©2006 Larry Huntsperger Peninsula Bible Fellowship www.pbfonline.net
8/20/06 First Encounters Pt. 2
After a one week side track
we’re going to return to our study of the Gospel of John this morning.
And our study drops us back into John’s account
in the last half of the first chapter.
We have seen in our study so far
the way in which John has prepared us for what’s to come.
From his opening sentence
he makes it clear where he’s going.
JOH 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
This Man,
this Jesus who entered John’s world,
sought out this unknown fisherman,
and offered him friendship unlike anything he’d ever known before
was in fact God’s supreme communication of Himself to us, His creation.
And we have walked through those first 18 introductory verses
and listened to John share with us
everything he wanted most for us to know about this Man.
He told us who He was.
...and the Word was God.
He told us what He brought...
JOH 1:4 In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.
He told us how His creation responded to Him...
JOH 1:10 He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him.
He told us what happens in the lives of those
who chose to believe He really is who He claims to be.
JOH 1:12 But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name...
And then he tells us
that this Jesus,
this God/man came to pour out on us “grace upon grace... For the Law was given through Moses; grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ.
He’s talking with us
about a truly good God
who is seeking to be truly good to us, His creation.
And before we move into the next section of John’s writing
I want to interject one more comment that would not have been needed at the time John wrote,
but I think is very much needed today.
John isn’t selling anything.
He has no hidden agenda in what he says.
He’s not trying to get more people to come to “his” church.
He’s not hoping a publisher will pick up his manuscript
and use it as their lead book for the fall releases.
He has no reason for writing
apart from the one he states right up front -
he wants us to find the same thing in this Jesus that he found.
John is nothing like
what we have grown so accustomed to in our culture today.
We live in a culture
in which all too often Christianity is a product to be marketed,
and the more skillful the marketing,
and the more attractive the packaging,
and the more persuasive the messenger,
the more successful the marketing group will be.
In our culture today
it is all too common for local churches
to view themselves as independent businesses
in direct competition with other churches in the area,
and anything that helps their group
gain the advantage over another group
is viewed as desirable.
Nearly every week I receive some new mailing
from some church marketing group
promising to increase our attendance
and increase our budget
if we will adopt their program.
A few weeks back
I received a letter from some group calling themselves “Breakthrough Media”
offering us first rights to their program in our area.
According to their letter,
if I choose to be THE church in our target area to accept their marketing strategy,
they will supply us with “not only a turn-key, branded Community Newsletter, but also withreach-style Bridge Strategies, integrated and tied in with embedded ads, landing pages for our web site, all of which will add effective, wrap-around marketing solutions to this already content-rich, community image tool.”
That’s exactly what we need, folks,
to really make this local fellowship explode - a “content-rich, community image tool.”
Last week I received an elaborate mailing
with a whole list of “big name” Christians on the front,
claiming that, if I didn’t attend their up-coming conference,
there was a good chance that the church in the United States would cease to exist before the end of the decade.
I’m sure this came as shocking news to our Lord
who seems to be under the impression that, MAT 16:18 "...He will build His church; and the gates of Hades shall not overpower it.”
I think the worst I ever heard
was a TV preacher who was trying to raise money
so that his program could be aired on a world-wide TV network,
after which he quoted Christ’s promise that, MAT 24:14 "This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come.”
He ended with his assurance that his world-wide network
would certainly fulfill this prophecy
resulting in the Lord’s return.
And look what they’ve done to our song...
I had the most encouraging note this past week from Jill Leiter.
Most of you know that Gary and Jill left our fellowship just a few weeks ago and moved to Oregon.
It was actually an excerpt from a letter she’d written to her sister,
but in it she gave a description of our fellowship
that made me think we must be doing at least a few things right.
After trying one of the churches in their area, she said, “Church was just too churchy for us. I mean, they sang good songs, and the pastor is a good speaker that keeps your attention, but after coming from the Bible Fellowship in Soldotna, I don't know if I can handle churchy church anymore. I wonder if there are other churches like ours. I mean, our church had very little "programming". We never passed the offering plate. We had hardly any bills, so all our money went to pay the one full-time pastor and one part-time pastor and everything else went for missions. People were just people....lonely, hurting, struggling, and everyone knew it. If you wanted to stand to sing, you could. If you wanted to sit to sing, you could. No one told us when to do what. If you wanted to raise your hands and dance, you could, but you didn't feel like a loser if you didn't. We didn't have a bulletin. We didn't meet as a whole anytime except Sunday morning. Larry taught us about just giving our lives to God and letting Him do the rest, not about all the stuff we should be doing or not doing. There was never any pressure on anyone to "get involved". If God led you to do something, you just did it. I know we've been spoiled. And it's kind of made me cynical. People in church just seem so fake to me now. So you better pray, or I might just become a heathen!!! Pray that we can find something at least a little similar to what we are used to!”
