8/27/06 First Encounters Pt. 3

For two weeks now

      We have been gradually moving back into our study of the Gospel of John.

And for two weeks

      I have once a again found myself deeply affected

            by some of the comments John has made in the first 18 verses of this book.

This morning we’re going to pick up where we left off,

      and spend most of our time laying some groundwork

            for where John goes in the last half of this first chapter.

As we move into this next section

      we are going to see John share with us

            Christ’s first encounter with 6 men -

John the Baptist,

      Andrew,

            an unnamed disciple,

                  Peter,

                        Philip,

                              and Nathanael.

And it will help us here

      if we keep in mind that everything in this Gospel

            has been carefully chosen by John

                  to help us know the truth about this Jesus.

And a huge part of that truth

      is revealed to us in what took place between Jesus and the individuals in His life.

There were literally thousands of first encounters between Jesus

      and individuals in His world,

            and John has carefully selected several of them

                  and then allowed us to listen in on those conversations in some detail.

In fact, as we move through this book

      we’ll find that John devotes a remarkable amount of his account

            to several of those first encounters.

Those personal conversations

      are one of the truly distinctive aspects of his Gospel,

            as compared to the other three.

And he does this because it is the most effective tool he has

      for introducing us to some crucial truths we need

            for the choices we have to make.

You see, when it comes to us and our Creator,

      it’s always personal,

            it’s always about our individual interaction with our God.

It isn’t about God running the world,

      and directing the affairs of the human race,

            and then His using people here and there

                  to accomplish His broader world-wide purposes and goals.

Certainly He is directing the affairs of the human race,

      moving both events and individuals toward His predetermined goals,

but He is doing all of that

      simply because it provides the necessary stage

            upon which He can then carry out that real purpose

                  which is His personal interaction

                        with each individual He brings into this world.

This world is not some kind of on-line video game

      in which God is playing against Satan,

            with Him focused on planning strategies with countries and cultures

                  and expendable human beings

                        to see whether He or Satan ultimately wins.

The outcome of that game

      has already been determined.

God wins.

If you’re interested in how it all plays out

      read Daniel and Revelation.

The real battle right now

      is the battle being waged for the hearts of each of us on this planet.

It’s the battle for you and for me,

      because, you see, that’s what it’s all about.

We are what really matters to God.

Everything else in all of creation is disposable.

When it has served its purpose

      it will all be tossed aside,

            burned up like a used styrofoam cup.

But we alone are eternal,

      and each of us enter this world

            with our eternal destinies undecided.

Following our most recent baptism a few months ago

      I talked briefly with the grandpa of one of the young people who’d been baptized.

It was obvious that what had just happened

      had affected him deeply -

not just the baptism,

      but his seeing his grandchild choose to take a very decisive step

            into deeper commitment to the Lord Jesus Christ.

And all he said to me was,

      “This is what it’s all about, isn’t it?”

When he said that

      I knew he was seeing the truth

            about life as it really is - what truly matters and what doesn’t.

You see, it’s always, only about each of us and our God.

Here we all are this morning,

      gathered together in this public meeting.

And when we leave in another few minutes

      each of us will have our opinions about the meeting -

            how it went,

                  whether we liked it or didn’t like it,

                        whether we liked the music or the teaching.

And that’s fine.

That’s the way we think as human beings.

We focus on the meeting, the group, the externals.

But with God there is no big meeting here this morning,

      there’s just two hundred plus individual relationships that He has with those of us here.

And when He evaluates this hour of our lives

      the meeting itself is of significance

            only in relationship to how it has affected each of us

                  in our own personal interaction with Him.

Because that’s all there is.

There is us and Him,

      and every event

            and every circumstance in our lives

                  has significance only as it affects our individual relationships with Him.

Now, I want us to look briefly at each of these first encounters

      that John has selected for us

            as part of his introduction of Jesus to us

                  because he has selected each one of them for a special purpose.

