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.

 

Fear is in the boat

Matthew 14:22-33

^{Fear is in the boat}

^{Let’s say there is a ship on the high sea, having a fierce struggle with the waves. The storm wind is blowing harder by the minute. The boat is small, tossed about like a toy; the sky is dark; the sailors’ strength is failing. Then one of them is gripped by . . . whom? what? . . . he cannot tell himself. But someone is there in the boat who wasn’t there before. . . . Suddenly he can no longer see or hear anything, can no longer row, a wave overwhelms him, and in final desperation he shrieks: Stranger in this boat, who are you? And the other answers, I am Fear. . . . All hope is lost, Fear is in the boat.” – Dietrich Bonhoeffer}

^{January 15, 1933 Germany was in the midst of fearful and turbulent times, indeed. The devastation of defeat from World War I, just 14 years earlier, was fresh on the people’s minds and hearts. The Stock Market Crash of 1929 compounded further pressures on the struggling German economy, driving the number of unemployed to more than six million. The new Weimar Republic lacked political stability and leadership, and fears of communism and extremism loomed large. As these dark waves battered them from all sides, many Germans—including German Christians—feared what the future would hold.}

^{“Fear is in the boat, in Germany, in our own lives and in the nave of this church—naked fear of an hour from now, of tomorrow and the day after.” Much like 1933 fear is very much in the boat here in NC in 2020.}

^{22 Immediately Jesus made His disciples get into the boat and go before Him to the other side, while He sent the multitudes away.}

^{Immediately! We understand the word immediately because we are an immediate society as is evidenced by our newest god the Smartphone. However, that is a sermon for another time. So, immediately after what? The events listed in the previous verses. Right before this Jesus saw a great multitude; and He was moved with compassion for them and healed their sick. This went on for most of the day and then as evening came the disciples begged Jesus to send the people away because it was dinner time. Jesus says they don’t need to go you feed them dinner. The disciples go we don’t have enough food for ourselves much less for these thousands of people! Jesus then blesses the food they do have and tells them to hand it out and it multiplies, and multiplies and multiplies until everyone was full and there were twelve baskets full of leftovers. A basket for each disciple.}

 

^{We know from John that the people were getting ready to try and make Jesus king and why not? This is a guy who just fed everyone to the full and it didn’t cost them anything. It would make a catchy campaign slogan “Vote for me and eat for free!” However, Jesus knowing that His kingdom was not of this world sends the disciples away into the boat and then sends the multitudes away as well.}  

 

^{23 And when He had sent the multitudes away, He went up on the mountain by Himself to pray. Now when evening came, He was alone there.}

^{So what does he do next? Go and join the disciples? No He goes up to the mountain by Himself to pray. Why does He do this? Well this is actually his second attempt at doing this on this particular day. He tried earlier in the morning and that was when the multitude tracked him down. So now He finally has His alone time. Brethren, If our Lord took time away from everything to commune with the Father in prayer why do we think we don’t need to do the same?}

 

^{Specifically what was Jesus praying about? Scripture doesn’t record but I got a good idea of what. You see at the beginning of chapter Herod has John the Baptist executed. John’s disciples take the body, bury it and then go and tell Jesus. When Jesus hears it he departs to a deserted place to mourn and pray and that is when the multitudes track Him down.}

 

^{Three early martyrdoms are recorded in the New Testament: John the Baptist in ca. AD 31, Stephen in ca. AD 35 and James the apostle in ca. AD 44. So, John the Baptist, friend and cousin of Jesus becomes the first Christian martyr to die for his faith, and for his unwillingness to compromise that faith. Jesus gave testimony of John when He said in Matthew 11:11 “Assuredly, I say to you, among those born of women there has not risen one greater than John the Baptist” Jesus mourns for this loss, Jesus mourns knowing that John is the first of many who will lay their life down for their testimony of Him.}

 

^{We should note that not only does Jesus take time to be along with the Father but that Jesus takes time to mourn. In our immediate society we want to speed through everything. We should never rush our mourning or those that do. However, we do not grieve as they who have no hope according to 1 Thess 4:13}

 

^{24 But the boat was now in the middle of the sea,[}a^{] tossed by the waves, for the wind was contrary.25 Now in the fourth watch of the night Jesus went to them, walking on the sea. 26 And when the disciples saw Him walking on the sea, they were troubled, saying, “It is a ghost!” And they cried out for fear.}

