Will the Real Jesus Please Stand Up?

Pray

Didn’t Really Know Grandma Pete

Have you ever had the experience where you thought you knew someone and then when you learned more about them you realized you didn’t really know them at all? You thought you knew them well, but then as you spent more time with them you realized they were a totally different person from what you expected?

I experienced this with my Great Grandma Petersen. As a little kid I just knew her as grandma; this sweet old lady who made good food and loved her family well. There was no more depth to my knowledge of her than that. But as I grew older, I had more time and maturity to talk personally with her and get to know her more.

Early mornings (or afternoons on the way home from college) sitting and talking at the kitchen table overlooking the beautiful woods and pond.

Some of my fondest memories with her were sitting and talking with her at the kitchen table.

Hard life: childhood poverty, abusive relationship, had to work to gain everything from nothing, experience some gut wrenching tragedy that are hard to fathom and yet she had so much joy.

Way back in the day, she helped start the first drive-in restaurant in the area, way before Sonic ever came to town.

Was a matriarch of Warrensburg and a really big deal to the town.

Served as essentially an adopted mother for so many kids.

Sense of humor

April fool’s joke with Pam where she pretended to be dead in her 90s.

The grandma I thought I knew was not the grandma that I actually had. She was so much greater than I had realized. Looking back on my view of her as a kid, I realized that I had never really known her. And as I got to know her, even the parts of her that once confused me now made sense. It took spending time with her and truly talking with her and getting to know her before I could begin to understand the real Grandma Petersen.

Have you ever had that experience? Maybe it was a friend or family member that you thought you knew, but you found out more and realized they were a different person than you thought. Maybe it was a boyfriend or girlfriend that you thought you knew, but as you got into the relationship you realized that they were totally different than you had believed. Maybe it’s a celebrity that you thought you knew from afar but then as news came out they were different than you expected. Or maybe it was a book or movie or experience where you thought you knew how something was going to be going in and it turned out to be totally different in reality.

Group Question 1:

Talk about a person, time, experience, movie that you thought you understood and knew about going in, but things turned out totally different when you actually got to know the person better or experienced the thing first hand.

Set Up Series

This semester, we’ve been making our way through the Gospel of John to gaze upon the glory of Jesus in his life, death, resurrection, and ascension. We want to know what the real Jesus is like, not just accept popular cultural portraits of him. This week we are going to be in John chapters 4 and 5. So if you have your Bible with you, turn or tap with me to John chapter 4 verse 46. John 4:46. We won’t be able to read every verse of John 4 and 5, but we’ll be able to get a big picture view of it all. As you turn there to John 4:46, let me read for you a verse later on in our passage that will serve as the launching pad for us.

John 5:39-40

In John 5:39-40, Jesus is talking to the Pharisees and he says:

“You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life.”

Translation: Jesus is saying, “You think you know me, you think you understand me, but you don’t and that has eternal consequences.”

The Pharisees understanding of Jesus, our understanding of Jesus has eternal consequences.

Tonight, we will be looking at three views of Jesus; 3 reactions to Jesus. And as we look at these three views of Jesus, we will get a look at our own hearts and our own view of Jesus. These reactions to Jesus are not exhaustive by any means, but they are helpful to see.

Because Jesus is infinite and we are not, we can never know him fully but we can know him truly. We can never know him fully, but we can know him truly. And our goal tonight is to know Jesus even more truly than we had walking in by looking at these three views of Jesus in John 4 and 5.

View of Jesus #1: The Official With a Dying Son (John 4:46-54)

With all of that being said, let’s take a look at our first view of Jesus found in John 4:46.

John 4:46-54

“So he came again to Cana in Galilee, where he had made the water wine. And at Capernaum there was an official whose son was ill. 47 When this man heard that Jesus had come from Judea to Galilee, he went to him and asked him to come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death. 48 So Jesus said to him, “Unless you see signs and wonders you will not believe.” 49 The official said to him, “Sir, come down before my child dies.” 50 Jesus said to him, “Go; your son will live.” The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and went on his way. 51 As he was going down, his servants met him and told him that his son was recovering. 52 So he asked them the hour when he began to get better, and they said to him, “Yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him.” 53 The father knew that was the hour when Jesus had said to him, “Your son will live.” And he himself believed, and all his household. 54 This was now the second sign that Jesus did when he had come from Judea to Galilee.”

So what can we learn from this man’s view of Jesus from this passage?

