Is there any reason for centuries of hope?

"Serving the King of Life"

(Jeremiah 39, Preaching: Pastor Stephen Magee, February 22, 2009)

Jeremiah 39:1-18 In the ninth year of Zedekiah king of Judah, in the tenth month, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and all his army came against Jerusalem and besieged it. ² In the eleventh year of Zedekiah, in the fourth month, on the ninth day of the month, a breach was made in the city. ³ Then all the officials of the king of Babylon came and sat in the middle gate: Nergal-sar-ezer, Samgar-nebu, Sar-sekim the Rab-saris, Nergal-sar-ezer the Rab-mag, with all the rest of the officers of the king of Babylon. ⁴ When Zedekiah king of Judah and all the soldiers saw them, they fled, going out of the city at night by way of the king's garden through the gate between the two walls; and they went toward the Arabah. ⁵ But the army of the Chaldeans pursued them and overtook Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho. And when they had taken him, they brought him up to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, at Riblah, in the land of Hamath; and he passed sentence on him. ⁶ The king of Babylon slaughtered the sons of Zedekiah at Riblah before his eyes, and the king of Babylon slaughtered all the nobles of Judah. ⁷ He put out the eyes of Zedekiah and bound him in chains to take him to Babylon. ⁸ The Chaldeans burned the king's house and the house of the people, and broke down the walls of Jerusalem. ⁹ Then Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard, carried into exile to Babylon the rest of the people who were left in the city, those who had deserted to him, and the people who remained. ¹⁰ Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard, left in the land of Judah some of the poor people who owned nothing, and gave them vineyards and fields at the same time. ¹¹ Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon gave command concerning Jeremiah through Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard, saying, ¹² "Take him, look after him well, and do him no harm, but deal with him as he tells you." ¹³ So Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard, Nebushazban the Rab-saris, Nergal-sar-ezer the Rab-mag, and all the chief officers of the king of Babylon ¹⁴ sent and took Jeremiah from the court of the guard. They entrusted him to Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, son of Shaphan, that he should take him home. So he lived among the people. ¹⁵ The word of the LORD came to Jeremiah while he was shut up in the court of the guard: ¹⁶ "Go, and say to Ebed-melech the Ethiopian, 'Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I will fulfill my words against this city for harm and not for good, and they shall be accomplished before you on that day. ¹⁷ But I will deliver you on that day, declares the LORD, and you shall not be given into the hand of the men of whom you are afraid. ¹⁸ For I will surely save you, and you shall not fall by the sword, but you shall have your life as a prize of war, because you have put your trust in me, declares the LORD.'"

The Fall of Jerusalem (1-8)

What will it be like for those who have ignored the Word of the Lord when the Day of Judgment finally comes? What will it feel like for those who have habitually disregarded the plain truth of the Scriptures, and have thought of themselves as a cut above the simple Christians who believed God's Word? Many follow false prophets and lying teachers who claim that there will be no judgment to come. They willingly ignore what the Word of God clearly says in any number of areas of behavior and life, and then assume a moral superiority when they say, "Judge not, lest ye be judged." What will they say when the trumpet sounds? What will be their defense concerning the way that they have misrepresented Christ and His Kingdom?

We have something of a glimpse of that day in the fall of Jerusalem to the Babylonians. Zedekiah (Meaning: "The Lord is my righteousness") had more than ample warning of the danger that was coming. He was unwilling to hear the words of the prophet with a heart that was ready to obey them. As the years went by, his fears seemed to grow, but he could find no way out as he considered his options. There was a way. He needed to do as God had instructed. He needed to surrender to the Babylonians as an expression of His submission to God. This was the only way out, and this seemed impossible.

Even after one and a half years of a siege against Jerusalem, even after the city walls had been breached and key Babylonian officials had taken their seats in the place of power, Zedekiah and his army attempted to escape by night. They were pursued, and frightful punishments were brought against them with swift and unwavering determination. It is horrible to lose a child. What can be worse for a king, than to see his sons killed before his very eyes. Not only does he face the grief of any parent, but he also sees the end of his hope for a descendant to sit as king. The murder of his sons was essentially the last thing that his eyes ever saw on this earth, for his own eyes were put out on that horrible day. Through all of this he had the extra horror of knowing that God had warned him about another way that could have been, a way that he had rejected.

God's Care for His People (9-18)

In addition to the loss of the sons of Zedekiah, the nobles of Judah were put to death, the wall was broken down, and the king's house was destroyed. Anyone of any use to the Babylonians was taken into exile, and the rest were left in the land. This was a horrible day of destruction when it seemed that all was lost. Anyone who was left standing on such a day was filled with profound regret, convinced that nothing more could possibly remain in their lives that could at all be called good.

