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.

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.

HE MUST AND I MUST ALSO

#860b                                                        HE MUST AND I MUST ALSO                                                                                 

Scripture  John 3:22-36 NIV                                                                                                                         Orig. 8/27/1961

                                                                                                                                                                           Rewr. 11/30/1989

Passage: 22 After this, Jesus and his disciples went out into the Judean countryside, where he spent some time with them, and baptized. 23 Now John also was baptizing at Aenon near Salim, because there was plenty of water, and people were coming and being baptized. 24 (This was before John was put in prison.) 25 An argument developed between some of John’s disciples and a certain Jew over the matter of ceremonial washing. 26 They came to John and said to him, “Rabbi, that man who was with you on the other side of the Jordan—the one you testified about—look, he is baptizing, and everyone is going to him.”

27 To this John replied, “A person can receive only what is given them from heaven. 28 You yourselves can testify that I said, ‘I am not the Messiah but am sent ahead of him.’ 29 The bride belongs to the bridegroom. The friend who attends the bridegroom waits and listens for him, and is full of joy when he hears the bridegroom’s voice. That joy is mine, and it is now complete. 30 He must become greater; I must become less.”[a]

31 The one who comes from above is above all; the one who is from the earth belongs to the earth, and speaks as one from the earth. The one who comes from heaven is above all. 32 He testifies to what he has seen and heard, but no one accepts his testimony. 33 Whoever has accepted it has certified that God is truthful. 34 For the one whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for God[b] gives the Spirit without limit. 35 The Father loves the Son and has placed everything in his hands. 36 Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on them.

Purpose: In a series from John’s Gospel, sharing this passage related to the early ministry of Jesus as to our dependence upon Him

Keywords:           Bible Study                         Christ as Lord                     John Series                                                                        

Timeline/Series:               Sequential                                         

Introduction

                One of the distressing realities of our time relates to public figures who are indicted following some scandal.  We read, and hear about it with great dismay in the lives of prominent religious leaders.  It is made to be a public spectacle when these, and well-known political figures compromise certain standards, and are accused, tried, and convicted.

                We struggled last week with the sentence directed against James Bakker.  On the same day, an actress was convicted of hitting a policeman.  A few days before, one of America’s wealthiest women was indicted for tax evasion.

                It is not new.  We well remember the Nixon years and the Watergate scandal.  One of the men who figured prominently in that was the man who was counsel to President Nixon, a lawyer by the name of Charles Colson.  Colson was found guilty and sentenced to several years’ incarceration.

                During his time in prison something different happened.  He acknowledged his own involvement and guilt, realized that the wrong was in himself, and sought to change his life.  And the help he sought was spiritual.  Mr. Colson became a believer in Jesus Christ.  He later wrote his autobiography with the title, Born Again(1).   

                Many people were skeptical.  “Oh, no, not again,” was a commonly heard refrain.  It has been ten years or more, and Charles Colson is out of prison, still holding his new birth experience, and is involved in ministry to men and women who are in, or recently released from, prison.

I.             The First Theme that We Encounter is Summary. V22 “After these things came Jesus and His disciples into the land of Judea; and there he tarried with them and baptized. And John also was baptizing in Aenon.”

                Here is a bridge between two important texts.  Some called John 3:16 the most important verse in the Bible.                  W.O. Vaught tells about a prior Little Rock Crusade back in the fifties.  He was sent with a committee from the ministerial association to Fort Worth to check out Mr. Graham.  And, he said, though they brought back a glowing report of Graham’s message and manner, twenty-three of his ministerial colleagues signed a petition saying in effect, “this is not the kind of man we need in Little Rock.”  John the Baptist had his critics also, but they will get very little of our attention this morning. 

                Others refer to chapter 4 as the single most significant chapter in the Bible.  1966 JL Sullivan—John’s Witness to Jesus(2).  1989 HH Hobbs—The Gospel of John:  Invitation to Life(3).  So much more than just a bridge.

                The summary is that of perspective.  John 3:1-21 has provided perspective of the new birth.  John Newton:  “I am not what I ought to be, but thank God, I’m not what I used to be.” Separation from the past, commitment to life of discipleship.

                John 3:22-36 insists that we take note of the increasing centrality of Christ to the believer.  Pilgrimage might begin with loyalty to none. Shifted with loyalty to none but Jesus. Being a follower calls forth two requirements: a statutory commitment, and a circumstance of growth.

                It is summary also of personality.  Facts about Jesus and John otherwise unknown.  Of Jesus early ministry: Matthew 19:1, Mark 10:1—come to Judea, Luke 4:44 Judea (KJV reads Galilee).

                Jesus public ministry before John imprisoned.  Mark 1:14 “After John was delivered up, came Jesus into Galilee.”

                Jesus’ affirmation of baptism.  Synoptics never mention Jesus baptizing.  John 4:2f clarifies this about administering.

                That John continues an independent ministry after Jesus’ baptism at a place called Aenon near Salim.  “There was much water there.”  Summary statement on baptism.  Are you distressed about baptisms?  Some say that John chooses a less promising site to open the way for Christ.

                Finally, there is seen an abrupt change from this revival . . . for Jesus.  Luke 3:3 and Matthew 4:17 depict the common mode of their message.  “Baptism of repentance.” “Repent ye, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.”  After John is imprisoned, Jesus goes into Galilee (Mark 1:14) with same style and message.  But change is in the wind.  Perhaps this explains John’s uncertainty.  See Matthew 11:1,2.

II.            Next, There is the Theme of Subordination.  V25 “Then there arose a question between some of John’s disciples . . . .  Rabbi, [Jesus] baptizeth, and all men come to him.”

                In regard to the ceremonial washing, it was major concern to Jews, and a way to make money.  In Cairo ten years ago coverlets; in Jerusalem no admission to the Dome of the Rock.  Regeneration dealt with inside, therefore they wouldn’t pay the tax.  Discussion turned to Jesus and His prominence over John.

                Matthew 14:1f: “Herod had arrested John . . . because of his brother Phillip’s wife.”  From this diatribe on religious ceremony, John shows us what Christian grace ought to be.  His followers are uneasy because Jesus has come to a more favored posture.  They have no idea what is ahead.  The concept of cross is unknown. 

                He reaffirms the centrality of Jesus.  “I am not he!  You know who is!”  John 4:26f same without the negative.  He sees himself as “friend,” philos.  His role in the wedding is to protect interest of bridegroom.  He guards the chamber where the bride awaits.  John will not usurp Christ’s place.

                To what degree do you subordinate yourself to Jesus? I was envious of a friend when 200 of his people were present at S.C.  I had 20 who had chosen to come to the M.C. to hear warmed over Th. Ms. (Meaning unknown.)  Don’t do it for Brother Lamar’s sake.  There is a reason for doing it, and

Remainder of paragraph lost.

