John 9.7 part III
Milk
Easter
April 22nd 2014
Welcome!
Prayer
Sermonette
Music
Silence
(Shawn)
Traditions are very, very important to human beings – especially to groups of human beings – they help with continuity and serve as the glue that keeps the group moving forward because they reinforce belonging, and unity, and as a reoccurring focal-point where then group and the individuals in the group can look.
Tradition was vital to the COI, and Christ observed them as they poured out around His feet when He walked the earth.
But there is not a tradition observed on earth that will take an individual into either a relationship with God or into His presence after this life.
Today we are going to memorialize the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ with a short play performed by CAMPUS children.
This will be our first CAMPUS production and I love nothing more than children acting out things on a stage.
We’ll see them after our verse by verse today.
But I would be remiss if I didn’t explain why we are not recognizing what the world calls Easter today.
Every year I do this on Easter Sunday so in an ironic sort of way it is becoming a tradition to resist tradition. (We can’t get away from it!!!!!)
In any case if you have heard this information before bear with me. And please understand that I love holidays like Easter, Christmas, Thanksgiving and even Halloween – for two main reasons:
The food (especially the candy) and the ambiance they bring relative to family and friends.
As a man, a father, an American, I have no problem with holidays and the celebration of them. I participate as these things.
But I am a Christian first. And incorporating them (and the elements they bring INTO my faith?? – forgettabout it – they have absolutely NO PART.
Quite frankly I greatly resent the attempts men have made to make these holiday traditions part of the Christian walk.
I truly do not understand it – on the one hand we have believers who shun holidays because of their histories and on the other we have Christians who try to incorporate them INTO the faith!
What the??
Why not, as Christians, treat holidays like we treat other aspects of life – I mean, we shop at the store, and we drive our cars and we haven’t (YET) tried to shun shopping or driving as believers nor have we tried to make shopping or driving Christian shopping or driving (YET) . . . why not just make a reasonable approach to these things?
By going to our website at www.C-A-M-P-U-S.com you would read the following regarding “holy-days” or what we call holidays:
“We reject the need for holiday services which commemorate Christmas, Easter, Halloween, or individual birthdays. We are not against celebrating such occasions but refuse to let them have a place in the Gatherings set aside to worship God in spirit and in truth.”
In the first chapter of Philippians Paul wrote something rather radical.
Talking about what motivates people for Christ, he said in Philippians 1:15-18:
15 “Some indeed preach Christ even of envy and strife; and some also of good will:
16 The one preach Christ of contention, not sincerely, supposing to add affliction to my bonds:
17 But the other of love, knowing that I am set for the defence of the gospel.
18 What then? notwithstanding, every way, whether in pretence, or in truth, Christ is preached; and I therein do rejoice, yea, and will rejoice.”
It is with this attitude I believe all Christians ought to approach religiously observed holidays – for while some may sing of Christ’s birth with eyes focuses on unwrapping presents in the morning and others will speak of His resurrection with an eye focused on the honey baked ham waiting at home – in any case, Christ is preached, right?
So why the hard line on refusing to give time (as an organized gathering) to today’s holiday?
For me, it’s the word. The word Easter is used once in the New Testament. In Acts chapter 12.
It no more belongs in the Bible than the word Halloween – but it’s there and I think it may be one of the worst word-translations in the entire text (at least in the King James).
The reason is the word “Easter” is an Anglo-Saxon word derived from “Eostre” who is a Pagan goddess of spring and renewal.
Scandinavians call her “Ostra” and Germans “Ostern,” the Phoenicians called her “Astarte,” and the Assyrians and the Babylonians called her Ishtar (which if you think about it sounds a lot like our Easter).
But no matter the name they are all the same pagan goddess who symbolizes spring and fertility and who is honor on the vernal or spring equinox in every culture.
From “Estra” we get estrogen which is obviously tied to females and reproduction.
And for more than a thousand years prior to Jesus’ birth pagans celebrated spring under these different names.
Spring festivals always contained various sexual rituals which were held in honor of the sun’s welcoming and warming rays after the cold of winter with its short daylight hours. But it not only brought the promise of longer and warmer days but also crops, flowers, and the like which were necessary to survive – and they were all forms of “reproduction.”
The parallels to the resurrection of the Lord in “Spring time” are obvious and I think the early pagan cultures had tapped into the miracle of regeneration well before the ultimate regeneration occurred – Christ.
But the question remains, how did we actually get the word Eostre in the Bible!
Here’s the story:
The pagan “Eostre festival” coincided with the Passover celebration of the Jews, which was actually a festival held in anticipation of the coming Messiah and a commemoration of the angel of death passing over them in Egypt.
