Matthew C. Mitchell's Blog, page 12

"Above All" [Matt's Messages]

“Above All”Life in Jesus’ Name - The Gospel of JohnLanse Evangelical Free ChurchOctober 8, 2023 :: John 3:22-36 
This church is not about us. This church is not about me. And this church is not about you. And this church is not even about reaching the world outside of these walls.
This church–above all–is about Jesus.
I was really excited when I saw that this passage is where we’d be in the Gospel of John on Celebration Sunday 2023.
Because I could immediately see how we could profit from studying its message on the day when we pause to celebrate how wonderfully God has blessed our congregation for the last 131 years.
On your birthday, it’s easy to think that it’s all about you. And while we have most certainly been blessed–above all–this church is not about us. It’s about Jesus above all.
I pulled the title for this message from verse 31 where it appears twice: “The one who comes from above is above all; the one who is from the earth belongs to the earth, and speaks as one from the earth. The one who comes from heaven is above all.” And, as we shall see, that is our Lord Jesus Christ.
Let’s study the passage closely and see how this comes out and think about how it applies to us today. 
[VIDEO WILL BE EMBEDDED HERE.]
Let’s start in verse 22 and read through verse 24.
“After this, Jesus and his disciples went out into the Judean countryside, where he spent some time with them, and baptized. Now John also was baptizing at Aenon near Salim, because there was plenty of water, and people were constantly coming to be baptized (This was before John was put in prison.)” (vv.22-24). Stop there for a second.
This story takes place some time after Jesus met with Nick at night. Some time has passed since Nicodemus came to Jesus in the darkness, and Jesus told him that he must be born again. And that he must believe in the lifted-up Son to have eternal life.
Some time has passed, and Jesus has taken his disciples on a team-building retreat into the countryside. And while there, they are also baptizing new disciples in Jesus’ name.
At the very same time, John the Baptist (remember him?) and his disciples are also baptizing. They are west of the Jordan in a very wet place called Aenon near Salim.
I think it’s interesting, and I always point this out in our baptism classes, that it apparently takes a lot of water to baptize the right way (or at least whenever you can get a lot of water, it’s best to use a lot of water). John and his disciples are baptizing in this spot (v.23) “because there was plenty of water.” He was a full immersion kind of guy. No little sprinkling going on here. They don’t call him “John the Baptist” for nothing!
But John’s not the only one baptizing now. Jesus is! Or at least His disciples are baptizing under His authority (see 4:2) now.
And it might seem like a competition. It might seem like a rivalry. In fact, I think John’s disciples very much saw it that way. Look at verse 25.
“An argument developed between some of John's disciples and a certain Jew over the matter of ceremonial washing.”
We don’t know what the argument was about. It apparently doesn’t matter. Something to do with the relationship between baptism and ceremonial washings.
What does matter is that apparently Jesus’ name comes up during the theological debate. And John’s disciples seem to be jealous for John’s corner on the market. Verse 26.
“They came to John and said to him, ‘Rabbi, that man who was with you on the other side of the Jordan–the one you testified about–well, he is baptizing, and everyone is going to him.’”
You can just hear how concerned they are for their master. “Teacher, remember that guy you pointed out back in chapter 1? The guy who some of us immediately started to follow after you pointed him out? Well, now he’s baptizing. And it looks like he’s ‘blowing up!’ ‘Everyone is going to him.’”
Now, I love how loyal they are to their leader. They clearly love him, and that can be a really good thing. 
But if they are truly upset, they have truly missed their master’s whole point. “Rabbi! We call you ‘Notorious JTB.’ You are John The Baptist. Is it okay if this Jesus guy baptizes, too?”
Now, let’s look at how John responds to them and learn an incredible lesson in how to think about ourselves. John just nails this. Verse 27.
“To this John replied, ‘A man can receive only what is given him from heaven.’”
In other words, “If I have anything good, it was a gift in the first place. If I have a blessing. It was a blessing I didn’t earn. If I have a wonderful position in the world–the forerunner of the Messiah[!?]–I didn’t deserve that in the first place. I just received it. So I don’t need to hold onto it desperately as mine by right.”
The Apostle Paul said to the Corinthians, “What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as though you did not?” (1 Cor. 4:7 NIVO).
I love how humble John is here. He knows that if he’s had a wonderful ministry and it might be taken away from him, it wasn’t about him anyway, so he’ll be fine.
Our church has had a wonderful history. But if we start to see the churches around us start to grow and we don’t, we should not get resentful or envious. You can only receive what is given you from heaven. Verse 28. 
“You yourselves can testify that I said, 'I am not the Christ but am sent ahead of him.'”
Remember that from chapter 1? They wanted to know who John thought he was, and he said that he was “The Voice.” “I am the voice of one calling in the desert, 'Make straight the way for the Lord'” (Jn. 1:23 NIVO). He knows that he’s just a voice, and being the voice was just his gift from heaven. He didn’t deserve it or earn it. He’s just the Voice, but Jesus is the Lamb.
“Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (Jn. 1:29 NIVO).
John was just here to point his boney finger at Jesus. And the point of the pointing was not the pointer! But the Person he was pointing at! So if his disciples were getting bent out of shape that John was being eclipsed by Jesus, they were missing their master’s whole point.
So John uses a cultural illustration that they would all understand. Look at verse 29.
“The bride belongs to the bridegroom. The friend who attends the bridegroom waits and listens for him, and is full of joy when he hears the bridegroom's voice. That joy is mine, and it is now complete. He must become greater; I must become less” (vv.29-30).
I’ve got two points of application this morning, and here’s number one:
#1. REJOICE IN JESUS ABOVE ALL.
This is a beautiful illustration. It just sings!
Who is the most important woman at a wedding? That’s easy. It’s the bride.
Who is the most important man at a wedding? Should be easy, too. It’s not the officiating pastor.  And it’s definitely not the best man. 
It’s the groom. “The bride belongs to the bridegroom.” That’s how it is, and how it should be.
John says (v.29), “The friend who attends the bridegroom waits and listens for him, and is full of joy when he hears the bridegroom's voice.”
Now, the closest thing we have in our culture to the “friend who attends the bridegroom” is our best-man at an American wedding.
But the “friend who attends the bridegroom” had a much bigger role than most “best-men” do these days. In those days, “The ‘friend’ was a highly honored position who had numerous, important functions at the wedding, including serving as a witness, contributing financially, having a prominent place in the festivities, and providing general oversight and arrangement for the ceremony” (Edward W. Klink III, pg. 219).
He was almost responsible for the whole thing. And he has responsibilities for the bride, too, in terms of making sure that she was ready to be presented to the groom at the wedding. In some of their weddings, this guy was the guy who presented the bride to the groom like how in our weddings often the father-of-the-bride walks her down the aisle?
It would not be hard to imagine a guy in that role that thought he was the most important man at the wedding. And, honestly, it would be a very important role, right?! There is no shame in being the best-man. Unless! Unless the best-man started to think that he was more important than the bridegroom.
If he’s doing his job, he’s waiting to hear the bridegroom say, “I do.” “I take you as my lawfully wedding wife.” He’s doing everything he can to bring these two together on their day. So that the groom says, “I am so happy! I am happy above all men today because we are now married.”
And then, and only then, is the groom’s friend happy. “The friend who attends the bridegroom waits and listens for him, and is full of joy when he hears the bridegroom's voice. That joy is mine, and it is now complete.”
John knows that he is the friend of the bridegroom.
Who is the bridegroom? It’s Jesus.
So who is the bride in this illustration? The bride is the people of God. In the Old Testament, it was Israel. Israel was often pictured as the bride of Yahweh. And in many ways, the story of the Old Testament is a story of a wedding to come where the bride and the bridegroom are united at last. The Messiah is like a bridegroom that has promised to come for His bride.
And now in the New Testament we know that the bride is more than just Israel, Jew and Gentile together in a new thing we call “The Church.” We, all of us who are believers, are a part of the Bride of the Messiah. 
So here’s the picture. John is just so happy that he has brought people to the Messiah. He has gotten the people of God ready and presented them as a bride to their long-awaited groom. And nothing could make him happier. “That joy is mine, and it is now complete.” This is what I’ve come for. This is my whole point!  “He must become greater; I must become less.” My ministry is not about me. It’s about Jesus.
Do you see how we could all learn from that? There is no reason to get jealous for ourselves or for our ministries. If we see other churches or ministries flourish, we should just be glad that the bride is coming to the bridegroom. Because it’s not about us.
We should be content and humble and thankful for any role that we can play. And anytime we do play a role, however big, we shouldn’t get a big head about it. Because we didn’t do anything to earn or deserve in the first place. It was given to us from heaven.
Notice that “becoming less” does not mean that we shrivel up but that we are increasingly blessed by Jesus. He gives us more and more. We receive more and more. We are not impoverished by “becoming less.” We are enriched! We just are not that important.
John the Baptist was truly great. You know how I know that? Jesus said so! He said, “Among those born of women there has not risen anyone greater than John the Baptist...” (Matt. 11:11 NIVO).
But part of his greatness was his humility. Recognizing that it was not about him. Even he was not about him. He was about Jesus!
I think there is a good word for us here to not get too attached to our spiritual leaders.
For example, don’t get too attached to me. It’s Pastor Appreciation Month, and I am so grateful for all of your expressions of appreciation. Thank you for the cards and calls and messages. They are very encouraging. Thank you for sending Heather and me to the Pastors and Wives Retreat next weekend, especially in a year when you gave us that incredibly restorative sabbatical. Thank you. We feel very very loved.
But don’t give me any of the love and loyalty that Jesus deserves. When we came back from sabbatical, I came up with this sentence to describe how it felt. I would tell people, “They missed me, but they didn’t need me.” 
And that’s exactly how it should be. You don’t need me. You need Jesus. I’m not the point. I’m just one of the friends of the groom. Pointing you to him. Often pastors can get a “messiah complex” and begin to think that everything is about them. And churches can make that mistake about their pastors, too.
John the Baptist shows us the right way, “He must become greater; I must become less.” How fitting that these are the last words from John the Baptist in this Gospel. “He must become greater; I must become less.”  Not jealous but joyful. Rejoice in Jesus above all.
I don’t have any plans to go anywhere. But if I were to leave this church or to die, would you continue on? I sure hope so. Because this church is not about me. It’s not even about you! This church is about Jesus, above all. And we should be, like John the Baptist, doing our little part to introduce the bride to the bridegroom. We will find our greatest joy when we see the people of God united to the Son of God.
This last Spring, we had two baptisms that I didn’t get to do. Joel Michaels did them with their dads, remember? It was the Sunday right before our sabbatical began. They were the first baptisms in twenty-five years that I have witnessed here at Lanse Free Church instead of doing the dunking myself.
And I was so happy! Jealous in a good way but not in a bad way. Just super happy to see someone taking that step of public identification with Jesus. I’m looking forward to more of that sort of thing.
There may come a day when this church doesn’t exist any more. And that’ll be okay. As long as we are faithful in our day, that’ll be okay. Does anybody know the names of the churches in Sweden where ? Anybody know if they still exist? Maybe some of them do.
The point is that they passed on the faith to the next generation. They were best-men bringing the gospel to this area and birthing this church which has been faithful to the gospel for 131 years.
The point of this church is not to keep existing but as long as it exists to keep pointing beyond ourselves to our Savior. And as people come to a life-changing relationship with Him, we will rejoice, and our joy will be complete. Amen?
Here’s why. Because Jesus is above all. We’ve reached verse 31.
“‘The one who comes from above is above all; the one who is from the earth [that’s John the Baptist here] belongs to the earth, and speaks as one from the earth. The one who comes from heaven is above all.”
It’s not bad to be from the earth. Or to speak as one from the earth. But it’s nothing compared to being from heaven! Jesus is superior to everyone and everything. “The one who comes from above is above all.”
Do we act like that is true? So often we let so many other things (including our own selves) take that top spot. We know that Jesus is above all.
Is Jesus above all right now for you?
What’s right here, above all, for you? 
I’m not asking if church is right here for you. Because it shouldn’t be. Jesus should be. 
Now for some of you, for you to have Jesus where He belongs, you’re going to need to move church up the list in your priorities. Because the church exists for us to help each other to put Jesus where He belongs. We exist to help each other grow in a life-changing relationship with Jesus Christ through worship, instruction, fellowship, evangelism, and service. We don’t put Jesus above all on our own. We help each other to do it. That’s why we are here. But we don’t put the church above all. That’s where Jesus belongs. 
That’s where He is! And our lives should show it.  What’s right here, above all, for you? What needs to be de-throned so that Jesus is seen to be where He rightfully is. “The one who comes from heaven is above all.” But so many do not recognize it. Look at verse 32.
“He [Jesus] testifies to what he has seen and heard, but no one accepts his testimony. [Like John 1:11, “He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him.” In general He is rejected by humanity. But (v.33)] The man who has accepted it has certified that God is truthful. [God is not a liar! V.34] For the one whom God has sent [Jesus] speaks the words of God, for God gives the Spirit without limit.”
Now we’re getting into the deep things of God! Now we’re seeing what Jesus is above all. God the Father has given the God the Son God the Spirit without limit. We don’t can’t even begin to imagine what that means! Jesus didn’t just have the Spirit given to him “to some extent.”
Like one of the Old Testament prophets. Or like John the Baptist himself. When John saw that Spirit descend on Jesus like a dove and resting on Him. Remember that from John’s Testimony in chapter 1? He saw the Spirit rest on Him. And there is no limit to that gift. No measuring out the Spirit. But pouring out the full Spirit of God on the Son of God. In fact, verse 35:
“The Father loves the Son and has placed everything in his hands.”
He’s got the whole world in His hands! He’s entrusted the whole thing to Him. Of course He’s above all! The Father loves Him. The Father cherishes Him. The Father adores Him.
When He poured out His Spirit on Him without limit, He said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased” (Matt. 3:17 NIVO). The Son is supreme in the Father’s affection.  Of course He’s above all! The Father loves Him above all.
And so, above all, we should believe in Him. Verse 36.
“Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God's wrath remains on him.’”
Number two and last:
#2. BELIEVE IN JESUS ABOVE ALL.
Because faith in Jesus leads to life. That’s the whole point of this book, right? It’s written so “you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name”  (Jn. 20:31-21:1 NIVO). Here it is again: "Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life...”
Has! Don’t miss that present tense. If you believe in the Son right here and right now, you have eternal life right here and right now. For all who believe! Believing in Jesus is where the life is.
But rejecting Jesus means death. Look again. “...but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God's wrath remains on him.” That’s the “perishing” that we talked about last week in John 3:16.
God’s wrath is His holy anger over against sin and evil. And that wrath “remains.” It does not fade away. It is permanent and unending which is almost unthinkable which is why we must heed this warning.
Don’t miss the warnings of the Gospel of John. The invitations to faith are so wonderful; we must take them up. But it’s either/or, not both/and. Ultimately, there are only two roads with two vastly different destinations. At the end of the road of faith in Jesus, there is eternal life. But at the end of the road of rejecting Jesus, there is nothing left but God’s holy wrath. The choices are stark but clear.
I hope that everyone here believes in the Son. I hope that everyone here has heard what the Son has done for us. He has become one of us and then died for us, in our place for our sins, on the Cross. But He did not stay dead. He came back to life to give us life, and life forever more. Believe in Jesus above all.
If you have never trusted in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins and eternal life, then we invite you to do so right here and right now. And if you do, then you will have eternal life right here and right now.
Family, we need to get this message out to the world. This is too important to keep to ourselves.
“Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God's wrath remains on him.”
We’ve got to tell people about Jesus above all. That’s got to stay our main thing. The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing. Amen? 
Because this church is not the main thing. You and I are not main thing. Even reaching the world out there is not the main thing. Jesus is the main thing. This church is not about us. 
It’s about Jesus, above all.

