Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] So somebody said, are you going to preach a Father's Day ceremony? I said, no, I'm going to continue my series in the Gospel of John. And it's going to seem weird because we've already gone past Palm Sunday, we've already gone past Easter, but I'm preaching through the gospel, but I want to look at it with fresh eyes. And we've been kind of going week by week through this book. And I feel like we're getting a sense of the growing conflict that was mounting to this point in the life of Jesus. John now is focused in on the last week, most of his gospel, half of his gospel is the last week of his life. I'm going to get a sense this is the emphasis that John is bringing to our attention. You know, often when we look at Palm Sunday, we look at it as a day of triumph and celebration. But I think there was more happening underneath the surface of that day. What was happening in the heart of Jesus? Isn't that a great question? How did he feel? Because he knew that what these people were celebrating and anticipating was not going to happen the way they thought. Isn't that true? In our lives, when we walk with God, sometimes we have an idea, this is what God's going to do. And then he doesn't do that. He does something totally different. We're going to look at that. This morning, there was a lot of tension mounting to this moment, and we saw that there's an escalating crisis occurring. John's gospel is traveling over this mounting storm leading to the crucifixion of Christ. Jesus just earlier had been summoned to the house of his friends, Lazarus, Martha, and Mary. You know, we know the story. I preached on it. If you read the Bible, John eleven talks about it. Lazarus had died and had been dead for four days. And Jesus came along and raised him back to life again. And, you know, that just created a firestorm. I mean, people were just mesmerized by what had happened there. And there were people now being polarized over that exact miracle because many people began to believe that, you know, Jesus was the Messiah. And so they were beginning to start to believe that. And others were polarized. The opposite way went to the religious leaders, and the leaders were threatened by that experience. And so for them, they were desirous of both Jesus and Lazarus being killed. But the only problem is they couldn't find Jesus. Remember, he had withdrawn. And then a few days before this palm Sunday, Jesus returns to Bethany, which is only 2 miles away from Jerusalem. And now we have that moment. And we talked about it last week, where Mary's extravagant act of love pours out this over a year's wage worth of perfume all over his body. And Jesus talks about, this is being done for my burial, and how many recognize that Jesus is saying things, but people aren't picking it up? You ever have conversation with people, you're laying something down, but they're not getting it. They're not picking up what's being said at all. And this is what was happening in this story. And so Jesus is now arriving here in John, chapter twelve to Jerusalem as the messiah. He's coming, and there's an excitement. And I think so often what happens in our lives is we have situations occur that really reveal the true condition of our hearts. So every response to every incident in our lives is really a revelation of the true nature of what's going inside of us.
[00:03:23] You know, I think it's fascinating. We don't like trials necessarily. Most of us don't say, oh, I'm signing up for a trial this week. Just bring it on, God. I don't think we do that. But James gives us kind of a proper response to a trial. You know, a lot of times we react to them, but what is a proper response? He says, consider it pure joy. Now, why in the world would I consider a trial pure joy? Well, because I think it's showing us what's happening inside of us. Am I responding or reacting to this? Am I learning to trust God? Or am I faltering and stumbling and failing and frailing and all the rest of the stuff that we do in a time of difficulty in our lives? Certainly this incident reveals something of Judas spiritual condition. And Merrill Tenney says it this way. He said, jesus failure to claim royal titles and prerogatives for himself when he had exercised miraculous powers may have been the underlying cause for Judas perfidy or his betrayal.
[00:04:21] What's he talking about? Well, he's basically saying, contrary to their expectations, the disciples, you know, some of them thought this was going to be an outward political coup. In other words, the messiah would come and it would change everything. Jesus carefully refrained from making political statements in his ministry many times, but it was a lot of pressure for him to do so. How many catch that? You know, here's some taxation money. What are we going to do with this? You know, Jesus comes up with that famous response, give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and what belongs to God. Give to God. So Jesus, you know, he's staying away from trying to create a political situation, and yet the people in political power are totally threatened by everything that Jesus is doing. And so he starts talking to his disciples about surrendering himself to death. Now, how many know that's not what they're thinking about when the Messiah's gonna show up? They're thinking he comes, sits on the throne. They start ruling and reigning with him in a physical, earthly realm in the nation of Israel, but that's not what's gonna happen. And Jesus is trying to shift their thinking. And do you know how hard it is when people have a preconceived idea how hard it is to move people off that idea?
[00:05:35] You know, it's almost impossible to get them to shift, and Jesus keeps trying to prepare them. You know, possibly Judas felt frustrated because the kingdom that he had anticipated was not gonna be realized. And if the kingdom was not to be immediately manifested, his relation to Jesus had put him in a position of gaining nothing and losing everything.
[00:05:56] I mean, if Jesus is going to die, what's going to happen to us, guys? I mean, he's probably thinking this thing through.
[00:06:03] Not only would he fail to obtain a post in a new realm, but he would, upon Jesus death, be put under suspicion as a rebel.