 

^{So the Disciples were sent out on the boat at evening time. This would have been around 6pm. Jesus goes to them during the fourth watch of the night which was between 3-6AM in the morning. They have been out on sea, tossed by the waves all night long. So tossed by the waves and the wind was contrary doesn’t seem that bad I mean who hasn’t been on a boat and it bounced around a bit? Well this is where the English is sorely lacking.}

 

^{Greek for tossed is basanizo = to vex with grievous pains, to torture. Contrary = enantios = hostile & antagonistic in feeling or act. So it better translate the disciples had been out at sea for almost 12 hours and they were tortured by the waves because the wind was hostile towards them.}

^{The Sea of Galilee location makes is subject to sudden and violent storms. When cool air from the east drops over the warm air coming from the sea it can make for quick and furious thunder storms in a short time. The disciples were caught in one of these storms and they faced imminent death because of it.}

 

 ^{Jewish people of the time feared the Sea of Galilee; they described it as “an abyss, a fearsome place of darkness, chaos and hell.” Now being caught in a terrible storm in his horrible place they are seeing ghosts and they know that death has come for them. At the end in their fear and despair they cry out. Beloved take note here it is at this very moment that Jesus speaks to them. This is when He speaks to us in our brokenness, in our fear, in our despair.}

 

^{27 But immediately Jesus spoke to them, saying, “Be of good cheer! It is I; do not be afraid.” The}

^{So what does He say to them? Be of good cheer. It is I! Do not be afraid. Now minus any of you that are secretly British does anyone here go around saying be of good cheer? No? Thought so. It’s pretty close to our use of “Cheer up!” Now when do you use cheer up? When someone is sad over something trivial like your favorite team lost, your favorite band broke up, it’s raining and you wanted to go outside, or you just found out that Burger King no longer offers the Angry Whopper. It’s typically not something you use for someone who’s in a life threatening situation.  Why should they cheer up? The storm is still going, the boat is about to sink. Is His presence enough to cheer them up? Is His voice enough to calm them down? Is it for us? Should it be?}

 

^{Fear of Corona Virus. Everyone is so scared right now whether they admit or not. Change is hard. We are creatures of habit and when those routines are thrown off it’s chaos, when we are forced to change it’s even worse. I know your mad at the governor, and the superintendent and the president and virtually anyone else you can think to blame. Yet, we are called to pray for our leaders. I know your worried about tomorrow and how your going to pay your bills if you can’t go to work. Anger and fear are very closely tied together. This is unprecedented territory and fear has a tendency to reign supreme in the face of the unknown.}

^{Fear crouches in our hearts, hollows out our insides, breaks down our defenses. It gnaws and eats away at all the ties that bind us to God and to one another. When we turn on each other in fear God weeps and hell rejoices.}

^{Nothing makes us so conscious of the reality of powers opposed to God in our lives than this loneliness, this helplessness, this fog spreading over everything, this sense that there is no way out, and this raving impulse to get everything you can for yourself and who cares how it effects anyone else? Fear takes away our humanity. This is not what a person made in the image of God looks like.}

^{This passage is not about being afraid but of conquering that fear! We don’t have to be afraid, we shouldn’t be afraid. This is what makes us as Christians stand out from everyone else.  In the midst of every situation where there is no way out, where nothing is clear, where it is our fault, we know that there is hope, and this hope is called: Thy will be done, yes, thy will is being done.}

^{“This world must fall, God stands above all, his thoughts unswayed, his Word unstayed, his will forever our ground and hope.” Do you ask: How do you know?}

^{Then we call upon the name of the One who makes the evil inside us recoil, who makes fear and anxiety themselves tremble with fear and puts them to flight. We name the One who overcame fear and led it captive in the victory proces­sion, who nailed it to the cross and committed it to oblivion; we name the One who is the shout of victory of humankind redeemed from the fear of death—Jesus Christ, the Crucified and Living One. He alone is Lord over fear; it knows him as its master; it gives way to him alone. So look to Christ when you are afraid, think of Christ, keep him before your eyes, call upon Christ and pray to him, believe that he is with you now, helping you . . . Then fear will grow pale and fade away, and you will be free, through your faith in our strong and living Savior, Jesus Christ. Jesus saw Peter’s fear and spoke 3 simple words.}

^{“It is I.”}

 