***
Messages in this Series

01. "That You May Believe" - John 20:30-31
02. "In The Beginning Was the Word" - John 1:1-18
03. "John's Testimony" - John 1:19-34
04. "Come and See" - John 1:35-51
05. "The First of His Miraculous Signs" - John 2:1-11
06. "This Temple" - John 2:12-25
07. "You Must Be Born Again" - John 3:1-15
08. "God So Loved The World" - John 3:16-21

“God So Loved the World” [Matt's Messages]

“God So Loved the World”Life in Jesus’ Name - The Gospel of JohnLanse Evangelical Free ChurchOctober 1, 2023 :: John 3:16-21 
“For God so loved the world...”
Those might be the most famous and beloved words to open a verse of the Bible.
“For God so loved the world...”
John 3:16 is so famous and beloved for good reason. It is a beautiful encapsulation of the entire message of the gospel in just a few perfectly chosen words.
What an wonderful summary of the good news, of the best news in the whole wide world!
Pastor Kerry talked about it a little bit last week. I listened to his message online.
How many times have we heard this quoted or quoted it ourselves or seen it held up on a poster or a banner at a sporting event?
“For God so loved the world...”
[VIDEO WILL BE EMBEDDED HERE.]
Every word in this verse is vibrant and vital and crucial for understanding the most important message in the whole wide world.
It starts with the word “for.” So it’s connected to what came right before it. We studied that last time.
Remember, Nicodemus came at nighttime. He came in the darkness.
This leading Pharisee came to see Jesus at night and tried to butter Him up, but Jesus was not fooled by his flattery or impressed with his religiosity, and He straight-up told Nicodemus, “You must be born again.”
No one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again. It’s not our good works or our rule-following that gives us entrance into the kingdom. It is the new birth. “You must be born from above.” “You must be born once more.” “You must be born again.” Remember that?
Nicodemus did not understand what Jesus was saying, and that disappointed Jesus even more because He thought this was biblical theology 101. Nicodemus should have known all about the new birth and taught it to Israel.
But instead, all he could he say was, “How can this be?”
And Jesus told him how it could be possible. He said (vv.14&15). “Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man [Jesus] must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.” Jesus predicted His own crucifixion three years in advance. Jesus was going to be like the snake on the pole in the wilderness in the story of Numbers 21. If the people looked up in faith at the snake on the pole, they would be rescued and healed from the venomous snake-bites. So likewise Jesus was going to be lifted up, and if people looked to Him in faith they would be rescued and healed and saved and given eternal life.
FOR (v.16) “For God so loved the world...”
That’s the connection. I think the Apostle John is making sure that we all understand what Jesus was saying to Nicodemus. It’s possible that verses 16 through 21 are more of the words of Jesus to Nicodemus. It might be printed in red in your Bibles. That’s possible.  But I think it’s more likely that John takes over here and explains the story that he’s been telling. Either way it’s God’s Word. And it’s about a God Who loves.
“For God so loved the world...” Here’s the reason why Jesus had to go to the Cross. Here’s the reason why the Son of Man had to be lifted up.
It’s because of the great love of God for the world.
Now we’ve heard these words so many times we just might miss just how amazing these words are.
Just start with the word “God.” God is the supreme being that made the world, that made you and me. God is all powerful, all knowing, all present, all sovereign, all worthy of all worship, all holy. And John 3:16 says that that holy, holy, holy God...LOVES! He isn’t just neutral. He’s isn’t just calm, and cool, and collected. He isn’t just all powerful, all knowing, all present, all sovereign, all worthy of all worship. He is also love! And He is loving. God loves. 
And this is even more amazing...God loves the world. That’s mind-boggling. Not just because the world is so big. But because the world is so bad. This word “world” (Greek: “kosmos”) is almost always used by the Apostle John to describe something bad, something evil. Sinful human beings connected together to oppose God!
This is what we’ve heard so far from John about “the world.” In the Prologue. Chapter 1, verse 9: [The Word, the Son of God] “was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him” (Jn. 1:10-11 NIVO).
The world said to God, “No thank you!”The world said to God, “We don’t want you.”The world said to God, “Go away. Get lost. I wish you were dead.”
And that’s the world that God so loved?!
This verse is not so amazing because we were so lovable. So cute and cuddly. So desirable. So deserving. So lovable.
This verse is so amazing because we were so unlovable. And yet God so loved the world.
And that word “so!” The Greek word is “houtos.” It’s used to emphasize the manner in which something is done. The degree or the way something is accomplished.
The Christian Standard Bible says, “For God loved the world in this way...” This is how He did His loving. And this is the intensity with which He loved the world. V.16 
“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son...”
I’ve got three points this morning, and none of them will probably surprise you, but I hope we feel how amazing they are once again. Here’s number one.
God so loved the world:
#1. THAT HE GAVE HIS SON!
That is astonishing love.
How great must your love be to give up your son? I have three sons and a daughter, and I don’t want to give any of them up. For anyone. But God just had the One. 
And just think about how great He was, how precious to God!
Jesus was (and is) God’s “monogenays.” “Only begotten Son.” “One and Only Son.” “Unbelievably Unique Son.”
Remember that word “monogenays” from the Prologue in chapter 1? Let’s review.
Chapter 1, verse 1. Say it with me one more time: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God [with-ness], and the Word was God [was-ness]” (Jn. 1:1 NIVO). That’s how close they are, the Father and Son. With and was.
Now chapter 1, verse 14:
That eternal Word, “...became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the [monogenays] One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth” (Jn. 1:14 NIVO). From the Father.
Then chapter 1, verse 18:
“No one has ever seen God, but God [monogenays] the One and Only, who is at the Father's side, has made him known” (Jn. 1:18 NIVO).
That is the Son that God (v.16), “gave!”
He gave Him. We’re going to see in a second that He sent Him. But He didn’t just send Him as messenger. 
He gave Him as a gift.He gave Him as a sacrifice.He gave Him to be lifted up on a pole like a snake.He gave Him up to die.
That’s what we’re going remember at this table in just a few minutes.
Jesus wasn’t just a great teacher, as wise as His teaching was.Jesus wasn’t just a great miracle-worker, as wonderful as His miracles were.Jesus wasn’t just a great example, as perfect as His example was.
Jesus was the Lamb of God, sacrificed to take away the sins of the world.
“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son...”
Notice, again, that He did this for the world, not just for Israel. He didn’t just give His Son for the biological children of Abraham, like Nicodemus. But He did it for all who will believe.
That’s point number two this morning. Point number two.
God so loved the world:
#2. THAT WE COULD HAVE ETERNAL LIFE!
There are two “that’s” in verse 16. God so loved the world THAT He gave. And that giving had a purpose and a result. V.16 
“...that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”
What a promise! God’s gift is so great that if we believe in Jesus, we will not have eternal death but eternal life. If we look to Jesus, like the snake lifted up on the pole, then we will not perish, we will not be eternally destroyed, but we will have eternal life. Life that starts now and goes on forever in and with God.
The ultimate blessing.The ultimate good.The kingdom of God.And the God of the kingdom.
All ours, all yours and mine, not because of anything we do, Nicodemus, but because of what God the Father has done in giving God the Son for us.
And that’s for anyone. “Whoever.” The Old King James, “Whosoever.” We don’t use that word anymore. “Whosoever.” You, me, anyone. 
“...whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”
Do you believe in Him? That’s what it all comes down to. And that’s why Jesus came down in the first place. Verse 17.
“For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.”
Jesus was sent on a rescue mission. 
This time. Next time He comes, He will carry out the judgment that the world deserves. But when He came that first time, He was coming to save the world that had hated Him.
And our part, as those in the world needing to be saved, is simply to believe. V.18.
“Whoever believes in him is not condemned...”
We should be! We have earned condemnation. We all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, and the wages of sin is death (see Romans 3:23 and 6:23). But “whoever believes in Him is not condemned” (v.18). “There is no condemnation for those that are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1).
But...
See that crucial word in verse 18? 
“...but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son.”
Don’t miss the warning that is in these verses. Don’t miss the perishing in verse 16!
If you do not believe in the God’s "monogenays.” God’s “only begotten.” God’s “One and Only.” God’s “Unbelievably unique and precious Son,” then you stand condemned already. You are already headed towards eternal death, eternal destruction, eternal perishing. 
Verse 36 will teach us, “whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God's wrath remains on him” (Jn. 3:36 NIVO).
Hear this warning. If you do not believe in God’s One and Only Son, you are headed right into the wrath of God, another name for which is Hell.
Jesus divides all humanity into two groups. And ultimately we are either in one or the other.
It’s not both/and. It is either/or.
It’s either unbeliever or believer.It’s either perishing or eternal life.It’s either condemned or not condemned.
But we don’t have to be condemned!
God so loved the world that we could have eternal life if we believe in His One and Only Son. It’s that simple.
In verse 19 through 21, John says it another way. He contrasts the two groups as light and darkness. Verse 19.
“This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.”
He said something like this back in the Prologue in chapter 1, didn’t he?
“In [the Eternal Word] was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it [or overcome it, beat it]” (Jn. 1:4-6 NIVO). Humans loved the darkness instead of the light because they had bought into the darkness. “Their deeds were evil.”
Remember, Nicodemus came at night. He came with the darkness swirled all around him. But Jesus is the Light, and He invites us to come into the light. V.20
“Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God” (vv.20-21).
Point number three and last.
God so loved the world:
#3. THAT WE COULD COME INTO THE LIGHT.
Doesn’t that sound good?!
I know it’s a little scary. It’s scary to be exposed. That’s what scares the world. The world is scared to be seen and known for how evil and shameful they are. That’s what verse 20 says. They “will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed.”
Nicodemus was afraid that his deeds would be be seen for what they really were. The Pharisees wanted to be seen as religious and holy in their own right. In their pride, they wanted people to be impressed by their religiosity and their rule following. But they didn’t want the real light to shine on them.
Did you ever have your room inspected and you hoped that they did the inspection at nighttime and didn’t turn on the lights? Don’t look too closely under the bed! Don’t turn on the lights!
Verse 21 again, “But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God.”
Don’t be afraid to come into the light or to walk in the light. 
Yeah, we know that we are a mess! You and I are a hot mess. But we know that Jesus has died for our mess. So we don’t have to pretend. We don’t have to be self-righteous. Because we have Jesus’ righteousness. And then whenever we do what is right and what is good, then God gets the glory!
“So that it may be seen plainly that what [we have] done has been done through God.”
Or “in the sight of God” or “carried out in God.” The old King James says, “wrought by God.” If we do good, if we love others, if we love God, if we obey, we know Who really did it ultimately. It’s the work of God. Because God so loved the world!
Don’t be afraid of the light.Don’t be afraid to leave the darkness and come into the light and to walk in the light.Don’t be afraid to own your sin and confess your sin.
Because Jesus died for your sins, and He gives you His righteousness. He came to save, not to condemn. To give eternal life, not eternal death. To all who believe in Him.
Because God so loved the world.

***
Messages in this Series

01. "That You May Believe" - John 20:30-31
02. "In The Beginning Was the Word" - John 1:1-18
03. "John's Testimony" - John 1:19-34
04. "Come and See" - John 1:35-51
05. "The First of His Miraculous Signs" - John 2:1-11
06. "This Temple" - John 2:12-25
07. "You Must Be Born Again" - John 3:1-15

“You Must Be Born Again” [Matt's Messages]

“You Must Be Born Again”Life in Jesus’ Name - The Gospel of JohnLanse Evangelical Free ChurchSeptember 17, 2023 :: John 3:1-15 
It was nighttime when Nicodemus came to visit Jesus.
I’ve said many times that this was the original episode of “Nick at Nite.” But it wasn’t a comedy or a children’s cartoon when Nicodemus came to Jesus. 
It was darkness.
I don’t think it was just incidental that Nicodemus visited Jesus at night. John probably doesn’t just throw in this detail for nothing. Though I’m sure it actually happened this way, I’m thinking that John mentions it to get our minds making the connections. For example, to his Prologue. Remember chapter 1? That preview trailer of the movie that told us what we were about to see in his gospel?
John told us that the Word (Jesus) was the light of men. And then he said, “The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it” (Jn. 1:5 NIVO). Nicodemus came in the darkness.
He might have come out of fear of being seen. Perhaps he was afraid of what other people would think of him talking to Jesus. It doesn’t say that. Perhaps he didn’t even come alone. We aren’t told. There were certainly others present, like John, who recorded this coversation for sharing later with us. 
Perhaps Nick came at night so that they had the whole evening to talk. We don’t know. But we do know that he came at night, and almost every time the word “night” shows up in this book, it is highlighting the evil and falsehood of the darkness and the contrasting goodness and truth of the light.
Regardless of when he came, I’m glad that he came to see Jesus because through this encounter we are given some wonderful mysterious truth that thrills our hearts and changes our lives today and forever.
Because in this story, Jesus tells us over and over, “You must be born again.” 
[VIDEO WILL BE EMBEDDED HERE.]
"Born again." This is the passage where we get that oft-repeated phrase.
Have you heard someone say that they are “born again?” It’s probably been over-used and mangled and manhandled into meaning all kinds of things that are different from what Jesus is talking about here.
But Jesus says it. And He means it for all of us–with no exceptions. “You must be born again.”
Let’s see how He got there. Let’s start in the first verse, verse 1.
If you remember, last week’s chapter 2 ended by saying that many people saw the miraculous signs that Jesus was doing at the Passover the Feast where He had been zealously cleaning house in the temple, and many of them had believed in Him–at least superficially. But Jesus did not believe in them. He could read their hearts and know that they really didn’t get yet Who He really was. So He pulled back. 
Chapter 2 verse 25 says, “He knew what was in a man.”
Well, the very next verse says, “Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a member of the Jewish ruling council. He came to Jesus at night and said, ‘Rabbi, we know you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the miraculous signs you are doing if God were not with him.’”
Now, that sounds pretty good, but Jesus is not impressed. He knows what is in Nicodemus’ heart.
It seems like Nicodemus may be trying to butter Jesus up, right? 
He comes to Jesus instead of requesting Jesus to come him. And he uses a bunch of words to honor Jesus even though Nicodemus was an elite ruler himself. Nicodemus was a Pharisee. So he was a member of that religious group that was so focused on rule-keeping. They were focused on attaining and maintaining holiness through scrupulously observing the Jewish traditions. Following the Law (at least on the outside) plus following all of the various traditions around the Law. That was the Pharisees.
But he wasn’t just a Pharisee. He was also a ruler. Nicodemus was a member of the Jewish ruling council, a select group of men who had political power in Israel under Rome. Nicodemus was a Somebody. He himself was a rabbi (a teacher). We might think of him as a clergyman or even a professor in a seminary. And a congressman or senator. All wrapped up into one.
And he comes to Jesus at night time and says that he (and his compatriots) know that Jesus is from God. “Rabbi, we know you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the miraculous signs [saymeion, same word as the last two weeks] you are doing if God were not with him.’”
Again, it sounds good, but what’s wrong with that?
Is that Who Jesus is?
Is that Who we have found Jesus to be so far in the Gospel of John? Is Jesus merely a great heaven-sent teacher from God? He is a great heaven-sent teacher from God. Praise God for Jesus’ teaching!
But what did He say when He was tossing tables in the temple?!?
“Get these out of here! How dare you turn my Father's house into a market!” (Jn. 2:16 NIVO).
Nicodemus’ mind is clothed with darkness.
He is missing Jesus’ true identity. He is missing Jesus’ true messiahship. And he is missing Jesus’ divine Sonship! “[The Word] was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him” (Jn. 1:10 NIVO).
Really Nicodemus is kind of challenging Jesus here. He’s saying, “We know that you’re a great teacher from God. Right? Right? Is that Who you are? We are the credentials committee, and we’re ready to confer some credentials on you if you meet our criteria. You clearly seem ready for our blessing.”
But Jesus is unimpressed. And He doesn’t seek Nicodemus’ blessing or his credentials. Instead, he blows right past Nick’s opening statement and goes right to the heart of things. V.3
“In reply Jesus declared, ‘I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.’”
Jesus doesn’t even respond to Nicodemus’ attempt at flattery. He goes right for his heart.
I have two points to hang this morning’s teaching on, and we’ve reached the first one.
It could be summed up with the words, “No one.”
#1. NO ONE CAN SEE THE KINGDOM OF GOD UNLESS HE IS BORN AGAIN.
That’s a statement of fact and a fact of life.
No one can see the kingdom of God unless He is born again. No one.
Not Nicodemus with all of his fancy credentials.Not Pastor Matt with all of his titles and degrees.Not [fill in the blank with someone who you might think might have achieved what it takes to enter the kingdom of God by some other means].Not anyone in this room or any other room.
No one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.
Remember, the Kingdom of God is Jesus’ favorite subject to teach on. How many times did we talk about that when we read through the Gospel of Matthew in 2017, 2018, 2019, and 2020?!
Jesus loved to teach about the upside-down, inside-out, already-but-not-yet kingdom of God.
We long for that kingdom to come. And King Jesus is going to bring it! He is the King of this Kingdom.
But no one, but no one gets to see this kingdom come unless they are born again.
What does that mean? The Greek words here are “gennathay anothen.” To “be born” “once more.” Or the word “anothen” can also be translated “from above.” And it is translated that way many times in the Gospel of John. “Born from above.”
I think that Jesus probably means both of those. But Nicodemus only fixates on one of them. V.4
“‘How can a man be born when he is old?’ Nicodemus asked. ‘Surely he cannot enter a second time into his mother's womb to be born!’”
Nicodemus doesn’t get it. But I think he might be playing dumb. He’s being obtuse. He kind of mocks Jesus, doesn’t he? I think there’s some darkness here. “Surely we can’t crawl back into our mommy’s tummies, right? What a weird and silly idea!”
Jesus answers Nick’s confusion with a bold restatement of the facts of life. V.5
“Jesus answered, ‘I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit.  You should not be surprised at my saying, 'You must be born again.'” No one gets into the kingdom any other way.
Clearly being “born of water and the Spirit” is another way of saying, “born again.”
A lot of Bible scholars have come up with a lot of ways of interpreting the phrase, “born of water.”
Many have assumed that it was about baptism. And that’s possible since John had been baptizing for repentance, and that might have been tied into living a new way. But this is before Christian baptism, and I just don’t think that Jesus was saying that you have to be baptized to be born again. That’s not how the rest of the Bible reads.
I think it’s more likely that water is natural birth and of the spirit is spiritual birth. So He’s saying you have to be born twice. Once through amniotic “water” and then secondly “from above, from heaven, by the Spirit.” That’s much more likely.
But here’s a third way to think about it. Water as a symbol of cleansing. 
Here’s a passage of Scripture that Nicodemus should have known from his study of the Old Testament. Ezekiel 36:25-27. 
Listen to this to promise to Israel of restoration after exile:
“I will take you out of the nations; I will gather you from all the countries and bring you back into your own land. I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws” (Ezek. 36:24-28 NIVO).
Does that sound familiar?
It sounds the promises of the New Covenant to me. Like we learned about in Book of Hope in the Prophecy of Jeremiah.
And it sounds a lot like Jesus in John chapter 3. Cleansing of water and a new spirit inside of God’s people so that they now obey from the heart. That sounds to me a lot like being born again.
Nicodemus should have known about that. No one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.
Now, notice that this not something that you and I can do for ourselves.
It sounds like a command, “You must be born again.”
Can you make that happen?  Can anybody here regenerate their hearts? Just like you can’t get back inside your mother’s womb physically, you can’t somehow give your own sinful heart a new spiritual beginning. “Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit.” This is God’s work, not ours.
It's just like we read in the Prologue: "Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God--children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God" (Jn. 1:12-13 NIVO).
It sounds like a command, “You must be born again.” But it is actually a condition, not a command. If you are not born again, you will not enter the kingdom of God. But you can’t do it to yourself. The Spirit has to do it in you.
We don’t have control! We don’t even know How He does it. It’s mysterious. It’s like the wind. Look at verse 8.
“The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.’”
There’s a big play on words there. The word for “wind” is the same word as for “spirit.” It’s “pneuma.”
In my mind’s eye, at that moment in the story, the door of the house they’re in bangs shut and the wind kicks up and howls through the window. 
It doesn’t say any of that. But Jesus is talking about the wind. It’s mysterious. It goes where it wants. You don’t control it. And you can’t say where it is coming from or going to.
But you can sure tell when it’s been there! You see the effects of the wind. You hear the sound of the wind. You see how the wind changes things. Like after a windstorm, and you see the all limbs down. You can tell where the wind has been.
And, Jesus says, that’s how it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit. You can tell that the Spirit has been through them. You can tell that the Spirit has given them a new birth inside of them by the results.
Which reminds me of another passage of Ezekiel. The one the next chapter, chapter 37, when the LORD tells Ezekiel to talk to the wind and breathe new life into the dead bones. Remember that one? Ezekiel 37:9 and 10. 
“Then he said to me, ‘Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to it, 'This is what the Sovereign LORD says: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe into these slain, that they may live.' So I prophesied as he commanded me, and breath entered them; they came to life and stood up on their feet–a vast army”  (Ezek. 37:9-11 NIVO).
That’s a picture of the Spirit bringing new life where there was no life. Unless the Spirit blows, then there will only be death. No one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.
I think it’s interesting that Jesus says that Nicodemus shouldn’t be surprised at his saying, “You must be born again.” Because Nicodemus is obviously surprised by that!
So where did Nicodemus go wrong? He probably goes wrong in the same place that most people go wrong when you ask them what is the condition for going to heaven. What does it take to see the kingdom of God?
What do most people think? Being a good person. Doing good things. Maybe doing more good things than bad things. Following the rules. 
Who do you think deserves to be in the kingdom of God?
It’s the rule followers, right?
The folks that took the Ten Commandments seriously.
The folks that got their lives cleaned up.The folks that went to church.The folks that were fine upstanding citizens.The folks that gave their money.The folks that jumped through all the hoops.The folks that followed the rules.The folks who were religious.
You know whom I’m describing, right? Those are the Pharisees. And this guy Nicodemus is a prime example of them. And if left on my own, that’s what I might become, too! So many times I’ve been a rule-following, religion-doing Pharisee.
But that’s not the condition that Jesus talks about here. Our Lord says that no one (no matter whether they have followed the rules all their life or not) will see the kingdom of God unless they are born again. And Nicodemus should have known that, and so should we.
Nicodemus should have known it from his Old Testament. The necessity of a new heart is all over it. And he should have known it from his own heart. How he desperately needed a new one. Do you know that you need a new heart?
Do you know that you need to be born again? Born of water and of the Spirit?
No one. No one gets in unless they are.
In verse 9, Nicodemus responds with one last question. He’s still confused. He’s still pushing back. He still doesn’t get it. He’s still in darkness. V.9
“‘How can this be?’ Nicodemus asked.”
At least he’s honest. He wants to know–if his rule-following isn’t enough, then what will be? “How can this be?” 
That’s the last thing that Nicodemus says in this story. We’ll hear from him again in chapter 7 and then again in chapter 19, but he falls silent right now.
He no longer tries to argue with Jesus. He just listens to Him. V.10
“‘You are Israel's teacher,’ said Jesus, ‘and do you not understand these things? I tell you the truth, we speak of what we know, and we testify to what we have seen, but still you people do not accept our testimony. I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things?”
He doesn’t go easy on Nicodemus, does he? He’s frustrated that Israel’s teachers aren’t teaching the new birth from the Old Testament. And He’s disappointed that they aren’t receiving His diving teaching either.
“You talk, Nicodemus, about how “we know” that I’m a rabbi who has come from God. But I actually have come from God, so “we know” what we’re talking about! And you aren’t receiving what I’m teaching about earthly things like wind, water, and birth and the necessity of the new birth for seeing the kingdom. How are you going to graduate to the next level when I start talking about what living in the kingdom will actually be like when it comes? “You talk about credentials and qualifications? Well, let me tell you mine.” Verse 13.
“No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven–the Son of Man.”
“I’ve actually been there. It’s my home. I’ve just come from there. And I’m going to return there. I know what I’m talking about. So let me answer your question about how this can all be: I’m going to make it all possible by going up on a Cross.” Look at verse 14.
“Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.”
And that’s point number two; summed up in one word: “everyone.”
#2. EVERYONE WHO BELIEVES IN HIM MAY HAVE ETERNAL LIFE.
No one sees the kingdom unless they are born again, but everyone who believes in Jesus will have eternal life.
Now, this is the only time that you and I are allowed to say that Jesus is like snake.
That snake-like Jesus!
But that’s exactly what Jesus says about Himself. “Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up...” What is He talking about?
Snack and Yack kids, you might want to draw a picture of a snake on a pole. It’s the story from Numbers chapter 21. It’s a short story. I’ll read it to you:
[The people of Israel] “traveled from Mount Hor along the route to the Red Sea, to go around Edom. But the people grew impatient on the way; they spoke against God and against Moses, and said, ‘Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the desert? There is no bread! There is no water! And we detest this miserable food!’
[They were complaining about manna!]
Then the LORD sent venomous snakes among them; they bit the people and many Israelites died. The people came to Moses and said, ‘We sinned when we spoke against the LORD and against you. Pray that the LORD will take the snakes away from us.’ So Moses prayed for the people. The LORD said to Moses, ‘Make a snake and put it up on a pole; anyone who is bitten can look at it and live.’ So Moses made a bronze snake and put it up on a pole. Then when anyone was bitten by a snake and looked at the bronze snake, he lived” (Num. 21:4-9 NIVO).
What a fascinating story!
God told Moses to make a fake snake and put it up on pole and if you looked at it in faith, you were saved. Everybody was rebelling. Everybody deserved death by snake bite. But God was merciful and provided a way out, a way of salvation. Lifted up.
The snake was the symbol of sin. The original snake in the garden. The snake on the Pharaoh’s headdress. The snake was a symbol of the darkness. But the snake was impaled on the pole and lifted up. And if you looked, you lived.
And Jesus says that He was going to be like that snake. He’s predicting His own sacrificial death on the Cross! He is going to be a fake snake, taking on His people’s sins. And being lifted up.
That “lifted up” is also a double meaning phrase. Like being born again and born from above. This is lifted up in crucifixion but also in glorification. He is not just killed on a pole but exalted and enthroned as He does.
“That’s how, Nicodemus. That’s how this can be.”
The Bible says, “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Cor. 5:21-6:1 NIVO).
Do you believe that?
If you look to Him, then you will live. You and I can’t make ourselves born again. That’s the mysterious work of the Spirit of God. But by God’s grace, we can look to Jesus and live. We can believe.
And everyone, everyone[!] who believes in Him may have eternal life.
No exceptions. That’s a rule. That’s a statement of fact and a fact of life.
That’s the whole point of this gospel. John wrote this book, “that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name” (Jn. 20:31).
The Bible says, “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: ‘Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree’” (Gal. 3:13 NIVO).
“Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.”
And you know what the next verse is which we will look at closely next time:
“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (Jn. 3:16 NIVO).
Look and live.Look and live.Look and live.
Nicodemus may have come in the darkness.
But on that night he was exposed to the Light.

