Sunday Morning – Page 27 – Idaville Church

In The Light

Believe

In The Light

(John 8:12-20)

INTRODUCTION

“While I was ministering at [a church] in Anaheim, we had a blackout during one of our services. An automobile accident knocked out the power line to our building. There were approximately three thousand people in the room and close to a thousand children in the area behind the sanctuary. For a reason I cannot remember, the emergency lights failed, too.

Sitting in the front row of the church, I was only a dozen steps from the hallway leading to the children, but the darkness was so overwhelming and disorienting that it was difficult groping my way there.

When I finally reached the door that led to a long hallway, I saw that a mother who had a small flashlight on her key chain had beat me to the door and was making her way to her children. Her small light didn't illumine the whole hallway, but it reoriented the whole scary moment for me. Soon others found emergency flashlights in the classrooms, and still others shined their car headlights through the classroom windows. We got all the kids out to safety.

After about five or ten minutes I made my way back to the sanctuary. It looked like a 1960s rock concert, as all the baby boomers had gotten out their Bic lighters and were waving them around as if ‘Hey Jude’ was being performed by the Beatles. As funny as that was, what I still remember twenty years later is the enormous power of that mom's flashlight to bring hope and orientation to a seriously unnerving moment.”

Todd D. Hunter, Giving Church Another Chance (IVP, 2010), p. 78

[https://www.preachingtoday.com/illustrations/2010/august/5081610.html].

BODY

ME
- Dark basement
  - - I believe I was in the upper elementary grades when this story happened to me
    - A group of boys from my class were invited to another classmate’s house for his Birthday
    - It was a sleepover party on a Friday night, if I remember correctly
    - After the celebration, we all got ready for bed and set up our sleeping bags on the floor of the finished basement
    - At some point in the middle of the night, I woke up and had to go to the bathroom
      - The bathroom was upstairs
      - As you can imagine, it was completely dark with no lights on anywhere
      - It was like being in a cave or cavern when they turn all the lights off, so you can experience complete darkness
      - I groped around in the darkness and started crawling around on my hands and feet
      - I thought I had found the stairs, but I wasn’t making any progress
      - I had to go to the bathroom so bad at this point
      - I had to regroup and begin feeling for the stairs in a different location
      - I finally found the stairs and the bathroom! What a relief
    - The next morning when there was light in the basement, I realized that the initial “stairway” I was trying to climb on my hands and knees was stacked firewood beside the fireplace
    - Here’s a couple of life lessons for sleepovers
      - Don’t drink too much before going to bed
      - Make sure to use the bathroom before you go to bed
      - Always take a flashlight with you when you go to a friend’s house for a sleepover

WE
- Take a moment to remember a time when you experienced complete darkness
  - - How did you feel?
    - How did you cope with it?

Imagine for a moment what it would be like if that darkness lasted for a couple of minutes . . . a couple of hours . . . a couple of days . . . a couple of years . . . or for eternity. We would probably lose our minds. We want to be able to see what is around us. We don’t want to continually walk around with our arms outstretched in front of us to protect us from running into something. While none of us want to do this on a physical level, some of us are fine doing this on a spiritual level. We are fine walking around in darkness – stumbling around, groping around to find the light. John shares Jesus’ words about being the light of the world. Jesus was speaking on a spiritual level. As we’ll see today . . .

BIG IDEA – Jesus brings God’s presence, protection, and guidance.

Let’s pray

GOD (John 8:12-20)
- Proclamation (v. 12, 20)
  - - Background
      - Jesus is still in Jerusalem in the temple courts
      - We know this because of verse 20, He spoke these words while teaching in the temple area near the place where the offerings were put.
      - Perhaps the Feast of Tabernacles had ended, but this narrative probably happened while the feast was still taking place
        Here is why it probably happened during the feast
        Several weeks ago we learned that during the Feast of Tabernacles there was a water ceremony that the priests did every day and then seven times on the last day of the feast
        This ceremony marked the beginning of the drought season
        It also was a reminder of how God provided water from a rock, on two occasions, for the Israelites as they wandered in the wilderness
        There was another ceremony that took place during this same feast that was centered around light
        This was the time of year when the autumn equinox happened (night and day are of equal length) [Burge, The NIV Application Commentary, John, 255]
        It was also a reminder of God’s presence, protection, and guidance while the Israelites wandered in the wilderness
        God’s presence was evident through the pillar of cloud during the day and the pillar of fire at night
        God’s protection came when the Israelites were stuck between the Red Sea and the Egyptian army that was pursuing them – the pillar of cloud/fire moved from in front of the Israelites to the rear, and blocked the Egyptian army until the Red Sea was parted
        God’s guidance happened through the movement of the pillar of cloud/fire
        When the pillar moved, the Israelites broke camp and followed it until it stopped
        When it stopped, they set up camp until it moved again
        The light ceremony
        It took place in the Court of Women
        [Show the three pictures while talking about the lamps]
        There were four stands that held four golden bowls – each bowl had four parts to it, making sixteen lamps
        These golden bowls “were filled with oil and used the worn undergarments of the priests for wicks.” [Burge, 255]
        These lamps were lit on the first night of the Feast of Tabernacles
        It is probable that they were lit every evening instead of burning continuously from the first day to the last day of the feast
        Just imagine what it must have been like to see these lamps burning at night and illuminating the walls of the temple courts – it must have been magnificent!
        It was definitely a visual reminder of God’s presence, protection, and guidance for His people
      - We don’t know exactly when Jesus made His proclamation about being the light of the world, but just imagine if He said that right after the priests extinguished the lamps on the last night of the feast – how profound would that have been
    - Salvation
      - Jesus is saying to the crowd, gathered in the Court of Women, “You don’t have to celebrate the light ceremony anymore. I am with you. I will protect you. I will guide you.”
      - Jesus brings God’s presence, protection, and guidance.
      - PRINCIPLE #1 – Jesus is our salvation!
        The Prophet Isaiah foretold the coming of the Messiah when he said, The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned (Isaiah 9:2)
        John 3:19-20, This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed.
        We are all born loving the darkness (Read Romans 3:10-12)
        Romans 3:19-20, Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God. Therefore no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin.
        The Ten Commandments were given so that we would be aware of our sin
        Keeping the Ten Commandments does not make us righteous, because no one can keep all of the Ten Commandments perfectly
        James tell us that if we keep the whole law and yet stumble at just one point, we’re guilty of breaking all of it (James 2:10)
        If we die in the state of loving darkness, we will spend eternity in darkness (Rom. 6:23)
        Our eternal home will be hell
        That’s what we are being saved from
        Imagine for a moment that someone comes up to you and tells you that another person has paid your speeding fine of $25,000
        You would probably tell them that you don’t have a speeding fine of $25,000 (you’re not aware of any violation on your record)
        Imagine that they came to you and told you that a police officer clocked you going 55 mph in an area designated for a blind children’s convention. There were ten clear warning signs telling you that the speed limit was 15 mph, but you ignored all the signs and kept going 55 mph. The penalty for doing that is $25,000
        You would understand the significance of having someone else pay your penalty when you realize that you are guilty
        That is what the Ten Commandments do for us – they make us conscious of our sin
        When we know we have broken God’s law, then we realize and accept the fact that we need a Savior – someone to pay our penalty
        God knew from the start that human beings would turn away from Him and follow darkness
        Out of His great love for us, He didn’t turn His back on us and allow us to die in our sins, separated from Him in eternal darkness
        Instead He fulfilled His plan of redemption and reconciliation by sending Jesus from heaven to earth to die on a cross to take our punishment for sin, to pay our penalty of sin
        John 3:16-18, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.”
        That’s what Jesus is saying to the crowd, when He says, whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life
        The light of life is eternal life
        “If Jesus is the light, walking ‘in the light’ is a description of discipleship (1:7).” [Burge, 256]
        My Next Step Today Is To: Believe in Jesus and become His disciple, so I will never have to walk in darkness but will have the light of life (eternal life).
        When you believe in Jesus and follow Him, you will experience God’s presence, protection, and guidance
        Presence
        Deuteronomy 31:8, The Lord himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged.
        1 Corinthians 3:16, Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit lives in you?
        Protection
        Isaiah 41:10, So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.
        2 Thessalonians 3:3, But the Lord is faithful, and he will strengthen and protect you from the evil one.
        Guidance
        John 16:13, But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come.
        Proverbs 3:5-6, Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.
        Psalm 32:8, I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel (guide) you and watch over you.
        You can claim these promises for yourself, every day!
        My Next Step Today Is To: Claim God’s promises, through Jesus, that He will be with me, protect me, and guide me.
      - So, Jesus is sharing the good news of the Gospel with the crowd – He is the light of the world, but not everyone was happy about that
    - The Pharisees were already angry and upset with Jesus, so it didn’t matter what He said or did, they were going to challenge Him
- Protest (v. 13)
  - - The Pharisees challenge the validity of Jesus’ proclamation by saying that He is appearing as His own witness
      - Jesus’ statement, that He is the light of the world, isn’t valid in their reasoning, because He is saying it about Himself
      - He does not have any witnesses to support His claim
      - Unfortunately, the Pharisees have forgotten what Jesus said after healing the lame man at the Pool of Bethesda on the Sabbath
      - Jesus gave the religious leaders not only one witness, but four
        John the Baptist (John 5:33)
        His miraculous works (John 5:36)
        The Father (John 5:37)
        The Scriptures (John 5:39)
    - It wasn’t going to matter what Jesus said, because the Pharisees were living with self-righteous attitudes that were wrong – they had made up their minds about Jesus
    - In this last section, we see Jesus pleading with the Pharisees to acknowledge and accept His claim to deity – He wants them follow Him, so they won’t walk in darkness
- Plea (vv. 14-20)
  - - Jesus’ deity (v. 14)
      - “Words which in a human being would inevitably look like exaggerated arrogance, can take no other form in the mouth of the eschatological revealer.” [Schnackenburg cited by Köstenberger, Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament, John, 255]
        Jesus is God, which means that He is perfect, without sin
        His sinlessness is why He was able to take our punishment on the cross, to pay our penalty of sin
        So, His testimony would have been valid even if there were no other witnesses
      - Jesus knew where He came from and where He was going
        Jesus was confident in His deity
        He knew He had come from heaven – from the right hand of God the Father
        He knew what His mission on earth was – to die on a cross as the perfect Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world
        He knew that after His perfect sacrifice on the cross He would be buried and God would bring Him back to life as proof that His sacrifice was acceptable and met God’s standard for redemption
        He also knew that He would return to heaven after providing redemption for humanity
      - The Pharisees did not know where Jesus came from or where He was going
        It wasn’t that Jesus was hiding His deity from them
        He had told them multiple times that He was from God the Father
        The Pharisees had their preconceived ideas of how the Messiah would come and what He would do on the earth
        Jesus did not fit any of those preconceived ideas
        Their false ideas about the Messiah and His ministry on earth blinded them to the truth
        They did not want to believe that Jesus came from heaven, therefore, they definitely wouldn’t believe that He would be returning to heaven
      - The Pharisees were judging based on human standards and not Godly standards or Scriptural standards
    - Judgment (vv. 15-16)
      - Human standards
        The original Greek can be translated as “according to the flesh”
        The Pharisees knew that Jesus was from Nazareth in Galilee
        As we saw in John 7:41 some believed that Jesus was the Christ
        In verse 42, others disagreed that Jesus was the Christ, because they knew that the Christ would come from David’s family and from Bethlehem
        As mentioned there, the crowd and the religious leaders were not aware of Jesus’ birthplace – Bethlehem
        So, the Pharisees are judging from a human standard based on Jesus’ known place of origin – Nazareth in Galilee
        They are also using the human standard of needing two witnesses
        “. . . Jesus’ point is the one he will make again here, that his witness is not by himself to himself, but for the Father to the Father, and crucially with the Father.” [Milne, The Bible Speaks Today, The Message of John, 128]
        “They see his ‘flesh’, as it were, but never contemplate the possibility that he could be the Word made flesh (1:14).” [Carson, The Pillar New Testament Commentary, The Gospel According to John, 339]
        John 1:14, The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
        Since Jesus came from heaven and the Father, He is deity and can judge correctly
      - Judging correctly
        Jesus states that He doesn’t pass judgment on anyone
        We know from Scripture that Jesus will be the final judge of humanity (Matthew 25:31-33)
        We will all stand before Him and give an account of what we did while on earth (Romans 14:12)
        What Jesus is saying here is that He doesn’t judge anyone by the human standard that the Pharisees were judging Him by
        PRINCIPLE #2 – God’s judgement is right.
        Jesus says that if He does judge that His decisions in judging are right
        He is able to make this statement, because He is not judging in a void
        He stands with the Father who sent Him
        God and Jesus are perfect, so they can judge perfectly, righteously
        Application
        We are not perfect, so our judgments are not always perfect or righteous
        We know this is true when some people are falsely accused and convicted
        Some individuals have maintained their innocence for all the years they’ve been imprisoned
        DNA evidence has enabled the court system to reverse some convictions that were done incorrectly
        Only God knows the heart of man, but sometimes we pass judgment on others based on several things
        Our feelings
        False information
        Preconceived ideas that are incorrect
        Prejudices
        Personal preferences
        Human standards
        Perhaps we’d be better served if we spoke directly with the individual instead of passing judgement
        It may help us to forgive and extend grace, just like God has done for us
        My Next Step Today Is To: Recognize that I’m judging someone unfairly and imperfectly, and extend grace and forgiveness to them instead.
      - Jesus then expands what He has already told them
    - Witnesses (vv. 17-19)
      - While He is not bound by their human standards of judgement (testimony of two men is valid), He explains that He is still in compliance with that standard
        He testifies for Himself
        His other witness if the Father who sent Him – God
      - The Pharisees are struggling with the natural and the supernatural, with the human and divine
        That’s why they ask Jesus where His father is?
        Notice that “father” is not capitalized
        They want to know where Jesus’ earthly, human father is
        “In the present instance the Jews, of course, expect witnesses whose statements can be heard and compared with each other, so that it can be determined whether they agree.” [Köstenberger, 256]
        It doesn’t matter that Jesus has already called John the Baptist, His works, God, and the Scriptures as His witnesses
        John would have been the only one who could have physically stood before them
        Joseph, Mary’s husband, could have stood before them, but His testimony about Jesus would not carry the same weight as His Father, God
        This simply tells us that the Pharisees are not comprehending who Jesus is – He’s the Messiah
        Jesus’ response helps us know that He is aware that the Pharisees don’t know or acknowledge Him as the Christ, the Messiah
        He tells them that they don’t know Him or His Father
        If they knew Him, they would know His Father, and it wasn’t Joseph
        Jesus’ is pleading with them to turn away from the darkness and follow Him, as the light of the world
        If they would accept Him as the Christ (Messiah) and follow Him, they would know God, the Father
        The sad truth was that they already thought they knew the Father
        They thought they had God’s presence, protection, and guidance, but they didn’t
        Jesus brings God’s presence, protection, and guidance.
        He is the only way for us to not walk in darkness
      - John gives us the location of where Jesus was, in the temple courts, during this exchange with the Pharisees
    - Location and protection (v. 20)
      - He was teaching in the temple area near the place where the offerings were put
        The offering containers were in the shape of a shofar (a ram’s horn trumpet)
        There were thirteen of them stationed in the Court of Women (each one was marked with what the offering would be used for in the temple)
        This is the same place where the ceremony of lights took place
      - We see God’s protection over Jesus again
        No one seized Jesus, even though they had been looking for Him and challenging Him, so they could find grounds to arrest Him
        God’s timing for His redemption plan would not be dictated or determined by any one, but Him

YOU
- I pray that your desire is to follow Jesus and be His disciple – to walk in the light instead of the darkness
- “I want to be in the Light
  As You are in the Light
  I want to shine like the stars in the heavens
  Oh, Lord be my Light and be my salvation
  Cause all I want is to be in the Light
  All I want is to be in the Light”
  
  [In The Light by DC Talk]

- Our purpose as disciples of Jesus Christ is to point others to the Light, to Jesus

CONCLUSION

“One weekend, author Paul Tripp gave his teenage son permission to spend the weekend at a friend's house. But during the weekend Paul received a call from the friend's mother, informing him that Paul's son was not at her home. (Her son had felt guilty about covering for Paul's son and confessed to his mom.) After Paul told his wife about their son's deception, Paul said, “Luella could feel my anger, and she said, ‘I think you need to pray.’ I said, ‘I don't think I can pray for him right now.’ She said, ‘I didn't mean for you to pray for him; I think you need to pray for you.’”

Paul writes:

I went to my bedroom to pray for God's help, and it hit me that, because of his love, God had already begun a work of rescue in my son's life. God was the one who pressed in on the conscience of my son's friend, causing him to confess to his mom. God was the one who gave her the courage to make that difficult call to me. And God was the one giving me time to get a hold of myself before my son came home. Now, rather than wanting to rip into my son, I wanted to be part of what this God of grace was doing in this moment of rebellion, deception, hurt, and disappointment.

After giving his son a couple of hours to relax upon his return, Paul asked him if they could talk.

"Do you ever think about how much God loves you?" Paul asked his son.

"Sometimes," he answered.

"Do you ever think how much God's grace operates in your life every day?"

His son looked up but didn't speak.

"Do you know how much God's grace was working in your life even this weekend?"

"Who told you?" his son asked.

Paul said:

‘You have lived your life in the light. You've made good choices. You've been an easy son to parent, but this weekend you took a step toward the darkness. You can live in the darkness if you want. You can learn to lie and deceive. You can use your friends as your cover … You can step over God's boundaries. Or you can determine to live in God's light. I'm pleading with you: don't live in the darkness; live in the light.’

‘As I turned to walk away,’ Paul wrote, ‘I heard his voice from behind me saying, ‘Dad, don't go.’ As I turned around, with tears in his eyes, he said, ‘Dad, I want to live in the light, but it's so hard. Will you help me?’’”

Paul David Tripp, Forever: Why You Can't Live Without It (Zondervan, 2011), pp. 151-153; submitted by Van Morris, Mt. Washington, Kentucky

[https://www.preachingtoday.com/illustrations/2011/october/6102411.html].

November 17, 2019/by Office

A Stone’s Throw Away

Believe John Sunday Morning Stuart Johns Compassion, Forgiveness, Self-examination, Self-righteousness

Believe

A Stone’s Throw Away

(John 7:53-8:11)

INTRODUCTION

“The movie Les Misérables, based on the novel by Victor Hugo, opens with a vagabond curled up on a stone bench on a desolate French street corner. His bedraggled appearance makes him seem dangerous and causes the townspeople, from whom he sought food and shelter, to snub him. Finally, he slumps over in dejection—until a passerby points to a place where he can find refuge.

He goes to the door and knocks. The homeowner, the town's bishop, is startled by the late-night visitation but attentively listens to his story. His name is Jean Valjean, and he reveals that he is a recently released convict and marked by the authorities as dangerous. Even so, the bishop welcomes him into his home and serves him dinner.

Later, in the middle of the night, despite the bishop's kindness, Valjean double-crosses him. Valjean remembers the sparkling silver spoon he used to eat his soup at dinner and sneaks to the dining room to steal the bishop's valuable silverware. The clanking of metal arouses the bishop, who rises to inspect the clattering below. When they meet face to face, Valjean strikes the bishop, leaving him unconscious, and escapes with a heavy knapsack of silver.

The following morning the bishop's domestic servant laments the loss of her silver, but the bishop seems unperturbed, telling his domestic servant, ‘So we'll use wooden spoons. I don't want to hear anything more about it.’ Moments later, authorities appear at the bishop's manor with the stolen silver and Valjean handcuffed.

Looking deeply into the thief's eyes, the bishop says, ‘I'm very angry with you, Jean Valjean.’ Turning toward the authorities, he asks, ‘Didn't he tell you he was our guest?’

‘Oh, yes,’ replies the chief authority, ‘after we searched his knapsack and found all this silver. He claimed that you gave it to him.’

Stooping in shame, Valjean expects the bishop to indict him. A new prison sentence awaits him. But the bishop says, ‘Yes. Of course I gave him the silverware.’ Then, looking intently at Valjean he asks, ‘But why didn't you take the candlesticks? That was very foolish. They're worth at least 2,000 francs. Why did you leave them? Did you forget to take them?’

The bishop orders his domestic servant to hurry and fetch the candlesticks, while the authorities stand dumbfounded. They ask, ‘Are you saying he told us the truth?’

The bishop replies, ‘Of course. Thank you for bringing him back. I'm very relieved.’

The authorities immediately release Valjean, who is shocked by the turn of events, and the bishop thrusts the retrieved candlesticks into Valjean's knapsack.

Once the authorities leave, the bishop drops the heavy bag of silver at Valjean's feet. After peeling away Valjean's hood, which was cloaking his guilty face, the bishop sternly looks him in the eyes and orders Valjean, ‘Don't forget don't ever forget you've promised to become a new man.’

Valjean, trembling, makes the promise and with utter humility asks, ‘Why are you doing this?’

The bishop places his hands on Valjean's shoulders, as an act of blessing, and declares, ‘Jean Valjean, my brother, you no longer belong to evil. With this silver, I've bought your soul. I've ransomed you from fear and hatred. Now I give you back to God.’”

Les Misérables, rated PG-13, released 1998, based on the novel by Victor Hugo; written by Rafael Yglesias, directed by Bille August; submitted by Melissa Parks, Des Plaines, Illinois

[https://www.preachingtoday.com/illustrations/2001/april/12988.html].

The bishop could have condemned Jean Valjean instead of showing him compassion. He was probably a stone’s throw away from doing just that, but he understood the power of forgiveness.

BODY

ME
- Ford Bronco II
  - - My father bought a Ford Bronco II brand new, perhaps a year or two before we moved from PA to AL
    - He really liked the style of the vehicle
    - It was the vehicle I learned to drive in, because it was stick shift and not automatic
    - That was perhaps the greatest thing my father could have done for me in learning to drive – starting me off in a stick shift
    - When I worked for Chick-fil-A in AL we had to park in the upper parking lot of the mall
      - We were the last ones to leave the mall, because we had to clean the entire restaurant before we left
      - The security guards would lock the gate to the upper parking lot before we were finished working
      - So, they would send one person out to bring everyone’s vehicle down to the lower parking lot
      - One evening they asked a young lady to bring the vehicle down
      - I asked her if she knew how to drive stick shift
      - She promised me that she did
      - Long story short, she drove the Ford Bronco II forward into the cement base of a light post that I was parked in front of
    - I was scared to death to call my father, because I knew how much he liked that vehicle
    - His response to my phone call was one of forgiveness and compassion – he was more concerned that I was alright and that the young lady was fine
    - I’ll never forget the compassion I received when I expected condemnation

WE
- Compassion instead of condemnation
  - - Think of a time when you received compassion instead of the expected condemnation

The narrative that we’re going to look at today is not found in the earliest and most reliable manuscripts and other ancient witnesses. The writing style is more like Luke than John. Borchert calls it “a text looking for a context.” [Borchert, The New American Commentary, John 1-11, 369]. With that said it has been included in most modern translations with a side note or footnote. The principles found in this narrative are in line with Jesus’ teachings and heart. He will be challenging the religious leaders to examine themselves. They have “examined” the woman and have passed judgment on her without first examining themselves. Their focus was on trapping Jesus, so they could arrest Him. They thought that had the perfect scenario to trip Him up, but forget about their own sin. John wants us to understand, through this narrative, that . . .

BIG IDEA – Self-examination protects us from self-righteousness.

