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Water Into Wine (Troy)
Grace Sensing on May 12, 2024
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The Deep and Confusing Love of Jesus

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THE TEXT

John 11:1-6
Now a certain man was ill, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. 2 It was Mary who anointed the Lord with ointment and wiped his feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was ill. 3 So the sisters sent to him, saying, “Lord, he whom you love is ill.” 4 But when Jesus heard it he said, “This illness does not lead to death. It is for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.”
5 Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. 6 So, when he heard that Lazarus was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was.

SUMMARY OF THE TEXT

Mary and Martha and Lazarus are siblings. Lazarus is ill, the sisters inform Jesus through a messenger, and Jesus makes a decisive declaration: “This illness does not lead to death. This illness is for the glory of God so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.”
Surprisingly Jesus then waits a few days before informing the disciples that they are going to Judea, to Bethany. The disciples aren’t thrilled about this; the last two times Jesus was in that region, crowds tried to stone him for blasphemy, because he was claiming that he was equal to God (John 5:18). But Jesus insists that they must go, because Lazarus has died and they need to go see him. Reluctantly (and perhaps with some gallows humor), the disciples go with him.
When Jesus nears the town, Martha comes to meet him while Mary remains at the house with the large group of mourners. Martha expresses some hopefulness that God can still hear Jesus’s prayers, and Jesus declares himself to be the resurrection and the life. He then summons Mary to see him and she comes and falls at his feet weeping. Jesus is deeply moved and greatly troubled by this, and he himself weeps, and they all go to the tomb together.
When they arrive at the tomb, Jesus orders the stone to be removed (over Martha’s objections). Jesus then prays out loud and then cries out with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out.” And the dead man lives.

EXPECTATIONS & CONFUSION

The unfolding of the story leads us to identify with the confusion of the disciples and Mary and Martha and the crowds. Because their expectations are not being met. Notice the sources of confusion and disappointment:
1) “Lord, he whom you love is ill” (11:3). What’s implied? “Come heal him! We know you can heal, so come do it.” And yet Jesus delays. It’s confusing.
2) The disciples fear returning to Judea, where the Jews had just threatened to stone him. Why go back now? It’s confusing.
3) Jesus seems to speak in riddles. “Lazarus has fallen asleep but I go to awaken him” (11:11). Is Jesus talking about sleep or death? It’s confusing.
4) Jesus’s emotional responses are puzzling. To his disciples: “Lazarus has died, and for your sake I am glad that I was not there.” And then, he is deeply moved and troubled in his spirit. He weeps. If he’s glad, why is he weeping? It’s confusing.
5) Jesus’s request is puzzling. “Take away the stone.” He’s dead, Jesus. Why remove the stone now? It’s confusing.
6) There is one central thought hanging over the whole episode.
Martha (11:21): “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”
Mary (11:32): “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”
The mourners finally explicitly raise the question that haunts this whole story (11:37): “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man also have kept this man from dying?”
I highlight that confusion because it’s where most of us live. Whether it’s illness (cancer, stroke, unexplained sickness, chronic pain), whether it’s the death of someone we love (parent, child, sibling, friend), whether it’s persecution, opposition, or enmity, whether it’s anxiety, doubt, depression—here’s what we know:
1) Jesus is able to fix this.
2) In his compassion, Jesus has fixed these sorts of things for others.
3) Jesus loves me and has compassion for me.
4) And yet, the illness is still here, the death still happened, the persecution has intensified, and the darkness has not lifted.
This is where we live–in the long days between our message to Jesus—“The one whom you love is ill”—and his confusing arrival a week later. And yet John insists from the beginning, “Jesus loved Martha and Mary and Lazarus.” So where is the love of Jesus in this story?

THE LOVE OF JESUS WAITS

The love of Jesus waits. The most shocking word in this entire story is two letters long. “So.” Jesus loved Martha and Mary and Lazarus. So, when he heard about the illness, he stayed two days longer. Some Bible translators can’t handle that reasoning. They say, “Jesus loved them, and yet, when he heard, he stayed two longer.” But that’s not what John wrote. John said, He loved them, therefore he waited. The love of Jesus waits.

