(John 2:23)
�Now when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover, in the feast day, many believed in his name, when they saw the miracles which he did.�
At the outset I feel I should mention that I am going to treat those who believed because of the miracles as though they were true believers in this message. Judging from the next two verses, after our text verse, I would assume this to be a wrong position. These people appear, in actuality, not be born again, but simply �hangers on� like the entourage which might follow a rock star in our time. Those people are there because they want to bask in the glow of the �star.� When the �star� loses some of his luster these people will flow to the next entertainer and forget the first. He is, after all, �Old News� and yesterday�s headline.
It seems that these people were attracted by the miracles and notoriety, not by the Savior. They followed for a thrill rather than a regeneration.
The thing we would note here, however, is that Jesus gave us the example of coming to the religious ceremony. I don�t know how many people I have heard who complain about �all the hypocrites in the church.� It is somehow strange that they refuse to attend with some hypocrites, all churches have them it seems, but do not hesitate to go to a Christless eternity will a whole lot more hypocrites.
It is also strange that these people, who claim to worship in �The Cathedral of the Pines,� claim to be the only true followers of Jesus. Yet, they deride and ignore the institution which He founded. Jesus claimed that He would found churches against which even the �gates of hell� would not deter. Yet these �super Christians� claim that they are too annoyed with that which Jesus has established to be able to honor Him with their own faithfulness to that which He has established.
This, His participation in these religious services, is the first thing we will address today. �Now when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover��
Jesus is our example of how we ought to live a Christians. That, after all, is the meaning of the word �Christian.� It means to be Christ like. Here we have an example of Him not forsaking the assembling together.
If we would be true to our Lord, church attendance is not an option. There may be cases where someone just cannot find a group with which he can fellowship. There may be doctrinal differences which are just too large to be overcome. This could be a major problem in a fellowship of believers. After all, the concept is to fellowship as believers. To be among unbelievers is against the principles of God.
What can a person do if he is in such a situation? The simplest answer is in Matthew 28:19-20.
�God ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen.�
I can hear you. You are probably saying, �Do you want me to start my own church?�
No. Just go out in the power of God and witness to the salvation offered in Jesus Christ. Once a few people have been saved, the church is established for you to fellowship. God has established the mode. We are to teach of sin and salvation. We can expect the Spirit to call people to salvation. We begin to teach observance of doctrinal issues, the things commanded by Jesus. We realize that He is with us.
I would remind you of one thing which Jesus has said. �For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.� (Matthew 18:20) Right here we have the working definition of a church. A church is not a large cathedral. A church is not necessary an organized group of groups. A church is a few, or many, people banding together to worship the Lord.
First, and I really believe this is God�s way, try - in prayer and in sincerity, to find an already established group of believers with whom to unite in worship. Then go ahead and win those other souls and bring them with you to this assembly.
The example of Jesus is that we unite with other believers in the Worship of God. If you really can�t find a group that you consider as sound in doctrine, try checking the Book once again. It is really rare to be right all by yourself. If you are led to a solitary worship only, there is probably something wrong with your own relationship with Christ.
An important thing here in the example was to not be forgetting the Almighty. Jesus was always in subjection to the Father. Sometimes there are those who try to read something into this fact which is not warranted. They argue that Jesus was �lower� than the Father.
The truth, of course, is that Jesus voluntarily placed Himself in a position of subservience to the Father. Jesus, in His essential deity, is not below the Father.
John 1:1 says, �In the beginning was the Words, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.� The picture given in the original language is of two equals sitting facing toward each other. Jesus, once again, in His essential deity, is not below the Father. The Triune Godhead is made of three distinct, and completely equal, Personalities. Each is fully God in His Own essence. The Three, Together, form One God.
No. I do not fully understand this fact. But, I do accept this fact because the Bible clearly teaches it is so.
