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Week of: March 2, 2008 Title: Why Do We Believe That Jesus Is?
Series: Study of John - Part 10
Scripture: John 7 (Enjoy)
1. How many of you like a good fight? Do you enjoy controversy?
2. Contrary to some folks opinion, I don’t like to fight. In fact, among my weakness is that sometimes I don’t speak out and challenge people when I should. And then, at times, it is just hard to know when to lay back and keep your mouth shut or when to take the bull by the horns, so to speak, and get involved.
3. Jesus, on the other hand, knew exactly when to get involved in a controversy and when not. In fact, Jesus was and is the most controversial person in the history of our world.
4. Now I am not saying that Jesus looked for a fuss, but He only told the truth, and when you know the truth and tell the truth, then controversy will follow you.
5. The biggest controversy of Jesus’ life revolved around who He was. People couldn’t understand nor accept who He was. It wasn’t Jesus’ fault He told them who He was, but they just didn’t believe Him. All too often they had their own opinions of who He really was. Let’s look at some of them.
6. First off, have you ever had your own family doubt you and give you a hard time about something that meant a lot to you?
7. Jesus did! Look in verse 3. Jesus’ brothers said to him, “You ought to leave here and go to Judea, so that your disciples may see the miracles you do. No one who wants to become a public figure acts in secret. Since you are doing these things, show yourself to the world.” Then John adds, “For even his own brothers did not believe in Him.”
8. The Gospels indicate that Jesus’ own family thought He was nuts. Mark 3:21 tells us they thought that he was out of his mind. And John says His brothers thought that He was after fame and glory by saying: “So you want to be famous, make a name for yourself. You cannot be famous unless you show yourself to the world. Go to Judea and show them what you can do.”
9. Yet look at verse one, John says Jesus was trying to stay away from Judea and Jerusalem because “the Jews there were waiting to take his life.” Look at verse 19 Jesus says: “…Why are trying to kill me?” Verse 25 says: “At that point some of the people of Jerusalem began to ask, “Isn’t this the man they are trying to kill?” In verse 30 and verse 44, they unsuccessfully try to seize him. In verse 45, the temple guards go back to chief priests and Pharisees and are rebuked because they didn’t bring Him in.
10. I’d like to propose a question to you: “Could Jesus have been such an embarrassment to His brothers that they wanted Him to be killed in Jerusalem? Remember what I said last week, “Jesus was offensive to nearly everyone he came in contact with.” For many people today, Jesus is such an embarrassment that they would like for Him to go away. Even Christians shy away from controversies because they don’t want people to make fun of them. Jesus and His claims are embarrassing to some folk.
11. Anyway, Jesus does go secretly to Jerusalem, and sure enough, the Jews were watching for Him, and were constantly asking “where is that man, Jesus?” The questions they were asking sets up all sorts of “widespread whispering about him.” In short, Jesus is the hot topic of discussion, in which they were trying to figure out who He was.
12. As verse 12 states, some were saying: “He is a good man” while others saying, “He deceives people.” So some thought Jesus was a good man and others thought that He was a liar. See… even today some people think Jesus was just “a good man,” while others think the whole Christian thing is a lie or a hoax.
13. Whether He was a good man or a liar, verse 15 tells us that there were some people who had a good impression of Jesus and thought He was smart, but wondered how could He have been so without an education? (Greek/pastor conf. story)
14. Verse 20 has one group of people, after hearing Jesus speak, refer to Jesus as being demon-possessed, because He made the statement that they were trying to kill Him. In John 10: 19, it says that many were divided over Jesus, with again some of them saying He is demon-possessed and raving mad. Why listen to Him? But others said, “These are not the sayings of a man possessed by a demon. Can a demon open the eyes of the blind?” Indeed, a crazy man or a demon-possessed person might think they are god, but would a crazy person or a demon-possessed person heal the blind and cast out demons, and do all the good things that Jesus did?
