3:16- John

We’ve all seen them, at sporting events and concerts.  The obligatory John 3:16 signs.  In case you are wondering that all started in 1980.  A guy by the name of Rollen Stewart had been making a name for himself by appearing at major sporting events wearing a rainbow coloured wig and dancing wildly for the cameras.  He was referred to as “Rainbow Man”.  In 1980 following the Super Bowl, Stewart was sitting in his hotel room watching a Televangelist by the name of Charles Taylor and committed his life to Christ.  Shortly after that he decided to add the John 3:16 sign to his “Thing”. 
He claimed that he travelled 100,000 kms a year to various sporting events, including the Indianapolis 500, the Olympics, The Super Bowl and even showed up at Prince Charles and Lady Diana’s wedding.  He truly felt that what he was doing was a ministry that would lead people to Jesus. 
Not everybody agreed.  One sports director actually threatened to fire any cameraman who focused on Stewart.

But things spiraled out of control for Stewart, and his actions became increasing bizarre.  His wife left him claiming that he choked her for holding her John 3:16 sign wrong, at the 1991 Masters he blew an air horn as Jack Nicklaus lined up a putt. 

And in 1992 he was arrested after an attempted kidnapping turned into a hostage situation.   He is presently serving 3 consecutive life sentences in California. 

But it wasn’t just Rollen and his sign.  You might recall Heisman Trophy winner Tim Tebow wearing John 3:16 printed on his eye black while playing College Football.  When his team won the 2009 BCS (Bowl Championship Series) Championship game John 3:16 was the most googled term on the internet the next day.   Shortly after that the rules were changed, forbidding college football players from having words written in the eye black.   This is sometime called the “Tebow Rule”.

And on January 8, 2012 exactly three year to the day from that College win Tebow played his first NFL playoff game and led the Denver Bronco to victory over the Pittsburg Steelers.  and here are some stats for that Game.   Tebow threw for 316 yards.   He averaged the highest single-game postseason completion average in NFL history and that was 31.6 yards per completion,

The second-quarter interception, which resulted in the Bronco’s taking a 17-6 lead, came on you guessed it the third-and-16.

But it’s not just football, pro-wrestler Stone Cold Steve Austin has been known to wear an Austin 3:16 shirt, and some Christian Businesses try to include it, here is a cup from Christian owned “In and Out” Burgers in the states, and it creeps up on Road signs every once in a while.  

Back in the day a buddy and I were hitchhiking from Sussex to Saint John, and so we included 3:16 on our sign.  We walked a lot on that trip.

Just a year ago Keith Urban went to number one on the Country charts with this little ditty. (John Cougar, John Deere, John 3:16)

John 3:16, in case you are wondering, is probably the most memorized verse in the Bible, it has been called “The Gospel in a Nutshell”.  In the King James Version it says  John 3:16  For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”  In the New Living Translation it reads John 3:16  “For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.”

The story has been told about President Obama, John Kerry, Al Gore and George W. Bush or  you can simply insert the name of your least favorite politician. 

Actually the first time the story was circulated was in 1990 in regards to George W. Bush’s Father the first President Bush.  But the story is always the same that that particular politician is speaking at a gathering of religious leaders and as part of his remarks he comments on his favorite Bible verse and he means to say John 3:16 but instead he cites John 16:3 which says John 16:3  And these things they will do to you because they have not known the Father nor Me.  Completely different meaning.

I guess we’ll stick with 3:16.  But John isn’t the only book in the bible to have a third chapter with a sixteenth verse.  And so this summer we are going to look at a variety of 3:16s throughout God’s word. 
Now please understand that there is nothing magical about 3:16.  Every Chapter 3 verse 16 in the bible doesn’t have something profound for us.  The system that we have of Chapters and verses in the bible has only been around for the past 500 years or so.  And they are pretty arbitrary and were just put in place to make it easier to find locations in the bible.  So there aren’t 66 parts to this series, there are only 11.

And so it only makes sense that our first message comes from John 3:16. But like most verses in the bible John 3:16 doesn’t stand by itself, it is a part of a bigger story.  And it is the very beginning of the story as told by John.  By now we have seen Jesus baptized by John, we have been able to watch as Jesus turns the water into wine at the wedding in Cana and have seen how he cleared the temple courts for the first time. 

And chapter 2 ends with this statement John 2:23-25  Because of the miraculous signs Jesus did in Jerusalem at the Passover celebration, many began to trust in him.  But Jesus didn’t trust them, because he knew human nature.  No one needed to tell him what mankind is really like.   And that doesn’t sound like Jesus, but it was. 

And then chapter 3 begins with these words John 3:1  There was a man named Nicodemus, a Jewish religious leader who was a Pharisee.    And the next 21 verses chronicle the discussion that ensued between Jesus and the man Nicodemus and it is in the discussion that we read the words of John 3:16.

It is a given that John 3:16 is about lover, but what is it we can discover about this love?   Let’s take a look.

So let us start with John 3:16  “For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.”  The first thing we discover in this verse is The Person of this Love How often do we hear about the wrath and anger of the Old Testament God and the love and grace of the Jesus in the New Testament? 

