things as fully as you might. But I think that he can use little exercises like these to do that.

Christmas is about celebrating. It's about celebrating Jesus. He has come to give us a great Christmas gift: a Father whose love for us is amazing. It is a love that we will be enjoying for all of eternity. So, on behalf of Jesus, let me wish you a Merry Christmas.

What We Celebrate

2011-12-18T14:58:00.000-05:00

Next Sunday is Christmas Day. So, today, I want to do a bit more to help you prepare to celebrate Jesus' Advent. What I'm going to do is rehearse the basics of the Gospel. I doubt that I will tell you anything that you haven't heard before. But that's not my goal. All I want to do is remind you of what you already know. But in doing this I hope to help you focus on what the celebrating is to be about and in this way to help you fight against the growing worldliness that tempts Christians these days. This morning's text is Galatians 4.4-7. After I read it we'll take a look at a few of the key thoughts that Paul presents here.

Let's start with this. What does Paul mean here when he talks about 'under the Law'? He tells us that Jesus was born under the Law and that he has redeemed those who were under the Law. So, what is this 'under the Law'? His point is not complicated. The Law defines how to live. It describes the rules that everyone is supposed to follow. And having done that, the Law then says, 'If you do this, you will live.' The Law makes a promise. It will reward obedience. All who keep the rules as described by the Law will receive this reward. And the reward is nothing less than life, life in its deepest sense. The Law promises the life of the age to come, eternal life. All you need to do is keep its rules.

Now, let me remind you about how the Law defines 'keeping the rules'. For one thing, this is about perfect obedience. Passing grade is 100%. If someone gets a 99.9% on the test, he fails. He has not kept the rules according to the Law. The Law will only reward perfect obedience. It gets even more difficult when you remember that keeping the rules is not just a matter of how you behave, what your body is doing. To be sure, the Law evaluates how we act. But it does that only after it evaluates our attitudes. Keeping the rules, according to the Law, starts with the heart. Jesus taught this in his Sermon on the Mount. Do you remember how he said that if someone was angry without cause that person had broken one of the rules, the one about murder? So, a calm, outward demeanor that covers a seething heart is not keeping the rules of the Law. Obedience - the kind that the Law will reward - begins in the heart.

The Law has more requirements. Consider the classic example of the Boy Scout helping the little old lady cross the street. To be sure, what he is doing is good and right. But the Law goes further. It asks him why he is doing this. On one level, he's being a kind neighbor to this needy woman. Good. But that isn't enough. According to the Law, he needs to do this for the right reason. And what reason is that? Paul wrote about this in another of his letters. 'Whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.' If the nice Boy Scout is graciously helping the little old lady across the street for some reason other than highlighting God's goodness, if, let's say, that he is doing this so that he can get that 'helping little old ladies across the street' merit badge, then there is a problem. He has not met the requirements that the Law has established. He's doing the right thing, helping the lady. He's doing it in the right way, graciously. But the right reason isn't there. If he's thinking about that merit badge or actually anything else beside making God look good, then the Law is clear. His obedience is not perfect. No reward for him.

Now, what about people who have never seen a Bible or even heard of the Ten Commandments? Does any of this apply to them? They know nothing about the Law and its rules, right? Well, not exactly. Paul tells us that everyone has at least a reflection of this Law written on their hearts. It isn't as clear or as complete, but it's something. In fact, it's enough. So, these people will be evaluated according to that expression of the Law. And the passing grade is still the same: perfect obedience from the heart and for the right reason. So, everyone is held accountable to this Law.

This Law rewards those who fulfill its requirements: perfect obedience. But what about those who don't pass the test? Do they just miss out on the good stuff, the reward, and get to live just a so-so existence? No. There are only two possible outcomes for anyone. If there is obedience, perfect obedience from the heart and for the right reason, then there is a reward. But if there is a failure to obey in the right way then that person doesn't just miss out. He is condemned. Jesus spoke about this. He taught us that that there are only two ways to live. There is following the narrow way that leads to life and then there is the broad way of death. So, if the reward is bliss beyond imagining, then the condemnation is horror beyond imagining. And that's it. There is no third possibility. It's bliss or horror - eternal life or eternal death. That's how the Law defines it. That's what Jesus taught.

Now, put yourself into this picture. It's a plain fact, beyond debate, that you have failed the test. You have not kept the Law. So, it's horror and not bliss. That sounds awfully harsh to some people. 'What about the person who really tried to pass the test. In fact, he got a 95%. Not too shabby. Certainly, better than most. To be sure, he made some dumb mistakes along the way, but for the most part, for 95% of the time, he got it right. It doesn't seem right that he should face horror and not enjoy at least a little of that bliss.' If that were the situation, I would agree. But it's another undebatable fact that no one 'really tries to pass the test'. The problem is not that we goof up a little here and there. No, we have rebelled. We have refused to live according to the rules that the Law set out. Refused. Here's a good description of what I'm talking about. '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.' The problem is not that though we tried, we didn't do very well on the test. We rebelled.

So, it's not that some try but get a 95%. We all get zeros. Because of our rebellion, we all earn zeros on the test. Some people rebel with a nice smile and lots of Boy Scout merit badges. And some rebel with rage and curses. But we all rebel. The sentence of horror is completely just.

That's what it means for us to be under the Law.

And now, we get to talk about Advent. As Paul tells us, Jesus was also born under the Law. He had to live by the same rules. The promise of the Law was the same for him, with the same requirements. Perfect obedience from the heart and for the right reason. So, his situation was the same as ours. The difference, though, was that he passed the test. He faced the same temptations that we face, but he dealt with them well – every time. He kept all the rules. He obeyed perfectly. From the heart. For the right reason. And if you think about it, that is simply amazing. Our lame obedience can't last a full morning without us blowing it somehow. Jesus' perfect obedience lasted a full lifetime - and that without any cheating.

So, since Jesus obeyed the Law, he earned the reward. He kept the rules so he gets the bliss, right? Well, not exactly. He earned the bliss, but he was condemned to the horror. And he chose to experience that horror.

Here, I want to remind you of a phrase that I've used before. I get it from Martin Luther. The Great Exchange. Jesus earned the reward. We earned the horror. And yet, Jesus suffered our horror. He took it on himself. He did that for us. And on the other side, instead of facing the horror that we have rightfully earned, we receive the reward. We enjoy the bliss. There has been a Great Exchange. Now, please understand what I'm saying. This does not mean that we get off. This is not like a presidential pardon where the guilty person does not go to prison, but is returned to his old life. We are not just let off. We don't just get to avoid the horror. We are rewarded. What Jesus earned and should have enjoyed, we get to enjoy. This is so much more than getting let off. We are not just pardoned and then allowed to return to our old lives. We are redeemed from the Law. We enjoy the reward. We are pardoned and then get to experience a new kind of life, eternal life. And all of that is happening now. Do you see why Luther called it the Great Exchange?

We’ve looked at being under the Law and being redeemed from that Law. Now we’re ready to look at this 'adoption as sons'. Jesus redeemed us so that we might receive this adoption as sons. What's this? It's one way of describing the reward.

What's so great about being a son? Well, for one thing you get benefits of your father. Now, if someone’s father is a bum, that's a problem. But if your father is a great guy, then life is good. The Spirit is telling us here that the reward is getting to have a Father who is a great guy and more. Life is good for his sons, very good. Now, we are not sons by birth. We are sons by adoption. Our Father decided to include us so that we would enjoy all the benefits of being his sons. And while these benefits are not ours by birth, they have become ours by right. 'But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.' We have been given the gift of the rights of the sons of God. Now, I'm sure that there is someone out there who has written something about Paul's obvious sexism in writing 'sons'. 'What about the women, Paul? They're not sons. They're daughters.' Paul, they tell us, is showing how culture-bound he was when he wrote this. Au contraire, as the French say. Paul was actually being counter-cultural in this. In the first century it was the sons who had the rights and the power. Daughters were considered second class and expendable. But here Paul speaks into that culture. He is saying that Christian women are, by no means, second class. They have equal claim to all the rights and privileges of having God as Father. Paul is far from first century rube here. He actually was ahead of his time. We all enjoy the privileges of sons.

Paul could have mentioned lots of things in describing the great benefits of being sons of God. But he picks this one. 'And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!”' We receive the Spirit. It's part of the reward. It is easy to mention the Spirit's presence in the life of the Christian. It's a point of orthodoxy that we all know. But just take a moment and try to feel what that means. We get God. He is always with us. And he is with us for a purpose. He intends to lead us into a growing experience of that reward, that bliss that Jesus earned. And that means that we get to change. All of the habits and attitudes that so easily trip us up are, one by one, removed. They are plucked out of our lives and replaced with good and Godly habits. And so, just to peek ahead to what Paul writes later, the Spirit develops in us the ability to love, to rejoice all the time, to experience amazing peace in the most unlikely moments and lots more. And we are never alone, never left to fend for ourselves. That's just impossible. Immanuel. And at the heart of this all is the growing awareness that the God who is over all of this, the God who created it all and keeps it going, down to the last atom, that God is our Father. And he is a great Father who loves us with his fatherly love.

And that leaves one last thought from our text. 'So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.' We are heirs. And what is an heir? Someone who has an inheritance. There is an inheritance waiting for us to enjoy in the age to come. I'm really not sure what all that means, but it has to mean at least this: the full experience of being the sons of the most high God. The full experience. I'm not quite sure what that will feel like, but I'm pretty sure that I'm going to like it.

How does all of this become ours? And how do we grow in our enjoyment of it? It's not by Law-keeping. There is no more being 'under the Law'. Life is no longer a matter of trying to keep the rules to gain the reward. That is all gone. The reward is ours as a gift, a Christmas gift. Jesus tells us, 'I'll take care of you. I will. I will make sure you get the reward. Just trust me.' And as we do trust him, our experience of the reward, our enjoyment of it, grows and grows. All we need to do is trust Jesus.

Now, what should you do with all of this? I could talk about being grateful for it. I could talk about being happy because of it. And those things are obviously good. But I would rather talk about something else. And this isn't something you do with all of this. It's something that all of this does to you. If what I have explained to you from this text does not stir your soul, if contemplating who Jesus is and what he has come to do for you doesn't arouse your passions, then something is wrong. Something is terribly wrong. One sign of a maturing Christian is a growing wonder at the Gospel. Consider the Psalms. Along with the cries for help and the laments about life, there were songs of passionate praise. Why? They were responding to the goodness and love of their God. They were praising God, their savior, their deliverer. 'But I have trusted in your steadfast love; my heart shall rejoice in your salvation. I will sing to the Lord, because he has dealt bountifully with me.' And that was written before Jesus showed up. If the Gospel does not stir you, you have a problem, a serious problem, one that you need to address. But if the Gospel does stir you, however that might show, then it becomes worship, just like those Psalms. It becomes worship that gives its all to Jesus because you know that he is worthy. And it also becomes your evangelism. As you take that sense of wonder at what Jesus has done for you back into the world, it becomes a clear statement of the beauty of Jesus that even the rankest pagan can understand. Unbelievers today need to see the Gospel before they will listen to it. Worship and evangelism.

This Gospel is what Christmas is about. This is what we celebrate.

Who Is This Man?

2011-12-11T14:52:00.001-05:00

The point of Christmas is to celebrate a birth. We celebrate the birth of a new person, a new baby. We celebrate the birth of Jesus. The Word became flesh. God, the Son, became a man. This birth of the Son of God is filled with mystery and wonder and lots of questions. But at its heart there stands a flesh and blood man. So, what we are going to do today is spend a little time looking at Jesus, the man. My hope in this is that as you understand him a little better, you'll understand yourself a little better.

Let's start with the obvious. Jesus was born. Now, all of you have been at a birth - your own. You probably don't remember it, but it was an experience that in some way registered with you. It affected you, and it still does. It went into your collection of memories, many of which you are not conscious of. But it's there, along with that scary night when you were really afraid of the dark, the time you had a close friend say something that hurt deeply, as well as that dinner with family when someone said something funny (you forget what it was) and everyone laughed and laughed. How you came into the world, easily or with difficulty, along with all the other memories, good and bad, forgotten and remembered, come together to make you the kind of person that you are. The same kind of thing happened to Jesus. He too was born into a life filled with joys and sorrows. And all of those joys and sorrows affected him. They also came together to make him the kind of person that he is.

So, Jesus is born. And then for the next thirty years he did - what? We don't know. But whatever it was, it wasn't a big splash that everyone noticed. Do you remember when Jesus preached to the home town crowd and told them that he was anointed by God to be the promised Messiah? Do you remember how they responded? It went something like this. 'Jesus, come on! You can't be the Messiah. You're Joseph's boy. We saw you grow up in that house down the street.' Apparently, Jesus spent 30 years being pretty much like everyone else in the village. Thirty years of what some might call doing nothing, or at least nothing anyone got excited over.

There was, however, one way in which he wasn't like the others. He never married. Just about everyone got married, and they did it when they were young. Unmarried at thirty must have been kind of weird. During one of his teaching tours Jesus did talk about people staying single. He said that some make themselves eunuchs, that is, stay single, for the sake of the kingdom. And that would, of course, describe Jesus. I'm sure that that wasn't easy. Back in the beginning God himself could see that it was not good for Adam to be alone. So, what did he do? He made him a wife whose role was to be the companion who would complete him. It wasn't good for Jesus to be alone either. And don't think that he didn't feel it. Remember, he was a man. But, for the sake of the kingdom, he didn't get married. Self-denial.

So, there's Jesus, single, working in the carpentry shop, building things and selling them, making a living. And then, it all changed. Suddenly, Jesus became this street preacher. That's a pretty dramatic change. And to make it all the more dramatic, this change came in the middle of his life. We think of 30 as pretty young, and it is if people generally live to 70, 80 or even longer. But people didn't live that long back then. Jesus was actually middle-aged when this big shift in his life occurred. So, a carpenter one day and a preacher the next. A big change.

And what followed was three years of going here and there, doing this and that, teaching and healing and more. And while there still are gaps in our knowledge of those three years, we know lots more about them than we do about the previous thirty. So, for one thing, we know that he was a busy man. He was so busy that there were days that he didn't even have time to eat. There were so many needy people. And because of his care for the people, there were more than a few times that he was really tired, even weary. One place where that really stands out, at least to me, is when Jesus and the Twelve are crossing the Sea of Galilee and a storm whips up. Wind and waves were tossing their little boat. They were terrified. They knew that they were going to die. And where is Jesus while all this is happening? He's sound asleep in the back of the boat. Jesus gave and gave and gave of himself. And it wore him out. He was busy. But - and I find this is so remarkable - you never see him rushing anywhere. Never. He never comes off as stressed. There's no anxiety. You never get the sense that he is hassled by life. Jesus is busy but not driven. There is so much to do and so little time for him to do it. But he is never rushed. There was always time for people. Think of the interruption of the woman with the flow of blood. He stops everything to care for her. He doesn't rush to get everything done. And yet, when he gets to the end of his life, he can honestly tell his Father that he has accomplished all that he was called to do.

Now, none of this is to say that Jesus was always this cool, calm, almost stoical character. He had emotions, and he showed them, sometimes rather intensely. There were times when he was angry. Here, just think about that whip in the Temple. There were times when he was sad, like the time when he was grieved at the hardness of those men because he healed someone on the Sabbath. Jesus rejoiced when he saw the kingdom growing and people 'getting it', and he wept when he saw the effects of sin. The lack of a stressed life wasn't because he was this stoic without emotions. That won't explain it. He was very emotional.

And he had friends. Most people think about the Twelve here, and they should. But it's good to remember that there were some that he was particularly close to. There were, of course, Peter, James and John. But there were more than these three. Don't forget Mary and Martha. John tells us that Jesus loved them. And that makes a lot of sense. It's great to be able to hang with a bunch of guys and do guy things. But it helps having some women as close friends. And as a single guy, Jesus needed that.

Then there's the fact that Jesus argued a lot, or so it seems. It's pretty clear that he didn't get along with the community leaders. There were plenty of times when Jesus crossed swords with these guys. I think that it's fair to say that he was a bit of a rebel. He thought that there were things going on that were just wrong - and he wasn't afraid to say so. It got him into a lot of trouble, but that didn't stop him from speaking out. It's important to see, however, that his rebelling against the status quo wasn't because he was an ornery guy. He did what he did because of love, his love for God and his love for his neighbor. There was much that was wrong. So, he spoke and he acted.

And along with arguing a lot, he prayed a lot. Luke especially brings this up. There seems that he had set times for prayer. But there were also those times when Jesus stops in the midst of life and gives thanks or praises the Father for what just happened. Prayer was a big deal for Jesus.

I think that it is also helpful to note that, as popular as he became - and he was very popular - it didn't go to his head. Jesus avoided the trap of pride. In fact, one time the crowds wanted to make him a king. What a platform that would have been to spread the Gospel! But he snuck away before they could act. Another place where his humility shows is when he takes the role of a house slave and washes everybody's dirty feet. Truly great men are humble men.

There's one more thing about Jesus I should mention. He died. Just like the rest of us, he begins life by being born, he ends it by dying. If we knew a little more, we could put some dates next to his name in Wikipedia. It could read: 'Jesus of Nazareth: born 25 December, 1977; died 22 April, 2011', or something like that. Do you remember that genealogy in Genesis 5 that has that discouraging refrain that repeats over and over? 'And he died'. That applies to Jesus. And while Jesus hung dead on that cross, those community leaders that he tangled with were still in power, still running things and still doing it badly. Jesus tried to change the world, so they killed him. Nothing had changed. Everyone could see that. Jesus died, and he died a failure.

Well, how's that for a brief bio? In one sense I haven't answered the question of that's the title of the sermon, 'Who is this man?' But can anyone really answer such a question about another person, or even about himself? But we've hit some high spots.

Now, it's time for a question. What was the point of this life? I'll tell you one thing that it wasn't for. It wasn't for all of you to imitate. Jesus didn't come so that there could be all these little Jesus-clones. Think about it. How many of you could be a young Jewish man? Right off the bat, half of you are obviously disqualified. You're females. And none of you has been called to be the Savior of the world. Jesus didn't come so that you could be just like him. No, rather Jesus came so that you could be just like you. When God decided to create you, he had something unique in mind. He had you, the real you, in mind. But that's not who you are now. You are not the real you. That person is hidden underneath a ton of garbage. But Jesus has come so that you would become that person, so that you would become the real you. He has come to get rid of the garbage so that you would become who you really are. But you don't become that person by trying to be a little Jesus. Jesus was meant to be Jesus and you are meant to be you. He has come so that you can, in fact, become you.

There are, however, things about his life that can give you some good ideas about you becoming you. And we know that this is true because we know that his life was a success, regardless of what seemed to be the case at his death. And how do we know that? Well, the Father raised him from the dead. That was proof that, as far as the Father was concerned, Jesus' life was a success. The resurrection was, in a way, the Father once again saying, 'You are my beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased.' When he first said that, at Jesus' baptism, he was referring to the thirty years up to that point. And the resurrection proved that it also applied to the three years that followed. So, Jesus' life was a rousing success. And that's why I can say that it has lessons for you so that you can become the real you.

There are many things about Jesus' life that you would do well to dwell on and learn from. Let me point out just one or two things for you to consider. I find it so striking that Jesus was never in a rush. Now, someone is going to think, 'He could do that because he cheated. He was, after all, God.' But that doesn't work. Everything that Jesus did, he did as a man. There was no cheating. So, I think that it's important to say that Jesus, the man, had a full slate of things to do, but that he never got stressed out doing them. The reason that I picked that one is, I'm sure, quite obvious. Many of you also have a full slate of things to do, but you do find yourself stressed out. That Jesus was able to avoid that problem means that it is possible to be a very busy person, with lots and lots to do, and yet, not be stressed out because of that. The real you doesn't get stressed out. That's what real living looks like. Jesus' life is proof of that.

Now, of course, the question pops up, 'How was he able to do that?' There are different ways to get at that, but here's one way that fits here. It's all a matter of who gets to define success for you. At the end of his life, Jesus was surrounded by people who had their opinions about how well he did with his life. There were those who mocked him as a loser. They labeled him as a failure and said so. But even his friends and followers thought that he had failed. If Jesus' sense of success was defined by the people around him, then things would have been different. After calling those legions of angels he mentioned the night before, he would have jumped down off that Cross, gotten in somebody’s face and said, 'So, who's a loser now?' And that would have been the end of his being Savior of the world. Fortunately, Jesus knew that their opinion of his life wasn’t the one that mattered. It was what the Father thought that counted. And the Father defined success differently. The Father included dying on a cross in his definition of a successful life for Jesus. He knew that and stuck to it, even though everyone else thought that was ridiculous.

Now, all of that leads to this question. Who defines success for you? Is it possible that your understanding of success isn't defined by the Father? Could it be that it is defined by the people standing around you? If that is the case, one result just might be rushing about all stressed out. You're trying to fulfill the wrong dream, one that the Father never called you to. Are you willing to be considered a failure by everyone except the Father?

So, what do you do with this? One temptation is to tell yourself something like, 'Okay, I'm going to change things. I'm going to get my life organized. I'm going to stop this rushing and get rid of this stressing.' Oh, really? Some of you know better. You've tried all of that, and you know that it doesn't work. That kind of attitude has no Gospel in it. That kind of attitude has the stench of trying to save yourself. That kind of attitude forgets that you have a Father who loves you.

