Created in His Image, Broken Beyond Physical Repair

Created in His Image, Broken Beyond Physical Repair:

Last week we talked about being born again, being born into a new person.  Having the Holy Spirit of God come into us and begin to change us.  But why is that needed, are we not fine just the way we are?  The answer is no we are not, we are not who we were created to be.  In Genesis 1:26-27 God says “Let us make people^* in our image, to be like ourselves. They will be masters over all life—the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, and all the livestock, wild animals, and small animals.” So God created people in his own image; God patterned them after himself.”  Did you notice God said let us, not let me, who is He talking to?  He is talking to Christ and the Holy Spirit.  He created us in His image, we Have a physical body (which is going to die), a sprite (which is never going to die), and Soul (which is what makes us us).  But we were also created holy without any sin, Adam and Eve had no sin, they were able to speak to God face to face.  What happened then? Why are we not able to have this?

Sin happened, in Genesis chapter three we read the story of the fall of man, how Satan tricked Eve and Adam into to thinking they could become like God if they ate of the forbidden fruit, but that was far from the truth for the fruit they ate of only brought death, not just physical death but also spiritual death and darkness. It ripped the relationship between God and man apart, no longer was man in the perfect image of God.  Because of this a new system had to be put in place a system that required a blood sacrifice, but that was able to come close to repairing the broken image of man.  Which is why Christ came to earth, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.”(John 3:16)

God loves us enough He Has Sent His Son: (John 3:10-20)

If you remember last week we talked about Christ talking to Nicodemus and how we need to be born again, but that was not the end of their conversation.  Christ went on to explain how He would have to be sacrificed.  That through Gods love He had come to show the world the light, and be the ultimate blood sacrifice that would restore the relationship between man and God.  We have to choice whether we want to follow and give our lives to God or continue to live in sin.  Christ tells Nicodemus that we live in a world full of darkness, it is easier to live in darkness then it is to accept the truth.  We have all heard the phrase, “ignorance is bliss.”  How true it is, if we don’t accept Christ in our life then we can live however we want to. We can say things like many different paths lead us to God.  We can live a life without any true guilt over our sins, but there is a consequence to ignorance.  In the 1930’s the United States was ignorant of what was going on in the rest of world, until December 7, 1941.  People thought we are okay over here we can ignore the rest of the world, to only wake up to Japan attacking us and taking us completely off guard.  We can choose to ignore Christ and live our lives in darkness here on earth, which then leads to eternal spiritual death and hell.  Or we can choose to live in the light and give our lives to Christ to which leads eternal life. The choice is yours.  “God did not send his Son into the world to condemn it, but to save it.   “There is no judgment awaiting those who trust him. But those who do not trust him have already been judged for not believing in the only Son of God. ¹⁹ Their judgment is based on this fact: The light from heaven came into the world, but they loved the darkness more than the light, for their actions were evil.  They hate the light because they want to sin in the darkness. They stay away from the light for fear their sins will be exposed and they will be punished.  But those who do what is right come to the light gladly, so everyone can see that they are doing what God wants.” (John 3:18-21)

An Encounter in the Evening (John 3:1-210)

Many Believed but did not have faith (John 2:23-25)

We see that many people came to believe in Christ through seeing His miracles, but they did not put their faith in Him.  They got all excited about Christ for the moment but once that moment was gone, they to were gone.  Christ knew their heart He knew that they were not truly converted.  He knew this because, “he knew what people were really like. ²⁵ No one needed to tell him about human nature” (John 2:28).  Christ understood the moment that they were all excited for the time but they truly where not following him in their hearts.  Christ is wanting us to give Him a deeper comment then just saying that we are for Him, which leads us right into Christ encounter with Nicodemas.

An Encounter in the Evening (John 3:1-210)

    We have an encounter at night with a man named Nicodemas and Christ told him, “I assure you, unless you are born again, you can never see the Kingdom of God”(John 3:3).  Christ is telling him, I want more from you than just a I believe in God, and go through all the rituals and say all the right things.  I want there to be a rebirth of who you are.  I want you to have a new life in me, a life with no shame and starting over.  You no longer have to live as you once lived.  How exciting is this that we have used the phrase born again to the point of forgetting how exciting it really is.

