Author: tpdrenoske

FROM A FRIEND TO HIS FRIENDS – Philippians 1:1-2

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When you were in elementary school, can you remember being taught how to write a letter to someone?  The greeting has changed over the years, hasn’t it?  There is the standard greeting:  “Dear Tom.  How are you?”  Nowadays it’s becoming more casual and upbeat, such as, “Hi Tom.  What’s with you?”, or “Hey, Tom.  What’s new?”  Then there are the business letters.  Have you ever received a letter that begins with the words:  “To Whom It May Concern”, or “Dear Sir or Madame?”  Are those the letters you don’t read but immediately toss in the trash?  After all these years, I still remember the four parts to a letter.  There is the salutation, the body, the closing, and the signature.  The apostle Paul is writing a letter to the church at Philippi and his letter begins with a salutation or a greeting.  Today we are going to be taking a closer look at Paul’s salutation.  There is a lot to be learned from these first two verses of Paul’s letter to the church at Philippi.

Notice that Paul begins his letter by saying, “Paul and Timothy.”  Is Timothy a prisoner at Rome along with the apostle Paul?  No, but Timothy was with Paul when Paul first came to Philippi, and he helped Paul start the church there.  Timothy may also have been Paul’s amanuensis.  How’s that for a word?  The word literally means, “A servant from the hand.”  In Paul’s day, this was a servant you would summon if you wanted your spoken words written down word for word.  We might use the words “scribe”, “secretary,” or “stenographer” today.  Timothy must have gladly offered to write down the words of Paul’s letter to the church at Philippi as Paul dictated those words to him.  We also know, from Acts 19 and 20, that Timothy visited this church at least twice before Paul wrote this letter.

In verse 1, Paul refers to himself and Timothy as “bondservants of Jesus Christ.”  Exodus 21:5-6 beautifully illustrates this relationship of a servant’s total and loving submission to his master.  This is what it says:  “But if the slave says, ‘I love my master, my wife and children; I will not go out as a free man,’ then his master shall bring him to God; then he shall bring him to the door or the doorpost.  And his master shall pierce his ear with an awl, and he shall serve him permanently.”  The Greek word that is used here is the word doulos.  A doulos is a slave for life.  Paul is saying that Jesus Christ bought him and Timothy at an infinite price.  They owe Him their absolute obedience and they are glad to do so .  They count it an honor and a privilege to call themselves bondservants of Jesus Christ.  Their lives are permanently surrendered to Christ and devoted to Christ for His use and His glory.

You may have heard the song:  “He paid a debt He did not owe, I owe a debt I could not pay.  I needed someone to wash my sins away.”  You may not like the idea of being enslaved to anyone or anything.  But the fact is, you are enslaved to someone or something.  Bob Dylan wrote a song back in 1979.  Can you remember that far back?  Those memories may be a little fuzzy by now.  I didn’t remember the song until I looked it up and listened to it.  The song is entitled “Gotta Serve Somebody.”  Here is the first stanza and the refrain:

You may be an ambassador to England or France.
You may like to gamble, you might like to dance..
You may be the heavyweight champion of the world.
You might be a socialite with a long string of pea

But you’re gonna have to serve somebody, yes indeed.
You’re gonna have to serve somebody.
Well, it may be the devil or it jay be the Lord,
But you’re gonna have to serve somebody.

There’s a lot of truth to that song, isn’t there?  The question that you and I need to ask, ourselves is, “Who am I serving?”

II.  THE ADDRESSEES (verse 1b)

After identifying himself and Timothy, the apostle Paul now identifies the recipients of his letter.  He says:  “to all the saints in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi, with the overseers and deacons.:  He calls them saints.  What is a saint?  If the members of the church at Philippi are saints, does that mean we are saints also?

The well-known Bible teacher and seminary professor, Harry Ironside, was travelling by train from the west coast to Chicago and was seated next to a group of nuns.  They liked him because of his kindness and his interesting insights on the Bible.  One day, Dr. Ironside began a discussion by asking the nuns if they had ever seen a saint.  None of them had.  He then asked if they would like to see a saint.  They all said, yes, they would like to see one.  Then Ironside surprised them by saying, “I am a saint.  I am Saint Harry.”  He then took them to verses in the Bible, such as Philippians 1, to show that every Christian is a saint.  The word “saint” means one who is “set apart” for God’s use.  God is the one who has set us apart, right?  And He did so the moment we gave our lives to Him. We are also told that the church in Philippi is organized.  They have both elders and deacons.

III.  THE GREETING (verse 2)

Then Paul gives his usual greeting in verse 2 when he says, “Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.”  Sometimes we tend to forget the greatness of God’s grace and the reasons for His grace.  After the communists took control of mainland China in 1949, tens of thousands of refugees flooded into Hong Kong, bringing with them poverty, misery, and despair.  A Christian man who worked there recalls feeling great pity for the little children in rags that he saw playing in the streets.  He came to know and love a few of them very dearly, however, and what a difference that made!  One child he had known for several years showed him her shoes.  Both had holes in their soles, exposing her bare feet.  Without hesitation, the man gave her new shoes and bought her a pretty new dress.  “When I gave them to her,” he recalls, “she climbed on my knee and buried her head on my shoulder, her heart too full for words.”  That man’s deed was grace in action, and it was grace motivated by love.  So too, it was God’s great love for you and I that moved Him to meet our deepest need by sending His Son, Jesus Christ, to die for our sins.  God’s grace does not cease with salvation from sin’s penalty but continues throughout the believer’s life on this earth and for eternity.

Grace always brings benefits, and those benefits are reflected in the word “peace.” Now we have peace with God.  Paul always associates those two words together:  :grace” and “peace,” and the order is always the same.  First grace and then peace.  You’ve probably heard the saying, “Truth is more often caught than taught.”  I’ve come up with a similar saying about grace, and it makes sense to me.  “Grace is more understandable when it’s described than when it’s defined.”  So, I’m going to share with you a couple of true stories that display grace that was motivated by love.

The first story was written by Jeffrey Zaslow about his father.  “Years ago, my father  coached a team of eight-year-olds.  He had a few excellent players, and some who just couldn’t get the hang of the game [the game was baseball].  Dad’s team didn’t win once all season.  But in the last inning of the last game, his team was only down by one run.  There was a boy who had never been able to hit a ball – or catch it.  With two outs, it was his turn to bat.  He surprised the world and got a single!  The next batter was the team slugger.  Finally, Dad’s team might win a game.  The slugger connected, and as the boy who hit the single ran to second base, he saw the ball coming toward him.  Not so certain of baseball’s rules, he caught it.  Final out!  Dad’s team lost!  Quickly, my father told his team to cheer.  The boy beamed.  It never occurred to him that he lost the game.  All he knew was that he hit the ball and caught it – both for the first time.  His parents later thanked my dad.  Their child had never even gotten in a game before that season.  We never told the boy exactly what happened.  We didn’t want to ruin it for him.  And till this day, I’m proud of what my father did that afternoon.”

The second story is longer so bear with me.  A story is told about Fiorello LaGuardia who, when he was mayor of New York City during the worst days of the Great Depression and all of World War 2, was called, by adoring New Yorkers, ‘the Little Flower” because he was only five foot four and always wore a carnation in his lapel.  He was a colorful character who used to ride the New York City fire trucks, raid speakeasies with the police department, take entire orphanages to baseball games, and whenever the New York newspapers were on strike, he would go on the radio and read the Sunday funnies to the kids.  One bitterly cold night in January of 1935, the mayor turned up at a night court that served the poorest ward of the city.  LaGuardia dismissed the judge for the evening and took over the bench himself.

Within a few minutes, a tattered old woman was brought before him, charged with stealing a loaf of bread.  She told LaGuardia that her daughter’s husband had deserted her, her daughter was sick, and her two grandchildren were starving.  But the storekeeper, from whom the bread was stolen, refused to drop the charges.  “It’s a real bad neighborhood, you Honor,” the man told the mayor.  “She’s got to be punished to teach other people a lesson.”  LaGuardia sighed.  He turned to the woman and said, “I’ve got to punish you.  The law makes no exceptions – ten dollars or ten days in jail.”  But even as he pronounced sentence, the mayor was already reaching into his pocket.  He extracted a bill and tossed it into his famous sombrero saying:  “Here is the ten dollar fine which I now remit, and furthermore, I am going to fine everyone in this courtroom fifty cents for living in a town where a person has to steal bread so that her grandchildren can eat.  Mr. Bailiff, collect the fines and give them to the defendant.”  So, the following day the New York City newspapers reported that $47.50 was turned over to a bewildered old lady who had stolen a loaf of bread to feed her starving grandchildren, fifty cents of that amount being contributed by the red-faced grocery store owner, while some seventy petty criminals, people with traffic violations, and New York policemen, each of whom had just contributed fifty cents for the privilege of doing so, gave the mayor a standing ovation.

Do those two illustrations give you a better understanding of grace in action?  As I mentioned earlier, Paul began most of his letters with the words, “grace and peace.”  Grace is always mentioned first, followed by peace.  Do you think that little boy had a peaceful night’s sleep after hitting that ball for the first time and catching that ball for the first time?  Do you think the coach and the boy’s teammates had a good night’s sleep after cheering for him?  Do you think that grandmother and her family had a good night’s sleep after her debt was paid and their needs were met?  Do you think mayor LaGuardia and the people in that courtroom had peace in their hearts after showing grace to that woman and her family?  I think that even that storekeeper experienced what grace was like that night, and was glad he made a contribution.

The Lord Jesus was a man of grace and peace, wasn’t He?  Look at all the lives that were changed because of His concern and His generosity.  As believers in Him, we have been set apart by God to be instruments in His hands.  Let’s ask God to use us as instruments of His grace and peace today and every day.

THE HOLY SPIRIT AND OBEDIENT LOVE – John 14:15-24

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Beginning in John chapter 14 and continuing through chapter 17, Jesus is giving His disciples words of encouragement in order to prepare them for His absence from them.  These chapters are often referred to as the “Upper Room Discourse” since they are still in the upper room where they had celebrated the Passover meal.  In John 14:8-14, Jesus encouraged them to believe that He was God and, as a result of their belief, they would do greater works than He did.  Now, in verses 15-24, Jesus goes from the topic of faith to the topic of love.

I.  HIS STATEMENT (verse 15)

Up until now, Jesus has spoken of His love for His disciples and their responsibility to love one another.  Now, for the first time in this gospel, Jesus speaks of their love for Him.  In verse 15, Jesus said, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.”  Jesus is saying, “If you really love me, the best way you can show it is not by sorrow and tears, but by obeying my words.  There is a short poem that goes like this:

“We love you, Lord Jesus,” we often say
But are we as ready His will to obey?
Let’s heed what God’s Spirit would have us to do,
For that’s how to show Him a love that is true.”

II.  HIS PROMISES (verses 16-20)

Now that Jesus has asked for genuine evidences of their love for Him, He now proceeds to give them evidences of His love for them by giving them several promises.  In verses 16 and 17, Jesus promises them another Helper.  The Greek word is Paraclete which means, one who is “called alongside” to help.  That Greek word could be translated Counselor, Advocate, Comforter, Strengthener, or Helper.

Several years ago, a 42-foot sailboat got caught in stormy seas off the east coast of the United States.  Waves rose higher and higher until a giant wave flipped the boat upside down.  The heavy keel came back down into the water and righted the craft, but the damage to the sailboat was significant.  A Coast Guard cutter quickly responded to the sailboat’s SOS signal, but when the ship located the desperate boat, no one could be rescued because of the violent seas.  So the cutter drew as close as possible to the smaller craft, taking the brunt of the waves.  The ship remained alongside the damaged boat and led her into the port.  The action of this Coast Guard cutter is an illustration of the ministry of the Holy Spirit.  The cutter came alongside to help and protect that sailboat.

The Holy Spirit would take over the work that Jesus had been doing with the disciples.  In verse 16 Jesus said, “And I will send you another advocate to help you and be with you forever.”  The Greek word translated “another” literally means “another of the same kind.”  Jesus is saying that this Helper is also God, just as He and the Father are God. It’s a verse that speaks of the trinity of God and has all three members of the trinity mentioned in it.  The Spirit’s responsibility would be to represent Christ, to be for the disciples all that Christ had been to them, and to be to us today all that Christ would be if He were here physically right now.  The Holy Spirit would be at their side to counsel, to guide, to comfort, and to strengthen and empower them to holy living.  The Spirit of God would be with them forever, and verse 17 says that later on, at Pentecost, the Holy Spirit would be “in” each believer.