First, I want to make an observation. This official probably would have been a prominent and wealthy individual in his community. But that didn’t heal his son. The official's social status, money, marriage, and power did nothing to truly help him in his time of deepest need. The same is true of us. Our social status, relationships, marriages, and money cannot bring true healing in our deepest time of need.

Notice what the man is asking (for Jesus to intervene explicitly and obviously in his circumstance). To come with him, lay his hands on his son, and heal him). Instead, JEsus says to him, “Go, your son will live”.

Jesus is saying that he will work in the man’s life, but not in the way he is expecting.

How many times do we expect Jesus to work in signs and wonders in our life in big and obvious ways, when in fact he still works signs and wonders but in ways we wouldn’t expect. The result here was the same, but it took place differently than the official expected.

What specifically are you praying for God to do in your life right now? If you're honest, how is it that you expect him to answer your prayer? I want you to picture it right now. Are you prepared for the likely situation when God answers your prayer differently than you expect? How would your view of God change if He answers your prayer differently than you expect? How you handle God's answers to your prayers give you a good picture of how we actually view God Himself.

The man came to Jesus looking for signs and wonders. What signs and wonders are you waiting for? If he didn’t answer with signs and wonders would you still believe? Would you have unbelief? One day we will get to see the full picture of how God has written this story of grace and answered our prayers in ways more glorious than we could’ve ever expected.

Notice how Jesus discouraged the man from just looking for obvious signs and wonders and yet, in the end, verse 54 tells us that Jesus still worked signs and wonders. Even now, even if Jesus doesn’t work obvious, ultra explicit signs and wonders in your life as he answers your prayers, in the end, he is still working signs and wonders in our lives. We just may not see it as that until we look back on what he had been doing. That man didn’t know Jesus was working a sign and wonder until he experienced the waiting and he walked forward in faith.

By not going with the man to touch the son and heal him, Jesus manifested his power and glory in an even more profound way. He didn’t have to touch the son to heal him. He can do it with mere words from 20 miles away. He doesn’t have to be obviously present in our situations to bring healing.

For some of you, as you wrestle with God in prayer, the thing you most need to hear tonight is that God is a good father and that he is not withholding his good gifts from you; he just might be delivering them differently than you might expect.

It’s a 20 mile walk from Capernaum to Cana. There was a significant period of time where the man saw no evidence of his prayer being answered. He had to have been so stressed and anguished thinking about his son. His journey would have been tiring but it would have been worth it and even more incredible than he had expected.

What is your 20 mile walk right now?

Personal Experience related to all of this:

My story of calling to PV. 2 years of depression. Jason’s call and Brad telling me to take the call. I prayed for God to give me an obvious answer. He didn’t. My official answer wouldn’t come until well after the week deadline. It was like God was saying, “Go. I’ll answer”. I had to step out in faith without an obvious answer and show of his presence and yet in that he came through and showed his power like he couldn’t have if he had given me an obvious answer. In the less obvious answers, God manifested his power and glory and love in a way he never could if he gave us the answer right away. In the waiting we get to watch him weave a story of redemption and grace that we never would have seen otherwise.

Group Question 2:

Where have you seen God answer your prayers differently than you expected and the result is more glorious than what you expected? What situation in your life is your mile 20 walk back to Capernaum? Where is God not answering your prayers as you would expect right now? How do you need to step out in faith in that like the man walking back to Capernaum?

View of Jesus #2: The Man By the Pool (John 5:1-9)

In our first view of JEsus, we saw that we must keep from believing that God is bounded by our expectations. God can and will work wonders beyond our wildest dreams, but they may not happen as we expect. If we believe the true Jesus, we have to be willing to step out in faith like the offical did on his way back to Capernaum. And by doing so, we will see Jesus work in incredible ways.

Now let’s look at our next view of Jesus. Turn or tap with me to John 5 verse 1.

John 5:1-9

“After this there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, in Aramaic called Bethesda, which has five roofed colonnades. In these lay a multitude of invalids—blind, lame, and paralyzed. One man was there who had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been there a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to be healed?” The sick man answered him, “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, and while I am going another steps down before me.” Jesus said to him, “Get up, take up your bed, and walk.” And at once the man was healed, and he took up his bed and walked. Now that day was the Sabbath.”

What can we learn from this man’s view of Jesus?