We’re just a stone’s throw away from doing the same thing the teachers of the law and Pharisees did with the woman caught in adultery – self-righteous condemnation.

Let’s pray

GOD (John 7:57-8:11)
- Accommodations (vv. 5:53-8:2)
  - - This was a regular pattern for Jesus
      - Luke helps us to understand the pattern
      - Luke 21:37, Each day Jesus was teaching at the temple, and each evening he went out to spend the night on the hill called the Mount of Olives, and all the people came early in the morning to hear him at the temple.
      - Because this narrative is “a text looking for a context,” we can’t say that this happened right after the previous narrative in John 7:32-52
      - It may have happened at a later time, so we have to take it as a separate unit of thought
    - Crowd
      - With that said, we are told that each person, in the crowd at the temple courts, went to his or her own home
      - These were residence of Jerusalem and, therefore, they were able to return to their own homes after listening to Jesus preach
      - Their accommodations were nearby, probably within the city limits
    - Jesus
      - Jesus did not have a home in Jerusalem, so we see that He went to the Mount of Olives
        Matthew and Luke both record Jesus’ teaching on the cost of following Him
        “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.” (Matthew 8:20; Luke 9:58)
      - Two thoughts about going to the Mount of Olives
        He certainly could have just slept on the Mount of Olives, perhaps under the cleft of a rock
        It’s possible that He may not have slept at all, but rather prayed
        He did that often as Luke records, But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed (Luke 5:16)
        He prayed all night before calling the apostles (Luke 6:12-18)
        He prayed at night in the Garden of Gethsemane prior to His arrest (Luke 22:39-46)
        It is also possible that He stayed with Lazarus, Mary, and Martha in Bethany
        He knew that He was always welcome in their home
        Bethany was only 1.5 miles east of Jerusalem on the south-eastern slope of the Mount of Olives [show map]
    - So, everyone had gone home for the evening, but they were up early, at dawn, and back at the temple courts for more of Jesus’ teaching
    - It wasn’t unusual for the teachers of the law and the Pharisees to be hanging around, since they were the “religious professionals,” charged with teaching the law to the crowds
    - On this day they were there to challenge Jesus and hopefully entrap Him
- Accusations (vv. 8:3-6a)
  - - Woman
      - There are a couple of key indicators in the text that help us know certain things about the woman
        She was probably betrothed (engaged) to be married
        Deuteronomy 22:22-24, If a man is found sleeping with another man’s wife, both the man who slept with her and the woman must die. You must purge the evil from Israel. If a man happens to meet in a town a virgin pledged to be married and he sleeps with her, you shall take both of them to the gate of that town and stone them to death – the girl because she was in a town and did not scream for help, and the man because he violated another man’s wife. You must purge the evil from among you.
        Notice that there is a distinction between a married woman and an engaged woman
        In both cases the man and the woman are to be put to death, but with the married woman the form of death is not prescribed
        With the man, and the woman pledged to be married, the form of death is stoning
        The Mishnah was the oral law in Jesus’ day and it differentiated between an engaged woman and a married woman, “the offence in the first instance [adultery with an engaged woman], is punishable by stoning (it is viewed as the more serious of the two), and the second by strangling.” [bracketed text added, Carson, The Pillar New Testament Commentary, The Gospel According to John, 335]
        So, it is probable that this woman was engaged to be married and had been unfaithful to her fiancé
        She was guilty
        She did not deny the charge
        She did not try to plead her innocence
        She was not valued by the religious leaders
        This was not unusual in the 1st Century, because women were not considered trustworthy to testify in a court of law
        It’s evident in the fact that the religious leaders didn’t bring the man to Jesus also
        She was simply a pawn in their scheme to trap Jesus
        They were not concerned about fairness at this point
        We already know this to be true about the religious leaders
        Last week we saw how they treated Nicodemus when he challenged them with their own law about “innocent until proven guilty” (John 7:51)
        They were so blinded by their desire to eliminate Jesus that they would compromise their own laws in order to arrest Him and put Him to death
        Fairness didn’t even have a seat at the table
        If the woman had no value to them, then it wouldn’t be difficult to see how this was another trap set by the religious leaders to accomplish their goal
        She was probably set up by the religious leaders
        My guess is that the act of adultery was the same in the 1st Century as it is today
        It’s not something that’s flaunted in public for all to see
        It takes place behind closed doors in a location where perhaps neither of the parties involved are known
        All attempts are made to conceal the sin of adultery, so that it will not be found out
        Two witnesses required
        The religious leaders are recommending death by stoning
        This would have required two witnesses to the act of adultery
        Deuteronomy 17:6, On the testimony of two or three witnesses a man shall be put to death, but no one shall be put to death on the testimony of only one witness.
        Deuteronomy 19:15, One witness is not enough to convict a man accused of any crime or offense he may have committed. A matter must be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.
        “Boice claims, ‘Under such circumstances it is almost self-evident that the rulers must have arranged the liaison somewhat as a trap, having stationed the witnesses in the room or at the keyhole. It is a situation quite similar to the use of private investigators and photographers in order to prove adultery today’ (Boice, II, p. 315).” [Gangel, Holman New Testament Commentary, John, 159]
      - This guilty, devalued, engaged woman is brought before Jesus in an attempt to trap Jesus
    - Jesus
      - The religious leaders tell Jesus that, the woman before Him, was caught in the act of adultery
      - I find it interesting that they quote only part of the Law that was given to Moses
        They forget to mention that Moses told them that both the man and woman were to be stoned
        Jesus is God, so He is the One who gave the Law to Moses
        This again shows that the religious leaders did not recognize or did not want to acknowledge that Jesus was the Messiah – that would destroy their theology of the Messiah and everything they had learned and taught to others about the Messiah
      - The religious leaders are working so hard to find grounds to arrest Jesus that they are allowing a huge hole to remain in their accusation against this woman
    - Notice that Jesus doesn’t address the gaping hole or the woman at this point, but rather begins writing on the ground
- Awareness (vv. 8:6b-11)
  - - Religious leaders
      - Writing on the ground
        There’s all kinds of speculation about what Jesus was writing on the ground
        We’re not going to address that this morning, because it just doesn’t enhance the narrative or help with the principles that are found in this passage
      - The religious leaders are persistent
        When someone thinks they have set the perfect trap they are eager to see it sprung
        The Pharisees were confident that regardless of Jesus’ answer to their question, He would alienate Himself from one side or the other – He was caught!
        If He said that the woman should be stoned, He would alienate Himself from sinners, which are the ones He came to save
        He was known for His “compassion for the broken and disreputable, His quickness to forgive and restore, and His announcement of the life-transforming power bound up with the new birth” [Carson, 335]
        His influence with sinners would be damaged, because they would not trust Him after this
        If He said that the woman should not be stoned, He would alienate Himself from the Jews and the religious leaders
        They would accuse Him of being light concerning the Law of Moses
        While He was able to “argue” His way out of breaking the Sabbath law, He would not be able to do the same with the law concerning those caught in adultery
        The law was clear!
        What the religious leaders didn’t know is that their “perfect plan” was about to unravel
      - Jesus stood up and challenged them to examine themselves
        We saw in Deuteronomy 17:6 that there had to be two or three witnesses before someone could be sentenced to death
        Deuteronomy 17:7, The hands of the witnesses must be the first in putting him to death, and then the hands of all the people. You must purge the evil from among you.
        It was a requirement that those who witnessed the evil/sin had to be present to throw the first stones
        If anyone of you is without sin (fault), let him be the first to throw a stone at her
        “They thought they could trip Jesus up due to his compassion. Jesus ignores their plan. He doesn’t address the law or this woman’s condition. He just tells them to go ahead and stone her, with one condition: as long as they were not guilty of breaking the law.” [Carter & Wredberg, Christ-Centered Exposition: Exalting Jesus in John, 184]
        They had already broken the law, by not bringing both the man and woman together to be sentenced and stoned
        If the witnesses were there and didn’t say anything to stop the couple from breaking the law, they would be guilty of corroborating with them
        Carson claims, “It means, rather, that they must not be guilty of this particular sin.” [Carson, 336]
        So Jesus could be saying to them, “you can throw the first stones if you’ve never committed adultery yourself.”
        It’s so easy for us to recognize the sin in others that we struggle with in our own lives (lying, gossip, hatred, mistrust, pornography, disunity, stealing, etc.)
        Michaels brings another important facet, of the heart, into the mix when he says, “. . . whoever takes on himself the role of witness-executioner must be confident before God that he is doing the right thing – hardly an unreasonable demand.” [Michaels, The New International Commentary on the New Testament, The Gospel of John, 498-99]
        We have to make sure that our accusations of others are done for the right reasons and with the right heart attitude
        Matthew and Luke record Jesus’ teaching about criticizing others
        Matthew 7:1-5, “Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.”
        Jesus is teaching the same principle in Matthew and Luke that He is teaching here in John
        PRINCIPLE #1 – God desires that His people examine themselves first.
        The teachers of the law and the Pharisees had to stop at this point and examine themselves
        Were they able to say that they were without fault when it came to adultery in their own lives
        Were they able to say that they had never broken any of the Law
        Were they able to say that they were bringing this woman forward for the right reasons
        Application
        I don’t know where you are today in your own life, but if you’re like me then you’ve struggled with judging others
        We’re all probably just a stone’s throw away from condemning someone
        We have to stop and do some self-examination so we can protect ourselves from self-righteousness
        It’s easy to point the finger at others and blame them for the same things we’re prone to do ourselves
        “So of all things, Christianity isn't supposed to be about gathering up the good people (shiny! happy! squeaky clean!) and excluding the bad people (frightening! alien! repulsive!) for the very simple reason that there aren't any good people … This goes flat contrary to the predominant image of [Christianity] existing in prissy, fastidious little enclaves, far from life's messier zones and inclined to get all ‘judgmental’ about them. Of course there are Christians like that … The religion certainly can slip into being a club or a cozy affinity group or a wall against the world. But it isn't supposed to be. What it's supposed to be is a league of the guilty.”
        
        Francis Spufford, Unapologetic (HarperOne, 2013), pp. 45-48
        
        [https://www.preachingtoday.com/illustrations/2014/january/2010614.html]
        Take a moment to think about an area of your life, right now, where you are condemning someone else
        Take time to pray and ask the Lord to reveal any self-righteousness that needs to be confessed to Him
        My Next Step Today Is To: Take time to do self-examination with the Lord, so I will be protected from self-righteousness.
        Jesus gave the religious leaders and the crowd time to process His challenge
        He gave them time to examine themselves
        He stooped down and began writing on the ground again
      - Self-examination proved to be profitable
        Those in the crowd, including the religious leaders, began to leave one at a time beginning with the older ones
        This showed the wisdom and maturity that came with age
        When confronted with their own sin and self-righteousness, they were able to see that they were at fault
        We’re not told if the religious leaders repented at this point, but knowing the rest of Jesus’ story, we can only imagine that this self-examination only lasted a short while and self-righteousness returned
        That doesn’t have to be the case with you
        You don’t have to live a stone’s throw away from condemnation
        You can repent and turn away from your self-righteous attitudes, actions, and feelings
        PRINCIPLE #2 – God is pleased when His people confess and repent of their sin and self-righteousness.
        My Next Step Today Is To: Confess and repent of my own self-righteousness.
        Repentance opens the way for compassion instead of condemnation
      - What we see next is compassion instead of condemnation with Jesus and the woman
    - Woman
      - Jesus was the only One in the crowd that could condemn the woman caught in adultery
        PRINCIPLE #3 – God is the only righteous judge.
        Since He was only one person, He could not, by law, condemn her to death (there had to be two or three witnesses)
        In His human state, He had not personally witnessed her act of adultery, therefore, He could not throw the first stone
      - The woman is aware that all of her accusers have left
      - Jesus asks her two questions
        “Woman, where are they?”
        “Has no one condemned you?”
      - Her reply is that no one has condemned her
      - Jesus tells her that He doesn’t condemn her either
        PRINCIPLE #4 – God is compassionate and forgiving.
        When we repent from our own self-righteousness we are able to be compassionate and forgiving
        Perhaps there is someone or a group of people that you need to forgive today
        If you’ve confessed and repented of your own self-righteousness, the next step is to show compassion for those you’ve been condemning, and forgive them
        My Next Step Today Is To: Forgive the person or people I have been condemning.
      - Jesus challenges her to leave her life of sin
        While Jesus is compassionate and forgiving towards the woman, He doesn’t let her off the hook
        He isn’t judging her at this point, but He is holding her accountable
        She was caught in the act of adultery, which is sin, so Jesus challenges her to leave that lifestyle and pursue a life of holiness and purity
        The ball is in her court – what will she do?

YOU
- Perhaps you’ve been struggling with self-righteousness and are a stone’s throw away from condemning someone and you need to confess and repent of that today
- Maybe you’re ready to leave your self-righteousness behind and move towards compassion and forgiveness

- That’s what the Lord has called every one of His people to do

CONCLUSION

During the closing song, I want to invite you to come forward and confess and repent of any self-righteousness you may be struggling with and ask the Lord to give you the power to forgive those you may be condemning or judging unfairly.

Alternative Conclusion

Gary M. Burge in his commentary explains that the woman caught in adultery “moves with shocking speed from death to life.”

“The sort of profile I have in mind is like that of Karla Faye Tucker, Karla Faye was twenty-three years old in June 1983, when she and her boyfriend (Daniel Garrett) broke into a Houston home in order to ‘case’ the house for a robbery. High on drugs for days, Tucker and Garrett ran into a couple in the home and murdered them with a hammer and a pickax. Both bodies had more than twenty stab wounds. Following their trial and conviction (which was widely reported around the United States), each received the death sentence. Garrett died in prison in 1993, but Tucker remained on death row for many more years.

Karla Faye Tucker’s story is more than one more senseless homicide because three months after her imprisonment, she became a Christian. A puppet ministry team came to her cell block, and since everyone else was going, she joined the crowed out of boredom. She stole a Bible at the meeting (not knowing they were free) and secreted it away that night in her cell. Later that night, she accepted Jesus into her heart. ‘When I did this,’ Karla wrote later, ‘the full and overwhelming weight and reality of what I had done hit me. I realized for the first time that night what I had done. I began crying that night for the first time in many years, and to this day, tears are a part of my life.’

The transformation of Karla’s life was tangible. Christ was alive in her. For over fourteen years she was a powerful Christian presence in the prison, in 1995 marrying the prison chaplain who worked with her (Dana Brown). Her life was gripped by the horror of what she had done. ‘I feel the pain of that night and I feel the pain that goes on every day with others because of what I did that night. I know the evil that was in me then, and I know that what took place that night was so horrible that only a monster could do it.’ Her life was hallmarked by the radiant joy of experiencing Jesus’ forgiveness.

In 1997 a date was set for Karla Faye’s execution: February 3, 1998. At once she was a media sensation. Was this conversion real? Would Texas execute its first woman since the Civil War? On January 14, 1998, Karla Faye was interviewed by Larry King on CNN. King tried to exploit the gruesome details of the 1983 murder (which Tucker resisted) and could not believe this was anything more than a ‘jailhouse conversion.’ Perplexed by her positive attitude weeks before her death, King asked, ‘Are you still up? You have to explain that to me a little more. It can’t just be God.’ Karla Faye responded simply, ‘Yes, it can. It’s called the joy of the Lord.’ Tough questions pressed Karla Faye to explain her feeling about the impending execution. She said she was calm and peaceful, and she hoped that the families of her victims would see her love and forgive her. Her only regret was that she could not continue a life of ministry within America’s prison systems.

On February 3, 1998, in Gatesville, Texas, Karla Faye Tucker was executed by lethal injection. Her final words spoke of love and forgiveness. Final appeals to the governor of Texas, George W. Bush, were fruitless. Appeals from Christians around the world fell on deaf ears.

Karla Faye’s conversion is poignant and helpful because the power of her Christian life was so directly tied to the power of her sin. She did not live a day without reflecting on her sin and on God’s forgiveness. She did not deny the crime any more than the woman caught in adultery denied her wrong-doing. In each case the possibilities for freedom from sin were the result, not of threat and law, but of forgiveness and love. Karla Faye was a changed person, and she demonstrated that change for fourteen years. The woman caught in adultery would be changed too because Christ set her free. Sadly, the parallel stops there. Jesus understood the power of grace and released the woman; the state of Texas did not, and Karla Faye was killed.”

[Burge, The NIV Application Commentary, John, 246-47].

November 10, 2019/by Office

Got Water?

Believe John Sunday Morning Stuart Johns Holy Spirit, Pride, Salvation

Believe

Got Water?

(John 7:37-52)

INTRODUCTION

“Cast Away is the story of Chuck Noland (Tom Hanks) a top engineer for FedEx. While flying over the South Pacific, a violent storm damages the company jet causing it to slam into the ocean. Noland survives the crash, but everyone else aboard is killed. Clinging to a yellow life raft, he rides out the raging storm and washes up on a small deserted island. For the next four years he struggles to survive before escaping the island and returning to civilization.

The day after Noland first sets foot on the island, the only concern greater than his fear is his desperate need for water. He is dangerously thirsty. After he discovers coconuts falling from the trees, Noland frantically attempts to open one. He repeatedly throws a coconut against a boulder, but the hard shell is unmarked. Using all his strength, he pounds the coconut with a rock but without success. He tries to drill a hole into one and then flies into a fury when he still cannot access the juice locked inside the fibrous seed.

Eventually he employs a sharp rock as an axe and is able to cut into and remove the outer husk. Left with the hard shell, he finally breaks it open only to watch as most of the milky juice spills out on the ground. Noland lifts up a fragment of the shell and drains the few remaining drops of liquid into his mouth.

How like our spiritual thirst, as we desperately seek to find satisfaction. Jesus promises to fulfill our longings and declares, ‘If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink.’”

Cast Away (Twentieth Century Fox, 2000); written by William Broyles Jr., directed by Robert Zemeckis; submitted by Bill White, Paramount, California

[https://www.preachingtoday.com/illustrations/2004/november/15631.html].

BODY

ME
- Tracking a deer
  - - Last year during deer season I was helping my buddy track a deer he shot
    - There was snow on the ground, so the blood trail was easy to see
    - We walked several miles through thick undergrowth and open wooded areas
    - I had to stop at one point, because I had my insulated outfit on, and shed a couple of layers
    - I had been sweating quite a bit and was really thirsty
    - Fortunately, I had a water bottle with me, but it didn’t last long
    - By the time I met up with my buddy back at the check-in station I was super thirsty
    - I had to wait until I got home to get more water

WE
- Really thirsty
  - - All of us can probably remember a time when we were really thirsty
    - Take a moment and think of that time
    - Do you remember how you felt at that point?
    - Do you remember what it was like to finally have your thirst quenched?

Jesus is still at the Feast of Tabernacles in Jerusalem. A couple of weeks ago we saw that He was teaching in the temple courts in the middle of the festival. It’s now the last day of the Feast and Jesus is again in the temple courts. There was a ceremony, that involved water, that took place every day of the Feast and the final day had the water ceremony repeated seven times. It’s probably right after this ceremony that Jesus speaks in a loud voice. He is giving the crowd an invitation to drink. They would have to make a decision about Jesus. We also have to make a decision about Jesus. We need to answer the BIG question today . . .

BIG IDEA – How will you respond to Jesus’ invitation to drink?

