Sermon Cloud

DSDDDFFDDDDDDDin Love with Jesus

Introduction to the Gospel of John

John 21:20-25

FCOCLH – January 3, 2010

One of the trendy things to do today is to have or to be a mentor.  Don’t take the word “trendy” in a disparaging way.  It makes a lot of sense to find someone in our walk of life – it could be in our career, in our personal matters, or even in our hobbies – who has walked before us in the way we want to go.  In the Bible, Elijah was a mentor to Elisha.  Elijah passed on to Elisha a double portion of his prophetic gift. Elisha watched Elijah’s earthly life end, not by death, but by being taken away by God in a fiery chariot. 

Elijah had one mentor.  Jesus chose 12 proteges.  It was a perfect relationship, at least from Jesus’s side, but it wasn’t complete from the beginning.  There was growth.  I believe that each of them grew to like Jesus and Jesus grew to like them. There was one of those 12 who was special to Jesus. He is not named in the Gospel of John, but he is called “the beloved disciple” or the “Disciple whom Jesus loved.” The gospels of Matthew & Mark tell us this disciple whom Jesus loved was on the mount of transfiguration with Jesus and Elijah and Moses. Mark notes that this same disciple was there when Jesus raised the little girl from the dead. Matthew & Mark name him as one of those closer to Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane.  We also find out that the Disciple whom Jesus loved was at the cross when Jesus died.  He wrote one of the four gospels in the New Testament. He is John. John had a special and I think unique relationship with Jesus. I wouldn’t say that Jesus loved John more than he loved the other disciples any more than you would say that a father loves one child more than his others. You will often notice that a special relationship will develop between a father and a son that may not develop between the father and the other children. Jesus and John developed that kind of relationship. That is evident in John’s gospel. This morning the least I want to is to whet our appetite for the kind of relationship John shared with Jesus. It should be the type of relationship we have with Jesus. I also hope you will study John’s Gospel with me over the next few months so that we can begin to see Jesus the way John saw Jesus. We cannot be there, but through John’s eyes we can experience what John experienced.  Every Christian is mentored by Jesus.  Jesus wants more.  He wants a love relationship.  It is really quite remarkable that Jesus would like to be in a really deep friendship with us.  This would be like Emeril wanting to do a little cooking with us.  Or Dean Martin wanting to sing a few songs with us.  Why would Jesus want to be our friend?

John saw a Jesus who did what no other person had ever done before. Jesus was above and beyond anything anyone else could have ever been or done. He was new. There have been people who were before their time. Just last week I heard on the radio scientists just proved one of Einstein’s theories. He devised it 50 or so years ago, before the tools existed to prove it. Today technology has advanced so that scientists can test the theory. It was proven correct. Einstein was a man ahead of his time. Jesus saw a church that would change the world after he was gone, even though the only earthly provision he made for it to happen were 12 weak, faltering  men. He was way ahead of his time.  Before he even had prepared the 12 he told one of them of the power of the church of which he would be the head and the 12 would be the first leaders.  And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. Matthew 16:18

There are people who are powerful. Their decisions have worldwide impact. Presidents and monarchs. Generals and even the occasional average person have done the right thing at the right time and changed the course of history, but history is measured by the moment in time we think Jesus was born.  Think about how powerful he is.

He is a great healer.  There are people in the field of medicine who do great things. Dr. DeBakey is a great cardiologist. He has saved thousands of lives either personally or by other surgeons using his techniques. There are doctors who travel the globe to offer free care to poor people in all corners of the world. Jesus never travelled more than a 90 miles from home, but he made blind people see. He made lame people walk. He even raised several people from the dead raise. He never took a penny for his medical service.

That is the Jesus John built a relationship with. I would even say fell in love with. He is the same Jesus we follow today and the same Jesus we seek to fall in love with today. Let me give you a glimpse of some of the things that John saw in Jesus as their relationship grew.

The Jesus John fell in love with was a people person. John saw in Jesus someone who could captivate a crowd. He gathered some as large a 5000 and had them so entranced by his teaching that they didn’t leave to eat for fear of missing some. He could also touch one person at a time, like the Pharisee Nicodemus was at the top of the social ladder the loose Samaritan woman was a societal outcast. With just the right amount of sarcasm or tolerance He could deal with those who were his adversaries and with those who were his friends. He called each group to a closer relationship with him. His adversaries he challenged. His friends he gently prodded. Both he called to himself.

