The following quotes come from our current sermon series from the gospel of John:
"Meeting the Savior"

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In the gospel of John, Jesus meets a lot of people, and we’ll be looking at those meetings to see how God comes to meet with all of us. Like the characters we will meet in John, we all come from different places, have different perceptions, different agendas, but as a result of meeting Jesus, we will all comprehend the importance of eternal realities.
And when the apostle John introduces us to the savior in John 1, he wants to be very clear about who we are meeting. Not just an impressive person, not just a miracle worker, not just a religious teacher -- but the very God of the universe. To meet Jesus is to meet the organizing principle of the universe, we meet the very glory of God himself, and as a result of meeting this savior – something should happen to us – we must become children of God.

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John 1:12 says But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.
Bible scholars suggest that John 1:12 is the central core of the profound opening of John’s gospel. The whole point of Jesus, the son of God, the eternal second member of the Godhead; the whole point of his coming to earth was to establish a new family. A family of a bunch of kids who actually know who their father really is… Since this is the core, we will work our way out from here…

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And it is at this point that we say, “Who’s your daddy?”
Well, we are children of Adam first of all. Fallen sinners who reveal our fallen father’s influence -- we are cover up all our sins, we are blamers, always dissatisfied, arrogant, and downright hurtful to one another. We are a reflection of a failed father’s influence.
The way we live naturally is evidence of who our natural father is: A sinful Adam – we’re a bunch of children who demand our own rights and fight like hyenas and lions.
But wait! There’s good news! Another family has been established upon the earth. They are a new family on the block. A family established to bring salvation to the earth. This family would possess God’s divine provisions so that they would become a blessing to the world.
This is the family of Abraham. Father Abraham, and his many sons, are unique because God gave them special instructions on how to live like they were actually God’s children.
They received the rules, they received the leadership, they received the promises, but they just didn’t receive the corporate power to become a blessing to the nations. So we don’t ever find them being called the children of God, only the children of Israel – except in one verse in Hosea – when Hosea the prophet speaks of a future group of Israelites (WFC) This future group would be the renewed family that would show the world what it meant to live in the light of eternal truths and eternal blessings – and they would all get along!
This family would be a prophetic witness to the light of God’s LOVE. They would live in the light of that love and would be as Isaiah prophesies, ESV Isaiah 49:6 he says: …I will make you as a light for the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth."

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Dr. Finlay, who preached last week discussed one important aspect about this incarnational verse. (you gotta love it when the guest preachers prep your people before hand!) Dr. Finlay reminded us that the world of human philosophy was at a terrible impasse – they cold not agree on the nature of “being.” Or ontology, as he put it.
The Greek philosophers, who came before Christ, were pretty smart. They had already come up with the periodic chart of elements, earth, wind, fire, water. They had figured out that everything was made of atoms. But these Philosophers had a very difficult time defining who humans are because we are always changing. We start as something, and as we go forward, we becoming something entirely different. This is the reason why evolution is as much as a philosophy as a science, trying to define the nature and reason for why things change!
There is a lot of safety in not finally defining who we are, because we are always evolving – We are subject to so much change afterall, how can we say that anything is ONE THING when the next day, or a million years, it becomes something else?
How can we believe in anything that remains as it, LIKE TRUTH for example, when everything else in the world is changing and developing. We could never settle on just one thing because that one thing is always changing.
IRONICALLY, however, the one thing that everyone seems to believe is that everything in the future will be different from today! More technology, more information, better science – In a world that experiences change everywhere, the only thing that does not change is the belief that everything changes! Did you get that?

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So the philosophers love that things are changing and becoming something else; but there is this nagging problem with our world – there are eternal truths by which we live. Logic always remains logical – it does not change, scientific laws govern, they are called “laws” because they are known by everyone, and remain constant consistently! Mathematical equations depend upon axioms, there are universal rules for language, in philosophy there are “brute facts,” and in the human heart there is a continual desire for justice and dignity – and just plain old love! We just want to be loved, is that so wrong?
And so concluding the philosophy section, Dr. Finlay, reminded us of what the Apostle John said about our world! In this world there is something that is constant, and in this world, there is something that changes. There is “being” and there is “becoming.” And we embrace both realities in our outline of John 1:1-18. We start with BEING, “in the beginning was the word…” Was there anything here before material bleched out of the point of singularity? Yes, the Triune God who had eternal designs in mind. A God who established invisible realms of power before anything visible was spun into existence.
And then the outline takes us to the focus of BECOMING in vs.14, “the WORD (of verse 1, that is eternal and unchanging BEING) BECAME flesh,” (took on to himself something that he did not have prior – which signals “change” of some kind. Not a change of essence or character, but of adding something to that which was eternal.)

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For us, and our salvation, in order to establish a new family – Jesus Christ who was always and constantly the eternal son of God – the very expression of reason, coherence and logic from the very beginning, became flesh and dwelt among us, so that he could make us like him for all eternity – we too must change to become something that will never change again!
Romans 9:8 This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as offspring.