Imagine a little kid who wants a toy airplane that flies. He's gotten one of those kits made with some light balsam wood, a plastic propeller that uses a twisted up rubber band for power and some wheels. And off he goes. He puts it together and takes it outside. He winds up the rubber band, and he lets it go. It goes two feet and crashes. He picks it up and tries again. Two feet and crash. One more time. One foot, crash. It doesn't fly. So, what's he do? He could crush it in his hands and go inside and mope. 'Well, I'll never try anything like that again!' But, if he is wise, he will go to his father with his plane and say, 'Dad, I can't get this to work'. And what will his dad say? 'Well, let me teach you how to make it fly.' Because of Jesus, you have a Father who is eager to teach you, step by step, how to be you. All you need to do is go to your Father with your life and tell him, 'Dad, I can't get this to work'. If you try to be the real you on your own, all you'll get is two feet and crash. But if you go to your Father, he will teach you so that your life will fly. And Jesus' own life shows what that can be like.

Celebrate!

2011-12-04T13:25:00.000-05:00

We're going to take a break from John's Gospel. Soon Christmas will be upon us, and I thought that it would be good for me to look around for some things that might help you as you celebrate Jesus' birth. So, today, we're going to deal with this question. How are we to celebrate this great act of God? I'm raising this question because of our cultural situation. It's no secret that our part of the world celebrates Christmas today in a way that is quite different from not all that long ago, and it is a change that is not for the better. We would be naive to think that this doesn't affect us. So, I think that it would be good to consider again what celebrating Jesus' Coming looks like. I won't be using one particular text. Instead, we'll look at several different texts to see what the Scriptures have to say about this celebration.

Let's start with Joshua. Israel has spent those forty years in the wilderness, being purified and transformed. It's now time to enter the Promised Land. The first obstacle that they face is the Jordan River. They had to cross this river, but it was at flood stage. There was too much water for the people to be able to cross. Back then they didn't have any army corps of engineers that could throw a pontoon bridge over the rushing waters. So, it appeared that God's plans for Israel to enter the land were thwarted, at least for the time being. But God is not stopped by a bit of water. At his command the priests carried the Ark of the Covenant, the sacrament of his presence, into the river. As soon as they stepped into the river the water stopped flowing. The water just stopped rushing downstream. So, the people crossed over on dry ground. God did a miracle.

But that's not the end of the story.

When all the nation had finished passing over the Jordan, the Lord said to Joshua, “Take twelve men from the people, from each tribe a man, and command them, saying, ‘Take twelve stones from here out of the midst of the Jordan, from the very place where the priests' feet stood firmly, and bring them over with you and lay them down in the place where you lodge tonight.’” Then Joshua called the twelve men from the people of Israel, whom he had appointed, a man from each tribe. And Joshua said to them, “Pass on before the ark of the Lord your God into the midst of the Jordan, and take up each of you a stone upon his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the people of Israel, that this may be a sign among you. When your children ask in time to come, ‘What do those stones mean to you?’ then you shall tell them that the waters of the Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of the Lord. When it passed over the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. So these stones shall be to the people of Israel a memorial forever.” And the people of Israel did just as Joshua commanded and took up twelve stones out of the midst of the Jordan, according to the number of the tribes of the people of Israel, just as the Lord told Joshua. And they carried them over with them to the place where they lodged and laid them down there.

God wanted a pile of rocks from the middle of the Jordan River. Why? He wanted the people to remember what he did at that place. It was to be a memorial for the people.

Notice the elements of this memorial. First, God powerful acted. He stopped the raging water for his people. That's the point of the memorial. Then, note how the people were to be reminded of this great act. There was to be something physical to remind them, something they could see and touch: the pile of rocks. And then there was the third ingredient: words. These words interpreted the physical reminder, the rocks. Without the words all you have is an odd pile of rocks. It needs to be interpreted. 'This pile of rocks is a reminder of the time God did a great work for his people.' And what happened on that day was retold. And isn't it interesting: these interpretive words were especially for the children. God is very concerned that the children hear the stories of his great works so that they might be faithful. Three ingredients so that the people of God, down through the generations, would remember this mighty act of God.

Let's look at another example of this sort of thing. This example comes from the Passover and it adds to what we've already seen.

Tell all the congregation of Israel that on the tenth day of this month every man shall take a lamb according to their fathers' houses, a lamb for a household. … and you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of this month, when the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill their lambs at twilight. … “Then they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses in which they eat it. They shall eat the flesh that night, roasted on the fire; with unleavened bread and bitter herbs they shall eat it. … For I will pass through the land of Egypt that night, and I will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and on all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments: I am the Lord. The blood shall be a sign for you, on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague will befall you to destroy you, when I strike the land of Egypt. “This day shall be for you a memorial day, and you shall keep it as a feast to the Lord; throughout your generations, as a statute forever, you shall keep it as a feast. ... Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread. … On the first day you shall hold a holy assembly, and on the seventh day a holy assembly. … And you shall observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread, for on this very day I brought your hosts out of the land of Egypt. Therefore you shall observe this day, throughout your generations, as a statute forever. … And when you come to the land that the Lord will give you, as he has promised, you shall keep this service. And when your children say to you, ‘What do you mean by this service?’ you shall say, ‘It is the sacrifice of the Lord's Passover, for he passed over the houses of the people of Israel in Egypt, when he struck the Egyptians but spared our houses.’

Once again, we have God directing the people so that they would remember one of his mighty acts on their behalf. And we have some of the same ingredients as we had with the crossing of the Jordan. God does a mighty act. The people are to remember it using physical things. Here, it's not rocks but food. God specifies the food: roasted lamb, bitter herbs and bread that has no leaven. And there are, again, the interpretive words which are given in the context of one of the children asking for an explanation. There are some other things, beside the addition of the food, that are different. This special meal is to be an annual event. The memory of what God did was to be renewed in this way at the same time each year. The other addition is the holy assembly. The people, reminded of what God did for them, are to gather together for worship. Remembering leads to worship.

Let's add one more example. This comes from the book of Esther which we are currently reading. As you'll see, God rescues his people from the evil plot of Haman, the Agagite. In response to this mighty act of God, the people celebrate.

And Mordecai recorded these things and sent letters to all the Jews who were in all the provinces of King Ahasuerus, both near and far, obliging them to keep the fourteenth day of the month Adar and also the fifteenth day of the same, year by year, as the days on which the Jews got relief from their enemies, and as the month that had been turned for them from sorrow into gladness and from mourning into a holiday; that they should make them days of feasting and gladness, days for sending gifts of food to one another and gifts to the poor. …Therefore they called these days Purim, after the term Pur. Therefore, because of all that was written in this letter, and of what they had faced in this matter, and of what had happened to them, the Jews firmly obligated themselves and their offspring and all who joined them, that without fail they would keep these two days according to what was written and at the time appointed every year, that these days should be remembered and kept throughout every generation, in every clan, province, and city, and that these days of Purim should never fall into disuse among the Jews, nor should the commemoration of these days cease among their descendants.

Here, you can see some of the same ingredients as in the other passages, as well as some new ingredients. There are special days set apart for feasting and gladness. There was gift-giving. All of this was to continue each year, and orthodox Jews still celebrate it to this day. What is different here is that God did not command it. This was the response of the people to what God had done.

There are other passages that fit in with this theme, but I think that these are sufficient. They give some direction when it comes to celebrating the great and mighty act of God in sending his Son to rescue us.

That's the theory. What follow are some aspects of the practice. I have three thoughts here. First, I'll give you an example of what this might look like. This isn't the only right way to celebrate Jesus' Coming. There are lots of variations on the theme. But it's how our family did it when the kids were still at home.

Our Christmas Eve celebration began with some appetizers: Knäckebröd with French onion dip and cranberry juice. We had this in the living room which was appropriately decorated with a Christmas tree, hidden elves, a manger scene Linda had made and other things. We sang some Christmas carols and read some Scripture and prayed. And sometimes we lit an Advent Wreath. Once that was done we went into the dining room. The table was filled with special once-a-year foods. There was korv and lingenberry sauce, kol dormer, sil, potatoes, cranberry sauce, a fruit salad the name of which I can't properly pronounce and more. After dinner, we all went to church for the Christmas Eve service where we would sing more carols, offer up our prayers of thanks and be reminded from the Scriptures why this day is special. When we returned home, we spent a little time opening stocking stuffers which Linda had wrapped and I labeled with silly notes the night before. Then the kids went up to bed and Linda and I sat in the living room with only the Christmas tree lights on enjoying a glass of wine together. The next day, Christmas Day, started with a breakfast of sweet rolls and coffee or cocoa. And then it was gift-opening time. Once my in-laws had moved up to North East we spent the afternoon at their place eating some more and opening more gifts. I think that you can see the ingredients that we found in those passages reflected in our family's traditions. Act of God: Jesus has come. Physical reminders: appropriate decorations and special foods. Interpretive words. Worship. Again, this isn't how celebrating Jesus' birth has to happen. It's just how we did it. And we did it this way because this was pretty much how Linda did it when she was growing up. It was a tradition passed from one generation to the next.

That was my first thought. Here's the second. I've used the language of 'ingredients' to describe the different aspects of celebration. And that seems right. But if anyone were to think that all that needs to happen is just to follow the recipe - mix ingredients, bake for an hour at 350 and serve - he would be sadly mistaken. There are many who do that sort of thing, whether with these ingredients or some others, but they do not end up with a celebration of the mighty acts of God. Just following a recipe once a year will often result in an empty religious ritual. The celebration of the mighty act of God in the Coming of Jesus isn't supposed to be some oddity that we do once a year. That won't work. Celebrating this or any other mighty act of God on some special day will only work if all the other days of the year also include some awareness of the mighty acts of God. What's different about this one day is not that we're thinking about something that we don't usually think about. What's different is that we giving it a much greater emphasis than what we normally do. Remembering our God and some aspect of the great things that he has done for us is to be a daily event.

So, what is special about Christmas Eve dinner is not that we are going to talk about and sing about Jesus. Talking about the great works of God is not something to be done just on one particular night. Our family did that every night. We prepared for an extra-special celebration of Jesus, Christmas Eve, by remembering him every evening in our family devotions after dinner. Talking together as a family about Jesus at Christmas time was extra special because we talked about him all the rest of the year.

So, here's the point. Christmas becomes a glorious celebration of Jesus when he is remembered the rest of the year. If that daily remembering isn't present, then Christmas as remembering the Incarnation is someone trying to be what he isn't, trying to do what he doesn't do normally. As a result, what you end up with, at the very least, is a celebration of Jesus that isn't nearly as powerful as it might be. And at the worst, it becomes just another habit that is devoid of any real religious significance. And isn't that what Christmas has become for most of our neighbors?

The point of the celebration is Jesus. The other stuff, the decorations, the food, the singing, the gifts and whatever else someone might do, the very enjoyable traditions that make up the celebration - they are all there to press home the wonder and the excitement of this mighty work of God: Jesus has come!

And that leads to this last thought that I want to make. Why am I talking to you about this? Our culture celebrates Christmas but not Jesus. And it would be foolish to think that this does not affect us and our children in one way or another. We need to think about what it means to celebrate the great works of God, like Christmas. We need to be more self-conscious when it comes to what we are doing and why we do it. People who are not careful here run the risk of ending up with empty religious rituals which will be rejected in a generation or two.

But, to look on the brighter side, as we are careful in these things it will have a very positive affect. First, it will affect our children. A Christian celebration of Jesus' Coming will be such a blessing to our children. It will be a time of good family memories, renewed traditions, lots of laughter. And it will be a time to remind them that the point not just of this season, but the point of all of life is Jesus. So, prepare them to celebrate Christmas by reminding them of Jesus every day. And then when Christmas arrives, have a blast. Jesus has come! We have much to be happy about.

Being careful in these things will also have an affect on the world around us. We are surrounded by people who, more and more, have no clue about life. They don't understand the Jesus has come so that we might be happy and that forever. They are not happy, don't know how to become happy. They think that having a party will make up for it. We need to show them happiness. We need to show them how that happens. We need to show them Jesus. And part of that is how we celebrate things like Christmas. Our celebrations can change the world.

Why Worship?

2011-11-27T14:35:00.000-05:00

Our text this morning is another one of those familiar texts that John's Gospel is filled with. Today's text is about Jesus' clearing out the Temple and doing that with some heat. What I’d like to do with this text is explore an area that you may not have thought about, at least not in the context of what Jesus did in the Temple. So, this is what we're going to do. I will quickly go over what happened to make sure that the text is clear to everyone. Then I'm going to ask the text a question or two to lead into this other area. Our text is John 2.13-17. Please listen as I read.

So, what happened? Jesus is in town to celebrate the Passover. He enters the Temple and sees people selling animals for the sacrifices. In the Temple! At that point, to put it mildly, he goes ballistic. He grabs some rope and makes a whip. With whip in hand, he chases people and animals out of the building and makes a mess of the place. As he does this, he shouts what it is that has gotten him so angry. 'Do not make my Father's house a house of trade.' And that's what happened. It's pretty straightforward and easy to understand. Jesus violently reacted to the selling of these animals in the Temple.

That was a 'What?' question. What happened? Now, let's ask a 'Why?' question. Why did Jesus react in this way? One answer you may have heard goes something like this. Jesus saw how the moneychangers and the others were taking advantage of the people. They were ripping off these people. Seeing this, Jesus went into a rage. It was, for him, a matter of social justice. Well, to be sure, social justice is important. The Scriptures have a lot to say about the protection of the poor and how their God will confront their oppressors. But there's a problem with that way of understanding what happened. Nothing in our text says that this was what motivated Jesus.

Someone could try to make a case for this, using historical research and all of that. And I would be surprised if the people weren't being taken advantage of. It was, after all, a very corrupt time. Sometimes you need to read between the lines to understand a text. But that isn't necessary here. The text already tells us why Jesus got so angry. Actually, it's Jesus himself who explains. 'Do not make my Father's house a house of trade.' And John's own comment at the end of this section puts this answer beyond doubt. 'His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for your house will consume me.”' Jesus got angry not because of social justice issues but because of worship issues. This building, God's house, the Temple, was to be a place of worship, but it was becoming a market. Worship was being nudged aside. Jesus saw that, and he got violently angry. 'Take these things away; do not make my Father's house a house of trade.' The reason for Jesus' anger was not about justice but about worship.

And that leads us to the area that I want to explore. Worship is a big deal for Jesus. In fact, you could say that worship is the reason that Jesus came in the first place. This should not be surprising. Consider this OT prophecy. It's from Malachi, and it describes what was to happen when Messiah arrived.

Behold, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me. And the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple; and the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, behold, he is coming, says the Lord of hosts. But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner's fire and like fullers' soap. He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, and they will bring offerings in righteousness to the Lord. Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to the Lord as in the days of old and as in former years.

'The Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple.' Isn't that what our text is about? Jesus shows up at the Temple. And what purpose does Malachi give for this coming? 'And he will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver...' He comes to refine and to purify. And note the goal of this work of Jesus. 'And they will bring offerings in righteousness to the LORD.' Worship! The goal of Jesus' coming is purified worship. According to Malachi, Jesus came to create pure worshipers.

And this is confirmed elsewhere in John's Gospel. Remember Jesus' conversation with the Samaritan woman at the well? Part of that conversation is about worship. This is what he tells her. 'But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him.' The Father seeks true worshipers, pure worshipers. So what did he do? He sent his Son. Jesus came to purify and thus create true worshipers of God. That was the motivation behind Jesus’ actions in the Temple.

So, Jesus has come to create purified worshipers, those who would worship the Father in spirit and in truth. Now, when Jesus tossed the tables and all the rest - did that result in pure worshipers? Did that do the trick? No. I have no doubt that the next day the sellers set up shop once again just like they did the day before. They may have taken a quick look around first, just to be sure that that hothead wasn't anywhere around. But once someone gave the all-clear, it was business as usual. So, does this mean that Jesus failed at creating purified worshipers? Absolutely not! Don't you think that Jesus knew what would happen on the day after his rage? People might call Jesus lots of things, but naive isn't one of them. He knew what would happen. But he never intended that day to be the fulfillment of Malachi's prophecy. No, it was simply a pointer to that prophecy and maybe even a faint (very faint) picture of its fulfillment. It was a warning and an appeal to those people. Jesus' actions on that day were a picture of that prophecy, acted out for the sake of the people. Hopefully, some of them took the warning to heart before the reality of that prophecy crashed upon them. 'The Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple. … But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears?'

So, when did Jesus fulfill Malachi's prophecy? When did he make the big change so that there would be purified worshipers? I'd say that it was Pentecost. It's difficult, if not impossible, to separate the events of the Cross, the Resurrection, Jesus' Ascension and Pentecost. They really all go together. But Pentecost is when this change could be clearly seen in people's lives. That's when the purified worship of this new age of the Spirit was let loose on the world. On that day there was a switch from God's Temple as this building in Jerusalem to God's Temple as Jesus' Church. Now, the Church is the house of God. The proof that this switch had occurred was when that building in Jerusalem, the one that used to be the Temple of God, was destroyed by Roman armies sent by God. That's when the Lord came to his Temple and completely expressed his rage. 'But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears?' The pure worship of God is now the domain of the Church of Jesus throughout the world and not a building in Jerusalem.

So, you see, Jesus didn't just come so that we could be forgiven, though he certainly did that. And Jesus didn't just come so that we could receive the Spirit, though he certain did that. Jesus has come so that we might worship God, and that we might do that in spirit and in truth. He came so that we might worship God as pure worshipers. Being a Christian is all about worship.

Now, all of this is a very interesting, to be sure. (At least I think it is!) But, if this is going to be helpful to you I need to develop it just a bit more. So, let me pose a question. And it's a simple question. 'Why?' Yes, Jesus has come to make us into true worshipers of God. But why do we need to do that? Why do we need to worship? Why do we need to get together, like we are right now, and tell God how great he is? Why? Why is worship such a big deal?

This is an important question. And how many there are who do not have a good answer for it. As a result, they pursue a good habit for some really bad reasons. How many people go to church out of guilt? They figure God won't be quite so mad with them if they show up fairly regularly. And let's face it, for some people, going to church is about enjoying the music, of whatever style, or being intellectually stimulated by a good lecture/sermon, or it's just an empty habit. And that means that worship is fairly optional. If I don't make it to church, I might miss out on something I enjoy, but it's no big deal. There's always next week.

So, Jesus has come so that we might worship God. Why should we do that? If we aren't to worship for these selfish reasons I've mentioned, then why should we?

Here's one suggested answer that I suspect few people within the Church would say out loud, though there are plenty outside the Church who have. God has a fragile ego, so he needs us to tell him how great he is. We need to praise him so that he will feel better about himself. And from the outside, that is what it looks like to a lot of people. So, are they wrong?

The first step in understanding worship is to remember this simple, though profound, fact. God does not need us. I've told you this before. God - Father, Son and Spirit - were doing quite well together, enjoying each other, loving each other, for an eternity. They were happy before we ever showed up on the scene. God didn't create us because he needed us. We are completely unnecessary to him. Completely. So, if he doesn't need us, then he doesn't need our worship. No, God doesn't have a fragile ego that needs propping every week or so. His ego is quite healthy without our intervention. So much for that evil suggestion.

But we still need an answer to our question. Why does he command worship? Why did he come among us in Jesus to purify us and thus make sure that we are able to worship him? The answer is obvious. It just takes a little Bible-guided logic. If worship isn't because of his need, then it must be because of our need.

Listen to these words of praise from Revelation.

And the four living creatures, each of them with six wings, are full of eyes all around and within, and day and night they never cease to say, “Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come!” And whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to him who is seated on the throne, who lives forever and ever, the twenty-four elders fall down before him who is seated on the throne and worship him who lives forever and ever. They cast their crowns before the throne, saying, “Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created.”

Truer words of praise have never been spoken. Never! And they need to be spoken. But God doesn't need to hear them. We need to hear them. Jesus' coming so that we might worship God was an act of love for us. Think about it. Who needs to be reminded of God's holiness, his absolute might and his eternity? He knows that already. We're the ones who keep on forgetting it. Who needs to remember who gets the glory and who it is that decides, moment-by-moment, that we should still exist? Worship is for our benefit, not God's. So, his commanding us to worship him is a kindness. We are dense. We forget what is most basic about reality. Worship is God's way of changing that.

Now, be careful. Don't think of this in merely psychological terms. 'Well, if I repeat words about who God is over and over maybe they'll sink in.' What is that? Salvation by repetition? The problem is not that our minds don't remember as well as they should. The problem is that we are sinners. Our forgetfulness is a moral problem, a problem with our souls. There is no salvation by being reminded. There is only salvation by Jesus. We need Jesus to deal with sinful souls that want to forget, rebellious souls that want to ignore the truth, selfish souls that want to be the center of the universe. And he has dealt with that. The Father sent the Son so that the power of sin - our willful refusal to worship him purely - could be broken. Then, Jesus sent the Spirit to apply that reality to the little nooks and crannies of our souls where our sins hide out. The Spirit crushes our sins, one by one, so that, more and more, we might worship our God in purity, and thus live according to what is real: that he is God and we are not. And, appropriately, this work of the Spirit makes its greatest progress when we are worshiping, either alone or as families or as a congregation. It is by worshiping that we are purified more so that we might worship aright. The Spirit acts in the midst of our worship, and we are blessed.

So, as we worship, we benefit. And that's why God commands worship, for our sake. But - and this is so very important - we will not benefit from worship in the way that God desires if we focus on our benefit. We will benefit as he intends only as we focus on him. If you fail here, if you tell yourself that you will worship God for the goodies that you will get, then you make God a means to some other end. According to this kind of thinking, he is not the goal, but he will get you to what is your real goal. And that is blasphemous! God forbid that any of you do such a thing, using God as a tool to get something else, something that you desire more than him. We do not love God for what he will give us. We love God for who he is. But in so doing, we benefit. The Spirit blesses.