Somehow we get the picture of a gentle graceful Jesus rescuing us in just the nick of time from this grumpy Old Testament deity.

When we are challenged about events from the Old Testament that we can’t explain or that embarrass us we blame the vengeful jealous Old Testament God.   But seriously, is that a reality? 

Listen up folks there is no Old Testament God and New Testament God, there is only God. 

Or perhaps we see God the Father and God the Son sitting around the heavenly strategy table and the Son saying “Well Dad, we tried it your way and it didn’t work, so let’s try it my way.” And it’s almost like Jesus argued with and persuaded the Father to try something different.  To stop being so judgmental and angry with the world

But that wasn’t it.  Listen again “For God”.  This was God’s idea, this was God’s love that is spoken of in John 3:16.  “For God”.  And we diminish the character and the love of God when we try and define him by putting him in an Old Testament box or New Testament Box.

Throughout the Old Testament we read about the unfailing love of God, the love that God has for his people and God’s everlasting love.

 And so the Person of this love is God.  So let’s go on from here.

John 3:16  “For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.” So the next thing we need to understand is The Breadth of this Love   God didn’t just love part of the world, he didn’t just love the loveable, he didn’t just love the obedient.  The word says “For God loved the world.”   That’s not just a part of the world that is all of the world.

It was for the world; it was not for a single nation. Or a single group of people.   It was not just for good people, and it wasn’t just for people who loved God.  It was all the world that God loved, the lovable and the unlovable, it was for the lonely and the lost.  It was those who accepted the love of God and for those who have rejected the love of God.

And that is hard to get our head around, I’ve talked in the past of the scandal of Grace.  We all know who should be on the naughty list and we all know who is on the nice list.

And while we are sure that God loves us and our family, and the nice old lady next door who bakes us cookies and smiles at our kids.  We’re not sure about the terrorist and despots or the jerk who cut us off in traffic or the old guy who yells at our kids for cutting through his yard.  Or the person whith more than 8 items in the express line. 

But John 3:16 doesn’t tell us that God loved nice people or lovable people, but that he loved all people.  Regardless of their gender, their race, their colour, their religion or even their political party or personality.

Which is why we are told in Romans 5:8  But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.  When?  While we were still sinners.  And that is the reality that whether we can get our heads around it or not, God loved the world, this broken unregenerate world.  And he loves it the way that parents love their rebellious child.  It is a love of broken-hearted grief but it is love.

And so we continue John 3:16  “For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.” And here we discover The Depth of this Love  It doesn’t just say “For God Loved the world that he gave”  No, it says “For God loved the world so much.”  How much did God love the world? He loved the world so much, that he gave his one and only son. 

Think about that.  Who is there that you would willingly sacrifice one of your children for?

There was a time that I questioned this.  I thought, “If God loved us that much why wouldn’t he have given himself instead of his son?”  And then I became a parent.  

I have mentioned this before, there are many of you here that I would sacrifice myself for, what’s the phrase?  I’d take a bullet for you.  But there isn’t one of you here that I would sacrifice one of my kids or grandkids for.  Sorry, but that’s the way it is.

But God loved the world so much, that he was willing to give up what meant more than his very existence.

Paul tells us in the book of Romans 8:31-32  What shall we say about such wonderful things as these? If God is for us, who can ever be against us?  Since he did not spare even his own Son but gave him up for us all, won’t he also give us everything else?

And so this leads us to the next point,  John 3:16  “For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.” The Acceptance of this Love  This is where universalism breaks down.  If the verse simply said “everyone” then it wouldn’t matter what you did, or how you behaved or what you believed.

But the scripture doesn’t just say “Everybody” but it says “Everybody who believes in him”.  Believes in who? Believes in the Son. 

Jesus goes on to say in John 3:18-20  “There is no judgment against anyone who believes in him. But anyone who does not believe in him has already been judged for not believing in God’s one and only Son.  And the judgment is based on this fact: God’s light came into the world, but people loved the darkness more than the light, for their actions were evil.  All who do evil hate the light and refuse to go near it for fear their sins will be exposed.

And that isn’t just an isolated statement, remember the first two weeks in June when I preached on baptism we kept going back to Mark 16:15-16  And then he told them, “Go into all the world and preach the Good News to everyone.  Anyone who believes and is baptized will be saved. But anyone who refuses to believe will be condemned.

Jesus came to the world, salvation is offered to everybody, and salvation is like the sun, it provides light for everyone, but you have to open your eyes if you want to benefit from that light.  And it’s not just a head knowledge, it’s not enough for the belief to be here in the head but not here in the heart.  You can’t just say you believe if that belief hasn’t actually had an impact on your life.

I love the story of Charles Blondin, better known as the Great Blondin.  And the Great Blondin was a tightrope walker, and he was the first person to walk across Niagara Falls.  He did it on June 30^th 1859.   And after he got across he asked the crowd “Who believes I can walk back across with a man on my back?”  And everybody cheered, and then he asked “Who wants to be that man?”  And nobody said anything.  They believed here, but not here.  And then one man stepped out of the crowd and said “I’ll be that man.”   The rest said they believed, but Harry Colcord really believed. 