15. Chapter 7 is full of opinions about who Jesus was. Let’s look at some more. In verse 40 after hearing Jesus speak, some of the people proclaimed that Jesus was a Prophet. In fact, this is just what Islam and Judaism claim Him to be today—a prophet.
16. But others said, “No, He is much more than that ‘He is the Christ.’” Christ means the “anointed one.” Still others said, “How can the Christ come from Galilee? (After all nothing good can come out of Galilee.) Does not the scripture say that the Christ will come from David’s family, and from Bethlehem, the town that David lived?” Some people are ignorant and close-minded about Jesus because they never take the time to check Him out.
17. Look what Nicodemus says in verse 51, “Does our law condemn anyone without first hearing him to find out what he is doing?” Maybe their law didn’t but they did.
18. Even the temple guards who went to arrest Jesus were at odds with the Chief Priests and Pharisees’ about Jesus. Look at verse 46: “No one ever spoke the way this man does,” the guards declared. There was just something unique about Jesus and some people did see that.
19. Now look at verse 30 and 31, “At this they tried to seize him, but no one laid a hand on him, because His time had not yet come. Still many in the crowd put their faith in Him.” Their rationale being, “When the Christ comes, will he do more miraculous signs that this man?” Not really!
20. You see, the question has always been and will always be: “Who do you believe Jesus is?” And as always, there will be a controversy. Some people will believe He is the Son of God, others tragically will not. But again, it is not just important that you believe, but that you commit you life to that belief. Even the demons believe that Jesus is the Son of God; it all depends on what you do with that belief. Does it lead you to serve Him, follow Him, have faith in Him, and eventually love Him? If it does, then it becomes true faith. If not, then it has a long way to go.
Week of: March 9, 2008
Title: The Incarnation of Mercy
Series: Study of John - Part 11
Scripture: John 8: 1-11
1. Our scripture today is a very interesting passage. In some of your translations of John 8:1-11, there are footnotes that say something like this: “The earliest manuscripts and many other ancient witnesses do not have John 7: 53-8:11.” The fact is, no ancient manuscripts have the “story of the woman caught in the act of adultery” in John any earlier than the 3rd century. In fact, some of the early compilers of the New Testament scripture placed it in The Gospel of Luke just after 21:38.
2. It seems that this passage of scripture was a free-floating story of Jesus for years and was so beautiful and so much like Jesus that the early church just didn’t want to let it go. So they searched for a place in the Gospels that it could eventually call its home.
3. Now, some of you might be thinking “that’s not right…God wouldn’t do things like that.”
But look in John 21: 24: “Jesus did many other things as well. If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written.” In other words, 7:53-8:11 just made it in.
4. But what about the story itself? It is early dawn at the temple, and already people have gathered around Jesus to hear what He has to say. However, unknown to everyone else earlier that morning a group of Scribes and Pharisees have spied out and have literally caught a woman in the very act of adultery. They’ve dragged her out of bed, made her throw on some clothes, marched her half naked in front of Jesus and this group of people at the temple. No doubt she is embarrassed to death and knows that she is facing death, yet all she can do is simply stand in front of Jesus and cry.
5. I would like to give you a little background concerning this little scene. Marriage in Jesus’ day was not like it is today. In the first century Mediterranean culture, marriage was not only the union of two people, but two families—both for their mutual benefit and for the good of the communities in which they lived. Marriage was not just about being happy; it was about the family and the community surviving.
6. Anyway, when adultery occurred, it was not just between the three people that it directly concerned, but it was a family concern and community matter as well. Adultery in Jesus day was about shame and honor; it was about the dishonoring of husband and his family by another man who had a sexual relationship with the woman given to his care.
7. Families were brought into this tragedy because the woman who was given in marriage to the man was to unite two families through her family of origin and the husband and his family of origin. Why? In their society everyone needed one another to prosper and some instances even to survive; and the hope for the future and the well being of these families were the offspring that these young couples produced.
Adultery destroyed the hope and wellbeing, and the self-respect that these families valued above all else.