I think what each of us searches for more than anything else in life is a friend who truly knows us. Someone who can always say the right thing and will always do the right thing. Jesus had the uncanny ability to do just that. When his friend Lazarus died, he knew just what to say to Lazarus’s sisters in their time of grief. When Nicodemus came to him at night, Jesus had the words ready for him that he needed to hear. It was as if he had rehearsed it. The same thing is true for the Samaritan woman. The first time Jesus met Nathanael, one of his disciples, Jesus spoke two sentences to him and Nathanael was calling him “Rabbi,” “Son of God,” and “the King of Israel.” 

John got to know Jesus who was a scholar of people. He cared about them. He wasn’t out to manipulate them like a fake fortune teller who gleans just enough details about who you are to fool you into thinking he knows more. He wasn’t a cheesy salesman who tries to find out just enough about you to convince you that you have a need for the product he is selling. He simply cared about people – no ulterior, selfish motive.  He simply cared. He still does. I don’t know about you, but it feels good to me when someone says something to me that lets me know that he is thinking about me & that he knows me. I like it when people remember my name. I like it when they ask me specifics about stuff in my life. That is Jesus. I want to know him better. I want to fall in love with him the way John did.

John fell in love with a Jesus who did what no one else would do.  He did it simply because it was right. John tells us about Jesus forgiving an adulterous woman–probably a prostitute. She was naked in the town square, having been pulled out of her bed of sin. She was surrounded by angry men with rocks ready to hurl them at her. Jesus stood them down, offered forgiveness to the woman and gave her her life back. Have you ever been the underdog like that woman was? Have you ever been totally helpless to protect yourself maybe even to sustain your own life. If you have I am sure you would have liked to have had Jesus on your side.

• What about the Christians in Sudan and other nations where persecution of Christians is tolerated. The only hope they hold onto is the hope that Jesus is with them. He has proven himself with them time and time again.

• Maybe you have faced sickness or joblessness or separation from your family. In those situations it is good to know that you have a friend who will stand with you. That friend is Jesus. That is who John fell in love with.

John fell in love with Jesus who stands up for what is right–even if no one else will. Jesus walked into the temple during the Passover. In it were business men who were making more money in those few days than they did throughout the whole year. They were doing it in a way that God was not pleased with. Turning the place of worship into a market. No one else stopped them. They were just making a living. Jesus called wrong wrong. He wouldn’t let sin go unnoticed and uncorrected. He literally drove them out of the temple with a whip.

Do you ever find it hard to stand up for what is right–especially when no one else is willing to do it? You need to make friends with someone who has. Jesus is that man. There was lame man who wanted to be healed. Jesus healed him. It was the right thing to do. Even if it was on the Sabbath. The religious leaders didn’t like it. It made them want to kill him. He didn’t care. It was the right thing to do. 

This is amazing about Jesus: he is always with us when we stand for what is right.  More amazing is that Jesus is always ready to forgive us and bring us back to spiritual health when we fall from him.  Jesus was there for the adulterous woman.  Jesus was there for Peter after Peter abandon Jesus to his death.  He is not just there for those who are in the right, he is there for us when we fail him as well.

There are times in our life when we need that kind of courage. We need to take a stand for what is right, even if no one else is doing it. We cannot do it alone. If we have someone by our side who has done it before and proven victorious over his enemies it might help. Jesus is that person. We need to get to know him and build a relationship with him. John will help us with that.

John also got to know Jesus who, though he was a man, was much more than that. He was God in the flesh. John makes that very clear from the first chapter of his gospel. “No one has ever seen God,” he writes, “But God the one and only who is at the Father’s side has made him known.” With those words John tells us Jesus is God. He was repeating what he heard John the Baptist allude to when he called Jesus the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. He has seen him converse with Moses and Elijah on the Mount of Transfiguration. He has heard Jesus tell others that He is the light of the world. He is the Son of Man. Jesus proclaims himself the “Way, the Truth, the Resurrection, whoever believes in me shall live even though he dies.” Jesus has plainly told those listening to him that he speaks only what the Father tells him to speak, and that he has the authority to forgive sins–a power reserved for God alone. John definitely falls in love with a man who is so much more than a man. He is God.