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Everyone gets to speculate on Jesus’ insight of knowing that Nathaniel was sitting under a tree, and why mentioning it, becomes a spiritual explosion by him before Jesus. So now it’s my turn… One of the signs of God’s blessing upon Israel as a nation was to say that each Israelite would one day be able to sit and rest under their own vines and fig tree. Multiple passages allude to this prophetic picture. So I envision Nathaniel actually finding a fully leafing fig tree in the heat of the siesta sun, and he sits there and he contemplates these types of passages. He is sitting there, thinking to himself, “This is what life is supposed to be like, rest, protection, and God’s provision. And as he sits there, seeing his own private moment as a fulfillment of these OT passages, he then realizes what Israel needs to be and do to experience this moment nation wide, what they will need to do to unshackle themselves from the Roman oppression and become a blessed nation – righteousness! All of Israel must long to obey God’s commands and laws and statutes, and as they collectively seek to be a holy people with pure hands and clean hearts -- without an ounce of guile – the Messiah will come and establish the Ideal that Israel was supposed to be. So when Jesus says he sees him under the fig tree, and invades his private thoughts – Nathaniel makes all kinds of spiritual connections and realizes that Jesus had read his heart and his desires, his immediate blurt is to blurt out an Old Testament passage that Nathaniel must have been meditating upon, Zephaniah 3:15 The LORD has taken away the judgments against you; he has cleared away your enemies. The King of Israel, the LORD, is in your midst; you shall never again fear evil.
Jesus says to Nathaniel, ”Hold on there son, you’re a little excited because I was able to reveal something about you. You shouldn’t be calling people the son of God, or King of Israel unless it were absolutely true!”

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Jesus, the son of man, is the ladder of the OT account of the angels climbing Jacob’s Ladder. Jesus takes this profound dream that Jacob, the son of Isaac, the son of Abraham; the vision that for Jacob, re-established with him all the promises that Abraham received. God was confirming with Jacob, that the Lord had not given up on him. His descendants would inherit profound blessings, and that Heaven would come to earth to make it happen – and isn’t that absolutely true in Jesus Christ! The message of heaven comes down to earth from heaven in Jesus. He is heaven, breaking upon the earth to announce the blessing to all who will believe the gospel. Only Jesus is uniquely gifted to link both heaven and earth – more than that, Jesus is the true house, or temple of God, He is the only gate of heaven! And he has come down to establish a righteous Israel, a royal priesthood, and kingdom of priests, and will plant a beautiful vineyard and fig forest! Heaven must break into our realm for us to get it, and only those who receive this spiritual insight get very excited about it!

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As Christians, we can tell people how "church" can be a positive influence for their lives, how it can foster loving families, how it can bring order to society, how it might even elevate our social standing perhaps – but if all this kind of "witnessing" to our friends keeps them from “seeing for themselves” about Jesus – then we are getting in the way of people meeting the true King of the universe! Like Phillip, we must not ultimately rest on the persuasiveness of our own testimony (or even the pastor's!) but we must finally say, John 1:46 Nathanael said to him, "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?" Philip said to him, "Come and see."

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The question was asked, "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?" Well, let me ask this quite cynically, "Can anything good come out of YOU? Or any of us?" And it is at this point that we say… Look to Jesus, and let him speak something into you – and the response will be our understanding of who he really is: The Son of God, the King of Israel.

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And then I thought about my own pastor when I was a youth, RevT; who became a little flustered with the new requirement to be a “born again Christian.” He would say, “That’s the most redundant thing you can say! Of course you have to be born again to be a Christian; but it’s like saying that you drive a Chevy Chevrolet – what’s that mean?"

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And from what I know about what happens in back rooms with leadership, and the kinds of conversations that are had there, I believe that Nicodemus is evaluating the attitudes and behaviors of his backroom, with the attitudes an behavior of Jesus, whom he is meeting in a “backroom” of sorts, privately, in the middle of the night. For Nicodemus, he at least has the character to sincerely interview a “tradition breaker," rather than to dismiss him off the bat. Nicodemus is attempting to determine if Rabbi Jesus has the goals and purposes that truly honor God, or to advance some personal agenda. And like Nicodemus, we must all make this evaluation of the type of faith community we will reside. IS our little church trying to stuff down alternative views for the sake of protecting our position? Or is our little church authentically open to where the Spirit directs? People especially of the Reformation movement must be careful about how and who they oppose as they advocate new traditions because our very history reveals that we should not fight against a sincere Christian, even a German monk, who can clearly articulate the truths of Scripture!

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John 3:3 Jesus answered him, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God."
The only way that any of us can have any sense of comprehending the Christian faith beyond the intellectual, comparative religion level – and get to the “I truly love God and His law with all of my heart, soul, mind, and strength level – as a true worshipper and follower of Christ -- is if we are born from above (which is a more literal rendering of the GK.) I’m a born from above Christian! Which means that God must break out of heaven and birth in us an understanding and conviction that we were not born with naturally.
Jesus calls it "born from above," the Apostle Paul calls it being a "new creation," or the "new self," the apostle Peter calls it having a "new conscience," and they are all different ways of saying the same thing – God must act upon us to birth into us something that will direct us toward our true purpose for life – to rightly glorify God and enjoy him forever.
The point is that how we are born naturally will not suffice with the Lord. The religious routines that come naturally to us are not sufficient for God. That which is flesh only produces flesh – and all flesh is like the flowers that fade and wither away – what we need is a spiritual movement to transform us so that we will begin to open our eyes to spiritual realities that we would have never considered without this activity of the Holy Spirit.
After all, we read earlier in John that Jesus came to make us children of God -- born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

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Here we learn that being born of the Spirit is like having an additional influence in our life, like water is, like wind is. The flesh has one kind of influence upon us, a very powerful influence upon some more than others, but to be born of the Spirit is to become aware of God’s cleansing action to our souls – so that we will always want to remain pure, AND continue to listen to His audible direction with His persuasive leading – we love hearing the word of God spoken to our minds and our spirits --- ALL OF THIS TO ACKNOWLEDGE a KEY POINT - - something outside of us, is working upon us – this is not the work of our hands, this isn’t reaching inside of us to pull out something better – it is a washing away of who we are, a blowing away of the self, and the restart from the top with Jesus as Lord!

