There is a familiar saying, “Seeing is believing,” but in spiritual matters that is not necessarily true. 

Sometimes skeptics will say, “Show me a miracle and I’ll believe.” But even if they saw a genuine miracle, they’d still doubt it or look for a naturalistic explanation and find other reasons to continue in their unbelief.

As we’ve seen repeatedly, John wrote his Gospel, and especially the seven miraculous signs that Jesus performed before His death, “so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name” (20:31). 

But not all who saw Jesus’ miracles in person believed in Him, just as not all today who read the eyewitness accounts of Jesus’ miracles in the Gospels believe in Him. 

If any miracle should have resulted in every person present falling on his face and worshiping Jesus as God, it would have been the raising of Lazarus from the dead. He had been dead four days, so that his body was beginning to decompose. 

But when Jesus cried out (11:43), “Lazarus, come forth,” life returned to his dead body, he was completely restored, and he walked out of the tomb, still bound with the grave wrappings. As a result, many did believe in Jesus, but in an amazing display of the hardness of unbelieving hearts, others went to report to the Jewish leaders what had happened. And, rather than acknowledging their mistaken views of Jesus, they intensified their efforts to kill Him.

If we believe in Christ, we will see the glory of God; but if we see miracles without believing we will be hardened in our sin.

Jesus’ comment to Martha (11:40) that if she believed, she would see the glory of God, probably refers to His earlier comment (11:4), which would have been reported to Martha and Mary, “This sickness is not to end in death, but for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified by it.”

 Jesus’ aim in all that He did was to glorify the Father (17:1-5). Jesus is the revelation of God’s glory to us. 

John said (1:14), “And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.” In heaven, we will see Jesus’ glory in all its fullness (17:24).

God’s glory is His essential and intrinsic splendor. The Hebrew word has the notion of weight or heaviness, and thus refers to God’s worthiness, reputation, and honor.

The emphasis in the Bible is on glory as the manifestation of His attributes. 

In this case, Martha’s faith would result in her seeing God’s glory as seen in Jesus’ intimacy with the Father and in His power to call Lazarus from the tomb. 

This miracle validates Jesus’ astounding claims in John 5:21, “For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son also gives life to whom He wishes.”

 He added (5:28-29), “Do not marvel at this; for an hour is coming, in which all who are in the tombs will hear His voice, and will come forth; …” 

Because Jesus raised Lazarus, we can know that He will make good on His promise to raise all the dead someday, either for eternal life or for judgment. So this miracle should result in our seeing the fact that Jesus is the author and giver of both physical and eternal life and that He has all power over death.

2. Jesus’ miracles should result in faith in Him as Savior and Lord.
3. Jesus did raise Lazarus from the dead.

John reported this miracle so that you would believe in Jesus and have eternal life in His name. But Satan always attacks essential truths. So, it’s no accident that liberal critics dispute that this miracle really happened. 

They argue that John presents the raising of Lazarus as a crucial event that precipitated Jesus’ death at the hands of the Jewish leaders. If this is so, they say, why do the other three Gospels omit this important event? 

They conclude that John fabricated this story to illustrate some spiritual truths about Jesus. 

It’s clear that John is narrating an event that he saw take place in actual history. The story does not read as a concocted fable or myth. It is straightforward and realistic, with many factual details. Even Jesus’ enemies acknowledged that He was doing many miracles (11:47). 

They couldn’t question that Lazarus had been dead and now was alive. So Jesus’ critics who lived at that time didn’t doubt the fact that Lazarus was raised from the dead, but modern critics, living 20 centuries later do doubt it!

1. This miracle should cause you to believe in Jesus as your Savior and Lord; and if you already believe, to increase your faith in Him.

John views faith in Christ as both initial and ongoing. The disciples believed in Jesus in chapter 1, but in chapter 2, after Jesus turned the water into wine, we read (2:11), “This beginning of His signs Jesus did in Cana of Galilee, and manifested His glory, and His disciples believed in Him.” 

In 6:69, Peter affirms, “We have believed and have come to know that You are the Holy One of God.” 

But here in chapter 11, Jesus tells the disciples (11:15), “I am glad for your sakes that I was not there [before Lazarus died] so that you may believe.” Martha clearly confesses her faith in Christ (11:27): “Yes, Lord; I have believed that You are the Christ, the Son of God, even He who comes into the world.” But (in 11:40) Jesus still challenges her to believe.

This miracle shows that Jesus can do what mere men cannot do. Religion could not raise the dead. All that the Jews could do was offer consolation to Mary and Martha. The scribes and Pharisees could not raise the dead. Even modern medicine, with all of its advanced knowledge, cannot raise to life a body that has begun to decompose. But Jesus could do what no mere man could do. He spoke the word and Lazarus instantly came to life.

This miracle illustrates our insufficiency and Christ’s all-sufficiency. One reason that we don’t trust the Lord in our daily lives is that we feel sufficient or adequate in ourselves. We may ask Him for a little help now and then, but we don’t acknowledge what He told the disciples (15:5), “apart from Me you can do nothing.”

3. Seeing a miracle without believing results in further hardening of heart.

This account of Jesus’ raising of Lazarus is a case study in the frightening nature of unbelief. We can learn three lessons:

1. Unbelief is not based on insufficient evidence.

What further proof of God’s power could you want than to smell the stench of the rotting body as they rolled the stone from the tomb, hearing Jesus’ loud command, and then seeing the formerly dead man stumble from the tomb, still bound in his graveclothes? Yet, some who witnessed this spectacle went away to inform Jesus’ enemies so that they could intensify their plans to have Him arrested and executed!

Of course, this wasn’t the first miracle that these enemies of Jesus had witnessed. They acknowledge that He is performing many signs (11:47). They had seen the man who had been paralyzed for 38 years, who used to beg at the Pool of Bethesda, now walking because Jesus healed him (5:1-14). They knew that the man born blind, who used to beg by the temple gate, now saw because Jesus healed him (9:1-34). But they rejected both of these miracles because Jesus had done them on the Sabbath. And now, Jesus does the ultimate miracle by commanding Lazarus to come out of the tomb. What further evidence could they ask for? But their unbelief was not based on insufficient evidence.

The same is true today. We have the evidence of fulfilled prophecy, including over 300 prophecies that Jesus fulfilled. We have the eyewitness accounts of His teaching and miracles. There is the evidence of Jesus’ empty tomb, backed up by the changed lives of the witnesses, who all at first doubted His resurrection, but later were willing to suffer and die because they knew that He was alive. There is the evidence of intricate design in all of creation, from the molecular level up to the global level. But unbelief due to the hardness of human hearts suppresses the evidence.

1. Unbelief is based on selfish interests.

The real heart of unbelief is seeking your own way while you leave God out. There are two groups here, representing two levels of unbelief.

First, we see the unbelief of Caiaphas and the chief priests and Pharisees (11:47-53). The basis for their unbelief is clear (11:48): “If we let Him go on like this, all men will believe in Him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation.” They had a vested interest in the system as it was and they were afraid of losing it. If the people believed in Jesus as Messiah, they feared that the Romans would intervene and they would lose their power and their comfortable living through controlling the temple. Ironically, by killing their Messiah, the very thing that they feared came on the nation as God’s judgment when Titus destroyed Jerusalem and the temple in A.D. 70.

Caiaphas, who was the high priest, was a shrewd, calculating politician. First, he discredits what everyone else had said by flatly stating (11:49), “You know nothing at all.” Then, he postures himself as being concerned for the people (11:50), “… it is expedient for you that one man die for the people, and that the whole nation not perish.” He meant, “If we really care for our nation, we’ll eliminate this rabble-rouser, Jesus.” But he wasn’t really concerned for the nation, but for his own self-interest and power.

But John shows the irony in Caiaphas’ words: as high priest he was unwittingly prophesying that Jesus would die for the nation, and (11:52), “not for the nation only, but in order that He might also gather together into one the children of God who are scattered abroad.” John is referring to all of God’s elect around the world. They were not yet children of God, but as God told Paul in Corinth (Acts 18:10), “I have many people in this city.” They were not yet saved, but they would be saved through Paul’s preaching, because they were God’s chosen ones. As Jesus said (John 6:39): “This is the will of Him who sent Me, that of all that He has given Me I lose nothing, but raise it up on the last day.”

The lesson that we should learn is that you cannot frustrate God and His sovereign purpose. You can oppose Him and for a time it may seem that you are succeeding. They killed Jesus. But, in the end, God always wins. That’s the message of the last book of the Bible: God is going to win and all who oppose Him will lose.

The second group that did not believe was the common people (11:55-57), who went up to Jerusalem for the Passover. They were not openly hostile toward Jesus, but neither were they committed to follow Him. They were just curious onlookers on the conflict between Jesus and the Jewish leaders. They were content to go on with their religious festival while they discussed whether or not Jesus would show up and what would happen if He did. But they didn’t dare take a stand for Jesus, because that would put them on the bad side of the religious authorities. So their interest in protecting themselves caused them to be passive while the religious leaders murdered an innocent and good man.

The lesson here is that to be neutral towards Jesus is to be unbelieving. Self-centeredness is the heart of unbelief. The result of their self-interest was counter-productive, in that Jesus went away, because His time had not yet come (11:54). To have Jesus withdraw from you is the ultimate tragedy! 

1. Even devoutly religious people can be unbelieving.

Again, there is an ironic warning in 11:55: “Now the Passover of the Jews was near, and many went up to Jerusalem out of the country before the Passover to purify themselves.” 

This refers to the second group of unbelievers that we saw. They weren’t openly hostile toward Jesus, but neither were they committed. They were “good church-goers,” who went through the outward rituals, but they weren’t willing to stand openly for Christ.

I hope that that doesn’t describe you! It is possible to be devoutly religious, to attend church regularly, to partake of the Lord’s Supper, and yet not to be fully committed to Jesus Christ, especially when that commitment might cost you something.

 

Several years ago a young couple wanted to talk with their minister after the morning service. They had moved  in from out of state because the wife had landed a good job. But after a short time on the job, she was terminated, from her perspective, without cause. She was angry and bitter towards God because they thought that they had followed Him in moving here. Now they were without work and without funds to move back home.

The minister shared with them that the Lord was in control of their difficult situation and that He had many lessons to teach them if they would trust Him. The husband had a good attitude and seemed teachable, but the wife wouldn’t listen. She kept insisting that God had let them down. Later the husband came for further counsel because she angrily left him to return to their former location.

That woman was a sad example of how we as Christians should not respond when sudden trials come into our lives. The Bible gives us another option: Rather than growing angry and withdrawing from the Lord, we can draw near to Him in submission to His sovereign hand, knowing that He cares for us.

It’s okay to draw near to Him with tears of grief and confusion. The main thing is to draw near with a submissive heart, trusting in His sovereign love and care for you.

Mary, the sister of Martha, did that when Jesus came to Bethany after the death of their brother, Lazarus. Martha first went to the Lord as He came into their village, but Mary stayed in the house. Then after her interview with Jesus, Martha came and whispered to Mary (11:28), “The Teacher is here and is calling for you.”

Mary did not say, “I’m too angry right now even to talk to Him!” Rather, she did what we should do in our times of trouble: She got up quickly and went to Jesus (11:29). She fell at His feet weeping and repeated what Martha had said (11:32), “Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died.”

The significant thing is that Jesus did not rebuke her for her tears or her lack of faith. Rather, we read in the shortest verse in the English Bible (11:35), “Jesus wept.”

While commentators differ in interpreting Jesus’ emotions here, as I’ll explain, I believe that John wants us to see Christ’s compassion for these sisters in their loss.

This story pictures what Hebrews 4:15-16 declares, For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin. Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

Our text teaches us that …The call and compassion of the Teacher should cause us to draw near to Him in our trials.

In difficult times, John wants us personally to apply Martha’s words (11:28), “The Teacher is here and is calling for you.”

1. Christ is the Teacher and He calls us to come to Him and learn from Him in our trials.
2. We learn the most in the school of Christ when we draw near to Him in our trials.