Over the next few months I want to strengthen my relationship with Jesus who is so much. He is the one I need. He is both man and God.in Love with Jesus

Introduction to the Gospel of John

John 21:20-25

FCOCLH – January 3, 2010

One of the trendy things to do today is to have or to be a mentor.  Don’t take the word “trendy” in a disparaging way.  It makes a lot of sense to find someone in our walk of life – it could be in our career, in our personal matters, or even in our hobbies – who has walked before us in the way we want to go.  In the Bible, Elijah was a mentor to Elisha.  Elijah passed on to Elisha a double portion of his prophetic gift. Elisha watched Elijah’s earthly life end, not by death, but by being taken away by God in a fiery chariot. 

Elijah had one mentor.  Jesus chose 12 proteges.  It was a perfect relationship, at least from Jesus’s side, but it wasn’t complete from the beginning.  There was growth.  I believe that each of them grew to like Jesus and Jesus grew to like them. There was one of those 12 who was special to Jesus. He is not named in the Gospel of John, but he is called “the beloved disciple” or the “Disciple whom Jesus loved.” The gospels of Matthew & Mark tell us this disciple whom Jesus loved was on the mount of transfiguration with Jesus and Elijah and Moses. Mark notes that this same disciple was there when Jesus raised the little girl from the dead. Matthew & Mark name him as one of those closer to Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane.  We also find out that the Disciple whom Jesus loved was at the cross when Jesus died.  He wrote one of the four gospels in the New Testament. He is John. John had a special and I think unique relationship with Jesus. I wouldn’t say that Jesus loved John more than he loved the other disciples any more than you would say that a father loves one child more than his others. You will often notice that a special relationship will develop between a father and a son that may not develop between the father and the other children. Jesus and John developed that kind of relationship. That is evident in John’s gospel. This morning the least I want to is to whet our appetite for the kind of relationship John shared with Jesus. It should be the type of relationship we have with Jesus. I also hope you will study John’s Gospel with me over the next few months so that we can begin to see Jesus the way John saw Jesus. We cannot be there, but through John’s eyes we can experience what John experienced.  Every Christian is mentored by Jesus.  Jesus wants more.  He wants a love relationship.  It is really quite remarkable that Jesus would like to be in a really deep friendship with us.  This would be like Emeril wanting to do a little cooking with us.  Or Dean Martin wanting to sing a few songs with us.  Why would Jesus want to be our friend?

John saw a Jesus who did what no other person had ever done before. Jesus was above and beyond anything anyone else could have ever been or done. He was new. There have been people who were before their time. Just last week I heard on the radio scientists just proved one of Einstein’s theories. He devised it 50 or so years ago, before the tools existed to prove it. Today technology has advanced so that scientists can test the theory. It was proven correct. Einstein was a man ahead of his time. Jesus saw a church that would change the world after he was gone, even though the only earthly provision he made for it to happen were 12 weak, faltering  men. He was way ahead of his time.  Before he even had prepared the 12 he told one of them of the power of the church of which he would be the head and the 12 would be the first leaders.  And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. Matthew 16:18

There are people who are powerful. Their decisions have worldwide impact. Presidents and monarchs. Generals and even the occasional average person have done the right thing at the right time and changed the course of history, but history is measured by the moment in time we think Jesus was born.  Think about how powerful he is.

He is a great healer.  There are people in the field of medicine who do great things. Dr. DeBakey is a great cardiologist. He has saved thousands of lives either personally or by other surgeons using his techniques. There are doctors who travel the globe to offer free care to poor people in all corners of the world. Jesus never travelled more than a 90 miles from home, but he made blind people see. He made lame people walk. He even raised several people from the dead raise. He never took a penny for his medical service.

That is the Jesus John built a relationship with. I would even say fell in love with. He is the same Jesus we follow today and the same Jesus we seek to fall in love with today. Let me give you a glimpse of some of the things that John saw in Jesus as their relationship grew.

The Jesus John fell in love with was a people person. John saw in Jesus someone who could captivate a crowd. He gathered some as large a 5000 and had them so entranced by his teaching that they didn’t leave to eat for fear of missing some. He could also touch one person at a time, like the Pharisee Nicodemus was at the top of the social ladder the loose Samaritan woman was a societal outcast. With just the right amount of sarcasm or tolerance He could deal with those who were his adversaries and with those who were his friends. He called each group to a closer relationship with him. His adversaries he challenged. His friends he gently prodded. Both he called to himself.