    We all have been given a chance to be born again, born not of a physical birth but of a spiritual birth.  Roger L Fredrikson explains this experience of being born again as “There is also a spiritual act of divine grace in which God gives Himself to a particular person, who, in receiving Him, is born anew. It is in the union of the divine and the human, the supernatural and the natural, the heavenly and the earthly, that new life comes.”

We are to Be a new Creature in God (Titus 1-8)

   Paul reminds us in Titus that we are not be like those in Jerusalem who believed in Christ for only a moment.  No, we are to be born again in Christ allowing there to be regeneration of our soul.  We are no longer to be a part of this world; we are to longer think as the world thinks.  We are to allow God to work in our hearts.  For we have been given the gift of the Holy Spirit who comes into our bodies and begins the process of us being reborn.

    Jesus explained to Nicodemus that just as one cannot see the wind but see the effects of the wind, one cannot see the Spirit they can see and feel the effects of the Spirit.  Christ wants us  not to just believe in Him, but to put our trust in Him, to follow Him, and allow the Holy Spirit to enter into our lives, and for us to be reborn.  We are to walk away from our old lives and crave a new life in Christ.   Peter tells us “²³ For you have been born again. Your new life did not come from your earthly parents because the life they gave you will end in death. But this new life will last forever because it comes from the eternal, living word of God”(1^st Peter 1:23).  We are to be guided by the Holy Spirit and feed through the Word of God, so that we can have a new life in Christ.  Who came not to Judge but to give us life.

A Ruckus at the Temple (John 2:13-24)

A Ruckus at the Temple (John 2:13-24)

We see a much different picture of events this week then we did from last week, this week Christ is at Passover.  Every devout male Jew over the age of 12 would make the trip Jerusalem for  the celebrate, remember that God had delivered them out of Egypt and created a Nation.  This was also the time where there was the  offering of life through the blood sacrifices as commanded by God (Exodus  23:14-17).  This was to be a time of celebration and worshiping of God, but the high priest had turned it into a business and were taking advantage of those who had come to worship.  Barclay has pointed out that when Crassus captured Jerusalem and raided the temple treasury in 54 B.C. he made off with almost ten million dollars without anywhere near exhausting the treasury.  The money they made was not part of God’s plan. 

We see Christ enter into the picture and He becomes enraged over what He sees, he begins to cleanse the temple.  “In the Temple area he saw merchants selling cattle, sheep, and doves for sacrifices; and he saw money changers behind their counters.  Jesus made a whip from some ropes and chased them all out of the Temple. He drove out the sheep and oxen, scattered the money changers’ coins over the floor, and turned over their tables.  Then, going over to the people who sold doves, he told them, “Get these things out of here. Don’t turn my Father’s house into a marketplace!”(John 2:14-16)”  Here comes Christ and he sees money changers taking advantage of the poor, and instead of scared worship going on people are buying and selling.  The Temple where prayer and worship is to be going on, but instead has been turned into a market place.  He takes matters into His own hands and shows great authority over the people.

A Sign is Demanded (John 2:18-22)

The religious leaders demanded that Christ show them a sign that He was truly the Son of God. Christ responded by saying “destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up.”  Not understanding what He meant, that His body was the temple they responded by saying how can you do that when it took 43 years to build this temple.   Remember I told you last week, Christ came to change everything.  Here He was talking about His crucifixion and then the resurrection three days later.  His crucifixion allowed there to be no more need for a blood sacrifice, and His resurrection allowed the freeing of Gods sprite to come and to live in us.  Through the Cross and the resurrection are bodies have now become the Temple which holds the Holy Spirit.

” ¹² You may say, “I am allowed to do anything.” But I reply, “Not everything is good for you.” And even though “I am allowed to do anything,” I must not become a slave to anything. ¹³ You say, “Food is for the stomach, and the stomach is for food.” This is true, though someday God will do away with both of them. But our bodies were not made for sexual immorality. They were made for the Lord, and the Lord cares about our bodies. ¹⁴ And God will raise our bodies from the dead by his marvelous power, just as he raised our Lord from the dead. ¹⁵ Don’t you realize that your bodies are actually parts of Christ? Should a man take his body, which belongs to Christ, and join it to a prostitute? Never! ¹⁶ And don’t you know that if a man joins himself to a prostitute, he becomes one body with her? For the Scriptures say, “The two are united into one.”^* ¹⁷ But the person who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him.