Later the Jewish Passover coincided or was correlated with a meal observed by Christians in honor of the resurrection of the Lord.
Over the years, the word Passover (pascal) was occasionally replaced with the word “Eostre” for no other reason than they occurred at the same time.
Before we knew it, we had Bible translators inserting the anglo saxon term “Eostre” into the Word of God where it read pascha (for Passover).
Where Wycliffe uses the word paske, (i.e., Passover) in his translations of the Word, Tyndal and Coverdale used the word “Easter,” and this forever tied Christianity to the pagan ritual of Eostre and greatly contributed to it being the accepted term for this Christian memorial for Christ overcoming the grave.
Now, there are some Christian apologists who have been able to justify the use of Easter in the King James – but in the end I find them wanting.
Part of the problem is that with this single word application ALSO came the pagan practices including fertility icons like eggs (Oestra), chicks and rabbits, pastel colors, and outdoor rituals which flood out over church lawns everywhere.
And for this very reason, Christianity (in its many forms) are holding Easter-egg hunts today.
Long story short while we are gathered here to worship God in SPIRIT and in TRUTH we are going to do it in spirit and truth! What anyone does after they leave here is between them and God.
Okay, let’s get back to our story in John 9.
Last week we read the following in John 9 . . .
John 9:1 And as Jesus passed by, he saw a man which was blind from his birth.
2 And his disciples asked him, saying, Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind?
3 Jesus answered, Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him.
4 I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work.
5 As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.
6 When he had thus spoken, he spat on the ground, and made clay of the spittle, and he anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay,
And todays verse . . . ? Just one . . . After Jesus spat on the ground and made clay of the mixture of spit and dirt, and then applied it to the man’s eyes . . . (verse 7)
7 He said unto the man born blind, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam, (which is by interpretation, Sent.) He went his way therefore, and washed, and came seeing.”
Now, we have all sorts of principles and lessons and pictures to take from the story of the healing of the man born blind.
Last week we talked about how the entire narrative is a picture of the entire human race who have been born-blind to the truth about God and need to have their eyes opened by Christ to “see” and “hear” and realize God in their lives.
We discussed the principle of a man being born blind and the notion of the transmigration of souls some Jews had at this point in history which they probably got from the Greeks and we also talked about the number of ways and means Jesus employed to physically heal people in His day, how the physical healings were pictures for the spiritual healings He would do in our day, and how some required faith and petitions on the part of the recipient and others (like the healing here) took place without any solicitation on the part of the blind man.
But I would like to speak about the picture we are presented with here – a man born blind whom Jesus gives sight – and the process of him being able to see after a lifetime in the dark.
We have been subject to all manner of ideas relative to spiritual rebirth – of obtaining sight after living lives in the dark.
Some (like five point Calvinists) maintain that rebirth is in the hands of God alone and that He opens the eyes of those He wants to see – and leave the rest not only in the dark, but headed for an eternity in hell.
Others paint the experience of regeneration as an act that individuals choose to do or accept.
We might hear them say things like, “When I decided to receive the Lord,” or “When I gave my life to God then . . .”
In my opinion the way this is presented contradicts Ephesians 2:8-9 which says:
“For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast.”
There are plenty of scriptures that paint the experience as being solely in the hands of God.
2nd Timothy 1:9 “Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began.”
Ephesians 1:4-5 says “According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will.”
John 6:44 “No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day.”
John 6:65 “And he said, Therefore said I unto you, that no man can come unto me, except it were given unto him of my Father.”
Ephesians 2:5 Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)
At the same time, there are plenty of passages that speak of believers having to believe, of exercising faith, of taking a step and that condemnation rests on those who refuse to believe on Him.
In Mark 16:14 Jesus has been resurrected and appeared to His eleven as they ate. Here we see the need for individuals to choose to believe on the part of both the eleven themselves and on those who they would go out and teach.
This is what Jesus says to them:
“Afterward he appeared unto the eleven as they sat at meat, and upbraided them with their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they believed not them which had seen him after he was risen.
And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.
“He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned.”
John 3:36 says:
“He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.”
In the first chapter of John we read plainly (John 1:12) “But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name.”
Remember our study in John 3? There is an implicit requirement for people to choose to believe. Remember?
John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.
18 He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
19 And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.
20 For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved.
21 But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.
From this and the complete biblical narrative built around people choosing to believe (and not) AND from passages that say God calls and elects and chooses we can see that there is a dual participation that goes on in the redemption of Man.
That God calls – and I would suggest strongly that He is calling to all people. We also know that, being omniscient He also knows who will “hear” and that by and through His foreknowledge He uses all things to bring about His ultimate will.
We also know that there is a built-in reciprocity required of all men when faced with the fact that God is calling – to respond.
