Practical Ecclesiology Series | Selected Texts | Pastor Duane Smets

This week is an systematic theology sermon on the topic of worship. Isaiah 42:8 and John 4:3-26 are looked at for the exegetical insight on the reason and source for worship. Special attention is given to God’s worship of himself, what it means to worship in spirit and in truth, and the significance of Jesus in worship. This sermon was originally preached on January 16th, 2011 at The Resolved Church in San Diego, CA.

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The Resolved Church | www.theresolved.com
(619) 393-1990 | contact@theresolved.com
All Rights Reserved © The Resolved Church

Permissions: you are permitted and encouraged to reproduce and distribute this material provided you not alter the wording in any way and you do not charge a fee. For web posting a link to this document is preferred.

The Resolved Church
Pastor Duane Smets
January 16th, 2011

Practical Ecclesiology: “Worship & The Gospel” | Selected Texts | Pastor Duane Smets | 01/!6/11

Worship & The Gospel
I. The Ground of Worship
II. The Jesus of Worship
III. The Practice of Worship

Introduction

Last Sunday we launched a new mini, 6-week sermon series titled “Practical Ecclesiology.” Ecclesiology means the study of the church, so what we’re looking at is six areas of what it looks like practically or in practice of being the church.

So last week we began by talking about community…that God designed and intends the church to actually be in community, actually living life together and being involved with one another and not just sort of being disconnected acquaintances who sometimes see each other on Sundays. We worked through the theology of that by looking at God who is a Trinity eternally in community with himself, who made us in that image and has worked through the gospel to bring us into communion with him, which enables us to truly have community with one another.

The way we try and help that facilitate as a church is by having community groups which meet throughout the week all over the city. I heard some good feedback that a number of you in your community group this week had some new people show up and you had some great discussion about what it means to really be in community with one another. Good job.

This week we’re looking at “worship” and I decided to use the same basic outline and just switch the word “community” out for worship and we’ll work through things in a similar way today.

Worship. What is worship? What does it actually mean? Common cultural uses range from talking about church buildings or various religion’s temples as “places of worship” to references which focus more on acts of worship, such as kneeling, praying, reciting or singing. For a lot of Christians, it’s that last one the mind jumps most quickly to when we think of the word “worship.” When we hear worship, we think of the time during a church service when we hear music and sing.

It’s common Christian vocabulary to call the portion of the service when we do hear music and sing, to call it the “worship time” and it’s when we have a “worship leader” guide us in song and direct the band.

For a lot of people who are looking for a church the “worship” is at the top of their list. I’ve had visitors at the back tell me one their way out that they liked the church but the weren’t “into the worship” or I had one person tell me a couple weeks ago that they “liked the worship” because they could hear and understand the words. In each of these cases they meant the time when we had music and sang.

Northpoint media, a ministry of Northpoint church put out a video called “Sunday’s Coming” this year to press the question of worship. Check it out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZAWgWZ9lEuI

What do you guys think? Sean sent this to me a while back. My immediate response was…dang, we need more strobe lights.

Interestingly, just back in April, Billie Joe Armstrong, the lead singer of Green Day was in an interview and he compared what they do on stage to what happens in church worship services citing them as being even more successful than their band because they have tons of people who come in week after week to see these rock stars on stage in this thing we call “worship.”

Worship. What is worship? What does it actually mean? Is worship just something that happens on Sunday in a church service? An event? Is it just a part of that service? What is worship?

I. The Ground of Worship

Let’s look at “The Ground of Worship.” To start off with, the English word “worship” itself come from an old 13th century Anglo Saxon word we don’t use any more called “worthship.” It could be used to show honor to a king or reverence to a deity. What happened after time is worthship just got a little shortened to the word we have now, “worship.”

In the Bible the Greek word that gets translated into English as worship, is “proskuneo” which literally means bow down to or towards. So it’s a word that describes an act meant to express honor or reverence.

But just knowing some fun stuff about words doesn’t really help us get to the heart of what worship is. Harold Best, begins his book “Unceasing Worship” with a chapter titled, “Nobody does not worship.” He points out that the whole world, everyone in it is all wrapped up in worship…that the very nature of being alive is intertwined with worship.

C.S. Lewis said it this way in his book about the Psalms… “The most obvious fact about praise – whether of God or anything – strangely escaped me. I thought of it in terms of compliment, approval, or the giving of honour. I had never noticed that all enjoyment spontaneously overflows into praise…the world rings with praise – lovers praising their mistresses, readers their favourite poet, walkers praising the countryside, players praising their favourite game – praise of weather, wines, dishes, actors, motors, horses, colleges, countries, historical personages, children, flowers, mountains, rare stamps, rare beetle, even sometimes politicians or scholars.”

Nobody does not worship. Everyone has something they enjoy, it can even in pain or depression. Whatever it is this one common thread runs through it all. We as beings are continual outpourers. There is something about our design and makeup where in we ascribe or pour out energy or effort to something we think or feel worthy…to us. In that worth-ship is taking place. You and I are worshippers in the core of who we are.

But simply recognizing that we are innately worshippers does not quite get us to the ground of worship. So let me ask you a question to hopefully make your head hurt a little. Let’s think theologically for a few minutes. Here’s the question: Is God a worshipper? Does God worship?

Open your Bibles with me to Isaiah 42:8 “I am the LORD; that is my name; my glory I give to no other, nor my praise to carved idols.”

Now just to give you a little bit of context, this verse comes in the midst of a couple chapters which are all about giving glory or praise or worship to God. Verse 10 starts out, “Sing praise to the LORD a new song, his praise from the end of the earth.” And chapter 43, the next chapter is all about how God formed everyone and everything for his glory. Chapters 42-43 of Isaiah are extremely God-centered chapters.

Okay, now back to Isaiah 42:8. Look at it with me. First thing, God identifies himself, “I am the LORD, that is my name.” This is how God first introduced himself when Abraham met him. Abraham, is this famous dude in the Bible and when he first encountered God he simply asked, “who are you.” God said, “I AM.” Abraham was like, “okay…but who are you.” And he says, Yahweh, which gets translated here as LORD and it’s a word which again means I AM. Which is astounding.

I AM. In these two short words, three letters…God declares that is the only God who actually exists. That is always has been. That he always will be. And that he has no limitations. I AM. So Isaiah 42:8 right away tells us that who we are talking about is the God of the Bible.

Now what about him? He has glory…”my glory.” And he gives it out. “My glory, I give.” Who does he give it out to? No one but himself. “I give to no other.” So put it all together.

God is the great I AM. And God gives all his glory to himself. God worships himself. God is extremely God-centered….the most self-centered being in all of existence. This is the ground of worship. The ground of worship is God.

And you’ve got to get this. For some of you, you’ve heard this before. Some of you haven’t. But this is extremely important because if there is a God and if there is something more to worship than a pitifully manufactured concert with some spiritual undertones…then God must be great and he must be so great that all he can do is worship himself.

Now I know that sounds weird…that God worships himself. Here’s why. Deep down we know that being self-centered is bad. It’s when we’re all about ourselves and our own lives and our own agenda that we just get jacked up. So for us to hear that God, who is supposed to be good…is self-centered that sounds wrong.

Sometimes I’ve tried to explain it this way. If I said, “You know what guys…I worship myself and all of you need to worship me too.” What would you think? Besides thinking I’m crazy you’d probably think…dude, you’re kinds of getting fat, there’s something wrong with one of your eyes, sometimes you’re annoying and dude you’re not that great of a preacher.

You see, you instinctively know it would be whack for me to ask you to worship me because you know I’m not that great. I’ve got a lot of imperfections and limitations. But does God? No. God is completely limitless in every regard! God is all good, all knowing, all powerful, everywhere present…in every single major quality or attribute he has it in the inth degree.

Here it is…If you’re that great, then you’re the one being in the entire universe for whom it is the most right thing for you to be completely self-centered, to worship yourself and to command everyone and everything else to worship you. God pours out his glory so his greatness might be seen and that he might be worshipped.

