Pillars of Faith

The Wise Way

Three Angels Broadcasting Network

Program transcript

Participants: C. A. Murray

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Series Code: POF

Program Code: POF000022A


00:23 Thank you for tuning in, as you do each and every day.
00:26 You may be listening via the radio, or watching on
00:29 television, or the internet, but we know that you'll be blessed
00:34 because God has given Pastor C.A. Murray
00:37 a special message for us.
00:38 And this is part two in a five part series that's entitled,
00:42 Walk This Way.
00:44 Now today's sermon is entitled, The Wise Way.
00:48 We appreciate Pastor C.A. and his wife, Irma.
00:52 They're great team members of the 3ABN team.
00:55 And Pastor C.A., he wears many hats here at 3ABN.
00:59 He is currently the 3ABN Proclaim General Manager,
01:03 but again, he does many things for 3ABN.
01:05 And we're so blessed to have he and his wife here with us.
01:09 Before we continue here, I'd like to open in prayer.
01:13 Father in heaven, Lord, we're so grateful for Your love,
01:16 Your care, and just Your watchful care over us
01:20 each and every day.
01:21 Lord, You've blessed us with so many things,
01:23 and we're just grateful for the gift of salvation.
01:26 Thank You for Pastor C.A. and the message that You have
01:29 given to him to share with us today.
01:32 We just pray that as Your Word is opened, that Your Holy Spirit
01:36 will be here with us and with him as he shares
01:39 what You have given to him.
01:40 We thank You, and in Jesus' name we pray, amen.
01:53 We do welcome you once again to, Pillars of Faith;
01:57 this opportunity that we have to bring the Word
02:02 to the world, and to lift up the name of Jesus,
02:07 and to speak a word on behalf of our
02:09 Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
02:11 Our series has been entitled, and is entitled, Walk This Way.
02:18 On yesterday we dealt with, Stay This Way;
02:23 Paul's call to Hebrew Christians to keep on walking
02:28 the way you're going, keep on going the way you're going,
02:31 keep on doing what you're doing.
02:32 Don't turn your back on Jesus.
02:37 Don't turn you back on His will and way.
02:41 And don't turn back to the old ways.
02:45 Don't put yourself under the bondage of the old system,
02:48 but stay free in Christ Jesus.
02:50 Today, The Wise Way.
02:53 Or wisdom's way, as we may call it.
02:56 We center in on the book of John.
03:02 One of my favorite gospels.
03:06 Luke is still, I think, my favorite guy of all time,
03:10 but I've gotten a loving respect for John and what he
03:15 tries to do, what he seeks to do to his hearers,
03:20 given his audience.
03:22 And you've got to remember that the gospel writers
03:26 wrote to specific audiences.
03:29 They had a, dare I say, constituency in mind
03:35 when they wrote.
03:36 They were trying to prove something, to show something,
03:39 to unearth something, to discover something.
03:42 So they wrote with a specific constituency in mind.
03:47 But all of it is meat in due season for us.
03:50 All of it has something to say to us.
03:52 And this marvelous, non-synoptic gospel...
03:58 Synoptic meaning generally, same view.
04:01 John's view is a little bit different.
04:02 And we'll take a look at that in just a moment.
04:04 Bow your heads now with me as we ask God's blessing
04:07 upon this message and our time together.
04:09 Father God, as we look at the way of wisdom, or wisdom's way,
04:14 we ask once again that Your power, Your presence,
04:19 may be felt here.
04:21 That those who are called to listen and hear
04:25 may be doers of the Word,
04:28 that Your presence may illuminate us as we dig into
04:34 this treasure trove of wisdom.
04:38 Bless us, Father.
04:40 And we thank You in Jesus' name, amen.
04:44 It is generally agreed by most Bible scholars that
04:52 the gospel of John was the last book in the Bible to be written.
04:57 I think you well know and understand that the Bible,
05:01 as we find it in its current state,
05:08 was not written chronologically.
05:10 It wasn't that Matthew was first, then Mark wrote,
05:12 and then Luke wrote, and then John wrote.
05:17 The order is not chronological.
05:20 Most Bible scholars agree that the gospel of John was the last.
05:26 Now we do know that John the beloved was among the younger,
05:31 if not the youngest, of the apostles.
05:34 So he outlived most of them and wrote sometime later.
05:41 The gospel of, as I recall, Mark is first.
05:46 And he wrote about 20 years after the death of Christ.
05:51 Matthew shortly after that.
05:53 Luke sometime after that.
05:55 And then John wrote, "John," after the book of Revelation
06:03 after he was released from Patmos.
06:06 No he did not die on Patmos.
06:08 He got back from Patmos after his exile.
06:12 And we believe that, "John," was written
06:14 from the city of Ephesus.
06:17 What is interesting about the gospel of John
06:19 is that it does not self-identify.
06:21 He does not say, "I, John, wrote this gospel,"
06:25 as we see in some other gospels.
06:27 He alludes to the fact that the beloved disciple write it.
06:30 We see that in John 13, John 19, John 21:7, 20, and 24.
06:37 But there's no direct statement that says
06:39 John wrote the gospel, or, "I, John, wrote the gospel,"
06:43 like we see in Revelation.
06:44 Over and over in Revelation we see, "I, John, saw..."
06:47 Well that's kind of self-identification.
06:49 We don't have that in John.
06:50 There are many, many interesting things in the book of John.
06:54 A lot that you and I need to apply to ourselves.
07:00 So we believe it was written in the town of Ephesus
07:04 sometime after his return from Patmos.
07:07 That would date the writing of the book of John
07:10 to about AD 95 or so.
07:16 The historian Eusebius says that John was exiled
07:20 to Patmos and was returned in AD 93,
07:25 and about two years later this gospel was written.
07:28 So sometime we figure between 95 AD and 100 AD
07:33 John sat down to write this gospel that bears his name.