I think what each of us searches for more than anything else in life is a friend who truly knows us. Someone who can always say the right thing and will always do the right thing. Jesus had the uncanny ability to do just that. When his friend Lazarus died, he knew just what to say to Lazarus’s sisters in their time of grief. When Nicodemus came to him at night, Jesus had the words ready for him that he needed to hear. It was as if he had rehearsed it. The same thing is true for the Samaritan woman. The first time Jesus met Nathanael, one of his disciples, Jesus spoke two sentences to him and Nathanael was calling him “Rabbi,” “Son of God,” and “the King of Israel.” 

John got to know Jesus who was a scholar of people. He cared about them. He wasn’t out to manipulate them like a fake fortune teller who gleans just enough details about who you are to fool you into thinking he knows more. He wasn’t a cheesy salesman who tries to find out just enough about you to convince you that you have a need for the product he is selling. He simply cared about people – no ulterior, selfish motive.  He simply cared. He still does. I don’t know about you, but it feels good to me when someone says something to me that lets me know that he is thinking about me & that he knows me. I like it when people remember my name. I like it when they ask me specifics about stuff in my life. That is Jesus. I want to know him better. I want to fall in love with him the way John did.

John fell in love with a Jesus who did what no one else would do.  He did it simply because it was right. John tells us about Jesus forgiving an adulterous woman–probably a prostitute. She was naked in the town square, having been pulled out of her bed of sin. She was surrounded by angry men with rocks ready to hurl them at her. Jesus stood them down, offered forgiveness to the woman and gave her her life back. Have you ever been the underdog like that woman was? Have you ever been totally helpless to protect yourself maybe even to sustain your own life. If you have I am sure you would have liked to have had Jesus on your side.

• What about the Christians in Sudan and other nations where persecution of Christians is tolerated. The only hope they hold onto is the hope that Jesus is with them. He has proven himself with them time and time again.

• Maybe you have faced sickness or joblessness or separation from your family. In those situations it is good to know that you have a friend who will stand with you. That friend is Jesus. That is who John fell in love with.

John fell in love with Jesus who stands up for what is right–even if no one else will. Jesus walked into the temple during the Passover. In it were business men who were making more money in those few days than they did throughout the whole year. They were doing it in a way that God was not pleased with. Turning the place of worship into a market. No one else stopped them. They were just making a living. Jesus called wrong wrong. He wouldn’t let sin go unnoticed and uncorrected. He literally drove them out of the temple with a whip.

Do you ever find it hard to stand up for what is right–especially when no one else is willing to do it? You need to make friends with someone who has. Jesus is that man. There was lame man who wanted to be healed. Jesus healed him. It was the right thing to do. Even if it was on the Sabbath. The religious leaders didn’t like it. It made them want to kill him. He didn’t care. It was the right thing to do. 

This is amazing about Jesus: he is always with us when we stand for what is right.  More amazing is that Jesus is always ready to forgive us and bring us back to spiritual health when we fall from him.  Jesus was there for the adulterous woman.  Jesus was there for Peter after Peter abandon Jesus to his death.  He is not just there for those who are in the right, he is there for us when we fail him as well.

There are times in our life when we need that kind of courage. We need to take a stand for what is right, even if no one else is doing it. We cannot do it alone. If we have someone by our side who has done it before and proven victorious over his enemies it might help. Jesus is that person. We need to get to know him and build a relationship with him. John will help us with that.

John also got to know Jesus who, though he was a man, was much more than that. He was God in the flesh. John makes that very clear from the first chapter of his gospel. “No one has ever seen God,” he writes, “But God the one and only who is at the Father’s side has made him known.” With those words John tells us Jesus is God. He was repeating what he heard John the Baptist allude to when he called Jesus the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. He has seen him converse with Moses and Elijah on the Mount of Transfiguration. He has heard Jesus tell others that He is the light of the world. He is the Son of Man. Jesus proclaims himself the “Way, the Truth, the Resurrection, whoever believes in me shall live even though he dies.” Jesus has plainly told those listening to him that he speaks only what the Father tells him to speak, and that he has the authority to forgive sins–a power reserved for God alone. John definitely falls in love with a man who is so much more than a man. He is God.

