Sunday,
January 26, 2014
John 20:30-31
David Lose of Luther Seminary in
Minnesota observes “that the primary challenge facing the
Christian Church in North America in the 21st century is that for most of our
people, God is no longer a primary actor in the story of their lives. … It’s
not that people don’t believe in God, it’s just that apart from church they
don’t think about God all that much. … The biblical story – the narrative, that
is, that teaches us to recognize God’s activity in the world – is relatively
and increasingly unfamiliar to them and certainly not a source of the kinds of
stories we regularly tell and share as we seek to make sense of our lives.”[i]
I
agree with his observation, which is why our church wide emphasis is on
understanding the Bible, getting into the Bible and getting the Bible into
us. Church-goers
are by and large Biblically illiterate.
This lament fills seminary halls, the pages of Christian literature, and
the conversations of pastors when they get together. A lot of people claim the Bible is important. Few actually know what it says. Fewer still understand what a rigorous,
lifelong endeavor it is to read and live in the Bible.
If
upon hearing this, your reaction is, oh
no! I don’t know the Bible! He’s talking about me. Relax.
There will be no quiz this morning.
When I observe that people generally, even church goers, are unfamiliar
with the Bible, I do not say it as an accusation. I intend it as an invitation. If someone said to me, I don’t know the Bible; my response is “You can.”
The
Bible is not intended as an inaccessible holy book only the experts and the
initiated can understand. It is not
easy. It is often challenging. But the challenge is there to be met. Difficulties that come up in reading,
understanding, and applying the Bible to life are invitations from God. God is challenging because God is holy and
sin blocks our view of him. God reaches
to us and invites us to look past whatever is blocking the way. As we overcome the obstacles sin lays down,
we get to where we have a real, dynamic, life-making relationship with
God.
The
20th chapter of John’s Gospel ends with a statement of purpose. “Jesus did many signs … not written in this
book.” John acknowledges this without
hesitation or apology. John wasn’t
trying to write an exhaustive biography.
The Gospel has qualities of a biography, but the goal of the final
composition was not to simply tell Jesus’ story. Was the author of John’s gospel aware of
Matthew, Mark, and Luke when he wrote John?
That question inspires much debate.
I tend to think, yes, he knew of the traditions that went into those
other gospels. I doubt he had copies of
them in front of him when he wrote John.
I am not fully convinced that John was the last one written.
Nor
am I at all convinced that the Apostle John, one of the 12 disciples, is the
author of the Gospel of John. I don’t
know if there is any way of being certain of the identity of the original
author and compilers. The Gospel itself
only says that the author was the disciple whom Jesus loved (21:20, 24). In John chapter 11, Lazarus was described as
the one Jesus loved (11:3b). Certainly,
there were more disciples than just the 12.
I think a compelling, though not convincing, case can be made that the
author of the 4th gospel was Lazarus.
At
any rate, this Gospel was written with a purpose, and that purpose was not to
exhaustively catalogue Jesus words and actions.
Much was included that is not in Matthew, Mark, & Luke. Much in those gospels is not in John. And the material in all four is arranged and
presented uniquely in each.
The
Gospels of John wants to be read. The
Gospel of John wants the reader to see Jesus within the pages. The Gospel of John wants the reader to meet
Jesus and believe in him, that he is the Messiah, the Son of God, God in human
flesh. The Gospel of John wants this
because if one believes in Jesus, that person will have life. There are plenty of people in the world,
billions, who eat, grow, procreate, work – they are alive. They don’t know Jesus at all and yet a
biologist would define them as living.
No, says, the Gospel of John.
Life, life as God intends it, can only be had by the one who knows
Jesus.
Thus
the problem as observed by David Lose.
People in our day, place, and time, don’t think much about God outside
of Sunday morning, and they don’t look to God’s word to make sense of their
lives. People are alive but not
living. We immediately see what this
means for us, a church family. Before us
sits the fourth gospel saying – read!
Read and believe! Believe and
have life – life as God intends it.
Have
we read?
Are
we living the life we’re invited by God to live?
What
about people around us who don’t have this?
Either they have not read the Gospel or they have no access to it or
they aren’t interested in it. Whatever
the cause, we are surrounded by people who do not have the life God wants
people to have.
John
is the Gospel that records Jesus saying, “I have come that they might have life
and have it abundantly” (10:10). John is
the abundant life Gospel. John is the
Gospel where Jesus says to a Pharisee, Nicodemus, “God so loved the world, he
gave his only son so that whoever believes may not perish but have eternal
life.” In John, Jesus tells Martha, “I
am the resurrection and the life. Those
who believe in me though they die will live.
