I believe that I once shared with you guys my experience of eating barbequed goat as a kid. As a preacher’s kid we were invited to Sunday dinner many times and once we went to a home where they served us goat.
To make matters worse, it was a warm day and they had the windows open and you could hear the goats bleating in the pasture beside the house.
That reminds me of this story that I would like to share with you.
A young couple invited their elderly preacher over for Sunday dinner. While they were in the kitchen preparing the meal, the minister asked their young son what they were having. “Goat,” the little boy replied. “Goat?” replied the startled man of the cloth, “Are you sure about that?” “Yep,” said the boy. “I heard Dad say to Mom, ‘Today is just as good as any to have the old goat for dinner.’”
Kids have a knack for telling the truth. They don’t sugar coat things sometimes and just tell it like it is.
The Bible is the same way. It lays out the truth, take it or leave it. It pulls no punches and is not politically correct.
Today we are returning back to the Farewell Discourse in John’s Gospel. We have spent several weeks just on this section of John but I think you are starting to see that this is a very, very important teaching.
This is Jesus’ last instructions to the disciples and He is also praying for them and blessing them before He goes to the cross.
These words ring just as true today as they did 2000 years ago. We as His disciples want to know the way, the truth, and the life.
With that said, let us turn to John 17
John 17: 13-21
13 "But now I come to You; and these things I speak in the world so that they may have My joy made full in themselves. 14 "I have given them Your word ; and the world has hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. 15 "I do not ask You to take them out of the world, but to keep them from the evil one. 16 "They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. 17 "Sanctify them in the truth ; Your word is truth. 18 "As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. 19 "For their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they themselves also may be sanctified in truth. 20 "I do not ask on behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word ; 21 that they may all be one ; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me.
In this prayer of Jesus we will notice a few important points:
1) The world hates the Disciples because of God’s Word
Something about God’s word will offend the world.
When John uses the term world – many times he is referring to the fallen sinful world.
The Apostle Paul uses the term the Flesh many times to refer to this same idea.
So the unregenerate, non-believing world will be hate God’s people because of God’s word
So many times I will take things personal when I share my beliefs and people get upset with me. I need to realize that Jesus told us it would be this way and just have confidence in God’s spoken word to make changes in people’s lives.
2) We are over and against the world
We are not to be too comfortable in this world. If we love this world too much we need to take stock and see if we are desiring the things of God
We should groan and mourn over the sin and lost of this world. We should be compelled to speak the truth of the Gospel because of the sin we witness in this world.
This same apostle John that wrote John 17 also tells us in 1 John 2
1 John 2: 15-17
15 Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world. 17 The world is passing away, and also its lusts ; but the one who does the will of God lives forever.
John is making his point clear. We are not of this world.
We are different – we are not love the lust of this world.
This world is temporal and we are eternal beings.
This world will pass away things that will pass:
1) the Lust of the Flesh
2) the Lust of the Eyes
3) Pride of Life –
all these will pass away
WE have to live in this world but not be conformed to the image of this world but be transformed by the renewing of our minds in Christ.
3) We are set apart or sanctified by truth.
The truth will set us apart
The truth will bring about purity in our lives in an impure world.
We are to be considered holy people, set apart and different looking than the world.
When the world looks at us do they see a difference?
Do they see a difference in the language that we use?
Do they see a difference in the TV shows and movies we watch?
Do they see a difference in our modesty in how we dress and go out in public?
These are all areas in which God’s truth sets us apart and makes us different. WE are sanctified. We are a royal, holy, priesthood in Christ.
4) God’s Truth is His Word and eventually The Apostles will speak His Word
This is a point that we will spend some time unpacking today.
The idea that God speaks and then in return we speak God’s truth seems elementary but today I hope I can help you see that this is extraordinary. This is really explosive.
Jesus says in verse 17 – Sanctify them in truth – thy word is truth
And then He turns around and says – people will believe in Jesus through the word of the Apostles.
We are here today reading and studying words that were handed down from Jesus to those Apostles.
The truth comes to us via those followers.
God speaks and then He enables His followers to speak His words
I. God’s Word from the Beginning.
John’s Gospel starts of with the idea that states the following:
John 1:1
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
John’s gospel start off with this embodied Word of God. The Logos, the intelligence, the very Being that was there in the Beginning as an agent of creation has taken on flesh.
Now God’s words are powerful – when God speaks things happen.
Lets go back in time to the very creating of the Universe.
Genesis 1: 3- tells us that God SAID: let there be light – and it happened.
We read 10 times in Genesis chapter 1 that God Said
Each Time we read that God SAID – we see things happen – Creative power, explosive things happening.
Even at Mount Sinai we see God say 10 Words or 10 Commandments –
The term DECALOGUE is used for the 10 commandments which literally means 10 words.
In the Mosaic Covenant we see God speak 10 words – or 10 commandments that will shape and bring into existence a new way of living and a new Nation.
God’s words also bring blessing
We see in Genesis 1:22 and Genesis 1: 28 that God’s words bless the creation.
God’s words also make promises and keep those promises – To Abraham and his barren wife we see that God tells them that a great nation will come from them and that is exactly what happens.
So we can see that when God Speaks – when He says things – it is powerful and the situation changes.
If God says I will do such and such – then such and such will happen -
2) God has given man the ability to Speak
Spoken language is a very important gift that God has given us.
We see early on in the Genesis account that God gives Adam the ability to name the animals.
In that task Adam is developing relationship through speech and naming.
Genesis 2: 19 we witness that God gives the man the ability to speak and name the living animals.
Naming is a special thing that leads to relationship.
Consider when we see people out we know and call them by name- there is something special there with that. Naming = relationship building
Great responsibility with the ability to speak and bring about speech for man.
Later in Genesis 2:23-24 we witness Man use this ability to speak again when he meets the woman for the first time. We see speech leads to relationship between the man and the woman.
3) The Speech of Satan and Satan’s words enter the history of the World
Genesis 3: 1-5
1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said to the woman, "Indeed , has God said, 'You shall not eat from any tree of the garden '?" 2 The woman said to the serpent, "From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat ; 3 but from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said, 'You shall not eat from it or touch it, or you will die.' " 4 The serpent said to the woman, "You surely will not die ! 5 "For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."
In this story we see a radical shift in the history of the speech of man because of deceptive words of Satan.
Now consider the only weapon Satan has against the woman and man. It is his words to deceive them.
If we think for one moment that words aren’t important – the entire history of mankind changes because of this one conversation.
What Satan says is partially true. The man and woman will know good and evil.
What we miss is that they already knew all they needed to know – They knew what WAS GOOD!!
Look at the words of Eve. – The bible says in Genesis 3: 6 - 6 When the woman saw that the tree was good for food
The woman knew what was good but by sin Satan was introduce her to knowledge of evil. The experience of sin and doing what is wrong in God’s eyes.
The language and speech that God wants from man is speech that is about truth and good.
Satan perverts that truth and now turns it from a gift to evil.
This will escalate with the words of man in Genesis 11 and Babel saying Let Us make a Name for ourselves.
Man takes the ultimate gift of speech and ruins it and in turn God has to confuse the languages.
4) Now God uses language that is new – He brings curses on man and creation.
Because of the new situation God now has to bring curses upon the man and woman. The ground is cursed, the woman is cursed in painful childbirth and even the serpent is cursed.
The words of God that had brought blessing and the statement of it is Good has now changed to curses because of sin. This is not how it was supposed to be.
Now in Christ things have changed.
We have been called to be different.
The story of the Bible has been about God calling us what is good and to His truth.
Now let us go back to John 17: 17
Jesus prayed for us to be sanctified in truth – and God’s word is this truth. The apostles are called to proclaim a message that will bring about salvation in the ones that hear it and obey it.
So what should our speech look like?
If we are overturning the curse and putting back together what God wants then what will this look like?
1) We speak as to please God and not men
1 Thessalonians 2: 4
4 but just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, so we speak, not as pleasing men, but God who examines our hearts.
Every word we speak that comes from our mouths should be in the glory of God.
Our conversations at work, with our family, with everyone we come in contact with should be to the glory of God.
We speak to please God and not man.
2) In Christ our Speech is enriched
I Corinthians 1: 5
5 that in everything you were enriched in Him, in all speech and all knowledge, 6 even as the testimony concerning Christ was confirmed in you,
All speech is enriched when we are Christians – when you are in Christ even your very words are made more meaningful.
3) Think through everything you say because it is an opportunity for Christ
Colossians 4: 5-6
5 Conduct yourselves with wisdom toward outsiders , making the most of the opportunity. 6 Let your speech always be with grace, as though seasoned with salt, so that you will know how you should respond to each person
Everytime we come in contact with a non-believer we are to be careful the words that we use. Our speech should be graceful and edify others.
If we speak any word that does not edify
If we speak words that tear down others then we are NOT speaking with the grace and truth of Christ.
4) Be sound in your speech
Titus 2: 7-8
7 in all things show yourself to be an example of good deeds, with purity in doctrine, dignified, 8 sound in speech which is beyond reproach, so that the opponent will be put to shame, having nothing bad to say about us.
The word used in Titus for Sound is HUGEEACE which literally means to make one whole again or to heal someone.
Words that we speak should be based on truth – they should bring about healing and wholeness.
Our words must be words that put back together what is broken.
Conclusion:
Looking at the idea that God has Spoken truth to us, given us his unbreakable word, and now charged us to speak that word is amazing to me.
The very thing that feel apart is now being put back together in Christ - man was given the ability to speak from God and it was to be for good.
Sin changed it and flipped it for bad.
In Christ God is restoring that ability to speak truth and to say only what is good.
One of the most troubling passages in the Bible for me is found in Matthew 12. It is challenging and it challenges me to the core:
Matthew 12: 34-37
34 "You brood of vipers, how can you, being evil, speak what is good ? For the mouth speaks out of that which fills the heart. 35 "The good man brings out of his good treasure what is good ; and the evil man brings out of his evil treasure what is evil. 36 "But I tell you that every careless word that people speak, they shall give an accounting for it in the day of judgment. 37 "For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned."
Jesus tells us explicitely that we are going to be held accountable by the words that we speak.
EVERY careless word that people speak will be taken up with God at the Judgment.
We are held to a high standard. God wants every word that we speak to mean something and not be wasted.
How many of us have said things this past week that we regret?
How many of us in here would say that we have been careless with our words?
How many of us can honestly say that every word I have spoken this past week has been edifying and only been to bring glory to God and His kingdom?
I can say I am stand convicted. I know that I have to change. – my speech, my words, everything that comes out of my mouth must be thought through.
I cant just throw words out there because God has called you and me to speak truth, to edify, and bring words that will heal and bring salvation to people’s door.
Saturday, May 28, 2011
Saturday, May 21, 2011
Vine and the Branches 5/22/11
Have you ever gone to a Doctor’s office and meet up with a really grumpy receptionist. Sometimes you will visit a business and the very first person you meet at the front desk has the personality of a frog.
The following story illustrates this point. A man had to go to the Doctor for sore chin and ran into a very grumpy receptionist.
As he walked in, he was met by the receptionist. He told her that he had a sore on his chin that he wanted the doctor to examine.
She said to him, "Down the hall, first door to the right, & take off your clothes."
"But ma’am," he said, "it’s just a sore on my chin. I don’t think all that is necessary."
She repeated, "Down the hall, first door to the right, & take off your clothes."
"But ma’am," he said. "Down the hall, first door to the right, & take off your clothes."
So he went down the hall, took the first door to the right, walked in & saw another man already sitting there in his boxer shorts, shivering.
He said to him, "Boy, that receptionist is really something, isn’t she?
I just have a little sore on my chin & she told me to come down here, go through this door & take off my clothes."
The man in the boxer shorts said, "You think that’s bad? I’m the UPS delivery man."
Why do people act this way?
They don’t have the joy of being IN Christ – they don’t have the joy of being friends with God.
In today’s reading from John we are going to see the remedy to this type of behavior.
Today we are back in John’s Gospel.
The scope and sweep of this gospel is breathtaking in may ways.
As one early Christian scholar said that John’s gospel is shallow enough for a child to wade in and deep enough to drown and adult.
We see that each week, there are nuggets from John that are easy and simple to grasp and then there are grand and majestic theological teachings that we marvel at.
We notice each week a word or phrase is prominent in John’s Gospel and this week it is not different.
This week the word that sticks out is Abide. Christ wants us to Abide in Him.
How many of us this last week used the word Abide in our conversations. We many times will say – Hurry Up, we got to get out of here. We have somewhere to go.
What Jesus is saying today is totally foreign to the world we live in.
Webster’s defines the word Abide as to REMAIN. Jesus is calling us to come to Him and to Remain With Him. If anything else changes in your life the one constant that Christ is calling us to is to anchor our life with Him.
To abide with him and be with Him.
This morning let us slow down and listen to what Christ has to say to us.
Realize as we read this that Jesus is signaling the fulfillment of a prophecy and expectation that was laid out by Hosea the prophet that the empty vine of Israel will no longer be empty.
John 15: 1-11
1 "I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. 2 "Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away ; and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it so that it may bear more fruit. 3 "You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. 4 "Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me. 5 "I am the vine, you are the branches ; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing . 6 "If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away as a branch and dries up; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire and they are burned. 7 "If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 8 "My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples. 9 "Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you; abide in My love. 10 "If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love ; just as I have kept My Father's commandments and abide in His love. 11 "These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full.
FASTENED TO CHRIST
One of the themes of John’s gospel is ABIDING IN CHRIST - Paul would use the idea of being IN Christ a good bit in his letters.
True Joy and purpose in life is found in this very simple theme of being connected to Christ.
Once a Christian is baptized into Christ and connected to Jesus we are grafted into an organic body.
The book of Ephesians calls the Church the Body of Christ - The Church is an organic body that is brought to life by the Spirit and connected by the blood of Christ.
This might seem like a crude example of how this works but this is very Biblical – Think about it this way.
When we are baptized we are added to the Body of Christ – the Church – we learn this in Acts 2. It is the blood of Christ that runs through this body that we must have applied to us to be saved.
This body that has the blood of Christ running through it so to speak and it is God’s Spirit that is the Spirit of this body. This Spirit as we learned last week guides the Church into all truth and it is this Spirit that brings life.
Not only does the Church corporately have the blood of Christ and His Spirit but it also works individually for each person – we have the blood applied to our life and it is this same Holy Spirit that sets us apart and will have a role in our resurrection from the dead.
Jesus uses the metaphor of the flock and a shepherd in John 10 which shows His close relationship with His body the Church but this metaphor continues for the Church- Continues with Peter and the shepherding of the flock of John 21: 15-17
This idea of the flock needing shepherds is carried out in the early Church with elders that shepherd the flock of believers.
This work of Christ is to continue in the Church and the work of the Church.
The same is true of the metaphor that Jesus uses as the vine and the branches.
John 15:8, 16 We are to bear fruit because of the work of Christ.
This being in Christ and being fastened to Christ is carried out in John’s Chain of action of his gospel.
John’s Chain of Action:
1) The Father Loves Jesus and loves his disciples (John 15:9)
2) Just as Jesus obeyed the Father, we are to obey the Father (John 15:10)
FRUIT BEARING
Everyday 10 churches go under in the United States
Everyday 7 new churches are started that’s a loss of 3 churches everyday.
