Month: November 2024

LOVE BY OBEYING  

John 14:15-17 NET.

¹⁵ “If you love me, you will obey my commandments. ¹⁶ Then I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate to be with you forever — ¹⁷ the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot accept, because it does not see him or know him. But you know him, because he resides with you and will be in you.

I imagine that if you stopped everyone in this county and asked them if they love Jesus, the vast majority would say yes. We live in a world that apparently loves Jesus – billions of us. But how do you know if a person’s love of Jesus is genuine or not? That is where today’s text can help. It says that people who genuinely love Jesus are going to demonstrate that love. What’s more, it says that the way they will demonstrate their love for Jesus is concrete and easy to recognize. It says that genuine lovers of Jesus obey his commandments.

We have been studying the commands of Jesus here at Piney Grove for three years now. We isolated each command and examined it in its context to discover its full meaning and how it can be applied to our lives today. But that is the easy part. Jesus didn’t say “If you love me, you will learn my commandments. No, the way we truly demonstrate love for our Lord is to obey them. The Greek word is τηρέω, which means to keep. You keep a commandment by doing what it says to do or not doing what it prohibits. A commandment is a special message from God. But we can only keep commandments when we take that message and let it alter our lives. That is what it means to keep it. Once you encounter the commandment, if you had been breaking it, you repent of that rebellion, and you own it. From that time on, you are changed by that act of repentance.

We learned that Jesus gave many commands, and we have had to meet him at the altar regularly and deal with each one. The more we allowed the command to challenge us and change our behavior, the more like Jesus we became. The more like Jesus we became, the more love for Jesus grew inside us. We have discovered a more profound commitment to Jesus and a stronger appreciation for him with each trip to the altar. What Jesus wants is for us to learn the habit of letting him change us each time we encounter a command from him. We learn to love Jesus by obeying him and our love for him grows as we allow him to keep reviving us with his commands in God’s word.

In today’s text, Jesus identifies three ways that we can know if this process is really going on in our lives. We all want to be the real thing, not just people who appear to be obedient Christians. We want to be actually obedient Christians.

First, only obedient Christians truly love Jesus (15).

Jesus said that if we love him, we will obey his commandments. He did not say that if we put our names on a church membership list, he would accept that as a substitute. He didn’t say that if we had family members who were obedient Christians, we could be accepted on the basis of their obedience.

Love is loyalty. Lots of people admire Jesus and approve of his words. But that does not mean they love him. Jesus himself gave the evidence that would indicate if a person truly loves him. True love is a commitment. Since Jesus is a king, the kind of love he requires is the love of a loyal subject. Our generation has problems with that kind of love. They want a Jesus they can like, but not a Jesus whom they have to obey. They want the other Jesus. They want a Jesus who will accept them on their terms. They want to do what they want and get Jesus thrown in as a minor side-project.

The world wants Jesus without all those costly commandments. They want a baby in a manger, but not a prophet pronouncing tragedy coming upon the rebellious. They want a good shepherd as long as the shepherd does not mind them straying off on their own and getting into trouble when they want to. The only problem is that a good shepherd will not allow his flock to stray. He disciplines the unruly. The world doesn’t want a Jesus like that.

But those who genuinely love Jesus invite him to take control of their lives. They realize their need for him and are willing to do anything he asks them to do because they know obeying him is the only way they will ever know true freedom.

The world does not mind the idea of a Jesus who accepts them just as they are. They do mind a Jesus who insists on bringing them back into a relationship with his Father. That would involve change. They don’t want a Jesus who wants to change them.

Only obedient Christians can truly love Jesus because they are the only ones who want to be saved. Salvation is not possible without repentance, and repentance does not happen without change.

Second, only obedient Christians can accept the Advocate (16,17a).

Jesus used the word Advocate for the gift of the Holy Spirit here. The actual Greek word in verse 16 is παράκλητος. This word is variously translated in different versions as Helper, Advocate, Comforter, and Counselor. It speaks of a person who is called alongside another person to assist them.

