[0:00] So, Gospel of John, we are in chapter 7, and we get to a kind of a passage today that kind of appears to be not so obvious of a text. You know, there's often, we can look through John and read about the stories of the feeding of 5,000, and, you know, a preacher would look forward to those ones. Those are like hallmark passages to preach on. The main point is right there, and it sticks out very, very obviously. But preaching texts like this is a little bit more challenging. This is the text that every preacher hopes that he doesn't get if they're on a preaching rotation, because it's not so obvious. However, the truth within the Word today, while the main point might not seem so obvious, it has deep implications, and it's a very scandalous truth. And the narrative seems to be building up at this time in the Gospel of John, in his entire letter, his gospel here, into a new scene. It's not that feeding of 5,000 passage. And the text is challenging of how we use Jesus often in our lives. Whether you want to admit it or not, some different, some people vary to a certain degree of how we use Jesus, but it should challenge us to see how we have a tendency of using Jesus and why we might seek Jesus. So I have a forecasted outline today. I'm going to be breaking this up into two different sections. The first section would be verse 1 to 13, and then arriving towards the middle of the feast. So leading up to the feast, and then the middle of the feast where Jesus begins teaching. And my aim for us today is to examine our faith and see where it aligns in accordance with the Word of God. So take our faith, look at the Word of God, and evaluate our faith based on the Word of God. So if this is going to negatively affect you, I guess we could cancel the pastor appreciation potluck. You know, there's still time. If this message rubs you wrong, if I don't tickle your ears. Don't take it up with me, though. If you are angry, be angry at the Word of God. But you know me.
[2:30] I love each and every one of you that calls me their pastor. I pray for you and care for you so dearly. And so that is no excuse to dilute the meaning of the Word of God. And I can't make those accommodations for you. So let's pray as I seek the Lord's power and strength, and while you seek the Lord's Holy Spirit to help you understand the passage today. Let's pray. Father, thank you for our gathering. Thank you for such great brothers and sisters in the Lord. We are your family members.
[3:04] You are the head of this church, and Father, you reign supreme over sometimes our feelings and emotions. You help guide us and navigate us along the paths of this life, and that we have this Word as a roadmap and a discernment tool. It's a measuring stick. And so as we look at our faith that we have in you, I pray that we can evaluate it based on that measuring stick of your Word. And Father, encourage us today and challenge us. And we need this today, Lord. This is good for us. This is nourishing to our souls. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. I heard some... Amen? All right. Okay.
[3:48] Let me take a sip of coffee. This is like feeling up like with a, you know, some turbo energy. Yeah. Okay. It's good coffee today. The first section that we are going to be looking at, like I said, it's going to be between verse 1 through 13. And I'm identifying this section for any note takers in the room as Jesus exposes self-righteous agendas. I don't have my clicker up here, but it'll be up on the screen. Section 1 is Jesus exposes self-righteous agendas in verse 1 through 3. And so we see in verse 1, it says, after this, Jesus went about in Galilee. He would not go in Judea because the Jews were seeking to kill him. Now the Jews' feast of booths were at hand. So after this, the passage starts, a literary marker that something's transitioning. What you have here is about six months after the feeding of 5,000s, that bread of life discourse. That happened in the springtime. This is about harvest, fall time. And this is no ordinary time. This is the feast of booths, one of the many feasts that we'll be observing in the Gospel of John.
[5:09] And this is also known as the Feast of Tabernacle. So this was a time that occurred in about September, October, about the time that we're in right now. And it lasted about seven days long.
[5:23] And it's more, it's kind of comparable to what we might identify as a fall festival or a harvest festival that happened at this time. It was popular, one of the most popular of the three Jewish feasts, the others being Passover and Pentecost. And the point of doing this was to celebrate God's gracious provision to the Israelites in the wilderness and the completion of the end of the fall's harvest.
