Why We Don’t Believe (5/6/18 The Book of John #27)

ATTN: Do you have a mission in life that is greater than yourself? Are you living for something/someone greater than yourself? Most of us, if we do not have such a mission, default to simply living for the self – get a good job, get married, buy a house, retire, and travel the world before we loses all our senses. If that is what you choose to do, then I say enjoy this life because this is all you get. However, if you want to live for something greater, much greater than yourself, and then have a much greater reward than just traveling the world, then consider Jesus.

Jesus presented Himself as a mission that will bring joy, purpose, hope, and meaning to the Jews and yet some of the most educated and religious people rejected Him. They were the pharisees who were much respected by the people of that time to be very devout and godly and close to God. Yet, ironically, it was these very people who ended up rejecting the very manifestation of God in Jesus whom they portrayed as being their pursuit. How could they have missed Him? I mean, how many of us thought, “Only if I lived during the first century in Israel when Jesus was on earth? Only if I could’ve seen him with my own eyes and touched him with my own hands, and witnessed his miracles… then I wouldn’t waiver so much in my faith!” Yet, these pharisees got that privilege. They were right there in the front seat watching Him do miracles after miracles. Yet, they did not believe in Him. Why? How? Their reasoning for not believing in Jesus is relevant to us because we could also NOT believe in Jesus for the same reasons that these pharisees didn’t.

Why couldn’t the pharisees see that Jesus was the christ? 3 Reasons: 1) They thought eternal life was in the the book rather than coming through the book in Jesus. 2) They had no true love for God. 3) They sought glory from people rather than God.

1. They thought that eternal life is in the book rather than coming through the book in Christ.

39 You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me

Doing the act of reading and searching through the scripture, they thought they would attain eternal life.  In other words, doing the religious deed, rather than arriving at a person, is how they were going to achieve salvation. Many Catholics and some fundamental Christians fall into this category. They think doing the religious act of mass, eucharist, reciting the Lord’s prayer and Apostle’s Creed, and going to church is what will save them. But what will save them is the knowledge and a joyful relationship with a living Savior in Jesus. All those things are created to lead us to Christ, they are pathways to Christ, but they are not saviors themselves. Salvation is in Jesus alone and not in any religious acts or deeds or rituals. Even something as sacred as the Bible is really just a tool to lead us to Jesus.

But the pharisees missed it all because they saw the Bible but they didn’t see Jesus of the Bible.

Principle: Have you noticed? The spiritual comes through the physical. But the spiritual is the ultimate reality, not the physical. Jesus performed miracles in physical realm, to demonstrated the reality of the spiritual realm. Jesus used parables – stories that the people could understand such as farming or family relationships to describe the spiritual reality. Think of the parable of the prodigal son. Jesus told the story of the father with two sons to describe the relationship between God the Father and the Israelites. The physical reality is like an echo of a beautiful music or a shadow of the beautiful spiritual reality,… but we make a mistake when we focus on the physical that is the vehicle for the spiritual to tunnel through. The Apostle Paul refers to our bodies as “jars of clay” that contain a treasure.  

C.S. Lewis – Where joy comes from: The books or the music in which we thought the beauty was located will betray us if we trust to them; it was not in them, it only came through them, and what came through them was longing. These things—the beauty, the memory of our own past—are good images of what we really desire; but if they are mistaken for the thing itself, they turn into dumb idols, breaking the hearts of their worshippers. For they are not the thing itself; they are only the scent of a flower we have not found, the echo of a tune we have not heard, news from a country we have never yet visited.

So was the book that the pharisees were searching through to find that eternal joy. That source of joy is not in the book, or in the church, or in nature, but only comes through them – Jesus is the source of joy who comes through those means!

APP: When you are reading the Bible and you see a relevant part, say a promise or a word of comfort, don’t think first, “God is giving me this word to encourage me.” but rather think first, “That’s a word about Jesus. It is fulfilled in Jesus. And I’m a beneficiary of it because He’s my Savior and Lord.’ Now, you are making the word about Jesus and not about you.  

2. They had no true love for God.

42 But I know that you do not have the love of God within you..

How did Jesus know they had no love for God? Because they did not receive Jesus who is the very image of God.(v. 43: 43 I have come in my Father’s name, and you do not receive me. If another comes in his own name, you will receive him.) They did the religious deed, but in their heart, they had no love for God. So, this tells me that merely doing the outward act does not mean that we are loving God. Outward act could be a sign of love, but it is not love itself.

There was a time that many evangelical pastors taught that love for God is the same as doing things for God. Love is action, they said. They were saying this as a move away from the emotionalism of so many of the so-called charismatic movement. Charismatic movement was the movement where spiritual gifts such as the gift of tongues, healing  and prophecies are emphasized and their worshiped services usually involve exercising of those gifts and much emotional expressions – such as crying, shouting, singing, fainting, or even barking. Now, some evangelicals who did not side with the charismatics went the opposite direction, and divorced themselves from all such “spiritual” manifestations. The seminary I went to was in that camp. They were so turned off by this charismatic chaos, they called it, they decided to go the opposite way. And they taught that love is what we do. Love is not an emotion, but strictly action. Now, I respect my denomination and all the good it did me and the world, but I have to go with the Bible, more than my denomination. 1 cor. 13: 3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. If the definition of love is doing good things for others, then that verse makes no sense. I’m giving my goods away and delivering my body to be burned for others – those are good things – and still it is possible to do it without love! So, love must be something more than just a physical act. Here’s how one pastor defined love: Love is the overflow of joy in God that gladly meets the needs of others. There is joy involved in love that will naturally lead to an act or acts that will be good for the beloved.

