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Jeremiah 40 - 45 .. August 13, 2023
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Cyndi and I are flying out this morning on Southwest, which means we will be running to the car as soon as I finish teaching. So if you have a question or comment, send an email.
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This morning we’ll begin with Jeremiah 40
For years Jeremiah predicted … words from God … the fall of Jerusalem.
It finally happened just like he said … complete devastation.
The fall came as a judgment from God because of the people’s repeated rejection of Him.
We always expect people to learn lessons from their mistakes; we expect ourselves to learn lessons. But it seldom happens.
The violent overthrow of the nation did not turn the hearts of the people back to God.
Not only did the kings of Judah continue to rebel against God, they couldn’t resist rebelling against Babylon, too. It didn’t go well for them.
The first deportation to Babylon took place in 605 BC when a few promising young men like Daniel were taken.
About ten years later Nebuchadnezzar came in force, removing Jehoiachin from his throne and deporting him along with about 10,000 others, including the prophet, Ezekiel. Of this number, about 3,000 were adult males; the rest were women and children.
Now, by the time we get to chapter 40, a 3rd group has been deported to Babylon. The few people left behind are in a bad way. Disease, famine, and the 18-month siege had decimated the city. Only the common folk were left. The rest were literally led off in chains.
Jeremiah was swept up with this 3rd group.
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Read Jeremiah 40:1-4
40 The word came to Jeremiah from the Lord after Nebuzaradan commander of the imperial guard had released him at Ramah. He had found Jeremiah bound in chains among all the captives from Jerusalem and Judah who were being carried into exile to Babylon. 2 When the commander of the guard found Jeremiah, he said to him, “The Lord your God decreed this disaster for this place. 3 And now the Lord has brought it about; he has done just as he said he would. All this happened because you people sinned against the Lord and did not obey him. 4 But today I am freeing you from the chains on your wrists. Come with me to Babylon, if you like, and I will look after you; but if you do not want to, then don’t come. Look, the whole country lies before you; go wherever you please.”
Apparently, the Babylonian commander came looking for Jeremiah … he was aware of Jeremiah’s prophecies … and he even gave credit to God for Judah’s collapse.
He seems to be treating Jeremiah very tenderly … trying to help him decide what to do next. Verse 5 says: the commander gave him provisions and a present and let him go.
Jeremiah was probably about 65 years old, starving like everyone else, probably sick from jail and beatings.
Jeremiah’s choice: Go or Stay
Life in Jerusalem would be starting over … in the midst of a wrecked city with a few poor people who the Babylonians didn’t consider worth deporting.
In contrast, life in Babylon would be an easy retirement … honored by the Babylonian court, living on a Babylonian pension.
By this time the first Jewish captives had now been living in Babylon about 20 years, and most lived a good and peaceful life. Many had become prosperous, had families. Jeremiah could have been part of this.
He decided to stay in Jerusalem.
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Read Jeremiah 40:6
Jeremiah went to Gedaliah son of Ahikam at Mizpah and stayed with him among the people who were left behind in the land.
Why do you think Jeremiah stayed behind?
His ministry to the people who remained wasn’t over yet?
Didn’t feel released by God from his life mission?
Jeremiah chose to live by faith?
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Back in Judah and Jerusalem, there were constant power struggles after the Babylonian army left … guerilla soldiers in the countryside … lawlessness and assassinations ... the remaining members of Judah’s army became, essentially, pirates.
The remaining leaders wanted to take the few people who were left and go to Egypt. They were afraid the Babylonians would return again and kill them all.
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Read Jeremiah 42:1-3
42 Then all the army officers, including Johanan son of Kareah and Jezaniah son of Hoshaiah, and all the people from the least to the greatest approached 2 Jeremiah the prophet and said to him, “Please hear our petition and pray to the Lord your God for this entire remnant. For as you now see, though we were once many, now only a few are left. 3 Pray that the Lord your God will tell us where we should go and what we should do.”
Not a bad prayer request.
It sounds like they are finally coming to their senses and following God.
Of course, it was Jeremiah’s God, not their own.
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Read Jeremiah 42:7-17
7 Ten days later the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah.
I would like to know more about this. Did he pray for ten days straight? Did he camp out in what was left of the Temple? How did God speak to him?
8 So he called together Johanan son of Kareah and all the army officers who were with him and all the people from the least to the greatest. 9 He said to them, “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, to whom you sent me to present your petition,
Jeremiah wanted everyone to hear firsthand, no filtering or editing by leadership.
says: 10 ‘If you stay in this land, I will build you up and not tear you down; I will plant you and not uproot you, for I have relented concerning the disaster I have inflicted on you. 11 Do not be afraid of the king of Babylon, whom you now fear. Do not be afraid of him, declares the Lord, for I am with you and will save you and deliver you from his hands. 12 I will show you compassion so that he will have compassion on you and restore you to your land.’
13 “However, if you say, ‘We will not stay in this land,’ and so disobey the Lord your God, 14 and if you say, ‘No, we will go and live in Egypt, where we will not see war or hear the trumpet or be hungry for bread,’ 15 then hear the word of the Lord, you remnant of Judah. This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: ‘If you are determined to go to Egypt and you do go to settle there, 16 then the sword you fear will overtake you there, and the famine you dread will follow you into Egypt, and there you will die. 17 Indeed, all who are determined to go to Egypt to settle there will die by the sword, famine and plague; not one of them will survive or escape the disaster I will bring on them.
Seems unambiguous … obey God and stay here … or rebel against God and go to Egypt … where you will suffer even more.
No peaceful life to look forward to, no peaceful death.
Going to Egypt was NOT option (b), not door #2. Jeremiah told them plainly, if you go to Egypt, it will be clear and willful disobedience.
What do you think they did?
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Read Jeremiah 42:19-22
19 “Remnant of Judah, the Lord has told you, ‘Do not go to Egypt.’ Be sure of this: I warn you today 20 that you made a fatal mistake when you sent me to the Lord your God and said, ‘Pray to the Lord our God for us; tell us everything he says and we will do it.’ [It would have been better NOT to ask God.] 21 I have told you today, but you still have not obeyed the Lord your God in all he sent me to tell you. 22 So now, be sure of this: You will die by the sword, famine and plague in the place where you want to go to settle.”
God knows if they go to Egypt, they will embrace pagan gods again.
However, it seems like they already have their bags packed. They are standing in the parking lot, the car is loaded, the doors are open, and the engine is running, and they ask, “should we go?”
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Read Jeremiah 43:1-4
43 When Jeremiah had finished telling the people all the words of the Lord their God—everything the Lord had sent him to tell them— 2 Azariah son of Hoshaiah and Johanan son of Kareah and all the arrogant men said to Jeremiah, “You are lying! The Lord our God has not sent you to say, ‘You must not go to Egypt to settle there.’ 3 But Baruch son of Neriah is inciting you against us to hand us over to the Babylonians, so they may kill us or carry us into exile to Babylon.”
4 So Johanan son of Kareah and all the army officers and all the people disobeyed the Lord’s command to stay in the land of Judah.
Amazingly they have the guts to say Jeremiah’s is lying after all that has happened.
Blamed it all on Baruch? … just feels pathetic.
Why did they even ask about going to Egypt since it appears they intended to do what they wanted all along?
Have you ever prayed, hoping mostly that God would endorse what you already have in mind?
I have. I’ve learned to make the main part of my prayer, Change my heart.
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Jeremiah 43:5-7
5 Instead, Johanan son of Kareah and all the army officers led away all the remnant of Judah who had come back to live in the land of Judah from all the nations where they had been scattered. 6 They also led away all those whom Nebuzaradan commander of the imperial guard had left with Gedaliah son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan—the men, the women, the children and the king’s daughters. And they took Jeremiah the prophet and Baruch son of Neriah along with them. 7 So they entered Egypt in disobedience to the Lord and went as far as Tahpanhes.
Why did Jeremiah go with them?
- forced to go?
- too feeble to stay alone?
Sure enough, as soon as they got to Egypt they started worshiping Egyptian gods.
They blamed all that had happened in Jerusalem on Josiah’s reforms. They said Jerusalem fell because Josiah eliminated pagan worship.
They faded away in Egypt and died … even Jeremiah.
Just a sad ending.
The nation of Judah fell in spite of everything Jeremiah said - and the people went to Egypt, in spite of what Jeremiah said, and they all suffered (including Jeremiah) in spite of all he’d said.
Surely this wasn’t how Jeremiah had pictured it would all end.
Surely Jeremiah wanted to be the guy who stood at the border and planted his staff with one hand - you shall not pass - while the other hand was frozen to his Bible because he’d gripped it so tightly for 60 years.
But it didn’t happen that way.
How should we evaluate Jeremiah’s life? Where was God in all this?
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Can you think of a time when you did the right thing, stood up for what was right, didn’t back down all the way to the end … yet when it was all over maybe no one noticed what you’d done, or worse, maybe you suffered because you stood up for what was right?
It isn’t what we expect.
We have to trust God for who we are and what we do … and how it turns out
The truth is Jeremiah’s ministry is alive even today so many centuries later. But from his viewpoint, in his lifetime, it must have seemed marginal, at best, and maybe a complete failure.
We – all of us – are not good judges of the effect of our own life.
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CHALLENGE: This week, spend some time thinking about what it means to you, to live “a life well lived.”
How do you picture “a life well lived.”
Write it down.
It might be a few words; it might be a long list.
And share it with someone.
And trust God for who you are and what you do.
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Jeremiah 36
August 6, 2023
This morning, we are in Jeremiah 36
One of my favorite Bible stories when I was growing up … I suppose because it was so graphic …about Jeremiah writing a scroll, and King Jehoiakim’s reaction.
This could be titled: The Revival that Might Have Been.
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If someone asked you how they could make the Bible a bigger part of their life, what would you tell them?
Why do some people intentionally reject the Bible?
They think they aren’t accountable.
They want to avoid personal responsibility.
Try to destroy the truth.
We Baptists like to claim the Bible as our authority … we often say we are People of the Book.
Yet, even though we don’t reject the Bible, few of us actually read it regularly.
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One of my favorite writers, Leonard Sweet, wrote: “When I die, you will find my heart pressed between the pages of this book.”
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Jeremiah 36:1-4
In the fourth year of Jehoiakim son of Josiah king of Judah
Thanks to Babylonian record keepers, we know this was 605 BC. During that year, Babylon defeated Egypt and Assyria in the battle of Carchemish and became the dominant power in the Middle East. This was a huge shift in geopolitical power.
This put Jehoiakim in a dangerous position because Pharaoh Neco had put him on the throne. He owed his crown to Egypt.
So this was a critical time for Jeremiah to write down his sermons … to force a response from Jehoiakim in an unstable environment.
In the fourth year of Jehoiakim son of Josiah king of Judah, this word came to Jeremiah from the Lord: 2 “Take a scroll and write on it all the words I have spoken to you concerning Israel, Judah and all the other nations from the time I began speaking to you in the reign of Josiah till now. 3 Perhaps when the people of Judah hear about every disaster I plan to inflict on them, they will each turn from their wicked ways; then I will forgive their wickedness and their sin.”
4 So Jeremiah called Baruch son of Neriah, and while Jeremiah dictated all the words the Lord had spoken to him, Baruch wrote them on the scroll.
Jeremiah dictated 22 years’ worth of prophecy.
It took an entire year to record it all.
If God asked you to reproduce all your teaching and writing from the past 22 years, could you do it?
How did Jeremiah pull this off?
Maybe Jeremiah kept notes.
Baruch, the man who wrote down Jeremiah’s dictations, was a professional scribe and educated man who came from a noble family. Archeologists have found sealed documents that say belonging to Baruch Ben Neriah, scribe.
Apparently, his name means Mr. Happy
There are several key words in verses 1-4
....... All.......................... All the words.
....... Perhaps................. No guarantees.
....... People................... Not just leadership, but the general population.
....... Each...................... each must turn = individual responsibility.
....... Forgive............................. Judgment is not yet inevitable.
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Jeremiah 36:5-7
5 Then Jeremiah told Baruch, “I am restricted; I am not allowed to go to the Lord’s temple.
Jeremiah was already in trouble for preaching in the temple, so he sent Baruch to read the scroll.
6 So you go to the house of the Lord on a day of fasting [a day when the temple would be full, crowded with people] and read to the people from the scroll the words of the Lord that you wrote as I dictated. Read them to all the people of Judah who come in from their towns. 7 Perhaps [there’s that word again] they will bring their petition before the Lord and will each turn from their wicked ways, for the anger and wrath pronounced against this people by the Lord are great.”
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Jeremiah 36:10
10 From the room of Gemariah son of Shaphan the secretary, which was in the upper courtyard at the entrance of the New Gate of the temple, Baruch read to all the people at the Lord’s temple the words of Jeremiah from the scroll.
Seventeen years earlier, Shaphan was the one who read the newly discovered book of law to King Josiah.
And now, Baruch is reading Jeremiah’s sermons from the apartment window of Gemariah, son of Shaphan.
We don’t know if any of the people responded, but the reading set off a chain reaction of events.
First, one of the officials who heard the reading (Micaiah) called Baruch to come and personally read the scroll to some government officials.
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Jeremiah 36:15-16
So Baruch read it to them. 16 When they heard all these words, they looked at each other in fear and said to Baruch, “We must report all these words to the king.”
Baruch’s second time reading through the scroll (not counting a year of writing and editing).
Some of these officials were probably around when King Josiah heard the words.
It must have sounded familiar. They understood the potential impact.
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Jeremiah 36: 19
19 Then the officials said to Baruch, “You and Jeremiah, go and hide. Don’t let anyone know where you are.”
Good news: Not everyone in Judah was reluctant to hear the words of God. These leaders were drawn to it. They knew its importance.
They also want to protect Jeremiah and Baruch from the king, they knew the king needed to hear these words, but they also know how the king will react.
“Don’t let anyone know where you are,” which I assume meant the officials themselves. They wanted plausible deniability when the king questioned them.
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Jeremiah 36:20-21
20 After they put the scroll in the room of Elishama the secretary, they went to the king in the courtyard and reported everything to him. 21 The king sent Jehudi to get the scroll, and Jehudi brought it from the room of Elishama the secretary and read it to the king and all the officials standing beside him. [all the names and details give this the feel of eyewitness testimony]
King Jehoiakim could have stopped the whole thing right here … and told his guys to destroy the scroll and forget about it. (“I’m not wasting my time with that.”)
But he didn’t. For whatever reason, he wanted it to be read.
So now, the third time in one day for the scroll to be read in public.
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Jeremiah 36:22-23
22 It was the ninth month [December] and the king was sitting in the winter apartment, with a fire burning in the firepot in front of him. [maybe some sort of space heater, or a fire pit] 23 Whenever Jehudi had read three or four columns of the scroll, the king cut them off with a scribe’s knife and threw them into the firepot, until the entire scroll was burned in the fire.
Now Jehudi is reading the scroll.
It must have made him nervous to read with the king sitting beside him slicing with a knife.
I remember my shock the first time I saw my grandfather cutting old Bibles with scissors.
A good thing Baruch wasn’t there to see this.
He probably made the scroll himself, by hand, and did all the writing.
Why did the king bother to listen before burning the scroll?
Maybe he was curious.
Maybe he wanted to appear to be brave and unconcerned.
Maybe he didn’t trust his guys were telling the truth and wanted to see and hear the actual scroll himself.
Maybe he wanted to make a public show of contempt for Jeremiah and God’s message.
Maybe he thought by destroying the scroll he had won the battle between himself and God.
Why would God ask Jeremiah to go through this exercise (an entire year of work) just so it could be burned?
Maybe to give Jehoiakim one more chance to do the right thing.
Maybe someone else in the room was God’s real target.
Or maybe it all happened so we would read it 2600 years later, and take the Word of God seriously.
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Jeremiah 36:24
24 The king and all his attendants who heard all these words showed no fear, nor did they tear their clothes.
Whoever recorded this story wanted to draw a contrast between Jehoiakim's response to hearing God’s word and Josiah’s.
Josiah tore his clothes … Jehoiakim tore up the scroll
Josiah embraced revival … Jehoiakim rejected it
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Jeremiah 36:25
25 Even though Elnathan, Delaiah and Gemariah [royal officials] urged the king not to burn the scroll, he would not listen to them.
These three officials took a lot of chances.
By destroying the scroll, Jehoiakim was refusing God’s offer to preserve Judah.
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Jeremiah 36:27-31
27 After the king burned the scroll containing the words that Baruch had written at Jeremiah’s dictation, the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah: 28 “Take another scroll and write on it all the words that were on the first scroll, which Jehoiakim king of Judah burned up. [a lesson: always make a copy before submitting your scroll to the king]
29 Also tell Jehoiakim king of Judah, ‘This is what the Lord says: You burned that scroll and said, “Why did you write on it that the king of Babylon would certainly come and destroy this land and wipe from it both man and beast?” 30 Therefore this is what the Lord says about Jehoiakim king of Judah: He will have no one to sit on the throne of David; his body will be thrown out and exposed to the heat by day and the frost by night. 31 I will punish him and his children and his attendants for their wickedness; I will bring on them and those living in Jerusalem and the people of Judah every disaster I pronounced against them, because they have not listened.’”
In 601 BC (about three years later), Jehoiakim rebelled against Babylon.
They went back-and-forth for another three years until Nebuchadnezzar marched on Jerusalem, in 598 BC. Jehoiakim died during the siege. His body was thrown over the city walls to prove to the Babylonians that he was really dead.
As far as we know, Jehoiakim’s body lay outside, unattended, unburied, until it decomposed.
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Jeremiah 36:32
32 So Jeremiah took another scroll and gave it to the scribe Baruch son of Neriah, and as Jeremiah dictated, Baruch wrote on it all the words of the scroll that Jehoiakim king of Judah had burned in the fire. And many similar words were added to them.
This is most likely the source of the first 25 chapters of Jeremiah, in our Bible.
If King Jehoiakim had responded positively to God’s word, Judah might have been spared judgment. The people might have turned from their wicked ways and found healing for themselves and their land.
God’s judgment of Judah was not yet inevitable. God was giving them another chance.
God wanted His Word to be preserved, and He used countless saints through the ages to write, copy, translate, publish, and distribute His Word. God’s Word does not need our defense as much as it needs our proclamation.
When the priests found the book of the law (during King Josiah’s reign), it had been lost so long no one knew what it said, or even remembered it. It was discovered by accident. Apparently, it slipped out of use and memory. Just disappeared.
Don’t let this happen to us.
The word of God is more than paper and ink.
It cannot be destroyed.
it is true regardless of how people respond.
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CHALLENGE: Give some thought … how can you incorporate the Word of God into your daily life.
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Jeremiah 31:23-34
July 23, 2023
Has anyone else been watching the Tour de France?
This morning we are in Jeremiah 31
We’ll continue looking at Jeremiah’s letter to the exiles.
In today’s verses, Jeremiah gives a message of hope to the exiles … a glimpse into their future.
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I am going to read the entire passage, then come back through the verses.
Jeremiah 31:23-34
23 This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: “When I bring them back from captivity,[a] the people in the land of Judah and in its towns will once again use these words: ‘The Lord bless you, you prosperous city, you sacred mountain.’ 24 People will live together in Judah and all its towns—farmers and those who move about with their flocks. 25 I will refresh the weary and satisfy the faint.”
26 At this I awoke and looked around. My sleep had been pleasant to me.
27 “The days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will plant the kingdoms of Israel and Judah with the offspring of people and of animals. 28 Just as I watched over them to uproot and tear down, and to overthrow, destroy and bring disaster, so I will watch over them to build and to plant,” declares the Lord. 29 “In those days people will no longer say, ‘The parents have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge.’
30 Instead, everyone will die for their own sin; whoever eats sour grapes—their own teeth will be set on edge.
31 “The days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and with the people of Judah.
32 It will not be like the covenant I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they broke my covenant, though I was a husband to them,” declares the Lord.
33 “This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel after that time,” declares the Lord. “I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.
34 No longer will they teach their neighbor, or say to one another, ‘Know the Lord,’ because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest,” declares the Lord. “For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.”
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Jeremiah 31:23
23 This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: “When I bring them back from captivity, the people in the land of Judah and in its towns will once again use these words: ‘The Lord bless you, you prosperous city, you sacred mountain.’
God promised he would “bring them back” … Now, as we read last week, this won’t happen for 70 years … so it wouldn’t happen for most of the people who first heard this … for their kids and grandkids.
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Jeremiah 31:24
24 People will live together in Judah and all its towns—farmers and those who move about with their flocks.
By capturing the elite of Jerusalem and taking them into exile, Babylon had divided them along socio-economic and educational lines
God says, there will be a time when all people of Judah, both urban and rural, would be welcomed in that congregation, all focused on worshiping God in Jerusalem.
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Jeremiah 31:25-26
25 I will refresh the weary and satisfy the faint.”
26 At this I awoke and looked around. My sleep had been pleasant to me.
After cycling in 100* heat Monday, I refreshed with a liter of water and ice cream and a nap.
Sometimes God satisfies the faint with a nap.
And to quote Jeremiah … “My sleep was pleasant to me.”
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Jeremiah 31:27-28
27 “The days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will plant the kingdoms of Israel and Judah with the offspring of people and of animals. 28 Just as I watched over them to uproot and tear down, and to overthrow, destroy and bring disaster, so I will watch over them to build and to plant,” declares the Lord.
Jeremiah wasn’t only about judgement, but God’s message of hope for the future, a message of salvation. In the same way that God was actively involved in judgment – He will be actively involved in their restoration.
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Jeremiah 31:29
29 “In those days people will no longer say, ‘The parents have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge.’
This was a popular proverb at the time … what do you think they meant by this?
It was used as an excuse for the bad behavior (“Sorry, I learned this from my folks” … “not my fault”)
So there is SOME truth to this proverb, of course. What we do as parents DOES have an impact on our children. And what our parents did has an effect on us.
But it’s too easy to make our past wounds our permanent identity.
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Jeremiah 31:30
30 Instead, everyone will die for their own sin; whoever eats sour grapes—their own teeth will be set on edge.
So, NOW, what do you think this mean?
There will be individual responsibility. We can’t hide behind our raising.
The point is: God is saying that each person will be responsible to Him for his or her OWN SIN, not anyone else’s.