8. And the reason that it affected the community is that a community is only as strong as its families. If families are falling apart, if families are feuding over issues of shame and dishonor that occurred from adultery, then the community cannot last.
9. So how would you protect your family and your community? Well, there were very strict, very cut-and-dry punishments for adultery. Moses’ law stated that if anyone was caught in adultery they should be killed. Adultery was a capital offense punishable by death. Why? To keep families from feuding, from defending their honor in acts of violence. We don’t see it this way, but the Jews saw Moses’ law concerning adultery as a way of protecting the community. In other words, it is better for the two guilty parties to die, than a bunch of other people.
10. I’ve explained all this to say the people who dragged the woman caught in adultery could care less about God, the Law, family, and community. All they wanted to do was to dishonor Jesus, and they didn’t care who they used in the process. This woman was simply a convenient way to get at Jesus.
11. This was “politics as usual.” The willingness to use anyone or any means to discredit your opponent. The issue was that Jesus was soft on crime. However, when Jesus saw what was going on, and the way they were willing to use this woman, it disgusted him. I believe that He dropped down to the ground “shaking His head saying to himself I cannot believe that they would use this women to get at me.”
12. And when they kept on saying, “What do you think we ought to do with this woman Jesus?” He stood up and said, “If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.”
13. Well, I don’t think that affected them any at all. It went completely by this group of men, until Jesus bent down again and started writing their sexual sins in the dirt. They walked away one by one, not because they saw the wisdom of Jesus’ words, but because they didn’t want their sins exposed.
14. Finally only Jesus and the woman remained. St. Augustine once wrote: “Only two remained; the wretched woman and the “Incarnation of Mercy.”
15. The “Incarnation of Mercy” looks at the woman and says: “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you? She says: “No one, Lord.” Then Jesus says: “neither do I condemn you.”
16. To me, this is true forgiveness. Someone who is guilty, literally caught red-handed, but yet not condemned by anyone. Especially God himself. You know, when we sin, a lot times we think we get by with it, but with God every time sin we get caught “red-handed.”
17. Do you think the Apostle Paul had this story of Jesus in mind when he wrote to the Romans in 8:1 “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus…” Forgiveness is no longer being condemned by our accusers, especially our God.
18. But there is another side to forgiveness. “Go and sin no more.”
Week of: March 16, 2008
Title: Being Lifted Up
Series: Study of John - Part 12
Scripture: John 12: 20-36
1. How many of you like snakes? Do we have anyone here who likes to handle snakes? J I handled a snake once… wished I hadn’t. My parents, as long as I can remember, have owned a home in the Cherokee National Forest, about thirty minutes above Tellico, Tennessee. About every other weekend, we’d have to go to the “Cabin,” as we always called it, and mow a 2 acre yard and usually we’d have to rake the yard after we’d mow it. Anyway, on one particular sunny hot afternoon we had mowed and we were raking the yard, when I reached and took one of God’s little slithering creatures by the tail and proudly presented to my mother who was standing next to me. Her response was predictable and painful….
2. Well, in Numbers 21, the children of Israel made God mad. It seems that they complained, complained and complained to God and to Moses about everything and anything, and finally God takes all of it that He is going to take. In fact, He gets so angry that He turns a bunch of snakes loose on them. Many people are bitten and many die because of their bites. So they come back to Moses stating that they have sinned and want Moses to talk God on their behalf. Moses does and God tells Moses to make a bronze snake and put it up on a pole, so that anyone who has been bitten by a snake could look at the “bronze snake and live.” The bronze snake became a means of healing for the nation.
3. Turn if you will to John 3:14. In it, Jesus is talking about believing in Him and says: “Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in Him may have eternal life.” (Show the crucifix. What is the difference between the crucifix and the cross?) It doesn’t mean we have to literally look at a crucifix to be saved, it just means that in our hearts and minds we spiritually look to Jesus on the cross to heal us from our sins.
