Studies in the Gospel of John #17 "The Great Transfer: Forgiveness of Sins"
The flight landed at Cleveland, OH airport. An announcement was made,
“All through passengers to Newark International please remain seated.”
The flight attendant then went on to list the different gates for
destinations other than Newark International. The flight crew left the
plane with passengers still sitting there and a new crew came on which we all assumed was flying us to Newark.
After other passengers had boarded the plane, the safety measures were
given and we took off. It was only after we had been flying for 30
minutes that the new flight attendant announced: “The skies are clear
and we should arrive at the Harrisburg airport in 20 minutes.”
Passengers began to look around at each other. The 120 passengers who
had gotten on at Cleveland took no notice. That’s because they had
gotten on with the express purpose of flying to Harrisburg, PA.
Our worst fears were confirmed during the landing, as we saw the lights
blinking on the four cooling towers, which surrounded nuclear reactors
TM1 and TM2, on the tract known as three-mile Island. This was ominous
for two reasons. In the previous year, 1980 the worst radioactive
meltdown in America's history had occurred, and no one knew the extent
of the nuclear contamination in the 10-mile area around it, which
included the Harrisburg airport. So we were flying into danger because
the airport was only two miles from the shut down reactors.
Secondly, of course, it meant that we were in Harrisburg and not Newark.
Most passengers took the money offered and the promise of getting to
Newark the next day. But since six of us had to be in Newark that
evening, the Allegheny Airlines paid ground transport fees of $350.00 to
be driven to Newark International. We should have been instructed to
transfer planes in Cleveland, but the flight attendant had made a
mistake that sent all 95 Newark bound passengers to Harrisburg.
Without making the proper transfer, we ended up in the wrong
destination, and a dangerous one at that. We thought we were going to
the right place as we took off. Only upon landing was it confirmed that
we were not only going to the wrong destination, but a dangerous one.
The Psalmist gives praise to God who is known to Israel as REFUGE,
STRENGTH and HELP in time of trouble. A woman had been presented to
Jesus. She had been taken in the very act of adultery. In accordance
with what Moses taught in Deuteronomy 22:22, she should be put to death
by stoning. Ezekiel 16:40 implies that this unfaithfulness to one’s
husband required” “They were to be stoned and hacked to pieces with
swords.”
Aren’t we glad God sent Jesus?
The scribes and
Pharisees probably thought, “We’ve got him now. If Jesus said, “Stone
her,” he would be stepping outside the character of the divine love that
made him the Christ of God—the Word made flesh. The Word made flesh
means as the writer of Hebrews wrote in chapter 4:15, “For we do not
have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but
we have one who has been tempted in every way as we are—yet he did not
sin.”
The eternal Christ was made perfect through what he
suffered. What did he suffer? He suffered living in this world,
controlled by the power of the Prince of Darkness, as a human being.
The plan of deliverance for us, of salvation for the human race, was not
possible until divinity could take on the pain of humanity, and thereby
restore us from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of love and
light. Jesus could not be made complete without the incarnation.
He could not have accomplished God's great work of salvation had he not
become human. He had to have a mother, a father, brothers and sisters
who ridiculed him and did not believe in him, neighbors who watched him
grow up and could not possibly see him as anyone and anything other that
the eldest son of Joseph and Mary--"the Carpenter's son."
He
needed to be tempted to abandon God, as we are, for the sensory delights
that so easily draw us away from our full spiritual relationship with a
loving God. And he had to experience separation from God, as the
Christ, in order to take on the humanity necessary to accept and forgive
our sin. Sin is indeed, separation from God. That is all that it is,
no more, no less. Through Christ we enter into that relationship and
resume our place as Children of God and heirs of light, love and life.
If Jesus had said, “Do not punish her,” he would have become for Israel
morally irrelevant, relaxing the ethical demands of the Law of Moses.
Yet Jesus said he had not come to destroy the law, but to fulfill it.
By fulfilling it, Jesus indeed made the law irrelevant, because its many
restrictions and taboos would no longer be binding.
It would
no longer be used as God’s yardstick to measure who was out and who was
in. Indeed the dictum from the Psalmist and the Prophet Isaiah would
become reality through the Christ, “All have sinned and come short of
the glory of God.” And Jesus demonstrated that truth in what he did
next.