To be sure, our worship is not pure. Hardly! But Jesus has come. He, as our High Priest, makes our defiled worship acceptable to the Father. He purifies it. And at the same time, he purifies us, by the Spirit, so that our love for our God and our worship of him might come from a heart that is increasing in purity.

Now, I hope you see a bit more clearly why Jesus did what he did in the Temple on that day. It's all about worship. He was sent to create purified worshipers. His goal in creating such worshipers is that we would, deep in our souls, understand who is the God of this creation and who is the creature, and that in understanding this, we might live as he originally intended.

It’s Party Time!

2011-11-20T16:17:00.002-05:00

We're still looking at this miracle in John 2. I expect that this will be the last time we'll be here. Today, we're going to look expressly at the wine to see what Jesus is saying by this miracle. I have a couple of large points to make along with one or two smaller thoughts that I won't develop much. I'll let you do that if you want. So, let me start by reading our text, John 2.1-12.

My first point is one of those smaller thoughts. I think that it's important to see that while Jesus is teaching by this miracle, he is doing that without words. He is teaching by creating a picture: water miraculously changed into wine. Did you notice that he once he does the miracle adds no comment. He does not explain the picture. He expects his disciples to figure out his point. He was not necessarily expecting them to figure it all out right then. But the wheels needed to start turning. I think that this point about teaching by picture is important because we have grown up in a culture that emphasizes words over pictures. And there is a reason why this is. Words are usually more precise. And precision is a key virtue in the part of the culture that most of us live in. But the Bible oftentimes just uses pictures. Here, all you have to do is think about the book of Revelation. There are lots of pictures but not much comment. The Bible does this sort of thing to make an impression on the reader. There are times when it is necessary to be precise, and times when it isn’t. We need poets as well as scientists.

Let's move on. Let's look at this picture that Jesus has created. This is a picture about wine. Jesus makes a lot of wine. And where does he make all this wine? At a party celebrating a wedding. The picture is about an abundance of wine created for a wedding banquet. That’s the picture. What is it saying? If you're going to understand a picture (or any kind of art) you need to know the language it speaks. The Bible provides us with the language Jesus uses here. So, for one example, Psalm 104 describes God's greatness, but it does not do that so much with words as with pictures.

You cause the grass to grow for the livestock and plants for man to cultivate, that he may bring forth food from the earth and wine to gladden the heart of man, oil to make his face shine and bread to strengthen man's heart.

The Psalm is about how great our God is, and it focuses especially on his works in nature. And in the midst of that the psalmist points to food. One of the examples of God's greatness is his giving us food. And you'll notice that one kind of food that is singled out is wine which is given 'to gladden the heart of man'.

Let me pause here for another small thought. Isn't it interesting how often food shows up in the Bible as some sort of big deal? Our problems with sin started in the Garden of Eden because of food. Much of the complaining of Israel in the wilderness was about food. Jesus' first temptation was about food. And in a bit, during the Lord's Supper, we will be blessed with the favor of God by means of some food, wine and bread. There is a theology of food in the Bible. And it provides some of the language that Jesus uses in this miracle.

These themes of food in general, and wine in particular, are picked up elsewhere in the OT. Listen to these prophecies from Joel and Amos.

And in that day the mountains shall drip sweet wine, and the hills shall flow with milk, and all the streambeds of Judah shall flow with water; and a fountain shall come forth from the house of the Lord and water the Valley of Shittim.

'Behold, the days are coming,' declares the Lord, 'when the plowman shall overtake the reaper and the treader of grapes him who sows the seed; the mountains shall drip sweet wine, and all the hills shall flow with it. I will restore the fortunes of my people Israel, and they shall rebuild the ruined cities and inhabit them; they shall plant vineyards and drink their wine, and they shall make gardens and eat their fruit.'

These are pictures of prosperity, God's blessing, promised for some future day. They aren't intended to precisely describe what God will do. It's poetry intended to make an impression on people who lived close to the land.

Other prophets extend the image to more than just wine and some food being provided. They write about a feast. This is from Isaiah.

On this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wine, of rich food full of marrow, of aged wine well refined. And he will swallow up on this mountain the covering that is cast over all peoples, the veil that is spread over all nations. He will swallow up death forever; and the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces, and the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth, for the Lord has spoken. It will be said on that day, “Behold, this is our God; we have waited for him, that he might save us. This is the Lord; we have waited for him; let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.”

Isaiah looks into the future and he describes - poetically - what God is going to do. He will swallow up death. He will wipe away tears, and all the rest. And how does he impress that upon his readers? He writes about a banquet. The day of redemption is coming. And it will be a celebration. It will be like a great feast with good friends, plenty of food and wine that gladdens the heart of man.

Do you see what those OT prophets were saying? 'When Messiah comes - Wow! - that will be something. It's going to be like a great party with our God being the host and all of us there having a blast. It is going to be amazing.’

These are some important themes found in the OT, themes that were given to the people of God to encourage them, themes about food and wine and feasting and the joy of being rescued from every form of death. This is the language of the picture in our text.

Jesus picks up on all of this. He uses this language and not just in our text. He uses it in his parables. So, in Matthew 22 we read Jesus saying this, 'The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding feast for his son...' He uses the same imagery elsewhere. Jesus paints pictures using those OT themes.

So, do you see what Jesus is doing in our text? He is teaching using a picture of wine, a lot of wine, and that at a feast, a wedding feast. And once you understand the language that he is using, the lesson is clear. It's as if he were saying, 'Do you remember all those OT promises about the coming days of God's blessings? They were about lots of food and wine and everyone was happy and celebrating at a great feast. You know, the ones about the coming of the Messiah. Well, I'm here. Let the party begin. And to get things off on the right foot, let me provide the wine.' That's what Jesus is teaching by the picture of this wine. The Messiah has come. Let the party begin.

All of that was about what the text means. Now, we're ready to see what the Spirit is saying to us by it. To get at that, let's ask a question. 'So, those OT prophecies about the coming of the Messiah and the feasting with the food and the wine and all of that - those prophecies that are the point of Jesus' picture - are they now fulfilled? Can we say, at this point, that God has kept his promise? After all, the Messiah has come.' Good question, no? And the answer is Yes and No. Let's examine both of those.

First, the Yes. It is obviously a qualified Yes, since there is also a No, but there is still a Yes to those OT prophecies. The Messiah has, in fact, come. Jesus has arrived, as promised. So, what was promised to occur with his coming must also have arrived. And one way to express this qualified Yes is to say that the party has begun. It is not in full swing yet, but it has begun.

But let's push that a bit. So, the party has begun? But what difference does that make? Does it change anything? Or is all of this just a bit of fancy theology for ivory tower people who are interested in that sort of thing? This is important because the assumption among many, at least on an emotional level, is that very little, if anything, has really changed, even though Jesus has come. To be sure, Jesus' coming means that our sins are forgiven. And that's really good. But that's about it. Jesus has come, died on that Cross and then he left. And it's the same old same old, at least until we die. At that point we get to go to heaven.

So, bottom line, nothing has really changed much for the here and now even though Jesus has come. Our situation is pretty much like David's or Abraham's or other OT believers. We live, we die, we go to heaven. So, what's with all of that party imagery with the food and the wine and all the celebrating - all tied to the coming of the Messiah? What's all that about? What party? What's changed? Anything?

The easy way out is just to answer our question with a simple, unqualified No. 'No, the promise made in those OT pictures has not been fulfilled yet. It will be in the future, after we die, but nothing is going to happen before then.' And that's what lots of Christians have concluded. That's how they deal with day-to-day life. We live, we die, we go to heaven. Answering with a No does, however, raise a problem with our text. ‘So, Jesus' miracle was picturing what is still in our future, even though he's come? Yeah, that must be it. After all, nothing has changed.’

Or has it? Here is one thing that has changed: The Spirit has come. Pentecost. That's a huge change. The Spirit has come, and he is here in a way that he never was before. Something changed at Pentecost. The Spirit's coming, his advent, is part of God’s plan to save the world. He is here on a mission. Just as Jesus was sent by the Father to accomplish his part of the plan, the Spirit was sent by Jesus to accomplish his part of the plan. That's what happened on Pentecost. Jesus not only earned forgiveness of sin by his life, death and resurrection. He also earned the blessing of the Spirit. On Pentecost he sent the Spirit to be here in a way that was completely new. Something changed.

Now, is this a change that we can feel, or is it still just some academic theology gibberish? At this point, I could talk about the love, joy, peace and patience that the Spirit gives. Or I could talk about the apostles, prophets, pastor-teachers that the Spirit has raised up for the Church. But instead of talking about the Spirit's fruit or the Spirit's gifts, I want to talk about the Spirit's power. After his resurrection, Jesus told his disciples, 'But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you.' This is new. Now, since Pentecost, there is a kind of power that was absent before, the power of the Spirit of God employed to save the world. So, now there is power to change and be changed. Just to look at one narrow slice of this, consider love, joy, peace, patience and all the rest. Do you think people are born with these? Counterfeits, yes, but the real thing? We are all born sinful, and that affects everything about us, especially the possibility of developing those qualities. But the Spirit has come. Something is different. He is here, and he is busy. There is power for change. So, Paul writes, 'Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.' The Spirit of Jesus, the Spirit of power, takes sinners and changes them. And that means that there's hope for you. Whatever sin afflicts you, the Spirit can change all of that. Whatever it is that trips you up so often, the Spirit can deal with it and get rid of it. Jesus has come and fulfilled his part of the plan to save the world. As a result, he sent the Spirit. He is here changing us and changing the world. We have something to celebrate. (And just to throw in another small thought: isn't that what Sundays are for?)

So, are those OT prophecies about the party with its celebration fulfilled? Has God kept his promises? Yes! The party has begun. Change has begun. The Spirit is powerfully changing lives, both our lives and the lives of many others. We have much to celebrate. And as time goes on, we will see more and more of that change. The Spirit is here saving the world. We can answer our question with a clear Yes. The party has begun.

The question for you to ask yourself at this point is simple. Do you believe this? There is no change where there is no believing.

I have not forgotten that there is still that 'No' that I mentioned. Are those OT prophecies fulfilled? Well, the party has begun, but it isn't in full swing yet. So, we need to acknowledge that No. It is a qualified No, since there is a Yes, but it's still a No. And that has a couple of things to teach us. It is my deep desire that each one of you experience, in this life, the power of the Spirit in profound ways. I want the Spirit to make all of you the most loving, joyous, peaceful, patient people. I want the power of the Spirit to fill your lives so that you shine in such a way that others can't help but notice. I want the Spirit's presence to be so abundant in you that it overflows like a great waterfall, splashing on those around you. I want to see all of that, and more, in each of you. And there is no good reason why these things shouldn't happen. But, even if these things happen to you ten times more - a hundred times more - than I have in mind, the party has only begun. Once it really gets going, all of these experiences of the Spirit will seem to be almost as nothing in comparison. We have no idea how good it will be when the promises are fully kept, when the party really gets going, when Jesus comes back. Paul wrote, 'Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God has prepared for those that love him.' We cannot imagine how good it will be.

And knowing that is still not just some academic notion. Having some sense of the wonder and beauty of the age to come is an anchor to your soul. It will give you a reason to hope when life gets so hard. It will encourage patience with living as a broken person in a broken place. It will provide a wise perspective on this life and its temptations. The Spirit has many wonders to show us while we walk in this life. But who knows what our future in the age to come will be like? Whatever that might look like, it will be a celebration that will last an eternity.

Jesus pointed to all of this, and lots more, no doubt, when he turned that water into wine. He has painted a picture of the difference that that his coming makes. All that we understand right now is a bit of the corner of his painting. But that is enough for a start. In time, the Spirit will give us eyes that will be able to see more and more of the picture. And that will be such a help as we work our way to eternity.

Believing

2011-11-13T16:59:00.000-05:00

Today, we are again looking at Jesus' miracle of changing the water into wine. This time though the focus of the sermon is going to be on how Jesus' disciples responded. John tells us that because of the miracle they believed in Jesus. I'd like to examine that a bit. The issue I'd like to deal with has to do with mature believing. So, please listen as I read our text, John 2.1-12.

Let's start with this. John is pretty clear. As a result of this miracle, Jesus' disciples believed in him. But as soon as you say that, questions pop up. So, for example, I thought these men already believed in Jesus back in chapter one. Do you remember how one of them said, 'We have found the Messiah'? And another said, 'We have found him of whom Moses and the prophets wrote.' And then one other said, 'Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!' I think it's fair to conclude that in chapter one John described a handful of men who believed in Jesus. No? So, what's this, 'And his disciples believed in him', here in chapter two? When questions like this pop up it's usually a sign that something is going on beneath the surface, something more subtle. Should that be surprising? The Bible, after all, is sophisticated literature.

This thing, 'believing', is, as you would expect, a big deal in John. Back in chapter one John wrote this. 'But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.' Then, of course, there is John's clearly stated purpose at the end of the book. 'Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.' Thse statements summarize John's key concerns about believing. But in between these two bookends there are some rather interesting twists and turns. So, consider this is from the end of chapter two. 'Now when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover Feast, many believed in his name when they saw the signs that he was doing. But Jesus on his part did not entrust himself to them, because he knew all people and needed no one to bear witness about man, for he himself knew what was in man.' Jesus didn't trust these people. But they were believers … weren't they? There's something going on here. Then, there's this in the middle of chapter eight. John writes: 'So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him...' and on we go into a conversation between Jesus and these men, these believers. But by the time that we get to the end of the conversation, these people, people who, according to John, had believed in Jesus, claimed that he was possessed by a demon! And then, to make matters worse, they picked up some rocks to throw at him. They wanted to kill him! But didn't John write that they 'had believed in him'? This 'believing' thing is not as simple as many think.

Let's look at this a bit. One common notion about believing is that it's like a light switch. It's either on or it's off. You believe or you don't. Then some add on to that. They say that once it's turned on, once you believe, it can never be turned off. You're a believer for the rest of eternity. I don't think John would agree, and I say this as a convinced Calvinist. Just consider what he wrote about that group in chapter eight. They believed and then, they didn't. That kind of shoots a hole in the 'once the switch is turned on it stays on' kind of thinking. And what about what happens to the disciples in our text? It raises questions about 'the switch is on or off' idea. We were told that they believe in chapter one. Was their believing in chapter two something else, something different, something more? How do we put all of this together?

Some may think that this is just too confusing and why bother? But if God wanted to adopt the 'keep it simple, stupid' model, then the Bible would be one verse, something like John 3.16. But he wants our thinking and thus our living to be stretched. There is more of him to enjoy. Confusing parts of the Bible are reminders that we still have lots of areas where we need to be stretched. Our text is one of those reminders.

So, what's going on in all of this? In light of the rest of John's Gospel, it seems best to see what happened in chapter two as a development of what happened in chapter one. In chapter one they believed in Jesus as the promised Messiah and King of Israel. And that was good. But then, after the miracle, their believing changed a bit. It took an important step forward. And, if you think about it, that fits with what is yet to come in this Gospel. Instead of looking back from chapter two to what happened in chapter one, look ahead. While these men believe in Jesus in chapter two, they certainly don't believe in him as a dying Savior. That's nowhere on their radar. But they will believe that. They will come to see that Jesus is the Savior who came to die. When that happens their believing will change. And at that point, it will have developed a bit more just as it did from chapter one to chapter two.

So, you see, believing in Jesus is not just an on/off kind of thing. It changes. And that goes both ways. It can deepen and develop, or it can wither and die. So, think about the parable of the four soils. The seed in the fourth soil sprouts and produces fruit. This person believes and that believing develops and it shows. But consider the seed in the second soil. It also sprouts. Jesus says that these people 'receive the word with joy'. And he even says that 'they believe'. But then, something happens and it changes. This believing of the seed in the second soil withers and dies. The quality of a person's believing changes. And that will show. It will either grow or it will die.

So, here's the point. The believing of those disciples changed. It grew, developed and matured. As a result, their lives serve as an example, an exhortation. Your believing also needs to change. It also needs to grow and develop and mature.

It's at this point that a closer look at those disciples will be encouraging. You know at least something of the the history of their believing in Jesus. They are such a mixed bag. At times their believing is stellar. Jesus asks them, 'Who do you say that I am?' And Peter, as spokesman for the group, gets it exactly right. 'You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.' Excellent! And Jesus responds with a blessing. He then goes on to explain what it means for him to be the Christ. He talks about the Cross. And what does Peter do then? He rebukes Jesus for saying such a thing! What is that but the expression of a kind of believing that is still immature, still relatively undeveloped. But it doesn't stay that way. Things change by the time we get to the book of Acts. The believing of these men has become so very different. It is stable and fearless. So, they are quick to respond to the Spirit, the Church grows daily and the Gospel spreads to the nations. And these sorts of things happen because these disciples have come to believe in a way that is mature and that continues to mature. Jesus has matured them.

Now, there is absolutely no reason why each of you can't believe with a similar, maturing believing and to have it show like theirs did. The key is to do what they did. You need to respond to Jesus with whatever kind of believing you have. As you do that, Jesus will bless you. He will do this even though he knows that you, like Peter, have a believing that is still immature. But he will bless and his blessing will result in the maturing of your believing.

Now, let's go back to our text and raise another question. What happened so that the believing of the disciples changed? John tells us. 'This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and he manifested his glory. And his disciples believed in him.' Do you see the connection? Jesus displayed his glory, and there was change in the disciples. Now, remember that 'glory' is a church-word that we've translated before. These guys saw something of the beauty of Jesus, something that they had not grasped before. And that's why the quality of their believing changed. And what aspect of Jesus' beauty did they see? Two things stand out. First, they saw his power. Jesus did the impossible. Water does not become wine just like that. But this water did. Jesus made it happen. He has power to do the impossible. The second thing has to do with how John labels this event. He doesn't call it a miracle. He calls it a 'sign'. What Jesus did was a sign, a pointer to something else. I'm not going to develop this now, though I plan to next week. For now it's enough to say that this sign points to some OT promises about what was to happen when the Messiah finally arrived. One OT picture of the Messiah's coming focuses on wine. The water turned to wine was a sign, a pointer, that Jesus is the promised Messiah who brings great change with him. More about this next week.

So, by this sign Jesus displayed something of who he is and what he can do. He is the long-awaited Messiah who does the impossible. Now, I don't know how much of this the disciples grasped, but they got some of it. And that showed. They saw his glory and they believed in Jesus. That is, the quality of their believing changed. It matured a bit.

This helps us answer another important question. The believing of the disciples matured after they saw a miracle. Do you need to see a miracle for the same thing to happen to you? You don't need a miracle. What you need is to see is more of Jesus' glory, more of what is so attractive about him, more of his beauty. You need to be further gripped by who he is and what he can do. So, what do you do to make that happen? Well, the fact of the matter is that there is nothing that you can do to make that happen. Jesus sets the agenda. He needs to make that happen. He needs to manifest his glory to you. And if he doesn't, there is nothing that you can do about it. The ball is in his court. The ball is always in his court.

Looking at Jesus' relationship with his disciples is quite helpful here. These men spent three years with Jesus. And those three years were spent answering one question. 'Who is this guy?' They watch as he pronounces a paralyzed man forgiven of his sins. Then, as proof that he can do that, he heals the man. And off he goes, walking through the crowd. They see him tangle with the elite religion scholars of his day and do more than just hold his own. In fact, he repeatedly puts these scholars in their place. They listen as he teaches the people, and he teaches outlandish things. Turn the other cheek?!? And they are witnesses when he turns water into wine. For three years the question is still the same: 'Who is this guy?' Over time Jesus provides - and their souls grasp - some profound answers to that question.

And that's the question that you need to get answered also. You cannot answer it on your own. It's a question that Jesus needs to answer for you. And that is exactly what he is doing. Remember, he has not abandoned you. Immanuel. He is with you by his Spirit. And the Spirit is busy providing answers to that question, 'Who is this guy?' And as a result, your believing is becoming more mature.

Again, what helps here is to consider how Jesus did this with those disciples. There was teaching and practicums. So, there is Jesus with his disciples and all of these people who have gathered to be taught by Jesus; thousands of people in the middle of nowhere. And Jesus turns to Philip and he asks, 'Where are we to buy bread, so that these people may eat?' And what does Philip do? He responds with good logic and clear reason. 'Two hundred denarii would not buy enough bread for each of them to get a little.' Now, the text doesn't say this, but I'm thinking that Philip is staring at Jesus with a look that says, 'Are you crazy? Feed all these people? Impossible!' That's what I would do. Now, there’s an important sentence between Jesus' question and Philip's answer. 'He said this to test him, for he himself knew what he would do.' Jesus teaches you, and there's lots of content. And every once in a while, he throws in a test, a pop quiz; practicums. He puts you in a particular situation, just like he did with Philip. He gives you an opportunity to put into practice something that he has been teaching you. And just like Philip at the feeding of the five thousand, you get to see a bit more of his glory. You get to see a bit more of who he is and what he can do. Jesus is the promised Messiah who can do the impossible. But remember: the initiative is his. He sets the agenda. He decides when to teach and when to test. What he leaves to you is your response. It's at this point that it is so very encouraging to remember how the disciples did with these pop quizzes. They usually blew them. And yet, in time, it was these losers with their puny believing who changed the world.

