Sermons – Grace Evangelical Free Church // Wyoming, MN

Ecclesiastes 1:1-11 The words of the Preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem. 2 Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher, vanity of vanities! All is vanity.

3 What does man gain by all the toil at which he toils under the sun?

4 A generation goes, and a generation comes, but the earth remains forever.

5 The sun rises, and the sun goes down, and hastens to the place where it rises.

6 The wind blows to the south and goes around to the north; around and around goes the wind, and on its circuits the wind returns.

7 All streams run to the sea, but the sea is not full; to the place where the streams flow, there they flow again.

8 All things are full of weariness; a man cannot utter it; the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing.

9 What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun.

10 Is there a thing of which it is said, “See, this is new”? It has been already in the ages before us.

11 There is no remembrance of former things, nor will there be any remembrance of later things yet to be among those who come after.

Welcome back to Ecclesiastes.

Last week I preached my first sermon on Ecclesiastes. In it I tried to give you all the lay of the land in order to set you up well to get the most out of our time in this book. To that end, there were three main parts to the sermon. First, concerning the author, “the Preacher,” I said that the book is purposefully anonymous, certainly in the voice of King Solomon, and ultimately from God (12:11). The second section concerned the main themes of Ecclesiastes. Those are vanity (usually referring to mystery), the sovereignty of God (which is true, but also makes the mystery of life even more mysterious), and under the sun (life on earth, under the curse). And third, I mentioned that the main message of Ecclesiastes is that all of life appears mysterious, but there is more than meets the eye. I attempted to sum all of all of that up with the simple phrase: Vanity below, glory above”.

This morning we’ll get into the text itself. More specifically, we’ll get into some of the details of the vanity observed by the Preacher under the sun.

The big idea of this passage is that there is great mystery in understanding how life can have real meaning when there is nothing new under the sun and everything comes back around again. Above the sun, though, we’re able to see that God is making all things new and the rhythms of this world are profound means of grace. The main takeaway is to enter into the rhythms of God’s design as the means of grace they are.

The main vanity banner over this section is the simple fact that no matter what we do, life just keeps moving on in cyclical fashion. In that way, in a certain under-the-sun sense, all of life is a treadmill; always moving, always working, not really getting anywhere. The Preacher insists that our own lives and bodies and nature all point to the around-and-around-and-around way things work. There is nothing truly new under the sun. Everything that we experience is simply a “coming back around” of older stuff.

For many people, two of the main areas of life are work and family. The Preacher invites us to consider the cyclical vanity of each.

Consider your work (3).

3 What does man gain by all the toil at which he toils under the sun?

We spend so many hours, over so many days, for so many years working. Sometimes we do so for pay and sometimes for free. But what do we really gain from any of it?

The treadmill runs constantly and quickly at our house. We cut buckthorn, spray the stems, and burn the branches; only to have it pop up in another location soon after. I spend a couple of hours mowing the grass every week or so and it just grows back. We shovel the snow, only to have it snow again. We cut vines, only to have them spring up ten feet away. We plant new trees each year, only to have emerald ash boar and oak wilt take out half of the existing trees. We pick the Japanese beetles off our raspberry bushes and apple trees only to have them come back with a vengeance the next day.

How about your work? I know several people at Grace who get paid to experience the same kind of cycle that we do at our house. I know others of you who work in the tech industry. You generate report after report after report; or write code, fix code, write code, fix code; or install software, address the new issues the new software creates, maintain the software, and then start all over. Others experience the same cycle driving packages around; fill up a truck, deliver the contents of the truck, go home, and start all over again tomorrow; always more packages, never less. Moms, how many diapers have you changed, messes have you cleaned up, and exact same instructions have you issued, day after day after day. And on and on and on.

Very little of what we produce under the sun lasts for long and none of it lasts forever. The best of our efforts require constant maintenance and most require regular replacement.

And what is gained in all that cyclical labor? A paycheck to buy stuff, which requires another paycheck to maintain the stuff. A paycheck to buy enough food and drink to eat until our next paycheck comes to buy more food and drink. A paycheck to go on a vacation to rest up so we can go back to work to save up for our next vacation. A paycheck to save up for kids’ college, so they can get a job, to save up for their kids to go to college. A paycheck to allow us to get into a bigger house, with more room, only to require more paychecks to fill those rooms and repair more things that break in them.

Under the sun, our labor is a treadmill that never stops and never really gets anywhere.

Consider your family (4).

4 A generation goes, and a generation comes, but the earth remains forever.

Older folks, look around the room. Unless you’re behind a pillar, it should be pretty easy to see that there are several pregnant women. I’m might seems otherwise, but on the grand scale, it wasn’t that long ago when your home was your mother’s womb. Likewise, it wasn’t that long ago that you were struggling to learn how to walk and talk; run and read; play sports and make friends. Look around the room again. You’ll see a gaggle of distracted, naïve, invincible teenagers. You were just there too. And then came early adulthood where everything was new and exciting and a bit scarry. Most of you dated, married, and had kids, then older kids, then empty nest, and then your kids had kids. Your body slowed down, retirement neared, retirement past. Soon, most of your life was behind you. And then, one day, as the Preacher will soon explain, you will return to dust even as the cycle of life continues on without interruption without you, just as it has for generation after generation after generation.

Very few of us have clear memories of just three generations before us—our great grandparents. Almost none of us know anything significant at all about the generation before that, much less the hundreds of generations that we came from before that. As hard as it might be to hear, in 75 years, the memory of nearly all of us will be basically gone from the earth. And around and around it goes, even as it has gone and will continue to go.

That’s the essence of the final verse in our passage.

11 There is no remembrance of former things, nor will there be any remembrance of later things yet to be among those who come after.

Under the sun, our families are in a cycle that never stops and never really gets anywhere.

It’s not just our lives though that run on a cycle. Consider the world around you as well, says the Preacher.

Consider the sun (5).

5 The sun rises, and the sun goes down, and hastens to the place where it rises.

Day after day after day we look to the east to see the sun come up, and it does. The angle varies throughout the year, but day after day and month after month, we watch it move across the sky toward the west only to see it eventually disappear behind the horizon. And then it begins again. Always moving, never getting anywhere. Lap after lap after lap.

Consider the wind (6).

6 The wind blows to the south and goes around to the north; around and around goes the wind, and on its circuits the wind returns.

The wind functions in much the same way. It is always blowing and never getting anywhere. Even as we watch the jet stream on a weather website, there is no end to the cycle. The arrows move to some degree, but eventually it always ends where it started.

Consider the rivers (7). They too prove the Preacher’s point.

7 All streams run to the sea, but the sea is not full; to the place where the streams flow, there they flow again.

The sun, the wind, and the rivers of earth—nature itself—testifies to the cyclical nature of the world under the sun. In the Preacher’s context, Jerusalem, the Jordan River poured gallon after gallon after gallon into the Dead Sea. Day and night, week and month, year and decade of water being added to the Sea. And yet, although it is always being filled, it is never full.

Evaporation, condensation, precipitation, collection; the water cycle is…cyclical and the Preacher felt it.

Your life, the world around you, and even your very own body is a part of an endless cycle. Example after example from the most familiar aspects of our lives are meant to drive home the vanity of things. They are meant to help us feel what the Preacher felt. They are meant to give words and meaning to what we’ve all felt.

Consider your eyes and ears (8b).

…the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing.

Like rivers into lakes, our eyes and ears are constantly being filled, but are never full. We scroll on our phones and scroll on our phones and scroll on our phones, but our eyes are never filled. We travel to place after place after place to fill our eyes with the wonders of the world, but they never saturate. Our eyes are constantly moving around, looking here and there at this and that, always trying to take in more, for every waking hour, but they never get enough.

The same thing is true with our ears. We are constantly looking for new conversations, new music, new sounds, and new silence. Continually those things come, but we always seek more. Always more input, never full.

Verses 8a and 9-10 sort of sum all of this up and invite us to join the Preacher in breathing a sigh of tiredness as a result.

8 All things are full of weariness; a man cannot utter it…

It’s hard to explain how exhausting it can be to stay on this cycle for long. You get up, you work hard at things that vary in levels of inefficiency, you try to produce and maintain a good attitude and healthy relationships, you battle sin and discouragement, you say the same thing to your kids for the 1000th time or wish you could say the same thing to your kids for the 1001st time now that they’re all gone, you make meals and do laundry, you make a mess and clean up, you get dirty and take a shower, you try to find some rest through some form of entertainment and go to bed, only to wake up and do it all again the next day.

Indeed, the Preacher says,

9 What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun. 10 Is there a thing of which it is said, “See, this is new”? It has been already in the ages before us.

Not only is your life like that, but that’s what life has been like since (almost) the beginning. And not only has this been the experience of every human being of all time, but it is true of everything else in creation as well.

What is new under the sun? Nothing. What about the internet? That’s just a means of storing and communicating information; something that has been done since the start. What about SpaceX? That’s just a means of transportation. Mankind has always been discovering new ways to travel faster and further. What about the new movie or album or song that just came out? Those are just new ways of informing or entertaining or celebrating. Under the sun, it’s all just rearranging something old.

At the end of all of this, the Preacher’s main point is this: Just look around and you’ll see what I’m saying. It’s everywhere. It’s even in you. It just doesn’t seem to matter what you do, since everything just circles back around again at some point. You will do what you will do, it will be over and forgotten soon, and very little will be different because of any of it.

Again, the thing I love most about Ecclesiastes, and the thing I think is most helpful for us, is the honest way in which it speaks of this. All of that is true. The world is like that. We are like that. Most of us are either too afraid to admit it or we’re too overwhelmed by it to think clearly about it. But life under the sun really does works like this. It just does. And as long as we look for understanding and meaning under the sun, all we will know is the mystery and frustration and weariness .

So, what are we to do about all of this? Is that it? Do we just suck it up and plow forward? Do we just pretend not to notice? Do we simply accept the mystery and apparent futility of the cycle?

The Preacher’s initial question was, “What do we gain from all our labor?”. That is, what do we gain from working hard under the sun in order to gain the things the world has to offer? Jesus’ answer is: Nothing. In fact, Jesus said that even if we gained the whole world through our labor, it would still be nothing (Matt 16:26).

The curse of sin means that not only is vanity all there is under the sun, it also means that it’s the best there will ever be. Things only gets worse as the full measure of the curse of sin comes to fruition after death.

But Grace, as I shared last week, and as so many of you know so well, there is more to reality than that which is under the sun. And in that way, there is more available to us than unsolved mystery.

The great doxology of Romans reads (16:25-27), “Now to him who is able to strengthen you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery that was kept secret for long ages 26 but has now been disclosed and through the prophetic writings has been made known to all nations, according to the command of the eternal God, to bring about the obedience of faith— 27 to the only wise God be glory forevermore through Jesus Christ! Amen.”

The good news of Jesus is that the mystery is solved! So what does that mean for the things we just considered? It means at least two significant things: There is newness above the sun and God has infused the cycle with grace.

In the first illustration I gave last week, I suggested that the idea of life under the sun is like flying in an airplane in or under the cloud line on a rainy, foggy, gloomy day. Looking out the window, it’s hard to make out anything and harder still to make sense of whatever you see. Everything is veiled and hard to recognize and understand.

Much of the Preacher’s perspective is just like that. He’s telling the truth, but from a very limited perspective. Everything is as he says it is, but only sort of.

But I also mentioned last week that once the airplane climbs above the clouds, everything is different. Below the clouds it seems as if all there is, is clouds and fog and rain. Above the clouds, however, the sky is blue and the sun is shing over an expanse that is unimaginably greater than the cloud cover of the cloudiest day.

The distance between the earth and the clouds is around 9,000’. That’s a lot of rain and fog and gloom to take in. But the distance between the clouds and the sun is around 90,000,000 miles. That’s a whole lot more sun and clear sky. To be clear, all the fog and confusion and mystery of life under the sun is .000002% (five zeros) of the clarity and light above the sun.

Grace, please hear me here: The glorious work of God is immeasurably greater than the mystery of our experience. However confusing and frustrating and futile life can seem (and be), God is working the greatest good in all of it. Knowing that and believing the promises of God in Christ surrounding that is what it means to live above the sun and make sense of and find meaning and blessing in the cyclical nature of things.

Psalm 113:4-6 The Lord is high above all nations, and his glory above the heavens! 5 Who is like the Lord our God, who is seated on high, 6 who looks far down on the heavens and the earth?

In our passage for this morning, the Preacher highlighted the cyclical nature of things and the fact that because of it, there is nothing new under the sun. For us to see these things rightly, and to live joyfully in them, we need the Lord’s perspective, who sees from on high. And the first thing this does for us is help us to see that while there is nothing new under the sun, that is not the case above the sun.

Isaiah 43:19 Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.

Jeremiah 31:31 “Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah…

Ezekiel 36:26 And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you

Luke 22:20 And likewise the cup after they had eaten, saying, “This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.

Revelation 21:1 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more.

What cannot be done or seen under the sun is ordinary work above the sun. Every frustration and weariness named by the Preacher is overcome and overwhelmed when we grasp what God is doing in it.

This means that your every report, diaper change, package delivered, code fixed, conversation had, lesson taught, and lawn mowed has meaning and significance in Jesus. It is all being used by God as a significant part of the newness He is continually working! Be amazed and energized by this, Grace.

But there’s more. Not only is there newness above the sun, there is grace in the cycle on earth.

In the New Testament, Peter affirms the Preacher’s cyclical observation. “…ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation…” (2 Peter 3:4).

A second significant aspect of God’s perspective concerning the cyclical nature of things on earth is that rather than wearisomeness, for those who have access to God’s above-the-sun perspective, in His Word, illuminated by His Spirit, through faith in His Son, there is amazing grace in it.

The Preacher invited us to consider our work, our family, the sun, the wind, the rivers, and our eyes and ears.

Of the cyclical nature of our work, we’re told,

Colossians 3:23-24 Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, 24 knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ.

Galatians 6:9 (2 Thessalonians 3:13) …let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.

Hebrews 12:3 Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted…

Again, this really does mean that doing the cyclical work of changing your 1000th diaper of your baby or answering the 1000th question of your grandkid or delivering packages day after day or writing code to fix your code to fix your code or cleaning up messes over and over or praying for your unbelieving child for the third decade or sharing the gospel with your neighbor for the 10th time, is good and that there is grace in the repetition.

Of the cyclical nature of our family, of the generations, we’re told,

Acts 2:38-39 Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39 For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.

God has a people from each generation and the cyclical nature of life gives us the chance to proclaim the gospel to them that they might be forgiven in God’s perfect timing.

Of the cyclical nature of the sun and sky, we’re told,

Psalm 19:1-2 (113:3) The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. 2 Day to day pours out speech, and night to night reveals knowledge.

The rotations of the heavenly bodies are all meant to remind us of the unending, unwavering glory of God.

Of the cyclical nature of the wind and water, we’re told,

104:3-4 (147:18) He lays the beams of his chambers on the waters; he makes the clouds his chariot; he rides on the wings of the wind; 4 he makes his messengers winds, his ministers a flaming fire.

Since the power and glory of God are without limit and since they fill the earth, something needs to be able to continually carry it continually and everywhere, over and over. The cycle of the wind and water were designed for that. Every time you see a stream, ever flowing but never ending, remember the glory of God.

What’s more, within the cycle and rhythm of God, we’re promised,

Lamentations 3:22-23 The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; 23 they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.

The sun does what it does, by God’s design, as a means of delivering mercy to God’s people continually.

Particular grace as a gathered people on the Lord’s Day each week.

The cyclical nature of God’s design brings renewal, refreshment, and ministry as we participate in the Lord’s Supper in the rhythm of our gathering.

The cycle of each new year brings another chance to remember and celebrate the birth, death, and resurrection of Jesus (Christmas and Easter).

The dawn of each new generation is a reminder of the new birth that is ours in Jesus.

And on and on.

How awesome is our God who confounds the wise and proud under the sun and reveals His wisdom and grace and glory to the humble in Christ, taking us above the clouds to see what He is doing.

There is a seemingly never-ending cycle in this world. It impacts every aspect of our lives. The Preacher highlights the fact that there is nothing new under the sun and, therefore, all things seem mysterious, futile, wearisome, repetitive, and finite. But in Christ, by the Spirit, and through the Word, we are given an above-the-sun perspective—God’s perspective—on all of that. And from that perspective we can see that God is truly making all things new and that there is amazing grace in the cycle and rhythm. Such is the mystery that had been kept hidden for (cyclical) ages and generations, but has now been revealed to us in Jesus.

Ecclesiastes 1:1-2 The words of the Preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem. 2 Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher, vanity of vanities! All is vanity.

Good morning, Grace. To be honest, it’s been a while since I’ve been this excited to start preaching through a book of the Bible. I think the main reason for my extra excitement is that in a truly unique way (which becomes apparent almost immediately when you begin to read it) Ecclesiastes directly, unblinkingly, honestly, and unashamedly addresses two of the most significant questions for all mankind. It addresses two questions that most of us have felt in our bones for our whole lives. Questions that are at the heart of all the pastoral counseling I’ve done, every bump in every relationship, every pursuit and loss of pleasure, and every believer and unbeliever’s longing for understanding:

1) What is the world like, and 2) What can we do about it?

More specifically, regarding the first question, Ecclesiastes observes, asks, and attempts to answer (over and over and over): Why is life often so frustrating, so disappointing, so confusing, so inefficient, so lonely, so discouraging, so unjust, so short, so tragic, so harsh, unpredictable, so fleeting? Why is it often so hard to experience any prolonged joy, peace, clarity, perspective, or contentment?

And perhaps even more importantly, Ecclesiastes also attempts to answer the question of what we ought to do about the fact that the world is like that? How should we/can we live in a world like the one we’re in?

On one level, there is a heavy, heavy dose of sobriety in Ecclesiastes. It just isn’t a happy book. Nevertheless, I’m excited to spend the next (not sure how) many months working through it with you all because it provides great clarity, which is a far greater gift than fleeting happiness. What’s more, it provides clarity for everyone.

If you are a Christian, you will find immense help in this book to understand the world around you, your experiences in it, as well as how to live an abundant life within it.

If you are a skeptical, board teenager or young adult, you will quickly find that Ecclesiastes explains why you are always trying to find something fun, but that the fun is never quite as fun as you’d hoped and never lasts as long as you want.

And, at the exact same time, if you are the most ardent atheist, you will find that Ecclesiastes deals with the world as it is in a way that you’ll certainly find refreshing. It does not deny, but affirms many of the exact things that drive you to disbelief in God. It joins you in your sense of skepticism and futility, but it doesn’t stay there.

The main message of Ecclesiastes is that under the sun, all is vanity, but there is more than meets the eye in God’s world. The Preacher gives us glimpses of what the rest of the Bible (the NT in particular) makes crystal clear: above the sun is glory beyond imagination. Sin has made it so that we cannot see above apart from God’s help. God’s grace has made it so that we can live below in fullness of joy. The main takeaways are to ask God to help us see the glory above and to live according to His promises as we wait for His answer below.

There are three main parts to this sermon. We’ll consider the author of Ecclesiastes, the main themes of Ecclesiastes (the perspective of the Preacher), and the main message of Ecclesiastes. Having started at the end (with the main message and takeaway of Ecclesiastes), let’s back up a bit. I want to show you where I got that from the text, beginning with the author. Of that, I’d like to point out five things.

First, Ecclesiastes begins by naming the author (sort of). As we heard Jen read and as you can see on the screen behind me in v.1, Ecclesiastes contains “the words of the Preacher”. That title (and no other) is mentioned six other times as well.

The word “Preacher” is a translation of the Hebrew, “Qoheleth.” “Ecclesiastes” is the Greek translation. That might sound familiar to you (beyond the title of this book). “Ecclesiastes” comes from the same root as “Ecclesia,” the Greek word that we translate “church”. The basic meaning of the root (in both Hebrew and Greek) is “assembly” (which is what a church is).

The literal meaning in both the Hebrew and Greek is something like “assembly addresser”. And because the term has religious connotations, the idea is “One who addresses a religious assembly.” That’s why the ESV translates it “the Preacher.”

In other words, “Qoheleth” (the Preacher) is almost certainly not a person’s name, but a title.

That leads to the second key regarding the author of Ecclesiastes. Who is “the Preacher”? It’s an understatement to say that there’s been a lot of discussion and debate on this question.

The traditional view has been that King Solomon was the Preacher. This idea derives from numerous passages.

“The son of David, King in Jerusalem” (1:1).

“I the Preacher have been king over Israel in Jerusalem” (1:12).

“And I applied my heart to seek and to search out by wisdom all that is done under heaven” (1:13).

“I said in my heart, “I have acquired great wisdom, surpassing all who were over Jerusalem before me, and my heart has had great experience of wisdom and knowledge” (1:16).

And when we compare the things the Preacher did in 2:4-9 with the description of the things Solomon did in 1 Kings 3-4, and the proverbs of Ecclesiastes with the Proverbs of Solomon, it’s hard not to make the connection.

Whether Solomon wrote Ecclesiastes or not—that is, whether He is the Preacher or not—it is clear that whoever did purposefully wrote with Solomonic wisdom and voice; that is, Ecclesiastes is clearly written from the perspective of Solomon. That is not to say that the author (if not Solomon) was attempting to deceitfully pass himself off as Solomon, only that he understood that Solomon was the best person to speak to the issues at hand. This was not uncommon in the ancient world.

I think the next two points are far more important than definitively answering the questions of who the Preacher was. The third thing to see in the way of authorship, then, is that Ecclesiastes is purposefully anonymous.

We can rest easy not knowing for sure who wrote it because, under the inspiration of God, a title is used (“the Preacher”) where a name could have been provided. If we needed to know who, specifically, wrote Ecclesiastes we would have been told. In that way, Ecclesiastes is like the NT book of Hebrews.

The fourth point and the most important aspect of the authorship of Ecclesiastes, however, is found at the very end of the book. In 12:11, we’re told, “The words of the wise … are given by one Shepherd [that is, God Himself].”

It is often helpful to know the human author of the books of the Bible, but the most important thing, every time, is the fact that they wrote under God’s inspiration. That seems to me to be of particular importance in Ecclesiastes because it’s such an unusual book and because Ecclesiastes asks questions that we need the rest of God’s Word to answer.

There’s one more item of note here. You may have noticed that 1:1-11 and 12:9-14 (along with 7:27) are written in third person (he, the Preacher) while the rest is written in first person (I, the Preacher). Some have suggested that the beginning and end were written by someone that scholars call the “frame narrator,” someone who compiled and framed up the words of the Preacher.

This matters on some level when it comes to interpretation (which I’ll point out at the very end of the book), but what matters most, once again, is that whether there is one human voice or two in Ecclesiastes, the most important and guiding voice is God’s.

Ecclesiastes is in the Bible not because of the wishes of the Preacher, Solomon, the frame narrator, or anyone else under the sun. It is in the Bible because it is the Word of God, maker of heave and earth.