And the first one that John offers us

      is Jesus’ initial encounter with John the Baptist.

Let me read the account for us

      and then we’ll talk a little bit about what’s happening here.

JOH 1:19-28 This is the testimony of John, when the Jews sent to him priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, "Who are you?" And he confessed and did not deny, but confessed, "I am not the Christ." They asked him, "What then? Are you Elijah?" And he said, "I am not." "Are you the Prophet?" And he answered, "No." Then they said to him, "Who are you, so that we may give an answer to those who sent us? What do you say about yourself?" He said, "I am a voice of one crying in the wilderness, 'Make straight the way of the Lord,' as Isaiah the prophet said."

       Now they had been sent from the Pharisees. They asked him, and said to him, "Why then are you baptizing, if you are not the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?" John answered them saying, "I baptize in water, but among you stands One whom you do not know. "It is He who comes after me, the thong of whose sandal I am not worthy to untie." These things took place in Bethany beyond the Jordan, where John was baptizing.

And in some ways

      this encounter is the most difficult for us to relate to,

            partly because John the Baptist is least like us,

and partly because we have been born at a time in history

      when God’s revelation of Himself to the human race

            is unlike any other time that has ever been or ever will be.

You see, John the Baptist

      was nearly the last in a long line of divinely equipped prophets,

men who were literally sent by God

      as central figures in His communication of Himself to the world.

When John came on the scene in Israel

      he impacted the society of that tiny nation

            as no one had done for more than 400 years.

Divinely empowered by God,

      he spoke with a voice of authority

            that served as a search light

                  turned onto the souls of all who heard him.

And with skill and decisiveness

      he revealed what was in the hearts of men and women.

That’s what all true prophets did.

They were used by God to reveal the hearts of those who came in contact with them.

They didn’t change their hearts,

      they simply revealed them.

And when John did this in his world

      it infuriated those who held power in the nation.

It infuriated them

      because John confronted them with their corruption,

            and their greed,

                  and their lust for power.

It was these people who finally went to him and demanded, "Who are you?"

They asked him three questions,

      all of which were rooted in prophecies from the Old Testament.

“Are you the Christ?”

      “Are you Elijah?”

            “Are you the prophet?

The answer to the first question was clear - no, he was not the promised Messiah,

      but he then went on to tell them

            that the Christ was already on the earth and walking among them.

The answer to the other two questions, though,

      was not so clear.

You see, the problem with the Elijah question

       was that the prophecy upon which they based their question

            was a two-pronged prophecy.

It had dual fulfillments.

And John answered their question

      in the context in which it was asked.

The Elijah prophecy comes from the last chapter of the book written by Malachi,

            the last true prophet

                  prior to John’s appearance on the scene.

Speaking for God, he says,

MAL 4:5 “Behold, I am going to send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and terrible day of the Lord.”

Now, what no one understood until after Christ’s appearance on the scene,

      was that there was not one

            but two comings of the Messiah.

They are both mentioned in that Malachi prophecy,

      but at the time no one could see it.

“The great day of the Lord”

      is a reference to the first coming of Christ,

            the coming in which He literally redeemed the world.

“The terrible day of the Lord”

      is a reference to the events directly preceding His return,

            a time referred to in other passages as the great tribulation,

                  a time of terrible devastation unlike any other time in history.

Those who came to question John

      were asking him if he was the promised Elijah

            who would precede that terrible day.

And John knew he was not,

      and answered accordingly.

Now what we do during the next few minutes will take us a little off track here,

      but I think it’s worth it because it will help us to better understand our role in the world,

            and also to appreciate the kind of commitment God has to us

                  in His determination to communicate Himself to the people He has created.

You see, I think it might be helpful

      for us to look at the promised Elijah

            who will ultimately complete this prophecy.

There are actually two men who will appear on this earth for 1260 days

      just prior to the return of Christ to this earth.

