Chardon church of Christ

How Does Our Reaction Affect Our Outcome?

HOW DOES OUR REACTION AFFECT OUR OUTCOME?

Proverbs 15:1

 

A few minutes before the church services started, the townspeople were sitting in their pews and talking.

Suddenly, Satan appeared at the front of the church.

Everyone started screaming and running towards the front entrance, trampling each other in a frantic effort to get away from this form of evil.

Soon everyone had exited the church except for one elderly gentleman who sat calmly in his pew without moving, seeming oblivious to the fact that God’s ultimate enemy was in his presence.

 

So, Satan walked up to the old man and said, “Don’t you know who I am?”

The man replied, “Yep, sure do.”

“Aren’t you afraid of me?” Satan asked.

“Nope, sure ain’t.” said the man.

“Don’t you realize I can kill you with a word?” asked Satan.

“Don’t doubt it for a minute,” returned the old man, in an even tone.

“Did you know that I could cause you profound, horrifying, physical AGONY for all eternity?” persisted Satan.

“Yep,” was the calm reply.

“And you’re still not afraid?” asked Satan.

“Nope.”

More than a little perturbed, Satan asked, “Well, why aren’t you afraid of me?”

The man calmly replied, “Been married to your sister for over 48 years.”

 

This morning, we will look at how individuals handle items.

As a math teacher, I have come across hundreds of equations over the years, and one stands out over all the rest…

Experience plus Reaction equals Outcome.

The way we react to a situation often shapes not just the immediate outcome, but also the long-term ripple effects.

 

If I had to put a title on this morning’s sermon, it would be our reaction decides our outcome.

“A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger” (Proverbs 15:1).

 

Our reaction is often the only part of a situation we truly control. By choosing patience, humility, and wisdom, we can transform challenges into opportunities for growth — both for ourselves and those around us.

Our reactions don’t just affect outcomes externally — they shape our own hearts and way of life.

 

For my sermon this morning I will be using verses and stories found throughout the Old and New Testament that are very familiar to most of us. This sermon is a follow-up to my sermon from LAST SUNDAY.

 

We know there’s a serpent that comes to Eve.

In verse two, the woman said unto the serpent: We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden, but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden God has said you shall not eat of it. Neither shall ye touch it lest ye shall die.

We think about all that we have in our world today—so much we are blessed with. Yet, God has said there are certain things that we are not to do.

Man says: Eat, drink, and be merry. Live unto the day for myself. That’s what Satan says, but it’s not what God says.

 

In verse four, the serpent says: You shall NOT surely die.

There is no respect for God in this equation.

Eve had an experience where she is tempted with someone saying, “God didn’t mean it.”

God put you in this garden. You and Adam are here.

He didn’t mean that you should die.

 

If you eat the fruit, you’ll be as wise as God. You’ll become smarter.

BUT Actually, they become more foolish, don’t they?

We have a lot of individuals in our world today who say the more they study, the more they understand.

We must be mistaken. The world is much older than what God could have created, and that’s what science says must have happened and many buy into this way of reasoning.

We take an experience and the question is what is our reaction to the experience.

We could be like Adam and Eve.

We could easily give in to the temptation, or we could say, “We know what God said and we will go by what God said.”

 

In Genesis chapter four, we have two individuals—Cain and Abel. We know that there are offerings that take place.

In verse four, Abel brought the first of his flock, the best, and the Lord had respect unto Abel and to his offering.

Going on in verse five, unto Cain’s offering He had not respect. Cain was very wroth and his countenance fell.

The Lord said unto Cain, “Why are you wroth and why has your countenance fallen?”

 

We have different ways of worshiping God.

There are individuals that say they don’t need to attend services. They can just read and believe what they want.

They can be their own religion.

They don’t need to gather together on the first day of the week like the examples we have of early Christians.

 

We have here two offerings. One is acceptable to God and one that’s not. How do we react to what God has said?

We know God expects an offering, as the example shows.

He expects us to give back our best. He expects the best of us. We have an example. How do we react to that?

Based on our reaction we have an outcome.

 

We see that one individual that was pleasing to God, and all is well. We have the other individual whose offering was not pleasing to God. He ends up killing his brother.

The outcome is not very good at all.

 

Let’s go on to Genesis chapter six. We have Noah.

We have a time period in which it is said repent, repent.

Turn unto the Lord. In verse eight Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. Noah was a just man and perfect in his generation and he walked with God.

Can that be said of us?

 

You hear people talk about the dash in our lives.

On our tombstones there will be a dash.

You live from this date to that date.

What is important is what you do with that dash.

We know that Noah was a just man.

It’s nice to note that he walked with God.

His experience is that God meant what He said.

That is how he reacted to God.

God is the One that we need to follow.

His outcome is good.

In verse 13 God says to Noah:

“The end of all flesh has come before Me, for the earth is filled with violence through them; and behold, I will destroy them with the earth.

 

Remember back in verse five that God saw the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every imagination of his heart was evil continually.
We look at our society. We listen to the news.

We see a lot of that in our society today.

We have a chance, learned from our experiences, to turn to God—to help others turn to God before it’s too late.

We need to look at the outcome.

 

 

Next we think of Gideon. Gideon had a lot of people to help him.

I know that Jesus said go to all nations, teaching.

Over the years, when I was younger, there were ministers that came for Gospel Meetings and wanted us to go door to door and knock.

Aren’t we supposed to talk to individuals about Jesus?

Yet, I remember sometimes knocking on a door and honestly not knowing if I wanted someone to answer the door or not.

We might have been thinking that I did my job.

I knocked on the door. Nobody answered so I left.

Did we really knock?

Were we excited if someone answered?

We have Gideon who had numbers.
We might be thinking, it would be nice if we had a bunch of people with us.

Four or five of you go up to the house and knock on the door.

You feel a little better. There’s more strength in numbers.

BUT What did God do with Gideon?

We are not going to show our numbers.

We’re not going to give you strength in numbers as you approach your enemy.

We are going to reduce the numbers.
Can you imagine what Gideon’s first thought must have been?

I know what mine would be. We’re going to do what?

 

I think that Gideon understood when God says to him, “We have to reduce the numbers to show that I am with you.”
The strength and courage that Gideon must have had.

Here we have an experience.

When we look at our own lives, we’re faced with a lot of this.

 

 

 

These aren’t just stories in the Bible.

We have temptations just like Adam and others.

We are asked to offer of our best like Cain and Abel.
We are faced with an evil generation like Noah was.
We have the example of Gideon.

We look around and think there are only a few of us.

What did Jesus say? The fields are ripe unto harvest,

but the laborers are few. We have a few of us.

It is exhausting, but we need to move on to do that.

 

Then in I Samuel 17 we have David and Goliath.

We’ve mentioned in other sermons about the man who trusted only in himself because of his size and strength.

Goliath taunted the Israelites.

We know a lot of individuals that feel they have everything.

There are those who are wealthy.

 

In the New Testament there is a rich man who says, “I’ll rip down my barns and build new ones. I’ve got a lot. I’ve got it all.”
Then he hears a voice saying, “Thou fool, tonight thy soul shall be required of thee.”

 

What would we give in exchange for our soul?
We often talk about Solomon in all his greatness and wisdom. What was his final conclusion?

To serve God.

 

When we think about our experiences, what is our reaction?

We have examples in the Old Testament and in the New Testament.
A lot of times we think those are just stories. Are they?
If you can really relate to our own everyday experiences many are very similar to the Biblical experiences.

With that in mind……….What is our reaction?

In our examples some of the reactions were good and some were bad. Some were positive.

We know that Noah was spoken of as walking with God.

Adam and Eve—not so much.

Cain and Abel, one favored in God’s sight and one not.

David and Goliath—Goliath trusted himself.

Many individuals trust in themselves.

Look at David who trusted in the Lord.

 

Remember the ten spies?

What would our report have been?

We know that only two came back with a positive report.

When we look at things, do we look at the positive, the potential that God gives us?

Or do we look at fear? Do look at what only man would see.

Without God we can be defeated.

Picture Gideon having that attitude.

What would happen if Gideon had looked at the 300 and said, “I don’t think so.”

 

What if Noah had said, “I’m going to build for how many years?

How big is this ark? What about rain? I’ve never even seen rain.”

How many times do we say, “I’ll believe it when I see it.”
When we look at what we’re blessed with, do we take the time to thank God?

 

We know that David was a humble man.

David would bow down and thank God for what he had.
Goliath, like many men in the world today, trusted in himself—his strength, his stature. How could he be defeated?

 

As we look at our experiences today, what is our reaction to them?

Do we trust in man, or do we trust in God?
In the example of the ten lepers who were healed ...

Do we take the time to go back and thank JESUS?

 

Often in our society today we hear OK as a substitute for “thank you”.

We try to teach our grandchildren that this is not acceptable.

You do something nice for someone and they might just say, “Oh, OK,” instead of saying thank you and being appreciative.
I think of that when we read about these ten.
Can you imagine having a disease where your skin just falls off?

I couldn’t even picture what that would be like.

I can’t imagine the decay and uncleanness of it.

The thankfulness you would feel for being healed of that.

It’s not just putting a Band-Aid on a wound.

Ten are healed of a terrible disease, but only one takes the time to go say thank you.

 

Jesus speaks about the few that will find that way.

We think about the number of people who are appreciative for what they have.

 

In Daniel chapter six we have a description of what Daniel went through.

My daughter had the opportunity to travel with her work.

When she was in Italy she sent a photo of the ruins of a coliseum.
I asked her if she saw any lions?

Her response was “No, but I saw the doors they came through.”

 

I started to wonder what that would have been like.

Daniel was in a pit, but it’s the same idea.
Could you imagine an arena made for the purpose of watching people being eaten by lions?

That was the entertainment they had, the experiences.

Daniel had a choice, didn’t he?

Daniel could have chosen NOT to pray to God and worship the statute like everyone else.

 

Yet, Daniel knew the strength he had in God, the faith he had in God. He did not know what God would do.

God never said, “Don’t worry. I’ll seal the mouths of the lions.”
Daniel was willing take the consequence.

All he knew was that he may lose his life.

It was possible that he would be devoured by those lions.

This did not change his reaction to the experiences he had.

His outcome was positive.

 

In Daniel chapter three, another popular scripture, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were told not to worship God. They ignore what everyone else was doing and continued to worship and pray.

Because of this they are thrown into a fiery furnace.

 

Have you ever been around heat?

I love to sit around a campfire as long as I have a little distance back from the fire.

It starts to get pretty hot when you get up close.

 

Can you imagine what God has described our punishment to be?

I can’t.
What will it be like to be in fire like that?
We know Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were safe.

Their experience was to believe in God, again, not knowing what their outcome would be.

 

Their reaction was faith in God and His message.

We know that their outcome was one of salvation.

Let’s look at our own lives.

We think about what has been promised.

 

He has promised us in Matthew chapter 25 a parting right and left, a judgment that will take place based on how we live our lives. Some will get a reward—a home with God in heaven.

Others will have that fiery furnace—a lake of fire.
We need to think about what the lake of fire will be like.

What will the heat be like?

There’s no cold water.

There is no quenching of the thirst.

There is no brightness.

There is no light.
I picture darkness.

 

The light will not be there.

There will be constant pain and agony.

I remind myself of that.
We all want to think about pleasurable things.

We must remember what God’s promise is, the outcome that we have.

We have experiences. God, through His word, encourages us to have reaction.

What is our reaction?

In the book of Hebrews chapter 11, we have many experiences listed and the reaction that God expects.

Look at what we have in our lives today. Look at the promise. Look at our experiences.

We know that we cannot go through life avoiding all temptation. What will our reaction be?

What is our path toward God?

That is our R factor.

We would want to have the positive.

What will help us keep on that path?

God’s word. As we read God’s word, we know what God wants us to do.

It is a positive to keeping us on that path.

Reading God’s word, praying to God, worshiping God, thanking Him for all we have,

following Jesus’ example, are all items that will keep us on that path.

What leads us to stray from that path?

Man’s thoughts, temptation, Satan tempting us, feeling we can do it ourselves, feeling we don’t need God’s help, all can keep us from doing what we should.

This morning we know Jesus asked what can we give in exchange for our souls?

We know it’s a very important question to answer.

What will we gain if we gain the whole world but lose our soul? Think about that this morning.

 

The Lying Tongue

The Lying Tongue
Genesis 3: 1-8

Two little boys were at sitting together in a church during a wedding ceremony.

As the couple said “I do”, one of the little boys leaned over to the other and asked, “I wonder how many wives can a man have?”

The second little boy looked at his friend like he was an idiot and said, “He can have 16 wives.”

“How do you know that?” The first little boy asked.

“Weren’t you listening? The minister just said it. Four better, four worse, four richer, and four poorer.”

I also heard of a boy in high school taking biology, and he struggled throughout the class.  He consistently received a D grade.   When the report card was mailed home, he quickly intercepted the mail and using his computer skills changed the D into a B.  He did that each grade period.   He forgot though that the end of the year report card showed the accumulated grades as well as the final.   This final report was sent out by email to his mother.   When questioned he said, "there must and been a mistake mom".  Look at the reports we got.  His mother believed him.  Ironically the teacher had retired at the end of the school year and left the school system.  Also, somehow in her leaving the file got lost.  The only record then was what the mother had, the reports that her son had handed her.  His mother took them to the school and asked why the final report differed from the reports of each grade period.   Since the school thought that was only record now available so they changed his grade from a D to a B.  

 

The Bible tells us that God gave Adam and Eve every tree to eat from except one, and Genesis tell us there were plenty of other GOOD trees to eat from.
“And the LORD God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground— trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food." Genesis 2:9a
So if that was true, (that they’d had all these other trees to eat from), then why did they do it?
It would be easy to say “The Devil made them do it”... but it’s more than that.
They picked the wrong item on the menu because they CHOSE to do so.
Eve CHOSE to disobey God.
Now Satan may have “talked her into it...” but SHE KNEW what God had said.
She knew God didn’t want her to eat of the tree.
She knew God had said that those who ate of the tree faced death.
But she CHOSE to eat of the tree anyway.
She made bad choices.
And her first choice occurred before Satan even spoke a word.
Satan said to the woman, "Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?"
The woman said to the serpent, "We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’" Genesis 3:1b-3
What did God say she couldn’t do? (EAT of the fruit)
What does Eve say God said she couldn’t do? (EAT & TOUCH the fruit)
God didn’t say she couldn’t touch the tree, He just said they couldn’t eat.
But she CHOSE to add that little restriction.
She CHOSE to add to God’s commandments.
She CHOSE to improve on God’s will.
And that was all the wiggle room Satan needed to begin playing with her mind.
Why would that give Satan “wiggle room”?
Because once you get used to the idea that you can improve on God’s Word... when you believe you can change it when you want to... when you accept that you can tinker with God’s will for your life... then it gets easier to improve on other things God commanded.

There was a preacher named Wayne Smith who was something of a cut-up on stage. He mentioned once that in English Class they taught him that using 2 negatives in a sentence made a positive statement. And he said that, since that was true “The way I figure it, if I know I’m lying, and God knows I’m lying – I gotta be telling the truth!”

Famous American Fibs
- I'm almost there.

- My phone died.

- You look great.

- That was delicious.

- No, you haven't changed a bit.

- I'll call you right back.

- It wasn't that expensive.

- It was on sale.

- I was stuck in traffic.

- I never got that message.

- Your luggage isn't lost; it is only misplaced.

- This hurts me more than it will hurt you.

- I just need five minutes of your time.

- Let's have lunch sometime.

 

Lying seems to be a way of life for many people. We lie at the drop of a hat. The book The Day American Told the Truth says that 91 percent of those surveyed lie routinely about matters they consider trivial, and 36 percent lie about important matters; 86 percent lie regularly to parents, 75 percent to friends, 73 percent to siblings, and 69 percent to spouses.
A store manager heard his clerk tell a customer, “No, ma’am, we haven’t had any for a while, and it doesn’t look as if we’ll be getting any soon.” Horrified, the manager came running over to the customer and said, “Of course we’ll have some soon. We placed an order last week.” Then the manager drew the clerk aside. “Never,” he snarled, “Never, never, never say we’re out of anything- say we’ve got it on order and it’s coming. Now, what was it she wanted anyway?” The clerk said, “Rain!”

Spouses lie to one another in the name of keeping the peace, parents lie to their own children and vice versa, employers and employees just the same. Advertisers lie to sell products. Politicians lie in order to spin things their way.
But the Lord included the subject of lying in one of the 10 commandments of the Old Testament, and I believe He takes this sin very seriously.
Revelation 21:8 ”But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.”
Revelation 22:15 ”For without are dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie.”
Mark Twain said a lie can travel halfway around the world while truth is still lacing up her boots. It’s natural to lie, and there’s something about our nature that enjoys it. We like reading tabloids, or hearing gossip.

