St. Simons Community Church

v. 4 This sickness will not end in death. No it is for God’s glory so that God may be glorified through it.  We see Lazarus’ illness as a great opportunity for Jesus to display his glory.  Jesus can take any situation and bring glory to God in the midst of it.

v. 25 I am the resurrection and the life.  He who believes in me will live even though he dies, and he whoever lives and believes in me will never die.  Do you believe this? Martha really didn’t believe she was going to see her brother on earth again.  She was actually frustrated with Jesus because he had waited and not come earlier.  If only Jesus had come.  Why did he wait?  Where was he?  Jesus had a greater message to convey in this situation.  He was more than just a healer.  He had power over life and death.  He called himself the resurrection and the life.  The resurrection is not just an event.  It is a person.  Jesus was declaring that he had power over the grave.  All the mysteries of life, death, and what lies beyond the grave can be found in Him.  He alone offers hope on the other side of the grave.

v. 32 When Jesus saw (Mary) weeping, and the Jews who had come with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled.  “Where have you laid him,” he asked. When Mary came to Jesus, she made the same statement as Martha – “Lord if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”  There is a difference though.  Mary fell at his feet.  The scriptures speak of another time when she fell at Jesus’ feet.  She washed his feet.  She worshiped at his feet.  She sat at his feet to worship.  Mary lived at the feet of Jesus.  And as she cried, the heart of Jesus was moved.  At this point, he went to the grave and raised Lazarus.  Martha got a great theological answer – “I am the resurrection…”  Mary received a resurrection.  Something about Mary’s love for Jesus moved his heart.  Jesus will move heaven and earth for those who find themselves at his feet.  This is the highest place on earth.

v. 35 Jesus wept. Here at Lazarus’ grave, Jesus wept.  There are many thoughts as to why he wept.  Perhaps he was sharing in the grief of his friends.  He was moved with compassion at their loss.  Others suggest that he sensed the human plight of sin and death as he stood before the grave of his friend.  In a sense, Jesus was weeping for all of us, and all of our loss.  He was grieved for humanity.  And some say he wept because he knew he was going to bring Lazarus back from heaven.  Lazarus had gotten a taste of heaven, and now he was coming back.  Jesus wept because he knew he was calling back his friend into the hell of this world.  Whatever the case, we certainly see the heart of Jesus in this passage.  We do not have a heartless, impassionate savior.  He is one who is moved deeply by the heart of his people.

v. 40 Did I not tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God? It is our unbelief that holds us back from truly seeing God’s glory.  BELIEVE!

Great passage.  Jesus is compared to the Shepherd as well as to the gate by which we must enter.

v. 3 He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out… v. 4 When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice.  v. 5 But they will never follow a stranger; in fact they run away from him because they will never follow a stranger’s voice. As believers, we are supposed to hear and to know the voice of our Shepherd.  We heard his voice calling, and we were saved.  We began to follow him.  To keep following, we must continue to listen for his voice.  It is our right as God’s children to hear him speak to us and trust him to lead us.  He speaks to us through his Word and by his Holy Spirit.  If we truly know Jesus, we will never follow the voice of a stranger.  What voice have you been listening too?

v. 7 I tell you the truth, I am the gate for the sheep… v. 9 I am the gate, whoever enters through me wil be saved. Jesus was calling us to enter God’s kingdom through him.  He is not a gate, but THE GATE!  He is the entryway. He gives us access into His Father’s kingdom.

v. 10 The thief comes only to steal, kill and destroy.  I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.  One of my favorite verses.  It compares Satan’s intention for us versus Jesus’ intention.  Satan is a thief who seeks to rob us blind.  He seeks to steal our identity as God’s children, rob us of joy and peace, and all that God would have for us.  He seeks to kill our passion, and destroy our lives.  He wants to enslave us in addiction, and self destructive behavior, etc.  Jesus wants to give us abundant life, full life.  Why is it that so many of God’s children are being robbed blind by the thief?  Are we not listening for the Shepherd’s voice?  Perhaps we are too busy chasing the things that don’t truly bring joy, and are being robbed blind in the process.

