9/16/07 The Jerusalem Debates Pt. 3

We are returning to our study of the Gospel of John this morning,

after being out of the study for the past four weeks.

And to help us get back into our study of John’s Gospel

it will help if I spend just a few minutes rebuilding the setting

for the section of the book we’re studying.

You know why John wrote the book, don’t you?

It was certainly not for the same reasons people write books today.

There was no such thing as a publishing industry in the 1^st century.

There was no such thing as publishing.

Everything that was written was written by hand.

At the time John wrote this document

he was the only member of the original 12 disciples still alive.

All the others had been executed because of their commitment to Christ.

Even Paul was gone,

God’s chosen Apostle to the non-Jewish 1^st Century world.

Some of them, under the direct guidance of the Holy Spirit,

had left behind writings for the early church - Paul, Peter, Matthew, Mark, Dr. Luke...

writings that clarified the truth about this Jesus.

John had read those documents, of course,

and he certainly didn’t take issue with them in the least.

He did not write in an attempt to correct what was already in circulation throughout the Church.

But he also knew that there was some knowledge he himself possessed,

knowledge that the others had not included,

knowledge that those of us who would come after him urgently needed,

knowledge he wanted to put into written form.

And so he wrote,

carefully selecting those events and those words spoken by the Master that he knew we needed,

giving us the remaining missing pieces in the New Testament portrait of our God.

Our study of John’s Gospel

has taken us through the events he selected for us from the first and second years of Jesus public life,

and then, when we reached chapters 7, 8, 9, and 10,

we came to everything John selected for us from the third year.

And what we have in these four chapters

is a detailed account of Jesus’ two brief appearances

in the capital city of Jerusalem during that third year.

When we read his account of these two brief Jerusalem visits

it’s easy to see why John selected them

for inclusion in his Gospel.

We’ve already seen the historical necessity of what took place

as we listened to the intense exchanges that took place between Jesus

and the Jewish national leadership.

Jesus knew the fear and anger His words and actions would generate in these men,

fear and anger intense enough

to motivate them to risk anything in order to erase Jesus from their world.

From their perspective He simply could not be permitted to threaten the power structure

that they had so carefully created for themselves,

and from His perspective

He knew He would need the driving motivation of their hatred

in order to bring about His redemptive work for the entire human race.

Interesting, isn’t it, how God brings good out of evil.

It’s one of the things that God does best.

He did not create the evil that existed in these men’s hearts,

but He did use that evil to bring about His own purposes, His own incredible good.

And He’s been doing he same thing in the lives of His people ever since.

Did you think it was only the good stuff in your life that God wants,

or that He uses?

Do you have some disasters in your life right now?

Some things you can’t undo,

things you can’t fix,

things you’ve been trying to hide from Him, and from others, and maybe from yourself?

Can I make a suggestion?

If you’re tired of hiding,

if the stress of trying to keep it all crammed down inside is destroying you,

why don’t you just place the whole hideous mess into His hands

and see what He can do with it?

And just exactly how do you do that?

Well, begin by being honest with Him.

Would you like me to suggest a prayer?

“Lord, Larry says you’re very good at bring good out of evil.

Well, if that’s true,

I’ve got a whole bunch of stuff for you to work with.

I need you, Lord.

I need to know that when you took me

you took all of me, not just the nice stuff on the outside,

but all of the junk inside as well.

I’m tired of hiding from You and from myself,

so here it is - the stuff I hate most about me.

Whatever you tell me to do, it’s OK with me.

I will trust you, and I will follow your lead.

I’ve been running and hiding long enough,

and now I just want You to heal me. Amen.”

Our Creator has been messing about with human evil

ever since Adam and Eve first sank their little bare feet into the dirt in the Garden of Eden.

It’s never been a threat to Him and it never will be.

There’s a whole world full of people

like these religious rulers here in the Gospel of John

who allow the evil within them to rule their lives,

driving them to fight against their God at any cost.

But no matter what they do,

they cannot stop the plans and purposes of God for His people.

There have been times in my life

when I have seen evil men in positions of authority

as they have used their authority to intentionally attempt to attack and destroy

the work of God in a Christian’s life.

And I have seen the way in which God has taken even their evil

and turned it into great good in the lives of those who are His.