Grace, as I mentioned earlier, I have a particular affinity for Ecclesiastes because of its blunt honesty. I resonate with this book because the author keeps pushing. As I read Ecclesiastes, and as I encountered the Preacher’s peeling back layer after layer, I kept cheering him on. Proverbs 22:6 says, “Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.” But I’ve always responded with, “Yeah, but I know parents who did and kids who didn’t.” Early on, that made me nervous. My assumption was always that the word of God was right and I was wrong, but I wanted to understand better. That seems to be the disposition of the Preacher as well. I wasn’t sure at first if that was OK, but books like Ecclesiastes helped me to learn that there is a way to honor God in seeking understanding.

One of the biggest questions—probably the biggest, actually—that we need to settle on in Ecclesiastes is the main message of the book. What’s Ecclesiastes all about? I shared some of my thoughts on that at the beginning, and I’m going to come back to it in greater detail at the end, but in order to get there we need to consider the Preacher’s perspective. How does he see the world?

In reading, listening, studying, and praying over Ecclesiastes, it seems to me that there are three main themes that we need to get our heads around in order to grasp the main message of the book: The vanity of this life, the sovereignty of God over all things, and the meaning of the phrase, “under the sun.”

The first theme is found in the word translated “vanity” (hevel) in the ESV. The only thing about Ecclesiastes that is debated more than its authorship, is the meaning of this word, “vanity”. It’s so hotly debated because it occurs thirty-eight times in just twelve chapters (it is clearly the most significant word for the Preacher) and because its range of meanings is significant.

There are four possible meanings.

With even the briefest consideration, it’s easy to see that when you plug each of these possible meanings into the various passages in Ecclesiastes, you get very different results. What’s more, there’s no question that each of those things are true in a certain sense. Life is short, hard to grasp, futile, and mysterious. But which did the Preacher have primarily in mind?

My sense is that the fourth meaning is primary, with at least hints of the others in various places. In that way, truly grasping the main message of Ecclesiastes means understanding that all of life is mysterious to the Preacher. It is unpredictable and inconsistent.

As I hope to help you see in the coming months, most of what we experience in life is tied to this simple truth: all is vanity—mysterious, enigmatic, unpredictable.

I’m not sure I’ve ever come across someone who has felt that deeper and articulated it clearer than the Preacher in Ecclesiastes. He gives many, many examples of what He means by that (we’ll see a bunch right off the bat next week in 1:3-11). Let me try to capture it this way…

Why do you have a time of sweetest communion in your quiet time one day and then, doing the exact same things, God feels completely distant the next? We’ve all experienced that. Why is it?

Or, why does God heal one of your sick family members through your faithful prayers and not another?

Why does one person respond to your passionate gospel plea with faith and another in anger?

Why do some people who live morally bankrupt lives live to be 90, with lots of money, and die peacefully in their sleep, while others who try to honor God in everything, die far too young?

Why do fools often prosper and the wise often suffer?

Why does one of your kids love the Lord and another doesn’t?

Why does your DG seem to be a place of life and growth for one season and dry and difficult the next?

Why do people at your work who are lazy have the boss’s favor and the hard workers get taken advantage of?

Why can it be so hard to love your spouse at times and so easy and joyful at others?

Why do septic alarms only go off at night and in the winter? Why does it always snow on Saturday nights? Why do church furnaces go out on Sunday mornings?

The answer to all of these questions is vanity. All of life is like this the Preacher says. You can’t set your watch by any of it, for there is no guarantee that what is today is what will be tomorrow.

This might be best summed up in 9:11 where the Preacher reflects, “Again I saw that under the sun the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, nor bread to the wise, nor riches to the intelligent, nor favor to those with knowledge, but time and chance happen to them all.”

Everyone has experienced this vanity. And the thoughtful person asks why? Why is all vanity? That leads nicely to the next main theme, the Sovereignty of God.

Why is everything so mysterious, enigmatic, and unpredictable? We’ll see that the Preacher gives several reasons throughout Ecclesiastes, but underneath them all is (surprisingly) the sovereignty of God.

Eating, drinking, and finding enjoyment are from the sovereign hand of God (2:24-25, 3:13, 5:17, 18).

Likewise, wisdom, knowledge and joy are from the sovereign hand of God (2:26).

God is sovereign over every event in time (3:1-8).

The days of a man’s life are a gift from the sovereign God (5:18).

Wealth, possessions, power, and honor and (as we’ll soon see, critical for the Preacher is the fact that) the ability to enjoy them are from the sovereign hand of God as well (5:18-19; 6:2)

God is sovereign over the ability to straighten things and make them crooked (7:13)

God sovereignly makes days of joyful prosperity and adversity (7:14).

All the deeds of all men are in the sovereign hand of God (9:1).

God sovereignly made everything (11:4).

God is the sovereign judge of all men (11:9; 12:14).

For the Preacher, God’s sovereignty is unquestionable, but it is also what makes the mystery of life so great. Since God is sovereign, He could have made things differently. He could have made things predictable and understandable. He could have made all things efficient for His creatures. He could have made things so that hard, honest work always gains. He could have made it so that the wise and the foolish, the righteous and the wicked, the generous and the selfish do not all meet the same fate. He could have made it so that wisdom always works. He could have, in His sovereignty, made the world such that fearing and obeying Him always lead to joy.

A significant portion of the message of Ecclesiastes is tied to the fact that the world is all vanity by God’s sovereign decree and that is a hard pill to swallow for the Preacher (and for many).

Again, there are many important themes in Ecclesiastes. Death, joy, wisdom, chasing after the wind, and the fear of the Lord are among them. But the big three, from my perspective, are vanity, the sovereignty of God (both of which we’ve just considered) and finally the idea of living under the sun.

Right away in 1:3, we find this phrase, “What does man gain by all the toil at which he toils ‘under the sun’”?

A few verses later (1:9) we’re told that there is “nothing new ‘under the sun’”.

In 1:14 we’re told that everything done “under the sun” is “vanity and a striving after the wind.”

The idea only picks up steam from there, occurring nearly 30 more times throughout the book (2:17, 18, 19, 20, 22; 3:16; 4:1, 3, 7, 15; 5:15, 18; 6:1, 5, 12; 7:11; 8:8, 15, 17; 9:3, 6, 9, 11, 13; 10:5).

Man toils under the sun, he lives righteous or wicked lives under the sun, oppresses and is oppressed by others under the sun, riches and poverty are found under the sun, enjoyment and misery are experienced under the sun, God works under the sun, and men die under the sun.

In short, for the Preacher, the phrase “under the sun” refers to life on earth. All mankind lives under the sun. There is no other place for man to live. But the phrase also has a spiritual connotation embedded in it. More fully, then, “life under the sun” means life on earth, under the curse. It is infused with a spiritual blindness that comes from the fall.

The Preacher feels this even if he can’t entirely explain it. We find it in passages like 7:20, “Surely there is not a righteous man on earth who does good and never sins.”

This theme (under the sun) is particularly important because it brings the first two themes together (vanity and God’s sovereignty). Life is mysterious at every turn, according to the sovereign will of God, because we are all under the sun; that is, because we are all blinded by sin to that which is above the sun and brings clarity and meaning to life. And that leads to the final section.

Having considered all that we have, we’re in the right place to answer the question: What is the main message of Ecclesiastes?

To explain what I think that means, I think I’ve come up with two helpful illustrations.

Imagine a day that is utterly gloomy—cloudy, foggy, rainy, muddy? It’s hard to see more than a few feet in front of you, it’s hard to be joyful because it seems like everything is working against it, everything is a bit harder and messier than it seems like it should be, everything that you can see is dark and unclear.

Have you ever flown on an airplane on a day like that?

I can’t remember the first time I experienced it, but it’s pretty discouraging to look out the window and see nothing but rain drops and miserable ground crewmen and women. What’s more, it’s honestly a little scarry imagining the plane and pilots needing to perform in the inclement weather and with such limited visibility.

Once the plane takes off, the further you travel and the higher you climb you can’t help but to notice that it’s the same everywhere. There doesn’t seem to be anyway or any place to escape the gloom.

As you climb into the clouds, it only seems to get worse. Your already limited visibility drops to nearly nothing. There is often significant turbulence at this point. It seems as if there’s only darkness and difficulty everywhere.

But then, and if you’ve experienced this you know how amazing this can be, your airplane pops out above the clouds and all you can see is perfect, blue, sunny sky for countess more miles than anything below. The distance of gloom is about 1/1,000,000th of the distance of clarity and sun, but you just can’t see that from below.

That, I believe, is the basic message of Ecclesiastes.

Because of Adam and Eve’s sin and the resulting curse of our sovereign God, life really is gloomy, cloudy, foggy, rainy, muddy—vanity. And because of Adam and Eve’s sin and the resulting curse of our sovereign God, we simply cannot see past the gloom, clouds, fog, rain, mud, and vanity of life under the sun. The sun (the glory and wisdom and goodness and perfect plan of God) is always out there, but it’s not often easy to see.

This illustration also helps explain why the book is so challenging to read. The Preacher doesn’t seem to have spent a lot of time above the clouds. He knows the sun is up there, but he doesn’t seem to have been able to see very often. He genuinely believes that God is real and working great things, but the Preacher struggles (like so many of us) to see and understand it in real time.

Let me share a second example.

How many of you have ever seen a tapestry up close? More importantly, how many of you have ever seen a tapestry being made up close? I want to show you three picturesi that I think will be helpful.

The first picture is of a loom. It is what people use to make tapestries. In Ecclesiastes, this represents the sovereign hand of God, working in all creation, above and below the sun. He is purposeful and orderly.

The second picture is of the back of a completed tapestry. As you can tell, it is knotted and tangled. There doesn’t seem to be much order or purpose to it. In fact, it looks really messy and chaotic. It doesn’t seem like anything good could possibly come out of it. In Ecclesiastes, this represents the vanity of life under the sun. At best, this image is mysterious, enigmatic, and unpredictable. Again, this is what life looks like (at least on the inside) to anyone who is honest about it. Most of the time in this life we only get to see the back, the messiness.

The third and final picture is the front of the completed tapestry. The picture doesn’t do it justice, but it is a beautiful tapestry of an older sister leading her younger, nervous sister toward a bunny. In Ecclesiastes, this represents the fact that God is always working in His sovereign, mysterious ways. It is always the case that God is making good things for His people, even when it looks like the opposite. As I said above, one of the features of Ecclesiastes is that the Preacher doesn’t seem to have seen the front very clearly or very often. He believes it’s there by God’s hand and design, but he chose to live a life of faith in God’s promises in spite of the vanity he could see.

That is, I believe, the heart of the final two verses in this remarkable book. In 12:13-14 we’re told, “The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. 14 For God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil.”

(This idea is also found, as we’ll see when we get there in 3:13, 5:19, and 7:2.)

What is the message of Ecclesiastes?

It is that in this life everything looks chaotic, futile, frustrating, pointless, broken, confusing. Even when things look OK for a time, they always, eventually (even if a generation or two later) break down again; every strong government, every faithful family, every healthy church, every successful sports franchise. Some last longer and some shorter, but all, eventually revert to hardship and struggle and loss.

And because of that, we have two choices. Either we will (1) Live according to the way things look (which the author refers to as living “under the sun”, or (2) We will live according to the promises of God (life above the sun).

For those who choose the second option (above the sun, according to God’s promises), there is no real tension in the hardships of life. Life is still often difficult, but there is peace in the trust that God is always working a greater good in every vanity than if things were any other way. One cannot always see the sun shining, but one can believe God that it always is. In that is peace that surpasses knowledge and transcends every circumstance.

But for those who choose the first option (to live only according to the way things seem), which is all of us sometimes and some of us all the time, life is a constant temptation toward practical atheism, fatalism, and cynicism. Life is always and only cloudy and gray and the best we can do is to try to find some joy, even in the knowledge that it is certain to be fleeting.

Ecclesiastes was written largely to those who have chosen, or are stuck in the first option, in order to convince them to choose the second. And in that way, once again, Ecclesiastes answers two main questions: (1) What is life like under the sun, and (2) What can be done about it.

What is life like? In short, it is harsh. For it has the constant appearance of vanity, futility, frustration, unpredictability; utter, complete, unchangeable vanity, futility, frustration, and unpredictability.

What do we do about it? In short, the Ecclesiastes’ answer is to trust in God’s Word (fear and obey Him) and enjoy His blessings as much as you are able under the sun.

The Preacher doesn’t take us much beyond that, but thanks be to God that we have the whole Bible and not just the words of the Preacher. I want to close, then, with a very brief contrast between this Preacher and another who would come later.

The Preacher, as we will see (especially in 2:4–10), had everything. He experienced every pleasure the world has to offer; and yet he found them all lacking. He found in frustrating ways that nothing in this life is able to satisfy on its own. Rather than providing any kind of lasting satisfaction, the Preacher’s conclusion was, “Then I considered all that my hands had done and the toil I had expended in doing it, and behold, all was vanity and a striving after wind, and there was nothing to be gained under the sun” (2:11).

The Preacher had everything and yet found little beyond fleeting moments of pleasure. He struggled mightily to see past the vanity, above the sun.

As I said, later, from the same family line as the Preacher, came another preacher. This one had none of the pleasures of his forefather. In fact, he knew only the lack of everything the Preacher tried. And yet his conclusion was different.

8 Indeed, [he wrote,] I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith— 10 that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead” (Philippians 3:8-11).

The Apostle Paul, by God’s grace, was able to see above the sun like few others ever have. And because of that, he found profound meaning and joy in all of the vanities of life under the sun.

The great gift of Ecclesiastes is a plea to help you to see that nothing under the sun can satisfy, and therein a plea to look above the sun through Jesus Christ our Lord.

i I found each of these at https://warpedforgood.com/2020/02/tapestry-promise/ (Return)

Good morning! My name is Colin Rueter, one of the pastors here at Grace. My sermon this morning is part two of “This is Grace.” Last Sunday, Pastor Dave walked us through the good news of Jesus, the Gospel and our Statement of Faith. The gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ, is what unifies all Christians. The Statement of Faith from the EFCA (denomination) is the next level of distinctives from other churches. Do we remember the four parts of the Gospel? GOD, MAN, CHRIST, RESPONSE

This morning, I have the privilege to share more specifically what makes Grace Church more refined in belief: our mission statement, the building blocks of being a disciple here, and our core values. Pastor Dave was at the wide end of the funnel, the low-hanging fruit of Christianity, and I am now narrowing down to the distinctives of Grace Church. This is what makes Grace distinct from other churches. We are not saying we are better or that we are the true church, the aim is distinctives for us as Grace Church, key aspects that we speak to, aim for, and treasure from God’s word. These have come about, primarily, from the church seeking to say: “Who are we and what do we believe?” and putting those down in writing. The aim of what we do is to present one another mature in Christ – in order to do that we need some guidance from God’s word with specifics for us at Grace Church in Wyoming, MN in the year 2025.

It is interesting doing this as a new pastor, because I am learning to know these better, love them deeper, and share them with joy to others. But as Susan and I prayed about next ministry steps, we looked for specific values and theology, specific doctrines and methods in ministry, where I could thrive as a pastor and enter into the Lord’s work faithfully. We have that here, projected in the mission statement, practically set in the core values.

So, whether you have been a part of Grace for years or months, or this is your first time, our prayer is that you would know, love, and share the mission and values of Grace with the utmost joy as you share the Gospel with others. Pastor Dave’s aim from last week: Firmly establish us in the truths of God so that we might live out our faith with greater confidence, clarity, joy, and unity.

Main Point: At Grace Church, we would be unified on specific truths of God for our faith from His word to reach maturity in Christ.

As we grow in our love for these truths within the family of Grace Church, we pray it will lead us to joyful obedience as we reach Wyoming and the ends of the earth with the Gospel.

This morning, I would like to walk through three specific aspects of Grace Church: 1) Our Mission; 2) Building Blocks; 3) Core Values

‘Become a People Treasuring Christ and the Building of His Kingdom’

“The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.” Matthew 13:44

The mission statement is in place to give us a specific aim within the Great Commission, which is the mission of every church over all time. Grace Church exists in a specific time, a specific location, and thus, our mission must be Grace-specific.

The key in the mission is to become something – what? A people who treasure Christ – He is our supreme worth, treasure, most valuable possession, our hope, and our joy.

We not only treasure Christ, but we treasure Him building the Kingdom. We don’t build it, He does, we act as citizens and ambassadors within that Kingdom…but Christ builds it.

Matthew 16:18 – “I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.”

2 Cor. 5:20 – “We are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.”

Hebrews 11:10, 13-16: “For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God…These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return. But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city.”

To help guide and guard the process of fulfillment of the mission, we have something called Ministry City. Ministry City is a way of putting “flesh on the bones” of the mission. I am not going to explain it in depth here this morning, but I want to share that this structure exists to guide, protect, and bring clarity to what we do for ministry, how we do ministry, and that it is grounded in the word and aims to bring glory to God.

1) Membership [Acts 20:28; Romans 12:3–13; Hebrews 10:24-25]

Baptism: Matthew 28:19–20; Acts 2:38–41; Colossians 2:9–13

One act of obedience as a Christian is to be baptized. From this act of obedience is the step to covenant membership – we call meaningful membership – into a local church body. If you are interested in this step, talk to Pastor Dave, myself or one of the elders. It is meaningful because it is more than just getting to vote or snagging a cool mug. It is a commitment to a specific people in a specific time and place for God’s purposes. Membership is not you deciding what church suits your preferences, but seeing the good hand of God in connecting you with brothers and sisters that He has chosen for you. This is good, both for the church and for you. This is a practical and important step to work out the over 50 ‘one-anothers’ in the New Testament.

2) Sunday Morning [Acts 2:42; Ephesians 5:19-21; Colossians 3:15-16; 2 Timothy 4:2]

This is primarily the worship service that you are sitting in now. I am including Berea in this as a privilege to sit under teaching within the scriptures and interact with others as a means of grace for our spiritual well-being. Please come, as you are able, to Sunday school for kids and Berea for teens on up.

Sunday morning is, primarily, this service. Being here, as you are able, to sing, pray, confess sin, and sit under the proclamation of the word is God’s kindness to you each week. It is a means of grace to sit next to your brothers and sisters each week. Sunday morning is the best way to be present with this family, to be seen and see others. You can truly be and are a blessing to someone here this morning. As we live our lives with one another, as your story is shared and you’re prayed over, your presence here at Grace us a blessing, a sign that God is at work and His grace empowers. More could be said, but I will simply say don’t neglect this gathering, brothers and sisters. The local church is a gift, a visible gathering of the blood-bought people of God to lift His name high and a means of grace to transform us more into the image of His beloved Son.

3) Discipleship Groups [Matthew 28:16-20; Colossians 1:28-29; 2 Timothy 2:1-2; Hebrews 3:12–14]

We call these DG’s. Every church has language unique to them, we are no exception. A building block of being a healthy church at Grace means we have an arena of shepherding and discipleship. In these smaller groups outside of a Sunday, an elder oversees each group, fellowship happens, prayers are spoken, care is given, love is seen. The elders have the opportunity to interact on a smaller level with people that God has given them to know, lead, feed, and protect. It is our privilege as elders to engage the souls among us. It is a privilege to interact as people of Grace outside a Sunday to act upon the “one anothers” in scripture on a micro-level. If you are not regularly going to a DG, make it a priority after establishing being here on a Sunday. If you need a ride, ask. If you can’t make one night of the week work, ask an elder about another evening group to join. We want and need you plugged in.

4) Everything Else (Every other ministry that occurs within Grace Church: G2g, Masculine Mandate, Adorned, etc.)

Every other ministry at Grace falls into this category. This is simply an area of various ministries that we have here. Like any ministry, we pray about, evaluate, and act upon whether they help us fulfill our mission and the Great Commission. As elders, along with the ministry leaders, we want to do ministry well for the sake of the saints and the glory of God, not because we have always done a particular program. Does it help us make disciples….?

We at Grace Church earnestly desire and prayerfully strive to be a purposeful church. This is why we have a mission, guiding principles (Ministry City), and why Core Values are written and spoken of. More than just ideas drawn from a hat, these are specific values that we see in the word of God, values that we treasure, and values that each of us here at Grace should aim at and grow in.

…God-Centered

We value the centrality of God in everything. We exist by Him, through Him and for Him. The chief purpose of every decision, event, meeting or ministry exists to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. (How is God glorified?) [“For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.” Romans 11:36]

Application of Core Value: The goal of this church is not to make great the name of Grace Church. We pray, worship, and preach from the knowledge and joy that without God, we are hopeless. Ministry exists so that we would know the Lord our God.

…Christ-Treasuring

We value Jesus as the One who reveals God to us, and it is our goal to not only trust and obey Him but to treasure and savor Him with all our heart, soul, strength and mind. (How is the Lord Jesus exalted?) [“He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent.” Col. 1:15-18]

Application of Core Value: Jesus is everything. In our worship service, we look to Jesus. In our classes, we desire to know and seek Jesus, for adults down to the kiddos. We see Him as the treasure, not the means to a treasure. This is the heart of the Gospel – not a ticket to Heaven, but a reconciliation and relationship to Christ.

…Faith-Building

We value faith in Christ as both a gift from God and the vital and fundamental response of the Christian to God. Without faith it is impossible to please God, and therefore we make it our goal to build each up in the faith. Helping each other to live daily upon the promises of God must be a high priority. (How is our faith in God strengthened?) [“Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.” Hebrews 10:23-25]

Application of Core Value: Evangelism: Heaven rejoices when someone comes to faith. We rejoice. AND, we long to grow in faith together, which is disciple-making. We desire to present everyone mature in Christ. In discipleship, in ministry, the aim is not knowledge alone, but a maturing of acting in faith to the glory of Christ.

…Prayer-Empowered

We value prayer because we are dependent people. We believe that we must make prayer the visible engine of all our efforts in ministry and worship. (Have we dependently asked God’s help through prayer?) [“Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 4:5-7]

Application of Core Value: Prayer should be step #1 in all we do. We pray throughout morning service, before classes, we pray for one another during DG, in our one-on-one meetings as we disciple, and corporate prayer every Wednesday at noon. We pray in the morning, over meals together, and before we lay down at night. Prayer is dependence on the One who we need. We can do this better, but we aim to be a church that thrives in prayer.

…Bible-Saturated

We value being saturated with the Word of God, the Bible, which is God’s reliable, authoritative and sufficient revelation. We desire to grow a love for the Word, as well as a deepening understanding of it, in each person within the church. (What does the Word say or infer? Is the Bible front and center?) [“Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.” Psalm 119:105]

Application of Core Value: We love the Bible. This is the truth. It is a lamp to our feet and light for our path. When we desire to know God’s will, we pray and we seek the word. The sermons on Sunday are not man’s wisdom, but God’s revelation to His people. The curriculum we use, the basis for our discussions, the guidance for our families is the word of God.

…Disciple-Producing

We value growth in “Christ-likeness” in every believer, as all of us become the disciples God intends us to be. We value an intentionality to make and reproduce disciples according to God’s Word. (How are we growing closer to Jesus [and into the image of God]?) [“And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” Matthew 28:18-20]

Making disciples is a process, which means form and structure is needed in order to guide that process. As a mature believer, you know that investing into another person is the supernatural working of God to help them contemplate and grow in their faith as you are growing as well. Each of us should be thinking and acting towards the aim of presenting one another mature in Christ.