The best way to understand how Jesus uses that title for the Holy Spirit is to keep in mind that Jesus intended the Holy Spirit to do what Jesus did while he was here on earth. He had a ministry of discipling and he gave us his Holy Spirit to continue that process after he ascended to heaven.

Jesus said that he was going to ask the Father to give us the Holy Spirit. We know from the Book of Acts that he followed up on that promise. The Holy Spirit descended visibly upon the obedient Christians in Jerusalem at Pentecost. Ever since then, the Holy Spirit has been available for all true Christians to help us grow in our faith and to empower us to disciple others. That is an amazing gift, and the fact that people still keep coming to Christ after all these centuries is evidence that He has not lost his power.

Now, Jesus said in verse 17 that the world cannot accept this gift. He is earmarked for only truly obedient Christians. It does not matter how much an unbeliever might want the Holy Spirit; they cannot have Him. The seven sons of Sceva in the book of Acts wished to use the Holy Spirit’s power, so they tried to invoke the names of Jesus and Paul to access that power. The demons replied, “I know about Jesus, and I am acquainted with Paul, but who are you?” (Acts 19:15). A man named Simon approached Peter and tried to purchase the Holy Spirit with money. But Peter said “May your silver perish with you, because you thought you could acquire God’s gift with money! (Acts 8:20). There is only one way to accept the Gifty of the Holy Spirit. It is given to repentant, obedient Christians.

Finally, only obedient Christians can possess the Advocate (17b).

Jesus went on in today’s text to explain just how his apostles were going to receive this Advocate. He said that He already resides with them and will be in them. The Holy Spirit was not absent from the world before Pentecost. But He came to work his power alongside[1] those whom he decided to bless. After Pentecost, the Holy Spirit was still capable of showing God’s power alongside others. But he could also work through obedient Christians because at Pentecost he came inside.[2] them.

Thus, the Holy Spirit has two ongoing missions. He is the Advocate for every believer, assisting them in learning and putting into practice Christ’s commands. He is also the empowerment that enables every believer to proclaim the gospel to the nations.

He is available to you and me. If we need more wisdom to walk according to the commands of our King, the Advocate is there for us. If we need the power to fulfill the great commission, the Holy Spirit is in us. Jesus told the watching faithful that they would receive power when the Holy Spirit came upon them, and they would be his witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the farthest parts of the earth (Acts 1:8). That same Holy Spirit is provided for us, to accomplish the same mission. He is also available to help us obey our King.

LORD, we acknowledge what the Scripture teaches. The Holy Spirit is within us. Empower us through your Holy Spirit to be obedient to our Master and, by so doing, to show that we love him.

[1] Greek παρά.

[2] Greek ἐν.

TRUST ME 

John 14:1-6 (NLT).

¹ “Don’t let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, and trust also in me. ² There is more than enough room in my Father’s home. If this were not so, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? ³ When everything is ready, I will come and get you, so that you will always be with me where I am. ⁴ And you know the way to where I am going.” ⁵ “No, we don’t know, Lord,” Thomas said. “We have no idea where you are going, so how can we know the way?” ⁶ Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me.

I come to today’s passage with fear and trembling. As a preacher of the Gospel, it is my responsibility to open the word of God and explain it. The most challenging texts of Scripture to properly preach are not the obscure texts buried in the lesser-read books of the Old Testament or the Book of Revelation. No, the hardest texts to preach are the ones that everybody knows – the ones they have read many times, memorized, and made into their life verses.

Such is the case with this text from the Gospel of John. Supposedly, everybody knows what its words imply. So, I have the unenviable task of coming to today’s text and explaining it. Some who hear or read my words will be offended by what I say because it will seem like I have insulted their long-cherished beliefs. Others will write me off as a fool, trying to explain away something that is all too obvious because of my false beliefs. Others will be just confused.

If we are not careful, we will read things not the way they really read but how we think they read. For example, the road sign that says, “WHAT I IF TOLD YOU—YOU READ THE TOP LINE WRONG.” Just a casual glance at the road sign, and we will read it, “WHAT IF I TOLD YOU.” We automatically make the sign say what we are used to seeing. A similar thing is happening to these first six verses of John 14.