We all tend to be rather self-sufficient. Many years ago there was a TV commercial where mother was trying to give advice to her young adult daughter and the daughter would reply in frustration, “Mother, please, I’d rather do it myself!”

We’re often like that with the Lord—we think that we can do it by ourselves, without His help.

But then trials hit and we realize the truth of Jesus’ words (John 15:5), “apart from Me you can do nothing.”

It’s at these overwhelming times that we can learn the most about Christ’s all-sufficiency, if we draw near to Him.

Anonymous poem speaks here: Until I learned to trust, I never learned to pray; And I did not learn to fully trust ’til sorrows came my way. Until I felt my weakness, His strength I never knew; Nor dreamed ’til I was stricken that He could see me through. Who deepest drinks of sorrow, drinks deepest, too, of grace; He sends the storm so He Himself can be our hiding place. His heart that seeks our highest good, knows well when things annoy; We would not long for heaven if earth held only joy.

1. Christ tailors His lessons for each student according to the student’s needs.

Martha was the take-charge, get things done, sister. She was the one (Luke 10:38-42) who was busy getting the meal prepared when Jesus visited their home, while her sister Mary sat at Jesus’ feet, listening to Him teach.

She scolded the Lord on that occasion because He didn’t tell Mary to get up and help her. But the Lord gently rebuked Martha for being worried and bothered about so many things, while Mary had chosen the better part.

In John 11, when Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she got up and went to Him. Jesus dealt with her on a doctrinal level, claiming to be the resurrection and the life, and then challenging her (11:26), “Do you believe this?” He knew that she needed this doctrinal foundation so that she would glorify Him in this trial.

But when Mary fell at Jesus’ feet in tears, He sympathized with her and wept, without any discussion of biblical truth. He knew that she needed to feel His compassion and that she later would glorify Him because He entered into her sorrow.

Two applications: First, recognize that the Lord always deals with you according to your personality to teach you what you need to grow in every trial. All parents who have more than one child know that each child is different. You can’t deal with them in exactly the same way because they are wired differently and they learn differently.

The Teacher does that with His children. He tutors you individually, in a way that you can best learn the lessons. But you need to try to understand, through prayer and the Word, “What does the Teacher want me to learn through this trial?”

Second, we should be sensitive to the unique personalities of others when we try to comfort or help them in difficult situations. Some may need a word of encouragement, whereas others don’t need any words, but just for you to be with them and cry with them. There is no “one size fits all” when it comes to helping others in their time of need. So pray for sensitivity and wisdom as you try to help.

But for us to trust Jesus as our Teacher in times of trial, we have to know Him. The more we know who He is, the easier it is to trust Him.

2. The Teacher who calls us to Himself is fully God and fully man; thus He can help us in our trials.

This chapter shows us both Jesus’ humanity and His deity. We see His humanity very plainly in 11:34-35, where Jesus asks the location of the tomb and then He weeps. But we see His deity earlier in the chapter, when He knows that Lazarus is dead and that He is going to raise him from the dead (11:11, 14); and when

He tells Martha that He is the resurrection and the life and that whoever believes in Him will live even if he dies and will never die (11:25-26).

The fact that Jesus is fully man means that He can identify and sympathize with our problems. The fact that He is fully God means that He is sovereign over and can help with them.

Of course, the God who made us completely understands us and is full of compassion towards us: Psalm 103:13-14 (ESV) As a father shows compassion to his children, so the LORD shows compassion to those who fear him. ¹⁴  For he knows our frame; he remembers that we are dust.

But Jesus’ humanity especially qualifies Him to sympathize with us: Hebrews 4:15 (ESV)  For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.

1. Jesus experienced grief and deep feelings, just as we do.

Isaiah (53:3) prophesied that Jesus would be “a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief.” The fact that Jesus wept at the tomb of Lazarus shows that whatever our grief may be, Jesus knows it and He enters into it with us.

We can know that our Savior was not a Stoic. Even though He knew that He was going to raise Lazarus, it didn’t prevent Him from entering into the sisters’ grief. He experienced deep feelings and grief, just as we do. And even though He knows that one day He will wipe away all of our tears (Rev. 21:4) He still sympathizes with us in all of our sorrows.

1. Jesus was not ashamed to display human emotions.

Jesus could have restrained His tears. After all, He knew that He would soon raise Lazarus. Besides, His tears could be misinterpreted as weakness or frustration on His part, as some of the Jews surmised (11:37).

But Jesus did not worry about that. He was completely human (without a sin nature) and His tears show that it’s not wrong to express our feelings as long as our hearts are submissive to God. The NT states three times that Jesus wept (here; Luke 19:41, over Jerusalem’s unbelief; and Heb. 5:7, in the Garden of Gethsemane), but never that He laughed (but, see Luke 10:21).

It’s worth noting that John uses a different word (11:33) for weeping to describe the loud wailing of Mary and the mourners than the word in 11:35, which could be translated, “Jesus burst into tears.”

Jesus wept, but He was not wailing in despair. In the words of Paul (1 Thess. 4:13), believers are to grieve, but not as those who have no hope.

It’s interesting, also, that while the shortest verse in the English Bible is John 11:35, “Jesus wept,” the shortest verse in the Greek NT is 1 Thessalonians 5:16, “Rejoice always!”

1. Jesus’ love underlies all His actions.

In 11:36 we read in response to Jesus’ weeping, “So the Jews were saying, ‘See how He loved him!” And they were right, because John has previously underscored Jesus’ love for Martha, Mary, and Lazarus (11:3, 5).

In fact, Jesus’ love for these dear friends was the reason He stayed two days longer where He was, allowing Lazarus to die (11:6).

Love always seeks the highest good for the one loved, and the highest good for anyone is that he or she gets a greater vision of God’s glory and thus grows in faith. Both of these aims were behind Jesus’ delay in going to Bethany (11:4, 15, 40).

But some of the Jews questioned both Jesus’ love and His power when they said (11:37), “Could not this man, who opened the eyes of the blind man, have kept this man also from dying?” They couldn’t reconcile Jesus’ love and power with Lazarus’ death. And in a time of severe trials, the enemy may whisper to you, “God must not love you or He isn’t able to prevent trials like you’re going through. You shouldn’t trust Him!”

Christ is the Teacher and He calls you to come to Him and learn from Him in your trials. And, the Teacher who calls us to Himself is fully God and fully man; thus He can help us in our trials. Finally,

3. In your trials, come to the Teacher just as you are, quickly and submissively.

Martha’s words to Mary (11:28) are the Lord’s words for us when we’re hurting: “The Teacher is here and is calling for you.”

1. Jesus is always present and is waiting for you to come to Him in your trials.

Jesus was there, but Mary had to get up and go to Him. And even though you may not feel His presence, He is always present and available to give grace if you go to Him in your trials.

1. Come to Jesus just as you are and share your feelings with Him.

Mary went immediately when she heard that the Teacher was there and calling for her. She didn’t say, “I’ve been crying for four days. My mascara is streaked, my eyes are red and swollen. I can’t go to Jesus like this! I need to go and make myself presentable!”

But we often do that with the Lord. We’re in the midst of a trial or problem and we think, “I can’t go to the Lord until I get myself more together. I’ll wait until I’m calmer and more in control of my emotions.” But grace is for the undeserving, not for the deserving. Go to Jesus with your tears and He will weep with you.

If you’ve never come to Christ for salvation, the only way that you can come is just as you are. If you try to clean up your life or make yourself more presentable to Him, you don’t understand His grace.

1. Come to Jesus quickly.

Mary “got up quickly and was coming to Him” (11:29).

She had friends at her side who were consoling her. She could have thought, “What will they think if I leave them and go to Jesus?” Or, she could have thought that their consolations were enough.

But as comforting as our friends may be, they are no substitute for the Teacher who calls us to Himself. Don’t delay: Go to Jesus quickly! The sooner you go, the sooner you’ll experience His comfort and compassion.

1. Come to Jesus’ feet.

Mary went and fell at Jesus’ feet (11:32). Every time we encounter Mary in the Gospels, she is at Jesus’ feet. In Luke 10:39, she was “seated at The Lord’s feet, listening to His word.” In our text, she pours out her grief at Jesus’ feet. In John 12:3, she anointed Jesus’ feet with the expensive ointment and dried them with her hair, as she prepared Him for His burial. In this, she is an example for us: First, learn God’s word about Jesus. Then you’ll know Him so that you can take your sorrows to Him in a time of grief. That will lead you to worship Him as the one who died for your sins.

(presented as a prelude to lesson on unity)

A few years ago a man and woman in Long Beach, California stopped and bought some fried chicken for a picnic. When the clerk took their money she somehow, mindlessly, enclosed a large stack of the cash register’s money in with their food. When they arrived at the picnic spot and found the money, the man instantly said they had to return it, which they did.

The frantic manager was thrilled to `meet someone of such honesty. He wanted to call the newspaper and have the man’s picture and story printed. The man refused, which is even more impressive as long as you think it was due to his humility. But the story turns sour when you find out the reason he didn’t want to call the newspaper is that the woman he was picnicking with wasn’t his wife but was in fact someone else’s.

That sick feeling you have right now is why we need to be genuine as God’s people…this “thing” we’re doing here is not about ritual or numbers, but we’re seeking to be a church that belongs to Christ…individuals who want a high moral standard that includes lifestyle, attitudes & beliefs.

We’ll not be perfect in this daily endeavor, but we’ve got to be trying and we’ve got to be making progress!

Beliefs matter.  Jesus confronted the Sadducees regarding their disbelief on the subject of the resurrection in  Matthew 22. He stopped their ‘trap’ but he also exposed the error of their belief.

When Apollos began to preach the word of God in Acts 18-19, he was “off” on the subject of baptism and it was corrected.

Beliefs matter. When Paul wrote to the church at Galatia, he saw some error in their thinking regarding their “freedom in Christ” and set it right.

Which beliefs matter? At times we’ve insisted on too much conformity; there can also be too little conformity. Which beliefs? What would you list? It is tempting to generate our own list.

Is it what the elders offer as “official church policy?” Do you have to follow lock-step with everything the preacher or favorite Bible class teacher presents? Of course not!

We will have our own ideas about many subjects, but on some subjects there can be no real discussion, if it fits in the area of God’s Word and it is clearly given by direct command, necessary inference, or is based upon the teaching in the 1^st century of the apostles of Christ.

God expects conformity within the church, the Body of Christ. It is not a forced legalistic conformity to external rules and regulations, but a willing inner conformity to the holiness, love, and will of our heavenly Father, who wants His children to honor Him as their Father.

“Conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ,” Paul admonished the Philippians, “so that whether I come and see you or remain absent, I may hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel” (Phil. 1:27).

Right doctrine is essential to right living. It is impossible to live a faithful Christian life without knowing biblical doctrine. Doctrine simply means teaching, and there is no way that even the most sincere believer can live a life pleasing to God without knowing what God Himself is like and knowing the sort of life God wants him to live. Those who set biblical theology aside also set aside sound Christian living.

When people say, “Don’t talk to me about doctrine—just let me live my Christian life!” they are revealing their ignorance of the way the Holy Spirit works in the life of the believer.

“It makes no difference what you believe, just as long as you live right” is a similar confession of ignorance. It does make a difference what you believe, because what you believe determines how you behave!

When people say, “Don’t talk to me about doctrine—just let me live my Christian life!” they are revealing their ignorance of the way the Holy Spirit works in the life of the believer. “It makes no difference what you believe, just as long as you live right” is a similar confession of ignorance. It does make a difference what you believe, because what you believe determines how you behave!

The word beseech indicates that God, in love, urges us to live for His glory. He does not say, as He did to the Old Testament Jews, “If you obey Me, I will bless you.” Rather, He says, “I have already blessed you—now, in response to My love and grace, obey Me.” He has given us such a marvelous calling in Christ; now it is our responsibility to live up to that calling.

