Our Friend Lazarus has died

John 11:1-44

The Gospel of John is about signs, and of course, the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. I point out in this sermon that the Gospel of John is often divided into two primary sections. First, up through chapter 11 is the Book of Signs and then from chapter 12 on is the Book of the Passion of Jesus. This is an oversimplification in many ways, but still helpful. For example, there is another miracle of Jesus in John 21 and of course the resurrection of Jesus is the most central miracle of all. However, John 21 is obviously a kind of epilogue, balancing the prologue of John 1, and the resurrection of Jesus is of a nature very different from the miracles Jesus preformed on others.

The first chapters record seven miracles that Jesus did, which John calls signs. Signs point to something, and for John, the miracles of Jesus point to His glory. (Link to the sermon power point for more info.) I've always had trouble defining "glory." In the sermon I say that glory is "brightness, splendor, honor and essence." These are the central ideas given by any Greek lexicon. The idea is that the miracles Jesus preforms, at least in the way John is looking at them, reveal something about the splendor and honor and glory of Jesus. In his first chapter, as he is introducing Jesus, John says, "The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth." (John 1:14)

So each miracle is a window into the true essence of Jesus. Each one points to some truth about his real nature and purpose. Take the time, if you will, to look at each of these seven miracles and ask, "What does this sign teach me about Jesus?" As you seek the meaning of the miracle, pay attention to the context, especially the conversation and teaching that happens as a result of the sign. In the sermon, I mention briefly the relationship of the sign in John 2 and the conversation with Nicodemus in John 3. Here are John's seven signs:
Water to wine, John 2:1-11
Healing the son of a nobleman, John 4:46-50
Healing a lame person by the pool of Bethesda, John 5:1-17
Feeding the multitudes, John 6:1-13
Calming the storm (and walking on water), John 6:13-21
Open the eyes of one born blind, John 9:1-41
Raising Lazarus from the dead, John 11:1-44

After you do this exercise, you might google the seven signs of the Gospel of John and see how others have viewed these miracles. Bible students find different things (not that every one is always right!) and hearing from each other can be a good thing.

Another key to understanding these two primary sections of John can be seen in the use of the word "hour." In the first section, Jesus tries to avoid attention and escapes harm, because his hour had not yet come (see 2:4; 7:20; 8:20). However, in chapter 12, things change and Jesus says his "hour has come" (see also 13:1 and 17:1). The "hour" no doubt is the time for his crucifixion, his passion as we call it, and the latter part of John is all about Jesus preparing his followers for his departure, and then the crucifixion and resurrection, and then Jesus' appearances afterward, leading up to his ascension.

John is a wonderful telling of the life of Jesus and a great piece of finely crafted literature. Study it and you will not be disappointed.

Thanks for digging deeper.

Friends, Do Not Be Afraid

Luke 12:1-12

There are two things I would like to do in this blog. One is to share a personal account of my own struggle with the "yeast of hypocrisy" and the other is to give more background to the Valley of Ben Hinnom and the idol worship of Molek.

First my story. In the sermon I talk about how the fear of what others will say or think about us is the driving force behind hypocrisy. As a young preacher just starting out in church leadership (and I was young, being 19 when I was called to the ministry, 20 when I was licensed and 23 when ordained), I had my own struggle with fear. Ashamedly, I was overly concerned with how people would view me and it impacted how I preached and dressed and lived. I remember one dream I had sometime into my early ministry years. I dreamed that I had made a commitment to be true to the Word of God no matter what others thought. As I recall, I had been reading the journals of Jonathan Edwards, Puritan reformer in New England, in which he talked about his list of life resolutions. The first one was: Resolved to live for Jesus no matter how hard it gets (my paraphrase. Read his list here.) Anyway, in my dream I made this commitment (which was not just a dream, because I had recently responded to an invitation at a crusade and made this very commitment), and as a result, in my dream I saw all my friends walking away from me, and I was all alone.

I woke up a bit shaken. Over the next years as I both matured spiritually and in my own personality (I was a bit of a dweeb way back then), this dream proved itself to be true. I did lose friendships because of stands I took, some of which I see now were more influenced by the people I wanted approval from, than they were by a pure reading of the Word.

As the years unfolded, I grew more and more hungry for the approval of God and less concerned about the approval of others, and that has led to a higher level of authenticity and integrity in my life. But it has come with a price--the price of strained relationships and associations. But living true to oneself and true to what one believes are the purposes of God, is worth any sacrifice one makes. I still do not live this out perfectly--everyone is impacted by the "yeast of hypocrisy" to one degree or another. I continually pray, asking God to show me where I need to be strong and more authentic.