What is not said, but implied … each person will ALSO be responsible to accept and receive the grace and salvation offered by God.
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Jeremiah 31:31
31 “The days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and with the people of Judah.”
This is a big deal – a huge shift in how God will relate to his people.
God didn’t want the people to return home simply to return to their previous practices.
God wanted something new.
God took the initiative to make a new covenant.
Not because the people requested a change, but because God wants them back.
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Jeremiah 31:32
32 It will not be like the covenant I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they broke my covenant, though I was a husband to them,” declares the Lord.
God’s dilemma … how to maintain a relationship with rebellious people
He rescued them from pagan Egypt and brought them close to himself, but they broke the covenant, broke the relationship.
So now, a new covenant, not like the previous covenant made at Sinai
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Jeremiah 31:33
33 “This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel after that time,” declares the Lord. “I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.
Verses 33-34 contains multiple “I wills.” This covenant was initiated and established by God.
Not merely an adaptation of the old covenant, but completely new
Not a modification made by the people, but a covenant from God.
God will write his law on their hearts.
In biblical thought, the heart was not the seat of emotions but rather the seat of one’s will. It is the core of a person’s being. One thinks, chooses, and decides in the heart. Thus, the heart makes the hands work, the feet move, and the mouth speak. The quality of a person’s life is determined by the state of his or her heart.
So God will write His law on their thoughts, speech, will, actions, and life.
Jeremiah wrote in chapter 17 … “the heart is deceitful above all things.”
But now, Jeremiah tells us that God will replace this sinful heart with a new heart engraved with God’s law, written in God’s own handwriting.
Not just written on stone tablets, or in a book, but in our HEART, to always have it.
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Jeremiah 31:34
34 No longer will they teach their neighbor, or say to one another, ‘Know the Lord,’ because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest,” declares the Lord. “For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.”
No More Sunday School! No need for teaching?
Not exactly. We still have a lot to learn from each other.
The first covenant provided for only the religious leaders to be taught the legal concepts of the law with its complicated rituals and regulations.
Now, it won’t be just a Moses, or a David who knows God, but ALL of His people. = “Priesthood of the believer”
The idea that all those under this new covenant would know God is radically new and unlike any earlier covenant.
Know God personally.
It's possible to know the law without knowing God. But to know God is a direct and personal connection.
Knowing God is the essence of a true relationship with Him.
Those who know God personally will display God’s holy character.
He would change the heart of the individual enabling him or her to serve God faithfully.
He has personally changed that person’s nature.
“Remember their sins no more.” What does this mean?
Forgetting doesn’t make sense for an omnipresent God who always was and always is and always will be.
When God says he will never again remember their sin, (He doesn’t get amnesia), but that once the sin is forgiven God chooses never again bring it up and act upon it.
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It would be natural to think if God replaced his old covenant because the people broke it, the new covenant would be stricter and more demanding. Instead, God does even more to bring His people closer.
New Covenant
Group > Personal (Priesthood …)
Temple > Heart
Sacrifice > Grace
External > Internal
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Although we confess that Jesus fulfilled the new covenant in his life and ministry, the promise of the new covenant has not been fully realized in us. We continue to wrestle with our old sinful hearts. We still need our teachers and preachers. We struggle to distribute forgiveness beyond our small and limited doses. The church remains a people on the way but not yet fully there.
But it is a hope that is underway and a hope that is certain to arrive fully in God’s good future. Jeremiah wrote, “the days are surely coming, says the LORD”.
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CHALLENGE:
This week, in your prayer time, ask God:
Continue to write yourself on my heart.
Finish your work in me.
Teach me to forgive others as you have forgiven me.
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Jeremiah 29:1-14
July 16, 2023
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Have you ever heard anyone say, “The safest place to be is in the center of God’s will?
How do you feel about that? Do you agree?
If the Apostle Paul were here this morning, how do you think he would respond the phrase “safest place to be …”?
Paul spent his life, his ministry doing exactly what God wanted. In the process, he was shipwrecked, beaten, flogged, imprisoned.
I figure that’s why he traveled with his own doctor … Luke.
The thing is, I imagine Paul felt safe in his relationship with God even as he was getting beaten up.
The difference is in the word “safe.” When we are in God’s will we are safe in our relationship with Him. That doesn’t mean we are safe from damage from the world.
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Josiah, the king who led Judah in a national revival, which unfortunately turned out to be only surface deep. Jeremiah began prophesying that Babylon would conquer Judah. If Judah would simply surrender and submit to Babylon, then the damage would be minimal. No one listened to Jeremiah. You and I pay more attention to Jeremiah than his contemporaries did.
Jehoahaz, son of Josiah, the next king. He was deposed by Neco II (Egypt) in 609 BC.
Jehoiakim, also a son of Josiah, and brother to Jehoahaz, was installed on the throne by Egypt. He was the king who burned the words of Jeremiah, as they were read to him.
Eleven years later the Babylonians attacked Jerusalem, in 598 BC … Jehoiakim died before Jerusalem fell. His body was thrown over the wall of Jerusalem to show the Babylonian army that he was dead.
Jehoiachin, Jehoiakim’s son, only 18 years old, succeeded his father. He was king for only four months. He surrendered Jerusalem to Babylon in 597 BC. Babylonians deported Jehoiachin and the upper crust of Judean society to Babylon. Including Ezekiel and Daniel (and Shadrack, etc).
Zedekiah, probably another son of Josiah, 21 years old, was put on the throne by Nebuchadnezzar in 596 BC.
The Babylonians selected the leading people of the city for deportation. The tactic was to remove all persons of influence and leadership – artisans, merchants, political leaders – so that the general populace would be dependent on and submissive to the invaders.
But also to enrich Babylon. Otherwise, they would’ve killed them all (like in Cambodia).
Jeremiah was left behind. Apparently he didn’t make the cut. He had been ignored for so long as a leader by his own people that the Babylonians did not consider him important enough to exile.
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Chapter 29 is a letter Jeremiah wrote to the exiles in Babylon, during the reign of Zedekiah. Even though Babylon was 800 miles away, there was a steady flow of correspondence, and Jeremiah got the couriers to carry his letter along with the official government letters. (800 miles from Midland = San Diego).
Jeremiah 29:1-3
A Letter to the Exiles
This is the text of the letter that the prophet Jeremiah sent from Jerusalem to the surviving elders among the exiles and to the priests, the prophets and all the other people Nebuchadnezzar had carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon. 2 (This was after King Jehoiachin and the queen mother, the court officials and the leaders of Judah and Jerusalem, the skilled workers and the artisans had gone into exile from Jerusalem.) 3 He entrusted the letter to Elasah son of Shaphan and to Gemariah son of Hilkiah, whom Zedekiah king of Judah sent to King Nebuchadnezzar in Babylon.
The exiles in Babylon were being deceived by false prophets who told them they would be coming home soon. God gave this message to Jeremiah to share with the exiles.
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Jeremiah 29:4
It said: 4 This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says to all those I carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon:
Who carried the people into exile? Who is “I”?
God reminds them, and us, that this was all His doing. Don’t get the wrong idea that Nebuchadnezzar was in charge of what happened to the exiles. Nebuchadnezzar was a tool used by God.
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Jeremiah 29:5-6
5 “Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce. 6 Marry and have sons and daughters; find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, so that they too may have sons and daughters. Increase in number there; do not decrease.
What did Jeremiah tell them to do?
Are you surprised God wanted them to make their home in Babylon?
Babylon may not have been their permanent home, but it is their home right now. God wanted them to stop seeing themselves as temporary refugees.
Jeremiah DIDN’T tell them to assimilate into Babylon. He did’t tell them to become Babylonians.
But build houses and live in them. You are not camping. This is your home, now.
Plant gardens and eat their produce. Enter into the rhythm of the seasons. Become a productive part of the economy.
Get married and have sons and daughters.
Quit sitting around and feeling sorry for yourselves. Plan on staying in Babylon for several generations.
Has God ever told you to stay where you are for a while longer?
When I was laid off the first time, in 1994, we immediately put our house up for sale and I started job hunting. There weren’t any jobs in Midland, so I was looking all over the country for opportunities.
We had friends who did the same thing, and their houses sold right away … which they took as God’s confirmation for them to move.
But Cyndi and I went an entire year with our house on the market and never received even one offer.
Finally, we ourselves, “What if God wanted us NOT to sell our house and move, how would we know?”
Often, God wants us to live out our faith where He places us, instead of wishing our circumstances were different.
Knowing this should change our prayers from “Get me out of this” to “Use me through this.”
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Jeremiah 29:7
7 Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.”
Rather than be bitter over what Babylon had done to them …
Seek to make it a better place.
Pray to the Lord on Babylon’s behalf.
God wanted them to prosper even in exile.
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Jeremiah 29:8-9
8 Yes, this is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: “Do not let the prophets and diviners [fortune tellers] among you deceive you. Do not listen to the dreams you encourage them to have. 9 They are prophesying lies to you in my name. I have not sent them,” declares the Lord.
The exiles heard regularly from false prophets & diviners who deceived them.
These false prophets countered everything Jeremiah told them. For his entire life.
Further into his letter, Jeremiah calls out three false prophets by name (so they can be remembered for all time).
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Jeremiah 29:10-11
10 This is what the Lord says: “When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill my good promise to bring you back to this place.
11 For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.
Where is the hope in this?
Good news: They are NOT forgotten.
They are NOT abandoned.
God has a plan for them.
Bad news: Hope is 70 years away.
Why did God tell them it would be 70 years?
Was it helpful to know almost none of them would live to see it?
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Jeremiah 29:12-14
12 Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. 13 You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.
14 I will be found by you,” declares the Lord, “and will bring you back from captivity. I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have banished you,” declares the Lord, “and will bring you back to the place from which I carried you into exile.”
What does “seek me with all your heart” mean?
A.W.Tozer wrote, “God wants to be wanted.”
God wants to be loved. He wants to be our priority. And he doesn’t want token attachment. He wants us to seek Him with all our heart.
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Repeat … Jeremiah 29:11
11 For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.
Many of US memorized Jeremiah 29:11 a long time ago, and we often claim it as a promise to us, even though it was given to specific group of Jews at a specific time in history.
We have to be careful when attempting to apply this verse to our lives. The promise was given by God to the exiles in Babylon. It was a promise made, not to individuals, but to the community of God’s people. All the pronouns “you” in the verse are plural in Hebrew.
It’s not a general, ambiguous hope for a good future. Though most who heard this message from Jeremiah would die in Babylon, God would eventually bring His people back to the promised land and restore their community.
The people, having suffered His judgment for their sins, had a opportunity to be purified through their suffering, renew their desire for close communion with God. He would give such a community a future and hope.
But, knowing that this was written to Jews 2,500 years ago, we aren’t necessarily wrong to claim it ourselves.
The verse reveals the heart of God, and we can claim that.
He has not forgotten us no matter where we may be scattered, and ultimately His plans are for our well-being, not for disaster.
Such hope should spur us on to increased faithfulness to God and His plans.
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Eugene Peterson wrote a book about the book of Jeremiah, titled, Run with the Horses.
He wrote this about the years of exile in Babylon.
This became the most creative period in the entire sweep of Hebrew history.
They did not lose their identity, they discovered it.
They learned how to pray in deeper and more life-changing ways than ever.
They wrote and copied and pondered the vast revelation that had come down to them from Moses and the prophets.
They found that God was not dependent on a place, that he was not tied to familiar surroundings.
They lost everything that they thought was important and found what was important: They found God.
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Challenge: Some of us in this room are in a good place in life, right where we want to be. But some of us feel like refugees, and we hope this time doesn’t last seventy years before life gets better
In your prayer time, ask God to show you live in such a way to glorify Him, in your life as it is now, in your family, among your friends, where you work, and in your community.
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Jeremiah 17:5-8
July 2, 2023
The recommended lesson for today, the one in your quarterly, if you follow one of those, is Jeremiah 18:1-12.
But Jeremiah 17 contains some of my favorite verses in the entire Bible, and I can’t skip over them in good conscience.
So, I am taking us to chapter 17.
Maybe because this passage is about trees, and like a true West Texan, I don’t take trees for granted.
Do you have a favorite tree (not type, but a specific tree)?
What is special about it?
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Tree story #1
Jeremiah 17:5-8
5 This is what the Lord says:
“Cursed is the one who trusts in man,
who draws strength from mere flesh
and whose heart turns away from the Lord.
6 That person will be like a bush in the wastelands;
they will not see prosperity when it comes.
They will dwell in the parched places of the desert,
in a salt land where no one lives.
7 “But blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord,
whose confidence is in him.
8 They will be like a tree planted by the water
that sends out its roots by the stream.
It does not fear when heat comes;
its leaves are always green.
It has no worries in a year of drought
and never fails to bear fruit.”
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Jeremiah used his bush and tree analogy to draw a contrast between two different ways to live life.
(v 5) “Cursed is the one who trusts in man, who draws strength from mere flesh and whose heart turns away from the Lord.”
Of course we trust each other. We have to. But this is about trusting the ways of man over the ways of God.
The man described here places his trust in human solutions to the degree that he removes his trust from God.
This (trusting in man rather than God) is such an easy trap to fall in to.
It happens to me.
I’ve learned when I realize I’m getting anxious and worried about future plans or upcoming decisions, or money, or whatever, it is always because I’m trying to figure it all out on my own.
The anxiety is a reminder to come back to God.
My standard prayer has become: Teach me to trust You.
(I can feel myself physically relax)
(v 6) “That person will be like a bush in the wastelands; they will not see prosperity when it comes. They will dwell in the parched places of the desert, in a salt land where no one lives.”
So when you read these verses, do any particular bushes or places come to mind?
Where is the most desolate place you’ve personally seen?
For me, the harshest and most desolate place I’ve experienced is between Orla, Texas, and the Guadalupe Mountains. I’ve driven through it way too many times, and it never looks any better.
The ground is covered with Creosote bushes.
My dad called them Greasewoods.
Not only do they grow in harsh and barren places, but they also deliberately poison the soil around them to eliminate competition.
Jeremiah said people who trust in human solutions rather than trusting in God, become like those bushes – hard, dry, prickly, poisonous
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To contrast these bushes, Jeremiah says …
(v 5) “But blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in him. They will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit.”
Blessed is the man who completely trusts in the LORD.
He trusts God through the dangers and trials of life, and he does not resort to sin to escape his trials or to find comfort through them.
This man waits upon the Lord in all his life.
He can afford to be generous, giving to others, because he trusts God to take care of him.
Jeremiah’s tree is strong because it is right next to a continuous water source. Its roots are extending by the stream. It has an abundant, ceaseless supply of water.
Notice though, this tree doesn’t have a trouble-free life. It says the tree passes through seasons of heat and years of drought, yet it doesn’t worry, and it continues to be fruitful.
Jeremiah tells us the well-lived life is like that tree planted deeply in the ground near a riverbank. There is no better ground to be planted than in the Lord.
The promise of this verse is that no matter what happens we can depend upon the sufficient grace of Christ to meet our need for protection.
God designed us to rely on Him. That’s the way to blessing. If we seek it any other way, we’ll end up like a creosote bush in the desert, poisoning everything around us.
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Tree story #2
Cyndi and I woke up one morning a couple of years ago to find this in our front yard. Our pistache tree was tipped over and leaning on our front porch.
It had broken free from its own root system. It was still green, but it didn’t look good.
Apparently, most of the roots had rotted just below ground level. There were just enough of the roots still attached to keep the leaves green, but not enough to hold up the tree.
The tree was a goner. Even though the leaves were still green, its days were limited. It would’ve been possible to straighten it up and stake it vertical, but it would fall again someday, and probably land on something or someone we care about.
This was NOT a Jeremiah 17 tree. While it had access to water, it had poorly developed roots. Verse 9 says, not only “planted by water,” but also “sends its roots.”
A tree, just like a person, can appear solid and healthy and green, and even give away shade on a sunny day, and yet have rotten roots and it will take very little to topple over.
We don’t want to live lives that are easily toppled over.
If we want to live drought-proof, fruitful lives like Jeremiah’s tree, how do we make sure our roots are deep and strong?
One way to deepen our roots is through a life of spiritual practices (prayer, meditation, worship, music, reading, memorizing). Making a habit of these will deepen and strengthen the roots of your life. They will make you more like Jesus.
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Tree story #3
There was a small tree in the park across the street from our house. Cyndi and I passed it every morning when we went walking around the ponds.
But one morning we noticed it was bent over, all way to the crowd, in the shape of a letter “C”. It happened all at once. We speculated about what had happened, but there wasn’t any visible damage to the tree.
The roots didn’t pull out of the ground or break off. They stayed intact. The leaves were still green.
And then last Monday evening I walked over to the park to take some photos of the bent tree – to show you this morning - only to discover the landscaping guys had already cut it down. I was quite disappointed. I was hoping to see how it recovered.
I expected it to turn its leaves and branches to the sun. Maybe even bend its main trunk skyward again. But – now it is gone.
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Tree story #4
One of the most fascinating recent findings is how trees talk to each other. They send chemicals through the air and through the ground to warn each other of pest attacks, or fire, or other hazards.
They also send nutrients through the ground to help each other survive drought (giving away resources even in times of danger).
So, like these trees, another way to be strong and fruitful is through community. Like this class. Like this church.
Me … I was slow to understand this. I was content to be that one tree in the middle of a field all on its own.
But I’ve learned how much I need other people, how much I need you, in order to thrive in the Lord.
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Tree story #5
You may have noticed that Jeremiah 17:7-8 sounds a lot like Psalm 1.
It’s likely Jeremiah drew from David’s Psalm when he wrote these verses in Chapter 17.
Psalm 1:1-4 (NAS)
Blessed is the person who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked,
Nor stand in the path of sinners,
Nor sit in the seat of scoffers!
[it matters WHO we have in our community]
But his delight is in the Law of the Lord,
And on His Law he meditates day and night.
[it matters if we have spiritual practices in our life]
He will be like a tree planted by streams of water,
Which yields its fruit in its season,
And its leaf does not wither;
And in whatever he does, he prospers.
There is an emphasis on the word planted. Eugene Peterson wrote that this is an example of “A domestic tree, not a wild species growing by chance.”
It is a tree planted intentionally in a place where it would flourish.
In my Daily Bible I have two notes written in the margin, alongside Psalm 1, written about 15 years apart, that tell a story of my personal journey.
In 1999 I wrote, Lord, I want to be well planted. I was mostly concerned about the quality of my own life.
In 2014 I wrote, Lord, I want to be a planter of trees. After 15 years my main concern was investing in other people.
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Why am I telling you that?
Because all of us in this room were created by God to live with him, and to live our lives in a world that is bigger than we are.
And so, the reason I’m teaching from Jeremiah 17 this morning is to ask you, to challenge you, to be a planter of trees. To deliberately invest in younger Believers so that they will flourish and be blessed.
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One of the prime motivators of my life, the thing that drives almost everything I do, comes from Luke 12:48 ... “From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked.”
I was blessed with a family who loved me and loved God: parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles, cousins, and brother. I have much to give back.
I know some of you have similar backgrounds as mine, but others grew up in almost completely opposite ways.
And yet, all of us have been blessed.
All of us have much to give back.
However, it’s easy for us to think we are too old and none of those youngsters want to listen to us, or we’ve already served enough in our lifetime. It’s easy to hide behind that.
But those young people are hungry for leadership from people like you.
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Here is a text conversation I was part of just this past week, with the leadership of the Compass Class, where we used to teach:
(Cory) So, I've been thinking a little bit, just brainstorming a little. What would y'all think about maybe putting together some kind of class/group retreat in the distant future? Like we did at Lake Travis. We could even do it as a cross-over with Berry's Dept, maybe. Thoughts?
(Jen) I think it's a great idea! Let's pray about it. The biggest obstacle I see is kids since we have lots of people miles from family. Good notice would help- or maybe a list of some young retired/empty nesters that might be willing to invest in our families.
(a key phrase … willing to invest in our families)
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I always close these lessons with a challenge, and this is a big one.
Here are some ideas for you to think about … talk about … pray about.
(1) Ask God to give you a fresh calling, a fresh mission, a fresh vision of your life ahead. Ask God how He wants you to spend the time that remains.
(2) I mentioned a few weeks ago, an exercise I do called Journey Groups. I’m encouraging you to consider joining me in one of these. If for no other reason, to learn a tool to help you invest in young men and women.
(3) Ask yourself, what skills or knowledge do you have that you can offer young men and young women?
Woodworking? Quilting?
Painting? Auto Mechanics?
Landscaping?
If we think and talk and pray, God will show us how to share.
Tell the story of Dallas Maker Space.
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Jeremiah 7-11
June 18, 2023
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Before we dive into Jeremiah 7, I want to mention a couple of things:
I’m speaking tomorrow at Men’s Brotherhood lunch about our trip to Spain. 11:45-1:00 Fellowship Hall … you don’t need a reservation, just come.
Talk about New Orleans SBC trip.
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How would you describe TRUE WORSHIP … What should it look like?
Think about a particular worship experience you’ve had … What made it meaningful?
Do your most meaningful worship experiences tend to be in a GROUP, or ALONE?
Energetic, or quiet?
This past week in New Orleans, the music and singing was amazing.
The entire room – 15,000 people – was singing together … you could hear singing from every direction.
One of the songs had a repeated phrase, and they used a dozen languages. Very powerful.
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We will be looking at Jeremiah 7, known as The Temple Sermon.
Jeremiah challenges – criticizes – the worship practices of people.
The gist of Jeremiah’s message: Who do you think you’re kidding?
Jeremiah always seemed to preach the right sermon, but at the wrong time.
He called the people to repentance during a national revival.
He warned them of dangers from the north … even as Assyria was declining.
The people of Judah felt invincible.
It was unthinkable that God would use a pagan nation to judge them.
God would always protect His people and His Temple.
Other prophets were saying the opposite of Jeremiah … telling the people that they were fine and God would protect Judah from invasion.
Whose church would you join?
How would you know which prophet to listen to?
Do you wait to see which prophecy comes true? Could be a long time.
How do YOU decide, today, who to listen to?
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Read Jeremiah 7:1-15
What heading does your Bible have before verse 1?
False Religion Worthless
Is false religion worse than no religion? I’ve always thought incremental improvement couldn’t be all bad. But false religion makes complacent. We don’t think we need to change.