Over the next few months I want to strengthen my relationship with Jesus who is so much. He is the one I need. He is both man and God.in Love with Jesus

Introduction to the Gospel of John

John 21:20-25

FCOCLH – January 3, 2010

One of the trendy things to do today is to have or to be a mentor.  Don’t take the word “trendy” in a disparaging way.  It makes a lot of sense to find someone in our walk of life – it could be in our career, in our personal matters, or even in our hobbies – who has walked before us in the way we want to go.  In the Bible, Elijah was a mentor to Elisha.  Elijah passed on to Elisha a double portion of his prophetic gift. Elisha watched Elijah’s earthly life end, not by death, but by being taken away by God in a fiery chariot. 

Elijah had one mentor.  Jesus chose 12 proteges.  It was a perfect relationship, at least from Jesus’s side, but it wasn’t complete from the beginning.  There was growth.  I believe that each of them grew to like Jesus and Jesus grew to like them. There was one of those 12 who was special to Jesus. He is not named in the Gospel of John, but he is called “the beloved disciple” or the “Disciple whom Jesus loved.” The gospels of Matthew & Mark tell us this disciple whom Jesus loved was on the mount of transfiguration with Jesus and Elijah and Moses. Mark notes that this same disciple was there when Jesus raised the little girl from the dead. Matthew & Mark name him as one of those closer to Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane.  We also find out that the Disciple whom Jesus loved was at the cross when Jesus died.  He wrote one of the four gospels in the New Testament. He is John. John had a special and I think unique relationship with Jesus. I wouldn’t say that Jesus loved John more than he loved the other disciples any more than you would say that a father loves one child more than his others. You will often notice that a special relationship will develop between a father and a son that may not develop between the father and the other children. Jesus and John developed that kind of relationship. That is evident in John’s gospel. This morning the least I want to is to whet our appetite for the kind of relationship John shared with Jesus. It should be the type of relationship we have with Jesus. I also hope you will study John’s Gospel with me over the next few months so that we can begin to see Jesus the way John saw Jesus. We cannot be there, but through John’s eyes we can experience what John experienced.  Every Christian is mentored by Jesus.  Jesus wants more.  He wants a love relationship.  It is really quite remarkable that Jesus would like to be in a really deep friendship with us.  This would be like Emeril wanting to do a little cooking with us.  Or Dean Martin wanting to sing a few songs with us.  Why would Jesus want to be our friend?

John saw a Jesus who did what no other person had ever done before. Jesus was above and beyond anything anyone else could have ever been or done. He was new. There have been people who were before their time. Just last week I heard on the radio scientists just proved one of Einstein’s theories. He devised it 50 or so years ago, before the tools existed to prove it. Today technology has advanced so that scientists can test the theory. It was proven correct. Einstein was a man ahead of his time. Jesus saw a church that would change the world after he was gone, even though the only earthly provision he made for it to happen were 12 weak, faltering  men. He was way ahead of his time.  Before he even had prepared the 12 he told one of them of the power of the church of which he would be the head and the 12 would be the first leaders.  And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. Matthew 16:18

There are people who are powerful. Their decisions have worldwide impact. Presidents and monarchs. Generals and even the occasional average person have done the right thing at the right time and changed the course of history, but history is measured by the moment in time we think Jesus was born.  Think about how powerful he is.

He is a great healer.  There are people in the field of medicine who do great things. Dr. DeBakey is a great cardiologist. He has saved thousands of lives either personally or by other surgeons using his techniques. There are doctors who travel the globe to offer free care to poor people in all corners of the world. Jesus never travelled more than a 90 miles from home, but he made blind people see. He made lame people walk. He even raised several people from the dead raise. He never took a penny for his medical service.

That is the Jesus John built a relationship with. I would even say fell in love with. He is the same Jesus we follow today and the same Jesus we seek to fall in love with today. Let me give you a glimpse of some of the things that John saw in Jesus as their relationship grew.

The Jesus John fell in love with was a people person. John saw in Jesus someone who could captivate a crowd. He gathered some as large a 5000 and had them so entranced by his teaching that they didn’t leave to eat for fear of missing some. He could also touch one person at a time, like the Pharisee Nicodemus was at the top of the social ladder the loose Samaritan woman was a societal outcast. With just the right amount of sarcasm or tolerance He could deal with those who were his adversaries and with those who were his friends. He called each group to a closer relationship with him. His adversaries he challenged. His friends he gently prodded. Both he called to himself.