07:38 And as we say, it is the final book chronologically
07:43 in the New Testament, somewhere around the turn of the century
07:47 of the first century.
07:49 So John has much to say, and his view is very, very different.
07:58 But he does play a little trick on us, John does, to the seeker.
08:04 He makes the statement at the very end, kind of telling us
08:10 who wrote the book.
08:12 And this is so very funny.
08:16 He is forced to hold onto that explanation, by the way.
08:21 He introduces the gospel; we get it, you know,
08:25 we get that little bit at the beginning,
08:28 and then he kind of exposes it at the end.
08:30 Let's look at John 20:30.
08:33 We're at the end of the gospel.
08:34 John 20:30
08:40 John, more than any book, there's a lot of little...
08:44 I'm not sure what you would call them.
08:46 ...tricks, little left turns, little interesting nuances,
08:51 in the gospel of John.
08:56 I'm in John 20:30.
08:58 "And truly Jesus did many other signs in the presence
09:02 of His disciples, which are not written in this book;
09:06 but these are written that you may believe
09:10 that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God,
09:15 and that believing you may have life in His name."
09:18 So John tells you just about at the end why he wrote the book.
09:24 He says, "Christ did a lot of things.
09:27 I don't have time, there's not enough ink,
09:30 or enough pages to let you know all of the things
09:33 that Jesus did.
09:35 But He did these so that you can believe,
09:40 and that in believing, you may have salvation."
09:43 Now, if you're connecting the dots, here's what you discover.
09:47 John's purpose for writing his gospel is not unlike
09:53 Paul's purpose for writing the book of Hebrews.
09:56 Paul wrote, as we listened to and understood on yesterday,
10:00 the book of Hebrews to keep Hebrew Christians
10:04 from returning back to classic Judaism.
10:08 John wrote the book of John so that those following Jesus
10:15 in the second century, or in the second generation, rather,
10:20 would have assurance that the legacy left to them
10:24 by the first generation was the real deal.
10:27 Now what am I saying?
10:30 By the time John wrote, 95 to 100 AD, most of the people
10:37 who knew Jesus personally, who walked and talked with Jesus
10:42 on a personal level, who saw Jesus personally,
10:47 who listened to Jesus personally, had died.
10:51 They were gone. They were no longer alive.
10:54 So the Jesus of Nazareth, the personal Person,
11:00 was no longer around.
11:01 Nor were the people who could say, "Oh yeah, I saw Him,"
11:05 "Oh yeah, I heard Him," "Oh yeah, I knew Him."
11:09 That generation had died.
11:11 The generation who was going to be reading the gospel of John
11:15 was connected to Jesus only by the Word.
11:19 Now that's very, very important.
11:21 Only by the Word.
11:23 In other words, somebody had to write something about Christ
11:26 or somebody had to say something about Christ
11:29 that familiarized them with who He was.
11:32 And maybe that is why we get this very interesting
11:37 beginning in John 1:1.
11:43 Here's what the Bible says.
11:45 "In the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God,
11:51 the Word was God."
11:53 The Logos.
11:55 "And He was in the beginning with God.
11:58 All things were made through Him,
12:01 and without Him nothing was made that was made.
12:05 In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.
12:11 And the light shines in the darkness,
12:13 and the darkness did not comprehend it."
12:16 You see there a parallel with the way Paul
12:20 addresses the book of Hebrews.
12:22 There is this apologetic, this understanding,
12:26 this teaching of who the Word is, and at the same time
12:31 a concomitant defense of the Word, the power of the Word,
12:37 the beauty of the Word.
12:39 And then he goes on to say, "There was a man sent from God
12:43 whose name was John."
12:46 And then John, of course, gives illumination to the Light,
12:52 who of course, is Jesus.
12:53 So John is doing in his own way the precise same thing
12:57 that Paul was doing in the book of Hebrews.
13:00 He's giving a defense of Jesus, an apologetic of Jesus,
13:04 an understanding of the legitimacy and the realization
13:07 of who Jesus was.
13:09 And as such, a justification for following Jesus.
13:14 This Jesus, John is saying, was the Light.
13:17 And that Light came to shine into the lives
13:20 and into the hearts of all men.
13:22 So you have it; John's goal is to get his reader to understand
13:27 and accept that Jesus of Nazareth is the long anticipated
13:33 Savior of the Jews and of the world.
13:38 But remember, he's talking to people who have
13:41 no connection with Jesus.
13:42 Never saw Him, never heard Him.
13:44 And yet they're called to believe someone
13:47 that they've never had any contact with.
13:49 Hey, that kind of sounds like you and me.
13:53 Never seen Him, we've never walked the dusty roads with Him.
13:59 We've never shaken His hand.
14:01 We've never had a chance to hear His wonderful Word.
14:04 The only connection that we have with Jesus
14:08 is through the Word and the indwelling power
14:13 of the Holy Spirit.
14:14 And of course, John talks about that in John 14
14:18 just a little bit further down in his book.
14:21 So John's message to that second generation
14:26 is John's message to us many generations removed;
14:30 that Jesus is real.
14:32 "You haven't touched Him, you haven't talked with Him,
14:36 you haven't sat with Him, you haven't heard His voice,
14:39 but you've got His Word.
14:41 And His word is real and alive, and quickens us.
14:46 And the reason I'm writing this book is so that you can hear,
14:50 and read, and believe, and be saved."
14:55 So of all of the gospels, John's message kind of
14:58 focus on you and on me.
15:00 Because we weren't there to meet Jesus either,
15:03 but we have the very wonderful legacy left in His Word.
15:13 John goes at His defense in a very interesting way.
15:17 And you find some things in the book of John
15:19 that are really very fascinating.
15:23 John didn't write us a history book
15:26 as much as he wrote us, dare I say, a commercial.
15:32 The book of John is a commercial for Jesus.
15:35 It's an advertisement.
15:37 A short television docudrama suggesting that if you
15:43 desire life, Jesus is the way.
15:47 If you want safety, Jesus is the way.
