"Before Abraham Was, I Am" -- John 8:48-59

The Thirtieth in a Series of Sermons on the Gospel of John

Jesus went to Jerusalem during the Feast of Booths and began teaching in the temple.  Crowds quickly gathered to hear him.  On the last day of the Feast, Jesus declared that he would be the one who will give the people of God living water (the gift of the Holy Spirit).  Jesus also declared that he was the light of the world.  Both declarations were loaded with messianic implications.  When the Pharisees arrived, they began to debate publically with Jesus, attempting to use his words against him, hoping to trap him in an error which would discredit Jesus in the eyes of the people.  The people watching were greatly divided about Jesus’ identity and mission.  Some believed in Jesus and possessed eternal life.  Others are said to “believe in Jesus” but do so only for a time and fall away when Jesus says something difficult, or does something they do not like.  Meanwhile, the Pharisees are plotting to kill Jesus, and the tension between Jesus and the Pharisees continues to intensify.  As it does, the Pharisees make their most serious charge against Jesus yet, and Jesus responds with the clearest declaration so far as to his divine identity.  

As we resume our series on John’s Gospel, we pick up where we left off last time in John 8 (with verse 48), during the so-called “conflict phase” of Jesus’s ministry (which includes the material in John 7-10).  In addition to speaking of himself as the source of living water and the light of the world, Jesus has been repeatedly speaking of the fact that he is about to go away, and that where he is going, no one can come.  Those who know John’s Gospel, know that Jesus was speaking about his own death, resurrection, and ascension which was drawing near.  Throughout this section of his Gospel, John has made it clear that Jesus’ hour has not yet arrived–the reason John gives as to why the Pharisees plot to put Jesus to death has not succeeded.  

After asserting himself to be the one who gives living water as well as the light of the world, the exchange between Jesus and the Pharisees grows increasingly intense.  Forcing people in the crowd to decide whether they are with Jesus or against him, Jesus told those Jews who profess to believe him, “if you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (John 8:31-32).  The proof that someone has eternal life (and therefore has genuine faith) is that they will abide (remain) by trusting in Jesus until the end of their lives.  Those who are truly Christ’s are preserved to the end in this faith by the indwelling Holy Spirit.  Those who have temporary faith (not genuine) do not abide.  Because the saving work of Christ has not been applied to them, they will fall away when things get tough–as we saw in the “Bread of Life” discourse back in John 6 and here in the debate recorded in John 8.

The Jews are totally perplexed about Jesus’ comment about him setting them free since even though Israel was then under Roman occupation, the Jews were back in the land and they were still free to practice their religion.  Jesus will explain this matter to them.  “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin.”  The Jews still do not grasp the fact that Jesus is using slavery as a metaphor for the guilt and power of sin, and that he speaks of freedom in terms of that redemption which he will accomplish on the cross to set his people free.  The Jews challenge Jesus by reminding him that they are children of Abraham.  Why would they need to be set free?  What kind of freedom can Jesus provide which they don’t already have (except political freedom)?

To read the rest of this sermon, Click Here

This Week at Christ Reformed Church (April 27-May 3)

Sunday Morning (May 3):  As we continue to work our way through the books of Ezra-Nehemiah, we come to Ezra 4:1-24, and an unexpected interruption of the rebuilding of the temple.  Our Lord's Day worship service begins at 10:30 a.m.

Sunday Afternoon:  We are continuing our series on the Canons of Dort.  We are covering the fifth head of doctrine and are now in the "refutation of errors."  This week, we are covering refutations 6-9 and the final accusations raised by the Arminians.  Our catechism service begins @ 1:15 p.m.

Wednesday Night Bible Study (April 29):  We are continuing our "Run Through the Letters of Paul," and we are working our way through Galatians 3:15-29.

The Academy:  Friday, May 1 @ 7:00 p.m.  

Our new Academy series is entitled "The Great and Holy War" and will be a lecture and discussion of the legacy of World War One, including the establishment of a Jewish State in Palestine (Israel), the roots of ISIS (the end of the Caliphate/Ottoman Empire), the Bolshevik Revolution and the rise of Marxist-Leninism.

This week we will watch the video (note the time--7:00 p.m.): "War Without End" from the series The First World War, based upon Hew Strachan's book, narrated and produced by Jonathan Lewis, and then our lecture (@ 8:00 p.m.), is entitled: "The Cessation of Hostilities"  The Treaty of Versailles, and the Balfour Declaration

Our text for this series is Philip Jenkin's book,  The Great and Holy War

For more information and directions, check out the Christ Reformed website:  Christ Reformed Church

"The House of God" -- Ezra 3:1-13

Here's the audio from this morning's sermon:  Click Here

Audio Posted -- "The Great War: Who Started It and Why?"

