Classic Christianity – Book of John Part 70 (09-10-19)
Transcript
We are so prone to follow for what He can give us. They followed him when he fed the five thousand. Why? The next day Jesus said to them, “The only reason you are following me is because you were fed on the other side of the lake”.
I have seen this again and again so many times in people today. In church work, working down on the streets, a guy says, “Give me a meal. What do I need to do? Get baptized. Lead me to the water”. So he gets baptized to get a meal and not to get Jesus. Thousands of times people take advantage of that to get numbers to their credit. The only reason they went to the water was to get a meal and not to get Jesus. You have to have discernment on that kind of thing to determine if they are sincere or just following you to get a meal. That is one of the dangers of just giving a meal. All you have accomplished is satisfying someone’s hunger for a couple of hours. You have not accomplished anything.
Luke 19:38-44
38 “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!”“Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!”
So they were praising Jesus, this king who has done miracles, and who is different than anyone they have ever seen.
Luke 19:39-44
39 Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to Jesus, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples!”
The Pharisees, who are enemies of the gospel, were the most religious people on the face of the earth. According to orthodoxy, by the age of 18 they had the Pentateuch, the first five books of the bible memorized. Then by the age of 23, they have the entire scriptures memorized. So stringent were they. They had scriptures memorized and posted on their doorposts and were always quoting scripture, but not having a clue of what any of it meant.
So these teachers of the law, who set themselves up as the authority for the interpretation of the word of God, when they came in contact with the living Word, the interpreters of the written word, denied the living Word and hung him on a cross because he did not agree with their interpretation. They were interpreting the scriptures not in light of revelation but were interpreting the scriptures in light of their tradition. That is why Jesus said, “You follow your tradition but you miss me.”
Mark 7:9-13
9 And he continued, “You have a fine way of setting aside the commands of God in order to observe your own traditions! 10 For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and mother,’ and, ‘Anyone who curses their father or mother is to be put to death.’ 11 But you say that if anyone declares that what might have been used to help their father or mother is Corban (that is, devoted to God) – 12 then you no longer let them do anything for their father or mother. 13 Thus you nullify the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And you do many things like that.”
John 5:39-40
39 You study the Scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life. These are the very Scriptures that testify about me, 40 yet you refuse to come to me to have life
These Pharisees, the teachers of the law, were adamantly against Jesus. If Jesus was a teacher of the law, would they be adamantly be against him? They were not against him because he had a beard. They were against him because of what he taught. Law teaches the exterior. Jesus said, “I go under the skin and teach the internal, the matters of the heart. If anyone has anger toward his brother, then he has already committed murder in his heart. I go deeper than the law. You said you do not lust, but I say if you look lustfully at a girl you have already committed adultery in your heart. Lust comes before adultery”. Jesus is saying, “The law deals with the effect. I am dealing with the cause. Man does not want to deal with the cause. Man says, ‘Just Let me deal with the effect. Let me deal with what you don’t do and I can pretend I don’t do it and hope you can’t find out that I am not doing it. Then I am okay.’”
Luke 11:38-40
38 But the Pharisee was surprised when he noticed that Jesus did not first wash before the meal.39 Then the Lord said to him, “Now then, you Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside you are full of greed and wickedness. 40 You foolish people! Did not the one who made the outside make the inside also?”
Matthew 23:26-28
26 Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean.27 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean. 28 In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.”
Jeremiah 17:9
9 The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?
Your actions aren’t the problem. It is your heart that is the problem.
So when they heard these people praising God, then their pride and wickedness, they have the audacity to chastise God. But, being blind, they did not know he was God. They were blind in pride. They told Jesus to rebuke his disciples!
Luke 19:40-44
40 “I tell you,” he replied, “if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out.”
If you have ever been to Israel, all you see is stones. If you need to be stoned, that is where you need to go. Jesus is saying to the Pharisees, “I can use anything to proclaim the good news of the gospel. If you get rid of man, then I can get these stones to cry out.
Luke 19:41
41 As he approached Jerusalem and saw the city, he wept over it
Today, if you come in a bus, you will oversee the city. Normally, “Hosanna” is played on the bus. There is the city where my redemption was purchased for me. There is the city where God entered human experience and took away my sins. This is where Jesus came to solve my problem of spiritual death. That is where all of that occurred. If you can stand on the site and look down on that beautiful city and not weep, then something is wrong with your emotions. So it is with Jesus. He wept over the city. When Jesus saw the city he was going to enter, to take away the sins of the world on a cross and be raised from the dead for our justification, he wept.