The main idea in these first sixteen verses is the unity of believers in Christ. This is simply the practical application of the doctrine taught in the first half of the letter: God is building a body, a temple. He has reconciled Jews and Gentiles to Himself in Christ. The oneness of believers in Christ is already a spiritual reality. Our responsibility is to guard, protect, and preserve that unity.

Not just an arbitrary test from God, rather these are really true & good & healthy (cf. believing God is a tyrant, will be unhealthy; thinking God is good, or patient, and loving will cause us to treat people that way). What’s more important — they will also hold us together as a genuine group of God’s people.

The instructions which Paul lays down in chapters 4-6 are not just duties, which the Christian is required to perform, they are to be understood as the outworking of the marvelous salvation which God has accomplished in Jesus Christ.

So over the next few weeks, I plan to speak about the seven matters mentioned here. Not the official pronouncement of correct beliefs, but a reminder that beliefs matter & that some certain beliefs are required by God so as to hold us together as people of God

Most denominational members would be surprised to discover that their chosen religious affiliation is less than 500 years old. Many people assume that the church of which they are members is ancient in origin, divinely ordained, and a part of the church revealed in the New Testament.

It has never occurred to them that there were no denominations in New Testament days. When the church was established in Acts 2 on the day of Pentecost, there was one church with Christ as the head and the apostles as pillars of faith as they did exactly what Jesus had trained them to do.

That church was planned (Eph. 3:10-11), prophesied (Isaiah 2:2-3), prepared (Matt. 3:1-2), and promised (Matt. 16:18) before it existence. The kingdom came with power (Mark 9:1) when the Holy Spirit came (Acts 1:8). The gospel was preached, sinners responded to that resurrected Savior, they repented, they were immersed in water for remission of sins, and they began the Christian walk.

How simple! And how tragic today that so many have changed that simple beginning with their own ideas and teachings. How thrilling it is to find people in the Ukraine (for instance) who were given Bibles in years past and began reading it and with little or no help from outside teachers, became New Testament Christian and began worshipping in ways God approved through the apostles and first century Christians.

At Pentecost, every person obeyed the same gospel, became members of the same body, and ultimately wore the same name.

Those who cause factions are to be rejected

(Titus 3:10)  Warn a divisive person once, and then warn him a second time. After that, have nothing to do with him.

Men who cause dissensions are to be avoided

(Romans 16:17)  I urge you, brothers, to watch out for those who cause divisions and put obstacles in your way that are contrary to the teaching you have learned. Keep away from them.

Tim Stafford (Oklahoma Christian University) tells of a minister who used a jar full of beans in teaching. He asks his students to guess how many beans are in the jar, and on a big pad of paper writes down their estimates. Then, next to those estimates, he helps them make another list: their favorite songs. When the lists are complete, he reveals the actual number of beans in the jar. The whole class looks over their guesses, to see which estimate was closest to being right.

He then turns to the list of their favorite songs. “And which one of these is closest to being right?” he asks. The students protest that there is no “right answer”; a person’s favorite song is purely a matter of taste. And the teacher agrees.

But then he asks, “When you decide what to believe in terms of your faith, is that more like guessing the number of beans, or more like choosing your favorite song?” Always, and amazingly, he gets the same answer, from old as well as young: they say choosing one’s faith is more like choosing a favorite song than knowing the # of beans in the jar.

IF that is true, then what we believe has more to do with what we like or what we will not accept. The issue of God’s authority is taken out of the equation!

The highly respected author A. W. Tozer wrote, “It would be impossible to overemphasize the importance of sound doctrine in the life of a Christian. Right thinking about all spiritual matters is imperative if we would have right living. As men do not gather grapes from thorns nor figs from thistles, so sound character does not grow out of unsound teaching.”

What we believe WILL affect our lives. Beliefs matter.

One of the common features of the modern religious world is denominationalism. There are currently over 2000 generally recognized denominations and over 20,000 smaller, distinct divisions in the church.

The spirit of the age looks at such with acceptance as is evidenced by the often heard, “attend the church of your choice.” They proceed to statements like “…it really doesn’t matter…what you believe…how you worship…as long as you believe in God….we worship the same God.”

Nevertheless, and despite the many contemporary appearances of acceptability, Jesus did not intend for His church to be divided.

Some make an effort to discount the significance of religious division, suggesting…that the differences are not all that great; or that religious division is good, for it enables people to find a church that suits them personally.

HOWEVER, THE BIBLE ALSO TEACHES THAT THOSE WHO HAVE BEEN LED ASTRAY ARE TO BE GIVEN KINDLY ASSISTANCE

God is much more desirous of people being saved, than of their being condemned

(Ezekiel 18:23)  Do I take any pleasure in the death of the wicked? declares the Sovereign LORD. Rather, am I not pleased when they turn from their ways and live?

(John 3:17)  For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.

(1 Timothy 2:4)  who wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.

(2 Peter 3:9)  The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.

Jesus feels compassion for those who wander astray (Matt. 9:36-38; 18:6-7).

(Matthew 9:36-38)  When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. {37} Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. {38} Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.”

Kindness, patience, and gentleness, are to be used in correcting the mistaken and misguided

(2 Timothy 2:24)  And the Lord’s servant must not quarrel; instead, he must be kind to everyone, able to teach, not resentful.).

Denominationalism presents us with a great challenge. We must both oppose without compromise its practice, yet assist with all compassion its sincerely mistaken practitioners.

Many of us here today are no longer within a denominational context because someone, without compromise, showed us kindness, patience, and compassion.

The ways of the Lord are right, and consequently they also work!

“I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, ²¹ that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. ²² The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, ²³ I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me. ²⁴ Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world. ²⁵ O righteous Father, even though the world does not know you, I know you, and these know that you have sent me. ²⁶ I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.”

Our subject is Christian unity: Jesus hits it three times in these four verses (John 17:21, 22, 23), so we can’t miss it.

Division plagues the church. In the brotherhood there are groups which have nothing to do with one another, brothers and sisters divided over Bible classes, one cup, orphans homes, church cooperation, etc.

Even more obvious are divisions within local congregations. Almost every congregation which has been in existence for any length of time has experienced at least one church split. Perhaps even more tragic: even when churches do not divide, frequently factions occur in the congregation…one family which will not speak to another, one group which will have nothing to do with another.

Some brethren sit on one side of the building and some on the other side, members of the same congregation, brothers in Christ, no more than twenty or thirty feet apart. But they might as well be a hundred miles apart and members of different churches, for all the fellowship they have.

There is even one group that divided over whether there should be lights in the parking lot!

Division is both tragic and sinful. It is contrary to the spirit of Christ (John 17:21) and to the will of God (1 Corinthians 1:10). But how can division be avoided? How can the church be united?

We all talk about unity while practicing division. Most do not know what unity is. If you do not know what it is, you cannot practice it. The restoration plea is a unity plea! Division is wrong outside the church or in the church. The sectarian spirit is blasphemous. Splintered churches and alienated brethren are not the answer to The Lord’s Prayer.

Unity is a gift from God. It is to keep. Men cannot find unity from a human creed. It has always been easier for men to divide than unite. It is easier to fly apart than to come together.

Even the apostles had a unity problem. Jesus was denied, betrayed, yea forsaken. Yet He never lost trust in God or hope for man.

Unity is in a person. That person is Christ. This is our primary loyalty. Our loyalty belongs to Him and Him alone.

A church split that involved one of my family members: Don’t let someone outside of God’s will keep me from doing God’s will.

Unity is a personal, growing, and living relationship with Jesus. We love each other because we both love Him. Our love for Christ allows us to transcend our differences.

Many talk about unity but have no idea at all as to what it is. Unity is not diagramming doctrines upon a blackboard! Unity is total commitment to Christ. The centrality of unity is Christ. He is mine and I am His. When we love Jesus more than anything else, we will stay united.

Christian love is big enough, strong enough, and pure enough, to transcend all petty differences. The power of Christianity is unity. Keep it.

THE CHURCH WAS UNITED IN THE FIRST CENTURY

Christ prayed that all His disciples would be one in His prayer before His death in John 17:20, 21. He knew such unity would lead the world to believe in Him.

With unity, the first church preached the gospel to the known world in one generation (Colossians 1:6, 23).

Unity characterized the message that they all preached (1 Corinthians 2:2).

The crucified Christ who brought salvation from sin to the world was the sum and substance of their preaching. He was the founder and foundation of the church (Matthew 16:18; 1 Corinthians 3:11).

He was the head of the church (Colossians 1:18).

Unity characterized their faith and practice. Faith in Christ was required (John 8:24).

Repentance was preached in His name (Luke 24:46, 47). Confession of faith in Him as the Son of God was practiced (Acts 8:37; Matthew 10:32).

Baptism into Him was commanded (see Acts 10:48; Romans 6:3, 4).

Christ was prominent in their lives (Philippians 1:20, 21). All Christians had the same standard of life to regulate their conduct.

Everything they did was in the name of Christ (Colossians 3:17).

Every disciple was identified by His name (Acts 11:26; 1 Peter 4:16).

To alter their message in any way was strictly forbidden (Galatians 1:8, 9).

The unity of their message made unity of faith and practice inevitable. Division among the followers of Christ was condemned and exposed immediately (1 Corinthians 1:10; Titus 3:10).

The church had unity of organization under Christ, the head (Philippians 1:1; Colossians 1:18). The same offices existed in all congregations. Unity characterized their worship. The same acts were to be performed by all the churches, for the same purpose (see 1 Corinthians 7:17b).

The church in the first century had one bond of union: faith in Christ and obedience to His will (James 4:12). Members had one tie of affiliation: love for God and one another. Their one mission was the conversion of the world to Christ; and their one destiny, the everlasting city of God!

UNITY WAS LOST IN APOSTASY

Heretical teachers were silenced by the truth in the first century. However, they began to flourish in the second century. Their manmade doctrines led to the dark ages of the church, when the truth of God was ignored.

Disagreement arose during this time; but after the church received government recognition in A.D. 325 (during the time of Constantine’s reign as emperor of Rome), it exercised enough power to silence opposition with the sword.

Then there was conformity by coercion—a thing Jesus would never have approved. Protesters were slain until Martin Luther gained the protection of the Elector of Saxony in 1521 and afterward began the first successful revolt.

Several other significant breaks from the Catholic Church were made about that time in Switzerland by Huldreich (or Ulrich) Zwingli (1484–1531) and John Calvin (1509–1564).

In England, in 1534, Henry VIII declared his own authority to be greater than that of the Church. Most of those who sought change only desired to reform the existing religious body.

Luther wanted to reform certain Catholic teachings and practices which he did not believe conformed to biblical teaching. John Wesley (1703–1791) later sought to reform the Church of England for the same reason. This proved to be impossible, and the reformers soon realized the only way they could express their convictions was to withdraw from the Catholic Church and form new groups.

Their followers soon grew into congregations, then into denominations. To achieve conformity among their people, the reformers wrote creeds, confessions of faith, and catechisms.

After this, various leaders attempted to make converts to their own theologies. Since Luther, Calvin, Zwingli, and others disagreed, their followers argued, split, and became warring camps that could not share fellowship. That is how denominational division arose.

The different denominations also suffered internal division. The end result was that multiple denominational groups were formed, with people giving their allegiance to their certain groups. Any efforts at unity were, for the part, unsuccessful.

Often, to state a problem clearly is to solve it. The problem of unity, when viewed in sharp focus, revealed an answer.

The Bible, our only creed. It was obvious that a creed written by one man was as good as any creed written by another, so why should one person relinquish his creed for someone else’s? All agreed to accept the statements of the Bible regarding the essentials of faith. If anyone disagreed with the Bible, the Bible prevailed.

The Bible does not disagree with itself. It teaches unified truth on all subjects that are pertinent to salvation and godly living. All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work (2 Timothy 3:16, 17).

They agreed that, on incidental details where the Bible does not legislate, everyone could have his own opinions and all could still be united. No one would force his private opinion on another. This policy caused their differences to disappear and unity to prevail.

