Guest User 12/13/20 Guest User 12/13/20

You Don't Have to Stay in That Pit

Series: John

John 21 - David Stockton

John was written by John. I figured that out all by myself. John was a human. John was writing toward the end of his life. So John was a guy who spent time with Jesus in the flesh. He was there three years. He spent time with Jesus in the flesh every day. Then after that, Jesus ascended into heaven. And John spent the next sixty years of his life hanging out with Jesus in the Spirit. To some of you, that might sound crazy or whatever. But we’ll explain more about that. But for those three years in the flesh he got to be with Jesus.

After spending sixty years being with Jesus in the Spirit, he’s about ninety years old or so, and he decides it’s time for him to write about his experiences for those three years with Jesus in the flesh. That’s what he’s doing.

In the book of John he doesn’t use his name, he just says that he’s the one that Jesus loved. Not saying that he’s the only one that Jesus loved. But that’s what he really felt. He really felt Jesus’ love. He’s the one that leaned against Jesus chest at at the last supper.

John is the only male disciple of Jesus who was there when Jesus was on the cross. At one point we know Jesus had about one hundred and twenty people who called themselves disciples. At one point there were seventy and he sent them out. At one point he said, “Eat my body and drink my blood,” and then he only had twelve. That was kind of an eliminator there. That’s funny, right?

Then he had twelve. But even those twelve didn’t all pan out quite right. But John was the only one out of all of those who was at the cross. There were some women because they figured things out better than men, but John was the only male disciple at the cross.

John has written all of these, he told us, so that we would believe in Jesus. So if you get to John 21 and you haven’t been encouraged to believe in Jesus, you didn’t believe it right. Maybe I didn’t teach it right.

He wants you to believe in Jesus. And when John says the word believe it’s different than Paul. Paul kind of uses the word belief or faith as kind of a pledge of allegiance. John uses it more as trust over time. He is basically telling us the story how one day he met this guy named Jesus and he began to trust him a little bit. And Jesus proved himself trustworthy so he began to trust him more. Jesus proved himself trustworthy so he began to him more.

At one point he turned water into wine and John said at this point the disciples began to believe in him, they began to trust more in him. Then they saw him heal people from diseases that couldn’t be healed and they trusted him a little more. They saw him walk on water, saw him feed five thousand, all these different things. They heard some of the things he said and they began to trust him a little bit more.

So John, at the end of Jesus’ life on earth, at the end of his life, he’s just saying he completely trusts in Jesus. And as he writes, what is happening is that we’ll begin to trust more and more in Jesus, so that we’ll begin to sing out songs of faith from the places that used to be so full of despair, fear, pain and doubt. We’ll sing that old song, “Jesus, Jesus, how I trust you. How I’ve proved you over and over.” If you’re going to kind of say what hymn you would attach to what apostle - it’s a weird Christian game that no one’s ever played before. I just made it up. But whatever. I think that would be the song that John would love to sing. “Jesus, Jesus, how I trust you. How I’ve proved you over and over.”

So, in John 21:1. You ready? Man, there is like nobody here today. But there are so many people here. Who’s ready? We’re in church, man. There’s a lot of people here. It should be fun!

1 After this Jesus revealed himself again to the disciples by the Sea of Tiberias, and he revealed himself in this way. 2 Simon Peter, Thomas (called the Twin), Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two others of his disciples were together. 3 Simon Peter said to them, “I am going fishing.” They said to him, “We will go with you.” They went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing.

A lot of events have transpired. A lot of stuff is going on in the disciples lives. And Peter is just like, “Forget it man. I’m going fishing.”

4 Just as day was breaking, Jesus stood on the shore; yet the disciples did not know that it was Jesus. 5 Jesus said to them, “Children, do you have any fish?” They answered him, “No.” 6 He said to them, “Cast the net on the right side of the boat, and you will find some.” So they cast it, and now they were not able to haul it in, because of the quantity of fish. 7 That disciple whom Jesus loved therefore said to Peter, “It is the Lord!” When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put on his outer garment, for he was stripped for work, and threw himself into the sea. 8 The other disciples came in the boat, dragging the net full of fish, for they were not far from the land, but about a hundred yards off.
9 When they got out on land, they saw a charcoal fire in place…

Because, you know, grilling with propane is not really grilling. They’re going to keep coming, you know? So you might as well just get used to it.

…with fish laid out on it, and bread. 10 Jesus said to them, “Bring some of the fish that you have just caught.” 11 So Simon Peter went aboard and hauled the net ashore, full of large fish, 153 of them. And although there were so many, the net was not torn. 12 Jesus said to them, “Come and have breakfast.” Now none of the disciples dared ask him, “Who are you?” They knew it was the Lord. 13 Jesus came and took the bread and gave it to them, and so with the fish. 14 This was now the third time that Jesus was revealed to the disciples after he was raised from the dead.

Awesome story. Jesus shows up on the shore. His guys are out in the boat. Peter, that’s where he found Peter the first time was on the boat. He said, “Cast your net on the other side.” Peter was like, “Psh. You’re some like rabbi guy. I’m a fisherman. Don’t tell me what to do. All right. Whatever. I’ll do it.” He catches a bunch of fish.

So Jesus is there once again on the shore. John and Peter and the other disciples are in the boat. They caught nothing. They’re frustrated because they caught nothing. They’re frustrated because they’re totally confused. They’re frustrated because Jesus is not there in the flesh anymore. They’re confused about all the stories they’re hearing. Jesus has shown up to them twice already, mind you. This is the third time. And they see this guy on the shore. He’s made a fire and he calls out to them, “Cast your net on the other side.” There’s probably something inside them that says, “Maybe.”

They cast the net on the other side and catch all the fish. And they’re like, “Maybe?” And John was like, ‘Yeah. It’s the Lord.” So Peter jumps in and runs over there. And they have this little time with Jesus around the fire.

There are a couple of things I want us to draw out of this chapter. The third one is the most important. We’ll spend the most time there.

I want us to understand resurrected life. It’s a very, very important thing. This is one of the tenants of the Christian faith. We believe in the resurrection life. And resurrection life is not kind of like life that you get back. So Lazarus, when he rose from the dead, did not get resurrection life. He resurrected to normal life. He didn’t resurrect to resurrection life. Which means that he died again. It’s not like a cat, you get nine lives. You keep dying, or like re-spawning in a video game or whatever.

Resurrection life is different than that. Jesus is the first fruits of resurrection life. He is the first one to enter into resurrection life. It’s life that is not limited anymore. Not limited by the laws of nature. Not limited by sin and the battle there. Not limited by the curse that sin has brought. Not limited by death. It’s not that, if you die again you rise again. No. It’s that you don’t die anymore.

So we get to see this little glimpse into what that’s like for us. It’s little and it’s small, for sure. But Jesus, when he rose from the dead, his body was not in the tomb. His physical body was somehow part of his glorified state. So much so that these people, when they see him, they see him as human. They’re not like, “Is that an alien on the shore?” They see him and see it’s a person, but they don’t recognize that it’s Jesus until they recognize that it’s Jesus. Do you get how confusing this is?

There’s something so unique about this resurrection state. First of all, freedom from all the limitations, which is so awesome. But then also there’s this uniqueness to it where, you’re still recognizable as you do the things you do or say the things you say, but you’re not really recognizable because you look different.

So you have the disciples sitting there with Jesus around the fire. They just caught the fish. They know it’s him. John says it’s him. And they’re all sitting there going, “Somebody needs to ask. Is it him? Is it really him?”

I don’t know if that’s more that they’re so challenged with the reality that Jesus died and how he can be sitting here with fish? It’s just so hard for their mind to get around that. Or if Jesus just actually looked different enough that they’re like, “I think it’s him. But I don’t know it’s him.”

So they’re just sitting there like the disciples always did, thinking among themselves, It’s got to be him. Is it him? No, we shouldn’t ask. We should ask. Is it okay to ask? I don’t know if it’s okay. That’s what they’re doing because that’s the state.

But one of the things that is also important about resurrected life—and this is one of my favorite things about it—is that every time you see Jesus, he’s eating. Right? That’s good news. So the eating game will continue past this. You can eat fish. You can still catch fish. I like fishing, so those are big deals for me. It’s usually fish and bread, so I’m hoping that that’s just all they had. That’s not all we will have. But whatever. I’m sure it will taste good at that point.

The next thing. So that’s resurrected life, glorified life, something to look forward to. It’s a hope that we have. It’s beautiful. It’s awesome. I love songs that sing about it as well.

So the other thing we have is a transitioning between the covenants. So here, for the Bible students in the room, if you love this type of stuff, basically we have the old covenant, Old Testament. We have the new covenant, New Testament. They are all the same covenant. It’s all God wanting to bring salvation to people through justification by faith. So the Old Testament, basically what they were supposed to do was believe that God would provide a sacrifice for sin, that God himself would provide a sacrifice for sin. It’s actually words that Abraham spoke to his own son. So they believed that God would. Now, the new covenant, we just believe the same thing. We just believe that God has, if that makes sense. It’s the same.

I actually wrote an essay in seminary, in bible college. I called it the Covenant Mountain. It’s all the same substance. It’s all the same mountain - justification by faith. Same God, same people, same problems, all of that. And the same solution is Jesus. It’s always Jesus. It always will be Jesus. He’s the solution.

Now here’s the trick. When does the covenant reach its pinnacle of the old and begin the new? That’s not such an easy question. You think the cross, right? Jesus purchased the new covenant. He purchased with his blood the new covenant, he said. So you think the cross is where that happens, we’re beginning a new covenant. But without the resurrection, the cross really is meaningless. It’s just another guy dying. So then he resurrection becomes super significant, so maybe it’s the resurrection. But without the resurrection, Jesus said there was something else so important, when the Spirit would come.

So in Acts 2, the Spirit comes. And when the Spirit comes, that’s the guarantee of the new covenant. Now we have proof that the new covenant has come. Some of you are like, “What is he talking about?” That’s fine. Don’t worry. This is extra credit stuff. It won’t be on the test.

But basically what we’re experiencing in John 20 and 21 all the way through to Acts 2, we’re experiencing these 40 days of plateau on top of the mountain. I didn’t say this in my paper because I didn’t know this yet, but if I was going to rewrite the paper I’d write it this way. I don’t remember what I said, I was trying to fill up space so I could get enough words or something like that. But anyway, the top of this mountain is like this forty day plateau from when Jesus died on the cross to when he ascended and the Spirit came. It’s basically this transition between the covenants. It’s the time between the times.

And Jesus is showing up not in the flesh, he’s showing up in the resurrected state in between the time where he was in the flesh and the Spirit comes. So it’s just interesting, fascinating thing. Not a lot to draw out there, just want you to be ahead of that. Basically the Father gave the Son, and the Son gives the Spirit, and then the Spirit gives us the love that we need and the power that we need to love God and people the way we’re supposed to.

So the last thing I want to emphasize is the redemption of Peter, the restoration of Peter, the reinstating of Peter. We get this in this next chunk, starting with verse 15:

15 When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?”

Another good question for bible students is what is the word these? What’s he referring to? Is he talking about the other disciples? Is he talking about the fish? Is he talking about, “Do you love me more than these other disciples love me?”

He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” He said to him, “Feed my lambs.” 16 He said to him a second time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” He said to him, “Tend my sheep.” 17 He said to him the third time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” Peter was grieved because he said to him the third time, “Do you love me?”

Because Peter, real fresh in his mind is that in John 19, Peter denied Jesus three times at Jesus’ real moment of truth.

and he said to him, “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my sheep. 18 Truly, truly, I say to you, when you were young, you used to dress yourself and walk wherever you wanted, but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will dress you and carry you where you do not want to go.” 19 (This he said to show by what kind of death he was to glorify God.) And after saying this he said to him, “Follow me.”

The very first words that he said to Peter. “Follow me and I will make you a fisher of men.” It’s a really important moment that John makes sure. The other gospel writers didn’t include this. John is saying, ‘Hey you’ve got to know about this story.” The story where Jesus showed up to Peter.

What he gave us in chapter 20—I loved what Ryan shared last week on chapter 20. But basically Jesus shows up to Mary and Mary was locked up in this frustration and anger at injustice. Mary basically was so upset she was distraught. Because they had taken the body of Jesus and she was yelling at the gardener and yelling, “Who took him? Where have you taken him?”

She was once again stung with that pain of powerful men and what they have taken from her. We don’t know all the details of her story, but we know that she ended up being a prostitute. And how you get to that point, and Ryan talked a little bit about that. How powerful men had stolen from her enough to where now she found herself as a prostitute and even demon-possessed. And then the most powerful man comes along, Jesus, and he calls out to her and saves her. And healing has begun. And yet, now powerful men have killed Jesus and not only that, but they have taken his body. And she’s so distraught because it once again reopens all of that wound.

Yet there, in that moment, she sees the gardener, not knowing, not recognizing that it’s Jesus, and she says, “Where have you taken him?” And the garden, Jesus, says, “Mary!” And she hears that same voice. That same name spoken in his tone and, all of a sudden, she’s undone once again. The healing gets a little deeper into her soul.

Then the very next thing John tells us is don’t forget about when he showed up the first time to the disciples. It literally says they were shut up in fear. They were locked up in a room. They were locked up in fear. And Jesus meets them in that space and says, “Do not fear.” And he actually breathes on them. He does something so personal, so tangible. And that would be weird if I breathed on you. I won’t do that. Don’t worry about that. But if Jesus does it it’s super cool. He breathed on them and they received some peace.

Then shortly after that he shows up again to the disciples, because Thomas wasn’t in that group. And Thomas was saying, “Yeah, that’s great. I’m glad you guys all had this experience. But I’ve always thought you guys were a little weird. So I’m not taking your word for it. I need to see his wounds. I need to touch him. I need to put my hand into his side if I’m going to believe.”

So Jesus shows up a second time to the disciples and Thomas is in the room. He looks around and he says, “Hey, Thomas.” Thomas is like, “Me?” And he’s like, “Yeah, Thomas, you. Come here.” So Thomas comes up and he says, “Go ahead. Go ahead, Thomas.”

And Jesus is giving them something so supernatural, but so natural. He’s meeting them right where they are, locked up in these things. Thomas is locked up in doubt and confusion and Jesus comes in and he gives him something tangible, something practical, something in the natural to help him get released and unlocked.

Now we have this story where Jesus is doing the same thing. But now he’s calling out Peter. And John doesn’t want us to miss it. So Jesus calls out to him and says, “Peter, do you love me?”

In the Greek there’s a little trick in here. Basically it’s, “Peter do you agape me?” It’s, “Do you sacrificially love me? Do you unconditionally love me?” And Peter, knowing what he had just done, still feeling the shame now of sitting with Jesus after he denied him and heard that rooster crow, he says, “I phileo you.” He doesn’t say, “I agape you.” He says, “I love you like a friend, like a brother, and it’s very conditional and I’m sorry.”

Then he says, “But Peter, that’s good enough for me. Will you feed my sheep?” Then Jesus says to him, “Do you agape me?” And Peter says, “You know that I love you. You know that I phileo you.” And Jesus says, “Then feed my sheep.” Then the last time, a third time, Jesus says to Peter, “Peter do you phileo me?”

And Peter is hurt. All that shame of what he had just done, of how often he had failed in all of his life is weighing so heavy upon him as Jesus asks him a third time, “Peter do you love me?” Peter says, “Lord, you know everything. You know I phileo you.” And Jesus says, “That’s good enough for me, Peter. Feed my sheep.” Then he begins to tell Peter all of the hard, hard things he’s going to go through. Basically, “Peter, if you thought that was hard, it’s now your turn to go to the cross. And all I’m asking is that you k eep following me because I’m the one who’s going to make you a fisher of men. Will you follow me?”

And Peter’s response is so beautiful.

20 Peter turned and saw the disciple whom Jesus loved following them, the one who also had leaned back against him during the supper and had said, “Lord, who is it that is going to betray you?” 21 When Peter saw him, he said to Jesus, “Lord, what about this man?”

Jesus is having this moment. He’s drawing Peter in. He’s saying, “Peter, we can do this. Take my hand. Follow me. Feed my sheep. I’ve got a massive calling for you. And if you let shame take it away from you right now you’re going to miss everything. But I’m here Peter and I’m praying for you. The devil desires to sift you like wheat. But I’m praying for you. And Peter, I’m here giving you fish!” Saying, “I want you to do something for me, Peter. I want you to represent me, Peter. I’m going to give all the people, on you I’m going to build the church. All of the little lambs are going to need you, Peter. I want you to fight for them. I want you to care for them. I want you to tend them.”

Peter’s like, “Well, what about John? What about John?”

Then John kind of inserts a little bit of his own thing:

22 Jesus said to him, “If it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you? You follow me!” 23 So the saying spread abroad among the brothers that this disciple was not to die; yet Jesus did not say to him that he was not to die, but, “If it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you?”
24 This is the disciple who is bearing witness about these things, and who has written these things, and we know that his testimony is true.
25 Now there are also many other things that Jesus did. Were every one of them to be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.

So John is here just kind of putting his seal, his signature on the end of this thing, saying that this is what it said. And John is now maybe wondering that, Did Jesus mean that I would be alive, that I wouldn’t die? But now he’s ninety years old and he’s going, “Nah. I’m pretty sure I’m going to die. Pretty sure I’m going to die and that’s okay, because that’s not really what Jesus said,”

But in this moment I want us to really pay attention to what Jesus is doing here. And what John is wanting us to see. That Jesus was meeting with all of these people individually, in a very practical way. He was giving them something to hold on to. He was reinstating them. He was reconnecting with them. He was doing it in a very supernaturally natural way—not in a supernatural wild way. But in a supernatural way that made perfect sense to them personally.

Honestly, that’s what I think the Lord wants to do right now for each of us. We had a really. Neat time first service. We had a lot of people come forward for prayer and get to hear a rhema word—a word from heaven about their earthly situation.

What I sensed as I was preparing this message was that this message was just a setup. It wasn’t really something to stand alone. It was just to set up what we’re going to do right now. We’re going to have a time of waiting on the Lord to see if he would meet us who are locked up in despair, anger at all of the injustice and disappointments. He wants to meet us who are locked up in fear after a year of constant uncertainty, where we can feel our feet begin to slip, and our relationship with the Lord begin to waver. To free those who are locked up in doubt and confusion, who just can’t seem to get their mind around why God would allow certain things to happen. What they really need to do is to touch his scars and feel his heart.

We’re going to spend some time praying for those who might have become so identified with all of their weakness and shame that they don’t even know what God is calling them to. Or maybe they’ve forgotten what God has called them to. Or maybe they’ve stopped really believing that God could be calling them to anything, and they’ve disqualified themselves like Peter.

Those things are not supposed to go with you from this room. Those chains, those things that are binding you up.

As Jesus is talking to Peter it reminds me of this song that a guy named Jon Foreman wrote. This song hit me the first time I was listening to it because I was in Dangriga, Belize, because I was working with a bunch of kids with my wife. And these kids all came from real broken homes, real troubled situations.

I remember we were trying to do church one night, and a fight broke out, which was not that uncommon. It was an interesting church time we were having. And these two kids, they were probably twelve years old and they were going at each other. I didn’t know what was going to happen. My default move in that regard was to go, “Oh, look how much they love each other!” Then it usually is enough of a little embarrassment that they go, “I don’t love him!” And they stop fighting. So that’s kind of my trick.

So it worked and I was like, “Oh and he loves me, too!” And I just kind of hugged one of them, which was again, just trying to get them out of the situation and kind of deflect some of the anger of the moment. I was hugging this kid and he was hugging me and I didn’t want to embarrass him, so I started to release. And when I started to release, he grabbed me so much tighter. And then I looked down and he was just weeping. He was totally weeping and I was thinking about these words and how this kid doesn’t want to be like this.

The more I got to know this kid, he was sweet and he was kind. But he had been taught that this was the way he had to go, this is the way he had to live, this was the only thing he could do when he was in those situation. These words so powerful at that time. It says this:

We learn to wear these masks so young
Like a prison that keeps joy from gettin’ through
And an angry silence grips our tongues
These weapons and our walls become our tombs
Yes, we’re the kids who’ve seen the darkness
Always looking for the light
You fall in love and then the rains come down
And only part of you survives
Come surrender your hidden scars
Leave your weapons where they are
You’ve been hiding
But I know your wounded heart
And you don’t know how beautiful you are
–by Jon Foreman, from “You Don’t Know How Beautiful You Are” (Switchfoot)

And then this guy, Galway Kinnell was writing about St. Francis of Assisi and what he was able to do with the people around him.

Sometimes it is necessary to reteach a thing its loveliness,
to put a hand on its brow
and retell it in words and in touch it is lovely
until it flowers again from within
–by Galway Kinnell, from “Saint Francis and the Sow

And this is what Jesus is trying to do. And I don’t know your stories, I don’t know your situation. I don’t. And I don’t really care that much because I know what God is telling me, what your Father in heaven is telling me he wants to do for you right now. If we’re faithful to do our part—just surrender and show up—he’ll be faithful to do his part.

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The Counterconspiracy of Heaven

John chapter 19. It’s going to be interesting. I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving. I hope you had so much joy and felt great about the world and your family and your relationship with the Lord, and turkey and pie and all of that. Because today we’re really going to talk a lot about sin and humanity’s propensity to it. And the great evil that’s in humanity’s hearts.

Series: John

John 20 - Ryan Romeo

We’re wrapping up our series in John and so, last week, if you were with us, David was in John 19. So last Sunday we had Good Friday on Sunday. We talked about the crucifixion. This Sunday we get to talk about the resurrection. So it’s Easter for Christmas. I know it’s very confusing, but we promise we’re going to be right back to the birth of Jesus in a couple of weeks. We’ll be right on time. It’s going to come full circle. After the resurrection we’ll come right back to the birth.

If you were here and you know David’s heart, last week he really unpacked the crucifixion. I think those of us in kind of pop Christian culture, we kind of gloss over that. The message of the cross, so powerful. But David talked about the reality of the cross. It wasn’t just that it was really hard and Jesus had a hard time going through it. It was a brutal, brutal thing that he went through. It was humiliating. It was something unlike any of us have ever really experienced. And he brought that to life. It was a little bit heavy.

But it should be heavy. Because what Jesus carried for us was not light. What Jesus paid on the cross was not a light price. He paid a very heavy price on the cross. And before we dive into the crucifixion, or to the resurrection, we have to understand the power of the crucifixion, that God loved us so much that he went through what he went through for us—for you and I.

And the resurrection without the death on the cross is not a good story. And the death on the cross is not a good story without the resurrection. They really n need each other. So we’re going to dive back in.

In the context of John 20, the disciples, Mary—none of them know about the resurrection yet. They are still living under the shadow of the crucifixion that had just happened. So let’s pick it up in verse one, chapter twenty:

1 Now on the first day of the week Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early, while it was still dark, and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb. 2 So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him.” 3 So Peter went out with the other disciple,

The other disciple, by the way, is John. He’s writing in t he third person.

So Peter went out with the other disciple, and they were going toward the tomb. 4 Both of them were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first.

Which John feels like is a really good tidbit for us to know, that he beat Peter to the tomb.

5 And stooping to look in, he saw the linen cloths lying there, but he did not go in. 6 Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb. He saw the linen cloths lying there, 7 and the face cloth, which had been on Jesus' head, not lying with the linen cloths but folded up in a place by itself.

So they’re coming in and they’re going, “This doesn’t look right. Something about this does not seem right. Everything seems too perfect. And Jesus’ body is gone.” And they’re starting to realize as they’re paying attention to details.

8 Then the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first,

In case we had forgotten by this point.

also went in, and he saw and believed; 9 for as yet they did not understand the Scripture, that he must rise from the dead.

We have to go back to what the disciples were experiencing at this point. As a disciple of Jesus, all of them left friends and family to follow him. They probably had a lot of friends and family go, “are you sure? Are yo sure you want to leave your business? Are you sure you want to leave your family to go follow Jesus? This guy seems a little ‘off.’” And there were plenty of times in the Bible when people came and the them and was like, “You know what? I think Jesus is losing it a little bit here.”

The disciples gave up everything to follow this man, Jesus, whom they believed was a the Messiah. The Messiah who was going to come and restore Israel. The Messiah who was going to bring political power back to Israel. They had in their mind what they could see with their eyes, and this was what they imagined Jesus bringing.

So all along the way, when Jesus’ teaching got a little squirrely, like, “You have to eat the body and drink my blood,” and when everybody abandoned Jesus, his inner circle stayed with him. And they’re going, “One of these days…” You’ve got to imagine these disciples were thinking, “One of these days all of our friends and family are going to realize, once Jesus gets into power and we’re sitting at his right hand, that we made the right call.” You’ve got to imagine they were wrapping their whole life and the future of what they believe God is doing into Jesus.

And they’re not hearing things ten chapters before this. You know, Jesus said, “I am the Good Shepherd and I lay down my life for my sheep. And if I lay down my life then I can pick it back up again.” Jesus has been intimating very clearly that there is a serious curve ball getting thrown their way—that a death and resurrection is about to happen. And they just can’t wrap their heads around it. They’re seeing with their eyes, but they’re not seeing with their hearts. They’re not seeing what God’s doing in the season.

At this point, they just went through the horrific death of their friend. They just saw him humiliated and bloodied. They’ve got to be so incredibly sad at this point in what happened to their friend, knowing that he didn’t deserve it. Knowing that he was a part of a victim of a conspiracy that was going on, from political leaders to religious leaders, down to people in Jesus’ inner circle—who turned their back on Jesus and turned him in and whipped up the crowds to the point that they started saying, “Crucify him. Crucify him. Give us Barabbas. We don’t care. Give us that guy. We don’t care. This is not about justice. Right now we want blood and we want Jesus dead.” And this is what the disciples experienced.

The main player, especially in the beginning of this chapter, is Mary. So, if you notice, Mary runs to the tomb and she notices things are amiss and she runs and gets John and Peter, who is a little slower than John. She brings them back to t he tomb. And Mary says this thing that is really telling. She says, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him.”

You could see her going, “We just saw this whole conspiracy that was going on behind the scenes start to turn into this full blown thing that killed Jesus, that brought this injustice into my life, and now it’s continuing. Whoever they are, I don’t know who it is, but it’s somebody that’s in charge that came and took Jesus’ body and I don’t know why they did that.”

And Mary—this is most likely Mary Magdalene—if you remember, Jesus delivered her from demons when she was younger, earlier on in the story. She was a prostitute. And that’s not a job that you just waltz into. That is on the back of her probably going through some very heavy things the were outside of her control and being desperate enough to find herself in that red light district of Jerusalem. She is used to men taking advantage, men of power getting away with big things. She sees men, political leaders coming in and out of the red light district and nobody has any idea. And she sees men of power getting away with things left and right. Injustice is happening all over the place.

Then she meets Jesus. She meets this men that looks at her in a pure way, in a way that she’s never seen anyone look at her. She sees this man who loves her without any agenda. He sees her. Sees who she is through any of the outward things that she was involved in at the time.

Beyond that, Jesus was somebody who stuck up for her. You remember when all the religious leaders were going to stone Mary, Jesus comes to Mary’s aid and says, “Stop.” And she sees a man who loves her with purity, who stands up for her when she needs it the most. And she starts to have those knots in her heart, those knots of injustice, those knots of, “I guess nothing’s going to change,” start to slowly be undone by Jesus. And she starts to have hope and again and goes, “Man, this guy Jesus, maybe he is the Messiah. There’s something different about him. He makes me feel different.”

And then the crucifixion happens. And you have to imagine Mary went through everything all over again. Going, “See? Here it is. Here’s the men of power getting away with things like they always do. Jesus being crucified for absolutely no reason. This man who loved me, who I’ve wrapped so much of my future in, who just brought life and light to a dark life that I’ve had up until this point. And now that light is snuffed out.”

You feel that emotion in verse 11. Let’s pick it up there:

11 But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb,

I just have to pause here. Like, you’ve got to imagine even for her. This desperation. She’s outside of the tomb. She is crying. She hasn’t seen Jesus. You could just see this desperation. “Let me at least go take care of his body and serve Jesus one last time before I don’t see his face anymore.” She is desperate at this point.

11 But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb, and as she wept she stooped to look into the tomb. 12 And she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had lain, one at the head and one at the feet. 13 They said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?”
She said to them, “They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.” 14 Having said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing, but she did not know that it was Jesus. 15 Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?”
Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.”
16 Jesus said to her, “Mary.” She turned and said to him in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means Teacher).

She’s in this frenzy. She’s like, “I don’t know where Jesus is at.” She turns around She sees Jesus abut she doesn’t recognize Jesus. And how many times in our darkest moment do we see Jesus but we don’t recognize him?

And maybe she has tears in her eyes. Maybe it’s blurry. Maybe she can’t tell. But Jesus does something that stops her right in her tracks. He says her name. He says, “Mary.” And she knew that voice. She knew nobody said her own name like Jesus did. She was like, “Teacher. I see you. I see you.”

In that moment, all that injustice that had been stirring up in her again, all that hopelessness that she had was washed away; because she saw that, though the enemy had a scheme going on that seemed insurmountable, God had defeated it. Because, God, that’s what he does. The enemy has a scheme going on. He always has a conspiracy going on. Since Genesis chapter 3, he has been trying to separate the created from the Creator. He’s been trying to bring a separation between the Father, the Holy Father that loves us so much, and the rest of his children. And we see right here that, though the enemy was fighting really hard, though he was thrashing around, trying as hard as he could to kill Jesus, God did it again. He turned what was meant for evil into something good. Beyond what Mary could ever imagine.

A lot of us have that sense, when we’re up against something hopeless, when we’re up against something dark, 2020 has been that year. I mean, we’re all seeing the darkness in the world. We’re all feeling it. Maybe different than we’ve ever felt it before. It’s really easy, maybe you’re a little bit better of a Christian than I am. But I don’t lay awake thinking about all the good things that God is doing. I lay awake at night thinking about all the bad things that are going on. I very quickly allow what I see in front of my eyes to dictate what I am experiencing in my heart. The things that I’m seeing in culture really dictate how I feel about the truth that I know is not moved by culture. When those seasons of injustice and darkness come upon us, it’s really hard to see through it. Jesus could be standing right in front of us and we don’t see him.

I remember the first time I had ever experienced that sort of darkness and injustice. I was eighteen and I had just graduated. I didn’t know what to do with my life. So I decided to go on the mission field. This was about the year 2000. I felt like the Lord was calling me to Cambodia. So I worked with an organization called YWAM and went to Cambodia. During this time they had just finished a civil war. I think that was happening in ’99 or’98, something like that.

So Cambodia, it’s a pretty dark place anyway, but it was extra lawless and extra dark in this season. We showed up and the pastor that we were living with in Phnom Penh was a great guy was just an amazing guy. He had lived through the Khmer Rouge. He told us some very eye opening stories. The fact that he stayed in Cambodia was an amazing testament to the grace of the Lord.

One of the very first things he wanted to do was drive us through the red light district of Cambodia. I don’t know what I imagined it would be like and I think back on it. If you’ve done any missions work, just being in a third world country is shock enough, you know? Nothing smells normal. Everything’s loud. Everything’s different. The culture is completely different. But I remember they drove us through the red light district in Phenom Penh. I had never seen that sort of injustice to children before in my whole life. I remember driving through, hearing kids say things that you would never want to hear kids say. And I remember just feeling so overwhelmed. It was likethe people that see that sort of thing and they’re like, “I need to engage this injustice and talk to somebody, work it out, tell people about Jesus.” But I shut down. I didn’t know how to handle it. I retreated into the fetal position in my mind, just going, “Lord, this is far beyond what I thought the darkness of the world was. This is a little bit shocking to me and I can’t actually even function right now.”

I came home, came back to Tucson, that’s where I lived and grew up. I got married, my wife Blake and I got married. We decided that the Lord was calling us back on the mission field. So we went back on staff at YWAM. One night we were having a worship night. I was on my knees, going, “Lord, where do you want me to go?” And I felt him so clearly say, “Cambodia.” I thought, “Oh, no! Lord, I survived a mission trip to Cambodia. I didn’t feel like I thrived there,” like, “This seems like a bit of a mistake.”

So I told Blake and she said, “Yeah. I kind of feel like the Lord’s calling us back to Cambodia. So we get a team together, go back to Cambodia. We were there another three months. We showed up during Chinese New Year.

Now Chinese New Year is not like American New Year, where it’s like maybe for a few days before and a couple of days after we shut down. No. Chinese New Year happens, like all of Asia shuts down for over a month.

We show up in Phenom Penh. We’re all ready. We have all these plans to do ministry. And the pastor we were staying with—the same pastor we stayed with the first time—he’s like, “Hey, we’re so glad you guys are here. It’s Chinese New Year so nobody’s in the city. Maybe we’ll start doing ministry in about a month or so.” And we were like, “We’re here for three months?”

So we did what any mission trip leader would do. We started doing a lot of prayer walks. If you don’t know what a prayer walk is, go on a mission trip with some leaders who don’t know what they’re doing. They’re going to take you on a lot of prayer walks around the city.

So we were doing a bunch of prayer walks, praying over Phenom Penh. We met another missionary family that was just about to leave. They said, “We have this orphanage that we’ve been working with. They’re not shut down for Chinese New Year. The kids just live in this house. Why don’t you go check that out?”

So we got on a boat. It was about an hour from Phenom Penh, down the Mekong River. We showed up on this island and we walked in. There were all these kids. All of them were under the age of fifteen. We walked in while they were worshiping. I had been a worship leader, and I knew what it looked like to be in a room full of people worshiping. I had never seen the kind of passion that these kids had when I walked in that room. There was a little boy, probably thirteen years old, had a guitar with five strings because they probably broke one a couple of months before and didn’t have the money to get a new one. And they were singing their hearts out to Jesus unlike I had ever seen anybody worshiping Jesus.

A lot of these kids had come out of that red light district in Cambodia. A lot of these kids had been abandoned by their parents on the door step of an orphanage that could hardly feed them. You could see right through the floors. It was not like an air-conditioned, nice building. Yet these kids had so much joy in Jesus because they saw Jesus. They met Jesus on the back side of such injustice in their life. They saw the light of Jesus brighter, I think, than a lot of us have ever seen the brightness of Jesus.

There was one boy in particular who was worship, he had scars all over his face. We asked the guy who was running the ministry, “What happened to that little boy?”

He said, “The mom had AIDS and she had this child who also had AIDS and he was dying. She basically left him on our doorstep one night.”

This couple that had taken over this ministry took him in. Every night they prayed for him. The baby kept them up every minute of the night. This baby was basically dying. They thought, “Well, we’re going to pray over him and really do the best we can to show some love before that happens.”

One day they were praying and the baby started to fall asleep when he hadn’t slept in days. The next day he slept a little bit better. They noticed the sores that were all over his face had started to kind of diminish. Over the course of weeks they realized he didn’t have AIDS anymore. This little boy—nobody knows his name. Nobody’s going to see his story on the national news. But Jesus knows his name. Jesus knows his story. Jesus brought something to that little boy, brought redemption to him. When he sang worship to him, it was on the backside of injustice that he had lived and grown into. He saw Jesus for who he was, which was the only person who genuinely loved him in all of his life.

That is what Mary is experiencing. Mary turns around and she sees Jesus, who she thought was dead. We have the luxury of knowing the end of the story. She didn’t know the end of the story. She thought, This is the end of the line. This is injustice coming back around. And Jesus comes and shows her resurrected life. And it’s such a powerful thing.

I love later on, as he starts to meet with different people, the different disciples and everything. He starts to go to them and starts to meet with them one on one. Thomas, he shows the scars on his hands and reveals himself in kind of a unique way to everybody. But at a the end of the day, what Jesus did on the cross was something that God had been planning for a long time. Genesis chapter 3 didn’t take God by surprise. He knew the fall of man was happening, and he had this planned from the beginning of time, where he would connect the children of God back to a loving Father. And there’s this huge story that’s happening. You know, the schemes of the enemy are big and they seem so overwhelming until you see Jesus.

I started to read this. And I started looking and there’s this parallel started coming. It’s not just the big story that God’s passionate about. Yes, he’s passionate about what resurrection means in terms of how he fulfilled the law. Jesus didn’t come to do away with the law, he came to fulfill the law. There’s so much that goes into this big story of redemption for people. But there’s this intimacy. There’s this infinite nature to God, but there’s this intimate nature with God.

I love the disciples, later on in John 20, they locked the door in this upper room because they were afraid. They were locked up in fear. I think there are a lot of us in this room that have been there. They’re locked in this room, they’re afraid, and Jesus shows up and says, “Peace.” He says it a second time, “Peace,” because I think they really needed some peace in this season. He reveals himself to them. And he does something that I think is so beautiful. He breathed the Holy Spirit into the disciples. It says that he breathed it.

As I was studying this week, I started praying and I felt like the Lord nudged me. It was like, “Do you remember when else God breathed on his people?” And I thought all the way back, not Genesis chapter 3, but Genesis chapter 2, when the Garden of Eden was there. When everything was perfect. When God is this perfect garden tender. And he pulls up the dust from the ground with his bare hands, and it says he breathes life into Adam. Because the Father is very intimate with his people. He loves all people. But he loves you and he knows you. He knows your story. He knows everything imperfect about you. And yet, as a good Father, he comes and breathes life and breath into our lungs.

I thought back on when Mary saw Jesus and was like, “I thought that was the gardener.” I thought, He is the Gardener. He is the gardener from Genesis chapter 2. She saw correctly. He was restoring this pre-fall position of mankind. Not because of what we did, but because of what he did. He is the Gardener in Eden, as we return to that.

I think the most powerful thing is something that I skipped over pretty quick when I first started studying John 20. But I’m going to pick it back up on verse 1:

1 Now on the first day of the week Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early, while it was still dark, and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb. 2 So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple…

who is John

…the one whom Jesus loved…

When I first read that I thought it was the competitive John who was telling us so many times how he beat Peter to the tomb and going, “Jesus loved me a lot, too.” And I realized, no. The Holy Spirit really spoke to me and it was like, “This is what people feel when they’re around me.”

John wrote John 3:16. He knows that God so loved the world. He knows that there was this thing that was happening from the beginning of time. He knows the grandeur of creation and the whole process of bringing us to this point of death and resurrection. John knows it better than anybody. But when he says this, “The disciple whom Jesus loved,” he’s saying, “The way that Jesus looked at me, I knew that he loved me. He saw me.”

None of us in our life have people that truly see us. Maybe they get close. Maybe spouses get close. There is nobody like Jesus who sees you for who you are and still loves you. There’s nobody that sees in you the things you don’t see in yourself like Jesus. There is nobody like Jesus when you’re locking eyes with him and knowing that he sees you. There is nothing like that.

And this is the good news of the gospel. This is the good news of the resurrection. That, yes, God spoke creation into being. Yes, he is so strong and so powerful. Yes, this is the plan that happened from the beginning of time. And yet, in all of that, he looks at you this morning and says, “I see you. I know you. I love you. I want to be with you.”

This is the Jesus we serve. Jesus is alive today. He resurrected from the dead. He didn’t die again. He is alive today and he is coming back for his people. The story is not completely over. But right now Jesus gives you access to him, just like John had access to him. And we get to say, “Jesus loves me. He sees me. He knows me.”

Let’s pray:

Jesus, we thank you that you laid down all the powers that you have. That you are a God who spoke galaxies into existence. You spoke every star in existence. In a moment, it all appeared because of the power of your voice. Yet, you chose death on a cross to reconcile us with you. Jesus, we are humbled this morning as we remember that. Thank you that you see us. Thank you that you know us. Thank you that there isn’t one person in this room that you don’t see. You don’t see the imperfections. You don’t see the things that are lacking. When we come to you your blood covers it all. You see a different us than we see.
I pray that we would be a people that would live out of resurrection. That we wouldn’t just talk about it once a year. But God, we live out of the power of resurrection. The joy of knowing that you went to that cross for the joy set before you to reconcile us with you.
So, God, how much more can we give and serve you? We love you. We worship you. In Jesus’ name.

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Guest User 11/29/20 Guest User 11/29/20

Sin and Deception

Series: John

John 19 - David Stockton

What we have, basically, is we have a lot of problems in our world. Last week we talked about truth, we talked bout lies, we talked about deception. It’s not just words. It’s not just confusion that it creates, but as we know, lies and and deception, when they really begin to take root in someone’s heart, can lead to all kinds of horrible atrocities, including stealing, killing, destroying, abuse. Lots of different things that have caused a lot of pain in this world.

So the question for people who aren’t Christians, and for people who are Christians, as well, is why is there all this evil in the world? Why is there all this pain? One of the things people think is, is it because God is powerless? That, actually, God can’t really do anything about it? That’s one consideration. Another one is, well, maybe God is mean. Maybe he is mean or doesn’t care about all of those things. Maybe he’s just kind of hands off. Leave us to our own devices. That’s another option.

But then another option to consider is maybe it’s because mankind really does have evil inside their hearts. That’s not a fun thing to think about because it means you and I. But the Bible is pretty clear about that. We’re going to get to see, basically, John the apostle answering that very question, as we read the story that he experienced in real life, in real time two thousand years ago.

John was writing so that we would believe that Jesus is the Creator God who created the world and came to rescue it from sin and death. He wrote his evangelistic letter about thirty years after the other three gospels, the synoptic gospels, Matthew, Mark and Luke. So he’s writing with a completely different perspective. Those three books have already been in circulation. He’s read them. He knows what they’re about. So he’s adding something to it. He doesn’t necessarily use the same stories. He uses some other stories and he uses his own version of those stories.

John wants to make sure no one misses that Jesus was fully God and fully human at the same time. John’s not playing around. He really believes that these stories about Jesus can change a person’s life, as well as change their destiny after your life runs out. He talks about being born again. He talks about drinking living water. He talks about resurrection life. He’s emphatic about those things.

We’ve seen in the book of John Jesus rise to popularity to where, at one point, he basically had five thousand men come out to him and say, “Hey, we’re ready to do whatever you want to do. Let’s march on Jerusalem. Let’s take out Herod. Whatever you want to do.”

And from that point on, he kind of plateaued in popularity and then as quickly begin to decline in popularity. Then, last week we left off with Pilate, who was the Roman authority in Jerusalem at that time, presenting to all of the Jews that used to want to make Jesus king, but now aren’t so sure, and he’s presenting to them Barabbas, “the son of the father,” a guy who was known to lead a rebellion and to do some damage to people and things. And then you’ve got Jesus who’s claiming to be the Son of the Father, actually the Son of God, and Pilate’s presenting them to the people, and the people are saying, “We want Barabbas. We don’t want Jesus.”

So that’s where we’re at. We get to see the confusion and deception that has taken root in the human heart when they’re face to face with their Maker. They’re saying, “We don’t want him. He’s too true. He’s too real. We want the counterfeit.”

Then in John 19, it says this:

Then Pilate took Jesus and had him flogged.

Basically had his back ripped and torn to shreds, hoping that he might confess something.

2 The soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on his head. They clothed him in a purple robe 3 and went up to him again and again, saying, “Hail, king of the Jews!” And they slapped him in the face.
4 Once more Pilate came out and said to the Jews gathered there, “Look, I am bringing him out to you to let you know that I find no basis for a charge against him.” 5 When Jesus came out wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe, Pilate said to them, “Here is the man!”
6 As soon as the chief priests and their officials saw him, they shouted, “Crucify! Crucify!”
But Pilate answered, “You take him and crucify him. As for me, I find no basis for a charge against him.”
7 The Jewish leaders insisted, “We have a law, and according to that law he must die, because he claimed to be the Son of God.”
8 When Pilate heard this, he was even more afraid, 9 and he went back inside the palace. “Where do you come from?” he asked Jesus, but Jesus gave him no answer. 10 “Do you refuse to speak to me?” Pilate said. “Don’t you realize I have power either to free you or to crucify you?”
11 Jesus answered, “You would have no power over me if it were not given to you from above. Therefore the one who handed me over to you is guilty of a greater sin.”
12 From then on, Pilate tried to set Jesus free, but the Jewish leaders kept shouting, “If you let this man go, you are no friend of Caesar. Anyone who claims to be a king opposes Caesar.”
13 When Pilate heard this, he brought Jesus out and sat down on the judge’s seat at a place known as the Stone Pavement (which in Aramaic is Gabbatha). 14 It was the day of Preparation of the Passover; it was about noon.
“Here is your king,” Pilate said to the Jews.
15 But they shouted, “Take him away! Take him away! Crucify him!”
“Shall I crucify your king?” Pilate asked.
“We have no king but Caesar,” the chief priests answered.
16 Finally Pilate handed him over to them to be crucified.
So the soldiers took charge of Jesus. 17 Carrying his own cross, he went out to the place of the Skull (which in Aramaic is called Golgotha). 18 There they crucified him, and with him two others—one on each side and Jesus in the middle.
19 Pilate had a notice prepared and fastened to the cross. It read: jesus of nazareth, the king of the jews. 20 Many of the Jews read this sign, for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city, and the sign was written in Aramaic, Latin and Greek. 21 The chief priests of the Jews protested to Pilate, “Do not write ‘The King of the Jews,’ but that this man claimed to be king of the Jews.”
22 Pilate answered, “What I have written, I have written.”
23 When the soldiers crucified Jesus, they took his clothes, dividing them into four shares, one for each of them, with the undergarment remaining. This garment was seamless, woven in one piece from top to bottom.
24 “Let’s not tear it,” they said to one another. “Let’s decide by lot who will get it.”
This happened that the scripture might be fulfilled that said,
“They divided my clothes among them
and cast lots for my garment.”
So this is what the soldiers did.
25 Near the cross of Jesus stood his mother, his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. 26 When Jesus saw his mother there, and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to her, “Woman, here is your son,” 27 and to the disciple, “Here is your mother.” From that time on, this disciple took her into his home.
28 Later, knowing that everything had now been finished, and so that Scripture would be fulfilled, Jesus said, “I am thirsty.” 29 A jar of wine vinegar was there, so they soaked a sponge in it, put the sponge on a stalk of the hyssop plant, and lifted it to Jesus’ lips. 30 When he had received the drink, Jesus said, “It is finished.” With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.
31 Now it was the day of Preparation, and the next day was to be a special Sabbath. Because the Jewish leaders did not want the bodies left on the crosses during the Sabbath, they asked Pilate to have the legs broken and the bodies taken down. 32 The soldiers therefore came and broke the legs of the first man who had been crucified with Jesus, and then those of the other. 33 But when they came to Jesus and found that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. 34 Instead, one of the soldiers pierced Jesus’ side with a spear, bringing a sudden flow of blood and water. 35 The man who saw it has given testimony, and his testimony is true. He knows that he tells the truth, and he testifies so that you also may believe. 36 These things happened so that the scripture would be fulfilled: “Not one of his bones will be broken,” 37 and, as another scripture says, “They will look on the one they have pierced.”
38 Later, Joseph of Arimathea asked Pilate for the body of Jesus. Now Joseph was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly because he feared the Jewish leaders. With Pilate’s permission, he came and took the body away. 39 He was accompanied by Nicodemus, the man who earlier had visited Jesus at night. Nicodemus brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about seventy-five pounds. 40 Taking Jesus’ body, the two of them wrapped it, with the spices, in strips of linen. This was in accordance with Jewish burial customs. 41 At the place where Jesus was crucified, there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb, in which no one had ever been laid. 42 Because it was the Jewish day of Preparation and since the tomb was nearby, they laid Jesus there.

So this is John’s eyewitness account. He was there in person. He is the disciple that Jesus loved. He’s the one who actually witnessed the spear going into Jesus’ side and blood and water flowing out. He’s telling us all of these details about this moment so that we really would believe that Jesus was the Messiah, the Son of God, the Creator of the world, and also the Rescuer of the world.

And he goes person by person. He begins to talk about the different people there. We know Judas, who had betrayed Jesus over to the Pharisees, who then took him before Pilate.

We now know Pilate has been wrestling with this in chapter 18 and 19. He’s wrestling with the reality of who Jesus is and what to do with Jesus. He’s very conflicted. He can’t find anything wrong with him. He’s trying to set him free. Yet, ultimately he decides to hand him over to their wishes.

And then you’ve got these soldiers who are putting crowns of thorns on Jesus and putting this robe on him and slapping him and mocking him, who shipped his back, tore it to shreds, trying to get him to confess something. Then, there as he’s hanging on the cross, they’re not really paying attention to what’s going on. Instead they’re trying to just figure out how to get his clothes.

Then you’ve got Mary, Jesus’ mom, and his aunt, and another Mary, and another Mary. A lot of Marys. And John’s there with them. And they’re watching all of this take place. Hearing about it two thousand years later, they’re sitting there and they’re watching Jesus as blood is dripping from his hands and his feet, knowing that his back is ripped to shreds and is up on that tree. And the only way that he can take a breath is to actually pull himself up to get his chest high enough to take a breath. Because crucifixion was actually something that caused suffocation. Asphixiation is the way people died. That’s why they would break the legs, so they couldn’t push up anymore to take a breath.

And Jesus’ mom is standing there watching this happen to her son, who she knows is a lot more than just her son. Virgin birth. All the times talking with him. All the things that he’s done. And she’s watching him be crucified. Her heart’s broken in many different ways. One because her son’s being killed. But two because she really hoped that he would be able to save his people from the pain of sin and death. She really believed he might have been stronger than the wickedness of humanity. But she’s watching the breath leave him. With one of those painful breaths, he actually speaks out words and says, “Woman, behold your son. Son, behold your mom,” as he tries to ask John if he would take care of her. And John does that.

Then you have these other couple of characters. After Jesus is now dead, he’s breathed his last, he’s said, “It is finished.” You have Joseph of Arimathea, who risks a lot, who’s a disciple, yet very afraid, and he goes and asks Pilate if he can take care of the body of Jesus.

And Nicodemus finds out about this and he joins in, because he also wants to take care of the body of Jesus, as he’s been watching Jesus, as he’s been trying to figure out who Jesus is. And they go and put Jesus’ body in a tomb. They honor Jesus’ body, they care for it in a secretive way.

When I think about what John is trying to get across here in this chapter, I think about these different people he’s introduced. We see Judas who actually knew the truth about Jesus. If anybody knew the truth about Jesus, it would be Judas. He was there with him for three years, seeing all the things that Jesus did and hearing all the things that Jesus said. Yet Judas, having a front row seat to the Creator of the universe, knew the truth, but loved money more. He knew the truth. He was face to face with the truth. But there was something in his heart that caused him to be willing to betray Jesus over to the Jews who he knew wanted to kill him, even though he knew the truth. He suppressed the truth because he wanted something else more than the truth.

Then you have Pilate. Pilate basically is saying, “I find no fault in this person.” The interactions with Pilate, based on what John is telling us has kind of got Pilate going, “I don’t know if I want to miss with this guy.” And we know from another of the gospels that Pilate’s wife actually said, “Have nothing to do with this man. Don’t mess around. I just had a dream.” And there’s all this stuff coming to Pilate to where he now knows the truth about who this person is, or at least knows there is a lot more going on than what he understands, and yet he loved his position more. The sin in his heart caused him to suppress the truth that could have set him free. Ultimately he surrendered and said, “I don’t really want to risk my position.” And he handed Jesus over.

Then the soldiers. Their response when they were face to face with truth, is they just ignored it. They just cared about themselves.

And then we have these two at the end, who had been compelled to believe that Jesus was the truth. One became a disciple, but secretly. And though they were believing in Jesus, they continued to kind of stand back and be afraid.

And so, the story in the scriptures, the story with evidence in human history is that the God of the universe, the Maker and Creator of everything, as John said in the very beginning, “He came into the world, and the world did not receive him.” The sin in the hearts of humanity was so grotesque, so evil, so despicable, so deceived, that we, when face to face with the God, the Maker and Lover of our souls, we shouted, “Crucify him. Crucify him. We don’t want anything to do with him.”

Whether we like it or not, whether we acknowledge it or not, this is what is still alive in each one of us. The reason that there is all of the pain in the world is because evil has entered into the heart of mankind. Whether the evil shows up as something super grostesque as a crucifixion or just loving your position a little bit more than the truth, or loving money more than the truth. It’s hard for us to weigh out and say one’s bad, one’s not as bad. But it’s all sin. And it all leads to the same thing.

In the Bible there are four different words in Hebrew for sin, for basically doing wrong:

Khaw-taw is missing the mark. It’s basically this is what you’re supposed to do and you end up going that way or falling short.

Pesha is transgression, which is a breaking of trust.

Avon is iniquity, which is basically just crookedness. Instead of going in a straight line, you’re going in a crooked line and you’re calling the crooked straight.

Sin is missing the mark and worse. One of the things I was doing the other day, I just got this pellet gun and so we’ve been shooting this pellet gun at these cans. It’s a really powerful pellet gun and we were shooting at these cans and none of us are that good. It’s me and my kids and my nephews and stuff. So we’re shooting at these cans. We’ve got these cans all lined up and we’re trying to make sure the site is right. If the site’s not right you can’t shoot straight. The site’s lined up and we’re still not good at hitting the cans. Even if we were good at hitting the cans, we could line that site up and we could hit the can every time. That would be not missing the mark. That’s righteousness. But what sin is, basically, there’s different layers to this in the word in Hebrew. It’s not only just missing the mark to where your aim is off. You are missing the mark because you’re aiming the wrong way. But it also has this idea of your site is off. So even if you in yourself tried to aim it the right way, your site is off, so you still wouldn’t be able to hit it. It’s the next layer, right? So I’m off. My site is off. This is the condition of the human heart apart from Jesus. I’m off. The site is off.

But then it gets even worse. Because what happens is, when I’m off long enough, then I start to blame the site. And then if the site’s off long enough, then what happens is I just start to adjust and, this is going to get a little sad here. It didn’t actually happen, but if this did happen, we have these little pigmy goat now. They’re awesome. We have two of them. And we were shooting these cans and then all of a sudden these goats came around the back side of where we were shooting. And so we stopped shooting because we’re not totally horrible. We’ve got Jesus, you know? But the way the Bible tries to help us understand sin is, I’m off. My site is off. Then all of a sudden I start to hit other things and saying that that is what I’m really supposed to hit. That is the true mark of what I’m going after. As if shooting the goat is what you’re supposed to do.

So you see, there are these different layers of sin. There are different depths of depravity that are inside all of us. This is what it is like apart from Christ, whether you acknowledge it or not. You might say, “Well, I’m not that bad.” That’s fine. Maybe you’re holding all of that inside some sort of manageable to where it doesn’t look that bad. But we know that sin is rampant in our society.

What the Bible says is it’s a diagnosis of the human heart, that when Adam sinned and then we’re born of the seed of Adam, we’re born with our hearts being off. We can’t even get the aim right. And we actually have our sites off, so even if we did one time get our aim right, we would still miss. But we’ve also twisted things to now say, “Whatever I hit, I will now justify as the thing I was supposed to hit.” It’s a great deception.

Not only is that the reality of what’s going on inside our own bodies missing the mark because we’re off, missing the mark because our sites are off, missing the mark because we start to justify whatever we do hit as the right thing, but our world is full of deceptive ideas that love to play to our disordered desires, and then they’re normalized and celebrated in a sinful society.

So it’s not just a problem from within, but our whole society is saturated in this same deception, where the devil and the world and the flesh, there are all these deceptive ideas being thrown around. These deceptive ideas sound good to our disordered desires. And then, instead of those things being checked by our society, instead they are celebrated and encouraged, saying, “Yeah. You should do that. You deserve that. Yeah, that won’t be a bad thing. Everybody’s doing it.” And the deception gets a whole other level deep. And a whole other level of disgust.

This guy, Ray Pritchard, says this:

“First sin deceives us by promising what it can never deliver. Second, sin deceives us by convincing us what happens to others will never happen to us. Third, sin deceives us by creating in us a desire for that which we know can only hurt us.”

We think that we’re getting away with little sins all the time, but what we’re not realizing is those little sins are actually changing our heart a little each time, a little each time. And, again, how do I know this? Not just because the Bible says so. Because you can look at the sociological ramifications and statistics in our society. There is something deeply, deeply wrong.

No one gets married and says, “I’m probably going to get divorced.” But little by little by little by little that becomes the only way out.

No one as a little kid gets up and says, “I’m excited about killing someone some day.” But little by little by little by little they find themselves murdering someone.

No one grows up and says, “I’m going to abuse my children some day.” But little by little by little by little the deception takes root. The deception grows and next thing we know, we have humanity shouting, “Crucify him. Crucify him. Crucify him” to their only real hope.

We have a very serious problem and to say that sin is not a big deal, to say that sin is not rampant in our world, to just kind of minimize it, is to minimize the cross, but it’s also to minimize the problem.