God worships himself because only he is worthy of worship. The ground of worship is the greatness of God. And that is meant to overflow into all of life. It’s when things get disconnected from the greatness of God that we get into trouble.

Like in C.S. Lewis’s list of things that we worship. It’s not bad to like those things…but if we don’t see that what makes the poet great is his descriptions of God and his world…if we don’t see that what makes the countryside and the flowers beautiful is that they were created by God…if we don’t see that what makes our children and our spouses wonderful is that they are gifts of God…then there value is just cheapened and we start to treat them as having there own intrinsic value instead of derived one…in effect we turn them into idols.

II. The Jesus of Worship

Which leads us to our second point today, “The Jesus of Worship.” My first point this morning really had a three parts to it: 1. We’re really all worshippers all the time, we’re meant for worship. 2. God worships himself because only he is truly great. 3. So should we. We ought to worship God.

Really this is a big part of the thrust of the Bible. We’ve got all kinds of descriptions of God. He’s holy. He’s just. He’s kind. He’s loving. He majestic. He’s powerful. He’s glorious. He’s awesome. He’s compassionate. He’s sovereign. He’s unchanging. He’s righteous. He’s true. He’s beautiful. He’s frightening. He hears. He sees. He cares. He condescends. He corrects. He reveals. And He redeems.

The Bible if you haven’t discovered it yet is a book about God. It’s not namely a book about you and me. It’s a book about God. Everything in it is ultimately about God. How great and how good he is. It’s a book about who God is and what he has done. All of it is meant to scream out to you: worship God! Worship God! In everything.
• 1 Corinthians 10:31 says even in eating and drinking to give him glory. Worship Him.
• Psalm 150:6 says “Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.”
• 1 Chronicles 16:25 “Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised, and he is to be held in awe.”

The message of the Bible is a call to worship God. But what do we know about the world and what do we know about ourselves? Does the world worship God? Do we worship? No. God is either a theoretical idea or he’s someone we only worship…sometimes.

If we do believe there is a real God, what we most often do is we essentially put God in a box and fail to see the world as his world…where everything is connected to him. So we think things like God is Sundays. God is church. God is reading the Bible. God is the sunset.

Instead of being a person involved in the ongoing worship of God, we start and stop our worship and the result is we end up just seeing a black and white world and failed to see the color of his grace which touches everything.

And that’s when separation and sin enters in. You see sin does not begin at the point in which you do something wrong. And sin does not even begin when you first have the desire to do something wrong before you act. Sin in us has it’s beginning when we cease to cherish and worship God.

To help us see this and to see what God has done in Jesus to repair and restore us to worship I want us to look at John 4 for a few minutes. Let’s read John 4:3-26.

Now there’s a lot here and we’re not going to do a full exegesis of this entire story…but I want us to focus on one specific part. First off, Jesus is in Samaria…so he’s outside of Israel breaking racial boundaries. Then he’s breaking sexual boundaries by talking to a married woman here at the well.

The woman’s shocked probably even upset that Jesus is speaking to her. Jesus response is to give this semi-cryptic spiritual sage wisdom answer to her saying she should be talking to him and asking for the water of eternal life. So she plays his game and is like, “Okay…gimme the water then.”

Then Jesus gets real personal and calls her out on her junk. In how she’s been fooling around committing adultery and getting divorces and that she really isn’t even interested in what Jesus is talking about…a real life with God.

Now it’s this specific point I wanted us to really look close at, verse 20. “The woman said to him, ‘Sir I can perceive you are a prophet. Our fathers worshipped on this mountain, but you (you Jews) say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship.”

So what is the Samaritan woman’s definition of worship? It’s a place right? Worship is what happens in a particular place and apparently there’s disagreement about where it’s supposed to be. You see worship wars are not new. Today it might be disagreements over band styles, choirs and instruments used but then it was a matter of where you could worship and where you couldn’t.

Now Jesus sidesteps that and goes to the heart of worship and makes a prophecy about it. Look again at what he says, verse 21 “Jesus said to her, ‘Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father…(verse 23) the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. God is Spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”

Okay. So first we have Jesus straight out telling us what makes worship worship. Is it musical sound or style we like? Is it something that happens in a church building? Is it when someone is kneeling down, raising their hands, clapping? Is worship when someone is praying words out loud? When someone is closing their eyes? Singing at the top of their lungs? Or letting out hushed little whispers? Are any of those things the things which make worship worship? NO! None of them. Is there any single external act we can do as human that in and of itself is worshipful to God? No.

Jesus here, says straight out that the way you worship the Father is in spirit and in truth. What’s that? It’s head and heart.

Head…truth, you’ve got to have the right God…the God of the Bible and you’ve got to have accurate thoughts about him. Doctrine in worship matters. False representations or declarations about God do not please him. You’ve got to have the right God. No one likes to be misrepresented, especially God.

Heart…spirit, it’s got to be genuine, affectional, personally and individually from you. No one can worship for you and if your spirit is completely unmoved then all it is is external action which is not what God wants. That’s just performance and ritual and Jesus here says God doesn’t give a rip about that. The mountain is irrelevant.

What are we talking about here in regards to worship? Sometimes I think it helps to look at the extremes and here I think the extremes are emotionalism and stoicism.

What’s emotionalism? That’s when all you care about is the feeling you get from worship. You are not motivated to worship by who God is and what he has done but you are motivated by what you want him to do for you. In effect what you’re saying is God is not enough for you and you need more or something else.

This is the error of a lot of Pentecostals and you see the effects of it in me centered petitionary songs, where what you are singing is really all about you and what you want God to do for you because of how great it makes you feel. That is merely emotionalism.

These type of songs can be the biggest turn off for me because I’m reading the words and trying to sing along and where they are leading me to is into myself and I realize at some point I quit worshipping God and I’m really just singing about myself. The same thing can happen in your daily life experience of worship where you’re relationship with God is just totally all up and down and it’s because it’s almost wholly based on how you feel at the time.

But what about the opposite extreme? Stoicism. Stoicism means to be stoic or stone like. This is error of a lot of intellectuals and it’s when you can get so hyped on theological correctness that spiritual deadness enters your bones.

If you look at it on a Sunday songs level this happens when you can be singing a great God-centered song like “Holy, Holy, Holy” but there is not an ounce of affection in your heart or your spirit where you feel God’s holiness and your lack of it. It’s then that Jesus’ words to the Pharisees in Matthew 15:8 become true that you are drawing near to God with your lips but your heart is far from him…and your worship too is completely worthless.

On the daily life level it happens when your relationship with God shrinks into being merely a set of doctrines you prescribe to and there is no life, feeling, or vibrancy to your faith. It just becomes dead dry orthodoxy. And God is not pleased with that either.

Jesus says what makes worship worship is spirit and truth. Then he says something which just takes things to a whole new level. And that’s with the Messiah coming part. You see the woman rightly recognizes the problem of worship when Jesus points out the issue of spirit and truth. Her answer is that the Messiah is supposed to come and fix those things. Then in verse 26, Jesus says, “I am he.”

So how does Jesus, the Messiah, enable worship in spirit and truth? Here’s how. What we passed over earlier was the mountain the Jews worshipped on. Mount Zion, the holy city of Jerusalem, where the temple was. So when the woman says, “you say that in Jerusalem” is the place to worship…she was right. Jerusalem was the place God had assigned in the Old Testament as the fixed place of worship at the Jewish temple.

Okay…then how could Jesus say the time was coming when worship would not have to be there anymore but would simply be in spirit and truth? Because Jesus knew what he had planned to do. In John 2:19, just two chapters earlier, Jesus had said he would destroy the temple and raise it up in three days. In this statement Jesus both condemns the physical temple and commends the temple of his body by pointing to his death and resurrection on the cross as being worship changing event.

When Jesus, the son of God rises from the dead it’s the end of worship being fixed to a certain geographical locale because at that point all believers everywhere have access to God through him in spirit and truth.