We do not know what Jesus wrote on the ground as he
stooped down, but I would venture he wrote something like this, “Piddly
didly—self-righteous buffoons, majoring in the minors as usual. Missing
God’s grace totally: condemning rather than comforting, rejecting
rather than rescuing. Nevertheless they continued to ask him: “Well,
what do you say Jesus?”
Raising himself up he said to them,
“The sinless one among you should cast the first stone.” Only if you
are perfect should you be throwing stones, criticizing others, gossiping
about other people’s actions, judging the behavior, the motives, and
the lifestyle of others.
And if you do believe you are
perfect, you have sinned because you are calling God a liar. And if you
are not perfect, then why on earth are you focused on someone else, why
on earth are you minding someone else’s business, why on earth are you
running point on someone else’s faults?
Jesus asked in his
great sermon on the mount, “Why are you so skillful at finding the small
splinter of wood in your sister’s/brother’s eye, and cannot see the
large wooden beam going through the center of your own head?
All of us need to transfer flights if we would reach God’s final
destination for us. Some of us will need to transfer many times, but be
assured, for every man and woman born to this condition called life,
there are no straight non-stop flights. Life is like a mountain railroad, with an engineer that’s brave; you must make the run successful, from the cradle to the grave. Watch the curves, the fills, the tunnels, never falter, never fail; Keep your hand upon the throttle, and your eye upon the rail.
Blessed savior, thou will guide us, till we reach that blissful shore, where the angels wait to join us, in thy praise forever more.
Where are those who condemn us? Nowhere Lord. Who are those who have
the right to criticize others? No one Lord. Who are those who have not
tried and failed because of the human condition? Only Christ, the
incarnation of God. Christ encouraged her to leave her life of sin.
While we have been set free from sin and free from the Law through
Christ, Jesus was saying to her and to us: Yes, it is true that I came to forgive, to transfer You to the road of life, to take your sin on myself So that you might through faith, inherit God’s righteousness—forgiveness—holiness, but “DON’T BREAK MY BACK.”
And God continues to make that offer to us. Not that we will stop
sinning, but that we through faith may find strength to face what is too
frightening, that in the midst of life’s challenges and tragedies we
may yet find a Savior—a deliverer, one who will rescue us from the
circumstances of life, the dysfunctions of our personality formation,
the pains and scar and wounds of others.
YES, that we may
find the savior, who in the midst of life’s crises will transfer us from
the flight of doom to the pathway of life—through the forgiveness of
sins, which is our only claim to fame, and our only source of victory. God has indeed rescued us from the power of darkness and
transferred us into the kingdom of his beloved son, in whom we have
redemption, the forgiveness of sins. Through faith the realization of
this new life emerges in us and among us. Amen.
“Weathering Great Controversy” Studies in the Gospel of John, #16
John 7:27-29; 37-39
(27) But we know where this man is from. Yet when the real Christ comes, no one will know where he comes from.”
(28) Jesus, teaching in the Temple, cried out, “Yes, you know me, and you
know where I am from. But I have not come by my own authority. I was
sent by the One who is true, whom you don’t know. (29) But I know him, because I am from him, and he sent me.”
(37) On the last and most important day of the feast Jesus stood up and
said in a loud voice, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. (38) If anyone believes in me, rivers of living water will flow out from
that person’s heart, as the Scripture says.” (39) Jesus was talking about
the Holy Spirit. The Spirit had not yet been given, because Jesus had
not yet been raised to glory. But later, those who believed in Jesus
would receive the Spirit.
Judges 7:1ff
(7) Then Jerubbaal
(that is, Gideon) and all the troops that were with him rose early and
encamped beside the spring of Harod (fear-Phobus); and the camp of
Midian was north of them, below the hill of Moreh, in the valley.