4. In the Gospel of John, Jesus uses the phrase “lifted up” frequently to describe His death. Look at John 8:28, 30: “When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am the one I claimed to be and that I do nothing on my own but speak just what the Father has taught me….Even as He spoke, many put their faith in Him.”
5. In our scripture we’ve read today, in verse 31 and 32, Jesus says: “Now is the time for judgment on this world; now the prince of this world will be driven out. But I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself. He said this to show the kind of death he was going to die.”
6. Jesus’ death on the Cross, him being lifted up, what does it mean? First, the crowd knew that He was talking about death because they said, “The Son of Man must be lifted up, and die upon the Cross… you’ve got to be kidding,” because “the Law (says) that the Messiah will remain with us forever.” In other words the real Messiah “won’t be dying a going anywhere.”
7. Jesus’ response is “Yes I will be going to my Father in a short time and you better “put your trust in the light while you have it” (verse 36).
8. So this “lifting up” is going to occur and, when it does, masses of people will be drawn to Jesus (verse 32). Why does the death of Jesus on the Cross move so many people?
a. Innocent suffering for one thing! If someone does something wrong and suffers, we can understand it because we think that they are getting what they deserve. When bad or evil people are punished, most people will rejoice that justice has been served. Which, by the way, we not should do. But an innocent person, or children, or someone who is being wrongly punished for something who didn’t do anything just upsets us to no end.
b. Sacrificial suffering is another! Jesus says there is no greater love than the love that enables one to lay down their life for another. I’ve often thought, could I lay down my life for another? If so, it would be the greatest, most honorable way than anyone could die. Jesus did that for us all, for all time.
c. Even more, the innocent sacrificial suffering of God is something that mystifies and attracts us. That the sinless, perfect, pure as the driven snow Son of God would love us enough to allow Himself to be humiliated and put to death for us is just beyond most people. But still yet, I accept it as true don’t you?
9. But in John, Jesus suffers and dies, but He is not humiliated. In fact, He is exalted.
a. First, to be humiliated you’ve got to care what other people think. Turn to John 5: 41-44: “I do not accept praise from men, but I know you. I know that you do not have the love of God in your hearts. I have come in Father’s name, and you do not accept me; but if someone else comes in his own name, you will accept him. How can you believe if you accept praise from another, yet make no effort to obtain the praise that comes from the only God?” To be humiliated, you’ve got to care about the praise of other people. But the only reason that Jesus cares about whether people rejected Him or accept Him is because they might die in their sins, but for His own self-esteem and self-worth, He couldn’t care less what people thought of Him or not.
b. Turn to John 8: 28 it says: “When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will realize that I am He.” In other words, “When you execute me as a common criminal, in the most insulting and demeaning way, you will bring about my exaltation, the revelation of my true identity.” Matthew says in 27:34, “When the centurion and those with him who were guarding Jesus saw the earthquake and all that had happened, they were terrified, and exclaimed, ‘Surely he was the Son of God.’”
c. Finally, if Jesus seems to be made fun of, it is a humiliation that is a part of the process. The Son of Man cannot be humiliated! Everything that was done was done for His glorification, a glorification that proclaims him the Son of God and Savior of the world.
10. For John and for the Gospels, Jesus does and says nothing that we can be ashamed of, instead everything that He does He does so with the dignity of a King. He is not a victim; he is royalty. He is a King who is going to His coronation. He is doing what He was designed to do from the beginning of time. And you hear through the hallways and chambers of Heaven the echoing of a voice that says: “This is my Son and I am well pleased.”
Week of: March 23, 2008 - Happy Easter - enjoy our musical presentation
Week of: March 31, 2008
Title: Streams of Living Water
Series: Study of John - Part 13
Scripture: John 7: 25-41
1. Last year we saw of the worst draughts on the eastern seaboard that I can remember in a long time. In fact, even though we’ve seen a lot of rain in 2008, we still need more rain fall, don’t we? There is something frightening about lakes and streams dried without any water flowing through them. To me, a stream of water flowing with clean, clear, fresh water is something that is full of life and energy. I love to walk up or down a mountain stream of water just exploring God’s creation.
