Face Time: Jesus Meets World

Brad strelau

Face Time • Sermon • Submitted 7 years ago

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Intro:

Face Time

Excited to step into this new series called Facetime.

And point I want to make is this...

The God of the Bible is not a God who stands far off, leaving us to grope in the dark concerning His character and His desire to know and live in relationship with us.

- “if you’ve seen me you’ve seen the Father”

- Jesus is God’s greatest revelation of Himself

Jesus tells His disciples in The Gospel of , that seeing Him, they “have seen the Father.” The writer of Hebrews says Jesus is God’s greatest revelation of himself () and shows us what it looks like when God engages with His creation. So in this series, Facetime, we will be walking through the encounters Jesus had with different individuals in the Gospel of John to see how lives were changed, and can be changed, when we find ourselves face to face with God.

One of the ridiculous claims of Christianity is that God not only created the world and stepped back to watch (that is called deism)

but that after creating the world he actually engages with it.

Grab your bibles

So the first thing I want to talk about is Jesus (God in human flesh coming face to face with His Creation.

John 1:1–5 ESV

John 1:9–14 ESV

The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

John 1:1–14 ESV

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness, to bear witness about the light, that all might believe through him. He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light. The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

Prayer

In 1961, Yuri Gagarin, a Soviet Cosmonaut became the first person to go into space. Nikita Kruschev who was the premier of the Soviet Union at the time, leveraged this in his stance on atheism. At a conference sponsored by the state's anti-religion campaign, Kruschev says, "We sent a man into space and didn't see God there."

C.S. Lewis who was alive at the time responded to that comment. In an essay, he wrote that if you wanted to relate to God, you wouldn't relate to him like a person living on the first floor would relate to someone living on the second floor.

C.S. Lewis said that's not how it works. If there was a God, you wouldn't relate to God the way a person living on the first floor would relate to a person living on the second floor.

That would be like Hamlet trying to find Shakespeare in his attic.

And the only way Hamlet could know anything about Shakespeare is if Shakespeare wrote himself into the play.

PAUSE

Dorothy Sayers was one of the first women to graduate from Oxford and also a writer of mystery novels. Her main character was an aristocrat named Lord Peter Wimsey. At one point, the main character meets a woman named Harriet Vane. She's not that good looking, she was a writer of mystery novels, and she was one of the first women to graduate from Oxford. They solve a few mysteries together and eventually marry. And the character gets rescued from his troubled life.

Many people have said that Dorothy Sayers looked at the world she created, she looked at the man she created and loved. But she saw that he was lonely and needed someone to save him. So she wrote herself into the story.

That is the only way that all that her characters needed could possibly be revealed.

Please turn with me in your Bibles to our passage for today. That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched—this we proclaim concerning the Word of life. 2 The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us. 3 We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. 4 We write this to make our[a] joy complete.

In these opening verses, John writes about the event that he believes changes everything - Christ who was God, took on flesh and lived among men and women so they could hear his voice, see his face and feel the touch of his loving hand. God came into the world so that fellowship and intimacy could be restored.

Now here is the the thing..

If God, through Jesus, wrote Himself into the story, how ought we to respond?

First I would say this:

I. TAKE JESUS ON HIS OWN MERIT

When I saw some of you upon arrival, I made some judgements, I came to some conclusions… (I wont share them).

Some of you looked at me, every week, and then you make judgements as well. You decide certain things at a glance. And then you maybe speak to me and they are confirmed, dismissed or they adapted.

And even in the last few minutes as I’ve given you a very short introduction and welcome to church, as I began to talk to you your judgements changed.

for better or for worse I do not know. Maybe its best I don’t know.

PAUSE

It is the same when you and I , or anyone for that matter approaches Jesus!

He is just a name from history. He is a kind of religious guru. He was a crazy man. He was just a nice philosopher that Christians have made into something he never thought about himself.

Or For those of you growing up in church you know that there are 2 answers that cover every Sunday school question, they are and...Jesus.

So.What do you look for when you look for Jesus?

And ask the question What do you look for when you look for Jesus?

What do you look for when you look for Jesus?

Because if we are honest we all look for something different.