First, notice that when Jesus asks the man if he wants to be healed, notice how the man answers. He says that there is no one there to put him in the pool. And in his reaction we get a piercing look at how we treat God all of the time. Notice, the man is waiting for someone else to take care of his problem, to bring a solution, to bring an answer, to bring healing. He didn’t even tell Jesus that he wanted to be healed when Jesus asked. He just told Jesus why he wasn’t being healed. How often do we not even go to God about the healing of our circumstances and instead just complain about our current situation? How often do we wait around for someone else, something else to get us out of predicament? We think if someone or something else would come along things could get better. But it never seems to happen. It certainly didn’t for the man who had been there for years without healing.

Maybe you have a pornography addiction and you’re waiting to be married because you think we you get to consummate that relationship your addiction will cease. Wrong. Talk to any of the married folks you know and they’ll tell you it doesn’t work like that.

Maybe you have an eating disorder and you think that once you get down to your goal weight your disorder will go away. Wrong. People are almost never satisfied with how they look. Even the most beautiful and in-shape celebrities whose whole job is to look good aren’t satisfied with how they look and their eating disorders continue on.

Maybe you struggle with gossip and causing drama and you think that once people view you as popular and important your problem will go away because there won’t be a need to manufacture stories and tear others down so you look better. Wrong. Many times the most popular people are the least happy and are never at peace because there is always someone else who they want to view them favorably who doesn’t to the degree they desire. You can’t please everyone.

Maybe you’re waiting for someone to sweep you off your feet because you think that if you’re married your anxiety about contentment will end. Wrong. Marriage is a beautiful thing, but your spouse could never live up to expectations so lofty that they would have to bring you total contentment.

Maybe you’re waiting for a job or particular opportunity and it’s not materializing right now. You’re waiting for someone or something else to come along and give you the job you want. You think that when they do you’ll finally be really happy. Wrong. No job can perfectly satisfy us and no job ever will.

Like the man by the pool, you and I often wait around for someone else or something else to heal us or change our circumstances and we miss the healing hand of God right in front of us; sometimes even neglecting to tell him we want to actually be healed ourselves.

How many frustrated prayers to God have you had this last year that don’t actually articulate your need but just rant to God about how frustrated you are with your circumstances. That’s not to say God doesn’t hear those rants, Jesus still heard the frustration of the man, but it is to say that if we never actually articulate our need then we must work on healing our attitude before we can rightly handle healing in our circumstances. So where are you waiting for someone or something else to heal you or are circumstances? Have you actually articulated your need to God?

Sometimes it’s our lack of articulation that need actually keeps us from seeing our real need.

Notice that when Jesus asks the man if he wants to be healed, the man doesn’t actually articulate his real need. He thinks his real need to be placed in the pool. But it’s not. His real need is to be healed by having an encounter with Jesus. Yet, if left to his own powers, he would have never articulated his true need because he was so fixated on something that wasn’t what he truly needed. This happens to us all of the time. I do this all of time. And I can even go to God for very specific things, and it can sound so pious, but in reality I’m not articulating my true need.

Knowing Jesus is good and big is fine, but unless we see him as our biggest need in life, we can never have a true or accurate view of who he really is.

I just spoke of the example of my calling here to PV, but it illustrates this point really well too. For 2 years, I prayed desperately for God to give me a ministry position. I prayed specifically for it and for God to make things better at my previous job. But that wasn’t my true need. My true need was that I needed to see that I can trust in Jesus and Jesus alone for my true happiness and contentment no matter what comes. My real need was to live out the theology I was preaching and to truly experience it before I began to minister. But instead I articulated superficial things that weren’t my real need. If God has given me a ministry position right away, I would have been way less effective. God forced more to learn how to minister in any season and context, regardless of how happy or satisfied I felt. I remember sitting down with Tim Overby and he wisely told me that I didn’t have to be in a church to pastor. If I truly believed I was called to ministry, I should start be being the pastor of the office. Caring for folks in hard times of life, praying for people in need in the office, looking for opportunities to come along side my coworkers, being the guy they knew they could talk to or pray with. If I wasn’t willing to pastor and minister then, why would I think I could do it in a church when things get really hard and you stare death, grievous sin, depression, and lies straight in the face on a daily basis. That time at the architecture firm prepared me to minister here better than I ever could have just by stepping straight into this job. I wouldn’t have been able to rightly receive the answers to my prayers because I hadn’t had my real need addressed.

I sit down with folks all of the time who are distraught or distressed by particular circumstances or situations and by the end of the conversation it becomes obvious that their real need isn’t for their particular situation to improve, but that their frustration or anguish is the byproduct of a far deeper need. Half the job of a counselor is helping see what the deeper issues really is so that people can begin to take steps towards actual and lasting healing.