15:52 If you want wisdom, Jesus is the way.
15:58 John 14, you know it very well.
16:01 "Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God,
16:04 believe also in Me.
16:06 In My Father's house are many mansions;
16:08 if it were not so, I would have told you.
16:09 I go to prepare a place for you.
16:12 And if I go to prepare a place for you,
16:15 I will come again and receive you unto Myself;
16:19 that where I am, there you may be also.
16:22 And where I go you know, and the way you know."
16:27 Now Thomas, you know Thomas, "Thomas says to Him,
16:30 'Lord, we do not know where You are going,
16:33 and how can we know the way?'"
16:36 And then Jesus gives us the punchline, as it were.
16:39 "Jesus said to him, 'I am the way...
16:44 I am the way, the truth, and the life.
16:50 No one comes to the Father but by Me.'"
16:52 Now that seems like a very bigoted statement.
16:55 And perhaps it is.
16:56 But Christ is pointing out the way of salvation.
16:59 "You want to get to God, you've got to come through Me.
17:00 I am the way."
17:03 And so John is careful to place that in this particular book
17:09 because he wants you to know that Jesus is the way.
17:14 Jesus is the path.
17:16 Jesus is the direction and the director.
17:21 And it's not coincidental that in that same chapter
17:24 we get an allusion to the Holy Spirit,
17:27 a mention of the Holy Spirit.
17:29 And Christ also says, "By the way, if you love Me,
17:33 keep My commandments.
17:34 Don't forget about that."
17:36 So Jesus is the way.
17:37 He is writing, that is John, we believe, most scholars believe,
17:42 to educated, trained Jewish Christians.
17:46 Again, we get this idea, this necessary writing
17:53 to Jewish Christians.
17:54 As I said in yesterday's message, it was tough
17:56 being a Christian in the early days.
17:59 So Paul, the arch-missionary, the ultimate evangelist,
18:04 tries to encourage them.
18:06 And John, whose audience now is very much a non-Jewish...
18:12 Well not very much.
18:14 I should say, it's intermingled with Jews and Gentiles
18:18 because the gospel has gone to the Gentiles.
18:20 You remember, the city of Jerusalem was destroyed
18:23 by the Romans in 70 AD.
18:25 This is written some 25 years or so after
18:31 Jerusalem has been destroyed.
18:33 So the Hebrew community is scattered.
18:35 There is no more centralized government in Jerusalem
18:41 because Jerusalem no longer exists.
18:42 The city has been torn down, the temple has been destroyed.
18:45 So John is writing to a community that,
18:48 though it has many, many Jews, is not exclusively Jews.
18:51 Really, the same audience that Paul is addressing.
18:55 But John is addressing it as a Jew who saw Christ
19:01 and knew Christ, and dealt with Christ,
19:05 and lived with Christ for a while, and gives it a certainty
19:10 of one who was with Christ to those who had
19:13 no connection with Christ other than these words.
19:17 So he's writing to a trained, educated Jewish community.
19:22 He did write to an essentially Jewish audience
19:26 like Matthew and Mark, who are traditional Jews.
19:32 Mark wrote to foreign Jews, Matthew to classic Jews,
19:38 Luke to non-Jews.
19:40 John now writing to educated Jews.
19:43 So as I said before, each evangelist, each gospel writer
19:48 had an audience in mind.
19:50 Matthew's writing to traditional Jews who want the heritage.
19:55 So you get that long line of names
19:56 there in the book of Matthew.
19:58 They want to know that Christ came through
20:00 the line as predicted.
20:02 Traditional Jews.
20:04 Mark writes to Diaspora Jews.
20:07 He's writing to people who have been flung
20:10 to the far corners of the earth who need to know
20:13 that Christ can save.
20:14 And so you notice in the book of Mark,
20:16 Mark doesn't deal with a lot of history.
20:18 He doesn't give you, this one begat this one,
20:19 and this one begat this one, and this one begat this one,
20:21 and gives you that long history.
20:23 Mark's not concerned with that.
20:24 Mark is writing to people who need to know
20:27 that Jesus can heal, Jesus can save.
20:29 So you find most of the miracles in the book of Mark.
20:35 Luke is writing as a person outside of Palestine
20:39 to a difference audience.
20:42 And he's writing to non-Jews.
20:46 And that's why what's interesting in the book of Luke,
20:49 every time you see a non-Jew doing something good,
20:53 Luke writes that story.
20:54 Or a woman.
20:55 Good Samaritan; in the book of Luke.
20:59 The publican showing the Pharisee how to serve the Lord;
21:02 Luke 18.
21:04 Luke is writing to non-Jews letting them know
21:06 that even though you didn't come through Jewish stock,
21:09 even though you don't have the Jewish lineage,
21:11 even though you don't have the Jewish heritage,
21:13 God loves you, God can use you, God can bless you,
21:17 and God has a place for you in His kingdom.
21:22 And that is Luke's burden.
21:23 Well now we have John.
21:27 John, again, addresses himself to an educated Jewish community.
21:35 But he wants them to know that Jesus is real.
21:42 Jesus is making a place for you.
21:47 Even if you don't know where you quite fit in,
21:50 Christ has a place for you.
21:53 By this time the temple, as I said, had long been
21:55 since destroyed, in fulfillment of Christ's ominous prediction.
22:00 Matthew 24. It's also in the book of Mark.
22:03 It's also in the book of Luke where Christ said
22:05 not one stone would be left upon another.
22:09 The Pharisees, bless their hearts, had gained
22:13 control of the faith.
22:15 They were defining Judaism along Pharisaical lines.
22:20 Lines that suited them.
22:22 Which meant no Jewish Christians and rigid adherence to orthodoxy
22:29 as they saw it.
22:31 So Judaism was beginning to evolve, dare I say,
22:37 or devolve maybe is a better word,
22:39 and sort of circle the wagons and close in on itself.
22:44 It was developing along Pharisaical lines.