[5:50] So all the planting, all the seeding, all the nurturing of your crops, you know, fall time was the harvest season. And there were two elements that were involved in this fall harvest, this feast of booths, the feast of booths. There was the first thing was a ceremonial water drawing and the light, lamp lighting ritual. And so Jesus is sort of on the fringe line of going down to this feast of booths.
[6:21] And we see some tension. We're going to analyze that tension. But you can see how you can have those echoes of what the feast of booths represent and what Jesus has been saying all along to the Samaritan woman about living water, what he's been talking about being the light and the darkness and the darkness shines, the light shines in the darkness. And so this is sort of like a climatic point, the feast of booths in chapter eight here of the gospel of John, because we're going to see him expounding upon all that, that John's been including into this series thus far. And so the cool thing about the feast of booths was that they would essentially camp out for seven days outside and they'd be camping in little makeshift structures made of branches and leaves to represent them being in little booths in the wilderness. And so people in the rural communities would probably be out in fields and things like that. And people in the cities would camp out on top of their flat roofs of their homes. And it kind of sounds pretty fun. I know my kids would probably really, really thoroughly enjoy that. But we meet in verse three, some opportunists or maybe better yet, skeptics. We meet in verse three. We're identified as the brothers of Jesus. This is James, Joseph, Simon, and Judas. James is the author of the book of James. Judas, also known as Jude, is the author of the book of Jude.
[8:02] All half-brothers of Jesus, because Jesus was conceived by the Virgin Mary. And so they suggest in this passage in verse three, leave here and go to Judea, that your disciples also may see the works you are doing. For no one works in secret if he seeks to be known openly. If you do these things, show yourself to the world. They're looking at this as a prime opportunity for Jesus to do another miracle, to do another sign and wonder among all these people.
[8:39] The problem here is that these half-brothers of Jesus did not believe in Jesus, as verse five says. There is no belief within them. So their attitudes of acting like opportunists, like supporting Jesus' ministry, is actually masked in unbelief. I like to put it this way. I'm going to pick on Rick for a minute. You know, if Rick, Rick is a runner. And if Rick came to me constantly boasting on his ability to run the fastest 5k known in this country, I'd be like, oh, oh really? You make all those claims.
[9:23] You're the fastest in this country. So I might be prone to say, well, let's see it. Why don't you get in the Guinness Book of World Records? Why don't you prove that you can do this? So in my putting, saying, prove me wrong and let's see, that's actually not boasting in my belief that Rick can actually do that. It's actually boasting in my skepticism, my unbelief that Rick's claim actually is valid. And so likewise, these brothers of Jesus, who did not believe according to verse five, were posing this opportunity as a mask for their unbelief. Furthermore, could it be that they also had hopes of Jesus maybe fulfilling their political agendas that they desired Jesus to fulfill, to remove the Roman oppression in this day? Just as all the previous 5,000 who chased Jesus after the walking on water in Capernaum in his Bread of Life discourse, all those multitudes of people who just decided to up and leave because he wasn't fitting their molds. I mean, what an opportunity, right? For Jesus to capitalize upon in this time. The Feast of Booths. This was the harvest party that everyone looked forward to if you were a Jew in this day. I mean, Jesus could strike a rock just like
[10:46] Moses did and really get their attention as Moses struck the rock and there's abundance of water that came out in the Old Testament. Everyone would follow, right? But their attitude of opportunity was masked in unbelief. Even skepticism is unbelief, church. And I want us to understand that, and especially in our culture today where we have sort of gray lines. People are reading between the black and the white. What we have in Scripture is clearly an understanding that there are two responses to Jesus. You either believe or you don't believe. There's no on-the-fringe belief. Skepticism is unbelief.
[11:35] And so, to believe in Jesus is to abide in Christ. You are united with him. But to be in unbelief is to abide in not Jesus but the world. And these brothers of Jesus were worldly. And you cannot abide in both, nor can a slave serve two masters written in the Sermon on the Mount. Think about this hard church.
[11:59] Think about this concept. The brothers of Jesus who lived with him in the same quarters. You know, I don't even want to, I could only imagine where my imagination would take me in the conversations brothers have, brother life growing up. If anybody has brothers, like the antagonism that sometimes have, they have, and the conversations, the arguments and things like that, the disagreements, they shared close quarters with Jesus.
