What Is This Life That Is Being Offered.
John 1:1-9 (NIV)
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. 4 In him was life, and that life was the light of men.
John 17:2-3 (NIV) 2 For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him. 3 Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.
The world life appears 50 times in the book of John, and it is usually associated with something that Jesus wants to give to his followers. We all know that Jesus offers us eternal life. Perhaps one of the more famous and quoted passages of John outside of John 3:16 which also has the word life in it, is John 10: John 10:10 (NIV) 10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. The King James says that I have come that they might have life and have it more abundantly.
Now we have taken this word life and baptized it in the American way of thinking and equated abundant life with a higher standard of living. There are many who teach that Jesus came to make us all healthy, wealthy and wise. What else could having life more abundantly be about? Some have heard the teaching we are king’s kids and that means we should have the best of everything.
Most of us know that there is little connection between having an abundance of things and truly enjoying life. Some of us have had nice homes, with nice cars, and beautiful furniture and we did not want to go home. Or else we did not want others who lived in the home to come home, because our lives would go downhill the moment they entered the house. And abundance of things allows us to stand in front of a closet full of clothes some of them almost new and say, “I don’t have a thing to wear.”
We can even be deceived into thinking an abundance in the church will mean an abundance of spiritual life. If we ever got to have 200 members, everything in this church would be perfect. No, 200 members will make your church larger, but it will not necessarily bring about the abundant life that Jesus was talking about or the eternal life he wants to give.
I remember seeing a cartoon of two pastors who were running out of the door of their former churches and going to their new church. One was running from the large church to the small one and the other one was running from the small church to the large one. Both of them were shouting to themselves as they left out running toward their new church, “free at last, free at last, Thank God Almighty I’m free at last.” Something tells me that both of them were in for a rude awakening if they thought the size of the church would determine the life Jesus had for them.
In my last message I emphasized that John pointed out that as the Word, Jesus was God and was with God, and always was God before there was anything else. Jesus was before the before. I also quoted a verse from Isaiah that said, God says of Himself in Isaiah 46:9-10 (NIV) . 9 Remember the former things, those of long ago; I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me. 10 I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come. I say: My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please.
God is going to complete God’s purpose for creation. Part of that purpose involves engaging us so that we can have life. I mentioned that the Word, or the Son, became incarnate and came and dwelt among us to show us who God was and what it would take to have life with God.
Jesus prays a very interesting prayer on our behalf. He says in John 17:20-21 (NIV) 20 "My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, 21 that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me.” We can see how intimately the Father and the Son are interconnected by the words and in the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. Jesus is praying, that we can be inside of the Trinity, in the same way as He and the Father are in each other. He prays that all of us may be one, just as the Father is in him and he is in the father, and we can be in them both, so that the world may believe that the Father sent him.
So when Jesus comes , he comes with a plan for life that is going to involve eternity. It will begin here, but it will continue on forever. But the key centers around believing that Jesus is who John has written he is which is the, God who was and is and is to come.
Now let’s think about the methodology Jesus uses, to grab our attention. He does not usually start with something dramatic. Most of us did not start our faith walk with a supernatural event that made the news. Jesus goes to ordinary people who are always sinners and extends an invitation saying “come follow me.”
Once after he had fed a group of five thousand people a free all you can eat buffet meal, the people showed up again the next day to see Him. But Jesus rebuked them saying to them, “don’t come follow me because your physical needs were met, but rather come because you want eternal life.” By the time he got through explaining this stuff about eternal life and that he had come down from heaven, some of the people started grumbling against him.
John 1:1 was going to be a major stumbling block because they knew Jesus as the son of Joseph who grew up around the corner. When Jesus insisted that he had come down from heaven and had seen the Father, it was too much to take. Most of the large crowd turned and walked away from Him.
But the Scriptures do not say, “and as they did, Jesus thought about the message He had given and wished that he had toned it down a bit.” No it says, John 6:64 (NIV) 64 Yet there are some of you who do not believe." For Jesus had known from the beginning which of them did not believe and who would betray him. I said in my first message, what we believe about Jesus is going to determine how much life we think he has to offer. They believed he was a man from down the street, and they shut out the power of God from their lives.
Let me ask you this. What is the invitation Jesus is giving to us when he says come follow me? What is he actually calling us to do? What is the life that He is trying to give to us? What is it that we are going to be getting back in return.
There has to be a plus in it for me, if I’m going to give up what I want to do, in order to do what you want me to do voluntarily. If I say yes, what is it that I am going to get out of this. I only get one chance with my life. I don’t want to get to the end of it and say, that sure was stupid what I did with my life.
