The Tale of two kingdoms
Notes
Transcript
Light or Darkness
Light or Darkness
The title of our sermon this morning is “The Tale of Two Kingdoms” and that is were we are going to begin. Look at verse 19 with me.
19 And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil.
There may be a lot of different religions with different angles or nuances in beliefs but at the end of the day it all boils down to there is only two sides in the cosmic struggle all the way down to the struggle for your own soul and that is light and and darkness truth and lies. One of the deadliest lies in our culture is that truth is realitive. It doesn’t matter what you believe you just need to be genuine. We under estimate attacks on our own soul.
I want to look at two errors that darknesses uses. Two distinct lies we tend to believe as humans that Jesus addresses in this chapter. First one, in verses 1-15 of chapter three, is we are saved by our own efforts.
I think we under estimate the work it takes to sustain our faith. And if we aren’t careful we will think that This work is done by human effort, which was and still is the Jewish belief, The lie is that you can be saved by works. We see through out the New Testament, that the Jewish thought was that salvation came by keeping the law. And many believed that they did keep it. And that is what we looked at the last couple of weeks. The concept of being born again. Remember this struggle Nicodemus was having at the begining of John chapter 3. remember the tension we see in Nicodemus?
Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.” Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
we must recognize what a culture shock Jesus was to traditional Judisam.
This belief still plagues Jewish thought
I want to share the Jewish view from an article “What is a Mitzvah”
The Sefer ha-Chinuch, an influential work composed by an anonymous author in 13th-century Spain, is the most complete presentation of mitzvot in this role as a kind of cognitive behavioral therapy for the human species. The most famous quote from the book: “A person's attitudes are molded by his behavior.”6
The author supports his statement by describing how through good deeds and Torah study a wicked heart can be transformed to the good, while the opposite occurs with a good heart and wicked deeds. Indeed, the entire work details exactly what attitudes are affected in what way by what mitzvah.
The Kabbalists of 16th-century Tzfat, particularly Rabbi Yitzchak Luria (“the Ari”), provided a cosmic healing model for the mitzvot. Mitzvot are devices that reach under the hood of the cosmos to repair it, reorganizing it into a harmonious state that is capable of receiving boundless G‑dly light. Ultimately, then, it is our mitzvot that are responsible for preparing the world for the messianic era, a time when it will be possible to do all the mitzvot fully, in their ideal context, and the world will be filled with G‑dly light “as the waters cover the ocean basin.”7
SO what is the answer? Jesus said you must be born again. What does that mean? We realize that all of our own effort is useless right? We can’t save ourselves. We are dead in our sins and transgressions. Ever since Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden. Our chance ability to save ourselves through our own effort is lost. We must be born again. We must believe the the Gospel and when we genuinely believe. We are filled with the Holy Spirit and then we overcome sin not by our own effort but it is done by listening to and yielding to the leading of the Holy Spirit, the divine light that is dwelling in you if you truly believe in Jesus. That is how we overcome the darkness. Remember from last week, salvation isn’t a onetime event is it? Remembered from Hebrews chapter 3
For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end.
There is a danger in thinking that you can be born again and then coast. According the author of Hebrews, We can only know for sure that we share in Christ if, if, if we hold our original confidence firm to the end. You must finish well! Look with me at Timothy chapter 1
18 This charge I entrust to you, Timothy, my child, in accordance with the prophecies previously made about you, that by them you may wage the good warfare,
19 holding faith and a good conscience. By rejecting this, some have made shipwreck of their faith,
20 among whom are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have handed over to Satan that they may learn not to blaspheme.
I want to share with you what my commentary had to say about being handed over to Satan.
1 and 2 Timothy and Titus—To Guard the Deposit Failing (vv. 19b, 20)
This “hand[ing] over to Satan” was excommunication. Paul cast Hymenaeus and Alexander out of the church—away from God’s care and protection and thus under the power of Satan. It was Paul’s intention that they be buffeted by Satan and that their separation from God in this way be brought home to them by their forced separation from God’s people.
So are heart towards those who have fallen away needs to be one of reconciliation. Look with me at 2 Thessalonians
14 If anyone does not obey what we say in this letter, take note of that person, and have nothing to do with him, that he may be ashamed.
15 Do not regard him as an enemy, but warn him as a brother.
The second main lie is the deity of Jesus, we must understand that when it came to religious views of God there were two main ones. The Jewish people and monotheism and everyone else who had many gods. For example the Greeks had 12 main gods and the Romans had 12 main gods. The Egyptians had over 2,000 gods. But how many did the Jewish people have?
The Jewish people prided themselves in their monotheism. Everyone outside of Israel believed in many gods. So when Jesus said
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
This is extremely difficult for Jewish people to consider. We know from the Shama that the Lord our God is one.
It is interesting to see how the Greeks were in the ditch on the other side of the road. Let’s look at Acts 14
Acts 14:8–12 (ESV)
Now at Lystra there was a man sitting who could not use his feet. He was crippled from birth and had never walked.
He listened to Paul speaking. And Paul, looking intently at him and seeing that he had faith to be made well, said in a loud voice, “Stand upright on your feet.”
And he sprang up and began walking. And when the crowds saw what Paul had done, they lifted up their voices, saying in Lycaonian, “The gods have come down to us in the likeness of men!”
Barnabas they called Zeus, and Paul, Hermes, because he was the chief speaker.
While the Jews stumbled over the trinity and believing that Jesus was God. The Greeks saw the good works Paul and Barnabas were doing and immediately believed they were gods. So as we look at John chapter 3 and we consider this battle for truth. I can’t help but think back to the fact that The world is lying to you culture is lying to you If you have not been born again your own heart is lying to you.
The Jewish people created an entire religious system