                Someone tells about the passenger who went trackside, found his train, and went aboard. He found the car empty, chose his seat, got comfortable.  After a few minutes a grease-stained trainman came through.  “You’ll have to go up to the forward car.”  “Why? What’s wrong with this one?” “Well, nothing’s wrong with it.  It’s just not hooked up to anything that’s going anywhere.”

III.           Finally, There is the Theme of Superiority.  V31 “He that cometh from above is above all . . .   V35 The Father loveth the Son and hath given all things into His hand.  He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life . . . he that believeth not the Son shall not see life.”

                Here is the eternal two-fold choice.  It is not that they are “saved” or they are “lost.”  The choices are: they are saved or lost, or there is nothing.  Then, you can conclude that since there must be something, we are either saved or lost.  Or, are you too sophisticated (worldly) to believe that.

                The choice epitomized here is of life or death.  Deuteronomy 30:15 “See I have set before thee this day, life and good, and death and evil.”  Joshua 24:15 “Choose ye this day whom you will serve.”

                John reminds us that the same choices are still much in vogue today.  Herschel Ford wrote: [The sinful man}

• Shuts the door on his highest possibilities.

• Puts himself in the way of others.

• Puts himself on the devil’s side.

• Insults God.

• Crucifies the Son of God afresh.

• Rejects testimony of greatest men.

• Seals his doom in hell forever.

Conclusion

                We must not, in our haste to get from the greatest verse to the greatest chapter, overlook what may be the greatest concept:  “He  must increase, and I must decrease.”  He must and I must also!  Self-subordination is vital to our faith.

                A line on the drug awareness program (C12 11/30/89) said it well.  “It’s painful to take inventory of the things you’ve done wrong.  It’s painful to change.”

(1) Colson, C. (1976). Born Again. Chosen Books.

(2) Sulllivan, J. (1965). John’s Witness to Jesus. Convention Press.

(3) Hobbs, H. (1988). The Gospel of John: Invitation to Life. Convention Press.

THE WITNESS AND HIS FAITH AND CONVICTIONS

#624                                      THE WITNESS AND HIS FAITH AND CONVICTIONS                                                             

Scripture  John 1:12                                                                                                                                                  2/11/1976

Passage: “As many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God.”

I.             Why We Have Come to Believe as We Do.

                Because of our enduring need.  (1) Someone said, “As many as received Him, to them gave He power to become sons of God”—we believe ourselves to be.  (2) What the whole world is looking for we have found: “Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”  (3) We came to despair in  the atonement of human worth; Ephesians 2:8 “For by grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God.”

                Because of the working out of the great promises from God.  (1) That God can accomplish great victories through us.  Psalm 37:5 “Commit thy way unto the Lord.  Trust also in Him, and He shall bring it to pass.”  2 Timothy 1:12 “I . . .am persuaded that He is able to keep what I have committed unto Him.”  (2) That Jesus is the only enduring hope for people such as we. Matthew 14—Peter walked on the water until he took his eyes off Jesus.  Hebrews 12:2—"Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith.”

II.            What We Need to Believe. 

• The deity of Christ. (1) Divine authority—“As the  Father hath sent Me, so send I you,” John 20:21.  (2) Virgin birth, “And the virgin’s name was Mary,” Luke 1:27. (3) The personification of God, “The express image of His person,” Hebrews 1:3.
• Salvation through the blood of Christ.  We will not be disappointed if God saves some other way. (1) Old Testament prophecies: “The chastisement of our peace was upon Him,” Isaiah 53:5.  (2) New Testament identification: “Who bare our sins in His own body,” I Peter 2:24. “Unto Him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in His own blood,” Revelations 1:5.
• That such salvation comes only by grace, without works. (1) “For by grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God,” Ephesians 2:8. (2) “Not by works of righteousness, which we have done,” Titus 3:5.
• Man’s sin nature, and his resultant lostness.  (1) Ephesians 2:3, “by nature the children of wrath.” (2) John 8:44, “Ye are of your father the devil.”  (3) Psalm 51:5, “In sin my mother conceived me.”      
• Inspiration of the Word.
• Obligation to witness.   
• Jesus’ return.    
• The Holy Spirit.

FOR THUS LOVED GOD

#117                                                                FOR THUS LOVED GOD                                                                                      

Scripture  John 3:16-19 NIV                                                                                                                      Orig. 11/22/1989

Passage: ¹⁶ For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. ¹⁷ For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. ¹⁸ Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. ¹⁹ This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.

Purpose:  Continuing a series from John, here declaring the manner of God’s love as revealed through Christ

Keywords:           Love of God                        Bible Study         Sin          Christ Redeemer              Love

Timeline/Series:               John     

Introduction

                It is hard to believe that the Houston astrodome has been in place for a quarter of a century.  Twenty-four years ago this month, Billy Graham preached the first evangelistic crusade in that 8^th wonder of the world.  He stood before a full house to preach the first sermon ever preached in a completely enclosed sports complex.  Somewhere around 50,000 people heard him.  Governor Connally of Texas was there.  Mayor Welch sat on the platform with other dignitaries.  Many prominent citizens of Houston and Texas were in that crowd of interested, or curious, people.

                Dr. Graham noted the importance of the occasion.  He summed it up succinctly when he said in his opening remarks:

                “I want to speak tonight as if this were the last sermon I will ever preach.  I want you to listen as though this were the last sermon you will ever hear, and well it might be.  None of us knows what a day may bring forth.”

                Then Mr. Graham told that assembled congregation that he was not there to entertain them.  He would not be bringing the latest words of the psychiatrist, or sociologist, or report of governmental officials.  And again, I quote, “I am here to open this Bible and tell you what God has to say about our daily life, our daily problems, and all the tremendous decisions we have to make in our complex society.”  With that, the evangelist opened his Bible, invited them to open theirs, and follow as he read John 3:16.

                The last sermon that I will ever preach, or that you will ever hear?  Probably not! But the test demands that we give it our fullest attention.

I.             “For Thus God Loves” Teaches Us the Origin of Love.  “For God so loved.”  The background, you remember, is Jesus in communion with a man named Nicodemus.  He was a religious man.  He was a righteous man; recall the lesson about the righteous king Josiah in 2 Kings 22.  He was an important man.

                But he was a disturbed man.  The teachings of Jesus had forewarned him of God’s expectations.  This interview leaves him in jeopardy of soul.  “You must be born again.”  V12 “I have spoken of earthly things . . . you have not believed.  When I speak of  heavenly things you cannot believe.”

                More, he was a man to whom Jesus revealed Himself: He who was talking to Nicodemus.  He is from God, is in Oneness with God.  He will return to this Union from which He has come:  Man sends no delegation ferreting out God’s true feelings; God reveals the apex of His love.

                The love that is described here is absolute and it is infinite.  It is the aorist tense.  It was perceived in eternity  past.  It was rendered in the only way that man in his finiteness could understand.  But God stayed with the original plan until it could be fulfilled.