If you look at the Building Blocks within Grace, you will see a formal structure of Sunday mornings becoming more flexible in our DG’s that have specific structure, yet a little more informal, which should lead to smaller groups of discipleship (one-on-one; couple to couple) – still with structure using our discipleship tracks to guide and evaluate growth in faith. The tracks in particular grant clarity to know what we are doing (making disciples) and tracks (pun-intended) for that action to answer the question: how do we know we are producing disciples?

Application of Core Value: We have DG’s, growing as followers of Christ, taking one step closer to Him by fellowship, study, and prayer. We have Discipleship Tracks to help grow and mature followers in all areas of life. Parents, your children are little disciples, the Family Roadmap is a view of how to make progress by God’s grace. As followers of Christ, our thought should be towards helping one other person take the next step towards Christ, in relationship, likeness, and action.

…Family-Strengthening

We value building up strong marriages and families, where God’s Word is taught and lived out, where husbands love their wives (as Christ), where wives respect their husbands, where hearts of parents are turned towards their children, and children towards their parents. (How does this positively and negatively affect families?) [“But the steadfast love of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him, and his righteousness to children’s children, to those who keep his covenant and remember to do his commandments.” Psalm 103:17-18]

Application of Core Value: We love marriage, dare I say Biblical marriage. We love families, whether we are single, married, with kids or without, we uphold the gift of God in these areas. The best thing for this community, the state, the nation is healthy marriages and healthy families. Pray for the marriages in this church, pray for the kiddos here to come to saving faith, pray that we would see, value, and uphold biblical marriage and family.

…Love-Expressing

We value the Spirit-led expression of love within the body of Christ and towards unbelievers. We desire to grow as a true family grows or as a healthy body functions. We believe this love comes by the Holy Spirit through faith in Christ. (How does this demonstrate the love of Christ?) [“By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” John 13:35]

Application of Core Value: We think of others more than we think of ourselves. Love sacrifices for a greater good. It was the love of God that sent Christ for redemption. We seek to imitate this. The watching world will know that we treasure Christ when we love one another like He did. Relationships built in DG should grow our love and action towards others in this church.

…Relationship-Pursuing

We value the intentional pursuit of authentic, healthy relationships. God created us for community and in a world where so many miss the mark, the church must strive to get it right by actively pursuing the “one another” commands of Scripture. (How does this build and strength biblically healthy relationships?) [“Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.” Galatians 6:2]

Application of Core Value: It is nothing to gather here on a Sunday morning if we don’t grow in relationship to one another. This means sacrifice, being open and honest to who we are and what we struggle with, this is a growing trait of the Christian. To be in authentic, intentional, confessional relationships is the beauty of this family. Confess sin, minister to one another with the Gospel, and listen to one another. This is acted out in DG’s and smaller gatherings as you get to know others. How can you bear one another’s burdens unless you grow in relationship.

…and Mission-Mobilizing

We value missions and evangelism as the privilege God has given us as His ambassadors, accomplishing His goal of spreading the knowledge of His glory to all the nations. We desire to pursue Christ’s guidance and empowerment in the building of His Kingdom among all the peoples of the world, because we treasure Him above all things. [“May God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face to shine upon us, that your way may be known on earth, your saving power among all nations. Let the peoples praise you, O God; let all the peoples praise you! Let the nations be glad and sing for joy, for you judge the peoples with equity and guide the nations upon earth.” Psalm 67:1-4]

Application of Core Value: We, of course, desire to reach Wyoming and into surrounding communities. We support the gospel reaching the nations. We desire all nations to praise the Living God, to know that redemption has come, and to fulfill the Great Commission by supporting and sending into other cultures with the gospel.

One final note on distinctives as Grace Church. For the last number of years, we have had a section in our membership book that list some of the theological convictions that leadership have held to and taught. The helpful step for leadership has been to put these in writing, like the list at the back of the Membership booklet. As elders, we see this as a working document that we are discussing and hope to teach in the coming months. These distinctives have brought clarity in theology and unity in decisions for us as elders.

We want to be a faithful church and want you to be a faithful follower of Christ. Our prayer, again, has been and will be for us to do this together – seek to treasure Christ and the Building of His Kingdom. This is an invitation to seek the things of God, to grow and grow together. Join us, ask if you don’t know where to start, it is for our joy and the joy of our neighbors. This is the call that God has placed on us here at Grace Church and we long for you to be a part of it.

Grace Church, if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete one another’s joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. May we aim to do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than ourselves. Let each of us look not only to our own interests, but also to the interests of others. May we have this mind among ourselves, which is ours in Christ Jesus…Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone here at Grace Church mature in Christ [Phil. 2:1-5 & Col. 1:28]. Let’s pray.

Philippians 2:1-5 So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, 2 complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. 3 Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. 4 Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. 5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus…

Good morning and happy new year! The Lord is kind to give us rhythms of life as a means of renewal. He’s woven them into the very fabric of reality—with each morning, each week, each new season, and each new year. Many of those have come together today; I hope in such a way that you all feel a fresh burden to follow Jesus in faith and a rejuvenated hope in His promises.

In that way, it is good to embrace the God-given rhythm of the new year with new resolve to begin (and stick to) a Bible reading plan, share your faith more consistently, use your gifts to strengthen the church in a new way, actively keep a prayer journal, find some specific way to consistently help the vulnerable, make a plan to fast regularly this year, memorize a larger passage of scripture, and, as Roxie just read, and as we’ll focus on this morning, seek to be of the same mind as your brothers and sisters at Grace.

Again, we all feel an added draw to grow in Christ right now by God’s design. Let’s lean into that.

One way we want to help with that (especially same-mindedness) is by spending the next two sermons laying out a some of what defines us as a church—both doctrinally and practically. Our main aim in doing so is to more firmly establish ourselves in the truths of God so that we might live out our faith with greater confidence, clarity, joy, and unity.

Before I pray and we dive in, I’d like to say a brief word about how we chose to structure the two sermons.

This morning, I’m going to stay at a high level. That is, I’m going to share with you some things that our church is built upon (the gospel and the main points of our doctrinal statement). These are things that all true churches will agree upon. What I am going to share today is jam packed with life-giving, life-altering, life-directing glory, but there is very little about it that is unique to Grace Church.

Then, next Sunday, Pastor Colin is going to share some things that are distinctive about our church (our mission statement, philosophy of ministry, the building blocks of our ministry, and our core values). We believe every one of them is deeply rooted in God’s Word. Therefore, many churches will agree with many of these things, but all of them are worded in more-or-less Grace specific ways.

The picture we want you to have in mind is that of a narrowing funnel. I’m starting today at the widest part of the funnel (things all Christians believe) and Pastor Colin will finish next week at the narrowest part of the funnel (things that are most distinctive of us at Grace Church).

The key to all of this is that we firmly believe that everything we’re about to share is either explicitly taught in God’s Word or a practical implication of something that is. As such, we hope to make that easy for you to see. What’s more, we hope to make it all easy to love and apply, with one mind.

We couldn’t possibly exhaustively cover all of the topics we’ll introduce in the next two weeks in two hundred sermons. What we can (and, Lord willing, will) do, though, is to briefly introduce each point, share the primary biblical texts that they come from, and offer brief pastoral reflections on why they’re worth treasuring and striving to live more fully in light of, together.

Again, the widest part of the “Christian funnel” is the gospel (which means “good news”). To be a Christian is to have heard and believed in the gospel. No gospel, no Christian.

(A quick aside—that I’m pretty sure I’ve shared before—for those of you who, like me, did not grow up as believers…When I was first approached by some people in a campus ministry, they asked me if I believed the gospel. I had never been asked a question like that before. I didn’t know what they meant. All I could think of was the Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John), but their question didn’t quite fit that. I had no idea what “the gospel” was. Thankfully, they shared it with me. Even more thankfully, the Spirit gave me ears to hear for the first time in my life.)

What, then, is the gospel, the good news that someone must believe to be a Christian?

In one sense, it’s the simplest thing in the world. It’s something every child can understand. 1 Timothy 1:15, “The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost.”

At the same time, the gospel is so awesome that it will take an eternity to unpack. Truly, learning the fullness of the gospel—the good news of Jesus—is what we will be doing forever in heaven.

In just a minute, I’m going to share a very simple version of the gospel. But first, I’d like to draw your attention to three resources for those of you who want to dig deeper than we’ll go today.

First, on December 15th, in one of my last sermons on the Gospel of John, I unpacked the gospel as thoroughly as I ever have in a single sermon. That might be a helpful place to start if you want to know more (it’s on our website).

Second, we have more than a hundred copies of a book called, “What Is the Gospel?” We’d love to give you one for a fuller explanation still. The four points of the gospel that I’m about to share with you are from that book.

And third, we have something we call a “discipleship track” that focuses on unpacking the gospel in terms of both knowledge and implication. It is designed to help one person unpack the gospel with another over the course of several weeks. If you are interested in being taken through that track, please let us know and we will be glad to pair you up with someone.

Again, then, what is the good news that all Christians have in common; that we need to know and believe in to be a Christian; that constitute the substance of the faith necessary for salvation; that we are of one mind concerning? It’s easily understood, remembered, and explained with four simple terms: God, man, Christ, and response.

The gospel always, always begins with God. None of the rest of the gospel (or the Christian life or life in general) makes sense apart from the God of the Bible. All reality (including the gospel) is inescapably rooted in the unchanging nature of God. And while God’s nature is inexhaustible, there are four particular attributes that anchor the gospel: Creator, King, righteous, and judge.

The Bible opens with the simple declaration that “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1:1). God made all that has been made and so all that has been made belongs to God. It’s His. We’re His.

Not only did God make the heavens and earth (and all that is in them), but He also rules over the heavens and earth (and all that is in them as well). David sang of this great truth, “The Lord has established his throne in the heavens, and his kingdom rules over all” (Psalm 103:19). All creation must do what God says for He is King.

If God were anything other than what He is, that would be terrible news. If everything belonged to God and was obliged to submit to God, but God was lazy or mean or dumb or evil, then we would be in the worst kind of trouble (like a cosmic, eternal version of the worst human government).

But because God is who He is, it is the best news of all. In particular, God is perfectly righteous. He is right in all He is and does. His every command is not only binding, but it is best. It is good. It is wise. It is perfect. Of this, another of the Psalmists celebrates the fact that “Righteousness and justice are the foundation of [God’s] throne… (Psalm 88:14).

God is Creator, King, righteous, and the judge of all. He is continually evaluating His creation’s conformity to His righteous rule. The prophet Isaiah declares, “…the Lord is our judge; the Lord is our lawgiver…” (Isaiah 33:22). No corner of creation has ever escaped the watching eye of God for one fraction of a second.

Again, Grace, the beginning of who we are as a people, as a church, as Christians is rooted in the nature of God.

God created all mankind in His image (Genesis 1:26) to glorify and enjoy God forever (Isaiah 43:7). That is, as our creator and King God assigned to all of us meaning and purpose. And as our righteous judge He perfectly evaluates whether or not we are in keeping with His decrees.

For all who live in perfect conformity with God’s design and rule, there is eternal life and perfect fellowship (1 John 1:3). But the wages of any measure of disobedience is eternal death in perfect punishment (Romans 6:23).

Tragically, all mankind since the first man (Adam) has sinned and fallen short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23). This means that since Adam, all mankind has been born into condemnation and death.

What’s worse, not only are all people dead in our trespasses and sins, we are powerless to do anything about it. We are stuck in our death (Ephesians 2:1).

That does not sound like good news, but believe it or not, it is an essential component of it. For, before we can accept the rescue of Jesus, we must acknowledge our profound need for it.

And that leads us to the “good” part of the news. While we were yet sinners, Jesus Christ died for us (Romans 5:8). More than that, He rose from the dead as the firstborn of many (Romans 8:29). Jesus died and rose in our place. He who knew no sin, became sin that we might become the righteousness of God (2 Corinthians 5:21). Having none of His own, Jesus paid our sin debt.

Truly God and truly man, Jesus became the substitute sacrifice for man, doing for us what we were powerless to do for ourselves.

The primary question is how we gain access to the saving work of Jesus. How do we benefit from His suffering, death, and resurrection? How does Jesus become our substitute sacrifice such that we become the righteous sons and daughters of God?

The answer is faith. The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through [faith in] Jesus Christ our Lord (Romans 6:23). It is by grace that we are saved through faith, not as a result of our works so that no one may boast (Ephesians 2:8-9).

To try to work for your salvation is to continue to remain in sin and fall short of the glory of God. To be saved by Jesus, therefore, is to give up working and begin trusting in what God has already done for you.

This is the good news, Grace. This is the gospel in simple form. It is ours to be received in faith. It is the beginning and foundation of the Christian life. Apart from receiving these child-like truths we remain lost and condemned in sin. But by placing our trust in them, we will be forgiven and freed.

Would you do so now?! And if you already have, would you be reminded to continue coming back here every time you grow weary from trying to do it on your own or puffed up from mistakenly believing that you are. Would you remember how simple and humbling the good news really is and turn to it in fresh faith? And would you ask the Lord to help this be the start and focus of the same-mindedness that He’s called us to? To rightly understand and treasure this good news together is to bring unity and cancel out so many would-be dividers.

If you will do these things, know that it is God’s grace. It is His grace that sent Jesus, accepted Jesus’ sacrifice on our behalf, sent the gospel to us, opened our ears to hear, and keeps us hoping in Him.

As I said at the very beginning, placing your faith in the good news of Jesus, the gospel we just considered, is something all Christians have in common. It is the most fundamental aspect of the “one mind” Paul commands.

Our church’s doctrinal statement, which is the EFCA’s doctrinal statement, narrows the funnel just a bit. It contains bedrock doctrines of the Christian faith. And in that way, many of the things we just covered (in the gospel) are, as you will see, baked into and expanded on in our doctrinal statement.

(I put a link to the statement with loads of key biblical texts that support it in the manuscript.)

Just as the gospel begins with God, so too does our doctrinal statement.

There are many true things about God that you do not need to know to become a Christian. At the same time, there are certain things about God that you cannot reject as a Christian. God as eternal and trinitarian are two such things. In that way, our doctrinal statement expands on the first point of the gospel. Let’s say it together.

We believe in one God, Creator of all things, holy, infinitely perfect, and eternally existing in a loving unity of three equally divine Persons: the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Having limitless knowledge and sovereign power, God has graciously purposed from eternity to redeem a people for Himself and to make all things new for His own glory.

One of the simplest passages that contains much of this is Paul’s benediction in 2 Corinthians 13, “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.”

And all of this matters, once again, because the God we love, the God who saves us, and the God who unites us in one-mindedness, is the God who is. There is one God, He is infinitely glorious, and these are among the central aspects of His glory.

There is no other God who is and there is no other God who saves. This is who we believe in and treasure, Grace.

The second clause of our doctrinal statement concerns the Word of God.

God’s Word is absolutely necessary to know God’s will and all Christians must accept its authority on our lives. That’s the point of passages like 2 Timothy 3:16, “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.” In that way…

We believe that God has spoken in the Scriptures, both Old and New Testaments, through the words of human authors. As the verbally inspired Word of God, the Bible is without error in the original writings, the complete revelation of His will for salvation, and the ultimate authority by which every realm of human knowledge and endeavor should be judged. Therefore, it is to be believed in all that it teaches, obeyed in all that it requires, and trusted in all that it promises.

To be a member of Grace Church is to be of one mind concerning the fact that God has given us His Word which alone is inerrant and is alone necessary and sufficient for revealing the will of God to the world.

Let us give ourselves to taking this in, therefore, Grace. Grab a Bible reading plan from the table in the back. Come to Berea each week. Memorize larger passages of Scripture. Pray consistently for the Spirit’s help to understand, love, and apply the truths of God’s Word. Study God’s Word carefully. And do all of this in increasing measure together.

The third clause of our doctrinal statement is virtually identical to the second point of the gospel. It affirms the goodness of man in God’s original creation, as well as the fall of all mankind in Adam and the death that results.

As Genesis 6:5 says, “The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” When combined with Romans 5:12, “Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned,” with one (humble, contrite) mind we can say together…

We believe that God created Adam and Eve in His image, but they sinned when tempted by Satan. In union with Adam, human beings are sinners by nature and by choice, alienated from God, and under His wrath. Only through God’s saving work in Jesus Christ can we be rescued, reconciled and renewed.

The fourth clause speaks to the nature of Jesus. It speaks on the idea that is found in Colossians 1(:15-19). “He is the image of the invisible God… 17 And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18 … He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. 19 For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell…”

We believe that Jesus Christ is God incarnate, fully God and fully man, one Person in two natures. Jesus—Israel’s promised Messiah—was conceived through the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary. He lived a sinless life, was crucified under Pontius Pilate, arose bodily from the dead, ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of God the Father as our High Priest and Advocate.

Once again, our doctrinal statement adds to our understanding of Jesus’ nature (God-man, Spirit-conceived, virgin-born, crucified, glorified, and perpetually-advocating). These things, rightly understood are worship-fuel. They are why we not only believe in Jesus, but treasure Jesus. By God’s Grace, they are a growing part of the mind we all share.

To know and believe the first four clauses of our doctrinal statement is to long for Jesus and the rescue that He alone can provide. For, “there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). To be a Christian is to know that Jesus is not only a Savior, but the Savior. This is why…

We believe that Jesus Christ, as our representative and substitute, shed His blood on the cross as the perfect, all-sufficient sacrifice for our sins. His atoning death and victorious resurrection constitute the only ground for salvation.

This clause helps us see the uniqueness of Jesus as Savior as well as a bit more of the means by which He was able to and did accomplish salvation for sinners. The more we are able to grasp these things, the more we will praise God and be unified in our thinking.

Having established the triune nature of God and having considered the persons of God the Father and Son, it is right to affirm together certain truths about the third person of the godhead, the Holy Spirit.

Like Jesus, the Spirit was with God in the beginning (Genesis 1:2). The Spirit would come upon different people to accomplish God’s purposes throughout the OT (1 Samuel 16:13). And according to Jesus’ promise, the Spirit came to dwell in all Christians after Jesus ascended back to the right hand of God (John 14:26-28).

In John 14(:16-26) we read Jesus’ words, “And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever…26 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.” Therefore…

We believe that the Holy Spirit, in all that He does, glorifies the Lord Jesus Christ. He convicts the world of its guilt. He regenerates sinners, and in Him they are baptized into union with Christ and adopted as heirs in the family of God. He also indwells, illuminates, guides, equips and empowers believers for Christ-like living and service.

Understanding every single piece of this is not essential to salvation, but it is vital for spiritual growth. That is, these are central truths to the Christian faith and the maturing Christian life. The Spirit now works in all Christians in awesome ways; including making and maintaining one mind among us.

The seventh clause of our doctrinal statement concerns the nature of the gathered followers of Jesus, the Church. The Church, by God’s design, is both universal (all true believers) and local (Christians gathered in a particular place). Both are critical to coming to, living out, growing in, and persevering in our faith, our witness to the world, and honoring God.

Acts 20:28 is one of the more challenging, encouraging, and defining passages on the Church for me as a pastor. There Paul charged the Ephesian elders to “Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood.”

When we become Christians, we are saved into a people. Likewise, living out the Christian life is meant to happen among a people; a people whom we are meant to be united with in one mindedness concerning these things. And so we say together…

We believe that the true church comprises all who have been justified by God’s grace through faith alone in Christ alone. They are united by the Holy Spirit in the body of Christ, of which He is the Head. The true church is manifest in local churches, whose membership should be composed only of believers. The Lord Jesus mandated two ordinances, baptism and the Lord’s Supper, which visibly and tangibly express the gospel. Though they are not the means of salvation, when celebrated by the church in genuine faith, these ordinances confirm and nourish the believer.

Three more clauses. The next is a statement on the nature of Christian life. Once a person comes to faith in Jesus, once a person becomes a Christian, we are right to ask, what’s next?

In 1 Thessalonians 5, after giving a list of commands to the church for holiness (things that the Christians in Thessalonica were to work hard at—love, peace, help, patience, grace, good, joy, prayer, thanksgiving), Paul reminded them that it would be God who would bless their hard work. “Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 24 He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it.” This is why…

We believe that God’s justifying grace must not be separated from His sanctifying power and purpose. God commands us to love Him supremely and others sacrificially, and to live out our faith with care for one another, compassion toward the poor and justice for the oppressed. With God’s Word, the Spirit’s power, and fervent prayer in Christ’s name, we are to combat the spiritual forces of evil. In obedience to Christ’s commission, we are to make disciples among all people, always bearing witness to the gospel in word and deed.

Grace, we are defined in part by the belief that everyone who becomes a Christian by God’s grace, will also by God’s grace grow in godliness. Becoming more like Jesus is proof that we truly believe in Jesus. Let’s ask the Spirit to make us one mind in this.

The ninth clause concerns the return of Jesus. God promised for centuries to send a Savior. He was faithful to His promises in Jesus, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”

Having accomplished all that He was given by the Father—having lived a sinless life, taken on the full measure of the wrath of God, died on a cross, risen from the dead, and having ascended back to the Father’s right hand—God made another promise: That Jesus would one day return to judge the living and the dead and to make all things right forever for those whose faith is in Him.

Hebrews 9:27–28 Just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment, so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him. Therefore, with one mind we can say with one voice…

We believe in the personal, bodily and glorious return of our Lord Jesus Christ. The coming of Christ, at a time known only to God, demands constant expectancy and, as our blessed hope, motivates the believer to godly living, sacrificial service and energetic mission.

Believe this great promise, Grace. Set your hope upon it. Remind one another of it. On that day, all division ends and every knee will bow and tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.

Finally, therefore, it is urgent that we be of one mind concerning the consequences of all these things.

Romans 2:6-8 [God] will render to each one according to his works: 7 to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life; 8 but for those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury.

To receive them in faith is to know everlasting, resurrection life in Jesus. To reject them, however, is to know eternal death.

We believe that God commands everyone everywhere to believe the gospel by turning to Him in repentance and receiving the Lord Jesus Christ. We believe that God will raise the dead bodily and judge the world, assigning the unbeliever to condemnation and eternal conscious punishment and the believer to eternal blessedness and joy with the Lord in the new heaven and the new earth, to the praise of His glorious grace. Amen.

Oh, what glorious truths these are! Oh, that God might be pleased to fill us with all the wonder they ought to bring. Oh, that we might together learn to love them more and live more fully in light of them as one body.

In conclusion, and once again, most of what we considered in the gospel and our church’s doctrinal statement is mere Christianity. That is, believing in most of what we just heard is common to all Christians. Indeed, most of it is part of the very definition of Christianity. It is certainly what we believe at Grace.

Again, next week, Pastor Colin will narrow the funnel a bit more in helping us to consider more Grace Church-specific beliefs and practices. For now, though, let us ask the Spirit to keep us from being underwhelmed or numb to these things. Let’s ask Him to grant us understanding of them, love for them, and obedience to them according to the promise of God. Let’s give ourselves to being increasingly united around them and transformed by them.

And not, in obedience to Christ’s command and consistent with our doctrinal statement on the Church we turn our attention to the Lord’s Table.

John 21:25 Now there are also many other things that Jesus did. Were every one of them to be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.

Good morning, Grace. I hope you all had a joyful, Christ-honoring Christmas.

