TURNING ON TO JESUS

#505                                                               TURNING ON TO JESUS

Scripture  John 7:32-53                                                                                                                               Orig. 10/30/1990

Passage: ³² The Pharisees heard the crowd whispering such things about him. Then the chief priests and the Pharisees sent temple guards to arrest him. ³³ Jesus said, “I am with you for only a short time, and then I am going to the one who sent me. ³⁴ You will look for me, but you will not find me; and where I am, you cannot come.” ³⁵ The Jews said to one another, “Where does this man intend to go that we cannot find him? Will he go where our people live scattered among the Greeks, and teach the Greeks? ³⁶ What did he mean when he said, ‘You will look for me, but you will not find me,’ and ‘Where I am, you cannot come’?”

³⁷ On the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. ³⁸ Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.”^[a] 39 By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified.

⁴⁰ On hearing his words, some of the people said, “Surely this man is the Prophet.” ⁴¹ Others said, “He is the Messiah.” Still others asked, “How can the Messiah come from Galilee? ⁴² Does not Scripture say that the Messiah will come from David’s descendants and from Bethlehem, the town where David lived?” ⁴³ Thus the people were divided because of Jesus. ⁴⁴ Some wanted to seize him, but no one laid a hand on him.

Unbelief of the Jewish Leaders

⁴⁵ Finally the temple guards went back to the chief priests and the Pharisees, who asked them, “Why didn’t you bring him in?” ⁴⁶ “No one ever spoke the way this man does,” the guards replied.

⁴⁷ “You mean he has deceived you also?” the Pharisees retorted. ⁴⁸ “Have any of the rulers or of the Pharisees believed in him? ⁴⁹ No! But this mob that knows nothing of the law—there is a curse on them.”

⁵⁰ Nicodemus, who had gone to Jesus earlier and who was one of their own number, asked, ⁵¹ “Does our law condemn a man without first hearing him to find out what he has been doing?”

⁵² They replied, “Are you from Galilee, too? Look into it, and you will find that a prophet does not come out of Galilee.”

⁵³ Then they all went home. . .

Purpose: Continuing the series from John’s gospel, here discovering measures of individuals who are turning on to Jesus.

Keywords:           Christ the Lord                   Revival

Timeline/Series:               Bible Study John

Introduction

                At a former church, an older couple found it necessary to move closer to their children.  The had lived in the community all their married lives, and regretted the changes that would be necessary.

                We talked about it, prayed about it, but still they were reluctant to leave the church that they had been a part of for forty  years.  Because the new town was only an hour away, I continued to visit them.  A regular topic of every visit was, “Have y’all found a church yet?”  Actually, they were living only a block away from the one where one of their children was actively involved.  They would always tell me that they were attending some at Fair Park, but had  not decided what to do about joining.

                After almost two years they united with the new church.  Sometime later I saw Mr. Cheeks again.  He explained to me what had happened.  They were in a special program, VBS or something like that.  A goat was being used in some kind of performance that was included.

                When the program was over, an invitation was given.  My friend said, “I reached over and took Lucille by the hand and said, ‘Come on, if these people will take a goat in, they’ll take us!’”

                I was at Lucille’s funeral last Sunday afternoon.  The men of their Sunday School department filled three pews serving as honorary pallbearers.

                There are people in our text being turned on about Jesus, but, unfortunately,  not all of them are being turned on to Jesus.

I.             The First Expression Has  to do with Expectations. V40 “Many of the people therefore, when they hear this saying, said, ‘Of a truth this is the prophet.’”

                Expectations were running high in regard to the Messiah.  People are in Jerusalem for festival.  Time of joyful celebration.  Time of spiritual definition.  They have heard Jesus give expression to spiritual thirst. “If any man thirst, let him come.”

                There was a great polarity of views about who He was.  Religious leaders had rejected His claim.  But the miracles from Galilee have followed Him to Jerusalem.

                They all knew that a great prophet would come.  Luke 7:16 “They glorified God, saying . . . that a great prophet was risen up.”  Deuteronomy 18:15 “The Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me.”

                But do you notice that they each one control their own expectations?  Some are completely convinced from scripture, from what they hear abroad in the land.  Others use the same sources to confuse.  How sad when people use scripture to plot their own demise.  They know just enough to be ignorant.  Josh  Billings: “The trouble with most folks isn’t so much about their ignorance, as knowing so many things that ain’t so.”

                How many scriptures do you really know? Enough so as not to be confused?  What are you doing about it?

                This is not the first time Jesus has had scripture quoted to Him.  They presumed Jesus to be Galilean.  People presume on  His manhood.  They presume lack of deity.  Assume that He is like the rest.  They saw Him as ill-born, beneath them.  How do we see people today?  Does the limitation of birth mean to assign them a role of caste?  Illustration: Willis Reed/Karl Malone [born near the place where this sermon was delivered].

II.            Then We Encounter a Kind of Experimentation.  V45 “. . . they said unto them, Why have ye not brought him?  The officers answered, never man spake like this man.”

                Again, there are people prepared to go both ways in regard to Jesus, just as there are in our town, and in this room.  Some have committed all, some not at all.  Others walk a thin line between commitment and denial.

                The officers had been sent by their leaders to bring Jesus in.  By the way, did you see the story of the town clerk who lost her job:  “Do you want to talk to the man in charge, or the woman who knows what’s going on?”

                We have already seen that the people were divided v43.  Two different words suggest division:  a) diamerismos Luke 12:51 (opposition), “I am come to give . . . division”; b) dichostasia Romans 16:17 (to stir up) “mark them causing division . . . avoid them.”  This word is schisma: It is division set to ill will. Schisma is the source of the word schizophrenia.

                The religious leaders are the ones taking the lead to disenfranchise.  One of the things wrong is a spinoff of religious leaders showing liberality.  The people God continues to bless are those who stand by His word. 

                Do we take the time to encourage our leaders/teachers?

                The glorious thing happening here is in the lives of these officers.  Law officers have a tough time measuring conversions.  They see us all, not in our Sunday best, but with our guards down.  So, they are a tough lot to convince. 

                You notice they are charged with faith.  Anyone who encounters Jesus on equal terms will be impressed.  But these men “believed”—pistueo.  And, hear me, “believing” they saw Jesus as a man, not to still His voice, but to set  free in the world..

                That’s our business, to set the voice of Jesus free in the world.  How???

III.           The Text Takes Us Finally by the Way of Exultation.  V50 “Nicodemus saith unto them, (he that came to Jesus by night, being one of them.)  Doth our law judge any man before it hear him, and know what he doeth?”

                All around Jerusalem were people making choices.  Some of them making them on logic.  Some emotion.  Others reasonableness, need.  Some simply because Jesus touches the chords of their hearts.  None of them yet knowing the death ahead.  He will be in Jerusalem in a year. John 10:22. There will still be division. John 9:16, John 10:19.  Same word: but they are also saying “He’s mad, has a devil.”

                He will be telling them plainly of  His death.  John 10:11, “I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep,  John 10:18, “No man taketh it (my life) from me, but I lay it down of myself.”

                Only John mentions Nicodemus, but he is mentioned three times.  He came to Christ (3:2)—he was an  elitist but he came, and so must you.  He lifts up his voice for Jesus (7:51). Can you, or I, do less?  He will pay tribute to Christ (John 19:39).   For us, will it be tribute, or triviality? 

                “Would to God,” Nicodemus thought, “I had taken a stand for him while he lived.”  We cannot give deserving bouquets in the grave.  Let your spouse, child, parent, friend know your feeling, especially who have helped you to Jesus.  Be honest about your faith.

Conclusion

                Mary Tyler Moore did a show years ago that centered around the death of a clown named Chuckles.  He showed up at the circus dressed as a giant peanut and was trampled by the elephant who tried to eat him.  The show went back and forth across a line of people who thought it very funny, and others who saw it as tragic.  Could there be room for us to examine ourselves in regards to the death  of Jesus?  Is it just another every day thing, or, did He really die for my sin? 

                                                                                                                Lee Atwater (MMS-11/3/90)

THE STORM AT SEA

#822                                                                   THE STORM AT SEA                                                                                          

Scripture  John 6:15-24 (Mark 6:34-52) NIV                                                                                          Orig. 2/12/1984

                                                                                                                                                                             Rewr. 3/27/1990

Passage: John 6:15-24: 15 Jesus, knowing that they intended to come and make him king by force, withdrew again to a mountain by himself.

Jesus Walks on the Water

16 When evening came, his disciples went down to the lake, 17 where they got into a boat and set off across the lake for Capernaum. By now it was dark, and Jesus had not yet joined them. 18 A strong wind was blowing and the waters grew rough. 19 When they had rowed about three or four miles,[a] they saw Jesus approaching the boat, walking on the water; and they were frightened. 20 But he said to them, “It is I; don’t be afraid.” 21 Then they were willing to take him into the boat, and immediately the boat reached the shore where they were heading.

22 The next day the crowd that had stayed on the opposite shore of the lake realized that only one boat had been there, and that Jesus had not entered it with his disciples, but that they had gone away alone. 23 Then some boats from Tiberias landed near the place where the people had eaten the bread after the Lord had given thanks. 24 Once the crowd realized that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there, they got into the boats and went to Capernaum in search of Jesus.