22:48 So one of John's tasks is to keep the fire burning,
22:54 to keep the momentum going, to keep this fledgling baby
23:00 Christian movement energized.
23:04 He will be joined in that awesome task by Paul
23:07 and other New Testament church fathers.
23:11 Christianity during these days, round about 100 AD,
23:16 has to defend itself against any number
23:20 of demonic outside attacks.
23:22 Liberalism...
23:26 You don't have to do anything.
23:29 Ultra-conservatism...
23:32 You've got to do everything.
23:35 Docetism, Nicolaitanism, Gnosticism, Stoicism.
23:44 Hellenization, or the Greek-izing of the church.
23:48 Paganism.
23:50 Judaizers who try to turn all the Christians back into Jews.
23:54 And the ever present internal power struggles
23:59 And Roman paganism, as well as Epicureanism.
24:05 Some of these things you can hardly pronounce.
24:08 And yet the church had to fight against all of them.
24:10 When you're a new movement, everybody wants a piece of you.
24:14 Everybody wants to get a little piece.
24:15 And so Christianity is trying to grow up in among
24:19 all of these weeds which are pressing in upon them.
24:24 You know, as you look at the book of Galatians,
24:26 Paul says to the church of the Galatians,
24:27 "How quickly you guys have come off the rails.
24:30 How quickly you've jumped the tracks.
24:33 You know, we set up the church and go away,
24:35 and so quickly you've lost your first love.
24:38 You're wondering in darkness."
24:39 Because all of these ism's and idiologies
24:42 were pressing in on the church.
24:43 And of course, the church was going around and baptizing
24:46 people who were bringing some of these, dare I say,
24:48 diseases or infections into the church with it.
24:52 So many of the early church fathers...
24:54 Marcion got kicked out of the church.
24:56 You had others who brought different kinds of abhorrent
25:00 Arian ideologies to the church.
25:02 And the church has to not only resist paganism,
25:06 not only resist the threats of the Roman government,
25:10 you've got all of these subset religious cults and idioms and
25:14 idiologies trying to weave its way into the church.
25:18 And so people like Paul, John, and other New Testament
25:21 apostolic fathers had to constantly fight against the
25:25 incursion of these false faiths
25:30 working their way into Christianity.
25:31 It was a time of consolidation and stabilization.
25:37 It was hard to keep the church pure
25:40 and to keep the church clean.
25:42 And of course, you've got Greek thought, and you've got
25:46 the thought of the Platos and the Aristotle's of the world
25:51 trying to encroach into the church.
25:53 And even till today, you've got all kinds of subset...
26:00 You know, the numbers I don't even know.
26:03 I've heard some people say as many as 33,000,
26:07 I've heard 300, I've heard 3000,
26:09 different Protestant denominations,
26:13 depending on who you talk to.
26:16 They all can't be right.
26:19 The truth is, somebody's got to be right
26:23 and somebody's got to be wrong.
26:26 And one of the jobs of Christians, one of our jobs,
26:31 is to search the Scriptures daily and make sure
26:36 that you're walking the right way.
26:40 The way of wisdom and the way of truth.
26:43 And so by the time John is writing, this incursion,
26:49 encrosion, of false faith is a clear and present danger
26:55 that John and Paul push back against
26:59 in order to keep the church pure and clean,
27:04 and focused on Jesus.
27:08 And John does it in a very unique and exciting way.
27:13 We're going to get to that in just a little bit.
27:14 Alright.
27:15 So we know that he's writing to the second generation.
27:18 That's one of the keys to understanding the book of John.
27:21 John is writing to people who do not know, have never known,
27:24 would never know Jesus on a personal level.
27:26 This second generation whose only connection
27:29 is the testimony of people like John,
27:32 or the first generation.
27:34 Maybe that is why John presents what we call,
27:38 the touchless Jesus.
27:39 Now what did I say? I said, the touchless Jesus.
27:43 John's Jesus is a touchless Jesus.
27:48 Now what do I mean by a touchless Jesus?
27:50 Look at the miracles in Matthew,
27:53 look at the miracles in the book of Mark,
27:55 look at the miracles in the book of Luke.
28:01 Not all, I can think of one or two incidences,
28:04 but the vast majority of the miracles in the books
28:11 of Matthew, Mark, and Luke are accomplished
28:15 through a touch of the Master's hand.
28:18 Somewhere in those miracles Jesus is going to lay His hand,
28:23 or pick somebody up, or hold somebody,
28:27 and the miracle is accomplished during
28:30 or through that touch.
28:34 But I discovered that in John's case, John presents
28:40 a touchless Jesus.
28:43 That is to say, the miracles that John speaks about
28:47 as performed by Christ are done without any physical contact.
28:55 Now you can check this out. Give you a homework assignment.
28:57 You can look up that for yourself.
28:59 But the miracles in the book of John don't have any contact.
29:04 They are touchless.
29:06 And I think John did that for a very specific reason.
29:12 I think he put in those touchless miracles
29:18 to assure those who would never be touched by Jesus
29:23 that the word is as strong as the touch.
29:29 You see, I will never have a chance, this side of glory,
29:34 to be personally touched by Jesus unless He does for me
29:39 what He did for Paul, and that sort of bear me out of time
29:41 and give me a personal visitation.
29:43 And so John is writing to people who fall into that category.
29:47 You're not ever going to touch Jesus,
29:48 not ever going to be touched by Jesus.
29:50 But John is letting them know that when you've got the promise
29:56 of the Word, the Word is as good as a touch.
30:02 So those who were touched by Jesus have no advantage
30:05 on those who only have the Word,
30:07 because the Word is as good as the touch.
30:09 So John presents for us a touchless Christ
30:13 who does miracles and healings that are not transacted
30:18 through the result of a personal experience
30:21 between Christ the Healer and the healed individual,
30:25 the person who gets healed.
30:27 He's touchless.
30:28 Now let's look at some examples of a touching Christ.