I think what each of us searches for more than anything else in life is a friend who truly knows us. Someone who can always say the right thing and will always do the right thing. Jesus had the uncanny ability to do just that. When his friend Lazarus died, he knew just what to say to Lazarus’s sisters in their time of grief. When Nicodemus came to him at night, Jesus had the words ready for him that he needed to hear. It was as if he had rehearsed it. The same thing is true for the Samaritan woman. The first time Jesus met Nathanael, one of his disciples, Jesus spoke two sentences to him and Nathanael was calling him “Rabbi,” “Son of God,” and “the King of Israel.” 

John got to know Jesus who was a scholar of people. He cared about them. He wasn’t out to manipulate them like a fake fortune teller who gleans just enough details about who you are to fool you into thinking he knows more. He wasn’t a cheesy salesman who tries to find out just enough about you to convince you that you have a need for the product he is selling. He simply cared about people – no ulterior, selfish motive.  He simply cared. He still does. I don’t know about you, but it feels good to me when someone says something to me that lets me know that he is thinking about me & that he knows me. I like it when people remember my name. I like it when they ask me specifics about stuff in my life. That is Jesus. I want to know him better. I want to fall in love with him the way John did.

John fell in love with a Jesus who did what no one else would do.  He did it simply because it was right. John tells us about Jesus forgiving an adulterous woman–probably a prostitute. She was naked in the town square, having been pulled out of her bed of sin. She was surrounded by angry men with rocks ready to hurl them at her. Jesus stood them down, offered forgiveness to the woman and gave her her life back. Have you ever been the underdog like that woman was? Have you ever been totally helpless to protect yourself maybe even to sustain your own life. If you have I am sure you would have liked to have had Jesus on your side.

• What about the Christians in Sudan and other nations where persecution of Christians is tolerated. The only hope they hold onto is the hope that Jesus is with them. He has proven himself with them time and time again.

• Maybe you have faced sickness or joblessness or separation from your family. In those situations it is good to know that you have a friend who will stand with you. That friend is Jesus. That is who John fell in love with.

John fell in love with Jesus who stands up for what is right–even if no one else will. Jesus walked into the temple during the Passover. In it were business men who were making more money in those few days than they did throughout the whole year. They were doing it in a way that God was not pleased with. Turning the place of worship into a market. No one else stopped them. They were just making a living. Jesus called wrong wrong. He wouldn’t let sin go unnoticed and uncorrected. He literally drove them out of the temple with a whip.

Do you ever find it hard to stand up for what is right–especially when no one else is willing to do it? You need to make friends with someone who has. Jesus is that man. There was lame man who wanted to be healed. Jesus healed him. It was the right thing to do. Even if it was on the Sabbath. The religious leaders didn’t like it. It made them want to kill him. He didn’t care. It was the right thing to do. 

This is amazing about Jesus: he is always with us when we stand for what is right.  More amazing is that Jesus is always ready to forgive us and bring us back to spiritual health when we fall from him.  Jesus was there for the adulterous woman.  Jesus was there for Peter after Peter abandon Jesus to his death.  He is not just there for those who are in the right, he is there for us when we fail him as well.

There are times in our life when we need that kind of courage. We need to take a stand for what is right, even if no one else is doing it. We cannot do it alone. If we have someone by our side who has done it before and proven victorious over his enemies it might help. Jesus is that person. We need to get to know him and build a relationship with him. John will help us with that.

John also got to know Jesus who, though he was a man, was much more than that. He was God in the flesh. John makes that very clear from the first chapter of his gospel. “No one has ever seen God,” he writes, “But God the one and only who is at the Father’s side has made him known.” With those words John tells us Jesus is God. He was repeating what he heard John the Baptist allude to when he called Jesus the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. He has seen him converse with Moses and Elijah on the Mount of Transfiguration. He has heard Jesus tell others that He is the light of the world. He is the Son of Man. Jesus proclaims himself the “Way, the Truth, the Resurrection, whoever believes in me shall live even though he dies.” Jesus has plainly told those listening to him that he speaks only what the Father tells him to speak, and that he has the authority to forgive sins–a power reserved for God alone. John definitely falls in love with a man who is so much more than a man. He is God.

