John 14: I am the Way

Pastor Scott Jonas

2/25/18

John 14

I am the Way, The Truth and the Life

            You may have noticed that we’ve skipped a couple of chapters in John.  John 12 is Palm Sunday.  John 13 is Maundy Thursday.  Today we settle on John 14 where Jesus says, “I am the way, the truth and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through me.”

            A big question people ask is “Don’t all paths lead to God?”  Often times, people will picture a mountain with God at the top.  All of the world’s religions and philosophies start at different points at the base of the mountain.  But the paths keep going up and eventually converge with the other religions at the pinnacle.  And there is God welcoming everyone.  Don’t all paths lead to God?

            Jesus seems to shed light on this question, “Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father's house are many resting places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. And you know the way to where I am going.” Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.  If you had known me, you would have known my Father also.  From now on you do know him and have seen him.”

            What if there is not one mountain but two totally different mountains?  One Mountain is called Mount General  and the other Mountain is called Mount Special.  Both mountains are real but at the top is a different reward.  At the top of Mount General is How the universe works.  At the top of Mount special is who the universe came from.  Mount General can be climbed by anyone with a thirst for knowledge.  Mount special can only be climbed with special equipment, training and a veteran guide.  Two wondrous mountains leading to amazing discoveries.  At the top of one is the knowledge of creation.  At the top of the other is the creator himself.

            In John Chapter 14, Jesus is talking about Mount Special.  If you want to know the creator you need more than a map.  You need a guide.  He is the only one who has seen the Father.  He is the only one who knows the way.  Follow him and he will take you to the top.  There is a map we call scripture, but Jesus is the author of the map.  When you read the map, Jesus says, “Come and see.”  The disciples spent years following Jesus.  They traced his footsteps to a wedding, to a dark alley, to a deserted well.  The path led to a healing pool, a natural amphitheater, a festival of Tabernacles, the temple at sunrise, and a tomb that didn’t smell.  This path is unpredictable and impossible to follow unless Jesus is your guide.  Jesus came to earth to guide us humans to the Father.  In John 14, Jesus is on an expedition to take his first recruits to see the creator.

            This imagery of two mountains, Mount General and Mount Special comes from a doctrine called General revelation and Special revelation.  They are the two ways God speaks to us.  General revelation applies to everyone.  Every person who has ever lived has heard from God.  God speaks to everyone through their conscience and through the creation, the two Cs.  Conscience is that moral voice inside of us.  You can live in the remotest of Jungles but you can’t escape God’s general revelation.  He put a voice inside of you which says, “Don’t steal your neighbor’s stuff when no one’s around.”  The voice influences people from every tribe and every nation.  That is why there are some universal laws with which we all can agree.  Do not murder.  You don’t have the right to take someone’s life for your benefit.  Do not force yourself on another person.  The voice says that you can’t have anyone you want.  Don’t lie.  God has spoken to all humans through the general revelation of the conscience.  So it makes sense that religions have been organized that listen to the conscience.  “Treat others the way you want to be treated” is a doctrine in most philosophies.  Even most atheists believe the golden rule.

            General revelation begins with the conscience and it moves outward to all of the knowledge in creation.  Most everything God created is able to be studied.  If you study our physical bodies you will learn through the disciplines of anatomy, biology, neuroscience, physiology and a thousand others.  You can study human behavior through psychology, sociology, anthropology, history and all the rest.  People study animals, plants, weather, the solar system, urban legends, sports, food, dance, traffic, and many many more.  If you took all of the general revelation that is inside our brains in this room it would be a lot.  Yet it would only scratch the surface of knowledge.  No one can learn it all, but general revelation is knowable.  God made it and we can learn about.  That is general revelation.

            A psychologist can climb the top of Mount General and declare, “I’ve studied under Freud, Skinner, and Piaget.  Life is a coping mechanism.”  A Professor can climb up the same mountain and declare, “I’ve studied under Shakespeare, Dickens and Hemingway.  Life is tragedy and comedy.”  A scientist can climb to the top and say, “I’ve studied under Einstein, Newton and Galileo.  Life is incredibly complex.”  A World Religion teacher can climb to the top of Mount General and shout, “I’ve studied Buddhism, Islam, and Mormonism.  Life is about sacrificing yourself for the good of others.”  Those generalities are the prize at the peak of that climb.

            We can learn a lot from people who have journeyed up the mysteries of this world.  Science and other philosophies have much to teach us.  But they can’t show us the Father.  God knew that he needed to do something special to connect us to the Father.  General revelation was never enough.  God had to actually come to earth in human form in order to get the message across.  The father sent the son to specifically answer the questions, “How do we reach God? Who is He?  How does he want us to live?”   We needed to know the way, the truth, and the life.  That is why Jesus showed up.