[00:06:11] This is not a good place to be, he's thinking, and if you should take the alternative to betraying Jesus, he would profit himself financially. We all know from John's viewpoint that, you know, what motivated Judas, I shared it last week, was greed. And I talked about when we put money ahead of God, we're going to betray Christ. And certainly that's what Judas does. And so maybe also in his mind, he's thinking, I'm going to square myself away with the priest. In other words, I've got to kind of hedge my bets a little bit here in case this doesn't turn out the way I think it's going to. I need to have new sets of alliances. So the question I'm raising today is, how do you and I respond to crisis? Where do we find hope to sustain us in those moments in our lives? And we see that Jesus knowingly went to Jerusalem to face the greatest challenge of his earthly life. He knew he was going to lay down his life willingly. Now, I don't know you. That takes a lot of courage. How many know to know that you're going to sacrifice your life for the good of other people?
[00:07:15] That takes a lot of courage to be willing to do that. And Jesus certainly is a model. I think if you want to know what a man is, there it is, right? There willing to lay down your life for the sake of other people, willing to give up your rights so that other people can benefit because of your life. That's the life of Christ. That's the life God is calling us towards. That's certainly a challenge.
[00:07:37] So what is the real significance of Jesus entrance into Jerusalem and what we now call Palm Sunday? And I can see three things out of the story that will actually help you. And I find hope in times of crisis in our lives. And I want to look at those three things. The first one is the demonstration of Christ's identity. So you say, well, why is that so important in a time of crisis? Because I think when we find out and understand who Jesus really is, what we're really going to learn how to do is to put our trust and confidence in the person of Christ. That's the answer to every crisis. Trust in him.
[00:08:18] It's that simple. So I have to know who he is. I have to understand what he's able to do. I have to have a confidence that when I'm in this crisis, that God can handle it, and I can have a quiet confidence that God will see me through whatever storm comes my way. And that's such a hopeful thing in our lives.
[00:08:39] So in John, chapter twelve, we're going to pick up in verse twelve, we're going to go right to the end of the chapter. Here it says, the next day, the great crowd that had come for the feast, this is another Passover, heard that Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem. They took palm branches and went out to meet him, shouting Hosanna, which means saved. Now, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Blessed is the king of what? So what were these people saying?
[00:09:09] You are our king. They were saying, Jesus, we believe you. We believe you're the messiah. We believe you're our king. And they came to celebrate him. Now, can you understand now why this is rattling the cages of all these leaders in that jewish realm? I mean, they're going, whoa. Jesus is basically making these people believe that he is the messiah. Jesus had found a young donkey and he had sat upon it. As it is written, do not be afraid, o daughter of Zion, which is another name for Jerusalem. See, your king is coming seated on a donkey's colt. Now, I think most people and later on would realize that what Jesus was doing was fulfilling Zechariah nine nine. Now, maybe some of them understood it, but certainly John is quoting this text and he's saying, this is exactly what's happening. But the Bible says at that moment they weren't quite clear what was really happening. It took a little understanding. How many know Jesus had to actually post resurrection, explain a bunch of scriptures and say, you remember when I did this? This is to do that. Oh, now we get it, you know, you ever have those aha. Moments? Well, you know, Jesus was kind of filling him in on what he was doing and why he was doing it, and then they were getting it.
[00:10:32] Look, it was very fascinating. These are people that know the Old Testament. I don't know if you ever read Zechariah 910, the very next verse. You know what it says? This is nine. Nine. It's being quoted. 910 says, I will take away the chariots from Ephraim, which is another name for Israel, and the war horses from Jerusalem and the battle bow will be broken. So what is this saying? God says, listen, there's a moment, I'm coming. I'm going to destroy and take away all of the military oppression that you're experiencing. So that's why they were in this frame of reference. They thought, hey, Jesus is going to come and deliver us from the roman oppression and the yoke of Rome that's been around our necks.
[00:11:15] As I've already said, their cries of Hosanna are simply means saved. Now, it speaks to their understanding of the significance of that moment. And the cry was for immediate deliverance.
[00:11:29] Now, the significance of Jesus riding into the city of Jerusalem on a donkey in that hour, I think, is very important because generally when conquerors come, they ride on horses.
[00:11:40] But, you know, we know that one of the things about being the coronation of a king, they didn't necessarily ride on a horse. So Jesus is now coming to bring peace to them in a way they had not anticipated. They didn't understand what he was about to do.
[00:11:59] In their minds, their expectations were so different. And I think if we look at ourselves, how many can be honest with yourself and say, how many times my own expectations of what God was supposed to do was different than what he did. Anybody have that experience, you know, in life, I go, oh, I thought this was going to happen. And then what? That's not what I expected, you know, and, you know, I love that because sometimes when we're praying and we're asking God and sometimes we're even coaching God, does anybody ever coach God in your prayers? I mean, you're telling God exactly what you want to have done. Nobody else does it, I'm sure, but, you know, and then God all of a sudden does it like this, and you look at how God's doing, and you're going, huh? You know, I didn't anticipate that. I wasn't expecting that. It's not exactly the way I thought God would work. You know, sometimes we're pleasantly surprised, and sometimes we're a bit disappointed. Come on, how many? Let's be honest, we're a little disappointed how God did it. You know, we were expecting more fireworks. We were expecting a little more drama. We were expecting, you know, God to just blow people out of the water. It didn't happen that way. And I keep pointing out to us that even the most profound miracles don't necessarily mean that people are going to believe, because we see that in the story of Lazarus. Some of them didn't believe. They just looked at it and went, okay, and moved on. They just did not grasp the significance of what was going on.