Respond how?
In faith.
To believe.
From all of this background information we have a foundation and here in the story of the man born blind we have a model.
Jesus, doing only what the Father tells Him to do, is led by the foreknowledge of God (in this case, to produce a miracle and save a soul – I say this because sometimes Jesus appears to be lead but without results to teach and illustrate other principles) but here Jesus, again who does NOTHING but what the Father tells Him to do, spots this man born blind, makes clay and applies it to the man’s eyes.
In this we have a picture that I would suggest occurs (and is occurring in every human life) – God is working on all.
In some He is touching their hearts through nature. In others He is whispering in the quite moments of their minds, and in others he seems to smack them upside the head – pushing mud in their eyes.
The point is He is acting, He is reaching, and calling, and pursuing – even with whales prepared to swallow up the most resistant.
But Jesus making the clay is only part of the interactive process of the redemption of Man.
Unlike the Calvinist, I am convinced that we too are then required, expected, in a place to respond . . . or not.
Here, Jesus did His work on the man born-blind – He applied clay to His eyes.
But we cannot help notice that in this case it did not begin and end here. In verse 7 Jesus says to the man born blind:
“Go,(in the literal Greek translation: Go away) “and” wash in the pool of Siloam, (which is by interpretation, Sent.) He went his way therefore, and washed, and came seeing.”
I think it is important to note (and some will disagree with this) but if the man refused to go and wash would the clay in and of itself healed his blindness?
I don’t think so.
And I think this is the picture for all to consider. God IS doing His part – the evidences are abundant, the signs present, the invitations ubiquitous – but more often then not – the follow-up directives are ignored, refuted as being untenable, or thought silly.
In the end, faith or belief is NOT present though our eyes are covered in clay that has been applied by God!
(beat)
In our day, we tend to pass around a lot of rhetoric regarding the application of clay.
Modern Christian rhetoric often contains notions that when God reaches down His actions are irresistible.
I cannot fathom such a controlling God. But my opinions are not important here – I think the word of God substantiates the fact that all peoples, once God has moved, have the choice to respond – or not.
It seems to be the biblical model and it is an important one because it introduces to all the concept of faith – what it is and how it operates in the salvivic moment of all human beings.
Is it God who does the calling? Of course. We do NOT choose Him – He chooses each (but all) of us at the right time (or times) stopping, as it were, as Jesus stopped and looked upon the man born blind from birth, and then taking the first action on our behalf.
From scripture it appears to me that this is the model – God acts, then He instructs, and it is up to each and every individual to respond to His directives . . . or not.
Let me prove some new testament illustrations to support the principle.
In Mark chapter 3 we read:
Mark 3:1 And he (Jesus) entered again into the synagogue; and there was a man there which had a withered hand.
2 And they watched him, whether he would heal him on the sabbath day; that they might accuse him.
3 And he saith unto the man which had the withered hand, Stand forth.
Jesus first takes notice of the man in need – disabled by a whithered hand.
Then He instructs the man to stand up before the group – stand forth. I suppose the man could have said, “nope. Not gonna do it and he could have had all sorts of reasons for reacting this way – but all of them would have evinced no faith in the abilities of the Lord. Nevertheless, the man stood forth. And Jesus continued, saying:
4 And he saith unto them, Is it lawful to do good on the sabbath days, or to do evil? to save life, or to kill? But they held their peace.
5 And when he had looked round about on them with anger, being grieved for the hardness of their hearts, he saith unto the man, Stretch forth thine hand. And he stretched it out: and his hand was restored whole as the other.
Again, in verse five, the Lord tells a man WITH a whithered hand to stretch his hand forth.
Now I don’t know about you but being the smart alec I am if I was unable to strength out my withered arm and someone said “Stretch forth your arm,” I’d say something like, “Don’t you think I would if I could.”
But this man acted on the directive of the Lord, showing forth that he in some way – great or small – believed on the words of Jesus.
And He was healed – just like the mud smeared blind man received His sight NOT when Jesus acted but in conjunction with the actions Jesus initiated.
Prior to Peter’s eye being opened he was challenged by the Lord to act first.
In Luke 5 we read:
Luke 5:1 And it came to pass, that, as the people pressed upon him (the Lord) to hear the word of God, he stood by the lake of Gennesaret,
2 And saw two ships standing by the lake: but the fishermen were gone out of them, and were washing their nets.
3 And he entered into one of the ships, which was Simon Peter’s, and prayed him that he would thrust out a little from the land. And he sat down, and taught the people out of the ship.
4 Now when he had left speaking (finished), he said unto Simon, “Launch out into the deep, and let down your nets for a draught.”