Over the next few months I want to strengthen my relationship with Jesus who is so much. He is the one I need. He is both man and GodFalling in Love with Jesus

Introduction to the Gospel of John

John 21:20-25

FCOCLH – January 3, 2010

One of the trendy things to do today is to have or to be a mentor.  Don’t take the word “trendy” in a disparaging way.  It makes a lot of sense to find someone in our walk of life – it could be in our career, in our personal matters, or even in our hobbies – who has walked before us in the way we want to go.  In the Bible, Elijah was a mentor to Elisha.  Elijah passed on to Elisha a double portion of his prophetic gift. Elisha watched Elijah’s earthly life end, not by death, but by being taken away by God in a fiery chariot. 

Elijah had one mentor.  Jesus chose 12 proteges.  It was a perfect relationship, at least from Jesus’s side, but it wasn’t complete from the beginning.  There was growth.  I believe that each of them grew to like Jesus and Jesus grew to like them. There was one of those 12 who was special to Jesus. He is not named in the Gospel of John, but he is called “the beloved disciple” or the “Disciple whom Jesus loved.” The gospels of Matthew & Mark tell us this disciple whom Jesus loved was on the mount of transfiguration with Jesus and Elijah and Moses. Mark notes that this same disciple was there when Jesus raised the little girl from the dead. Matthew & Mark name him as one of those closer to Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane.  We also find out that the Disciple whom Jesus loved was at the cross when Jesus died.  He wrote one of the four gospels in the New Testament. He is John. John had a special and I think unique relationship with Jesus. I wouldn’t say that Jesus loved John more than he loved the other disciples any more than you would say that a father loves one child more than his others. You will often notice that a special relationship will develop between a father and a son that may not develop between the father and the other children. Jesus and John developed that kind of relationship. That is evident in John’s gospel. This morning the least I want to is to whet our appetite for the kind of relationship John shared with Jesus. It should be the type of relationship we have with Jesus. I also hope you will study John’s Gospel with me over the next few months so that we can begin to see Jesus the way John saw Jesus. We cannot be there, but through John’s eyes we can experience what John experienced.  Every Christian is mentored by Jesus.  Jesus wants more.  He wants a love relationship.  It is really quite remarkable that Jesus would like to be in a really deep friendship with us.  This would be like Emeril wanting to do a little cooking with us.  Or Dean Martin wanting to sing a few songs with us.  Why would Jesus want to be our friend?

John saw a Jesus who did what no other person had ever done before. Jesus was above and beyond anything anyone else could have ever been or done. He was new. There have been people who were before their time. Just last week I heard on the radio scientists just proved one of Einstein’s theories. He devised it 50 or so years ago, before the tools existed to prove it. Today technology has advanced so that scientists can test the theory. It was proven correct. Einstein was a man ahead of his time. Jesus saw a church that would change the world after he was gone, even though the only earthly provision he made for it to happen were 12 weak, faltering  men. He was way ahead of his time.  Before he even had prepared the 12 he told one of them of the power of the church of which he would be the head and the 12 would be the first leaders.  And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. Matthew 16:18

There are people who are powerful. Their decisions have worldwide impact. Presidents and monarchs. Generals and even the occasional average person have done the right thing at the right time and changed the course of history, but history is measured by the moment in time we think Jesus was born.  Think about how powerful he is.

He is a great healer.  There are people in the field of medicine who do great things. Dr. DeBakey is a great cardiologist. He has saved thousands of lives either personally or by other surgeons using his techniques. There are doctors who travel the globe to offer free care to poor people in all corners of the world. Jesus never travelled more than a 90 miles from home, but he made blind people see. He made lame people walk. He even raised several people from the dead raise. He never took a penny for his medical service.

That is the Jesus John built a relationship with. I would even say fell in love with. He is the same Jesus we follow today and the same Jesus we seek to fall in love with today. Let me give you a glimpse of some of the things that John saw in Jesus as their relationship grew.

The Jesus John fell in love with was a people person. John saw in Jesus someone who could captivate a crowd. He gathered some as large a 5000 and had them so entranced by his teaching that they didn’t leave to eat for fear of missing some. He could also touch one person at a time, like the Pharisee Nicodemus was at the top of the social ladder the loose Samaritan woman was a societal outcast. With just the right amount of sarcasm or tolerance He could deal with those who were his adversaries and with those who were his friends. He called each group to a closer relationship with him. His adversaries he challenged. His friends he gently prodded. Both he called to himself.