Because you asked… two of the harder aspects of my job are starting and finishing preaching through a book of the Bible. Starting is hard because it takes an exceptional amount of work and thought and prayer to get my head around the whole of the book—which is a prerequisite to handing any of it well.

And finishing is hard in a way that is similar to having a child graduate and move out—it’s hard to overstate the emotional, spiritual, and chronological investment it takes to make it through an entire book (especially one like John). If anything, it’s an underestimate to say that I’ve spent well over 1000 hours of my life in John’s Gospel since we began. That’s over 40 full days of feeling the weight of being responsible to faithfully and accurately exposit the Word of God for you all.

At the exact same time, however, spending thousands of hours preparing to and preaching through whole books of the Bible is by far one of the most rewarding aspects of being a pastor as well. What a gift it is to be able to sit in the very words of God, aided by the work of others over the centuries (commentaries), day after day, year after year, experiencing God’s presence and grace through His words, being continually renewed and reshaped by them, and then sharing them with a people I love. I wish everyone could experience this weight of glory.

And with all of that, this is my last sermon on John’s Gospel (at least as a part of this series). In it, I intend to give a quick overview of the Gospel and then highlight a few of the main themes that God especially used to challenge and strengthen us from it. My hope in doing this is to encourage you all by taking one more look at the unique glories in John and to strengthen you all to live more and more fully—following Jesus—in light of those glories.

Again, there are two main parts to this final John sermon. We’ll spend some time loocking back at the big picture of the Gospel and then we’ll consider some of the particular ways God was gracious to us in it.

To help you see the big picture of John, we’ll revisit its main purpose and primary divisions.

Right from the start, I want to simply tell you what I think the big picture of John is. We see it in the final verse of the Gospel, our passage for today.

25 Now there are also many other things that Jesus did. Were every one of them to be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.

What, then, is the big picture of John’s Gospel? The big picture is that Jesus is glorious beyond measure. In one way, shape, or form, every word of John is an unfolding of this fact.

Grace, the thing to grasp, should the Spirit be pleased to help, is that even in humbling Himself in such a way that He took on flesh; even in humbling Himself such that He allowed Himself to be misunderstood, dismissed, rejected, despised, mocked, and beaten; even in humbling Himself by allowing Himself to take on the shame of death by crucifixion (Philippians 2:8); the big picture of John’s Gospel is that even in this humble state, in just 30 years, Jesus’ revealed enough of His glory that an entire world of books could not contain it.

The big picture of John’s Gospel is an invitation to behold, believe in, and worship the One whose glory cannot be exhausted by all eternity, much less a mere world’s worth of books about it.

Today, thirty years after I came to faith in Jesus, this is still—I think—the biggest burden I have in life and ministry: Helping people to recognize the fact that their view of God, their understanding of Jesus, however big it is, is far, far, far, far too small. That’s what John is mainly about, that’s what my life is mainly about, and John’s Gospel invites you all to be mainly about that as well.

Again, I think you’ll see that clearly as we consider John’s main purpose and primary divisions.

As I mentioned in my very first sermon on John’s Gospel, John wrote his first letter so that his readers might know that they have genuine faith in Jesus. That is, John wrote 1 John to give assurance of salvation to those who those who truly believe in Jesus.

But that begs the questions of who Jesus is, what exactly we need to believe about Him, and why we would believe those things. That’s where John’s Gospel comes in. It was written, John tells us in chapter 20, “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.”

The main purpose for the Gospel of John, according to John, is to help his readers understand and accept the shocking fact that Jesus is the Christ that God had long promised to send. And that, in order that they (we) might believe upon Him and have life.

That is, of course, no small thing. Considering this from any other perspective might be necessary to really grasp how spectacular of a claim this is.

In other words, imagine getting a letter from Pastor Colin that opens with the line, “I am writing to convince you that John Caneday is the savior God promised to send.”

Even though John is a very godly man, there’s no way Pastor Colin could possibly convince you of that claim, is there? What could it possibly take?

Well, that’s exactly what John did. He was a “nobody” writing to convince everybody that another “nobody” (Jesus) was the Christ. Again, what could he possibly say to convince anyone?

As I mentioned a minute ago, that’s the entire thrust of his Gospel. That is the big picture of what John was trying to do with every word on every page—describe the unmatched glory of Jesus such that believing in Him as the Christ not only seems plausible, but inevitable.

So how did John go about describing the measureless glory of Jesus in order to achieve his purpose?

On a literary level, he did so by writing his Gospel with four main “sections.” I don’t mean to suggest that John has four distinct chapters or that it has the kind of divisions we might find in a modern history book. What I do mean is that the Gospel has four discernable areas of focus and that by recognizing them, we are best able to grasp the big picture John was trying to communicate.

Specifically, there is an introduction in John 1:1-18, a long description of Jesus ministry on earth in 1:19-12:50 (sometimes called “The Book of Signs”), an account of the passion week in 13:1-20:31 (sometimes called “The Book of Glory”), and then a sort of conclusion in chapter 21.

In the introduction, as I’ll come back to in a few minutes, John put most of his cards on the table in just a small handful of verses.

The climax of John’s Gospel is the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. His main point in his conclusion was to solidify that by describing His continued ministry to His followers in His glorified state.

In a book that is 21 chapters, the introduction and conclusion make up one-and-a-half of them. That leaves nineteen-and-a-half more chapters. In them we find the two main sections. And in them, we find John’s “proof” for the claims he made in the introduction and the “evidence” he offered to accomplish his purpose.

If John was going to convince his readers that Jesus really is the glorious Christ, that they should believe in Him as such, and that by doing so they would gain eternal life, he was going to have to make a very compelling case. And so he did.

In the Gospel’s two main sections, the book of signs and the book of glory, John recorded the aspects of Jesus’ life on earth—story after story, teaching after teaching, miracle after miracle, response after response—that most clearly demonstrate His nature, glory, and purpose.

As we consider the big picture of John’s Gospel—that Jesus is glorious beyond measure—and John’s primary purpose in writing his Gospel—to convince His readers to believe in Jesus as the Christ—we would do well to consider the claims made about and by Jesus.

Let’s begin at the beginning, in the Gospel’s introduction (1:1-18). There we’ll quickly see that the claims John makes about the glory of Jesus are staggering.

John’s first awesome claim about Jesus is that He is the very “Word” of God. That is, in referring to Jesus as “the Word,” John was indicating that Jesus is the full and final revelation from God. Jesus is the manifestation of God’s power and wisdom. Jesus would speak only that which is true and He would perfectly accomplish all of the purposes for which He was sent.

That’s quite a claim, but John was far from done. Echoing the first words of the Bible (Genesis 1:1), Jesus was, John wrote (1:1), “in the beginning” with God. From the very first act of creation, Jesus was with God.

More than that, though, as spectacular as that is, John claims that Jesus was not merely with God in creation, but that He was God’s instrument of creation, “All things were made through him, and without him not anything was made that was made” (1:3).

More than that, Jesus was the life by which all life came and the light by which all things are seen (1:4).

More than just the physical light, Jesus is the moral light that shines into evil, exposing and overcoming it (1:5).

Still in the introduction, John claims that Jesus was so worthy and glorious that God send a man, John the Baptist, to prepare the way for Him, to announce His coming, and to be a witness to the truthfulness of Jesus’ claims.

John declared that Jesus had the power to give people “the right to become children of God…born of God” (1:13).

John said that Jesus was God incarnate; God become man; possessing supreme glory as God’s only Son; full of divine grace and truth; full of the fullness of God; the image of the invisible God; making God known to the world (1:14-16).

These types of claims are concentrated in the introduction, but also spread throughout the entire Gospel. And yet, as clear as they are here, they are never clearer than in what Jesus says them about Himself. That is, the most explicit claims about the nature of the glory of Jesus were made by Jesus.

I am the bread of life (6:35; 41). Grace, Jesus claimed that it is from Him that all nourishment—both physical and spiritual—comes.

I am the light of the world (8:12). Similar to John’s claim in 1:4, Jesus claimed to be the (only) way in which all mankind can see physically and spiritually.

…before Abraham was, I am (8:58). John said that Jesus was before him (1:15) even though he was older than Jesus. But Jesus claimed to be before Abraham even, echoing another of John’s claims that Jesus was with God in the beginning.

More significantly, though, in this Jesus was making a much, much bigger claim. Here’s how I explained it when I preached on this verse: “To Jesus’ hearers, to those steeped in generations of reverence for [the name of God, Yahweh, I Am], it hit like a ton of bricks…That is, in John 8:58 Jesus took for Himself God’s most holy name. Jesus of Nazareth claimed to be the same God who appeared to Moses in a burning bush 1300 years earlier, the God of the covenant promise that shaped their entire lives, the God of whom the Jews said “He is our God”.

The big picture of John’s Gospel is that Jesus is glorious beyond measure and it is claims like this one that help us to see that. And yet, there’s more still…

I am the door of the sheep (10:7) and I am the good shepherd (10:11). For an ordinary shepherd to be the door of the sheep meant himself at the entrance of the place where his sheep rest. He would do so to make sure that all his sheep were brought in, that none were missing and also to keep everything else out.

All good shepherds functioned in this way. But good shepherds did a lot more too. They make sure their sheep are protected not just at night, but always, that they are well fed and watered, and that they are led to the right places at the right times.

Jesus claimed to be all of this both physically and spiritually for all of His sheep, for all who believe in Him.

I am the Son of God (10:36). As the catechism says, “There are three persons in the Godhead; the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost; and these three are one God, the same in substance, equal in power and glory.” Jesus claimed to be “the Son,” the second person of the Holy Trinity.

I am the resurrection and the life (11:25). Jesus made this claim in the context of healing Lazarus from the dead. One of his sisters, Martha, was upset both that Jesus failed to heal him before he died, and because Jesus seemed only to be offering some kind of future resurrection for Lazarus. But Jesus corrected her with these words, “I am the resurrection and the life.” You want something for your brother, but you should want Someone, Me, for “Whoever believes in me, though He die, yet shall he live….”. What a claim.

I am the way, and the truth, and the life (14:6). This next “I am” claim is one of His most familiar. In this Jesus was expanding on previous claims by making them exclusive. Jesus was not merely a way, one source of truth, or one of the many ways to find life. He was THE way, THE truth, and THE life. Truly, no one comes to the Father (for forgiveness, freedom, everlasting life, immeasurable glory) but through Jesus. That was His claim.

I am the true vine (15:1). Finally, Jesus claimed to be the “true vine”. He had and would succeed where all Israel—every former prophet, priest, and king, every shepherd and sheep, every descendant of Abraham—had failed. He was the means by which nourishment and fruit would spread throughout the world.

These are, of course, claims that no mere man can make. They are claims of power and nature and glory that are at the heart of John’s Gospel and his understanding of Jesus.

At the same time, it’s one thing to make claims about someone, or about yourself, but it’s another thing altogether to back those claims up. That’s where we turn now, to the signs of Jesus.

Of all the things Jesus did during His earthly ministry, John made a particular point of highlighting several of Jesus’ most spectacular signs. These were the things Jesus did that most clearly proved the truthfulness of the things He said.

Turned Water into Wine (2:1-12). Jesus first sign was to miraculously turn water into the best wine (2:10) at a friend’s wedding. John concludes his retelling with these words, “This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested his glory. And his disciples believed in him” (2:11).

Healed the Official’s Son (4:46-54). Jesus’ second sign was in healing the terminally ill son of an official in Capernaum. All by itself that is, of course, miraculous. But the fact that Jesus healed him with only a word, without even going to the boy is more glorious still.

Healed the Man at the Pool (5:1-11). The third sign took place in Jerusalem. There He found a “multitude of invalids” (5:2) who were waiting around a pool, superstitiously believed to possess healing powers. One of the men by the pool had been an invalid for thirty-eight years (5:5). Jesus walked right up to him and simply said, “Get up, take up your bed, and walk,” and the man did so immediately (5:11).

Fed the 5,000 (6:1-15). We read of Jesus’ fourth sign in chapter 6. Jesus, looking down from the side of a mountain, saw a “large crowd [that] was coming toward Him” (6:5). Knowing they were hungry, but having no earthly way to feed the 15,000 people, Jesus commanded His disciples to “Have the people sit down” (6:9). In a way that would leave no doubt, He took five loaves of bread and two fish, gave thanks for them, and then fed the entire crowd with them until every single person “had eaten their fill” (6:12) with twelve baskets of leftovers to spare (6:13).

Walked on Water (6:16-21). In the very next passage John wrote of Jesus’ fifth sign. Amazed and tired from the work it took to distribute miraculous food to 15,000 people, Jesus’ disciples went down the mountain to the Sea of Tiberias (without Jesus), and “started across the sea to Capernaum” (6:16-16). As they rowed, it became dark and stormy. In the midst of the darkness and storm, Jesus walked out on the water to them.

Are you beginning to see why John can make the claims he makes about Jesus (as spectacular as they are) in a way that Pastor Colin could never make about John Caneday? Is it becoming clear that John’s claims come not as a result of an overactive imagination, and Jesus’ claims come not as a result of megalomania, but both come as a result of the truth displayed with overwhelming evidence?

John’s not done describing the miraculous works of Jesus, giving evidence of Jesus’ infinite glory and Christ-nature. There’s more.

Healed a Man Born Blind (9:1-7). In chapter nine, John recorded a sixth explicit sign of Jesus. He told of Jesus healing a man who had been blind from birth. And He did so, once again, in the least likely and most glorious way imaginable. “He spit on the ground and made mud with the saliva. Then he anointed the man’s eyes with the mud 7 and said to him, ‘Go, wash in the pool of Siloam’…So he went and washed and came back seeing” (9:6-7).

Resurrected Lazarus (11). Most significantly yet, Jesus’ seventh sign is found in chapter 11, at the end of The Book of Signs. There He brought back to life one of His dearest friends, a man named Lazarus. But Jesus didn’t merely raise Lazarus from the dead, He purposefully did so after he had been dead for four days. Once He got there Jesus commanded that the tomb Lazarus was in be opened (11:39), He “lifted up his eyes [, to the Father,] and said, “Lazarus, come out” (11:41-43). And the dead man obeyed!

Rose from the Dead (20-21). Finally, and most miraculously of all, Jesus, having been crucified, died, and buried, rose from the dead on the third day and appeared to many of His followers. Everything—every claim, every teaching, every action, every sign—pointed to this. Far more than any other reason, John’s readers ought to believe in Jesus as the glorious Christ because, just as He and the prophets foretold, Jesus conquered death. How’s that for a sign?

The big picture of John’s Gospel is that Jesus is glorious beyond measure. The main aim of John’s Gospel was to convince his readers to believe that Jesus was that glorious because He was the Christ, the Savior of the world. To explain Jesus’ glory, John recorded many claims about Jesus. And to prove the validity of those claims John named specific miraculous signs that Jesus performed, culminating in His resurrection from the dead.

Before we put a bow on John, it’s important to give glory to God for the fact that He was pleased to use our time in this particular book to give particular grace to us at Grace. That is, I want to briefly reflect on four aspects of John’s Gospel that God seemed especially pleased to use to bless us. These are four areas in which I consistently heard stories of conviction of sin and help for ministry and strength to grow in faith. I share these to help you all praise God for the fact that the things John wrote about are as true and powerful today as they were when John first experienced and wrote about them. More importantly, I share them to help us all recognize that Jesus, the center of John’s Gospel, is every bit as alive and glorious and active today as He was then.

John’s Gospel, as we just saw, is uniquely filled with descriptions and explanations of Jesus’ glory. As simple as it is, I heard many times, from many of you how God used it to make you more impressed with, amazed by, filled with worship for, and delighting in Jesus.

It is no small thing that God was so kind as use our time in John to further heal our eyes, allowing us to see with greater clarity the glory of Jesus.

Along with that, I heard a great deal about how significant it was to many of you that John really and honestly emphasized the various responses of those who encountered Jesus (friends, enemies, leaders, followers, foreigners, those He healed, etc.).

I think the main help came from the fact that we all found ourselves in the different responses. Just as we all experience (often many times in any given day), there was doubt, frustration, confusion, misunderstanding, excitement, belief, disbelief, obedience, disobedience, etc.

In this there is hope and help and clarity; especially in the fact that we know from the Gospel that people with every possible initial, ongoing, and level of reaction were eventually made right with God through Jesus. And if He can save and heal and redeem people just like us, we know He can do the same for us.

Probably the most feedback of all came from one particular response to Jesus. John wrote his Gospel so that we might believe in Jesus and therein gain eternal life. But not all “belief” is the same. Some people in John clearly and emphatically disbelieved in Jesus. Others, with equal clarity and emphasis, believed in Jesus with their whole being.

But many throughout John’s Gospel responded with something different, something we called “unbelieving belief.” Unbelieving believers mistakenly believed they believed in Jesus. They really thought they believed, but as life got harder or the cost was made clearer, they turned away, proving that they never truly believed to begin with.

I think this resonated so much because we’re all almost certainly experiencing that on some level right now. That described me for the first 20 years of my life. I know it describes some of you still and someone we all love.

Seeing unbelieving believers so frequently in John’s Gospel helps us make sense of what we often experience in certain people in our lives. It helps us know how to talk to them. It helps us have and give hope because some who were initially unbelieving believers in John’s Gospel eventually because genuine believers (like many of the disciples).

Again, God seemed especially pleased to bless us with this aspect of John’s Gospel.

Another theme in John that really connected with us is the idea of following Jesus as the essence of the Christian life. I just preached a whole sermon on this so I won’t belabor the point, but I will say that it’s a helpful term for a few main reasons. First, it is not how we normally talk about what it means to be a Christian, so it causes us to slow down and consider our hearts and lives in a way we might not otherwise know to do. Second, it clarifies a lot of things that would otherwise be foggy. Did Jesus go there? Did He command us to go there? Is it in keeping with what Jesus did, said, or felt? Those questions make simple certain things that can otherwise appear complicated. And third, the idea of following Jesus stuck, I think, because it’s such a straight-forward and repeated command from the beginning to the end of John. It’s such an obviously biblical way to describe our purpose in life that we can focus on living it out rather than debating its merit.

Follow Jesus, Grace. It is what we were all made for. John’s Gospel is a great place to start if you want to know what that means.

Finally, the sovereignty of God in John as both a fact and an explanation led to many, many conversations over the last couple of years (some hopeful, freeing, confusing, frustrating, etc). That God is sovereign means that He is ultimately in control of everything. That idea is everywhere in John, but is especially concentrated in chapter 6.

We see it there in the fact that Jesus is able to make food and water act out of accordance with their ordinary properties in the feeding of the “five thousand” and in His walking on water. That is, we see the sovereignty of God in what Jesus was able to do.

We see it as well in what Jesus is able to offer. He alone is able to offer food that endures to eternal life (Himself) and resurrection on the last day.

We see it in what He said also. “All that the Father gives me will come to me.” And “No one can come to me unless the Father…draws him.” And “It is the Spirit who gives life the flesh is no help at all”.

There is simply no question in John’s mind that all mankind makes real choices for which we are really responsible and that at the same time, God is sovereign over everything.

There is, of course, mystery in that, but it is also why God is able to make the promises He does and why it is good and right for us to believe them with every fiber of our being. It is (along with His goodness, wisdom, and love) the source of our hope and salvation.

While this can be a hard pill to swallow for some, for John it is a plain and glorious fact. It is a source of worship, hope, and belief. It is a truth for John and for Jesus’ followers that is good, beautiful, and true.

Again, I’m thankful that God was pleased to use John’s Gospel to further convince us of God’s sovereignty, expand our understand of what that means, and fill us with a fuller measure of hope in His promises.

There you have it. A recap of John’s Gospel and a few brief reflections on some of the ways God used it among us.

The goal of all of this, once again, is not to merely fill your mind with facts. It’s not even merely to impress you with John and Jesus’ understandings of Jesus. All of it is written so that you may believe in Jesus and gain eternal life.

We can have it all memorized in three languages, we can paint and compose masterpieces on these things, we can teach it perfectly, but none of that matters if we do not turn to Jesus in simple, childlike faith and worship because of it. This Gospel, John’s aims, John’s structure, Jesus’ glory, Jesus’ signs, are all graciously given to us that we may graciously believe in Jesus and graciously follow Him to the cross and from there all the way to eternal life in heaven. May it be so.

Exodus 4:1-17 Then Moses answered, “But behold, they will not believe me or listen to my voice, for they will say, ‘The Lord did not appear to you.’” 2 The Lord said to him, “What is that in your hand?” He said, “A staff.” 3 And he said, “Throw it on the ground.” So he threw it on the ground, and it became a serpent, and Moses ran from it. 4 But the Lord said to Moses, “Put out your hand and catch it by the tail”—so he put out his hand and caught it, and it became a staff in his hand— 5 “that they may believe that the Lord, the God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has appeared to you.” 6 Again, the Lord said to him, “Put your hand inside your cloak.” And he put his hand inside his cloak, and when he took it out, behold, his hand was leprous like snow. 7 Then God said, “Put your hand back inside your cloak.” So he put his hand back inside his cloak, and when he took it out, behold, it was restored like the rest of his flesh. 8 “If they will not believe you,” God said, “or listen to the first sign, they may believe the latter sign. 9 If they will not believe even these two signs or listen to your voice, you shall take some water from the Nile and pour it on the dry ground, and the water that you shall take from the Nile will become blood on the dry ground.”

10 But Moses said to the Lord, “Oh, my Lord, I am not eloquent, either in the past or since you have spoken to your servant, but I am slow of speech and of tongue.” 11 Then the Lord said to him, “Who has made man’s mouth? Who makes him mute, or deaf, or seeing, or blind? Is it not I, the Lord? 12 Now therefore go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall speak.” 13 But he said, “Oh, my Lord, please send someone else.” 14 Then the anger of the Lord was kindled against Moses and he said, “Is there not Aaron, your brother, the Levite? I know that he can speak well. Behold, he is coming out to meet you, and when he sees you, he will be glad in his heart. 15 You shall speak to him and put the words in his mouth, and I will be with your mouth and with his mouth and will teach you both what to do. 16 He shall speak for you to the people, and he shall be your mouth, and you shall be as God to him. 17 And take in your hand this staff, with which you shall do the signs.”

Before looking more closely at Exodus 4, I want us to pause and consider what God has called you to. I don’t mean this specific moment—but in your day-to-day life. Are you a follower of Christ? Are you a student, a son, a daughter, a husband, a wife, a father, a mother, an older man or woman, an employee, or a manager? God is calling you to responsibility. Are you obeying that call to follow Christ, or are you excusing yourself from duty?

Our last time looking at the book of Exodus, we saw Moses encounter God at the burning bush in the wilderness of Midian, at the mountain of God. God approached Moses in the flame of fire to call Moses to the task of saving the Hebrews out of Egypt. The Hebrews had fallen into slavery and oppression after their fathers sojourned in Egypt during the famine of Genesis 41-47. Moses had sought to save them in chapter 2, but the people rejected him. At the burning bush, Moses asked the Lord, “If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what shall I say to them?’” (3:13) God replied by saying, “I AM WHO I AM.” God then told Moses how he would work to accomplish the salvation of the Hebrews and bring them up into “a land flowing with milk and honey.” (3:17) God told Moses, “Go and gather the elders of Israel together” (3:16) and he assured Moses, “they will listen to your voice.”