A fix, a philosophical idea, a moral example, or is it something more intimate- a brother, a friend, a marriage fix, a saviour.

()

It will change how we approach him and how we respond to him.

Maybe for those who didn't grow up in the church or in Christian community, or worse grew up in unhealthy church and unhealthy christian culture, you have a view, an idea, a false god really created in the minds of men or in our own minds and it is what we walk with when we think of Jesus.

And if thats the case it is also how we decide what God the Father is like, because if we have seen Jesus, as he said, we have seen the Father, Jesus says.

And they would all kind of nod their heads and then go, "yeah yeah we get it Jesus,.....so, where is He?"

Thankfully Jesus followers have become much more astute in 2000 years,

So if people have a tainted idea of who Jesus is they are going to have a tainted idea of who God the Father is and so I think it is important that when people explain to us their distain for Jesus we simply ask the question, "What Jesus is it that you don't like?" Where did you learn about this Jesus?

Because if you and I are honest, most of us don't like the Jesus they are rejecting either!!

Maybe you are one of those:

I would encourge you

Also I would

I mean is it any surprise that people have distain for Jesus when his name is on the same placards and bread boards that proclaim the damnation of all homosexuals and abortionists.

I mean half the stuff I see posted on facebook by Christians (many of them well meaning) is just embarrassing. And I often find myself wanting to post clarification and explanation or simply a harsh word to a fellow-christ follower. (that’d be a full time job)

It used to be we laughed at the crazies yelling hell and damnation on the street corners and now they are in our computers and we cant get them out!!

So the image, the idea, the person of Jesus can be tainted by 2000 years of gunk and pushed far below the surface by culture, and agenda, and media and charasmaniacs.

But if God, through Jesus, wrote himself into the story: We need to take Jesus on His Own Merit

If he is the image of the invisible God, than we cannot dismiss him because of bad press.

Also, if God, through Jesus, wrote himself into our story, then we need to Give Jesus His proper place....

II. GIVE JESUS HIS PROPER PLACE

PAUSE

What John is doing in this text is taking things back . within a few decades rumours and misunderstanding had arisen, so John wants to clear the air and say, I don’t know what you’ve heard but this is Jesus.

John the Baptist when his disciples were feeling threatened by the fact that Jesus disciples were baptizing near by, and all those that should be approaching John and his disciples are now going to Jesus. And approached John and said, "What are we going to do? We are losing our clientele! Our ministry is in trouble because people are going to Jesus.

You actually have the word Baptist in your name!! This cant be right!

And John simply reminds them that the ministry he has was given him by God, and it serves its purpose for a time and then will be done.

And ultimately the goal is that "He must increase. I must decrease" v 30

In other words the goal is the glorification of Jesus.

And so when the Church (capital C) and you and I try to lead people to Christianity, to the church, we are doing those people and Jesus a disservice!

Our goal is not to bring people to the church! Our goal is not to lead people to a new philosophy or worldview or a denomination, our goal our job, our calling is not even to change moral behaviour, our purpose as ambassadors of the Gospel is to introduce people to Jesus.

So, what I would like to do with our sessions over the next few days is talk about the person and work of Jesus and the implications it has for all of creation, for you and I, and for the people he encounters and therefore we encounter with the good news of the Gospel.

We are going to be focusing on the Gospels and honing in on the encounter of Jesus the living, breathing, flesh and bone Jesus, with his creation, and in the everyday muck and dirt and business of life.

So lets's start by opening our bibles if we have them turning to John Chapter 1:1

And his intro is like nothing you've ever heard.

I mean I could tell you some entertaining stories about myself, and you might chuckle. They will get old fast.

This is an intro like no other.

John 1:1–14 ESV

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

2 He was in the beginning with God.

3 All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.

4 In him was life, and the life was the light of men.

5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

6 There was a man sent from God, whose name was John.

7 He came as a witness, to bear witness about the light, that all might believe through him.

8 He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light.

9 The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world.

10 He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him.

11 He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him.

12 But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God,

13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

This is not just pretty poetry!

They are meant to keep us from seeing the story of redemption as compartmentalized.