I want us to know some of the enticements that Jesus did not use. You do not find him saying in any of the gospels, come and follow me and I will you a better person. He does not promise to make us better parents, better spouses, better friends or better co-workers. Now if we do take Jesus up on the offer and follow him, we will become better parents, better spouses, better friends and better co-workers because when you come to Jesus he works a change in your life.
As your attitude changes, and you’re willing to forgive and go that extra mile for the kingdom, you become a more likable person. People enjoy you more as you exhibit more of the traits of Christ in your life. The changes that Jesus produces in us are some of the fringe benefits, but it’s not necessarily why he extends the invitation. Keep in mind it’s not that Jesus comes to change our lives as much as it is he wants to give us life. There will be some people who do not know Jesus, who will be nicer, and better this or that than we are.
Jesus also does not say, come and follow me and I will take you to heaven. Jesus does talk a lot about the kingdom of God and the kingdom of heaven, but he does not tell us a whole lot about heaven. His prayer was that we could be in Him and in the Father, not so much that we could be in heaven. He does say that he was going to prepare a place for us and that he was going to come back and take us there but he says very little of what the place will be like other than it has many rooms. Going to heaven is another of his fringe benefits.
Even if heaven was supposed to be the hook, from his teachings it would seem that there was little correlation between the time you spent following Jesus and how much of heaven you received. You see one day, there was a guy who had not lived a single day for Jesus and in his last few hours, without making it to a single church service or bible study or even giving an offering, as he was dying on a cross, he asked Jesus to remember him when he came into his kingdom. Jesus said, today you will be with me in paradise. He certainly did not have time to die a much better person. But he did receive life.
Jesus did not offer a continuous happy, pain free and problem free life to get us to come and follow him. We tell people, if you just come to Jesus you won’t have all these problems. No you might not, but you do get a different load of problems to carry. There was one song we had to sing as kids that made us think we could not be Christians. It said, “I’m inright, outright, downright , upright happy all the time.” That’s not the true life of a believer. Jesus did not offer pain-free and problem free life.
Jesus did not even try to wipe out all the pain and problems in people’s lives. John tells us in chapter 5, that Jesus went to the Pool of Bethesda where a great number of sick and ailing people were. Jesus only healed one that day, and the one he healed tried to get Jesus into trouble because Jesus was bold enough to tell him to stop sinning. John never equates life-with a problem free day to day existence. Jesus never said, come to me and you will never hurt again. When he said come follow me—that’s been the beginning of some hurt for a lot of people.
The life that Jesus is offering us, is actually an opportunity to know who God is and what God desires to do in us. He is going to give us life by setting us free from the thing that keeps us from believing John 1:1, which was in the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God.
In the gospels, Jesus had twelve disciples that sort of followed him wherever he went. They had responded to his call to come follow him. This was huge for some of their lives. It was the first time they were in the “in crowd.” They were celebrities by association. People were excited about them because they were close to Jesus. As the popularity of Jesus went up, so did their popularity. When they went to the store or wherever they went, they’d see people pointing at them. Say aren’t you one of the Jesus’ followers. Let me shake your hand. Let me get your autograph.
One day, Jesus has them all together and he’s going to equip them for the ministry. They are about to launch out and make a difference in the lives of people in other communities. Jesus lets them know that he is sending them out to do what he has been doing. He is going to empower them with everything they need to make it happen. They get authority over every kind of sickness and disease. They are to preach the gospel, heal the sick, raise the dead, and give to people freely. He’s telling them where to go, how long to stay, what to take, and what to do if certain kind of things happen.
I can imagine as they are feeling like football players getting ready for the big game putting on their equipment and looking at the diagrams on the green board, or like airline pilots as they are going through their check list in front of all those controls, before leading one of those huge passenger jets down the runway.
Once everybody’s adrenaline level is at a high, Jesus then gives them a peak into their future. The gospels are about what happens to Jesus, but the book of Acts is about what happens to the apostles. Because Jesus is who John said He was in John 1:1, he can tell them with exact certainty what’s going to happen to them once He’s gone. So after all these instructions on what to do and how to do it, Jesus brings up a few issues they might want to know about.
He lets them know what the payoff is going to be when they get to the finish line. He’s going to let them know what it is to have life. Now Jesus is now going to require the same experiences of us as he did this group of twelve, but he will use our own experiences to help us get to the same finish line. We can find this information in Matthew 10:16-23
Matthew 10:16 Matthew 10:16-23 (NIV) 4
16 I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves. ---Jesus is telling us to keep our eyes opened because things are not always going to go as easy as we would like them to go. Have you found that to be true. Following Jesus was not as easy as it might have first seemed.