[00:13:26] So what happens usually when we are so locked into a certain viewpoint, we can easily become disillusioned. I've seen a lot of disillusioned people, you know, and I don't know if you've ever studied the meaning of disillusion. Disillusion means you have had an illusion.
[00:13:46] It's not reality, and that's why you're disillusioned, because what you thought was wrong.
[00:13:52] And we need to understand that. The people's expectation was for a king making war against their enemies by riding on a donkey rather than a horse. Jesus is giving them a totally different message than what they are actually anticipating. Think about Solomon. I was just reading about him this morning when he was being coronated, and it says in one kings, David says, go do this. So Zadok the priest, Nathan the prophet, Benaiah the son of Jehadiah the Cherethites, and the Pelethites went down and put Solomon on King David's mule, and they escorted him to Gihon or Gion, and Zadok the priest took the horn of oil from the sacred tent and anointed Solomon, and they shouted, long live King Solomon. So we know that necessarily kings are riding horses, sometimes they're riding mules. And the picture of a mule is a lot different than a picture of a horse. A horse has got more imagery towards war, the mule. This is more of a peaceful coronation, and Jesus is basically saying, I'm the king of peace, not the king of war. Now, does anybody know anything about imagery? If you go to the Book of Revelation and you see Jesus coming back, what's he riding on? A mule. No, a white horse. He's riding a horse. Okay, so now, the first coming, he's riding a mule. The second coming, he's riding a horse. I think the imagery is he's coming, first of all, as the king of peace, but later on he's coming to judge the nations of the world. It's a totally different imagery. And we need to understand that, you know, Jesus kingdom is a spiritual kingdom. And what he came to do was destroy the power behind the powers. You see, Rome, you know, is a certain power, but there's a power behind the power of Rome. What's the power behind the power of Rome was really, you know, the principalities of the air, the spiritual rulers of darkness, you know, the rule of death, the rule of conquest, the rule of war. That's what Jesus came to destroy. But people don't understand that. They think, you know, you have to use the same weaponry to win the battle. Isn't that interesting? New Testament teaches us a whole new lesson. The weapons of our warfare are not, what? Carnal? They're not fleshly, they're not human ingenuity and devices and weapons that we know of, not missile, bombs and all the rest of it. The weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to what? The pulling down of strongholds. And see, God is using a picture here. We're seeing what Jesus is doing. He's about to come and destroy the work of darkness. He's coming to defeat the greater forces of darkness. He's coming to defeat the greater giants that we face in our lives, illness and sickness. He came to defeat the devil and death itself. How many? I think that's even more profound, what he came to do. And so how did he do that? Well, while the roman empire was bringing peace through the taking of the lives of other people, they were basically killing people, right? That's how they were bringing peace. Jesus came to bring peace by laying down his own life and dying a substitutionary sacrificial death, a totally different approach to bringing about his kingdom, inaugurating his kingdom, winning the lost.
[00:17:06] Second thing that helps us find hope in times of crisis is a discovery of God's purpose. There's a purpose in everything. God does not waste suffering. God always has a purpose in allowing crisis in our lives. So the question we have to ask is, what can I learn from this and how can I trust God in it? You know, what can I learn? And why do I need to, like, stop? Maybe I'm finding that I'm trusting in myself. I'm trusting in this. I'm trusting in that you know, we trust all kinds of things, but can I trust God? Can I just trust him? That's the point.
[00:17:42] What does God want to reveal to us about himself and where we are personally on our spiritual journey? You learn a lot more through the difficult experiences in life than the good experiences.
[00:17:56] We all want good experiences, and that's normal. That's human nature.
[00:18:01] You'd rather be on a mountain than in a valley, right? But how many know that you don't learn as much on a mountain, you learn more in the valley, you learn more through the difficult times than you do. And everything's working well. And so there's lessons to be gleaned here, and I think what we should be saying is, okay, okay, God, I'm in the crisis right now. Two things, help me to trust you through it. And number two, that's the first part. Number two, what can I learn from it? What can I glean from this experience? What will help me in the days to come? What skills and tools and ways of looking at life do I need to have in order to not only get through my personal crisis at this moment, but will help me in the days to come? And I mean, most of you, you could probably sit down and tell me stories of the things that you've learned in the difficult moments of your life. Those were some of the great lessons. And then they stayed with you, too, because they were painfully learned, right? The reason why Jesus needed to make this declaration, even his own followers weren't picking up on his messaging. That's true. We know that. It says here, at first, his disciples did not understand all of this. So here's Jesus, you know, every day talking to them. And he didn't just tell them one time he was going to die and rise again. He told them numerous times. As a matter of fact, Peter even rebuked Jesus once. He goes, no, no, it's not going to go down that way. And Jesus turned to him and said, get thee behind me, Satan. Now, I don't think Peter was Satan, but I think he's saying that thinking is demonic. This is the path I need to go on. This is what it's going to require to bring salvation to humanity. You don't get it, you know, and so a lot of times we're coming to God with a human understanding, and these guys weren't picking up on the messaging. And only after Jesus was glorified did they realize that these things have been written about him and that these things had been done to him. Afterwards, after everything is over with, how many know? Hindsight's 2020, you know, looking backwards, I go, oh, yeah.