This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: 2 “Stand at the gate of the Lord’s house and there proclaim this message:
“‘Hear the word of the Lord, all you people of Judah who come through these gates to worship the Lord. 3 This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: Reform your ways and your actions, and I will let you live in this place. 4 Do not trust in deceptive words and say, “This is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord!” 5 If you really change your ways and your actions and deal with each other justly, 6 if you do not oppress the foreigner, the fatherless or the widow and do not shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not follow other gods to your own harm, 7 then I will let you live in this place, in the land I gave your ancestors for ever and ever. 8 But look, you are trusting in deceptive words that are worthless.
9 “‘Will you steal and murder, commit adultery and perjury, burn incense to Baal and follow other gods you have not known, 10 and then come and stand before me in this house, which bears my Name, and say, “We are safe”—safe to do all these detestable things? 11 Has this house, which bears my Name, become a den of robbers to you? But I have been watching! declares the Lord.
12 “‘Go now to the place in Shiloh where I first made a dwelling for my Name, and see what I did to it because of the wickedness of my people Israel. 13 While you were doing all these things, declares the Lord, I spoke to you again and again, but you did not listen; I called you, but you did not answer. 14 Therefore, what I did to Shiloh I will now do to the house that bears my Name, the temple you trust in, the place I gave to you and your ancestors. 15 I will thrust you from my presence, just as I did all your fellow Israelites, the people of Ephraim.’
God told Jeremiah to stand at the Temple gate and preach.
How would you react if someone yelled at you while you were entering our church? Use a different door … we have a lot of them
As a college student I attended First Southern Baptist Church Dell City, OK, for a year. There was a man with extreme hair and beard who sat in the entryway with cardboard signs propped all around him. He didn’t preach or yell, just held his signs: The end is near; Judgment is coming.
I remember asking someone why they allowed the man to remain in such a prominent position, week after week. I was told, “He may be right.”
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Read Jeremiah 7:2 … “‘Hear the word of the Lord, all you people of Judah who come through these gates to worship the Lord.
The command to hear means far more than hearing sounds with the ear. It means to listen attentively, to have the mind engaged, and to be willing to absorb and be changed by the message. It means to act upon what you hear and put it into practice.
Like Jesus saying, “He who has ears let him hear.”
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Read Jeremiah 7:4 … Do not trust in deceptive words and say, “This is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord!”
They were thinking of the temple as a good luck charm.
Maybe even an idol.
The fact they had the Temple made them invulnerable.
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Read Jeremiah 7:5-7 … 5 If you really change your ways and your actions and deal with each other justly, 6 if you do not oppress the foreigner, the fatherless or the widow and do not shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not follow other gods to your own harm, 7 then I will let you live in this place, in the land I gave your ancestors for ever and ever.
He gave them an if/then.
I like if/then statements in scripture. Paul used them all the time. They are so concrete and specific.
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Read Jeremiah 7:6 … 6 if you do not oppress the foreigner, the fatherless or the widow and do not shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not follow other gods to your own harm,
What do foreigners, fatherless, and widows have in common that he would include them in the same sentence?
God’s call was for mercy. God has a special heart for the weak who have little or no means of support.
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Read Jeremiah 7:9-11 … “‘Will you steal and murder, commit adultery and perjury, burn incense to Baal and follow other gods you have not known, 10 and then come and stand before me in this house, which bears my Name, and say, “We are safe”—safe to do all these detestable things? 11 Has this house, which bears my Name, become a den of robbers to you? But I have been watching! declares the Lord.
Jeremiah asked: Who do you think you’re fooling?
Their religious performance was impeccable; their everyday life was rotten.
Were they actually trying to pull the wool over the eyes of their neighbors and fake God into blessing them?
Some were intentionally faking, but probably most of them thought they were OK.
They had lived for so long on the basis of outward appearance that they had no feel for inward reality.
Going to the right church and saying the right words is a lot easier than loving your neighbor.
This is an easy pit to fall into … almost inevitable.
Having a ritualistic religion hurts twice:
(1) We feel righteous without actually changing our hearts (we’re deceiving ourselves)
(2) We’re separated from God’s love and grace (because, who needs it)
One of the speakers this past week at the SBC Convention, addressing church members who spend their time arguing online, baiting those who disagree, picking fights … the speaker asked, “How many of you Tweet more than you Tithe? Post more than you Pray?
How we live our daily life matters as much as how we worship. In fact, daily living IS worship.
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Read 7:12 … Go now to the place in Shiloh where I first made a dwelling for my Name, and see what I did to it because of the wickedness of my people Israel
God reminded them of Shiloh … an ancient center of worship, which predates the temple, where the ark of the covenant was once stored. Shiloh was destroyed by the Philistines about 1050 BC (about 400 years before Jeremiah’s sermon).
(like recalling an event from 1623
Jeremiah told them … You think you’re invulnerable because you have God’s temple in Jerusalem, but you aren’t Because of your persistent disobedience and refusal to repent, the temple in Jerusalem will suffer the same fate as the tabernacle at Shiloh.
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What does God actually want from them? From us?
Read Romans 12:1-2 (MSG) … So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.
What does God actually want from them? From us?
Personal obedience, sacrifice … not just more activities and rituals.
We worship with our whole lives.
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CHALLENGE:
Ask God … Show me what I can do on a daily basis that will keep me close to You?
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Jeremiah 2-6
June 11, 2023
If bad times are coming, do you want to know ahead of time?
I want to know. I took 23-and-me DNA test to find if I was at extra risk for Alzheimer’s.
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Today, we are beginning in Jeremiah 2
First, a bit of history …
Manasseh was the worst king the Hebrews ever had. He was a thoroughly bad man presiding over a totally corrupt government. He reigned in Jerusalem for 55 years, a dark and evil half century.
Jewish tradition tells us that Manasseh had the prophet Isaiah sawn in two.
Jeremiah was born in the last decade of Manasseh’s rule. This is the rule in which Jeremiah learned to walk and talk and play. No worse environment in which to raise a child can be imagined.
Manasseh died, and his son, Amon, succeeded him.
Amon continued the practices of Manasseh, so he was murdered. His 8-year-old son, Josiah, was put on the throne.
Incredibly, Josiah wanted to be a different king than his father and grandfather. He had a deep intuitive longing for God in spite of how he was raised and the surrounding environment. He wanted to do better. He started by recovering and cleaning the house of God.
As the temple was being renovated and repaired, Hilkiah the priest found an old book there. It was the book of Deuteronomy.
The young king decided to put into action everything he read.
Jeremiah had a ringside seat for this this reform.
But simply getting rid of evil does not make people good.
Just having a copy of the Bible doesn’t automatically change lives.
The discovery of the scroll of the law had raised false hopes.
Like having a giant family Bible on the coffee table doesn’t make a godly family.
Unfortunately, much of the reform was only surface deep. The people obeyed just enough to keep in good graces with the king, but their heart and their tendencies to chase after other gods didn’t change.
Through it all Jeremiah conveyed hope, even through his tears.
He tirelessly insisted on the plain and obvious truth: that God is among us, that we can and must live in faithful love with Him.
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Read Jeremiah 2:1-6
The word of the Lord came to me: 2 “Go and proclaim in the hearing of Jerusalem:
“This is what the Lord says:
“‘I remember the devotion of your youth,
how as a bride you loved me
and followed me through the wilderness,
through a land not sown.
3 Israel was holy to the Lord,
the firstfruits of his harvest;
all who devoured her were held guilty,
and disaster overtook them,’”
declares the Lord.
4 Hear the word of the Lord, you descendants of Jacob,
all you clans of Israel.
5 This is what the Lord says:
“What fault did your ancestors find in me,
that they strayed so far from me?
They followed worthless idols
and became worthless themselves.
6 They did not ask, ‘Where is the Lord,
who brought us up out of Egypt
and led us through the barren wilderness,
through a land of deserts and ravines,
a land of drought and utter darkness,
a land where no one travels and no one lives?’
Why are they in trouble?
They used to love God
They strayed away from God
They worshiped idols
They forgot about God
These words from God feel so personal: Remember when we were just beginning and we were so close … but you wandered off.
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Read Jeremiah 2:11-13
11 Has a nation ever changed its gods? [worship was national identity.]
(Yet they are not gods at all.)
But my people have exchanged their glorious God
for worthless idols.
12 Be appalled at this, you heavens,
and shudder with great horror,”
declares the Lord.
13 “My people have committed two sins:
They have forsaken me,
the spring of living water,
and have dug their own cisterns,
broken cisterns that cannot hold water.
People are hungry for spiritual solutions for this life. It’s created in us.
Ecclesiastes says God put eternity in our hearts (our longing for the transcendent).
But these people have created their own gods, their own religion, their own answer to their spiritual hunger.
They have chased after man-made answers.
They’ve replaced God with man-made spirituality that didn’t work.
Their own spirituality (their broken cisterns) will not last, it will leak, and not be there when the drought comes.
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Read Jeremiah 2:20
20 “Long ago you broke off your yoke
and tore off your bonds;
you said, ‘I will not serve you!’
Indeed, on every high hill
and under every spreading tree
you lay down as a prostitute.
There are several places in Jeremiah where I wrote in the margin of my Bible: Yikes! Because of what Jeremiah wrote.
Through all the prophets of the Bible God consistently compared idolatry to adultery and prostitution.
Since God often used marriage to describe the relationship between God and Judah, he also linked idolatry to adultery.
This is a clue to how much it hurt God when the people left him.
It’s hard for us to imagine God feeling pain, but that’s how these verses read.
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Read Jeremiah 2:21-24
21 I had planted you like a choice vine
of sound and reliable stock.
How then did you turn against me
into a corrupt, wild vine?
22 Although you wash yourself with soap
and use an abundance of cleansing powder,
the stain of your guilt is still before me,”
declares the Sovereign Lord.
23 “How can you say, ‘I am not defiled;
I have not run after the Baals’?
See how you behaved in the valley;
consider what you have done.
You are a swift she-camel
running here and there,
24 a wild donkey accustomed to the desert,
sniffing the wind in her craving—
in her heat who can restrain her?
Any males that pursue her need not tire themselves;
Their search for other gods hurts God Himself.
You can hear God’s pain in these verses.
You didn’t even resist; you chased after the other gods.
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Read Jeremiah 3:11-13
11 The Lord said to me, “Faithless Israel is more righteous than unfaithful Judah. 12 Go, proclaim this message toward the north:
“‘Return, faithless Israel,’ declares the Lord,
‘I will frown on you no longer,
for I am faithful,’ declares the Lord,
‘I will not be angry forever.
13 Only acknowledge your guilt—
you have rebelled against the Lord your God,
you have scattered your favors to foreign gods
under every spreading tree,
and have not obeyed me,’”
declares the Lord.
If there is any good news … they had NOT passed the point of no return.
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It’s possible to not only restore the relationship between the people and God, but for it to be even better.
Read Jeremiah 3:14-16
14 “Return, faithless people,” declares the Lord, “for I am your husband. I will choose you—one from a town and two from a clan—and bring you to Zion.
15 Then I will give you shepherds after my own heart, who will lead you with knowledge and understanding. 16 In those days, when your numbers have increased greatly in the land,” declares the Lord, “people will no longer say, ‘The ark of the covenant of the Lord.’ It will never enter their minds or be remembered; it will not be missed, nor will another one be made.
What does he mean about the ark?
So Indiana Jones was searching in vain. Lost and forgotten.
Why won’t the ark be remembered?
Because Jeremiah drops hints all through this book about the change that is coming. A different way of relating to God. No longer based on the law (the ark represents this) but on personal relationships with God Himself.
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Read Jeremiah 5:15
15 People of Israel,” declares the Lord,
“I am bringing a distant nation against you—
an ancient and enduring nation,
a people whose language you do not know,
whose speech you do not understand.
Judgement is coming … a foreign power will conquer and subjugate Judah.
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Now God gives some words of advice … how to survive the coming days.
Read Jeremiah 6:16
16 This is what the Lord says:
“Stand at the crossroads and look;
ask for the ancient paths,
ask where the good way is, and walk in it,
and you will find rest for your souls.
The ancient paths, which for me, represent family.
I didn’t have to bushwhack my way to learning the best way to live, it was lived out before me.
God is calling for a pause in the action, asking us to stop in our relentless pursuit of the future, to stop and ponder our way.
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So what do we make of this?
It’s easy and obvious to compare the sins of the USA to Judah’s.
But to be honest, I’m much more concerned about how we answer this as individuals than as a nation.
It’s easier to get angry over the sins of our nation than it is to get angry over our own lives.
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CHALLENGE:
This week, in your prayer time, ask God …
Am I pursuing God, or am I satisfying my spiritual hunger my with my own solutions?
How can I deepen my relationship to God?
Then – most important – do whatever you hear God say.
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Jeremiah 1
June 4, 2023
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Pass out 3x5 cards
This morning I am going to talk about our calling from God. And I’ll open with a couple of questions (you can volunteer an answer if you feel brave, but mostly I want you to think about these as we go. Maybe even write and answer or two on your 3x5 card.
Have you ever felt miss-cast, as if you’re not using your best features?
If you could do something totally different, what would you like to try?
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We have finished our study of John – we’re now moving to the Old Testament, to Jeremiah
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Jeremiah was called by God to be a prophet at about the age of 18, around 627 BC, in the 13th year of Josiah’s reign. This happened 100 years after the Northern Kingdom, Israel, was wiped out by Assyria.
However, by Jeremiah’s time, the Assyrian empire was on the decline and under pressure from Egypt and Babylon.
Jeremiah’s ministry lasted about 41 years.
The book of Jeremiah is not chronologically arranged, there are numerous repetitions. The first 25 chapters appear to be an anthology of sermons interspersed with some off-the-record asides that Jeremiah utters to God.
The first 10 chapters of Jeremiah cover the period of Josiah’s reign … Jeremiah seemed hardly involved in Josiah’s reform movement.
During Jeremiah’s time, Judah combined the worship of other gods alongside the temple. In the name of inclusiveness, and political expediency.
Jeremiah became a harsh critic of Judah’s national policy. He was at odds with the king and with other so-called prophets.
Jeremiah’s message was unpopular … Judah’s unfaithfulness was sin and would be punished by God through Babylon. The only chance for survival was to submit to Babylon.
Imagine … what if it was 1975 and God told you to proclaim that the only way the USA could escape destruction was to surrender to USSR.
Or today … surrender to China or Iraan.
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Read Jeremiah 1:1-3
The words of Jeremiah son of Hilkiah, one of the priests at Anathoth in the territory of Benjamin. 2 The word of the Lord came to him in the thirteenth year of the reign of Josiah son of Amon king of Judah, 3 and through the reign of Jehoiakim son of Josiah king of Judah, down to the fifth month of the eleventh year of Zedekiah son of Josiah king of Judah, when the people of Jerusalem went into exile.
All these important names (Josiah, Amon, Jehoiakim, Zedekiah) are simply to triangulate a date, setting a point in history.
Anathoth, Jeremiah’s hometown, was three miles northeast of Jerusalem.
Also only three miles from the northern border of Judah (too close to danger)
V. 2 says the world of the Lord came to Jeremiah … The phrase, The word of the Lord, is all through Jeremiah’s prophecy. The phrase occurs 97 times in the Old Testament, 49 of those are in Jeremiah.
The original language suggests that the word was received inwardly, like a growing awareness. May not be a specific date.
Have you had an experience like that. God spoke to you gradually, over time?
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What does your Bible say before verse 4?
Read Jeremiah 1:4-5
The Call of Jeremiah
4 The word of the Lord came to me, saying,
5 “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,
before you were born I set you apart;
I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.”
“I knew you” - Before Jeremiah knew God, God knew Jeremiah.
Jeremiah was to be a prophet to nations (not just Judah)
He was set apart before birth.
How does it make you feel that God could be so intimately involved so early in his life?
Is it common to be set apart so early?
What about free will to choose?
As Americans, we are committed to the existence of free will. Our society and culture depends on it. We expect people to make their own choices and be responsible for those choices.
Yet, we’re all born into a world we didn’t create. We all grow into a life already provided for us. We don’t pick our family, or country, or language, or socio-economic status.
Not only that, God CREATES US with skills and desires, even if they’re raw and undeveloped. They’re part of our identity even before we’re born.
As parents, we often see those inborn skills and passions in our kids.
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Read Jeremiah 1:6
6 “Alas, Sovereign Lord,” I said, “I do not know how to speak; I am too young.”
What was Jeremiah’s first response to God’s call?
Have you ever said something like this?
I’m not ready.
I’m not smart enough.
I’m not old enough.
I’m not young enough.
I’m not cut out for this.
Surely someone else is better suited for this.
Many Bible stories are like this. The first response to God’s call is a list of objections.
However, to his credit, Jeremiah DOESN’T say, I don’t believe in your message, or it is too dangerous. He just said he isn’t ready yet.
Have you ever started something new, and you felt FULLY prepared?
One of the biggest enemies of faith is PREDICTABILITY. If our life is predictable enough, it doesn’t require faith.
Living by faith means being interruptible.
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Read Jeremiah 1:7-8
7 But the Lord said to me, “Do not say, ‘I am too young.’ You must go to everyone I send you to and say whatever I command you. 8 Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you and will rescue you,” declares the Lord.
God didn’t deny that Jeremiah was young.
“Don’t tell me you’re too young … just do what I said.
What else did God tell him?
If God told you, it will be OK, I will RESCUE you, what would be your next question?
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Read Jeremiah 1:9-10
9 Then the Lord reached out his hand and touched my mouth and said to me, “I have put my words in your mouth. 10 See, today I appoint you over nations and kingdoms to uproot and tear down, to destroy and overthrow, to build and to plant.”
I wonder what this was like … God touched Jeremiah’s mouth? Do you think it was a physical touch?
However it happened, it sounds close and personal.
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God also spoke to Jeremiah through visions.
Has God ever spoken to you through a vision, or a dream?
I’m giving this to you now.
Read Jeremiah 1:11-12
11 The word of the Lord came to me: “What do you see, Jeremiah?”
“I see the branch of an almond tree,” I replied.
12 The Lord said to me, “You have seen correctly, for I am watching to see that my word is fulfilled.”
Almond trees were the first to bloom in that region, so they were the early side of spring.
So, seeing an almond branch was about anticipation, about a promise.
This is a picture of health and healing.
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Another vision
Read Jeremiah 1:13-15
13 The word of the Lord came to me again: “What do you see?”
“I see a pot that is boiling,” I answered. “It is tilting toward us from the north.”
14 The Lord said to me, “From the north disaster will be poured out on all who live in the land. 15 I am about to summon all the peoples of the northern kingdoms,” declares the Lord.
This was a picture of judgment, coming from the north.
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Read Jeremiah 1:15-16
“Their kings will come and set up their thrones in the entrance of the gates of Jerusalem;
they will come against all her surrounding walls and against all the towns of Judah.
16 I will pronounce my judgments on my people
because of their wickedness in forsaking me,
in burning incense to other gods
and in worshiping what their hands have made.
This was unthinkable to most Jews. That God would use a pagan nation to judge Judah. A nation whose sins were much worse than Judah’s.
This dilemma haunted Jewish scholars until something even worse happened – the Holocaust.
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Read Jeremiah 1:17
17 “Get yourself ready! Stand up and say to them whatever I command you. Do not be terrified by them, or I will terrify you before them.
Stop whining. Get suited up. Stand up like a man. Do what I said.
It’s our job to prepare, be available, and speak. It’s God’s job to choose the mission.
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Read Jeremiah 1:18-19
18 Today I have made you a fortified city, an iron pillar and a bronze wall to stand against the whole land—against the kings of Judah, its officials, its priests and the people of the land. 19 They will fight against you but will not overcome you, for I am with you and will rescue you,” declares the Lord.
I doubt Jeremiah ever felt this invincible. Should’ve had a 3x5 card.
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Answer this on the 3x5 card: “If you could pass a note to God, to drop Him a hint: “I wish You would call me to ______________,” what would you say?”
Fishing guide missionary
Chaplain of Waikiki Beach
tic Toc Influencer
Does the thought of God calling you seem scary to you? … or is it something you long for?
Keep this card in your Bible, or wallet, or wherever you’ll see it. Be prepared to add to your list. What would you LIKE God to say to you. Spend time praying over this list.
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I believe, just like Jeremiah, all of us have a calling.
It probably isn’t a job or profession as much as a way of living, or a gift we offer.
I also believe our calling can and will change over time, as we move through seasons of life.
I also believe, when we wish God would call us to something, it is an indicator of the desire God put within us in the beginning.
How often, do you think, does God call people to accomplish tasks that are beyond their abilities? … Every time. 100%
If we are honest, we are always inadequate.
However, God’s calling is seldom a complete surprise since he endows us with skills and passions even before we are born.
What God calls you to, is already part of you.
There is an enormous gap between what we think WE can do and what GOD calls us to do. Our ideas of what we can do or want to do are trivial; God’s ideas for us are grand.
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Pitch Journey Groups
There is an exercise I’ve been doing with other men for the past (10 sessions). The purpose is to uncover those skills and passions that God gave you before you were born.
Stepping into your calling is really about becoming who God made you to be.
Most of the men I’ve done this with are young – 20s and 30s. But it may be even more important for our generation. As Gandalf said: “We have to decide what to do with the time that’s given us.” The time we have left.
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CHALLENGE: keep your 3x5 card and add to it (what do you wish God would tell you?)
Consider joining a Journey Group
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John 21:1-25
May 28, 2023
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Thanks to Doug and Gary for teaching the past two Sundays
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Talk about our Camino trip = 71 miles in 6 days
I am scheduled to talk about our trip at the Monday Brotherhood lunch on June 19
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Today, we’re finishing our study of the Gospel of John … Chapter 21
John began his Gospel with the big picture view (In the beginning was the word …)
Now he ends his Gospel with the most personal stories about Peter.
John wrote this Gospel around 90 AD, about 60 years after all these things happened.
John had time to see how it all unfolded.
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So here’s a question prompted by Chapter 21 … Where do you go – What do you do - when you need to escape – to deal with tension and uncertainty - to work things out - to understand daily life?
What works for you?
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Read John 21:1-3
Afterward Jesus appeared again to his disciples, by the Sea of Galilee.