A seminary student was writing a term paper about confession of sin.  At one point he intended to type, “When we confess our sins, He takes away our guilt.”  But when he came to the word guilt, he hit the letter q by mistake.  This made the sentence read, “When we confess our sins, God takes away our quilt.  He turned in the paper without noticing the error.  When the paper was returned, the student grinned as he read the marginal note from his professor.  It said, “Never fear, little one, you’ll never freeze, because God has given us a “Comforter.”

In verses 18-20, it seems clear that Jesus is speaking here of His appearances to them after His resurrection from the dead because He says, “I will come to you” and “you will see me.”  We find a parallel passage in John 16:16 where Jesus says, “A little while, and you will see me no longer; and again a little while, and you will see me.”  Jesus was seen only by those who believed in Him.  His resurrection guarantees the glorious resurrection of all believers.  In 1 Corinthians 15:20, the apostle Paul said that Jesus was “the first fruits of all who have fallen asleep.”  These promises given by Jesus to His disciples that He would rise from the dead, spend time with them again before going back to the Father, and then send the Helper to them to be with them forever, were meant to give them hope and confidence.

When the Norwegian explorer Fridtjof Nansen left for the North Pole in 1893, he took with him a strong, fast carrier pigeon.  For many difficult months, Nansen explored the desolate Arctic regions.  One day during that time, he penned a tiny message, attached it to the pigeon, and prepared to release the bird to travel 2000 miles back to Norway.  Nansen took the trembling bird in his hand and flung her upward into the air.  She circled three times and then headed south – a thousand miles over ice and another thousand over the ocean.  When the bird finally arrived at the Nansen home, the explorer’s wife knew her husband was safe.

Similarly, the heavenly Dove, [the Holy Spirit], brought encouragement and hope to the early Christians on the Day of Pentecost.  Before the Savior left this earth, He promised to send a Helper, a Comforter.  The Spirit’s arrival assured the disciples that Jesus had returned safely to the Father, and had fulfilled His promise to them.

III.  LOVE’S REWARD (verses 21-24)

Now, beginning in verse 21, Jesus goes back to what He said in verse 15 and elaborates upon it.  In verse 15 He said, “If you love me, keep my commandments.”  In verse 21 Jesus tells them their proper motivation for doing so when he says, “Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me.  The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him.”  That’s quite a promise, isn’t it?  If we could reduce the Christian life to one thing, it would probably be obedience — not just simple obedience but willing obedience and loving obedience.

A little girl was having a bad day.  In defiance, she continued to stand up after her father had told her many times to sit down.  Finally her father said, “Sit down or I’ll spank you.”  She sat down, but she looked up at him and said, “I’m sitting down on the outside, but I’m standing up on the inside!”  Have you ever had one of those moments?  That’s not the kind of obedience that God is looking for, is it?

Jesus may have paused in His instructions to His disciples because Judas, not Judas Iscariot, expresses the concern of all the disciples.  He says, in verse 22, “Lord, aren’t you going to manifest yourself physically to the world, and not just to us?”  They may have been thinking, “If you just show yourself to us, the rest of the world will think it’s a hoax and laugh at us.”  They didn’t want to have that experience.

IV.  JESUS’ ANSWER (verses 23-24)

Jesus replies that He reveals Himself to those individuals who respond to Him in love and obedience to His words.  The Lord Jesus will not reveal Himself to anyone who does not respond in love and obedience to what he already knows about Him.  The Bible isn’t a textbook but a love letter.  How do you read a love letter?  You read it slowly, don’t you?  You cherish every word and think about the wonderful person who wrote it.  You read it again and again, not wanting to miss anything.  You read it carefully, looking for any desires or requests in the letter that you might be able to fulfill, so that you might bring greater joy to your loved one.

One of the tests of our love for the Lord Jesus Christ is our own personal attitude toward the Bible.  An unsaved person often considers the Bible to be an impossible book because he does not understand its spiritual message.  An immature Christian may consider the demands of God’s Word to be burdensome.  He is somewhat like a little child learning to obey, who asks, “Why, Mommy?”  “Why, Daddy?”  “Why do I have to do that?”  But a Christian who is maturing in his relationship with God finds himself enjoying God’s Word, loving it, and trusting in it’s promises.  Obedience is the test of the quality and genuineness of our love for the Lord Jesus Christ and God the Father.  How many of you have watched the movie, “Ben Hur?”  If so, you probably remember the chariot race in that movie.  Before the movie came out in the theaters, Charleton Heston was training to drive a chariot.  Heston was having trouble with the apparatus, so he confided in his director, William Wyler.  He said, “I can barely stay on this thing!  I can’t win the race!”  Wyler told Heston, “Your job is to stay on it.  It’s my job to make sure you sin.”  The Holy Spirit is the One who orchestrates the victories for God’s kingdom.  Out job is to stay on the chariot of obedience.

Jesus gives a wonderful promise in verse 23 when He says, “If anyone who loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.”  There is a little booklet that I have read many times.  The booklet is entitled, “My Heart, Christ’s Home.”  Have you ever read it?  It is an excellent little booklet by Robert Boyd Munger.  He shows how the Lord Jesus Christ moved into his heart as His home and began cleaning and remodeling each of the rooms.  He is probably still at work in our lives also.  Let’s not get in His way!

Jesus ends this part of His conversation with His disciples by saying, “Whoever does not love me does not keep my words.  And the word that you hear is not mine but the Father’s who sent me.”  Jesus inverts what He said in the previous verse.  Why would He do that?  I think Jesus is emphasizing the relationship between love and obedience by giving them both sides of the story.  Love for Him is a choice as well as a commitment to obey Him.  Willing obedience is the proof of their love for Him and for the Father who sent Him.  Those Jews who claimed to believe in Him but did not love Him and demonstrate that love by their obedience to Him were not genuine believers.

CONCLUSION:

There are several principles that can be drawn from this passage of Scripture – John 14:15-24.  Let’s take a look at four of them.

  1.  Our love for God expresses itself in obedience to His word.  That is the test of whether or not our love for God is genuine.  Do you and I really love the Lord?  If so, our lives will show it.
  2.  Obedience that is motivated by love will be willing and joyful obedience.
  3.  God will not reveal Himself more deeply and personally to the individual who does not respond in loving obedience to what he already knows of God’s character and His will.
  4.  Jesus keeps His promises.  He did return to His disciples after His resurrection.  He did send the Holy Spirit on Pentecost to live inside us, and to lead and strengthen us.  He will also keep His promise to return again in glory..

A GOD WITH SKIN – John 14:7-14

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Many people throughout history have expressed the deep longing in their hearts for a God that could be seen and touched.  A little child was crying in the middle of the night, and when his parents came into his room, he said he was scared of the night and scared of being alone.  His parents assured him that they were just in the next room, and told him that God was everywhere.  He was right there in his room and would protect him.  As the little boy clung to his mother’s neck, he looked at them both very seriously and said, “I know God is here with me, but I want someone with skin on!”  Children aren’t the only ones who have this need for a God who can be seen and touched.  In our passage of Scripture for today, John 14:7-14, the apostle Philip tells Jesus what would satisfy his own needs, and we have Jesus’ response to him.

I.  JUSUS’ RESPONSE TO THOMAS (verse 7)

In verse 7, Jesus is still speaking to Thomas when He says, “If you had known me, you would have known my Father also.”  The word “know” is used 141 times in John’s Gospel, but it does not always have the same meaning.  In fact, there are four levels of meaning.  The lowest level of meaning is simply knowing a fact.  The next level is that of understanding the truth behind that fact.  However, we can know a fact and know the truth behind it and still be lost in our sins.  The third level.involves a relationship.  To “know” means to believe in a person and become related to him or her.  In fact, in Genesis 4:1 and other passages of Scripture, to “know” was used to refer to the most intimate relationship between a man and his wife.  The fourth use of the word “know” means to have an even deeper relationship with a person where your spirits and desires become as one.  Jesus will be describing this deeper relationship in my next sermon.  Here in verse 7,  Thomas’ problem was not that he did not know the Father, but that he didn’t realize that he already knew the Father.  Jesus is saying, “Thomas, you have had a face-to-face relationship with the God of the universe and you didn’t even know it!  Then Jesus says, “From now on, you do know him and have seen him.”  He is talking about the near future.  When they see Jesus in His resurrected body, watch Him ascend into heaven, and are filled with the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, they will understand Him more clearly, and be empowered to proclaim Him to others.  Because that understanding of Him would clearly come to them in the future, Jesus spoke of it as if it was a present reality.

II.  PHILIP’S RESPONSE TO JESUS (verse 8)

The thought of knowing the Father interests Philip and, in verse 8,he proposes what he thinks is a solution to the problem.  “Lord,” he says, “show us the Father and it is enough for us.”  Philip wanted to see the Father as plainly as he could now see Jesus.  Like many of us, Philip was a very practical person and a logical thinker.  His thinking was:  “If only God could be made visible to me; if He could be here so that I could examine Him, then I would be satisfied.”  Philip and the other disciples had been with Jesus for three years, yet they still had a craving for something beyond Him.  They wanted a direct, face-to-face knowledge of God like they had of each other.

III.  JESUS’ ANSWER TO PHILIP (verses 9-10)

Jesus was disappointed with Philip’s reply, but not irritated or angry.  In verse 9, He says something like this:  “Philip, if you want to see the Father, take a good look at me.”  If we want to see what God is really like, we should take a good look at Jesus Christ.  What is implied here is that, not to see the Father in the Lord Jesus Christ, is not to know Jesus Christ.  Verse 10 makes it clear that the Father and Jesus Christ are two separate Persons yet one God.  No human being can fully understand this.  If we could understand God fully, we would be as great as God and wouldn’t be able to truly worship Him.

You may be familiar with the Gallup poll.  It’s a public opinion survey on various issues and topics.  In 2022, one of the survey questions that George Gallup and his associates gave to a cross-section of the American population was:  “Do you believe in God?”  81% responded by saying “yes.”  When asked further questions, most of them said they believed in a Supreme Being who listens to our prayers.  Beyond than, their answers were vague.  There was little understanding of who God is.  It goes to show that knowing a little about God is not the same as knowing God, is it?

IV.  JESUS’ ANSWER TO THE DISCIPLES (verses 11-14)

In verses 11-14, Jesus gives an answer to His disciples.  The word “believe” in verse 11 is plural in the Greek, so Jesus is again speaking to all of His disciples, not just Philip, because He knows that Philip is a spokesman for what all eleven of them desired.  Jesus again stresses the truth that they have seen the Father because they have seen Him.  His purpose is to comfort and strengthen them in preparation for His departure from them.  The basis for their belief in Him is His words and His works.  What an encouraging  promise He gives them in verse 12:  “Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.”  Can you imagine the disciples’ surprise when Jesus told them that they would do greater works then He?  These miracles that the disciples would perform would not be greater in quality because Jesus said, in John 13:16, “A slave is not greater than his master.” but they would be greater in quantity.  His promise came true.  On the day of Pentecost alone, 3000 people were converted to Christ.  Jesus is saying, “my going away is the key to  your having real power in you, to do greater things than I have done, because it’s only when I return to the Father that I can send the Holy Spirit to be in you and empower you.  You are going to be better off when I’m gone physically.”  In this present age of electricity and rapid transportation, evangelism is reaching much larger audiences and conversions to Christ have increased dramatically.  Evangelist Luis Palau addressed a crowd of 700,000 in a stadium in Guatemala CIty.  Dr. Billy Graham once preached to over a million people gathered at a public square in Seoul, Korea.  Jesus’ promise in verse 12 keeps coming true

Jesus then gives a tremendous promise in verses 13-14.  He says, “Whatever you ask in my name, that will I do.”  Does this verse mean that a Christian can get anything he or she wants from God?  Verse 14 is often misinterpreted and misused.  Some people believe that the use of Jesus’ name in their prayers becomes a kind of magical formula that guarantees that they will get what they ask for.  This is not true.  The key to understanding this promise is in the words, “in my name.”  To ask in Jesus’ name is not simply to say the words “in Jesus’ name” at the end of our prayers.  It is to ask in accordance with Jesus’ mind and will.  It is to ask for those things which will bring glory and honor to God, and which will be for our spiritual good and for the good of others.  In order to ask “in Jesus’ name,” we must be in close fellowship with Christ in His word.  Otherwise we will not know His desires.  The closer we are in our fellowship with Christ, the more our desires will be the same as His.  Such prayers will be answered because they are pleasing to God and will bring glory to Him.  Jesus repeats the promise in verses 13 and 14 for emphasis and for encouragement.

