What God Loves To Bless
John 13:1-17
Everything in Jesus’ life is moving him forwards to the cross, so he is intent on some special conversations with his closest allies, the disciples. Here in John 13, Jesus demonstrates clearly his love towards his disciples, grace towards Judas the betrayer, and obedience to his Father. We are left with a strong illustration of servanthood leading us to be willing to clean up the mess for each other.
But how do we create a culture of servanthood?
1. Come to grips with our identity so that we don’t have a problem with the idea of servanthood.
2. Come to grips with our mission so that we continue to do as Jesus did.
3. Come to grips with our rank so that we can reach all with our act of service.
4. Come to grips with the need / opportunity for service around us which is immense.
• The service of presence
• The service of availability
• The service of giving up
• The service of anonymity
• The service of receiving
Jim Bakker, having an aide massage his feet
John 13:1 gives an opposite picture
- Verse 1 tells us the hour had come, the time all of eternity had been pointing to
- Jesus was transitioning, preparing to leave
- No one knew but Jesus that this would be His last night with His followers
- And the focus was now on those He had invested in, those who chose to follow Him
- Those He loved “to the uttermost”
- Loved as much as anyone could be loved (eis telos)
- The advance of God’s kingdom, the hope of the church, would rest with these men
- So Jesus gathered them together to talk
- A conversation that is His longest one in the book of John (or any gospel for that matter)
- One we will engage with for several weeks
- At times it seems to ramble
- It is not systematic
- There is no clear outline, no smooth transitions
- Eight times the disciples will engage/interact/ask questions
- Some refer to it as a FAREWELL ADDRESS
- Over and over He tells them He is leaving
- But it might be more correct to say it was a FINAL BRIEFING
- Part of a closing MISSIONAL CHALLENGE
- While He is leaving, they are not coming because they have a mission to do, a work to complete
- And a Helper is coming; they won’t be doing it alone
- He is critical, for there is an enemy at work to destroy everything they are called to do
- Just as an enemy was at work to destroy Jesus, the devil and Judas were working in a conspiracy to destroy Jesus (verse 2)
- But nothing at all is spinning out of Jesus’ control, He had/has absolute rule (verse 3)
- HE DOES WHATEVER HE WILLS
- He could have devastated Judas with a mighty blast of His anger
- Instead, He devastated all of His disciples with a mighty blast of His SERVICE (verses 4ff)
- The One who had disrobed Himself of royalty to wear the garment of humanity, (what Christmas is really all about!) disrobed Himself even further to adopt the dress of a slave, doing what the lowest of the lowest did at meals (wash feet)
- AND as custom, people reclined, with feet pointing out, full of grime and sweat and dung and dirt, and those at the lowest rung would do the messy work of washing
- But THIS NIGHT, Jesus did it
- He got down on His knees and began to show them the full extent of His love
- By taking the hands with which He held all power and authority in the universe and began to wash their muck
- And suddenly things were upside down for these men
- And Peter would have none of this
- Students serve teachers
- Followers serve Masters
- “You shall not, absolutely not, wash my feet!!” (verse 8a)
- Peter, who often had a better plan for Jesus’ life
- But Jesus overrode Peter
- He is not discouraged by our humanity, turned off by our messiness
- “Unless you let Me wash you, you have no part” (verse 8b)
- Which remains true: If people will not let Jesus do His work of washing, cleansing lives of their dirt, they can have no part with Jesus…ever!
- And then Jesus put on His clothes, returned to His place (verse 12)
- And then asked them, asks us, a pointed question, “DO YOU GET IT?”
- Because they didn’t
- And all too often, we don’t either
- They didn’t get it because they had an ongoing argument over who was the greatest, who was alpha
- And where there is trouble over who is the greatest, there is conflict over who is the least
- Someone needed to wash the others’ feet
- So they sat, feet caked with dirt
- Until Jesus took a towel and redefined greatness
- Redefined leadership
- Greatness is about descending, not ascending
- Willing to do the menial task of cleaning up the dirt in the lives of those we live with
- All too often, we’d rather let someone else
- Worse, we would rather they take their messiness somewhere else
- But Jesus is teaching us this:
- If you’re going to be My community…
- If you want My blessing (verse 17)…
- If you intend to advance My kingdom, if you are going to change this world…
- Than you must create a culture of servanthood
- If we can’t do it here, we can’t do it there
HOW DO WE CREATE A CULTURE OF SERVANTHOOD?
1) COME TO GRIPS WITH OUR IDENTITY
- Verse 3 is more than informational
- It helps explain Jesus’ actions
- Jesus, knowing His mission, origin, destination, and authority
- Knowing who He was, Jesus could get up and take a towel
- People who have the hardest time serving are often those who are insecure in themselves
- Who fear they will be labeled
- But those who find it easiest to serve are those who know who they are in Christ
- Creating an ethos of service involves something else
2) COME TO GRIPS WITH OUR MISSION
- If we are unwilling to serve, it is because we do not understand that our mission is to continue what Jesus began
- What He has done, we are to do
- “As I have loved you, love one another” (John 13:34)
- “As I have done the Father’s work, you must be about doing the will of the Father” (John 14:12)
- “As I have lived life to the full, you must live in all of My fullness” (John 14:19)
- “As I have born much fruit, you must bear much fruit” (John 15:8)
- “As I was hated, you must anticipate to be hated (John15:18)
- “As I have served, you must serve (John 13:16)
3) COME TO GRIPS WITH OUR RANK
- If anything gets in the way of service it is pride
- Self-interest, self service, self-centeredness plagues all of us
- But Jesus tells us our rank; we are not above our Master (verse 16)
- If there is anything beneath us, we have placed ourselves above Jesus
4) COME TO GRIPS WITH THE NEED/OPPORTUNITIES
- For the need to be a servant is everywhere
- But service is not so much a list of to do’s, it’s broader
A. THE SERVICE OF PRESENCE
- Lots of service begins here
- The ministry of presence might mean getting up in the middle of the night to sit beside the bed of an older, frail, and frightened friend who is dying
Illustration – Prison/Paul
- Going abroad where others are unwilling to go, the fringe
- The marginal, economically deprived places
- Palestinian camps of Beirut, the forgotten places like the
Congo, Darfur, the people in need in Dalkeith, Woodburn, Eskbank
- To simply say, “I am here with no other agenda but to be with you”
Illustration - Bishop in Uganda, interviewed in CT
- We can easily forget that Jesus was most often present at the margins
- And lots of us are unwilling to go there
- And if we are, it is as go-and-fix-it people
- As people who have the answers, and tragically, we just let you fix things, maintaining our lack of confidence
- But what is needed is to come and be with, with no other agenda than to be with us
- Such that we gain our confidence and move forward
B. THE SERVICE OF AVAILABILITY
- The service of interruption
- Taking the latch off the door, in order to pray with someone deeply troubled in spirit
- It is an opportunity of service offered to us countless times each day
- To be always available is to be not worth much when we are
- But servants know when to be available, when they must be
C. THE SERVICE OF GIVING UP
- Giving up your seat, giving up your rights, giving up your place, giving up the fact it has to be your way, giving up your agenda on Friday night
- It may even mean giving up your career
- Robert McQuilkin, a seminary/university president shifted to care for his wife Muriel, diagnosed with Alzheimer’s
- Henri Nouwen, author and priest, who left the academic community to move to a community of mentally impaired people to minister to their needs
- They both had been washed by Jesus, and so they made the decision to give up their place and “wash the feet” of others
D. THE SERVICE OF ANONYMITY
- Doing something that needs to be done without needing to be acknowledged, without wanting to be known
- Such as prayer
One could go on…
E. THE SERVICE OF GUARDING THE REPUTATION OF OTHERS
F. THE SERVICE OF SHARING OUR GIFTS
- Right here at St John’s, everyone bringing a brick to the wall, giving your time, talent, your passion
G. THE SERVICE OF RECEIVING
- Part of servanthood is letting someone else wash our feet
Point - This is footwashing, not some church rite, some institutional service of literally washing feet
- Which means little in our culture
In the book, “The Rise of Christianity”, sociologist Rodney Stark set out to understand how Christianity rose from 12 to a few hundred to… in just 300 years, half the population of the Roman Empire were believers
- And this is what he discovered: That Christians chose to live in the cities, and when terrible conditions and epidemics took hold
- Many left, except the church
- That chose to stay and provide basic care, wash the feet of others
- And out of this culture of servanthood, paganism was powerfully impacted
Tuesday, December 23, 2008
Tuesday, December 09, 2008
What would Jesus say to Buffett and Gates?
The celebration at Bethany where Martha was working in the kitchen, Lazarus was the focus of attention, and Mary was pouring perfume on Jesus’ feet. There was concern on the part of the disciples, especially Judas Iscariot, about the expense of her action related to the needs of the poor.
Three perspectives of the story:
• Everything is His – we really own nothing
• Everything is His to serve His purpose – he was being anointed for burial and the word “intended” seems to indicate this was a well thought out action
• Everything has been given so that we might seize the moment – recognize the eternal significance of each moment. Mary seized the moment of course not aware that Jesus’ death was just days away.
How does this story relate to you and I so many centuries after it happened?
Series: Conversations with Jesus
John 12:1-8
“What Would Jesus Say to Buffett and Gates”
INTRO
-Weddings, I have discovered, are a mix of both great joy and subtle sadness
-Joy over the fact two people are cleaving
-But there is that certain sadness when you watch the slide show of their lives
-And realize they are also leaving
-A new chapter is beginning—an old one is ending
-Some years ago, another July wedding
-one wedding I once witnessed the mother wailing uncontrollably at the thought of losing her daughter
-The kind you see in the Middle East—in a funeral procession
-I thought—this man’s in for a long ride
In John 12—it must have been a very emotional time as well. (Vss. 12:1-8)
Like a wedding banquet—people from all around came to celebrate
-And it too had its mix of emotions
-This was Jesus—the Resurrection
-But this was Jesus—the wanted Man (11:57)
-This was Saturday night—the end of Sabbath—time for feasting
-But this was Saturday—before Sunday—the triumphal entry
-That would lead to Thursday the arrest
-And Friday—the execution
-Time for sadness
But for this moment—there would be celebration
-For one of the most incredible miracles in history occurred
-Lazarus, at the command of Jesus, came out of a tomb he had been sealed in for fours days
-So a dinner was held in Jesus’ honour
-Mark 14 tells us Simon the leper—possibly the Father of Lazarus and Mary and Martha, hosted the dinner
-Verse 2 tells us Martha was in the kitchen—where else?
-Up to her elbows in garbanzo beans
-Making sure enough humus was on the table
-The bread, olive oil and vinegar and wine—everything adequately prepared, served
Meanwhile—there must have been a festive atmosphere out in the main room
-It’s not often you have a “Back from the Dead” Party
-Live band—maybe the Grateful Dead or
People must have hovered around Lazarus—like someone just back from spending the night in the number 10 downing st
-What was it like—who did you meet—how was the food?
-What is death like—what do you see, hear, smell?
-Did you meet Him?
-Was it hard to come back?
-Curiosity seekers, necks craning to hear
-Get some hint of what the big day will be like when they all die
But John wasn’t interested in reporting this
-It was Mary who captures John’s attention
-Mary-the quiet one
-Usually found in the vicinity of Jesus
-Hanging on to His words—amazed at Jesus’ wisdom
-Overcome with gratitude for the love Jesus had shown in raising her brother
-Impressed—with HIS POWER—that raises the dead
-So Mary did a most remarkable thing
-She grabbed the most expensive thing in the house
-The family heirloom
-Perhaps the dowry kept for Mary’s wedding day
-The pint of pure nard
-The treasured scent found only in the mountains of Nepal
This was like grabbing imperial majesty by Clive Christian—sold for nearly £1500
an ounce. Or yours for £150,000 a bottle (What I typically buy for Donna at Christmas
-Only more expensive
-For this was pure oil worth about one year’s earnings
-20-30,000 pounds —and she broke the seal and poured it out—all 12.375 ounces
-And in this moment emptied out all of her inheritance—perhaps her ticket to marriage
-And if this were not enough—she poured it on His feet
-Which for most would have been a degrading act
-Only the most menial of servants touched the dirt ridden, smelly, callous feet of another
-But Mary more than touched His feet with her expensive perfume
-She bathed His feet with the symbol of her glory—her hair
-This was a woman acting with extravagant abandon
-Laying aside all propriety and restraint
-For in her mind—this was Jesus—the Deliverer—the Resurrection—the
Light of the world—the Bread of Life—the Living Water
-Whose value to her eclipsed everything she owned—everything she was
The conversation, the eating—everything appears to have stopped like a car in busy traffic.
-This was adoration to behold—this was gratitude overflowing—this was worship at its finest—this was…WASTE!!
-Verses 4-5 tell us a spirit of indignation took over the room
-It was one thing to provide a meal in Jesus’ honour
-But to waste good perfume on Him
-Parallel accounts tell us nearly everyone, including the disciples, were disgusted (Mark 14:4; Matthew 26)
-Judas voiced what others were thinking, what some of us might have thought—“why this misuse of funds”?
-Do you realize how many starving people there are in Africa?
-What we could be doing to help the Dalits in India?
-WHAT IS THIS WOMAN THINKING?
Maybe Mary was thinking this—
1. If He can raise someone from the dead—can He not provide?
2. If He has come to offer life—life abundantly—life in all of its unrestrained fullness
-Is it too much let loose in unrestrained worship?
3. Maybe she was thinking this—wondering this—
-So how do you measure the worth of Jesus?
-How did you arrive at your small price tag?
Illustration: Sophie has inherited from her Dad the issue of struggling to share, mine, mine, mine, Seagulls Finding Nemo
What was Jesus thinking at this moment?
-The One who came to preach to the poor
-Bring mercy—call for justice—teach the parable of the Good Samaritan
-Would He not agree that this is excessive?
-Mary—next time—a simple thank you will be enough
But Jesus did just the opposite. (Verses 7-8)
So what is He saying?
-Perhaps He at this moment placed things back in perspective—
A. EVERYTHING IS HIS
-Nothing is really ours
-What all of them failed to see is that Mary was only bringing to
Jesus what already was His
-Every square inch of this whole universe has written on it—“Mine”
Is that how you see things?
B. EVERYTHING IS HIS TO SERVE HIS PURPOSE
-Everything and everyone has a divine purpose
-Mary seemed to get this
Jesus underscored this in verse 7
-It was intended—for this purpose—the day of My burial—that she kept it
-i.e., from eternity past—this Nard was set apart in this field—in this home—to be used by this woman
-On this night
-That My body might be prepared for this burial
-That this death, burial, and resurrection might save your lives
-Is this not a reminder that all of our gifts, talents, resources, passions— are ultimately His—for His purpose
-And our wisdom is to willingly submit—fit in to His purpose?
Were Jesus speaking to Warren Buffett or Bill Gates—two of world’s richest men
-Who have teamed up to create the world’s largest charitable foundation Would He not say something like this?
-I am impressed by your efforts to alleviate human misery—rather than spend it all on yourselves
-To create a foundation that will hand out more money per year than the
GNP of 40 nations is commendatory
-Resources that could radically reduce poverty, address HIV/AIDS, TB, malaria, and poor education
-But if this is more about fulfilling your purpose than finding MY PURPOSE
-Treating it as if it is yours to give—rather than Mine to manage
-You might miss the opportunity to most impact the world
-You might become so focused on your solutions that you miss the heart
-From which all the world’s problems emanate
-You might perpetuate the poor because you miss the structures that create poverty
-Sinful inclinations, self-centeredness, and greed
-WHICH ONLY I CAN CHANGE
You might miss what I want to do through you—for life is about My purpose—not yours
Here’s a final perspective—
EVERYTHING IS TO SEIZE HIS TIME
-In this story, God placed a moment in front of Mary
-The hour had come—and no one at the table knew
-No one but Mary—so she seized her moment
-For the moment would soon pass to anoint His body
It is the same for us—we must also seize what is in front of us—and here’s what will not be there much longer—
-The opportunity to give our lives to Jesus, invest in His kingdom, steward whatever He has given us—whatever gifts, passions, talents
-Realizing that the day will come we can no longer do this
-Entering into eternity will not provide a second chance
Three perspectives of the story:
• Everything is His – we really own nothing
• Everything is His to serve His purpose – he was being anointed for burial and the word “intended” seems to indicate this was a well thought out action
• Everything has been given so that we might seize the moment – recognize the eternal significance of each moment. Mary seized the moment of course not aware that Jesus’ death was just days away.
How does this story relate to you and I so many centuries after it happened?
Series: Conversations with Jesus
John 12:1-8
“What Would Jesus Say to Buffett and Gates”
INTRO
-Weddings, I have discovered, are a mix of both great joy and subtle sadness
-Joy over the fact two people are cleaving
-But there is that certain sadness when you watch the slide show of their lives
-And realize they are also leaving
-A new chapter is beginning—an old one is ending
-Some years ago, another July wedding
-one wedding I once witnessed the mother wailing uncontrollably at the thought of losing her daughter
-The kind you see in the Middle East—in a funeral procession
-I thought—this man’s in for a long ride
In John 12—it must have been a very emotional time as well. (Vss. 12:1-8)
Like a wedding banquet—people from all around came to celebrate
-And it too had its mix of emotions
-This was Jesus—the Resurrection
-But this was Jesus—the wanted Man (11:57)
-This was Saturday night—the end of Sabbath—time for feasting
-But this was Saturday—before Sunday—the triumphal entry
-That would lead to Thursday the arrest
-And Friday—the execution
-Time for sadness
But for this moment—there would be celebration
-For one of the most incredible miracles in history occurred
-Lazarus, at the command of Jesus, came out of a tomb he had been sealed in for fours days
-So a dinner was held in Jesus’ honour
-Mark 14 tells us Simon the leper—possibly the Father of Lazarus and Mary and Martha, hosted the dinner
-Verse 2 tells us Martha was in the kitchen—where else?
-Up to her elbows in garbanzo beans
-Making sure enough humus was on the table
-The bread, olive oil and vinegar and wine—everything adequately prepared, served
Meanwhile—there must have been a festive atmosphere out in the main room
-It’s not often you have a “Back from the Dead” Party
-Live band—maybe the Grateful Dead or
People must have hovered around Lazarus—like someone just back from spending the night in the number 10 downing st
-What was it like—who did you meet—how was the food?
-What is death like—what do you see, hear, smell?
-Did you meet Him?
-Was it hard to come back?
-Curiosity seekers, necks craning to hear
-Get some hint of what the big day will be like when they all die
But John wasn’t interested in reporting this
-It was Mary who captures John’s attention
-Mary-the quiet one
-Usually found in the vicinity of Jesus
-Hanging on to His words—amazed at Jesus’ wisdom
-Overcome with gratitude for the love Jesus had shown in raising her brother
-Impressed—with HIS POWER—that raises the dead
-So Mary did a most remarkable thing
-She grabbed the most expensive thing in the house
-The family heirloom
-Perhaps the dowry kept for Mary’s wedding day
-The pint of pure nard
-The treasured scent found only in the mountains of Nepal
This was like grabbing imperial majesty by Clive Christian—sold for nearly £1500
an ounce. Or yours for £150,000 a bottle (What I typically buy for Donna at Christmas
-Only more expensive
-For this was pure oil worth about one year’s earnings
-20-30,000 pounds —and she broke the seal and poured it out—all 12.375 ounces
-And in this moment emptied out all of her inheritance—perhaps her ticket to marriage
-And if this were not enough—she poured it on His feet
-Which for most would have been a degrading act
-Only the most menial of servants touched the dirt ridden, smelly, callous feet of another
-But Mary more than touched His feet with her expensive perfume
-She bathed His feet with the symbol of her glory—her hair
-This was a woman acting with extravagant abandon
-Laying aside all propriety and restraint
-For in her mind—this was Jesus—the Deliverer—the Resurrection—the
Light of the world—the Bread of Life—the Living Water
-Whose value to her eclipsed everything she owned—everything she was
The conversation, the eating—everything appears to have stopped like a car in busy traffic.
