The God who provides

 

John 6:12-14

Jehovah-jireh 

The God who provides

This year, for lack of a better term, has sucked. I know I’m not supposed to say that. I know that offended some of you and for that I apologize. However, if you can thank for a less offensive more accurate word to describe 2020 please let me know and we’ll get Todd to dub that one in or something on the rebroadcast.

I don’t have to get into it because the news and social media has that incredibly well covered and then some. There’s a couple of sayings in my house, “More responsibilities = more privileges”, “If you say you are going to do it then do it”, “ Fear makes bad decisions.”

I’d say the majority of our decision making in the last 6 months has been fear based. Now if you just thought “Yes! That is what the people who disagree with me are doing!” Then congratulations your part of the problem. Whether you are for masks or against them, you want to open everything back up at once, or want to shut everything down, left or right, liberal or conservative. Fear has been driving us.

Every news article, every campaign ad, has been about making a fear based response. Fear about what happens if we open, fear about what happens if we don’t. Vote for me because if the other side gets elected, “They are going to kill you!”

Fear is what takes root in our heart when we make a god out of comfort and safety. When we forget where our provision actually comes from. Tonights message is entitled Jehova-Jireh, The God who provides.

 

So when they were filled, He said to His disciples, “Gather up the fragments that remain, so that nothing is lost.” ¹³ Therefore they gathered them up, and filled twelve baskets with the fragments of the five barley loaves which were left over by those who had eaten. ¹⁴ Then those men, when they had seen the sign that Jesus did, said, “This is truly the Prophet who is to come into the world.”

I told you there would be at least two sermons out of this! There’s just to much gold here to only dig once. Last time Jesus fed the 5000! Which we discussed by the time you factored in for women and children it was around 10-15k! Enough people to fill Charlotte Motor Speedway. This is a tremendous miracle. In fact, this is the only story from Jesus ministry that made it across all four gospels that was not related to his ministry beginning in Galilee or His death, burial and resurrection.

Why this story? There are so many! There are things that He did that we don’t even know about! Yet, God, in His Infinite Wisdom chooses this instance to be repeated four times. Therefore, we should pay special attention to what it has to tell us.

Verse 12 starts innocently enough “when they were filled.” We don’t think much of this we equate it to “When they were done eating.” We don’t really have a concept of unintentionally leaving a meal not full. At least not these days. As Americans it’s estimated we throw/discard around 40% of our food supply annually. While tonight roughly 1 Billion children worldwide will go to bed hungry. Even at the height of resource restriction his year Food Lion still had more food in it than pretty much any store I went into overseas. We saw a handful of barren shelves and freaked out. We don’t know or remember what it’s like to truly be hungry.

These are people that food was a daily struggle for them. If they had one meal a day they were doing good. To have food at all was exciting to them, to eat until they were full! That’s a special occasion for them! For many I’m sure it was a once in a lifetime event! When you are full at the restaurant but still have food leftover what do you do? You take it home! I guarantee you some leftover bread and fish were stuffed in pockets or wrapped up in linen and carried home.

Once they had stuffed themselves and their pockets there was still an abundance on the ground! This is unheard of; this is an embarrassment of riches! The disciples were then told to gather everything up! Don’t waste any of it. There’s more people that can eat!

How much leftovers do you picture? Typically leftovers for us is lunch the next day. I worked at the homestead as a teenager. I was a busboy/dishwasher. I spent my weekends for years cleaning up after people once they were done eating. The busiest night was whenever valentine’s day fell on a Saturday. We probably had 1400 people come through there in about 5 hours. That was a lot of leftovers! I can’t even imagine cleaning up after 15K though with only 12 people. I remind you of this to illustrate a point in verse 13.

It says that they filled 12 baskets! What do you picture with the word basket? A small wicker basket? Maybe something the size of a picnic basket? 12 Picnic baskets full of food would feed a lot of people. The Greek word for basket in this verse is kophinos. Do you know what English word we get from kophinos? Any guesses? Coffin. Changes your perspective on the size of the baskets doesn’t it? Regardless of how much the point is, it was a lot. In fact, I’m willing to bet that it was more than 200 denarii of food, possibly per basket! Poor Phillip, spending the whole day watching how wrong He was. It was a lesson that he never forgot.

Phillip would give his life preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ. He would spread it across Greece, Syria and Phyrgia (Frigya, Turkey) whether he met his death likely by crucifixion (or possibly beheading) either way he used his last breath to continue to preach the Gospel.

John makes sure to remind us in verse 13, that all this came from 5 small barley biscuits and a 2 sardines. So much abundance came from so little offered in faith. It doesn’t matter if it’s two widow mites or 200 denarii, offered to God in faith God will do great things with it.

I waste so much time trying to solve problems in my own power. Me and Pastor Dave have had our fair share of arguments and disagreements as far as ministry goes. When you’ve worked with someone multiple times a week for 20+ years that is going to happen. Yet, every disagreement we’ve had comes down to one of us, or usually both of us, trying to do ministry in our strength. It’s impossible which is the lesson Phillip, and by proxy us, is being taught.

In Zechariah 4, God is talking to the prophet Zechariah. A man by the name of Zerubbabel , had been tasked with rebuilding of God’s temple. The work had stalled and Zerubbael had tried everything and gotten nowhere. God has Zechariah remind Zerubbabel of the following in Zechairah 4:3 “not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit” the worked continued once Zerubbael remembered where his provision came from.