***
Messages in this Series

01. "That You May Believe" - John 20:30-31
02. "In The Beginning Was the Word" - John 1:1-18
03. "John's Testimony" - John 1:19-34
04. "Come and See" - John 1:35-51
05. "The First of His Miraculous Signs" - John 2:1-1106. "This Temple" - John 2:12-25

“This Temple” [Matt's Messages]

“This Temple”Life in Jesus’ Name - The Gospel of JohnLanse Evangelical Free ChurchSeptember 10, 2023 :: John 2:12-25 
Jesus is anything but mild.
There is a myth going around that Jesus Christ is mild. That He is harmless. That He is weak. That Jesus is non-threatening. A wimp. Easy to kick around.
Jesus has no bark or bite. Jesus is not spicy, or hot, or tangy. Jesus is mild.
But that could not be further from the truth.
I love the hymns of Charles Wesley. He’s one of the most amazing writers of deep theological hymnody that ever lived. 
But there’s one line in one of his hymns I really don’t like. He calls Him, “Gentle Jesus, meek, and mild.”
Jesus can be gentle. He’s fundamentally gentle with those who need Him to be. He is so tender, gentle at heart (Matthew 11:28).
Jesus can be meek, understood biblically. In the Bible, meekness is strength under control. Jesus never used His power in any wrong way.
But Jesus is anything but mild.
Jesus is no passionless, weak-sauce, no wimp.
And this eye-opening story in God’s Holy Word shatters that myth.
[VIDEO WILL BE EMBEDDED HERE.]
Last week, in the first half of this chapter at the wedding in Cana, Jesus was very quiet and elusive. 
He did the miracle of turning water into wine, but only a very few people even knew about it. Even people who drank the new wine!
But in this next story, Jesus is very public. He doesn’t do a miracle, but He definitely steps out of the shadows and into the spotlight. 
And this, too, reveals His glory. This, too, reveals His identity. This, too, makes Him and His Father known. It gives us a new view to a whole other side to His personality. 
Last week was about joy. This week is about anger.The first part of the chapter was quiet. This last part is very loud.In the last story, Jesus was content to be a guest. But in this story, He’s cleaning house in His own home.The last story was about wine, but this story is about a whip.
Which of those is the “real Jesus?”
The answer is “both,” right? These are both right next to each other in God’s Holy Word, so they need to both be right next to each other in our own minds and our own theology of Who Jesus really is.
We have to make room in our minds for the Jesus Who will clean out the temple with a whip.
Yes, Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. But when John writes his Apocalypse, he predicts a day when unrepentant unbelievers are trying hide from “the wrath of the Lamb” (Rev. 6:16).
This Lamb may be meek, but He is anything but mild.
Let’s look at it more closely. Look at verse 12. This is what happened after the joy of the wedding in Cana. Verse 12.
“After this he went down to Capernaum with his mother and brothers and his disciples. There they stayed for a few days.”
Jesus leaves Cana for Capernaum which was also small town on the northern shore of the Sea of Galilee. Capernaum was kind of a home-base for Jesus during this period of His ministry. He’s there with his mother who figured into the story last week and won’t show up again in this gospel until His hour has come upon Him. He’s there with His mother and His brothers. Probably the other, later, sons of Joseph and Mary. They will show up a few times in the next few chapters. And He’s there with His disciples. So far we’ve met John, Andrew, Simon Peter, Philip, and Nathanael.
And then after some period of time, Jesus gets ready and heads south for the Passover celebration. Verse 13.
“When it was almost time for the Jewish Passover, Jesus went up to Jerusalem.”
The Passover is the annual Jewish celebration of the Exodus from Egypt. It was a big deal for the nation at this time (and still is!) and everyone went up to Jerusalem to celebrate it. This Passover is one of three Passovers that are mentioned in the Gospel of John.
Jesus goes up to Jerusalem, up to the temple, to observe the Passover, and what He sees there leads Him to take shocking action. 
And what He found was shameless commerce in the place of worship. Verse 14.
“In the temple courts he found men selling cattle, sheep and doves, and others sitting at tables exchanging money.”
That was not how it was supposed to be.
The title of this message is “This Temple” because this story is all about what Jesus did and said at the temple on this day. (Though we are going to find out that it’s not as much about this particular temple as it is about Jesus.)
The temple was supposed to be the meeting place between God and His people. It was an earthly headquarters of heaven on earth. God’s House here on earth. 
Of course, God was not contained in that building or even in its outer courts.  God is uncontainable! But this building symbolized in one central location the very presence of God.
And it was a place where God’s people could go to pray and go to offer their sacrifices and go to meet with God.
It was supposed to be filled with God and with the worship of God.
And even in the outermost courts there was a place for the Gentiles to approach God–people who weren’t even yet God’s people were invited to come and to get to know Him, to come to pray, to come to worship.
And at this moment that outer court had been crowded with commerce. Instead of quiet contemplation Jesus found what amounted to a barn and a bank. V.14 again. “In the temple courts he found men selling cattle, sheep and doves, and others sitting at tables exchanging money.”
Now, doubtless, these folks thought they were providing a wonderful service to the people coming to the Passover. Jesus, coming all the way from Capernaum, may not have brought cattle or sheep for the Passover sacrifice. It would be convenient to buy those things in Jerusalem. And even more convenient to buy them in the temple!
And every Jewish man had to pay a tax, and they couldn’t pay it with the Roman coins that had Caesar’s image on them. That would be considered blasphemous.
So they had to get their various coins turned into Tyrian coins (for a small fee, of course). And everybody needed it, so how helpful it was for there to be guys at tables doing that exchange right there in that temple for you!
The key words here in verse 14 that so bothered Jesus were “in the temple courts.”
They had brought the animal store and the currency exchange into the temple courts.
They turned the place of worship into a cross between the county fair and the shopping mall. Do you see the bustling marketplace where they were supposed to be praying? Cows moo-ing. Sheep baa-ing. Dove coo-ing. Men haggling over the rate of exchange? What a Babel!
Well, Jesus is no longer quiet or elusive. And He sure isn’t mild. Look at verse 15.
“So he made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple area, both sheep and cattle; he scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. To those who sold doves he said, ‘Get these out of here! How dare you turn my Father's house into a market!’”
Do you see the fire in His eyes?
Jesus reaches down and picks up some cords and weaves them together into a whip and then he raises that whip and starts to drive all of these people and beasts out of the temple.
He’s not being mean.He’s not being violent.He’s being forceful.
He’s not out of control. He’s is totally in control, and He’s taking control of the temple. 
I doubt that he used the whip on people. The whip was there for the cattle to get them moving. Though if the people had pushed back, they might have felt it, too.
You can see the people, wide-eyed, backing out of His way. “What’s going on?”
And then Jesus takes His arm, and He slides it down the table scattering the money to the ground. And then to press the point, He put His arm under the table and flips it over!
“That doesn’t belong here!”
“Get these out of here! How dare you turn my Father's house into a market!”
Do you have room in your theology for an angry Jesus?
There is such a thing as righteous anger, and Jesus is righteously angry.
“Stop it, right now.”
I have two points to summarize the message of this story, and they are both about the identity of Jesus and this temple. Here’s the first one:
#1. JESUS IS THE ZEALOUS LORD OF THIS TEMPLE.
Do you see what Jesus is saying about Himself in verse 16? “Get these out of here! How dare you turn my Father's house into a market!”
“My Father’s house.” That’s a bold claim. Whose house is this temple? This is God’s house! And Jesus is here yelling that it is His Father’s house. That Jesus Himself is the Son of this house. He’s not just some random person. He’s not even just a loyal Jew. Jesus has gotten so angry because this bad thing is happening in His Father’s house! So that it personally affects Him. He is Lord over this temple.
He has a right and a responsibility to get angry about it.
Imagine if you’d grown up and moved out and then went back to visit your childhood home, and found intruders had broken in and set up a pet store in the front room.
And your parents’ guests are crowded out. There is no room for them. And the room where they should be visiting and enjoying themselves smells of animals and is filled with the sound of cash registers. 
How would you feel? What would you do?
Jesus is filled with righteous indignation and empties the room of the intruders. He has every right and responsibility to do this. Because He is the Lord of this temple.
As His disciples contemplated this in the days that followed, they realized that this was only right and a fulfillment of what the Messiah was always supposed to be. Look at verse 17.
“His disciples remembered that it is written: ‘Zeal for your house will consume me.’”
That’s a quotation from Psalm 69, verse 9. One of the most quoted Psalms in all the New Testament. It was clearly about the Messiah. He was going to be zealous, full of zeal, full of passion, full of deep care about what is right for God’s house. 
This zeal would “consume” Him. That word means to be eaten up as by a flame! He would be on fire for the glory of God.
And, of course, that will also consume Him in the sense of leading to His death. A few years later, Jesus will clear this temple again early in the week and by the end of the week, He will be crucified for doing it. “Zeal for your house will consume me.”
What is the application of this truth?
The first and most important is to believe that Jesus is the Son of God and God the Son!
I don’t know about you, but I’m always trying to think about how I’m supposed to relate to Jesus’ anger here. Am I supposed to be angry like He is? Is Jesus angry about me?
But the first and foremost thing we’re supposed to see about Jesus here is that He is rightfully angry because He is the zealous Son over this house.
John the Evangelist says that he put these things in his gospel so that we “may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing [we] may have life in his name” (John 20:31).
In John 2, we are supposed to see Who Jesus is and put our faith in Him.
Do you believe that Jesus is the Son of God and God the Son? Do you believe, “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory [here His angry glory], the glory of the One and Only [the Unique Son], who came from the Father, full of grace and truth...No one has ever seen God, but God the One and Only, who is at the Father's side, has made him known” (Jn. 1:14&18).
“How dare you turn my Father’s house into a market!”
It’s only after we see Who Jesus is revealed to be that we can think about applying the theology of His anger into our lives, as well.
Believe that Jesus is the zealous Lord of this temple.
But it is good to think some more about His anger here and how it relates to us. It’s good to ask ourselves the question, “Who are we most like in this story?” Whose shoes do we put ourselves in?
I think that often we like to think of ourselves as Jesus in this story, especially when we get angry about something. We like to think of our anger as righteous. We should be turning the tables on our enemies!
But the Bible says that so often our anger does not trend towards righteousness (James 1:20). We get angry about the wrong things and for the wrong reasons and to the wrong degree. And you and I are not the zealous Lord of the temple, so we should be careful about what we allow to make us angry.
I would hope that we’re like the disciples in this story. Reflecting on who Jesus is and relating Scripture to it.
And I would hope that we are like the common worshipers who probably would have been so relieved that worship had been restored at the temple and the temple returned to how it was supposed to be.
I think what we really are most like in this story at this point is the temple itself.
The Bible says that we are temple of God. The church is the temple of God. Christians are the temple of God. Not this building. This is not a temple. It’s a wonderful tool. It’s a great meeting house. But this building is not a temple. This is not the House of God.
These people gathered here are (see Ephesians 2:19-22!).
And every true Christian is a temple (see 1 Corinthians 6:19).
So the better question we might ask is, “Are we crowding out the true worship of God in our own hearts and in our own lives together and replacing it with whatever does not belong there?”
Have we replaced the worship of Almighty God with the worship of Almighty Dollar? Is money more important to us than prayer? Is convenience more important to us than gathered worship? Is there something we have let crowd out the place of God in our heart of hearts?
It’s not too hard to think of what that might be. Especially for someone else. It’s easy to see how other Christians and other churches have gotten their priorities out of whack. The real question is, how have I? How have we?
And are we ready to allow Jesus change us? 
Because Jesus is not mild. If you have Jesus in your life, He’s going to change it.  And that change may be kind of violent!
Sometimes we want a mild Jesus that won’t create a fuss. We want a mild Jesus who won’t make a mess of what we’ve been building in our own lives. But the real Jesus is zealous for God’s glory in this temple. And we need to be ready for Him to be passionate about changing our lives so that they are the way they were intended to be.
And that might be really messy. Jesus cares. He really cares, and that might mean tables tossed all over the place.
Are you open to that? He’s probably going to toss a table that you’re fond of. Something convenient.
It’s so easy to replace true worship with convenience. True following with something that’s just a little bit easier. I’m sure that these folks didn’t decide all at once to open up the temple courts to commerce. At this time, the temple complex was 36 acres. They probably just gave a little corner of the court of Gentiles over to the money changers and the sacrifice sellers. What could it hurt? But then it just grew and grew and grew. 
What little corner of your life have you given over because it was easier than what you knew God wanted? Just because it’s easy doesn’t mean it’s good. And Jesus is not mild.
You and I need to be open to hearing Jesus say, “Get these out of here! How dare you?”
“How dare you?”
“How dare you crowd God out of your heart so that you don’t bother to pray?”“How dare you crowd God out of your heart and fill it with politics, with the flag, with America instead?”“How dare you crowd God out of your heart and fill it with your family instead?”“How dare you crowd God out of your heart and fill it with money and greed, with possessions, with stuff?”“How dare you crowd God out of your heart and fill it with {whatever} instead?”“How dare you give pride of place to anything other than God Himself?”
“How dare you push worship off into a corner so that it gets lost?”
If your Jesus never says to you, “How dare you...Get these out of here!” then you probably aren’t following the true Jesus.
Because Jesus is the zealous Lord of this temple.
The Jewish Religious Leaders were not so convinced.
They sent a delegation to ask Jesus the same kind of thing they asked John the Baptist. “Who do you think you are?” Look at verse 18.
“Then the Jews demanded of him, ‘What miraculous sign can you show us to prove your authority to do all this?’”
Notice that they didn’t say, “Hey, what you did there was wrong.” No, they didn’t argue with His actions. They just wanted to know His authorization. They knew that these were not the actions of a madman but the actions of a messiah! “Can you give us a sign (same word as last week, “saymeion”) to prove that you are allowed to do this sort of thing?”
How should Jesus respond to that?
Well, He could have done a miracle right there and said, “I am the Son of God and God the Son and you should all now bow and worship Me. How’s that for a sign?”
But He doesn’t. Jesus never gives in to someone else’s demands. He never provides a sign when they require one. He’s too smart to do that. He knows what they would do with that, and it would never be the right thing. It would always give people the wrong idea, and if their hearts weren’t right would always lead to the wrong conclusions and make these worse.
If you jump down to verses 23, 24, and 25, you can see that there were many people who were watching Jesus at this time and came to the conclusion that He was the Messiah, but Jesus knew that they didn’t have the right idea about what the Messiah was and their hearts weren’t ready to truly change and follow Him. Look at verse 23.
“Now while he was in Jerusalem at the Passover Feast, many people saw the miraculous signs he was doing and believed in his name [or at least they thought they did]. But Jesus would not entrust himself to them, for he knew all men. He did not need man's testimony about man, for he knew what was in a man” (vv.23-25).
At this point, Jesus turns elusive again. He doesn’t want to lead a revolt against Rome. He knew that they didn’t “get Him” yet and knew where their hearts really were. So He doesn’t give Himself to them fully, and He doesn’t answer their demands for a sign. He doesn’t fall for that.
Instead, He tells them about the ultimate sign that was still to come. Look back up at verse 19.
“Jesus answered them, ‘Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.’”
That’s dramatic, isn’t it?! “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.” It’s like a dare. Go ahead, make my day. “Destroy this temple. I will raise it again in three days.”
Now, they’re going to have a big problem with that. It sounds ludicrous to them. Way too much of a miracle. Verse 20. “The Jews replied, ‘It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and you are going to raise it in three days?’”
“I really don’t think so. King Herod started this rebuilt temple project 46 years before this. It’s taking forever. And it won’t be done for a few more decades, and it will be destroyed. And you are going to rebuild it in three days? If we destroy it? You’re the one tossing tables around in it.”
They don’t get it. And it took His disciples a long time to get it, but eventually they understood that Jesus wasn’t talking about this temple, but This Temple. His body. Look at verse 21.
“But the temple he had spoken of was his body. After he was raised from the dead, his disciples recalled what he had said. Then they believed the Scripture and the words that Jesus had spoken.”
Here’s point number two of two:
Jesus is not just the zealous Lord of this temple.
#2. JESUS IS THE TRUE FULFILLMENT OF THIS TEMPLE.
In my mind, He actually points to Himself when He says verses 19. “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.”
And they just don’t have the categories yet to follow what He’s saying. It was like a time-bomb parable, meant to go off in their minds after the resurrection. 
Jesus is saying that He is the true and better temple. He is what the temple was always supposed to be.
We’ve seen this idea already in chapter 1.
Verse 14 says (again): “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.”
Remember, the Word is God and now the Word has come to dwell with His people. The Greek word there for “dwell with” is actually the same root word for the tabernacle in the Old Testament, the tent version of the temple!
Jesus is the temple, the meeting place with God.
Or remember what Jesus told Nathanael at the end of chapter 1?
“You believe because I told you I saw you under the fig tree. You shall see greater things than that...you shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man” (Jn. 1:50-51 NIVO).
Jesus is the stairway to the Father. The connecting point. The juncture between God and His people. That’s what the temple was supposed to be!
Jesus is the true fulfillment of the temple.
The temple was to be full of God. And what does Paul say about Jesus in Colossians 2:9? “[I]n Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form...” (Col. 2:9 NIVO).
Jesus is the true fulfillment of the temple. And if they tore Him down, He would rise again.
And guess what? They tore Him down, and He rose again.
Of course, this is a much greater miracle than simple re-building a stone temple really fast. This is a Person coming back from the dead! And this is a much greater sign than what the Jews were asking for.
He refused to do a miracle for them, but He promised the greatest miracle ever done!
Years, later at His trial, His accusers will report that He threatened to destroy the temple. Though they couldn’t get their stories to match up.
And Jesus will later predict the destruction of the temple that did then happen in 70AD.
But here He wasn’t threatening to destroy it. He was promising to fulfill it.
To not just make it what it always should be.
But to be what it always was meant to be.
So that you and I can meet with God because God has come to meet with us.
Jesus is the true fulfillment of all of the sacrifices that were done in the temple.
One commentator I read this week said that when Jesus cleared out the cattle, doves, and sheep, there was only one Lamb left in the building. The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.
Jesus is anything but mild!
Do you believe that? Do you believe that Jesus is the true fulfillment of this temple? Because of what He did on the Cross and at the Empty Tomb? 
If you believe it, then you will have life in His name. 
Now and forever. Amen.