And there have been countless times

when I have seen God take the evil in my own life,

and in the lives of my fellow Christians

and not just remove it,

not just erase it,

but literally recreate it into a far greater good than would ever have existed before.

I can’t explain that.

I can’t explain how He does it,

and I certainly can’t explain why He does it

except to say that it is the nature of our God to pour out grace, and kindness, and compassion, and redemption to all who come to Him.

I’m certainly not suggesting that it is an easy or painless process.

Frequently it’s not.

But if we trust Him,

and if we follow,

He truly does recreate us, and free us, and equip us for lives we could never have known any other way.

And each step we can and will find Him with us, in us, and more than adequate for us.

But let me get us back to John.

The men involved in these debates that we have recorded in these four chapters

were men driven be greed, pride, hatred, and fear.

And yet not only did all of this evil within them

not hinder our Lord’s plans

or the purposes of God,

but it became a crucial ingredient

in the perfect fulfillment of a plan that God had put in place from the foundation of the world.

Now, the last time we were in this study

we saw the framework of these four chapters.

We saw the Master’s two separate trips to Jerusalem.

The first trip, taking up more than three chapters of this section,

took place in the early fall at the Feast of Tabernacles.

On that trip Jesus made several carefully controlled public appearances of His own choosing,

and also used His interactions with a woman caught in adultery,

and with a man born blind,

to accomplish His purposes.

Then He left the city for a few months,

returning at the end of the year for the Feast of Dedication

and for one more pointed verbal battle with His enemies.

Following that second visit,

He left the city again

and did not return until His final entrance for the Passover Feast that culminated with His crucifixion.

I also mentioned the last time we were in this study

that there is a wealth of information about our Lord

woven throughout these debates,

and my hope is that you will take the time to read through this section on your own.

And if you do,

listen carefully to two things especially.

Listen to what Jesus says about Himself,

and listen to what He says about His relationship with His people - with us.

There is so much stupidity spoken about our Lord,

so many people who like some of the stuff He said,

especially when they can take it and twist it into their own form, for their own purposes,

but people who staunchly resist the truth that this is really God in human form

because if they accepted that truth

it would carry implications of submission and obedience that they simply don’t want to face.

And so they declare that He was “just a great prophet”.

But it is impossible to read Jesus’ words and still keep Him “just a prophet”.

The option simply isn’t there,

especially when we see what He says about Himself in these four chapters.

He makes claims and statements throughout these debates

that could only be spoken by God Himself or an absolute fool.

JOH 8:51 "Truly, truly, I say to you, if anyone keeps My word he will never see death."

What prophet has ever had the absolute power over life and death,

or claimed the right to give any other person eternal life?

Only God could make such a claim.

And then seven verses later

He makes His claim to deity even more blatant.

JOH 8:58 Jesus said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was born, I AM."

And the direct reference to God’s words spoken to Moses in Exodus 3:14

was not missed by those who heard Him speak.

You remember, don’t you,

what God said to Moses

when He asked God who he should say sent him to lead the people of Israel?

EXO 3:14 God said to Moses, "I AM WHO I AM"; and He said, "Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, 'I AM has sent me to you.'"

“...before Abraham was born, I AM."

Is it any surprise that the next verse in John reads,

JOH 8:59 Therefore they picked up stones to throw at Him...

The man just claimed to be God -

what else could they do?

And then I hope you’ll notice, too,

some of what He says about His relationship with His people.

Woven throughout these debates

are some of the most hope-filled,

comforting passages in all of Scripture.

And as you find them, I hope you’ll mark them,

circle them,

underline them.

Some of them are fun and tremendously freeing

like that one comment I quoted earlier from the man born blind.

When the Pharisees tried to confuse him with their skillfully crafted doctrine,

telling him that no one could really be in league with God and yet dare to violate their religious system,

he responded simply,

JOH 9:25 ... "Whether He is a sinner, I do not know; one thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see."

I like that so much.

The attacks against our simple trust in our Lord

never end as long as we’re on this planet.

But there is one defense against which no attack can win.

He’s changed my life.

I see things now that I never saw before.

Something huge,

something eternal has changed inside me.

Once I was blind,

but now I see.

Has your life changed since His entrance into it?

Do you get discouraged in your Christian life sometimes?