John’s words make up what is known as the prologue of the Gospel of John. (the part that comes before) They are meant to set the stage for every episode that takes place within the book.

It is the major introduction speech so you understand the importance everything he will say and do.

Often when we read of Jesus encounters with everyday people, we think of them simply as short little moral tales from which we can learn how to treat each other, and how much Jesus loves everybody. Those of course can be learned as we read the Gospels, but there is often something much larger going on! There is often something being said about worldview, about how all encompassing the gospel, the good news of Jesus and his arrival, about what life and resurrection is.

They are the backdrop in front of which every encounter plays out. So that when Jesus engages with John the Baptist, when Jesus hangs out with a Samaritan woman at the well, answers the questions of lawyers, and engages with Mary and Martha at a party, in the back of our minds, the truth of this prologue is feeding meaning and potency and a framework for properly understanding every scene.

And this mindset is important not just for the Gospels as we usually use the word, but for the entire collection of Scripture.

Jesus makes it very clear that the entire text is talking about him.

In after his resurrection, Jesus meets up with 2 men who are living in the aftermath of the crucifixion but not yet in the truth of the resurrection and Jesus leads them on the road to Emmaus in what had to be the best Bible Study of all time to explain that all that is happening was part of God’s plan.

Luke 24:27 ESV

And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.

And in the book of Jude there is a passage that many read over and miss the power.

And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.

Jude 5 ESV

Now I want to remind you, although you once fully knew it, that Jesus, who saved a people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe.

--Jesus led the people out of Egypt

The entire collection of writing of the Old Testament and the New Testament are centred on Jesus.

If we miss this, we start looking at individual stories and what we can morally learn from them.

We can and do learn morally from them but even that should be seen in the context of us following Jesus.

PAUSE

I used to work in a "religious" school........

David and Goliath is not about how we take on bullies! When it is looked at in the context of the entire plot-line of narrative of Scripture, it is about a God who saves his people.

David is a type of Jesus, who brings salvation.

Moses and the people of Israel in the desert is not simply about how we should live in the midst of misery, but about how God is always at work to bring us to himself. Moses is a type of Jesus, and there are many things within the story of Moses and the wanderings of Israel in the desert for 40 years that come up again in the the New Testament, and the person and work of Jesus.

And ultimately his creation through the person and work of Jesus.

We interpret the Old Testament in light of the New Testament.

As Paul writes--

2 Corinthians 1:20 ESV

For all the promises of God find their Yes in him. That is why it is through him that we utter our Amen to God for his glory.

So when Jesus engages with a woman rejected by society and looking for love in all the wrong places, it is not simply a kind teacher showing kindness to an outcast, it is the one who created all things and sustains all things who speaks words of life to her.

And not only that but in our own lives as well. What does this prologue mean for the one walking through divorce, the one following Jesus but still questioning their own sexual identity, children who are running away if not physically than spiritually?

The idea behind calling Jesus the "Word" is to emphasize the significance, that the God who used words to bring about all of creation, now speaks again face to face into our existence. To you and I....right now. Will we listen.

PAUSE

If God, through Jesus, wrote himself into our story: We need to give Jesus His proper place.

AND if God, through Jesus, wrote himself into our story: We need to Give Jesus our greatest attention

III. Give Jesus your attention

III. GIVE JESUS OUR GREATEST ATTENTION

He is our greatest focus.

And when he calls his first disciples as we will see in a moment we need to remember the backdrop that

2 He was in the beginning with God.

3 All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.

4 In him was life, and the life was the light of men.

And not only that, but to add to the context and understanding of the entirety of his mission and scope of his being, we read in That John the Baptist has referred to Jesus as “the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.” This does not fall on deaf ears.

And John is the only NT writer to use this phrase, so you know he is trying to make a strong point.

John is the last OT Prophet......

John is letting everyone know that they are on the cusp of something critical to the history of humanity. They may not understand the scope, but their ears would be perking up and their eyes would be opening to see what this could possibly mean. and thats why people throughout Jesus ministry are hanging off every word that He says.

And I would invite you to do the same.