17 "Be on your guard against men; they will hand you over to the local councils and flog you in their synagogues.
Now Jesus lets them know that a group of people is going to seize them and flog them with whips. Flogging is very painful and it left a permanent marking on your body. Some people actually died from the flogging process. Jesus is putting them on notice that they will go from being popular to being persecuted. Now all of this is going to happen in the book of Acts soon after Jesus rises from the dead and returns to heaven.
18 On my account you will be brought before governors and kings as witnesses to them and to the Gentiles. 19 But when they arrest you, do not worry about what to say or how to say it. At that time you will be given what to say, .
Now Jesus did not say if they arrest you, he said when they arrest you. He speaks with a bold certainty, because this arrest thing is part of his plan. The disciples do not quite understand, how they can go from being the spiritual super apostles doing preaching, healing and raising the dead to talk about being arrested like criminals. Following Jesus was going to mean a criminal record.
What’s worse is that Jesus is speaking too quickly and moving past some topics too fast. They won’t be worried about what to say, they are worried about the arrest part. Rather than waiting to tell them what to say. Why not work on a way to provide them with a freedom from jail card, or a lawyer specializing in getting charges dropped, or an angel to get them out of jail.
The sooner God intervened, the more likely we could win this game. The disciples are probably thinking, Jesus you didn’t tell us about this part in advance when you said “come follow me.”. Arrested, flogged, put on trial.”
Jesus says, don’t worry about the trial. ……..20 for it will not be you speaking, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you.
Disciples must be thinking. God is going to be involved in this process. God knows all this is going to happen. Why does God not simply stop the arrest before it happens? Why doesn’t he keep us from the problem in the first place. How many of you would prefer an early intervention God rather than a later one. But Jesus did mention that fact that they would be witnesses to others. A lot of what we endure is not just for us, but God wants to give a message to others through us.
Jesus goes on to say J21 "Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child; children will rebel against their parents and have them put to death. Family members will turn against you for Jesus. The summary is 22 All men and women will hate you because of me!
Can you imagine the disciples thinking, wait a minute. Nobody told us this part—People love us because of you. People want to get close to us because of you. Let me talk to you if I can’t get to Jesus. Why the sudden drop. Where is the life that you promised us?
Why do we need a God, if God will not stop bad things from happening to us? Isn’t this the whole purpose of prayer in the first place? We ask God to stop or to do things and God does them and then we give a testimony on how God did it?
Jesus tells them all these bad things that are going to happen to them and then he says in verse 10:28—Do Not be Afraid.
Jesus said “Do not be afraid. But you said we would be arrested, I Know but Do Not Be Afraid. You said we would be beaten and flogged, I know but Do Not Be Afraid, You said our own families and friends will turn against us and hand us over to you, I know but Do Not Be Afraid. You just told us we won’t know who to trust. I know but Do Not Be Afraid.
Matthew 10:28-31 (NIV)
28 Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. (or cannot touch the soul) Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell. Put your fear in the right place, and you can have life.
Jesus introduces something that he goes back to over and over again and again. They didn’t get this at first and rarely do we. Jesus was saying even in the midst of very difficult circumstances, do not allow fear to take hold of you.
29 Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? ( In other words aren’t they nearly worthless.) Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father 30 And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered.)
31 So don't be afraid; ( But you just told us that—I know; but you said, I Know ) But in spite of that, in the midst of that- Do Not Be Afraid) you are worth more than many sparrows.
Jesus takes his followers and us to a place he wants to take us all to and that is a place where our faith in God is so big and so strong that fear does not control our lives. He takes us to a place where we are so secure in our Father’s love that fear will not determine our actions. We may be in a place where it looks like God has forgotten us, or a place where God never even knew where we were in the first place and we still receive his message Do Not Be Afraid Fear Not, I am with you.
The message of Jesus was not “don’t be afraid because I won’t let bad things happen. The message of Jesus was “don’t be afraid when bad things happen.” That’s confidence in God. A confidence that is so strong, so sure of God’s love, and so sure of God’s presence that. A Faith that overwhelms our fear.
The goal in responding to the call is for us to get to the place of saying when we wake up, “what would someone like me do in my circumstances if I were absolutely confident that God was with me. What decision would I make in light of this (sickness, this report, this pink slip, this setback, this summons)…. If I was absolutely confident of a God who was with me. Jesus is saying I want you to follow me, because that’s where I want you to be. You will know that I am with you. I am the God who was, who is and who is to come.