Have you ever received a check with two signatures on it?  Have you ever signed a check that also had to be signed by someone else in order to be valid?  John 14:14 is like a check requiring two signatures, Jesus’ and the Father’s.  Any request in Jesus’ name needs to be aligned with the will of both Jesus and God the Father to be truly authorized or granted; it emphasizes that a prayer or request must not only be made through Jesus but also be in accordance with God’s purpose and glory.  In the case of prayer or physical healing, we must pray with a spirit of submission which says, “Lord, if it is not your will to grant my request, give me the grace to be victorious in this trial.”  Remember, nothing lies beyond the reach of prayer except what lies outside the will of God.

Sometimes God answers prayer in very unusual and unexpected ways.  Here is one example.  A businessman picked up a hitchhiker and drove with him for several hours.  The hitchhiker was a Christian and he shared the gospel with the businessman.  Before he dropped him off, he put his faith in Christ as his Savior and Lord.  He left his business card with the hitchhiker and said, “If you ever come to Chicago, drop by and see me.”  Several years went by before the hitchhiker was in Chicago again.  He stopped by the man’s office and handed the card to a woman and asked if the man was in.  The woman’s face froze and she asked, “Where did you get this card?”  The man used the question to tell the woman the story of how the man had become a Christian that day.  The woman broke down in tears and said, “He was my husband.  I had prayed for years that he would come to Christ.  But he never made it home from that trip.  He was killed in an automobile accident after he dropped you off.  I’ve been bitter at God all these years because I thought that He didn’t answer my prayer.”  Not all stories end that way, but the point is, we don’t have all knowledge about how God may be working in response to our prayers.  So, pray that God will do far more through you than you can ask or think.  But if things don’t go exactly as you have prayed, trust Him that, if not in this life, at least in eternity you will understand how He answered and used you to do even greater works than He did.

There are other times when God answers prayers quicker than we expect, and He seems to delight in making it obvious that it is His doing.  Shortly after Dallas Seminary was founded in 1924, it came to the point of bankruptcy.  All the creditors were going to foreclose at noon on a particular day.  That morning, the founders of the school met in the president’s office to pray that God would provide.  In that prayer meeting was Dr. Harry Ironside.  When it was his turn to pray, he prayed in his characteristically refreshing manner:  :Lord, we know that the cattle on a thousand hills are thine.  Please sell some of them and give us the money.”

While they were praying, a tall Texan came into the business office and said, “I just sold two boxcar loads of cattle in Fort Worth.  I’ve been trying to make a business deal go through and it won’t work, and I feel that God wants me to give this money to the Seminary.  I don’t know if you need it or not, but here’s the check.”

A secretary took the check and, knowing something of the financial seriousness of the hour, went to the door of the prayer meeting and timidly tapped on the door.  When she finally got a response, Dr. Lewis Chafer took the check out of her hand, and it was for the exact amount of the debt.  When he looked at the signature, he recognized the name of the cattle rancher.  Turning to Dr. Ironside, he said, “Harry, God sold the cattle!”

God knows what is best for each of us.  As we pray to Him, let’s not try to tell Him what to do.  Any request that does not glorify God’s name should not be asked in His name.  For any request that does glorify God’s name, let’s continue to ask in faith without doubting.  Do you remember Jesus’ parable of the woman and the judge in Luke 18?  Luke begins by saying, “And He [Jesus] told them a parable that they ought always to pray and not lose heart.”

CONSTRUCTION SITE:  Completed        .

 

 

A GLORIOUS DESTINY – John 14:1-6

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The apostle John keys in on the last words of Jesus more than any other Gospel writer.  Chapters 13-17 of John’s Gospel cover just a couple of hours, and what Jesus has to say to His disciples is very important.  In verse 1 of chapter 14, the Lord Jesus tries to calm the hearts of His disciples.

I.  JESUS’ WORDS OF COMFORT (verses 1-4)

Jesus begins in verse 1 by telling His disciples not to be troubled.  He said, “Do not let your hearts be troubled.”  The Greek word is “tarasso” and that same word is used in John 5:7 where it says that the water was “stirred up” in the pool of Siloam.  Howard Jones of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association once preached from John 14:1 to a remote tribe in the Sudan.  He noticed that the interpreter had difficulty with the text, and after the service he asked him about it.  “Well,” said the translator, “in the Sudanese language, the heart isn’t the seat of the emotions; the liver is.  So when I translated your words, it came out, “Don’t let your liver quiver!”  That statement many sound strange to us but his listening audience understood what he was saying.

Meanwhile, it’s certainly not surprising that the disciples were troubled after what they had just heard and seen.  A short time before this, Jesus himself had been troubled in spirit as He spoke of the traitor in their midst.  Then He said He was going away and they could not follow Him.  They would be left by themselves to face the hostile Jewish leaders.  Finally, Jesus just finished saying that Peter, the bold one of their group, would deny Him three times.  Those weren’t very comforting facts, were they?  The future doesn’t look very bright from their perspective, does it?

There was a farmer who learned a lesson about worry and fear.  He needed a hired man.  After trying several workers, who had failed to meet his standards, the farmer began to feel desperate.  Then another worker applied for the job.  The farmer asked him, “What qualifies you for this job?”  The man answered, “I can sleep at night.”  That didn’t sound very promising, but since he was desperate, the farmer hired the newcomer.  That night there was a terrific thunderstorm.  The farmer awoke, ran to the hired man’s room and tried to arouse him from his sleep but he could not.  Muttering to himself something like, “I’ll take care of him in the morning,” the farmer went outside into the night and the driving rain.  He found the barn doors securely closed, the hay stack well covered, and the tractor put away in the shed.  There was nothing he could do but return to the house and go back to bed.  Then he understood why his new hired man had said, “I can sleep at night.”  He had taken care of everything and was prepared for the storm.  Isn’t it comforting to know that when we have prepared ourselves for Jesus’ coming by faithfully doing the things the Lord has made clear to us, He will take care of the things beyond our control?

In John 13 , the Lord Jesus gave His disciples the cure for disunity when He told them to love one another as He loved them.  Here in chapter 14, verse 1, Jesus gives them the cure for fear by telling to believe in God the Father and Himself.  Jesus goes on, in verses two and three, to describe briefly the future destiny of believers.  In verse 2, Jesus says, “In my Father’s house are many dwelling places.  I go to prepare a place for you.”  There is room enough in heaven for all true believers, and Jesus is getting all the rooms ready.  Have you ever thought about all the rooms there are in heaven?  There must be billions of them!  Have you ever wondered what your room number will be?  When General Paul von Hindenburg lay dying, he looked up at his Christian physician and asked, “Doctor, is death in the room?”  “No, General, but he is walking nearby, just waiting to come in.”  “Very well, then I want to talk with the Lord.”  He reached under his pillow for a small New Testament and read aloud John 14:1-3.  He emphasized the words “If it were not so, I would have told you.”  Then with a smile he continued, “I will come again and receive you to myself, that where I am, there ye may be also.”  “Now, doctor,” he said.  “I’m ready.  Open the door and tell death to come in.  I have no fear, for Jesus says, heaven is really true!”

I’m sure we’ve all seen the words or heard the song that says, “There’s no place like home.”  If we are followers of the Lord Jesus Christ, we can add another phrase to,  that statement:  “There’s no place like home – especially when home is heaven.”  A London newspaper held a contest to determine the best definition of “home.”  The winning entry was “Home is the place where you are treated the best and complain the most.”  The poet Robert Frost said that home is the place that, when you arrive there, they have to take you in.  As Christians, there is a sense in which we are all homeless.  We are on a journey to our heavenly home – our eternal home.  As the hymn writer Isaac Watts wrote:  “We’re marching to Zion, beautiful, beautiful Zion; We’re marching upward to Zion, the beautiful city of God.”

In the pioneer days, the father would often go on ahead, clear the land and build the house, and then he would bring his family there to move in.  We see Jesus doing the same thing here.  Then He said to His disciples, “That where I am, there you may be also.”  What a simple and clear description of heaven.  Heaven is being with the Lord Jesus Christ.  Very soon, the disciples will have a hard time believing that these promises of Christ will come true,  They will have cause to fear for their own lives, but the key to their own security and inner strength will be their personal faith in Jesus Christ.  1 Thessalonians 4:16-18 says, “For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.  After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up to meet the Lord in the air.  And so we will be with the Lord forever.  Therefore encourage one another with these words.”  Jesus was going to heaven, and His disciples knew the way to heaven because He had told them many times.

II.  THOMAS’ QUESTION ANSWERED (verses 4-6)

Thomas, however, didn’t understand what Jesus meant.  He seems to be saying, “How do we know the way if we’ve never been there before?”  Notice that Jesus does not rebuke Thomas for his unbelief, but gives him a clear basis for belief.  In verse 6 he says, “I am the way and the truth and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through me.”  This is one of the greatest statements that Jesus made about himself.  He doesn’t say, “I’ll show you the way” or “I know the way.”  Jesus Christ is the only way to God, the only way to salvation, and the only way to heaven.  A pioneer missionary to Africa tells how he was taking the gospel to a new tribe, far to the north.  He arrived at a village and his baggage carriers refused to go any further.  The missionary appealed to the local chief.  Was there someone in his village who could act as his guide to the distant northern tribe?  The chief summoned a man who was tall, battle scarred, and carrying a large axe.  A bargain was made, and the next morning the missionary set off through the bush, following his new guide.  The way became increasingly rough and the path had all but disappeared.  There was an occasional mark on a tree, and occasionally a narrow path.  Finally the missionary called a halt.  He asked the guide if he was sure he knew the way.  The man pulled himself to his full height.  “White man,” he said.  “You see this axe in my hand?  You see these scars on my body?  With this axe I blazed the trail to the tribal village to which we go.  I came from there.  These scars I received when I made the way.  You ask me if I know the way?  Before I came, there was no way.  I am the way.”

The Lord Jesus came from glory.  Now He was on His way back to glory by way of the cross.  Before He came, there was no way.  The scars of His crucifixion would demonstrate the price He paid to blaze the trail for us back to God.  Jesus also said, “I am the truth.” — the ultimate and most important truth, upon which all other truth rests.  The Lord Jesus is also “the life.”  He is the source of spiritual and eternal life.  There are many today who say that it doesn’t matter what you believe as long as you are sincere.  They say that all religions have some good in them, and they all lead to heaven at last.  But Jesus says, here in verse 6:  “No man comes to the Father, except through me.” .

Martha Snell Nicholson wrote a poem about John 14:6.  I hope this poem does not refer to you.  It goes like this:

If you should wake, some dreadful day,
Before His throne and hear Him say,
“I am the Way you did not take,
Although I died once for your sake;
I am the Truth you did not heed;
You were so sure you had no need;
I am the Light you would not see;
Now darkness for eternity.”
You cannot say, “I did not know”;
He plainly wrote and told you so.
And if you would not read His Word;
That word still stands, “Thus saith the Lord!”

There are many ways to become unpopular in a hurry.  Maybe you’ve found a few yourself in the past.  One of the quickest ways to become unpopular is to take a stand for something you believe in strongly.  You’ll be called a fanatic or something worse.  Christianity claims to offer the only way of salvation, to the exclusion of all others.  Jesus Christ here claims to be the only way to God.  You won’t get to heaven by being learned, highly gifted, likeable, charitable, or sincere about some sort of religion.  God is so holy that all people are guilty in His sight.  Sin is so sinful that no mortal man can remove it.  Sincerity alone will never wipe away our sins.  There is only one way to God:  through personal faith in the crucified and resurrected Son of God, accepting Him as one’s own personal Savior and Lord, and living for Him.

Someone near you needs to know that:  a friend, a relative, a co-worker, or a neighbor.  It may be someone who has already tried other ways to God and found them to be dead-end streets.  You won’t always be popular for pointing the way.  But then, if the Holy Spirit uses you to bring someone else to the path of life because you cared enough about him or her, will it really matter what others may say or think?