-This was adoration to behold—this was gratitude overflowing—this was worship at its finest—this was…WASTE!!
-Verses 4-5 tell us a spirit of indignation took over the room
-It was one thing to provide a meal in Jesus’ honour
-But to waste good perfume on Him
-Parallel accounts tell us nearly everyone, including the disciples, were disgusted (Mark 14:4; Matthew 26)
-Judas voiced what others were thinking, what some of us might have thought—“why this misuse of funds”?
-Do you realize how many starving people there are in Africa?
-What we could be doing to help the Dalits in India?
-WHAT IS THIS WOMAN THINKING?
Maybe Mary was thinking this—
1. If He can raise someone from the dead—can He not provide?
2. If He has come to offer life—life abundantly—life in all of its unrestrained fullness
-Is it too much let loose in unrestrained worship?
3. Maybe she was thinking this—wondering this—
-So how do you measure the worth of Jesus?
-How did you arrive at your small price tag?
Illustration: Sophie has inherited from her Dad the issue of struggling to share, mine, mine, mine, Seagulls Finding Nemo
What was Jesus thinking at this moment?
-The One who came to preach to the poor
-Bring mercy—call for justice—teach the parable of the Good Samaritan
-Would He not agree that this is excessive?
-Mary—next time—a simple thank you will be enough
But Jesus did just the opposite. (Verses 7-8)
So what is He saying?
-Perhaps He at this moment placed things back in perspective—
A. EVERYTHING IS HIS
-Nothing is really ours
-What all of them failed to see is that Mary was only bringing to
Jesus what already was His
-Every square inch of this whole universe has written on it—“Mine”
Is that how you see things?
B. EVERYTHING IS HIS TO SERVE HIS PURPOSE
-Everything and everyone has a divine purpose
-Mary seemed to get this
Jesus underscored this in verse 7
-It was intended—for this purpose—the day of My burial—that she kept it
-i.e., from eternity past—this Nard was set apart in this field—in this home—to be used by this woman
-On this night
-That My body might be prepared for this burial
-That this death, burial, and resurrection might save your lives
-Is this not a reminder that all of our gifts, talents, resources, passions— are ultimately His—for His purpose
-And our wisdom is to willingly submit—fit in to His purpose?
Were Jesus speaking to Warren Buffett or Bill Gates—two of world’s richest men
-Who have teamed up to create the world’s largest charitable foundation Would He not say something like this?
-I am impressed by your efforts to alleviate human misery—rather than spend it all on yourselves
-To create a foundation that will hand out more money per year than the
GNP of 40 nations is commendatory
-Resources that could radically reduce poverty, address HIV/AIDS, TB, malaria, and poor education
-But if this is more about fulfilling your purpose than finding MY PURPOSE
-Treating it as if it is yours to give—rather than Mine to manage
-You might miss the opportunity to most impact the world
-You might become so focused on your solutions that you miss the heart
-From which all the world’s problems emanate
-You might perpetuate the poor because you miss the structures that create poverty
-Sinful inclinations, self-centeredness, and greed
-WHICH ONLY I CAN CHANGE
You might miss what I want to do through you—for life is about My purpose—not yours
Here’s a final perspective—
EVERYTHING IS TO SEIZE HIS TIME
-In this story, God placed a moment in front of Mary
-The hour had come—and no one at the table knew
-No one but Mary—so she seized her moment
-For the moment would soon pass to anoint His body
It is the same for us—we must also seize what is in front of us—and here’s what will not be there much longer—
-The opportunity to give our lives to Jesus, invest in His kingdom, steward whatever He has given us—whatever gifts, passions, talents
-Realizing that the day will come we can no longer do this
-Entering into eternity will not provide a second chance
Tuesday, December 02, 2008
is Jesus only future?
Series: Conversations with Jesus
John 11:17-27
“Is Jesus Only Future?”
DiagnosisA woman went to a walk-in clinic, where she was seen by a young, new doctor. After about three minutes in the examination room, the doctor told her she was pregnant. She burst out, screaming as she ran down the hall.An older doctor stopped her and asked what the problem was, and she told him what had happened. After listening, he had her sit down and relax in another exam room. The doctor marched down the hallway back to where the first doctor was and demanded, ‘What’s the matter with you? Mrs. Terry is 59 years old, has four grown children and seven grandchildren, and you told her she was PREGNANT?!’The young doctor continued to write on his clipboard, and without looking up, asked, ‘Does she still have the hiccups?’ You have power as well!
Jesus is in a conversation with Martha concerning the death of her brother Lazarus and the fact that she thought Jesus should have come sooner to help him, so perhaps he wouldn’t have died.
Jesus is saddened by the lack of understanding of who really gives life and when he gives it. By his words, he emphasizes the thought that resurrection is not just a future hope but also a present reality.
How often we live knowing the power of God to save us in the future but denying the power of God to carry us today. Paul emphasized this to the churches he visited, too:
Ephesians 1:19-20 “incomparable power working within you”
Colossians 2:13 “God has raised us to live an empowered, transformed life”
Romans 5:17 “raised up in Christ, he has given us the same authority, power”
We have a tendency to act like Martha, seeing resurrection life as only something future. Our faith is attacked on a regular basis to keep us in a fog about living the resurrection life now.
Lazarus came out as Jesus’ proof that he was the present day resurrection.
INTRO
My bottle goes when under pressure,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
-But as one writer put it—he collapsed like a cardboard wind tunnel
I would have wondered:
-God, where were you when I needed you?
All of us ask this question from time to time
Where were you? When my car decided to die?
-When my faith was put on the line, and I didn’t know what to say?
-When the world seemed to turn against me—and I needed to know you cared?
-When I lost my job, when depression struck
-When my loved one died
-In the story of John 11—Martha wondered, “Where were you?”
-Her brother Lazarus was dying
-They assumed Jesus would come immediately
-After all—Mary and Martha and Lazarus were like Jesus’ extended family
· -But Jesus did not come-read (verse 4-6) Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. Yet when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed where he was two more days
-The text could better read—
-Jesus loved Lazarus and Mary and Martha—“so then”—He stayed
-Makes you wonder if He did not like them what He would have done
-This is not making sense
-God is never late for appointments
But then—as in every story of Jesus
-Something is going on that goes beyond the layer of human comprehension
-Something bigger than our wants—something bigger than Lazarus
-Something even beyond the intellectual capacity of His disciples (verses 7-8)
-For them—it was—WHY WOULD YOU GO?
-But for Martha—it would soon be—WHY DID YOU STAY? (verses 17-21)
-You remember Martha—Mary is the stay at home type -the one in the living room, ministering to people-available when Jesus comes in to sit at His feet
-Martha is the one in the kitchen -preparing the food -Mashing the tatties
-Taking particular note of who has come—and Who has not
-And while she expressed faith in Jesus-one can hear a tone of slight disappointment-even accusation-at Jesus’ delay (verse 21)
-The language could fairly be translated this way—
-Lord-if you had been here (which you weren’t), my brother would not have died (which he did)
-This is a grieving person desperately wishing it could have been different
-Who in effect said-“Lord, you could have been here--should have been here”
-Because she knew Jesus could have healed her brother
But she did not give up on Jesus (verse 22)
-She knew that Jesus was intimately connected with the Father
-Jesus can do something—what it is—she is not sure
-Say a little prayer—“Father-receive Lazarus into Your care”
-Comfort hearts—Jesus was good at this
Jesus’ response offered no explanation for His delay
-Just a simple statement (verse 23) Jesus said to her, "Your brother will rise again."
-On the surface, these must have appeared as nice words
-Jesus does not tell Martha anything she did not know
-For most Jews believed in a future resurrection
-Your brother will rise again was like saying—we will see him in heaven
-It’s all “religiously correct” small talk
-We know what it sounds like—we’ve heard it often
-Words meant to fill the vacant space
-Comfort words
Martha was good at small talk as well (verse 24) Martha answered, "I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day."
But none of this probably addressed the profound disappointment Martha was feeling:
-In her mind—Jesus had missed a pastoral moment
Pastors are notorious for doing this
-Illustration-missed someone—I was there—but I wasn’t weeks later
-I would call—send cards—but she needed more than words—she needed my presence
-Grief had turned to anger—and I wasn’t there to listen
-I missed a pastoral moment
But this is not about Jesus failing at pastoral care
-Rather—it was all leading up to the pastoral moment Jesus had determined in eternity past for Martha (verses 25-26) Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?"
-Suddenly, Martha was pressed to a deeper level of discussion
-Martha—healing people is not My highest objective
-It’s not about your well being—but My glory
-Teaching you who I am is far more important
-And this is who I am—I am the resurrection and the life
-Jesus was shifting Martha from abstract belief to personal trust
-From doctrine to a Person
-Martha was suddenly confronted with how she perceived Jesus
And on the surface—it would appear Martha got it (verse 27) "Yes, Lord," she told him, "I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who was to come into the world
-She declared this creed like confession
-End of story—end of conversation—THE END!
But in truth—the conversation was not over
-Martha’s statement came up short--she didn’t really get it
-But then—neither did others (verse 32)
All of this moved Jesus (verses 33, 35, 38)
-A God who weeps when we weep
- God is not remote from our sufferings
-He is nearer than we are to ourselves
But that is not just what these words are saying
-These are words that mix grief with anger—outrage even
-Words that picture a soul in turmoil—gut wrenching emotion
-All chiseled down to two words—the shortest verse in the Bible—Jesus
WEPT
-The same language used when Jesus wept over Jerusalem
But what is Jesus grieving over—outraged over?
1) In part, this is Jesus standing before the door of death—grieving over the human condition
-And the devastation death brings
-Viewing it like a playground bully—interfering with the world as it should be
2) But more-this was Jesus grieving over a people who chose to be overcome by defeat rather than overwhelmed by His power
-Saddened, angered over those who refused to see Him for who He really was—and what He can really do
-That what He provides in the future—He can do in the present
-He could see in Martha—that despite this great confession of faith (verse 27)
-Still did not get it
-In fact—she is the first one to object over moving the stone
She believed in Jesus’ future work—but was not expecting anything in the present
APPLICATION
Could that be us?
-Like Martha—we too can declare our creed—but miss this—
-That the resurrection isn’t some distant truth—it is a present experience for every person in Christ
-With powerful implications
This seems to be the truth Paul wanted the church to get as much as any—
1) To the Ephesians:
-Eph 1:19-20-I pray that you might know the incomparable power working within you
-That experiencing His power and presence and wisdom be a daily reality—and not some mere future hope
2) To the Colossians:
-Col 2:13-God has raised us (now!)—that we might live an empowered, transformed life
-A life in which the Christlike life will eventually become more natural than an un-Christlike life
3) To the Romans
-Romans 5:17-because we are raised up in Christ (who has placed all things under His feet), He has given us the same authority, power to reign with Him
-He sits at the right hand of the father-transfusing us with His Spirit, adorning the church with gifts, restraining sin, holding all power in heaven and earth
-So that we might do even greater things because He has gone to the Father and sent His Spirit
So why is this missing so often in us?
1) In part because we make the same mistake of Martha—of seeing resurrection as something only future—when it is present
But living that way is like saying getting married means—
“Because I’ve given you this ring, you will be taken care of in retirement”
-No, there’s something to be experienced in the present
2) In part because we are in a war that chips away at our convictions, undermining our belief that God intends for us to live at this level
-A fog that keeps us from seeing who we really are—what we could really be—as people of the resurrection
Satan and his emissaries bank an awful lot of their work on the fact that Christians don’t know the power and authority we now have in Christ
-And keep them in the dark
-Deceiving them into seeing the spiritual life as all about forgiveness and grace—and not so much about empowered, Christlike living
SO WHAT’S NEEDED?
-Take Jesus’ resurrection power, authority seriously
-Quit settling for A LIFE OF RESIGNATION
-Assuming so little—domesticated faith, some ritual—
-Quit accepting life at ground level
live in the power!! We are to live the normal Christian life, you know what that is? To have an appetite for the impossible, In Redding California, a couple were having a wedding, they sent out buses to the neediest and poorest part of the city and invited the homeless and the poor to their wedding meal, on their gift list was not the usual, but coats, hats, gloves, sleeping bags for those in need, his name was Luke, he walked with difficulty, he wore braces on his arms, a brace around his neck, he had carpal tunnel syndrome, some people prayed for him, he felt the numbness and pain go, one leg was shorter than the other due to an accident and the surgeon repairing a break, they prayed the leg would grow and it did, as he stood he said “yes that is about right as if he was trying on a new pair of shoes, his limp was gone, he also had cancer, the muscles in his neck had gone, they prayed for his neck, commanding muscles to grow, when they finished he removed his brace, the lumps in his neck were gone, his doctor gave him a clean bill of health, the healings continued after the physical, he got a job for the first time in 17 years, Jesus heals the whole person.
-You know our problem? We do not expect, we assume little and receive little, the problem exists between our ears! A renewing of our mind is needed.
-God does not heal always he is sovereign, we do not know his plans, but you know what if we do not ask for the power of God to move in our lives, we will not receive any, neither will anyone else, but if we ask, if we pray God will not ignore our pleas, God will move! Lives change
-What is God’s will? Jesus told us quite simply, “may your will be done on earth as it is in heaven, God wants the things of heaven here on earth, love joy peace, wholeness, wisdom, health and all the other good promises we read of in the bible, these should be free to operate on earth, in your home, in Church, in your work, in your school.
That is our job here on earth, defeat the devil, live for God, this is normal for Christians, it is in our DNA, we have it from Jesus, He has defeated sin for us, so it is not a barrier, but he was completely dependent on the power of the Holy Spirit working through him, How dependent are we upon him for life? Trust in him, seek him, delight in him and discover what Jesus has in store for you!
John 11:17-27
“Is Jesus Only Future?”
DiagnosisA woman went to a walk-in clinic, where she was seen by a young, new doctor. After about three minutes in the examination room, the doctor told her she was pregnant. She burst out, screaming as she ran down the hall.An older doctor stopped her and asked what the problem was, and she told him what had happened. After listening, he had her sit down and relax in another exam room. The doctor marched down the hallway back to where the first doctor was and demanded, ‘What’s the matter with you? Mrs. Terry is 59 years old, has four grown children and seven grandchildren, and you told her she was PREGNANT?!’The young doctor continued to write on his clipboard, and without looking up, asked, ‘Does she still have the hiccups?’ You have power as well!
Jesus is in a conversation with Martha concerning the death of her brother Lazarus and the fact that she thought Jesus should have come sooner to help him, so perhaps he wouldn’t have died.
Jesus is saddened by the lack of understanding of who really gives life and when he gives it. By his words, he emphasizes the thought that resurrection is not just a future hope but also a present reality.
How often we live knowing the power of God to save us in the future but denying the power of God to carry us today. Paul emphasized this to the churches he visited, too:
Ephesians 1:19-20 “incomparable power working within you”
Colossians 2:13 “God has raised us to live an empowered, transformed life”
Romans 5:17 “raised up in Christ, he has given us the same authority, power”
We have a tendency to act like Martha, seeing resurrection life as only something future. Our faith is attacked on a regular basis to keep us in a fog about living the resurrection life now.
Lazarus came out as Jesus’ proof that he was the present day resurrection.
INTRO
My bottle goes when under pressure,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
-But as one writer put it—he collapsed like a cardboard wind tunnel
I would have wondered:
-God, where were you when I needed you?
All of us ask this question from time to time
Where were you? When my car decided to die?
-When my faith was put on the line, and I didn’t know what to say?
-When the world seemed to turn against me—and I needed to know you cared?
-When I lost my job, when depression struck
-When my loved one died
-In the story of John 11—Martha wondered, “Where were you?”
-Her brother Lazarus was dying
-They assumed Jesus would come immediately
-After all—Mary and Martha and Lazarus were like Jesus’ extended family
· -But Jesus did not come-read (verse 4-6) Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. Yet when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed where he was two more days
-The text could better read—
-Jesus loved Lazarus and Mary and Martha—“so then”—He stayed
-Makes you wonder if He did not like them what He would have done
-This is not making sense
-God is never late for appointments
But then—as in every story of Jesus
-Something is going on that goes beyond the layer of human comprehension
-Something bigger than our wants—something bigger than Lazarus
-Something even beyond the intellectual capacity of His disciples (verses 7-8)
-For them—it was—WHY WOULD YOU GO?
-But for Martha—it would soon be—WHY DID YOU STAY? (verses 17-21)
-You remember Martha—Mary is the stay at home type -the one in the living room, ministering to people-available when Jesus comes in to sit at His feet
-Martha is the one in the kitchen -preparing the food -Mashing the tatties
-Taking particular note of who has come—and Who has not
-And while she expressed faith in Jesus-one can hear a tone of slight disappointment-even accusation-at Jesus’ delay (verse 21)
-The language could fairly be translated this way—
-Lord-if you had been here (which you weren’t), my brother would not have died (which he did)
-This is a grieving person desperately wishing it could have been different
-Who in effect said-“Lord, you could have been here--should have been here”
-Because she knew Jesus could have healed her brother
But she did not give up on Jesus (verse 22)
-She knew that Jesus was intimately connected with the Father
-Jesus can do something—what it is—she is not sure
-Say a little prayer—“Father-receive Lazarus into Your care”
-Comfort hearts—Jesus was good at this
Jesus’ response offered no explanation for His delay
-Just a simple statement (verse 23) Jesus said to her, "Your brother will rise again."
-On the surface, these must have appeared as nice words
-Jesus does not tell Martha anything she did not know
-For most Jews believed in a future resurrection
-Your brother will rise again was like saying—we will see him in heaven
-It’s all “religiously correct” small talk
-We know what it sounds like—we’ve heard it often
-Words meant to fill the vacant space
-Comfort words
Martha was good at small talk as well (verse 24) Martha answered, "I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day."
But none of this probably addressed the profound disappointment Martha was feeling:
-In her mind—Jesus had missed a pastoral moment
Pastors are notorious for doing this
-Illustration-missed someone—I was there—but I wasn’t weeks later
-I would call—send cards—but she needed more than words—she needed my presence
-Grief had turned to anger—and I wasn’t there to listen
-I missed a pastoral moment
But this is not about Jesus failing at pastoral care
-Rather—it was all leading up to the pastoral moment Jesus had determined in eternity past for Martha (verses 25-26) Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?"
-Suddenly, Martha was pressed to a deeper level of discussion
-Martha—healing people is not My highest objective
-It’s not about your well being—but My glory
-Teaching you who I am is far more important
-And this is who I am—I am the resurrection and the life
-Jesus was shifting Martha from abstract belief to personal trust
-From doctrine to a Person
-Martha was suddenly confronted with how she perceived Jesus
And on the surface—it would appear Martha got it (verse 27) "Yes, Lord," she told him, "I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who was to come into the world
-She declared this creed like confession
-End of story—end of conversation—THE END!
But in truth—the conversation was not over
-Martha’s statement came up short--she didn’t really get it
-But then—neither did others (verse 32)
All of this moved Jesus (verses 33, 35, 38)
-A God who weeps when we weep
- God is not remote from our sufferings
-He is nearer than we are to ourselves
But that is not just what these words are saying
-These are words that mix grief with anger—outrage even
-Words that picture a soul in turmoil—gut wrenching emotion
-All chiseled down to two words—the shortest verse in the Bible—Jesus
WEPT
-The same language used when Jesus wept over Jerusalem
But what is Jesus grieving over—outraged over?
1) In part, this is Jesus standing before the door of death—grieving over the human condition
-And the devastation death brings
-Viewing it like a playground bully—interfering with the world as it should be
2) But more-this was Jesus grieving over a people who chose to be overcome by defeat rather than overwhelmed by His power
-Saddened, angered over those who refused to see Him for who He really was—and what He can really do
-That what He provides in the future—He can do in the present
-He could see in Martha—that despite this great confession of faith (verse 27)
-Still did not get it
-In fact—she is the first one to object over moving the stone
She believed in Jesus’ future work—but was not expecting anything in the present
APPLICATION
Could that be us?