Mark 6:34-52: 34 When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. So he began teaching them many things. 35 By this time it was late in the day, so his disciples came to him. “This is a remote place,” they said, “and it’s already very late. 36 Send the people away so that they can go to the surrounding countryside and villages and buy themselves something to eat.” 37 But he answered, “You give them something to eat.” They said to him, “That would take more than half a year’s wages[a]! Are we to go and spend that much on bread and give it to them to eat?” 38 “How many loaves do you have?” he asked. “Go and see.” When they found out, they said, “Five—and two fish.” 39 Then Jesus directed them to have all the people sit down in groups on the green grass. 40 So they sat down in groups of hundreds and fifties. 41 Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke the loaves. Then he gave them to his disciples to distribute to the people. He also divided the two fish among them all. 42 They all ate and were satisfied, 43 and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces of bread and fish. 44 The number of the men who had eaten was five thousand.

Jesus Walks on the Water

45 Immediately Jesus made his disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to Bethsaida, while he dismissed the crowd. 46 After leaving them, he went up on a mountainside to pray.

47 Later that night, the boat was in the middle of the lake, and he was alone on land. 48 He saw the disciples straining at the oars, because the wind was against them. Shortly before dawn he went out to them, walking on the lake. He was about to pass by them, 49 but when they saw him walking on the lake, they thought he was a ghost. They cried out, 50 because they all saw him and were terrified. Immediately he spoke to them and said, “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.” 51 Then he climbed into the boat with them, and the wind died down. They were completely amazed, 52 for they had not understood about the loaves; their hearts were hardened.

Purpose: Continuing the series from John, here depicting the events that took place following the feeding of the multitude.

Keywords:                           Bible Study         Miracle                 Christ as Saviour

Timeline/Series:               Series on John

Introduction

                There  is a story of a family with a small child visiting in the home of wealthy, and influential people.  With the parents distracted, the child stuck his hand through the opening of a rare Chinese vase and then could not extract it.  He began to cry, both out of fear for the stuck hand, and concern that he would be punished.  His parents and the friends tried in every way to free the boy’s hand.  The harder they tried, the louder were the cries from the lad.. boy’s hand was so  hopelessly stuck.  He had seen a penny in the bottom of the vase and had it clutched in a tightly balled fist.  In his childish ignorance, he did not know that by releasing the penny his hand would have slipped free.

                Helmut Thielicke(1)  has a sermon on prayer in which he refers to John 6:26 (20C/12/p234). “Ye seek me,  ye saw the miracles, but because ye did eat the loaves, and were filled.”  He added, “He (Jesus) miraculously fed the multitude so that behind the event they might catch sight of the true Bread of Life; . . . But the significance of the event was lost on them.  It was not ‘transparent’ to them. And so they overlooked this hand entirely, and only hungered after ‘the five barley loaves and two small fish.’  If they had caught sight of the Giver behind the gift, and the Saviour beyond the bread, then this experience would have really meant something to them, and it would have stayed with them all of their lives. . . .  We might wander through waterless desert wastes, but God is with us.  He can provide us with oases of fresh water.  He can also surround us with his peace even when things are going to get worse—so that the thirst cannot do anything further to us.  But this gift, which was extended to you in the hour of God’s miracle, you refused.  When your cry for bread was answered, you did not say, ‘Glory to God alone!’ or ‘Praise be to God in the highest,’ but you only rubbed your hands across your well-filled stomach and murmured ‘Food!’  Then you rose up to play and forgot the  whole thing.”

                Too many of us are like the child mentioned earlier.  We clutch selfishly the physical symbols of God’s gifts to us, ignoring the deeper meaning of the symbol behind the gift.

                The Storm at Sea will address three things:  (1) Christ alone at prayer; (2) The disciples at sea and afraid; (3) The multitude discounting the Saviour behind the symbol.

I.             Jesus Alone at Prayer: A Sudden Change.  V15 “When Jesus perceived that they would come and take him by force, . . . he departed again into a mountain himself alone.”

                It is where He and His disciples had been just a few hours earlier.  They had discussed the mission:  Luke 9:10.  They shared tribute for John: Matthew 14:13.  Jesus saw a glimmer of His own death.

                With the coming of the multitude, Jesus went to them, taught them, fed them.  God’s concern is for worldly needs.  But His principle concern is that we see Jesus as the “bread of life.”  V33 bread of God; V35 bread of life; V51 living bread.

                Suddenly, it is as if a different spirit fills the place.  Jesus sends the disciples ahead to Capernaum; Matthew and Mark say “constrained”; by force of will He compels them.  The multitude is dismissed; “They” v15 see visions of regal splendor, thoughts of Judas Maccabeus. Were the disciples the ring-leaders?  Christ had this great power: they were His chief workers.  Jesus resorts to the Father.  Was He tempted by the crown?  Hebrews 4:15: “. . . In all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.”

                The prayer, the vision of the cross returns.  The afternoon reveals His deity.  Close of day, His humanity.  Nothing would stay Him from His cross.

                Hebrews 9:14 “How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the Lord God?”  Nought but prayer will bring us to that place of submission and surrender.

II.            We Next Encounter the Disciples on the Boat, at Sea, and Afraid.  V18 “And the sea arose by reason of a great wind that blew.”  We can safely assume somewhat of thoughts.  They saw first hand the feeding.  They heard and encouraged the talk of insurrection, not resurrection.  Lithuania 4/1990.

                They are sent on their way for  Christ to recover His sense of mission.  They were 4-5 miles from Capernaum.  A storm swept in suddenly.  By three a.m. had gone 25-30 stadia. “Stadia” provides our “stadium”—distance around a contained oval, or about 600 feet.  Compute to 5,000 yards—2-1/2 to 3 miles.

                They were confused—King or Messiah or what?  Mark 6:48 “distressed”—vex, harass, toil.  What they did not know was that Jesus knew their distress.  Above 6:48.  In the midst of this “storm” Christ appears.  With four miles, probably a  mile of shore.  Dark, and wind disorient them.  Some say Jesus was on the beach.  If you don’t know a Jesus who can walk on water, you don’t know a Jesus who saves.  The “stilling” of storm prior—Mark 4/Matthew 8.

                They see Christ as an apparition or a ghost.  Common belief of spirit visits.  Welcoming them to abode of death.  “Be of good cheer,” Matthew and Mark show confidence/courage.  “Ego eimi”—“I am,” not “It is I.”  Courage not in Jesus being thee.  Rather in who Jesus was/is.  “I am.”  Moses: “I am hath sent  thee” very similar in Hebrew to YHWH.  Abraham: John 8:58 “Before Abraham was, I am.”

                They welcome Jesus on board on His terms, not their own.  Have we?

III.           The Multitude Makes a Choice.  V24 “When  the people . . . saw that Jesus was not there, . . . they took shipping . . . and came to Capernaum seeking for Jesus.”

                Remember, this is the same crowd from the day before.  They had eaten of loaves and fishes.  They had been prepared to enthrone.  They would have taken up arms against Romans if He had chosen to accept.  A day later they have sought Him out. Many apparently left the scene.  Some did not, or returned.  They saw disciples leave alone. Knowing Capernaum to be center for His activities, (Matthew 4:13f) came there.  Following is in synagogue 6:59.

                A distinction must be made about those who  heard Jesus.  The twelve 6:67 “the twelve.” Many “disciples” 6:66 turned away, “went back as before Christ.”  Counting on Christ as teacher, provider; not as Saviour.   Don’t confuse yourself about one losing their salvation.  Not at issue with these “disciples.”  V24 “came . . . seeking.”  V26 “seek me . . . because . . . you did eat . . . and were filled.”

                There were, also, earnest and sincere seekers.  They would heed the message.  V40 “This is the will of Him that sent me, that everyone which seeth the Son, and believeth on Him, may have everlasting life.”  Jesus, as the bread of life next.

Conclusion

                A Texan named Kenneth Reedy went to Bahrain in early 1970 to take advantage of the oil boom.  With the help of a local contractor he built an ice cream factory.  A few years later, it went bankrupt.  The contractor sued, and won.  Reedy was forced to give up his passport until the $60,000 was paid.  Without a passport, he can only find maintenance jobs.  Nothing can help him until someone pays his debt, or the litigant withdraws the lien.  It is human sin without Christ.

(1) Thielicke, H. (1960). Our Heavenly Father: Sermons on the Lord's Prayer. Harper & Row.

THE BOY WHO WOULD

#817                                                               THE BOY WHO WOULD                                                                                      

Scripture  John 6:1-14 NIV                                                                                                                           Orig. 1/18/1984

                                                                                                                                                                             Rewr. 3/23/1990

Passage: Some time after this, Jesus crossed to the far shore of the Sea of Galilee (that is, the Sea of Tiberias), ² and a great crowd of people followed him because they saw the signs he had performed by healing the sick. ³ Then Jesus went up on a mountainside and sat down with his disciples. ⁴ The Jewish Passover Festival was near. 

⁵ When Jesus looked up and saw a great crowd coming toward him, he said to Philip, “Where shall we buy bread for these people to eat?” ⁶ He asked this only to test him, for he already had in mind what he was going to do.

⁷ Philip answered him, “It would take more than half a year’s wages^[a] to buy enough bread for each one to have a bite!”

⁸ Another of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, spoke up, ⁹ “Here is a boy with five small barley loaves and two small fish, but how far will they go among so many?” ¹⁰ Jesus said, “Have the people sit down.” There was plenty of grass in that place, and they sat down (about five thousand men were there). ¹¹ Jesus then took the loaves, gave thanks, and distributed to those who were seated as much as they wanted. He did the same with the fish. ¹² When they had all had enough to eat, he said to his disciples, “Gather the pieces that are left over. Let nothing be wasted.” ¹³ So they gathered them and filled twelve baskets with the pieces of the five barley loaves left over by those who had eaten.