Luke 19:41
42 and said, “If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace – but now it is hidden from your eyes.
If only you knew what would bring you people to have peace. There will never be peace in Israel. All the nations shaking hands with their brother, it is just a facade. There will be no peace until the end of the age, when they will look upon the one they had pierced. Only on that day will there be peace in the land. If you could only grasp who could bring you peace on that day. You are blind. You are blind by your own pride, hanging on to your own traditions.You would rather be a Jew than a Christian. You would rather be a Gentile than be a Christian. If you only had known, I would have saved your city and you people would have peace that day.
Luke 19:43-44
43 The days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment against you and encircle you and hem you in on every side. 44 They will dash you to the ground, you and the children within your walls. They will not leave one stone on another, because you did not recognize the time of God’s coming to you.”
If you were to go to Israel today and see the excavation of the walls of the temple, there is not one stone left on top of another, not one. In 70 A.D. when Titus came, they destroyed it in its entirety. They built an embankment, they encircled them, and circled around them and hemmed them in. They killed thousands of Jewish people and their children. Why? They did not recognize God’s coming to you.
Luke 19:45-46
45 When Jesus entered the temple courts, he began to drive out those who were selling. 46 “It is written,” he said to them, “‘My house will be a house of prayer’; but you have made it ‘a den of robbers.’”
You have turned the temple into something it was never intended to be, a market place and a den of robbers. Today, we have turned the church into something it was never intended to be. The church was meant to be, from day one, a place to listen to the apostles teaching, to fellowship, to prayer and the breaking of bread, and that is it, period. It was not meant to be a place to be entertained, to drink Starbucks, to have bowling alleys, basketball courts, and coffee shops, to entertain the lost. When you entertain the lost, you build more buildings.
Acts 2:42
42 They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.
It was supposed to be a place to worship, to come and learn. Why? To be productive. The job of a pastor is to equip workers of ministry. What is the work of ministry? The work of ministry is to trust in Christ Jesus, to help people to trust Jesus, to walk by faith in Him. Yet they turned the temple into a den of robbers. So too today. We probably will not have much trouble needing a building bigger than this. Why? There are not too many people interested in Jesus. If we came to entertain people, we could pack this place out. But that is not what church is for.
What is it packed out with? Lost people. How do I know that? I was one of them. At age 8, I was entertained. I was entertained as a child. I thank God for the ministry that entertained us, for at least we were hearing songs on Easter. We were one of the few churches back then that had buses. We played softball and basketball, but never once heard one time about Jesus. I never had a bible opened. At 36 years of age, when I opened a bible, it cracked. It was never opened before. I never carried a bible to church. Since nobody did, I would have been embarrassed if I did. I would have been the only one carrying a bible. But I was entertained. I had a lot of pot lucks, what was called fellowship, but nothing of any substance. That is the condition of the majority of churches today, to water down the gospel to be politically correct. It would be like people saying, “Do not tell anyone that you have to be saved by believing the gospel for that might offend somebody”. That is what is going on in the world today.
Luke 19:47-48
47 Every day he was teaching at the temple. But the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the leaders among the people were trying to kill him. 48 Yet they could not find any way to do it, because all the people hung on his words.
John 15:1-17
1 “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. 2 He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. 3 You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. 4 Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.
5 “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. 6 If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. 7 If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 8 This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.
9 “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. 10 If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. 11 I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. 12 My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command. 15 I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. 16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit – fruit that will last – and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you. 17 This is my command: Love each other.
He is saying that the purpose of the church is to learn about Jesus, to trust Jesus, to learn to walk by faith in Jesus, to yield to Jesus, and learn how how to abide in Jesus.
Ephesians 4:11-12
11 So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, 12 to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up
What is the role of an evangelist? To teach people to believe in Jesus. You are lost and you need Jesus. What is the role of a pastor or teacher? To teach people, who are now saved, to trust Jesus with your everyday life. After this Sunday, Palm Sunday, everyone is shouting “Hosanna”, and next week they are screaming, “crucify him”. How fickle people are!
He starts out in John 15 to show us how to walk in the newness of life that is ours in Christ Jesus. He starts out by saying, “I am the true vine”. He says that because Israel was considered the vine. They thought they were the vine. “I am the true vine. You have a vine over here, but I am the true vine. And my Father is the gardener”.