So first of all, how do we escape the deception of sin? I mean, the Bible says that the devil shows up as an angel of light. How are you supposed to know it’s the devil when it’s an angel of light? There’s pleasure in sin, the Bible says. The Bible’s not foolish about it. There is pleasure in sin. How is it supposed to be wrong when there’s pleasure in it? But that pleasure, there’s pleasure in sin for a season but then comes destruction. It’s very deceptive. It’s very challenging.

So how can we escape deception and sin? First of all, the cross. Jesus died on the cross to set us free from sin. His death on the cross breaks the power of sin. It gives us the chance of being able to get free from the bondage of sin. His blood can wash us and cleanse us.

The second thing: Jesus died on the cross so we could be forgiven of our sin. Even though sometimes we get the power of sin broken over us as believers who receive the cross, we sometimes fall into the same deceptions. But then Jesus gives us forgiveness. So the cross really is the answer. The cross is the most important thing. If you have not really come to terms with the cross, if you have not received the work that Jesus has done for you on the cross, you are still in bondage to sin, you are not free from it and your sins are not forgiven.

But when you say, “Jesus, I’m sorry for my sin. I need you as my Savior,” you are now free from the power of sin over your life and you are now forgiven for every sin that you have done, you are doing, or you will do. That’s what the cross can do. That’s what the cross is all about. That’s why the cross is such good news. Because Jesus didn’t stay in that tomb. He rose again and he wants to give us new life.

But then, as we’re walking in this newness from the cross, as we’ve stepped from death to life, as we’ve stepped from darkness to light because of receiving what Jesus did on the cross, there are four things I just want to bring up real quick as we close that will help us with our battle with deception, with our battle with sin.

First of all, the first thing we can do is rest assured. I loved what we sang today, But I’ll rest in the promises of God. Matthew 24:24 says this:

For false messiahs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect.

So here, what Jesus is saying is there is going to be so much deception, so much powerful deception that will rise in the world, false Christs, false prophets that will come, that they’re going to be very deceptive, but they will not be able to deceive the elect. Who are the elect? The elect are those who have received what Jesus did on the cross and have been filled with his Spirit as they’re going forward in life.

So there’s a promise that Jesus is like, “You’re not alone in this. I’m going to hold you. I’m going to make sure that you will not be deceived. I’m going to be whispering in your ear. I’m going to be showing the deception for what it was. I’m going to be guiding you, if you’ll receive me.”

The second thing we can do is remain in the truth. 2 Thessalonians 2:9 says this:

the coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with how Satan works. He will use all sorts of displays of power through signs and wonders that serve the lie, 10 and all the ways that wickedness deceives those who are perishing. They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. 11 For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie 12 and so that all will be condemned who have not believed the truth but have delighted in wickedness.

So here he says we need to love the truth. We need to believe the truth. As Jesus said in John 15, we need to remain in the truth. How do you do that? You just spend every day taking in the word of God, both in silence as you listen to what his voice might be speaking to you, but also in the scriptures that have been given to us. You just allow that stuff to wash over you, wash over your mind, cleanse you, be stronger than the voices outside. You remain in the truth.

The third thing, we can encourage one another. This is interesting that this is important in our dealing with deception. Absolutely.

13 But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called “Today,” so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness.

We’ve got to encourage one another. We’ve got to get into each other’s lives. So that one of us begins to swerve off, “What are you doing over there, man? Come back over here. Why you shooting at those goats? Come on man, it’s the cans. We’re going for the cans. Let me adjust your site a little bit. It looks like you’re shooting off a little bit.”

That’s what church is supposed to be. That’s what life groups are for. Take advantage of this opportunity. That’s what friendships are. You’ve got to reach out. You say, “It’s hard.” Who cares? Get over the obstacles. Press in. Press through. If they’re being a jerk, tell me. I’ll go yell at them.

We’ve got to get into each other’s lives. Especially as our world, even right now, is so much more distanced. It is harder. Yes. I understand that. But it’s all the more important. Otherwise we’re going to find ourselves, and this is so creepy,” you will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.” Your heart will be hardened little by little until all of a sudden you don’t even realize what you’re doing. You don’t even realize what you’re doing. That’s what’s so dangerous about sin.

The fourth thing, we need to rejoice when we feel conviction. What? Yes. Yes. Because conviction is a sign that the Spirit lives inside you. That the filtering has begun. We talked about it a few weeks ago.

In 2 Corinthians 7:9, Paul says:

9 yet now I am happy, not because you were made sorry, but because your sorrow led you to repentance. For you became sorrowful as God intended and so were not harmed in any way by us.

So it’s kind of fostering that sensitivity. It’s being so in tune with, “Oh, Lord. That’s not right. Something’s not right in what they’re saying. Something’s not right in what I’m saying. Something’s not right about this place that I’m in.”

There’s a sensitivity that is fostered. You can rejoice whenever that happens instead of hating that. Instead of fighting against that, rejoice when you feel that conviction and go with it. Respond to it. Be quick to respond to it.

Pilate was getting that conviction. He was having that thing, “Something’s not right about all of this.” But at the end of the day he said, “Oh, well.” And he handed Jesus over to be crucified.

And for us, as we continue to navigate our crazy time, I really want us to be people that are aware of the dangers and the deception of sin. Don’t think you’re above it. Don’t think you’re past it. But then, also be so aware of the power of the cross, that it can actually set us free. We are no longer in bondage. That’s what happens. Eventually, as you continue to go in sin, you become in bondage to it. It owns you. It’s on your back. What Jesus did on the cross is he allowed his blood to flow and so he breaks the power of sin over us. So that we can actually go a different way. But then he also gives us the forgiveness that we need to wash us clean as we make mistakes going forward.

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Guest User 11/25/20 Guest User 11/25/20

What is Truth?

John 18. There’s a story to set up the message, that I’ve heard. It’s actually a U.S. Naval correspondent. It could be urban legend or not, I don’t know. But I’ll tell you the story because it works.

Series: John

John 18 - David Stockton

Basically, there was a ship captain of a big ship. He was headed through the night, headed through some fog. He caught on his radar that there was another ship coming toward him in the same direction. So he sends out a little correspondence and says, “Hey, this is Sgt. Whatever or Col. Whatever, in command in my ship and we noticed we’re on the same trajectory here. I encourage you to adjust your navigation 15 degrees to the south.”

The response comes back, “We are also aware that we’re headed in the same direction. We suggest you go 15 degrees to the north.”

So they go back and forth. This is military. They are all doing their job. It’s very important. The guy on the ship says, “Hey, this is the second largest ship in the Atlantic fleet of the U.S. Navy. I’ve been a Col. For this many years and we are on very important business. We don’t intend to change our direction at all. And by the way, we have three destroyers with us and we will do whatever is necessary to maintain our course and maintain the safety of our ship.”

And then the response comes back, many of you have probably heard this before, “Sir, I’m glad to know all of those things. But we’re a lighthouse. You can do what you want.”

There’s this concept of, when you’re in the fog, when you’re unsure, when no-one really knows what’s what, sometimes it’s easy for us to think that there are no absolutes. There is no truth. Post-modernism is this concept that’s eroding the reality that there isn’t any truth. Or, what they would like to say is, everyone can just kind of find their own truth, and that becomes true for you. Or, there are many, many truths. And whatever works for you could be your truth.

The challenge of that from the scripture, the challenge for that from reason is if you are to say there is no absolute truth, you’re basically trying to claim an absolute truth about that. So it doesn’t work for your own argument. But then you’re going against nature. You’re going against the word of God. You’re going against Jesus’ message. You’re going against all of that as well, who claims there is truth. There is truth.

And if you continue on your course, without adjusting to the truth, it will ruin you. Truth is very, very, very important. And it’s hard in these days to know what’s true. Maybe harder than ever with this new information age that’s got us so smart and savvy that we know the answers to everything now. Not true.

We don’t know even who’s president right now, or going to be, in some ways. We don’t know what the realities of COVID - I’ve never seen the medical profession so confused and speaking out of both sides of their mouths about something. We don’t know necessarily how to do church anymore. We’re trying to figure that out all over again. We don’t know if the Cardinals are good or not. Are they? No. Yes. No. Yes. Like, sometimes no. We don’t know if Chris Paul is going to help the Suns at all. We don’t even know if the Suns can be helped. We don’t know what’s going to happen with the stock market. We all think it’s going down, but it just keeps going up. We don’t know a lot of things. We’ve got more information at our fingertips than ever before, but it has not given us more truth. It has given us way more confusion, way more insecurity, way more isolation, way more uncertainty.

A professor at Stanford University, speaking about this information age and all the access we have to this information, says this:

“If the baseline for making a projection about the next today is the current level of benefit vs. harm of the digital life, then I’m willing to express a confident judgment that the next decade will bring a net harm to people’s well-being. The massive and undeniable benefits of digital life, access to knowledge and culture, ]which we have more than ever before] have mostly been realized. The harms have begun to come into view just over the past few years. And the trend line is moving consistently in a negative direction. I’m mainly worried about corporate and governmental power and the surveillance users, about the degraded public sphere and its new corporate owners that care not much for sustaining democratic governance. Then there are worries about artificial intelligence, and the technological displacement of labor, and finally, the addiction technologies that have captured the attention and mind space of the youngest generation. All in all, digital life is now threatening our psychological, economic and political well-being.”

And we all go, “Uh-huh. Okay. Yeah. There’s a bruise there where you’re pushing.”

We all know that. We all experience it. We’re seeing some undoing. We’re just seeing people adding more and more noise and less and less solution. And this is where we now come to the scriptures. We come to this book that has seen many, many claims at truth come and go. We’ve seen many, many different towers of Babel be built, only to bring about greater confusion.

And John is writing this book at his day and age, where in a lot of ways it makes our situation look like a cake walk. When he was dealing with Roman Empire’s truth and all the corruption there. He was dealing with the religiosity of his Jewish nation and the truth claims that they had and what that had done to him in persecution. And dealing with the populistic culture of his day, which was claiming truth because they had the most popularity.

And he’s writing this whole book of John to try and help all of us believe in Jesus, to believe that he is the way, the truth and the life; to believe that he came into the world full of grace and truth, and that, what he’s longing for is worshipers who will worship God in spirit and in truth. He’s wanting to give us a truth different than the truth the world claims to have. A truth that actually sets us free. And a truth that cannot change, and will not change. It is eternal.

And John is writing to continue to give us the truth about Jesus, so that we can put our faith and hope and trust in him. So that’s what we’ve been going through. In John 18, we pick up the latest version of what John is saying:

When he had finished praying, Jesus left with his disciples and crossed the Kidron Valley. On the other side there was a garden, and he and his disciples went into it.
Now Judas, who betrayed him, knew the place, because Jesus had often met there with his disciples. So Judas came to the garden, guiding a detachment of soldiers and some officials from the chief priests and the Pharisees. They were carrying torches, lanterns and weapons.
Jesus, knowing all that was going to happen to him, went out and asked them, “Who is it you want?”
“Jesus of Nazareth,” they replied.
“I am he,” Jesus said. (And Judas the traitor was standing there with them.) When Jesus said, “I am he,” they drew back and fell to the ground.

Dominoes. Clanging of weapons. Torches burning people’s hair, maybe. I don’t know.

Again he asked them, “Who is it you want?”
“Jesus of Nazareth,” they said.
Jesus answered, “I told you that I am he. If you are looking for me, then let these men go.” This happened so that the words he had spoken would be fulfilled: “I have not lost one of those you gave me.”
Then Simon Peter, who had a sword, drew it and struck the high priest’s servant, cutting off his right ear. (The servant’s name was Malchus.)
Jesus commanded Peter, “Put your sword away! Shall I not drink the cup the Father has given me?”

So we’re gong to be talking about truth. I’m going to bring up four different things that I think are important for us to remember about truth that I think John 18 is trying to help us see about truth. The first one is that truth is stronger than lies. Let me say that again. Truth is stronger than lies. Anybody happy about that? Because there are lies out there. Not one or two. There’s lots. And the lies just keep getting piled and piled upon the truth. But it doesn’t change the truth. It can never, will never change the truth. Truth is not subject to human opinion. Truth is not subject to whether we believe in it or not. Truth is and always will be marching on. Truth is stronger than lies.

Here in this story, we have the betrayer. Right? We have Judas, who we know from a few chapters earlier, the devil has entered into him. Who is the devil? The father of lies. So he’s come up with this scheme to basically trick Jesus and trick these other people into getting him some gold.

So there in that garden, Jesus, knowing the truth about what was going to happen to him, walks right into the trap that was set for him. And they say to him, these who represent lies, these who were coming to arrest the truth, to convict the truth, to do away with the truth, to deceive the truth, they look at Jesus and say, “We’re coming for you.” And he says, “Come on, then.”

And whatever happened, they’re now on the ground. And in this moment we get this little glimpse, like we get throughout the scriptures from time to time. Like when the angels burst on the scene with the shepherds. It’s like all of a sudden we get this little curtain that just opens up for a second, and reality shows up. What is real shows up. And it shows that our version of reality, what we think is real, is actually the most fake, frail thing there ever was.

And in this moment, Jesus says, “I am he.” (Yahweh is me.) And the full weight of the reality of the truth of who Jesus is comes out in a moment. And it takes all of the lies and the liars and puts them on their back. And yet, they get up and Jesus surrenders to them. And Peter pulls out the sword and goes chopping away. And Jesus is like, “Peter, you need to understand something.” Just like I want us to understand something. “Peter, the truth is stronger than the lies. You don’t need to get crazy. You don’t need to act in fear. You don’t need to pull out your sword and start chopping away. You don’t need to defend the truth or protect the truth. It’s doing just fine.”

And for us, as Christians, we need to make sure we’re not wrestling against flesh and blood. We’re not fighting in worldly ways, because we’re scared that the truth is going to be overcome. It cannot be overcome. Rest assured, Christians, everything is going to be just fine. The truth is marching on and it is stronger than lies. It doesn’t matter how many lies. Remember the filter we had? The colander? Whatever you put in, you could put a billion lies in there, but if it’s a filter that filters out all the lies, only the truth will come out. And we have that in the scriptures and we have that in the spirit.

So that’s the first thing. Truth is more powerful than lies. The second thing. Let’d keep reading:

Then the detachment of soldiers with its commander and the Jewish officials arrested Jesus. They bound him and brought him first to Annas, who was the father-in-law of Caiaphas, the high priest that year. Caiaphas was the one who had advised the Jewish leaders that it would be good if one man died for the people.

During this chapter we have Peter’s three denials of Christ and the rooster crowing and all that. We’re going to pick that up in John 21 as Peter is getting reinstated by Jesus. So we’re just going to focus on the trials right now. Verse 19:

Meanwhile, the high priest questioned Jesus about his disciples and his teaching.
“I have spoken openly to the world,” Jesus replied. “I always taught in synagogues or at the temple, where all the Jews come together. I said nothing in secret. Why question me? Ask those who heard me. Surely they know what I said.”
When Jesus said this, one of the officials nearby slapped him in the face. “Is this the way you answer the high priest?” he demanded.
“If I said something wrong,” Jesus replied, “testify as to what is wrong. But if I spoke the truth, why did you strike me?” Then Annas sent him bound to Caiaphas the high priest.

Now Jesus is at the end of his rope in a lot of ways. He’s at the end of his life. He’s already done his business with his disciples. He’s knows what’s coming to him. He knows that the hour has come. He’s dealt with the Father and got his will and submitted to the Father’s will. And he knows what’s happening. And so, as he’s in this trial, and as he has this guy who’s not the high priest but kind of acting in the office of the high priest, is questioning him, is testing him, is trying to figure out what lies he can stick to him. And Jesus basically continues to stand in the truth.

Then this official slaps him. Which, by the way, I’m glad they don’t put the name of the guy in here, because this like the worst thing to ever be known for for the rest of time, right? You were the guy that slapped Jesus. That’s bad news.

Anyway, this guy slaps him because he feels like he’s being disrespectful to the authority in the room. Like the woman at the well, “If you had any idea of who it is that’s sitting next to you right now, we would be having a very different conversation.”

Yet Jesus, even with his accusers, those who are trying to pin lies to him, he pushes them and he presses and says, “You need to decide, are you on the side of the lies or are you on the side of the truth?” He’s making an appeal to the people in that courtroom. “It’s time for you to decide.”

And the truth that we need to know about truth, the second point is: Truth is upsetting to those living in lies. And we live in a world that is full of lies. And the truth is that many of us still believe lies. And when the truth comes, the first response to truth is not like, “Oh, that’s so wonderful. I’m so glad you just pointed that out in my life. You’re just awesome.”

No. We get defensive. If you’re married, and your wife doesn’t even have to say it anymore. She just has to look at you and you know what you’re doing wrong. She just looks at you and you go, “Okay, it’s really about three or four things that she’s always catching me doing. So it’s one of those.”

And our response is not, “Oh, I’m so glad you pointed that out, you know? I’m going to make that adjustment right away.”

No. We get defensive. We go, “Oh, yeah? Well what about your lies?”

Truth is always very upsetting. And John says this in the beginning. When Jesus came full of grace and truth, he came as the light and the darkness did not receive him. And what we know about this story is we’re just about to get to a place where they didn’t like the the truth that Jesus was and represented so much that they crucified and tried to bury him forever. Truth is upsetting to those living in lies.

So if you feel yourself getting defensive, you should feel yourself right after that going, “Okay, Lord. Maybe I need to spend some time with you and see what you want to set me free from.”

And we also need to know the more that we live for the truth and stand in the truth, the more we’re going to be hated in this world that loves its lies. Jesus time and time again is teaching is teaching his disciples that. We can’t be ignorant of that. It’ll never be popular in the world to live out the truth of Jesus. And when it is, you should be very suspicious. That’s what history teaches us.

So the third thing we’ll get to in verse 28:

Then the Jewish leaders took Jesus from Caiaphas to the palace of the Roman governor.

So he stood trial first before the Sanhedrin, the Jewish religious authority, now he’s going to the Roman political authority and he’s going to stand trial there.

By now it was early morning, and to avoid ceremonial uncleanness they did not enter the palace, because they wanted to be able to eat the Passover. So Pilate came out to them and asked, “What charges are you bringing against this man?”
“If he were not a criminal,” they replied, “we would not have handed him over to you.”
Pilate said, “Take him yourselves and judge him by your own law.”
“But we have no right to execute anyone,” they objected. This took place to fulfill what Jesus had said about the kind of death he was going to die.
Pilate then went back inside the palace, summoned Jesus and asked him, “Are you the king of the Jews?”
Tell me the truth.
“Is that your own idea,” Jesus asked, “or did others talk to you about me?”
“Am I a Jew?” Pilate replied. “Your own people and chief priests handed you over to me. What is it you have done?”
Jesus said, “My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jewish leaders. But now my kingdom is from another place.”
“You are a king, then!” said Pilate.
Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. In fact, the reason I was born and came into the world is to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.”
“What is truth?” retorted Pilate.

So Jesus again is bringing this back to truth. He’s now standing trial in this governmental authority. He’s having this dialogue and Pilate is saying things and Jesus is basically bringing it right to Pilate and saying, “Pilate, this is your moment of truth. Are you saying this or are you just saying what you’ve heard? Are you ready to call me king, or are you still going to submit to the kingdom of the Romans that you’re a part of and you know is so corrupt and wrong?”

Jesus is pressing him. He’s saying, “I have come to testify to the truth about a kingdom that tis not of this world. And I am the King of that world.”

And the third point we need to know is Truth is only known by those who receive Jesus because he says, “Those who are on the side of truth believe me.”

And Pilate, who so often represents all of us, in the face of the truth claims of Jesus that are so upsetting to our convenience, and all the beautiful lies that are being told us that we can receive and feel much better about ourselves. When we’re faced with all those options, we just throw up our hands and say, “I guess there’s no way to know.”

That was Pilate’s response as he stood and sat before the Maker of his soul. The Maker of the world. The One who knows the truth better than anyone else. The One who actually has all authority. And he basically just said, “Phh. Whatever. Whatever.”

And Jesus and John both want us to understand the word truth. The word truth here is actually a really big deal in the book of John. It’s a big deal in my life too. Such a big deal I named my daughter Truth. Not in the Paul Pierce way. But I named her Alethea, which is the Greek word for truth. We named her Alethea Reese Stockton. Reese means strong or ardent. We named her Strong and The Truth because we knew that she was going to need to navigate the world that she was going to be living in. And she’s doing an awesome job, by the way. And I won’t embarrass her anymore. I won’t even look over there.

Strong and the Truth. But this is such an important thing. Truth is so important to the book of John. It’s so important that Jesus was coming full of grace truth, that we worship in spirit and truth. And when John was writing the book of Revelation, he actually calls Jesus the Truth. The word Alethea again.

And Jesus is pointing everything back to the truth. “You need to make a choice, Pilate. Do you want to be one who can receive me and hear the truth? Or are you just going to throw up your hands in agnostic frustration?”

I get that people hate that Jesus did this. And I sometimes hate it, too. That he claimed that he is the only way, the only truth, the only life. No one comes to the Father but through him. I would love it if there were many ways to God. Because then everybody could just be happier. But if there’s only one way, I’m really glad Jesus told us.

There’s this quote I want to read to you real quick from a guy named Garrett Best. He says,

John sees alethea as an absolute concept incompatible with relativism and pluralism.

These two words are so important. Relativism is this idea that there’s no absolute truth. Whatever I just kind of feel good about, then that’s truth. That’s this post-modern mindset that is so stupid and is going to lead everyone to hell.

Then there’s this other idea that it’s pluralistic. Well, maybe there’s multiple truths. Maybe there is absolute truth, but actually there’s a multiplicity to it.

And this is where Jesus’ claim says, “Absolutely not. I’m here to tell you there is only one way to the Father. And if you go those other ways, you will not end up in the right spot.”

This progressive Christianity, this kind of cultural revolution that we’re having eroding all of the structures and institutions that’s going on, it’s seeping its way into the church and we have to stop it. There is absolute truth. There is right and wrong. There is heaven and hell. We are not the first people to try to get rid of all of those ideas. We are not so enlightened that we don’t need the scriptures, we don’t need the Spirit anymore. We’ve got to quit acting like it.

The only people who can know the truth, the truth that really matters, are those who receive Jesus Christ. And you will never hear anything else taught from this place. And we have to be careful we don’t get caught up in all of the changes that are happening in the mindset of Americans. Because we become liars if we do.

The last point, it’s a little more happy. The last point comes in this last little part with Pilate’s uttering of, “What is truth”:

With this he went out again to the Jews gathered there and said, “I find no basis for a charge against him. But it is your custom for me to release to you one prisoner at the time of the Passover. Do you want me to release ‘the king of the Jews’?”
They shouted back, “No, not him! Give us Barabbas!” Now Barabbas had taken part in an uprising.

So here, just to catch John’s amazing eloquence as he’s writing this book… This is in part thanks to other people. You know, everything that I teach, I stole from somebody. Just to reiterate that. And Dan Riccio is one of them and he’s actually sitting next to my daughter so it’s really embarrassing over there right now.

But there’s the idea that Pilate is bringing up Jesus, who is claiming to be the Son of God, right? And then he’s bringing up this guy, Barabbas. Bar Abbas. In the Hebrew, Bar means “son of” and Abba means “father.” So basically you’ve got Pilate presenting to this people, the same people that in John chapter 8 wanted to make Jesus king by force, those same people, he’s now presenting, “Do you want the true Son of God, Son of the Father, or do you want a counterfeit son of the father?”

Do you see the irony here? And what comes out of the people’s hearts? What do they start shouting? “We want Barabbas! We want Barabbas!”

And if you go into chapter 19, which we don’t have time to, he says, “Well, what do you want me to do with the Son of the Father over here?”

And they say, “Crucify him! Crucify him!”

And they did. They took the true Son of the Father and exchanged him for the counterfeit. And they took that true Son of the Father and they whipped him and they beat him and they mocked him and they pinned him to a tree and they killed him. And then they buried him in a tomb so that they would never have to deal with that voice, with that truth again.

But here’s the deal about truth. Here’s the deal about the truth of God. It is divine. It is creative. It is immovable. It is incorruptible. It is unstoppable. And on the third day, uh-oh. Truth rose again. Truth got up from the ground, ascended to the right hand of the Father, where he sits and he’s waiting for the day his Father says he’s going to come back and judge the world according to the truth that he presented to them. And everyone will be accountable to it.

What did you do with Jesus? Did you choose all the counterfeits that this world has to offer? Or did you receive the true Son of God and make him the Lord of your life?

So there are two things here to close. One is, if you have not received Jesus, this is actually good news for you. It’s bad news that you’re living a lie, and you’re on your way to hell. I get that. That’s not fun to hear on a Sunday morning—or any morning. But it’s the truth that Jesus came to preach and proclaim. But the good news is that Jesus came to preach and proclaim that, though that is true, he’s making a way for you so that you can now be on the side of truth, so that you can hear his voice and know his heart, so that you can all of a sudden become part of the truth that will live on forevermore. That’s the good news.

And for you and I, Christians that believe that truth, have received the truth and have seen it show up from time to time in our life, it’s really encouraging for us. Because, no matter how many lies they add to our minds, no matter how many more lies are perpetrated in society, no matter how more sophisticated they get at these lies, truth is never going to stop. Truth will always keep marching on. If you don’t believe me, believe this guy. We’re going to play a little quote from a guy who also faced some pretty challenging, confusing times. But he had such an ease on the last day that he preached a sermon. Such a hope in his heart because of the truth that he knew, that he spoke these words.

Martin Luther King:

I come to say to you this afternoon, however difficult the moment, however frustrating the hour, it will not be long, because truth crushed to earth will rise again. How long? Not long. Because No lie can live forever. How long? Not long. Because you shall reap what you sow. How long? Not long. Because truth forever on the scaffold, wrong forever on the throne. Yet that scaffold sways the future and behind the dim unknown standeth God within the shadow keeping watch upon his own. How long? Not long. Because the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice. How long? Not long. Because mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord. He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored. He has loosed the fateful lighting of his terrible swift sword. His truth is marching on. He has sounded forth the trumpet that shall never call retreat. He is sifting out the hearts of men before his judgment seat. O, be swift, my soul, to answer him. Be jubilant my feet. Our God is marching on. Glory, hallelujah! Glory hallelujah! Glory hallelujah! Glory hallelujah! Glory hallelujah! His truth is marching on.

His truth is marching on. It cannot and never will be stopped, We can rejoice. We can let our fear, let our worry, let our uncertainty go because his truth is forever. And it is so important for us to quiet ourselves before him. It is so important for us to limit the intake we get of all the noise that’s going around these days. And seek his face for truth. He said that, “My sheep know my voice.” And if you will surrender your life to Jesus and you will spend time at his feet, he’ll talk to you.

He’ll talk to you about what’s what. He’ll talk to you about what he thinks is important for you. And it’s really important we get this right, you guys. Because if we can live out the truth in our world, not only will it set us free, but it will give other people access to the truth, that are so confused right now. And then they can be set free as well.

Let’s pray. And when I say, “Let’s pray,” that doesn’t mean let’s end the service. It’s doesn’t mean, “Let’s check our phones and check out.” It doesn’t mean, if you’re at home, you, I don’t know what happens there. It means, “Let’s take advantage of this moment to sit at his feet and allow him to bring to mind any lies that he might want to talk to us about. Any counterfeits that we’re allowing in our lives, whether we know it or not. And also, what truths about who you are and what he’s calling you to do.

Holy Spirit, please speak to us.

In the area of finances, I think we need to be real careful that we don’t allow fear or greed to be a part of our decisions. In our relationships with others, I think we really need to do a better job of listening to what people are trying to say, even if they don’t say it in the right way.

Lord I do pray that you would help us to be really good purveyors of truth in our world. I pray, if we’ve been perpetrating lies or spreading things that are not true or helpful, I pray that you would just stop our mouths, Lord. That you would convict us deep and hard every time we’re about to do that again. And instead, help us to speak truth, Lord. Amen.

©️2020 Living Streams Church
7000 N Central Avenue ∙ Phoenix AZ 85020 ∙ 602-957-7500 ∙ https://www.livingstreams.org

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Guest User 11/15/20 Guest User 11/15/20

The Power and Potential of Unity

I’m going to ask you four questions that are going to be answered in this message. The first one: If you had one last prayer to pray, what would it be? If you had one strategy to reach the world, what would it be? If you could give any gift to everyone you love, what would it be? And if you could protect people you love from any two things, what would they be?

Series: John

John 17 - Mark Buckley

We’re going to look at how Jesus answered those questions. Let’s pray together.

Father, I pray that you’ll help me to speak your word clearly and boldly. And let your Holy Spirit make this word come alive, that we could be set free by the truth. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Okay. We’re going to go right into John 17:20 and 21, looking at the strategy that Jesus has for revealing himself to the world.

20 “My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, 21 that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me.

There are all kinds of evangelistic initiatives that all kinds of believers do throughout the world. And most of them are the most well-intentioned you could imagine. Many of them have measures of success. But the strategy Jesus gives us is laid out here in verse 21. He’s praying that we would be one with the Father, that he would be in us, and we would be one with the Father, and that we would be one with each other.

I’m involved in five different groups that meet every month. I’m involved in a John 17 group with people literally from all over the world. There was one girl in it recently from Lebanon. They were rebuilding houses after the major explosion in Beirut. There are Catholic bishops in the group. There are regular old guys like me.

I’m involved in a group called Grace Association where we have been, for over twenty-five years, uniting churches here in the Valley to work together, to build and strengthen leaders. We’re involved in Pastor in Covenant groups where we meet every month, open our hearts, talk and pray, and share our lives. I’m in a Zoom group with United Pastors of Arizona, which are large church pastors from all over the Valley. I serve them as a consultant and an encourager. I also have a Zoom group with guys that I’ve worked with for the last forty-nine years from Washington, California and Arizona.

The purpose of all of those is to fulfill what Jesus said. His prayer for us has two aspects: that we would be one with the Father, and that we would be one with each other. If we’re close to the Father, then people can sense the reality that God is in us. They might not understand why, that there’s something different about us. They may not recognize it’s the Lord all the time, but they can sense the difference. They can sense the grace.

Then, if we’re together, if we can appreciate one another, if we can celebrate the diversity in the various parts of the Body of Christ—rather than judge each other because some people have preferences for communion one way, and others take it another way; some people have preferences for worship one way, others worship in a slightly different way—rather than judge each other for the preferences, we celebrate each other.

One of the things I’ve learned from all of these groups that I’ve participated in, I’ve learned that our God is a big, big God. I’ve learned that his grace is manifested in every single part of the Body of Christ, that every part of the Body of Christ has a treasure. If I can receive from that treasure, if I can learn from those people, then my walk with God is enriched.

Let’s go to the first verse. John 17:1:

After Jesus said this, he looked toward heaven and prayed:
“Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you.

May you shine a light on your Son, and may your Son shine a light on you.

2 For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him. 3 Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.

So Jesus is saying, “I’ve got authority over all people.” And how is he going to use this authority? To give us a gift. What’s the gift? The gift of eternal life. What is eternal life? Eternal life is the knowledge of God.

He could have given his disciples anything. He could have given them a treasure in gold. He could have given them castles on hillsides. He could have given them anything on earth, and he chose to give them eternal life. Because, when you know the only true God, you can be secure in his love for you. He has made you unique. He has made you special. He has given you everything you need in Christ. And what he has given you enables you to overcome fear, anxiety, and depression and enables you to understand the meaning and purpose of your life,

In spite of the fact that you fall, he lifts you up. In spite of the fact that you sin, his Son died on the cross to forgive us for our sins. In spite of the fact that we don’t know everything, he has linked us together with others who do have knowledge, understanding and wisdom; and we can share together and grow.

It says the fullness of wisdom and knowledge are hidden in Christ. So when we discover the treasure in Jesus, not just individually, but the treasure in Jesus in his Body, then we have the fullness of wisdom and knowledge.

Being in unity with people is a challenge. I’ve been married for forty-seven years. In a very real way, when a man leaves his father and mother and cleaves unto his wife—as it says in Genesis—the two become one. You become united in a sexual union, you become united as one. You’re flip sides of the same coin. And God doesn’t look at you like you’re more spiritual than your spouse. He looks at you as one.

Yet, my wife has got problems. I’m one of her problems. Another problem is she likes Country music and I don’t know why, but she does. When I get in her car and I happen to turn on the ignition and the radio goes on, I realize she has never left that plague. It’s still there. So I quickly change the dial. Another thing she has learned to do over the years, when we go to a Thai restaurant, she orders super, super hot, number five on the scale of one to five. Because she is married to a guy who will steal off her plate whatever she hasn’t quickly eaten. And when she brings something home and puts it in one of those little white containers, it disappears before she has time to eat it for lunch—unless it’s super, super hot.

But, in spite of the fact that we don’t always have the same taste in food or in music, we really do love each other. We really do enjoy life together. We do not major on the minor preferential distinctions in our marriage. Whether she votes for somebody else, or she has a different way of enjoying her Sabbath day than I do, we give each other freedom. We give each other honor. We try and encourage one another and bless one another and celebrate each other. We don’t try to control each other. I don’t try to form her into a little masculine mini-me, if you know what I mean. I want her to be all that God has created her to be in her feminine glory.

I believe that one of the great challenges that we face in our friendships, we face in our businesses, we face in the church, we face in our nation, is how do we celebrate our differences. How can we honor one another even when we don’t always see things the same way. We’re not designed to always see things the same way. We’re not designed to be a one-party nation, to be a one-perspective people. We represent a multi-faceted God.

So Jesus prayed. He gave them the gift of eternal life. Verse 4:

4 I have brought you glory on earth by finishing the work you gave me to do.

It’s interesting. All the things Jesus could have kept doing, but he knew his work was finished. Some of us think our work is never finished.

5 And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began.
6 “I have revealed you to those whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours; you gave them to me and they have obeyed your word. 7 Now they know that everything you have given me comes from you. 8 For I gave them the words you gave me and they accepted them. They knew with certainty that I came from you, and they believed that you sent me.

He gave them his words. The word of life. He taught us how to live. He taught us how to forgive so we don’t get stuck and hung up on the problems of the past. He taught us how to love. He commanded us to love so that we’d build relationships that will enrich our lives forever. He taught us how to give so that we, in our generosity, can use what God’s given us to build and bless others and he can pour more into our lives.

9 I pray for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours. 10 All I have is yours, and all you have is mine. And glory has come to me through them.

This is really interesting. Jesus says to the Father, “Everything you’ve got.” The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof. All the people and all the land belong to Him.

One of the first unity meetings I ever went to, I met a guy named Lee Balderelli. He gave me his business card and he said, “If you ever want to come up to Incline Village by Lake Tahoe and have a place for your family, feel free to give me a call.”

Well, I kept that little business card and I thought, Do I dare call him? And sure enough, as it got close to summertime, I called him and I said, “Mr. Balderelli, is it possible that your condo at Incline Village is available?”

He said, “Sure. Come on up. How long do you want it?”

So we went up there for two weeks. Even though I was a poor pastor with three little kids, we were able to have the most awesome vacation. And we went up there year after year until we finally moved to Phoenix. Because, at this unity meeting, God wanted to show me, “You know what? I’ve got everything. And when you meet with my people, when you meet with parts of the body of Christ that you’re not even familiar with, I’ve got a gift in them that I’m going to give to you.”

Since that time, I’ve not only gone to Incline Village, but to churches and places to preach all over the world. I’ve been to the Vatican to meet the Pope. I’ve been able to make acquaintances with people all over that have enriched my life.

When I came to Arizona and I was struggling because I felt like God had not answered my prayer, I was one of the Garth Brooks kind of thing, “Thank God for Unanswered Prayer.” I prayed that I would never have to move here. And I did. Our son had asthma. He wasn’t getting healed, so we had to come here to give him a new life. And I was down. I went to a pastors’ prayer summit and, at that pastors’ prayer summit, the guys all started praying. They started worshiping. And as they prayed and as they worshiped, something happened in my spirit. Grace began to come into me. My mind still said, Hey, you don’t know what you’re doing here. But my spirit began to say, Yes, these are my brothers and they love me and they’re lifting me and they don’t even know how much I need them. But I really, really need them.

What happens sometimes to us is that we go through times of discouragement. This is a time in our nation, right now, where people are stressed over COVID, they’re stressed over the election and, because they’re stressed and their friends are stressed and their families are stressed, people’s tempers are short and they are reacting against each other. As a consequence, our normal trials are magnified. If the Lord allows you to taste depression, discouragement or anxiety in this season, it’s not just about you. It’s because he is going to comfort you. He’s going to give you understanding. He’s going to give you grace. Because there are people out there who need Jesus.

There are people out there more discouraged than you’ve ever been. You’ve just tasted something, but they have had the whole meal. And you are called by God to lift them. If you will lift people when they’re down, they will never forget it. Invest in people when they are at their low point. If somebody is broke, that’s the time to give to them. If they’re hurting, that’s the time to take them out and do something with them. If they’re depressed, call them up. Show your love to them and they will remember for the rest of their life who showed up when they really needed them.

Verse 11:

11 I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name, the name you gave me, so that they may be one as we are one.

Protect them. He’s praying for protection. If you were going to protect people from any two things, I asked, what would they be? Here’s the first one. Protect them in order that they may be one. Protect them from division. Protect them from disunity. Protect them from the human tendency to get so frustrated with each other that they just push each other out of their lives. Because the consequences of disunity are very serious. It weakens us. It hurts us. There’s time when the Church has to exercise judgment if people are participating in evil deeds and they refuse to repent. That’s a different story. But “Protect them, Father, by the power of your name.”

It’s the name of Jesus that protects us. The name of Jesus represents to us the priorities of God. It’s not worth us being divided if something is not a top priority to our God and Father. The consequences of division in Christian circles, Paul says this, “Forgive such a one because we are not ignorant of Satan’s devices.” Satan wants to divide in order to frustrate, condemn and drive people into a place fruitlessness.

12 While I was with them, I protected them and kept them safe by that name you gave me. None has been lost except the one doomed to destruction so that Scripture would be fulfilled.

Only Judas fell away, as long as Jesus was there. When he was there, when they began to squabble over who was the greatest, or who would sit at the right hand of at the Lord in his kingdom, he would just quiet them right down.

13 “I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them.

Jesus is praying this whole prayer for us, so that we could have his joy. You know, our God is aware of all the sad things happening in the world. And there are a lot of sad things. And when we hear the news about what’s happening when there are horrible things, it makes us sad. But in spite of all the sadness that he was aware of, Jesus had joy. He was not discouraged. And he wants us to have his joy.

On our Zoom call the other day with these pastors that I’ve worked with for many, many years, we were laughing. We were laughing about what I used to do foolishly when we would argue. In the early days, in the seventies, I would tell the pastors, “You’ve got to wear a tie to church.” Some of these guys were ex-hippies and sort of still hippies, and they didn’t want to wear a tie. And I would force them to wear a tie. And the worship leader would break his guitar strings every week, and I would literally say, “I’ll give you a bonus in your check if you can go a month without breaking a guitar string.” And he never could. And they were all laughing at me on the Zoom call. We were enjoying the fact that God has helped us to grow up over the years and get over some of our little things that we thought were so important—especially guys like me. Sometimes leaders major on minors, and it causes grief to everybody that they’re working with. One of the great treasure of life is to have friendships that last years and years.

14 I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. 15 My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one.

Jesus prayed that we would stay one, that we’d be delivered from disunity, and now he’s praying that we would be protected from the evil one. When believers are not protected from the evil one, they can get caught up in horrible things.

In the Civil War, there were born-again believers on both sides, trying to kill each other. In World War I, they literally stopped the battle one year on Christmas Eve. There were soldiers on one side of the trenches singing Silent Night in French, and on the other side, singing Silent Night in German. And when they realized that, they came together and sang together over No Man’s Land. And then the next day they went back to killing each other. What does that say? What that says is that somehow the evil one had so worked in those nations that they were warring because they thought one another were so wicked that they were willing to lay down their lives.

Jesus prayed that we would be protected from that. And that means that we have to have the kingdom of God as our highest value. It has to be more important than our political party. It has to be more important than nationalism. It has to be our highest value. Because we’re being tested right now. Sometimes we fail the test because we get so frustrated, right? “If only people would see things my way, we’d all be just fine.”

16 They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. 17 Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. 18 As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. 19 For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified.

Jesus was sanctified. That means he was set apart. We get set apart by the word of God. The word of God makes us a little different. It does. We think a little different than the world. We have different values, different priorities. And we have to be so secure in Christ that we’re not going to conform ourselves to the world, but we’re going to be transformed by the renewing of our mind. Then we’ll know what the will of God is. You know what the will of God is when you’re renewed in your mind by the word.

20 “My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, 21 that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me.

You know, in a marriage, you’re going to teach your kids a lot of things that are your values and your priorities. But the most powerful way that you’re going to teach them is how a husband loves his wife, and how a wife loves her husband. You’re not going to teach them with your words. You’re going to teach them with your lifestyle. You’re going to demonstrate to them what your real values are. If you are unity, if you can enjoy life together, then they’re going to want to have a marriage like yours.

The most powerful thing that can happen in a church is if we’re really in love with each other here, if we really are committed to each other long term. And that means that, just like in a marriage, there are times when we’re going to have to forgive each other. There are times when we’re going to have to put up with each other. There are times when we’re gong to have to yield to each other. There are times when it’s not going to be your way.

I had one of the neatest things happen to me a couple of weeks ago. If you go back sixteen years ago, my first grandchild was born. Our granddaughter came into the world, and my daughter wasn’t married when she had this baby. And the natural father went to war against my daughter and our family for control of the baby. For the first time in our marriage, we were divided.

We were divided because I had one strategy for dealing with this guy, and my wife and daughter had another strategy and it got really ugly. It got ugly because he was taking us to court and the police were showing up at our house. And we had to figure out how we were going to respond to his attacks. And it got ugly because we weren’t in unity at home. The only way we came into unity is when I decided I’d better just die to myself. I’d better just give up trying to make this response to him my way, and we’re going to trust God, because the unity of our marriage, the unity of our family was more important than whether I was right, or whether I could play the card of being the head of at the house.

What happened two weeks ago was that my granddaughter’s dad, the guy we were at war with, sent me a picture of his ballot. He did a write in. He wrote my name in, not for president, but for senator. It just blessed so much. I never knew how it would feel to get a vote. It was my first vote in my life. You’re not actually supposed to show pictures of your ballot to somebody, but he did it to bless me. He takes my granddaughter to church. Every Sunday she’s not here she’s at church with him somewhere. He’s over at our house for dinner all the time. He’s a wonderful dad. Still a single guy and we love him and we pray for him. He joins us at all kinds of occasions. It went from a hellish battle to the kind of unity that I’m just so pleased with, and so thankful for.

The reason we’ve got that blessing is because Jesus said that unity was his priority. Not me as the head of the house being right. Not me punishing my daughter because she didn’t obey my instructions as to how to live her life. Not me doing anything other than to say, “Jesus, okay. This is our life. This is the way it’s come out. This isn’t what I wanted. But I’ve got to keep trusting you. I’ve got to keep following you. You’re the one who has eternal life. You’re the one who gives the gift. You’re the one who can protect us from the evil on.” Amen? Amen.

Last two verses:

22 I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one— 23 I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.

He said, “I’ve got one more gift for you. I’ve got one more thing that’s going to help you have unity with the Father, and unity with one another that’s going to enrich your life. I’m going to give them my glory. Father, I pray that you will give them my glory.” The glory that was upon him for being the perfect Son. The glory that came upon him when the Father said, “This is my Son in whom I am well pleased.” The glory that was upon him that allowed him to heal the sick. The glory that allowed him to teach words of eternal life. The glory that allowed him to multiply the bread and the wine and the whatever was needed. The glory that was on him, we get to share.

Wow. We don’t deserve it. But we get it. And don’t ever deny it. Welcome it. You’ve got a gift from God. You’ve got a treasure. You have value. It’s because Jesus is alive in you. And that reality allows people to discover that he is actually the one that was sent from God to do it for them too.

©️2020 Living Streams Church
7000 N Central Avenue ∙ Phoenix AZ 85020 ∙ 602-957-7500 ∙ https://www.livingstreams.org

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Guest User 11/3/20 Guest User 11/3/20

Abiding = Lasting a Long Time

November 1, 2020 - David Stockton

Good morning. Welcome everybody online. I feel like I want to extent more welcomes. Welcome to all the Democrats. Welcome to all the Republicans. Welcome to everybody who’s not claiming either. Welcome to the rich. Welcome to the poor. Welcome to the black, the white, the brown, whatever it might be. Welcome to all those who identify male or female. Welcome to all those who are confused about that. Welcome to all those with different sexual preferences. Welcome to everyone. We’re going to sit here and we’re going to listen to the words of Jesus and everyone is invited to the table.

It doesn’t matter who you are or what you identify as at all. If you have anything in you that ever want you to come and sit at the feet of Jesus, you are welcome. Please hear what Jesus would say. “Anyone can come. All who come. Anyone who calls out to his name can be saved.” And the rest of us here, we’re with you. It’s not like we’ve crossed over to the other side. We’re still just sinners in need of a Savior. We’re still just doing our best to continue to hear the words of Jesus and let them do its work in our hearts, so that we can walk maybe a little bit different each day. A little bit better each day. A little bit more like Jesus each day. That’s the whole thing that we’re doing.

So all are welcome. Thank you for being here. Thank you for tuning in online. That’s what we’re going to do.

As we were praying downstairs before we came up, I don’t know why, I like watching college football on Saturday. But my family got in the way big time yesterday. And maybe the football gets in the way of my family sometimes, so, it’s funny to hear me say that out loud at church while I’m about to preach. Anyway, my family got in the way of all of my plans to watch college football yesterday. But still, as we were downstairs praying, and Ryan was leading us, and we were kind of waiting to see what the Lord might be speaking to our hearts, or us as a group, I just had this picture of a wide receiver going down the sidelines and just running as fast as he can, and just putting his hands up like this. I saw this last week because I didn’t get to watch it this week. I can’t even remember who it was, but the quarterback put the ball so perfectly, as the guy was running, he put his hands like this, and his head like this, and he didn’t even really see the ball, and the ball just went right in his hands, and then he fell in the end zone. And it was a touchdown. And everyone was cheering for him. And what did he do? He kept running and he kept his hands up. He kept running and he kept his hands up.

So often we feel like we’re the quarterback of our life. And we’ve got to make the call, make the play, make the pass and it’s got to be perfect if anything’s going to move forward at all. But I just felt the Lord’s message for us today is “keep running and keep your hands up.” Keep running and keep your hands up and you’re going to see what the Lord has for you, fall into place at the right time if you can do that.

Before we jump into John 15,—it was Halloween last night. Anybody have fun? Anybody got a toothache, maybe? It’s election week this week. Yeah. At the beginning of the year—I wrote about this in my weekly email—at the beginning of the year, I really thought it was so funny to be in a crowd of people, like, we’re getting ready to play a basketball game and everybody’s got their team set up and I’d be like, “What’s up election year?” And I’d just say that and everybody would laugh and kind of roll their eyes. It was just kind of a funny thing to say. But it’s not funny anymore. You say election year and people are like, they want to fight you. So anyway. That’s happening on Tuesday, in case you didn’t know.

On Wednesday night we’ve been doing Fam Nights. Even though COVID is still a real thing, we’ve been taking real calculated steps forward, feeling like it’s the church’s job to lead people back to each other. So we’ve been taking real calculated, small, super-respectful steps going forward as a church. We’ve been meeting in person for four months. That’s not something we did with a lot of excitement and courage and faith. We just said, “Okay, well, we feel like at this point maybe we can get some people together for prayer.” So we did that for two months. And we’ve just continued to march on.

One of the next steps we’ve taken is we’ve done these Fam Nights. So on Wednesday nights, we’ve done two of them now. We meet together outside int eh Courtyard and we have a meal together. It’s been really wonderful to get to know a lot of new people that are coming to that. And then we come in here and we’ve been focusing on evangelism. Which again, is not a very popular topic anywhere ever. But it’s been really neat because we’ve had hundreds of people joining us in person and online to join us for these times as we’re just saying, “Okay, God, we want to say yes to whatever you want to do. And right now we’re feeling you want to equip us, encourage us, inspire us in order to share who you are with the people around us, especially as they’re getting shaken.”

So we’re going through that process. We’re getting some methodology. We’re getting some stories and testimonies, and you guys, I mean, I’m getting emails from people, I’m talking with people all the time who are sharing Christ with people and they are giving their lives to Christ. Literally, I’d probably say twenty in the last week I’ve heard of, of people in our church who are sharing, and people who are responding. It’s just been beautiful to see already and we’ve got three more of these Wednesday nights to go.

In fact, this Wednesday night’s going to be a little different. This Wednesday night we’re going to focus on intercession and worship. We felt like in light of whatever happens Tuesday and whatever we know by Wednesday night, or don’t know, we just want to come in here and rejoice that Jesus is the King of kings and the Lord of lords and his purposes and intentions cannot fail and will not fail and never have for even one second.

So we’re just going to worship Jesus as the King and we’re going to really intercede on behalf of our nation and the people we know who don’t know Jesus in that place. So feel free to come get some food. You can register online. If the number starts getting too high then we might have to cut off the registration. So don’t delay. Don’t get cut off. The only reason we would do that is to honor COVID social distancing and all that.

(Skipping another announcement here.)

John chapter 15. We’re going to get three really important concepts, Kingdom of heaven concepts. Jesus, again, is in the last week of his life. He’s in the last kind of group time with his disciples. He’s trying to impart something very, very important to them. In John 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, which is kind of this last hurrah, this last message of Jesus before he goes to the cross and he gets crucified and he goes away for a couple days, then he resurrects and he kind of just pops in and pops out and his disciples are just totally freaked out and confused about what’s happening their lives. So this is Jesus’ kind of final messages there. It’s very important. He’s giving them in this chapter some really important principles to help understand who he is and what his kingdom is all about.

If you wanted to know what the Stockton kingdom is all about. Me and my brothers, there are three of us. We’re all Stocktons and for some reason we only produced girls. So the Stockton name is in jeopardy for sure. If you want to know about Stocktons there are three things you’ll find out real quick. Everyone who knows my family, not just me, would laugh when they hear these things. There are three things to help you understand what Stocktons are all about: Rules are made to be outsmarted. Some people would say rules don’t apply to them. That’s what they think. No. It’s actually the rule is a challenge to us to see how we can get around it by actually fulfilling it but doing what we want at the same time.

The second one is: Being on time is not as important as getting a lot of things done on the way. So some people think we just don’t care about being on time. We do. We really want to be on time. But we also care about getting seventeen things done on the way there. So it makes it tough.

And then, the last thing is: Sadness requires a lot of food. That’s a big time Stockton trait. When a Stockton goes down to the hospital, whatever it might be, you can be sure there will be way too much and it will not be good for you.

Anyway, that’s the Stockton kingdom. You should not care about that at all. Because it will do you no good in any way. But Jesus’ kingdom is a whole ‘nother story.

John 15. Jesus says:

1 “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. 2 He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. 3 You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. 4 Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.
5 “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. 6 If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. 7 If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 8 This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.

In this section right here, we have two really important kingdom principles. If you don’t know God, if you don’t believe in God, if you don’t know Jesus or follow Jesus, no problem. You’re welcome to listen and to be in this place. But a lot of times, as Christians, we’ll say things that don’t make a lot of sense to people. In the Christian community, you’ll be like, “Are you bearing fruit? Are you bearing good fruit?” And people will be like, “What are you talking about? That’s the weirdest thing I’ve ever heard someone say.”

But it’s such an important kingdom principle. This idea of bearing fruit. You’ll hear it all the time in Christianity. And this other thing is remaining. So this word abiding or persevering or enduring, this is where Jesus is saying, “You must remain in me and I in you. My words must remain in you.” There’s this remaining.

These are two principles that Jesus is imparting to his disciples on this last time with them. “You’ve got to remember. Your life is supposed to bear good fruit. And the way that you’re gong to bear good fruit is if you remain in me and my words remain in you.”

So I want to talk to us about this bearing fruit, because Jesus is making a claim that your life, your breath, your heartbeat, your body, your brain, your skills, whatever it is that you have, has been given to you by God so that you will bear fruit. If you are not bearing fruit, you will be cut off and thrown away into the fire.

We’re just reading black and white words that have seemingly been dead for a long time. But this is Jesus—God in the flesh—full of the love that created everything, but also full of a wrath against sin that created hell. In God we have the fullness of love and every single drop of love that we have ever felt or given as humanity pales in comparison. It’s just a shadow of the reality of the fullness of God’s perfect, powerful love.

Yet, at the same time, God is also a God of wrath, according to the Bible. God hates. God is angry. God punishes. What does he do? He punishes sin. He hates sin. He hates what it does to a family, to a person, to children. He hates what it does between nation and nation. He hates the way it warps a mind and destroys people. He hates it with a passion, with a fervency. And here we have this, in just these simple words, Jesus is basically saying, “Look. If you will remain in me, you’ll experience my love. And if you don’t bear fruit, disciples, please hear me, I’m going away. You need to understand something. If your life does not bear fruit, you will be cut off. You will lose whatever you have experienced between you and me right now if you do not remain in me. If your life does not bear fruit, you will be cut off.”

And Judas is in the room. Judas is sitting there, hearing the words of Jesus enter into his ear. And these are not new words. Judas has heard these long before. But Jesus is pleading with his disciples to bear fruit, to remind in him so their lives can bear fruit. And this is not a new thing. In fact, what we’re experiencing in John 15 is Jesus, most likely, is in the garden of Gethsemane. In chapter 14, remember, it says, “Come, let us leave.” That’s the way chapter 14 ends. And they were probably having their last supper there where Jesus washed their feet and imparted to them, “This is my body, this is my blood.” But after chapter 14, when he talks about he Holy Spirit, he says, “Come, let us leave.” And where they went was the garden of Gethsemane.

In that garden, Jesus is basically making these appeals to them. In John 16, he again talked about the Spirit. In John 17 he prays. Basically, what we have is we have Jesus kind of bringing in this garden concept as he’s in this olive garden, where they would take the olives and they would press them and make oil. In some ways, you have Jesus speaking to them about this need for them to bear fruit in this garden of pressing. And it makes someone who’s Jewish, someone who’s a biblical reader, harken back to that other garden, the way it all began—the garden of Eden. The word Eden means paradise. The word Gethsemane means pressing.

In the beginning, when God made humanity, God made humanity to be fruitful. That was his command to them: “Adam and Eve, I’m giving you this paradise. I’m giving you everything you could ever need. And I want you to be fruitful and multiply. I want you to take this garden-like experience that we have together, where my presence rules and reigns, and I want you to go and garden the rest of the earth.”

This is the claim that God had on creation from the very beginning, that they were to bear fruit. I want to read this to you:

God has made a claim on your life. He really feels like he can tell you whatever he wants you to do, and you should do it. He has a claim on your life. And here’s why. His claim first on you is because you are his creation. He created you and I to know him and enjoy his present forever. He created us to take the Garden of Eden and spread it over the whole earth, spreading everything with his image and his presence. But instead of responding well to this claim, we humans, Adam and Eve, and us too, we decided that we wanted to be equal to the Creator and to be in control of our own destiny. We wanted the other aspects of creation to serve us. So we ate forbidden fruit and we continue to do so today. Because of this, we experience, just like Adam and Eve, separation from God and the garden now has thorns. We are now slaves to sin, death and the devil, who ruled over mankind.

Basically God claimed us for his own. He made us. He said, “You’re mine. You belong to me. And I’m going to care for you. I’m going to give you my presence. I’m going to give you purpose and intention. And I want you to do this. I want you to go and take this relationship, I want you to take this dominion that I’ve given you, this presence, this image, you’re made in my image and I want you to go and spread it over the whole earth, so all of the earth can be a garden.”

And right at the beginning, Adam and Eve decided, “Well, we actually want that to be for us.”And basically that’s been humanity’s problem ever since. Instead of using all that we have to worship the Creator, we now have tried to make creation serve us as if we were the creator. And in doing so, the wage of sin is death. The wage of sin is slavery. And humanity has fallen under a curse, the curse of sin and death, and the dominion has been passed over to the devil. That’s why, when the devil came to Jesus and said, “I’ll give you all the kingdoms of this world if you bow to me,” Jesus didn’t say, “Hey, you can’t do that.” Jesus knows that humanity passed that on. We had been given dominion and we handed that over. So now we live under this bondage, under this slavery. Yet, God’s claim doesn’t stop there.

God’s second claim on you and me came at the appointed time when God sent his Son on a rescue mission. Jesus became human and carried out God’s plan perfectly. He spread God’s garden everywhere he went. He carried God’s image and presence into the world like we were supposed to. And then, in order to purchase us back for God, he took on sin, death, and the devil on the cross. And the whole of creation held its breath until that third day when he rose again, triumphant, proving his sacrifice was enough.