So, to understand the meaning of today’s text, we have to try to get rid of the presuppositions. Those are the distractions that are already in our minds. We need to eliminate the presuppositions and attempt to read the words of Jesus as if we had never heard them before. That’s what I’m going to try in today’s message.

First, let’s look at what Jesus commands (1).

We have spent the better part of three years now looking at the commands of Jesus as they appear in the Gospels. Jesus gives two commands in verse 1, a negative and a positive command. The negative command is “Don’t let your hearts be troubled.” This is not a general command. It relates to a particular context. To understand why Jesus tells his disciples not to let their hearts be troubled, we need to go back to the bombshell that he had just dropped, as recorded by John in the previous chapter. Jesus had revealed to his disciples that he was going somewhere that they could not come. He said, “Where I am going, you cannot follow me now, but you will follow later” (John 13:36).

So, the experience that the disciples will have that potentially might trouble their hearts is the Master’s absence. Jesus is going away, and his followers will not be able to follow him there. They followed him throughout Galilee, Samaria, Perea, and Judea, but they would not be able to follow him when he returned to his Father.

Instead of letting their hearts be troubled by that reality, Jesus commands them to trust God and trust him. They may not understand why they will not be ascending to heaven when he does, but they do not need to understand that. All they need to do is trust God and trust Jesus. Many things have happened in our lives that we did not fully understand. Even years after they have happened, we are still confused by them. But if we are wise, we learn to trust God even in those things that we cannot understand. That is the kind of trust that Jesus is commanding in today’s text.

I warned you that today’s text has often been misunderstood and misread. In order to fully understand what is there, we need to carefully erase what people think is there but is not really there.

Let’s eliminate what Jesus does not promise (2-3).

Jesus speaks of room in his Father’s home. A long tradition of English translation has Jesus promising mansions. This can be traced back to Tyndale, who used the word “mansion” to translate the Greek word μονή here. Back in Tyndale’s time, the word mansion just meant a place to stay. That was an excellent word to translate μονή in Tyndale’s time. Unfortunately, in today’s English, a mansion means something different. It means a colossal gigantic residence that is expensive and impressive. That’s not what μονή means. It is related to the verb μένω, which means to stay or remain.

So, Jesus is assuring his disciples that there are many rooms in his Father’s house. But what does he mean by his Father’s house? This is another phrase people tend to misinterpret. The only other instance in John’s Gospel where Jesus mentioned his Father’s house was when he was cleansing the temple. He said, “Get these things out of here. Stop turning my Father’s house into a marketplace!” (John 2:16). John commented on that experience. He said that after seeing Jesus’ passionate tirade against those who abused the temple, the “disciples remembered this prophecy from the Scriptures: “Passion for God’s house will consume me.” The temple was God’s house because it represented God’s presence on earth. When Jesus assured his disciples that there was plenty of room in his Father’s house, he was not telling them that they would go to heaven. He was telling them that when God came back to earth, they would have a place in his kingdom.

Jesus could not have been promising the disciples heaven before his return, because this very text gives us the timetable for the promise’s fulfillment. Jesus says first that he is going to make a place ready. That’s step 1. What does the Bible say about heaven during step 1? It says, “No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven — the Son of Man” (John 3:13). That tells us that heaven is populated by a total of one human being: Jesus himself.

Then Jesus says he’s coming back again to take them to be where he is. That’s step 2. Step two (our uniting with Christ) does not begin until Jesus returns and sets up his kingdom on earth. Jesus’ promise during this stage is that he will take his disciples to be with him where he is. But where is he? When Jesus returns to earth he is not coming temporarily like he did last time. He is coming to take his permanent throne as king of kings and Lord of Lords. So, Jesus absolutely and categorically does not say what so many read into this passage. He does not say that believers go to heaven at death. He does not say it in this text, nor does he say it anywhere else.

What did Jesus say happens to people when they die? When his friend Lazarus died, he said, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep. But I am going there to awaken him” (John 11:13). Death is a period of unconsciousness that can only be compared to natural sleep. That state of unconsciousness will not change until Jesus wakes up the sleepers and causes them to rise from the dead. That does not happen when we die. It occurs at the return of Christ!