Now what you’ve got to understand is how everything in the Levitical system of the Old Testament was set up to show the distinction between God and the people. Where you worship God is on a mountain because God is high. The architectural design of the temple has increasingly secret and privileged places, the innermost being the “holy of holies” to show the complete purity and otherness of God. Everything is set up to emphasize the transcendence and bigness of God and our inability to really get close to him.

But Jesus changes all that. In Jesus, God comes down from his holy throne in heaven. He becomes a man. Lives the life of worship we are supposed to live but have failed at. Then he crucifies the temple, paying the penalty to for sin once and for all and he rises again so that all believers might have free and immediate access to his throne.

Romans 5:1-2 says it this way, “Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand.”

Now I know, I’m making some big theological points. I don’t want you to get lost in it. The crucial thing to understand and be affected by is this connection, the connection between the worship and the gospel.

The gospel is the life, death and resurrection of Jesus for sin. What it does for us is enable unhindered worship of God in spirit and in truth no matter where we are. Jesus becomes our backstage pass to the throne room of God. We can draw near to God and he accepts and receives us. Jesus is like the usher who takes us there. Any sin that would separate us is dealt with by Jesus’ cross and God is free to lavish his grace upon us since his holy justice has been served. Jesus enables sinners to draw near to God.

And this is true every day we live a life of worship before God and it’s especially true here on Sundays when we gather together to celebrate it.

III. The Practice of Worship

Okay, well let’s transition here and talk about some practical stuff, “The Practice of Worship.” One of my main goals this morning has been to try and expand our understanding of worship…to help us to see that all of life is meant to be worship. That worship is not just the 30 minutes on Sunday when we sing songs. That our fellowship is worship, the preaching is worship, the Lord’s supper is worship, our lunches are worship…all of it is worship.

Now in saying that I’m not saying the singing and music portion of our worship on Sundays is not extremely important and wonderful. In it we have people from all different walks of life, with mostly untrained gathering together in a single place, and in a united unison singing praise to God…it makes a beautiful sound and is a unique experience in and of it self.

So let’s talk just for a few minutes about the practice of worship in music here on Sundays. Some of you may be unaware but the Sunday morning time of worship in music and song is not only in the top three reasons why people pick a church but it also in the top reason why people leave a church. Divisions over how music worship ought to be done has literally split churches and caused all out worship wars.

You know…over things like whether we should have organs, choirs, drums, electric guitars…whether our songs sound too worldly or not enough in touch with culture…whether we only sing hymns or choruses…if it’s too loud, too soft, too showy, too passive…whether it’s music I like or don’t…whether we’re sitting or standing, clapping, kneeling, raising our hands or whathever…the list goes on and on and on.

Here’s what I want to say about that. Not that any of those things don’t matter and are not important for us to think about and work through. But none of them are really the thing which either create or prohibit your worship. The biggest barrier to worship, the largest worship war, is you. It is the internal struggle and idolatry of the heart is what keeps us from worshipping God.

Because it’s God we’re talking about…it doesn’t matter if it’s some whacky lady playing an out of tune piano and singing off key leading us in some lame worship song…if I withhold my worship of God because of that, that’s an issue with me. Worship begins right here.

So practically that’s the first thing. You’ve got to learn to prepare your heart to worship. On a daily life level that means preparing your heart for the next day when you go to bed. It means preparing your heart for community to give and to receive when your there. On Sundays it means preparing your heart Saturday night and on the way to church.

In my family each week we work to try and create an excitement and anticipation for Sunday. We’ll tell our daughter on Saturday night…guess what we get to do tomorrow?! And then on the way to church we’re praying in the car together…preparing our hearts for worship.

Once your here sometimes is when the war really begins. I can’t tell you how many week there are when we start singing and I realize I’m just not into it…I’m saying the words but I’m thinking about something else or whatever, so I just start repenting and digging in with what is separating me and God. You can’t worship unless you deal with your heart and go to Jesus in spirit and in truth.

Now here is the second practical thing, the principle of preference. I’m glad we don’t have some lame duck worship leader who can’t keep a note. I’ve been in churches like that before…it was good for my soul. Worship musicians ought to practice and be gifted and play with skill. The Psalms talk about that all the time.

However, even then…when we gather, we have so many different types of people and musical interests and tastes, not everyone is going to dig the music each week. That’s just a fact. Sometimes you’ll be more into one style over another and that’s okay. We practice the principle of preference.

In the book of Romans you have the apostle Paul addressing a young church, full of people from two entirely different backgrounds and tastes…Jews and Gentiles in one church together. So the answer is not for us to divide and have two different churches based on our musical preferences. No worshipping God in spirit and in truth has people from every tribe and tongue together.

The answer is give way. To have our preference be for the other person. The principle of preference means we give up our personal preferences out of love for one another. Here’s Romans 14:19 on it, “Let us pursue what makes for peace and for mutual upbuilding.” So really, when it comes to worship and preferences our goal is to help one another worship God. That God be worshipped is all we really care about.

Worship is missional in this way, that we are attempting to help draw others into seeing, knowing and praising the greatness of God. Each day and each week here we are on a mission for worship. Our hope and desire for those who are not yet Christians is that they would be able to come in here and see how much we enjoy worshipping our God and long to have him as their God too.

Our goal each week is to meet with God in all our worship. God is everywhere present. But there is something unique God does and we pray he does each week where as A.W. Tozer says in his book, “The Knowledge of the Holy” God “manifests” his presence. He makes the reality of who he is felt and sensed among us.

In the Old Testament there were men whose paid role was to regularly lead the congregation in worshipping God through song and music…the goal of his job being to lead the people in this encountering of God. That is a tradition we have carried out today in our context…so I thought it might be helpful for us in a sermon on worship to hear from our worship leader, Sean Hutchinson.

Last week we did an interview with a church member on the topic of community. Today instead of diving deeper into more practicals I think I’ll shut up awhile and let Sean share with us. So Sean, why don’t you come up.

Interview with Sean Hutchinson on the significance and importance of worship…

• Just tell us a little about yourself…when did you become a Christian & how long have you been a part of this church?
• How did you get into leading worship?
• How do you define “worship”?
• What’s significant about worship through music and song?
• What’s different to you about worship on Sunday versus during the week (and what about “secular music” and/or sacred secular distinctions)?
• How do you think worship through music and song ought to be expressed correctly?  
• What do you think are some main obstacles or things which keep us from being able to worship?
• How do you see your role here at The Resolved?
• What’s your vision for us as a worshipping church in this next year?

Conclusion

We’ve heard a lot today. My hope and prayer is that you have a deeper understanding of what worship really is on a daily and weekly life level and of what we do here each Sunday.

Each week we conclude our service by receiving The Lord’s Supper. In many ways this is the pinnacle and climax of our worship service. It puts out on display right in front of us that God is the one who has drawn near to us in Jesus.

All the greatness of God and his goodness to man gets supremely demonstrated in the act of his Son dying on the cross for our sin. So each week we come, we confess sin and our faith in him and we receive his grace and pardon. We come and we worship God for all that he is and all he has done. We come and in spirit and truth we pour out our hearts before him at his table.

So let’s do that and go before our God.

Pray.

Guest Preacher | John 15:18-16:4,33 | Pastor Jesse Winkler

This week is an exegetical and missiological look at Jesus’ words to his disciples about their future and role after he would be crucified. It examines the four different ways we can find ourselves relating to the world: separate from it, against it, just like it, or for it. This sermon was originally preached on May 30th, 2010 at The Resolved Church in San Diego, CA.

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Easter | Selected Texts | Pastor Duane Smets

This year’s Easter sermon follows the life and experience of Mary Magdalene who was present in Jesus’ traveling ministry, present at his cross, present at his burial and encountered the risen Jesus at the empty tomb. This sermon focuses on her exclamation, “I have seen the Lord!” This sermon was originally preached April 4th, 2010 at The Resolved Church in San Diego, CA.

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The Resolved Church | www.theresolved.com
(619) 393-1990 | contact@theresolved.com
All Rights Reserved © The Resolved Church

Permissions: you are permitted and encouraged to reproduce and distribute this material provided you not alter the wording in any way and you do not charge a fee. For web posting a link to this document is preferred.