^{There’s a lot of debate over those 3 words. I think it’s a declaration of deity. It’s the same phrase used in Exodus 3 when Moses says “Indeed, [when] I come to the children of Israel and say to them, 'The God of your fathers has sent me to you,' and they say to me, 'What [is] His name?' what shall I say to them?" And God said to Moses, "I AM WHO I AM."}

 

^{28 And Peter answered Him and said, “Lord, if it is You, command me to come to You on the water.”29 So He said, “Come.” And when Peter had come down out of the boat, he walked on the water to go to Jesus. 30 But when he saw that the wind was boisterous he was afraid; and beginning to sink he cried out, saying, “Lord, save me!”}

 

^{Peter encouraged by these steps out of the boat! Mind you the storm is still going on. He has been brought up to be in fear of Sea, and it’s very unlikely that he knows how to swim. He starts to walk on water and then the wind becomes too much and he starts to sink. Many of us look down on Peter for doubting and sinking but how many of us would have stepped out of the boat? How many of us are ok with following Jesus until the storms come? Until the wind is boisterous? Until we actually have to make a change or confront the sin in our lives? . There are daily chances to roll over and play dead. So here is Peter, scared and sinking and He cries out the wisest words He will ever say “Lord, save me!”}

 

^{31 And immediately Jesus stretched out His hand and caught him, and said to him, “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?” What is the Lord’s response? The same one He offers us. Immediately. Immediately. Jesus saves him. He could have calmed the storm that very moment. He could have let Peter float. He could have waved his hands or blinked his eyes and Peter would be standing on the water like it was ground. What did He choose to do? He reached out His hand and caught him.}

 

^{Psalm 40:1-2 “I waited patiently for the LORD; And He inclined to me, And heard my cry. He also brought me up out of a horrible pit, Out of the miry clay, And set my feet upon a rock, and established my steps.”}

^{Isaiah 49:16 “See, I have inscribed you on the palms [of My hands]”}

^{John 10:28 “And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand.” Later on in life I bet Peter had many occasions to doubt and I bet he recalled these words and remember when the Lord reached down and brought him up.}

 

^{32 -33 And when they got into the boat, the wind ceased. Then those who were in the boat came and worshiped Him, saying, “Truly You are the Son of God.”}

^{What we’ve yet to consider is the entire point of this passage. When Jesus sent them out on the boat they were following his orders. They went into an area they were afraid of, that they knew was dangerous and that they knew that the Lord had sent them too. Jesus being God knew that He was sending them into a storm, knowing that they would tried and tested. Yet He sends them anyway. Why is this? Why does God do this to us? Why does He knowingly, willingly send us into the storms of life? Look at the end result brethren.}

^{Those who were in the boat came and worshipped Him saying “Truly You are the Son of God.”}

^{When contemplating this passage Mark Stuart penned the following words:}

^{Just like peter I want to go farther
tread on the sea and walk on the water
step where he steps and go where he goes
side by side when the sea billows roll
I'll be alright when the wind comes
I'll be alright when the waves come crashing
I'm not afraid for this is my father's world}

^{If I keep my eyes on Jesus I can walk on water}

Quid Pro Quo

John 4:43-54

Quid Pro Quo

³ Now after the two days He departed from there and went to Galilee. 

his was remarkable in light of the opinions of most of the Jewish people of Jesus’ day regarding the Samaritans. They regarded Samaria and the Samaritans as a place and people to avoid if possible, and if it were necessary to go through Samaria it should be done as quickly as possible. That Samaritans should invite a Jewish teacher to stay with them, with no fear of a rebuff, shows how completely he had won their confidence.

 Later in Acts 8 we see Philip preaching the gospel in Samaria and having similar results. The fields were white unto harvest indeed! It is amazing how many doors the Gospel will open of us when we just take the time to share it. This year has been crazy to say the least, yet amongst all this constant instability we can depend up on and place our hope in Jesus and that is a hope we must share!

⁴⁴ For Jesus Himself testified that a prophet has no honor in his own country. ⁴⁵ So when He came to Galilee, the Galileans received Him, having seen all the things He did in Jerusalem at the feast; for they also had gone to the feast.

Finally! They get to where they are going, Galilee. Galilee was the area where Jesus grew up. Think of it like Person County a small everyone where everybody knows who everybody else is. Yet, there’s a danger in that as well. We can know people for a long time but not really know anything about them. There are people that I’ve known for over 30 years. Yet, I couldn’t tell you much about them other than we went to school together, because I haven’t really spent any time getting to know them.