[12:35] How could they not believe in this, right? And this is why often the faith of those who are closest in proximity to Jesus, the ones who look like they do the Christian song and dance week after week, are actually the ones that struggle with unbelief. They're actually not the tried and true believers.
[12:58] They're just perfumed Christians that look good on the outside, but their hearts are far from Jesus. So, what we have here is either one paradigm from the other, belief or unbelief. There is no middle ground. Skepticism is unbelief. And so, Jesus responds to their worldly unbelief, their skepticism that he can obviously see right through. He knows his brothers.
[13:25] Jesus said to them, My time has not yet come, but your time is always here. The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify about it and that its works are evil. You go up to the feast. I am not going to the feast for my time. For my time has not fully come. After saying this, he remains in Galilee.
[13:47] Jesus clearly sees through their worldliness and puts their agenda that they're trying to forecast and manipulate upon Jesus of trying to coerce him to serve their needs and their agendas.
[14:01] He puts it back onto them in verse 6, doesn't he? He says, My time has not come yet, but your time is always here. Right? The timeline, according to the brothers of Jesus, was fixated upon a worldly agenda.
[14:15] But the time, in Jesus' mind, is the mission of the cross. That is what he's referring to in time. This is similar to the hour that he was referring to when he rebuked his mother Mary at the first sign of water turning into wine, where Mary was telling, Do something, Jesus. And he rebuked her that my hour has not yet come.
[14:35] This is the same thing. And every time this is referenced in the Gospel of John, the hour, the time is picturing the cross. That the mission of these brothers was worldly, but his focus is the cross.
[14:50] It is a heavenly domain and disposition. And the same is true here. I mean, who do we think we are at times? Right? The most worldly thing anyone can do in their faith is to put timelines and try to align their agenda to Jesus, that they chase Jesus down and get the sewing stitches and try to stitch their agenda to his robe.
[15:17] Often our timelines and time frames, we sort of maybe pray about maybe for a handful of times and maybe for a handful of days or hours, if we want to be honest and we just baptize our plans and our time frames and say that they're inerrant and that it's the Lord's will.
[15:34] I want to say and encourage us to not be so silly approaching Jesus. Because man's focus is planning, right? There's a proverb about that. Man makes his plans, the Lord directs his steps.
[15:47] But man makes plans. We sort of idolize sometimes our five-year goals, our five-year plans. Our five-year plan was to travel the world before we were having kids.
[15:59] And what happened? Two years, the Lord said, here's a child. We idolize our plans. And some families, honestly, that could ruin because we idolize those plans.
[16:11] Right? Man's focus is those five-year plans. God's focus is those steps, the obedience here and now. Man's plans are sort of the comfort and stability, having a little bit of savings in the bank just in case something were to happen.
[16:26] And it's not saying that's a bad thing, but to idolize that comfort and stability where God's focus is actually to carry your cross and to follow him.
[16:39] We have a tendency of being worldly believers, if that were even such a thing. But the truth is there are no worldly believers, just those who believe and don't believe, who follow Jesus and believe in him, and those who don't follow Jesus and don't believe in him.
[16:56] So I got to ask you, where might you be this morning according to the word of God? Because worldliness is the enemy of the gospel, is the enemy of the gospel.
[17:07] 1 John 5, 19 says, the world rejects the word and the son of God because they are under the domain and power of the evil one.
[17:21] And in verse 9, we see that Jesus actually didn't comply to their worldly agendas. In verse 9, we see that this actually might serve as interpretive challenges because sometimes people say, well, Jesus lied in this passage because he told his brothers he wasn't going to the feast, but then what happened?
[17:41] He went to the feast. And it does serve some interesting challenge, but I don't believe that Jesus lied. What we should see here is that Jesus was clearly not going with them, lest they put him onto a donkey and get the crowd to wave those palm branches saying, Hosanna in the highest, right?