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Jesus will conclude his time with Nicodemus by eluding to an OT incident that even he will be able to understand, an incident that occurred while the Israelites were wondering in the wilderness. A time that the Jews were not to be too particularly proud of because they were often walking as unbelievers in the promises of God and the walking rebelliously against the leadership of God. Jesus references the famous story of the biting snakes and the brass serpent raised upon a pole in the book of Numbers.
13 No one has ascended into heaven except him who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. 14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15 that whoever believes in him may have eternal life." 16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only
Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his
Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.
All we, like rebellious Israel, are plagued with the disease of disobedience and the problem of persistent unbelief. It is like snake venom in our blood for which there is no antidote. But God in His grace provides deliverance from above. He will send assistance to us, something entirely outside of us that we can look to for relief and salvation. Jesus would resemble a cursed snake and be lifted up upon a pole, and just as the Israelites looked upon the serpent that Moses lifted up, so all who look to Christ upon his cross, and recognize their desperate need of his forgiveness and healing, they like them, will be saved.
Likewise, just as God loved Israel for the promises that He had made to them, even though they were under His judgment, He also provided a way of escape from that judgment. SO TOO, God loves the world, even though we are under His judgment, but He had promised to bring a light to the world, He had promised to establish a true family that would reflect His light and goodness.
So just as we are condemned to perish by God for our rebellion and hatred of the light, God still sends His son to be lifted up upon a cross. All who look upon him will not perish, but have eternal life.

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13 Jesus said to her, "Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty forever. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life."
There is 2 profound things happening here. The first is just a flat out claim by Jesus to be the “end all, be all” of life! Whoever drinks my water will never thirst again?? Jesus is claiming to be the source of eternal satisfaction? What kind of arrogant, egotistical, dreamer is this guy? IF IT were not true! This is clearly a claim by Jesus to be the only source and provision for eternal fulfillment – a bold-face challenge to any other religious or philosophical worldview – BANK ON IT!! Jesus said if you do not take MY GIFT, then your life will be a thirsty wasteland of unfulfilled living!!! Ouch!
The second thing happening here is GK grammar. There is a use of a double negative – which in the Gk means – Absolutely no way, no how, Never!!
Jesus says that if we receive his living water, we will Never, Never ever, thirst like we do right now – because – Jesus will not just quench our thirst, He’ll give us a new appetite – and we’ll learn that our longings as Christians are met in Christ – we learn that if we do have any unfulfilled hopes here on earth, there will be an eternal fountain of Joy waiting for us that will be – HEAVENly and eternally satisfying to us!!

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Jesus is now setting up the real cost of His gift. If you want what I have, are you willing to give up what you have to receive it? The water is free, but it has a cost! Because you can’t drink pure water, and not change – so that means we’ll have to determine your real need, and that is to identify how dry and parched you really are!

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19 The woman said to him, "Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. 20 Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship."
Now in the world of counseling, I would suspect that this is called “deflection.” She has been owned on her past life of infidelity. Jesus is trying to help her to understand that she has been thirsting all her life, trying to drink in enough “love and companionship” but never finding anything true and satisfying! Perhaps this could be a spiritual breakthrough for her to realize how far from God’s ideals she has wandered -- and what does she do? She wants to talk about worship wars!! What is that?
She can recognize that Jesus is a prophet, so she suddenly wants to debate theology with him? Is she really that spooky? As if this perplexing theological matter about worship was keeping her from repenting and living as she ought! Makes me wonder, that if with everyone one of her 6 companions, she engaged in this kind of conversation, “What do you think, should we really be worshipping in Jerusalem or here at this mountain? I struggle with that!”
RIGHT! NO, something very sensitive about her life and character was being exposed for what it was, and she defaults to “let’s change the subject.”
This is obviously a tactic of which we should all be aware. If we bring up that matter of people’s sin – they know how to change the subject. But what about UFO’s? What about evolution? What do you think about Wiley Drake?
This IS the most painful thing about Jesus isn’t it? He can look at us and see how shallow and hallow our life is, and He says, “I can give you depth, I can give you substance.”
But just like Adam and Eve in the Garden, we run and hide. We try to cover up with perplexing questions or accusations against God, “You know, If God were really true, we’d know the answer of where we are supposed to worship!!
And Jesus says, “You question God’s decisions, but not your own actions? Just look at the fruit of your life! You can’t keep any commitments. You bounce around from relationship to relationship, experience to experience. You don’t care about your reputation as long as someone, anyone flatters you. You soul is thirsting for satisfaction, but you have no idea how to feed it so you try to make up for it with bodily activity. You don’t think that’s shallow??”
We need to remember that John isn’t simply being poetic here! Who else in the world can give eternal life? Jesus is MORE than a prophet – he is the source of eternal life, the very God of the universe, graciously come to THIS wayward woman, of all people, to communicate to all of us, that sinners CAN leave their old life and receive and enjoy all of God’s pleasure!!