I am learning that there are some distinct advantages to getting older. I see some things now that I could not see before. When I arrived here as pastor of Faith Reformed, I was young and proud. I had a lot of Bible knowledge, but even with all of that knowledge I blew a lot of pop quizzes. I see that much more clearly now. But what I also see is that Jesus did not give up on me. He kept teaching me, and he kept on giving me those quizzes. And it needs to be said that he did a lot of tutoring too. And the result? There are things that I now understand that I was blind to before. Life makes more sense now; not completely, but more so. And so, I enjoy a good measure of contentment and joy and hope. There is a greater willingness and ability to put up with stuff for the sake of Jesus. And at the heart of all of that is a believing that has matured.

I say all of that to encourage you. Satan will do his best to get you down. And so he whispers in your ear. 'Haven't you gotten that lesson yet? Don't you understand anything? You are such a loser.' But Jesus takes losers like us - the Bible translation of that is 'sinners' - and uses them to change the world. And that is exactly what he is doing with us.

Miracles

2011-11-06T15:08:00.001-05:00

We're back in John 2, looking again at this miracle of Jesus. As I thought about our text, it seemed good to step back and take a look at the larger topic of miracles. So, what I'm going to do is deal with three questions: What is a miracle? Why did Jesus do miracles? Does Jesus still do miracles? Parts of the sermon may seem a little abstract, but I think that you will find that the answers to these questions can be very helpful. Our text is the first twelve verses of John 2. Please listen as I read.

So, what is a miracle? I think that it's fair to say that most people today look at this question from a particular vantage point. And that starts with this idea: the laws of nature. Our world acts in a certain way. If you hold something up and then let it go, one of these laws comes into play. If you mix hydrogen and oxygen in a certain way, another law comes into play. If you smash one atom into another just so, another law comes into play. There are these laws that govern how things function, the laws of nature. There are those who say that these laws cannot be broken. So, for these folk, there are no miracles. Then there are others who say that they can be broken. God can break these laws of nature. When he does, that's a miracle.

Viewing things in this way is actually not so good. It's too easy to fall into the trap of thinking that life goes on in the way that it does, day after day, because of these laws. And thinking in that way affects how you live, day after day. Now the Christian will make clear that God made the laws, but still it is too easy to live as if creation were on automatic pilot with these laws running things. God is there, but all he is doing is watching it all. To be sure, every once in a while God decides to break one of these laws. But normally, the laws of nature run things.

Let me offer something better. Instead of thinking in terms of laws of nature, picture life this way. At every moment of every day God decides what is going to happen. So, if I lift something and then let it go, God decides what will happen. And ordinarily he decides that the object will fall. This gets a bit more interesting when you ask a different question. Instead of asking, 'Why do things fall?', what if you ask, 'Why is my heart still beating?' You could talk about chemistry and electrolytes and all of that - and there is a place for that. Or you might talk about God's eternal decrees. But a more profound answer, one that helps us to understand certain aspects of life better, goes something like this. Your heart is beating because God has decided to make it beat one more time, and then another time, and then another. Oh sure, you can describe this using scientific talk, and that's fine. But it's fine only if you also remember, that all of this works - from the way things fall, to how atoms hold together or fly apart, to why your heart continues to beat - because at each moment God decides that all of those things are to happen. Without that very basic understanding, then all of this is just one big machine run according to some almost unbreakable laws. Maybe God was intimately involved in getting this machine started, but he isn't involved like that now.

And here's my concern. Even for people who don't have a philosophic bone in their body, people who are completely uninterested in such things, when they adopt a 'laws of nature' kind of understanding, there is a certain tone to life, a way of thinking about how life works, and about what we can expect. It can get to feel a little impersonal, a little mechanical. But it's different if you see God intimately involved in every moment and every part of Creation. It feels different. For one thing, you will feel that God is so very near. He is involved intimately involved, personally involved. So, your life is a matter of dealing with this Person and not some laws. There is a different tone to life.

There is another difference. Seeing things this personal way reminds us that our continued, moment-by-moment existence depends on God's moment-by-moment decisions. At any second, we could cease to exist, not just die and go to heaven, but cease to exist. We are, only because God continues to decide that we should be.

This is both so very humbling and so very encouraging. It is humbling because our very existence hangs by a thread. We could be born with good genes, take good care of our health, exercise vigorously and regularly, eat really well, get lots of sleep, but that does not determine what happens in the next moment. What happens in the next moment is God's decision. We determine nothing. He determines everything. Seeing this makes it clear that we are really small and completely without power. We depend completely on him. It is also so very encouraging because this means that every single one of us is known intimately by God. He knows you and has decided, at least up to this point, that you should continue to be. He makes that decision for each of us, personally. You are, because God continues to decide that you should be. This is the difference between living as a machine in a machine and living as a person, known by a Person and loved as a person. This is a personal universe, run by a Person for the sake of persons. That opens up a lot of possibilities. And it also explains miracles. God normally does something one way. In fact, it seems that he always does it that way. But then, one day he decides to do it differently. Normally, water stays water. This time it was changed into wine. God can do that. It's his decision.

Now, do I have a verse for all of this? I actually have two. The first is from Acts 17 where Paul is evangelizing some philosopher types in Athens. 'God is actually not far from each one of us, for "In him we live and move and have our being"'. Living, moving and continuing to exist are all because of what God is doing. The other is from Colossians 1. 'For by him [Jesus] all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities - all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.' The only reason that the atoms of Creation (and that includes the atoms that make up your body) don't fly off in ten thousand directions and then disappear into nothingness is that Jesus holds them together, moment by moment.

Now, for our next question: Why did Jesus do miracles? ‘Why?’ questions often have layers of answers, and this is no different. And John helps us out. He tells us about the result of this miracle. 'This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and he manifested his glory.' Jesus did miracles to highlight his glory. It was a way of saying, 'Hey, look at Me!!' And, of course, if you had been there and had seen this miracle, that's exactly what you would have done. Jesus does miracles to draw attention to himself. And this, of course, is something that he does quite a lot. 'On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink."' And there are lots more examples.

Now, a good question to ask here goes something like this. Why can he get away with that and I can't? If I do something like that I'm bragging, drawing attention to how great I am. That's pride. And pride is sin. Does Jesus get a pass on that? Is it okay for Him to sin? Well, it's not sin for him. He's supposed to be the focus of our attention. He is, after all, the God who decides to keep this Creation in existence, moment by moment. So, Jesus isn't bragging about anything. He's simply stating a fact. 'I am the most important Person in all Creation.' And that's the truth. And miracles are one of the ways that he uses to get us to see that.

But he doesn't draw attention to himself merely for his own sake. Remember, he doesn't need us. He doesn't need our worship. He doesn't need us to notice Him. God – Father, Son and Spirit – was quite happy without us before any of this existed. We are unnecessary. But he still does these miracles. Why? And here is another layer to our answer. He does miracles for our sake. We need to see more and more clearly that he really is that important. We need to see that he really is the focus of all of Creation. We need to see that we have nothing to brag about. But our sin gets in the way. We have things so upside down. So, Jesus comes. And when he gets here he doesn't give a lecture and then leave, expecting us to figure it all out. He teaches, to be sure. But he also does miracles so that we get it. Life works when we understand that he is the center and that we are not. He is God, with all that that means, and we are mere creatures, supremely dependant creatures.

When we are drawn to him and see him for who and what he is, then life works so much better. At that point, life becomes really good. And to convince us of this, there is wine for a wedding. We'll return to this aspect of our text next week, but for now it's enough to see that Jesus wants us to live well. He wants us to flourish. Getting there starts with our understanding. But it doesn't stop there. It affects the whole person, body and soul. As a result, we know that we are not machines that exist as a part of a bigger machine. We are people, and the most profound context for our lives is personal. We know that we are, that we continue to exist, simply because of his kind decision. And we know that he is the focus of it all. And we come to know all of this, in part, because he does miracles. So, why does Jesus do miracles? First, he does them for his own glory. But, he also does them for our good.

Now, for the last question. Does Jesus still do miracles? I have no doubt that all Christians will agree that he can do miracles. He has not lost any power since he returned to heaven. So, the 'can he' question is a non-question. But does he? Or to put that another, more practical way, is it okay for you to ask him to do a miracle? Well, as you know, there are those who have come to the conclusion that the age of miracles is over. Jesus certainly can do miracles but he just doesn't any more. I once thought that way. But as I've thought about it more and more, I can't find a verse that says that. Read the Gospels. How many people asked for a miracle and Jesus granted their request. Asking seemed good and right, and I see no reason to think that has changed.

But we need to be careful. Here's my concern. We live in a very self-centered age. The common opinion is that life is all about me and my comfort. And that attitude has affected the Church today. It has affected us. It is easy for us to forget that what is of first importance is that Jesus' glory be manifested. He is the center of all of this, not us. So, when we consider asking for a miracle that needs to be our first consideration. Will a miracle draw attention to Jesus? Will it make him look good?

A month or two ago I mentioned during our Bible study that I was having problems with my left eye. There was some question about whether I could lose my sight in that eye. My prayer request to the group was about being able to respond well to what Jesus was doing, to respond as a faithful, submissive disciple. I remember someone saying something about how there should be prayer for healing. I had thought about that before I said anything. I knew that to ask for that would have been fine since Jesus still does that sort of thing. But I decided not to pray for healing, whether by miraculous means or not. It seemed to me, based on Scripture and my experience, that I could do a better job of making Jesus look good by having those eye problems and trusting him in the midst of them. It's these kinds of issues that we need to carefully consider as we decide about asking for a miracle.

There is another factor when it comes to the question of asking Jesus for a miracle. Such a request needs to be done in faith. Here I'll mention a bit of Scripture that has stood out to me for years. 'And Jesus could do no mighty work there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and healed them. And he marveled because of their unbelief.' If we're going to ask Jesus to do to a mighty work, a miracle, we need to do that in faith. Now, believing Jesus for a miracle is not the same as being able to wish for something really, really hard and with complete certainty that it's going to happen. That's not faith in Jesus. That's magic. Faith is not informing Jesus about what he ought to do for us. Faith is responding to him in terms of who he is and what he promises. He sets the agenda. And one way faith show itself is by simply trusting him, regardless of the outcome. A good example comes from Paul's life.

… a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

So, here is Paul with this thorn. I'm guessing that he's thinking that getting rid of this problem would be so good. 'Lord Jesus, if this were gone I could be a much better apostle. I could minister more effectively so that many more would hear about you and grow in faithfulness. So, what do you say? Please get rid of this problem.' Paul prays in faith. He knows that Jesus can do this. That's just obvious. And he shows his faith by trusting Jesus when the answer is a clear, 'No'. 'My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.' So, what does Paul do? Mope? Complain? 'You healed Eutychus and the lame guy in the Temple and a ton of others, but you're not going to heal me!?! That's not fair.' No, that's not how Paul responds. Instead, there is this: 'Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses... For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities.' Do you see what he's saying? 'According to Jesus, my having this problem will actually make it possible for me to do an even better job of making him look good. So, I'm all for it.' And that was Paul's faith. So, when you ask Jesus for a miracle, bear in mind that it needs to be done in faith, and that faith is trusting him, whether he does the miracle or not.

I have one last thought. It comes from one of Paul's doxologies.

Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

It's hard to miss the note of the glory to God. This is what motivated Paul. He wanted to see the glory of God displayed throughout the world. He wanted to make him look as good as he really is. But then, there is Paul's description of our God. He is 'is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think'. Jesus still does miracles. He can do so much more than we have been expecting. He can do more even when we are expecting more. Though we need to be careful, I think that we need to feel free to ask for miracles, and to do that so that Jesus' glory will be displayed and lots and lots of people would believe in him.

Jesus, His Mom and the Call of the Father

2011-10-30T14:42:00.004-04:00

The point of John's Gospel is simple. It's about one thing. Who is this Jesus? John wants to answer that question very clearly. His concern in this is not about keeping some accurate historical record, though he does that. He is very clear about why that question is important to him. This is what he writes toward the end of his Gospel: 'Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.' And here, again, we see that pattern: testimony, believing, life. John is writing what he saw and heard. This is his testimony. (Think courtroom witness.) It is his hope that those who read his Gospel will believe. Out of that will come an experience of the life of God. And the key to all of that is Jesus. Issues of life and death, in this age and the next, depend on Jesus. And that's why his book is focused on one question: Who is this Jesus?

Our text is John 2.1-12. You could divide it into three sections: the interaction between Jesus and His mother, the miracle that Jesus performs and then John's comments about the miracle. This morning we're going to take a look just at the first of those three. I plan to return to this text next week to pick up the other two. Please listen as I read.

What do we have here? There is a wedding, and a problem arises. They have run out of wine. Now, try to appreciate the significance of what's going on here. Imagine that you are the father or the mother of the bride and that, following the tradition, you are putting on the reception. Everyone has arrived. There are lots of smiles and laughter. People are enjoying a time of celebration. You watch it all, enjoying the moment. And then, the caterer comes up to you and tells you that you won't have enough food for all of your guests. I think that you will agree that this would be more than just a bit embarrassing. That's the situation in our text. So, Mary, who is, evidently, related to the family putting on the party, goes to Jesus. 'They have no wine.' That's not, 'We're going to have a problem when the wine runs out.' No, it's, 'We have a problem right now. There is no wine.' The embarrassment has already begun. So, Mary goes to her firstborn with the problem. This is probably the kind of thing that she did through the years as Jesus was growing up. And basically she says, 'Jesus, do something.'

Now, let's take a look at how Jesus responds. 'Woman, what does this have to do with me? My hour has not yet come.' To say the least, that's an interesting reply. First, Jesus addresses Mary as 'Woman'. There's no 'Mom' or even 'Mother'. Some translations try to tone that down by rendering it something like, 'Dear Woman', but that's not what it says nor what it means. It's a bold and almost harsh, 'Woman'. What is going on here? At the very least, this feels like Jesus is putting some distance between Himself and His mother.

Jesus then adds to this bad feeling by how He finishes the sentence. '...what does this have to do with me?' Now, He's getting almost rude. Again, what is going on here? This phrase is fairly common in that day. Rendering it word for word, what Jesus said was, 'What to me and to you?' And the point of this expression is simple. 'What do we have in common here? This matter that is a concern to you is not of any concern to me.'

Jesus explains what's going on in His mind when He adds this. 'My hour has not yet come.' What is this 'hour'? Well, it's another one of those important themes in John's Gospel. Here are a couple of places where it shows up. 'So they were seeking to arrest him, but no one laid a hand on him, because his hour had not yet come.' 'These words he spoke in the treasury, as he taught in the temple; but no one arrested him, because his hour had not yet come.' Then there's this. 'Now before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.' This 'hour' is all about the Cross. When this 'hour' arrives, then He will be arrested, then He will be killed.

So, what is Jesus' point in saying this to His mother? He is letting her know that there has been a change. Jesus has been given an agenda, a purpose, a calling by the Father. As a result, His primary concern is this calling, this 'hour', and all of His life is now to be oriented to that. He is to live the next three years with His eyes on the Cross. So, it's as if Jesus had said, 'The problem about the wine is about social etiquette and what goes along with that. However important such things might be to you, they do not have a role to play in My calling. Such things were important to Me when I was home and called you 'Mom'. Then, I would have been eager to help you with the problem. But My life has changed. John baptized Me. I've heard the Father's call. I've begun the ministry that He has set before Me. So, I need to set aside things like this problem.'

And that's what happened. That's what Jesus' strange conversation with Mary was about. Now, before we explore more of the text, let's look at how this can be of help to you.

Let's consider this first. Like many of you with your mothers, I was quite close to my mother. My mother was quite strong-willed. So, growing up was quite interesting for me as her firstborn and had its share of tense moments and conflict. But when I finally matured into adulthood and she became a Christian, we became very close. I remember weekly long‑distance phone calls and good conversations. When I got the phone call that she had died, I wailed. It is clear that Jesus was not just close to His mother but devoted to her. Some of His last words as He was dying on the Cross were about the care of His mother. 'When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, “Woman, behold, your son!” Then he said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother!” And from that hour the disciple took her to his own home.' Here is Jesus in the midst of the kind of pain that none of us has ever experienced. And He is making sure that His mother is cared for. Can anyone doubt His devotion to His mom?

I went through all of that to emphasize this point. Jesus said, 'No', to His mother. He left her open to deep embarrassment and that in a culture where shame was a big thing. He said, 'No'. And why? What could interfere with the devotion of a loving son for his mom? The call of God. Jesus was on a mission. For thirty years He was a good son, caring for His mother as a good son should. But that has ended. The Father calls Him to something else. So, Jesus said, 'No'.

Here's one thing to take away from this. Having a clear sense of God's calling is so critical because, among other things, it is so helpful. First, a clear sense of what God has call you to helps you to decide when to say 'Yes' and when to say 'No'. Saying 'No' for so many, especially in certain situations, is so hard. And problems result. But that becomes a little easier when you can pose the question, 'Does doing this fit with what God has called me to do?' Being able to see things in this way can be very helpful when the request is actually a distraction from your calling. So, remember how Jesus said 'No' to His mother.

The second way this helps is that having a clear sense of what God has called you to can be so encouraging. John records these words of Jesus. 'Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? But for this purpose I have come to this hour. Father, glorify your name.” Then a voice came from heaven: “I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.”' What's this? Jesus arrives in Jerusalem for the last time. The Cross looms, and Jesus is troubled by that. (Wouldn't you be?) And yet, He understands that the Father has called Him to that Cross, and so He is resolute. ‘Father, glorify your name.’ And the Father responds. 'I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.' The intended goal of the Cross is the glory of God. That is what Jesus is pushing for and the Father assures Him that He will succeed. Jesus follows the call of the Father and the Father responds with words of encouragement. He promises His Son success. His name will be glorified. Having a clear sense of the call of God will be an encouragement to you as you pursue that calling. The Father will have words of encouragement for you, especially when you need it most. He will promise success.

So, here's a good question for you to consider this week. What has the Father called you to? Let me address this first to you kids. I'm guessing that from time to time people have asked you what you want to be when you grow up or what kind of job you are interested in or things like that. Let me tell you what the right answer to that question is: 'Whatever God calls me to do.' So, you need to be praying, 'Father, what do you want me to do? What is your calling for the different areas of my life?' Ask Him and then listen for His reply. Having that clear sense that the Father has called you to something specific will be a great blessing to you, and it will enable you to serve Jesus well.

Now, sometimes that question, 'What has the Father called me to do?', can be answered quite easily. Just look at your situation. If you are a mother of children who are still at home, it's obvious what the Father has called you to. You're to mother those children. If that weren't the Father's call, you wouldn't have any children. But in His providence, there they are. And understanding your situation in terms of God's calling can be so helpful. You can know that whatever resources you need, the Father will provide. He will make sure that you will reach the goal that He intends for you as a mother. And beyond that, having this sense of calling gives you a framework from which you can respond wisely to requests with a 'Yes' or a 'No'. Be careful. Your children are not the center of your life. Jesus is. And the Father has not called you to enable your children's inborn self-centeredness. We are all born thinking that the world revolves around us. Don't encourage that, but do mother them.

Now, for you men who are married with children at home, guess what you are called to. You are called to be a husband and then a father and then a worker, and in that order. So, to pick just one of those, how are you doing at being a husband? Is your wife flourishing because of your care? Does she know for sure that you love her? Does she feel cherished by you? And it seems right to include here something from Paul. 'A husband should give to his wife her sexual rights, and likewise a wife to her husband.' So, is the sexual aspect of your marriage doing as well as it should be? God has called you to be a husband, and He will give you the resources you need to succeed in achieving the goal of caring for your wife and seeing her flourish.

Jesus is an example to us. He had a clear sense of His calling. As a result, He was able to do the Father's will. He knew when to say 'No' and when to say 'Yes'. And that’s why He reached the goal set before Him. As you work at imitating Him, you will stumble. That stumbling is reminder that imitating Jesus is impossible apart from His grace, apart from the ability that only He can give. As you grow in your understanding of that very basic fact, you will also grow in your prayers, asking the Father for what you need, something that He will gladly give.

Now, back to the text. What happens next? This is what John writes. 'His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.”' How interesting. Mary is not put off by Jesus' sharp comment. She continues to depend on her son just as she has done so many times from His youth. And each time He came through. It was nothing supernatural; just loving obedience mixed with a growing wisdom. So, it is no surprise that Mary responds as she does here. And what did Jesus do? He makes sure that there is enough wine. And exactly how does this fit with His comment, 'Woman, what does this have to do with Me?' Something intriguing happened here, intriguing and helpful. Mary didn't expect a miracle. John tells us that this was Jesus' first miracle. So, what was Mary expecting? My guess is that she didn't even know what to expect. She had come to depend on her son, so she depends on Him here. I don't know if you want to call that faith. But Jesus responds, and as a result there was wine. This is more encouragement.

Many of us have been taught that we are pretty much on our own to get it right, and that not being able to do that is a sign of weakness and maybe failure. Asking for help is hard, at least when it comes to the important things. We’re supposed to be able to do it on our own. And that way of thinking bleeds over into our understanding of Jesus. But He is not at all like that. His invitation to you as you deal with the messiness of life is always the same. 'Come to Me. And come as you are: weak, weary, doubting, almost despairing at times, even without any expectation that I will make any difference. It's all right. Just come to Me.' Jesus is full of grace for people like us, people who are so caught up with and tripped up by things that actually of secondary importance; people like Mary whose concern is about what people will think. Jesus welcomes all. So, don't clean yourself up first. Just come to Jesus, and tell Him what you need. Tell Him what's going on. That's what Mary did and see what happened? A miracle.