Lying is easy, but the truth is oftentimes hard.
Are you known to be a truly honest person, or do people have to question you and wonder about your genuineness? Do you have a reputation as a liar, or do people know what you say is true? Is your word as good as your signature? Do you do what you say you will do? Do you tell the truth even when it will cost you something?
The Bible has a lot to say about lying:
Proverbs 6 lists lying as one of the 7 things the Lord hates. “Lying lips are abomination to the LORD: but they that deal truly are his delight.”
The poet said, “You can fool the public and be a secret fraud, you can try to hide your lying, but you can’t fool God!”

1.   The Origin of lying.

Jesus was speaking to the Pharisees in John 8:44 “Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.”
So we’re a lot like Satan when we lie. Almost every time we see the devil in Scripture he’s lying...
The first time we see Satan in the Bible he lies about God to man.

Lying about God to man:
• Satan lies About the truthfulness of God—“Hath God said?” Questioning God’s Word is skating on thin ice. Yet many question God’s Word all the time today. We are not to stand in judgment w/ whether it makes sense or is PC or not. The Word is to stand in judgment of us, not the other way around.
• Satan lies About the righteousness of God—“Ye shall not surely die”. In other words, God won’t judge you if you sin.
• Satan lies About the goodness of God—“God is trying to keep back from you good things!”

The next time Satan appears in the Bible is in the book of Job. This time he’s in the courts of heaven and he’s lying about man to God.
Satan Lying about man to God:
“The only reason Job obeys you is because you’re so good to him.” What a liar. To Adam and Eve he says that God isn’t good enough, and now he’s saying that God is too good!
We see Satan again at the crucifixion. This time he lies to man, knowing that man will then lie about Jesus.
He put it in the hearts of many to bear false witness against Jesus in the kangaroo court they put together.
In Genesis he uses a lie to corrupt a godly man.
In Job he uses a lie to criticize a good man.
In the New Testament he uses a lie to crucify the God Man.
In Revelation he embodies the antichrist, who tells a lie so big and believable that it brings about the end of the world.
So, from beginning to end, Satan is a liar! And when we lie we align ourselves with everything that brings death, destruction, doom and damnation to this world. Sin is what leads to death, but that sin was brought about by a lie!
Don’t take lying lightly. There’s no such thing as a little white lie. God is truth, and anything less than truth is wrong...IT IS SIN!

2.   The Operation of lying.

Lying has many faces. Lying has many children in its family.
Here’s 7 ways people often lie without even thinking about it:

• Slander
Psalm 101:5 “Whoso privily slandereth his neighbour, him will I cut off:”
This is lying with the intention of doing harm to another’s reputation.
Some sins are worse than others in terms of damage done. If I steal from you I can return the item. But if I spread lies about you I may not be able to ever undo the far-reaching effects.

There was a man who spread lies about his neighbor. Then one day he repented, and asked the minister how he could make it right. The minister told him to get some feather pillows and rip them open, and place one feather on every porch in their community. It seemed strange, but the man did what he was told. He went back to the preacher and said he was done. The preacher said, no, you’re not. Now go back and pick up all the feathers. “But I can’t” said the man. The wind has taken them who knows where!”
To which the minister said, “So it is with the words you have spoken about your neighbor.”
When we slander someone’s reputation we do irreparable damage. And we’ll answer to God for it!

• Talebearing—this person loves to tell things. They share ‘news’. But they don’t care if their facts are correct or not. This is gossip. Rumors. Don’t spread it. Try to stop others from doing it. Don’t repeat gossip
1^st Timothy 5:13 “And withal they learn to be idle, wandering about from house to house; and not only idle, but tattlers also and busybodies, speaking things which they ought not.”
Leviticus 19:16 “Thou shalt not go up and down as a talebearer among thy people:”
Next time you’re enjoying listening to someone gossip, remember this fact: Anyone who will gossip TO you, will gossip ABOUT you!

 

• Flattery—insincere praise...saying something to someone’s face that you would never say behind their back. Salesmen are often bad about this. Kids are too. Most of our children have learned how to compliment us first when they want something.
Psalms 55:21 “The words of his mouth were smoother than butter, but war was in his heart: his words were softer than oil, yet were they drawn swords.”
When someone starts buttering you up, remember that they are probably about to have you for lunch!

• Half truths—not telling the whole story. A parent asks their teen where they are going. “To Andy’s house.” That’s true, but they leave out where they’re going from there. You break the spirit of the law when you do this. This is why in court you swear to not just tell the truth, but ‘the whole truth.’ Half the truth equals a whole lie.

• Excuses—they are just dressed up lies.
The origin is Satan, the operation of lying...it comes in many forms...
Now, how do we overcome Lying?
Every negative command could be reworded positively. For instance. Thou shalt not commit adultery could be rephrased, Thou shalt be sexually pure. We could say today, Thou shalt tell the truth. And truth is the very character and nature of our God. Jesus said I am the truth. He called the Holy Spirit the spirit of truth. The truth sets us free!

3.   How to overcome lying:

• Love the truth. This is a heart change. David spoke of ‘truth in the inward parts.’ You see, a person is not a liar because they tell lies...they tell lies because they are a liar. We need an inward change.
2^nd Thessalonians 2:10 “...because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.”

• Learn the truth.

Philippians 4:8 “Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.”
Saturate your mind w/ good things, like the Word of God. The truth sets you free. It’s how Jesus defeated Satan in the wilderness, with the truth of Scripture!

 

• Live the truth.
Ephesians 4:25 “Wherefore putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbour:”
Be accountable to others. Be open to others stopping you when you gossip or slander. Immediately confess, immediately correct, and immediately commit yourself to the truth.
Right now Satan wants to sell you a lie...don’t fall for it like Adam and Eve.

He’ll tell you: there is no God,
There is no heaven,
There is no hell,
OR that there is no hurry.

But today we can read from Hebrews 3:12-15 ”12 Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God; 13 but exhort one another daily, while it is called “Today,” lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. 14 For we have become partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end, 15 while it is said:
“Today, if you will hear His voice,
Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.””

And, Acts 2:36-38 tells us: 36 “Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ.” 37 Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Men and brethren, what shall we do?” 38 Then Peter said to them, “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. “

So, we must NOT lie to God...

WE need to admit our sins and be baptized!

Singing and Giving Thanks

Singing and Giving Thanks
Text: Psalms 137: 1-4 & Ephesians 5: 18-19

A woman invited a group of her friends to Thanksgiving dinner.

At the table, grandma turned to her six-year-old granddaughter and asked her, "Would you like to say the blessing?"

"I wouldn't know what to say," the little girl replied.

"Just say what you hear Mommy say," grandma said.

The little girl bowed her head and said: "Dear Lord, why on earth did I invite all these people to dinner?"

I would like to start by taking us on a trip down memory lane for a minute and go back to the Old Disney Movie - Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.

There is a famous song that says “Whistle While You Work” the Lyrics are - Just whistle while you work
And cheerfully together

we can tidy up the place
So hum a merry tune
It won't take long

when there's a song

to help you set the pace

And as you sweep the room
Imagine that the broom

is someone that you love
And soon you'll find

you're dancing to the tune
When hearts are high

the time will fly

so whistle while you work

So whistle while you work.

 

This song written by Frank Churchill and Larry Morey is a perfect illustration of how we can emphasize the fun rather than the monotony of work.

You might be asking yourself why am I talking about Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, is he reliving his childhood - NO - but I want to talk on the subject of “Singing.”

Music has had a profound influence on the culture of the United States and the world. People all over the world love to sing.

I for one love to sing. Most people love to sing whether or not they can carry a tune. You must understand that there’s something positive... something healthy in the act of raising our voices in song.

In fact, there’s solid scientific evidence to prove that singing is, in fact, good for your body and your mind. Singing can lift our spirits and can create a heart of THANKSGIVING!
In the Bible singing isn’t just good for us it is a command to us. So we need to Keep On Singing!

SCRIPTURE: Psalm 137:1-4 says By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down; yea, we wept when we remembered Zion. We hung our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof. For there they that carried us away captive required of us a song, and they that wasted us required of us mirth, saying, “Sing us one of the songs of Zion!” How shall we sing the Lord’s song in a strange land?

James 5:13 says “Is any among you afflicted? let him pray. Is any merry? let him sing psalms.”
Singing provides a direct experience and feeling of happiness. It’s a mood lifter & anti-depressant with no side effects.
Singing can be done to express any of the 12 different emotions interest, surprise, joy, sadness, anger, disgust, contempt, hostility, fear, shame, shyness, and guilt.

But when we find singing in the Bible it is usually pointing to times of joy and rejoicing and it is so vitally connected with our worship toward God.
I remember some advice my grandmother Fidler would say when I had to do something I really didn’t want to do – I can hear her say “Sing a song while you are doing it and before you know it you will be done”. She was often heard singing church songs while working around the house.

I didn’t understand it then ... but what she was instilling in me was wisdom because she knew that when you have a song in your heart and you sing that song... it will
change your mood,
affect your attitude,
alter your altitude
and carry you through whatever it is you are going through.

In our text the Children of Israel had been captured and are now in captivity in a strange land in Babylon. While under the oppression of the Babylonians they thought of their homeland and longed to free.
They thought of the former glory they once had and began to mourn and cry utterly for what they had been taken away from. They took their harps and hung them on the tree by the river and refused to sing because of the oppression they were under. They lost their song.

Singing isn’t an option in Scripture. It’s a command:

Colossians 3:16 says “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord”.

 

Ephesians 5:18-19 says “And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit. Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord”

Paul lays out this exhortation to let God’s Word dwell in us richly, and then, he tells us how to live out that command. The first, of course, is teaching and admonishing but then he says singing! Singing is one of the two chief ways in which God’s Word dwells in us richly.
We can study the Bible to learn about God. When we sing songs based on scripture... we also learn about God... for example: we all remember the Sunday School song “Jesus Loves Me this I know for the Bible tells me so little ones to Him belong they are weak, but He is strong”. From this song we learn that Jesus both loves and cares about us AND that He is STRONG ENOUGH to overcome anything we face in our daily lives.

When we sing as a congregation, we build up each other. We are hearing the testimonies of faith all around us! Singing helps to build people up emotionally and spiritually.

Psalm 105:2 says, “Sing unto him, sing psalms unto him: talk ye of all his wondrous works”.
When we sing, we declare war against our adversary.

In 2 Chronicles 20 we find King Jehoshaphat, who was an extraordinarily strong and wise man, and one who served the Lord with all his heart. He took away the idols that the people had been worshiping and turned the hearts of the people to the Lord.
One day a message came to him that an enemy army was coming against his people.

He at once did the right thing and turned to the Lord asking for help. He told all the people to pray and said that God would fight the battle for them.

“The battle is not yours, but God’s. Ye shall not need to fight in this battle: set yourselves, stand ye still, and see the salvation of the LORD.”
Early the next morning the people started out to the battle. Then he appointed certain ones as singers to go out in front of the soldiers.

 

This is the song they should sing,
2 Chronicles 20: 21-22 ...And when he had consulted with the people, he appointed singers unto the LORD, and that should praise the beauty of holiness, as they went out before the army, and to say, Praise the LORD; for his mercy endureth for ever.
22 And when they began to sing and to praise, the LORD set ambushments against the children of Ammon, Moab, and mount Seir, which were come against Judah; and they were smitten.
Soon it was learned that the enemy had had a battle among themselves and had killed one another.

The Lord had caused the enemy army to be destroyed before God’s people reached them.
The king and his army went down to the battlefield and found so much spoil that it took three days to gather it all up and carry it home. They rejoiced and thanked the Lord for giving them the victory over their enemies that worshiped idols.

When things seem to be going wrong all around you and the enemy threatens you sing praises to God and watch Him fight your battle?

A singing heart... is a heart at war with the evil one and the power of sin.
When you sing, you are spiritually strengthened for trials.
In Acts 16 Paul and Silas are unjustly imprisoned for the sake of the Gospel, and while they are in prison they began to sing and pray and in the midnight hour God opened the prison doors. Now they didn’t leave but the prison guard and his whole family were saved.

I said it is scientifically proven that singing is good for you.
Well, you know I like the numbers and their meaning in scripture. The number 10 means Divine Order,
there are the 10 commandments, the 10 plagues,
10 generations lived on earth before the flood,
in Genesis Chapter 1 the phrase “God said” is found 10 times,
the 10th day of the 7th month in the Jewish calendar is The Day of Atonement,
etc.

Now let me give you 10 scientifically proven benefits of singing.

1. It Relieves stress:- Singing appears to be a stress-reliever. A 2017 study measured the amount of cortisol, the stress hormone, in participant’s saliva before and after they sang. Researchers in that study found that the amount of cortisol was lower after singing, an indication that people felt more relaxed after they had sung.

2. It Stimulates the immune response:- Singing can be a form of exercise that works the lungs and other parts of the body required to project one's voice. Singing may lead to a stronger diaphragm and stimulation of circulation due to the greater amount of oxygen needed to carry a tune.

There’s some evidence that singing may boost your immune system and help you fight off illnesses by producing higher levels of immunoglobulin A, an antibody your body secretes to help you fend off infections.

3. It Increases the pain threshold:- When you sing in a group, whether it’s large or small, the act of collective singing causes your body to release endorphins. This hormone can help promote positive feelings, and even change your perception of pain.

4. It May improve snoring:- Regular singing may change the way you breathe, even when you’re not singing. Researchers in a 2008 study interviewed the spouses of singers, along with the spouses of people who don’t sing. The researchers found that significantly fewer active singers snored.

This led them to recommend regular singing as a potential treatment for snoring.

5. It Improves lung function:- Because singing involves deep breathing and the controlled use of muscles in the respiratory system, it may be beneficial for certain lung and breathing conditions.
Studies have shown that the breathing techniques used with singing may offer benefits for people with the following conditions: chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder (COPD), asthma, cystic fibrosis, cancer, multiple sclerosis and others. While singing doesn’t treat or cure any of these conditions, you may benefit from gaining strength in your respiratory muscles.

6. It Develops a sense of belonging and connection:- When you sing together with others, you’re likely to feel the same kind of camaraderie and bonding that players on sports teams experience.
One of the neurochemicals released when people feel bonded together is oxytocin. Spontaneous, improvised singing causes your body to release this feel-good hormone, which may help give you a heightened sense of connectedness and inclusion.

7. It Enhances memory in people with dementia:- People with Alzheimer’s disease and other types of dementia experience a gradual loss of memory. Studies have shown that people with these conditions were able to recall song lyrics more easily than other words.
Some the singers found they remembered more than just the lyrics. For some, singing familiar songs suddenly brought back life memories they had long forgotten.

8. It Helps with grief:- Singing in a group doesn’t just help you with physical pain; it may also help with the emotional pain you feel after you’ve lost someone you love.

9. It Improves mental health and mood:- A 2018 study done in the United Kingdom evaluated 20 people in a singing program known as The Sing Your Heart Out project. The participants included people with mental health conditions, as well as the general public. Researchers found that the participants reported improvements in their mental health, mood, sense of well-being, and feeling of belonging as a result of these singing workshops.

10. It Helps improve speaking abilities:- It has been proven that people who have a hard time with speech due to a neurological condition can benefit from singing.
Scientist have found that singing improves the speaking ability for people with: autism, Parkinson’s disease, and even stuttering.

Singing stimulates multiple areas of the brain at the same time. This may enable people with an impairment in one part of the brain to communicate using other areas of their brain.

John 10:10 says “The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly”. Don’t let the devil steal your song.

Don't Let Persecution Take Away Your Song. John 16:33 says “These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world”.

There is going to be persecutions that will you’re your way because our adversary is determined to kill steal and destroy you and he will try whatever he can to do this, but when persecution comes our way keep on singing.

Don't Let People Take Away Your Song. John 16:22 says, “And ye now therefore have sorrow: but I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man taketh from you”.

Living in this day and age we truly see the depravity of man! Depravity speaks of the fallen nature of mankind. People are constantly hurting each other, you cannot pick up a newspaper or turn on the TV without hearing of some atrocity someone has committed against another.

Sadly, it isn't just the sinner who hurt others, even Christian people hurt one another! So many times, we find that they will lie and gossip about others.

They will do what we would never have imagined that they would do. Don't let people take away your song! Sing anyway!

- Some words of a Song by Kirk Franklin titled (Why I Sing) –
Someone asked a question
Why do we sing?
When we lift our hands to Jesus
What do we really mean?
Someone may be wondering
When we sing our song
At times we may be cryin'
And nothing's even wrong
And when we cross that river
We will sing our song to Jesus
The one whom we adore
I love Your name Jesus
Glory Hallelujah
For the rest of my life Jesus
You'll be the reason why I sing.

I pray that I have given you more reasons to sing. Remember when you sing, you glorify God. Singing has such a unique way of bringing our heart, soul, mind, and strength together to focus entirely and completely on God. In an age of distraction, singing grabs the attention of all our senses and focuses us on God.