Let’s pray

GOD (John 7:37-52)
- Jesus’ Invitation (vv. 37-39)
  - - Background
      - Understanding the water ceremony that took place during the Feast of Tabernacles is vital to Jesus’ invitation to the crowd at this point
      - “Each day of the feast witnessed a water ceremony in which a procession of priests descended to the south border of the city to the Gihon Spring (which flowed into the Pool of Siloam). There a priest filled a golden pitcher as a choir chanted Isaiah 12:3: ‘With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation.’ The water was then carried back up the hill to the ‘Water Gate,’ followed by crowds carrying a lulab in the right hand (tree branches reminiscent of the desert booths) and an ethrog in the left hand (citrus branches reminiscent of the harvest). The crowd would shake these and sing Psalms 113-118. When the procession arrived at the temple, the priest would climb the altar steps and pour the water onto the altar while the crowd circled him and continued singing. On the seventh day of the festival, this procession took place seven times.” [Burge, The NIV Application Commentary, John, 226-27]
      - The Feast of Tabernacles took place in October, in an arid climate, that struggled with the threat of drought
        They would have been praying for rain during the Feast
        The water ceremony was a time to seek the face of God for His provision of rain
      - Symbolism from the Israelites wandering in the wilderness
        God had provided water for the Israelites on two occasions in the wilderness
        Exodus 17:5-6, The Lord answered Moses, “Walk on ahead of the people. Take with you some of the elders of Israel and take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go. I will stand there before you by the rock at Horeb. Strike the rock, and water will come out of it for the people to drink.” So Moses did this in the sight of the elders of Israel.
        Numbers 20:8-11, “Take the staff, and you and your brother Aaron gather the assembly together. Speak to that rock before their eyes and it will pour out its water. You will bring water out of the rock for the community so they and their livestock can drink.” So Moses took the staff from the Lord’s presence, just as he commanded him. He and Aaron gathered the assembly together in front of the rock and Moses said to them. “Listen, you rebels, must we bring you water out of this rock?” Then Moses raise his arm and struck the rock twice with his staff. Water gushed out, and the community and their livestock drank.
      - So, this water ceremony sets the stage and gives us the context behind Jesus’ invitation to the crowd
    - Jesus stood up and gave the invitation in a loud voice
      - Original text can be translated two ways
        What we have to understand about the original Greek text is that there was no punctuation to set sentences apart and all of the letters were capital letters with no spaces in between (imagine trying to read that text)
        Traditional interpretation
        “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.”
        Part of the difficulty is that scholars are not certain which passage of Scripture Jesus or John is referring to here concerning the flow of living water (if we knew what Scripture, it may help to clear things up)
        This interpretation makes it sound like the streams of living water flow out of the believer
        We have to include John’s explanation of what Jesus meant, which is found in verse 39
        “Streams of living water” is referring to the Holy Spirit that had not yet been given to believers
        Jesus had to experience His passion (death, burial, resurrection, and ascension) before the Holy Spirit would be poured out
        (Promise) Acts 1:7-8, He said to them: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
        (Fulfillment) Acts 2:1-4, When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.
        Woman at the well
        When Jesus spoke to the woman at the well, He said this, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life (John 4:13-14)
        “As he told the Samaritan woman, the ‘living water’ he offers is a never-failing, self-replenishing stream. The point is not, as is often thought, that the believer will necessarily become a channel of ‘living water’ to others, but that the believer’s own well will never run dry.” [Michaels, The New International Commentary on the New Testament, The Gospel of John, 465]
        As believers, the Holy Spirit lives within us
        He is a never-failing, self-replenishing stream
        “The participle ‘Whoever believes in me’ is best understood as referring not to someone being invited to ‘come and drink,’ but to a person who has already done so, never to thirst again.” [Michaels, 465]
        In Acts especially, we see the Apostles, praying for, and receiving the filling of the Holy Spirit for a specific task (Peter before the Sanhedrin, Acts 4:8; group that prayed with Peter and John, Acts 4:31)
        PRINCIPLE #1 – God promises to give the Holy Spirit to His people.
        Indwelling – when we repent of our sins and turn to Jesus Christ for salvation, we immediately receive the Holy Spirit that comes to live within us
        Ephesians 1:13-14, And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession – to the praise of his glory.
        Filling – we can pray to be filled with the Holy Spirit for a specific task (sharing the Gospel with someone; teaching Sunday school or a discipleship group; witnessing for Jesus publicly; etc.)
        My Next Step Today Is To: Ask the Lord to fill me with His Holy Spirit so I can boldly share the Gospel with __________.
        The second interpretation may have been a result of misunderstanding the fact that Jesus is the One who gives the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit is the One who works through the believer
        “Christological interpretation”
        “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me. And let him drink, who believes in me. As the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.”
        With this interpretation, it makes it clear that Jesus is the One where the streams of living water are flowing from
        Those who hold to this interpretation point to Jesus’ crucifixion and the blood and water that flowed out of His body when the soldier pierced His side with the spear
        The only difficulty with this interpretation is that John identifies the living water as the Holy Spirit
        The Holy Spirit was not flowing out of Jesus’ side at His crucifixion
      - Carson has a balanced approach to both interpretations, Both interpret the water as the Spirit, both insist that the blessing is something believers will enjoy only later (from the standpoint of Jesus’ ministry), both relate the promise of the Spirit to Jesus’ invitation at the Feast of Tabernacles, and both make Jesus the one who supplies the ‘drink’ and quenches thirst.” [Carson, The Pillar New Testament Commentary, The Gospel According to John, 323]
    - Invitation to come
      - The second half of verse 37 is Jesus’ invitation to the unbelievers in the crowd
      - Jesus takes the opportunity, presented with the water ceremony, to connect, belief in Him, as quenching thirst
      - He is also announcing that He is the replacement for the temple and the sacrificial system that God had established until the coming of the Messiah
      - The crowd was going to have to determine how they would respond to Jesus’ invitation, which we’ll see in verses 40-44
      - We have to answer the implied question that’s being asked
        How will you respond to Jesus’ invitation to drink?
        Sinner (Rom. 3:23)
        God’s justice (Rom. 6:23, separated from living water)
        God’s love (Rom. 5:8)
        God’s plan of redemption (1 Cor. 15:3-4)
        Our response (Read Rom. 10:9-10)
        My Next Step Today Is To: Confess with my mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in my heart that God raised Him from the dead.
    - What we see next in the narrative is the crowd’s response to the invitation to drink
- Wrestling with the Invitation (vv. 40-44)
  - - Different beliefs
      - The Prophet
        This is not the first time that the crowd thought someone was The Prophet
        John 1:19-21, Now this was John’s testimony when the Jews of Jerusalem sent priests and Levites to ask him who he was. He did not fail to confess, but confessed freely, “I am not the Christ.” They asked him, “Then who are you? Are you Elijah?” He said, “I am not.” “Are you the Prophet?” He answered, “No.”
        The crowd was not referring to a prophet, but to The Prophet that was promised in the Old Testament (read Deuteronomy 18:15-18)
        Individuals in the 1st Century believed that the Prophet and the Messiah were two separate persons, but Jesus fulfilled both the promise of the Prophet and the Messiah
      - The Christ (Messiah)
        Some of the crowd believed that Jesus was the Messiah
        They were on the right track at this point
        There was a third group that questioned whether Jesus was the Messiah based on where He was from
      - Not the Christ
        The crowd was not necessarily questioning Jesus’ lineage, but rather where they knew He was from
        The crowd knew that Jesus was from Nazareth in Galilee
        Jesus grew up in Nazareth, but that was not where He was born
        It’s interesting that those in the crowd, which included the Jewish religious leaders, were unaware of Jesus’ birthplace
        We know from Scripture that Jesus and His parents didn’t remain in Bethlehem for long, perhaps a year
        Mary and Joseph were warned to flee to Egypt, because Herod was going to have all the boys, two years old and younger, killed in Bethlehem and the surrounding region (Matthew 2:13-16)
        They never return to Bethlehem after leaving, but eventually settle in Nazareth in Galilee
        The crowd knew what Scripture said about the Messiah
        He would come from the line of David
        He would be born in David’s hometown of Bethlehem
        They just didn’t know Jesus’ birthplace
        They assumed He had been born in Nazareth
        Not having all the facts caused the people to be divided
      - PRINCIPLE #2 – Jesus’ life and message brings division.
        It definitely brought division to the crowd in the 1st Century and it still brings division today
        “You won’t come to Jesus if you don’t believe Him . . . if you have already decided you don’t want to believe him, then you’ll find an excuse not to.” [Carter & Wredberg, Christ-Centered Exposition: Exalting Jesus in John, 181]
        There are individuals that believe Jesus is not God
        While the 1st Century crowd thought that Jesus was The Prophet some people today believe that He was just a prophet
        They marginalize and discount Jesus’ deity
        They say He is not God, but rather a wise teacher, a rabbi, a good or moral person, another prophet
        But that’s not what Scripture teaches
        Jesus is the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29, 35)
        Jesus and God are One (John 10:30; Phil. 2:5-6)
        Believing that Jesus and God are One is vital to Christianity, it’s a foundational truth
        Jesus’ miraculous conception and birth was just a nice story, but it didn’t really happen
        Some people will say, “Mary didn’t become pregnant supernaturally by the Holy Spirit coming upon her. She got pregnant by Joseph or some other man!”
        They may also say, “There weren’t angels that announced His birth to shepherds in a field or a star that guided wise men to Him. That’s just a made up story for weak-minded people.”
        Their unbelief doesn’t change the facts and truths of God’s Word
        The division in our culture surrounding Jesus’ life and message brings persecution on those who hold to the truths of Scripture – Jesus promised that persecution would come
      - We see that with the desire of some of the crowd
    - Desire of some of the crowd
      - Some of them wanted to seize Jesus
      - They wanted Him to be arrested and imprisoned
      - But God continued to protect Jesus from being arrested prematurely
      - Their response, to Jesus’ invitation to drink from the living water, was rejection
      - How will you respond to Jesus’ invitation to drink?
    - What we see next in the response of the religious leaders was the same as some of the crowd – rejection
- Rejection of the Invitation (vv. 45-52)
  - - Spiritual pride
      - Temple guards
        Last week we saw that the chief priests and the Pharisees sent temple guards to arrest Jesus (John 7:23)
        The temple guards were not trained soldiers like the Roman soldiers
        They were Levites who were charged with protecting the temple courts and helping to keep the peace
        Perhaps more like a security guard than a police officer
        Their training was more religious than civil
        Now we see the temple guards returning empty-handed
        The religious leaders simply ask them why they didn’t accomplish their goal
        Their response is priceless!
        “Have you heard Him speak? No one has ever spoken like Him!”
        They were ready to drink from the living water that Jesus was offering
        You would think that would have hurt the religious leaders, especially the rabbis, since they were the ones who were teaching the people, but that wasn’t the case
        The religious leaders had already made up their minds about Jesus, and it didn’t matter how much evidence or truth they heard
        Jesus was not The Prophet
        Jesus was not the Messiah
        His message was not truth, but deception
        They knew better
        Religious leader’s pride unchecked
        The temple guards were not uneducated common folk – they were Levites who had religious training and knew the Law
        The religious leaders were comparing the temple guards to the mob (crowd)
        “Their contempt for the masses is well-established in Jewish sources where the peasantry, uneducated in the law, were not considered truly pious since through their ignorance, they could not possibly keep the law (m. P. Aboth 2:6; 1QS 10:19-21).” [Burge, 230]
        They were saying to the temple guards in essence, “Because you believe Jesus’ words, you are uneducated, stupid, and cursed.”
        The flip side is the “religious” people aren’t deceived
        The religious leaders are basically saying, “We’ve studied the scriptures all our lives and know what the law says and it doesn’t match what Jesus is saying.”
        “Jesus is trying to deceive us, but we know better.”
        The amazing thing is that the religious leaders use a common argument
        NONE of the rulers or the Pharisees believe in Him
        They believe they know what everyone in their group thinks
        They speak for everyone even though they don’t know for certain that everyone agrees with them
        Immediately, we find out that they don’t speak for everyone
      - Nicodemus
        Nicodemus was part of the rulers and Pharisees – their group
        He had gone to Jesus at night, now he is speaking up publicly when Jesus and His message is being marginalized and discounted
        Eventually he will join together with Joseph of Arimathea to prepare Jesus’ body for burial (John 19:39)
        Nicodemus is simply pleading for fairness based on their own law
        The religious leader’s response is a harsh one – are you from Galilee, too?
        They are questioning his heritage and upbringing
        Can anything good come from Nazareth in Galilee (Nathanael asked that question in John 1:46)
        That was probably the same feelings of the religious leaders at this point
        They challenge Nicodemus to do what they all were supposed to be doing – search the Scriptures!
        They were confident that a prophet does not come out of Galilee
        There were two Old Testament prophets they came from Galilee – Jonah and Nahum
        It is probable that they were referring to The Prophet, promised during the time of Moses
        This would be referring to the Messiah also, since they are one in the same
    - “How ironic that only the masses who are said to be scripturally illiterate have a clue regarding Jesus’ actual identity, while those who boast of their scriptural expertise are ignorant of who Jesus truly is.” [Köstenberger, Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament, John, 243]
      - Read 1 Corinthians 1:27-29
      - That’s what spiritual pride can do to any one of us
      - PRINCIPLE #3 – Spiritual pride blinds us to the truth.
        Thinking that we know what is best and what everyone is thinking can cause us to continue to pursue something that isn’t right or true
        That can happen in our families, at work, and in the church
        Perhaps we were taught something in the past and have continued to believe it is true today, even though it has been proven false
        Pastor Marc mentioned this last week – it’s called “confirmation bias”
        We can miss God’s will for our lives and the church if we allow spiritual pride to blind us to the truth
        We may be hesitant to follow God’s leading in our lives because He may be asking us to do something we don’t want to do – we may think we know better than Him
        We may not agree with the direction the church is going, because we think we know better
        We may think we know how things should be done at church
        We may think we know the best course of action
        We may not realize that our ways are not God’s ways and our thoughts are not God’s thoughts
        He may be stretching us and asking us to trust Him to move out of our comfort zone
        He may be asking us to pursue Him in deeper ways and not just a shallow, cultural belief in Him
        He may be calling us to greater ministry, to greater faith, but we don’t follow His leading because we know better
        Spiritual pride can blind us to the truth of what God wants to do in and through us and the church
        My Next Step Today Is To: Confess my spiritual pride to the Lord and trust Him and His plans for my life and the life of the church.

YOU
- Jesus has invited us to drink of the living water that He offers – how will you respond to His offer?
- Jesus promises to give the Holy Spirit to those who believe in Him – have you asked the Lord to fill you with His Holy Spirit for a specific task to further His kingdom?

- We can all struggle with spiritual pride and when we confess that to the Lord, He will do incredible things through us and Idaville Church

CONCLUSION

“Conversion is hardly safe. After all, it requires approaching the King of the Universe, face to face. In his book The Silver Chair, C.S. Lewis draws an analogy with the story of a young girl named Jill. She's in the land of Narnia, and she's thirsty. At once she sees a magnificent stream . . . and a fearsome lion (Aslan, who represents the Lord Jesus):

‘If I run away, it'll be after me in a moment,’ thought Jill. ‘And if I go on, I shall run straight into its mouth.’ Anyway, she couldn't have moved if she had tried, and she couldn't take her eyes off it. How long this lasted, she could not be sure; it seemed like hours. And the thirst became so bad that she almost felt she would not mind being eaten by the Lion if only she could be sure of getting a mouthful of water first. . ..

‘Are you not thirsty?’ said the Lion.

‘I'm dying of thirst,’ said Jill.

‘Then drink,’ said the Lion.

‘May I . . . could I . . . would you mind going away while I do?’ said Jill.

The Lion answered this only by a look and a very low growl. And as Jill gazed at its motionless bulk, she realized that she might as well have asked the whole mountain to move aside for her convenience. The delicious rippling noise of the stream was driving her nearly frantic.

‘Will you promise not to . . . do anything to me, if I do come?’ said Jill.

‘I make no promise,’ said the Lion.

Jill was so thirsty now that, without noticing it, she had come a step nearer.

‘Do you eat girls?’ she said.

‘I have swallowed up girls and boys, women and men, kings and emperors, cities and realms,’ said the Lion. It didn't say this as if it were boasting, nor as if it were sorry, nor as if it were angry. It just said it.

‘I daren't come and drink,’ said Jill.

‘Then you will die of thirst,’ said the Lion.

‘Oh dear!’ said Jill, coming another step nearer. ‘I suppose I must go and look for another stream then.’

‘There is no other stream,’ said the Lion. It never occurred to Jill to disbelieve the Lion . . . no one who had seen his stern face could do that . . . and her mind suddenly made itself up.

It was the worst thing she had ever had to do, but she went straight to the stream, knelt down, and began scooping up water in her hand. It was the coldest, most refreshing water she had ever tasted. You didn't need to drink much of it, for it quenched your thirst at once. Before she tasted it she had been intending to make a dash away from the Lion the moment she had finished. Now, she realized that this would be on the whole the most dangerous thing of all.”

C.S. Lewis, The Silver Chair (Collier Books), pp.16-18; Eugene A Maddox, Interlachen, Florida

[https://www.preachingtoday.com/illustrations/2000/october/12653.html].

November 3, 2019/by Office

Truth or Consequences

Believe John Sunday Morning Marc Webb Discipleship, Salvation, Truth, Unity

TRUTH OR CONSEQUENCES

Over the past 75 years there have been many television game shows involving telling the truth or trying to trick people by lying to them. To Tell the Truth was a television game show in which four celebrity panelists are presented with three contestants and must identify which is the "central character" whose unusual occupation or experience has been read out by the show's host. When the panelists question the contestants, the two "impostors" may lie and the "central character" must tell the truth.

Another was the game show, Truth or Consequences. On the show, contestants received roughly two seconds to answer a trivia question correctly before the buzzer sounded. It was usually an off-the-wall question that no one would be able to answer correctly and of course there wasn’t a lot of time given for the contestant to answer. If the contestant could not complete the "truth" portion (which they usually couldn’t), there would be "consequences," usually a zany and embarrassing stunt.

Over the years in the youth groups I have been a part of we have played the game “Two Truths and a Lie” in order to get to know each other better. The idea is for the group to identify which of three statements is the lie. I have found that it is difficult to distinguish between the truths and the lie because the lie is usually very believable.

I want to play a little game of true and false with you this morning. I am going to say some statements and I want you to tell me if you think that statement is true or false. The first one is one dog year is equivalent to seven human years. How many would say that is true? How many would say that is false? Next, drinking 8 eight ounce glasses of water a day will aid in good health? How many would say that is true? How many would say that is false? Next, Napoleon was short. How many would say that is true? How many would say that is false? Reducing salt intake will prevent heart attacks or strokes. How many would say that is true? How many would say that is false?

Just so you know, all of these statements are false. Most people think you just multiply by seven to get your dog’s age, but they’re wrong. It’s just a made-up number that’s been circulating since the 13th century. Also, it has never been shown that reducing your salt intake will prevent heart attacks or strokes and there’s good reason to believe that Napoleon was actually a bit taller than the average Frenchman of his day.

Here are some others: We only use ten percent of our brains. How many would say that is true? How many would say that is false? We lose most of our body heat through our heads. How many would say that is true? How many would say that is false? If you swallow chewing gum, it will stay in your system for seven years. How many would say that is true? How many would say that is false? Cracking your knuckles will give you arthritis. How many would say that is true? How many would say that is false?

If you answered “true” to any of these, you’re guilty of believing falsehoods. But don’t feel too bad. According to the British Medical Journal, even doctors endorse many of these so-called ‘facts,’ and they show up frequently in both the popular press as well as medical publications.

According to research whether we realize it or not, most of us harbor at least some false beliefs. Why do we so easily believe false things? Psychologists have shown that we all tend to make mental shortcuts and those shortcuts can explain a lot about how false notions take root. People routinely use mental shortcuts to understand what happens around them because they don't always have the time or energy to sit down and carefully examine all that happens to them. So, we tend to use quick and largely unconscious rules-of-thumb to determine what we should believe—and these shortcuts sometimes steer us in the wrong direction. Here are some of the shortcuts we use. The first is what they call the “availability heuristic.”

If I asked you, which job is more dangerous—working as a police officer or a fisherman, what would you say? If you guessed police officer, you’re wrong. According to figures from the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics, fishing workers are ten times more likely than police to be killed on the job. The reason most of us believe that police officers are more likely to die at work is because of the availability heuristic, a mental shortcut that can lead us to overestimate the frequency of an event when that event is more “available” or vivid in our memory. When a police officer is killed in the line of duty, it’s widely reported in the news and sticks in our memory, so we tend to believe it must be more common than deaths in other professions. Unless we’re careful, the vivid nature of the news stories in our memory can unconsciously bias our estimate of how often these events actually happen.

The second shortcut we take is “emotional reasoning.” Whether we like it or not, all of us can be powerfully swayed by our emotions. We'd like to think that our feelings are driven by logic and reason. Unfortunately, this relationship is often reversed. Sometimes we end up using our reasoning ability to justify or defend a conclusion that we’ve already drawn based on our emotions. This phenomenon, called emotional reasoning, can lead us astray without our ever knowing.

The third shortcut is “confirmation bias.” Once we have a belief, we tend to cling to it, even when it’s untrue. The confirmation bias is the tendency to seek out information that supports what we already believe. We do this in two important ways. First, we tend to surround ourselves with messages that confirm our pre-existing opinions. Second, we tend to ignore or discount messages that disprove our beliefs. This protects us from having to change our beliefs. When our ideas are true, this probably isn’t such a bad thing. Unfortunately, it also can keep us firmly believing things that are false.

Now, it has never hurt anyone to believe that we use only ten percent of our brain capacity and it doesn’t make a big difference if your dog is 70 or 60 years of age in human years. But there are things that if we don’t believe they are true could bring serious consequences. One that comes to mind is a hot stove. If we don’t believe that the stove is hot and we touch it, it will burn us.

But when it comes to spiritual things, not believing in the truth can bring even more serious consequences. Which brings us to our scripture this morning.

According to scholars, our story takes place probably during the month of October of AD 29. The people of Israel had come to the Temple in Jerusalem to celebrate the annual Feast of Tabernacles. But there was a different atmosphere at the feast that year - beneath the surface of the usual worship rituals and prayers led by the priests each day there was plenty of whispering, quiet discussions and arguments going on in the crowds. And they were all talking about the same person - Jesus of Nazareth. Some were excitedly telling others about His miracles they had witnessed. Others were expressing their doubts about Jesus. Many were curious to know His whereabouts because 3 days of the feast had already passed and He was nowhere to be seen. The Jewish leaders were also anxiously looking for Jesus, because they wanted to get rid of Him.

They wanted to get rid of him because He had spoken against them and had violated the Sabbath law. They had judged Him wrongly based on their own man-made rules and on His outward appearance and according to their unrighteous judgment Jesus was worthy of death. Now they were looking for an opportunity to have Him arrested and condemned.

But when Jesus finally made His presence known to the crowds on the 4th day of the feast these Jewish leaders seemed to have forgotten all that they had planned to do against Him. Why? Maybe it was because of the unusual power and authority with which He spoke and taught the people. It left the Jewish leaders spell-bound and wondering how He could teach the way He did. They were so amazed at this that none of them tried to stop Him or rebuke Him or remove Him. Or, as Pastor Stuart related to us last week, Jesus’ identity may have been veiled for a little while and that could have been why the religious leaders did not immediately take action.

We also see that the people were confused about who Jesus was because they saw how the religious leaders were reacting to him. They had preconceived ideas about what they thought was true about Jesus. They did not believe in Him even when he told them the truth about who he was. They were swayed by their emotions about Jesus and had been biased against him. The problem was that because of their unbelief Jesus said that when the time comes for him to leave they wouldn’t be able to find him and the consequence of their unbelief would be very serious. The same is true for us today. If we do not believe in who Jesus is there will be serious consequences for us as well. Our consequence will be eternal separation from God and that brings us to the big idea that John wants us to know this morning which is “We need to know the truth in order to see the truth.” We need to know Jesus and be in relationship with him now on the earth so that when we die we will see him in heaven and spend eternity with him there.

But before we dive into our scripture this morning, let’s pray:

Heavenly Father, we thank you for your Word and for its eternal truths that guide us day by day. We thank you most of all for your living Word, Jesus Christ, and the truth that he is your Son and he is the only way, the only truth and the only life. Teach us to have eyes to see and ears to hear your truth when this world tries to feed us its lies. Help our thoughts to be your thoughts, and our ways to be your ways. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Our scripture this morning is found in John chapter 7 verses 25-36 and the first point we are going to unpack is “truth.” God cares about truth. We know this because the word "truth" is found over a hundred times in the New Testament. The truth always matters to God, and it ought to matter to us. But we live in a day when a lot of people believe that truth doesn't matter. They actually believe there is no such thing as an objective or absolute truth meaning you can have your truth, and I can have mine. In October 2018, the Christian Institute of England reported on a new survey for the Coalition for Marriage. Among the 2,000 people asked, 32 percent supported self-definition of race. Nineteen percent thought it was okay for people to choose their age. Ten percent of those people also said it was okay for you to choose your own species! In other words: If they got up tomorrow and decided they wanted to be a horse, then that is what they would be. That and more are the kinds of things that happen when people reject the reality of truth, especially when they reject the greatest truth of all which is that Jesus is our Lord and Savior. We know that the truth of Jesus Christ matters! It matters that Jesus is sent from God and if we don’t believe in the one that God sent there will be serious consequences.

In verses 25-29, we are going to see people who are looking for the truth, they are questioning the truth and we are going to see Jesus telling them the truth. Follow along as I read verses 25-29. This is what God’s Word says: 25 At that point some of the people of Jerusalem began to ask, “Isn’t this the man they are trying to kill? 26 Here he is, speaking publicly, and they are not saying a word to him. Have the authorities really concluded that he is the Messiah? 27 But we know where this man is from; when the Messiah comes, no one will know where he is from.” 28 Then Jesus, still teaching in the temple courts, cried out, “Yes, you know me, and you know where I am from. I am not here on my own authority, but he who sent me is true. You do not know him, 29 but I know him because I am from him and he sent me.”

First, we see that it is “some of the people from Jerusalem” and not the multitude who are confused about the conflict between Jesus and the religious leaders. Many in the multitude who were from other places would not have known of the religious leaders’ plot to kill Jesus, but the people from Jerusalem are aware of it and talk about it amongst themselves.

They knew the dominating, ruthless, manipulating authority of the Jewish leaders in their society. They knew the Pharisees would not mess around or put up with anyone who upset the status quo. They knew the outcome of Jesus’ bold words should be His death.

Second, since the religious authorities controlled the merchandising area of the temple court where Jesus was teaching, the people reach the possible conclusion that maybe the rulers’ failure to arrest Jesus was because they recognized His claims to be the Messiah were true.

This leads to a discussion of His origins. In a culture without surnames, the place of origin was a means of personal identification. “Jesus son of Joseph” or “Jesus of Nazareth” or “Joseph of Arimathea” are typical identifiers. Once again the misunderstanding of the crowd is displayed by their statement. The crowd is examining Jesus on an earthly level and think that since they can trace his human origins, He is disqualified from messianic status.