He ransomed creation back to God. He gained dominion back from the devil. In Acts 3 says, and now he’s seated at the right hand of the Father until the next appointed time, where he comes and he claims all of creation for his own and he restores everything. God has made claim on your life. In the beginning he created you, so he had claim on you. This is the way John says it in a later book.

1 John 4:4 he says, “You belong to God, my dear children.”

He says in Revelation 5:9, “And they sang a new song, saying, ‘Worthy are you to take the scroll,’” [which is that dominion, that titled deed to the earth], “and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood, you ransomed people for God from every tribe, every language, every people, every nation…” every Republican, every Democrat. He ransomed everybody. He put a claim on their life that they belong to him. And he did it with his blood.

Paul picks up the same theme and says in 1 Corinthians 7:23, “You were bought with a price. Do not become slaves to men.”

And then in 1 Corinthians 6, he says, “You are not alone. You were bought at a price; therefore honor God with your bodies.”

You guys, we have been purchased. We have been created, if that wasn’t enough of a claim, Jesus didn’t want us to see us under bondage. So he came and purchased us back with his blood and he says to us once again, “I want you to be fruitful. I want you to bear fruit. I want you to go into this world and bear fruit. I want you to once again pick up the job that I had given Adam.”

Tim Keller, when he’s writing about this claim that God has and this concept of bearing fruit, and what God’s job for Adam and Eve and all of creation is, he says this:

God wants us to be rearranging the raw material of his creation in such a way that it helps the world in general, and people in particular, thrive and flourish.

It’s so interesting because this is ultimately what God has done. He wants us to be gardeners. He wants us to take the creation that we have dominion over and use it not to serve ourselves, not to build our own kingdoms, not to fill our bank accounts, not to increase our status in this world; but he wants us to do it so that we can create human flourishing. That really is the role of government. That is the role of politics. That’s what politicians, I would like to think, really got into the business for. To create the most amount of human flourishing for the most amount of humans. But because we’re broken people, because we’re sinners yet to be completely renewed, somehow it gets twisted in there. And we fall into the same old traps and end up wanting all of creation to serve what we really want, our political party, our interests, America vs. others. Whatever it might be.

But God’s claim upon our life is that we would take everything there is in creation, everything that is at our disposal, and we would use it to the best, use it to produce the most amount of human flourishing in the world.

When you look at Jesus’ life, what he did is he did his best to take care of the ones that God had given him. And it wasn’t everybody in the world. It was the twelve. It was the hundred and twenty. It was the Samaritan woman. It was the person who couldn’t walk. He gave them a taste of who God was. He did his best to care for them.

And God has given people to you. In your family, maybe, in your workplace, friends, whatever. He’s given you resources and you’re supposed to use those to make as much human flourishing as you can. And watch out for using it all to try to improve your situation alone.

John Mark Comer writes a book called Garden City. And he says it this way:

Our job is to make the invisible God visible—to mirror and mimic what he is like to the world. We can glorify God by doing our work in such a way that we make the invisible God visible by what we do and how we do it. You were made to do good—to mirror and mimic what God is like to the world. To stand at the interface between the Creator and his creation, implementing God’s creative, generous blessing over all the earth and giving voice to the creation’s worship.

I love that. This is what bearing fruit looks like. It’s a claim that God put upon creation, put upon humanity in the garden when it was paradise, and it’s the claim that Jesus Christ is not reinstating to his disciples in the garden that is named “pressing”—that we are to bear fruit. We are not just to receive what God has and be like, “Yeah. That’s awesome.” We’re supposed to receive in order to give. Our lives are to bear fruit.

Not only are we supposed to bear fruit, but God does care what kind of fruit. It’s supposed to be good fruit. It’s supposed to be fruit that remains. You can look at Galatians 5, where the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, meekness, gentleness and self-control. Self-control? How did that sneak in there? The rest of them sound great but that one’s “what?” But that’s a fruit of the Spirit—self-control.

So that’s the first principle. The second principle is remaining. How do we remain? We want to bear good fruit. Jesus said, “If you remain in me, you’ll bear good fruit.” So what is remaining like? Psalm 1 describes what remaining looks like for the life of a believer:

Blessed is the one
    who does not walk in step with the wicked
or stand in the way that sinners take
    or sit in the company of mockers,
but whose delight is in the law of the Lord,
    and who meditates on his law day and night.
That person is like a tree planted by streams of water,
    which yields its fruit in season
and whose leaf does not wither—
    whatever they do prospers.

This is what it looks like to remain. It has two things. One, it is to point yourself to direct your attention and affection, to direct your time and energy into your relationship with God, into your relationship with Jesus. But it also means to steer clear of other things. Sometimes we’re so confused why God doesn’t bless us, or we don’t feel good about it, because we’ve got so much of Jesus we can’t enjoy the world, and we’ve got so much of the world we can’t enjoy Jesus. And then we blame God and get mad at him, because we’re not seeing the fruit that we want to see.

I really believe the Church is being called to some sort of serious consecration right now. I don’t fully understand it, but we’re going to spend the whole month of January fasting and praying to try to get a deeper understanding of it as a church. But to remain in Jesus is to cease to remain in other things. We’ve got to understand that.

Romans 12 (MSG) kind of says the same thing:

Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.

One of the fruits that we’re supposed to have is maturity. We’re not tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine that comes. There’s a steadiness to our walk. Unlike Peter that, one day was saying, “Jesus, you’re the Christ,” and the very next moment Jesus says, “Get behind me, Satan.”

But Peter, after he was filled with the Spirit and was walking in the presence in the book of Acts, there’s just a steadiness to his walk. God’s trying to produce that in us. How he does that is by us not becoming so ingrained with the culture that we live in, but fixing our attention on God.

Another fruit that we can look for is that we’re actually able to know the will of God, and we have a desire to do the will of God. The way that happens is by coming out of the culture that we live in. To be in the world, yes, but not of the world. And figuring out what that consecration looks like for you.

Hebrews 12:1-2 (NASB):

Therefore, since we also have such a great cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let’s rid ourselves of every obstacle and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let’s run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2 looking only at Jesus, the originator and perfecter of the faith,

He’s the author and perfecter of our business. He’s the author and perfecter of our bank account. He’s the author and perfecter of our politics. He’s the author and perfecter of that car we’re trying to restore. He’s the author and perfecter of our relationships. He’s the author and perfecter of my physical body. Whatever it might be. I don’t know. We want God to author and perfect a lot of things. But what he’s really interested in is your faith. That’s what his business is. He’s trying to create in you this beautiful thing called faith, which actually results in the salvation of your soul forevermore. That’s what he’s trying to create. And, actually, all of your life, everything you have and don’t have is ultimately God trying to grow that thing into something beautiful and precious—something that can endure and last.

And again, how we do this, how that fruit is produced in us, the kind of faith that we want to have, is by laying aside all the weight and the sin. When I first heard this verse, I remember just thinking, “Whoa.” Because it’s hard enough just trying to get the sin out of my life. But he said the weight and the sin. There’s a bunch of stuff in this world that is just baggage. It’s not necessarily sin. But if you continue to play around with it, if you continue to allow it in your life, it’s going to weigh you down.

And, yes, you can justify it. It’s not sin. But it’s stupid for you to keep carrying that around and allowing that into your life. And his name might be George. Or I don’t know. I’m sorry if that hit home or whatever. I’m not thinking… there’s no…yeah. But sometimes we allow things into our life that are just there and those things have got to go if you’re really going to get serious about Jesus.

So this is remaining. I want you to understand that remaining isn’t just focusing on the good things. It’s also eliminating the weight and the sin.

I love this. Jon Foreman writes a song and he says this, talking about the challenge of remaining. I love the way he puts it.

All attempts have failed
All my heads are tails
She’s got teary eyes
I’ve got reasons why
I’m losing ground and gaining speed
I’ve lost myself or most of me
I’m ready for the final precipice
But [Jesus] you haven’t lost me yet
No, you haven’t lost me yet
I’ll sing until my heart caves in
No, you haven’t lost me

He’s feeling the pressing of this garden of Gethsemane. He’s feeling the reality of the thorns and the bondage. But he’s hanging on by faith that he belongs to Jesus. And that’s where he wants to remain.

These days pass me by
I dream with open eyes
Nightmares haunt my days
Visions blur my nights
I’m so confused what’s true or false
What’s fact or fiction after all
I feel like I’m an apparition’s pet
But you haven’t lost me yet

Then, to get us into this next principle, he says:

If it doesn’t break your heart
It isn’t love
If it doesn’t break your heart
It’s not enough
It’s when you’re breaking down
With your insides coming out
It’s when you find out
What you heart is made up of

And ultimately, what he’s describing there is love. And that’s the third thing that we see here. Let’s keep reading in John 15:9:

9 “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you.

Jesus now wraps this whole thing in love.

Now remain in my love. 10 If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. 11 I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. 12 My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command. 15 I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. 16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you. 17 This is my command: Love each other.

Here at the end Jesus is saying, “You have not chosen me. I have chosen you. I have laid claim on your life that you might go and bear fruit.” And what is the fruit, ultimately, that Jesus and his Father are looking for to come out of our lives? Love. It’s love. That word in the English language can go a billion different ways these days. The Hallmark Channel is one version. Valentine’s Day is another version. The hip hop songs another version. The country songs, I guess, another version. There are all kinds of versions out there.

The love that Jesus is talking about, he defines real quickly after he says this. He says, “My command is this. Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” The love of God is sacrificial love. It’s the kind of love that Jon Foreman said in his little bridge there. “If it doesn’t break your heart it isn’t love. If doesn’t break your heart it’s not enough. It’s when you’re breaking down with your insides coming out. That’s when you find out what your heart is made of” —what your love is made of.

That’s the kind of love that God is calling us to. That’s the fruit that he’s trying to produce in our lives. Love that is sacrificial. It is outward. It is without strings attached. It is without the need of reciprocation. It won’t improve our status in this world. If you read the next little section, but we don’t have time to, Jesus again reiterates to his disciples, “If you get everything right, if you love me really well, if you love the world really well, if you love them just the way I did, they’re going to hate you and they’re going to want to kill you. Because that’s what they did with me.”

But he says, “But there will be some that will receive it. There will be some that will receive it and they will get to know my love.”

This is the kind of love that Jesus is calling us to, and also in there he’s saying, “You have not chosen me. I have chosen you.” He’s saying that this isn’t the kind of love that you love people, you love one another, you love them so that you can get the love back. He’s saying that you need to cut that kind of love completely out of your mind. The reason I’m asking you to love is because I have loved you. That is the motivation for our love.

Therefore, it doesn’t matter what the other person does that God is calling us to love. It doesn’t matter if that person hates us or is an enemy, right? We love them because of the supply of love that we get from God. So, ultimately, what happens here is both bearing fruit—the fruit that God wants us to bear is loving one another. But then how do we remain? He says, “If you remain in me, keep my command.” What’s his command? To love one another.

So if you want more of the love-one-another fruit in your life, you’re supposed to love one another. And if you want to know how to get more of the fruit of loving one another, you’ve got to remain in him, which is really just to love one another. And that’s why he says all the prophets are fulfilled in these two things, you love God and you love people.

What we need work on, is we need work on our love, so our love can be the kind of fruit that God produces. Not the kind of love that our own strength, our own culture produces. Because it’s a very ugly fruit that doesn’t remain and doesn’t really satisfy anyone.

NOTE: We apologize that technical issues caused this sermon to end abruptly.

©️2020 Living Streams Church
7000 N Central Avenue ∙ Phoenix AZ 85020 ∙ 602-957-7500 ∙ https://www.livingstreams.org

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Guest User 10/25/20 Guest User 10/25/20

Anxiety and Jesus

John 14 is where we’re going to be. Last week we got to hear from Marty on John 13, which was good stuff. Secret agents of service. And here we go. John 14:1. Jesus is speaking to his disciples. It’s the last week of his life. This is his last training session with them. It’s very intimate. He just washed their feet. And then he says to them:

October 25 - David Stockton - John 14

1 “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. 2 My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that 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 [who had been with Jesus for three years now] 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 know me, you will 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 [after probably a real long sigh, fighting off too much discouragement and disappointment] 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’?

As Jesus has, again, been with his disciples, he knows his time is just about coming to an end, where he’s going to leave them. Basically the training he has done in this way is going to stop. And they’ve seen him do so many things, they’ve committed their lives to him, no doubt. He’s taught them time and time again about who he was. And you and I have been going through the book of John. John is writing this whole book, this whole story, this whole testimony (in some ways), to help people know who Jesus really is; so that they will put their belief in him, they will put their trust in him. They will no longer put their confidence in the Greco-Roman world in Roman citizenship. They won’t put their confidence in Roman government. They won’t put their confidence in whatever resource they have. They won’t put their confidence in their own strength, or their own wisdom. But they’ll learn to put their trust in this small town Jewish Messiah named Jesus.

This is what John is writing all of these stories to do. And he started by basically saying “I want to tell you the story of how I came to put my confidence in him.” And he tells us a story in John 2 about how Jesus had called him and some other guys and they all went to this wedding. At the wedding they ran out of wine and Jesus, who was this teacher Messiah, turned a whole bunch of water into wine and it tasted really good. It was like really good wine. And John was like, “That was the beginning. That was the first sign.”

John gives us seven signs. Basically “There were seven things that Jesus did when I was with him that made me so convinced that this guy was more than just a guy. This guy was more than just a teacher or a prophet.” More than just his understanding of Messiah before meeting Jesus. He really put his faith in Jesus, that he was the one who made the universe and had all the power and authority—who was God himself. The guy that he hung out with. It’s fascinating.

That was the first sign. Then we know there was another sign in John chapter 8 when Jesus fed the five thousand. After that, all these five thousand men came and grabbed Jesus and they tried to make him king by force. And Jesus went away from them. He disappointed them. He said he wasn’t going to build a kingdom that they wanted, a kingdom of this world. And then you just see after that, John 9, 10, 11, 12, there’s all this debate about Jesus. There are people on one spectrum saying, “We should kill this guy. He’s a cancer.” To people on the other side saying, “He might just be God himself walking around with us.” And everywhere in between.

Now he’s sitting in John 14. He’s just washed his disciples’ feet. He knows the time is coming when he’s going to die. And he’s saying to them, “Don’t let your hearts be troubled. Don’t put your confidence in the strength of the trouble. Don’t put your confidence in the power of the storm. Put your confidence in me. Put your confidence in what I can do to stop a storm or make things better, even through the devastation of the storm. You’ve got to learn to put your confidence in me.”

He’s telling them this because he knows what they’re about to go through. Then he says, “I’m going to prepare a place for you. And when I go, I’ll come back and I’ll take you to be where I am.”

And then Thomas is like, “Where are you going? What’s happening?”

It’s like he just woke up. It’s like he hasn’t been paying attention at all. Jesus is like, “I am the way. You know the way. I am the way. You follow me. You connect with me. You stick with me. You believe in me and you’re going to get to see the full revelation of all that God has for you. The Father has such good plans for you. If you stick with me, if you follow my ways, you will get to see all of them.”

And Philip says, “Oh, you’re going to show us the Father.”

Jesus is like, “Philip! I’ve been with you all this time. How many times do I have to use the word Yahweh when talking about myself? How many times do I have to say I am Him.”

That’s what John said. Seven times also there are these I Am statements where Jesus is claiming to be God in a very blasphemous, difficult, challenging way. The people wanted to kill him because he kept making these blames. It’s not blasphemy because it was true. He said, “If you’ve seen me, you’ve seen the Father. If you get me, you get it all.”

And he goes on to explain that some more. That’s one of the reasons he’s saying, “Don’t let your hearts be troubled.” And if you skip down to verse 15, Jesus goes on and says:

15 “If you love me, keep my commands. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever— 17 the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.

So then he goes on to say, basically, “This is not working out so well. You guys are not quite getting it. But don’t worry. If you love me, just keep following my commandments and the Father is going to send one to you that, after I leave, he’s going to send another.” And the word in the NIV is Advocate. But in the King James it’s Comforter. There’s kind of a wide definition of this. In John 16, we’ll get into a more full explanation of who this Holy Spirit is and what he does. But for now, basically Jesus is saying, “I’m not going to stress out right now. I’m not going to let my heart be troubled at your ineptitude and your challenge to understanding this. Because I know that it’s not just that you have to get it right now. God is going to give you a guide that the Spirit of God is going to come and reside with you. He’s been with you, but he’s going to be in you to help you navigate, to lead you into all truth.”

He goes on in verse 25:

25 “All this I have spoken while still with you. 26 But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. 27 Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.

Do not be afraid is probably the number one command in the Bible, because fear and faith can’t coexist. God is trying to create a people of faith and so he constantly has to tell us, “Don’t be afraid. Don’t be afraid.” When fear starts to rise in your life, you need to understand that faith is going down. You can’t be full of faith and full of fear at the same time.

If you’ve sensed in your soul, when things get quiet and you’re face to face with your own thoughts, with your own soul, and you feel like fear is rising and winning the day, you need to know that faith is being regressed. And it’s time to take that seriously. It doesn’t mean you won’t be afraid. But don’t stay there. Do something about it. Make a change.

And Jesus is saying, “Don’t let your hearts be troubled. Do not be afraid.” And then he goes on:

28 “You heard me say, ‘I am going away and I am coming back to you.’ If you loved me, you would be glad that I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I. 29 I have told you now before it happens, so that when it does happen you will believe. 30 I will not say much more to you, for the prince of this world is coming. He has no hold over me, 31 but he comes so that the world may learn that I love the Father and do exactly what my Father has commanded me.

“Come now; let us leave.

The last thing he says here, he goes on to say, “The Advocate is coming. The Comforter is coming. He’s goin gto guide you. He’s going to lead you.” And then he says, “I’m going away. I’ve told you that before. I’m going to the Father. I told you before it happens so that when you get to see all these things happen you will believe. You need to understand the prince of the world is coming and he has no hold over me. But what he’s going to do is going to help you understand that I love the Father and the Father loves me.”

Obviously he’s talking about what’s gong to happen in just a couple more chapters, where the devil is going to enter into Judas Iscariot and he’s going to go behind the scenes and create this plot to have Jesus arrested. Jesus is going to be there in the Garden of Gethsemane, doing battle with the devil, the tempter, and then somehow the power of the devil is going to basically insight the Jewish leaders as well as the Roman leaders, and they are actually going to bring about the crucifixion of Jesus. Where the very people that he created, that he came to die for, that he loved, that he healed, are going to spit on him and mock him and pin him to a tree and laugh as he takes his final breaths.

They’re going to see the full power of the prince of the world deal devastating blows of death. The full power of sin and death, like we’ve been talking about, will be on display for the whole world to see. The sun is going to go dark at the noon hour and everyone is going to think, “See how powerful sin and death is? Jesus claimed to be the way, the truth and the life. He claimed to be able to take us there. And now, look. Sin and death has got him too.”

And Jesus is saying, “You need to see that the prince of this world is coming, but you also need to see that he has no hold on me.”

And, sure enough, Friday night, Saturday morning, Saturday night, Sunday morning. You guys know the story. The disciples got to see that the prince of the world, the power of sin and death had no hold on him. And he was excited about that, even though he knew what he was going to have to go through. He knew what it was going to mean to them.

So, in this chapter, we have Jesus making it very clear that he doesn’t want our hearts to be troubled. The world troubled there is probably better distressed. The word anxiety is in there, for sure. He doesn’t want us to be fearful. He doesn’t want us to be anxious. How are you doing at that? Everybody doing good? No anxiety? Not worried at all? Actually, the election sounds awesome to you. You’re so pumped about it. Yeah? COVID? “That’s been great. I love it. It’s so awesome.” Racial unrest? “Oh, yeah. Got that perfect too. No problem. I know exactly how to make everything better all the time. “

No! It’s not good. I mean, it’s a tough time. It’s a very tough time and I get to hear all the stories. And I get to see all the things that are happening in our church. I will say that I am so impressed with Living Streams. I have heard story after story of the resilience that you guys possess. I have heard story after story of how you have been able to not let your hearts be troubled through these times, but actually bring about some good—not just for you, but for other people. I’m so impressed. I’m so thrilled.

There’s a study from eh Barna Group that we’ll pop up here. They said they interviewed all these people. 90% of people in America say that they’re Christian. It’s like. That’s amazing. That’s awesome. It’s not true. So what they did is they took that word Christian and they asked enough questions to figure out how to differentiate between different types of Christians. These are the four different types of Christians that they’ve discovered.

Out of that 90%, 22% of them basically were saying that they’re Christian because they were at some point and now they’re not. But that wasn’t the way they answered the question. They basically said, “Yeah, I have some sort of Christian in my background, so I’m Christian.” But obviously they’re not doing anything Christian at this point.

30% they called nomads. These are people that have had a church experience. They’re not against Christianity. They went there on Easter or Christmas, and they’re like, “Yeah, I’m cool with Christmas. So I’m a Christian. They’re not locked in. They’re nomads.

They’ve got the habitual churchgoers. Uh-oh. Starting to meddle a little bit. These are the people that do all the Christian things, like church, trying to be a nice person, but there’s no real relationship with God. And if you take away something like meeting together on Sunday mornings and the church habit that they’re used to, they come unglued. The wheels come off. All kinds of stuff goes on.

And then you’ve got the 10% that they define as resilient. These are the ones that it doesn’t matter what you do to them. Their relationship with Jesus is real. It is their source for life, peace, joy, and guidance. And I’ve seen a lot of resilient Christians in our church.

There’s a police officer in our church. I remember talking to him a couple of months ago when things were really intense. I said, “How are things down at the precinct?”

He said, “It’s not good. It’s not good at all. I’ve never seen such a group of people in such despair. They all used to have this kind of a little bit of ‘I feel good that we’re doing this. We’re helping people.’ And now they’re just so ashamed of what they do and they’re so nervous.”

So I said, “How’s it been for you?”

And he said, “Honestly. It’s been a really great environment for me. I just go there and I’m full of peace and people are asking me all the time where it’s coming from. ‘What’s wrong with you? Why are you so relaxed?’”

And he gets to tell them about Jesus.

I was talking with people who have lost jobs or lost health. I’m so impressed with the way that they kind of keep their head up. You can see that they’re hurting. But they’re not keeping their head up because of pride. They’re keeping their head up because they believe. They’re saying, “I have confidence that this is a really hard thing. But I have a greater confidence that somehow I’m going to see God come through. And he’s going to come through in a way that makes me want to keep walking and keep my head up.”

I’ve seen some of them actually land new jobs that are better than what they had before. And I’ve seen some of them come out of the health thing and they have a new trajectory for their life, and they actually feel like God met them in the midst of that illness. I’ve seen all kinds of things. I’ve seen hundreds of people show up for evangelism teaching. What? I’m sure we could have thrown some other topics out there and had a whole bunch of other people. But we’re not actually trying to draw a big crowd, so it is a little bit strategic. But still, we had a bunch of you show up to learn about evangelism. It’s just beautiful.

I hear about all these prayer meetings meeting in parks. And moms getting together to pray for their kids. That’s resilience. That’s showing up in the midst of the challenge. It’s been beautiful. It’s awesome to watch. I’m so proud of you guys.

In this passage, we have Jesus giving us three reasons why we should not let our hearts be troubled. He doesn’t just say “Do it.” But he says, “Here’s why.” As we go through, we’ll see three of them.

The first one, he says, “Don’t let your heart be troubled because I’m going to prepare a place for you. Then I’m going to come back and take you there.” This is a big deal. The reality of heaven. You can’t forget about this. As Christians, we get so focused on this life that we forget that one of the greatest promises, one of the only things in our Apostles Creed that has not come to pass yet, is that Jesus is coming back. And we’re almost a little embarrassed to say it or we’re like, “Yeah, Jesus is coming back…” but we don’t want to say it out loud. Because it’s not going to help anybody right now. But that’s not true. The hope of heaven is what makes this life doable.

What I mean by that—I was twenty years old once. I was working at this summer camp and a bunch of us love to play basketball. We were all going to this guy’s house to play basketball on the weekend, because we had weekends off. We were so excited about it. We woke up and it was like 100 degrees outside. When you’re living in Oregon a hundred degrees is like death. For you and me, it’s like, that was yesterday.

We couldn’t get motivated. We couldn’t do it. A couple of guys would go out there and shoot a little bit. It was just so hot. They’d come back in and they were like, “No, I can’t do it. It’s too hot.” But then the mom of my friend came in and said, “Hey, you guys know we have a community swimming pool. You can go jump in there and it should be fun.”

It was interesting. All of a sudden something happened with us. We thought, “Oh.” The idea of having a swimming pool to jump in made us want to go play basketball. So we actually went and played basketball for about three hours. It was a lot of fun. We never stopped because we knew at any minute there was this relief that was coming. There was something afterwards that we could look forward to. So it gave us this rejuvenation to go at it. We even fought each other and everything. We were fired up. And then we went and got the relief.

That is a true reality. That is not shallow. That’s not cheap. That is a reality. For Christians, this is as bad as it gets, this life. We have a hope in heaven and it’s hard for us to really understand heaven because it doesn’t seem real to us. But the truth of the scriptures is that heaven is more real than this life. You’ve got seventy or eighty years. Some of you jokers might get to a hundred. But that’s it. It’s gone. It’a vapor, the Bible says. But that’s everlasting. That’s more real than this life. And it is not foolish to put your hope in that. Actually, that’s something that’s going to make you a lot more effective and a lot more alive in this live.

Not only that, but check this out. That was in the morning. We’re driving back to the camp later that day. I’m in my little Nissan pickup truck. Sorry for those at my table talk. I told this story at our evangelism night so they have to hear it again. But it’s a cool story, so you’ll be okay.

We’re driving back and there’s this guy hitchhiking. We’re way out in the sticks because that’s where the camp was. As we’re driving up I just feel like the Lord’s saying, “You should pick this guy up.” And I was like, “I don’t want to pick this guy up.” I had two guys with me and we were going to be on time for the first time ever in my life. They always made fun of me. But I feel like the Lord was telling me. So I stopped and said, “Hey, man, you want to jump in and we’ll take you to where we’re going?” He’s like, “Yeah, that’d be great.”

So we take him down and the whole time we’re just driving, I feel like God’s saying, “This is time to share. This is one of those moments I’m setting up for you. You’ve been praying that you’d have chances to share me with people and I’m giving you one right now.”

It’s not like it’s in my heart. It’s like down here somewhere. I don’t even know what part this is. Maybe my heart is so cold it was not able to get in my heart or something. There was like this wrestling match going on. I don’t know if some of you have ever experienced that before. I just knew I was supposed to share with this guy.

So we got to the part of the camp where we were supposed to turn. I said, “Hey is this far enough or do you have to go further?” He’s like, “Well, my truck’s at the end of the road.”

“End of the road? Great.” So I keep driving and again, just battling this whole thing. We get to the end of the road. There’s his truck. I turned around, getting ready to go back. His truck’s on one side, we’re on this side. I rolled down my window and he’s getting out and I said, “Hey, do you know Jesus?” I mean literally, I was just that flippant. I didn’t even roll my window down the whole way. And I was like, “Hey, do you know Jesus?”

And he was like, “Well, you know.” And I was like, “Here comes the awkward. I knew this was going to happen.”

And he was like, “I just kind of think life is, you’ve got to make the most of it. That’s really all you can do. I’m not really into all of that.”

And I was like, “Really? You think that you just make the most of it and die and that’s it?”

“Yeah.”

I go, “Doesn’t that sound depressing? Isn’t that kind of a bummer? You really think all of this is just a mistake.”

“I don’t know.”

And I said, “Let me tell you a story.” And I told him the basketball story about how the hope of the going swimming made us so much more alive. And he was like, “Okay.” I was like, “You want that hope?” Again, I’m trying to get this overwith so we can go, because I know nothing’s going to happen.

And he didn’t answer. So I looked over at him and he’s standing a little bit away from me. He’s standing there and he just has this look on his face and I go, “You want that hope?” And he goes, “Yeah. I could use some hope.” I was like, I don’t know what to do right now. This has never happened before. So I was like, “Come over here.” I should have gotten out of the car. I didn’t get out of the car. I rolled the window down the rest of the way, so that’s pretty good.

So he came over and I talked to him a little bit more about Jesus and what he did for us, that’s why we can have this hope. I was like, “If you really want that, let’s pray and God can fill you with hope.” So I prayed and he repeated after me and then it was like, “That was cool.”

And then he was walking back to his truck and there was a little spring in his step. And my friends and I were like, “What is happening?” And he walks back. There were two yellow lines in the middle of the street. And as he’s walking back he kind of stops and he looks down and he reaches down and he grabs something and he pulls it up. It looks like it’s stringy like gum or something. And I was like, “Oh, he’s a crazy guy. That’s why this worked. He’s crazy.”

But then he picks it up and starts walking back toward us. His eyes are huge at this point. And he’s like, “Look! Look!” And I was like, “What’s happening?” And he gets next to me and I can see the think is shiny. It’s a gold chain and it has a golden cross with a diamond right in the middle of it. And he was like, “Look! Look!” And I was like, “Oh!” And I told him, “Look man. I don’t know how this has happened. But I think you can know that Jesus is with you. God heard your prayer. And he’s been watching you and he set this moment up. This has nothing to do with me, man. This is all you and God.

And he was like, “Take it.” And I said, “I’m not taking that man. You take that and you keep it.”

And he goes, “Are you guys angels?”

And I was like, “No. Definitely not.”

But that hope is real. And it’s powerful. And we live among a people that just have it. And they can. So that’s the first thing. Don’t let your hearts be troubled. Jesus is coming back to take us to forever. Forever.

The second thing he does here: Don’t let your hearts be troubled because he’s going to give us the Advocate, he’s going to give us the Comforter, He’s going to give us the Spirit of Truth. That Spirit of Truth is not only going to be with us, it’s actually going to be in us and it’s going to teach us everything and lead us into all truth and give us then peace of God. “Don’t let your hearts be troubled because I’m going to give you something. You have access to something that can change everything.”

All right. Second service. We’re going to do a little work right now, okay? I don’t know if you had a hard week. But just shake it off. We’re going to do a little brain work now. I’ve been reading this book, Reappearing Church by Mark Sayers. It’s cool. He says some stuff in here that is pretty amazing. He’s talking about a society that I think really describes ours well. A society of emotionally regressed people. We’re emotionally regressed because we’re so filled with anxiety. The anxiety in our society, the fear in our society has caused us to actually emotionally regress. We’re all acting like two-year-olds throwing temper tantrums right now is kind of what he’s saying. And this is Friedman. He’s not writing right now. He’s writing about twenty or thirty years ago. But the way he describes society and where we’re heading. It’s like, oh yeah.

I’m going to read some of these things. He talks about this cycle, these five things that describe this emotionally regressed society.

The first thing is Reactivity:

The vicious cycle created when individuals and culture continually react intensely to external situations with negative, anxious, angry and fearful emotions. They no longer rely on inner values, common sense or dialogue to help them find truth.

They’re just in this vicious cycle of reactivity. The second thing that he noticed about these societies is that they go to this ting called Herding:

As culture becomes reactive, we begin to act in herdlike ways. The mob mentality takes over. Society lowers itself to pleasing and not offending its most emotionally immature and unhealthy members who end up dictating the health of the culture.

That’s just number two. All right? That’s just number two. Another thing that he described this type of thing happening is Blame Displacement:

Instead of searching out the underlying causes of toxicity, we focus on symptoms. We retreat into a perpetual victim status blaming others and external forces instead of examining ourselves. When blame and fear of offending take over, it creates a gridlock which prevents renewal.

And then we go to this Quick Fix Mentality.

Our culture of Hedonism [which is basically pleasure at all cost—no pain at all cost] has created in us a low pain threshold which prevents us from persevering through the pain that is part of the process of renewal. We look to technology, more commentary, and more information as the cure for our ills.

Oh, by the way, Friedman is a rabbi and he is a family system theorist. Anybody a family system theorist in here? I don’t even know what that is, but it sounds awesome.

And then the last thing that he notices is that there is a Lack of Well Differentiated Leaders:

The anxious environment works against the leadership needed to lead a toxic emotional system to renewal. The inevitable backlash from trying to break free of the emotional reactivity, herding, blame displacement, and quick fix mentalities keep the kind of leaders and leadership needed to bring about renewal.

So you might say, “Okay. I see this in America these days.” And then you might actually say, “Well, if I’m really honest, I see this inside my own soul. I see this in my family. I see this in my friend group or what used to be a friend group but now it’s gotten real thin. Our relationships have gotten thin because we start to see each other as maybe dangerous, or as part of the problem.” And it becomes real serious and it’s easy for our hearts to become troubled or distressed. What Friedman goes on to say is the answer to this, the only way to get out of this vicious cycle is for there to be a non anxious presence introduced into this system. You need a differentiated leader, a kind of leader that is not in the system, a kind of leader that is outside the system, a kind of leader that still relies on those inner values to be able to be inserted into the system. In doing that, it can actually create a pathway to renewal.

And when Jesus says to us, “I’m going to go and you are going to find yourself in a deep, endless cycle of emotional regression and anxiety. I don’t want you to let your heart be troubled because I’m going to give you a non anxious presence that is a differentiated guide. It’s not of this world. It doesn’t depend on things in this world to guide you. That’s the Spirit of God. That’s the Holy Spirit that you and I have access to in Christ Jesus. And you and I do not have access to outside of Christ Jesus.

Jesus said it’s not just going to be one that’s with you, it’s going to be in you. If you and I will receive the Holy Spirit, we will be filled with a non anxious presence, a differentiated kind of guide that can lead us in our own souls, and lead our families, and lead our institutions that we’re a part of. We can be that non anxious presence as we go forward. That’s the mystery and the beauty of the Holy Spirit.

Sometimes I get so overwhelmed when I think about politics, when I think about all the systemic problems that we have in America. They’re everywhere. Greed, pride, deceit, stealing and cheating. Those are the main ones. Our country is riddled with those things. We’re actually celebrating those things, rewarding those things at this point.

I get so overwhelmed, but then I remember that what God is asking me to do is just “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. As for me and my own soul, I will serve the Lord. As for me and the institution I’m a part of called Living Streams Church, we will serve the Lord. We will try and, every chance we get, get rid of any corruption, get rid of any compromise so that this can be a place where people can taste what a non anxious presence is like, where people can begin to feel and know that renewal is possible.” If there’s enough little renewal, it will actually show up on the big scene.

America is always talking about top down. But that’s not what we need if we’re going to change this place. We need grass roots. We need bottom up. We need one on one discipleship. We need life groups. We need caring for one another. We need to stand up and defend our own souls, our own homes, our own relationships. That’s what at the church is called to. That’s why God sent his Spirit.

The last thing that Jesus says that we should not let our hearts be troubled is because the prince of this world has no hold on him. And if it has no hold on him, then it has no hold on us. That’s the big debate. That’s the big challenge. Mankind has faced sin and death. Mankind has been cursed with the stain of sin and death. Mankind has never really been able to get free. But then Jesus came and he took on humanity. He took on the curse. He took on sin and death. And just like everybody thought, sin and death once again claimed another victim, until that third day, when Jesus rose from the dead and began to be this first fruits of a new kingdom, of a new creation. And he says, “If you will follow me, if you will keep my commands, if you will allow my non anxious presence to fill your life and to guide you into all truth, then ultimately sin and death will have no hold on you either.”

That is my prayer for all of us, especially those of us in this room who have never really experienced the presence of God, the non-anxious presence of God. You’ve never invited Jesus into your life. You’ve never said, “God, I am stuck and I need you to come set me free.” You can not only receive what Jesus has for you now, but you can receive life forevermore. That’s the promise of the gospel. That’s the only thing that’s going to keep our hearts from becoming troubled not matter what happens with the election, no matter what happens with COVID, no matter what happens with your own relationships and brokenness. If you give your life to Jesus and you receive his Spirit into your life, you’ll find his peace is more powerful than the pain.

©️2020 Living Streams Church
7000 N Central Avenue ∙ Phoenix AZ 85020 ∙ 602-957-7500 ∙ https://www.livingstreams.org

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Guest User 10/18/20 Guest User 10/18/20

The Demonstration of the Full Extent of His Love

This morning I’d like to start with six words from St. Anthony. I count these as my first six words when I wake up in the morning and my last six words when I go to bed at night. I offer them to you as an encouragement this morning. But I actually offer them as a habit every morning and every night. I take these six words. They’re pretty easy to remember and it’s only six: “Behold God beholding you and smiling.”

October 18 - Marty Caldwell - John 13

Now there is irony in this. Because when we insert ourselves into this equation, normally here’s what we do with the formula. “Behold God.” Okay, I’m looking at God in all of his magnificence. I’m looking at God in his word. God in creation. God in the person of Jesus. God on the cross. God in the powerful resurrection. Behold God. But what is he doing? Beholding you. I’m beholding God, he’s looking at me. And this last little turn, “And smiling.”

I think, normally when we think this, when we start our morning or we go to bed at night, very often we behold God beholding you and he’s disappointed. Behold God beholding you and he’s frustrated. Behold God beholding you and he looks stern. Maybe like we should get our act together. I promise you, those are the lies of the evil one, that the best picture take as you behold God who is beholding you and really, he does behold you. And if you’re paying attention, you know what he’s doing? He’s smiling. He’s saying, “My daughter.” “My son.” “My beloved.”

So I offer this as we begin. Behold God. We get to sing together here gathered. Or maybe we’re singing straight into our iPad or our phone, in which case—and I’ve done this quite a bit lately—it’s not good when you’re by yourself—but sing anyway. Because we’re joining the family of God all the way around the world. It’s a delight to sing. And really, in a lot of ways, that’s how we’re recognizing God is smiling on us, when we’re singing to him these promises and these praises. And we’re singing in harmony and we’re singing out loud. And, really, he’s delighted. Whatever the opposite of disappointed is. He’s delighted in his beloved, as we have gathered here or we’ve gathered online. He’s not trying to figure that out. Not really important to him. Are you beholding him beholding you and smiling?

Let’s pray together:

Lord, may we receive—and it is not that easy—may we receive your delight in us. May that be reflected in the wholeness of how we see ourselves as your daughters and sons. May that delight also be reflected as we see one another as your daughters and sons. And may that be reflected in the way that we see a broken and hurting world of people yet to discover that they can be daughters and sons of the kingdom. We need to receive that, Lord, and believe that, Lord, and trust that, Lord, and surrender to that and remember that. So help us. I pray in expectation in Christ’s name. Amen.

This morning in the rhythm of going through the gospel of John together, we hit this, what I think is a crescendo. These five chapters, one of which is a whole prayer, that’s John 17. But John 13, 14, 15, 16 and 17 are the gospel writer John looking back. Remember, he’s writing as an old man. He’s remembering some things that maybe have been either un-remembered, or he’s making sure they go on in perpetuity, so that we’re reading about them and experiencing these lessons and actions and prayers of Jesus in his final days before he goes to the cross.

Really, when you read it, it’s five full chapters that John is unfolding for us. And this is the first one, which serves a little bit as an introduction to the other ones, and for sure an introduction to him going to the cross and an introduction to him rising from the dead and an introduction to him pouring out the Holy Spirit for the birth of the Church.

But this is the beginning. And when you think about these chapters, when you put them in context, remember that this is Jesus who is the light of the world. He’s the way, the truth and the life, that’ll happen in the next chapter. He’s the great I Am. He’s raised Lazarus from the dead. He’s come into Jerusalem. And, at height of popularity, there are palm fronds. There are cheers. There are Hosannas. The coming king has entered Jerusalem. This is before all of this happens. And if you will, I’d like to read a few verses out of John 13. This is truly the demonstration of the full extent of his love. And he says this right away in verse 1:

1 It was just before the Passover Feast. Jesus knew that the time had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father…

He knows what’s going to happen. He has this in his mind.

…Having loved his own who were in the world, he now showed them the full extent of his love.

I would propose to you that this beginning right here doesn’t really end in this action, but actually goes all the way through to Jesus’ ascension, all the way through and beyond the great commission, all the way through to Acts 2 and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. We’re going on a journey and this is the expression of the full extent of his love.

It starts with this very incredible, ironic action that John 13 unpacks for us.

2 The evening meal was being served, and the devil had already prompted Judas Iscariot, son of Simon, to betray Jesus.

Don’t forget this. What’s going to happen right now, Judas was in the room. The betrayer. And it was known that he was already in the actions of betrayal. I hope this is a comfort to you. It is a comfort to me. For those who have betrayed Jesus with actions or attitudes, he still includes us. That’s the magnificence of our Savior. He doesn’t exclude. Even Judas is included in what’s going to happen now. This says that we are not dealing with the ordinary. We are dealing with the extraordinary Lord and Savior, King of kings, and he is going to do an action including the betrayer.

3 Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God; 4 so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. 5 After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples' feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him.

Now, if you read this really fast, you might miss all of what’s going on here. This was the foreshadowing of all that he was about to do. But this one action stood even by itself as a magnificent irony. Think about this. The times in your life where you’re really clear on who you are and what your purpose is—where you are going.

He knows that all authority has been given to him. He knows who he is. He knows he’s going to the Father. He actually knows this great sacrifice that is about to be lived out. And in that way, he shows he’s like no other. Surely not like me or like you. It seems like to me, when you know who you are and you have the full confidence of your authority and the full confidence of your mission, what you are to do, and you are made for this, this is the time that you should pick up the pen and write a book. This is the time that you should blog.

Oh, my gosh. Ramp up your Instagram game, Jesus, because this is a time to go viral here. Show everybody exactly who you are, where you’re going, your full authority. You’re the Savior. You’re the Lord. You’re the King. Show it. Demonstrate it. Something big. Something spectacular. Something to rev up the popularity that we have experienced a little bit of when you raised Lazarus from the dead in 11. And in 12, the whole of Jerusalem comes out, either to cheer or oppose and, mostly there’s a lot more cheering than opposing. This is a time to do something as a demonstration of your power.

And, by the way, this is exactly what he does. But it’s just not the way we would do it. He’s so magnificent. He’s so stunning. He’s so not like us. He picks up a towel and a wash basin. And with the one who had betrayed him, and with the ones who were going to run away in fear, with the one who would soon deny him, even deny knowing him—all of us included—he picks up a towel and a wash basin, and he washes the disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel.

All I can say is this is the full extent of his love. This is the God of the universe, the Creator of all in a demonstration of his love. What does he do? He gets down on one knee with this towel and this wash basin and he’s putting water onto Judas’ feet like this and he’s rubbing his feet and he’s putting water onto Judas’ other foot. And, really, this is Palestine. Dirt roads, only sandals. We’ve got dirty feet.

By the way, the culture of the day, whoever was the lowliest servant of all, what job did they get? Foot washing. So if you’re new in the household, or you’re new in the village, and you’re lowest on the totem pole—foot wash. Because the dirtiest, grimiest, lowliest job, the Savior and King of the universe took the dirtiest, grimiest, lowliest job, to wash the feet of the people who would betray, run away, doubt him. Stunning. And really, this demonstration, it does not matter what you have done, the King of the universe not only beholding you and smiling, here’s how he smiles. Like this. He’s washing your grimy feet. He’s taking the lowliest position because this is how much he loves you. This is how valuable you are to him.

And Peter is going to have this little argument. It’s like a proud argument. “No, Lord. Not my feet! Wash the whole thing.” I kind of get that. Peter’s taking charge with what he thinks ought to happen. He doesn’t think any of this should happen. But he’s going to take charge of the “We’re not going to do the feet. The whole body, as well.” And Jesus is not going to have any of it. This is the servant King on his knees, washing the disciples’ feet and really, he’s washing our feet. This is part of how you know this is not a regular religious teacher. He is doing opposite of what we would do. Opposite of what any leadership would tell you. He is on a knee and he’s washing our feet. And remember, this is not the nice feet with socks and shoes. This is the real feet with mud and bunions and dirty nails. Stunning, really. At the height of his clarity and popularity and his reputation, he’s washing their feet. This is just the magnificent Savior that he is.

And then he goes on after this little dialogue with Simon Peter, we’ll start in verse 12:

12 When he had finished washing their feet, he put on his clothes and returned to his place. "Do you understand what I have done for you?" he asked them.

I actually think this is a very full question and probably a very quiet moment. Because again, they had just had watched this little argument where Simon Peter was rebuked a little bit. So, “Shh.”

“Maybe we understand. Maybe we don’t. Why don’t you tell us?”

13 "You call me 'Teacher' and 'Lord,' and rightly so, for that is what I am.

He’s also the Resurrection and the Life, the Light of the World, the Bread of Life, the Great I Am. It is rightly so. He has his position over all of creation, over all of time. And yet, this is the action that he takes.

14 Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another's feet.
15 I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you.
16 I tell you the truth, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him.
17 Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.

So not only is he telling us who he is and in this moment of clarity and mission, fraught with what is about to happen, which will be deep suffering and rejection, genuine pain, all because he loves us. He’s offering this to us as an admonition or as marching orders. As, if you will, a way to live. The way to live is as a servant. The way to live is as one who washes feet. And you could say literally, but I don’t think in this culture that’s going to be that common. But what if we became, and Peter says this, “a peculiar people.” His whole point is to make us peculiar people, a peculiar tribe.

What if the main characteristic of this peculiar tribe called Living Streams was that they were known for their serving? They were known for taking the lowliest position? They actually became secret agents of service looking for the smallest and the largest and noticing every place where they could take a place of serving?

And, oh, by the way—this has never been more true—some of the service in this current world that is so divided and dismembered and so vitriolic and so spiteful and name-calling, all of this chaos around—one of the best ways we could demonstrate this servanthood is to be kind, and noticeably kind. I’m just putting you on alert. CIA agent of kindness. It was a CIA agent of the King who took the towel and the wash basin as a demonstration of the full extent of his love.

And I’m telling you, there is nowhere where this is not operative, especially again in this world. And actually a little bit more so in COVID world. So you’re driving up to the Taco Bell, you get a burrito supreme and three crunchy tacos. No I’m not getting a soda, that’s too expensive. And you pull up to the window and you just tell the gal, “I really appreciate the work that you do. Thank you. Be safe.”

I actually don’t think she falls down on her knees and meets the Lord. But I actually believe her spirit is lifted up, because all of us want to be noticed. And if we’re noticed by another human being when it’s unexpected, that’s the glimmer of being noticed by God. The glimmer of beholding God as smiling. And maybe she gets to know him. Or maybe she already knows and she’s kindness right back at you and there’s this connection of the peculiar people, a peculiar tribe that’s known for their service.

I always put love and service together. I really don’t know how you can demonstrate love without service. And I don’t know that you can demonstrate service without loving, at least not consistently. They’re two sides of one coin. This is the demonstration of the full extent of his love. He gives it to us as a way to live. We are to live as servants. This is demonstrated in thousands of tiny, little ways.

So, when we break out of here, or even before we break out of here, we recognize, “I know who I am.” If you’re not sure who you are, this is a great place, a group of people to help you discover that. Because here’s what you’ll learn. You’re a son of the King. You’re a daughter of the King. And he loves you. This is how he loves you. And we love you, too. “You’re welcome. Glad you’re here. Stick with us. You know what? We are servants.”

“You don’t have any better jobs than that?”

“No, we do not. We don’t have any better jobs than that.”

There isn’t a better job than that. And when you think about it, he says it right here:

17 Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.

It’s not just a theory. This is a practice. The practice of being a servant. You know what? There are really hundreds, if not thousands, of opportunities every single day in your life—the real one that you live—to demonstrate the heart of a servant. Generally, the heart of a servant is just Jesus’ kind: “I’m serving. I don’t need a thank-you. I don’t actually need to be noticed.”

Because he didn’t get one here. Mostly, instead of a thank-you, he got resistance from Simon Peter. I’m not sure they understood again until much later. But we have a chance to see it in retrospect and understand it again today. What does it mean for me—in my actual, real life today—to be a servant?

This would be a good time for me to get a white board and for people to start shouting out, “This is what that would mean for me today.” And I’d write them down. That would be incredible. Because, if you’re listening, the Lord may be prompting you right now. “I’m supposed to call my mom and tell her I love her.” I don’t really have to tell her, “Hey, Mom, I’m picking up a towel and a wash basin. Did you notice?” Just do and then he says, “You will be blessed.”

This is part of how you listen to the Lord. It’s also part of how you view the world. We’re out there. We’re looking. We’re the secret agents of service. We’re trying to find every place we can. “There’s a chair that’s out of place. I’m going to help move it.”

“Somebody had a flat tire. I’m going to help them.”

“I’m driving down the road and I can see this guy wants to cut in. He zoomed by me a minute ago, so I’m not letting him in.”

Grab a towel. Grab the wash basin. Let him in.

I’m really not saying he will fall down on his knees and pray to receive Jesus. I don’t think that’s true. But think about this. In this world that right now is so divided and so spiteful and so quick to point out flaws—what if we were the ones who were quick to serve? And quick to point out “job well done.” The guy at Safeway stocking the salsa. You walk down, “Man, you’re doing a fantastic job. I really appreciate you. Thanks for the work that you do.”

If we just became CIA agents of encouragement and service to the world. Now, maybe you grab a box and you start to put salsa on the shelf next to him. I dare someone to try that. I’d like to hear the report what would happen. But I do think that’d be very cool. Because that’s what I mean. We’re thinking of some grand thing, and maybe the Lord says, “I want you to move to Ecuador and be a missionary there.” In that case, go and be a servant. But equally, in every dynamic and element of life, are we watching? Are we looking for places to serve?

And then this crazy promise: “You will be blessed if you do this.” I don’t think you’ll be blessed if you think about it. I don’t think you’ll be blessed if you hear a sermon about it. I think you will be 100% blessed if you do it. It’s what happens within your soul. Maybe it’s not noticed by anyone else. But in your own soul there’s a rising up of joy. A rising up of, “I get to be part of the CIA agent team of foot washers and towel dryers for the King of kings and Lord of lords.” Everything that you do might be done as an action or a service unto him. And in this, you will be blessed.

It’s interesting. I want to skip ahead to John 16 because I think this is important, especially as it applies to right now, today. Jesus says at the end of John 16, “In this world you will have trouble.”

Anybody know trouble today? Got it. It’s all of us. For some it might be personal, right in your family. We prayed for some families that are in trouble. Jesus doesn’t say you’re not going to have trouble. In fact he said you will have trouble. That’s not new news. That’s old news. From Genesis 3 on, we’re in trouble. So count on it.

But then he says this great little word that I think is a real good word for right now, especially in the United States, but also around the world. “Take heart.” Take courage. Stand your ground. Remain steadfast. Hold on to hope. Really implied in there. Be a blessing by being a servant is how you take heart. Take action. Take the actions of a servant. But all of those things are peripheral because it says, “Take heart for I have overcome the world.” “You’re gong to have trouble, but I know how the story ends.”

Then one more part of this chapter that I’d like to tie in here. This is John 13:34&35. The glue which puts all of these chapters together:

34 A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. 35 By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

As we’re heading into this season of evangelism, the thing that I would like you most to relax about is, this is the first word in evangelism: love one another. When I hear your words and I watch your love, the words and the love align. And I want to be in that group. I’ve never known another human being that didn’t want to be in a group that loves each other. Especially one that says, “Come on in and we’ll love you, too. In fact, if you don’t come in, we’ll love you.”

That’s the new people that God is creating. This is the admonition for all of us. Love and service all go together as demonstrations of his love. But the demonstration of his love is to make us into a people that love one another and serve in a broken and hurting world.

Whatever you do, family, neighborhood, university, high school, work, all of these things are operating. Look for places to serve. Look for demonstrations of love. Then, when we do get to gather, or if we’re just viewing online, we’re in this position of loving one another. And this is how the whole world will know that, “You are my disciples. You are this peculiar people that love each other and serve. And you’re secret agents of this service.”

I want to quote Prudentius as I close. Prudentius is a writer that wrote fourth century. He writes about the battle in the human soul. And there’s these two opposing sides within the human soul. He’s talking about the battle every day. He’s brilliant. But he’s a poet, so I always need my wife to translate, “Can you tell me what that says?” So this is a little bit of a paraphrase:

Every day pride and humility meet on the battlefield of the human soul. When humility begins to win, pride turns to shame in order to win the battle.

You can unpack that for the rest of your life. When you feel shame, what is happening? I’m looking at myself again. It looks like the opposite of pride, but it’s actually looking at myself, and this is how pride continues to win the battle. But my proposition—Prudentius didn’t write this. This is a Marty paraphrase. So pride and humility meet on the battlefield of the human soul. And when pride starts to win he goes to shame in order to win. When humility picks up a towel in order to win the battle.

Humility: “No, I can’t fight the regular way. He’s fighting a different way. You know what I’m going to do? I’m getting on one knee. I’m grabbing a towel and a wash basin.” Humility wins the day. And by the way, this battle is going on every single day in our hearts and our souls.

Our souls are being battled for. It’s never been more clear in my mind. The enemy is not the other political party or even the other nation or the other language group or the other “not like me.” The enemy is the enemy. He’s a liar and a deceiver and he’s out to kill and destroy. And he’s out to make us selfish and small, safe and stingy, not servant—opposite. And the King of kings says, “Come with me. And I’m going to make you a servant of all. And by the way, in this you will find joy, and you will find blessing, and you will find hope.”

We’re going to take communion together. Abraham Heschel wrote late 1800’s early 1900’s. He said, “The opposite of remember is not to forget, but it’s to dismember.” So when we remember, we remember what God has done, but we re-member to become a whole fellowship and re-member to become a whole soul. We reconnect. Re-member. First by recognizing what God has done and remembering that, because we’re forgetters. But we’re also “dismemberers.” The thing that most likely happens when we forget is that we dismember. We disconnect from God, we disconnect from others. We hide. We run away. So he offers communion as a reminder and a place to remember.

If you’re online, I hope you’ve been able to find a cracker or some bread; you’ve been able to find some juice or whatever element you can, as we celebrate communion together.

On the night that he was betrayed he took the bread. He broke it. He gave thanks and he said, “This is my body broken for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” Let’s take communion.

And likewise, he took the cup. It was very much in the dynamic of this same place that we’re reading in John 13, 14, 15, 16, 17. He said, “This cup is my shed blood.” I think the disciples, like many people are going, “I am not sure what he’s talking about.” Well, we know. This is Christ on the cross. The magnificent Servant King dying for our sins, that we might be forgiven and free. So that we might become forgivers and those who set others free. This is the blood of the New Covenant, for the forgiveness of sins. We drink this and remember Christ on the cross.

Lord, take this offering. Help us to re-member. Help us to be those who joyfully, quickly wear a towel and grab a water basin. Help us to be those who love one another so that all men and women might know that we are your disciples and that this is what you do to a community, to a people. And we send this out into the world. Here we are, Lord. Send us. We go as your servants. We go as your towel-and-wash-basin children. In Christ’s name. Amen.

©️2020 Living Streams Church
7000 N Central Avenue ∙ Phoenix AZ 85020 ∙ 602-957-7500 ∙ https://www.livingstreams.org

Unless otherwise noted, Scripture is taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide.

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Guest User 10/11/20 Guest User 10/11/20

Seeking God’s Blessing vs Seeking to Bless God

John Chapter 12. In this story, we get to learn about Jesus getting his feet washed with oil and hair; Jesus rides a donkey like a boss; he predicts his death, and plays hide and seek. Sound fun? Let’s do it.

Before we jump in, I want to read this verse. It’s from Romans 12 (MSG), and it kind of encapsulates the whole message. It says this:

John 12
David Stockton - October 11, 2020

(Starting at 6:27)

Before we jump in, I want to read this verse. It’s from Romans 12 (MSG), and it kind of encapsulates the whole message. It says this:

1-2 So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.

This idea of consecration has been extremely heavy on my heart. Even as I got ready to preach this morning, I just felt this heaviness, this weight on me that this was such an important concept for us to grasp right now. That basically, we’re kind of stumbling into some deep, deep treasure in Christianity. So I really want to make sure that we get this right.

John Chapter 12 says this:

1 Six days before the Passover, Jesus came to Bethany, where Lazarus lived, whom Jesus had raised from the dead.

Six days before the Passover was this feast that was practiced by Jews for a long, long time commemorating the time they were rescued from the Egyptians. There was kind of a whole lead-up to this Passover time where everyone would gather in Jerusalem. Jerusalem would overflow with people. There would be all kinds of getting together with families, these parties, all these things, as people gathered.

Then Bethany was a town just outside of Jerusalem, where Jesus and his disciples would stay, probably with Lazarus, Mary and Martha. But that is what was going on. So this is leading up to Passover. And this was the last week of Jesus’ life. This was his Passion week. So we’re culminating, coming to that moment.