Psalms 5:11 says “Let all who take refuge in you rejoice; let them ever sing for joy, and spread your protection over them, that those who love your name may exult in you.” There is an awesome joy that comes upon us when we enter into that secret place of the most High.

 

often circumstances of our everyday lives literally become a yoke leading us down a path of despair, discouragement and defeat. Singing changes our perspective of our situation and begins to lead us to a place of hope.

The Children of Israel lost their song during their captivity in Babylon, they even refused to sing I want to encourage you don’t lose your song.

Revelation 7:9-10 says, “After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands And cried with a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb”.

This is just a glimpse of eternity when a great multitude of people from every tribe, peoples, and languages are singing before the Lamb.

On that day, will you be one of the great multitude that no one can number, singing the song of the Lamb, singing his praises?
Until then Keep On Singing.

 

Living Water

Living Water

John 4:1-26

 

INTRODUCTION: Good morning church! The fourth chapter of John’s gospel tells a dramatic story of an encounter between Jesus and a woman from the area of Samaria. The point of the story is the same as all the stories we have seen thus far in this gospel: to show Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. John records this event for us as another convincing proof for who Jesus is.

 

The first six verses of this chapter set the scene of how this encounter comes about. John 4:1-6, “1 Now when Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John 2 (although Jesus himself did not baptize, but only his disciples), 3 he left Judea and departed again for Galilee. 4 And he had to pass through Samaria. 5 So he came to a town of Samaria called Sychar, near the field that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob's well was there; so Jesus, wearied as he was from his journey, was sitting beside the well. It was about the sixth hour.”[ESV] Jesus learns that the Pharisees know that His popularity is greatly increasing. The Pharisees’ attention is turning away from John and now they focus against Jesus. Jesus left Judea and went north to Galilee, away from Jerusalem, the heart of the Jewish leadership and rule.

 

Before we move forward with our background of the story, I am compelled to spend a moment noting the parenthetical statement recorded in verse 2. This is a clarification of what was mentioned in John 3:22. It must be assumed that Jesus took up carrying forward God's work already seen in the labors of John the Baptist, and that the baptism administered by Jesus, (through his disciples), was God's baptism exactly like that of John. John was a servant carrying out God's orders; and Jesus was a Son doing the same thing; but in order not to mislead anyone, Jesus refrained from administering God's baptism personally, doing so only through His disciples.

 

Nothing should be made of the fact that Jesus did not baptize, but His disciples baptized. What one does through his agents he is lawfully said to do; therefore, Jesus baptized. Why did He refrain from doing so personally? We can think of two or three reasons, (1) to avoid any notion that Jesus was one of John's subordinates. Furthermore, although Jesus had submitted to God's baptism as preached by John, and for a time administered by Himself through His disciples, He was nevertheless above John's baptism in the sense that baptism in His name was designed to succeed it. (2) to avoid a rise of jealousies and strife later through some claiming greater privilege in having been baptized personally by the Lord. We saw this sort of thing occur in Corinth. “… one says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos…”” (1^st Corinthians 3:4)

 

I bring this up because some try to use this verse to say baptism is not necessary and they ignore other scriptures. To say baptism is not necessary doesn't make any sense when we read the New Testament, and it becomes clear that Jesus is being wise in using His disciples to baptize.

I. The Scene – That brings us to this scene. Verse 3, “He left Judea and departed again to Galilee.” Jesus then leaves the southern region, Judea, and goes back to the northern region, back to Galilee. An undercurrent of opposition is growing, but it's not Jesus' time yet. I suspect that's why He's moving back to Galilee.

A. We are told in verse 4, He had to pass through Samaria. Samaria was located between Jerusalem and Galilee and was the most direct route. The boundaries of Samaria varied in history; but in the time of Jesus, it was a small province about twenty miles wide and about thirty miles long. The eastern boundary was the Jordan River, and the southern line lay about seven miles south of Shechem.

1. The capital city, also called Samaria, was on an impressive butte some six miles northwest of the area where the events of this chapter happened.

2. I submit to you that Jesus did not have to go through Samaria due to geography and could have taken other routes. However, this was the selected route He took and has led some to speculate He did so for the encounter He is going to have here. We are not told.

B. Next, we read, “… he came to a town of Samaria called Sychar, near the field that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob's well was there; so Jesus, wearied as he was from his journey, was sitting beside the well. It was about the sixth hour.”

1. We have enough experience with John’s gospel by now, that we know John is not just throwing out stuff about Jacob, Jacob's land, and Jacob's well. This is going to be a cog in the story, and that's why it's being laid out here for us.

2. Interesting also in verse 6 is we see a little bit of the humanity of Jesus. The apostles never denied that. In proving Jesus to be God, they never obscured or covered up the fact that He was also human, like us. Here we are told it's the sixth hour, high noon, and Jesus is weary. He is worn out, and He sits beside the well which is going to lead to this discussion with a Samaritan woman.

3. A great reminder to us about Jesus, that He is God in the flesh, experiencing everything that we would experience, going through weakness, going through difficulty, going through trial, going through temptation. He is not impervious to these things. He is worn out from walking in the heat of the sun, and is legitimately asking this woman for water, but is also going to use this as a way to draw her to salvation.

C. Verse 7 begins our story. “A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.””

1. By these words, Jesus placed himself in the position of one requesting a favor, and by such a gesture assumed a social equality with her, which astonished her and led to the conversation that followed.

2. Jesus came from heaven to become a man, to take upon Him the form of a servant, and to die for the sins of the whole world. All this is fully known; but, in this specific instance of it, the humiliation of our Lord becomes epic in its depth and intensity.

 

II. The Discussion (John 4:9-24) -- The way this discussion unfolds is fascinating. We perceive the patience in this woman, if you consider how the dialogue goes. Jesus says, give me a drink, and she is stunned that He's talking to her. John explains why in verse 9, “The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?” (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.)”

A. What are you doing talking to me, she asks. Most Jews were very disdainful toward the Samaritans. This is why the parable of the good Samaritan is such a shocking parable.

1. She asks how it is that He would ask her for a drink. Jesus’ responds that she should ask Him for a drink. Think about how this discussion has started. Jesus asks her for a drink. She asks, “You are asking me for a drink?” Jesus responds, “You should ask me for a drink.” His reply to her in verse 10 is, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.”

2. I want us to feel the puzzlement of the beginning dialogue here. Jesus says, give me a drink. She says, “Why are you talking to me?” He responds, if you knew who I was, you would have asked me for a drink, and I would have given it to you. I can imagine her wondering, “Then why are you asking me for water if you're offering me water? What is going on here?” However she is very cordial toward Jesus.

B. “If you knew the gift of God”. Here Jesus referred to himself, the gift of God to all the world. Amazingly, the supreme gift of God sat at that very moment at Jacob's well. This woman, coming to the well in the heat of the day, had suddenly confronted the Lord of life. Contemplate for a moment this woman standing face to face with God incarnate, and yet unaware of it.

C. “Living water” is a reference to the water of life, the spiritual realities that lead to everlasting life in the presence of God. The metaphor was probably suggested by the thirst which had brought them both to the well. Just as the body requires water, just so the soul. If it is to live, it must drink at the everlasting fountain of God's word.

D. Of course, she's intrigued. Verse 11, “The woman said to him, “Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water?” She asks how He is going to provide water considering He does not have anything to draw water and the well is deep.

1. The woman's response shows that she did not understand what was meant by "living water," hence the question of its source, especially since Jesus had nothing with which to draw water. This indicates to me that the woman had already figured out that Jesus was not talking about the water of Jacob's well.

2. “Where do you get that living water?” she asks. Flowing water is called "living water" in many cultures and traditions, especially in a spiritual context. In the Middle East, water is scarce and precious, and very much needed for survival. Only a few months of the year does rain fall in Israel, and the rest of the time the ancient peoples survived on still water from wells or cisterns.

3. Jeremiah, when praying for deliverance in Jeremiah 17:13 says, “O Lord, the hope of Israel, all who forsake you shall be put to shame; those who turn away from you shall be written in the earth, for they have forsaken the Lord, the fountain of living water.”

E. The Samaritan woman continues in verse 12, “Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock.” The well is where they go to get water and tradition says it was provided by Jacob. The well is of great importance, and they appreciate Jacob for it. To obtain “living water” you would need to go beyond Jacob’s well. She is saying, “are you trying to say that you can find better water than what Jacob has given us?” We can see by Jesus’ response that's exactly the point that He wants to make.

F. Verses 13-14. “Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.””

1. What a great picture that is given here as Jesus explains. Here is what you have. You have a well, and when you drink from that well, you're going to be thirsty again, but when you drink from the water that I will give you; you will never be thirsty again.

2. Just imagine that idea for a moment — you will never thirst again. Then He says, it will become a spring that flows into eternal life.

G. Verse 15 gives the woman’s response, “… “Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water.””

1. Give me this water so that I don't need to do this hard laborious work in the sun pulling up water out of this well. It's a lot of work to pull water out of a deep well. It is interesting that she is completely missing the prophetic cues that Jesus is dropping.

2. As with Nicodemus He's being subtle. He's playing the metaphor, but the metaphor is not unfounded. This is not like Jesus came up with this idea to blindside her so that she has no idea what He's talking about. The Old Testament prophets spoke significantly this way.

3. Isaiah 12:2f. “Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and will not be afraid; for the Lord God is my strength and my song, and he has become my salvation. With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation. And you will say in that day: “Give thanks to the Lord, call upon his name, make known his deeds among the peoples, proclaim that his name is exalted.” Jesus is resting on prophetic imagery. When the Messiah comes, guess what's going to happen? You're going to draw water out of the well of salvation.

4. Zechariah 14:5f. “5 …Then the Lord my God will come, and all the holy ones with him. 6 On that day there shall be no light, cold, or frost. 7 And there shall be a unique day, which is known to the Lord, neither day nor night, but at evening time there shall be light. 8 On that day living waters shall flow out from Jerusalem, half of them to the eastern sea and half of them to the western sea. It shall continue in summer as in winter. 9 And the Lord will be king over all the earth. On that day the Lord will be one and his name one.” Same picture, living waters pouring from Jerusalem, filling the nations and filling the people.

5. In Ezekiel chapter 47 the writer describes water flowing from the temple growing deeper and wider as it goes and he says starting at 47:7, “7 As I went back, I saw on the bank of the river very many trees on the one side and on the other. 8 And he said to me, “This water flows toward the eastern region and goes down into the Arabah, and enters the sea; when the water flows into the sea, the water will become fresh. 9 And wherever the river goes, every living creature that swarms will live, and there will be very many fish. For this water goes there, that the waters of the sea may become fresh; so everything will live where the river goes.”

H. If you knew who you were talking to, you would have the gift of God and receive this living water. She does not understand yet what's going on in His words. I think what's fascinating about this, is this is what happens throughout this gospel.

1. One of the features of what John the Apostle is doing is trying to show how we, the readers, are so spiritually blind and spiritually dense. When you go back to John 2, Jesus says, tear down this temple and I'll raise it up in three days. What do the people say? “They've been building the temple for 46 years.”

2. Spiritually blind. Chapter 3, Nicodemus. What? There must be a new birth? I must be born again? I don't understand.

3. Total lack of comprehension. Chapter 4, Samaritan woman, I'll give you living water. That would be great because then I don't have to carry a bucket anymore and do hard work in the sun.

4. Guess what happens at the end of this chapter? Jesus disciples come back with food and urge Him to eat. He's going to say, “I have food to eat that you do not know about”. They are going to wonder, where did he get food? How did He eat already? Failing to understand.

5. John is painting a picture for the reader. You can be spiritually blind, walking in darkness and failing to see you are walking before God. As we read this story, we are being placed as the Samaritan woman. We are the ones who do not comprehend, but we need eternal life, we need the living water.

I. At this point Jesus attempts to move her heart from being physically minded to spiritually minded. He must open her eyes a little bit and lead her to understand He is not talking about material things.

1. It is important to see what Jesus does in this story, in trying to move her to see what is being offered. He is not offering an easy physical life but an eternal life. Jesus is trying to give us a spiritual life, something far greater than anything we can have or experience in this world.

2. The problem is that we are blinded by the world. Instead of seeing what Jesus has to offer, we look at Jesus and say, He's going to make things easy and comfortable, right? He's going to make it where I don't have to pull a bucket out of a well. He's going to make my life simple.

 

3. As we read verse 16 don’t be critical of her because Jesus must do that with us also. We get so spiritually lost, so spiritually darkened, so consumed by the things of this world. We get so caught up in all that is going on around us, so consumed by pleasures and convenience and work and joys and family—that we fail to see what the most important thing is. Jesus is offering eternal life.

4. We turn that into; you can have a good marriage and a good family, and you can have all kinds of wealth, and you can have everything that you want in this world. You can make it all comfortable and easy. That's not what we're talking about here. Jesus is trying to give you something better, and we turn it into something about comfort and convenience.

J. That's why Jesus does what He does here in verse 16. “Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.”” I wonder how she felt at that second where she's about to sputter out this answer, “I have no husband”.

1. Jesus responds, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband’; for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true.” Why does Jesus do this? She responds, “Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet.” Clearly, you're a man of God to know this. Jesus exposes our sins to wake us up.

2. It is a loving act on God's part, to come into this world and expose our sins. Sometimes it's the only way to wake up. We go along in life like everything's fine. We go to work, come home, watch TV, chill out, relax, and it is all good. Something must happen to startle us out of that, get us out of the darkness, out of our spiritual blindness. Get us to open our eyes and recognize we need something more than what this world has to offer.

K. If God did not love us, He could leave us to our own devices, and say, I hope they figure it out. I hope they recognize one day that they're in total darkness, that they're spiritually blind, and that they need the light to come in. (By the way, this is all chapter one.) I sure hope they figure it all out… God's love is seen in exposing our sin.

1. You see we're just like this woman. We will take everything that God has to say and figure out how it works for me to make me happy, make me comfortable, make me have what I want to have and enjoy the things of this earth. When we are keenly aware of our sin, only then do we then begin to seek Him spiritually. Conversely, when we forget that we are sinners and we think we're good, moral people, then we go about enjoying the things of life without a care for God.

2. We turn “church” into—show up for an hour, pay our dues, then say leave me alone. I'll see you when I feel like being here. What an insult to our Lord who is trying to give us life. We turn around and say, “so what's the bare minimum that I need for that? Give me a list, and not a long one. What can I do to get by so I can get back to my stuff? I mean I’ve got things to do in the here and now.”

L. The woman now perceives Jesus is from God and in verse 20 she asks a question, “Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship.” The implied question, where are we supposed to worship God? The Jews say that God must be worshipped in Jerusalem. Her Samaritan ancestors worshipped God on this mountain because Moses had commanded an altar be built here in Deuteronomy 27. Who is right?

1. Jesus' answer is great. Verse 21. “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. 22 You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. 24 God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” What a phenomenal answer that He gives.

2. God is going to be worshipped, not by location, but through Jesus. Here is the Apostle John bringing chapter 2 right back in. Jesus is speaking of Himself as the temple. You will access God, not through location any longer. You will not find atonement in Jerusalem anymore. The day is coming when you will find it through Me. You will meet God through Jesus. You will find atonement through Jesus. You will find salvation through Jesus.

3. Salvation comes from the Jews meaning that the Messiah would come from the Jewish people, He will be the source of eternal life, and He will be the one who is worshiped. Jerusalem is irrelevant, Jesus is what matters. The time will come when worshippers are not identified by their attachment to a shrine, but by the worship of the Lord.

M. God is looking for people who will worship Him properly. The implication is that the worship in both places is not proper. Since God is spirit, proper worship of God is also a matter of the spirit rather than a physical location, physical posture, or external ritual. God wants worship from the heart because worship from the heart leads to proper worship. If I truly love the Lord and understand His grace toward me, then I will worship Him the way that He wants with the heart that He wants. She responds in verse 25, “… I know that Messiah is coming (he who is called Christ). When he comes, he will tell us all things.” She does not seem to fully accept Jesus answer.

1. Verse 26, “Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am he.”” There is the main point of the story. Jesus is the Messiah. the one speaking to you. I know what I am talking about concerning worship because I am the Christ. I am here and that is why I can offer eternal life.

2. The light bulb clicks on. This is not an academic discussion any longer. Jesus is the Christ. Her mind must be reeling from all the things that Jesus has just said to her. If you knew who I was and the gift of God, you would have asked me and I would have given you living water. Jesus offered to give something to her so that she could experience full, true satisfaction.

 

CONCLUSION: Think about those words: “Whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again” (4:14). What you are lacking in your life Jesus is supplying. We think in physical terms, we'll never thirst again. If you want to drink soda or water it will just be because you wanted to, just be for fun. It wouldn't be because you're parched.

 

We fail to realize that when our life is not right with God then we are thirsty and unsatisfied. This woman has had five husbands and now is on her sixth man. She is thirsting but the water she is drinking is only giving temporary relief. This is exactly the description of this world. We try something… find temporary enjoyment, only to thirst again.