They held to the erroneous popular belief that the Messiah would appear suddenly without indication of His origin based on some vague inferences from the Apocrypha. The rabbis taught that the Messiah would make Himself known suddenly at the temple and without warning according to their understanding of the prophet Malachi. This was probably based on Malachi 3:1. God is speaking and says, “Behold, I am going to send My messenger, and he will clear 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.” The thing was Jesus actually fulfilled that prophecy when He went into the temple and cleansed it at the beginning of His public ministry in John 2:13-16. There was something terribly wrong about the source the Jews placed their confidence in for information about the Messiah. That source was not the scriptures but the Jewish traditions regarding Him. There is no verse or passage of Scripture that teaches when the Messiah comes into the world no one would know where He is from or that He would appear mysteriously 'out of nowhere.’ This unbiblical view was apparently quite widespread among the Jews. Another popular belief was that the immediate ancestry of the Messiah would not be known. In fact, many of them believed that the Messiah Himself wouldn’t know who He was or where He was from. Since they knew that Jesus was the son of Joseph and Mary of Nazareth and he lived in a plain house in Galilee, then He could not be the Messiah. They concluded the Messiah could not come from a background like Jesus had. But those of this tradition were ignoring that God had already clearly predicted that the Messiah would arise from the tribe of Judah in Genesis 49:10. Listen to that: The scepter will not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until he to whom it belongs shall come and the obedience of the nations shall be his. God also revealed that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem in Micah 5:2. Listen as I read that verse: “But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times.” God also predicted the Messiah’s birth in Isaiah 7:14 and had revealed in the Scriptures and that he would be called a Nazarene in Mathew 2:23.

Jesus knew what all the conflicting voices in the crowd were saying and in verse 28, He interrupts His teaching and cries out to the crowd with a loud voice so that everyone could hear. There is more here than just speaking loud to be heard. “Loud voice” in Hebrew is used for the voice of God and Jesus answers them by making an astounding claim. There is irony in his statement as he says they know him and where he is from. In a sense that is true but in a far more important sense they do not. Here is our truth this morning: Jesus has come from God and knows God with an unparalleled intimacy. This was paramount to a divine claim but it broke with all of the precepts of Judaism. A Messiah might be powerfully sent by God, but Jesus was claiming to know God and to actually be the Son of God, who has the same authority as God because of His divine origins.

Just as in chapter 5, Jesus says again that the Jews’ inability to comprehend this reality is evidence that they don’t really know God. The thought they knew God, but how could they really have known God when they had not placed their confidence in the Scriptures that He had given them. Whatever real knowledge they had of God was merely superficial. If they had truly known God, they would not have failed to recognize Jesus as the Messiah and to believe in Him.

Then in verse 29 just as Jesus claimed his teaching came directly from the Father he also claims his mission comes directly from God. He says “I know Him, because I am from Him, and He sent Me.” The I’s are emphatic. Jesus’ claim is simple and straight forward. No one truly knows the Father but His Son with whom the Father shares His divinity and purpose.

With such clear information in the Scriptures about the Messiah, why did the Jews believe that His origins would be unknown? The reason is they had not placed their confidence in the Scriptures. They allowed their ideas of the Messiah to be determined by the imaginations of men. Their misplaced confidence was therefore the cause of their ignorance which in turn caused them to wrongfully reject Jesus as their Messiah.

Nothing has really changed. This still occurs today. People do not place their confidence in the Bible about who Jesus is but in man-made religions and who they say Jesus is. The Mormons believe that God and Jesus are not one and the same but are two distinct beings. Jehovah’s Witnesses believe that Jehovah created Jesus as the archangel Michael and that Jesus did raise spiritually from the dead but not physically. We don’t really need to wonder why people today don’t believe in Jesus as the only way to God when they are hearing so many other conflicting man-made views of who Jesus is. But Christians also struggle with the Bible and what it says. One example is whether there is a Hell or not. The argument is that God is love and so there is no Hell because he wouldn’t send those he loves to an eternal separation from himself. The truth is yes God is love but he is also holy and just and we have been given free choice to choose. We can choose Jesus as our Savior and spend eternity in Heaven with Him or we can reject Jesus as our Savior condemn ourselves to eternal separation from God in Hell. God’s love is not in question here, but what is, is our love for God and in being a fully committed disciple of Jesus. We need to read and know what the scripture says so we can have confidence in them and not be swayed by the world and other religions into believing the lies it tells about Jesus just like the Jews believed the lies about the Messiah in Jesus’ time. That brings us to our first next step on the back of your communication card. Maybe this next step is for you. My next step is to believe in and hunger for the truth of God’s Word as the final authority in every area of my life.

The second point we are going to unpack this morning is “division.” In verses 30-32 we will see that when Jesus speaks the truth there is division amongst the people. Follow along as I read verses 30-32. This is what God’s Word says, 30 At this they tried to seize him, but no one laid a hand on him, because his hour had not yet come. 31 Still, many in the crowd believed in him. They said, “When the Messiah comes, will he perform more signs than this man?” 32 The Pharisees heard the crowd whispering such things about him. Then the chief priests and the Pharisees sent temple guards to arrest him.

In verse 30, we see that Jesus’ claim that he was the Messiah causes division among the people. It says some in the crowd try to seize him for claiming to be the Messiah. These words enraged those from Jerusalem. If Jesus was not the Messiah, which is what those from Jerusalem had just concluded, then the words of Jesus were blasphemy against God rather than the truth. They wanted to immediately arrest Him.

But their efforts are frustrated. It says no one could lay a hand on him because his “hour” had not yet come. This word “hour” is used as a marker of time but means much more than just chronological time. Jesus was talking about the hour that he would go to the cross. John spoke of this special hour 8 times in his Gospel. Jesus’ first reference to his “hour” was to His mother in John 2:4, when he said, "'Mine hour is not yet come” and the last was to His Father in John 17:1, when he said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son so that the Son may glorify you.” Everything Jesus did, had to do with this hour. All of Jesus’ ministry pointed to this hour. But God’s plan and timing was perfect and only when the appointed time had come for Jesus to be taken to the cross would he be given over to the authorities and not a moment before.

In verse 31, we see that many in the crowd believed in Him. Their reason for believing in Jesus was not a profound one. They could not conceive that when the Messiah came He would do more signs than Jesus.

The truth about Jesus caused division among the people and this division caused the Pharisees to finally take action against Jesus. They heard the favorable things the crowd was saying about Jesus and were further enraged. Their dominating opinion did not permit the people to speak favorably in public about him. The religious leadership in Jerusalem was vehemently opposed to Jesus and willing to employ any resources at its disposal to get rid of Him. So they seek help from the High Priest, who was a Sadducee. Normally, these groups hated each other and had even fought wars against each other, but now they were united against a common foe and they sent the Temple police to arrest Jesus.

The truths in the Bible and the truth about Jesus brings division between Christians and the world today. We can start with Creation. The Bible says that God created the world in 7 days but the world discounts a creator and says the earth was created by a Big Bang or by chance. Next, we see that the Bible says marriage is to be between a man and a woman but the world says that a man can be married to another man and a woman can be married to another woman and it’s ok. The argument is that doesn’t God just want us all to be happy? In John 14:6, Jesus says, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” But the world tells us that there are many ways to get to God. You can believe in any religion you want and you will still go to Heaven. The truth is that there are many gods but only one true God and the only way to him is by believing in his son Jesus Christ and what he came to earth to do.

But we also see division in the church when we take our eyes off Jesus and the Great Commission and look to ourselves. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is the most important truth that we can share with those in our community who do not know Jesus. We must be unified as a body of believers if we are ever going to reach our community for him. If fact I truly believe that we must be unified as a body of believers if we even want Jesus to entrust us with reaching our community for him. Which brings us to the second next step on the back of your communication card. Maybe this one is for you. My next step is to be in unity with this body of believers so that God will entrust us to reach our community for him.

The final point we are going to unpack this morning is “consequences.” In verses 33-36 we will see that not believing in Jesus as the way the truth and the life will have eternal consequences.

This is what God’s Word says, 33 Jesus said, “I am with you for only a short time, and then I am going to the one who sent me. 34 You will look for me, but you will not find me; and where I am, you cannot come.” 35 The Jews said to one another, “Where does this man intend to go that we cannot find him? Will he go where our people live scattered among the Greeks, and teach the Greeks? 36 What did he mean when he said, ‘You will look for me, but you will not find me,’ and ‘Where I am, you cannot come’?”

In verse 33, Jesus knowing that His time on earth was drawing to a close spoke of His coming death, resurrection, and ascension into heaven. In verse 34, he warns the people that eternal separation from God is the consequence for those who reject Jesus.

They do not understand his statement because they continued to think in earthly terms about Jesus and not in spiritual ones. Their responses in verses 35-36 shows that they think Jesus is talking about some physical place on earth such as another country. They seem to be mocking Jesus when they speculate that “this man” (a demeaning way of referring to Jesus) may leave Jerusalem and go among the Greeks. The only place these Jews would not go was among the Greeks or the Gentiles, so they speculate that Jesus is simply leaving Israel to go and teach the Jews who lived outside of Israel. The Jews failed to grasp Jesus’ meaning again.

They completely missed His statement that He was returning to “Him who sent Me.” Jesus made four such references in this dialogue and had already identified the “Him” as God. Because they missed that, they did not understand that they would not be able to find Jesus in the future because He was returning to God. They also missed the rebuke that they would not be able to go to heaven where Jesus would be.

Even more tragic was if they had wanted to know the truth about Jesus, He was still present with them. There was still a hope that the Jews could “go with him.” The hope is found in the words of Jesus in verse 33, 'Yet a little while am I with you.' This means that the door had not been completely shut yet. The day of grace was not yet over for them. Jesus was lovingly extending His grace to them to come out of their ignorance and into the saving knowledge of their Messiah. But they remained arrogant and debated it amongst themselves instead.

Up to this point, Jesus has been at work in the world, searching for those who would believe in him. But, once He departed, God’s fullest revelation would be withdrawn. They would search for deliverance and salvation, trying to find what they have tragically opposed and missed. Jesus’ ministry demanded an allegiance to Him by believing in what He said about himself. Many were hanging on to their own understanding or the understanding of the religious leaders instead of being willing to trust the convicting, teaching, and leading of the Holy Spirit of God.

We too must make up our mind about Jesus. If we do not chose to follow Him and His life challenging teachings, then where He goes we will not be able to go either. That may suit us well on this earth but it will not suit us when it is time to go into eternity. Your eternal destiny depends on believing in Jesus while you still have the opportunity. Which reminds us of our big idea, “We need to know the truth in order to see the truth.”

Which brings us to the third next step on the back of your communication card. Maybe this next step is for you. My next step is to turn my life over to Jesus and believe in him as my Lord and Savior. If you have taken that next step this morning for the first time please put your name on the front so Pastor Stuart and I can contact you about your decision to follow Jesus.

Now maybe you have already accepted Jesus as your Lord and Savior but you want to rededicate your life to following him and being a totally committed disciple of his. If so, the last next step is for you. My next step is to rededicate my life to following Jesus and become a totally committed disciple of His.

I want to conclude with a story. A successful young lawyer in Hungary during the 1950s was a strong believer in freedom for his country. When the uprising failed, he was forced to flee the country. He arrived in the U.S. with no money, no job, and no friends. He was, however, well-educated; he spoke and wrote several languages, including English. For several months he tried to get a job in a law office, but because of his lack of familiarity with American law, he received only polite refusals.

Finally, it occurred to him that with his knowledge of language he might be able to get a job with an import-export company. He selected one such company and wrote a letter to the owner. Two weeks later he received an answer but was hardly prepared for the vindictiveness of the man’s reply. Among other things, it said that even if they did need someone, they wouldn’t hire him because he couldn’t even write good English.

Crushed, this young lawyer’s hurt quickly turned to anger. What right did this rude, arrogant man have to tell him that he couldn’t write the language! The man was obviously crude and uneducated — his letter was chock-full of grammatical errors! So he sat down and, in the white heat of anger, wrote a scathing reply, calculated to rip the man to shreds. When he’d finished, however, as he was reading it over, his anger began to drain away and he remembered the Bible verse, “A soft answer turns away wrath.”

No, he wouldn’t mail the letter. Maybe the man was right. English was not his native tongue. Maybe he did need to further study it. Possibly this man had done him a favor by making him realize he did need to work harder on perfecting his English. He tore up the letter and wrote another. This time he apologized for the previous letter, explained his situation, and thanked the man for pointing out his need for further study.

Two days later he received a phone call inviting him to New York for an interview. A week later he went to work for them as a correspondent. Later, he became vice president and executive officer of the company, destined to succeed the man he had hated and sought revenge against for a fleeting moment — and then resisted.

Life is filled with choices, isn’t it? Most of those choices have a reason and a motive behind them. Some of our choices can have long-lasting effects, as that illustration pointed out. The only choice in this life that will change the direction of our lives for eternity is the personal choice to believe in Jesus Christ as one’s Lord and Savior and follow Him. In verse 28, after describing His relationship to His heavenly Father, He looked around at His listeners and said: “you do not know him.” Do you know God? It is not possible to know God without having a personal and intimate relationship with Him. It’s not possible without knowing, following and obeying the One whom He has sent. This is an opportunity to reconsider what you believe about Jesus Christ. Please don’t turn it down. Don’t respond to the truths of God’s Word with anger, hatred, or excuses. Resist that urge. Tear up those thoughts and feelings and start over again. Let God give you a fresh perspective and a new life as a result of believing in Jesus Christ and following Him. He will give you peace, joy, and purpose, with no regrets.

As the ushers prepare to collect the communication cards and the praise team comes forward to lead us in our final song let’s pray:

God, I thank you for your Word. I thank you for the truth of your Word and truth of your son, Jesus. I pray that as we leave this time together and go out into the world that we would be truth amongst the lies and that we would be light amongst the darkness. I pray that we would strive to be unified behind the Great Commission that you gave us to Pursue, Grow and Multiply Disciples. Help us to strive for holiness in our daily lives and bring revival to our hearts and minds. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

October 27, 2019/by Office

Doing God’s Will

Believe John Sunday Morning Stuart Johns God's Will, Gospel, Salvation

Believe

Doing God’s Will

(John 7:14-24)

INTRODUCTION

“In his article titled ‘Unreasonable Doubt,’ Jim Spiegel quotes two contemporary philosophers who have resisted belief in God for personal and not just intellectual reasons. Thomas Nagel, an atheist who authored a popular introduction to philosophy titled What Does It All Mean? wrote: ‘I want atheism to be true … It isn't just that I don't believe in God, and, naturally, hope that I'm right about my belief. It's that I hope there is no God! I don't want there to be a God; I don't want the universe to be like that.’

The 20th-century ethics philosopher Mortimer Adler (who was baptized quietly at age 81) confessed to rejecting religious commitment for most of his life because it ‘would require a radical change in my way of life, a basic alteration in the direction of my day-to-day choices as well as in the ultimate objectives to be sought or hoped for …. The simple truth of the matter is that I did not wish to live up to being a genuinely religious person.’”

Jim Spiegel, "Unreasonable Doubt," Christianity Today (2-10-11)

[https://www.preachingtoday.com/illustrations/2011/june/7060611.html].

BODY

ME
- Becoming less
  - - At Creation this summer, God answered a prayer I had prayed about knowing His will for me as it pertained to the church
    - He used John 3:27, 30, To this John replied, “A man can receive only what is given him from heaven . . . He must become greater; I must become less.”
    - God confirmed His message to me through two artists that performed at Creation (they basically shared the same thing about stepping back and trusting God)
    - I’ve been continuing to trust God as I become less, so Jesus can become greater, in the ministry God has given me here at Idaville Church
    - Knowing God’s will has required that I obey His Word

WE
- How many of us would say that we want to know God’s will?
  - - I believe all of us want to know God’s will for our lives
    - We also want to know God’s will for the company we work for
    - We want to know God’s will for our future spouse
    - Students want to know God’s will for their career
    - Church members want to know God’s will for the church

As we’ll see today, the Jews were amazed at Jesus’ teaching in the temple courts, even though He had not been trained in any of the rabbinical schools in Jerusalem. Jesus’ teaching came directly from God. Jesus challenged the crowd to prove His teaching by doing the will of God. John wants us to understand that . . .

BIG IDEA – Knowing God’s will, requires obeying God’s Word.

Let’s pray

GOD (John 7:14-24)
- Jesus’ teaching (vv. 14-18)
  - - Background
      - We know that Jesus went up to Jerusalem for the Feast of Tabernacles after His brother’s left
      - We know that He did it privately instead of publicly, because it was not yet His time to be revealed
      - It can be assumed that He went up in time for the beginning of the Feast, but we are not told that
      - The next statement about Jesus’ location is that He is teaching at the temple courts in Jerusalem
      - We also know that it was halfway through the Feast
        It could certainly mean four days into the Feast
        It could also simply mean that it was not the first or last day of the Feast
        Again, we are not told a specific day during the Feast
      - Privately, instead of publicly
        Teaching in the temple courts seems to be a pretty public thing to do, if someone is trying to remain private
        There are two lines of thought about why Jesus would be teaching publicly in the temple courts
        Premature “triumphal entry”
        If Jesus would have joined His brothers and the rest of the crowd in going up to Jerusalem, it is not unlikely that they could have tried to force Him to reveal Himself prematurely [Carson, The Pillar New Testament Commentary, The Gospel According to John, 311]
        John 6:14-15, After the people saw the miraculous sign that Jesus did, they began to say, “Surely this is the Prophet who is to come into the world.” Jesus, knowing that they intended to come and make him king by force, withdrew again to a mountain by himself.
        This is certainly possible, that Jesus knew if He taught in the temple courts that He would be safe from the Jews who were trying to kill Him, but I think this second line of thinking has some good merit
        Identity concealed
        As Jesus begins to teach, the Jews and the crowd do not recognize Him
        Jesus conceals His identity with others after His resurrection, but eventually reveals Himself to them
        Mary Magdalene thought He was the gardener until Jesus spoke her name (John 20:15-16)
        The two disciples on the road to Emmaus thought He was just another traveler until He broke bread and gave thanks, then they saw that it was Jesus (Luke 24:31, 35)
        It seems that Jesus could have been concealing His identity until He shared about the miracle of healing a lame man on the Sabbath (John 7:21-23)
        Read John 7:25-26, 28a
        The crowd seems to know that the Jews were trying to kill Jesus, but as we’ll see in verse 20 they didn’t know that the Jews were trying to kill this person who was teaching with authority
      - The Jews reaction to Jesus’ teaching in the temple courts seems to support the idea that Jesus’ identity is somehow concealed from them at this point
    - The Jews are amazed
      - The Jews are asking each other the question, “How did this man get such learning without having studied?”
        It is believed that there were at least 30 seminaries or perhaps rabbinical schools around Jerusalem during the time of Jesus’ ministry [Courson, Jon Courson’s Application Commentary, New Testament, 499]
        None of the Jews had seen Jesus studying at any of those seminaries or schools
        A rabbi would have multiple disciples that he would impart his wisdom and knowledge to
        When these disciples completed their many years of study under a rabbi, they would be ordained and become a rabbi themselves
        No one recognized Jesus as a disciple of one of the famous rabbis
        “On whose shoulders, then, is he standing? What traditions are his? Which rabbi has authorized his teaching office? What is the source of his reshuth (authority)?” [Burge, The NIV Application Commentary, John, 223]
        Mark 1:22, The people were amazed at his teaching, because he taught them as one who had authority, not as the teachers of the law.
        “It has often been said that Jesus taught with authority, while the scribes and Pharisees taught from authorities, quoting all the famous rabbis.” [Wiersbe, The Bible Exposition Commentary, New Testament Volume 1, 316]
      - Jesus was able to teach with such authority, because He is God, but He didn’t use that as His defense
    - Teaching from God
      - He knew the culture of the day and who His audience was – devout Jews
        They had already struggled with His statement in Capernaum that He had come down from heaven, meaning from God
        So, He chose to tell them that His teaching was not His own, but came from the One who sent Him
        The Jews would have connected with this concept, especially since their own scriptures had stories of how God used human messengers to deliver His message to His people (the Prophets) [Carter & Wredberg, Christ-Centered Exposition: Exalting Jesus in John, 174]
      - Proof of Jesus’ teaching
        Jesus tells the Jews that if they want to verify His teachings, to make sure they are from God, then they need to do God’s will
        PRINCIPLE #1 – God’s desire is that His people do His will.
        What does it mean to do God’s will?
        We know from John 6:28-29, that to do the work God requires is to believe in Jesus
        The same would be true for doing the will of God – it starts with believing in Jesus
        It’s a faith commitment that calls us to action
        Read Matthew 28:18-20
        “Our knowledge of God's will is not something over which we ourselves dispose, but it depends solely upon the grace of God, and this grace is, and requires to be, new every morning. That is why this proving or examining of the will of God is so serious a matter. The voice of the heart is not to be confused with the will of God, nor is any kind of inspiration or any general principal, for the will of God discloses itself ever anew only to him who proves it ever anew.
        
        Dietrich Bonhoeffer in The Martyred Christian. Christianity Today, Vol. 34, no. 5.
        