v. 11 I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for his sheep…v. 14 I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me – just as the Father knows me and I know the Father – and I lay down my life for the sheep.  Jesus is the good shepherd.  He cares for us.  He gives his life for us.  In Ezekiel 34, God compared the kings of Israel to shepherds.  As shepherds, they were supposed to lead God’s people with a heart of service.  Instead, they looked out for themselves.  God promised in Ezekiel 34 that he would one day give his people a good shepherd.  Jesus is that Shepherd.  He does not just look out for his good. He looks out for our good.  He cares for us, for our best. He loves us.

v. 27 My sheep listen to my voice;  I know them and they follow me. v. 28  I give them eternal life , and they shall never perish, no one can snatch them out of my hand.  v. 29 My Father who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand.  I and the Father are one. We should hear his voice and follow.  A sheep always knows the voice of his shepherd.  In the middle east, several shepherds could bring their sheep to the same pond to water.  The sheep could get all mixed together making it almost impossible to separate them.  But when he is ready to lead his sheep on, the Shepherd begins to walk off and call his sheep to follow.  His sheep hear his voice and follow him.  The other sheep do not follow him, because they only know the voice of their shepherd.  Do you know the voice of your Shepherd?  Jesus gives eternal life to his sheep.  We will never perish, and no one can snatch us out of his hand.  There is great security in the hands of Jesus.  Nothing can separate us from him.

v. 2 “rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents that he was born blind?” The Jews often believed that bad things happened to bad people. That the most reasonable explanation for this man’s blindness was the sin of his parents. Even today, many people feel that if something ever bad happens, God must be punishing them and getting even. Sin does have its consequences, but we can’t go around thinking that God is just out to get us all of the time. This leads us to an incredibly harsh view of God.

v. “3 Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” said Jesus, ” but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life.” God had a plan to be glorified in this man’s life and through this man’s life. God can take the tough situations of life and display his glory through us. Are you willing for God to be glorified in and through you?

v. 25 Whether he is a sinner or not, I don’t know. One thing I do know. I was blind but now I see! Great statement. This blind man didn’t have all the answers. He couldn’t match theological wits with the Pharisees. He was sure of one thing though: he used to be blind, and now he wasn’t. This man named Jesus had healed him and opened his eyes. Can you say the same? Have you had a life changing encounter with Jesus that was truly eye opening? No one can undermine your experience of Christ.

v. 39 For judgment I have come into the world, so that the blind will see and those who see will become blind. This whole story is an illustration of spiritual blindness. The Pharisees thought they were walking in the light because of their religious devotion and knowledge. They were deeply committed to the law, but their hearts were far from God. Jesus was a threat to their nice religious system. They were blind and could not see. Jesus took a man who was considered to be spiritually ignorant and sinful and opened his eyes. He could see. The point is this – until you know that you are blind, you can never really see the kingdom of God. Those who think they can already see are often the ones who are blind. Has Jesus opened your eyes?

This chapter reveals a number of different responses to Jesus.

First of all we see the skepticism of his brothers (v. 1- 9).  They wanted Jesus to perform a bunch of miracles and prove himself.  They said, “No one who wants to become a public figure acts in secret.  Since you are doing these things, show yourself to the world”. For even his own brothers did not believe in him. Do you see their skepticism?  They weren’t defiant towards Jesus, but they were definitely seeking a sign.  They wanted a show in order for Jesus to prove himself as a “public figure.”

v. 7 The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify that what it does is evil. Jesus didn’t come to be a public figure though.  He didn’t come to win a popularity contest.  He came to be a Savior.  Jesus knows that his life and message will bring division and disagreement.  Some will not listen.