This brings us to this morning’s text. Moses is still at the burning bush, listening to the LORD’s instructions. The passage is organized into two main sections: verses 1-9, which I will call the “dialog of unbelief.” The second section, verses 10-17, is the “dialog of eloquence.” In each section, Moses presents an objection to the LORD, and the LORD, in turn, answers him.

I want us all to see how God used Moses despite his objections and weaknesses. The outcome of Moses’ mission was in no way dependent upon him. Moses was God’s servant and was fully equipped to fulfill God’s task. Just as God equipped Moses, so he also equips us today.

The first section, the “dialog of unbelief,” begins with Moses’ statement of disbelief. In chapter 3, God told Moses, “Go and gather the elders of Israel together and say to them, ‘The LORD, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, has appeared to me… And they will listen to your voice…” (3:16, 18) As we see, though, in chapter four, Moses does not believe God. He says, “But behold, they will not believe me or listen to my voice, for they will say, ‘The LORD did not appear to you.’” God had spoken clearly and promised that the elders of Israel would believe him. But Moses did not believe. Yet God was gracious to him and did not reprove him. Moses will later learn that God is “merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness” (34:6). Moses experiences this grace here, though he may not have realized it then.

Rather than reproving Moses, God offers three signs that he is to use to demonstrate his authority as God’s messenger. These signs transformed one thing into something else. The staff in Moses’ hand would become a serpent. His hand, once inside his cloak, would become leprous. The water Moses would take from the Nile would become blood when poured onto the ground.

This three-fold demonstration to Moses would comprise three witnesses to confirm Moses’s divine authority. God asks Moses, “What is that in your hand?” It is an interesting rhetorical question, for God knew what it was, as did Moses. But Moses responds, “A staff.” The LORD commanded it be thrown upon the ground, and Moses did so. He is teaching Moses to obey. The LORD asks, and Moses responds. The LORD commands, and Moses does. The staff, once thrown upon the ground, “became a serpent.” This was no mere likeness of a serpent, for Moses ran from it. It frightened him! The LORD again commands, “Put out your hand and catch it by the tail.” Moses again does as commanded: “it became a staff in his hand.” Immediately, the LORD instructs Moses on its meaning, “that they may believe the LORD, the God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has appeared to you.” The sign was meant to authenticate the message.

The lesson continues, “Again, the LORD said to him, ‘Put your hand inside your cloak.” Moses again follows orders: “when he took it out, behold, his hand was leprous like snow.” Snakes are one thing. I hate snakes! I don’t want anything to do with them. But I think I would like this much less! I can almost picture his face full of horror and wonder as he considers what will happen to his hand and who he is talking to?! The LORD doesn’t seem to leave him pondering his condition long. He commands Moses, “Put your hand back inside your cloak.” Again, Moses is learning to obey the LORD. He does as commanded, “and when he took it out, behold, ‘it was restored like the rest of his flesh.” This sign also has a purpose— “if they will not…listen to the first sign, they may believe the latter sign.” (4:8) Again, the sign was meant to authenticate the message.

The LORD now offers the third sign, “If they will not believe even these two signs or listen to your voice, you shall take some water from the Nile and pour it on the dry ground, and the water that you take from the Nile will become blood on the dry ground.” Notice that this sign may only be performed in Egypt. Moses cannot attempt this one now. He seems to understand that the God who performed the first two signs will not fail to perform the third.

This “dialog of unbelief” ends with growing belief. Moses seemingly believes the LORD will ensure that the elders of Israel in Egypt will believe him, accepting the final sign in faith. Yet not all is well. In verse ten, we begin the second main section of the passage—the “dialog of eloquence.” The LORD has diffused Moses’s disbelief, but he has another excuse prepared. Do you know someone like this? Maybe you are like this yourself?

It is so easy for us to sneer at people in the Bible. God just performed two incredible signs after appearing in a burning bush—and Moses makes up excuses to disobey? The reality is that we’re not all that different than Moses, or almost anyone else in the Bible, for that matter.

Well, Moses has another excuse handy. “Oh, my Lord, I am not eloquent, either in the past or since you have spoken to your servant, but I am slow of speech and of tongue.” The second half of our passage is the “dialog of eloquence.” For someone claiming he is “not eloquent,” Moses sure does a lot of talking. His voice is the primary human voice in Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy! So why does Moses use this excuse? Some commentators argue that Moses suffers from “some kind of speech defect, such as stammering.”1 Others say Moses is following the “Ancient Near Eastern” custom of “exaggerated humility.”2 One or both of those may be true, but I don’t think either theory really explains what is happening in this scene. Moses does not want to go and do what God is commanding; he is stalling, hoping to evade his responsibility.

The LORD continues to be gracious to Moses, not rebuking him for his reluctance and excuse-making. Instead, he asks Moses, “Who has made man’s mouth? Who makes him mute, or deaf, or seeing, or blind? Is it not I, the LORD?” The LORD is disarming this excuse and insisting that Moses go and act as God’s messenger in Egypt. He tells Moses, “Now therefore go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall speak.” The LORD is sending Moses to Egypt with a mission, and Moses need not worry that he is the wrong man for the job. He need not worry about his qualifications or his eloquence. Yahweh, the Great I AM, “will be with [his] mouth and teach [him] what to speak.” This is quite a promise; again, it should supply confidence to Moses. But it is here that Moses’ heart is clearly revealed.

Moses now gives his final excuse, “Oh, my Lord, please send someone else.” (4:14) Moses simply does not want to go. Again, it is easy for us to look down on him. After all, he’s being commanded by the Creator of the world, the God of his fathers. But aren’t we all slow to obey and comfortable with things as they are? Consider Moses’ situation. He’s been living in Moab with his wife and two sons for forty years. He’s become accustomed to the life of a shepherd. He left Egypt under the threat of death. What is left in Egypt for him? Everything he has is there, in Moab. What have you been unwilling to forsake to obey the LORD? Again, we shouldn’t make excuses for Moses but rather recognize how we are like him and unwilling to surrender our situations to obey our Lord.

This clear and final excuse, revealing Moses’s heart, kindles the anger of the LORD against Moses. The LORD is “slow to anger,” but he does get angry. Yet his anger is always, and only, a righteous anger. His anger is unlike ours because it is provoked by a jealous protection for his holiness and hatred of sin. The text says nothing of Moses’s response to God’s anger—but Moses, as the author of the book, recognized the LORD was angry and related this to his readers. One can hardly imagine what this would have looked like. Recall that Moses is hearing a voice come from a burning bush. Perhaps the flames became higher and brighter, and the heat became hotter. Whatever it was, the only conclusion from the scene was that Moses finally obeyed.

But the scene is not over yet. God, in his anger, continues speaking to Moses, disarming him of his final objection concerning his eloquence. The LORD offers Moses’s brother Aaron as his voice or representative. This is the first time Aaron is named in the book and the first time the label “the Levite” is used. In chapter 2, Moses is described as a son of “the house of Levi” (2:1). So readers would know that Aaron, too, would be of the house of Levi. The term “the Levite” will become important throughout the rest of the Pentateuch as it becomes associated with the priestly duties assigned to the tribe of Levi. Aaron, as the head of the Levitical order, is thus described as “the Levite.”

The LORD shares some news with Moses concerning his brother Aaron. He “can speak well” and “he is coming out to meet you.” (4:14) Moses, who asked that the LORD send someone else, will get a helper, but he won’t escape his responsibility. The LORD describes how Moses is to use Aaron. God will be with both of them, Moses will speak God’s words, and Aaron will speak Moses’s. The LORD will be with both mouths and teach them both “what to do.” (v. 16)

When the LORD says, in verse 16, “He [meaning Aaron] shall speak for you to the people, and he shall be your mouth, and you shall be as God to him”—he is creating a mediatorial order. That is, a way in which God’s Word will be communicated to the people of Israel. If Moses does not want to be the one speaking to the people, God has given him a way to communicate his own words to the people. God will give his words to Moses, who will act “as God” to Aaron. The words of the LORD will come directly from Moses to Aaron, who will then speak them to Israel.

This phrase, “as God to him,” has nothing to do with worshipping the man but reverencing his authority and words as coming from God himself. The words that the LORD will communicate to Moses will be communicated to Aaron and, ultimately, the people of Israel. Israel is to receive the words as coming from the LORD. This is what it means to be a prophet—one who speaks the very words of God. God was instructing Israel to hear his voice through his messengers. Throughout the rest of the Old Testament, God spoke through the mediatorial offices of prophets, priests, and kings. Today, we hear God’s voice through the Scriptures and the faithfully preached Word.

I love how this passage ends—with the LORD’s command to “take in your hand this staff, with which you shall do the signs” (4:17). God gave Moses a visible, physical reminder that he has equipped him for the task, that he is going with him, and that his purposes will not be thwarted. Notice the power isn’t in the staff itself, but it is the object God has chosen to use to “do the signs.”

I want to make some specific applications for us from the text. The outcome of Moses’ mission was in no way dependent upon Moses, for it was God who equipped him for the task. Throughout the burning bush scene, Moses objected to the LORD’s demands and excused himself by declaring he could not do what the LORD commanded. But God met each objection by supplying what Moses lacked. What we are unwilling and unable to do ourselves, God will do on our behalf.

Moses’s unbelief and unwillingness are met by God’s faithfulness, which is fulfilled for us in Christ. Moses was to act as the savior of Israel, whom Pharaoh had enslaved, but he was unwilling and unable to do this, so God worked through Moses, his mediator. Israel, at the time of Jesus, also proved unable to follow the law and find salvation. God sent a new mediator—his Son, Jesus—to save Israel and men from all nations. This is the message of Christmas. Where men failed to live up to God’s standard of righteousness, God provided a Savior who made no excuses and showed no reluctance to obey his Father.

When Moses objected that the elders of Israel would not believe that he’d seen and was sent by the LORD, God gave him three signs to perform. When Moses excused himself because of his lack of eloquence, God assured Moses he would “be with [his] mouth” and he even gave Moses another man to do most of the speaking. God demonstrated to Moses that God himself would be doing the work. But Moses would have to obey. He would be God’s messenger. God was going to perform remarkable signs using a mere piece of wood. If God could use a wooden staff, how much more would he do with one bearing his image?

Let us now consider what this means for us today. You may be thinking, how does Moses’s mission to the elders of Israel concern me? First, I want us to consider what this means to all Christians. Let’s look at a similar passage in the Gospels. Please turn in your Bibles to Matthew chapter 10. I will read verses 5-24:

“These twelve Jesus sent out, instructing them, “Go nowhere among the Gentiles and enter no town of the Samaritans, but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. And proclaim as you go, saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand.’ Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, cast out demons. You received without paying; give without pay. Acquire no gold or silver or copper for your belts, no bag for your journey, or two tunics or sandals or a staff, for the laborer deserves his food. And whatever town or village you enter, find out who is worthy in it and stay there until you depart. As you enter the house, greet it. And if the house is worthy, let your peace come upon it, but if it is not worthy, let your peace return to you. And if anyone will not receive you or listen to your words, shake off the dust from your feet when you leave that house or town. Truly, I say to you, it will be more bearable on the day of judgment for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah than for that town.

Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves. Beware of men, for they will deliver you over to courts and flog you in their synagogues, and you will be dragged before governors and kings for my sake, to bear witness before them and the Gentiles. When they deliver you over, do not be anxious about how you are to speak or what you are to say, for what you are to say will be given to you in that hour. For it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you. Brother will deliver brother over to death, and the father his child, and children will rise against parents and have them put to death, and you will be hated by all for my name’s sake. But the one who endures to the end will be saved. When they persecute you in one town, flee to the next, for truly, I say to you, you will not have gone through all the towns of Israel before the Son of Man comes. A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master.”

Jesus speaks these words to the twelve apostles, sending them to “the lost sheep of Israel” (Matt. 10:6). The twelve are going out as a type of what all Christians are commanded to do in the Great Commission (Matthew 28:18). I want to highlight a few similarities between the two passages to help us see how we are like Moses in Exodus chapter 4. First, notice what Jesus commissions his apostles to do in verse 8. They are to “go…to the lost sheep of the house of Israel” and proclaim, “The kingdom of heaven is at hand.” In other words, they were to tell Israel of God’s coming to them and to believe his twelve messengers. The authority of their message was to be authenticated through their miraculous signs: “Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, cast out demons.”

The apostles had no power to perform any of those signs. They would have to be equipped by the Spirit to do those works. In verses 9 and 10, we see they were not to take anything with them that would allow them to take care of themselves—they would have to rely upon the LORD to care for them. They could bring no money, luggage, sandals, or staff. The LORD would provide for their needs.

Jumping down to verses 16-20, notice they would be put in vulnerable positions—“as sheep in the midst of wolves.” Kind of like a man wanted for murder in Egypt going to meet Pharaoh. The apostles would go before “governors and kings to witness before them” (Matt 16:18). But, like Moses, they were not to worry about what to say, “for what [they] were to say [would be] given to [them] in that hour. For it is not [they] who speak, but the Spirit of [their] Father speaking through [them]” (Matt 10:19-20).

This application is a little closer to home for us. As Jesus commands all his followers in the Great Commission, we are God’s messengers, bearing the image of Jesus Christ to all the world, bringing God’s Word to “all nations”—sometimes even rulers. This is a prophetic office—much like Moses’s. We are to “be as God” to the nations. We bring news of the King of Kings, who has already accomplished a new exodus—delivering God’s covenant people from the bondage, not of physical slavery, but of spiritual slavery. He is preparing a place for his people—not a physical location in this present age, but the whole world in the age to come. Our message today is authenticated by the miraculous resurrection of Jesus from the dead (Acts 17:30-31) and Bible—containing the full revelation of God’s Word.

God has not left us unequipped for any task He has called us to do. We have been entrusted with the Holy Spirit, that we may be God’s “witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth” (Acts 1:8). The Holy Spirit helps us to live in accordance with the world as God made it, and not as the world perceives it. We “look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.” (2 Cor. 4:18) The Holy Spirit gives us confidence to believe God’s promises and is one of the primary ways by which we are equipped to obey God, even, and especially to do things the world would tell us are impossible.

He has also left us the Scriptures, “that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work” (2 Tim. 3:17). God’s complete Word sits there in your lap or on your phone and is there for each of us to learn how to speak God’s Word. Do you believe that? Do you obey what the Scriptures tell us about money, debt, sexuality, how you talk, how you dress, relationships, government, responsibility, ethnicity, life, death, marriage, divorce, property, theft, desire, truth, worship, movies, family, singleness, abortion, wealth, poverty, art, and music? And that’s only a sampling.

The Bible addresses many things specifically but addresses everything by applying biblical wisdom and principles to every situation. For example, consider Philippians 4:8, “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.” That one verse alone instructs us how to orient ourselves in nearly every aspect of our lives.

As we conclude, I want you to also consider a more personal application of this text. What has God called you to do individually: sons, daughters, husbands, wives, fathers, mothers, employees, managers, business owners, government officials, deacons, older men, and women?

There is no aspect of what God has commanded in which God has not also equipped us. Each of us has different duties which we have been assigned by the LORD. Consider well to what the LORD has called you. Are you God’s obedient servant, or are you reluctant—making excuses for yourself at every turn? Are you faithfully fulfilling your duties in your current situation? Children—do you obey your parents? Do you honor the LORD as a student? Husbands, do you faithfully love and lead your wife? (Eph. 5:25) Wives, do you respect and submit to your husband? (Eph 5:22,33) Fathers, do you love your children and instruct them in the faith? Mothers, do you lovingly nurture your children? Employees, do you diligently labor as unto the LORD? Managers, do you humbly lead your staff and steward your company’s resources? Government officials—do you faithfully execute your office as God’s servant? (Rom. 13) Elders, do you know, lead, feed, and protect God’s sheep? Deacons, do you faithfully minister to the saints and steward the LORD’s resources? Older men and women, do you model the faith to and disciple the younger generations? (Titus 2)

God apportions his tasks “to each according to his ability” (Matt. 25:14) God has equipped “each one of us” with gifts “according to the measure of Christ’s gift” (Eph. 4:7-8). Use those gifts in the station to which the Lord has assigned you. Be ready to obey when he calls you to another task or place. God has and will equip you for whatever he has called you to do.

God indeed calls some to do more—but to such, he gives more (Matt 25:14-30). But he has called every one of us to give an account of what we have accomplished with what he has equipped us and called us to do. We are to make a return on that which he has entrusted to us. (Matt. 25:19-27) So let us “walk by faith, not by sight” seeking to “please him.” Knowing “we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.” (2 Cor. 5:7-10)

Finally, I want to address unbelievers in the room. The New Testament, in Hebrews 3, speaks of Jesus and compares him to Moses. “Therefore, holy brothers, you who share in a heavenly calling, consider Jesus, the apostle and high priest of our confession, who was faithful to him who appointed him, just as Moses also was faithful in all God’s house. For Jesus has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses—as much more glory as the builder of a house has more honor than the house itself… Now Moses was faithful in all God’s house as a servant, to testify to the things that were to be spoken later, but Christ is faithful over God’s house as a son. And we are his house, if indeed we hold fast our confidence and our boasting in our hope.” (Heb. 3:1-3,5-6)

Despite Moses’s shortcomings, his reluctance, disbelief, and excuses, he has been declared “faithful” by God—even favorably compared to Jesus. How can this be? How can a just God declare someone like Moses, someone like you or me, faithful? This is the good news we call ‘the gospel.’ The message of Christmas is that God did not leave us to die in our sins without hope of being forgiven and reconciled to Him. God sent His Son Jesus to pay the penalty for our sins that we might be forgiven and restored to fellowship with the God who created us for His glory.

Christmas marks the birth of Jesus the Messiah, conceived of the Holy Spirit, born of a virgin, laid in a lowly manger, and visited by humble shepherds. Yes, it was a humble birth without human pomp or celebration. But his birth was announced by a heavenly celebration: a choir of angels declaring, “I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.” And together they sang, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased.” (Luke 2:11-13)

As Moses long ago announced to his people the good news that God would deliver Israel from slavery, Christians today proclaim the good news that Jesus Christ has delivered sinners from the slavery of sin. “Repent and believe in the gospel!” (Mark 1:15) Obey your Lord and follow Him wherever He leads you. Merry Christmas!

1 T. Desmond Alexander, Exodus, Apollos Old Testament Commentary P. 96
2 Douglas K. Stuart, Exodus, The New American Commentary, p. 134

John 21:22 Jesus said to him, “If it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you? You follow me!”

Good morning, Grace Church. It is a providential gift from God that we are at a point in John’s Gospel that allows us to lock in on Jesus’ call to follow Him as we prepare to celebrate His coming.

To that end, I wonder how many of you realized that the call to “Follow Me” is one of the very first (1:39, 43) and last (21:22) things Jesus said in John’s Gospel. I don’t want to make more of that than I should, but I also don’t want to make less of it.

To make too much of it would be to assume that’s all there is to John’s Gospel. But to make too little of it would be to miss the fact that in a very real way, John did mean for us to read everything in between as unpacking what Jesus meant by “Follow Me”. And in a very real way, that’s at the heart of the rest of the Gospels along with the rest of the Bible as well. Not to make too much of it though.

And in that way, as I mentioned in the last two sermons, following Jesus is one way to describe the essence of the Christian life. To be a non-Christian is to have rejected the call to follow Jesus and to be a Christian is to have accepted it.

But what exactly does that mean? Answering that question is the heart of this sermon. That is, the main focus of this sermon is unpacking Jesus’ words to Peter, “You follow me!”. Once again, therefore, the big idea of this passage is that following Jesus is the primary call on all of our lives. And the main takeaway, therefore, is to learn what it means to follow Jesus and to do so in faith.

Before I pray, let me encourage you to consider all of this carefully as we move closer and closer to Christmas. As I hope to help you see, the significance of Christmas—it’s meaning, purpose, and aim; the reason it’s worth celebrating—is tied up in Jesus’ simple words, “Follow Me.” If Christmas is worth celebrating, it’s because we’ve already decided to follow Jesus.

Once again, one way to talk about the heart of the Christian life, about what it means to be a Christian, is in terms of following Jesus.

This idea first began to crystalize in my mind many years ago when, as a newer pastor, I was wrestling through how to tell others what the Bible says about what it really means to be a Christian and to live as Jesus intends.

Many people, when they think of Christianity, think of all kinds of things like belief in God and Jesus and the cross and forgiveness and going to church and reading the Bible and pastors and saying prayers and following rule

s and Christmas and Easter and going to heaven. However, as I hope to help you see, while each of these things do have a place in Christianity, they can only be properly understood under the umbrella of following Jesus.

The first thing I want to do in the way of explaining and defending this idea is to help you see that Jesus’ first call on the lives of His first followers was, “Follow me”. For example…

Jesus calling Simon and Andrew – Matthew 4:18-19 While walking by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon (who is called Peter) and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen. 19 And he said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.”

Jesus calling Matthew – Matthew 9:9 (Mark 2:14; Luke 5:27) As Jesus passed on from there, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax booth, and he said to him, “Follow me.” And he rose and followed him.

Jesus calling Phillip – John 1:43 The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, ” Follow me.”

Jesus calling an anonymous “disciple” – Matthew 8:21-22 (Mark 1:17) Another of the disciples said to him, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.” 22 And Jesus said to him, “Follow me, and leave the dead to bury their own dead.”

Jesus calling anyone – Matthew 16:24 (Mark 8:34) … “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.

Jesus calling a young man – Matthew 19:16-21 (Mark 10:21, Luke 18:22) And behold, a man came up to him, saying, “Teacher, what good deed must I do to have eternal life?” … 21 Jesus said to him, “If you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.”

Jesus calling another anonymous man – Luke 9:59 To another he said, “Follow me.”

I wonder if you’ve ever considered how prevalent that call really is. For some reason, we don’t often talk like that when we talk about living out the Christian life, so it might be a bit of a surprise to find out that Jesus’ initial invitation to people was never to ask Him into their heart or pray the “sinner’s prayer”. It was simply, “follow Me.”

More than just the initial call, though, “Follow Me” was Jesus’ continued call. That is, for Jesus, it not only defined the beginning of the Christian life, but it also defined the continued Christian life.

Matthew 10:37-38 (Luke 9:23) Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. 38 And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me.

John 10:27 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.

John 12:26 If anyone serves me, he must follow me; and where I am, there will my servant be also.

After years of following Jesus, Jesus’ call to Peter remained the same – John 21:19 [Jesus] said to [Peter], “Follow me.” And again in v.22, our passage for today “You follow me!”

To be sure, Jesus called His followers to repent (Matthew 4:17), believe (Mark 5:36), have faith (Mark 11:22), love (Matthew 22:36-39), glorify God (1 Corinthians 10:31), etc. However, these, and all the other callings that Jesus issued are contained in the two simple words, “Follow Me.”

Indeed, Jesus main call on the lives of His first followers—from beginning to end—was, “Follow me”.