It’s the same here with Jesus. There are people that know who He is, but they don’t really know who He is! It’s no different today. I’ve met my share of people that will say they got saved 20-30 years ago, but they really don’t have much knowledge of Christ or the Scriptures.

⁴⁶ So Jesus came again to Cana of Galilee where He had made the water wine. And there was a certain ^[b]nobleman whose son was sick at Capernaum. ⁴⁷ When he heard that Jesus had come out of Judea into Galilee, he went to Him and implored Him to come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death. 

Jesus is now in a Cana, a small town in a small area. Last time we saw him in Cana he turned water into wine at the wedding feast. Surely, the story of this had spread since the initial event. In fact, I imagine it had been the talk of the town for quite some time. People were on both sides, some saying it was a miracle, others saying it was a hoax and everything else in between.

While Jesus is there a nobleman from Capernaum approaches Him. Capernaum was about 20+ miles away from Cana and was roughly a days journey on average. It would be like us driving to Florida. This man was a nobleman. That literally translates to “a royal person”. This implies that he was a member of the court for Herod Antipas.

This mean that this guy has power, money, influence and resources. He had access to the best medical care that was available at that time. His son was still sick and now he was desperate. He has heard about Jesus and His miracles. He finds out that he’s only a day away, so he takes off to find him on the chance that it might work. His son was on his death bed and Jesus was their only hope.

It’s no fun having a sick child, and I’m talking about just minor sickness. We’ve certainly been through our share of sickness in our house with the kids. Flu, Pneumonia, Stomach Bugs, Hand Foot & Mouth, concussions. We have even had two hospitalizations when Madison had Kawasakis at 18 months and when Sam had RSV at just a few weeks old. I can tell you, as a parent, there’s very little I wouldn’t have done for my children if it meant they would be healed. If I could take the sickness myself I would without a seconds hesitation.

This father is desperate, sleep deprived and willing to do anything if Jesus will heal his son. Jesus response again is an odd one.

Unless you people see signs and wonders, you will by no means believe:

Jesus rebuked those who depended on signs and wonders before they would believe. It might seem that Jesus was harsh towards this man who wanted his son healed, but He encountered many in Galilee who were interested only in His miracles – He therefore questioned this man accordingly.

Signs and wonders from God are good things, but will never form the foundation of our faith. We should never depend on them to prove God to us. In themselves, signs and wonders cannot change the heart; Israel saw incredible signs at Mount Sinai and even heard the very voice of God (Exodus 19:16-20:1), yet a short time later they worshipped a gold calf (Exodus 32:1-6).

Every Pastor I have spent time with has countless stories of individuals who prayed for and received a miraculous healing. They promised things were going to be different and perhaps they were for a time, but they always went back to the way things were beforehand.

 

⁴⁹ The nobleman said to Him, “Sir, come down before my child dies!”

The mans response to Jesus comment is the correct one. He has lot of options available to him. He can offer both Carrot & Stick. As far as Carrot goes he has wealth, money, resources and influence. What do you want? Money, Food, Girls? Just name it and it’s yours! He could have gone stick, I’ll have you and all your disciples arrested. I’ll make life miserable for you and your family.  He could gone I’m a nobleman! A royal person! You should be honored I’m even talking to you.

He doesn’t do any of these things. Just like Pastor Dave preached Sunday he knows exactly who he is. A man begging for mercy from Jesus.

How often do we bargain with God? It always takes the form of God if you do X then I’ll do Y. I know many of you that have done that and many more that are trying it now. I’m here to warn you. Don’t bargain with God. It’s essentially a form of works. As if we have something, we can offer Him that He doesn’t already have, needs but cannot obtain or can’t do Himself! When we do this, we forget who we are and who we are talking to!

This is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. This is the Almighty that spoke the whole of creation into existence! What amongst our possessions is of any value to him? What task are you going to accomplish that He can’t do? This is no Quid Pro Quo with God. We approach Him not on the basis of our works (or future potential works) but on the basis of His Great Mercy! The Psalms tell us that they are new every day.

⁵⁰ Jesus said to him, “Go your way; your son lives.” So the man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him, and he went his way. 