CONSTRUCTION SITE:  Completed. .:

JESUS PREDICTS HIS BETRAYAL – John 13:18-30

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Have you ever had a close friend of yours turn against you for no good reason?  It really hurts, doesn’t it?  King David had that experience and he comments on it in Psalm 41:9 where he says “Even my close friend, someone I trusted, one who shared my bread, has turned against me.”  In the east, to eat bread with someone was a sign of friendship and loyalty.  In 2 Samuel 9, verses 7 and 13, King David granted to Mephibosheth, the son of Saul, the privilege of eating at his table.  Going back to Psalm 41:9, it appears that David is talking about Ahithophel, his trusted counsellor who, in 2 Samuel 16 and 17, conspired with David’s son, Absalom, to have David murdered, but David found out about it.  In chapter 13 of John’s gospel, Jesus is in a similar situation.  He had just washed His disciples’ feet and they were about to eat the Passover meal together when Jesus quotes verse 9 of Psalm 41.  Jesus’ heart is filled with sorrow at that moment, and He is communicating that sorrow to His disciples, including Judas, whom He has just referred to as His “close friend”.

I.  JESUS PREDICTS HIS BETRAYAL (verses 18-21)

We see a change of emphasis in verse 18 of John chapter 13, from the topic of humility to Jesus’ prediction that one of them would betray Him.  Jesus says, “I know the ones I have chosen”, that is “chosen to apostleship”.  Jesus didn’t make any mistakes when He chose His disciples.  He prayed all night before He chose them, yet all the while He knew the prophecy that one of them would betray Him, would “lift up his heal” to do violence to Jesus.  That description gives me a picture in my mind of a horse lifting its hoof to kick someone.  In verse 19 Jesus says that He is going to tell them what will happen to Him so that when it does occur, “you may believe that I am.”  Some translations add the word “he” but that word is not in the Greek text.  The phrase “I am” is one of the Old Testament names for God and Jesus has used that phrase several times to refer to Himself.  Then Jesus gives them a word of encouragement in verse 20, reminding them that they are His ambassadors, just as He represents the Father.

Now in verse 21, Jesus gets very direct with them.  Have you ever watched a mystery movie or read a mystery novel that had a scene in which there were several people in a room, and the detective looks around at each one of them and says, “the murderer is in this room?”  The scene is very similar here in verse 21 where Jesus says, “One of you will betray me.”  By saying those words, Jesus may have been giving His betrayer an opportunity to abandon his evil plan.  The word “betray” is the translation of a Greek word that means “to deliver up” or to deliver over someone to imprisonment and death.

II.  THE DISCIPLES’ RESPONSE (verses 22-25)

Verse 22 tells us that the twelve were looking around at each other in surprise.  Matthew 26:20-26 adds that each one of them was also looking inward at his own heart.  Each disciple asked Jesus the same question, “Surely, it is not I , Lord” with the exception of one disciple – Judas, who said, “Surely, it is not I, Rabbi.”  He wasn’t willing to call Jesus “Lord”.  Since Judas was reclining on a couch next to Jesus, he must have whispered those words in Jesus’ ear and Jesus whispered back saying, “You have said it yourself.”  Jesus was saying to Judas, “Yes, you are the one who will betray me.”  None of the other disciples heard their conversation.  After hearing those words whispered to him by Jesus, Judas now knew that Jesus was aware of his plot to betray Him.

Now this was the night before the feast of Passover as Jesus and His disciples were eating this meal.  Normally, the people sat to eat, but on special feasts, parties, and  weddings, it was proper to recline on couches at the table on your left side, leaving your right hand and arm free to eat and pass food.  John, “the disciple whom Jesus loved”, must have been reclining to the right of Jesus in order to be able to lean his head on Jesus’ chest.  Peter is a short distance away and makes some kind of gesture to John, urging him to find out who the betrayer is.  In verse 25, John must have whispered the question in Jesus’ ear, and Jesus must have replied in verse 26 in a low voice that only John could hear.  Jesus said, “It is the one to whom I will give this piece of bread after I have dipped it in the dish.”  It was the Jewish custom at the beginning of the Passover meal for the host to reach over with a piece of bread, take out the choicest piece of lamb, wrap it with bitter herbs and give it to the guest of honor.  By making Judas the honored guest, the Lord Jesus again offered Judas His grace and love if Judas would repent of his sin, abandon his plan, and believe in Him  In verse 27 we see that Judas rejected the offer and became a willing instrument of Satan, motivated by greed.  Jesus said to him, “What you are about to do, do quickly.”  Judas leaves and the eleven disciples are left wondering just what Jesus meant and why Judas left.  They probably thought Jesus sent Judas on a mission to give money to some poor people since he was the treasurer and had the money bag.

The rest of the story is found in Matthew’s gospel, chapters 26 and 27.  In Matthew 26, verses 48 and 49, Judas betrays Jesus with a kiss, and in chapter 27 we read that Judas “felt remorse” because he knew that Jesus was innocent.  He regretted what he had done but never truly repented.  Repentance means abandoning one’s pride, and it leads to faith, salvation, cleansing, and new life, but Judas went and hanged himself.  This is also what David’s friend, Ahithophel, did when his advice to Absalom wasn’t followed.

Pastor Ray Stedman shared some things that are important for us to know.  He said, “Judas did not have to be that traitor.  He was not doomed, chosen, or foreordained by God for that role.  He, like all human beings, had free choice – the ability to choose either good or evil.  He could have turned and repented at any point.  If Judas had not fulfilled that prophesy of Psalm 41:9, it doubtless would have been fulfilled in some other way by someone else. . . .  But one fact is clear:  Judas was never forced into the role of traitor.  It was a role he chose for himself by the daily moral choices that he made.”

Something else we learn about Judas is that he was “the great pretender”.  He was the most successful hypocrite of all time.  He played his part so well that no one except Jesus Himself knew that Judas was a fraud and a pretender.  He hid behind the camouflage of hypocrisy and no one but Jesus recognized it.  Judas never received Christ as his Lord.  He never yielded his heart; he never turned over his will to Jesus.  For three years, Judas was in close association with Jesus and experienced Jesus’ love for him and for the other disciples on a daily basis.  He was even sent out, along with the other disciples, and given the power to cast out demons and cure diseases, yet his inward life hadn’t changed.  His Lord was not Jesus, but Satan.

The story of Judas is a message for those who attend church and hear the clear teaching of God’s Word, but have never responded by repenting of their sins and following Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior.  Judas associated himself with spiritual light but chose to walk in spiritual darkness.  The story of Judas should cause us to examine our own hearts toward God.  Is Jesus Christ the central focus of our lives?  The story of Judas is also a reminder that we can deceive people by our outward actions, but there is no hiding from the eyes of God.  Proverbs 15:3 says, “For the eyes of the Lord are in every place, watching the evil and the good.”  His desire is to know us personally and intimately so that He might accomplish His purposes in and through our lives as we are filled and controlled by Him.  The apostle Paul said it well when He described His purpose for living from an eternal perspective.  In Philippians 1:21 he said, “For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.”  Who are we living for?  Are we living for Christ or for ourselves?  How can we know?  You might want to ask yourself a few questions.  What do I spend most of my time thinking about?  What do I spend most of my time talking about?  What am I looking for in life and have I found it? In the book of Ecclesiastes, King Solomon was unhappy and he went down many dead-end streets in the pursuit of happiness.  In each case he said it was “striving after wind.”  At the end of the book, Solomon said, “Now all has been heard; here is the conclusion of the matter:  fear (or worship) God and keep His commandments, for this is the duty of all mankind.”  True joy, peace, and contentment come into our lives when we put Christ first and follow Him with all our hearts.

CONSTRUCTION SITE:  Completed.  ,

A LESSON IN HUMILITY – John 13:1-17

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It was now the night before Jesus’ crucifixion and He was in the upper room celebrating the Passover meal with His disciples.  I can imagine that we have all seen a copy or a photo of Leonardo da Vinci’s famous painting entitled “The Last Supper.”  It is a beautiful painting but it doesn’t picture what really took place that night.  Jesus and His disciples didn’t sit in chairs, but on couches.  They lay on their left sides, with their right hands available for eating.  Luke 22 tells us that John was on one side of Jesus while Judas was on the other side.  Jesus still has much to say to His disciples before His death.  He is about to teach them an important lesson by His words and, more importantly, by His example.

I.  THE SETTING (verses 1-2)

The chapter begins with a description of Jesus’ attitude toward His disciples.  It’s one of love.  “Jesus loved His own . . . to the end.”  The word “love” now becomes the key word or the rest of John’s Gospel.  He “loved them to the end.”  Jesus not only loved His disciples to the end of His life, but He also loved them to an infinite degree, and he is about to demonstrate it.  We find in verse two that Judas was also included in that love.  Judas had plotted against the Lord long before this, and his greed for money became an opportunity for the devil to influence and use him.

II.  THE WASHING OF THE FEET (verses 3-11)

In verse 3, the apostle John prepares us for the significance of the act that will follow.  The Lord Jesus knows who He is and the authority that He has as the Son of God, and yet He is willing to perform the humble act of service that we read here.  In verses 4 and 5, Jesus gets up from the meal and prepares Himself for what He is about to do.  He removes His outer garments and is left wearing nothing but the loincloth of a slave.  Jesus then gets down on His knees to wash HIs disciples’ feet.  Can you imagine the expressions of shock on their faces when He began to do so?  This is one of those cases where actions speak louder than words.

Why would the Lord Jesus be washing His disciples’ feet?  Two reasons are given in the gospels.  First, their feet were dirty.  That was the obvious reason!  It was a common courtesy in that day for a slave to be provided to wash the feet of guests before they entered a home.  Since there was no slave present in this case, one of the disciples should have volunteered before the meal.  The meal was already in progress, so Jesus got up and performed the service Himself.  Now foot washing was a messy task in those days.  The people either wore sandals or went barefoot and the dust and mud would be caked up on their feet by the end of the day.  It was a humble task, and it’s interesting that the Greek word for “humility” actually means “to stoop low.”  That’s exactly what Jesus was doing as He washed their feet.  The Lord Jesus was a living illustration of humility.  Washing someone else’s feet was a task that was assigned to the lowliest of servants.  Secondly, their hearts were proud.  Any one of the disciples would have been glad to wash Jesus’ feet or do any other service for Him.  But to wash the feet of the other disciples would have been to admit inferiority.  You see, they had just been arguing among themselves over which one of them was the greatest.  That’s what it says in Luke 22:24.  After that dispute, Jesus said to them, “The kings of the Gentiles lord it over them; and those who exercise authority over them call themselves Benefactors.  But you are not to be like that.  Instead, the greatest among you should be like the youngest, and the one who rules like the one who serves.  For who is greater, the one who is at the table or the one who serves?  Is it not the one who is at the table?  But I am among you as one who serves.”  A conversation among the disciples over who would betray Jesus led to this dispute over who was the greatest.  It’s in this setting that Jesus illustrates what it means to serve by washing their feet.

III.  THE RESPONSE (verses 6-11)

You can imagine that all His disciples were embarrassed and ashamed, but Peter was the one, as usual, to speak out what they all felt.  “Lord, are you washing my feet?” or, more accurately, “You aren’t washing my feet, are you?”  In verse 7, Jesus tells Peter that there is a spiritual meaning to what He is doing, and he will understand it later, after Jesus dies and is raised from the dead.  Well, Peter is still ashamed, so he changes his question to a statement when he says, in verse 8, “You shall never wash my feet!”  Greek scholar Kenneth Wuest translated Peter’s words in this way:  “You shall by no means wash my feet, no, never!”  That’s an intensely negative statement by Peter, isn’t it?  Jesus answers, “If I do not wash you, you have no part with me.”  Notice that Jesus doesn’t say “no part in me”, but “no part with me.”  What He is saying is “Peter, your pride is getting in the way of our relationship.  You must allow me to serve you or you will never understand what true fellowship with me is all about.”  Jesus used the word “part” in Luke 10:42 when He said to Martha:  “Mary has chosen the good part.”  He’s referring to the fact that Mary was sitting at Jesus’ feet enjoying His fellowship, while Martha was running around, worrying about things that were less important.