In contrast to this violent assault, the king of Babylon gave a special instruction regarding Jeremiah. He was to be cared for. No one was to do any harm to him. The prophet had been in confinement in the court of the guard for some time. Interestingly, he ended up staying with the poor and the weak who remained in the land after the destruction of the city.

Another man that was treated well was the Ethiopian servant of the king who had earlier pleaded with Zedekiah for the rescue of Jeremiah from a muddy well, where he would have starved to death. The chapter ends with a flashback of a message from the Lord through Jeremiah for this man. God would deliver him from the fate of the nation on the day of Babylonian victory. Whether in the case of Jeremiah or Ebed-melech (Meaning: "servant of the king"), we are reminded that God is well able to deliver particular individuals from death or harm even in a day of general destruction.

Jesus and His Church

Normally, when we think of the way that the Lord is able to save the righteous, we have reason to think about the honor and integrity of one person as opposed to another, and the reward that the Lord gives to the righteous, which is of course connected to their righteousness. What if the city had been spared from trouble and only two men had to suffer from the Babylonians? What if the Day of Judgment came, and the most righteous man was blinded, and everyone else was given protection? This seems incomprehensible to us. It makes sense to us that Zedekiah faces one outcome, and Jeremiah another. We cannot conceive of their ends being traded, so that the righteous one suffers for the wicked, and the wicked one is rewarded as if he were righteous. Nonetheless, in the coming of the one that Jeremiah had announced by the title that was Zedekiah's name, "The Lord is our righteousness," we have exactly this situation, and we call it good news.

What was it that uniquely qualified Christ for the cross? It was His unparalleled righteousness. If He had sinned, He would have been disqualified from serving as our atoning sacrifice. If He had sinned, there would be no meaning to the cross. The death of Christ would seem horribly wrong, were it not for the fact that the cross was not the end of the story in terms of the good news of God. Christ has risen indeed, and in Him we have resurrection. He has not only satisfied God's holy demands of perfect righteousness, He has not only carried the full weight of the eternal debt of our guilt before God, He has done these things in such a way that He rose far above them. In His life, we see life. He identified with us, the poor and the weak, and He has stayed with us, though it cost Him everything.

There are still many occasions when the sentence of punishment seems to fit the crime of the person, but the gospel is not one of those occasions, for the sinless One has taken our hell and we have been granted His heaven. Let us all flee today from unrighteousness. Let us get the point of the destruction of Jerusalem and hate the prospect of falling into the hands of a God who would bring upon us a punishment we well deserve. But let us especially trust in God, and rejoice in the sure hope we have of eternal protection in the bountiful righteousness of the life and death of Christ for sinners.

Jesus and Spiritual Overseers

If all of the Lord's church needs to know and embrace this message of grace for sinners through the death of Jesus, it is especially important that those who are charged with the spiritual oversight of the Lord's people keep the facts of Christ and His cross continually before their eyes. What enables a man to take His stand with those who are despised and poor? You who are called to care for the Lord's family through teaching, preaching, counseling, and shepherding, you who have a special duty to oversee the ministry of the church, so that we all do not forget Christ, the cross, and the resurrection, you must feed yourselves with the food of heaven, you must drink of the freshness of the water of life. If you do not do this, you will not be able to teach others the way of grace, and you will have no hope in a day of overwhelming trouble.

What we teach, we must first learn. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15:19, "If in this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied." Recently I was with someone who expressed great concern for the direction of our nation. He said to me, "You have more than one arrow in your quiver. You may have hope, however weak, of what good may come in this land in our lifetime. That's one arrow. But you have another arrow, that no matter what happens here and now, there is something more, something better that you believe in." I agreed with him. It is my confident expectation that, because of what Christ has done for us, the breach between heaven and earth will be forever repaired, and that heaven and earth will be together again in the most delightful way. This is coming. It will happen. He looked at me very sincerely and said, "You really believe that, don't you?" Elders, you need to believe in the resurrection, or you will never be able to nourish others in the Christian hope. This hope is in Jeremiah's name, which means "The LORD will raise."

Jesus and Servant Leaders

If all of the Lord's church needs to know and embrace the grace of God through Jesus Christ; if the elders of the church need to lead all of us in believing in the hope of the resurrection, communicating this hope in all of their teaching, counseling, and leading; it is very important that the deacons of the church lead us in the way of confident service and goodness, consistent with these words of the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 15:58: "Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain." Even the smallest acts of kindness, goodness, beauty, order, and truth that the littlest child performs, if these things are in Christ, then these good works will stand in the age of resurrection, because your labor in the Lord is not in vain.