-Like Martha—we too can declare our creed—but miss this—
-That the resurrection isn’t some distant truth—it is a present experience for every person in Christ
-With powerful implications
This seems to be the truth Paul wanted the church to get as much as any—
1) To the Ephesians:
-Eph 1:19-20-I pray that you might know the incomparable power working within you
-That experiencing His power and presence and wisdom be a daily reality—and not some mere future hope
2) To the Colossians:
-Col 2:13-God has raised us (now!)—that we might live an empowered, transformed life
-A life in which the Christlike life will eventually become more natural than an un-Christlike life
3) To the Romans
-Romans 5:17-because we are raised up in Christ (who has placed all things under His feet), He has given us the same authority, power to reign with Him
-He sits at the right hand of the father-transfusing us with His Spirit, adorning the church with gifts, restraining sin, holding all power in heaven and earth
-So that we might do even greater things because He has gone to the Father and sent His Spirit
So why is this missing so often in us?
1) In part because we make the same mistake of Martha—of seeing resurrection as something only future—when it is present
But living that way is like saying getting married means—
“Because I’ve given you this ring, you will be taken care of in retirement”
-No, there’s something to be experienced in the present
2) In part because we are in a war that chips away at our convictions, undermining our belief that God intends for us to live at this level
-A fog that keeps us from seeing who we really are—what we could really be—as people of the resurrection
Satan and his emissaries bank an awful lot of their work on the fact that Christians don’t know the power and authority we now have in Christ
-And keep them in the dark
-Deceiving them into seeing the spiritual life as all about forgiveness and grace—and not so much about empowered, Christlike living
SO WHAT’S NEEDED?
-Take Jesus’ resurrection power, authority seriously
-Quit settling for A LIFE OF RESIGNATION
-Assuming so little—domesticated faith, some ritual—
-Quit accepting life at ground level
live in the power!! We are to live the normal Christian life, you know what that is? To have an appetite for the impossible, In Redding California, a couple were having a wedding, they sent out buses to the neediest and poorest part of the city and invited the homeless and the poor to their wedding meal, on their gift list was not the usual, but coats, hats, gloves, sleeping bags for those in need, his name was Luke, he walked with difficulty, he wore braces on his arms, a brace around his neck, he had carpal tunnel syndrome, some people prayed for him, he felt the numbness and pain go, one leg was shorter than the other due to an accident and the surgeon repairing a break, they prayed the leg would grow and it did, as he stood he said “yes that is about right as if he was trying on a new pair of shoes, his limp was gone, he also had cancer, the muscles in his neck had gone, they prayed for his neck, commanding muscles to grow, when they finished he removed his brace, the lumps in his neck were gone, his doctor gave him a clean bill of health, the healings continued after the physical, he got a job for the first time in 17 years, Jesus heals the whole person.
-You know our problem? We do not expect, we assume little and receive little, the problem exists between our ears! A renewing of our mind is needed.
-God does not heal always he is sovereign, we do not know his plans, but you know what if we do not ask for the power of God to move in our lives, we will not receive any, neither will anyone else, but if we ask, if we pray God will not ignore our pleas, God will move! Lives change
-What is God’s will? Jesus told us quite simply, “may your will be done on earth as it is in heaven, God wants the things of heaven here on earth, love joy peace, wholeness, wisdom, health and all the other good promises we read of in the bible, these should be free to operate on earth, in your home, in Church, in your work, in your school.
That is our job here on earth, defeat the devil, live for God, this is normal for Christians, it is in our DNA, we have it from Jesus, He has defeated sin for us, so it is not a barrier, but he was completely dependent on the power of the Holy Spirit working through him, How dependent are we upon him for life? Trust in him, seek him, delight in him and discover what Jesus has in store for you!
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
a leader who gives life
Series: Conversations with Jesus
John 10:1-10
“A Leader Who Brings Life”
Here we have Jesus’ conversation with the Jewish leaders who were not leading their people in the right way. Today I have two key roles for leaders to
have, each one of you are leaders. Leaders are called to be gates for
those around them. John 10:1-10 the challenge of this passage was two-fold:
• Be the gate that protects the lives of those around you from predators and attacks.
• Be the gate that opens to new opportunities for all those who pass through it, not limiting but expanding options and skills, hopes and dreams
INTRO
After last weekend at Mandate I thought it might be good to describe the State of the British Man—according to a survey conducted by Beta Research and reported in an edition of Esquire magazine
- the average male is BROKE-but then we already know this
- men over 25 carry an average credit card debt of nearly 3300 dollars
- those under 25—carry a debt closer to 33 million
- men worry more about gaining weight than losing their career (which means there must be huge anxieties out there)
- a high percentage believe in God (78%)—this is the good news!
- but most (64%) never go to church—or go only on holidays—and that’s the tragic news
- 85% would rather be a CEO than a winner of the x factor
- most would rather be short, boring, rich—than tall, charismatic, and poor
- and most men—if they could have any guest at a party, would invite the following
four— Jesus, Bono, Bill Clinton and Ghandi
- but let me share a story with you of Mr Merv Grazinski, Mr Grazinski purchased a large Winnebago motor home, on his first trip home, having driven onto the freeway, he set the cruise control at 70 mph and calmly left the driver’s seat to go into the back and make himself a cup of coffee. Not surprisingly, he vehicle left the road, crashed and overturned. Mr Grazinski sued Winnebago for not advising him in the owner’s manual that he couldn’t actually do this. The jury awarded him just under 2 million dollars, plus a new motor home, the company actually changed their manuals on the basis of this suit, just in case there were other complete morons buying their recreation vehicles, sometimes men are idiots.
In John 10—Jesus had His own conversation with men
- those who were the leaders of His day
- the religious leaders of Israel to be precise - (John 10:1-10)
The first thing we notice is that He began the conversation in the abstract
- there is something cryptic going on
- such that John tells us those He conversed with had no idea what all of this had to do with anything
- they did not know, realize what He was saying—who He was saying it to
But then these words may be even more foreign to us
- we have not grown up with shepherds and sheep and pens and pastures and gates
a. our images of leadership are CEO’s running big corporations, presidents running banks, coaches leading teams
b. our images of gates are firewalls keeping viruses out, gates serving as security check points for those getting on a plane
c. our images of caring for animals are dogs and cats and pet lizards-not goat herds or flocks of sheep
But there is some common ground
- everything I have read about sheep suggests they are singularly unintelligent
- dense, stupid, dim, brainless
- prone to wander, get lost
- unable to find a sheep pen, even when it is within sight
- which sounds a lot like the long list of animals I have lived with
- especially our most recent dog Ruff—who has the IQ well below that of a flea
- and would not find our house if he was in the front garden
- who gives his best intellectual efforts to eating his own tail, Skip is another quality altogether, he could escape from Colditz if there was a biscuit on the other side of the wall.
What these leaders in John 10 missed was this
- Jesus was talking about them
- using the cryptic language of gates and watchmen and shepherds—
- Jesus was making this singular point—
THEY FAILED THEIR CALL TO BE LEADERS
- they missed this—that in pastoral terms—
LEADERS ARE CALLED TO BE GATES (verses 7-10)
- and gates do two things
A. GATES MUST PROTECT
- for gates are placed at the most vulnerable part of an enclosure
- the break in the wall
- those who are leaders position themselves at the entrance
- where there are gaps-where things are exposed
- standing, laying across the entry way if necessary
- positioning himself as protector-stopping sheep from getting out and predators from getting in
1. Jesus as the consummate leader identified Himself this way—I AM THE GATE
(verse 7)
- the sentry who positions his life between the flock and danger
2. in contrast—Jesus indicted Israel’s leaders for this—they were not gates
- rather the metaphors that applied to them were thieves, robbers- verse 8
- instead of serving as protectors—they were predators
- rather than preservers—they were pretenders
But leadership involves something else
- the other purpose gates serve
B. GATES MUST PROVIDE ENTRY INTO OPPORTUNITY
- it’s one thing to be a gate of protection—providing a secure pen
- but pens do not enable sheep to grow
- gates must swing the other direction—opening the sheep to the wild open fields
This is other side of leadership—leaders enable people to enter into the world
- they set free people to find pasture, luxurious forage, refreshment, satisfaction, freedom of movement
- “Effective leaders allow great people to do the work they were born to”
1. this is how Jesus described His purpose for coming
- to be the gate through which followers find pasture (a.k.a) life itself-vs 10b
- this theme is found everywhere in John
- 1:4-in Him was life-and this life was the light of men
- 5:40-come to Me and have life
- 6:48-I am the bread of life
- 7:38-whoever follows Me-streams of living water will flow from within
- here-He expands on the idea-life “to the full”
- life in all its fatness—life at its scarcely imagined best
- life that transcends time—that is everlasting—that does not have an expiry
date
- life that has eternal significance
- life that transcends our personal purposes
- life that takes on God like proportions
- life that “presses all the way in and all the way up to the ultimate purpose of
God—and joins Him in it”
2. Unfortunately—the leaders of Israel did just the opposite
- they were thieves who came to steal and kill and destroy-10a
- steal away peoples’ resources
- kill the spirit—kill passion and desire
- destroy life—the kind God intended
- rather than serve as gates that opened into pastures
- they constricted Israel to a pen of obligations
- they confined them to a maze of rules and regulations from which they could not find their way out
- created a religious establishment that drained the very life out of souls
In all of this—we hear a conversation that echoes one God had with leaders in the OT
- who failed their calling to be Israel’s watchmen
- who too were nothing less than frauds
- Isa 56:9-12-Israel’s watchmen are blind—they love to sleep—have all turned to their own way
- -Jer 23:1-4-woe to the shepherds who destroy the sheep
- -Ezekiel 34-woe to Israel’s leaders-who take care of only themselves—and scatter the sheep, leaving them to be plundered by the wild
APPLICATION
Jesus’ words in John 10 certainly have application to us
- male, female—young, old—called to this task of leadership—called to be gates
- outside of advancing God’s kingdom-nowhere is leadership more important than providing leadership to the next generation
- called to create “SPIRITUAL CHAMPIONS”
Unfortunately—we are not doing so well
We are all leaders, but a key to leadership is sacrifice, as Christians we lead the way God wants, people look to us to be light and salt in the world, from the leader of a nation to the parents of a family, the tribe is not there for the benefit of the chief, the chief is there to serve the tribe. God has given us authority, to devote our lives to leading well, Jesus sacrificed his life for you, and you have to sacrifice for others. You also have to listen, and be faithful and serve, even when it hurts. We always have the example of Jesus before us, when we follow his example when we turn to him, when we experience the life he has for us, others will see it and want him too, that is the core of what we are about. To follow Jesus and to lead others to be followers too.
A. BE THE GATE THAT PROTECTS
- the firewall of sorts
- for what has not changed from first century to 21st century
- is that our world is still filled with predators
- only they are much more subtle—they get past locked doors and closed windows
- thieves that aim to destroy our spirit
- robbers that want to steal our purity
- websites that want to corrupt our virtues
- pop culture that wants to coarsen souls
- cynicism that wants to deprive hope
- it’s critical to position ourselves at the gate
- not that we should be insulators—over-protection has its price
- but neither should we treat the world as if there is no evil, no threats
- to lay our lives down for others so that they may live.
B. BE THE GATE THAT LEADS TO OPPORTUNITIES
- that points the way, leads to wide open spaces
- introduces life
- for at the deepest level—people want to live—we all do
- many are bored—but few are content to merely exist, drift, take up space, fell they are just using up oxygen
- deeper than our instinct to live is our longing to be alive
- and it seems Christians are called, to point this way to life
- to ask—what makes you come alive?
- and help them get there--what one is destined for, created for
- In other words like the words of a Boy’s brigade camp grace “dear Lord do not make us like porridge which is difficult to stir and slow to serve. But more like corn flakes, crisp and fresh and ready to serve” Be the watchmen and the shepherds that God has called you to be, protect and serve, love and enable, love as Jesus has loved you.
John 10:1-10
“A Leader Who Brings Life”
Here we have Jesus’ conversation with the Jewish leaders who were not leading their people in the right way. Today I have two key roles for leaders to
have, each one of you are leaders. Leaders are called to be gates for
those around them. John 10:1-10 the challenge of this passage was two-fold:
• Be the gate that protects the lives of those around you from predators and attacks.
• Be the gate that opens to new opportunities for all those who pass through it, not limiting but expanding options and skills, hopes and dreams
INTRO
After last weekend at Mandate I thought it might be good to describe the State of the British Man—according to a survey conducted by Beta Research and reported in an edition of Esquire magazine
- the average male is BROKE-but then we already know this
- men over 25 carry an average credit card debt of nearly 3300 dollars
- those under 25—carry a debt closer to 33 million
- men worry more about gaining weight than losing their career (which means there must be huge anxieties out there)
- a high percentage believe in God (78%)—this is the good news!
- but most (64%) never go to church—or go only on holidays—and that’s the tragic news
- 85% would rather be a CEO than a winner of the x factor
- most would rather be short, boring, rich—than tall, charismatic, and poor
- and most men—if they could have any guest at a party, would invite the following
four— Jesus, Bono, Bill Clinton and Ghandi
- but let me share a story with you of Mr Merv Grazinski, Mr Grazinski purchased a large Winnebago motor home, on his first trip home, having driven onto the freeway, he set the cruise control at 70 mph and calmly left the driver’s seat to go into the back and make himself a cup of coffee. Not surprisingly, he vehicle left the road, crashed and overturned. Mr Grazinski sued Winnebago for not advising him in the owner’s manual that he couldn’t actually do this. The jury awarded him just under 2 million dollars, plus a new motor home, the company actually changed their manuals on the basis of this suit, just in case there were other complete morons buying their recreation vehicles, sometimes men are idiots.
In John 10—Jesus had His own conversation with men
- those who were the leaders of His day
- the religious leaders of Israel to be precise - (John 10:1-10)
The first thing we notice is that He began the conversation in the abstract
- there is something cryptic going on
- such that John tells us those He conversed with had no idea what all of this had to do with anything
- they did not know, realize what He was saying—who He was saying it to
But then these words may be even more foreign to us
- we have not grown up with shepherds and sheep and pens and pastures and gates
a. our images of leadership are CEO’s running big corporations, presidents running banks, coaches leading teams
b. our images of gates are firewalls keeping viruses out, gates serving as security check points for those getting on a plane
c. our images of caring for animals are dogs and cats and pet lizards-not goat herds or flocks of sheep
But there is some common ground
- everything I have read about sheep suggests they are singularly unintelligent
- dense, stupid, dim, brainless
- prone to wander, get lost
- unable to find a sheep pen, even when it is within sight
- which sounds a lot like the long list of animals I have lived with
- especially our most recent dog Ruff—who has the IQ well below that of a flea
- and would not find our house if he was in the front garden
- who gives his best intellectual efforts to eating his own tail, Skip is another quality altogether, he could escape from Colditz if there was a biscuit on the other side of the wall.
What these leaders in John 10 missed was this
- Jesus was talking about them
- using the cryptic language of gates and watchmen and shepherds—
- Jesus was making this singular point—
THEY FAILED THEIR CALL TO BE LEADERS
- they missed this—that in pastoral terms—
LEADERS ARE CALLED TO BE GATES (verses 7-10)
- and gates do two things
A. GATES MUST PROTECT
- for gates are placed at the most vulnerable part of an enclosure
- the break in the wall
- those who are leaders position themselves at the entrance
- where there are gaps-where things are exposed
- standing, laying across the entry way if necessary
- positioning himself as protector-stopping sheep from getting out and predators from getting in
1. Jesus as the consummate leader identified Himself this way—I AM THE GATE
(verse 7)
- the sentry who positions his life between the flock and danger
2. in contrast—Jesus indicted Israel’s leaders for this—they were not gates
- rather the metaphors that applied to them were thieves, robbers- verse 8
- instead of serving as protectors—they were predators
- rather than preservers—they were pretenders
But leadership involves something else
- the other purpose gates serve
B. GATES MUST PROVIDE ENTRY INTO OPPORTUNITY
- it’s one thing to be a gate of protection—providing a secure pen
- but pens do not enable sheep to grow
- gates must swing the other direction—opening the sheep to the wild open fields
This is other side of leadership—leaders enable people to enter into the world
- they set free people to find pasture, luxurious forage, refreshment, satisfaction, freedom of movement
- “Effective leaders allow great people to do the work they were born to”
1. this is how Jesus described His purpose for coming
- to be the gate through which followers find pasture (a.k.a) life itself-vs 10b
- this theme is found everywhere in John
- 1:4-in Him was life-and this life was the light of men
- 5:40-come to Me and have life
- 6:48-I am the bread of life
- 7:38-whoever follows Me-streams of living water will flow from within
- here-He expands on the idea-life “to the full”
- life in all its fatness—life at its scarcely imagined best
- life that transcends time—that is everlasting—that does not have an expiry
date
- life that has eternal significance
- life that transcends our personal purposes
- life that takes on God like proportions
- life that “presses all the way in and all the way up to the ultimate purpose of
God—and joins Him in it”
2. Unfortunately—the leaders of Israel did just the opposite
- they were thieves who came to steal and kill and destroy-10a
- steal away peoples’ resources
- kill the spirit—kill passion and desire
- destroy life—the kind God intended
- rather than serve as gates that opened into pastures
- they constricted Israel to a pen of obligations
- they confined them to a maze of rules and regulations from which they could not find their way out
- created a religious establishment that drained the very life out of souls
In all of this—we hear a conversation that echoes one God had with leaders in the OT
- who failed their calling to be Israel’s watchmen
- who too were nothing less than frauds
- Isa 56:9-12-Israel’s watchmen are blind—they love to sleep—have all turned to their own way
- -Jer 23:1-4-woe to the shepherds who destroy the sheep
- -Ezekiel 34-woe to Israel’s leaders-who take care of only themselves—and scatter the sheep, leaving them to be plundered by the wild
APPLICATION
Jesus’ words in John 10 certainly have application to us
- male, female—young, old—called to this task of leadership—called to be gates
- outside of advancing God’s kingdom-nowhere is leadership more important than providing leadership to the next generation
- called to create “SPIRITUAL CHAMPIONS”
Unfortunately—we are not doing so well
We are all leaders, but a key to leadership is sacrifice, as Christians we lead the way God wants, people look to us to be light and salt in the world, from the leader of a nation to the parents of a family, the tribe is not there for the benefit of the chief, the chief is there to serve the tribe. God has given us authority, to devote our lives to leading well, Jesus sacrificed his life for you, and you have to sacrifice for others. You also have to listen, and be faithful and serve, even when it hurts. We always have the example of Jesus before us, when we follow his example when we turn to him, when we experience the life he has for us, others will see it and want him too, that is the core of what we are about. To follow Jesus and to lead others to be followers too.
A. BE THE GATE THAT PROTECTS
- the firewall of sorts
- for what has not changed from first century to 21st century
- is that our world is still filled with predators
- only they are much more subtle—they get past locked doors and closed windows
- thieves that aim to destroy our spirit
- robbers that want to steal our purity
- websites that want to corrupt our virtues
- pop culture that wants to coarsen souls
- cynicism that wants to deprive hope
- it’s critical to position ourselves at the gate
- not that we should be insulators—over-protection has its price
- but neither should we treat the world as if there is no evil, no threats
- to lay our lives down for others so that they may live.
B. BE THE GATE THAT LEADS TO OPPORTUNITIES
- that points the way, leads to wide open spaces
- introduces life
- for at the deepest level—people want to live—we all do
- many are bored—but few are content to merely exist, drift, take up space, fell they are just using up oxygen
- deeper than our instinct to live is our longing to be alive
- and it seems Christians are called, to point this way to life
- to ask—what makes you come alive?
- and help them get there--what one is destined for, created for
- In other words like the words of a Boy’s brigade camp grace “dear Lord do not make us like porridge which is difficult to stir and slow to serve. But more like corn flakes, crisp and fresh and ready to serve” Be the watchmen and the shepherds that God has called you to be, protect and serve, love and enable, love as Jesus has loved you.
