2.14.17. 3.27.2022 The Question John 14.1-16

Start

Entice: I have thought a lot about this passage of scripture in the last 12 months. I started a new book several months ago exegeting and applying John 14.6. I've written nearly 11,000 words of introduction and orientation. Perhaps our discussions today will help me bring that project to a close.

Engage: Everyone would seem to agree that our nation has some issues. Maybe that is true. Following Paul:

1 Cor 5.12

I don't have a dog in that fight. My job is to apply scripture to the Church to help the body understand its role in bringing the kingdom of Christ to bear on the empires of this world. The issues seem complex. They only seem complex. They are actually quite simple. We are off course. We are too easily confused, compromised, and off message. The body of Christ too often behaves like a corpse. Jesus was working to fix these problems , before they even broke--actually before they ever existed.

Expand: Jesus knew that the anxiety felt by His disciples that last week of His life would in many ways typify Christian living. Suspended between heaven and earth, now and then, here and now seeking to serve Him in a complex world. This powerful passage is a call for us to be fully bore-sighted on Jesus.

John 14.1-16

Excite: The synoptics focus on the Kingdom message of Jesus' Gospel. In his gospel, John focuses on Jesus, the answer to our every question, the solution to our every problem, the answer to our every prayer. When we ask, what must I do? Where will I spend eternity? Why is there evil and death? How can I please God? The answer always comes down to who? Who is Jesus?

Explore: Only Jesus can handle the big issues which lie at the heart of existence.

Explain: We need to be in a relationship with Jesus because we are

Body of Sermon:

1. Distracted.

I am the way

Without Jesus we are lost, wandering, and in distress.

1.1 Fear

Internal

1.2 Confusion

We need to be in a relationship with Jesus because we are too easily

2. Decieved

2.1 Focusing on the wrong voices.

2.2 Filtering out difficult choices.

We need to be in a relationship with Jesus becasue we are

3. Dead.

John 14.18-20

Ephesians 2.1

3.1 Jesus and the Father share eternality.

3.2 Jesus includes us in this relationship.

3.3 Apart from Jesus: There is no eternal life.

Shut Down:

We humans, being caught in the muti-dimensional experience of time, space, distance, relationship have a very concreate appraoch to making our way through the world. We discuss destinations. We anticipate detours. We consider dangers. Jesus joined us in our historical contingency, at least in part, to get us out of it.

One of the intellectual tools humans use, formally and informally is the application of the basic interrogatories I mentioned earlier. These questions help us get our bearings. What, Why, When, Where, and How--these are the most common and obvious. Jesus collapses all of the interrogatories we associate with life: into one--who. Who you follow. Who you believe. Who gives you life. That is the heart and essence of the Christian faith. Not directions, not principles, not codes, not rules, not regulations. Jesus.