REASON 2 - JOHN 2

As I mentioned yesterday, our church in Upton, MA (Immanuel Chapel OPC) will begin a series of sermons on the Gospel of John on Sunday September 4, 2011.  Our worship service begins at 11:00AM. 

Can you come?  To help persuade you, I am writing a short series of...well...let's call them "encouragements."  Reasons to come. 

Yesterday I gave you my first reason, drawing on John chapter 1.

Today I give you reason #2, from John 2:

CASTIGLIONE, Giovanni Benedetto

Reason #2:     Come hear preaching on John’s Gospel and be confronted with a Man who thought worship was important.  Warning:  this Jesus may shock you.  In John 2 Jesus confronts the religious merchandisers of the day.  He made a “whip of cords” and using this on the animals[1] being offered for sale He “drove them all out of the temple (John 2:15).”  Returning, He then “poured out the changers’ money and overturned the tables.”  Really?  Jesus?  Gentle and mild Jesus?  Why would He do such a thing?  I think John Calvin was right, “to restore the worship of God to its integrity.”  Worship matters.  The way we worship says something about the God we worship.  Our views of worship probably say something about our view of God.  We cannot have a high view of God and a low view of worship.

And this is a relevant issue today.  We are, I believe, a religiously-saturated but worship-starved generation.  We are all, to some degree, like those hypocrites in John 2 who enter God’s house merely “doing business (2:14).”    For some, the “business” is entertainment.  For others the “business” is their icons or tradition.  For many the “business” is simply satisfying our pride that "we do worship right.”  But God isn’t really interested in our business when it comes to His worship.  And like the temple-tradesmen we are shocked when Jesus Christ “overturns the tables” of our ideas about worshipping God.  Much of our worship, and I include myself in this critique, could be summed up by Proverbs 30:12 “There is a generation that is pure in its own eyes, yet is not washed from its filthiness.”  No, we don’t go to a “temple” to worship today.  Rather, we bring our “temples” with us.  “You are the temple of God, and the Spirit of God dwells in you (I Cor. 3:16).”  But these temples need cleansing too.

True worship is, fundamentally, heart-worship.  John 2 ends with these words about Christ: “He knew what was in man.”  God knows what is in your heart and mine…right now.  He knows the excuses in our hearts that keep us from really worshipping Him.  He knows why we are trying to hold Him at a distance and avoid dealing closely with Christ.  “He knew what was in man.”  Reader, what is in your heart?  As we prayerfully listen to these sermons from the gospel of John, let us ask God together to deal with our hearts.  And if we are going to worship God aright we must begin by receiving Christ Himself.  Let Him do the purifying work that we need.  Don’t try to cleanse the temple of your heart yourself.  Let Jesus come in with His whip and drive out our sin and guilt and shame.  That is why, ultimately, He came.  That is the purpose of the cross.  Christ died for sinners.  Receive Him.  Only then will we truly be able to begin to worship God.

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[1] Some question exists as to whether Jesus used the whip on the animals only, or also on the people involved.  Although I have no doubt these merchandisers fully deserved a good whipping (dont' we all?)…I am presently persuaded that He used the whip on the animals.

21 Days...21 Reasons

21 Days

 21 Reasons to Come

21 Chapters

THE GOSPEL OF JOHN

On Sunday September 4 2011 at 11:00AM at Immanuel Chapel in Upton, MA Pastor Mark Marquis will begin a series of sermons on the Gospel of John. 

That’s 21 days from today.

I therefore want to encourage all my nearby friends and acquaintances that are not otherwise committed to a local church, to consider coming to hear this series of messages.  Listening to solid, Biblical preaching through a book of the Bible is one of the best ways to begin to understand the Bible and its contents.  It is free.  It is only an hour.  It may change your life. 

But if those aren’t enough reasons, allow me to add a few more.  Taking a verse or thought from each of the 21 chapters of John, I would like to give you 21 more reasons to plan on attending this series of sermons. 

Reason #1:  Your life is not God-centered enough.  Neither is mine.  Seriously.  Take an honest assessment of your life right now.  Are you as close to God as you ought to be?  Does something of the Divine Presence attend your every action?  Are you so filled with God’s Spirit that the aroma of Christ sweetens the very atmosphere around you?  I, for one, am not there yet.  What we need is to draw near to the Lord.  And that is precisely what John calls us to. 

The Gospel of John teaches us to draw near to God, because it presents a God who draws near to us.  In John’s Gospel…God draws near.  “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God…and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us (John 1:1, 2, 14).”  John’s Gospel simply does not allow us to hold God at a comfortable distance.  The true God is a God who comes close to us, sometimes painfully close.  John is saying to us “You, yes you, can know God…and here He is…allow me to introduce you…here is Jesus Christ.” 

            In a sense, all of my problems stem from 1 fundamental problem: I really don’t know God.  Others have apparently come to a similar conclusion.  A famous 19^th century preacher in London, Dr. Martyn-Lloyd Jones, once said this near the beginning of his series of sermons on the gospel of John:

 "Do you know what is the matter with us?  I will tell you.  We, none of us, really believe in the Lord Jesus Christ!  The trouble with all of us is that we do not know enough about him.  So John says: "The thing you need above everything is to be brought to this knowledge of him - who he is, what he has done, and what he has made possible for us."

             My life is not God-centered enough.  It is not Christ-centered enough.  Far too often it is “self” centered, “sin” centered or just “stuff” centered.  But a Christian is “Savior” centered.  That’s what I want to be.  And that then is my first reason why you should plan to come and hear this series.  Tune in tomorrow for reason #2.