Inland Empire: Riverside
Abundant Life 2 Part 1 - Audio
Turn your Bibles over to John chapter one if you want good morning church Look at all you bright shining disciples out there this morning. Hey, man. Hey, man We're gonna have a great day. I love the book of John I pray that that could be contagious towards you this morning I hope that also one of my goals and prayers is that Through a time of teaching like this a workshop where we really dive into God's word It could motivate and inspire you and encourage you and ignite you to be a student of God's word It's what will sustain you some of us have a bit around for over 30 years I started in the movement in 1977 and I'm here today and What's this has sustained me is God's word? Through all the vicissitudes of the kingdom and the ups and downs of life and the challenges and the aging and all that stuff All the victories and some defeats God's word has sustained me and we're to see that this morning It is our bread. It is our food and the gospel of John is the unique gospel the other three are called the synoptics Gospels they go through a chronological order of Jesus life and yet John decided to write one that's different He decided to write one to the Hellenistic mind of the day to those people that were influenced by the conquering hero of Alexander the Great who conquered the known world and Hellenized inflicted in in some ways an infused Greek culture in the society the world view at that time When John wrote when the disciples began the movement of Jesus Christ or part of was a Hellenistic mindset All right, and so this book is so important to see how culture and faith Blend together and if we don't ever get in tune with it culture if we don't understand how people are looking at things The lens in which they interpret things then we're not gonna be able to truly affect them and get deep We'll just stay on the superficial. That's why some people will take root for a while or become Christians the seed will be planted But won't have root and won't grow up spiritually and so John was the last Apostle to live he died as many of you know on the island of Patmos They tried to martyr him as they had all the other apostles. They boiled him in oil But he hadn't written the book of Revelation yet. So God said I can't take you and I think John was saying take me Take me. I'm burning up. I'm scarred. I'll never be the same I want to die here in this soil. I want to be a martyr like everybody else all the other apostles get to be martyrs I want a white robe in heaven. I want to be a martyr. That says no, you got to write some more All right, and so he wrote the book of Revelation, but that was about 90 A.D. This was written most scholars believe between 75 and 85 I think 75 is a good date for the book of John it's the last gospel written and So it has them very interesting things We're gonna divide up our time today between in three parts 45-minute shots you get a break You don't just get to hear the the the the ski Meister just for the next three hours. I I Mean you'd all be just rolling out of your chairs. Just you know Dead by then so we'll take breaks and this first one We're just going to see John one through four. Jesus is the Son of God next slide and I'm not gonna I'm not gonna Probably say that all along. I will probably just encourage you to Do you want me to do it? Okay, I'll do it Because I don't like to say next slide. I'd rather just say next slide. All right Now this is the theme that I shared with you last night, so but guys We know this we've heard this sometimes. It's good to read from the message Bible. I Was in a house church in Lincoln a couple weeks ago a brother was struggling from stuff stuff and we're starting to move on He confessed some things and different people shared with him and then we were moving on and assisted said Can we go back a minute kind of verse one share with the brother? So no, you want to share a verse with the brother? Okay, go ahead and she bust out the message Bible You know from James one about all how we have got to go through trials and they come from God and it was All of a sudden brightened up said that's God talking to me And so sometimes we get a little bit dulled by the same translation So but guys this is the reason Jesus John wrote this book so that we believe in Jesus and have life All right Jesus is the son of God John 3 16, you know it, you know I'm not that huge a max locator fan probably I am to a degree because I know him But you know his book John 3 16 is a good book. It's a good book. How many of you read it? All right got a few readers in here the rest of you, you know exercise that ability otherwise you you know why I started reading Because I was a hit from Western Colorado and you would have gotten very discouraged by my grammar back then You know I just talked the way that our household talked and it wasn't very good English I'm telling you and so I had to learn to talk more correctly I still don't do great, but it's much better than it would have been. All right, so diving right in here The book of John has a lot of different ways to look at it And so I'm gonna give you different glasses today You're gonna get several sets of glasses and nobody likes glasses because you know people sort of make fun of you That you're nerdy and even when you get glasses you try to get the hippest ones You know you can always tell somebody that loves their glasses, but they were sort of 80s models and now we're in the you know a different century even but you know Different lenses help you look at things and one of the ways to look at the book of John is Throughs this signs and sermons signs and sermons signs and sermons the sign just points to the sermon and the sermon teaches us something significant All right a lot of people love the book of John because all the signs all the images all the metaphors All right, but they're just a point is to truth They're to set us up and so we'll see these signs and we'll see the wonders and then there's seven of them The first one water to wine. We're gonna get into that the first six pack in the Bible And they were big cans I mean they were really pottery jars of about five gallons and there were wine So it was a high alcohol