        [https://www.preachingtoday.com/illustrations/1998/may/3782.html]
        It’s also a faith commitment that calls us to obedience and submission
        Jesus is basically saying to the Jews, “If you don’t recognize it, it’s because your hearts are unwilling to submit to God.” [Carter & Wredberg, 174]
        “When we rebel against God’s will, our ability to understand and comprehend spiritual truth is compromised . . . unbelief causes misunderstanding.” [Carter & Wredberg, 174]
        “Never confuse the will of the majority with the will of God.” [Charles Colson, Leadership, Vol. 4, no.]
        The Israelites followed the will of the majority the first time they approached the Promised Land instead of the will of God and they spent 40 years wondering in the desert
        “Leadership is inherently difficult because it requires a leader to take people where they don’t naturally want to go. So you have a choice as a leader. You can focus on leading people, or focus on being liked.” [Pastor Carey Nieuwhof cited by Daniel Henderson, Old Paths New Power, 74]
        Application
        We know what God’s desire is for us, as His people, to do His will, which means believing in Jesus, making disciples for Him, and submitting to Him and His plans
        Have you believed in Jesus for salvation? (if not, that’s the first step – mark your Communication Card this morning)
        Are you making disciples for Jesus Christ? (if not, what are you waiting for – get off the bench and get in the game)
        Are you submitting to God’s plan for your life, your future, your churches future, etc.? (if not, what changes do you need to make to submit to His plan?)
        My Next Step Today Is To: Do God’s will by believing in Jesus, making disciples, and submitting to His plans.
        When we do God’s will, then we will know His Word and grow in His Word
        Knowing God’s will, requires obeying God’s Word.
        “When men are wholly, completely consecrated to the will of God and want to do that above everything else, then they find out that Christ’s teaching is divine, that it is the teaching of God.” [G. Campbell Morgan cited by Wiersbe, 316]
      - Purpose in our speaking
        The one who speaks on his own
        This person is only concerned with gaining honor for himself
        I’m always cautious when a pastor is Scripture light and personal story heavy
        When a pastor starts talking more about themselves in a sermon and less about God, we should be concerned
        If the message points to the pastor and not to God and His will, then we should be concerned
        The same can be true of anyone who is teaching God’s Word
        The one who works for the honor of the one who sent him
        PRINCIPLE #2 – Our teaching of God’s Word should point to Him.
        This is what Jesus is saying to the Jews about His teaching
        He is not teaching His own material
        He is not the originator of His teachings
        He only teaches what the Father has told Him to teach
        He is faithfully fulfilling His role as God’s messenger
        That’s always been my goal as a preacher and teacher, it’s to point people to Jesus through the messages that God gives me as His vessel
        Man of truth, nothing false
        Jesus was a man of truth
        Those who accused Him, during His trial, had to make up false statements about Him
        Pilot couldn’t find anything illegal or false in Him
        That’s why Jesus was able to take our punishment on Himself when He hung on the cross – He was perfect, without sin
        We should all strive to be men and women of truth
        This happens when we choose to do God’s will
        Knowing God’s will, requires obeying God’s Word.
        Jesus’ purpose in teaching at the temple courts was to point people to God – to be a faithful messenger of God
    - Jesus begins to get to the center of what was happening in the hearts of the Jews
- Jesus’ questions (vv. 19-20)
  - - Q1 – Has not Moses given you the law?
      - Jesus is continuing to define what God’s will is and to show the Jews that they are not obeying God’s will as outlined in the law
        The Jews prided themselves in the fact that they were God’s chosen people
        They prided themselves in having received the Ten Commandments at Mt. Sinai
        They prided themselves in knowing the law and the Torah
      - Yet, they are not obeying the law, and Jesus points this out with His second question
    - Q2 – Why are you trying to kill me?
      - Jesus takes them right back to their own standard, the Ten Commandments
      - This was the standard that they took pride in as God’s chosen people
      - And, yet, they were not following the law
        Exodus 20:13, “You shall not murder.”
        James 2:10, For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it.
      - Application
        We all know the Ten Commandments and I’m pretty sure none of us has murdered anyone
        Yet, Jesus and John go beyond the physical act of taking someone’s life to the attitude of our heart
        They consider anger towards a brother or sister the same as murder
        Matthew 5:21-22a, “You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘Do not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.’ But I tell that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment.”
        1 John 3:15, Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life in him.
        1 John 4:20-21, If anyone says, “I love God,” yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother.
        How are we doing with anger or hate towards a brother or sister?
        My Next Step Today Is To: Confess my anger or hatred towards a brother or sister to God and to the individual(s).
        That’s where healing begins
        That’s where love and unity start
        God knows the attitude of our hearts
        Obedience to the law was never designed to save us from our sins
        The law was designed to show us our sin and a need for a Savior
        PRINCIPLE #3 – God’s law was given to point us to Jesus.
        Galatians 3:24, So the law was put in charge to lead us to Christ that we might be justified by faith.
        Romans 10:4, Christ is the end of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes.
        God knows our heart and whether or not we are living with unconfessed anger and hatred toward a brother or sister
      - Jesus knew the attitudes and thoughts of the Jews even when the crowd didn’t and we understand that from their response
    - Crowds response
      - “You are demon-possessed”
        They did not mean that Jesus was actually possessed by a demon
        It could be translated, “You are crazy!”
        It has the idea of the crowd saying to Jesus, “You’re paranoid!”
        The crowd was obviously not trying to kill Him
        They don’t even know who He is at this point (that’s coming in verses 25-27)
      - “Who is trying to kill you?”
        It’s hard to keep a secret sometimes, isn’t it?
        On Wednesday evening after the service, one of the children let it slip that a surprise was coming
        The teacher’s eyes got big and they looked at the child, and put their pointer finger to their lips (shhh, it’s a secret)
        Just imagine the Jews surprise when Jesus announces their secret to the whole crowd
        I can only imagine that their eyes got large and they began looking back-and-forth at each other
        I can also imagine that when they met privately after this event, that they were questioning and accusing each other of sharing their plot (“you did it didn’t you, I knew you couldn’t keep a secret!”)
    - Jesus begins to reveal Himself to the Jews and the crowd as He defends Himself
- Jesus’ defense (vv. 21-23)
  - - Sabbath law
      - The Sabbath law is part of the Ten Commandments
      - Exodus 20:8-11, “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your animals, nor the alien within your gates. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.
      - So the Jews were angry with Jesus because He healed a lame man on the Sabbath and told him to take up his mat and carry it to his house
        In defining what it meant to not do any work on the Sabbath, the Jews had added their interpretation to the law
        If someone carried anything from a public place to a private place on the Sabbath, that was considered work, and was prohibited
        We find this event in John 5:1-18 (we’ve already studied that, but Jesus is referencing that healing here)
      - Jesus now points out what the Jews do when two commands conflict with each other
      - “Rabbinic casuistic arguments set laws side by side and determined the priority of one law over another when in any life situations two or more laws seemed to be in conflict.” [Borchert, The New American Commentary, John 1-11, 285]
    - Circumcision
      - The Jews said that Moses gave them circumcision, but it actually happened all the way back with Abraham
        God commanded Abraham to begin the practice of circumcision for all male children born into or acquired by his family (Genesis 17:1-27)
        It was a covenantal act between God and Abraham
        Circumcision was to be done when the boy was eight days’ old
        The Lord told Moses the same thing, On the eighth day the boy is to be circumcised (Leviticus 12:3)
      - When a male child was born, and the eighth day fell on the Sabbath, the Jews would “break” the Sabbath law in order to fulfill the circumcision covenant
      - Jesus used a principle known in Judaism as “light to heavy” or “lesser to greater” in order to defend His action of healing of the Sabbath [Michaels, The New International Commentary on the New Testament, The Gospel of John, 445]
        Jesus considered circumcision as the “perfecting” of only one part of the body
        He considered healing as the “perfecting” of the whole body
      - He considered circumcision the lesser/light and healing the greater/heavy
    - Healing
      - So, Jesus uses this Judaic principle that would have been familiar to the Jews to defend healing the man on the Sabbath
      - He also used it to defend against their desire and plot to kill Him for “breaking” the Sabbath law
      - Jesus did not see Himself as breaking the Sabbath law, but as fulfilling the law of God
    - That brought Him to His final exhortation
- Jesus’ exhortation (v. 24)
  - - Stop judging by mere appearances
      - The Jews were judging Jesus “according to the flesh” [Michaels, 448]
      - They didn’t like what Jesus was teaching
      - They probably didn’t like that He was gaining a following, which took disciples away from them
      - They were judging Jesus based on their feelings about Him instead of the truths of God’s Word
      - They may have claimed that they wanted to know God’s will, but they refused to obey God’s Word
      - Knowing God’s will, requires obeying God’s Word.
    - Make a right judgment
      - Had they been obeying God’s Word, they would have been able to make a right judgment about who Jesus was
      - That is what Jesus is challenging them to do now – obey God’s Word!

YOU
- Are you doing God’s will by believing in Jesus, making disciples, and submitting to His plans?
- Do you need to confess your anger or hatred towards a brother or sister, to God and to the individual(s)?

- When we do these two things, we’ll see love and unity abound at Idaville Church
- We’ll be revitalized as a body of believers, focusing on a common goal, and seeing the kingdom of God increase

CONCLUSION

We can get caught up in self-righteousness like Thomas Nagel was in the introduction. We want our ideas, feelings, and plans to be right at all cost.

Consider these two questions as we close:

- - - How do you treat people who are different from you? (age, music, dress, priorities, etc.)
    - Do you excuse in yourself what you accuse in others?

October 20, 2019/by Office

A Love, Hate Relationship

Believe John Sunday Morning Stuart Johns Commitment, Endurance, Faithfulness, Salvation

Believe

A Love, Hate Relationship

(John 7:1-13)

INTRODUCTION

I’ve never been through physical therapy, but I’ve heard stories that it can be pretty brutal. The physical therapist is trying to help you recover from an injury or surgery, so you can be fully functioning again. What that requires is pain and pushing your body beyond what you thought possible.

I can only imagine that you develop a love, hate relationship with the physical therapist. You love the fact that they push you to help you improve and recover quickly, but you also hate them when they push you beyond your breaking point and the pain sets in.

BODY

ME
- Working out
  - - I don’t know about you, but I have a love, hate relationship with my stationary bike
    - I love how I feel after I finish a 30-minute workout, but I hate getting started with that workout
    - My legs don’t want to peddle at first, but by the time I’m 10 minutes in, I’ve gotten into a rhythm and my body is warmed up and ready to go
- Food
  - - I also have a love, hate relationship with food
    - I love to eat food, but I hate when I eat too much food because I know that I’m going to feel bloated
    - I also know that when I’m trying to watch how much I’m eating, that I feel defeated when I overeat

WE
- Love, hate relationships
  - - I’m sure that we can all relate to having a love, hate relationship with certain things
    - Some of us have experienced that relationship with physical therapy, exercise, and food
    - Perhaps others of us don’t struggle with any of those things, but we do struggle in other areas

We’re going to see today that the people of Jerusalem had a love, hate relationship with Jesus. Some people loved Him and others hated Him. The message that Jesus shared was what caused the world to hate Him. He testified that what the world was doing was evil. The world did not hate Jesus’ brothers, because they were part of the world – they did not believe in Jesus, yet! We have to ask ourselves this question today . . .

BIG IDEA – Am I loved or hated by the world?

We strive so hard to be loved by the world (other students, our family members, neighbors, coworkers, bosses, social media followers, even strangers, etc.). We are driven by the number of likes or followers on our social media accounts. We may be driven by how many people look up to us as a mentor, trusted authority, or leader. As followers of Jesus Christ, we should expect to be hated by the world. “If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you.” (John 15:18-19)

Let’s pray

GOD (John 7:1-13)
- Temptation (vv. 1-5)
  - - After this
      - John uses the phrase “after this” to transition us to another episode in Jesus’ ministry
      - We know that he referenced the Jewish Passover in John 6:4
      - He now references the Jewish Feast of Tabernacles
        This feast was six months after Passover, which would also mean it was six months after the feeding of the 5,000 and the bread of life discourse
        It lasted for seven days
        The Feast of Tabernacles took place in September/October and it commemorated the wilderness wanderings of the Israelites
        In order to connect with and remember the wilderness wanderings, the people would build makeshift shelters out of light branches and leaves
        Those in rural settings would put them up where they lived, perhaps in the field [Carson, The Pillar New Testament Commentary, The Gospel According to John, 305]
        Those in an urban environment would place their “booths” on their rooftops or in their courtyards [Carson, 305]
        It also marked autumn and the harvest of olives from trees and grapes from the vines (the harvest of grain happened between April and June)
        It’s easy for us in Adams County, PA to connect with the Feast of Tabernacles
        The first two weekends in October is always the Apple Harvest Festival
        If you’ve ever been by the Adams County Fairgrounds during the festival, you would probably agree that it would be easier if you just erected a makeshift shelter out of light branches and leaves, so you wouldn’t have to fight traffic to get to the festival
        Perhaps you’re one of those seasoned attenders who knows that it’s best to park in one of the small towns around the area and catch a shuttle bus to the fairgrounds
        Other people just avoid the fairgrounds and surrounding roads during the Apple Harvest Festival
        Jesus wasn’t avoiding Judea because of the crowds or because the Feast of Tabernacles was taking place
      - Reason to remain in Galilee
        As a Jewish male, there were three feasts that you were required to attend every year, and the Feast of Tabernacles was one of them
        John gives us the reason why Jesus continued to minister in Galilee and purposely stayed away from Judea, specifically Jerusalem
        The Jews were waiting to take His life
        They weren’t happy with His teachings about being one with God, coming down from heaven, being the only way to God and heaven, and how they needed to eat His flesh and drink His blood
      - Now that John has set the stage for us, he begins to explain, what I’ve entitled this point, “Temptation”
    - Jesus’ brothers
      - Who were these brothers?
        These would have been Jesus’, younger, half-brothers
        Their parents would have been Mary and Joseph
        These would have been brothers from another Father (you thought I was going to say Mother, didn’t you?)
      - Go to Judea
        They were challenging Jesus to go Judea (Jerusalem) so that His disciples could see the miracles He did
        Jesus’ brothers were probably aware of the mass exodus of His disciples, that we saw at the end of chapter 6, and perhaps they thought if Jesus went to Judea He could somehow salvage His ministry by doing miracles there [Carson, 306]
        Also, Jerusalem would have been bustling at this point, since the Feast of Tabernacles was the most popular feast of the year and Jesus could perform miracles in front of larger crowds and word would spread quickly about Him
        Culture of shame and honor
        “In a culture where shame and honor were extremely important ingredients for societal standing, the desire on the part of the brothers to force Jesus into taking a stance is quite understandable.” [Borchert, The New American Commentary, John 1-11, 280]
        If Jesus’ brothers were aware of the large number of disciples who had turned away from Jesus and His teachings, then Jesus would need to do something on a large scale to restore His honor in the region
        The brothers were playing into the human condition of wanting to be known, seen, and valued
      - Public figures do things publicly
        YouTube and other social media outlets
        From my humble observations, most famous YouTubers start out doing something unique to them, but eventually they all start doing the same challenges
        My guess is that they run out of ideas for their followers, or the thing that made them unique at the beginning isn’t so unique anymore
        One hit wonders
        For those of us that grew up before the social media craze, we remember certain musicians who had a song that shot up the charts quickly
        Everyone knew the tune and lyrics to the song
        Once the song was no longer popular, and several years went by, we would start wondering what ever happened to that musician
        In some cases, they left the music industry and got another job, because none of the other songs they wrote or sang became popular
        To be loved by the world means we have to do things out in public and not just in private
        Amazingly, some celebrities lament the fact that they can no longer casually walk around in public without being noticed
        Some of them probably wish for the days when they were not popular
        Jesus’ brothers believe He needs to do His miracles in a very public way at a location that is central to the largest religious group of the day, the Jews
        “If Jesus is interested in religious prominence, his brothers reason, sooner or later he must prove the master of Jerusalem.” [Carson, 306]
        The pattern has not changed since the 1st Century – if you want to make it politically, you have to be known by your constituency – you have to be in the public eye
        We know that eventually Jesus does make Himself known to the world, but that was not God’s plan for the Feast of Tabernacles
        PRINCIPLE #1 – God’s plan is perfect.
        God was working out His perfect plan to redeem the world
        His plan did not include Jesus showing Himself to the world at the Feast of Tabernacles
        His plan was to wait six more months for Passover to come again
        That way John the Baptist’s words about Jesus would carry greater significance, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29b)
        Jesus would be the perfect, one-for-all, sacrificial Lamb
        We see the motivation behind why Jesus’ brothers encourage Him to show Himself to the world
      - Unbelief
        They did not believe in Him
        Can you imagine what it must have been like to grow up as the younger siblings of Jesus
        He never mistreated them
        He never hurt them
        He probably looked after them
        He never called them names
        Why wouldn’t you believe in someone who always did everything right?
        Translate that to our own lives today and we know why they didn’t believe in Him
        It’s difficult to grow up under the shadow of another sibling who seems to do everything right
        Unfortunately, that’s normally a misconception, because they don’t always do everything right – they’re just good at hiding what they are doing wrong
        Mark 6:4, Jesus said to them, “Only in his hometown, among his relatives and in his own house is a prophet without honor.”
        His brother’s unbelief was not a lifelong condition
        We know that Jude eventually believed in Jesus, because he authored the book of the Bible that bears his name
        James also believed and wrote the book of James and was eventually the leader of the Christian church in Jerusalem
    - Since Jesus’ brothers didn’t believe in Him, it was difficult for them to understand God’s perfect plan and His perfect timing
- Wrong Time – Publicly (vv. 6-9)
  - - Jesus
      - Jesus explains that the right time for Him has not yet come
      - When we talked about God’s perfect plan, we saw that His timing would be six months later, during Passover
        PRINCIPLE #2 – God’s timing is perfect.
        God had the timing of His redemption plan all laid out
        He knew exactly when Jesus needed to enter Jerusalem
        God also knew all that Jesus needed to do over the next six months to prepare for His passion
        We see just a glimpse of some of those things in John 7-13 (forgive an adulterous woman, teach about being the light of the world and the coming judgment, heal a blind mind and teach about blindness, raise Lazarus from the dead, be anointed with perfume, and ride triumphantly into Jerusalem on a donkey)
        Certainly, there were many more things that Jesus did and taught during that six-month period that are not recorded in John’s Gospel
        Galatians 4:4-5, But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons.
        God’s timing to send Jesus into the world was perfect!
        He knew that over 2,000 years ago was the perfect time
        He knew that 30-33 years after His birth would be the perfect time for Jesus to start ministering in the region
        He knew that 3 to 3 ½ years later would be the perfect time for Jesus to die on the cross to take our punishment for sin
        Romans 5:6-8, You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
        Sinner – that’s the condition of every human being born into this world (Rom. 3:23) and a Holy and Just God has to punish sin (Rom. 6:23)
        Instead of having every human being take their own punishment for sin, God provided His Son, Jesus, as the perfect, once-for-all sacrifice for our sins (1 Cor. 15:3-4)
        If God had not fulfilled His perfect plan at the perfect time, we would all be responsible for the punishment of our own sins, which is eternal separation from God in hell
        We have to repent of our sins and turn to God for His perfect plan of redemption
        [Parachute illustration from Living Waters Ministry]
        John 1:12-13, Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God – children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.
        My Next Step Today Is To: Repent of my sins, receive Jesus, and believe in His name, so I can be part of God’s family.
        Jesus tells them why He cannot go up for the Feast of Tabernacles
      - Reason why Jesus had to wait
        The Jews in Judea were waiting to take His life (Jn. 7:1)
        The Jews hated Him, but we also know that the world hates Him
        In the context of this story, we know that the Jewish religious leaders and other Jews did not like His teachings
        In the greater context we know that the world hates Jesus and what He stands for
        Jesus’ testimony is that what the world does is evil
        No one likes to be told that what they are doing is evil or wrong
        “The world always hates to have its evil exposed, to be convicted of its sin.” [Carson, 308]
        Jesus’ life and testimony causes human beings to feel guilty about their sins
        Because we are created in God’s image, He has written the requirements of His law on our hearts
        Romans 2:14-15, (Indeed, when Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature things required by the law, they are a law for themselves, even though they do not have the law, since they show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts now accusing, now even defending them.)
        We know what is right and wrong whether or not we have every been introduced to the Ten Commandments or the other 600 commands found in Scripture – it’s a part of every human being’s make-up/DNA
      - While the world hates Jesus, it does not hate His brothers
    - His Brothers
      - Jesus states that any time is right for His brothers
        The Jews are not waiting to kill them
        They can go to Jerusalem (Judea) anytime they want without fear of being arrested, beaten, and killed
      - The world cannot hate you
        The reason the world cannot hate them is because they don’t believe in Jesus and are still part of the world
        John 15:19, If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you.
        Am I loved or hated by the world?
        This is an important question that each one of us needs to wrestle with
        Jesus’ brothers did not believe in Him
        They had no mission from God, like Jesus did
        As followers of Jesus Christ, we have a mission from God, to make disciples (Matt. 28:18-20)
        When we are truly on mission, then the world is going to hate us, because sharing the Gospel exposes their sin and their faulty beliefs about how to get to heaven
        The Good Person Test asks the question, “Are you a good person?” and most people respond, “Yes.”
        Can I ask you a couple of questions to see if you are a good person by God’s standard?
        Have you ever lied? What does that make you? (a liar)
        Have you ever stolen anything that doesn’t belong to you, no matter how small? What does that make you? (a thief)
        Have you ever hated someone in your heart? What does that make you? (a murdered)
        Have you ever looked at another person with lust? What does that make you? (an adulterer)
        By our own admission, we are lying, thieving, murdering, adulterers at heart
        When you stand before a Holy and Just God will you be innocent or guilty? (guilty)
        Sharing the Gospel will cause the world to hate us, because they hated Jesus first
        To be loved by the world means that they don’t see us as any different from them
        If they see us lying, hating others, gossiping, cheating, stealing, becoming drunk, taking the Lord’s name in vain, not honoring our parents, etc., they aren’t going to see the need to respond to the Gospel
        But if they see us pursuing holiness, speaking words of encouragement, revering the Lord’s name, speaking the truth, loving others, living honestly, honoring our parents, studying God’s Word, praying, and much more, then they may turn to God in repentance and believe in Jesus
        My Next Step Today Is To: Determine if I am loved or hated by the world and make any changes, so I can identify with Jesus as being hated by the world.
        This may mean being bold for Jesus at school, work, and our neighborhoods
        It may mean persecution by our family, friends, coworkers, and neighbors
        It could result in the loss of relationships with family members, friends, and coworkers
        It some cases it could mean the loss of our job
        God is faithful!
      - Jesus’ brothers were loved by the world at this point, but as I mentioned earlier, some of them eventually became His followers, His disciples and were hated by the world
    - Jesus stayed in Galilee while His brothers went to the Feast of Tabernacles, because His time had not yet come
- Right Time – Privately (vv. 10-13)
  - - The “yet” in verse 6 lets us know that Jesus was probably still going to the Feast of Tabernacles, but not in the way His brothers wanted Him to go
    - After His brothers left, He also went up, but did it privately
      - He wasn’t riding in on a white horse
      - He wasn’t performing miracles like a magic show
      - He quietly went up to observe this very important Feast
    - The Jews were watching for Him
      - God is all-knowing, so His plans and timing are perfect
      - He knew that Jesus could not go to Jerusalem publicly, at this time, because the Jews were looking for Him
      - They wanted to arrest Him and put Him to death
    - The crowd was divided
      - PRINCIPLE #3 – Jesus’ message of truth, divides.
        Some said He was a good man
        We don’t from the text if these individuals believed in Jesus and were His disciples
        They simply could have viewed Him as a good person, a good teacher, but not the Son of God, their Savior, or the Messiah
        They were perhaps open and receptive to Jesus’ teaching
        Others said He was a deceiver
        This was a serious accusation in the 1st Century
        “According to Jewish law, the punishment for leading people astray was stoning, further distinguishing between those who mislead an individual and those who lead an entire town astray.” [Köstenberger, Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament, John, 232]
        “As it is in Jerusalem, so today audiences will be divided. Some appear open and receptive, others appear cynical and hostile.” [Burge, The NIV Application Commentary, John, 231]
        Am I loved or hated by the world?
      - Whether they thought Jesus was a good man or a deceiver, neither group was willing to say anything publicly
    - Fear of the Jews
      - Both groups were afraid of the Jewish religious leaders in Jerusalem
      - That tells us something about their leadership – they were probably hard and harsh
      - Those who thought Jesus was a good man would not risk saying that publicly, because they knew how the Jews would react
      - Application
        We can be the same way today
        Our religious freedoms are under attack
        “New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof, himself not a Christian, described his concern about increasing hatred toward Christians in the leading edges of society, writing, ‘In liberal circles, evangelicals constitute one of the few groups that it’s safe to mock openly.’” [Henderson, Old Paths New Power, 25]
        We live in fear of saying anything about Jesus at school or work because we will be ridiculed and persecuted
        We may fear losing our job if we say anything about our faith, and yet we are supposed to have freedom of religion and speech
        We have to be willing to share openly about Jesus, no matter the cost

YOU
- We have to ask ourselves the question, am I loved or hated by the world? (That will determine what steps we need to take as a follower of Jesus Christ)

- We need to boldly proclaim the truths of the Gospel, without fear, no matter what others may think

CONCLUSION

“Dear Fear-Of-What-Others-Think:

I am sick of you, and it's time we broke up. I know we've broken up and gotten back together many times, but seriously, Fear-Of-What-Others-Think, this is it. We're breaking up.

I'm tired of overthinking my status updates on Facebook, trying to sound more clever, funny, and important. I'm sick of feeling anxious about what I say or do in public, especially around people I don't know that well, all in the hope that they'll like me, accept me, praise me. I run around all day feeling like a Golden Retriever with a full bladder: Like me! Like me! Like me!