¹⁴ After the people saw the sign Jesus performed, they began to say, “Surely this is the Prophet who is to come into the world.”

Purpose: Continuing our study from John, here examining Jesus’ attention to a scrap of a boy with a scrap of bread, and the meeting of needs.

Keywords:  Biographical                Miracle of Christ               Sacrament          Series of John    Bible Study John

Timeline/Series:               New Testament Character

Introduction

                There are two miracles here.  We are going to talk at some length about the miracle of Jesus feeding a company in excess of 10,000 people. It is said to be a “large crowd,” and reference is made to “5,000 men.”  I hope that we will not become so caught up in the scope of feeding such a crowd that we overlook the message contained within.

                The second miracle is that “a lad,” a boy, perhaps eleven to fourteen still possesses his lunch, even though he has been with this crowd for both hours and  miles.  This is a  happening, without concession stands.  Through it all, for reasons we cannot imagine, the boy has held on to his lunch.

                A good friend who was a scout leader told me of a trip his troop took.  They were going whitewater canoeing, and were to be gone three days.  They stopped after about two hours on the road for a brief break.  Back in the van, fifteen  minutes later, he found out that one of his boys had spent every penny he had on the first break.

                The boy’s mother had prepared what she could.  Evidently, they were poor.  The bread identified here was barley, the bitter bread of poor people.  Something to accompany the bread was necessary, thus the fish.  She prepared him, not only with what fare she could, but forewarned him to eat it sparingly.  Evidently, it was she who encouraged him to share.

                Not every lad has this good fortune.  Ann asked her children, for a science experiment, to bring a can from home.  One boy, of age ten or so, replied, “We ain’t got no cans but beer cans.”

I.             We Must Look Back at Where They have Been.  John 6:1 “After these things, Jesus went over the Sea of Galilee. 

                Any good Harmony will attest to John’s death just prior to this.  Matthew, Mark, Luke all affirm.  Matthew 14:13 “When Jesus heard of it, he departed  thence by ship into a desert place apart.”  Also, the disciples have just returned from their preaching mission.  Luke 9:10 “. . . when they were returned, . . . he took them, and went aside privately into a desert place.”

                John’s death was a foregleam of His.  The word “desert,” means nothing more than desolate, it was a place apart.  John was dead, they needed to assess his death.  The disciples had followed Jesus’ guide in preaching.  They needed to discuss what had happened.

                One other important factor arises.  Luke 9:9 “And Herod said, John have I beheaded; but who is this ? . . .  And he desired to see him.”  The curious followed Jesus daily.  Their interest was material  not spiritual.  He wasn’t looking for a sponsor, certainly not someone like Herod.

                There is another factor  It is Passover.  John 6:4 “And, the Passover . . . was nigh.”  Jewish men were required by the Law to be in Jerusalem.  (Hezekiah, II Chronicles 30.)  Jesus would not be there.  His objection was not the feast, but the manner of men in observing. 

                It was Passover when they found the 12-year-old Jesus in  the temple (John 2:13).   Luke 2:46f “about my Father’s business.”  They occupied themselves searching out leaven, with corrupt hearts.  Passover is about the hoped-for Messiah, already rejected. Of what does our spirit convict us in relation to Jesus?  Why are we here?

II.            Also, We Need to See Where They are Going.  “. . . Over the Sea of Galilee . . . to a desolate place belonging to the city called Bethsaida (Luke 9:10). . . up into a mountain.”  V3

                So, let’s learn a little bit about Bethsaida.  A suburb of Capernaum (fishing hub).  Just across the narrow north end of lake.  Two Bethsaidas, one across the lake.  The other at the ford crossing the river lowing into the lake.  There is a mountain above.  A grassy plain near.  The crowd would have had to travel about nine miles.

                This has been a busy time for Jesus.  John 4:54 Cana, Capernaum, “second miracle.”  John 5:1 “Went up to Jerusalem”—paralytic.  John 6:1 here as stated.  John 7:1 “After this, Jesus walked in Galilee; he would not walk in Jewry, because. . . .”

                Jesus moves with the disciples to a place where they can be to themselves.  Suddenly, there is a great crowd.  John 6:5 “great company come unto him.”  They watched as He left.  Mark 6:33 “people saw them departing, . . . and ran afoot thither out of all cities, and outwent them.” 

                Jesus needed this time alone, but His compassion was so great, He turns all His energy to the needs of these people.

III.           Two Men are Important to this Story.  V5 “He saith unto Philip.”  V8 “Andrew, . . . saith unto him.”  Philip, first of all is from Bethsaida, as were Andrew and Peter.  John 1:44. He is asked about a commissary where food may be purchased.  His doubt springs not of unavailability, but because they have no funds for such.  Rub out pennyworth:  put denarius.  A day’s wage: thus 6-1/2 months.  Philip’s response was not “must we” or “dare we” or “should we,” but “can we.”  And he concluded that they could not. 

                In faith assessments, how do we think?  What should we do?  What can we do, which regrettably turns to what we cannot do. 

                What God expects of His people He always makes possible for His people.

                At this point, Andrew enters.  He, too, knows the area, but it isn’t bakery shops that are brought to mind.  What is there on this hillside that will satisfy this need?  One feeds his doubt, the other doubts his faith.  “There is a lad here, which hath. . . .”

IV.          Finally, We See the Boy Who Would.  There are those who doubt the story.  Jesus could not do such.  Others say he could but would not.  Matthew 4:3f “command these stones.” 

                Others suggest Jesus used the boy as a kind of leaven.  Others were shamed to share theirs. Andrew didn’t see it that way.  V9.  Some translators see it as a sacramental meal.

                So, here is the boy who would. 

                The boy who would hear Jesus.  Teenagers, how interested are you?  Adults, what are they learning of you about Jesus?

                The boy who would follow Jesus.  He stayed with this crowd all day.  He is here on his own.  He is more concerned for truth than he is in strutting around.

                The boy who would invest in Jesus.  What little he has, he gives.  He has an open heart toward God.

                There is a final direct message for us.  Christ is the bread of life for a perishing world. John 6:35.  That the message is to be delivered to an impoverished world by those who have to give.

                The disciples were left with a remnant to be renewed.  A parable, as it were, to share.  A reminder of mission, miracle.  On the ship, in the dark, the basket could have worked its own miracle.  Hebrew Pe'ah—“corner," the portion of the crop that must be left standing for the poor—remnant in trust for the servant.  Twelve baskets v. twelve disciples.

THERE IS A LAD HERE

#679                                                                 THERE IS A LAD HERE                                                                                        

Scripture  John 6:1-14 NIV                                                                                                                         Orig. 10/29/1961

                                                                                                                                                                             Rewr. 10/7/1977

Passage:  Some time after this, Jesus crossed to the far shore of the Sea of Galilee (that is, the Sea of Tiberias), ² and a great crowd of people followed him because they saw the signs he had performed by healing the sick. ³ Then Jesus went up on a mountainside and sat down with his disciples. ⁴ The Jewish Passover Festival was near.

⁵ When Jesus looked up and saw a great crowd coming toward him, he said to Philip, “Where shall we buy bread for these people to eat?” ⁶ He asked this only to test him, for he already had in mind what he was going to do.

⁷ Philip answered him, “It would take more than half a year’s wages^[a] to buy enough bread for each one to have a bite!” ⁸ Another of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, spoke up, ⁹ “Here is a boy with five small barley loaves and two small fish, but how far will they go among so many?”

¹⁰ Jesus said, “Have the people sit down.” There was plenty of grass in that place, and they sat down (about five thousand men were there). ¹¹ Jesus then took the loaves, gave thanks, and distributed to those who were seated as much as they wanted. He did the same with the fish.

¹² When they had all had enough to eat, he said to his disciples, “Gather the pieces that are left over. Let nothing be wasted.” ¹³ So they gathered them and filled twelve baskets with the pieces of the five barley loaves left over by those who had eaten. ¹⁴ After the people saw the sign Jesus performed, they began to say, “Surely this is the Prophet who is to come into the world.”

Purpose: To address the need of more careful attention to the proper awareness of children and the care of their potential.

Keywords:           Parenthood                         Miracles of Jesus             Feeding of the 5,000

Timeline/Series:               Gospel of John

Introduction

                Those of you who read Ann Landers with any regularity recall that she occasionally addresses a questionnaire to her readers.  I don’t particularly care for this, because the responses are more often from people who are bitter, or who have some burden they just want to unload.

                Sometime last year Miss Landers circulated the question, “If you had to do it all over again, would you have children?”  In spite of knowing what I do about negativity being more outspoken than positivity, I was shocked that this columnist reported that 70 of the people who responded stated unequivocally that if they had the  choice they would retract parenthood, they would choose not to have children.

                It must be that I hang around with a different class of people.  Oh, I know plenty of parents who are burdened about their children  I know others who have experienced their greatest burdens and heartaches in the wake of parenthood.  Most of the people I encounter are people who love children, their own if they have been so favored, and also those of other people.  In spite of the heartaches and burdens of child-rearing, few of life’s joys exceed the joy of watching a child transform before your very eyes, from a helpless infant, to well-adjusted, mature, thoughtful adult.  In the world of nature, we gape at the caterpillar become butterfly.  But for sheer wonderment, nothing exceeds the transformation that takes place as the infant begins the slow crawl to adulthood.

                Our text this morning contains a lesson in profile of the “lad” whose “presence” was known only to a few.  His “potential” was debated by those who knew he was there.  His “power” was known only to Christ.  And “there is a lad,” and “there are lasses” here, whose presence often is ignored; whose potential is jeopardized; whose power awaits.  The kindling of spiritual resources through Christ. And we, like Andrew of old, are the link between them and Jesus.