The Resolved Church
Pastor Duane Smets
April 4th, 2010

“Mary Sees Jesus” | Easter 2010 | Selected Texts

Introduction

Good morning. Happy Easter. He is risen.

Today is a special day for Christians and for Jesus’ church for Easter is the heart and center of our faith and the sole reason for our existence and our gathering. It’s the main thing which separates Christianity from any other religion or spiritual practice, that Jesus rose from the dead.

In 1 Corinthians 15:14 in the Bible declares, “If Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain.” Jesus’ resurrection from the dead is the sole meaning and reason for Easter.

Sadly, it seems it is and has been becoming increasingly about something else for many. A flurry of articles sprung up yesterday in various newspapers across the nation noting the fading significance and meaning of Easter as it has turned more and more into a holiday meant for fun and entertainment rather than worship.

One paper quoted a man poorly presenting himself as a pastor who said Easter is simply about “the feeling of renewal and hope.”

The National Retail Foundation for the US estimates that this year, even in our hard times economy, that $13 billion dollars will be spent on food, clothes, candy and cards in celebration of “Easter.”

That’s astonishing. This morning, I want to honor the Lord Jesus and preach the story of him crucified and risen from the dead and the true meaning and signficance of that for us.

The Evidence of Eyewitnesses

For the past couple of years here at The Resolved Church on Easter we have been looking at the accounts of specific individuals who encountered Jesus after he rose from the dead. After Jesus rose he appeared and spent time with various individuals and groups for a period of 40 days. Some of his encounters were more lengthy than others. Some were with large groups, like over 500 people at one time, others were personal one on one exchanges.

In the first century, an eyewitness was the strongest evidence a lawyer could bring forth in court. It is still strong today, not as strong as videotape. But they didn’t have iphones and video camera back then. I can imagine everyone in the first century. They see Jesus and immediately whip out their iphone. “Hold on Jesus, I got get this and put it up on YouTube.” They didn’t have iPhones, but they had their word and a person’s word was a big deal.

An eyewitness testimony was the strongest evidence around, pretty much the equivalent of a video, especially if you had independant and mulitiple accounts. In the Bible there are 15 specific names of people who are recorded as having seeing the risen Jesus. There are 19 independent personal accounts or stories of what happened. And there are several occassions where Jesus appeared to huge crowds of people. One specific time is famous where there were 500 people all in one place who all saw and heard Jesus. Can you imagine 500 witnesses testifying in a court today?

The Bible records these people’s names and was written when they were still alive to in effect say, “if you don’t believe us, go ask them, they’ll tell you the same thing.” So with these eyewitness accounts, we’re not talking conspiracy theory, this is widespread confirmation. This is not a few individuals hallucinating because they loved and longed to see their dear friend who had just died, this is tons of people seeing the exact same thing.

Even then, these eyewitness accounts are just one piece of evidence among many that for nearly two-thousand years has caused the resurrection of Jesus from the dead to hold water as being a real and true event that actually happened. When we look at everything involved in the resurrection it’s astounding.

There’s not only the biblical evidences themselves of Jesus’ prediction, death, empty tomb, and the eyewitness accounts. But there’s also the circumstantial evidences of the transformation of the disciples, the day and object of worship changed, and the practices, preaching, and rapid growth of the early church which can only be explained if Jesus did rise. Despite those things, and the other several historical documents besides the Bible which corroborate the resurrection there has still been objections. But none have ever had even the slightest amount of plausibility or explanatory power. They all fall flat.

If you’d like to look into those things more, I’d encourage you to go online and read a little piece we put together available on our website titled, “Did Jesus Rise From The Dead.” But for today, we’re just going to mainly stick with the Bible and one eyewitness account in particular.

Sometimes it seems what we need isn’t to hear all the arguments and evidences laid out for us and then weigh them in the scales of our mind and make a decision…sometimes it seems we just need to hear the story. Sometimes it seems that what we need most is to step into another person’s shoes for a little while and experience the whole thing from their perspective. And then the power and the persuasiveness of the message comes shining through.

So this year, I want us to take a look at the life and account of a woman named Mary Magdalene.

The Story of Mary Magdalene

Now there’s been a lot of whack stuff that’s been said and speculated about Mary Magdalene and we’ll talk about some of that but what I mainly want to do is just give you her story straight from the Bible as it is.

When you look at her life as a whole and everything that’s said about her and the places she shows up, it’s quite amazing. She’s a really important and special figure.

She’s in all four of the gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. She’s the only person mentioned not only in Jesus’ traveling ministry but also at his crucifixion, at his burial, and at his resurrection, all three of those key events. And on top of it all, Mary Magdelene, as we’ll see today, ends up being the very first person to announce the good news of the gospel that Jesus had risen from the dead. So in a way she’s the very first missionary. In part, it’s probably because of these special honors that some have speculated crazy stuff about her.

Mary in Luke 8:1-3

We first meet Mary Magdalene farily early on in Jesus’ ministry. It’s in Luke 8:1-3 and it’s pretty short and sweet, you can turn there and check it out with me if you like. Luke 8:1-3, ” Soon afterward he went on through cities and villages, proclaiming and bringing the good news of the kingdom of God. And the twelve were with him, and also some women who had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities: Mary, called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out, and Joanna, the wife of Chuza, Herod’s household manager, and Susanna, and many others, who provided for them out of their means.”

So a couple of things here. First, we’re told Mary and a couple of her girlfriends have become Jesus’ disciples and are traveling around with him and the 12 main disciples going from city to city and village to village. That’s the first thing.

As we’ve been learning in our regular study on Sunday mornings, right now going through the book of Matthew, we’ve been learning that to be a “disciple” was serious thing involving a major committment to a teacher master, to learn from him and to imitate his lifestyle. So Mary has become a disciple of Jesus, her and a few of her friends. One of whom, Joanna, also shows up at Jesus’ resurrection.

The second thing we learn about Mary here is how she became a disciple. Evidently, verse 2 here implies that as a result of Jesus’ ministry she was delivered of seven demons. What’s that mean? I don’t know.

To be honest with you I’m not really sure. I’ve never really encountered a demon, that I know of. I have experienced and seen some things I think are demonic. But nothing like where someone gets a demon cast out of them, and not just one but seven.

Here’s what I do know. I do believe that we live in a world where there is more to it than just what we can see, touch, taste, hear and smell. I do believe there are evil spiritual powers and forces at work. What were Mary’s demons? What exactly happened? I have no idea.

Here is what we do know. As a result of coming into contact with Jesus Mary’s life was radically changed and whatever these demons or spiritual forces that were at work in her life were, they were taken away by Jesus. And it had such an effect on her that she devoted the rest of her life to following Jesus as her Lord and savior.

And that is a story that I do know. It’s one many of us know because we have experienced it and are living it. Many of us have made a mess of our lives. Many of us have given ourselves over to evil things that have caused destruction and harm to our spirits and even our bodies. And many of us have been introduced to Jesus and he has healed us and restored us and made us new once again. Many of us have experienced the life changing power of Jesus in our lives. I’m one of them.

Know today, if that’s you and you’re in that place now…know Jesus can change your life.

Well there’s one other detail here about Mary that’s interesting. I don’t know if it’s signficant but it’s interesting and it helps us know Mary a little better. It’s in the last part of verse 3 here in Luke 8 where it says that she and her girlfriends “provided” for Jesus and the 12 “our of their means.”

Evidently, Mary had money. In Mark 16:1 when we read of Mary going to Jesus’ tomb when she encounters the risen Jesus, Mark tells us that she was bringing spices. Spices were expensive. Only people with money could afford to buy them and would do so usually only for their family members in order to cover the stench of their corpse. So Mary had money. She supported Jesus’ ministry financially, not only in the beginning, but also at the end.