Because of you, I go through my day with a cloud of shame hanging over my head, and I never stop acting. The spotlight's always on, and I'm center stage, and I'd better keep dancing, posturing, mugging, or else the spotlight will move, and I'll dissolve into a little, meaningless puddle on the ground, just like that witch in The Wizard of Oz. I can never live up to the expectations of my imaginary audience, the one that lives only in my head but whose collective voice is louder than any other voice in the universe.

And all of this is especially evil because if I really stop and think about it, and let things go quiet and listen patiently for the voice of the God who made me and the Savior who died for me, in his eyes, it turns out I'm actually—profoundly—precious, lovable, worthy, valuable, and even just a little ghetto-fabulous. When I find my true identity in Christ, then you turn back into the tiny, yapping little dog that you are.

So eat it, Fear-Of-What-Others-Think. You and I are done. And no, I'm not interested in "talking it through." I'm running, jumping, laughing you out of my life, once and for all. Or at least, that's what I really, really want, God help me.”

Jessie Rice, "An Open Letter to My Fear of What Others Think," Church of Facebook blog (11-23-11).

[https://www.preachingtoday.com/illustrations/2012/january/4010212.html].

October 13, 2019/by Office

Will You Stay Or Will You Go?

Believe John Sunday Morning Stuart Johns Discipleship, Salvation

Believe

Will You Stay Or Will You Go?

(John 6:60-71)

INTRODUCTION

We are all probably familiar with a couple of Christian leaders who have renounced their faith recently.

Joshua Harris, author of I Kissed Dating Goodbye, announced on July 26th that he and his wife were separating. In a follow-up post on Instagram he made this statement, “The information that was left out of our announcement is that I have undergone a massive shift in regard to my faith in Jesus. The popular phrase for this is ‘deconstruction,’ the biblical phrase is ‘falling away.’ By all the measurements that I have for defining a Christian, I am not a Christian. Many people tell me that there is a different way to practice faith and I want to remain open to this, but I’m not there now.”

Right on the heels of Joshua Harris’ announcement was Marty Sampson’s announcement on Instagram. He said, “Time for some real talk. I’m genuinely losing my faith, and it doesn’t bother me. Like, what bothers me now is nothing. I am so happy now, so at peace with the world. It’s crazy. . . This is a soapbox moment so here I go . . . How many preachers fall? Many, no one talks about it. How many miracles happen. Not many. No one talks about it. Why is the Bible full of contradictions? No one talks about it. How can God be love yet send four billion people to a place, all ‘coz they don’t believe? No one talks about it. Christians can be the most judgmental people on the planet – they can also be some of the most beautiful and loving people. But it’s not for me.” He later clarified that he wouldn’t say he has “renounced” his faith but would say “it’s on incredibly shaky ground.”

[https://www.christianpost.com/news/hillsong-worship-leader-clarifies-he-hasnt-renounced-faith-but-its-on-incredibly-shaky-ground.html].

This is important when we read what John said in 1 John 2:18-19, Dear children, this is the last hour; and as you have heard that the antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come. This is how we know it is the last hour. They went out from us, but they did not really belong to us. For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us; but their going showed that none of them belonged to us.

BODY

ME
- Fully committed
  - - Judy and I have always believed that marriage is “until death do us part.”
      - We were both Christians long before we knew each other, which formed that belief in us
      - Divorce has never been a word that is used or talked about in our marriage – it’s not an option for us
      - That doesn’t mean we haven’t argued with each other, been angry with other, or taken some time apart to cool down
    - We feel the same way about our relationship with Jesus
      - When we made the commitment to follow Jesus and be His disciple, it was a lifetime commitment we were making
      - Renouncing our faith is not a word that is used or talked about in our relationship with Jesus – it’s not an option for us

WE
- Fully Committed
  - - Perhaps every one of us is fully committed to something or someone
      - Are we fully committed to our spouses?
      - Are we fully committed to our job?
      - Are we fully committed to Idaville Church?
      - Are we fully committed to Jesus Christ?
    - Everyone take a moment to consider what you are fully committed to

Jesus has been sharing what most refer to as, His “Bread of Life” discourse. It started after the feeding of the 5,000. He was making some statements that were difficult for the Jews and His disciples to believe and accept. He had told them that He had come down from heaven and that in order to receive eternal life and live forever, they had to eat His flesh and drink His blood, which simply meant they had to come to Him and believe in Him – they had to believe in His perfect sacrifice for them on the cross. This was definitely not the kind of “king” they were looking for, and as we’ll see today, not someone they wanted to continue to follow. That did not come as a surprise to Jesus. What John wants us to understand is that . . .

BIG IDEA – Jesus knows who His true disciples are.

Let’s pray

GOD (John 6:60-71)
- Going (vv. 60-66)
  - - Disciple’s grumbling
      - On hearing it
        This is probably referring to three things that Jesus had just taught them
        He had come down from heaven as the bread of life (we know that offended the Jews, but perhaps it offended His disciples as well)
        Jesus’ death was the only way for them to receive eternal life (that wasn’t their idea of a Messiah/King)
        The use of the metaphor for believing in Jesus – eating His flesh and drinking His blood
        At least one of those teachings, but probably all three, are what is being referred to here as what they heard
      - His disciples
        Most of the time when we see the word “disciple” used we think of the Twelve Disciples that followed Jesus wherever He went, but there is a distinction here
        In verse 67 we’ll see Jesus speak directly to the Twelve (that’s the first time this word is used)
        Earlier in John we see that many people believed in Jesus name, but were not truly disciples
        John 2:23-25, Now while he was in Jerusalem at the Passover Feast, many people saw the miraculous signs he was doing and believed in his name. But Jesus would not entrust himself to them, for he knew all men. He did not need man’s testimony about man, for he knew what was in a man.
        “At the most elementary level, a disciple is someone who is at that point following Jesus, either literally by joining the group that pursued him from place to place, or metaphorically in regarding him as the authoritative teacher. Such a ‘disciple’ is not necessarily a ‘Christian’, someone who has savingly trusted Jesus and sworn allegiance to him, given by the Father to the Son, drawn by the Father and born again by the Spirit.” [Carson, The Pillar New Testament Commentary, The Gospel According To John, 300]
        John 8:31-32, To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
        As we’ll see in just a moment, these “disciples” will not hold to Jesus’ teaching any more
      - Hard teaching
        Jesus’ teaching was not hard to understand
        These “disciples” knew exactly what Jesus was teaching them
        It was hard in the sense of being offensive, harsh, and intolerable
        They didn’t like what He was teaching them, because it offended them (Jesus was going to die for them, and following Him meant they had to die also – dying to self and/or martyrdom)
      - Who can accept it?
        Other translations have, “who can hear, listen, or understand it?”
        The original Greek means “accept” with the idea of obeying Jesus’ teachings
        So, being a disciple of Jesus is more than just hearing His words, but accepting them and being obedient to them
        That’s the intent of John 8:31, holding to the teachings of Jesus – it’s continuing to be present, to persevere, to cleave to or hold fast to His Words
        Application
        Have you accepted Jesus’ teachings?
        Are you being obedient to His teachings?
        Are you holding to, cleaving to, and persevering in His teachings?
        My Next Step Today Is To: Make sure that I’m not just hearing Jesus’ teachings, but accepting them and being obedient to them.
        Being obedient to and holding on to Jesus’ teachings is evidence that we are really His disciples.
        Jesus knows who His true disciples are.
      - He also knows what they are talking about, so He responds to their grumbling
    - Jesus’ response
      - Jesus knows what they are saying
        PRINCIPLE #1 – Jesus is omniscient (all-knowing)
        This principle continues to come up each week for the past several weeks, which means that it’s an important principle that God wants us to grasp, accept, and understand
        In fact, this principle will be seen in vv. 64 and 70
        The knowledge of what His disciples were grumbling about was supernatural in nature – He knows their hearts
        So, He addresses their concern
      - Does this offend you?
        Jesus’ response lets us know that they were offended by His teachings, and not that they didn’t understand His teachings
        Jesus’ next statement challenges them
        If they’re offended simply by His teachings about how eternal life is obtained, through His death, burial, and resurrection, how will they react when it actually happens
        Jesus has been telling them that He is going to give His life for the world (John 6:51)
        He is now telling them that His ascension, back to heaven, will only come after His death, burial, and resurrection
        Then He explains that the Spirit gives life and that flesh counts for nothing
      - Spirit gives life
        Wait a minute, in verses 41-59 Jesus talked all about how the bread, which represented His flesh, will be given for the life of the world, so that human beings could experience eternal life and live forever
        Now He’s saying that flesh doesn’t count for anything, and that the Spirit gives life
        We have to understand that Jesus is not talking about His flesh here
        He is talking about trying to understand His word in our humanness
        Read 1 Corinthians 1:18-31
        He is also talking about trying to obtain eternal life in our own strength
        How many of us have done that in the past?
        We think that being religious will get us to heaven
        We think that following the correct philosophical ideas will bridge the gap between us and God
        We think that being moral will someone please God to the point of Him allowing us into His kingdom
        We think that good works will punch our ticket for eternity
        None of things bridge the gap between sinful people and a Holy God
        Isaiah 59:2, But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear.
        Proverbs 14:12, There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death.
        “I cannot make someone fall in love with Jesus.
        
        It really came home for me, literally, with my own teenage daughter, who, 18 months ago, was not in love with Jesus. I spent nights crying, bawling, praying to the Lord. Here, I am known for my ability to communicate, but there was nothing I could do for my own daughter that would make her fall in love with Jesus. Of course I could still guide and lead her, but I was powerless to convict her.
        
        I prayed, ‘God, either your Spirit comes into her or your Spirit doesn't. It doesn't matter how great a dad I am. I cannot bring her to life.’
        
        One day she came into my room and said, ‘You were right, Dad. The Holy Spirit was not in me. But now he is.’ She talked about how near she was to God and how everything had changed. My wife and I were skeptical. We wanted to see evidence of change. But 18 months later, I can say she really is a new creation. I didn't do that. It was the Holy Spirit.
        
        Condensed from our sister publication Leadership Journal, © 2010 Christianity Today International. For more articles like this, visit Leadershipjournal.net.
        
        Francis Chan, "Catching Waves,” LeadershipJournal.net (posted 5-17-10)
        
        [https://www.preachingtoday.com/illustrations/2010/june/3060710.html]
        The words He has spoken are Spirit and they are life
        Jesus’ teaching about His ultimate sacrifice for the sins of the world is the only way to bridge the gap that sin has created between us and God
        1 Timothy 2:5, For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus.
        1 Peter 3:18, For Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God.
        Romans 5:8, But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (ESV)
        John 3:16, For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
        My Next Step Today Is To: Believe in Jesus and His words, so I can have eternal life.
        Perhaps there are people here today who have not believed in Jesus
        Jesus knew that some of His “disciples” did not believe His words
      - Jesus knew who the true believers were
        PRINCIPLE #1 – Jesus is omniscient (all-knowing)
        None of this came as a surprise to Jesus, because He already knew, from the beginning, which of them did not believe
        He knew their hearts and why they claimed to be His disciple
        He knew their motives for following Him and that it wasn’t because they believed His words
        Jesus knows who His true disciples are.
        He also knew who was going to betray Him, but we’ll look at that in verses 70-71
      - Jesus reminded them of what He had already said, about God drawing people to Him – God’s sovereignty (John 6:37-40)
      - What we see next is the action of these “disciples”
    - Disciple’s action
      - It seems that as soon as Jesus finished sharing with them, that these “disciples” turned back and no longer followed Jesus
      - This wasn’t just a temporary turning away from Jesus and not following Him any more
        The verb for “turned back/withdrew” is aorist, meaning that it was decisive and not temporary – they had made up their minds about Jesus and His teachings
        The verb for “followed” is imperfect, which shows how permanent their decision was
      - “These former followers, literally, ‘went away to the things they had left behind’ and no longer ‘kept moving about’ with Jesus. In other words, they renounced their discipleship and fell away. Jesus was not the Messiah they expected.” [Köstenberger, Bake Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament, John, 220]
      - PRINCIPLE #2 – Not everyone who claims to be a disciple of Jesus is a Christian.
        This has been proven true in our own day with Joshua Harris, Marty Sampson, and others
        Perhaps we all know of someone who claimed to be a Christian, but later turned away from the Lord
        Maybe every one of us has heard another person say, “I tried Christianity, but it didn’t work for me.”
        Jesus taught about true and false disciples through a parable found in Matthew 13:1-23
        He used the imagery of a field and different kinds of soil to help us understand how the Gospel of Jesus Christ is received by human beings
        Path/Hard soil (seed never penetrates the soil, birds came and ate it) – someone hears the message and does not understand it, Satan comes and snatches away what was sown in their heart
        Rocky soil (not much soil, sprang up quickly, scorched by the sun, withered because of no root) – someone who hears the word and receives it readily with joy, but it only lasts a short time, because when trouble and persecution come, they fall away
        Thorny soil (the thorns grew up with the seed and choked it) – someone who hears the word, but the worries of life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke it, making it unfruitful
        Good soil (the seed grew and produced a crop) – someone who hears the word and understands it
        What kind of soil are we?
        If we are hard, rocky, or thorny soil, then we are only claiming to be a “disciple” of Jesus Christ and not a Christian
        Jesus knows who His true disciples are.
        Peter taught about making our calling and election sure
        Read 2 Peter 1:3-11
        If our relationship with Jesus Christ is genuine, and we are true disciples, then that faith will motivate us to pursue the qualities of goodness, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, brotherly kindness, and love
        Are you pursuing those qualities?
        My Next Step Today Is To: Make my calling and election sure, by pursuing the qualities listed in 2 Peter 1:5-7 in increasing measure.
        “It is impossible to be a genuine disciple merely for a time. You either turn from your sin, place your faith in Jesus Christ, and follow him until you get to heaven, or you don’t. There is no middle ground!” [Carter & Wredberg, Christ-Centered Exposition: Exalting Jesus in John, 165]
    - Jesus now turns His attention away from the unbelievers (former disciples) and talks to the Twelve Disciples He has chosen and called
- Staying (vv. 67-71)
  - - Jesus’ question
      - Jesus asks if they want to leave too, but the way the question is structured in the Greek, Jesus was expecting a negative response – the structure demands the answer, NO!
      - We see that Peter’s confession of faith supports that answer
    - Peter’s confession of faith
      - It’s not just Peter’s confession of faith, because he uses the plural, “we”
      - The Twelve don’t know of anyone else they should follow, because no one else is Jesus
        Jesus is the only One who has the words of eternal life
        Peter implies that all Twelve of them are not offended by Jesus’ words
        They believe that He is the bread of life that came down from heaven
        They believe that the only way to have eternal life is to believe in Jesus’ perfect sacrifice by giving His life for the world
        They understand the metaphor of eating Jesus’ flesh and drinking His blood, as meaning to accept His death for all humanity
      - Firm conviction
        In Peter’s statement, “We believe and know that you are the Holy One of God”, the “we” and “you are” are both emphatic, meaning that it is a firm conviction
        The Twelve have arrived at this firm conviction through a thorough process of watching and listening to Jesus
        There is no doubt in their minds that Jesus is the Holy One of God
        PRINCIPLE #3 – True disciples of Jesus believe and know that He is God!
        Do you believe and know that Jesus is God?
        Do you have a firm conviction that there is no one else to go to and no other way to have eternal life, except through believing in Jesus Christ and His death, burial, and resurrection?
      - Jesus replies to Peter’s confession of faith
    - Jesus’ reply
      - Jesus begins his reply by clarifying with the Twelve that He has chosen them
      - Jesus then brings a corrective to Peter’s confession, that represented the whole group of Twelve
      - While Peter was not yet aware of Judas’ betrayal, Jesus was, which leads us back to PRINCIPLE #1 – Jesus is omniscient (all-knowing)
      - Jesus tells the Twelve that one of them is the devil
        Most English translations have “is a devil.”
        The Greek literally has it as “is the devil.”
      - Jesus knows who His true disciples are.
      - We see John’s note in parenthesis
        John is able to give us this note, because he is writing after Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection and Judas’ betrayal
        Jesus was talking about Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot
        Most of the time Judas is referred to as Judas Iscariot
        We know Judas’ father’s name, but we also know his place of origin (what town he was from)
        Most scholars agree that Iscariot is a transliteration of the Hebrew word meaning, “man of Kerioth” [Carson, 304]
        That would have been the town where he and his family were from
        He was one of the Twelve, but later betrayed Jesus
        I’m sure that Peter and the other disciples assumed that because Jesus chose them that everyone believed in Him the same way
        This shows the ability of human beings to be able to fake true discipleship, at least for a little while
        Eventually the truth will be revealed, because they cannot hide who they really are
        There should be evidence of the fruit of the Spirit in addition to the qualities Peter listed in his second letter (2 Peter 1:5-7)

YOU
- It can be very easy to simply hear Jesus’ teaching, but not accept them or be obedient to them
  - - Being a true disciple of Jesus means accepting His words and being obedient to them
    - It also means making our calling and election sure by adding to our faith the qualities of goodness, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, brotherly kindness, and love
- Before you can add those qualities to your faith, you have to have genuine faith in Jesus
  - - Genuine faith comes through believing that Jesus is God
    - Believing that He willingly died on the cross to take your punishment for sin – He saved you from eternal separation from God
    - I encourage you to make that decision today

- We can’t naively believe that everyone who claims to be a disciple of Jesus is a Christian
- We need to be praying that each of us will pursue goodness, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, brotherly kindness, and love
  - - That is evidence of a transformed life
    - Unbelievers will recognize a difference in us
    - It will move us toward unity as a body of believers

CONCLUSION

“If you have any knowledge at all of human nature, you know that those who only admire the truth will, when danger appears, become traitors. The admirer is infatuated with the false security of greatness; but if there is any inconvenience or trouble, he pulls back. Admiring the truth, instead of following it, is just as dubious a fire as the fire of erotic love, which at the turn of the hand can be changed into exactly the opposite—to hate, jealousy, and revenge. Christ, however, never asked for admirers, worshipers, or adherents. He consistently spoke of ‘followers’ and ‘disciples.’”

—Søren Kierkegaard, Danish philosopher and theologian (1813–1855)

Søren Kierkegaard, unknown; submitted by Bill White, Paramount, California

[https://www.preachingtoday.com/illustrations/2009/may/1052509.html].

October 6, 2019/by Office

Eating Is Believing

Believe John Sunday Morning Stuart Johns Accountability, Confrontation, Salvation

Believe

Eating Is Believing

(John 6:41-59)

INTRODUCTION

BODY

ME
- Asparagus
  - - Growing up I never really liked asparagus
    - We didn’t have it very often, that I can remember
    - I just remember not liking it the times that we did
    - After moving to Birmingham, AL my parents became friends with a family whose father was a trained chef
    - He was opening a restaurant and our family got invited to opening night
    - Can you guess what the vegetable was that evening – asparagus!
    - That was the first time I actually liked asparagus
    - I’m not saying my Mom didn’t cook asparagus well – I was older by the time we had it prepared by a chef, so I guess my palate had become more refined
    - I love eating asparagus now

WE
- Refined palate
  - - Perhaps every one of us can remember turning our nose up at a particular kind of food as a child
    - It was something we did not like and would refuse to eat
    - Take a moment to think back to your childhood, what was the food?
    - Do you like that food item today?

One item that was prohibited for the Israelites to eat was meat that still had blood in it. They were also prohibited from drinking blood. So, the Jews in this passage today were definitely struggling with Jesus’ statement, that unless they eat His flesh and drink His blood that they have no life in them. Jesus obviously was not talking about literally eating His flesh and drinking His blood. As we will see today, what is required to have eternal life and to live forever is believing in Jesus’ perfect sacrifice for us. John wants us to understand that . . .

BIG IDEA – If you believe, you have eaten.

Augustine of Hippo actually said, “Believe, and you have eaten [Carson, The Pillar New Testament Commentary, The Gospel According to John, 297].

Let’s pray

GOD (John 6:41-59)
- Grumbling (vv. 41-46)
  - - The Jews are not happy with Jesus’ teaching
    - They understood that Jesus was saying He was from heaven, but that didn’t go together with what they thought they knew about Him (vv. 41-42)
      - They knew that Jesus was the son of Joseph and that His mother was Mary
        Jesus had grown up in Nazareth of Galilee and that was the only thing they knew about Him
        All they knew was Jesus of Nazareth and not Jesus of Bethlehem in Judea
        Luke 2:16-19, So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in a manger. When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart.
        My guess is that Mary and Joseph kept Jesus’ miraculous conception and birth pretty quiet, especially after they moved to Nazareth in Galilee
        Those in Galilee were not familiar with Jesus of Bethlehem
        The Jews premise would be correct if Jesus was just the human son of Mary and Joseph
        “How can he now say, ‘I came down from heaven’?”
        Jesus wasn’t deity, He was just the son of a carpenter
        We know His family
        So the Jews were grumbling among themselves
        This was not the first time the Jews had grumbled
        There are references throughout this discourse to the manna from heaven and the Jews forefathers
        The Israelites had grumbled before and after they had received the manna from heaven
        Exodus 16:2, 8, In the desert the whole community grumbled against Moses and Aaron . . . Moses also said, “You will know that it was the Lord when he gives you meat to eat in the evening and all the bread you want in the morning, because he has heard your grumbling against him. Who are we? You are not grumbling against us, but against the Lord.”
        Numbers 11:4, The rabble with them began to crave other food, and again the Israelites started wailing and said, “If only we had meat to eat!”
        “Grumblers seldom take their issue directly to those who can resolve it.” [John White, Leadership, Vol 14, no. 2]
        Application
        This is true of us today
        It’s much easier to talk to other people about the issue we are having than to go directly to the person we have an issue with
        Many times our assumptions about the situation or the person are not correct
        If we would go directly to the individual, we can avoid misconceptions and gossip
        Once something false is said, it’s very difficult to retrace the path it has taken, with the truth
        This is not easy, but it’s necessary – we need to go directly to the person we have an issue with and not to anyone else
        My Next Step Today Is To: With the Lord’s help, go directly to the individual I have an issue with instead of talking to others about it.
        The Jews thought they knew who Jesus was, but their assumption was false
      - Jesus proves that He is more than merely human when He calls them on the carpet
    - Stop grumbling! (v. 43)
      - PRINCIPLE #1 – Jesus is all-knowing (omniscient).
        He knew what they were doing and saying and He put a stop to it, immediately
        Application
        We need to follow Jesus’ example here
        When we hear gossip or grumbling we need to step in and confront the individual(s) immediately
        If someone approaches us and tries to get us to engage in gossip or grumbling, we need to ask them if they have talked with the individual they are sharing with us about
        If they haven’t then we need to encourage them to do that
        If they’re afraid, then tell them that you will go with them
        Accountability is the key, and it will bring unity
      - Once Jesus stopped the grumbling, He was able to teach them more about who He was
    - Doctrine of election (vv. 44-45)
      - Jesus began to teach this doctrine as we saw in verses 37 and 40 last week, “All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away . . . For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.”
      - God’s sovereignty (v. 44)
        We see God’s sovereign act of drawing people to the Jesus
        The Greek words means, “to draw by inward power, lead, impel”
        It’s God’s drawing power
        His holiness and righteousness draw people to Him
        The Holy Spirit does the work within human beings to soften their hearts to the things of God – to bring them to a place of repentance
        Those whom God draws to Jesus will be raised up on the last day
      - Human responsibility
        Jesus then uses Isaiah 54:13 to help the Jews understand human responsibility in salvation
        Isaiah 54:13, All your sons will be taught by the Lord and great will be your children’s peace.
        Isaiah is foreseeing a day when the Israelites will return from exile, rebuild Jerusalem, and worship the Lord – their spiritual fervor, for the Lord, will be restored and renewed
        Jesus is basically telling the Jews that the reason they don’t believe in Him is because they are unwilling to be taught by God
        Imagine how those words fell on the ears of pious Jews who prided themselves in studying the Torah
        Is Jesus saying we don’t know our own Scriptures?
        Jesus makes it clear that everyone who has heard the Father and learned from Him comes to Him [Jesus] – that’s our human responsibility
        “To ‘hear from the Father’ is to hear Jesus, for the One who spoke long ago at Sinai now speaks through the Son, and only through the Son. If they do not hear the Son, they will not hear the Father, and if they do not hear and learn from the Father, they will not come to the Son.” [Michaels, The New International Commentary on the New Testament, The Gospel of John, 387]
        This is the responsibility of every Christian
        Matthew 28:18-20, Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always to the very end of the age.”
        Romans 10:14-15, How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!”
        God’s sovereignty and human responsibility cannot be separated
      - It is both elements together and not one or the other that brings about salvation
        “Salvation is never achieved apart from the drawing power of God, and it is never consummated apart from the willingness of humans to hear and learn from God. To choose one or the other will ultimately end in unbalanced, unbiblical theology.” [Borchert, The New American Commentary, John 1-11, 268]
        The concept of God’s sovereignty and human responsibility can be difficult for us to understand or comprehend
        “During his days as guest lecturer at Calvin Seminary, R. B. Kuiper once used the following illustration of God's sovereignty and human responsibility:
        
        ‘I liken them to two ropes going through two holes in the ceiling and over a pulley above. If I wish to support myself by them, I must cling to them both. If I cling only to one and not the other, I go down. I read the many teachings of the Bible regarding God's election, predestination, his chosen, and so on. I read also the many teachings regarding 'whosoever will may come' and urging people to exercise their responsibility as human beings. These seeming contradictions cannot be reconciled by the puny human mind. With childlike faith, I cling to both ropes, fully confident that in eternity I will see that both strands of truth are, after all, of one piece.’”
        
