Prepare the Way: Reading John on the Road to Resurrection

Prepare the Way Series

Week 1: Jesus is the Word in the Beginning (Read Jon 1:1-18; 4:1-26)

Week 2: Jesus Brings healing to the Nations (Read John 6:1-15)

Week 3: The I AM Promises (Read John 6:35; 8:12; 10:7; 10:11 & 14; 11:25; 14:6; 15:1)

Week 4: The Love of Jesus for the World (Read John 13:31-35; 15:12-17)

Week 5: Jesus’ Message of the Kingdom (Read John 17:9-20; 18:33-38)

Week 6: A Resurrected People (Read John 19:17-30; 20:19-23)

NOTE: *ALL ONE SLIDE TOGETHER

Jesus Prepares us for Easter

John 17:17-23 “Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. I sanctify myself for them, so that they also may be sanctified by the truth. “I pray not only for these, but also for those who believe in me through their word. May they all be one, as you, Father, are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us, so that the world may believe you sent me. I have given them the glory you have given me, so that they may be one as we are one. I am in them and you are in me, so that they may be made completely one, that the world may know you have sent me and have loved them as you have loved me.”

The Gospel of John is often the first book of the Bible recommended to new believers....

John is the latest writer of the four gospel evangelists. It’s different than Matthew, Mark, and Luke....John is less worried about all the exact details that happened in life of Jesus and more about the meaning of the life of Jesus:

Specifically that Jesus is the Christ, the son of the living God…that Jesus is the exact representation of who God is because Jesus is God become flesh.

The Tradition of Lent

It may be new to some of you, but for about a thousand years or more, the church has traditionally viewed the 6 weeks leading to Easter Sunday as a pathway called Lent.

Why is that important?

Because to narrow the work of Jesus to his arrest, trial, torture, and crucifixion is to ignore the connection between the DEATH of Jesus and LIFE of Jesus.

We’ve been guilty of imagining the primary reason Jesus came was to dal with the “SIN PROBLEM”...

But Jesus claims to have come to bring the Kingdom…or that his world (heaven) would come down into our world (earth).

*As we read John together, I want you to see that... We cannot skip the road leading us to resurrection and ever expect to be ready for the TRUTH that is revealed there.

Principle: Just like reading Scripture, the life of faith is a PROCESS.

I have found in whatever area of my life that still remains un-processed, un-touched by the work of the Holy Spirit, that area becomes a stronghold for the enemy’s attack in my life.

Lent is a season of processing on the inside so that we are ready for what the resurrection reveals.

If we cannot be truthful with ourselves we cannot hear the truth of the risen Christ.

Overview: Reading John Together

Over the next couple months we will be reading the gospel of John together..we will have different voices, and we need to hear what you see...

But here’s the lens I want you to see through reading John...

Christ Lived

Christ Suffered

Christ Died

Christ was Resurrected

Sanctified by the Truth

Maybe another way to view this path to Easter....

Some of you may be more familiar with our branch of Christian faith than others…we are pentecostals, part of the spirit-filled renewal that broke our around the late 1800’s...

Of the many very powerful traits of our tradition, one trait in particular has been detrimental…we called it SANCTIFICATION

Sanctification just means holiness or to be purified.

Too often the church imagines a glorified life of resurrection WITHOUT also remembering there is a process or Sanctification.

Talking with friends a few weeks back…many of the people we grew up admiring believed in an instant form of sanctification…one that did not require a process.

The result of that belief is a lot of secrets…a lot of hiding.

Principle: Your divine design was created to process challenging, hard, and difficult seasons of life…the primary obstacle to that taking place on the inside is FEAR.

FEAR is the enemies trip-switch to keep us from moving through pain and suffering into life and hope and peace.

John 17:17 “Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth.”

Jesus is the “really real”…whenever Satan tries to strike fear in your heart let your confession be Jesus is my present help, I have nothin to fear (Psalms 46:1-2)!

Psalms 46:1-2 “God is our refuge and strength, a helper who is always found in times of trouble. Therefore we will not be afraid, though the earth trembles and the mountains topple into the depths of the seas,”

Jesus is the Truth (John 14:6) and the Word (John 1:14)....

*It is only in and through the PATH of Jesus that we can live this life of Resurrection! ....another way of saying that is “It is only through the path of suffering, cross, and death that we can live the life Jesus provided for those who would believe!”

Jesus as the First and Original

Over the years it has seemed more appropriate to talk about Jesus as the ORIGINAL plan, rather than God’s back-up plan....in other words Jesus (in the gospel of John) shows us how we were meant to be...

Christ Lived

Philippians 2:5-8 “Adopt the same attitude as that of Christ Jesus, who, existing in the form of God, did not consider equality with God as something to be exploited. Instead he emptied himself by assuming the form of a servant, taking on the likeness of humanity. And when he had come as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death— even to death on a cross.”

Because Jesus lived a sinless life “even unto death”, I can also surrender my life and follow him in obedience to the Father

Christ Suffered

The way of the Cross is the way through death...

That’s the best way we know how to talk about the process where (as P. Eric mentioned on Sunday) I decrease so that God may increase (John 3:30)

Christ Died

I find it helpful to think of it this way....

There is the WORK of the Cross

The work of the Christ is what Jesus has done for me.

There is the WAY of the Cross

The Way of the Cross (the path to dying to self) is what Jesus is doing in me.

Christ was Resurrected

Resurrection is SO MIUCH more than what is going to happen “some day in glory”...

Resurrection is the power that lives in you today! It is the power of God’s love to transform your broken existence into wholeness and joy and strength!

1 Corinthians 1:18 “For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but it is the power of God to us who are being saved.”

Prayer: Jesus teach us to take seriously the Path that leads to Easter Sunday.