God extends the invitation of his love to us, but it is up to us to accept it the invitation.

So what happens when you believe?    John 3:16  “For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.” The Results of the Love  Did you catch that? It is a twofold result.  The first is that the person who believes will not perish.  You will not be separated from God for the remainder of eternity.  That means you won’t go to hell.

But it doesn’t just end there, you see more than simply being a fire escape from hell the person who believes is promised eternal life, not just living forever but living forever in the presence of the God who we serve.  And sometimes I wonder if we miss that. 

We think of heaven with pearly gates and streets of gold, and good times lasting forever and ever.  Yep, in the presence of the God who we love and serve and in the company of his children, other Christians.

Which is why I find it so hard to get my head around why there are those who call themselves followers of Christ and children of God who don’t spend any time with God or his kids now. 

A little aside here, it was J. Oswald Sanders who wrote “It is impossible for a believer, no matter what his experience, to keep right with God if he will not take the trouble to spend time with God. Spend plenty of time with him; let other things go, but don't neglect Him.”

So, to sum up Nicodemus comes to Jesus and Jesus tells him in John 3:3 that he must be born again, they get into a discussion about what that means and Jesus eventually tells Nick how much God loves him, and Nicodemus’ response?  We don’t know.  We have no clue how the conversation ended. 

In John Chapter 4 we read the story of the Samaritan woman at the well and how she embraces the claims of Christ and goes back to her village to tell everyone she knows about him.

In Mark chapter 10 we read about the rich young ruler who came to Christ and left rejecting Christ’s claim on his life.  But there is nothing in this account to indicate that Nicodemus either accepted or rejected the claim of Christ on his life. 

Now we do hear from Nicodemus again before the story ends.  When the religious leaders begin to plot against Jesus we read in John 7:50-51  Then Nicodemus, the leader who had met with Jesus earlier, spoke up.  “Is it legal to convict a man before he is given a hearing?” he asked.

 And then after Jesus has been crucified and Joseph of Arimathea asked permission to take down Jesus’ body we read this,  John 19:39-40  With him came Nicodemus, the man who had come to Jesus at night. He brought seventy-five pounds of perfumed ointment made from myrrh and aloes.  Following Jewish burial custom, they wrapped Jesus’ body with the spices in long sheets of linen cloth.

In his book “Jesus of Nazareth: Holy Week” , Pope Benedict XVI comments "The quantity of the balm is extraordinary and exceeds all normal proportions. This is a royal burial."

And in both the Catholic church and the Eastern Orthodox Church Nicodemus is revered as a saint. 

But we just don’t know.  We see Nicodemus at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry and again at the end of the story.  But we don’t know if he actually embraced the grace that Jesus offers each one of us.

And the question really isn’t how did Nicodemus’ story end, the important question is “How will your story end?”  and only you will be able to answer that.  Let’s personalize John 3:16 and read it together, you ready?  John 3:16  “For God loved me so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that when I believe in him I will not perish but I will have eternal life.”

Understanding Peace

Do you remember praying as a child?  Do you remember the words that you prayed?  Let’s try it together:  “Now I lay me down to sleep I pray the Lord my soul to keep, if I should die before I wake I pray the Lord my soul to take.”  But what if when you laid down to sleep you knew that would be the last time you ever laid down to sleep? 

What if when you closed your eyes you knew it would be the last time you would ever close your eyes to sleep.  What if you knew when you went to bed tonight that tomorrow night you would be history, that you would never again hold the ones you loved, that you would never again be held by the ones who loved you.  That you would never see another sunset, never hear another bird sing, never live another day.  How would you sleep?

I’ve read that they often put a suicide watch on prisoners in the United States who have been sentenced to death.  Probably don’t want the prisoner to cheat the state out of all their fun.  I mean do they really use an alcohol swab to sterilize the site for the lethal injection?

If you knew that tomorrow there was a pretty good chance that you would die, do you think you’d be able to sleep? 

I’m not sure if I would be able to or if my mind would be racing with regrets and what if’s.  Wondering if I had said good byes and thank-yous to all the right people.  Asking myself if I had left a mark and whether or not I’d be remembered. 

That was exactly the situation that Peter was in.  King Herod had ordered execution of James who was the brother of John, maybe you remember him as one of the sons of Thunder, or Zebedee’s boy, or one of the original group that Jesus called to be his disciples.  It really doesn’t matter but what does matter is that he was executed by King Herod.  One line finishes the story of James, you’ll find it in Acts 12:2  He (Herod) had the apostle James (John’s brother) killed with a sword.  And that was all that was written.  Herod had James killed.

Now perhaps you’re thinking “I remember King Herod he was the king who ordered all the baby boys in Bethlehem killed when Jesus was born.”  Well you’re partially right, that was King Herod but it wasn’t this King Herod.  Then you’re thinking that it must have been the King Herod that had John the Baptist killed.   Well again you are partially right, it was King Herod but not this King Herod.  This is in fact King Herod Agrippa and after he saw how much his killing James had pleased the Jewish leaders he thought, “Great, all I have to do to become popular is kill Christians.” 