Six days before that he was in Bethany where Lazarus lived, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. The last chapter, we just saw that.

2 Here a dinner was given in Jesus’ honor. Martha served,

Of course. She was an enneagram 2, probably.

while Lazarus was among those reclining at the table with him.

Probably an enneagram 9. You know. Kind of hanging out. Sometimes he’s dead. Sometimes he’s hanging out, not doing a lot of work.

3 Then Mary took about a pint of pure nard, an expensive perfume; she poured it on Jesus’ feet and wiped his feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.

So here, int his moment, we’re going to learn about Mary’s heart. We’re going to learn about a consecrated heart and what it looks like. And we’re going to learn about some other types of hearts in this chapter, as well.

Mary had a consecrated heart. Mary comes to this party that’s going on in Jesus’ honor. A lot of commentaries think that this was possibly a gathering that was planned, kind of like a funeral gathering for Lazarus that was already planned. Lazarus had been dead for four days so they got together and said, “Let’s get everybody together.”

The other gospels say it’s Simon the leper. So they said, “Let’s get everybody together at his house and we’ll have this funeral for Lazarus.”

But now, because Jesus changed things a little bit, you know, and Lazarus is now alive, they said, “Well, let’s keep the gathering but let’s make it a party celebrating Jesus.”

And the other synoptic gospels say it was at Simon the leper’s house, which means that, if Simon was a leper, that he can’t be a leper anymore; otherwise he couldn’t have people at his house. So, Simon the leper was having a party for Jesus because he’s no longer a leper—probably because of Jesus. Lazarus is no longer dead because of Jesus. “Let’s invite all the people who are no longer this because of Jesus.” And they’re all gathering together to celebrate Jesus.

It was kind of a really cool moment of people. Now John has also told us that there was often a lot of division about Jesus. Some believed that he was a great teacher. Some believed he was a prophet. Some believed he was a liar or a deceiver. Some believed he was demon possessed. And some believed he was the Messiah.

Now all of these gathering are not very divided whether Jesus was a liar or telling the truth. They all know that there is something very significant about Jesus. They are either already at the place believing he is Messiah—God come in the flesh to save the world from sin and death—or they’re right on the cusp of believing that.

In the midst of this place, Mary, so stirred within herself, has either brought or has gone to get the most precious thing she owns. This extremely value thing. Now, a woman in first century Israel was probably extremely poor, has no status or value at all, is completely and utterly dependent on a father, or brother, or an uncle, some man that will be able to care for her, protect her and provide for her. So what she has here is something that was probably given to her by her father. And a lot of people think this was probably something like her dowery; this thing of value that she has that would make her someone that someone would want to marry; so that if, for some reason, a guy takes an interest in her and wants to marry her, then she would be able to give him something that would make it worth his while (besides, hopefully, love and all of that).

So what she has here is something that basically is her security. It’s her identity. It’s her future. It’s her hope for marriage. It’s all of that. And at this moment in her life, she is coming to Jesus in the midst of this crowded room and she pours it all out on Jesus’ feet. And then takes her hair and starts wiping his feet.

Now, again, in this culture, for a woman to touch a man, a woman to touch a man’s feet, a woman to touch a man’s feet with her hair is a very intimate thing. And it’s a very scandalous thing. And so all of the people in that room, Jesus included, are having to try and figure out what is the intention of Mary in this moment. And all the people in this room, you and I, trying to figure out what is the intention of Mary. There’s a spectrum. It’s anything from this is Mary kind of doing something, she’s fallen in love with Jesus and she wants Jesus to marry her. Maybe she has that thought. I don’t know.

It could also be on the other side of the spectrum, that Mary is actually saying, “You know what? I believe you are the Messiah. I am no longer at all confused about this. You raised my brother from the dead. I am giving myself completely to you. You are the man of my life. You are the one I am looking to for protection, provision. You are the one that, everything I belong to is yours. I am consecrating myself to you.” I think it’s pretty easy to say, if you look at Jesus’ response, in this and the other synoptic gospels, that it was much more along those lines of what Mary was thinking.

You can think of it a lot like maybe a nun giving her vows. The vow of chastity, poverty and obedience. Let’s look at those vows. This is basically what a nun does when they give their vows of dedicating their life to Jesus.

There’s a vow of poverty.

The vow of poverty leads a nun to imitate Jesus who for our sake became poor although he was very rich. It helps her to be poor in spirit as well as in fact, and to live a life of labor and moderation. By the vow of poverty, she gives up the right to control or benefit from personal property and commits herself to live interdependently within a community, according to its constitutions. The purpose of this vow is to free her from being fascinated by material things so she may be free to serve others.

In addition to that, there’s a vow of chastity.

The vow of chastity leads a nun to imitate Jesus who was chaste. This vow frees her from the demands of an exclusive human relationship so she can give all her love to God , and through God to all people. By the vow she promises not to marry or to engage in romantic behavior or sexual acts.

A vow of obedience also comes.

A vow of obedience leads the nun to imitate the obedience of Jesus Christ. She does this by seeking God’s will for her and obeying her lawful superiors according to the constitutions of her particular group. As a member of her religious community, she searches for the will of God, not in arbitrary commands, but in prayerful reflection and dialogue with others.

I’m not proposing here that we all become nuns because, well at least a bunch of us can’t. By I am wanting us to admire this. I’m wanting us to learn about consecration. I’m wanting us to learn about devotion. I’m wanting us to learn about worship. I’m wanting us to feel a little bit of shame at the way that we treat Jesus. And now, if Jesus was here, would we pour out the most valuable thing that we have at his feet? Or would we give him some and keep a backup plan, just in case?

What Mary did here was so beautiful, so amazing. She does this act of pure affection and scandalous extravagance, declaring that she is giving herself completely to Jesus for the rest of her life. You can almost here the songs that Jay Murphy’s been teaching us the last little while. “I am yours. I am yours. For all my days, Jesus, I am yours.” Or, “My heart will sing no other name. Jesus. Jesus.” Or the one he’s been teaching us lately, where we’re trying to figure out what moves God’s heart. “Is it a fragrance? Then I’ll pour my oil out. Is it a life laid down? Then here I give my vows. Is it a song I sing? Then here’s every melody. Just tell me what moves you, Jesus.”

And this is the cry of her heart. This is the purity of heart. She is willing one thing, and that is to be in the presence of Jesus. She sees him for who he really is. And she’s compelled to worship.

And then we go on to see a different kind of heart, verse 4:

4 But one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, who was later to betray him, objected, 5 “Why wasn’t this perfume sold and the money given to the poor? It was worth a year’s wages.” 6 He did not say this because he cared about the poor but because he was a thief; as keeper of the money bag, he used to help himself to what was put into it.

This is like, what did the Bible just say? Are you serious here? John’s writing this letter, this book, probably sixty years later after this event. But did they know in the moment that Judas was helping himself? Did they find out later? I don’t know. But it’s so bizarre that he was in charge of the money and they were like, “Yeah, every once in a while he’d just take a little bit for himself.” Well get somebody else in charge of the money! Is it that hard to figure out? But obviously there’s something else going on.

But Judas, when he sees this act of absolute extravagance, pure affection and scandalous extravagance, his heart is not moved in the same way. What happens in his heart is, he sees the money, which reveals something about his heart. Though Mary had a consecrated heart, Judas had a divided heart. He loves Jesus. I really do think he did. He was following Jesus. How could you not see what Jesus did and not believe and not love Jesus and what he was about? But the problem was, it wasn’t that he didn’t love Jesus. The problem was that he loved something else, as well. He loved money. He tried to serve God and mammon, right? As Jesus said, “You cannot serve to masters. You cannot serve God and money. You will learn to love the one and hate the other.” And Judas was there when Jesus said that. And as Judas continued to foster that divided heart, to be okay with that divided heart, it ultimately led him to do a very hateful thing, as he kissed Jesus on the cheek to identify who he was so that he could be arrested and killed.

The truth is that most of us have divided hearts. I wish I could say that we’re all here with these consecrated hearts, but we have divided hearts. And we have to be very careful of these divided hearts. If we continue to allow them to be divided, it will end up causing us to love one and hate the other. It might not be money. It could be a lot of different things. Security. Could be convenience or comfort. It could be a person. These other things that we love that will become ultimate things if we’re not very careful.

Some verses to go along with that:

“You cannot serve two masters.” We talked about that.
“Some trust in chariots, some trust in horses; but we trust in the name of the Lord our God.”
“A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways,” is what James says.

You can almost think of the songs coming out of Judas’ heart. “I just want to move your heart and get rich at the same time.” “I am yours, as long as it works out good for me. I am yours, as long as I get to hear that cha-ching.” “My heart will sing just a few names like Jesus, comfort, security, money, whatever…”

Sorry about that. I’m glad you laughed, because I told my wife that last night and she said, “Do people laugh when you say things like that?” I was like, “Sometimes.” But there you go. I forgot to do that first servicer, too, so you guys are lucky. But don’t come to middle service anymore. Come to first service, there’s just way more room there. Actually, there’s not room anywhere anymore, so just do what you want. Just don’t invite anybody to come with you. No. Do that too. See the balcony? There’s room up there. It’s awesome. Anyway, that’s the divided heart. We have to watch out for that.

In our church, we’ve been having this three-month long debate in our elder team. The three-month-long debate has been over the PPP. For those of you who don’t know what that is, that’s the part of the stimulus plan that the government gave to small businesses so that they could not have to let anybody go during this challenging time. So we actually applied for it, just trying to be proactive and say, “Okay, if that’s part of doing business in America, that’s wonderful.” So we applied for the PPP and we didn’t get it at first and it was like, “Okay, well now we don’t have to worry about it.” But then we did get it the second time around. Then we had it and all of us were like, “Okay, well, that’s cool and we’ll see what happens.”

But then the faithfulness of Living Streams Church, the faithfulness of God has been able to sustain us through, to where we haven’t had to tap fully into our own emergency fund. We did have to cut expenses and be real careful that way, but we haven’t really gotten to a place where we’ve needed the money from the PPP, so now we’re saying, “What do we do?” And the debate began, and we’ve wrestled it out.

Some people were like, “Well, we’re going to spend it better than the government will.” It’s like, “Well, yeah, that’s probably true.” And other people were like, “We should give it back.” Other people were like, “Come on, that’s part of doing business in America. It’s not like we’re cheating or anything.” And we just went back and forth. It was very interesting. And then on Wednesday, kind of in almost like a solemn way, we all kind of finally came to a unanimous decision and we decided to give it back.

That’s not to say everybody should do that. Everybody’s got their own situations. But it really kind of came down to this thing where some trust in chariots, some trust in horses, but we really want to trust in the name of the Lord our God. It just kind of settled on all of our hearts, even though there was a lot of division. Even on our elder team, it was getting a little political here and there, and it was like, “No, let’s not go there.” So we were able to root that out and make sure this wasn’t going to be a divisive thing. It was such a beautiful moment. What it felt like was we were saying, “Ultimately we want to consecrate ourselves to God alone.”That was something we could do. That was an application for us.

And then it was funny because, right after that, I go, “Well, let me tell you about all the things I think the Lord is calling us to that are going to cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.” And they were like, “What?” And I was like, “No, you decided.” It was just kind of funny. And next year, who knows? Maybe we’ll have a lot of challenges. Whatever. This is just where we are at right now.

Then I started to get deeper into my study and I realized that this is something that the Lord is wanting us to do as a church, and as individuals and families, to figure out what consecration means for us. So again, please don’t hear me saying that every business should give it back. I am not saying that. You get to decide between you and the Lord what you’re supposed to do. But in this place, that’s what our elders decided. And I thought it was beautiful.

So that’s the divided heart. Watch out for those divided hearts. And, one last thing on that is, who here loves money? Yes. The only honest person in the whole place. All of you love money. We all love money. We love it. It’s awesome. We’re all that Scrooge McDuck swimming in that gold coin if we could. Anybody know what that is? I loved that show when I was a kid. But it’s true. We have to root it out. We have to fight against it. We have to watch out for that.

The next thing is the jealous heart, or the insecure heart. It says in verse 9:

9 Meanwhile a large crowd of Jews found out that Jesus was there and came, not only because of him but also to see Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. 10 So the chief priests…

The people of God. The pastors like me…

…made plans to kill Lazarus as well, 11 for on account of him many of the Jews were going over to Jesus and believing in him.

This was not a great moment in church leadership. It’s unbelievable that, in their hearts, when they witnessed what Jesus had done, when they encountered the living God, it threatened their security. It threatened their identity that everything was wrapped up in, their value was wrapped up in. So they decided the best thing to do was to kill Jesus. We already know that. But now to even kill Lazarus because of what he represents.

If we don’t consecrate our hearts to God, if we allow ourselves to take on identities that are not from the Lord, if we allow ourselves to find security in things that are not of the Lord, we’re going to find ourselves far from the Lord.

In America, we’re just like those people wanting to build that tower of Babel. They built that tower of Babel just after the flood because they had heard stories of the flood. And they thought, “If we can build this tower high enough, then maybe we can live above whatever flood might come. Maybe we can insulate ourselves from God.”

Here in America, and other parts of the world, we have to be careful that we don’t get so good at retirement, insurance, savings, all of these things that we find ourselves insulating ourselves even from God. Please don’t do anything weird with what I just said. If you want to talk it out more, I’d love to. I don’t know the answers. But I just don’t want us to insulate ourselves from God. I don’t want to miss Jesus at all.

These chief priests, the people who knew the Bible the best, who spent all of their time supposedly consecrating themselves to God—completely missed Jesus. Completely missed him. They loved to make themselves feel superior. They loved the position in society that loving God got them, and living pious gave them. They loved to be in control of what God does and doesn’t do. Their jealousy blinded their hearts from seeing God in the flesh, which was the answer to all their prayers.

If you go on, the next thing that happens is Jesus rides the donkey in Jerusalem. The triumphal entry. And the response to all of that is that they’re upset and frustrated that the people are following Jesus. They missed even that moment. And on and on it goes. And then in verse 42:

42 Yet at the same time many even among the leaders believed in him. But because of the Pharisees they would not openly acknowledge their faith for fear they would be put out of the synagogue; 43 for they loved human praise more than praise from God.

This is what describes their hearts. They’re Christians (not Christians at that time), but what describes the Christian heart today, the chief priests and leaders of the church of that day, they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God. We have to be so careful of that. Remember: God doesn’t want to make us good at church. That doesn’t do anything for anybody. He wants to make us good at life. We’ve got to watch out for that type of heart.

There’s this verse that I read at the beginning and I want to conclude by reading it again to kind of help us understand what God is trying to do in our time.

Romans 12:1-2 (MSG) So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.

God is trying to make us into the image of Christ. If we will give our attention and affection to him, we will find that work being done. If we give our attention and affection to something else, we’ll be formed in the way that they want to. Do you know that Instagram is trying to form you? Do you know that it is trying to get all your attention and affection? The people who run these businesses, they’ve realized that we are made to worship. And they’ve figured out how to monetize our attention. Again, I’m not saying any of those things are bad. But they’ve figured out that we are geared to give attention and affection to things. So if they can capitalize on that and monetize that, they’ll get rich. So there are all these things that are super-sophisticated, trying to get our attention and affection, trying to get our worship.

We just have to be careful that, first and foremost, we belong to God. We’ve consecrated ourselves to him.

There’s a story in the Old Testament about Moses, who has his “Mary moment.” He’s up on the mountain of God. The whole mountain is burning with fire and he’s been through the Red Sea. He’s been through the ten plagues. He’s talked with the burning bush God that is now the burning mountain God. He’s up on that mountain for forty days. No food or water that we know of. God called all the people up and all of them were scared and Moses went alone.

There, in that mountain, Moses says something. He says, “God, can I see you?” Basically, what he says is, “Show me your glory.” The word glory in the Hebrew is kabod. But it means substance. Moses says, “God, I’ve seen all the things that you can do, and it’s awesome. I’m completely following you. But is it possible for me to see you? I want your presence.”

And then he says, “God, I know you’re taking us to the Promised Land, and it sounds great.” But he says, “I don’t want to go to the Promised Land if you’re not going to go with us. I don’t even want the promise if it doesn’t come with your presence, because your presence is everything. I would rather wander around in this wilderness for the rest of my life, accessing your presence, than to be somewhere where there’s a lot of security, abundance and convenience without you.”

I just know that’s what God is trying to stir up in our hearts. I know that’s what God is trying to do in the Church. I know that this disruption can give way to this: a people that are more fully and completely consecrated to the lover of their soul, and more formed into his image; because that’s what you need. That’s what your spouse needs. That’s what your kids need. That’s what a broken world needs. All of us more formed into the image of the beautiful Christ.

Let’s pray:

Jesus, we are here and we hear your plea. We hear your call to us. We hear you as the lover of our souls, asking us to come away with you, asking us to leave some of those other loves behind and to come fully into your love. I pray that you would really, by your Spirit, show us what we need to leave behind, whether it’s sin or just weight, whether it’s wrong or whether it’s just culture. We want to belong to you. Please help us, Jesus. Thank you, Lord.

Well, if you’re new to Christ or not sure if you’ve ever really surrendered your life to Christ, today is a good day for that. The beauty of what Christ is asking us to do is not something new, it’s what he has done for us. He completely gave himself to us, even to the post of death on a cross. And now he’s asking that, because of that, you would give your life to him. And when you give your life to him, he begins to do the work of forming, shaping, teaching and guiding. But you do have to give your life to him. If you want to do that today, you could come up front, we’ve got some people on the sides that would like to pray with you.

©️2020 Living Streams Church
7000 N Central Avenue ∙ Phoenix AZ 85020 ∙ 602-957-7500 ∙ https://www.livingstreams.org

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Guest User 10/4/20 Guest User 10/4/20

Acquainted with Grief

Good to be with everybody. Thanks for coming. Thanks to all the online folks joining in. We need a “Hoo” and a “ho” for them. I don’t know if they could hear it, but I did. It was cool.

We’re trying to figure out how to go forward as a church. Actually, after September, Living Streams has officially been going for 36 years. That’s something. I started it when I was seven years old. No, obviously I wasn’t there at the start.

John 11
David Stockton - October 4, 2020

Good to be with everybody. Thanks for coming. Thanks to all the online folks joining in. We need a “Hoo” and a “ho” for them. I don’t know if they could hear it, but I did. It was cool.

Mark Buckley and Kristina Buckley started the church 36 years ago. They did so in their living room up near like 32nd Street and Bell. If anybody’s ever heard of that part of town. That’s where it started and it’s been 36 years and here we are today. Mark, who I still talk with all the time, he’s still a big part of the church here. He was saying he’s never seen church have to go through anything like this in his 36 years, or whatever. But this church was birthed out of a challenging situation, which is going to hopefully help unpack a little bit of where we’re going today with the message.

Mark and Kristina were loving life up in Northern California, Marin County. It’s where Mark had grown up. They had a church going and it was really great. But his son was having some severe asthma. So his son came to visit some friends down in Phoenix and his asthma cleared up. So they had a really, really challenging, disrupting, difficult, hard decision to make. Would they stay where they were, where everything was wonderful (so they thought), or would they completely uproot and change their lives for the sake of their son. And they did. They ent to Phoenix, to the desert, and the Lord was faithful to them. They ended up starting Living Streams and here we are today.

It’s a cool story. But again, it’s out of disruption, out of challenge, out of suffering, out of heartbreak, God was able to change the trajectory a little bit for their life. They would look back now and say it was great. So be aware that some of whatever you’re going through right now could be the Lord just kind of changing the trajectory a little bit, kind of getting us in a better trajectory.

We know that at Living Streams. That’s something we’ve been praying for. We want to follow God. We want to see where he wants to take us. We don’t want to go back to the way things were before this year. We want to go forward into whatever those new wine skins might look like. Because we want to catch every drop of the new wine the Lord wants to pour out. We don’t want to miss a thing.

So that’s what we’re doing. We’re doing a lot of that. And we have this Saturday this thing called an Explore Class. Normally it’s like an eight-week class. But we’re going to do it in one morning. 8:30 to 1:00 pm. We’re going to have all the sessions kind of jammed I not one. But we’d really like to invite you to join in with the church here. We’re trying to make sure we’re not a church where you can just come watch a show and go.

We really do think that the only way we’re going to build something beautiful here is if everyone joins in. That we knit our lives together in some ways. That’s going to take some time together. It’s going to take some learning about each other. It’s going to take everyone caring for another person or two in the church. Because the pastors here, they’re awesome, but they’re not that good you know. They need some help. We all need help caring for each other. Let alone the challenges in the world that we’re dealing with and the people who are going through tough times.

One of the guys in our church, who’s been around a long time, his name’s Marty Caldwell, and he sent me this quote that I thought was pretty good at trying to put words to what we’re trying to do as a church here. It’s from this guy Trueblood, who was not writing in 2020, post-COVID or whatever—we’re not even post yet, we’re still like, I don’t know where we are. Nobody knows where we are.

He was writing about his time, but I think his words ring so true today. He says:

We cannot revive faith by argument, but we might catch the imagination of puzzled men and women by an exhibition of a fellowship so intensely alive that every thoughtful person would be faced to respect it. If there should emerge in our day such a fellowship, wholly without artificiality and free from the dead hand of the past, it would be an exciting event of momentous importance.

This is what we’re praying for. This is what we’re trying to live into. We know it can only happen if everybody joins in. We really have to believe in the priesthood of all believers. Everyone who comes to be a part of this church needs to see themselves as a full-fledged, qualified priest of the Lord, who is supposed to be taking part in building healthy local church or churches, and also creatively expanding God’s kingdom.

The way that we try and flesh that out, kind of our mission statement is we want to put God’s glory on display, both as an organization, as well as individuals within it. We want to build courageous people, both as an organization, as well as individuals within it. And we want to engage in society’s pain. This year we’ve had a lot of opportunities to engage in society’s pain in many different facets. It’s been challenging, but it’s been beautiful, because the opportunities have abounded.

And we also want to make sure that we help everyone understand that they have to take seriously their own spiritual formation. COVID, if it has taught us nothing else, it taught us that a basically we can’t be dependent on one hour a week type church. It’s just not the way it’s supposed to be. Never should have been that way. So you take that away and we’re left to say, “What does our fellowship look like? What does our Christianity look like?” I’m so glad the Lord did that because we get a sneak peek into it, to see what it’s all about.

We have to take seriously our own spiritual formation. It is good that we have other teachers and other people that can help us. But at the end of the day, the responsibility is each one of ours to make sure our lives are taking in and receiving and practicing out what will make us more into the image of Christ. It’s our responsibility.

And, if we know that the scriptures are true and Jesus’ life is our example, we know it’s important for us to take seriously the spiritual formation of those the Lord is giving us. Right now, whether you like it or not, God is giving you at least one, if not two, maybe three people that he’s counting on you to shepherd, to care for, to help them form into the image of Christ. Jesus took on twelve. You’re not Jesus. I’m not Jesus.

It can get so overwhelming, trying to take care of everybody all of the time. That’s not what God is calling us to do. I think the next big thing for the Church is trying to figure out how to do one-on-one discipleship again because that’s the way the kingdom really does it. So we want to get that figured out. We want to do that. We want to join in with that effort.

We need to remember that Church is not what Christians do. What we’re doing right now is not what Christians do. This is just supposed to help Christians do what they’re supposed to do. This is just the little orange slice and Gatorade cup on the marathon. That’s all this is. You stop in, get a little orange slice and Gatorade, you get back out there, keep running. It’s so important that we catch that.

God does not want to make you good at church. These are a couple of our sayings that we keep bringing up. God does not want to make you good at church. For some reason, as Christians, we think this is what we’re supposed to be good at right here. But God doesn’t want to make you good at church, he wants to make you good at life, because life takes up a lot more hours than just being at church. And I’m here all the time. I don’t live here. Some people think I live here. I don’t live here. That house over there that’s super nice—not my house. No way.

But God wants to make us good at life. He cares much more about the other hours, than just what we’re doing when we’re sitting in a pew at church. Not to say this isn’t important and good and great times, but we’ve really got to understand this if we’re going to get to that kind of vision that Trueblood was laying out or the vision that the book of Acts laid out, or the vision that’s in God’s heart for his people.

That being said, sign up for Explore Express on Saturday. I can’t promise you it will be the most exciting time of your life, but it will be rich, it will be good and maybe even help you get through some of that trajectory stuff that we’re talking about.

John Chapter 11. Let’s dig into this. John is basically Jesus’ best friend, would be a good description of him. He is an apostle and he walked with Jesus. Jesus left and he continued to walk with the risen Christ in spirit. Then, at the end of his life, he’s writing this book as an evangelistic effort to try and help people who read it, whoever might read this. Maybe ten people. Maybe twenty people. I don’t know what John had in mind, but he was writing this so that some people would read this and they would believe. Little did he know there’d be quite a few people reading it in quite a few different languages, including us in 2020 Phoenix, Arizona, who are reading this to try and figure out what he’s saying about Jesus.

So, I have five points I want to go through. Basically—I say this sometimes in our church, but it would be a good time to leave right now if you’re not wanting to get too serious about Jesus. We’re login to talk about suffering and God’s view of suffering, which is very different than an American view of suffering. Or fill in the blank view of suffering. So we’re going to look at suffering.

These are the points that we’re going to bring out and unpack. First of all:

Being in love with God, being in the love of God does not keep you from suffering.
Suffering is one of God’s favorite environments to reveal his glory.
a. Jesus is not opposed to allow us to suffer or remain in our suffering on this side of heaven.
b. Jesus is not opposed to lead us into challenging, difficult, and even life-threatening situations.
Suffering reveals and refines the quality of our faith.
Our suffering grieves Jesus. (In more ways than we’ll ever understand.)

So first one, being in the love of God does not keep you from suffering.

1 Now a man named Lazarus was sick. He was from Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. 2 (This Mary, whose brother Lazarus now lay sick, was the same one who poured perfume on the Lord and wiped his feet with her hair.) 3 So the sisters sent word to Jesus, “Lord, the one you love is sick.”

And there you have it, right there. Jesus loved Lazarus very much. Jesus was very close to Lazarus, Mary and Martha. Jesus healed a lot of people, but these were Jesus’ people. These were the ones he spent time with day and night. When Jesus would come to the festivals, he would stay at their house, which was not far from Jerusalem. Jesus was very intimate in relationship with these people. He loved them with a natural, kind of humanistic love, not just the God agape love. He was friends with them. He enjoyed their company. They enjoyed being with him.

And there are a couple of kind of friends that are real important to have. It’s real good to have a friend who defends you, who never wants you to ever have to suffer. I have a couple of friends like this. One of my friends, I was on a basketball team with. We were playing this game and things were getting kind of hot. It was getting towards the end. I think it was a pretty close game. We were all down on this end and, I don’t know how, but somehow a guy got a steal. I can’t remember, it was probably I lost the ball and I just don’t remember. I blocked it out. Anyway, he gets the ball and this guy is racing down all by himself. Everyone’s over here and I take off running, I’m trying to stop this guy from getting a layup. He’s coming in and he comes in really hard. And I came in to kind of make sure he wasn’t going to make it. I stood in his way and did one of these. We collided and we both fell on the ground.

I got up and he got up real fast and was coming at me, like he was going to, you know, whatever he was going to do. And I was standing up and was getting ready to brace myself, and all of a sudden, my friend was in between us. Just like, voom, standing there. He’s a big guy and, at one point he was very fast, he’s not as fast anymore, but this was lightning speed. He was not going to let anything happen to me at all. He’s a lot bigger, so this guy who was coming at me was feeling very strong, but then when the big guy came he wasn’t feeling so strong anymore and he just kind of walked on. Because I’m not big and my friend’s big. I felt loved. This guy, this dude’s got my back. The rest of the game, anytime anything would go down he would kind of stand next to me. He was just making sure his presence was felt. It’s good to be loved like that.

But there’s another kind of friend, also, that loves you enough to kind of tell you when maybe you’re doing something wrong and suffering for it, they’re going, “Hey, I think this might be good for you. I think this might be a good wake-up call for you.” They’re able to tell you and kind of help perceive, “Hey this challenge that you’re going through, I think maybe this could end up being a good thing for you. And I’ll just kind of be here with you.”

And what you find out about Jesus is Jesus really is both. He’s both kind of friends. He defends us at every point. But he also loves us enough to every once in a while say, “Hey, I need you to know something. I need you to learn something. I need someone else to learn something or know something. And so I’m going to allow you to go through this thing.”

Just because you’re in the love of God doesn’t mean you’re not going to get sick. When I first started really following Jesus, those next two years were some of the most broken-hearted years of my life. But now, for the first time, I was going through a broken heart with the love of God and it was very different. Very different.

Number two: suffering is one of God’s favorite environments to reveal his glory. So verse 4:

4 When he heard this, Jesus said, “This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God’s glory so that God’s Son may be glorified through it.”

Now this is, again, kind of bringing us back to two weeks ago when we talked about the man born blind. And they said, “Is it this guy’s fault or his parents’?” And Jesus said, “No, you’re totally asking the wrong question. This suffering that this guy has gone through his entire life was all about this moment right now, where he is going to receive his sight, and you’re going to know the power of God, and I’m going to talk with him, and he’s going to learn about the Messiah.”

It was this beautiful, beautiful moment. You’ve got to understand suffering is sometimes the time where God loves to show up and reveal his glory the most. And so suffering and God’s glory go hand in hand. He is the Savior. His light and goodness and truth shine the brightest in a backdrop of darkness, evil and deceit.

And in John 14, Jesus goes on to teach his disciples, just after this, He says, “Don’t let your hearts be troubled when you’re going through really hard times.” When you’re going through those 2020’s. I wish it was like John 20:20 because then I could post it and it would go so viral. But it’s like John 14:1. Nobody gets it.

He is basically saying, “Don’t let your hearts be troubled.” Track with me. Don’t let your hearts be troubled when you’re going through hard times. But he says, “Believe in me and believe in God, and know that in my Father’s house there are many mansions. And I’m going there to prepare a place for you.”

So in this kind of way that John reveals what Jesus is teaching, Jesus is basically saying, “I want you to remember something when you’re going through suffering, when you’re going through hard times. Don’t let your hearts be troubled. Believe. Keep trusting. Keep hoping all the way until the end. And know that not only am I with you in that, and not only am I going to do good in that, but know that somehow in the way that you are faithful in your suffering now, it is resulting in some sort of building happening in the next life. What you’re doing in this life actually does impact what happens in the next life.”

Again, I can’t talk too much about that because I don’t know much about that except for the fact that whatever we experience in that next life is going to make the suffering we experience in this life something that we just laugh at or don’t even remember. Kind of like Jesus is risen from the dead and they’re like, “Hey,Jesus, remember that cross and all the suffering that you went through?” And he’s like, “Eh, kind of. But what I’m remembering more is all of the people that have been saved from the stain of sin and death. What I do remember is watching sin being peeled back, shriveled back. I remember all the undoing of all the injustices that have ever happened. It was for the joy set before him that he endured the cross.

And that’s what we should do too is remember that in suffering, in some ways, and this seems a little strange—but Christians are strange—when suffering happens we should have a part of us that goes, “All right. Get your eyes open. Any minute now we’re going to see something beautiful.”

Now, that doesn’t mean then we say, “Oh and suffering doesn’t exist and you should never hurt.” No. I’m saying a little part of you should have that little bit of hope rise up. And in 2020, we are hurting. Some of you are hurting very seriously. And I’m not saying you shouldn’t feel that. That is reality. That’s okay. But as a believer, there should also be just a little bit of a silver lining. There should just be a little bit of a whisper deep inside your soul that says, “I know God’s about to do something awesome.”

Number three:
a. Jesus is not opposed to allow us to suffer or remain in our suffering on this side of heaven.
b. Jesus is not opposed to lead us into challenging, difficult and even life-threatening situations.

5 Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. 6 So when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed where he was…

He didn’t go help. He didn’t run to their rescue.

…he stayed where he was two more days, 7 and then he said to his disciples, “Let us go back to Judea.”
8 “But Rabbi,” they said, “a short while ago the Jews there tried to stone you, and yet you are going back?”
9 Jesus answered, “Are there not twelve hours of daylight? Anyone who walks in the daytime will not stumble, for they see by this world’s light. 10 It is when a person walks at night that they stumble, for they have no light.”
11 After he had said this, he went on to tell them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep; but I am going there to wake him up.”
12 His disciples replied, “Lord, if he sleeps, he will get better.” 13 Jesus had been speaking of his death, but his disciples thought he meant natural sleep.
14 So then he told them plainly, “Lazarus is dead, 15 and for your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.
16 Then Thomas (also known as Didymus) said to the rest of the disciples, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.”

Now that sounds like Thomas, wait, he’s getting something right here. It’s not. It’s sarcasm—total sarcasm. Thomas is basically like, “Oh, yeah, this sounds so fun. Let’s go with Jesus so we can all die with him!” He’s not excited about it because he knows that going with Jesus back into Judea is possibly going to get them killed.

So Jesus stayed when Lazarus, who he loved, and Mary and Martha, who he loved, were going through their agony and suffering. He didn’t rescue them. And he describes to the disciples, “And I’m even glad.” Like, “I was talking with the Father and it was hard for me to stay here, but now that I’m hearing where you guys are at, I’m so glad that this suffering has taken place and lasted, because I really am excited about what you’re about to see and who you’re going to become because of this.” And then he says, “Let’s go into this very dangerous place.” And they head in.

I want to share a couple of verses that, again, they’re troubling, but they’re beautiful.

Revelation 12:11 is basically talking about all kinds of apocalyptic stuff going down. It says that the believers overcame the evil one by the blood of the Lamb, the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives so much as to shy away from death. There was something about this where they were saying so resolutely that, “Even if this costs me my life I’m going all the way.”

And then Hebrews 11 describes all these great heroes of the faith—like the hall of fame. It says this:

37 They were put to death by stoning; they were sawed in two; they were killed by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated— 38 the world was not worthy of them.

Basically, this phrase is just talking about how, in God’s perspective, the world was not worthy of them because these people were so willing to suffer for good.

Lastly, in the New Testament, Acts 5, John, among these other disciples and apostles, says:

41 The apostles left the Sanhedrin, rejoicing because they had been counted worthy of suffering disgrace for the Name.

This was John’s response based on watching what Jesus had done. When suffering came his way, there was a part of him that rejoiced because he knew what Jesus was talking about.

Number four: Suffering reveals and refines the quality of our faith, which again, is so precious to God.

17 On his arrival, Jesus found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days. 18 Now Bethany was less than two miles from Jerusalem, 19 and many Jews had come to Martha and Mary to comfort them in the loss of their brother. 20 When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went out to meet him, but Mary stayed at home.
21 “Lord,” Martha said to Jesus, “if you had been here, my brother would not have died. 22 But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask.”

What is she saying here? I don’t know. But this is interesting. We’re going to unpack this and we’re going to try to do a little hermeneutics, a little exegesis to find out what is really taking place in this conversation.

She says to him, “If you had been here, my brother would not have died. I’m disappointed, Jesus. I’m hurting. I’m confused. Why didn’t you come? I thought you loved us. I thought you cared. I just knew if I sent word to you you would come and keep him from dying. And yet, now he’s been dead for four days.”

It feels like that, as Christians, sometimes for sure. Maybe you can feel that real strong right now as you’ve gone through this year.

But then she says, “But even now, I know that God will give you whatever you ask.” I don’t know if this is her saying, “Can you do this, too?” I don’t know what she’s saying here. And I don’t know if Jesus did either, because he responds:

23 Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.”
24 Martha answered, “I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.”
25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; 26 and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?”

Refining. Revealing the faith that is in her.

27 “Yes, Lord,” she replied, “I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, who is to come into the world.”

Not exactly what he was saying. But I love it. He says, “Your brother will rise.” And she’s saying, “Let’s clarify this. You’re saying my brother will rise and I don’t want my heart to hoping that you’re going to resurrect him, because I don’t even know what that looks like or if that’s possible. But I know he’s going to resurrect in the last day. I know he’ll be risen up at the last day. I’ve got a theological framework for that. I’ve got a pat answer for that.”

And then Jesus says, “Martha, you’ve got to understand something. I’m going to teach you something right now that I don’t want you to miss, I don’t want Mary to miss, I don’t want the disciples to miss, I don’t want the Jews to miss, I don’t want the people sitting in a church in 2020 to miss: I am the resurrection and the life. I’ve been trying to teach you about a life that’s very different than the life you have known your entire life. All you have ever known of life is life can be killed. Life gets old. Life gets corrupted. Life has suffering. And what I’m trying to reveal to you, what I’m trying to teach you guys is that there is a resurrection life that death no longer has any say of. There is a resurrection life that cannot be corrupted. It does not grow old or weary. It’s a life that feels like being born again. It’s life that feels like never thirsting again. It’s a life that feels like torrents of living water gushing up and out of you. It’s a life that I’ve been trying to teach you about. And I know it’s so hard for you to understand, but I’m here to give a life that’s very different than the one you’ve known. Do you believe? Do you pistis,” [in the Greek]. “Do you receive this and hold onto this until the day that it shows up? Do you believe?”

And I love her response, because so often I’ve said things like this to the Lord: “I know who you are. And I know you can do stuff.”

That’s basically what she’s saying. “I know you are the Messiah. I know you are the Son of God and that you came into the world. I know who you are, Jesus. And can that be enough? Because I don’t get what you’re saying. But I just know that you’re going to be able to do the right thing in the right way at the right time. And I just want to be where you are.

That’s the perfect response. If you’re here today and you’ve never really given your life to Jesus, and you’re hearing about all these different things, again, it doesn’t have to make perfect sense. As long as you take Jesus’ hand, that’s good. As long as you keep your eyes fixed on him, everything else will work itself out.

That’s Martha. She’s like, “Resurrection life, I don’t know. But I know I want to be with you.” And Jesus takes that.

Then the fifth point: Our suffering grieves Jesus. It makes him mad.

Here we have verse 28:

28 After she had said this, she went back and called her sister Mary aside. “The Teacher is here,” she said, “and is asking for you.” 29 When Mary heard this, she got up quickly and went to him. 30 Now Jesus had not yet entered the village, but was still at the place where Martha had met him. 31 When the Jews who had been with Mary in the house, comforting her, noticed how quickly she got up and went out, they followed her, supposing she was going to the tomb to mourn there.
32 When Mary reached the place where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet and said, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”

Again, grief, disappointment, frustration, confusion.

33 When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled.

He wasn’t just sad. He was upset. And we’ll understand that a little bit more.

34 “Where have you laid him?” he asked.

You’ll notice something different about Jesus’ language. Jesus is resolute. He is all of a sudden focused in and his word seem terse. But I think you’ll understand why.

34 “Where have you laid him?” he asked.
“Come and see, Lord,” they replied.
35 Jesus wept.
Why did he weep?
36 Then the Jews said, “See how he loved him!”
37 But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?”
38 Jesus, once more deeply moved,

And the Greek word there has a connotation almost of like a bull getting read to charge, like breathing through the nostrils, angry, frustrated.

came to the tomb. It was a cave with a stone laid across the entrance. 39 “Take away the stone,” he said.
“But, Lord,” said Martha, the sister of the dead man, “by this time there is a bad odor, for he has been there four days.”
40 Then Jesus said, “Did I not tell you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?”
41 So they took away the stone. Then Jesus looked up and said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. 42 I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you sent me.”
Not a very flowery prayer. Straight and to the point.
43 When he had said this, Jesus called in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” 44 The dead man came out,
Anybody heard that? Yeah. The dead man came out. He calls out to the tomb and a dead man comes walking out of the tomb.
his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face.
Jesus said to them, “Take off the grave clothes and let him go.”

What I see in this is Jesus wept. Jesus was greatly troubled. Jesus was grieved. Jesus was once more deeply moved. And it’s not that he’s sad. He’s sad, obviously, because of the situation, but he also knows what’s about to happen. But he’s very, very upset. He’s grieved. He’s frustrated. He’s angry.

He’s not angry at the people around him. What I think he’s angry about is he’s angry that sin and death have continued to rob humanity of so much. He’s face to face with the full hurt of what sin and death feels like and the agony that has troubled humanity for so long. And he’s very, very frustrated. And he says to the Father, “Let’s do this.”

The book of John has given us seven signs to demonstrate who he is:

The first one is when he turned water into wine.
Then he healed the royal official’s son.
Then he healed the paralytic at Bethesda.
Then he fed the five thousand.
He walked on water.
He healed the man born blind.
Now this is kind of like, that’s it. No more playing around. This is like the last straw. This is the nail in the coffin. This is basically Jesus saying, “All right. If you’re not going to believe because of this, you’re not going to believe. This is my final appeal to all of you to put your trust in me and I will lead you to resurrection life.

There’s this resolute, “I’ve had enough of this. Sin and death, I’m coming for you.” And he does this like many other things. He does something to prove something he’s trying to teach the people.

For instance, when the four guys came and lowered the paralytic through the roof and Jesus is like, “What’s up, man?” And everybody’s looking on. And what did Jesus say? He said, “Your sins are forgiven.” He said, “My son, your sins are forgiven.”

And the guy is like, “Thank you? (I think). I don’t know.”

And the friends are all like, “Man, that’s not what we came for.”

And then it says, “Jesus, knowing what was in the people’s thoughts..”

They were like, “Who is this guy who thinks he can forgive sins? Blasphemous!”

Or maybe they’re thinking, “Who is this guy? He says ‘Your sins are forgiven.’ Anyone can say that at any time. There’s no power.”

And he knows what’s happening and he says, “Because of your thoughts, I want you to see what happens next. So that you can know that the Son of Man has power to forgive sins, son, get up and walk.”

And the guy gets up and starts walking. And Jesus is like, “Hey, hold on. Take your mat, too.”

And the guy is like, “Okay,” grabs his mat and walks off.

And everybody in the room was left with this decision: Does he have the power to forgive sins? It sure looks like it.

Here Jesus is saying to Martha and Mary and Lazarus and the disciples and the Jews that were there, and to us today, “To prove to you that I am able to give resurrection life, Lazarus, come out.”

The fact that Lazarus came out, and Jesus says, “Get those death clothes off of him. Get those things that are reminders of sin and death and the power they have had over humanity—get those off of him. I don’t want to see them anymore.”

Jesus was trying to teach people about this life that he had been trying to teach them all along. And he was using this as an example. But we all know that this wasn’t really the last sign. There was another sign far greater when Jesus himself had gone through suffering, crucified on the cross and died, laid in a tomb just like this. And on the third day, he came out.

But Lazarus was not resurrected to resurrection life. Lazarus was resurrected to the same temporal life that he had experienced. Because Lazarus, once again got sick. Lazarus once again died. So Jesus was not raising him to resurrection life, glorified life; he was just raising him back to the kind of life that everyone knew and was familiar with.

But when Jesus rose from the dead, he rose to resurrection life. He was the firstfruits of the resurrection. The fact that he came out and then lived a life—he would walk around and they would not recognize him but then they would recognize him. His body wasn’t in the tomb. It was all glorified up. He could eat and he could walk around with people, but then the next thing, he’d be gone and show up in a different place.

Jesus was the firstfruits of the resurrection. So those who follow Jesus into death will be raised just like Jesus into resurrection life, which is incorruptible. Which is everlasting. Which does not have any suffering. There will be no more tears, no sorrow, no more darkness.

This is the reason that Jesus came: so that you and I could know that kind of life. Without Jesus we can’t. There have been many people who claimed to know the way. Buddha thought he knew a way to escape. But guess what? He’s dead in the grave. Muhammed. He thought he knew a way to escape. Guess what? You can go visit his tomb. He’s still there. And on and on. Jesus is the only one to claim what he claimed and no one can find him. He’s alive.

If you will give your life to him, he will lead you into resurrection life forevermore. Let’s pray:

Jesus, I pray that you would help us to learn about how you see suffering. I pray that, in everything we do, Lord, we would be a church that has a very good blibical perspective, that all of these messages, all of these things being thrown at us, would have to go through the filter of your word before they land in our hearts and our minds. I thank you for this story, Lord, and what you did for Lazarus. Lord, I pray for the people in the room that they’re not following you, or the people online who aren’t walking in your ways. I pray that today they would make that decision and you would lead them to lead them to life, that resurrection life would begin, even now, until that day it begins fully.

If you’re in a place where you do want to make a commitment to Christ, you do want to offer your life to Jesus, you’re tired of doing it in your own strength, your own wisdom, and you’re wanting Jesus to take the wheel, you can just say a real simple prayer. You can repeat these words if you want:

Jesus, I need you. I’m lost without you. I’m sorry for the sins that I’ve done. I ask that you would cleanse me, make me clean, and I pray that you would lead me to life. Amen.

©️2020 Living Streams Church
7000 N Central Avenue ∙ Phoenix AZ 85020 ∙ 602-957-7500 ∙ https://www.livingstreams.org

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Guest User 9/27/20 Guest User 9/27/20

Voices

Living Streams! This is going to be weird. I hope you can bear with me. It’s been sixteen months since my family’s been in this church. So I’m standing in worship right now. Man, it’s just like I’ve been wandering in a desert for sixteen months and then I finally come home—come to this sweet pool of water and get to drink.

John 10
Joel Fritz - September 27, 2020

I don’t know how to do this. I have a little intro to tell you a little bit about myself, because I know as I even look out today that I’m speaking to a lot of people who don’t know me. So that requires me to introduce myself just a little bit. Those of you online, this is just kind of a cool moment, to know that there is such a big group of people who are joining with us that aren’t here.

But boy, what I’ve got to share is just this little sermonette before the sermon; and that is just that, man, it is a special thing to be together with you all. The body of believers is a powerful thing. We’re sitting here, worshiping together, singing those words out together, speaking out truth. We don’t always form words with our lips, do we? And the truth that we read maybe out of the Bible and the things that we want to believe in our hearts, we don’t always do that.

But then we come together on Sunday mornings, when we get the opportunity, you can now feel how special it is. For me, I’ve been in Italy for fifteen months. And we have a small group of people. But it’s not the same, right? You come into this big group of people and you all join in worship together, and you sing the same words, and you feel the power of the Holy Spirit move, and it’s an incredible thing.

And I know there are so many people who haven’t been able to come back to church. You’re maybe watching right now, and I’ve just got to tell you how special it is. When it comes around, it’s good. It’s just so sweet. So I’ve just go to start with that because I’m filled with emotion. In fact I told Dave, “Okay, I’m going to work really hard and not just make this a therapy session for myself, where I’m talking about all the things that happened and all the difficulties we went through for the last fifteen months.” Because that’s not the point. The Lord has given me a word to deliver to you guys. It’s a special word. It’s in John 10.

You guys have been in the book of John, right? You’ve heard David preaching. He did 8. I listened to that message. I didn’t catch his last message last week, so maybe I’ll say the same thing, who knows? Maybe the Lord wants to do that again. But I know he did John 9.

So let me just give you a little background. My wife and I started praying about what we should do, like, “Hey, Lord, you seem like you’re stirring something.” This was a couple of years ago. Here we are, I’ve been a pastor at Living Streams for about eight years. We’ve got a great group of friends and we feel like the Lord is saying, “I want to do something else for a season.”

So we made ourselves open to him. We prayed. He introduced us to some people in Italy. I stood up in front of the church and I said, “Who on earth is ever going to support a family to go to Italy in doing missions?” And, sure enough, the church wanted me to go, just like the Lord wanted us to go. And we went and we ministered to people. Some great things happened. Some difficult things happened. The COVID onset. The video camera of the world alighted on Italy and we sat there in our little three-bedroom apartment going, “What is happening?” Right?

It was a very strange moment. But we got to see the Lord work. After being locked in our apartment for sixty-two days, we got set free, I guess you’d say. And, boy, what a perspective we had on life. What an opportunity we had to be with people again. It was very special. And then we felt the Lord leading us back. I’ll get into that a little bit later. But I just wanted to give you a little heads up who I am.

I’m going to be talking in John 10 today. So, if you actually want to pull out your Bibles right now that’d be very cool. We’re all for digital devices because we know the Bible can be on there, probably just hit your “Do Not Disturb” so that nothing else interrupts you. But then go on there and find John 10 and we’ll read into it.

I want you to know what this message is about today, so I’m going to say it again and again. This message is about Voices. I think there is one thing that we can all agree about right now: it’s that there are a million voices clamoring for your attention. They are passionate voices that want you to listen to them. So we’ve got to filter through that. We’ve got this complex task.

Before you run away because you’re thinking that I’m going to start preaching about which voices you should listen to and where you should follow them and exactly the right answers to all of it—I’m not. Stay with me. I’ll leave that stuff to Pastor Dave. Today I’m going to talk about one voice. One voice. And it’s the voice of the Good Shepherd.

You guys want to read a little bit with me out of John 10? We’ll start in verse 1

“Very truly I tell you Pharisees, anyone who does not enter the sheep pen by the gate, but climbs in by some other way, is a thief and a robber. 2 The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. 3 The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. 4 When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice. 5 But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger’s voice.”

I’m going to skip down to verse 9:

9 I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. They will come in and go out, and find pasture. 10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.
11 “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. 12 The hired hand is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep. So when he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away. Then the wolf attacks the flock and scatters it. 13 The man runs away because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep.

This is the word of the Lord. Would you bow your heads with me as I pray and invite the Lord’s presence?

You’re here today, I believe it. What a special thing, the people that are joined in presence with one another, get to experience this moment. Lord God, I pray that it would extend out past this room. There are many good reasons that people can’t be here today. Lord God, I pray that you would sit with them, in their midst in this moment. That you would connect us like only you can by the power of your Holy Spirit. And that we would experience you and listen to your voice today. There are so many voices clamoring for our attention, Lord God. But we want to be able to zero in, home in, acutely listen to you and your voice. We thank you so much for who you are, that you’re alive and that you love us. Now, Lord God, would you grant me the ability to speak your words and not my own, even if you want to change the direction. We love you. I offer myself to you in this place today. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

About two years ago, I remember something kind of funny happening. I remember my wife and I were having a conversation about something we wanted to buy. We were thinking about dinner plates. I think a few of ours were cracked. We’ve got little girls, you know, and things break over the years. So we were thinking, “Hey, we need to get some new dinner plates.” We had a conversation about it. And then, the next day, I was looking for a drill on Home Depot or something like that, and then, you know they’ve got that little column there on the website, like Home Depot and all these other places; and then, all of a sudden, these little pictures start popping up. But they’re pictures of plates. And I’m like, “Plates? What?”

Now, can you guys see this? I don’t know if the camera is good enough. I’m trying to Duane “The Rock” Johnson eyebrow thing. I love that quizzical look because that’s how I feel in my heart when I saw those pictures after saying it. “Who’s listening to me,” Is what I thought. “Who is listening to me?” Right? And then I think about it and I’ve got this thing called an Echo. My kids call, you know, saying, “Alexa, do this for me. Do this. Do a back flip for me, Alexa. Do you love me, Alexa?” All this kind of stuff. But Alexa is always listening. And if you don’t have your phone turned off, you know, like Siri, where I push the button first, Siri is listening.

So I don’t know how this all works. I am not a tech guy, and I’m not here to tell you the ins and outs of how that is all working. But what I do know is that people who are trying to get your business, not a bad thing, but they want your attention and they are more crafty today than they have ever been in the history of the world. They are somehow listening to you when you enter in a web address, when you enter in a search query, they are listening to you. Somebody is giving your information to somebody else, they’re landing that picture of that plate right there on that page where I’m searching. They’re crafty. Their voices want your attention today, and they’re going to do anything they can do to get it.

Some of the important things that I think we need to be asking are based around this one question. What are the motivations of the voices that are speaking to us? What are the motivations of the voices that we’re allowing ourselves to listen to today? This is it. The critical thing. It’s so important.

Now, when we look back on this John 10, and I’m going to do a little bit of what we call “exposition” here. I want us to be able to have a picture of what’s happening in this text of scripture, John 10. I’m going to dig in to it just a little bit.

When we look into it right, off the bat, I see three voices speaking. One: I see the Good Shepherd, Jesus Christ. He is saying something. There’s a voice in that. And then he says there are these other voices that are speaking. There’s a hired hand. We’ll talk a little bit about that. And then there’s another voice. The thief. Or the word that I like better, the robber. It’s just fun to say. But there’s the Good Shepherd, the hired hand and the thief (or robber).

These voices are real voices. And I believe that these voices are active today. But now let’s get back into Jesus’ day and think a little bit about what he’s talking about. Who is he speaking to first?

Now if you’re a student of the Bible, you’re asking some simple questions on a regular basis when you’re reading the word of God. One of those questions is Who is speaking? Two: the question is Who is this person speaking to? Or who is the narrator speaking to. Right? So I want to answer those questions real quick. It’s very simple, but for four chapters actually, seven, eight, nine and ten, Jesus has been speaking with a particular group of people, and they are called the Pharisees. Now, when we hear the word Pharisee, I don’t know what it means to you. Maybe you grew up in Sunday school and you remember the flannel graphs, or you had these cute little videos that showed you these different pictures of Pharisees and who they are. But simply put, they are religious leaders. These were the authorities of the day in Jesus’ time. They held the structure in place. They were also the ones that had built the structure under themselves and they were on top of it.

So Jesus is speaking to these guys, in this case, and he is speaking to them about all the different perspectives that he had on this authoritarian structure. He was sharing what he thought about it. And they were not happy about it, because he was also introducing other ideas that were very dangerous for these people. Ideas like, “I am the Son of God.” And they had these back and forth arguments.

So when you think about teaching, and oftentimes you might think about something like this. Today we might think, was Jesus standing on a stage? Was he out on a hill? Was he speaking to people who were peaceful like you guys are peaceful right now? What was this context? What did it look like? What I want to make sure you know, I’ve heard David mention it in his sermons, but what I make sure you know is that this was not a peaceful circumstance. Jesus was saying things that were provoking the Pharisees and the religious leaders. So much so that I remember David pointing out chapter 8, that they picked up stones to stone Jesus. In that moment Jesus had said a word that was very precious to the Jewish people: Yahweh. It’s a word that they didn’t even want to pronounce. It was a word that they wouldn’t even write out. It simply means “I AM.” Jesus looked at the Pharisees and said, “I AM.” That’s reserved for God and Yahweh alone. Nobody else is allowed to say that. But he said it. They picked up stones to stone him. This was an intense moment.

And here we go, at the end of these four chapters, Jesus is having a simple exchange. But he’s sitting there and he’s telling the Pharisees who they are and who he is. So I need you to be able to see. To be able to get inside of this story, you have to be able to feel the context of what’s happening. People are listening. A crowd has gathered around. They’re watching as Jesus is speaking to these people. And he’s telling them their business. In fact, the very things that he’s saying are threatening to erode the foundation that they have built their entire lives upon. They have everything to lose in those moments.

So there is this one question, though, that we see. And it permeates this entire section and then transitions us into what we’re going to talk about with these voices. But this one question is a question that every person must ask in their life and have an answer for. It’s really a fascinating one, but it’s so simple. That question is this: Who is this guy Jesus? And that is the question of the day in which we find ourselves, as Jesus is speaking to the Pharisees about the Good Shepherd, the hired hand and the robber.

Hopefully that gives you the picture that you need. But now I want to pick up and I want to allow you to see a little bit of this and then transition into talking about the hired hand. John 10:27-33 says this:

27 My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. 28 I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand. 29 My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. 30 I and the Father are one.”
31 Again his Jewish opponents picked up stones to stone him, 32 but Jesus said to them, “I have shown you many good works from the Father. For which of these do you stone me?
33 “We are not stoning you for any good work,” they replied, “but for blasphemy, because you, a mere man, claim to be God.”

Who is this guy, Jesus?

The hired hand. Jesus says this in John 10:11:

11 “I am the good shepherd.

You’ve heard that already. We’ve talked about it.

The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. 12 The hired hand is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep. So when he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away. Then the wolf attacks the flock and scatters it. 13 The man runs away because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep.

I have these question I will ask multiple times today. What is the motivation of the hired hand? Because there are hired hand voices speaking into our lives today, just like there were hired hand voices, the voices of the Pharisees, many times some of the Pharisees speaking into the lives of the people in that day. What are the motivations of the hired hand? Personal gain.

Remember when I talked about Siri and Alexa? I mean, it’s such an interesting picture. But companies want your attention. Now listen to me closely, please. I am not against profit. I am not against sales. And I think that people need things like plates like I talked about, to eat off of, and that make their life better. Somehow I need to find the best ones for the best price and all of that. So in and of itself, advertising is not bad. We need to be able to see that. That’s not my point today one bit at all. I’m not thinking in that way.