***

Messages in this Series

01. "That You May Believe" - John 20:30-31
02. "In The Beginning Was the Word" - John 1:1-18
03. "John's Testimony" - John 1:19-34
04. "Come and See" - John 1:35-51
05. "The First of His Miraculous Signs" - John 2:1-11

10 Years of "Resisting Gossip!"

Picture by Rosie PhotographyRejoice with me!

Resisting Gossip was released ten years ago today.

It's hard to believe it's been that long, and even harder to wrap my mind around all the ways the Lord has blessed it over the last decade.

I've been going over my files and marveling. I'm hoping to re-share some of the highlights on the book's Facebook page over the course of the month. 

Resisting Gossip is currently available in 6 languages: English, Spanish, French, Russian, Korean, Romanian, and as an audiobook. A companion study guide and Bible study, Resisting Gossip Together is also available and corresponds to 10 teaching videos.

The greatest blessing has been hearing from readers who have grown in their ability to win the war of the wagging tongue. I am a grateful author.

“The First of His Miraculous Signs” [Matt's Messages]

"The First of His Miraculous Signs”Life in Jesus’ Name - The Gospel of JohnLanse Evangelical Free ChurchSeptember 3, 2023 :: John 2:1-22 
This is one of my favorite souvenirs from our sabbatical in Great Britain.
Heather bought me this metal sign with a red dragon on it.
Anybody know which of the countries on the island of Great Britain sports this red dragon on their flag?
It’s the country of Wales, that’s right. One of the nations within the United Kingdom. That beautiful country on the western shores of the island where Heather and I spent several weeks there in early June. King Charles used to be the “Prince of Wales.”
Heather bought me this sign. It’s really beautiful. It has the “red dragon of  Cadwaladr” on it which has stood for the national pride of Wales for nearly 1400 years! 
And you can’t see it from there, but it’s completely filled up with the names of Welsh towns and cities in it.
They all sound exotic, and many are unpronounceable for me because I don’t speak Welsh. But we love to look it over and pick out the names of the places we visited:
CilgerranCardiffAbergavennyPontypoolFishguardCardiganSt. David’sSwanseaHay-on-Wye
And there are little figures, and symbols, and icons embedded in between. It’s really beautiful. Thank you, Honey, for buying for me. I haven’t figured out where to hang it yet. Probably in my office somewhere.
And this metal sign, like all good signs, has a central message. Something it’s pointing to.
And it’s pretty obvious. Because it’s it written right across the front in the middle. Can you read it from back there?
It says, “I ❤ WALES.”
I fell in love with that beautiful corner of the world: the beaches, the fields, the forest, the people, the culture, the church, the whole exotic thing. I love Wales. 
Wales is the place where, I think I finally started to really rest on our sabbatical. Where the rest caught up with me, a month and a half in. So it will always have a special place in my heart.  “I ❤ WALES.”
Why am I telling you this?
It’s to emphasize the idea of a sign.
A sign points to something.A sign has significance.A sign says something.
Sometimes it just says, “Stop!” Like a big red octagon with big white letters. “Stop!”
Or our church sign out there on Route 53. "This way to Lanse Free Church!"
A sign, if it’s doing it’s job, points to something significant.
And in today’s passage of God’s holy Word, John the Evangelist writes about what he says was, “The First of Jesus’ Miraculous Signs." Greek word, “saymeion.” Sign, mark, token, signal. In this case, it is a miraculous event that is the sign.
Did you catch that when Keagan read it? It’s in verse 11. Skip down there and look at it again.
“This, the first of his miraculous signs, Jesus performed at Cana in Galilee. He thus revealed his glory, and his disciples put their faith in him” (Jn. 2:1-11).
That’s pretty significant, pun intended. Jesus performed a sign. It was a miracle. But it wasn’t just a miracle. It was a miracle with a meaning. A miracle with a message. If you looked closely at this sign, you got the message.
John says Jesus with this sign “thus revealed his glory...”
To those who knew what was happening (which was a surprisingly small number in this case, to those who knew what was happening), Jesus gave a glimpse of His glory.
And John told us to expect just that. Remember what he said in the prologue? Chapter 1, verse 14. “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth” (Jn. 1:14).
And I don’t know about you, but I want to see His glory, too.
So let’s look more closely at His first miraculous sign.
[VIDEO WILL BE EMBEDDED HERE.]
It’s really a wild story. It’s really weird and strange. I thought this week, “This story is too weird to not be true. Nobody would come up with this. Nobody would do it this way unless this is actually how it happened. Too strange not to be true.”
Obviously, Jesus is going to to do a miracle here.
But you could almost miss it! In fact, there were people who were there, who saw the miracle, who even drank the miracle, and didn’t know the miracle had happened! Isn’t that wild?!
I wouldn’t do it like that. But that’s because I’m not Jesus.
This is Jesus revealing His glory. This is Jesus’ first miraculous sign.
But we’re getting ahead of ourselves. Let’s jump back up to the first verse and see how this miraculous sign came about. Verse 1.
“On the third day a wedding took place at Cana in Galilee. Jesus' mother was there, and Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding” (vv.1-2).
A wedding! Don’t you just love a wedding? What a wonderful event a wedding can be. And Jesus’ day, a wedding was a huge deal. The wedding feast often lasted for a whole week! Everyday life took a pause and the two families and their close friends came together to celebrate the joining of this man and this woman in holy matrimony.
This was a big deal especially in a small town like Cana. Remember, that’s where Nathanael was from (the guy in the last chapter, whom Jesus invited to “come and see” to come check Him out and see if Jesus was as good as advertised).
This is apparently the third day since then, and they’ve reached the little town of Cana in the northern region of Galilee, and there’s a wedding going on that Jesus’ mother was at.
John never tells us her name, but the other gospels tell us that it was “Mary.” This is the woman who gave Jesus birth. She carried him for nine months. Jesus is fully human. Nobody knows that better than this lady right here.
And she’s at this wedding. Perhaps she’s related to the bride or the groom. If so, it’s probably the groom, because he’s responsible for the wine at the wedding. We are never told exactly who the bride or the groom were.
But we are told that Jesus and His disciples had been invited to the wedding, too. We don’t know how many disciples Jesus had by then. Last week, we learned about Andrew, probably John, Simon (who Jesus called Peter), Philip, and Nathanael. So probably those five guys at least and maybe more are with Jesus at this wedding.
And everybody is having a good time...and then disaster strikes. They run out of wine.
Now, you and I can’t really understand what a big problem that actually was. Heather and I didn’t even have any wine at our wedding, and it was just fine. But this was a disaster for this couple, and even more for the groom and his family because it was their responsibility to provide the joyful drink for the feast. It was shameful and embarrassing at best and potentially ruinous at worst. The bride’s family might have been able to sue the groom’s family for breach of contract.  There was financial liability on the line. It was a major failure of Middle Eastern hospitality, which was no small thing!
It was a big problem, and Jesus’ mother swings into action. Look at verse 3.
“When the wine was gone, Jesus' mother said to him, ‘They have no more wine.’”
Mary knows about Jesus. She remembers the angel’s visit. She remembers that she had been a virgin who conceived a child. She remembers the shepherds. She remembers the wise men. She treasured up all of those things in her heart.
And it’s been about thirty years, and she decides that now’s a good time to ask Him to do something.
Perhaps it’s because He’s pulled up to the wedding with some disciples. Some actual followers. Maybe she’s heard that John the Baptizer has publicly pointed Jesus out as the Lamb of God who is going to take the away the sin of the world.
Whatever her thinking is, she pulls Jesus aside and says, “They have no more wine.”
This party is about to go south real quick. The wedding feast will be a failure. The joy is being drained from this event.
Now Jesus’ response might have been very surprising to her. Especially in the way He talks to the woman who gave Him birth. Look at verse 4.
“‘Dear woman, why do you involve me?’ Jesus replied. ‘My time has not yet come.’” He doesn’t call her, “Mom.” He calls her, “Gunai” in Greek which is a respectful way of addressing her but not particularly affectionate. It’s kind of like “Ma’am.” [By the way, don’t try this at home. Kids, don’t call your Mom, “Gunai.” That’s just for Jesus.]
Jesus says, “Ma’am, why are you getting me involved in this?”
“Dear woman, why are you trying to make this my business?”
It’s fascinating because I think this signals that Jesus is fully on His Father’s mission. He doesn’t take orders from His mom. Now that He’s into His public ministry, He is distancing Himself from His mom so that she no longer has an inside track. It doesn’t mean He doesn’t love her, but He’s about the Father’s business now like never before.
And also, somewhat paradoxically, it’s not yet His time to go big. Did you see that in verse 4? 
“My time has not yet come.”
Literally, “my hour” has not yet come. We’re going to see that idea of Jesus’ hour over and over again as we study this book. Jesus says that it has not come several times over the course of the first 11 chapters.
It’s not time yet for Jesus to get all of the attention. It’s not time yet for Jesus to be lifted up. It’s not time yet for Jesus to reveal Himself fully as Israel’s Messiah. He’s not going to jump up and do a miracle that says, “Here I am! See me in all my glory!”
If there’s a revelation of His glory, it’s just going to be a glimpse. If He does anything right now, it’s going to be quiet, reserved.
We’re going to see this again and again, too. Jesus is somewhat elusive at this stage. He’s private and careful at times. We’re going to see Him pull back, especially when people are getting the wrong idea about Him or could get the wrong idea about Him. 
It’s not yet His time. But His time is coming.
Now, I love how Mary responds to this. Mary is not offended. She is not put off by being called “Gunai.”  She’s not like, “What did you call me? I’m your mother.” No, she seems to understand what Jesus is doing. And she accepts everything that Jesus says about it not being his time.
But she is also not deterred! She is able to accept whatever Jesus does here as the right thing. Which is a great example for you me. As usual, Mary is showing us how it’s done. Model is almost always a model disciple for us to follow. She accepts whatever Jesus does here as the right thing.
But she seems to still expect Him to do something! She knows His heart. Look at verse 5.
“His mother said to the servants, ‘Do whatever he tells you.’”
I almost thinks she winks at that point. She gives a shrug to Jesus (okay!) and then says to the servants (perhaps she was family and had a responsibility for the catering, hard to say), “Do whatever he tells you.”
And that, too, is an incredibly point of application for you and me today, isn’t it?
“Do whatever Jesus tells you.”
Even if it feels kinda crazy? What is Jesus telling you to do? What are His commands?
Here his commands are strange. Jesus does act. He does, in fact, a miracle. He calls the crowd together and waves his hands over all of their cups and says, “Alakazaam, Alakazoo. Wine for me and wine for you!”
Is that what He does? No, nothing like it. Look at verse 6.
“Nearby stood six stone water jars, the kind used by the Jews for ceremonial washing, each holding from twenty to thirty gallons.”
They might have been empty. Everybody who came to this wedding would have had their hands ceremonially washed before eating. The water was poured over the tops of their hands and the bottoms. Maybe several times.
And we don’t know how many guests were at the wedding. But we do know there 6 of these big stone water jars which when filled hold 20 to 30 gallons. What’s 30 times 6? 180 gallons. Imagine 180 milk jugs up on here on stage with me. 
And Jesus told the servants to fill them up TO THE BRIM with water. V.7
“Jesus said to the servants, ‘Fill the jars with water’; so they filled them to the brim. Then he told them, ‘Now draw some out and take it to the master of the banquet.’ They did so,  and the master of the banquet tasted the water that had been turned into wine. He did not realize where it had come from, though the servants who had drawn the water knew.”
Stop there for just a second. When exactly did the miracle happen?
We don’t know. We’re just told that it did. And by the time anybody drinks the wine, Jesus is not mentioned again in the story! I think he might have done the miracle and then quietly slipped away from the wedding.
He told them to draw out some liquid from the jars and take it to the head caterer. He was probably the emcee or the head waiter. And he never finds out where the stuff comes from. But the servants knew. And the disciples did, too. They saw it all. V.9
“Then [the maters of the banquet] called the bridegroom aside and said, ‘Everyone brings out the choice wine first and then the cheaper wine after the guests have had too much to drink; but you have saved the best till now.’”
We weren’t sure if Jesus was going to do any miracle. Not only does He do it. He overdoes it! But not only did He provide wine, He turned water into wine. And not just any wine. He made the best wine ever!
This was the superior stuff. This would have had the label on it with the highest numbers at the wine-shop. Have you seen those rating numbers? Like anything about 90 is supposed to be really good. This would have been 100, 200 out of 100.
“You have saved the best till now.”
Problem solved. Can you imagine what that feast would have been like after this miracle?
The joy? The enjoyment of the new couple? The rejoicing and dancing of the two families become one. The disaster was averted and the feast became a festival. And Jesus quietly slipped away without taking the credit. That’s not how I would have done it. But it’s how Jesus did it, and His disciples saw it and believed. V.11 again.
“This, the first of his miraculous signs, Jesus performed at Cana in Galilee. He thus revealed his glory, and his disciples put their faith in him” (Jn. 2:1-11).
What do you think they saw? Let’s talk about that for application today. What do you think His disciples saw of Jesus’ glory in this miracle? In other words, what did the sign say? What was the meaning of the miracle? What was the message of the miracle?
What of Jesus’ glory was revealed?
I have four quick points, and here’s number one.
His first miraculous sign revealed:
#1. HIS COMPASSIONATE HEART.
He didn’t do this miracle because He was Mary’s son. He didn’t have to do it out of a familial bonds. It wasn’t because He was blood. He did it because He cared about Mary and about this family. He had compassion on them. He saw their plight and was willing to intervene.
It’s possible that the groom had really mismanaged his finances and this was all his fault, but our Lord had mercy on him and quietly stepped in.
Jesus cares. And if you believe that, then you will experience peace.
His mother knew His heart. His mother knew that if she brought the problem to Jesus, He was heart was probably going to go out to the family and want to do alleviate their suffering and bring them joy.
Do you know that that is the heart of Jesus? Do you know His compassionate heart? Do you know that Jesus cares? If you believe that, you will have great peace.
He might not fix every problem you have when you ask. He won’t in fact. He does not take away all of our suffering. Not yet. That time has not yet come. But Jesus cares. And when the time is right, He acts. Out of His compassionate heart. And that changes everything. That’s point number two.
His first miraculous sign reveals:
#2. HIS TRANSFORMING POWER.
Jesus can turn bland old water into the best wine ever. And that’s just for starters.
Jesus can turn ceremonial water into celebratory wine.Jesus can turn disaster into delight.Jesus can turn dryness into exuberance.Jesus can turn the old into the new.Jesus can transform death into life.
He can do miracles including miracles in our lives today.
What are you asking Jesus to transform in His power?
A lot of commentators have wondered if there spiritual significance of the water being ceremonial for washing like the Old Testament law and the wine being like the new wine of new covenant grace. And I say, “Maybe!”
Some of have pointed that the wedding going dry was like the spiritual dryness of Israel under the Pharisees and the wine being like the joyful spiritual life that faith in Christ will bring. And I say, “Maybe!”
Whatever symbolism might be there, we know there is power there to transform.
Jesus revealed His glory. Jesus has real power to make real change. If you believe that, then you will experience real joy. Because you know that He is truly power and can do amazing things in your life.
Do you believe that? If Jesus can do that, just think what He can do with your problem!
180 gallons of the best wine that guy had ever drank. Which really show Who Jesus really is. That’s point number three. 
His first miraculous sign reveals:
#3. HIS MESSIANIC IDENTITY.
In other words, Jesus is the Christ.
Remember that’s the point of this book! John says in chapter 20, “Jesus did many other miraculous signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. But these [signs] are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name” (Jn. 20:30-31).
In time, His disciples got the message.
“He makes wine.” “He makes the best wine.” “He must be the Messiah.”
Last Christmas we were studying the Book of Hope in the Prophecy of Jeremiah. Do you remember that? So much of Jeremiah was gloomy because he had to be a broken record about the broken covenant.
But in chapters 29 through 33, there was a bright ray of light prophesying about the Messiah who was going to enact a new unbreakable covenant. Do you remember that?
Do you remember how Jeremiah described the Messiah’s kingdom? Listen to chapter 31, verses 10 through 13:
“Hear the word of the LORD, O nations; proclaim it in distant coastlands [Like in Wales or in Central Pennsylvania]: 'He who scattered Israel will gather them and will watch over his flock like a shepherd.' For the LORD will ransom Jacob and redeem them from the hand of those stronger than they. They will come and shout for joy on the heights of Zion; they will rejoice in the bounty of the LORD–the grain, the new wine and the oil, the young of the flocks and herds. They will be like a well-watered garden, and they will sorrow no more. Then maidens will dance and be glad, young men and old as well. I will turn their mourning into gladness; I will give them comfort and joy instead of sorrow” (Jer. 31:10-13).
I think the disciples caught a glimpse of Jesus’ messianic identity when they saw the  party really getting started.
“That’s the Messiah!” 
And we know that that is just a foretaste of the Wedding Feast still to come. When Jesus is not just an amazing guest but the Bridegroom Himself. This miracle was a sign pointing to His identity.
And if you believe in it, then you will have life. Life in His name!
Do you believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God?
If you do, then you (like His disciples in verse 11), will have life in His name.
“He thus revealed his glory.”
Last point. Point number four of four as we go to the Lord’s Table.
His first miraculous sign revealed:
#4. HIS PERFECT TIMING.
As Jesus told His mother, this was not His hour, but His hour would come. And when His hour came, He did not flinch from embracing it for us.
In a few months, in John chapter 12, we’re going to read what Jesus said in the final crucial week. He said, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds [that’s us!]...Now my heart is troubled, and what shall I say? 'Father, save me from this hour'? No, it was for this very reason I came to this hour. Father, glorify your name!’” (Jn. 12:23-28).
Do you believe in Jesus’ perfect timing?
It often seems like Jesus is late. He could have made the water into wine before the old wine ran out. But He didn’t do that.
He could have done it before His mom talked to Him. But He didn’t do that either. 
It sometimes seems like He’s delaying things. And He is waiting for His return until the full number of His chosen ones come to repentance, until His Father says, “Go. Go on back.”
But that’s because His timing is always perfect. He knows exactly when to act and what to do.
So that it was on the very night He was betrayed that the Lord Jesus “took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, ‘This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me.’ In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me’” (1 Cor. 11:23-25).
Good signs point to significant things.
Signs are miracles with a meaning, miracles with a message.
Jesus’ first miraculous sign revealed His glory:
The glory of His compassionate heart. Believe that and you have peace.The glory of His transforming power. Believe that and you have joy.The glory of His messianic identity. Believe that and you have life.And the glory of His perfect timing. Believe that and you have salvation.
His disciples saw His glory and they put their faith in Him.
May we do so, too.

***
Messages in this Series

01. "That You May Believe" - John 20:30-31
02. "In The Beginning Was the Word" - John 1:1-18
03. "John's Testimony" - John 1:19-34
04. "Come and See" - John 1:35-51

“Come and See” [Matt's Messages]