I.             To What Degree do We Acknowledge the Presence of These Children?  John 6:8 “One of them, Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter, said to him, ‘There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fishes.’”

                There can be little doubt in anyone’s mind that child-rearing is a risk.  (1)There is the risk of abnormality; (2)There is the risk of disease and death; (3)There is the risk of rejection of our values.  Give careful consideration to that provoking verse Song of Solomon 3:5, “I adjure you, O daughter of Jerusalem, . . . that  you stir not up or awaken love until it pleases.”  To love is to be vulnerable to love’s failings.  To choose to be a parent is to accept the risks because of the rewards.

                You see, the blessing so far outnumber the risks.  Ruth 4:14-15 “And the women said to Naomi, Blessed be the Lord, which hath not left thee this day without a kinsman . . . .  He shall be unto thee a restorer of thy life, and a nourisher of thine old age. . . .”  Deuteronomy 7:12-14 a conditional reward, “Thou shalt be blessed among all people: there shall not be male or female barren among  you.”

                And do we really understand the importance of submission to “oneness” in parental relationship? Joys are multiplied when shared.  Burdens are lessened because they are shared.  Illustration: I read a report recently on “Crib Death.”  (I Kings 3:19 may be an example of crib death.)  The article pointed out that one of the most difficult factors was the tendency of a parent to suffer guilt or even blame, which destroys the marriage.

                To understand the presence of the child is to acknowledge that special consideration is to be given that child that he or she might face life with advantage. Illustration:  Are  you familiar with Menninger Perspective Advice to Parents.  They are without specific spiritual content, but all the same, very helpful.

1. Don’t disapprove of what a child is—disapprove of what he does.
2. Give attention and praise for good behaviour, not bad behaviour.
3. Encourage the discussion of rules, but remember that you are the one who should make the final decision.
4. Punishment should be swift, reasonable, related to the offense, and certain.  It does  not have to be severe.
5. Throw out all rules you are unwilling to enforce.
6. Don’t lecture and don’t warn—youngsters will remember what they think is important to remember.
7. Don’t feel you have to justify rules, although you should be willing to explain them.

II.            With What Intensity do We Understand the Potential of this Child?

                John 6:5 “As Jesus raised his eyes he saw a large crowd coming toward him and he said to Philip, ‘Where are we to buy bread to feed these people?’”  Philip had no answer. Andrew had an answer but doubted, “What are they among so many?”  Make  no mistake about it, the Hand of God is upon the life of each of these children for good.  We are told that Jesus first asked Philip “to test his adult faith.”  Where are we to buy bread to feed these people? 

                Why Philip?  He was from Bethsaida (John 1:44).  Philip would express the human analysis.  Even if the bread could be found, it would take 200 denarii.  Where would we  get that kind of money? (Six months wages.)             The probably real reason for the question was simply to give the disciples an opportunity for a faith assessment.  How many of us are guilty of heeding responsibility to God and giving human reasons why we cannot live in accord to God’s will. 

                Don’t look for reasons why you cannot do a thing, look for the means why you must.  EXCUSES: TEACHING + COMMITTEE + VISITATION + TIME.

                Now don’t lose sight of the little boy, that Jesus knew all the time that  he was there and that he held the answer.  There are many liberal theologians who back off from the spiritual miracle here and play pretense with a human miracle.  No way Jesus could multiply “bread and fishes.”  Jesus used the little boy’s lunch to inspire these others to share.

                Make  no mistake about it brethren, Jesus used “the five barley loaves and two small fishes” to “feed the  multitude.”  Barley was the bread of the very poor.  The required bread of offering for adultery.  The pickled fish made the bread palatable.  Grace: “Blessed art Thou, O Lord, our God, who causes bread to come forth from the earth.”  “When they were filled”--Chortasthēsontai glouténi.

                You see, Jesus’ question to Philip will be the catalyst to motivate Andrew to be the instrument through which the humanly worthless little boy is brought to Jesus.  And Jesus can take it from there.

III.           With What Insight Do We Comprehend the Power that is Available to the World through the Lives of Children? May I borrow from another passage here?  Matthew 18:14 “Even so, it is not the will of your Father in heaven that one of these little ones should perish.”  We must, at any cost, be about the business of reaching these little ones with the gospel story.  What are you doing about the children in your own home?  About those near about?

                Illustration: Dr. Gaines Dobbins made a survey at Ridgecrest some years ago that has often been repeated but never altered.  The interest was their age at the time of their conversion.

• Under age 8—3%
• Age 9-12—50%
• Age 13-16—30%
• Age 17-24—10%
• Age 25-50—6.5%
• Over 50—negligible

                Illustration: Several years ago a leading American magazine came out with an article about the “25 Men Who Rule the World.”  I quote, “These then are the men who shape our world. They can be likened unto men seated at the wheels of speeding automobiles,  If they have the time, if they have the skill and the alertness and the good will, they can avert the collision that will mean destruction and death.  Our fate is in their hands.”

                Those men have long since passed from the scene.  Others—men and women—have taken their place.  Will we be so unfeeling as to let a faithless opportunism determine the kind of people who will be the policy-makers of the future?  Will we not determine to be the instrument through whom they may be brought to Jesus, so that He may multiply the gifts that are natural to them?

WITNESSES ABOUNDING

#802                                                             WITNESSES ABOUNDING                                                                                    

Scripture  John 5:31-47 NIV                                                                                                                         Orig. 3/10/1990

Passage: Testimonies About Jesus 

31 “If I testify about myself, my testimony is not true. 32 There is another who testifies in my favor, and I know that his testimony about me is true.

33 “You have sent to John and he has testified to the truth. 34 Not that I accept human testimony; but I mention it that you may be saved. 35 John was a lamp that burned and gave light, and you chose for a time to enjoy his light.

36 “I have testimony weightier than that of John. For the works that the Father has given me to finish—the very works that I am doing—testify that the Father has sent me. 37 And the Father who sent me has himself testified concerning me. You have never heard his voice nor seen his form, 38 nor does his word dwell in you, for you do not believe the one he sent. 39 You study[c] the Scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life. These are the very Scriptures that testify about me, 40 yet you refuse to come to me to have life.

41 “I do not accept glory from human beings, 42 but I know you. I know that you do not have the love of God in your hearts. 43 I have come in my Father’s name, and you do not accept me; but if someone else comes in his own name, you will accept him. 44 How can you believe since you accept glory from one another but do not seek the glory that comes from the only God[d]?

45 “But do not think I will accuse you before the Father. Your accuser is Moses, on whom your hopes are set. 46 If you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote about me. 47 But since you do not believe what he wrote, how are you going to believe what I say?”

Purpose: Continuing the series from the gospel, here sharing the witnesses who declare Christ to be Saviour.

Keywords:           Bible Study John’s Gospel             Christ as Saviour               Salvation

Timeline/Series:               John

Introduction

                One thing among many that we have learned in our study of this gospel is that Jesus faces the antagonisms of the Jews fearlessly.  He is not operating on the back streets of Jerusalem and the small towns of Galilee.  He is addressing everyone everywhere, telling them that He is the Messiah, and that they, sooner or later, are going to have to deal with who He is.

                Does His fearlessness surprise you?  Do you have the spiritual volition to compare His boldness with your own?  Would you like to have a faith conditioned by such purpose as His?  (E14p114)

                Bishop Hanns Lilje(1) wrote a book about his experiences in German prisoner of war camps.  One of the clear messages of The Valley of the Shadow is the differences in the lives of people who had a “living” religious faith.  Lilje says that they had conquered their fears, even the fear of death.  He wrote, ”In those days it was granted me to tread the shores of that land which lies on the outermost fringe of time, upon which already something of the radiance of the other world is shining.  I did not know that an existence which is still earthly and human could be so open to the world of God.  It was a stillness full of blessing, a solitude over which God brooded, an imprisonment blessed by God Himself.”

                Jesus was God, imprisoned within a human body, but it was an imprisonment of purpose.  Can it also be said that every believer, who chooses to live by his or her faith, does so with that same sense of imprisoned purpose?  “I am what I am, and therefore, I must be what I must be.”  It is not a prison of fear or dread, but a simple constraint of purpose.  Do WE seek such faith?  This passage calls forth witnesses to so testify of Jesus, and to call us to follow.

I.             The Witnesses Are Identified.  V31 “If I bear witness of myself, my witness is not true.”

                He is the Word, but does not depend upon His “word” only.  He is well able to identify himself.  People everywhere are seeking to find out who they are.  Jesus knew absolutely.

                The rest of this chapter, however, is an enunciation of those witnesses of who He is.  The law clearly states the concern for integrity among witnesses.  Deuteronomy 17:6, 19:15 ,           176 Whoever is deserving of death shall be put to death on the testimony of two or three witnesses; he shall not be put to death on the testimony of one witness. 1915 “One witness shall not rise against a man concerning any iniquity or any sin that he commits; by the mouth of two or three witnesses the matter shall be established.  II Corinthians 13:1 “In  the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established.”

                Jesus here tells us that there are unlimited witnesses whom He can call.  Six are clearly identified.  His own witness is the allusion of the first (31) and the last (47) verses.  They all say the same thing: that Jesus is God’s unique son, a monogene.