I know,
better than probably anyone else here,
how far short we as a fellowship fall
from fulfilling the role God designed His church to fulfill in this world.
But there are at least a few things that I have learned in our 20 something years together,
things I know to be true.
I know that the Church of my Lord Jesus Christ is not business,
and His offer of salvation is not a product we offer,
and His grace is not a gimmick with which to attract more people.
I know that our God has not called us to peddle Jesus to the world.
I know that none of the standards by which any other organizations are measured
are applicable to the church as God designed it.
And I know that success or failure in the family of God
has nothing whatsoever to do with size,
or prominence,
or community recognition or prestige.
And I definitely know that if we honestly believe we need
a content-rich, community image tool to enhance our marketing strategy
something has gone tragically wrong.
Did you know that the Apostle Paul had two characteristics,
two evidences of the health of a local fellowship
with which he evaluated the maturity and true success of every one of the churches he worked with?
If we took the time to walk our way through his introductions to each of his letters,
we would find that with each of them
he looked for two characteristics within that local fellowship
that would allow him to accurately evaluate their health.
Every time he saw those characteristics
he affirmed them in the lives of those to whom he wrote,
and then went on to share with them additional information about our walk with Christ
that he then knew they were ready to receive.
And with the churches who did not possess these two characteristics
he then wrote his letter
with the hope of providing them with the instruction that would enable them to build the missing qualities into their lives.
We won’t take the time to look at each Epistle,
but I’ll use Ephesians, Colossians, and Thessalonians as examples.
To the Ephesians he wrote,
EPH 1:15-16 For this reason I too, having heard of the faith in the Lord Jesus which exists among you, and your love for all the saints, do not cease giving thanks for you, while making mention of you in my prayers;
To the Colossians he wrote,
COL 1:3-4 We give thanks to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and the love which you have for all the saints;
And to his friends at Thessalonica he wrote,
2TH 1:3 We ought always to give thanks to God for you, brethren, as is only fitting, because your faith is greatly enlarged, and the love of each one of you toward one another grows ever greater;
Did you see them?
What was Paul looking for?
...faith in the Lord Jesus..., and love for all the saints...
Faith and love...
Now you didn’t think those were just nice religious words
that Paul tossed into his opening remarks
so that he would sound like a proper Apostle, did you?
Do you know what he’s saying?
He’s saying that if a church is moving the direction God intends
it will be evident because those involved in that fellowship
will see real growth in two major areas of their lives.
The first is faith -
practical trust in God.
Believing He’s really there,
and then choosing to believe He can be trusted in what He’s said to us.
And the second is love -
in other words,
creating priorities within the fellowship
in which building and maintaining healthy relationships with one another
is more important to us than our rights,
our possessions,
or our ideas.
If that’s happening within a church body,
no matter what it’s size,
no matter what it’s budget,
no matter what it’s particular doctrinal orientation,
the Spirit of God can and will work in and through that fellowship.
And if those qualities are not developing as they should,
no matter what it’s size,
no matter how big it’s budget,
no matter how correct their doctrine may be,
it’s all just meaningless religion hiding under the banner of Jesus Christ.
But I got into all of this
simply because I wanted to point out
that there is not even the hint of that kind of religion
in anything John writes to us in this Gospel.
When he talks with us about a God
whose presence in our lives brings “grace upon grace”,
he’s not trying to dress God up in a nice facade
so that we’ll be more inclined to buy into whatever it is he’s peddling.
The truth is that what he’s offering us
has very little in common
with “the good life” as our world commonly defines it.
In fact if we look honestly
at the backdrop of John’s life
at the time he wrote these words
we might have real trouble understanding where he’s coming from.
At the time John wrote his Gospel,
of the 12 original Apostles,
he alone remained alive.
All the others
had already been executed for their commitment to their Lord.
And the very first of those eleven to die,
just months following Christ’s departure,
was John’s own brother, James.
And grace upon grace...
And at the time of the writing of this Gospel
John himself was in exile because of his allegiance to Christ.
And grace upon grace...
During his lifetime
he’d seen first his fellow Jews
and then the entire Roman governmental structure
declare war on him and his fellow Christians
because of their identity with this Jesus Christ.
And grace upon grace...
We know little about the details of his own family - his wife, his children.
We don’t know what they suffered
because of his and their union with Christ.
But one thing we do know,
that at the end of his life he was alone,
alone, that is, except for his Lord Jesus Christ.
And grace upon grace...
So how could he write these things?
How could he look back at the devastation
that Christ’s entrance brought into his life and his world,
and then talk with us about the love of God
and the grace of God being poured out on us through Jesus?
What does he know that we don’t?
And why in the world
would he in good conscience
write what he has written,
telling us openly that he has done it in order that...(we) may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing (we) may have life in His name... (Jn. 20:31)?