THE LOVE OF JESUS WEEPS

Second, the love of Jesus weeps. When Jesus weeps at the tomb of Lazarus, they say, “See how he loved him!” (11:36). And in this, we see the amazing complex and righteous emotional life of our Lord. On the one hand, he’s glad that he waited. And then, when he gets there, he weeps. More than that, he is deeply moved. He sees the effects of death on those he loves, and he joins them in their grief and their anger.

THE LOVE OF JESUS RAISES THE DEAD

The love of Jesus raises the dead. After he waits, and after he weeps, he tells them to roll away the stone. And then he looks at the tomb and calls out, “Lazarus, come forth!”
And Lazarus comes forth. The church fathers noted how important it was that Jesus said the name Lazarus. Had he not, had he simply said, “Come forth,” all the tombs would have emptied and the general resurrection would have happened right then and there.

THE LOVE OF JESUS DEEPENS OUR FAITH

The love of Jesus deepens our faith. Pay attention to what Martha knows. Martha runs to Jesus with some vague hope that Jesus can do something. “But even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you.” And so Jesus takes her deeper. “Your brother will rise again.” “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.” This is a general belief in the future resurrection. And so Jesus takes her deeper. “I am the resurrection and the life.”
This is where Jesus has been taking Martha. “Do you believe this?” With your brother lying in a tomb, knowing that I could have prevented it, Martha, do you believe this? And Martha says, “Yes, Lord; I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God who is coming into the world.”
And so Jesus stands before us today. We live in those long six days. And on this Lord’s Day, because he loves us, he says to us, “Do you believe this?” When the cancer is still there. When the illness is still unexplained. When the headaches won’t stop. When the pain is still oppressive. When the opposition won’t let up. When the darkness hasn’t lifted. When the doubts still weigh us down. When the body is still in the grave. When Jesus is not yet here. At that moment, he says to us, “Do you believe this?”
Jesus loved Martha and Mary and Lazarus. And he loves you. And because he loves you, he may wait. He may take you through unimaginable suffering and loss and pain. And when he does, because he loves you, he will weep with you. And someday, because he loves you, he will raise the dead. He will wipe away every tear. And in the meantime, because he loves you, he deepens your faith.

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A Theology of Stuff (Advent Grab Bag #2) (King’s Cross)

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INTRODUCTION

One of the more puzzling lines in the Definition of Chalcedon is where it says, “as regards his manhood begotten, for us men and for our salvation, of Mary the virgin, the God-bearer.” What does it mean to confess that Mary is the “God-bearer?” We should note that this title is carefully qualified by the phrase “as regards his manhood,” which comes immediately after in the original Greek. But there is a very important point being underlined about the personal nature of our salvation. The One born in Bethlehem is the Logos/the eternal Word of the Father who embraced His creation for us men and for our salvation. 

The Text: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made…” (Jn. 1:1-14)

SUMMARY OF THE TEXT

“In the beginning” intentionally echoes Genesis 1, but the word “arxe” also means “preeminence, first, chief, principle, power,” and it’s immediately obvious that this “arxe” refers to something even “before” the beginning of Genesis 1, when the Word was with God and the Word was God (Jn. 1:1). That Word of God was in the beginning of Creation also, and that same Word made all things (Jn. 1:2-3). He is the source of all life and light, and He is the kind of light that darkness cannot comprehend or approach at all (Jn. 1:4-5, cf. Js. 1:17, 1 Tim. 6:16). 

John was sent from God as a witness of that Light, the true Light who gives light and life to all men (Jn. 1:6-9). He was in the world and made manifest by His creation but unrecognized because of sin (Jn. 1:10, cf. Rom. 1:19-20). So He came to His own, but even His own people rejected Him (Jn. 1:11). But to those who received Him and believed in Him, He made them sons of God by the power of God (Jn. 1:12-13). And this was accomplished by the Word becoming flesh to reveal the glory of the Father, full of grace and truth (Jn. 1:14). 

CHRISTOLOGY AS SOTERIOLOGY

Donald Fairbairn has pointed out that in the early church the focus on the Trinity and Christology was not unrelated to soteriology (the doctrine of salvation). For example, since Christ is the “only begotten of the Father,” salvation means being born again not of blood or the will of man but by the power of God (Jn. 1:12-14). What Christ has by nature in the Godhead (Eternal Son), He has become man in order to share with us in salvation (sons by adoption). As John Piper has put it, “God is the gospel.”