[00:19:59] Why couldn't I figure that out sooner? Right? Yeah. Once you know it, it's different. But when you're on the other side of it, it's harder to get it. And they weren't getting it.
[00:20:10] So as Jesus approaches the city, the people from Bethany who had witnessed that amazing miracle with Lazarus had been talking. And this. How many know? Let's be realistic. If somebody has been dead for four days and comes back to life, it probably creates a bit of a stir, wouldn't you think? I think if you lived in a community, everybody knew about that, and they said, oh, this is the guy that did it. We'd like to meet him. And so they all came out, and let's face it, Jesus had been doing ministry for three years, and people were being healed and all kinds of stuff were happening. This is not unknown to the populace, and so they're excited about this. And so now a crowd that was with him when he called Lazarus from the tomb and raised him from the dead continued to spread the word. And many people, because they had heard that he had performed this sign, they went out to meet him. Okay, so you have a huge crowd following Jesus, and a huge crowd coming to meet him. You have a lot of people showing up on the scene. And Jesus now gives us a little bit of an insight into the thinking of the leaders. In the next verse, he says, so the Pharisees said to one another, see, this is getting us nowhere. Look how the whole world has gone after him. They had really felt like Jesus, you know, just by the miracles he was doing, was swaying the population of the people toward him, and they were threatened by this.
[00:21:38] So now Jesus extends their understanding of the scope of his mission. So what Jesus is about to do now, in his mind, this isn't just about Israel. Now, we have to understand. It's true of every ethnicity. Every ethnicity thinks that their culture is superior than other cultures. That's the nature of human beings. Our family is better than, you know, like, we have this understanding, but it's all wrong. Jesus didn't come to save just jewish people.
[00:22:06] He came to save the whole world.
[00:22:09] And John now begins to introduce this thought in this gospel. It says, now, there were some Greeks among those who had went up to the worship, to worship at the feast. And they came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, with a request. Sir, they said, we'd like to see Jesus. We want to meet him. And Philip went to tell Andrew Andrew and Philip, in turn, told Jesus.
[00:22:33] And so now Jesus and John is using this in his way of writing and to introduce us to this idea of his mission. Jesus says, okay, he doesn't necessarily respond to their request, but he begins to open up the answer, probably, to their question. He says it this way. The hour has come for the son of man to be glorified.
[00:22:57] And then he goes on to say, very truly, I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. Now, Jesus had said, the hour has come for me to be glorified. Now, that term glorified, is used two different ways in the New Testament. One, it speaks up when he is exalted and resurrected, and he is in the resurrected state. He is glorified. But it also speaks of the kind of death he would die, his crucifixion. And this is the way John is using it right now, and he's explaining that. And how many recognize that when you plant a seed in the ground, you know you're not going to have, nothing's going to happen until the seed dies. You got to plant it. The seed has to die in order to bear fruit. And Jesus is using an agricultural lesson to teach us the powerful truth that what's about to happen, he's saying, unless I die, nothing. There's going to be no life given to the world. But if I die, it's going to change everything. And then he goes on and says, no. And then he adds to this, he doesn't stop just with himself. And then he says, and anyone who loves their life will lose it, while anyone who hates their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. Now, those words, hate is a very strong word, but it means love less. So in other words, anyone who loves their life, you know, more than loving what God is calling them to do, they're gonna end up losing out. That's what he's telling us. And anyone who hates their life, in other words, you're willing in this life to give up your agenda and your desires and your plan in order to do God's will, you're gonna discover that your life is going to be enriched. And that's what he's basically saying here to us, whoever serves me must follow me.
[00:24:53] That tells me that you and I are not in charge. You know, we live in a culture today that most individuals feel like, I'm in charge in my life. I'm making my own decision on my own person. I do what I want to do. And that's one of the reasons why people have a hard time really following Jesus, because really, the call of the, the christian life is to become a follower.
[00:25:14] And you and I have to lay down our agenda and our direction in life to say, I'm gonna follow Jesus wherever that takes me. And sometimes Jesus takes you to places you don't wanna go.
[00:25:26] It's true.