v. 12, 13 Some said “he is a good man.”  Others replied, “No he deceives the people.” Wow, you talk about a polarizing figure.  Not everyone will believe the truth.  Some will even call the truth a lie.

v. 16 My teaching is not my own.  It comes from him who sent me. Jesus gives the reason for his authority to speak.  He is not just a good speaker who can wow the crowds.  He has been given divine words from the Father.  Our teaching as Christians should not be on our own.  We need a word from God, not from man.  I also love v. 16 – “He who speaks on his own does so to gain honor for himself, but he who works for the honor of the one who sent him is a man of truth; there is nothing false about him.”

v. 20 you are demon possessed.  We have moved beyond skepticism to a full rejection.  Jesus is not just accused of being wrong, but even evil.  Even in our day, there are people who view Jesus in this way.  The reason is that the Bible does not condone their sin and “so called freedoms.”  They want to live life on their own and still sing, “God bless America,” all the while turning their backs on biblical values.

v. 37 – 39 On the last and greatest day of the Feast, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me to drink.  Whoever believes in me, as the Scriptures has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.” By this he meant the Spirit whom those who believed in him were later to receive.  Up to that time, the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified. Again, Jesus speaks of the spiritual thirst we have.  He invited the woman at the well (John 4) to come and drink.  He told the crowd in John 6, that the one who comes to him will never hunger and thirst again.  Here he invites the crowd at the Feast to come and drink.  He was speaking of the power and work of the Holy Spirit to fill the human heart and spirit.  How can we be filled with the Spirit?  Jesus first said we must be thirsty – “If anyone is thirsty?”  Do you have a desire and a thirst for more of Jesus?  Then we must be willing for Jesus to be glorified in our lives.  Jesus connected the giving of the Holy Spirit to his being glorified in heaven.  If we are ready for Jesus to be glorified and exalted in our lives, then we are ready for him to fill us with his Spirit.  Are you ready to let Jesus be glorified, and sit upon the throne of your heart and life?  Next we must drink.  We drink of the Spirit simply by looking to Jesus in faith, and asking and believing Him to fill us with His Holy Spirit.  When we turn to Jesus in faith, seeking and asking for more of Him, we are opening our hearts to spiritually drink from the well of Christ. As we spend time in his word, humbly seeking and asking for more of Jesus, we are drinking in more of Jesus.  Last of all, we must expect the work of God in our lives.  Jesus said that whoever believes in Him will have streams of living water flow from within.  Once we ask, we must believe and expect in faith the work of the Holy Spirit to be active in our lives.  This doesn’t necessarily mean you will have a rush of emotion or great surge of power.  There are times I have a tangible sense of the Spirit’s presence, and I love that.  But most of the time, I must simply trust Jesus and trust the Spirit to do what only they can do.  My job is to THIRST, GLORIFY, DRINK, and EXPECT. Do your job, and trust the Spirit to do his.

v. 31 Still many in the crowd put their faith in him.  v. 40 Some of the people said, “Surely this man is a Prophet.” v. 41 Others said, “He is the Christ.”  v. 43 Thus the people were divided because of Jesus.  v. 44 Some wanted to seize him. v. 47 You mean he has deceived you also? How is that for a diversity of opinions about Jesus?  We saw his brothers were the skeptics.  We also see some say he is a Prophet, meaning a holy man.  Others said he had a devil and wanted to seize him.  The people were certainly divided because of JESUS. Make no mistake, Jesus will remain the most divisive person in history.  There are many who will simply ignore, or reject the Son of God.  Others will demand that he prove himself with some great sign.  And yet, many will say, He is the Christ.  He has given his life for us.  What more can he prove than by dying for our sins and rising again?  He is good.  He is God.  He is the Christ.  We must choose what we believe.  Where will we stand in the midst of all the opinions about Jesus?