Jesus responded to Mary and her concern. Why? In doing this, He didn't change His mind about what was His first concern. He didn't ignore His Father's call and give in to His Mom's anxiety. Rather, He took up her situation, her request, her anxiety about shame, as faulty as it was, and He incorporated it into His faithful pursuit of His calling. He used the problem to advance the agenda that the Father had given Him. What was the result of the miracle? What did John write? He didn't write, 'And everyone had a good time, and Mary was able to save face.' What did he write? 'This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested his glory. And his disciples believed in him.' We'll look at what this glory is about next week. But the point that you need to see is that Jesus used Mary's request to fulfill His calling. He manifested His glory. And that is so encouraging. How often are our prayers motivated by things just like Mary's request. We scurry about, anxious about some matter that may not be completely unimportant but certainly is not of critical moment. And we get all twisted up about it. How often our prayers are not about the kingdom nor pointing to Jesus so that He might become known and people rescued. Rather, they are about things as earth-shattering as being embarrassed in the eyes of some folk. What is that but having our pride dinged? Silly prayers, foolish prayers. And yet, Jesus still hears, and He still responds, and He does this in a way so that what we get stressed about is incorporated into His calling of saving the world. So, again, bring everything to Jesus. He is interested in it all. And He will somehow use even what really isn't so important to achieve His goal, the redemption of the world.

This morning we have seen how John is creating a picture of Jesus. He is answering that important question, 'Who is this Jesus?' And he has done this so that you might know Him and more of the life He offers.

Jesus, His Mom and the Call of the Father

2011-10-30T14:42:00.001-04:00

And that's what happened. That's what Jesus' strange conversation with Mary was about. Now, before we explore more of the text, let's look at how this can be of help to you.

Jesus, His Mom and the Call of the Father

2011-10-30T14:41:00.000-04:00

And that's what happened. That's what Jesus' strange conversation with Mary was about. Now, before we explore more of the text, let's look at how this can be of help to you.

Jesus and His Disciples

2011-10-23T13:53:00.000-04:00

We are still at the beginnings of John’s Gospel. John is still laying the groundwork for his presentation of Jesus’ life and ministry. He highlights things in our text that he will develop in the rest of his Gospel. So, we’ll be looking at themes that John is going to explain and illustrate more fully as he shows Jesus dealing with people. John does all of this by telling us about Jesus gathering His first disciples. What we’re going to do this morning is focus on what Jesus says to these men. Our text is John 1.35-51.

Before we work our way through Jesus’ words to these men, we need to put them within the proper framework. Who are these guys? What does John tell us? First of all, they are Jewish men, Israelites. What that means is that they are not like many of your neighbors, unbelieving pagans. They are men who are in a relationship with God, a covenantal one. They are just like Abraham and David and Isaiah. But they are unlike so many others in the history of Israel. The men in our text give evidence of being among those who worked at being faithful to their God. So, two of them, Andrew and his unnamed friend, were disciples of John the Baptist. They, like their teacher, were eager for the coming of the promised Messiah. In this they were like Simeon to whom the baby Jesus was presented. ‘Now there was a man in Jerusalem, whose name was Simeon, and this man was righteous and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him.’ This applies not just to Andrew and his friend. It seems true of all of the men in our text. Note how they speak to their friends about Jesus. They don’t say, ‘Hey, we’ve found this interesting guy’. They say, ‘We have found the Messiah’ or ‘We have found Him of whom Moses in the Law and also the prophets wrote’. That says something about the speakers, and it says something about those they are speaking to. So, to use a phrase often applied to some of the Old Testament people of God, these men were among the faithful remnant. So, Jesus is, at least here, calling believing Jews to be His disciples.

And that leads to this. Jesus functioned as a prophet among the people of God of His day. That doesn’t cover everything, but it does cover a lot. So, for example, consider the striking parallels between Jesus and the Old Testament prophet Elijah. What did Elijah do? He called Israel back to faithfulness by teaching the people and doing miracles among them. Isn’t that what Jesus also did? He was calling Israel back to her God by teaching the people and doing miracles among them. This explains that question asked of John the Baptist. ‘Are you the Prophet?’ They didn’t ask him if he was a prophet but the Prophet. What’s this? This is all about an Old Testament promise. Listen to what Moses told the people. ‘The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers – it is to him you shall listen.’ God promised a prophet like Moses. All the Old Testament prophets were partial pictures of this prophet, The Prophet. John the Baptist was not that prophet. But Jesus was. He was The Prophet, was sent by the Father to Israel that they might once again be faithful to their God. That’s why Jesus called the Jews of His day to repent just as the Old Testament prophets did. And as with all of the other prophets that God sent to Israel, there would be those who would listen to Jesus and those who would not. The men in our text are among those who listened. They were among the faithful remnant waiting for God to act.

I think that it can be helpful to translate this into more modern terms. I think that we can say it this way: Jesus was sent to call for a revival of the Church of His day. When there is a revival certain things happen. Faltering saints renewed their vows and were able to be more faithful. Some of the unbelieving, the faithless, among the people of God were converted. Pagan unbelievers, those outside the Church, were drawn in and also converted. Sadly, there was also opposition, especially from within the Church. So, think about the Gospel accounts. Isn’t this is what you find? And as you remember what happened in the book of Acts, where the revival really takes off, I think you’ll agree that the same dynamics apply. So, the men in our text were the first among the faithful Jews affected by Jesus.

Now we’re ready to consider what Jesus said to these men. And we’ll start with Jesus’ question, ‘What are you seeking?’ Let me just briefly touch on the point that I made last week. Jesus says to these men, ‘Whatever else you may do with your life, the point of it all is to be Me. Seek Me. That’s the only thing that makes sense because it is in Me that you will find the life of God.’ And He is clear when it comes to how to seek Him. ‘Come and you will see.’ They are to come to Jesus in faith. As they do that they will experience the gift of the life of eternity. That’s a quick summary of last week.

Next, there’s this. Jesus meets Andrew’s brother, Simon. ‘Jesus looked at him and said, “So you are Simon the son of John? You shall be called Cephas” (which means Peter).’ So, what’s going on here? Simon approaches this man that his brother is so excited about, and the first thing that Jesus does is change his name. We’ve talked about this name thing before. A change in the name is related to a change in the person. Here, just remember Abram who became Abraham. Do you see what Jesus is telling Simon? ‘I’m going to change you. I’m going to take who you are and make you into a rock. You’re going to become someone who will be solid and dependable. I guarantee it.’

Do you see what John is doing? He is giving us a peek at who this Jesus is and what His agenda is. Jesus changes people. He changes people in profound ways. Simon is reckless. He acts firsts and then thinks about it. At one moment he shows great insight, and then in the next it’s clear that he has no clue. And when the chips are down, Simon utterly fails. Jesus is going to change all of that. Jesus is going to change him. This Simon will become Peter. He will become the bold and pointed preacher to thousands. He will stand unafraid before those who have the power to torture and kill him. Simon is going to become a rock. He is an example of why Jesus has come. Jesus has come to change people.

Now, there is something quite striking about this interaction between Jesus and Simon that is different from the others in our text. Did you notice that Simon says nothing here? We hear from all the others. Not here. Simon says nothing and he does nothing. It’s Jesus who does all the talking and doing here. What is John saying by this? Jesus acts with authority. He doesn’t ask for permission. Simon is one of His men just because Jesus wants it that way. Later in this Gospel we’ll find Jesus saying, ‘You did not choose Me, but I chose you.’ Jesus chose Simon. Jesus here acts as Lord and He does that because that’s exactly what He is. He is Lord. But He is not a dictator. He exercises His Lordship as an expression of His grace. He changes Simon and does him much good. So, here is an example of sovereign grace, Jesus as Lord changing people, doing much good to them. And this is something that we’ll see again and again as we work our way through John’s Gospel.

Who’s up next? Next we have Jesus’ words to Philip. ‘Follow Me.’ Jesus meant that literally. He was calling Philip to walk with Him. ‘Come be with me. Watch Me, and listen to Me. Come not just to learn some skills from Me but to become like Me. Come, follow Me.’ This style of teaching, spending time in the presence of the teacher as he went here and there, was not unique to Jesus. Whenever a rabbi invited a new follower, all of this, and more, was assumed. How many times in the pages that are to follow will we see these men watching Jesus, listening to what He is saying. And how many times will Jesus surprise them and challenge them. That’s all included in, ‘Follow Me.’ And as these men did follow Him, they became like Him.

Now, let’s move on to Jesus’ conversation with Nathanael. It’s interesting to see how this comes about. Philip goes to Nathanael and tells him about Jesus. And what is Nathanael’s response? ‘Can anything good come out of Nazareth?’ What is this? To put the best spin on it, Nathanael is somewhat skeptical about what Philip reports to him. If you wanted to be brutally honest instead, it appears that there is some prejudice behind the comment. Evidently, Nathanael considered Nazareth as being on the wrong side of the tracks. But then, as he approaches Jesus, what does he hear? ‘Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no deceit!’ Of all the things that Jesus could have said, He points to one of Nathanael’s virtues. He’s a straight ahead, honest man, an example of what a faithful Israelite was supposed to be. In this Jesus reveals some more about Himself. Jesus came for sinners, but He doesn’t go around saying, ‘You’re a sinner’ and ‘You’re a sinner’ and ‘You’re a sinner’ and then get specific. He gathers some faithful men around Him, sinners all, and then He encourages them. Instead of saying something about Nathanael’s snide remark about Nazareth, Jesus praises his faithfulness and honesty before all the others.

But, Nathanael is still a little skeptical. He responds to Jesus with, ‘How do you know me?’ Jesus proves that He really does know Nathanael. ‘Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you.’ This Jesus could not have known unless, like the prophets of old, He was sent by God. So, Nathanael is convinced that Philip’s report is accurate. ‘Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!’ Nathanael is convinced that Jesus is the promised Messiah.

Now, notice how Jesus responds. It’s a gentle rebuke. ‘Because I said to you, “I saw you under the fig tree,” do you believe? You will see greater things than these.’ Jesus makes another promise here. ‘So, you think My ability to know about you is a big deal? You haven’t seen anything yet. You need to expect more.’ Jesus promises greater experiences of the power of God. And again, this is what we find in the rest of John’s Gospel.

So what have we found? John has given us some basic themes in Jesus’ ministry: the life of God found in Jesus, the changes that come by sovereign grace, the intimacy of following Him, highlighting the virtues and not the sins, and having greater expectations.

Now, all of this is very interesting I’m sure, but how does it do us good? What we’ve done here is a little literary analysis, showing what John intends to develop later. And it’s also good to be able to examine Jesus’ style of ministry. But what we need is a blessing from the text and not just some information. So, toward that end I’m going to ask a question that has to do with these themes about the ministry of Jesus. John has told us how Jesus ministered when He was here. How does Jesus do ministry now? Has anything changed?

As I thought about this a bit this is what I came up with. I know that I used to have a certain way of relating what happens now with what happened back then in Bible times. That was the golden age of the acts of God. He was very busy doing this and that. So, there was a massive flood, a series of conversations with folk like Abraham and David. He called people, like Isaiah, to speak on His behalf. And there were all these miracles. And this golden age spanned from when Adam and Eve walked the Garden to the death of the Apostle John soon after he wrote the book of Revelation. That was then. Now – today – is not a golden age. Now is just ‘now’. It’s as if God turned it all off – or almost all of it. Whatever He does today is piddling stuff in comparison to the golden age. No one confuses these days with those. And that’s just the way it is.

That’s how I used to think. I am coming to see that that is just wrong. There are still some things that I need to work out, but I think that what I need to say is that God didn’t turn anything off. In fact, nothing has changed. I can’t find a verse that says that it has. There will be those who will say, ‘But Jesus isn’t here any more. That has changed.’ Well, that’s true – in a sense. He isn’t here in the flesh, but He is here by His Spirit. And, believe it or not, that is actually an improvement over those days. Back then, Jesus was limited to being in one place at a time. Now, He is in billions of places at the same time. He is with each of His saints – by the Spirit. And that’s not metaphor. It’s reality. So, there’s no reason to think that anything has changed when it comes to Jesus’ style of ministry. He’s still doing and teaching – except He’s able to do that better.

Now, if that’s true, then it seems to me that everything that we saw in Jesus’ interaction with these men in our chapter applies to us. What Jesus said to each of these men, He says to us: life of God, change by grace, following Him, virtues and not sins, expectations.

I’m going to pick just one of these, the last one, and say something about how it applies. I think that it is fair to say that Jesus’ mild rebuke of Nathanael also applies to us. There may be exceptions among us, but it seems to me that our expectations are too low. So, let me ask you, what do you expect? As you consider your future and that of your family, as you consider our future as a church, what do you expect? To use the language of our text, do you expect ‘greater things’ from Jesus? How would you finish this sentence? ‘It would be really good if…’ When I was writing this part of the sermon I told myself that I had stop and finish that sentence myself. It seemed only fair. So, I stopped, sat in my rocking chair and thought about it. This is what I came up with. ‘It would be really good if there were more.’ The word ‘more’ has a history with me. It’s like my phrase, ‘wanting to be famous’. In this context it means that it would be really good if there were more of the life of God, more of the intimacy of following Jesus, more change by His kind and sovereign grace, more highlighting virtues instead of sins and even more of this expecting more. I know that however that works itself out, it won’t be easy. In fact, it will be hard. Bear in mind that Jesus uses evil to produce more of His gifts in us. He uses evil to bring about great blessing. So, in finishing the sentence in the way that I did, I am not assuming that life will become smooth and simple. But I do believe that the difficulties of experiencing this ‘more’ are worth it. And while I’m not sure about this, I’m guessing that if this ‘more’ happens among us it just might look like a revival.

What Are You Seeking?

2011-10-16T13:29:00.000-04:00

I find it interesting, particularly as I get older, to discover what sorts of things I remember from my past. Here’s a high school memory. I’m sitting in my English class, and the teacher is trying to get us to appreciate good literature. So, he’s talking about foreshadowing and tone, imagery and metaphor. As part of that class I remember discussing Jane Eyre with the teacher making a big fuss about the scene where lightning hits the tree, splitting it in two. This was a great symbol of the torn relationship between Jane and Edward, the master of the house – or something like that. Of course, I’m sitting there thinking, ‘What garbage! Who cares about symbolism or any of that other stuff? Let’s just get on with the story.’ Now, it helps to know that I was a science guy on my way to becoming a doctor – or so I thought. So, what mattered to me were facts and numbers. Who cares about foreshadowing? Since then, I have discovered some of the beauty of good literature. I recently picked up the Scarlet Letter again, just because. I’m quite sure that my days as a science guy have come to an end.

Good literature does more than just work through some facts about a group of people. Good literature has a way of conveying their story with beauty and power. Good literature touches the soul and not just the intellect. So, to illustrate, I recently read a blog that quoted from a poem.

Helen, thy beauty is to me

Like those Nicean barks of yore

That gently, o'er a perfumed sea,

The weary, way-worn wanderer bore

To his own native shore.

This was written by Edgar Allan Poe to a woman he loved. Now, the blog got this poem from a manual on technical writing. This is what the manual said, ‘Engineers employ technical writing, which is very different from the literary writing you learn in most English classes. Consider this passage.’ It then quotes the poem. The manual then continues, ‘To express these ideas in technical writing, we would simply say, “He thinks Helen is beautiful.”’ I think that makes clear my point about the beauty and power of good literature.

John’s Gospel is good literature. He doesn’t write like a country bumpkin. He doesn’t even write like a smart engineer. His Gospel is not just working through some facts about someone named Jesus. His Gospel is good literature. It is John’s intention to communicate the amazing life of Jesus with beauty and power. This morning’s text is just one example of what I’m talking about. So, please listen as I read John 1.29-41.

There are many things going on in our text. So, for one example, we have here a pattern that John uses throughout his Gospel: testimony, believing, life. John the Baptist shouts, ‘Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!’ That’s his testimony to the truth. Two of his disciples respond to that testimony and soon enough they believe. ‘We have found the Messiah.’ Because of that, they come to experience eternal life. Watch for that pattern: testimony, believing, life. It’s not just a literary device. John uses it to show how someone gets to enjoy the Gospel.

Here’s another example. As you read through this Gospel you will find people saying things that are much more profound than what they understand. John the Baptist says, ‘And I have seen and have borne witness that this is the Son of God.’ He understands the title ‘Son of God’ in terms of Psalm 2. The king of Israel is a son of God. Just as that was true of King David, it also is true of Jesus. And that’s what John the Baptist meant. Jesus is the promised King of Israel. But John, our author, intends for us to also see something much more profound: Jesus is also Son of God, as in the second Person of the Trinity. This sort of double meaning will happen again and again in the rest of this Gospel. There are things going on underneath the surface.

Let’s spend a little time on this conversation that Jesus has with Andrew and his friend. These two men are directed to Jesus by the testimony of John the Baptist. Jesus, noticing them, turns and asks a question. They have a little conversation, and then we move on to the next scene. Looks simple, but it’s not. Think about what is going on. John is presenting the main character of his Gospel. How does he do that? The first words out of Jesus’ mouth are an ordinary question tied to an unremarkable conversation. Now, right off the bat, that should raise a flag or two. What an odd way to start. It would make more sense to skip all of this and begin with a miracle, like changing water to wine. Now, that’s how the main character can make a good first impression. Or do it in the way that Mark does. The first words of Jesus there are, ‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.’ That’s how to introduce a main character! But John doesn’t do it that way. He starts with Jesus asking Andrew and his friend what looks like an everyday question. That’s a clue that something is up.

This is a good time to remember an important tidbit. God, whether incarnate or not, never asks a question because there is some information that He is lacking. Think back to Genesis 3. When God asked, ‘Adam, where are you?’, is it because He didn’t know? Something more is going on. Questions like this are intended to reveal what is hidden, sometimes hidden in God and sometimes hidden in those being asked the question. Jesus is asking a question. That’s another clue that something’s up.

Now, let’s compare the beginning of John’s Gospel with the end. Do you know what Jesus says toward the end of this Gospel? There’s Mary at the tomb. She thinks Jesus’ body has been stolen, and she is weeping. Jesus meets her and asks a question(!). ‘Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?’ The same sort of question is at the beginning of the book as well as at the end. In fact, this seeking thing is important in John. John uses this word ‘to seek’ more than anyone else in the New Testament, much more. Another clue.

Let’s continue with the conversation. Andrew and his friend hear the question, and they respond. ‘Rabbi … ‘where are you staying?’ Why is this here? Why did John include this response? What does it add to his Gospel? If something actually happens at Jesus’ house, well, then it makes sense to include this. But this ‘where are you staying’ is a dead end. It adds nothing to the story. Dead ends are expected in compositions written by seventh graders but not in good literature. That’s another giveaway that there is something more going on. And this gets us to another important word in John’s Gospel. It’s the word ‘abiding’. The word translated here as ‘staying’ is the same word that is elsewhere translated ‘abiding’. Andrew’s question seems straightforward and simple. ‘Jesus, where’s your house? Where are you staying?’ But, we again have a double meaning: staying/abiding. And Andrew is being more profound than he knows. If you’ve spent any time in this Gospel you know that this word ‘abide’ is a big deal. Once again, it’s a word that John uses much more than any other New Testament author.

Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me.

‘Rabbi, where are you abiding?’

If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love.

Jesus, the one sent from the Father’s side, from the bosom of the Father, abides in the Father’s love as will those who abide in Him. John will develop this ‘abiding’ later. That makes it foreshadowing here.

Back to the conversation. How does Jesus respond to this? ‘Come and you will see.’ That seems innocent enough – until you realize that John never finishes this episode by saying something about where Jesus is staying. It’s left hanging. In addition to this, these two words, ‘come’ and ‘see’, are some more important words for John.

Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. … All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out. … It is written in the Prophets, ‘And they will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me…

Jesus … said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” He answered, “And who is he, sir, that I may believe in him?” Jesus said to him, “You have seen him, and it is he who is speaking to you.” He said, “Lord, I believe,” and he worshiped him. Jesus said, “For judgment I came into this world, that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind.”

More double meanings. These two words are about responding to Jesus in faith and gaining life as a result. Jesus calls to these first disciples, ‘Come and you will see.’ This is a call to belief and life.

Now, why am I going into all of this? There are a couple of reasons. Here’s one. The Bible is not a tech manual, filled with facts and numbers out of which we construct doctrines. Bible is literature. It is, in fact, very good literature. So, it’s important that you read it as the good literature that it is. Read it slowly. Look for the stuff that is just under the surface. Notice pointers to deeper meaning, clues that something more is going on. It makes sense for those of you still in school to learn about the qualities of good literature. As you read the Bible this way, you will see more clearly into the story of God’s redeeming a people for Himself. As you read the Bible this way, you will experience more of the beauty and the power of the Word of God.

But that isn’t my primary reason for going through all of that. The more important goal was to make sure that you were convinced that more is going on in Jesus’ question than what you can see on the surface. That question is actually quite important. John has reasons for what he wrote. Jesus’ question, ‘What are you seeking?’, is the question that John wants his readers to grapple with. It’s as if he were saying, ‘Here you are, living your threescore and ten. As you live from day to day, what’s the point? What makes it worthwhile for you? Life is hard. Why bother with those hardships? What are you seeking?’ That’s why John includes Jesus’ question in this very prominent way and then comes back to this theme by his recurring use of the word, ‘seek’.