"O churches! take heed lest ye trust in yourselves; take heed lest ye say, 'We are a respectable body,' 'We are a mighty number,' 'We are a potent people;' take heed lest ye begin to glory in your own strength; for when that is done, 'Ichabod' shall be written on your walls and your glory shall depart from you. Remember, that he who was with us when we were but few, must be with us now we are many, or else we must fail; and he who strengthened us when we were but as 'little in Israel,' must be with us, now that we are like 'the thousands of Manasseh,' or else it is all over with us and our day is past." (Spurgeon)

The people see God’s abundant provision and proclaim Him as the prophet who has come into the world! Now this isn’t a saving admission of Christ identity. It’s more than likely a reference to Deut 8 where Moses foretells of a prophet to come that will be like Him. After all Jesus just miraculously feed everyone like Moses did in the wilderness. Yet, it is a step in the right direction.

As I said earlier this year has been a challenge. This is the longest ministry trial I’ve personally experienced. There are no good decisions, there is no clear cut direction, and almost any and every plan made becomes irrelevant in roughly a weeks time. Every decision made is just the particular bad decision we chose and we are under constant attack from other people who are very defensive of their own bad decision. In the midst of all this we must constantly remind ourselves where our help comes from, where our provision comes from, the one whom we can offer a little in faith and He can return it 1500 fold.

I just want you guys to know that I love you and I love serving here. As you go out this week show a little more grace to those you interact with. That you might be able to point them to Jehovah-Jireh the God who provides.

Time to eat

 

John 6:1-14

Time to eat!

Tonight’s message is entitled time to eat. Admit it! Most of you got a little excited when I said the title just now. You are already thinking about what you are going to eat when you get home or your thinking Oh, I’m still full from “fill in the blank.” Look at this picture from back in the day. Now look at this belly, this is my cheese baby. I regret nothing, the end.

Food is why we go on vacations as adults. Hey, let us eat something and then go get something to eat. Then we can go see the thing, I bet it has a snack bar. Food is how you get people to help you move furniture! Dad once needed help moving a heavy couch when I was first in the youth here. I asked my buddies in the youth group after church one night “ Hey guys. My dad needs help moving a big heavy couch on Friday.” Everyone was busy! Then I added “Dad will buy you lunch from wherever you want if you help.” Then Jared Compton perks up and says “My schedule has suddenly opened!”

 Food and the promise of it is a highly motivating factor! Food and the pursuit of it is a global historical constant. Tonight, we discuss one of the more famous stories in the gospels, the feeding of the multitudes.

After these things Jesus went over the Sea of Galilee, which is the Sea of Tiberias. ² Then a great multitude followed Him, because they saw His signs which He performed on those who were diseased.^[a] 3 And Jesus went up on the mountain, and there He sat with His disciples.

The gospel of John ends with the following verses in John 20:30-31 “ And truly Jesus did many other signs in the presence of His disciples, which are not written in this book; ³¹ but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name.”

This means we don’t have the whole picture Jesus life, nor do we even have the whole picture of His roughly three years of public ministry. This means we need to pay special attention to the things that are included in the gospels. The feeding of the multitudes is one of only 10 things that happened in Jesus life that is spread across all 4 gospels.

8 of those 10 events deal directly with the Crucifixion. One of those is mentioning the fact that His ministry began in Galilee. That means that in three years of ministry, with all that was said and done, this is the one event that made it into all 4 gospels. If God says something once, it is important. If God says something 4 times, listen up.

This takes place sometime after John 5. I’m pretty sure it’s a short time frame day more so than weeks or months since John 5 ends with people wanting to kill Jesus. He decides to go to the next thing. A great multitude follows Him.

Fantastic we think! All these people following Jesus. We know it’s a big number also roughly 5000 people. When we factor in women and children as only men were part of the headcount back then the number could easily be between 10-15K. Let me give you some perspective on that number. That means they could fill every single seat at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

Why are they following Him? Because they heard his words and were convicted? Because they saw the miracles and realized This man is the son of God? No. They saw the healing and wanted to get in on it. I don’t blame them.

I’m 41. I’m on three different long term prescription meds, my right twitches uncontrollably and requires multiple shots to my face 4 times a year. Which is not as much fun as it sounds. This is all related to a piece of my skull I had to have removed in 2001. If there was a person standing outside that could permanently make all that go away with just a touch or a word. I’m interested.

Have you ever wondered about the people that Jesus didn’t heal? He didn’t heal every single person He came into contact with. He could have. Why? I wrestled with this for years and then came to the conclusion that I was being selfish. Jesus wasn’t crucified to heal us physically, to improve our physical condition and circumstances. If that is all you want from Jesus you will end up disappointed and disillusioned. Jesus, as we discussed at length in John 5, is here by the Will of the Father, to the Glory of the Father.  We are going to see this pan out as we go through this chapter.

⁴ Now the Passover, a feast of the Jews, was near. ⁵ Then Jesus lifted up His eyes, and seeing a great multitude coming toward Him, He said to Philip, “Where shall we buy bread, that these may eat?” ⁶ But this He said to test him, for He Himself knew what He would do. ⁷ Philip answered Him, “Two hundred denarii worth of bread is not sufficient for them, that every one of them may have a little.”

Poor Phillip! Jesus is picking on him! He already knew what He was going to do and how. He wanted to see how Phillip would respond. Phillip had seen the miracles and the healings. Phillip would have known the stories of how God provided of Israel in the wilderness with Manna from Heaven, and water from a rock. How does He respond?

He had already done the math! He saw it was impossible! We don’t have the money Jesus! Even if we did who around here is going to have that much bread to sell? There was no Costco back then folks. We read this and we know how this story ends. We think sad silly Phillip! Don’t you know God Incarnate is standing right next to you! He brought all of creation into existence with a few words and you are worried about bread? How foolish!

How are we any different? We see tasks set before us, often by the Lord and we think this is an impossible task. We don’t even start before we make that declaration. We have this huge list of reasons why it will never work. The Lord asks both great and small things of us and our response is almost always “Two Hundred Denarii isn’t enough.”