Deacons, you have a wonderful opportunity to lead us in rescuing people out of the pit. Someone needs to lead us in lowering down the cloths into the well so that Jeremiah can do something so mundane as put those cloths under his arms together with the ropes, so that we can lift him out of a muddy pit. We do not know what is happening in the world all around us right now. But we do know that Christ has saved the wretched who would flee to Him. We do know that a day of resurrection life is coming, a day beyond the pain and misery of the present moment. We do know that our lives now have meaning and purpose in the One who speaks to us and says, "Behold, I am making all things new!"

Questions for meditation and discussion:

1. What happened to Jerusalem and why was it happening?

2. What did this mean for the various groups and individuals mentioned in this passage?

3. What are some of the New Testament uses of a consideration of the fall of Jerusalem in 586 BC?

4. Could there ever be any solid basis for many centuries of hope?

Is Jesus the Jewish Messiah?

"Living Water"

(John 4:1-30, Preaching: Pastor Stephen Magee, February 15, 2009)

John 4:1-30 Now when Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John ² (although Jesus himself did not baptize, but only his disciples), ³ he left Judea and departed again for Galilee. ⁴ And he had to pass through Samaria. ⁵ So he came to a town of Samaria called Sychar, near the field that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. ⁶ Jacob's well was there; so Jesus, wearied as he was from his journey, was sitting beside the well. It was about the sixth hour. ⁷ There came a woman of Samaria to draw water. Jesus said to her, "Give me a drink." ⁸ (For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.) ⁹ The Samaritan woman said to him, "How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?" ( For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.) ¹⁰ Jesus answered her, "If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, 'Give me a drink,' you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water." ¹¹ The woman said to him, "Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? ¹² Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock." ¹³ Jesus said to her, "Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, ¹⁴ but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty forever. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life." ¹⁵ The woman said to him, "Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water." ¹⁶ Jesus said to her, "Go, call your husband, and come here." ¹⁷ The woman answered him, "I have no husband." Jesus said to her, "You are right in saying, 'I have no husband'; ¹⁸ for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true." ¹⁹ The woman said to him, "Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. ²⁰ Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship." ²¹ Jesus said to her, "Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. ²² You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. ²³ But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. ²⁴ God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth." ²⁵ The woman said to him, "I know that Messiah is coming (he who is called Christ). When he comes, he will tell us all things." ²⁶ Jesus said to her, "I who speak to you am he." ²⁷ Just then his disciples came back. They marveled that he was talking with a woman, but no one said, "What do you seek?" or, "Why are you talking with her?" ²⁸ So the woman left her water jar and went away into town and said to the people, ²⁹ "Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?" ³⁰ They went out of the town and were coming to him.

Judea, Galilee, and Samaria (1-6)

Jesus was born in Bethlehem, though His parents lived in Nazareth. Bethlehem was in the region of Judea, and Nazareth was in Galilee. In between Judea and Galilee was the territory of Samaria. The normal way of getting from Judea to Galilee involved crossing through Samaria. Relations between Judeans and Samaritans were not very good. In fact the Judeans looked down upon the inhabitants of both regions to their north. Judea included Jerusalem and the authorized place of Old Covenant worship. The northern regions had fallen to the Assyrians many decades before the fall of Jerusalem to the Babylonians in 586 BC. The Assyrians had deported many of the people from the northern tribes of Israel to other lands, and brought people from the other lands to the area that the northern tribes once inhabited. The result was that in Jesus' day, for some time the people called the Samaritans had been a mixed multitude that had combined religious ideas from a variety of places. They held to the inspiration of the first five books of the Bible, but nothing else. This meant that they did not recognize Jerusalem, and Mount Zion, the site of the temple, as the authorized place of worship, since that revelation came later than the first five books of the Bible.

If all this seems too confusing, perhaps you can think about the contemporary story of this region. You know that there is much conflict in this part of the world today. It has been that way for a long, long time. After the reign of King David around 1000 BC, God had revealed to His people the definitive location of His temple; Mount Zion in Jerusalem. To reject that central place of worship meant rejecting God's Law and the entire system of Old Covenant life. The Samaritans had rejected that way, yet there were still many in Samaria, and further north in Galilee, who considered themselves to be in the line of the promises of God to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. There is also much evidence that God still cared about them. This chapter of John's gospel is part of that evidence, and the focus of the Lord's electing love in this chapter begins with one Samaritan woman, and one thirsty Man. That Man is our Source of living water, our Husband, our Temple, and our Messiah.