                The One before Nicodemus  was that plan.  “Abraham rejoiced to see my day,” Joshua 8:56.  In Isaiah 6, Isaiah spoke of Jesus.  In John 12:41: “Isaiah said this because he saw Jesus’ glory, and spoke about him.”  In Daniel 3:25, Nebuchadnezzar said “I see four . . . and the fourth is like unto the Son of God.” 

                It should not surprise us to see Him suddenly come to light in Jerusalem. It should not startle anyone that His work continues.  God’s love is past, it is present, it is future.  Love is, because God is.  There is no other source.  Love in the context of sexual reproduction is not the same as brute passion.

II.            “For Thus God Loves” Teaches Us the Opportunity of Love. “For God so loved the world.”  The extent of that love is beyond reproach.  This text is thought by many to be the most important in the Bible.  It is called the “gospel in the gospel.”  Graham uses it “as if this were the last sermon” he would preach.

                The subject of this text is the love God has for the world.  V14 is a reference to the serpent on the pole, a parable of their guilt and their potential to faith.  Thus, Christ would be expressive of guilt and faith forever, for all.  John 3:14, “As Moses lifted up the serpent, so must the Son of Man be lifted up.”  It can be seen from  any point in the camp.  With eyes of faith, the cross can be seen from anywhere.  No place so filled with evil that God’s love cannot validate.  No person so reeking with sin that he cannot gain forgiveness.

                Someone explains this verse with terms of greatness.  It tells of

• The greatest person—God.
• The greatest feeling—love.
• The greatest mass—world.
• The greatest sacrifice—gave.
• The greatest gift—God’s son.
• The greatest invitation—whosoever.
• The greatest condition—believe.
• The greatest forgiveness—not perish.
• The greatest promise—eternal life.

                The extent of this opportunity can only be seen in its measure.  “That He gave His only begotten Son.”  He is the monogene.  In one sense, we are all the children of God.  Donald Grey Barnhouse (C25p53) said that Jesus is “the only one of His kind.”

• Unique in His origin
• Unique in His birth (without father)
• Unique in His being (Pilate: “I find no fault in Him”)
• Unique in His teaching (I am truth)
• Unique in His work
• Unique in His death

III.           “For Thus God Loves” Teaches Us the Order of Love.  “For God so loved the world that He gave.”  The essence of religion is stirred up by the reminder that to love is to give.

                This is not a stewardship sermon.  The last, and least important factor in giving, is of our material goods.  II  Corinthians 8:1f Macedonians out of “deep poverty abounded not the riches of their liberality . . . but first gave their own selves to the Lord.”  And the first example of sacrificial giving is occasioned at the cross.

                Though Jesus is Himself the Gift, He perceives the mind of God.  Not only does He agree to this, He offers Himself gladly.  Ephesians 5:2 “Christ also hath . . . given himself as an offering.” 

                His agreement is in the order of love. 

                Phileo—tender affection, see John 5:20.  

                Agapao—sacrificial love—John 3:35.  For the world: here.  Aorist—indicates no new thing.

                Murphey Terry tells about the Buddhist monks in Laos who requested help in study of scripture.  God across Mekong.  We know He’s there.  We don’t swim. No boat.  No bridge.  You see Jesus’ willingness is in knowing that He is the bridge. 

                If we, as Christians, perceive any other thing as of equal importance we have missed the heart of the gospel.  It speaks in relation to belief: Belief not limited to time, place; Belief that God is committed to; Belief that must yield personal response.

Conclusion

                Dr. Clyde Dodson spoke to the Foreign Mission Board some time ago and told of his arrival in Rhodesia as a missionary.  He found a people who had no Bible in their own language.  Impressed of the Lord to do so, he spent 38 years translating the scripture.  He told the story of those years of agonizing study.   Every Hebrew and Greek word was checked again and again.  He typed the whole Bible, every word, five times.  Dr. Dodson gave a copy of that Bible to Dr. Cauthen, President of the Foreign Mission Board, and then he quoted John 3:16, greatest verse.

                “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life.”

WHERE THE WIND BLOWS

#859                                                            WHERE THE WIND BLOWS                                                                                   

Scripture  John 3:1-15 NIV                                                                                                                                    11/15/1989

Passage: Now there was a Pharisee, a man named Nicodemus who was a member of the Jewish ruling council. ² He came to Jesus at night and said, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the signs you are doing if God were not with him.”

³ Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.^[a]”

⁴ “How can someone be born when they are old?” Nicodemus asked. “Surely they cannot enter a second time into their mother’s womb to be born!”

⁵ Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. ⁶ Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit^[b] gives birth to spirit. ⁷ You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You^[c] must be born again.’ ⁸ The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”^[d]

⁹ “How can this be?” Nicodemus asked.

¹⁰ “You are Israel’s teacher,” said Jesus, “and do you not understand these things? ¹¹ Very truly I tell you, we speak of what we know, and we testify to what we have seen, but still you people do not accept our testimony. ¹² I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things? ¹³ No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven—the Son of Man.^[e] 14 Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up,^[f] 15 that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.”^[g]

Purpose: Continuing a series from John’s Gospel, here describing the action of the Holy Spirit in personalizing the experience of the new birth.  

Keywords:           Bible Study         New Birth            Christ as Saviour               Holy Spirit

Timeline/Series:               Gospel of John

Introduction

                One thing was clear from the start, the limit past which this message could not go.  Clearly, a message from 3:16 must grace such a series, therefore I could go no further than verse 15.  But, even at that, there is so much to cover.  There is the man, Nicodemus, the impact of the Holy Spirit on the proceedings, the requirement of an  experience called the “new birth,” and lastly, a means toward that end likening it to an Old Testament event when a brass serpent, placed on a pole and elevated before the Hebrew people (Numbers 21) brought deliverance from danger.

                There is, for all that, but a solitary subject here. Jesus encounters a Hebrew religious leader genuinely concerned about the kingdom of God.  Jesus deals with the subject of the new birth as the need of every person.  F.B. Meyer advises us as to the seriousness of this contention.

                “When Christ says must, it is time to wake up.  He is so gentle, winsome, tender.  He is always persuading, inviting, entreating. He so seldom uses the imperative mood.  When, therefore, He speaks thus it becomes us to inquire into the matter on which He insists so earnestly.”

                While we are today seeking to fathom the physical birth, Jesus declares as of greatest importance, the spiritual birth.  We are making our opinions known about abortion, defining ourselves as either pro-life, or pro-choice, we take our stand.  And scientists are attacking the presidential position that disallows the use of the tissue of aborted babies for federally financed research.  But you, and I, and they, and he and she, MUST BE BORN AGAIN.

I.             The Blowing Wind Begins with a Compliment.  V2 “Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God; for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him.”