¹⁸ Run away from sexual sin! No other sin so clearly affects the body as this one does. For sexual immorality is a sin against your own body. ¹⁹ Or don’t you know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself, ²⁰ for God bought you with a high price. So you must honor God with your body” (1^st  Corinthians 6:12-20)

Knowing this, means we have a great responsibility as followers of Christ, to take care of His temple.  I don’t mean we all have to go and buy the newest and greatest exercise DVD out and get into great shape.  We have to make sure that we are not going out and sinning against God, that we are not putting filth in our head, instead we need to make sure we are feeding our souls with the word of God so we can go out and live it.  Christ tells us in Matthew 6:18-24 “¹⁹ “Don’t store up treasures here on earth, where they can be eaten by moths and get rusty, and where thieves break in and steal. ²⁰ Store your treasures in heaven, where they will never become moth-eaten or rusty and where they will be safe from thieves. ²¹ Wherever your treasure is, there your heart and thoughts will also be.

²² “Your eye is a lamp for your body. A pure eye lets sunshine into your soul. ²³ But an evil eye shuts out the light and plunges you into darkness. If the light you think you have is really darkness, how deep that darkness will be!

²⁴ “No one can serve two masters. For you will hate one and love the other, or be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.”

Why A wedding?( John 2:1-12)

Why A wedding?( John 2:1-12)

Why does John tell us about Jesus attending a wedding, after all isn’t this an unimportant event in the life of Christ?  After all Christ is the Son of God, He is God in the flesh.  Doesn’t He have more important things to do then go to someone’s wedding?  Should He not be out teaching people about who He is? Isn’t that the picture we seem to always get when we think of Jesus?  But here we see Him at a wedding celebration, which was no small thing back then.  The wedding would have taken place on a Wednesday or Thursday depending on whether the bride was a widow or was a virgin.   Then the wedding party and guest would have marched down the street to the grooms house, then the party would last at least a week if not longer.   

It’s here we find Jesus celebrating the marriage of a close friend, not saying to him I have more important things to do.  No we find The Son of God taking time to enjoy the company of His earthly family and friends.  Many times we think of Jesus and we think of all the healings and the teachings that He did, but we forget that throughout the Gospels we see Him   taking time to sit and talk with his friends.  I think we often  forget that God wants us to know that He wants us come to Him and talk, get to know who He is and that He love us deeply and cares about us. 

Water into Wine: (John 2:1-12)

At this wedding something is about to go wrong not just a “oh that’s ok” wrong, they run out of wine.  Meaning complete shame for both families.  It was the groom’s family responsibility to make sure that they had enough refreshments for everyone.  If not the Bride’s family could sue over this causing a great deal of problems.  So as soon as Mary hears about there not being enough wine she goes to tell Christ.  Why does she do this? Because she knows He is the Son of God, that He is able to help.  Christ responds by saying to Mary “How does that concern you and me?” Jesus asked. “My time has not yet come.”  What does Christ mean by saying “my time has not yet come,” he is saying that the time of His death and resurrection is not at hand yet.  He is going to continue to say that throughout His ministry in Johns gospel (7:6, 8, 30; 8:20; 12:23; 13:1; 16:32; 17:1).  Take note though that Christ does take  care of the problem for the groom.  He just wants to make it clear that this not his primary goal for coming to earth.  That the cross was the true blessing to come, it would be through the cross, and resurrection where we find the true purpose of Christ.

Mary told the servants to do what Christ told them to do, and they did so, following the directions of Christ.  They filled the six pots, which were used for ceremonial cleaning of the hands and feet.  Filling them to the brim so no one could say it was some kind of magic trick or  that He added the wine to the water when no one was looking. But there is a much deeper meaning to all of this just water being turned into to wine, I think Roger Fredrikson puts it best in his commentary on John. “However, there is a deeper meaning here. The old wine of the law, without taste or strength, has given out. "But you have kept the good wine until now." In God's time, the new creation has come. The age of grace has broken in. There is One among us who now pours out the rich wine of the "end times" and there is enough for everyone!”

Roger L. Fredrikson. Preacher's Commentary - Vol. 27- John (pp. 68-69). Kindle Edition.