Now here is where some of the speculation begins. There’s no biblical evidence or even extra biblical evidence for that matter, I read ‘em all this week. So what we’re talking here is pure speculation. But popluarized by movies like “The Da’Vinci Code” and the older “Last Temptation of Christ”, some have speculated that there must be some other reason Mary was so devoted to Jesus and mentioned at such key moments of his life, so they have suggested that Jesus and Mary Magdalene had a sexual relationship and maybe even had children together.

Here’s the problem with that. There’s not a shred or even potential glimpse of such a thing anywhere in the biblical accounts nor does any such idea appear until this last century. It’s not even thought of or speculated about even in the writing from people of the first century that hated Jesus and the church and wanted to destroy it. They should have thought of it. It’s a good idea and they probably would have accused Jesus of a sex scandal if they thought anyone would buy it. But no one would. People knew too much of Jesus’ life and character.

Okay, so that’s one speculation. Here the other. The Bible can be confusing about names. People didn’t have last names in the ancient world like we do. So you were either known as being the son or daughter of your father’s name or if you’re a woman, your husbands name, or if neither of those, where you were from. So when it comes to the name Mary, we’ve got 7 different Marys mentioned in the Bible. There Mary Jesus’ mom, Mary Magdalene, Mary James and Joseph’s Mom, Mary Clopas’ wife, Mary John Mark’s mom, Mary of Rome and Mary of Bethany.

Here’s the thing. This is probably a little nerdy and technical, but I’m trying to do Mary Magdelene some justice here since people been hat’n on her a bit lately.

So here’s the thing. In the Gospel of John, there’s a Mary in Bethany which was very close to Magdala, just called Mary, who was a likely a prostitute (especially if she’s the same woman of Luke 7:36-50), who anoints Jesus’ feet with oil and he forgives her of her sins and teaches the Pharisees a lesson. In that scene Jesus mentions the day of his burial in reference to having perfume for his body. The next time we hear a Mary mentioned, it’s at Jesus death and at the resurrection she has burial perfume.

So, some have wondered whether Mary Magdalene was the prostitute whom Jesus forgave and that the demons he delivered her of were things which came in conjunction with her prostitution. Now, this isn’t likely because of a lot of technical reasons I won’t go into, but it’s plausible. And to tell you the truth, I kinda of like the theory maybe just because if it’s true it tells us more details and what a great thing Jesus saved Mary from and how her life was changed by the power of the gospel.

But we don’t know so let’s move on. I want us to spend the rest of our time this morning in the encounter between Jesus and Mary at his tomb. So if you have a Bible turn to John 20 and let’s read verses 1-18 together.

Mary in John 20:1-18

So Mary goes to the tomb, Mark tells us in his gospel that she was bringing spices for his body. She sees that Jesus body isn’t in the tomb, so she runs off to go tell Peter and John. So her, Peter and John run back to the tomb. Peter and John see the empty tomb and the linens left there which were on Jesus’ body and verse 8-9 say they believe and begin to remember and understand Jesus’ promise that he would rise from the dead. I suppose not knowing what else to do, they go home.

Not Mary. Mary doesn’t go home and to tell you the truth, the way the text tells the story, it seems pretty clear that unlike Peter and John, she doesn’t believe. Luke even tells us that she thought of Jesus predictions as “an idle tale (Lk 24:11).” She stays at the tomb and she’s weeping. She looks inside the tomb and she sees two angels who question her about her disbelief, they ask her why she is weeping.

Her response? She admits she doesn’t think Jesus has risen like he said he would, instead she thinks they have taken his body somewhere. Then she turns around to walk away from the tomb and she sees another man, who is Jesus. But she doesn’t recognize him. Either because she’s got tears in her eyes, is disillusioned and distraught, isn’t expecting to see him, is looking down…whatever.

Jesus, like the angels challenges her disbelief and asks her why she is weeping and who she is looking for? Jesus is funny here. Really. “Isn’t it me you want to see?”

But Mary doesn’t even really hear him. And John tells us that she thought he was the gardener and accuses him of being the one took the body somewhere. She’s just not getting it.

So Jesus calls out her name, “Mary!” And she turns, looks up and imagine with a gasp says, “Rabboni.” And Matthew says that it’s at that point that she falls down on her knees and clasps his feet and begins to worship him (Mt 28:9). That’s the word he uses, “worship.” In Greek it’s “proskuneo” and literally means to fall down on one’s knees and honor to deity.

You get all these cool little details from each of the gospels that when you put them all together just paints the scene for you. Back to John, verse 17. Jesus then says, “Do not cling to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to my brothers” and he gives her a message for them.

Verse 18. Mary Magdalene goes out and finds the disciples and tells them these marvelous words, “I have seen the Lord.” “I have seen the Lord.” “I have seen the Lord.”

Have You Seen The Lord?

I want to pull things together this morning by asking you, “Have you seen the Lord?” Now I know Mary Magdalene saw the risen Jesus with her eyes and that’s mainly what’s being said there. But I think there is something more to it as well.

Both the angels and Jesus put such a heavy weight on Mary’s disbelief, thinking that Jesus would not really rise that I can’t help but think her words “I have seen the Lord” meant more than just “I saw him” but “I have seen him now truly.” Now I get it. Now I see. I have seen Jesus and he is the Lord! He is the one. He is the messiah. He is the one. I get it now, he was crucified for our sin and now he is risen so that we might have life and hope forevermore! Oh I see!

I can’t imagine what it must have been like for Mary. But I know what it’s been like for me. One of my favorite verses in the Bible is 1 Peter 1:8-9 which says, “Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.”

I have never seen any spiritual thing physically with my eyes. I have never had any crazy supernatural experience. But I’ll tell you what, I have seen the Lord. I know Jesus. When that day comes when I finally do see him with my physical eyes it will not be the meeting between two strangers. I know my Jesus. I believe in him and he fills me with inexpressible joy and he saves my soul.

Seeing and knowing Jesus risen from the dead changes everything…Jesus resurrection turns back the tide of sin, death, and destruction and breathes life into everything. Jesus breathes life into our hearts. Jesus breathes the promise of eternal life. Jesus heals and restores and redeems and makes all things new.

Have you seen the Lord? Do you know him as Lord? Jesus’ resurrection declares him Lord. In Jesus rising from the dead he demonstrated that he dealt with sin and that is nothing can hold him or contain him, not even death. There is no challenge, no problem, no issue in you that is too big for Jesus to deal with. There is not an area he can’t work in and can’t change you and give you hope and peace. Jesus is alive and ever lives to minister to us.

Have you seen the Lord? Mary did and it changed her radically. We don’t hear of Mary in the Bible again after her words, “I have seen the Lord.” Tradition says she continued to spread that message the rest of her life.

One story says that she actually ended having a chance to appear before the Emporer, Tiberius Ceasar to share her encounter like we’ve heard today. The story says she told him what happened and that she attempted to share the gospel with him, of what it all meant and that she tried to do it using an egg as an illustration.

Apparently she explained that because of Jesus’ resurrection, we are able to be born again and start all over with new ever lasting life just like a baby chick is born and all is new. In reply, Tiberius is said to have told her that Jesus rising from the dead was as unlikely as the egg in her hand instantly turning red in a moment. And to everyone’s surprise after he said that the egg in Mary’s hand turned red.

So if you see old medieval paintings of Mary Magdalene, you’ll often see her holding a red egg. Now that probably didn’t happen, maybe. Cool story.

Here’s what we do know happened… Mary saw the Lord. It would have been foolish for any one of the biblical writers to give her such a prominent place in the whole episode if they were making it up or trying to convince people of something that didn’t happen. I mean, women were not even allowed to give a testimony or eyewitness account in court because their testimony was considered unreliable.

Thus, one way we know Mary’s story is true and that the gospels themselves are reliable documents for history is that her story is included because putting her story in there doesn’t help your cause if you’re trying to tell people Jesus rose when he really didn’t. That’s one way.

The other way we know is that we know. We know. We as humans know it. I believe it’s built within the fiber of who we are. It’s why we hate death. It’s why we love the underdog. It’s why we love heros in movies. We’re built for this story. We long for and know we need one to defeat death and evil for us once and for all. We know it’s true deep in our souls.