[00:25:28] I'm being really honest with you. You're gonna go to places you go. I never signed up for this, you know, I'm going somewhere and I'm going. I didn't sign up for this, you know, but I believe that God wants me to go and do this, and I'm doing this, but I didn't sign up for it. It's not like I'm going, this is so exciting. No, sometimes it's very unexciting and very difficult. And a lot of people are not doing these things, but you're doing them because Jesus is, you know, teaching you, moving you, and you're following him, and he's taking you off on a different track. And other people seem to be having a great time and doing their own thing, and you're over here doing something you don't even really want to do. But something is happening inside of you. You're being changed through this following of Jesus and dying to yourself, and you're becoming a different person. And in the end, you're going to be happy with the person you become. Well, if you just live for yourself over here, you're not going to be quite as happy with yourself.
[00:26:26] And we see that that to be true.
[00:26:29] So Jesus is using this natural thing to teach us. You know, what's true in the natural is true in the spiritual. Seeds only produce once they're planted, die, and then reproduce more than they are. And this is a model of what he expects of us as followers, that we follow along on the same path of laying down our lives for the sake of others.
[00:26:49] You want to have a good marriage, real simple. Lay down your rights.
[00:26:53] Lay down your life for your spouse and your family. You'll have a better marriage. Wives, lay down your rights and your life for the sake of your husband and your children. You'll have a better marriage. You'll have a better home life. It's all about laying down your rights and your desires and your agenda.
[00:27:10] If we all did that, it would change everything.
[00:27:14] That's what transforms relationships.
[00:27:18] Now, Jesus could mean physical death. Here you have to lay down your life. There are people that have been martyrs for Christ. We know that's true. But more often than not, it simply means laying aside our rights, desires and sake for the welfare of others. Don't just live for yourself, because all you'll become is a very self centered, selfish person, and you'll become empty at the end, and you'll have invested your life into nobody, and you'll die, and you won't have really produced a lot. But I'll tell you one thing. If you lay down your life for the sake of other people, when you finally leave this earth and you've laid down your rights and desires and you've invested and poured into the lives of other people, when you leave, believe me, you'll have raised up some beautiful fruit.
[00:28:03] And that's what Jesus is interested in. That's exactly what he did. You know, so what Jesus is basically saying is that the person who hates their life in this world means that this person does what God asks. You're doing what God's telling you to do. You know, I still remember going to India for the first time. Mark, you went with me once, you know. Mark goes, afterwards, I don't know if everyone come back here again.
[00:28:28] And Mark, I totally understand that because that's how I felt, you know, and I made the trip twelve times, you know, and what happened to me during those trips? Cause it's not a fun experience. Everyone goes, oh, it'll be so fun to travel. Yeah, it's a very long journey, very wearisome. And you get there and you can't talk to people. They all speak a different language. You know what? You can't even get out of the house.
[00:28:54] You're locked into a home. You're a prisoner. For your own sake, how would you like to stay three weeks in a house and never get out? Basically, most people go, I'm not signing up for that. I don't go back to that. You know, I did it because I started teaching and I saw what was happening in the lives of these young people. And, you know, I could see that they so appreciated our presence there. It meant so much to them. And I remember, I think the 10th trip over there, one young guy came up to me afterwards. He was just crying. He said, pastor, please come back.
[00:29:27] You know, this meant so much to us. You know, I could tell he was sincere, you know, and you're pouring out your lives, but how would you like to stand in front of a room full of young people and the spirit of God drops in your heart? These young people. I had the spirit of God just kind of impressing my inner being. These young people are going to lay down their lives for me, some of them are going to die for me, and some are going to be physically abused. Just by presenting the gospel in this culture, is that very. This is not like, hey, you know, we're getting out of school, what's our salary? What's the Benny's? You know, these are people prepared to give their lives to present the gospel to their culture.
[00:30:12] I tell you, that's a little earth shattering when you're a teacher there and you're going, man, I don't know, this is pretty painful. And to come back the next year and one of them had already been martyred, you see, that brings a new reality to the world in which we're living.
[00:30:27] How many say that's a little earth shattering, pastor? That brings a new reality? I said to Patty, you know, one of the things that I really appreciate about the privilege of being in ministry is we've been able to travel in other cultures and see that so often. The Christianity that we see in North America is really enculturated by a lot of the values of our culture. But once you get out of this culture and you begin to see it in other cultures, you begin to understand and see the kernel and the essence of what true biblical Christianity is. And that's why you become more fearless and you don't really care about the culture anymore because you realize, you know, a lot of it is we're drinking the Kool Aid, but you don't realize that because you've been living in it all your life, and you just assume this is what Christianity is. But the moment you travel and go to another part of the world, you see some totally different things and you begin to understand, you know, how very blessed we are here with affluence. But in some ways it's diminished us spiritually, and you can see it.
[00:31:26] So it may be despite our own human desires, at times we're following and we're obeying and we're honoring our lives. This isn't what I signed up for, God. This isn't what I want. But you know what? In the end, it will be what you want. I can guarantee you you're going to change and your desires are going to change and you're going to become the person God desired you to be. Jesus wants to correct their incorrect perceptions of the event. And in his prayer to the father, he says, here now my soul is troubled, and what shall I say, father, save me from this hour? No it was for this very reason I came to this hour.