In the last 10 years the church attendance has remained, on average, the same in churches across America.
It is reported that in churches today 90% of the work is performed by 10% of the members.
A secular study projected by the year 2050 that Christianity will be so obscure that it will have absolutely no effect on the moral and ethical condition of our country.
Christians have come to the conclusion that bearing fruit is not important as a Christian. This is a totally foreign concept to the Bible.
This is not a new thing. Fruitlessness and not abiding in the vine was something that happened to Israel.
Jesus use of the metaphor of a vine is not a new concept but comes from the OT. Israel was considered to be God’s vine and vineyard but they had not produced Fruit.
Jesus has become the true Israel, the true son of God, the true son that had been called from Egypt and now was embodying the call of Israel and was doing so perfectly.
Jesus being the vine now has called us to stay Fastened to Him and to bear fruit. We are to grow in Him and continue in this grown.
If we don’t bad things will happen to us spiritually. Look at the example of Israel in Isaiah 5
Isaiah 5: 1-7
1 Let me sing now for my well-beloved A song of my beloved concerning His vineyard. My well-beloved had a vineyard on a fertile hill. 2 He dug it all around, removed its stones, And planted it with the choicest vine. And He built a tower in the middle of it And also hewed out a wine vat in it; Then He expected it to produce good grapes, But it produced only worthless ones. 3 "And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, Judge between Me and My vineyard. 4 "What more was there to do for My vineyard that I have not done in it? Why, when I expected it to produce good grapes did it produce worthless ones ? 5 "So now let Me tell you what I am going to do to My vineyard : I will remove its hedge and it will be consumed ; I will break down its wall and it will become trampled ground. 6 "I will lay it waste ; It will not be pruned or hoed, But briars and thorns will come up. I will also charge the clouds to rain no rain on it." 7 For the vineyard of the LORD of hosts is the house of Israel And the men of Judah His delightful plant. Thus He looked for justice, but behold, bloodshed ; For righteousness, but behold, a cry of distress.
God planted Israel as His vine as His vineyard and they didn’t produce good grapes.
Israel had not produced the fruit that they were called to do.
Now God is calling us as grafted into Christ to produce good fruit, to grow and multiply.
Part of producing fruit is two fold:
1) We grow personally in holiness and obedience to God. Spiritual growth of the Christian that exhibits the fruits of the Spirit as discussed in Ephesians 5 is the axiom.
2) We produce others in Christ – we bring people to Jesus – we produce new fruit in bringing new Christians into the Kingdom.
FRIENDSHIP
It is hard for us to discuss the kingdom of God many times and think of it as relational.
Difference in English and Hebrew of kingship—In English, a kingdom is a political territory, run by the king.
In Hebrew, a kingdom is where the king's will is obeyed—at its core it is a relational thing, not political.
God wants a relationship with us. He wants to be our friend.
In Mr. Alter’s fifth-grade class. it’s impossible to tell which boy is undergoing chemotherapy. Nearly all the boys are bald. Thirteen of them shaved their heads so a sick buddy wouldn’t feel out of place.
"If everybody has their head shaved, sometimes people don’t know who’s who. They don’t know who has cancer, and who just shaved their head" said 11-yeat-old Scott Sebelius, one of the baldies at Lake Elementary School. For the record, Ian O’Gorman is the sick one.
Doctors recently removed a malignant tumor from his small intestine, and a week ago he started chemotherapy to treat the disease, called lymphoma.
"Besides surgery, I had tubes up my nose. I had butterflies in my stomach" said Ian, who’ll have eight more weeks of chemotherapy in an effort to keep the cancer from returning.
Ian decided to get his head shaved before all his hair fell out in clumps. To his surprise, his friends wanted to join him - in a move reminiscent of the 1992 U.S. Olympic volleyball players, who shaved their heads in a show of solidarity with a bald teammate.
"The last thing he would want is to not fit in, to be made fun of, so we just wanted to make him feel better and not left out" said 10-year-old Kyle Hanslik.
idea, and then one of their parents started a list. Last week, they all went to the barber shop together.
"It’s hard to put words to," said Ian’s father, Shawn, choking back tears as he talked about the boys. "It’s very emotional to think about kids like that who would come together, to have them do such a thing to support Ian." The boys’ teacher, Jim Alter, was so inspired that be, too, shaved his head.
God has chose us and loves us.
How do we know that God loves us?
1 John 4: 9-10
9 By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him. 10 In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
The TV news program 20/20 once had a segment on baby chicks that were packaged and marketed.
These tiny chicks traveled on conveyer belts past workers who selected them to fit into a box to be shipped out and sold.
The chicks were chosen by sex, size, general appearance. But some were not chosen.
The cameras followed these baby chicks as they slipped by the workers and fell off the end of the conveyer belt… to die.
That’s the way of this world. If you don’t fit into the box, you’re rejected and left to die.
John 15:16
16 "You did not choose Me but I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain, so that whatever you ask of the Father in My name He may give to you.
God chooses to have a relationship with us. God has chosen us and everyone has infinite worth to God.
Because of the Cross – God now chooses us to be saved in His Son – no one is not important to God.
We live in a world where life doesn’t mean much. The world tells you that you are worthless but God looks at you and says you’re worth everything.
We matter to God and Jesus actually tells us that we matter so much that God wants to be friends with us. Not just our savior, not just our redeemer but our friend.
Christ has disclosed the teachings of the Father and the inner truth of God. This is a sign of true friendship.
Christ has showed His desire for friendship in that he did the following for us:
1) Died for us – laid down His life.
John 15:13
13 "Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends.
2) Christ shows His desire to be friends with us in that He discloses the truth from the Father.
John 15:15
15 "No longer do I call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing ; but I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you.
So this desire for friendship from God is manifested in two ways – the Cross and revelation of truth.
The cross draws us to God and the Truth shows us the path we are to walk – the life we are to live.
What is the ultimate sign of our friendship with God?
How do we respond?
1) Obey the Father and Son
John 15: 10
10 "If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love ; just as I have kept My Father's commandments and abide in His love.
2) Love one another
John 15:12 and 17
12 "This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you
17 "This I command you, that you love one another.
Our response if we want to be God’s friends includes that we LOVE one another.
I think of my own children. As parents we love one another as husband and wife and we share that love with our children.
We manifest our love for our children by working hard, sacrificing and providing for them.
But we also provide rules and parameters and we raise them the right way.
In return the children are to respect their parents and obey. They manifest their love and respect by obedience.
They also reflect their love for us by loving each other as siblings. Nothing grieves a parent like brothers and sisters in the same family that don’t get along.
The same is true for God’s family – God has sacrificed Christ for us, lays down family rules, in response we obey our Father in Heaven but also we are to love our siblings one another.
This is exactly what Jesus is talking about.
Conclusion:
In 1969, Supreme Court Justice Hugo L. Black celebrated his 83rd birthday
His colleague, frequent opponent and good friend, John Marshall Harlan, sent him a birthday letter. This is a simple gesture for most men, but Justice Harlan was almost totally blind.
To sign an opinion, he found it necessary to turn on a massive set of lights that had been installed above his desk and use a large, single lens magnifying glass.
With the glass on his eye actually touching the paper, ...he would struggle painfully to complete his signature.
IT WAS THE ONLY WRITING HE EVER DID.
The birthday note to Justice Black covered a page. When he had read it, Black folded it and put it carefully in his pocket, then turned his back on his clerk for a few minutes. When he turned around, his eyes were full of tears. "He wrote it himself," he said.
Today we have witnessed that God wants to be our friend. He wants us back in His family. He desires this so much he sent his own hand written letter in the life of His Son.
He sent it so vividly that His Son showed us exactly how we should live even to sacrifice to the cross.
That type of sacrifice and love gets one’s attention.
The following story illustrates this point. A man had to go to the Doctor for sore chin and ran into a very grumpy receptionist.
As he walked in, he was met by the receptionist. He told her that he had a sore on his chin that he wanted the doctor to examine.
She said to him, "Down the hall, first door to the right, & take off your clothes."
"But ma’am," he said, "it’s just a sore on my chin. I don’t think all that is necessary."
She repeated, "Down the hall, first door to the right, & take off your clothes."
"But ma’am," he said. "Down the hall, first door to the right, & take off your clothes."
So he went down the hall, took the first door to the right, walked in & saw another man already sitting there in his boxer shorts, shivering.
He said to him, "Boy, that receptionist is really something, isn’t she?
I just have a little sore on my chin & she told me to come down here, go through this door & take off my clothes."
The man in the boxer shorts said, "You think that’s bad? I’m the UPS delivery man."
Why do people act this way?
They don’t have the joy of being IN Christ – they don’t have the joy of being friends with God.
In today’s reading from John we are going to see the remedy to this type of behavior.
Today we are back in John’s Gospel.
The scope and sweep of this gospel is breathtaking in may ways.
As one early Christian scholar said that John’s gospel is shallow enough for a child to wade in and deep enough to drown and adult.
We see that each week, there are nuggets from John that are easy and simple to grasp and then there are grand and majestic theological teachings that we marvel at.
We notice each week a word or phrase is prominent in John’s Gospel and this week it is not different.
This week the word that sticks out is Abide. Christ wants us to Abide in Him.
How many of us this last week used the word Abide in our conversations. We many times will say – Hurry Up, we got to get out of here. We have somewhere to go.
What Jesus is saying today is totally foreign to the world we live in.
Webster’s defines the word Abide as to REMAIN. Jesus is calling us to come to Him and to Remain With Him. If anything else changes in your life the one constant that Christ is calling us to is to anchor our life with Him.
To abide with him and be with Him.
This morning let us slow down and listen to what Christ has to say to us.
Realize as we read this that Jesus is signaling the fulfillment of a prophecy and expectation that was laid out by Hosea the prophet that the empty vine of Israel will no longer be empty.
John 15: 1-11
1 "I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. 2 "Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away ; and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it so that it may bear more fruit. 3 "You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. 4 "Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me. 5 "I am the vine, you are the branches ; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing . 6 "If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away as a branch and dries up; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire and they are burned. 7 "If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 8 "My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples. 9 "Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you; abide in My love. 10 "If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love ; just as I have kept My Father's commandments and abide in His love. 11 "These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full.
FASTENED TO CHRIST
One of the themes of John’s gospel is ABIDING IN CHRIST - Paul would use the idea of being IN Christ a good bit in his letters.
True Joy and purpose in life is found in this very simple theme of being connected to Christ.
Once a Christian is baptized into Christ and connected to Jesus we are grafted into an organic body.
The book of Ephesians calls the Church the Body of Christ - The Church is an organic body that is brought to life by the Spirit and connected by the blood of Christ.
This might seem like a crude example of how this works but this is very Biblical – Think about it this way.
When we are baptized we are added to the Body of Christ – the Church – we learn this in Acts 2. It is the blood of Christ that runs through this body that we must have applied to us to be saved.
This body that has the blood of Christ running through it so to speak and it is God’s Spirit that is the Spirit of this body. This Spirit as we learned last week guides the Church into all truth and it is this Spirit that brings life.
Not only does the Church corporately have the blood of Christ and His Spirit but it also works individually for each person – we have the blood applied to our life and it is this same Holy Spirit that sets us apart and will have a role in our resurrection from the dead.
Jesus uses the metaphor of the flock and a shepherd in John 10 which shows His close relationship with His body the Church but this metaphor continues for the Church- Continues with Peter and the shepherding of the flock of John 21: 15-17
This idea of the flock needing shepherds is carried out in the early Church with elders that shepherd the flock of believers.
This work of Christ is to continue in the Church and the work of the Church.
The same is true of the metaphor that Jesus uses as the vine and the branches.
John 15:8, 16 We are to bear fruit because of the work of Christ.
This being in Christ and being fastened to Christ is carried out in John’s Chain of action of his gospel.
John’s Chain of Action:
1) The Father Loves Jesus and loves his disciples (John 15:9)
2) Just as Jesus obeyed the Father, we are to obey the Father (John 15:10)
FRUIT BEARING
Everyday 10 churches go under in the United States
Everyday 7 new churches are started that’s a loss of 3 churches everyday.
In the last 10 years the church attendance has remained, on average, the same in churches across America.
It is reported that in churches today 90% of the work is performed by 10% of the members.
A secular study projected by the year 2050 that Christianity will be so obscure that it will have absolutely no effect on the moral and ethical condition of our country.
Christians have come to the conclusion that bearing fruit is not important as a Christian. This is a totally foreign concept to the Bible.
This is not a new thing. Fruitlessness and not abiding in the vine was something that happened to Israel.
Jesus use of the metaphor of a vine is not a new concept but comes from the OT. Israel was considered to be God’s vine and vineyard but they had not produced Fruit.
Jesus has become the true Israel, the true son of God, the true son that had been called from Egypt and now was embodying the call of Israel and was doing so perfectly.
Jesus being the vine now has called us to stay Fastened to Him and to bear fruit. We are to grow in Him and continue in this grown.
If we don’t bad things will happen to us spiritually. Look at the example of Israel in Isaiah 5
Isaiah 5: 1-7
1 Let me sing now for my well-beloved A song of my beloved concerning His vineyard. My well-beloved had a vineyard on a fertile hill. 2 He dug it all around, removed its stones, And planted it with the choicest vine. And He built a tower in the middle of it And also hewed out a wine vat in it; Then He expected it to produce good grapes, But it produced only worthless ones. 3 "And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, Judge between Me and My vineyard. 4 "What more was there to do for My vineyard that I have not done in it? Why, when I expected it to produce good grapes did it produce worthless ones ? 5 "So now let Me tell you what I am going to do to My vineyard : I will remove its hedge and it will be consumed ; I will break down its wall and it will become trampled ground. 6 "I will lay it waste ; It will not be pruned or hoed, But briars and thorns will come up. I will also charge the clouds to rain no rain on it." 7 For the vineyard of the LORD of hosts is the house of Israel And the men of Judah His delightful plant. Thus He looked for justice, but behold, bloodshed ; For righteousness, but behold, a cry of distress.
God planted Israel as His vine as His vineyard and they didn’t produce good grapes.
Israel had not produced the fruit that they were called to do.
Now God is calling us as grafted into Christ to produce good fruit, to grow and multiply.
Part of producing fruit is two fold:
1) We grow personally in holiness and obedience to God. Spiritual growth of the Christian that exhibits the fruits of the Spirit as discussed in Ephesians 5 is the axiom.
2) We produce others in Christ – we bring people to Jesus – we produce new fruit in bringing new Christians into the Kingdom.
FRIENDSHIP
It is hard for us to discuss the kingdom of God many times and think of it as relational.
Difference in English and Hebrew of kingship—In English, a kingdom is a political territory, run by the king.
In Hebrew, a kingdom is where the king's will is obeyed—at its core it is a relational thing, not political.
God wants a relationship with us. He wants to be our friend.
In Mr. Alter’s fifth-grade class. it’s impossible to tell which boy is undergoing chemotherapy. Nearly all the boys are bald. Thirteen of them shaved their heads so a sick buddy wouldn’t feel out of place.
"If everybody has their head shaved, sometimes people don’t know who’s who. They don’t know who has cancer, and who just shaved their head" said 11-yeat-old Scott Sebelius, one of the baldies at Lake Elementary School. For the record, Ian O’Gorman is the sick one.