John provides the right answer to that question at the end of his book. Jesus asks Mary, ‘Whom are you seeking?’ The goal is no longer a thing (‘What are you seeking?’) but a person (‘Whom are you seeking?’). Do you remember how Mary answered? ‘Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.”’ Or, to translate that, she answers Jesus’ question by saying, ‘I seek a dead Jesus.’ And that reveals much – which is why Jesus asks His questions. The way that Mary should have answered Jesus’ question is, ‘I seek the resurrected Jesus in whom is found the life of God.’ That’s what John’s Gospel is about.

Jesus’ question, ‘What are you seeking?’, is one that your friends and neighbors need to ask themselves. But they probably won’t – unless they are forced to. Too many of them know that they don’t have a good answer for it, and that’s scary. They do what they do because that’s what everyone else does. Life is a grind that repeats itself day after day, with some respite on the weekends. But the problem with weekends is that Monday always follows. Some are more hopeful. They have an answer the question. They talk about making sure the kids get to college, paying off the mortgage and then having a safe enough retirement. That’s what they seek. Really? That makes life worthwhile? That answer seems to work only because the last phase is left off. Once you make it to retirement – if you make it that far – what comes next is death. And while some die quickly, way too many just waste away, slowly and painfully. Quite frankly, if that’s what life is about, then what makes sense is to have a wild fling and then end it all. And my impression is that more and more people are agreeing with me on that. And that’s why they really do need to face Jesus’ question and answer it well. ‘Whom do you seek?’

That’s how Jesus’ question applies to your unbelieving neighbors. How does it apply to you? In my younger years, I would have said something to the effect that you need to do better at seeking the life of God in Jesus. I would have pointed out ways in which you were blowing it and then how you could do a better job of it. But where’s grace in that? Is that what the Gospel’s about, trying harder?

Fortunately, I have learned some things over the years – and that is another expression of God’s kindness to me. Even if you have never consciously considered Jesus’ question, your life is answering it. You are, in fact, seeking more of the life of God. You have tasted of this life that Jesus offers, you desire more and you are seeking it. That’s true of you not because you are especially devout or motivated or any of that. It’s true of you because the Spirit has made it true of you. It’s part of what He has done in your soul. It’s another one of those Gospel indicatives. The Spirit gives you the life of God, and He gives you a desire for more of it. The rest of your existence, in this life and actually also in the next, is all about growing in your experience of this life, eternal life. It is a process that will never end. Imagine, more and more of the life of God, forever. So, I’m not going to tell you that you need to seek Jesus and the life of God He offers. I know that you are already doing that because the Spirit of God lives in you. It’s a Gospel fact. And holding on to that fact is so encouraging, especially when you can’t see much growing going on. It’s a gift of grace.

But, as I’m sure you know, there are problems here. You all face obstacles to a greater experience of the life of God. You want more, but there are times when getting more is so hard. At times, the obstacles have seemed overwhelming. In fact, they may feel like that right now for some of you. So, when you’re feeling like that, the first thing you do is remember the Gospel fact that the Spirit is at work in you. He is causing you to seek the life of God that is found in Jesus. Progress is being made even when you can’t see it. Hold on to this Gospel fact. But along with that, it helps to understand these obstacles that block your way. That way you can respond to them wisely.

Let me identify some of the sources of these obstacles. One reason that you face these obstacles is inertia. We are the products of our past. I was born in Brooklyn in the ‘50’s to working‑class parents who loved each other, weren’t particularly religious and who wanted to get ahead which resulted in our moving to the suburbs of New Jersey. All of that (and lots more!) goes into making me who I am today. As a result, there are habits and attitudes that I now have that are very helpful and others that are simply awful, habits and attitudes that are obstacles. Inertia. Add to that the distractions that surround us on every side. Our lives are filled with things to do, and some of them are good things that really need to be done and others of them are good things that really don’t. Distractions. These distractions create a fog that makes it more difficult for us to understand the inertia of our lives so that we can encourage the good parts and get rid of the bad. Then add to all of that a measure of confusion. Developing a skill, whether it’s using some new piece of equipment on the job, figuring out marriage, or learning how to grow in your experience of eternal life, will have a measure of confusion. ‘So, how do I do this?’ The inertia and the distractions make answering that question quite challenging. And when the skill that is being developed is really important, and it appears that mistakes might well be fatal, there’s a little fear added in. Inertia, distractions, confusion, fear. Those are some of the things that produce obstacles to growing in your experience of the life of God.

So, how are you to deal with these things? An important place to start is to understand that you are normal. We all have obstacles for these and other reasons. The reason you are faced with these obstacles is not that you are especially sinful. The Church is a collection of people who know that their lives are not working nearly as well as they might – and who also know that change is possible. And it is that expectation of change that is so important. The Spirit lives within you. He is at work changing you. He is developing in you more of the enjoyment of the life of God. He is. That’s just a fact. He is bringing about change. What you need to do is work with the Spirit. And to do that you need to learn how to listen to the Spirit. And that, of course, is something that He will teach you. Just ask Him. It is the Spirit who will lead you safely through the inertia, distractions, confusion and fear. He will show you the way into more of the life of God. He will reveal to you more of the beauty and power of the Gospel and make sure that you enjoy it. Learn to listen to the Spirit and grow.

Baptism with the Holy Spirit

2011-10-09T15:26:00.000-04:00

The second half of John 1 is filled with titles and labels applied to Jesus. In today’s sermon we are going to look at one of them. Jesus is the one who baptizes with the Spirit. The Spirit is the neglected person of the Trinity. I hope to change that, at least a little. This morning we are going to take a look at the work of the Spirit in the life of the Christian, in your life. Even apart from preparing this sermon, the Spirit has been leading me to think about several aspects of what He is about. I am eager to share with you some of what I am learning. Our text this morning is John 1.29-34.

The first thing that I would like to do is to briefly touch on the Spirit and the Trinity. God is Father, Son and Spirit. These are three distinct persons who are, at the same time, one God. So, the Spirit is a He and not an it. He is a person. And, to quote the Catechism, He is ‘equal in power and glory’ with the Father and the Son. He is God, just as the Father is God and just as the Son is God. So, to use language that I’ve used before, He is one member of the eternal family which is God.

Now, let’s take a look at this idea of being baptized with the Holy Spirit. So, first, this is something that Jesus does. That’s what our text teaches. Jesus baptizes, and He baptizes with the Spirit. So, you see, biblical baptism is not essentially about water, and the point of baptism isn’t what the person being baptized is doing. No one gets wet by Jesus baptizing with the Spirit. And this baptism is about something that He is doing to someone. To be sure, this baptism with the Spirit is related to water baptism. Water baptism is a picture of it, a sacramental picture of the baptism with the Spirit. A minister baptizing a person with water is a picture of what Jesus does to someone with the Spirit. The two baptisms are distinct, but there is a sacramental tie between them. So, baptism with the Spirit helps us understand water baptism.

Let’s move on to the next thing, and let’s get to it with a question. ‘What happens to a person when Jesus baptizes him with the Holy Spirit?’ And the answer is not at all complicated. Jesus gives that person the Spirit. Peter points to this during his sermon on Pentecost. (And also notice here the connection between water baptism and the baptism with the Spirit.)

Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Jesus is doing something big when He baptizes. He gives the Spirit to someone who has never had the Spirit before. And as Peter’s statement makes clear, this happens when someone repents and entrusts himself to Jesus. It’s something that happens when a person is converted.

Receiving this gift is something that is very intimate. Listen to what Paul wrote.

And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!”

The Spirit isn’t just somewhere in the neighborhood. He is in the Christian’s heart. To use traditional language, the Spirit dwells within. So, when Jesus baptizes someone with the Spirit, an intimate bond is created between that person and the Spirit. This is the climax of the Immanuel principle. God really is with us. Wherever you go, the Spirit is right there with you. This is not just some metaphor or figure of speech. This is a reality. The Spirit lives within each one of you. That’s why Paul writes, ‘Your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you’. So, if someone were to ask you, ‘Where is your God?’, you don’t answer in the way that Israel in the desert did. They could point to the tent where the Ark of the Covenant was and say, ‘My God is over there in that tent.’ And that was the truth. But you do something different. You point to yourself and say, ‘He is right here with me.’ When Jesus baptizes someone with the Spirit an intimate bond is created between that person and the Spirit. It’s Immanuel, God with us.

Let’s move on with another question. ‘So, what does the Spirit do? How does His being with the Christian make a difference in the Christian’s life?’ Let’s answer this in stages. Let’s first take a look at the big picture. Here is the summary of the whole Bible: God saves sinners. There’s the Bible in a sentence. Now, each person of the Trinity plays a part in this saving of sinners. The Father plans this saving. The Son accomplishes whatever is necessary so that these sinners can be saved. The Spirit applies this saving to sinners. The Spirit takes the benefits that Jesus has created, things like forgiveness, becoming a child of God, experiencing the life of God and all the rest, and He makes them yours. Without the Spirit playing His role in the saving of sinners, all of the blessings of the Gospel would be in heaven while we are still on the earth. And what good would that be for us? The Spirit takes the blessings and makes them yours. He applies to you what Jesus has accomplished. This is important because it answers what is often a confusing question: ‘How do I make the Gospel more and more mine?’ And the answer is that this is something that the Spirit does. So, you see, once again we are confronted with grace.

Let’s add another way of understanding what the Spirit does. He continues what Jesus started when He was here in the flesh. Jesus said, ‘And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another…’ The next word has been hard to translate. Some options are Counselor, Advocate, Comforter, Helper. The Greek word includes all of that. So, let’s just leave that word there for now. Jesus said, ‘And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Paraclete to be with you forever.’ The key word here, in terms of our question about the Spirit, isn’t ‘Paraclete’ but ‘another’. Jesus is promising to send another Paraclete, someone who will be just like He was. So, listen to Luke’s first sentence of the book of Acts. ‘In the first book [Luke’s Gospel], O Theophilus, I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach…’ Luke is telling us that this second book is about what Jesus continued to do and teach – by the Spirit. And as you read Acts, that’s exactly what you find. So, Jesus comes, born in Bethlehem, sent according to the plan of the Father to save sinners. Then, the Spirit comes, on the day of Pentecost, sent by the Father and the Son, to continue what Jesus started. The Spirit continues to do and teach, and in this way He does His part to save sinners.

Now, let’s get more specific. What exactly does the Spirit do so that sinners are saved? Here you’ll see that God’s goal of saving sinners is so much more than just getting them converted so they can end up in heaven. The Spirit unites, conquers, reveals, and assures. Let’s look at each of these.

The Spirit unites us to Jesus. Listen to what Calvin has to say about this.

We must now examine this question. How do we receive those benefits which the Father bestowed on his only-begotten Son — not for Christ’s own private use, but that he might enrich poor and needy men? First, we must understand that as long as Christ remains outside of us, and we are separated from him, all that he has suffered and done for the salvation of the human race remains useless and of no value for us. Therefore, to share with us what he has received from the Father, he had to become ours and to dwell within us. For this reason, he is called “our Head” and “the first-born among many brethren”. We also, in turn, are said to be “engrafted into him”, and to “put on Christ”; for, as I have said, all that he possesses is nothing to us until we grow into one body with him. … To sum up, the Holy Spirit is the bond by which Christ effectually unites us to himself.

The Spirit unites us to Jesus and, in this way, applies all the blessings of the Gospel to us. In this, all that Calvin is doing is explaining what Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians. ‘For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body.’ When you were baptized with the Spirit something mystical happened. You were united to Jesus. You were joined to His body. At that point, all of the benefits of the Gospel that Jesus gained became yours. This is what happened when you were converted. The Spirit united you to Jesus. At that moment, forgiveness and hope and the love of the Father and the peace of the Gospel and all the rest became yours.

Now, since Paul teaches that the body of Jesus is just another way of understanding the Church, when you were baptized with the Spirit you were also mystically united to the other members of the Church. Some of you are hands and others feet and others ears, but you are all united by the Spirit into the one body of Christ. So, when Paul writes to encourage the saints to be ‘eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace’, he’s talking about the union that the Spirit has created among us. When he blesses the saints with the words, ‘the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all’, this fellowship is a fruit of the union that the Spirit has created among us. So, the Spirit unites us to Jesus with bonds that are real though invisible. And He also unites us to each other with bonds that are, likewise, real though invisible.

Let’s move on to the next category. The Spirit conquers. He conquers sin. There are two sides to this coin. Here’s the first side. The Spirit removes the problem of sin. Here, think: forgiveness. Our sin is no longer a barrier between us and God. On the Cross, Jesus atoned for it. And when the Spirit united you the Jesus, He made that atonement yours. Your sins were forgiven.

But this removing the problem of sin isn’t just about forgiveness. The Spirit also frees you from the slavery of sin. The power that sin once had over you is now broken. So, Paul writes,

What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? … For if we have been united with Christ in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin.

Paul is explaining being baptized with the Spirit and how, therefore, you have been united to Christ. Because of that baptism, you have died to sin. It is no longer your master, and you are no longer its slave. You have been set free from sin. This doesn’t mean that you don’t sin any more. But it does mean that you don’t have to sin. The unbeliever has to sin. He is a slave of sin. He can choose greater or lesser sins. But whatever he chooses, it will be sin. But that’s not you. You don’t have to sin. The Spirit has freed you from that. And bit by bit, you come to experience that freedom. Sins that once dominated you disappear. The Spirit frees you from sin. He conquers it. What I find intriguing is that Paul discusses this in the context of water baptism.

I said that there were two sides to this coin about the Spirit conquering sin. Let’s look at the other side of the coin. The Spirit not only removes the problem of sin, but He also gives you the ability to live well, to choose the good. Here, think about Paul’s list of the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. This is a partial list of the qualities that you have been saved to. You have been set free from sin so that these kinds of traits might develop in you. But understand, these are not things that you are supposed to create in yourself. These are traits that the Spirit creates. He makes you love and rejoice and be at peace and all the rest. He gives you the ability to live well, to live a holy life.

Add to this the gifts of the Spirit. And again from Paul:

Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. For to one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the ability to distinguish between spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. All these are empowered by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he wills.

This is also the Spirit’s work in you. He has given to each of you certain abilities that are to benefit others in the Church. The mission of the Church, the growth of the Gospel, advances because the Spirit has given you these abilities.

So, two sides of the same coin. The Spirit conquers sin. He applies what Jesus has done so that you can be forgiven and so that the power of sin is broken in you. And in this He also gives you the ability to live beautiful lives of holiness.

The Spirit unites. He conquers. Next: He reveals. Why is it that one person becomes a Christian and another doesn’t? Some of you have siblings, people who grew up in the same household with you, who are not Christians. But you are. Why? The Bible answers that in several ways. Here’s one: The Spirit made it possible for you to understand the Gospel. He revealed it to you. More from Paul:

The natural person [the unbeliever] does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.

Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God.

The Spirit reveals the Gospel. The Spirit acts in some person’s life, and right then, at that point, the lights turn on. He gets it. He understands the Gospel and, as a result, he believes it. This is what happens when someone is converted.

However, the Spirit’s work of revealing does not stop once a person is converted. That’s just the beginning. Consider what Paul wrote to the Christians in Ephesus.

I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe…

The Spirit continues His work of revealing truth to the Christian. And He does that to you. Many things come from this, but let me mention just one. You’re not on your own to figure it all out. Trying to understand how to live well and then actually doing that is beyond what you can do. But remember that the Spirit is with you. He lives in you. And He will reveal to you what you need to know. And then, He will give you the ability to put that into practice. Growing as a Christian is not something that you need to figure out and then make happen all on your own. It’s something that the Spirit does in you.

And that leaves the last of these categories: assurance. Again from Paul: ‘The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God.’ Making sure that you are a Christian isn’t something you need to accomplish. It’s up to the Spirit to assure you that you are a child of God, that Jesus is your Savior and that He will complete this work of saving you. That’s also part of the work of the Spirit. It’s His job to make sure you get it. The Spirit will assure you that you are a Christian.

Now, what do you do with all of this? Once again, from Paul: ‘If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit.’ Here we have another indicative of the Gospel. We live by the Spirit. He has begun His work in us. That’s just a fact. But notice that Paul ties this to an imperative of the Gospel; a command. ‘… let us also walk by the Spirit.’ Since it is true that we have been united to Jesus and to each other, since it is true that sin has been conquered so that we are able to live holy lives, since it is true that the Spirit continues to reveal Gospel truth to us, since it is true that He is giving us more and more of a sense of assurance, since these things are true of us, then let’s live that way. That’s what Paul is saying here. Gospel facts are the basis of Gospel living.

If the Christian life is a matter of trying to figure out the Gospel and then trying, on our own, to make the necessary changes in our souls, then timid goals and pessimism make sense. But if we have the Spirit of God living in us, if He is busily taking more and more of the Gospel and making it real in us, then the sky is the limit. No more timid goals. No more pessimism. Look at the kind of person Jesus was and is. That’s the Spirit’s goal for each of you. Ponder Jesus’ promises for His Church. That’s the Spirit’s goal for us together. Don’t settle.

And the key here is prayer. Jesus said,

If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!

There are some things about the Gospel, things about the ministry of the Spirit, that we are not experiencing as deeply as we can. But if we pray to the Father telling Him about our need of more of the Spirit’s ministry among us, basing our requests on clear Gospel facts, how can He not freely give us what we ask for and then, much more?

Knowing the Father

2011-09-25T15:17:00.000-04:00

What has Jesus come to do? That’s a good question to ask because the Bible answers it in lots of ways. And seeing the different ways the Bible answers this question will help you to understand better what Jesus has come to do for you. Our text, this morning, gives one of the Bible’s answers to this question. My hope is that it will help you understand yourself, your life and your God a little bit better.

Our text is John 1.14: ‘No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father's side, he has made him known.’

Let’s start where the sentence does, ‘No one has ever seen God…’ That seems obvious. No one gets to see God. We all understand that. It’s just the way life works. So, why does John state the obvious? It’s because that’s not the way that life is supposed to work. What we accept as normal John identifies as a problem. The way that life is supposed to work is that we get to walk with a very visible God in the cool of the day, chatting with Him about this and that. That’s the way it’s supposed to be. But it isn’t that way. And why is that? Why is it that people don’t get to see God day after day? Here, the answer is obvious. It’s because of sin. It’s our anti-God rebellion that started back when Adam and Eve decided to pursue their independent course. As a result, they were banned from God’s presence; excommunicated from the Garden; kicked out. And this exclusion included all the generations that have been born since. When Moses stands on Mt. Sinai and requests to see God’s glory, his request is granted but with this warning. ‘You cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and live.’ Sin. And thus, John writes, ‘No one has ever seen God.’

And yet, John does not stop there. There is a solution to the problem. ‘…the only God, who is at the Father's side, he has made him known.’ Consider what is behind this statement. There is a desire in God to know and be known. Bear in mind that this desire does not come from some need that He has for us. Remember the eternal relationship within God as Father, Son and Spirit. God is an eternal family. He does not need us. We are unnecessary. And yet, He desires relationship with us. He desires us to know Him. And so, the Father sent the Son. Jesus has come. And He has come with a mission: to make the Father known. This is one way that the Bible answers that question: What has Jesus come to do?

There are a couple of things you should note here. First, John tells us that the one sent comes to us from the Father’s side. Or as the old King James has it, he was ‘in the bosom of the Father’. The point here is simple. The Father could have sent an angel on this mission. But as close as angels are to God, as well as they know Him, they are not ‘in the bosom of the Father’. But the Son was. He has known the Father’s heart. He was that close. As a result, Jesus is eminently qualified to make Him known.

Here’s another thing to note here. This mission has to do with intimacy. That becomes clear when you remember how the Bible uses this word ‘know’. Listen to something from Genesis. ‘Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived.’ Moses was writing about sex. But he didn’t use that word. ‘Adam knew his wife Eve.’ When that happened, something intimate, something mystical, something invisible but quite real, occurred between husband and wife. They knew each other in a sense that only a husband and wife can. When John writes about Jesus’ mission to make the Father known, he is not talking about something that is primarily an intellectual thing, like knowing your math facts. He’s talking about relationship, intimate relationship. This knowing the Father is, in fact, the heart of Jesus’ definition of true life. Listen to this from Jesus’ prayer in John 17: ‘And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.’

We were created for the purpose of knowing God, of enjoying the intimacy of knowing and being known. That desire is built into every person alive – but because of sin it has been crushed. And now, everyone is afraid to be known. And so, we all have our walls. And these walls don’t just keep out other people. They also keep out the Father. Jesus has come to change that. Jesus has come so that we might get to know the Father, to know and be known.

Jesus has come for many reasons. He has come to be the sacrifice for sin. He has come to conquer Satan. He has come to vindicate the Father’s justice. And He has come to make the Father known. There are many aspects to the Gospel. We need to see them all so that we can get the full picture. So, as you read your Bible, be on the lookout for the different ways that Jesus’ mission is described.

Now, let’s take the next step with a question. How does Jesus pursue His mission? What does He do so that He can make the Father known? Listen to some things Jesus says that help answer this question. Here are some that are as close as the next section of John. Andrew and John became curious about Jesus. With a simple, ‘Come and see’, He invited them to spend time with Him. Jesus found Philip and likewise invited him by saying, ‘Follow Me’. Then, Mark, in his Gospel, explains why the Twelve were chosen, ‘And Jesus appointed twelve (whom He also named apostles) so that they might be with Him’. Jesus invited people to spend time with Him. And it is clear that this made a difference. So, from Acts when Peter and John stood accused before the Council: ‘Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated, common men, they were astonished. And they recognized that they had been with Jesus.’ So, how does Jesus pursue His mission? He calls people to Himself and He tells them, ‘Watch Me! Follow Me into daily life and watch what I do.’ And when you think about the structure of John’s Gospel, this is exactly what you see. Chapters 2-12 are a series of episodes in Jesus’ life. John records Jesus’ interactions with people in various situations while His followers watch. The Twelve need some explanation. And we’ll find that. That’s what happens, for example, in the upper room, recorded in chapters 13-16. But where does it begin? ‘Come, follow Me and watch!’