        John Morren, Lake City, Michigan. Leadership, Vol. 7, no. 3.
        
        [https://www.preachingtoday.com/illustrations/1996/may/1476.html]
        So, God draws us to Jesus, but we are drawn because we have heard the Father and have learned from Him
        Jesus is the key
      - Jesus expresses His deity to the Jews
        Jesus is speaking in the third person
        He is from God and, therefore, has seen the Father
        PRINCIPLE #2 – Jesus is deity.
        Making this statement was going to be difficult for the Jews to accept
        Remember, they have already questioned His statement about coming down from heaven
        They thought they knew His genealogy (Joseph and Mary)
        Throughout Jesus’ passion we know that the religious leaders were upset that He claimed to be from God – they said He blasphemed
        Jesus is the key!
        “Two months before [Orthodox priest] Aleksandr Menn was felled by an ax, he was asked in a radio interview broadcast across Russia, ‘Does one need to be a Christian, and if one does, then why?’
        
        ‘I think there is only one answer, and it as follows,’ he said:
        
        ‘Man always seeks God. The normal state of man is, to some extent, to be connected with a higher power, even when the higher power in the human mind is distorted, and turned into something secular. Eras of Stalinism ... and all other isms seek some false god even if God is taken away. This turns to idol worship, but still the inner instinct of seeking God is there. ...
        
        ‘The question is totally different when it is put this way: Why Christianity? Is it because of the sacred scriptures? No, every religion has sacred scriptures, and sometimes with a very high quality of spiritual content. ...
        
        ‘Then why Christianity? Morality? Certainly. I am happy that in our society the high moral values of Christianity are accepted, but it would be totally erroneous to maintain that there are no moral values outside Christianity. ...
        
        ‘Then why Christianity? Should we embrace ... a position that God is revealed and therefore can be found in any religion? No, because then the uniqueness and absolute character of Christianity will disappear. I think that nothing will prove the uniqueness of Christianity except one thing – Jesus Christ Himself.’”
        
        Larry Woiwode, Books & Culture, Vol. 2, no. 2.
        
        [https://www.preachingtoday.com/illustrations/1996/september/1932.html]
    - All of this leads up to a teaching that will separate true disciples from all the rest
- Believe (vv. 47-58)
  - - In verses 47 to 58 we see a lot of repeated ideas in a chiastic structure that points to the central idea that Jesus wants the crowd to understand
      - A chiastic structure has matching parts that eventually narrow down to a main idea
      - It is like a “greater than” symbol pointing to the center
      - The chiastic structure for these verses is as follows:
        A – vv. 47-48
        B – v. 49
        C – vv. 50-51a
        D – v. 51b
        E – vv. 52-53 (central idea/main point)
        D’ – vv. 54-56
        C’ – vv. 57-58a
        B’ – v. 58b
        A’ – v. 58c
      - The whole theme is about living forever and having eternal life
    - Eternal life/live forever (vv. 47-48, 58c)
      - These first two sections help us to understand what Jesus is really trying to communicate
      - In verse 47 Jesus says, the one who believes has eternal life
        What exactly does someone need to believe?
        We see that in verse 48, I am the bread of life
        This takes us back to verse 35, Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty.”
      - Then in verse 58c we read these words, but whoever feeds on this bread will live forever
        Notice how Jesus uses both believe and feeds to mean the same thing
        If you believe, you have eaten.
      - Jesus uses eternal life and lives forever to mean the same thing
      - If the Jews or anyone else believes in Jesus and what He came to earth to do, then they will have eternal life and live forever
      - Jesus tries to help the Jews understand the significance of His claim that He is the bread of life
    - Ancestors died (vv. 49, 58b)
      - Back in verse 31 the Jews used Scripture (Exodus 14:4) as a proof text for what happened to their forefathers
        The Israelites were sustained by God, for 40 years, through the miraculous bread from heaven – manna
        The Jews in Jesus’ day wanted a miraculous sign from Jesus on the same level as manna from heaven
      - Jesus explains that manna did not provide eternal life and the Israelites did not live forever
        We know from Old Testament scripture (Numbers 14:29-30) that not every Israelite made it to the Promised Land
        Those who were 21 years old or older, who rebelled against the Lord when He brought them to the Promised Land the first time, would die in the wilderness
        In fact, everyone who ate manna in the wilderness eventually died
        Manna from heaven did not provide eternal life
      - Jesus explains that there is a bread from heaven that provides eternal life
    - Bread from heaven (vv. 50-51a, 57-58a)
      - In verses 50 and 58a Jesus speaks about Himself in the third person, But here is the bread that comes down from heaven . . . This is the bread that came down from heaven
      - Then in verses 51a and 57 He speaks of Himself in the first person, I am the living bread that came down from heaven . . . Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me
      - Jesus uses the metaphor of eating and feeding in these verses to refer to believing in Him
        He uses the negative in verse 50, not die
        Then He uses the positive in verse 57, will live
      - Jesus then moves to the hard teaching that will separate the genuine disciples from the fake ones
    - Eating flesh and drinking blood (vv. 51b, 54-56)
      - Jesus is moving the Jews away from the idea of physical bread to the idea of spiritual bread
      - Here is the key to these verses
        John 1:14, The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
        Jesus is not talking about cannibalism or vampires
        The reference to eating His flesh and drinking His blood is referring to His sacrifice for humanity (for the life of the world) on the cross
        Later on during the Last Supper He will explain the bread as His body which was broken for us and the wine as His blood that was poured out for us
        However, in this passage it is not referring to the Eucharist/Communion
        That would require us reading back into this passage something that happened after the events of this passage
        The Lord’s Supper wasn’t instituted yet
        Jesus is foretelling His death
      - Live forever/eternal life
        Once again we see Jesus using these two terms interchangeably
        That is the result of recognizing and believing in Jesus’ ultimate sacrifice on the cross and then coming to Him
      - Raised up at the last day
        Verse 54 and verse 40 are almost parallel and help us to understand that Jesus is using the metaphor of eating to describe believing in Him
        John 6:54, Whoever eats my flesh and drinks by blood has eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day
        John 6:40, For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.
        If you believe, you have eaten.
      - Abide
        Jesus is basically saying that if we continue to believe in His sacrifice on the cross that He will continue to be with us
        “That the believer remains in Jesus means he or she continues to be identified with Jesus, continues as a Christian (to use a later term), continues in saving faith and consequent transformation of life. That Jesus remains in the believer means that Jesus identifies himself with the believer, but not in reciprocal trust and transformation (that would be absurd) but in help, blessing, life, and personal presence by the Spirit (cf. 14:23-27).” [Carson, 298]
        John 15:5-8, “I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. If you remain in me and my words remain you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given to you. This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.
      - Jesus has been speaking positively up to this point, but that changes here at the center
    - Center – No life (vv. 52-53)
      - The Jews are trying to understand
        Their question, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” is similar to Nicodemus’s questions
        John 3:4, “How can a man be born when he is old?”
        John 3:9, “How can this be?” (Jesus talking about being born again)
        The Jews are wrestling with the truth that Jesus is God and has been sent from God to redeem the world and provide eternal life for everyone who believes in Him and comes to Him
      - The negative
        The Jews were arguing between themselves and again Jesus answers their question even though it wasn’t directed to Him
        Jesus is saying to them, “You have to believe in Me as the One sent down from heaven from the Father to provide eternal life.”
        If they refuse to do that, they do not have life in them
        They will not have eternal life
        They will not live forever
        They are not guaranteed entrance into the Kingdom of God
      - PRINCIPLE #3 – God’s desire is that every person believe in Jesus’ ultimate sacrifice.
        We are no different than the Jews in Jesus’ day
        We are not guaranteed heaven apart from believing in Jesus and remaining in Him
        What we all deserve is eternal separation from God, because of our sin
        Isaiah 53:6, We all, like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
        Notice that the prophet Isaiah said that we all have turned to our own way – meaning we have turned away from God and His way
        Repentance is turning back to God’s way
        Acts 3:19, Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord, and that he may send the Christ, who has been appointed for you – even Jesus.
        Repentance is more than just saying a prayer with the preacher or evangelist
        True repentance is evidenced by a transformed life – desiring the things that God desires
        It is being completely committed to Jesus and faith in Him
        “Do you understand the illustration? That is what faith is. That is what it means to eat Christ’s flesh and drink his blood. It is to commit yourself to him. It is to accept his promise and pledge on your behalf and to repeat his promise, vowing to be his for eternity. If you have done that, you have done the most important thing there is to be done in this life, regardless of what you may already have accomplished or may yet accomplish. If you have not, you should know that today is the day of salvation. Today is the day of your union with Christ, if you will have it so. (Boice, II, p. 220).” [Gangel, Holman New Testament Commentary, John, 130]
        My Next Step Today Is To: Repent and turn to God so my sins can be wiped out and I can experience eternal life.
- Location (v. 59)
  - - John helps us to know where Jesus was when He gave His “Bread of Life” discourse
    - We already knew that He was in Capernaum
    - Now we know He was in the synagogue in Capernaum

YOU
- If you have truly repented of your sins and turned to God, then going directly to the person you have an issue with will be your first reaction instead of talking to others about it
- Please make today the day of salvation, the day of repenting and turning back to God

- We have a responsibility as fellow believers to follow Jesus’ example of stopping those who are grumbling, complaining or gossiping – accountability is the key
- We also have a responsibility to share the good news of Jesus Christ with those around us

CONCLUSION

“Most kingdoms do anything they can to protect their king. This is the unspoken premise of the game of chess, for example. When the king falls, the kingdom is lost. Therefore, the king must be protected at all costs. Another notable example comes from the Allied invasion of Normandy on D-Day, June 6, 1944. British Prime Minister Winston Churchill desperately wanted to join the expeditionary forces and watch the invasion from the bridge of a battleship in the English Channel. U.S. General Dwight David Eisenhower was desperate to stop him, for fear that the Prime Minister might be killed in battle. When it became apparent that Churchill would not be dissuaded, Eisenhower appealed to a higher authority: King George VI. The king went and told Churchill that if it was the Prime Minister's duty to witness the invasion, he could only conclude that it was also his own duty as king to join him on the battleship. At this point Churchill reluctantly agreed to back down, for he knew that he could never expose the King of England to such danger.

King Jesus did exactly the opposite. With royal courage he surrendered his body to be crucified. On the cross he offered a king's ransom: his life for the life of his people. He would die for all the wrong things that we had ever done and would do, completely atoning for all our sins. The crown of thorns that was meant to make a mockery of his royal claims actually proclaimed his kingly dignity, even in death.”

From Philip Ryken's sermon "Long Live the King!" PreachingToday.com

[https://www.preachingtoday.com/illustrations/2008/august/4081108.html].

September 29, 2019/by Office

The Best Thing Since Sliced Bread

Believe John Sunday Morning Stuart Johns Discipleship, Salvation

Believe

The Best Thing Since Sliced Bread

(John 6:22-40)

INTRODUCTION

There are all kinds of videos and posts on the internet about how McDonald’s hamburgers don’t rot. It’s seems as though their hamburgers will last forever, but there is a simple explanation that the following video will explain.

Just hang in there with me and you’ll understand why I showed you this video this morning

BODY

ME
- Planned Obsolescence
  - - I studied Business Management and Economics in college
    - For one of my Economics classes, I wrote a paper about planned obsolescence
    - Here is the definition of planned obsolescence – “a policy of producing consumer goods that rapidly become obsolete and so require replacing, achieved by frequent changes in design, termination of the supply of spare parts, and the use of nondurable materials.”
    - Basically companies make products that they know will not last, or use colors and designs that will eventually not be trending, so that we have to replace them
    - This guarantees a continual demand from consumers, which in turn guarantees future sales, and the growth of a company

WE
- Replacing appliances
  - - How many of us have had to recently replace a washer, dryer, dishwasher, stove, microwave, television, computer, etc.
    - Our first step is usually trying to have the appliance repaired, but then realizing it’s cheaper to just replace it because the replacement parts are expensive
    - We all understand the idea of planned obsolescence because we have experienced it

Jesus is talking with the crowd in the Capernaum synagogue (John 6:59). They have just experienced the miraculous feeding of over 5,000 people and Jesus wants them to understand that they are seeking Him for the wrong reasons. They want to continue to receive free food from Him, but He wants them to believe in Him. The crowd is seeking food that will spoil, but Jesus is offering them food that will lead to eternal life. They are seeking the temporal and Jesus is offering the eternal. John wants us to answer this question today . . .

BIG IDEA – What kind of “bread” are you seeking?

Are we seeking temporal bread that will spoil or eternal bread that leads to eternal life.

Even though McDonald’s hamburgers and other thin-made hamburgers don’t rot for lack of moisture, I would still be hesitant to eat one after it has set out for years. It’s still a temporal food source that will not last once it’s eaten.

Let’s pray

GOD (John 6:22-40)
- Seeking Jesus (vv. 22-24)
  - - Review
      - Jesus has just fed the 5,000 on the north eastern shore of the Sea of Galilee in what is the modern day Golan Heights
      - He compelled the disciples to get in their boat and cross back over the Sea of Galilee to Capernaum
      - He dismissed the crowd and then went up on the mountainside to pray
      - Jesus sees the disciples struggling against the oars because of a storm on the Sea of Galilee, and He walks on the water to be with them
    - John picks up the story line again on the north eastern shore of the Sea of Galilee
      - Night has passed and some of the crowd had remained where the miraculous food distribution had taken place
      - The wording lets us know that some of the crowd probably returned to their homes nearby
      - The remaining crowd realized that the disciples had taken the only boat that had been on the shore, and that Jesus was not with His disciples on the boat
      - More boats arrive
        While the crowd is pondering everything and probably looking for Jesus, some boats from Tiberias arrive at the place where Jesus had miraculously fed the 5,000
        Tiberius would have been south of Capernaum on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee
        We’re not told why these boats arrived the next morning
        Perhaps they had heard about Jesus and were seeking Him also
        Perhaps it was the sovereignty of God to allow the remaining crowd to cross over to Capernaum
      - When the crowd realizes that Jesus and His disciples are not with them on the north eastern shoreline, they get in the boats and cross over the Capernaum
      - They are searching for Jesus and knew that Capernaum was the hometown of several of His disciples (perhaps they also knew that Capernaum was His home base for ministry while in Galilee)
    - Their search for Jesus doesn’t take long, at least in our text
- True Motives (vv. 25-34)
  - - We don’t actually know how long it took the crowd to find Jesus
      - My guess is that another crowd was already forming because Jesus was teaching, so it wasn’t hard to find Him
      - We know from John 6:59 that Jesus was teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum
      - His “Bread of Life” discourse may have started out in the open, but it was completed in the synagogue
    - Full of questions
      - We’ll see in these next ten verses that the crowd is full of questions for Jesus
        Jesus doesn’t always answer their direct question, because He knows their hearts and what they are truly asking
        Their questions also reveal where their focus is and what they were taught about entering the kingdom of God
      - Question 1
        “When did you get here?”
        Perhaps the question they wanted to ask, but were too afraid to ask is, “How did you get here?”
        They knew He hadn’t gotten in the boat with His disciples
        They also knew there weren’t any other boats for Him to use
        “The question they ask means both when did you get here? (NIV) and ‘How long have you been here?’” [Carson, The Pillar New Testament Commentary, The Gospel According to John, 283]
        The crowd is trying to clear up the confusion they have about how Jesus got to Capernaum ahead of them
        They have seen Jesus do the miraculous, but they still don’t understand who He is
        Jesus’ answer gets to the true motive behind why they were seeking Him
        PRINCIPLE #1 – Jesus knows our heart, because He is all-knowing (omniscient).
        Jesus knew the reason why the crowd was looking for Him
        They weren’t seeking Him for spiritual reasons at all, but rather for physical reasons
        They wanted another free lunch
        The miraculous signs were very important, because they were designed to point people to Jesus
        But, the crowd had missed it
        “The meaning of ‘sign’ in this Gospel is that it points beyond the physical, concrete reality to the reality of revelation. It provides insight into who Jesus is.” [Borchert, The New American Commentary, John 1-11, 262]
        Jesus knows the reason why you and I seek Him
        What kind of “bread” are you seeking?
        He knows what kind of discipleship we are pursuing, with Him
        Is it a discipleship of the physical or the spiritual?
        Every person makes sure that their physical hunger is taken care of, which is especially evident in our American culture (myself included)
        “Speaker Mike Benson tells how one night, as his family was finishing dinner, his eight-year-old daughter left six green beans on her plate. She normally ate her veggies, and Mike did not usually allow this sort of thing to bother him, but this night he was irked and said to her, ‘Eat your green beans.’
        
        She replied, ‘Dad, I'm full to the top.’
        
        ‘You won't pop,’ he responded.
        
        ‘Yes, I will pop!’ she said.
        
        ‘Risk it!’ he said. ‘It will be okay.’
        
        ‘Dad, I could not eat another bite.’
        
        Mike knew that night they were having her favorite dessert, pumpkin pie squares. So he asked, ‘How would you like a double helping of pumpkin pie squares with two dollops of whipped cream on top?’
        
        ‘That sounds great!’ she responded as she pushed her plate back, ready for dessert.
        
        ‘How can you have room for a double helping of pumpkin pie squares with two dollops of whipped cream, and not have room for six measly green beans?’
        
        She stood up tall out of her chair and pointing to her belly said, ‘This is my vegetable stomach. This is my meat stomach. They are both full. Here is my dessert stomach. It is empty. I am ready for dessert!’
        
        What we eat reveals what we hunger for.”
        