Finally, let’s focus on what Jesus does promise (2-6).

First as a student, then as a pastor, then as a soldier, then as a missionary, then as a student again, then a missionary again, then as a pastor again—I have lived all of my adult life in temporary places. I have to admit a bit of envy of those who own their own homes. I have problems relating to the idea of a permanent residence, but I understand the desire for a personal home.

The disciples of Jesus had been moving around with him, and they probably wondered if they were going to do that for the rest of their lives. Jesus promised them many μοναὶ. It would have been especially significant for these disciples at this time to know that although Jesus was leaving them when he returned, it would be to set up permanent digs.

When you remove all the extraneous elements of this passage, it reads like this: “Trust me…I will come again.” It’s not about mansions in heaven. It’s about Jesus coming again. It’s about his promise of permanent digs for us with the Father in Christ’s kingdom forever.

Jesus is promising access to a relationship with the Father starting now. He did promise to return to take them to be where he is, but that is not heaven either. When he returns, he will take his place as the rightful king on earth. When Jesus told his disciples that they knew the way, it was because they had come to know him. What they had not realized was that by coming to know Jesus, they had come to know the Father as well. Everyone who has put their trust in Christ already knows the way to the Father. Jesus is the way. Our destiny is sure not because we are going somewhere when we die. Our destiny is sure because we put our trust in Jesus.

Jesus came to his disciples that day, and he had some bad news and some good news. His bad news was that he was going away, and the disciples could not follow him. The good news was that his trip to heaven would not be permanent. He was going, but he was coming back. He had two missions on earth. He fulfilled his first mission by coming to earth to die on the cross as the Savior. Mission accomplished. He has another mission which has yet to be accomplished. He must reign over the earth supreme over all its rulers. He is coming again, not as a baby in a manger but as a warrior on a white horse, riding out to conquer. He will destroy all his enemies “because he is Lord of lords and King of kings” (Revelation 17:14).

The result of Jesus’ second mission is that he will make all things new. Then, the whole earth will once again be fit for the Father’s presence. When Jesus promised his disciples plenty of room in his Father’s house, he was predicting this great event. When all evil is destroyed, and there is no longer an enemy, even death will be destroyed. Then, we will have access to God’s presence for eternity.

YOM KIPPUR

Leviticus 16:29-34 NET.

²⁹ “This is to be a perpetual statute for you. In the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, you must humble yourselves and do no work of any kind, both the native citizen and the foreigner who resides in your midst, ³⁰ for on this day atonement is to be made for you to cleanse you from all your sins; you must be clean before the LORD. ³¹ It is to be a Sabbath of complete rest for you, and you must humble yourselves. It is a perpetual statute. ³² “The priest who is anointed and ordained to act as high priest in place of his father is to make atonement. He is to put on the linen garments, the holy garments, ³³ and he is to purify the Most Holy Place, he is to purify the Meeting Tent and the altar, and he is to make atonement for the priests and for all the people of the assembly. ³⁴ This is to be a perpetual statute for you to make atonement for the Israelites for all their sins once a year.” So he did just as the LORD had commanded Moses.

The Bible does not begin with the Gospel of Matthew. In fact, Matthew’s Gospel is the 40^th book of the Bible. I have encountered Christians who are afraid of the first 39 books. I have encountered those who choose to ignore them because they appear hard to understand. They are harder to understand than most New Testament books because they go back deeper into the past and reflect a more ancient world. But I encourage those who feel this way to face their fears and choose not to neglect the Old Testament. The back side of the mine is deeper and darker and harder to get to, but if we dare to face our fears and put in the hard work of digging into the recesses of that dark place, we might find precious treasure.

Many never get to the backside of the mine because they are too lazy to do the work that it takes to get there. Such people will remain poor when they could be rich. They will settle for a meager existence in this life because they refuse the challenge of seeking a deeper life. They would rather stay behind in obscurity where it is relatively safe than pack up all their belongings and head out west to find the mother lode. It is safer to stay behind. All our things are here. Everything that we value and cherish is on this side of the world. We hear tell of those who have gotten lost on the trail and never even got out west. Others were attacked, died of starvation, or succumbed to disease. The treasure may be there, but it’s too hard to get to.