Doctors recently removed a malignant tumor from his small intestine, and a week ago he started chemotherapy to treat the disease, called lymphoma.
"Besides surgery, I had tubes up my nose. I had butterflies in my stomach" said Ian, who’ll have eight more weeks of chemotherapy in an effort to keep the cancer from returning.
Ian decided to get his head shaved before all his hair fell out in clumps. To his surprise, his friends wanted to join him - in a move reminiscent of the 1992 U.S. Olympic volleyball players, who shaved their heads in a show of solidarity with a bald teammate.
"The last thing he would want is to not fit in, to be made fun of, so we just wanted to make him feel better and not left out" said 10-year-old Kyle Hanslik.
idea, and then one of their parents started a list. Last week, they all went to the barber shop together.
"It’s hard to put words to," said Ian’s father, Shawn, choking back tears as he talked about the boys. "It’s very emotional to think about kids like that who would come together, to have them do such a thing to support Ian." The boys’ teacher, Jim Alter, was so inspired that be, too, shaved his head.
God has chose us and loves us.
How do we know that God loves us?
1 John 4: 9-10
9 By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him. 10 In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
The TV news program 20/20 once had a segment on baby chicks that were packaged and marketed.
These tiny chicks traveled on conveyer belts past workers who selected them to fit into a box to be shipped out and sold.
The chicks were chosen by sex, size, general appearance. But some were not chosen.
The cameras followed these baby chicks as they slipped by the workers and fell off the end of the conveyer belt… to die.
That’s the way of this world. If you don’t fit into the box, you’re rejected and left to die.
John 15:16
16 "You did not choose Me but I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain, so that whatever you ask of the Father in My name He may give to you.
God chooses to have a relationship with us. God has chosen us and everyone has infinite worth to God.
Because of the Cross – God now chooses us to be saved in His Son – no one is not important to God.
We live in a world where life doesn’t mean much. The world tells you that you are worthless but God looks at you and says you’re worth everything.
We matter to God and Jesus actually tells us that we matter so much that God wants to be friends with us. Not just our savior, not just our redeemer but our friend.
Christ has disclosed the teachings of the Father and the inner truth of God. This is a sign of true friendship.
Christ has showed His desire for friendship in that he did the following for us:
1) Died for us – laid down His life.
John 15:13
13 "Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends.
2) Christ shows His desire to be friends with us in that He discloses the truth from the Father.
John 15:15
15 "No longer do I call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing ; but I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you.
So this desire for friendship from God is manifested in two ways – the Cross and revelation of truth.
The cross draws us to God and the Truth shows us the path we are to walk – the life we are to live.
What is the ultimate sign of our friendship with God?
How do we respond?
1) Obey the Father and Son
John 15: 10
10 "If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love ; just as I have kept My Father's commandments and abide in His love.
2) Love one another
John 15:12 and 17
12 "This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you
17 "This I command you, that you love one another.
Our response if we want to be God’s friends includes that we LOVE one another.
I think of my own children. As parents we love one another as husband and wife and we share that love with our children.
We manifest our love for our children by working hard, sacrificing and providing for them.
But we also provide rules and parameters and we raise them the right way.
In return the children are to respect their parents and obey. They manifest their love and respect by obedience.
They also reflect their love for us by loving each other as siblings. Nothing grieves a parent like brothers and sisters in the same family that don’t get along.
The same is true for God’s family – God has sacrificed Christ for us, lays down family rules, in response we obey our Father in Heaven but also we are to love our siblings one another.
This is exactly what Jesus is talking about.
Conclusion:
In 1969, Supreme Court Justice Hugo L. Black celebrated his 83rd birthday
His colleague, frequent opponent and good friend, John Marshall Harlan, sent him a birthday letter. This is a simple gesture for most men, but Justice Harlan was almost totally blind.
To sign an opinion, he found it necessary to turn on a massive set of lights that had been installed above his desk and use a large, single lens magnifying glass.
With the glass on his eye actually touching the paper, ...he would struggle painfully to complete his signature.
IT WAS THE ONLY WRITING HE EVER DID.
The birthday note to Justice Black covered a page. When he had read it, Black folded it and put it carefully in his pocket, then turned his back on his clerk for a few minutes. When he turned around, his eyes were full of tears. "He wrote it himself," he said.
Today we have witnessed that God wants to be our friend. He wants us back in His family. He desires this so much he sent his own hand written letter in the life of His Son.
He sent it so vividly that His Son showed us exactly how we should live even to sacrifice to the cross.
That type of sacrifice and love gets one’s attention.
Saturday, May 14, 2011
God's Word - unbroken and unchanging AM Sermon
While hunting, Larry and Elmer got lost in the woods. Trying to reassure his friend, Larry said, "Don’t worry. All we have to do is shoot into the air 3 times, stay where we are, and someone will find us."
They shot in the air 3 times, but no one came. After a while, they tried again. Still no response. When they decided to try once more, Elmer said, "I hope it works this time. We’re down to our last 3 arrows."
These two guys put their hope in the wrong place.
So many people are looking for something to stake their hope in. They want to know the way forward. They want something they can depend on.
Many people are looking for it in the wrong places.
Even church leaders are going down a slippery of giving up real truth for the wrong type of advice.
One minister at a modern magachurch said this about he and his wife’s journey to a New type of Christianity. He said the following:
LIfe in the church had become so small.
It had worked for me for a long time but stopped working for me.
A liberating realization came over me in that I realized that the Bible was a human product and not just a miraculous production of God.
The Bible is still the center of our life in our church but we embrace the mystery instead of trying to conquer it.
This quote is true about many new Ministers coming out today. There is a sense that one cannot know the truth and to try to conquer the truth of the Bible is bad.
The Bible is not allowed to be the ultimate truth source and is not challenging every aspect of their lives. It is convenient to just say I really don’t know what the Bible teaches when it challenges areas of our lives that make us uncomfortable.
We are living in the age of the Millennials and times are changing. Millennials are children born from 1977 up until 1999. This generation is now entering the workforce and schools and industry have done a lot of research on this group.
The most disturbing trend has been that this generation more than any in the past feels that rules don’t apply and absolute truth doesn’t really exist.
They feel that they have the right to change the rules.
Now this is not a blanket statement and there are many exceptions but when you watch TV and hear the music of today’s young people you will see a drastic slide in morality and values.
In the 1st century where the Church found themselves there were ideas alive and well that have made a comeback today.
Relativism, rampant violence, political tyranny, immorality, disintegration of families, and paganism framed the 1st century. I believe you would agree that all of those things also describe much of our current situation.
This morning I want to talk about how we combat this. What has God called us to do about it.
We will look back at John 14 and the Final Discourse of Jesus to get some instructions involving this situation.
I am here to tell you this morning that we as God’s people do not go with the flow of the times but we challenge the world by the truth revealed by God.
This morning I want to share with you the real hope and something I pray that you can leave here knowing the source of hope and stability in your life.
This morning I want to build on the foundation of Christ and then make the case that we can have the sure word of Christ governing or lives some 2000 years later.
I want to remind you of something this morning that may seem very simple.
Jude told his audience in Jude verse 5
NOW I DESIRE TO REMIND YOU
JUDE UNDERSTOOD THAT REMINDERS ARE IMPORTANT – GETTING BACK TO THE BASICS SOMETIMES IS NECESSARY AND TODAY WE ARE GOING TO GET BACK TO THOSE BASICS.
Before we can build this firm foundation of our hope we need to know the situation that we find ourselves in today:
UNRESTRAINED HUMANITY
This unrestrained sin comes for a reason.
Proverbs 29: 18
Where there is no vision, the people are unrestrained, But happy is he who keeps the law
When we sit back and contemplate what this verse is saying we understand why this discussion is important.
When there is no vision or direction for God’s people or people in general there is no restraint for evil but the only way to be truly happy is to keep God’s word.
The Bible tells us that if there is not vision or direction from God there will be unrestrained human behavior which leads to rampant sin.
GOD IS UNCHANGEABLE
We have a sureness in that God’s truth is unchangeable. God is unchangeable.
Hebrews 6:17 tells us a indisputable spiritual law and that is God is unchangeable. He is not going to change with the changing times.
And neither should God’s people.
GOD’S WORD COMES TO US UNBROKEN
The chain of authority in the early church gives us our Scripture as we have it today. Jesus being the supreme authority tells us that all authority was given to Him on earth.
From this we can see that Jesus invests His disciples with real authority.
This takes us back to John 14- We need to set the standard for authority of the Scripture and we need to go back to this final discourse to do so.
Last week we talked about not being afraid, not being troubled about the condition that we find ourselves in in this world. Jesus has made a promise that He will return to bring us home.
We are living in the IN BETWEEN TIME
IN BETWEEN TIME – What I mean by that is we live between the time of the cross and resurrection and the final coming of Christ and the triumph of the Church.
We are in the tension of what we would say is already a reality and is what to come.
We are saved already but haven’t been fully vindicated yet – we are anxiously awaiting the return of Christ to put this world right but we have been commanded to fight the good fight until he Returns.
This morning I want to talk about the guidance that we have until he returns.
Let us turn to John 14
John 14: 16-31
16 "I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever ; 17 that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you. 18 "I will not leave you as orphans ; I will come to you. 19 "After a little while the world will no longer see Me, but you will see Me; because I live, you will live also. 20 "In that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you. 21 "He who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me; and he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will disclose Myself to him." 22 Judas (not Iscariot ) said to Him, "Lord, what then has happened that You are going to disclose Yourself to us and not to the world ?" 23 Jesus answered and said to him, "If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word ; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him. 24 "He who does not love Me does not keep My words ; and the word which you hear is not Mine, but the Father's who sent Me. 25 "These things I have spoken to you while abiding with you. 26 "But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you. 27 "Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful. 28 "You heard that I said to you, 'I go away, and I will come to you.' If you loved Me, you would have rejoiced because I go to the Father, for the Father is greater than I. 29 "Now I have told you before it happens, so that when it happens, you may believe. 30 "I will not speak much more with you, for the ruler of the world is coming, and he has nothing in Me; 31 but so that the world may know that I love the Father, I do exactly as the Father commanded Me. Get up, let us go from here.
We can understand the line of authority in Scripture:
1) Jesus had ALL authority given to Him from the Father
2) He is crucified, rises from the dead and ascends triumphantly into Heaven so that we may too be in Heaven.
3) He commissions his followers to continue His work – As the Father Sends Me Now I Send You. We are to continue the work that Jesus did – He opened up the way of salvation and now we are called to preach and teach that salvation to others.
4) Jesus sent His Spirit to do that work – Jesus sent the Holy Spirit to equip the Church to do this task of continuing His work – We as Christians are living in the age of the Holy Spirit and His guidance.
Now let us unpack what that means from this passage and put it all together. If we are in a spiritual battle we need to be sharp about the role of the Spirit and what we are called to do.
Realizing a comforting reality that the Authority of Christ is unbroken all the way back to the Apostles and that we are connected to them literally – unbroken line of Christianity.
ORPHANS - we are not left alone in this world after Christ ascended into Heaven.
In John 16: 7 Jesus tells the Disciples the following:
7 "But I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away ; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you.
It is hard for us to think this way but it is better for Christ to ascend to Heaven because by His ascension into Heaven He was able to send out the Holy Spirit into the entire world.
This ministry of Jesus wanted to not just affect Palestine but go into the entire EARTH.
PARAKLETOS – COUNSELOR OR HELPER IS HOW IT IS TRANSLATED
This word could literally be translated as an ADVOCATE
John uses this word five times in his writings and it always refers to either Jesus or the Holy Spirit
This word in Greek originally meant a legal spokesman or really an attorney at Law.
This would be a person that would go into a law court and be a legal advocate for the accused.
How this word is used in the Bible is in the following format:
We stand as the Accused and Satan is the Accuser.
1 John 2: 1 states:
My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous
Jesus acts as an advocate in Heaven for us because we stand accused of Sin.
Revelation 12:10 calls Satan the Accuser of the Brethren – It is Satan that stand and accuses us before God and it is Christ and the Holy Spirit that stand as our advocates.
But also you need to see this idea of the Holy Spirit being and advocate in a bigger picture. In the theology of the Apostle John the entire world is under the domain of Satan. The world has fallen and we are aliens in a strange land.
We stand accused by the world for being Christians – the world looks at us and says that we are strange and we are not right.
People treat you with hatred and vitriol when you stand up for what is right because they don’t want to hear the truth.
The Holy Spirit will come into the world after Jesus ascension and be our advocate for what is right and wrong. Later in John 16 Jesus tells the Disciples in:
John 16: 8-11
8 "And He, when He comes, will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment ; 9 concerning sin, because they do not believe in Me; 10 and concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father and you no longer see Me; 11 and concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world has been judged.
The Holy Spirit will be sent to reveal truth to the world and show people the folly of sin. The Spirit of God will be the advocate of God’s people by fulfilling this role of convicting men of sin.
No longer will we be on trial by the accuser Satan because he will be judged through God’s Spirit and then the entire world that is not washed in the blood of Christ will stand on trial as accused of sin.
This is something we should take comfort in that Christ has equipped us and has not left us alone. We can look back to Him in an unbroken line of authority that comes through His Spirit.
SPIRIT’S SPECIFIC ROLE WITH THE APOSTLES
We learn in John 14 that the Spirit will have a specific role with the Apostles:
1) He will give them boldness to speak the gospel with power we learn this from Acts 1:8 and Acts 4:31
2) The Spirit will preserve the fullness of the truth
3) During times of persecution the Spirit will help them remember what to say and give them strength Luke 12
4) And the Spirit will help the believer in Christ fulfill the just requirements of the Old Law as we are told in Romans 8:4
PRACTICALLY HOW DID THIS HAPPEN with the Apostles:
1) Spirit confirmed the message of Jesus and His Apostles my miraculous signs
Hebrews 2: 3-4
3 how will we escape if we neglect so great a salvation ? After it was at the first spoken through the Lord, it was confirmed to us by those who heard, 4 God also testifying with them, both by signs and wonders and by various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit according to His own will.
The passage tells us that the message was first of all spoken of my Jesus but was confirmed by those that heard the message of Christ – the Apostles
The Apostles in turn taught this message and their message was confirmed by the Holy Spirit through miraculous signs.
So first of all we can see that the Spirit of God confirmed the message by giving them true miracles.
Imagine if you lived in 40 AD just 10 years after Christ was crucified and imagine you lived in Ephesus and an apostle came to you with the message of Christ.
Also understand that there would be no New Testament at this time and the only teaching is from the Apostles or someone sanctioned by the Apostles. The only way to know the message was from God was if it was verified by the Holy Spirit.
2) Eventually the Holy Spirit would give the Apostles all of the truth that Christ wanted them to have.
While Christ was them they were not ready for all of the truth. The entire story:
John 16: 12-14
12 "I have many more things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. 13 "But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth ; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak ; and He will disclose to you what is to come. 14 "He will glorify Me, for He will take of Mine and will disclose it to you
Later on the Spirit would be given to the Apostles and give them the truth.
The Holy Spirit would inspire the Apostles and their associates to write the New Testament.
It would be in the next 40-50 years the books of the NT would come to be in the form of the 27 in the canon that we have.