content, but there were six of them. All right, and Jesus made that But it really represents the transition from old covenant to new covenant John chapter 4 the healing of the nobleman son All right, and that's just a lesson on salvation We'll see that when we get to that chapter chapter 5 the healing of the paralytic the best sermon i've ever heard About that chapter John Tom Brown gave our one of our sister churches in Atlanta Tom was my campus minister and boulder And he it was entitled. Do you want to get well? I'm going to share that with you. This is that's a great Great lesson, but it talks about the freedom we have in christ john chapter 6 the feeding of the multitude All right the spiritual picnic. All right, it's about the abundant life john chapter 6 the walking on water to the power of faith You and I got to believe deep down our souls at times we can walk on water Without so you're going to sink and you're going to get overwhelmed with life There's times when you got to believe that God's going to lift you up above your problems above your pain above your herd Above your circumstances above the turmoil above the chaos above the crisis and he can and he does And that this this passage teaches us and that's not just pine the sky stuff. That's God's power in life That's why we became christians because we couldn't do it on our own We admit it. We need help god We need help. We're not the smartest. We're not the strongest. We're not the you know the prettiest. Oh my god That's true of me, you know And even with steroids, we're not the strongest. All right Somebody got real quiet. You've been messing with that stuff Power of faith John chapter 9 site to the blind that's the light light darkness and john chapter 11 We'll get to that resurrection. That's another reason I became a christian. All right And there's seven i.m. statements All right I'll try not to say all right all the time If I don't say all right end up saying, you know, I mean I got I got this verbal crutch and and You know, I just can't handle dead air can't fit those pauses. So I just fill it in with noise, you know And college students love to sort of pick on me about it. They'll sit there and you know in that sermon used that, you know 35 times So so you didn't hear much did you I Seven i.m. statements john chapter 6 the bread of life It's it's about bread, but it's really about the lordship of jesus And that's why they left we'll get to that john chapter 8 the light of the world. It's jesus's priest We need someone to be our sacrifice for sins. We need someone Going to god for us. We need someone that can go into the holy of holies We we need someone that can give us the the knowledge of the supernatural the beyond the god And you guys are a long way from death, but I tell you when you start getting close to death You want to know what's out there? What's beyond where am I going? Who's going to take me there? And is it good or is it bad? All right I watch people hang on for weeks and weeks because they can't die because they don't have any faith Yes My daughter hates me to say this but hey when i'm about to go just pull the plug let me go don't spend any money I know where i'm going and i'm ready and i'm on my way All right 90 percent of health care, you know i welcome this a little bit political i'll tell you when it's my opinion I'll tell you when it's scripture. Okay. I'm not like professors that try to tell you it's all truth All right, i'll tell you when it's when it's just my opinion take for what it's worth But you know our problem with health care is 90 percent of health care is spent in the last two weeks of life If people would just let people go Medicine cannot do miracles in fact they only have a you know a limited number of technique It's so amazing working on hospital. You think they can do anything. They just do the same thing over and over and it's just a couple of things It's amazing Just go Let them go all right But get them ready to go before you do that's why you're in this class. All right, amen The bread of life the light of the world john 10 the door in the gate Jesus is the gate that means he's the judge You might not like how he judges, but how he judges is how he judges and by the word of god will be judged And so you you can't make up your own rules Oh, I think they're saved. Why do you think that? Well, I have this vast experience and I have this depth of feeling and emotion and I love people and I just think they're a good person not to go to heaven Well, when you create a world you can be the judge You can judge your ants all you want you can have an ant farm you can judge them all all right But god judges this one Through jesus christ and he tells us how he's going to judge And i'd like to change it. I have loved ones that won't make it unless they repent and change But we're not the judge right You come to judge you guys don't remember that song that dates me As back in the 50s or 60s those were the good old days I was just a kid toddler all right John 11 resurrection and life. Jesus is our savior john 14 white truth in life. Jesus is the prophet the guy at us and john 15 Jesus is the vine That means he's our media or someone's got to plead our case Say, you know That's the truth. That's the law. That's how he should be judged But jesus is the one that can't advocate for us and everybody needs someone to believe in us It's why I love the book of hebers My my theme of hebers is the the meet the robinson's theme Just keep going That's that's the theme of hebers just keep going All right, but the way you keep going is you have a brother that sympathizes with you in your weakness You have a you have a you have a lord that knows how you feel And guys when you really are hurting nobody knows how you feel even your b bff all right There's only one real bff best friend forever Jesus I hope I got that right. I don't know that I don't text that way I got I got a blackberry where I can still write whole sentences And continue to practice my good English. All right And we work on a race a generation you guys. I mean it's all going to be a new language here soon, you know And but anyway, I'm not going to pick on you on that. All right Because I want you to listen to me. I don't