        Phillip Gunter, pastor of Crossroads Chapel, Round Rock, Texas
        
        [https://www.preachingtoday.com/illustrations/2000/june/12502.html]
        We do whatever it takes to satisfy our hunger
        “Compare that to how much time and energy and effort we put into making sure our spiritual hunger is met. Do we even think about it? Do we give any thought to what sustains our spiritual lives, what nourishes our souls? Even when we attend church, are we thinking about anything other than what we want and what we like?” [Carter & Wredberg, Christ-Centered Exposition: Exalting Jesus in John, 151]
        Jesus knows the motives behind why you and I come to church and why we claim to be a Christian
        He knows if our motives are about our own preferences and getting our own way
        He knows if we’re holding on to something that’s not Biblical
        He knows if we’re holding on the past instead of following His leading into the future
        He knows if coming to church is just a “check box” item for us, and not about going deeper with Him and finding nourishment for our souls
        If our thoughts are consumed with what’s happening after church instead of what’s happening during church, Jesus knows!
        My Next Step Today Is To: Pursue what sustains my spiritual life and nourishes my soul, with the same effort and energy as I pursue what sustains my physical body.
        That transitions us into Jesus’ words to the crowd about pursuing the eternal over the temporal
        Eternal over temporal
        Jesus instructs the crowd to move from the physical to the spiritual
        What kind of “bread” are you seeking?
        They were focused on the physical – receiving free food and not having to work anymore
        Matthew 15:17, “Don’t you see that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and then out of the body?”
        Physical food doesn’t last
        The crowd was still going to have to eat, but Jesus wanted them to pursue the eternal with the same effort they pursued the physical
        He is One (Son of Man) who is going to give them the spiritual food that will endure to eternal life
        Jesus explains that He has received God’s seal of approval
        When I hear the words “seal of approval” I always think of The Good Housekeeping Seal of approval [show the Good Housekeeping Seal]
        They test products, so you can trust it
        They’ve been doing it since 1909
        Did you know that they have expanded the seal to other areas as well?
        The Green Good Housekeeping Emblem [show image]
        The Good Housekeeping Innovation Emblem [show image]
        The Good Housekeeping Humanitarian Seal [show image]
        The Good Housekeeping Nutritionist Approved Emblem [show image]
        We are not told in the passage when Jesus received that seal of approval
        There are various thoughts as to when He received the seal of approval
        Some believe it was in heaven before He came to earth
        Others believe it was during His baptism by John the Baptist
        We don’t know, because we’re not told
        Jesus is moving closer to His declaration of being the Bread of Life, but He has to deal with the crowds preconceived ideas first
        That leads us to the crowds second question
      - Question 2
        “What must we do to do the works God requires?”
        Notice that the crowd focuses on the wrong thing
        Jesus intended for them to focus on the goal (spiritual instead of material) and not on work
        Unfortunately, they focused on the work aspect instead of the goal
        At this point they understood that Jesus was talking about the spiritual and not the material/physical
        “As good Jews they wanted some way to work in order to gain God’s favor . . . ‘To Jewish questioners, attaining eternal life consisted in finding the right formula for performing works to please God . . .’ (Tenney, EBC, p. 75)” [Gangel, Holman New Testament Commentary, John, 122]
        Application
        How often do we do the same thing?
        We think that there is some special formula that God requires of us in order to please Him
        We try to find out how many times we have to go to church in a week, a month, or a year
        We try to determine how much we need to give to the church, missionaries, homeless, etc.
        We wonder how long we should pray or study the Bible each day
        All of that is meaningless if it’s done only to please God, and not out of our love for Him, our desire to bring Him praise and glory, and because of His gift of salvation offered to us
        Jesus explains that it is not works (plural), but work (singular)
        The work of God (what God requires) is for us to believe in Jesus
        God requires faith in Jesus
        PRINCIPLE #2 – God’s desire is that His created beings believe in Jesus.
        “Faith, as we have seen, is the touchstone by which works are judged, not the other way around.” [Michaels, The New International Commentary on the New Testament, The Gospel of John, 367]
        Faith in Jesus, and the transformation He brings in our lives, sets us up to serve God by serving others with the right motive
        It’s out of love for God and a desire for His name to be honored and glorified that we attend church, give to the church, missionaries, and the hurting, that we pray, and study His Word, that we visit the sick and those in prison, and so much more
        The crowd is starting to understand what Jesus is saying, so they ask Him a third question
      - Question 3
        They realize that Jesus is saying that they need to believe in Him, because He is the One that God has sent
        Their third question is really saying to Jesus, “Prove it!”
        “What miraculous sign then will you give that we may see it and believe you? What will you do?”
        Does anyone else find it interesting that most of the crowd, if not all of the crowd, just witnessed Jesus taking five small loaves of bread and two small fish and feeding a crowd of over 5,000 people with it?
        Was that not a miraculous sign?
        PRINCIPLE #3 – Faith comes by hearing and not seeing.
        Too often, we’re just like the crowd in this story
        We want God to do something miraculous for us, and then we will believe in Him or follow Him
        “If You’ll just help me to get an A on this test, then I will believe in You.”
        “If You’ll just heal my Dad, grandmother, child, friend, or me, then I will believe in You, Jesus.”
        If You’ll just get me out of this financial hole, then I’ll follow You.”
        If You’ll just heal my marriage or other relationship with a family member, coworker, neighbor, or fellow church attender, then I’ll believe in You.”
        The list could go on and on
        Romans 10:16-17, But not all the Israelites accepted the good news. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed our message?” Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ.
        Jesus had been teaching them about God
        They had heard the word of Christ, directly from Him
        It wasn’t going to matter if Jesus did another miraculous sign for them
        What matters is trusting in Jesus by faith and watching Him transform us from the inside out
        Through that transformation we can and will see Him do the miraculous for His honor and glory
        1 Corinthians 10:31, So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.
        When we do everything for the glory of God:
        We’ll do well on our tests, because we have studied to the glory of God
        We’ll see God’s miraculous healing power (physically, emotionally, mentally, relationally)
        We’ll experience God’s provision for our needs
        The crowd wanted to see something on the scale of manna from heaven, just like their forefathers had experienced with Moses
        “If Jesus is superior to Moses, as his tone and claims suggest, then should not his followers be privileged to witness mightier works than those seen by the disciples of Moses?” [Carson, 286]
        There was a Rabbinic belief that the Messiah would call down manna from heaven, like Moses did [Carson, 286]
        Some Rabbi’s interpreted Exodus 16:15 this way
        Jesus reminded the Jews who had provided the bread from heaven
        It was God who had provided it
        God was now providing the true bread from heaven – Jesus Christ
      - The crowd was still struggling to understand that Jesus is talking about Himself as the bread of life
        Perhaps they thought Jesus was speaking metaphorically of some kind of gift from God [Michaels, 372]
        They want to receive this bread from now on
        This would have been an incredible request if they truly understood what it meant
        “The spiritual bread that the Lord can provide is necessary for life, suited for everyone, must be eaten daily, and produces spiritual growth in those who believe it.” [Gangel, 123]
        We need Jesus in our life – He is necessary for us to live life fully
        Suited for everyone – Jesus is gluten free, lactose free, peanut free (whatever allergy you may struggle with, Jesus is suited for you)
        We need to feed on the bread of life daily
    - The crowd is so close to believing in Jesus
    - They want the bread of life, but they aren’t quite sure what it is and how to obtain it
    - Jesus makes it clear in this final section
- True Bread (vv. 35-40)
  - - “I am the bread of life.” (vv. 35-36)
      - Jesus cannot make it any clearer than this
      - What kind of “bread” are you seeking?
      - He is the bread of life that God has sent down from heaven
        Come to Jesus
        Jesus promises us that when we come to Him we will never hunger spiritually
        “Jesus is the bread of life; he’s the only one who can fill the emptiness inside us. A full life is a life spent in pursuit of Jesus. A life spent any other way will feel barren and unfulfilled.” [Carter & Wredberg, 152]
        Matthew 11:28-30, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
        Jesus encourages us, in this passage, to partner with Him in our life
        He will teach us the right way to go as we follow His leading
        Coming to Jesus will provide rest for our souls
        “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in you.” [Augustine of Hippo, Confessions]
        Revelation 22:17, The Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” And let them who hears say, “Come!” Whoever is thirsty, let him come; and whoever wishes, let him take the free gift of the water of life.
        Coming to Jesus means believing in Him
        Believe in Jesus
        We see here a return to the Samaritan woman at the well who was seeking living water
        It is the same as not being hungry – Jesus satisfies every spiritual need we have
        The greatest need we have as humans is the need to deal with the sin we are all born with
        It affects every aspect of our lives
        We are all born sinners, separated from God because of our sin (Rom. 3:23)
        Since God is holy (perfect) He cannot allow sin into heaven
        God is also just, so He has to punish sin (Rom. 6:23)
        God is also love, so He made a way to take care of our punishment for sin (Rom. 5:8)
        Romans 10:9-10, That if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved.
        Being saved is another way to express having eternal life
        My Next Step Today Is To: Come to Jesus and believe in Him, so I can be saved and have eternal life.
      - The amazing thing is that they still didn’t believe even though they had seen Jesus face-to-face (v. 36)
      - Jesus then promises to protect those who come to Him and believe in Him
    - Jesus’ protection (vv. 37-40)
      - PRINCIPLE #4 – God promises to protect those who come to Jesus and believe in Him.
        Most scholars see the doctrine of election in these final verses
        All that the Father gives me will come to me
        There seems to be the idea that the Father has chosen certain people to come to Jesus
        When those individuals come to Jesus, He will never drive them away – this is an incredible promise for us as followers of Jesus Christ
        What is in tension here is God’s sovereign will and human responsibility
        God’s sovereignty – All that the Father gives me will come to me
        Human responsibility – whoever comes to me I will never drive away
        We see Jesus submitting to the Father’s will – He is not doing His own thing on earth, but only what the Father has told Him to do
        Jesus expresses God’s will in two ways
        God’s will is that Jesus will not lose any of those that God has given to Him – He will protect them and raise them up at the last day
        God’s will is that everyone who looks to Jesus and believes in Him will have eternal life – He will protect them and raise them up at the last day
        My Next Step Today Is To: Claim the promise that God will protect me, until the last day, when I come to Jesus and believe in Him for eternal life.

YOU
- What kind of “bread” are you seeking?
- Pursue what sustains your spiritual life and nourishes your soul, with the same effort and energy as you pursue what sustains your physical body
- Come to Jesus and believe in Him, so you can be saved and have eternal life.
- Claim the promise that God will protect you, until the last day, when you come to Jesus and believe in Him for eternal life.

- When we pour ourselves into pursuing what sustains our spiritual life and nourishes our soul, those around us will see a difference in us and as a body of believers we will experience peace and unity
- The Gospel is something that everyone needs to hear – it is part of the Great Commission of Pursuing Disciples, Growing Disciples, and Multiplying Disciples for Jesus Christ

CONCLUSION

I want to close with this illustration from Gangel that helps us understand the doctrine of election, which combines God’s sovereignty and humanity’s responsibility.

“My seminary theology professor, Dr. Alva J. McClain, used a wonderful illustration to explain the doctrine of election, one which I have repeated hundreds of times throughout my own ministry. He talked about standing outside a beautiful garden, perhaps like the Butschart Gardens on Vancouver Island, or perhaps the Biltmore Estate in North Carolina, or the DuPont Gardens in Delaware. As we stand outside the gate surveying the beautiful array of flowers, we ponder what it might cost to spend two or three hours strolling around the gardens and photographing the beautiful scenery.

About this point, we look at the stone archway over the gate and read in large letters, ‘Whosoever Will May Come.’ Surely it cannot be possible. Places like this are always expensive. But there is no ticket booth, no waiting line, no signs offering different rates for children, adults, and seniors. Assuming the sign means what it says, we enter the garden and begin to peruse its botanical treasures. Before we get too far down the pathways, however, we want to see that welcome sign one more time – inviting us without charge to enjoy this magnificent place. But as we turn, we look up at the interior of the wall and see the wording of the sign has changed. Now it reads, ‘Chosen in Him from the Foundation of the World.’

McClain’s point was both brilliant and simple: to unbelievers, the message is a universal call to faith in Jesus Christ; to believers, it is a reminder that God has controlled our eternal destiny from the beginning. To state it theologically, only the elect will come, but those who come demonstrate they have been chosen.”

[Gangel, Holman New Testament Commentary, John, 132-133].

September 22, 2019/by Office

Better Together

National Back To Church Sunday Ephesians Sunday Morning Marc Webb Peace, Unity

BETTER TOGETHER

This morning, we are participating and celebrating this Back to Church Sunday as part of a national movement. This is a great opportunity and we are excited to be joining with other parts of the body of Christ across the country to reflect on and reclaim the true nature of the church as a place and expression of love, peace, and hope for our friends, neighbors, communities, and world. As a church, we are the collective hands and feet of Christ, who reflect Him and do His work in the world as we grow in our relationships with Him and with each other. So whether you are new to Idaville Church or have been here all your lives or somewhere in between, we are better together.

This phrase, “Back to Church” got me to thinking about the reasons why people leave the church and don’t come back, maybe, for a month, a year, or even longer. So, of course, I googled it. Here are some of the reasons I found why people leave the church. One, they got out of the habit. They stopped going one Sunday and that one Sunday became two and then four and then a year later they are still not back in church. Two, they were hurt by someone or something that happened in the church and stopped going to church. Third, they never felt connected to others in the church. Four, some stop going to church because a favorite pastor left or retired. Five, sometimes young people stop going to church after high school. They go off to college and get out of the habit and stop going altogether. Finally, some people move away or get a new job with different hours and stop going to church.

Now I think it’s only fair to also tell you the reasons why people come back to church and maybe you can identify with one of these reasons. First, people come back to church because they were invited. That is the number one reason why people come back to church. Two, some people start going back to church because they’ve passed by a church and something stood out to them, maybe it’s the modern look of the building or the denomination. Three, some see the advertising on the church’s website or Facebook page and they decide to try that church out. Four, people get married, have kids and realize they want to bring their kids up in the church like they had been. Five, whatever causes them to stop going to church in the first place ends, like a job, and they go back to church. Lastly, the Holy Spirit draws them back to church.

Which brings me to my story of going back to church. When I was about 18 or 19, working on my Associates degree in Law Enforcement, and I started working part time as a security guard in two office high rise buildings. I worked on Friday and Saturday nights from 11 pm to 7 am and for the year I worked there, except for a couple of times, probably Christmas and Easter, I did not go to church. I used the excuse that having worked all night I was tired and needed to sleep. About the time that I finished my degree and had decided that I needed a full-time job I was given the opportunity to work for a family owned business. So I quit the part-time night security job and took the full-time job working Monday through Friday during the daylight hours and guess what? I went right back to church. The thing that I let keep me away from church ended and because my parents had instilled in me the priority of going to church, it made it a no-brainer to go back.

But I also fully believe that the Holy Spirit was calling me back to church. God had far reaching plans for me that started that day back in March 1986 when I decided to go back to church that still impacts my life today. The continuation of my story is that as soon as I went back to the church that I had grown up in all my life I met a person named Jackie who was from Pennsylvania. She had started to attend my home church and was in the same young adult Sunday school class I was. She had moved down from Pennsylvania to get a job and was living with a family who also attended my church. One Easter Sunday, as my family was out of the country, she invited me to her house for lunch. Her mother and sister were down from Pennsylvania and were going to be there as well. Maybe you have heard the story or can guess where this is going but the sister that I had lunch with that day was my now wife, Judy. I still marvel at how God orchestrated the seemingly random events of finishing my degree to quitting my part-time job to finding just the right daylight job to making the decision to go back to church to meeting Jackie to meeting my wife to getting married and moving to Pennsylvania to being led into ministry to now standing before you preaching a sermon. It was a God-thing. It is also a God-thing that all of you are here this morning as well. Whether this is your first day back in church in a while or you haven’t missed church in a long time, God has us all in this place for many reasons. One of those reasons is because we are better together than apart.

Now, I can’t promise that you will find a wife at church but you will find new friends and you can experience peace through the different relationships you make at church. You may not became a pastor or missionary but can find peace by being in ministry and serving God in the church. I can promise that if you come to church with the intent to grow spiritually and strive to be more like Christ, you will have peace in your life and you will find peace with God. Which brings me to our big idea this morning which is “in fellowship together we can find peace.”

But before we start to unpack this idea of being at peace in fellowship together let’s dedicate our time this morning to God with prayer. Let’s pray:

Father, we come before you this morning asking for your Holy Spirit to fill us so that as we hear your message today from your word, our faith will be increased. We ask that you would use your word which is living and active and sharper than any double edged sword to rightly divide us even to soul and spirit, joint and marrow. Use your word to expose the thoughts and the attitudes of our hearts. And use your word to give us practical next steps that we can use in our daily lives. In Jesus’ name. Amen

The theme for Back to Church Sunday is Together, and as I thought about togetherness and what it means for us as followers of Jesus, I thought of Legos. Who could have imagined that these pieces of plastic would be worth billions of dollars? The Danish toy company that began in the 1930s has built a Lego empire around the building bricks that they introduced in the 1950s. Individually, Legos are just cheap pieces of plastic—but despite their basic design, the magic is in the way they fit together. Legos are designed to be together—that’s what those little raised circles are for, to attach each brick to another. And together these plastic pieces can be made into fantastic creations. So if you didn’t know Pastor Stuart collects Legos. Here are some pictures of the Lego structures he has in his office.

Full-scale models of castles, cars, airplanes, spaceships have all been built from Legos. If you’ve ever been to one of the LEGOLAND theme parks, you’ve been treated to scaled replicas of the world’s most famous buildings and landmarks. It seems that Legos can be put together to create almost anything. They are just pieces of plastic, but together they create something much bigger and better than the sum of their parts.

The church is like Legos, a collection of individuals of various sizes, shapes, and colors. Individually, we may be kind of a big jumble at a glance, but when we come together the way God intended, we form the Church, which is a creation much greater than the individual members. God takes our chaos and, by His design, makes something spectacular and gives us purpose. In real life, this concept is powerful and life changing. Christ invites us to be together with Himself and together with one another. Together we are on a journey of transformation and “in fellowship together we can find peace.”

This morning we are going to be looking in the Book of Ephesians, chapter 2, verses 17-22. Ephesians was written by Paul while he was in prison in Rome. He wrote this letter to a group of believers in the city of Ephesus about 30 years after Jesus’ death and resurrection. The theme of this letter is “togetherness” and Paul comes back to it again and again. Like all of the early church, the believers in Ephesus got their information in a very communal way. The people receiving this letter did so by gathering together and listening to it being read. When it came to processing and understanding what the letter meant, the people of Ephesus did so—together. Together they listened and learned and shared and discussed and wrestled through the challenges of living out their faith in Christ in the midst of a culture that operated in a vastly different way. So we will be following their lead together in wrestling with the ways Christ invites us to live both together with Him and together with one another and by doing so have peace.

Paul had previously spent time in Ephesus as a missionary, so he knew the culture and the challenges this group of believers faced. He knew that they were a group of people surrounded and challenged by other ideas, beliefs, and practices. The church at Ephesus needed the strength of unity to grow and survive, not unlike our church today.

Paul wrote this letter to encourage and instruct the young church in how to have peace. Our world seeks peace in so many different ways. We seek peace among nations, peace in our cities, peace in our families, peace in our churches, and peace in our own hearts and minds. As we explore the concept that “in fellowship together we can find peace”, let’s look at Ephesians 2:17-22. This is what God’s Word says: “[Christ] came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit. Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household, built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.”

According to this passage there are three ways we can have peace. The first way we can have peace is in unity with other believers. Do you ever find yourself, or those you know, searching for a place to belong? Are you searching for a way to be part of something bigger than yourself? Where can you experience that sense of belonging? Paul says that the body of Christ—the church—is our place of belonging, rooted in the restoration and unity brought by Jesus.

Paul takes us directly into the central issue of togetherness, which is unity and foundational to this unity is grace. Nobody can claim a higher position or status, because all believers are of the same status. We are all sinners in need of grace. Ephesians 2:8-9 says “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast.” When we recognize that it is grace that has saved us, it forces us to open our arms and hearts to all in gratitude. We have all been there. We have all experienced the same need. We have all been offered the same gift. Grace does not allow exclusion, instead, it brings us together in unity.

Paul goes on to explain how Christ’s purpose was to unify the two major divisions of people—Jews and Gentiles. By including these two groups, Paul is including everyone. In chapter 2, verse 14, Paul says, “For he himself (talking about Jesus) is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility.” By coming to save the world—all people of the world—Jesus broke down the deepest divisions of eternity between God and man, and the deepest divisions of humanity between God’s covenant people and others. In doing away with that separation, He brought peace, real, lasting, ultimate peace. Obviously, that peace will not be completely realized until Christ returns to complete God’s ultimate restoration. But through Jesus’ death and resurrection, the door to peace is open to all of us. And it opens up unity as a definitive characteristic of God’s people.

Paul is clear that we find peace in unity, but that does not mean in uniformity or sameness. The church at Ephesus was full of diversity, and the goal was not to change this. The goal was unity in the midst of those differences. It’s the same goal for the church today and the same goal for us here at Idaville. We are all different. We are all different ages and we all have different personalities. We all have different thoughts of how things should be done in the church but we all love God and his son, Jesus. God doesn’t want us to be all the same, but he does command us to love one another and in doing so we can be unified by the gospel of Jesus Christ. We can be unified together as we fulfill the Great Commission to Pursue, Grow and Multiply Disciples.

We don’t find peace by separating ourselves from the world or from each other, but by leaning into the grace and unity that Jesus brings. What would happen in our lives and community if church was a place to come together in peace and allow God to remove all dividing walls of hostility? How would this change our church body right here at Idaville? Let’s be a people of unity. Let’s be a people of grace. Let’s be a people of peace. Which brings us to our first next step on the back of your communication card which is to willingly sacrifice my personal preferences in order to be unified as a body of believers.

The second way we can have peace is by being in God’s presence. We live in a world that seems increasingly full of discord and anxiety. News stories demonstrate every day that as a population we struggle with anxiety, depression, and isolation. Headlines proclaim divisions and conflicts of all sorts, from personal disagreements to political wars, both ideologically and physically. We need peace!

Paul is crystal clear in verse 14 that Christ Himself is our peace. Peace is not a thing. It’s a person. We find peace—both personally and as a body—in relationship with Jesus. In Galatians 5:22, Paul describes the fruits of the Spirit. He says, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,” These are characteristics of people who are in relationship with Jesus and peace will be evident if God’s Spirit is living in and through us. Peace isn’t something we can create in ourselves; the Holy Spirit in us brings peace and enables us to live it out. Together as believers we are the collective dwelling place of God’s Spirit, who is our peace. That’s good news!

We are not alone. We are citizens, family, and most importantly, a dwelling in which God lives by His Spirit. While our struggles do not magically disappear, together in the middle of our struggles we can experience peace. Even now as our church struggles with relationship and financial issues and a lot of our people and their families are struggling with physical and mental health issues we can experience peace because we have the presence of the Holy Spirit in us. And because of that we can also share and offer peace to others, even when struggles or disagreements arise.

So what does peace look like in our lives? First, I can tell you first what peace is not. Peace is not ignoring differences, ignoring conflict, or ignoring reality. Peace is not an image to be upheld or a feeling to be pursued. Peace is the presence of God in His people. And His presence through the Holy Spirit enables us to experience peace and to remind each other and the world around us that He is the source of all peace. Where anxiety and fear are strongest, we can be a living reminder that God cares for the details of our lives, as well as the eternal redemptive story of the world.

So maybe you are here this morning and you do not have peace. Maybe you don’t have a relationship with Jesus and so have never felt the presence of the Holy Spirit inside you. Jesus promised that when we accept him as our Lord and Savior he would come into our lives, as the Holy Spirit, and be our advocate, counselor, and comforter. Maybe you want the Holy Spirit to come into you today so you can have the peace that comes from a personal relationship with Jesus. If so, the second next step on the back of your communication card may be for you which is to accept Jesus as my Lord and Savior and to feel the power of the Holy Spirit in my life.

The third way we can have peace is by committing to the process of peace. Wouldn’t it be nice if we could find peace once and be done with it? But peace is not just a one-time event. When faced with an unpeaceful world, Jesus invites us to return to Him and to each other again and again. The prophets who foretold the coming of Christ gave Him the name Prince of Peace. And through His death and resurrection, He made the way of peace available to each of us. In the face of all life’s battles and an unpeaceful world, Jesus offers the terms of peace and the way forward. When we daily surrender to His power and to His will we embrace the way of peace.

But what about the fact that peace seems so temporary and fragile? It seems that peace can be interrupted or destroyed in an instant. The peace we see in the world never seems to last. The good news is that as believers our peace goes beyond a circumstance or a feeling. That is because our peace is the never-changing, always-present Spirit of God. Jesus knew the hardships His disciples would face, and He promised them peace. He told them in John 14:26-27, “But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.”

Just as Jesus promised, the Holy Spirit is with us continually and is our source of peace. But we all need reminders. We all need encouragement and support. We all need each other to relate with in unity and peace and to share it with a world that needs it. And that’s where the church comes in. We are better together.

Paul closes Ephesians 2 with this: “And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.” Like those Legos we talked about earlier, we fit together to form the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit fills and enables us with the peace of Christ. Why do we come back to church, and invite others to join us? Because coming together here does not just put us in the church. Instead, it is here that we realize we are the church—and as the church, God dwells with us.

So we come together to live and worship in unity, to collectively turn our focus to Jesus and experience the source of our peace, and to offer the way of peace to the world. Together we are so much greater than the sum of our parts. Together we encourage and support each other when we are weak. Together we reflect the nature and relationship of God. Which brings us to our last next step on your communication card which is to encourage and support this body of believers and to reflect the nature and relationship of Christ to each other.

I want to close today with a story called “Clinker Bricks.” Although at times it seems as though the church is in ruin and rubble, God sees it as a beautiful building. Clinker bricks are bricks that did not quite make it. For some reason or another, they come out of the kiln misshapen or deformed. Gates Presbyterian Church in Rochester, New York was intentionally built of clinker bricks. Apparently, the congregation wanted to send a message, so they built their church of imperfect, rejected bricks. The message is that people are like clinker bricks. We are all sinners, we are all imperfect people full of weaknesses, but through Christ we become living stones in his church. We do not become living stones because we are so great, but it is Christ who is great. We are connected into his church through him.

May we all remember that we are imperfect, rejected bricks and are all sinners saved by God’s grace through his son, Jesus Christ. And by remembering we treat each other with love and respect and live in peace together though the Holy Spirit.

As Gene & Roxey come to lead us in our final hymn this morning and as the ushers get ready to pick up the communication cards lets pray:

Dear Heavenly Father, I pray that you would bring this community of believers peace and unity through your son Jesus. May we be good role models of peace and unity to the people around us, in the church and outside the church. May we strive to be more like Jesus, kind, caring, compassionate, loving, giving, forgiving and humble. Bring us together as a family. Grant us the patience to work together with understanding and compassion in our hearts. Let us not be rude or arrogant towards one another, as we light the way to your heavenly kingdom. In Jesus’ name. Amen

September 15, 2019/by Office

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Truth or Consequences

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A Love, Hate Relationship

Will You Stay Or Will You Go?

Eating Is Believing

The Best Thing Since Sliced Bread

Better Together

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