This fall a motion picture called The Gospel of John [http://www.gospelofjohnthefilm.com] will be released in the United States. Narrated by Christopher Plummer (Captain Von Trapp in the Sound of Music), the movie is a word for word presentation of the Gospel of John. It features 75 highly respected principal actors from the Canadian and British stage as well as more than 2,000 extras.
SermonCentral.com has asked Dr. David Mains, the director of Mainstay Ministries, to write four new sermons from John’s gospel that we can feature during the month of September.
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What’s a movie you love? I’ll tell you one of my favorites. To Kill a Mockingbird came out way back in 1962. Gregory Peck earned an Oscar as a small-town lawyer defending a black man accused of rape. I love the way the story unfolds.
Unfortunately, you don’t get to share this morning. But my guess is that many of you would be ready to respond immediately with a favorite film if I just let you talk. Movies are the common language of today’s culture. And my prediction is that your choice would also be a movie with a good story line.
In his book The Elements of Screenwriting, Irving Blacker states, "The proof of the script is not in where the director places his camera or what music backs a scene or what star plays the lead, but in the story the writer has selected to be told both verbally and visually. While a good script does not necessarily make a good film, it is absolutely true that no great film was ever made from a bad script."
I believe it’s fair to say that all the movies we love feature a good story line. And part of what makes a good story line is conflict. The conflict is the problem the script is about.
I could give any number of illustrations; one will suffice. Another favorite movie of mine is Fiddler on the Roof, 1971, starring Topol. The opening song sets up the conflict. It’s called "Tradition"-what the fathers like Tevye do, what mothers, sons, and daughters are supposed to do-but with his five daughters we suddenly have a conflict!
In movies, the conflict usually shows up as quickly as possible. Nowadays many films actually tease the conflict before the title and opening credits are even shown.
If the conflict is between two people, it sets up an obligatory showdown between the protagonist and the antagonist-between the hero and the villain-between Spiderman and the Green Goblin. Yep, I liked that movie, too.
A good script usually explores the conflict from various viewpoints, showing why each person acts the way he or she does. And just one more point-where there’s a moral dimension to the conflict, an actual perceived right and wrong, it greatly enhances the viewer’s involvement.
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The reason I’m beginning this way is that a new movie is coming out soon that I’m looking forward to seeing and hope you will go to as well. Rated PG, it’s called The Gospel of John. Produced at a cost of $20 million Canadian, it’s narrated by Christopher Plummer. He’s probably best known for a role he played some years ago-actually it was a 1965 film-The Sound of Music. Plummer was Captain Von Trapp.
This new film coming to our area is a word-for-word rendering of John’s gospel, although much of it is done in dramatic fashion. Nothing is added to the biblical text, or taken away from it. Even so, I’m told the scriptwriter, John Goldsmith, a committed Christian, has done a superb job of staging and setting the story in such a way that it is constantly compelling.
The lead is a Shakespearean actor, Henry Ian Cusick, who gives an authoritative and yet warm and endearing portrayal of our Lord Jesus.
The casting is much more Middle Eastern than any of the biblical movies that have gone before. The historical details are accurate and the film is said to bring John’s gospel alive in an incredible way. I’m looking forward to seeing it. It’s showing at ____________________________________________.
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If it’s true that a well loved movie begins with a good script, I thought it would be worthwhile to look at the script of this new film. We’ll try this Sunday to get an overview of what John wrote, as contrasted with the usual approach taken in a sermon of looking at just a paragraph or two. So let’s examine the Gospel of John to see if it has any of the elements of conflict screenwriters say are absolutely necessary.
While I’m certain the apostle John had no intentions of being a movie scriptwriter, it’s still impossible to miss the conflict in his gospel. On the surface, it’s between Jesus and the ruling establishment. That involves two elements. First is the Jewish Sanhedrin, made up of men who know they must maintain a good relationship with their conquerors; the second element is the military superpower of the day, Imperial Rome.