                Jesus next identifies the six witnesses.  Our word for martyr.  Greek times did not connote this.  The first witness is the Holy Spirit.  V32 “There is another.”  “Is” is a word for fundamental being.  “Another” is of the same kind.  Remember that we Baptists believe in the Trinity: the Godhead.  The Holy Spirit is still the agent of confirmation of who Christ is.  When you trusted Jesus, you do so at the urging of Holy Spirit.  Some will deny Him today by denying the Spirit urging in your heart.  We deny by denial.  We deny by closing our minds.

                Next, Jesus identifies John as a witness.  V33 “Ye sent unto John, and he bears witness.”  In actual fact, they went twice to John.  John 1:22 “Who art thou?”  “I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness.”  “I baptize with water . . . among you is one you know not.” (Matthew: “baptizes with the Holy Spirit.”)  John 3:26, “He that was with thee beyond Jordan, to whom thou bearest witness.”  Also in actual fact John testifies He is the Christ (28). Speaks God’s words (34).  One with Holy Spirit (34). To believe is to receive life (36).  Deny is to be condemned (36).  Romans 2:5: “But because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God's wrath, when his righteous judgment will be revealed.”

                Nor must we overlook v36: “He was a burning and shining light.”  Burning is present/past participle—consumed.  Shining is aorist/active/participle—still shines.  We are more interested in shining than we are in burning.  The will of these people was emotional rather than resolve of comm. 

                The third witness is the oneness of Jesus’ own works with God’s will.  He has affirmed that it is not given to Him to boost Himself. V31.  He does not find it necessary to use words to affirm who HE is.  In vocal silence, however, His works still establish who He is:

• Going public in Cana.

• Preaching like John in Judea (John 4:1).

• Healing an official’s son (John 4:43).

• The paralytic at Bethesda (John 5:1).

• Every work attests to who He is.

• It is in this tradition that chapter 6 of John opens with the feeding of 5,000.

                Three witnesses should be quite enough but the fourth is God.  V37 “And the Father Himself, . . . hath born witness of me.”  The Holy Spirit/John/His own works.  The problem is their own unbelief.  Someone (Z#191) defines hear as hearing with the ear of the mind.  We can condition ourselves with noise so as not to hear music.  We can condition ourselves with error so as not to hear truth.  The person who claims inability to believe blames externals.  Philosophical/Witness of others. “Seen” ‘orao—to see with the mind, to suddenly grasp a fundamental but obscure truth.  They must come to terms with God, but to do so they must believe Him.

                Jesus describes salvation.  What it is.  What it is not.

• It is not religious law. V39

• It is not human personality. V44

• It is not spiritual heritage. V45

• It is Jesus Himself. V40

• This outline for next week.

                Next, He adds the scripture as the fifth witness.  V39 “Search the scriptures: . . . they are they which testify of me.”  The reference is to the Old Testament scripture.  Genesis 49:10 “The sceptre shall not depart from Judah till Shiloh comes.”  Isaiah 11:1 “And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse.”  Jeremiah 23:5 “I will raise unto David a righteous branch.” Micah 5:2 “But thou, Beth-lehem Ephratha.”  And many, many others.

                Finally, He certifies what should not have been, but was, the most important voice to the religious leaders, . . . Moses.  V46 “Had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me: for he wrote of me.”  No text above from Moses but there is one.  Deuteronomy 18:18 “I will raise them up a prophet from among their brethren, like unto thee, and will put my word in his mouth; and he shall speak  unto them all that I shall command.”

                Dr. Vaught says they probably had pictures of Moses  in the classrooms.  We have Lincoln, Washington, King. Grant and Winn Parishes had pictures of Huey Long. 

                It was Moses who prepared the serpent on the pole for the relief of the people.  Numbers 21:8

The LORD said to Moses, “Make a snake and put it up on a pole; anyone who is bitten can look at it and live,” to which Jesus alludes in 3:14.

Conclusion

                Someone (T43p240) writes “How many popular histories, encyclopedias, and school textbooks have blindfolded Jesus by an apologetic paragraph on The Carpenter of Nazareth, or The Greatest Jew Who Ever Lived, or The Great Teacher of Galilee!  They read about the seamless Robe but do not receive new life by the touch of a living faith.  They follow the story of The Big Fisherman but never make the great confession he did, ‘Thou art the Christ, the Son of the Living God.’  They listen to The Greatest Story Ever Told . . . but do not know the power of Christ’s Resurrection.”

(1) Lilje, H. (1966). The Valley of the Shadow. The Muhlenberg Press.

“I SEEK NOT MY WILL”

#199                                                                “I SEEK NOT MY WILL”                                                                                       

Scripture John 5:17-30 NIV                                                                                                                          Orig. 6/10/1962

                                                                                                                                                                               Rewr. 3/1/1990

Passage: 17 In his defense Jesus said to them, “My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I too am working.” 18 For this reason they tried all the more to kill him; not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God. 19 Jesus gave them this answer: “Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does. 20 For the Father loves the Son and shows him all he does. Yes, and he will show him even greater works than these, so that you will be amazed. 21 For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son gives life to whom he is pleased to give it. 22 Moreover, the Father judges no one, but has entrusted all judgment to the Son, 23 that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father, who sent him. 24 “Very truly I tell you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be judged but has crossed over from death to life. 25 Very truly I tell you, a time is coming and has now come when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live. 26 For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself. 27 And he has given him authority to judge because he is the Son of Man. 28 “Do not be amazed at this, for a time is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice 29 and come out—those who have done what is good will rise to live, and those who have done what is evil will rise to be condemned. 30 By myself I can do nothing; I judge only as I hear, and my judgment is just, for I seek not to please myself but him who sent me.”

Purpose: Continuing a study from the gospel, here revealing the intent of Jesus to do God’s will even though it will result in His death

Keywords:           Bible Study of John’s Gospel                       Divinity of Christ               Resurrection                      Sovereignty

Timeline/Series:               Bible Study of John’s Gospel

Introduction

                Last Sunday we followed Jesus back into Jerusalem, and near the sheep gate, at a place called Bethesda.  We looked on as He healed a man paralyzed for thirty-eight years.  When the Jewish religious leaders found out that this had been done on the Sabbath they were incensed.  It was a violation of the law, and as says verse 16:  “Therefore did the Jews persecute Jesus, and sought to slay him.”

                Most of us are smart enough to know that when someone is out to get you, the thing to do is to lie low, to be  obscure.  Apparently, Jesus didn’t know the meaning of lying low, didn’t know how to be obscure.  “My Father worketh hitherto,” He said, “and I work.”

                And with that terse statement they hated Him the  more.  They hated Him so much that they started keeping a book on Him.  They would record everything He did that was outside the law.  They would be especially sensitive to charges, legitimate or otherwise, that they could bring against Him that would result in His death.  They were not interested in redeeming Him as a Jew.  They were interested in destroying Him as an enemy.

                John records then, the first discourse of Jesus to the Jews.  He has talked at length to Nicodemus, and to the woman at the well.  He  has  talked with disciples (2:22) and others.  There were brief encounters with Jews (2:18f), and with individuals.  Here, Jesus gives notice to the Jews for what He has come.  And they do not like it.

I.             Jesus First Identifies Himself with God.  V17 “My Father worketh hitherto, and I work.”  This is one of five parallels established.  The same word for work is used.  The Father and I are both doing the same perfect work.  There is a oneness in ACTIVITY.

                Next Jesus correlates what is done.  “Whatsoever things the Father doeth, also the Son.”  You can imagine their uneasiness.   There is a oneness not only in ACTIVITY, but also in WILL.  It is one thing to claim to be righteous but to be one in WILL with God.

                Thirdly, Jesus takes sovereignty upon Himself.  V21 “As the Father raiseth up and quickeneth, even so the Son.”  He has already alluded to the work at Bethesda.  In response to their disdain for healing on the Sabbath, Jesus responds saying, “My work is God’s work.”  Now Jesus talks about ‘raising’ the dead. SOVEREIGNTY.  So, a man paralyzed 38 years is walking.  You will see much more.  He will return to this subject momentarily.

                Next, Jesus interrelates honor of God and Son.  Someone suggests that Jesus came to Jerusalem to leave His calling card.  It was Passover.  God redeems.  Redemption had its inception in the covenant, but the law stifled it.  A friend years ago: “Me: missed nothing; my church: missed something; Christ: you’ve missed everything.”  The major negative quotient in our lives is failure to honor God, Son.  Letter in New Orleans inviting participation in highway dedication. “Don’t pray in Jesus’ name.”  Don’t blame them.  Blame Christians who compromise.

                Finally, the same life-force the Father has in Himself, so also has the Son.  V26 “As the Father hath life in himself, so has he given to the Son to have life in him.”  In Him is  the fulness of divinity.  Also, there is undiminished humanity.

II.            Next, Jesus Establishes the Dominance of the Role that is His.  V26 “The Father hath . . . given to the son . . . authority to execute judgment.”   Back in the old days, a gospel was preached that required sublimation in Christ.  Funerals didn’t beat around the bush.  You were a Christian or you weren’t.  You gave evidence of your faith by the way you lived, worshipped.

                People depend on something other than faith.  The sobriquet “I don’t drink and I don’t chew and I don’t go with girls who do” never has been a valid distinction.  How much graver the danger today: “I’m a church member!” “Deacon!” “I go to Sunday School!” “Teach!” “I don’t drink!” “I don’t use drugs!”  “l live by the Bible!” “I follow the Golden Rule!” 

                If Christ is not Lord of your life, and a part of every decision, you don’t!  These people got riled with Jesus because He told them their ragged righteousness would not save them.