Until that time the church would almost be in a state of infancy. Knowledge in some ways would be in partiality and the Church would start to grow in in the faith.
I Corinthians 13 and Ephesians 4 both speak of a Church that will grow up and develop just as the early church did.
Consider the situations of different churches like Jerusalem and Thessalonica in which one church is in deep famine and poverty and they richer members sell their possessions and give to the poor while the Paul tells them that they are to keep their jobs at Thessalonica.
Paul also makes it clear that the members at Corinth still had personal property because he refers to the houses that they can eat in before them come for the Lord’s Supper.
My point is that the church has stages of maturity as well as different situations in different locations. The church was to grow up and the NT was always part of that plan.
The Holy Spirit would guide the entire process – from the verification of the message of the apostles to the writing of the NT.
Paul very early on understands that through His writings the mystery of God will be made known as he talks about in Ephesians 3:4
Peter in 2 Peter 3 verses 1 through 2 talks about how His writing and the teaching of the Apostles are actually from Jesus Himself.
Sometimes we make the mistake of saying on the red letters of the Bible are the words of Christ but in actuality, according to Peter the words in black are inspired by Christ and written by His apostles.
Of the writing of the NT peter the Apostle says,
2 Peter 1: 20-21
20 But know this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one's own interpretation, 21 for no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God
Peter tells us that the writers of Scripture were moved by the Holy Spirit – this word Moved is an important word to understand:
PHERO is the word used here and is used 66 times in the NT and basically refers to how the wind would carry a ship by blowing against the sails.
This idea makes perfect sense – as the writers of our NT wrote to churches and situations or wrote biographies of Jesus such as the Gospels or the history of the church as ACTs it was the Holy Spirit that directed that process.
The very words of Scripture would be as Paul calls them later Theopnuestos or God breathed.
The very powerful words of God. The same Creator that spoke the universe into existence by the shear fiat of his word now speaks to us in Scripture.
The Holy Spirit would direct this process. Many people are confused as to how the Spirit of God could mold us today.
I would tell you that one way that I know for sure beyond a shadow of a doubt is through the Scripture.
The Spirit can shape us and mold us through the Bible.
In this final discourse of Jesus He is telling us not to be afraid because He has left instructions for us and has not left us all alone in this world.
How does this Spirit of God work today and produce fruit in a Christian? Is there any way to know?
Galatians 5: 22-25
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control ; against such things there is no law. 24 Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25 If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit.
When we read this passage we realize that the Holy Spirit works in to bring change in the life of a Christian.
We are different and we have crucified the flesh and live by the Spirit.
We all realize that God wants change in our lives and wants true repentance but how does one go about this?
Will God just supernaturally transform you as you sit on your couch? Do we cooperate with God in this endeavor to allow the spirit to transform?
I think the parable of the sower may clear up any misunderstanding. In talking about the good soil that accepts the word of God, Jesus says,
Luke 8: 15
15 "But the seed in the good soil, these are the ones who have heard the word in an honest and good heart, and hold it fast, and bear fruit with perseverance.
Now look at this verse closely – heard the word, hold fast the word and bear fruit with perseverance.
Word of God transforms us when we hold fast to it and obey what it teaches and it is a long term process of perseverance.
God’s word is inspired and powerful and these teachings will change us, but we have to cooperate by reading, meditating on that word and also grappling with it through minutes, hours, and years of perseverance through obedience.
Conclusion:
God has not left us here alone without guidance, He has left His word with us in our Bibles.
We must be transformed by that message.
A lady of society was gazing upon an image she had never seen before in the city’s art museum. "My dear fellow," she said condescendingly to the Curator, "I have never seen this painting before. I find the image shallow and rather crude in appearance. What do you call this?" The curator answered without giving the slightest expression," That madam, is a mirror." The lady’s vision was not very focused.
Losing focus on the Jesus of Scripture blurs our own view—not only of Christ—but of ourselves, as well. The Bible is also a great mirror. We may go to it to observe its content with a critical eye, but in the end, we are under its criticism.
If we don’t look to the Bible for our information on how to view the world we will be like this lady and not even recognize our own face.
We will not recognize the very Creator of the Universe.
That is how John starts his gospel by telling us that the world did not recognize God and that is how he is wrapping up his gospel.
Where are we in this challenge?
They shot in the air 3 times, but no one came. After a while, they tried again. Still no response. When they decided to try once more, Elmer said, "I hope it works this time. We’re down to our last 3 arrows."
These two guys put their hope in the wrong place.
So many people are looking for something to stake their hope in. They want to know the way forward. They want something they can depend on.
Many people are looking for it in the wrong places.
Even church leaders are going down a slippery of giving up real truth for the wrong type of advice.
One minister at a modern magachurch said this about he and his wife’s journey to a New type of Christianity. He said the following:
LIfe in the church had become so small.
It had worked for me for a long time but stopped working for me.
A liberating realization came over me in that I realized that the Bible was a human product and not just a miraculous production of God.
The Bible is still the center of our life in our church but we embrace the mystery instead of trying to conquer it.
This quote is true about many new Ministers coming out today. There is a sense that one cannot know the truth and to try to conquer the truth of the Bible is bad.
The Bible is not allowed to be the ultimate truth source and is not challenging every aspect of their lives. It is convenient to just say I really don’t know what the Bible teaches when it challenges areas of our lives that make us uncomfortable.
We are living in the age of the Millennials and times are changing. Millennials are children born from 1977 up until 1999. This generation is now entering the workforce and schools and industry have done a lot of research on this group.
The most disturbing trend has been that this generation more than any in the past feels that rules don’t apply and absolute truth doesn’t really exist.
They feel that they have the right to change the rules.
Now this is not a blanket statement and there are many exceptions but when you watch TV and hear the music of today’s young people you will see a drastic slide in morality and values.
In the 1st century where the Church found themselves there were ideas alive and well that have made a comeback today.
Relativism, rampant violence, political tyranny, immorality, disintegration of families, and paganism framed the 1st century. I believe you would agree that all of those things also describe much of our current situation.
This morning I want to talk about how we combat this. What has God called us to do about it.
We will look back at John 14 and the Final Discourse of Jesus to get some instructions involving this situation.
I am here to tell you this morning that we as God’s people do not go with the flow of the times but we challenge the world by the truth revealed by God.
This morning I want to share with you the real hope and something I pray that you can leave here knowing the source of hope and stability in your life.
This morning I want to build on the foundation of Christ and then make the case that we can have the sure word of Christ governing or lives some 2000 years later.
I want to remind you of something this morning that may seem very simple.
Jude told his audience in Jude verse 5
NOW I DESIRE TO REMIND YOU
JUDE UNDERSTOOD THAT REMINDERS ARE IMPORTANT – GETTING BACK TO THE BASICS SOMETIMES IS NECESSARY AND TODAY WE ARE GOING TO GET BACK TO THOSE BASICS.
Before we can build this firm foundation of our hope we need to know the situation that we find ourselves in today:
UNRESTRAINED HUMANITY
This unrestrained sin comes for a reason.
Proverbs 29: 18
Where there is no vision, the people are unrestrained, But happy is he who keeps the law
When we sit back and contemplate what this verse is saying we understand why this discussion is important.
When there is no vision or direction for God’s people or people in general there is no restraint for evil but the only way to be truly happy is to keep God’s word.
The Bible tells us that if there is not vision or direction from God there will be unrestrained human behavior which leads to rampant sin.
GOD IS UNCHANGEABLE
We have a sureness in that God’s truth is unchangeable. God is unchangeable.
Hebrews 6:17 tells us a indisputable spiritual law and that is God is unchangeable. He is not going to change with the changing times.
And neither should God’s people.
GOD’S WORD COMES TO US UNBROKEN
The chain of authority in the early church gives us our Scripture as we have it today. Jesus being the supreme authority tells us that all authority was given to Him on earth.
From this we can see that Jesus invests His disciples with real authority.
This takes us back to John 14- We need to set the standard for authority of the Scripture and we need to go back to this final discourse to do so.
Last week we talked about not being afraid, not being troubled about the condition that we find ourselves in in this world. Jesus has made a promise that He will return to bring us home.
We are living in the IN BETWEEN TIME
IN BETWEEN TIME – What I mean by that is we live between the time of the cross and resurrection and the final coming of Christ and the triumph of the Church.
We are in the tension of what we would say is already a reality and is what to come.
We are saved already but haven’t been fully vindicated yet – we are anxiously awaiting the return of Christ to put this world right but we have been commanded to fight the good fight until he Returns.
This morning I want to talk about the guidance that we have until he returns.
Let us turn to John 14
John 14: 16-31
16 "I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever ; 17 that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you. 18 "I will not leave you as orphans ; I will come to you. 19 "After a little while the world will no longer see Me, but you will see Me; because I live, you will live also. 20 "In that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you. 21 "He who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me; and he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will disclose Myself to him." 22 Judas (not Iscariot ) said to Him, "Lord, what then has happened that You are going to disclose Yourself to us and not to the world ?" 23 Jesus answered and said to him, "If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word ; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him. 24 "He who does not love Me does not keep My words ; and the word which you hear is not Mine, but the Father's who sent Me. 25 "These things I have spoken to you while abiding with you. 26 "But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you. 27 "Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful. 28 "You heard that I said to you, 'I go away, and I will come to you.' If you loved Me, you would have rejoiced because I go to the Father, for the Father is greater than I. 29 "Now I have told you before it happens, so that when it happens, you may believe. 30 "I will not speak much more with you, for the ruler of the world is coming, and he has nothing in Me; 31 but so that the world may know that I love the Father, I do exactly as the Father commanded Me. Get up, let us go from here.
We can understand the line of authority in Scripture:
1) Jesus had ALL authority given to Him from the Father
2) He is crucified, rises from the dead and ascends triumphantly into Heaven so that we may too be in Heaven.
3) He commissions his followers to continue His work – As the Father Sends Me Now I Send You. We are to continue the work that Jesus did – He opened up the way of salvation and now we are called to preach and teach that salvation to others.
4) Jesus sent His Spirit to do that work – Jesus sent the Holy Spirit to equip the Church to do this task of continuing His work – We as Christians are living in the age of the Holy Spirit and His guidance.
Now let us unpack what that means from this passage and put it all together. If we are in a spiritual battle we need to be sharp about the role of the Spirit and what we are called to do.
Realizing a comforting reality that the Authority of Christ is unbroken all the way back to the Apostles and that we are connected to them literally – unbroken line of Christianity.
ORPHANS - we are not left alone in this world after Christ ascended into Heaven.
In John 16: 7 Jesus tells the Disciples the following:
7 "But I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away ; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you.
It is hard for us to think this way but it is better for Christ to ascend to Heaven because by His ascension into Heaven He was able to send out the Holy Spirit into the entire world.
This ministry of Jesus wanted to not just affect Palestine but go into the entire EARTH.
PARAKLETOS – COUNSELOR OR HELPER IS HOW IT IS TRANSLATED
This word could literally be translated as an ADVOCATE
John uses this word five times in his writings and it always refers to either Jesus or the Holy Spirit
This word in Greek originally meant a legal spokesman or really an attorney at Law.
This would be a person that would go into a law court and be a legal advocate for the accused.
How this word is used in the Bible is in the following format:
We stand as the Accused and Satan is the Accuser.
1 John 2: 1 states:
My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous
Jesus acts as an advocate in Heaven for us because we stand accused of Sin.
Revelation 12:10 calls Satan the Accuser of the Brethren – It is Satan that stand and accuses us before God and it is Christ and the Holy Spirit that stand as our advocates.
But also you need to see this idea of the Holy Spirit being and advocate in a bigger picture. In the theology of the Apostle John the entire world is under the domain of Satan. The world has fallen and we are aliens in a strange land.
We stand accused by the world for being Christians – the world looks at us and says that we are strange and we are not right.
People treat you with hatred and vitriol when you stand up for what is right because they don’t want to hear the truth.
The Holy Spirit will come into the world after Jesus ascension and be our advocate for what is right and wrong. Later in John 16 Jesus tells the Disciples in:
John 16: 8-11
8 "And He, when He comes, will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment ; 9 concerning sin, because they do not believe in Me; 10 and concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father and you no longer see Me; 11 and concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world has been judged.
The Holy Spirit will be sent to reveal truth to the world and show people the folly of sin. The Spirit of God will be the advocate of God’s people by fulfilling this role of convicting men of sin.
No longer will we be on trial by the accuser Satan because he will be judged through God’s Spirit and then the entire world that is not washed in the blood of Christ will stand on trial as accused of sin.
This is something we should take comfort in that Christ has equipped us and has not left us alone. We can look back to Him in an unbroken line of authority that comes through His Spirit.
SPIRIT’S SPECIFIC ROLE WITH THE APOSTLES
We learn in John 14 that the Spirit will have a specific role with the Apostles:
1) He will give them boldness to speak the gospel with power we learn this from Acts 1:8 and Acts 4:31
2) The Spirit will preserve the fullness of the truth
3) During times of persecution the Spirit will help them remember what to say and give them strength Luke 12
4) And the Spirit will help the believer in Christ fulfill the just requirements of the Old Law as we are told in Romans 8:4
PRACTICALLY HOW DID THIS HAPPEN with the Apostles:
1) Spirit confirmed the message of Jesus and His Apostles my miraculous signs
Hebrews 2: 3-4
3 how will we escape if we neglect so great a salvation ? After it was at the first spoken through the Lord, it was confirmed to us by those who heard, 4 God also testifying with them, both by signs and wonders and by various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit according to His own will.
The passage tells us that the message was first of all spoken of my Jesus but was confirmed by those that heard the message of Christ – the Apostles
The Apostles in turn taught this message and their message was confirmed by the Holy Spirit through miraculous signs.
So first of all we can see that the Spirit of God confirmed the message by giving them true miracles.
Imagine if you lived in 40 AD just 10 years after Christ was crucified and imagine you lived in Ephesus and an apostle came to you with the message of Christ.
Also understand that there would be no New Testament at this time and the only teaching is from the Apostles or someone sanctioned by the Apostles. The only way to know the message was from God was if it was verified by the Holy Spirit.
2) Eventually the Holy Spirit would give the Apostles all of the truth that Christ wanted them to have.
While Christ was them they were not ready for all of the truth. The entire story:
John 16: 12-14
12 "I have many more things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. 13 "But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth ; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak ; and He will disclose to you what is to come. 14 "He will glorify Me, for He will take of Mine and will disclose it to you
Later on the Spirit would be given to the Apostles and give them the truth.
The Holy Spirit would inspire the Apostles and their associates to write the New Testament.
It would be in the next 40-50 years the books of the NT would come to be in the form of the 27 in the canon that we have.
Until that time the church would almost be in a state of infancy. Knowledge in some ways would be in partiality and the Church would start to grow in in the faith.
I Corinthians 13 and Ephesians 4 both speak of a Church that will grow up and develop just as the early church did.
Consider the situations of different churches like Jerusalem and Thessalonica in which one church is in deep famine and poverty and they richer members sell their possessions and give to the poor while the Paul tells them that they are to keep their jobs at Thessalonica.
Paul also makes it clear that the members at Corinth still had personal property because he refers to the houses that they can eat in before them come for the Lord’s Supper.