I’ll come back to John chapter one, but let’s start with a short section from chapter 2:13-16 (NIV):
13When it was almost time for the Jewish Passover, Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 14In the temple courts he found men selling cattle, sheep and doves, and others sitting at tables exchanging money. 15So he made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple area, both sheep and cattle; he scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. 16To those who sold doves he said, "Get these out of here! How dare you turn my Father’s house into a market."
The gauntlet has been thrown down! Jump now to chapter 5:16-18.
16So, because Jesus was doing these things on the Sabbath, the Jews persecuted him. 17Jesus said to them, "My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I, too, am working." 18For this reason the Jews tried all the harder to kill him; not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.
In John 7:45 the Jewish leaders have sent some of their temple guards to arrest Jesus.
45Finally the temple guards went back to the chief priests and Pharisees, who asked them, "Why didn’t you bring him in?"
46"No one ever spoke the way this man does," the guards declared.
47"You mean he has deceived you also?" the Pharisees retorted. 48"Has any of the rulers or of the Pharisees believed in him? 49No! But this mob that knows nothing of the law-there is a curse on them." 50Nicodemus,
(We’ll return to him later--)
who had gone to Jesus earlier and who was one of their own number,
(So here’s John, exploring this conflict from various perspectives, including someone who’s a part of the opposing side-Nicodemus)
asked, 51"Does our law condemn anyone without first hearing him to find out what he is doing?"
52They replied, "Are you from Galilee, too? Look into it, and you will find that a prophet does not come out of Galilee."
There’s also an interesting exchange in chapter 8 where Christ declares he is telling the truth he saw when he was with his father. "Our father is Abraham" is the huffy response he gets in verse 39. "But you’re determined to kill me" says our Lord, "Abraham did not do such things!" Then verse 41 is their snide reply. "We are not illegitimate children." Their response implies, "We are not a bastard child like you are!"
You understand I’m skipping a lot and just referencing select verses to reveal this ongoing conflict that runs through the whole book. Chapter 11:47-50:
47Then the chief priests and the Pharisees called a meeting of the Sanhedrin.
"What are we accomplishing?" they asked. "Here is this man performing many miraculous signs. 48If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe him, and then the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation."
49Then one of them, named Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, spoke up, "You know nothing at all! 50You do not realize that it is better for you that one man die for the people than that the whole nation perish."
Eventually we get the face-off between Jesus and Caiaphas. Then finally the protagonist and the antagonist meet head on. Pilate is a bit nervous because no doubt he’s heard some incredible stories about Jesus the Christ--or the Messiah. Christ is a Greek word. It has the same meaning as the Hebrew word Messiah. Both mean "the anointed of God"-His king.
Chapter 18, verse 28:
28Then the Jews led Jesus from Caiaphas to the palace of the Roman governor. By now it was early morning, and to avoid ceremonial uncleanness the Jews did not enter the palace; they wanted to be able to eat the Passover. 29So Pilate came out to them and asked, "What charges are you bringing against this man?"
30"If he were not a criminal," they replied, "we would not have handed him over to you."
31Pilate said, "Take him yourselves and judge him by your own law."
"But we have no right to execute anyone," the Jews objected. 32This happened so that the words Jesus had spoken indicating the kind of death he was going to die would be fulfilled.
33Pilate then went back inside the palace, summoned Jesus and asked him, "Are you the king of the Jews?"
34"Is that your own idea," Jesus asked, "or did others talk to you about me?"
35"Am I a Jew?" Pilate replied. "It was your people and your chief priests who handed you over to me. What is it you have done?"
36Jesus said, "My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jews. But now my kingdom is from another place."
37"You are a king, then!" said Pilate.
Jesus answered, "You are right in saying I am a king. In fact, for this reason I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me."
38"What is truth?" Pilate asked. With this he went out again to the Jews and said, "I find no basis for a charge against him. 39But it is your custom for me to release to you one prisoner at the time of the Passover. Do you want me to release ’the king of the Jews’?"