Does your Bible use a different word than afterward? We don’t know how much time has passed since Jesus visited the disciples in the upper room. It just says, afterward. We do know Jesus appeared to his followers on-and-off for 40 days between His resurrection and ascension.
Afterward Jesus appeared again to his disciples, by the Sea of Galilee. It happened this way: 2 Simon Peter, Thomas (also known as Didymus), Nathanael from Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two other disciples were together. 3 “I’m going out to fish,” Simon Peter told them, and they said, “We’ll go with you.” So they went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing.
They’re in a commercial-sized fishing boat – seven men plus nets and gear
Why do you think they went fishing? …
It was something they knew how to do … felt confident.
It had been their identity for most of their lives.
Maybe, as men, they worked out their issues and problems and talked about the future better in a fishing boat than in the safe room where they’d been hiding.
It's easier for men to talk about personal issues when side-to-side, when doing something else.
I think these men were confused about what they were supposed to do next.
Jesus hadn’t told them.
I believe they were lost, about what their lives looked like now, after spending three years following Jesus. Now what do we do?
It’s not clear if they even had a concept of personal ministry without Jesus.
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Read John 21:4-6
4 Early in the morning, Jesus stood on the shore, but the disciples did not realize that it was Jesus.
5 He called out to them, “Friends, haven’t you any fish?”
“No,” they answered.
6 He said, “Throw your net on the right side of the boat and you will find some.” When they did, they were unable to haul the net in because of the large number of fish.
Why didn’t they recognize him?
Its dawn; He is at least 100 yards away.
Jesus offered just what everyone wants – unsolicited advice from a stranger.
“Fish on the right side!” … Why didn’t we think of that? We’ve been fishing all night on the left side.
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Read John 21:7-14
7 Then the disciple whom Jesus loved …
Again, John continues to refer to himself in 3rd person.
John might’ve found this easier to write if he’d used personal pronouns to describe himself.
However, since he wrote this so many years later (about 60), maybe his younger self seemed like different guy.
Or maybe John wanted this Gospel account to NOT be an autobiography about him, but about Jesus.
Then the disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, “It is the Lord!” As soon as Simon Peter heard him say, “It is the Lord,” he wrapped his outer garment around him (for he had taken it off) and jumped into the water. 8 The other disciples followed in the boat, towing the net full of fish, for they were not far from shore, about a hundred yards. 9 When they landed, they saw a fire of burning coals there with fish on it, and some bread.
10 Jesus said to them, “Bring some of the fish you have just caught.”
11 So Simon Peter climbed back into the boat and dragged the net ashore. It was full of large fish, 153, but even with so many the net was not torn. 12 Jesus said to them, “Come and have breakfast.” None of the disciples dared ask him, “Who are you?” They knew it was the Lord. 13 Jesus came, took the bread and gave it to them, and did the same with the fish. 14 This was now the third time Jesus appeared to his disciples after he was raised from the dead.
Who recognized Jesus first? John
Why? The miracle of catching so many fish. Déjà vu? This was a repeat of a miracle Jesus performed when he first called them to be disciples.
What did Peter do? He put his clothes BACK ON.
How far did Peter swim? 100 yards
I’m surprised none of them said, “Jesus, make Peter come back and help us row” (Mary & Martha moment)
How do we know a real fisherman wrote this? … he remembered how many fish and how big they were, and felt it was important to tell us … 60 years later
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Read John 21:15-17
When they had finished eating, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?”
“Yes, Lord,” he said, “you know that I love you.”
Jesus said, “Feed my lambs.”
16 Again Jesus said, “Simon son of John, do you love me?”
He answered, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.”
Jesus said, “Take care of my sheep.”
17 The third time he said to him, “Simon son of John, do you love me?”
Peter was hurt because Jesus asked him the third time, “Do you love me?” He said, “Lord, you know all things; you know that I love you.”
Jesus said, “Feed my sheep.
Three key words = love, these, feed
LOVE
A lot is made about the words used for “love” in these verses … In the original Greek copies of John’s Gospel, Jesus used the word agape, and Peter answered with phileo.
As in, Jesus used agape to mean total commitment and devotion (godly love).
But Peter used phileo to mean deep, personal affection, as for a close friend (friendly love).
To be honest, I don’t really know what to make of that comparison.
The distinction is a Greek nuance, and both men were most likely speaking Aramaic, not Greek.
But John was an eyewitness, so he may be writing about the feel and tone of the conversation.
But here’s the thing … How would YOU answer if Jesus looked into your eyes and asked: “Do you love me the way I love you?”
Peter may not have felt worthy to say he loved the same as Jesus loved … too presumptive.
Regardless of Peter’s word, or heart, for love … Jesus doesn’t hammer him for a lack of commitment … but accepts Peter as is / where is
THESE
What did Jesus mean by more than THESE? What were THESE?
Fish; disciples, old life
FEED
What did Jesus ask Peter to do? Feed my sheep.
What did he mean?
Jesus often spoke tenderly and personally about “his sheep” … especially in John 10 … you can hear personal ownership in his words. His sheep are a prized and valuable possession.
Telling Peter to “feed my sheep” was NOT a simple thing. It was NOT a small request.
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Why did Jesus ask the same question three times in a row?
It could be to remind Peter that he had denied Jesus three time – but that sounds petty to me. Jesus didn’t throw around guilt parties, and Peter didn’t need reminding. He’d probably thought of nothing else.
And besides, Jesus had already forgiven Peter completely, when Peter ran to him after the Resurrection.
What did Jesus NOT do?
He never rejected Peter … “Not good enough, Peter”
Jesus did NOT say, “When you can love me the way I want, come back and I will give you your assignment”
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I remember when my kids were young, I would ask, “did you hear me” and they would bob their head up and down. Not good enough. I would say, “Look at me,” and when I had them eyeball-to-eyeball I would ask again, “Did you hear me?” Now when they said, “Yes, Daddy, I heard what you said,” I knew they were committed. I had them on record.
I believe that is what Jesus was after when He asked Peter three times. I think by the third time they were standing eyeball-to-eyeball, and Jesus may have had his hands on Peter’s shoulders
I can also imagine there was conversation among the other disciples when Jesus asked the first time, but by the third time, it was stone silent. Peter was on the spot.
By asking the same question three times, he was demanding a deeper commitment from Peter. Jesus wanted Peter on the record.
Jesus never asked questions because HE needed more information … Peter was the one who need to hear the answer.
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This encounter changed Peter forever. He finally had a firm grip on Jesus. Gone was the emotional bouncy unpredictable disciple. From here, Peter became the foundation of the church, eventually dying a martyr’s death.
There is no mention in the Bible of Peter going fishing again.
Jesus is asking Peter to show his love by pouring his life into Jesus’ people.
Peter had blown it in front of everyone. He failed when it was most important, and now he probably thought his turn (to serve Jesus) was over. No place in the line-up for a failure, a loser. Yet, Jesus said, feed my sheep.
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Read John 21:18-19
18 I tell you the truth, when you were younger you dressed yourself and went where you wanted; but when you are old you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go." 19Jesus said this to indicate the kind of death by which Peter would glorify God. Then he said to him, "Follow me!"
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Now … Jesus spells out the cost of the love that Peter claimed.
According to church historian, Eusebius, Peter was crucified head down by the Roman emperor Nero, about 65 A.D.
So by the time John wrote this, especially verse 19, he knew how Peter died
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The “Follow me” at the end of Jesus’ statement is NOT a throwaway. It is THE path. If Peter takes another path – say, go back to fishing – he will NOT end up in the same place.
Peter’s eventual death might’ve been more peaceful, but he wouldn’t have changed the world … we might not be talking about him and his impact on our lives, tonight, 2,000 years later.
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Peter was at a critical point in his life when he had to choose his path … and his choice would affect the rest of his life.
… go back to fishing.
… feed Jesus’ sheep.
He chose to follow Jesus.
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It’s easy to think our time is over.
Our ministry years are behind us.
We might as well spend our time going fishing.
But God has a whole path planned for each of us … a path He wants us follow.
CHALLENGE:
This week, be brave: Ask God to show you what path He has for you.
Ask God, what are you calling me to do?
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John 18:28 – 19:16
May 7, 2023
Last week we read about Jesus’ arrest in the Garden of Gethsemane.
Today, we look at Jesus’ trial before Pilate.
The fact is, we don’t know much about Pilate. If we didn’t have the New Testament account, Pilate would end up a sidenote in history.
We do know Pilate was the ranking Roman leader in Israel … put in place by Tiberius, Roman emperor. Pilate served in this position from about AD 26-36.
It wasn’t considered a prestigious appointment, but a backwater assignment.
In general, the Romans despised the Jews, and thought their religious rules and concerns were ridiculous.
There is quite a discrepancy between the way Pilate is depicted in the history books and the way he is depicted by the writers of the Gospels.
In the Scriptures, Pilate vacillates. He is shifting, uneasy, seemingly eager to please the people—in particular, the Jews.
But the Pilate in the pages of history books was an anti-Semitic Gentile, Roman to the core. He made no attempt to please the Jews.
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Read John 18:28-29
28 Then the Jewish leaders took Jesus from Caiaphas [the High Priest] to the palace of the Roman governor. By now it was early morning, and to avoid ceremonial uncleanness they did not enter the palace, because they wanted to be able to eat the Passover. 29 So Pilate came out to them and asked, “What charges are you bringing against this man?”
The Jewish leaders accused Jesus of blasphemy. They typically had no problem stoning someone to death because of blasphemy. They considered it their duty. In fact They had tried to stone Jesus at least once before.
They were even willing to stone a woman who was caught in adultery, simply to trap Jesus.
So, why did they take him to Pilate?
Perhaps they were hoping to put the blame on the Romans in case Jesus’ followers staged an uprising … which they had no way to combat.
It must have irritated Pilate, to have to come outside to talk to them.
Pilate kept going in and out of his palace to accommodate them.
I’m sure he was surprised to hear the Jews asking for an audience during the most important feast of the year.
Tony Evans wrote, The Jewish leaders had rejected God’s Messiah and were seeking to put to death an innocent man, but they were worried about being ceremonially unclean! They couldn’t see that their wicked actions had already made them filthy.
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Read John 18:29-40
29 So Pilate came out to them and asked, “What charges are you bringing against this man?”
30 “If he were not a criminal,” they replied, “we would not have handed him over to you.” [Would you put up with that answer from your kids?]
31 Pilate said, “Take him yourselves and judge him by your own law.”
“But we have no right to execute anyone,” they objected. 32 This took place to fulfill what Jesus had said about the kind of death he was going to die.
They were asking Pilate to bring a guilty verdict and death penalty against Jesus with no evidence, not even a specific charge against him … based solely on the fact they brought him in.
The reason they were so vague … they wanted Jesus to be crucified for theological reasons, which were of no concern to Pilate.
The other gospels tell us they charged Jesus with treason (but that’s like the French resistance charging someone with treason against the Nazis)
What is Pilate’s dilemma?
Does he care about Jesus?
I doubt he cared about anyone besides himself.
I think, mostly, he just resented being manipulated by the Jewish clerics.
To find Jesus guilty and crucify him meant a possible revolution (every time he got into trouble Caesar had to bail him out … and he didn’t need any more of this in his HR file.)
But if he released Jesus, the Jews would tell on him to Rome … that he hadn’t been watching out for Rome’s interests … Pilate doesn’t want that, either.
The Jewish leaders had to lay it all out … they wanted Jesus executed, but they wanted Roman help to make that happen.
I doubt they had second thoughts about killing someone who threatened their religious structure. But they wanted to blame the Romans.
Everything about this trial was handled illegally.
They deliberately broke their own Laws.
These men formed the Sanhedrin; they were teachers of the Law, they WERE the law. There was no one else they could get into trouble with.
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33 Pilate then went back inside the palace, summoned Jesus and asked him, “Are you the king of the Jews?”
A curious opening question from Pilate.
Apparently, the Jews had told Pilate that Jesus was claiming to be the Messiah and a king in opposition to Caesar.
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34 “Is that your own idea,” Jesus asked, “or did others talk to you about me?”
A challenge from Jesus … will Pilate be a true judge, or a willing pawn in the plot?
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35 “Am I a Jew?” Pilate replied. “Your own people and chief priests handed you over to me. What is it you have done?”
Pilate sounds disgusted with the whole thing: “I’m not a Jew, am I?”
Your own chief priests handed you over to me.
Imagine asking the accused what they did wrong. (Maybe it’s like a police officer asking, “Do you know why I pulled you over?”)
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36 Jesus said, “My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jewish leaders. But now my kingdom is from another place.”
37 “You are a king, then!” said Pilate.
Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. In fact, the reason I was born and came into the world is to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.”
Jesus had proclaimed the good news of God. He said, “The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news!’” When Jesus said the kingdom of God is near, he wasn’t not saying it’s getting close. He was saying it’s available now. And that people who believe in Truth believe in Jesus.
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38 “What is truth?” retorted Pilate. With this he went out again to the Jews gathered there and said, “I find no basis for a charge against him.
Pilate didn’t ask this question – what is truth? - because he was searching for The Truth.
Saying “what is truth” is like saying, “Yeah, whatever.”
Pilate was not so much seeking answers as he was trying to avoid responsibility. As Matthew writes in his gospel: “When Pilate saw that he was getting nowhere, he took water and washed his hands in front of the crowd. ‘I am innocent of this man's blood,’ he said. ‘It is your responsibility!’”.
At the very least, Pilate understood enough to know that Jesus was no threat to Rome and further investigation was unnecessary.
Ironically, of all the people in this story, Pilate was the only one who gave Jesus even the slightest measure of justice. He kept saying, I find no basis for a charge against him. Pilate never changed his mind, or his verdict.
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So Pilate tries negotiating …
39 But it is your custom for me to release to you one prisoner at the time of the Passover. Do you want me to release ‘the king of the Jews’?” [air quotes?]
This seems a strange custom.
There is no reason for Pilate to offer this choice. The trial should have been over. He should have released Jesus and sent everyone home.
I think he’s giving the Jewish leaders and himself a face-saving way to back down.
And yet he’s still poking fun at the leaders by calling Jesus king of the Jews.
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40 They shouted back, “No, not him! Give us Barabbas!” Now Barabbas had taken part in an uprising.
It’s ironic that Pilate is willing to release Barabbas … a true revolutionary and insurrectionist (Pilate had no interest in truth or justice, merely peace and quiet.)
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Read John 19:1-16
Then Pilate took Jesus and had him flogged. 2 The soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on his head. They clothed him in a purple robe 3 and went up to him again and again, saying, “Hail, king of the Jews!” And they slapped him in the face.
4 Once more Pilate came out and said to the Jews gathered there, “Look, I am bringing him out to you to let you know that I find no basis for a charge against him.” 5 When Jesus came out wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe, Pilate said to them, “Here is the man!”
Pilate had Jesus flogged and humiliated and yet he still finds no basis to charge him with any crime.
Why did Pilate have Jesus flogged?
To encourage pity?
In hopes that would be enough to satisfy them?
Why say “Here is the man.” What is his point? To show them how pathetic this man is, the one they are so afraid of? To encourage pity for Jesus? As in … here you go … surely this is enough?
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6 As soon as the chief priests and their officials saw him, they shouted, “Crucify! Crucify!”
But Pilate answered, “You take him and crucify him. As for me, I find no basis for a charge against him.”
7 The Jewish leaders insisted, “We have a law, and according to that law he must die, because he claimed to be the Son of God.”
8 When Pilate heard this, he was even more afraid,
Curious reaction from Pilate: (1) Jesus’ claim to be the Son of God seemed to rattle Pilate; (2) it says he was even more afraid. What was he afraid of, already?
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9 and he went back inside the palace. “Where do you come from?” he asked Jesus, but Jesus gave him no answer. 10 “Do you refuse to speak to me?” Pilate said. “Don’t you realize I have power either to free you or to crucify you?”
11 Jesus answered, “You would have no power over me if it were not given to you from above. Therefore the one who handed me over to you is guilty of a greater sin.”
12 From then on, Pilate tried to set Jesus free, but the Jewish leaders kept shouting, “If you let this man go, you are no friend of Caesar. Anyone who claims to be a king opposes Caesar.”
Now, they are accusing Pilate of treason.
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13 When Pilate heard this, he brought Jesus out and sat down on the judge’s seat at a place known as the Stone Pavement (which in Aramaic is Gabbatha). 14 It was the day of Preparation of the Passover; it was about noon.
“Here is your king,” Pilate said to the Jews.
15 But they shouted, “Take him away! Take him away! Crucify him!”
“Shall I crucify your king?” Pilate asked.
“We have no king but Caesar,” the chief priests answered.
16 Finally Pilate handed him over to them to be crucified.
What do the Jews finally say that convinces Pilate to crucify Jesus? (vs 15) … We have no king but Caesar
They don’t believe this for one minute.
These words meant NOTHING to the Jews. They HATED Rome and HATED Caesar.
If they are willing to say this, might as well let them have their way … or this debate will never end.
Watch out for people who trick you by using phrases and words they don’t mean.
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Were the events leading up to Jesus’ death inevitable?
Could the Sanhedrin, or Pilate, or Herod, have taken a different path?
Scholars have argued over this for 2000 years.
History always looks inevitable when we look back – especially when we look back 2,000 years.
The fact that Jesus would voluntarily die for our sins in order bring us to God was inevitable.
But everyone involved in the trial made personal choices. They could have chosen to do something else.
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Confrontation with Jesus always forces choices.
Do I follow Jesus, or not?
Do I say Yes to Jesus, or no?
The more we learn about Jesus, the more choices we must make.
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This week, ask God to show you how to choose wisely.
Ask God to make your heart more like his.
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John 18:1-11
April 30, 2023
Do you remember where we left off last Sunday?
What was Jesus doing?
Moving from our discussion of Jesus and Disciples at the Last Supper, to the story of Jesus being arrested and the beginning of his trial … includes two stories about Peter. As we look at these verses, ask yourself, “where do I personally land in these stories?”
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Read John 18:1-11
When he had finished praying, Jesus left with his disciples and crossed the Kidron Valley. On the other side there was a garden [Garden of Gethsemane], and he and his disciples went into it.
2 Now Judas, who betrayed him, knew the place, because Jesus had often met there with his disciples. 3 So Judas came to the garden, guiding a detachment of soldiers and some officials from the chief priests and the Pharisees. They were carrying torches, lanterns and weapons.
4 Jesus, knowing all that was going to happen to him, went out and asked them, “Who is it you want?”
5 “Jesus of Nazareth,” they replied.
“I am he,” Jesus said. (And Judas the traitor was standing there with them.) 6 When Jesus said, “I am he,” they drew back and fell to the ground.
7 Again he asked them, “Who is it you want?”
“Jesus of Nazareth,” they said.
8 Jesus answered, “I told you that I am he. If you are looking for me, then let these men go.” 9 This happened so that the words he had spoken would be fulfilled: “I have not lost one of those you gave me.”
10 Then Simon Peter, who had a sword, drew it and struck the high priest’s servant, cutting off his right ear. (The servant’s name was Malchus.)
11 Jesus commanded Peter, “Put your sword away! Shall I not drink the cup the Father has given me?”
Jesus took his disciples to the Garden of Gethsemane. A place they went often.
There are ancient, gnarly olive trees in the Garden … some are old enough to have been there on this night.
The Garden was (and still is) on the edge of Jerusalem. The desert was just to the east. It would’ve been easy for Jesus to escape into the wilderness and fade away.
Jesus certainly wasn’t hiding … the garden was one of their familiar haunts, and well-known to Judas.
(v. 2) Tells us that Judas came to the Garden with a detachment of soldiers.
They were prepared to search in the dark. They were prepared to fight.
This seems like overkill … why were they so afraid of Jesus and his disciples?
Historically, several men had claimed to be the Messiah and lead revolutionary attempts against the Romans … they didn’t know what to expect. The Roman officers acted with overwhelming force.
Just a few days earlier Jesus entered Jerusalem and the entire town celebrated.
It doesn’t tell us exactly how many (commentaries estimate 300-600 soldiers). Certainly more than enough soldiers to ensure success of the arrest and stave off any riot that might ensue.
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(v. 6) When Jesus said, “I am he,” they drew back and fell to the ground [I assume that includes some of the soldies] … why did they fall down?
The words “drew back” come from the Greek word aperchomai. In this case, the words depict the soldiers and temple police staggering and stumbling backward, as if some force has hit them and is pushing them backward.
The word “fell” is the Greek word pipto, which means to fall. It was used often to depict a person who fell so hard, it appeared that he fell dead or fell like a corpse.
It was evidence of how this arrest could have gone if had Jesus resisted.
Maybe this happened to show who was really in charge of the scene.
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(v. 7) Jesus asked the soldiers, twice …“Who is it you want?”
Jesus knew exactly who they wanted. His question wasn’t to get information, but to protect his disciples … make the soldiers go on the record that they wanted only him. The Disciples would know they weren’t targets.
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How did Peter respond?
Was Peter ready to take on a detachment of soldiers?
Was this simply an impulsive move … Peter didn’t think it through?
Peter was probably aiming for the servant’s head and missed.
He was brave, but foolish.
Peter was afraid. And when we’re afraid, we don’t operate at our best.
Our first tendency is to defend ourselves and fight back.
We trust in locks and guns and money and arguments, and all sorts of things that aren’t Jesus.
Why do you think Peter had a sword?
Was this part of Peter’s regular gear?
I would have thought the Romans would have banned Jews from carrying weapons.
There is another Bible reference to the disciples and swords … In Luke 22, Jesus told His Disciples, “If you don’t have a sword, sell your cloak and buy one.”
I didn’t find any commentary or scholar who believed Jesus was literally telling his disciples to arm themselves. There is a lot of writing on this, buy no consensus what Jesus meant. Except to say that arming his Disciples runs askew to all other teaching from Jesus.
And yet, Peter had a sword. Peter is lucky he wasn’t killed that night. Had he taken a swipe at a Roman soldier instead of a servant, he probably wouldn’t have survived.
All four Gospels tell us a disciple had a sword, and a servant had his ear cut off. Only John gives us names for both. And only Luke tells us Jesus healed the ear.
I would like to hear what happened to Malcus after this … imagine his heart pounding … narrowly escaping death … healed instantly by Jesus. When he got home, did they ask why he had blood on his shoulder?