2. “Christian,” our only name. The biblical name “Christian” was the common denominator on which they all could agree: “. . . the disciples were first called Christians in Antioch” (Acts 11:26).
3. Worshiping as in biblical examples. There was much contention over mechanical music in the various denominations 200 years ago. Arguments were heated, and congregations often split over the question. However, since all agreed that singing is authorized by the Scriptures, singing without instrumental accompaniments provided a basis for unity. Christians’ worship of God involves “speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord” (Ephesians 5:19).
4. Observing the Lord’s Supper as in biblical examples. Various denominations were participating in the Lord’s Supper at different intervals. All agreed that the first-century church observed it each first day of the week, so that was the practice that would bring unity. Acts 20:7 says that “on the first day of the week,” the early Christians “gathered together to break bread.”
5. Baptism based on biblical teaching. The truth about baptism was startling to many as they truly studied the Bible. It became apparent that here, too, was uniformity. Instead of several “modes” of baptism, immersion was the only form of baptism practiced in the first century. It was the form on which all could agree, though most of them had practiced sprinkling. Immersion in water became a basis of unity.

Colossians 2:12 speaks of being “buried with [Christ] in baptism” and “raised up with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead.”

Unity is achieved by consenting to the truth (John 17:17), by being one in mind (1 Corinthians 1:10), and by altering any former belief so that it will be in harmony with the statements in the Scriptures.

“Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brothers to dwell together in unity!” (Psalm 133:1).

The People God Uses John 17:6, 9

“I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world. Yours they were, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. ⁹ I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours.

There’s a story that’s often told that has Jesus returning to heaven and the angels inquiring about His time on earth. With much detail, he rehearses all the events of His ministry and, at the end, the angels ask a question that we can apply to ourselves today: What is the plan for the future spreading of this message? Who will continue this important ministry? Their surprise at His answer: You left it in whose hands?

How the Lord launched the worldwide movement called “the church”? If He had only asked me, I would have advised Him to do things differently!

• You need to pick men with the proper education and experi
• They should be graduates of the most prestigious theological institutions in the world.
• They need to have a track record of impressive results in the ministry. After all, their past performance indicates their future potential. But these guys have no degrees and no achievements!”
• “Furthermore, You need men of influence who have connections with important wealthy, powerful people. They need to know how to network with the movers and shakers. No offense, but these men have accents that make them sound like hicks from the sticks. They’re Galileans!
• The religious elite in Jerusalem are going to laugh them out of town if they try to persuade them that You are the Messiah.”
• You need to pick some men who know how to grow a business. They need to know how to recruit and manage a competent team. They need to know how to read a spread sheet. A Galilean fishing business doesn’t cut it! At least get someone with an M.B.A. on the team! Too bad about that guy, Judas! He would have been a real asset to the cause!”

To launch the church the Lord chose a bunch of uneducated, unsophisticated Galilean fishermen, who would have been laughed out of the Sanhedrin in Jerusalem.

Among those who stayed with Christ were the Twelve, whom He had personally selected and appointed to represent Him. They were 12 perfectly ordinary, unexceptional men.

He chose to work through these fallible individuals rather than advance His agenda through mob force, military might, personal popularity, or a public-relations campaign.

From a human perspective, the future of the church and the long-term success of the gospel depended entirely on the faithfulness of that handful of disciples. There was no plan B if they failed.

Some might imagine that if Christ had wanted His message to have maximum impact, He could have played off His popularity more effectively.

Modern conventional wisdom would suggest that Jesus ought to have done everything possible to exploit His fame, tone down the controversies that arose out of His teaching, and employ whatever strategies He could use to maximize the crowds around Him.

But He did not do that. In fact, He did precisely the opposite. Instead of taking the populist route and exploiting His fame, He began to emphasize the very things that made His message so controversial.

At about the time the crowds reached their peak, He preached a message so boldly confrontive and so offensive in its content that the multitude melted away, leaving only the most devoted few:

John 6:66-70 (ESV) After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him. ⁶⁷  So Jesus said to the Twelve, “Do you want to go away as well?” ⁶⁸  Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, ⁶⁹  and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.”

The strategy Jesus chose typified the character of the kingdom itself. “The kingdom of God does not come with observation; nor will they say, ‘See here!’ or ‘See there!’ For indeed, the kingdom of God is within you” (Luke 17:20–21).

The kingdom advances “‘Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,’ says the Lord of hosts” (Zechariah 4:6).

A dozen men under the power of the Holy Spirit are a more potent force than the teeming masses whose initial enthusiasm for Jesus was apparently provoked by little more than sheer curiosity or a full stomach.

If you’ve ever visited the great cathedrals in Europe, you might assume that the apostles were larger-than-life stained-glass saints with shining halos who represented an exalted degree of spirituality.

It’s a shame they have so often been put on pedestals as magnificent marble figures or portrayed in paintings like some kind of Roman gods. That dehumanizes them. They were just 12 completely ordinary men—perfectly human in every way. We mustn’t lose touch with who they really were.

Many Christians become discouraged and disheartened when their spiritual life and witness suffer because of sin or failure. We tend to think we’re worthless nobodies—and left to ourselves, that would be true! But worthless nobodies are just the kind of people God uses, because that is all He has to work with.

Satan may even attempt to convince us that our shortcomings render us useless to God and to His church. But Christ’s choice of the apostles testifies to the fact that God can use the unworthy and the unqualified. He can use nobodies.

It was not because they had extraordinary talents, unusual intellectual abilities, powerful political influence, or some special social status. They turned the world upside down because God worked in them to do it.

God chooses the humble, the lowly, the meek, and the weak so that there’s never any question about the source of power when their lives change the world.

It’s not the man; it’s the truth of God and the power of God in the man. (We need to remind some preachers today of this. It’s not their cleverness or their personality. The power is in the Word—the truth that we preach—not in us.)

And apart from one Person—one extraordinary human being who was God incarnate, the Lord Jesus Christ—the history of God’s work on earth is the story of His using the unworthy and molding them for His use the same careful way a potter fashions clay.

The Corinthian church to which Paul wrote was an unimpressive lot—hardly the cream of the social crop. These are those of whom Paul admitted, “not many wise, not many mighty, not many noble are called.”

For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. ²⁷ But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; ²⁸ God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, ²⁹ so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. ³⁰ And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, ³¹ so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”

The fact that He used such humanly unimpressive men should give us hope that perhaps He can use common people like us today to help further His kingdom.

His way of reaching this hostile world was to call these men out of the world, share His life with them, and send them back into the world. That’s still His strategy.

We also need to remember the success rate…who did they attract, teach, convert to Christ? 1 Corinthians 6:9-11 (ESV) Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, ¹⁰  nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.
¹¹  And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

As we gasp at the possibility of sitting in worship with that kind of ‘church family,’ it ought to remind us that the gospel message works!

The gospel is the one great treasure of the church. It is the “pearl of great price” for which the jeweler will pay all that he has (Matthew 13:45–46 (ESV) “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls, ⁴⁶ who, on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it.

It is the great truth for which Stephen died and which Paul devoted his life to proclaim. It is the one thing which clearly distinguishes the church from all other religious and benevolent organizations.

The church today, however, does not always prize the gospel as its greatest treasure. The church is sometimes tempted to emphasize its own human dynamics rather than that which God offers us in Jesus Christ.

Paul’s words: 2 Corinthians 4:7 (ESV) But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us.

Paul, himself, was a most “earthen vessel”—haunted by his past, crippled by his inadequacies, continually challenged by his never-ending struggle with temptation.

A pot or jar made of “clay” would be the least valuable in an ancient Greek or Jewish household. Once broken, clay jars could not be repaired nor melted down and recast, although they often were used as barely functional writing surfaces for sales receipts.

It is possible that Paul’s Corinthian readers might even picture the special, nighttime oil lamps manufactured in and marketed from their city. These were especially thin and delicate to allow light to penetrate from them but were also cheap and easily breakable. It is less likely that Paul has in mind the exclusively Greek idea of vessels containing sacred objects of a deity used in parades to draw to attention to that deity.

Connecting the imagery of clay jars to human beings is not much of a stretch from a biblical point of view. Not only is man viewed as being created from dust (Gen 2:7), God is pictured as a potter (Isa 29:16; 45:9; 64:8), who can if he chooses, destroy his bad pots (Isa 30:14; Jer 18:1–22; 19:1–13).

Some of the world’s most priceless treasures have been placed in its most worthless containers. But the contrast between treasure and vessel was never greater than when God committed the saving gospel of His Son to mortal men, when His extraordinary truth was committed to such an ordinary church.

He picked a bunch of earthen vessels in which to put His treasure (the gospel), so that the surpassing greatness of the power would be of God and not from any man. (I entitle a sermon on this verse as “God’s treasure in brown paper bags” to depict a common item in our time since we don’t often transport things in ‘earthen’ vessels.)

Though we would expect the world’s greatest treasure to be placed in its most priceless container, we find the gospel committed to a very ordinary church.

The church today is still very “earthen.” It can be crippled by its lack of commitment, its divisions, its worldliness. Its ministry is sometimes weak, susceptible to burnout and moral failure.

Dealing with the Disparity.

It have often spoken of the “church of faith compared to the church of fact.” It’s the difference of what the church is (as talked about in the New Testament) compared to what we ‘really are’

• Some people are not content to allow the contrast to exist. Some would try to accept the treasure but reject the jar. They say “yes” to Christ but “no” to the church, and in the process scorn the very ones for whom Christ died.
• Others try to make the treasure more like the vessel, stripping Christ of His divinity.
• Still others try to make the vessel more “worthy” of the treasure by changing the clay pot into a silver chalice. This leads to a situation where the vessel takes on more importance than the treasure.

The proper response is to acknowledge the disparity and learn the great lesson which it teaches. The disparity is there by God’s design to demonstrate that it is upon human weakness, not human strength that God chooses to build His church.

God can use the church best when it depends less on its own resources and learns to trust in the power of the God who alone can save.

To begin with, God has made us the way we are so that we can do the work He wants us to do.

No Christian should ever complain to God because of his lack of gifts or abilities, or because of his limitations or handicaps.

The important thing about a vessel is that it be clean, empty, and available for service. Each of us must seek to become “a vessel unto honor, sanctified [set apart], and meet for the master’s use, and prepared unto every good work” (2 Tim. 2:21).

God permits trials, God controls trials, and God uses trials for His own glory. God is glorified through weak vessels.

Sometimes God permits our vessels to be jarred so that some of the treasure will spill out and enrich others. Suffering reveals not only the weakness of man but also the glory of God.

Not only must we focus on the treasure and not on the vessel, but we must also focus on the Master and not on the servant.

If we suffer, it is for Jesus’ sake. If we die to self, it is so that the life of Christ might be revealed in us. If we go through trials, it is so that Christ might be glorified. And all of this is for the sake of others. As we serve Christ, death works in us—but life works in those to whom we minister.

I want to challenge each of us “get the pandemic” behind us! I want us to rededicate ourselves, as we end/begin a new year to seek to “sow seed” every day…and depend of the power of the gospel and God to produce lasting fruit.

Jesus knew that after He left the disciples to return to heaven, they would face some difficult opposition from the world. Maybe, because He had just told them that they would do even “greater works” than He did (John 14:12), they were envisioning receptive crowds and smooth sailing ahead.

But the reality was, they would face some severe persecution, not just from the pagan world, but also from the religious crowd. The Lord wanted them to know what to expect from the world and how to respond to the hostility that they would experience.

His message is: While the world hates believers, we should testify to the world of the truth about Jesus Christ.

These verses present a sober, even grim, picture, except for what has gone on before: Because we enjoy Christ’s love and joy (John 15:1-11) and because we are members of the loving family of God (John 15:12-17), we can endure the hostility of the world.

But we need to be prepared for it so that we’re not shocked when it happens. Our text falls into two sections: The world’s hatred of Christians (John 15:18-25); and our responsibility to the hostile world, namely, to bear witness of Christ (John 15:26-27).