Now Molek.
In the sermon I talk a bit about the history of the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, which encompasses Jerusalem on the West and South sides of the city.

In Old Testament times, the idol to the god Molek was located in the Valley of Hinnom, most likely near its juncture with the Kidron Valley. (Interestingly enough, today at this juncture there is the Greek Orthodox Saint Onuphrius Monastery. I love the way God redeems things!) Molek was one of the gods in the pantheon of Canaanite gods. His worship involved the propitiatory sacrifice of children. Read more about Molek 

here.

Worship of Molek and the associate child sacrifice was strongly condemned in the Old Testament. Prohibitions exist in the early law codes of Leviticus (18:21 and 20:1-5) and by the prophets, particularly Jeremiah (32:35). However, its presence in such a central place continued to cause trouble for Israel. Molek played a role in the fall of Solomon (1 Kings 11:1-6) and the evil kings Ahaz (2 Chron. 28:1-4) and Manasseh (2 Chron. 33:1-6). Righteous Josiah desecrated the idol of Molek (2 Kings 23:10).

By the time of Jesus, the idol was long gone, but its memory lingered. The Valley of Ben Hinnom, Gehenna in Greek, was now the garbage dump of Jerusalem where a fire burned continuously. This is the image that lies behind the word Hell, as Jesus used it in the Gospels (and James one time in his writing). Here is a list of the references, copied from the Wiki entry for Hinnom:

• Matt.5:22 whoever calls someone "you fool" will be liable to Gehenna.
• Matt.5:29 better to lose one of your members than that your whole body go into Gehenna.
• Matt.5:30 better to lose one of your members than that your whole body go into Gehenna.
• Matt.10:28 rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in Gehenna.
• Matt.18:9 better to enter life with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into Gehenna.
• Matt.23:15 Pharisees make a convert twice as much a child of Gehenna as themselves.
• Matt.23:33 to Pharisees: you brood of vipers, how are you to escape being sentenced to Gehenna?
• Mark 9:43 better to enter life with one hand than with two hands to go to Gehenna.
• Mark 9:45 better to enter life lame than with two feet to be thrown into Gehenna.
• Mark 9:47 better to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into Gehenna
• Luke 12:5 Fear him who, after he has killed, has authority to cast into Gehenna
• James 3:6 the tongue is set on fire by Gehenna.

Lastly, here is an old artistic rendition of what the idol Molek looked like:

 

The arched opening at the base is where you built the fire that heated up the bronze idol. Then, if the image on the left side is correct, you threw your child in the fire. If the one on the right is correct, after the arms were glowing red with heat, you placed your child in the idol's arms.

It does not get any more detestable than that.

Thanks for digging deeper.

Friend, Your Sins are Forgiven!

Luke 5:17-26 (Mark 2:1-12) Matthew 18:21-35


Well I'm back from a two week trip to Israel. (View pictures here: Israel Pictures.) It was an awesome trip (my 7th) with some neat new experiences, like snow in Jerusalem. But now I'm back to preaching. While I was off, my colleagues, Jim Carson and Kim Ream, started our Lenten series for 2012. We are calling the series, Jesus, Friend of Sinners, from the reference in Matthew 11:13 and Luke 7:34. What a great title for Jesus. In the biblical account, it was meant in a derogatory way, but we see it differently.


The idea is that during Lent, as we study The Relationship Principles of Jesus in our classes and groups, our sermons will look at the times Jesus referred to people as friends. The first two sermons were Jesus, Friend of Sinners from 7:18-35 and Luke 15:1-31 (preached by Jim Carson) and You are my friends if... from John 15:1-17 and Matthew 21:28-32 (preached by Kim Ream). You can listen to these sermons by following the sermon link to the right of this column.


My sermon today is the third in this series that looks at the times Jesus called someone, friend. Jesus uses the word friend rather frequently. Most often, it occurs in his teaching material, especially in parables. However, there are a handful of times when Jesus addresses someone by calling the person "friend." Here they are: Matthew 26:50 (Judas); Luke 5:20 (friends of the the paralytic who is let down through the roof--today's sermon); Luke 12:4 (disciples); John 15:13-15 (multiple references to his disciples as friends); John 21:5 (his disciples) and John 11:11 (Lazarus).


Today's sermon considers the theme of forgiveness, as Jesus grants it to the paralytic and also heals him.


For further reading, here is a good article from the Mayo Clinic and another one, with multiple questions to explore, from a Christian source.


Thanks for digging deeper.