What I am thinking about is you asking the question, myself asking the question, what’s the motivation of the voice? When the voice gets our attention, what’s the motivation? The answer is the motivation is for personal gain. Is it wrong, if you’re a salesman, to want to be able to feed your family or make a few bucks or do well at your job? No. No. No. It’s not. The thing is, for you, when the voice has your attention, you have to be able to pay attention and think “Is this is my best interest, or is this in the best interest of the person?” I can’t tell you.

This is a lesson I want my daughters to understand, a lesson I want to live my life by. And I have a hard time doing it because the message that those voices, the hired hand, communicate are very slick. They make a lot of sense. It’s a voice that I want to hear because of the way they’re saying it. But what I have to do is to ask myself, “What’s the motivation?”

Jesus says that the hired hand is out for themselves. And that’s what I find so interesting about this passage. The hired hand is about what? Getting paid. So when the wolf actually comes in this story, the hired hand flees and runs away. I think it’s the same exact thing when we look at the voices speaking to us about “You need this,” and “You need this.” We have to stop. We have to analyze. We have to think, “Who is this voice for?” If it’s not for you, then it’s for them. And if it’s for them, then it’s not necessarily always in your best personal benefit. That voice can lead you down a road that won’t take you to green pastures and abundant life.

So we have to beware of the voice of the hired hand. But there’s a more sinister voice out there. This one’s an interesting one for me to talk about. But it’s the voice of the thief. You know the voice of the hired hand is not necessarily a bad voice. It’s just a voice that we have to pay attention to and be cautious about. Understand the motivation behind it. But the voice of the thief, listen to this:

8 All who have come before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep have not listened to them.
9 I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. They will come in and go out, and find pasture. 10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy;

So what is the motivation of the thief? We can all say it together. To steal, to kill and to destroy. Now, I don’t even know how to convey this. This is such an interesting thing to me. I think oftentimes in our society today we have kind of gotten to this place where we’re thinking that people who believe or let me see… people, when they speak to us, their motivations aren’t bad, I guess. But there’s truly an evil that exists in this world. Sin is still a part of this world today. Motivations from certain people’s voices, literally can be a voice of the thief in your life. And the motivation of the thief is not just to get something from you like the hired hand. It’s actually to destroy you.

And that’s where I think, when I think about my daughters, or I think about people that I’m caring about, these are voices that we really want to warn our kids about, that we really want to warn one another about. But the truth is that the devil is real. There is an enemy that you have that is trying to undermine everything that you do, that doesn’t want the best for you, but wants the worst for you. A thief comes to steal, to kill and to destroy. I think about that voice. That’s the voice that I want you to stay away from the most.

How can I illustrate this voice? When I was in Italy, I had to come up with these creative ideas to get to know people. I mean, here’s a guy that, we show up over there, I can’t speak Italian and I want to get to know people. Very few people speak English. This is not Rome or one of these tourist cities where people are speaking English because it’s part of their business. We were in kind of like the armpit, podunk town in Italy that you’re never going to see on the tourist map. Albeit, it’s beautiful. It’s in amazing country. I love it. But it’s not a tourist city. So nobody speaks English.

So how am I going to get to know people? I joined a bicycle club. I’ve been a bicycle rider for quite some time and I knew that Italians love road biking, right? So I thought, “Well, hey. That’s a way to get to know people.” So I get a bicycle, start riding with these guys. They’re serious, you know. They’re just going to leave you in the dust if you can’t keep up. So I had to do some riding out on my own.

There were some great hills around there and I remember this one day in particular where I was riding up a hill. For you runners and cyclists out there, you understand this lingo, but I had already ridden about fifteen hundred elevation feet up. This is just a big mountain. I was climbing straight up this mountain. I probably still had another five hundred feet to go of elevation feet, so maybe another mile or two.

When I get at this point and my heart rate is probably at 85-90% of its total capacity, and right at that moment, there are these sheep dogs everywhere, because there are sheep and there are cows, and the bells ringing on the cows—it’s surreal. It’s like something you never experience in the United States. But here I am riding in this serene environment, riding up this hill, heart’s pounding away and these dogs come out barking.

And for the history of cycling, I know there’s never been a friendly relationship between a cyclist and dogs. So these dogs start chasing me. Think of what my heart rate is doing. Pow, pow, pow. It’s accelerating past the 100% and I’m going to explode. I’m going to die. I stand up on the pedals and I’m pedaling away from these dogs. You don’t know what to do. You just react. I presume the dogs were all bark and no bite. But I get past the dogs, my rate comes down and then I keep on riding.

The next time I go up that hill, wouldn’t you know what happens? I come to that corner and my heart rate elevates. Boom. I’m already at 85-90% of my maximum heart rate. And I just come around the corner and bam, bam, bam. It starts pounding. Why? Because the voices of those dogs were so acute, that I immediately recalled them as soon as I came to the same place that I was before. They weren’t there this time. And they weren’t there the next time. But the same thing happened the next time .

You know what’s fascinating to me is that I think the enemy puts these barking dogs in our own lives; because he doesn’t want the best for you. I was faced with a moment of anxiety when I came to that corner, and my heart started pounding again. And the thought crossed my mind, “Should I turn around and go back?” Thankfully I answered, “No, I’m going to press forward. I’m going to keep going up the hill. I need to accomplish what I set out to do.”

But the enemy doesn’t want that for you. The thief comes to kill, to steal, and to destroy. And so my question would be to you then, what are the voices of those barking dogs? What voices are the thief using in your life to try to slow you down, to stop you from being all that God wants you to be, to stop you from finding the green pastures that Jesus talks about, the abundant life that Jesus talks about.

Let’s ask this question. What is the Good Shepherd’s motivation? What is the motivation of the Good Shepherd? John 10:9-11 tells us very clearly:

9 I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. They will come in and go out, and find pasture. 10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. 11 “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.

Jesus. What’s his motivation? The well being of the sheep.

When we look at these three distinct voices that exist today, we see very clearly. The hired hand, out for personal gain. Not always bad, but definitely something we should be asking questions about. What’s the motivation? Is it in my best interest

To the thief. What does the thief want to do? Steal, kill and destroy. Those barking dogs in your life that just won’t let you go. Those things, those voices that continue to tell you you’re worthless. "Remember when you failed at that? You’re never going to be able to overcome." “You can’t move forward any longer.” Those voices of the enemy that don’t want good for you.

And then there’s the voice of the Good Shepherd. And truly he says, “The Good Shepherd lays down his life for the sheep because he wants the abundant life and to lead you into green pastures.” This is his motivation. We see this because Jesus actually came. He gave up his rights as God, lived among us, and did the hardest thing imaginable in order that we can experience life for ourselves.

So I want to ask, how do we come to know the Shepherd’s voice? Let me ask. Are there any dads with daughters out here today? You can raise your hand at home, too. Dads with daughters, come on! Be proud. I’ve got three little girls. I have no sons to my name. I have three precious little girls. And my three little girls talk, talk, talk, talk…which requires a lot of listening, listening, listening, listening for me. I want to talk too. I have some things to say. But I don’t always get to say those things.

And sixty-two days in lockdown with three little girls was an interesting experience. I found out that I can escape and I can go somewhere where I didn’t have to hear the voices all the time, and all the words that they have. But then, when you’re in lockdown and you’re stuck, I had to listen, listen, listen. And I prayed to God for patience. And he gave me patience much of the time. There were also times that I found myself locked in a room, curled up on the bed while my girls were actually outside heckling me. I mean, you get that picture in your head, standing at the door, “Daddy, daddy, daddy!” And they’re laughing! They’re like, “I can’t take it, ha, ha, ha!”

Those voices. Those precious, beautiful, amazing voices. Those voices that sixty-two days in lockdown just made me more aware of the intonations, the tone, the personality, specificity, of each one of my precious little girls. I promise you, if I were in a dark cave filled with kids and I couldn’t see my hand in front of my face, if one of my daughters called my name, if one of my daughters asked for help, I’d know exactly who it is.

I think it’s the same thing with God. If it takes sixty-two days, if it takes a hundred and two days, if it takes that time during the day that I’m going to talk about in just a minute, we have to figure out how to listen and hear the voice of the Shepherd. Because that’s the voice that will give you life. God has a voice. This may seem like a simple statement. And if you’re on board, I mean, great. But I don’t think everybody in this place today has really grappled with this question. God has a voice.

When I first got to Italy for survey trip in January of 2019 I met a man named Pasquale. Pasquale—neat guy. A real brainiac. He could speak English, so maybe I just loved him because he could speak English, but he loved to talk about theology. Not so much religion, because remember, this is a very religious country, Italy is. But the young people don’t want to talk about religion. They want to walk away from anything that smacks of religion at all. Basically everybody under 40 would call themselves an aonteistic or an agnostic. Very few people would claim any sort of faith. But Pasquale was wrestling with these questions of theology.

We had these amazing conversations. And when I returned in June of 2019, we would sit down probably every week or every other week. And we would have these conversations. And my friend Steve who was there with us, we would have these conversations together. It was fascinating. Because during the time that I was there, Pasquale said he was an atheist, which if you don’t know, means don’t believe there’s any God whatsoever. There’s no creator, there’s no God.

Then he transitioned himself from saying that to saying, “No, I believe that there’s a higher power. I just can’t know that higher power,” which would be called an agnostic, if you’ve ever heard that term.

Then Pasquale goes from being an agnostic during our conversations, into saying, “I’m a Deist.” Now I don’t know if you know what a Deist is or not. But a Deist has this concept that God made the earth, wound it up, kind of like a watch, built the watch, wound it up, and it just ticks and takes care of itself. We do what we’re going to do, but God is off in the distance and he has no interaction.

And, finally, one day we were having a conversation and I’m pressing, pressing Pasquale in a very friendly way, because we had developed this great relationship. And I’m like, “Pasquale, do you believe that God is real?”

And he goes, “I believe that God is real.”

I said, “But do you believe that God is conscious? Can you have an exchange with this being that exists out there?”

And he goes, “No, I don’t. I don’t believe that God has a voice and can speak to me because I don’t believe that God is conscious.”

I just have to say there are a few more things I want to mention in this sermon, but this may be the end for you. Does God have a voice? Because, until you answer the question, Does God have a voice, you can’t move on. Until you answer the question, Is God a conscious being? You can’t move on to listening, can you?

But today, this message is about listening. This message is about listening to a voice that I believe God has, and has used in the Bible for many years publicly, and uses often personally for each one of us.

So, finally, I want to ask for those of us who do believe, that have come to that place where we would say “God does have a voice, he is a conscious being, and I want to hear that voice,” I want to ask this: How do we hear God’s voice? And give you some simple steps.

Number one simple step is this: Be a sheep. Now, I was going to go off on this because in Italy there are sheep everywhere. We actually had shepherds leading sheep and I told you about the sheep dogs and everything. But the point is, what do we simply know that sheep do? And it’s real! Sheep follow. They follow. That’s what sheep do.

So my first thought for you is to be a sheep. And once you start thinking, “I can be a sheep. I can be like a sheep.” Then you have to ask, “Well, am I acting like one?”

Number two: listen to this. I hope all of us can hear this because this is one of the most difficult things in the world to do. Hit DND. Do you know what DND means? It’s an acronym for Do Not Disturb. Right? Every single phone has a Do Not Disturb button. But the question is, how often do we use that Do Not Disturb button. DND. Not to be confused with Dungeons and Dragons, which is another use of that acronym. But this is the number one way to use it. Do Not Disturb.

Are you hitting Do Not Disturb on your phone at any time in your day in order to hear the voice of God? Are you hitting Do Not Disturb on life at any point in your day in order to hear and listen to the voice of God? I wish I had a more simple answer and a crafty way for you to be able to say, “If I do this thing, then I will carve out the time and be able to listen to the voice of God.”

I don’t have that. It’s just hard. When you have kids, when you have a business, when you have a pain that you experience chronically on a regular basis, when you have all of these things that are screaming and yelling and trying to take your attention, it is difficult to hit DND on life and on the phone.

But if you think about the phone, I have another question for you. Do you tell your phone when to talk to you or does your phone tell you when it wants to talk? It’s just kind of a funny way to think about it. Your phone, my phone tells me when it wants to talk all the time and then I just go running, “Okay okay, okay.”

When I get out of bed in the morning, what’s the first thing that I do? Do I go to my phone and check the messages? Then somebody else has my attention. In those moments, that’s the time that I choose to hit DND and go to the Lord. For you, it may not be in the morning. But I ask is there a time that you hit DND?

We need to practice being silent. Number three: Listen to hear. Would you say that there’s a difference between listening and hearing? Listen to hear.

Finally, number four: Follow. It’s kind of where it begins.

See yourself as a sheep. Hit DND. Listen to hear. And then finally, when the Lord speaks—because he will—it’s our role to follow.

This message began with the word voices and finishes with the word follow. Have you heard the voice of the Lord recently?

I wonder if you’ve been listening for the Lord’s voice. If you have heard it recently, more importantly, I guess, is to ask when was the last time you heard the Lord’s voice. Was it through a Bible verse this morning? Was it when you gave your attention to God’s word? You gave your attention to God’s written word. The Lord showed you something simple in scripture but profound, something so profound that not even death can shake it.

Was it a few months ago when you found yourself alone with no job and were wondering what you will do? Finally coming to a point where you shut your mouth and say, “Hey, God, maybe you forgot about me, but if you have anything to say, this would be a good time.” And then something miraculous happened because, instead of moving on to the next thought or the next fear, or the next notification, you actually listened for a moment.

And in that moment, God reminded you that he is for you and not against you. That he loves you and that he gave up all his rights as God to come and allow himself to suffer just so that you could be close to him, reminding you of your worth and value, and that he doesn’t need anything from you because he already possesses everything in himself.

Or was it last year when someone you trusted took a chance and shared something you needed to hear? Something that actually changed your relationship because it meant you were wrong. You ever been there? As you reflect on it now, though, you see it was not for selfish reasons that that person came to you and risked the relationship. They were risking and paying a cost because they love you and they want the best for you.

When people speak to us, we need to ask the question, what’s the motivation? And even when people speak things to us that we don’t want to hear, if the motivation is right, true, pure and leads us into green pastures, it leads us into the abundant life—we don’t want to hear it even if it’s hard.

When Jesus speaks out and says these things, these voices that you hear and sound so good, they don’t have your best interest at heart. This one voice, it wants your attention and it’s not necessarily for bad reasons, but it’s not for you. It’s for them. Their number one motivator is for them. And if hard times come, if the storm of life comes, they won’t be there for you. Or is this the thief who wants to steal, to kill and to destroy?

The way we listen to these voices matters because it will influence the way that we respond. It will influence the situations of our hearts. It will influence whether or not we listen, we hear, and we follow the Good Shepherd.

What is God’s motivation? He’s for you. I hope you can believe it.

We’re going to do a baptism in just a minute and I was thinking about how I would pray at the end, maybe wrap it up and ask the Lord if we could hear him speak something. But I think this baptism is a pretty special thing; because when we’re listening to the Lord and we’re following his voice and he speaks, one of the things he speaks to us is about baptism. And he’s made it very clear, and it’s something that is so beautiful that the Church has done for thousands of years, ever since Jesus ascended into heaven.

This beautiful baptism, we even saw John the Baptist doing it before Jesus, where you get dunked under the water and it represents the reality that Jesus Christ descended into the earth from heaven, and then went step further down into the depths of Sheol and into death, was buried inside of the grave, but did not stay there; but proclaimed and declared his power as God, which you have seen clearly in John, declared his power as God, and resurrected, overcoming death, back to life, which means he’s alive today, that he is conscious, he’s alive today, cares about you, and wants good things, even the abundant life here and for eternity for you.

One of the things then he asks is that you would follow him into baptism; and I think there are some people here that the Lord might be speaking to that haven’t signed up for baptism yet. I want you to come and I want you to talk to Kurt or maybe Ryan over here and maybe they can get another pastor or two, and talk to them about what the Lord is doing in the way that he’s been speaking. Because this is a step of obedience, and there are ten people today through the services that are going to take that step of obedience and follow like a sheep after Jesus Christ the Good Shepherd.

So I’m going to take just a moment and I’m going to pray for us and then during that time Kurt is going to come up and is going to share with you a little more and he’s going to celebrate with them because they’ve received that new life, Jesus Christ, and their following him into abundant pastures.

Lord Jesus, I thank you for who you are. You’re incredible. I believe that you’re alive and that your voice is real and speaking. I’ve experienced it in my own life today. I’ve experienced it in my own life in the past, and Lord God, you have led us into green pastures, even sitting in the midst of Corona Virus. So many difficult things are happening in this moment in history, in this moment in our world, and yet, Lord God, you speak in the midst of it. You push aside the voices. You calm our racing hearts, and you take over and you tell us what is best for us. And I pray, Lord God, that your people would be able to hear you today. And for those that you are leading into baptism to follow you right into that, I pray that take that step in these moments. I thank you for them, Lord God, and that you called them. Let your blessing be upon them and in this first step into this new life, Lord God, I pray that it would be an abundant one, that you would show them clearly exactly where you’re leading them. We love you, Jesus. It is your day. It is your voice. In your name we pray. Amen.

©️2020 Living Streams Church
7000 N Central Avenue ∙ Phoenix AZ 85020 ∙ 602-957-7500 ∙ https://www.livingstreams.org

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Guest User 9/20/20 Guest User 9/20/20

Are We Blind, Too?

John chapter 9. Let’s jump in. This is a wonderful story. John, sometimes they’re long chapters and sometimes he kind of speaks in a way that is a little bit hard to process and understand. But this is just so good right here.

Series: John
John 9
David Stockton - September 20, 2020

Are We Blind, Too?

(Starting at. 6:07)

1 As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth. 2 His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”

So Jesus noticed this man who was blind, and as he noticed him, his disciples’ attention went to that person, as well, and they asked this question.

3 “Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” said Jesus, “but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him. 4 As long as it is day, we must do the works of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work. 5 While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”

Jesus noticed this guy. And, obviously, there’s something different about him. He’s blind. That has a whole bunch of connotation both in today’s world as well as that world. In this moment, the disciples actually say, “Oh, Jesus is looking at the blind person. Jesus is thinking about the blind person.” So they wanted to add to that and kind of show him how much they know. They say, “Was it this person or his parents’ sin that caused this blindness.” Because that the was the thought. The debate was not whether this was a result of one of their sins, this is like judgment of God. It was, was it the parents’ or his that caused this because he was born this way?”

And Jesus, as he always does, answers in a way that is from a completely different perspective altogether. And he says, “No. You’re totally wrong. All of the answers you think are right are wrong.” Which is a funny thing to hear. It’s kind of how I felt in some of my math classes at times.

It’s like Jesus is saying, “You’re totally focused on the wrong thing.” He actually says this: “This was done so you would know the works of God.”

Now again, for those of us who know Jesus and have read this story, we’re like, “Okay, cool, yeah, Jesus is going to heal the guy.” That ’s the works of God. But that’s not what Jesus was saying. He hasn’t healed the man yet. He’s wanting his disciples to understand, and wanting this blind man to understand, that God is up to something. God has purpose. We don’t need to just focus on cause and origins. We need to focus on purpose. And God has purpose in this. And then he goes on and talks about how we need to work the works of God while we can because it’s going to get more difficult.

6 After saying this, he spit on the ground, made some mud with the saliva, and put it on the man’s eyes. 7 “Go,” he told him, “wash in the Pool of Siloam” (this word means “Sent”). So the man went and washed, and came home seeing.

There’s no way that people who can see could ever know how dramatic a moment this would be. All his life he has never seen anything. And in one moment he comes out of this water and he’s flooded with light, color, contrast, depth, I don’t know, art people say the other words that I’m trying to say. I mean, all of it! He could see it all in this moment. So he’s pretty pumped.

8 His neighbors and those who had formerly seen him begging asked, “Isn’t this the same man who used to sit and beg?” 9 Some claimed that he was.
Others said, “No, he only looks like him.”
But he himself insisted, “I am the man.”
10 “How then were your eyes opened?” they asked.
11 He replied, “The man they call Jesus made some mud and put it on my eyes. He told me to go to Siloam and wash. So I went and washed, and then I could see.”

First of all, the disciples are with Jesus and Jesus’ attention goes to this person. And they say, “Oh, is it this guy who’s horrible or his parents who are horrible?” Political correctness wasn’t really working in the system at this point. And he goes on and this guy is actually able to see now. He’s walking around and he’s going, “I see you. I see you. I see you…” He’s seeing all these people that he’s never seen before. And they’re like, “Is this the guy that used to sit and beg all the time?”

“No, that’s not the guy.”

He’s like, “I’m the guy.”

And they’re all divided about it. They didn’t get it because they always saw him as a beggar. They always saw him as a blind man. He has no voice. And he’s there and he’s like, “I am him! I used to be blind. I can see. Do you understand what’s going on?” And they don’t. They don’t at all. And this is what they do:

12 “Where is this man?” they asked him.
“I don’t know,” he said.
13 They brought to the Pharisees the man who had been blind. 14 Now the day on which Jesus had made the mud and opened the man’s eyes was a Sabbath. 15 Therefore the Pharisees also asked him how he had received his sight. “He put mud on my eyes,” the man replied, “and I washed, and now I see.”

It’s getting more and more concise. You can. understand the frustration. He’s like, “People, do you understand what’s happening in my life right now?”

And they’re like, “Mmmm, I don’t really think you were blind. Let’s take him to the Pharisees because they’ll know what to do about this.

16 Some of the Pharisees said, “This man is not from God, for he does not keep the Sabbath.”

You can only imagine what’s going on in this guy’s mind right now. “Are you serious? You’re mad at this guy?”

But others asked, “How can a sinner perform such signs?” So they were divided.

John’s making that very clear. Right? Jesus was very popular. They wanted to make him a king just a few chapters ago. In a few more chapters they’re going to want to crucify him because they hate him so much. There is a lot of division about Jesus still today. There are a lot of opinions about Jesus still today.

And John tells us that the reason there are all those opinions is because people who see don’t really want to see. They prefer the darkness to the light. And that’s true in our world today. People want to suppress the truth because they don’t want to have to make changes. They don’t want people to see the truth about them. As long as they are in that space they can never be healed.

There is a lot of division about Jesus once again.

17 Then they turned again to the blind man, “What have you to say about him? It was your eyes he opened.”
The man replied, “He is a prophet.”

“He’s from God. That’s all I know. He’s got to be because I couldn’t see stuff and now I see everything.

18 They still did not believe that he had been blind and had received his sight until they sent for the man’s parents.

Are you getting how frustrating this must be for this guy? He’s like, “Yeah, I was blind.” And his friends are like, “Nah. We don’t think it was him. Let’s take him to the Pharisees.”

And the Pharisees were like, “Were you blind?”

He’s like, “I was blind.”

They’re like, “Nah. Let’s get his parents.”

So now his parents come.

19 “Is this your son?” they asked. “Is this the one you say was born blind? How is it that now he can see?”
20 “We know he is our son,” the parents answered, “and we know he was born blind. 21 But how he can see now, or who opened his eyes, we don’t know. Ask him. He is of age; he will speak for himself.” 22 His parents said this because they were afraid of the Jewish leaders, who already had decided that anyone who acknowledged that Jesus was the Messiah would be put out of the synagogue. 23 That was why his parents said, “He is of age; ask him.”
24 A second time they summoned the man who had been blind. “Give glory to God by telling the truth,” they said. “We know this man is a sinner.”
25 He replied, “Whether he is a sinner or not, I don’t know. One thing I do know. I was blind but now I see!”

“I was blind and now I can see. I don’t know how to not see now. I just can’t help seeing. Every time I open my eyes—bam—everything is there. I used to be so good at not seeing. I used to the be the best at not seeing. I used to be awesome at it. And now, no matter how hard I try, I just keep seeing. Even when I close my eyes, I see the back of my eyelids when the light is coming through. I just see it all the time. I was blind but now I can see. I cannot deny. I cannot go back. Jesus has changed everything.”

26 Then they asked him, “What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?
27 He answered, “I have told you already and you did not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you want to become his disciples too?”

He spent his entire life blind. Rejected. Judged—that either he is evil or his parents were evil and that’s why. He’s been ridiculed, shamed and left out. He’s had to beg just to survive. Even his parents have created some separation from him. He’s not afraid of some insults or some ridicule. It’s all he’s ever known in this life. Not to mention, he can see now. So he’s not afraid of what these people are going to do. He’s like, “I can see. If you try to punch me, I can see it coming now!”

He can see. He’s so pumped. He’s so excited. And these guys were trying to rain on his parade.

I lived in a school of ministry one time. There were a bunch of guys and we all lived in this house. And it was so funny. Sometimes guys would come home and they had just been with a girl they liked. They had been on a date or they were hanging out and sometimes we could even see them. It was at a church, and we were like, “Ha. He likes her.” And they would come home, and we would joke that they would come home with this girl glow. And no matter what you said to them, they would be like, “That’s funny.”

Literally, sometimes we would go, “Watch. I’m going to go punch him and he’s going to be happy about it.” And sure enough, we could go punch him. And he would be so excited because he got to hang out with that girl. And he’s so excited, and you punch him, and he’s like, “Ha. That’s cool. Don’t worry about it.” And you’re like, “This is so weird.”

But this guy is glowing. He can see now and these guys are trying to rain on his parade. It’s not going to work. So he’s messing with them.

28 Then they hurled insults at him and said, “You are this fellow’s disciple! We are disciples of Moses! 29 We know that God spoke to Moses, but as for this fellow, we don’t even know where he comes from.”

This is a consistent theme in the book of John. But John makes it clear in chapter 1. “In the beginning was the Word (Jesus) and the Word was with God and the Word was God.” He was with God in the beginning. John is trying to make it very clear. These guys don’t know where he came from, but John made it very clear where he came from. He’s God. He’s the Alpha and Omega. So that’s what they say, “We don’t even know where he comes from.”

30 The man answered, “Now that is remarkable! You don’t know where he comes from, yet he opened my eyes.

Here’s someone doing the work of God and you don’t even know anything about him.

31 We know that God does not listen to sinners. He listens to the godly person who does his will. 32 Nobody has ever heard of opening the eyes of a man born blind. 33 If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.”
34 To this they replied, “You were steeped in sin at birth; how dare you lecture us!” And they threw him out.

That’s a junior high response, right there.

35 Jesus heard that they had thrown him out, and when he found him, he said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?”

Do you believe in the Messiah? Do you believe in the one? That’s what he’s saying. Do you believe that God is sending someone into the world to take away the sins of the world? That’s what John said about Jesus. He was declaring that Jesus was the Messiah. John the Baptist said, “Behold the One who takes away the sin of the world. Behold the One who is coming to undo all the damage that sin has done.

And now he’s saying this one, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?”

36 “Who is he, sir?” the man asked. “Tell me so that I may believe in him.”
37 Jesus said, “You have now seen him;

He’s like, “You’re looking at him. You know those eyes that used to not see anything? Right now they’re seeing the Son of Man.”

That makes so much sense, that Jesus had marked this day on the calendar before the foundation of the world. This was not a surprise. This was not a moment. This was not something that just kind of happened. But this was God setting up a moment in a man’s life who had known nothing but frustration and pain, now being able to see the salvation of God.

And this is way bigger than his eyes. And that’s what Jesus is trying to say here. He goes on:

37 Jesus said, “You have now seen him; in fact, he is the one speaking with you.”
38 Then the man said, “Lord, I believe,” and he worshiped him.
39 Jesus said, “For judgment I have come into this world, so that the blind will see and those who see will become blind.”
40 Some Pharisees who were with him heard him say this and asked, “What? Are we blind too?
41 Jesus said, “If you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin; but now that you claim you can see, your guilt remains.

So Jesus is trying to do something here. John is trying to help us understand what Jesus was trying to do. This was not just about healing. Does God heal? Yes. Has God healed? He’s continuing to heal. But all of those healings are not to show us God heals every disease in the moment, immediately. But each one of the healings we receive in the natural is basically something that is supposed to help us understand the work of God and what he’s going to do in all of the world. Does that make sense?

Track with me here. Let’s go back to the beginning. Jesus said this was not about the sin of the parents. This was so the work of God could be revealed. Because what is the work of God? The work of God is to undo the damage that sin has done. That’s the work of God in the world. That’s the work of Jesus sent by God. That is the whole thing.

So whenever we someone healed, that’s awesome and wonderful. And we should pray for people to be healed. All of those things are good. But we need to understand that’s a sign, that’s an indicator, that’s an appetizer (so to speak) to help us know the work that God has promised to do for all of creation forevermore.

When we go back and start processing this, it’s so cool. Jesus saw this blind man. He saw him. And God can see every infirmity. He can see the result of sin. And it is true. He says that, “It wasn’t this man’s sin or his parents’ sin.” But it is sin that brought this about. It was just Adam and Eve’s sin.

There was no disease or disorder in the world in the garden. “Behold, all things were good,” the Bible says. But when mankind decided, “You know what? I think I know better than God. I think I’m going to go against what God said,”—when mankind was deceived and they took and ate of that fruit—sin entered the world. And what happened was, sin and death came in. Disease and disorder came. And now, we as humanity, we’ve been living under the shadow of death ever since. Sin and death reign in our mortal bodies. True or false? True! Ever wake up in the morning and, “Ooooh. What was that?” That’s sin and death going, “Ha ha! We got you.” The fact that 100 percent of the people die is proof that sin and death reign in our mortal bodies. The fact that there are blind people, the fact that there are people with other diseases is proof that sin reigns in this life.

And Jesus sees every single one of the diseases and disorders that we have. Diseases our children have. Diseases that we might have. Diseases that our loved ones have. Jesus sees that. He sees all the disorders that we have. Maybe it’s a disordered desire where we long for something that is evil or wrong. And yet, it is so in us that it’s such a painful thing to try to resist. He sees that. He knows that.

When the question comes from our own hearts about something we’re facing, or the question comes to somebody else’s heart that’s looking at someone. “What’s the problem? What’s the sin? What’s the cause of this?” What Jesus is trying to do is to help his disciples, to help us get our minds off the cause. Sin is the cause. But what’s the purpose? What’s the purpose? Why would God allow for sin to reign and death to rule? Why would God allow there to be pain in the world?” And, depending on your theological background, “Why would God cause all these things?”

And that’s what Jesus is saying, “So that you can understand what the works of God are. So that you can know the glory of God.” This is very deep stuff. This is some deep, deep stuff right here.

The first thing we’ve got to understand is that Jesus is calling us to see people, to engage with people. What our motto here at the church is, “We want to put God’s glory on display, we want to build courageous people, we want to engage in society’s pain.” And that’s led us to do a lot of stuff with foster care in year’s past. This summer it’s led us to really figure out how we can get involved with the black community and what’s going on there, because they’re crying out with pain and frustration. So we’re trying to learn what we can do, and we’re trying to link arms. And I’ve sat at the feet of some awesome black men that have really been able to teach me a lot of neat things. I’m going to steer the USS Living Streams into some of those things.

But we’ve got to see people. And I was reading this passage, and studying it, and I was like, “Wait a second. Every day I drive past the Center for Blind Children on Northern, right there.” Super cool building. But I drive right past it. And I’m like, “I don’t really know what’s going on there.” But that’s a part of our community.

One of the things I learned this summer is that at your church, or your table, should reflect your community and who the Lord’s calling you to serve. And I thought about it, and we have a guy, Frank, who’s been in our church a long time and he’s blind. So I called him up and I said, “Hey, Frank, can we talk? I’ve got to ask you some questions about what I can learn, or what you would want us to know in regards to how we can link arms with you. Get our shoulder under the burden you’re carrying. You could teach us some things.”

And he said, “Let’s not do it over the phone. Let’s do it in person.” So we’re going to meet up.

I texted one of the guys who is in the service right now. I said, “Hey, your job is to help blind people find jobs. Can you tell me some things?” And he told me some things.

We’ve got to see people. We’ve got to see what’s going on. We’ve got to engage in society’s pain. I have a daughter who was born with spina bifida. She was born without being able to feel from her hips down. So she can’t walk. When we found out, it was heavy news. But it’s been so interesting because she turned eleven yesterday, which his awesome.

We have one family that we go to their house sometimes. And they’ve bought a bunch of ramps. So they have ramps all over their house. Whenever we come, they put out the ramps. We come in and Bella is going around all over. It’s awesome. I’m not saying everyone here should get ramps. “Don’t invite me over if you don’t have ramps.” I’m just saying that it’s a way they’ve decided, “Let’s get involved. Let’s just join in.”

Another family that our daughter is friends with, they actually bought their daughter a wheelchair so that when they go out, they can go to the mall and they can wheel together. It’s pretty cool.

That is just engaging. We’ve got to be careful we’re not judging, obviously, and pity is not a good thing either. It’s saying, “How can we actually join our lives together?” That’s what I love. It’s not just in the temple. It’s got to be at the table. It’s got to be real. It’s so easy for us to pretend in this place. But it’s got to be real.

I love this. So Jesus saw them, and he’s helping his disciples to see those people. But then he’s trying to get them to move from judgment and pity to really understanding the beautify and the glory of what God’s doing. He’s trying to get them to move in their understanding toward these things. So he starts to talk about, you know, it’s not cause, it’s purpose. He starts to talk about that this is all so that ultimately the glory of God, the work of God can be displayed.

And it brings to mind with this understanding that Tim Keller brought forth in one of his books. What he says is that the gospel has the audacity to claim that what God is up to, the work of God in the world is he is trying to make everything sad come untrue. I love the way that is phrased. It’s really intense. God’s plan is to make everything sad come untrue.

So here he is giving these guys a taste of something sad coming untrue. But this isn’t the way he does it every time. He’s doing this over all creation. This is a taste of what he plans to do over all of creation in time, as he returns to restore everything. So this gives us hope. This is the appetizer. That we’re all headed toward this time where everything sad will come untrue.

But then, Tim Keller adds this, “But somehow it will all be better for having once been broken.” Whoa. It is true. The gospel declares in the face of all opposition that God is going to make everything sad come untrue in time. But the wonder of it all is that somehow it will be better for having once been broken. And that is a heavy thing. It’s a different way to view pain. It’s a biblical way to view pain, not an American way to view pain.

Americans, we think pain is bad. We avoid it all cost. We try to insulate ourselves from all pain. And then, when we’re nervous that we might actually have to use some of the reserves we’ve saved up, because of some of the trouble… we look to the government. The government gives us the PPP.. So then we don’t even have to use the reserves we’ve stored up. The insulation that we desire is so intense. And I’m not making any political claims about PPP’s. But I’m saying this is the mindset of Americans. How do we insulate ourselves so that we never have to deal with pain? That is not a theology of pain that comes from the Bible.

Jesus actually said, “If you follow me hard enough and long enough, you’re going to end up at the cross. Not just as a bystander, but you’re going to be the one on the cross.” But that cross leads to resurrection. Sin and death have all of our lives, everything we’ve ever known, we get to the end of the day and they’re high-fiving each other. “Did you see all that pain we caused? Did you see all the dissension and division–all that hatred?” They’re just high-fiving each other all day long. “Look what we did!”

At one point there came this Jesus guy. Jesus was healing people and sin and death got a little nervous, because they’re like, “What’s this guy about?” And Jesus was actually saying he was taking on sin and death, that he was going to defeat sin and death. They were getting a little nervous. But when they saw Jesus on that cross, and that blood coming at them, and they watched him get weaker and weaker, until finally he gave up, then they started high-fiving each other again, saying, “We still reign over all of humanity.”

And then about, I don’t know how many hours later–I was going to try to do the math, but it’s not going to work–there was an earthquake that woke up sin and death and everything else. Then there were some angels that showed up. Then there was a big stone rolling around. Jesus rose from the dead. And sin and death’s power was broken.

What happened was, now Jesus is that first fruits of resurrection. He was the first sad thing to come untrue forevermore. He was the first thing to go from corruptible to incorruptible. He was the first one to experience resurrection life, a life that can never die. And then he looked to all of his followers and everyone who would hear him and said, “You want to follow me? Because though it is true that you will go to a cross, you will also step into resurrection life. You will become incorruptible. And everything sad will come untrue.”

This is the gospel. This is what Jesus was trying to get everyone to learn. This is what John wanted us to catch from this healing of the man. I’m not trying to take away from healings. Healings are wonderful. I’m praying they’re happening all the time. We’ve seen healings in this church. It’s wonderful. A guy got healed in the middle service, the 9:30 service. And that’s wonderful. But all of that is really just a finger pointing to the full restoration that God has planned for us, where we’ll all be healed. Everything sad will come untrue. But then we’re actually going to see with eyes. We’re going to see with resurrection eyes. And we will be like this blind man and we will be seeing for the very first time.

Listen to this:

The gospel declares that one day we will all have the scales of our fleshly world perspective fall off. And we will see for the very first time how good and right and beautiful and true God is. And everything that he has ever willed and done and allowed is also good and right and beautiful and true. Even all the crappy stuff.

The transformation, the radical moment where this guy went from never seeing anything to being flooded with all of that, pales in comparison to what it will be like for us who are so blind right now to the things of God, so blind to the full reality of who God is and what he’s doing in the world. When we actually either get Jesus to come back and get us, or we go to be with him, it will be like the first time we will be seeing. We will be flooded with the heavenly perspective, and it will be so much more intense than what this guy experienced. That is the gospel. That is the truth. That is the God that we’re dealing with. We cannot make God temporal. We cannot try and fit him into our worldly paradigms. He’s outside of this.

When we see from his perspective, we’re going to see that every single pain was not on accident, but actually, somehow makes things better for having once been broken. This is our great hope. This is why Jesus died.

First Corinthians 13:12 says:

12 For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face…

Like this guy who could never see. And now the first day that he’s seeing, he sees God incarnate, right? That’s pretty good.

…Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

We’re going to know God fully, even as we are fully known. It’s going to be awesome. It’s going to be awesome.

Lord Jesus, we do thank you for your plans, for they are good, and they’re way more than good. And I pray that you would help us to hold on, to trust you, to believe, to patiently endure until that day where we get to see it clearly, Lord. And I pray that you would help us to see who it is you’re looking at right now in our communities, and that we would be able to see them and not be judgmental, but be able to love them and link arms with them. Lord, I pray for those who are really, really at wits end with the disease and disorders in their life. I pray that today you would wash them over with love and peace, and if so be Lord, that you would even give them the healing they’ve been praying for. We trust you, Jesus. We look to you in this time of uncertainty. We look to you and pray that you would lead us and guide us to those green pastures and still waters.

©️2020 Living Streams Church
7000 N Central Avenue ∙ Phoenix AZ 85020 ∙ 602-957-7500 ∙ https://www.livingstreams.org

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Guest User 9/13/20 Guest User 9/13/20

Who Holds the Power?

We’re going to be in John chapter 8. We’ve been tracking with John. John the evangelist, as he’s called. John the apostle. John the best friend of Jesus, as best we can say. John was a guy that we don’t know exactly how old, but he’s probably late teens, early 20’s, somewhere in there, when he came across this guy Jesus. When he and his brother were fishing, Jesus said, “Come, hang out with me.” And they said, “Okay.” And they did.

(Starting at 3:30)

They started following him and became like students of his, apprentices of his, disciples of his and through that next three years, John went from being someone who was following this guy who had some interesting teaching and words, and was willing to invite John and his brother into this kind of rabbinic tradition—and John thought that was great—to believing that he was the One who made the world. That’s interesting, right? He watched Jesus eat. He watched Jesus sleep. Not in a creepy way, probably. He saw Jesus have to go to the bathroom. I mean, it was just so real, right? They were hanging out.

But through this time three years and then continuing on for the next sixty years of his life he became convinced that that guy, that young, Jewish man that was walking around poor, oppressed, all of that, was actually Messiah, was God who came into this world to save the world from all their sins. And as Jay said, basically to restore everything forevermore. It is fascinating.

And John is writing this gospel so that we, who were not there, would also begin the same journey. Right? That we would begin to trust Jesus. That we would begin to follow Jesus. That we would apprentice our lives to this one named Jesus. That we would be able to recognize that he is not just some historical figure. But he really is God, forevermore alive. Savior of the world. And that John would kind of help show us the journey.

With John it was trust over time. That’s the phrase we’ve been using. That we would believe means to trust more and more over time. As you continue to test Jesus in some ways. As you continue to lean on Jesus and find he is worthy, find he is stable, he is solid. He does what he says he would do. He is faithful to his promises. That you will begin to trust more and more over time and find the riches that are there.

So that’s what the book of John is about. And as we see, John has shared that Jesus, basically from the beginning, he was turning the water into wine, he was feeding five thousand men, he was healing people, he was doing all these things, and people just started to think “This guy is awesome.”

Now, in first century Israel, it was not a great time to be a Jew. It was a tough time. They were under Roman oppression. They were poor. They had this kind of aristocrat class of Pharisees and Sadducees that seemed to do well, but they were oppressive as well, making everybody feel guilty all the time. It was a really tough time. Taxes were unbelievable. It was a really tough time.

So here comes this voice, this figure, this Jewish man that was able to say things that their hearts would burn within them as he spoke. He seemed to speak not as the Pharisees, but as one who had authority. What he said seemed to make sense. It seemed to cut straight to the quick. It wasn’t just propaganda or rhetoric. It was so precise, so powerful and true. And then he would follow it up with healing somebody. So it felt so powerful and real. But then it would actually produce something beautiful and powerful and real.

We’re all professionals at powerful rhetoric these days, right? We get it left side, right side. We get it front side, back side. We get it all over the place. America—that might be one of the best things we do. Powerful rhetoric. Right? You’ve got all that stuff made in China. Well, all of that powerful rhetoric—made here in America.

But what we are all longing for, what the cry of the American heart is, we don’t want rhetoric anymore. We want justice. We want truth. We want righteousness. We want peace. We want unity. These are the things we long for. And the words just, we don’t trust them as much anymore. There are too many words going too many different ways. So we have this cynical heart rising up within us.

And that was the people in that day. Except for Jesus was this weird exception. He was holy. He was righteous. He was acting and living in such a pure way that it seemed very different. But then there was power and authority and substance. So all these people started following him.

And then that moment—the end of John chapter 6 is kind of a culminating moment. Where John he Baptist just had his head cut off by a jewish official that had been given power by the Romans. He cut his head off. And the people lost it. They wanted to do something so they marched out to where Jesus was, out in the wilderness, grieving the loss of his cousin, and grieving the depravity of humanity.

And they came out to him, five thousand strong, five thousand men, and they tried to make him king by force. Which, again, I don’t quite know how that goes down. Like, “Be a king, man. Be a king.” I don’t know. It just sounds weird. But, basically, they were coming, and it was kind of a mob format. And they were saying, “We need a king. We need to go deal with Herod and you’re going to be our king.” And it says Jesus withdrew from them.

Then, at that moment we have chapter seven, chapter eight, chapter nine. We keep going. And it’s Jesus at this point of total popularity, where they want him to rule over them. They want him to lead them to where we get to ten chapters later, and the same crowd, the same group is gathered together and they’re shouting, “We will not have this man rule over us! We will not have this man rule over us!” And Pontius Pilate is saying, “I find no fault in him.” And they say, “Crucify him! Crucify him! Crucify him!” It very well was a lot of the same people.

So John is just showing us this interesting perspective of Jesus, how he’s so beautiful, so right, so true, and yet so rejected by the human heart—the ones he made, the ones he came to save, the ones that he shined his light on.

My question to us today is, where are we at in this? What is the authority of our lives? What are we trusting in these days? What rules over the thoughts in our heads and the actions of our lives?

And this chapter right here, I really do think is Jesus’ answer to anyone who might say, “Why should I give you authority over my life? Why should I let you be in control over my life? Why should I give my life to you?”

I think that’s what the Pharisees are saying to Jesus in this moment in chapter 8. So he gives them an answer. So we’re going to go through seven answers as to why Jesus should be the authority over our lives, why Jesus should be your boss, why you should follow him, why you should commit everything to him, even if it costs you your own life. This is the answer.

John 8. But before we get there, we actually have to read John chapter 7 verse 52, because it sets it up.

[The earliest manuscripts and many other ancient witnesses do not have John 7:53—8:11. A few manuscripts include these verses, wholly or in part, after John 7:36, John 21:25, Luke 21:38 or Luke 24:53.]
1 but Jesus went to the Mount of Olives.

That’s kind of the way 7:52 ends and begins chapter 8. Now, just a little bit of history for us. The Bible was written—Old Testament was written in Hebrew, New Testament was written in Greek with a little bit of Aramic mixed in there. The chapters and verses weren’t in there when they were written. John didn’t write, “Okay, I’m going to put these chapters in there.” John just wrote this as a letter, something that could be circulated throughout the churches—something that could be shared with people. It was basically like if you were to sit down and write why you believe in Jesus. And then you had people in mind that you want to send this to. That’s the way John was written.

And John was written well after the other gospels were written. The other gospels had already been written and circulated. So John is towards the end of his life. He’s living probably in Ephesus. He’s out in a Greco-Roman world, a little bit out of the Jewish context. And he just decided he can’t not do this. He knows the other gospels have been written: Matthew, Mark and Luke and some others. But he’s like, “I want to write my point of view. I want to write my letter to the people I have in mind.” So this really is his evangelistic letter that he is passing out to the world, his take.

It’s interesting here because it says that the early manuscripts and many other witnesses do not have the story. So it’s a short story many of us are familiar with, where a woman caught in the act of adultery is brought to Jesus and it’s kind of a trap that’s been set for him by the Jewish leaders.

So I just want to make note that the Bible here is trying its best, the NIV writers are trying their best to just give you where all this is coming about. So it’s actually in italics, if you noticed. Basically what they’re saying is, "This has shown up in some of the manuscripts that we have, the ancient manuscripts that we’ve been trying to discover and find. But it doesn’t show up in all of the early ancient manuscripts like everything else.”

So they’re giving you this footnote. They’re kind of saying, “Hey, this one, we’re putting it in here because we do think this actually does pass the test that we give it to make it into this. We do see it show up enough to think, eh, we better not leave it out because I think it is true and valid. However, it’s different from all the other stuff. So we just want to put a footnote so that everybody’s clear, everybody knows what’s happening so you can decide what you want to do with it.”

What if the media was like this? What if the media today was only telling us stories that were so verified by so many manuscripts, by so much testing…and anytime there was anything shady or shaky or not 100% verifiable, would we have any news? I mean, how short —would it be all commercials? I don’t know.

What I’m trying to say is the Bible has so much integrity, you don’t even understand. I can’t get into it like I want to, but you should look it up. If you have any question whether the Bible is a reliable authority in your life, do some work, please. Please. Especially you younger generation that has been told for so long that the Bible is oppressive or antiquated. Please! Do some work.

I mean, just to tell you all the other acceptable works of antiquity. They basically have anywhere between one hundred kind of artifacts or manuscripts. Maybe five thousand if you want to find like Homer’s Iliad or something like that. The Bible has over 25,000. It’s not even a contest. If you believe that Caesar was a real person, you’re going on so much more faith than it would take to believe the Bible and the stories they’re saying. The historicity of the Bible is unbelievable. It’s not even a question at all. The only parts of the Bible that they’re still like, “Well, we don’t really know this…” It’s because they don’t know yet. So many times they’ve been like, “Ha! The Bible’s wrong here. The Bible’s wrong here.” And then a hundred years later they’ll find something and, “grumble grumble. Well, it’s was right…” So anyway, please do some work.

But we’re talking about authority today. The Bible is such a good authority. It has withstood the test of time. This is not new stuff that our society is facing. The Bible has handled this generation after generation after generation after generation. And it’s proven itself to be true. And those who doubt it or those who live without it do so to their own demise. No doubt about it.

Let’s continue on:

1 but Jesus went to the Mount of Olives.
2 At dawn he appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered around him, and he sat down to teach them. 3 The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group 4 and said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. 5 In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?” 6 They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him.
Now, again, this is a horrific situation. This is religious leaders doing exactly what religious leaders have done often and are continuing to do. They’re abusing power. They’re trying to get what they want through without really caring about people. And it happens all the time. And it’s sad and it’s horrible. And that’s what’s happening to this woman. I’m sure they set the trap for her so they could make sure and find her. And now they’re bringing her to Jesus. And this is a woman who has a mom and a dad, probably some siblings. And this is a horrible situation.
But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. 7 When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” 8 Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground.
9 At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there. 10 Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?”
11 “No one, sir,” she said.
“Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.”

It’s a short story. A real quick instance of something that happened in Jesus’ life. A trap that was set for him. And the trap basically goes between these two things. The Jewish law says, yes, a woman caught in adultery should be stoned. And there are also laws for the man and where’s the man? There’s a mess here. But it is true that that was a law. God is deadly serious about sin, no doubt about it.

But then, on the other hand, the Romans had a law that they alone were able to issue capital punishment. So if the Jews would have done this, they would have been in violation of the Roman law. So Jesus was caught in that trap, not to mention the trap between, “I thought Jesus would love people and now he’s issuing orders to kill a woman,” versus, “I thought Jesus was about the truth and now he’s not following…” So you can see all of the traps that they’re setting for Jesus here.

And yet, Jesus, knowing everything, he stoops down and just starts writing. We don’t know what he was writing but I think he was probably writing the ten commandments. Just be like, here’s the ten commandments, and then “Who is without sin? You cast the first stone.” I don’t know what he was writing down. But then it’s weird because it says they left, oldest to youngest. That part I don’t know. Because he stooped back and down and was writing. Maybe he was kind of writing their names down next to one of them. “Just in case you weren’t getting it.” Maybe he was writing a date down or whatever. I don’t know. But it was enough for these guys to be like, “All right. I’m out.” Oldest to youngest.

Then Jesus looks at this woman and says, “Where are your accusers?” And she says, “They’re all gone.”

And yet Jesus couldn’t stop there because there was one who was worthy, who was without sin, who could cast the first stone, and that was him. And he said, “Neither do I condemn you. Go your way and sin no more.”

And that’s the first one. Why should you make Jesus the ultimate authority in your life? Because he knows what you’ve done. He has the right to punish you forevermore. And yet he does not condemn you. This is a fascinating thing.

Romans 8:

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ.

Guess what? If you are not in Christ, there is condemnation for you. If you want nothing to do with Jesus, God will grant that to you forever. It’s called utter darkness. It’s called hell. To be without the love and light and peace of Christ, that’s the scary thing. There is condemnation. God does have wrath against sin. If you are still in your sin, there is wrath for you. But whoever comes to Christ, whoever is in Christ, hidden in Christ, the wrath of God is staid because Jesus took it all. There is no condemnation because you’ve been robed in his righteousness. He doesn’t condemn you.

Now, here’s the deal. He will convict you. Christians live with convictions. “I want to go…oh, better not do that.” “Oh, that’s pretty cool—oh, probably shouldn’t look at that.” You know? We’re walking around with these convictions. But these convictions are guiding us more into the light, further into the grace of God. And so we live with these convictions, but these convictions are not condemnation. There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ.

If you feel that guilt and that shame in your life from the sin that you have done, if you don’t feel guilt and shame that’s a whole ‘other problem, but for those who understand that you are a sinner, you have hurt people, you have done wrong, and you feel that guilt and shame, come to Jesus. Because he does not condemn you. He will actually do away with that guilt and shame and you can live in freedom. You can live as a beloved. It’s so amazing. Anybody here ever gotten free of their condemnation, guilt and shame? Come on now!

Okay. So that’s number one. Let’s keep going.

12 When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”
13 The Pharisees challenged him, “Here you are, appearing as your own witness; your testimony is not valid.”
14 Jesus answered, “Even if I testify on my own behalf, my testimony is valid, for I know where I came from and where I am going. But you have no idea where I come from or where I am going. 15 You judge by human standards; I pass judgment on no one. 16 But if I do judge, my decisions are true, because I am not alone. I stand with the Father, who sent me. 17 In your own Law it is written that the testimony of two witnesses is true. 18 I am one who testifies for myself; my other witness is the Father, who sent me.”
19 Then they asked him, “Where is your father?”
“You do not know me or my Father,” Jesus replied. “If you knew me, you would know my Father also.” 20 He spoke these words while teaching in the temple courts near the place where the offerings were put. Yet no one seized him, because his hour had not yet come.

If you’re asking the question, “Why should I have Jesus rule over my life—be the authority of my life?” Because he won’t condemn you—which is fascinating—even though you do wrong. It’s amazing.

The second reason Jesus should have ultimate authority over your life is because he stands with the Father. He says that, “I know where I’ve come from and where I’m going.” He’s come from the Father, he’s going to the Father. He’s standing at the Father’s right side.

This is so interesting because all of this kind of back and forth picking sides that’s going on in our nation right now, in lots of different ways, where you’re at with COVID, where you’re at with racial relations, where you’re at with politics, where you’re at with church, open or closed, there are just so many ways that we can divide ourselves right now and pick a side.

Early on in this, I felt the Lord was bringing to mind that story where Joshua was just about to fight the battle of Jericho. He was off by himself one night, and all of a sudden he sees this shiny figure, this angel-type person dressed as a warrior approaching him. He stands up and he says, “Are you for us? Or are you for our enemies? Are you on our side or are you on their side? And the warrior answers and says, “No. Neither. I’m the commander of the army of the Lord of Hosts and the place you are standing is holy.” It’s like, “Don’t even try and put me on a side.”

Here’s the deal. Humanity is on the wrong side. They’ve got a lot of different sides over there, but they’re all wrong. Anything of human origin is ultimately going to leave you empty. But the goal of your life should be to get on over to the Lord’s side. But the goal of your life should be to get on over to the Lord’s side.

It’s not a matter of “Are you on our side or are you on their side? God, pick a side. God, join a side.” He said, “No, I’m not going to join a side.”

We’ve already seen Jesus is like, “I’m not going to submit myself to human opinion. I’m not going to submit myself to the polls” (so to speak).

So why should we have Jesus be the ultimate authority in our life? Because he’s on God’s side. He stands with the Father. He’s on the right side. If we stand with him, we’re going to find ourselves, no matter what circumstance we are in, to be on the right side. The right side. That’s where Jesus said we should stay. And he is right now sitting at the right hand of the Father.

Let’s continue on:

21 Once more Jesus said to them, “I am going away, and you will look for me, and you will die in your sin. Where I go, you cannot come.”
22 This made the Jews ask, “Will he kill himself? Is that why he says, ‘Where I go, you cannot come’?”
23 But he continued, “You are from below; I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world. 24 I told you that you would die in your sins; if you do not believe that I am he, you will indeed die in your sins.”
25 “Who are you?” they asked.
“Just what I have been telling you from the beginning,” Jesus replied. 26 “I have much to say in judgment of you. But he who sent me is trustworthy, and what I have heard from him I tell the world.”

So the next thing: Jesus should have ultimate authority over your life because he is not of this world. It’s similar to being on God’s side. It kind of meshes here a little bit. Jesus is not of human origin. Jesus is not here today and gone tomorrow. All the faith and trust we put in human leaders and human figures, they will let us down. Even if they never let us down, they die. It’s a let down.

But Jesus is different. He’s the only one that said, “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father but by me.” There have been many people who have said, “I know the way. I know the truth. I know the life.” And you can go visit their graves. But there’s one who claimed to be the way, the truth and the life and you just can’t find his body. It’s just not there. Because he is risen from the dead. The true enemies of humanity are not each other. It’s sin and death. And Jesus conquered them forevermore.

And that brings us to the next point. Jesus should have ultimate authority over your life because he rose from the dead and is coming back again.

Jesus is just continuing to set the stage for this moment. He says, “If I be lifted up…” But I always thought that was on the cross. If he is lifted up then everyone would know. I think he’s referring to the cross, but maybe even more so, “When I’m lifted up out of the grave then you will know that I am who I say I am.”

27 They did not understand that he was telling them about his Father. 28 So Jesus said, “When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am he and that I do nothing on my own but speak just what the Father has taught me. 29 The one who sent me is with me; he has not left me alone, for I always do what pleases him.” 30 Even as he spoke, many believed in him.

And then he goes on and says:

31 To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. 32 Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
33 They answered him, “We are Abraham’s descendants and have never been slaves of anyone. How can you say that we shall be set free?”
34 Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. 35 Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. 36 So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. 37 I know that you are Abraham’s descendants. Yet you are looking for a way to kill me, because you have no room for my word. 38 I am telling you what I have seen in the Father’s presence, and you are doing what you have heard from your father.”
39 “Abraham is our father,” they answered.
“If you were Abraham’s children,” said Jesus, “then you would do what Abraham did. 40 As it is, you are looking for a way to kill me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God.

So now Jesus is kind of bringing it home a little bit. He’s talking about his authority from being with the Father, authority that, “Once I’m lifted up you’re going to see what authority I have when I’m raised from the dead.” And he then he starts saying, “And you guys are trying to kill me.”