                A linking word:  The compliment comes from one named Nicodemus, “a ruler of the Jews,”  a Pharisee, probably of the Sanhedrin; committed to scrupulous observance of Old Testament law (v10); he will be referred to as “teacher.”  John ended chapter 2 with an insightful word about Jesus.  “He knew what was in man.”  Suddenly, one appears, known to Jesus.

                We must speculate as to his reasons for coming to Jesus.  John 1:19, “The Jews sent priests and Levites from Jeremiah to ask ‘who art thou?’”  He comes representing them, or on his own for certification; or, because he wanted to hear for himself.

                This is not a man with a noxious spirit.  This man is a seeker, and Jesus is whom he is seeking.  Are you one of those sad people who will learn only from those who know YOU know, and hence learn nothing?

                His reasons for coming “by night” are likewise constructive.  Rabbis taught best study at night.  Could have been arranged by Jesus; didn’t want this time to be hassled. 

                I know none closer to the kingdom than those who hold Jesus in high esteem.

II.            The Blowing Wind Next Comes in the Form of a Command.  V3 “Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the Kingdom of God.”

                The clamor for human rights is the voice of the throng today.  It failed in Tiananmen Square last summer.  But the signs of success grace the world: Hungary, Poland assert their rights; ethnic tribes of people under Communism are speaking out; the Wall has come tumbling down; Li Phong (Chinese patriot) this week received the RFK Human Rights Award.

                When you celebrate Thanksgiving Thursday, will a grateful heart grace your home?

                In this statement of Jesus to Nicodemus is expressed the greatest of human rights: that God, in Christ, has come to save.  But it is not our right to choose the means of that salvation.  Unless one come to God as God decrees, he shall not come at all.  Jesus attests to man’s re-birth. Nicodemus is confused: re-born from beginning; or, a second time; or, from above. 

                His presence here asserts that being born a Jew was not enough.  Remember Paul’s attestation in Philippians 3:4f “a Hebrew [born] of Hebrews . . . (Philippians 3:7) what  things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ.”  John described this (Matthew 3:9) of the religious “generation of vipers” saying “we have Abraham to our father.”

                Jesus does us all the kindness here to make it plain that a new birth is required.  It is not church membership, or Nicodemus would not be here.  It is  not moral excellence, or Nicodemus would not be here.  It is not birth fortune, or Nicodemus would not be here.  It is not religious heritage, or Nicodemus would not be here.  It is a sinner, by any name, facing up to his sin, and passionately turning to God to erase the guilt of  his burden.

III.           Now, the Blowing Wind Surges Forth with a Comparison.  V6 “That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of spirit is spirit.” Nicodemus’ mistake has been an inability to separate who and what he is.  Up to now, being a Jew covered both.  What he heard of and from Jesus unsettled all of that.  It should as well be unsettling to all of us.  V7 “Ye must be born again.”

                Jesus shows us that in the comparison, the salvation birth is a non-fleshly one. 

• It is of the Holy Spirit. V8 “The wind bloweth where it listeth.” 
• It is required.  V7 “Ye must.”
• It is of human volition. V15 “whosoever believeth in Him.”
• It is a miracle of God.  V8 “so is everyone born of the Spirit.”  Blowing wind cannot be prearranged.  It is fraught with danger, unpredictable.  Invisible itself, its impact is seen. 
• It is of sovereign will. 
• Its passing clears away litter.  James Stewart: “When the winds of the Spirit begin to blow, they may blow up some trash, but we must remember, the wind is not the trash, and the trash is not the wind.”
• It declares its presence by familial manifestations.  With physical birth there are genetic characteristics.  Even so with spiritual birth.  Rev. E.V. Hill, civil rights leader and pastor of Mount Zion Missionary Baptist in Los Angeles, “We are not brothers [if] we do not have the same Father.”

IV.          The Blowing Wind Concludes with Compassion.  V14f “. . . so must the Son of man be lifted up: That whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.”

                Jesus describes this as an arrangement of God.  Man, by his will, could never have reached God.  God has reached down to us.  V13 “He came down from heaven.”

                Jesus pictures himself as God in the flesh.  He shows Himself alive with Nicodemus.  He declares Himself to be in eternity. 

                The illustration used is an Old Testament event.  Numbers 21:8,9 tells the story of the murmurings of Israel, of self-affliction.  The antidote fit the offense; a bronze serpent raised before the people.  All they had to do was lift the level of their vision to the antidote. V14 “So must the Son of man be lifted.”  Our murmurings of sin have afflicted us with death, but when the vision is lifted to the cross, there is forgiveness. In Jesus, the old life becomes new.  In Jesus, God’s mercy heals ravages.  In Jesus, grace transforms death to life.

                Isaiah 45:22 “Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth, for I am God.”

MY FATHER’S HOUSE

#609                                                                 MY FATHER’S HOUSE                                                                                        

Scripture  John 2:13-25, NIV                                                                                                                     Orig. 10/20/1989

Passage: ¹³ When it was almost time for the Jewish Passover, Jesus went up to Jerusalem. ¹⁴ In the temple courts he found people selling cattle, sheep and doves, and others sitting at tables exchanging money. ¹⁵ So he made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple courts, both sheep and cattle; he scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. ¹⁶ To those who sold doves he said, “Get these out of here! Stop turning my Father’s house into a market!” ¹⁷ His disciples remembered that it is written: “Zeal for your house will consume me.”^{[a] 18} The Jews then responded to him, “What sign can you show us to prove your authority to do all this?” ¹⁹ Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.”

²⁰ They replied, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and you are going to raise it in three days?” ²¹ But the temple he had spoken of was his body. ²² After he was raised from the dead, his disciples recalled what he had said. Then they believed the scripture and the words that Jesus had spoken.

²³ Now while he was in Jerusalem at the Passover Festival, many people saw the signs he was performing and believed in his name.^[b] 24 But Jesus would not entrust himself to them, for he knew all people. ²⁵ He did not need any testimony about mankind, for he knew what was in each person.

Purpose: Leading a sermon from John’s gospel here pointing out variances in understanding relative to worship

Keywords:           Christ as Teacher                              Worship              

Timeline/Series:               John, Series

Introduction

                It is relatively easy to form opinions in regard to worship.  We know what it takes to formulate the worship experience.  We know that preaching is involved, and music.  We share in spoken prayers, and a minimal measure of ritual.  We accept a certain amount of form in the order of service (i.e. the morning offering is scheduled before the choir anthem.)  When the service is over, we leave with a sense of emptiness or of fullness as to the way we think things have gone.

                The sermon may have been second rate.  There may have been problems with the music.  The praying may have been too long or too short.  There may have been some distraction or the other with the flow of the service.  We go home disgruntled because some external circumstance denied us the real worship experience.  We blame someone or something for the failure.

                Does my spirit of worship wait upon what others do?  Or is it a quietly personal matter, affected by nothing outside of myself?  My dictionary defines worship “An act or feeling of adoration or homage.”  The Bible seems to agree with  this.   