I’m taking you to a place not of denial of reality, not a place where if you say the right spiritual formula you can get me to do a certain thing for you, but a place of knowing God is with you so you do not have to be afraid. Your faith will be so confident that even in the midst of circumstances that you will terrify you, but you will not be shaken.
Sermon on the mount Matthew 6:30-31 (NIV) You see fear keeps us from believing that God is able to bring about God’s plans an purposes for our lives. Jesus goes on to say.
31 So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?'
We worry and worry because we do not have faith in God. If we don’t eat we will die—I Know that. If we don’t have clothing, we can die. I know that too. If the stock market goes down, so do our savings. Yes I’m well aware of that too. Jesus says we spend time fearing the wrong things. Why fear those who all they can do is harm your body. When they cannot touch your soul.
Jesus says Matthew 6:32 (NIV)
32 For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them.
When there is not enough, you don’t need to be afraid, you heavenly Father knows it. Your confidence is not in your power to get it or in the one who can destroy the body but can’t touch the soul, but in the God who knows your name and is able to protect your soul . In circumstances in which everyone else is afraid, you need not fear. That is where following Jesus ultimately leads. This is the life that Jesus wants to give to us.
Jesus tests this with a walk on the Sea of Galilee. In the midst of the storm on the Sea of Gailillee, John tells us that they saw Jesus walking on the sea and they were terrified. Jesus then said, “it is I be not afraid.” The passage says, “then they allowed Jesus to enter the boat.” Up until then they were doing all they could to keep Jesus from getting anywhere near them, lest he cause them more of a problem in the midst of the storm. But the scriptures says, when he got into the boat, they immediately arrived on the other side where they were going.
Mark has another story of a miracle on the sea in which Jesus was asleep in the middle of a storm. They woke his saying, we are perishing and going to die. Don’t you care that we are about to die. Jesus wakes up and calms the storm 39 He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, "Quiet! Be still!" Then the wind died down and it was completely calm.
40 He said to his disciples, "Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?"
But Jesus,There was a storm a minute ago. I know. Why were you afraid? But we were sinking . I know ,we were all about to go under. Do you still not believe your heavenly father cares about you? Then an interesting thing happens. The disciples become terrified.
Mark 4:41 (NIV) 41 They were terrified and asked each other, "Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!"
Their fear of the storm was so much less than their fear of who Jesus was. The Greek, they feared a great fear. They understood the difference between fearing the one who could protect the soul compared to the fearing of one who could hurt the body.
The kind of faith that God is leading us to is a faith that frees us from fear. We are free to do things that God told us to do in the sermon on the mount. We are free to love people that hate us and misuse us, because we know that God is really in charge, and that God is really with us. Jesus is asking us to come follow him to a place where we can have confidence in God no matter what. Where God is there is no need to fear those who can only destroy the body.
Paul writes to Christians in Rom Romans 8:28 (NIV)
28 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.
Paul didn’t say we hope, we pray, we believe,--he said we know. Paul had gone through some rough times in his life. 2 Corinthians 11:23-28 (NIV)
23 Are they servants of Christ? (I am out of my mind to talk like this.) I am more. I have worked much harder, been in prison more frequently, been flogged more severely, and been exposed to death again and again. 24 Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one. 25 Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, I spent a night and a day in the open sea, 26 I have been constantly on the move. I have been in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my own countrymen, in danger from Gentiles; in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea; and in danger from false brothers. 27 I have labored and toiled and have often gone without sleep; I have known hunger and thirst and have often gone without food; I have been cold and naked. 28 Besides everything else, I face daily the pressure of my concern for all the churches. But I know , in all these things God was working for my good. God was still with me.
There is a faith in God that overwhelms all fear. That is where the Savior wants to lead us.
Romans 8:35-36 (NIV)
35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?
What about our spouses altheimer’s or dementia, our conflict with the session, our lingering un employment, our betrayal by our spouses, or our being cast aside after years at our job. No none of these things can separate us. We need not fear what’s happening in the church, in the political realm or in the economy. Jesus wants us to follow him so that we can have life rather than fear.
Why are you so afraid.—We have our faith in the wrong things and people.
John 16:33John 16:33 (NIV)
33 "I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world." That knowledge and the ability to live and act upon it is the life that Jesus wants to give to us. Jesus knows how it all ends because He was there before it started, and He’s there when it’s all wrapped up. You and who are in Christ are on the winning side.
I am indebted to Andy Stanley for some of the ideas in this message which comes from his series Follow in particular Part 3 Fearless.