want you to turn me off and not like me and get mad. All right No, you're not that fickle are you? If you are shame on you and I'm going to convict you before the end of the day Here's the outline of the gospel of john. Oh, I'm the one that needs to do that. All right There's just so much to do up here You know and my dad's already made fun of me. All right. Good thing. I'm not an insecure person. He says, yeah You look like an old foggy, you know the the the In Nebraska We just melted Four four feet of snow melted from my friend. I would just think it should I bring long sleeves for their short I'm glad I brought a short sleeve shirt. You know, I mean you think we're a long way away from you guys out there in Corn land. All right So, um, I don't care what Doug thinks All right Because I only care what God thinks And that's all you she care about. I know you care about what Mike thinks, but care more about what God thinks, all right? Yeah, I've always been accused of hyper spiritual haven't I? Yeah Now don't distract me hush john japper the outline of gospel of john John one through four and I this is true John is trying to get across Jesus as the son got I was walking in with the one the sister. She said her professor You know talking about holistic education. She's getting a master's and they're just sort of blending Buddhism and Hinduism There's such a syncret to the secret Tism going on in our society today of all the different religions as long as you believe these general things Well, I'm going to show you from the book of john that that's worthless and there's only one savior. All right And I don't say that to be exclusive. I don't say that to be a Rebellious politically incorrect person. I'm saying you because that's what's true and you're going to see why all right Jesus is the only son of god john five through 12. We're going to see that jesus is lord. He's lord of the sabbath He's lord of nature. He's lord of life He's lord and we're going to see that and then we're in those then then the third part today in 13 through 17 When you're really tired and you're wanting to go to lunch. I'm going to convict you about what to be What it's like to be a true to seven. All right can convict you how many inspire you all right Everybody thinks i'm a hatchet man. I'm i'm not i'm a teddy bear. That's why they gave me that fluffy bear. All right And then we looked at the cross last night from john 18 and 19 and uh tomorrow We're going to talk about resurrection john 20 and 21. So you're going to get the whole book this weekend. All right A pretty big casserole. All right, so you got to hang with me here. Here's the outline by chapter and You this this this is this is good stuff if you can get the clothesline then you can hang the clothesline All right, if you can get the structure then you can fill in underneath But if you never get the structure if you never get the storyline That's why some people go through classes and they take tests and they never got the big picture in the general concept So they're getting all this little stuff. They don't know where it fits and what category to put it in All right And a lot of times you learn all these elements when you're soft freshman and sophomore and then when you're juniors and seniors You get the big picture and you're like, why didn't they tell me that as a freshman? It would have all made sense then I've been so confused for years All right And some of you are confused for year after year like jake and have to go five six seven years to college all right so I love him. That's why I pick on your feet, you know, the only way you bond with people is through food fun and fighting No, it's brain theory. That's what food fun and fighting It's why some families they got to fight or they don't feel connected Some people they got to eat and they don't feel connected. Some people got to have fun And that's why we're gonna have fun today. All right, there's no food and you know, I'm done fighting I surrender and so let's uh, let's uh, have fun. All right Chapter one the incarnation we're we're not people in the incarnation We don't get that excited about christmas We don't have we don't focus on god becoming flesh and dwelling among us We're we're people of the cross our theology is deeply rooted in the cross and that's my fundamental theology deathburn resurrection. You'll you'll see that But the incarnation is what Hebrews is about what what john is about so that you can I you and I can connect with god The cross sometimes scares us away Last night. I knew it would be heavy. It was quiet harley and if you came up to anything to me, you know It wasn't your bet the best sermon you've ever heard, but you could have said something nice You could have faked it, but you know, you're just all introspective and you're heavy and it's you know That's why i'm so glad i got that one out of the way now we can build up and have fun All right, but you got to talk about sin and you got to get heavy and get serious and sober at times All right, so that was what that was about but being people of the incarnation is very important and the greeks Socrates puedo Aristotle they sought logos They sought wisdom they sought that knowledge that would transcend them. That's why buddha buddha buddha's that's what buddha's are trying to do too You know, that's what buddha's they're trying to do. All right Don't you i'd make up words this week All right So what buddha's they they want that that transcendent understanding that transcendent knowledge All right, and jesus comes along in one fell swoop and john says jesus is logos jesus is that knowledge above all knowledge And he is And he also says two other huge things in first chapter He tells us that he's full of two things grace and truth a church. It's full of truth Will convict you you'll be a dutiful solid soldierly christian But you'll be self righteous towards other people you'll judge other people It'll be harsh you'll get worn out you'll burn out you'll burn other people out But a church is full of grace Is going to be sentimental? mushy Sin's going to be rampant You know, it's cheap grace not real grace But a church is full of grace and truth is going to be healthy and whole and balanced God is both