I hope it’s easy to see that during Jesus’ earthly ministry, His main call to everyone, from beginning to end, was “Follow Me.” But how about today? How does that relate to us now? The rest of this sermon is meant to help you see two things: (1) The essence of Christianity is still a call to follow Jesus and (2) How to respond.

This means, once again, that Jesus did not then, and does not today, merely or primarily call people to believe that there is a God or pray a certain prayer or to come to church a certain number of times each week or to read a certain number of verses in our Bibles each day or to stop doing bad things or even to believe certain true things.

Instead, He primarily calls us to follow Him with all that we have and all that we are; to follow Him wherever He leads and whatever it costs; to follow Him by becoming like Him in His life and in His death; to be reconciled to the Father by following Him; to inherit eternal life by following Him.

During Jesus’ time on earth, the call was literal. He was actually calling people to live and minister with Him. It was more than that, but it wasn’t less than that. But what does it mean today? And how do we begin?

While we believe the Bible teaches that the essence of Christianity—beginning to end—is following Jesus, we also believe that the Bible talks about this as a sort of two-part journey: (1) Following Jesus to the cross and (2) Following Jesus from the cross to eternal life.

Let’s begin at the beginning. If you hear the call to follow Jesus and want to respond, what does that mean? Where do you start? Likewise, if you want your neighbor or friend or kid to follow Jesus, where do they begin? There are not multiple answers to this question. There are not several starting points. Everyone, always, begins in the same place.

The primary call on all our lives is to follow Jesus and this call, for everyone, always begins at the cross. If we are to follow Jesus, we must begin by meeting Him at the cross. And the road to the cross begins with an understanding of who God is.

In the most fundamental sense, God is infinitely glorious; that He is supremely and unendingly and inexhaustibly beautiful, majestic, powerful, praiseworthy, splendid, fierce, mighty, wise, and good! The Bible is filled with passages that speak to this.

Nehemiah 9:5-6 “Stand up and bless the LORD your God from everlasting to everlasting. Blessed be your glorious name, which is exalted above all blessing and praise. 6 “You are the LORD, you alone. You have made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their host, the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them; and you preserve all of them; and the host of heaven worships you.

Romans 11:33-36 Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! 34 “For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor?” 35 “Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?” 36 For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.

Psalm 29:1-10 Ascribe to the LORD, O heavenly beings, ascribe to the LORD glory and strength. 2 Ascribe to the LORD the glory due his name; worship the LORD in the splendor of holiness. 3 The voice of the LORD is over the waters; the God of glory thunders, the LORD, over many waters. 4 The voice of the LORD is powerful; the voice of the LORD is full of majesty. 5 The voice of the LORD breaks the cedars; the LORD breaks the cedars of Lebanon. 6 He makes Lebanon to skip like a calf, and Sirion like a young wild ox. 7 The voice of the LORD flashes forth flames of fire. 8 The voice of the LORD shakes the wilderness; the LORD shakes the wilderness of Kadesh. 9 The voice of the LORD makes the deer give birth and strips the forests bare, and in his temple all cry, “Glory!” 10 The LORD sits enthroned over the flood; the LORD sits enthroned as king forever.

Sunsets, mountains, and newborn babies, along with certain paintings, books, musical compositions, and roller coasters are glorious (they are not ordinary, plain, common, dull, etc.), but their glory (and the glory of all created things) is contingent (meaning, it is wholly dependent on something else [God] for any glory that it has) and finite (meaning, it has not always existed and, at some point, will cease to exist).

God’s glory, however, is original and infinite.

Following Jesus starts with believing in this God, this infinitely glorious God, and not one of our own creation.

Many people throughout history have gone to great lengths in seeking out purpose and meaning for their lives. Practices such as pilgrimages, meditation, medication, education, religion, aestheticism, service, prayer, and numerous other things have been used by countless men and women as means to discover a sense of personal or universal significance.

Because God alone is God, however, He alone has the right to assign our purpose. The second aspect of following Jesus to the cross means accepting the purpose God has assigned us: To glorify God. God is infinitely glorious and He made us for His infinite glory.

We see this idea in passages like Isaiah 43:1-7 and 1 Corinthians 10:31.

Isaiah 43:1-7 But now thus says the LORD, he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine. 3 … I am the LORD your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior. …. 5 Fear not, for I am with you; I will bring your offspring from the east, and from the west I will gather you. 6 I will say to the north, Give up, and to the south, Do not withhold; bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the end of the earth, 7 everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made.”

1 Corinthians 10:31 So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.

That we were created by God for His glory means that it is not up to us to go out and determine whether or not our lives have purpose or meaning. It means that it is not up to us to go out and determine what that purpose and meaning is. It means that every fiber of our being must be directed at the glory of God.

Practically, we do so by delighting in God (Psalm 37:4), obeying God (1 John 5:3), reflecting God’s glory to others (Mark 16:15), fighting against sin (1 Corinthians 6:18-20), trusting God (Psalm 4:5), loving God with everything that we have (Matthew 22:37), eating and drinking with gratitude (1 Corinthians 10:31), etc.

In short, you and I follow Jesus and live for the glory of God when we see God for who He truly is and respond as He has called us to.

The next step in following Jesus to the cross is in coming to realize that everyone has sinned and failed to live for the glory of God.

It doesn’t take tremendous insight to recognize the fact that there is a great deal of injustice and immorality in this world. All around us marriages are falling apart because of the unfaithfulness or indifference of a spouse, families are being torn apart because of addiction, government corruption is assumed, corporate greed seems insatiable, and even churches are filled with strife because of gossip, pride, a lack of self-control, and other more “respectable” sins. It’s easy to see that we are imperfect and that we live among imperfect people.

Sin, however, runs deeper than mere imperfection. Sin, in its most basic sense, is rebelling against God by failing to live for God’s glory in any way. This means that every time we fail to recognize the glory of God and respond to it as we should, we are sinning (Romans 14:23).

Romans 3:10-17 As it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one; 11 no one understands; no one seeks for God. 12 All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.” 13 “Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive.” “The venom of asps is under their lips.” 14 “Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.” 15 “Their feet are swift to shed blood; 16 in their paths are ruin and misery, 17 and the way of peace they have not known.”

A bit later, in that same passage (Romans 3:23) Paul continues, “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” By that, Paul meant that every one of us has inherited sin from our parents and that every one of us has made sinful choices. That is, we are all sinful by nature and choice.

Truly, none of us have done that which we were created to do. That is, every one of us has sinned by failing to glorify God as we should. We have exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator (Romans 1:25).

To be a Christian is to follow Jesus. And to follow Jesus is to believe that God is infinitely glorious, that we were made for His glory, and that we have all fallen short of God’s glory.

All of that forces us to consider the consequences of our sin. What difference does it make that we’ve fallen short of the glory of God?

Simply, the straightforward and unambiguous teaching of the Bible is that sin kills.

We see this for the first time in the very beginning of the Bible when God told Adam and Eve that if they sinned they would “surely die” (Genesis 2:17). The Bible never waivers on this. Millenia later, the Apostle Paul declared, “the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23).

The death spoken of in Genesis and Romans is both physical and spiritual—body and soul. And when those two things are combined, fullness of death—hell—is the just end.

Rightly understood, the Biblical teaching on hell is rather shocking. The claim that all (young and old, cute and ugly, talented and useless, black and white, smart and dumb, religious and secular, male and female alike) have sinned and thus deserve hell is a very serious claim, with very serious implications.

Not to state too obvious a point, but this is really bad news. In fact, it’s far worse than you or I could ever imagine.

Hell is where God pours out His holy and righteous wrath on sinners. You know that you are being punished, you know that you deserve it, and you know that it will last forever. No one describes this better than Jonathan Edwards:

It is EVERLASTING wrath. It would be dreadful to suffer this fierceness and wrath of Almighty God one moment; but you must suffer it to all eternity. There will be no end to this exquisite horrible misery. When you look forward, you shall see a long for ever, a boundless duration before you, which will swallow up your thoughts, and amaze your soul; and you will absolutely despair of ever having any deliverance, any end, any mitigation, any rest at all. You will know certainly that you must wear out long ages, millions of millions of ages, in wrestling and conflicting with this almighty merciless vengeance; and then when you have so done, when so many ages have actually been spent by you in this manner, you will know that all is but a point to what remains. So that your punishment will indeed be infinite. Oh, who can express what the state of a soul in such circumstances is.

Hell is real and it is awful and it is eternal and it is the wage that God has assigned to sin. Please cry out to God, Grace, begging Him to grant you the ability to recognize the absolutely horrible reality of hell. Please call on God to grant you the ability to believe the Word of God regarding hell. And please ask God to help you understand that following Jesus to the cross means coming to accept the Biblical teaching on the wages of sin and the reality of hell.

Following Jesus to the cross means believing that there is a God who is infinitely glorious, that God created us for His glory, that we have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, and that the wages for our sin is death.

These things help us understand and appreciate the cross of Jesus because they provide a stark and startling contrast between what we deserve and what we are offered. In other words, if we don’t have a clear sense of the glory of God, the wickedness of our hearts, and the consequences for our sin, then we will not be able to grasp, much less delight in, the sacrificial death of Jesus.

Grace, Jesus came as a baby at Christmas to die as a man on a cross. We read of the crucifixion in John 19.

So they took Jesus, 17 and he went out, bearing his own cross, to the place called The Place of a Skull, which in Aramaic is called Golgotha. 18 There they crucified him, and with him two others, one on either side, and Jesus between them… 28 After this, Jesus… said, “It is finished,” and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.

What a horrific act for anyone to endure. But Jesus wasn’t just anyone. He was the perfect, sinless Son of God. The Christ God promised to send. Truly God and truly man.

We are sinners deserving death, but God sent Jesus to die in our place.

2 Corinthians 5:21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

1 Peter 3:18 For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit.

1 John 4:10 In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

Romans 5:8 … while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

In order to show His love, uphold His justice, forgive sinners, and display His glory, God sent His Son, Jesus, to pay the wages of sin with His death.

Jesus was uniquely able to die for the sins of others because He was uniquely sinless and uniquely both human and divine. Conceived by the Spirit, Jesus did not have a sinful nature (Matthew 1:18-23). And having lived a perfect (or sinless) life, Jesus did not earn the wages of sin for himself (Hebrews 4:15). For those reasons, He had no death penalty of his own. Further, being fully man he was able to pay for the sins of man (Romans 5:15). And being fully God he was able to pay for all the sins of man (John 1:1). Again, what a glorious thing is the cross and the Son of God who died on it in our place.

Simply put, the cross of Jesus combines the love and the justice of God to bring about the forgiveness of sinners in a way that put His glory on display like never before. Following Jesus means believing this by God’s grace.

So far we’ve traveled quite a path on our way to following Jesus to the cross. We began by standing in awe at the nature of God (infinitely glorious), moved on to consider the purpose of mankind (to glorify God), grieved together as we discussed the problem of all mankind (sin), mourned together because of the wages of sin (death), and then paused to marvel at God’s solution to our sin problem (the cross of Christ).

The primary question in front of us at this point is how we gain access to all that Jesus accomplished on the cross. What does following Jesus look like at this point? What does He require of us to benefit from His sacrifice?

Ephesians 2:1-9 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins…4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ … 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

In short, the forgiveness of sins and the everlasting life bought by Jesus’ death is a free gift of God for all who trust (or place their faith in) in Jesus. That is, we are saved by hoping in what Jesus already did for us.

This means that God does not save us based on our own merit or performance. God does not determine who goes to heaven by our “religious deeds” or how we measure up against anyone or anything else. He does not forgive us and grant us eternal life because we’ve cleaned ourselves up enough or worked hard enough. Instead, God saves, as an undeserved gift, those who put their hope entirely in Jesus—confessing our sin and believing in His name. Following Jesus means accepting this amazing Grace.

The immediate result of trusting in Jesus is the forgiveness of our sins and reconciliation with God. The ultimate end, which comes when we die or Christ returns, is eternal life. But what does that mean?

Hell is where God pours out His holy and righteous wrath on sinners. You know that you are being punished, you know that you deserve it, and you know that it will last forever. Heaven, on the other hand, is where God pours out his holy and righteous blessing on those who trust in Jesus. You know that you are being blessed, you know that you don’t deserve it, and you know that it will last forever. Indeed, heaven is every bit as awesome as hell is awful.

Let us again listen to the words of Jonathan Edwards whose description of heaven is perhaps unequaled as well.

They shall know that God and Christ shall be forever with them as their God and portion, and that his love shall be continued and fully manifested forever… And they shall know that they themselves shall ever live to love God, and love the saints, and to enjoy their love in all its fullness and sweetness forever. They shall be in no fear of any end to this happiness, or of any abatement from its fullness and blessedness, or that they shall ever be weary of its exercises and expressions, or cloyed with its enjoyments, or that the beloved objects shall ever grow old or disagreeable, so that their love shall at last die away. All in heaven shall flourish in immortal youth and freshness. Age will not there diminish anyone’s beauty or vigor; and their love shall abide in everyone’s heart, as a living spring perpetually springing up in the soul, or as a flame that never dies away. And the holy pleasure of this love shall be as a river that is forever flowing clear and full, and increasing continually … Everything in the heavenly world shall contribute to the joy of the saints, and every joy of heaven shall be eternal. No night shall settle down with its darkness upon the brightness of their everlasting day.

Breathtaking isn’t it?! Heaven is the great hope of, and promise to, everyone who trusts in Jesus. Heaven is the place where believers are forever in the presence of almighty, infinitely glorious God. In heaven we are able to see Jesus face-to-face. In heaven God pours out all His strength to bless His children. Heaven will be a never-ending, ever-increasing discovery of the glory of God and the joy that is found in it. In heaven, there will be no darkness, for God is its light (Revelation 21:25). In heaven there will be no more sickness or sadness, for God will wipe it all away (Revelation 21:4). In heaven there will be no more unmet needs or desires, for God will fully and eternally satisfy us. Heaven will be beautiful beyond our imagination. In heaven our fellowship with all the saints and with the Father, Son and Spirit will be eternally uninterrupted. Heaven will be a place of complete satisfaction and joy. Heaven truly is every bit as awesome as hell is awful.

Grace-enabled belief in these things, trusting in them with all you are, is the beginning of following Jesus. It is what it means to follow Him to the cross. It is what it means to be a Christian and is the start of the Christian life.

Our purpose in life is to glorify God by following Jesus. Following Jesus begins at the cross and ends in eternal life. But one of the most important questions we need to ask is: What happens in the meantime—in the time between first believing in the gospel and going to heaven? The answer is, once again, following Jesus.

Once, by the grace of God, we’ve followed Jesus to the cross in faith, the rest of our time on earth is spent continuing to follow Jesus in faith, by the grace of God. But what does that mean?

To really answer that question would take another sermon altogether. In short, it means growing to love what Jesus loves, hate what He hates, think what He thinks, feel what He feels, and do what He says.

It does not mean having everything figured out, being perfect, or never messing up. Following Jesus from the cross means being in the Holy Spirit initiated and led process of becoming more like Jesus. We are forgiven based on Jesus’ righteousness (following Him to the cross) so that He can begin filling us with a righteousness of our own (following Him from the cross).

But what does that mean? The best way I know how to summarize the answer to that question is this: Following Jesus from the cross to eternal life means being transformed by the Holy Spirit to the point that we are increasingly:

Because we’re born into sin, we’re born with all kinds of distorted understandings of who God is, who we are, and what God wants from us. Following Jesus from the cross begins with asking God to change that, to help you begin to rightly understand God and His Word. To this end, Jesus prayed, “Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth”.

The very nature of being made in God’s image means we love and worship. We can’t not. At the same time, because sin corrupts, we’re born loving and worshiping wrong things in wrong ways. Following Jesus means having both rightly tuned to God by the Spirit and the Word of God.

The other side of the coin of following Jesus by loving God with all we have is receiving His love and turning that back on everyone we meet. That’s why the second greatest commandment (according to Jesus) is to “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Following Jesus from the cross means growing in Christ-like love for others.

Fourth (of seven), in following Jesus we become a part of His people, His family, and in a sense, His body. This is why the Apostle Paul wrote, “Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it” (1 Corinthians 12:27). One of the primary ways we follow Jesus in loving people, therefore, is by using our God-given gifts to build them up in faith and allowing them to use theirs to build us up.

Next, and with a good deal of overlap, following Jesus means being transformed from the inside out. Before following Jesus, our hearts were set only on the flesh; on worldly desires. In following Jesus, though, the Holy Spirit begins to bear a new kind of fruit in our hearts; the fruits of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23).

Sixth, following Jesus means having our priorities flip-turned-upside-down. For Christ-followers the first are last and the greatest are servants of all. With increasing gladness, we increasingly look to bless others in Jesus’ name and endure whatever suffering and persecution comes because of it.

Finally, and connected to all of this, whether we know it or not, we are all completely dependent on God. Following Jesus does not mean becoming dependent on God, therefore, but finally recognizing that we have always been, so that we can live consistently with that reality. That’s why Jesus declared in an unqualified way, “Apart from me you can do nothing.” And that’s why we pray and fast regularly.

The primary call on all of our lives is to follow Jesus. There are two key aspects to Jesus’ call. The first aspect, or starting point, of following Jesus is following Him to the cross. This means receiving and believing the gospel—the good news that Jesus died to save us. And again, the second aspect of following Jesus is living the new life that Jesus purchased for us at the cross from now until eternal life is ours. This means trusting in God while fighting with all that we have in the strength He gives to become more like Jesus.

In conclusion, I want to offer a brief thought as a challenge and as an encouragement. For much of my life I could not articulate any of the points of the gospel (what it means to follow Jesus to the cross) or describe with any clarity a biblically acceptable response to the gospel (what it means to follow Jesus from the cross). I had vague concepts of both, but nothing approaching a firm grasp on the whole. I (mostly without thinking) lived my life on my terms and for my own purposes. While I did not knowingly disbelieve any of the tenants of the gospel, I certainly did not accept any of them either. I was not trusting in Jesus for the forgiveness of my sins and yet I always believed that I would go to heaven when I died.

I mean this little biographical sketch to challenge the notion that feeling safe about your eternity has anything to do with where you’re going to spend your eternity. I’d guess that most people in hell were surprised to find themselves there.

And I mean this as an encouragement because if God can capture the heart and mind and soul of a selfish, prideful, wretched, sinner like me, after two decades of ignorance and defiance, He can save anyone. It is not too late to follow Jesus to the cross and be saved. That’s why Jesus came at Christmas. That’s why John wrote his Gospel—”that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.” And if you will follow Jesus to the cross in this way, He will keep you following Him forever. He will make you like Him and He will bring you to be with Him in eternal life.

John 21:20-23 Peter turned and saw the disciple whom Jesus loved following them, the one who also had leaned back against him during the supper and had said, “Lord, who is it that is going to betray you?” 21 When Peter saw him, he said to Jesus, “Lord, what about this man?” 22 Jesus said to him, “If it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you? You follow me!” 23 So the saying spread abroad among the brothers that this disciple was not to die; yet Jesus did not say to him that he was not to die, but, “If it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you?”

Two of the harder aspects of my job are starting and finishing preaching through a book of the Bible. Starting is hard because it takes an exceptional amount of work and thought and prayer to get my head around the whole of the book—which is a prerequisite to handing any of it well. And finishing is hard in a way that is similar to having a child graduate and move out—it’s hard to overstate the emotional, spiritual, and chronological investment it takes to make it through an entire book (especially one like John). If anything, it’s an underestimate to say that I’ve spent well over 1000 hours of my life in John’s Gospel since I began. That’s over 40 full days of feeling the weight of being responsible to rightly preach the Word of God to the people of God.

At the exact same time, however, spending thousands of hours preparing to and preaching through whole books of the Bible is by far one of the most rewarding aspects of being a pastor as well. What a gift it is to be able to sit in the very words of God, day after day, year after year, experiencing God’s presence and grace through them, being continually reshaped by them, and then sharing them with a people I love. I do wish there were some way you all could experience the same thing.

With that, as you can tell, we’re almost done in John and it’s now official that I’ll be preaching through Ecclesiastes next. I’d encourage you all to begin reading through Ecclesiastes over and over. As you do, I’d also encourage you all to pray through it, asking God to help you understand it, in order that you might be duly transformed by it. One more thing…make a list of everything that stands out—questions, observations, encouragements, etc—and teach your kids to do that as well.

And with that, let’s go back to John for one of our last times.

In chapter 19, John records Jesus’ crucifixion. In chapter 20, John tells of Jesus’ resurrection from the dead and His resurrection appearances to many of His followers. Throughout chapter 21, John continued recounting Jesus’ post-resurrection appearances, interactions, and teaching. In the first 14 verses of 21 (which Pastor Colin preached on two weeks ago), Jesus found several of His disciples at the tail end of an unsuccessful all-night fishing trip. In two remarkable acts, Jesus miraculously filled their nets with fish and kindly provided a beach-breakfast for His exhausted friends.

At some point during the course of the early morning meal, Jesus pulled Peter aside in order to restore and recommission him. Jesus restored Peter from his three-times denial of Jesus and recommissioned him to provide pastoral/shepherding care for Jesus’ followers.

In our passage, Jesus and Peter were still talking, but this time Peter noticed someone listening in. In the course of this ongoing dialogue, we find four clarifications (who was following them, what was he doing, what difference did it make to Peter, and—back on the subject of death—when would the following man die). In the clarifications we find a number of important applications for us as well.

In all of that, we’ll see that the big idea of this passage is that following Jesus is the primary call on all of our lives. The main takeaway, therefore, is to follow Jesus.

As I mentioned, the bulk of the passage answers questions that are asked (or at least implied) in the passage. That is, Peter wonders about and Jesus clarifies four different things.

As we dive in, I can’t help but to wonder how many times have you may have wished you could get Jesus to clarify things for you in real-time like this.

Jesus, I’m not sure how to help this person. What do I do?

Jesus, how do I honor you with this diagnosis or ailment or disability or loss or difficulty?

Jesus, why is it so hard for me to know what to do with myself? And when I do know what to do, why is it so hard to stay on task? Would you help me?

Jesus, I’m having trouble understanding what your Word means. I’m trying, but I just can’t seem to figure it out. How do I live it out faithfully when I’m not sure if I have it right?

Jesus, my kids are out of control or money is tight or my marriage is hard or it’s hard not being married or my job is oppressive or I’m lonely or …

On one hand, of course, we don’t have the same exact experience as Peter did in this moment. On the other and more important hand, however, we have something better (Jesus told us this explicitly—John 15:26). We have the Spirit in us and the completed Bible. Along those lines, one of the most important biblical truths you can learn is that the Word and Spirit of God are living and active (Hebrews 4:12). That means we really are talking to Jesus when we pray and He really is talking to us when we read His word.

In other words, in this passage, in His willingness to answer Peter’s questions and explain things to him, we have a remarkable example of Jesus’ kindness and patience on display. But equally significant is the fact that you and I have even greater access to Jesus’ kindness and patience today. Talk to Jesus, therefore, in prayer, knowing that He hears you even more fully than any person in this room can. And read His Word, therefore, knowing that in it, He is speaking to you with more insight and intimacy than anyone in this room can.