Peter does an about-face in verse 9 when he says, “If washing is a requirement for fellowship with you, then wash me completely – give me a bath.”  Peter said that out of love for the Lord and a desire to please Him.  Now Jesus brings out the spiritual meaning more clearly in verse 10 when He says, “He who has bathed needs only to wash his feet.”  A believer in Jesus Christ has become a child of God and the penalty for his sins has been completely removed, cancelled by the atoning death of Christ, The “bath” or the cleansing from the penalty of sin, occurs only once, at the time of one’s salvation; but the cleansing from the pollution of sin which comes from contact with the world and yielding to its lusts, is to take place continually.  Let me illustrate this principle in a way that really hits home to me.  Mommy and daddy are sitting in the living room talking when little Johnnie comes running in with muddy shoes and jumps into daddy’s lap to give him a hug and a kiss.  Being a loving parent, daddy would probably enjoy the hug and kiss, and then carry Johnnie outside, clean off his shoes, and carry him back inside saying something like this:  “I love you, Johnnie, but your dirty shoes can mess up my clothes and the furniture.  From now on, let’s try to make sure your shoes are clean before you come inside, and then you can sit in my lap and hug me and talk to me all you want, O.K?”  God is just such a loving Father, and confession of our sins to Him restores that fellowship.  Jesus adds, in verses 10 to 11, that “not all of you are clean.”  Judas has not taken a spiritual bath.  He has no genuine commitment to Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior.

IV.  THE EXPLANATION FOR HIS ACTIONS (verses 12-17)

In verses 12-17, Jesus tells His disciples that the lowly act of washing their feet was not beneath His dignity, and He was their Teacher and Lord.  William Temple once said, “When a man stands on his dignity, he usually succeeds in squashing it flat!”  The pride and boasting of His disciples had now been turned to shame.  Jesus concludes by saying in verse 15:  “For I gave you an example that you also should do as I do.”  Notice that Jesus does not say, “Do what I do.”  He’s not commanding that foot-washing become an ordinance in the church, like baptism and the Lord’s Supper.  He says, “do as I do” by applying the principles of humility I’ve shown you to your own lives.

What are those principles of humility?  Let’s go over them again.

  1. Humble service can be a demonstration of true love (verses 1-2)
    2.  Humility is unannounced.  Jesus didn’t announce what He was going to do.  He just did it (verses 4-5).  He didn’t brag about it afterward either.
    3.  Humility does not play favorites.  Jesus washed Judas’ feet (verses 5 and 12).  In 1878, when William Booth’s Salvation Army was beginning to make its mark, men and women from all over the world began to enlist.  Samuel Brengle left a fine pastorate to join Booth’s Army.  But at first, General Booth accepted his services reluctantly and grudgingly.  Booth said to Brengle, “You’ve been your own boss to long.”  In order to instill humility in Brengle, Booth set him to work cleaning the boots of other trainees.  Discouraged, Brengle said to himself, “Have I followed my own fancy across the Atlantic in order to black boots?”  And then, as in a vision, he saw Jesus bending over the feet of rough, unlettered fishermen.  “Lord,” he whispered, “you washed their feet; I will black their boots.”  He later was promoted to the rank of Commissioner, the second highest rank in the Salvation Army.
    4.  Humility is being willing to receive without embarrassment (verses 6-9).  That was a lesson I learned many years ago and I’m going to briefly share it with you.  While I was a student at Multnomah School of the Bible, I applied for a position as a campus minister with Campus Ambassadors, the campus ministry of the Conservative Baptist Church.  I was told that I would have to raise all my support before I could be assigned to a campus.  The thought of raising support was difficult for me to accept.  Ever since I was nine years old, I was earning money taking care of the lawns of my two next door neighbors.  I also had a paper route.  When I shared my struggle with the man who led me to the Lord and discipled me, he responded by saying, “Tom, it has brought you a lot of joy to give to my support, hasn’t it?  Now God has called you to a full-time ministry for Him.  Don’t deprive others of the joy they would receive by giving to you and to the ministry God has given to you.”  Those words of encouragement gave me a new perspective.
    5.  Humility includes serving one another, not just the Lord.  In 2 Corinthians 4:5, the apostle Paul said, “For what we preach is not ourselves but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants, for Jesus’ sake.”
    6.  Lastly, and most importantly, humility doesn’t refer to something we do, but to someone we are.  It is not to be reserved just to certain times and places, but it’s to be an attitude of heart and a way of life.  The only statement Jesus makes about His own character is found in Matthew 11:28-29.  He described Himself as being “gentle and humble of heart.”

During the American Revolution a man in civilian clothes rode past a group of soldiers repairing a small defensive barrier.  Their leader was shouting instructions, but making no attempt to help them.  Asked why by the rider, he retorted with great dignity, “Sir, I am a corporal!”  The stranger apologized, dismounted, and proceeded to help the exhausted soldiers.  The job done, he turned to the corporal and said, “Mr. Corporal, next time you have a job like this and not enough men to do it, go to your commander-in-chief, and I will come and help you again.”  The speaker was none other than George Washington.

Are we humble people?  Are we willing to perform humble tasks for others?  Are we willing and ready to follow the example of the Lord Jesus Christ out of love for Him and for others?  Augustine of Hippo, who was one of the early church fathers, was once asked the question:  “What is the secret to holiness of life?”  His answer was “humility, humility, humility.”

I’m going to close with another illustration.  A man by the name of Sanhu Sundar Singh became a Christian in his native country of India.  He later became an evangelist for Christ in India, and throughout Europe and Asia.  Corrie Ten Boom met Sundar in Europe where he had competed a tour around the world, preaching the Gospel message to large crowds.  People asked him, “Doesn’t it do harm, your getting so much honor?”  Sundar’s answer was:  “No.  The donkey went into Jerusalem, and they put garments on the ground before him.  He was not proud.  He knew it was not done to honor him, but for Jesus, who was sitting on his back.  When people honor me, I know it is not for me, but for the Lord, who does the job.”  May we allow the Lord Jesus Christ to do the job He wants to do in and through us, and may we be quick to humbly give Him all the glory.

CONSTRUCTION SITE;  COMPLETED.  Thank you for visiting.

WHY DON’T PEOPLE BELIEVE? — John 12:37-50

unbelief, Uncategorized

INTRODUCTION;

It is now only a few days before the crucifixion and death of the Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 36 tells us that Jesus hid from the multitudes in order to spend some concentrated time with His disciples before His death.  In this passage of Scripture, John 12:37-50, the apostle John gives a summary of the public ministry of the Lord Jesus to the nation of Israel, and then he gives Jesus’ response to the nation.

I.  JOHN’S EVALUATION OF THEIR UNBELIEF (verses 37-41)

John has three things to say about the Jew’s rejection of Jesus.  First, it was illogical, considering all the miracles Jesus had performed to prove He was the Son of God.  There are two aspects of Jesus’ miracles that John emphasizes.  In verse 37, John uses the words “so many miracles”.  Not only were there many miracles but there were also many kinds of miracles, some of which were repeated.  For example, there was the feeding of the 3000 and the feeding of the 5000.  There was also the raising of Jairus’s daughter as well as the raising of Lazarus from the dead.  The large number and the great variety of miracles demonstrated Christ’s power and gave the people many opportunities to observe and examine them.

Jesus performed His miracles “before them”.  Most of His miracles were not done from a distance or in secret, but right in front of their very eyes.  To reject these miracles was to deny the obvious.  The apostle John expresses amazement that, though the Lord Jesus performed so many mighty works, the Jewish people as a nation did not believe in Him.  As John mentioned before, their unbelief was not caused by any lack of evidence.  The people did not want to believe.   They refused to believe.

Secondly, their unbelief was predicted.  In verse 38, John quotes Isaiah 53:1 when he says, “Lord, who has believed our report?  And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?”  There is a question over who is speaking in this quote:  “who has believed our message?”.  To say that it refers to Isaiah and the other prophets doesn’t fit with verse 2, nor with Isaiah 52:15 or chapter 54 of Isaiah.  I would like to suggest that the speaker in verse 1 is the nation of Israel — the future nation of Israel which will have come to believe in Jesus Christ.  This new Israel that is to come is looking back to the time of Christ and asking, “Who believed the message we received then?  How many recognized the “arm” or the power of God in the miracles of Christ?”  The obvious answer is “not many”, not many at all.  The form of this question is an emphatic way of saying that the message was rejected.

Thirdly, in verses 39-41, John declares that their unbelief was decreed by God.  In verse 39, he says, “For this cause, they could not believe.”  Then John quotes the words of the prophet Isaiah, saying, “He has blinded their eyes and hardened their heart; lest they see with their eyes, and perceive with their heart, and be converted, and I heal them.”   Let’s not misunderstand the words of John and the prophet Isaiah.  The people are not being condemned against their will, or before they have an opportunity to choose for themselves.  John is writing here about a cause-and-effect relationship and God is not the cause of their spiritual condition.  They are the cause.  What they persist in doing, they will become.  It doesn’t say that they can’t repent or that God won’t forgive them if they do so.   God has not put an obstacle in their path.  They have stubbornly put an obstacle in God’s path and God is allowing them to have their way and experience the consequences of their disobedience.

The word “hardened”, in verse 40, comes from the Greek word for “callus”.  I’m sure we’ve all had calluses on our hands or feet before, haven’t we?  Wherever there is a callus, the skin is not as sensitive to touch or pain because that hard callus covers the nerves underneath it.  That same process can happen spiritually.  The more a person rejects the Gospel message, the harder it becomes for him or her to receive it.

One of the early church fathers, Augustine of Hippo, commented on this passage of Scripture.  He said, “If I be asked why they could not believe, I answer without hesitation, ‘because they would not; because God foresaw their evil will, and he announced it beforehand by the prophet.’ ”

Pastor Ray Stedman used an illustration that brings this principle across clearly by applying it to our human bodies.  Here is his illustration:

“Tie your arm to your body and leave it tied, unmovable, for a week.  When you untie it, you will find that you can hardly move it; it will have lost its ability to function, not because God wants people to lose their arm function.  No, but God determined the law that says, ‘use it or lose it.’ . . . It is also true of one’s moral life.  If you don’t exercise faith when you have the opportunity, you will gradually lose the ability to do so, until there will come a day when you cannot exercise faith.  By the law of nature, then, God has hardened your heart and blinded your eyes.  Having chosen that, that is what you become.  If you refuse to act on truth, you will finally lose the ability to recognize it.  It has been said,

“There is a line by us unseen, that crosses every path,
The hidden boundary between God’s patience and His wrath.”

II.  BELIEF IN MIND, NOT IN ACTION (verses 42-43)

As the apostle John continues to evaluate their unbelief, he makes a statement in verses 42 and 43 that could be misinterpreted if it isn’t tied to his previous statement.  John is not saying that many of the authorities became followers of Jesus Christ.  What he appears to be saying is that many of the authorities were entertaining thoughts that Jesus was the Messiah, but there was no evidence of a commitment to follow Christ at that point in time.  True faith in the Lord Jesus Christ is life-changing.  The indwelling Christ overcomes the fear of man and gives the true believer the desire and the power to stand firm in the face of opposition.  There is no such thing as a secret disciple of Christ.

In 373 A.D., a man by the name of John Chrysostom spent some time alone in the mountains of Antioch, seeking to know God better.  He learned from that experience that, with God on His side, he could stand alone against anyone or anything.  That lesson was put to the test later on in his life.  In 389 A.D., he was appointed patriarch of Constantinople, where his zeal for reform antagonized Empress Eudoxia, who had him exiled.  Allowed to return after a short time, Chrysostom again infuriated Eudoxia, who sent him away again.  How did Chrysostom respond to such persecution?  With these words:  “What can I fear?  Will it be death?  But you know that Christ is my life and that I shall gain by death.  Will it be exile?  But the earth and all its fullness are the Lord’s.  Poverty I do not fear; riches I do not sigh for, and from death, I do not shrink.”

The rulers of the Jews, on the other hand, refused to confess Jesus Christ before men because of their fear of the consequences.  The approval of men was more important than the approval of God.  That attitude ruled out the possibility of any real commitment to Jesus Christ as their Lord.  There were two exceptions.  After the crucifixion and death of Jesus, Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea risked their reputations and their lives when they asked Pilate for the body of Jesus Christ so that they could give Him a King’s burial.