Justin Trudeau and Stephen McNeil, they have to reduce taxes to be popular, but Herod he just had to kill preachers.  And so he figured “If killing James made me popular think how popular I would be if I killed Peter”, and so he had Peter arrested and thrown into Jail.

Now it was the Jewish celebration of Passover, probably the 12th Passover since Jesus died on the cross and was raised from the dead, and Herod couldn’t very well execute Peter during the holidays so he decides that as soon as Passover is done, then he will separate Peter’s head from the rest of his body. 

And so here Peter is, in prison, waiting to stand trial with execution being a very, very real possibility.  As a matter of fact, it was virtually the only probable outcome of the trial. 

It’s the night before the trial, the church has called a prayer meeting and they are up praying.  I don’t know if they were praying for Peter’s release or if they were praying for Peter to have the courage and strength to face his imminent demise.  We don’t know, but we do know that they were praying.  And Peter, you’d think that Peter would either be wide awake worrying or wide awake praying. 

But that wasn’t the case, instead of being wide awake for anything Peter was sound asleep. 

Chained between two Roman soldiers this boy wasn’t just napping he was out like a light, dead to the world so to speak. 

And suddenly a great light filled the prison cell and standing there was an angel, and Peter didn’t wake up.  Boy you gotta hate that, this angel had this great entrance, poof, a great light fills the cell and there stands this great big strapping angel shinning in all his glory and Peter doesn’t wake up, at all.  Having lost all of the impact of a dramatic entrance the angel pokes Peter and says, “Hey, come on wake up we’re out of here.” Or something like that.

The thing that amazes me isn’t the great rescue with the angel, that’s a God thing, God can do those things.  What amazes me is that Peter is asleep.  This is the same Peter who had hacked off the guy’s ear in the garden of Gethsemane, the same Peter who avowed that he would never let Jesus down and then denied he knew him three times, the same Peter who saw Jesus walking on the water and jumped out of the boat and joined him.  Everything we knew about Peter is turned inside out when we see him sleeping between these two Roman soldiers the night before his execution. 

What happened?  Three words “The Holy Spirit”.  In Acts chapter 2 we see how the Holy Spirit filled Peter and he was never the same again.

You’ve probably heard me speak about the Fruit of the Spirit from time to time.  You know it is a list of what Christ followers are to be like and the characteristics they are supposed to exhibit when they allow the Holy Spirit to control their lives.  It’s actually a part of the mission statement at Cornerstone. 

In case you’ve forgotten what all is included in the list it is spelled out in Galatians 5:22-23  But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,  gentleness, and self-control. And so, after Peter embraces the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit embraces Peter on the day of Pentecost the old Peter is gone and in his place is this new Peter.  Not the Peter who was rash and angry but a Peter whose life was characterized by  love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,  gentleness, and self-control.  This morning I want to look at the Peace that is exhibited in Peter’s life the night before his impending death.  a

So what is peace?  Good question, it can be defined several different ways.  Thomas Jefferson has been quoted as defining peace this way: “Peace is that brief glorious moment in history when everybody stands around reloading.”

And if you were to ask that question to a room full of people most would speak of an absence of war, something that we haven’t seen in the world for a long time.  If you asked me to define peace, I’d probably say “a small, round, green vegetable”, and then I’d have to confess that I hadn’t really been paying attention to the question, or at least that was what it was like in school. 

But for most people peace is an external, it is something that happens out there. 

The peace that shows up as a Fruit of the Spirit is a different concept.  Paul not talking about an absence of war or even an absence of interpersonal conflict in our lives.  The peace that Paul is speaking of is a tranquility of heart which derives from the all-pervading knowledge that we are in the hands of God. 

It is the peace that is written about in Philippians 4:7  Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.   In the NKJV it says it this way Philippians 4:7 ^NKJV and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

To which Helen Keller commented “I do not want the peace which passes understanding, I want the understanding which brings peace.”

And it would appear that Peter had discovered the understanding which brought peace in his life.  So what was it that he understood?

Peter Understood That God Is There  Last month while driving down Larry Utek I noticed the sign at Full Gospel and it said  “Know God, Know Peace.  No God, No Peace.”  It’s the truth, without an acknowledgement that there is a God you will not have peace.  That’s why it’s called the peace of God or God’s peace in the Bible.  If there were no other certainties in Peter’s life, there was the certainty that God was real.

If we are to find peace in our life the first step is acknowledging that there is a God.  The Bible says in Psalm 14:1 Only fools say in their hearts, “There is no God.”

Abraham Lincoln echoed that when he said  “I can see how it might be possible for a man to look down upon the earth and be an atheist, but I cannot conceive how he could look up into the heaven and say there is no God.” 

And so Peter knew that there was a God, he knew that whatever happened tomorrow that a higher power was in control, even if he was executed he knew that was not the end.  He would not share the epitaph of the Atheist which said “Here lies the Atheist, all dressed up and no place to go.”

Peter Understood That God Is Aware  Not only did Peter know that God existed, but God knew that Peter Existed.  Or as the Bible says in Galatians 4:9  So now that you know God (or should I say, now that God knows you).