            We don’t have to tear down our neighbor’s mountain.  We don’t have to denigrate the knowledge they have uncovered.  We can dialogue with them about their discoveries and stories.  We should listen to their teachings and testimonies.  We can ask questions and clarify understanding.  But then we bring them over to a new place.  The woman at the well asked, “Which mountain should we worship on?”  This is the mountain you bring them to.  Show them Jesus.  He is your guide and he know the way up to the Father.

            Jesus really is more than a guide.  He is the way.  It’s as if the old testament is God giving directions to find the creator.  He says “Step One.  Love the Lord with all your heart and all you soul and all your mind.”  “Step Two.  Love your neighbor as much as you love yourself.  Step three.  Wait a minute I can’t do step one.”  The Father knew we couldn’t follow the directions.  We couldn’t accomplish the steps.  So he sent his son.  Jesus came and said “Follow me.”  Then he took them by the hand and spent three years with them.  He said “I am the way the truth and the Life. “ He led them to the cross where he died in order to take us to the Father.  Then he came back and said “Death can’t stop you from following me.”

            The World is on a different mountain.  It’s beautiful and full of miracles.  But wait til the get a load of the mountain we get to explore for all eternity.

John 11: I am the Resurrection

Pastor Scott Jonas

I am the Resurrection

John 11

            Grace, Mercy and Peace will be with us, from God the Father and from Jesus Christ the Father’s Son.

            In John Chapter 10, Jesus claims “I and the Father are One.”  Death puts that to the test in John Chapter 11.  Death is the great and horrible tester.  Death tests our values.  Death tests our power.  Death tests our relationships.  Death tests our Faith.

            Jesus isn’t the only one who is going to be tested by death.  So is his friend, Martha.  Her story shows us what real faith looks like.  It’s not shallow.  It’s not fluffy.  Death swallows shallow and fluffy.  Martha questions her friend Jesus.  She is honest about her pain and disappointment.  She wants answers that only he can provide.  They have deep friendship which death is going to test.

            Jesus was friends with Martha’s whole family, her sister Mary and her brother Lazarus.  In fact, Jesus talks to the disciples about “our friend Lazarus.”  Martha’s family may not have been part of the 12 but they were followers of Jesus who had him over to their house, cooked for him, washed his feet when he was a guest and learned face to face.

            Lazarus is ill.  Death was so much more of a presence everyday than it is now.  A woman just made the news because she was young, relatively healthy and died of the flu.  That was an everyday occurrence.  Imagine everyone you know being one germ away from being gone.  A simple cold was a dark threat.  The sisters send word to Jesus, “Lord, he whom you love is ill.”  One sentence.  There is no command.  There is no plea.  It is like a little prayer.

            Martha knows that Jesus can heal.  He’s healed the blind, the paralyzed, those with decaying skin.  Surely he is able to heal whatever Lazarus’ has got.  They gave him plenty of time to get there and do his stuff.  Martha’s note sounds like us when we say, “Lord, Grandma’s sick again.”  There is an optimistic confidence that Jesus can heal our loved one.   If it is his will he will do it.  We don’t have to display our faith with a show of words and emotions because God knows our heart.  He’s listening not just our little prayer but to our whole life.  He hears us and we are his family.

            Jesus stays two more days.  Now Martha has to watch her brother worsen and wonder why Jesus isn’t coming.  Did he not get the message?  Did he get arrested?  Was there some other crises more important?  If Jesus was dying and needed their help they would have dropped everything and ran to his side.  Why isn’t Jesus coming?  It makes no sense.  He loves Lazarus.  Only Jesus can save him.  Why isn’t Jesus coming?

            I’m sure that’s been you.  I know that’s been me.  When I was six years old, my Father got melanoma.  I don’t remember being scared.  I remember sensing that God would take care of it.  I’m sure my little prayer was something like “Lord, my dad is sick.”  I wasn’t allowed to see him in the hospital for a few months.  Finally they let my sister and I see him.  My brain tried to process this.  It makes no sense.  Jesus loves my dad.  Only Jesus can save him.  Why isn’t Jesus coming?

            Jesus tells his disciples plainly, “Lazarus has died and for you sake I am glad that I was not there, so that you may believe.”  Jesus returns to Bethany, which means place of the poor.  Lazarus has been in the tomb for four days.  Many of Jesus’ opponents traveled the two miles from Jerusalem to see Jesus’ failure.  They consoled Mary and Martha as was the custom but they wanted to be there when the devastated sisters saw Jesus again.  Martha sprinted out of the house, she couldn’t take it anymore.  No more simple prayers.  No more constraint.  No more caring about a spectacle.  Things are getting real.