So, do you see how this works? Jesus gathers some men around Him who follow Him here and there and watch him. As a result, these men get to know Him. They see him deal with life as it comes His way. Sometimes it’s a miracle and other times it’s a conversation. Some things are part of the expected routine of life. But there are also the times that no one could have anticipated. Day by day, they get to know – really know – Jesus. And as Jesus lets them get to know Him, He reveals to them the Father’s heart. The Son, sent from the bosom of the Father, makes the Father’s heart known. And He does that by letting people see His own heart. And so, at the end of His ministry, Jesus says to His faithful watchers, ‘Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.’ Jesus has made the Father known.

That was about the ‘how’. Now, let’s look at the ‘what’. What is it that Jesus revealed about the Father? What did these watchers see? Here is a quick list of some things He did: He completely flipped out in the Temple. He made wine for a wedding. He reached out to a woman who was an outcast of her own outcast group. He healed a man who had no evidence of faith. He washed dirty feet. He suffered tremendously as He died as an outcast Himself. Each of those episodes in Jesus’ life are recorded in John’s Gospel, and in each Jesus is revealing something of the Father’s heart.

Let me offer a quick thought on just a couple of these. The Temple scene where Jesus flipped out: The Father hates sin, and He’s going to be making a huge fuss about it. Those who continue cling to their anti-God rebellion, He will damn forever. The Father really hates sin. The church word for this is ‘wrath’. But – and you need to see this also – at the same time what happened at the Temple shows how the Father desires the people to repent. Jesus’ actions at the Temple are a shot across the bow, a warning. No one was eternally condemned by what Jesus did. Part of the message of that day was that there was still time for them to repent. And they really need to. Wrath is coming. So, do you see what Jesus was doing? He revealed the Father’s intense hatred of sin as well as His intense desire that people turn from it.

Then there is the wedding: the Father is not some stern, rigid, ever-serious person. Many think of the Father’s attitude in these sorts of terms. But Jesus made wine. He made really good wine. And He made a lot of it. He made that wine so that people could celebrate a wedding. What was Jesus revealing about the Father? He is no killjoy. In fact, He wants His creatures to be happy. So, if I may put it in these terms, what is the Father’s normal facial expression? It’s not a scowl. It’s not even all serious and somber. It’s a smile.

Let me mention one more episode that reveals the Father’s heart. Consider Jesus writhing on the Cross. What is the revelation here? What is it of the Father’s heart that we are shown? Remember that the Father hates sin. He’s going to damn forever all who cling to their rebellion. And that’s what happened to Jesus as He died. Damned! Jesus’ suffering on the Cross shows how much the Father hates sin. It must be condemned. But at the same time, Jesus’ suffering on the Cross shows how much the Father loves. God sent His cherished Son to the Cross so that you could be happy.

While Jesus was here, He acted and He taught. Many watched and heard. He revealed the Father’s heart. But not all who watched and heard came to know the Father. Why? There are different ways the Bible answers that question. But consider how John has already answered it earlier in this chapter. ‘He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.’ While some rejected Jesus and were still clinging to their rebellion, others believed. They watched and they heard, and then they believed. Jesus had made the Father known to them. The world is divided into two groups: those who believe Jesus, and those who don’t. Or you could put it this way: those who know the Father and those who don’t. There is no more basic way of understanding people than this. Jesus has come to make the Father known and He has succeeded – at least in some.

Now, what do I want you to do with this? I have a couple of thoughts here.

Here’s the first. I want you to see that Jesus has done something in you; not just for you but in you. He has revealed the Father to you. He has made Him known to you. There is between you and the Father this bond. Something mystical has happened. You know Him, and He knows you. This is a fact, an objective fact. It’s one of those indicatives of the Gospel. It’s something that is just true of you.

So, reflect on this for just a moment. You can say to yourself, ‘I know God. There is a bond between the Father and me.’ Do you have a sense of how astounding that is? What Jesus has accomplished for you is no little thing. You know God in a way that most of the people you know do not. Something amazing has happened to you. This is tied to being God’s child, His favorite child. It’s tied to being given His life, the life of eternity. This is what the church word ‘salvation’ is about. This is what it means to be a Christian. Something big has happened to you, happened in you. Jesus has revealed to you the Father. You know Him. And you will never be the same.

Let me take this one step further. The bond between you and the Father, this knowing Him, is true whether you feel it or not. This bond, this knowing, can be felt. It is something you do experience. But there are times, for lots of different reasons, when you don’t feel it. But even then, when you can’t feel it, it’s still true. The bond between you and Him is still there. At times, your experience of knowing the Father is so very intense. And then, there are times when it so very faint. But it is still the same objective fact. You know the Father, and the Father knows you. And there is nothing in heaven or on earth that can change that. Even when you have fallen into some nasty sin, it’s still true. The bond is still there. I would encourage you to think about this a bit. If it is just flat-out true that you know God and He knows you – and it is – then what else is true about you and your situation?

And all of that leads to this second thought. Jesus has most certainly made the Father known to you. But there is more of the Father for you to know. There is more of the Father’s heart for you to enjoy. And that is something that will remain true for all of eternity. So, a question fits here. How can you get to know the Father better? What do you do? The key to the answer is tied to this very important fact: Jesus is still making the Father known. His ascension into heaven did not stop that. He is still pursuing His mission. It’s just that He does that now by the Spirit. And because Jesus is still busy with this mission, you know what you need to do. You do what those first century disciples did when He was here in the flesh. You watch Him. You watch what He is doing day by day.

Think about what happened back then. From the perspective of the Twelve and those with them, things just happened. Jesus is invited to a wedding. He bumps into a woman at a well. He has a conversation with some scholar. Jesus didn’t tell them, ‘Okay, what happens next is going to end up in the Bible so watch carefully.’ No. It was just another day of life where things happened, Jesus responded and they were there watching. But as they watched Jesus in these various situations, He expected them to ask themselves a question. ‘What just happened? What was that about?’ And that’s what you are to do also. As many of you know, I’ve been having some health issues. These did not come into my life out of the blue. Jesus led me into them. So, the question for me to ask is the same that those first century watchers were to ask. ‘What is this about? What is Jesus doing now? How is He making me know the Father’s heart better in this situation?’ And that covers everything from health problems to celebrating weddings. And that’s what you need to do. You need to be watching Jesus doing this and that in your life, and asking yourself questions. We do not do this on our own. We have the Scriptures, we have the Spirit, we have prayer and we have each other. And taking advantage of these gifts, we discern what Jesus is doing and how He is making the Father known among us.

To be sure, this will take effort. But it’s worth the effort. And here’s why: There is more of the Father’s heart for you to enjoy. Pursuing this doesn’t mean that you forget about the rest of life. The ideal is not a life spent in a monastery. Quite the opposite! The way that you get to know the Father better is by living each day as it comes at you: projects, shopping, conversations, laundry, problems, joys. But you do that ready to interpret the things that go on during your day so that you can discover what Jesus is revealing to you. You watch. And as you do that, you will discover new things about your heavenly Father. And in that way, you begin the enjoyment of eternity now.

The Beauty of Jesus

2011-09-18T17:58:00.000-04:00

I am sure that most of you have heard and read this morning's text more than just a few times - and that you have seen some helpful things in it. What I'd like to do this morning is take what you know and go further with it. I don’t expect that I will tell you much that you've never heard before, but I do hope that as a result of this morning’s sermon you will not just understand better but also feel more deeply what John is getting at in our text.

Please listen as I read our text: ‘And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.’

The first thing that I'd like to do is translate a church word. As you know, I have a thing about church words. They don't communicate. The problem is not with the words, of course. The problem is with us. We read the word and don't stop to make sure that we know what we’ve just read. So, the church word I want to translate is 'glory'. I know that I've offered a substitute for this word in the past, but review is often a good thing. A good translation of 'glory' is 'beauty'. What John is writing here is that he saw Jesus' beauty. He saw something that was so attractive that it drew him to Jesus. What he saw stole his heart. This fits with what I said last week: believing in Jesus is about receiving Jesus, the person. We receive Jesus, we follow Him, not because we are supposed to but because His beauty draws us to him and makes us eager to do whatever He says. It is in this way that we enjoy Him. And that's what happened to John. He saw Jesus' beauty, and his life was changed forever. This morning’s text is about the beauty of Jesus. Actually, that is what he is doing in all of his Gospel. So, let’s see how John presents the beauty of Jesus here.

Let's start with the phrase, ‘He dwelt among us’. As many of you know, this is tied to what happened to the people of God in the Old Testament. The Greek words that John uses make this clear. Right after Moses led Israel out of Egypt, they spent some time at Mt. Sinai. While there, God instructed them to build the Tabernacle, a tent. This tent itself was divided into two sections. The first section was called the Holy Place. The second section of the tent was called the Holy of Holies. Of all the places that might be considered holy, this was the holiest of them. And the reason for that is obvious. God was there. I know that God is everywhere. Yet, there was something different about this holiest of places. God’s special presence was there. You see, this second section had only one item in it: the Ark of the Covenant. This was a wooden box covered inside and out with gold. God had associated His presence with this golden box. There was a unique connection between it and Him. So, if you were to ask an Israelite back then, ‘Where is your God?’, he would point to the tent where this golden box was and tell you, ‘He’s in there, in that tent.’ Now, God is not the box and God is not in the box. But He understood that His people needed to know for sure: ‘our God is with us’. And He knew that having something physical to confirm that helps. So, God took this box and made it the symbol of His presence. The Ark of the Covenant was a sacrament of His presence among His people. So, in a special way, from the days of wilderness wandering on, it was clear: God was with His people. Within the Tabernacle there was the sacrament of God’s presence, this golden box. Thus the people would know and could say, ‘God dwells with us. We know that because we can see Him. He’s over there in that tent.’

John draws on this when he writes the phrase, ‘and He dwelt among us’. You could translate his words as, ‘and He pitched His tent among us’. Do you see what John is doing? He first points to the Word and then to the tent with the Ark of the Covenant in it. He’s making a connection. What the golden box was to the people of God back then, the Word, Jesus, is to us today – except more so. The Ark was the picture, and Jesus is the reality. And the point that John is making is all about intimacy. Our God is not some distant deity. He is near, and I mean that both physically and emotionally. He dwells with us, just as He was with Israel in the desert. Isn’t that what the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper is about? And so, we can say, just as they could, ‘Here we are in this desert wasteland. So much can go wrong here. We could die of thirst. We might starve. Marauders might come and kill us. Should we be anxious? No. Our God is with us. He lives among us. Jesus has come.’

Now, to develop that just a bit, let me pose this question. Does our God still live among us? Or is that something only for Bible times? What did Jesus say? ‘And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.’ Is our God still living among His people? Absolutely! In fact, it’s even better than when Jesus was physically here. There is a progression. The Ark is the picture. Jesus is the first expression of the reality. But the people of Jesus’ day could experience that reality only when they were in His presence. We live in the age of the Spirit where the people of God experience the presence of their God all the time. Jesus is with each of you by the Spirit. What awaits is the last step when your experience of our God will be even more intense and intimate. And it grows from that point on, for the rest of eternity.

So, do you see what John is writing about? Jesus is God with us, our God who is lives among us. He is the God who has drawn near. And that is true not just for the people of the first century. It’s true for you now. Here is the beauty of Jesus.

Now, let’s add the first phrase of our text. ‘The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.’ Here, it is clear we are no longer talking about a golden box as the symbol of God’s presence. Now we’re talking about a body, flesh and blood, a person. God, the Word, walked this world. And He didn’t do it as an angel. Angels are not human. They don’t have physical bodies. They may look like us, but they aren’t one of us. They are spirits. They are sent to earth to do a little this or that, and then, when they are done, they return home to heaven until they are sent back to earth for another brief visit among these silly creatures called humanity. That’s not Jesus. No, we’re talking about incarnation. God, the Word became meat. That’s what the word ‘incarnation’ literally means. And that’s what John means. The Word, an eternal spirit, became meat. He wasn’t like some angel. He became one of us and lived in this world and dealt with what that means.

So, He was conceived as a little blob in Mary’s womb and was born into our dark, out of control world, a place filled with anger, gossip, quarrels and selfishness. He grew up, experiencing the same things that we have: diaper rash, skinned knees, confusion, disappointment. In Joseph’s carpentry shop He had to learn things like measuring and cutting wood. He learned those skills by making mistakes. His hammer sometimes hit the wrong nail, and when it did, He hurt. And there were times when He did some fine work and enjoyed the sense of accomplishment that that gave Him. Then, He began His ministry. He was misunderstood and not just by Pharisees but, worse, by His own family. He was frustrated as He tried to train twelve guys who just didn’t get it. He was despised by some and loved by others. He experienced exhilaration when He saw people rescued from the darkness, and deep sadness when others went further into that darkness. The climax of His becoming flesh, becoming one of us, was suffering, physically and worse, on the Cross. Jesus lived here just like we do. He became one of us.

It’s here that I mention one way in which He is not like us. Consider this. One day, you weren’t and then the next there you are and that without anyone consulting you on the matter. You had no choice about being conceived and born. It was decided for you. But Jesus did have a choice. He could have stayed far away in heaven. From that distant perch He could have said, ‘How sad. Too bad they have to deal with such evil’, and then returned to His conversation with the angels. But that’s not what happened. He made a choice. ‘The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.’

There’s still more in our text. ‘And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.’ Let’s take truth first. The notion of truth is a major theme in John. So, for a couple of examples, we have, ‘Truly, truly I say to you…’ ‘I am the true vine…’ ‘You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free.’ For John, there are two aspects to truth. First, there is what is true in contrast with what is partial, incomplete, mere picture. When Jesus describes Himself as the true bread of heaven He is comparing Himself with the bread in the desert, the manna. That bread was a picture of Him. (And so is the bread that you had for breakfast.) He is the reality that they point to. That bread is partial, but He is what is true. That is a picture. He is reality. Then, there is the other aspect of truth, the true versus the false; truth versus lies. And here, we are back to the theme of light against darkness. Jesus is the truth against Satan who is the father of lies. I will develop these aspects more in future sermons. But here is the basic idea. We live in a world that is still filled with darkness. It is confusing, and it’s dangerous. Do you what to understand reality and be rescued from the lies that surround you? Your only hope for this is Jesus. He is full of truth.

Now, John also tells us that Jesus is full of grace. Another church word. How shall we translate ‘grace’? It’s God’s favorable attitude to you. So, for one example, from Genesis: ‘And Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.’ Because of this favor, God told Noah to build a boat. As a result, he and his family were kept safe from the coming flood. Grace is all about God’s favor. Or to say that in a slightly different way, it’s about you becoming God’s favorite. Being God’s favorite is part of what it means to be His child. Each of you is God’s favorite child. That may sound odd, but it’s true. At my mother’s funeral each of us three, my brother, my sister and I, had an opportunity to say something. When it was my brother’s turn, one thing he said was that Mom made each one of us kids feel as if he or she was her favorite – and he was right. Now, if my mother could do that, I’m sure that our heavenly Father can do it. Each of you is His favorite. That is what grace is about, the favor of God, being His favorite child.

Now, let’s develop this with a couple of questions. How did we become God’s favorites? You all know the answer. We have been blessed with God’s favor because of Jesus. Jesus has taken us from being enemies of God to being His favorites. That is Jesus’ gift to us. He is full of grace. Now, to the next question, and this one is more difficult. How do we maintain this status as the Father’s favorites? What do we do to make sure that He will continue to favor us? Now, the answer will seem obvious. We are to obey Him. There is only one problem with that answer. It’s wrong. To get the right answer we have to go back to the first question: How did we become God’s favorites? Let’s answer this with more detail. There is only one way to received God’s favor. You need to pass the test. Now, this test is not a paper and pencil test. This is a how-do-you-choose-to-live-each-moment-of-each-day test. To pass, you have to get 100%. How have we done? We have all failed. Now, there are those who comfort themselves by saying, ‘At least I did better than lots of others.’ Well, the fact is that we’ve not just failed the test. We’ve all gotten zeros. We got all the questions wrong. All of them. So, you see, we all have done equally badly on this test. There are lots of people who do not believe that they did all that badly on the test. But the reason that they think that is that they look on the outside while God looks at the heart.

Now, Jesus also took the test. And He passed it. His choices for each moment of each day were always right. (Can you imagine: always right.) And He didn’t take the test as Deity. Remember, He became one of us. So, He got 100%, the only person ever to do that. And here’s where we come to the heart of the Gospel. Jesus offers a swap. He will give His 100% to anyone and will take their zero. And when someone accepts His offer, the Father (just like a grade-school teacher) puts 100% next to his name in His grade book. That’s what the Father did with you. Next to your name is 100%. You’ve passed the test – because of Jesus. According to the Father’s bookkeeping, you have 100%. And so, you have become one of His favorites.

Now, we’re ready for that second question: How do we maintain this status as the Father’s favorites? And the right answer is now clear. We do nothing. There is, after all, nothing that needs to be done. You’ve passed the test. It’s in the grade book. Done deal, end of story. 100% is 100%. And that 100% belongs to you. There is nothing for you to do to maintain your status as God’s favorite. Grace!

Now, the expected response: ‘But if that’s true, then people will think that it doesn’t matter what they do. They will sin more and more. That can’t be the right answer.’ What is interesting is that people said the same thing about the Gospel that Luther and Calvin preached. And what’s even more interesting is that Paul was also accused of the same thing. He deals with it in Romans. You can look it up.

‘But what about obedience? We’re supposed to obey God, right? And isn’t that how we maintain this status? Isn’t that how we stay on God’s good side? Isn’t that how we stay God’s favorites?’ Well, let’s look at this. There is an assumption here that needs to be exposed. Here it is: we can obey well enough to maintain our status. Really?!? What would be your grade if you took that test over? Do you think you would pass? Could you get that 100%? Just think about this past week. Would you have gotten 100%? No, we would all still fail, and it would still be a zero. So, how can our attempts at obedience maintain any status? Our best works are still filthy rags.

‘But, shouldn’t we work at obeying God?’ Oh absolutely! Obedience is one of the goals of the Gospel. But, we do not work at obedience in order to keep God happy with us. And we don’t, first, because we know that it won’t work. Our obedience isn’t good enough. But also – and this is really where the Gospel is really great – we don’t have to work at trying to keep God happy with us. We already have 100% written next to our name in the grade book. There is no ‘maintaining our status’. What Jesus has done maintains it for us. We do work at obeying the Father, but not because we have to. We obey Him because we want to. And that, by the way, is also how Luther and Calvin and, more importantly, Paul before them also respond to their accusers. To connect this to something from last week, the desire to work at obeying is one of the results of being born of God and having His life in us. We have been changed. Now, we want to obey. We still do a crumby job of it. But that’s okay. Jesus has passed the test for us.

That’s what grace is about. Anything else is trying to save yourself by being good enough. And that’s what John means when he writes that Jesus is full of grace. Jesus overflows with this grace and He gives it to you.

Now, back to my goal for this sermon. So, do you feel some more of the beauty of Jesus? I hope so. Trying to act like a Christian because you’re supposed to is deadly. But following Jesus because He has stolen your heart with His beauty is something completely different.

Believing in Jesus

2011-09-11T16:45:00.000-04:00

This morning we’re going to deal with one of the basics of following Jesus. This morning we’re going to deal with believing. There is a lot going on in that little phrase, and what John has written in our text will help you get a handle on some more of that. My hope is that understanding better what it means to believe in Jesus will lead to following Him better. Now, please listen as I read our text, John 1.11-13.

He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

Let’s start with this. To believe in Jesus is to receive Him. Did you notice how John ties together ‘did receive’ and ‘believed’? ‘But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name…’ It’s two ways of describing the same group of people. Someone who believes in Jesus is not someone who decides to be religious in a Christian way. Someone who believes in Jesus receives Him. To use once-popular language, this person has a personal relationship with Jesus. It’s like getting married. What’s included when two people marry? There’s a party to celebrate it. The legal status of these two people changes. And they can fill out their 1040 income tax form differently. But none of that gets to the heart of what marriage is about. Marriage is a person‑to‑person relationship. At the wedding the man receives the woman as his wife and the woman receives the man as her husband. And the point of it all is that this person‑to‑person relationship develop until, in so many ways, it is obvious that the two really have become one. Here’s where you need to remember God’s purpose in creating marriage. It was to teach us how we are to believe in Jesus. We receive Him as a spouse. The Bible describes Jesus as the husband and the Church as His wife. That’s the point of this ‘believing in Jesus’. It is something very personal. You need to be careful here. There are many distractions to and substitutes for a personal relationship with Jesus. And be aware that these distractions and substitutes don’t have to be things that are evil. Satan uses good things to try to turn us away from Jesus. So, a question. In a good marriage, the one is getting to know the other better and better. As the years pass on, one result of that is a deeper love and affection between husband and wife. Here’s the question. How is your ‘marriage’ to Jesus going? Are you seeing a deeper love and affection for Him developing in you? So, here is the first thing from our text. Believing in Jesus is not a religious thing. It’s a personal thing.