The Source of Living Water (7-14)

First, Jesus is our Source of living water. The story begins with thirst. "Give me a drink," Jesus said to the Samaritan woman. This sounds somewhat abrupt to our ears, but the woman seems to take no offence. She is only surprised that Jesus, a Jew, would want to have anything to do with her, a Samaritan woman. She must have had much experience with Jews travelling through Samaria, and had either observed that they avoided interaction with Samaritans, or knew that they considered that contact with non-Jews would make them ceremonially unclean.

When she expresses her surprise at Jesus having anything to do with her, Jesus redirects the conversation to His ability. He could give her living water. By this expression, "living water," our Savior refers to the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Godhead. Later in this gospel (7:38-39), Jesus uses the same expression, but in that place the meaning of the image is explained. In the final book in the Bible the same expression is used (Revelation 7:17) in a description of heavenly life. Jesus, together with the Father, is the Giver of the Holy Spirit to people. The gift of physical water is a wonderful gift, a gift needed by people throughout the world. Even greater than this gift is the gift of the Holy Spirit of God. He draws us to God, makes our sin-dead souls alive, moves us along in our lives, fills us with Himself, is our constant Helper in this life, and the portion of those who live with Christ in the life to come. Needless to say, He is a very good gift, and you and I should ask for Him all the time, for we cannot live the Christian life, without this living water of the Holy Spirit. He is the water that Jesus gives. Without the death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus Christ, the gift of the Holy Spirit could never have been given.

The Husband (15-18)

Second, Jesus is our Husband. While the Samaritan woman seems to express a desire for living water, she does not understand what she is asking for. For a second time, Jesus redirects the conversation, now to the question of husbands. There are many women who for a variety of reasons find themselves without a husband. Many times their stories are tragic, and we sympathize with them. Here Jesus shows tenderness in His dealings with this one woman. We do not know her whole story, but she quickly learns that Jesus does know her story.

He does not humiliate her, but He somehow seems to know her, and He is the one who brings up the issue of husbands. Why does He do this? The most obvious answer that initially comes to mind, is that Jesus is exposing her sin, and there may be something to that. Though we do not know the circumstance of her having five husbands, we are told that the one she has now in not her husband. We should be careful not to assume too much, since we are simply not told the nature of this relationship. What is most interesting is that the Man she is speaking with is the One the Scripture tells us is the Husband of His bride the church. Through His life and death, He proves Himself to be devoted to His people with a husband's love. He will provide for us no matter how many husbands we lose. He will protect us, no matter how alone we feel. His presence now is real, though not always felt. The day will come when His presence will not only be real, but will always be felt and known. If this woman truly comes to faith in God through Jesus Christ, she will have the perfect Husband.

The Temple (19-24)

Third, Jesus is our Temple. At this point in their conversation, the Samaritan woman says something very interesting: "I perceive that you are a prophet." He has told her things about her own life that a normal stranger passing through the region would have no way of knowing. What appeared to be a chance interaction between a Samaritan woman and a thirsty Jewish man who was just passing through now seems to be something much more significant. This meeting is not a coincidence, because Jesus seems to have met just the person that He intended to meet. She is the one who now brings up the topic of worship, and in particular, the topic of the place of worship, the topic that is so divisive between Jews and Samaritans.

We have seen that Jesus cares very much about the authorized place of Old Testament worship. Zeal for His father's house consumed Him. He cleansed the temple in John 2, and He would do so again the week before the cross. More importantly, He has come as the Temple of the Holy Spirit. Through faith in Him, the church is called the Temple of the Holy Spirit. Everywhere throughout the New Testament, the true worshipers of God are said to be in Jesus Christ. To be in Jesus is to have the living water of the Spirit in you. To be in Jesus is to abide in Him who is the Truth. Though Jesus loves the temple in Jerusalem, and though He easily settles the old debate by the simple statement that salvation is from the Jews, there is something much more important being revealed here to a Samaritan woman who brought up the topic of true worship. A new time has come. No longer will the temple in Jerusalem be the authorized place of worship. The church will gather in the Name of Jesus, and real worshipers of God will be found in Him, and will seek to abide in Him. If we want to worship God, then Jesus is our Temple.

The Messiah (25-30)

Finally, Jesus is the Messiah. This Samaritan woman brought up the matter of worship; now she is the one who raises the topic of the expected Christ. Throughout John's gospel, Jesus uses the words "I AM." This is the first time He does so. When she mentions the coming Messiah, Jesus says, "I AM, who is speaking to you." These words, "I AM," may refer to God's own name for Himself, but what is very plain here, unmistakably plain, is that Jesus is the Christ. What does this mean? It means that He is the long expected Savior, the One who will save through His special office as the Lamb of God. As one who dies for the sins of others, He will be the Lamb of God who takes away the sins, not only of the Jews, but also of the Samaritans, of the Galileans, and even of the world.