Their remarkable work

      is recorded for us in some detail in the 11^th chapter of Revelation,

and I think it’s worth our time to read that account

      because of what it says to us

            both about us and about our God.

REV 11:3-12 "And I will grant authority to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy for twelve hundred and sixty days, clothed in sackcloth." These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands that stand before the Lord of the earth. And if anyone wants to harm them, fire flows out of their mouth and devours their enemies; so if anyone wants to harm them, he must be killed in this way. These have the power to shut up the sky, so that rain will not fall during the days of their prophesying; and they have power over the waters to turn them into blood, and to strike the earth with every plague, as often as they desire.

       When they have finished their testimony, the beast that comes up out of the abyss will make war with them, and overcome them and kill them. And their dead bodies will lie in the street of the great city which mystically is called Sodom and Egypt, where also their Lord was crucified. Those from the peoples and tribes and tongues and nations will look at their dead bodies for three and a half days, and will not permit their dead bodies to be laid in a tomb. And those who dwell on the earth will rejoice over them and celebrate; and they will send gifts to one another, because these two prophets tormented those who dwell on the earth.

       But after the three and a half days, the breath of life from God came into them, and they stood on their feet; and great fear fell upon those who were watching them. And they heard a loud voice from heaven saying to them, "Come up here." Then they went up into heaven in the cloud, and their enemies watched them.

By the way,

      at the time John received this Revelation,

            don’t you think he must have wondered how this could possibly be true?

Clearly this prophecy indicates

      that almost instantly the whole world will know of the death of these two men,

            and a world-wide celebration of three and a half days follows.

Yet, at the time he wrote, John lived in a world

      in which the fastest communication possible

            was probably a camel or a horse running at a sprint.

It would take weeks just for news to travel

      even over a tiny portion of the world in which he lived.

How in the world could all of the peoples and tribes and tongues and nations...look at their dead bodies for three and a half days...?

How could the entire world “see” their dead bodies lying in the streets of Jerusalem?

It must have seemed like utter absurdity to John.

And yet today it makes perfect sense to us.

All we have to do is flip on the TV,

      or lock onto some web cam on the other side of the world.

So many huge pieces have fallen into place in our generation.

But let me get us back on track...sort of.

What we are reading in those verses

      is a description of events on this earth

            at a time when all of the God-games have ended.

The Anti-Christ rules the world,

      Satan is at the height of his power,

            and the warfare between Satan and God is visible for all to see.

The people of God have been removed from the earth,

      or martyred,

            or driven underground,

and those in power

      and all who align themselves with them

            openly identify Christ and His people as the great enemies of the human race.

But look at this!

Even during this relatively brief time of tremendous turmoil on the earth

      God makes certain

            that every person still has an opportunity to hear the truth

                  in a way that is perfectly matched to counter the lies the enemy is presenting.

There is no question but that the Anti-Christ will seem to offer “the good life”

      to all those who submit to him.

And he will come with signs and wonders and powers unlike anything anyone has ever possessed before.

But then,

      at this critical time,

            one of the things God does

                  in His ongoing commitment to offer His grace and forgiveness to each human being

is to place on this earth

      His last two prophets,

            men equipped by Him with powers that rival anything being offered by the Anti-Christ.

And if anyone wants to harm them, fire flows out of their mouth and devours their enemies; so if anyone wants to harm them, he must be killed in this way. These have the power to shut up the sky, so that rain will not fall during the days of their prophesying; and they have power over the waters to turn them into blood, and to strike the earth with every plague, as often as they desire.

And then, with the backdrop of all of that power,

      power that serves as a constant validation of their credibility,

they offer to the world the same message God has been offering the human race

      ever since the Garden of Eden.

I like the way Christ Himself said it.

MAT 11:28-29 "Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.”

And how did those on this earth at that time respond to their offer?

I can answer that best

      by reminding us of how the world responded to their deaths.