            “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.  But even know I know whatever you ask from the Father.  He will give you.”  These aren’t words of unbelief.  These are deep expressions of disappointment in God.  We’ve all had them, spoken or unspoken.  “Lord, if you had been here, my ___________ would not have died.”  My wife, my husband, my parent, my child, my grandparent, my friend.  Lord if you had only been here!

            Jesus tells her something she already knows.  He says, “Your brother will rise again.”  “I know that he will rise again on the last day.  She wanted the last day to be four days ago.  Jesus said, “I am the resurrection and the life.  Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live.  Do you believe this?  Yes Lord, Martha says with tears dripping off her chin.

            Martha was wrestling with letting this go.  She would just have to wait until the last day along with everyone else.  Jesus must not do these type of favors for his friends.  His miracles are always on strangers.  People who aren’t followers.  How does that make sense?  She goes and gets Mary.  Martha’s trying to keep it together but now Mary’s falling apart.  Mary falls at Jesus’ feet and wails “Lord if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”  The street is filled with mourners who are now gawking at this scene.  Mourning is a public event for Jews.  Jesus’ followers are disillusioned.  Jesus’ opponents are hiding back smiles.

            The ESV says “Jesus was deeply moved in Spirit and greatly troubled.”  I have a better translation.  Some of you are not going to like it or be able to handle it.  Jesus was Positively beside himself.  People were using this families’ grief as an opportunity to score political points.  Thank God that doesn’t happen today.  That still makes Jesus Positively beside himself.  She starts crying and he starts crying.   

It’s one of the most relatable faith moments in the whole Bible.  Jesus cries with us at injustice.  It’s not fair that Lazarus died.  It doesn’t make sense that God didn’t answer the way they wanted.  It’s inhuman that people would use a funeral to trap Jesus.  All of it is horrible.

He says, Where have you laid him?”  They said, Lord, Come and See.  They walk to cave where his body lay.  Back then you buried a body the day of death because no matter what spices and ointments you use it would stink in three days.  Jesus says “Take away the stone.”  Imagine the fear.  This is like opening a buried casket in front of loved ones after the body has started to decay.  Nobody wants that image, but for someone in grief it would be devastatingly cruel.  Martha tries to stop Jesus.  Jesus says basically, “Trust me.”  They roll the stone away.

Jesus makes a little prayer.  “Father I thank you that you have heard me. “  The cave is dark.  People have protected the nose and are realizing that no smell of death is coming from the opening.  Jesus speaks his friend’s name, “Lazarus, come out of there.”  Lazarus still had the mummy linens around him.  He was alive.  He was resurrected.  It was not the last day.

You and I have to reconcile this story with our experience.  Sometimes Jesus resurrects now and sometimes he resurrects later.  Martha is a great example for us.  She didn’t doubt Jesus’ power or his love.  But she sure had issues with his choices because her mind could not reconcile it all.  Share your pain with Jesus.  Share your grief with the church.   We are all standing at the graves of our loved ones, waiting for Jesus to say,

John 10: I am in the Father

Scott Jonas 

Series: The Story       Title: I am in the Father       Text:  John 10:22-39

Exegetical statement:  Jesus said, “I and the Father are one.”

Goal:  That the hearers would know themselves by knowing Jesus

        

         Who is Jesus?  Here in John chapter 10, Jesus is speaking as plainly as possible.  No long parables that can be misinterpreted.  Just pointed words about His relationship with the Father.  “I am the Son of God,”  Jesus says.  Getting Jesus’ identity right is crucial.  If we get Jesus wrong, we misinterpret everything else.  We his church need to dedicate ourselves to understanding Jesus, so we can know him, know the father, know his church and know ourselves.

         John 10, starting at verse 22.  “22 At that time the Feast of Dedication took place at Jerusalem. It was winter, and Jesus was walking in the temple, in the colonnade of Solomon.”   Do you know what the feast of dedication is?  It’s the festival of lights, Hanukkah, celebrating the rededication of the Temple in 164BC.  The Temple was destroyed by Babylon in 597BC.  It lay in ruins for 400 years until the Jews were allowed to return and rebuild it.  It was the focal point of Israel’s worship.  Through the Temple a Jew understood God.  But the Temple was just a created thing.  God allowed it’s building but knew that people would place too great an importance on it.  People began to see their identity in the Temple rather than in the Lord.  The Temple was a conduit for knowing the Father. It was like a telescope that allowed you to see the North Star.  The North Star is much more valuable than a telescope, but people neglected the North star and treasured the telescope.