In verse 29, this special woman asks a final question: "Can this be the Christ?" This is the question that the world needs to consider. Is there anyone who is thirsty? Here is the Source of living water. Is there anyone who needs a friend? Here is the very best Husband. Is there anyone who wants to know where they can really worship God with solid joys and lasting treasures? Here is the Temple. Is there anyone who wants to be saved? Here is the Messiah.

Questions for meditation and discussion:

1. Who expresses surprise about this interaction, and what do you think are the reasons for their surprise?

2. What did the woman at the well want?

3. What was Jesus doing in pursuing this conversation?

4. Is Jesus the Jewish Messiah? What does this mean for Jews today? What does it mean for Gentiles?

Can a washing ritual bring me peace with God?

"The Bridegroom's Voice"

(John 3:22-36, Preaching: Pastor Stephen Magee, February 8, 2009)

John 3:22-36 ²² After this Jesus and his disciples went into the Judean countryside, and he remained there with them and was baptizing. ²³ John also was baptizing at Aenon near Salim, because water was plentiful there, and people were coming and being baptized ²⁴ (for John had not yet been put in prison). ²⁵ Now a discussion arose between some of John's disciples and a Jew over purification. ²⁶ And they came to John and said to him, "Rabbi, he who was with you across the Jordan, to whom you bore witness- look, he is baptizing, and all are going to him." ²⁷ John answered, "A person cannot receive even one thing unless it is given him from heaven. ²⁸ You yourselves bear me witness, that I said, 'I am not the Christ, but I have been sent before him.' ²⁹ The one who has the bride is the bridegroom. The friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly at the bridegroom's voice. Therefore this joy of mine is now complete. ³⁰ He must increase, but I must decrease." ³¹ He who comes from above is above all. He who is of the earth belongs to the earth and speaks in an earthly way. He who comes from heaven is above all. ³² He bears witness to what he has seen and heard, yet no one receives his testimony. ³³ Whoever receives his testimony sets his seal to this, that God is true. ³⁴ For he whom God has sent utters the words of God, for he gives the Spirit without measure. ³⁵ The Father loves the Son and has given all things into his hand. ³⁶ Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.

The Jews and rituals of purification (22-25)

Rules of purification were an important part of the daily life of people in 1^st century Judaism. Even to this day, there is much writing and teaching on the correct ways for practitioners of modern Judaism to do ritual cleansing, depending upon their particular denomination. The idea of ritual washings goes beyond the Jewish tradition. There are many similar practices followed throughout the world that have to do with cleansing from death or evil. Within any one family of religious groups there may be disagreements about the need for such rituals, and the right way to perform them. People see these questions as important ones, because it is through such things that societies communicate their way of life. It should not surprise us that a discussion arose between John's disciples and an unnamed Jew concerning ways of achieving purification.

Both in first century Judaism and in orthodox Judaism today, a convert apparently needed to submit to a special washing in order to be admitted into the ranks of the faithful. John's use of baptism was different in this way: John was practicing a baptism of repentance upon those who were already Jews. His baptism and his associated teaching suggested that the problem of an unclean heart was not just something that Gentiles faced. All Jews needed cleansing as well. The problem of sin was deep, and the cleansing needed for full participation in the kingdom of God could not be a matter of simply applying water to a person in the right way.

John the Baptist and rituals of authority (26-28)

There is an additional way of looking at these kinds of rituals that we need to consider. Washing rules can function not only as a way of symbolic cleansing; they are also ceremonies that indicate a surrendering to the authority of a person or a group, and thus a belonging in that group. In fact, these two things are associated with Christian baptism. It is not only a ritual that symbolizes heavenly cleansing from the stain of sin, it is also a submission to heavenly authority, an association with the Name of God, the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, and a surrender to the King of the kingdom of heaven, Jesus Christ.

It should not surprise us that groups might measure their success based on the number of people who are being baptized, and therefore the number that have given themselves over to a particular school of thought or leader. The disciples of John seem to be expressing some concern that those associating themselves with Jesus were baptizing more people than those that were associating themselves with John the Baptist. It was a question of loyalty, and of how many people were on what team. Those on the John the Baptist team were noticing that many people were joining the Jesus team through the Jesus baptism.