40They shouted back, "No, not him! Give us Barabbas!"
Down to chp. 19 verse 16: Finally Pilate handed him over to them to be crucified.
I’ve gone through these references much too quickly. But if conflict is needed to make for a compelling story, it’s certainly here-right?
Interestingly enough, John includes this conflict right from the get-go. It’s in his teaser, or what we usually refer to as the prologue. Up to now we have only considered this conflict as being between Jesus and the less-than-holy establishment. But John makes it a cosmic struggle between light and darkness. God and Satan, life and death.
John 1:1 1In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2He was with God in the beginning.
3Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. 4In him was life, and that life was the light of men. 5The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it. . . .
10He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. 11He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. 12Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God-13children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.
So John’s story line is classic. And he explores his theme from numerous approaches. The moral involvement also greatly enhances the interest of the person reading or watching. We’re almost forced to choose sides.
For now, let’s go back and look again at verses 11-13 of chapter one, because here we also come to a Bible student’s understanding of why John wrote his account of the life of his Lord. "He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God-children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God." In the conflict between light and darkness, God and Satan, life and death-John wants his reader to believe in and receive Christ.
So, it’s not just another story John wants people to view and then leave as they would after seeing Gladiator or the Two Towers or Pirates of the Caribbean. John wants those who follow his writing to believe in and receive Jesus. The script of the new movie The Gospel of John is word-for-word. That intent should come out very clearly!
Some people in this story of John’s that really happened never did believe. That included most of the men in the Sanhedrin. Others in his account appear to have believed, at least momentarily. Then, like Pilate, they back away. But we know that many did embrace Jesus-like the twelve disciples, except for Judas. Also, numbers of leading women believed. One of two men crucified next to our Lord became a last-minute convert.
Probably Nicodemus was a bit like that. He waited until he couldn’t wait any longer. From John chapter 14 we know that he, along with a wealthy man named Joseph of Arimathea, requested the dead body of Jesus. After it was removed from the cross they wrapped it with spices, according to the Jewish custom. This bold act of respect and devotion certainly set Nicodemus at odds with his contemporaries, and was a clear indication to them of his allegiance to Christ.
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And what about you? If John wants his readers to believe and receive Christ, is that something you have done?
"Tell me how," you may respond.
All right. Let’s turn to John chapter 3 where Jesus addresses Nicodemus on this issue:
1Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a member of the Jewish ruling council. 2He came to Jesus at night and said, "Rabbi, we know you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the miraculous sings you are doing if God were not with him."
3In reply Jesus declared, "I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again."
4"How can a man be born when he is old?" Nicodemus asked. "Surely he cannot enter a second time into his mother’s womb to be born!"
5Jesus answered, "I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit.
I believe water refers here to one’s physical birth. That’s why Jesus says next:
6Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. 7You should not be surprised at my saying, ’You must be born again.’
Let’s go back to John’s big picture words-light and darkness, God and Satan, life and death. In Scripture, spiritual life equals union with God. Spiritual death, on the other hand, is to be separated from the Lord. What separates us from a Holy God? Sin does. The wages, or the payoff, of sin is--what? The Bible says it’s death . . . separation from God . . . being eternally cut off from him.
"All have sinned," declares God’s Word. Everyone has violated the two great commands he laid down. "Love God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength"; and "Love your neighbor as yourself." Everybody falls short of this standard. Jesus didn’t, of course, but all of us do.
The son of God came to earth to remove this barrier of sin from between us and a holy God. That’s so we could experience life the way it was intended-in union with him, with his spirit living in us. It’s why Jesus says to Nicodemus, "You have to be born a second time-born of water, yes, but also born of the spirit.
14Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, 15that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.