         Elsewhere Jesus says that he is the Temple.  “Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up.”  Through Jesus you know and worship God.  When you sacrifice for Jesus you are sacrificing to the Father.  When you love Jesus, you are loving the father.  So here is the uncreated Temple, Jesus, walking in the created Temple and the Jews don’t get it.  They can’t figure out who this guy is.  It’s like they have a blindfold over their eyes.

         Verses 24-25 “So the Jews gathered around him and said to him, “How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.”  Jesus answered them, “I told you, and you do not believe.”   Jesus uses so many methods of revealing his identity.  There are the parables, which are figurative stories that point to Jesus as the good shepherd and  the son of the vineyard owner.  There are John’s “I AM” statements.  Jesus says I am “The Bread of Life”, “The Light of the World”, “The Gate”, “The Vine”.  In the next chapter he is going to say to Lazarus’ sisters He is the “Resurrection and the Life”  “The Way the Truth and the Life.”  That is pretty bold language.  His words sound like something God would say.  But the people don’t get it.  Some say he was insane, including his family.  Some say he was possessed by a demon.  Jesus reveals his identity but people refuse to believe him.  People still refuse to believe him.

         Verses 25-30  “The works that I do in my Father's name bear witness about me,  but you do not believe because you are not among my sheep.  My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.  I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.  My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand.  I and the Father are one.” 

         In the church we have a lot of ways to describe God.  We can describe Him by his Biblical Titles, “The Most High God” , Wonderful Counselor, Prince of Peace.  A lot of our songs describe Him this way.  For communion today we are going to sing “Holy and anointed one” and “You are my King.”  Another way we can describe God by his attributes. In systematic theology we describe God as all knowing, all powerful and Omni-present.  Only God can know everything, do anything and be everywhere.  In this situation, Jesus doesn’t describe himself with titles or attributes.  Instead Jesus describes his relationship to the Father.  When Jesus is asked to speak plainly about his identity, He explains himself as a Son.  Everything Jesus does is in his Father’s name, meaning that his works are directed by the Father, sanctioned by the Father, powered by the Father and a love offering to the Father.  The Father because He loves the Son loves the Son’s followers.  The Father loves the son so much that nothing can happen to the son without the Father’s permission.  The Son puts his flock in the hands of his father and their identity is perfectly safe there.

         I hope you see yourself in through Jesus. Your identity is secure in the Lord.   You are loved by him.  It doesn’t matter what the world says about you.  People may call you worthless, but your Father calls you beloved.  Your earthly Father may have called you a disappointment but your heavenly Father calls you his joy.  The Father loves Jesus and all of his friends and you, church, are Jesus’ friend.  That is your identity.   If you look at the word picture here, the Father chose you and gave you to his son.  You are placed in Jesus’ hands, yet it says you are still in the Father’s hands as well.   The devil can’t pry open the Son of God’s hands.  The world can’t move the fingers of the almighty.  Your identity as a child of God can’t be stolen. 

         “The Father is in me and I am in the Father.”  There is no more explosive words from Jesus than that.  Those words put him under a death sentence.  ’Again they sought to arrest him but they escaped from their hands.”   Later in John 11 after Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead, the Jewish leaders say, “What are we to do?  For this man performs many signs.  If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation.”  These leaders placed their identity in their position and their nation.  They were right to see Jesus as a threat to that.  If you see yourself as Jesus’ friend all other identities must become under that.  Jesus placed his identity under the Father.  He calls us to put our identity under Jesus’ name.  The relationship between us and Jesus is primary.  If you get that relationship right then you can get your other relationships right.

John 9: I am Healed

Pastor Scott Jonas

John 9

I am Healed

2/4/18

                Over the last two months we’ve been going through the Gospel of John, 1 book at a time.  For our guests, let me catch you up.  In the beginning, Jesus was with God and He was God.  Jesus came into the world to save it, so said John the Baptist.  Jesus calls his first disciples and they go to a wedding where he stuns the unready crowd by turning water into very wine.  At night, an inquisitive Pharisee named Nicodemus, learns from Jesus that you must be born again.     In the heat of the day, an inquisitive woman learns from Jesus has living water.  At a public pool, a paralyzed man listens to Jesus and his life is radically changed.  Thousands of people flock to this miracle worker and he feeds them, proclaiming “I am the Bread of Life”, you must eat my flesh and drink my blood.  Right after is the feast of Tabernacles where the high priest pours water and wine on the Temple altar.  Jesus stands up and shouts “If anyone thirsts let him come to me and drink.”  Then last week, as the festival winds down, a woman is caught in an unseemly act.  Jesus puts the accusers on the spot, telling them that if they have no sin, go ahead and throw the stone.  As the morning sun rises over the risen Jesus takes the hand of the woman and says “I am the Light of the World.”