And so we need to take our belief to the next level, not only believing in God but also believing that God knows what’s going on.

I have met people who assure me that they believe in God, but what they can’t believe is that God is interested in what happens on earth.  At the very most he is just a game master who put everything in place and now sits back and watches to see how it will work itself out.

However, Jesus made an incrediable statement concerning this remarkable attribute of God in Matthew 10:29  What is the price of two sparrows—one copper coin? But not a single sparrow can fall to the ground without your Father knowing it.

God didn’t create this world and then turn his back on it, he is aware what is going on, we aren’t alone.  He rejoices when he sees good and love and beauty. It breaks his heart when he sees war, and hatred and what we’ve done to this world.  And he knows you, and everything about you, David wrote in Psalm 139:1 O LORD, you have examined my heart and know everything about me.

And that is a struggle sometimes, is God in control?  And if so how come things aren’t perfect?   I truly believe that God has given us the resources and abilities for this world to be a much better place than it is. 

3000 years ago the people of Israel were told Deuteronomy 30:11-15  “This command I am giving you today is not too difficult for you to understand, and it is not beyond your reach.  It is not kept in heaven, so distant that you must ask, ‘Who will go up to heaven and bring it down so we can hear it and obey?’  It is not kept beyond the sea, so far away that you must ask, ‘Who will cross the sea to bring it to us so we can hear it and obey?’  No, the message is very close at hand; it is on your lips and in your heart so that you can obey it.  “Now listen! Today I am giving you a choice between life and death, between prosperity and disaster.”   The scripture goes on to tell them the choice they were being offered was to obey God and his commands or to reject God and his commands.  The choice is still there today, and God is cheering us on to make the right choice.  

Peter Understood That God Cares Of the three this is probably the most important thing that Peter knew.  It’s not enough that there is a God out there, if he’s not aware of what’s going on in my life.  And it’s not enough that there’s a God out there who is aware of what’s happening in my life if he doesn’t care about what is happening in my life.   Earlier we read Matthew 10:29  Jesus said “What is the price of two sparrows—one copper coin? But not a single sparrow can fall to the ground without your Father knowing it.”

But Jesus didn’t end there, he went on to say Matthew 10:29-31  Jesus said “What is the price of two sparrows—one copper coin? But not a single sparrow can fall to the ground without your Father knowing it.  And the very hairs on your head are all numbered.  So don’t be afraid; you are more valuable to God than a whole flock of sparrows.

When Peter closed his eyes that night in the prison cell between the two guards he knew that if nobody else in the universe cared about what happened to Peter that God did.  That ultimately he mattered to God and that ultimately God was in control.  Maybe it was this experience that caused Peter to write later on in the Letter of 1 Peter 5:7  Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about you.

Peter knew that there was absolutely nothing he could do to change his situation, so why worry about?  Larry Eisenberg summed it up when he said “For peace of mind, we need to resign as general manager of the universe.” 

If we are going to have peace in our life it will only be when we realize that God not only knows what’s best for us, but that he wants what’s best for us.  And not only do we need to realize that we need to believe it and act upon it. 

How many of our troubles could we have avoided if we had believed that God had our best at heart all along?  Too often we second-guess God.  We decide that even though God is God, and that he is the creator and ruler of the universe that he’s not nearly as smart as we are.  That we know what is best for us, and if that doesn’t agree with what God says then that’s because God doesn’t really want the best for us, all he wants is to ruin our fun. 

And so we do the things we want to do, and when it flies all to pieces and when we have to pay the fiddler so to speak, we wonder what went wrong.  And sometimes in retrospect we say “Wow, if only I had done what God wanted me to do.”

It’s easy to believe that God will do what is good, it’s more difficult to believe that whatever God does is good.  A lady whose son had leukemia was talking to another lady and the second woman said “Maybe God will be good and heal your son.”  To which the first lady responded “God will be good whether he heals my son or not.” 

God does care, and God sees a much bigger picture then we do.  God cared enough about Peter that he sent an Angel to deliver him, did that mean that he cared less about James when he allowed him to be executed.  No, I can’t explain it, and I don’t understand it, but even though James was killed and that caused his family pain and grief, God is still good.  And Peter understood that.  The book of Romans hadn’t been written at this point in history but the premise of  Romans 8:28 was still real  Romans 8:28  And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them.

I wonder if when James’ mother heard the news about her son if she remembered the time she had asked Jesus if James would be permitted to sit at his right hand?  And if so, I wonder if she could believe that is where he was?  It was Paul who would later write in Romans 14:8  If we live, it’s to honor the Lord. And if we die, it’s to honor the Lord. So whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord.

It is reported that John Wesley once said “Until my work on this earth is done, I am immortal. But when my work for Christ is done … I go to be with Jesus!”  We don’t know why James died that week, but we do know that Peter’s work wasn’t done.  That he would go on to become the Father of the Western Church.

Peter knew that Peter could do nothing, and God could do everything, so why worry?  

Even though Paul hadn’t written it yet Peter seemed to have embraced the philosophy of Philippians 4:6-7  Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done.  Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.