With that, the first (kind and patient) clarification is found in v.20. It’s not clear exactly where Jesus and Peter were in relation to the other disciples as they talked, but it is clear that someone had crept up towards them while they did.

20 Peter turned and saw the disciple whom Jesus loved following them, the one who also had leaned back against him during the supper and had said, “Lord, who is it that is going to betray you?”

The key to this clarification concerns John’s descriptions of himself. As both the narrator/interpreter of the story and a participant in it, John presents himself both anonymously and intimately present. Never once did he mention himself by name while he consistently described himself at the center of the main events of Jesus’ life and ministry. John wanted to be simultaneously non-distracting from the story and clear on the fact that he was eminently qualified to tell the story. Both show up in his choice of monikers.

His main self-designation is “the beloved disciple” or “the disciple whom Jesus loved” (13:23, 19:26, 20:2, 21:7, 20). In this passage and the next, he added two more descriptions to even further enhance his anonymity and qualification.

In v.20, he highlights not only that he is (familiarly) “the disciple whom Jesus loved,” but also that he is the “one who also had leaned back against [Jesus] during the supper and had said, ‘Lord, who is it that is going to betray you?’” John described himself as the one who was privileged to sit nearest to Jesus, to lean on Him, and to have His ear.

In a similar manner, as we’ll see in v.24, he said of himself, “This is the disciple who is bearing witness about these things, and who has written these things, and we know that his testimony is true.” He was the one witnessed the things he’d written about from such an inside perspective that “we know that his testimony is true.”

Again, in writing his Gospel, John determined to remain anonymous throughout the entire Gospel, while simultaneously revealing that there was, perhaps, no one more qualified to tell and interpret this story of Jesus.

Who did Peter see when he turned around during his walk with Jesus? He saw John, the author of this Gospel. Why is that significant? It’s significant in that it meant that John was constantly nearby as an eye/earwitness to the things he wrote about. Why was he so close? Because he was loved and trusted by Jesus. Why does that matter? It matters because it means we can trust that what he wrote was true and that it was written for the glory of Jesus.

In coming to recognize all of this from Jesus’ first clarification, from v.20, we are able to better recognize and receive John’s Gospel as the remarkable gift from God that it is. It is no small kindness that Jesus allowed John to walk so near Him, in such love, so that He might record and interpret the most important benefits in all history for our benefit.

Are you rightly grateful? Do you rightly thank God for this? Do you read it as you should—eagerly, confidently, transformationally, obediently—consistent with what it is—the account of a man inspired by the Holy Spirit to write of things he personally witnessed at the side of the Son of God who loved him dearly?

The Gospel of John is an awesome gift from God to us. John’s first clarification—a description of himself—helps us to see that more clearly than ever.

The second main clarification is found in the next verse.

21 When Peter saw him, he said to Jesus, “Lord, what about this man?”

There are two things I’d like to point out from this. The first concerns the relationship between Peter and John. In a way that is fairly unique from the other Gospels, John consistently paints himself and Peter as the two disciples closest to Jesus. They had (and would continue to have, as we’re about to see) different roles to play in furthering Jesus’ ministry. Likewise, John reveals that they had different personalities and gifts. And yet, once again, both men were constantly in Jesus’ inner-most circle; friends with Jesus and friends with each other.

There is very little that is sweeter than a good friend who helps spur you on in life and ministry. My first taste of this came as a new believer in college. As virtually everyone around me was partying and seeking other forms of worldly pleasure, my friends and roommates continually challenged me to go with them to share the gospel with other kids in the dorms, to go to prayer gatherings, to fight sin, and to spend time each day in God’s Word.

Dozens (hundreds?) of my classmates heard the gospel because my friends encouraged me to share it, I learned to experience and express my dependance on God through hours of corporate prayer at the prompting of my friends, I found and fought sin I didn’t even know was sin as a result of the exhortation of a few brothers in Christ, and I read through the Bible for the first time, slowly learning to understand it because I had good friends who patiently and persistently walked alongside me as an infant in the faith.

Likewise, fast forward 30 years (almost exactly), I was talking with Pastor Colin earlier in the week about this exact thing. My fellow elders (John, Matt, Mark, and Lord-willing Colin) are some of my best friends. And yet, our friendship is not very tied to that which makes up most friendships—shared hobbies or worldly interests. In a number of ways, the four (now five) of us couldn’t be a more different in personality and earthly pursuits. Matt is a musician in a way none of the rest of us are. Mark is a mechanic of grass and machine. I don’t think any of the rest of us have much of a clue about those things. John is a techy to the point that none of us even know what he does for a living or understand a single one of his t-shirts. We’re all still getting to know Colin, but he’s already brought more style to our preaching rotation than the rest of us combined.

In spite of all these differences, differences of a sort that generally keep guys like us from being good friends, we have a friendship that is much deeper than every other kind. That’s because it is based on something infinitely deeper—our mutual love for Jesus and His mutual call on our lives to feed His sheep (you all). We are better friends through a shared faith and engagement in shepherding ministry than we could ever be with those who merely share our recreational interests.

There is a unique joy and strength in good friendships. John and Peter seemed to share one.

The second thing I want you to see here flows from the first. Given their close relationship, their prominence in Jesus’ earthly ministry, that which Jesus had just revealed to Peter concerning His future, and the fact that Peter just spotted John following behind them, it was entirely natural for Peter to wonder about Jesus’ plan for John.

Peter had been specifically charged to provide an ongoing pastoral, shepherding role for Jesus’ followers. What’s more, he had been specifically promised that it would end in his own crucifixion. But what about John, Peter wondered? What were the particulars of his ministry and how would it end?

There’s a chance Peter’s question contained some lingering thoughts of comparison (implied somewhat in Jesus’ reply) (Would John’s ministry be superior to his? Would his death be more pleasant or noble?), but more than likely, he was mainly curious concerning the fate of his friend and close partner in ministry. Again, that’s part of the very definition of a good friendship—you care about Jesus’ plans for your friends.

Ask the Lord to burden you to pursue good friendships even if it’s easier to sit at home or find mere hobby-friends. Ask God to use you to forge friendships that are rooted in a shared belief in the gospel and a shared longing to share it with the world. Ask the Lord to help you love your friends well by caring as much about their faith as your own. Ask God to help you find more joy in a friendship with someone who has nothing other than the gospel in common with you than with someone who has everything else in common.

That fact that this is already happening here is one of my great joys. Let’s grow in that, Grace. Let’s intentionally cultivate good friendships, rooted in the gospel here.

The second clarification, Peter’s wondering about John’s fate, helps us to see these things.

The third clarification in this passage is found, once again, in the very next verse, v.22. In it, Jesus clarified the most important aspects of Peter’s question (“What about this man?”).

22 Jesus said to him, “If it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you? You follow me!”

As I just said, Jesus’ reply might imply at least a hint of a misguided heart behind Peter’s question—that Peter was asking for more selfish/comparison reasons. If so, it’s a good lesson for us concerning the often-slow process of our sanctification. We might wish that God would instantly take away our sinful tendencies, but He has better, slower plans than that.

While that might be a part of this, much more significant is the fact that in it, Jesus revealed the heart of both what the Christian life isn’t and is.

Regarding what the Christian life isn’t, Jesus’ point was simple: Peter, along with every other follower of Jesus, was given a unique mission and fate for God’s glory and his good. That’s all he needed to worry about. We glorify God, not by doing what others do or by getting the same results as others, but by being faithful to God’s charge to us, by trusting in God’s promises to us, and by celebrating whatever fruit God has determined to bear through us.

We are not held accountable to someone else’s calling, according to someone else’s gifts, or in comparison to someone else’s results.

Therefore, Peter could only rightly worry about what Jesus had for John once he was first content with what Jesus had for him. Therefore, Jesus said, “If it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you?”

Regarding what the Christian life is, instead of worrying about others, Jesus said, “You follow me!”

What would you say if someone were to ask you: What is the very essence of being a Christian? Or: All the way at the bottom, what does it mean to be a Christian? Or: What is the Christian life in simplest terms?

The answer, I believe according to Jesus’ words (here and throughout the Gospels), is following Jesus. I’ll come back to this next week in detail, but for now see clearly the simple fact that before Peter could be rightly concerned for John, his ministry, his fate, or anything else, he needed to fix his eyes entirely on Jesus and determine to walk with Him no matter what happened to John or anyone else.

Jesus’ main response to Peter’s question about John was that everything and everyone else takes a back seat to following Me. There are no higher claims on your life, Peter. There are no higher pursuits. There are no greater concerns. Nothing else can come first in your mind or heart. There is not a single thing—no family need, no health concern, no leisure or vocational pursuit, no relationship, no act of service, no friendship, no nothing—that trumps the call to follow Me.

This is one way to understand many of the problems in the Church today—people claiming to be Christians who spend most of their time going to places Jesus never went and for reasons He never shared.

In this vein, there are many who believe themselves to be following Jesus while affirming sexual deviancy, attempting to redefine marriage, promoting abortion, and redefining the Church’s mission—things Jesus never condoned and repeatedly condemned. They tend to use the right terms (like justice, love, compassion, care for the vulnerable, etc.), but with definitions entirely contrary to Jesus’. The things they do to “follow Jesus” are actually going in the exact opposite direction to Jesus.

At the same time, and on the opposite end, there are many others, claiming to follow Jesus, invent new rules to bind people’s consciences, add to God’s Word things that are not there, live in ways that are entirely separated from and antagonistic toward those who are different from them, and speak a lot about a certain kind of sin while tolerating a different kind. They too often use the right words with the wrong meaning.

Both groups, and many in between, are willing to follow Jesus on certain parts of His path, but only on their terms. Both groups like the idea of following Jesus, but according to their own definitions. Both groups like doing things in Jesus’ name, but only after remaking Jesus in their own image.

Jesus, whether as a rebuke or merely a simple warning, addressed the entire spectrum of those who claim to be following Him, but really aren’t. Even if Peter’s concern for John was rightly motivated, Jesus made sure it was rightly ordered as well.

May we learn from this. May we take careful stock of whether or not we really are following Jesus in the ways we claim to be. Does His word really teach what we believe? Are our feelings about the sins of others, our corrective words, our methods of ministry, our _ really the result of following Jesus or of trying to get Jesus to follow us?

Finally, interestingly, John clarified a misinterpretation of Jesus’ answer to Peter’s question. Evidently, John or Peter repeated what Jesus said (in v.22) to others and they wrongly took it to mean that John would not die until Jesus’ second coming. Again, John corrected that faulty interpretation in v.23.

23 So the saying spread abroad among the brothers that this disciple was not to die; yet Jesus did not say to him that he was not to die, but, “If it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you?”

Peter was going to be persecuted to the point of crucifixion at some point before Jesus’ return. When Peter asked Jesus about John, as we just saw, Jesus said, in effect, “You don’t need to worry about it. Even if his end is the exact opposite of yours, trust me that it is for My glory and his good—just as your end is for you.

It was a hypothetical situation, not Jesus’ actual declaration of John’s fate. And yet, as we’re prone to do, those who later heard the report of this conversation wrongly interpreted it to mean that John would remain until Jesus came back.

John included this in his Gospel to dispel the idea which, evidently, persisted some thirty years later.

At the same time, as I said, he also included it to dispel the heart that produced the idea which persists in us today. That is, we too are frustratingly drawn to misinterpret the Word of God. Sometimes we do so knowingly, intentionally, and for our own purposes and sometimes we do so unknowingly, genuinely longing to honor Jesus, but failing to do so nevertheless. Either way, the consequences can be anything from frustrating to deadly.

Getting God’s Word wrong is frustrating when it causes us to live disordered lives.

For instance, genuinely believing Jesus taught that obedience to God always leads to financial gain and physical health is very frustrating when we lose our job or get sick.

Similarly, genuinely believing Jesus taught that well-meaning parenting always produces good, godly kids is very frustrating when it turns out that despite our good intentions, our kids wander.

Genuinely believing Jesus taught that God always answers the prayers of the faithful as they are prayed is very frustrating to those who do not get what they asked for.

And genuinely believing Jesus taught that you deserve to be happy in every moment of your marriage is genuinely frustrating with the sinner you married sins.

I’ve heard each of those things attributed to Jesus and from very frustrated people who don’t know what to do about their circumstances. Each of these situations involves someone who wrongly believes they rightly know the will of God. That’s hard to watch.

As bad as that is, getting Jesus’ words wrong can have consequences far worse than frustrating, they can also be deadly.

For instance, genuinely believing that Jesus accepts everyone on their terms, or that we can work our way into God’s favor, or that genuinely believing any of those things means that you are still stuck in your sin and that you’re going to hell when you die. That’s as deadly as it gets.

The forth and final clarification is that confidence in one’s understanding is not always correlated to the rightness of one’s understanding and that can be really frustrating, even eternally fatal.

In our passage, in the course of an ongoing conversation between Jesus and Peter, we saw four clarifications.

In John’s first clarification—a description of himself as anonymous and yet one of the closest, most beloved of Jesus followers—helps us to see that the Gospel of John is an awesome gift from God to us.

The second clarification, Peter’s wondering about John’s fate as an expression of his friendship with John, helps us to see the goodness of gospel-rooted friendships.

The third clarification helps us to see right to the very heart of what Christianity isn’t (anything before Jesus) and what it is (a grace-driven life characterized by following Jesus).

And the fourth thing John clarifies is that confidence in one’s understanding is not always correlated to the rightness of one’s understanding and that can be really frustrating, even eternally fatal.

In all of that, we’ll see that the big idea of this passage is that following Jesus is the primary call on all of our lives. The main takeaway, therefore, is to follow Jesus.

Next week we’ll do a deep dive into the nature of what it really means to follow Jesus.

John 21:15-19 When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” He said to him, “Feed my lambs.” 16 He said to him a second time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” He said to him, “Tend my sheep.” 17 He said to him the third time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” Peter was grieved because he said to him the third time, “Do you love me?” and he said to him, “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my sheep. 18 Truly, truly, I say to you, when you were young, you used to dress yourself and walk wherever you wanted, but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will dress you and carry you where you do not want to go.” 19 (This he said to show by what kind of death he was to glorify God.) And after saying this he said to him, “Follow me.”

I have three quick introductory notes I’d like to share.

First, I want to thank Colin for his sermon last week. It was a good reminder of the humanity and kindness of Jesus. It will be a real joy and blessing to have him here as our shepherd in the coming weeks.

Second, I want to thank Matt for his Ebenezer message. The twin ideas of murmuring being the opposite of thanksgiving and it being a good indication that something is wrong in our hearts has come up over and over in both my own mind and in conversation with others. It was simultaneously convicting and encouraging.

And third, let me encourage you to really embrace the advent season. To keep our eyes on the glory of the coming of God into the world as a man, means continually swimming against a stiff cultural current. Every day we are bombarded by ads, attitudes, shows, and traditions that seek to profit from the generic, largely secular “Christmas spirit,” rather than point us to the glories of the incarnation. And that’s only the things outside of us. Inside we are bombarded with selfishness, laziness, worldliness, and idolatry.

Jesus’ birth is something truly worth celebrating, more than almost anything else in our lives. But doing so (for all the reasons I just mentioned and more) requires intentionality, purpose, determination, and above all, God’s help.

We want to help with all of that. Practically, you’ll notice several “Advent Activities” mentioned in News and Notes and around the church. I encourage you to prioritize them as a means of tuning your heart. What’s more, we have the devotionals (and samples of more) on the back table. Take one and gather your family and friends around it each day. And, of course, by God’s design, each worship service is one of the most significant means of incarnation-appreciation grace available.

With that, we’re about to get back into John’s Gospel and Jesus’ continued revelation of His resurrected, glorified self to His disciples. The big idea of this passage is Jesus’ loving and gracious restoration and recommissioning of Peter. Jesus’ love for Peter led to His forgiveness of Peter, to Peter’s love for Jesus, and to Peter’s glad willingness to shepherd Jesus’ flock. The main takeaway for us is to receive Jesus’ love, to love Jesus above all, and to follow Jesus in loving ministry.

Let’s pray for this sermon and those yet to come in John (probably three more after this week) to be faithful to the text, life-giving, and Christmas-celebration-fuel to all who hear.

Jesus opens His restoration and recommissioning of Peter with a question that seems fairly simple on the surface, “Simon [Peter], son of John, do you love me more than these?” Before we come to the meaning of “these,” we need to begin with the fact that there ought to be no clarification which would change the answer. In other words, no matter what Jesus meant by “these” when asking Peter, “Do you love me more than these,” the answer ought to have been a resounding, emphatic, unhesitating, unwavering, unqualified, YES!

And so it is for us, Grace. When we are confronted with the question, “Do you love Jesus more than___,” we must not let the question finish before yelling, “Yes. Whatever it is, YES.”

It is what God requires, “What does the Lord your God require of you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul” (Deuteronomy 10:12).

It is the greatest commandment, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind” (Matthew 22:37).

It is because Jesus is the greatest treasure, “The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field (Matthew 13:44).

It is possible because God first set His love upon us, “We love because he first loved us” (1 John 4:19).

Above all, God set His love upon us by sending His Son to save us, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16).

Because of these things, in a very real way, it must not matter what Jesus meant by “these”.

Do you love Jesus more than your stuff? Yes!

19 “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust[a] destroy and where thieves break in and steal, 20 but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal” (Matthew 6:19-20).

Do you love Jesus more than your family and even your own life? Yes!

“If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple” (Luke 14:26).

Ask the Lord to be gracious to you, Grace. Ask Him to fill you with ever-increasing love for Him, for setting your love upon Him is what you were made for. He is what you were made for. Our very nature is such that to love something higher than Jesus is to be perpetually unsatisfied. Our very nature is such that to love Jesus above all is the one and only place of true life and joy and peace and rest.

Do you love Jesus more than anything and everything? By the grace of God, more and more each day!

You may remember that in Pastor Colin’s sermon last week, he pointed out that Jesus cooked breakfast for several of the disciples after they’d spent the night fishing. John set the context for our passage by explaining that it picks up where that one left off, stating, “When they had finished breakfast…”.

More than likely, then, this is not a scene in which Jesus and Peter were off by themselves. More than likely, the disciples mentioned in 21:1-14 are still within earshot.

With that in mind, “Jesus said to Simon Peter, ‘Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?’”.

There are several possible things Jesus could have meant by “these.” The most likely, by most accounts, is that Jesus was asking Peter if he loved Him more than the rest of the disciples loved Him. “Peter, is your love for Me greater than their love for me?”

On the surface, it’s an odd question. But something important was happening here. Peter had denied Jesus after repeatedly making claims of a unique and superior devotion. Peter consistently spoke up first when it came to matters of obedience and commitment. Up to this point, Peter seemed to believe that his love for Jesus was greater than “these.”

For instance…

After a particularly difficult teaching, many who had been following Jesus turned back. Jesus asked the disciples if they were going to turn back too. It was Peter who replied, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life” (John 6:68).

When Jesus went to wash the feet of His disciples, Peter stood up among the disciples and said to Him, “You shall never wash my feet” (John 13:8). And when Jesus rebuked him for his obstinance, Peter instantly recanted, saying, “Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!” (John 13:9).

When Jesus told the disciples that He was going away (to be crucified) and that they couldn’t follow, Peter again stood up among the disciples and said, “Lord, why can I not follow you now? I will lay down my life for you” (John 13:37).

At Jesus’ arrest, it was Peter who “drew [his sword] and struck the high priest’s servant and cut off his right ear” (John 18:10).

And most clearly of all, although John doesn’t record it, the other three Gospels all tell of Peter’s reply to Jesus insisting that after His crucifixion His followers will fall away. To that accusation, Peter cried out, “Though they all fall away because of you, I will never fall away” (Matthew 26:33).

The point of all of this is the simple fact that Jesus seemed to be revealing to Peter that his love and devotion was not meant to be measured in comparison to the other disciples. The pride that led Peter to have done so previously was the same pride that led to his denials. By His question, Jesus was trying to root that out of Peter.

Peter’s love and devotion to Jesus was meant to be fully given to Jesus because Jesus was worthy, not because of how it stacked up against the others. (We get another version of this in the next passage when Peter asks about other disciples and Jesus rebuked him, commanding him to worry about his own faithfulness.)

In other words, Jesus was in effect asking Peter, “Did your triple denial of me humble you at all? Are you done with these comparison games? Are you ready to follow me in humble, loving, obedience regardless of what anyone else does? It doesn’t matter how much you love me in comparison to these. What matters is that you love me with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength.”

This idea is strengthened by the fact that Jesus only asked if Peter loved Him “more than these” one time (of the three). And it is further strengthened by the fact that each time Peter answered the question not by comparing his love to the others, but by simply saying, “Yes, Lord’ you know that I love you [not ‘more than these’]”.

Grace, learn from this—on both ends. Let none of us feel superior to others because God has been pleased to grant us (from our perspective) a greater measure of love or spiritual maturity. Instead, let us be filled with gratitude whenever we find any growing devotion in us, for every ounce of it comes from the grace of God alone. Let our maturity humble us, not fill us with pride.

Likewise, on the other end, don’t be envious of the spiritual maturity of others. God will not accept you on the basis of your maturity, much less on the basis of how your spiritual maturity measures up against someone else. You will be acceptable to God because you are united to Jesus in faith or not at all. You are accepted by God based on your trust in the merit of Jesus or you aren’t accepted; for no matter how your merit compares to others, it still falls infinitely short of the holiness God requires.

It is good to long to grow in your faith and to strive for it. It is even good to celebrate a greater measure of faith in others and to seek to imitate it. But all of that in a spirit of contentment in the measure of grace God chooses to give you and in glad trust in His perfect provision in Christ.

Regarding the form of Jesus’ questions (and Peter’s replies), a good deal has been made about the changes in vocabulary—both in Jesus’ and in Peter’s.

Initially, Jesus asked Peter, 15 …“Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” He said to him, “Feed my lambs.”

And then, immediately after, 16 He said to him a second time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” He said to him, “Tend my sheep.”

And again immediately after Jesus asked for a third and final time, 17 “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” Peter was grieved because he said to him the third time, “Do you love me?” and he said to him, “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my sheep.

There are a few things to note from the three forms the Q&A took.

First, it’s not obvious in our English translations, but in the original, Jesus and Peter used different words for love in the first two exchanges. Jesus asked, “Do you love me,” using the Greek word “agapas”. Peter responded by saying that he did in fact love Jesus, but instead of “agapas,” he used the word “phileo”. The third time Jesus asked, however, the word Jesus used for “love” switched to match the word Peter used each time.

Some have suggested that Jesus was calling for a higher kind of love from Peter (agape; often referred to as divine love), but Peter was only willing to give a lesser kind of love (phileo; often referred to as brotherly love—like Philadelphia) and that Jesus showed His kindness and patience by accepting what Peter offered.

Almost certainly, we are not meant to read that into the text for the simple reason that both words are used interchangeably throughout the entire Gospel. John simply doesn’t use agape for divine love and phileo for brotherly love. He uses both words for both meanings.

For instance, both words are used to refer to the disciple whom Jesus loved. Both words are used to refer to the Father’s love for the Son. And both words are used for Jesus’ love for Lazarus.

The main point of this aspect of Jesus’ questioning and Peter’s response is that as Peter had denied Jesus three times, Jesus asked him to reaffirm his love for Jesus three times. Rightly understood, it was a loving gesture of restoration.