“God is spirit, and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth.” John 4:23

“Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns, and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord.”  Ephesians 5:19           

                That tends to leave out other factors than ourselves.  Worship is from within, determined in its entirety by our own attitude.

I.             Jesus Does Describe the Temple of Worship.  V15 “He drove them all out of the temple . . . and said unto them . . . ‘take these things hence and make not my house a house of merchandise.’”

                It emphasizes commitment over convenience.  Accessibility has a way of rationalizing need.  Other things are more demanding.  Other things are more pleasure-prone.  Compromise lessens requirements.  Jews compromise requirements of law.  A) “without”  B) 2 dozen verses.  We compromise, not the requirement of Law, but the expectation of grace.  Why do you worship the way you do?  Is it rationalizing of convenience? Or the realizing of commitment?

                It emphasizes self-sacrifice instead of self-seeking.  As their spiritual awareness deteriorated, they sought short-cuts to form. They wanted to spend less time.  They insisted upon fewer demands upon themselves.  A market for sacrificial animals in the temple enclosure was a god-send.

                Remember how it went in the old days?  Sermons went on and on, sometimes there was more than one.  Sunday School changed it some, then BYPU was added, and evening service.  We chose TV over Church Time.  Decided in favor of Turner Broadcasting over the local church.  The good thing about tv preaching is we can end it to suit us.

                How much real self-sacrifice is there when you come to church on Sunday a.m.?

                The third thing suggested by Jesus here is the emphasis on inclusion rather than exclusion.  The temple area was the Jews’ Holy Place.  Jewish men only involved in temple exercises.  But there were courts (women, gentile) within the enclosure.  The Court of Gentiles was the area being used as a market.

                God’s original intent for Israel was to these people.  Exodus 19:4f “. . . all the earth is mine and you shall  be a kingdom of priests.”  Isaiah 42:6 “I the Lord . . . will . . . give thee for a covenant of the people for a light of the gentiles.”

                The intent of the Holy  Spirit of God wherever we find it is to bring a needy world to God.  I was interested in the article last week defining the Westminster congregation.  “The main purpose is inclusion rather than exclusion.”—Craig Henry.

                And Jesus appeals for relationship over ritual.  Ritual is not ruled out here.  The practice of religious organization without relationship to God is an abomination.  Many of the ills that have beset a dissolute society over the centuries  has been in the name of a godless religion.

II.            Jesus Goes One Step Further to Describe the Temple of His Own Body.  V19 “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.”  If your Bible is red-lettered you will note there are thirteen verses here.  In only two does Christ speak: To describe the temple of worship and to describe the temple of His body, which, by the way, defines the nature of your body also.  I Corinthians 6:19: “What! Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in  you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?” 

                The Jews raise the question by asking Jesus what His authority is.  By what sign?  It’s the same word John uses to describe Jesus’ works. (2:11)  They want to know what His authority is.  He defines it in terms  of resurrection.  They presumed His allusion was to the temple for it stood in God’s place.  It had taken 46 years to build, how could He replace it in 3 days?  If you understand it,  you do so from a favored advantage.  “When He was risen (v 22) His disciples remembered.”

                We need to be aware that there are two words for temple, both used here.  Jesus: naos (Holy of Holies, sacred center); Jews: hieron (entirety). V 15. They stood in the place defying God’s presence with them, but could not recognize the divine Word Himself.  We come to church because it marks God’s place in our lives.  We understand as little of His real presence as Jews, disciples.  We exit the place content to leave God where He was not found.

                The important lesson relates to this understanding  of Jesus, and of ourselves.  II Corinthians 6:16 “. . . for ye are the temple of the living God; . . . (I) will be a Father to you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters.”  Do you leave this place each Sunday with that sense of WHO  you are?  You can’t know that answer until you know WHO HE IS.  If you leave empty, it may be because you came to leave empty?  You blame it on what the preacher or Sunday School teacher said.  Or didn’t say.  Or the way it was said. 

                Or, bless God, you came to experience God’s presence, and, praise His name, every word spoken here touched a vital chord in your soul.  In the temple, His temple addressed your temple, and you are the better for it.  You make it a regular part of  your life because you need it.  Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night.  Revival speakers.  Because I have friends, relatives, neighbors who are lost.  Because I want to learn commitment over  convenience, self-sacrifice over self-seeking, inclusion rather than exclusion, and relationship over ritual.

Conclusion

                F.B. Meyer said it well: “Jesus spoke of the TEMPLE of His Body and if He was so zealous for His FATHER'S HOUSE that He drove out the unholy traffickers, and refused to allow a vessel to be carried through the courts, should we not be equally careful, we who are His FATHER'S HOUSE? We are the custodians of the DIVINE RESIDENCE, so let us be very careful that there be nothing to offend or trouble the Celestial Guest." 

                Long ago, England had a great, good Queen by the name of Victoria.  The royal chaplain was preaching on duty on the “Coming of Jesus.”  Those present saw their earthly Sovereign moved that day as they had never seen her before.  Later the Chaplain asked this gracious Christian lady what in particular had moved her.  She answered, “Because the Lord of Lords is coming, and I wish I could be here when Jesus comes, so that I might remove my crown and lay it at His feet.”

BEHOLD THE LAMB

#227a                                                                 BEHOLD THE LAMB                                                                                          

Scripture  John 1:29-34                                                                                                                                 Orig. 10/4/1989

Passage: 29 The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! 30 This is the one I meant when I said, ‘A man who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.’ 31 I myself did not know him, but the reason I came baptizing with water was that he might be revealed to Israel.”

32 Then John gave this testimony: “I saw the Spirit come down from heaven as a dove and remain on him. 33 And I myself did not know him, but the one who sent me to baptize with water told me, ‘The man on whom you see the Spirit come down and remain is the one who will baptize with the Holy Spirit.’ 34 I have seen and I testify that this is God’s Chosen One.”[a]

Purpose: Continuing a series from John’s Gospel, here declaring the Lamb, and the disordered world that needs His stability.

Keywords:            Christ as Saviour                              Salvation

Timeline/Series:               John Series                         Bible Study

Introduction

                In the years of our lives, we have watched our world become fatally, almost hopelessly entangled against itself.  Our world is more conscious of individual human rights than any world ever to exist.  But this world of ours is not a safer world.  The creation of such rights, born singularly of the gospel of Jesus, has usurped the “oughts" of our moral dilemma.

                We are reminded how far apart the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights is from our own Declaration of Independence. (B74p118).  Carl Henry reminds us that the UN Declaration is preoccupied with human rights, and neglects an emphasis on human responsibilities.  It has no voice, and apparently no stomach, for a divine source and a divine sanction of man’s freedom in society.  The Declaration of Independence, however, proclaims human equality, declaring all “created equal.”  But it takes a hallowed step further.  It reminds us that we are “endowed by our creator” with those “inalienable rights.” 

