Are We an Easter Church Part III: Are We Remembering Jesus?

Are We Remembering Jesus?

This is the last in a series of Easter sermons targeting the connection between Easter and Pentecost. In this last sermon we will be considering the reality of the culture of depravity in which we will, but also coming to the conclusion that loving Jesus means loving the world ... His world. We cannot separate our call to Salvation in Him from our call from Him to go into the both our church world and the wider world, becoming personally involved in the lives of all manner of people ... with the hope we can pull them out of the kingdom of darkness and into the kingdom of light. We cannot in our power get far. We need to continually be filled with "power from on high." We need to continually seek Jesus to fill us up to overflowing with his Holy Spirit. All Scripture references are from the English Standard Version.

My kids are cute. One is 2. One is 6-weeks old. I love it when my oldest has this look of absolute joy at seeing me. I love it when my 6-week old ... after an eternity of screaming ... falls asleep on my chest, with her head snuggled in the crook of my neck.

What would my public image be if my wife and I left them for an evening ... for say 5 or 6 hours ... by themselves so that we could go to a dinner and movie? Hey we would leave them with pizza money. We would tell them we love them and hug them big and tight. We would even bring them toys as souvenirs from our playful frolic out in town.

Yeah, I could see this flying over like a concrete balloon. The family and children's services would lock us away for life. We would never see our kids again. Yet, why is this so? We told them we loved them. We would have even brought them goodies when we came home. Hey, who could resist pizza? Well, reality seems to have the unfortunate habit of popping our day-dream-balloons. Just because we would have said and did things that we labeled as love, "don't make it so."

We can understand the utter stupidity of entertaining in serious thought the above scenario for even a milli-second. Yet, why do we live the above example when it comes to our relationship with Jesus?

Consider the following scenario that is fairly typical of some in Traditional Southern Christianity. We doll our nice suits and dresses, show up to the building we call a church. We smile at each other ... despite the falling apart of our worlds ... and sit in those cushy pews. We drop our tip in the offering plate. We listen to the choir and preacher entertain us. Then we go home. My haven't we done God a wonderful service by simply showing up! Next Sunday we'll do it all over again.

When Paul and the rest of the Apostles took the Gospel into the wider Greco-Roman world, they encountered magnificent temples and religious statues and other works of art. Many gentiles would simply enter those temples burn a pinch of incense to whatever god they wished to invoke and return home.

Ravi Zacharias in his book, Jesus among Other Gods, tells of growing up in Hindu India. He would watch often watch a man bow before the statue of one of their gods by the roadside. After paying homage he would move a bit from the statue and cheat his fellowman out of money.

Unfortunately, I would say that many of us in Traditional Southern Christianity are not practicing Christianity. Many of us are practicing pagan religion wrapped in a beautiful robe. Why do I say this? Let's consider what Jesus has to say in John 14.

Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. (14:1)

Jesus spoke this to his disciples after telling them of his soon departure. According to Ray Vander Laan, disciples tending to stay with their Rabbis for about 15 years. They had been with Jesus about 3. They were obviously shaken, nervous about having to deal with the world without their rabbi/master.

Actually this is not so different from our common situation. We come to church, attempting to blockade the world from coming in. We turn off our TVs (even unplug them and throw them out). We don't associate with anyone other than our "kind." We are afraid. We're not only afraid of the culture out there (which I admittedly am to an extent), but we're also afraid of involving ourselves in the lives of others sitting across from us in our pagan temple ... we call church.

Yet, Jesus instructs them to live in peace brought on by believing in Jesus and God. You may say that we do believe in Jesus, yet we are still afraid of the world. I say that you might not properly understand what Jesus means by "believe." Let's continue, though.

In my Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go to prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. (14:2 & 3)

I need to make a side comment for many of my readers who will be attempting to follow me from their "trusty" KJV bibles. The KJV translates a word in 14:2 as mansions. However, this is a very poor translation, if we take the original language ... and 1st Century Jewish culture into account. When a Jewish couple would marry, they did not attempt to finance their first home at the local First Bank of Jerusalem. Rather they lived in the groom's father's home. The groom and his father would build a room onto the existing house for him and his bride. As many as could have 20 to 30 folks lived in one "house" at any given time. Having said this it makes more sense to hear Jesus tell them that his father's house has many rooms. And he is going to prepare a place for them. Besides, it's not much of a heaven to me to have everyone in huge homes by themselves. Living in isolation is the Scriptural concept of Hell.