My point is that the church has stages of maturity as well as different situations in different locations. The church was to grow up and the NT was always part of that plan.
The Holy Spirit would guide the entire process – from the verification of the message of the apostles to the writing of the NT.
Paul very early on understands that through His writings the mystery of God will be made known as he talks about in Ephesians 3:4
Peter in 2 Peter 3 verses 1 through 2 talks about how His writing and the teaching of the Apostles are actually from Jesus Himself.
Sometimes we make the mistake of saying on the red letters of the Bible are the words of Christ but in actuality, according to Peter the words in black are inspired by Christ and written by His apostles.
Of the writing of the NT peter the Apostle says,
2 Peter 1: 20-21
20 But know this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one's own interpretation, 21 for no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God
Peter tells us that the writers of Scripture were moved by the Holy Spirit – this word Moved is an important word to understand:
PHERO is the word used here and is used 66 times in the NT and basically refers to how the wind would carry a ship by blowing against the sails.
This idea makes perfect sense – as the writers of our NT wrote to churches and situations or wrote biographies of Jesus such as the Gospels or the history of the church as ACTs it was the Holy Spirit that directed that process.
The very words of Scripture would be as Paul calls them later Theopnuestos or God breathed.
The very powerful words of God. The same Creator that spoke the universe into existence by the shear fiat of his word now speaks to us in Scripture.
The Holy Spirit would direct this process. Many people are confused as to how the Spirit of God could mold us today.
I would tell you that one way that I know for sure beyond a shadow of a doubt is through the Scripture.
The Spirit can shape us and mold us through the Bible.
In this final discourse of Jesus He is telling us not to be afraid because He has left instructions for us and has not left us all alone in this world.
How does this Spirit of God work today and produce fruit in a Christian? Is there any way to know?
Galatians 5: 22-25
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control ; against such things there is no law. 24 Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25 If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit.
When we read this passage we realize that the Holy Spirit works in to bring change in the life of a Christian.
We are different and we have crucified the flesh and live by the Spirit.
We all realize that God wants change in our lives and wants true repentance but how does one go about this?
Will God just supernaturally transform you as you sit on your couch? Do we cooperate with God in this endeavor to allow the spirit to transform?
I think the parable of the sower may clear up any misunderstanding. In talking about the good soil that accepts the word of God, Jesus says,
Luke 8: 15
15 "But the seed in the good soil, these are the ones who have heard the word in an honest and good heart, and hold it fast, and bear fruit with perseverance.
Now look at this verse closely – heard the word, hold fast the word and bear fruit with perseverance.
Word of God transforms us when we hold fast to it and obey what it teaches and it is a long term process of perseverance.
God’s word is inspired and powerful and these teachings will change us, but we have to cooperate by reading, meditating on that word and also grappling with it through minutes, hours, and years of perseverance through obedience.
Conclusion:
God has not left us here alone without guidance, He has left His word with us in our Bibles.
We must be transformed by that message.
A lady of society was gazing upon an image she had never seen before in the city’s art museum. "My dear fellow," she said condescendingly to the Curator, "I have never seen this painting before. I find the image shallow and rather crude in appearance. What do you call this?" The curator answered without giving the slightest expression," That madam, is a mirror." The lady’s vision was not very focused.
Losing focus on the Jesus of Scripture blurs our own view—not only of Christ—but of ourselves, as well. The Bible is also a great mirror. We may go to it to observe its content with a critical eye, but in the end, we are under its criticism.
If we don’t look to the Bible for our information on how to view the world we will be like this lady and not even recognize our own face.
We will not recognize the very Creator of the Universe.
That is how John starts his gospel by telling us that the world did not recognize God and that is how he is wrapping up his gospel.
Where are we in this challenge?
Saturday, May 7, 2011
Preparing a Place
It is about a lady at the airport who stopped in the concourse to buy a Kit Kat candy bar to eat while she was waiting for her plane.
In the crowded waiting area she spied an empty seat at the end of one of the rows. Rushing to get it, she quickly leaned her hang-up bag against it, placed her purse and several other small items on the table between her & a rather large man seated there, and then turned to straighten her hang up bag.
With everything finally in order, she was ready to eat her Kit Kat candy bar. But to her surprise, as she started to reach for it, she saw the man in the next seat unwrapping her Kit Kat candy bar, and she watched in utter amazement as he broke off a section and ate it.
She thought, "Well, my goodness, I’ve never seen such gall." She glared at him, and he looked at her, but no words were exchanged.
She was so furious at what he had done that she decided that if he was going to be that brazen about it, she could be brazen, too.
So she reached over to him, broke off a piece and ate it herself. Then he broke off another piece and ate it. It became almost a duel between the two of them to see who would get the most.
Quickly the candy bar was consumed, and she sat there just boiling that someone would be so rude and so presumptuous as to eat half of her candy bar.
Well, after a few minutes of silence, the man got up and left and then came back with another Kit Kat candy bar.
He unwrapped it, broke off a piece and started eating.
She thought, "Well, since he ate half of mine, I’m going to eat half of his." So she reached over & broke off another piece & ate it.
Once again the same scenario was repeated until the whole candy bar was gone. She sat there thinking, "This is the most ridiculous thing that has happened to me in all my life."
She continued to glare at him, and he looked at her, with neither one saying a word.
Just then, over the intercom came the announcement that her plane was ready for boarding.
So she opened her purse to get her boarding pass and, to her utter embarrassment, there was her Kit Kat candy bar. She had eaten half of 2 of his candy bars, and her’s was still in her purse!
APPLICATION:
There are times, I suppose, when things really start to go wrong. Your whole world seems to be crumbling around you and you wonder what is going on.
B. That is kind of the way the apostles are feeling as we come to the 14th chapter of John.
They have been on a roller-coaster of emotions.
Their week had begun gloriously with Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem, and people waving palm branches and shouting, "Hosanna to the King!"
Even the chief priests who had been plotting against Jesus cried out in despair, "What can we do? The whole world has gone out after Him!"
Even Thomas – doubting Thomas – had said earlier that that he was ready to go to Jerusalem to die with Jesus – he was confused as to the type of Kingdom that Jesus would establish.
But Jesus had not come to establish an earthly kingdom, and He refused the crown.
Disappointed and thwarted in their dreams of a Jewish kingdom with Jesus as their miracle-working king, the fickle crowd began to turn against Jesus.
He was not saying the right things or going after the Romans like they though He should.
Now the Disciples had to start wondering what was going on.
This is the Final Discourse- Jesus –is getting his followers ready for what is to come. Jesus is staring down his passion on the cross and his future resurrection.
The apostles will go through some dark moments when this happens – it is into this doubt and despair that Jesus talks.
John 14: 1-14
1 "Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. 2 In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. 4 You know the way to the place where I am going."
5 Thomas said to him, "Lord, we don't know where you are going, so how can we know the way?" 6 Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7 If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him." 8 Philip said, "Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us." 9 Jesus answered: "Don't you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, 'Show us the Father'? 10 Don't you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you are not just my own. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work. 11 Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the miracles themselves. 12 I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. 13 And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. 14 You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.
I. Don’t Be Troubled or in other words Don’t Be Afraid Why?
I love it that Jesus starts His discourse with telling them not to let their hearts be troubled.
He doesn’t want them to be afraid of what is coming.
We will see this theme all through the Bible of God not wanting us to be fearful
Paul tells Timothy who had a knack for being timid the following:
2 Timothy 1: 7
For God has not given us a spirit of timidity, but of power and love and discipline.
This theme of not being afraid or troubled by the world is found in the Angel’s annunciation to Mary that she would bear God’s Son in
Luke 1: 30 Be not Afraid
To Joseph her hustband
Matthew 1:20 Be not Afraid
When Jesus calls Peter in Luke 5 Peter is hesitant and reminds the Lord that he is a sinful man but Jesus tells Peter in
Luke 5:10 Be Not Afraid
Throughout the Scripture we see this constant theme that God doesn’t want us to be afraid. This lack of fear is based on the peace that we find in Jesus Christ. In a world of uncertainty.
In a world of financial downturns, loss of jobs, loss of health, death, destruction by tornadoes we can turn to God and just as Paul tells us in
Philippians 4: 6-7
6 Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. 7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
Paul reminds us that we are not be anxious, to put all of our longings and heartache over to prayer to Christ. It is in Christ that we find God’s peace.
When the world falls apart that is the one constant that we have is to turn to Jesus in prayer and supplication.
So as we look this morning at not being anxious and not being fearful there are a few things that this passage tells us.
II. First of all, a lack of fear is based on Trust in Jesus
We can identify our situation with Thomas.
Every day I think that I wake up and on my own power I am asking
What is the way?
How do I raise my kids?
How are we going to get through?
What do I do when confronted with situations at work that I feel powerless to do anything about?
Sometimes friends and family members do things that leave us at a loss and we shake our heads and ask What is the Way? What do I do.
Jesus gives a resounding answer.
Jesus is the Way – He has the truth.
When so many lies are being told in our culture we need something that is not going to change. As in the time of Jeremiah the prophet the people were crying out Peace, Peace, we have the Temple – Jeremiah was saying no Calamity, Calamity – he knew Jerusalem and his country was in jeopardy- He knew God was going to destroy Jerusalem for their false religion and hedonism.
Jerusalem had become rich and forgotten God, Jerusalem was more concerned with consumerism than the poor and living for truth.
The same is true for our time- our culture is crying out peace, peace !! The economy is all that matters, when the birth pangs are upon us and we know that we are in trouble.
This is when the Truth of Jesus Christ cuts through and reveals all of these lies that the popular culture is foisting upon us.
Folks, if you want peace, if want fulfillment, if you want what is true - Put your trust in Jesus – trust in His truth and He will never let you down.
Plug into His word and trust what the Bible says more than anything else. Plug into the truth and forget what the world has to say.
III. Trust in Eternity – Heaven
Trusting in Jesus leads to our trusting in eternity. Heaven is on many people’s minds
The destruction this last week was something that we will never forget. People started the day as normal and by the end of the day they may have lost their home, the possession or even a loved one.
One survivor from the tornadoes tells the story that they realized how fragile this life really is when the attended the funeral of a family member by candle light.
We realize this façade of a life that we as humans have built to defy that death is real and that bad things can happen all comes crashing down on a day like that.
We as Christians need to be assured that when we die our life is not over.
Christ came to give us life and give it abundantly.
The Greeks believed that the body could die but the soul is immortal. We know from Scripture that both the body and soul can die.
The body can die a physical death and the soul can be separated from God for eternity.
We also know as Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians that both the body and soul have been offered life by Christ.
Not only will a Christian’s soul live forever with God in Heaven but one day our bodies will be resurrected to a new body, a glorified resurrected body that will be like Christ’s glorified, resurrected body.
Jesus tells us something instructive in this passage:
FATHERS HOUSE
MANY ROOMS
When a 1st century Jew heard the word Father’s House or God’s House what would they think?
Remember that Jesus is speaking to an audience at that time and these words meant specific things. What was God’s House.
The phrase God’s House or the Father’s House goes back to 2 Samuel 7 where David wanted to build a House for God – but there was a play on words with House- God would build David a House- a lineage – a everlasting Kingdom.
God’s House was specifically the Temple.
Now why do I bring this up?
Remember the book of Hebrews tells us that the Tabernacle or the Temple was actually a copy of the Heavenly reality.
The earthly Temple was a copy of the Heavenly reality. Our calling is to be a priesthood of believers. Remember that we are called to Mount Zion – Zion is where the Temple is located. The Hebrew writer put it this way:
Hebrews 12: 18-24
18 For you have not come to a mountain that can be touched and to a blazing fire, and to darkness and gloom and whirlwind, 19 and to the blast of a trumpet and the sound of words which sound was such that those who heard begged that no further word be spoken to them. 20 For they could not bear the command, "IF EVEN A BEAST TOUCHES THE MOUNTAIN, IT WILL BE STONED." 21 And so terrible was the sight, that Moses said, "I AM FULL OF FEAR and trembling." 22 But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to myriads of angels, 23 to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the Judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, 24 and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood, which speaks better than the blood of Abel.
Paul is contrasting the experience of Israel at Mount Sinai with our experience as Christians.
Because of the blood that Jesus shed, we can approach God with confidence. And through Christ and what He has done we can come before God – the Mount Zion – Heavenly Jerusalem.
Jesus is going to His Father’s house to prepare many rooms. We know that the original Temple had apartments built onto it for the Levites and priests to stay and do their work.
What is Jesus telling us in the best language people could understand?
Simply, that we are going to be in God’s presence. That consuming fire of God’s love, the fire that filled the Holy of Holies, the God that could not be seen with human eyes-because of the blood and resurrected body of Jesus you will see God face to face-
You will bask in His glory – all things will be made right – all wounds will be healed
No persecution, sickness, tornado or anything of this world can touch or make us fearful because Heaven is waiting and Christ has paved the way.
How do we know there is a Heaven?
You may ask this question and we need to answer it.
1) Your soul longs for it.
Not one of us here wants to get sick, or experience death. I dont think anyone says hey I want my body to break down and die.
We hate the idea of finiteness and time.
How many times do you feel rushed to finish something and feel like you are running out of time. Everytime you feel that way you need to stop and say – that is a spark of the Divine that has been put into me.
We hate time and want more of it- that means that there is something inside of you that wants to live forever. You don’t want to run out of time.
2) Because the soul has always felt there was such a place
. Like the little boy flying his kite and the kite was out of sight and someone asked him where it was and he pointed up to the sky.
They asked him how he knew it was there if he couldn't see it and he said, "I know it is there because I can feel it tug."
We can know in a similar way that there is a Heaven, because we can feel the pull of it, the tug of it in our souls.
We feel it deep in our bones and know that there has to be a Heaven – We see injustice and bad things that happen and want God to put things right.
3) Because God says there is such a place as Heaven.
I'd rather have God's word about anything than the opinion of all the philosophers and scientists in all the world.
With looking at what God has done through Jesus I think I can take that to heart and believe that
As we think about that Promise that God has made let us consider what Heaven will be like.
I think it is sad that today it seems that Christians don’t talk about Heaven much and people don’t dream about what it might be like.
I think this is healthy and good for us to do.
We just cant really try to wrap our minds around it.
Imagine timeless beauty – think about the most beautiful things that you have ever seen.
I think about Newfoundland Gap when it snowed one year, or Cade’s Cover in the Fall, Falls Creek Falls, Little River Canyon,
Gulf shores or destin looking at the ocean.
All Saints Cathedral when the Sunlight is coming through the stained glass windows.
The birth of my children, when someone becomes a Christian – all of these things are event that just move us to the core.
We realize that Heaven will be unbelievable when we consider that all of these things that are beautiful and pure are just a splinter, just a shading of the reality of heaven.
John Bradford was an English Reformer that lived in the 1500’s. He was put to death because he saw corruption in the church of his country and spoke out about it.
Bradford was a man of great faith and looking at death in the face considered his fate.
He knew that he was going to be put to death and he said the following:
I am assured that though I want here, I have riches there;
though I hunger here, I shall have fullness there;
though I faint here, I shall be refreshed there;
and though I be accounted here as a dead man, I shall there live in perpetual glory.
I think that there is great wisdom in what John Bradford said. He understood the permanence of God’s rest versus the temporal nature of this world.