30:31 I'm in Matthew 8:3-4.
30:34 So we'll turn over to Matthew.
30:38 Matthew 8:3-4
30:41 Matthew 8:3
30:42 "Then Jesus put out His hand and touched him, saying,
30:47 'I am willing; be cleansed.'
30:49 Immediately his leprosy was cleansed."
30:51 Alright, that's a touch.
30:53 Let's go to Matthew 9:18.
30:55 So we're turning over to Matthew 9:18.
31:00 14, 16, 18.
31:03 "While He spoke these things to them, behold, a ruler came and
31:07 worshiped Him, saying, 'My daughter has just died,
31:09 but come and lay Your hand on her and she will live.'
31:15 Jesus arose, followed him, and so did His disciples."
31:18 Again, another touch miracle.
31:20 We'll take one more from the book of Matthew.
31:22 I'm in Matthew 14.
31:24 Matthew 14:29
31:29 Matthew 14:29
31:32 "So He said, 'Come.'
31:33 And when Peter had come down out of the boat,
31:36 he walked on the water to go to Jesus.
31:43 But when he saw that the wind was boisterous, he was afraid;
31:47 and beginning to sink he cried out, 'Master, save me!'
31:49 Immediately Jesus stretched out His hand and caught him..."
31:53 So even Peter's salvation, when he's getting ready to
31:58 drown in that boisterous sea, was accomplished through touch.
32:02 So the miracles, for the most part, in the book of Matthew
32:05 are touch miracles.
32:08 Miracles where Jesus made physical contact
32:11 with the person He's healed.
32:13 Now let's go to the book of Mark.
32:15 I'm in Mark 1.
32:17 Mark 1:29 Mark 1:29
32:26 "Now as soon as they had come out of the synagogue,
32:29 they entered the house of Simon and Andrew, with James and John.
32:34 But Simon's wife's mother lay sick with a fever,
32:38 and they told Him about her at once.
32:41 So He came and took her by the hand," that's a touch,
32:44 "and lifted her up, and immediately the fever left her."
32:48 And so Mark, the miracle guy...
32:52 I say, "the miracle guy," because he recounts miracles.
32:55 He just gets right into miracles.
32:57 This is the very first chapter, we've got a miracle already.
32:59 But it's a touch miracle.
33:01 Now Mark 5:21.
33:04 Mark 5:21
33:08 Mark 5:21
33:09 "Now when Jesus had crossed over again by boat
33:12 to the other side, a great multitude gathered to Him;
33:15 and He was by the sea.
33:17 And behold, one of the rulers of the synagogue came,
33:20 Jairus by name.
33:21 And when he saw Him, he fell at His feet
33:25 and begged Him earnestly, saying, 'My daughter lies
33:28 at the point of death.
33:29 Come and lay Your hands on her,
33:31 that she may be healed, and she will live.'
33:33 So Jesus went with him, and a great multitude follow Him..."
33:36 Now this, of course, is a great, great story,
33:39 because it's a miracle in a miracle.
33:41 Christ is going to heal Jairus' daughter.
33:44 Meanwhile, the woman with the issue of blood
33:46 touches the hem of His garment and is healed.
33:50 Later on, Christ heals Jairus' daughter.
33:55 So again, touch, contact between Christ and
34:00 the person that is healed.
34:01 Take just one more.
34:03 I'm in Mark 9:25-27.
34:08 Mark 9, and I'm picking it up at verse 25.
34:14 The Bible says, "When Jesus saw that the people
34:16 came running together, He rebuked the unclean spirit,
34:19 saying to it, 'Deaf and dumb spirit, I command you,
34:22 come out of him and enter him no more!'
34:24 Then the spirit cried out, convulsing him greatly,
34:27 and came out of him.
34:28 And he became as one dead, so that many said, 'He is dead.'
34:33 But Jesus took him by the hand, lifted him up, and he arose."
34:39 Again, a miracle accomplished through direct contact
34:42 between Jesus and the person being healed.
34:45 Now let's go to the book of Luke.
34:47 Almost done.
34:48 Luke 4:40
34:50 Luke 4:40
34:54 Luke 4, and I'm coming to verse 40.
34:58 Luke 4:40, the Bible says, "When the sun was setting,
35:03 all those who had any that were sick with various diseases
35:08 brought them to Him; and He laid His hands
35:11 on every one of them and healed them."
35:13 He did what? He laid His hands.
35:15 Again, direct contact between Christ and the person healed.
35:19 I'm in Luke 7:14.
35:22 Just a few chapters over.
35:23 Luke 7, and I want verses 14 and 15.
35:29 Luke 7:14
35:32 The Bible says, "Then He came and touched the open coffin,
35:37 and those who carried him stood still.
35:39 And He said, 'Young man, I say to you, arise.'"
35:43 Again, direct contact between Christ and the person healed.
35:47 Just one more in Luke 8:40.
35:49 Luke 8:40 Luke 8:40
35:57 Luke 8:40
35:59 The Bible says, "So it was, when Jesus returned,
36:02 that the multitude welcomed Him,
36:04 for they were all waiting for Him.
36:06 And behold, there came a man named Jairus,
36:09 and he was a ruler of the synagogue."
36:10 This is a repeat of the story that we read in Mark.
36:13 "And he fell down at His feet and begged Him
36:15 to come to his house..."
36:17 Again, Matthew, Mark, Luke; all of the miracles
36:24 are touch miracles.
36:28 Now let's go to the book of John and see John's content.
36:33 Let's consider John 2:1-11.
36:37 I'm only going to read a couple of these
36:39 because these are longer.
36:40 And I'm going to tell you why they're longer in just a moment.
36:42 So I'm in John 2:1-11.
36:45 There's one short, kind of tricky one that we're going to
36:48 have a little fun within just a minute.
36:49 John 2:1
36:57 John 2
37:00 "On the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee,
37:03 and the mother of Jesus was there.