III. The Gospel is not something we graduate from

Because we tend to get it in our minds and then quickly into our practises that the Gospel is something that can graduate from and then we can move on.

As if the good news of the gospel is on a check list that once we get we can just check it off.

The gospel is far too deep and far too wide and far too high for us to move on from. And Jesus invites us to continue to dig in and recognize how all encompassing it is. And it is in this discovery that there is not a square inch of the world over which Jesus does not reign, and that the gospel effects everything, that our Christian maturity and sanctification takes place.

Because when we do that we don't need to be threatened when the gospel meets resistance.

When we keep in mind the prologue of John, the strength of the Gospel, we are less likely to get anxious when people disagree with us.

PAUSE

So in after Jesus has already started calling disciples to himself, Andrew and Peter have been called by Jesus, we read in verse 43,

John 1:43–46 ESV

The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, “Follow me.” Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. Philip found Nathanael and said to him, “We have found him of whom Moses in the Law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.” Nathanael said to him, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Philip said to him, “Come and see.”

John 1:43 ESV

The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, “Follow me.”

The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, “Follow me.” 44 Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. 45 Philip found Nathanael and said to him, “We have found him of whom Moses in the Law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.” 46 Nathanael said to him, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Philip said to him, “

Listen you idiot, it is so obvious that your life is headed nowhere and you are going to hell if you don't just believe!!!

No, he simply said “come and see!”

PAUSE

Two responses I want to hone in on here.

Nathanael’s response

Philip’s response

Nathanael’s response is one of distain

Nathanael is at the least an intellectual snob, and possibly even a bit of a bigot. Dismissing Jesus not because of his message or even who he is but because of where he is from.

Nazareth!? Nazareth?! Can anything good come out of Nazareth?

We can think of equivalents to this, right. What is the place that would immediately turn us off if we knew someone was from there?

That’s Nazareth!

But what makes this funny is that it’s not like Nathanael is from the city.

People in Jerusalem always looked down on the people from out side the city as hicks.

Nathanael is from Galilee just like Jesus was, but like we tend to do he is able to find someone culturally and Spiritually lower.

Sure I’m from Gallilee but at least Im not from Nazareth.

Yeah I’m from Surrey but at least Im not from…Newton, Wally!

PAUSE

A lot of people view Christianity today like Nathanael viewed Nazareth.

Christianity was from Nazareth then and it is still from Nazareth today.

Jesus is still from Nazareth. Followed by people who are old fashioned, buying into ancient myth and weakness.

For many the conversation about Jesus ends before it begins. For many we can't even get into who Jesus is, the life he lived, the things he taught , the reason he died, and the impact of his resurrection, because the very thought of discussing an ancient backwoods prophet is easily dismissed.

PAUSE

Sadly this is where many people are with Jesus before they have ever met him.

Why? Because he doesn’t fall into the parameters of what they think a saviour ought to look like, and they need to see how small or how shaky and misguided their parameters actually are.

And Philip’s response to that. And our response to that ought to be,… “Come and See”

Come and See

Together let’s peel away all the gunk. Let’s filter through what you think you know. Let’s answer the questions you actually have instead of me telling you what you need to know.

We seem to have a very interesting way of delivering the gospel, the person and work of Jesus, which to be honest does not reflect the model of early believers.

When I first became a committed Christian it was our practise to do drive by witnessing!!

We would have our bibles in a holster!!

With horrible lines to start up conversation.

It was forced and uncomfortable

Romans (all of it)

We would kind of drive around a corner and find some people to hit and run with the gospel.

And it was almost always awkward!!

Hey, nice car!

Thanks

Hey how many tires do you have on that car?

um, 4,?

Oh, 4 that interesting, have you ever heard of the 4 Spiritual Laws.

Hey can I talk to you about Jesus.

No.

Please?

Although that still happens, now we seem to have more of a "leave it to the professionals mentality".

So, we spend a lot of time and effort and sometimes money to herd people into church building and arenas and get a pastor or a Christian star to do it.

And there are a few problems with these techniques:

First, they are often ineffective, when it comes to long term discipleship with Jesus.

Because Jesus is seen more as a means to salvation than a person who wants relationship.