John Bunyan published a book in 1678 called Pilgrim’s Progress and it was about a man that was on the road to Heaven.
In this story the main character is named Christian, he leaves his home burned down with troubles and he is relieved by his troubles and takes on new garments which in this story symbolizes his baptism into Christ – it is at this time he receives his passport to Heaven.
As Christian, in the Pilgrim's Progress drew near to the Heavenly City, he saw the gates opened to receive others.
"I looked in after them," he says, "and, behold, the city shone like the sun; the streets also were paved with gold, and in them walked many who had crowns on their heads and palms in their hands and golden harps to sing praises withal. There were some that had wings, and they answered one another without intermission, saying 'Holy, holy, holy is the Lord!' And after that they shut up the gates; which, when I had seen, I wished myself among them."
Paul the apostle says the following in 1 Corinthians 2
"THINGS WHICH EYE HAS NOT SEEN AND EAR HAS NOT HEARD, AND which HAVE NOT ENTERED THE HEART OF MAN, ALL THAT GOD HAS PREPARED FOR THOSE WHO LOVE HIM."
Heaven is such a wonderful place that we cant even imagine what it will be like.
What I would ask of you this morning –
Just like Christian in the Pilgrim’s Progress- do you wish to be among them?
Do you wish to be among the heavenly host? Those that have gone on before us to glory?
Do you long to be their with great characters of old like Moses, Paul and others experiencing the glory of Christ.
Would you like to be there to thank Christ personally for what He did for you?
Then we can do something about it. If you are a Christian – then live your life for Christ everyday in anticipation for what is coming –
If you are not you need to enter that joy and knowing that Christ’s blood was shed for you.
In the crowded waiting area she spied an empty seat at the end of one of the rows. Rushing to get it, she quickly leaned her hang-up bag against it, placed her purse and several other small items on the table between her & a rather large man seated there, and then turned to straighten her hang up bag.
With everything finally in order, she was ready to eat her Kit Kat candy bar. But to her surprise, as she started to reach for it, she saw the man in the next seat unwrapping her Kit Kat candy bar, and she watched in utter amazement as he broke off a section and ate it.
She thought, "Well, my goodness, I’ve never seen such gall." She glared at him, and he looked at her, but no words were exchanged.
She was so furious at what he had done that she decided that if he was going to be that brazen about it, she could be brazen, too.
So she reached over to him, broke off a piece and ate it herself. Then he broke off another piece and ate it. It became almost a duel between the two of them to see who would get the most.
Quickly the candy bar was consumed, and she sat there just boiling that someone would be so rude and so presumptuous as to eat half of her candy bar.
Well, after a few minutes of silence, the man got up and left and then came back with another Kit Kat candy bar.
He unwrapped it, broke off a piece and started eating.
She thought, "Well, since he ate half of mine, I’m going to eat half of his." So she reached over & broke off another piece & ate it.
Once again the same scenario was repeated until the whole candy bar was gone. She sat there thinking, "This is the most ridiculous thing that has happened to me in all my life."
She continued to glare at him, and he looked at her, with neither one saying a word.
Just then, over the intercom came the announcement that her plane was ready for boarding.
So she opened her purse to get her boarding pass and, to her utter embarrassment, there was her Kit Kat candy bar. She had eaten half of 2 of his candy bars, and her’s was still in her purse!
APPLICATION:
There are times, I suppose, when things really start to go wrong. Your whole world seems to be crumbling around you and you wonder what is going on.
B. That is kind of the way the apostles are feeling as we come to the 14th chapter of John.
They have been on a roller-coaster of emotions.
Their week had begun gloriously with Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem, and people waving palm branches and shouting, "Hosanna to the King!"
Even the chief priests who had been plotting against Jesus cried out in despair, "What can we do? The whole world has gone out after Him!"
Even Thomas – doubting Thomas – had said earlier that that he was ready to go to Jerusalem to die with Jesus – he was confused as to the type of Kingdom that Jesus would establish.
But Jesus had not come to establish an earthly kingdom, and He refused the crown.
Disappointed and thwarted in their dreams of a Jewish kingdom with Jesus as their miracle-working king, the fickle crowd began to turn against Jesus.
He was not saying the right things or going after the Romans like they though He should.
Now the Disciples had to start wondering what was going on.
This is the Final Discourse- Jesus –is getting his followers ready for what is to come. Jesus is staring down his passion on the cross and his future resurrection.
The apostles will go through some dark moments when this happens – it is into this doubt and despair that Jesus talks.
John 14: 1-14
1 "Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. 2 In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. 4 You know the way to the place where I am going."
5 Thomas said to him, "Lord, we don't know where you are going, so how can we know the way?" 6 Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7 If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him." 8 Philip said, "Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us." 9 Jesus answered: "Don't you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, 'Show us the Father'? 10 Don't you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you are not just my own. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work. 11 Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the miracles themselves. 12 I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. 13 And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. 14 You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.
I. Don’t Be Troubled or in other words Don’t Be Afraid Why?
I love it that Jesus starts His discourse with telling them not to let their hearts be troubled.
He doesn’t want them to be afraid of what is coming.
We will see this theme all through the Bible of God not wanting us to be fearful
Paul tells Timothy who had a knack for being timid the following:
2 Timothy 1: 7
For God has not given us a spirit of timidity, but of power and love and discipline.
This theme of not being afraid or troubled by the world is found in the Angel’s annunciation to Mary that she would bear God’s Son in
Luke 1: 30 Be not Afraid
To Joseph her hustband
Matthew 1:20 Be not Afraid
When Jesus calls Peter in Luke 5 Peter is hesitant and reminds the Lord that he is a sinful man but Jesus tells Peter in
Luke 5:10 Be Not Afraid
Throughout the Scripture we see this constant theme that God doesn’t want us to be afraid. This lack of fear is based on the peace that we find in Jesus Christ. In a world of uncertainty.
In a world of financial downturns, loss of jobs, loss of health, death, destruction by tornadoes we can turn to God and just as Paul tells us in
Philippians 4: 6-7
6 Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. 7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
Paul reminds us that we are not be anxious, to put all of our longings and heartache over to prayer to Christ. It is in Christ that we find God’s peace.
When the world falls apart that is the one constant that we have is to turn to Jesus in prayer and supplication.
So as we look this morning at not being anxious and not being fearful there are a few things that this passage tells us.
II. First of all, a lack of fear is based on Trust in Jesus
We can identify our situation with Thomas.
Every day I think that I wake up and on my own power I am asking
What is the way?
How do I raise my kids?
How are we going to get through?
What do I do when confronted with situations at work that I feel powerless to do anything about?
Sometimes friends and family members do things that leave us at a loss and we shake our heads and ask What is the Way? What do I do.
Jesus gives a resounding answer.
Jesus is the Way – He has the truth.
When so many lies are being told in our culture we need something that is not going to change. As in the time of Jeremiah the prophet the people were crying out Peace, Peace, we have the Temple – Jeremiah was saying no Calamity, Calamity – he knew Jerusalem and his country was in jeopardy- He knew God was going to destroy Jerusalem for their false religion and hedonism.
Jerusalem had become rich and forgotten God, Jerusalem was more concerned with consumerism than the poor and living for truth.
The same is true for our time- our culture is crying out peace, peace !! The economy is all that matters, when the birth pangs are upon us and we know that we are in trouble.
This is when the Truth of Jesus Christ cuts through and reveals all of these lies that the popular culture is foisting upon us.
Folks, if you want peace, if want fulfillment, if you want what is true - Put your trust in Jesus – trust in His truth and He will never let you down.
Plug into His word and trust what the Bible says more than anything else. Plug into the truth and forget what the world has to say.
III. Trust in Eternity – Heaven
Trusting in Jesus leads to our trusting in eternity. Heaven is on many people’s minds
The destruction this last week was something that we will never forget. People started the day as normal and by the end of the day they may have lost their home, the possession or even a loved one.
One survivor from the tornadoes tells the story that they realized how fragile this life really is when the attended the funeral of a family member by candle light.
We realize this façade of a life that we as humans have built to defy that death is real and that bad things can happen all comes crashing down on a day like that.
We as Christians need to be assured that when we die our life is not over.
Christ came to give us life and give it abundantly.
The Greeks believed that the body could die but the soul is immortal. We know from Scripture that both the body and soul can die.
The body can die a physical death and the soul can be separated from God for eternity.
We also know as Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians that both the body and soul have been offered life by Christ.
Not only will a Christian’s soul live forever with God in Heaven but one day our bodies will be resurrected to a new body, a glorified resurrected body that will be like Christ’s glorified, resurrected body.
Jesus tells us something instructive in this passage:
FATHERS HOUSE
MANY ROOMS
When a 1st century Jew heard the word Father’s House or God’s House what would they think?
Remember that Jesus is speaking to an audience at that time and these words meant specific things. What was God’s House.
The phrase God’s House or the Father’s House goes back to 2 Samuel 7 where David wanted to build a House for God – but there was a play on words with House- God would build David a House- a lineage – a everlasting Kingdom.
God’s House was specifically the Temple.
Now why do I bring this up?
Remember the book of Hebrews tells us that the Tabernacle or the Temple was actually a copy of the Heavenly reality.
The earthly Temple was a copy of the Heavenly reality. Our calling is to be a priesthood of believers. Remember that we are called to Mount Zion – Zion is where the Temple is located. The Hebrew writer put it this way:
Hebrews 12: 18-24
18 For you have not come to a mountain that can be touched and to a blazing fire, and to darkness and gloom and whirlwind, 19 and to the blast of a trumpet and the sound of words which sound was such that those who heard begged that no further word be spoken to them. 20 For they could not bear the command, "IF EVEN A BEAST TOUCHES THE MOUNTAIN, IT WILL BE STONED." 21 And so terrible was the sight, that Moses said, "I AM FULL OF FEAR and trembling." 22 But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to myriads of angels, 23 to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the Judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, 24 and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood, which speaks better than the blood of Abel.
Paul is contrasting the experience of Israel at Mount Sinai with our experience as Christians.
Because of the blood that Jesus shed, we can approach God with confidence. And through Christ and what He has done we can come before God – the Mount Zion – Heavenly Jerusalem.
Jesus is going to His Father’s house to prepare many rooms. We know that the original Temple had apartments built onto it for the Levites and priests to stay and do their work.
What is Jesus telling us in the best language people could understand?
Simply, that we are going to be in God’s presence. That consuming fire of God’s love, the fire that filled the Holy of Holies, the God that could not be seen with human eyes-because of the blood and resurrected body of Jesus you will see God face to face-
You will bask in His glory – all things will be made right – all wounds will be healed
No persecution, sickness, tornado or anything of this world can touch or make us fearful because Heaven is waiting and Christ has paved the way.
How do we know there is a Heaven?
You may ask this question and we need to answer it.
1) Your soul longs for it.
Not one of us here wants to get sick, or experience death. I dont think anyone says hey I want my body to break down and die.
We hate the idea of finiteness and time.
How many times do you feel rushed to finish something and feel like you are running out of time. Everytime you feel that way you need to stop and say – that is a spark of the Divine that has been put into me.
We hate time and want more of it- that means that there is something inside of you that wants to live forever. You don’t want to run out of time.
2) Because the soul has always felt there was such a place
. Like the little boy flying his kite and the kite was out of sight and someone asked him where it was and he pointed up to the sky.
They asked him how he knew it was there if he couldn't see it and he said, "I know it is there because I can feel it tug."
We can know in a similar way that there is a Heaven, because we can feel the pull of it, the tug of it in our souls.
We feel it deep in our bones and know that there has to be a Heaven – We see injustice and bad things that happen and want God to put things right.
3) Because God says there is such a place as Heaven.
I'd rather have God's word about anything than the opinion of all the philosophers and scientists in all the world.
With looking at what God has done through Jesus I think I can take that to heart and believe that
As we think about that Promise that God has made let us consider what Heaven will be like.
I think it is sad that today it seems that Christians don’t talk about Heaven much and people don’t dream about what it might be like.
I think this is healthy and good for us to do.
We just cant really try to wrap our minds around it.
Imagine timeless beauty – think about the most beautiful things that you have ever seen.
I think about Newfoundland Gap when it snowed one year, or Cade’s Cover in the Fall, Falls Creek Falls, Little River Canyon,
Gulf shores or destin looking at the ocean.
All Saints Cathedral when the Sunlight is coming through the stained glass windows.
The birth of my children, when someone becomes a Christian – all of these things are event that just move us to the core.
We realize that Heaven will be unbelievable when we consider that all of these things that are beautiful and pure are just a splinter, just a shading of the reality of heaven.
John Bradford was an English Reformer that lived in the 1500’s. He was put to death because he saw corruption in the church of his country and spoke out about it.
Bradford was a man of great faith and looking at death in the face considered his fate.
He knew that he was going to be put to death and he said the following:
I am assured that though I want here, I have riches there;
though I hunger here, I shall have fullness there;
though I faint here, I shall be refreshed there;
and though I be accounted here as a dead man, I shall there live in perpetual glory.
I think that there is great wisdom in what John Bradford said. He understood the permanence of God’s rest versus the temporal nature of this world.
John Bunyan published a book in 1678 called Pilgrim’s Progress and it was about a man that was on the road to Heaven.
In this story the main character is named Christian, he leaves his home burned down with troubles and he is relieved by his troubles and takes on new garments which in this story symbolizes his baptism into Christ – it is at this time he receives his passport to Heaven.
As Christian, in the Pilgrim's Progress drew near to the Heavenly City, he saw the gates opened to receive others.
"I looked in after them," he says, "and, behold, the city shone like the sun; the streets also were paved with gold, and in them walked many who had crowns on their heads and palms in their hands and golden harps to sing praises withal. There were some that had wings, and they answered one another without intermission, saying 'Holy, holy, holy is the Lord!' And after that they shut up the gates; which, when I had seen, I wished myself among them."
Paul the apostle says the following in 1 Corinthians 2
"THINGS WHICH EYE HAS NOT SEEN AND EAR HAS NOT HEARD, AND which HAVE NOT ENTERED THE HEART OF MAN, ALL THAT GOD HAS PREPARED FOR THOSE WHO LOVE HIM."
Heaven is such a wonderful place that we cant even imagine what it will be like.
What I would ask of you this morning –
Just like Christian in the Pilgrim’s Progress- do you wish to be among them?
Do you wish to be among the heavenly host? Those that have gone on before us to glory?
Do you long to be their with great characters of old like Moses, Paul and others experiencing the glory of Christ.
Would you like to be there to thank Christ personally for what He did for you?
Then we can do something about it. If you are a Christian – then live your life for Christ everyday in anticipation for what is coming –
If you are not you need to enter that joy and knowing that Christ’s blood was shed for you.
Sunday, May 1, 2011
John 13- A servant like Christ AM Sermon 5/1/11
I’m afraid that we tend to be like the fellow in the old story who showed up for a court hearing concerning an accident in which he had been involved. His arm was in a cast, there were bandages all over him, & the exposed parts of his body were clearly bruised, scratched & cut. He was a real mess.
Looking rather surprised, the judge asked about his injuries. He replied, "Judge, I’m in a terrible condition. I have cuts & stitches all over me, & I’m feeling awful."
The judge said, "I don’t understand this. The accident report filed by the Officer says that at the time of the accident you told him you were just fine."