righteous and merciful God is both righteous merciful and faithful according matthew 23 verse 23 All right The Pharisees lack that why the conflict throughout the gospels back and forth this battle between jesus and the Pharisees because they couldn't strike the balance Some and they hardly ever were merciful except to each other through the good old boys club All right But there were always righteous and self righteous towards the people All right, we got to get that right balance. That's spiritual maturity All right, and I struggle with people confess do it and I should I really challenge his brother be convicted? Is he is he got it or should I show him mercy at this point? Was that the hardest confession he's ever spoken? Was that really tough bro share some things with me last night? I knew I'm probably one of the last people he wanted to admit his sin to took incredible humility. I respect him today immensely for sharing what he shared broke my heart, but I didn't want to weep because that would you know, I just I just wanted to love him and hug him and Be loved with flesh on it extend grace God riches at Christ's expense All right full of grace and truth chapter two. We better get through this here. Let's keep moving rocking and rolling reeling and rocking all right signs chapter two the first sign the water to wine What is a sign we're going to see the definition as we get there and this is really important and then he clears the temple We're gonna talk a little bit about worship this morning. You guys are okay. You guys have had some workshops We're really working on it in the Omaha church. The brothers sisters went to a workshop in Wichita last month They're going to a workshop in Kansas City this month Babiesmen's been out, you know, and I want to talk about the sacred and the proclaimed the profane there in chapter two chapter three being born again All good stuff. Do you get a start over you get the slate wipe clean. We'll go to that chapter four true worship The Samaritan woman true worship the kind the father seeks chapter five the war chip the paralytic killed and testimonies about Jesus being God in the flesh chapter six bread of life and he feeds the five thousand chapter seven He's still with me. You're looking up here. You're reading it along. All right stay with me now All right here. Here's one thing we sort of struggle struggle with how do people get doctor degrees? They learn to work hard mentally You know if we had a ditch that need dug outside Some of you would try to impress the rest of us that you're a hard worker And you dig until you just could almost fall over and you try to impress the sisters that that brother can cut it, man All right And you work hard physically But some of us we don't work hard mentally. We're lazy If if we if you know, it's a good day. We'll do our homework. We'll we'll do whatever we need to do You kind of learn to work hard mentally and it's for me. It's even harder work You know, I always thought I was a slow reader when you got a palah books. You got to read you become a fast reader You just you have to do it just like you got to get done with something You know, you push you work hard mentally. I'm going to challenge you today for three hours to work hard mentally I'm not going to apologize at this. These are I'm going to throw a lot of information at you It's going to be a lot You know because I'm going to challenge you to use the mind that God gives you Even though even if you're using most of the bible says we use about what 5% there's 95% wasted out there You know, that's that territory Wonder what's going on out there You know, who knows we'll get to heaven and find out all right Chapter eight lie to the world chapter nine light and darkness he heals the man born blind And that's one of the key stories in the gospel of john the man born blind and we're going to see a very Interesting aspect of that the good shepherd. Oh, I'm going to excite you about the good shepherd Oh, I got a good outline on the good shepherd You can't wait till we get the good the good shepherd. All right. You haven't heard this before all right This is a good polish mexican scholarship right there. All right All right chapter 11 People think as pollocks are dumb. You're going to see that in true, baby You know, you're going to see us mexicans. We we bring it. All right. We can flip it, baby We can flip it. All right Chapter 11 There's a resurrection and the life Oh, I love that story, especially for people who have anybody in here had someone they really love die Really loved them Man john chapter 11 is going to be your good stuff. All right chapter 12 the coronation jesus is trump and entry john chapter 13. Oh, I love that Washington feet feet are the ugliest part of a person's body I'm serious. Have you ever really just examined a foot I mean people that are podiatrist foot doctors. There's something wrong with them. There's a little you know You know And they're probably some guests here. Well, I'm not the regular minister. You know, don't don't blame the church for me All right chapter 14 peace Peace I'm the way the truth in life Any of you not peaceful this morning Full of angst full of anxiousness full of worry full of dread for the future Tell you without jesus yotta be The economy sucks You know Stinks, okay. I'll I'll say a better word. It's not good. All right It's not good all right I Mean we're gonna see peace this morning It's gonna be so many good things 15 fruit Remaining a christ 16 the holy spirit the perically to comfort her 17 per in unity 18 Nile Judas peter and pilot 19 crucifixion 20 resurrection 21 restoration. There's a memorize that All right It's on the website I you know, and I'll give you this somebody and you can make it for everybody else. All right So, but memorize that have that outline we studied the book of john with people. Do we know what we're teaching them? All right, do we have a guide? We have a map that's the outline you should get that you should memorize it It's all it's not that many points. All right, we can all do it. All right here are the motives motifs the motifs And some of the concepts in the book john that make it really unique this light darkness There's there's little innuendo of