So, maybe Peter had prayed, told God what he needed, thanked him for all he had done, and was experiencing the peace that is more wonderful than the human mind can understand.  Or maybe Peter had discovered the truth of what Clive James would write 2000 years later “Stop worrying -- nobody gets out of this world alive.”

A story is told by Bishop William Quayle, he said that one night all the worries and concerns of his parish seemed to catch up with him, and as he paced back and forth that God spoke to him and said “Quayle, you go to bed; I’ll stay up the rest of the night.”  Well two thousand years ago God told Peter, “Peter, you go to bed; I’ll stay up the rest of the night.”

And that’s what he’s telling you. 

Perhaps that night Peter simply remembered and claimed the promise that Jesus had made to him 12 years before, when he said:  John 14:27  “I am leaving you with a gift—peace of mind and heart. And the peace I give is a gift the world cannot give. So don’t be troubled or afraid.”

And that promise and that gif wasn’t just for Peter, it was for you.  Jesus didn’t say he might leave us with the gift of peace of mind and heart.  He said he was leaving it with us.  Can you believe that today?

Deeper into Baptsim

Deeper into Baptism

Last week we dove in to the discussion of baptism by looking at the Baptism of Jesus, and from that story we discovered that Jesus’ Baptism was Intentional, that it wasn’t without opposition, that it was a baptism of obedience, that it happened in the water and that Jesus’ Baptism testified to the trinity. 

But the story of Jesus’ baptism isn’t the only account in the New Testament of water baptism, so this week we are going a little deeper into the topic, so to speak.

Sometimes we get the impression that baptism was invented by John the Baptist. And that isn’t the case at all.  By that time in Jewish history baptism was a part of the process when a gentile, that is a person who wasn’t Jewish wanted to convert to Judaism.    It wasn’t a biblical commandment instead it was something instituted under the laws of the Rabbis. 

What we do have in the Old Testament are regulations in Leviticus and Exodus, for various times that ceremonial washing was to take place.  Before the priest could go into the temple, if you touched a dead body, after child birth and after numerous other events. 

This eventually evolved into full immersion.  And from that concept came all kinds of rules and regulations on the where the when and the how.  It was from these extra biblical rules that the Mikveh came to be in the Jewish religion, which was very much like what we think of as a baptistery.   Here is a picture of an ancient Mikveh and here is a modern Mikveh.

And there was even a prescribed blessing that was said before someone immersed themselves in the water of the Mikveh,  Blessed are You, O Lord, our God, King of the universe, who has sanctified us with His commandments and commanded us regarding the immersion.  The exception to when the blessing was said was in the case of someone who was converting to Judaism.  Because they weren’t under the commandments of God until after they had immersed themselves signifying their new life.  So instead of saying the blessing right before they were immersed they would say it as soon as they surfaced.

And then you get scriptures like we find in Ezekiel 36:25-27  “Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean. Your filth will be washed away, and you will no longer worship idols.  And I will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit in you. I will take out your stony, stubborn heart and give you a tender, responsive heart.  And I will put my Spirit in you so that you will follow my decrees and be careful to obey my regulations.”

Water to the Jew signified birth, and so when they were immersed in the Mikveh and came out it was as if they were as clean as a newborn.  But it was a never ending process, they just kept adding to the list of when you needed to enter the Mikveh.  For the priests it was necessary before they entered the temple, for those who had a skin infection it was necessary before they were declared clean, for anyone who came in contact with a dead body it was required.  Women needed to go to the Mikveh after they give birth, and every month from puberty until menopause.

And that is just kind of background bringing us to the baptism that John was offering, which was very different from the baptism that most of those who heard him were familiar with. 

And so while Christian Baptism may have had shared some similarities with the ceremonial cleansing of the Old Testament it changed direction with John and then again with Jesus and the movement that he established.

So let’s dive right in and see what we can discover.  Let’s start with The Why

The question that people will often ask when I first talk about baptism is “Why?”  And last week we talked a little bit about the example that was set by Jesus when he asked John on the shore of the Jordan river to be baptized.  And so to a certain degree we can tell people that we need to be baptized because of the example set by Jesus.  But it has to go deeper than that. 

We aren’t just baptized because Jesus modeled it, we are baptized because Jesus commanded it.  Mark 16:15-16  And then he told them, “Go into all the world and preach the Good News to everyone.  Anyone who believes and is baptized will be saved. But anyone who refuses to believe will be condemned.”  And so Jesus himself commanded folks, to not just believe but to believe and to be baptized.  The baptism shows the belief in action.  It’s like Jesus is saying, “Ok, you’ve said you are going to follow me, let’s try this out. . . follow me into the water.”

And the command to be baptized didn’t stop with Jesus, when the very first sermon of the new church was preached on the Day of Pentecost Peter says this Acts 2:38  Peter replied, “Each of you must repent of your sins, turn to God, and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ to show that you have received forgiveness for your sins.” 

And so for Peter the need for people was clear, repent, turn to God and be baptized. 

And so if the question is “Why?”  Then the answer from the bible would have to be “Because I say so.”  