Thursday, November 20, 2008
“The Effect God Calls Us To Have In This World”
Series: Conversations with Jesus
John 9:1-41
“The Effect God Calls Us To Have In This World”
Tells the tragedy of a climber who recently became a part of the world’s highest graveyard, Mt Everest
- David Sharp, a teacher from England was almost at the summit, but fatigue and lack of oxygen began to take their toll on his body, leading to his death
- The real tragedy however was this, that some 40 climbers, in their dash to get to the top and get their trophy, passed the ailing climber without stopping to help
- As one coldly remarked, “He was effectively dead, so we carried on.”
- But one put it more correctly: “Me, I think some climbers’ sense of morality is effectively dead.”
It’s one story, but it is all too illustrative of the age in which we live
- That has lost its lines, its compass, its bearings, its ethics: ITS VIRTUES!
But it is hard to expect much more when we refuse to hold to absolute truths
- Which leads to the inevitable embrace of individualism, every man for himself
Illustration - Daughter’s graduation: class resolved to reject those who say there are absolutes
How does God speak to this?
- How did God speak to the darkness of His age?
- John 8:12 tells us that Jesus stood up and declared with stunning force “I AM
THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD.”
- And demonstrated it by entering into the world of a man who never saw light
- Who knew only darkness
- And gave this man sight
- And in the process confirmed the blindness of most everyone around him
- The neighbours who were not certain if they could really see, recognize who he was
- The parents, who were blind to what this formerly blind son needed them to be in the moment
- And worse of all, the Pharisees, the religious police
- Who supposedly had the light
- But were the blindest of all
- Who could see no further than the fact this happened on the
Sabbath (following on from what Bill spoke of last week)
- Could not see the hand of God in front of their faces
- And in the face of the blind man’s probing threw him out
- But Jesus is famous for tracking down rejected people (verse 35)
- You and I are testimonies of this (we have the good news stories, lives healed, restored forgiven)
- And He entered into a conversation
- “Do you believe?” (verse 35b)
- “Are you willing to put your trust in Me?”
- And the man who now could see, went on to see what most everyone else was blind to
- He saw God present and at work in his life
- He saw the Messiah face to face
- And so He received and worshiped Jesus (verse 38)
- Like lots of people today, he was done with traditional religion
- He was ready for something, someone authentic
- Ready to give his life to someone who sought and embraced him, and surely told him that He loved him
- People don’t bow down unless they know this
Illustration – novelist Donald Miller interviewed Toni Morrison
- Why she became a great writer
- Was it her method, structure, education?
- “I am a great writer because when I was a little girl and walked into a room, my father’s eyes would light up. That’s why. There is no other reason.”
- I think Jesus’ eyes lit up whenever He found the marginalized, when He found this man
- And then Jesus did a most amazing thing
- He ended the conversation with words that seem out of sync
- But then, it is the glory of Christ to be out of sync with the world
- “If He fit nicely, He would be of little use” - Piper (read verse 39)
- It is in these words we see the tough, blunt, fierce form of Jesus’ love
- In these, I hear Jesus telling the blind man why He has come
- He has come for him
- Because of his blindness, He exchanged eternity for time, heaven for a place
- But the softness of these words is matched by piercing words that declare “I have also come to blind”
- Which may offend our sensibilities
- They’re meant to!
- For these are words that correspond to the real world of full and disbelieving hearts
- These are words that reflect who Jesus is
- He is the Light, the Light of the whole world
- And it’s the nature of Light to divide, distinguish
- For when light enters the darkness, it can ATTRACT
- Opens our eyes, reveals what is really right side up and what is upside down
- But on the other hand, light can also REPEL
- Give offense
- For light penetrates and exposes, uncovers darkness, draws evil out of the shadows, exposes the foulness of all alternative kingdoms
- The result:
1) Either we will RUN TO HIM
- We will see our darkness, our desperate need, and cry out for
illumination
2) Or we will RUN AWAY FROM HIM
- We will see our darkness and will do everything to hide it
- In part because men by nature love darkness rather than light
(John 3:19)
- For light exposes what people refuse to see
- That only He can be the God of our lives, not us
- That there are absolute truths
- That there are ethics that transcend what we think they should be
- That God requires nothing less than a radical change
- That all of their righteous deeds amount to filthy rags
- This is why the Pharisees hated Jesus so much
- Like insects on a turned over rock, they were suddenly exposed
- He revealed their rotted goodness, the rags of their self-righteousness
- Their thinness, the religious veneer that covered their corrupted core
- Their hypocrisy, their orthodoxy vacant of orthopraxy
- Their blindness in contrast to their assumed illumination
- As McLaren puts it: “He violated their taboos (healing on the
Sabbath), honored their villains (the tax collectors and whores and sinners), and vilified their honorees (the scribes, the priests of the day).”
- He knew that for evil to do its worst, it must look its best
- So He exposed their treachery
- HE CAME TO MAKE ALL THE DISCTINCTIONS CLEAR
- And so their blood pressure rose, their fists were clenched
- And they rejected Him, like so many today
- Who are so certain they can see on their own
- Too arrogant to admit the depth of their blindness
- And in the process bring judgment upon themselves
- This is what Jesus was referring to in verse 39
- He came for the purpose of judgment
- He came to draw a line, shine the light
- And when men reject Him, they consign themselves to:
a. The judgment that comes from sin
- For when men refuse to let go of their sin,
God gives them over to themselves
- Over to the sins they will not let go of
- And the painful confusions and consequences sin serves up become somber prophecies of a greater judgment to come
b. The judgment that comes from a life of meaningless
- For when men disregard the Light, men settle for the darkness of emptiness and meaninglessness
- When they accept fate and chance rather than God, they settle for all the barrenness that comes with anything that assumes God’s place
- When we settle for a life void of God, and give it to things, to ourselves
- We can’t help but come to the point we ask ourselves whether anything really matters
c. The judgment that comes from an eternity apart from God
- An eternity of spiritual death rather than eternal life
- So what is Jesus saying in this conversation to us?
- To us who live in our own world of darkness?
- Perhaps it is something like this…
- If you are going to be a follower of Mine, faithful to truth, called to
be the light of the world YOU TOO WILL BE A DIVIDER
- You will attract or repel
- To some, they will see the light of our good works and praise God
- To others, the light that enlightens will blind
- As Paul said in 2 Corinthians 2:16, we are the aroma of Christ
- Meaning for one we will be the fragrance of life
- To another, we will be the smell of death
Point - This is the offensive nature of the gospel
- A genuine encounter with God will never leave a person neutral
- A genuine encounter with us who follow Jesus will force people to make a choice
- I’ve modified this a bit, but a prayer by Piper is so fitting
“Lord, thicken our skin. Not that we be less tender, but that we be less easily offended. Give us a passion for truth that is stronger than our desire to be liked.”
- Help us to be both tough and tender
- Guard us from words of condemnation, but don’t let us become so mushy we can’t speak a firm word in season
- Help us to be the Light of the world
John spoke about the man in this passage who knew all his life only darkness but then met the light of the world and He (Jesus) removes that darkness. He seeks out this marginalized person as He seeks us out and performs a miracle of grace upon him as He does with us.
What was Jesus’ purpose in leaving heaven? Verse 39 has a two-fold answer, to bring “sight” where needed and to bring “blindness” were wanted. The result is we either, run to Him with need and receive, or we run away from Him and reject the light.
A follower of Jesus will be a divider, too. We can’t live our life in shades of gray.
John 9:1-41
“The Effect God Calls Us To Have In This World”
Tells the tragedy of a climber who recently became a part of the world’s highest graveyard, Mt Everest
- David Sharp, a teacher from England was almost at the summit, but fatigue and lack of oxygen began to take their toll on his body, leading to his death
- The real tragedy however was this, that some 40 climbers, in their dash to get to the top and get their trophy, passed the ailing climber without stopping to help
- As one coldly remarked, “He was effectively dead, so we carried on.”
- But one put it more correctly: “Me, I think some climbers’ sense of morality is effectively dead.”
It’s one story, but it is all too illustrative of the age in which we live
- That has lost its lines, its compass, its bearings, its ethics: ITS VIRTUES!
But it is hard to expect much more when we refuse to hold to absolute truths
- Which leads to the inevitable embrace of individualism, every man for himself
Illustration - Daughter’s graduation: class resolved to reject those who say there are absolutes
How does God speak to this?
- How did God speak to the darkness of His age?
- John 8:12 tells us that Jesus stood up and declared with stunning force “I AM
THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD.”
- And demonstrated it by entering into the world of a man who never saw light
- Who knew only darkness
- And gave this man sight
- And in the process confirmed the blindness of most everyone around him
- The neighbours who were not certain if they could really see, recognize who he was
- The parents, who were blind to what this formerly blind son needed them to be in the moment
- And worse of all, the Pharisees, the religious police
- Who supposedly had the light
- But were the blindest of all
- Who could see no further than the fact this happened on the
Sabbath (following on from what Bill spoke of last week)
- Could not see the hand of God in front of their faces
- And in the face of the blind man’s probing threw him out
- But Jesus is famous for tracking down rejected people (verse 35)
- You and I are testimonies of this (we have the good news stories, lives healed, restored forgiven)
- And He entered into a conversation
- “Do you believe?” (verse 35b)
- “Are you willing to put your trust in Me?”
- And the man who now could see, went on to see what most everyone else was blind to
- He saw God present and at work in his life
- He saw the Messiah face to face
- And so He received and worshiped Jesus (verse 38)
- Like lots of people today, he was done with traditional religion
- He was ready for something, someone authentic
- Ready to give his life to someone who sought and embraced him, and surely told him that He loved him
- People don’t bow down unless they know this
Illustration – novelist Donald Miller interviewed Toni Morrison
- Why she became a great writer
- Was it her method, structure, education?
- “I am a great writer because when I was a little girl and walked into a room, my father’s eyes would light up. That’s why. There is no other reason.”
- I think Jesus’ eyes lit up whenever He found the marginalized, when He found this man
- And then Jesus did a most amazing thing
- He ended the conversation with words that seem out of sync
- But then, it is the glory of Christ to be out of sync with the world
- “If He fit nicely, He would be of little use” - Piper (read verse 39)
- It is in these words we see the tough, blunt, fierce form of Jesus’ love
- In these, I hear Jesus telling the blind man why He has come
- He has come for him
- Because of his blindness, He exchanged eternity for time, heaven for a place
- But the softness of these words is matched by piercing words that declare “I have also come to blind”
- Which may offend our sensibilities
- They’re meant to!
- For these are words that correspond to the real world of full and disbelieving hearts
- These are words that reflect who Jesus is
- He is the Light, the Light of the whole world
- And it’s the nature of Light to divide, distinguish
- For when light enters the darkness, it can ATTRACT
- Opens our eyes, reveals what is really right side up and what is upside down
- But on the other hand, light can also REPEL
- Give offense
- For light penetrates and exposes, uncovers darkness, draws evil out of the shadows, exposes the foulness of all alternative kingdoms
- The result:
1) Either we will RUN TO HIM
- We will see our darkness, our desperate need, and cry out for
illumination
2) Or we will RUN AWAY FROM HIM
- We will see our darkness and will do everything to hide it
- In part because men by nature love darkness rather than light
(John 3:19)
- For light exposes what people refuse to see
- That only He can be the God of our lives, not us
- That there are absolute truths
- That there are ethics that transcend what we think they should be
- That God requires nothing less than a radical change
- That all of their righteous deeds amount to filthy rags
- This is why the Pharisees hated Jesus so much
- Like insects on a turned over rock, they were suddenly exposed
- He revealed their rotted goodness, the rags of their self-righteousness
- Their thinness, the religious veneer that covered their corrupted core
- Their hypocrisy, their orthodoxy vacant of orthopraxy
- Their blindness in contrast to their assumed illumination
- As McLaren puts it: “He violated their taboos (healing on the
Sabbath), honored their villains (the tax collectors and whores and sinners), and vilified their honorees (the scribes, the priests of the day).”
- He knew that for evil to do its worst, it must look its best
- So He exposed their treachery
- HE CAME TO MAKE ALL THE DISCTINCTIONS CLEAR
- And so their blood pressure rose, their fists were clenched
- And they rejected Him, like so many today
- Who are so certain they can see on their own
- Too arrogant to admit the depth of their blindness
- And in the process bring judgment upon themselves
- This is what Jesus was referring to in verse 39
- He came for the purpose of judgment
- He came to draw a line, shine the light
- And when men reject Him, they consign themselves to:
a. The judgment that comes from sin
- For when men refuse to let go of their sin,
God gives them over to themselves
- Over to the sins they will not let go of
- And the painful confusions and consequences sin serves up become somber prophecies of a greater judgment to come
b. The judgment that comes from a life of meaningless
- For when men disregard the Light, men settle for the darkness of emptiness and meaninglessness
- When they accept fate and chance rather than God, they settle for all the barrenness that comes with anything that assumes God’s place
- When we settle for a life void of God, and give it to things, to ourselves
- We can’t help but come to the point we ask ourselves whether anything really matters
c. The judgment that comes from an eternity apart from God
- An eternity of spiritual death rather than eternal life
- So what is Jesus saying in this conversation to us?
- To us who live in our own world of darkness?
- Perhaps it is something like this…
- If you are going to be a follower of Mine, faithful to truth, called to
be the light of the world YOU TOO WILL BE A DIVIDER
- You will attract or repel
- To some, they will see the light of our good works and praise God
- To others, the light that enlightens will blind
- As Paul said in 2 Corinthians 2:16, we are the aroma of Christ
- Meaning for one we will be the fragrance of life
- To another, we will be the smell of death
Point - This is the offensive nature of the gospel
- A genuine encounter with God will never leave a person neutral
- A genuine encounter with us who follow Jesus will force people to make a choice
- I’ve modified this a bit, but a prayer by Piper is so fitting
“Lord, thicken our skin. Not that we be less tender, but that we be less easily offended. Give us a passion for truth that is stronger than our desire to be liked.”
- Help us to be both tough and tender
- Guard us from words of condemnation, but don’t let us become so mushy we can’t speak a firm word in season
- Help us to be the Light of the world
John spoke about the man in this passage who knew all his life only darkness but then met the light of the world and He (Jesus) removes that darkness. He seeks out this marginalized person as He seeks us out and performs a miracle of grace upon him as He does with us.
What was Jesus’ purpose in leaving heaven? Verse 39 has a two-fold answer, to bring “sight” where needed and to bring “blindness” were wanted. The result is we either, run to Him with need and receive, or we run away from Him and reject the light.
A follower of Jesus will be a divider, too. We can’t live our life in shades of gray.
Saturday, November 01, 2008
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
free of charge!
1
Series: Conversations with Jesus
John 7:53-8:11
“Free of Charge”
Of Human Bondage is the story of Philip Carey
- A sensitive boy born with a clubfoot, a deformity where the foot is turned to the side - At nine years of age, Philip entered King’s School in Tercanbury, and soon discovered it was less a school of education and more a house of torment
- For his foot fascinated the other students - Turned them into mimics and voyeurs - On his second day, the kids played a game called ‘pig in the middle’ during recess - A game that called for one to roam the field, tagging the boys who dashed across, and Philip was the pig - Philip tried miserably to tag them, but they were too quick and he was too clumsy - Soon the other boys started clumping exaggeratingly across the playground, both mocking and eluding Philip
- Limping and hooting - While a sense of deep shame raged in Philip’s soul
Shame is something we all have some experience in
- Either as givers or receivers of shame.
- When I was in high school, shame set its sights on the one who smelled, who looked differently, who wasn’t as bright as the rest.
In the conversation in John 8:1-11, Jesus confronted shame Jesus has a conversation with “a woman caught in adultery.” In response to her sin, Jesus neither condones nor condemns her, but rather extends His grace and mercy which changes her life. His loving response to this woman provides us with lessons for our lives and for how we respond to those around us.
- This is a conversation our culture, and all too many churches, largely stripped of grace, needs to hear
- The first thing we notice is that it is a story looking for a context
- Many question whether it belongs here in John
- For it is absent in some of the earliest manuscripts
- But most believe it is a story that most likely happened
- And one could say its context is the whole of the gospels
- The whole of Scripture
- For Scripture is the story of the grace of God
- Verse 2 tells us it was dawn, and Jesus was in the temple and people kept coming to Him
- The tense is intentional; His message drew people such that they kept coming even at the break of day
- But suddenly this pastoral care was disrupted by those who hated Jesus
- A young woman, most likely a teenager was forcibly brought in
- Their motives were obvious, their intent was to shame her, EXPOSE HER
- Hence the terms “made to stand in their midst”
- Suddenly, what was done in the privacy of a bedroom was undraped before the community
- Like a tree stripped of its bark, she was there for all to see inside
- And she most likely felt shame
- All of us have felt the disgrace of shame
- Either because of sin or shortcomings
- Shame comes pretty naturally, even without the help of others
- Shame, after all, was the first expression of sin
- Adam and Eve were naked and NOT ASHAMED
- But with the advent of sin, a sense of disgrace took hold
- Adam and Eve wanted to hide
- And we have been hiding ever since, covering up for the shame we feel over moral failure
- Shame for not being clever enough, rich enough, accomplished enough
- For being too fat for being too thin
- Shame for not being attractive enough
Illustration – Robbie covered up the fact he had lost his hair with an expensive toupee
- Tragically, when he came down with cancer, he accepted no visitors in the hospital
- For he felt shame over his appearance
- Some feel shame for being smaller than others, for not having good social skills
- Shame that we have lost our job
- Shame that our children aren’t as able as others
- That our car isn’t as big and flash like others
- Shame for being adopted, divorced, used-up, hurt by another
- But in this story, it was less about the shame she put on herself
- More about the shame a graceless religious system heaped upon her
- Their intent was to see her pay for her sins
- After all, they were called to carry out the law (even though what they were doing was illegal, where was the man?)
- “If a man is found sleeping with another man’s wife-both the man and woman must die” (Deuteronomy 22:22)
- Adultery is was, and always has been, viewed as a very serious act
- But verse 6 tells us it went deeper
- It wasn’t so much an act against her, as it was an act against Jesus
- A trap
- A determination to “speak against”, accuse, SHAME Jesus!
- Hoist Him upon the horns of a dilemma
A) If Jesus opposed stoning, He would be viewed as soft on the law, ignoring the law, opposing the law, OPPOSING MOSES, shame on you!
B) If Jesus favored judgment, He would have been accused of OPPOSING ROME
- Usurping Roman law which did not permit execution by subject peoples
- A thousand shames on you!!!!
- People love to shame
- We live in a culture stripped of grace
- Kerry Katona, drunk on this morning ashamed of themselves, rather than care for her
- Daily papers, celebrities should be ashamed of themselves
- Some would say all of us should be ashamed
- But the worst shamers are the religious
- There is something about religion that, like milk, can eventually turn sour
- Over time, these expositors of the laws of God, allowed their learning to curdle into pride
- Their passion for obedience turned into disdain towards those less devout
- Over time, their belief system mutated into a smug superiority
- Over time, they descended from the high calling as spiritual shepherds to become religious police
- Religion requires but grace enables (repeat)
- So Jesus had a conversation that began with words in the sand (verse 6b) EXPAND
- Writing their sins? Asking, “Where’s the man?”
- Doodling, treating their question with the contempt it deserved?
- While we are not certain what He wrote, it is clear what He said (verse 7)
- Words that unnerved them, caused them to drop their stones and leave
- But why?
- The law never made sinless perfection a condition for casting stones
- Something else had to be at work here, and maybe it was this…
- That while Jesus emptied Himself of the divine
- Stuffed His divine life into the cramped space of a human one
- There were moments when the divine burst out
- He walked on water
- He stilled the storms
- And here, maybe it was something just as powerful
- HE LOOKED INTO MAN
- With a piercing look that went all the way in, not a look that could kill, but look that pierced their hearts.
- A force of both mercy and righteousness
- Such that they suddenly saw their own nakedness
- Suddenly they recognized their own adultery
- They were the ones committing the greatest unfaithfulness of all
- They had left their first love of God and got in bed with religion
- Left the essence of what ministry is about, extending His love and mercy to others to enter the work of stone throwing
- In all of this, they forgot they were supposed to be in the life saving business
- With their departure, Jesus turned to the woman
- And lifted her shame, drew her out of the depths to the heights of forgiveness and called her to live as God had designed her to live
- Jesus told Peter how he would die, saying it would never happen again, I think this is what Jesus calls out to this woman, I think this is what God is calling to us, do not let your history be your future…………….(seek response)
In this conversation, I hear Jesus asking you and me some hard questions
1) ARE WE AWARE OF OUR OWN BROKENNESS?