“Come and See”Life in Jesus’ Name - The Gospel of JohnLanse Evangelical Free ChurchAugust 27, 2023 :: John 1:35-51 
Heather and I just recently bought a car. It’s out there in the car park.
If you’re one who likes all the details, it’s a 2007 Honda CRV with about 86,000 miles on it. And like all the other cars and trucks and motorcycles in our driveway right now, it is red.
We’ve been looking for another vehicle since January when my (also red) Ford Escape failed its inspection and had to be sold off to a guy in New York where they apparently don’t have inspections.
I spent a good deal of February and March scouring the internet for a vehicle that matched our wishlist (which actually does not necessarily include the color red!). And I just couldn’t find anything we liked in our price range.
A couple of times, I saw something interesting online, and then we traveled an hour both ways to look at it and came back disappointed and empty-handed. They looked a lot better in the pictures than in reality.
And our sabbatical was coming up fast, and we didn’t really need another vehicle to just sit there for three months, so we stopped looking, and what a relief that was! We borrowed for several weeks and got all the way to sabbatical. Three months of driving that little Renault across the UK.
Then, while we were in London, the week before we came back, I opened up my laptop and started looking again. And I found this CRV at a dealership in Dubois. And it looked good. As far as I could see, it had everything on our wishlist including low miles, and it was actually in our price range. And so I sent the listing to Peter and to my Dad, and they both came back, “That looks good. You should check that out.” And when we got home, I messaged the dealership and said, “Is that CRV still there?” And the guy said basically, “Yes it is. Come and see.”
I asked him about previous owners and how it looked. And he said there is a dent on the rear hatch but other than that’s it’s “crazy clean.” You love the salesmanship there. “Crazy clean.” Especially the underside. No surface rust. And it was two day back, and we still had jet lag, but Heather and I looked at each other and said, “There’s only one away to find out if it’s for real. Let’s go look at it.”
Come and See.
And you can tell what happened next. We looked it over for ourselves, took it for a test-drive, agreed with the guy about some things that needed fixed on it before we would bring take possession, and then shook hands on a price. We got it two days before the Crusie, and I took it to Ohio and back this week for an ordination council. So glad that’s over!
[VIDEO WILL BE EMBEDDED HERE.]
“Come and See.”
The Lord Jesus says those words or something like them several times in this short passage of the Gospel of John. Jesus invites several men to check Him out and then to become His followers.
Jesus has not yet spoken up to this point in this book. The Gospel opened with a Prologue that tells the story of the story that John is going to tell. And it’s all about The Word. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (1:1). “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. (Jn. 1:14 NIVO)” (Jn. 1:14 NIVO). “No one has ever seen God, but God the One and Only, who is at the Father's side, has made him known” (Jn. 1:18 NIVO). And we know that the Word is Jesus. That’s from the Prologue.
Then last week, we received the testimony of John the Baptist, “Notorious JTB.” John insisted that he was not the Christ, but that Jesus was. And more than that, Jesus was the Lamb of God and the Son of God.
And today he’s going to i.d. Jesus once again, and then Jesus will speak, too. The Word will use words. And Jesus will invite five men, and by extension us, to follow Him.
Look at John chapter 1, verse 35. “The next day John was there again with two of his disciples. When he saw Jesus passing by, he said, ‘Look, the Lamb of God!’ When the two disciples heard him say this, they followed Jesus” (vv.35-37).
Do you get the picture? It’s the very next day from when the Baptizer, “the Voice,” pointed his boney finger at Jesus and, in public, called Him the “The Lamb of God.” Very next day. He’s doing it again. And we don’t know how many other people were there, but two of his disciples, John’s followers, were with him. One of them was Andrew (according to verse 40), and we’re not told who the other one was (though I suspect it was the author of this Gospel, John). 
And John the Baptist says to them the very same thing he said the day before as Jesus is passing by, “Look, the Lamb of God!” The “Voice” speaks.
“That’s the One Who is going to be like the sacrificial lamb of the Passover. That’s the One Who is going to be like the lamb Who does not open His mouth from Isaiah 53:7 as He was being pierced for our transgressions. That’s the One Who will take away the sin of the world. That One right there.”
And John’s disciples believe him and start following Jesus!
That’s a big deal. It’s saying more than just that they started walking behind him. It’s saying that they transferred from John’s school into Jesus’ school. They were becoming Jesus’ disciples.
And Jesus is just fine with that. Verse 38. “Turning around, Jesus saw them following and asked, ‘What do you want?’” Literally, “What are you seeking?” “What is it that you are after in following Me?”
I love that He turned around to do this. He’s totally aware of what’s going on. And they are looking at Him full in the face. And He’s looking at them. “What do you want?” v.38
“They said, ‘Rabbi’ (which means Teacher), ‘where are you staying?’”
In other words, “Where are we headed? We’re with you now.” They aren’t just curious about where Jesus is spending the night; they are saying that they are joining His school so they need to know where to show up for class! “We are we going?”
I love that the first thing Jesus says in this Gospel is, “What do you want?”
I love it that it’s a question. Jesus always ask the best questions. And this one gets right to the heart. “What is it that you want?”
And then I love that the very next thing He says is, “Come and see.” v.39
“‘Come,’ he replied, ‘and you will see.’ So they went and saw where he was staying, and spent that day with him. It was about the tenth hour.”
That’s four o’clock. I’m not sure why John tells us that except that it establishes that it’s history. He was probably an eyewitness at this event, one of the participants, and it nails the fact that this really happened, about four o’clock that very day.
And maybe it means that they stayed with him that evening, too. The day was getting on, and they not only “spent that day with him” and followed Jesus to where He was staying, but stayed there, too.
Either way, Jesus is fine with them coming around. He invites them to check it out and to check Him out, and see if He is the real deal. “Come and See.”
I love this about Jesus.
Jesus doesn’t just expect us to have blind faith. He invites us to investigate Him for ourselves. To kick the tires. To look under the hood.
The sales guy in Dubois actually put our car up on his lift so that I could walk around underneath it and check it out up close and personal. I was like, “Oh yea, that part there. I recognize that. That looks good.” The point was that there wasn’t any rust, which I could see. It must have been kept in a garage in winter or something. Not run along salted Pennsylvania roads from 2007 to today.
Jesus invites us to walk around and check Him out for ourselves, as well.
That’s the whole point of this book!
We learned a few weeks ago that John wrote this book to introduce us to Who Jesus really is. He lays out what He’s learned about Jesus so that we can follow Him, too. He said to us, this book was “written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name” (Jn. 20:31, NIVO). Come and see for yourself.
I’ve got three points of application to share with you this morning, and that’s the first one of them:
#1. COME AND SEE JESUS.
You and I are invited to check Him out and put our faith in His name.
Notice the names for Jesus that are here in this passage:
He’s called the Lamb of God (v.36), which emphasizes His sacrificial death.
He’s called (v.38), “Rabbi, which means Teacher.” That emphasizes that Jesus has a philosophy of life that He wants to impart to His disciples. He is someone who is Teaching a Way of Life and invites us to follow Him in it.
And in verse 41, He’s called “the Messiah.” Look at verse 40.
“Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, was one of the two who heard what John had said and who had followed Jesus. The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon and tell him, ‘We have found the Messiah’ (that is, the Christ). And he brought him to Jesus...” (vv.40-42a, NIVO).
Come and See! Hey, Simon, come and see this man named Jesus.
Now, I love two things about that. One is that Simon (and by extension you and I) are invited to check out Jesus for ourselves. But I also love it that Andrew, after spending like just one evening with Jesus, was so convinced that He was ready to invite his brother to follow Jesus, too!
What do you think about Jesus? Are you so convinced that Jesus is the Lamb of God and the Teacher and the Messiah that you are ready to invite other people to check Him out, as well?
Andrew says to Simon, “Come and see.”
Every time we meet the disciple Andrew he’s bringing someone to Jesus. 
We need more Andrews these days. Not someone who has all the answers, but someone who is just simply willing to tell other people what they themselves have found. V.41 “We have found the Messiah. Just like John the Baptist said. This guy is the real deal. This is the One who has been sent to rescue us. Come and see for yourself.”
So Andrew brings Simon to Jesus. And look at what happens. Verse 42.
“Jesus looked at him and said, ‘You are Simon son of John. You will be called Cephas’ (which, when translated, is Peter).”
I love the detail here. He looks at Simon. And He knows him. He knows that Simon, at this point, is anything but a Rock. He’s more like sand-castle at this point in his life, but Jesus can see what Simon will be, and He tells him how He’s going to change him. You will be called “Rocky.”
And we know the story, how eventually Jesus will build His church on Peter’s understanding of Who Jesus really is. Peter will be a solid foundation stone that the church will be built upon throughout the ages. He will be Cephas. He will be Peter. He will be Rock. I love that Jesus can see that right from the git-go. 
In fact, let’s make that point number two:
#2. COME AND BE SEEN.
The seeing goes both ways. When we come to check out Jesus, we will find that we are already known. V. 42 again. “Jesus looked at him.”
It’s amazing how many times the gospels tell us that Jesus looked at people. That they were under His gaze. It’s part of loving someone to look at them. And it’s part of truly knowing them.
Jesus truly knows us.Jesus truly knows you.And He loves you.
Come and be seen by Jesus.
That’s a big part of this next story, and it’s a miracle! It starts with a fourth new disciple named “Philip.” Verse 43. “The next day Jesus decided to leave for Galilee [He’s probably on the way to a wedding in Cana]. Finding Philip, he said to him, ‘Follow me.’ Philip, like Andrew and Peter, was from the town of Bethsaida” (vv.43-44).
It kind of seems like Philip probably knew Andrew and Peter. They were all from the same hometown. And probably they’ve been talking about Jesus and Who He is. Especially Andrew.
But here it’s Jesus that straight up invites Philip to follow Him. And Philip does. We’ll read more about Philip as the book unfolds. He’s great at saying what everybody else is thinking!
But he begins to follow Jesus and, like Andrew, to invite others to do so, too. Like his friend Nathanael. It’s great to see these guys all excited about Jesus and wanting each other to know Him and follow Him, too? That’s how we should be!
We need more Andrews and Philips! Not just come and see but come and share. We will all do it our own way, but we should all be doing it. Who was the last person you told about Jesus? Who was the last person you invited to check Him out? Who was the last person you invited to “come and see Jesus.”?
Philip invited Nathanael. Verse 45. “Philip found Nathanael and told him, ‘We have found the one Moses wrote about in the Law, and about whom the prophets also wrote–Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.’”
There’s a couple more names for Him:
The Promised One. Philip says that He is the One the Law and the Prophets had predicted. He is the fulfilment of Genesis 3:15, Genesis 49:9, Numbers 24:17, Deuteronomy 18:18, 2 Samuel 7, Jeremiah 23, Jeremiah 31, Isaiah 9, Isaiah 53. And Psalm 2 and Psalm 16 and Psalm 72 and Psalm 110. And hundreds of other passages.
He is the One!  “We have found the one....” And He’s the son (we know that He was adopted) of Joseph. Jesus of Nazareth.
Now, Nathanael is not impressed with one key word in that speech from Philip. It’s the word “Nazareth.” Nazareth was a podunk little town in Galilee that didn’t amount to much. It was kind of the Pinchatolee of Galilee. It wasn’t even the little town of Bethlehem where the Messiah was supposed to come from! So if Jesus came from Nazareth, Nathanael was not going to be impressed. V.46
“‘Nazareth! Can anything good come from there?’ Nathanael asked. ‘Come and see,’ said Philip.”
See for yourself. Don’t just dismiss Him out of hand. Come and see. So, Nathanael did. And Jesus had seen him. Verse 47. “When Jesus saw Nathanael approaching, he said of him, ‘Here is a true Israelite, in whom there is nothing false.’ [That’s a big compliment, by the way. He’s saying that here’s a son of Jacob who doesn’t have any “Jacob” in him. He’s not perfect, but he’s honest. He’s not crooked. Nathanael would never make it in politics or selling used cars. Here is a true Israelite, in whom there is nothing false].” 
‘How do you know me?’ Nathanael asked. Jesus answered, ‘I saw you while you were still under the fig tree before Philip called you.’”
That’s a miracle. Jesus is saying that He somehow saw Nathanael sitting under this  particular fig tree before Philip had invited him over to check out Jesus. And He knew him. He knew his heart. He knew his ways. He knew what he was like. He knew how honest he was. 
And friends, He knows you, too. Your strengths and your weaknesses. He knows what you are good at and what you are bad at. He never overlooks you.
One of you told me last Sunday that I often skip shaking your hand before church. It’s like I don’t see you. I overlook you. I was embarrassed to hear that I had done that, and I’m very sorry for missing you.
Jesus never does that.  He knew Nathanael, and He knows you and me.  Nathanael was bowled over by this! That was all it took for Nathanael to jump on board. Look at verse 49. “Then Nathanael declared, ‘Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the King of Israel.’”
Nathanael did a 180, didn’t he?  He says, “Philip was right! You are the One Promised in the Old Testament.  You are the King of Israel. You are the Son of God.” Now, that last one could be just saying the same thing twice. The King of Israel was known as the Son of God. Check out Psalm 2. “I will proclaim the decree of the LORD: He said to me, ‘You are my Son; today I have become your Father’” (Ps. 2:7 NIVO). But we know that Jesus fulfills that to the greatest degree to that He is not just the Son of God, but God the Son. The Unique One and Only Son of God.
Nathanael probably didn’t understand that yet, but you and I do. That’s His name, and if we believe in it, we have life!
What do you think about Jesus?
Who do you think that He is?
If you are not yet sure, then I invite you and encourage you to come and see. To check Him out. To investigate Jesus and see if He is what you are looking for. One way to do that is to simply read the rest of this book. Keep reading to the end of the Gospel of John. Stick with us in this sermon series as we see Who John says Jesus is. There are lots of other good books that shed light on it, too. The other Gospels: Matthew, Mark, and Luke. And books about them. I’ve got a pile up here for you to consider.
Don’t be afraid to look under the hood.
Christianity is no bait and switch. It’s not just shiny on the outside or from afar. Instead, when you get inside, you find out that it’s even better than advertised.
Because Jesus is better than advertised.
Most of us here are convinced, right?
That’s why we’re here today. But are we holding back? We’re convinced that Jesus is the Lamb of God, that He’s the Messiah, that He’s the Christ, that He’s the Promised One, that He’s the Son of God and the King of Israel.
But we are not convinced that we can trust Him with our:
financestimejobfamilyreputationmarriagerelationshipsfriendshipswhatever.
So we’re holding back control of some of those.
Jesus invites us to try Him out. To give Him control of every area of our lives. And we will be amazed at what He does with them. He invites us to believe, and to have life in His name.
Nathanael believed, and Jesus said that he “hadn’t seen nuthin’ yet.” Verse 50. You can almost hear him chuckling.
“Jesus said, ‘You believe because I told you I saw you under the fig tree. You shall see greater things than that.’ He then added, ‘I tell you the truth, you shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man’” (vv.50-51).
#3. COME AND SEE GREATER THINGS.
That thing that Jesus had told Nathanael was just a taste of things to come. Jesus declared that Nathanael would see heaven open and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.
There’s another name for Jesus. That’s one of His all-time favorites. Son of Man. It emphasizes His humanity while drawing all kinds of Old Testament connections to emphasize His divine status, as well (see Daniel 7).
Jesus says that Nathanael will see angels of God ascending and descending on Him.   What is He talking about? That’s a greater thing, alright! When did that happen?
He doesn’t mean literally. He’s drawing a picture of a spiritual reality using an allusion to the story of Jacob’s Ladder in Genesis 28. 
Do you remember that story? Jacob had stolen his brother’s birthright and run away from home and was given a vision in a dream of a ladder, or, better, a stairway, between heaven and earth. With angels ascending and descending on the stairway.
Do you remember this? Jacob didn’t deserve it. It was all of grace. It always was grace with Jacob! 
What was the point of that story? The point was that God has taken the initiative in His grace to make contact and connection between heaven and earth, between Him and His people. The point was that God, by His grace, had linked heaven and earth. 
And Jesus says in verse 51 that He. Will. Be. The. Ladder.
He’s not the new Jacob. He’s the new stairway! Jesus is going to be the connection point between God and His people. Jesus is going be our access to God!
“...ascending and descending on the Son of Man!”
Come and see greater things, like a restored relationship between heaven and earth! Like a restored relationship between God and His people. We can know God! Because Jesus has made Him known.