What’s the result of pleading to Jesus for mercy? In Humility? Mercy is received! Jesus says your son lives! The man has no way to verify this. He can’t call someone to check. No cell phones back then. He can’t just run to his house and be back in 10 minutes to make sure Jesus really doesn’t need to come over. It’s another days journey to get back home. What’s the mans response? He believed the word of Jesus! No flash signs in the heavens, no magic words, Jesus doesn’t even pray before He does it. He just looks at the man and says “Your son lives.” The nobleman, who up to this point was an unbeliever (as we see from the text) no demonstrates true faith. What’s true faith? “the man believed the word that Jesus spoke.” That’s true faith.

When we believe the words that Jesus has spoken, we don’t have time to argue with people about masks, statues, or politics. We are too busy loving God, loving our neighbor and spreading the gospel.

⁵¹ And as he was now going down, his servants  

⁵² Then he inquired of them the hour when he got better. And they said to him, “Yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him.” ⁵³ So the father knew that it was at the same hour in which Jesus said to him, “Your son lives.” And he himself believed, and his whole household. This again is the second sign Jesus did when He had come out of Judea into Galilee.

What’s the end result? Not only a physical healing, which we know was temporary, this son eventually died as will we all one day when the Lord decides. We see a far more important spiritual healing for the entire household!

The first two signs in the Gospel of John took place at Cana of Galilee. The first was at a wonderful celebration – a wedding party. The second was connected with a terrible tragedy – the illness and impending death of a child. It’s important for us to note that Jesus is real in both aspects.

 

Break the walls down part 2

John 4:15-26

Break the walls down pt 2

The woman said to Him, “Sir, give me this water, that I may not thirst, nor come here to draw.”

Last time, A Samaritan woman comes alone to draw water from the well Jesus had stopped at. The disciples had been sent into town to buy food. Jesus asks they woman for a drink, as he had no equipment with him to draw from the well. The Samaritan woman is shocked that anyone is speaking to her much less a Jewish man. She has come by herself to draw water, which we will address in more detail shortly, but if you were a woman drawing from a well alone there was no good reason why you were in that circumstance.

With one simple question Jesus breaks down two walls. The wall of cultural prejudice and the wall of gender prejudice. He then offers her living water that quenches the soul eternally.

The woman responds “Give me water that I may not thirst.” Some view this passage as the woman mocking Jesus or being sarcastic. I think in light of her circumstances this is not the case. I thinks she’s stunned to have another adult talking to her. I thinks he senses something different, something unique about this strange Jewish man that is not only taking the time to talk to her but ask her for help. She wants to know more. She wants to understand. It’s as if she is saying “Jesus if there is anyway you can make my life better, I will take it!”

This is how it starts in our walk with Christ. We have to realize that His way of doing things is better than ours. Now I want to be clear about something. I’m not talking about building a better mouse trap. My first youth camp was to Atlanta for this Christian music festival appropriately named Atlanta Fest. We were in the hotel room after some wonderful Rock N Roll and Worship settling down for the night. One of the guys was thirsty and he didn’t want to pay the $4 for the bottle of water in the fridge. There were no water fountains or drink machines in our section of the hotel we were staying at. There was only an ice machine. The guy comes out of the bathroom with a cup of water and goes I got my water! He had gotten a cup of ice from the ice maker and then spent the last 20 minutes using that tiny hotel hair dryer to melt the ice until it became water. I looked at him and asks “Why didn’t you just fill it with the water from the sink?” His response? “Shut up!”

When I say Jesus way of doing things is better that’s not really what I’m talking about. I’ve talked about my salvation experience plenty since I got saved in Feb of 1998. I didn’t’ walk an aisle or pray a prayer. I didn’t make a deep heartfelt confession where I poured my entire heart out. I simply had a moment of brutal honesty between myself and the Lord where I said, “Lord, my way of doing things is not working. I am going to try things your way now.”

What’s His way? God’s Word! Love God, Love your neighbor. Do Justice. Love Mercy, Walk Humbly. All things by His grace. She realizes her life is a mess and maybe this guy can help.

¹⁶ Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.”

¹⁷ The woman answered and said, “I have no husband.”

Jesus said to her, “You have well said, ‘I have no husband,’

What is Jesus response here? It’s very telling honestly. He doesn’t say walk this aisle, pray this prayer, fill out this good deeds check list and make sure you put your 10% in the offering plate and I’ll think about it. He also doesn’t gloss over the circumstances that she is in. In fact, He deals with the directly and immediately.

We can’t evangelize solely on all the gifts of God. In fact that quickly slips into prosperity gospel the whole “naming a blessing yourself, wealth and power, strong healthy teeth, a spot at the beach and story book romance.”