2. In our scripture this morning, Jesus is using that imagery of a life-giving stream of water to talk about what it means to believe in Him.
3. He says “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me…streams of living water will flow from within him.”
4. Where do these streams of living water come from? From Jesus obviously, but when and how? Look with me in John 19:33. The day is Jesus’ crucifixion, the day before the day of the feast of the Passover—a very Holy and special day for the Jews. Anyway, the Jews don’t want Jesus and the two criminals left suffering and hanging on the cross during their Holy day, so they asked that their legs be broken. Let me explain…
5. Crucifixion was a long suffering process of dying that could last several days before the person finally died. The usual cause of death was asphyxiation because of the body dangling below the outstretched arms and hands would make it increasing hard to breathe. However, to help get a breath and take the pressure off the spikes in the wrist, the victim would push off the spikes in their feet, which would gain a breath but increase the pressure and pain on their feet.
6. It was a vicious cycle of pushing up and falling back down again until one was completely exhausted or in so much pain they didn’t want to fight to live any longer.
7. If for some reason the authorities wanted to end the cruel suffering and significantly bring a person’s life to an end, they would mercifully break their legs, so they could not push up and asphyxiation and death would come sooner rather than later.
8. So according to John (19:33), “The soldiers therefore came and broke the legs of the first man who had been crucified with Jesus, and then those of the other. But when they came to Jesus and found that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. Instead, one of the soldiers pierced Jesus’ side with a spear—bringing a sudden flow of blood and water.”
9. The flow of blood and water could mean just that—the puncture of the spear just let Jesus’ bodily fluids fall to the ground. However, the early church saw it as being more. Jesus himself said: “whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within Him.” And John says: “By this He meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified”—being “glorified” simply means being “crucified.”
10. The bottom line to all of this is that a stricken, suffering and dead Jesus becomes a source of life for all that believe.
11. Why? Because the blood and water that flows from Jesus’ side is a symbol of the Holy Spirit that came with Jesus’ death.
12. The Spirit gives life. Turn to Revelation 22:1-5. Even in Heaven coming from the throne of God and the Lamb is the life giving waters of the Spirit. You might say that according to John the Spirit comes from the Father and the Son and takes on a life-giving force of its own.
13. But what is the purpose of this Spirit? One is that the Holy Spirit gives us life. Jesus says it in John, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink….whoever believes in me will have life, eternal life."
14. Two, according Revelation 22, the Spirit is for the healing of the nations. The Spirit brings healing with the life that is promised.
15. Three, John calls the Spirit “the counselor.” The Greek word is “paraclete” not parakeet. It has several meanings as in “one who comes along side of us” and helps like a lawyer would help a client who was being accused of doing something wrong. And then the second one, in the sense of one who comforts and consoles one who is in need. And also, one who proclaims the message of Christ to the world. John 15:26, “when the Counselor comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of Truth who goes out from the Father, He will testify about me.”
16. But as John sees it, the “Paraclete” the Holy Spirit is the one who helps us until Jesus comes again. Look, as we all should know, the early Church truly expected Jesus to come during their lifetime. They waited and waited expecting Jesus’ return. And I would imagine, just like a lot of people today, they got discouraged and wondered, “Why is it taking so long?” To them John is saying, “don’t be discouraged; Jesus is with you.” He is with you as the Holy Spirit in your hearts and in the midst of the community of God. The Spirit is seen as a feature of Jesus’ own life.
17. In short, the Holy Spirit is to be with us until Jesus comes.
18. So the Holy Spirit is the means by which the church (you and I) can connect to the power and presence of the historical Jesus. There are folks who teach and read the Bible just like ordinary literature. We believe that it is literature, but we also believe it is more. It is the living Word of God. It only becomes alive for each of us through the Holy Spirit. Whenever you read the Bible and it seems to speak to you, when it seems to move and direct you, it is the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the way in which you are connected to the historical Jesus.
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