Do you find yourself focused on lots of problems,

or concerned about things in the future you can’t control and can’t avoid?

Here’s a question that might help.

Look at where you are now,

and the look back at where you came from

and ask yourself, “What would your life have looked like

if He wouldn’t have cared,

if He wouldn’t have stepped into your life and done what He’s done?

What would your life have become

if He had not chosen to reach out to you and draw you to Himself?

Once I was blind, but now I see...

And then there’s that description of His relationship with us

that He gave at the beginning of chapter 10.

JOH 10:7-11, 14-15 So Jesus said to them again, "Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. All who came before Me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them. I am the door; if anyone enters through Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly. I am the good shepherd; the good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep. I am the good shepherd, and I know My own and My own know Me, even as the Father knows Me and I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep.”

This is only a portion of what He said about this Shepherd/sheep relationship,

but it fascinates me to see what He’s doing through these words.

He was talking to a group of men,

most of whom were committed to His destruction.

They hated Him,

they hated the way in which both His words and His life

deeply threatened the power they possessed over the people.

And yet here He is attempting to put into words to them

a description of what God longs for in His relationship with each of us.

“I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.”

Do you know what that is?

That’s our God revealing to us

His motivation behind all that He does in our lives.

What are you afraid of, my friend?

What are you afraid of in what He’s been saying to you this past week?

Have you been afraid that trusting Him,

following Him,

allowing Him to do what He wants to do

will bring about exactly the opposite result -

that He will somehow rob you of the abundant life?

You’ve believed the lie.

You’ve allowed yourself to believe

that the abundant life you hunger for so much

can never be found where He wants to lead you.

I spend a great deal of me time

and invest a great deal of my efforts

in the lives of young Christians, many of them still in their teens.

When they look at me

they see what, to them, is a very, very old man.

And yet, when I talk with them about trusting the leadership of God in their lives,

and about them, at 14, or 16, or 19 years old

finding everything they hunger for most in the center of His will,

they believe me...well, at least some of them do,

because they know I’m not selling anything.

I let them know enough about myself and my past

so that they know that I was there myself, at their age.

I felt the same things they feel,

I wanted the same things they want.

And when I tell them that their God will never cheat them of any good thing

they know I’m not peddling religious piffle,

I’m simply telling them the story of my life.

Our definition of a truly abundant life changes dramatically between 16 and 60.

When I was 19 years old what I wanted most

was action, adventure, freedom,

I wanted to conquer the world.

And now, forty years later, sometimes what I want most is to sit in silence in the sunshine on a park bench

with Sandee on one side of me

and a cup of Starbuck’s on the other.

And in His grace and kindness

my God has given me both

and He has kept His promises to me absolutely,

redefining the abundant life perfectly each step of the way.

It’s too late in the morning for me to get going on this,

but let me just say, too, before I close,

that I do love the way in which Christ describes His relationship with His people in that passage.

He tells us His goal for us - the abundant life,

but He does so much more than that.

He also describes the way in which we find that abundant life.

We do it by entering into a Shepherd/sheep relationship with Him.

HE is the one who knows what we hunger for,

and He is the one who shepherds us into that life,

protecting us each step of the way

as we submit ourselves to Him.

“I am the good Shepherd...”.

What an amazing relationship between us and God.

He spoke those words

to a group of people who feared Him, hated Him.

But I think He still wanted to stir in them a hunger that went beyond their anger.

He wanted them to know even then what they could have

if they were willing to have Him.

Do you fear Him?

Are you angry at Him for things you believe He is responsible for in your life,

things He could have changed but didn’t,

things you hate and yet cannot escape?

That’s OK.

We all pack around with us

our misconceptions of our God.

He’s well use to it.

But what He offers us is clear

and the kind of relationship He seeks with us

is what our spirits long for more than anything else.

I am the good Shepherd...

David understood it

and he put it into words for us.

Maybe his words will help.

PSA 23:1-6 The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside quiet waters. He restores my soul; He guides me in the paths of righteousness For His name's sake.

Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; You have anointed my head with oil; My cup overflows. Surely goodness and lovingkindness will follow me all the days of my life, And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

Well, that’s just a tiny bit of what you’ll find in these four chapters if you’ll get into them on your own,

something that I strongly encourage you to do.