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21 Jesus said to her, "Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. 22 You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. 24 God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth."
Listen to the claims of Jesus! NOT ONLY does he have the gift of living water, and he has the gift of changing “Time!” Jesus is announcing that a BRAND NEW ERA, a new epoch, a new millennium is here with him! He is telling this Samaritan that the requirements for worshiping God are now being modified because HE is here!! My goodness…
Let’s get this straight, Jerusalem and the temple was the sanctioned place for a particular form of public worship. But Jesus is now announcing that a new order had arrived. The time had come for all Israel to become priests, and they will worship God with every activity of the day! Because God is Spirit and is able to equip even non-Jews with a spiritual worship that reflects His very nature. A spiritual devotion that is pleasing to Him because God, who is spirit, is involved in it; participating with the worshippers! Everyone can have communion with God!
How interesting that now that Jesus is referencing worship, he says that it is directed toward the Father, Jesus the son will show everyone who is born of God how to worship God the Father! This is keeping with our opening theme – Jesus is going to establish a family of worshippers, He is giving believers the right to become children -- we are born from above to worship the Father, and we will be lead by our brother who will give us Living water to cleanse us and renew us and revitalize us!
I sure hope that these are the true benefits we receive as God’s children as a result of worshiping God each Sunday – that we would feel cleansed and renewed and revitalized as a result of being in the presence of God with our family!
And what a concept that Jesus expresses here: The Father is seeking worshippers – God no longer designates a particular place as holy, He does not disqualify anyone because of any particular genotype, or gender or age, or infirmity – NO, the physical requirements will be met in Jesus to that even fallen sinful people can become children of God -- born of the spirit and in love with the TRUTH – the truth that it is only God’s grace that can raise us up as true worshippers who are acceptable to God.

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Her departure without the water jar is so inspiring. Here she came to just get a jug of water without anyone hassling her – but within her very soul, thirsting for love, purpose, identity. Her own thoughts most likely hassled her more than any teasing or mocking from the people of her village. And yet the water she sought is NOT the water she left with! She left with water that was now leaping inside of her, and she had to tell everyone she knew about it!
Talk about a very, very effective Divine appointment! Jesus knows everything about her and her despicable way of life and her lower class citizenship, and he still wants her to possess heaven’s gift of cleansing and new life – that my friend, is called love! It’s the gospel of My Fair Lady!

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Here they are singing Hoshiani, which means, Save, I pray! They are singing the song of salvation, and as they do, they are meeting the savior! This is the precursor of the heavenly chorus that Jesus will receive from all his saints – so glorious! All the glimpses on earth of the true reality yet to come – we have to capture this thought when we come to the Lord’s Table – it looks so simple and unimpressive – just as we are unimpressed and even upset with this crowd receiving Jesus because we know that later how shallow their praises were – but it was indeed right that Jesus receive this praise, and it is indeed right that we think of our simple meal as a grand banquet with the king of glory!

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Often times we try to do significant things for our family and friends in order to help them embrace and receive Jesus – and we get frustrated that they don’t “Get it.” We get frustrated when they get frustrated with our attempts to show them the grandeur of Christ and his salvation. I can say from my own testimony that all the things that my family and church were trying to impress upon me did not make sense to me at the time, but later, when Christ revealed himself to me as my savior and king, I AM now SO grateful for all the experiences, education, and faithfulness to display Jesus before me, even when I really didn’t know what was going on. But when I came to realize it – all that wealth of spiritual investment was readily available to my memory, and became a foundation to build my own personal faith. How sad that when people resist us, or when our children say that they don’t want any part of it anymore, that we might be tempted to give up on the task of providing important Christian truth to their life - - but think about the day it finally takes – and they remember and understand why all of those things were done – they will praise God for these experiences!

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John 12:19 = The Pharisees are becoming desperate. They see that their influence upon the crowds is being challenged – as if they really cared about the crowds! They cared about their own power, and their ability to maintain it – isn’t this all so POLITICAL?? They can see the political winds changing and they are scared to death, and start to fight with themselves. Like a political campaign that is starting to implode, everyone blaming someone else for the apparent loss on the horizon.

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John 12:27 = What a stark and poignant statement of Jesus here! As the people are shouting and singing, “Hosanna, Save we pray!” That Jesus would quote a section of Psalm 6:4 that references this Hebrew word again, hôšî`ëºnî ”save me!” Everyone is shouting Save us, save us, but Jesus won’t join that chorus! He will not be saved from what is about to come upon him. He will encounter the trial of unjust persecution and misery, he will endure the wrath of God upon the cross, and the power of death to his body and soul! He should be praying with the Psalmist, SAVE ME FROM THIS! But he will not! Out of obedience, he will be the only one not singing this tune because he knows that in order to save God’s children, he must endure this torment so that those who believe in him would never have to encounter these awful judgments and punishments! Thank you Jesus for saving me, by refusing to be saved from me!

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The crowds came out to Jerusalem to glorify their king, they shout his praises and their desire for salvation. But Jesus will refuse being saved from what is about to come upon him. On this day, of all days, that would appear to be the highlight of his earthly ministry, he will not take the proper honor due to God’s Name. And above the accolades of the crowds, the true voice of praise comes from the one who is our true audience, our chief cheering section. A voice of heaven announces that Jesus does glorify God, and that Jesus will be the source of future glory. The crowds hear the thundering voice of God’s purposes and gives complete perspective on what Jesus is there to do. He has not arrived in Jerusalem to cast out some Romans out of the holy city; but to cast out the ruler of this fallen world. He isn’t ascending the holy hills of Jerusalem to receive the praise from the Hebrew people, but he will be ascend these hills to be lifted up upon a cross in order to draw everyone and everything to himself. He has come to Jerusalem in a triumphal entry to declare the future victory that he will have when he is lifted up as a serpent upon a stick, and there has…Colossians 2:15 He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him.