I think what each of us searches for more than anything else in life is a friend who truly knows us. Someone who can always say the right thing and will always do the right thing. Jesus had the uncanny ability to do just that. When his friend Lazarus died, he knew just what to say to Lazarus’s sisters in their time of grief. When Nicodemus came to him at night, Jesus had the words ready for him that he needed to hear. It was as if he had rehearsed it. The same thing is true for the Samaritan woman. The first time Jesus met Nathanael, one of his disciples, Jesus spoke two sentences to him and Nathanael was calling him “Rabbi,” “Son of God,” and “the King of Israel.” 

John got to know Jesus who was a scholar of people. He cared about them. He wasn’t out to manipulate them like a fake fortune teller who gleans just enough details about who you are to fool you into thinking he knows more. He wasn’t a cheesy salesman who tries to find out just enough about you to convince you that you have a need for the product he is selling. He simply cared about people – no ulterior, selfish motive.  He simply cared. He still does. I don’t know about you, but it feels good to me when someone says something to me that lets me know that he is thinking about me & that he knows me. I like it when people remember my name. I like it when they ask me specifics about stuff in my life. That is Jesus. I want to know him better. I want to fall in love with him the way John did.

John fell in love with a Jesus who did what no one else would do.  He did it simply because it was right. John tells us about Jesus forgiving an adulterous woman–probably a prostitute. She was naked in the town square, having been pulled out of her bed of sin. She was surrounded by angry men with rocks ready to hurl them at her. Jesus stood them down, offered forgiveness to the woman and gave her her life back. Have you ever been the underdog like that woman was? Have you ever been totally helpless to protect yourself maybe even to sustain your own life. If you have I am sure you would have liked to have had Jesus on your side.

• What about the Christians in Sudan and other nations where persecution of Christians is tolerated. The only hope they hold onto is the hope that Jesus is with them. He has proven himself with them time and time again.

• Maybe you have faced sickness or joblessness or separation from your family. In those situations it is good to know that you have a friend who will stand with you. That friend is Jesus. That is who John fell in love with.

John fell in love with Jesus who stands up for what is right–even if no one else will. Jesus walked into the temple during the Passover. In it were business men who were making more money in those few days than they did throughout the whole year. They were doing it in a way that God was not pleased with. Turning the place of worship into a market. No one else stopped them. They were just making a living. Jesus called wrong wrong. He wouldn’t let sin go unnoticed and uncorrected. He literally drove them out of the temple with a whip.

Do you ever find it hard to stand up for what is right–especially when no one else is willing to do it? You need to make friends with someone who has. Jesus is that man. There was lame man who wanted to be healed. Jesus healed him. It was the right thing to do. Even if it was on the Sabbath. The religious leaders didn’t like it. It made them want to kill him. He didn’t care. It was the right thing to do. 

This is amazing about Jesus: he is always with us when we stand for what is right.  More amazing is that Jesus is always ready to forgive us and bring us back to spiritual health when we fall from him.  Jesus was there for the adulterous woman.  Jesus was there for Peter after Peter abandon Jesus to his death.  He is not just there for those who are in the right, he is there for us when we fail him as well.

There are times in our life when we need that kind of courage. We need to take a stand for what is right, even if no one else is doing it. We cannot do it alone. If we have someone by our side who has done it before and proven victorious over his enemies it might help. Jesus is that person. We need to get to know him and build a relationship with him. John will help us with that.

John also got to know Jesus who, though he was a man, was much more than that. He was God in the flesh. John makes that very clear from the first chapter of his gospel. “No one has ever seen God,” he writes, “But God the one and only who is at the Father’s side has made him known.” With those words John tells us Jesus is God. He was repeating what he heard John the Baptist allude to when he called Jesus the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. He has seen him converse with Moses and Elijah on the Mount of Transfiguration. He has heard Jesus tell others that He is the light of the world. He is the Son of Man. Jesus proclaims himself the “Way, the Truth, the Resurrection, whoever believes in me shall live even though he dies.” Jesus has plainly told those listening to him that he speaks only what the Father tells him to speak, and that he has the authority to forgive sins–a power reserved for God alone. John definitely falls in love with a man who is so much more than a man. He is God.

Over the next few months I want to strengthen my relationship with Jesus who is so much. He is the one I need. He is both man and God.