[18:01] Because we want to crown Jesus king preemptively before his time has come. He didn't want to associate himself with their agenda.
[18:13] They might try to manipulate Jesus into doing things for them. I mean, God only knows what a brother's plans are, right? The little antagonism that could lay under the surface, like, oh yeah, let's get him to go to this feast.
[18:25] Oh, we're just going to prep everything. We're going to go on Twitter and say, hey, when he comes, we're going to shout Hosanna in the highest. You know, we can only imagine what the brothers were devising and planning in this time.
[18:38] But man, the truth about it is, is that many false teachers in our day, in the days of old and in the days coming, many false teachers would capitalize upon this opportunity, the feast of booze.
[18:49] All ears are tuned in. All they have to do is do one thing that captivates their minds, and all of a sudden they got thousands of followers. All based on worldly agendas and prerogatives.
[19:04] All we know is that Jesus delayed his arrival. He didn't lie. He was fashionably late, which I guess I could use an excuse of being late once in a while. I was late today. I was fashionably late, team, right?
[19:17] And he eventually finds himself at ground zero in ground zero of this festival, the feast of booze. And so Jesus arrives at the festival in verse 11 through 13, as Catherine read.
[19:31] And the Jewish leaders were sort of already on the prowl. They're already on offense of making sure Jesus doesn't ruin this feast for them. And so we see some tension that's going on in this feast.
[19:44] And John places it in his gospel in verse 12, because it says in verse 12, that there was much muttering about him among the people.
[19:57] While some say this one side says, he's a good man. And others says, no, he's leading the people astray. And what's remarkable about this is that the ones who thought he was a good man, that they were coming to faith in who he is.
[20:17] They had fear of the Jews if they spoke openly about him. And this should help us to examine our faith.
[20:27] As unbelievers, as his brothers, they wanted Jesus to go and be a public display of God's glory. But it was out of their skepticism and unbelief, just like I would tell Rick to prove me wrong, and it would actually be a selfish endeavor.
[20:46] And not only that, now the believers, the people who think fondly of Jesus, are the ones hiding. You see that sort of tension here. The unbelievers want him to be exalted.
[20:56] The true believers who think that he's a good man, that may not be true believers, may I correct myself, but those who thought highly of Jesus wanted privacy.
[21:07] They didn't want to risk their lives over the truth that they thought about Jesus. Believers at this time wanted to conceal the truth. And the gospel of John has been calling out the crowd of those who believe.
[21:22] The crowd who hides from that truth. Because we know, according to the gospel of John, as we've been sort of calling out, being called out by God's word in our own lives, that a privatized faith is not really biblical.
[21:37] A privatized faith. And nor is it glorifying to God. As if God works for us in our own private time. Not saying that he doesn't, but he doesn't solely do that.
[21:49] This is not seeking Jesus. This is evidence of seeking God for ourselves. That he's your own personal Jesus and savior. And totally neglecting the lost and those who need to hear the message of the gospel around us.
[22:04] Privatized faith is not biblical. We are to go make disciples of all nations. Right? We can't go if we're private in our faith.
[22:15] So Jesus testifies against this privatized faith in this passage. And so we see this in, as he carries over into section two, it should be up on the screen, of Jesus not only exposing self-righteous, self-righteous agendas, but also now self-righteous unbelief.
[22:38] We see in verse 14 through 24, specifically in verse three and about verse 14, it sort of brings Jesus into this narrative.
[22:50] It says about in the middle of the feast, Jesus went up into the temple and began teaching. This is the setting of the next section. So about in the middle of this feast, probably about three or four days into this feast, Jesus begins to teach.
[23:02] And this was a custom in this day and age for high profile, well-known teachers to go and gather people and expound upon the Old Testament to the crowds who would arrive.
[23:14] Similar to what was going on with the bread of life discourse in Capernaum that we studied last week. And in verse 15, we see some questions from the Jews.