[00:32:02] Now, in human nature, do you know how hard it is to give up your life, humanly speaking? Because there's an intrinsic part of a human being that we want to live. That's normal.
[00:32:13] But to be willing to lay down your life for the sake of another, that's supernatural, that's the work of the spirit. Father, glorify your name. Then a voice came from heaven. He says, I've glorified it, and I'm going to glorify it again. The crowd that was there and heard it said it had thundered, and others said, an angel spoke to him. And Jesus said, the voice was for your benefit, not mine.
[00:32:34] Now is the time for judgment on this world. Now the prince of this world will be driven out. In other words, Jesus said, I came to destroy the power of darkness. I'm engaged in a huge spiritual battle, but the battle is the willingness to lay down my life. And I'm going to argue as Christians, that's part of the spiritual battle we're fighting right now. Will we lay down our lives for the sake of others? Because that's what Jesus did. And when we do that, that's how you resist the devil. It says, draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. How do you do it? You draw near to God. That's how it works. And when I'm lifted up from the earth, he says, I'm going to draw all people to myself. He's speaking of his death, of course.
[00:33:18] And it says here, and he said this to show the kind of death he was going to die.
[00:33:24] So can you imagine how difficult it was for these people to go, okay, Messiah. And now Jesus is talking about dying. It's not clicking. How many can see that they're having a problem adjusting their expectation? Because in all of their lives, and by the way, there's not just one viewpoint of the first century Jews regarding the messiah. There was a lot of different viewpoints, but none of them had a messiah who was going to suffer and die. None of them had that in their heads. Okay, so now Jesus is really messing with their heads. This is not the theology I was taught all my life. Jesus, you're messing with me. You know, so the crowd spoke up. We've heard from the law that the messiah will remain forever. So how can you say the son of man must be lifted up? In other words, we, you know, we've read these verses. The messiah is forever. He's the Lord, how is he going to die? That's what they're saying, who is the son of man? So they don't get it and they don't understand that Isaiah, the prophet in Isaiah 53 is speaking of a suffering servant. And he's actually speaking about what Jesus was now about to experience. But they never clued in that that's what the messiah was going to experience.
[00:34:34] They thought that spoke of the nation as a whole. And most jewish people that are not followers of Christ, that's what they believe today. Their nation suffers. They're the suffering servant. No, it's this person. And as a matter of fact, Philip tells the ethiopian eunuch on the road that this is. He says, I'm reading Isaiah 53. He says, who is he talking about? Himself or somebody else? And Philip says, no, he's talking about Jesus. And he begins to share the gospel with him and he becomes a believer. So Jesus now challenges them to believe in him. He says, believe in the light while you have the light, so that you may become children of the light. So what is it that Jesus is asking of them? That in the hours to come when the crisis will hit, he will be crucified. And they need to put their trust in him and continue to do so, even though they might not understand at the moment what's happening.
[00:35:22] In other words, what he's saying is, I am who I say I am. That's who Jesus is telling them. I am the messiah. And when I die, you have to hang on and believe that everything I told you is true. Even though everything on the natural level is going to argue against that position. And remember, these guys really went through it. And we have to say, when the crisis comes, the only healthy response is for us to trust in God despite of what we think and how we feel.
[00:35:54] Amen.
[00:35:56] And you may have all kinds of ideas. It's okay to have ideas. I'm not negating having ideas. I'm not negating having emotions. I'm just saying you got to trust God in spite of how you feel, in spite of how you think. That's the bottom line. Let me move on here to the third point. The unveiling of what is within us.
[00:36:14] Crisis is an indicator light of our trust or lack of trust in God. It's an indicator light where our soul is at. Okay? How do we respond? Are we going to react? Are we going to respond? You know, are they going to continue to believe in Jesus or reject them? They've witnessed all these miracles. They've looked at Jesus raising someone from the dead. Jesus is telling them, I'm going to come back to life again. Are you going to believe this or not? You can imagine how difficult that is for them. Here we find a description of unbelief. Why do people not believe? Ever thought about that? You know, I work with people. I keep thinking, why is it? I've had lots of thoughts about this. Why don't people believe such a beautiful message?
[00:36:58] Well, even after Jesus had done all of these miraculous signs in their presence, they still would not believe in him.
[00:37:05] So why?
[00:37:07] And now we're going to get an answer. John's going to tell us. He says here, this is to fulfill the word of Isaiah, the prophet lord, who has believed our message, and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
[00:37:18] Okay, now we're catching on to something here. It takes a revelation.
[00:37:24] We also discover this reason for unbelief.
[00:37:28] For this reason, they could not believe, because Isaiah said somewhere else he has blinded their eyes and deadened their hearts so that they neither see with their eyes nor understand with their hearts, nor turn. And I would heal them.
[00:37:41] So why shouldn't it surprise us that people don't believe?
[00:37:45] Merrill Tenney says something. Not only did prophecy describe unbelief, it also explained it. Why should not the hearers of Jesus believe in him when the signs so unmistakably accredited his claim, his claim to be the messiah. Right.
[00:38:01] John quotes Isaiah six to show that unbelief is the result of the rejection of light, gradually making belief impossible.