Here's the audio from last Friday's Academy Lecture.

1).  What are the causes of the Great War?

2).  What is just war theory, and how should it have been applied by the participants?

3).  How did Christian progressives and fundamentalists view the Great War?

The Great War: Lecture Two

This Week's White Horse Inn

Seeing Jesus in the Old Testament (Part Two)

This week on the White Horse Inn we finish our two-part series on how to find Christ in the Old Testament. We are joined once more by Nancy Guthrie, who has written a five-volume book series addressing this topic, entitled Seeing Jesus in the Old Testament.

The focus of this discussion centers on three of Nancy’s books, The Son of David: Seeing Jesus in the Historical Books, The Wisdom of God: Seeing Jesus in the Psalms and Wisdom Books, and The Word of the Lord: Seeing Jesus in the Prophets. Join us as we learn to see Christ from these Old Testament books on the White Horse Inn.

Click Here

Barack Obama, Vladimir Putin, and the Antichrist

 

The two most powerful men on earth will always be the subject of prophetic speculation--especially questions about their relationship to the end-times Antichrist.  Such speculation comes with the territory, given their respective roles as the two of the key power-brokers in world affairs.

In a recent radio interview, former Congresswoman Michele Bachmann, expresses the opinion that Barack Obama's foreign policy is hastening the end-times (Obama Is Hastening the Rapture).  Echoing the standard dispensational categories of prophetic punditry, Bachmann laments,

“We need to realize how close this clock is getting to the midnight hour . . . . We in our lifetimes potentially could see Jesus Christ returning to earth and the rapture of the church”

This dire prediction is based upon her perception of Obama's weakness in his dealings with Iran.  Says Bachmann,

“We are literally watching, month by month, the speed move up to a level we’ve never seen before with these events . . . . Barack Obama is intent.  It is his number one goal to ensure that Iran has a nuclear weapon . . . . If you look at the president’s rhetoric, and if you look at his actions, everything he has done has been to cut the legs out of Israel and lift up the agenda of radical Islam . . . . Any nation that accepts God and his principles is blessed, and those who push away are cursed. That’s what we’re seeing happen to the United States. . . . We will suffer the consequences as a result.”

Alluding to God's promise of favor toward Abraham, Bachmann believes that America's fate depends upon whether or not we support Israel.

Almost in passing Bachmann adds that because of abortion and gay marriage, God is punishing the United States for “embracing a pagan view.”  God may very well be punishing America for these things, and Obama's dealings with Iran on nukes may be potentially dangerous.  But apart from special revelation, we do not know such things with the biblical certainty Bachmann assumes.  There is the uncomfortable fact that God may punish America for embracing a heretical form of civil religion (like that of the politicians of the left and right who confuse American national interests with God's eternal purposes), or for our gluttony, sloth, self-righteousness, or a host of other sins which never are mentioned by politicians.

Then there's Vladimir Putin, the prophecy pundit's best friend.  The only problem the pundits have with President Putin is that he is not part of a revived holy Roman empire, so they turn to their faulty exegesis of Ezekiel 38-39 to explain how Putin might just be the supreme end-times foe.  I've responded to this misuse of Ezekiel 38-39 previously (Why the Dispensational Interpretation of Ezekiel 38-39 is Wrong).

According to a recent essay from Matthew Avery Sutton in the Washington Post, (Could Putin Be the Antichrist?) Putin's name is now bandied about in recent antichrist speculation,

With the fall of the USSR and the end of the Cold War, it looked to evangelicals that perhaps they had misread their Bibles. During the George W. Bush presidency, evangelicals began to invest more time and energy into working in this world rather than in preparing for the next.

And then came Putin. It appears that the former KGB agent may well be helping to lead a revival of apocalyptic thinking among some evangelicals. Best-selling evangelical author Joel Rosenberg, megachurch pastor John Hagee and television prophecy expert Jack Van Impe and many others have recently connected the Russian leader to Old Testament prophecy.

Sutton concludes,

Even if Putin does not actually do battle in the end times with the Antichrist, he serves as a reminder to millions of American evangelicals that the Bible is the best guide to the future. Although Jesus may not be coming today, he is coming soon. And as they keep a wary eye on peace promises coming out of Ukraine, that is all they need to know.

Goes to show, the evening news (or the google news feed) provides continual fodder for the prophecy pundits, even if Scripture doesn't support any of these claims or fanciful speculations. 

It is just a matter of time before the next political crisis produces new antichrist candidates and a spate of creative exegesis to support these bizarre claims about political figures and their supposed connection to the end-times.

Happy Birthday, My Dear!