Those from the peoples and tribes and tongues and nations will look at their dead bodies for three and a half days, and will not permit their dead bodies to be laid in a tomb. And those who dwell on the earth will rejoice over them and celebrate; and they will send gifts to one another...

You see, God’s prophets do not change human hearts,

      they simply reveal what’s already there.

But how about now?

How does God accomplish that work now

      in this prophetless time between John the Baptist

            and these two prophets in Revelation chapter eleven?

And this is where I’ve been wanting to take us this morning

      because there is something God is doing through us right now,

            something that I think we are often completely unaware of.

What He once did through His prophets

      He now does through us,

            His Church.

On the surface it looks different

      because we are not prophets,

            we are sons and daughters of the King,

                  and His life through us seems very different

                        from what we see in the lives of the prophets.

But the end result is the same.

Whenever we align ourselves with Christ,

      and conduct ourselves in ways that are consistent with His life within us,

            we, too, reveal the hearts of those around us.

And I want very much for you to understand what I’m saying here.

You see, just as the prophets

      did not change human hearts,

            but rather simply revealed what was there,

so we don’t change hearts either,

      we simply reveal them.

It took me a long time to figure this out.

There was a time in my life

      when I honestly believed it was my responsibility

            to try to change the hearts of those around me.

But there is only One who can change the human heart - God Himself.

And what we as Christians do in this world

      is simply to bring to light

            the heart attitudes toward Christ in those around us.

Because, as a Bible teacher, I’m such a public Christian

      I’m probably a little more aware of this whole thing than many of you are,

            but, even if we’re not aware of it,

                  it works the same way in each of our lives.

The truth is that

      when the people around us

            sense the presence of Christ within us

                  they will tend to respond to us

                        the same way they respond to Christ Himself.

Some time ago I received an e-mail from a young man in his late teens

      who was wrestling with some hard relationship questions.

I suggested we get together and talk

      and he accepted the invitation.

In the end we ended up sharing a number of lunches together

      over the course of several months.

And about half way through those meetings,

      as my young friend was wrestling with some especially difficult choices

            that had grown out of our conversation,

I said to him,

      “I know the choices you face are hard,

            but I also know your heart,

                  and I know you want to do what’s right.”

He looked at me and then said, “So how do you know that?”

I said, “I know it because,

      of all the people you could have gone to for advice,

            you chose me.

You knew before we ever got together

      what I believe

            and what I would say to you.

You weren’t looking for answers

      so much as you were looking for encouragement and help

            in following through with the choices you’ve already made in your heart.”

You see, all I did was to provide him with a mirror

      in which he could see what was really going on inside him.

But, even though we don’t change hearts,

      that is certainly not to say that our Lord doesn’t use us to change lives.

For you see, here’s the crucial thing -

      even though we can’t change the hearts of those around us,

at the same time we can have a huge role

      in encouraging and equipping those

            whose hearts are open to their God.

We don’t change hearts,

      but when God entrusts into our care

            another person whose heart is open to Him,

                  we can dramatically change their life.

We are all so deeply scarred,

      so wounded by the attacks of the enemy,

but once that heart battle between us and our God is over,

      the truth really does heal,

            it really does free.

And the more we bring truth into the lives of those whose hearts are open to their God

      the more they will find that healing and that freedom.

Most of the time it’s not through our words that we bring that truth,

      it’s through our actions,

            and through our attitudes toward them,

                  and our kindness to them,

                        and through the value they see us placing on them.

Let me simplify it.

Whenever we choose to relate to them

      in the same way that Christ relates to them,

whenever we choose to love them

      we introduce them to the truth that has the power to heal.

And whenever they hear that truth,

      whenever we can find some way of getting it to them,

            it will literally alter the course their lives for good forever.

We don’t change hearts,

      but we can profoundly change the lives

            of those whose hearts are open to their God.

Well, I’m only half way through Jesus’ first encounter with John the Baptist,

      so we’ll come back to it next week and finish it up.