1. The world hates believers because it hates Jesus Christ: John 15:18-25 (ESV)

A. Hatred or love for Jesus Christ is what either divides or unites people.

Note the contrast between verses 17 & 18: These things I command you, so that you will love one another. ¹⁸  “If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you.

Christians are to be known for their love, but the world is known for its hatred. Jesus emphasizes “world,” using it six times in verses 18 & 19. The world refers to the organized system under Satan’s domain that is opposed to God and His rightful King, Jesus Christ.

In 1 John 5:19, the apostle draws the contrast: “We know that we are of God, and that the whole world lies in the power of the evil one.”

Of course, if you were to go out and ask people on the street, “Do you hate Jesus Christ?” most would answer, “No, I don’t have anything against Jesus. He was a great moral teacher.”

If you asked, “Do you follow the devil” they would strongly exclaim, “There’s no way that I follow the devil! I’m not a Satan-worshiper!”

They don’t follow Jesus, but they aren’t openly opposed to Him, either. And they aren’t aware that they’re following the devil, even though they are.

They subscribe to godless values. They ignore God in their daily lives, unless they get into a crisis where they suddenly decide to pray. But the average unbeliever isn’t going to say, “I hate Jesus and I hate Christians!” He’s just living his life as he sees fit and is content to let religious people follow Jesus if they want to.

The Lord wants us to know that behind the world’s hatred for us is its hatred for Him. And, as He adds (John 15:23), “He who hates Me hates My Father also.”

But, you may wonder, why does Jesus say that the world hates both Him and the Father, as well as all believers, when most unbelievers would say that they don’t have anything against Jesus or against Christians?

In Matthew 12:30, Jesus draws a similar line: “He who is not with Me is against Me.” He paints the contrast in black and white to draw a distinct line to show that you must take sides. There is no gray zone. Either you love Jesus and His Father and all who follow Jesus, or you hate them all, whether you admit it or not!

B. The world hates because Jesus exposes its sin.

John 15:22 (ESV) If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have been guilty of sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin. (vs. 24) If I had not done among them the works that no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin, but now they have seen and hated both me and my Father.

What does Jesus mean? Obviously He doesn’t mean that those who have never heard of Him or His miracles are sinless. The Bible is clear that all people, even those who have never heard of Jesus, are guilty sinners before God:

• All people have evidence that there is a Creator by looking at His creation, but they “suppress the truth in unrighteousness … so that they are without excuse” (Rom. 1:18-20).
• All people have violated their consciences, doing what they instinctively know is wrong (Rom. 2).
• And so, all have sinned and thus are guilty before God (Rom. 3:23).

Rather, Jesus means that His coming and the many miracles that He did increased people’s responsibility and guilt when they did not submit to Him as Savior and Lord.

In Matthew 11:20-24, Jesus denounced the cities where He had done most of His miracles because they did not repent. He made it clear that it will be more tolerable even for the pagans in Tyre and Sidon and for wicked Sodom on judgment day than for these cities. In other words, increased light rejected means increased sin and guilt.

Note that unbelief is not due to a lack of solid evidence. These people heard Jesus’ words and they saw His many miracles that no one else had done (John 15:22, 24), but they still rejected Him because He exposed their sin.

It’s still true today: there is more than enough evidence to believe in Jesus Christ, but people reject that evidence or bring up other excuses for their unbelief because they enjoy their sin and they don’t want to repent.

Two applications: First, if you live in obedience to Jesus Christ, you will threaten unbelievers in your family, at school, or at work, because your godly life will expose their sin. As a result, they will try to get you to sin so that you’re just like they are; or they will attack you falsely. Be ready for the onslaught!

C. If the world thinks that you’re wonderful, you may need to question whether you’re being a bold enough witness for Christ.

Let me make it clear: You should not be the source of offense by being insensitive, rude, or obnoxious. We need to conduct ourselves with wisdom, grace, and sensitivity toward unbelievers (Col. 4:5-6).

But here’s where you will catch flak: Unbelievers will be tolerant until you tell them that Jesus is the only way to God. Then they will accuse you of being intolerant.

They will be friendly until you make it clear that God has absolute moral standards and that our culture’s standards are wrong. Then they will accuse you of being self-righteous and judgmental.

They will be tolerant of your Christianity until you refuse to lie to cover their wrongdoing or cheat in favor of the company. At that point, they will turn against you and go behind your back to turn others against you.

But if you state or imply to unbelievers that all good people will go to heaven, you laugh at their dirty jokes, you go to the same filthy movies that they go to so that you can be in the know with all the office chatter, and you lie for the boss, the world will think you’re wonderful; but you’ve compromised your witness for Christ.

Matthew 5:11-12: “Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward in heaven is great; for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”

D. The world’s hatred for Christ and for believers does not thwart God’s sovereignty, but rather fulfills it.

Jesus says regarding the world’s hatred of both Him and His Father (John 15:25), “But they have done this to fulfill the word that is written in their Law, ‘They hated Me without a cause.’”

He is citing Psalm 69:4 to show that unbelievers can rage against God, but they don’t have any basis for their hatred and they’re inadvertently fulfilling God’s word.

The application is that when unbelievers seem to win, don’t fret. God is still in control and He will ultimately judge all unbelievers who wrong you and He will vindicate His people who have been persecuted for His name’s sake.

E. The world hates believers because we’re different than they are. We’re different in many ways, but there are three in the text:

1) We have a different calling: Christ chose us out of this evil world.

John 15:19: “If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you.”

God decided before the creation that mankind would eventually need a Savior, so He predetermined the plan to send Jesus Christ to earth, to eventually die on a cross, to provide a way ‘back’ from sin to God.

Ephesians 1:3-23 (ESV) ³  Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, ⁴  even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love ⁵  he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, ⁶  to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. ⁷  In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, ⁸  which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight ⁹  making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ ¹⁰  as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.

2) We have a different Master: Jesus is our Lord, while the world serves Satan.

John 15:20 (ESV) Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours.

Jesus implies that we are His slaves and He is our Master. But Satan is the ruler or god of this world:

John 12:31 (ESV) Now is the judgment of this world; now will the ruler of this world be cast out.

John 14:30 (ESV) I will no longer talk much with you, for the ruler of this world is coming. He has no claim on me…

…who has blinded the eyes of unbelievers so that they cannot see the light of the gospel (2 Cor. 4:4). Before God rescued us, we all lived in Satan’s domain of darkness (Col. 1:13), but now we live in Christ’s kingdom of light.

This means that the world does not understand our thinking or our behavior. The world thinks that people are basically good, whereas the Bible says that all are sinners in rebellion against God.

People in the world live for themselves and their own agendas, whereas the Lord’s people live for Him and His purposes.

The world makes up its own relative moral standards, whereas God’s people obey His moral absolutes. So misunderstanding and hostility from the world are inevitable.

3) We have different knowledge: We know the Father, but the world does not. John 15:21: “But all these things they will do to you for My name’s sake, because they do not know the One who sent Me.”

The fundamental problem of people in the world is that they do not know the living and true God. Instead, they make up their own gods.

Even atheists worship their own intellect as supreme, refusing to acknowledge that all that they have comes from God (1 Cor. 4:7) and that they will give an account to Him when they die (Heb. 9:27).

But knowing God is the essence of the eternal life that Christ gives to all who believe in Him. As He prayed (John 17:3), “This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.”

But in spite of the world’s hatred, we should never respond with retaliation or hatred. There may be times to ask God to judge the wicked. There are times to shake the dust off your feet and move on (Matt. 10:14). There are times to be silent rather than to cast your pearls before swine (Matt. 7:6; Luke 23:9). But our normal response should be:

2. In spite of the world’s hatred, we should testify to the world of the truth about Jesus Christ (John 15:26-27).

How can we bear witness in the face of such a hostile world? Jesus shows that we can do so only through the Spirit of truth.

A. The Spirit of truth testifies about Jesus Christ.

John 15:26: “When the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, that is the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify about Me….”

Jesus was referring to the mission of the Holy Spirit, whom He calls the Spirit of truth. But we can know that the Holy Spirit is a person. A mere “force” cannot testify to the truth.

And, the fact that the Spirit proceeds from the Father and is sent by Jesus, who Himself was sent by the Father, implies the deity and the distinctiveness of all three persons of the trinity.

But the point here is that the Spirit will continue the witness to Christ after He returned to heaven. How does He do that? He does it through the Word of God, which He inspired, but also through believers.

Peter testified (Acts 5:32), “And we are witnesses of these things; and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey Him.”

B. Christ’s disciples testify about Him.

John 15:27: “… and you will testify also, because you have been with Me from the beginning.”

This refers in the first place to the apostolic witness, because they were with Jesus from the beginning of His ministry until He ascended into heaven. They testified about what they had seen and heard (Acts 4:20). They didn’t make up cleverly devised tales, but were eyewitnesses of Christ’s majesty (2 Pet. 1:16).

We have their factual testimony in the New Testament. So our witness is not just true for those who choose to believe it. It’s always true whether people believe it or not.

Conclusion

First, some of us (like me!) need to have more contact with the world. If we’re always surrounded by Christians, ask the Lord for opportunities to rub shoulders with people who need the Savior. You can’t testify to the truth about Christ if you don’t have contact with the world.

Second, pray for alertness to opportunities and boldness when you speak. I often think about what I could have said about an hour after the opportunity has passed. And, most of us do not err on the side of being too bold. None other than the apostle Paul said (Eph. 6:19-20), “Pray on my behalf, that utterance may be given to me in the opening of my mouth, to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains; that in proclaiming it I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak.”

Third, expect from the world what Jesus received from the world: mostly hatred, but some fruit. He says (John 15:20), “If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you; if they kept My word, they will keep yours also.”

If you expect everyone to respond favorably, you’ll be discouraged when they don’t.

But if you expect everyone to respond negatively, you won’t even try to bear witness. Jesus promises that some will believe through your witness:

Acts 18:10 (ESV) for I am with you, and no one will attack you to harm you, for I have many in this city who are my people.”

So keep proclaiming the good news!

A German preacher named Dietrich Bonhoeffer said: “When Christ calls a man, He bids him come and die.”

As we turn the pages of the New Testament, the blood of martyrs stains our fingertips. Paul’s life is a good example. Acts 9:15-16 predicts the suffering he would endure for Christ, the fulfillment of which can be found in 1 Cor. 4:11-13 and 2 Cor. 4:8-9.

Jesus never intended that the Christian should live in pious isolation, but in active contact with the problems of men.

Nevertheless, He drew a sharp line between the Christian and the “world” which comprises the mass of men who live without God.

Jesus, in stating the attitude of the world, carefully forewarned the disciples of its hatred because He did not want them disillusionned when they met it.  “If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first.”

The type of grammatical condition which John used implied the actuality of the hatred; it was not hypothetical.

Jesus recognized it as a chilling reality; but He comforted the disciples by reassuring them that He shared with them all the ostracism and contempt which the world could heap on them.

Throughout all nature, whether in the animal or human world, there is a tendency to dislike any individual that differs from the average type.  Birds will drive from the flock one of their number that differs radically from them in plumage.

The very fact that He has chosen men out of the world places them in a different category from others.  They have a new nature, a new aim in life, a new productiveness.  The world does not understand their motives nor feel comfortable in their company.

Jesus gave three reasons why persecution will occur:

1. “Because you are not of the world
2. Because they do not know the One who sent Me
3. That the word may be fulfilled

“If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you. {20} Remember the words I spoke to you: ‘No servant is greater than his master[1].’ If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also. {21} They will treat you this way because of my name, for they do not know the One who sent me.”

The chief reason, lastly, for the hatred of the world was Jesus’ exposure of its sin.  Verses 22 and 25 describe the effect of Jesus on the world.

“If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin. Now, however, they have no excuse for their sin. {23} He who hates me hates my Father as well. {24} If I had not done among them what no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin. But now they have seen these miracles, and yet they have hated both me and my Father. {25} But this is to fulfill what is written in their Law: ‘They hated me without reason.'”