III.  THE SERIOUSNESS OF REJECTING CHRIST (verses 44-50)

After finishing his evaluation of that situation, the apostle John now quotes the words Jesus spoke to them at that point in time.  Verse 44 says that Jesus “cried out”  He raised His voice so that everyone could hear what He was about to say.  Here is His first statement:  “He who believes in me, believes not in me but in him who sent me.  And he who sees me sees him who sent me.”  Jesus is saying that He and the Father are one in essence.  They are both God.  To see Him is to see God because Jesus is God in the flesh.  Jesus’ second statement is:  “I have come into the world as a light, so that no one who believes in me should stay in darkness.”  C.S. Lewis, the author of Mere Christianity and many other Christian books, said these words:  “I believe in Christianity as I believe the sun has risen, not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.”  When we become children of God through faith in Jesus Christ as our Lord, we see life from a different perspective, don’t we?  The apostle Peter said it well in 1 Peter 2:9, “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for His own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light,”  The present and future are much brighter and clearer when we know the Lord, aren’t they?

Now Jesus tells us the other side of the story.  Judgment is for those who refuse to believe in Him, but Jesus is reminding them that His first coming is a time of grace, not of judgment.  He came to earth to save the world, not to judge it.  But He warns them that there will be a last day and that will be a day of judgment and condemnation.  His own words will condemn them if they refuse to believe.  He is giving them a final notice, and He adds that His words are the words that the Father has told Him to say to them.  You can add verse 36 to the end of verse 50.  “When He [Jesus] had finished speaking, Jesus left and hid Himself from them.”

Have you ever received a final notice in the mail?  There was a cartoon in Readers’ Digest Magazine many years ago.  A wife was opening the mail and she said to her husband, “The bank says that this is our last notice.  Isn’t it wonderful that they aren’t going to bother us anymore?”  It’s never wise to ignore final notices, is it?  A man received a “Second Notice” from the IRS that his tax payment was overdue and that unless it was immediately forthcoming, he would face legal action.  He hurried to the IRS office with his payment in hand and said, “I would have paid it sooner but I never received your First Notice.  The clerk replied, “We ran out of ‘First Notices.’  Besides, we discovered that the ‘Second Notices’ are much more effective.”  Jesus’ words here at the end of chapter 12 are God’s Final Notice.  It’s a call to believe in Him for salvation and to live for Him until our last day on this earth.

In the children’s fantasy, Alice in Wonderland, Alice came to a junction in the road that led in different directions, so she asked the Cheshire Cat for advice.

“Would you tell me please, which way I ought to go from here?”
“That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,” said the Cat.
“I don’t much care where,” said Alice.
“Then it doesn’t matter which way you go,” said the Cat.

The Cat is right.  It doesn’t matter which way we go if we don’t care where we end up.  But most of us do care where we end up, don’t we?  The decisions we make throughout our lives do matter.  We all come to forks in the road of our lives and make decisions that will impact our future.  If we have Christ in our lives and His Word in our hearts and on our minds, we have all the light we need.  Psalm 119:105 says, “Thy Word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.”  But God’s Word not only lights the way.  It is also used by the Holy Spirit to empower us to obey as we meditate upon it each day.  Joshua 1:8 says, “This Book of the Law shall not depart out of your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do all that is written in it.  For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.”  Will we allow God to be successful in using our lives for His glory today and every day of our lives?    .

CONSTRUCTION SITE:  Completed

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

GLORIFY THY NAME – John 12:27-36

Uncategorized

INTRODUCTION:

When we are facing a difficult and dangerous assignment, what alternatives do we have?  One alternative would be to avoid it, refusing to go through it or running away from it.  The prophet Jonah comes to my mind.  When God told him to go to Nineveh, Jonah ran in the opposite direction.  Another alternative would be to do the parts of the assignment which were less threatening and disregard the rest.  A third alternative would be to do it, regardless of the danger or cost to ourselves.

The Lord Jesus Christ was faced with a dangerous situation.  He knew that very soon He would be arrested and crucified.  John 12:27-36 describes Jesus’ response and His motivation in the face of suffering and death.

I,  JESUS PRAYER CONCERNING HIS COMING CRUCIFIXION (verses 27-28)

Jesus didn’t wait until the Garden of Gethsemane, the night before His death, to begin to pray about it.  In verse 27, He expressed His inner feelings to the Father when He said, “My soul is troubled.”  There was a conflict of emotions.  Jesus asked Himself the question, “What shall I say?” [“What shall I pray?”].  Two alternatives came to His mind and He expressed the first one:  “Shall I say . . . Father, save Me from this hour?”  We see the reaction of Jesus’ human will to the possibility of death.  It was an instinctive reaction to danger, a reaction that we all have as human beings.  Jesus was no actor playing a role.  He was a real person possessing real emotions.  And this hour that He was facing would involve the desertion of His disciples, being bound and led away, being struck on the face, scourged with a whip, crowned with thorns and mocked, followed by crucifixion and death.  Try to imagine facing that situation yourself, knowing what was about to happen to you.

In verse 27, Jesus immediately realized that He could not pray this prayer, “Father, save Me from this hour” because His whole purpose for coming to this earth was to go to the cross.  Jesus was born so that He might die for our sins.  Without Christ’s death, His life would be fruitless.  It would accomplish nothing of eternal value.  So Jesus immediately dismissed that thought and expressed His real desire when He prayed the words:  “Father, glorify Thy name.”  Jesus knew what was in store for Him:  the physical pain, the emotional strain and shame, and the spiritual agony as He would become the object of the Father’s wrath for sin.  Yet His prayer was not for Himself but for the Father’s name to be glorified and His will accomplished.  Jesus was saying, “complete your perfect plan of salvation through Me, even at the cost of My own suffering and death.”  We will see this same attitude again in the Garden of Gethsemane, where Jesus prayed, “If it is possible, let this cup pass from me” (Matthew 26:39).  Then he immediately added, “yet not as I will, but as Thou wilt.”. 

The Bible doesn’t tell us when God the Father revealed to Jesus that He was going to die for the sins of the world.  We do find, in Luke 2:41-52, that at the age of 12, Jesus was found in the temple listening to the elders and asking them questions.  His response to Mary and Joseph was, “Did you not know that I had to be in My Father’s house?”  It’s clear from that passage of Scripture that Jesus already had some understanding of His mission.  We find that, early in His public ministry, Jesus talked about His death.

William Hunt painted a famous picture entitled The Shadow of Death.  The artist portrayed Jesus as a young man in Joseph’s carpenter shop.  It was in the late afternoon and the sun’s rays were coming through the open door.  Jesus had gotten up from His work and was stretching His aching arms.  As he did so, the setting sun casts a shadow on the wall behind Him, creating the appearance of a man on a cross.  That picture dramatizes the truth that Jesus lived with the consciousness that Calvary was God’s will for His life.

In verse 28, Jesus’ prayer was a demonstration of His perfect obedience to the will of the Father.  He also fulfilled, by His example, the prayer He taught His disciples in Matthew 6:9, where He said, “Pray, then, in this way:  ‘Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name.  Thy kingdom come.  Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.’ “   Exalting the name of the Father and doing the Father’s will were the chief concerns of His life.

II.  THE FATHER’S RESPONSE (verse 28)

After Jesus prayed those words, “Father, glorify Thy name”, verse 28 tells us there was a voice from heaven saying, “I have both glorified it, and I will glorify it again.”  When did the Father glorify Himself through His Son?  We find the Father’s voice echoing from heaven at Jesus’ baptism.  In Matthew 3:17, God spoke from heaven saying, “This is My beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.”  The Father was testifying to His Son’s sinlessness and perfect obedience to Him during the silent years before Jesus began His public ministry.

Later the Father’s voice was heard again at the transfiguration of Jesus as Peter, James, and John watched and listened, and as Moses and Elijah appeared and talked with Jesus.  God the Father spoke these words from heaven:  “This is my beloved Son.  Listen to Him!” (Matthew 17:5).  The Father was expressing His delight in the Son’s ministry –  a ministry that was superior to all the prophets and leaders who came before Him.  When God the Father said, “I will glorify it again”, He was also saying that still greater glory was yet to be brought to Him through the death, burial, resurrection, and ascension of the Lord Jesus Christ.

III.  THE CROWD’S REACTION (verse 29)

From the crowd’s reaction, we learn that there were basically two groups of people in that crowd.  The first group said, “It thundered”.  This group of people didn’t believe in anything miraculous.  They were saying, “There is no such thing as a miracle, so there must be a natural explanation for this.  Hmmm . . . It must have been thunder.  That’s the only sensible answer.”

The second group knew it wasn’t thunder.  They admitted that words were spoken, but they couldn’t be the words of God; so their conclusion was:  “An angel has spoken to Him.”  But how could an angel say those words?  The Scriptures tell us that angels don’t marry or have children (Mark 12:25).

I just read a true illustration about a person whose response to his own personal experience is the opposite of these two groups of people.  Near the end of World War 2, members of the allied forces were often found searching farms and houses for snipers.  At one abandoned house, which had been reduced to rubble, searchers found their way into the basement.  There, on a crumbling wall, a victim of the Holocaust had scratched a Star of David.  Beneath it was written the words, “I believe in the sun, even when it does not shine.  I believe in love even when it is not shown.  I believe in God even when He does not speak.”

There was a time when the Jews believed that God spoke audibly to men.  He spoke to Abraham, Samuel, Elijah, and several others. But during the silent years – the 400 or so years between the Old Testament and the New Testament, when God did not speak audibly or through the prophets, many of the Jews were drawn away from that sense of God’s presence and His closeness to them.  Now, when God does speak aloud to them, they act as if they are hard of hearing.  Would you agree that pride can sometimes cause us to be “selective listeners”?  As the saying goes, “In one ear and out the other.”  That seems to be the case in this situation, doesn’t it?

IV.  JESUS RESPONDS TO THE CROWD (verses 30-33)

In His response to the crowd, Jesus begins by saying, “This voice was for your benefit, not mine.”  Let’s not misunderstand the meaning of His words.  Jesus was not saying that those words from heaven had everything to do with them and nothing to do with Him.   The Father said those words aloud in reply to Jesus and I’m sure they were an encouragement to Him.  What Jesus meant was:  “That voice came more for your sake than for Mine.”

Then Jesus made a startling statement when He said, “Now judgment is upon this world; now the ruler of this world shall be cast out.”  He’s beginning to describe to them how the Father is going to glorify Himself again through His Son.  Some may have been thinking, “What right does He have to make such a prophetic statement?  Who is this ‘ruler of this world’?”  Actually, many of the Jews of Jesus’ day may have had that understanding of Satan.  The apostle Paul was a Jew and he referred to Satan as “the god of this world” (2 Corinthians 4:4), and “the prince of the power of the air” (Ephesians 2:2).  There were also many demon-possessed people in Palestine during the lifetime of Christ, and the Jews had opportunities to observe the power and control that demons could wield in a person’s life.

When Jesus referred to Satan as “the ruler of this world”, He was asserting that Satan was powerful and that he exerted a lot of influence over the people of this world.  But even though Satan’s desire is to control this world, there is One who is more powerful than himself.

During the French Revolution in the early 1800s, Napoleon Bonaparte, with his staff officers around him, once spread a large map of the world on a table before him, put his finger on a kingdom colored red, and said to them, “Messieurs, if it were not for that red spot I could conquer the world.”  That red spot was the British Isles.  In like manner, Satan might place a huge map of the universe before his cohorts, put his finger on a place red with the blood of the Savior, and say to them, “If it were not for that red spot, I could conquer the universe.”  That red spot is the Cross on Golgotha’s Hill where the Lord Jesus died to save sinners from Satan’s power.

Not only would He defeat Satan by His own death on the cross, but Jesus adds in verse 32, “I will draw all men to Myself.”   When Jesus said the words “all men”, He did not mean every individual without exception, but all kinds of people without exclusion.  Jews and Gentiles, regardless of age, gender, color, nationality, or social status would be drawn to Christ and find deliverance from sin and peace with God through the “magnet” of the cross of Christ.  Earlier in His ministry, Jesus said, in John 6:44, “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him.”  When you are drawn, you come.

The apostle John wants his readers to understand the reason why Jesus said the words, “When I am lifted up.”  It was to indicate the kind of death He was to die.  In contrast to Satan [“the ruler of this world”] who is going to be “cast out”, Jesus is going to be “lifted up”.