And we see this particularly highlighted in John: “As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father: so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me” (Jn. 6:57). “I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine. As the Father knoweth me, even so know I the father: and I lay down my life for the sheep” (Jn. 10:15). “Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me… And will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter… the Spirit of truth… at that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you” (Jn. 14:11, 16-17, 20). Who was born of Mary? The Eternal Son, the Word who is God. As the hymn says, “Christ our God to earth descendeth.” Why does this matter? Because the very same life that Christ shares with the Father by nature, He came to share with His people by His Spirit. 

UNION WITH CHRIST

The Definition of Chalcedon is clear that the divine and human natures come together in Christ “without confusion,” and so the Creator-creature distinction remains fixed. But precisely because Christ holds those natures together “without division, without separation,” by the power of the Spirit, that same Spirit is able to unite us in fellowship with the Father in Christ. This is no mysticism or merging of natures; this is a true covenant union in Christ. This is the power by which mere fallen creatures, become children of God, born not of blood nor the will of man, but the will of God, which is all grace. This is why the New Testament talks so much about our salvation “in Christ” (Rom. 6, Eph. 1, Col. 2, etc.).

APPLICATIONS

The Goodness of Stuff: Christmas celebrates God’s union with His creation. The Word who made all things became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory. How did we behold the glory of the Father? In the flesh of Jesus Christ, in the stuff that He made. Christ made all things and made us to make things and enjoy all things as part of our enjoyment of Him. Sin distorts this, causing us to suppress God’s glory in creation and to idolize creation, but the answer is not to disdain creation or ignore it. The answer is to see every bit of creation as a burning bush, where we may see His glory and taste and see His goodness and worship Him. 

So Christmas rightly celebrates the stuff that Christ made and the stuff He came to restore to its rightful glory. All of creation groans with the weight of our sin, but the heavens still declare the glory of God. And so we make our houses sparkle like the heavens with lights. And if Christ has given us bread and wine to remember Him and feed on Him and enjoy His life, all food has been given to enjoy as His gifts: steak and fudge and wine and eggnog and gifts. But think of all these gifts as tokens of the infinitely greater Giver.  

Fellowship with the Father: Mary was an ordinary woman of extraordinary faith, and as such, she pictures what Christ intends to do by His Spirit. He intends to live in us, to share true fellowship with us: “That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ. And these things write we unto you, that your joy may be full” (1 Jn. 1:3-4). This jyful fellowship is only maintained by confession of sin and the cleansing blood of Christ (1 Jn. 1:7-9). 

Christ is re-making a race of men and women, who are more masculine, more feminine, more truly human: “But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord” (2 Cor. 3:18). The center of this glory is in the Word read and preached, but it is that same Word that created all things and shines in all He has made. So see Him there, know Him, and love Him more.

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Thankful for Who He Is (Troy)

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SERMON TEXTS – SELECTED VERSE FROM THE GOSPEL OF JOHN

John 6:35

John 8:12

John 10:7

John 10:11

John 11:25

John 14:6

John 15:1

WHO IS JESUS?

If you ask a muslim, “Who is Jesus?” he will say, “Jesus, peace be upon him, is a prophet of Allah.” And while Christians will agree, He is a prophet of God, He is not merely a prophet of God. And of course when they use the term Allah (God) they mean a very different thing than we do. If you ask a Latter-Day Saint, “Who is Jesus?” they will say, “He is God the Father’s firstborn spirit-child in heaven and the spirit brother of lucifer. He was begotten on earth by God the Father by natural means, not by the Holy Ghost and is now one amongst many millions of other gods.” If you ask a Jehovah’s witness, they will say, “Jesus is not God almighty, he is God’s son. Jesus is God’s first creation, inferior to God the Father. And Jesus is actually Michael the archangel.” Like any lie, satan prefers to sprinkle truth in amongst falsehood so as to feign authenticity. Jesus is the son of God. Jesus is a prophet of God, but He is not created. His origin is one of eternity, begotten of the Father. He is the firstborn of all creation, but this is a title of preeminence, not descriptive of a point of time where he came into being. Like the person of the Father, the son has eternally existed. And so when Christians are asked who is Jesus, we recite the Athanasian creed.