The words and deeds of Christ showed by contrast how evil men can become.  Ignorance could no longer palliate their guilt.

Two antidotes to the attitude of the world are proposed in the concluding verses: the witness of the Spirit and the witness of Christians.

Our reaction to persecution should be one of acceptance, as stated in 1 Peter 4:12: “Dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering, as though something strange were happening to you.”

Jesus gives us four suggestions on how to react when the persecution starts to bewilder us:

1. We should rely on the Holy Spirit
2. We should stand firm and boldly testify our faith in Christ
3. We shouldn’t stumble
4. We shouldn’t forget we’d been forewarned

“”When the Counselor comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father, he will testify about me. {27} And you also must testify, for you have been with me from the beginning.”

—————

Two unpopular themes in modern evangelical Christianity are the need to suffer for the sake of the gospel and the certainty of God’s judgment. Rather than suffering, the TV religious groups are into how Christianity can help you have a successful, happy life. Of course, the Bible does give wisdom and guidance on how to live happily and it is proper to understand and apply its teaching.

But, the Bible also teaches (Acts 14:22), “Through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God.”

Paul said (2 Tim. 3:12), “Indeed, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.”

Jesus said that all His followers must take up their cross (an implement of a slow, tortuous death) in order to follow Him (Matt. 16:24).

In its extreme form, the de-emphasis on suffering has veered into the heretical teaching that it’s always God’s will for you to enjoy financial prosperity and physical health. You’re supposed to rebuke any sickness or suffering it in the name of the Lord. If it continues, you must not have enough faith.

Regarding God, we focus on His love and grace rather than on His judgment. Many go so far as to say that because God is love, no one will suffer in hell.

So Jesus’ words in our text are not going to be popular in today’s Christian world. He continues to prepare the disciples (and us) for what we will face after He is gone. The world often will hate us, but…

Our task is to witness in the power of the Spirit to a hostile world concerning sin, righteousness, and judgment.

In the upper room discourse Christ promises to counter the problems that we will encounter in this evil world: “The world hates you, but I love you. The world is your enemy, but I am your friend. The world gives you trouble and anxiety, but I give you My peace. The world will cause you sorrow, but I give you My joy. The world may kill you, but I give you eternal life. The world is under Satan’s power, but you will have the power of the Holy Spirit dwelling in you.”

1. To witness in a hostile world without stumbling, you must face the difficulty of the task: you will be persecuted and you may get killed.

John 16:1 (ESV) “I have said all these things to you to keep you from falling away.

Jesus spoke these things so that the disciples would be kept from stumbling or falling away when they encountered the opposition of the world.

Their task (and ours) is to go to a self-seeking, pleasure-oriented world and proclaim that the Holy God is going to judge all sinners, but that He has provided the way of escape through the Savior.

This message is sure to stir up derision and hostility. Just the people of Noah’s day rejected his message of righteousness (2 Pet. 2:5) and the people in Sodom thought that righteous Lot must have been joking (2 Pet. 2:6-9; Gen. 19:14), so sinners today will not respond favorably to a message about sin, righteousness, and impending judgment.

If you expect that everyone in this hostile world will welcome your message, you’ll be in for a rude awakening.

Sometimes we may be surprised because persecution often comes from the religious world, where you would expect a receptive audience (John 16:2): “They will make you outcasts from the synagogue, but an hour is coming for everyone who kills you to think that he is offering service to God.”

Before his conversion, the apostle Paul thought that he was being faithful to his Jewish faith by imprisoning and killing Christians. After his conversion, the Jews persecuted him and other early Christians (2 Thess. 2:14-16).

Jesus pinpoints the heart of the problem (John 16:3), “These things they will do because they have not known the Father or Me.”

The key to enduring persecution is to trust in the Lord Jesus. Thus in verse 4, He gives us a solid reason to trust Him: He knows the future. He knows the trials that we will face as we serve Him and He warns us in advance so that we will trust in Him.

When Jesus was with the disciples, He was the lightning rod for persecution. But after He returned to the Father, they would catch the brunt of the opposition. So the Lord speaks these prophetic words so that we will be forewarned and thus forearmed. It will not be easy to be a faithful witness to Christ in this hostile world.

2. To witness to a hostile world, you must focus on the Lord’s glory, not on your own needs.

John 16:5-6: “But now I am going to Him who sent Me; and none of you asks Me, ‘Where are You going?’ But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart.”

My point about the Lord’s glory may not be immediately obvious, so let me explain. The disciples were not thinking about Christ’s returning to His glory with the Father and what that would mean, but rather on their own sorrow that Jesus would not be with them any longer. They were focused on their needs, not on Jesus’ glory and His kingdom purposes.

At first glance, Jesus’ words, “none of you asks Me, ‘Where are You going?’” seem to contradict John 13:36, where Peter asked, “Lord, where are You going?”

Also, in John 14:5, Thomas said, “Lord, we do not know where You are going …”

But neither man was really interested in learning where Jesus was going as much as in protesting that He was leaving them. So the Lord is saying, “None of you is really interested in knowing where I am going. You’re just focused on your own sorrow over My leaving.”

Although the disciples have asked about where Jesus was going, they were really just self-absorbed in their own loss at His leaving them. They didn’t have the big picture of the Lord’s returning to the right hand of the Father and of His sending the Holy Spirit to empower them for the task of the great commission.

The application for us is, to be effective witnesses in this hostile world, we need to take our focus off of our feelings and needs and focus rather on the Lord’s glory through the spreading of the gospel to all peoples. Even if we are persecuted, His glory should be our aim. But we can’t accomplish that task in our own strength. Thus the Lord adds …

3. To witness to a hostile world, you must join the Holy Spirit in His witness concerning sin, righteousness, and judgment.

Jesus makes a claim that would have startled the disciples (John 16:7): “But I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you.”

   Three specific functions of the Spirit convict the world through the Christian:

– Concerning sin.

The Spirit uses the faithful, loving Christian as a visual aid to convict the unbeliever (see 1 Cor. 7:12-14). If Jesus is the Son of God, as this Gospel declares Him to be, then rejection of Him is the greatest and most fatal sin of all. It is the deliberate refusal of God’s will.

In order to define sin there must be a standard. There can be no transgression where there is no law, no darkness when there is no light, who sin where there is no holiness.

– Concerning righteousness.

The Christian should have a standard, or lifestyle, foreign to the unsaved person.  Since the world can no longer see the righteousness of Jesus, they can only see it reflected off us.

– Concerning judgment.

Whenever sin and righteousness meet there must be judgment.  When unsaved people see the Christian’s free and unfettered life, the Holy Spirit shows them that their ruler has no power over the saint.

The key word in these verses is “convict,” which is a legal word that means to “bring to light, to expose, to refute, to convict and convince.” The world may think that it is judging Christians, but it is the Christians who are passing judgment on the world as they witness to Christ!

The Holy Spirit convicts the world of one particular sin: the sin of unbelief. After all, it is unbelief that condemns the lost sinner (John 3:18-21).

The Spirit also convicts the sinner of righteousness, not unrighteousness. Whose righteousness? The righteousness of Jesus Christ, the perfect Lamb of God.

Surely this text informs us that we should not expect the world to embrace Christians with open arms. The cross of Calvary assures us that the world does hate Him. Our Lord’s words should prepare us for opposition from the world as well. If the world hates us, then we surely should not love the world in the sense that we seek its approval, embrace its values, or attempt to find our identity with it:

Adulterers, do you not know that friendship with the world means hostility towards God? So whoever decides to be the world’s friend makes himself God’s enemy (James 4:4).

15 Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him; 16 because all that is in the world (the desire of the flesh and the desire of the eyes and the arrogance produced by material possessions) is not from the Father, but is from the world. 17 And the world is passing away with all its desires, but the person who does the will of God remains forever (1 John 2:15-17).

Therefore do not be surprised, brothers and sisters, if the world hates you (1 John 3:13).

The Bible is clear that God now imputes the very righteousness of Christ to every sinner who trusts in Him.

As 2 Corinthians 5:21 states, “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”

So the message that we are to proclaim to the world is that they are never good enough to qualify for heaven. “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23).

But, God has provided a means by which we can be covered with the perfect righteousness of His Son, namely, by believing in Him.

Conclusion

So to be effective witnesses for Christ, we need to recognize that many people will not like our message and therefore they may not like us.

If we are faithful, we may suffer persecution or even death.

Given that unpleasant prospect, what should motivate us to bear witness? The Lord’s glory: He is now risen from the dead, at the right hand of the Father, returning soon to judge the world in righteousness. He has entrusted to us the message of salvation through the cross.

But we can’t compromise the message by hiding the reality of judgment if people do not repent. Don’t be judgmental, but do tell the truth about God’s coming judgment.

Our task is to witness in the power of the Spirit to a hostile world concerning sin, righteousness, and judgment.

 

As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. ¹⁰  If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. ¹¹  These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full. ¹²  “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.

If the church of our Lord has been given to any one sin through the years, it would have to be the sin of discord and its related vices.

Some people can fight (and eventually split) at the drop of a hat. The list continues to grow and it’s to our shame as a fellowship that we don’t do a better job standing firmly upon truth while realizing the difference between faith and opinion.

Terry and I have been blessed with seven of the cutest, smartest, most adorable grand-children in the world (that true statement is also true when you speak of your children or grandchildren, right?).

We’ve watched their parents work almost minute-by-minute as they seek to “train up a child” as God would want them. A young child can be excused for being selfish…wanting food when it’s hungry and wanting down when he’s been held long enough.

Those actions don’t go away through the toddler years but eventually begin to change as the child grows in years and has models of servanthood before him.

But there is simply no excuse for that “please me” selfish attitude to continue into adulthood and among Christians. The first thing we should learn as ‘baby’ Christians is that the one who is first will become last!

In our text, Jesus has explained the essential relationship of Christians to Himself, and now proceeds to show His disciples what their relationship to each other should be.

Those eight words are powerful and difficult to follow: Love each other as I have loved you.

As a parent, we often condense his message to just two words: Get along!

And we need to add two other verses here:

(John 17:20-21 NIV)  “”My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, {21} that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me.”

People cannot share a “common faith” (cf. Titus 1:4) unless they are united in affirming the “one faith” system, rather than the diverse creeds of the religious world. It is incredible that some scholars can read this passage and, in spite of its clear language, contend for the validity of sectarian bodies.

Ephesians 4:1-6 (ESV) I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, ²  with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, ³  eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. ⁴  There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call— ⁵  one Lord, one faith, one baptism, ⁶  one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.

There is, perhaps, no greater exhortation to unity, anywhere in the Bible, that surpasses that of Psalm 133. “Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brothers to dwell together in unity. It is like the precious oil upon the head, that ran down upon the beard, even Aaron’s beard; that came down upon the collar of his garments; Like the dew of Hermon, that falls upon the mountains of Zion: For there Jehovah commanded the blessing, even life forevermore.”

What was his prayer for the Church which was to be? It was that all its members would be one as he and his Father are one.

It was a unity of personal relationship. We have already seen that the union between Jesus and God was one of love and obedience. It was a unity of love for which Jesus prayed, a unity in which men loved each other because they loved him, a unity based entirely on the relationship between heart and heart.

As Jesus saw it and prayed for it, it was to be precisely that unity which convinced the world of the truth of Christianity and of the place of Christ.

It is an unfortunate circumstance that the lofty concept of brotherly love frequently has been tarnished in history. The very first murder was committed by a “brother” upon his “brother” (Genesis 4:8). The earliest written prohibition against murder argues that there is a human sense in which all men are brothers, made in God’s image (Genesis 9:5-6).

Subsequent narratives reveal further animosity between brothers. Ishmael “mocked” Isaac (Genesis 21:9), which appears to have been a preview of things to come (16:12). Jacob “cheated” Esau (27:36, ESV), and the latter “hated” him for it (27:41). Joseph’s brothers, moved with jealousy, sold him into Egypt (cf. Acts 7:9).