                If you care to know what makes the difference in these two documents,  you will find the answer opposite the line  on the Order of Service that says “sermon.”  “Behold the Lamb!!”

                The early church was aflame with a passion for Jesus.  We know today what the church ought to be because they are our role model.  The church of the 16th and 17th centuries, out of which American democracy was born, was also aflame with this passion for the Lamb.  What message are you leaving, are we leaving for the generations of the unborn?  Are you part of the problem, or part of the solution?

                “Behold the Lamb!”

I.             A View of the Voice.  V29 “John saith, . . . Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.”  John 12:21 “We would see Jesus” read the inscription at a former pastorate.  Even the most casual view of these six verses must take John into account.  It was he who declared himself to be the voice.  It was he who down-played himself so that the Master would be magnified.  John 3:30, “He must increase, but I must decrease.”  It was he who would view all men as in sin, and in need of the gospel.  It was he who saw Jesus as the timeless One. John 1:30 “Preferred before me, for He was before me.”  It was he who would give no man a preferential place with God.  The Jew would be treated exactly as the Gentile in matters of the Spirit.

                It is this man, John the Baptist, that John the Apostle describes as the true messenger.  The fact that he was a kinsman of Jesus does not enter into this at all.  V31 “I knew Him not.”  Perhaps they were strangers.  Perhaps separated since childhood.  Perhaps in the heat of spirit-control Jesus was unrecognized. 

                But now, the messenger must come to grips with his message.  The  Holy Spirit points Him out.  V33.  The message already preached requiring personal response is related to the Lamb.  A formidable picture.  Some tests suggest John could see sheepmen taking lambs to be used in sacrifice.  2:13, the Passover is at hand.

                He now, seeing Jesus for himself, calls on others to see Him.  “Behold the Lamb of God.”  Remember Simeon, “My eyes have seen your salvation.”  Uniquely, the sacrifice.  “Lamb” refers to provisioning.  And His sacrifice relates to man’s sin as no other can.

                Going beyond our text, we see John lead his own disciples to Jesus.  He won them to himself.  With approbation, he points them to Jesus. See 35-37.  “Behold!” v36.  Remember Paul’s admonition to the church at Corinth.  2 Corinthians 4:5. “We preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord.”

II.            A View of the Void.  “Behold the Lamb . . . which taketh away the sin of the world.”  The void is the present generation.  Ours is a day of internal discord.  There is more to do with than ever before. V23 Wilderness.  We have  more time than any other people.  But there is minimal concern for the lostness of humanity.

                The media hypes the void for its entertainment value.  There is the void of homelessness.  The void of aging in America.  The void brought on by a bludgeoning drug war:  Many are haters of drug traffickers; their refrigerators are never empty of booze.  The void of sexual license that is opting for the murder of babies which ultimately becomes abuse of survivors.

                Has it not occurred to you that our present distress is directly attributable to the compromise of religious values?  The lack of faith is becoming a vocal unfaith.  In response to this polarizing unfaith is a militant Christian action concept.  Other non-Christian religions are more determined than ever for their voices to be heard.  Religious wars are presently underway in Lebanon, Afghanistan, Northern Ireland.  Communism’s “openness” approach may be a wait-and-see attitude for these present crises (drugs, sex) to overwhelm us.

III.           Finally, and I Use the Word with Great Deliberation, a View of the Victim.  V34 “And I saw, and bear record, that this is the Son of God.”  In this expressive chapter are eleven names by which He is called

• Word, v1

• Life, v4

• Light, v7

• The only begotten of the Father, v14

• Jesus Christ, v17

• Lamb of God, v29

• Son of God, v34

• Master, v38

• Messiah, v41

• Jesus of Nazareth, v45

• King of Israel, v49

He added one more, his own favorite designation of himself, Son of Man, v51.  A term used significantly by Daniel. 7:1 a man, but of heavenly cast.  A man identified with God’s people.

                Put aside all other names to concentrate  on Jesus, the Lamb: victim. 

                Victim in that this is the sinless Jesus:  The Jews brought lambs “without blemish.”  The greatness of man’s sin called for the greatest of sacrifice.  God’s integrity is such that sin must be dealt as is due.  Hebrews 10:12 “But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God.”

                Victim in that He has come to redeem.  “. . . the lamb of God that taketh away sin.” Years ago, Rhonda spilled oatmeal she couldn’t put back.  Kevin accidentally destroyed tomatoes and they couldn’t be fixed.  A teenager provided drugs that cost his brother’s life.  A Costa Rican farmer used slash and burn attack on  his rain forest: within two years erosion made it unusable.  Whether we think of wrongs as sin or indiscretion, we can’t fix them.

                Victim in that from His death comes my life, your life.  “The lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world.”  John advises his own two disciples to “behold” the son V35, 36.  They hear the Word after they have heard the voice v37a.  They come to personal belief v37b.  (John’s assurance doesn’t count.)  They become followers of Jesus v39.  “They abode with him.”  (Greek meno persevere, steadfast)

Conclusion

What of the night, O watchman? Turn to the East thine eyes;

And say is there any token of the dawning in the skies?   

Or do the shadows linger, the lips, are they sad and dumb

With never a word of gladness that the tarrying morn is come?

Then answered the patient watchman from the mountain’s lonely height,

To the waiting souls in the valley, I can see the breaking light!

There’s a glow on the far horizon that is growing more wide and clear;

And soon shall the sun be flinging His splendours both far and near!

What of the night, O Watchman?  Rises to Thee our cry.

Prophet divine of Nazareth, make to our hearts reply.

Over the earth’s wild warfare comes not a time more fair?

Swords into ploughshares beaten? Peace reigning everywhere?

Wait, saith the heavenly Watchman; let not the spirit quail.

Strife shall not be eternal; harmony shall prevail.

Battle-clouds all shall scatter; hatred shall be outcast.

Love’s ever-broadening glory break o’er the world at last!

                                                                                                                                                                        Quoted by J Sidlow Baxter

THE RECORD OF JOHN THE BAPTIST

#856                                                   THE RECORD OF JOHN THE BAPTIST                                                                          

Scripture  John 1:19-34                                                                                                                      Orig. Date 9/29/1989

                                                                                                                                                                          Rewr. Dates none

Passage: ¹⁹ Now this was John’s testimony when the Jewish leaders^[a] in Jerusalem sent priests and Levites to ask him who he was. ²⁰ He did not fail to confess, but confessed freely, “I am not the Messiah.” ²¹ They asked him, “Then who are you? Are you Elijah?” He said, “I am not.”  “Are you the Prophet?” He answered, “No.”

²² Finally they said, “Who are you? Give us an answer to take back to those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?” ²³ John replied in the words of Isaiah the prophet, “I am the voice of one calling in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way for the Lord.’”^[b]

²⁴ Now the Pharisees who had been sent ²⁵ questioned him, “Why then do you baptize if you are not the Messiah, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?” ²⁶ “I baptize with^[c] water,” John replied, “but among you stands one you do not know. ²⁷ He is the one who comes after me, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie.”