There are some, of course, who never dare touch the Old Testament because they are not just afraid of the first 39 but against them. Like Marcion, they see the Old Testament as the work of a different god – a God of anger and evil. They think the Old Testament is all law and the New Testament is all gospel. If you’re tempted to believe that, I want to remind you that for all of the authors of the New Testament, their only Bible was the Old Testament. The Old Testament was the Bible that Jesus read. It was the Bible that Jesus quoted when he was tempted. It was the Bible that the Gospel authors quoted when they saw the fulfillment of prophecies in the life of Christ and the early church.

But the influence of the Old Testament is not only seen in the Gospel, it permeates the rest of the New Testament as well. When Paul or Peter of James or John wanted to prove a point or verify teaching, they quoted from that good Old Testament to do so. Mr. Google tells me that there are 283 direct quotations from the Hebrew Bible in the Greek New Testament. The two New Testament books that contain the most direct quotes and indirect allusions are Romans and Hebrews. Those two epistles are precious descriptions of the gospel of grace and the life of faith. Yet they would not make any sense at all without their Old Testament background.

So, we cannot avoid the Old Testament. It is there, and it is not going away. We can ignore it, but choosing to do so is choosing not to receive the blessing that God intends us to have. The gold is on the backside of the mine. There is gold in those hills. God wants us to have it. Yes, getting there is hard work. But getting there and receiving God’s blessing is our destiny.

Today, I want us to examine these six verses in Leviticus 16. They review the commands God gave Moses regarding the Day of Atonement. The whole chapter serves as the context, and it covers more than we will be able to cover in one sermon. So, we will limit our examination to what is being taught in these six verses.

The Hebrew phrase “Yom Kippur” means “day of atonement” or “day of reconciliation” in English. It refers to a specific day in the Hebrew calendar when the High Priest entered the Most Holy Place and offered sacrifices to reconcile the whole nation to God. Let’s look at what this text says about that day.

First, this text highlights one day (29-31).

There was only one day of atonement. It was set for the seventh month of the secular year, which was the first month of the religious year. Starting on the first day of that month, which is the first day of the religious year, the Israelites were to fast for ten days. The first day is Rosh Hashana, and the last day of the fast is Yom Kippur. The Jews are still celebrating these days. If you look at your 2024 calendar, you will find Rosh Hashana on October 3^rd and Yom Kippur on October 12^th.

It was a day for all the inhabitants of Israel to humble themselves before God and “do no work of any kind.” Remember that the Israelites had been slaves in Egypt. They had been born and raised in an environment where their value was judged on the basis of the work they could do. Yet, God rescued them out of Egypt. He intended for them to forsake that old life where they worked to live. He wanted them to be free from that bondage. He wanted them to know that their identity was not based on what they could do. It was based on who they were. It was based on their relationship with him.

That was why this holy day was to be a Sabbath Day. Whether or not it occurred on a Saturday, it was a sacred Sabbath – a day of rest. The Pharaoh demanded work, but God demanded rest. The Pharaoh valued his slaves based on what they could do for him. God valued his people based on what he could do for them. When the slaves failed their Pharaoh, he demanded their destruction. When the Israelites failed their God, he provided for their reconciliation. Yom Kippur was a demonstration of grace.

But it was not just the Israelites who would benefit from God’s grace on that day. The instructions for the celebration were to apply to “both the native citizen and the foreigner who resides in (their) midst.” This is a picture of the universal nature of God’s atonement and the universal scope of the gospel of grace. The whole camp was to celebrate, even those resident aliens who were not part of the children of Jacob. It doesn’t mean that everyone will be saved, but it does mean that everyone can be saved. The blood of the sacrifices of the day of atonement is sufficient to cover all the sins of the camp. No one is to be left out. The Yom Kippur celebration is not optional. Everyone in the camp was expected to participate.