(2) The Lord said to Gideon, “The troops with you are too many for me to
give the Midianites into their hand. Israel would only take the credit
away from me, saying, ‘My own hand has delivered me.’ (3) Now therefore
proclaim this in the hearing of the troops, ‘Whoever is fearful and
trembling, let him return home.’” Thus Gideon sifted them out;
twenty-two thousand returned, and ten thousand remained. (4) Then the
Lord said to Gideon, “The troops are still too many; take them down to
the water and I will sift them out for you there. When I say, ‘This one
shall go with you,’ he shall go with you; and when I say, ‘This one
shall not go with you,’ he shall not go.” (5) So he brought the troops
down to the water; and the Lord said to Gideon, “All those who lap the
water with their tongues, as a dog laps, you shall put to one side; all
those who kneel down to drink, putting their hands to their mouths, you
shall put to the other side.” (6) The number of those that lapped was
three hundred; but all the rest of the troops knelt down to drink water. (7) Then the Lord said to Gideon, “With the three hundred that lapped I
will deliver you, and give the Midianites into your hand. Let all the
others go to their homes.” (8) So he took the jars of the troops from
their hands, and their trumpets; and he sent all the rest of Israel back
to their own tents, but retained the three hundred. The camp of Midian
was below him in the valley. (9) That same night the Lord said to him, “Get up, attack the camp; for I have given it into your hand.
Jesus found himself to be the center of controversy. It appeared that
the Jesus movement was falling apart. After he preached, “Unless you
eat my flesh and drink my blood, you have no life in you,” many and
perhaps most of his disciples left him. He decided to stay in Galilee
because of death threats against him in Judea. Even his own brothers
did not believe in him. This is the first challenge to discipleship.
If you get serious with Jesus, you will lose some friends. If you get
serious with Jesus, there will be some family members, and even some
church members who may be less excited to be in your company. When you
get serious with Jesus you become strange and different to most people,
because like Jesus brothers, most people’s loyalty is not to God and
God’s will but to the world. So when you start living by God’s will,
ordering your behavior, your thoughts, your opinions, your decisions by
the Word of God, by the leading of God in your life, you will find that
family is not so much like family any more, friends are not so much like
friends anymore, and the clique and the crowd and the folks who live by
“what other people think” will have less and less to do with you.
Even in the church, even among Jesus’ so-called brothers, the family of
God, we find that people miss God’s motives. His brothers assumed he
wanted to be in the limelight. You need to go to Judea they told him,
perform some more miracles if you want to gain a following.
If we are here today because we want to be in the limelight, if we are
here because we want our gifts and skills and talents to be recognized,
if we are here because we are convinced that the world and the church
cannot do without us, then we have the wrong motives, are going in the
wrong direction, and may be following one or several idol gods.
This is what the Lord of heaven and earth spoke through Jesus concerning the spiritual mindset:
“If anyone would come after me, he or she must deny themselves, take up
their cross and follow me. Whoever seeks to save her or his life shall
lose it, but he who surrenders his life for the kingdom of God will
find it. For what does it profit a man if he gain the whole world, but
lose himself (Luke 9:23ff)?”
We don’t want to end up like
Jesus’ brothers. They had heard the word. They had been with Jesus for
most of their lives, but they had not received the Christ. They had
not taken him in by faith. Jesus said to them, “I’m not going right
now. It is not my time. It is not yet time for me to do what God wants
me to do, give my life in exchange for your life, so that you, through
faith, might inherit the righteousness of God as the child of God. You
can do whatever you want and go whenever you want because you have yet
to surrender your life to God."
Jesus was guided by God.
They were guided by their own self-interests, or the crowd, or what
people think is acceptable, or the need to be in the limelight with
their brother Jesus. The problem with their time is precisely that it
was theirs and not God’s.
As disciples of Christ, we live in accordance with God’s time.
This sermon is very critical for our discipleship, our walk with
Christ, because in this chapter Jesus addresses the issues of faith and
fear, thinking, seeing, hearing, and feeling verses believing.
To believe on him is to accept his Word, for indeed Christ is the Word
made flesh. So the good news, the message of Jesus, the witness of
Jesus, the death and resurrection of Jesus, and our believing, our
eating this flesh and drinking this blood, is what rescues us from the
great storms of life and from the world and our commitment to the world
as a storm against our very souls.
We do not get God’s will by
thinking, by feeling, by seeing, by following the lead of others. When
God called Adam and Eve in the garden they were naked. They did not
need anything—they did not need things, because they had God. And if
you have God you never need anything.