- Our own tendency to be deceived
- To grow a Pharisaic layer that joins with an already inbred human tendency to be judgmental, condemning, disapproving
- We begin to believe we are better than we are
- Begin to have our own disdain towards those less than us for those who are different
- Use letters to editors/blogs to rant/judge others, condemn others, and discount others
- Use the phone to talk about the shortcomings of others, someone’s marriage which isn’t working
- The pew to exclude those different from us
- And over time, we forget that we too are broken people as well, we need grace, EXPAND but also need to be wells of grace (bill’s bucket/dead sea)
Here’s a second question
2) ARE THE BROKEN WELCOME HERE?
- Would they find grace here, or condemnation?
- I’m pretty sure most driving down Eskbank road would be pretty convinced they are not welcome, unless they got a lot of things right first
- This is the reputation of the church, every church
Illustration: In one episode of “The Simpsons”
- Homer sees his born again neighbour, Maude Flanders and says, “Hey, I haven’t seen you in a couple of weeks. Where have you been?”
- Maude replies, “I’ve been away at Bible camp, learning to be more judgmental.”
- The church is pretty good at creating stone throwers, can we not be grace givers?
- Jesus is asking: Are we holding any stones in our hands, or are we utilizing our greatest asset, GRACE? Gal 2:20
- For the world is full of hurting people
- Especially an emerging generation where:
- 1 of 3 have had an abortion
-1 of 6 have been sexually molested
- Most have been sexually active prior to marriage
- Most men struggle with pornography
- These are the people Christ came to seek and save
- And calls the church to do the same, to step out, invite people in, care for them in the name of Jesus
- To stand up and take a huge step of faith, not to build a museum for the saints, but a hospital for sinners
- And the only way that will happen is if in this world of hurting people
- They will come here and find:
- That this is a place where failure connects with grace
- That this is not a place for perfect people
- That it is place to “come as you are”
- That there is a rule here, where no one is allowed to have stones in their hands
- But it must start in our hearts
- In our homes
- Will you put this on your prayer list?
- “Lord, take any stones out of my hands?”
Series: Conversations with Jesus
John 7:53-8:11
“Free of Charge”
Of Human Bondage is the story of Philip Carey
- A sensitive boy born with a clubfoot, a deformity where the foot is turned to the side - At nine years of age, Philip entered King’s School in Tercanbury, and soon discovered it was less a school of education and more a house of torment
- For his foot fascinated the other students - Turned them into mimics and voyeurs - On his second day, the kids played a game called ‘pig in the middle’ during recess - A game that called for one to roam the field, tagging the boys who dashed across, and Philip was the pig - Philip tried miserably to tag them, but they were too quick and he was too clumsy - Soon the other boys started clumping exaggeratingly across the playground, both mocking and eluding Philip
- Limping and hooting - While a sense of deep shame raged in Philip’s soul
Shame is something we all have some experience in
- Either as givers or receivers of shame.
- When I was in high school, shame set its sights on the one who smelled, who looked differently, who wasn’t as bright as the rest.
In the conversation in John 8:1-11, Jesus confronted shame Jesus has a conversation with “a woman caught in adultery.” In response to her sin, Jesus neither condones nor condemns her, but rather extends His grace and mercy which changes her life. His loving response to this woman provides us with lessons for our lives and for how we respond to those around us.
- This is a conversation our culture, and all too many churches, largely stripped of grace, needs to hear
- The first thing we notice is that it is a story looking for a context
- Many question whether it belongs here in John
- For it is absent in some of the earliest manuscripts
- But most believe it is a story that most likely happened
- And one could say its context is the whole of the gospels
- The whole of Scripture
- For Scripture is the story of the grace of God
- Verse 2 tells us it was dawn, and Jesus was in the temple and people kept coming to Him
- The tense is intentional; His message drew people such that they kept coming even at the break of day
- But suddenly this pastoral care was disrupted by those who hated Jesus
- A young woman, most likely a teenager was forcibly brought in
- Their motives were obvious, their intent was to shame her, EXPOSE HER
- Hence the terms “made to stand in their midst”
- Suddenly, what was done in the privacy of a bedroom was undraped before the community
- Like a tree stripped of its bark, she was there for all to see inside
- And she most likely felt shame
- All of us have felt the disgrace of shame
- Either because of sin or shortcomings
- Shame comes pretty naturally, even without the help of others
- Shame, after all, was the first expression of sin
- Adam and Eve were naked and NOT ASHAMED
- But with the advent of sin, a sense of disgrace took hold
- Adam and Eve wanted to hide
- And we have been hiding ever since, covering up for the shame we feel over moral failure
- Shame for not being clever enough, rich enough, accomplished enough
- For being too fat for being too thin
- Shame for not being attractive enough
Illustration – Robbie covered up the fact he had lost his hair with an expensive toupee
- Tragically, when he came down with cancer, he accepted no visitors in the hospital
- For he felt shame over his appearance
- Some feel shame for being smaller than others, for not having good social skills
- Shame that we have lost our job
- Shame that our children aren’t as able as others
- That our car isn’t as big and flash like others
- Shame for being adopted, divorced, used-up, hurt by another
- But in this story, it was less about the shame she put on herself
- More about the shame a graceless religious system heaped upon her
- Their intent was to see her pay for her sins
- After all, they were called to carry out the law (even though what they were doing was illegal, where was the man?)
- “If a man is found sleeping with another man’s wife-both the man and woman must die” (Deuteronomy 22:22)
- Adultery is was, and always has been, viewed as a very serious act
- But verse 6 tells us it went deeper
- It wasn’t so much an act against her, as it was an act against Jesus
- A trap
- A determination to “speak against”, accuse, SHAME Jesus!
- Hoist Him upon the horns of a dilemma
A) If Jesus opposed stoning, He would be viewed as soft on the law, ignoring the law, opposing the law, OPPOSING MOSES, shame on you!
B) If Jesus favored judgment, He would have been accused of OPPOSING ROME
- Usurping Roman law which did not permit execution by subject peoples
- A thousand shames on you!!!!
- People love to shame
- We live in a culture stripped of grace
- Kerry Katona, drunk on this morning ashamed of themselves, rather than care for her
- Daily papers, celebrities should be ashamed of themselves
- Some would say all of us should be ashamed
- But the worst shamers are the religious
- There is something about religion that, like milk, can eventually turn sour
- Over time, these expositors of the laws of God, allowed their learning to curdle into pride
- Their passion for obedience turned into disdain towards those less devout
- Over time, their belief system mutated into a smug superiority
- Over time, they descended from the high calling as spiritual shepherds to become religious police
- Religion requires but grace enables (repeat)
- So Jesus had a conversation that began with words in the sand (verse 6b) EXPAND
- Writing their sins? Asking, “Where’s the man?”
- Doodling, treating their question with the contempt it deserved?
- While we are not certain what He wrote, it is clear what He said (verse 7)
- Words that unnerved them, caused them to drop their stones and leave
- But why?
- The law never made sinless perfection a condition for casting stones
- Something else had to be at work here, and maybe it was this…
- That while Jesus emptied Himself of the divine
- Stuffed His divine life into the cramped space of a human one
- There were moments when the divine burst out
- He walked on water
- He stilled the storms
- And here, maybe it was something just as powerful
- HE LOOKED INTO MAN
- With a piercing look that went all the way in, not a look that could kill, but look that pierced their hearts.
- A force of both mercy and righteousness
- Such that they suddenly saw their own nakedness
- Suddenly they recognized their own adultery
- They were the ones committing the greatest unfaithfulness of all
- They had left their first love of God and got in bed with religion
- Left the essence of what ministry is about, extending His love and mercy to others to enter the work of stone throwing
- In all of this, they forgot they were supposed to be in the life saving business
- With their departure, Jesus turned to the woman
- And lifted her shame, drew her out of the depths to the heights of forgiveness and called her to live as God had designed her to live
- Jesus told Peter how he would die, saying it would never happen again, I think this is what Jesus calls out to this woman, I think this is what God is calling to us, do not let your history be your future…………….(seek response)
In this conversation, I hear Jesus asking you and me some hard questions
1) ARE WE AWARE OF OUR OWN BROKENNESS?
- Our own tendency to be deceived
- To grow a Pharisaic layer that joins with an already inbred human tendency to be judgmental, condemning, disapproving
- We begin to believe we are better than we are
- Begin to have our own disdain towards those less than us for those who are different
- Use letters to editors/blogs to rant/judge others, condemn others, and discount others
- Use the phone to talk about the shortcomings of others, someone’s marriage which isn’t working
- The pew to exclude those different from us
- And over time, we forget that we too are broken people as well, we need grace, EXPAND but also need to be wells of grace (bill’s bucket/dead sea)
Here’s a second question
2) ARE THE BROKEN WELCOME HERE?
- Would they find grace here, or condemnation?
- I’m pretty sure most driving down Eskbank road would be pretty convinced they are not welcome, unless they got a lot of things right first
- This is the reputation of the church, every church
Illustration: In one episode of “The Simpsons”
- Homer sees his born again neighbour, Maude Flanders and says, “Hey, I haven’t seen you in a couple of weeks. Where have you been?”
- Maude replies, “I’ve been away at Bible camp, learning to be more judgmental.”
- The church is pretty good at creating stone throwers, can we not be grace givers?
- Jesus is asking: Are we holding any stones in our hands, or are we utilizing our greatest asset, GRACE? Gal 2:20
- For the world is full of hurting people
- Especially an emerging generation where:
- 1 of 3 have had an abortion
-1 of 6 have been sexually molested
- Most have been sexually active prior to marriage
- Most men struggle with pornography
- These are the people Christ came to seek and save
- And calls the church to do the same, to step out, invite people in, care for them in the name of Jesus
- To stand up and take a huge step of faith, not to build a museum for the saints, but a hospital for sinners
- And the only way that will happen is if in this world of hurting people
- They will come here and find:
- That this is a place where failure connects with grace
- That this is not a place for perfect people
- That it is place to “come as you are”
- That there is a rule here, where no one is allowed to have stones in their hands
- But it must start in our hearts
- In our homes
- Will you put this on your prayer list?
- “Lord, take any stones out of my hands?”
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
does your life matter?
Series: Conversations with Jesus
John 7:1-13
19th oct 2008
“Does Your Life Matter?”
John Piper, in his book Don’t Waste Your Life, tells of a time he came across an old
poem he had written in high school
- Next to it was drawn an old man in a rocking chair, and then these words
- “Long I sought for the earth’s hidden meaning
Long as a youth was my search in vain
Now as I approach my last years waning
My search I must begin again”
He wrote it, in his youth, as a description of the worst thing imaginable
- To come to the end of life and realize that everything you have given yourself to
was false
- To come to your last years and realize you have wasted them
- Devoted yourself to that which amounts to nothing more than a grain of sand in
the Sahara, a cup of water in the Pacific
- And must search again!
- To put it in other words, waited for all of life for your ship to come in and realize
you were standing at the wrong dock
- Every now and then, one can hear God whisper the same words: “Don’t waste
your life!”
- Only one life to offer
- Life is not a dress rehearsal
- “Do not run like a man running aimlessly” - Paul (I Corinthians 9)
- “Press on to lay hold of why God laid hold of you” (Philippians 3)
- “Redeem the time, the days are evil.” (Ephesians 5)
- It’s what I hear in the conversation in John 7
- Like every conversation that John records, it is set within a context
(verses 1-2)
- Jesus remains, where He has been rejected
- Steers clear of where others want to take His life
- Maybe His siblings began to think He needed direction
- So they speak to Him
- It’s hard to know what this relationship must have been like
- What happens when you live with a brother who has never done
anything wrong
- Never got home late and lied about it
- Never lost an argument
- Always brought home the correct change from the store
- Always kept his room neat, never talked back to mom and dad
- Living with Him, you never heard the words “Give it back to
her; Don’t talk to your brother that way; You will sit here until you
finish what is on your plate.”
- Always-outstanding parents evenings
- Never impulsive, selfish, lazy
- Family devotions: “Dad, that’s really not what that text is saying.”
- There was nothing but consistency, while for His brothers, their only
consistency was their inconsistency
- It had to work on them, they weren’t perfect they never could be, they had no time for him.
- And so it seemed natural to say what lots of brothers say to brothers:
“You ought to leave.” (Verses 3-4)
- They had their reasons, as is stated in the text
1) GO! Get your disciples back (verse 3b)
- Give them a fresh view of your works
- Use the holiday in Jerusalem to re-establish your reputation, get your street cred back
- Reverse your fortunes, retrieve your popularity, and reclaim your fed up followers
2) DEPART! Make a name (verse 4)
- If you hope to gain popularity, it’s important to not be so cryptic. Time to go public.
- Get out of Dalkeith. You gotta go to London if you hope to be noticed
- Galilee is nowhere; get to Jerusalem that is where you will get the fame!
- No one who seeks to be public, literally “seeks to be bold,” stays behind the scenes
- In other words, “Don’t be a wimp, BROTHER!”
- Time to get hold of yourself, sort yourself out
- And John tells us why (verse 5) they say these things
- They did not believe, well maybe a little, not a lot! But they were rejecting Him
- And so, maybe their motives were even darker
3) GO! And get out of our lives
- For Jesus had become too uncomfortable to live with
- Was viewed, in fact, as a mental case (Mark 3:21)
- What would Jesus say? How does He respond to their words?
- My first guess would be something like this…
- IT’S NOT YOUR PLACE
- To tell Me what my life should do
- A point Jesus made to another family member, his mother Mary, in His conversation with her (John 2)
- Jesus will not be dictated by anyone’s expectations, or timetable
-He does not need the advice and coaching of others
- He will not play the crowd to satisfy His brothers. If He goes to Jerusalem, it will be on His own terms, for His own purposes, in His own time
- And when He chooses to reveal Himself, it will not be in spectacular miracles, but in the disgrace and shame of the Cross
- But Jesus, instead, focused on something else
- It was a different kind of rebuke (verses 6-8)
- LIVE TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE
- Don’t waste your life
- Don’t let your years be inconsequential
- And here’s how
1) LIVE A LIFE THAT IS DELIBERATE
- Make your time matter
- When Jesus said, the right time, the suitable time, the kairos (God-appointed moment) HAD NOT ARRIVED he was declaring that He lived according to an intentional, purposeful plan
- A time frame determined by the will of the Father
- A theme running through John
- “No one laid a hand on Him. His hour was not yet.” (John 7:30)
- “His time had not yet come.” (John 8:20)
- “For this reason I came to this hour.” (John 12:27)
- All of which demanded careful steps—TIMING, careful timing, God’s timing
- In contrast, time for His brothers had no purpose
- For them, time was theirs to own
- The time was always there, always possible
- “Your time is always here because your lives have no reference to a divine plan.”
- “Your timetables are not regulated by any sense of God’s will.”
- They are determined merely by your own will, small as that is
- And so, your actions means nothing
- It has no consequence to anything until you realize you were made by
God, for God, to live for God
- Until then, “any time will do.” AND ALL OF LIFE WILL BE WASTED
- The second way to avoid wasting your time is to
2) LIVE A LIFE THAT CHANGES THE WORLD
A) For Jesus it meant entering this fallen world to shape its culture
- Expose the evil the kingdom of this world
- Draw it out of its shadows and into the light
- So that it can be named, rejected, and banished
- Sometimes, He directly confronted it, as when He disrupted temple protocols, went into the temple and called the religious leaders hypocrites to their faces, wolves disguised as sheep
- Told the religious leaders that little children understand more than they do
- Healed on the Sabbath to expose their heartless religion
- “In all of this, Jesus represented a counterforce, a countermovement, a counter-kingdom that will confront all corrupt human regimes, exposing them, naming them, and showing them for what they really are.”
- And because of this, He was a magnet for opposition
B) In contrast, for His brothers, who chose a path of unbelief, they consequently believed in nothing, did not take a stand on anything
- Accommodated rather than lived to shape the world
- And so the world did not hate them
- Could not hate them, for the world does not hate its own
- Jesus in effect said, “Do whatever you wish, your decisions have no significance.”
- They make no difference - they CHANGE
NOTHING!
- But if you want to follow Me, you will make a difference
- So what is He saying to us? Don’t waste your life.
1) BE DELIBERATE
- Treat time as part of God’s intentional plan
- Treat the moments as fulfilling God’s purpose
- That defines all of our parameters: when we go, when we stay
- If we’re committed to the important, we’ll avoid the trivial (which always takes up our time
- If we seize it, see the moments presented by God; it will not come under the influence of others
- Will not change that which is immediate, visible, popular, but what is vital
- You will build the kingdom
2) CHANGE YOUR WORLD
- Engage in our mission to reach the lost
- Be prophetic
- Protest the pollution of this world (I don’t just mean physically, spiritually as well)
- Be the light that exposes the darkness
- Such that your life will be neither marginal, nondescript, inconsequential, wasted
- And if we are hated for it, well so what? we will have joined great company
- As Jesus would later say, “If they hated Me, they will hate you.”
DON’T WASTE YOUR LIFE
John 7:1-13
19th oct 2008
“Does Your Life Matter?”
John Piper, in his book Don’t Waste Your Life, tells of a time he came across an old
poem he had written in high school
- Next to it was drawn an old man in a rocking chair, and then these words
- “Long I sought for the earth’s hidden meaning
Long as a youth was my search in vain
Now as I approach my last years waning
My search I must begin again”
He wrote it, in his youth, as a description of the worst thing imaginable
- To come to the end of life and realize that everything you have given yourself to
was false
- To come to your last years and realize you have wasted them
- Devoted yourself to that which amounts to nothing more than a grain of sand in
the Sahara, a cup of water in the Pacific
- And must search again!
- To put it in other words, waited for all of life for your ship to come in and realize
you were standing at the wrong dock
- Every now and then, one can hear God whisper the same words: “Don’t waste
your life!”
- Only one life to offer
- Life is not a dress rehearsal
- “Do not run like a man running aimlessly” - Paul (I Corinthians 9)
- “Press on to lay hold of why God laid hold of you” (Philippians 3)
- “Redeem the time, the days are evil.” (Ephesians 5)
- It’s what I hear in the conversation in John 7
- Like every conversation that John records, it is set within a context
(verses 1-2)
- Jesus remains, where He has been rejected
- Steers clear of where others want to take His life
- Maybe His siblings began to think He needed direction
- So they speak to Him
- It’s hard to know what this relationship must have been like
- What happens when you live with a brother who has never done
anything wrong
- Never got home late and lied about it
- Never lost an argument
- Always brought home the correct change from the store
- Always kept his room neat, never talked back to mom and dad
- Living with Him, you never heard the words “Give it back to
her; Don’t talk to your brother that way; You will sit here until you
finish what is on your plate.”
- Always-outstanding parents evenings
- Never impulsive, selfish, lazy
- Family devotions: “Dad, that’s really not what that text is saying.”
- There was nothing but consistency, while for His brothers, their only
consistency was their inconsistency
- It had to work on them, they weren’t perfect they never could be, they had no time for him.
- And so it seemed natural to say what lots of brothers say to brothers:
“You ought to leave.” (Verses 3-4)
- They had their reasons, as is stated in the text
1) GO! Get your disciples back (verse 3b)
- Give them a fresh view of your works
- Use the holiday in Jerusalem to re-establish your reputation, get your street cred back
- Reverse your fortunes, retrieve your popularity, and reclaim your fed up followers
2) DEPART! Make a name (verse 4)
- If you hope to gain popularity, it’s important to not be so cryptic. Time to go public.
- Get out of Dalkeith. You gotta go to London if you hope to be noticed
- Galilee is nowhere; get to Jerusalem that is where you will get the fame!
- No one who seeks to be public, literally “seeks to be bold,” stays behind the scenes
- In other words, “Don’t be a wimp, BROTHER!”