37:05 Now both Jesus and His disciples
37:07 were invited to the wedding.
37:08 And when they ran out of wine, the mother of Jesus
37:11 said to Him, 'They have no wine.'
37:13 Jesus said, 'Woman, what does your concern have to do with Me?
37:17 My hour has not yet come.'
37:18 His mother said to the servants, 'Whatever He says, do it.'
37:22 Now there were set there six water pots of stone,
37:26 according to the manner of purification of the Jews,
37:29 containing twenty or thirty gallons apiece."
37:32 So you've got a large amount of water.
37:35 And of course, this is one of Jesus' first miracles;
37:38 turning water into wine.
37:40 No contact.
37:42 He didn't put His hand in the wine vat.
37:44 He didn't touch the water.
37:46 He just made a pronouncement.
37:48 The water was there. The man begins to drink.
37:51 And of course he says, "This is the best wine of all.
37:54 This is better than the first wine."
37:56 So let's go to John 4 now.
37:58 I'll pick it up at verse 46.
38:00 I'm in John 4:46.
38:03 "So Jesus came again to Cana of Galilee
38:07 where He had made the water to wine."
38:08 We just read that.
38:10 "And there was a certain nobleman whose son
38:12 was sick at Capernaum.
38:14 When he heard that Jesus had come out of Judea into Galilee,
38:18 he went to Him and implored Him to come down
38:21 to heal his son, for he was at the point of death."
38:24 So this child is just about ready to die.
38:28 "Then Jesus said to him, 'Unless you people see
38:31 signs and wonders, you will by no means believe.'
38:35 The nobleman said to Him, 'Sir, come down before my child dies!'
38:39 Jesus said to him, 'Go your way; your son lives.'"
38:44 So the miracle has already taken place.
38:47 Between the time the nobleman said, "My son is about to die,"
38:53 and Christ kind of rebukes them because they want to see a sign,
38:57 the next thing out of the nobleman's mouth is,
38:59 "Lord, we need to hurry this thing up
39:00 because my child is dying."
39:02 The next words out of Jesus' mouth are,
39:05 "Your son is going to live."
39:07 So the miracle now has already taken place
39:10 in the midst of this nobleman's hesitation
39:14 about the power of Jesus to perform that miracle.
39:17 No touch; He didn't go to the house, He didn't raise him up,
39:20 He didn't put His hands on him.
39:22 The man asked for a miracle.
39:24 Christ says, "Everybody wants to see a miracle."
39:27 The next instant, the miracle has happened.
39:30 A touchless miracle.
39:32 Let's pick up just one or two more.
39:33 I'm in John 5:1-15.
39:36 You notice how these are long?
39:38 Ten verses, five verses, fifteen verses.
39:40 But I'm in John 5:1-15.
39:48 John 5:1, "After this there was a feast of the Jews,
39:52 and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.
39:53 Now there was in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool,
39:56 which is called in Hebrew, Bethesda," house of mercy,
40:00 "having five porches.
40:02 In these lay a great multitude of sick people,
40:07 blind, lame, paralyzed, waiting for the moving of the water.
40:10 For an angel went down at a certain time into the pool
40:13 and stirred up the water."
40:14 Now this was a belief that when the water was troubled,
40:17 when there was a little ripple on the water,
40:19 that an angel was doing that.
40:20 And of course the belief was, the first person in
40:23 after the ripple gets healed.
40:28 And then Christ talks to this man.
40:30 Pick it up at verse 7, "The sick man answered Him,
40:33 'Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool
40:36 when the water is stirred up;
40:38 but while I am coming, another steps down before me.'"
40:41 So he's possessed of this belief than an angel troubles the water
40:46 and the first person in gets healed.
40:50 Now look at this.
40:52 There's no, "Thy faith hath made thee whole."
40:54 There's no big ceremony.
40:56 Christ never puts His hand on Him.
40:58 "Jesus said to Him, 'Rise, take up your bed and walk.'"
41:04 That's the story.
41:06 "Lord, I want to get healed.
41:08 But I can't get into the water."
41:09 Christ says, "Take up your bed and walk."
41:12 It is a touchless miracle.
41:15 Now let me show you something kind of cute and kind of tricky
41:17 that John puts in here maybe just to challenge our thinking.
41:20 I'm in John 9:6-7.
41:24 This one is very, very short.
41:25 John 9:6-7
41:28 That's why I studying the Word of God.
41:30 Not only is it exciting and inspirational, it's fun.
41:33 John 9:6 John 9:6
41:45 Here we go, John 9:6.
41:48 "When He had said these things He spat on the ground,
41:53 made clay with the saliva;
41:55 and He anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay.
41:58 And He said to him, 'Go, wash in the pool of Siloam,'
42:03 which is translated, Sent."
42:04 Go wash in the pool of Sent.
42:05 "So he went and washed, and came back seeing."
42:08 Now, John is playing a little game with us here.
42:11 When did the miracle take place?
42:14 Did the miracle take place when Christ put the
42:18 mud spit mixture on his eyes or did the miracle take place
42:24 when he went and washed?
42:27 Or did the miracle take place on the way back?
42:32 The Bible doesn't say precisely when the miracle took place,
42:36 but it intimates that the miracle took place
42:40 after the man showed faith and washed in the pool.
42:44 Now Christ had touched him by putting the saliva
42:50 mud mixture on his eyes, but the eyesight didn't return
42:55 until he had washed.
42:57 So John is giving you a little brain teaser there.
43:00 But again, it's a touchless miracle.
43:05 I'll give you just one last one, John 11.
43:07 And as I was moving through the book of John
43:09 and showing all of these things, I really got excited
43:12 to see how John in particular elucidates
43:19 all of these touchless miracles.
43:21 So I'm on John 11:39.
43:23 John 11:39
43:31 Yeah, John 11:39. Here we go.
43:33 Here we go.
43:36 "Martha, the sister of him who was dead, said to Him,
43:39 'Lord, by this time there is a stench,
43:43 for he has been dead four days.'