[23:25] The Jews therefore marveled saying, how is it that this man has learning when he has never studied? So not only Jesus was teaching all these people, his teaching was spot on.
[23:41] There was not an ounce of error in his teaching. And these Jewish leaders were, you could bet just as I test a lot of teachers that I listen to, just as you should be testing me as well and holding me accountable.
[23:56] These Jews were, Jewish leaders were testing every word that came out of Jesus's mouth. And we should too. But they marveled at the level of accuracy of his words.
[24:07] So precise. The connections, the illustrations, all the content that he's wrapping up within the law of Moses and the prophets.
[24:20] Their marveling was of worldly attitude though, of surprise. Because we see that their self-righteousness blinded them from the truth.
[24:32] They're evaluating his teaching, not based on a spiritual level of cognitive understanding, but that of physical. And we get a glimpse of this supernatural knowledge of Jesus Christ, who was expounding on these Old Testament scriptures, and he was the, that he was the co-author of.
[24:49] And he was the main character within. How marveling that would truly be to get a, get a manuscript of that sermon, right? And their concern seems valid, right?
[25:02] From a physical, earthly, worldly standpoint. I mean, yeah, you don't just want somebody teaching that hasn't been trained. You know, those, those teachers are the, the belief in our day and age that, you know, the, you know, they claim that the early church didn't have official biblical teaching and training.
[25:22] But that's not true, because the disciples and the apostles had Jesus. So that kind of throws that out with any, any false, false disposition like that.
[25:33] But we see that the student teacher dynamic, if formal biblical training and education is important in our day. Having a teacher, being a student, that dynamic is, is, is very important today, just as it was back then.
[25:45] But these Jewish leaders were so focused upon that, because who were the ones who spent their entire lives studying scripture, knowing how to memorize the entire Torah?
[25:58] And there, here comes Jesus, basically owning them. At their, at the thing that they've been working and laboring for all their lives. So they discredit him from a physical worldly standpoint, saying he hasn't even been trained.
[26:13] How can this guy know so much? And they're missing his, his identity in this passage. And so as we, we see in verse 16 and 17, so Jesus answered them, these marveling Jewish leaders, that my teaching is not mine, but his who sent me.
[26:33] If anyone's will is to do God's will, he will know whether the teaching is from God, or whether I am speaking on my own authority. And Jesus responds to these marveling Jewish authorities.
[26:46] And this, I don't know if you caught what he actually says in this passage, but it's not the most flattering response to say to these Jewish authorities at all. This would probably get them very, very upset.
[26:59] And they're probably clenching their fist at this point. Because he's essentially saying, look with me, and try to find this in the text today. He says that if anyone, if anyone's will is to do God's will, these Jewish leaders wanted to do God's will.
[27:16] They truly did. And they spent their lives dedicated to trying to do God's will. And they thought through their legalistic practices that they were doing God's will. So those who are committed to the will of God will do so in affirmation of the jewel of truth embedded within the word, within the Old Testament, namely Jesus, the jewel, the precious jewel that all the New Old Testament points to.
[27:40] It's a mystery that Paul refers to in Colossians 2. And so what he's essentially meaning here, as he says, he will know whether the teaching is from God, or whether I am speaking on my own authority.
[27:55] So this is essentially meaning Jesus telling these authorities, since you don't know the source of this message, you're actually not doing God's will.
[28:06] all of your laboring in life, keeping your rituals, your man-made rituals and customs and everything that you've added to protect the law of God, and build all these bushes of protection, these hedges of protection around.
[28:24] you're actually not doing God's will. How about that to gain some followers on Twitter, right? I fully believe that. Jesus, where in our day and age, had a Twitter, he'd be banned within an instance.
[28:37] Because the world doesn't like his message, whether the world wants to acknowledge that or not. He has a countercultural message, and it doesn't sit well with the world. The world rejects the light.
[28:49] And we see in this passage, in one swift swoop, of just a quick response to these marveling Jewish authorities at his teaching, Jesus establishes how he really feels about these officials' dedication to the law.