John the Baptist was not concerned about this fact. He was clear on His role. He was to point toward Jesus. John knew that heaven was in charge, and that heaven had given John the role of the forerunner, while Jesus alone had the role of the Christ, or the Messiah. This is the message he had testified to earlier, and it was his message throughout his brief ministry. Even today, when anyone is baptized, the point is not our submission to any lesser human authority. People are united with Christ, and are baptized in the Triune Name. John could not save anyone from sin, nor could he ever be the King of the kingdom of heaven. Jesus alone was the Christ. John says something very important when his disciples ask him about this matter. He says that no one can receive even one thing unless it is given him from heaven. This is a fact that John fully embraced, and it is a principle that each of us should believe. Every success (and even every thing that looks like failure) comes from above, from heaven, from our God.

Jesus, the Bridegroom from above (29-31)

In making this point, John used one more illustration, that of a wedding. It is wonderful to be the friend of the groom. This friend may be very helpful to the bride in bringing the bridegroom to the place of the wedding feast. This is a great joy. When Jesus came to die for His bride, John the Baptist had the honor of introducing Him publicly to the people of God. This was a great honor, but John's day was now almost over. It was no surprise that the disciples of Jesus were becoming more numerous. That was what was supposed to happen. John's joy was complete because he had done the job he was supposed to do. It would not have been right for John to continue to gather more attention than Jesus. It was time for John to decrease. That was a sign that he had done his job well. Only one man could be the bridegroom, and that was not John's office. That was the special purpose of Jesus.

Jesus alone was given this job by the Father. Jesus was uniquely the Bridegroom of the church. He was the One who personally came from above. John the Baptist did not come from above personally, though His existence was decreed by God, and we are told that His baptism came from heaven. He had no pre-existence prior to his conception in the womb of his mother Elizabeth. In that sense, Christ uniquely came from heaven as the One who had an eternal existence there as the Son of God, and who had been conceived in the womb of Mary by the Holy Spirit. John's conception was also a miracle, but that was because His parents had not been able to conceive. The miracle of his conception was a special granting to his parents of the ability to conceive a child. The miracle of Jesus' birth was entirely different. Joseph was not the natural father of Jesus. Jesus was the Son of God by the Holy Spirit. Jesus came from above, and was above all. John was another child of the earth, and he could not speak of heaven from experience as Jesus could. Jesus was above all, and John was His servant. Jesus was given the job of Messiah, a job could not have rightly come to anyone else. John accepted that fact, and rejoiced in it.

Receive His testimony (32-36)

The testimony of Jesus is true. When He speaks of God, He speaks the truth. When He teaches of heaven, He is teaching of what He has seen and what He knows. He utters the words of God, because He is God. He is full of the Holy Spirit, and He will give the Holy Spirit to the church after His ascension. The Father loves the Son. We are told later in this gospel (10:27) one of the reasons the Father loves the Son, "For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again." This also is a true testimony. In this laying down of His life through His death on the cross, and in His subsequent display of amazing divine power, Jesus is doing something of great merit. Here is the greatest love and mercy. Here is a complete dedication to both the justice of God against sinners, and the covenant faithfulness of God to His elect. These are things that God loves. God loves Jesus, and God loves you. You need to receive this testimony. This blessing has been given to you from heaven.

God has given all things into the hand of His Son. If there is any way to heaven, it must be through the approval of Jesus who has full authority over such matters. It is important that we hear what He has to say: "Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life." We come into this world with a pre-existing transcript of guilt from the wrath of God. We do not come into this world with an empty report card. We come into this world with the wages due to us from Adam's sin. The wrath of God is on us. But Christ, the Bridegroom of the bride, is not content to have us weeping forever in the place of eternal regret. He wants us to be free. He wants us to have life. Therefore He comes in our place, and takes that wrath that was on us. Through this great act of the highest marital love, our Husband has saved us. We will have life forever with Him. Again, this blessing has been given to you from heaven.

Eternal life is yours if you believe in the Son of God. This is what He has said, and His testimony is true. There is a good reason for the wrath of God. You and I may have a hard time understanding what that is all about, but God has never asked us for our opinion on whether His desire to vindicate both His mercy and His justice is a commendable goal. He is God. What He has done is to provide the only way for us to enjoy the fullest blessings of life with Him forever, the provision of His own Son, and He asks us to believe. No ceremonial washing can make up for a life of unbelief. In your baptism you were marked as one who would be cleansed by the blood of Jesus in a way that no other cleansing ritual could accomplish. You were set aside for surrender to the Lord of the cross and the resurrection, that you might be His disciple. May God's Spirit so rule in your life that you would see what that cleansing was all about, and give your life over to hearing and loving the Christ.