                We don’t have time to get into the resurrection this morning, but Jesus defines two momentous events.  One has already come, and they are accountable for it.  V25, “The hour is coming, and now is.”  V24, 25 both use the Greek word for “hear”—to hear obediently.  V24 establishes the condition, not only of eternal life, but deliverance from Hell as well.  In life, we determine our own destiny in the way we choose to live.  But v25 eliminates the condition  The spiritually dead shall hear the call to live, and in response, live.

                Which brings us to the second event.  V28 “For the hour is coming, (note) in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice.”  V25 addressed spiritually dead. V28 speaks of physically dead.  V25 is conditional, optional even.  V28 holds no condition, option.

                Whether you have heard it believingly in life or not,  you will  hear it in death.  Jesus is the essence of your choice.  You, I, cannot honor the Father and dishonor the Son.  Believing in deity doesn’t save you, believing in Jesus does.  You don’t believe that, you throw the Bible in the garbage.  Deny that,  you say Jesus is a liar, a charlatan.

                This did not start out as a message of the resurrection, but the word is there.  Most of us have been touched by death.  Some of us have recently been to the grave.  My second Winter, six in 12 days.  Proclaimed message was different.  Some gave evidence when v25 in “spiritual death, heard, and responded.”  Some gave  no evidence. Others, only God knows.  All, will hear, v28 and they will do as they are commanded.

                There are members of First Baptist Church, if I had to preach their funeral tomorrow, I would  have to guess if asked their spiritual condition.

                The human bones, apparently of a 17-year-old girl, were found in Union Parish earlier this week.  A search went on for days for proof. When the dead are called from their graves that girl will come forth fully formed.  No question about identity.  If a believer she will answer the summons unto “the resurrection of life.”  If not, just as certainly, “unto the resurrection of damnation.”  It matters not that she was brutally murdered by a person more beast than man.  Unimportant detail that she had so little time to prepare.  The Christ who came seeking “not  His own will, but the Father’s” holds absolutely and eternally  her condition, yours, mine.

THE SALVATION OF CHRIST

#828e                                                         THE SALVATION OF CHRIST                                                                                  

Scripture  John 5:1-18                                                                                                                                      Orig. 3/1/1985

Passage: Some time later, 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[a] 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. [4] [b] 5 One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. 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?” 7 “Sir,” the invalid replied, “I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me.” 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. 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.” 11 But he replied, “The man who made me well said to me, ‘Pick up your mat and walk.’ ” 12 So they asked him, “Who is this fellow who told you to pick it up and walk?”

13 The man who was healed had no idea who it was, for Jesus had slipped away into the crowd that was there.

14 Later Jesus found him at the temple and said to him, “See, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you.” 15 The man went away and told the Jewish leaders that it was Jesus who had made him well.

The Authority of the Son

16 So, because Jesus was doing these things on the Sabbath, the Jewish leaders began to persecute him. 17 In his defense Jesus said to them, “My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I too am working.” 18 For this reason they tried all the more to kill him; not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.

Purpose: Continuing the series on The Doctrine of Christ, here emphasizing Christ’s salvation.

Keywords:           Christ as Saviour               Doctrine  of Christ

Timeline/Series:               Doctrine of Christ

Introduction

                Dr. James Stewart, in his book, The Wind of the Spirit(1), shares a powerful word about this Jesus who is called Christ.  Says Dr. Stewart: “There are indeed myriads of facts in this world you can disregard, multitudes of events you do not need to come to terms with. . . .  The politics of Julius Caesar, the origins of the sonnet, the tactics of Waterloo, the internal motions of the planetary nebulae—such things do not enter into the structure of my every day experience.  I can ignore them.  I can disregard them. But there are other facts that will not thus be disregarded.  I cannot indefinitely ignore the laws of health, the social solidarity of the community, the demands of duty, the reality of death. . . .  And of all the facts of life  that refuse to be ignored, the greatest by far is Jesus Christ.

                “He  haunts the human race.  Men have tried for 19 centuries to escape Him, and after all their trying He pursues them still.  I know that if I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, I shall find Him there.  I know that whether civilization climbs the steep ascent of heaven or plunges down to hell, it will find Him there.  The world may flout His laws, and trample His name in the dust of oblivion; I can wash my hands of Him, like Pilate, and drag my soul in slumber and apostasy, but irresistibly and inexorably He comes back, our Judge and our Redeemer, our Tormentor and our Saviour, the pressure of Almighty God on your life and mine, He comes back and stands at the door and knocks.  He is there now . . . and He will not be ignored.  ‘Lo, I am you always, even to the end of the world.’” (W43p177)

I.             First, the Hurt. v3/v5

                Physical infirmity is a symbol of lostness.  Crippled legs are crippled by sin.  John 7:23 Jesus “made a whole man well.”  God completed the creation with Himself. Genesis 2:7 “breathed” “he became a living  soul.”  Old Testament and New Testament uses “soul” for completeness.  Acts 2:41, 3,000 “souls” added to church.

                The point of Jesus’ coming was spiritual.  What must first be provided?  John 5:14 physical first; Mark 2:5, 9-12 sin problem first.  He deals with people at soul level. His goal is wholeness, Galatians 5:22, Philippians 4:23.  Plato popularized soul trapped in body and death frees soul.

                We are physical.  Additionally, we have personality. Different capacities for intellect.  Emotion.  We entertain socially. We are spiritual.  Wholeness.  Jesus made whole man well.  He healed legs.  He prompted sin’s dealing.

                Jesus came because man was lost.  Genesis man.  Lostness.  Sin predominated. Man is separated from God.  Wholly lost.

II.            The Human Factor. V7  “I have no man [to help me]”

                Characterized by uncaring. V3 “great multitude.”  V5 “38 years” to do the “stirring,” no one helped.

                Characterized by personal disorder.  V6 “Do you want to be well?” Personal will: Jesus offers, He does not impose.  Ask of physical and spiritual. 

                Characterized by religious dissent.  V10 It’s the Sabbath. Why? V18 Jews sought to kill Jesus. Sabbath.  God was His Father.

                Characterized by inability. Matthew 8, there comes to Jesus a Centurion, beseeching Him.  Not a common man. Naaman demanded Elisha cure.  How much humility?  Came to befriend a slave. Came to Jesus.

III.           Finally, the Wholeness.  V8 Rise, take up your bed and walk.  V14 See, you have been made well.  Sin no more, lest a worse thing come upon you.

                Wholeness is the true object of God’s concern.  Mark 2:27, The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.  John 5:10, The Jews said to him that was cured.  It is the Sabbath. It is not lawful for you to carry your bed on the Sabbath.  John 7:23, Are you angry with me because I made a man completely well on the Sabbath?

                Wholeness was the reason for Christ’s coming.  For human weakness—not sub-human, not super-human.  Sin causes problems.  We try to avoid but don’t always succeed.  Difference between wine and wineskins.

Note from transcriber:  This sermon was handwritten and is more fragmented than typed sermons.

(1) Stewart, J. (1988). The Wind of the Spirit. Baker Publishing Group.

WELL BUCKETS AND WATERPOTS

#091                                                     WELL BUCKETS AND WATERPOTS                                                                            

Scripture  John 4:5-34, 39 NIV                                                                                                 Orig. 8/23/1964; 11/1979

                                                                                                                                                                             Rewr. 4/20/1988

Passage: 5 So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon. 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.) 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.[a]) 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.”

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?” 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.” 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.” 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.” 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.” 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. 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.”

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.”

The Disciples Rejoin Jesus

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?” 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?” 30 They came out of the town and made their way toward him. 31 Meanwhile his disciples urged him, “Rabbi, eat something.” 32 But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you know nothing about.” 33 Then his disciples said to each other, “Could someone have brought him food?” 34 “My food,” said Jesus, “is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work. 

Many Samaritans Believe

39 Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me everything I ever did.”

Purpose: To show how Jesus shared expectation, and guilt, and faith, and victory, with a woman who perceived of herself as caught in the trap of sin.

Keywords:           Christ as Saviour               Biography of the Samaritan Woman        Conviction           Faith      Guilt      Hope                                Revival

Timeline/Series:               Biography of the Samaritan  Woman

Introduction

                In some form or the other, well-buckets and waterpots have figured into human social activities.  As necessary as the water itself, are the gatherings of community.  So, on a day not all that different from other days, “a woman of Samaria” went to draw water for herself, perhaps for others.

                Our interest in well-buckets and waterpots now is only as a memento of early American treasures from the past.  Her interest was basic.  It had to do with life, and living.  And thus she  has come to the well.

                The last thing on her mind that day as she walked the dusty road beyond Sychar was that this was going to be a day like no other.  She would encounter One who would turn  her life around.  In sudden swirls, a spiritual, moral  dimension will invade her life.  In the twinkling of an eye, she becomes a practitioner of the Kingdom of God.

                Dr. James Stewart, in his book, The Wind of the Spirit(1), reminds us of the care that we must take in assessing a person’s spiritual attainment.  He writes, ”God assesses . . . relationship to the Kingdom of Christ, not by the point [one] has reached on the highway of holiness, but by the way he is facing; not by the  distance of his pilgrimage, but by the direction of his life; not by the question, ‘Has he achieved an ethically complete and rounded character,’ but by the question, ‘Has he his face to Christ or his back?’”

                She is not much, this Samaritan woman, but there is a great lesson that we can learn from her, because she stands with her face, not her back, to the Christ.  We must turn our own faces to these well-buckets and waterpots to learn what they would teach us.

I.             Jesus Found Her in the Anguish of Hope.  V15 “Sir, give me this water that I thirst not, neither come  hither to drink.”

                You see, hope can sometimes be misapplied in that we want it to affect life where we are, rather than life in its substance.  If we have no bread, it is food, not faith, that claims our interest.  If we have bread, it may be for something more, cake, pastry, for which we yearn.