The “bad blood” between David’s sons is well known. Absalom had Amnon killed (2 Samuel 13:28), and Solomon did the same to Adonijah (1 Kings 2:13-25).

Unity must never be sought at the expense of compromising truth. Though the early chapters of the book of Acts stress the oneness of the early disciples, as noted earlier, the same document also affirms that the followers of Jesus “continued steadfastly in the apostles’ teaching” (2:42).

And yes, Paul did admonish the beloved Philippian brethren to be of the “same mind” (2:2-3); he likewise warned them to: “Beware of the dogs, beware of the evil workers beware of the concision. . . ,” a variety of false teachers who were a threat to the faith.

The book of Ephesians places considerable emphasis on “oneness” (4:4-5), yet the epistle warns: “have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather even reprove them” (5:11). This balance between true unity, and soundness of teaching, was a deathblow to the ancient idea of “syncretism” (the mixing of religions) — so egregiously adopted by the Roman Catholic Church in its attempt to appease the masses, by combining elements of Judaism, Christianity, and paganism into an amalgamated system. It also strikes at the modern “ecumenical” philosophy — both without and within the church!

While every informed and conscientious Christian would never budge from the word of truth for the sake of a false unity, the wise person acknowledges that perfect agreement will never be achieved in all matters — nor is it required.

Recall, for example, the difference of opinion that arose between Barnabas and Paul, when the latter proposed revisiting the churches planted on the earlier campaign in which the two had cooperated so graciously (Acts 15:36ff). When Paul advanced the idea, Barnabas insisted (so the force of the imperfect tense verb “was minded”) on taking John Mark along.

But Paul persistently objected (“thought” otherwise — again an imperfect — see NASB), because Mark, who had been on the previous trip, for some reason failed to complete the mission, returning home (Acts 13:13). It is obvious that Paul thought the departure was unjustified whereas Barnabas wanted to provide Mark with a second chance.

The disagreement was so “sharp” that Paul and Barnabas parted company. That rift, however, did not destroy their fundamental unity in the Lord; Paul later commended Barnabas as being worthy of support (1 Corinthians 9:6), and eventually, John Mark, the “bone of contention,” proved “useful” to the noble apostle (2 Timothy 4:11).

Hindrances to Unity

In this discussion it is not inappropriate to call attention to a couple of those hindrances which short-circuit the brotherly comradeship desired by Heaven.

Many experienced leaders in the church would affirm that one of the foremost factors in the divisiveness that has tormented the Lord’s people for almost two millennia is the spirit of egoism.

Time and again men have arisen who, more than anything else, had a passion for notoriety, a lust for fame, hence, they either created an issue, or seized upon one, in order to thrust themselves into prominence. Factions orient themselves mainly around men, not issues. The “issues” are just the baggage carried along en route to someone’s journey to exaltation.

Diotrephes, the enemy of the apostle John, was cut from such a fabric (3 John 9); he loved “preeminence” among the brethren. And his kinsmen are not all extinct.

This is the primary thrust of Titus 3:10: “A factious man after a first and second admonition refuse. . . ” The Greek word for “factious” is hairetikos, the basis of our English “heretic.” It alludes to the one who rallies a “party” around himself, thus creating division by pressing his unscriptural opinions.

There appear to have been some at Corinth of this disposition, whom Paul rebukes (1 Corinthians 1:10ff), though he disguises their identities by a common rhetorical device of employing pseudonyms (cf. 1 Corinthians 4:6).

Another contributor to disunity is the self-willed individual. This is why a candidate for the eldership must be carefully screened; no “self-willed” man must be appointed (Titus 1:7). The term describes the arrogant person who “canonizes” his opinions and cannot he budged. It is “his” way or “no” way. He will rule or ruin; boss or burst!

Most every church that has been forced to take care of its affairs in the “men’s business meeting” format has encountered headstrong creatures of this temperament, and on occasion, churches have been divided as a result. These attitudes are evil.

It is more natural for men to be divided than to be united. It is more human for men to fly apart than to come together. Real unity between all Christians would be a “supernatural fact which would require a supernatural explanation.”

It is the tragic fact that it is just that united front that the Church has never shown to men. Faced by the disunity of Christians, the world cannot see the supreme value of the Christian faith.

It is our individual duty to demonstrate that unity of love with our fellow men which is the answer to Christ’s prayer. The rank and file of the Churches can do and must do what the leaders of the Church refuse officially to do.

Jesus’ great desire for his disciples was that they would become one. He wanted them unified as a powerful witness to the reality of God’s love. Unity between believers is not often mentioned as the catalyst for someone becoming a Christian.

However, Christian unity does provide an environment for the gospel message to make its clearest impact, and lack of unity among Christians frequently drives people away. Are you helping to unify the body of Christ, the church?

You can pray for other Christians, avoid gossip, build others up, work together in humility, give your time and money, exalt Christ, and refuse to get sidetracked by arguing over divisive matters.

One powerful purpose behind Jesus’ command to lovingly get along and forge unity from compassion was to show the world that Jesus was God’s Son. If we can’t learn to get along, and support each other, how is the world to believe that we have been touched by the Messiah?

When we fight and bicker, we become living proof that Jesus doesn’t have the power to change lives. If we have a lack of love for each other, we cut the legs out from under our evangelism and makes a mockery of our testimony.

Look at Jesus and the context of this principle

When death nears, it’s remarkable how important the shade of our sheltering friends becomes.  Not even the Son of God wanted to be alone when the shadow of the cross darkened His last days.

The differences of temperament among them (Matthew the tax collector and Simon the Zealot would have been serious rivals/enemies) and the jealousies that had arisen over the positions which they expected to hold in the coming kingdom made their group unstable.

Jesus knew that if they were to maintain an adequate testimony for Him they could do so only as a unit.  Disunity would mar their work, if indeed it did not violate that work altogether. For this reason He gave them what many have called the 11th commandment: “My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.”

The comparative clause in verse 12 gave the standard by which all real love can be measured and understood. Christ did not ask from His disciples more than He himself gave, and He set the norm by His own life.

(Ecclesiastes 4:9-12 NIV)  “Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their work: {10} If one falls down, his friend can help him up. But pity the man who falls and has no one to help him up! {11} Also, if two lie down together, they will keep warm. But how can one keep warm alone? {12} Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.”

(Proverbs 17:17 NIV)  “A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.”

(Proverbs 18:24 NIV)  “A man of many companions may come to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.”

How do we become people of love? How can we be transformed into an authentic community of caring people who speak to the world about real love?

1. Jesus’ love comes from another world.

Jesus modified the word “love” in an extraordinary way: He told us we are to love one another as he has loved us! And He revealed the source of that love: from His Father.

As a Christian, I am to have for others (you) no less love than the Father has for the Son.

2. Jesus loves with a Savior’s love.

All we need to do is think for a moment what Jesus did when He washed the feet of both Peter and Judas Iscariot to begin to remember the kind of love He had.

He looked not at the present but at the future of a person…and offered unconditional love to those around Him.

His love is not  driven by ifs or whens  such as “I’ll love you if you treat me right” or Í’ll love you when you straighten up.”

The Savior’s love is not conditioned by right behavior or a good performance. It pays no attention to IQ, bank balance, or skin color. It is blind to appearance and deaf to tone. It cares not about heritate, reputation, or rap sheet.

A key element of this lofty love was sacrifice:

 “Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.”

Divine love went beyond this, for Jesus laid down His life for His enemies.  By emphasizing the word man, the full meaning of the text may be brought into plain view.  Men give their lives for their friends; Jesus gave His life for His enemies.

3. Jesus wants us to share His love.

The love that started in the halls of heaven and progressed through the body of our Savior on a cross finishes its course with us. We are the last link to this divine chain – and surely we’re the weakest.

When we have known God’s tender forgiveness and rested in his unconditional acceptance, then-and only then-are we truly ready to face a frustrating spouse or a cantankerous brother or sister with renewed vigor and fresh compassion.

Unless we have accepted and experienced God’s divine, selfless love, we will be unable to offer it to others. We cannot give away that which we have never received!

A lady driving on a narrow country road nearly went into a ditch when a car came around a sharp turn on the wrong side of the road. When she yelled, “Watch where you’re going!” as she passed his window, the offending driver shouted, “Pig.”

The stunned woman shot back, “Who are you calling a pig? You’re the pig!” and was still fuming in anger when she spun around the curve ahead and nearly crashed into the huge pig that was wallowing in a mud hole in the center of the road.

Some warnings are only understood too late.

In the Upper Room Discourse, Jesus now moves from words of comfort to words of warning to his 11 apostles. The first one: stay close to me.

A missionary recently related a story of a trip to Thailand and he was offering firm, repeated warning to his son “Don’t let go of my hand!”

He was concerned that he’d get lost in the underground marketplace: lots of people, the child too small to understand yet totally incapable of  taking care of himself or finding his parents if he were to get separated from them. And besides: this was a country that was known for kidnapping children and selling them as slaves.

“Don’t let go of my hand” had a very special meaning, didn’t it? But how do you explain to a young child such things when he approaches everything on a very innocent, simplistic level?

If you understand that frustration, you can relate to what Jesus must have felt as He considered His disciples’ future.

Jesus was leaving, that much He’d explained. The Spirit was coming, that they understood. Were the 22 eyes looking at Him on that occasion filled with confidence…wisdom…or were they filled with concern and uncertainty?

Jesus says five times in six verses: Remain in me!

In these opening verses, our Lord uses a similar homespun illustration — that of a vine and its branches — to teach His disciples the importance of fellowship with Him. This was an ancient metaphor that Israel’s prophets had used for centuries. He gives His followers a handful of reasons why they must remain close to Him.

Vineyards were everywhere, and it may be that they passed several on the road from Jerusalem to Gethsemane. They were certainly partaking of juice from the vine at their Passover feast.

* Five points of  resemblance between the vine and the gardener are given:

– 1. Remain in Me because “I am the right stock…the true vine.”

¹  “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser.

The first essential in planting a vineyard is to have the right stock. Every nurseryman guarantees that the plants he sells will run true to type.

The story of Israel’s relationship with God had more “ups and downs” than a yo-yo.

One minute they were worshipping God and the next minute they’re putting up Asherah poles or dancing around golden calves.

This verse describes their behavior: (Exodus 32:6)  “So the next day the people rose early and sacrificed burnt offerings and presented fellowship offerings. Afterward they sat down to eat and drink and got up to indulge in revelry.”

What prompts such unfaithfulness (then and now?)

What enables a Christian to slip out the back door or a church building and step into the side door of an adult bookstore?

What leads a disciple to let go of the hand of Christ and raise his hand in abuse against his wife or children?

What seduces the Christian into dancing with the devil?

Our problem? We often become enamored with imitations…the fake vine that claims to be rooted in something good is simply that: fake!

It looks succulent and good…others have chosen to drink of its nectar so we do too. That false vine comes in the form of money…power…pleasure…fame….the list needs to come from your lips.

No matter how sweet and filling these items may be today—they are destined to dry up and blow away—as will all people who have joined themselves to them!

2. Remain in Me because “My Father is the husbandman…the right expert (gardener).”

⁶  If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned.

Every vineyard must be pruned by an expert. The vinedresser had to know how and when to prune and fertilize the vine, so that it would produce the maximum stock.

Jesus indicates that God is both the owner and the manager of the field. It was His to tend as He saw fit. And there is one goal in mind: to get the most good fruit possible from the vines under His care.

The concept of pruning involves the removal of some shoots in order to enhance the fruit bearing of the other branches. Christ assures his followers that God had already pruned and cleaned their branches and that he would continue to tend them as they grew.

How does He do this? Through the discipline and trials we go through as Christians. “Trials only stop when it is useless: that is why it scarcely ever stops.”