            Which brings us to John chapter 9.  I like to act out a story with the kids in chapel.  I don’t know if you know this about me but I’m a bit of a ham. 

            Man born blind

            Disciples ask, “Who sinned this man or his parents?”

            Jesus says “neither.  Just watch what I’m going to do through him.”

            He spit on the ground, made mud, anointed the man’s eyes, and told him to go and wash in the public pool.

            The great thing about the bible is that there are so many levels of understandings.  I want you to think about this story and describe it in one word.  What one word describes this story about Jesus spitting in the mud, anointing the man’s eyes, and he can finally see.

            Here are the three words that I thought of after I read this story.  This Healing is Messy.  This Healing is Intimate.  This Healing is Personalized.

Let’s start with the messy.  Parents are used to telling their children that Life is not fair.  Raise your hand if you’ve told this to your kids.  Aren’t we really saying that Life is messy?  It doesn’t go the way we planned.  Things happen.  Family pets die expectantly.  Kids throw up out of no where.  Your aging parents all of a sudden need your help.  Nothing is clean.  It’s all messy.

Jesus did not come to provide us with a clean, no hassle life.  If that were the case, then he would have just seen the blind man, snapped his fingers and the man would be healed.  No muss no fuss.  Instead, Jesus hocks a loogy into the ground.  Can you imagine what the blind man was thinking?  Why am I hearing a loogy?  Is this man just using my condition to degrade me?  I have no way to protect myself.  I guess I will just allow whatever is going to happen to happen.  And then this sloppy mud is placed on his eyes.  Saliva is known to have some medicinal purposes but home remedies are not going to cure blindness from birth.  No you have a man with gook all over his face and another man with smutz all of his hands.  It seems like all of this messiness isn’t leading anywhere.

But Jesus wants us to know that all of this messiness we call life is leading somewhere, somewhere good.  It’s leading towards something we all need, healing.  You and I may not be born blind but we need all kinds of healing.  Can someone say amen?  Our lives are so messy because we need physical healing, emotional healing, relational healing and spiritual healing.  We need families healed, churches healed, neighborhoods and nations healed.  Jesus did not come to help us escape the mess.  He came to bring us healing in the mess.

Let me give you a messy situation that I experienced this week.  It started when I saw a preschool teacher and a two year old outside my office.

I bet your life is messy also.  That’s the way it’s supposed to be.  In baptism, Jesus cleans us of our sins but he sends us back to messy homes, and complicated relationships.  Don’t mind the mess.  Look for Jesus in the middle of the mess.

Which brings me to my second word describing this story.  It’s messy and It’s Intimate.  Touch is intimate.  Jesus touches the blind man.  It’s really personal to get close enough to someone to touch their eyes.  The comedian Brian Regan talks about how uncomfortable it is to go to the eye doctor, sit knee to knee facing him and have his face inches from yours.  Shines a goofy light in your eyes forever.  Then he says “How are you doing there?”  “Can you back up a little bit?  Are you looking into my soul?”

Jesus used intimacy and touch to heal.  Modern science knows the power of touch.  It doesn’t even have to be human touch.  Having a Comfort dog by the side of a trauma victim is very powerful.  Part of why I shake hands at the back of the church is because of the healing power of physical contact.  You also may have noticed that when I place the communion wafer in your hands, I try to have hand to hand contact.  For some people it’s the only touch they have all week.

Jesus hugged children.  Held the hands of trauma victims.  Allowed a woman to anoint his feet and hair. Kissed Judas.  Embraced his disciples and touched a blind man’s eyes.  His followers should follow his example.

The third word for this story is personalized.  This story is messy, intimate and personalized.  Jesus never had a one size fits all when it came to healings.  He custom fit them to the needs as he saw fit.  One woman touched his prayer tassels.  Another time Jesus just told a guy his sins were forgiven and the man walked.  Another time Jesus just sent word that the man was healed, long distance like a text message.  Why did this man need spit and mud?  I don’t know.  Maybe no one had touched him in a long time.  Maybe mud had spiritual significance in the man’s life.  Maybe because he was blind the man fell in the mud a lot.  It became his identity.  You could see the blind guy a mile away because he always had mud on him.  The mud became a negative part of his identity.  Jesus took the mud and anointed him with it.  He made the mud Holy.  He made the man holy.

Jesus wants to heal you.  It may be messy, intimate and personalized.  All you have to do is ask.