43:46 Jesus said to her, 'Did I not say to you that if
43:50 you would believe, you would see the glory of God?'
43:53 Then they took away the stone from the place
43:56 where the dead man was lying.
43:58 And Jesus lifted up His eyes and said,
44:00 'Father, I thank You that You have heard Me.
44:02 And I know that You always hear Me,
44:07 but because of the people who are standing by I said this,
44:12 that they may believe that You sent Me.'
44:16 Now when He had said these things,
44:18 He cried with a loud voice, 'Lazarus, come forth!'
44:22 And he who had died came out bound hand and foot
44:27 in grave clothes..."
44:29 Now Christ didn't go in the grave and unwrap him
44:32 and pick him up.
44:33 Christ didn't lay hands on him.
44:35 Christ shouted from outside the tomb to a dead body
44:39 inside the tomb.
44:41 The dead body was awakened and walked out of the tomb
44:45 still wrapped in his grave clothes.
44:48 Lazarus, one of Christ's closes friends on earth,
44:52 who we are told in inspired writings was really
44:55 a disciple of Christ, healed by Him, resurrected by Him,
45:01 and Christ never laid a finger, or as we say,
45:04 never laid a glove on him.
45:06 So you see in the book of John touchless miracles.
45:12 Non-contact cures.
45:14 And you only see that in John.
45:17 Now why are these stories so long?
45:18 They're so long simply because they're touchless.
45:22 In a touch miracle you can simply say,
45:25 "Jesus touched him and healed him.
45:26 He was fine."
45:28 But when you've got a story where a person gets healed,
45:30 and they never are contacted by Jesus,
45:34 you've got to give the context.
45:35 So you find that these touchless miracles in John
45:39 consume much more language than the touch miracles
45:42 in Matthew, Mark and Luke.
45:44 And that's why they're so good to study.
45:45 Now why did John do that?
45:46 Why did John put all of these touchless miracle
45:50 in his particular gospel?
45:52 I think for one reason.
45:54 To let the people in his day know and understand
45:58 that the voice of Jesus, the word of Jesus,
46:03 is as powerful as the touch of Jesus.
46:06 John knew that those living in 100 AD, 200 AD, 300 AD,
46:13 during the Diocletian persecution from 303 to 313
46:17 when tens of thousands of Jews were being killed in the arena,
46:20 all the way down to 2016, would need to know
46:25 that the Word of Jesus is as strong as the touch of Jesus.
46:30 That the Word of Jesus is as powerful as the touch of Jesus.
46:35 That even though we will not ever lay hands on Him
46:39 or eyes on Him until we see Him when He comes back,
46:43 that we've got the power in His Word.
46:46 And the Word says that Christ will heal those
46:50 who come unto Him in faith and in righteousness.
46:54 And John put that in there for that specific reason.
46:59 To let us know, we don't have Jesus in body
47:03 but we've got Him in Spirit and we've got Him in our hearts.
47:06 And we've got His Word, which is as powerful
47:10 as His presence and as His touch.
47:14 So I think John is trying to say something very important
47:16 to that second generation.
47:17 The same thing that he's trying to say to you.
47:19 The message is that the Word of Jesus is powerful,
47:23 is efficacious, is loaded with the presence of Jesus
47:28 through the power of His Holy Spirit.
47:31 Paul said, "I got to experience the Savior
47:35 as one born out of time."
47:37 God did something very, very special for Paul.
47:41 God did something special for that man's pedigree.
47:45 But John intimates, "Even if you don't get that experience,
47:50 even if you don't get that special anointing,
47:53 that special contact that Paul had, you don't have to feel
47:58 like a second class citizen.
48:00 Even though you're a second generation Christian,
48:04 you're not a second class Christian."
48:07 In fact, the Word overcomes, supersedes time and space.
48:16 Because there were people in Jesus' time
48:19 who got their miracle never having seen Him
48:22 or touched by the Messiah.
48:24 So you today can know that you may never see Him
48:29 in this life, but you can have the miracle
48:32 working power of Jesus.
48:34 Why?
48:35 Because the Word says so.
48:39 And the Word is as good as the God who gave it.
48:44 Now my time is getting away from me,
48:45 so I've got to do a couple of things real fast.
48:49 John's gospel also does the same thing as we mentioned
48:53 that Paul is attempting to do in the book of Hebrews.
48:57 In John we see Jesus as Teacher, like we do in Hebrews,
49:02 we see Him as Counselor, like we do in Hebrews,
49:06 we see Him as Rabbi or priest, like we do in Hebrews,
49:10 and we see Him as Pastor, as we do in Hebrews.
49:14 So you've got two men writing in two different places
49:17 at two separate times, but they're both trying to
49:21 strengthen the hands of a fledgling church
49:24 which is trying to get on its feet.
49:25 We see this more in John than any other gospel.
49:29 Here's anything thing you see in the book of John
49:31 that's exciting to me.
49:32 John takes time, and we're not going to have time really
49:35 to examine this thoroughly, but John takes time
49:39 more than Matthew, Mark, and Luke to talk about
49:42 the personal and private conversations,
49:45 the one on one ministry that Jesus had with those
49:49 who would follow Him.
49:50 In Matthew, Mark, and Luke you get the big stuff.
49:52 You get the feeding of the five thousand.
49:54 You get the big public pronouncements.
49:56 You get the big sermons on the mount.
49:57 But in John you get the private sermons.
50:01 You get the private Bible studies.
50:03 You get the private discourses.
50:05 I'll give you an example.
50:07 You get in John a recitation of Christ
50:11 one on one with Nicodemus.
50:14 Private with this ruler of the synagogue.
50:18 Private consultation.
50:21 You get a private discussion with the woman
50:24 caught in adultery.
50:25 You get a private one on one discussion
50:27 with the rich young ruler.
50:29 John takes pains to know that Jesus did many great
50:33 public things, but He also spent some quality one on one time
50:37 with those who needed a little special instruction.