Jesus is the Way to the Father! Do you want to get to God? Do you want to get to heaven? You can’t get there on your own. You and I cannot build a stairway to heaven. But Jesus, at the Cross, was the Stairway.
Later on in this Gospel, Jesus is going to tell Thomas and Philip that He is “the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through” Him (Jn. 14:6 NIVO).
He is the connection point, the link, between heaven and earth.
Do you believe?
Come and see!

***

Messages in this Series

01. "That You May Believe" - John 20:30-31
02. "In The Beginning Was the Word" - John 1:1-18
03. "John's Testimony" - John 1:19-34

“John’s Testimony” [Matt's Messages]

“John’s Testimony”Life in Jesus’ Name - The Gospel of JohnLanse Evangelical Free ChurchAugust 20, 2023 :: John 1:19-34 
“Who do you think you are?”
Depending on how you say it, we ask that question all the time. “Who are you?” “Who is that guy?”
When Heather and I went to Great Britain in April, we had to show people our passports. We had to prove our identity to get onto the plane, to get across the border, and to come back home in July.
Our identity matters. And it matters, not just who we are, but who we think we are. Especially if we are trying to do something that is tied to our identity.
At the Good News Cruise, I like to joke with people and say, “Which car to do you like? Just pick one out and take it home.” We all shake our heads and say, “I wish.” But we know that it doesn’t work that way. If we tried it, if we got into the driver’s seat and fired it up to swing it on back to our garage, the real owner would show up pretty quick with this question, “Who do you think you are? Where do you think YOU are going with that?”
Well, that’s the question that the Jewish Religious leaders posed to John the Baptist in today’s passage.
Who do you think you are?
And John had a ready and honest answer that makes all of the difference in the world.
[VIDEO WILL BE EMBEDDED HERE.]
<> Last Sunday in the mind-blowing Prologue of John’s Gospel, we learned about this astonishing Person called The Word. This whole Gospel is going to be about this wonderful Person. 
Every phrase was filled with fireworks! 
We learned that before creation, in the beginning, this Person, this Word existed with God and at the same time was God. He is eternal. He is distinct in some way from God the Father, and at the same time He is the very same thing in substance and nature as God the Father. The Word is God. He is the Creator. Through “Him all things were made, without Him nothing was made that has been made.” More than that, in Him was life, and that life was the light of men (vv.1-5). How wonderful!
And as if that wasn’t enough to take in, we also learned that this Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us. One Person Who was fully God and now fully human, and we know the name the Word was given when He was born as a human, and it is Jesus.
And as if that wasn’t enough to take in, we also learned that He is the Unique Son of God, God the Son springing forth eternally from the Father and has come to make God the Father known.
How do we know all of that is true?  Well, the week before that, we learned that John the Evangelist wrote this book to make the case. He wrote these words in front of us so that we “believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing [we] may have life in his name” (Jn. 20:31 NIVO).
And so, in many ways, John is making this case for us, and that requires some testimony. Some expert testimony.
In verse 6, John said that God sent a man named John (the Baptist) to be a witness and to give important testimony that needs to be heard. And so that’s where John starts as his finishes his prologue and begins his story proper. John chapter 1, verse 19.
“Now this was John's testimony when the Jews of Jerusalem sent priests and Levites to ask him who he was. He did not fail to confess, but confessed freely, ‘I am not the Christ.’”
You can sum up John’s testimony into three key points in verses 19 through 34, and this is the first one. John the Baptist testifies:
#1. I AM NOT THE CHRIST.
The Jewish Religious Leaders had sent an official delegation to ask John the Baptist, “Who do you think you are?” 
They are not just curious. They are examining him for his qualifications. John has exploded on the scene, and lots of people were coming out to the desert to hear him preach and to be baptized.
John the Baptist, the Notorious JTB, was quite a character! The other gospels tell us that he dressed like a prophet with  clothing made of camel’s hair and a diet of locusts and wild honey. And JTB was preaching repentance and the coming of the kingdom of God.
And he was very popular. Thousands of people were flocking to hear him. John the Baptist was a rockstar! And the Jewish Religious Leaders were probably getting nervous. Afraid they might lose their power.
Some people clearly were thinking that this weirdo, this popular preacher, just might be the Messiah that God had promised time and again in the Old Testament. People were on the lookout for The Christ (the Greek translation of “the Messiah”).  
Is John the Baptizer what we have all been looking for?
So some priests and Levites were sent to ask John, “Who do you think you are?” And John was really straightforward. V.20 again. “He did not fail to confess, but confessed freely, ‘I am not the Christ.’”
“I’m not the One you are looking for. Don’t look at me.”
V.21. They press in. “They asked him, ‘Then who are you? Are you Elijah?’ He said, ‘I am not.’ ‘Are you the Prophet?’ He answered, ‘No.’”
Why do they ask these questions? When did Elijah die? That was a trick question. Elijah didn’t die. The Lord swooped him up in a fiery chariot and took him straight to heaven.
And the Prophet Malachi said that Elijah will return before the day of the Lord (Malachi 4:5).
And so these guys want to know if John the Baptist is Elijah back from heaven.
And John says, “No.” {The truth is that it’s more complicated than that. Jesus will explain that John was the Elijah to come, in his role. But John is right that he is not literally Elijah returned on the chariot like some of them must have been thinking.}
And more than that, John knows that he is not the Great Prophet that was foretold in the Book of Deuteronomy (18:15). 
So, who is he? Verse 22. “Finally they said, ‘Who are you? Give us an answer to take back to those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?’ [Who do you think you are?] John replied in the words of Isaiah the prophet, ‘I am the voice of one calling in the desert, 'Make straight the way for the Lord.'’”
He is not The Word. He is only a voice crying out that the Word is coming. He is not the Christ. He is only a voice calling out that the Christ is on the way. 
John holds up his passport, and it says, “Isaiah 40, verse 3.” The mysterious prophetic voice arising from the desert, “... Prepare the way for the LORD; make straight in the wilderness a highway for our God. Every valley shall be raised up, every mountain and hill made low; the rough ground shall become level, the rugged places a plain. And the glory of the LORD will be revealed, and all mankind together will see it. For the mouth of the LORD has spoken” (Isa. 40:3-6 NIVO).
John says, “That’s me.”
“I am not the Christ. I am only the Voice.”
Now, what do we do with that here in our lives today? 
Of course, first off, we should not treat John the Baptist like He was the Messiah. Anyone who tries to center their lives on John will be disappointed and be missing the point. 
And that’s true of everyone else who is not the Christ. We are so prone to making men into messiahs. We think they will save us if we just put our trust in them 100%. 
We make this mistake with politicians all of the time.We make it with pastors.We make it with celebrities.We make it with business leaders.
We put our hope in false messiahs, and then we are surprised when we are disappointed! There is no life in John’s name. There is no salvation there. From Rome or from sin. John was just a witness. Just a voice.
And you know who also is not the Christ? You and me. I am not the Christ, and I have to be reminded of it. When I am not following someone else, I can also get the wrong idea that I need to save people.  Like I’m their savior. We call it a “Messiah Complex.” It’s our job to rescue people from everything they have gotten themselves into.
I have made that mistake more times that I can count, and it doesn’t just disappoint them, but it depresses me. Because I have fallen into a role I cannot fill with shoes too big for my feet. It’s one of the reasons why I needed a sabbatical this year, to undo the accumulated effects of pretending I am the Christ!
But if we are not supposed to follow John or to try to be the Messiah ourselves, what are we supposed to do?
We need to listen to the voice.
“Make straight the way for the Lord!” That’s a call to repent. That’s a call to change our ways. That’s a call to align our lives with the will of God. When the voice says, the valleys will be raised up and the mountains lowered, he’s saying that God’s people do what is necessary for the Lord’s coming to be smooth. So the king can ride into town in style.
And that means change for you me. John was preaching a message of change. “Repent! For the kingdom of heaven is near.”
What in your life needs to change? What in your life is displeasing to God?  Where do you know that you need to take a turn? What valley needs to be built up? What mountain needs to be leveled? What change do you need to make in repentance?
It’s easy to say where others need to change. I often can point out what others are doing wrong (and if you want some help, just ask me). But the question we should be asking today is where do we need to repent? What is crooked in my life that needs straightened for the coming of the Lord?
What attitudes need straightened?What habits?What relationships?
The Voice is saying that John is not the Messiah, but He is very near. So get ready for His coming.
And we need, like John, to point people to the real Messiah. Like we said last week, we need to be witnesses, too. Not pointing people towards us but towards Jesus. Just like we did yesterday out there.
Now, the Jewish Religious Leaders hear what John has to say, but they have some more questions. What does that mean that you are “the voice?” And how does it connect to all of this baptizing you are doing? Look at verse 24.
“Now some Pharisees who had been sent questioned him, ‘Why then do you baptize if you are not the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?’” “Who do you think you are? And why do you think you should do what you’re doing?”
And here’s where it gets really interesting.
Because John says, “Never mind who I think I am. I want to tell you about Somebody else and Who He is! I’ve been baptizing people to get ready to meet Him.” V.26
“‘I baptize with water,’ John replied, ‘but among you stands one you do not know. He is the one who comes after me, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie.’”
“I’m basically nothing. You ain’t seen nothing yet. Wait until you get a load of Him!”
What a thing to say! You need to know that in that day only slaves would be tasked with untying a master’s sandals. Disciples didn’t have to do it. A disciple could be asked to do all kinds of menial tasks for their teacher, but they didn’t have to put their hands on their teacher’s feet. Only a slave would.
And John says, “This One who is coming. I am not worthy to be his slave.” 
And John is not exaggerating! This is not a false humility or a beating himself up for not being good enough. This is true humility (which we should cultivate!), and it is a right estimation of the way things really are. The One to come is really truly that worthy!
And John says that He’s not just coming any more. He is here.
He is here.
And the very next day, John gets to testify about Him in person. V.28
“This all happened at Bethany on the other side of the Jordan, where John was baptizing.  The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, ‘Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! This is the one I meant when I said, 'A man who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me. I myself did not know him, but the reason I came baptizing with water was that he might be revealed to Israel.’”
John says, “There’s the answer to your question about why I baptize. I baptize because of this person. This man right here. He showed up on the scene after me, but He is infinitely more important than I am because He was ‘before me.’ He is actually eternal. And He is “the Lamb of God.”
John’s testimony is that:
#2. JESUS IS THE LAMB OF GOD.
And that phrase means so much. Jesus is the like the sacrificial lamb at Passover. Jesus is a like the lamb that takes the place of the sinner who brings it as an offering. In fact, He is the fulfillment of all of those Old Testament Lambs who were slain.
Jesus is the Savior that the Old Testament promised! He fulfills all of the prophecies of the Messiah including the ones about the Suffering Servant in Isaiah 53.
“We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all. [Next verse.] He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth” (Isa. 53:6-7 NIVO). “Look! The Lamb of God, who takes the away the sin of the world!” 
John I.D.’s Him. “If you look on that guy’s passport, it will say, ‘The Lamb of God!’”
I wonder what that must have been like. Yesterday at the Cruise, I pointed out one of my kids to somebody, “Yeah, that guy right there is my son. That’s Peter.” But John points to Jesus, and says, “There He is. That’s the Lamb of God.” And He is going to take away the sin of the world!
That’s what was happening on the Cross. Jesus was bearing the sin of the world so that anyone who puts their faith and trust in Him will be saved! Your sin taken away. My sin taken away.
John never gets over this idea. Later in life he writes, “[Jesus] is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world” (1 Jn. 2:2 NIVO).
And then in his Apocalypse, John keeps naming Jesus, “The Lamb.” 
“Worthy is the Lamb who was slain!” (Rev. 5:12).
Have you put your faith and trust in Jesus for your salvation? It’s the only way for your sins to be “taken away.” For your sins to be removed. Somebody has to pay for them. And Jesus has done it for all who believe in Him. Whoever believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life (3:16)!
And the reason why the Lamb of God can take away the sins of the world is because He is more than just the Lamb of God. He is the Son of God. Verse 32. Last step in John’s testimony this week. Verse 32.
“Then John gave this testimony: ‘I saw the Spirit come down from heaven as a dove and remain on him [Jesus]. I would not have known him, except that the one who sent me to baptize with water told me, 'The man on whom you see the Spirit come down and remain is he who will baptize with the Holy Spirit.' I have seen and I testify that this is the Son of God.’”
#3. JESUS IS THE SON OF GOD.
John the Baptizer is telling the story about the time when he baptized Jesus. That wasn’t this day described in John 1 but some day before this. The story is also in Matthew chapter 3 if you want to study it in detail.
John the Baptist says that God had sent him to baptize with water and had also told him that one day while he’s baptizing, he will see the Spirit of God come down on a man and remain on Him. Not just like the Spirit did in the Old Testament when He would clothe someone with power to do something, a prophet, a priest, a king, a judge. And then lift off.
But on this One–to come down and remain on Him permanently, in the fullest sense. In a unique way. An unique relationship with the Holy Spirit. And John says, “It happened to me. I saw it with my own eyes. I testify!
The Spirit came down from heaven as a dove!” (Not sure exactly what that was but it was unmistakable to John.)
Just like Isaiah said in his chapter 11 about the Messiah: ‘The Spirit of the LORD will rest on him–the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of power, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD–and he will delight in the fear of the LORD’ (Isa. 11:2-3 NIVO).
John says, “I saw it happen with my own two eyes.” 
Jesus has the Spirit without limit! And that means that He can baptize others with the Holy Spirit.
“I just do the water thing. It’s a symbol. A wonderful symbol, but just a symbol. But this One? He baptizes with the Spirit Himself, immersing His people in the Spirit and including them into His Body, His new community, His church (See 1 Corinthians 12:12)! He does for real what my water baptism just symbolizes!”
And John the Baptist would have heard the voice from heaven.  Not the voice in the desert, but the voice of God the Father Himself who said at the moment the Spirit descended at Jesus’ baptism, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased” (Matt. 3:17 NIVO).
So John says, verse 34, “I have seen and I testify that this is the Son of God.”
And that means everything! John is the “monogenays.” He is the wholly unique Son of the Father that we saw last week in verse 14 and verse 18. 
It obvious from that holy moment of Trinitarian significance–the Spirit descending, resting, and remaining, the Father identifying and speaking His admiration for His One and Only Son.
And John the Baptist saying, “I saw it. I testify to it.” Jesus is the Son of God.
What do we do with that truth in our lives today? If this is true, and I believe it is, how do we live our lives today?
We worship!
What else can we do? We worship the Son of God who is God the Son. We give Him all of the praise and all of our lives in joyful worship. We head out those doors into our work-week and for many of us into our school-week with lives that centered on this Son of God. 
We live, not for our own glory. We are not the Christ! Who do we think we are acting like we are the Messiah?! We are not the Christ. But we know Him. We know He has come. We know that He saves. He is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.
We’ve got to tell people about that. Kids, tell your classmates! Teachers, tell your colleagues in the teachers’ lounge. We are not the point, but we point people to Him.
Jesus is the Lamb of God. He sacrificed Himself in our place. 
“Guilty, vile, and helpless WESpotless Lamb of God was HE!Full atonement! Can it be?Hallelujah, what Savior!” - Philip Bliss
If we trust in Him, He takes away our sin. If we believe in Him, we get LIFE in HIS Name. And His name is the Son of God. And He wants us to change. We listen to “the voice.” We believe John’s testimony, and we hear his clarion call to repent. To make straight the way for the Lord. We allow the Lord to make the changes in our lives that He wants to make.
Because He is the Son of God.
Interestingly, the Word has not yet spoken in this book. Starting next week, He will begin to testify on His own account.
But right now, we have John’s testimony, and it is wondrous:
John is not the Christ (not even close!), but Jesus is.Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.Jesus is the Uniquely Spirit-Endowed Father-Beloved Son of God worthy of our worship both now and forevermore.
***
Messages in this Series