light darkness Nicodemus came at night When morning came jesus went so and so Read all the the inflection in this book about light and darkness and you'll see some It's it's gonna highlight something. That's important. We read over so much. It's not important You know, let us slow down and sort of see that motif. This cycles of signs and sermon the I am passages This is this is jesus said there's seven of them. There's more than that, but there's see seven complete ones He says I am several other times who in pilot challenged him. He said I am You know, you're the king of the jews you say I am But these seven are jesus saying i'm god The audacity a carpenter from nazareth All right I mean we're talking A town in california That hardly anybody's ever been to i've been a lot of top towns in california never been to eureka I hear they make vacuums there All right But you know, can anything good come out of eureka I'm sure there can i'm sure there's lots of good that's coming out of eureka All right But if someone from eureka said i'm god I am I am You like you hate Okay And jesus is saying I am It's good And life life life life life life all the way through the book beloved disciple why didn't john just say me It's sort of sort of you know, like one of these athletes is interviewed and you know And it's like well it speaks in the third person. I mean who are you talking about you you're right there You know Is there something wrong with your head you're describing somebody in your head I mean the third person's speech is a little weird you know And yet john does it and it's for literary effect to get our attention Okay, and sometimes it's for him to to express things In a humble way. He you know, he wants to say he beat peter in the footrace to the empty tomb But he doesn't want to say I didn't It's a disciple that jesus loved that outran that fat slow fisherman But then he has some humility and he says but When I got there first I was afraid to go into the tomb by myself, you know I'm a little afraid of the dark so the fisherman came in and he just went right in and then I followed him Well, no, I didn't follow him. I looked in and then I went And so it's good stuff knowledge jesus is logos. Let's read together turn your bible to john 1 1 through 5 in the beginning was the word That sound familiar in the beginning god created Turn your bible Hold your bible there and in a minute. We're going to go to proverbs 8 And i'm telling you now because my mind's running so fast and I don't want to forget to go to proverbs 8 in the beginning was the word And the word was with god and the word was god Is literally is in the beginning was the logos and the logos was with god and the logos was god The logos was with god in the beginning and through the logos all things were made without him Nothing was made that has been made in him was light And that life was light and without that life that logos there'd be darkness The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it turn back to proverbs chapter 8 And then this is this is a cool verse You can you can you can flip this one out on people sometimes And you know and say hey, did you know this is about jesus And logos No, I didn't know that I can see the ear of profit. Where should I go to church the la church or christ All right good All right Proverbs chapter 8 beginning of verse 22 The lord brought me forth as the first of his works Before his deeds of old I appointed from he I was appointed from eternity from the beginning before the world began verse 24 When there was no oceans I was given birth when there was no springs of bounding with water before the mountains were settled in place before the hills were given birth Before he made the earth or its fields or any of the deaths of the world I was there when he set the heavens in place when he marked out the horizon of the face of the deep When he established the clouds above and fixed securely the fountains of the deep When he gave the sea its boundary so the waters would not overstepped his command And when he marked out the foundation of the earth, then I was the what? The craftsmen the artists the creator the designer. That's jesus. That's logos. He's made the beauty for us All right. I was the craftsman at his side. I was filled with delight See, she is always delights in god the father All right He's he's god's biggest fan. He says I was filled with delight day after day rejoicing always in his pleasure And that's how we got to be pleasing god rejoicing at his whole world and delighting in man kind The wisdom that made the world that's jesus christ our lord. That's who Made everything that's beautiful in the world before the world was fallen That's the savior that you and I have and the next Thought and and chapter one and because there's so many chapters We're going to be cranking through this, but you're going to have several outlines I gave you a a little more in depth outline I went through I have very in depth outlines here that I just condensed So that we'd only have three hours together and there wouldn't be just this Mutiny and me talking to my daughter and she giving me that look dad. Let's go. Let's go Grace She's not doing that right now. I mean, you know if I didn't Convince it down Just still it all right grace and truth verse 14 the word became flesh And made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory the glory of the one and only Who came from the father full of grace and truth Are you full of grace and truth this morning? Through the people close to you feel grace I send out of the ministry in 2005 I devoted my life to the international churches of christ Help build the movement for 25 years And then I send And I was out of the ministry and you know, I thought I'd probably have hundreds maybe thousands of people extend grace to me We're not a very gracious group I love this group because mike is one of those people that really extended grace when I needed When I thought god had was done with me that I had said now that I was I was no good anymore That I was all Judas and I just a little bit of Judas Douglas didn't grace God on a plane and comes come to see me come to come to love me You know I'll never forget that time. I needed him. I