Notice that Jesus moves from reassurances of peace based on belief in him to reassurance of the afterlife/heaven/the hereafter. Unfortunately, for most of us in Traditional Southern Christianity this is the totality of Christianity. We "get saved," we've got our "fire insurance" and then we simply hold out until we make it to Heaven. Unfortunately, this is a serious misread of this passages and indeed of orthodox Christianity. We need to read Jesus's statements in context. So, let's proceed further.

And you know the way to where I am going. (14:4)

We need to highlight, underline, and memorize this verse. It is key. Jesus said they new the way to where was going. We need to understand that there is a way ... no there is the way to being with him in the hereafter. Let's read further.

Thomas said to him, "Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?"

Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him." (14:5-7)

Jesus not only says that there is the way to him and his Father in the hereafter. Jesus says he is that way. He also says that seeing him is seeing the Father.

Now most of us in Traditional Southern Christianity abstract this verse/pull it out from its natural habitat/take it out of context. This is fine ... so long as we put it back. Like a fish it cannot survive long out of its habitat. Yet, we tend to take it out, put it on T-shirts and bumper stickers. We use this to tell the Liberal church that they can rot in their pseudo Christian hell. Yet, if this is the extent of our understanding of this verse, we Conservatives are the ones rotting in the Hell of Ignorance.

14:6 is not simply a credal statement. It is an indictment on how weak Traditional Southern Christianity actually is ... so long as it foster the idea that being a Christian is simply believing certain approved statements. Now, certainly, Christianity has truth statements. Jesus is truth, and we should measure our believes and actions against his Truth. Yet, his Truth is not simply credal. Let's read further.

Philip said to him, "Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us."

Jesus said to him, "Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, 'Show us the Father?' Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else believe on account of the works themselves." (14:8-11)

Now Jesus has moved from a discussion of reassurances to a discussion of how to see the Father through seeing Jesus. We see the Father by seeing how Jesus lived his life. Yes, that includes personal morality. However, seeing how Jesus lived his life includes far more. Jesus mentions seeing the Father by seeing the works of Jesus.

This is important. Remember that Jesus promised to return and take us to himself and the Father in the hereafter. Jesus said that there is the way to the Father. He is that way. Now Jesus is telling us that by seeing his works, we are seeing the Father. Therefore, to see the works of Jesus is to see him, as well. Thus when Jesus tells us that he is the way to the father, his works must play some part in being the way to the father. Let's read further.

Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father. (14:12)

Amazing. Jesus in essence said that his works pave the way to himself in the hereafter. Now Jesus is saying that those same works which he did ... we would also do. And not only that, but doing those works was not an option. "Whoever believes in me will also...." Thus, doing the works of Jesus also paves the way to him in the hereafter. This is why I early wrote that 14:6 was not simply a statement about credal Christianity.

Now, this is not salvation by works. Far from it. Rather this is the substance of Scriptural faith. Scriptural faith is belief that spurs one to action for a purpose. Notice that Jesus said "Whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do." What happens if we don't do the works that Jesus did? We don't truly believe in him. James would say that our "faith apart from works is dead" (James 2:26).

Now the appropriate question is "What did Jesus do?" Jesus himself tells us that Isaiah is fulfilled in him, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. he has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor" (Luke 4:18). Jesus sends the 12 out to "heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse leper, and cast out demons (Matthew 10:8).

Jesus himself did those things and trained his disciples to do the very same things. In John 14:12 Jesus tells us that whoever believes in him "will also" do his works. There is no option here. All discussions of Spiritual gifts and manifestations of the Holy Spirit aside, the main point here is that to believe in Jesus is to do the works he did, which requires us to be personally involved in the lives of others both out in the world and inside the 4-walls of our pagan house of worship known as the church building.

We love to condemn Liberal Christianity to an eternity of roasting in the Hell they deny by claiming we have God's Truth, because we believe the Bible. However, why is it that we pick and choose which verses we latch onto, as well as misinterpret others from that infallible Word of God? Let's read further.

Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it. (14:13-14).

This is a favorite T-shirt and bumper sticker Bible phrase. We love to quote this phrase in Traditional Southern Christianity. We can pray and believe that God hears me. God will make sure I get that special car one day. God will ensure the restaurant has my beverage of choice on tap. God will ensure, that as one of his special people, I will be afforded special privileges that those sorry suckers on eternal death row don't get.

Now here me right. I do believe God sees and knows us personally. I believe God loves to love on us, his people. However, I also believe our contemporary culture of absolute comfort has given us butt-sores of the heart from lavishing too long on that comfy couch of absolute comfort. Yes, I love to enjoy life and the pleasures thereof. However, Christianity is also about death and discomfort. Christianity is also about leaving our thrones of lavish comfort and entering into the world of pain and suffering of the depraved. Christianity is also about "weeping with those that weep" (Romans 12:15).