We know we need a risen one and Jesus is that man. Jesus lives! He’s not just an idea or a philosophy. He’s not just a religious figure or a wise teacher. Jesus lives! Even if you’re skeptical I know there’s a part of you that longs for it to be true.

Jesus lives.

Conclusion

This morning we’re going to conclude by taking communion. In 1 Corinthians 11:26 when the apostle Paul is explaining communion he says something very interesting right after he explains about the bread being Jesus’ body and the wine being Jesus’ blood, he says to partake of it because whenever we do we “proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.”.

That phrase “until he comes” has Jesus return in mind. In the account we read of Mary and Jesus, Jesus told her that he was ascending to his Father. When Jesus met up with the other disciples he told them the same thing and also that he would return and that until he does we are to spread the gospel and depend on him. So that phrase “until he comes” has us proclaiming the gospel of Jesus death and resurrection in mind.

We proclaim that Jesus lived the life we have failed at and offered up his life, his body to the cross and that he spilled his blood as a punishment for our sins on himself instead of us. We proclaim that he did not stay dead but that he rose again, appeared to many and ascended to the father where he is now and is awaiting the full number of people he has planned to hear the gospel and respond and then he will return, he will come.

The gospel says I am a sinner. Jesus was not. Jesus died in my place for sin. And Jesus rose again. The good news of the gospel is that if I believe in it, Jesus promises to change our hearts and lives just like he did Mary’s and that on top of it all we get eternal life with him.

Let’s pray.

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April 6th, 2008
Pastor Duane M. Smets

“Our God, Our Conviction, and Our Mission”
John 14:6

Introduction

Well good morning everyone. It is good to be back. Not being here with you on Sunday and seeing you during the week, felt very weird. We are a family and when you don’t see your family you miss them. We missed you all so very much.

We were gone in Hawaii to do Billy & Mia’s wedding and we tacked some vacation on after that. It was quite an interesting trip because I spent the first five days sick in bed and ended up in the doctor’s office. I got better just in time for the wedding and we were supposed to leave the next day and the airline we were supposed to fly on Aloha Airlines went bankrupt and just shut down. By the time we found out about it there were no flights out on another airline until Thursday. So we ended up staying a few extra days, which was nice because I was better and this swell came in and I got to surf perfect waves on the north shore of Hawaii and go hiking and spend some great family time. So we ended up having some vacation after all, which was long overdue.

But it’s good to be back. Hawaii is beautiful but it’s no San Diego and there is no place like home and no place like a church family that you love and hold dear. You guys are our life.

I want to put out a special thanks to Josh for preaching for me while I was gone. If I’m right, that was Josh’s first time ever preaching publicly for a Sunday morning church service. Josh and his wife Meagan have been such a huge blessing to this church, they do so much, far more than you could ever see, and we love them so much. Josh is in seminary at Talbot right now and believes he is called to be an elder at a church some day, so it was good for him to have an opportunity to preach, because even if preaching is not your particular gifting, all elders must “be able to teach (1 Tim 3:2)” according to the Bible. Josh is graduating this year and they have some changes coming up so in about a month or so we are going to have a special lunch here after church to honor them and bless them.

Well today is a special day for The Resolved Church because three years ago today was our very first Sunday when we started the church. We’ve come a long way since then. We started in this little old apartment in Pacific Beach with about six people and just had a Bible study every Sunday night followed by a BBQ party. We didn’t sing back then, we just prayed and I taught, and then we took communion. It was very simple.

We’re not so simple now. Which is good and okay, it’s just more to worry about. We have this building and all this audio technical equipment and all this set-up and tear-down that we do. But that’s okay, it’s good. One of the great things about being involved in the set-up and tear-down crew is that you get to know people by working with them and by serving in that way, it help you gain a sense of “this being your church.” By putting out chairs and signs and curtain and books and coffee, it develops an attitude that this is “your church” and it is “your responsibility” to make it happen. I think everyone should serve in set-up and tear-down for a time. Josh has been working so hard to try and get several teams together where you serve for just a couple months and then rotate out. If you haven’t served in that way, I encourage you to talk to him.

Here we are three years later. The basic core of we do now on Sunday is still simple and isn’t much different, though we are much different. We are still a church devoted to worshipping God and studying his Word, the Bible, and we take communion each week. (We’re still studying Romans…we break the chapters and sections up into series and in-between series we preach on different things from the Bible, like on days like today. Next week we’ll be back in Romans and start our next series called “The God-ness of God.” It will last for several weeks and will deal with Romans chapter 9 and on.)

So the core of what we do on Sunday is still the same, but we are much different. There are a lot of different faces here, there’s a lot of diversity here racially, stylistically, economically. And more than that we have truly become a church. One of the hard lessons we learned in the last three years was that putting on a Sunday service does not make you a church. The word “church” literally means “body” in reference to Jesus body, which is a metaphor for the group of people who are devoted to following him together in the way that he instructed.

Jesus didn’t’ just instruct us to have “church services” but to really know each other and spend time with one another and to work at growing in his Word together and having our lives be changed and conformed by him. That’s what makes a church. What really makes us a church is each of you. You getting together during the week for these community groups and talking about your lives and your sin and the Bible and repenting and praying together and then coming together on Sunday to celebrate worshipping together and learning more together. What really makes a church is a group of people who are not just saying Jesus name or taking communion but who are actually living like him, where there is correlation and connection between who you are here and who you are out there and where Jesus is the one directing and determining your life. That’s what really makes us a church now. It’s not me. Me preaching sermons doesn’t make us a church. It’s you, following Jesus, and really opening up your life and connecting it with his people.

What I want to do today is look at a passage of Scripture that fits very well within the context of our values and so well address many of the ideas and issues that we deal with here living in the city of San Diego where God has called us to plant this church. So we are going to look at John 14:6 today and what it says and how it relates to our “core values” being a glory driven, gospel centered, city within a city.

“Core values…J” I still can’t help but laugh at that because when we first started the church three years ago, we were so rebellious about everything we did. We thought everybody was doing it wrong and we were going to do it right! We found out that is impossible because church is about a bunch of sinners getting together and growing together so you’re never going to get it “right” but we can get the rightness of Jesus and his forgiveness, and if we have that we’ll be alright.

But it’s funny because we didn’t want “core values” because that sounded too business like. We didn’t want didn’t want a projector because that was too flashy and professional. We didn’t want to meet on Sunday morning because that is what everyone else did. And we didn’t even want to be called a church because we were afraid that people might get the wrong idea! So we made sure of that and everyone thought we were some weird cult who only believed in tattoos, piercings, tobacco and alcohol…but we studied the Bible. Check mark yes, definition of a cult, not church…puking for Jesus is not a church.

Well, now we’ve grown up a little. At least most of us have…some of you are still working on it. But that’s okay. I hope we always have some room for some craziness. So if you’re a crazy, don’t worry, you’re welcome here, were into the business of the gospel and it’s what has changed us and is changing us with each passing day. But as for us as a church…we admit now that we’re a “church,” we now meet on Sunday mornings, and we understand that projectors and core values are helpful tools in the culture where we live.

So let’s read John 14:6, I pray over it, and then we’ll spend a few minutes talking about it. Read text and pray.

Our Text

Well first, let’s take a couple seconds and orient ourselves to the book of John. Normally we don’t really like to jump right in to the middle of paragraph and the middle of a story here at The Resolved Church but we’re doing it today and because we’re doing it I got to give you a little context for it.

First the book of John itself is a different kind of book. It’s a gospel. it’s official full title is “The Gospel According to John.” The word means good news and is used in the Bible as a reference to the good news of who Jesus is and what he has done for us humans. So the gospel of John is the story of who Jesus is and what he did. But the gospel of John is not like the other gospels.

There are three other gospels: Matthew, Mark, and Luke. Matthew Mark and Luke are all kind of similar. It’s kind of like newspapers. You’ve got the Union Tribune, the USA Today, the San Diego Reader and then there’s the City Beat. John’s kind of like the city beat. It’s a kind of different in it’s graphical layout and arrangement and the way it says things.