If you go after things you will go further and further away from God.
If you let your intellect, your thinking be the final authority in your faith you will go further and further away from God.
If you let your experience, your feelings, dictate your faith you will miss God’s will entirely.
Through faith we receive God’s direction in our lives the same way
Jesus did, through God’s revelation. God reveals himself to us. No man
can come to me unless it is given to him by my Father. For those who
believe, all that we receive from God, our guidance, the direction of
our prayers, our decisions over the most minute as well as the most
profound matters, comes from God.
Gideon had 32,000 men as he
led Israel against the great Midianite army. His troops were camped at
the spring of Harod. This is a transliteration of the Hebrew, which in
Greek means “phobius” or fear. They were afraid. It was not just the
number that was the problem, but that they, in spite of having more than
enough troops, were still afraid. So what does God do? God tells them
that in spite of the storm, the conflict they face, in spite of the
fact that they are already afraid, their biggest problem is that they
have too many troops.
So God said to Gideon, take a poll. If
anyone is afraid, send them home. At that juncture 22,000 left the
camp and returned home.
When we stop depending on the
physical things, the money, our intellect, our abilities, our good
looks, our persuasive speech, and depend totally on God, not only is our
faith increased, but our power is increased.
We are no
longer depending on our power but on God’s power. Ten thousand troops
remained out of the 32,000. God came to Gideon again, “This is still
too many. If they win this battle with 10,000 men, they will say that
the victory came from themselves and not from God, so take them to the
water. Everyone who is well cultured and cups their hands to drink from
the spring of fear put them to one side. Then all those who bend down
and lap the water with their tongues like dogs put to the other.
Then God commanded, send those who were so cultured and polished in
their behavior home. They are too smart, too cultured, too skilled, to
be a part of this victory. Keep the 300 bumpkins who lapped water like a
dog.” Verse 9 of Judges 7 tells us: 9 “That same night the Lord
said to him, “Get up, and attack the camp; for I have given it into your
hand.”
Faith is the only appropriate response the Christ.
There is no failure in God. There is failure in fear. Fear will have
you depend on how much money you have to deal with the crisis.
Fear will have you depend on how much credit you have.
Fear will have you not even going for job interviews because the devil
and perhaps friends and family have convinced you that you don’t have
what it takes. And if you do go, not trusting God but living in your
fear, you will say with your body language, I’m not good enough to buy
this house. I’m not good enough to make a proposal of marriage. I’m
not good enough to work at this company. I’m not good enough to try out
for this competition. I’m not good enough to apply for this program.
Fear rules when we depend on our own resources and forget that because
of our faith in the Christ of God in our lives, we can do all things,
because he, and not we, not they, not them strengthens us.
Jesus goes to the Feast of Tabernacles on his own terms, not with his
brothers and reveals himself on the last day of the feast. “I am the
living water. I am the light of the world. I AM.” The Feast of
Tabernacles is a weeklong feast held in September or early October. It
is a Thanksgiving feast for Israel. This feast was given to remind them
of the need to totally depend on God.
Another feature of the
feast was a series of water libations offered each morning,
commemorating the provision of water in the wilderness. Jesus gave a
new revelation at this feast:
“Let anyone who is thirsty come
to me and drink. 38 If anyone believes in me, rivers of living water
will flow out from that person’s heart, as the Scripture says.” 39 Jesus
was talking about the Holy Spirit.
Similarly, during the
feast lamp-lighting ceremonies took place in the temple each day,
commemorating God’s pillar of fire which guided them during their
wilderness wanderings. Jesus’ gave the new revelation, “I am the light
of the world.”
This is the victory that overcomes our fear.
This is the victory that overcomes our dependence on the opinions and acceptance of others.
This is the victory that even overcomes our own doubts.
This is the victory that overcomes the storm.
This is the victory over the turmoil.
This is the victory over the conflict.
This is the victory that overcomes the world, even our faith.
“Do your best to come to me quickly, for Demas has forsaken me for love
of this present world, he has deserted me and has gone to Thessalonica,
Crescens has gone to Galatia and Titus to Dalmatia. Only Luke is with
me. Get Mark and bring him with you because he is helpful to me in my
ministry.”