HE IS THE BREAD OF LIFE

What meager means and humble beginnings does bread have. Surely there is not another recipe that has such ancient origins. And what meal can be called rustic if it has not bread? You will find it in the hand of a beggar, and likewise on a king’s table. You will see a wandering Israelite gather it from off the ground, and likewise see it be displayed in gold vessels in the tabernacle. It feeds the child, the adult, and the elderly. It nourishes us all. It feeds us all. And Psalm 104 says it strengthens a man’s heart. The Lord’s prayer instructs us to ask for this bread daily. And thanks be to God, he does not run out of it.

HE IS THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD

Who amongst us has not used the flash light app on their phone to see where they’re going, to look for something in the dark, to avoid bumping into something or tripping. Light mitigates danger, and it provides us with new opportunities as well. For the vast majority of human history, you did not travel at night. It was too dangerous. But now our vehicles shine light on Hwy 8 allowing us to travel safely with the knowledge that we are going the right way. Darkness is most content when its victims are blind and directionless. But Jesus Christ, the great physician heals the blind. When Jesus says, “I am the light of the world,” he says it while he is healing a blind man. A bit on the nose, but we need to be instructed as little children. The disciples mistakenly assume that the blindness was a result of the man’s sin or perhaps his parents. But Jesus says, “No, he is blind that the works of God might be displayed in him.”

HE IS THE DOOR AND THE GOOD SHEPHERD

A door by its nature is a separator. But unlike a wall where you cannot pass through to the other side, a door provides utility for both restriction and access. And in this case it is access to the sheepfold. Still waters are there, green pastures are there for the grazing, there is a hedge around us, and the shepherd armed with rod and staff, watches the walls, ready to catch the thief who climbs over. Our shepherd calls to us and we follow him, “This way to paradise. Come and find your rest all you who are weary and heavy laden.” We follow him to the door. But Jesus is not only the shepherd, but he also is the door itself. He is the separator.

HE IS THE RESURRECTION AND THE LIFE

Dr. Baucham says that there are four questions all human beings will wrestle with despite their religious beliefs or their lack thereof. They are: who am I? Why am I here? What is wrong with the world? And how can what is wrong be made right? It is the 3rd and 4th that I wish to address. What’s wrong with the world is a result of the fall: sin, guilt, shame, suffering, pain, depression, anxiety, woes of all manner, and finally death. These things are foreign alien invaders to this planet. Death is not a native resident. But Christ is the resurrection! He is the solution to righting wrongs. Dead things come back to life.

HE IS THE WAY THE TRUTH AND THE LIFE

You woke up this morning and you assume that you will wake up tomorrow, yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. I think we all want to reach our deathbed, look back at our life and be able to say, “I lived it for the Lord. I didn’t waste my days with nonsense.” I stand here as a 43 year old man. If the Lord blesses me with an average life span, I am more than halfway done. And as I think about or perhaps better stated, if I lament over how I conducted myself in the first half of my life, I don’t want to waste any more time. I want to spend my life encouraging you all. And I want you to spend your life encouraging each other. 

HE IS THE TRUE VINE

Jesus Christ is the true vine. Psalm 80:8 says, “You brought a vine out of Egypt; you drove out the nations and planted it.” This obviously is referring to the nation of Israel as being God’s vineyard. And this motif can be found all throughout scripture.

THANKFUL FOR WHO HE IS

In conclusion, do we have enough to be thankful for? Is who He is, enough? I would say it’s more than enough. We have 12 baskets full of leftovers. He is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine according to his power that is at work within us. He is able to bless us abundantly, so that in all things, at all times, having all that we need, we will abound in every good work. Bring your tithes into the storehouse saints and see if he will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be enough room to store it. So as you sit together with your family this Thanksgiving, taste and see that the Lord is good! Amen.

