Freedom From Resentment

Freedom From Resentment

INTRODUCTION:

John 1:43-51 (NKJV)

43 The following day Jesus wanted to go to Galilee, and He found Philip and said to him, “Follow Me.” 44 Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. 45 Philip found Nathanael and said to him, “We have found Him of whom Moses in the law, and also the prophets, wrote—Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.”

46 And Nathanael said to him, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?”

Philip said to him, “Come and see.”

47 Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward Him, and said of him, “Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom is no deceit!”

48 Nathanael said to Him, “How do You know me?”

Jesus answered and said to him, “Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you.”

49 Nathanael answered and said to Him, “Rabbi, You are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!”

50 Jesus answered and said to him, “Because I said to you, ‘I saw you under the fig tree,’ do you believe? You will see greater things than these.” 51 And He said to him, “Most assuredly, I say to you, hereafter you shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.”

Beginning in 1:35 John's Gospel tells the story of Jesus calling His disciples. In John's story of Jesus, the first two disciples that followed Jesus were first students of John the Baptist. They accept the message of their teacher John. We should be open to Jesus calling us beyond where we have been or what we have done before. Your relationship with God should not be stagnant, but progressively moving onward "further in and further up."

One of these disciples was Andrew. He was instrumental in finding Peter who would later be the leader of the disciples and be the one who would preach the first message of the newly born church on the day of Pentecost. Peter accepted the testimony of his brother. We should never discount what God may be doing in someone's life which we tell about Him.

As the story progresses Jesus finds Philip and calls him to follow Him. Philip then finds Nathaniel. Nathaniel, unlike the other disciples in the first chapter of John, does not accept the testimony of anyone. He is a critic. He is the type of person who tells the truth (as he sees it). There is a ring of cynicism, skepticism, and resentment in his words. Yet, his encounter with Jesus moves him from where he is to a place of freedom. Freedom From Resentment.

MOVEMENT ONE:

For some people, it is hard to love Jesus. When a person grows up in a religious environment where they are never shown the grace and mercy of God in their formative years and God is portrayed as a tyrant it can be hard to convince someone otherwise when they grow up. When parents who profess to be Christians do not model the fruit of the Spirit in their homes where their children's concepts of life are being shaped and even worse when their children are neglected or abused by those parents, it can be hard for those children to ever see God as loving or caring or kind. Yeah...

For other people, it is hard to love Jesus because He is a kind and forgiving God. They may have experienced the deepest types of suffering in life and then heard about a God who loves and forgives even the worst of sins. They can't love Jesus for the same reasons that Jonah distanced himself from God by fleeing to Tarshish. Jonah had experienced the atrocities of the Ninevites. The Ninevites were the radical terrorists of the Ancient Near Eastern world. They were Israel's enemies and oppressed and attacked Jonah's people. Jonah even tells the truth about it in his closing remarks when God decides not to destroy Nineveh. He says, "Didn’t I say before I left home that you would do this, LORD? That is why I ran away to Tarshish! I knew that you are a merciful and compassionate God, slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love. You are eager to turn back from destroying people. Just kill me now, LORD! I’d rather be dead than alive if what I predicted will not happen" (Jonah 4:2 NLT). You may not be a professing atheist, but you can be a practical one by distancing yourself from God because of your anger because He has not seemed to bring the justice that you want to a particular situation...

For still other people it is hard to love Jesus because of what His word requires. There may be things that we are unwilling to part with and Jesus demands complete surrender. And then there are those who have just experienced the suffering that is a part of being human and they are resentful that life has played out the way it has. Resentment is such a powerful thing. The dictionary defines it as "bitter indignation at having been treated unfairly."