At this point it seems that Simon Peter did not know the Lord or didn’t know Him well – he could have heard of Him by this point but he was certainly NOT one of his chosen apostles yet.
Peter’s response helps to both illustrate the point and (I think) gives us insight into why he was called by the Lord to be one of the twelve.
5 And Simon answering said unto him, Master, we have toiled all the night, and have taken nothing: nevertheless at thy word I will let down the net.
“I have every reason to believe that there is very little chance that we will catch any fish today,” Peter seems to say, “however, by your word, and my faith in it I will let down the net.”
I think we have to remember that the nets had been washed at this point – or so it seems.
When you are dealing with the sea or salt water everything has to be rinsed with fresh water of the salt will corrode whatever it touches.
They had toiled all night and caught no fish. They must have been tired. The nets were clean and then this upstart – this stranger to Peter personally steps up and gives him a directive –
“Launch out again and let your nets down.”
Again, what would you do? I wonder about myself. But Peter, trusting in His word, acted on the directive. (verse 6)
6 And when they had this done, they inclosed a great multitude of fishes: and their net brake.
7 And they beckoned unto their partners, which were in the other ship, that they should come and help them. And they came, and filled both the ships, so that they began to sink.
Step out in faith with Him. Trust in Him and His directives. Act! And wait. Trust. He will see you through . . . if you let Him.
In the case of the man born blind, his receiving His sight was a magnificent miracle – but it was NOT the end objective – His knowing Christ Jesus was the objective – the miracle was used to open his spiritual eyes and heart to his real identity.
Similarly, in this case with Peter, the miracle was wonderful in and of itself for Peter – a boatload of fish.
But that was not the greatest benefit – not even close. (listen to verse 8)
8 When Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, Depart from me; for I am a sinful man, O Lord.
Again the model is supported.
God approaches. He engages. He makes a command, and people choose to act . . . or not.
When they do, they see, and with eyes opened, become aware of Him in Spirit and Truth, and commence to walk with Him as their guide.
Luke five gives us yet another illustration of this biblical principle. Beginning at verse 17 we read:
17 And it came to pass on a certain day, as he was teaching, that there were Pharisees and doctors of the law sitting by, which were come out of every town of Galilee, and Judaea, and Jerusalem: and the power of the Lord was present to heal them.
18 And, behold, men brought in a bed a man which was taken with a palsy: and they sought means to bring him in, and to lay him before him.
19 And when they could not find by what way they might bring him in because of the multitude, they went upon the housetop, and let him down through the tiling with his couch into the midst before Jesus.
20 And when he saw their faith, he said unto him, Man, thy sins are forgiven thee.
I love this story. What Jesus does here is give Him the true blessing first – “man, your sins are forgiven you.”
“Holy camole!” “Radical fanatical, your sins are forgiven you!”
Well the religious rulers had the same reaction:
21 And the scribes and the Pharisees began to reason, saying, Who is this which speaketh blasphemies? Who can forgive sins, but God alone?
22 But when Jesus perceived their thoughts, he answering said unto them, What reason ye in your hearts?
23 Whether is easier, to say, Thy sins be forgiven thee; or to say, Rise up and walk?
24 But that ye may know that the Son of man hath power upon earth to forgive sins . . .
(did you catch that? This was the point and purpose – to get them and all to believe that He had the power to forgive sins – to save people from hell) He says:
(he said unto the sick of the palsy,) I say unto thee, Arise, and take up thy couch, and go into thine house.
Now some believe that because of the power Jesus spoke into Him the man had no choice but to rise. Maybe that was the case. But in every other story the Lord commands and the people who become receipients of His favor AND (and, and, and) gain sight of Him as the Messiah act.
This is the model for all who come and abide in faith. So what does the man with palsy do?
25 And immediately he rose up before them, and took up that whereon he lay, and departed to his own house, glorifying God.
26 And they were all amazed, and they glorified God, and were filled with fear, saying, We have seen strange things to day.
We have ample examples my friends –
Ten lepers who were healed after following His command to go and shew themselves to the priest were healed.
Before turning the water into wine the wedding servants had to first fill the water pots.
The man sitting by the pool waiting for someone to help Him in He said, “Rise up and walk.”
He even said to Lazarus, “come forth?”
Could Lazarus, in a state of death, have refused . . . and remained . . . dead?
What would have happened if the man born blind would have refused to go to the pool called Siloam?
The very same thing that happens to anyone upon whom God acts but they refuse to respond . . . they remain blind.
Questions?
Comments?
We’ll we have the greatest even happening right here at CAMPUS – our first, very own stage production.
That’s right. With the greatest cast and stage direction on earth.
Sit tight for just a few minutes while Kathy Maggie and staff prepare the actors and stage!