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What is Truth? (Troy)

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SERMON TEXT

John 18:33-38

INTRODUCTION

What is truth? There is no other moment in history that could possibly trump this display of irony. Pontius Pilate, looks truth dead in the eyes. Truth incarnate stands before him, bruised and beaten from the previous night. He asks, “What is truth?”, like a sculptor staring at his finished work and wondering, “What is clay?” I do not fault the man the question; it is a good question. But the contrast of the scene is striking. Both men have authority, but only one recognizes where it comes from. One man exhibits courage, facing an imminent death. The other, conflicted about the situation, finds no fault in Jesus, but chooses appeasement and succumbs to political pressure instead of doing the right thing. One man is meek, knowing full well that he could invoke twelve legions of angels at a moment’s notice to rescue him from the Jews. But purpose, justice, and the fulfillment of all righteousness is what motivated his restraint. Pilate is motivated by a desire to be rid of the upheaval. He says, “Take him yourselves and judge him by your own law.” In other words, “Why are you involving me? I don’t care what you do with him.” And then in exasperation, he looks at Jesus and says, “What is truth?” Jesus could have responded, “You’re looking at him.” A few chapters earlier Jesus says, “I am the way the truth and the life. No one comes to the father except through me.” We certainly could explore Jesus as The Way. And there is also much to say about Jesus as The Life. But this morning we will focus on Jesus as the embodiment of truth.

REALITY AND OUR SENSES

Our interaction with reality starts with our senses. It’s how we perceive the world. Our eyes tell us that the fire is bright, our skin that it’s warm, and our ears that it’s crackling. Because this is the case, that our senses inform us about our surrounding environment and help us to understand our position in space, wouldn’t it be important to know whether or not those senses are reliable? There are two views. One view proposes that our senses are a result of diversification, over billions of years, where undirected random mutations produce genetic variation, and then natural selection acts on this variation—favoring traits that increase an organism’s chances of survival. So, we’re supposed to believe that the human eye is a result of unadulterated luck and a whole lot of time. That’s the first view.

The Christian view states that Christ created everything. Colossians 1, “For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.” John 1, “All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made.” Hebrews 1, “But in these last days, he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world.” Revelation 4, “Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will, they existed and were created.” This is quite a different story. Our senses were created and designed by a powerful God that we might give him glory for the privilege of experiencing His world.

RULES

Whether you’re an atheist, an agnostic, or a believer, there is one thing we can agree on: the universe is governed by laws. There are fundamental constants at play: the speed of light, gravitation, Planck’s constant, and Avogadro’s number. King Solomon describes it this way in Ecclesiastes 1, “One generation passes away, and another generation comes; but the earth abides forever. The sun also rises, and the sun goes down, and hastens to the place where it arose. The wind goes toward the south and turns around to the north; the wind whirls about continually and comes again on its circuit. All the rivers run into the sea, yet the sea is not full; to the place from which the rivers come, there they return again.” We have the advantage of global positioning satellites, guiding our progress as we drive down the road, helping us get to our destination. But our ancestors were able to look in the sky, find the position of Orion’s belt and use it as a rough guide for east and west. Why does electromagnetism have the properties it does? Why does fusion work in such a way that the sun has 5 billion years of hydrogen fuel remaining? The answer is either God is amazing and that’s why we come here, to sing to Him, to worship Him, to thank Him for His grace. Or, the answer is, we have no idea why things are the way they are. We only can describe what we observe, we cannot answer why.

THE RULE MAKER

Looking directly at the lawmaker will incite one of two reactions. For the Christian, we look to the truth and are comforted. We look to him and see our salvation. We see our own sin placed upon Him as he goes to the cross. We see our hope, our justification, our adoption as sons. We see our blessed redeemer on a white horse, our high priest and intercessor, our king over all kings, our older brother the second Adam, and our friend. But, If you are here this morning and have not placed your faith in the messiah. Then you will see something very different. A day of judgment is coming. And if you do not have the covering, the white robe of righteousness afforded to you on account of faith, you will stand there naked and exposed as your judge brandishes a sword to smite you and send you to everlasting torment alongside the devil and his angels. In that moment, having spent your entire life denying the truth. There you will bend the knee, overwhelmed with your error, and finally acknowledge the truth for who He is. Unbeliever, today is the day of salvation. Let today be the day where you acknowledge your sin and cry out to Him. Do it today, because one day, he will listen to your cries no longer.

CONCLUSION

Pontius Pilate was blind and could not see the truth despite it standing in front of him. And it is this sort of blindness that vexes the Christian heart. Why is it that my family members cannot see the truth? Why do they kick so hard against the love of God. Why do they choose an existence that is devoid of meaning and has no foundation for truth, beauty, goodness, morality, and the uniformity of nature? My friends, do not cease praying for them, and do not give up hope.  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.  The light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.”

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