That’s true. We don’t have the resources or the ability. We have something better. The Lord. Phillip’s response (and ours) should be “I don’t know how you are going to do it, but I know you can. Just tell me what you where you want me to go and what you want me to do.”

⁸ One of His disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to Him, ⁹ “There is a lad here who has five barley loaves and two small fish, but what are they among so many?”

Andrew shows up bringing another person to Jesus. This little boy has some food. He has roughly enough for his lunch. Each item described here would have been smaller than my hand. It’s enough for one person, maybe two.

¹⁰ Then Jesus said, “Make the people sit down.” Now there was much grass in the place. So the men sat down, in number about five thousand. ¹¹ And Jesus took the loaves, and when He had given thanks He distributed them ^[b]to the disciples, and the disciples to those sitting down; and likewise of the fish, as much as they wanted. ¹² So when they were filled, He said to His disciples, “Gather up the fragments that remain, so that nothing is lost.” ¹³ Therefore they gathered them up, and filled twelve baskets with the fragments of the five barley loaves which were left over by those who had eaten. ¹⁴ Then those men, when they had seen the sign that Jesus did, said, “This is truly the Prophet who is to come into the world.

Look at how much Jesus does with so little! Can you imagine the perspective of the disciples? Of Phillip especially? How many loaves was He given? 5! How many disciples were there? 12! Even if he broke them in half there’s still two disciples without. The miracle starts right then! He divided 5 tiny biscuits and two small fish among 12 men and said hey go pass those out! I have zero proof of this, but I feel it’s in line with how Jesus does things. I bet as Jesus was dividing out the food between the disciples Phillip was last in line. There in the back doing the calculations wondering why they didn’t run out of food 5 disciples earlier.  If that’s me I’m thinking “Well this won’t take long.” Expecting to run out at any moment, then it never happens.

Only Jesus can do Multiplication by Division and Addition by Subtraction!

One of the problems we've had in 2020 is this. We have been full for so long that we have forgotten what it's like to hunger, to do without. To not have everything we wanted immediately available to us. To have to decide between being with the people we love, and keeping them and ourselves safe/healthy. These are not easy decisions with a clear cut answer. We can only trust in the one who provides our every need in Christ Jesus. 

 

Can I get a witness?

 

John 5:31-47

Can I get a witness?!?!

Tonight’s message is entitled “Can I get a witness?”

Anyone that’s even been to a good ol fashioned tent revival knows this phrase well. In between preachers and sometimes in the middle of a sermon the speaker would pause what he was doing to say “Can I get a witness?” Opening the floor to all those that were present. Then a witness would come forth, and to the altar and testify about something the Lord has done for them in their lives. They are presenting themselves as a witness, someone who has personally experienced the blessings of the Lord and wants to share them with as many people as possible. What do we bear witness to? Our lives, our words, our actions all bear witness but to what exactly?

³¹ “If I bear witness of Myself, My witness is not ^[e]true. ³² There is another who bears witness of Me, and I know that the witness which He witnesses of Me is true. ³³ You have sent to John, and he has borne witness to the truth. ³⁴ Yet I do not receive testimony from man, but I say these things that you may be saved.

Jesus has gotten into a theological debate with the Pharisees & Sadducees. They were accusing Him of violating the Sabbath. They have been scrambling for something to accuse Him with so they can get rid of Him. They respond with wanting to kill Him. Jesus responds with the Gospel. The last few sermons we have seen Christ explain to us Who He is, as the only begotten son of the Father. He is the way, the truth and the life and no man comes to the Father except through Him.

There next retort to this would have been “You’re just saying this about yourself. It doesn’t count.” He counters that before they can even respond with “If I bear witness of myself, my witness is not true.” Jesus being the Logos, the living embodiment of truth, could easily bear witness of Himself. Jewish legal practice at the time, a person’s testimony about himself was not accepted in court.

Deut 19: 35 ““A single witness shall not suffice against a person for any crime or for any wrong in connection with any offense that he has committed. Only on the evidence of two witnesses or of three witnesses shall a charge be established”

You’ve already seen a witness! John the Baptist came as a witness to me and you ignored him. Jesus then says a verse that seems a bit tricky at first. I don’t receive testimony from man.

I know you’ve heard all manner of sermons that boil down to “God needs you to do this, that, or the other. “ You’ve seen all manner of preachers that say “God needs your money, time, resources.”

I’m here to tell you, as well intentioned as some of that might be. It’s complete poppycock! God needs nothing from you, NOTHING! He spoke the whole of creation into existence. Every breathe of take is an act of mercy overflowing from His sustaining grace. What possession do you own, what ability have you so perfected, that Almighty God somehow is unable to do so Himself? It is nothing but filthy soul condemning pride that makes us consider, even for a moment, there is something God needs of us.

What’s His motivation then? That people might be saved! This should be our motivation as well!

 ³⁵ He was the burning and shining lamp, and you were willing for a time to rejoice in his light. ³⁶ But I have a greater witness than John’s; for the works which the Father has given Me to finish—the very works that I do—bear witness of Me, that the Father has sent Me. ³⁷ And the Father Himself, who sent Me, has testified of Me. You have neither heard His voice at any time, nor seen His form. ³⁸ But you do not have His word abiding in you, because whom He sent, Him you do not believe. ³⁹ You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me. ⁴⁰ But you are not willing to come to Me that you may have life.

He goes to call out their treatment of John. You enjoy Him for a moment but then once you were convicted you were done with Him. It’s a lot of people like that these days. That’s us, that’s me. There are certain preachers I don’t like to listen to because I know I’m going to be convicted by their sermons. Yet, I am always grateful in the long run that I did.