wouldn't have made it. I'd have given up Would have been over. I thought my life was over Thought the day I confessed my sin. I I said for a few years. That's the day I died Thought I was over. I'm reborn, baby. All right I'm I'm is my comeback tour. All right All right, I'm back But I didn't I didn't think I was gonna come back Yeah so Be full of grace and truth. I'm trying to be that for other people Well, I was sure full of truth for well Really good bark All right, I'm gonna give you a give you an illustration tomorrow If the I'm holding it. I got to save it. It's just too good. I got a shared in church on Easter. All right verse 17 For the law was given and laws good corona realm is seven without the law. We wouldn't know what sin was All right, we didn't we wouldn't know we were separated for god. We wouldn't know was wrong We would just be it, you know ambiguous. We'd be confused But because of the law we can know what's right and what's wrong The law was given through moses but grace and truth Came through jesus Oh praise god. We live in the christian age You shut me down, huh? All right Well, I got another one. I'll play with this one Hello Well, I'll just talk loud I'm not yelling at you. I just want you to hear all right All right Okay full of grace and truth next slide All right full An acrostic focus on christ if you want to be full of grace and truth focus on christ All right Because he has the perfect balance always Focus on christ be unbound by law. You got to have respect law. You got to be convicted by law But you can't be a legalist poor brothers and sisters that are just found by law. They're just always guilty God didn't intend for you to live in guilt Jesus died for you to feel forgiveness For you to be able to throw off that weight and not constantly walk with it I mean some people are physically slumped over after a while because of the guilt And the shame look at old people you can tell their life stories sometimes by their posture poor things All right Because of the guilt unbound by law led by truth though. You love truth. You'll listen to truth You'll let truth cut you'll you'll let truth change you you'll be transformed by truth. All right I mean tell them preach. Come on. Give me some more of that truth. All right. You're almost there You've almost got down to my heart. You've almost got down to my soul. You've almost got through my heart thick stubborn mind Come on bring it on brother. We're sitting there Pack up You know don't be afraid embrace the truth love that truth. All right Hold the truth you with me there And you're saying crag. I'm not a football player. You talk like you're a coach No, I'm talking like I'm Something trying to help you fight an ugly from spiritual battle All right And sometimes that sounds like a general. Sometimes that sounds like a coach. Sometimes that just sounds off. All right All right led by truth loved by god's grace you know Gordon first and told me years ago said Greg always make mandy and Megan and kathy feel loved Whatever you do make him feel loved You know, I I uh Mandi wanted an easter basket my wife's the most thoughtful person. She made Everything special and she made these beautiful easter baskets for the girls growing up And mandy said dad's coming to town. He is he going to bring me my easter basket And i'm thinking oh my gosh. I got to stop over and dinner. I got to carry this easter basket through the airport And I mean it looked cool, but If if kathy was carrying it, it would be cool. Everybody would have come up Oh, who's that for if i'm carrying it? They're like that's gay man You know It's so I put it I put it in this bag that didn't squish it But covered it up and I got it here So I got a extra bag if you need it. I'll give it to you because i'm not taking a basket back. All right Amen Jesus is What is he? He's logos The word of god verse one the word that created the word of wisdom the word Guys, we we've got to become so jesus so we have wisdom so we have truth so we have understanding we have knowledge Let me tell you the truth most of us are just stupid We just don't know how to thank when i'm training people for the ministry Mostly all you do to train someone for the ministry is teach them to think Because Satan screws you up. You don't know how to think We think the way our parents thought And god bless our parents. They did the best that he could but what was their gold force for us to do better They don't want us to be like them. They want us to be more right And so we got to go beyond we got to think like jesus life Jesus in verse four verse 14. He's the son of man. He's the one and only son He's the flesh the glory of the one and only the glory Of the one and only when you see jesus. You should see the glory of god. Thank you. That's going to throw out the my voice All right Jesus is the glory of god. Hebrews one says In in the past god spoke in many various in different ways, but now he has spoken to us through his son who is the exact Radiance or representation of god's glory Some of you don't feel connected to god because you're not seeing the glory of christ Enough john tries to give that to us through words the light of life The must that really is a reference in the Hebrew mind anytime you hear light you think of messiah The lights that is going to come guide us out of the darkness the light like moses that Guided us through The red sea and through the desert the light of life All right, and in greek, it's the the christ or anointed when the true light verse 14 18 and 33 and 49 Uh in just this one chapter and just this one chapter is the lowest life light lord lamb of god All right He's trying to get across to us in the very first chapter the introduction to the old book This is who jesus is and this is awesome Everybody's looking for lows here. He is everybody's looking for what real life is here It is everybody's looking for light to guide their way the buddhist and then everybody else here It is and somebody's looking for someone to give them some leadership in their life. Oh lord It's going to give them some strength and that's what jesus is the son of god the one and only and someone To save them from sin the lamb of god The one moses predicted deuteronomy 18 15 and 