So, why did Jesus voluntarily submit Himself to the Father while He was on this earth? I believe that there are two reasons why this is so. The first is that the mission of Jesus was to be a representative sacrifice for humanity. To do this it was necessary that He become human. Submission to the will of God is the duty of each human being. Jesus could not have been our Savior had He not voluntarily submitted to the Father.
Second, Jesus lived His life in a body of flesh in such a way as we should also live our lives. Part of His teaching to us was by example.
It is often very hard to submit. My little three-year-old grandson was sick a couple of days ago. I �butted in� and suggested that he be taken to the ER. It wasn�t my place to do this. Elijah�s parents have that duty and responsibility. My responsibility to Eli, and his parents, is to let them live their lives. They are their own family unit.
I was wrong to act as �Dad� to my son when I should have sat back and been �Grandpa� to my grandson.
This is a lesson that we all need to heed from time to time. It is also a spiritual lesson we need to learn. There is a brand of theology which is often called the �Name it and Claim it� theology. It is a theology which nearly makes God the Servant of the Christian.
Folks, God is very good to us. He is the loving Parent. He should be allowed to be that Parent. It is not our place to tell Him how to act in any respect. We can, and should, make request of Him; we have no right to claim He �owes� us anything!
We have not even earned this great salvation. If you want to see what you have earned as a human being on this earth, go and read the first part of Romans 6:23. God is still in the business of honoring His promises. If you put up your umbrella you will not get wet. If you want water in that umbrella you need to hold it in another position. Check the position of your own soul if you feel you�re missing blessings.
I�m going to repeat that last sentence. Check the position of your own soul if you feel you�re missing blessings. For the most part, if we think we deserve some blessing from God, we are terribly out of fellowship. Check in at the prayer line and submit. That is where we really should be, anyway.
Note, also, that Jesus was not guilty of fellowshipping with evil. The first thing He did when He arrived at the service was to cleanse the Temple of those things which stood between God and man. He chased off the �worship� aids; He removed the monetary incentives. He even chastised the corrupt clergy.
Now, there�s an example.
We need nothing except Him to fellowship with the Father. We can fellowship with Him in the privacy of our own homes, or anywhere else. But, to do this we need to be in subjection to His leading. Before we are competent to worship in privacy, we need to be willing to honor Him in public. There we are back at that church fellowship again!
If we are not willing to honor Him, and His directives toward us, how can we expect to be in complete fellowship with Him?
I have a sister who has not said a civil word to me for some time. Now, she is still my sister; that hasn�t changed. But, I certainly don�t go out of my way to find her and say, �Hi.�
This is in the natural. Yet, we expect to �trash� the very organization which Jesus founded, the churches, and still be in perfect fellowship with Him? We are still Christians, if we have ever really accepted Him as Savior, but we sure ain�t the closest in fellowship with Him.
Quite simply, if we are not fellowshipping with Christ in truth and in Spirit, we are very close to fellowshipping with evil. If we can ignore His leading with impunity, we are far from Him.
Neither do we need, for instance, a little statue on the dashboard of our cars to be close to Him. Now, I understand this is a two-edged sword. There may be some who would put things such as this around as a witness aid rather than as a worship aid. Just a few days ago a lady in an office where I was doing business commented on my hat. You�ve probably all seen the WWJD jewelry. It is intended as a witnessing aid. WWJD stands for �What Would Jesus Do.� My hat says, �WDJD� (What Did Jesus Do), and contains a reference to Romans 5:6. �For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.�
The difference between what the statue is for many people, and my hat, is that one is a worship aid. The hat is a witness aid. We can use things to turn people�s minds to Christ in such a way as to invite witness. But, if we use a thing to turn our own minds to God in worship, such a thing becomes an idol. It begins to stand between us and God.
From such turn away.