When the Bible says God so loved the world he gave his one and only son, he does not mean that giving his son – the action itself is the love of God. It’s the love that motivated him to give, to act, but love is his compassion, desire to do good, treating it as valuable, and precious. He delights (He delights in his children) in doing so!

The pharisees did not have that kind of love for God. They may have been good moral people. They did more religious acts than others and gained respect of the people. But their heart was not in it.

APP: Do you love God? I’m not asking “Do you do religious things like coming to church, reading the Bible, going on mission trip…” But do you delight to be with God? Does it give you pleasure to find God in the Bible? Does the thought of meeting Jesus in person in heaven make your heart leap with excitement? Do you ever listen to the sermon or meditate on the word and you shout out, “Oh, I love God! I love Jesus! He’s the greatest!” I hope you do. Because if not, we are not different than the pharisees. We are just going through the motions for show.

 

3. They sought glory from one another rather than from God.

Why else couldn’t the pharisees see that Jesus was the Christ? Because they looked to people for validation rather than to God. v. 44 How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the only God?

What caused the downfall of the pharisees ultimately is that they cared more about what their friends thought about them than what God thought about them. And this is a danger that all churches have. We like gathering, playing with, and doing things with people that are like-minded. And we encourage that at our church. I love it when you guys are getting together to go on trips or work on houses together, or meet together in community groups and so on. That’s what a church community is to do – to share lives together. But there is danger in that that community becomes our god rather than a reflection of our relationship with God. What I mean is that we care more about our friends in church or outside the church, more than we care about God. Let me quote a question from a young person that I recently heard on a podcast. And I have witnessed this especially in young people in the church multiple times…

Question: (to paraphrase) In church, we are encouraged to live in community and build friendships and grow together in Christ. But I’m afraid it often lacks a God-focused center in the individual’s life of faith. “The problem comes when one of these ‘believers’ feels socially slighted or pushed out. Maybe she feels the pastor is more distant than he was in the past, or her overall friendships have grown colder, and her sense of belonging in a particular church waivers at the relational level. Then she finds that her ‘faith’ crumbles to the dust as she turns away from God altogether. How can we guard ourselves (and one another) from mistaking a sense of belonging within a community to genuine faith in God?”

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve witnessed this as a youth pastor for over 17 years. A young person seems to be growing in the Lord, involved in every church activity, and seems to be thriving spiritually, but a break happens between her and her friends – a fight or just growing apart. The next thing you know, she is not anywhere to be found. She’s not attending any church and spirituality is far from her mind in just a few months time… Why? She made connections with friends at church, but she never made connection with Christ. And so, when there was no more connection with the friends, there is no reason to stay around church…

That’s seeking glory from one another rather than from God. That was the portrait of the pharisees. They cared more about what the people thought of them than what God thought of them. What will be the result of this unbelief? They will be condemned by the very thing they put their trust in.

Jesus says, “45 Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father. There is one who accuses you: Moses, on whom you have set your hope.46 For if you believed Moses, you would believe me; for he wrote of me. 47 But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words?”

These pharisees put their trust in what they thought Moses would do for them – that he would come to their defense because Moses is the writer of the first 5 books of the Bible which contains the law and since they tried so hard to keep the law externally, Moses will come to their defense one day and will advocate them. But Jesus says that it will be the very opposite. It will be Moses whom they put their trust in who will accuse them and not defend them!

This is a dire warning. Whatever we put our faith and trust in or love in, if not God, it will turn around and attack us. I’ve often quoted this C.S. Lewis’s saying, “Love becomes a demon when it becomes a god.” Something as good as love, if we make it into our ultimate, then it will become a god and will destroy us.

ILL: In my Asian heritage, there are Asian parents who do not hesitate to say that they live for their children. Even seemingly Christian parents would say that they live for the success of their children. So they work 80 hours a week, killing themselves, just so that their children will have the opportunity to succeed – and succeed means to become doctors, lawyers, engineers, etc. But so many of these now “successful” children now want to have nothing to do with their parents who pushed them to become who they are. Why? Because they see that it was really not for them but for the parents themselves. Every generation pushes the next generation on what they have been deprived of. And a lot of this Asian immigrants didn’t have much and they wanted their children to have what they never could because the language and other barriers. And they start living a vicarious life through their children. So, they push them toward what would bring most glory to themselves among their friends. And now these grown professional adult children see right through them and resent them for it. When love becomes a god, it becomes a demon!

Please, don’t hear me saying that we shouldn’t push our children at all. We should. They are sinners. They are naturally lazy just like us. But don’t push them toward what WE want them to be that will bring glory to us. But push them toward what they were made to be, discerning what God made them to do. “Train up a child in the way HE should go…” (Prov. 22:6) Not the way WE want them to go…

CONC:  God is love. But love is not God. Don’t idolize love. Don’t idolize our children. Don’t idolize our work-ethics. Don’t idolize our American Dream. Don’t idolize our friendships. Don’t idolize our marriage. They will become a demon and come back and destroy us and things we treasure.