There is confusion in the minds of the multitude.  They heard Jesus call Himself “the Son of Man” in verse 23 and now He is talking about His death.  That didn’t fit their understanding of the Scriptures so they demand an explanation.  In verse 34, someone in the crowd must have spoken on behalf of the others saying, “We have heard out of the Law that the Christ is to remain forever, and how can you say, ‘The Son of Man must be lifted up?  Who is this Son of Man?’ ”  Can you feel the tension?  Just a couple of days earlier, they were shouting, “Hosanna!  Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord” as Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey.  Now they are questioning whether the Son of Man and the Messiah are the same person.

V.  WALK IN THE LIGHT (verses 35-36)

Jesus doesn’t answer their excuse and their question directly.  Instead, He gives them a warning, a choice, and a promise.  Farmers have a saying that goes like this:  “Make hay while the sun shines.”  It’s an encouragement to make the most of the opportunity.  The weather won’t be favorable for planting or harvesting for much longer.

As Jesus speaks to the multitude, He once again uses the theme of light and darkness.  In verse 35 He says, “For a little while longer the light is among you.”  Jesus” is referring to Himself.  You may have heard the saying, “Opportunity seldom knocks twice.”  In their case, “opportunity” has been knocking for three years and very few have opened the door.  It is now Passover week, and Jesus’ crucifixion and death are just a few days away.

When Jesus said, “The light is among you”, He was bringing to their minds the words of the prophet Isaiah who said, in Isaiah 9:2, “The people who walk in darkness will see a great light; those who live in a dark land, the light will shine upon them.”  Jesus is, once again, proclaiming Himself to be the Messiah they are longing for.  He is also giving them a final warning and two final exhortations:  “Walk while you have the light, that darkness may not overtake you . . . believe in the light in order that you may become sons of light.”   Can you sense the urgency in His plea to the multitude?  This is His last call to them.  God’s patience with them has reached its limit.  To “walk in the light” and to “believe in the light” are two ways to say the same thing.  Both refer to a commitment to follow Him, the “light of the world” (John 8:12).

They have the privilege of having the light of the world [Jesus Christ] in their presence, and along with that privilege comes an obligation to believe in that light with the result that they will become children of the light.  The warning is that He won’t be around much longer, and they will be stumbling in the darkness.  This was the end of Jesus’ public ministry in John’s Gospel.  Verse 36 tells us that after He said these things to them, Jesus “departed and hid Himself from them.” 

CONCLUSION:

Several principles can be drawn from the example of the Lord Jesus Christ in this passage of Scripture.  First, God’s glory, not our own comfort and safety, should be the basis for all our decision-making.  After Jesus told the multitude about His coming death, He said, “Father, glorify Thy name.”  Secondly, God is glorified when we are obedient to His Word and are doing His will.  And thirdly:  Now is the time to glorify God in our lives.  Is this a time of decision for you?  The Light of the Lord Jesus Christ is not only to be seen and admired but also to be followed and displayed.  He wants His light to shine in and through your life.  Don’t put off believing in Him and living for Him.  Before the people of Israel crossed the Jordan River to enter the land of Canaan, Joshua said, “Chose for yourselves today whom you will serve.”  He was also quick to add his own personal application saying, “but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord”  (Joshua 24:15)

When the French painter, Auguste Renoir was confined to his home during the last decade of his life, Henri Matisse was nearly 28 years younger than him.  The two great artists were dear friends and frequent companions.  Matisse visited him daily.  Renoir, almost paralyzed by arthritis, continued to paint in spite of his infirmities.  He had to hold his brush between his thumb and index finger.  As he painted, students often heard him crying out in pain.  One day, as Matisse watched the elder painter work in his studio, fighting tortuous pain with each brush stroke, he blurted out, “Auguste, why do you continue to paint when you are in such agony?”  Renoir said, “The pain passes but the beauty remains.

The pain of Jesus Christ on the cross has passed but the beauty remains.  It’s the beauty of the resurrected Christ.  It’s the beauty of being a new creature in Christ because He suffered and died for us.  It’s the beauty of a new kingdom that has been established in the hearts and lives of His followers.  It’s the beauty of knowing Him and living for Him who died for us.  It’s the beauty of heaven.  Out of our pain and sorrow in this life will come a beauty that will last forever.

CONSTRUCTION SITE:  COMPLETED

Welcome to this construction project:  John 12:27-36.  I hope you will enter into the emotions of Jesus and learn from His response, His Father’s response to Him, and the responses of those who were there, watching, listening, and coming to their own conclusions.

THE PARADOX OF LIFE FROM DEATH – John 12:20-26

Paradox of death and fruitfulness, paradox of life and death, Paradox of life and death, Uncategorized

INTRODUCTION:

A paradox is defined as a figure of speech or a statement that seems to contradict itself, but which, upon further examination, contains a kernel of truth.  I like pastor Warren Wiersbe’s definition:  “A paradox is a statement that attracts attention because it seems to be contradictory.  This arouses curiosity and we are puzzled.  But as we meditate on the statement, we go deeper into some important facet of life and learn something new.  Paradoxes are marvelous instructors.”

The Bible contains many spiritual paradoxes.  The Lord Jesus sometimes used paradoxes as a means of communicating truth.  He said, “If anyone wishes to be first, he shall be last of all, and the servant of all” (Mark 9:35).  In another situation, Jesus said, “For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself shall be exalted” (Matthew 23:12; Luke 14:11).  In the passage of scripture we are now studying, John 12:20-26, Jesus once again uses a paradox to communicate truth.  Before we examine this paradox, let’s look at the circumstances leading up to it.

  1.  THE BACKGROUND AND SETTING (verses 20)

The feast of the Passover, the greatest feast on the Jewish calendar, was near, and verse 20 says that certain Greeks were going to Jerusalem to worship at the feast.  These Greeks were probably proselytes – a term used for those who were not Jews by birth but became converts to the Jewish religion.  Another example of a proselyte was Cornelius, the Roman Centurion in Acts 10 and 11.  These Gentile converts must have found Judaism to be much more meaningful than their pagan religions.  Have you ever studied Greek and Roman mythology?  If you have, as I have, you’ve probably noted that those gods and goddesses were more corrupt and immoral than the people who worshipped them  By contrast, the God of Israel was a God who was holy and worthy of their worship.

II,  THE REQUEST (verse 21)

Notice, in verse 21, that these Greeks approached Philip and said to him, “Sir, we would like to see Jesus.”  Why such boldness?  How did they know that Jesus would be interested in talking to them?  We can find the answer to that question in Mark’s Gospel.  Between verse 19 and verse 20 of John 12, a day or two may have elapsed, and Mark 11:15-17 describes what happened:  It says, “And they [Jesus and His disciples] came to Jerusalem.  And He [Jesus] entered the temple and began to cast out those who were buying and selling in the temple, and overturned the tables of the moneychangers and the seats of those who were selling doves; and He would not permit anyone to carry goods through the temple.  And He began to teach and say to them, ‘Is it not written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations’?  But you have made it a robbers’ den.’ 

Jesus cast out the traders and the moneychangers from the outer court of the temple to fulfill the prophecy in Isaiah 56:7, which says, “My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations.”  This outer court is called “the Court of the Gentiles” because that was the only place in the temple where Gentile converts could come and worship.  Those Greeks may have been in the temple at that time or may have heard about it, and they must have realized that when Jesus cleansed their courtyard, He did it for their benefit, so that they could worship in peace.  Therefore Jesus was interested in them and could be approached confidently.  They wanted to have a conversation with Jesus and get to know Him better.

Henry Bosch shares an illustration that uses this verse of Scripture.  A brilliant young preacher, with several degrees after his name, once accepted a call to pastor a large congregation.  The people were pleased with his oratory and learning, but something seemed to be missing from his sermons.  One day, when entering the pulpit, he saw a note addressed to him, bearing the following words:  “SIR, WE WOULD SEE JESUS!”  The Holy Spirit spoke to his heart.  Throwing aside his superficiality and his scholarly rhetoric, he became an ambassador for Christ, pleading with the people to be reconciled to God through the blood of Christ.  Those who came to be entertained by his message remained to pray and repent of their sins.  On a later Sunday, the young minister found another note pinned to the pulpit.  On it was written a Scripture that summarized the feelings of his now well-fed congregation.  It read, “THEN WERE THE DISCIPLES GLAD WHEN THEY SAW THE LORD!”.

Going back to John 12, we read in verse 21 that they came to Philip.  Why did they choose Philip?  Possibly it was because of his name.  Philip is a Greek name.  It means “lover of horses”.  Therefore He would probably understand their language and their ways of thinking.  Their choice of Philip was a good one because Philip himself was an inquirer  The first time he is mentioned in the Gospels is in John 1:43-46.  Philip expressed faith in Jesus and then immediately he went out to bring others to Christ.  Philip found Nathanael and said to him, “We have found Him of whom Moses in the Law and also the Prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph. . . . Come and see.”

III.  PHILIP’S RESPONSE (verse 22)

John 12:22 says, “Philip came and told Andrew.”   Why did Philip tell Andrew?  Why not take these Greeks directly to Jesus?  He may have been seeking Andrew’s advice.  These Greeks were Gentiles and Philip may not have trusted his own judgment.  So he presents the situation to Andrew to get his reaction.  The result is that both of them come and tell Jesus about the request.

IV.  JESUS’ RESPONSE (verses 23-26)

Jesus’ heart must have been filled with joy as He exclaims, in verse 23, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.”  Jesus had been rejected, for the most part, by His own people, but now He sees the assurance that He will be received and accepted as Savior and Lord by the Gentile nations.

In verse 24, Jesus states that there is only one way in which He could be glorified: “Unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies . . . ”  Jesus had to die in order to become a source of life to the world.  It’s only when a grain of wheat falls to the ground, is buried, and begins to rot, that new life comes up from it.  The Lord Jesus is applying this illustration to Himself and to all believers.  If Jesus did not die, “He would remain by Himself alone.”  There would be no saved sinners to share His glory.  But Jesus did die, and Ephesians 2:13 says, “But now, in Christ Jesus, you who formerly were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.”  The kingdom of heaven is now open to all believers.  In the case of Jesus, He would die and He would produce fruit, but His body would not experience decay, in fulfillment of prophecy (Psalm 16:10, Acts 2:27).  After Jesus’ death and resurrection, we see the tremendous fruitfulness of the Gospel.  In Acts 2, three thousand people were saved and baptized in one day!  Can you imagine that?  Shortly thereafter, 5000 more came to the Lord.  Then addition became multiplication in Acts 9:31 because those who were being saved were also reaching out to others with the Gospel message, and these became followers of Christ also..  The New Testament church was growing by leaps and bounds.

In 1881 a Scotchman in Minnesota put those words of Jesus to the test.  He planted one grain of wheat.  This grain produced twenty-two stalks bearing 560 grains of wheat.  In 1882 he planted the 560 grains and received a fifth of a bushel of wheat.  In 1883 the fifth of a bushel produced 17 bushels.  In 1884 the seventeen bushels produced over a hundred bushels, and in 1885 the hundred bushels produced 2,800 bushels or four railroad boxcar loads of wheat.  That’s the principle of multiplication.

After applying His principle of death and fruitfulness to Himself, in verses 23-24, Jesus then applies it to His disciples and to us as well. in verses 25-26.  He begins by saying, “He who loves his life loses it; and he who hates his life in this world shall keep it to life eternal.”  Only by death to oneself comes new life in Christ and fruitfulness for God.  The Lord Jesus carries that principle a step further when He says, “If anyone serves Me, let him follow Me; and where I am, there shall My servant also be; if anyone serves Me, the Father will honor him.”  There will be rewards for faithful service and we will cast those crowns of righteousness at our Savior’s feet as an act of worship to Him.  But the greatest joy and honor will be the privilege of enjoying His presence and His fellowship for eternity.

A man by the name of C.T. Studd was such a grain of wheat.  Charles Thomas Studd came from a very wealthy family and was the greatest cricket player in England in the late 1800s.  He was also considered by many to be the greatest cricket player in the world at that time.  Cricket is a game somewhat similar to baseball.  C.T. Studd had a very promising career ahead of him in professional sports.  In 1884 his brother George became seriously ill and Charles was confronted with the question, “What is all this fame and flattery worth when a man comes to face eternity?”  After that experience he said, “I know that cricket would not last, and honor would not last, but it was worthwhile living for the world to come.”  He and his wife went first to China, then to India.  In 1913 they were compelled to return to England with broken health.  But the fires of God still burned in his soul.  He was called a fool and a fanatic when he decided to go to Africa with neither health nor money.  His reply was, “If Jesus Christ be God and died for me, then no sacrifice can be too great for me to make for Him.”