Some people come into fellowship in order to improve their business. �Networking,� it is called. In the church I am presently attending there is a man who owns a towing business. Whenever I need my van to be towed I call this man. Sure, part of the reason is because we go to the same church. Folks, I know this guy. This is just his business. He�d still be in the church, and active in the church, if he was on welfare. He is a Christian first and a businessman second. His business may often be an outreach for His beliefs, but his beliefs are never belittled by being used as a tool for his business.
We�ve all known the other type of person. There are those who consider their church offerings to be nearly advertising write-off�s!
I mentioned that Jesus also was at odds with the religious leaders. They were those who would lead men from Christ. They were those who sought to still His message. They went so far as to kill Him on the Cross in an attempt to do so.
Didn�t work! He rose again!
The point is that we need to be fellowshipping in a church that honor�s the Lord. We need to be in a church that honor�s His Words. We need to be in a church where the pure doctrine of Jesus is paramount. To do otherwise is to fellowship with evil.
We look, also, and see that Jesus was interested in His provision. ��in the feast day��
Jesus, our Example joined in the worship at the Temple.
Jesus had no need, except as an Example to us, to go to the Temple. As God, He was the One Who was being worshipped. Yet, He went. What does this say of our own need to be regular in local church attendance?
This is the silly season of Presidential politics in the U. S. I worked for a candidate for a state office a few years ago. This man had been a member of the Illinois House for several terms and had been effective for our district. Further, he was a well liked and respected man. We were all shocked when he lost his race to a political newcomer.
Our candidate was well known. There was no �dirt� to throw at him in the campaign. The only ad, and it was run over and over, was that in his ten year career in the state house, he had missed just over 5,000 votes. These were fairly easily explained. Some of the votes had taken place while he was in committee meetings. Some were over trivial, �We vote to honor�,� type things. A few were because of illness. The number of roll call votes actually missed was very small.
Still, my candidate was voted out of office. It seems that the electorate did not look favorably on a person assuming an office and then not being present to cast votes on bills that were introduced.
Do you possibly think that God might be a little upset with us when we accept His great salvation, we begin to call Him �Lord,� and then we neglect to be present when the churches He established are in �session?�
The churches duty is to feed our souls on the Word of God. Kinda hard to eat if you never go to the Restaurant, isn�t it?
Beyond this, we have a duty to each of the others in these churches. �For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ.� (I Corinthians 12:12) The picture given here is of a church. Each member has been set in the church for a specific purpose. For one of us to absent ourselves from the assembly is to weaken the body.
We will not, by our disloyalty to Him, weaken the work of God. He will find another to take our place. But, we do miss the rewards of fellowship and fulfillment by failing to stand our post.
Jesus, as our Example, joined in welcoming others to the Temple. No. I do not mean that He took a job as a �Wal-Mart Greeter.� His presence was felt in the place. Others were encouraged by His presence. The text verse acknowledges that He worked miracles.
When we band together we work miracles. There is the miracle of joy which all of us can project from our communion one with another. There is the miracle of enthusiasm which is marked by our willingness to commune one with another. There is the miracle of building one another up in the Lord as we gather together to sing His praises.
It shouldn�t be, but I�ll tell the truth. As a former pastor, the larger the crowd grows, the easier the speaking forth the Word of God becomes. To see those tangible results in the pew encourages the pastor.
By the way, another little thing. The prayers of the congregation are necessary for the pastor. You�d be surprised how much better your pastor preaches when you spend time praying for him! The power of God comes to the church when the people of God call upon His Name.
We can also see that Jesus, as our Example, joined in the witness to the worship of the True God. He did this in the cleansing of the Temple, of course. But, His presence at this feast day was a witness that He, too, was joined in the joy of the Father.
I remember one church I preached in where the usher came to take up the offering with a pack of cigarettes showing through his shirt pocket. Now, I am not condemning everyone who smokes. I just think it is a bad witness.