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Meeting the gardner = A stark juxtaposition from the triumphal entry just a week ago. Let us recall the crowds cheering, singing, waving palm branches in adoration of Jesus – but this is not how Jesus wanted to be received with all the expectations of a crowd who wanted some worldly need to be met.
After his awful death, there are no more crowds, just a women who first arrives on the scene in order to inform the disciples of an empty grave.
And why was she there? A dead man could not offer her anything (there is still a longing for a person’s presence, even if dead; but to be at the place where memories can flourish and a sense of connection can happen, to be quiet and to appreciate some sensation of communion.)
In an incredible moment, she meets a man who is not bloody, beaten and scarred in appearance, but a man who has the work of the day upon his countenance. He reminds us of the first man who bore the image of God and was placed in a garden – a place of perfection, and reflection! Of how God longs to provide for His people. So in a poetic way, we are transported to the true garden of God, the place where sadness and death will not reign, a place where angels do not wield swords to keep us away, but they invite us to enter and wonder why we cry – we do not know what they know! But they direct us to the Gardner, the one who was planted in the ground as a seed and is now raised to bear much fruit – the fruit of the tree of life! Mary will meet the Gardner of the Garden of God, and he will restore everything that the first Gardner, Adam, subjected to death and decay. This new gardener, this risen Jesus, will tend an eternal paradise for the people who long to hear His voice, who long to view his face, who long to hear words of comfort from their own father and their God.

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Consider what Jesus has sent them to do. They are not going out just to be good story tellers, set up gigs at coffee shops and public libraries. They are going to announce freedom for the captives. The spirit of the Lord was upon him to announce this good news, and now the followers of Christ must do the same – and that means, addressing a absolute reality, but an unpopular thought – the world is held under the bondage of sin and death – everything sinks into the hopelessness and unfulfillment of sin and death. It is the great enemy of all humankind and is the curse of God upon disobedience – sin and death – and Jesus has conquered them both! And his followers are now here to proclaim that Christ came to end the reign of sin and death! He has made us his representatives, his ambassadors – In our relationships with people, do we dare mention these ultimate topics? Who wants too? Mention sin and death and you sound like a prude and a morbid party pooper! NO, it’s way easier to come at it from a different angle -- let’s talk about self esteem, and successful living, and purpose for living, and the principles for having your best life now! We can walk that path but what still awaits every single life no matter how blessed and self-actualized it is? Sin and death! Now I’m not against creative means to help people listen to the very hard and sensitive truths of Jesus’ teaching, our culture needs this on occasion – but consider this scene. Jesus appears to give his disciples hope and assurance. With joy they embrace him, he breaths on them and gives them the holy spirit and the next thing he says IS… go write a creative book? Maybe he did, that’s why we have the gospels. And the title of all the gospels is this, “How to be free from sin and death” subtitle – The Christian church has the way, the truth, and the life! We could speak for hours on how sin destroys and kills everything – we can speak for hours on how the power of death rules over every relationship of the created order. But not now. Because each Sunday we participate in a sacrament that acknowledges sin and death. Both the Lord’s Table and Baptism acknowledge the reality of sin and death and our need to be freed from their influence and power – and equally, and most important – those same sacraments demonstrate how we are set free from the curse of sin and death because Christ took that curse upon himself, he buried it in the tomb, and he rose again to give us life, and that life is accompanied by his presence with us by his Holy Spirit so that we can speak very plainly as to how sins may be forgiven. Now naturally, I DON’T FORGIVE people’s sins; but as a minister of Christ, I can proclaim that sins are forgiven and that death has no power over the one who confesses their need of Christ and that freedom in his resurrected life is truly their possession – by word, and by sacrament. And that’s why we are old school here, we will confront ourselves with the cost of sin and it’s consequences, and equally so we will acknowledge the forgiveness of sin and the freedom from every curse we posses in Christ!

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Thomas hears the reports of the disciples and their encounter with Jesus and he finally says, “I don’t care about what you say, I NEED to be the one who verifies this story, I NEED to have this experience for myself, or I will never believe! Of course, Thomas was away, and in his alone time, had probably switched a lot of things around in light of Jesus’ death! SO Thomas IS believing in something even though we call him, Doubting Thomas, But Thomas’s doubts are based on a whole host of competing belief’s that are helping him to make sense of what he has just been through the past 3 years! Thomas doubts his friends because of the following reasons:- His friends are confused maybe they're going crazy – they believe the impossible! People do not rise from the dead, people do not appear in rooms without coming in through some opening, Crucified men don’t go walking around with their holes in their bodies!- Maybe his friends are playing a cruel joke on him, and now they are twisted // They may have joined some multi-level marketing group and he’s going to be on the bottom of the pyramid!-So yeah, Thomas doubts his closest friends, because he already believes a host of other things – he believes that if miracles happen, (and he must have seen plenty with Jesus) they need to happen with his approval and verification - Isn’t that what we’d all expect? -Thomas believes that a whole group of people could suffer from delusions and all report the same thing because of fear -- That is more plausible than a resurrection after all, right? -And Thomas most likely believes that he had become part of another failed Messiah campaign! He gave it his best shot; but Jesus was just like all the other Messiah campaigns that had come and gone, and he must have imagined all the wondrous things that happened to him during that time was a bazaar psychosis. - After all, why did all those other people follow all those other supposed Messiahs? -So it’s time to grow up and get on with your life Thomas. It’s time to be strong and separate from your friends who are nostalgic and get off their religious circus ride. And the best way to get off the hook is to demand incontrovertible proof! - That’s fair! Because, Thomas doesn’t really doubt Jesus – Jesus was a good and moral teacher who would be a good example for us to remember -- he really doubts all his friends and their mental state! AND Isn’t that just what the rest of the world thinks? - SO in order to not sacrifice his own sanity about the way this world is and all his suspicions about it, he establishes a pretty reasonable standard = you guys got to meet Jesus in a real way – I NEED that too! Of course, Thomas does not have the Spirit of Christ breathed upon him, so what else would he think? He will think about every other possible reality – even that the disciples were visited by an imposter alien and fooled them all. After all, Thomas had a twin – maybe Jesus does too! And Jesus’ secret twin who was left in Egypt is taking all the glory now that his brother has died. IT’S POSSIBLE!! That’s right, Jesus’ twin brother materialized in the room, and while in seclusion this whole time in Egypt, he learned how to ascend into the clouds – CASE SOLVED! I can out doubt the doubters!