"Well Judge," the man replied, "let me explain. I was driving my pickup & pulling a trailer. In the back of the pickup was my old dog Shep, & my mule was in the trailer. All of a sudden an 18-wheeler sideswiped me, knocking me off the road."
"My pickup & trailer rolled over & over, & we ended up at the bottom of a big embankment. The next thing I remember, a police officer was picking his way through the wreckage. I saw him stop & examine my mule, then he pulled out his pistol & shot the mule between the eyes."
"Next, he got to where Shep was lying, & after examining him, he shot old Shep, too. Then he walked over to me & asked, "How are you?" And I said, "I’m just fine."
We many times
John chapters 1 through 12 is commonly known as the book of signs
John 13-21 is called the book of glory - This Is the part of John that Jesus really starts to reveal His true identity.
Chapter 2: 18 What sign do you perform?
Destroy this Temple and in three days I will raise it up- this sets the trajectory for the book – destroy this temple – Verse 21 – his body – when He was raised from the dead His disciples remembered what He had said.
John – preparing his readers.
Theological implications for this great sign
6 signs are looking forward to the greatest sign of all
Lazarus’ being raised was the last of the six signs before Jesus is raised.
The greatest sign of all will be Jesus resurrection – He will be the new Temple – all worship will move from the Temple to the resurrected body of Jesus.
All worship as was known before in Israel will be transferred to Jesus – Jesus will receive all the glory, honor, and adoration.
Chapter 13-17 is the longest discourse or teaching of Jesus in the entire Bible – this is called the Farewell Discourse
In John 6 we see that there will be a new covenant and in John 15 to go with that new covenant we get a new command – To love one another
Genesis 49 Jacob gives his farewell discourse - Jacob who is Israel – blesses his sons but he gives them instructions. He even tells their future – Lion of the tribe of Judah – messiah will come from Judah.
Jacob gathers his 12 sons and gives them the farewell discourse
1) Blessing
2) Instruction
3) Prediction – prophecy about their future
Deuteronomy 31-33 we see Moses farewell discourse
He addresses the 12 tribes – blessings upon the 12 tribes, moral instructions, and then predicts the future both positive and negative- he announces a successor in Joshua
Joshua 21-24 Joshua’s farewell discourse – the 12 tribes –
This is where we have the famous “as for me and my house we will serve the Lord”
Joshua – blessing, instruction, prediction, and then leaves the judges in charge after his death.
Joshua gives blessing
I Samuel 8-12 – Samuel the prophet gives his farewell discourse – he is the last Judge
Gathers the 12, blessing, instruction, prediction s- leaves the King Saul in charge.
All of these are testaments given by men who are blessing children of God
John 13 falls right in line with this tradition from the OT. Jesus is the new Moses, Jesus is the new Joshua, He is the true King, he is the true High priest. It is only natural that Jesus would give his last will and testament – so to speak.
Now Jesus will give His instruction – we know that Jesus would institute His new covenant in the other three gospels at the Lord’s Supper.
This chapter of John is at the same last supper.
Jesus is blessing His followers in this discourse but He is also revealing his instructions as to how we should behave once He departs.
1) Heart Transformation-
One of the main instructions of the New covenant is to have a heart transformation – to internalize God’s law.
No longer would it be okay to go through the motions of religiousity but god wants truly changed people.
God wants people that as John told us earlier in his Gospel – worship in Spirit and Truth.
The internal condition of the heart and the truth of how we do things are combined in Jesus.
This was a prediction that went back many years before Jesus. The prophets taught that there would be a day when God would bring about a heart transformation.
Jeremiah 31: 31-34
31 "Behold, days are coming," declares the LORD, "when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, 32 not like the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, although I was a husband to them," declares the LORD. 33 "But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days," declares the LORD, "I will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. 34 "They will not teach again, each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, 'Know the LORD,' for they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them," declares the LORD, "for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more."
Jeremiah differentiates this new covenant from the covenant made with Moses. It will be a new work of God.
Also it would be made with all of Israel both the 10 tribes that had gone missing from the north but also the 2 tribes from the south.
Just as before we saw that the farewell discourses of the OT were always centered around the 12 tribes, this new covenant will include the 12 tribes.
Now this idea of the 12 tribes will no longer be determined by your ethnic background and if you could trace your ancestery back to one of Jacob’s sons, but now it centered on being with Jesus.
Those that were with Jesus were now the new 12 tribes of Israel. It was no accident that Jesus chose 12 disciples.
So as we look at today’s text we need to understand that God’s new Covenant will be something different and will be a shift from the normal way of human thinking and dealing with one another. This will be a covenant that comes from the heart and only deals with people that have their hearts committed to God.
2) This covenant will be marked by God’s transforming Love.
Jesus says in John 13: 33-34 later in this chapter:
33 "Little children, I am with you a little while longer. You will seek Me; and as I said to the Jews, now I also say to you, 'Where I am going, you cannot come.' 34 "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another.
The law of this new covenant will be marked by loving others more than ourselves.
This will be a radical community of love for one another.
This transforming love is a self sacrificial love. It is not something that seeks its own but seeks the needs of others first.
William Gladstone, in announcing the death of Princess Alice to the House of Commons, told a touching story. The little daughter of the Princess was seriously ill with diphtheria.
The doctors told the princess not to kiss her little daughter and endanger her life by breathing the child's breath. Once when the child was struggling to breathe, the mother, forgetting herself entirely, took the little one into her arms to keep her from choking to death.
Rasping and struggling for her life, the child said, "Momma, kiss me!" Without thinking of herself the mother tenderly kissed her daughter.
She got diphtheria and some days thereafter she went to be forever with the Lord. Real love forgets self. Real love knows no danger.
Real love doesn't count the cost.
How many mothers in here could identify with Princess Alice, I would say all of you would do the same for your own children.
Now let us take that love that we have for our own and love each other that way. Imagine what type of churches we would have if we lived like that.
It is tough and the world is telling us the opposite.
The best evangelism the world could ever see would be for Christians to truly love like that. I believe if the lost world witnessed that it would be compelling. They would break in the doors of the church house to get a taste of that type of love.
3) God wants to transform us into the image of His Son.
John 13: 1-20
1 Now before the Feast of the Passover, Jesus knowing that His hour had come that He would depart out of this world to the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end. 2 During supper, the devil having already put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon, to betray Him, 3 Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He had come forth from God and was going back to God, 4 got up from supper, and laid aside His garments ; and taking a towel, He girded Himself. 5 Then He poured water into the basin, and began to wash the disciples' feet and to wipe them with the towel with which He was girded. 6 So He came to Simon Peter. He said to Him, "Lord, do You wash my feet ?" 7 Jesus answered and said to him, "What I do you do not realize now, but you will understand hereafter ." 8 Peter said to Him, "Never shall You wash my feet !" Jesus answered him, "If I do not wash you, you have no part with Me." 9 Simon Peter said to Him, "Lord, then wash not only my feet, but also my hands and my head." 10 Jesus said to him, "He who has bathed needs only to wash his feet, but is completely clean ; and you are clean, but not all of you." 11 For He knew the one who was betraying Him; for this reason He said, "Not all of you are clean." 12 So when He had washed their feet, and taken His garments and reclined at the table again, He said to them, "Do you know what I have done to you? 13 "You call Me Teacher and Lord ; and you are right, for so I am. 14 "If I then, the Lord and the Teacher, washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet. 15 "For I gave you an example that you also should do as I did to you. 16 "Truly, truly, I say to you, a slave is not greater than his master, nor is one who is sent greater than the one who sent him. 17 "If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them. 18 "I do not speak of all of you. I know the ones I have chosen ; but it is that the Scripture may be fulfilled, 'HE WHO EATS MY BREAD HAS LIFTED UP HIS HEEL AGAINST ME.' 19 "From now on I am telling you before it comes to pass, so that when it does occur, you may believe that I am He. 20 "Truly, truly, I say to you, he who receives whomever I send receives Me; and he who receives Me receives Him who sent Me."
His hour had come – This is in John’s Gospel – is the time of His crucifixion and eventual glorification through the Resurrection.
The Passover Is Here – The Departure – this is not leaving Egypt but this is the departure through death, resurrection and the ascension.
Jesus Passover through death will lead to a human body entering the glory of Heaven. When Jesus goes into this departure He is opening the way for us.
OT foot washing was more common.
Exodus 30:19 – washing of the feet was the preparation for the candidates of priestly ordination. This would be part of their priestly ordination. Whenever they would enter into the holiest sites of the Temple they would have to wash their feet.
With this being the farewell discourse their may be some validity that Jesus is actually preparing them for a new priesthood – it will no longer be at the Temple but will be in the priesthood of believers.
Many of you know this story already- The washing of the feet was something a slave would do before dinner.
Most people would have a servant in charge of this nasty task. This was not something that you would really want to do.
Jesus is telling us something. This is what ministry is like in the new covenant.
The word for Servant is the same word for Minister – or ministry – this is a calling to ministry.
We are all called to some type of ministry whether we realize it or not and it is marked out by the example of Jesus.
We are to be conformed to the Image of Jesus:
What is your purpose in Life? If you came here looking for that singular purpose in you life, this reading this morning answers that single question.
Here it is : 16 "Truly, truly, I say to you, a slave is not greater than his master, nor is one who is sent greater than the one who sent him. 17 "If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them.
What if Jesus walked up to you this morning and said I want to give you a blessing?
Would you not think in the last discourse that our savior had he would definetly lay down what is most important.
Here it is – your purpose- is to Serve – to be a servant as Christ was a servant.
To understand this story today we have to put it in perspective.
If you don’t do this you will never grow as a Christian- we sometimes fret over spiritual growth and only look at prayer life and Bible study – that is important and don’t hear me wrong but just as important is servant hood and serving others.
The great violinist, Niccolo Paganini willed his marvelous violin to city of Genoa on condition that it must never be played.
The wood of such an instrument, while used and handled, wears only slightly, but set aside, it begins to decay. Paganini's lovely violin has today become worm-eaten and useless except as a relic.
A Christian's unwillingness to serve may soon destroy his capacity for usefulness.
When you do this and find your true purpose in life others are going to notice. You will become an example to those around you.
You hear it said during the NFL draft that it is better for a young QB to go to a team with a veteran QB to learn how to play the position.
That is the best way to learn how to live the Christian life – to find an example that lives it like a master teacher.
Paul lays out this them in 2 Thessalonians:
2 Thessalonians 3: 6-10
6 Now we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you keep away from every brother who leads an unruly life and not according to the tradition which you received from us. 7 For you yourselves know how you ought to follow our example, because we did not act in an undisciplined manner among you, 8 nor did we eat anyone's bread without paying for it, but with labor and hardship we kept working night and day so that we would not be a burden to any of you; 9 not because we do not have the right to this, but in order to offer ourselves as a model for you, so that you would follow our example. 10 For even when we were with you, we used to give you this order : if anyone is not willing to work, then he is not to eat,
Paul makes a clear case that the missionary team that he brought to Thessalonica did not take advantage of the church.
They worked hard not to be a burden on other Christians.
Paul would make the case in Philippians 2 that we should be humble as Christ was humble and put others needs before our own.
When we do this – quietly live a life that cares about others needs first, a life of hard work to help the church – others will notice and copy that example.
Teaching by example is one of the strongest ways to teach anyone.
A mother wrote, "My 3-yr-old was on my heels everywhere I went. And whenever I stopped to do something & then turned back around, I’d trip over him.
Time & again I patiently suggested fun activities to keep him occupied. But he simply smiled an innocent smile & said, ’Oh that’s all right, Mommy. I’d rather be in here with you.’ Then he continued to bounce happily along behind me.
"After stepping on his toes for the fifth time, I began to lose patience.
When I asked him why he was acting this way, he looked up with sweet green eyes & said, ’Well, Mommy, my teacher told me to walk in Jesus’ footsteps.
But I can’t see Him, so I’m walking in yours.’"
There are others that are watching us and what do they see when they observe our actions.
Think about the Apostles when times would get tough later, I am sure there probably wasn’t a day that went by that they didn’t think back to examples like this that Jesus gave them.
Vivid things that would stick with them forever.
Application:
So what do you do with this information?
This new covenant is one of the heart – we love God from the heart and that leads to our obedience.
We have love so radical that it loves others before we seek our own.
We have an example of Jesus that was a servant to all of us, servanthood, a slave to others.
Conclusion:
Most people wish to serve God -- but in an advisory capacity only.
How do you want to serve God? Do you want to find that true life in God that you have been craving?
Do you want true purpose in life? Do you want your life to mean something? To be something that blesses others around you?
Where do you apply this?
During World War II, England needed to increase its production of coal. Winston Churchill called together labor leaders to enlist their support. At the end of his presentation he asked them to picture in their minds a parade which he knew would be held in Picadilly Circus after the war.
First, he said, would come the sailors who had kept the vital sea lanes open. Then would come the soldiers who had come home from Dunkirk and then gone on to defeat Rommel in Africa. Then would come the pilots who had driven the Luftwaffe from the sky.
Last of all, he said, would come a long line of sweat-stained, soot-streaked men in miner's caps. Someone would cry from the crowd, 'And where were you during the critical days of our struggle?' And from ten thousand throats would come the answer, 'We were deep in the earth with our faces to the coal.'"
Not all the jobs in a church are prominent and glamorous. But it is often the people with their "facs to the coal" who help the church accomplish its mission.
In Ephesians 4 Paul lays out all of the different roles of those in the Church. WE all have some roll to fill in God’s Kingdom. What is yours?
There is no biblical concept of just coming on Sunday and not participating. The Church is something that requires all of our participation.
This local congregation has a role for all of us. What is your role here?
Are their people here that should be helping teach Bible classes? Helping teachers get materials together.
Are their people here that can help just by getting the kids here for Bible school so they can learn about Christ.
Are their men that may be qualified to be deacons – SERVANTS for Christ. We sometimes forget that behind every great elder or deacon are great wives that help their husbands reach spiritual maturity.
Do we have folks that can call on our shut-ins, mail cards to those that have been out. There are a multitude of things to do in the local Church and God’s Kingdom works in that way- through us. That is how it has been since day one – God works through his people – we just have to be willing to humble ourselves and seek His kingdom first and not our own self interest.
Unamuno, the Spanish philosopher, tells about the Roman aqueduct at Segovia, in his native Spain.
It was built in 109 A.D. For eighteen hundred years, it carried cool water from the mountains to the hot and thirsty city.
Nearly sixty generations of men drank from its flow.
Then came another generation, a recent one, who said, "This aqueduct is so great a marvel that it ought to be preserved for our children, as a museum piece. We shall relieve it of its centuries-long labor."
They did; they laid modern iron pipes.
They gave the ancient bricks and mortar a reverent rest. And the aqueduct began to fall apart. The sun beating on the dry mortar caused it to crumble.
The bricks and stone sagged and threatened to fall. What ages of service could not destroy idleness disintegrated.
God is calling you this morning to get into the fight. Get off of the sidelines and join the battle. If you don’t you will experience Spiritual Atrophy and not growth.
If you want to grow in Christ and be renewed then today decide to be a servant Just as Jesus was a servant.
Looking rather surprised, the judge asked about his injuries. He replied, "Judge, I’m in a terrible condition. I have cuts & stitches all over me, & I’m feeling awful."