Jesus says you ignored John’s message and John’s testimony of me. Yet, don’t you remember what happened when I was baptized? The Father Himself spoke and said “This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased.”  The Father Himself spoke of me! Gave testimony to Me. Yet, you ignored that also! You could not hear Him. You could not see Him. Why is that? Because you do not know the scriptures!

That’s an accusation that could be made to many of us in the church these days and it’s valid. Our Biblical knowledge is not what it should be due to the lack of time we spend in God’s Word.

However, these guys, the Pharisees and Sadducees were considered masters of the law. There entire lives revolved around the scriptures, knowing them, memorizing them, copying them and being experts in them. They could quote them backwards and forwards!

This is before google, the printing press, and neatly aligned chapters and verses with study aids. Here Jesus is telling them their life’s work has been nothing but a waist of time. One the greatest tragedies I have witnessed time and time again are people who know what The Bible says but don’t know the one who wrote it.

The Bible is our source for knowledge about God. There’s enough in the Bible revealed about Jesus for people to come to salvation. The Bible is a book about Jesus. When I was in the youth David sent us on a Biblical scavenger hunt. We had to find Jesus in every book of the Bible. Now, in the Gospels and the NT in general this was easy. Yet, as I went through the OT I found Jesus every where I looked as well. Start to finish the Bible is first and foremost a book about finding Salvation in Jesus. They knew all this knowledge about God yet they did not know God.

⁴¹ “I do not receive honor from men. ⁴² But I know you, that you do not have the love of God in you. ⁴³ I have come in My Father’s name, and you do not receive Me; if another comes in his own name, him you will receive. ⁴⁴ How can you believe, who receive honor from one another, and do not seek the honor that comes from the only God? ⁴⁵ Do not think that I shall accuse you to the Father; there is one who accuses you—Moses, in whom you trust. ⁴⁶ For if you believed Moses, you would believe Me; for he wrote about Me. ⁴⁷ But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe My words?”

Jesus is now wrapping things up. If you had listened to John you would believe He tells them. If you had understood Moses you would believe. Two earthly witnesses. If you had listened to the scriptures you would believe. If you had listened to the Father you would believe. Two irrefutable spiritual witnesses. That’s double the requirement of the law. Not only did He provided multiple witnesses but ones of the highest caliber as well.

Charles Spurgeon preached a message on John 5:44 (Why Men Cannot Believe in Christ) and in that sermon he looked at how fame, honor, and celebrity hinder true faith. Here are a few quotes from that sermon.

· “When a man gets to feel that he ought to be honored, he is in extreme danger.”

· “Always receiving this undeserved honor, they deceived themselves into believing that they deserved it.”

· “Dear friends, it is very difficult to receive honor and to expect it, and yet to keep your eyesight; for men’s eyes gradually grow dull through the smoke of the incense which is burned before them.”

· “the praise of men generally turns the receivers of it into great cowards.”

· “But, oh, how many live on the breath of their fellow men; to be approved — to be applauded — that is their heaven; but to be despised, to be sneered at, to be called fool, to have some nickname applied to them; oh no, they would sooner go to hell than bear that.”

The stumbling block of the scribes and Pharisees was their pride. They lived and thrived on each other’s praise. Constantly tearing each other down while trying to present themselves in the best light possible. Sound familiar? There’s nothing new under the sun. To acknowledge Christ was to deny themselves. They chose to forfeit their souls instead of their standing with each themselves and others.

What kind of witness do we give? If those closest to us gave testimony to our lives what would it look like? What would it sound like? Would it glorify God or ourselves?

1 Cor 10:31 “Whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God”

 

Yolo

 

John 5:24-30

YOLO

Circa 2011 Canadian Rap Superstar Drake popularized the phrase YOLO. Standing for you, you only live once, in line with Carpe Diem, Seize the Day,  and other slogans through out history that encourage us to live our best lives now. However, YOLO grew an added twist with encouraging and even embracing risky and dangerous behavior. This made the news with the tragic death of aspiring rapper Ervin McKinness just prior to his death, tweeted the phrase while driving 120 MPH while drunk.

Many of us spend life playing as safe as possible waiting for all the stars to align and our the situation to be perfect before we being our lives. Some of us live recklessly as if tomorrow will never come and there will be little to no long term consequences for the choices we make today. However, we choose to live or not live our lives there is truth in the saying YOLO in that we only have this one life and what we do it is of the utmost importance!

 

²⁴ “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life.

Jesus is having a discussion with the religious leadership of Israel. Jesus healed a man on the sabbath and the pharisees see this not as a miracle from the Lord but an opportunity to attack Jesus. Jesus saw this as an opportunity to teach the teachers and explain His relationship with God the Father.

He is painstakingly clear here in verse 24. He who hears my word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life and shall not come into judgment. There’s an entire series of sermons here but I feel they have been covered pretty well in previous sermons and will be covered pretty well in future sermons. Jesus is the way the truth and the life and no man comes to father expect through him.

Acts 4:12 “for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”

 

 ²⁵ Most assuredly, I say to you, the hour is coming, and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God; and those who hear will live. ²⁶ For as the Father has life in Himself, so He has granted the Son to have life in Himself, ²⁷ and has given Him authority to execute judgment also, because He is the Son of Man. ²⁸ Do not marvel at this; for the hour is coming in which all who are in the graves will hear His voice ²⁹ and come forth—those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation. 

Jesus warns the Pharisees that there time is limited. That now they have a chance to listen to His words and receive life or continue on dead in their sin. If they reject Him as Savior now they will face Him as Judge later. Not only as a Judge who renders a verdict but carries it out as well. In effect Jesus is Judge, Jury and Executioner that we all must face one day.