This is the only way to have peace with God. The alternative to this great provision of mercy is to face the justice of God against us for our sin and unbelief. This passage says that, "whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him." The life that Christ has for us is everything. It is what Eden was once, and much more. It is full of joy, purpose, pleasure, and fruitfulness. Is a life of unbelief, a life of separation from Christ and His church, a life of disobeying the word of the one who died for you a chance that you want to take? You have been given something better than that from heaven. Embrace what you have been given, and receive your life again.

Questions for meditation and discussion:

1. Why are people interested in baptism and other purification rituals?

2. What does John teach us here regarding Jesus Christ?

3. What is our status with God from our conception, and what are the implications of this?

4. Is there some ritual of purification that can bring us peace with God?

How can I be born again?

"Born Again"

(John 2:23-3:21, Preaching: Pastor Stephen Magee, January 25, 2009)

John 2:23 - 3:21 ²³ Now when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover Feast, many believed in his name when they saw the signs that he was doing. ²⁴ But Jesus on his part did not entrust himself to them, because he knew all people ²⁵ and needed no one to bear witness about man, for he himself knew what was in man. 3:1 Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. ² This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, "Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him." ³ Jesus answered him, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God." ⁴ Nicodemus said to him, "How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born?" ⁵ Jesus answered, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. ⁶ That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. ⁷ Do not marvel that I said to you, 'You must be born again.' ⁸ The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit." ⁹ Nicodemus said to him, "How can these things be?" ¹⁰ Jesus answered him, "Are you the teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things? ¹¹ Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know, and bear witness to what we have seen, but you do not receive our testimony. ¹² If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things? ¹³ No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. ¹⁴ And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, ¹⁵ that whoever believes in him may have eternal life." ¹⁶ "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. ¹⁷ For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. ¹⁸ Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. ¹⁹ And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their deeds were evil. ²⁰ For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. ²¹ But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his deeds have been carried out in God."

He knew what was in man. (2:23-25)

Jesus knew what was in a man, and He still does. That makes Him an interesting person to be around. When He went to the cross at the end of His earthly ministry, it was not because He was being fooled by people. He knew what was in the hearts of those who had made their secret plots, and He knew what this important man Nicodemus was all about when he came to visit Him one evening at a time when no one else would see him coming.

A man who needed to be born again (3:1-10)

This man came to Jesus with the apparent intention of giving him something of a secret seal of approval. He said to Him, "We know you are a teacher come from God." By this he must have meant that Jesus was a prophet, someone whom God had sent as His representative to speak to His people. Men like Elijah and Jeremiah were great prophets of God who were hated in their own day by many powerful people, but who were revered as great men in the centuries after their deaths. It was quite a compliment to say that Jesus was a teacher sent by God. Nicodemus also acknowledged that Jesus was performing great miracles that had to be signs of something big, amazing miracles that most certainly meant that God was with Him. As great as these compliments were, and they certainly were far above the words that others among the ruling counsel might have ventured to say about Jesus, they still were far below the reality. Jesus was not just a teacher from God, or just a man who had God with Him. Jesus was God with us, He was the Son of God, He was the Christ, the Messiah, He was, and is, God.

Jesus, who knew what was in a man, seemed to entirely ignore the compliment that Nicodemus had attempted to give Him. He switched the topic away from Himself and focused on His visitor. Who was this Nicodemus? What was His status in the kingdom of heaven? Jesus told Him plainly that He was not yet even born in that kingdom. This seemed a strange concept to this respected elderly leader. Nicodemus was born a long time ago. Would he now be born of a woman a second time? The words that Jesus had used, "born again," had a double meaning. They could mean born a second time, or they could mean born from above. Jesus meant both of these things, but Nicodemus was only thinking about one of them. The heavenly life above is known now through the deposit of that life in the part of our being that God calls our spirit. Nicodemus heard Jesus saying something about being born a second time, but He did not even think about the fact that this might mean being born from above.

Our Lord then made the contrast between being born according to the waters of physical fleshly birth, and being born again of the Spirit that comes from above. Physical birth was a marvelous miracle, but it was different from spiritual birth. There were many people who had been born physically, who had never experienced anything of true life by the Holy Spirit of God. Being confused about these things was not that unexpected. Spiritual birth came by the agency of an unseen spiritual God. Of course it was hard for the average person to think about these things. You could not catch the Spirit and study Him any more than you could contain the wind in your hands. But Nicodemus was not just any ordinary man. He was a leading teacher of the faith in Israel, a man with religious authority and responsibility. It was inexcusable for leaders who had the oracles of God given to them in the Old Testament to be completely unaware of the facts of spiritual life. There was far too much information about this topic for it to be completely missed. Nicodemus surely knew all about non-biblical washing rituals of the Jews. Could it be that he knew nothing about the biblical prophesies of the Holy Spirit bringing new life in the New Covenant? Was he unaware of the passages about this in Joel, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and in the words of Moses in the Law?