                This woman stands at a moment of great crisis and decision though not yet knowing it.  She is not just a woman dissatisfied with life.  She is a woman lost in the wilderness of living.  If that were not enough, suddenly, her sin is exposed.  Exposed before moral, spiritual perfection.  But of equal importance, exposed to herself.  She sees that she, herself, is not under the searchlight of law, rather, under the enigma of grace.

                She had  momentarily concluded that this man at the well could help her to escape from herself, from this trap she has rigged, from another man who has dragged her down, perhaps from reality itself.  I sat one afternoon and talked for two hours with a woman  like this.  She needed, wanted Christ.  It seemed that she was ready.  That evening her male companion came by, with a bottle.  They went to the shack he called home.  A fire that night spelled finish to whatever hope she had.

                This well symbolizes the bad and the good in this complex life.  It is both  her burden, and the source of life.  She is here drawing water to quench the thirst of the one, at home, who is the source of her woe.  She has come expecting no one else present.  The social center of life for other women is avoided because of unpleasantries.  Seeing other women coming toward the well, she knows she  is partly what they whisper about.

                She is closing in, however, on the discovery of new life waiting at the well.

II.            He Led Her Through the Acknowledgement of Guilt.  V16 “Jesus said to her, Go, call thy husband, and come hither. [V17] The woman answered and said, I have no husband.”

                There are times when life’s realities are too much.  Joshua 7:7 (Israel at Ai) “Would to God we had been content, and dwelt on the other side Jordan.”   (How can we pretend this evil away?)  Habakkuk’s sad lamentation (Habakkuk 1:2) “O Lord, how long shall I cry, and Thou wilt not hear! . . . cry . . . and Thou wilt not save!”  In Columbia this week, a friend told me about the prominent citizen, Bible teacher who took his own life.

                Guilt, however, is not something to be avoided.  Medical professionals diminish it.  But Jesus seems to have deliberately brought her this way.  How much  worse to have a soul so steeped in sin that guilt could not penetrate?  Romans 3:19 “We know that whatsoever the law saith, it saith to them that are under the law: that every mouth . . . be stopped, and all the world . . . guilty before God.”

                Without guilt, law is impractical.  Without law, society is impossible.  But culture, brought under the burden of law by guilt, finds its solace in community, and in Christ.

                When the rescue of a soul is at stake, guilt is a relatively minor price to pay.  Matthew 1:21, “Thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins.”  John 4:42 “We have heard him ourselves, and know that this is indeed the Christ, the Saviour of the world.”  For her sake, guilt is the goal.  But others are involved also who will find their own struggle through her.

III.           He is Her Companion through Her Altercation with Truth.  V19 “The woman saith unto him . . . Our fathers worshipped in this mountain; and ye say that in Jerusalem is the place . . . to worship.”  Her only real experience with truth was that of tradition.  Twin mounts of Ebal, Gerizim are near.  Jerusalem was 40 miles away.  But a temple had been built on Gerizim.  Some even contended that Isaac had been brought by Abraham to this mount.

                Believing as she did, she disdained the beliefs of others.  Even of Jesus.  Truth is an enigma to  her.  No doubt she is sincere.  Sincerely wrong.  She thinks others are in the same dilemma. 

                Jesus reminds her that tradition will not set her heart at rest.  Worship without prejudice was vital. She deals with Messianic uncertainty.  Jesus tells her who he is—Messiah.  Jesus made such a revelation of himself to a social outcast of the Jews and also of the Samaritans.

IV.          Thus, She Begins to Discover the Affirmation of Faith.  V28 “Come, see a man, which told me all things that ever I did:  is not this the Christ?” 

                Someone to believe in has given her something to believe in.  How natural faith is for a child.  Sunday School teacher talking to class about creation.  Child: “God created the world with His left hand.”  “How do you know that?”  “Because Jesus was sitting on His right hand.”

                But for an adult, a more practical view of sin clouds such faith.

                Someone to believe, and something to believe in, now enables her to believe in herself.  Faith is her enabler. Others will  now come to believe in her also, to see the world through her.  For too many, quest for success is first.  That quest can trap us away from God’s grace, and all others who might come to grace through us, to see the world through us.

Conclusion

                Two little lads stood on the edge of Itasca.  “Look,” said one, “it’s leaking!”  “That ain’t no leak,” said the other.  “That’s the Mississippi!”

(1) Stewart, J. (1988). The Wind of the Spirit. Baker Publishing Group.

TWO DRINKS OF WATER

#798                                                              TWO DRINKS OF WATER                                                                                     

Scripture  John 4:1-30, 39-42                                                                                                                      Date 12/7/1989

Passage: 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. 6 Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon. 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.) 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.[a]) 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.”

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?” 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.” 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.”

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.” 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.” 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. 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.” 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.”

The Disciples Rejoin Jesus

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?” 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?” 30 They came out of the town and made their way toward him.

Many Samaritans Believe

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. 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.”

Purpose: To see Jesus change the focus of His ministry, and along the way offer encouraging words to a woman steeped in sin.

Keywords:           Bible Study         Encouragement                Compassion of Christ                      Sin         

Timeline/Series:               John

Introduction

                We live in a mobile society.  I have read statistical charts reporting as high as 50% of all of us relocate every  year.  We move into a new town, or neighborhood, or take a new job every other year.

                Jesus is making a career change in this text.  He began a ministry similar in every way to that of John, and the obvious begins to happen.  Those ministries are compared, and one begins to receive preferential treatment.

                Obviously, John’s star is on the wane.  He has already (3:23) relocated his work.  He is being directly confronted (1:19) about the nature of his work, and the confrontation will worsen until he is jailed about the time this Galilean ministry begins (Mark 1:14).  The religious leaders are making things difficult for John’s disciples, and they are seeking answers to questions relative to the compared popularity of Jesus and John, and Jesus seems to be winning.

                Jesus decides that it is time to make a change.  The religious leaders in Judea are obviously as little interested in His work as they have been in John’s work.  Beckoning us home.  Galilee! And a change in style of ministry is ahead also.  Where it has been a riverside prophetic, declare-the-gospel kind of approach; now, He will touch people  with the power-of-the-gospel-to-change-peoples’-lives approach.  He will find people through the countryside, village by village.  Luke 4:14 “A fame went out concerning Him through all the region round about.”

I.             Jesus Uses the Direct Approach to Galilee.  V4 “He must needs go through Samaria.”

                There were two routes of travel.  One wound its way down into the valley of the Jordan and followed circuitously.  The other was quicker, easier, but required travel among Samaritans.

                Remember the sting of invective between these hostile people.  A mixed bloodline, settled in Samaria during Israel’s period of captivity.  They had worked to oppose the resettlement. There was no love lost either way.  Jesus did not reject business dealings, but refused personal contact, thought of them as unclean.  While Jesus was comfortable with this route, His disciples were not.

                Jesus has come this way of purpose.  We listened in as Jesus dealt with a Jew (Pharisee) of distinction—Nicodemus.  Summary relative to the new birth.  Now, in Samaria, He has come upon a woman without distinction—forthrightness, worship, two drinks of water.

II.            Now, We Discover the Object of His Samaritan Exploit.  V7 “There cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water.”  There is the anguish of hopelessness, at the well in the middle of the day, to avoid unkindnesses; to quench her first thirst.  This well doesn’t contain the second drink.  It is her hope and her hopelessness: water for her household.  She knows she is what the other women whisper about.

                Wanda Beeson opened up from a hospital bed to receive Christ, when the reluctant one had been myself.

                There is the acknowledgement of guilt.  As winsomely as Jesus deals with this woman, she must nonetheless face up to her sin.  Remember, Jesus knew “all men.”  2:24.  He knew Nicodemus; He knows her—He knows her sin, her struggle.  We may know people’s sins, but do we know their struggles?  Habakkuk: “O Lord, how long shall I cry, and Thou wilt not hear! . . . cry . . . and Thou wilt not save?”

III.           That Brings Us to Jesus as a Model for Witnessing.  There is no harder thing for us to do than to open up about one’s soul welfare. (Story about barber wanting to learn how to share his faith.  Stranger: struggled. Barber: shaved, wiped cream from edge, walked to front: “Mister, are you ready to die?”)

                So, clearly, all of us need help.  He recognizes the opportunity. “He must needs go through Samaria.” He may have had foreknowledge.  All we need is sensitivity. 

                He treats the opportunity graciously.  Even though weary of traveling.  Herbert Lockyer (1): “Often weary in His mission, Christ was never weary of it.”  There were reasons not to confront this woman: Samaritan, woman, sinner, reputation.  One reason to: it was the right thing to do.  He allowed her to meet His need so that He might then meet hers.  V7.

                He optimizes her need. The first drink of water has brought her to the well.  The well will symbolize another, a “second” drink of water, not from a cistern, but from a source.  Two words for source of water.  Two words for source of water: pégé—fountain (v6,14), phaer—cistern (v11).  She came to draw standing water, Jesus offers her living water.  The core around which missions works is physical needs, but we must offer more, Jesus.

                He presents a message.  He offered her truth, Himself.  Not a plan to memorize, a person to follow.  He respects the woman’s personhood.  Coercion is never the step to witness.  He shares of himself, and gives her the word of belief rather than doubt.  He encourages  her to be a witness.

IV.          Having Left This Woman in the Anguish of Hopelessness and Guilt, We Must Return to Her.  V13 “Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again: But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst.”