A second thing to note concerns Jesus’ changing vocabulary in the response He called for from Peter after each profession of love. The first time Jesus said, “Feed my lambs.” The second time He said, “Tend my sheep” (“tend” instead of “feed” and “sheep” instead of “lambs.”) And the third time it was different yet again, “Feed my sheep,” merging his first two instructions.

By changing His word choices, Jesus was probably stylistically highlighting a small amount of the scope of Peter’s charge (more on that in the next section). Lambs, younger sheep, possibly refers to younger believers while sheep refers to more mature Christians. And feeding possibly refers to providing spiritual nourishment while tending points to a broader, overall care.

Again, the main point, however, as we’ll consider in the next section, is simply that Jesus intended the primary expression of Peter’s humble love for Jesus to be a shepherding ministry among Jesus’ followers.

Finally, third, Peter qualified his answer to Jesus question in two important ways. All three times he did so with the phrase, “You know” (adding “everything”—“you know everything”—to the third) and once with an expression of grief.

15 …“Simon… do you love me more than these?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.”

16 “Simon… do you love me?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.”

17 “Simon… do you love me?” … and he said to him, “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.”

In each of these responses, Peter rooted his answer in his certain knowledge that Jesus wasn’t on a fact-finding mission. Peter knew that Jesus knew the status of Peter’s devotion even better than Peter himself did.

Jesus’ questions were, once again, for Peter’s benefit, not Jesus’. This exchange was Jesus’ way of letting Peter know he was forgiven. Jesus asked Peter the same basic question three times, corresponding to Peter’s three denials. It’s as if with each subsequent question, Jesus was releasing Peter from each subsequent denial.

The other aspect of this was Peter’s grief. Again, in v.17, we read, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?”. This time, for the first time, John tells us that “Peter was grieved because he said to him the third time, “Do you love me?” We don’t know for sure the source of Peter’s grief. We hope that it was because he truly recognized the sinful weight of having denied Jesus not once, not twice, but three times. With each repetition of Jesus’ question, it’s possible that this reality hit home even harder.

This too is a lesson for us, Grace. Sin ought to grieve us. The most dangerous place in the world to be is in the place of indifference to rebellion against God. It is our job as followers of Jesus to call sin, sin wherever it is found. It is the highest form of a lack of love to allow someone to unknowingly walk in sin.

At the same time, the grace of God in Jesus ought to overwhelm us. The safest place to be in the world to be is in the cross-bought grace of God. Our job as followers of Jesus, therefore, is not merely to call sin, sin. It is also to announce the good news that every sin can be forgiven by grace, through faith in Jesus.

If Peter’s heart was rightly tuned, each of Jesus’ questions ought to have simultaneously increased his grief and his gratitude; his conviction and his comfort; his depth of remorse and his height of joy in his restoration.

And that leads straight to the next point, the heart of Jesus’ charge.

As I mentioned earlier, this whole exchange was meant to restore and recommission Peter. The restoring took the form of canceling out the three denials with three affirmations of love. And the recommissioning took the form of charging Peter to care for Jesus’ followers by carrying on the shepherding care that God had provided from the beginning.

As we’ve said many times at Grace, love is never a merely emotional experience or a stand-alone affection. It is always a fondness for someone (family, friend, neighbor, and enemy alike) that works itself out in practically seeking the best for that person.

The heart of Jesus’ charge was that Peter’s love for Jesus was meant to work itself out in walking alongside of other Christians, helping them grow as followers of Jesus—which is what is best for everyone.

To feed the lambs and sheep was to make sure they had the sustenance they needed to grow (the example, commands, and good news of Jesus). To tend them was a broader charge to watch out for their overall well-being.

This is a helpful definition of ministry and it is one we are all still meant to give ourselves to. This charge will play itself out a bit differently in all of us (based on our gifts and context), but it will play itself out in all of us. To love Jesus is to help other Christians grow in their faith.

It can be so easy to just give ourself to doing “Christian things” apart from any real sense of how they fit into anything. Jesus’ charge to Peter is a helpful plumb line. You must give yourself to ministry and your ministry must be measured off of the charge to tend to Jesus’ sheep.

So, Grace, are you intentionally, actively, and consistently engaged in helping others grow in their faith? If not, talk to your DG leader about how you can begin today. Hear Jesus’ words to Peter as the charge they are to you to engage in ministry as an essential aspect of your faith in Jesus.

Also, those of you who do a lot of “Christians stuff”, are you confident that your “Christian stuff” is properly aimed? Hear Jesus’ words to Peter as the refinement they are to you to make sure your ministry is defined by God’s word and not your own sense of things.

Having received the great news of his restoration and recommissioning, Peter was given a sobering bit of information.

18 Truly, truly, I say to you, when you were young, you used to dress yourself and walk wherever you wanted, but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will dress you and carry you where you do not want to go.”

What in the world does that mean? John explained the meaning of Jesus’ words in the next verse.

19 (This he said to show by what kind of death he was to glorify God.)

The short version is that Peter would eventually (after some thirty years of faithfully tending to Jesus’ sheep) be killed by crucifixion (it had already happened by the time John wrote these lines in his Gospel). That’s what the expression “you will stretch out your hands” (on a cross) meant in that culture.

Jesus was letting Peter know that however hard things had been and would be in the near future (as he fed and tended Jesus’ sheep), they were going to be the result of Peter’s choices. He got to decide where he was going to go and what he was going to do in Jesus’ name right then.

There would come a time, however, in which that choice would no longer be his. There would come a day in which others would determine his fate. It would be by God’s providence (as these two verses are meant to make clear), but it would not be Peter’s decision.

That’s kind of interesting, isn’t it? Jesus let Peter know (albeit cryptically) what his death was going to be like (crucifixion) and why (to glorify God).

If you could know the details of your death (how, when, where, why), would you want to? Likewise, have you ever thought about how you’d like to die?

I imagine that most people wouldn’t want to know the details, but if they had to, the hope is that it would consist of peacefully going to sleep at a ripe old age, without pain and with full mental faculties, with loved ones all around, after a life well-lived, with all affairs in order, and unexpectedly not waking up.

Whether he wanted to know or not, Jesus told Peter some of the details of his death. But contrary to what most people would want, Peter’s death would be miserable from every human perspective.

But here’s the thing, Grace: More than the details of your death, it is the result that matters. Are you able to truthfully say, that you rather die a prolonged, miserable death in which God’s glory is maximized in it than a comfortable, peaceful death that doesn’t point in any significant way to the truthfulness of God’s promises?

The longing of our hearts must be (with the Spirit’s help) that whether we eat or drink or die, we would do it to the glory of God (1 Corinthians 10:31). Let this Advent season be a reminder to fight for this kind of perspective and love for Jesus.

Finally, in what looks to be almost an afterthought, John notes that “…after saying this he [Jesus] said to him [Peter], ‘Follow me.’”

That idea will continue into the next section, and we’ll examine it more closely there. For now, however, I want you to notice that Jesus’ first and last words to Peter were “Follow Me.” The heart of Christian ministry is tending to Jesus’ sheep and the heart of the whole of the Christian life is a response to Jesus’ call, “Follow Me.”

Is that how you understand the nature of your faith in Jesus and the calling on your life? It’s different language than we usually use. But the different terminology can serve as a good check to see if we’re simply going through the motions or if we really do love Jesus and express it as He commands.

Asking someone (or yourself), “Are you following Jesus in every aspect of your life?” just sounds different (more to the heart of the matter) than, “Are you a Christian?”.

Likewise, asking, “Have you given yourself to tending to Jesus’ sheep?” hits different than asking, “Are you involved in ministry?”.

Consider these things, Grace.

In conclusion, once again, the big idea of this passage is Jesus’ loving and gracious restoration and recommissioning of Peter. And the main takeaway for us is to receive Jesus’ love, to love Jesus above all, and to follow Jesus in loving ministry to His people.

As Advent begins, and as we turn now to taking part in the Lord’s Supper, may we use both to cultivate a growing love for Jesus, the Son of God in the flesh, born of the Virgin Mary, truly God and truly Man, who lived a perfect life and suffered a sacrificial death to secure the reconciliation and commissioning of all who would receive Him in faith.

John 21:1–14 After this Jesus revealed himself again to the disciples by the Sea of Tiberias, and he revealed himself in this way. 2 Simon Peter, Thomas (called the Twin), Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two others of his disciples were together. 3 Simon Peter said to them, “I am going fishing.” They said to him, “We will go with you.” They went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing.

4 Just as day was breaking, Jesus stood on the shore; yet the disciples did not know that it was Jesus. 5 Jesus said to them, “Children, do you have any fish?” They answered him, “No.” 6 He said to them, “Cast the net on the right side of the boat, and you will find some.” So they cast it, and now they were not able to haul it in, because of the quantity of fish. 7 That disciple whom Jesus loved therefore said to Peter, “It is the Lord!” When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put on his outer garment, for he was stripped for work, and threw himself into the sea. 8 The other disciples came in the boat, dragging the net full of fish, for they were not far from the land, but about a hundred yards off.

9 When they got out on land, they saw a charcoal fire in place, with fish laid out on it, and bread. 10 Jesus said to them, “Bring some of the fish that you have just caught.” 11 So Simon Peter went aboard and hauled the net ashore, full of large fish, 153 of them. And although there were so many, the net was not torn. 12 Jesus said to them, “Come and have breakfast.” Now none of the disciples dared ask him, “Who are you?” They knew it was the Lord. 13 Jesus came and took the bread and gave it to them, and so with the fish. 14 This was now the third time that Jesus was revealed to the disciples after he was raised from the dead.

My name is Colin Rueter, honored to be one of the pastors here at Grace Church. We are continuing our walk through the Gospel of John this morning, so please turn in your bibles to John 21.

Have any of you told a story and, as you are coming to the end, remember an additional piece to that story and you say something like, “Oh, wait! There’s one more thing!” Here, it seems that John was closing his gospel account, with the closing remarks in John 20, vs 30 and 31, with the purpose of his writings. I hope you all were helped last week as Pastor Dave walked through the recounting of the story and the amazing reality for those who believe: Life in Jesus’ name.

As John writes about the many things Jesus did, he admits that there were many other things Jesus did that are not written in the book. After he does this, he continues by sharing one more account of the Risen King to His disciples. This is an intimate and important interaction with 7 of His followers… . His friends. In John 15, Jesus says this to His disciples:

“This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command you. 15 No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. 16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. 17 These things I command you, so that you will love one another.”

It is this point that I think we need the reminder: Jesus is our friend who interacts with us, shows us compassion, and with whom we will sit with in eternity soon. Jesus is King, yes. He sits upon the throne in heaven, with the earth as His footstool, yes. In addition, He is present, He sees you, His grace sufficient because if you believe in Jesus – trust in Him alone – you are His and He cares for His own, none can snatch you from His hand, and there is no condemnation for those in Jesus.

The beauty of this friendship is vital to our theology. We rightly exalt the Lord; we praise Jesus as Holy King and Savior… . but we miss the vital truth that we have been brought into a relationship with Him – to worship Him, yes – but also to be close to Him and be known by Him. From this, we show the watching world what a relationship with Jesus is: showing grace to one another like He has to us. Right now, as Jesus’ friends, we are to love one another.

The main point of this passage is: Jesus cares for His people as a true friend and King, with compassion, grace, and fellowship.

We are breaking this text up into three parts

It is important to remember that they went to Galilee because Jesus told them to (Matthew 28:7, 28:10, 28:16). This event in John 21 happens before the Great Commission at the end of Matthew 28.

They had spent three years together and so it makes sense that they remain in the relationships that have been built over that course of time, through the events they have navigated, with support for one another in the mysterious place they are in. Jesus is risen, we were told to wait for Him in Galilee… but what now? Uncertainty now, unlike the coming Day of Pentecost where they receive purpose and power. Such is the life of a follow of Christ. Living with one another, in and out of mysteries of life, trusting and growing in our trust of Jesus and the power of the Spirit. So, in verse 2, we find seven disciples together: Simon Peter, Thomas called the Twin, Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee (James & John), and two others of His disciples. We don’t know who the two other disciples are, assumptions can be made, but I don’t think the point of remaining unnamed is to create a game of “who are they?” Jesus had many disciples, He had 11 close ones (plus one who betrayed), 3 of whom He was closest with, but there are two who remained unknown by us, yet mentioned by John because they are known by Jesus. One commentator said this: “They may represent the anonymous and hidden multitudes of faithful souls, whose names are never published in human documents, whose deeds are never reported in human reports. To these Jesus manifested Himself as surely as to the others who are named.”

Maybe you will never be known in world history as a follower of Jesus, maybe only known by this family at Grace, but rejoice that your King knows you and sees you. These disciples gathered makes me think of the phrase: Birds of a feather flock together – not just in prayer meetings or worship services, but as we will see, doing life. This is key, friends. We gather on Sundays, yes, vital. But the work of the Church is more than one day a week, more than prayer meetings and Sunday worship. We should hang out with one another – on a beach, in a garage, in our living rooms. It is why connecting with your DG (discipleship group) is so important for the sake of being shepherded and being a blessing to others. If you don’t see one another besides Sundays, there is no way you can love one another the way Christ loves you. So, Peter and the others were hanging out, maybe at the beach discussing what has occurred over the last days. Peter, as the sun sets, decides he is going fishing and the others said, “Sounds good, we’ll go with you!”

Their reasons for fishing are unknown, John does not say. We can theorize: they were hungry, they were thinking they could earn some money since the time of charity for the ministry had ceased since the cross, maybe simply out of boredom. I DON’T think it was a sinful response, they were not rejecting a command of Jesus, they weren’t straying from where they should have gone, like Jonah. These were friends who, wile waiting for Jesus, did a familiar activity in fellowship and that would bring God glory. So, don’t justify sin, but also, see the freedom in Christ to fish, knit, write poetry, cook/grill/smoke meat, throw the baseball around with friends/kids… for the glory of God, even while you may be waiting for Him and His direction for you.

So, night comes, they shove the boat out into the sea and fish in the pale moonlight. One of John’s favorite themes is light and darkness. Darkness representing worldliness and the absence of God’s presence, while light represents righteousness and God’s presence. This should cause you to look at verse 3 a little differently: “They went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing.” In other words, they went fishing by themselves, at night, and Jesus is nowhere to be found. But light is coming.

Awake all night, hungry, living in mystery, and the disciples head back to shore empty-handed. Here is where Jesus meets them. This is glorious.

I say King here because Jesus is in control here, as He always is, ruling with grace and love. Jesus meets them in a common place, the sea, where they had been before. The previous resurrection appearances in John’s Gospel were each unexpected. This occurrence also seemed to be unexpected; the disciples did not know that it was Jesus (vs 4). It’s wonderful to think that Jesus showed up at their place of leisure and in the time of disappointment in their efforts. He was interested in all their life, not just when they attended religious service. The risen Redeemer and Ruler was showing His disciples His interest and power in the commonplaces of their lives. Jesus just doesn’t care about when we pray or sing to Him… but cares deeply about every aspect of our lives: changing diapers, vacuuming, completing the spreadsheet at work for your weekly report, playing Uno for the 800th time with your kids… Jesus is there.

Jesus asks them a question, to which He knows the answer: “Children, do you have any fish?” He made them express an unsuccessful night of fishing in their answer of “no.” They express no excuses and complaining, but tell truth.

His choice word, translated ‘children,’ shows the care and nature that He felt towards them. The Greek word is often used to describe the immature Christian, not in a demeaning way, but with compassion towards those who need care and direction.

So, they have replied with a simple answer, saddened, and weary I am sure, though I hear that fishermen should expect disappointment.

Jesus shows compassion and works a miracle for His friends. He tells them, “Cast the net on the right side of the boat, and you will find some.” Jesus made a strange suggestion to His disciples. There was no logical reason why fishing in the morning light would be better than fishing at night. There was no reason why fishing on one side of the boat would be better than the other side. It wasn’t even directly a test of trust in Jesus, because they did not know it was Him until the fish were caught. This was probably a test of their ability to find the guidance of God in small and unsuspected ways – such as a stranger calling out fishing instructions from the shore.

This account illustrates the principle that we should never be afraid to change our methods or thinking, if it is at the direction of Jesus through principles in His word.

So, they follow the direction and were not able to haul in the net because of the quantity of the fish. The disciples did as the Man on the shore asked and were successful beyond expectation. There is no need to seek symbolic meanings for the right and left side. The difference is not between right and left, but between working with and without Divine guidance.

This outstanding catch at sea may have reminded the disciples of what happened to them earlier in their following Jesus. In Luke 5, we see a contrast with this account in John 21.

John 21:1-7 “On one occasion, while the crowd was pressing in on him to hear the word of God, he was standing by the lake of Gennesaret, 2 and he saw two boats by the lake, but the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets. 3 Getting into one of the boats, which was Simon’s, he asked him to put out a little from the land. And he sat down and taught the people from the boat. 4 And when he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.” 5 And Simon answered, “Master, we toiled all night and took nothing! But at your word I will let down the nets.” 6 And when they had done this, they enclosed a large number of fish, and their nets were breaking. 7 They signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both the boats, so that they began to sink.”

Peter responds to Jesus in the account in Luke before acting, but in John, they simply act on the direction. In Luke, the nets break and boats sink, but in John the net does not break and the boat is safe. In Luke, Jesus tells them they will be fishers of men, they dropped their nets and followed Him. In John, they haven’t quite figured out the “fishing for men” thing.

Love what one theologian says about this passage: “Christ’s presence, if he would but come among us in the fullness of his strength, would do so much more for us than anything that we have ever seen yet that we should be as much astounded by the increase as the apostles were by the two great draughts of fishes. Christ had but to will it, and the fish came swimming in shoals to the net, and he has but to will it, and souls will be converted by millions to himself and his gospel… Perhaps, if they had not fished at night, Christ would not, have given them fish in the day time. He does not often come to bless idlers; he acts sovereignly, as I have said, but he generally gives his blessing to those churches that do the most for him.”

Before we move onto our last section, I want us to notice the response of two disciples, John and Peter. John is the first to recognize that this is Jesus – “It is the Lord!” John reached the tomb before Peter (John 20:4) and recognized the fact of Jesus’ resurrection before Peter (John 20:8). Here John also recognized the identity of the stranger on the shore before Peter did. John knew that anything this wonderful had to come from Jesus.

But Peter is first in devotion. He threw on his outer garment and threw himself into the water to reach Jesus as soon as possible. The boat couldn’t move quickly enough for Peter, and he didn’t want John to be first again. Perhaps – perhaps – Peter thought he might walk on the water to the shore. We are to love God with our whole heart, soul, mind, and strength… even throwing ourselves into the sea to get to our Friend and Savior. Devote yourself to Him, Grace.

Jesus serves them. When the disciples came to shore – including a wet Peter – they noticed that the resurrected Jesus was still a humble servant. He took the trouble to prepare a fire and cook food for His disciples. He already has a fish on the coals and bread nearby. The disciples brought in the net of fish only to add to what Jesus already has prepared. Jesus tells them to bring some of the fish they caught to add to, not create, the breakfast.

In vs 11: So, Simon Peter went aboard and hauled the net ashore, full of large fish, 153 of them. And although there were many, the net was not torn. John is so gracious to point out that Peter, alone, hauled the net to ashore, which probably weighed close to 300 pounds fish/wet net, attributing Peter’s strength. Maybe John felt bad about being a faster runner than Peter.

The observation of the exact number of fish and the fact that the net did not break reflect both an eyewitness account and a true fisherman’s perspective. Peter never landed a haul of fish without counting them, and John, a fisherman as well, would never forget the number of his largest takes.

Through the centuries there have been many attempts to explain why the number was 153. truth is that all we know for certain is that 153 represents the number of fish in the net. The many allegorical interpretations of the number warn us against creating hidden meanings in the Biblical text that are not there nor meant to be created.

Jesus welcomes them to “Come and have breakfast.” We should note the servant nature of Jesus, even in His resurrection. He prepared breakfast for His disciples, still serving and setting an example for us.

It is important to note the many invitations of Jesus in the Gospels. For our King invites us to Himself with abounding grace, loving care, and a gentle spirit: Come and see (John 1:39); Come and learn (Matthew 11:28-29); Come and rest (Mark 6:31); Come and dine (John 21:12); Come and inherit (Matthew 25:34-36).

So, then we see in vs. 12: Now none of the disciples dared ask him, “Who are you?” They knew it was the Lord; they knew it was Jesus.

The verb “ask” could be rendered into a questioning, interrogating, proving it was Him. This is another indication that there was something unusual about the appearance of Jesus after His resurrection. Possibly it was a result of the beatings He endured at the cross, the scars of which remained still on His body after the resurrection. There was no need to question if this was Jesus – each man felt convinced it was Jesus.

This is the crux of John’s gospel – do you believe, are you convinced, that Jesus is the Son of God, the Redeemer, God Incarnate, the Messiah, and King of all creation? Then come.

This Jesus, who called them friends, serves them fish and bread with great joy.

Continuing in vs 14: Jesus was really with them in fellowship, raised from the dead. This the third time Jesus has appeared to them in John’s gospel, there is not doubt that Jesus is alive, Jesus defeated death, and Jesus is near to those who are His.

Let me close with what may be a familiar phrase for some of you: “Christianity is not a religion, it’s a relationship.” Which may have truth in it, but I have come to dislike these pithy statements trying to simplify complex ideas and understandings.

Some think Christianity is you doing all the righteous things you hate and avoiding all the wicked things you love to go to Heaven. That’s a lost man with religion alone, as Pastor Dave said last week: “They are an unbelieving believer.” Christianity is about a person whose heart has been changed by the Holy Spirit to see and treasure Jesus; they have new affections, all grounded in the Living God.

To be a Christian is to have a set of beliefs, commands that we follow with great joy, and this is built upon the person of Jesus Christ, the Living Son of God. We love Him because He loved us first.

Maybe you have questions of about this Christian faith. Maybe you grew up in the church, but this is the first you have been presented with a gracious, loving, kind, and relational God. Maybe you think questions about the faith, church, and Jesus are not allowed… let’s chat after service, connect with one of the other elders, connect with the person who invited you.

My invitation is simply that of Jesus: “Come and see, come and rest, come and find life in Jesus.”

So, as we have walked through this passage, before I close – there’s just one more thing I need to mention!

As the disciples left that beach, then heard the Great Commission and watched Jesus ascend, they were to wait for the Spirit. When the Spirit came, they now had specific purposes for the glory of Christ… and they worked out those purposes as friends with one another and friends with their Savior. In Acts, we see their fellowship, breaking bread together, and prayer. We see them doing life together and worshipping together. We see Jesus building the Church with the same compassion, power, and grace He showed those disciples on the beach with bread and fish. Jesus invites you to sit with Him, the Bread of Life, the feast on His word, rest in His presence, and rejoice in His provision. Today, Jesus continues that mission, building His Church, providing for His friends, and showing mercy and grace in our times of need. He does all this through those who sit around you this morning. Someday soon, we will be sitting on a beach with Jesus, face-to-face, maybe eating some fish and bread in glory… what a Savior, what a friend.