 

What false well are we running to, only to find disappointment and loss? Jesus offers living water to the condemned, to call them to eternal life. We need to move our hearts from physical concerns to spiritual concerns. The light is shining in the world so that we do not have to be blinded by the darkness any longer. Satan blinds us with the things the world, and we do not see the treasure that is Jesus and the living water He provides. We need to see that what Jesus is offering is more valuable than anything this world has to offer. Jesus is the pearl of great value. Jesus is the treasure. He is worth everything.

 

The message is yours. We are about to sing our invitation song. If anyone here has the need to be baptized into Christ, or needs the prayers of faithful people, the invitation is there for you to come forward while we stand and sing.

 

 

# ???

 

Reference Sermon: Brent Kercherville

 

He Must Increase

He Must Increase

John 3:22-36

 

INTRODUCTION: Good morning church! As we study the Gospel of John we should always keep in mind the main theme of John’s writing; So “that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name.”

 

There are many threads or themes in this gospel that are woven together to present the picture of the greatness of Jesus. A reminder of all that Christ has done for us, this immense sacrifice, which reaches back to chapter 1 about how light had come into the world, the darkness did not comprehend it or overcome it. In chapter 3 that thought has been retraced, describing the greatness of the light coming, but the people did not receive Him, even though He came to heal the people of their sins.

 

Another strand we saw in chapter 2, the miracle of turning the water to wine. We noted in that symbolism what Jesus brings is greater than what the nation had before. They had wine, but it ran out. The Old Testament prophets described wine as the blessings that are poured out from God. Christ comes and He pours out this wine abundantly, overflowing, better than what the nation had ever received before.

 

Then we have Jesus describing the tearing down of the temple, but He's describing Himself. A greater temple is now among you, a superior temple. The place of contact with God, the place to worship God, and the place to find atonement is no longer in a physical structure, but in the body of Christ.

 

In this section we're going to talk about John the Baptist again, and we will see almost the same thing that we saw in the first chapter. I wondered why John would do that. We already talked about John the baptizer saying he is not worthy to untie the sandal strap of the one who is to come, and how the one to come must increase, and he must decrease.

 

What are we seeing? I think we're seeing this grand strand, this great theme, that Jesus is superior, and the reasoning why is going to be laid out here in this section.

 

I. Glory Belongs to Jesus — Our text will be John 3:22-36 and this has a convergence of all of the themes that we've been studying. We'll break this scene into two separate parts. The first part is in verses 22-30 with an emphasis on glory that belongs to Jesus. Let's read John 3:22-30. “22 After this Jesus and his disciples went into the Judean countryside, and he remained there with them and was baptizing. 23 John also was baptizing at Aenon (EE-known) near Salim (suh-lime), because water was plentiful there, and people were coming and being baptized 24 (for John had not yet been put in prison).

 

25 Now a discussion arose between some of John's disciples and a Jew over purification. 26 And they came to John and said to him, “Rabbi, he who was with you across the Jordan, to whom you bore witness—look, he is baptizing, and all are going to him.”

 

27John answered, “A person cannot receive even one thing unless it is given him from heaven. 28 You yourselves bear me witness, that I said, ‘I am not the Christ, but I have been sent before him.’ 29 The one who has the bride is the bridegroom. The friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly at the bridegroom's voice. Therefore this joy of mine is now complete. 30 He must increase, but I must decrease.”” [ESV]

A. The first thing we notice is that John does something curious, but very important. What do verses 22, 23 and 24, have to do with anything that we're talking about here? Jesus and His disciples are in Judea and they're baptizing. Then we are told that John is baptizing too, because there's some water and because John hasn’t been thrown in prison yet. Next there is a jump to a dispute between John's disciples and the Jew. What was that about? What are you telling us?

1. I suggest that what we observe is a connection being made between baptism and purification that can easily, I think, be missed. Yet it's very strongly being tied together because of what is being shown to us in verses 22, 23 and 24, the rise of what might seem to be a competition.

2. John the Baptist has been baptizing, and now Jesus is in the Judean area with His disciples and they're baptizing. Okay, Jesus is baptizing and John the baptizer is baptizing. What is going on around here?

3. John does not put things together at random. Verses 22,23, and 24 set the stage with verse 25 as the result of this scene. In verse 25 a discussion now occurs with some person or persons and the disciples of John.

B. We notice it is not an argument over baptism. It says it's purification, but the context is that John is baptizing and Jesus is baptizing. We don't get any description about the details of this discussion. Then in the next verse, 26, we find that John’s disciples express concern that Jesus is baptizing as well as John. This verse also starts with a connecting word and refers to John’s disciples who were in the previous verse in the discussion with someone.

1. John's disciples now come to John and say, do you know the fellow you said we were supposed to pay attention to? Everybody's going after him now. They seem to think that's a problem.

2. What John says as a response to this is this, “A person cannot receive even one thing unless it is given him from heaven.” This is an amazing statement that John makes, and it is important to see, just like we saw in the first chapter, John is not caught up in a rivalry. John is not caught up in a competition. He's not trying to compare himself to Jesus.

3. He doesn't get involved in any of that. He just simply states, God gave me a particular task, a particular mission. My job was to point to Jesus. That's what my job was all about. I cannot assume for myself anything more or anything greater than what God has given me to do. That was my purpose. That's why I'm here. That's why I was sent.

C. John is not going to take glory for himself. He's not going to claim to be somebody or claim himself to be important. That's not what this is about and there's no room for that in the kingdom of God. John simply says, my job, my purpose, is to point to Him. That's what has been given to me. I'm not the anointed one. I'm not the chosen one. He is, and I can only do what God has given me to do.

1. That is such a great reminder, especially when you contrast how John later in this gospel is going to describe the reaction of the Pharisees as they see Jesus going around teaching and healing. As Jesus continues to grow with numbers and disciples and multitudes, the Pharisees are going to be outraged. They will say the world has gone after Him and they are upset.

2. John's disciples are saying the world has gone after Him, and John's response is good, excellent, that is the way it should be. Remember in chapter one, John is talking with two of his disciples, Jesus walks by and John stops and says, “Behold, the Lamb of God!” What those two disciples then did was leave John and followed Jesus.

3. To John the baptizer this is victory! His job was successful. That's what he understands. He's not in a competition. Servants of God know their roles, know their purpose. Here John reveals that for us and we can find this elsewhere in scripture.

D. A similar situation happens to Moses in Numbers 11:26f. “26 Now two men remained in the camp, one named Eldad, and the other named Medad, and the Spirit rested on them. They were among those registered, but they had not gone out to the tent, and so they prophesied in the camp. 27 And a young man ran and told Moses, “Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp.” 28 And Joshua the son of Nun, the assistant of Moses from his youth, said, “My lord Moses, stop them.” 29 But Moses said to him, “Are you jealous for my sake? Would that all the Lord's people were prophets, that the Lord would put his Spirit on them!””

1. Same idea isn’t it? A young man told Moses there are other people prophesying! Joshua, thinking this should be done by Moses only, tells Moses, “My lord Moses, stop them!” Moses says, I don't care, that's fine. I wish everybody could do what I was doing.

2. That's what John's does here. His disciples come to John, “John, John, everybody's following Jesus.” John goes, “That's good”. Servants of God know their role. Servants of God know their purpose. Servants of God know their job. It is so important for us to understand that. It is not about competition and we experience joy when God is glorified.

3. John's purpose was to point to Jesus, to give all the glory to Jesus and tell people, go follow him. John stayed directly on that task. We notice in verse 28, “You yourselves bear me witness, that I said, ‘I am not the Christ, but I have been sent before him.’” John has been saying this all along, I'm not the one. There is great joy in doing the task that God has given a servant to do.

E. We see a beautiful picture in John 3:29. The one who has the bride is the bridegroom… Then he says, and I’ll paraphrase, “the best man of the groom who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly at the groom's voice.” “Therefore, my joy is complete.” The job of the best man is not to take attention away. The best man stands back and is glad for the groom, his friend. All the glory belongs to the bride and the groom. The best man does not steal that glory, does not steal the time. He knows what his job is.

1. That's how John paints himself. I'm just the friend of the groom. My joy is complete to see this wedding occasion. My job is done.

2. Then he uses these beautiful words as a summary, He must increase, I must decrease. Isn’t that what John's disciples are saying? Jesus is out there baptizing, you're losing your followers. John goes, I know, that's exactly what's supposed to happen. People are supposed to go after Jesus and not after me.

3. This is what true success looks like. True success is not about pointing to us, bringing glory to ourselves, or drawing attention to ourselves. It is always in pointing to Jesus. That is what our task is. We have no other tasks than that. It is not about who we are, as if we're something important. It is all about deflecting the glory to Jesus. To put it another way, we don't elevate ourselves.

F. We find this an amazing statement though because of what Jesus said about John in Matthew 11:11, “Truly, I say to you, among those born of women there has arisen no one greater than John the Baptist…” Yet, here John saying, I must decrease, just the best man here, just doing my job, and my joy is complete because the glory belongs to Him. John gets it.

1. We do not elevate ourselves. We elevate Jesus and we elevate nothing else. Everything must belong to Him. He must receive our attention, our adoration. He must receive all of our efforts.

2. A great reminder here, there's no room for jealousy in the kingdom of God. There's no room for competition, no room for rivalry. Those things can happen on so many levels from the simplest task to the most complex ministry. But there should be no competition or rivalry within a local body of Christians.

3. We are all different members doing various things. I'm not more important than you. You're not more important than me. We all have important tasks and God given roles of what we can do as we work in this community. It's not about preachers competing about who is the better preacher. Not about who is the better song leader and not about who has a task this week that someone else had last week.

4. It's not about any of that. It is all about making sure we are pointing to Jesus in everything that we do, and we should be excited when other people do better than we do. That's what John's doing.

5. John is happy that Jesus has people following Him because that's where the glory belongs, and the same thing should happen for us. If other Christians are doing a great job in teaching, we should be like Moses. Great! Glad they can do it. It's not about me. It's about getting God's task done. It's about bringing glory to Him.

6. I like the way that Paul worded it. Paul wrote this in 2^nd Corinthians 4:7 describing the apostles; “we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us.” If the apostles could say that about themselves; “we have a treasure given to us, we have been given the revelation of God, we have been given insight into the great mystery, we have this great gospel… but we are nothing but clay jars”, – then we most certainly should have the very same attitude that we're just vessels carrying the gospel to the world. We deserve no glory, deserve no honor, it is not about us, it is about Jesus. Jesus must increase and we must decrease.

II. Jesus Is God’s Supreme Representative – Read with me John 3:31-36 “31 He who comes from above is above all. He who is of the earth belongs to the earth and speaks in an earthly way. He who comes from heaven is above all. 32 He bears witness to what he has seen and heard, yet no one receives his testimony. 33 Whoever receives his testimony sets his seal to this, that God is true. 34 For he whom God has sent utters the words of God, for he gives the Spirit without measure. 35 The Father loves the Son and has given all things into his hand. 36 Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.” This is the second part of this two-part section. In this part John is showing why Jesus should increase and everybody else must decrease. Here we find descriptions about the superior nature of Jesus, so that we would see everything does point to Him. Notice what John does as he brings us each verse almost in rapid fire, describing the supreme nature of who Jesus is.

A. Verse 31. “He who comes from above is above all. He who is of the earth belongs to the earth and speaks in an earthly way. He who comes from heaven is above all.” That's straightforward, Christ is from heaven. John is of the earth and he says; “who's more important?” Jesus is. Who has more authority? He does, because He's from heaven.

1. Therefore, He has authority over all things. All that is on the earth is subjugated to Him. Therefore, it is right and proper for all glory to go to Jesus, and none of the glory belongs to us because we are of the earth and are therefore of an earthly way.

2. Look at the comparison. I mean, how can we possibly compare? Look how great He is. He came from heaven and that sets Him apart from anybody else. Who else has come from heaven to this earth and revealed to us the mind of God? None, and therefore, He's above all.

B. Look at verses 32-33. “He bears witness to what he has seen and heard, yet no one receives his testimony. Whoever receives his testimony sets his seal to this, that God is true.”

1. John is saying Jesus brings the testimony of heaven. That is very powerful. Who else has firsthand knowledge, firsthand revelation, and firsthand information about the spiritual and heavenly things of God? John's saying, He's got all that information, not me. He came from there.

2. John wants us to see that not only does Jesus have the authority, but we need to listen to Jesus because He has firsthand testimony. Jesus spoke with firsthand observation and knowledge. Since Jesus is from heaven, He can speak from knowledge, not theory.

C. Notice what else he says there in verse 32. “He bears witness to what he has seen and heard, yet no one receives his testimony.” We see this continuing thread in John's gospel, nobody's listening. In John 1:10-11 we read “He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him.” In John chapter 3 we read God loved the world in this way that he gave his only son that whoever would believe in him would not perish. But the people did not receive him.

1. Here we're given that a different way. He came from heaven. He has all authority and all knowledge. He has firsthand information about the ways of God, because He came from there… but nobody's listening.

2. John continually is pointing out nobody's obeying. Nobody's listening. People are not receiving the words of Jesus. Nobody believes Him with belief that will transform their life. Instead, they're rejecting Him.

3. John continues to build this case of what Jesus is looking for in true belief and who will receive and who will believe in Him. Yet he says in the very absolute sense of verse 32, no one receives him.

D. Verse 33, “Whoever receives his testimony sets his seal to this, that God is true.” That's a complicated statement in a very condensed way, but I think it's something to the effect of this; Jesus did and said everything that God told Him to do and say. He is giving the very witness of God. He did everything that God did because that's who He is. He is God.

1. Therefore, to believe in Jesus is to believe in God. To reject God is to reject the Son. Conversely, to not accept Jesus is to call God a liar because God said, “This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased” that's my Son.

2. To believe in Him is to say, yes, God is true. God is trustworthy. God is faithful. John is telling us, we need to receive the testimony. But unfortunately, so many are not listening. It was true then and true now, people refusing to come to the light, refusing to obey, refusing to receive His testimony.

E. Look next at verse 34. “For he whom God has sent utters the words of God, for he gives the Spirit without measure.” In these verses is clearly the descent of the dove alighting and remaining on Jesus (John 1:33). A measureless gift of the Spirit is received by Jesus, and the inevitable corollary is that Jesus spoke the true words of God. Jesus is in full possession of God's Spirit, not merely in some manifestation of it, or some portion of it, but to the fullest and total extent.

1. Not only is He from heaven, not only does He bear the testimony of heaven, of all that He has seen up there, but everything He said are the very words of God. He wasn't making it up. He is superior because He says God's words.

2. Then he says in verse 34, without measure. The contrast is, yes, the prophets spoke the words of God, but that was with limitation, by the measure of the spirit given to them. They were the mouthpiece of God. Not like Jesus, because Jesus is the full receiving of all that.

3. Not even the apostles possessed the Spirit in the total sense that Jesus did. John gives us a picture of Jesus superior nature. He utters the very words of God. He possesses the spirit without limitation, without measure. He distributes it to others as well.

F. Verse 35, “The Father loves the Son and has given all things into his hand.” That pretty well sums it up, doesn’t it? He has supreme authority. How powerful it is when you get to the end of Matthew's gospel where Jesus utters those very words, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.” I have all authority, do as I say, is supreme in every way.

1. We can see how this fits with what John, the apostle, is doing. Of course, John, the baptizer must decrease. Jesus is the one sent from God, speaking the very words of God, who has observed heaven itself. He can describe to us and give His testimony to spiritual things because He has been given all authority by the Father.

G. The seriousness of this is brought home to us in verse 36, “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.” This wraps up the whole chapter of what John is trying to accomplish about the work of Jesus. Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life. That goes right back to John 3:16.

1. Here is Jesus. He is the author of life. Notice that belief and disobedience are contrasts. He that believes … whoever does not obey … These are among the most decisive words in the New Testament regarding what is meant by "believing," or "faith" as frequently used by New Testament writers. In all instances, it is an OBEDIENT FAITH that is meant and never is some special quality of faith apart from obedience intended.

2. Salvation by "faith alone" is an erroneous tenet of human creeds and is not the teaching of God's word. He who does not obey the Son, in the practical sense, is an unbeliever; and all faith, of whatever degree, is dead without obedience as James says.

3. Note also that for the one who does not obey… “… the wrath of God remains on him.” Folks, that goes back to John 3:17-18 that we talked about in a prior lesson, the one who does not have obedient faith is condemned already.

 

CONCLUSION:

This confirms what we read in 2:23, where we saw people were coming to Jesus claiming to believe in Him, but Jesus did not believe in them because He knew their hearts.

 

That set the stage for Nicodemus who seemed to have belief. He says to Jesus, we know that you've come from God. Jesus tells him, no, “unless one is born again… unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.”