God thus loved the world… (11-17)

Jesus did know about these things, not only because He was completely conversant in the Scriptures, but because He had come from heaven, and was entirely aware of heavenly life. Spiritual life on earth is a piece of life from heaven that is granted to those on earth. Those who would be born again by the Spirit of God in the coming New Covenant Age enjoy a down-payment of heavenly life right here and right now. This is one of the internal proofs of heaven to us: We know that heaven is real because we have been born from above, born again, born by the Spirit who comes to us from heaven. If a teacher in Israel could not understand this earthly manifestation of heavenly life, how could Jesus teach such a man anything about the kingdom of heaven itself? Jesus was uniquely qualified to be a teacher of these matters. He alone had come from heaven, and He alone would make the way for us to be with Him in heaven through His ascension. He could have given us the answer to every heavenly question that we could have ever asked, and He certainly could tell Nicodemus everything about what it meant to be born again. He should have been believed as the absolute expert witness on heavenly matters.

In addition to that, God had uniquely sent Him to be the One that people would look to in order to gain heavenly life. Being born again had something to do with looking to the unique Answer for our mortal woes. This too had been testified to in the Old Covenant. What was God doing in the wilderness when He instructed dying people to look at a bronze serpent on a pole in order that they would live? (Read Numbers 21:4-9.) We know He did not want them to worship the object itself. It became a snare to Israel that had to be destroyed (2 Kings 18:4). But He did want them to learn something. The spiritually aware reader of the Old Testament should have been asking himself a question about Numbers 21: What was the bronze serpent all about, the one that Moses made at God's command? Why this symbol of utter evil that would somehow be the object of salvation for all who looked to it when it was lifted up? Jesus tells us here what it was all about. This was an indication of His own person given so long ago, that the way people would have eternal life, which would begin even on earth with spiritual heavenly life, would be through looking to the Substitute who became sin for us, who was lifted up on the cross for our salvation.

This is the way that God loves the world: He has provided a Substitute for us in Jesus, who would become a sin offering for us. God gave His Son for that purpose, that whoever would believe in Him would not perish in eternal judgment, but would have communion with Him in the kingdom of heaven, even eternal life, but a communion that would begin even on earth with a spiritual birth, where we could experience life from above in our souls through our Savior Jesus Christ. This is the great love that God has for the world. He has provided His Son as a sin offering. His judgment of the world will come, but first He has provided the way of salvation for us through Jesus.

Believe in the Name and come to the Light. (18-21)

If any physical birth is ever to take place, there must first be a physical conception. For a true spiritual birth, there must be a spiritual conception. It is only by the work of the Holy Spirit bringing a new power of divine life to our dead spirits that we will ever experience true spiritual life. Spiritual life is more than figuring out what someone wants us to say and then saying some words that we think we might perhaps believe. Spiritual life is something that comes from the Holy Spirit, though we may not feel His presence. He works within us producing true faith in Jesus Christ, and planting within our hearts a seed of heaven.

Ever since the entrance of sin into the world in Adam, by our depraved nature we are unbelieving, and we run from God. We are like those among the Israelites, who when they were told to look to the bronze serpent, they refused to do so, so they died a physical death in the wilderness. Humanity locked in unbelief is already condemned, because they have not believed in the Name of the only begotten Son of God. It is necessary for God Himself by His Holy Spirit to convert someone, because by our nature we will only cling to the evil that we want. Because we are committed to what we want more than to God, we will not come to the light. We know that the evil within us will be exposed if we come to God. But if God's Spirit should save us, if we are thinking clearly, we should want Him, and we will want our lives to be filled with good things that can only come from the His work in us.

Hear the words of Jesus Christ to a man who was a leader of the Jews, but who had neglected the testimony of the Bible about spiritual life. He came to Jesus wanting to affirm that Jesus was a true prophet, and that God was doing great miracles through Jesus. What he heard from our Lord was this: "You must be born again." Remember that the One who gave this good message of heavenly life that can only come from God is the same One who said in another place, "Ask, and you shall receive." Ask Him. This is the way not only to be born again, but to grow in God.

Questions for meditation and discussion:

1. How has Jesus demonstrated a knowledge of "what was in a man"?

2. What do we learn about Nicodemus from this encounter with Jesus?

3. What do we learn about Jesus and the love of God?

4. How can I be "born again?"