01. "That You May Believe" John 20:30-3102. "In The Beginning Was the Word" - John 1:1-18

“In the Beginning Was the Word” [Matt's Messages]

“In the Beginning Was the Word”Life in Jesus’ Name - The Gospel of JohnLanse Evangelical Free ChurchAugust 13, 2023 :: John 1:1-18 
I don’t know what is the most breathtaking, astonishing, mind-blowing thing that the Apostle John says here in this passage in front of us.
Every phrase is full of fireworks!
Every phrase of John 1:1-18 is pregnant with precious, powerful, glorious truth. The deepest truth in the whole world!
And no matter what I say today, I cannot do it justice. This is just too good to summarize. We could spend the rest of the summer and all fall just working through these eighteen verses and never hit the bottom and never reach the top. It’s just that rich and wonderful! And what a high and holy privilege it is to study it with you today. 
[VIDEO WILL BE EMBEDDED HERE.]
Last week, we started our new series at the end of the Gospel of John where he told us his purpose in writing it. John said, talking directly to us, he wrote these words, “that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name” (Jn. 20:31 NIVO).
Life in Jesus’ name.
That’s the whole point of the book, and it’s the whole point of our series. And it’s the whole point of our church. And it’s the whole point of this sermon.
And we learned last week that His name is more than just the thing that He’s called. His name is Who He is. His name is His person, His substance, His character, His authority, His identity. His name is Who He really is.
And as John picks up His pen to tell us Who Jesus really is, He uses a name for Jesus that was His name before He was ever called “Jesus.”
John calls Him, “The Word.”
In fact, John doesn’t introduce the name “Jesus” until verse 17! Instead, at the beginning of John’s Gospel he goes back to the beginning of the world, and he names His subject, “the Word.” 
“In the beginning was the Word.”
Now, when you hear “In the beginning...” what do you think? You think of Genesis 1:1, right? That’s on purpose. John 1:1 is written to connect in our minds with Genesis 1:1. What does Genesis 1:1 say? “In the beginning, GOD created the heavens and the earth.”
And John says, right there at the beginning of creation, before there was anything but God, there was Something (or Someone) called “The Word.” “In the beginning was the Word.”
The Greek word there for word is “logos.”  It means “word.” It means “communication.” It means “message.” It means “disclosure” or “explanation” or “expression.”
It comes from the Old Testament talking about the Word of God, the powerful creative revelatory message of God. The speech of God. God telling us about Himself.
The Greeks loved that word, “logos,” too. Plato and them used it to convey the philosophical idea of logic and reason, the principle of reason rationally holding the world together. We get our word “logic” from it. In fact, we get a lot of words from “logos” including all of the “ologies” like “theology.” 
And John uses this word, “Word” as a name for a Person. And John says that this Word was in existence at the beginning. And look at the next phrase:
“...and the Word was with God.”
Isn’t that amazing? In the beginning there was God, and there was this Thing, this Person named “The Word” who was with God. 
And that word “with” is full of fireworks! It means there is some kind of a distinction going on there and also some kind of a close relationship. The Word and God were with each other. Interpersonal. Intimate. Both existing before creation. Both eternal.
#1. THE WORD AND GOD.
And both together. “With-ness.” They had “with-ness.” 
But, here’s something that is even more amazing. Family, it only gets more amazing. It only gets more mind-blowing. Last phrase of verse 1.
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”
So now we know that the Word was God. Everything that it means to be God (the Ultimate Being over the universe), this Word had and has. The Word is fully God. And at the same time is with God.
Anybody confused, yet? Are they same thing or are they different?
Answer: They are the same one thing and yet also in another way distinct.
They have a relationship that is unlike any other thing in the world.
And that’s to be expected because God is unlike anything else in the world! Sometimes we want an analogy to help us understand something, but there are no analogies that help us to understand this about God. We just accept it the mind-blowing truth of it as we read about it. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” Verse 2. “He was with God in the beginning.”
Now, why do you think that John emphasizes this name for this incredible Person? 
I think it’s because of this truth: God wants us to know Him.
God wants us to know Himself. And so He speaks. He tells us something about Himself. He gives us a message. And this message, this communication, is so Him that it is Him! When God reveals Himself, He does it through Himself. It’s a personal message, so it must come through a Person. God shares Himself through His Word.
Does that make sense? I know it’s a profound idea and hard to put into words, but John says it all in very small words: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” Fully God. The Word is the Creator. Look at verse 3. “Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made." Notice that He Himself is un-made. He is God the Uncreated One, like we just sang. But everything that has been made, everything in creation was made through the Word. 
John says it again backwards so that we get the point, “...without him nothing was made that has been made.” The Earth, the sea, the sky, the planets, outer space. The molecule, the elements, the atom, the electron, the neutron, inner-space.
They were made through the Word. You and me! We were made through the Word. Say that to yourself, “I was made through the Word.”
This is Genesis 1 language, isn’t it? 
“And God said, ‘Let there be...light.’” Look at verse 4. “In him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it.”
Now there in verse 5, we learn about a cosmic conflict that has been going on for a long time. John is telling us a story. He’s telling The Story. And like all good stories, there is a conflict in the middle of it. This is the mega-conflict between light and darkness. Between good and evil. Between truth and lies. 
John says, in the Word was life–not just physical life but spiritual life, eternal life, abundant life (like we talked about last week) and that life was the light of men. The glorious light that all humankind so desperately needs.
And that light is shining in the Word!
BUT (here’s the conflict) the darkness (also personified here) has not “understood it.” 
Or your version might say, “overcome it.” The darkness has not comprehended the glorious light of the Word, and those embracing the darkness have rejected the light. 
But, in the end, they have not won. They have not overpowered it. The light ultimately wins. And what good news that is?!!
#2. THE WORD AND THE WITNESS.
Now, in verse 6, John introduces a new character. He is telling us the story of the story he is going to tell us. 
Next week, we’ll see that John starts his story with John the Baptist. He’s like Mark in that and not like Matthew or Luke. They start with Mary and Joseph and the genealogies and so forth. But Mark and John, when they get going, start the story with John the Baptist. V.6
“There came a man who was sent from God; his name was John. [This is John the Baptist. Whenever John the Evangelist actually says the name “John,” he’s talking about the Baptist, not himself. John the baptist...v.7] ... came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all men might believe [There’s that word again!]. He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light. The true light that gives light to every man was coming into the world” (John 1:6-9, NIVO).
You get the picture?
The Word is coming into the world. God’s communication of Himself that is Himself a Person and is Himself WITH God and is Himself God [!] is “coming into the world.” He’s on the way. He’s arriving. And John the Baptist has been sent to tell people about Him.
John is a witness. He has expert testimony to offer.
V.8 is very clear that John was not the light himself. We don’t want any confusion on that point. John was great. He has great things to say and do, but He is not the point. His point is to point to the Light.
That’s a word for us today, isn’t it? Our job is not to point people to ourselves but to point people to Jesus. When we are good witnesses, we are not saying how great we are or even how far we’ve come or how smart we are to choose to be Christians, but how great Jesus is.
And what a wonderful privilege it is for us to point people to Him!
That’s the whole point of the Good News Cruise, isn’t it? We don’t want to people to think, “How great are those folks at Lanse.” We want them to think, “How great must their Savior be for them to want to give us this day?!” 
I kept saying that to Heather yesterday about this sermon. “If people walk away from my sermon and says, ‘What a great preacher, Matt is,” I will have failed.” Because want I want you to do is to walk away and say, “How wonderful Jesus is!”
How wonderful is The Word!
#3. THE WORD AND THE WORLD.
Notice what John says is the relationship between the Word and the world. In verse 9, he said that the Word was coming into the world. More on that in a second. But in verse 10, he says that when the Word arrived, the world didn’t like it. V.10
“He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. [Did not know Him. Didn’t want to know Him. V.11] He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him.”
The Word showed up, and the World rejected Him. He was their Messiah. He was the Christ. He was everything God had promised in the Old Testament, and Israel said, “No thanks.” He had made the whole world, and the world said, “We don’t want you.”
We’re going to see this conflict again and again and again as we read the Gospel of John. John is telling us the story of the story he’s going to tell us.
And it’s a sad one. They even go so far as to kill Him.
But the darkness does not ultimately win. The Word comes back to life, and then He gives life to those who WILL BELIEVE! Look at verse 12.
“Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God–children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God.”
Isn’t that wonderful?! There are people who did not and do not continue to reject the Word but receive the Word instead. They “believe in His name.” They believe everything about Him that we are going to learn about Him in the next several months.
And what does belief lead to? What did say last week? Faith leads to...LIFE!
To those who embrace the Word, who listen to the Word, who welcome the Word into their hearts and lives, to those who believe in His name, He gave the new powerful status of child of God.
And that is what are! (Remember what Joel Michael said back in June in 1 John 3?)
John can’t get over this truth. We who believe ARE THE CHILDREN OF GOD! With all of the rights and privileges (and responsibilities!) that come with it. Say to yourself right now if you believe in this name, “I am a child of God.”
That’s life!!! That’s living. That means eternal life. Not just physical life. V.13 “...children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God.”
Supernatural life. Not just sperm and egg, not just blood and DNA. But a new heart, a new birth, a new status, adopted into God’s own family.
Where we can say, “God is my Father.” And we can pray to God as our Father. And we can know that we’ll spend all eternity with Him because we are in His forever family. 
The Word “gave us the right to become children of God.”
And here’s how He did it:
(It only gets more astonishing. It only gets more mind-blowing.)
The Word was in the beginning. The Word was creating everything that has been made.The Word was with God.The Word was God.
And then...the Word did the unthinkable. Look at verse 14.
“The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.”
That’s why we’re singing Christmas songs in August!
“Word of the Father, now in flesh appearing.” 
“Veiled in flesh the Godhead see;Hail the incarnate Deity.Pleased as man with men to dwell,Jesus, our Emmanuel.” - Charles Wesley
It takes poetry to even come close to capturing what this verse says God has done.
The Word is not only fully God, but He has become, in the incarnation, fully human!
John doesn’t give us Mary and Joseph or the shepherds or the wisemen, but he goes even further back to before the beginning and then gives us the whole point of Christmas in one verse. “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.”
Everything that it means to be a human, He assumed. He took a human nature to Himself.
Theologians call that the “hypostatic union,” the Word was fully God and fully man in one Person.
The Word become flesh!
And lived among us. The Greek word for “made his dwelling among” derives from the word for “tent” or “tabernacle.” Just like God set up His home in the tabernacle tent at the middle of the people of Israel in the book of Exodus and Numbers, God has now made His home among us through this God-Man, the Word become flesh, coming to live here with us.
And John says that just like they saw God’s glory enter that tent, the apostles saw God’s glory in this Person.
“We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.”
The Greek word translated “One and Only” is the word “monogenays.” The old way of translating it was “Only Begotten.”
It’s the same word (monogenays) that shows up in John 3:16 to describe how unique the Son of God is.
You see we are children of God, but not like this One is. He is unique. He is unparalleled. He is One of a Kind. One of a “genus.” 
There is no one else like the Word. He comes from the Father in a unique way. He has an unique from-ness. Not just an unique with-ness, but an unique from-ness.  He is the One who can be eternally with God and eternally from God and eternally be God. And became one of us!!!!
He didn’t just seem like one of us. He became one of us. 100%
We’re going to see that again and again and again as we read this book. He was fully human. He became so much like us that He could die a human death. And die He did.
That’s Who John is going to point to later on in this chapter. V.15
“John testifies concerning him. He cries out, saying, ‘This was he of whom I said, 'He who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.'”
We will get to that next week, Lord-willing. John the Baptist points at Jesus starting his public ministry after John but has always existed as the Word before John, so He surpasses John. And He surpasses Moses. V.16
“From the fullness of his grace we have all received one blessing after another. For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.”
And there he names Him. The name for the Word after He became flesh is “Jesus Christ.” It’s interesting, John never calls Him, the “Word” again in his gospel. From here on, it’s Jesus, and all of the other things we’re going to learn about Him. All of those things add up to what God was communicating in the Word.
Notice that Jesus is described as full of grace. “From the fullness of his grace we have all received one blessing after another.” I love that. He’s like an endless fountain of grace. He’s like a bottomless ocean of grace. We’ll never get to the end of the blessings. “10,000 reasons and then forevermore.” So that if we know Him and belong to Him, we have received and are receiving grace upon grace. Life upon life. Blessing upon blessing. Blessing the supersedes blessing.
John says that the law was a blessing. It came through Moses. But something even greater than the law is here now. Grace and truth have come through Jesus Christ. Salvation in His name. Not because of anything we have done, but because of what He did for us on the Cross and at the Empty Tomb. Grace!
And our role is simply to believe. And then we can know God.
Every phrase is full of fireworks! I don’t know what is the most astonishing claim in these eighteen verses, but perhaps it is the notion that we can know God through Jesus Christ. Look where John ends up with his prologue. V.18. It gets even more amazing.
“No one has ever seen God, but God the One and Only, who is at the Father's side, has made him known.”
Nobody has ever seen God. So all of those times that God showed up in some way in the Old Testament. To Moses. To Isaiah. To Ezekiel. Those were just partial. Those were just shadows. They were just a glimpse of glory. Nobody has ever seen God except God.
John says, “But God the [monogenays] the One and Only, the Only Begotten, the Unique Son, who is at the Father’s side (with God!), has made Him known.”
Notice that two Persons are called God in that verse. God “the Monogenays” and God the Father who has never been seen. And there are not two Gods. Just one! These are the building blocks of our doctrine of the Trinity. One God in, here we have two, we’ll find out later that there are three, Persons.
And the One Person (the Word...the Son!) has taken on flesh and made God the Father known.
That’s why He’s called the Word. Because He is the Message of God come in the flesh so that we know God Himself! Isn’t that amazing?
Every phrase is filled with fireworks. And they are explosive and beautiful.
So what do we do with this? What is the application of John 1:1-18?
Let me briefly suggest three things as we close.
#1. BELIEVE AND RECEIVE!
“To all who received him, to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God” (v.12).
If you don’t receive Him, you are not a child of God. You are part of the darkness. You aren’t recognizing Him. You are lost. But He invites you to receive Him, to believe on His name and to get the life that is truly life. Don’t let this hour go by without receiving Jesus Christ, the Word of God, as your own Savior and King. He has come to make God known. You can know God! In fact, you can know God as your own Father. You can be His child.
#2. SHARE AND PROCLAIM!
If Jesus is what and Who John says He is, then we need to tell people. This is everything! This is what we are trying to share and proclaim with the folks who are going to come on our campus on Saturday. We are not going to tell them how great we. Or how great our country is. Or how great our vehicles are.
Our message is that God has a message, and His message is Himself. His message has always been and has always been with Him and has always been Him. And His message, which was His one fabulously unique Son has become a human. God’s message has become a human and dwelled among us. And now His message has made Him known.
That’s what we have to share on Saturday and every other day.
And that’s why we need to worship with all of our hearts.
#3. WONDER AND REJOICE!
When the fireworks go off, say, “Wow! Look at that.” We marvel. We wonder. We are astonished. We shake our heads. 
We ponder it. We turn these things over and over again in our minds, asking if they could really be real. And when we see how wonderful they are, we rejoice.
We have received one blessing after another and another and another and another.
We have been created.We have been redeemed.We have been adopted.We have been given new birth.We have been given personal knowledge of God.We have been given grace and truth.We have been given light.We have been given life!
All because “In the beginning was the Word...”
O Come, Let Us Adore Him!