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I’ve stated that John concludes his Gospel in a Garden; but before the sun can set on this idyllic place, a final meeting with the Savior must take place! Because there is someone who had become weak when he was placed under the fire – as a result, something must be resolved! TRUE communion does not exist for the disciple who had been given the name to symbolize “unmoved faith” – a disciple who had been keen on following Jesus; but when it came time to profess, he denied that he even knew Jesus at all – with cursings!
Peter was a denier who had yet to confront this with his Lord – I wonder if his friends even knew what had taken place in John 18 around a campfire…
Jesus had already met with his disciples and told them that, once filled with the holy spirit, they would be able to forgive sins and set people free - - BUT Could Peter actually do this if he had no sense of it himself – of being forgiven, of being free… Jesus would have to bring the garden of reconciliation to him – to restore communion

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“I am going back to fish”
21.3 = while Peter is waiting for Jesus, he’s gonna fish! Sad thing is that he is going to return to a life that really didn’t satisfy him. Peter wanted revolution, Peter wanted change the world, Peter wanted to help lead a movement for a new kingdom – and so with a hallow sound of “I’m just a fisherman, not a world changer…” He will take his hand at it again – but he will soon find that his life was created for something so much more than this – his night’s work will produce nothing, his nets will be empty, and his life’s direction will be adrift – But who is he that he should expect more than this?

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I’ve stated that John concludes his Gospel in a Garden; but before the sun can set on this idyllic place, a final meeting with the Savior must take place! Because there is someone who had become weak when he was placed under the fire – as a result, something must be resolved! TRUE communion does not exist for the disciple who had been given the name to symbolize “unmoved faith” – a disciple who had been keen on following Jesus; but when it came time to profess, he denied that he even knew Jesus at all – with cursings!
Peter was a denier who had yet to confront this with his Lord – I wonder if his friends even knew what had taken place in John 18 around a campfire…
Jesus had already met with his disciples and told them that, once filled with the holy spirit, they would be able to forgive sins and set people free - - BUT Could Peter actually do this if he had no sense of it himself – of being forgiven, of being free… Jesus would have to bring the garden of reconciliation to him – to restore communion!

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21.3 = While Peter is waiting for Jesus, he’s gonna fish! Sad thing is that he is going to return to a life that really didn’t satisfy him. Peter wanted revolution, Peter wanted to change the world, Peter wanted to help lead a movement for a new kingdom – and so with a hallow sound of “I’m just a fisherman, not a world changer…” He will take his hand at it again – but he will soon find that his life was created for something so much more than this – his night’s work will produce nothing, his nets will be empty, and his life’s direction will be adrift – But who is he that he should expect more than this?

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Is John, who is writing HIS account of Jesus’ life, a thoughtful and trained theologian? John is only going to choose 7 miracles to signify something VERY important to the church. And are we all supposed to get out of Jesus first sign that He can come through in a pinch when you need him? Are we supposed to learn that he would have been a great contestant on Iron Chef? Is this first sign just a training miracle for the better ones yet to come? OR IS JOHN, by this profound miracle, going to tell us something about how we, as the church, must regard Christ as the focus and supply of our every need? More than that, Jesus is accompanied with such an abundance of divine provisions – it’s sick!

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Let’s think about this theologically! Jesus comes to his people Israel, and Israel in his day, is sort of like a party that is winding down. It has no more life, no more supply, it cannot accommodate the guests – Israel is starting to sour into cheap vinegar. Why do I say this? What is Israel in Jesus’ day? A foreign outpost for the ruling Roman empire. Her influence upon the world is nil, her only impact is to muster Roman garrisons to her land in her fits of rebellion. She is not the world’s leader in law, politics, religion, art, literature, agriculture, or innovation – she is simply occupied territory with fading day-dreams of once being a giant killer.
Think about our call to worship from Joel 2: The bridegroom is ready to come to Israel, but the priests of the day can’t turn to the groom and say to him – Your bride is waiting in her glory! NO, Israel is tarnished, oppressed, indebted, and scorned by all the nations! Moses at least brought Israel to a land flowing with milk and honey, Israel was promised bumper crops, and wealth, and influence, and proud descendants inhabiting the land – this would be the evidence of God’s blessing upon them! Like a woman worth a vast dowry! (shilluchim)
But mother Mary speaks to Jesus with the equivalent of a prophetic voice-- not about a wedding party – but about the affairs of Israel, “They have no wine.” Israel not having wine is a curse. Wine is the symbol of joy and blessing and Lachaim! The fruit of the vine, the abundant harvest of the entire nation would be an indication that God was blessing Israel. This is how Israel would show the nations that God was with them!
BACK to Joel 2, the prayer is offered, 'Spare Your people, O LORD. Do not make Your inheritance an object of scorn, a byword among the nations. Why should they say among the peoples, 'Where is their God?''
Why would the people ask, “Where is their God?” Because if they had no greatness to show the world, then that would mean that their God wasn’t very great to begin with, or He abandoned them! The other prophets speak with the same language!
Ezekiel 19:10 Your mother was like a vine in a vineyard planted by the water, fruitful and full of branches by reason of abundant water. 11 Its strong stems became rulers' scepters; it towered aloft among the thick boughs; it was seen in its height with the mass of its branches. 12 But the vine was plucked up in fury, cast down to the ground; the east wind dried up its fruit; they were stripped off and withered. As for its strong stem, fire consumed it.
This is the vineyard in which Jesus arrives, it is a sad excuse of a field because her fruits neither satisfy nor impact the other nations! (Are you thinking theologically with me? John IS really going to show that this first sign is going to have a HUGE IMPACT!! After all in John 15, Jesus will say later,
John 15:5 I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. 6 If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. (Ezekiel?)
Do you see how we who are in Christ are now the vineyard of God and that we are supposed to produce a harvest of praise to our God? NOT just in our private parties – BUT before the NATIONS!! People should look at the fruit of our life and conclude that God is blessing us in a unique and powerful way – First in that he has changed us into something NEW, and secondly, we have so much to share with everyone else!!
So finally, Joel 2 expresses a future hope for Israel, Then the LORD will be jealous for His land and take pity on His people. The LORD will reply to them: 'I am sending you grain, new wine and oil, enough to satisfy you fully; never again will I make you an object of scorn to the nations.’
WHY? – How will Israel never again be scorned by the nations? Because now they are going to have Jesus!! Jesus will be the source of their fruitful abundance! And THIS IS WHY this is the first sign of JESUS – He is the hope of Israel, he is the hope of every life tired of being embarrassed by shortfalls! The hope for all who long for the abundance that only HE can produce in us and through us.
And that was just a link to OT Israel in terms of agriculture – I haven’t even started on the marriage motif yet!