The purpose for the day of atonement is described in verse 30. It says, “On this day, atonement is to be made for you to cleanse you from all your sins; you must be clean before the LORD.” That statement is full of New Testament theology. It says atonement is to be made for the Israelites, not by the Israelites. This is not a doctrine of works but a doctrine of grace. The whole nation was to undergo a cleansing not at the end of their shift (if you will) but at the beginning before any work was to be done. There would be work done throughout the year, but here, at the start of the year, God provides a cleansing.

The Christian life is like that, too. We begin with a cleansing we receive from God, symbolized by our baptism. It represents not the end of our life of achievements for God but the beginning of a new life received from God by his grace alone. Before any work is to be done for God, we must accept his forgiveness and cleansing. The one who does the forgiving is God. The one who does the cleansing is God. We are the passive recipients of his cleansing grace.

Notice also that on the day of atonement the reconciliation is made for all the camp for all their sins. This is before any personal sacrifices are offered. This is before any personal offerings are given. The atonement is God’s work and it is intended to reconcile all the people and cleanse them from all their sins. God wants the nation to start out the year completely forgiven and completely free. He does not wait until the end of the year to get a list of who has been naughty and who has been nice. The reconciliation God offers his people is up-front and is offered by God free of charge.

The holiness that God supplies for his people is not a holiness that is gradually earned. It is a holiness that God gives. It is a reflection of his grace, not our merit. It is inherited. It is not compensation for work done. It is an unmerited favor. The New Testament tells us to pursue holiness because without it no one will see the Lord (Hebrews 12:14). But the good news from the Old Testament is that we do not have to exert our own energy to pursue holiness. We merely have to open our hands and receive it as a gift from our loving God. He is the source of all holiness, and we can receive it in the same way we receive everything else from him. We need only ask and we shall receive.

What we can do by ourselves is what Paul calls the works of the flesh. But what God wants to do through us by empowering us with his Holy Spirit is called the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5). Yom Kippur was God’s way of telling his people that they have a choice: they can live the year their way or his way. They can work by their own strength and produce the works of the flesh, or they can receive his grace and, by that grace, produce the fruit of the Spirit.

Next, this text highlights one man (32-34).

All the actions of the day centered around the work of one man, the descendant of Aaron who was High Priest. The text says that this one man had to be anointed and ordained and that he would be doing the work “in the place of his father.” All the High Priests in the Levitical priesthood represented Aaron, their ancestor. On that day, the High Priest would purify himself, put on holy garments, and purify the sanctuary itself, including the Most Holy Place, which only he was allowed to enter, and only on that one day of the year.

All the rituals and ceremonies of the Day of Atonement were prophetic of God’s work for us. The actions of the High Priest were prophetic of God’s work through Jesus Christ. The text says that the High Priest would act “in the place of his father.” Jesus is the High Priest, not of the Levitical priesthood but of the order of Melchizedek, as described in the Book of Hebrews. Aaron was not his father; God is his Father.

Hebrews says that Jesus “had to be made like his brothers and sisters in every respect, so that he could become a merciful and faithful high priest in things relating to God, to make atonement for the sins of the people” (Hebrews 2:17). He was made like us so that he could intercede for us in the place of his Father, who is God.

On Israel’s Day of Atonement, the High Priest reconciled the whole camp to God so that the whole camp could live for God free from sin for the year. On the world’s Day of Atonement, Jesus, as our High Priest, entered the heavenly Holy of Holies and presented his own blood to reconcile us to God, enabling everyone who is in Christ to live free from sin for eternity.

Paul told the Colossian Christians, “Do not let anyone judge you with respect to food or drink, or in the matter of a feast, new moon, or Sabbath days — these are only the shadow of the things to come, but the reality is Christ!” (Colossians 2:17). The Israelite Day of Atonement was a shadow of the things to come. The reality is Christ.

The author of Hebrews said, “The law possesses a shadow of the good things to come but not the reality itself, and is therefore completely unable, by the same sacrifices offered continually, year after year, to perfect those who come to worship” (Hebrews 10:1).

Let me tell you something about shadows. Shadows are not reality, but they do prove that the reality is there. As we keep digging in the Old Testament, we will encounter a number of shadows. We must look at those shadows closely because they are shaped like Christ and the cross!