And everyone who lives and believes in me will never die” (11:25-26). John is an open book – open for everyone,
every person. We read, meet Jesus,
believe, and have eternal life; abundant life.
Before
us sits the fourth Gospel, the word of God.
Are we into the life God wants for us?
Are we inviting the world around us into that life?
I
have been recommending pathways into the Bible.
Some readers will be blessed memorizing verses of scripture like John
3:16, or one my favorites, John 14:6.
“Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life and no one comes to the
father except through Him.” Memorization
helps us feel the wholeness of God’s word encapsulated in a verse or 2.
Others
feel blessing in the walking through the Bible in a deliberate fashion reading
a few chapters each day all the way through in a year’s time.
I
suggested reading as a way of meeting God; keep a God notebook in which you
record your encounters with the Creator of all that is as you meet him in the
pages of the book He had given.
I
suggested reading the Bible and the newspaper together each talking to the
other so that our journey in scripture relates the world around us and we see
the world in light of scripture.
A
fifth pathway into the Bible involves deep introspection. Write your own life story. We heard Matthew share his last week. Chris and Nelson shared theirs two weeks
ago. Imagine you were to be recruited to
share your faith story, your testimony.
Next Sunday you would tell who you are.
Surely the journey would include season, maybe long stretches, in which
you felt very far from God. And maybe
stretches felt like you walked hand-in-hand with God. Everyone has his or her own story. Imagine yours. I recommend writing it out if you never
have. Doing so requires you to deal with
details you might be tempted to sweep under the rug. Imagine your life story, including all the
hardest of hard places.
Now,
take your life story with you every time you step into the Bible. And as you review your life story, see the
story of God in the scriptures alongside it.
Some
people recommend having a life verse. I
think this can be helpful. In your
reading of scripture, find verse that sums up your life as you have walked with
God, fallen away, and come back again.
This is the fifth pathway into the word, I propose. Review your life story with scripture in view
and identify a Biblical story or a verse or two that is your life verse. And by the way, as life changes, your
understanding of your life verse does too and you might even find a new life
verse when you enter a new season.
That’s OK.
The
4th Gospel testifies that the Bible is intended to draw us to God
and to have life in Jesus’ name. In John
20, Jesus appeared to the disciples.
Judas hung himself after betraying Jesus. Thomas missed seeing Jesus. He heard of the resurrection from those who
had seen Jesus, but he refused to believe.
The Gospel that invites the reader to faith also recognizes the
potential for doubt, unbelief. Some will
hear the stories of resurrection and flat-out refuse to accept that it could be
true.
John 20:21 says,
21 Jesus said to them
again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” 22 When
he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy
Spirit. 23 If you forgive the sins of any, they are
forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”
This
commission of Jesus, including the forgiving and retaining of sins prompts New
Testament professor Susan Hylen to ask, "What is expected of later
followers of Jesus?"[ii] The fourth gospel expects to be read by
believers, not just pastors, but everyone in the church. The fourth gospel expects us to trust the witness
offered. The fourth gospel expects us
to, upon hearing the testimony, to believe in Jesus and have life in his
name. Beyond, that, we are to become the
inviting voice that draws in others, doubters, skeptics, sinners, you name it.
Jesus
grants his followers the authority to forgive or retain sins. The weight of this commission can only be
shouldered by Christ-followers who know their own weakness. When we realize that we are receiving this
commission because at our lowest point we were lifted up by Jesus and He is our
only hope, only then, in full view of our weakness, can we receive the
commission to forgive or retain sins.
Professor Hylen reminds us that in John’s Gospel, ‘sin,’ means failing
to see Jesus as the Son of God and believe in him.
If
we are in Christ, then we are never inclined to want to retain anyone’s
sin. Our bent is to see people outside
the faith, or those in the church, who are not walking with Jesus, turn to Him,
see Him, believe, and come to life.
That’s what has happened to us and now it is what we want for
others. In Christ, having seen, we do
not want to see anyone’s sin retained. We
want for others the abundant life Jesus has given to us. We become the invitation we have answered.
This
week, read the Bible. And review your
life. Read your own autobiography as you
read the Bible. Remember who you were
and who you are, where you have been and where you are today. Let God’s word prod you to deeper faith and
abundant, eternal life. Along the way,
make your life an invitation, inviting a nonbeliever to see Jesus, believe in
Him, and have life in His name.
The
Bible is your entry point to life.
Your
invitation is a wake-up letting your friend know that he too is invited to
enter the story of the with-God life.
AMEN
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