 

This shows belief is not mere acknowledgement of what we have been talking about throughout these lessons, but about a radical life transformation and service to Jesus. Belief is now contrasted with disobedience. Believing is obeying. Believing is following Christ, and transforming your life, experiencing that new birth so that you do all He says. To disobey is to not believe, to go on our own path and to do our own thing. True belief desires to do what He says and to flee from sin.

 

When we consider that last part of verse 36, we see it's very similar to verse 18 where he says, “… whoever does not believe is condemned already…”

 

If faith in the Son is the only way to inherit eternal life, and is commanded by God, then failure to trust Him is as much disobedience as unbelief. Belief and obedience are used interchangeably in verse 36. This shows our observations throughout this chapter have been correct.

Genuine belief is the new birth, life transformation, so that we will desire Jesus. We will desire to obey Him and desire to flee from sin, rebellion, and disobedience. True belief as seen in the new birth, leads to eternal life. John ends with the thought he declared in verse 18, we are the condemned. There is justice there, we are all disobedient, and we are all sinful.

Jesus did not come to condemn the world because we were already condemned by our actions. Jesus came to rescue the world, but if we do not have a new birth through Jesus, the wrath of God remains on us. We are still condemned and therefore wrath still rests upon us. The wrath of God rests upon us until we come to Jesus for salvation. Jesus came to save.

 

The question is; Will we believe His heavenly testimony and be transformed into His children?

 

The message is yours. We are about to sing our invitation song. If anyone here has the need to be baptized into Christ, or needs the prayers of faithful people, the invitation is there for you to come forward while we stand and sing.

 

 

# ???

 

Reference Sermon: Brent Kercherville

 

The Beginning and The End

The Beginning & The End

Revelation 22:13 – 14

 

There are Military Slogan’s which state that : “the overall decisions start and stop here.”

Or we have heard the phrase, “The buck stops here!”

And there is the famous quote from a parent … “I brought you into this world, and I can take you out of it!!!!!!”

 

When Hemingway famously wrote, "For Sale: baby shoes, never worn," he proved that an entire story can be told using a half dozen words.

When the online storytelling magazine SMITH asked readers to submit six-word memoirs, they proved a whole, real life can be told this way too.

The results are fascinating, hilarious, shocking, and moving.

 

People were asked to sum up their lives in 6 words.

HERE ARE A FEW ENTRIES:

“Not Quite What I Had Planned”

“Well, I thought it was funny.”

“Dad was Santa. Downhill from there.”

“Never really finished anything, except cake.”

"Followed yellow brick road. Disappointment ensued.”

 

One Life. Six Words. What's Yours?

Jesus might have said: “I Am The Alpha And Omega.” 

That 6 word statement literally sums up Jesus’ life.

ALPHA was the first letter of the Greek alphabet and OMEGA was the last of that alphabet.

So, Jesus (in Revelation 22) said: “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.”

 

This was literally, the last “I AM” statement by Jesus in Scripture. And it was how the Bible presents Jesus to us. Jesus was literally the beginning of all things:

Colossians 1:17 says that Jesus "is before all things."

And the Gospel of John describes Jesus as the “WORD” and tells us:

“In the beginning was the Word (Jesus), and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

He was in the beginning with God.

All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.” John 1:1-2

 

So Jesus was “THE BEGINNING” of all things… and Jesus will literally be THE END of all things.

The last words of the book of Revelation are these:

“Surely I am coming soon.” Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!

The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all. Amen. 

Revelation 22:20-21

 

Now, that’s all cool stuff, but what does that all mean to us?

What does it mean to us that Jesus is the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last??

The title connects Jesus to the God of creation, proclaiming His absolute sovereignty over history and destiny.

• the title means the Lord is present at the beginning and at the consummation of history; nothing lies outside His knowledge or reign.
• the phrase connects New Testament Christology to Old Testament declarations of God as “the first and the last,” affirming Jesus’ full divinity.
• And it reassures Christians that the one who began God’s plan will also bring it to completion, so the future is not unknown or abandoned.

Placed at the very end of Scripture, the verse functions as a bookend: it frames the entire biblical narrative as the work of the same sovereign Lord who authored history and will bring its purposes to fulfillment.

And, since the Lord claims authority over all time and the story’s end, believers can live with confidence that present suffering and unanswered questions sit within a completed divine purpose and that God will finish what He has begun.

 

There are Three applications for us today:

1. Live with the end in view.

If Jesus is both the beginning and the end, then every present choice matters for the final story. Let small daily acts be shaped by the final reality: worship, mercy, honesty, and faithfulness are investments in the city and in the life that flows from the throne.

2. Embrace cleansing, not self-justification.

The washing of robes points us away from self-righteous striving and toward repentance that receives divine cleansing.

Encourage people to bring their failures to the Lamb and accept forgiveness rather than doubling down on excuse or despair.

3. Open doors now as foretaste of the city.

The gates of the city anticipate a community where holiness and hospitality meet.

Practically, pursue communities that reflect tree-of-life values: justice for the weak, welcome for the outcast, truth-telling, and sacrificial care. These are the signs of people who already live toward that city.

 

In Isaiah 44:6 GOD declares “I am the first and the last”

And Psalm 90:2 states: “from everlasting to everlasting You are God”

And, in the first chapter of Revelation we find these words:

“‘I am the Alpha and the Omega,’ says the Lord God, ‘who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.’” Revelation 1:8

 

His story makes its way through Scripture like a common thread.

Because JESUS IS the “Alpha and Omega” and the “Beginning and the End” - He IS IN CONTROL.

And because He is before and behind and all around us, that makes it so that I can TRUST Him, therefore, I don’t have to be afraid.

 

Because Jesus is the Alpha & the Omega, the 1st and the Last, and the Beginning and the End, I don’t have to be afraid… because Jesus has it all under control.

 

ILLUS: As most of you know ….

I have a 3-year-old granddaughter.

She is cute and smart and whenever we’re together we have a great time. But one of the things that humbles me is how much she trusts me. One day while babysitting

I’d only been gone from the room about 5 minutes when suddenly I hear her crying out in panic.

I rushed to the kitchen to see that she’d pulled a dining room chair over to the kitchen counter and had crawled up – belly down – on the counter to reach something.

And there she was - her belly on the counter, her butt in the air, and her legs dangling in space about a foot above the chair she had used. Now she wasn’t actually in any danger, but she didn’t know that. All she knew was that she was stuck, and she had no way to get down. And she was afraid!

 

When I got there and spoke to her, she seemed to relax.

And after I helped her back down to the floor, she was happy again. But WHY did she suddenly relax when I got there? Because she believed that I had things under control. She saw that I was there to protect her – she trusted me.

 

When Jesus said “I am the Alpha and The Omega, the Beginning and the End…” He was saying “I am NEVER FAR AWAY from you. I have this under control, and I’ll always be on hand to protect you.”

That’s how we should view the crisis we now face.

In Jesus we have someone who is never far away and always has things under control.

 

In fact, that’s the kind of faith that David had about God back in the Old Testament. He wrote:

“I call upon you, for you will answer me, O God; incline your ear to me;

hear my words. Wondrously show your steadfast love, O Savior of those who seek refuge from their adversaries at your right hand. Keep me as the apple of your eye; hide me in the shadow of your wings, from the wicked who do me violence, my deadly enemies who surround me.” Psalm 17:6-9

 

Notice, David did face real danger, real enemies, and the very real possibility of death. And yet he believed God had things under control… and He could trust Him. THAT’s how we can view Jesus, because He IS God in the flesh.

So Jesus - being the Alpha and Omega - tells us He has things under control and that we can trust Him, but in addition to that, Jesus is not only THE Alpha and Omega, and THE Beginning and End, Jesus is MY Beginning and End. He is MY Alpha and Omega. HE has re-MADE my life so I my life is re-NEWED. It has re-BEGUN.

You see I could live my life without Jesus. I really could get along quite well without Him.

But it wouldn’t really be living … it would only be simply EXISTING. I would simply be “getting by” with no future and no real purpose for life. But Jesus came so that my life would be changed.

When I was baptized into Christ, Romans 6:4 tells me that “We were buried … with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in NEWNESS OF LIFE.” In Jesus I have a NEWNESS of life because Jesus is the BEGINNING of that new life.

 

Jesus came to CHANGE our lives and offer us a NEW BEGINNING. But Jesus didn’t just come to change us and walk away.

One person observed: “Alpha and Omega” means that whatever Jesus starts, He finishes. 

Hebrews 12:2 says we should be “looking unto Jesus, the author and FINISHER of our faith....”

 

And Paul reminds us that

“He who BEGAN a good work in you will bring it to COMPLETION at the day of Jesus Christ. Philippians 1:6

 

ILLUS: I’ve noticed that there are many craftsmen and artists in this world who do something, and then get to the point in their task where they’ll say “that’s good enough.” It’s not perfect, but it’s… GOOD ENOUGH. But Jesus is not like that.

Jesus is kind of a perfectionist.

When He works in our lives “good enough” is never good enough.

 

 

Jesus will never be satisfied with simply beginning a good work in us and then walk away saying “I’m done.”

Jesus is such a perfectionist that He will never stop working on us until He’s satisfied.

 

ILLUS: Some of the world’s Greatest artists have been like that. Take Leonardo Da Vinci, for example.

I’m going to give you a quiz this morning and see if you know the answer:

What is the most valuable and praised painting in the world? Think about it for moment…

if you guessed the “Mona Lisa” you were right!

 

This famous portrait by Da Vinci was commissioned by a patron to celebrate a birthday.

If Leonardo had simply been interested in the money, he could have painted the portrait in a month and received his payment.

But money was never the object with him.

It took Da Vince 4 years to paint this masterpiece… and the painting (I read) has up to 30 different layers of paint!

 

But, why would Da Vinci do that?

Why would he keep adding more and more paint to his artwork? Well, he did that because he kept working and reworking the image until he was pleased with it.

And he loved this painting so much that he never gave it to his patron.

He kept it for himself for years afterward.

 

And that’s what Jesus does with us.

He is constantly working us and reworking us.

Jesus will never quite be done with us, because to Jesus…

you and I are the most valuable pieces of art in existence, and He wants us to be the best that He can create!

And ultimately, He keeps us for Himself because He loves us so much.

As Ephesians 2:10 tells us “We are HIS WORKMANSHIP, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which He prepared in advance for us to do.”

 

Lastly - Jesus is not just MY Alpha - He’s MY Omega.

He’s not just the beginning of my new life, He is the END… the completion of my existence.

 

In other words - ultimately we will be a FINISHED PRODUCT. As Ephesians 5:25-27 tells us:

“Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her,

having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.”

 

Now, there are some people who have difficulty understanding what that means.

Many may believe that the “finished product” is based on their OWN righteousness. But that’s not what is said here.

The passage in Ephesians 5 says that Jesus GAVE Himself up for the church. Jesus sanctified her.

Jesus cleansed her. HE DID THE WORK… not us.

You can’t buy a ticket to get in because of your “sinlessness” because THAT doesn’t exist.

 

We are reminded of the parable Jesus told about two men who came to the temple to pray.

One was a Pharisee (the very essence of righteousness and holiness) and the other – a Tax Collector (the lowest rung on the moral ladder in Israel).

Jesus said that the Pharisee prayed this way “God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.” (Luke 18:11-12)

In other words, the Pharisee bragged to God that he’d never sinned as badly as the tax collector.

But then, Jesus said, that the Tax Collector prayed:

‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ And Jesus said “I tell you, this man (the tax collector) went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.” Luke 18:13-14

 

Now, here’s the deal – you and I WILL NOT get into Heaven because of how righteous WE ARE.

We’ll only get into heaven because of how righteous JESUS IS. It’s all about Jesus.

If Jesus is not your ALPHA & OMEGA;

if Jesus is not your BEGINNING & END;

if Jesus is not your FIRST & LAST priorities …

then you and I will not make it in through the gate.

To depend upon our righteousness is a fool’s game.

 

Scripture says our righteousness will be like filthy rags unless we are washed in the blood of Christ.

We do that by believing that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God. That He is our Alpha and Omega.

And we do that by acknowledging that our own righteousness isn’t enough because we’ve sinned and fall short of God’s glory… therefore we need to repent of our sins

and rely on Christ’s righteousness.

And by confessing that Jesus is the true and only son of the father and that – He’s the one that we rely upon and trust. And lastly, we do this by allowing ourselves to imitate Christ by dying to our sins and being buried in the waters of baptism… and then rising up from those waters to walk in newness of life.

May the Alpha and Omega raise and complete within us the life he began, may our robes be kept clean by his grace, and may we walk as citizens of the city toward which all history moves. Amen.

The Condemned

The Condemned

John 3:17-21

 

INTRODUCTION: Good morning church. The apostle John continues his summary of the great news concerning God’s love toward the world. John 3:16 is the statement of fact concerning God’s love. This is the way God loved the world: he gave his only Son so that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. God’s love is stated in a factual manner. This is the way God loved us.

 

We have been talking about Jesus and Nicodemus and are continuing in that narrative this morning. Now the conclusion as Jesus wraps up His discussion. Jesus is trying to help him understand about the new birth, and what it means to see the kingdom of God, and what Nicodemus needs to do to be in the Kingdom.

 

Verse 17 continues from verse 16 identifying God’s purpose in sending His Son into the world. John is helping us grasp what God is doing through Jesus so that there is no confusion about the purpose of God’s love.

 

I. God’s Purpose: Salvation, Not Condemnation (3:17-18) – “For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.” God sent Jesus to redeem humanity, not in wrath against humanity.

A. This is an important framework to have in our minds as we think about God. God did not come against us in anger. God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world. This statement easily gets taken out of its context and is used to suggest that God does not condemn anyone. We're good to go because God didn't come to judge, to condemn, so we are all fine. That is not the point of what John is saying.

B. Then we read verse 18. Why didn't Jesus come to condemn the world? Why did He have to come to save the world? Underline the word ‘already’. He didn't have to condemn the world for it was already condemned. There was no reason for Jesus to come to condemn the world. That's our problem. We are under condemnation, under judgment. That is the reason Jesus did not come to condemn, because we're already condemned.

1. This lesson is titled “The Condemned” for that is what we are, and that is the point Jesus is expressing to Nicodemus. He, and we, are reminded of where we stand before God. We are not inherently righteous people.

2. John 3 has made that point clear to us. There is nothing about us that God should have done anything. Think about verses 14 and 15, and ask, what should God have done to the people in the wilderness who were complaining about God's providence and Moses leadership? God should have let them die. Instead, God intervenes and saves the people from the poisonous snakes. He has Moses erect a bronze serpent, and whoever looked at it would find salvation from the venom.

3. That's where we are. We are the condemned and we will die in our sins without salvation. God didn't have to send His son to condemn the world as it was already condemned. Jesus is pointing that out and He came in order that the world might be saved through him, (That is the very purpose of Jesus’ coming, to bring salvation because of the judgment that we are under.)

C. Carefully notice verse 18: not believing does not condemn us, because we are already condemned. John is moving our thinking away from believing that we are good people who deserve eternal life. Doing nothing does not mean we are in good relationship with God. We are condemned. Doing nothing maintains our condemnation. Something has to happen to change the outcome of our condemnation. If nothing else happens, then all of us will remain condemned for our sins and, according to verse 16, we will perish.

1. The problem with unbelief is it maintains your condemnation. The point Jesus is making is if you will believe, you can be set free from that condemnation. Jesus is showing us that He did not come into a morally neutral world. The first chapter showed us that light had come. Where? Into the darkness. The light did not come into something that was good and right and okay. The point is we are in sin and therefore Jesus had to come to the rescue.

2. Do not forget what we have learned in this chapter about belief. Belief is not acknowledgement or confession, but life transformation. Jesus described it as being “born again” and “born from above.” A new birth has occurred, which is also described as being born of water and the Spirit. This is the new heart and new life that seeks to obey and desires the ways of the Lord. We must experience new birth in Jesus. Jesus is the only way out of our mess. Jesus is the only way to be set free from our condemnation. Using the imagery of verses 14-15, Jesus is the only way to be healed from the death sentence of sin.

3. I imagine what Nicodemus must have felt. He thinks he's a good moral guy. He's a Jew, a Pharisee, a ruler, and a Sanhedrin member. He probably felt he was fine. He thinks he's in the kingdom of God. Then Jesus says, you're not going to see the kingdom of God unless you experience this new birth. Unless there is this radical life transformation, you are in the same boat with everyone else, condemned in sins.

4. We must understand there is nothing about us to cause God to look upon us with some great favor and say, “That's why I'm going to send Jesus”. No. We are fully condemned and it is our own doing. It is because of His great love that God sent His son to rescue us from that condemnation.

D. Jesus is telling Nicodemus, you don't see your condition. You don't see that you're condemned. Until you appreciate condemnation, until you appreciate where you stand before the judge as the gavel falls, then you cannot appreciate being rescued. You can't appreciate salvation.