The judge said, "I don’t understand this. The accident report filed by the Officer says that at the time of the accident you told him you were just fine."
"Well Judge," the man replied, "let me explain. I was driving my pickup & pulling a trailer. In the back of the pickup was my old dog Shep, & my mule was in the trailer. All of a sudden an 18-wheeler sideswiped me, knocking me off the road."
"My pickup & trailer rolled over & over, & we ended up at the bottom of a big embankment. The next thing I remember, a police officer was picking his way through the wreckage. I saw him stop & examine my mule, then he pulled out his pistol & shot the mule between the eyes."
"Next, he got to where Shep was lying, & after examining him, he shot old Shep, too. Then he walked over to me & asked, "How are you?" And I said, "I’m just fine."
We many times
John chapters 1 through 12 is commonly known as the book of signs
John 13-21 is called the book of glory - This Is the part of John that Jesus really starts to reveal His true identity.
Chapter 2: 18 What sign do you perform?
Destroy this Temple and in three days I will raise it up- this sets the trajectory for the book – destroy this temple – Verse 21 – his body – when He was raised from the dead His disciples remembered what He had said.
John – preparing his readers.
Theological implications for this great sign
6 signs are looking forward to the greatest sign of all
Lazarus’ being raised was the last of the six signs before Jesus is raised.
The greatest sign of all will be Jesus resurrection – He will be the new Temple – all worship will move from the Temple to the resurrected body of Jesus.
All worship as was known before in Israel will be transferred to Jesus – Jesus will receive all the glory, honor, and adoration.
Chapter 13-17 is the longest discourse or teaching of Jesus in the entire Bible – this is called the Farewell Discourse
In John 6 we see that there will be a new covenant and in John 15 to go with that new covenant we get a new command – To love one another
Genesis 49 Jacob gives his farewell discourse - Jacob who is Israel – blesses his sons but he gives them instructions. He even tells their future – Lion of the tribe of Judah – messiah will come from Judah.
Jacob gathers his 12 sons and gives them the farewell discourse
1) Blessing
2) Instruction
3) Prediction – prophecy about their future
Deuteronomy 31-33 we see Moses farewell discourse
He addresses the 12 tribes – blessings upon the 12 tribes, moral instructions, and then predicts the future both positive and negative- he announces a successor in Joshua
Joshua 21-24 Joshua’s farewell discourse – the 12 tribes –
This is where we have the famous “as for me and my house we will serve the Lord”
Joshua – blessing, instruction, prediction, and then leaves the judges in charge after his death.
Joshua gives blessing
I Samuel 8-12 – Samuel the prophet gives his farewell discourse – he is the last Judge
Gathers the 12, blessing, instruction, prediction s- leaves the King Saul in charge.
All of these are testaments given by men who are blessing children of God
John 13 falls right in line with this tradition from the OT. Jesus is the new Moses, Jesus is the new Joshua, He is the true King, he is the true High priest. It is only natural that Jesus would give his last will and testament – so to speak.
Now Jesus will give His instruction – we know that Jesus would institute His new covenant in the other three gospels at the Lord’s Supper.
This chapter of John is at the same last supper.
Jesus is blessing His followers in this discourse but He is also revealing his instructions as to how we should behave once He departs.
1) Heart Transformation-
One of the main instructions of the New covenant is to have a heart transformation – to internalize God’s law.
No longer would it be okay to go through the motions of religiousity but god wants truly changed people.
God wants people that as John told us earlier in his Gospel – worship in Spirit and Truth.
The internal condition of the heart and the truth of how we do things are combined in Jesus.
This was a prediction that went back many years before Jesus. The prophets taught that there would be a day when God would bring about a heart transformation.
Jeremiah 31: 31-34
31 "Behold, days are coming," declares the LORD, "when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, 32 not like the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, although I was a husband to them," declares the LORD. 33 "But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days," declares the LORD, "I will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. 34 "They will not teach again, each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, 'Know the LORD,' for they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them," declares the LORD, "for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more."
Jeremiah differentiates this new covenant from the covenant made with Moses. It will be a new work of God.
Also it would be made with all of Israel both the 10 tribes that had gone missing from the north but also the 2 tribes from the south.
Just as before we saw that the farewell discourses of the OT were always centered around the 12 tribes, this new covenant will include the 12 tribes.
Now this idea of the 12 tribes will no longer be determined by your ethnic background and if you could trace your ancestery back to one of Jacob’s sons, but now it centered on being with Jesus.
Those that were with Jesus were now the new 12 tribes of Israel. It was no accident that Jesus chose 12 disciples.
So as we look at today’s text we need to understand that God’s new Covenant will be something different and will be a shift from the normal way of human thinking and dealing with one another. This will be a covenant that comes from the heart and only deals with people that have their hearts committed to God.
2) This covenant will be marked by God’s transforming Love.
Jesus says in John 13: 33-34 later in this chapter:
33 "Little children, I am with you a little while longer. You will seek Me; and as I said to the Jews, now I also say to you, 'Where I am going, you cannot come.' 34 "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another.
The law of this new covenant will be marked by loving others more than ourselves.
This will be a radical community of love for one another.
This transforming love is a self sacrificial love. It is not something that seeks its own but seeks the needs of others first.
William Gladstone, in announcing the death of Princess Alice to the House of Commons, told a touching story. The little daughter of the Princess was seriously ill with diphtheria.
The doctors told the princess not to kiss her little daughter and endanger her life by breathing the child's breath. Once when the child was struggling to breathe, the mother, forgetting herself entirely, took the little one into her arms to keep her from choking to death.
Rasping and struggling for her life, the child said, "Momma, kiss me!" Without thinking of herself the mother tenderly kissed her daughter.
She got diphtheria and some days thereafter she went to be forever with the Lord. Real love forgets self. Real love knows no danger.
Real love doesn't count the cost.
How many mothers in here could identify with Princess Alice, I would say all of you would do the same for your own children.
Now let us take that love that we have for our own and love each other that way. Imagine what type of churches we would have if we lived like that.
It is tough and the world is telling us the opposite.
The best evangelism the world could ever see would be for Christians to truly love like that. I believe if the lost world witnessed that it would be compelling. They would break in the doors of the church house to get a taste of that type of love.
3) God wants to transform us into the image of His Son.
John 13: 1-20
1 Now before the Feast of the Passover, Jesus knowing that His hour had come that He would depart out of this world to the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end. 2 During supper, the devil having already put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon, to betray Him, 3 Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He had come forth from God and was going back to God, 4 got up from supper, and laid aside His garments ; and taking a towel, He girded Himself. 5 Then He poured water into the basin, and began to wash the disciples' feet and to wipe them with the towel with which He was girded. 6 So He came to Simon Peter. He said to Him, "Lord, do You wash my feet ?" 7 Jesus answered and said to him, "What I do you do not realize now, but you will understand hereafter ." 8 Peter said to Him, "Never shall You wash my feet !" Jesus answered him, "If I do not wash you, you have no part with Me." 9 Simon Peter said to Him, "Lord, then wash not only my feet, but also my hands and my head." 10 Jesus said to him, "He who has bathed needs only to wash his feet, but is completely clean ; and you are clean, but not all of you." 11 For He knew the one who was betraying Him; for this reason He said, "Not all of you are clean." 12 So when He had washed their feet, and taken His garments and reclined at the table again, He said to them, "Do you know what I have done to you? 13 "You call Me Teacher and Lord ; and you are right, for so I am. 14 "If I then, the Lord and the Teacher, washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet. 15 "For I gave you an example that you also should do as I did to you. 16 "Truly, truly, I say to you, a slave is not greater than his master, nor is one who is sent greater than the one who sent him. 17 "If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them. 18 "I do not speak of all of you. I know the ones I have chosen ; but it is that the Scripture may be fulfilled, 'HE WHO EATS MY BREAD HAS LIFTED UP HIS HEEL AGAINST ME.' 19 "From now on I am telling you before it comes to pass, so that when it does occur, you may believe that I am He. 20 "Truly, truly, I say to you, he who receives whomever I send receives Me; and he who receives Me receives Him who sent Me."
His hour had come – This is in John’s Gospel – is the time of His crucifixion and eventual glorification through the Resurrection.
The Passover Is Here – The Departure – this is not leaving Egypt but this is the departure through death, resurrection and the ascension.
Jesus Passover through death will lead to a human body entering the glory of Heaven. When Jesus goes into this departure He is opening the way for us.
OT foot washing was more common.
Exodus 30:19 – washing of the feet was the preparation for the candidates of priestly ordination. This would be part of their priestly ordination. Whenever they would enter into the holiest sites of the Temple they would have to wash their feet.
With this being the farewell discourse their may be some validity that Jesus is actually preparing them for a new priesthood – it will no longer be at the Temple but will be in the priesthood of believers.
Many of you know this story already- The washing of the feet was something a slave would do before dinner.
Most people would have a servant in charge of this nasty task. This was not something that you would really want to do.
Jesus is telling us something. This is what ministry is like in the new covenant.
The word for Servant is the same word for Minister – or ministry – this is a calling to ministry.
We are all called to some type of ministry whether we realize it or not and it is marked out by the example of Jesus.
We are to be conformed to the Image of Jesus:
What is your purpose in Life? If you came here looking for that singular purpose in you life, this reading this morning answers that single question.
Here it is : 16 "Truly, truly, I say to you, a slave is not greater than his master, nor is one who is sent greater than the one who sent him. 17 "If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them.
What if Jesus walked up to you this morning and said I want to give you a blessing?
Would you not think in the last discourse that our savior had he would definetly lay down what is most important.
Here it is – your purpose- is to Serve – to be a servant as Christ was a servant.
To understand this story today we have to put it in perspective.
If you don’t do this you will never grow as a Christian- we sometimes fret over spiritual growth and only look at prayer life and Bible study – that is important and don’t hear me wrong but just as important is servant hood and serving others.
The great violinist, Niccolo Paganini willed his marvelous violin to city of Genoa on condition that it must never be played.
The wood of such an instrument, while used and handled, wears only slightly, but set aside, it begins to decay. Paganini's lovely violin has today become worm-eaten and useless except as a relic.
A Christian's unwillingness to serve may soon destroy his capacity for usefulness.
When you do this and find your true purpose in life others are going to notice. You will become an example to those around you.
You hear it said during the NFL draft that it is better for a young QB to go to a team with a veteran QB to learn how to play the position.
That is the best way to learn how to live the Christian life – to find an example that lives it like a master teacher.
Paul lays out this them in 2 Thessalonians:
2 Thessalonians 3: 6-10
6 Now we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you keep away from every brother who leads an unruly life and not according to the tradition which you received from us. 7 For you yourselves know how you ought to follow our example, because we did not act in an undisciplined manner among you, 8 nor did we eat anyone's bread without paying for it, but with labor and hardship we kept working night and day so that we would not be a burden to any of you; 9 not because we do not have the right to this, but in order to offer ourselves as a model for you, so that you would follow our example. 10 For even when we were with you, we used to give you this order : if anyone is not willing to work, then he is not to eat,
Paul makes a clear case that the missionary team that he brought to Thessalonica did not take advantage of the church.
They worked hard not to be a burden on other Christians.
Paul would make the case in Philippians 2 that we should be humble as Christ was humble and put others needs before our own.
When we do this – quietly live a life that cares about others needs first, a life of hard work to help the church – others will notice and copy that example.
Teaching by example is one of the strongest ways to teach anyone.
A mother wrote, "My 3-yr-old was on my heels everywhere I went. And whenever I stopped to do something & then turned back around, I’d trip over him.
Time & again I patiently suggested fun activities to keep him occupied. But he simply smiled an innocent smile & said, ’Oh that’s all right, Mommy. I’d rather be in here with you.’ Then he continued to bounce happily along behind me.
"After stepping on his toes for the fifth time, I began to lose patience.
When I asked him why he was acting this way, he looked up with sweet green eyes & said, ’Well, Mommy, my teacher told me to walk in Jesus’ footsteps.
But I can’t see Him, so I’m walking in yours.’"
There are others that are watching us and what do they see when they observe our actions.
Think about the Apostles when times would get tough later, I am sure there probably wasn’t a day that went by that they didn’t think back to examples like this that Jesus gave them.
Vivid things that would stick with them forever.
Application:
So what do you do with this information?
This new covenant is one of the heart – we love God from the heart and that leads to our obedience.
We have love so radical that it loves others before we seek our own.
We have an example of Jesus that was a servant to all of us, servanthood, a slave to others.
Conclusion:
Most people wish to serve God -- but in an advisory capacity only.
How do you want to serve God? Do you want to find that true life in God that you have been craving?
Do you want true purpose in life? Do you want your life to mean something? To be something that blesses others around you?
Where do you apply this?
During World War II, England needed to increase its production of coal. Winston Churchill called together labor leaders to enlist their support. At the end of his presentation he asked them to picture in their minds a parade which he knew would be held in Picadilly Circus after the war.
First, he said, would come the sailors who had kept the vital sea lanes open. Then would come the soldiers who had come home from Dunkirk and then gone on to defeat Rommel in Africa. Then would come the pilots who had driven the Luftwaffe from the sky.
Last of all, he said, would come a long line of sweat-stained, soot-streaked men in miner's caps. Someone would cry from the crowd, 'And where were you during the critical days of our struggle?' And from ten thousand throats would come the answer, 'We were deep in the earth with our faces to the coal.'"
Not all the jobs in a church are prominent and glamorous. But it is often the people with their "facs to the coal" who help the church accomplish its mission.
In Ephesians 4 Paul lays out all of the different roles of those in the Church. WE all have some roll to fill in God’s Kingdom. What is yours?
There is no biblical concept of just coming on Sunday and not participating. The Church is something that requires all of our participation.
This local congregation has a role for all of us. What is your role here?
Are their people here that should be helping teach Bible classes? Helping teachers get materials together.
Are their people here that can help just by getting the kids here for Bible school so they can learn about Christ.
Are their men that may be qualified to be deacons – SERVANTS for Christ. We sometimes forget that behind every great elder or deacon are great wives that help their husbands reach spiritual maturity.
Do we have folks that can call on our shut-ins, mail cards to those that have been out. There are a multitude of things to do in the local Church and God’s Kingdom works in that way- through us. That is how it has been since day one – God works through his people – we just have to be willing to humble ourselves and seek His kingdom first and not our own self interest.
Unamuno, the Spanish philosopher, tells about the Roman aqueduct at Segovia, in his native Spain.
It was built in 109 A.D. For eighteen hundred years, it carried cool water from the mountains to the hot and thirsty city.
Nearly sixty generations of men drank from its flow.
Then came another generation, a recent one, who said, "This aqueduct is so great a marvel that it ought to be preserved for our children, as a museum piece. We shall relieve it of its centuries-long labor."
They did; they laid modern iron pipes.
They gave the ancient bricks and mortar a reverent rest. And the aqueduct began to fall apart. The sun beating on the dry mortar caused it to crumble.
The bricks and stone sagged and threatened to fall. What ages of service could not destroy idleness disintegrated.
God is calling you this morning to get into the fight. Get off of the sidelines and join the battle. If you don’t you will experience Spiritual Atrophy and not growth.
If you want to grow in Christ and be renewed then today decide to be a servant Just as Jesus was a servant.
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