And as long as I’m asking questions,
let’s make it personal.
What are you doing here this morning?
Why is this God thing so important to you?
Why don’t you just set it aside
and go about living your life any way you want to?
It would seem to uncomplicate things, wouldn’t it?
And yet there are more than a few of you here this morning
who desperately, urgently want to know.
You want to know if He’s really there,
and if He can be trusted,
and if you really can find peace with Him.
You see, what John knew,
and what all of us are in the process of finding out
is that things are not at all as they seem,
and the things that really give life purpose and meaning,
the things that bring true fulfillment
are not at all what we have been led to believe.
Nearly thirty years ago now
I was in a conversation with a 13 year old boy.
At the time Sandee and I supported ourselves
by managing apartments.
I wasn’t a preacher.
I wasn’t a Bible teacher.
I was just an apartment manager.
I spent most of my days
painting,
and cleaning vacated apartments,
and fixing appliances and plumbing fixtures.
The boy was from a difficult home situation
and he and I struck up a friendship,
and for a number of months
he spent a good deal of time hanging around our apartment.
He and I would do woodworking projects together,
and we talked a lot .
Like all 13 year old boys
his mind was filled with all the things he would one day do and have -
lots of money,
and a really nice car,
and lots of fame and success and toys.
At the time I believe Sandee and I were still driving
the little white Ford Pinto that I used in my move to Alaska.
The tail pipe kept falling off,
and I remember what a breakthrough it was
when I discovered that if I took both ends off of a Campbell’s soup can,
then cut it lengthwise, wrapped it around the weak joint in the pipe,
and then put clamps on both ends
it would sometimes last for several months before it rusted through.
But I remember one afternoon
my young friend once again began sharing with me
a list of all the things he would one day have,
things that would make his life wonderful.
Then, on impulse, I asked him two questions.
“Of all the people you know,
who do you think is the happiest?”
It didn’t take him long to answer.
“Well, I guess you are.”
“And of all the people you know,
who has less toys and really neat stuff?”
“Well, I guess that would be you, too.”
I didn’t say much more to him then,
except to let him know that it certainly wasn’t wrong to want the stuff,
but the stuff would never fill the emptiness inside.
It wasn’t long after that
that he and I got into another conversation
that resulted in his taking his young life
and placing it into the hands of his Lord Jesus Christ.
Soon after that Sandee and I moved out of state for a while
and I lost touch with him
until a number of years later I received word that, in his early 20's,
the fishing boat on which he was working
was lost at sea with no survivors.
He never did get all that stuff he wanted,
but I’m certain he found what he was really looking for.
You see, life simply is not the way we’ve been led to believe it is.
And when John writes this gospel to us
he does it not because he has some personal or religious agenda he’s trying to fulfill,
but because he knows the truth.
He knows the truth about life - about why we’re here,
about what we’re really longing for,
and about where true fulfillment and purpose comes from.
And he knows the truth about God -
who He is,
what He wants from us,
and how we can literally enter into His love
and in that love find Him meeting our deepest needs.
If we take John’s life
and set it next to all of those measures
offered to us by our society,
those measures that tell us
the things that are suppose to bring us the good life
what we see in John falls miserably short of the mark.
But when we look inside this man,
and we listen to him telling us what came into his life
when Christ came into his life,
he tells us about the Creator of all things pouring out on him “grace upon grace”,
and about how, through Christ he received ...the right to become the child of God...
and about how, in Him was true life, abundant life, eternal life.
I wish I knew how to say
what I very much want to say right now.
I wish I had the words
that would allow me to communicate
not with your mind,
but with your spirit.
I don’t know how old you are.
I don’t know if you’re just going into Jr. High or High School,
or if you’re just starting your adult life,
or if you’re well into it now, or nearly through.
But wherever you are in your own life pilgrimage,
there are some certainties about life
that I want you to know
just as much as the Apostle John did.
I want you to know that what your God is offering you through Christ
is probably not the life you’re seeking right now,
but it is absolutely the life you really long for.
I want you to know
that the depth of His love for you
is such that He could never, would never cheat you
or withhold from you anything you need
for the most incredible life you could ever know.
I want you to know that He knows just exactly what it’s like to be 13 years old,
or 15,
or 25, or 45, or 58,
and He knows what brings fulfillment at every stage of life.
And I want you to know
that if you can get past all of the religious sewage swirling around us
and see Him as He really is,
and if you will trust the life He’s offering you
what you will receive from Him may not look anything like what you thought you wanted,
but it will be just exactly what you’re really longing for,
and when you look back on it
you will say with John
that what you received from your Lord was in every way grace upon grace,
and a life profoundly worth living.
John isn’t selling us anything, my friends,
but what he’s offering
is what our spirits truly hunger for.