They don’t deny it now. Remember last chapter they were like, “Why is he saying this? Are you crazy?” This time they’re not denying it. And he says it twice.

And here’s the next thing. Jesus should have ultimate authority over your life because he knows the evil in humanity’s heart. He’s not deceived. He’s not fooled. And it’s hard these days to not be deceived or fooled. It’s really hard these days because the rhetoric is so powerful. Yet, if you make Jesus the Lord of your life, he’s not swayed by popular opinion. He’s not confused.

A good way that I’ve heard people talk about is that we’re in this parade. The parade is coming by and here we are standing on the sidewalk and we’re watching the parade. We can see what’s happening in front of us. If we’re really wise, we can see what’s coming. And then we can also maybe kind of figure out what’s been that can help us a little bit. So we have a little perspective. The Zeitgeist of history can help us understand where we are today, but we can’t really understand our own time. Maybe some of us can see what’s coming a little bit.

But God’s perspective is like he’s up in this blimp above the whole thing. He’s not limited to just seeing a section of time. He can see it all, start to finish. He knows where it turns. He knows where it straightens out. He knows every part of history. He sees it all perfectly. And he can see into the human heart. He can see the selfish ambition. He can see all of the power plays. He can see all the manipulation. He can see all of that. He’s not fooled by that.

It’s not just out there. It’s in ourselves. Sometimes we can’t even see our own. I remember that was a big deal for me in my marriage early on. I was very persuasive. Again, I grew up and my brothers and parents called me the tyrant. I was the youngest and I guess it was the only way I could get things done. I was very persuasive. My dad said I should have been a lawyer. I was good at arguing. Now I’m a preacher. I just say what I say and nobody can argue with me. No—just kidding.

But I was very persuasive. I got married and, again, I was altruistic in my persuasion, as far as I was concerned. But I remember one time Brittany looking at me and saying, “I need you to stop talking.” I said, “What?” She said, “Because I know something’s wrong but if you keep talking I know you’ll convince me you’re right.” It broke my heart. It crushed me because she was right.

I was not just saying the truth to her. I was always trying to spin it a little bit. Even though I wasn’t trying to hurt her, I was trying to get her to see it and feel it the way I saw it and felt it, instead of letting her decide how she sees and feels it and then we work from there. This was a major moment. She couldn’t name it, but she could sense it. And I had a lot of repenting to do in a lot of areas of my life.

And this is the beauty of Jesus. He sees straight through it. You can’t sway him. You can’t convince him of something that isn’t right and true, because he knows. He’s an awesome authority. So different from anyone else that we could authority to. ”

48 The Jews answered him, “Aren’t we right in saying that you are a Samaritan and demon-possessed?”
49 “I am not possessed by a demon,” said Jesus, “but I honor my Father and you dishonor me. 50 I am not seeking glory for myself; but there is one who seeks it, and he is the judge. 51 Very truly I tell you, whoever obeys my word will never see death.”
52 At this they exclaimed, “Now we know that you are demon-possessed! Abraham died and so did the prophets, yet you say that whoever obeys your word will never taste death. 53 Are you greater than our father Abraham? He died, and so did the prophets. Who do you think you are?”
54 Jesus replied, “If I glorify myself, my glory means nothing. My Father, whom you claim as your God, is the one who glorifies me. 55 Though you do not know him, I know him. If I said I did not, I would be a liar like you, but I do know him and obey his word. 56 Your father Abraham rejoiced at the thought of seeing my day; he saw it and was glad.”
57 “You are not yet fifty years old,” they said to him, “and you have seen Abraham!”
58 “Very truly I tell you,” Jesus answered, “before Abraham was born, I am!” 59 At this, they picked up stones to stone him, but Jesus hid himself, slipping away from the temple grounds.

This is a big moment. Still people say that Jesus never claimed to be God. Yes, he did. Yes. And he did so so often and so clearly that they kept trying to kill him, and ultimately did.

So why should Jesus be the authority of our life? Because he is the I AM. If you read the scriptures of what that means. Basically it means that he’s the Alpha and Omega. He is what you need. He is what the world needs. Again, he’s not the Jesus we want all the time. He’s always the Jesus we need.

Right now, what the world needs is Jesus. Right now, what you need is Jesus. And amazingly enough, he has made an offer to you that you can join him. You can follow him. You can be a part of his family. And the authority that he brings is not an oppressive authority. It’s an authority that sets you free.

I watching a little bit of Braveheart last night. It was on TV. Basically, Robert the Bruce, who was king of Scotland, he was talking about William Wallace, who was basically the hero of Scotland. He was saying, “I don’t want men to follow me because I punish them if they don’t. I want them to follow me like they follow William Wallace. His life, his words, his actions inspire people to follow him.”

And that’s the difference. The Pharisees would punish the people or speak judgment from God to them if they didn’t do what they wanted them to do. Jesus spoke in a different way and lived in a different way. He inspired people to follow him. Because he was the truth and he had the truth and he spoke the truth and he acted in truth. Even to the extent of dying and arising from the dead.

Again, if you want to study the historicity of that act of resurrection, there’s more proof about the resurrection than almost any other event in human history, because it’s been a focal point, for sure. But Jesus is a trustworthy authority. He’ll lead you to life.

One last little analogy before we close. We had a guy speaking there on Tuesday, and he was talking about how he used to own a car wash in New York. In that car wash he would have the little signs and instructions when people would drive up. He was talking how, in his life, that’s what it has meant to trust Jesus, to give him authority. He has to put the car in neutral, put his life in neutral—like come to the Lord and say, “Okay, Lord, I’m here and I’m letting go.” A

Then he needed to take his hands off the wheel. Just take your hands off the wheel. And he needed to take his foot off the brake. It’s like, “God I’m going to give you control. I’m going neutral. God, I’m taking my hands off the wheel. Whatever you say, we’ll do. All right God, what are we doing? We’re going there? Okay.”

I love a quote by Pope Francis. “Ask God what he wants you to do and then be brave.” I think he could say, “Ask God what he wants you to do and then take your foot off the brake.”

Right now, as Christians, it’s very important for us…this is my three things:

Consecration. If we really want to have the authority in this moment to be able to speak in a way and live in a way that other people will find Jesus, we need to consecrate ourselves. We need to come out of some things. We need to unsubscribe some things. Consecration is a very important thing right now.

We need to intercede. Intercession is so important. Make sure your prayers are not just about you right now, please. Don’t just pray about your stocks and bonds. Don’t just pray about your needs. This is a time for the church to pray for others. I’m not saying God doesn’t care about your needs. Pray about those too. Just make sure your prayers include others. It’s time for intercession.

And it’s time for evangelism. We’re going to talk some more about that in the coming weeks. There’s nothing that makes Jesu happier than when you tell someone about him. Nothing makes him happier. Nothing.

And Jesus, we do ask that you would consecrate us. That you would pull us close to you. Show us where we’re entangled in the world. Show us the sin and weight that entangles us and help us to pull away from that, Lord. I pray you show us and teach us how to intercede in this time, that we would get to see mighty things happen because of our prayer life. And Lord, I pray that you would give us opportunities this week to tell people about who you are and what you can do. I pray all this in your name. Amen.

©️2020 Living Streams Church
7000 N Central Avenue ∙ Phoenix AZ 85020 ∙ 602-957-7500 ∙ https://www.livingstreams.org

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Guest User 9/6/20 Guest User 9/6/20

Disappointment with Jesus

It’s exciting to be back. We’re going to be in John Chapter 7. I thought the best way to start this next phase of our church was with a teaching called “Disappointed with Jesus.” Some snickers there. John Chapter 7 is where we’re going to be.

There’s a guy named John Cheever. He says, “The main emotion of the adult American who has all the advantages of wealth, education and culture, is disappointment.”

Series: John
John 7
David Stockton - September 6, 2020

(starting at 1:49)

There’s a guy named John Cheever. He says, “The main emotion of the adult American who has all the advantages of wealth, education and culture, is disappointment.”

And Ravi Zacharias—who actually passed away this summer—says, “The loneliest moment in life is when you have experienced or achieved that which you thought would deliver the ultimate and it has let you down.”

All of the things that we though were solid and stable this year, obviously have been shaken and we’re all left with a little bit of confusion, a lot more uncertainty, and it’s very, very possible that many people in this room, or many people that you associate with, are dealing with severe disappointment with Jesus right now. Because often, the Jesus we want is not the Jesus we need. People are finding that out in the book of John right now in a serious way.

Before we jump in there, I felt so inspired during our worship time—we’ve been focusing on prayer. We felt that that is where we are supposed to be. The reason we did one piano, one singer, was intentional. It’s not just that everyone’s on vacation this weekend. We just feel like the hand of the Lord is heavy on us to be humble, to walk slow, the word “contrite” comes to mind. That’s the posture and position that we feel like Jesus is really calling us to right now. So we are trying to kind of walk slowly and carefully, paying close attention to what he’s doing.

We don’t want to get running. We don’t want to get in a hurry. We don’t want to just go back to the way things were. We want to go forward into the things he’s leading us into. So bear with us. If you’re like, “Hey, I’m good. I’m ready to dance and sing and all of that.” There are a lot of people who are saying, “I really want to be still. I really want to be quiet before the Lord and really hear what he might be saying because I’m a little unsure.”

While we were praying I just really felt the need to pray and intercede for the black community. So if you’ll join me in that:

Lord, we come before you, Maker of heaven and earth. And I just really want to pray that you would be with our black brothers and sisters, especially in Phoenix, that are processing so much right now. They’re having this frustration, this pain, this anger that is legitimate. And they’re trying to figure out what is the right thing to do. And at the same time, they are being offered so many solutions.
And, Lord, I pray that you really would help them find the truth in it all. That you would help them to teach us all. You would raise up leaders and teachers and new John the Baptists, and prophets in the black community that would really be able to help guide us through this confusing time and uncertain time. And Lord, I pray that you would diminish all the voices that are not helping, that are not actually trying to help, and don’t have your truth.
Lord, I thank you that I’m in contact with so many that are giving me so much encouragement, so many black men that are teaching me and guiding me. I just pray for more. I pray that this would be a really beautiful time in the black community. That they would come out of this and be more rooted in truth and love and freer than ever before. I pray you would show our church what we can do.
Lord, I pray that you would show us how to pray, how to love, how to care, how to listen. Lord, I pray for the predominantly black churches in our city, that they would really experience your strength, your favor, your clarity, your joy, your peace and your provision. And that, Lord, we would work together and walk together, as I know it would please you. So I thank you, Lord, that you’re on the move. And we just pray that we would be with you. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

John Chapter 7:

1 After this, Jesus went around in Galilee. He did not want to go about in Judea because the Jewish leaders there were looking for a way to kill him. 2 But when the Jewish Festival of Tabernacles was near, 3 Jesus’ brothers said to him, “Leave Galilee and go to Judea, so that your disciples there may see the works you do. 4 No one who wants to become a public figure acts in secret. Since you are doing these things, show yourself to the world.” 5 For even his own brothers did not believe in him.

Now, this is a moment in time where John, who was with Jesus during all this time, and then when Jesus left, basically continued to walk with Jesus in the Spirit for the rest of his life, until he was old. He was probably in his 80’s or 90’s, maybe even kind of late 90’s. We don’t know exactly. John seemed to keep on living. So he’s writing this as he has processed a lot. This is not just his first take at this thing. All of this stuff about Jesus, all of these memories have really gotten into his system. He’s been living them out and proving and testing them.

So he’s writing these things. And what he’s writing here is this moment of confusion that was going on in Jerusalem. There were all these different groups of people. In this chapter, there are 52 verses. Here are the groups that he mentions. In these two verses that we read he talks about the Jewish leaders and Jesus’ brothers. But he also mentions the disciples who stayed with him and the disciples who left. That’s a reference to chapter 6 at the very end. Jesus basically had 5,000 men. We know about 120 disciples and they were all there at this moment, trying to make him king after he had fed the 5,000 with just those loaves of bread and fish.

And there was this major moment, and Jesus teaches them that he’s not really interested in their movements. He’s not really interested in just feeding them bread so they don’t get hungry. He’s actually a lot more interested in building a kingdom that’s not of this world. He’s actually a lot more interested in feeding their spiritual needs than their physical needs. He’s way more interested in their spiritual formation than their national aspirations. And people were like, “Come again? What did he say? You see what Herod just did to John the Baptist? He took his head off! How could we not march on him right now?”

And Jesus was like, “I’m sorry. This is just not what I’m about.”

It was an intense moment. And then he goes and says, “Actually, if you really want to be a part of me, you’re going to eat my body and drink my blood.” It’s not a real cool thing to say at a moment like that. And so they all left. There were only twelve that remained. And Jesus said to them, “Are you going to go, too?” And they kind of said, “No. We want to stay with you.” But they also kind of said, “We really don’t have anywhere else to go.” It’s kind of a combination. They were like, “You have the words of eternal life. We know that what you’re doing, even though we think you really messed it up right now. We think you know what you’re doing and you’re going to accomplish the good that we really, ultimately long for.” And it was a real moment for them.

There were disciples who left, disciples who stayed. Some other groups: there were the crowds, there were the jews, there were some of the people that believed in him, there were Pharisees, temple guards that went to arrest him but after they heard him speak they were like, “I never heard anybody speak like that. I don’t know what to do.” And then we have the chief priests and Nicodemus.

All of them have a different opinion about who Jesus is. It’s very confusing. Lots of disappointment. Lots of confusion about who he is. And we’ll go through this, but before we do, I want to introduce you to this, in case you didn’t know. There is this Bible translated in kind of like a Hawaiian Pigeon English called The Jesus Book. And I just love it in this passage, in particular. It says this:

Afta dat, Jesus go aroun inside Galilee. He neva like go aroun inside Judea, cuz da Jewish leada guys ova dea stay looking fo him, fo kill him. Now, almos time fo da spesho religious time, wen da Jewish peopo rememba da time dea ancesta guys wen walk all ova da boonies, an stay inside shacks, long time befo. Den Jesus bruddas tell him, “Go way from hea, an go Judea side, so da peopo you wan teach can see da kine stuff you stay doin. If one guy like everybody know bout him, he no goin do stuff wea nobody can see him, yeah? You stay doin all dis kine stuff, so, let everybody all ova da place see ya doin um! You know, even Jesus bruddas neva trus him.

I love it. There you go. Jesus’ brothers never trust him. That phrase really sticks out to me because, first of all, Jesus had brother—and sisters probably. So that’s just wild to think about. Obviously they didn’t have the same dad—virgin birth and all of that—but they had the same mom. So these are his half-brothers. Jesus was the oldest and he had all these brothers. And his brothers, the ones who grew up with him, they don’t trust him. They don’t believe in him. They’ve seen the things he’s done. They’ve heard the things. And everybody else is getting caught up in this Jesus train, and they’re not buying it for a second. They don’t believe him.

I grew up as the youngest of three boys. And my brothers, they don’t believe me. They didn’t believe me. They don’t trust me. They called me The Tyrant. Somehow, I was so small, but I was like a dictator. And they would beat me up all the time. And I never trusted them. My mom would say, “All right. What happened? Who broke that?” Everything was broken all the time. Including my body parts sometimes. Broken arm. Broken collar bone three times. Whatever.

My mom would say, “So, what happened?” And we would all have our own opinion and story. It just so happened every time I told the story it was really good for me. Made me look good. Same for them. So we knew that all of us were liars.

But here’s the trick with Jesus. When Mary would come and say, “Okay, what happened?” everyone knew who was going to tell the truth. Everyone knew what the truth was. Jesus was like, “Well this is what happened.” And his brothers were like (grumbling sound). It was kind of a rough situation. But they didn’t trust him. They thought he might be crazy at this point.

But two of them, for sure, that we know—James, who wrote the book of James in the New Testament, who became the lead pastor of the first church in Jerusalem—went from never trusting him to believing that he was God sent from God to be the Lamb who was slain for the sins of the world. What a trip to go from this moment all the way to that place where James actually was killed because he so believed that Jesus was Lord. His brother was Lord of all, Maker of Heaven and Earth. And then Jude—the guy who wrote the epistle of Jude at the end of the Bible, he also was a brother of Jesus that came to faith that Jesus really was the one he said he was. After the resurrection, they were kind of like, “Uh, all right. That one’s pretty good.” And they believed him. But what a trip that is.

That was their journey. So let’s continue on. It says that Jesus told them, when his brothers were saying, “Go up…”

6 Therefore Jesus told them, “My time is not yet here; for you any time will do. 7 The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify that its works are evil.

And here, Jesus, again, he’s sharing with his actual brothers. His disciples are there with them. There’s this debate about whether he should become a public figure or not, and he’s saying, “You don’t understand. That’s not what I’m here for. That’s not what I’m about.” And he says, “You guys can come and go as you please, but I need you to know that the world hates me.”

Now, at this point, it didn’t seem like the world hated him. They were all a little disappointed. They were all a little confused why he didn’t want to become king and do what they wanted him to do. But, “Hatred? You’re crazy. I don’t understand.”

But Jesus was teaching them something that it’s very important for him to teach, something important for his disciples to understand. And he continues to go back to this time and time again with his disciples. John 15:18 says this:

18 “If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. 19 If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you. 20 Remember what I told you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also.

So this is later on in the book of John, as the tension is rising, as the heat is rising. Jesus is saying, “Don’t forget. I told you before that if they hate me they’re going to hate you. But let me remind you that if they persecute me, they’re going to persecute you.”

There has not been a nation in human history that has continued to give favor to and believe in the ways of God. And here in America, we have experienced favor as Christians, no doubt about it. Hallelujah. Thank you for all of those who fought for that and are still fighting for that. It’s wonderful to be able to gather in a place like this. But this isn’t true in a lot of the world. And if you follow human history and nations that rise and fall, it’s not going to be true in America forever.

Now am I saying we are about to be persecuted and everybody hates us? No. I don’t know what’s going to happen. But I don’t want us to be unaware of what Jesus is teaching his disciples. If you call yourself a disciple, basically Jesus says, “You’re on your way to persecution. You’re on your way to being hated. You’re on your way to death.” I’m not saying it. Jesus is saying it.

Welcome back to church. Isn’t it good to be here? How disappointing is that? Wait Jesus. You just turned water into wine, you healed people of diseases, you fed five thousand. We were into that. We liked that Jesus. That was great! That’s all we need. And now you’re telling us that’s not what you’re about? That’s not ultimately the most important thing to you? We were becoming popular. People were loving us. And Jesus says, “Just wait. Just wait.”

Again, this is Jesus preempting this thing. It hadn’t actually flushed out in public that everyone was trying to kill Jesus or hated Jesus, but it becomes that way. Jesus saw it coming before it showed up.

He says:

8 You go to the festival. I am not going up to this festival, because my time has not yet fully come.” 9 After he had said this, he stayed in Galilee.
10 However, after his brothers had left for the festival, he went also, not publicly, but in secret. 11 Now at the festival the Jewish leaders were watching for Jesus and asking, “Where is he?”
12 Among the crowds there was widespread whispering about him. Some said, “He is a good man.”

Others replied, “No, he deceives the people.” 13 But no one would say anything publicly about him for fear of the leaders.

You can see that even in our day right now. You have to be so careful what you say in our society these days. Like, am I allowed to pray for the black community in church? There’s part of me going, “That feels dangerous.” You’re praying for people? That should not be dangerous. But these people are all nervous. There’s tension.

14 Not until halfway through the festival did Jesus go up to the temple courts and begin to teach. 15 The Jews there were amazed and asked, “How did this man get such learning without having been taught?”
16 Jesus answered, “My teaching is not my own. It comes from the one who sent me. 17 Anyone who chooses to do the will of God will find out whether my teaching comes from God or whether I speak on my own.

This is a key moment right here. And again, Jesus is speaking to his disciples, as well as he is speaking to the crowd. He’s probably actually on that temple mount. He was a rabbi. His disciples were there and he began teaching them, some other people came. Jesus is kind of the buzz word these days. Probably more people came. But there were probably other rabbis sitting with their disciples, teaching them in this moment. There’s a whole bunch of people in Jerusalem.

And Jesus is telling them, “Anyone who chooses to do the will of God will find out whether my teaching comes from God or from man.” Because there was debate as to whether what Jesus was saying was true. And I love this because this is so classic John. We’ve talked about John. John’s premise for writing his book, the Gospel of John, is so that you would believe.

And we spent time talking about the difference of what that means “to believe.” To John, it clearly means “trust over time.” We talked about, for Paul, faith kind of means “pledge of allegiance.” I’m going this way and I’m forsaking everything else. But for John it means trust over time.

Because John was just a fisherman. Out fishing by the Sea of Galilee when a guy came up and said, “Hey, you wanna hang out?” And John was like, “Okay.” And they started hanging out and next thing he knew he was at a wedding with this guy and the guy turned water into wine. And John was like, “All right! I’m with this guy right here.”

And then John saw him heal people and feed five thousand and he heard the teachings and he watched the life that he lived. John was more and more convinced over time that the words that Jesus spoke were true. All the way to the point at which John saw Jesus up on that cross. All the other disciples had forsaken him. John was the only one that was there because he had begun to trust that Jesus was everything he said he would be and more than John could ever comprehend.

And then, when John heard the whisper that Jesus had risen from the dead, he ran to that tomb. And, once again, his trust was deepened and deepened and deepened. And that’s why John is writing these stories, so that you will begin to trust in the name of Jesus, in the words of Jesus, in the way of Jesus. And as you begin to walk in it, you will find that it is true.

When I first started really following Jesus, trying to really practice the way of Jesus, it was great. It was like “This all makes sense.” But then my dad took his life. And there was this moment where I had to say, “Okay, God, I guess right now I’m going to see if this stuff really works.” And it did. And it does.

Shortly after that, me and some friends, one of them is sitting right over there, we decided that we were going to go to Ireland for three months. Just buy a ticket and go to see what the Lord might do. Some stupid young man idea (or young woman, I don’t know. You probably have bad ideas, too.) But it was just like I needed to see. “Okay, Lord, I want to see what you’re going to do. I want to see if you’re going to show up.”

So we did. We just got on a plane and flew over there. And I had, like, a hundred and fifty dollars. And he had, like, fifteen cents. And within three days we had a place to live, we had jobs, and we were going all over Northern Ireland to tell people about Jesus. And then my little bit of faith just got a little bit bigger. And it was just this trust over time.

And then I married this lady named Brittany and she’s like, “Let’s go to Belize where there’s no running water and be there for a year and see what the Lord might do.

It’s like, three months Ireland? Okay. Nine months Belize? Gasp. With a one-year-old? Gasp. And yet the way that the Lord met us in that place was trust over time.

And Jesus is saying, “Look, it’s going to get tough. It’s going to get hard. But if you will do what I’m saying to do, if you will walk with me, you will see that my words are not coming from man.”

And there are a lot of words coming from mankind right now that are not to be trusted. But Jesus is trustworthy—more than we’ll ever know, until that final day when we’ll get to really see that everything he’s done has been righteous and true. Even though the Jesus we want is oftentimesnot the Jesus we need—even though we go through lots of times of disappointment with Jesus, he’s still trustworthy.

Let’s continue on:

18 Whoever speaks on their own does so to gain personal glory, but he who seeks the glory of the one who sent him is a man of truth; there is nothing false about him. 19 Has not Moses given you the law? Yet not one of you keeps the law. Why are you trying to kill me?”
20 “You are demon-possessed,” the crowd answered. “Who is trying to kill you?”

Remember, Jesus is saying, “They’re going to hate me,” but it’s not really prevalent yet. And he’s saying that they’re gong to try and kill him, which is true, but not everybody knows that. So they’re saying, “You’re demon possessed.” That’s what people think about him.

21 Jesus said to them, “I did one miracle, and you are all amazed. 22 Yet, because Moses gave you circumcision (though actually it did not come from Moses, but from the patriarchs), you circumcise a boy on the Sabbath. 23 Now if a boy can be circumcised on the Sabbath so that the law of Moses may not be broken, why are you angry with me for healing a man’s whole body on the Sabbath? 24 Stop judging by mere appearances, but instead judge correctly.”

This is an important word for Christians today. We’ve got to be careful how we’re judging things. We’ve got to pray enough so that we can see clearly enough. Because there are a lot of powerful solutions being offered to people right now that are of human origin and will leave us high and dry. It’s so important that we really take this seriously.

In my weekly email this week I talked about a couple of things that I think are things that have some good but they’ve been mingled with things now to where they are actually very dangerous. And we, as Christians, we have to be very careful that we don’t try and link something that is in our world, our agenda, an idea or political party and try and link it with Jesus. Jesus made it very clear in his day and age (and still today) that his kingdom is not of this world.

Now, politics and social reform—all of those things are good things that it’s good for us to do what we can. But we have to be very careful to not ascribe Jesus to one of those things. Christian nationalism is a dangerous, dangerous thing. I want to read to you what the German Christians in 1934 were saying:

We are full of thanks to God that he, as Lord of history, has given us Adolph Hitler, our leader and savior from our difficult lot.

The German church, the German Christians were praising God for his sovereign providence in bringing a leader like Adolph Hitler to save them. And yet, there were some Christians—we know Bonhoeffer, we know Bart and many others, Corey ten Boom—they weren’t missing it. They were about the Father’s business, the Kingdom of Heaven, in the midst of such an atrocious moment in time.

And I just want to be those Christians. I don’t know how to be. That’s why I’m praying all the time. That’s why for nine weeks you guys came to an hour service and I was here for four hours. And it took the Lord tricking me into a four-hour prayer service, because it’s my job, to get me to actually do it. But, boy, was it rich! Four hours four the last nine Sundays, I’ve just been here, trying to hear from the Lord and it’s been awesome.

We need to be gathering in parks with our neighbors and friends, just saying, “Let’s just go and pray.” I heard about a group doing that. We need to just be getting people together, “Hey, let’s hang out and let’s just pray and see if we can get any idea what we’re supposed to do with our lives and our families right now.”

This church should be a house of prayer. I really want us to not be on the wrong side of this moment. I think we can, but I mean, the Spirit of God wants to lead us into all truth. But we’ve got to listen. We’ve got to be careful we don’t start associating things that aren’t there.

Now, in the first service, people thought that I was saying that Trump was Adolph Hitler. No way! I will name who I thing Adolph Hitler is today. No, I won’t. I’m not even going to try. Give me a break. I don’t know. If I knew it, I would say it. But I’m not saying it because I don’t know. I just know the spirit of anti-Christ, John told us later on, is alive in our world today. And I do know things that are very anti-biblical that are becoming very popular. And we’ve got to be careful and just say, “Okay, let’s see how this rolls out.”

So, please, don’t think I’m saying something I’m not saying right now. You could send me an email and be like, “You were talking about this…” And I would be, “No, I wasn’t talking about that guy!” So, are we clear on that?

But I’m bringing up the German Christians because they got it wrong. And they were calling themselves Christians. And here is Jesus, way before them, saying, “Hey, don’t get this wrong.” There is truth and there is not truth. And Jesus is about the truth. That’s why he’s trustworthy.

So we continue on:

25 At that point some of the people of Jerusalem began to ask, “Isn’t this the man they are trying to kill? 26 Here he is, speaking publicly, and they are not saying a word to him. Have the authorities really concluded that he is the Messiah? 27 But we know where this man is from; when the Messiah comes, no one will know where he is from.”
28 Then Jesus, still teaching in the temple courts, cried out, “Yes, you know me, and you know where I am from. I am not here on my own authority, but he who sent me is true. You do not know him, 29 but I know him because I am from him and he sent me.”

Now, those of you who don’t think that Jesus ever claimed to be God, you don’t speak Jewish. What Jesus said right there, if you were a first century Jew, that’s blasphemy, unless it’s true. He’s saying, “I’m from God.” Basically, he’s saying, “I am God. I’m the whole deal.” How do I know that? Look:

30 At this they tried to seize him, but no one laid a hand on him, because his hour had not yet come. 31 Still, many in the crowd believed in him. They said, “When the Messiah comes, will he perform more signs than this man?”

And then, as he goes on, it’s kind of leading up to this moment:

37 On the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. 38 Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.” 39 By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified.

On this great moment of the festival—now every day for seven days they’ve been celebrating their wilderness wanderings and how God provided for them there. They actually built tents and booths and they would sleep in these things during the month. They would pour out this water every day from the Pool of Siloam, remembering how God provided water out of the rock in the desert. And there was this one day where they wouldn’t pour water out. It was kind of a climax. Almost like they were saying, “We’re longing fo the day when God once again visits us.” And it was at that moment that Jesus stood up in the crowd and said, “Let all who are thirsty for that moment, let all who really long for God to come again, let all who really long for the loving presence, the satisfying water of God, to come. Let them come to me and out of their innermost beings will gush torrents of living water.” That’s a moment right there.

That’s a moment that Jesus set up, where he was saying, “Everybody can come. Anybody can come and I will give you the water that your thirsty soul needs. And what I bring is not of human origin. It’s not temporal. It’s not going to leave you high and dry in the end. What I bring will begin small, but as you begin to trust and walk, it will keep growing and growing until it just starts pouring out of you forevermore.”

That’s the promise of Jesus.

I want to read a couple of things to close:

Church, don’t be surprised when evil prospers and things with demonic origin and agenda become popular. At the same time, don’t be surprised when doing the right thing, holding on to the truth and submitting your life to the authority of scripture becomes unpopular, hated and even persecuted. Don’t let your disappointment with the Jesus you want lead you to be deceived. Remember that the Jesus you want is not often the Jesus you really need. And the problem is your perspective is not his.

Remember what Philip Yancey says in his book Disappointment with God:

Why the delay? Why does God let evil and pain so flagrantly exist, even thrive on this planet? He holds back for our sakes. Re-creation involves us. We are, in fact, at the center of his plan. The motive behind all human history is to develop us, not God. Our very existence announces to the powers of the universe that restoration is underway. Every act of faith by every one of the people of God is like a tolling of the bell, and a faith like Job’s reverberates throughout the universe.

Every time you and I act in the truth, act in faith, it’s like this reverberating gong that goes throughout all of the cosmos and creation, that the restoration has begun. That what Jesus died to purchase is already beginning to play out. And if it plays out day in and day out, eventually it’s going to grow. The kingdom of heaven will grow. Like that mustard seed it will grow and it will ultimately fill everything. Then, at that moment, our perspective will be clear. And we will say, “Righteous and true are your judgments, O God. Thank you to bringing us to a place where every sad thing has become untrue.”

The restoration has begun in each of us. The kingdom has already begun. And if we will walk out with Job-like faith, we will be a part of that restoration and we will be with Jesus. But here’s the deal. Job-like faith is not an easy thing. Don’t listen to this. Don’t listen to these Bible verses. These are not fun. Okay? I’m just warning you. So, if you’re still listening, it’s your fault.

Job’s faith—he lost everything. He wasn’t just shaken or disrupted. He lost everything. And yet, he says in the face of God, “Though you slay me, yet I will trust you. Because I’m so convinced that you know what is right and you can accomplish it, that, though you slay me, I will trust you.” Because I know that my Redeemer lives, and he will one day stand on the earth. Though my body is destroyed, I will see him person and he will make it all make sense.”

Trust over time.

Let’s pray:

Jesus, wow. You know what you’re doing. You knew what you were doing and you were doing it. And it was amazing and it was wild, and it was confusing for people. Yet, it was beautiful and strong and brought about truth and salvation forever. And here, in our time, Lord, we know you’re alive. We know you know the way. We know you’re at work. But it’s hard to see. I pray that you would strengthen our faith for whatever may come, that you would develop our trust over time. Show us your way and your will and teach us to walk in it. And Lord, we pray right now that all this tension in our society would be released to renewal and revival. But if the tension gets released in another way, we pray that you would just help us to be on the right side of history, of your story—and you’d help us to rescue and save as many as we can, no matter what happens, because we’re so thankful that you rescued and saved us.

©️2020 Living Streams Church
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Guest User 8/16/20 Guest User 8/16/20

Spiritual Warfare

The title of this message is Spiritual Warfare. It’s kind of spiritual warfare Jesus style. It’s going to be a little different than you think. And I’m going to say the word spirit or spiritual a lot in this message. For some of you it’s like,“Oh, that’s not me,” Or “It gives me the heebie-jeebies.” I understand where you’re coming from because I feel a lot t of that as well. However, you need to understand or realize that you are primarily a spiritual being.

Series: John
John 6
David Stockton - August 16, 2020

(starting at 4:10)

When God made us, he breathed into our mortal bodies, when he breathed into Adam and that spirit part of you is actually the most real part of you. It’s the part of you that will continue on after your body, your soul, mind and emotions cease to exist. Your spirit lives on. Not only are we primarily spiritual so we need to get accustomed to that and realize that, but God, the God of the bible, the God that made us is spiritual. He is spirit.

Jesus was talking to the woman at the well and he said, “Look, you’re getting all these things wrong because you’re focusing on the practical.” He was saying, “But really what God is looking for, is, God who is spirit, is looking for people who will worship him in spirit and in truth.”

John really is all about that. When we see his take on Jesus, his understanding of Jesus is, Jesus is not just a man, but Jesus was God in the flesh. He was a deity. He was the living God, the creator God, he was with God in the beginning, he was God.

So we really need to kind of try and get rid of those feelings and don’t put the walls up and start to think, “Oh, this is getting weird because he’s saying the word spiritual a whole bunch.” Because that’s really who God is. He is Spirit. He’s created us to be spirit and that’s how we’re supposed to connect with him.

As you see Jesus, the spirituality of Jesus does not make him no good earthly. It actually makes him very beneficial and helpful and all of those things.

Just kind of work on that as we’re going through this. Today we’re going to get one of Jesus’ hard sayings. John, as he’s writing the gospel of John, he’s really trying to help us see Jesus as God, not just man. He’s really trying to help us understand God’s politic. We’ve talked about that. God’s logos, God’s word. The universal guiding principle of the cosmos—that’s what Jesus is.

And he gives us seven I am statements of Jesus. The powerful, “This is who I am.” Jesus declaring who he is. And he also gives us seven miraculous signs, miraculous proofs that Jesus really is who he says he is.

But also in John we have these hard sayings, these things that can only be interpreted with a spiritual mind. For instance, what he says to Nicodemus, “You must be born again.” And Nicodemus is like, “How am I supposed to go into my mom’s womb again?” And Jesus said, “You’re not getting it. You need spiritual eyes to understand this.”

And then he talks about when his disciples came back and were trying to give him some food and he said, “I have food you know not of.” And they were kind of like, “What’s going on? Did someone sneak him some food? He got Uber or whatever.”

Really, what Jesus was talking about is, “You’ve got to understand. There is a spiritual food that is more valuable to me than any physical food I can experience.”

And then today, we have the wonderful, happy phrase when Jesus says over and over again, “You have to eat my body and drink my blood if you really want to live.”

So that’s what we’re going to be getting into today. It’s going to take some effort. If you need to stretch it out a little bit, if you need to shake your head a little, get some water , that’s fine. But let’s get into this and really allow God to speak deep into our hearts and allow all of this that we’re doing in the natural to really impact the spiritual reality of who we are.

John 6:25

25 When they found him on the other side of the lake, they asked him, “Rabbi, when did you get here?”
26 Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw the signs I performed but because you ate the loaves and had your fill. 27 Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For on him God the Father has placed his seal of approval.”

So, for context, if you go back to last week, John the Baptist is beheaded by Herod. It’s an extremely outrageous moment, where people are so angry, so upset. And Jesus, when he hears that John the Baptist, who was his cousin, was beheaded, he withdrew to a quiet place. Because he didn’t want to hear what the popular opinions were saying. He wanted to hear from his Father. So he withdrew to this quiet place.

But the people that had known of Jesus and experienced some of his miracles and teaching, they gathered together. It says that five thousand men went out to the wilderness to find out where Jesus was. Basically they were saying, “All right Jesus, let’s do this. Let’s go march on these people. Let’s go tear this temple down. Let’s go do whatever we can to throw off this Roman oppression, to get rid of this horrible ruler named Herod.” They were just ready to do whatever. They were sick and tired of it all.

It says that Jesus met them in that moment and instead of turning them away, he fed them. He found five loaves and two fish from a little boy, and he ended up multiplying it and fed every one of those men.

And in some ways you can almost see like a mom, when you come home all angry and upset and your mom says, “Hey just sit down, child. Let me give you some milk. Let me give you some cereal. Let me calm you down a little bit.”

And that’s kind of what Jesus did. So now they’re not only outraged and totally frustrated about what happened in the city, but now they’re also just mesmerized and blown away by Jesus being able to feed all these people. It says that, after it got dark that day, Jesus withdrew again.

They want to make him king by force and kind of have him lead the revolution that they wanted. But instead he withdrew to a mountainside. And he sent his disciple sin a boat across the lake. Right in the middle of morning, it was about 3:00 am, Jesus walks on the water to meet his disciples who are stuck in a storm in the middle of the lake. As soon as he gets in the boat, the storm is gone, they reach the other side.

They’re on the other side of the lake now from where he fed the five thousand, in a place called Capernaum. When the people realize that Jesus is not around and the boat’s gone, they decide, “Let’s get over.” So they get in boats and they go around the lake. They get to the other sid and they find Jesus there. And he sits down and he begins to teach them. That’s where we‘re picking up here, where they say they found him on the other side.

They’re looking for him and they’re still kind of chomping at the bit, saying, “Jesus, let’s do this thing. You’ve got miraculous power. We’ve got a horrible dictator ruler here. Let’s go do something about this.”

And Jesus says, “Hey, you need to understand something. You’re coming to me because you saw a miraculous sign. Because you ate some food.” But he says, “I need you to realize that I’m not here necessarily for the practical realities of life. I’m here because of what needs to be done for your eternal life, your everlasting life.” And he’s kind of trying to help them move from, “Man, Jesus can feed us. Jesus can lead a revolution. Jesus can bring all these social reforms.”

And he’s saying, “That’s not my primary thing.”

And the first thing we need to realize is that most people prioritize their immediate physical needs. But the Jesus way prioritizes the everlasting spiritual needs.

Now this is really important. I’m going to read it again. Please hear this. And the first thing we need to realize is that most people prioritize their immediate physical needs. But the Jesus way prioritizes the everlasting spiritual needs.

It does not mean Jesus doesn’t care about practical needs. You can see that throughout his entire life. He met people’s practical needs. But all of that was so that they would understand that he has the power to meet the much deeper needs of their spirit, of their everlasting life.

He tells them, “Don’t work for food that spoils. Work for the food that endures to eternal life. He wants them to understand how to gauge in the spiritual life, in the spiritual battles. He’s not here to just help them solve their physical, natural, temporary battles. Again, he does care about those things, but not in comparison to the spiritual realities of life.

This is a hard thing. Because oftentimes Jesus becomes a big disappointment for us. If we don’t understand this reality, if we don’t understand that God is spirit and what he is really interested in is what happens in this life and in the next, in the spirit reality of who we are. We pray, pray and pray that God will meet a physical need, give you a physical healing for you or someone you love and you don’t see it. Sometimes it can leave you in a place where you say, “That’s it. Either Jesus doesn’t have power or he doesn’t care.”

And I totally understand that. I’ve been in that situation. But what we have to understand is, and what Jesus is trying to help these people understand is that the priority of God is not to make you physically okay. The priority of God is to make you spiritually okay. And sometimes the physical things that he allows into our lives that are hard will help us in the spiritual. And I don’t like it at all, but that is a reality that we have to understand and trust him in. That’s a hard thing to do. But that is one thing he was wanting them to see.

So then they respond to him in verse 28:

28 Then they asked him, “What must we do to do the works God requires?”

So they’re kind of asking the question, “Okay, if revolution and the feeding of the bread and all of those miraculous signs, if that’s not the work of God, what are you saying? What are we supposed to be about?”

29 Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.”
30 So they asked him, “What sign then will you give that we may see it and believe you? What will you do? 31 Our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written: ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’”

So in this passage, they’re asking the right question. But when Jesus says, “You’ve got to believe in the one God has sent” speaking of himself, they’re like, “Well, okay, what are you going to do to prove it? What sign will you give us?”

He just fed the five thousand. He’s done lots of other things that were recorded in John and in other places. And they’re saying, “So what sign are you going to give us so that we’ll believe? We hear you saying that we’re supposed to believe and follow you, but what sign…”

And this is the second things we need to realize. Most people want Jesus to do something miraculous and then they will follow him. But the Jesus way is, as we follow him, we begin to uncover the evidence. We begin to see his power at work. This is again something that can cause a lot of disappointment. You always hear people say, “God, if you get me out of this thing, I’ll follow you forever.”

And again, I think God does sometimes do that. He shows up. He did feed these guys who were so upset, so enraged. He fed them miraculously to just kind of show his compassion, to show how much he loves them, to show that he can do something about it. But he was drawing them away from it, saying, “But I need you to understand that this is what’s most important. The spiritual reality.”

So he asked them to believe. They are saying, “Well give us a sign and then we’ll believe.” And Jesus is saying, “No, I want you to believe. And as you believe, and as you follow me, and as you come and see who I am and what I do, you’ll begin to understand what really is important. And you’ll begin to see the full gospel, the good news of God and his love for you worked out.”

That’s a tricky thing. John basically said that this whole book that he’s written, this whole letter that he’s written is really to help people believe. He’s probably writing it to more Greco-Roman audience than Jews, which is different from the other writers. But he’s writing to help believe and understand.

So we really need to understand faith. We did this in the first couple of weeks, really trying to unpack faith. I want to remind you, because you’re great bible students here, of some of those things that we said. Faith, according to John, is trust over time.

And you can see that John, who was known as the Son of Thunder—I mean, he was this emotional, kind of radical guy. And we read in the book of John that as he walked with Jesus, he became the one that Jesus loves. He became the one that leaned against the breast of Jesus, became the one that Jesus entrusted the care of his mother to.John had this great change going on in his life.

As Jesus began to do the miracle of the wedding at Cana, as John saw his zeal as he went to the temple with the whip and cleansed all of that; as John saw him caring for the Samaritan woman; and then also caring for the royal official, and the way that he was interacting with Nicodemus; it was like Jesus was breaking all of whatever seemed to be barriers between people and reconciling the whole world to himself—whether rich, poor, different ethnicities, socio-economic class—Jesus was just kind of meeting everybody, reconciling everybody to himself; as John saw all of these things he just began to put more and more trust in Jesus. He was actually able to make the leap from “This is not just some guy who’s a good rabbi teacher, but this guy is the actual creator God in the flesh.” I mean, that is just wild to think about being with somebody in the flesh but realizing they are so much more than that.

But that was what happened with John. He began to trust more and more over time. That’s a big part of faith. As we described here. We want God to just give us what we want and then we’ll believe. But God says as you continue to put your trust in him, as you step out into those uncomfortable places and find his faithfulness, that’s when you begin to have your faith built.” It’s trust over time.

I remember some friends and I, right after college, just had this idea that I just wanted to see what God can do and I had read some stories in the Old Testament about “Let’s just go for it and see what God can do.” So I talked some friends into going to Ireland with me. We bought a three-month ticket. We were just going to go to Ireland for three months and just say “Okay God, lead us, guide us and see what you can do.”

Some of you have heard me tell the story. God met us, God provided for us, I mean, just so many wonderful, wonderful things took place. For a young man it was really something that made me think I can put my trust in God. It wasn’t that God gave me something then I did, but it was something that I stepped out, being led of God and saying, “Okay, I’m going to go do this thing whether or not it works out. I don’t know.” But then the Lord showed up. So I would encourage you to take those steps. Trust over time.

Another way that the Bible explains faith is pledging allegiance. And we talked about that in one of the early messages. Actually it was on the Fourth of July weekend. We didn’t plan that. But it was pledging our allegiance to God. We’ve got to be careful that we don’t pledge allegiance to things that are not of God. We’ve got to make sure God is first and foremost.

Then the last thing, Hebrews tell us that faith is substance and evidence. If you’ve been to one of our Explore classes, which is kind of like our “new to the church” classes, you get to hear me unpack that. It’s been really meaningful for me. We’re going to be doing an Explore class pretty soon. If you’re someone who’s been checking out the church online and you’re ready to take that next step and really kind of make this your family, we’re going to be doing that pretty soon. So stay tuned for that.

Let’s continue on. Verse 32 is where we’re at now:

32 Jesus said to them, “Very truly I tell you, it is not Moses who has given you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. 33 For the bread of God is the bread that comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”
34 “Sir,” they said, “always give us this bread.”
35 Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. 36 But as I told you, you have seen me and still you do not believe. 37 All those the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away. 38 For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me. 39 And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all those he has given me, but raise them up at the last day. 40 For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day.”

So this is really a big deal. This is the gospel. Jesus is saying, ”If you come to me, I will keep you, I will cleanse you and I will raise you up in the last day.” This is what Jesus wants to do for you, no matter what you’ve done. No matter whether you think you fit or not. Whether you’re Jew or Gentile. Whether you know the Scriptures or not. This is what Jesus is saying to you, that if you will come to him and you will follow him and you will learn of him and you will receive him and you will let him rule your life, then he will raise you up in the last day to everlasting life. It’s just beautiful. It’s the best deal there ever is. And that’s what Jesus did.

He hadn’t gone to the cross and died at this point. But the proof that he actually can do what he’s saying right here came when he died on the cross for our sins and then rose from the dead victorious over sin and death. And that’s the message for each one of us.

In this passage I want us to realize that the third thing is, most people want Jesus to save them from whatever is bothering them right now. For these people it was the political turmoil they were going through. But the Jesus way wants to save you from everlasting separation from God, which we call hell.

Most people want God to just kind of help them in this life. But really, what Jesus came to do primarily, what God wants to do primarily in your life is save you from everlasting separation from God, which your sin brings about. He doesn’t want you to go to hell. He basically says, “If you want to go to hell, if you want to be separated from me, you’ll have to do it over my dead body my son’s dead body.”

Literally. Jesus was crucified. The only way you can get to hell is to basically walk over and say, “I don’t care about that. I don’t want anything to do with Jesus. I reject Jesus completely.” If that’s what you’re doing both with your words and your actions, then you’re going to be separated from God.

But if you say, “No, I want Jesus. I want life. I want to care about these things. And even though I want God to meet me in my physical stress right now, I really do care more about that and I want Jesus to meet me when I die.” Then that’s something that Jesus is saying is for you. That’s what God cares about way more than anything else we’re experiencing.

Let’s keep going. 41 through 59:

41 At this the Jews there began to grumble about him because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” 42 They said, “Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can he now say, ‘I came down from heaven’?”
43 “Stop grumbling among yourselves,” Jesus answered. 44 “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them, and I will raise them up at the last day. 45 It is written in the Prophets: ‘They will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who has heard the Father and learned from him comes to me. 46 No one has seen the Father except the one who is from God; only he has seen the Father. 47 Very truly I tell you, the one who believes has eternal life. 48 I am the bread of life. 49 Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, yet they died. 50 But here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which anyone may eat and not die. 51 I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.”
52 Then the Jews began to argue sharply among themselves, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?”
53 Jesus said to them, “Very truly I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. 54 Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day. 55 For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. 56 Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in them.

The disciples are like, “Oh man. This is just killing this movement right now.”

57 Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me. 58 This is the bread that came down from heaven. Your ancestors ate manna and died, but whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.” 59 He said this while teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum.

So he’s actually in the synagogue. He’s unpacking this concept, trying to get people to move from their physical, fleshly eyes to their spiritual everlasting eyes. And then he starts dropping these bombs about, “Look, if you really want to know what I’m saying, you have to eat my body and drink my blood if you want any part of me and at the kingdom that I have. If you want God to raise you up on the last day, you have to eat my flesh and drink my blood.”

This is not sounding very good. Then he says it again and again and again. Just in case nobody was weirded out, he wanted to make sure everyone in the room was totally weirded out. Then verse 60:

60 On hearing it, many of his disciples said, “This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?”

The disciples are so awesome.

61 Aware that his disciples were grumbling…

So, first of all, the Jews that were coming to have him lead this revolution, they were grumbling, “He’s talking about he came from heaven. We know where he came from. Talking about eating his flesh. How can that happen?”

And now his disciples are grumbling too.

Jesus said to them, “Does this offend you? 62 Then what if you see the Son of Man ascend to where he was before! 63 The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you—they are full of the Spirit and life. 64 Yet there are some of you who do not believe.” For Jesus had known from the beginning which of them did not believe and who would betray him. 65 He went on to say, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless the Father has enabled them.” 66 From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him.
67 “You do not want to leave too, do you?” Jesus asked the Twelve.
68 Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. 69 We have come to believe and to know that you are the Holy One of God.”

So right there in verse 66, From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him. We know that five thousand men came out because they wanted to kind of go to this revolution. They wanted to make him king. And he fed them, but then he left them. When they woke up and couldn’t find him, I don’t know if all five thousand or just some of them came, but they came to the other side of the lake. And there they found Jesus and began to teach them in a synagogue.

As he was doing this, I don’t know how many were there exactly, but it was a lot more than twelve, in one place we actually do see in another gospel there were about 120 followers of Jesus and then seventy followers—he sends out seventy disciples at one point.

But as they continued to follow him, and then he says this saying, this was kind of a moment of truth for these disciples, “You’ve got to eat my flesh and drink my blood,” it says that most of them went away. They were disappointed in Jesus. He was not going to lead the revolution they wanted. For those of you who are bible scholars, you’ll love this. Basically, when these Jews are saying to him, “Moses gave bread to the people in Exodus as they were set free from that oppression of Egyptian slavery,” what they were saying was, “Jesus we’ve seen you do miracles and wonders like Moses did. We’re experiencing severe oppression under the Romans like the Egyptians did to the Israelites before and now we’re seeing you multiply food out in the wilderness, are you going to deliver us? This is making up for a great exodus. Can you lead a deliverance right here in our time, in our place? We’re praying for it. We’re crying out to God.

And basically Jesus said, “No. I’m not here to bring about a natural revolution, or a practical or a fleshly even revolution. I’m here to do a work that is actually everlasting. A work that is in the Spirit. A work that will set you free from an oppression not of Roman order or whatever it might be…but the oppression of sin and death, which are mankind’s greatest enemies.” Sin and death is the oppression we’ve been living under ever since Adam and Eve decided to go their way instead of God’s way.

Sin and death is the shadow that hangs over all of society, that creates all the pain and agony we experience. Sin and death are the things that are so deep inside our souls that we can’t even live unrestrained. We can’t even live free without doing something ugly or horrible or hurtful to somebody else.

The sin and death that permeates our souls so intensely makes, as the Bible says, that even our righteousness is like filthy rags. So me trying to do the right thing often can actually hurt somebody else and not be good for somebody else. We have this sin and death so thick and heavy over all of creation, so intrinsic and permeating all of creation, that creation, the Bible says, is groaning, longing for redemption. Longing for Jesus to return and set us free from the oppression of sin and death.

And what Jesus is saying to us here is that that’s what he’s ultimately here to do. He’s come to show us the way of God, to show us the way of the Father, to die on a cross, to pay the price and penalty for our sins, and then to rise, to conquer death once and for all. And then we know that he’s seated at the right hand of the Father until the day that he comes back and he makes all things new. Basically, he undoes all of the sadness that death and sin has come.

And we’re in this in-between time. We’re in this waiting time, waiting for his return. We have the power and love of Christ. His Spirit is with us so that we can taste heaven right now. We can experience it. We can walk in that kingdom power right now. But at the same time, we still live in these bodies of death. We still live in a world filled with death.

So here’s so what I think how we go about both things: being born again in a spiritual way, and how we go about eating his flesh and drinking his blood in a spiritual way. Obviously Jesus wasn’t a cannibal.He’s not telling us to be cannibals. We need to see it with spiritual eyes.

And this is my best way to unpack it. How do we do this? Well there’s this phrase that I came across from a friend of mine, John Mark Comer who’s a pastor up in crazy town Portland. I want to pop it up and have you guys read this. Then I’ll unpack it a little bit.

“For Jesus, the devil’s primary strategy to ruin the soul and society isn’t what most of us expect. It’s lies. More specifically, it’s deceptive ideas that play to disordered desires that are normalized in a sinful society. In this teaching, we explore how we are transformed by Spirit and truth, and deformed by isolation and lies. And we look to Jesus’ example of spiritual disciplines as spiritual warfare.”

We’ve been talking about this in our Sunday morning gatherings that we have been having where we pray and intercede and engage in spiritual warfare. We feel like that’s exactly what the Church is supposed to be doing right now. You, as a Christian, you should be doing spiritual warfare.

“I’m not that spiritual.”

Well then you’re not that Christian. This is a time where we really need to take seriously these things of God. The battle is going on in our society more so than it was in prior years. Recently. Obviously there have been battles before. But the Church is called to battle in the Spirit right now. And if you’re not, you’re probably losing ground for you and your household. So this is a very serious thing.

The Spiritual warfare that Jesus shows us, his way, basically, I think it can be unpacked like this. The first thing we need to do is acknowledge there are deceptive ideas in our society. And they play to our disordered desires and they’re normalized in our sinful defiant society. This is hard for people to realize. I think all of us now are aware that are a lot of deceitful ideas being spread around by media, but social media, by left, by right, by you, by me. We’re perpetrators of these ideas that are not good. They are not true. They’re not right. They’re not helpful. We have to be aware of that.

But we also have to realize that, according to the fall, we were born with disordered desires. Inside you and I, we long for things that are not good and not right. And what our society is trying to do is make those things okay and right. I might long for somebody else’s house or property. I might long for somebody else’s paycheck or whatever. That is something I need to resist. That is something I need to work against in my own life. To find contentment. But in our society we say, “That ambition. That’s work. That’s all of those things.” And we try to normalize coveting, or envy, or jealousy. And it’s not right.

For some we say, Oh, well, you know you have these desires sexually. Whether it be for a woman that’s not your wife. Or for a man that’s not your husband. Or for someone of the same sex. Whatever it might be. For someone that’s really young. I mean all of these crazy things that people have. And it’s not “You’re a bad person and you’re horrible and God hates you because you have that.”

Please hear me. Please hear me. Please listen to what I’m saying. As a part of the fall we are all created with disordered desires, desires that are not in line with God’s will, which therefore do not bring about human flourishing. We’ve got to trust that he knows the order. He knows the design. He can give us the strength if we’ll eat his body and drink his blood daily in the Spirit. He will strengthen us and sustain us to overcome those disordered desires, and see where society’s just trying to normalize those things that will ultimately end up in our ruin as a society and as an individual.

I know it’s hard. I’m not saying it’s not. We all have to resist. Welcome to the resistance. And we need each other. We need the blood of Jesus. We need the body of Jesus to strengthen us and sustain us. We also need the body of Christ.

This gets us to number 2. So first we have to acknowledge that.

Secondly we need to read the scriptures. We need to process life with other believers, both past and present.

So the believers that wrote this book, the Bible, the believers that have written about the challenges we’re facing. There’s a lot we can learn. But we also need to do it in the fellowship together. That’s where life groups come in. That’s why gatherings are so important. We need to be in each other’s lives, supporting each other in these battles.

And we need to pray so that we’ll not be fooled and led astray.

This is simple stuff. And this right here doesn’t feel like spiritual warfare. It seems very practical. But this is spiritual warfare as well when we can do these things. The scriptures are powerful for bringing down strongholds. Other believers will help sustain you and you can link arms so that you stay strong. Prayer is where we get to hear God’s ideas instead of just the rhetoric or propaganda going around.

And the last thing is

We need to understand that we have disordered desires as a part of the fall of mankind from innocence and be strengthened by the life and love of Christ to overcome those desires.

If you are someone that has homosexual desires, I want you to understand that God has room for you, that God does not condemn you for that. I think you do have to swallow a hard pill and understand that the Bible and God would teach that those are not right desires. Those desires will not lead to human flourishing for you and for our society. And I know that’s very difficult.

But you’re not the only one. Those who have desires for people who are not their wives, those who have desires for money that’s not theirs, those who are greedy, those who are hateful, those who have experienced pain in a lot of other ways and they want to act out, this is all part of our challenge. That’s why we need each other. That’s why we have to come together and not villainize or victimize each other.

God has promised that, if you will come to Christ and you will daily take in his body and his blood, not in a real practical way, but in a spiritual way, you will feed on the life of Christ, you’ll feed on the love of Christ, you will be strengthened to overcome whatever sin or whatever disordered desire you might be dealing with and struggling with. And we all do. We all do. The church is full of people with disordered desires who are trying to rely on Christ to overcome those things for themselves, for their households, for their families, and for society as a whole. And that’s the good news of Jesus, that he didn’t just say these things, but then, at the end of his life, he practically allowed his body to be broken and his blood to flow so that we could spiritually receive the forgiveness and strength that we need.