- Time to get hold of yourself, sort yourself out
- And John tells us why (verse 5) they say these things
- They did not believe, well maybe a little, not a lot! But they were rejecting Him
- And so, maybe their motives were even darker
3) GO! And get out of our lives
- For Jesus had become too uncomfortable to live with
- Was viewed, in fact, as a mental case (Mark 3:21)
- What would Jesus say? How does He respond to their words?
- My first guess would be something like this…
- IT’S NOT YOUR PLACE
- To tell Me what my life should do
- A point Jesus made to another family member, his mother Mary, in His conversation with her (John 2)
- Jesus will not be dictated by anyone’s expectations, or timetable
-He does not need the advice and coaching of others
- He will not play the crowd to satisfy His brothers. If He goes to Jerusalem, it will be on His own terms, for His own purposes, in His own time
- And when He chooses to reveal Himself, it will not be in spectacular miracles, but in the disgrace and shame of the Cross
- But Jesus, instead, focused on something else
- It was a different kind of rebuke (verses 6-8)
- LIVE TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE
- Don’t waste your life
- Don’t let your years be inconsequential
- And here’s how
1) LIVE A LIFE THAT IS DELIBERATE
- Make your time matter
- When Jesus said, the right time, the suitable time, the kairos (God-appointed moment) HAD NOT ARRIVED he was declaring that He lived according to an intentional, purposeful plan
- A time frame determined by the will of the Father
- A theme running through John
- “No one laid a hand on Him. His hour was not yet.” (John 7:30)
- “His time had not yet come.” (John 8:20)
- “For this reason I came to this hour.” (John 12:27)
- All of which demanded careful steps—TIMING, careful timing, God’s timing
- In contrast, time for His brothers had no purpose
- For them, time was theirs to own
- The time was always there, always possible
- “Your time is always here because your lives have no reference to a divine plan.”
- “Your timetables are not regulated by any sense of God’s will.”
- They are determined merely by your own will, small as that is
- And so, your actions means nothing
- It has no consequence to anything until you realize you were made by
God, for God, to live for God
- Until then, “any time will do.” AND ALL OF LIFE WILL BE WASTED
- The second way to avoid wasting your time is to
2) LIVE A LIFE THAT CHANGES THE WORLD
A) For Jesus it meant entering this fallen world to shape its culture
- Expose the evil the kingdom of this world
- Draw it out of its shadows and into the light
- So that it can be named, rejected, and banished
- Sometimes, He directly confronted it, as when He disrupted temple protocols, went into the temple and called the religious leaders hypocrites to their faces, wolves disguised as sheep
- Told the religious leaders that little children understand more than they do
- Healed on the Sabbath to expose their heartless religion
- “In all of this, Jesus represented a counterforce, a countermovement, a counter-kingdom that will confront all corrupt human regimes, exposing them, naming them, and showing them for what they really are.”
- And because of this, He was a magnet for opposition
B) In contrast, for His brothers, who chose a path of unbelief, they consequently believed in nothing, did not take a stand on anything
- Accommodated rather than lived to shape the world
- And so the world did not hate them
- Could not hate them, for the world does not hate its own
- Jesus in effect said, “Do whatever you wish, your decisions have no significance.”
- They make no difference - they CHANGE
NOTHING!
- But if you want to follow Me, you will make a difference
- So what is He saying to us? Don’t waste your life.
1) BE DELIBERATE
- Treat time as part of God’s intentional plan
- Treat the moments as fulfilling God’s purpose
- That defines all of our parameters: when we go, when we stay
- If we’re committed to the important, we’ll avoid the trivial (which always takes up our time
- If we seize it, see the moments presented by God; it will not come under the influence of others
- Will not change that which is immediate, visible, popular, but what is vital
- You will build the kingdom
2) CHANGE YOUR WORLD
- Engage in our mission to reach the lost
- Be prophetic
- Protest the pollution of this world (I don’t just mean physically, spiritually as well)
- Be the light that exposes the darkness
- Such that your life will be neither marginal, nondescript, inconsequential, wasted
- And if we are hated for it, well so what? we will have joined great company
- As Jesus would later say, “If they hated Me, they will hate you.”
DON’T WASTE YOUR LIFE
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
bread of life
1
Series: Conversations with Jesus
Avoiding a life marked by indifference
Ever had one of those days, you need to make some phone calls and you get put through to the computer? ……………………………
- NOT THE WAY IT’S SUPPOSED TO BE.
In John 6, Jesus tells us how it is supposed to be
- Here we come to another conversation
CONTEXT (verses 1-24)
- Jesus was in Galilee (verse 1)
- With a growing crowd, impressed with the miracles
- Here, two more powerful miracles took place
- Feeding of 5000 (verses 10-13)
- And walking on water (verse 18)
- All served as road signs, pointing to something beyond themselves
- Beyond human explanation
- Something of God had invaded this world turning things upside down things were mathematically possible; heaven was coming to earth
- As Jesus warned Nathanael with His coming, “Behold you will see the heavens
open up” (chapter 1)
- Everyone was impressed, impressed enough to want to make Jesus king (verse 15)
- Once they grasped the potential power before them, they were ready to vote Him into office
- So Jesus fled, and in a near comic-chase scene, the crowd sailed in hot pursuit
(verse 24)
- It all set up one of the longest conversations in John, between Jesus and the crowd (John 6:25-60)
CONVERSATION
- Their question seemed innocent enough
- “When did you get here?” (verse 25) but what they meant was
- “How did you get here?”
- But behind it all was really this: “When will you feed us?”
- And Jesus knew this, for he knows the heart of man (verse 26)
- It wasn’t that they wanted Jesus
- Even wanted His miracles
- at the bottom of it all
- They simply wanted what Jesus could give
Illustration – ????????????
- Jesus could see this; that their pursuit had little to do with Him
- Much to do with what He could give
- Someone to satisfy their bellies, and keep it coming
- A Jesus on the telephone, where you push the buttons to get what you want
- Helpful but impersonal
- They all were preoccupied with appetite, oblivious to who they were talking to
- So Jesus gave them a challenge, He gives to us too! (verse 27)
- LIVE FOR SOMETHING, SOMEONE BIGGER THAN YOUR EARTHLY
APPETITES
- Live life on another level
- Literally, stop living for things that are dying
- For if the satisfaction of your earthly appetites is your main aim, then your epitaph will read like those in the wilderness
- “They ate and they died” (verse 58)
- Your life, in essence, will be a waste of time and wasted
- INSTEAD, desire the bread that endures
- And throughout the rest of this conversation, He repeated it over and over
- Devote your energies to that which is lasting
- To the bread which has no shelf life, that does not perish, spoil, rot
- Bread that will not leave you hungry
- Bread that will satisfy the soul (verse 35)
- Work for bread that gives life forever (verse 50)
- So what is this work he calls us all to? Jesus answered…
1) BELIEVE IN ME (verse 29)
- Words that went beyond mere assent, creeds, keeping certain laws, to relational trust
2) PURSUE ME
- I am this bread that comes down from heaven (verse 33)
- I am this bread of life (verse 35)
- Always fresh, never stale
- As the conversation continued, Jesus went deeper
3) EAT ME, CONSUME ME
- “Unless you eat this flesh, you will have no life” (verse 53)
- “The one who consumes Me will have life” (verse 54)
- “I am the real food” (verse 55)
- But what was he saying? What could this mean?
- Throughout this conversation, Jesus rearranged the words giving them a different angle
- Words that together are calling us to something, but what?
- Perhaps the same thing He is calling for when it comes to His word
- Where the same language is occasionally used
- Where its readers are called to eat this book
- Move from distancing eye to listening ear to passionate followers
- Ezekiel was called to this (2:8ff)
- Jeremiah the same (15:16)
- John, on the island of Patmos, was told to take the scroll and eat it
(Revelation 10:9)
- And Peter tells us to long for the Word as pure milk (I Peter 2:2)
- They ( and WE) were told to take the book and do more than read, do more than study, learn it
- More than tick the boxes when we have read a chapter
- They were (and by application, all of us) to masticate, chew, gnaw.
- Consume the words in such a way that these words “spread through your blood”
- Work their way into your gut, nerve endings, reflexes, imagination
- Read such that the text gets into our muscles and bones, our oxygen breathing lungs and blood pumping heart
- And for good reason
A) It is in this Word faith is awakened, faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God (Rom 10:17)
B) It is what God uses to make us alive, the words I have spoken to you are life (John 6:63)
C) It is in these words we are set free
- “You shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free” (John 8:32)
D) It is when we consume these words that prayer is unleashed
- “If my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish” (John 15:7)
- So take this book and consume so it:
- becomes a part of you
- into your heart into your head, into your soul into muscle, gristle, bone, so that it ultimately flows out intoacts of love and holiness
- Here in John 6, Jesus was challenging the crowd (challenging us) to do the samewith Him, the Living Word
- “Consume Me such I spread through your blood”
- “Work My way into your gut, into every fabric of your being such that you
feel My presence in every corner of your being”
- In all of the organs and juices
- “Come after Me. Consume Me like bread, that we might
abide, remain in one another”
- That we might live in radical connection (verse 56)
- But it all was too much, from questioning the conversation turned to grumbling, to sharp disagreement to mass defection (verse 60)
- These words were “hard”
- Not in the sense of intellectually tough, but harsh, offensive, intolerable
- They preferred the more impersonal
- The computer voiced Jesus
- Christianity apart from relationship
- They were unprepared for a call to relationship, and it maybe so for some of us
- Which should not surprise
- For it is the devil’s work to take what is endearing and perpetuate it
into DEVOUT INDIFFERENCE
- Take Jesus and shift the focus from relationship to object
- Take the gospel and reduce it to a set of steps, sanitized and correct, factual and precise
- Take faith in Jesus and make it a statement of beliefs to cling to
- Where we are more in love with words than Word
- More in love with truth than the One who is true
- CHRISTIANITY TRAGICALLY BEREFT OF RELATIONSHIP
- Is your faith a relationship?
The conversation this weekend is between Jesus and the crowd. This crowd followed him and wanted all they could get from Christ but only on a physical level. Jesus could see this but gave them the challenge of their life, one that is applicable to us, too.
Their Challenge was this
• Live for something, someone bigger than your earthly appetites
• Live your life at the God level, walk on the water of life, consume Him
Our Challenge:
• Do as the crowd was challenged to do, live for God, eat of God, let him become a part of you
• Make God personal, don’t live by rules, just factual, or sanitized, consume him, be hungry for him, feed upon him, forget the trappings of religion, discover the joy of relationship, nurture that relationship, so you miss meeting with him, receive his Spirit, devour his word, experience the joy of knowing Jesus, see your life grow purpose in ways you can never imagine, Lamp chop school.
Series: Conversations with Jesus
Avoiding a life marked by indifference
Ever had one of those days, you need to make some phone calls and you get put through to the computer? ……………………………
- NOT THE WAY IT’S SUPPOSED TO BE.
In John 6, Jesus tells us how it is supposed to be
- Here we come to another conversation
CONTEXT (verses 1-24)
- Jesus was in Galilee (verse 1)
- With a growing crowd, impressed with the miracles
- Here, two more powerful miracles took place
- Feeding of 5000 (verses 10-13)
- And walking on water (verse 18)
- All served as road signs, pointing to something beyond themselves
- Beyond human explanation
- Something of God had invaded this world turning things upside down things were mathematically possible; heaven was coming to earth
- As Jesus warned Nathanael with His coming, “Behold you will see the heavens
open up” (chapter 1)
- Everyone was impressed, impressed enough to want to make Jesus king (verse 15)
- Once they grasped the potential power before them, they were ready to vote Him into office
- So Jesus fled, and in a near comic-chase scene, the crowd sailed in hot pursuit
(verse 24)
- It all set up one of the longest conversations in John, between Jesus and the crowd (John 6:25-60)
CONVERSATION
- Their question seemed innocent enough
- “When did you get here?” (verse 25) but what they meant was
- “How did you get here?”
- But behind it all was really this: “When will you feed us?”
- And Jesus knew this, for he knows the heart of man (verse 26)
- It wasn’t that they wanted Jesus
- Even wanted His miracles
- at the bottom of it all
- They simply wanted what Jesus could give
Illustration – ????????????
- Jesus could see this; that their pursuit had little to do with Him
- Much to do with what He could give
- Someone to satisfy their bellies, and keep it coming
- A Jesus on the telephone, where you push the buttons to get what you want
- Helpful but impersonal
- They all were preoccupied with appetite, oblivious to who they were talking to
- So Jesus gave them a challenge, He gives to us too! (verse 27)
- LIVE FOR SOMETHING, SOMEONE BIGGER THAN YOUR EARTHLY
APPETITES
- Live life on another level
- Literally, stop living for things that are dying
- For if the satisfaction of your earthly appetites is your main aim, then your epitaph will read like those in the wilderness
- “They ate and they died” (verse 58)
- Your life, in essence, will be a waste of time and wasted
- INSTEAD, desire the bread that endures
- And throughout the rest of this conversation, He repeated it over and over
- Devote your energies to that which is lasting
- To the bread which has no shelf life, that does not perish, spoil, rot
- Bread that will not leave you hungry
- Bread that will satisfy the soul (verse 35)
- Work for bread that gives life forever (verse 50)
- So what is this work he calls us all to? Jesus answered…
1) BELIEVE IN ME (verse 29)
- Words that went beyond mere assent, creeds, keeping certain laws, to relational trust
2) PURSUE ME
- I am this bread that comes down from heaven (verse 33)
- I am this bread of life (verse 35)
- Always fresh, never stale
- As the conversation continued, Jesus went deeper
3) EAT ME, CONSUME ME
- “Unless you eat this flesh, you will have no life” (verse 53)
- “The one who consumes Me will have life” (verse 54)
- “I am the real food” (verse 55)
- But what was he saying? What could this mean?
- Throughout this conversation, Jesus rearranged the words giving them a different angle
- Words that together are calling us to something, but what?
- Perhaps the same thing He is calling for when it comes to His word
- Where the same language is occasionally used
- Where its readers are called to eat this book
- Move from distancing eye to listening ear to passionate followers
- Ezekiel was called to this (2:8ff)
- Jeremiah the same (15:16)
- John, on the island of Patmos, was told to take the scroll and eat it
(Revelation 10:9)
- And Peter tells us to long for the Word as pure milk (I Peter 2:2)
- They ( and WE) were told to take the book and do more than read, do more than study, learn it
- More than tick the boxes when we have read a chapter
- They were (and by application, all of us) to masticate, chew, gnaw.
- Consume the words in such a way that these words “spread through your blood”
- Work their way into your gut, nerve endings, reflexes, imagination
- Read such that the text gets into our muscles and bones, our oxygen breathing lungs and blood pumping heart
- And for good reason
A) It is in this Word faith is awakened, faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God (Rom 10:17)
B) It is what God uses to make us alive, the words I have spoken to you are life (John 6:63)
C) It is in these words we are set free
- “You shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free” (John 8:32)
D) It is when we consume these words that prayer is unleashed
- “If my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish” (John 15:7)
- So take this book and consume so it:
- becomes a part of you
- into your heart into your head, into your soul into muscle, gristle, bone, so that it ultimately flows out intoacts of love and holiness
- Here in John 6, Jesus was challenging the crowd (challenging us) to do the samewith Him, the Living Word
- “Consume Me such I spread through your blood”
- “Work My way into your gut, into every fabric of your being such that you
feel My presence in every corner of your being”
- In all of the organs and juices
- “Come after Me. Consume Me like bread, that we might
abide, remain in one another”
- That we might live in radical connection (verse 56)
- But it all was too much, from questioning the conversation turned to grumbling, to sharp disagreement to mass defection (verse 60)
- These words were “hard”
- Not in the sense of intellectually tough, but harsh, offensive, intolerable
- They preferred the more impersonal
- The computer voiced Jesus
- Christianity apart from relationship
- They were unprepared for a call to relationship, and it maybe so for some of us
- Which should not surprise
- For it is the devil’s work to take what is endearing and perpetuate it
into DEVOUT INDIFFERENCE
- Take Jesus and shift the focus from relationship to object
- Take the gospel and reduce it to a set of steps, sanitized and correct, factual and precise
- Take faith in Jesus and make it a statement of beliefs to cling to
- Where we are more in love with words than Word
- More in love with truth than the One who is true
- CHRISTIANITY TRAGICALLY BEREFT OF RELATIONSHIP
- Is your faith a relationship?
The conversation this weekend is between Jesus and the crowd. This crowd followed him and wanted all they could get from Christ but only on a physical level. Jesus could see this but gave them the challenge of their life, one that is applicable to us, too.
Their Challenge was this
• Live for something, someone bigger than your earthly appetites
• Live your life at the God level, walk on the water of life, consume Him
Our Challenge:
• Do as the crowd was challenged to do, live for God, eat of God, let him become a part of you
• Make God personal, don’t live by rules, just factual, or sanitized, consume him, be hungry for him, feed upon him, forget the trappings of religion, discover the joy of relationship, nurture that relationship, so you miss meeting with him, receive his Spirit, devour his word, experience the joy of knowing Jesus, see your life grow purpose in ways you can never imagine, Lamp chop school.
Tuesday, October 07, 2008
Some years ago, Lee Strobel wrote a chapter entitled—
-What Would Jesus Say to Madonna?
-if Jesus met this Pop Mom after a London concert—
-would He ignore or condemn her?
If there is a text that tells us—it would have to be John 4
-the story of a woman with her own list of failed relationships
-her own list of outrageous behaviors (read 4-26)
What would Jesus say?
1-I’M INTERESTED IN YOU
-what Samaritan means today--listeners
-John seems to underscore this from the start-by using the word “had”-4:4
- obligation, direct route—a shorter way to Galilee, most Jews took the longer journey, for Samaria was the other side of the tracks-the part of town you avoided
racial half breeds-religious mixed breeds-it was the area where immigrants from pagan cultures of the past—Assyria, Babylon, Persia came, settled, mixed with the Jews that were there
-the place where religion got screwed up—Torah, paganism, and alternative
temples all mixed into a strange brew of beliefs
-the Jews occasionally sought to take care of the problem—like burning down
their temple in the second century BC
Hence-there was no love lost between these two groups
-these were the Sunnis living next to Shi’ites, Hamas next to Jewish settlers
-Samaria was the epitome of ritual impurity
Nonetheless, Jesus had to go through Samaria
-not because He was in a hurry
-Jesus never seemed to have a list of “Things to Do Today”
-He attended wedding feasts that lasted for days-allowed Himself to get
distracted by “nobodies”
-would accept almost anyone’s invitation to dinner
-He was always on divine standard time
“Had” can only mean one thing—He had to go through Samaria because Jesus
was interested in someone
-interested because He was in the business of reclamation—not condemnation
-and there was someone He had to reclaim
-something His compassion, His divine will, His eternal purpose required Him to
do-so He came-
And a conversation began with a woman on the fringe of the fringe-
-that it was noon and she was isolated suggests she was socially isolated, living
on the periphery-detached from the lifeblood of the community
What John is painting here is the ultimate picture of disconnect
-if John 3 was a story of the ultimate INSIDER -the learned, powerful respected, orthodox—a man, a Jew, a ruler named
Nicodemus
-John 4 is the story of the ultimate OUTSIDER -an unschooled, without influence, despised, unorthodox, Samaritan, woman, sinner—with no name
And both needed Jesus
-but unlike the insider—who sought after Jesus
-Jesus went to the woman at the well—because He had to
-because HE WAS INTERESTED-particularly in those marginalized by others
-making the first move—He always does—it’s never us who find God—He finds
us
Here’s the second thing Jesus would say—
2-I’M INTERESTED—NOT SO MUCH IN WHAT YOU CAN GIVE ME—BUT
WHAT I CAN GIVE YOU
-it doesn’t begin this way
-Jesus-it appears-was wanting something from her (read 7b)
-but then-she was used to someone wanting something from her-particularly if it
was a man
-but this conversation was still a surprise
-Jesus’ request brought suspicion, maybe even animosity to the surface-read vs
9
-these were people they did not associate—lit “use together with”
-touch one another’s dishes, touch one another’s lives
Common was the saying—to eat the bread of Samaritans was to eat the bread of
swine
And then—Jesus, as He is prone to do—turned the conversation on its head—
reversed all of the assumptions-read vs 10
-it turns out—He was less interested in what she could offer
-far more interested in what He could give her
-it wasn’t about what He wanted at all
Here’s a third thing Jesus might say—
3-I’M INTERESTED-NOT SO MUCH IN MEETING YOUR TEMPORAL
WANTS—BUT IN MEETING THE DEEPEST NEED OF YOUR SOUL
-living water is language that seems cryptic—not because Jesus is intentionally
unclear
-He is describing something that cannot be easily explained
-Jesus is speaking in metaphor—there are no literal words to describe what He
offers
-it is far too profound
-our language falls short
-like born again, bread of life
At best—all it can do is serve as a pointer to the thirst quenching life mediated by
the Spirit
But this woman remains on the earthly-read vss 11-12
-vss 13-14-she can’t get past H2O-vs 15
She has failed to grasp the true dimension of her need
-that even if Jesus brought physical water to her every day
-she would still be thirsty
In an interview in Vogue some years ago, Madonna acknowledged her own thirst
for something that satisfies—
“I’m always struggling with fear. I push past one spell of it, thinking I’m special,
then find myself thinking I am mediocre. That’s always been pushing me,
pushing me. Because even though I’ve become somebody, I still have to prove
I’m SOMEBODY”
-so she keeps reinventing herself, developing a more daring version—a treadmill
of doing something more outrageous to keep her fans
-a treadmill that leaves her more and more thirsty
In the story of John 4—this woman kept pursuing relationships
-a treadmill that left her in the desert of relational thirst
-Jesus pointed this out (read vss 16-18)
Jesus started rummaging around in her injured spaces
-and touched her pain
-her guilt, despair, need
-He understood the failing cycle she had experienced
-multiple relationships, serial failures
-year by year accumulating wounds and scars—the kind that come from being
the source of someone else’s gratification—leaving her dry
But it is much more preferable to switch the conversation-read vss 19-20
-talk about another subject—safe things—like religion-
-get Him off on some controversy
-pre-trib/post trib?