The gospel of John doesn’t follow the order of the other gospels and it tells the same stories but in a completely different voice. His book is outlined by 7, “I AM” sayings of Jesus. Seven different times Jesus says, “I AM.” Which is a big deal and John takes note of it. It’s a big deal because in the Old Testament, this is the name God, God himself gave for himself. When Moses first encountered God, God spoke to him audibly and he asked him, “Who are you?” And God replied, “I AM.”

Jesus shows up on the scene and announces himself as the great “I AM” and tells everyone to believe in him. This is the thesis of John’s book, to convince everyone that Jesus is God and that he is the savior. He tells us plainly straight out in chapter 22:31, he says, “these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.”

So our text for today is the sixth “I AM” saying of Jesus. Jesus says it in response to a question from one of his disciples named Thomas. A couple of weeks ago we celebrated Jesus resurrection from the dead on Easter. Before Jesus died and rose again he told the disciples beforehand he was going to do that. The disciples didn’t get it and Thomas asks him where he is going and if he is gone how they will know “the way?” And Jesus responds with this statement, “I AM the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

So Jesus takes a simple question from a confused disciple and responds to it with this massively deep and powerful theological truth, “I AM the way, the truth and the life.” Let’s look at each part that is in these words.

Our God

The title of my message today is “Our God, Our Conviction and Our Mission.” It is intended to be a bridge between the values of our vision as a church and the words of this text. So being glory driven has to do with our God and Jesus being the way, being gospel centered has to do with our conviction and Jesus being the truth, and being a city within a city has to do with our mission and Jesus being the life. Let’s look at each one of these briefly.

First, Jesus being the way and how he reflects the glory of our great God. When we were in Hawaii we had the chance to go snorkeling one day. It was quite amazing. We swam with turtles in the bluest water I’ve ever seen and we got to see nearly every kind of coral there is and tons and tons of fish. Bright yellow fish with a long black and white snout. Black and white stripped fish with a big long tail coming off the top of it’s head. Orange and yellow clown fish. Rectangular triggerfish. Black fish outlined in orange with a yellow tail. Puffer fish all spiky with big bug eyes. Long skinny trumpet fish and a black and yellow spotted eel. All kinds of crazy beautiful colors on each one of these fish, all perfectly symmetrical and designed.

Then there was the day of Billy and Mia’s wedding. It was set on the water against the backdrop of this sweeping hillside covered in all kinds of bright flowers and behind it was a cliff that was at least 1000 feet high that just cut straight down. If any of you have ever watched the TV show lost, that’s where it was. White plumerias, bright red flowers, orange flowers, purple flowers…all different kinds. It was the most beautiful thing. Billy called it a “grand outdoor cathedral” and I couldn’t agree with him more.

Seeing all those things, all the colors, all the intricate shapes and designs of fish, flowers, landscape and water…I could not help but think of the glory of our God who designed it all and caused it all to be by his great power. It all reflects God!

We don’t look at anything else that has beauty and design in it and think it does not have a designer who is extremely gifted. If you look at a painting you know was a painter. If you look at building you know there was an architect. If you look at a car engine you know there was a mechanic. If you read a book you know there was a writer. If you look at this world you know there is a God and that he is glorious.

That’s what that little phrase “glory driven” is all about. Glory means weight, it’s qavod in Hebrew. Everything reflects the weight, the massiveness of how great our God is. He is glorious. We are a church driven by a passion to love and serve and spread the great fame of our God.

And who is our God? He is the I AM. He is the only one and his name is Jesus, in Jesus is the reflection of the glory of God. Colossians 1:16 says all things were created “through (Jesus) and for (Jesus).” I am fascinated by the resistance of so many to not want to put a name on the God of the universe. I had a conversation with someone this last week and they said they believe there is “something behind it all” that there is “some higher power” but they just don’t want to put a name on it and call it God.

What is that about? I can’t help but think it is our depraved way of not wanting to give God his credit or glory…because if we put a name on it then we are acknowledging his existence and that we owe our existence to him. If we acknowledge him then we can no longer life the way that we want to and must stand accountable to him. So let’s just say we know there is something out there and then maybe we can get away with doing what we want and doing things our way.

Jesus confront that idea head on here. He says I AM the way. Jesus is the way. Because of Jesus statement here, the early Christians in Acts often began referring to themselves as followers of “the Way (Acts 9:2; 19:9,23; 24:14,22).” The way….everyone in life is looking for the way. It’s an acknowledgment that in many ways life is like a journey or trip and you are trying to figure out where you are going and how you are getting there.

Jesus spoke about this “way” on one other occasion. He said this, “Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few (Mt 7:13-14).” How do you find it? Same question as Thomas’s which prompts Jesus answer, I AM the way.

So many of you keeping trying to do things your own way, rather than God’s. That’s idolatry. You think you know better? You don’t. You’re not going to create your own way. There is nothing new under the sun. God is either going to be your God and you are going to follow him or he’s not and you will keep trying to take over and grab the steering wheel of your life. My call to you today is to give up. Stop doing that. Backseat drivers are annoying. Everything is about God’s glory and Jesus is the way, so live your life for him.

Our Conviction

Next let’s look at the second part of this, our conviction, where Jesus says he is the truth. Many philosopher’s, poet’s, men of power, and many other people have claimed to want truth.

Henry David Thoreau said, “Rather than love, than money, than fame, give me truth.”

John Lennon wrote a song called “Gimme Some Truth.” In it he says, “I’m sick and tired of hearing things from uptight, short-sighted, narrow-minded hypocrites. All I want is the truth now. Just gimme some truth now. I’ve had enough of reading things by neurotic, psychotic, pig-headed politicians. All I want is the truth now. Just gimme some truth now.”

When Jesus was before Pilate, the governor he had him crucified, he said to him, “I have come into the world to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice (Jn 18:37).” In response to Jesus Pilate said, “What is truth (Jn 18:38)?”

That question seems to encapsulate the majority opinion of the culture we live in here in southern California in the city of San Diego…”what is truth, who knows, just live your life.” It’s the sort of pop-postmodern assimilation of the day. Whatever is true really doesn’t matter, nobody could ever know for sure, so just live in the moment (existentialism), and live for your self (humanism).

This is where Jesus statement and where Christianity itself becomes so difficult for so many. To say you are the only true one and no one knows God except through you. I mean Jesus is being pretty arrogant here don’t you think?

For so many, Christianity just sounds too exclusivistic, too narrow-minded, too elitist, too snobbish, too self-assured, too self-righteous, too bigoted. You know the world is a big place, there just different things for different people. Live and let live, don’t try and impose your values on others. All religious roads lead to God, it’s whatever works for you.

We have conflicting ideas, so what are we supposed to do with this word “truth” and Jesus’ claim here that he is the only way? I mean the word “truth” means “truth” absolute objective truth and the Bible knows nothing of this other idea, of plural truths that just depends on the person. So what are we to do?

I’ll give you a few options.

1. Outlaw it. This is the hope of people like Sam Harris, Richard Dawkins and other atheists. The problem is we’ve tried that. Every time a country has tried to legally control religion it has resulted in violence and oppression…Nazi Germany, Soviet Russia, Communist China. And on top of it every time someone tries to stomp out Christianity it flourishes in the face of martyrdom.

2. Condemn it. Since we can’t make it go away with government, then we’ll just condemn it through education and argument and create cultural environments where it is unacceptable. We teach all religions are basically the same, no one person can have a capital on truth, religion is just social conditioning, and it is arrogant to try and convert others.

This one has a lot of problems…because all religions really don’t believe the same thing if you actually study them. Each one has a particular way of defining who God is or isn’t and what life’s purpose is. To say no one person can have a capital on truth is a statement itself by a person claiming to have a capital on that truth, it doesn’t work on itself! To say “truth” is just social conditioning doesn’t say anything. Everything is socially conditioned. I socially learned math in school but that has nothing to do with whether it is true or not, of whether 2+2 is 4 or not. And lastly, if it’s arrogant to try and convert others then it’s wrong to tell me that in the first place because you’re trying to convert me not to convert people!