To hit a little closer to �home� on the subject� The Bible teaches that our bodies are Temples of the Holy Spirit. I really believe that we should all be �in shape,� as much as possible, as a witness for the Lord. Taking control of our own bodies is one of the hardest things we have to do in this life. But, when a pastor who weighs nearly twice as much as he did in college, unless he has grown a couple feet taller, stands in the pulpit, it is hard to imagine him as a �warrior� for the Lord.
This isn�t intended as a joke. Paul said, �Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.� (I Corinthians 10:31) �Whatsoever� we do. Sometimes what we do is speaking so loudly that others cannot hear our voices!
Well, I�d better get of that subject before I offend myself even further!
Folks, we need to be witnessing that Jesus Christ died in time so that others could live in eternity. But, while we are at it, we need to be witnessing with our lives that He has changed our outlook from being an in look! Some things just tell others, every time they see them, that we are more interested in our own bodies than we are in their souls!
I�d like to look now at His pardon. ��many believed in his name�� Remember my caveat from the introduction. I am treating this as though these people were actually saved. Many were by His actions. The fact is that all who are saved are born again by His actions. It�s just that we see in the next verses that many of these were obviously not saved.
Even though it would appear that many of these persons were really not saved, it is still true that they had salvation offered to them.
But, as I said before, let us consider that they were saved. I do not doubt that some of them were. Even among the most hypocritical group there may be some who have actually responded to the love of the Savior.
We do know that the purpose of the coming of Jesus was to offer Himself as a sacrifice for the sins of the world. This is borne out by His conversation with Zacchaeus.
Zacchaeus was a publican. The modern Bible�s translate this as �tax collector.� This is a correct translation; but it is not an accurate translation. A tax collector in this society was considered a traitor to his own nation as he was collecting taxes for an occupying army.
Worse, these tax collectors had a bad reputation. It seems that they were given a specific levy which they must raise. Anything raise above that levy was destined for their own pocket.
This seems to have been the case with Zaccaeus. He did, after all, promise, ��if I have taken any thing from any man by false accusation, I restore him fourfold.� (Luke 19:8b)
You�ve probably all heard the story. Zaccaeus heard that Jesus was coming to his town. He was a man of short stature so he climbed a tree so he could catch a glimpse of Jesus. Jesus knew that he was in the tree and called him to come down.
It was a supernatural Word of Knowledge that Jesus displayed in knowing that Zaccaeus was in the tree. It was another Word of Knowledge that Jesus knew Zaccaeus was ready to follow Him. Surely none of Zaccaeus� friends would have suspected this.
Jesus called Zaccaeus down, by name, and said that He would abide with him that night. Think of the honor that came to Zaccaeus. Also, think of the scorn that Jesus was inviting by given preferential treatment to this �Publican.� The response of Jesus to this scorn was to say, �This day is salvation come to this house, forasmuch as he also is a son of Abraham.� (Luke 19:9)
There is a lesson here. We cannot decide who is worthy of salvation and who is not. It is not our culture, or our preference, by which God decides who may obtain this great salvation. This is the single prerogative of God!
In the very next verse Jesus says, �For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.� (Luke 19:10) So, when we say that Jesus was come to offer salvation, in our text verse, we simply are considering that this was His primary purpose in coming into this world. He did not come, primarily, to be a teacher. He did not come, primarily, to be a moralist. He did not come to establish a new religion.
He did come to make Himself an offering for salvation and to offer that salvation to others. This is a task that He has passed on, the offering of salvation to others, to His churches and His followers. He has already made that offering. It is our happy task, and solemn duty, to let others know that Jesus Christ died in time so that others might live in eternity.
We will note that many accepted His salvation. It is still that way in our day. As we pray for the lost, by name whenever possible!, we will see some respond to the convicting power of the Holy Spirit.
Our task is to call others. Our task is to pray for others. Our task is to spread forth the message of sin and salvation. We are to major on the good news that Jesus Christ died in time so that others might live in eternity.