Second, they forget the fact that we are ALL called to be ambassadors of the Gospel.

Because if God, through Jesus, wrote himself into our story: He is our greatest story to tell.

He is our greatest boast

MAKE HIM THE

IV. Invite other to “Come and See” (?????)

IV. MAKE HIM OUR GREATEST STORY

invite others to come and see

The spread of the church (which is the introduction of Jesus and the acceptance of His person and work) was almost always done in relationships. Often in a response to obvious questions being asked.

It's how Jesus did it and it is how his followers did it.

So Philip in the book of Acts chapter 8 approaches an Ethiopian Eunuch reading Isaiah and asking questions, can I help you understand this.

Paul throughout Acts going to synagogues where people openly talked about how to interpret the ancient texts.

Paul on Mars Hill in Athens, where people were used to talking and listening to new ideas, pointing out the fact that there is a hole in their worship. “You are very religious, but even you are aware that there is something missing, because your search is relentless. You even have an altar to an unknown God, because you don't want to miss and offend some God you don't know about.Let me tell you what you are looking for.”

Acts 17:24–25 ESV

The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything.

Acts 17:

“The God who made the world and everything in it, being sLord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, 25 nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything.”

So Paul observes and allows the question to be asked (in this case through their worship and lifestyle) and then responds….. Come and See

Because the fact is, our colleagues, our families, our friends, our culture is asking all the right questions, they are just not finding satisfactory answers.

As Chesterton said, "Every man who enters a brothel is looking for God!"

And rather than respond to questions they are not asking. We need to allow our culture to ask the questions and then respond by offering Jesus as the answer. The God who stepped in the story.

Why am I going from empty relationship to empty relationship?

I have money, I'm married to a great woman, a have a great job, but I'm still not satisfied?

I've built the marriage altar, the work altar, the power altar....What am I missing?

Come and See!!

Don't give me religion! Don't give me the Jesus I've heard about him and his followers!! The Jesus of Facebook.

Come and See!

That’s why a course on evangelism or reading a book on evangelism strategies that try to narrow it down to a formula can be dangerous. Because people aren’t projects. People are not robotic.

They are intricate, broken masterpieces searching for their Creator.

At the Port we have a large collection of recovering addicts.

And there is nothing that brings us greater joy then seeing these guys move from seeing Jesus as a means to an end, to a person who wants to befriend them and walk with them.

But, When I grab a coffee with these guys, it becomes apparent very quickly that my manual on evangelism techniques from Bible college wont cut it with their questions.

And as we continually invite them to Come and See. Come and see.

They go from crossed arms and feet up at the back of the church, to engaging in worship, reading their bibles and coming to know forgiveness and healing.

We don't yell at them and try to fix their behaviour. We don't tell them how easy life is with Jesus, we invite them, to come and see.

Jesus calls, Jesus invites us

Whether we are sitting under a fig tree waiting for a messiah we've constructed in our heads, a samaritan woman sitting at a well, 5000 hungry people looking for a meal, or Mary and Martha awaiting someone to tell them in the midst of their brothers death that God is in control, everyone is invited to come and see.

whether we are new to the church thing, have been a Christ follower for years, come and see. Come dive into the depths of what it means to walk and talk with Jesus, the living word.

Come engage with the Word of life, who was in the beginning, who shines light into darkness, who does not stand off but leans in and walks with us.

And like Philip, called to be a disciple, called to follow Jesus, you and I are welcomed into the story as well. You and I are now made relaters of the story, the Gospel, to hand to those who will come and see.

To help those in our sphere of influence to strip away the layers of misrepresentation and abuse of a church that has strayed over the years, and offer them the untainted Christ.

And the best way to do that, is to simply to know him ourselves; Take Jesus on his own merit, Give him his proper place, Give him our attention and focus, make him our greatest story, and invite other to come and see

So over the next few months, we will take a look at a few different encounters, that Jesus (the God-man), who was in the beginning, created all things by his word, and holds all things together, has with his creation. Not as an overlord, but as a flesh and blood, feeling person, who loves to walks with those he has created.

Because if God, through Jesus, wrote himself into our story that changes everything.