You see so many of these ideas just fall apart. They are like cardboard cutouts of movie stars you see when you go to rent a movie at blockbuster. They’re not real, if you push them, they fall over easily. Some of you were part of Ron and Kathy’s small group who went through a book called “Jesus Among Other Gods” written by a man named Ravi Zacharias who was born an Indian Hindu. In it he says this, “What the person means by saying, ‘You must be open to everything’ is really, ‘You must be open to everything that I am open to and anything that I disagree with, you must disagree with too.’ …It has a veneer of openness, but is highly critical of anything that hints at a challenge to it.”

You see everyone is exclusivistic and it’s about time we grew up and started getting some convictions behind our beliefs. So much of what we tend to do is just believe whatever is easy without taking the time to really think through what we believe and why and how it effects our life.

3. Keep it private. Richard Rorty the famous pragmatist says whatever works is true and so we should just keep our beliefs private and then we can live together and work together.

You know the two rules to get along with people, you don’t talk about politics and you don’t talk about religion. The problem with this one is that what works is not always what is true. What about a successful lie that helps get you ahead? What about a marriage between two people who just keeps their beliefs to themselves so that they won’t get a divorce? Can those two people ever really know or love each other?

4. Jesus can save the world (not the cheerleader). Jesus isn’t a liar who needs to be outlawed. Jesus isn’t an arrogant lunatic that needs to be silenced. Jesus really is the Lord and can really save us.

Jesus is the one who calls his followers to live in and be involved in a culture where there are non-believers around us and to be respectful and loving toward them. Many of those people will readily recognize much of Christian behavior and values to be good, regardless of what religion or culture it is because all people were made in the image of God. In fact, Christians will often find that non-believers around them often live superior moral lives…because Christians are saved not because of their moral perfection but because of Jesus’ perfection and Jesus saves the worst people.

It is Jesus who changes people to be like him and as a result they end up being more open and more loving toward others then anyone would ever think possible. It’s possible because in Jesus we have a man who died for his enemies who rejected him and prayed that they might be forgiven. That is why Jesus can save the world and bring true peace because he died for us to redeem our wicked hearts so that we would no longer be violent and oppressive but gentle and full of his love.

You can’t get that kind of thing apart from him. He is unique in that. It’s why we say we are gospel-centered, because it is in Jesus alone that we find real love and are changed by him. That is the gospel, the good news of who Jesus is and what he has done for us in his death and resurrection, it changes everything.

You see you could try and say that religion or Jesus is just a matter of spirituality not a matter of truth. But if Jesus really died on a cross and rose from the dead that pierces through everything. I’ve never heard anyone say that history is just a matter of spirituality. You can’t say, it’s not a matter of truth of whether or not Bill Clinton was the President of the U.S. from 1993 to 2001. That’s not just a matter of spirituality.

If Jesus really lived and died and rose it changes everything for us because then history and science intersect with faith and spirituality and that is why we sing, that is why we preach, that is why we gather, that is why we study…because everything is about the gospel, it is the center of all that we do and it is the hope for the world.

It’s not about us thinking we’re better than anyone, if anything we might be worse because we know better. It’s about being changed and being saved by Jesus. It would be heartless and uncompassionate for Christians either to remain silent or to acknowledge different paths to salvation if Jesus really is the only way and the only truth and the only life. We say so because we love so.

Our Mission

That brings us to our last point for this morning, our mission, where Jesus says he is the life. In Jesus statement there is both a quality and quantity of life in view. All throughout Jesus’ ministry when he talks about life, it is never just purely biological. Biology comes from the word “life” that is here, that what it is in Greek, bios. But when Jesus talks about life, it is both physical and spiritual. Often times he adds the adjective “eternal” and talks about eternal life.

So first, in Jesus saying he is the life, it is a quantity thing. I’ve said it before but one of the main challenges for people from their teenage years on up through to about 30 or so today, at least here in San Diego, is temporality. It is not having a vision for the long term. All we see is the now and do not consider the outcome of our lives and ultimately eternity.

For Jesus life begins when you consider the eternal perspective first and then start working backward to the now. If you do that you will end up living a quality of life that is radically different because it gets connected with something that counts and the result is mission. You end up living your life as a mission to do something for the glory of Jesus, you end up living in such a way to make your life count for eternity rather than for it being a waste.

So that’s why I say that this last equation of Jesus, of him being our life has to do with our mission of being a city within a city. It is our goal as a church to gather together and form a people who live in a certain way here in San Diego. We want our lives to be so radically changed by Jesus that it is almost as if we are a part of a whole different city, called the church.

For most the physical city they are in determines how they live in many ways. What job you have, what language you speak, and who you spend your time with. We are on a mission to create a spiritual city, where who Jesus is and our pursuit of him together is what determines how we live.

With our job. You work at the job you do because it is the one that Jesus has gifted and talented and interested you in and so you work for him, to bring him glory by how you work in your attitude and how you put him on display to those who work with.

With our language. We talk about Jesus. He is the most important thing of our lives and so we find ourselves talking about him any opportunity we get.

With our friends. We spend time with people who love Jesus and with people who don’t. Jesus did that and so that’s what we do. That’s what our city is like. We are a church and we love each other and we gather together and then we scatter build bridges and doors into our gospel city and we do that over and over again.

There are several other things. These are just a few examples. The point is that Jesus is the life. If you think that you are going to find a happy and satisfied life apart from him and apart from, apart from listening to and obeying him, you are wrong. It will be miserable and only contain temporary and damaging joys.

Being a city within a city is about planting a church in San Diego. I hope you catch a vision of that. I know a few of you do and I pray more do. I pray you get a heart to do everything you can to establish this church in San Diego in order that for God’s glory people might be reached with the gospel.

Conclusion

Well let’s end today. We are The Resolved Church, a glory-driven, gospel-centered, city within the city following Jesus as the way the truth and the life. It has been a wonderful three years people of The Resolved Church. It has not been easy, but Jesus has been faithful. He said he would build his church and hell couldn’t overtake it. We’ve had some hell and we’re still here and going strong. I pray Jesus continues this work and grants us three more years, who knows where we’ll be by then.

Perhaps in three years as we continue on our mission to bring God glory by reaching more and more people…perhaps we’ll have begun to really impact the city in a large way as a force for gospel change. Here’s the things I see that need to happen for that to take place.

We need more leaders and God’s wisdom for me to know how to raise them up and how to oversee our leaders.

We need more people contributing and serving the church and the city with the things they are gifted in.

We need passionate spirituality, where our faith is not just a sideline but a frontline and where the core members of our church are living holy and consistent lives, not regularly and knowingly doing things they know Jesus and this church disapproves of.

We need to develop some more structures and systems for doing things so that we can handle growth as a church. It is my personal prayer that in this next year we will be able to bring on at least one other staff member and that I would be able to be your full-time pastor.

We need God to continue to bless our music ministry. We have a couple new additions and it so exciting. We need to sing new songs and have other instruments and other people playing. We always want to be progressing and having an inspiring worship service and the music is a big part of it.

We need to continue building our mid-week community groups. For those of you who are part of them you need to stay committed to them and then for other who have not joined one yet, you need that. As we grow we’ll need more and more groups, so we pray for God’s blessing in that as well.

We need to be involved in activism, doing things in our city that are pictures of the gospel’s changing work in our heart. That means we need to meet the people’s needs of this city and to be actively doing things to help them.

And lastly, we need loving relationships. Jesus said you would be able to tell who his followers are by their love for one another. The thing I have seen as probably the biggest way we have grown in the last six months in our community. I love you guys, I hope you know that. But I have begun to witness your love for each other and it is beautiful. I pray that continues and that your love will be a love that easily welcomes and invites other people into it.

Well, those are the things I see as your pastor. May God help us as we endeavor to follow his calling to plant this church in San Diego in this way. Let’s pray.