I also wonder why John told us the servant’s name. He doesn’t usually give us names unless they mean something to his readers at the time he wrote. I wonder if Malcus became a believer, and many of John’s readers would have known him.
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Read John 18:12-14
12 Then the detachment of soldiers with its commander and the Jewish officials arrested Jesus. They bound him 13 and brought him first to Annas, who was the father-in-law of Caiaphas, the high priest that year. 14 Caiaphas was the one who had advised the Jewish leaders that it would be good if one man died for the people.
How many used to participate in the Easter Passion Play?
My skill = beard. Disciple. Even Judas. Too Old. Caiaphas. Orchestra
They took Jesus to Annas, the former high priest. Apparently he was the power behind the throne, so to speak.
He was the wealthiest and most influential man in the city. He owned and operated the entire money-changing system at the temple … the one Jesus upset. (It was known as Annas’ Bizarre.), so he had a personal vendetta against Jesus. He was a former high priest, had five sons and a son-in-law who succeeded him as high priest. (the Godfather)
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Read John 18:15-18
15 Simon Peter and another disciple were following Jesus. Because this disciple was known to the high priest, he went with Jesus into the high priest’s courtyard, 16 but Peter had to wait outside at the door. The other disciple, who was known to the high priest, came back, spoke to the servant girl on duty there and brought Peter in.
17 “You aren’t one of this man’s disciples too, are you?” she asked Peter.
He replied, “I am not.”
18 It was cold, and the servants and officials stood around a fire they had made to keep warm. Peter also was standing with them, warming himself.
Most commentaries believe the other disciple in verse 15 was probably John. (He never referred to himself by name in the entire Gospel.
Why wasn’t John questioned, like Peter?
Maybe they already knew he was a follower of Jesus.
Maybe they kept asking Peter because they knew he must’ve been a follower as well, since he came with John.
Why do you think Peter came to the courtyard?
To fight? Curiosity? Impulsive? Just following Jesus?
Why did Peter deny Jesus in the courtyard when he had just fought courageously for Jesus in the Garden?
It’s hard to know what we’ll do when we’re vulnerable.
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Read John 18:19-27
19 Meanwhile, the high priest [still Annas, the former high priest …he retained the title… like the president] questioned Jesus about his disciples and his teaching.
20 “I have spoken openly to the world,” Jesus replied. “I always taught in synagogues or at the temple, where all the Jews come together. I said nothing in secret. 21 Why question me? Ask those who heard me. Surely they know what I said.”
22 When Jesus said this, one of the officials nearby slapped him in the face. “Is this the way you answer the high priest?” he demanded.
23 “If I said something wrong,” Jesus replied, “testify as to what is wrong. But if I spoke the truth, why did you strike me?” 24 Then Annas sent him bound to Caiaphas the high priest.
25 Meanwhile, Simon Peter was still standing there warming himself. So they asked him, “You aren’t one of his disciples too, are you?”
He denied it, saying, “I am not.”
26 One of the high priest’s servants, a relative of the man whose ear Peter had cut off, challenged him, “Didn’t I see you with him in the garden?” 27 Again Peter denied it, and at that moment a rooster began to crow.
All three questions were phrased to expect a no answer. Easy to say no.
Sin is never the HARD decision … the world makes it EASY to deny Jesus.
What if Peter had said yes?
It isn’t obvious anything would’ve happened.
These were servants asking Peter questions, not officials interrogating him. Not a real threat.
Plus … soldiers already showed in the Garden, that they weren’t interested in the Disciples. And they had reason to arrest Peter more than all the others … but they didn’t.
Earlier in the evening, during the Last Supper, Jesus told Peter, “Satan has asked for you, that he may sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for you, that your faith should not fail.” – (Luke 22:31–32)
Did Peter fail? In spite of Jesus’ prayer?
In Peter’s case, what was sifted out of him was overconfidence and pride.
How would you like the darkest moment of your life recorded in the Bible for all time?
If God forgives our sins, why put Peter’s biggest one in the Bible?
I wonder if the writers of the Gospels checked with Peter before including this story.
Maybe Peter told this story on himself.
How would we even know this story if Peter hadn’t told it. (maybe the other disciple was there all along and heard the whole thing)
What makes Peter unusual was NOT that he sinned, or denied Jesus, or said one thing but did another.
But that he RAN back to Jesus for forgiveness the first chance he got.
We all want forgiveness … without having to admit we were wrong.
Peter knew the love and forgiveness of Jesus, and he must have forgiven himself completely, in order to let this story get out.
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CHALLENGE:
Ask God … show me where I am in the story of Peter
Ask God … am I more likely to fight back? Or more likely to back away?
Ask God … to show you his grace and forgiveness.
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John 17
April 23, 2023
I am going to play a short clip of a man praying … tell me what you hear.
Video: Pray from Morning in April (#1, 14:05 (when they walk inside) – 15:07 (“than honesty”)
What can you learn about someone by hearing them pray?
I’ve had several tours of duty on the FBC Personnel Committee, which includes searching for and interviewing potential ministers. We always ask them to close the interview by praying … so we can hear a little bit of their heart.
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We are looking at John 17 … the very end of the story of the Last Supper.
Before the night was over, Jesus would be arrested. Before the next day ended, He would be crucified.
John 17 is a prayer prayed by Jesus at the close of the Last Supper
Never before had Jesus’ heart, for His followers, been so transparent as in this prayer.
It’s as if Jesus unzipped his chest and showed them his heart.
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John Chapter 17
In your Bible, what does the heading above verse 1 say?
Jesus FIRST prayed for Himself and His relationship to the Father.
As I read this, listen for: What does this prayer tell you about Jesus?
Read John 17:1-5
17 After Jesus said this, he looked toward heaven and prayed:
“Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you. 2 For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him. 3 Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. 4 I have brought you glory on earth by finishing the work you gave me to do. 5 And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began.
What does this prayer tell you about Jesus?
Intimate relationship (“Daddy”)
Purpose – glorify God.
Completed his work.
Homesick?
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17:1 …. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you.
What does glorify mean to you?
The word feels a little old-fashioned to me, or high church. We seldom use it about each other.
To glorify means to cause a person’s worth to be seen and acknowledged.
So if we glorify someone, we are calling attention and appreciation for their best and most godly attributes.
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17:3 … Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent
How would you define or describe eternal life?
(I would have said, live a long time)
In this verse …
Eternal life = to know God and know Jesus.
Know = not simply intellectual knowledge, but personal experience
Eternity is not linear, it is relational. (I am much more comfortable with linear timelines than something squishy like relationships.)
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What does the heading above verse 6 say?
NEXT, Jesus prayed for His disciples.
As I read this part of the prayer, listen for some specific things Jesus prays for his disciples.
Read John 17:6-19
6 “I have revealed you to those whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours; you gave them to me and they have obeyed your word. 7 Now they know that everything you have given me comes from you. 8 For I gave them the words you gave me and they accepted them. They knew with certainty that I came from you, and they believed that you sent me. 9 I pray for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours. 10 All I have is yours, and all you have is mine. And glory has come to me through them. 11 I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name, the name you gave me, so that they may be one as we are one. 12 While I was with them, I protected them and kept them safe by that name you gave me. None has been lost except the one doomed to destruction so that Scripture would be fulfilled.
13 “I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them. 14 I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world.
15 My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. 16 They are not of the world, even as I am not of it.
17 Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. 18 As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. 19 For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified.
What did Jesus pray for these men?
God will keep (protect) them.
Preserve from the evil one (not isolated from the world, but insulated)
Sanctified
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17:11 … Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name, the name you gave me, so that they may be one as we are one
God’s name = his character & resources (protect them by the power and authority of himself)
17:14 … I have given them your word and the world has hated them.
The revelation of God through Jesus was so different from the world’s view of God that they hated both the disciples and Jesus.
The disciples had been born into the physical world and in that sense were in the world. However, they also had been born again and so were not of the world. (We use this phrase a lot: we are in the world but not of the world.)
One aspect of preparing the disciples for His departure was giving them the Father’s word. Jesus was the Living Word, but He also taught the Word of God.
Spiritual transformation results from receiving God’s word.
John 17:15 … My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one.
He wants us to remain in the world. The world was their mission field. For them to accomplish the mission on which Jesus was sending them, they had to engage the world, not flee from it.
Not isolated but insulated from the heat of the world as they pass through.
Jesus prayed for the Father to “protect them from the evil one.” Jesus would soon defeat Satan on the cross. However, the evil one (Satan) would still have strength enough to inflict damage on believers.
I wonder, why not pray that the persecution doesn’t happen?
17:17-18 … 17 Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. 18 As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world
Sanctify = to set apart for a certain purpose or use
Jesus’ prayer was that the Father would separate the disciples and consecrate them for their mission into the world.
How are we sanctified (set apart) by the truth?
When the truth (Word) becomes such an integral part of us that it makes our lives distinctive.
If his Word (truth) is not working in us in a life-changing way, the world will be.
If we want real change in our lives, we must be living in the Word.
There is a, expression: Dusty Bibles lead to Dirty Lives.
The purpose of the disciples’ sanctification wasn’t just to make them shiny and holy but to prepare them to be “sent … into the world” to testify about Jesus.
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What is your heading before verse 20?
Who does that include?
Jesus Prays for All Believers
If you write in your Bible, you can write: Jesus Prayed for Me.
While I read this, listen for what Jesus prays for you.
20 “My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, 21 that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22 I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one— 23 I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.
24 “Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world.
25 “Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me. 26 I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them.”
What does Jesus pray for us?
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17:20 … My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message.
This is important. Jesus prayed for those who would believe in Him through the witness of His disciples. That’s us!
17:21 … that all of them may be one.
Jesus had previously prayed that His disciples might be one as the Father and Son are one (v 11). In this verse He prayed the same prayer for us: “May they be one.”
17:22 … I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity.
True unity must be grounded in the unity evidenced in the Father and Son. Anything less is not unity.
Why unity rather than doctrinal purity?
How is unity different from unanimous?
Rick Warren said, “We need different churches for different people.”
We can be very different, even have different interpretations of some theology, and still be unified.
17:23 … they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them.
Unity was not the end in itself. The goal of the unity was so that “the world will know.”
Our lack of unity often pushes people away from church, away from Jesus.
This is as much sermon (a reminder) as it is prayer. He wanted the listeners to know they were part of the unity … could have the same relationship with Jesus and God, that Jesus had with God.
A little difficult to grasp that level of relationship.
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CHALLENGE: Read through this chapter pick 2 or 3 things that Jesus prayed and pray those same things for yourself, for family and friends, and for our Ezekiel Class.
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John 15-16 (15:26-27, 16:7-15)
April 16, 2023
Do you have a mental image of God?
Does he look like the image in the Sistine Chapel? (very little clothing)
A mental image of Jesus?
We have lots of paintings and movie images to draw from
What about a mental image of the Holy Spirit?
Did you grow up in a church that talked a lot about the Holy Spirit?
Too many have avoided learning who the spirit is and what he does because of some people’s excessive emphasis.
In my memory, it made people nervous.
I once asked my grandfather, a Baptist pastor in small towns of west Texas, about Spiritual Gifts and the Holy Spirit, and he said, immediately: “Speaking in tongues will split the church.”
When I mention the Holy Spirit, what comes to your mind?
The Holy Spirit works on both sides of the cross: both unbelievers and believers.
As you probably guessed, we’re going to talk about the Holy Spirit this morning.
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Believe it or not, we are still looking at Jesus’ discussion with his disciples during his Last Supper with them.
Unlike our study, Jesus didn’t talk for weeks and weeks … the actual discourse lasted probably less than 30 minutes.
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I’m going to read through the passage 15:26 – 16:15. Then we’ll come back and look at it more closely.
Read John 15:26-27
26 “When the Advocate [Does your Bible have a different name than “Advocate”?] comes, whom I will send to you from the Father—the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father—he will testify about me. 27 And you also must testify, for you have been with me from the beginning.
Read John 16:1-15
“All this I have told you so that you will not fall away. 2 They will put you out of the synagogue; in fact, the time is coming when anyone who kills you will think they are offering a service to God. 3 They will do such things because they have not known the Father or me. 4 I have told you this, so that when their time comes you will remember that I warned you about them. I did not tell you this from the beginning because I was with you, 5 but now I am going to him who sent me. None of you asks me, ‘Where are you going?’ 6 Rather, you are filled with grief because I have said these things.
7 But very truly I tell you, it is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you.
8 When he comes, he will prove the world to be in the wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment: 9 about sin, because people do not believe in me; 10 about righteousness, because I am going to the Father, where you can see me no longer; 11 and about judgment, because the prince of this world now stands condemned.
12 “I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. 13 But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. 14 He will glorify me because it is from me that he will receive what he will make known to you. 15 All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will receive from me what he will make known to you.”
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Eugene Peterson wrote:
Jesus says two things over and over and over.
First, He tells his friends that he’s leaving, at least 15 times during this conversation in one way or another.
Second, he says about 26 times that he’s sending them the Holy Spirit.
Let’s go back to John 15:26-27
26 “When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father—the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father—he will testify about me. 27 And you also must testify, for you have been with me from the beginning.
I never use, or even think of using, the name, Advocate, when referring to the Holy Spirit … but I like the idea that the Holy Spirit is on my side, advocating for me.
Charles Swindoll wrote: “Verse 26 reveals more about the Holy Spirit than any other verse in the Bible.”
Title = Advocate
Who he was sent by = Jesus
Who he came from = Father
His character = Truth
Recipients = Disciples (ultimately, us)
And mission = testify about Jesus
How does the Holy Spirit testify about Jesus? Through the words of the Disciples (through our words)
The disciples shared what they had personally heard, seen, and experienced during their time with Jesus. Nothing about their message was secondhand. No speculations.
Where does the focus of Holy Spirit point? To Jesus, not himself
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John 16:1-4
“All this I have told you so that you will not fall away [go astray, stumble].
2 They will put you out of the synagogue; in fact, the time is coming when anyone who kills you [seems a little casual] will think they are offering a service to God. 3 They will do such things because they have not known the Father or me. 4 I have told you this, so that when their time comes you will remember that I warned you about them. I did not tell you this from the beginning because I was with you,
Jesus did not want the disciples to be caught unaware, so He foretold the world’s reaction to the witness of the disciples.
When it happens, they won’t think God was caught by surprise … or that they messed up.
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John 16:5-6
5 but now I am going to him who sent me. None of you asks me, ‘Where are you going?’ 6 Rather, you are filled with grief because I have said these things.
Jesus kept telling them he was going away … you’d think they would pester Him with questions about that.
Why weren’t they more curious about where Jesus was going? (lost in their own stories?)
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John 16:7
7 But very truly I tell you, it is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you.
Jesus said “It is for your own good that I am going away” … Would you buy that (if you were a disciple)?
Not right away.
How could it be better to trade a human Jesus – a man they could talk and eat and laugh with – for a Spirit they couldn’t physically see?
I think most of us would have chosen a physical Jesus over an invisible Spirit.”
Why was it better? Jesus, human, could only be in one place at a time.
Jesus did not explain why the Spirit could not come until Jesus had departed.
But he reassured them that the Holy Spirit would guide and empower them in their mission to the world.
Jesus knew his Disciples couldn’t live the Christian life and carry out his mission by themselves. He would send the Holy Spirit to help them.
Jesus gave His followers confidence they would not be alone. They would have the Spirit of God to lead them.
Yet, as much as they believed and trusted Jesus, this must have felt a little iffy. But one thing they’ve learned living with Jesus for three years … to wait and see.
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John 16:8
8 When he comes, he will prove the world to be in the wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment:
“Prove the world to be in the wrong.”
MSG: expose the error.
NLT: convict the world.
Phillips: will convince the world of the meaning of sin, of true goodness and judgment.
How does the Holy Spirit convict unbelievers if He doesn’t yet dwell within them?
One way … He does it through believers.
Once Jesus is gone … believers are the examples of righteousness
The word convict, in this usage, means a couple of things correction, and convincing, revealing the truth in a way that renders us morally accountable.
Accountability is important, since God’s desire is always repentance, not despair or condemnation.
Verse 8 tells us the Spirit of truth will convict the world in three areas: sin, righteousness, and judgment.
Jesus elaborated …
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John 16:9
9 about sin, because people do not believe in me;
In this case, the world’s problem is not that they have a collection of individual acts of sin of which they are guilty. Rather their sin is their act of putting themselves in the center and refusing to believe in Jesus.
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John 16:10
10 about righteousness, because I am going to the Father, where you can see me no longer;
The world won’t have the example of human Jesus any longer, so the Holy Spirit will guide them (us) to righteousness.
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John 16:11
11 and about judgment, because the prince of this world now stands condemned.
The presence of the Holy Spirit shows the defeat of Satan.
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John 16:12
12 “I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear.
Jesus assured the disciples that their spiritual education was not yet over; there were many things left to teach.
But at the moment, they were tapped out.
The disciples had reached their saturation point and further instruction would be fruitless.
But even though Jesus was about to leave them, He would not leave them helpless.
The Spirit would fill two roles: teaching the disciples what they did not know and reminding them of things they had forgotten.
This is good news for us!
God brings us along into spiritual maturity as we are able to receive it.
The holy spirit teaches us the truth about Jesus.
We aren’t stuck:
(1) Not knowing,
(2) On our own to learn.
Often we have to trust God when we don’t understand
All of life is that way. There are a lot of lessons and practices we have to learn and act on, long before we understand the reasons why.
This sermon from Jesus is a good example. It is too dense with information for anyone to understand it all. Jesus is giving them a lifetime of lessons all at once.
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John 16:13
13 But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come.
Gordon McDonald wrote, “Put simply, the disciples weren’t prepared to make sense out of a lot of things happening to them. They were going to have to step out into the currents of life and trust God would care for them.”
There is a someday in the plan of God when full disclosure will be made to all of us, but in the meantime, we must make a big decision – will we trust the God of hidden purposes and believe that He knows exactly what He is doing even when events make absolutely no sense at all?
This is ongoing. If we walk with God, we’ll be ready tomorrow for what we can’t understand today.
Parker Palmer wrote: “The older we get, the more our lives are enriched by lessons we weren’t ready to learn when we were young.”
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John 16:14-15
14 He will glorify me because it is from me that he will receive what he will make known to you. 15 All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will receive from me what he will make known to you.”
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The disciples understood little of what Jesus said about the Holy Spirit that night, but within a few weeks the reality of his worlds would transform their lives.
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So what do we do with all of this?
We don’t have to ask to receive the Holy Spirit, Jesus gave Him to us.
But we DO have to learn to listen and respond.
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CHALLENGE:
This week in your prayer time, ask God to speak to you through the Holy Spirit. Ask God to open your eyes to the work of the Holy Spirit in your life.
Listen for small urges, nudges. The Holy Spirit is polite and gentle … doesn’t push us around.
Act quickly. The more often we respond and obey, the more clearly we’ll hear his voice.
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John 20:1-18
April 9, 2023
Since this is Easter Sunday, we’re jumping ahead in our walk through the Gospel of John, to chapter 20, John’s account of the Resurrection.
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Richard Dawkins, a prominent atheist, has written that the resurrection was born from tall tales and legends that gradually expanded, hoping to sway young recruits to the religion of Christianity.
The problem with his theory is, had there been no resurrection there would be no religion.
Christianity would have died before it was born, with the death of Jesus.
The Apostle Paul wrote, in 1 Corinthians 15:14, 14 If Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith.
If Christ has not been raised from the dead:
(1) we are preaching without the truth
(2) we have faith but no forgiveness
(3) we have death with no hope
(4) we have sacrifice with no meaning
For me, the miracle of the Resurrection isn’t so hard to believe. Once I believe there is an all-powerful God who created everything and actively intervenes in our lives, everything else falls into place. Once I believe the BIG PICTURE, then the details are simple.
John’s account reminds us that Jesus’ resurrection was more than a grand gesture that established a religion, but was personal, just for us, just for you.
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None of the four Gospels agree on the exact details or timeline of the resurrection.
Does it bother you that the Gospel stories are so different?
Bad = makes it harder to teach
Good = confirms the “real-time” nature of the writing (they didn’t sit around collaborating on their story afterward)
What IS common, is that women were the first to see the risen Jesus.
Each account lists different names of the women who witnessed Jesus first. This is probably because each gospel writer relied on different people for their story, and those are the names he used.
However … all the Gospels DO agree on two things:
(1) Mary Magdalene was there.
All four gospels mention Mary Magdalene as the premiere witness to the resurrection – alone or in a group, but in all cases mentioned by name.
We spend more time telling the story of Peter’s denial of Jesus than we do Mary’s steady, unwavering witness. She is a real hero in this story.
(2) All the disciples were slow to understand what was happening (which is completely understandable … we would’ve reacted the same way)
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Read John 20:1-2
Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance. 2 So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him!”
What was Mary most worried about?
That someone had stolen Jesus’ body … after all the indignities they’d put on him already, and shameful death … now they stole his body!
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Read John 20:3-9
3 So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb. 4 Both were running, [a lot of running in this story] but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. 5 He bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there but did not go in. 6 Then Simon Peter came along behind him and went straight into the tomb. [I can imagine Peter pushing John out of the way and dashing inside.] He saw the strips of linen lying there, 7 as well as the cloth that had been wrapped around Jesus’ head. The cloth was still lying in its place, separate from the linen. 8 Finally the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed. 9 (They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.)
I like the way this is written by John, because you can sense a little rivalry between him and Peter. Makes them seem like regular guys.
Who won the race to the tomb? (admit it … it always a race)
John … he was the youngster of the group
Why did John tell who got there first?
As if … “Yeah, Peter, maybe you walked on water, but when it counted most, I won the race.”
Who was the first to BELIEVE what had happened? V. 8
There is a progression of understanding: John glanced, Peter looked in, John saw and believed.
The fact is this all happened in a flash of time. They are just regular men trying to make sense of all that just happened – the suddenness of Jesus’ death … all that Jesus had taught them is coming at them at once.
The presence of the linen cloths ruled out anyone stealing the body since they would not have unwrapped the body before removing it from the tomb.
The presence of burial clothes was a contrast to the story of Lazarus, who came out of the tomb still wrapped from head to toe.
The phrase from verse 9, “They did not yet understand” hints that complete understanding would come later… not all at once.
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Read John 20:10-14
10 Then the disciples went back to where they were staying.
11 Now Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb 12 and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus’ body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot.