In fact if you read the verses at hand from our passage in John in their context, we get a more graphic account that offends our absolute thirst for the lap of luxury. 14:13-14 follows the discussion of the way to Jesus in the hereafter being paved with our dynamic believing in Jesus that results in doing the works of Jesus. Notice the verse which follows.

If you love me, you will keep my commandments. (14:15)

Again, doing the works of Jesus is not optional. It is the essence of believing in him ... and our loving him. Yet, something in us rises up and paralyzes our hearts. It is fear. We are afraid of the wider world beyond our pagan house of worship, known as the church building. We are afraid. Let's read further.

And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. (14:16-18)

Yes, I am deathly afraid of the wider world at times ... just like the disciples were after the crucifixion of Jesus ... just like the disciples were that night Jesus was telling them this. I would be deathly afraid all the time ... had Jesus truly left me/us alone. Jesus is not only going to return for us at the end of the age. Jesus is also going to come to us, keeping us from being spiritual orphans. He would not leave his 12, and he is not going to leave us. Yet, how is he going to be with us (even unto the end of the age--Matthew 28:20), if he is away at the Father's abode preparing a place for us?

He is sending and has sent his Holy Spirit. We can be involved with those in this culture of depravity and those sitting across from us through being empowered by the Holy Spirit. He is our Helper. Notice he is also the Spirit of truth. Jesus said that he is the "way, truth, and life." His works pave this "way, truth, and life." The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of truth. Thus, if anyone could empower us to work the works of Jesus which pave the "way, truth, and life," the Holy Spirit ... that Spirit of truth ... can.

And see, Jesus promises that the Spirit would not only be with us but "in" us. How intimate! Christianity is ultimately not about works but faith. Yet, faith without works is dead. Yet belief and intimacy with God is the pinnacle of Christianity. Fellowship with God is the bed and butter of Christianity. This is why the Jews of old talked of religion as walking with God (Marvin Wilson, Our Father Abraham). We walk with God through intimate fellowship with the Holy Spirit along the way, the truth, the life to Jesus in the hereafter, which is paved with the works of Jesus.

Yet a little while and the world will see me no more, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. Whoever has my commandment and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loved me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him. (14:19-21)

Again this is the promise of intimacy with God ... all of him ... Father, Son, Spirit. Actually this intimacy spoken of here is deep and sexual in nature. Now don't read me wrong here. I'm not suggesting that we're going to have sex with God. No No NO. Rather I'm suggesting that the intimacy we are promised with the Holy Community (Father, Son, & Spirit) has the depths of passionate sexual intimacy. After all this whole discussion is couched in the cultural metaphor of getting married. Jesus even uses the imagery of helper for the Holy Spirit. Do remember from Genesis 2 that the female would be Adam's helper? Yet, this intimacy is not absent of ties to the commandments of Jesus, one of which is to do his works.

Judas (not Iscariot) said to him, "Lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself to us, and not to the world?"

Jesus answered him, "If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. Whoever does not love me does not keep my words. And the word that you hear is not mine but the Father's who sent me." (14:22-24)

This dude Judas asks Jesus how the world would not see this intimate manifestation of Jesus, but we would. Jesus responds by returning to his previous thought ... keeping the commandments of Jesus was the pathway to intimacy with the Holy Community (Father, Son, & Spirit). Thus Jesus is the Way to deep intimate fellowship with the Holy Community (Father, Son, & Spirit) both in the hereafter and now. That Way is paved with doing the works of Jesus.

These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you. but the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid. (14:25 & 26)

So how can we become the Easter Christians we need to be, leaving the blockaded room we call a Church and go out into the world to proclaim Jesus? We must constantly seek to be filled with the Holy Spirit. It is through empowering intimacy with the Holy Spirit that will enable us to take the nail-scarred hands and feet of Jesus to a broken and depraved world.


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Just a side note here. I refered to the church building as a pagan house of worship. Don't take me literally here. Most churches are filled with good people who sincerely seek to love God. Yet these same people either don't know how or they simply don't care to know how, either way they leave a major part of Christianity out of their lives, which is loving their neighbors as themselves. They go to church Sunday after Sunday forgetting about their neighbor. Pagan worship is this exactly ... except many pagans are politically active in some cause in their vision of social justice. Thus, when we neglect involvement in the wider world for Jesus, we become worse than pagans. This is why I refered to a church building as a pagan house of worship. I love church and go every chance I get.