²⁸ This all happened at Bethany on the other side of the Jordan, where John was baptizing.

John Testifies About Jesus

²⁹ The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! ³⁰ This is the one I meant when I said, ‘A man who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.’ ³¹ I myself did not know him, but the reason I came baptizing with water was that he might be revealed to Israel.”

³² Then John gave this testimony: “I saw the Spirit come down from heaven as a dove and remain on him. ³³ And I myself did not know him, but the one who sent me to baptize with water told me, ‘The man on whom you see the Spirit come down and remain is the one who will baptize with the Holy Spirit.’ ³⁴ I have seen and I testify that this is God’s Chosen One.”^[d

Purpose: In a series from the gospel, here showing John the Baptist in his role of harbinger of the gospel.

Keywords:  Bible Study of John                   Biography of John the Baptist

Timeline/Series:               John

Introduction

                To include the  word “record” in the title may be a mistake.  People begin to think of things far removed from the gospel.  The teenager drifts away to the pop-charts, and the latest ear-splitting music.  But “records” in this sense are on their way out.  The next generation, if there is one, will be giving over to music video, and, believe me it will be no blessing.

                To the sports buff, young and not-so-young “record” suggests manly feat, or womanly.  That’s f-e-a-t.  The record for f-e-e-t may be right here in Bernice.

                But the record of which I speak this morning is that attested of John the Apostle in regard to John the Baptist.  He is noteworthy for many things, his [heritage], his life, his dedication, his message, but mostly for his announcement of the Messiah.

                Some of our folks mentioned to me recently that they had been to Little Rock to the Billy Graham Crusade.  Billy Graham has been for forty years the leading proponent of the gospel in the world.  That’s a record worth talking about.  John the Baptist was cast into that role as well.

                W.O. Vaught tells about a prior Little Rock Crusade back in the fifties.  He was sent with a committee from the ministerial association to Fort Worth to check out Mr. Graham.  And, he said, though they brought back a glowing report of Graham’s message and manner, twenty-three of his ministerial colleagues signed a petition saying in effect, “this is not the kind of man we need in Little Rock.”  John the Baptist had his critics also, but they will get very little of our attention this morning. 

I.             What We Know about John  1:19 “This is the record of John.”  First, about his life.  Son of a priest, Zacharias, and wife Elizabeth, also of priestly family.  As they were much older at his birth, he is thought to have been reared by the Essenes.  Luke 1:80: “was in the deserts until the day  of his showing to Israel.”  The name given to Zacharias from Gabriel means “Yahweh gives grace.” 

                Second, his message.  This is the real record of John.  He declared (a) the coming kingdom (Matthew 3:2); (b) repentance (Luke 3:3); (c) a change of life (Luke 3:8-11); and (d) baptism.  If that sounds up-to-date gospel, I assure you it is more than coincidental.

II.            What We Need  to Know.  1:19 “Who art Thou?”  The religious leaders sent a committee to explore this man’s credentials.  Like the committee from Little Rock.  These were religious professionals checking on a preacher drawing crowds.

                Some have said Zacharias was High Priest.  They surely knew he was descendant of Aaron, Levi.  But [John the Baptist] wasn’t acting typical. Three parallels are put forth. Vs 20 and 21: “Messiah, Elijah, that prophet,” all of  which John denies.  He is certainly  not the “anointed.”  He may have ways like Elijah of old, but “No!”  Nor is he “that prophet.”  Ref. Deuteronomy 18:15, “The Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet from the midst of thee.”

                These men, however, seem to me like men intimidated.  They were accountable.  They must report.  There is a question about this strange act called “baptism.”  Water has always been the cleanser.  At Sinai (Exodus 19:10) “wash garments.”  Exodus 29:4: Priests had to bathe to minister.  To John, parable of inner cleansing. 

                They then asked John what they could report to their superiors.  V22 “What sayest thou thyself?”  He is a “voice” (Jeremiah 15:19).  Lockyer says “Not the Light, but sent to bear witness of it, not the Sun but the star that announces the dawn, and wanes in its growing Light; not the Bridegroom, but the Bridegroom’s friend;  not the Shepherd, but the porter to open the door into the fold.” (John 3:29.)

                Someone else writes about John “The Greatest Man Who Ever Took Second Place.”  Isaiah (40:1f) was instructed to “cry unto Jerusalem.” Luke 7:28, Matthew 23:39.  Virtually every prophet understood. The message must be greater than the man.  The ANOINTED “was the Word,” he was no more than a “voice” delivering it.

                John tells us what else he is.  He is a “baptizer.”  The priests were angry that  he baptized Jews.  It was a reflection. It was okay to baptize gentiles, pagans, it revealed baseness.  But the Jews were the “people of God.”  They needed no such self-effacement.  Indeed, it was heresy.

                Hear me this morning, if your baptism was anything less than that described  here, it was worthless.  A baptism of repentance is introduction into the Kingdom of God; it is trusting Christ, God’s Son, the Saviour, to save; it is new birth. 

                He deals with this next. One is among them (1:26) who will baptize in a way John cannot.

                Next week we will “Behold the Lamb!”  It is man’s (generic) sin.  Christ expunges it.

                John is “revealer.”  John points to the incarnation: “There standeth one among you.”  Was He in the crowd that day?  It seems so.  John would surely have recognized Him as they were cousins. Luke 1:36.  Is he only reminding them that One like them has come from God?

                There is yet another lesson that we need to learn from this man, John the baptizer.  “He is coming after me.  He is preferred before me.  I am not worthy to be His body slave, unloosing His sandals and washing His feet.”  “I am nobody,” he says, “I am a voice telling you to get ready.”  We are not ready, without an appropriate dose of humility. 

                Pridefulness, haughtiness is a stench in God’s nostrils.  There was a rabbinic saying (G47p62) that a disciple might do anything for his master that a slave would do except unloose  his shoes.  John says that there are NO exceptions.

                The King  is coming.  Get ready. [Know] the gist of John’s life, the glory of his message, and the gamble of his faith—and of yours and mine.

                Finally, noting where all this took place.  “These things were done in Bethabara.”  Word meaning “place of the passing.”  But the Greek is “Bethany.”  (Not of Mary and Martha.)  Early scholar (Origen) changed to Bethabara because he found such a place.  The Old Testament “Gilgal” (Joshua 4:1f) word for “passing” used repeatedly.  The link is a forced one.

Conclusion

                It is interesting that some of the same imagery used in Isaiah 40 to describe the need to prepare for the Lord’s coming, “making straight in the desert a highway for our God,” is used also in Isaiah 45 of the coming of Cyrus as the instrument of God to restore the fortunes of God’s people Israel.  Make sure that you are prepared for the coming of God’s Son rather than the pagan prince.