Now, to the next thought. This one has to do with John’s phrase, ‘believed in His Name’. Most of you are familiar with the Bible’s take on names, but review is always good. A person’s name is a big deal in the Bible. It is much more than just a label to identify this person as opposed to that one. A name was a description of the person. And that’s why God sometimes changed people’s names. So, there’s Abram which means ‘exalted father’. When God promised him more children than he could count, He changed his name to Abraham, ‘father of a multitude’. Peter wasn’t given that name at birth. He was born Simon. But Jesus changed it to Peter, which means ‘rock’, ‘And on this rock I will build My Church.’ And then, there is Jesus’ name which means ‘The Lord saves’. How appropriate. The name describes an aspect of who that person is. So, when John wrote, ‘believed in His name’, he was pointing to different aspects of who Jesus is, aspects that he will describe in the rest of his Gospel. And the different names that He is given in Scripture highlight this. Jesus is Savior, Lord, Son of God, Son of Man, Rock of Offence, the I Am, the Anointed One, the Firstborn of the Dead and on and on. So, having a personal relationship with Jesus means relating to Him in terms of who He is, believing in His name.

Let’s take this further. So, believing in Jesus means believing in His name, believing in who He is. But, a person does not need to know and believe very much about who Jesus is to have a relationship with Him, to be saved. So, last week I mentioned what is needed for someone to become a Christian. (1) I am a sinner in rebellion against God. (2) Jesus promises to rescue all rebellious sinners like me who trust Him to do that. (3) I choose to trust Him. There isn’t a lot of content about Jesus in those three sentences, but it’s enough content. Consider the Philippian jailer in Acts 16. What does he say to Paul? ‘What must I do to be saved?’ And what is Paul’s reply? ‘Believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved.’ The jailer knew pitiful little about Jesus, but he believed that little bit, and Paul baptized him as a Christian. He believed in what little he knew of the name of Jesus and began his relationship with Jesus that night. You don’t need to know a lot about Jesus to become a Christian. You just need to believe what you know and thus receive Jesus.

However, it doesn’t end there. This person‑to‑person relationship with Jesus does not stay the same. In fact, it cannot stay the same, just as a marriage cannot stay the same. The husband needs to get to know his wife better, even as the wife needs to get to know her husband better. And if they work at that, over time they actually do get to know each other better. That’s what a good marriage is about. It’s the same with someone’s relationship with Jesus. It’s something that a Christian needs to work at. And, over time, as he does that, he gets to know Jesus better. He gets to believe in more of His name, more of who He is. The relationship grows. A Christian may begin his relationship with Jesus knowing pitiful little but it does not stay that way. It cannot.

Let me tell you about when I was converted. I was at a weekend retreat for the youth group of my church. Friday evening there was a speaker. I have no recollection of what he talked about. But I do remember going to my bunk afterward. I pulled out my old King James Bible and read John 3.16. And then I prayed, ‘Lord, I don’t know what this is all about but whatever it is, I want it.’ And then, I went outside to enjoy the bonfire with the rest of the group. At that point, this is what I knew: I needed saving and Jesus would save me if I believed in Him, John 3.16. Pitiful little. And as best as I understand things, that’s when I was converted. It was 23 September, 1967.

Now, that all occurred when I was a junior in high school. It wasn’t until I was a freshman in college that someone told me, ‘You realize that Jesus is to be your Lord, don’t you? He is to be the one in charge of your life.’ Actually, until that point, I didn’t know that. But at that moment, Jesus’ name got bigger in my understanding. Now, His name included two aspects of who He is, Savior and Lord. It’s at that point that I had a choice. ‘Will I believe in Jesus as He really is? Will I believe in Jesus as Lord over my life?’ I didn’t say those words, but that was what was going on. Because of His kindness, I chose to believe that aspect of Jesus’ name also. And since then He has revealed more and more of His name to me. And each time there was the same question. ‘Will I believe in Jesus as He really is?’ And thus far, by His grace, I have always answered with a yes.

Sadly, though, it doesn’t always turn out that way for everyone. What you will see in John’s Gospel are examples of people who were faced with the same choice. Some of them believed in Jesus’ name as that name was filled with new content. But some did not. Some refused and rejected Jesus. They no longer believed in the name. When faced with a new aspect of who Jesus really is, they turned away. So, in John 6 Jesus told the crowd, some of whom were disciples of His, people who believed in His name, that He is the Bread of Heaven and He explained some of what that means. He revealed more of who He is. And this is what happened. ‘After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him.’ They had believed, became disciples, and then they chose to believe no longer. They could not accept this new aspect of who Jesus is.

This explains an important aspect of our relationship with Jesus. A relationship with Jesus cannot stand still. In fact, a relationship with anyone cannot stand still. Relationships are either growing or they are dying. So, this is what happens. Jesus reveals more of who He is, that is, He fills in more content to His name, and then we have a choice to make. ‘Will I believe in Jesus as He really is?’ Now, it is helpful to note something else that happened when so many turned away. ‘So Jesus said to the Twelve, “Do you want to go away as well?” Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.” Peter and the rest of the Twelve chose to continue to believe in Jesus’ name, even with this new content. So, this is what happens to you. Jesus reveals more of Himself to you, and then you get to choose.

It is important that you understand why it is that Jesus reveals more of His name to you. The goal is not to make life hard for you by requiring difficult choices. Rather, the more that you know and believe of Jesus the more you will enjoy Him. Do you remember from last week the reason God created you? He created you so that you could enjoy Him as He enjoys you. Jesus reveals more of Himself to you so that you can enjoy more of Him. So, when Jesus revealed Himself to me as Lord, and I chose to believe in Him as such, I got to enjoy His Lordship in my life. So, for one thing, I have come to see that I don’t have to figure it all out. You have no idea how helpful that has been to me. Instead of feeling this necessity to always figure things out so that I will get it right, I’ve learned to pray. ‘Lord Jesus, what do You want me to do in this situation?’ He, as my Lord, guides my life. He has to get it right, not me. And He always gets it right. So, how can I be anything other than optimistic? Jesus reveals more of Himself to us so that we can understand better who He really is and, as a result, enjoy Him more. And do you know what comes out of all of that? Christians who shine!

We’ve talked about what it means to receive Jesus and what His name has to do with believing. Now, the last part of the text that we will look at today. John tells us that those who believe in the name of Jesus are given something. ‘But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God…’ We’ve all heard the phrase ‘children of God’, and there are parts of that which are very familiar. But there is always more to enjoy. So, let’s take a moment to meditate on this together.

What does it mean that someone is a child of God? Let’s get at that this way. Let’s talk about Bill Gates, someone who is very wealthy. What does it mean to be Bill Gates’ child? Imagine this scenario. Gates’ son goes to his dad and says, ‘Dad, the teacher said that I have to buy this book for school’. What would his reply be? ‘Well, I don’t know, son. I guess you’ll have to save up for that.’ Really?!? A doctor in the ER comes to Gates and tells him that his daughter needs a very expensive operation. What do you think? Would he give that two thoughts? In either situation, he would quickly spend the money so that he would care for his children. What does it mean to be God’s child? God spends what He has so that He could care for you, His child. Bill Gates has lots, when it comes to money. What does God have lots of? I suspect that it would be easier if we adjust the question. What is it that He doesn’t have lots of? Whatever He has, He gives to you so that you would be well cared for. That is astounding. But that’s what it means to be a child of God.

And it gets even better when you look again at what John wrote. According to John, Christians are people who are born of God. What is the most important thing that a parent gives to his or her child? Life. The father and the mother each contribute some of their own life to give to their child. God, our Father, gives life – His life – to His children. You have the life of God because you are children of God, born of God. That is what that phrase ‘eternal life’ means. It’s the life of God given to His children. And this life is yours, says John, by right. You are children of God by right. The point of this right is all about assurance. Being God’s child is not some fleeting thing that comes and goes. It is sure. It is certain. It is yours. If you travel abroad you will take a passport. You do that so that, if your identity is challenged, you can say, ‘I am an American, and as proof here is my passport.’ Identity established. Case closed. There will be times when your identity as a Christian will be challenged. There may be doubts, a lack of confidence or other things. And behind whatever it is, you will find Satan being quite busy. When that happens, this is what you say. ‘I am a child of God by right and as proof, here is my baptism.’ Identity established. Case closed. That is something that you tell Satan and at the same time tell yourself. You are God’s child by right, a right given you by the Father.

Let me close with this. What have I done this morning? I’ve described to you some more of what it means to believe in Jesus. In doing that I’ve tried to explain, to challenge, to warn and to comfort. In a minute or so, I will have completed the work God has called me to do with this sermon. At that point, He will call you to do some work with this sermon. And it is work that needs to be done. There is something in the sermon for each of you, something that the Spirit wants you to deal with. So, first identify it. Then, deal with it. Is there some comfort that your soul needs to embrace? Is there some aspect of Jesus’ name that you need to believe? Do you need to evaluate your relationship with Jesus to see if it is developing like a good marriage? Is there a warning that you need to take to heart? What is it from the sermon that you need to spend time on? Whatever it is, there is work for you to do. And bear in mind that this will not be something that you do on your own. That will lead only to failure of the worst kind. Your ability to deal well with the sermon will be a matter of God’s grace. The change that needs to happen is change in your soul. You cannot change your soul. Only the Spirit can do that. So, discern what it is that He wants you to deal with, and then start to deal with it by asking for His grace, His ability to make some more progress. And then watch as, more and more, you shine as Christians.

Gospel Truths

2011-09-04T12:55:00.000-04:00

Today, we begin a new series on theGospel of John. Let me begin by asking you pray. There are many ways to preachJohn’s Gospel. So, please pray that I would preach what you need to hear andthat I would do that very clearly. And then, pray that you would hear what Ipreach so that the Spirit could do His work in your lives.

This morning, I’m going deal with somebasic Gospel truths as they are reflected in our text. I have no doubt thatmuch of what I have to say will be review for most of you. But to be remindedof the Gospel is always a good thing. Being reminded of what you know makes iteasier to learn what you don’t know. After laying out those truths, I’ll sharewith you some thoughts on how to put them to good use.

Now, please listen as I read John 1.1-13.

Let’s start where John starts, with theWord. This Word was with God and yet, at the same time, He was God. Accordingto our text, God is two yet one. Later, we’ll encounter the Spirit, and we’llfind that this God is actually three – Father, Word and Spirit – and yet oneGod. So, right off the bat we are seeing that this God is not like us. Let’sadd to this. This God, three yet one, is before all things. In the beginning, whenall this came into being, this God already was. Now, if you’re going to get theforce of this you will need to think carefully here. This doesn’t mean that Godwas in empty space before He filled it with planets and stars. There was nospace. He hadn’t created it yet. And what’s more, existing before all of thesethings doesn’t mean that He existed a long, long, long time ago. He existed whenthere was no time. He existed before He created time. As John talks about God,these are some things that he begins with.

A question or two at this point seemsappropriate. What does it mean to be three yet one? And what does it mean toexist but not in space or in time? What kind of God is this? The honest answergoes something like this: I have no idea. To be sure, God has revealed Himselfto us. That’s what John’s Gospel is about. And as we work our way through thisGospel there will be new things that we will learn about our God. And yet, wealso need to say that there are aspects of this God that are hidden from us,aspects that we will never understand – even in the age to come after we havespent an eternity getting to know Him. So, while we can and should say that weknow this God and that we are getting to know Him better, on the other hand wealso need to say that this God is mysterious. He’s really not like us at all.

And here’s the evidence that you aregetting to know this mysterious God better: a growing sense of wonder,amazement, along with a little touch of fear. A growing understanding of thisGod includes a very clear awareness of the distance between us and Him. Heisn’t one of us. He is outside space and time. He is three and yet one. He isthe mysterious God whom we will never fully comprehend. He doesn’t fit into anyof our categories. And yet, this strange God draws us to Himself so that wemight sit on His lap and be close to His heart. Getting to know Him better alsoshows by a growing experience of His nearness. So, getting to know this God betterinvolves being able to put two things together. Our God is the great andawesome God who inhabits eternity: distance. At the same time, He is to us,Father, Savior, Comforter: nearness. He is the mysterious God.

Let’s move on to another Gospel truth. Thisone is found in verse 3: ‘All things were made through him, and without him wasnot any thing made that was made.’ This is about Creation. This God, the Word,created all of this. He created time and He created space and then He filledthat space. He made the immense galaxies and the almost invisible one-celled amoebas.And He made everything in between. He created it all and that out of nothing.

If that’s true then other things arealso true. Since He created it all, He writes the definitions and sets therules. He gets to say, ‘This is what it means to be a man. This is what itmeans to be a woman. This is up and that is down. This is beauty. That is truth.And that way over there, that is good.’ He gets to establish purposes andgoals. God, the Word, gets to define it all. He gets to define you. So, in ourcultural situation it makes sense to talk about the rights of the Creator.

Now, a question, and the question is why.Why did He create it all, including you? Some have suggested that God waslonely, and so all of this is to deal with His loneliness. But that, of course,can’t be true. Remember, God existed, before space and time, as a family:Father, Son and Spirit. And They were a happy family, with each one enjoyingthe other. How could that not be the case? God didn’t need us, and He stilldoesn’t. If all of creation disappeared before your next breath, God would notbe at a loss. He created us, but we are completely unnecessary. But He did havea reason to create. What was it? Read through your Bible, and this is theanswer you will find. He created us so that He could enjoy us and we couldenjoy Him. What do you think those walks that Adam and Eve had with God in thecool of the day were all about? Remember the nearness of God. This God createdus so that we might enjoy Him even as He enjoyed us. This is the point of creation,and it explains our privilege in being created. I really think that there ismuch to be gained by meditating on this Gospel truth. It gives a clear purposeto life. The alternatives are silly in comparison. I am here to enjoy God as Heenjoys me. I think this is profound, especially in our day.

We’ve talked about God and we’ve talkedabout Creation. And now, we’re ready for a third Gospel truth: ‘In him waslife, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, andthe darkness has not overcome it.’ And now, the bad news. There is darkness. Italked about this last week: light versus darkness, good versus evil, Jesusversus Satan. Something has changed. When God finished creating, He said thatit was all very good. But now it’s not. Now, there is evil, the darkness. Andnow is the time for a good question. How could the Creator God, who made allthings good, allow this darkness to come into existence? And He freelyacknowledges responsibility for doing so. ‘I form light and create darkness, Imake well-being and create evil, I am the Lord,who does all these things.’ At some point, God created darkness; evil. What wasHe thinking? That makes absolutely no sense to me. But He is the mysteriousGod.

Maybe a more pertinent question iswhether this means the end of our enjoyment of God. People experience evilevery day of their lives. When that happens, any enjoyment of God fades and, insome cases, it may even be completely gone. God grieves the evil, but it is notfatal for Him. He could just end the existence of His now‑evil creation. Andafter it all disappeared He would be what He was before any of this was: thefamily who is God, enjoying each other in infinite bliss. But that’s not whatHe did. ‘The light shines in the darkness’. This God decided to rescue Hiscreation. He wants, once again, to enjoy walks in the cool of the day. And Hewants to do that with you.

And so we read this: ‘The true light,which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world, andthe world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to hisown, and his own people did not receive him.’ God, the Word, the true light,the Savior, has come into the world in order to rescue it from the darkness.And here, of course, John is talking about Jesus. He comes to a creationpoisoned by evil in order to remove all of that evil. He comes so that we mightall be able to say of creation, ‘And it was all very good.’ You would thinkthat people would rejoice at this. Imagine, no more darkness, only light, thefull enjoyment of God. And yet, what happened? Rejection. The world did notknow Him. They did not acknowledge Him for who He was: the Creator who has cometo be Savior. Even His special people, Israel, would not receive Him. Rejection.This is not the rejection of a man, but the rejection of God. So, the darknessgrows even as the light has come.

But there are exceptions to this. ‘Butto all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right tobecome children of God.’ Imagine: children of God. Whatever that means, itsounds really good. But this is only for some, for those who believe in Hisname. So, John elsewhere writes, ‘For God so loved the world, that he gave hisonly Son, that whoever believes in him should not suffer death but have thelife of eternity.’ Jesus, the Word, God, has come to rescue the world from itsdarkness. But only those who believe Him will be rescued.

And that leads to the last Gospel truth.Now is the time for choosing, for you, for me, for everyone. Will it berejecting Him or believing Him? And this choosing is not a one‑time deal. Wechoose every day, and in very different situations, about all kinds of things.In each of these it always boils down to whether a person will believe in Hisname or not. A person’s fate, now and forever, hangs on his choices.

So, there you are. Those are some Gospeltruths that John has pointed us to: God, Creation, Darkness and Light, Choices.

Now, what should you do with thesetruths? What you do with them is believe them. In saying that, I’m notsuggesting that you are all a bunch of pagans, people who do not believe theGospel. Consider this. What is needed for someone to become a Christian? Verylittle. ‘(1) I am a sinner in rebellion against God. (2) Jesus promises torescue all rebellious sinners like me who trust Him to do that. (3) I choose totrust Him.’ That’s all that’s needed. A person who works through those three sentencesbelieves the Gospel enough to get to heaven. And if ending up in heaven is whatthe Gospel is all about, then that would be the end of the story. But ending upin heaven is not what the Gospel is all about. Rather, it’s about is turningaway from rebellion and instead, living well as one of God’s creatures, anddoing that in the here and now. It’s about becoming who you were originallyintended to be. To do that will take more than working through those threesentences, though that’s where you start. To do that a person will need to change.He will need to change what he thinks about all of this. He will need tobelieve truths of the Gospel, truths like God, Creation, Darkness and Light,Choices. The Gospel is not about getting to heaven. It’s about re-making you.It’s about changing your soul.

As a Christian works at believing thesetruths of the Gospel he will understand his life differently. That’s because thevery way that he looks at his life will change. As a result of that change,what he once thought was up, he now sees is actually down. There will be are-orientation. And life will begin to make more sense. Instead of fumblingalong, day after day, there will be a growing understanding of how all of thisworks and how he fits into it. He will realize that he is not in control.Everything does not depend on him always making the right decision. And he willsee quite clearly that he is not a mere cog in the machinery of existence but acreature of God with a glorious purpose. He is fallen, to be sure, and hecontinues to fall and yet he is rescued and is restored again and again. Hecomes to see more clearly, ‘God is not my puppet who is supposed to coddle me,someone I can get angry at when He doesn’t do that. No, He is the great andawesome God who I can’t really understand, but who desires for me to enjoy Himas He enjoys me.’ And he will see that at the heart of it all is this man whois God, Jesus who did not abandon him to the darkness that would have swallowedhim up, body and soul. This Christian will see that Jesus came as a piercingbright light to scatter the darkness and He did that for him. You see, as theChristian grows in understanding and in believing Gospel truths, his lifechanges. He sees life differently. He sees it right side up.

And all of that makes a difference. Forone thing, it affects his worship. ‘To meet with this God – how amazing!’ So,worship – whether worship together on Sunday or private worship each day – takeson a different tone. ‘I’m talking to God! And He’s talking to me!!’ Out of thatcomes a growing sense of amazement and awe and that little touch of fear, andat the same time, a kind of intimacy that he thought impossible. Because ofGospel truths worship changes.

There’s another way that believing thesetruths makes a difference. Here, I’m going to use an old-fashioned word, butI’m not going to mean it in the old-fashioned sense. This changes evangelism.In old-fashioned evangelism, a Christian took words that were given to him,words that he learned at some training seminar, and he was supposed to try tohand those words off to someone who wasn’t a Christian in the hope ofconverting him. This does not describe all who did the old-fashionedevangelism, but it does describe way too many. And it also explains why so manyChristians never did much of this kind of evangelism. It just felt wrong. Itwas just some words, and they were someone else’s words at that.

But as a Christian grows in believingthe truths of the Gospel, it is no longer a matter of trying to pass on some words.Now it’s about how that Christian understands his life. ‘This is what ‘up’looks like to me.’ He could be talking about some big political matter, or hisattitude toward his job, or what he thinks about his wife. There are no wordsto memorize because he is speaking from his own experience and understanding oflife. It feels right. And sooner or later, if the conversation can continue,things get around to the key to understanding life in this way: Jesus.

What is needed is a change in how aChristian thinks. He needs to be re-oriented to the real ‘up’. If a Christianisn’t thinking about and thus believing these Gospel truths, what can he say tohis unbelieving neighbor? He sees ‘up’ in the same way that his neighbor does.All he has are some religious words that never seem to fit into a conversation.He never does evangelism. But the Christian who is working at believing thesetruths of the Gospel doesn’t even call it ‘doing evangelism’. All he’s doing istalking to his friends and neighbors about how he understands life. Jesus said,‘Out of the heart the mouth speaks’. A heart that believes Gospel truths willnaturally speak those truths to others.

Last thought. Thinking about,understanding and then believing Gospel truths is hard. It’s work. First, thereis simply learning Gospel truths. There is a lot that we just don’t know yet,things that we need to learn. And then, there’s all the work of actuallybelieving them. Remember that believing some Gospel truth means no longerbelieving some worldly lie. That’s not easy. And so, there are times when itall gets a little discouraging. And that gets to one reason for this sermon.One of my goals is simply to encourage you. The hard work that you do tounderstand and to then believe Gospel truth is worth it. It changes your life,something that has already begun. And as that continues you will come to seelife in a way that you cannot now imagine. It’s work the effort.

Here, I would just remind you of thetools for growth. Know your Bible. That’s where you’ll find more truth. And then, of course, the second tool: prayer. Itwill take lots more than just being very disciplined for there to be change. Theneeded change is a matter of the soul. Only the Spirit can change that. So, weare once more left to the grace of God. But, as another Gospel truth makesclear, our God is eager to bless His people with His grace. So, ask Him to dothat, and He will.