[29:07] And he doesn't stop there. He continued in great veracity of calling out what? Hypocrisy. The rest of this passage is actually Jesus saying, you all are a bunch of hypocrites.
[29:22] And so we see the Jewish officials were the highest standard of what it meant to be a follower of God. You saw them with their robes. You saw them clanking their money in the synagogues. They'd lift it up and make sure that everyone would hear all throughout Jesus' day.
[29:38] And he doesn't just stop there and saying, you guys aren't dedicated to anything but yourselves. And he doesn't stop there. He continues in this. And this is similar to what we might be prone to do of calling out those who think that they're actually spiritually mature, but their spiritual maturity is marked in spiritual immaturity.
[30:01] Those who believe that they are self-righteous. And so we can't confuse, church, spiritual maturity with biblical literacy. The Pharisees were avid learners, avid readers, avid students of the Word of God.
[30:18] And Jesus reveals them as actually the least mature in their theology. Spiritual maturity is submitting to God's will. It's doing God's will.
[30:29] In our day, it's something like assembling together whether we feel like it or not. It's placing others before ourselves. It's not grumbling and complaining, as we saw last week.
[30:43] It's being quick to forgive when people offend us and hurt us. Being very quick. Not letting the sun go down on our anger. This is doing the will of God. It has nothing to do with us, but what we're doing to others of exalting others, putting others first before ourselves.
[30:58] And now, this isn't to negate that Bible study shouldn't be important. It is. But I don't want you to confuse the two between spiritual maturity being equal to biblical literacy. There's a lot of biblically literate people in the world that are spiritually immature, that have big theological heads.
[31:15] As Paul Tripp says in his book, Dangerous Calling, I recommend it to anybody who wants to go into ministry. But big theological heads, but they really have no idea how to put to practice what they're putting into their head.
[31:29] And it truly shines and shows through of how they live their lives and how they respond when people hurt them. And so, we see in verse 18 here, The one who speaks on his own authority seeks his own glory, but the one who seeks the glory of him who sent him is true.
[31:50] And there is no falsehood. The words of Jesus just continue. So scandalous. So penetrating to these Jewish authorities.
[32:01] So convicting. He makes it clear that those who seek Jesus for his glory, there's no falsehood. This is truly being a believer, following Jesus Christ, seeking God's glory, seeking Jesus Christ's glory alone.
[32:16] But for those who seek their own glory, this is the depths and the pits of where the lie of the devil is rooted in falsehood in your life. And church, all theological falsehood comes from Satan.
[32:30] There's no good intention or sort of rationalization of falsehood. It's false. Just as there's belief in unbelief. There's no skepticism. The falsehood here is one of self-righteousness, which is fueled by Satan as well.
[32:47] And the truth of Scripture has domain over falsehood, regardless of maybe attractive personalities. Maybe somebody you might know who might be in error might be likable and things like that.
[33:00] But there's no rationalization of people who are in error. The truth of Scripture has domain over that, regardless of the best personalities out there.
[33:15] And so in verse 19, Jesus begins drawing out this hypocrisy and falsehood of these Moses fanboys. I kind of liked coining that term a couple weeks ago. Just the people who are just those, they're just so blinded because they're so fixated on the achievements of Moses.
[33:31] They're Moses fanboys. And who think that they are a blessing to God. That God forbid they ever might die early in life because everything would be lost.
[33:44] You know, they are a blessing to God. God is honored because they exist. As if orthodox belief and following God was at a vital point of being lost before their existence, being found in a womb.
[34:03] And we see here that Jesus, in verse 19, he says, Why do you seek to kill me? And this kind of gets the crowd talking. It's the crowd spinning because they're hearing his spot on teaching.
[34:18] These Jews are marveling of this guy isn't qualified. Where is he getting his teaching? You got all this going on in the crowd is saying, Jesus, who's trying to kill you?
[34:28] They even went as far as saying in their shock and surprise, you have a demon. Jesus has a demon. Imagine next time somebody announces that they're pregnant. Saying you have a demon.