So what about you? Are you praying for that pornography addiction to go away? Your need isn’t marriage, but rather than you would be so satisfied by Jesus that porn and masturbation becomes reprehensible to you.

Are you praying for that eating disorder to go away? Your need isn’t to get to your goal weight but to see that you have true and real value because you are made in the image of God and that your value isn’t tied to the numbers on the scale.

Maybe you’re praying for your gossiping and dramatic spirit to cease. Your need isn’t popularity and the approval of others. It’s to see that you and everyone around you are made in the image of God and deserving of respect and that no matter what others think of you, the God of the universe values you.

Maybe you’re praying to be married because you think that will make you content. Your need isn’t marriage but satisfaction in God no matter your relationship status so that you can minister and love God and others wherever you’re at, lest you put expectations on your spouse they could never fulfill.

Maybe you’re praying for a new job because you think it will vastly change your quality of life. It may help, but your true need is first to be satisfied with the Lord no matter what comes so that you can minister in whatever context you’re in and view your whole life as an exercise in giving glory to God. We miss Jesus’s offer to heal us because we don’t see our true needs and are too busy looking for someone or something else to heal us.

Group Question 3:

What other things are you waiting for to bring you happiness and contentment? Why is it so hard to recognize what our true needs are? What areas of need are the hardest for you to go to God about?

But notice what’s remarkable here even after all of that. While we miss our true need and are looking for something else to heal us, we miss not only Jesus healing offer, but his command to us to initiate our healing. When Jesus said to the man to get up and take his mat, it surely must have sounded impossible. There may even have been a temptation to scoff and ignore the command because it sounded so ridiculous. But if he had just remained sitting, he would have missed out on his healing. He had to take a step of faith and believe that Jesus could actually bring Him healing in a way he thought impossible or that didn’t make sense.

I had to take a step of faith and settle in, have faith, and pastor at my previous job while I waited to see how God would bring healing. I had to take the step of turning the job offer at the other church down, something that didn’t seem to make sense at all, and trust that Jesus would meet my true need as I waited for PV to reply, knowing that one answer might have been that my true calling was to pastor there at the firm.

What step might Jesus be calling you to to bring healing? Maybe if you have a pornography addiction, the first step is telling your trusted friends and mentors about the issue, or deleting your web browser from your phone or deleting social media, or getting rid of your smart phone and replacing it with an old style cell phone.

Maybe if you have an eating disorder or first step that you’re being called to is to tell a trusted friend and go see a counselor to get help.

Whatever step you’re being called to, begin to discern it. Steep yourself in the scriptures, pray that God would give you wisdom, and go to a number of wise friends and family for counsel.

If you don’t take the next step you may miss out on your healing. For some of you, your next step might be going on a mission trip or serving in the church for the first time so you can see God work until ways you’re never had so that you will be drawn to trust him more and be satisfied in him.

Summary: if we

View of Jesus #3: The Pharisees (John 5:10-18)

Now for our third reaction to Jesus. And this one is scary and might hit home for many of us.

The Pharisees were steeped in Scripture and the religious customs of their day and yet they missed the very one the Scriptures testified to when he was right in front of them.

In this story, they get so caught up in religious ceremonies that they miss the one the ceremonies are all about! They take a religious rule, misapply it, misunderstand it, and then because of it condemn the very one who actually wrote the law.

At its core, Sabbath was about rest and healing and rejuvenation; not about how many steps you could take or what you could carry. Sabbath was supposed to point people to the reality that God is the one who truly sustains all things. By resting and allowing God to heal and rejuvenate us on the Sabbath we acknowledge that God alone is the healer and sustainer of the universe.

The Pharisees, instead, take the Sabbath rules, many of which they added to and tweaked, and made the rules about themselves. The Sabbath became a time for them to brag and show how holy they were since they followed the Sabbath rules better than anyone else. They went through the motions so much with the religious ceremonies and rules in their day that they missed the one who the rules and ceremonies all pointed to.

By doing so and going through the motions, they showed they weren’t trusting in the true God, but rather the God that was a figment of their imagination.

Church folk do this all of the time.