1. The person who doesn't know they're drowning does not appreciate the rescue. We have to see our sin and we must understand our condemnation to be able to grasp what is happening. That's why verse 19 is so powerful.

 

II. The Verdict (3:19-20) – Now John 3:19-20 and I’m going to use the NIV here. “This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed.”[NIV] The gavel has fallen, Judgment is now being passed and here is the verdict.

A. Imagine being in the courtroom of God and listening to this verdict being declared in our trial. “The light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil.” [ESV]. I cannot think of more heart-wrenching words than this verdict.

1. The light has come, but we love the darkness because we are wicked, as seen by our actions. How sad! We would rather live for ourselves, than be saved from our condemnation. What staggering sinfulness!

2. The light has come into the world, and we still are living wickedly as if Jesus did not come. The light has come and there has not been life change in the hearts of the people. No transformation has occurred.

B. Let’s relate this to the scene in the wilderness like Jesus did in verses 14-15. This would be like the people being bitten by the venomous snakes, the bronze snake being put on the pole to save them from the venom, and people rejecting that salvation.

1. They close their eyes and refuse to look at the bronze serpent in faith. They would rather complain and die in the wilderness than change their lives through God’s grace, and live. They would rather reject God as the source of their life and die in that desert than believe that God would heal them if they faithfully turned to him.

2. Can you imagine if the people hearing the words “look to the pole and you'll be healed”, said, “No”? “I think I'll close my eyes and just do what I want to do. I'd rather stare at the dirt and avert my eyes from that salvation”.

3. Who in their right mind is going to refuse the anti-venom? Who is going to reject the antidote to death? John says that we are. We are. We are rejecting the antidote to death because we love the darkness rather than the light.

C. Jesus is the light who has entered the world of darkness. Did that darkness come to the light? It did not, the people remained in darkness. It is like the people said, “we would rather die of snake bite than love the Lord and be healed”. That's what is being declared here. That's the verdict that Jesus proclaims here. Shocking, and you have to ask: Why?

1. The answer is; the people loved the darkness rather than the light. We'd rather do what we want to do. We want to live how we want to live. We'll act how we want to act, and we'll be what we want to be. You can't tell us what to do.

2. You're right. Just stay there in the darkness and die of venom. What craziness! Yet isn’t this the very proclamation that we often make in our sins rather than turn to the Lord, our God, with all of our heart and obey Him and love him and serve Him?

3. It is saying, I would rather die in my sins because I want to be independent, and I want to live how I want to live. I hope we see what an absurd statement we are making before our God when we say that to him.

4. We’re being freed from sin. Jesus did not come to condemn us. He came to rescue us for we are already under condemnation.

5. It is when we see this condemnation that the words of the apostle Paul should spring to life in our hearts. In Romans 7:21-25, Paul described the weightiness of sin, the battle of sin, and how he says I do not do the things that I know I should do and want to do. I continue to be weighed down by my sins. Then Paul asks the question in verse 24, “Wretched man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?”

D. Now when the gavel comes down there is a way for the condemnation to have been removed. There is a way to be saved from that awful verdict and that's what Jesus is trying to move Nicodemus to understand. The whole purpose of Jesus life as He walks on the earth, is to move people to understand their sinfulness, so that they can be rescued.

1. That's why I find this passage so weighty. I mean, why does Jesus have to tell people about the law of God? Why does He have to teach us about sin? Why does He have to teach us about what God demands of people? It’s not because He must condemn us, but so that we will see that we are condemned already. We need to understand the law of God so that we can see that we have fallen short. We need to see the character of God.

2. Jesus has to come as light to awaken our hearts, open our eyes, and get us to see our true spiritual condition as utterly, utterly lost in darkness. If Jesus does not do that, then no one will turn to Him for rescue. That is His purpose.

3. Jesus lays this out to Nicodemus. Do you see your condition before the Almighty God? God's love is so great that He would send His son to the rescue and deliver us from the death that comes from our sins.

E. Then verse 20 becomes even tougher as He continues to speak of this verdict. “For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed.” Why do people want to stay in darkness? Why do we refuse to come to the light, take the antidote, find salvation? He explains it very clearly. We like the condition we are in, we like how we are living and we enjoy what we are doing. What we are saying is that we prefer our sins over Jesus. We would prefer to complain and die in the wilderness than love Him and live.

1. In our desire to continue the way we are living, we try to somehow have a relationship with Jesus yet maintain our sinful ways, trying to hide them from others. Jesus is light and light exposes darkness. We cannot treasure our sins and prefer our wickedness over Jesus. When we choose evil, we hate the light. We are hating Jesus, and we run away from the light.

2. That's what He just told us, and God is calling us to do something frightening, to expose our works. God doesn't want us to hide our sins. No, God already knows them and that's why He sent His son. We're not really hiding anything, we're condemned. We cannot keep anything from Him.

3. He knows, yet what do we do? We hide them, try to conceal them and we think we're getting away with it. We don't see that we're the condemned and we think that we're fine. We're good, not as bad as other people.

4. God is calling us to expose our works. If we are doing what is true, then we will walk into the light and have our deeds exposed. Those who live by the truth willingly walk into the light, allow sin to be exposed, find cleansing, and begin the new birth / life transformation. To look at the bronze serpent on the pole, is to admit guilt and to admit the need for healing. We must humble ourselves to walk into the light of Jesus.

5. We must confess our sins and admit that we need a Savior. Stop hiding our sins. Stop pretending that our sinfulness is okay. Stop thinking that being lukewarm toward God is acceptable. Remember Mark’s lesson last week? Laodicea is a word which has come to stand for lukewarmness, indifference and compromise. Jesus also told them in Revelation 3:17, You say ““I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing,” not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked.” They did not know their true condition.

6. Do not run from the light of Jesus. Let the light shine into your heart. Feel the weight of our common condemnation and turn from that darkness. We lay out our sins before God and expose them and stop pretending that we're okay, stop pretending that we're not the condemned for we are the condemned.

7. God knows that, yet we arrogantly will hang on to our lives, hang on to our sins and refuse to expose them to the almighty God. Stop thinking that we can have one foot in the light with Jesus and one foot in the darkness of this world. That's the picture that verses 19-20 give.

III. Carried Out in God (3:21) – Verse 21 is such a great conclusion. From John 2:28 to John 3:21 there has been one thought. What a statement that is made to Nicodemus here! “But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.”

A. Jesus comes to a world of darkness. Here is God shining the light to us, revealing Himself, showing the love of God, being all that we need as a savior. Everything that we need to be saved, everything that we need for God as revelation, as light, as salvation, all being brought to us.

1. That is what propels us to do good works. My works, left to myself without God's intervention, continue in darkness. I'll continue to live how I want to live, do what I want to do. It is only when God reveals - this is what light is, this is what truth is, this is the way you ought to live, - that we have the desire to do what is true.

2. If we choose to walk in the darkness, we're going to continue to do the things of darkness. That is what He's telling us. Thus verse 21, “…whoever does what is true comes to the light…” You need to be part of the light. You must expose those sins. You must recognize what God has done for you. You must see the salvation that He has offered. That is what propels us to obedience.

B. I’ll put it this way; fleeing sinful living is not about “I have to do this”, and it should never be presented that way. Ceasing sin is not about God being a cosmic killjoy who just won't let us do the things that we want to do. “I guess if I want to have eternal life and go to heaven, not burn in hell, then I suppose I'm going to have to stop doing all the stuff that I want to do. I'll just kind of grin and bear it. I'll just kind of put up with it and get there.”

1. So help us, if that's our attitude about God. It's about understanding everything that God has done so that I desire to get rid of all the folly of darkness living.

2. I need to grasp that I'm condemned, grasp that I deserve death, grasp that I'm dying in the wilderness, understand that I'm undeserving of any intervention on God's part. I am the creation and not the creator, I am the one who ought to give and God has no obligation to give me anything, understand that, yes He is God… Then when I see what He gave, I am compelled to good works. I am compelled to walk in the light.

3. I believe that's what he means verse 21 to say, so that it may be clearly seen that his works are carried out in God. It will become evident that our good works are being carried out in God because I see His glory, His goodness, His mercy, and I do what I am doing because of what He's done for me. All my goodness is because God has been so good to me.

C. If he had not been good to me, then my actions would have remained in darkness, and I would remain in the camp of the condemned. There would have been no hope for you or for me.

1. Jesus wants us to comprehend the weight of that. It's not about what you have to do. It's about feeling the weight of God's love and goodness that will compel you to want to do what is true, compel you to leave behind sin. You will desire it. It will come from the heart, and it will no longer be, “I guess I have to do that kind of thing.” It is because of love, we serve our Savior because I see all that He has given for me.

2. Because God loved the world, He gave His only son so that we no longer have to be the condemned and perish, but can be healed and live.

 

CONCLUSION:

The question for you this morning, what's your verdict? What's the sentence that you will receive? Such wonderful words by the Apostle Paul in Romans 8:1, “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the life-giving Spirit in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death.” You don't have to be condemned any longer. Understand you are condemned now, but there is no condemnation for those who are in Jesus.

 

If we will experience that life transformation, if we will turn away from the darkness because of what God has done for us, expose our sins to God, walk in the light, give Him everything that we have, sacrifice ourselves for Him because He sacrificed so much for us, - that is what will lead to the new birth. We will have the new birth, and that is what genuine belief is all about. That's what Jesus is moving Nicodemus to understand.

 

How can I know that my belief is a saving belief? How can I know that I have no condemnation now? Nicodemus believed Jesus was sent from God but was told he would not see the kingdom of God unless a new birth occurred. Genuine belief in Jesus reveals itself in humble obedience. This is what verse 21 is declaring to us. You can know what belief you have. Is the model of your life to come to the light in humble obedience and submission to the Lord, or is the model to hide your sins, stay away from the light, and live as you want?

 

Our life is in God. Our actions are in God. Our hope is in God. Everything we do is to be carried out in God. This is the new birth. This is life transformation. Jesus is the light. Come to the light.

 

It is not enough, as Nicodemus believed, to say Jesus is sent from God. Nicodemus uttered those words and was told, Nicodemus, you're not seeing the kingdom of God. Genuine belief comes from a recognition that we are the condemned and He has come to die for our sins.

 

I believe that He is the savior, and I will love and obey and follow Him with all my heart because He has taken me out of the domain of darkness and transferred me into the glorious kingdom of light.

 

That is the change that He's calling us to make. Don't try to hide your sins anymore. Expose them before God. Seek Him, surrender to Him as your king, as the ruler, as the savior. Our whole life is in God. Our hope is in God. Our salvation is in God. Everything is in God that it may be clearly seen that our works have been carried out in God.

 

That's what it should look like as we go out every single day.

 

The message is yours. We are about to sing our invitation song. If anyone here has the need to be baptized into Christ, or needs the prayers of faithful people, the invitation is there for you to come forward while we stand and sing.

 

 

# ???

 

Reference Sermon: Brent Kercherville

Am I Just Lukewarm?

AM I JUST LUKEWARM?

Rev. 3: 14-22

A young woman went to her preacher and said,

"Preacher, I have an annoying sin, and I want your help.

I come to church on Sunday and can’t help thinking I’m the prettiest girl in the congregation.

I know I ought not to think that, but I can’t help it.

I want you to help me with it." The preacher replied, "Mary, don’t worry about it. In your case it’s not a sin. It’s just a horrible mistake."

Sometimes things are not how they seem or how we think they are. Sometimes we look at our lives through rose colored glasses and fail to see the faults that we may have. Perhaps we have deceived ourselves into thinking we are some sort of super saints, but in reality, we are barely hanging on spiritually.

 

It is important for us to regularly and honestly look at ourselves and see where we stand.

That is why I want to ask you, What type of Christian are you?

AND what type of Church is this?

 

In the 2^nd & 3^rd Chapters of Revelation, seven different churches are addressed.

Some of the churches are harshly criticized for their shortcomings.

This causes me to wonder if we were to receive a letter addressed to us what would it say?

Would our faithfulness be questioned?

Would we be rebuked for neglecting to do something that we should be doing.

 

What would the letter say to us?

What sins would be confronted?

What areas that have been neglected would be brought out into the open?

What areas would we be commended for?

In Revelation 3, we come to the address to the lukewarm church of Laodicea.

I wonder if we will find any similarities between us and the church at Laodicea.

 

Text: Revelation 3:14-22
14“And to the angel of the church in Laodicea write:

‘The words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness,

the beginning of God’s creation.

15“‘I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot.

Would that you were either cold or hot! 

16So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold,

I will spit you out of my mouth. 

17For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor,

blind, and naked. 

18I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire,

so that you may be rich, and white garments

so that you may clothe yourself and the shame of your nakedness may not be seen, and salve to anoint your eyes,

so that you may see. 

19Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline,

so be zealous and repent. 

20Behold, I stand at the door and knock.

If anyone hears my voice and opens the door,

I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me. 

21The one who conquers, I will grant him to sit with me

on my throne, as I also conquered and sat down

with my Father on his throne. 

22He who has an ear, let him hear

what the Spirit says to the churches.’”

 

 

• Laodicea was in the Roman province of Asia (modern-day Turkey), near Colossae and Hierapolis, in the fertile Lycus Valley.
• It was a prosperous trade city, famous for:
  • Banking and finance (a wealthy commercial hub).
  • A medical school known for producing an eye salve.
  • A textile industry producing glossy black wool.
• After an earthquake in AD 60, Laodicea rebuilt itself without Roman aid—showing its pride in independence. This self-reliance mirrors the church’s spiritual complacency.

 

Unlike nearby Hierapolis (hot springs) where people from distant regions came to soak in warm baths and seek healing for arthritis, skin diseases, and even abdominal problems.

 

And unlike Colossae (cold, refreshing water), Laodicea’s water was lukewarm by the time it reached the city via aqueducts, and full of minerals.

It tasted so bad that it made people sick.

In fact, it became a joke in the first century world about the nasty tasting lukewarm water of Laodicea.

 

• This physical reality becomes the central metaphor in Jesus’ rebuke.

• Unlike other churches in Revelation, Laodicea receives no approval—only rebuke.

They were spiritually “lukewarm,” neither fervent nor openly opposed, but complacent and self-deceived.

• Just as their water supply was indifferent and unappealing, their faith lacked vitality.

This passage is often seen as a warning against comfortable, self-sufficient religion that lacks zeal and dependence on Christ. It challenges believers to examine whether their faith is vibrant or merely lukewarm.

 

It appears that Jesus is saying to the church at Laodicea, if you were hot, like the springs of Hierapolis, you would bring spiritual healing, restoration, and comfort to people who suffer.

If you were cold, like the water in colossi, you would refresh and encourage people who are hurting.

Instead, you are lukewarm. You don’t do anyone any good and you make me sick just like your own water makes you sick.

Have you ever taken a sip of lukewarm water?

Usually, lukewarm is not a good temperature.

We like it either hot or cold.

We like our drinks either hot or cold, but lukewarm is NOT a favorable temperature.

We want hot showers and cold refreshing drinks.
You RARELY if ever hear anyone say, “I am burning up; I would love a nice glass of lukewarm water”.

 

OR, how many times do you hear someone say,

“I am tired and aching, I would love to take a lukewarm bath.” The picture of lukewarm is a picture of something that has minimal uses. The Laodicean Christians were lukewarm, they were indifferent, and they were NOT good for much.

 

Jesus says I wish you were either hot or cold.

I wish you were either cold and refreshing or hot and healing.

I wonder if that same thing couldn’t be said to the church of today?

Wouldn’t God want us be like the hot waters which bring about spiritual healing to the spiritually sick?

OR, Wouldn’t He rather that we were like the cold waters which bring about the refreshing that can only come in Christ?

John 4:13-14
13 Jesus answered and said to her,

“Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again,

14 but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him

will become in him a fountain of water

springing up into everlasting life.”

A church that is ineffective in the kingdom is worthless.

It will be spewed out of the mouth of Jesus.

Let us understand that the church is not just a social club.

The church is not just a thing we do every so often,

but the church has a distinct message and a distinct function.
We are commissioned with the task of worshipping God, encouraging one another, and introducing others to Jesus.

If we fail to be effective, we are lukewarm.

I wonder if we took this to an individual level what could be said of us.

Are we having an impact in the kingdom individually?

Are we making a difference that will last for eternity?

If not, then could we be designated as lukewarm.

The designation of being a lukewarm Christian or a lukewarm church is not a compliment, but it reveals uselessness for anything significant.

The lukewarm church of the lukewarm Christian might be classified by indifference or a lack of care.

Are you lukewarm? Jesus would rather have us be hot or cold.
Let us be aware that God knows our deeds whether bad or good. He knows if we have any value or use in the church.

He knows if we are neither hot nor cold.

Perhaps you can deceive yourself and others into thinking that you are doing more than you are or that you are better than you are, but there is no fooling God because He knows our deeds.

The question we need to answer is, what does he see as he looks at us?

