This Book: The Gospels 2 - WDJS? (John 16 v12-16)

 To see the full message, scroll to the bottom and click through.

Our words and our deeds go together. You can't have one without the other. The ways we speak and the ways we live come together to tell people who we are and, by extension, who is the God we worship. Who is this Jesus that we follow. 

Any idiot can be a dictator—get hold of power, and start making and enforcing rules. It is a lot easier to be a dictator than to be a teacher: to teach people why rules are worth following. 

Any idiot can decide what they want, and then bully and manipulate people until they get it. It's a lot easier to do that than to teach people why something is worth doing, and then letting them choose to do the right thing. 

It is easy enough to tell people what to think. It is far more tricky to teach people how to think and to reach good conclusions. 

Jesus was neither an idiot nor a dictator. He was not a bully. He was a teacher. 

Jesus spent three years of his life doing the hard work, taking the time to bring us in on the plan. Not just telling us what are we supposed to do, but why is this a good thing? Why should this engage our imaginations and make us want to follow him? 

Jesus did the hard work of not just telling us to obey, but why we should want to obey: because we understand that obeying is actually a good thing, depending on who you're obeying. 

______

What was the message—the challenge, the calling—that he spent three years of his life sharing with us, at every opportunity? 

Jesus said: Follow me. Literally, and spiritually. 

For the apostles—the 12 men who were Jesus’ closest followers—and for the disciples—the mix of men and women who followed him—Jesus actually looked a number of them in the eye and said, “Follow me.” Then he literally turned around and walked in the other direction because he wanted them to literally follow him.

 Andrew, Peter, John, James, Philip, Nathaniel, Matthew, and other people whose names we don't know but who are mentioned in the text. 

In some cases, we don’t know their names because when Jesus said, “Follow me,” they said no. They had other things to do. They had other priorities. They had excuses. What will my family say? What will my friends say? What if people think I'm wrong? I don't need your organized religion. I'm spiritual enough. People always have reasons for not following Jesus. And far too many people said no. 

The apostles—we know their names because when Jesus said to them, “Follow me,” they didn't even pause long enough to say, ‘Okay.’ They just went. Dropped what they were doing. Walked away from what they were working on. From their careers, from the comforts of their family home. Nathaniel walked away from sitting under a tree where I'm sure he was very comfortable. Andrew walked away from John the Baptist, a charismatic and brilliant leader. They walked away from good things to gain something so much better, because they understood that it wasn't just about going where Jesus went. They were going to be following him spiritually as well. 

They walked away from their presuppositions and from what they thought was most important. They walked away from what they thought they knew and from what they expected life to be. 

When they followed Jesus, when they went with him, they knew it wasn't all going to be fun and cool. People weren’t going to hand them money so they could buy a jet and have a $6 million home in the hills of Maui. They knew it wasn't all going to be easy. They knew it was going to be hard, but they chose to trust this rabbi with their entire lives. 

Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone wants to come after me, they must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for my sake will find it. Matthew 16 v24-25

Many of that first generation of Jesus’ followers did just that: lost their lives and found so much more.

______

Jesus said: Listen. Just please listen. Please hear what I am saying. Pay attention because this is so important. 

Jesus had a lot to say and not much time to say it. 

There's a Hebrew word that occurs over 100 times in those four Gospel books. It's a word that I hope you say every day, because we usually say it at the end of a prayer: amen. In English, in its simplest definition, amen just means truth. ‘This is truth. If it isn't now, it ought to be true.’ That's why we say it at the end of our prayers. ‘May it be true.’

I can't find anywhere in the Gospels where Jesus says it at the end of a prayer. Jesus always, always, always says it immediately before he says something that we need to get. It’s like an exclamation mark at the beginning of a sentence telling us to pay attention because this is important. 

So when you give to the needy, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honoured by people. AMEN: I tell you they already have their full reward. Matthew 6 v2

AMEN, AMEN: I tell you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not come under judgment. Indeed, they have crossed over from death to life. John 5 v24

When Jesus used those amens at the beginnings of statements, he was about to say something that wasn't immediately going to make sense to the people who were listening to him. Something that was upside down and backwards. Jesus was saying, ‘I know how this is going to sound to you, but listen.’

AMEN: I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Matthew 18 v3

Jesus understands that we breathe the air of a kingdom ruled by bullies, idiots, and dictators telling us how to live, and what to think. 

He knows that this is the kingdom we are born into, but he is inviting us to another kingdom: the kingdom of heaven. When Jesus talks about the kingdom of heaven, he's not talking about pie in the sky when you die by and by. He is talking about life in and with Yahweh God, starting now. He’s talking about living in this broken world, while being governed by the one we are created to be governed by: our true and loving king.

That’s not something that’s obvious. It's not something we grasp naturally. We don’t wake up one morning and spontaneously go, ‘Gee, this world is kind of rotten. I bet there's a better world and I bet there's Jesus and I bet there's the Holy Spirit. So, I'm going to start living that way now.’ 

No. We see this world. We see how power is employed. We see how people are used and manipulated. We see how wars are started for nothing more than economic gain or political power. And we think that's how we ought to live, because that's how people ‘succeed.’ 

Jesus says, ‘Absolutely not.’

This kingdom is messed up. This kingdom is not being ruled by the true and loving king who calls us to live in a different way, a way that is upside down, a way where we get on our knees and claim victory. 

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Matthew 5 v3

______ 

You have heard that it was said, ‘eye for eye and tooth for tooth.’ But I tell you not to resist an evil person. Matthew 5 v38-39

'I say forgive.'

You have heard that it was said, ‘love your neighbour’ and ‘hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you Matthew 5 v43-44

Don’t just love the people who are like you. Don’t just love your own people first, then if you have anything left over, maybe give some to people if you think they deserve it. 'I say, show love to your enemy. Period.'

If you have ears, listen. Matthew 13 v9 

When he says that, he's talking to people who he knows are the poor, the captives, the blind, the oppressed. He knows he's speaking to people standing outside fighting for their souls. But he doesn’t let us off the hook just because it’s hard. Jesus says, ‘I am the one who provides. I am the one who sets free. I am the one who heals. I am the one who empowers.’ And he invites us, all of the lowly sinners, into his kingdom.

Not the kingdom into which we were born, but the kingdom into which we are adopted under the king of love and life.