There will be those who will accept the message and the Savior. We might not see it happen. It will happen. Many years ago I pastored a small church down in Louisiana. I really loved the place. We were even seeing some small results. Then God said to leave. I wasn�t sure that I�d heard Him right. �Leave? Lord have you noticed what is going on here?�
He had. He said, �Leave.� I did. The next pastor led this church to heights beyond my wildest dreams. The next pastor was God�s man for God�s time.
God basically told me that I�d been in the U. S. Army long enough to understand. I had another assignment at another duty station. He needed someone with differing skills and abilities to move forward His work in that Louisiana church.
God moves as He wills. I don�t know who all was saved in that church after I left. God does. All I know is that I fulfilled my mission in preaching the Gospel. I �plowed the ground.� Another pastor watered and tended for the garden. It was never my garden. It was, and still is, God�s garden. He alone decides who is to till and keep His ground.
There were also some, maybe most, among the group considered in our text verse who rejected that Salvation.
Have you ever been to, or seen on television, a city wide revival. There may be a stadium which holds 50,000 people. It is a huge event. We watch in amazement as, maybe two or three thousand, maybe five thousand, rise from their seats and walk the �sawdust trail� to meet Jesus at the Cross. Our hearts are made merry at the sight of so many people accepting Jesus as Lord.
Ah, but what of the 45,000, the 47,000, or the 48,000 who have not responded. Our task is not over when we lead a sinner to the Savior. Our task is only just begun. We need to search out more to partake of the marriage supper of the Lamb. We need to train these who have responded to go out into the world and put forth their own witness.
We are witnesses. But, may we be ever understanding that it is the power of His persuasion which is the force which drives the message home. ��when they saw the miracles which he did.�
The people were impressed by the power of God as displayed by Jesus.
Jesus was no magician. He was no mere �faith healer.� He was even more than a prophet of God. He was, IS!, the Son of God. Whereas the Old Testament prophets were able to work miracles, as the occasion demanded, only when the Spirit of God came upon them, Jesus worked miracles which displayed His Own control over disease and natural disaster. Jesus didn�t need to wait for a move of God; Jesus is God doing the moving!
In the entire Bible there is only one resurrection from the dead where a prophet, or someone else, did not pronounce the Words of God over the deceased. Jesus rose from the dead in His Own power and privilege.
He lives within the Christian. He has promised to so energize our bodies and lives that we will live a new life. We must allow Him to work through us so that others may view the fruits of the Spirit in our lives. This, a changed life and a victorious, fulfilling life, is the promise of Jesus. We need to allow others to see His power in our lives as we live for Him.
Jesus also displayed the presence of God. He is God. Where Jesus is there is God. We need have no fear of man. Jesus is our Strength. We need have no fear over what we might say. Jesus can energize our tongues. We need have no fear about how to walk with Him. Jesus is our Constant Companion. If we will but truly seek Him we will find His hand in ours.
This is the great potential of God in our lives: that we can do whatever it is that God calls us to do. No person is more powerful in his life than when he is on his knees in prayer.
When I went to the combat zone in war I never took time to explain to the enemy what my rifle was capable of doing. I never said that I had a magazine of 20 bullets which I could fire on full automatic. I could take the weapon apart and put it back together; but I never understood how it worked. I still don�t. When the time came to use the weapon, I simply trusted and fired.
It always worked.
Folks, we do not have to fully understand all of theology. No one really does, anyway. We don�t have to be able to quote the entire Bible. Very few can do this, anyway. What we do have to do is take that which we do know and trust God to fill in any blanks which might appear. If we have been diligent in our study, this is a command of God, He will bring things to our remembrance that we never realized we knew.
Our best argument is useless against the wiles of the tempter. My best understanding is useless against someone more intelligent than I. But, neither Satan nor the best efforts of any man may stand against the power of God.
The potential of God is also ready to save your soul. If you have never accepted Jesus Christ as your own Savior, do it right now. He will cleanse you of your sin and make you a new creature with a title deed to a home in Heaven.
Come to Him now!