Don’t be surprised by this He says! Everyone alive and dead will one day face this judgment. Let’s pause on that for a minute. We all have had friends, and family pass on. We have all visited graveyards and funeral homes. There are presently 7 Billion people alive on the planet but how many have been buried or passed since Genesis 3? Conservative estimates put that number in excess of 100 Billion that’s 15-30 people dead for everyone 1 that’s living today. This is a number we can’t even wrap our brains around. Yet, our Lord tells us that a day is coming in which all those who are in graves will hear His voice. This is an astounding thing to contemplate!

We think we are something! With our modern technology we can put something on the internet and if it goes viral thousands possibly millions can view it in 24-48 hours. Within a few years it could have billions of views like the music video for Despacito by Luis whatshisname. Jesus speaks and the whole of creation past, present and future hear it and respond. This! This is what we are told NOT to marvel at!

One day, everyone, stands for the Lord and gives account some will walk into Eternity with the Son in Heaven others will walk into eternity without the Son in Hell. What we do and how we do it in this life matters.

 

 ³⁰ I can of Myself do nothing. As I hear, I judge; and My judgment is righteous, because I do not seek My own will but the will of the Father who sent Me.

What is God’s will? We talk a lot about God’s will. I’m trying to do God’s will. I am seeking God’s will. I believe many of us, and my self included, have at times had this huge misunderstanding about the will of God. We view it as this grand complicated mystery. Are the ways of God mysterious? Yes of course. Do we always understand what He is doing and why? When we are truthful no probably not. Can we easily know the will of God for our lives? Yes absolutely!

The problem comes in how we look at the will of God, how we picture it! Do you picture it as a target? As a multiple choice test? For the longest time I did. David started as Senior Pastor at Antioch in 2003. The first book he preached out of was 1 Peter. 1 Peter is about our living hope in Christ, our call to holiness and the importance of seeking God’s will in our lives.

At that time, I was 23 and I would do my grocery shopping on Sunday afternoons after church. The sermon concerning the will of God was rattling around in my head while I was on the cereal aisle. As I reached for a box of cereal I hesitated wondering if it was God’s will for me to buy this particular cereal. There was also a lot of change and adult decisions that I was having to make then. I deeply desired the will of God in those decisions which did not have a clear yes or no to them. It all became too much and I just froze. I stood there for I do not know how long having a quarter life crisis over a box of cereal.

I wish I could say I had a huge spiritual epiphany at that time, but I did not. I did however buy Honeynut Cheerios that day for what that is worth. A lot of us view God’s will as as Yes or No thing. As we are presented with A, B, C, or D and one of them is clearly the answer and the other three are clearly wrong. In all fairness, there are times where that is the case. Does God want me to commit adultery, Idolatry, or murder? No, those are very clearly explained in the 10 commandments. Yet, there are times where choosing between A, B, C, or D is as clear as mud. What do we do? Just freeze like I did in that cereal aisle?

Matthew 23 Jesus is calling out the Pharisses & Sadducess “Blind guides, who strain out a gnat and swallow a camel!” He accuses them of straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel. What does God want you to do? What’s God’s will for your life? Love God and love your neighbor as yourself. After all you only live once.

 

A Titanic Struggle

 

John 5:16-18

A Titanic Struggle

A few years ago Madison did a project on the Titanic. She had to study, read, research and write a report. She enjoyed it, and continued to read about it long after the project had been turned in. Just recently, in honor of her 12^th birthday, she and Lindsey went to the Titanic museum in TN. When you go into the museum you are handed a card that gives you the name of a passenger from the Titanic. When you get to the end of the museum you get to look on the memorial wall and see if you survived or not. Madison’s passenger was in 1^st class, Lindsey’s passenger was in third class. Lindsey noted that since she was in third class it was unlikely that she survived while Madison being 1^st class had a good chance of making it off the boat.

If you’ve ever studied the Titanic you know it was an impressive string of selfish, prideful, and bad decisions that lead to one of the greatest tragedies in American history as over 1500+  people died in the ocean that night. You also know that there was a significant amount of discrimination based on wealth, race and ethnic background that contributed to that loss of life in the name of doing the right thing.

As you all know the world is a mess right now. How much of our own biases have contributed to that mess in the name of doing the right thing? Tonight’s message is entitled A Titanic Struggle.

For this reason the Jews persecuted Jesus, ^[a]and sought to kill Him, because He had done these things on the Sabbath. ¹⁷ But Jesus answered them, “My Father has been working until now, and I have been working.”

¹⁸ Therefore the Jews sought all the more to kill Him, because He not only broke the Sabbath, but also said that God was His Father, making Himself equal with God.

The last two Wednesdays we have talked about Jesus healing the paralyzed man. Take up your bed and walk. Our best estimates place this as the halfway point of Jesus ministry. The man (who had been paralyzed for most of his life) was spotted by the religious leadership (Pharisees and Sadducees) and they didn’t care that he was healed, or how he was healed, just that he was carrying a bedroll on the Sabbath. That violated their tradition and they wanted to know who did it. He told them that Jesus was the one who had healed him.

This is not the first miracle accredited to Jesus. After all He’s been on the scene for 18 months. We’ve seen all manner of healings, teaching, and miracles from Jesus. There’s more than enough factual evidence and eye witness testimony to at least make someone pause to consider the Words of Jesus and If He is really who He says He is.

With this in mind and the Pharisees & Sadducess being the highly educated and intelligent people that they were they called a meeting. They all sat down and said “Hey, let’s really think and pray about this Jesus fellow. There is definitely something different about Him. Could this be the Messiah?” haha! That would have been great wouldn’t it?

As anyone whose ever had the misfortune to read the comments on a website or social media knows, that’s not how people act. What does it say? For this reason the Jews persecuted Jesus and sought to kill him. Just a reminder, in the gospel of John when John refers to the Jews he is not referring all of Israel. He is specifically referring to Jewish leadership at the time.