13 They asked her, “Woman, why are you crying?”
“They have taken my Lord away,” she said, “and I don’t know where they have put him.” 14 At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus.
After Mary shared her information about the empty tomb with the disciples, she must of have followed Peter and John back to the tomb. But she didn’t go with them back to where they were staying. She stayed a while longer.
When the two disciples were at the tomb, they say the burial clothes.
But, when Mary looked inside the tomb, she saw two angels in white.
The angels must’ve appeared just for Mary. It’s not the sort of thing Peter and John would’ve overlooked.
Peter and John didn’t notice any angels.
Mary is distraught, but surprisingly, she wasn’t frightened by the angels.
Why do you think she failed to recognize Jesus?
He looked different … Not expecting him … Tears in her eyes … Out of context
While she didn’t recognize Jesus, she didn’t mistake him for another angel.
Mary is staring right at it – the empty tomb – and yet she can’t see it. She can’t process it at all. It was too much, at once, for anyone.
Faith is impossible without supernatural intervention by God himself.
Belief in the person and work of Christ does not come naturally to anyone. … We can’t produce saving faith in Jesus Christ solely through our own ability.
All the compelling evidence for Christianity may be laid out in front of us. The message might be as clear as can be. But there is in every human being an inherent spiritual blindness. We can’t see the truth. We can’t connect it ourselves.
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Read John 20:15-16
15 He [Jesus – that she didn’t recognize] asked her, “Woman, why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?”
Thinking he was the gardener, she said, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him.”
16 Jesus said to her, “Mary.”
She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means “Teacher”).
Reasonably, the only person likely to be present at that hour at a garden tomb was a gardener.
Three times Mary Magdalene expressed her concern that Jesus’ body had been stolen form the now empty tomb (v. 2, 13, 15).
There is tenderness of this interaction (between Jesus and Mary)
Jesus asked, “Why are you crying?” … as with the angels’ question, Jesus’s question may have been a gentle rebuke to Mary, a call to wake up.
The second question, “Who is it that you are looking for?” may have been a call for Mary to reflect on the kind of Messiah she was expecting. An invitation to widen her horizons and to recognize that her estimate of Jesus was still far too small.
Mary, however, misinterprets Jesus’ questions.
So Jesus makes another effort to break through to her heart and does it by calling her name: Mary.
Why did that work?
Being called by our name is deeply personal and attention-getting.
Story about my mom.
Our names are the most personal thing about us.
When Jesus called her by name, she recognized him.
Real faith is always personal.
(remember … the sheep know the voice of the shepherd)
Mary heard Jesus call her name, and reality and understanding came in like a flood, all at once.
If you only believe that Jesus dies to forgive people in general for their sins – but you don’t believe that Jesus died for YOU – you aren’t taking hold of Jesus by faith. You haven’t heard him call you by name.
Ours is not a theoretical theology, but a personal experience with the risen Lord Jesus.
Mary would never have found Jesus unless he sought her out. He came to her, gently worked to open her heart, and then broke through with a personal address. Her faith comes by grace – she doesn’t earn it.
At this moment Mary is the only person in the world who believes that Jesus died and was raised from the dead.
Jesus chose Mary to be the first Christian.
Timothy Keller wrote: “Jesus Christ specifically chose a woman, not a man; chose a reformed mental patient, not a pillar of the community; chose one of the support team, not one of the leaders, to be the first Christian.
We can’t assume everyone else must come to faith in the same way we did.
For Mary, her moment was hearing her name on the lips of Jesus.”
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Read John 20:17-18
17 Jesus said, “Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’”
18 Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news: “I have seen the Lord!” And she told them that he had said these things to her.
Does it seem strange that Jesus didn’t want her holding on to him?
Maybe Jesus wanted her to know that their relationship is changing … from tangible to spiritual. (Maybe she was holding on to him so tightly he couldn’t breathe.)
A lot of people need to feel Jesus to believe in him. He gently reminded Mary that feeling was not enough.
Jesus’ command (“Do not hold on to me”) to Mary was probably an indication that a transition was taking place. Mary may have expected the resurrection to provide a continuation of the relationship with Jesus that she had experienced before the crucifixion. Mary needed to prepare her heart for a new type of relationship, on that was to come with the sending of the Spirit of truth by the Father.
Now, what did Jesus do next? He gave her a job – go and tell the others.
Mary had already made a preliminary report to the disciples about the empty tomb, now she returned to tell them, “I have seen the Lord!”
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Conclusion:
The resurrection of Jesus is personal. It is personal to you.
Jesus knows your name, like he knew Mary’s.
And he calls you to him, like he did to Mary.
And he has a job for you and me … go and tell the others.
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John 15:1-17
April 2, 2023
This morning, in our study of John, we are moving from chapter 14 to 15.
Jesus’ teaching shifts from discussing of his upcoming death and resurrection, to discussing OUR remaining or abiding.
This passage is addressed to believers only … it’s NOT about becoming a Christian but becoming a productive Christian.
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Read John 15:1-17
Listen for repeated words
“I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. 2 He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. 3 You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. 4 Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.
5 “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. 6 If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. 7 If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 8 This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.
9 “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. 10 If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. 11 I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. 12 My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command. 15 I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. 16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you. 17 This is my command: Love each other.
What did you hear repeated?
Vine ~ 3 Fruit ~ 7 Remain (Abide) ~ 9
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Read John 15:1-2
“I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. 2 He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.
Why do you prune vines, or plants, around your home?
(personally, I prefer the jungle look)
Remove ugly or dead branches.
Open passageways.
Balance the plant.
Produce more fruit.
So you can see the front of your house.
What do you think he means about PRUNING with respect to our lives?
How does God prune us?
Have you ever felt God pruning part of your life?
In 2007, after serving in city government for 12 years, I lost a citywide election, even after I was certain God told me to run.
I was confused … why would God tell me to run just so I could lose?
After thinking about it a few months, I realized that had I won the election, I would probably continue to run again and again. How would I know when to step down? How would I know my time was over?
I would NOT have dropped that part of my life on my own.
So God pruned it.
It’s hard to accept, in the moment. It requires trust and faith to wait for the results
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Read John 15:4
4 Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.
The Greek word translated remain is a favorite word for John. Of the 118 times the word occurs in the New Testament, 67 of them occur in John’s Gospel and letters.
What do you think about when you hear that word – remain, or abide
Having deep roots into God
It is an active responsibility. We do it intentionally.
Producing fruit is actually a passive responsibility. Out of our control.
So what if your friend asks, “How do I abide in God,” what do you tell them?
Read, pray, obey
More than just hanging out, or casual relationships
Implies ACTIVE behavior on our part.
What happens to a tree or a vine when the branches are bigger than the roots?
Fall over, get blown over, easy to pull up
What about the opposite – what happens when the roots are bigger?
Survive drought, strong, like a mesquite (they never blow over)
The act of pruning was not intended to punish these branches. Rather, pruning stimulates growth allows the roots to deepen, and leads to more fruit.
Jesus wants us to abide in him, remain in him, sink our roots deep into the soil of his marvelous love.
Ephesians 3:17 = And I pray that Christ will be more and more at home in your hearts, living within you as you trust in him. May your roots go down deep into the soil of God’s marvelous love; and may you be able to feel and understand, as all God’s children should, how long, how wide, how deep, and how high his love really is; and to experience this love for yourselves, though it is so great that you will never see the end of it or fully know or understand it. And so at last you will be filled up with God himself.
We once had rabbits living in our back yard … free-range rabbits.
They weren’t in a cage.
Our kids played with them.
As long as we fed the rabbits, they left our plants alone.
One summer we went on vacation for two weeks, and the person who should have watered the yard and fed the rabbits, didn’t do it.
So the rabbits ate the entire yard down to dirt.
We had a honeysuckle vine growing on a trellis near our back porch… and the rabbits ate the honeysuckle as high as they could reach.
It was sad.
The honeysuckle was still green, still had blooms, but it was completely disconnected from its own roots.
It was dead, but didn’t know it.
The roots of our life are important
Unless we ABIDE in Christ … grow our roots … our ministry will be short-lived and our life will have little impact
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Read John 15:7
7 If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.
We like to quote the second part – whatever you wish, it will be done.
But Jesus conditioned his call to prayer by saying that we must remain in him, and his words must remain in us.
Not that we earn answered prayer, but if we abide (remain) in Jesus, his thoughts become out thoughts, his desires become our desires.
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Read John 15:8
8 This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.
Jesus spoke frequently in this section about bearing fruit, but He did not specifically define what He meant by it.
What do you think he meant?
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Read John 15:10-12
10 If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. 11 I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. 12 My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you
Why does a person’s obedience to Jesus produce joy?
Can we actually love each other as Jesus loves us?
I suppose so … since Jesus tells us to do it.
We give ourselves away, every day.
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Read John 15:15
15 I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.
It feels good when someone you respect introduces you as their friend.
I remember the first time I sang the song, I Am a Friend of God, it felt a little presumptuous to me. I wasn’t sure it was my call.
I was wrong, Jesus calls us his friends.
Which comes with more obligation … being a servant or a friend?
You can be a servant and have a bad attitude.
This is part of what I wrote after losing the election in 2007
If I’m reading John 15 correctly, it says that God will prune away even my strengths and my talents, my fruit-bearing areas, my favorite branches, to make them even better.
Is that what I want?
Does that mean God might take away what I’m good at?
Does it mean he might limit my exposure or impact even when I’m doing what he told me to do?
Will God take me out of roles and responsibilities where I excel … that I think are important to my identity and significance?
We aren’t the best judges of our own lives. We don’t recognize our own strengths and we underestimate the effect of our lives on people around us.
Often, those same people can see our strength and significance better than we see them ourselves.
So if God prunes something out of our life that we thought was one of our best attributes, well, maybe it wasn’t our best after all.
Just because we get a lot of praise and attention from something doesn’t mean it’s successful in God’s eyes. In fact, all of that may become a distraction from where God really wants us to be.
Pruning is always future-oriented; the loss happens now, but the gains come later. At the moment of pruning, there is no evidence of what is to come; we have no proof there will be something better. All we have is the faith that we will be more fruitful.
If I believe John 15, which I do, then I must relax and trust God when part of my life gets pruned away, and wait to see where the new and better fruit will come from next.
CHALLENGE: In your journal, or on a scrap of paper, write down some of the times when God pruned your life. See if you can remember at least 2 or 3.
Write about what has happened, since.
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John 13:1-17
March 12, 2023
This should come as no surprise … like most teachers, I often skip the lesson in the book and teach something else from the chapter.
For example, the lesson from the book for this week comes from John 13:20-33, but I am going to talk about verses 1-17.
I say that because, if you read the book before Sunday, I don’t want to discourage you.
It is always useful and important to read completely through the book we study. God has lessons for you individually that we might not cover here in class.
The fact is, in Sunday School, we cover the Bible like a rock skipping across the water … we only have opportunity to hit a few of the points. I usually select the points, or verses, based on what I personally need most.
What do you do when you discover you’re the most important person in the room?
Does it change your experience? Your behavior?
So we are looking at a story in the Bible – John 13 – when Jesus was in a room with a lot of guys who thought they were pretty important.
In another version of this story – Luke 22 – the disciples had just been arguing over who among them was most important … maybe even right into dinner.
Of course, the most important person in the room was Jesus. And what did he do? He washed their feet.
So knowing this story … How would you react if I pulled out a washbasin and cloth?
Would that make you happy?
Or would it make you nervous?
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One of the ways Jesus consistently described himself was … “I am gentle and humble.”
Humility is a curious characteristic.
Have you known someone you would describe as gentle & humble?
How do you know if YOU are a humble person?
It’s an interesting thing … the one who has humility hardly knows it … it’s the least obvious quality a person realizes he possesses.
And you can’t FAKE humility … you can fake love, patience, acceptance, tolerance … but you can’t fake humility.
If we try to display humility, it just turns into pride.
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Read John 13:1-3
It was just before the Passover Festival. Jesus knew that the hour had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.
2 The evening meal was in progress, and the devil had already prompted Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, to betray Jesus. 3 Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God;
What did Jesus KNOW? (Verse 3)
I wonder if most people would handle that knowledge well?
In the movie, Bruce Almighty, he used it to make selfish moves.
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Read John 13:4-5
4 so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. 5 After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him.
Why did Jesus do this?
(1) Their feet were dirty
(2) To show the futility of their argument about who’s more important.
(Jesus taught a lesson while simultaneously meeting a real and practical need)
As in the Jesus Revolution movie … the pastor washed the feet of the hippies because his elders were worried about the carpet. But he was also teaching a lesson to the same elders.
We don’t know exactly how the disciples were arranged during dinner, but we know it was NOT like the famous Leonardo do Vinci painting … all lined up at a table. Or, like 2020, in Zoom squares.
Most likely they were on the floor in a semi-circle, heads facing inward, leaning on one arm while eating with the other. Seems awkward to me.
Jesus didn’t announce His intentions …
He didn’t say, “Heads up … this is how you should serve one another … watch my humility.”
The text reads like Jesus slipped away from His place and quietly moved from man to man, drawing no attention to Himself.
I wonder how long it took for them all to notice what Jesus was doing?
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Read John 13:6-11
6 He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?”
7 Jesus replied, “You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand.”
8 “No,” said Peter, “you shall never wash my feet.”
Jesus answered, “Unless I wash you, you have no part with me.” [this was harsh … as in, leave the room]
9 “Then, Lord,” Simon Peter replied, “not just my feet but my hands and my head as well!” [Peter was always working the edges]
10 Jesus answered, “Those who have had a bath need only to wash their feet; their whole body is clean. And you are clean, though not every one of you.” 11 For he knew who was going to betray him, and that was why he said not every one was clean.
Was Peter showing humility or pride? Pride disguised as humility.
Which is easier … to be the foot washer … or let someone wash yours?
If we were going to do some foot washing this morning … how many would want to run to the restroom and pre-wash your feet first?
Why is it so scary to let someone wash your feet?
Letting people see our dirty feet = too vulnerable.
Not just dirt … see our bunions, scary toenails, scaley heals.
I remember a Sunday School party, years ago, and to make more room we all moved the host’s couch. You could hear people gasping … we moved their living room couch without giving them time to vacuum under it first.
So then, why was it so important for Jesus to wash Peter’s feet … Why not just nod at Peter and move on to the next disciple?
What would Peter have missed – if Jesus had moved on the next guy … if he didn’t let Jesus wash his feet?
It can be hard to let someone else serve us.
Story: hiking on Tejas Trail with David Nobles
I got short-winded, nauseous, light-headed.
David hiked the rest of the way up the trail, dropped his pack, came down carry mine.
I was the guide, the experienced hiker. I’d carried a backpack up this trail a dozen times.
Realizing you are mortal is NOT pleasant. It’s hard to be the one who needs help.
David and I became close friends over that; before that we were more acquaintances.
Allowing someone to serve you, deepens relationships.
Did Jesus wash Judas’ feet?
I wonder how that went.
How would you have washed Judas’ feet? Wire brush? Cold water?
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Read John 13:12-17
12 When he had finished washing their feet, he put on his clothes and returned to his place. “Do you understand what I have done for you?” he asked them. 13 “You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and rightly so, for that is what I am. 14 Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. 15 I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. 16 Very truly I tell you, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. 17 Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.
Jesus asked them … “Do you understand what I have done for you?” (I wrote in my Bible: Almost never. Not right away.)
Interesting what did NOT happen. After Jesus finished, He did not allow anyone to jump over and wash His feet in return. They would have stood in line to wash Jesus’ feet … it would require no humility at all! (Any disciple would wash Jesus’ feet. It was the feet on the guy next to him that was the problem.)
What does Jesus want them to do?
Jesus wanted them to serve each other.
Verse 17 says: first we KNOW what to do, the we DO it, and then we are blessed
Are we missing out … should we be washing feet?
Only a few denominations carry on the practice of foot washing; for the rest, the whole notion seems primitive, rural, unsophisticated. One can debate whether Jesus intended His command only for the twelve disciples or for all of us to come, but there is no evidence that the twelve continued this practice. Or, that the Apostle Paul did it. Apparently, they took Jesus’ command to be more general, that we should serve one another.
Several important second- and third-century church leaders like Irenaeus and Tertullian referred to foot washing as a part of liturgical practice.
The Benedictine Order provided for regular liturgical foot washing as a sign of humility.
Sixteenth-century Anabaptists adopted the practice of foot washing and performed it during communion services.
Some churches do it regularly today. Anyone?
Personally, I’m not sure it carries the same message of humility and service if we do it as a planned action. The Message says (13:10) – “My concern, you understand, is holiness, not hygiene.”
Also, it has no practical purpose nowadays.
Some thoughts about this story
We are more likely to fight over leadership than over the washcloths
We have to receive gifts from Jesus – long before we understand what He’s done for us.
We can’t wait for understanding before accepting and yielding; the understanding comes after the gift is received.
Attitude matters = don’t wash someone’s feet with cold water and wire brush. Don’t serve with resentment.
Serving doesn’t keep us safe from rejection. Many times we will give, forgive, forget, release, wash dirty feet in gentleness and humility, and still get ripped off. (Again, think of Judas.)
Being willing to receive often takes more grace than giving to others (in fact, being willing to receive – is serving)
To obey Jesus means personal involvement.
This is from a piece I wrote after the backpacking trip with David Nobles:
David did more than was expected or asked, and he got me to the top of the trail. Through the years I’ve carried packs for others to help them up, and now I’ve watched someone carry mine. The fact is, carrying is much more satisfying than watching.
But if all we do in life is carry for others, never watch them carry for us, that really isn’t relationship. If all we do is give, never receiving, we have to wonder about our motives. Are we truly serving the needs of others, or feeding the needs of our own ego? We must be willing to receive if we expect to know the grace of God.
Only empty-handed people can understand grace.
Challenge: Be prepared to stand down this week and let someone take care of you
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John 12:1-11
March 5, 2023
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If you knew (for a fact) you had one week to live, what would you do?
I once asked our son Byron this question and he said, “How long does it take for a check to bounce?”
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The next 8 chapters of John’s Gospel are about the last week of Jesus’ life on earth.
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So how did Jesus spend his last week?
(1) He changed his public outreach to a private one.
(2) He shifted away from miracles and concentrated on quiet, intimate conversations (Lazarus was his last miracle).
(3) He reduced his travel.
The raising of Lazarus took place about ONE MONTH before Jesus’s death.
It was the last great sign in John, and it appears in the exact center of his book, chapter 11, and forms a hinge for all that precedes and follows.
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At the beginning of Chapter 12, Jesus is essentially a fugitive, because of his raising of Lazarus.
John 11:47-48
47 Then the chief priests and the Pharisees called a meeting of the Sanhedrin. “What are we accomplishing?” they asked. “Here is this man performing many signs. 48 If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and then the Romans will come and take away both our temple and our nation.”
John 11:53-54
53 So from that day on they plotted to take his life.
54 Therefore Jesus no longer moved about publicly among the people of Judea. Instead he withdrew to a region near the wilderness, to a village called Ephraim, where he stayed with his disciples.
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So now we begin Chapter 12
John 12:1-3
Six days before the Passover, Jesus came to Bethany, where Lazarus lived, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. 2 Here a dinner was given in Jesus’ honor. Martha served, while Lazarus was among those reclining at the table with him. 3 Then Mary took about a pint of pure nard, an expensive perfume; she poured it on Jesus’ feet and wiped his feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.
Jesus is back at the home of Mary and Martha and Lazarus in Bethany (two miles from Jerusalem … Midland College to FBC is about 2 miles)
I often wonder if Jesus and Lazarus had conversations about heaven.
More likely Lazarus remembered nothing about it. Why would he want to be back alive on earth if he remembered heaven?
In keeping with their personalities …
Martha served dinner.
Mary poured perfume on Jesus.
All four gospels have an account of a woman doing this for Jesus.
Each account is slightly different …it might have happened multiple times. Or the gospel writers just had different accounts of the same event.
Only John gives her name.
Mark wrote that she BROKE the container, insuring she would use it all.
What would motivate someone to do this (anoint Jesus with perfume and dry with her hair)?
What risk was she taking?
Total surrender of respect and reputation and propriety.
She was anointing the humblest part of Jesus’ body with the most glorious part of her own (her hair)
Mary’s actions don’t seem to be a spontaneous event, but something she planned to do.
But even if it WAS spontaneous, she was in her own house. She could have brought a towel, but she didn’t.
I believe she planned all along to use her hair.
Why do you think she used her hair to dry Jesus’ feet?
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Have your devotions to God every been misunderstood?
Have you ever held back (in your worship) because you were afraid of being misunderstood?
Maybe you put your hands up, and looked around to see you were alone.
Maybe you wanted to dance to the music.
When FBC first started the Contemporary 9:40 service (maybe in the early 1990s, Jim Denison was our pastor), we drew some worshipers who brought their tambourines, with long streamers on them. They were very dramatic - and they were on the front row.
It didn’t spread. In fact, they eventually stopped.
I remember conversations about the tambourine players – some people wished they had courage to join them, and other people wished they would take their tambourines to some other church.
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How was her act received?
John 12:4-8
4 But one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, who was later to betray him, objected, 5 “Why wasn’t this perfume sold and the money given to the poor? It was worth a year’s wages.” 6 He did not say this because he cared about the poor but because he was a thief; as keeper of the money bag, he used to help himself to what was put into it.
7 “Leave her alone,” Jesus replied. “It was intended that she should save this perfume for the day of my burial. 8 You will always have the poor among you, but you will not always have me.”
What was Judas’ complaint?
Judas said the perfume was worth a year’s wages. At today’s minimum wage, that would be about $15,000
Or about a $1,000 per ounce
Was it a legitimate question to ask Jesus?
Judas’ clouded heart could not reconcile Mary’s loving expression and his personal bitterness and greed.
His attitude toward money affected his worship of Jesus.
If someone is really interested in ministering to the poor, they would have no lack of opportunity.
It seems like there is always someone who complains. They make it sound smart, but it is really about their heart.
Don’t be this person.
Don’t waste your life this way … complaining and missing Jesus.
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We shouldn’t demand that everyone follow our customs of worship.
We like to think there is a correct way to worship, and the correct way is probably the way we group with.
It’s easier to follow rules … following rules removes some level of responsibility and accountability from us.