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So follow the commentary from the head waiter. He’s been at a lot of parties. He knows the custom and the practices of weddings – been to hundreds. You serve the good stuff first, and as the party winds down, as people have had enough to eat and drink, if people still want more, well, they can have the 2 buck chuck. Also tells us that they were able to discern a good vintage from that which was inferior. This head waiter, not realizing the miracle, taste tests the wine before it goes out to the guests – sort of determining at what point we are in the party timeline – and BAM! What is this? First rate Cabernet Sauvignon! He calls out to the Groom and makes a bold proclamation – you have saved the best for last!
Is Jesus best for last? Millenniums of Jewish history, all the good stuff about a gracious God justifying people by faith alone – thousands of years of a nation being blessed, taking a land, being world changers … and then things wind down, disobedience, exile, no more true prophets, priests, and kings – but then – JESUS arrives! This is going to get the party going again!

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John starts out saying that anyone can become a child of God. He concludes this by saying that we must believe that Jesus is the Christ. If you can confess him as your lord and your god, you become a son of God.
This is a bold claim by a believer in Jesus who at one time was brought up to believe that only one select group of people could lay claim to being literally, related to the Christ, the Son of David, who in their terminology, the Messiah. But now John is saying anyone who will believe and receive Jesus will be given the right to become a child of God. Is John advocating, “replacement” theology? Saying in his very day that being born Jewish was not anything special anymore – that you needed to be born from above?
Now is it replacement theology, or is it inclusive theology? That everyone, regardless of how or where or to whom they were born, could become a beloved son of God, able to inherit every heavenly blessing? Is this replacement theology, or is it fulfillment theology, that one day the Messiah would come and become a ‘light to the nations” and they would hear and believe in the one who bring salvation to Zion?
How could John advocate such a theology like this when he was raised with a theology that contradicted this type of belief? Well, he met the Savior of Israel who was also the Savior of the world

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The disciples do a lot of remembering of this event. Perhaps they were really embarrassed when Jesus comes to Jerusalem, and then creates a big scene with a lot of drama – Maybe this guy that we are starting to follow is a little unstable. And in the tradition of CS Lewis, Yes, Jesus, apart from the reality of the resurrection is a crazy man. Even if he did have healing miracles, even if he did say poetic and helpful things, if he is not the raised conqueror over every curse upon mankind, then he is just crazy nuts, and we should not credit him with any respectable attention. But because of this prediction of his death, and because of this prediction of his resurrection, Jesus IS THE ONLY MAN WITH AN OPINION that we had better listen to and follow!

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Evidently, it is very easy from a human perspective to doubt ancient writings. To believe that they have any connection to our modern world. To wonder if they were just for a past civilization and unreliable for our trust. But Jesus Christ endorsed these scriptures, and with his SIGN of the resurrection, whatever HE endorses is now eternally significant, and occupies the chief place in our mind for how we view all of life. All of history, all of relationships, all of our soulishness, all of our goals, all of our morality, all of our choices, all of our politics, all of our entertainment and education and everything! Jesus and the Scriptures are to be believed as Gospel Truth – and we must place all of our eternal worth on what they both say, because it is the word and testimony of Jesus and the Scriptures that will stand forever – and is the standard for God’s righteousness and truth.