***
Messages in this Series
01. "That You May Believe" John 20:30-31

“That You May Believe” [Matt's Messages]

“That You May Believe”Life in Jesus’ Name - The Gospel of JohnLanse Evangelical Free ChurchAugust 6, 2023 :: John 20:30-31
The Gospel of John is one of the most beloved books in the whole Bible.
My guess is that it is the favorite gospel of many of you and the favorite book of the whole Bible for many of you.
Let’s take a quick poll:
I’m going to ask you to raise your hand to tell me which is your favorite of the four gospels that tell the story of the life, ministry, death, and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.
I know that’s a little like asking a parent of multiples, “Which one is your favorite child?” But I’m not asking which gospel is the best (They are all God’s Word!), but which is your most beloved gospel right now.
How many for Matthew? I think that’s my all time favorite, but maybe because it was the last one I preached. The theological biography of Jesus to help us follow Him as His disciples (2017-2020).
How many for Mark? Short and sweet and action-packed Mark? We studied that introduction to Jesus in 2005 and 2006.
How many for Dr. Luke? Luke the historian who helped us become certain of Jesus in 2009-2011?  
And how many for John? How many for I don’t know which one?! How many think of John as your favorite book of the Bible, not just favorite gospel!
John is beloved and rightly so. It is deep and sweet and simple and profound all at once.
[VIDEO WILL BE EMBEDDED HERE.]
I have preached all the way through the Gospel of John once before, but it was a quarter of century ago. I was finished with it before Robin was born. I started preaching through John just a few months after coming here to be your pastor in 1998. 
So as I’m now your “refurbished” pastor starting up again, I thought it would be good to start over again in the Gospel of John. 
Back to basics.Back to the deepest truths in the whole world.Back to Jesus. It’s the whole point of our church.
You have already received some great teaching from John the Son of Zebedee (whom I think is the author of this gospel, already) this year from the other elders.
Remember a few weeks ago when Joel preached through 1 John? A lot of the same key words popped up there. Simple words but fathomlessly deep:
LifeKnowBelieveSonSpiritFatherLightSentEternal
And Cody, just a couple of weeks ago, was in the Gospel of John. I have listened to Joel’s, but I haven’t gotten up to Cody’s yet. So thankful that we record them.
And here’s why we’re going to study The Gospel of John together, not just because it’s beloved, but because of why it’s beloved.
And because of why it was written in the first place.
To know that, we need to start at the end. Next week, we’ll jump into chapter 1, Lord-willing, where John started writing, but today I want us to look at the two verses near the end of the book where he tells us why he wrote it in the first place. Do you have chapter 20 open in front of you?
Spoiler alert if you’ve never read it before. Chapter 20 is the climax of the whole book. The hero Jesus comes back from the dead! 
And He appears to His disciples, to Mary Magdalene, to the disciples behind locked doors, and to “doubting” Thomas to whom He said, “Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.  Thomas said to him, ‘My Lord and my God!’” (Jn. 20:27-28 NIVO).
Can you imagine?!!! What a moment!
And right then, if this was a movie, all the action would pause or fade to black and John, the Beloved Disciple, would step forward and talk right into the camera. He “breaks the fourth wall.”
Because in verses 30 and 31, John talks directly to his readers, to you and me.
And he says: “Jesus did many other miraculous signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.”
And that “you” there is you! And it’s me.
John says that he was selective in what he chose to include in his gospel. There were lots of others stories that he could have told. In the next chapter, he guesses that there probably wouldn’t be enough room in the whole world for the books that could be written about Jesus (21:25)!
So he had to choose. And he chose many different things than did Matthew, Mark, and Luke. Those three are remarkably similar compared to John. They all fit together, of course, to give us exactly what we need as a composite picture of Jesus. But John chooses many different stories and many different teachings for his book.
John says Jesus did many other “miraculous signs” that are not written down here. [He knows! He was an eyewitness!] John does include a lot of miracles (at least 7 major ones), and he loves to call them “signs.” We’re going to see that again and again as we study this book. “Signs” are a great word for them because they aren’t just miracles; they point to something. They point to Who Jesus is. The signs are signposts to point us to Jesus.
And there is no greater sign than Jesus’ rising from the dead.
See how John carefully chose these particular signs and these particular things about Jesus (21 chapters-worth) to share with us for two main purposes. And they are the same reasons why we should read his book today.
#1. TO FEED OUR FAITH.
Look at verse 31:
“But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God...”
John wrote this book to help people believe.
Joel Michaels made this very point in the spring. The Gospel of John is evangelistic in nature. It’s here for unbelievers to read and find out Who Jesus really is and put their trust in Him.
Notice that’s there is a specific thing to believe. This is not just a yard sign that says “BELIEVE” and doesn’t tell you what to believe. This isn’t just a generic, “Have faith.”
There is specific content that John wants people to put their faith in, specifically that Jesus is the Christ (the Messiah), the Son of God. That’s the whole point of why John wrote what John wrote.
He’s trying to make the case. He’s trying to persuade those who are not yet followers of Jesus to become followers of Jesus. He’s trying to awaken faith in those who have not yet placed their faith in Jesus Christ.
That’s why the Gospel of John is a great book to share with others. It’s a great book to hand to someone to read or to offer to read with someone.
How about identifying someone in your life who is not yet a follower of Jesus and invite them to read the Gospel of John with you in the next few months?
I’m hoping that this sermon series will be a good one for all of us to invite our friends and family to come listen to. 
Come listen to what John says about Who Jesus is.
And believe.
But the Gospel of John is not just for un-believers, is it? It’s also for you and me who are already believers, as well. To feed our faith.
Interestingly, there is a reading of verse 31 that could be translated, “that you may continue to believe.”
We don’t stop reading the Gospel John once we’re convinced. We keep coming back to it again and again and again to remind ourselves of Who Jesus is.
Jesus is the Christ. He is the Messiah promised in the Old Testament. Remember all of those things we learned about the Messiah to come as we read through the Book of Jeremiah? 
Like chapter 23? “‘The days are coming,’ declares the LORD, ‘when I will raise up to David a righteous Branch, a King who will reign wisely and do what is just and right in the land. In his days Judah will be saved and Israel will live in safety. This is the name by which he will be called: The LORD Our Righteousness’” (Jer. 23:5-6 NIVO).
In his own way, John aims to show that Jesus is the fulfillment of all of those great and precious promises. And we need to hear that again and again and again.
Some of this will be really familiar. Just a reminder to many of you. For some of you it will be fresh and new. All of us need to hear it.
Jesus is the Christ. Jesus is the Son of God.
As we study the Gospel of John, we’re going to learn about the deepest truth in the universe, that God is triune. That God has a Son. The Son of God who is God the Son. We’re going to see that mind-blowing relationship in the very first chapter next week. There is only One God! And yet that One God is both God the Father and God the Son for all eternity. 
And by the time we’re done with John, we’ll find out God is Three in One. We’ll learn about God the Spirit. 
What simple words! Father, Son, Spirit, God. But how deep are their meanings!!! How profound. Simple but not simplistic in the slightest. The deepest truth in world.
And John wrote this all down so that we might BELIEVE it.
John uses the Greek word translated here “believe” nearly a hundred times in his gospel.
Do you believe? Do you believe that Jesus is the Christ? 
And only Jesus is? We are so tempted to put our faith in other people and other things instead of in Jesus alone. John says, “Jesus is the Christ” and nobody else is our Messiah. Don’t put your faith in me or some politician or some guru or some celebrity. Jesus is the Christ. Jesus is the Savior.
And Jesus is the Son of God. Do you believe that? That is dangerous to believe. In some parts of the world, that will get you killed. In some places, like social media, it will get you “canceled” or at least ridiculed. I don’t know about you, but I need to come back to this again and again so that my faith grows stronger and stronger in Jesus.
“O for grace to trust Him more.”
Because...here’s the result. The second reason why John wrote this gospel is that when you and I do the first thing, believe, it leads to this second thing, which is so awesome! Look what he says at the end of verse 31.
“...these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.”
#2. TO GIVE US LIFE.
It doesn’t get any better than that, brothers and sisters and friends. “By believing you may have life in his name.” 
Belief leads to life.
So that’s going to be the name of our series on the Gospel of John, “Life in Jesus’ Name.” 
What kind of life is that? Well, John is going to teach us that it is eternal life. Life that starts now and goes on for all eternity. It’s not just biological life, though it will be physical in the resurrection.
It’s spiritual life, and it is forever life. Imagine that. Forever life.
But he’s not just talking about after-life here. He’s talking about a life that starts right now when we believe. Jesus will call it “abundant life” or “life to the fullest.” When we believe in Jesus, there is a new quality of life that is birthed in us that changes everything for us now and forever.
It doesn’t mean that we’re happy all the time and everything always works out for us. Far from it. But it does mean that we have been invited to share in the very life of God. And we are like happy contented sheep who are well-fed and all-cared for and safe–ultimately safe from the world, the flesh, and the devil.
Jesus says in chapter 10, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full” (Jn. 10:10 NIVO).
That’s why I want us to study the Gospel of John right now; so that we experience that kind of life in 2023. And rest in it and revel in it and rejoice in it.
Each and every week, I hope that the message is life-giving as we go deeper together into the gospel of Jesus Christ in the gospel of John.
Verse 31, “that by believing you may have life in his name.”
We must believe. The stakes are high. This life only comes through believing in Jesus. In His name.
Like Joel preached from 1 John chapter 5, this summer: “And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.  He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life. I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life” (1 Jn. 5:11-13 NIVO).
Or as it says in this book, chapter 3, verse 16, “God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (Jn. 3:16 NIVO).
Do you believe in Him? If you have not yet put your faith and trust in Jesus, then I urge you to do so today. And I’ll urge you to do so next week and the week after that. If they come. Because we don’t know if we have next week or the week after that. We do know that if we believe, then we will have life and have life in His name.
We’re going to learn a lot more about “His name.” In the Bible, your name is more than just what they call you. It’s Who you are. It’s your identity, your character, your position, your authority, your Person.
And we’re going to learn lots about Who Jesus is, the name of Jesus. It’s the Gospel of John that has the seven “I Am” statements in it. Do you know what I mean?
Jesus says, “I am __________”
"I am the bread of life.I am the light of the world.I am the door of the sheep.I am the good shepherd.I am the resurrection and the life.I am the way, the truth, and the life.I am the true vine."
That’s all what John means by “in His name.” 
That and more! The Christ, the Son of God.
If Jesus is all that, then we get all of that when trust in Him.
Do you believe? John wrote this to you. That “you” in verse 31 is actually you, and it is me. If you don’t yet believe, then I encourage you to open up the Gospel of John and read it. Most of you could easily read it this week. Start today and read three chapters. Do that every day this week, and you’ll have the whole thing under your belt before we meet again.
Do you believe? John wrote this to you. That “you” in verse 31 is actually you, and it is actually me. If we do believe, then we have life in His name. Live that life. Live into that life. Live your life for Jesus and in Jesus and through Jesus. Both now and forever. Amen.
Worship at the Lord's Table
I was thinking about that phrase, “life in his name” for communion this week and about an experience we had at the Palace of Westminster in London a couple of weeks ago. That’s this building attached to this famous clock you may have heard of. Big Ben.

Actually, Big Ben is the largest of the bells in that clock that chime. But the clock goes by that name because of its most famous bell.
The big building attached to Big Ben is the Palace of Westminster where the Parliament of the United Kingdom meets. Here’s a couple of pictures we took when we got to ride a boat down the Thames and from another angle.






Here’s the thing. Heather and I got to go inside of that building. Do you know how we did it?
Here’s some proof. Here’s a picture I took inside of Westminster Hall.

Here’s a plaque on the floor to commemorate where Queen Elizabeth’s body lay in state last year after she died and before her funeral. If you saw the 10 mile long queue? This is where it ended.



But Heather and I got to go even deeper into that place. Past the guards. Past security. Into the Seat of Parliament where they all meet and yell at each other (if you’ve seen it on television), the green benches. And where they take their votes. You aren’t allowed to take pictures in there. You’ll have to take my word for it that we made it in there. But we did.
Do you know how we got in there?
We didn’t storm the gate. We didn’t knock down the doors or come up with some tricky heist thing like in a movie. We walked up to the guards and said, “We are Matt and Heather Mitchell from Pennsylvania, and we demand that you let us enter based on our names!”
Do you think we did that? No, we did not. It would not have worked. Massive security! The door was actually hundreds of yards away from the actual building. Across the street! You don’t get in there if they don’t want you to.
But we got in there because we knew somebody named Graeme. Actually, we knew somebody named Malcolm and Alison who had a daughter named Caitlin who had a co-worker named Graeme.
And Graeme had a passcard. His name would give you entrance into Westminster Palace. And if you were with Graeme, you could go places that most other people could not go, not on their own names.
Graeme took us one place in the basement that other even other official tour groups don’t go to!
We got in, not because of our names, but because of his. Doors opened for Graeme because he works for one of the members of parliament. Doors opened for Graeme’s name, not for ours.
You can see where I’m going with this, right? We have life, not in our own names, but in the name of Jesus.  Jesus Christ died on the Cross paying the debt for our sins that we could not pay. And He came back to life to give us the life that we do not deserve. 
You and I do not deserve to eat and drink at this Table. But Jesus does, and we come in His name. We come to the Father, we come to salvation, in His name. Jesus said He is the way, the truth, and the life, and no one comes to the Father except through Him (14:6). But all who come through Him reach the Father!
The Gospel of John was written that you and I may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing we may have life in his name.