50:40 And I will say to you, brothers and sisters,
50:42 Christ will do that for you today.
50:43 You need a little one on one time with Jesus,
50:45 Jesus will be more than happy to come aside
50:48 and talk with you and walk with you,
50:51 and tell you that you are His own.
50:54 So John's gospel has all of the public stuff,
50:58 but it also has the private stuff.
50:59 It gives you this exalted picture of Jesus.
51:05 Again, we see the uniqueness like we do in Hebrews.
51:08 And Jesus is meek and mild.
51:11 But we also see in John, and I love this,
51:15 we see in the book of John a passion that Jesus has
51:20 that really appears in none of the other gospels.
51:24 Jesus is passionate about His work.
51:27 And we today need to be passionate
51:31 about our work for the Lord.
51:33 Jesus was meek and mild, but don't confuse meekness
51:37 with weakness or wimpiness.
51:41 Because Christ was none of the above.
51:43 Jesus, in John's gospel, is passionate about His mission.
51:47 And we should be passionate about our mission
51:51 as servants of Christ.
51:52 No weak-kneed, namby-pamby sort of
51:56 backsliding Christianity will do.
51:58 The cause of Christ must be populated with
52:01 passionate followers.
52:03 John 3:3, we'll go through these real fast.
52:05 John 3
52:08 When Jesus is talking to Nicodemus,
52:10 He kind of lays it out.
52:11 He doesn't spar with the Pharisee.
52:13 You know, "Do I need to go back into my
52:14 mother's womb to be born again?"
52:16 Christ doesn't dally with that.
52:18 He simply says, "Marvel not, don't be surprised.
52:21 I'm telling you, you've got to be born again."
52:24 Period.
52:25 End of story. Exclamation point.
52:28 You must be born again.
52:30 There's passion there.
52:32 This is a rich person.
52:33 This is a man who's accustomed to having people
52:36 bow and to defer to him.
52:37 And Christ doesn't dance with him.
52:39 Christ doesn't do that kind of thing.
52:40 Christ says, "Listen, you want to be saved,
52:43 you've got to be born again.
52:46 No other way.
52:47 You have to be born again."
52:49 So there's passion.
52:50 The passport, the visa to being saved is being born again.
52:57 Christ didn't say, "Nicodemus, well let's see if we can
52:59 work out something special for you.
53:00 You're rich, you've got standing in the community.
53:03 Let's see if we can maybe do something special for you."
53:07 No, no.
53:08 "Marvel not, don't be surprised.
53:10 You must be born again."
53:11 Next we see Jesus pushing back against tradition.
53:16 The willful or unintended ignorance
53:20 of tradition and darkness, in John 3:10, John 5:39-41.
53:25 My time is going to get away from me.
53:27 I won't be able to go through these thoroughly.
53:29 But Jesus is pushing back against pretense and tradition.
53:32 Let's go to John 3:10.
53:34 Let's just do that real fast so that I can...
53:36 I'm looking at my time and I'm going to be in trouble.
53:39 John 3:10
53:42 John 3:10
53:45 "Jesus answered and said unto him..."
53:47 Now listen to Christ's words here.
53:49 "Are you a teacher in Israel, and do not know these things?
53:53 Most assuredly, I say to you, We speak what We know
53:56 and testify what We have seen,
53:58 and you do not receive Our witness.
54:01 If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe,
54:05 how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things?"
54:08 You know, Christ is pushing back against darkness.
54:10 "You know, you're a teacher, you're a leader.
54:12 You're somebody who's kind of running the show.
54:14 You're in charge of people.
54:15 And you don't know the truth?
54:17 If I tell you earthly things and you're not buying it,
54:20 how are you going to receive heavenly things
54:23 that you don't really understand?"
54:24 So Christ did not countenance willful ignorance
54:28 or ignorance that was spurned or buttressed by
54:32 following tradition over and against the revelation that
54:35 Jesus was trying to give.
54:36 So we see in John again this passionate Jesus,
54:41 this Jesus that pushes back against pretense.
54:45 "You're searching or pretending to search,
54:48 but when you say you found, you're not following
54:52 what I've called you to do."
54:54 Now we've got another little thing here in the book of John
54:56 that I'm not even going to have time to get into.
54:58 And that's Christ's condemnation of hypocrisy.
55:03 The word is only used about twenty times in the Word of God.
55:07 Oh, if I remember correctly...
55:09 And I say, Word of God, I meant New Testament.
55:12 I think about thirteen of those twenty, He specifically
55:15 identifies scribes and Pharisees.
55:18 So, "hypocrite," is one of the strongest words
55:22 that ever came out of Christ's mouth.
55:26 And He used it against those who would be
55:30 teachers of the law who professed to be leaders,
55:33 but who really did not follow Him.
55:35 So again, we see in John a very unique picture of Jesus.
55:41 We see Jesus as the way, and the way of wisdom.
55:47 Christ did not countenance darkness.
55:50 He fought against darkness with light.
55:53 But He brought to His gospel, as pictured in the book of John,
55:59 a passion, a desire to right wrongs,
56:04 to keep people on the right path, to hold people accountable
56:09 for their actions, and to allow them the privilege
56:16 of full entrance into His kingdom.
56:21 John is saying to you and to me, "You never walked with Jesus,
56:29 you never talked to Jesus,
56:31 you didn't sit by the wayside,
56:35 but you can have an intimate relationship with Christ
56:39 through His Word.
56:42 That the Jesus who talked with me will talk with you.
56:48 The Jesus who walked with me will walk with you.
56:53 The Jesus who was my Friend will be your Friend.
56:59 And you can have, through His Word and through the presence
57:05 and power of the Holy Spirit, you can have as intimate
57:11 a relationship with the Messiah as I had
57:15 when I walked with Him for those three and a half years.
57:22 For He is truly the way of wisdom."


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Revised 2016-11-29