Studd poured himself out for the Congolese for sixteen years, then went to be with the Lord in 1931  In the fifty years since he went to Africa, the one mission field had grown to forty, and the one missionary had become more than a thousand missionaries working under the Worldwide Evangelization Crusade.  C.T. Studd willingly and joyfully died to himself in order that he might know and do the will of God, and God used him abundantly.  The fruits of his labors are continuing to multiply.

Are you and I such a grain of wheat?  The Lord Jesus Christ is only asking us to do, on a small scale, what He did for us on a grand scale by coming to this earth and paying the penalty that our sins deserved in our place.  Are we willing to follow Him completely and unreservedly?    If we want something bad enough, we are willing to make almost any sacrifice to get it, aren’t we?  Jesus Christ has provided the greatest gift.  He has made the greatest possible sacrifice to order to do so.  The greatest joy in this life comes when we submit our wills to the will of God and become a vessel that is emptied of self, filled and controlled by the Spirit of God, and useful to Him for His honor and glory.

A.W. Tozer, the author of the book, “Knowing God”, once wrote:  “In every Christian’s heart there is a cross and a throne, and the Christian is on the throne until he puts himself on the cross; if he refuses the cross; he remains on the throne.   At the end of his statement, Tozer said, “We all want to be saved but we insist that Christ does all the dying.”  If you belong to Jesus, every day will have its cross.  Every day will have something you ought to do, but don’t feel like doing.  That is your cross.”  Jesus said, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.”  Every day we have to die a little, or a lot, in order to live for Jesus.  But that is how His kingdom grows.  That is how the death of one kernel of wheat produces many seeds  Jesus used the symbol of a kernel of wheat not only to refer to Himself but as a symbol of everyone who truly follows Him.  Then others will see Jesus through the daily choices we make to crucify self and live for Him.  That is how His kingdom grows.

CONSTRUCTION SITE:  COMPLETED

I hope to see you next door as I begin a new construction project at this new address:  John 12:27-36.

THE TRIUMPHAL ENTRY INTO JERUSALEM – JOHN 12:9-19

John 12:9-19, palm branches, Palm Sunday, Palm Sunday message, Palm Sunday sermon, second triumphal entry, Triumphal entry, Uncategorized

INTRODUCTION:

You may be familiar with the song, “The King Is Coming”.  We know that the king spoken about in that song is the Lord Jesus Christ.  When you think of Christ as King, what image or picture do you see in your mind.  Do you see Christ seated on a great throne, ruling the universe?  Do you see Him on a white horse, as He is described in the book of Revelation, leading the armies of heaven?  Those are probably the most common mental images.  In this passage of Scripture, John 12:9-19, we find a different description of Jesus Christ as King, but one that is equally true and especially important for us to envision and seek to understand.

I.  THE BACKGROUND AND SETTING (verses 9-11)

Jesus’ friend, Lazarus, was now a walking miracle ever since Jesus raised him from the dead.  In the previous passage of Scripture, we learned that Jesus came out of hiding.  He and His disciples returned to the home of Martha, Mary, and Lazarus in Bethany and were having dinner with them.  After dinner, they must have spent the night there because verse 12 begins with the words, “On the next day”.

Have you ever heard or used the phrase, “He [they] put two and two together?”  It means to figure something out based upon what one has seen or heard.  The Lord Jesus is about to make arrangements and create a scene in the hope that His disciples and the crowds of people in Jerusalem will “put two and two together” by linking the scene with the Scriptures and responding to Him appropriately.  The apostle John doesn’t give the details of Jesus’ plan, so we’ll need to look at the other three Gospels and gather that information.

Meanwhile, there is a commotion along the streets of Jerusalem and around the temple area.  The news of the resurrection of Lazarus from the dead by Jesus is the talk of the town.  It has been the primetime story on the “Word-Of-Mouth News Network” [WOMNN] for several days now.  People are tuned in and listening with interest.  Other people are saying, “Could Jesus be the promised Messiah who will deliver us from the power of Rome?”  There is excitement in the air. and the hearts of people are once again filled with the hope of deliverance.  The stage is set for the arrival of Jesus at the feast.

In Matthew 21, Mark 11, and Luke 19, the plan unfolds.  Jesus had already arranged for a donkey to be tied to a tree in the village of Bethphage with its colt beside it.  He sent two of His disciples ahead to get the two animals and told them what to say to the owner of the animals.  When they returned, the disciples put their cloaks on the back of the colt and Jesus sat upon it.  Slowly and humbly He made His way up the road to the city of Jerusalem where thousands of Jews from all over the Roman Empire and beyond were preparing to celebrate the annual Passover feast.

!!.  THE RESPONSE OF THE MULTITUDE (verses 12-15)

Then something amazing happens.  The crowds of people gather on both sides of the road, throwing their cloaks and their palm branches on the road in front of Jesus and shouting, “Hosanna to the Son of David.  Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord; Hosanna in the highest!” (Matthew 21:9).  They were quoting words from Psalm 118:25-26 and giving Jesus a King’s welcome.  The crowd was “putting two and two together”.  They were reminded of Zechariah’s prophecy and they realized that Jesus was fulfilling that prophecy concerning the Messiah.  Zechariah 9:9 says, “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion!  Shout in triumph, O daughter of Jerusalem!  Behold, your king is coming to you; He is just and endowed with salvation, humble and seated on a donkey, Even on a colt, the foal of a donkey.”

I don’t think Zechariah 9:9 was the only scripture passage that came to their minds when they saw Jesus entering the city of Jerusalem on that donkey.  This was not the first time that a king rode into Jerusalem on a donkey.  When the crowd saw Jesus coming they were reminded of that previous event because Jesus was coming in the same way, and from the same direction as the previous king.

Let’s examine the words of King David in 1 Kings 1:32-35 and the response in verses 38-40:

“Then David said, ‘Call to me Zadok the priest, Nathan the prophet, and Benaiah the son the Jeboiada.’  And they came into the king’s presence.  And the king said to them, ‘Take with you the servants of your lord, and have my son Solomon ride on my own mule, and bring him down to Gihon.  And let Zadok the priest and Nathan the prophet anoint him there as king over Israel, and blow the trumpet and say, ‘Long live King Solomon!’ ” . . . So Zadok the priest, Nathan the prophet, Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, the Cherethites, and the Pelethites went down and had Solomon ride on King David’s mule and brought him to Gihon.  Zadok the priest then took the horn of oil from the tent and anointed Solomon.  Then they blew the trumpet, and all the people said, ‘Long live King Solomon!’ “

Jesus was the second king to ride into Jerusalem on a donkey.  The onlookers put the two events together and responded appropriately.  Maybe some of the Scribes and Pharisees who had previously said to Jesus, “Teacher, we want to see a sign from you”, still remembered part of His answer:  “Someone greater than Solomon is here” (Matthew 12:38-42).

III.  A CONTRAST:  THE DISCIPLES, THE CROWD, AND THE PHARISEES (verses 16-19)

The apostle John concludes his description of this event by showing us the contrast between the different conclusions that were reached in the minds of Christ’s onlookers.  Verse 16 tells us that Jesus’ disciples didn’t understand the meaning of what just happened, but they did put two and two together after Jesus’ crucifixion and His resurrection from the dead.  Then they worshipped Him as their King (John 20:19-20).

Among the multitude of the pilgrim Jews, there were many who watched Jesus raise Lazarus from the dead.  It doesn’t say, in verses 17 and 18, that they believed in Jesus as their Messiah, but it does indicate that they were eager to meet Him and to learn more about Him.   The Pharisees, on the other hand, were worried.  In verse 19, they were saying to one another, “Look, the world has gone after Him.”  They realized that something had to be done to prevent this from happening, and it had to be done soon.

IV.  THE FINAL INGREDIENT

Before we close the curtain on this Palm Sunday celebration, there is one more ingredient that must be taken into consideration.  Based upon the crowd’s reaction to Jesus, another event must have entered their minds – an event that is not recorded in the Scriptures.  About 200 years earlier, a man by the name of Judas Maccabeus entered the city of Jerusalem as the people waved palm branches and sang hymns.  He and his army then defeated the Syrian army, rid the temple of pagan worshippers, and brought peace and freedom for almost a century.  That’s the kind of Messiah that this crowd was longing for and looking for.

When Jesus entered Jerusalem riding on the donkey, the crowd responded in a similar fashion:  bringing palm branches and singing, “Hosanna to the Son of David!  Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!”  (Matthew 21:9).  The Jews sang this song each year at the beginning of Passover.  It comes from Psalm 118, which is the most quoted psalm in the New Testament.  The psalmist uses the word “hosanna” which means “save now” or “save us please”.  He also tells us why he chose to use that word.  In verses 10-14, the psalmist describes his situation and how God delivered him from his enemies:

“All nations surrounded me;
In the name of the Lord I will surely cut them off.
They surrounded me, yes they surrounded me:
In the name of the Lord I will surely cut them off.
They surrounded me like bees;
They were extinguished as a fire of thorns;
In the name of the Lord I will surely cut them off.
You pushed me violently so that I was falling
But the Lord helped me.
The Lord is my strength and song,
And He has become my salvation.” 

As you can sense from his words, the psalmist is speaking of God’s physical deliverance and victory over his physical enemies.  He uses the rest of his psalm to praise God and thank Him for the deliverance and victory that He provided.

If you add up all these historical events and prophecies and combine them with the high expectations that Jesus is the one who will make it happen, then you’ve got a recipe for disappointment.  This Sunday parade and celebration is going to result in the Monday morning blues.  Their expectations are going to come crashing down because the Lord Jesus didn’t return to Jerusalem in order to fulfill their expectations.  He came to meet their deepest needs.

CONCLUSION:

What happens when God doesn’t meet your expectations?  Do you become disappointed?  Do you become angry?  When your hopes come crashing to the ground, are you resentful?  That was the attitude of the majority of that multitude after that Palm Sunday parade was over and they came down from their emotional high.  In just a few days, many of those who shouted, “Hosanna to the Son of David”, will change their cry to “Crucify Him!”  “Crucify Him!” 

As we’ve studied this passage of Scripture, have you put two and two together?  Have you added up the fulfilled prophecies and the detailed historical events and come to the conclusion that Jesus is truly the Messiah, the King of kings?  If you are willing to do some more arithmetic, the prophet Daniel even prophecies the date when this event was to happen.  We need to add Daniel 9:25 to Nehemiah 2:1-9.  Daniel 9:25 says, “So you are to know and discern that from the issuing of a decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until Messiah the Prince will be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks.”  That’s seven weeks and sixty-two weeks of years.  7 plus 62 equals 69 weeks of years.  There are seven days in a week, so 69 weeks of years are equivalent to 483 years.  That decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem is found in Nehemiah 2.  Verse 1 says, “And it came about in the month Nisan, in the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes.”  That’s the starting time for Daniel’s Prophecy.  The prophetic clock started ticking on March 14, 445 B.C.  It would seem like the easy answer would be 483 years later but that is not the case.  The ancient Hebrew year consisted of 360 days, not 365.  There is a lot of figuring that needs to be done.  Thankfully, Sir Robert Anderson did the painstaking work of counting up all the days and making the calculations.  The date was April 6, 32 A.D.  That’s the day that Jesus rode into Jerusalem on that donkey, literally fulfilling that prophesy to the very day!  He, and He alone, is the Prince, the Messiah!

If you add up all these historical and prophetic details, there is no other reasonable or logical response than to worship Jesus Christ as your God and King, by repenting of your sins, yielding your life to His control, and following Him (Luke 9:23-24).  Are you ready to make that commitment or do you want to know more about what it means to follow Christ?  If so, please go to my sermon entitled “What Does it Mean to Receive Christ – John 1:12-13”.  It explains what it means to become a child of God through faith in Jesus Christ.

If you are a committed follower of Jesus Christ, does He receive a King’s welcome from you every morning?  I pray that your heart may be filled with peace and gladness as you remind yourself that you are a child of the King.  I also hope that you will ask God each day for the power to act like one before the world around you.

CONSTRUCTION SITE:  COMPLETED

Welcome to this completed sermon.  This is a wonderful passage of Scripture to visualize in our minds as the scenes unfold.