So the next question needs to be The When After the resurrection, before Jesus returned to heaven he gave the apostles directions on what they, and the church, were supposed to do in order for the movement to carry on. 

The official churchy name for this is the Great Commission and this is where we read Jesus’ words, Matthew 28:19-20  Jesus said “Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.  Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

And so the church is commanded to baptize those who become disciples, which means that those who become disciples are supposed to be baptized.  And notice the order, they become disciples, that is followers of Jesus, and then they are baptized and then they are instructed on all the commands that Jesus gave. 

Within the early church the process always seemed to be the same, people became Christ followers and they were baptized.  It happened with Paul, it happened with Lydia, it happened with Crispus leader of the synagogue, with the Philippian Jailer, Simon the Sorcerer and thousands of others.  

Sometimes, today, it seems that we want for folks to become disciples, that is to start following Jesus, and then to be instructed in all the commands that Jesus gave, and then once they have that down pat then they ought to be baptized. 

But the New Testament church taught and modeled that baptism was the first point of obedience.  Believe and be baptized.  

 So, we’ve looked at the why, and the when.  I guess the next is The Where.  In most of the cases of baptism in the Bible the common element is water.  Last week we looked at what John was looking for in a baptism spot and we discovered in  John 3:23  At this time John the Baptist was baptizing at Aenon, near Salim, because there was plenty of water there; and people kept coming to him for baptism.   And so John choice this particular spot for one reason: there was plenty of water there.

In the book of Acts we read the story of how Philip led the Ethiopian Eunuch to the Lord, and in the aftermath of that event we read:   Acts 8:36-38  As they rode along, they came to some water, and the eunuch said, “Look! There’s some water! Why can’t I be baptized?” He ordered the carriage to stop, and they went down into the water, and Philip baptized him.

In Acts 16 Lydia was at the Riverbank when she made the decision to follow Jesus, and was immediately baptized, presumably in the river. 

So the where is: in the water.

The How  The correct answer here is we don’t know.  It would be great if there were specific instructions in the bible about “How to baptize”, but there isn’t.  We are given some general directions in Matthew 28:19  Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.   We are at least told to baptize in the name of the Trinity.  But the mechanics, pouring, sprinkling, immersion?  There we are left to guess. 
Love the story of the Baptist and Anglican minister arguing over who had it right in baptism.  The Anglican guy says, “What if they got wet to the waist?”  and the Baptist says “No it has to be all the way”  and the Anglican says “what about if he got wet to the chest?” and the Baptist says “No it has to be all the way”.  And the Anglican responds by saying “How about neck deep, surely up to the neck would be fine? and the Baptist says “No it has to be all the way”.    And the Anglican says “what about above the eyebrows, that should be enough?”  In frustration the Baptist guy yells “No, no, no it has to be all the way, up to the eyebrows won’t work.”  To which the Anglican says “See, it’s just the little bit on top that counts.”
And while there are not a lot of examples given in the scriptures there are some.  And so we read in Mark’s account that after Jesus was baptized that he came up out of the water.  That kind of implies that he had gone down into the water.  And in Acts when Philip baptized the Ethiopian eunuch it says “They both went down into the water.”  But it still isn’t definitive, they could have knelt down in the water and had water sprinkled or poured on them, and even if we knew that they were immersed we aren’t told to baptize people the same way as John and Phillip Baptized people. 
We are given a hint in a word picture that Paul uses in the letter to the Romans.  Paul writes in Romans 6:3-4  Or have you forgotten that when we were joined with Christ Jesus in baptism, we joined him in his death?  For we died and were buried with Christ by baptism. And just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious power of the Father, now we also may live new lives.   
The picture here of being buried with Christ and then being raised from the grave is dramatically pictured in full immersion.  But . . . we are still guessing and speculating.   
Which finally leads us to The What: I mean we understand the why, that Jesus commanded it, but beyond the obedience factor what else is there about baptism that we need to know, what all does Baptism teach us?

If we go back to the scripture that we started with we read,  Galatians 3:26-29  For you are all children of God through faith in Christ Jesus.  And all who have been united with Christ in baptism have put on the character of Christ, like putting on new clothes.  There is no longer Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male and female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus.  And now that you belong to Christ, you are the true children of Abraham. You are his heirs, and God’s promise to Abraham belongs to you.

And so the first thing we discover is that  Baptism Teaches us About Christ’s Transforming Power   I’ve said this multiple times, if your Christianity doesn’t make a difference on this side of eternity, then your Christianity isn’t going to make a difference on the other side of eternity.   The bible comes back to this theme over and over again about becoming a new person, putting on new clothes, being born again. 

2000 years ago the teaching was clear, that the before Jesus person and the after Jesus person are supposed to be different.  And this was shown through baptism.  People often talk about how they wish that the church was like it used to be.  So let’s go down that road for a while.