You want to know one of the quickest ways to spot false doctrine? They never mention sin or the fact that we are sinners. Jesus immediately gets to the heart of the problem, as He always does.

Within the two months of salvation God removed a lot of ungodly things from my life. I knew these things needed to go but I was powerless to get rid of them in my own strength. By the grace of God I was gradually able to let these things go. It was painful, but it was also worth it. To this day I neither miss those things nor regret making those decisions. You can’t come to Christ and not be confronted with your sin. It just doesn’t work that way.

 ¹⁸ for you have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband; in that you spoke truly.”

What does Jesus say? He says you’ve had 5 husbands and you’re currently living with a man that isn’t your husband. This sounds like a plot to the young and the restless! I’ve read a ton of theories and conjecture as to why she was married so many times. Some put the entire onus on the woman and paint her in as negative a light as possible. Some place the entire onus on the men, or society as a whole.

The bottom line is that we don’t know, because the scripture doesn’t tell us. In fact, I think a big part of this story is that we don’t know so we won’t focus on the wrong aspect of the story. We all love a good scandal don’t we? And 2020 has not disappointed on that front! This story is not about the woman’s scandalous past, it’s about her scandalous salvation!

¹⁹ The woman said to Him, “Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet. ²⁰ Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, and you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place where one ought to worship.”

What’s telling her is the woman’s response. When we are confronted about our sin we typically respond with anger and defensiveness. “I don’t see how that’s any of your business!” “Well that’s my opinion and anyone that doesn’t like it can *!&&@”  My personal favorite is “Well where in the Bible does is say that?” Then you are shown and the response is “ Well I don’t care I’m going to do it anyway!” Then we wonder why our lives are such a mess.

She realizes that what she has suspected is true. This man is from God. She doesn’t yet realize the full truth of Christ but she is headed down the narrow way for certain.

She then asks a question that may seem like she is trying to change the subject. It’s not. She asks a very legitimate question. One about how you properly worship God.

Samaritan worship was a combination of Judaism and the various religions from all the Assyrian captives that had been forced to settle the land that became Samaria some 500 years prior. It was the largest source of contention between Jews and Samaritans. It’s no different than today with those multi religious services. Where officials of various religions take turns teaching the same congregation. The whole every religion is a different path up the same mountain to get to God is a lie. I know that’s unpopular, the truth often is, but Jesus says Himself in John 14:6 “I am the way, the truth and the life and no man gets to the Father expect through me.” I didn’t write it nor am I going to argue with the God who did.

She wants to know the truth about God and she knows she can get that from Jesus.   

²¹ Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe Me, the hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, worship the Father. ²² You worship what you do not know; we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews. ²³ But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. ²⁴ God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”

²⁵ The woman said to Him, “I know that Messiah is coming” (who is called Christ). “When He comes, He will tell us all things.”

²⁶ Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am He.”

Jesus pointed her to a time when worship would no longer be focused on places (neither Jerusalem nor Mount Gerazim). The greater work of Jesus would bring a greater, more spiritual worship. With these words Jesus described the basis for true worship: it is not found in places and trappings, but in spirit and in truth.

To worship in spirit means you are concerned with spiritual realities, not so much with places or outward sacrifices, cleansings, and trappings.

To worship in truth means you worship according to the whole counsel of God’s word, especially in light of the New Testament revelation. It also means that you come to God in truth, not in pretense or a mere display of spirituality.

She says, “I know that Messiah is coming, He who is called Christ, and when that one comes He will declare all things to us.” She wants to worship from the heart in truth. She knows the Messiah is the presenter of that Truth. Jesus says to her, “I who speak to you AM He.” There’s no “He” in the original language; it’s an I AM statement, the name of God. “I who speak to you AM.” The One speaking to you is the I AM.  The incarnate Christ is revealed. She has sought the truth and she has found the living embodiment of truth, the Logos of God. Twenty-three times in the gospel of John we read “I AM.” Seven times He says “I AM” something: the Bread of Life, the Branch, the Way, the Truth, the Life--all references to His eternal Godhood. He reveals Himself to her.

The world at the time would have said there’s to many walls that separate Jesus from this woman. Jesus says “ I AM” and every wall is broken down immediately and a scandalous woman, receives a scandalous salvation. Whatever walls may be between you and God presently just know a word from Him breaks them all down.