                This is the reason of note that Jesus has chosen to journey through Samaria.  A woman’s needs are to be met beside a quiet well.  The disciples will know the attitude of our Lord toward outsiders, and toward prejudice.  You see, the second drink of water is one of measure.  She responded to His unexpected request.  He gives a measure of her own need by these regular forays to the well of Jacob.  Is it the rebuke of the women?  Is it the Sychar well is closed?  Is it a spirituality meditative thing?

                The other men in her life were interested for their own sakes. Jesus for her sake.  Jesus cares for people.  We often use people for ourselves.  We win people to Jesus when we communicate this caring spirit of Jesus.

                The second drink of water reaches inward.  Psalm 42:1 “As a hind longs for the water brooks, so do I long for Thee, O God.”  Isaiah 55:1 “Ho, everyone that thirsteth, come ye to the waters.”  She is one of these, she longs for God. 

                Jesus will help her in discovery.  He must reveal herself to her.  “Go call thy husband.” V16.  He must reveal Himself to her.  “Prophet,” v19, is not enough; “worship” v20 shows that tradition is not enough.  Jesus points out to her that worship apart from soul-rest won’t fly, in either Gerizim or Zion.  She has been quenching physical thirst.  Spiritually, she has been drying up.  How many people, like this woman, hope for someone like Jesus, but the truth is so slow-dawning?

Conclusion

                Max Cadenhead lay in a hospital room, a broken and dying man.  Cancer had  him in its power.  His church was at the point of a split.  His daughter struggling with a drug problem.  “I’ve got you with your war boots off.  If you had your boots on, you’d be out there trying to stomp out all those fires.”

Anonymous reflection, added at a later date, source p16, HE SPAKE TO THEM IN PARABLES

ONE SOLITARY LIFE

                Here is a man who was born in an obscure village, the child of a peasant woman.  He grew up in another obscure village.  He worked in a carpenter shop until he was thirty, and then he was an itinerant preacher.  He never wrote a book.  He never held an office.

                He never owned a home.  He never set foot inside a big city.  He never travelled two hundred miles from the place where he was born.  He had no credentials but himself.

                He had nothing to do with this world except the named power of his divine manhood.  While still a young man, the tide of popular opinion turned against him.  His friends ran away.  One of them denied him.  He was turned over to his enemies.  He went through the mockery of a trial.  He was nailed upon a cross between two thieves.

                His executioners gambled for the only piece of property he had on earth while he was dying—and that was his coat.  When he was dead, he was taken down and laid in a borrowed grave through the pity of a friend.

                Nineteen wide centuries have come and gone and today he is the centerpiece of the  human race and the leader of progress.  I am far within the mark when I say that all the armies that ever marched, and all the navies that ever were built, and all the parliaments that ever sat, and all the kings that ever reigned, put together have not affected the life of man upon this earth as powerfully as that one solitary life.

(1) Lockyer, H. (1988). All the Women of the Bible. Zondervan.

MESSIANIC EXPECTATIONS

#828a                                                         MESSIANIC EXPECTATIONS                                                                                  

Scripture  John 4:1-42                                                                                                                                    Date 2/19/1985

Passage: 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. ⁶ Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon. 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.) 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.^[a]) 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.”

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?” 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.” 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.”

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.” 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.” 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. 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.” 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.”

The Disciples Rejoin Jesus

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?” 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?” ³⁰ They came out of the town and made their way toward him. ³¹ Meanwhile his disciples urged him, “Rabbi, eat something.” ³² But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you know nothing about.” ³³ Then his disciples said  to each other, “Could someone have brought him food?” ³⁴ “My food,” said Jesus, “is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work. ³⁵ Don’t you have a saying, ‘It’s still four months until harvest’? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest. ³⁶ Even now the one who reaps draws a wage and harvests a crop for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may be glad together. ³⁷ Thus the saying ‘One sows and another reaps’ is true. ³⁸ I sent you to reap what you have not worked for. Others have done the hard work, and you have reaped the benefits of their labor.”

Many Samaritans Believe

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. 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.”

Purpose: Begin a series lasting through two weeks on THE DOCTRINE OF CHRIST, here introducing the Christ who came.

Keywords:           Christ the Messiah                           Doctrine of Christ

Timeline/Series:               Doctrine of Christ

Introduction

                My father has been an avid reader for most of his adult life.  I remember often encountering him in some reading venture.  What he particularly liked was westerns, and Bret Harte was a favorite.

                One of Bret Harte’s most famous stories was called “The Luck of Roaring Camp.”  It is about a wild mining camp in the late Nineteenth Century.  Roughness and crudeness were not only acceptable, they were expected.  The story revolves around a young, pregnant woman in the camp, who, when she gave birth to a fatherless son, died of complications from the delivery.  The miners were left to care for the baby.  Unexpected changes began to take place.  The baby was kept in an immaculately clean room, amidst the rubble of the camp.  But soon, other areas began to improve in appearance.    Cleanliness became the order of the day.  Swearing, which had always been the language of the men, came to be strictly forbidden. Their favorite pastime  had always been drinking.  After the coming of this child in among them, they spent their off hours taking care of “their” baby.  What a difference one little baby can make in one’s perspective of life.

                Grapple, if you can, with the reality of what it has meant, not only to the believing Jew of the first century who expected Him, and to whom He came, but to all of us, that the Christ has come into our world and became one with us.

                I heard a classic recently about children, and pleasure derived.  Someone said “If I had known how much I was going to enjoy my grandchildren, I would have had them first.”

I.             The  Samaritan Woman Allows Us to Examine the Expectations of Messiah.  V25 “The woman said to Him, ‘I know that Messiah is coming’ (who is called Christ).   ‘When He comes, He will tell us all things.’”

                First, a word about Samaria.  When David’s kingdom was divided during the reign of Rehoboam, it was divided north from south, between Judah, and a confederation of the other tribes.  25 years after the death of Jeroboam, their first king, Omri, then King, bought a site identified as the Hill of Samaria (I Kings 16:24), and built a new capital called Samaria.  This kingdom collapsed in 721BC, many of the people were taken away, others brought in.  The feelings between Judah and Samaritans worsened.  After Judah fell, people returned, Samaritans sought to prevent settlement and reorganization.

                The Samaritan:  She comes to Jacob’s well, away from her village.  Why?  She opens up immediately to Jesus. She senses quality, she has religious  values.  Jesus shows His concern for an unseemly woman.  She identifies her concept of Messiah, limited to Samaritan horizons. “Our fathers worshipped on this mountain”—the shrine at the site of destroyed temple on Mt. Gerizim.  Settle human differences.

                It will surely help to understand better what the Jews expected.  The term means “anointed.”  Word has various Old Testament uses not referring to Christ.  “Christ” is Greek form.  Some expected a warrior/anointed, a David.

                Others expected a priestly Messiah who would be like God’s regent.  What is clear at Masada is that these faithful Jews waited for a “deliverer.”  When none came, they committed mass suicide. 

                We will talk a little later about what Jesus taught of the Messiah.

II.            Jesus Gives Us Our Best Practice of Messianic Expectation.  He identifies Himself as a Jew, but not a standard Jew.  He is in Samaria.  He is at Jacob’s Well talking to a Samaritan woman.  V7 “Give me a drink.”  It is not that they do not drink from a vessel.  Sugchrontai—to use in common.

                He reveals to such a one as the complex reality of His messiahship.  He has established Messiah’s humanity.  (See John 1:14—and the Word was manifested among us.)  He was weary, needed food.  He refutes any idea of nationalistic deliverer. 

                He affirmed His message.  She spoke of “proclaimer,” v25.  He acknowledges this. V26 “I Am.”  Exodus 3:14, “And God said to Moses, ‘I Am who I Am’” . . . say . . . ‘I Am has sent me to you.’”

                Jesus identifies Himself as THE ANOINTED OF GOD: 

• In Jerusalem, John 10:24f, “If you are the Christ, tell us.”  “My sheep . . . follow me.”   Salvation is His goal. 
• In the garden at prayer, John 17:3,  “That they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom  you sent.”
• At Jesus’ trial before the High Priest, Mark 14:61, “Are You  the Christ, the Son of the  Blessed?”  Jesus replied “I am.”   Then He stresses that His throne is heavenly not national.
• The Risen Christ so identified Himself, Luke 24:26f, to the couple from Emmaus—“ought the Christ to have suffered these things?”

III.           Finally, a Brief Word about the Salvation He Came to Offer.  V42, “Now we believe, not because of what you said, for we have heard for ourselves and know that this is indeed the Christ, the Saviour of the World.”

                Jesus’ enterprise is not material or national, it is spiritual.  He came into the world as the promised and anointed of God.  To redeem all, and to reach reconciliation among them.  He came to fashion faith not for the Jew only, but for Jew and Samaritan; descendant of Abraham and one never having heard; child of faith and one born of superstition; Jew as well as Gentile—Romans 2:10f, “to the Jew first, and also to the Gentile, for there is no respect of persons with God.”        

                He forever destroyed the barriers that separate us one from the other.

Conclusion

                Historian Will Durant is reported to have once said, “The greatest question of our time is not communism versus individualism, not Europe versus America, not even the East versus the West: It is whether a man can bear to live without God.”

Added: Source PBS 12/12/1999, 7:50a.m., “Circle of Light.”

Young Indian boy alone with a fire and the belief that his grandfather’s spirit was in the trees nearby.

                Elk comes to rest in still light, scar on his flank

                Wolf comes to opposite side, blind in one eye

                Flurrying of wings and an eagle rests opposite, leg is broken.

Boy asks each what the fire means: It is a circle of light in which each can rest without fear.