A big milestone today for Mrs. Riddleblogger -- Micki or "MV" as she's affectionately known.  You are a great wife, a wonderful mother, and a true and faithful servant to our church family.  And I am truly blessed.  

"The Truth Will Set You Free" -- John 8:31-47

The Twenty-Ninth in a Series of Sermons on the Gospel of John

There is faith, and then there is faith.  Throughout the public ministry of Jesus there has always been a group of people to whom God has granted eternal life and who are said to “believe” in Jesus.  They are completely devoted to his messianic mission and continue to follow him through difficult times.  There is also a group of people (the Jews in John’s Gospel) who see Jesus as a threat, and who oppose just about everything Jesus says and does.  These people do not believe–and Jesus grants them no quarter whenever he encounters them.  And then there is a third group; those who are said to “believe in Jesus” and are even called “disciples,” but who eventually demonstrate that they do not truly believe in Jesus, and never really have.  These people are following Jesus out of desperation. They believe Jesus to be a miracle-worker who can help them in crisis.  Some of them see Jesus as the prophet foretold by Moses because no one else could do and say the things Jesus says.  Then there are others in this group who see in Jesus someone who can lead the nation into battle against their Roman oppressors.  These are people who want to make Jesus king (Messiah).  But people in this third group tend to fall away when Jesus utters hard sayings (as in the “Bread of Life” discourse), or when Jesus does something which does not meet their expectations (he claims to be God, he challenges their self-righteousness, or exposes their sin).
 
Therefore, not everyone whom John says believes in Jesus, really believes in Jesus.  Not everyone who follows Jesus is truly his disciple.  In fact, in John 2:23-25, John introduced us to such people when he wrote of them, “now when [Jesus] was in Jerusalem at the Passover Feast, many believed in his name when they saw the signs that he was doing. But Jesus on his part did not entrust himself to them, because he knew all people and needed no one to bear witness about man, for he himself knew what was in man.”  There are people whom John says “believe” in Jesus, but who over time prove they do not.  They are mixed with those following Jesus who really do believe the gospel because God has given them eternal life.  What are we to make of this problem?  How do we tell who is who?  Who is the true believer?

We continue our series on the Gospel of John and we are in John 8, working our way through the so-called “conflict phase” of Jesus’ ministry (chapters 7-10)–that part of Jesus’ messianic mission which is characterized by increasing conflict between Jesus and the religious leadership of Israel, the Jews.  We have seen that this conflict takes place during the Feast of Booths when Jesus goes to Jerusalem and declares himself to be the one who will give the people of God living water (the Holy Spirit), before declaring himself to be the light of the world (the Messiah, whose message of salvation will shine to the ends of the earth).  John tells repeatedly us that Jesus’ hour has not yet come (which is why the Pharisees’ plot to kill Jesus has not come to fruition).  John also reveals that Jesus is now telling his disciples that he must leave them, and that where he is going, no one can come.  Those who know how John’s Gospel turns out in the end, know that Jesus is referring to his coming death, resurrection, and ascension (when he returns to the Father) before sending the Holy Spirit (Pentecost).

To read the rest of this sermon, Click Here

This Week at Christ Reformed Church (April 20-26)

  Sunday Morning (April 26):  We continue with our series on the books of Ezra-Nehemiah, and we now come to chapter three (3:1-13).  We will be discussing the work of rebuilding the altar and the temple which now gets underway.  Our Lord's Day worship service begins at 10:30 a.m.

Sunday Afternoon:  Rev. Chris Coleman will be conducting our catechism service, which begins @ 1:15 p.m.

Wednesday Night Bible Study (April 22):  We are continuing our "Run Through the Letters of Paul," and have come to Galatians 3:15-29, and Paul's take on redemptive history.  

The Academy:  Friday, April 24 @ 7:00 p.m.  

Our new Academy series is entitled "The Great and Holy War" and will be a lecture and discussion of the legacy of World War One, including the establishment of a Jewish State in Palestine (Israel), the roots of ISIS (the end of the Caliphate/Ottoman Empire), the Bolshevik Revolution and the rise of Marxist-Leninism.

This week we will watch the video (note the time--7:00 p.m.): "To Arms" from the series The First World War, based upon Hew Strachan's book, narrated and produced by Jonathan Lewis, and then our lecture (@ 8:00 p.m.), is entitled: "The Causes of the War"  Who Started It, and Why?

Our text for this series is Philip Jenkin's book,  The Great and Holy War

For more information and directions, check out the Christ Reformed website:  Christ Reformed Church

"Everyone Whose Spirit God Stirred Up"-- Ezra 1:5-2:70

Here's the audio from this morning's sermon, the second in a series on Ezra-Nehemiah

Click Here