They want to kill him. Why? Because at first He was a novelty, now he’s become a problem. They can’t refute his teaching, they can’t deny his miracles and they can’t accept the truth of the situation. What do they do now? He won’t go away they are just going to have to kill him.

In the first four chapters of John, it was the deity of Christ on display by His omniscience, by His miracle power, by His authority exercised in the Temple and even by the declarations of John in chapter 1 of His deity as the Creator. All of the first four chapters focus on the person of Christ and His deity, and focus on His words, the things that He said. Now we come into chapter 5 and you see the opposition begin to rise. That will on increase from here on out until the crucifixion. Why though?

Well there’s the reason they sought to kill Him and the reason they used as their excuse. The excuse? “Because He had done these things on the Sabbath.”

There are a few things that really upset me in this job.

#1 when ya’ll break the 11^th commandment “Though shall not misquote the pastor” which is one of the 1,000 reasons I’m grateful for Todd and the AV crew because they make it real easy to go back to the video tape.

#2 I get mad when you quote a single bible verse out of context that you found by doing a word search on your Bible app. Take the time to read the entire passage! You have the time! The average adult can easily read 200 words a minute. This means you can read most books in the NT in less than an a hour. You can easily read a chapter of a book in less than 5 minutes. You have time to read the whole passage!

 #3 and this is the most frustrating, when people try to use God as an excuse to do the wrong thing. W.C. Blalock likes to say in Sunday School Class “My mom always said, “You’ve successfully mad God in your own image when He hates the same people you do.” “ That’s what is going on here with the religious leadership.  We often cover our hatred for the power of God with a pretend zeal for the form of it.

Jesus gives an odd answer “My Father has been working until now, and I have been working.”   God has never stopped working. An ancient quote from Philo of Alexandria tells us “God never stops working, for as it is the property of fire to burn and of snow to be cold so of God to work.”

Wait a minute Pastor Glen! I may not know much about the Bible but I know that on the 7th day God rested and If He was resting He was not working. He rested yes, He rested from His acts of creation. He has never once rested from His work of sustaining us.

Psalm 121:3-4, He who keeps Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep

Hebrews 1:3 "who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,"

Beloved we must never forget that every breath we take is an act of mercy from God. The ruling class at the time viewed work as something the lower class did because they were not blessed like the upper class. You saw that on the titanic when some of the 3rd class passengers were locked in and drowned to death to allow the first class passengers plenty of time to load into the life boats. We still see that today with examples to numerous to mention.

Jesus says a two fold offensive statement in this way 1) that God works actively and 2) that Jesus is on equal footing with God by referring to God as His Father. To be on equal footing with God is to claim that He and God are one and the same.

The Pharisees understood and refused to except it. In fact, they used it as grounds to have Him executed on the charges of rebellion and blasphemy.

Now if it’s true, it’s true and He is God.  If it’s a lie, He’s not God, He’s the devil.  He’s the ultimate deceiver.  What you can’t say is something in the middle. You can’t say He’s a model of spiritual life, because models of spiritual life don’t call themselves God.  Crazy people do, lunatics do.  You can’t say that He is a noble teacher because everything starts with a massive preposterous lie if He’s not God.  This is the most staggering claim anybody has ever made and then supported it. So you don’t come to Jesus with the option that He’s a good teacher, that’s what the skeptics have sort of landed on just to be kind, and that’s what the pseudo-scholars of fake Christianity have perpetuated through the years so that they can still have Christianity and still have a comfortable Jesus.

But that’s not an option.  He said He was God.  If it’s true, He is God.  If it’s a lie, He’s the ultimate deceiver and He’s insanely deceived Himself.  We have to make a choice.  There’s no middle ground.  The choice needs to be informed by the truth, the truth is here, let Him give His own testimony.  And then let Him substantiate it which He will do in this chapter by more than two or three witnesses.

If you’re going to reject Christ, then reject the Bible.  You have to reject it all.  If you reject the deity of Jesus Christ, you have just detonated a bomb that has exploded your Bible, throw it away.  You have demolished the Bible.  There is no such thing as well-intentioned scholarship that denies the deity of Jesus Christ.  That is devilish and it disintegrates the Scripture completely.  If Jesus is not God, there is no Christianity, the Bible is all a fabrication from hell and we all still hopelessly lost in our sin.

If what Jesus said is true, and I believe that it is. Then that’s a game changer. Our whole way of life has to change. 18 year old, unsaved Glen had a lot of strong thoughts and opinions on just about everything. Then I got saved and found that pretty much all of them were wrong. Do I change or does God change? Well God is the same yesterday, today and forever so I had to change. 27 year old newly married newly hired hired Pastor Glen had a lot of strong thoughts and opinions on a wide variety of Biblical topics. Such as politics, worship music, marriage and parenting. Bear in mind I had little to know real world experience in any of those at the time. The more I have walked with the Lord the more I have been conformed to His image because all my attempts to conform Him to mine have gracefully failed miserably.

Today, almost 41 year old Glen still has lots of strong thoughts and opinions on things. Yet, now I know to stop and Pray before voicing them. Since we have been using acronyms a lot in sermons recently I want to give you a new one for PRAY. Pause, Reflect, Ask and Yield. Pause, before you send that text, email, comment. Reflect, think about what you are doing and why. Ask God what the gospel centered response should be, Yield, surrender to God’s Word and God’s will as the superior power in our lives.

What is your choice going to be? The struggle between the flesh and the spirit is real, it is an everyday titanic struggle. Do we follow the things of God or follow the things of the flesh?