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Jesus said something curious in verse 7 … the perfume was for his burial.
Mary couldn’t have known that Jesus’ burial was near.
She just wanted to express her love and devotion.
She didn’t know the role she was playing in the larger plan of God. She was simply being faithful.
It happens often … a small faithful act becomes something bigger.
God can use gifts in ways the giver cannot imagine.
In a parallel passage, Mark 14 … Jesus said, “She did what she could.”
Your time, talents, and material possessions are entrusted to you to use for the glory of God and for helping others.
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How many went to see the Jesus Revolution move Thursday night?
I wanted to bring my Love Song album, from 1972, but I couldn’t find it. But I did find this … an album from the huge youth rally, Explo ’72.
I was a junior in high school.
It made a huge impact on me. It was one of two events that converted my family’s faith to my own personal faith. (The other happened in college.)
It’s a gift when we have the opportunity to worship in our heart language, whether that’s music, extravagant gestures (like Mary), serving other people (like Martha). When you discover those opportunities, lean into it.
But worship doesn’t exist for OUR sakes, it exists to honor God. So part of maturing as a Christian is honoring God even when the method isn’t our personal favorite.
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Considering Mary and Martha … Is there a difference between serving God and worshiping God?
Was Martha’s service, worship?
Was Mary’s worship, service?
What could Mary (who poured the perfume) have learned from Martha (who served dinner)?
Be a servant.
What could Martha have learned from Mary?
Don’t pay attention to who notices you doing it
We tend to have a hierarchy in church for service.
We put preaching and teaching at the top. Also music and leading worship.
But service and worship include a lot more.
For example, every Sunday … while most of us are in the worship center … there are also people walking the hallways of our church keeping us safe.
Greeters at the doors of our building make this a safe and welcoming place for people who are nervous about entering FIRST BAPTIST
There is a whole row of people sitting behind computer screens so the rest of us can read the texts and hear the music and preaching. (and another group hidden away, producing what goes on TC and live stream, so people stuck at home can worship with us.)
Or … worship, and service, may be as simple as leaving cookies on the doorstep for someone who is grieving a loss.
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Philip Yancey wrote: “Lord, give us scandalous courage, extravagant generosity, courageous love.”
CHALLENGE:
Ask God to show you how to be more like Martha, serving even in small ways.
Ask God to show you how to be more like Mary, worshiping with courage & generosity & love.
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John 10
February 19, 2023
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This morning we are looking at John 10 … about sheep and shepherds
Anyone grow up around sheep? Raise sheep?
Did you call yourself a shepherd?
I have very little experience with sheep. Only two:
(1) I once asked Cyndi’s cousins, who raised sheep in northeast New Mexico, if they considered themselves shepherds. They were confused by the question. They saw themselves as cattle ranchers who happened to own a few sheep.
(2) Cyndi and I visited John and Linda Witte when they were missionaries in east Africa. When we were in Karimoja, Uganda, we didn’t see sheep and shepherds, but we saw a lot of goats and goatherders. Very similar.
The goatherders were all young boys, pre-teens. The older boys, still only teenagers, who walked with them, were carrying AK47 rifles.
As John Witte pointed out to us: they were caring for and protecting the community’s wealth.
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Why do you think the Bible often compares people to sheep?
The sheep and shepherd metaphor are hard for us in the 21st Century to grasp, but it was the most familiar picture to 1st Century Jews.
In the past, when I taught this chapter, I talked about all the unflattering characteristics of sheep … they’ll drink muddy water, they’ll graze down to bare earth, they’re defenseless and timid and fearful … and how the Bible said those same things about us, the sheep.
But as I read through the chapter this time, I noticed that John didn’t write about sheep that way. He didn’t poke fun at sheep or people. John was more interested in the relationship between sheep and shepherd.
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Read John 10:1-5
“Very truly I tell you Pharisees, anyone who does not enter the sheep pen by the gate, but climbs in by some other way, is a thief and a robber. 2 The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. 3 The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. 4 When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice. 5 But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger’s voice.”
How does John describe sheep in these verses? (3, 4, and 5)
That’s a much more noble interpretation of sheep.
Who is Jesus addressing here? Pharisees
The original Greek text of John had no chapter breaks. They weren’t added until 1557, when the Geneva Bible was published.
This passage is the same scene from chapter 9, after Jesus healed the blind man. Jesus was addressing the Pharisees at the end of chapter 9, and he is still addressing them in chapter 10.
In this example, the healed blind man is an example of the sheep who have heard Jesus’ voice and followed him.
Jesus is the shepherd, and the religious leaders are thieves and robbers.
What’s significant about the phrase, He calls his own sheep by name?
Do you believe Jesus calls you by name?
Is that mostly comforting, or mostly scary?
Our choir used to sing a song, He Knows My Name
He knows my name
He knows my every thought
He sees each tear that falls
And hears me when I call
Our God doesn’t say, hey you!
Verse 1 talks about a sheep pen … We don’t know exactly what this looked like. Jewish people could’ve helped us if they’d left some paintings of daily life … but they didn’t.
Apparently, it was a walled yard, usually without a roof, with one entrance, but no gate that could close.
Often, they were communal pens where several flocks would spend the night.
In the morning the sheep would separate themselves when the shepherd called them out.
The shepherd, or night watchman, would literally sleep in the gateway … to keep the sheep from leaving, and to keep predators from entering.
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Read John 10:6-10
6 Jesus used this figure of speech, but the Pharisees did not understand what he was telling them. [So, he repeated it again – this time in first person, so they would understand]
7 Therefore Jesus said again, “Very truly I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. 8 All who have come before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep have not listened to them.
9 I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved They will come in and go out, and find pasture. 10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.
Jesus also deliberately used the phrase, I AM
This was not a subtle move. It’s the same phrase God used to identify himself to Moses at the burning bush.
In this gospel, John mentions 7 times when Jesus used the phrase, I AM.
This is one of those times.
What does Jesus mean by I am the gate?
Jesus is the only way in.
Jesus is the source of protection.
What does the phrase life to the full mean to you?
What does that include?
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Read 10:11-18
11 “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. 12 The hired hand is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep. So when he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away. Then the wolf attacks the flock and scatters it. 13 The man runs away because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep.
14 “I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me— 15 just as the Father knows me and I know the Father—and I lay down my life for the sheep. 16 I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd. 17 The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life—only to take it up again. 18 No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father.”
"I am the good shepherd." Throughout this passage of John 10, Jesus, the Good Shepherd is trying to make a certain point to the Pharisees.
That he is the only hope for the people, and that they, the Pharisees, had abused their position and were taking advantage of the people, like hired hands.
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I remember watching the L.A. riots (following the Rodney King verdict), and especially the TV image of a Korean store owner crouched behind the broken windows holding an automatic weapon, facing down looters.
He wasn’t going anywhere. He wasn’t a hired hand. He was the owner. It was his store.
Jesus guards and protects us, as an owner would.
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The Good Shepherd does four things.
· Lays down his life for the sheep.
· Knows his own and his own know him.
· Has other sheep to bring into the fold ... Gentiles, like us!
· Works to unify us into one flock, one shepherd.
The idea that the shepherd would die for a sheep reflects a level of devotion and caring that is extraordinary.
Also, in Jesus’ case, it was a premonition of what is to come.
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Read John 10:19-21
19 The Jews who heard these words [of course, they were all Jews – but John used this term to mean the Pharisees and leaders] were again divided. 20 Many of them said, “He is demon-possessed [this seems to be their default accusation] and raving mad. Why listen to him?”
21 But others said, “These are not the sayings of a man possessed by a demon. Can a demon open the eyes of the blind?”
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Now a scene change … a couple of months later, but the same topic
Read John 10:22-30
22 Then came the Festival of Dedication at Jerusalem.
This feast celebrated the rededication of the temple by Judas Maccabaeus in 165 BC after the Greeks used it, defiled it, for pagan worship.
Today, it is known as the Festival of Lights, or Hanukkah
It was winter, 23 and Jesus was in the temple courts walking in Solomon’s Colonnade. 24 The Jews who were there gathered around him, saying, “How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly.”
25 Jesus answered, “I did tell you, but you do not believe. The works I do in my Father’s name testify about me, 26 but you do not believe because you are not my sheep. 27 My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. 28 I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand. 29 My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. 30 I and the Father are one.”
What does verse 28 mean?
One of our bedrock Baptist doctrines is called Security of the Believer, or more popularly, Once Saved Always Saved. This passage is one of the reasons we believe that. No one can take us away from the Father.
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So a recurring theme throughout this chapter 10 is … the sheep know the shepherd’s voice.
How do you know when Jesus is speaking to you?
How do you distinguish the voice of Jesus from your own imagination?
The best book I’ve read about hearing God’s voice is Hearing God in Conversation, by Samuel Williamson (available on Amazon)
I highly recommend it.
One of the best practices to know and recognize God’s voice is to read from your Bible every day.
And not just a couple of favorite parts … you should make it a practice to read it all, cover to cover.
Maybe once every year, or every 5 years … just do it.
Another practice to help know and recognize God’s voice is … write in your journal, or wherever you write important things, about the times when you’ve heard God’s voice speaking to you. Write what you heard, and what you did. Remembering those times opens your ears to hear and recognize more.
It sometimes, God’s voice comes as spontaneous thought.
We expect God’s voice to be found in stunning, breathtaking, cinematic sound effects. But it normally comes as a gently whisper.
God doesn’t want to boss us around.
God wants a relationship.
The problem isn’t that God is silent; it’s that we don’t recognize his voice.
The voice of God is a quiet compelling, a still yet strong voice, a burning in our heart, and a quickening of our spirit.
When God speaks, he puts his words in our minds.
It just takes time and practice and obedience. Obedience comes first, but it’s practice and obedience. When we are faithful in little things, God gives us bigger things. So we act on the words we hear.
We act on what we’ve heard.
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CHALLENGE:
(1) This week if you haven’t already, start a Read Through the Bible plan. If you started one already but it ground to a halt, pick it up and begin again.
(2) Write down those times when you heard God speaking. The more you write, the more you will remember.
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John 9
Feb 12, 2023
Once again Jesus healed someone on the Sabbath … and once again the Pharisees went ballistic.
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Read John 9 as a play … as a reminder that the people were like us
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John 9: 1-2
As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth. 2 His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”
The man must have been familiar to the disciples. They knew his story, knew this detail about him.
What are the disciples interested in?
I’m assuming they were standing near the man while having this conversation, and since he was not deaf, he heard their discussion.
They see him as a case study, not as a man with needs. They are looking for a theological discussion … Like medical students with clipboards.
I don’t believe they meant to be cold-hearted about this man or his problems, but they wanted desperately to understand the truths of Jesus, and so they asked this question: why do bad things happen to people? Whose fault was it?
How could someone be BORN blind as a result of sin?
Crack babies, fetal alcohol syndrome (due to sins of their parents)
Jewish rabbis taught a baby could sin in the womb … that’s why they kick. (sounds like a theory invented by men)
In general they’re assuming that all personal suffering is a direct result of personal sin.
If we assume that people bring trouble on themselves, we aren’t responsible to help. It’s their own fault.
The disciples approached this tragedy in search of someone to blame (looking backward). Jesus was concerned with what he could change … an opportunity for ministry (looking forward)
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John 9: 3-5
3 “Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” said Jesus, “but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him. 4 As long as it is day, we must do the works of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work. 5 While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”
Is perfect health always God’s will?
Some misfortune is caused by human error.
Some just happens … and we will never know why.
In Jesus’ view, even tragedy could be used to push a person toward God.
Philip Yancey wrote: Eventually we must trust God for the things we cannot understand, we have to learn to relax in that trust.
Maybe what Jesus answered was, “Don’t worry about this man or the theology of his condition. This is my problem, not yours.”
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John 9:6
6 After saying this, he spit on the ground, made some mud with the saliva, and put it on the man’s eyes.
A few years ago Cyndi and I were in Italy, and we toured a lot of cathedrals, dating from Middle Ages to Renaissance. We saw a lot of religious paintings and frescoes. None of them showed Jesus spitting on the ground to make mud. We don’t sing praise songs about it, either.
From a practical side, how much spit does it take to make mud?
I remember how irritating it was when my mom used to lick her fingers and use them to clean my face – typically on the way to church.
Was I really any cleaner with my mom’s saliva (spit doesn’t seem the right word when I think of my mom) on my face.
If I complained about what she was doing she pointed out that I had plenty of time to wash my face myself before we left home.
Why did Jesus do it like this this time?
Other times he healed: speak, touch, woman touched his robe, healed from far away.
I wonder if he healed differently to keep people from trying to imitate him.
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John 9:7
7 “Go,” he told him, “wash in the Pool of Siloam” (this word means “Sent”). So the man went and washed, and came home seeing.
Jesus’ command to go wash reminds me of the Old Testament story of Naaman, who was commanded to wash in the river.
It wasn’t about magic water; it was about obedience.
So what happened to the man?
Oliver Sacks wrote about a 50-years-old blind man who regained his sight. He had been blind since early childhood.
He had surgery, and the day the bandages were removed he could see for the first time in forty years.
Unfortunately, he had no idea what he was seeing. He saw light and movement and color, all mixed up, a meaningless blur.
His brain could make no sense of them.
He never got comfortable with his sight.
But the man in our story … his brain was changed ... completely healed!
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John 9:8-12
8 His neighbors and those who had formerly seen him begging asked, “Isn’t this the same man who used to sit and beg?” 9 Some claimed that he was.
Others said, “No, he only looks like him.”
But he himself insisted, “I am the man.”
10 “How then were your eyes opened?” they asked.
11 He replied, “The man they call Jesus made some mud and put it on my eyes. He told me to go to Siloam and wash. So I went and washed, and then I could see.”
12 “Where is this man?” they asked him.
“I don’t know,” he said.
Don’t you hope your friends would recognize you?
Hey, weren’t you blind yesterday?
Maybe he has a secret twin brother we didn’t know about?
In their defense … maybe the miracle is so astounding it felt impossible to be true no matter how much this man looked like their old friend.
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John 9:13-23
13 They [his neighbors] brought to the Pharisees the man who had been blind. 14 Now the day on which Jesus had made the mud and opened the man’s eyes was a Sabbath. 15 Therefore the Pharisees also asked him how he had received his sight. “He put mud on my eyes,” the man replied, “and I washed, and now I see.”
16 Some of the Pharisees said, “This man is not from God, for he does not keep the Sabbath.”
But others asked, “How can a sinner perform such signs?” So they were divided. [the Pharisees seldom come out as heroes, but they weren’t all the same. Some eventually came to be believers]
17 Then they turned again to the blind man, “What have you to say about him? It was your eyes he opened.”
The man replied, “He is a prophet.”
18 They still did not believe that he had been blind and had received his sight until they sent for the man’s parents. 19 “Is this your son?” they asked. “Is this the one you say was born blind? How is it that now he can see?”
20 “We know he is our son,” the parents answered, “and we know he was born blind. 21 But how he can see now, or who opened his eyes, we don’t know. Ask him. He is of age; he will speak for himself.” 22 His parents said this because they were afraid of the Jewish leaders, who already had decided that anyone who acknowledged that Jesus was the Messiah would be put out of the synagogue. 23 That was why his parents said, “He is of age; ask him.”
Why did his parents bail out?
Do you feel obligated to defend or justify your adult children?
Why don’t his parents acknowledge Jesus?
They didn’t see it happen. They weren’t there.
And, they are afraid of being thrown out of the synagogue.
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John 9:24-27
24 A second time they [Pharisees] summoned the man who had been blind. “Give glory to God by telling the truth,” they said. “We know this man is a sinner.”
25 He replied, “Whether he is a sinner or not, I don’t know. One thing I do know. I was blind but now I see!”
26 Then they asked him, “What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?”
27 He answered, “I have told you already and you did not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you want to become his disciples too?”
Now, the man is getting aggravated and sarcastic.
He refused to be drawn into their theological argument. “One thing I do know. I was blind, but now I see.”
He had the one thing they could not refute. Jesus had changed his life.
The Pharisees could say whatever they wanted about Jesus. But they had to face the fact that He gave sight to a man born blind.
And the fact is … the man DOES tell the truth; He DOES give glory to God.
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the Pharisees now resort to the time-honored tactics of the bully … they start to insult him instead of arguing with him.
John 9:28-33
28 Then they hurled insults[what a great description] at him and said, “You are this fellow’s disciple! We are disciples of Moses! 29 We know that God spoke to Moses, but as for this fellow, we don’t even know where he comes from.”
30 The man answered, “Now that is remarkable! You don’t know where he comes from, yet he opened my eyes. 31 We know that God does not listen to sinners. He listens to the godly person who does his will. 32 Nobody has ever heard of opening the eyes of a man born blind. 33 If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.”
Is the man intimidated by their insult hurling?
Now there is contempt in his words.
He has lived on the bottom rung of society since birth … they can’t hurt him.
(32) He is fully aware how hopeless his situation had been before.
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John 9:34
34 To this they [Pharisees] replied, “You were steeped in sin at birth; how dare you lecture us!” And they threw him out.
When I first read this, I pictured a western movie where they throw the guy out the saloon doors into the street.
But this was worse.
He was essentially excommunicated from the synagogue.
He was cut off from people and God.
The mother and father of the blind man were unwilling to risk such a penalty. The blind man himself was not so hesitant. He boldly affirmed his faith to the Pharisees, and even ridiculed their doubts.
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John 9:35-41
35 Jesus heard that they had thrown him out, and when he found him, he said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?”
36 “Who is he, sir?” the man asked. “Tell me so that I may believe in him.”
37 Jesus said, “You have now seen him; in fact, he is the one speaking with you.”
38 Then the man said, “Lord, I believe,” and he worshiped him.
39 Jesus said,[a] “For judgment I have come into this world, so that the blind will see and those who see will become blind.”
40 Some Pharisees who were with him heard him say this and asked, “What? Are we blind too?”
41 Jesus said, “If you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin; but now that you claim you can see, your guilt remains.
Although faith may produce miracles, miracles do not necessarily produce faith.
Only by a creative work of God in our hearts can we be given spiritual sight. The man born blind received both physical and spiritual sight as he gradually came to trust Jesus as Lord.
We can follow this man’s progression of faith:
(11) The man they call Jesus
(17) He is a prophet
(33) man from God
(38) Lord
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CHALLENGE:
Make it a regular prayer … teach me to trust you.
Ask God to open your eyes (we used to sing open the eyes of my heart, Lord). Ask him to open your eyes to see him for who he really is.
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John 8
Feb 5, 2023
Introduce to Ezekiel Class
Family (Cyndi, Byron &Angela, Katie and girls)
Lived in Midland since 1982 (Vernon & Belva visited us)
Music a deep root for both Cyndi and me (which is why I may be in a hurry to leave after I finish teaching … to get to orchestra for 2 service)
Running (now, walking and cycling)
Writing (berrysimpson.com)
Teaching (15 years with our own peers, then 15 years with young married families … now, here)
Well … enough of that
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Have you ever personally known someone who experienced PUBLIC SHAME?
Just raise your hand … you don’t have to call names.
How would you react if it happened to a friend?
Back when we were in a Sunday School class (Vernon Stokes was our teacher, around 1988)
One of our class members was indicted for a triple murder and sentenced to life in prison (his wife was a regular attender to the class … she had to reestablish her identity, and run the family business alone)
Years later I asked Vernon about that year, and he said, “They just don’t train Sunday School teachers for years like that.”
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This morning we are going to talk about public shame, and forgiveness, from John 8.
Does your Bible have a heading above chapter 8?
A woman caught in Adultery.
That is the most common title for the story, but I think it’s the wrong one. It’s not so much about an adulterous woman as it is about Jesus’ love and grace and forgiveness.
This is a familiar story … even people who never open a Bible know the phrase, “Cast the first stone.”
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Back to verse 2
Read John 8: 2-6
2 At dawn he appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered around him, and he sat down to teach them. [Jesus was teaching a class. At DAWN. And the people were WAITING for him.]
3 The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group 4 and said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. 5 In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?” 6 They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him. But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger.
This woman … was not a prostitute or woman of bad reputation … since the charge was ADULTERY … that tells us she was a married woman, caught in the act.
How easy would it be to actually catch someone in the very act of adultery?
Almost never. Only in soap operas.
(v 4) The word “caught” … in original Greek, means to seize or overcome, implying a struggle to literally pull them apart.
Adultery was one of three specific capital crimes mentioned in Deuteronomy 22. It called for public stoning for both the man and the woman.
Who is missing in this scene? … where is the man?
No one commits adultery alone.
(1) maybe he escaped – doubtful, if they were able to snatch the woman … if they were caught in the act
(2) maybe he was released - if so, why didn’t they want to stone him … unless he was part of the set-up
(3) maybe he was one of them, a member of their group - some scholars believe
This whole confrontation sounds rehearsed … well-planned.
The woman is standing in front of the Pharisees and Jesus and the morning crowd, probably wearing very little … I can imagine the Pharisees have big stones in their hands, ready to stone her.
They had no interest in the woman at all. They are willing to KILL this poor woman in order to trap Jesus.
They didn’t NEED Jesus’ opinion for anything, they could have stoned the woman on their own. Their target all along was Jesus.
The original Greek emphasized the word YOU … YOU now, what’s YOUR advice? … trying to put the problem squarely on Jesus.
What was the nature of their trap?
If Jesus agreed the woman should be stoned, many would have condemned him for callousness. Maybe the Pharisees would hand him a rock.
Jesus also would’ve caught the attention of the Romans, who reserved the right to carry out capital punishment.
If Jesus disagreed with the Pharisees, and let the woman go free, they would accuse him of denying the law. Didn’t he care about Moses?
How did Jesus responded? by sort of ignoring them.
Rather than give an answer to their impossible question, Jesus bent down and wrote in the dirt with his finger.
This is the only account in entire Bible of Jesus writing. And he chose to do it in dirt – so there was no lasting record of his writing.
We have no idea what He was writing?
There has been plenty of speculation … but apparently it wasn’t important for us to know.
This is a good lesson for us … we don’t have to answer every question or engage every argument. Even when someone is baiting us.
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The scribes and Pharisees took Jesus’ silence as a sign of vulnerability. As if he was stalling. So they kept pestering him for an answer. They thought they had him on the ropes.