GOD IN MAN’S IMAGE

#181                                                                GOD IN MAN’S IMAGE                                                                                       

Scripture  John 1:1-18 NIV                                                                                                                 Orig. Date 2/27/1963

                                                                                                                                                                 Rewr. Dates 9/20/1989

Passage: 1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ² He was with God in the beginning. ³ Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. ⁴ In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. ⁵ The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome^[a] it.

⁶ There was a man sent from God whose name was John. ⁷ He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all might believe. ⁸ He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light.

⁹ The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. ¹⁰ He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. ¹¹ He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. ¹² Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— ¹³ children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.

¹⁴ The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

¹⁵ (John testified concerning him. He cried out, saying, “This is the one I spoke about when I said, ‘He who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.’”) ¹⁶ Out of his fullness we have all received grace in place of grace already given. ¹⁷ For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. ¹⁸ No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and^[b] is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known.

Purpose: Beginning a series from John’s Gospel, here teaching of God’s revelation of Himself in the form of a man.

Keywords:  Bible Study, John       Humanity of God              Christ as Man                     Incarnation                         Revival

Timeline/Series:               Gospel of John 

Introduction

                A little six-year-old was going to her first Sunday School Christmas party.  Her mother wanted it to be a special time for her so she tried to explain in more detail the meaning of Christmas, and of the birth of Jesus.  She explained that Christmas was Jesus’ birthday, and that she and the other children would be helping to celebrate the happy day. 

                She had on a new dress and shoes, and her  mother gave her money to give for the class mission gift.   Well, the little girl was unduly impressed and excited about what lay ahead.  Her ride picked her up and off she went.  When  she returned home a few hours later, her mother asked her about the party.  She replied, “It was a nice party, and we had a good time, but Jesus never showed up.”

                The essence of the incarnation is that Jesus did show up.  There may be people about who cast aspersions in regard to who He was, but everybody knows He was here.  John describes His coming in a special way.  The Book of Genesis opens with “man created in the image of God.” (Lockyer)

                Five things are shared this  morning of “God in Man’s Image.”

1. God in Man’s Image is Unfolded.
2. God in Man’s Image is Unfathomed.
3. God in Man’s Image is Unfeigned.
4. God in Man’s Image is Unfettered.
5. God in Man’s Image is Unfinished

I.             God in Man’s Image is Unfolded.  V1 “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”  He is called the Word.  It is logos, sublime principle (Plato).  In Hebrew, “word, principle” of God.  John gives this “logos” personality.  Gospels accord different genealogical contexts.  Matthew—Abraham; Luke—Adam; John—prior.  Genesis 1:1 “In the beginning God.”

                The final phrase has no definite article with “God,” placing emphasis on  the deity of Christ.  Not a reference to Father God.  Not the concreteness of all God is.  One has come revealing God.  The limitations are ours not His.

                He is called the light. V5, v9.  All of life hangs in the sun’s balance: When it burns out, when its shield is destroyed, should man’s self-exposure cause warfare.  The incarnate one is that spiritual presence. In Him was life light. 

                That light is the essence of good.  John goes on in v17 to name Him Jesus Christ.  Lest there be some doubt in reference, It is noteworthy that John shares an intimacy with Christ seen in no other.  He unfolds as Christ UNFOLDS.

II.            God in Man’s Image is Unfathomed.  V5 “And the light shineth in the darkness and the darkness comprehended it not.”  There is a second way to interpret this.  Clearly, darkness doesn’t “comprehend” light.  It doesn’t try to, or want to.  It can’t.  More correctly, however, is that this darkness can’t expel, overcome, light.

                It is in such darkness that God has made Himself known.  In the perfection of this Light: Jesus. Malachi 4:2 “But unto you that fear my name shall the sun of Righteousness arise.” 

                But believers of every age are to be brought into the process.  John the apostle tells his story.  John the baptizer (v8) sent to “bear witness to the light.”  “He was not that light.”  Some of our contemporaries forgot that they were dispensable. A Bernice pastor (myself) needs to remember, and FBC members, teachers, deacons.

III.           God in Man’s Image is Unfeigned. (Genuine)  V9 “That was the true light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.” 

                The early church struggled with concepts and suggested “adoption.”  They borrowed from Peter (Acts 2:36) “Let all the House of Israel know, that God hath made . . . this Jesus . . . both Lord and Christ.”  Paul  helped with this also.  Romans 1:3f “and declared to be the Son of God with power.”  They borrowed from Luke borrowing from Psalms (Acts 13:33) “You are my son, today I have begotten  you.”  But we must know now that Jesus was not the adopted son of God.

                Then scholars came up with a concept called “kenosis:” emptying.  Philippians 2:7 “Made Himself of no reputation, but Himself emptied, the form of a slave taking.”  That means surrendering His deity.  Kenosis begins above: God became man.  Adoption begins below: man became God.

                A third, a travesty, called “docetism.”  It means “to seem.”  He seemed to be  God.  No, they claimed deity, humanity.  Too many of us act like we believe less.  That He only seems to be God, so we are less than accountable.  He is genuine, are we?  Docetism was part of the Gnostic error.

                 All three of the above are in error.  He was not adopted, He is the Son.  He did not “surrender” His deity, we have been visited by God.  (See 1:10-11). He was ever so much more than one “who seemed” whether to be divine or human.  I John 1:1 “That which was from the beginning, that which we have heard, that which we have seen with our eyes . . . and our  hands have handled of the word of life.”  The INCARNATE CHRIST, GOD come in flesh.

IV.          God in Man’s Image is Unfettered.  V12 “But as many as received him, to them gave he the power to become the sons of God.” He was pre-existent, unfettered by coming into the world.  “He was in the world” says v10.  The world came to Him.  John often used “world” for humanity consciously against God.  “He came (also) to his own, (the Jews), and they refused.”  But those who would look on Him in faith became God’s people.

                But none were unaffected by His being. In that sense He is called Light.  Everyone in this room is equally affected by the light that is here.  For some it must be enhanced.  For all it must be acknowledged.  We are, of course, free to deny it, falling all over each other.  But the problem is not with the light, but with us.

V.            Finally, God in Man’s Image is Unfinished.  V18 “No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him.”  Thus, Christ appears for the purpose of touching our lives:  All who, prior to His appearance, believed that God was such a God;  all who, hearing of Him,  open eyes of faith to His light;  all who believe in such a God as this though their culture has denied them knowledge of Jesus.  I have no proof-text for this.  I will continue to preach that people need Christ.  [It is] one of heaven’s surprises.

                Christ came to touch lives [and enable] those touched by Him to touch other lives. John tells of One in the “bosom” of the Father.  13:23 tells of this disciple leaning on the “bosom” of Jesus. 

                The starting place for meaningful faith is such intimacy with Jesus.  When we really care about others around, we continue the incarnation.

                God in man’s image is great, good news.