18 you got to look at that verse the jus the hebrews Held that verse that was their massianic key verse The prophet is coming The prophet is coming The prophet is going to save us And that prophet according to john is jesus amen And you and i we look back can you imagine waiting and waiting and waiting Century after century after century for messiah And you getting to be in the age when he came or like us getting to look back and know the history and know who it is And not be lost. It's awesome And in this first chapter we're this is just one chapter. This is a rich chapter It he wants to get across the idea in the ancient world you needed three witnesses To prove something to be true And the ancient mind said they took Testimony for truth in our society in the modern world. The world view is empirical objective truth is what's Accurate and so we if you can do an empirical study or an empirical Experiment and it's consistent. It happens over and over then it goes from A hypothesis to a postulate to a truth. All right philosophically. That's how it works And so in our modern world We think we have a world view that defines truth as Experiment an experiment that continues to prove itself true All right And that doesn't always happen and so now we're in what's called a postmodern world But most of our world view is modern. That isn't what the world view was in jesus time They believe something was true. I mean absolutely unequivocally Unarguable true to live your life by if three people stated it And saw it All right, if you had three witnesses So john starts off this book and says i've got eight ten. How many you want? All right I got a lot more than three. I got john the bad to say and this is the son of god I got andrew saying this is the christ. I got philip saying it I got an an annual saying I say jesus saying it about himself the apostle john saying it creation says it and the spirit god says it himself So, you know, we read over that I read over the all the there's there's a couple of lists in john of witnesses And I always thought this is sort of boring. Why does he care? I know john's believed in jesus I believe I know the apostles believed in jesus. He's telling us This is true All right And to the ancient reader that's like whoa Maybe I better listen to this. Maybe this is big. Here's the definition of a sign. All right Points to something else and describes something beyond Signs are something that points beyond itself to something greater Wine is a symbol of joy The signs in the gospels are to point us to god and to confirm the deity of christ What did these guys testify andrew said jesus is the messiah the christ philip said jesus is the One moses the prophets wrote about nithaniel said rabbi You're the son of god king of israel john said jesus is a lamb of god to take away sin and jesus baptism in the holy spirit and jesus is the son of god jesus cleared the temple in chapter chapter two also All right, and I want to want to hit hit on this because we're too casual Last sunday. I was embarrassed. We had this little girl that during communion got up from her seat and walk from the back of the church To the front to give her little friends up and then walk back Then that sunday and I we had another service our our youth college service with big city She did the same thing caught up not even there it came just gets up walks down there And she's cute and I know mom sitting back there thinking in my daughter cute She's just so cute. Yeah, and the proverb says your kids are foolish and that's why you got to train them and discipline them The kids are full of folly and that was foolish to distract us Because when we come together as one this is sacred space In our church, we have bible class 930 to 1030 and then from 1030 to 1145 We have service and we have our kids except for the babies and the toddlers in there Because I want to teach our kids what it means to come and worship And I want to teach parents to teach their kids. This is quiet time It says in your time. We don't worship you kid We worship god and you're going to learn to sit there and shut up and learn what's sacred Because there's going to be a time in your life. You got to sit there and shut up Before judges We had one of our our poor members Raised four awesome kids that got married They're just awesome kids and they have a fifth that got sentenced to 49 years in jail Gosh Two weeks ago. It was tough Worst day of their lives tried to help them through this stuff I was very proud of him though. He's taking responsibility You know, he just showed that judge the greatest respect. Yes, sir. No, sir Yes, I did And the judge must have asked him I was getting upset probably 10 times over and over And I'm sure he's just covering himself so that there can't be any appeal Do you understand these charges you understand but what's happening by pleading guilty? And I just want to say I mean you just drilled this kid you pounded him You've just broken him. He's crushed He's admitted it But you know, I kid learned from his parents when to submit to authority He wasn't sitting there with some punk attitude All right, and you and I got to teach there's a sacred time. There's a god almighty with all authority And we got to learn to worship we're not we can we can We've learned to praise worship because we go to football games sporty events. We could be hyper But you get tired being hyper Jesus consumed with zeal for god's house It says they're in john too Psalm 69 verse 9 zeal for your house will consume you the temple was to be the house of prayer not a house not a market And so jesus overturned the temple. He was he was Angry about the extortion of the pilgrims making money off the people Five points of worship. We only got a couple more people you hanging with me. You're working hard mentally. I'm working hard I'll work harder. All right Five points of worship. This is just an aside. I think worship should have these five points praise And it's from the lords per our father who aren't in heaven halloween halloween praise I'm not down on praise worship. I need it. I love it when the church is up before I preach All right, then my goal is just not to take them down most of the time In the old days I got up trying