But pruning also involves cutting off the branches that bear no fruit. And we simply cannot ignore the scriptures that speak of this process:

(2 Thess. 1:7b-9)  “…This will happen when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven in blazing fire with his powerful angels. {8} He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. {9} They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the majesty of his power.”

Cutting off barren branches is serious business. The fear of an eternity in hell outside of the presence of God exists for a reason: the gardener will not tolerate barren branches.

A while back I was told of a funny video that was in German; but you didn’t need to know German to get the point. A young woman asks her father how he likes the new iPad she gave him for his birthday. He says, “Good.”

But then she watches him use his iPad as a cutting board for chopping his vegetables. She is horrified as he rinses it off in the sink and puts in the dishwasher! A caption in English informs us that no I-Pads were harmed in filming the episode.

In real life, it’s no laughing matter when you see something costly not being used to fulfill its intended purpose, or even worse, being used for something contrary to its purpose.

But the saddest of all is when people who have been redeemed by the blood of Christ fail to live for the purpose for which He saved them.

They drift through life like the unredeemed people around them, living to accumulate more stuff that they think will make them happier before they die.

But they never stop to consider what God wants them to do with the few precious years and the gifts that He gives them.

3. Remain in Me because You Can’t Bear Fruit Alone…the right culture.

²  Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit.

³  Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. ⁴  Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me.

These verses talk of Christians who are habitually unfaithful to the cause of Christ. It isn’t spiritual immaturity or laziness or struggling lifestyles. These are people who have lost their connection/allegiance to Christ.

(2 Peter 2:20-22)  “If they have escaped the corruption of the world by knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and are again entangled in it and overcome, they are worse off at the end than they were at the beginning. {21} It would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than to have known it and then to turn their backs on the sacred command that was passed on to them. {22} Of them the proverbs are true: “A dog returns to its vomit,” and, “A sow that is washed goes back to her wallowing in the mud.””

4. Remain in Me because if you do, I’ll make you fruitful…the right contact.

⁵  I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.

The process of pruning must never sever the fruit-bearing branch from the main vine. Cuttings will often bear leaves independently through the vitality resident in them, but they will never bear fruit.

In scripture, fruit, more fruit, and more fruit is the divine order! Growth brings increase in fruitfulness, and the more mature a Christian becomes, the more is expected of him.

Trying to bear fruit on our own is like trying to turn on a light that isn’t plugged in. We can check the bulb and flip the switch as often as we like, but if it isn’t connected to the power source, it will not work!

5. The right fruitage: “The same bears much fruit.”

. ⁸  By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples.

God blesses those who abide in Him:

1. Prayer is answered.

“If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you.” (vs. 7)

2. God is glorified

“This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.” (vs. 8)

3. Our life will be motivated by love.

“As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father’s commands and remain in his love.” (vs. 9-10)

4. Joy will be ours in abundance.

“I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.” (vs. 11).

A pair of scissors consists of two single blades. Yet the blades, regardless of  how sharp or shiny, are useless without one essential element — the small metal screw that holds them together.

Can you imagine trying to cut some paper or fabric without that tiny screw? Of course, you could put a blade in each hand. But think of the effort and difficulty involved in trying to make an even, precise cut that way. But when that tiny screw brings both blades together, suddenly the cutting becomes effortless.

In our relationship with God, abiding in Jesus is the screw that holds everything together and makes us useful to Him.

 

 And you know the way to where I am going.” ⁵  Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” ⁶  Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

I am thankful for the question Thomas asked, This affirmation of Jesus is one the greatest philosophical utterances of all time! He did not say that he KNEW the way…He declared himself THE FINAL KEY OF ALL MYSTERIES.

We have computer programs which map out the best route to various destinations. There are two pieces of information which we must know before the map can be printed: 1. the point of departure, and 2. the destination.

The disciples actually did know the starting point (Jerusalem) but they think they do not know His destination…I’ll let Jesus tell us:

John 6:38 (ESV) For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me.

John 7:33-34 (ESV) Jesus then said, “I will be with you a little longer, and then I am going to him who sent me. ³⁴  You will seek me and you will not find me. Where I am you cannot come.”

——————

Ever been asked a question like this: “Are you one of those who believe that Jesus is exclusively the only way to heaven? They usually follow with this exclamation: You know how mad that makes people these days!”

My response: “Jesus is not exclusive. He died so that anyone could comes to Him for salvation.”

Jesus is inclusive! The Bible says Jesus died so that people of all social classes, ethnicities and backgrounds can come to him for salvation.  Jesus excludes no one!

Christianity is not an exclusive club limited to an elite few who fit the perfect profile. Everyone is welcome regardless of color, class, or clout.

When he was on earth, Jesus made many gracious, very “inclusive” offers to help all kinds of people. Here are a few offers of hope to any of Jesus’ hearers without “fine print.” I’ll use italics to emphasize the key words…

“Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life” (John 4:13-14).

By the way, Jesus made this statement to a woman whom most of Jesus’ countrymen would have considered a societal outcast, unworthy of civil conversation, much less an offer of eternal life!

“I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life” (John 8:12).

“Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:38).

Then, why “only through Jesus”?

Jesus does not simply teach the way or point the way; He is the way. In fact, “the Way” was one of the early names for the Christian faith :

Acts 9:2 (ESV) and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any belonging to the Way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem.

Acts 19:23 (ESV) About that time there arose no little disturbance concerning the Way.

Acts 22:4 (ESV) I persecuted this Way to the death, binding and delivering to prison both men and women,

Acts 24:14 (ESV) But this I confess to you, that according to the Way, which they call a sect, I worship the God of our fathers, believing everything laid down by the Law and written in the Prophets,

Our Lord’s statement, “No man cometh unto the Father but by Me,” wipes away any other proposed way to heaven—good works, religious ceremonies, costly gifts, prestige, or power.

There is only one way, and Jesus Christ Jesus is the only way to God—it’s the truth and the only option that works. Think about it…God is the one we have all sinned against.

“All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way” (Isaiah 53:6).

Since we’re the “offenders,” it makes sense that God is the only one qualified to say how things can be set right with him! Even in our courts the offenders don’t set the amounts of their fines or the terms of their punishment! Why would we think the God of the universe would require less?

All of us are guilty before God. We are sinners in need of a Savior and we cannot help ourselves. Our sin had to be dealt with. Jesus, as God in the flesh, died to pay the penalty for our sins and then rose from the dead.

The Bible puts it this way: “For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die—but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:7-8).

Isaiah 53:6 goes on to say that “the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.” No other religious leader offers what Jesus provides in His victory over sin and death. And no other leader rose from the dead!

The gospel of Christ is offensive to some, but it is the wonderful truth that God loves us enough to come and take care of our biggest problem—sin.

John 3:17 (ESV) 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.

Jesus’ gracious offer to solve our basic sin problem is still valid today: “Whoever hears my word and believes him [God] who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life” (John 5:24).

The Jews talked much about the way in which men must walk and the ways of God. God said to Moses: “You shall not turn aside to the right hand or to the left. You shall walk in all the ways which the Lord your God has commanded you” (Deuteronomy 5:32, 33).

Moses said to the people: “I know that after my death you will surely act corruptly, and turn aside from the way which I have commanded you” (Deuteronomy 31:29).

Suppose we are in a strange town and ask for directions. Suppose the person asked says: “Take the first to the right, and the second to the left. Cross the square, go past the church, take the third on the right and the road you want is the fourth on the left.” The chances are that we will be lost before we get half-way. But suppose the person we ask says: “Come. I’ll take you there.” In that case the person to us is the way, and we cannot miss it.

That is what Jesus does for us. He does not only give advice and directions. He takes us by the hand and leads us; he strengthens us and guides us personally every day. He does not tell us about the way; he is the Way.

Following are three reasons why people reject Jesus’ claim to be the only way to God:

1. They are satisfied with their own way or with doing nothing; they refuse on principle to examine Christ’s claims. Like people in a smoke-filled building who doubt that there is a fire, they insist that they will find their own way out.
2. They deny their lostness. These people in the smoke-filled building insist on debating whether there is a fire.
3. They are convinced that there must be several valid ways besides Jesus to get to God. These people in the smoke-filled building reluctantly agree that there may be a fire, but that any way of escape is as good as any other, even though they have not actually chosen a way themselves.

I have faith in a God who acts in history to uphold a particular truth, a vision of social justice and personal holiness that has clear definition and is anything but relative.

Despite my post-modern inclination to embrace nuance, paradox and gray areas, Jesus presents me with a yes or no decision: Will I follow him, or not?

The choice to answer “yes” is a direct challenge to the status quo. All of a sudden, I find that I can’t go along anymore with my culture’s competing truth claims.

Jesus has become not merely one option for my personal growth, nor just a great teacher whose wisdom I can mix and match with other teachers and paths. Instead, I am put in the uncomfortable position of following him as my Lord and my God.

By relating to Jesus as what could be ultimate concern, I shine a spotlight on the inadequacy of all other, less-than-ultimate concerns. Family, country, community, wealth, peace and progress, all these things are good and necessary for our well-being, but they fall short of ultimacy.

In Jesus, I discover that it’s not enough to be happy, healthy and wealthy if I’m not following the ultimate truth.

Despite how offensive and exclusive Jesus may seem to many, following him is ultimately the most inclusive, loving thing we can do.

Some explain it this way: our culture’s way of creating belonging is through shared affinity – for example, the kind of music we listen to, games we play, work we do, or pets we own. Our culture seeks to create unity through subcultures centered on shared consumption, rather than shared purpose.

These various subcultures – including many religious groups, I might add! – are an extremely exclusive way of forming community. They depend upon a group of people gathered around shared traits or interests. They gather around who we are and what we do rather than who God is and what God is doing.

Jesus does things differently. He draws us into community with people that we would not have chosen ourselves. Rather than coming together primarily out of shared hobbies, life experience or social/class backgrounds, Jesus calls people who are profoundly different. These folks might not even like each other; yet, in Jesus, they discover an irresistible love that unites them.

I’ve seen this play out many times: God draws together a bunch of misfits, folks who no reasonable person would have picked out, but who our unreasonable God designed to cohere in his Spirit.

This is the kind of community I want to be a part of: a community that stretches me to love folks I don’t like, to grow beyond the normal bounds of human affinity.

I want to be part of a community so radiant with Christ’s inclusive love that even those who are skeptical of our faith will be drawn to us.

When we are dwelling in the Spirit, others may perceive that we want to be friends with them – not because we like them, and not because they say the right words or believe the right things, but because Jesus already loves them and accepts them.

As Charles Hodge said: “Stick with those you’re stuck with.”

Jesus claimed to be the only way to God the Father. Some people may argue that this way is too narrow. In reality, it is wide enough for the whole world, if the world chooses to accept it. Instead of worrying about how limited it sounds to have only one way, we should be saying, “Thank you, God, for providing a sure way to get to you!

The claims of Jesus resound in the Holy Scriptures. He makes it clear that He is not a “good teacher” He is not a “good man” – a man slightly elevated and set apart from other men.

Jesus claimed and demonstrated that He is the holy God. He created the Universe, the Cosmos and the many distant world’s.

He is the Word of God made flesh. He is the Son of God incarnate, who came to save people from everlasting punishment. He alone is the way to God, the only mediator and Savior of human-kind. Only He is able and willing to sacrifice Himself for the destitute race that is human beings.

He has always been with the Father. He is an infinite being who never had a start and will never end. He is Eternal Life.

This is who He is. The way to freedom, salvation and forgiveness is through Him. Only Him. There is only one way to heaven, and that way is on His terms, not ours.

The path of repentance and faith is the only way to heaven. We face our sinful selves and bring our rottenness to Christ and He is able to forgive anyone who comes and trusts in Him. This is a supernatural process that only God the Son can perform.

Christ died so that humans don’t have to. He offers free salvation to anyone who will humble themselves and give up their selfish lives to Him. Our destruction is that we refuse Him and insist on our own way.

This is the only way to God. It is an exclusive way and has a single Savior. All honor, glory and praise is unto His name for ever and ever.

John 3:18 (ESV) 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.