We see in verses 17-19 of the text:
Laodicea prided itself on its great wealth.

Laodicea was so rich that following a devastating earthquake in the region they refused financial aide from the emperor saying they were rich and did not need his money.

 

Jesus plays on their assumptions about themselves.

He says, “You say I am rich; I have acquired wealth and I do not need a thing.” The problem was that they did not realize the reality of their situation.

The truth of the matter was that they were, “wretched, pitiful, poor, blind, and naked.”

 

That doesn’t sound like the description I would want for the church.
There are several problems at work here.

 

The first was that the church apparently was not very distinct from the culture in which they lived in. Laodicea was a wealthy city, so we can assume that there were some

wealthy members of the church.

 

Often times as a person’s wealth increases so does their ego and their view of themselves.

Laodicea thought they were something great, they thought they had it all together.

They thought they were special because they had more things. Perhaps they interpreted their wealth as God’s blessing upon them.

There was a problem though in Laodicea among the Christians. They... like the non-Christians surrounding them in the city... took great pride in the physical.

We can see throughout history that churches often times take on the personality of their culture.

Secondly, the church is Laodicea had a false view of themselves. They were self-deceived. They had confidence in themselves. Perhaps so much confidence in themselves that they lost their dependence upon God.
Did you catch the reality of the church there?

They thought they were rich, but really, they were poor.

 

The problem wasn’t that they were ignorant about their financial well-being;

the problem was a spiritual problem.

Though they were rich in the eyes of the world, spiritually speaking they were poor.
Then there is a prescription given, a chance to remedy their problem.

 

He instructs them to buy refined gold, white clothes, and salve for the eyes.

This would remedy the problem that was given to them earlier. The refined gold would solve their poverty problem.

The white clothes would solve the nakedness problem, and the eye salve would remedy the blindness problem.

However, I do not believe his instructions were merely physical advice to the Laodiceans.

 

Perhaps they would have read this and thought to themselves, we are already rich, why do we need to buy gold, we aren’t poor. However, spiritually speaking they were poor.

Laodicea was a banking center for the province of Asia during this time, and it included a gold exchange.

Perhaps this is what was being played upon when they were instructed to buy some refined gold.

Notice though it wasn’t at the gold refinery that they were to purchase that gold, it was from Jesus himself that they were to go to.

 

He is saying that you are going to the wrong place to find your wealth.

Perhaps the Christians had been frequent customers at the gold refineries.

Perhaps they trusted that the gold they bought would be a good investment, but they were investing in the wrong place.

Colossians 3:2 Set your minds on the things that are above, not on the things that are on earth.
There isn’t anything wrong with investing or being wise about one’s finances, but the problem has to do with where their allegiance was.

They were devoted to their riches.

Their hope was in the things they had, but they needed to buy gold from Jesus.

 

 

They needed to learn where to go to find contentment, where to find something that will really last.
Buying white clothes was in direct contrast to the well-known black wool that was prominent in the area. After all, white is symbolic of purity.

He calls them to buy white clothes, which will cover the shame of their nakedness.

 

Nakedness is the badge of sin.

When Adam and Eve sinned, they realized they were naked and wanted to clothe themselves. Jesus instructs them to find white clothes, which would stand out in a culture wearing dark clothes.
Perhaps these Christians would have read that and thought to themselves that didn’t make any sense.

They weren’t naked. However, spiritually they were unclothed.

 

Galatians 3:26-27
26 For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.

27 For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.

 

Furthermore, Laodicea was the location of a major medical school known worldwide

and was the location where an eye salve called Phrygian powder was made from a local stone.

The salve was said to be a miracle remedy for weak eyes.
I doubt that the problem in Laodicea was a physical blindness.

 

If you were to go there you would find that the people may have been able to see just fine.

However, they were spiritually blind.

We pick up on that same language in songs like “Amazing Grace” where we sing, “I once was blind, but now I see”.

The Laodicean Christians had a seeing problem that no eye salve or eye doctor could cure.

The reason why was because the problem did not root in the human eye, it was a spiritual blindness.

They needed help that their famous eye school couldn’t provide them. Laodicea had a focus problem.

 

They could see, but they were blind.

They couldn’t see the most elementary and most important things.

They were blinded and needed their sight restored.

 

This is the charge that would be given to any lukewarm Christian today, for them to repent and be zealous.

A lukewarm Christian has lost their zeal, they may be characterized by indifference,

but they are called to be zealous.

We live in a world which can get zealous and excited about different things.

 

 

Wouldn’t it be great if the church showed the same zeal for the Lord that they do at the football games or other sporting events?

People cheer, they get excited at victories and upset at losses, they get mad when there is a bad call.

We need to be zealous for the Lord.

Are you lukewarm?

If so, repent and be zealous.

Get passionate about that which is really important and of value.

And FINALLY in verses 20-22 of the text:
The first picture we see is of Jesus standing at the door and knocking.

This is actually quite an ironic picture.

We see Jesus standing at the door knocking, seeking entrance into His church, which he is the Head of, which he purchased with His own blood.

It reminds me of the story of a family that went to an art gallery.

They stopped at the famous picture of Jesus knocking on the door, drawn from this passage.

A little girl looked up at her Dad and said, “Daddy, we would let Him in, wouldn’t we?”

I often wonder is Jesus really welcome in what we do or is He standing outside seeking entrance into the church or into our lives.

Is He really welcome among us?

And even more than that… is He welcome on His own terms?

Or is He only welcome on our terms?

Making Wise Decisions

Making Wise Decisions

Matthew 7:13-27

 

A store that sells new husbands has opened in New York City where a woman can go in and choose a husband. This is fictitious, by the way. Among the instructions at the entrance is a description of how the store operates. You may visit the store only once. There are five floors and the value may increase as the shopper ascends from one floor to the next. The shopper may choose any item from that particular floor or they may choose to go up to the next floor, but once you go up you may not go back down.

 

A curious single woman enters and reads the sign hanging above floor number one. Floor one, these men have jobs. She is intrigued but continues to the next floor. Floor two, these men have jobs and love kids. Oh, that's nice, she thinks, but I want more. So, she continues up to the next floor. Floor three, these men have jobs, love kids and are extremely good looking. Wow, she thinks, but she feels compelled to move on. Floor four, these men have jobs, they love kids. They're drop dead gorgeous, and they help with housework. Oh, mercy me, she says, I can hardly stand it. She is tempted to stay. She doesn't know what to do. Finally, her curiosity gets to her. After a long period of time of wondering, she finally goes up to the final level, the fifth floor. With excitement, as she reaches the floor, she immediately sees an enormous sign that says, you are visitor number 31,456,012. There are no men on this floor. This floor exists solely as proof that women are impossible to please.

 

Thank you for shopping at the Husband Store.

 

As Robert Frost wrote, “two roads diverged in a yellow wood, and sorry, I could not travel both. And being one traveler alone, I stood and looked down as far as I could.” At the end, he says, “two roads diverged in a wood. And I took the one less traveled by. That has made all the difference.”

 

Looking that up, and of course, that was only just a snippet of the beginning and the end of that poem. It's a lengthy poem. He wrote that for a friend who was very indecisive in his life. That poem was actually written as a joke, if you look that up. It says it was kind of a humorous little joke to his friend who could never make up his mind.

 

Today, we're looking at facing life's daily questions. Throughout the Bible, we have numerous examples of choices made by a variety of individuals we think about some are good, as we read through the Bible. Some choices were good. Some were not so good. Some led to life. Some led to death.

 

The Book of Proverbs is almost entirely devoted to the comparison between the wise person and the foolish person.

 

Take Moses as an example. Deuteronomy 30:19-20. “This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live and that you may love the Lord your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him.”

 

That was Moses. We see in Joshua 24 verses we're very familiar with verses 14 and 15. This is Joshua speaking.

 

Now therefore, fear the Lord. Serve him in sincerity and in truth, and put away the gods which your father served on the other side of the river and in Egypt. And if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, choose this day for yourselves whom you shall serve this day. So choose you.

 

He's challenging them.

 

Choose who you will serve this day, whether the gods which your father served that were on the other side of the river, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you currently dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.

 

Every day, we're faced with decisions. We will be wise, or as the Bible says, we will be foolish in the decisions we make. The little funny story I tried to put at the beginning. You see, it was rather foolish to try to keep thinking you wanted more and more, but that's what human society does.

 

Jesus gives us three important questions to ask ourselves to ensure that we are following the way of the wise and not the way of the foolish.

 

I. WHICH PATH ARE YOU TRAVELING ON?

Question number one, which path are you traveling on? You need to know where you're going. Do you ever have that? Do you ever have that feeling that, “Oh man, I'm on vacation. I'm making great time, but I'm not quite sure where we're at. I'm not sure if I'm on the right path or not.”

 

Matthew 7, Jesus speaking in the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 7:13-14, “Jesus says, enter by the narrow gate. For wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leads to destruction. And there are many who go in by it, because narrow is the gate, and difficult is the way which leads to life. And there are few that find it.”

 

The foolish person says, “Hey, there are no boundaries. There's nothing keeping me back. I can do what I want.” The world thinks total freedom with no restrictions is the goal that we should live by.

 

Proverbs 14:12 tells us, “There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death.”

 

We can look in Proverbs 3:5-6 that tells us, “trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct your paths.”

 

We compare these two ways—the broad way. The broad way is kind of like the interstate, the international highway. You can travel very fast. You can get cruising. When I travel on the PA Turnpike I have a moral obligation to travel the speed limit. As a Christian person, you think that limit's there for a reason. Many times though, I find that the flow of traffic is so fast that it's almost like you get caught in the current of the flow.

 

You think about, where's everybody going? You can travel fast, but where are you headed? You can get enticed by the many billboards along the way. You can quickly exit the highway, and at various points, as you drive along, you can quickly exit, you can partake in whatever pleasure without accountability, and get right back on the highway again.

 

That's what Jesus is talking about. Reminds me of that little phrase, your mother always asks you or somebody asks you, if people, if everybody else jumped off the bridge, would you jump too? In life, that's what it seems like, right? I remember as a teacher, whenever I asked a student, why they did it, well, everybody else is doing it. How many times do you hear that? That's what Jesus is referring to as the broad way everyone else is doing it, that doesn't make it right.

 

Then He speaks of the narrow road. It's more like that winding rural road. It's not easy to find, and therefore, it's not easy to get at. You have to be careful, and you have to look for it. I'm sure we've all done that on the GPS. You're driving along, and all of a sudden, it says, turn here, and you think, where? I mean, this is just a tiny road, are you kidding me? You have to be careful. You have to know that it's there, and you have to look for it. It's very restrictive.

 

The word translated narrow is from the Greek word, and from my understanding, that Greek word is tribulation, which usually means persecution, which tells us that we have to leave our baggage behind. The wise person realizes that the way to life is a very narrow way, as it's taught in the Bible.

 

John 14:6, Jesus says to him, what does Jesus say? I'm sure we're all familiar with this.

 

John 14:6 “I am the way, the truth, and the life, and no one comes to the Father except through me.”

 

We go to 1^st Timothy 2:5, “for there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the Lord Jesus Christ.”

 

We're pursuing that narrow path. Pursuing it is an ongoing decision. We enter the narrow way when we first decide to follow Jesus, but we must continue daily to make wise decisions in order to stay on that. You ask for directions.

 

Everybody wants you to take the road, the big road. Oh yeah, I know where that goes. No, we don't wanna do that. We gotta stay focused on taking the narrow road. To head on the wide pathway to hell requires you to do absolutely nothing…nothing in your life. I don't want to just sit and do nothing. Well, in the world, that's all you really have to do to head on that wide path. Simply follow the crowd.

 

The second question Jesus asks us.

 

The first question, what path are we on? How do we know which path?

II. WHO ARE YOU LISTENING TO?

The second question He gives us to ask ourselves is, who are you listening to?

 

Matthew 7:15-22. “Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly, they are ferocious wolves.

By their fruit, you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thorn bushes or figs from thistles? Likewise, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus, by their fruit, you will recognize them. Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter into the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say on that day, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name or in your name drive out demons or perform many miracles? Then I will tell them plainly, I never knew you.” Depart or away from me, you evildoers. Depart from me, you that work iniquity.

 

Jesus is condemning more than just false teaching. He is discouraging false behavior, impure motives, and inconsistent actions. Jesus points to the fruit as the essential method of discerning what is false and what is true.

 

In Israel, the buckthorn plant, from what I understand, produced little black berries that could initially be mistaken for grapes. There was also a thistle that produced a flower similar to the fig. So the idea of carefully examining the fruit of the plant, the plant that they were looking at, was a familiar one to those that were listening to Jesus.

 

How do we tell a false teacher from a true one? We should pay attention to the content of their teaching, to their motives. Is it true fruit from God's word or is it man-centered, appealing to the ears that want to be tickled?

 

III. WHAT ARE YOU BUILDING ON?

The third question that we ask ourselves. Jesus gives us a question of what are we building on? What is the foundation? Robert's very familiar with that as he examines buildings and whatever. What is the foundation it is built on?

 

Matthew 7, verses 24, 25, 26, and 27. Jesus, again, speaking in the Sermon on the Mount. “Therefore, whoever hears these sayings of mine and does them is likened to a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rains descended, the floods came, the winds blew and beat on that house, and it did not fall for it was founded on the rock. But everyone who hears these sayings of mine and does not do them is like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. The rains descended, the floods came, the winds blew and beat on that house, and it fell. Great was the fall.”

 

When we were kids, we used to sing that. The wise man built his, the foolish man. And we couldn't wait to get to the end. You see the kids getting faster and faster. And that house went SPLAT! Sorry. We think about that and the excitement we had.

 

My wife and I just celebrated our anniversary, we went down to Hilton Head Island. We just recently started to do that to celebrate. It was one year from my heart surgery and our anniversary. But one of the things, it's called, if you ever go to the water, we love to see the water come in, but how dangerous it is. In the morning, early morning, you see the wave way out, and then you can see them start to come in.

 

Kids, if you don't pay attention, you know, the kids start putting their sandcastles, they start making the sandcastles and so on. One time when we were real young, we put our blanket and our, you know, put everything out, our chairs and everything all out. We wondered why everybody was way behind us. We thought, well, they don't want to enjoy the ocean? Yeah, and then you go up for lunch and you come back and you understand why. You're flooded, you know, everything's, the water comes in and then that's what I picture what Jesus is saying.

 

That sand, it's beautiful, but that water comes in and your sandcastles and so on just get washed away. There isn't substance to it. Whereas the rocks and so on, that foundation, what foundation are we building on? Jesus continues through the Sermon on the Mount to get people to think long-term.

 

Here's how Paul puts it in Galatians 6:7-8. Paul says, “do not be deceived. God is not mocked.”

 

You can fool some of the people some of the time and all of the people or whatever, but you can't fool Mom. God is really that way.

 

Paul says, do not be deceived. God is not mocked, for whatever a man sows, that also he shall reap. For whoever sows to his flesh will reap flesh and that corruption. But whoever sows to the Spirit will, of the Spirit, reap everlasting life.

 

The wise person says, I'm going to plan for eternity.

 

What does James 1:22 tell us?

 

James 1:22 tells us, “but be doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving yourself.”

 

I like to notice the similarities between these builders, the wise and the foolish. Notice the similarities. Both are building houses. Both have a similar life situation. They're going through storms of life. It's that storm that proves to be the difference though, isn't it? We have to understand that when we're building something, that that building is going to be tested. What are the differences between the two builders? They're two different kinds of people. They build on two different kinds of foundations. The first hears the word and builds upon it. The second hears the word, but chooses to ignore it.

 

The two have different outcomes. One house stands firm. The other is completely destroyed. We know that that parable is an inspiration for that great old gospel song. My hope is built on nothing less, song number 120, than Jesus' blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest fame, but wholly lean on Jesus' name. And then we get to the chorus. On Christ the solid rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand. All other ground is sinking sand. So we have two different underlying principles.

 

If you're only hearing and reading the truth, but are not prepared for life's storms that come up, if your foundation is sure no storm will cause your life to collapse. Sister Mary asked for prayers for people that she knows. We all know people, I know, in our lives that need that reassurance. There are people constantly potent in life. We know that life is not friendly to us in general. Society, we have constant, face constant challenges in our lives. But God tries us and then sees what foundation we're building on.

 

Jesus didn't preach this message so it would sound nice or so that we could sit around and discuss it like this morning. He preached it so that we could act on it. He emphasized obedience.

 

I heard this the other day and I found this interesting. In the audience, I'd like just to offer you $1,440. Each one of you today--$1,440. I'd like you to ponder that. There are some stipulations though. I'm gonna give you $1,440 on your way out, maybe. But you cannot carry it past this evening. This $1,440 must be spent, used at the end of tonight, at midnight. It can be taken away from you at any time. Today, I offer you that money. But it could be taken away at any time. And you would have to spend it before midnight. And I only say that just to get your attention. Obviously, I'm not really gonna do that. I don't have that much money. But that's a comparison to what God gives us.