-once-saved-always saved?
-cessationist/non-cessationist?
-it was much safer to keep the walls up
-but it only opened a door for Jesus to talk about an even deeper thirst
-if relationships left her dry—religion left her dehydrated
-so He moved her past form to function
-past the place of worship to the nature of worship
-past law and confusion
-to spirit and truth
-from ritual to relationship with Him
APPLICATION
So what is Jesus saying to us in this conversation?
1-God is very interested in you--compelled
-His passion for our lives, His commitment to justice, demanded that He leave
His neighborhood and enter into ours
-we are that valuable-are you convinced?
2-God is not so interested in what we can give Him
-our tendency is to assume that a relationship with Jesus is largely about what
He wants, what He expects, what He needs from us
-lots of us live with this notion it’s largely about what Jesus needs from us
-our money, our service
-when if we really -it’s actually about what He wants to give us—are we asking?
3-God is interested in satisfying our lives at the deepest level
-will we settle for less?
-let sin and religion get in the way?
-What Would Jesus Say to Madonna?
-if Jesus met this Pop Mom after a London concert—
-would He ignore or condemn her?
If there is a text that tells us—it would have to be John 4
-the story of a woman with her own list of failed relationships
-her own list of outrageous behaviors (read 4-26)
What would Jesus say?
1-I’M INTERESTED IN YOU
-what Samaritan means today--listeners
-John seems to underscore this from the start-by using the word “had”-4:4
- obligation, direct route—a shorter way to Galilee, most Jews took the longer journey, for Samaria was the other side of the tracks-the part of town you avoided
racial half breeds-religious mixed breeds-it was the area where immigrants from pagan cultures of the past—Assyria, Babylon, Persia came, settled, mixed with the Jews that were there
-the place where religion got screwed up—Torah, paganism, and alternative
temples all mixed into a strange brew of beliefs
-the Jews occasionally sought to take care of the problem—like burning down
their temple in the second century BC
Hence-there was no love lost between these two groups
-these were the Sunnis living next to Shi’ites, Hamas next to Jewish settlers
-Samaria was the epitome of ritual impurity
Nonetheless, Jesus had to go through Samaria
-not because He was in a hurry
-Jesus never seemed to have a list of “Things to Do Today”
-He attended wedding feasts that lasted for days-allowed Himself to get
distracted by “nobodies”
-would accept almost anyone’s invitation to dinner
-He was always on divine standard time
“Had” can only mean one thing—He had to go through Samaria because Jesus
was interested in someone
-interested because He was in the business of reclamation—not condemnation
-and there was someone He had to reclaim
-something His compassion, His divine will, His eternal purpose required Him to
do-so He came-
And a conversation began with a woman on the fringe of the fringe-
-that it was noon and she was isolated suggests she was socially isolated, living
on the periphery-detached from the lifeblood of the community
What John is painting here is the ultimate picture of disconnect
-if John 3 was a story of the ultimate INSIDER -the learned, powerful respected, orthodox—a man, a Jew, a ruler named
Nicodemus
-John 4 is the story of the ultimate OUTSIDER -an unschooled, without influence, despised, unorthodox, Samaritan, woman, sinner—with no name
And both needed Jesus
-but unlike the insider—who sought after Jesus
-Jesus went to the woman at the well—because He had to
-because HE WAS INTERESTED-particularly in those marginalized by others
-making the first move—He always does—it’s never us who find God—He finds
us
Here’s the second thing Jesus would say—
2-I’M INTERESTED—NOT SO MUCH IN WHAT YOU CAN GIVE ME—BUT
WHAT I CAN GIVE YOU
-it doesn’t begin this way
-Jesus-it appears-was wanting something from her (read 7b)
-but then-she was used to someone wanting something from her-particularly if it
was a man
-but this conversation was still a surprise
-Jesus’ request brought suspicion, maybe even animosity to the surface-read vs
9
-these were people they did not associate—lit “use together with”
-touch one another’s dishes, touch one another’s lives
Common was the saying—to eat the bread of Samaritans was to eat the bread of
swine
And then—Jesus, as He is prone to do—turned the conversation on its head—
reversed all of the assumptions-read vs 10
-it turns out—He was less interested in what she could offer
-far more interested in what He could give her
-it wasn’t about what He wanted at all
Here’s a third thing Jesus might say—
3-I’M INTERESTED-NOT SO MUCH IN MEETING YOUR TEMPORAL
WANTS—BUT IN MEETING THE DEEPEST NEED OF YOUR SOUL
-living water is language that seems cryptic—not because Jesus is intentionally
unclear
-He is describing something that cannot be easily explained
-Jesus is speaking in metaphor—there are no literal words to describe what He
offers
-it is far too profound
-our language falls short
-like born again, bread of life
At best—all it can do is serve as a pointer to the thirst quenching life mediated by
the Spirit
But this woman remains on the earthly-read vss 11-12
-vss 13-14-she can’t get past H2O-vs 15
She has failed to grasp the true dimension of her need
-that even if Jesus brought physical water to her every day
-she would still be thirsty
In an interview in Vogue some years ago, Madonna acknowledged her own thirst
for something that satisfies—
“I’m always struggling with fear. I push past one spell of it, thinking I’m special,
then find myself thinking I am mediocre. That’s always been pushing me,
pushing me. Because even though I’ve become somebody, I still have to prove
I’m SOMEBODY”
-so she keeps reinventing herself, developing a more daring version—a treadmill
of doing something more outrageous to keep her fans
-a treadmill that leaves her more and more thirsty
In the story of John 4—this woman kept pursuing relationships
-a treadmill that left her in the desert of relational thirst
-Jesus pointed this out (read vss 16-18)
Jesus started rummaging around in her injured spaces
-and touched her pain
-her guilt, despair, need
-He understood the failing cycle she had experienced
-multiple relationships, serial failures
-year by year accumulating wounds and scars—the kind that come from being
the source of someone else’s gratification—leaving her dry
But it is much more preferable to switch the conversation-read vss 19-20
-talk about another subject—safe things—like religion-
-get Him off on some controversy
-pre-trib/post trib?
-once-saved-always saved?
-cessationist/non-cessationist?
-it was much safer to keep the walls up
-but it only opened a door for Jesus to talk about an even deeper thirst
-if relationships left her dry—religion left her dehydrated
-so He moved her past form to function
-past the place of worship to the nature of worship
-past law and confusion
-to spirit and truth
-from ritual to relationship with Him
APPLICATION
So what is Jesus saying to us in this conversation?
1-God is very interested in you--compelled
-His passion for our lives, His commitment to justice, demanded that He leave
His neighborhood and enter into ours
-we are that valuable-are you convinced?
2-God is not so interested in what we can give Him
-our tendency is to assume that a relationship with Jesus is largely about what
He wants, what He expects, what He needs from us
-lots of us live with this notion it’s largely about what Jesus needs from us
-our money, our service
-when if we really -it’s actually about what He wants to give us—are we asking?
3-God is interested in satisfying our lives at the deepest level
-will we settle for less?
-let sin and religion get in the way?
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
music I have been listening too....books I have been reading
sun kil moon- april
iron and wine- our endless numbered days
death cab for cutie- plans
Dave crowder band- remedy
heavenly man- brother yun
irresistible revolution- shane claiborne
the shack- William P Young
long way down- Ewan McGregor, Charley Boorman
iron and wine- our endless numbered days
death cab for cutie- plans
Dave crowder band- remedy
heavenly man- brother yun
irresistible revolution- shane claiborne
the shack- William P Young
long way down- Ewan McGregor, Charley Boorman
conversations with Jesus
“The Jesus You Never Knew”
John is a book of conversations between Jesus and people, which if we are listening, is a conversation He ultimately has with us the unexpected, the unpredictable, and often THE UNCOMFORTABLE
- We think we know who He is, we realize we don’t know Him very well at all
Philip Yancey, in his book The Jesus I Never Knew writes, “Two words would never apply to Jesus—boring and predictable. And yet, we do all we can to tame Him, pare the claws of the Lion of Judah, certify Him as a fitting household pet for pale curates and pious old ladies.”
Not John, - This holy wonder has gone on a holy terror (chapter 2)
- Jesus has just cleaned house at the temple, alienated religious establishment
- And while most were ready to kill Jesus, there was one who remained curious (read verses 1-2a)
John wants us to know Nicodemus was important
But Nicodemus is curious, things are not adding up (read verse 2)
A) Maybe Jesus was a prophet, maybe the messiah
B) Maybe Nicodemus saw in Jesus something he wasn’t and wanted to be
- Someone willing to buck the establishment, “I wish I had the guts to do that.”
C) Maybe he wanted to keep up with the trends- Attracting crowds “What’s His angle? His secret? HOW DOES HE DO IT?”
D) Maybe he thought he could help Jesus, work on the rough edges, make
Jesus like him
But Jesus was not interested in courteous exchanges that go nowhere
- Religious talk - Nor was He impressed with position nor pedigree
- Nor conforming, only one thing: Nicodemus’ relationship with God (verse 3)
- Jesus did to religious people what He did with religious buildings
- He drove out things, and overturned things that get in the way,
Nicodemus had been brought up to measure everything by performance
- 613 rules, with 1521 emendations - 39 activities
- it all revealed a blindness - Like the rest of the religious establishment,
- And until he could see, he would not understand Jesus, nor the miracles, nor
anything else that had to do with the kingdom of God
- “Nicodemus, you must start over.”
- You must be REMADE, be born from above
- We’re not talking modification or alteration to the soul, but a radical
renewal
- Unfortunately, “born again” has lost its shock value
- But for Nicodemus, disoriented (verse 4) struck by the absurdity of it all
- “You’re telling me that to be in God’s kingdom, I have to turn the clock
back? I have to enter my mother’s uterus, climb up the birth canal?”
- So Jesus clarified (verses 5-8)
- The birth was spiritual, rather than physical birth that Jews placed their faith upon, but not simply birth, but growing from there. God starting a new family open to all………………
- It all served to further confound, unsettle Nicodemus (verse 9)
- HE WAS NOT GETTING IT!
- What about rituals, cleansings, commitment to the Torah? all of this was being challenged, maybe even dismissed - How? (verse 10)
- You are the teacher of Israel. and you do not get it?
- Jesus expected this religious official to know what he was talking about the prophets of a day God would bring a radical transformation, a circumcision, not of the flesh, but of the heart?
- “The day will come the law will be placed in their hearts”
(Jeremiah 31:33-34)
- “A day will come when I will put a new spirit in them, and I will be their
God.” (Ezekiel 11:19-20)
- “I will sprinkle water on you and cleanse you, and I will put My Spirit in you and I will be your God.” (Ezekiel 36:25-27)
- what matters are not these artificial boundary markers
- What matters is the CENTRE- The work of the Spirit, the interior, the heart
- not what restrains actions from the outside in, but on God’s intention to work from the inside out
- Verses 11-12 suggest the conversation came to a close (read)
Nicodemus didn’t get it, he did not buy it- Jesus couldn’t tell him anything more
- Truth goes nowhere when people want to stay in control, are unwilling to become as a child
So where is all of this going?
- What does this conversation have to do with most of us?
- After all, I know who Jesus is- I’ve been born again but God might be saying “LISTEN IN!”
- Those of us, anyway, who are religious,
A) Of all the people Jesus said “You must be born again” it was to Nicodemus?
- A church official, a LEADER, respected of community- Not to the woman caught in adultery, the woman at the well, the paralytic, the blind man, the crowd, or anyone else… only Nicodemus? - Why didn’t he use this language with them?
B) That of all the people He would talk about the unpredictable wind of the
Spirit, it was with Nicodemus, a religious leader
- Could it be that religious types are often in need of more radical change than harlots and traitors?
- Could it be that Jesus might be saying something like this?
- It is generally those who are most religious are those who most need the reminder that they are helpless
- We can become impressed with our holiness, with the things we do, and lose sight of our place- Lose sight of the wonder and fear of God and assume we know His ways, even become bored with what we assume!
- Even assume we can manipulate the movement of the Spirit
- That God is actually who we think He is, all figured out sitting on a shelf?
- When what we need to know more than anything else is that this daily work of God is not what we do, so much as it is what God does in us?
- If Nicodemus really got it, maybe the conversation would have turned and
he would have said something like this…
-“You mean there is nothing I can do?”
- “Then all I can do, MUST DO, is lay myself before God’s mercy
and hope His grace falls on me, the wind of His Spirit blows my
direction today?”
- “Exactly.”
how often do we, do I do that?
- How often do I wake up with the notion I have this terrifying wonder who could go any direction with my life
- The Spirit will blow where He wills
- Who might ask me to do things I never dreamed of?
- Such that I better get on my knees and plead for grace
- Or how often do I wake up with an assumed predictability of how life will go, what God will do?
- Use my prayers, even to keep Him from doing some wild thing he might want to
do with me?
BE OPEN TO THE SPIRIT AND WHERE HE LEADS, opportunity means, sailors wait for the time of the tide turning… will we seize the opportunities God sends us? Look to the cross, like the bronze snake, see the ultimate sign, believe and live, as God intends, him leading each one of us following!
John is a book of conversations between Jesus and people, which if we are listening, is a conversation He ultimately has with us the unexpected, the unpredictable, and often THE UNCOMFORTABLE
- We think we know who He is, we realize we don’t know Him very well at all
Philip Yancey, in his book The Jesus I Never Knew writes, “Two words would never apply to Jesus—boring and predictable. And yet, we do all we can to tame Him, pare the claws of the Lion of Judah, certify Him as a fitting household pet for pale curates and pious old ladies.”
Not John, - This holy wonder has gone on a holy terror (chapter 2)
- Jesus has just cleaned house at the temple, alienated religious establishment
- And while most were ready to kill Jesus, there was one who remained curious (read verses 1-2a)
John wants us to know Nicodemus was important
But Nicodemus is curious, things are not adding up (read verse 2)
A) Maybe Jesus was a prophet, maybe the messiah
B) Maybe Nicodemus saw in Jesus something he wasn’t and wanted to be
- Someone willing to buck the establishment, “I wish I had the guts to do that.”
C) Maybe he wanted to keep up with the trends- Attracting crowds “What’s His angle? His secret? HOW DOES HE DO IT?”
D) Maybe he thought he could help Jesus, work on the rough edges, make
Jesus like him
But Jesus was not interested in courteous exchanges that go nowhere
- Religious talk - Nor was He impressed with position nor pedigree
- Nor conforming, only one thing: Nicodemus’ relationship with God (verse 3)
- Jesus did to religious people what He did with religious buildings
- He drove out things, and overturned things that get in the way,
Nicodemus had been brought up to measure everything by performance
- 613 rules, with 1521 emendations - 39 activities
- it all revealed a blindness - Like the rest of the religious establishment,
- And until he could see, he would not understand Jesus, nor the miracles, nor
anything else that had to do with the kingdom of God
- “Nicodemus, you must start over.”
- You must be REMADE, be born from above
- We’re not talking modification or alteration to the soul, but a radical
renewal
- Unfortunately, “born again” has lost its shock value
- But for Nicodemus, disoriented (verse 4) struck by the absurdity of it all
- “You’re telling me that to be in God’s kingdom, I have to turn the clock
back? I have to enter my mother’s uterus, climb up the birth canal?”
- So Jesus clarified (verses 5-8)
- The birth was spiritual, rather than physical birth that Jews placed their faith upon, but not simply birth, but growing from there. God starting a new family open to all………………
- It all served to further confound, unsettle Nicodemus (verse 9)
- HE WAS NOT GETTING IT!
- What about rituals, cleansings, commitment to the Torah? all of this was being challenged, maybe even dismissed - How? (verse 10)
- You are the teacher of Israel. and you do not get it?
- Jesus expected this religious official to know what he was talking about the prophets of a day God would bring a radical transformation, a circumcision, not of the flesh, but of the heart?
- “The day will come the law will be placed in their hearts”
(Jeremiah 31:33-34)
- “A day will come when I will put a new spirit in them, and I will be their
God.” (Ezekiel 11:19-20)
- “I will sprinkle water on you and cleanse you, and I will put My Spirit in you and I will be your God.” (Ezekiel 36:25-27)
- what matters are not these artificial boundary markers
- What matters is the CENTRE- The work of the Spirit, the interior, the heart
- not what restrains actions from the outside in, but on God’s intention to work from the inside out
- Verses 11-12 suggest the conversation came to a close (read)
Nicodemus didn’t get it, he did not buy it- Jesus couldn’t tell him anything more
- Truth goes nowhere when people want to stay in control, are unwilling to become as a child
So where is all of this going?
- What does this conversation have to do with most of us?
- After all, I know who Jesus is- I’ve been born again but God might be saying “LISTEN IN!”
- Those of us, anyway, who are religious,
A) Of all the people Jesus said “You must be born again” it was to Nicodemus?
- A church official, a LEADER, respected of community- Not to the woman caught in adultery, the woman at the well, the paralytic, the blind man, the crowd, or anyone else… only Nicodemus? - Why didn’t he use this language with them?
B) That of all the people He would talk about the unpredictable wind of the
Spirit, it was with Nicodemus, a religious leader
- Could it be that religious types are often in need of more radical change than harlots and traitors?
- Could it be that Jesus might be saying something like this?
- It is generally those who are most religious are those who most need the reminder that they are helpless
- We can become impressed with our holiness, with the things we do, and lose sight of our place- Lose sight of the wonder and fear of God and assume we know His ways, even become bored with what we assume!
- Even assume we can manipulate the movement of the Spirit
- That God is actually who we think He is, all figured out sitting on a shelf?
- When what we need to know more than anything else is that this daily work of God is not what we do, so much as it is what God does in us?
- If Nicodemus really got it, maybe the conversation would have turned and
he would have said something like this…
-“You mean there is nothing I can do?”
- “Then all I can do, MUST DO, is lay myself before God’s mercy
and hope His grace falls on me, the wind of His Spirit blows my
direction today?”