Sometimes people will ask us why we don’t use white robes for baptisms, after all they were baptized in white robes, and the church they grew up in used white robes.  So I did a little digging, discover something new all the time.  From drawings on the walls of catacombs and early church writing I discovered that white robes are a fairly old tradition in the church.  And I know that some of you are feeling pretty smug and self-satisfied right now, got that “told you so” vibe going.  But let’s keep going, the white robe wasn’t for the baptism it was for after the baptism.  The candidate got to the edge of the water, peeled off their old clothes, got baptized in the nude and were given a white robe when they came out.  All symbolic.  Taking off the old and putting on the new. Times were different 2000 years ago.  But the message is the same, baptism testifies to a new beginning and the transforming power that Jesus has had in your life.

But that’s not all, in  1 Corinthians 1:10-17  I appeal to you, dear brothers and sisters, by the authority of our Lord Jesus Christ, to live in harmony with each other. Let there be no divisions in the church. Rather, be of one mind, united in thought and purpose.  For some members of Chloe’s household have told me about your quarrels, my dear brothers and sisters.  Some of you are saying, “I am a follower of Paul.” Others are saying, “I follow Apollos,” or “I follow Peter,” or “I follow only Christ.”  

Has Christ been divided into factions? Was I, Paul, crucified for you? Were any of you baptized in the name of Paul? Of course not!  I thank God that I did not baptize any of you except Crispus and Gaius,  for now no one can say they were baptized in my name.  (Oh yes, I also baptized the household of Stephanas, but I don’t remember baptizing anyone else.)  For Christ didn’t send me to baptize, but to preach the Good News—and not with clever speech, for fear that the cross of Christ would lose its power.

Baptism Teaches us About Christ’s Ownership.  You are not baptized in the name of the Wesleyan Church, or Cornerstone or Denn Guptill.  In our tradition baptism does not translate into membership in the local church.   It’s not about following Denn, or Stefan, or Ben or Jason.  It’s about following Jesus.  And someday when Denn is gone you should still be following Jesus. 

1 Corinthians 12:12-13  The human body has many parts, but the many parts make up one whole body. So it is with the body of Christ.  Some of us are Jews, some are Gentiles, some are slaves, and some are free. But we have all been baptized into one body by one Spirit, and we all share the same Spirit.

Baptism Teaches us About Unity in the Body  Rich, poor, employee, employer, male, female it didn’t matter everyone was baptised the same and became the same, A Christ Follower.  The church may have lost its way for a while in how it viewed equality but the message of the cross and the message of baptism was that we are all the same in Christ.

And that’s why the Wesleyan Church was at the forefront of the abolitionist movement in the 1800’s fighting against slavery.  Some of our earliest Wesleyan churches were a one-day journey apart, as part of the Underground Railroad, smuggling slaves from the South to freedom in the North. In fact it is reported that in one county in the South, there was a saying that "there is not enough rope to hang all the Wesleyans."

And that’ why when in 1848 when the first Women’s right’s convention was held in Seneca Fall’s New York, it would be held in a Wesleyan Church, and why the first women ordained in the United States was ordained by the Wesleyan’s and the first woman ordained in Canada was ordained by the Wesleyans.  Because we believe that part of what is illustrated through baptism is our unity in Christ.

But that’s not all, we read in Colossians 2:12  For you were buried with Christ when you were baptized. And with him you were raised to new life because you trusted the mighty power of God, who raised Christ from the dead.    And it’s here we see that Baptism Teaches us About  Christ’s Death & Resurrection  The early church used baptism as a constant reminder that Christ was buried and rose from the grave. 

And so in that simple act of immersion we see his death and resurrection illustrated.  Dying to sin, dying to your old self being buried and then being raised to a new life a life of holiness and obedience. 

And finally we read in  Romans 10:9-13  If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.  For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by confessing with your mouth that you are saved.  As the Scriptures tell us, “Anyone who trusts in him will never be disgraced.”  Jew and Gentile are the same in this respect. They have the same Lord, who gives generously to all who call on him.  For “Everyone who calls on the name of the LORD will be saved.”  
And maybe you are wondering, “What does this passage have to do with baptism?”  Well, Baptism Is a Confession of Jesus as Lord

       

We are told that in the early days of the church when someone was about to be baptised they stood in the water and confessed that ‘Jesus is Lord’.

Many scholars believe that this simple one-line confession is reflected in Romans 10:9. To call Jesus ‘Lord’ meant that He was acknowledged to be absolute owner, King and God. This verse teaches that both inner faith and outward confession are necessary for authentic salvation.

But it went deeper than that, we’ve talked about this before that the Romans had a pretty Laissez-faire attitude about religion.  It really was a live and let live philosophy, all that the empire required was a yearly acknowledgement that “Caesar is Lord”.  And the new Christians tried to be really good citizens but this was the one thing they couldn’t do.  Because they knew that there could only be one Lord in your life.  Caesar or Jesus?

And so Baptism publicly proclaims Jesus is Lord. 

And you thought baptism was just about getting wet. 

In just a few minutes Phil and Evie Croucher will be joining us in the celebration of baptism and they will be testifying to all of those things.  And here is the thing if you have never been baptized we’d love to have you join us, we have spare towels, or if you feel you need to run home and grab dry clothes the water will be here in the next service as well.

But hold on to this from last week and this week, Baptism is the first point of obedience or disobedience in your Christian experience.