The Healing at the Pool

v. 6 “Do you want to get well?” This is a good question that Jesus asked the man.  He had been lame for so long, that it is easy to get trapped in that mindset – to remain hopeless, to remain a victim.  Jesus wanted to know if he really wanted to get well.  How about you?  Do you really want wholeness and healing in your life?  Do you really want change and growth, or are you okay with status quo?

Life Through the Son (v.16 ff)

v. 17 “My Father is always at His work to this very day, and I too am working.” God’s work is never done.  He is at work right now in this minute.  Are we open to His work?  Are we looking for His work in our lives?  Even when God seems silent, we can trust that He is at work.

v. 19 Jesus gave them this answer; “I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing because whatever the Father does the Son also does.” The key to Jesus’ life was His relationship to the Father.  He stayed in tune with the Father, saw what He was doing, and then joined the Father in His work.  This is  a model Jesus gave for us.

Be on the look out today for the Father’s work.  Ask God to show you what He is doing in you, around you and through you.  Tell Him that you want to be right in the middle of His work, for the sake of His name.

As I look at John chapter 4, there are a number of phrases that jump out at me.  If you notice, most of the chapter revolves around the story of Jesus at the well with the adulterous woman.  In the end, they talk about true worship.  Jesus leads her to realize that true worship is not about a place, or a building, or a temple, but about a true relationship with God.  She puts her faith in Him, and ultimately the whole town comes to believe in Him as well.   Then the action switches to Jesus’ healing of the son of a royal official from Cana.  Here are phrases that caught my attention with a few remarks…

v. 10 Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.” The conversation began when Jesus asked her for a drink.  He was physically thirsty, but He really knew that she was the one who was thirsty – spiritually, emotionally, and otherwise.  This woman needed something to satisfy her soul and Jesus had the answer – a gift of living water. Are you thirsty?

v. 13 Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst.  Indeed the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life. We constantly try to quench our thirst with the wells of this world – entertainment, lusts, materialism, another relationship, etc.  These wells always come up dry in the end.  Jesus said, he gives living water that will spring up into eternal life.  As Christians, we must learn to keep drinking from the well of Jesus Christ.  Drink in Jesus through worship, through prayer, through His Word, through true fellowship, through giving, through sharing, through testifying about his goodness to others.  Keep drinking.

v.23 Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshippers the Father seeks. The Father is seeking!  For what?  Worshippers!!! Worshippers in spirit (from heart) and truth (according to God’s Word, doctrinally correct).  We are called to be worshippers of the true God of the Bible and His Son Jesus, and to worship with all of our heart.  The Father is searching.  What does he find in your life, your heart?

v. 29 Come see a man who told me everything I ever did.  Could this be the Christ? Come see a man – not a building, not a set of rules, not a worship service.  Come see a man.  His name is Jesus.  That is what we as the church have to offer.  Nothing but Jesus.

v.34 My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work. The most satisfying thing to Jesus was to see God’s work and to see lives changed.  This fed his soul.

v. 42 We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves and we know that this man really is the Savior of the world. The Samaritans heard the woman’s testimony and came to check out Jesus, but ultimately they had their own encounter with Jesus.  We cannot live off of someone else’s experience of Jesus.  We need our own revelation of Him.

v. 50 Jesus replied, “You may go.  Your son will live.”  The man took Jesus at his word...  It is a real good idea to take Jesus at his word.  Just BELIEVE!

John 3 – “You must be born again.” No one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again. John 3 has to be one of the great chapters in scripture. It is the place where Jesus’ conversation with Nicodemus is recorded and Nicodemus is told that he needs a new birth. It is also the place where John 3:16 is found. What a great chapter.

You must be born again. Jesus spoke of an experience that would open up a whole new world for Nicodemus (and us). Without this born again experience, Jesus said Nicodemus could not even see the kingdom of God. Jesus was letting Nicodemus know that there is another world out there, a world and a kingdom that he was blind to. Jesus said that if Nicodemus didn’t have a spiritual birth, then he could not see or enter this kingdom. He would remain oblivious to the fact that it was ever there.