[34:42] I'm so shocked at that. Right? Or saying that they're engaged. Or somebody coming and saying that they got the job. They are utterly shocked that they claim that Jesus is possessed by a demon.
[34:59] And he says, he continues to say, why do you seek to kill me? Why does he say that, church? Why do you seek to kill me? Why do you seek to kill me? Why do you think? Why do you seek to kill me? Because the Jews are the ones who deserve death. They serve an idol.
[35:12] Their God is legalism. They appear holy like those holy rollers from the outside doing the holy song and dance. Their hearts are corrupt and they're self-seeking.
[35:24] In other words, you hypocrites. and he takes that uh within the context of the following the the rest of uh this passage in verse 22 to 24 jesus brings up the healing of the lame man and how the jewish people were so out of sorts over him healing somebody on the sabbath where they allow circumcision of a child which is eight days after the child has been born regardless if that eighth day lies on the sabbath or not so they're making these justifications and these pardons in their own eyes doing what's right in their own eyes come on judges church and they're failing to see that jesus makes somebody whole that's been struggling for 30 plus years with a condition that has left him debilitated he can't even lower himself into the pool jesus goes on the sabbath with greatest a great spectacle spectacle of calling out the hypocrisy of these jews and not only that but there's a laundry list of other inconsistencies in their orthodoxy and their orthopraxy what they know and what they do and so obviously this is quite hypocritical of them isn't it and their hearts were all about self-righteousness it was all about spiritual immaturity because jesus closes this this discourse here was do not judge by appearance meaning their legalism their outward appearance of religious religiosity or holiness but judge with right judgment investigate a little bit into morals investigate a little bit into theological judgment don't just take things that face value of maybe maybe attractive personality that they might have they might have been the the nicest people these jewish leaders now you might be able to rationalize maybe oh yeah it's they yeah they're they're a sinner saved by grace no church there's falsehood and there's truth so the jewish people were blinded in their self-righteousness they thought that they were the holy ones but self-righteous is so deceptive church self-righteousness is so deceptive and the expression of deep-rooted pride is at the heart of self-righteousness often in church where self-righteousness exists you see grace being completely absent and the truth is self-righteousness opposes the gospel above all where there is no grace there's no gospel it self-righteousness is the antonym of the gospel in church when jesus reveals to us i want us to see this today in full circle focus church that as jesus reveals to those who are struggling with self-righteousness what's what happens naturally it exposes our hypocrisy immediately the closer that we see and understand who jesus is and i he identifies and reveals himself in the word we can't help but to see and actually be humbled and broken and grieved over our own hypocrisy and that should move us this is the sonic wave that resonates throughout the entire gospel of john with every discourse with every sign with every i am statement with every feast jesus is shining a light into man's life and revealing who he is and similarly he's illuminating here today within our gathering of our church family
[39:25] those darkest parts of our lives that scream falsehood and distort the good news of the gospel i told you you can cancel the pastor appreciation lunch if you desire but the truth needs to be spoken we must be shaped and refined by the truth of god's word we have to be on guard of self-righteousness the church is marked by its assembly the church exists because a group of believers get together that defines the church this building does not define the church at all and how vividly is our faith tested in this community right and when some when somebody has a sin against another for being quick to forgive another person not holding that against one another the light of christ shines brightest to the world by this assembled community but it also serves as a light that shines into our lives of one another and we put ourselves as a hero of the story of the bible often that's a modern fallacy in in many preaching and many pulpits today is that we're the heroes in the bible right but how blind we can be to think that we would have been any different than the crowd shouting crucify him don't be so silly don't be caught up in self-righteousness because i guarantee each and every one of us including myself would more than likely be in that crowd denying him like peter saying shouting crucify him pilot let your self-righteousness die at the foot of the cross don't think of yourselves higher than you ought it is humbling and spiritual nourishing to live with both an image of god's grace and mercy but also an image of god's holiness just as we studied at bible study on wednesday this is a balance that is cultivated in our corporate commitments but also our individual commitment what happens in our prayer closets and in our own private time i appreciate valdy bakham's sentiment sentiment