John 8:7-8
7 When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” 8 Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground.
Jesus was not against the law of Moses or judgment of any kind. Rather, He was dealing with the self-righteousness of men who would destroy a woman to further their corrupt purposes.
The biggest problem wasn’t the woman, but her accusers.
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John 8:9
9 At this, those who heard [the Pharisees] began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there.
They slowly slipped away one by one.
Reading this, you can hear the stones dropping to the ground one at a time.
No explanation is given why the older men left first … but it’s an interesting eye-witness detail.
Perhaps the older ones were the first to know Jesus had avoided their trap, so why stay around. Or maybe they were the first convicted of their own sins.
With a single sentence, Jesus did a couple of things:
(1) He did not deny the woman’s guilt or ignore Moses’ commands.
(2) He placed responsibility for self-examination on the scribes and Pharisees. They had his approval to carry out the sentence but only if they were not guilty of their own sins.
In the original Greek the emphasis is on the word SINLESS … The SINLESS one of you … let him cast a stone. Jesus put the problem squarely on them.
At least they had enough spiritual insight left, enough conscience, to know they were guilty and walk away … they didn’t stone the woman anyway in front of Jesus out of spite.
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John 8:10-11
10 Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?”
11 “No one, sir,” she said.
“Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.”
It’s hard to know if the crowd who came at dawn to hear Jesus teach, if they left the scene when the scribes and Pharisees left, or if they were still standing there.
NIV says, “only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there.” (sounds like just the two of them)
TLB says, “Only Jesus was left in front of the crowd with the woman” (sounds like the original group was still there)
What did Jesus ask her?
Asked, “where are they?” Jesus knew the answer, but he wanted the woman to recognize no one was left to denounce her. The question, has no one condemned you, made her realize that she remained without a guilty verdict against her. As if all charges were dropped.
Jesus didn’t ask her if she was sorry.
Jesus “forgave” her before telling her not to sin, before hearing a confession
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Could this story have ended better?
What would have happened if the Pharisees dropped their stones, and stayed to listen to Jesus?
Stubborn self-righteousness gets in the way of grace.
Grace is given freely.
The only catch – it must be received, accepted.
Jesus acknowledged that the woman had sinned. Forgiveness does not mean the absence of sin but setting aside its penalty.
Jesus commanded her not to continue in sin and released her to live in freedom.
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None of these Bible stories were inevitable. People like you and me, made choices.
Philip Yancey (What’s So Amazing About Grace?), “The scene from John 8 rattles me because by nature I identify more with the accusers than the accused. I deny far more than I confess … yet if I understand this story correctly, the sinful woman is the one nearest the kingdom of God.”
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In this story the Pharisees were stopped flat. Their plans came to a sudden halt and the situation was over. They were angry and bitter and scheming, but Jesus cut through that immediately and convicted them of their own sins.
Then He turned His focus to the woman, who was apparently guilty as charged. Those same eyes that cut through the defenses of the Pharisees now cut through the shame and humiliation of the woman. The difference was that she didn’t walk away – she stayed and accepted the forgiveness from Jesus.
Why the contrast? Why did the Pharisees walk away when confronted with their (hidden) sins, yet the woman stayed when confronted with her (obvious) sins?
That same forgiveness was available to the Pharisees. All their scheming and duplicity were no worse sins than the woman’s adultery. The difference was they denied their need for Jesus and walked away, while she admitted her need for Jesus and stayed. They both admitted their own sin, but only the woman admitted her need for Jesus.
Jesus offers His grace and forgiveness to all of us without waiting to see how we will respond. Forgiveness comes first, our decision comes later.
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CHALLENGE: This week …
Ask God to show you where you might be hiding from his grace and forgiveness.
Ask him to help you be quicker to forgive than to judge.
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John 5:1-16 (Take Up Your Mat)
Jan 15, 2023
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Have you ever known someone who was sick, or injured, or disabled, but in no hurry to get well?
Can you think of any reason someone might not want to get well?
I read a book of essays by Sloane Crosley, and she wrote of the time when she was misdiagnosed as having hemochromatosis, a too-much-iron-in-the-blood disease.
The main treatment is to remove (donate) blood on a regular and frequent basis … to thin the iron.
Later, when she found out she wasn’t sick after all, it was a misdiagnosis, she was a little sad. She wrote, “I had an explanation for everything that had ever been wrong with me.” If anything went wrong, - if she got sick or missed an appointment or didn’t want to do something - all she had to do was tell about her disease, and she was off the hook.
There were some advantages to staying sick … a good excuse … don’t have to try as hard … easy to explain away all your faults
I once watched my grandmother lecture Cyndi’s uncle about why he needed knee replacement. She worked him over. He knew he needed new knees but he was reluctant. He saw it as an issue of known pain versus unknown pain.
It’s possible to live a certain way so long it becomes a habit, and we forget how good life used to be
We begin to think this is all there is
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Today, we are in John 5, a famous story of Jesus healing someone
Jesus is in Jerusalem, on a Sabbath, on his way to the temple, when he passed by the Pool of Bethesda
The Pool of Bethesda was a Jewish public bath (hard to believe people would go to a public pool to get clean … doesn’t seem too sanitary, nowadays)
It was open air, surrounded by covered porticos
They had a legend that on occasion an angel would stir the waters, and the first person into the water would be healed
We don’t know how often it happened, or if anyone had ever been healed
The pool was probably fed by an intermittent spring that caused periodic disturbance.
But, because of that legend, there was a large contingency of disabled people lying around the pool hoping to be the first in the water
An entire community of people whose ONLY hope for a future was that an angel would splash the water (Seems pretty thin)
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John 5
Some time later, [We don’t know when this was … Jewish writers didn’t care about dates or timelines as much as I do] Jesus went up to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish festivals. 2 Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades. 3 Here a great number of disabled people used to lie—the blind, the lame, the paralyzed. [Some manuscripts include … and they waited for the moving of the waters. 4 From time to time an angel of the Lord would come down and stir up the waters. The first one into the pool after each such disturbance would be cured of whatever disease they had.] 5 One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years.
Verses 3b-4 do not appear in most modern translations because they don’t appear in the oldest manuscripts of John’s Gospel.
The man (from verse 5) could have been a paralytic, or he could have been so weak from his illness that he could not move about freely on his own … maybe a workplace injury, or something like MS or ALS, or polio
John did not record the exact nature of the disabled man’s illness. The Greek word used here could refer to any debilitating illness.
John was more concerned with the length of the illness rather than with its nature: The man had been an invalid for 38 years.
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6 When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to get well?”
Why would Jesus ask him something so obvious?
Jesus never asked questions because he needed more information
Maybe he wanted the man to examine his own motives and desires
When Jesus asks, “Do you want to get well?” he’s really asking, “Do you trust me?”
He asks because often we CANNOT be really helped until WE know what we want … sometimes it is very hard to know
God is a gentleman, never intrusive, he always waits for us to invite him into our space, our story, to do something unexplainable
Several years ago I was at a men’s retreat at Frontier Ranch in Colorado, and we discussed this question.
I tried to answer by having a conversation with myself in my journal:
Berry, what do you want? … “I want to publish books”
Is that what you really want? … “Well, I want to sell a lot of books and travel and speak”
Is that really what you want? … “OK, I want to earn my living as a writer, and for that to be my life and my identity”
Berry, what do you want? … “Well, really, what I want is for people to read my books and become changed, to follow God more closely”
Is that it, then? … “Maybe it isn’t really about the books. Maybe I just want to leave a trail of people following God.”
Jesus is really asking, “Do you trust me?” … “Well, sure, as long as what you have in mind for me comes from this pile of stuff I really want”
Do you trust me?
It is hard to help someone, even more to heal someone, if they aren’t part of it, if they don’t want to be healed. Whether from poverty or ignorance or disease or addictions, you can’t heal someone until they are ready to be healed. They must buy into the process; they have to participate in the effort.
Countless people think they mean it when they want spiritual healing, yet never really commit themselves to Christ.
I had a friend when I was in college, at the BSU, who’s favorite answer to why she kept making the same mistakes over and over, was, “I’m working on that; God isn’t finished with me yet.” It was true, but it felt like an excuse for not trying, for not committing to change.
Being restored involves obligations as well as privilege
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7 “Sir,” the invalid replied, “I have no one to help me [he was disabled and alone] into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me.”
How did the man answer?
He deflected attention to the sad shape of his life and away from his personal involvement
MAYBE = his answer was … Yes, I want to be healed, I’ve been doing my best all this time, and never been successful.
When he says, “While I’m trying,” it sounds like he had tried many times. Always unsuccessful
He has been an invalid for 38 years and NO ONE has helped him yet
A stranger asked, “Do you want to get well?”
The man probably believed he was invisible, lost in the crowd … but Jesus saw him
On this particular day, Jesus picked him out of the crowd for a reason
No life is too miserable, no past too long, for Jesus
He had no idea who he was talking to, no idea the man could really help.
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8 Then Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.” 9 At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked.
Jesus didn’t hesitate … “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.”
How long did it take this man to get better? (no rehab)
“At once” = total and complete instant healing … not just his legs, also his brain
Jesus bypassed the supposed power of the pool. He didn’t question the man’s theology related to the pool, nor did he question the man’s response to his question.
We can’t credit this healing to the man’s faith. He didn’t even know who it was that healed him.
For some reason Jesus did not heal everyone at the Pool of Bethesda that day. Just this one guy. It was this one guy’s day to experience the unexplainable
We have to accept the fact that God didn’t come here to end all disease, or end all sickness. He didn’t heal everyone that crossed his path. And he still doesn’t heal everyone, today.
And those who DO get healed, it is only temporary. They still die.
Jesus has a much larger agenda
He is far more interested in healing us at the deepest level
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The day on which this took place was a Sabbath, 10 and so the Jewish leaders said to the man who had been healed, “It is the Sabbath; the law forbids you to carry your mat.”
So what happened next to the man?
The first time in 38 years, maybe the first time in his life, he’s done ANYTHING on the Sabbath, and he gets busted right away
ONE TIME in 38 years he walks and carries his mat, and he gets into trouble.
Apparently it was not against the rules to SCOLD or JUDGE on the Sabbath
I wonder if these leaders recognized the man
Did they even care WHY he carried his mat?
Couldn’t they at least have said, “Nice legs?”
Maybe he was healed so completely they didn’t recognize him and couldn’t imagine he hadn’t been walking all his life.
I like to think the man was doing stretches, lunges, skipping, maybe moonwalking, while they were questioning him
We see two approaches to seeking God: (1) follow a prescribed set of rules, no matter what, or (2) heal people and set them free
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11 But he replied, “The man who made me well said to me, ‘Pick up your mat and walk.’ ”
It was an honest answer. The man couldn’t have walked and carried his mat, on his own.
If someone healed you after 38 years of suffering, you’d probably follow his advice, no questions asked
These leaders don’t care about the man, but they do care about the Sabbath.
Once they heard the man’s response, they turned their attention to the Healer.
They were not concerned that the man was made whole, and they were not impressed that someone else had healed him.
They believed no religiously responsible Jew would tell someone to violate the Sabbath.
Especially, on one with the ability to heal
If someone was going around town encouraging people to ignore Sabbath law, that person’s crime was more serious (than the mat carrying) and needed to be dealt with
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12 So they asked him, “Who is this fellow who told you to pick it up and walk?”
Curious question … Why not ask Who healed you?
It’s easy to see what they cared about most.
They were more interested in who thought it was OK to give permission … cutting in on their turf
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13 The man who was healed had no idea who it was, for Jesus had slipped away into the crowd that was there.
This man still didn’t know who Jesus was.
Do you wonder why Jesus slipped away?
So why did he perform this miracle?
Who saw it? How did it help bring people to him?
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14 Later [I assume the same day, but it isn’t clear] Jesus found him at the temple and said to him, “See, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you.” 15 The man went away and told the Jewish leaders that it was Jesus who had made him well.
Why did the man go to the temple?
His first time in 38 years
Why did Jesus tell him to stop sinning?
I couldn’t find a satisfactory explanation.
Was his paralysis the result of sin? Maybe, but a long time ago.
Maybe Jesus is pointing out the man now has a second chance in life … so be careful how you live it.
telling the man to follow God closely from now on?
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Back when my knees were giving me fits, before I was healed with titanium after-market replacements … I wrote about this,
Who among us needs to be healed?
Maybe we are limping through a relationship with no communication or intimacy for so long, we don’t know how it can ever change
Maybe we are limping through a job with no future, no adventure, and no heart, and staying there has become a habit we cannot break
Maybe we are limping along in addictive behavior, for so long we’ve forgotten how life used to be, and now it hardly seems worth the trouble to change
We often limp so long we end up making agreements with ourselves:
“Pain-free walking just isn’t for me … I am stuck in this lousy relationship but I am used to it now … I am just saddled with this addiction for the rest of my life, I should just get used to it”
And we live on and on, limping through life out of habit … and something inside us dies.
Too often we settle when we don’t have to, because we forget how good life can be
This is about living the life God has for you … a new life … abundant life
This is about not using your limp to avoid living the life God has for you.
Jesus is asking you, through this story, “Do you want to be healed?”
Here is my CHALLENGE for this week:
This week, ask yourself, WHAT DO I REALLY WANT, and write it down.
Keep asking yourself the question, peeling away layers. Commit to at least five layers of answers.
Pray for Jesus to speak to you through the process. Trust Him with your life.
Jesus asks: Do you want to be healed? Do you trust me?
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John 4:1-42
January 8, 2023
After I was here last December, last year, Pete put me on the Ezekiel Class email list, and sent me the weekly newsletter report.
I was surprised at the details from my lesson that he included.
I’ve taught Sunday School most of my adult life and I doubt anyone has ever paid that much attention to what I said.
Iron Men begins Thursday, January 19 … Liturgy of the Ordinary … finding God in the ordinary places of life … really about men sharing life together
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We are in John 4 this morning … a famous passage about the Samaritan woman at the well
Read John 4:1
Now Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that he was gaining and baptizing more disciples than John— 2 although in fact it was not Jesus who baptized, but his disciples. 3 So he left Judea and went back once more to Galilee.
4 Now he had to go through Samaria. 5 So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph
Why do you think John told us about the baptism (in v. 2)? Why was it important to know who baptized?
This is an INSIDER observation … written many years after the fact, possibly to clear up any misconceptions
Can you imagine some people saying, “Well, who baptized YOU?”
Maybe wearing a lapel pin: “I was baptized by Jesus.”
Curious that it says HE HAD TO GO (v. 4). The route he chose was actually the exception, not the rule. Jews normally hiked all the way around Samaria rather than go through.
Jews and Samaritans HATED each other for hundreds of years.
However, verse 4 says he had to go, so Jesus had reasons of his own.
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. 6 Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon. [John never hesitates to remind of Jesus’ humanity] 7 When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?” 8 (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)
The encounter between Jesus and the Samaritan woman took place at the well after the disciples left Jesus to go for food. Had they been there they probably would’ve kept her away from Jesus.
There has been a lot of discussion and writing through the ages about why this woman came to the well at noon.
Middle Eastern village women avoided the heat of the day by carrying water from the village well early in the morning and just before sundown. For propriety’s sake, they always go to and from the well as a group.
But this woman was alone, at noon
Was she hiding from regular society?
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Jesus broke cultural norms on multiple levels by simply speaking to her and asking for water,.
(1) He broke the social taboo against talking to a woman, particularly in an uninhabited place with no witnesses. (Billy Graham was well-known for never being alone in a room, even an elevator, with another woman)
(2) Jesus ignored the hostility between Jews and Samaritans. He could have sat, silent and thirsty, in her way, to prove his disgust
(3) Jesus humbled himself by asking for help. He clearly had powers to get his own water. He didn’t want to.
When Cyndi and I started teaching young newlywed couples, we had to learn to let them help us. It wasn’t easy.
It was hard to let those youngsters buy our lunch when we knew they didn’t have any money.
Most of us are givers by nature.
Sometimes we must intentionally stand and down … need help … or we rob the other person the opportunity to share love and grace.
(4) Jesus elevated the woman’s self-worth. It didn’t happen often in the 1st Century
What if this encounter happened today?
What cultural norms might get in the way today?
What if the woman was LGBTQ? Or an abortionists? Or a democrat?
Would Jesus have hesitated over any of those?
Jesus reaches across ALL barriers because his gift of salvation is for everyone
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9 The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.) [John reminds us how awkward this was]
She could have simply said NO, or ignored the question. Instead she answered with a bit of sarcasm and bitterness
Maybe she was used to being messed with by people in town, and had a chip on her shoulder (maybe you’ve known people like that … get defensive right away?)
She may have felt this Jewish man was patronizing her … making fun of her
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10 Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.”
Jesus ignored her question, and answered what she SHOULD have asked
It doesn’t matter WHY he’s talking to her, but WHO he is
She should have asked … WHO ARE YOU?
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11 “Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? 12 Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?”
She answers with a practical objection … you don’t have a bucket
And … she was probably baiting Jesus by referring to Jacob as her ancestor
Or maybe, it is possible that the woman wasn’t picking a fight, but playfully pointing out the absurdity of Jesus’s offer. Her response is a little like Nicodemus’ when Jesus told him to be born again
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13 Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
Jesus ignored her political challenge about Jacob. He isn’t interested. Jesus stuck to the subject of living water ... engaged her on a spiritual level.
What does she NOT ask Jesus, but could have? Why are you asking me for water if you already have living water?
I think she knows he is talking about more than H2O water.
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15 The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.”
16 He told her, “Go, call your husband and come back.” [This request from Jesus seems to come out of nowhere]
17 “I have no husband,” she replied.
Jesus said to her, “You are right when you say you have no husband. 18 The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.”
Why do you think Jesus asked about her husband? He already knew the answer?
To get her attention
To turn this to a personal discussion rather than political
To proves he was more than a simple rabbi or holy man
To shows his intent was beyond “water and thirst,” but about her life
To me, it doesn’t feel like Jesus condemning her. Instead, he was letting her know that he was fully aware of her situation.
Jesus never asked questions because he needed more information … but to open up the person he was speaking to.
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We don’t know the woman’s situation. We probably draw too many conclusions from the bit we know.
Maybe she was so beaten down by life she just wanted to be alone … didn’t want to hang out with the other women?
It’s unlikely that she was divorced five times. In small community, word would get around.
More likely her five marriages ended with unfortunate events … husbands dies? … But five times?
Jesus did not label her as a sinful woman. He doesn’t say go and sin no more.
Later, the fact that the townspeople listened to her testimony suggests she was a credible witness
Was she sexually promiscuous and treated marriage flippantly? … That’s the interpretation I grew up with.
For most early church and medieval interpreters, the woman was a careful seeker. They believed Jesus was revealing himself to her.
But during the reformation she became a symbol of promiscuity. The Reformers suggested that Jesus was revealing herself to her to get her to see her sin and repent.
However – regardless of how she came to have five husbands – the fact remained that she was living with a man who was NOT her husband. That was a problem, a sin, for both Jews and Samaritans.
The important point:
NOT = that she might have been immoral
BUT = that she was a woman and a Samaritan … and Jesus talked to her
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Well, the woman must have been embarrassed at the unexpected personal exposure she switched topics to a theological argument, hoping to steer the conversation away from herself.
19 “Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet. 20 Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.”
You are a prophet … as in, OK, you’re so smart, tell me this: How should we use worship, organs or guitars? Choir robes, or not?
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This time, Jesus spoke to her challenge.
21 “Woman,” Jesus replied, “believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22 You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews.
He points out the debates between Jews and Samaritans are not without merit … there are rights and wrongs.
Jesus did NOT COMPROMISE the truth for her sake
He said, “your concept of God is incomplete”
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23 Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. 24 God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”
Jesus reveals to her one of the most important teachings on worship in the entire New Testament. Worship won’t be about geography, but about spirit and truth
Jesus was not interested in winning a debate on the right place to worship, or how they should do it.
True worship is not about where, or how … but who
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25 The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.”
26 Then Jesus declared, “I, the one speaking to you—I am he.”
Many critics of the Bible argue that Jesus never claimed to be Messiah, but that title was given to him by New Testament writers. But here, he does make the claim.
Jesus uses the same phrase that God said to Moses … I AM
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27 Just then his disciples returned and were surprised to find him talking with a woman. But no one asked, “What do you want?” or “Why are you talking with her?”
This sounds like they were getting used to Jesus’ strange behavior … or at least, they weren’t surprised by it.
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28 Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, 29 “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah?” [apparently she did this right away, door-to-door, because the towns people came to the well while Jesus and the disciples were still there.] 30 They came out of the town and made their way toward him.
Why does it tell us she left her water jar?
No longer important.
A simple eyewitness recollection. Instead of bring back water, she brought word of Jesus.
Why was it a big deal to her that Jesus told her everything she did? After all, everyone in town knew all she did?
Jesus told her without condemning her … maybe it was the first time she felt accepted and loved
If someone reminded you of the secrets in your life, would you introduce him to your friends?
You would think she would want to keep such a man AWAY from everyone else.
She could have said, “Drink your water and go. I don’t need help like yours.”
The transformation in her being must have been so obvious that the town people listened and followed her. Maybe it didn’t matter WHAT she said, because they could see the changes in her.
A curious turn of events … this makes the Samaritan woman the first female preacher and evangelist.
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39 Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me everything I ever did.” 40 So when the Samaritans came to him, they urged him to stay with them, and he stayed two days. [I wonder if this was uncomfortable for the disciples? The fact that Jesus accepted these Samaritans (Gentiles) as believers was a huge change in their understanding. Maybe it took two days for them to believe it was real.] 41 And because of his words many more became believers.
42 They said to the woman, “We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Savior of the world.”
The fact that Jesus KNEW her and yet LOVED her ANYWAY … maybe the greatest desire of all humans
In no way did Jesus judge this woman, stand over her and condemn her, or even mention the idea of sin … rather, he appealed to the desire of her heart.
He simply acknowledged her condition and loved and accepted her
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We tend to get things in the wrong order
We want people to change, to conform, to be like us
But our responsibility is to introduce people to Jesus, then let him change them.
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CHALLENGE:
Ask God to show you people in their real needs … and keep you from being distracted by their behavior and lifestyle
Ask God, what barriers should you be crossing this year, 2023.
Ask God to make you more like Jesus, who reaches across ALL barriers.
His gift of salvation is for everyone