Where is he? In Israel? Who is he talking to? The Jews. Who did the Gospel come to first? The Jews. Who did he reveal him to before the gospel? The Jews. Who did he set apart from the rest of the world? The Jews. So he is talking here to the Jews. Jesus is saying, “I am the true vine. You are not. The Father is the gardener.”
John 15:2-3
2 He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. 3 You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you.
You can be a believer but not be a born again believer. You can be a professor but not a possessor. You can confess Christ but not have Christ. People have said, “I have been saved all my life.” That is not true since everyone is born in sin, born spiritually dead. Being raised in a certain denomination does not make you saved. You can know Jesus and not be born again. If you are not bearing fruit, it is because you are not abiding.
John 15:4
4 Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.
The role of a branch is to abide in the life of the vine. The role of the vine is to produce in the branch, whatever it is, the life that produces fruit in the branch. The branch bears fruit, but it cannot produce the fruit. As in the natural realm, so too in the spiritual realm. Jesus is the vine, the Father is the gardener, and we are the branches. What is the fruit produced by the Spirit?
Galatians 5:22-23
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.
Let us look at the fruit of the Spirit. Ask yourself, “how well do I produce such fruit of the Spirit?”
Have you ever tried to love someone? Lots of luck. We try to love the lovely, but what about those who are not so lovely. So we sing our songs, “Oh, to dwell with saints above that would be glory but to dwell with saints below that would be another story”, thinking we are loving.
Can you produce joy. No, that only comes from God. You can have happiness, but that is it, but that depends on circumstances of life, of which you have no control.
How about peace? You can have world peace, but try to produce that peace that surpasses understanding.
What about patience? Kindness? We have no point of reference to produce these in our own strength. Unless you are in Christ Jesus, you have never experienced those things in and through your life. You may have a little happiness, a temporary peace, but not true peace, and not joy.
John 15:2
2 He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.
If you do bear fruit, he will prune you back. That is what you do to a branch. You prune it so life does not have too far to go and so it goes out to the branch. That is why you have fruit on a tree.
If you are willing to let go of everything except Jesus, then all that is left remaining is Jesus. Are you a vine or are you a branch? We are all branches. He is the vine. He is saying no branch can bear fruit by itself. If a branch is not attached to the vine, he is not going to get anything out of it. It must remain in the vine. If you are going to bear fruit of Christ Jesus, you must remain in the vine.
John 15:4
4 Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.
So what is the Christian life, as a born again person? Remain in Jesus. What does that mean? Keep trusting Him. As you received Christ Jesus as Lord, so keep walking in Him. How did you receive Him? By faith. How do you keep walking in Him? by faith. Unless you remain in Him, you can bear no fruit.
Colossians 2:6
6 So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him
John 15:5
5 “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.
Look again at the fruit of the Spirit, that if we abide in Him, the Spirit produces in us and through us.
Galatians 5:22-23
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.
What is the first indicator of abiding in Christ? The first fruit is love. How much can you love apart from Christ Jesus, with Christ’s love? Nothing. Is that discouraging, that I cannot even do that? No, it is encouraging because it reminds you to keep remaining in Christ Jesus.
Have you asked God, “Why did you enter me, to allow me to be born again of the Spirit and allow me to have sin indwelling flesh in me? Why did you not take that away? You could have eradicated that in my life?” God responds, “Because if I did you, would forget me in a minute.” Rejoice in your weaknesses. Why? Your weaknesses is what keep you so dependent upon the Lord. If you did not have any weakness you would not even need the Lord. If I did not commit murder, then I only need a 90% Jesus. If I also did not commit adultery, then I only need a 80% Jesus. That is how many people think: “You might get good enough so you do not need Him at all”. That is how some people live; trying to be good enough so I will not even need Jesus.
You cannot do it. The fact you cannot do it, begs the question, “so is it possible to be done”? Yes, it is possible. Sure. All you have to do is yield in Christ, who is the initiator of the fruit, the love, joy, peace and patience, and the Spirit will produce that in you and through you. But you cannot do it when you are trying to gut it out for Jesus. People trying so desperately to do it in the energy of the flesh. That is called spiritual burn out. You exhaust yourself trying to do good for Jesus. People have said, “The greatest thing you could ever do is burn out for God”. How ridiculous! Yes, just exhaust yourself and get yourself into a mental hospital. Jesus is saying, “take a vacation in me, and let me do the work.”