sentiment and in this uh where he says you and i are sinners moreover we are self-deceived we do not see ourselves accurately every one of us thinks more more of himself than he ought we are in desperate need of brothers and sisters who tell us the truth more importantly we need to be the kind of people who acknowledge that truth right when people call out sins that we have against one another we need to be spiritually mature enough to know that we are the ones who would crucify jesus that would deny him and accept that and acknowledge the truth that others are calling out in our lives not pack up and find another church not be offended and and and block people from from facebook this is a community where we are testing as god is shining a light through us through through other people's lives and and relationships if we can't get the light shining right brightly within our community the light is not going to shine great in the community surrounding us this is the importance and the glory and the excellence of the god of the gospel of john and this is the gospel church because we can often get so caught up in self-righteousness but we can also get so offended at times but we could be encouraged because not only does jesus christ
[43:27] full of grace and mercy but also truth the holiness of god the dangerous characteristics of god that that should crush us in our sinfulness when we have the truth and grace in view it exposes our sin right but thank god because guess who died for that sin jesus christ through the power of the holy spirit we find that jewel that is embedded within the old testament that the jews just couldn't get wrap their heads around they marveled at it it's out of a disposition of self-bankruptcy in our own lives of which which crushes our self-righteousness any self-righteousness we have is crushed by our acknowledgement of self-bankruptcy that we say god i am a sinner a wretched man am i amazing grace how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me right this is the gospel just as jesus is is the one who diagnoses our sin we have a laundry list of of sins i remember being in a small group at the broads and we were sort of analyzing the things that god tells us to put off in our lives that's listed put put to death therefore what is earthly in you sexual immorality impurity passion evil desire and covetousness which is idolatry all of it is actually idolatry and it continues in verse 8 in chapter 3 but now you must put them all away put away anger put away wrath put away malice put away slander and obscene talk from your mouth jesus christ is not only the doctor who says okay you are guilty you are very very sick you are a very sick individual and he doesn't say just yep you're clearly sick good day sir uh go about your way make sure you pay your your co-pay in full at the window and and i'll see you next next visit to the word of god no he takes that sickness and he died for it and he forgave us for it it often helps in our in in our own to sort of preserve our own reputation at times and sort of conceal our sin from one another to put on that holy christian a little self-righteous song and dance but it helps helps his name to repent of this daily that when we have offenses towards one another that that we clearly go to one another and and forgive one another just as colossians uh 3 16 says right and let the word of christ dwell in you richly admonishing one another in wisdom singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your hearts right bearing with one another and if one has a complaint against another forgiving each other church we can lose so so focus so so quickly the focus of of the gospel and we get so trapped in self-righteousness and offenses ephesians 5 11 says take no part in unfruitful works like these these are works of darkness instead ephesians 5 11 says expose them expose them expose them how are we to expose sin if we ourselves aren't shining the light of christ in our lives if we aren't living out the truth of his word this is the importance christianity is not just a cognitive affirmation of a couple truths maybe the apostles creed or nicene creed it's not just a statement of faith of saying yep this is what i believe this is my cognitive affirmation of who jesus is but it is a committed uh it's being committed to following him even if it's the most unpopular choice following him even if it's the most dangerous choice following him even if it is the most illogical decision being obedient to him regardless what do you want
[47:32] with jesus in your own life what do you want with him i gotta ask you as we close why are you following jesus why are you following him these questions are transcendent questions that every christ follower needs to ask from a day to day basis when you lay your head on a pillow why do you follow jesus when you have so much sin in your heart against another person there's anger and there's bitterness right when you think that you are self-righteous when you lay your head on your pillow why are you following jesus to make you feel good make you feel validated jesus will confront us in our lives and reveal himself to us and when he does that it's going to challenge us if we are following jesus only for those carnal conveniences those that carnal status and church self-righteousness has to die at the foot of the cross in this church let's pray thank you you you you you you you you you you