Recently, I saw the movie “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe” once again. In the movie, a child named Lucy stumbles into a wardrobe and discovers a new world she never knew existed – Narnia. It was a land where there was a great battle going on between the white witch and Aslan, the great Lion King. Lucy came alive in Narnia like never before. She returned through the wardrobe to tell her siblings about it, and they thought it was all fairy tales. Surely there wasn’t another world out there. No way that could happen, but then they too passed through the wardrobe and into the land of Narnia. They met Aslan the King and they would never be the same again.

In a similar way, Jesus is inviting us to another world, the kingdom of God. He is calling us to walk in it, but first we must be born again. Just as we were born physically, we also need to be born spiritually. We need to come alive in our hearts through the grace and power of Jesus Christ. And when Jesus comes into our lives, we are born again. Our eyes are opened to see the kingdom of God. We are given new life, with new hearts, and new relationship with God. There are some people who will simply not believe that Narnia is real. They will not see the kingdom of God, but will only believe what they can see, touch, taste, feel or smell. And they will miss it. They will miss Jesus, the great king. And they will miss his kingdom. Are you missing it? Do you see the kingdom? If not, ask Jesus to open your eyes to His kingdom!

John 2 – As I read John 2 this morning, my focus was drawn to Jesus’ cleansing of the temple (v.12 – 17). The wedding scene to start the chapter has always been intriguing, and it was the sight of
Jesus’ first miracle. But let’s talk about the temple scene.

This passage is one of the few times we see Jesus get angry. And He does something about it. Why was he angry? The temple was Jesus’ Father’s house. It was the place of worship for the Jews. It was a place to draw near God, to do real spiritual business with the Almighty. Passover was a special time, because it was the celebration of when God delivered Israel out of bondage in Egypt. People would bring their lambs to the temple to remember and celebrate God’s forgiveness and God’s redemption. They would be reminded that a Holy God saved them through the innocent blood of a lamb. It was supposed to be more than a religious ritual where you go through the motions. It was a solemn act of faith and dependence upon God.

And yet when Jesus showed up at the temple, it was more like a circus act or a trip to the mall. People were making a profit off of God. Some people would have traveled from far away, and didn’t have a lamb to sacrifice. No problem. Step right up and buy you a pure, spotless lamb. Shipped in from china, raised especially for Passover, and she can be yours at the right price. Don’t want to miss out on passover now, do you? Need some coins to pay the temple tax? No problem, step over here to the Title Max table in this corner of the temple. Bubba here can help you out with a nice loan, or he can give you the exact change to pay the tax – all for a good reasonable rate.

Do you get the picture? People began to see God’s house as a place of profit instead of a place of worship. Jesus was infuriated. It says he made a whip of cords, and “drove (them) all from the temple area.” He turned over their tables and made them leave. He wanted purity in the house of the Lord. So he cleansed the temple. The disciples remembered the prophecy concerning the Messiah: “Zeal for your house will consume me.”

Jesus wants purity from his people. He wants our church to be pure. He wants our lives to be holy and devoted as well. Jesus knows that we will never be perfect. He doesn’t hold us to unreasonable standards. He doesn’t want us to play church either though. He wants more than religious ritual. He wants our hearts to draw near to His Father in worship. We shouldn’t come to church for the right social network, or the right business connections. The church is not just a business either. The church is a place for us to do real business – with God our Father and His Son Jesus Christ. There are times in all of our churches, and all of our lives when Jesus needs to cleanse. There are times when we need Jesus to turn the tables over on us and remind us to get back to the main thing, the only thing – loving God with all of our heart. True Worship!

What area of your life does Jesus need to cleanse? Where does he need to turn the tables on you?

Take a moment and pray for God to lovingly cleanse our body. Take a moment and give God your
authentic worship.