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We are meeting the Savior from the gospel of John, John wants you to know right up front in his first chapter, that in meeting the Savior, you are meeting God in Christ,
John 2, John wants all of Israel to meet the Savior – to recognize that Israel does not need to be a wedding party winding down, but that it is just getting started, because God has saved the best for last, with the fullness of Christ! – And when Jesus cleanses the temple in the same chapter– Jesus is announcing to Israel that he is here to raise up a New Temple, which is his body, and that the focus of worship will be connected to, and directed toward – HIM
In John 3, The Savior meets with Nicodemus who represents the Jewish inquirer – who knows that Jesus must be from God because he is accompanied with signs, but he needs help putting Jesus into his religious way of looking at things – Jesus tells Nicodemus that He is the one the scriptures portray as coming to bring healing, wholeness, and life as Jesus compares himself to a serpent lifted high on a stick – and those who are born “from above,” will understand that Jesus is the way of Salvation.
John 3 concludes with John the Baptist, who is the last Jewish prophet, also trying to fit Jesus into his theology; but in a trusting way, the Baptist says his mission of preparing the way is concluding, & that Jesus is the one who will bring the Spirit without measure! And from the mouth of John the Baptist, John 3 concludes with him saying, 3:36 Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.
John 4 is a meeting with a woman at the well, but it is also the Savior meeting those beyond the scope of Israel. John chapter 4 communicates that the Savior is for everyone who wants to worship the Father, including ‘despised’ people like Samaritans. To emphasize this point, John 4 concludes with Jesus healing the son of a Nobleman, a person connected to the evil government which is complicit with the Roman occupiers. Jesus heals the son of an unholy royal family member – Jesus even heals pagans. This is called Jesus’ Second Sign. What do we concluded from John 4 – that a whole Samaritan village can be evangelized rather than destroyed, and that the entire household of Jewish oppressors can believe, rather than be condemned! Jesus is this kind of Savior.
So Jesus, as the Savior, has met those who are both friendly and hostile to the Jewish world. In John 5, Jesus is going to meet the Jewish religion head-on. In John 2, Jesus overthrows their view of worship, in John 5, Jesus is going to raise up their perception of how God really works in the world – And how does God work in this world? Jesus says, that God works through His Son! Jesus teaches this lesson because the religious leaders, who ran everything in Jerusalem central, of whom, Jesus selected not one of his 12 disciples from the religious class -- THEY needed to hear this lesson because the Jewish faith of Jesus’ day had locked up God in a box of legalism –

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The Sabbath (5.9) = Everything they said about the Sabbath was correct, especially when considering our OT readings this morning – you do not work on the Sabbath! Now, the Jews had struggled with this command ever since they received it. Nehemiah is one example of struggle that a ruler had trying to enforce this day of rest. Nehemiah said in his day, “Do you want to know why we as a nation keep failing in our mission? We don’t obey what God clearly says!” So he enforces the Sabbath in his day. IN JESUS DAY, the Pharisees, for the same reasons that motivated Nehemiah, enforced the Sabbath regulations. They could preach in their synagogues, “Do you want to know why we are being occupied by these heathen Roman’s today? Because we don’t obey the laws of Moses!! C’mon people!!” In fact the Pharisees, both as a religious and political movement, come out of the era of the Macabees who defeated the Greeks – and they didn’t attribute their success in battle to their military strategy, but to their zeal for righteousness. So again, great motives, great intentions – let’s be holy so that God will bless us!

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But couldn’t they see that Jesus had come to give this man rest from his suffering of 38 years? I don’t think I would be smart enough to figure that out!
- the Sabbath was a gracious day of rest from God for man – remember, no ancient civilization had anything like this whole day off to pursue wholeness! And what does healing mean = WHOLENESS! Jesus was giving this man his Sabbath rest because all his own work was in VAIN! When we finally give up on all our pathetic pursuits of putting confidence in what we do, in our attempts to fix ourselves, and finally rest in what Jesus has done for us, only then will we experience Healing, Wholeness – our Sabbath Rest.

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To emphasize the notion of ‘wholeness’ the Greek word “Hugeis” is used in verse 6,9,10,11,13,14,15, and is the clue for understanding this< Jesus 3rd sign.
This leads us for a moment of application: Where are we most pathetic and in need of this kind of healing? Maybe we are just to pathetic to figure that out too!! So we need to ask for God’s mercy in order to receive Christ’s words, and to obey them!
HERE is the ONE place we find the wholeness we need, in the authoritative word of Jesus Christ! His word has the power to commands us to obey. And I really like that this man makes a trip to the temple in order to make his praise offerings to the Lord! A person made WHOLE as the Bible describes it, IS a person who acknowledges that their own efforts always fall short; IS the person who longs for Christ alone to speak to our condition in order to bring healing of body and soul, and IS the person who longs to commune with the Lord and His people.
Jesus has the right to speak to our true condition – and as a good physician, this post op office visit comes with a prescription to keep him out of the greatest danger – especially for the one who has been recently been made whole! Jesus makes this man physically whole – But Jesus cares about the total WHOLENESS of a person – both physically and spiritually! -- all of the Gospels make this point– we all need a healing that leads to wholeness, and spiritual wholeness is the priority -- and it takes place when we hear, believe, and obey the authority of Jesus! There is no malpractice with Jesus!

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Every time Jesus takes a trip to Jerusalem, I see John replaying a scene over and over again in this Gospel (especially when comparing this healing of the invalid and the healing of the man born blind in John, chapter 9) – In doing this -- John wants the church to know that Jesus came to over turn all the perceptions that the religious class had about God, and to recognize that Jesus fulfills and raises our hopes for who God really is! That He has an abundance healing and grace – and Jesus' powerful signs indicate this.
So this is why over and over again, we will see that it is the intent of both the Father and the Son to raise people to new life -- and to prove that Jesus can raise people, he raises an invalid of 38 years, he will raise Lazarus, and more than that, HE himself will rise on the third day – this is the seal of approval from God the Father declaring the Lordship of God the Son.
And in this meeting, Jesus encounters a man who was stuck in his infirmity, while at the same time, Jesus meets the religious class -- stuck in their misperceptions of the work and word of God. The true ‘anointed one’ is now here to raise people to new life and to a new understanding – so that they may embrace with all their hearts and minds a Savior who is the exact representation of God in their midst – here to raise all who believe in him to new life!

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