[00:38:13] That's kind of. Yeah, I didn't put that last part of the quote down, but that gradually making belief impossible. What is he saying? Simply this. Every time I reject what God is saying, my heart gets hard.
[00:38:28] And if I keep rejecting what God is saying, my heart gets harder and harder and harder. So after a while, it's easy. We just get so hard, we don't believe it at all. It's just we become like Teflon. Everything that's said to us goes right off of us. So that's why it's so important. And when we hear God's word, we respond to it. We're listening. We're trying to grasp it. We're trying to respond to it. We're trying to act on it. And every time I act on God's word, it comes alive. It becomes real. Application becomes reality. It becomes transformational on my life. But if I'm just reading the Bible day in and day out, and I'm not doing what it's saying, it's actually creating a hardness of heart.
[00:39:07] That's a scary thought.
[00:39:09] You see, it's, you know, we're not. It's not an intellectual exercise. It's not about information gathering. It's about listening and saying, this is the voice of God. And this is what he's saying to me. And this is not options. This is, you know, God saying, I want you to, you know, love your wife, even as I love the church, my loving my wife like that.
[00:39:34] You see, when we start acting on what God is saying, we start experiencing the reality of what God is saying. This is transformational. A lot of christians, you know, they just stay stunted. How many people know that there's a lot of stagnation in the christian life? You know, I look at people not even developing and growing. They're just. They have the information, but they're not acting on it, by the way, to know something and not to act on it, what is that?
[00:40:00] If I'm a parent and I ask my child to go do something, and they go, yeah, I heard you, but I'm not doing it. What do you call that? What is that?
[00:40:09] Well, it's disobedience. Right? Yeah. Rebellion. It's disobedience. They're just not doing it. And a lot of times as christians, we just become disobedient. We become rebellious, and we think we're fine because we have the information, but we're not acting on it. And it's not bringing transformation. So we don't see the vitality and the reality of this christian life. But the moment you start applying it, it changes you.
[00:40:31] And sometimes God asks you to do things, you go, I don't feel like forgiving this person. They wounded me. I'd rather hold an offense. And what happens is you become bitter. How many christians are bitter? How many people are unforgiving because they're not acting on the scripture? Jesus said, you cannot expect me to forgive you if you're not going to forgive other people.
[00:40:53] Listen to the Lord's prayer.
[00:40:55] I actually pray the Lord's prayer almost every single day. And I'll tell you why. Because in it, it reminds me of certain key truths.
[00:41:03] Your kingdom come. Am I really advocating for God's kingdom to come? Am I doing his will? Am I believing God to provide? Am I actually acting in a forgiving manner and receiving forgiveness in my life? I need it. We all do.
[00:41:19] Isaiah, listen, had such an incredible insight at what was happening, at a very profound moment of crisis in his life and in the national life.
[00:41:28] Look what happened. You know what we need, above everything else in a moment of crisis, we need a renewed vision of God. And we need a renewed vision of God in his power. You know, look what Isaiah said in the year that King Uzziah died. Why was this a big deal? Uzziah had reigned for 52 years. He had brought stability and continuity in his nation. But when he came to an end, how many know the most difficult times in countries and in churches and in other places as times of transition?
[00:41:57] He said, I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled his temple. What did he do? I had a vision of God.
[00:42:07] Maybe you're here this morning and you're in crisis. Do you know what? You need a vision of God. And you need a vision of God in his glory. You need a vision of God in his power.
[00:42:18] Look what happened. He said, that's interesting. Above them were seraphs, each with six wings. With two wings they covered their faces. With two they covered their feet. And with two, they were flying. And they were calling to one another. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord almighty. The whole earth is full of his glory. How many would say that would be a pretty life changing moment, having that kind of a vision? But it was in the middle of a crisis.
[00:42:48] And then it says, here we discover for this reason for sorry.
[00:42:55] In this context, Isaiah now is sent to speak to the people. And God says, oh, by the way, they're not going to listen to you. Oh, my goodness, do I have to do this job? God, you're sending me to talk to them. I'm not going to listen. And Isaiah said, because he saw Jesus's glory and spoke about him. When did Isaiah see Jesus glory?
[00:43:16] That was the vision he saw Jesus. What do we need in a time of crisis? A vision of God on his throne. In other words, a vision of God in control. A vision of God as sovereign, we need to see as power. Yet at the same time, many, even among the leaders, believed in him. But because of the Pharisees, they would not confess their faith, for the were afraid to be put out of the synagogue. So it says, even though people were quietly believing, they weren't acting on it.
[00:43:48] Do you think we can ever get like that where we believe, but we don't do anything with it? Okay? And they love the praise of humans more than the praise of God. Do you know what happens when you stand up and say, this is what God says. You may be criticized, you may be misunderstood. Right? We don't like that. You know, so will we trust God when we don't understand what God's doing in our lives? Question number one, can we trust him when you don't get it? Will we trust him when our expectations aren't realized? See, it's all about trust. Will we trust God when he's calling us to die to our own human wants and desires, to fulfill his will and obey his word? Are we willing to do that? Okay, I'm going to do this even. I'm going to go forgive this person, even though I don't want to do it.