We’re going to do that now. We’re going to put up a slide and have a little time of communion for you and your household. I really want you to take this time seriously. If you need to go over those last points that fine. But just take this time and spiritually feed on the love and the life of Christ, the body and blood of Jesus that was given for you. And find the strength that is there as we continue to do battle in our society. God bless you guys.

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Guest User 8/9/20 Guest User 8/9/20

The Social Justice of the Social Jesus

We’re going to go to John chapter 6 and I want to read it to us, get in our minds, and then we’re actually going to read another passage that tells the same story. John 6, we’re going to start in verse 1:

Some time after this, Jesus crossed to the far shore of the Sea of Galilee (that is, the Sea of Tiberias), and a great crowd of people followed him because they saw the signs he had performed by healing the sick. Then Jesus went up on a mountainside and sat down with his disciples. The Jewish Passover Festival was near.

Series: John
John 6
David Stockton - August 9, 2020

(Starting at 4:38)

Some time after this, Jesus crossed to the far shore of the Sea of Galilee (that is, the Sea of Tiberias), and a great crowd of people followed him because they saw the signs he had performed by healing the sick. Then Jesus went up on a mountainside and sat down with his disciples. The Jewish Passover Festival was near.
When Jesus looked up and saw a great crowd coming toward him, he said to Philip, “Where shall we buy bread for these people to eat?” He asked this only to test him, for he already had in mind what he was going to do.
Philip answered him, “It would take more than half a year’s wages to buy enough bread for each one to have a bite!”
Another of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, spoke up, “Here is a boy with five small barley loaves and two small fish, but how far will they go among so many?”

You’ve got the personalities coming out. Philip was more of the business mind, where he’s like, “We can’t do this. What are you talking about?” He’s planning all the logistics, figuring out, “This does not compute.”

Then you’ve got Andrew who’s just kind of going, “Well, we’ve got this, we’ve got this, but I don’t know, you know.”

I like the personalities you get in the Bible.

Jesus said, “Have the people sit down.” There was plenty of grass in that place, and they sat down (about five thousand men were there).

Now, whether it was just men or if it was families, its kind of hard to know. But here John is making note that there were five thousand men there. And we’re going to come back to that.

Jesus then took the loaves, gave thanks, and distributed to those who were seated as much as they wanted. He did the same with the fish.
When they had all had enough to eat, he said to his disciples, “Gather the pieces that are left over. Let nothing be wasted.” So they gathered them and filled twelve baskets with the pieces of the five barley loaves left over by those who had eaten.
After the people saw the sign Jesus performed, they began to say, “Surely this is the Prophet who is to come into the world.” Jesus, knowing that they intended to come and make him king by force, withdrew again to a mountain by himself.

So this is John’s account of this story, which is in all four gospel accounts, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. This is one of the only things that is in all four of those accounts, because it’s so fascinating, so powerful, so amazing, that Jesus revealed the supernatural, intervening power of God in this moment by supplying food for all of these people from such a small source. How it went about, what took place, what it looked like when all of a sudden the basket just kept getting filled, I have no idea how it all went down. But it must have been so wonderful, so amazing. And all these people, just the physical hunger was met in this moment.

I want to go back to Matthew chapter 14 if you’ll turn there. We’ll get a little bit of detail that John doesn’t give us about what brought about this moment. John just basically says, “And then after this…” and then he goes into the story.

In Matthew 14, let’s get a little background on what was taking place in Israel, in Jesus’ life right before this moment. It says:

At that time Herod the tetrarch heard the reports about Jesus, and he said to his attendants, “This is John the Baptist; he has risen from the dead! That is why miraculous powers are at work in him.”
Now Herod had arrested John and bound him and put him in prison because of Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife, for John had been saying to him: “It is not lawful for you to have her.” Herod wanted to kill John, but he was afraid of the people, because they considered John a prophet.

So John was a righteous man. This is John the Baptist. This is Jesus’ cousin. He was doing great things for the people of God. He was calling them out of their wickedness, calling them out of their selfishness, out of their pride. And calling them to repent and get right with God. One of the things he did was he was speaking out against Herod and his family, the leaders of that day, the kind of Jewish aristocracy that were put in power by Rome.

Rome was dominating the whole world, but they would put local leaders in charge. So Herod was kind of a sell-out, what the Jews thought. He was kind of in bed with Rome and with the Jews and it was not a good situation. He was not loved by the people.

So John the Baptist saw some of the things that they were doing and he was saying, “It’s not right for you to be taking other people’s wives. It’s not right to be taking extra wives. This is not right. This is not Jewish. This is not Judaism. This is not of God.”

He was speaking out against those leaders and it ended up getting him arrested and put in prison. And there he was in prison. Then it says in verse 6:

On Herod’s birthday the daughter of Herodias danced for the guests and pleased Herod so much that he promised with an oath to give her whatever she asked. Prompted by her mother, she said, “Give me here on a platter the head of John the Baptist.” The king was distressed, but because of his oaths and his dinner guests, he ordered that her request be granted and had John beheaded in the prison. His head was brought in on a platter and given to the girl, who carried it to her mother. John’s disciples came and took his body and buried it. Then they went and told Jesus.

So the grief of this moment, the outrage, the horror, the injustice. It must have just been absolutely brutal when this took place for the people of Israel. They’re oppressed, they’re struggling, they’re poor. The Roman domination has completely broken their backs. Now here, their ruler, Herod, does this completely disgusting act for a completely disgusting reason. And they’re left with this feeling.

And it says John’s disciples, the ones that were hanging out with John and helping with John’s ministry, they went and got his body and they buried him and they went and told Jesus. Now again, Jesus is not just someone who was a fan of John the Baptist. Jesus was John the Baptist’s cousin. Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist to fulfill all righteousness. John the Baptist had already been proclaiming that Jesus was the Messiah, he was the Lamb of God that was going to take away the sin of the whole world. And yet, now in this moment, John’s disciples come and tell Jesus the news of what took place.

I titled this message “The Social Justice of the Social Jesus.” In our day today there is a lot of zeal. There’s a lot of unrest. There’s a lot of outrage about a number of things. I don’t think it’s too wrong or too challenging to call this Jesus’ George Floyd moment. I mean, obviously the comparisons break down in a number of ways. But this really was an intense political, intense societal moment that was taking place in Jesus’ life.

I think it’s very important for us to look at what Jesus does. Because we’re all right now kind of stirred up. We’ve got the election challenges. Conservative, liberal, Democrat, Republican. We’ve got the racial unrest, black, white, privilege, no privilege, systemic—we’ve got all these words that are kind of firing us all up. And there’s anger and guilt swirling around. And then we also have this COVID thing, which has a lot of confusion. Sometimes they say this, sometimes they say this. Sometimes you think this, sometimes you think that, about how to walk forward. What’s the best practices to do.

Our nation is so pitted against each other. And what I’m seeing is that it’s starting to seep into the church a little bit, too, where it just has no place. We’re called to be one. We’re one body. We have one head and that’s Jesus Christ. So we need to figure out how to be unified above all of our secondary ideas, our nonessential concepts. So it’s good for us to look at Jesus and what he did in his moment of real political unrest and turmoil.

So that’s what we have. This setup for this story of feeding the five thousand. Let’s continue in Matthew in verse 13, in these couple of verses before we go on.

When Jesus heard what had happened, he withdrew by boat privately to a solitary place.

That was Jesus’ initial response.

Hearing of this, the crowds followed him on foot from the towns. When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them and healed their sick.

And Matthew goes on to talk about what we’ve got in John. How Jesus separated them all into groups, had his disciples get them all sat down and then he goes and feeds the five thousand.

There are a couple of things I want us to notice here. When we put these two stories together, what we really have is an extremely outrageous, horrific political event or something that happened in society, an injustice, that causes this crowd to go and find Jesus. Now Jesus, when he heard it, he withdrew so the crowds came to find him.

The reason there were five thousand men, the reason there was this large crowd was not just because they were wanting to hang out with Jesus. It was a combo. They had seen the power of God revealed through Jesus. They had heard the teachings of Christ that seemed to cut through all the confusion that was going on in that day. And so, in this moment when they wanted to look to someone to lead, when they wanted to bring about some sort of social change, when they wanted to overthrow Herod, when they wanted to do something because they were so angry, they came the Jesus, which is a great thing to do.

But what they found, I think, surprised them. Because they came to Jesus to really say, “All right, Jesus, lead the movement. Lead the march. Let’s go tear this place down. Let’s go to the palace and let’s get rid of Herod. Let’s do all these things.”

But instead, Jesus withdrew to a quiet place. Jesus sat everyone down. Jesus healed the sick among them. Jesus fed them, meeting a practical need. And then, as we go back to the book of John chapter 6, it says, then after this—they were so blown away—Jesus was able to feed all of them. They’re going, “This really is the guy! This is it! Let’s do this thing.”

It says that Jesus, knowing they were going to try to make him king, he again withdrew to a quiet place. And then the very next story we have, he’s there in a quiet place praying because his heart is broken because his cousin was beheaded. His heart is broken because of the oppression and the injustice. But he goes to prayer. He withdraws to a quiet place and prays.

And then that night, he sends the disciples out and he keeps praying, but then he walks to them on water—which is an awesome story—walks to them on water, reassuring them that he is in control over all of this stuff. And then he departs to another quiet place with his disciples

I just think this is interesting because, you know, right now, what I’ve felt when I heard about George Floyd and some of the other cases, and I’ve heard the cry of the black community as they are just so frustrated about a lot of their situation and all of that. I immediately was like, “Okay, I want to hear.” I’ve told you guys a little bit of the story. Fifteen of us white pastors met with fifteen African American pastors. We just went to try and start the conversation, “Hey, tell us what’s going on. Tell us where we’re at. Tell us what we can do.”

It didn’t go very well. There was a lot of distance between us when we got there. And when we left there was still a lot of distance. It kind of broke my heart. I was like, “Okay, Lord, what do I do?”

So I’ve been diving in to try to learn. To research I’ve been reaching out to African American pastors or Christians that I can just say, “Hey, can I just have more one on one conversation to see if that helps.” I’ve been getting to know a lot of people. It’s been really neat and really fascinating. I’ve learned so much and been so encouraged by some of these men that are really trying to sort out what to do and really trying to do the Jesus way as they go through.

Then there was another meeting of those same pastors down at the capital where there was going to be a lot of confessions and a lot of commitment going forward. I watched it on Facebook and was like, “Yeah. These words are good. This is heading in the right direction.”

Then we actually flew in a guy from St. Louis who was a professor but right now he’s teaching math at a school right next to Ferguson. He was there all that time and he has a very researched mind and a lot of papers he wrote about that time and what should be done and what shouldn’t be done. He came out and shared with our staff. I got to be with him and really just discover a lot of different things that I didn’t know.

So I’ve just been trying to dive into this thing. Really, what I feel like God has told me is, a lot of times we’re supposed to practice what we preach. But I felt that what the Lord was telling me is that we need to practice, practice, practice, practice, practice, practice, practice…before we preach. What I’ve seen a lot of Christians do is, they’re preaching without really digging in and trying to catch God’s heart.

And that’s the first thing we see Jesus do. Immediately when this happened, and he was Jesus, he knew what to do. But still, he withdrew to a quiet place to pray. And I just think, for Christians, we’ve got to be there. That’s our call right now. We’ve got to seek God’s heart. We’ve got to seek his presence. We’ve got to seek his power. Because without his power, all we’ve got is just more humanistic, secular ideas and strength. It’s not going to do anything at all for anyone.

There’s a story in the Old Testament that I’ve been chewing ever since all of this took place. It’s a really fun story. It’s about Joshua and the children of Israel, where they’re going to be heading into the Promised Land and they’re going to be having some battles between the Israelites and the Canaanites. One of the first places they went to was Jericho with those mighty walls. You’ve probably heard the story about the walls of Jericho.

The night before they were going into battle, Joshua, who was probably overwhelmed because of the intensity of the moment. They’re about to go into battle and he’s just a brand new leader. The Israelites are not warriors by any chance. Moses is gone now. He’s just kind of overwhelmed. So it says he went away to be by himself, away from the camp. And while he was there, I imagine he was praying, but all of a sudden it says that he saw a warrior standing next to him with his sword drawn. Joshua was startled. The question that he asked in Joshua chapter 4 is, “Are you for us or are you for our enemies?”

Then it says that the warrior answered, “Neither. But I’m the commander of the army of the Lord. And the place that you’re standing is holy. You need to take your shoes off.”

So Joshua takes his shoes off and has this little moment where he’s talking to the angel of God’s armies. A lot of people think this is a Christophany—an appearance of Christ in the Old Testament.

When I think about this story, it’s like the third option. “Are you for us or are you for our enemies?” And I can just hear people saying, “Are you for the blacks or are you for the whites?” “Are you for the Republicans or are you for the Democrats?” “Are you for my worldview, or my philosophy, or are you for the opposing world view philosophy?”

We’re pitting ourselves against each other. And we’re coming to the Lord, saying, “Are you for us or are you for our enemies?”

And God’s like, “No, man. No.”

First of all, God is for everyone. God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son, that whoever believes in him…whoever believes in him. Whatever their background is. Whatever their philosophy is. If they put their faith in Christ, if they give their life to Christ, they get eternal life. Whether they get everything right in this life or not, that is the trump card. Sorry I said trump there. I know you’re not supposed to say it. That overcomes anything we’ve ever done. The life and blood of Jesus overcomes anything that we could ever do wrong.

That’s the grace. That’s the beauty of it all, that somehow all of us, no matter how hard we try, no matter how hard we fight, no matter how zealous we are, no matter how right we think we are, we are still on the wrong side. Humanity will always be on the wrong side whenever we’re doing humanistic ideas. We’re all just trying to build a new tower of Babel. All these things, capitalism, socialism, communism, whatever it might be. Some might be better for some. Some might be better for others. Some might be better sometimes. Some might be better others. I don’t know. All of them are human philosophies that are going to leave us all empty and short of the glory of God. So we shouldn’t be fighting for them. We shouldn’t be making that be all we’re about.

We want to get on God’s side. And God’s side is found in the scriptures. God’s side is found in a relationship with him. God’s side is what’s going to get us from this life to fullness of life. We’ve got to find a way to get off of our side to God’s side. We know that Jesus Christ was the answer. God sent his son into the world to teach us what his side is all about, and to lay down his life to provide a bridge for us to get from our side to his side.

That’s why John, when he starts his book, he says, “In the beginning was the Word.” And he uses the word Word to describe Jesus. And the word Word in the Greek, and we’ve talked about this, is logos. And it’s basically God’s universal principle that rules the cosmos. It’s what makes life exist and happen. It’s God’s philosophy. It’s God’s politic.

So if we really want to get from our side to God’s side, we’ve got to go through Jesus. We’ve got to learn his teaching. We’ve got to learn his way. We’ve got to apply his blood to our life, We’ve got to invite him into our life. And for some of you, you might have spent your whole life looking for the next philosophy, or the next idea that might make you feel alive or whole. It’s never going to happen. There’s only one way to enlightenment and truth. There’s only one way to heaven in truth. There’s only one way to truth and that is Jesus Christ. He is the way. He is the truth. He is the life. And here’s the most amazing thing in the world. He loves you and he wants you to be on his side, be in his family. He wants to come and do life with you. That’s what the Bible teaches over and over again. And that’s what we see in the life of Jesus.

That’s the reality, We’re trying to figure out how to get from our side to God’s side. Sure enough, in Joshua’s day, God said, ‘Well this is how you do it. This is what you do to get on my side. I want you to walk around the walls of Jericho. I just want you to keep walking consistently day after day, day after day, in silence, keep walking and on the final day, I want you to shout.”

And we know the story. Those walls came down and God’s will and God’s purposes were brought out. And so for our day and age, when we see all these dividing walls, when we see all this division, I really feel like God has spoken clearly to us how we’re supposed to walk in his way, be on his side right now. It’s to consistently, day after day, whether COVID is here or COVID goes, whether the political party we want or don’t want wins, whether we’re black or white or brown or whatever, this is how we get the walls to come down in our society. We continue to walk with humility and we continue to walk with generosity. Those are the two things that are going to make the biggest difference in this time.

Jesus said, “If you want to come and follow me, come learn of me. Take my yoke upon you. Learn of me for I am meek and lowly and humble in heart.” That is the way of Jesus. That is the social Jesus. Humility and generosity. He withdrew to a quiet place. He drew everybody in. And he met their needs and served them by feeding the five thousand, by healing the sick, by teaching them his ways. And that’s what we get in John chapter six.

I want to talk a little bit about the power of God, as far as this miracle. Because this is a fascinating miracle. There are a number of miracles in the book of John, trying to teach us about God. And I’m going to tell us here in just a second one of the things that I think Jesus did that we can mirror as we go through this. One of them is the revealing of God’s supernatural intervening power. There are different people who have experienced that. There are people who haven’t experienced that. For me, I have seen God do miracles, signs and wonders. Oftentimes it’s not when I really thought he would. And it’s definitely not been every time.

There was a time where I was living in a village in Belize and I got to see the scriptures about casting out demons come to pass as I worked with a young man and prayed over him and he did experience two demons actually leave him. And he saw a man in white talking to him. It was fascinating and it was something that I hope I don’t ever have to be a part of again. But it was really cool to see the power of God in that supernatural intervening power show up for this young man,

I’ve also been here in the church, many times we’ve prayed for people. Sometimes we’ve believed that they’ll be healed and sometimes we don’t. And sometimes we get it wrong. Sometimes we didn’t think they’d be healed and then they got healed. Sometimes we thought they’d be healed and then they didn’t. But we’ve seen some actual, bona fide miracles. We’ve checked with people weeks afterward and months afterward and it’s still been true.

On the spectrum though, I just need us to understand. There’s this idea of Deism. Deism is the fact that God created the world, but then he doesn’t intervene. He just kind of wound up the clock and he’s letting it go. Deism is not a biblical idea. It’s not within orthodoxy. I don’t believe it’s true at all. But I can get why people would go there.

Most of the founding fathers of America actually were deistic. Thomas Jefferson created a bible and he took out all the miraculous signs and said, “Now this is the Bible that I believe in.”

The one problem with that is, if you take out the miracles, you take out the resurrection of Christ. You take out the resurrection of Christ, we are of men most miserable. We have nothing to hope for. Because if Jesus wasn’t a sacrifice that was able to rise from the dead, that means his sacrifice for us was not sufficient. So that’s why it just can’t be true.

But on the other side of Deism, you have this Pentecostalism, where it’s like God’s going to do everything you ever wanted him to do, and if he doesn’t, you’re doing it wrong. And that’s not a true at all either. That gets way outside the biblical concept.

There’s one other word I want you to know. It’s Cessationism. Cessationism is this idea that God stopped intervening supernaturally with miracles and all of that after the acts of the apostles. After Peter, James and John passed away. That it was a time that God was doing that and God is doing that no more. I can get why they would say that scripturally. But also, at the same time, I’ve just not found that to be true in my life. And I don’t think that makes sense of the God that we serve either. He’s the same yesterday, today and forever.

So somewhere in this camp between this Cessationism and this extreme Pentecostalism is where I think I’m trying to find my way, and where I think Living Streams is trying to find our way, where we do hope that God will supernaturally intervene, that he’ll give us grace in that way. But we also put our hope in God and we say, “If he doesn’t, then he’ll give us the grace to endure well.”

Like Paul said, “If he doesn’t give it to us then we can know that in our weakness his strength will be made perfect.”

I know some of you are both. Some of you have experienced those miracles and you’re rejoicing but then in other areas you haven’t. And some you have not experienced those miracles. It doesn’t necessarily mean you’re doing anything wrong. But if God says no to the miracles, then that means he’s saying yes to the grace you need to endure. And though it might be hard, you can endure.

So that’s a little bit about the power of God, the miracles of God. I want to mention that because I want to list what I do see in the life of Jesus, what his version of social justice looks like.

First of all, withdrawing from the crowd. I think withdrawing from the crowd is something we all need to understand. There’s a lot of populism. There are a lot of people building their lives on rhetoric right now. We need to make sure to withdraw from the crowd to hear the voice of our God as he guides us through this challenging time.

Secondly, we need to serve practical needs The fatherless, the widow, the orphans—these are the people that God’s heart is really paying attention to. We should be doing that as well.

Revealing God’s supernatural intervening power. We just spoke about that.

Speaking about the kingdom of God. I think it’s important for us not to be spreading other news. Right now, if you’re just talking about conspiracy theories or you’re just talking about Republican agenda or Democrat agenda, if that’s what you’re posting and talking about the most, I think you just need to take a moment and check yourself. Make sure that you’re talking about the good news of Jesus. Because that’s the message we’re supposed to be speaking about above everything else.

It doesn’t mean you can’t have fun and talk about these things and see where we land in these things. But if the political stuff becomes more than the gospel, we’ve got something wrong. Jesus testified to the truth. As Christians, we need to really be careful to find out what is true and make sure and help other pope find out what is true. Not just what is rhetoric.

Ultimately the best thing we can do is sacrificial love. Give ourselves to others for their benefit.

I want to close with this story of a guy named Daryl Davis. He’s a musician. He’s an African American. In 1987 he was playing at this club and a white guy came up to him and they kind of had a drink together. He was just saying, “Man, you play that piano so well.” They had a conversation and he ended up finding out that this white man was a member of the KKK. Daryl Davis was kind of shocked and a little unsure of what to do. But they talked a little bit more.

And for whatever reason, Daryl Davis felt like this was something that he needed to do. He needed to meet these people. And basically, the premise is, “How can you hate me if you don’t know me?”

Over time, up to this point, Daryl Davis has been able to get to know two hundred different KKK members and actually see them get out of the KKK. He has a closet full of all their cloaks. As they get out of there, as they get to know him, they actually end up handing their cloak to him. I think it’s just a beautiful story of engaging into this world that we’re nervous about.

Jesus, that’s exactly what he did for us. He who knew no sin became sin for us. He came into our world. He felt our need. He felt our pain and all of that. And he gave himself completely, sacrificially to us. He entered into our world so that he could show us how to get out. And if you can get to know Jesus, if you can get in relationship with Jesus, you will begin to experience his wisdom, his power. And you’ll realize it is not of human origin. And it actually can help build the world and build your life and bring you to peace.

That’s our message today. We’re going to have a little response slide—some things you can pray through, as we end this message. If you don’t know Jesus, if you haven’t invited him to be the Lord of your life, then this prayer is a really great thing. If you pray this for the first time, we’d love to know about it. Please comment below. Let us know that you gave your life to Jesus and you’re ready to go that way. We’ll get you baptized, or whatever comes next. But for the rest of you who know Jesus, this is still a good thing to pray, just kind of realigning our hearts with him. God bless you and we’ll see you soon,

First, say Father in heaven I understand that I have done wrong. Please forgive me,
Next, say Father in heaven I understand that You want me on Your side and made. Way for me by the death and resurrection of Jesus. Please put Your Spirit in me to teach and guide and comfort me.
Next, say Father in heaven I understand that You want my life to be a blessing to others. Please help me to remember that and give me opportunities for that.
Finally, say Father in heaven I understand that one day You will send Jesus again and He will restore everything. Please help me to have hope and peace as I look forward to that day.

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Guest User 8/2/20 Guest User 8/2/20

Do You Want to Get Well?

Welcome. It’s good to have you here today. I’m glad to be with you. I’m Mark Buckley, one of the pastors at Living Streams—Pastor Emeritus, you could say. I’m just full of the grace of God right now. I’m going through personal trials, but still, the grace of God is sufficient to get us through whatever we need to go through.

John 5
Mark Buckley - August 2, 2020

I want to thank those of you who have been praying for my wife, Kristina. She’s been back in the hospital the last couple of weeks, fighting different lung mold and different kind of infections that have been brought about by immune suppressant drugs that she’s on to keep her from rejecting her heart. She has had a heart transplant. The heart is doing great. She’s full of energy, full of grace, even in a very difficult situation. Thank you for your prayers.

I also want to point out that I’ve got a book here. It’s called From Darkness Into Light. It’s basically my story, my journey in the early days of my walk with Jesus. I’ve been thinking about that recently because, my story, when I tell it, it’s actually liberating. It’s actually healing for me. It’s good for me to talk about how I was brought out of darkness and into the light by the grace of God. And it’s good for you to tell your story, as well.

Today I’m going to be giving you a message from the gospel of John. The title of this message is “Do You Want to Get Well?” Now in the 60’s, when I was wrestling with forces of darkness—the things that I write about in this book—it was a challenging time. It was a difficult time. The nation was in turmoil. The nation was conflicted about the Vietnam War and about the legitimacy of what our government was doing.

I was involved in a protest one time with 200,000 people. Over 40,000 American soldiers were killed in Vietnam. It was a big deal and it divided our country. And our country has been divided recently, as you well know. And there are powerful political pressures. There are powerful forces of darkness trying to divide us.

We, as believers, are called to be peace makers. We, as believers, are called to be “salt and light.” That doesn’t mean that we are to preach our political perspective louder than anybody else. It means that we are to declare the lordship of Jesus. He is the head over all rule and authority. His government is the government that will never cease on the face of the earth.

Anyway, so if you want one of these books, if you’re down at Church on the Street, ask Pastor Walt Rattray. He’ll get you one. If you want to come in the Living Streams office, they’ll give you one. If you want to go to my website: markbuckleyministries.com we would be glad to send you one. I’ll sign it for you if you ask for me to do that. I also want to urge you: Tell your story! I’m promoting that book because it tells my story. But you tell your story. It’s going to help you get healthy.

Let’s look at this story in the gospel of John and then I want to give you a little background in just a moment. It says this in John 5:1:

Some time later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish festivals. Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades. Here a great number of disabled people used to lie—the blind, the lame, the paralyzed. For an angel of the Lord went down at certain seasons into the pool and stirred up the water; whoever then first, after the stirring up of the water, stepped in was made well from whatever disease with which he was afflicted. One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to get well?”

What kind of a question is that? Do you want to get well? The guy’s been paralyzed for thirty-eight years. He hasn’t gone hardly anywhere unless somebody’s carrying him. But if he was going to get well, it was going to require some changes in his life. He might have to get a job. He might have a new group of friends. He would have to accept a responsibility that he hadn’t had to accept for a long time.

And my question to you is, do you want to get well? Do you want your soul healthy? Do you want your life transformed? Do you want the power and grace of God? Or do you want to be like this guy who had an excuse for not being well?

Now, what they said here is that there was a saying, and it’s in the fourth verse that the angel would come down and stir the water. And if you were first into the water after the angel stirred the water, then you could get the miracle of healing. But if there’s a whole bunch of lame, blind and paralyzed people there, and only one of them gets the healing, it would be a mad scramble. And if you were paralyzed and you couldn’t walk, you would probably never get in there first unless you had a real fast, big, strong person rush you down there.

Here’s what I love about the gospel of John. It is so unique. This story isn’t in any other gospel. There are four gospels, as you probably know. Matthew, Mark and Luke are called the synoptic gospels. They all have the life of Christ, the teaching of Christ, the death of Christ on the cross, and the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. They all tell many of the same miracles and cover many of the same teachings. But the gospel of John is different. Every chapter is different. Every chapter in the gospel of John has teachings that Matthew, Mark and Luke didn’t cover.

In the first chapter, it’s the Logos—the reason, the purpose, the divine order. And it’s John the Baptist saying to Jesus, “This is the Lamb of God. This is who I’m telling you about. He’s going to take away the sin of the world.”

In the second chapter of John there’s the miracle of Cana, the wedding feast where water is turned into wine. The bottom line of that to me is the simple becomes special. And in Christ, the simple things of life can be really special. You don’t need to get drunk. You don’t need to get stoned. You need to be filled with the Holy Spirit and then you can celebrate each and every day.

In the third chapter of John there’s Nicodemus coming to Jesus and wanting to know who he really was, and Jesus saying, “You’ve got to be born again.” That isn’t covered in any other gospel.

In the fourth chapter there’s the woman at the well, a woman who had been married five times and now living with her boyfriend. And Jesus says to her, “I can give you living water.” Jesus says to her, “You Samaritans aren’t quite sure who God is. The Jews know that we worship God in Spirit. Everybody who worships God must worship in Spirit and in truth.”

And as you go through the gospel of John, there’s one unique story after another. There’s the woman caught in adultery in the eighth chapter of John and him talking about knowing the truth and the truth setting you free.

There’s the blind man who was blind from birth and at the disciples saying, “Was it this man who sinned or his parents who sinned?”

Then in the tenth chapter there’s the story of the Good Shepherd, and us knowing his voice if we’re his sheep.

In the eleventh chapter there’s the story of the resurrection of Lazarus, and Jesus saying, “I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, they’re never going to die. And those who die and believe in me, they’re going to live forever.”

Every chapter has something unique. A foot washing in chapter thirteen. It’s a unique perspective. And why am I saying that? Because you’ve got a unique perspective too. You’re getting spoken to by God and you’re being called by God to do things that nobody else is being asked to do. You’ve been created for a special, unique purpose. So you have to believe in the things the Holy Spirit is saying to you.

I hope this message is going to help you believe in the one he sent, and believe in the calling that he has called you to embrace. So he’s asking now, this guy paralyzed for thirty-eight years, “Do you want to get well?”

I had a woman call me and she was in marriage turmoil. By the time she hung up, I was convinced of one thing. She didn’t want anybody to know what she was going through and she reiterated to me, “Don’t tell anybody what I’m going through.”

I thought to myself, You’ll get healed when you’re willing to tell your story. When you no longer care about who knows, when you’re not trying to cover it up, because all of us have struggles in our marriage. Kristina and I have been married forty-seven years this month. Forty-seven years. We’ve gone to marriage counseling. We’ve gone to seminars. We’ve read books. And we still have our arguments at times. We still have our struggles at times. What I’ve learned is, if I want unity with my wife, I have to humble myself.

And the scripture says that if we humble ourselves, he will give us grace. And grace is the power that makes life worth living. Grace is what enables us to follow Jesus and overcome this world. Grace is the special gift that we don’t deserve that God pours out into simple people like us, people who have made all kinds of mistakes and he allows us to triumph in this world.

Jesus asks this man, “Do you want to get well?”

I had a guy come to me a number of years ago. He weighed about 400 pounds. He had been in our church for a couple of years. A really nice guy. And when he made the appointment, I wondered what he wanted to talk about. He told me his story, and his marriages. He told me the pain he was in, the trouble he was having sleeping at night, the fact that he didn’t have a job.

And I started to give him some counsel, and some encouragement, and told him to get a job. He had these different excuses and, basically, I looked at him and asked the same question that Jesus asked this man. “Do you want to get well? Do you? Do you want to get well. Because if you want to get well, you’re going to have make some changes. You’re going to have to be willing to embrace a discipline. You’re going to have to practice doing the right thing, even if you don’t feel like doing the right thing.”

Speaking of practice, my granddaughter is fifteen and a half. And as soon as she turned fifteen and a half, Ava went and got her learner’s permit from the Department of Motor Vehicles. Then she comes over to my house after her mom’s driven with her like once or twice a little bit. And she wants to take me driving. She goes, “Papa, do you want to go for a drive?”

And I’m like, “Not really. Not really at all.” But I knew that when somebody is fifteen and a half and they’re asking you to go for a drive, within six short months, when she has her license and she can go wherever she wants with all of her friends, she won’t be wanting to go places with me. So this is the time for me to say, “Yes.”

So I say, “Yes.” And we get in the car. And it’s about 7:00 pm and it’s dusk and there aren’t a lot of cars on the road. So I say, “Just go around the neighborhood, wherever you want to go.” And then I’m gripping the seat and I’m like, “Watch out for that car there. It’s parked, I know, but don’t get too close. And make sure you know that kids could run out from behind.”

And I’m doing the whole parental thing, trying to be nice, but finally, I’ve got to break the ice so I say, “You know, it’s the first time in a long time I’ve just gone for a drive. And I haven’t even known where we’re going.”

And she looks at me and she says, “Oh, Papa. Isn’t it relaxing to just go for a drive? I just love to go for a drive with no desintation.”

And I’m like, “That is not what I would call relaxing. This is more like putting my life in your hands.”

So what I’m about to tell you in terms of getting whole isn’t going to necessarily be relaxing. It isn’t necessarily going to be completely affirming. But it’s going to make a difference if you’re willing to go for it. Anything worth doing is worth doing poorly. You know why? If you’re going to start playing a guitar, you’re going to start poorly. If you’re going to start becoming a worship singer, you’re probably going to start poorly. But if you’re willing to get past the “poorly” aspect of it and practice what you want to do, you can get whole. You can get well. You can become competent. You can be used by God.

The Greek word here is hygieias, which means healthy, sound, well, cured, healed. You can be healthy, well, sound, cured, healed.

We had a girl in our church way back in the 70’s when we were in California, who I had to pick up every day from her house on Sunday mornings, and carry her into the car and drive her to the services, and then drive her home after the services. Her name was Debbie Lynn Simmons. Debbie Lynn was born with cerebral palsy. She couldn’t walk. She couldn’t feed herself. She could talk but it was hard to understand her. She could not use her arms very well except to push the power button on her wheelchair as she got older and had a motorized wheelchair

Debbie had accepted Jesus and she loved the Lord. She believed that her life would really matter. So our church fasted and prayed for her to be healed. We did this for a number of Sundays, a number of weeks, for I think a couple of months. We all fasted and prayed for God to do a miracle. Well, we didn’t see the miracle, but we still loved Debbie and she still loved Jesus. Even though she wanted to be able to walk and run and sing and dance, she wanted to serve God.

As time went on, I saw Debbie Lynn in Wales when I was teaching at a school of missions in Wales. She said to me when I saw here there, she said, “Mark, I always wanted to be a missionary and look at me now! I’m doing missions for the Lord.”

Debbie Lynn Simmons graduated from Dominican College in San Rafael, California, a Catholic university that’s not cheap, that’s not easy to get into. But she not only graduated from high school, she graduated from college because she believed that Jesus really wanted to use her and to get an education was going to further her ministry.

One year I was reading, after I had moved to Phoenix, I was reading a newsletter sent out by a ministry called Love in Action, which helped people who were coming out of the homosexual lifestyle to find the grace of God to be healed, to be transformed. And I’m reading this article in a magazine. And it was the most well balanced, well thought out, sound healthy, affirming article I think I had ever read. And I’m reading, and I get to the very bottom. There’s the byline and it says, “By Debbie Lynn Simmons.”

And I’m thinking. Wow. She has taken this most complex subject matter and made it so pure, so simple, so straight forward, so filled with grace, so filled with love for anybody that’s struggling with same sex attraction. It was so great. And I thought to myself, We did that fasting and praying for Debbie. We asked God to do a miracle, and the miracle that he did wasn’t to make her run and walk in this world. What he did was, he gave her such a sound, clear mind and the ability to express herself, even though when she typed out that article she had to have a stick in her mouth and type it on a computer one letter at a time. She persevered because she wanted the God who had given her grace to be able to give grace to others.

Debbie eventually got married and moved to Boston. I haven’t been in touch with her recently, but here’s a girl who could’ve just felt sorry for herself, could have been mad at God because of the disability that she had. She turned her disability into an ability—an ability to describe and to declare and to display the glory of God because he uses us even in our weakness, each and every one of us. Because we’ve got weaknesses as well.

So let’s continue on in our story. In verse 7, the invalid is speaking:

“Sir,” the invalid replied, “I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me.”

This is his excuse. And you might have an excuse. You could say to me, “Well, sir, you don’t know what kind of family background I was raised in.” “Sir, you don’t know what kind of a difficult marriage situation I’ve got.” “Sir, you don’t know how I’ve been abused and used and discarded.” “Sir, you don’t know how I’ve been betrayed.” “Sir, you don’t know what it’s like to be in prison like I was in prison.” “Sir, you don’t know what it’s like to be in poverty like I’ve been in poverty.”

And you know what? You’re right. I don’t know what you’ve gone through. I don’t know what you’ve had to overcome. I don’t know, but I do know this, that if Jesus himself is speaking to you and he’s asking you a question, “Do you want to get well?” You can either hold on to your excuse or you can say, “Yes, Lord, help me. I want to get well.”

That’s what I had to say. In my book, if you read it, you’ll know that I went through some dark days in a mental institution and electric shock treatments, and depression that made me suicidal. You’ll know that I went through things that I didn’t know if I would ever get over. I only knew when people told me that there is a God who loved me, that if he was there, I asked him to help me and then I began to experience, day by day, each and every day, something that made that day worth living. Something that encouraged me to keep ongoing. Something that began to make me believe that there is a reason and a purpose beyond myself, and that something is the one who has healed my soul and who will heal your soul as well.

Then Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.”

A very simple exhortation.

“Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.”
At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked.

You know, Jesus didn’t make him jump through a whole bunch of hoops. He just said, “Pick it up. Go for it. You’re going to be okay. Go ahead. Pick it up. Walk.”

I remember praying for a guy by the name of Jack Donohue one night. We were having a Bible study. This was many years ago. The older you get you have many “years ago” stories, by the way. So many years ago, we’re in a home group, we’re gathering in a circle at the end of the meeting. We had asked, “Who wants prayer?”

Jack wanted prayer. He was in law enforcement. He needed to be physically fit and able. He had a really bad back and it was hurting him just to walk. So we gather around and we’re starting to pray. As I’m praying for him and I’m being quiet, somebody else is praying at the moment and I’m preparing to speak out loud, I see a vision in my mind. What I saw in my mind was Jack doing a karate kick. And I try to sort of get it out of my mind. I don’t know what it’s doing in my mind at a time like that. But I see it. And then I pray for him and then we say, “Amen.” And everybody leaves. And Jack walks out the door. It’s time to go home.

And then I thought, You know what? I’ve got to tell him. So I go out to the street, and I say, “Jack, Jack. Hold on one second.” I said, “You know when we were praying, I saw you do a karate kick and I just thought I would tell you. Good night. God bless.” And I went back in my house.

Now this is as very intense man I was talking to. This is a guy, the first time I saw him at our church, he looked me in the eye and then he stuck out his hand and he said, “Hi. I’m Jack Donohue.”

I said, “Hi. I’m Mark Buckley.”

He goes, “I can tell a fraud when I see one.”

And I said, “Well, welcome to our church. You came to the right place.”

That’s how we met. He was in law enforcement. He was trained to tell if somebody was telling stories that didn’t matter. And so, anyway, long story short, the next time I saw Jack after that Bible study where we prayed, he comes up to me and he says, “Did I tell you what happened?”

I said, “What? What do you mean?”

And I had sort of forgotten. And he says, “Yeah. Remember when you came out and you told me that if I did a karate kick, that’s what you were thinking you saw in this vision? So after you went back in the house, I thought Sounds crazy but what do I have to lose?”

And he does this big karate kick. He said, “My back snapped right back into place and I have been good to go ever since.”

I’m like, “Praise God. Because I would have never thought of that myself.” I would never recommend it. I’ve never recommended that to anybody before or since. But sometimes the solution the Lord has for us is a very simple solution. In this case, “Pick up your mat and walk.”

The day on which this took place was a Sabbath, and so the Jewish leaders said to the man who had been healed, “It is the Sabbath; the law forbids you to carry your mat.”

The law forbids it. You are breaking one of the Ten Commandments by picking up your mat. Well, the Ten Commandments, it says, Keep holy the Lord’s day. It doesn’t say Don’t pick up your mat. It says Don’t do any work. But they had interpreted it. They had put all these layers of interpretation on it so that people were pretty bound up and afraid to do anything that the rabbis would say, or the Pharisees or Sadducees would say was actually work.

Let me suggest something about our nation and about healing in general. The people who become too legalistic have a tendency to hinder what God really wants to do. These people were hindering what God wanted to do through Jesus. Because when Jesus tells you to do something, it’s okay with the Father.

I was telling one of my friends in a political discussion last week. I said, “You know, in the Boston Tea Party, they destroyed thousands and thousands of dollars worth of goods that had been imported through that company and they threw them into the sea, and that was illegal. And we consider those guys heroes today.”

Anyway, that’s my last political statement.

So it says in verse 11, when this guy was challenged about doing something unlawful on the Sabbath:

“The man who made me well said to me, ‘Pick up your mat and walk.’ ”
So they asked him, “Who is this fellow who told you to pick it up and walk?”
The man who was healed had no idea who it was, for Jesus had slipped away into the crowd that was there.
Later Jesus found him at the temple and said to him, “See, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you.”

Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you. This is sort of a fascinating thing to say to a guy who had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. What kind of sin had he done? And Jesus is warning him. And Jesus, through him, is warning us. Some of you have been forgiven for your sin. Do not return into that muck anymore.

I have been following Jesus now for fifty years. And you know something? I still have to resist sin every day. Every day I have to guard my mouth. Every day I have to guard my heart. Every day I have to make sure that I am obedient to the Lord and not just giving in to the flesh. I wish I could tell you that, after fifty years, you are free, that sin has no hold over you. Well it doesn’t have a hold over me, but it still is lurking. As it said in the book of Genesis about Cain, “Sin is crouching at the door and it wants to grab hold of you.”

And we’ve got to be honest about that. And the reason that I even mention it is this: That if I walk in the light as he (Jesus) is in the light, then you and I have fellowship with one another. That means we connect in the Spirit. And when we have fellowship with one another, then the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. It cleanses us. It removes the residual affect of sin and sets us free.

So don’t go back into sin or something worse could happen. Now, let me suggest this. I do’t have an opportunity to speak to the assembled Congress of the United States. But if I did, I would probably want to share some parts of this message with them that I’m sharing with you. We have been divided and I think the Lord would say to us, “Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you.”

In the Revolutionary War, there were the Tories and then there was the Continental Army under George Washington. In the Civil War there was the federal troops and there were the confederate troops. And there were born again believers on both sides. And believers are not called to go to war against one another. Not called by God anyway. Maybe called by man. Maybe called by their own frustration. And in our frustration, we have a tendency to dehumanize people. To say that they’re stupid. We have a tendency to demonize people and say that the devil is working through them and they’re going to destroy the world. And before they destroy the world maybe we should destroy them. To dehumanize, to demonize, and ultimately to destroy people—those are sins. And Jesus warns us, “Don’t call your brother stupid or you’re going to be liable to judgment. Don’t tell him that he’s empty headed. Don’t be angry at your brother, because otherwise you’re going to be liable to judgment.”

That’s not what we’re called to do. We’re called to build people, to love people, to put out the fire of division, to explain the good news of the kingdom of God, which is really what’s going to satisfy the frustration in the heart of man.

So verse 15:

The man went away and told the Jewish leaders that it was Jesus who had made him well.
So, because Jesus was doing these things on the Sabbath, the Jewish leaders began to persecute him. n his defense Jesus said to them, “My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I too am working.” For this reason they tried all the more to kill him; not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.
Jesus gave them this answer: “Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does.

So Jesus says, “My Father’s always working. He works on Sundays, he works on Saturdays.”

How does he work? Well, if you’re sick and you stay home in bed on the Sabbath day, which is Saturday by the way, chances are you’re going to be better by Sunday. Chances are you’re going to be better because God your Father is a healer. Sometimes he heals speedily, sometimes he heals slowly. Jesus said, “I don’t just do anything I want to do. I do what I see the Father doing.”

Let me tell you, what I see the Father doing, I see the Father healing people. I see the Father encouraging people. I see the Father creating an environment on this earth that is spectacular in its diversity. The sunsets are beautiful. The storm clouds are magnificent, The rain, when it occasionally falls here in the desert, is refreshing. It waters the earth. It makes things sprout and bud. Those things come from the Father. The fish in the streams and in the rivers and in the lakes. The elk and the deer and the forest. Those come from the Father. The waves that break on the beaches of San Diego and Los Angeles. Those come from hte Father. We have a good, good Father. He’s always a giver. He’s always a lover. He’s always an encourager.

Since I’m running out of time I’m going to give you one last verse and that’s verse 39:

You study the Scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life. These are the very Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life.

So these Pharisees, they were men of the word. They would memorize scripture, study scripture, be obsessed with scripture. And the scriptures talked about Jesus. Through Moses, he said in Deuteronomy18, “There will be prophet coming and you can trust every word he says.”

Through Isaiah in Isaiah 53 he says, “The one who comes is going to be a sacrifice for us. By his stripes we will be healed. He will be bruised for our iniquity. He will be broken for our transgressions. And by his grace we’ll be made whole.”

The prophets declared the coming of the Son of Man. And now the Son of Man had come and they’re like, “No, no. We see it different than you. We think you’re trying to exalt yourself to be like God.”

Jesus says, “Come to me if you want eternal life.”

And in our day and age, Jesus said when we’d come to him, he’s going to pour out his Holy Spirit on us. We’re to seek to be full of the Holy Spirit. It’s not just the Bible. It’s not just accepting Jesus. But the Holy Spirit will lead us into all truth.

I had a chance to speak to a group of pastors this last week, of some of the largest churches in Arizona. They asked me to talk about the political climate, Here’s what I did. I made a list of all the principles that are in the Bible about humbling ourselves and about honoring leaders and about being peace makers. But I also realized, they have the same Bible I do. They know exactly what those scriptures say. I can remind them of those truths, but here’s what I really want to tell them. I’m going to tell them what I’m going to tell you as we close this message:

That even though times are dark in many ways, the kingdom of God is going to continue to expand. Even though people are troubled by Corona Virus, even though people are troubled by unemployment, never in the earth’s history has there been more food security. There are more people having access to food today than at any other time. There are more people with access to health care than at any other time. There are more people with access to transportation today than at any other time. There are more rights for women today than in any other time. More rights for minorities in more countries than at any other time. There is less slavery today than at any other time. There are fewer people dying by preventable, treatable diseases today than at any other time.

The kingdom of God is expanding. More people are accepting Jesus today than at any other time. Even though we’re in a dark, challenging, troubling time, there is going to be an outpouring. There was an outpouring in the sixties and seventies after the tumult of the Vietnam War. There is going to be an outpouring today. And it’s going to come through you and me, those of us who have been made whole, those of us who have been made well, those of us who have embraced the grace of God that Jesus gives to everybody who calls on his name.

Let’s pray together:

Lord Jesus, thank you for this time. Thank you for this day. This is the day that you have made. I ask Lord God, now, for those that you’re speaking to, those whose hearts have been stirred by this message, that we would yield to you. That we would not make excuses, that we would not cower in fear of a disease or political conflict, or whatever it might be, but I pray that we would be bold in proclaiming the truth that you are alive, that you have plans and purposes for all of us, and that you, as you chose to heal the invalid, have chosen to give us life. And we praise God and thank you for this life.

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Guest User 7/26/20 Guest User 7/26/20

Forensic Faith and Scandalous Grace

Good morning, Living Streams. Another Sunday here, July 26. It’s good to be with you. It’s real important that we continue to do this. I’ve been thinking about this. It’s so different. I mean, I’m here talking to a camera—you’re looking at your phone or a TV, something like. It doesn’t necessarily feel the same, but I know that, at least in the spiritual realm, but I also believe int he natural, it is bringing us together when we take the time to do this: worshipping together, hearing from the word of God together, having this common experience together. I really think it’s important we continue to push into this.

John 4
David Stockton - July 26, 2020

Good morning, Living Streams. Another Sunday here, July 26. It’s good to be with you. It’s real important that we continue to do this. I’ve been thinking about this. It’s so different. I mean, I’m here talking to a camera—you’re looking at your phone or a TV, something like. It doesn’t necessarily feel the same, but I know that, at least in the spiritual realm, but I also believe in the natural, it is bringing us together when we take the time to do this: worshipping together, hearing from the word of God together, having this common experience together. I really think it’s important we continue to push into this.

I know we’re going to be getting a new Executive Order or some new details from the governor as this last 30-day deal comes to a close. I want you to stay tuned to our website, and also on Sunday mornings we’ll be announcing what’s going on, what’s next for us at Living Streams. But please continue. I know summertime is going and school’s going to fire up, and all these changes, it’s easy to let this type of thing slide. But it’s really important we stay together as we go into whatever the Lord has for us, but also whatever the world’s going to throw at us. We need each other. Thanks for sticking with us.

Today we’re going to be in the book of John again. As we’re trekking through, as we’re trying to hear from the Apostle John about Jesus. John actually was writing his gospel, his book about Jesus long after the other three writers. Matthew, Mark, Luke and John are called gospels, written about Jesus. And the three of those, Matthew, Mark and Luke were written probably a little closer to about 60 A.D., thirty years or so after Jesus was gone. And yet John was more like 90 A.D. It was the end of his life. The Roman persecution of both Jews and Christians had just been rampant. John and many other Christians had been forced out of Jerusalem. He landed up in Ephesus where there was a church going on up there.

As he was writing this book he had probably had that cultural context in mind. It was not necessarily Judaism he was writing into. He was probably more writing this gospel for the Greek mind as he was trying to translate to them who God is. We see that in John Chapter 1 when he says that Jesus is the “word.” The “word” in Greek is “logos” which is this powerful, intense Greek word that basically has to do with God’s logical argument used to convince the world that he is loving and just. That’s one of the definitions of it. It’s a logical argument.

The Greeks really valued philosophy and all those things. So he’s appealing to them saying, basically, the word, Jesus was God’s logical answer to all the questions humanity could ever have. In another place it says that the logos is the universal principle, the controlling principle of the world. Again, that’s a real ode to the Greeks that would be reading this later on.

We know from the book of John that his whole premise in writing this book, the thing that he wanted so badly—and he says this in John 20:31: “that you may believe. I have written every single word of this book, I’ve written all these stories, these signs and wonders that have taken place, these ‘I am’ statements of Jesus. All of this eyewitness accounts of what I experienced. I interacted with Jesus. I’m writing these things down so that you may believe in him.”

We’ve done some work to try to define what belief is. Obviously there are a lot of different things people say when it comes to belief. Is is more of a heady thing? Is it more of an experiential thing? And the way I really believe John and the New Testament writers try and define faith or believing in Jesus is to have a pledge of allegiance.

We do the pledge of allegiance to America. We know our country right now is experiencing a lot of division, a lot of unrest, a lot of challenge, a lot of stress, a lot of anger, even guilt. There are a lot of those things going on. And yet we pledge allegiance to this country that we will stand up for her, that we will fight for her. Though I don’t think that’s bad, the Scripture calls us to pledge our allegiance to Jesus and his kingdom. It calls us to no longer associate ourselves as Jew or Greek, male or female, slave or free is what Paul was writing in his day and age. And we could say we’re not supposed to be identifying ourselves and camping primarily in black or white, Democrat or Republican, rich or poor. None of those matter when we come to the cross of Jesus Christ. We are now a new creation. We are now people of God. We are now citizens of his kingdom and we have to remember that that is our call. We are pledging allegiance—not to some political party, not to some social justice organization. What we’re called to do is pledge our allegiance to Jesus and his Spirit and what he’s at work in this world.

I want to remind you, church, to make sure and be careful not to get all caught up in the vain jangling, in the convincing philosophies of our day. But remember to keep about the gospel. Keep about what the Bible teaches and make sure that we’re really citizens of his kingdom above all else. It’s not wrong to be Irish. It’s not wrong to be African or to celebrate those things. That’s great. But when we come into the house of God, what we are is One. We are all the same at the foot of the cross. We’ve got to remember that as we go forward into this divisive time.

Not just pledging allegiance to God, but in some ways we order our lives in accordance with his, with his word. That’s what faith means. We reorient our lives. We set up our lives in accordance with who he is and what he did.

Ultimately, I love how John has this idea of building trust over time. When he first met Jesus he was the Son of Thunder. He was this fiery guy. But towards the end of John, and as we go on, he’s the one laying against Jesus’ breast. He’s the one that Jesus loved. That’s how he was identifying himself. No longer this fiery kind of—maybe even arrogant or whatever he was—but now this person who is totally thankful to be part of the family of God, to have known Jesus.

I hope that’s what stirs in us in this time. We’ve called ourselves to this. From the very beginning of this COVID season, that God is asking us to be humble and to be generous. I really want us to be good at that and known for that as we through this. Both in our individual lives and as a church as a whole as well.

John 3:31-36 kind of sums this up, this whole concept of faith. Once again John reiterates what he’s trying to do:

The one who comes from above is above all;

Again, philosophical. You can see him speaking to Greeks here. The Logos.

the one who is from the earth belongs to the earth, and speaks as one from the earth. The one who comes from heaven is above all. He testifies to what he has seen and heard,

Only Jesus knows what is true because he has been with the Father. He has been outside of this corrupt world.

but no one [in this corrupt world] accepts his testimony. Whoever has accepted it has certified that God is truthful.

Has basically pledged their allegiance. They’ve stamped their card in the truth. They’ve basically said, “I’m for the truth.” If we put our allegiance, if we put our faith in Christ.

For the one whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for God[ gives the Spirit without limit. The Father loves the Son and has placed everything in his hands. Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on them.

So that’s the heaviness of what happens. Our faith really does determine our standing with God. By faith we can enter into his love and grace and mercy because of what Jesus Christ did on the cross, the price that he paid. Or without faith in Jesus we find ourselves remaining under the wrath of God, where the punishment that was poured out on Christ is not taken on our behalf. So the wrath of God remains.

Faith is so important, so valuable. It really is what pivots us for all of eternity. So we need to continue to learn about faith, practice faith, teach our kids about faith. All of that.

That being said, let’s go to John 4 and we’re going to get another story from John about a person who came to faith in Jesus. He’s already given us John the Baptist, who came and put his faith in his cousin, that he was the Messiah. The reason he did that is because God spoke to him and said, “The one that you see the dove descending on, the Holy Spirit descending on, that is the Messiah. And John was out there one time and he baptized Jesus and, sure enough, the dove came down and descended. The Spirit like a dove descended on him. So John knew at that point, “This is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.”

The next story we have that John tells us about is he and his disciple friends were going with Jesus to a wedding at Cana. There, at the wedding at Cana, Jesus turned water into wine. It says right after that story, “This is when the disciples began to believe in Jesus.” Because of a sign that he had done. They had been following and hanging out with him and listening to him because of the things he was saying and teaching. But now they knew there was something more than this being a man who was doing something special. They knew that this was God in the flesh. They knew that this was the Logos as John would later call him.

Now many believed on him after the signs and wonders and cleansing of the temple that he did. Which is interesting because they’re not hearing Jesus speak about the things of God. They’re not seeing some miraculous sign that we get recorded. They’re just seeing the righteous indignation of Jesus as he’s cleansing the temple, as he’s standing against the oppressors. He’s fighting with them. It says many began to believe that he was more than just a man, more than just someone who was coming doing something good. That he was the Messiah. He was God’s answer. He was God’s one that was coming to save and redeem the world.

So we have all of those and then today we get a story about a woman that Jesus meets at a well. So kids, before we jump into it, I want you to draw me a picture of the Samaritan woman at a well. I’m so thankful again for all the pictures that you’ve drawn. And adults, you could draw me pictures any time you want. One time I had adult draw me a picture. It was pretty cool. I liked it.

Just so you know I’m taking this seriously, I drew one. And you’re going to have to beat this, okay? This is my drawing that I’m going to show you right now Bam. What are you going to do about this? I would like to say my kids drew this, but it was me. I’m not great at it. My wife, she’s really good at it. This is my woman at the well and it ain’t pretty. But that’s okay. You’ve got to beat that. If you do, if you give me the picture and it’s the best one for whatever reason, you’ll get a little something in your mailbox. Many of you have already. And thanks for telling me thanks for that, but I’m really thanking you for what you’ve done, so we’re good there.

All right. John Chapter 4. The woman at the well:

Now Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that he was gaining and baptizing more disciples than John— although in fact it was not Jesus who baptized, but his disciples. So he left Judea and went back once more to Galilee.

So after talking to Nicodemus, after cleansing the temple, Jesus had a lot of people following him. And he did exactly what his cousin John the Baptist was doing, he would baptize them. There’s something very significant about baptism. I’m not going to talk a lot about baptism, but I do want to say, if you are someone who wants to pledge allegiance to Jesus, you believe in Jesus, you want to associate your life with Jesus, you want to hide your life in Christ, baptism is something that is all over the New Testament. In the life of Jesus, Jesus himself was baptized. So please don’t hesitate. Don’t wait. Contact us. Let us know you’re ready to get baptized. Bam. We’re going to do this thing. I know guys are getting baptized this week. I know there’s a few people we’re going to do a baptism for in the next few weeks. I think I might be baptizing one of my daughters tomorrow, which is exciting. Baptism is real, it’s biblical, it’s Jesus and if you’re ready to follow Jesus, Jesus would say, “Come into the waters. Die to the old life and be born again to the new life.” That’s the death under the water and resurrection coming out of the water. We’re following Jesus. You gain something in the waters of baptism you cannot gain any other way. So get baptized.

Verse 4:

Now he had to go through Samaria. So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon.

So it’s hot. Not a great time of day to be hanging out. And yet, he’s thirsty. So he stops at this well. And then it says:

When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?” (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)
The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.)