16"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
"I’m going to have to be lifted up on a cross soon, the same way Moses lifted up the serpent back in that Old Testament account. When that happens, what I’ll do is shift the sin from between you and God and put it between myself and God. I’ll be separated from my Father for your sake. I’ll cry in anguish, ’My God-why have you forsaken me?’ That’s because the sin of all mankind will come between me and my father. Why? So the barrier that blocked you from him is finally removed."
Verse 17:
17For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.
"The enemy of mankind, the devil, will discover he has no claim on me like he does on you. In three days, I will rise again from the grave. My Father and I will be one as before. We will defeat sin and death. Then I will have every right to invite people like you to share in my victory. Do you believe, Nicodemus?"
For Nicodemus, believing wasn’t just an issue of saying, "Yes, in my head I can see how what you’re saying is true." It was a matter of needing to reorient his whole life around these facts-of making them the pivotal truth by which he lived.
For all practical purposes, it meant dropping to his knees and saying with feeling, "Jesus, you really are the Son of God. And you’re right; I haven’t lived loving you with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength. Neither have I loved my neighbors like I love myself. I’m a sinner. I admit it. But I want to change. I want to be more and more like you, Jesus. Please let me experience this second birth you talk about. I’ve been cut off from God for too long. Forgive me, and please let me be born a second time of your spirit. Only if that happens can I envision becoming the person you made me to be. I believe and receive you now, Christ."
A lot was at stake for Nicodemus. It would take a while before he was ready to make such a commitment-especially in light of his connections. But that’s what he eventually did, when he openly cared for the body of Christ after Jesus was crucified and before he rose again.
This understanding is what’s behind a similar life-changing prayer you can make. Just saying the words, without understanding what’s involved, has little value. But when you come to the place where you grasp that your sins have separated you from God-sins against him and sins against others-and you realize there’s nothing you can do on your own to solve that problem, you’re getting close to the Kingdom about which Christ spoke.
But then you grasp onto what he did for you at Calvary-he took upon himself your sin and allowed it to come between himself and his Father. He suffered in your place, because sin is a serious matter to God. Then he rose again, since sin and death had no claim on him as it does on us. And even today, he offers full forgiveness to those who say, "I turn my back on my old self-centered way of living and ask you, Jesus, to enter my life by your Spirit and begin teaching me the new way of loving my heavenly Father and loving my earthly brothers and sisters. I really need to be born all over again." That’s what believing and receiving Christ entails.
John 3:18-21:
18Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. 19This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. 20Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. 21But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light; so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God."
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It’s unusual in western movies for Native Americans to be pictured in a positive fashion. That’s why I liked Dances with Wolves, for instance. Let me close with a story, not from that film, but one with the same flavor.
In the early years of our nation a circuit-riding preacher, making his rounds on horseback, stopped at an Indian encampment. The chief was in, and later on the two men sat at a fire. After a conversation about less important things the man of God introduced spiritual matters. "I have often thought about a wonderful rule given by the young Jewish teacher called Jesus. Others now refer to it as the Golden Rule.
"Don’t praise it," interrupted the chief. "Tell me what it is and I’ll decide whether it’s golden."
"What Jesus said was, ’Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.’"
There was a long pause.
Then the chief spoke, "It can’t be done."
More time passed.
The minister prayed silently for direction.
Eventually the chief spoke again. "I have been thinking more about this Golden Rule. If the Great Spirit who made man would also give him a new heart, only then could it be followed."
That was all the preacher needed to hear. The Lord had answered his prayer, and he shared about being born again of the Spirit.
Would you like the Great Spirit who made man to give you a new heart even this morning?
Additional notes
Churches have different ways of concluding a message of this type. Some will have an invitation. Others will encourage appointments with a member of the pastoral staff. Immediate participation in a discussion group the next hour might be another option.
This message opened with a characteristic of movies we love. The next three sermons will follow this same pattern.
The movies we love reveal character development.
The movies we love spotlight a captivating personality.
The movies we love resolve satisfactorily.
In each case, however, the bottom line response is that the listeners will believe in Christ.
For those interested in more information about this movie visit (website).