 

 

Traditions

 

John 5:10-15

Traditions

Tradition is a powerful thing. Recently me and my sister went to Norlina to visit my birth mom’s grave. Whenever we make that trip back east we always stop at this gas station in Oxford and my sister buys a couple of $1 lottery scratcher tickets. Our mom loved these. We remember going to South Boston to buy scratchers on Sunday afternoons. If we wont anything (which was never more than a $1 or $2) we would immediately turn it in for more scratchers! That’s a tradition we carry one knowing if mom was still with us she would get a big kick out of it. Yet, we aren’t always able to do it every time we go visit. Traditions are good and well but it shouldn’t be the end of the world when they are broken either. This is going to come into play in tonight’s message Traditions.

The Jews therefore said to him who was cured, “It is the Sabbath; it is not lawful for you to carry your bed.”

The law of Moses taught that the Sabbath must be different from other days. On it, neither people nor animals could work. The prophet Jeremiah had prohibited carrying burdens or working on the Sabbath (Jer 17). Over the years, the Jewish leaders had amassed thousands of rules and regulations concerning the Sabbath. By Jesus day they had 39 different classifications of work. According to them, carrying furniture and even providing medical treatment on the Sabbath were forbidden.

Sabbath regulations continue on to this very day. Per Chabad.org (A world renown jewish cultural learning website)

These are some basic activities from which we refrain on Shabbat:

• writing, erasing, and tearing; business transactions; driving or riding in cars or other vehicles;
• shopping; using the telephone; turning on or off anything which uses electricity, including lights, radios, television, computer, air-conditioners and alarm clocks; cooking, baking or kindling a fire; gardening and grass-mowing; doing laundry;

Jesus did not break the law. The violated the traditions of the Pharisees which had grown up around the law. If you want to upset someone don’t break the law, break one of their traditions. That’s actually why a lot of us have been mad about the whole stay at home orders. It’s messed up so many of our traditions!

Why is tradition such a powerful thing? It is because as human beings, we like to have patterns and order in our lives. The way things have always been done, whether in our family structure, our communities, or in our churches, we get used to a pattern from our childhood and associate it with comfort, safety, and other emotions which we consider pleasant.
To disrupt these "patterns" for the average human being is a devastating thing- as their mind tells them that something is not right. Change is the hardest thing in life to accept- whether it be the death of a loved one, a new job, a child leaving the nest, or whatever.

Some traditions are beautiful, and all right to observe. However, any tradition that takes us away from the truth of God, the will of God, or the word of God, is wrong. We must make the effort to remove it from our lives and to change our patterns of behavior, and also our patterns of thought. The Jewish leaders see tradition being violated, they don’t care about the miracle that just happened or the life that was just changed significantly for the better. They just care about the tradition.  What do we care about? Loving God and loving others? Or our traditions?

 

11He answered them, “He who made me well said to me, ‘Take up your bed and walk.’ ”

12Then they asked him, “Who is the Man who said to you, ‘Take up your bed and walk’?” 

 

The Jewish leaders didn’t want to know who healed the crippled man. They wanted to know who told him to carry a bed-mat on the Sabbath day. his probably seemed strange, and perhaps confusing to the healed man. “I was carried to the pool today and if I were not healed I would need to be carried home. That’s a lot more work than me carrying my little bed-mat. In healing me and sending me home, Jesus was saving work on the Sabbath, not making more work.” Drew mentioned in his excellent sermon this past Sunday that some of us are just looking for offense these days. That as Christians we shouldn’t be looking for offense but for opportunities to share the gospel. This man wanted to give testimony to God’s miraculous healing! Jewish leadership just wanted to find out who offended their traditions. In our interactions with people are we looking for offense or gospel opportunities?

 

13But the one who was healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had withdrawn, a multitude being in that place. 14Afterward Jesus found him in the temple, and said to him, “See, you have been made well. Sin no more, lest a worse thing come upon you.”

15The man departed and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well.

 

Many commentators believe that our Lord’s warning means that the man’s original affliction was somehow the result of his personal sin. Of course, Jesus Himself, in John’s gospel, tells us that illness is not always associated directly with one’s sinful choices (9:3). Thus, we would be wrong to believe that every sickness results from an individual’s sin. Yet, that does not mean that no sicknesses are caused by evil choices, for we know that some sinful behaviors can spread disease. In any case, whether the man’s lameness was due to personal sin or not, the imperative for him to stop sinning indicates that as good as it was to walk again, that healing would be ultimately insignificant if he continued to violate the law of God. If he were to continue in sin impenitently, he would suffer a fate far worse than paralysis, namely, eternal judgment in hell. The formerly lame man’s greatest need was to turn from his sin and to rest in Christ alone for salvation. That is our greatest need as well.

John’s gospel does not tell us if the man ever came to saving faith. But in this account, he certainly cannot be called a man of great piety. When the Jewish leaders accused him of breaking the Sabbath by carrying his mat, the man immediately shifted blame to Jesus (5:11, 15). Now, their accusation was ill founded. Generally speaking, the biblical Sabbath laws forbid doing what is part of one’s normal employment, with exceptions for those who perform life-critical duties, and the man certainly could not have had as his job the carrying of mats when he was lame. Yet though the authorities were wrong to accuse him of breaking the Sabbath, the man erred in trying to blame Jesus. As one commentator says, the healed man was no hero of the faith. And that brings Jesus’ charge for him to stop sinning into sharper relief. Having experienced physical healing, he still needed the spiritual healing that is evidenced by faith and repentance.

Our sovereign God may choose to intervene and bring about an unexpected physical healing. It is good and right to pray for Him to do so. Yet we must never forget that people need spiritual restoration far more than they need physical healing. As we minister to others inside and outside the church, let us not fail to call people to faith and repentance.