to preach. I had to pick the church up and then preach now with praise worship. They're already up It's awesome. All right Secondly the preaching thy kingdom come thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven May you reign on earth may preaching inspire move challenge excite a movement to move To change the world. Why am I a minister? I got my focus on that this week telling these kids that have come to town I'm a I'm a good hippie All right, I was raised in the 60s. I'm not a drug hippie. I'm not a sex hippie. I'm a god hippie The hippies looked at the world said this this is not good We can't trust government. We can't trust anybody. This isn't good And they protest and some have said where this isn't good and we're gonna fix it And we're not gonna fix it politically. We're not gonna fix it You know in other ways socially we're gonna fix it spiritually because that's the only way to really fix something And this movement guys look at our history. We're started by a bunch of god hippies All right, and I'm trying to look for the rest of the god hippies in our movement All right, is there another generation of god moving people? Mission people are going to change things All right, are we just a good happy church getting married and babies getting old Diane going to heaven And not taking too many people with us Let's get some crowns with jewels on it Even people are still lost People hurt and people are praying every day lord leave me leave me to the light Prayer Give us the stay our daily breath. We're totally depending on god. I don't know what your contribution is But it describes how Grateful you are to god How much you know your daily bread your job And i'm hearing about people that have been at jobs for a long time losing over I'm not taking it for granted praise god for daily bread. Amen The presence of god that's what communion is forgive us our sins not sons Yeah, forgive our sons too, but i don't have any so that's easy to pray Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who have sinned against us Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil That's that's communion and purpose though worship as a purpose to save For yours is the kingdom and the glory forever and ever amen john three We're almost done John three here's the outline new spirit Gotta be born again nick nick edemus new faith no longer the teaching of moses We're moving on. It's now. Jesus is the son of god All right new heart though light dart and she's got to repent you got to come to light You got to overcome your fear and let that let god let everyone see That that the deed you did were evil and then new lord john the baptist all through every gospel Is telling this jesus is the son of god He's not but jesus is he's the groom. Oh, yeah. I can't say that. I got to move on worship promise This is chapter four another outline promise The living water that's what jesus promised the samaritan woman and this is this that's a chapter about prejudice and Overcoming barriers to it's a great bible talk. You've probably heard it amen, but the promise is i'm going to give you Living water that wells up in your soul to eternal life. You know how you're going to get to heaven God's going to put something in you a seed of helm And it's going to grow up into salvation take you to heaven amen And so The promise of the holy spirit the price though is to be a true worshiper All right, who worshiped the thirsty the tired the hungry and the promises you'll be filled You're tired come to jesus If you're tired and you're hungry come to jesus be a true worshiper But the purpose as jesus said his purpose was what my food is to do the will of him who sent me And if i was a who fed him Where'd he get lunch? We went in town to buy lunch He's out here talking to a woman. Can you believe who he's talking to? This is a bad woman She's probably trying to proposition our lord. We needed to run her off Right and jesus loved her and she became the person that saved the whole town You know when i go on campus to share my faith i'm looking for that woman That if i we convert her at my in my campus ministry when i started the university car her name was penny kneel after about Five years tom brown shared a sermon and said okay Penny was converted she converted this person this person and put this person the first year and then they converted There was a whole line of folks And the next year penny converted this person this person this person the whole universe and by the time we drew the spiritual tree of penny kneel It encompassed the whole ministry It was amazing I mean in some ways i owe my soul to jesus quiet blonde sweet disciple in the san francisco church Because she changed it changed us all The same the most all ministers are just domino effect guys You convert the person that just brings the rest of them. Amen The purpose true food harvest and the praise they're filled with jesus five point worship. All right praise preach prayer presence power i like peace don't i Spirit of how do you worship in spirit of truth? All right, that's the outline again, but it's worship. Okay And now Wrapping up jesus is the son of god. Why these four four chapters say he's unique because he came from heaven He came to die and to be a sacrifice for your sins The miracles with jesus in the book of john confirmed that he was sent by god. Hebrews two verse four says that and so what is our response Do you believe with all of your heart? Do we only we only ask it if that says let's ask it over and over do you believe that jesus christ is the son of god? He died for your sins and god raised him from the dead. Do you believe that jesus christ is the son of god? Oh that that's the anchor for your soul All right And does jesus life inspire you are you motivated to love jesus? Let's say a quick prayer god father. Thank you for your word. Thank you for these students of your words Thank you for these disciples that are taking time Out of their schedule to do what's most important and that's to know you better bless them for that lift them up in christ name We pray amen We'll take a 10-minute break. All right All righty You You You You You
The 1st of three parts of Session 2 in a lesson given by Gregg Marutzky; Easter 2010