Lord’s Supper Story

In fact, I fell into just this past weekend. As we prepared for the Lord’s Supper during service, my mind was spinning about work concerns and tasks and I was already beginning to go through the motions with the Lord’s Supper. Here I am taking this beautiful and important sacrament that Jesus commanded us to do and I’m just rolling through it like it was no big deal. I was missing the whole point. And then suddenly, Pastor Josh called me out from the stage. Not just me, but many others, when he said, don’t just rely on what’s familiar. Don’t just rely on what you know. Don’t assume you know everything about the Lord’s Supper or what it’s about or how God can use it. That hit me like a bolt of lightning.

By going through the motions and having a distracted mind, I was technically observing the Lord’s Supper but I was missing the very one who instituted the Supper and the one who the Supper is all about! I was acting just like the Pharisees.

In that moment, by going through the motions and missing the point of the Lord’s Supper, I was implicitly saying that I didn’t believe that Jesus could use that moment to bring healing and joy to me. Of course I would never articulate that, but that’s exactly what my actions were saying. I was being a Pharisee.

You and I can do this all of the time. We can read our Bibles, go to church, sing songs of praise, serve, come to Twenty-Somethings, and still miss the very one we claim to love.

We don’t believe Jesus can actually heal us or satisfy us, no matter how pious our language is. We can dunk on the Pharisees but many of us do the very same things as them.

We can read the Scriptures, sing of Jesus’ praises in Sunday mornings, come to Twenty-Somethings, and say true things about Jesus, and it all looks very faithful, but in fact, in our heart of hearts we aren’t acknowledging the Jesus who the Scriptures truly testify about. We don’t acknowledge the Jesus that really can bring us true delight and contentment and satisfaction.

We search the Scriptures and yet we do not believe in the real Jesus right in front of us offering us healing.

Be honest, what situation in your life right now do you not believe Jesus can really minister to? What situation do you struggle to believe God can change? In what areas of your life do you struggle to see how God can satisfy you?

Are we actually looking for the real Jesus or are we looking for a figment of our imagination?

We so often expect Jesus to do and be what the Scriptures never say we will do and be and then we get frustrated at him when he doesn’t meet those expectations. No wonder we can sometimes wonder if he’s even there. In reality he’s not, because we’re looking for a Jesus that isn’t real!

We all remember the scary story of those who claim to know Jesus and do miracles in his name and exorcising demons in his name and yet Jesus says to them “I never knew you”. But we don’t think about the reality on the other side of that coin. How often does Jesus minister in our midst and yet, because he works differently than we might expect, we say to him, “I never knew you”?

If Jesus were here with us now, would he be able to say to us like he said of the Pharisees in John 5: 39-40: “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life.”

Group Question 4:

What religious rules and mindsets do you get lost in so that you miss Jesus? For me it was going through the motions during the service last weekend that I almost missed meeting with Jesus. For some of you you might be showing up to Sunday church yet not engaging in any other spiritual disciplines and you’re wondering why you haven’t been experiencing Jesus. For others it may be that you’re going to church and reading your bible but you’re not serving and you’re wondering why you’re stagnant in your faith. Or maybe you’re going to church and reading your bible but you’re not consistently confessing your sin to God and you wonder why the cross and the Gospel seem boring to you. In all of those cases you’re taking biblical truths but misunderstanding and misapplying them like the Pharisees. Where are you falling into that in your life?

The Real Jesus (John 5:19-47)

Jesus spends the bulk of chapter 5 explaining to the Pharisees why he is so much greater than their view of him. He shows them that they don’t actually believe in the real Jesus because they are stuck in affirming a figment of their imaginations. He shows them that He is equal with the father in power and authority. He can raise the dead to life and is the fulfillment of all that the Pharisees knew. By the end, it is obvious that the Jesus the Pharisees thought they knew is not the JEsus of the very scriptures they claimed to love.

What might Jesus say to us about our view of Him?

Beyond our greatest expectations

We would have expected…(fill in the blank)

The Jesus of the Gospel (share the Gospel)

Does our Jesus turn water to wine and turn over tables?

Does our Jesus both save us from sin and bring judgement to those who reject him?

Does your Jesus reign as king over your life and affections, or if you’re honest, does your Jesus answer to you?

Does your Jesus ever disagree with you or convict you? If not you don’t belief in the real Jesus.

The job of a Christian is to know Jesus more truly day after day by spending more time with him. That means taking time to steep in his word, spend time with him in prayer, meditate on his promises, and wrestle with his truths. If we aren’t doing that we will never come to know the real Jesus; we’ll just be professing praise to a figment of our imagination.

If you have realized you don’t actually know the true Jesus, we’d love to talk with you.

Pray