 

 

Band Aids

John 5:1-9

Band Aids

As you know there is a lot of kids that live in my house. Loud, active vibrant kids. I love it and would not have it any other way. However, with so many young kids there’s also the occasional scrap and/or cut. We have our fair share of band-aids. We have the fun band-aids as well spiderman, star wars, paw patrol and those are just for me! The kids have some as well. What do we use band aids for? To help with temporary minor wounds. Band Aids are a temporary solution for a temporary problem.  In fact, by definition, band-aid is a makeshift or temporary solution. Keep that in the back of your mind for tonight’s message entitled “Band-aids.”

After this there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. ² Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, which is called in Hebrew, ^[a]Bethesda, having five porches.

Jesus has been doing ministry for a while. In Judea, then Samaria, then Galilee where we saw the son healed from a distance. His ministry and his fame has been growing with each miracle and with each sermon. Jesus now heads back to Jerusalem for a feast. Passover, Purim and Pentecost were the three main feasts that required attendance. We don’t know what feast specifically, but the popular guess is Passover.

Jesus is at a pool named Bethesda, meaning house of mercy, near the  Sheep Gate on the northern side of the temple. This area has been used in the past to call into question the reliability of the Bible and the Gospel of John in particular. Yet, in the early 1900s this area was rediscovered by archaeologists exactly how and where John described it. Whenever we can travel safely again you can go see this yourself on a tour of the Holy Land.

 ³ In these lay a great multitude of sick people, blind, lame, ^[b]paralyzed, ^[c]waiting for the moving of the water. ⁴ For an angel went down at a certain time into the pool and stirred up the water; then whoever stepped in first, after the stirring of the water, was made well of whatever disease he had. 

Jesus gets there and there is a great multiple of sick people with various illnesses. They were all there in hopes of being healed. Verse 4 is a source of much debate in seminaries as to whether it should be in the gospel of John at all. That however is a discussion for another time. The popular belief was that an Angel stirred up the water occasionally and the first person to get into the water, with the proper faith, was healed.

Did an Angel actually do this? Or was this just a common belief to explain away a natural occurrence like a hot spring? Were these people legitimately healed or was it more of a placebo effect. We have seen repeatedly this year that our opinions are easily swayed by things we want to hear vs. actual documented facts. I know that statement upset some of you just now. I would like to point out to those of you that as of this recording Benny Hinn, “faith healer” has a net worth of somewhere between 60-70 million dollars.

If there were people genuinely healed by the waters of the Pool of Bethesda, it was one of many unusual occasions healing in the Bible.

· Some were healed by a purified pot of stew (2 Kings 4:38-41)

· Naaman was healed by washing in the Jordan River (2 Kings 5:10-14)

· One was healed by touching the bones of Elisha (2 Kings 13:20-21)

· Some were healed when the shadow of Peter fell upon them (Acts 5:14-16)

· Some were healed when Paul’s handkerchiefs were laid upon them (Acts 19:11-12)

God can and does do things in unexpected ways. God will do what God will do. The one thing God will not do is contradict Himself.

⁵ Now a certain man was there who had an infirmity thirty-eight years. ⁶ When Jesus saw him lying there, and knew that he already had been in that condition a long time, He said to him, “Do you want to be made well?”

I read this and I just have so many questions. How many people were there? How long had they been sick? What were they sick with? Why did Jesus pick this particular man? There’s nothing in the text that implies that Jesus healed anyone else. He could have. We know He could have. Yet, He doesn’t. He picks this one man. Why? If you were had a terminal illness or disability and you thought your only hope was to be the first in the pool once it was stirred up where would your attention be? On the water! You don’t want to the make the mistake of looking away and missing out do you!

This man takes a moment to look at and respond to Jesus. Spurgeon said “A blindness had come over these people at the pool; there they were, and there was Christ, who could heal them, but not a single one of them sought him. Their eyes were fixed on the water, expecting it to be troubled; they were so taken up with their own chosen way that the true way was neglected.” (Spurgeon)

 

Spurgeon pictured the multitude waiting around the waters of the Pool of Bethesda, all of them waiting – instead of looking to Jesus. How foolish this was of the, how foolish this is for us as well. What are you waiting for? I know plenty of you are. A more convenient season? Dreams and Visions? Signs and wonders? Revival? Another job? Better weather? A specific feeling? Oprah? Ellen? The president & government officials? There is always going to be an excuse to not do what God has called you to do.

Jesus knows this man. He knows this man’s heart. He knows that this man wishes to be made well. He longs to be healed yet in 38 years that has yet to happen.  Imagine the disappointment as month after month, year after year. Everyone makes it into he pool before him. He has pleaded, begged and bribed yet no one helps him. Does he want to be made well? Of course, he does! He holds out hope that this time, someone will get him into the water first.

⁷ The sick man answered Him, “Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; but while I am coming, another steps down before me.”

You would think after 38 years someone would have helped him with this, like taking a number or a line system. In 2011 I went to Boston with some friends for a convention and we stayed with my cousin James. One night after dinner he took us to this place called Mike’s Pastries. He warned us, “There are no lines it’s first come first served. Walk up, place your money on the counter and speak clearly what you want.” I thought he was pulling our legs at first. After I watched a couple of people get there order that way while other people were trying to figure out a line I walked up right up and said “Two cannoli’s” and put my 20 on the counter! I got my food, and it was delicious. 

The more people that want something, the less likely an orderly line is going to form for it. This man desperately wanted to get well, and this man had hope that he could be made well, yet his hope was misplaced.

A lot of us in 2020 desperately want our lives and country to get better! We also have hope that things can get better. Yet our hope is placed in the wrong things.

⁸ Jesus said to him, “Rise, take up your bed and walk.” ⁹ And immediately the man was made well, took up his bed, and walked.