Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Sermon Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/Sermons/zz20060423.htm

JOHN: TRUSTING JESUS AS MESSIAH AND GOD
Part XXXIX: Enjoying God's Parenting In An Evil, Perilous World
A. Part I - Possessing Confidence Under God, John 13:33-14:31
1. Trusting God's Parenting When We And Our Associates Are So Frail
(John 13:33-14:11)

Introduction: (To show the need . . . )

A significant amount of fear exists in the hearts of some believers concerning the spiritual weaknesses they see not only in themselves, but in fellow associates or family members:

(1) Recently, several Christian parents have told my wife or me of their concerns about the spiritual welfare of their children. When parents notice that their children are beginning to grow up and have their own minds, that their children can choose the wrong path to their spiritual harm, and there is precious little their parents are able to do to hinder it, the parents can struggle with great anxiety!

One parent I know became so dismayed at the sin seen in a maturing child that the parent was influenced in part by this discouragement to adopt the view that the child had lost his salvation! Though recalling the son had prayed to receive Christ as a child, this parent felt there could be no way that the youth was now saved, and so the parent changed beliefs to hold that one can lose his salvation if his faith in Christ ever lapsed!

(2) On the other hand, if a spouse begins to drift from the Biblical path, the partner can become concerned about the marriage or the negative affect the spouse's drift will have on that partner!

(3) Lately, I was reminded how deeply young children can be made to feel insecure by the spiritual problems they witness in professing Christian adults. Some children I know witnessed relationship problems between professing Christian spouses, leaving the children shocked as they wondered how Christian adults could have such problems! However, their shock gave way to fear, for they began to wonder if the problem was infectious, that it could somehow plague THEIR OWN parents, leading to a dreadful, painful disruption of the home!



As our LIVES are so INTERTWINED with the lives of OTHER people around us, and there are spiritual problems and/or weaknesses in these other people, not to mention the spiritual baggage we each carry within OURSELVES, HOW may we or other WEAKER Christians with whom we relate EVER have hope of MATURING in the Lord?



(We turn to the sermon "Need" section . . . )