So here we’ve got to really understand some context. Jerusalem is here. Galilee is here. Right in the middle is this place called Samaria. Samaria was a place that, basically, when the Assyrians came down and took all the northern ten tribes into exile, and later the Babylonians took the two southern tribes of Israel (twelve tribes of Israel) and took them into Babylonian captivity, the people that were left—they left the people that were impoverished, the people that were unable to make the journey, they left the people that basically, they rejected certain people and said, “You stay here. We’re not worried about you at all.” And those people ended up intermarrying with nations around that started to come into that time, as the Jews evacuated that place, people of other nations came in. So this is where the Samaritan group became part of Israel’s history.

So now, as the diasporas come back, as the exiles return, and Israel is filled with Jews who returned, now there’s this kind of separation. There are the Jews that would call themselves purebred Jews and then there’s the Samaritans that would be like halfbred Jews. And so there was this real separation, segregation. There was this real prejudice, racism, whatever you want to call it, that was taking place at this time, even to the extent where now, Jesus, who was a Jewish man, was sitting at a well and he’s thirsty. It’s noon. There’s a lady coming who’s a Samaritan, to the same well. She’s got a bucket and Jesus says, “Can I have a drink.

That seems very innocent. It seems innocuous. However, for this woman, it was startling. It was scandalous. And Jesus would have known that. His disciples had gone and so, now there’s one man, a single Jewish man, with a single Jewish woman, and you could only imagine what the tabloids would say that were following Jesus, how they would spin that. But this is a little bit scandalous all by itself, because of the way the traditions the culture of that day would have viewed the situation.

So Jesus actually extending this invitation to say, “Hey, can I have a drink? Can you and I join each other in this,” is actually a very, very provocative type thing. You can only imagine what started to spin in this Samaritan woman’s mind. She could have thought, Maybe this guy’s hitting on me. She could have thought all kinds of different things. But Jesus is asking her for a drink, obviously with pure intentions, and you will see all of that as it goes on.

But she kind of says, “How could you do this?” And maybe she’s being a little coy. Maybe she’s really offended. We don’t know any of that. But we know it’s startling. She just basically says, “How could you do this?”

John Piper, as he was unpacking this a little bit, he has this quote that I think kind of helps us understand a little bit about how intense this was.

He is standing by the fountain marked “colored”…

He’s harkening back to that segregation time, before the civil rights movement.

He is standing by a the fountain marked “colored” watching a black woman fill her water bottle and then, for all to see, says, “Can I have a drink from your water bottle?” She says, at the end of verse 9, “Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.” But more literally it says, Jews don’t “use together” with Samaritans…

We’re trying to create a separation. We don’t want anything do with each other.

…You can’t be asking me to use the same bucket. That isn’t done. –John Piper

And so here, I’m just trying to give us a little context, but to ultimately say Jesus didn’t play by these rules. Jesus was someone who saw people for who they were. He knew that all people were created equal and he valued them. He loved them. He was not worried about maintaining culture or maintaining really stupid cultural ideals He saw through all of that. He saw people as people. We, as the church, in particular, we’ve got to be better than this. We’ve really got to watch out for the divisions that are in our society seeping their way into our church, our family. It is not to be for the people of God. We are to be united. We are to, like we said, be citizens of heaven. We are to be at the foot of the cross. And all men are equal, all woman are equal at the foot of the cross. There is no difference. No difference at all.

We’re trying to say, “We’re on the good side. They’re on the bad side.” But here’s a news flash for you. All of us are on the wrong side. God is on the right side. God is the only one who’s not corrupt. God is the only one who sees things clearly. All we can do is hope to land ourselves on his side by his grace and mercy. By the filling with the Spirit and the revelation that he gives us in the word of God. We might be able to be on his side here and there, off and on. That’s the goal. But we should never try to villify each other or start to speak ill of each other. We just need to realize that we all come to the foot of the cross the same.

And here’s Jesus just shooting right through all these prejudices, all of this racism. He just shoots right through it and goes straight to the heart. And we’re going to see this unpacked a little more here. Verse 10:

Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.”
“Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?”
Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.”

So in this next section Jesus is basically saying to her, “Hey, I know what the world has told you. I know what maybe your own soul has told you. I know that you feel like I think I’m superior. You think you’re superior. There are all these arguments that go back and forth between Samaritans and Jews.” But he’s saying, “Look, if you had any idea of this moment that we’re in right now. If you had any idea who it is that is offering you living water, you wouldn’t be worried about buckets. You wouldn’t be worried about prejudices, stereotypes, you wouldn’t be worried about all of those things. You would be able to receive water. You would be able to receive refreshment that would last forever. Not just today. Not just a few hours.”

He’s obviously speaking to her of the spiritual water that comes when he brings salvation to a person. That, like we said, with faith, she could pivot into eternal life. That’s what Jesus is offering her. She doesn’t get it at all yet. She’s still caught up in theology, or the political stances of the day. But Jesus is saying, “No, no. It’s not about that.”

He told her, “Go, call your husband and come back.”
“I have no husband,” she replied.

We don’t know the emotion that she says that with. We know because of what’s about to happen that it was a loaded statement.

Jesus said to her, “You are right when you say you have no husband. The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.
“Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet. Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.”

You can see this moment where all of a sudden the air gets so thick and so tense, as Jesus says to her, “Hey, go call your husband.”

Whether he knew because of something he’d observed, or she’s coming a strange time of day so he knows there’s something off there, whether it’s a revelation the Spirit has given him, but he speaks to her about this place in her life that is painful. And she has had five husbands that either she has left, but that’s probably not true in that society. It’s more likely that she has been rejected by them. And maybe she’s a very beautiful woman. We don’t know. Maybe she’s really given herself to these men physically. We don’t know exactly. But we know that five times she’s been rejected. And here she is in a new relationship. Thirsty as can be. Trying to find some satisfaction. Trying to find something in what a man, what a husband can give her. And the one that she has now is not legitimate.

In this moment you can see her eyes probably were widening a little bit. She might have started sweating a little bit more. And she says to him, “I see you’re a prophet.” And instead of saying, “I would like to know more about living water. I do need help. I have a problem,” she says, “Well you Jews say this and that. And we say this and that.” So she goes to kind of this religious, theological division, and philosophies that have gone on. Again, totally missing the point. Totally deflecting.

In the New Testament it says that we are supposed to watch out for “vain janglings” in the King James Version, which I think is such a funny phrase. But we’re also supposed to watch out for endless genealogies and cunning philosophies. And you guys, please know, what you’re seeing on your social media feed, what you’re seeing on the news, it really has to be taken with a lot of filtering. You can’t get caught up in what’s going on. It is exhausting. It is humanism. It is not of God. Jesus speaks of things of God that are not corrupt They’re not human. They’re not temporal. But right now we have just go so many “vain janglings” going on.

So please remember to every once in a while get out of there. Take a deep breath. Read some scripture. Put on some worship music. Just cleanse your mind. And before you go into those worlds, before you turn on the news, before you do social media, pause, relax, say, “Am I ready for this?” Pray before you go in. I really think it’s an important practice that we’re doing because of how powerful these things are in our day and age right now.

She’s got Jesus in front of her and she’s still not able to connect because she’s so caught up with these things. Then they go on and Jesus begins to talk to her. He says:

“Woman,” Jesus replied, “believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”
The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.”
Then Jesus declared, “I, the one speaking to you—I am he.”

I am statement. Jesus is using this powerful Jewish language to say, “I am he.” That’s this moment of truth right there. Where Jesus kind of just drops the bomb and he says, “Look. We talked about living water and what I can offer. We talked about where you’re at truly in your life. Now I’m telling you you’ve got to get off these things. What God is interested in is you and your worshiping him in Spirit and in truth.”

In Spirit and truth, there’s a lot of ways to define it. It simply could be worshiping with your emotion, with your expression, all of that. And truth could be more your mind. I think that’s the safest way to unpack a little bit of Jesus’ teaching in the other gospels, that we should worship the Lord our God with all our heart and our soul and mind and strength. I think this is the way that God is saying to this woman, this is what God is after. He wants you to worship him. As you do, you will find in him all that you need to satisfy your soul.

Really an intense moment. It’s funny. Just then the disciples come back. We’re not going to get into that. But I want to pick up in verse 39. The disciples just got back. They were totally wigged out. Why is Jesus talking to this woman? What’s been going on? This is not going to look good in the press reports. All this stuff. Then the woman, she’s wigging out because of this moment. And she runs back into town. And then it says in verse 39:

Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me everything I ever did.” So when the Samaritans came to him, they urged him to stay with them, and he stayed two days. And because of his words many more became believers.
They said to the woman, “We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Savior of the world.”

So many more began to believe. At first ,they believed on her word as she was wigging out. Again, this lady in that society was probably not known as someone who was very trustworthy as she’s gone from husband to husband. But here she comes. And there was something so compelling about what she was saying about her interaction with Jesus. And many more believed. But they did the right thing. They didn’t leave it at that. They actually went out to where Jesus was. They sought him out and said, “We want to know for ourselves. We don’t want to just live off the testimony of someone else. We want to know for ourselves.”

So they came and they got to spend two days with Jesus, the Logos. The guiding principle of the world. God’s logical argument. To show that he is loving and just. Jesus, God in the flesh. They got to spend two days with him. And according to his words, they heard his words and they really started to believe. They even declared that. “We no longer believe because of what she said. We believe because we’ve heard with own ears, seen with our own eyes who you are.”

This week, again to try to unpack this idea of faith, my wife was actually listening to a podcast. I’ve told you before she’s my teacher. She teaches me almost everything I’ve ever learned. As I was listening to it, there was this concept that this guy was putting forward. He was saying there’s reasonable faith, there’s blind faith, and then there’s forensic faith. This guy actually was a forensic scientist. He was a cold case detective. He sought to disprove Christianity but ended coming to Christianity because he said it’s the most logical, reasonable thing he’s ever experienced.

I think it’s important for us to unpack. Unreasonable faith is the kind of faith where, against the evidence you see, you continue to believe. Flat earth. Sorry some of you out there. I know you still love it. But it’s against all the evidence that we’ve seen. Now you can discredit the evidence or whatever. But the evidence shows that the earth is round. We’ve seen pictures and all of that. But if you continue to believe in that flat earth, you’re going against what evidence would say. So it’s an unreasonable faith. I would apply to that to people who believe that there isn’t a Designer, all those type of things. But again, that’s a whole other thing.

Blind faith is where you’re believing based on something you’ve heard from somebody else, or something you haven’t experienced or you haven’t known firsthand. Or something you believe without really caring about evidence. Maybe it’s just the way you were raised so you continue to go that way, believing in Jesus, or believing in whatever else you believe or you were raised to believe. Or, like these people, some them could have believed according to this woman’s testimony. Blind faith is not necessarily bad, because sometimes you end up in the right spot by blind faith. But it’s still not the faith that I think John is writing to help people experience It’s not the faith that I think the New Testament writers and Paul would really encourage.

Forensic faith is faith that is based on evidence. It’s, “I believe and yet I’m going to test this belief. I’m going to try these things out. I’m going to try and go get my own experience and understanding and revelation.” I think this is an important thing to remember as Christians in our day and age, that we need to spend time with Jesus.

Right now you can go online and you can hear the greatest bible teachers. You can hear worship songs that really are powerful and somebody you know, out of the secret place with the Lord they’ve brought these things out. You can feel like you’re having a secret place experience with the Lord based on a song. Nothing is wrong with these things. But if that’s all there is, it could be that our faith is a little blind. And my fear is that, as our faith gets tested, and I believe testing has come and will continue to come for a season, if our faith is not really forensic, if it’s not rooted and grounded and deep and strong, then it’s going to get blown away, washed away. Like Jesus said, “Those who build their house on the sand, when the storm comes, it’s over.”

So I really want to call our church to really try and dive into a forensic faith. Really put our faith to the test. Really study the scriptures. Really search things out. When you hear somebody say something, don’t just take it because they’re cool looking or whatever. But actually process it through. Put it through the filter of the scriptures. The Wesleyan Quadrilateral. You can look that up later if you want. It’s really helpful to filter it and help us understand truth.

That’s the call from John. He’s really trying to get us to grow in faith. My call as a pastor, and to myself and my own family, is to help us grow in faith, not just have easy answers or kind of, “This is the way it’s always been.” I’m always trying to tell my kids, when they say “Hey what do we believe about that?” I say, “Well, your mom and I have decided that we believe this because the scriptures say this, but you’re going to have to decide what you believe.” I’m trying to encourage that because the faith that we have, I think for a season might cover them, or sanctify them as the scripture teaches, but there’s going to come a day when they have to express their own. They have to have their own relationship with God. So we need to be helpful in that regard, as well.

We’re going to wrap things up. We’re going to have a response time. A slide will appear on your screen. You at home, if you’re in a group, you can interact with that. Someone step up and be bold and say, “I’ll take the lead and do this,” If you’re by yourself you can just interact with it as well. As always you can put comments down below. We love to hear from you in any way, shape or form, what the Lord’s been speaking to you, what you need a prayer request for. We love all of that. Go ahead and take a little time to let this word settle in and respond.

Jesus is pursuing you just like the Samaritan woman. He has time for you and wants to give you living water.
Take amount and see if you feel pursued by Jesus. If not, ask Him to show you His love.
Take another moment and assess if your faith in Jesus is strong right now. If not, ask Jesus to help you believe.

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Guest User 7/19/20 Guest User 7/19/20

Cleansing and Zeal

Well, we’ve got 2020 still going on. In 2020 we’ve got the COVID-19, the death toll, the quarantine, the Donald Trump, the liberal, the conservative, the Black Lives Matter, the cisgender privilege. We’ve got riots, defunding police, it’s 115 degrees out there sometimes, and Disneyland is closed!

God is Good, Evil is Real, and the Devil is a Liar

David Stockton
Series: John
Chapter 2

Well, here we are again. Welcome, Living Streams! It’s good to be with you. I want to say a prayer real quick as we jump into this. It’s kind of a wild world out there. Sometimes it dan be a wild world inside our own bodies. Let’s take a little moment and pray.

Lord Jesus, we do thank you for today. Lord, we want to hear from you. We need your word. We don’t need anymore words from mankind. We just need to hear from you—truth. We need heaven’s perspective. Lord, we’re hungry for your word. We don’t live by anything but the words that come from your mouth. We want to live, Lord. We don’t want to just exist. So please come speak to us.
Thank you for your Spirit that can speak to us. Thank you for the scriptures that have so clearly laid out for us your plan and how you work within humanity. Be with us, Lord, I pray. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

So. Yeah. All of those words probably make you kind of catch your breath a little bit, or lose a breath, or your heart pace quickens a little bit. I understand that and I want to end that kind of wildness that we’re all experiencing day in and day out.

I want to say these words. This is 2 Corinthians 10:3-6 from the Message. Just let this wash over you:

The world is unprincipled…

As my grandpa used to say, “God is good, evil is real, and the devil is a liar.” And that’s an absolute truth.

The world is unprincipled. It’s dog-eat-dog out there! The world doesn’t fight fair. But we don’t live or fight our battles that way—never have and never will. The tools of our trade aren’t for marketing or manipulation, but they are for demolishing that entire massively corrupt culture. We use our powerful God-tools for smashing warped philosophies, tearing down barriers erected against the truth of God, fitting every loose thought and emotion and impulse into the structure of life shaped by Christ. Our tools are ready at hand for clearing the ground of every obstruction and building lives of obedience into maturity.

You remember that commercial that used to just go, “Ah, the power of cheese.” When it would talk about satisfying your hunger, I just feel like reading the scriptures these days has been just like, ‘Ah, the power of God’s word to just come in and satisfy a weary, thirsty or confused soul.”

And I just love this verse. We’re going to get into a whole bunch more verses. But right now, as this message is going on, as you’re listening to this, in our Sanctuary, there is what we’re calling kind of a “worship attack” going on—a “prayer attack” going on. That sounds kind of weird. I understand that. But basically, the concept is we’ve been opening like we said in the announcements, our sanctuary for in-person, on-campus gatherings for a limited capacity of people that are coming. The whole point is they are coming to just pray. They’re coming to intercede. They’re coming to engage in spiritual warfare as the Bible teaches us. They’re coming to kind of see what we can do. Like Moses, Aaron and Hur, to lift our hands to turn the tide of the battle that’s going on in our society, and to make sure that all of the division and corruption that is in our society doesn’t find its way seeping into our church, let alone the Church of God as a whole.

So I’m so excited about what’s going on there. And with the homeless stuff that’s going on. I had some great conversations with some homeless brothers and sisters that have been coming. They’re very thankful for the relief. They’re very thankful for being able to kind of take a nap and then wake up without some startling thing where someone’s kind of hitting them, telling them they’ve got to get out of here. Or someone’s trying to steal their stuff. They can wake up in peace. They keep mentioning, “It’s just so quiet in here. So comfortable in here.”

It’s been a real blessing to be able to spend time with those men and women and to see maybe if there are some ways we can help them in a more longterm way.

We’re going to jump into John Chapter 2 here. We’re going to start in verse 13.

When it was almost time for the Jewish Passover, Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the temple courts he found people selling cattle, sheep and doves, and others sitting at tables exchanging money. So he made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple courts, both sheep and cattle; he scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. To those who sold doves he said, “Get these out of here! Stop turning my Father’s house into a market!” His disciples remembered that it is written: “Zeal for your house will consume me.”
The Jews then responded to him, “What sign can you show us to prove your authority to do all this?”
Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.”
They replied, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and you are going to raise it in three days?” But the temple he had spoken of was his body. After he was raised from the dead, his disciples recalled what he had said. Then they believed the scripture and the words that Jesus had spoken.
Now while he was in Jerusalem at the Passover Festival, many people saw the signs he was performing and believed in his name. But Jesus would not entrust himself to them, for he knew all people. He did not need any testimony about mankind, for he knew what was in each person.

And so here we have again this concept that God is good and evil is real. Mankind has a problem. It’s got this depraved nature within us. And then we have the devil and the deceit that comes from that regard as well.

So Jesus is here in the temple courts and he does something fascinating. He does something wild. He’s watching this gathering take place. It’s the Passover time, so there are probably close to two million Jews that have gathered in Jerusalem. So the city is just bustling. And there at the temple, which is the central focus, people are coming to make sacrifices. According to Judaism that’s what was required. A sacrifice needed to be made to kind of show penance—to get forgiven of your sins. That was the deal that God had made with the people.

So they would come to the temple courts with some sort of offering. That was to admit that they had been guilty, they had sinned. It was to admit that God is good and God is right, and they want to be right with God. And they were thankful that they could do something to actually make themselves right with God. So they would come and offer these sacrifices. And they would come with a dove. Or they would come with a cow. Or they would come with sheep, or whatever it might be.

What they experienced as they got there, though, was the people who were running the temple, the priests, all those, had realized that they could make some money off of these people. So one of the things that was required is your animal would have to be perfect. It would basically have to be inspected by the priest. And if there was any fault found in it, they would not let them sacrifice that. So what the priests did was, they came up with their own kind of priest-inspected cattle, sheep and doves. So, if you wanted to come and purchase one of those, you wouldn’t have to carry an animal from wherever you came from. You wouldn’t have to worry about the unscrupulous priests who would come and find fault. You could just come and pay for an already-approved animal to sacrifice. The only problem was, it was a lot more expensive. There was quite a service fee added to it.

So Jesus was watching this take place. And not only that, but the money changers that Jesus was dealing with, they would also say, “We as the priests, we can’t receive that money that has Caesar’s image on it because it’s not holy money.” So they actually made up their own money. So not only did you have to purchase a priest-approved sacrifice, but you would also have to exchange your money into priest-approved money so that you could purchase your priest-approved sacrifice. Basically, people were just getting totally, totally ripped off.

So Jesus has come with his family. Jesus is thirty years old. Jesus has not gone public with his ministry. We talked about two weeks ago in John 2, at the beginning, really the first kind of revelation outside of his own family structure was to his disciples and to the people at the wedding at Cana when he changed the water into wine. That’s how John introduces us to Jesus. The first miraculous, first revealing of his glory wasn’t in some grand standing way. It was a very small town.

So now, here’s this other kind of revelation that’s happening, where Jesus is revealing a little bit more of who he is and the authority that he does have. So he’s just pulling out this whip as he’s watching person after person getting ripped off. Maybe he was getting to the front of the line. Maybe he was just thinking of his own mom and what she has done as she has come and been ripped off. We don’t know what it was that finally just kind of broke free in him. But he actually went over and found a cord and made a whip. And he just started making a scene. He was wild. He was whipping…I don’t know if he was whipping people or just kind of cracking the whip. We don’t know.

We know he was throwing the tables over and he was just really attacking this whole enterprise that was going on. He was driving all the animals out, kind of causing all of that commotion. People running out watching for the stampede. He comes over to those with the doves. I guess he didn’t want to just let them go, so he just pushed them all out, got them all out. He threw the tables over, got the money changers out. He just basically went on a rampage.

Then, when it all settled, or whatever happened as he was walking out, we don’t know exactly when security came. We don’t know exactly what happened, but they said, “What authority do you have to do this?” Like, “Who do you think you are coming in here and doing this?”

Obviously they didn’t know—no one knew at that point, but Jesus just says, “You have turned my Father’s house into a den of thieves. Get out of here. Stop turning my Father’s house into a market.”

So he’s saying, “My Father’s house.” He’s starting to allude to this connection that he had with God that was very offensive to the people. What John writes here is that, he remembered later on as he’s kind of remembering the scriptures, in Psalm 69, in talking about this Messiah, it’s a messianic Psalm. It says that the zeal for his house will consume him. So they’re kind of putting these pieces together, that something is happening, that something more than meets the eye is going on with this Jesus guy. And he’s fulfilling these messianic prophecies. Zeal for his house and what takes place there. Righteous indignation and this rising up to stand against oppression. And to stand for the people of God.

I think about the times in my life where I’ve probably been most zealous, where I’ve been most enraged. As a grownup I don’t feel like I get enraged real easy. It takes me a while. But as a young boy, I had two older brothers and I don’t know if they loved picking on me, or if they loved seeing me lose it. I’m not sure which one they loved more. But they loved one of those very much. There were many times, as the smallest, and scrawniest of my clan, my brothers would pick on me and pick on me and pick on me. Ultimately, I would get to a point where I would just scream. I would just start throwing fists and they said it didn’t hurt bad, but my tiny little fists would hurt them, so they would go running as I was throwing my fists everywhere. I remember one time my brother locked himself in the bathroom. I was so mad that I got a butter knife and stabbed it through the bathroom door. I was so enraged. So enraged.

Obviously Jesus was not losing it in that regard. He was still under control. We see where he kind of comes to the birds and those people and he’s able to say, “Hey, you need to go off this way.” So he was still in control. But he was so filled with this outrage. Zeal is the word used in the Bible. Actually, in the Greek the word is zelos. It really is kind of righteous indignation. It’s jealousy, but not in the sick way, but basically like a husband and someone is coming to take his wife, or maybe even to rape his wife, and the amount of angst, the amount of rage that would be built up in a husband in that situation. It’s protective. It’s standing against. It’s this zeal that Jesus shows in this moment.

For you kids, real quick, before we go on. This is the picture that I would love to see you draw. It sounds kind of interesting to draw a picture of Jesus with a whip. But I think it’s important because I want you to understand this aspect of God. That he will fight for what’s right. He will stand against evil. So go ahead and try to draw a little temple, and maybe a picture of Jesus holding a whip. I think that would be a fun thing for me to see. So if you do that, go ahead and email it to me at david@livingstreams.org and I’d love to see that. Again, whoever kind of wins the day will get something in their mailbox. Some of you should be receiving some of those things if you haven’t already.

That’s what’s taking place. That’s the story. It’s so interesting to me because John introduces Jesus in John Chapter 2 as someone who turns water into wine, as someone who brings this conversion from water to wine. And then in the very next breath he shows Jesus as this one who cleanses.

In the commentary I was reading, they were talking about how that’s the way of the Lord. We don’t get cleaned up before conversion. First we come to Jesus and we are converted. And then as we walk with him we start to find the temple of our own lives cleansed. It’s so important to remember that.

And if you are someone that has not surrendered to Jesus, if you have not given your life to Jesus, if you have not said, “Jesus, I need you, I need you, please come and save me from myself. Wave me from my world. Save me from my family history. Save me from whatever it might be. Save me from my anger. Save me from my greed.” Whatever it might be. If you have not called out to Jesus and allowed him to come and convert you into one of his own children to transform your mind and heart, to help you be born again as Michael was talking about from John Chapter 3 last week, like Nicodemus.

It’s not enough to just try. It’s not enough to just fight, We actually need conversion. We actually need to be born again. We need the Spirit of God to come and dwell in us, to overcome our own sinful nature. It’s the only way we can go forward. As we do, as we make that pledge, as we make that pledge of allegiance to Jesus, as we put our trust in him, as we receive him into our life as Lord and surrender ourselves to him, then what happens is cleansing begins. That’s what happens in John 2, as well.

I want to talk a lot about the cleansing today. The cleansing of the temple. There are a couple of quotes here that I think are really helpful in helping us understand Jesus, which is the whole goal of every time we preach. To understand who God is. And understand a little bit of how this message can apply to us today.

But first I want to put up a quote from G. K. Chesterton. He is just someone who is really good with words. Here’s what he says about Jesus in regards to what he has heard about Jesus and what he reads in the scriptures. He says:

Instead of looking at books and pictures about the New Testament, I looked at the New Testament. There I found an account, not of a person with parted hair in the middle, or hands clasped in appeal, but of an extraordinary being with lips of thunder and acts of lurid decision, flinging down tables, casting out devils, passing with the wild secrecy of the wind from mountain isolation to a sort of dreadful demagogy; a being who often acted like an angry God—and always like a God. The diction about Christ has been, and perhaps wisely, sweet and submissive. But the diction used by Christ is quite curiously gigantesque; It is full of camels leaping through needles and mountains hurled into the sea. Morally it is equally terrific; he called himself a sword of slaughter and told men to buy swords if they sold their coats for them. … Here we must remember the difficult definition of Christianity already given; Christianity is a superhuman paradox whereby two opposite passions may blaze beside each other.

I love the song that we were singing this morning, talking about there’s nothing stronger than the love of God. There’s nothing stronger than the love of God. And it is so true. God’s love for you is the most fierce, powerful thing the world has ever known. It is absolutely true. But at the same time, God’s desire for justice rages just as strong. In God we have this razor’s edge where he is perfectly loving and kind and good; but at the same time, totally, totally given to destruction of evil. And that’s in Exodus Chapter 34. We see the image of God. He is abounding in love and faithfulness to thousands of generations, but he will not leave the guilty unpunished,

Sometimes in our gospel message, sometimes in the reading of our scriptures, and sometimes in today’s preaching, we hear about the love of God. And it’s good and it’s right and it’s wonderful, but it almost becomes in exception to the justice of God, the zealous and jealousy of God for his nature, for his righteousness, for his people. And how angry and how wrathful he becomes when evil is allowed to prosper. Or when we play flippantly with sin. It’s very upsetting to him. Exactly what’s happening here. And the zeal of God… so it’s both together.

The words here, inside God, the dualistic nature, the opposite passions are love and justice. Or, as John Chapter 1 says, Jesus came with grace and truth. He came with eternal mercy and everlasting judgment. Both are valid. Both exist. Both are real.

It’s this razor’s edge that we find in the nature of God. So please don’t ever forget about Jesus with the whip. At the same time, don’t forget about Jesus turning water into wine. AT the same time, don’t look at the cross and forget about what wrath was being poured out. What suffering Jesus was going through. That the scriptures would actually say it pleased the Father to punish the Son. Those are hard, hard verses. But it’s the justice of God saying, “I need to deal with sin. I have to punish sin.”

And that’s what’s so amazing about Jesus. He stood there and said, “Then punish me, Father. Put it all on me so that David, and so that all those people at Living Streams Church would not have to feel the full vengeance of your wrath, your righteous indignation.”

So when you look at the cross, you’ve got to know it’s the love of Christ being poured out for us, absolutely. But it’s also the wrath of God being poured out and satisfied in the sacrifice of the Son. Some very important things to remember. So don’t forget about Jesus in this regard.

Another quote here comes from a guy named Alan Scot. He is saying about this cultural moment we’re in:

There is something about this national moment that is resetting the altars of our lives. It feels poignant. Everything is stripped back. It’s like a cleansing of the temple. God is resetting worship.
The reordering of worship overturns the current popular practices of worship. It delights those who value covenant above commerce.

Which is so true of these Pharisees and these religious leaders here, these priests.

It throws off everything not aligned with the heart of the Father.

Jesus is trying to bring them back into alignment with the heart of the Father.

It moves worship from he focus upon the horizontal to the vertical.

And then he does on to talk about how:

Every platform to man removed. Every effort at popularity removed. Every idol of promotion removed. Using ministry to gain wealth removed. Using ministry to increase visibility removed. Every exploitation of people to fulfill our dreams removed. Every ignoring of the poor and seeking the friendship of the powerful removed. The cleansing of the temple has never been more necessary. The idea that Jesus would be impressed by what we have built to make him famous, or that he would leave our models of worship intact is vain, We are too timid to tear down the temple ourselves, too afraid to confront the excesses, edifices for our own importance born from our ego rather than by his Spirit.
The cleansing of our modern temples has begun. It will continue with great acceleration.

That’s what has been so interesting about this COVID 2020, especially this summer. It’s not something that the church has to watch the world have to navigate. But it has drastically and dramatically affected the way that we go about our church services, our interactions with each other, our worship times, our prayer times. And that’s why we’ve spent the last two months trying to emphasize taking ownership for your own spiritual formation. If you’re whole religious activity, if your whole Christianity was based on that one hour a week of meeting at church, there is nothing left for you.

I love it because I’m hearing story after story about Living Streams’ people and how there is a lot of meat on the bones, even though we’re not meeting that one hour a week on Sunday morning. The life groups are thriving and meeting still, and ministry is happening here and there from our interns and other people volunteering here and there. And the evangelism that’s going on. And the care. Some of our police officers are seeing so many opportunities down at the police force to share the hope that is in Jesus, because they’re feeling pretty hopeless these days. And the outreach toward the black community and the kind of pain that they’re navigating right now, and all the messages they are being filled with, and helping them and loving them and making room for them. It’s just been awesome to see. I’m so encouraged. I’m so proud of you, Living Streams Church. But we are not through this thing. We have got to ramp up even more and let the zeal of the Lord fill us for more and more, as we go forward.

I want to talk to you quickly as we’re coming to an end here. The biblical concept of zeal. If you read in the Old Testament about zeal, it and be troubling. One of the main stories is this guy Jehu in 2 Kings 10. What he does is, he uses the sword. He actually is filled with the zeal of the Lord and he goes and he attacks people with the sword and he kills people. And he tears down idols and he comes against Baal worshippers. Obviously it’s a completely cultural lens that we’re looking through versus what they were. It was a dog eat dog world, way more so in that regard. Yet, the zeal of the Lord was causing him to want to come and fight to the death against the things that were set up against God.

Then you think of David in that moment where this Philistine giant is speaking evil of the name of the God of the armies of Israel. David just can’t take it anymore so he runs after this giant. And he hurls this stone at him and takes him out. He says, “You will not be able to sit there and defy the name of my God.”

He was filled with this zeal. Even to the point when Goliath falls, he goes over and he chops off his head and he carries it back to Jerusalem. This is gruesome, heavy stuff, especially from our cultural lens. In that day and age it probably would not seem that far-fetched. But the zeal of the Lord was causing people to rise up and stand up against the evil that was trying to pervade, trying to overcome.

Realizing that what Jesus said is “The kingdom of heaven suffers violence.” The evil is not unwilling to be violent or aggressive, and those who are of God need to understand that “the violent take it by force”, that we advance by enthusiasm, by aggression.

Again, now please hear me out. Please hear me out. Because this is Old Testament context and we’re talking about the life of Christ and he pulls out a whip. He didn’t kill anybody. He didn’t hurt anybody that we know of. But he was definitely causing a scene. He was definitely inflamed and he was making people really upset and challenging what they were doing and standing against them.

But we even times like when Hitler was on the rise. There was a guy named Bonhoffer. He’s definitely worth reading and studying about. He was a Christian. He was wrestling with this same thing. What is the church’s role in the face of this evil? Millions of Jews were being killed and others. It was so clear that it was evil. And yet most of the church just kind of stood aside and was passive in the face of it. Some of them were even complicit.

And yet Bonhoffer knew this was not right. And he actually ended up putting together a plot to assassinate Hitler. It didn’t work, but he got found out and he ended up losing his life because of it. But as he wrote, it was a really hard thing to wrestle with. But he knew evil had come and he needed to stand up against it. So he did what he could. He did what he thought was right. Only history can tell whether it was right. Only heaven will reveal what was really right,

I think of Rosa Parks sitting on that bus. And she just was so filled with indignation about what was happening in the society around here. She says, “I will not give my seat up. I’m not going to just play along anymore. I’m going to stand against, no matter what it costs.” The zeal of the Lord consumed her. And something beautiful was brought about. A shift was made because of her courage. And she suffered for it. And many others did, as well.

So we have these times where God calls us to stand up. I just really feel like this is a moment where our church, we need to not be passive or complicit. When there is all of this swirling around us. Evil, I really do believe is trying to come in to America, to our society and to our church. It’s coming in the forms of deceitful divisions. It’s wanting us to vilify the other, no matter what we do, and to put ourselves in different camps that aren’t necessarily Christian. We’ve got to stand against it. We’ve got to know better.

Romans 10 talks about zeal. Paul was talking about these Pharisees, these people that he was with. He said they had so much zeal but without knowledge. They were just pledging allegiance to all kinds of things that were not of God. So we need the zeal, but we need it to be with knowledge.

Here’s what I think we need to be zealous for right now. Please hear me out. I don’t think we need to go around and kill anybody. I’m not saying anything like that.

What we need to get zealous for is real simple. It’s always the same. We need to get zealous for prayer, We need to get zealous for God’s word. We need to get zealous for morality. We need to get zealous for evangelism. Church, it’s our time. This is what we need to apply all of our energy towards.

First of all, prayer. Prayer is listening to Jesus, worshiping Jesus, letting our attention, our affection be on Jesus, and interceding for others. Please schedule it into your week. Schedule it into your day—times for this. Don’t be caught with your hands down while the battle is going on. That’s that Moses, Aaron and Hur analogy.

We need to get zealous for God’s word. This is study the Bible. Don’t have zeal without knowledge. Don’t listen to all the different things happening the media, and social media. Don’t let them tell you what the Bible says. Read the Bible for yourself. Get to know this thing. Get solid in it, because if you don’t, you will be washed away by the cunning and craftiness of the deceitful schemes that are being perpetrated in our world. You’ve got to know the Bible. It’s our anchor. It’s what’s going to keep us steady in the storm.

Recognize Jesus’ voice among all the other voices and revelation from God’s Spirit. Seek for him to speak to you. I’ve been hearing some cool visions. I shared about it in the weekly email, something that God was speaking to me.

We need to get zealous for morality. We need to uproot the compromises we’ve been making in our lives, and uphold the personal convictions God has given us. I had someone tell me, “Now, you know what? I love Jesus. I’ve been doing great. But I’ve been allowing alcohol to have too much of a place in my life. I just need to take it seriously.”

We’re not going to get away with loose compromises and loose living, playing games with sin. It’s time for us to shore up. Like John the Baptist who had such intense morality and simplicity, but it caused his word and message to have such intense authority and clarity.

We need to take ownership of our own spiritual formation, as well.

Lastly, evangelism. There is nothing that makes Jesus more proud of us than when we tell people about him. There’s nothing that fills his heart more. There’s nothing that puts a party on in heaven like when one sinner repents.

We need to engage in society’s pain. Find out who’s hurting and go be with them. Try to find a way into their lives through hospitality and kindness and generosity.

We need to defend the truth of our faith. Don’t let people come and tell us we have to prove we’re not a racist by compromising our biblical values. That’s ridiculous,

Lastly, we need to proclaim the good news of God every day. It doesn’t have to be complicated. It doesn’t have to be a message. But continue to just let people know that Jesus is the answer. Jesus has the answer. The gospel of Jesus is the power of God to actually bring about salvation. And everybody wants to be saved.

We’re going to have a time like we’ve been trying to do for you at home to take some ownership of your own spiritual formation. To practice being the priesthood of believers. Whether you’re at home by yourself or if you’re in a group, we’re going to put up a slide and we want you to just take communion in your home. If you’re in a group, have someone who’s supposed to lead, you can all just look at that person right now. And be like, “I think he’s talking about you.” And that person, you can go ahead and lead everyone in this communion time. We’re going to put up the slide and take three or four minutes for you to do that at home.

Slide:

Jesus, we pause to remember and thank you for the intensity of your love and justice towards the world.
Now we hold this bread and cup to remember the cross, when the fullness of your zeal for love and justice came together.
As we eat this bread please fill us with your zeal for love and justice. (Take and eat Jesus’ body broken for you.)
As we drink this cup, please cleanse the temple of our lives from greed and pride and deceit. (Drink the cup. This is Jesus’ blood shed for the remission of your sins.)

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Jesus Teaches Nicodemus

You can come to Jesus at any time. Nicodemus came a nighttime. For any reason. Jesus says, “Come to me all of you who are weary or burdened.” If you’re burdened, come to Christ If you are weary, or tired come to Jesus. Whatever your situation or circumstances, at any time of day, at any part of your journey, come back, come to Christ.

Michael Johnson
Series: John
Chapter 3

Starts at 0:41

John Chapter 3. The title of my sermon today is Jesus Teaches Nicodemus.

Now there was a Pharisee, a man named Nicodemus who was a member of the Jewish ruling council. He came to Jesus at night and said, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the signs you are doing if God were not with him.”
Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.”

Let’s stop here for just a moment. You know, let’s think. Why did Nicodemus come to Jesus? Was he attracted to his kindness? Possibly. The bible says in verse 2 he was attracted to the miracles. That Nicodemus saw miracles. Maybe he wanted some new wine. Maybe he was seeking God. You can come to Jesus at any time (Nicodemus came at nighttime), for any reason. Jesus says, “Come to me all of you who are weary or burdened.” If you’re burdened, come to Christ. If you are weary, or tired, come to Jesus. Whatever your situation or circumstances, at any time of day, at any part of your journey, come back, come to Christ.

Nicodemus was very significant. It says that he was a member of the Jewish ruling council. Nicodemus was a religious leader. He was a well-to-do man. He was probably pretty wealthy. He was intelligent. He was a professor of religion, mostly likely. Well, for sure he knew and he taught the law very well. He fasted regularly, probably. He most likely gave ten percent.

But Jesus Christ says to Nicodemus, “That’s not enough.” He says, “You must be born again.”

It’s interesting that he says this. This is something that’s going to come through that I’ve found throughout this entire teaching and talk with Nicodemus. That God is trying to show Nicodemus that God has done for us what we cannot do for ourselves. Nicodemus had his religion but he needed to be born again into a relationship. Religion is one thing. Relationship is another.

Nicodemus really missed the mark, didn’t he? He called Jesus Christ Rabbi—a teacher. But Jesus Christ is the Son of God. As David previously preached, Jesus Christ is God. And Nicodemus, was missing that .That was a big problem. That’s why Jesus says, “You cannot see the kingdom of God.” Nicodemus wasn’t seeing Christ for who he really was.

Who do you say Christ is? Is he a teacher to you? Is he a person of historical fact? Or is he your God? Is he your “abba”? Is he the Son of God? Who is he to you? Think about that.

Jesus talks about this “born again.” I looked it up and it means “to be born from above.” We’re all born from below. But have you been born from above? Being born again is described in other ways and other places in the Bible.

Ezekiel says an old heart to a new heart. I will give you a new heart and put a new Spirit in you.

The Apostle Paul says an old creation to a new creation. Those who are in Christ are a new creation. The old is gone and the new has come. Old to new.

Peter talks about darkness to light. But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation., God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who calls you out of darkness and into the wonderful light.

St. John, says from death to life. Okay.

Back to Nicodemus. He wasn’t seeing Christ for who he was. I’m going to give an illustration. I work in the seeing business. I help people to see better. One of the major reasons people don’t see well is because they have a cataract in their eye. A cataract is something that everyone gets. A cataract grows inside your eye. The Bible says everyone sins and sin is inside of our hearts. And Jesus knows your heart.

I had a recent encounter with a man and he said to me, “I can’t drive legally.”

I looked into his eyes and I said, “You’ve got a cataract in your eye. We’ve got to get that out.”

And he said to me, “I can see just fine. I don’t need to get it out. I can see cars. I can see street signs. I can see the road just fine.”

I had to remind him that, didn’t he just come from he Motor Vehicle Department? “Didn’t the DMV just tell you that you failed your test?”

He said, “Yeah. But…”

I said, “This is what the law says.” I put up the eye chart. I put up the law of the requirement for driving legally. I said, “Go ahead and read those letters.”

He said, “I can’t do it.”

I said, “Okay, that’s because you have a cataract inside your eye and you need to have it removed. Otherwise you’re not driving.”

The BIble says that the law of the Lord is perfect and it revives the soul. It converts the soul, the King James Version says. Sometimes people think that they’re good, that they’re okay. But they’re not until they look at God’s perfect way, which is to love God and to love one another. Until they look at God’s perfect law, they don’t have a realization that they have a sin problem. They don’t know.

How about you? Do you think that you’re a good person? I would say that you probably are pretty good. But are you absolutely perfect? Have you ever stolen or lied? Have you ever coveted your neighbor? The Bible says that all have sinned and have fallen short of the glory of God. That sin has infected all people.

Let me tell you, this person, when they go get their cataract removed, they are happy. They say, “I can see the trees! I can see the leaves on the trees! I can see faces much better! I can see things completely different. There’s more light that comes in.” And they have a testimony, right? And they are singing and praising the surgeon.

The same is true when someone is born again. They are telling people. I was in a conversation at a lunch and we were just talking about our faith. And someone walked by, because he heard us talking, he said, “Guess what? I’ve been born again!” And he was all excited. This is what happens.

Jesus says back in John Chapter 2 that he didn’t need any testimony about mankind because he knew what was in each person. The lying, the stealing, the greed, the vulgarity, the prejudice, the pride, the anger, the fear. All of that is causing war with God and strife and war with each other.

It all started with Adam and Eve, right? Adam and Eve were in this garden and the sinned. Right? And then their sin was passed to the next generation. Cain and Abel, where Cain murdered his brother. And then the next generation received sin, the next generation, and so on and so forth—right to you and right to me. I’m a sinner. I admit it.

Do you admit it? That’s what God wants. He wants us to come into agreement with him. And then he wants us ultimately to thank him for what he’s done. Because, once again, God has done for us what we cannot do for ourselves. The Bible says that sin and death have entered the one man, Adam, but forgiveness for sin and life has come through the one person of Jesus Christ. Your body may be alive, but inside you’re dead. Your soul and your spirit are dead. And you’re searching in the wrong places. You may be searching in the wrong places, like sex, right? For fulfillment. Or money, or position, or power, or material things. All those things cannot fix you. You need Jesus Christ. You have to come to the cross. You must be born again.

Now, in verse 4, Nicodemus asks this question:

“How can someone be born when they are old?” Nicodemus asked. “Surely they cannot enter a second time into their mother’s womb to be born!”
Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”
“How can this be?” Nicodemus asked.
“You are Israel’s teacher,” said Jesus, “and do you not understand these things? Very truly I tell you, we speak of what we know, and we testify to what we have seen, but still you people do not accept our testimony. I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things? No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven—the Son of Man.

He told Nicodemus who he was. But Nicodemus still is not seeing Jesus Christ for who he really is. He’s asking these questions. “How can this be? How can someone be born?

You don’t have to know everything about God to come to God. No one is going to know everything or know God completely, ever. You have to trust God. You have to come like a little child. The Bible says unless you change and become like a little child you won’t enter into the kingdom of God.

I have a three-year-old son. He is learning how to swim. He will come to the edge of the pool and he will jump to me. And guess what? If I don’t catch my son, he’ll die. He trusts fully in me. He comes. By faith, I say, “Come on, son.” And he just jumps right into the pool.

That’s how we have to come to Christ. You don’t think about it. You don’t have to have everything explained. You don’t have to figure everything out. You just come to Jesus and Christ and you trust him for what he’s done for us. You trust him that he died for your sins. You trust him that he came back back to life. Just like a little child. Come to Jesus Christ.

We don’t have any trouble using these cell phones, do we? I don’t understand how this thing works. I don’t understand how this camera works that I’m looking at right now. You can see me and you’re looking at your phone, or you’re looking through that computer. But I’m trusting right now that you’re looking right at me. We just trust. You put your faith completely all in Jesus Christ. Trust Christ and Christ alone.

Why couldn’t Nicodemus understand Jesus Christ? Jesus is talking about the Spirit. He says you have to have the Spirit to be born again. The Spirit does the work. Once again, Jesus is saying that God has done something for us that we cannot do for ourselves. He’s telling Nicodemus about the Holy Spirit. His Spirit. So I’m going to talk a little about the Spirit.

The Spirit convicts people of their sin, the Bible says. When the Spirit comes he will prove to the world to be in the wrong about sin and righteousness and judgement. The Spirit empowers us to live the Christian life, to resist temptation we have to have the Spirit. The Spirit teaches us moment by moment. The Spirit lives inside every believer. If you’re not a believer, he wants to live inside of you. Do you not know that your bodies, you Christian believers, are a temple for the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit wants to fill you up. Do not be drunk on wine, the Bible says, which leads to debauchery. But instead be filled by the Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit wants to flow through you.

This verse is our church verse, right? Look at John 7:38 for just a moment:

Jesus says, “Anyone who believes on me, just as the Scripture said, streams of living water will flow from within.”

What flows from within is the fruit of the Spirit: the love, the joy, the peace, the patience, the kindness, the goodness, the faithfulness, the gentleness, self control. And I would even say sharing your faith, sharing Christ with others, having a desire to read your Bible, your prayers. You know what? The world around us needs those things.

Jesus is teaching Nicodemus that you have to have the Spirit, that the Spirit does this for you, makes you born again. The Holy Spirit is responsible for the conversion.

I found here the condition of the natural man. The Bible says in 1 Corinthians that the person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, but considers them foolishness. Jesus Christ, God, is having this conversation with Nicodemus, who does not have the Spirit. And Nicodemus is not getting it because Nicodemus does not have the Spirit.

Have you ever had a conversation with someone, and you put out there on the table something spiritual and they just don’t get it. Or they even tell you, “That’s crazy.” Or, “That’s foolishness.”

I’ve had all those interactions. The Bible says that the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but for us who are being saved, it’s the power of God and that God delights in the preaching of the gospel. The preaching that is foolishness to the world, God delights in. So I’m here knowing that I’m a delight to the Lord preaching what the world would say is foolish. And you know what? I don’t care because Jesus Christ is my Lord. He’s the one that I live my life for. I don’t live my life to please man. I’ve been called many things. Foolish is one of them. Crazy. A crazy zealot for God. But I have had a powerful experience with the Lord many times and I know deep, deep down that Jesus Christ is alive, and that Jesus Christ is in me and he’s working through me, and the angels in heaven really do rejoice when people come to Christ. They will for you today when you come to Christ if you do.

We’re going to look at verse 14. Jesus continues to tell Nicodemus:

Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.”

Jesus is saying a story that Nicodemus knows about and that he’s read many times. Remember he was a teacher of the Law. He was a professor of religion. He knows this story. Nicodemus is listening to the story about when Moses leads the Israelites out of slavery and they are in the desert. The Israelites at this time are complaining about the food, about the water, and then God allows them to go through a patch of venomous snakes, snakes that, if they were bitten by one, they would die. And then they started dying. So Moses prays to God and God instructs Moses, “Make a snake out of bronze. Put it up on a pole. And anyone who looks up at that pole and believes will not die but will live.”

That is a foreshadowing of what happens with Jesus Christ. He was buried but he came back to life and anyone who looks to Jesus Christ and puts their trust on Christ and Christ alone will live, will have eternal life. Once again God has done for us something that we cannot do for ourselves. Could those Israelites put some mud on their wounds and live? No. Could they go to Urgent Care? There was no Urgent Care back there. Could they go to the doctor for their wounds. No. God only had one provision. He said, “Look to that bronze snake and believe. And if you do, you’ll live.” There was not other way.

Jesus Christ says, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one gets to the Father except through me.”

I think there’s only one way because he makes it simple for us. Simple, even a chid can understand. It’s simple but it’s so difficult. Christ is the stumbling block. He’s the cornerstone.

Why would God do such a thing? Why would he make a provision for humanity? Because he loves you. It says it right here in John 3:16. This is pretty much the whole gospel in one verse. It says:

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

Nicodemus is getting an earful, isn’t he? Jesus says:

For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.

You don’t have to be afraid to come to Jesus Christ. He’s not going to condemn you. He wasn’t sent to punish you.

Sometimes I ride the light rail. It’s interesting because, when I’m on the train going down Central and the authority comes on the train, you see people scatter. They just jump off the train because they’re afraid. They know they didn’t buy a ticket. Then the authority walks around and says, “Show me the ticket.” So people that don’t have a ticket are gone! The people that do say, “Here’s my ticket.”

The point is that you can come to Jesus Christ. He’s not like the authority on earth. He’s not going to put you in jail. He’s not going to condemn you. The Bible says God didn’t send his son into the world to condemn the world. He came to save the world. You can come to Christ how you are. You don’t go and clean yourself up and then come to Christ. You can’t. Christ cleans you up.

If you’re an addict to pornography, if you’re a drug addict, if you’re self-righteous or prideful, you can’t go and try to get all clean and then come to Jesus Christ. No. It doesn’t work that way. You have to come to Jesus Christ first, put your trust in him, believe on him that he’s alive. He comes into your heart and he starts cleaning you up from the inside out. He’s the Great Physician, by the way.

When he called Levi he said, “It’s not the healthy who need a doctor. It’s the sick. I’ve not come to call the righteous, but the sinners to repentance.”

You come because you’re drawn by his kindness. And when you’re with him, you want to stay with him. You put your trust and believe on him, he cleans you up from the inside out. Let’s continue on in verse 18:

Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.

Remember Nicodemus came to Jesus at nighttime. He’s probably a little bit embarrassed of his homies, right? The other Pharisees in the Jewish ruling counsel. He probably didn’t want theme to see. But you know what? Jesus doesn’t condemn him for that. He doesn’t shame him. He sits with him. But in the same token, you can come to Christ.

Whenever you come to Christ you come to the light because Jesus Christ is the light. He says, “I am the light of the world.” He says, “Anyone who walks after me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life.”

You come to Christ, you’re in the light.

Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.

I just want to spend a couple of minutes in sharing the gospel. Nicodemus was a worker. He was a very hard worker. But we’re not saved by works. We’re saved by mercy and we’re saved by grace. Listen to this verse in Titus 3:5-6:

…he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior,

You Christians have heard this before. Ephesians 2:8-9

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast.

Listen, I say it this way. If a generous person came to you and he said, “I’m going to forgive all of your debt, past, present and future.” Wouldn’t you be grateful? I know I would. I still have mortgage. I still have student loan debt. I’ve got a wife and five kids. I would be grateful. But I would say, “I’ll believe it when I see it.” I go down to the bank and I say, “Has my mortgage been paid?” And they'd say, “Yes, Mr. Johnson, your debt has been paid.” I wouldn’t go at that point and give the bank another thousand dollars. They would say, “What are you doing? Your mortgage has been paid!”

That’s what you’re doing if you’re not putting your trust in Christ alone. If you’re putting your trust in religion or being good, you need to repent from that. Or putting your trust in other gods, in addition to Christ, you need to repent from that as well. Trust in Christ—in Christ alone. He did it all.

The Bible says it this way—Paul says, “I don’t set aside the grace of God. For if righteousness could be gained through the law, then Christ died for nothing.” He did it all, folks. He paid it all.

I’m going to end with an illustration. Bear with me. Here we have three types of people. We’ve got the natural man like Nicodemus. On the outside he looks like he has it all together. But on the inside, he has sin. He has pride. Just like all of us. The Bible says that we’re born into iniquity. We have sin in us. So here he is. And he’s in our world.

Then suppose that he put his trust in Christ and he became born again. Here we have a person who has been born again and so instead of being filled with sin now, they can be filled with the Holy Spirit.

Both of these guys are in the world together. This guy, the natural person, we see it all the time, in our world, is kind of spewing off what comes out of his heart. The sin, the greed, the strife, the vulgarity, the anger, resulting in domestic violence, not taking care of your kids, family breakdown, the denial of who Jesus is. The disbelief.

Then you have the guy who is filled with the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit is flowing through him. Love, joy, peace, all around the world, patience and kindness and goodness, so on and so forth. God continues to pour into this guy. God’s grace is endless. His mercies never end, the Bible says. More love and more joy and more peace. He gets filled up again and he overflows. This guy is a living streams Christian right here, okay? God just keeps on pouring his grace right into him and into our world.

But I want to talk to you guys, because I believe a lot of us are like this guy right here. This guy, the born again Christian who is led by his flesh. The Bible describes him as the carnal Christian. He’s got the Spirit in him. He’s been born again. But he’s also got sin in him and look at him. Sometimes he’ll be in church. And maybe after church someone will cut him off and he’s got the finger.

Sometimes he really wrestles with his identity. He may have depression. He may at one moment be praising God and the next moment he may be having an idol. He’s pouring out also.

And this guy over here, the natural person is looking at the carnal Christian saying, “We’re no different. You’re a hypocrite.”

So how does the carnal Christian get to the Spirit-filled Christian? How do we get from here to here? The Bible says that we come to Jesus Christ. We come to the cross just like Nicodemus did and we confess our sins. And God is faithful and just. He forgives us of our sins and he purifies us from all unrighteousness. And here we are again and God is pouring through us faithfulness, gentleness, self-control and so on and so forth.

I’m going to be quite honest with myself and with you, that I go back and forth. I have my moments. I say, “Wow, that was the Lord in me.” And then I have my other moments, “That’s all Michael right there. Lord. Michael.” But as time goes on, God wants us to be more of the Spirit-led, Spirit-controlled, born again Christian. Because we have to, guys.

Listen. I was a product of the Arizona Child Foster system. I grew up in very dysfunction. My dad was an alcoholic. Long story short, he beat my mom. He beat us. I was adopted. The adopted dad was committing adultery against my mother . They got a divorce. My younger brother, alcoholic, died. Me, myself, I have a lot of sin to talk about as well. It’s not that we’re all black men and this is the product of the systemic racism, or this is a product of the white man putting their thumb on the black man. No! It’s a product of sin. We all have sin.

It took me until after I was born again to realize that. I always wondered, “Why am I this way? Why did all these things happen to us?” And God gave me the answer. When Jesus looked down at our world and looked at our world, it’s pretty messy. And Jesus said, “Father, forgive them. They don’t know what they’re doing.”

If you’re up to no good, if you’re led by your flesh, guess what? Expect bad things to happen to you. If you’re a Spirit-led Christian and you have yielded to Christ, fully surrendered to Christ 24/7, but you live in this world, guess what? Expect bad things to happen to you. If you’re a carnal Christian. It doesn’t matter who you are. If you live in this messy world, expect bad things to happen to you.

The gospel message is that Jesus Christ, once he comes inside of you, he never leaves you. He’s always with you. And you have eternal life that you won’t lose. If you could lose eternal life, it was never eternal in the first place. That’s very good news and that gives me peace today. If I die this afternoon, I know where I’m going. And I have peace inside. All around me it’s chaotic. But the peace of the Lord dwells richly inside of me and I’m able to overflow that peace into the hearts of others around me: my wife and my children, so on and so forth.

I’m going to end this message by asking you guys: which of these three best represent your life? Are you the natural person who’s never believed on Christ? Are you the Spirit-filled Christian soho is overflowing love and joy and peace, so on and so forth. Or right now are you this carnal Christian who’s got some sin in your life. You’ve got the Spirit, you’ve been born again, but you need to come to Jesus.

If you are the natural, come to Christ today. Believe on him. If this made sense to you, not like Nicodemus—not making sense—but if it does to you, guess what? You’ve been born again. You believe. Tell someone. Send an email to Pastor David. Tell someone in your house right now. “Hey, that makes sense. I believe on Jesus Christ.” Then begin to grow in your faith. Read your Bible and keep coming to church,

If this is you, the carnal Christian, again, come to Christ. Confess your sins and live, not bound by sin, but live in the victory of Jesus Christ.

That is the message for today. I just want to thank you and thank Pastor David. I’m going to end by just saying May the peace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with you always.

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