[00:44:37] You know, they hurt me. I want to hang on to my pain, or you want to let go of it, you know, will we trust God when he asks that we go do the right thing for the sake of others, though that's not what we want to do in that moment, we have a choice.
[00:44:53] So I'm going to close with a little extra challenge. It wasn't in my notes, but I'm adding it because it's Father's day.
[00:45:01] Let me close with this. Here's a dying father, David. He's speaking to his son, Solomon, who's now taking over his leadership role.
[00:45:10] It says, when the time drew near for David to die, he gave a charge to Solomon, his son. I'm about to go the way of all the earth, he said, so be strong and act like a man.
[00:45:24] Are we willing to be courageous, guys?
[00:45:26] Are we willing to man up? Are we willing to lay down our lives for those around us?
[00:45:33] Are we willing? He says, observe what the Lord your God requires. Walk in obedience to him. Keep his decrees and commands, his laws and regulations as written in the law of Moses. Do this so that you may prosper in all you do and wherever you go. Simply put, be courageous. Obey God in his ways, and then we will fulfill God's purpose for our life and the life of our family. Let's stand.
[00:46:02] I know there are people in crisis in our church.
[00:46:06] I pray that God has spoken to you this morning, encouraged you, but also challenged you. Amen. What is God saying to you?
[00:46:18] I want you to trust me. Yeah, but I don't understand. I want you to trust me. Last night, when I expected God, I want you to trust me. God is saying, amen. But even more than that, I want you to obey me. I want you to do what I'm telling you to do in my word.
[00:46:35] You know, I think a lot of us, are we really looking at the word of God and going, okay, I see what it says here. I'm just gonna do it.
[00:46:47] I want us to be people who are not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
[00:46:54] We're not worrying about what people are saying. We're not obnoxious, we're not rude, we're not mean, we're not argumentative. That's not what it's about.
[00:47:02] But there's moments that when we need to speak up, we need to stand up and say, hey, there's another way of looking at this.
[00:47:11] There's another way of going in this direction.
[00:47:14] Do you know, we should be the leaders in this society.
[00:47:18] The reason why the society is going backwards is because we're not moving it forward.
[00:47:23] We're criticizing all kinds of people. That's the wrong approach. Never works.
[00:47:28] No, I think you need to take the lead. You need to say, this is how we're going to do it. This is how we're going to live as a family. We're going to learn how to pray together.
[00:47:38] We're going to be praying for our neighbors. We're going to be loving people. We're going to be different than the people around us.
[00:47:45] We're going to be in the word of God. We're going to do what God's word says. We're not going to just talk about it. We're going to just do it.
[00:47:52] You know what? You're going to be a leader. You're going to start modeling for people the right way to live.
[00:47:58] That's what needs to happen. Amen. Can you see it?
[00:48:03] It's challenging.
[00:48:05] Yeah. It'd be a lot easier to go do this.
[00:48:08] But sometimes God's saying, I want you to go do that. Yeah, but I don't feel like that. You're gonna let your feelings define your life. You're gonna let obedience to the word of God define your life.
[00:48:20] Every head bowed. Let's just pray. I may say, lord, I need your help.
[00:48:25] I need your help this morning. I gotta move past my emotions and past what I my agenda. I just need to trust you like I never have before. I just need to get to know you in a way I've never had before. I just need to start obeying you in a way I've never had before. I just got to start living out your will.
[00:48:44] Because when the crisis comes, it's not the people who have been hearing God's word that are going to stand. It's the people who've been doing God's word that when the winds start beating down in our lives, in the crisis moment, we've been doers of the word so that our house does not crumble. And cave in because we've built on a solid rock of doing what the fathers asked us to do and not building our lives on sand, which just means that I've heard the word, but I haven't been acting on it. When the storms and crisis of life come, I just come unglued. I fall apart. I react. I just. I lose it.
[00:49:26] No. I want to be the person who's a doer of the word of God.
[00:49:30] I want that to shape my life. I want it to shape my family. If I'm a father here today, I want to be the example. I want to set the pace.
[00:49:40] I want my family to see this is what it means to serve God. You become a doer of the word. I want to model that. If I'm a mother today, same thing. If I'm a young person today, same thing. Why? Because one day I'll be a father or I'll be a mother, or I need to set the example and the pace for my siblings, or I need to set the example and the pace for my classmates.
[00:50:04] I need to be that kind of person.
[00:50:07] I want to be a change agent in a broken world. And if that's you this morning, just raise your hand to God. Say, yes, Lord. I'm saying yes to you today. I'm surrendering anew and afresh. I want to do your word. I want to do your will. I just thank you for the people, Lord. I know we're going to change our city. Doesn't take a lot. It just takes people who are willing to be fully committed to doing the will of God, willing to lay down our lives because we're willing to do the father's desires. We thank you for that. In Jesus name, amen. God bless you. As you leave this morning.