Need: "My spiritual welfare is often not only affected by whether my friends heed God, but I also have my OWN spiritual baggage, so, is there any hope that I or my associates WILL ever be discipled?!"
  1. Jesus knew His disciples would be prone to spiritual harm from the world, so He revealed God's parental oversight of them, Jn. 13:33:
    1. Satan entered Judas after Jesus had given him the sop, but the other disciples were then ignorant of this appalling fact, John 13:21-30!
    2. When Jesus later said He would go where His disciples could not follow, Peter expressed dismay at the news, John 13:33, 36-37a.
    3. Jesus then claimed Peter would deny Him (John 13:37-38), and from John 18:1-3, 24-27, we know this sin would be fueled by Peter's fear of those to whom he would then realize Judas had betrayed Jesus!
    4. So, knowing they were vulnerable to spiritual harm in the world in His absence, Jesus spoke of God's parental oversight of the disciples:
      1. Christ called His disciples "little children" in John 13:33, using the word, teknia, "a diminutive expression [of] . . . affection . . . like a father to his little children;" strikingly, this term appears only here in all of the Gospels, Leon Morris John (NICNT), p. 632, ftn. 67.
      2. Later in that conversation, Jesus said He would not leave His men "as orphans" ['orphanous] (John 14:18; U. B. S. Grk. N. T., 1966 ed., p. 388; Arndt & Ging., Grk.-Engl. Lex. of N. T., 1967, p. 586).
  2. That Divine Parental Oversight is taught in John 13:33-17:26, and we view that PART where God parents us when WE or OTHERS whose lives are entwined with ours sinfully fail, John 13:37-14:11:
    1. After Jesus shared the dismaying news that He would leave them for a time, and then predicted Peter would deny Him (Jn. 13:33, 36-38), all of the disciples had human cause for being very troubled (as follows):
      1. First, the disciples expected Peter to be the last one to deny Jesus:
        1. Though imperfect, Peter had been loyal to Christ since He had called him to be a disciple early in Jesus' ministry, Jn. 1:35-42.
        2. In that call, Jesus renamed Peter "Cephas" (stone), showing Peter would one day be a stabilizing party, John 1:42.
        3. When other disciples had left Jesus, it was Peter who said He had the words of eternal life as Messiah and God, John 6:68-69.
      2. So, hearing that Peter would deny Him and that Jesus would go where they could not go would have left the disciples open to the temptation to feel troubled about their future spiritual welfare!
    2. Thus, Jesus revealed God would capably parent EACH DISCIPLE IN the EVIL WORLD REGARDLESS of such issues, John 14:1-11:
      1. First, Jesus told His disciples not to be troubled, John 14:1a.
      2. The basis of this peace was to be gained by trusting in Jesus as one trusted in God the Father John 14:1b as He revealed in Jn. 14:2-11:
        1. Since the pronouns in the objective case in John 14:2-3 are all plurals, Jesus promised He would take each disciple with Him to heaven REGARDLESS of the future sin of Peter, cf. John 14:2-3 with 13:36-38 (Ibid., U. B. S. Grk. N. T., p. 386). This prediction implies not only unconditional salvation security, but that the effective discipleship of each man would be achieved!
        2. [We especially note from John 14:5 that Thomas was part of this group, and that he later refused to believe Jesus was risen until he had felt the scars in His risen body, Jn. 20:24-25! Yet, Jesus kept discipling Thomas as he was still a true disciple regardless of his lapse of faith, John 20:26-29; 17:12! This counters the Arminian belief that a lapse of faith in reference to Christ means a loss of salvation and the end of discipleship!]
        3. As Christ's promise on getting the disciples to heaven relied on the ABILITY of Jesus, He revealed He was the All-Sufficient Discipler, the EXCLUSIVE Way, Truth and Life for anyone to have access to the Father, John 14:4-6!
        4. Yet, such All-Sufficiency implied JESUS would have to be GOD, a truth He explained in John 14:7-11: (1) Jesus revealed that knowing Him meant knowing God the Father (John 14:7-9), for (2) He was in the Father and the Father in Him as had been evidenced by His many miracles, John 14:10-11!
Application: (1) May we like the disciples believe Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of the Living God that we might have eternal life, John 3:16. (2) Then, in VIEW of potentially upsetting sinful failure of others whose lives are entwined with ours, as Christ sought from His ORIGINAL disciples, may we (a) TRUST His All-Sufficiency as GOD ALMIGHTY, as the Way, the Truth and the Life, (b) to disciple us ALL (c) no matter WHAT happens short-term and to whom even if their lives intertwine with ours!

Lesson: REGARDLESS of human weaknesses to the contrary, Jesus as the All-Sufficient GOD would preserve and disciple each true disciple!

Conclusion: (To illustrate the sermon lesson . . . )

 Last Wednesday night after our Prayer Meeting service, Michelle Slate came up to me to report on an encouraging development in her family.

The week before, she had come to Prayer Meeting alone, keeping her children at home with husband Dave so she could enjoy participating in the service and concentrating on the message of the Word free of the responsibilities of being a busy mother with her young children. Then about ten minutes before the service ended, she had rushed out to drive home so Dave could come back for the Board Meeting scheduled after the Prayer Meeting service.

When she had returned home, however, Michelle said she was chided by some of the children who wondered why she had not taken them to the service with her! Michelle replied that they probably missed their "prizes," or gifts she gave if the children conducted themselves well at the service. No, that was not so, according to two of the children: they wanted to hear about the plagues of Egypt we were studying in the book of Exodus, and how God used them to glorify Himself! They wanted to sing the songs with the adults and pray at the prayer time -- they did not want to miss the service, period!

Michelle shared this information with me for my own encouragement! I must admit I found HOPE that in all of the situations we face in our associations with family and friends, that in all of our tendencies to be concerned about them, God is easily discipling with His OWN agenda the people who are around us, and often in ways that go far beyond our capacity to know about it!



May we trust Jesus to be the All-Sufficient Way, Truth and Life in the DISCIPLING PROCESS, and may we TRUST HIM to make headway with the discipleship of OTHERS just as we must trust Him to disciple OURSELVES!