- “Exactly.”
how often do we, do I do that?
- How often do I wake up with the notion I have this terrifying wonder who could go any direction with my life
- The Spirit will blow where He wills
- Who might ask me to do things I never dreamed of?
- Such that I better get on my knees and plead for grace
- Or how often do I wake up with an assumed predictability of how life will go, what God will do?
- Use my prayers, even to keep Him from doing some wild thing he might want to
do with me?
BE OPEN TO THE SPIRIT AND WHERE HE LEADS, opportunity means, sailors wait for the time of the tide turning… will we seize the opportunities God sends us? Look to the cross, like the bronze snake, see the ultimate sign, believe and live, as God intends, him leading each one of us following!
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
jesus and his mother
Do our requests influence Jesus?
INTRODUCTION
First miracle (SIGN) performed by Jesus in his ministry. Now if you were here last week, we spoke about Nathanael and how he would see heaven open up on Jesus, as Jacob’s ladder foretold and now we see the transforming power of God’s love bursting upon the present world
Water…lots of water, 150 gallons possibly, are turned into a wine that is exclaimed to be the best ever. Around this miracle is weaved a conversation between Jesus and his mother Mary as he is making the shift from a son of a Jew to the savior of the world. What is the message to us from the text? God is saying to these people and through the centuries to us the following:
• “I am interested not so much in your requests as in your faith.” God is not with us to meet our needs and we he wants us to make the shift to believe whatever He says for us.
• “I am ready to do not so much what you expected but far more than you imagined.” This
is an assurance to us that He is interested but also will respond greater than expected.
• “I am committed to break into your world not so much for your happiness but far more for my glory.” He is not here to fulfill our agenda
Imagine and out of them Tap comes beer. That’s what happened to Haldis Gundersen Western Norway. She told reporters she thought it was a
"Water to beer miracle." mistake in the plumbing—someone downstairs at the Bar hooked the beer hoses to the water pipes to Gundersen’s apartment.
And while Haldis was getting beer from her tap those at the bar were not so thrilled, as they were getting water from their beer taps. Asked if the turning water-to-beer was a blessing, she responded—not much— the beer was flat.
IN JOHN 2, however, we find a water to wine incident that turned out to be a real miracle (read 2:1-11)
The story turns sideways in places--prompting a host of questions
-why did Mary feel responsible for the lack of wine—was she the caterer?
-why was Jesus so abrupt in His response? Was He being a party pooper?
-why did He reject His mother’s request—than proceed to do it? Did she give Him that look?
-why did Jesus use ceremonial cleansing jars rather than just fill up the wine containers?
The reader is left with a simple story that has a deeper meaning and significance -above all else--what is God saying to us in this story, in this conversation between Him and His mother, that just might change our lives?
Right away we notice this exchange took place in the context of a wedding
The wedding took place in Nathanael’s home town, Cana,
-and while weddings are nice
-weddings were like our weddings, baptisms, 21st, 5Oths, golden weddings all rolled into one in ANE culture, all the village would be invited, all the neighbouring villages too, which is why Mary and Jesus are there,
-Weddings brought celebration and joy to a rather mundane existence
-There would be a public procession and merriment that often stretched out a week or more lots of free food and wine—time off from work
In this case--the appearance of servants suggests it might have been a high-class ceremony
-Only the bridegroom might have been cheap--they were running out of wine
-Which—in a culture where hospitality is everything—would have been a huge embarrassment -a major social faux pas, the family would have to live with the shame of it for a long time, the bride and groom might regard it as being bad luck for their married life, even a possible lawsuit
-w/o wine—the wedding falls flat—the joy vaporizes—the party ends
It all prompted a conversation between Jesus and His mother-read John 2:3
When the wine had given out, Jesus' mother said to him, "They are out of wine."(GNT)
It’s not clear what she expected did this represent a mother waiting for her resourceful son to do something? Was it a woman who perceived in her son divinity—time to do your God thing Jesus?
APP-All of us find ourselves in this conversation—we’ve had it often with Jesus
-we are the worried Mary—things are not going right here—and Jesus needs to fix it –our world is like this dried up party—fill the emptiness
And Jesus’ response is not what we anticipate
-but then His response to our requests can be perplexing as well
-there is an obtuseness—yet a directness 2:4
"You must not tell me what to do," Jesus replied. "My time has not yet come."(GNT) -Jesus lit says-What is it to Me? What is it to you woman?
There is a seeming callousness and coldness in these terms
-“Woman, what does their problem have to do with me or you?”
But when we dig for clarity-we discover that Jesus is not speaking about their relationship to this wedding crisis—so much as their relationship with each other!!
“What is it to me, to you” was an idiom of the day that communicated this idea—
-What it is to you and what it is to me are two different things Let me illustrate with shopping what it is to me and what it is to my wife are two different things
-the other day- Donna and I were at tesco—we rarely go together—for the sake of our marriage -for me—it is a list, sales, speed (I actually time it) -for her-it is meander, talk, experience, try something new, time to enjoy
Here--Mary and Jesus saw the situation differently -she takes-“since we’re neighbours let’s be friends” seriously
For Mary—it was social crisis, a potential embarrassment, someone’s miscalculation- and Jesus needed to be informed -for Jesus-He understood the need
For Mary-it was about family responsibility, for Jesus-family definitions had changed
The language of “WOMAN” was intentional, things are changing Mary can no longer presume on the family tie
-for “family” has been redefined—His family is His disciples those who are His mother and brothers are now those who do His will- Mk 4:34
For Mary-it was doing her will—meeting her expectation—that her subordinate son—the oldest—will be resourceful -will find a way—and in the end—make her happy
for Jesus-the governing will of His life has changed from her to His Father in heaven -He is here to act on the authority of His Father-fulfill His purpose -He will not do ministry on other people’s terms
for Mary—it is time, for Jesus—it is not the time
-His ministry will have its moment in Jn 13:1-the hour has come—the Cross, the resurrection, the glory -the wedding in heaven-the consummation of the Bridegroom and His people, the church- the day will come when the symbol of blessing—wine--will drip from the mountains and flow from the hills-Amos 9:13 but not yet—not today
It was a critical moment in the conversation and you wonder where things will go from here how would Mary respond to these perplexing--even painful words?
-vs 5 tells us "Do whatever he tells you."(GNT)
On the surface—they could be understood as a mother who will nonetheless
have her way -but could it be these words declared just the opposite?
-this is Mary--pausing-reflecting—shifting -something had changed in their relationship
Illus-dad and me
Here-it was more than a shift in this parent-son relationship
-Mary was moving from an expectant petitioner to submissive believer -from seeing Jesus as subordinate to Jesus as Master No longer her will—but His will
-From “what I would like” to “whatever He says” -she will trust everything now to Him and Mary will now fade out of the story
But while the conversation ended—the story did not faith has been expressed—Mary has placed her trust now in His will -and Jesus always responds to these things
One can hear Him say--come on Nathanael—let’s see heaven open up
-let’s see something of the reality of GOD’S PRESENCE—something of the glory of God
-LET’S MAKE UP THERE COME DOWN HERE!
-for he is God who responds to faith
1-SO Jesus BLEW APART THEIR TRADITIONS-vss 6-7
-Jesus will not refill wine containers-John wants us to see this-vs 6
-He used the jars—those used for ceremonial washing -for the washing of utensils—the fulfilling of ritual washing regulations -symbols of Jewish law, custom, purification And Jesus did the unthinkable -He transformed these vessels of purity into containers of wine, God was doing a new thing in the old system, bringing purification, but in a new way, for Israel for the world
2-Jesus BLEW AWAY THEIR EXPECTATIONS
-150 gallons of wine—that should be enough—like about 900 bottles of wine -and not just any wine -not some cheap wine-but the best—wine served at the beginning-when palates are most discriminating and guests most impressionable—this wine that was anything but flat
No wonder-vs. 11 declares—it all amounted to a sign—all amounted to His glory
-Something of the kingdom of God was manifested-that broke all the categories
of possible and impossible - the kingdom of grace had begun
-The astonishing thing is that most were looking straight at the glory—and didn’t see it
-The servants missed it, the wedding party missed it -the master of the banquet was oblivious -and the bridegroom apparently was so distracted he could only but take the credit for whatever happened
So what is God saying to us in this conversation?
1-I AM INTERESTED—NOT SO MUCH IN YOUR REQUESTS—AS IN YOUR
FAITH
-it’s trust I respond to
-it wasn’t until Mary moved from her will to God’s will that something happened
-it’s the same with us
-like Mary-we usually tell God what is needed -but He will not conform to our will— or BE GOVERNED BY OUR DESIRES
-He is not here to meet our needs, fit our time frame -He is here to do the will of the Father—and respond to a faith that says—“whatever you say”
He is also saying 2-I AM READY TO DO—NOT SO MUCH WHAT YOU EXPECTED--BUT SO MUCH MORE THAN YOU IMAGINED
-when we have the faith to make the same shift Mary made -to lay our needs before Him and say—whatever you want -to avoid our attempts to tame Him (Aslan)
-we find not only that He is interested in the ordinary —the simple conundrums of life -interested in our dilemmas -He will do far and away more than we could have expected -blowing away our traditions, outstretching our imagination
And God is saying today to us 3-I AM COMMITTED TO BREAK INTO YOUR WORLD—NOT SO MUCH FOR YOUR HAPPINESS BUT GIVE YOU LIFE IN ALL IT’S FULLNESS—BUT EVEN MORE FOR HIS GLORY
-He is breaking in—do we notice? -His kingdom will not only come—it has come
-but when it breaks in—it is all about Him—not us-it is for His glory--this is why we exist—the universe exists -Christ does not exist to make much of us—we exist to make much of Him
CONCLUSION The transformation from water to wine shows the effect Jesus can still have today on people’s lives today, He came to give life and LIFE TO THE FULL, transformation only came when Mary said “do whatever he tells you” will you do whatever he tells you? Despite the failures and the disappointments of the past, will you do whatever he tells you?
REALISE HE WILL NOT DO WHAT YOU EXPECT BUT MORE THAN YOU CAN IMAGINE
RECOGNISE THAT NO MATTER WHAT HAPPENS HE IS IN CONTROL AND HE HAS A PURPOSE TO TRANSFORM YOU AND GIVE YOU LIFE TO THE FULL
REMEMBER WE EXIST FOR HIM, NOT HIM FOR US
RESPOND IN FAITH, DO WHATEVER HE TELLS YOU TO DO AND EXPERIENCE HIS TRANSFORMING POWER
INTRODUCTION
First miracle (SIGN) performed by Jesus in his ministry. Now if you were here last week, we spoke about Nathanael and how he would see heaven open up on Jesus, as Jacob’s ladder foretold and now we see the transforming power of God’s love bursting upon the present world
Water…lots of water, 150 gallons possibly, are turned into a wine that is exclaimed to be the best ever. Around this miracle is weaved a conversation between Jesus and his mother Mary as he is making the shift from a son of a Jew to the savior of the world. What is the message to us from the text? God is saying to these people and through the centuries to us the following:
• “I am interested not so much in your requests as in your faith.” God is not with us to meet our needs and we he wants us to make the shift to believe whatever He says for us.
• “I am ready to do not so much what you expected but far more than you imagined.” This
is an assurance to us that He is interested but also will respond greater than expected.
• “I am committed to break into your world not so much for your happiness but far more for my glory.” He is not here to fulfill our agenda
Imagine and out of them Tap comes beer. That’s what happened to Haldis Gundersen Western Norway. She told reporters she thought it was a
"Water to beer miracle." mistake in the plumbing—someone downstairs at the Bar hooked the beer hoses to the water pipes to Gundersen’s apartment.
And while Haldis was getting beer from her tap those at the bar were not so thrilled, as they were getting water from their beer taps. Asked if the turning water-to-beer was a blessing, she responded—not much— the beer was flat.
IN JOHN 2, however, we find a water to wine incident that turned out to be a real miracle (read 2:1-11)
The story turns sideways in places--prompting a host of questions
-why did Mary feel responsible for the lack of wine—was she the caterer?
-why was Jesus so abrupt in His response? Was He being a party pooper?
-why did He reject His mother’s request—than proceed to do it? Did she give Him that look?
-why did Jesus use ceremonial cleansing jars rather than just fill up the wine containers?
The reader is left with a simple story that has a deeper meaning and significance -above all else--what is God saying to us in this story, in this conversation between Him and His mother, that just might change our lives?
Right away we notice this exchange took place in the context of a wedding
The wedding took place in Nathanael’s home town, Cana,
-and while weddings are nice
-weddings were like our weddings, baptisms, 21st, 5Oths, golden weddings all rolled into one in ANE culture, all the village would be invited, all the neighbouring villages too, which is why Mary and Jesus are there,
-Weddings brought celebration and joy to a rather mundane existence
-There would be a public procession and merriment that often stretched out a week or more lots of free food and wine—time off from work
In this case--the appearance of servants suggests it might have been a high-class ceremony
-Only the bridegroom might have been cheap--they were running out of wine
-Which—in a culture where hospitality is everything—would have been a huge embarrassment -a major social faux pas, the family would have to live with the shame of it for a long time, the bride and groom might regard it as being bad luck for their married life, even a possible lawsuit
-w/o wine—the wedding falls flat—the joy vaporizes—the party ends
It all prompted a conversation between Jesus and His mother-read John 2:3
When the wine had given out, Jesus' mother said to him, "They are out of wine."(GNT)
It’s not clear what she expected did this represent a mother waiting for her resourceful son to do something? Was it a woman who perceived in her son divinity—time to do your God thing Jesus?
APP-All of us find ourselves in this conversation—we’ve had it often with Jesus
-we are the worried Mary—things are not going right here—and Jesus needs to fix it –our world is like this dried up party—fill the emptiness
And Jesus’ response is not what we anticipate
-but then His response to our requests can be perplexing as well
-there is an obtuseness—yet a directness 2:4
"You must not tell me what to do," Jesus replied. "My time has not yet come."(GNT) -Jesus lit says-What is it to Me? What is it to you woman?
There is a seeming callousness and coldness in these terms
-“Woman, what does their problem have to do with me or you?”
But when we dig for clarity-we discover that Jesus is not speaking about their relationship to this wedding crisis—so much as their relationship with each other!!
“What is it to me, to you” was an idiom of the day that communicated this idea—
-What it is to you and what it is to me are two different things Let me illustrate with shopping what it is to me and what it is to my wife are two different things
-the other day- Donna and I were at tesco—we rarely go together—for the sake of our marriage -for me—it is a list, sales, speed (I actually time it) -for her-it is meander, talk, experience, try something new, time to enjoy
Here--Mary and Jesus saw the situation differently -she takes-“since we’re neighbours let’s be friends” seriously
For Mary—it was social crisis, a potential embarrassment, someone’s miscalculation- and Jesus needed to be informed -for Jesus-He understood the need
For Mary-it was about family responsibility, for Jesus-family definitions had changed
The language of “WOMAN” was intentional, things are changing Mary can no longer presume on the family tie
-for “family” has been redefined—His family is His disciples those who are His mother and brothers are now those who do His will- Mk 4:34
For Mary-it was doing her will—meeting her expectation—that her subordinate son—the oldest—will be resourceful -will find a way—and in the end—make her happy
for Jesus-the governing will of His life has changed from her to His Father in heaven -He is here to act on the authority of His Father-fulfill His purpose -He will not do ministry on other people’s terms
for Mary—it is time, for Jesus—it is not the time
-His ministry will have its moment in Jn 13:1-the hour has come—the Cross, the resurrection, the glory -the wedding in heaven-the consummation of the Bridegroom and His people, the church- the day will come when the symbol of blessing—wine--will drip from the mountains and flow from the hills-Amos 9:13 but not yet—not today
It was a critical moment in the conversation and you wonder where things will go from here how would Mary respond to these perplexing--even painful words?
-vs 5 tells us "Do whatever he tells you."(GNT)
On the surface—they could be understood as a mother who will nonetheless
have her way -but could it be these words declared just the opposite?
-this is Mary--pausing-reflecting—shifting -something had changed in their relationship
Illus-dad and me
Here-it was more than a shift in this parent-son relationship
-Mary was moving from an expectant petitioner to submissive believer -from seeing Jesus as subordinate to Jesus as Master No longer her will—but His will
-From “what I would like” to “whatever He says” -she will trust everything now to Him and Mary will now fade out of the story
But while the conversation ended—the story did not faith has been expressed—Mary has placed her trust now in His will -and Jesus always responds to these things
One can hear Him say--come on Nathanael—let’s see heaven open up
-let’s see something of the reality of GOD’S PRESENCE—something of the glory of God
-LET’S MAKE UP THERE COME DOWN HERE!
-for he is God who responds to faith
1-SO Jesus BLEW APART THEIR TRADITIONS-vss 6-7
-Jesus will not refill wine containers-John wants us to see this-vs 6
-He used the jars—those used for ceremonial washing -for the washing of utensils—the fulfilling of ritual washing regulations -symbols of Jewish law, custom, purification And Jesus did the unthinkable -He transformed these vessels of purity into containers of wine, God was doing a new thing in the old system, bringing purification, but in a new way, for Israel for the world
2-Jesus BLEW AWAY THEIR EXPECTATIONS
-150 gallons of wine—that should be enough—like about 900 bottles of wine -and not just any wine -not some cheap wine-but the best—wine served at the beginning-when palates are most discriminating and guests most impressionable—this wine that was anything but flat
No wonder-vs. 11 declares—it all amounted to a sign—all amounted to His glory
-Something of the kingdom of God was manifested-that broke all the categories
of possible and impossible - the kingdom of grace had begun
-The astonishing thing is that most were looking straight at the glory—and didn’t see it
-The servants missed it, the wedding party missed it -the master of the banquet was oblivious -and the bridegroom apparently was so distracted he could only but take the credit for whatever happened
So what is God saying to us in this conversation?
1-I AM INTERESTED—NOT SO MUCH IN YOUR REQUESTS—AS IN YOUR
FAITH
-it’s trust I respond to
-it wasn’t until Mary moved from her will to God’s will that something happened
-it’s the same with us
-like Mary-we usually tell God what is needed -but He will not conform to our will— or BE GOVERNED BY OUR DESIRES
-He is not here to meet our needs, fit our time frame -He is here to do the will of the Father—and respond to a faith that says—“whatever you say”
He is also saying 2-I AM READY TO DO—NOT SO MUCH WHAT YOU EXPECTED--BUT SO MUCH MORE THAN YOU IMAGINED
-when we have the faith to make the same shift Mary made -to lay our needs before Him and say—whatever you want -to avoid our attempts to tame Him (Aslan)
-we find not only that He is interested in the ordinary —the simple conundrums of life -interested in our dilemmas -He will do far and away more than we could have expected -blowing away our traditions, outstretching our imagination
And God is saying today to us 3-I AM COMMITTED TO BREAK INTO YOUR WORLD—NOT SO MUCH FOR YOUR HAPPINESS BUT GIVE YOU LIFE IN ALL IT’S FULLNESS—BUT EVEN MORE FOR HIS GLORY
-He is breaking in—do we notice? -His kingdom will not only come—it has come
-but when it breaks in—it is all about Him—not us-it is for His glory--this is why we exist—the universe exists -Christ does not exist to make much of us—we exist to make much of Him
CONCLUSION The transformation from water to wine shows the effect Jesus can still have today on people’s lives today, He came to give life and LIFE TO THE FULL, transformation only came when Mary said “do whatever he tells you” will you do whatever he tells you? Despite the failures and the disappointments of the past, will you do whatever he tells you?
REALISE HE WILL NOT DO WHAT YOU EXPECT BUT MORE THAN YOU CAN IMAGINE
RECOGNISE THAT NO MATTER WHAT HAPPENS HE IS IN CONTROL AND HE HAS A PURPOSE TO TRANSFORM YOU AND GIVE YOU LIFE TO THE FULL
REMEMBER WE EXIST FOR HIM, NOT HIM FOR US
RESPOND IN FAITH, DO WHATEVER HE TELLS YOU TO DO AND EXPERIENCE HIS TRANSFORMING POWER
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