 

This person said, now that we got your attention, God gives us exactly 1,440 minutes a day. We can't go back. We have to use them during this day. At midnight, they're used up. And they can be taken from us at any time. Any time during the day, that time, those minutes can be spent. We think about, how do we use the minutes that God gives us?

 

My conclusion today.

 

Everything that is extremely valuable can be counterfeited. We think about all the things that are valuable in life. There's a counterfeit. Gold. Fool's gold. Gems. Fake gems. Gem buyers today must be aware of three types of gems that I understand. You have the synthetic gems that are lab-grown stones. They closely duplicate the natural gem's physical qualities and chemical properties. Or we have simulated gems that are man-made. The color of the simulated stone may be similar to that of a natural gem, but it is very different both physically and chemically. Or we have enhanced gems that are natural gems altered in some way to improve their look. I bring this up to say that experts advise buyers to verify a stone's value with gem testing labs.

 

I guess there's a Gemological Institute of America. And you can go there or have them verify before any final sales are made. It is the same with truth. Jesus is sharing throughout the Bible. We must ensure we are not falling to false teachers. On that day, we will stand alone before God. Every day, we are building a foundation in our lives based on which path we travel and who we listen to and what foundation we're building upon.

 

It's time for us this morning to make our decision. Have I chosen the right gate? Am I traveling the right road? Does my tree bear the correct good fruit? Am I following those who teach the truth? Is my faith being demonstrated in what I do? Do I truly know God and am I following the teachings of the New Testament?

 

The lesson is yours this morning to ponder those questions. And if you are in need in any way, if you are one that has not taken the steps to being baptized, becoming a Christian, we ask you to do that this morning, then consider that.

 

Or if you are in need of the prayers of the congregation, whatever your need is, you have the opportunity to come forward as together we stand and sing our song of invitation.

Amazing Love

Amazing Love

John 3:16

 

INTRO: Good morning church. We will be continuing our look at John’s Gospel and are reading this amazing message that John is teaching concerning salvation. We have reached John 3:16 which I think is probably one of the most recognized verses in scripture. It is frequently quoted, and so is Matthew 7:1, though these days Matthew 7:1 is probably quoted more and sadly, all too often by those who do not understand it.

 

Our focus today is John 3:16 which we all know well, though I hope not so well that it no longer has any impact. I want to talk about the significance of what is being summarized by John here.

 

We will start with a review of lessons on the New Birth to recall the context and remind ourselves what is going on in this scene. I’m not going to have a lot of new verses to look at today and mostly refer to what we have already learned in previous lessons.

 

We're still in Jesus' discussion with Nicodemus, and you will recall that as we ended chapter 2 John pointed out that there is “belief” on the part of the Jews, but it is insufficient belief. They are believing because they see the signs that Jesus is doing, but it is not leading to life transformation, so Jesus does not believe them or entrust Himself to them. Jesus knows their hearts and the shallowness of their belief.

 

Nicodemus comes to Jesus, and he shows some belief. He recognizes and admits, confesses - that Jesus has come from God. Jesus turns to Nicodemus and tells him, unless you experience the new birth, unless you're born again, born from above, you're by no means in the kingdom of God. This leads into a discussion back and forth about what this new birth is all about.

 

We looked at the imagery Jesus used in John 3:13 when He says no one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the son of man. We then compared it to what Moses said in Deuteronomy 30 and Paul’s reference to Moses in Romans 10:5-8. We saw this salvation is going to come about by God bringing it to the world.

 

Next, we read John 3:14-15 and found the parallel in the Book of Numbers where the people of Israel are complaining and rebelling against God. There we see them dying in the wilderness, being bitten by serpents that have been sent to strike them for their error. The people cry out to Moses to do something, and God tells Moses to put a bronze serpent on a pole, and those who would look upon it would be healed of the venom.

 

Jesus then parallels that to Himself in these verses, “… even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.”

 

I. For God Loved The World In This Way – That brings us to John 3:16 and I’m going to read it from the Holman Christian Standard – “For God loved the world in this way: He gave His One and Only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life.” I think this is useful as it captures a little bit more of what Jesus is saying about salvation and what is being offered.

A. The idea is not merely to describe the intensity of God's love, which is I suspect often how it's portrayed and read, God SO loved the world. Obviously, the intensity is there. God is clearly describing the depths of His love for His people.

1. However, the Greek word for “so” houtos, occurs over 200 times in the NT and almost without exception it is an adverb of manner, not degree. I suggest that intensity is not the full idea but that it is describing - this is the way that God shows His love.

2. If we are looking for any declaration to know that God loves people, that God loves His creation, this is what we are to look to… this magnificent event… that God sent His son.

3. That's the idea of ‘so loved the world’. This is the way that He loved the world. This is how He showed His love. This is the proof, the demonstration. The Apostle Paul would write about God’s love for us in Romans chapter 5, Romans 5:8, “God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” This is how we know that God's love exists for us. This is how we can see it.

4. We may have experienced this ourselves or seen others wonder: how do I know that God loves me? We look for something contemporary that God is going to do. He is going to keep me alive, give me lots of money, make sure my dog never dies. People can come up with all kinds of things as to why I'm going to know that God cares. It is as if we are saying, God, if you'll just do this, then I'll know you love me.

5. How God shows He loves us though, is this one grand event that we can always point to. This is how you know the love of God. This is how it has been forever displayed… that He gave His only son.

B. I submit that is a statement that should cause us to stop and wonder; how can it be possible for the infinite, all-powerful, Holy God to love finite, weak, sinful humanity? Have you ever thought, how can God do this? How about, why would He do this? We are awful, sinful, rebellious, wicked people who deserve absolutely nothing, and you are the holy, right, just, God. How can you possibly love us? We are a mess.

1. I mean, think about the scene in the wilderness, which is what Jesus connects to in verses 14 and 15. When we read the book of Numbers, I think all of us become a little shocked. The people are wandering in the wilderness and they are complaining at every turn.

2. They are complaining about what they are eating. They are complaining there is no water. They are complaining about the duration, complaining about Moses leadership. Complaining that they are not getting to keep the stuff that they had back in Egypt. They are complaining that Egypt was better than where they were going. They are complaining and complaining.

3. How can God be so good to these people? They are sinning, and then they are compounding their sins. They are essentially saying to God, you are a worthless God, you do not care about us. We would have been better off without you. We should have stayed in Egypt. Life was better there. How dare you be a God to us that would take us out of that place? You are just awful because you are not giving us what we want, your care is terrible.

4. In fact, your leader is terrible. Remember how they rise up and tried to stone Moses and Aaron so they could go back to Egypt. (Numbers 14:10). Why does God not just turn His back on them? Why not do that to us?

5. This is the verse. This is the summary statement of what it is all about. In such staggering words that God would love a wicked world. God. loves. us. He loves people. He loves His creation.

C. It is important that we get to the heart of that. We must get a grasp of that—that kind of depth of love that God has for every single human being.

1. Paul tries to bring that to us in a number of ways when he writes in Ephesians - Ephesians 2:4, “4. But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us,”. Rich in mercy because of the great love that He has for us.

2. Then in Ephesians 3:17f, “ that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.”

3. What Paul tells us here always strikes me whenever I read it. He says, “I want you to know what cannot be known. I want you to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge. You are never going to find the end of the love of God.”

4. That is what John 3:16 does. It gives us this amazing thought that there is no boundary to God's love. His love is so vast, and it is so amazing.

II. God Gave - Throughout the pages of scripture we see God loving and providing… and as we see here in verse 16… giving. He is giving to His people.

A. That is something that should shock us as well. It is easy to read; God so loved the world that He gave His only Son. We kind of blow through that—but think about the concept of what that means.

1. It is the creation that ought to be giving to the creator. It is not the creator who ought to be giving. He is God. We are the ones who are in debt. We are the ones who should be giving everything. What staggering words! He is the one who gave. We are the ones who should be giving back to him.

2. Yet, we read that God gave. God sacrificed. In the face of the rebellion of this world…God gave. While people are sinning, while people are enemies of God, God is giving a means for salvation. God is giving a way to bring people back.

B. I think that again connects us to the imagery of verses 14 and 15. As the people are dying in the wilderness because of the serpent bites, did God have to do anything?

1. I mean I look at it as, Why should God do anything? You are complaining. You don’t like the way I am taking you? You don't want to go to The Promised Land? You think you are better off dying? -- There you go. -- This is what you asked for. You don't want to be with Me, you don't want to have a relationship with Me, then why should I do anything for a rebellious people?

2. We can not just assume God. We must appreciate God. God is by no means needing to do anything on our behalf. He does not need to act in any way. The understanding that God would look at a corrupted, wicked, detestable creation like us and still love and give… should never grow old and fail to stagger our hearts.

3. It should be shocking when we see that in Numbers. The people are openly declaring their rebellion to God. God still gave them a means of salvation. If they looked at the bronze serpent on the pole, they would be healed.

C. God made a promise hundreds of years before His Son's arrival. He would give. Isaiah in a fabulous prophecy wrote, “ For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given; and the government will be upon His shoulder. And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” (Isaiah 9:6). Here is the picture that God, looking down time, is ready to give His only son.

1. That's what we have observed in our study of John. He is one of a kind. He is the unique one. That is the idea of being the only begotten—to be the one and only. He is unique in every way because He is God. He is divine. He has come and died for our sins.

2. That brings us in the middle of verse 16.

III. Everyone Who Believes In Him - It's important not to take this part out of its context of what Jesus is doing with Nicodemus. Nicodemus has expressed belief. He's expressed acknowledgment of who Jesus is. You are come from God. Yet we see that Jesus then turns, tells him, no, you're not getting it. You don't have the belief that I am looking for.

A. As John chapter 2 ended, we see people are believing, but Jesus is not entrusting or believing them because He knows their heart. This isn't the belief that He is looking for. He is not looking for some kind of confession. He's not looking for the recognition that Jesus came from heaven. Even the demons believe, that's basic belief. That does not fit the context of what John has been talking about.

1. What Jesus is teaching Nicodemus is about new birth. I know it's been a while, but remember new birth is about life transformation. That's what He is describing. There is a life transformation that occurs. It's like having a new birth. It's a whole new you. It's not minor modifications.

2. People readily accept reformation, the modification of the whole to remove an error. But restoration, the replacement of the whole? Not so much. (Matthew 18:3)

3. People who have true belief are those who experience this kind of radical, life transformation that's being pictured here. To be joined to Christ means that there is going to be a change.

4. I suggest what John does and what Jesus is driving at, and this is critically important for us to grasp, is that true belief means there is life change… otherwise it's not belief. It's unbelief.

B. This verse has been used to suggest a person can have whatever kind of belief they want to have and it's going to be alright.

1. These words are really quite sharp. They should be very pointed to our hearts. Unless there is a massive life transformation in belonging to Jesus, it's not belief. It is simply unbelief. I think that’s what took Nicodemus back by what Jesus said.

2. Nicodemus is told you're not seeing the kingdom of God. Nicodemus is like you have to be kidding me. Look at me. I'm a religious guy. I'm doing all these things. Here is Jesus saying, you don't understand. It is about a massive change. We will have a transformation to follow Christ.

3. In essence then, Jesus is telling Nicodemus that there is no middle ground. There is no middle ground for us as we stand before God. We either have this life changing belief or it is unbelief altogether. True belief will always lead to this life transformation.

4. It is a critical condition that God then gives to us. I think that's what's important for us to see when we recognize what God has done. How can it not lead to life transformation when we get a handle on God’s love and what God gave?

C. If we truly believe it, if we truly believe that God has given so much to wicked rebellious people like us, if we really hold on to that truth, we have to change our lives.

1. Otherwise, we don't believe it at all. We're simply saying I want to do what I want to do, and I don't care that you gave so much. I don't care that you love us so much. I don't care that you have provided a means of salvation.

2. That's what we are saying. Without life transformation it is a declaration of unbelief. We are saying to God it simply does not matter.

IV. Perish Eternally - What is so fascinating about that, is what it teaches us. Not everybody is going to be saved. That's the implication of what He says in verse 16, “whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” There is a connection which needs to be made to Jesus—a true belief that must occur. We must connect to him… otherwise we're going to perish.

A. Notice how He describes that in verse 16. Whoever believes in Him should not perish. This is the condemnation that we are under. Again tie this to the wilderness episode as we see Jesus does. Everybody in that wilderness is going to die. They're being bitten by poisonous serpents. They're done. There is no hope. They will all perish. Except - God then gives the offer of salvation. If you look at the serpent on the pole, you'll be saved.

B. We usually come at this the wrong way I suspect. We think; I'm a good moral person so I’m going to be ok. I don’t do bad things. Those people over there, they are the really bad ones. They are the ones that are not going to be saved, but me, I’m not that bad.

1. We are coming at this from a completely wrong angle. We have to understand we have all been bitten by the serpent. Sin is coursing through our veins. The venom of death is over all of us. There is no “it’s going to be ok”, there is no “we are good people”. There is no “I’m not that bad”. — We are dead, it’s over. We are all going to perish.

2. Except - God so loves the world that He gave His Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish. We can not start from the basis I don’t need God, I’m ok. He is trying to get us to understand that we are in big, big, trouble just like those in the wilderness, who were going to die unless God intervened and we are going to die in our sins unless God intervenes. Thank God that He did intervene.

C. In Ezekiel’s prophecy God relates through the prophet the relationship between sin and punishment, like in Ezekiel 18:24, “24. "But when a righteous man turns away from his righteousness and commits iniquity, and does according to all the abominations that the wicked man does, shall he live? All the righteousness which he has done shall not be remembered; because of the unfaithfulness of which he is guilty and the sin which he has committed, because of them he shall die.”

1. We have done abominations. Can we live? We most certainly cannot. Sin has been committed. We shall surely die, and our blood be on us for it. We have nobody to point to but ourselves. The sin and the stain of guilt is resting right on our shoulders.

2. Is that what God wants though? In Ezekiel 18:23, “23. "Do I have any pleasure at all that the wicked should die?'' says the Lord God, "and not that he should turn from his ways and live?” Here's God saying I don't want that. That's not what I want to have happen. Do I take pleasure in this condition? No. Do I want people to perish? No. God has done everything to make salvation possible. That's why we see the depths of God's love here. This is how we see what God has done for us. This is what is so magnificent about what has occurred.

3. We are perishing in our sins because of what we have done. We are destined to die because of our sins. We are under His wrath because of our actions. We have violated the holy laws of God. We have separated ourselves from him.

D. God sent His son so that anybody who will believe in Him doesn't have to perish but can have eternal life. Does God want people to perish? If He did, He wouldn't have sent His son.

1. All God had to do was sit back and say, My law is holy, right and good. Do these things and you will live. He would have been right, just and good in every sense of it, to stand back and say there is nothing faulty with His law. Just do it and live.

2. God loves His creation. He knows that every single one of us will fall short. He has created a way for us to be saved. God had to intervene. God steps in. Those who will experience the new birth will have eternal life, will be saved from their sins. I want to leave you then with just one thought.

 

CONCLUSION: How can Jesus not be everything to us? How can He not be our treasure? Remember the parable of the treasure? That's the heart of what that parable was all about in Matthew 13:44. Jesus said “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.”[ESV] Such a simple parable, teaching this very idea.

 

When you understand what God has done through Jesus, you will recognize that He is the treasure. You forsake everything to go get the treasure. You want to be with Him. You want that life transformation. You want to no longer be the sinner who does whatever they want to do. You want to transform into the image of His son. You want to be holy as He is holy. You want to love as He loves, because we see what He has done.

 

Superficial belief does absolutely nothing. That is what Nicodemus is hearing from Jesus. Life transformation is going to occur when we recognize Jesus as the treasure, because of what He has done for us.

 

I submit to you that when we sin, what we are saying is we have a greater treasure than Him. That is what idolatry is. We are placing something higher than God. We are saying this is more important to my heart, more important to my desire. Sin is the turning away from God as our treasure. Saying this is better for me. This is what I want to do.

 

The question is then, what is your treasure? What is keeping you from experiencing the life transforming belief that He is calling you to have? Look at what He has done. There is nothing else for God to do. We are dead in our sins. We are dying in the wilderness because of our own error.

 

God has intervened. God said if you will just believe in my Son, have a relationship with Him, come to Him and be changed, you’ll no longer live for self but make Jesus your treasure, serve Him and obey Him passionately.

 

Understanding what He has done is all about Him being your treasure. May this verse not be something that we easily buzz through, but feel the weight of the summary of what Jesus says. He has intervened. He has saved us from the weight of sin and death.

 

The message is yours. We are about to sing our invitation song. If anyone here has the need to be baptized into Christ, or needs the prayers of faithful people, the invitation is there for you to come forward while we stand and sing.

 

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Reference Sermon: Brent Kercheville