We don’t get
spiritual stuff using our senses. The Bible teaches us that our minds,
forever tainted by the Tree of Knowledge, which are filters for what we
see, what we think, what we feel, what we hear, what we dream, what we
imagine, can and will betray us.
Unaided by the Spirit of God
and the mediating revelation of the Spirit known as the Word of God, we
are incapable of recognizing and discerning God’s truth. That is why
we cannot be moved by what we see, what we think, what we hear, what we
smell, what we fear.
If we are to enjoy our inheritance, to
live to the praise of his glory, we must be ever guided by the word of
truth, the gospel of our salvation. Paul writes to the Ephesian church
that it is this and this alone which enables us to be sealed by the Holy
Spirit of promise.
Jesus was now in full throttle. He was
laying it out on the line for all who would hear. Those who believe in
me, who connect with me, have eternal life. He did not say that we
would have eternal life. He said if we connect with him in faith, we
have eternal life. I am the bread of life--The Living Bread--The bread
that does not mold--The bread that does not get stale--The bread that
never ends. Jesus flesh and blood--Jesus’ spiritual life.
We
cannot have life unless we eat his flesh and drink his blood. The
flesh, the bread he offers us is his very life for our life. His
suffering and pain to remove our suffering and pain. His desecration on
the cross to free us from the sting of death to live an eternal life,
whose quality is everlasting. No decay. Only growth. No limits, only
possibilities.
His blood is that which cleanses us from sin
and guilt, from fear and failure. It is a sign of a new relationship
between God and us. So we must eat his flesh, drink his blood; we must
appropriate the saving merit of His blood. John Wesley taught and
believed that the Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper is a spiritual
reminder, of our taking of Christ into our lives.
Jesus
continued to explain to them and to us the importance of feeding on the
Christ of God. (56) Whoever feeds on me shall live because of me.
Whoever feeds on me lives in me and I live in her and him (58) Whoever
feeds on me shall live forever.
But many missed it. Many tried
to understand Jesus words using their natural senses. Many were not in
tune, not open, not willing, not ready. The focus on things, on power,
on people we perceive to be more important than ourselves--the idolatry
of this world, and the things in this world, prevent us from getting
the spiritual meaning.
“Demas has abandoned me for love of this
present world. Only Luke is with me. Get Mark—because he his helpful
to me in my ministry. Those who love the world will desert the ranks
sooner or later. They may still appear to walk with Jesus. They may
sit in the pews of churches.
In Matthew 15:7-9, Jesus quoted
the prophecy of Isaiah 29:13, concerning those who would have a
temporary and/or counterfeit response to the Christ:
“Ye hypocrites, well did Isaiah prophesy of you saying, ‘This people draweth nigh to me with their mouth, and honoreth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me. In vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.’”
Will there continue to be desertion in the ranks? Yes there will. As
long as we embrace idols, both in the world and in the church, we will
desert our first love, we will miss and ignore the Spirit’s pleading.
We will end up forever taking notes, instead of taking note of the
savior’s claim and place in our lives.
Living in accordance
with dictates and ideas of human beings, of those who think they are
power brokers both in the church and in the world, keep us ever
separated from the life that is in Christ and Christ alone. Avoid and
ignore the clique leaders, the bullies, those who intimidate and
threaten for your loyalty both in the church and in the world. They can
only bring a sword where there should be peace. They can only produce
death where there should be life.
There need be no desertion
in the ranks. We just need to know where our food, our nourishment, our
life, our living, our joy, our security is to be—on Christ and Christ
alone. (66) And many of his disciples turned back and walked no
longer with him. (67) So Jesus said to the Twelve, “Do you want to go
away as well?” (68) Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we
go? You have the words of eternal life, (69) and we have believed, and
come to know, that you are the Christ of God.”
Paul wrote to
Timothy (2 Tim 1:12) “But I am not ashamed for I know whom I have
believed, and I am convinced that He is able to guard against that day,
all that I have entrusted to him.”
On Christ the solid rock we stand. All other ground. All other ground. All other ground is sinking sand.
