Last Weeks Sermon






2017.03.12                                          John 10: 1-21
                     I am the Good Shepherd
Good Morning…. I am glad to be with you this morning… I have Good News for You! His name is Jesus… We are on a great adventure… We are Experiencing the Life and ministry of Jesus… Once again this morning we are studying the Gospel of John… Turn in your Bible to John chapter 10…  As we begin today… Jesus is still in the Temple area… It is still the same conversation that ended ch 9… Jesus is still trying to shake the religious leaders…. He wants them to see the truth and repent and come to Him… They are false Shepherds… They are blind and they are failing to point the people to Jesus… As we continue… We will be looking at Jesus… He is the true Shepherd… let´s dig in… John 10… v1…
John 10: 1-21                       NLT  Neues Leben
1 “I tell you the truth, anyone who sneaks over the wall of a sheepfold, rather than going through the gate, must surely be a thief and a robber! 2 But the one who enters through the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. 3 The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep recognize his voice and come to him. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. 4 After he has gathered his own flock, he walks ahead of them, and they follow him because they know his voice. 5 They won’t follow a stranger; they will run from him because they don’t know his voice.”
6 Those who heard Jesus use this illustration didn’t understand what he meant, 7 so he explained it to them: “I tell you the truth, I am the gate for the sheep. 8 All who came before me were thieves and robbers. But the true sheep did not listen to them. 9 Yes, I am the gate. Those who come in through me will be saved. They will come and go freely and will find good pastures. 10 The thief’s purpose is to steal and kill and destroy. My purpose is to give them a rich and satisfying life.
11 “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd sacrifices his life for the sheep. 12 A hired hand will run when he sees a wolf coming. He will abandon the sheep because they don’t belong to him and he isn’t their shepherd. And so the wolf attacks them and scatters the flock. 13 The hired hand runs away because he’s working only for the money and doesn’t really care about the sheep. 14 “I am the good shepherd; I know my own sheep, and they know me, 15 just as my Father knows me and I know the Father. So I sacrifice my life for the sheep. 16 I have other sheep, too, that are not in this sheepfold. I must bring them also. They will listen to my voice, and there will be one flock with one shepherd.17 “The Father loves me because I sacrifice my life so I may take it back again. 18 No one can take my life from me. I sacrifice it voluntarily. For I have the authority to lay it down when I want to and also to take it up again. For this is what my Father has commanded.”19 When he said these things, the people were again divided in their opinions about him. 20 Some said, “He’s demon possessed and out of his mind. Why listen to a man like that?” 21 Others said, “This doesn’t sound like a man possessed by a demon! Can a demon open the eyes of the blind?”

1 »Ich versichere euch: Wer sich über die Mauer in den Schafpferch schleicht, statt durchs Tor hineinzugehen, ist ein Dieb und ein Räuber! 2 Denn ein Hirte tritt durch das Tor ein. 3 Der Torhüter öffnet ihm, und die Schafe hören seine Stimme und kommen zu ihm. Er ruft seine Schafe, die ihm gehören, beim Namen und führt sie hinaus. 4 Wenn er seine Herde versammelt hat, geht er vor ihnen her, und die Schafe folgen ihm, weil sie seine Stimme kennen. 5 Einem Fremden aber folgen sie nicht, sondern laufen vor ihm weg, weil sie seine Stimme nicht kennen.« 6 Die Zuhörer wussten nicht, was Jesus mit diesem Bild meinte, 7 deshalb erklärte er es ihnen. »Ich versichere euch: Ich bin das Tor zu den Schafen«, sagte er. 8 »Alle, die vor mir kamen, waren Diebe und Räuber. Doch die Schafe hörten nicht auf sie. 9 Ja, ich bin das Tor. Wer durch mich hineingeht, wird gerettet werden. Wo er auch hinkommt, wird er grüne Weiden finden. 10 Ein Dieb will rauben, morden und zerstören. Ich aber bin gekommen, um ihnen das Leben in ganzer Fülle zu schenken. 11 Ich bin der gute Hirte. Der gute Hirte opfert sein Leben für die Schafe. 12 Ein Schäfer, der nur für Lohn arbeitet, läuft davon, wenn er einen Wolf kommen sieht. Er wird die Schafe im Stich lassen, weil sie ihm nicht gehören und er nicht ihr Hirte ist. Und so greift der Wolf sie an und zerstreut die Herde. 13 Der bezahlte Arbeiter läuft davon, weil er nur angeworben wurde und die Schafe ihm nicht wirklich am Herzen liegen.14 Ich bin der gute Hirte; ich kenne meine Schafe und sie kennen mich,15 so wie mein Vater mich kennt und ich den Vater. Ich gebe mein Leben für die Schafe. 16 Ich habe auch noch andere Schafe, die nicht in diesem Pferch sind. Auch sie muss ich herführen, und sie werden auf meine Stimme hören; und alle werden eine Herde mit einem Hirten sein. 17 Der Vater liebt mich, weil ich mein Leben hingebe, um es wiederzuerlangen. 18 Niemand kann es mir nehmen. Ich gebe es freiwillig hin. Ich habe die Macht, es hinzugeben, und ich habe die Macht, es wieder zu nehmen. Denn mein Vater hat mir diesen Auftrag gegeben.« 19 Wegen dieser Worte waren die Menschen1 wieder geteilter Meinung über ihn. 20 Manche meinten: »Er hat einen Dämon und ist verrückt. Warum hört ihr auf einen solchen Mann?« 21 Andere dagegen sagten: »Das klingt nicht nach einem Mann, der von einem Dämon besessen ist! Oder kann ein Dämon etwa den Blinden die Augen öffnen?
I am the Good Shepherd…
This is one of the most beautiful word pictures in all of the Scriptures… It is an illustration of God’s care for His own people…
There were many famous shepherds in the Old Testament…  Abraham was a shepherd…  Isaac was a shepherd…  Jacob was a shepherd…  Moses was a shepherd…  David was a shepherd…
But the most well-known Shepherd in the Old Testament was God Himself…
Psalm 23 says, “The Lord is – ” what?  “ - my Shepherd.”  Psalm 77:20,  Psalm 79:13, Psalm 80:1, Psalm 95 says… He is our God, and we are the people of His pasture and the sheep of His hand…
These are all great texts… We do not have time for the many places that we find God illustrated as a Shepherd… But I want to look at one… Look with me at Ezekiel ch 34…
Ezekiel 34: 2-5                       NKJV   slt 2000
2 “Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel, prophesy and say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord God to the shepherds: “Woe to the shepherds of Israel who feed themselves! Should not the shepherds feed the flocks? 3 You eat the fat and clothe yourselves with the wool; you slaughter the fatlings, but you do not feed the flock. 4 The weak you have not strengthened, nor have you healed those who were sick, nor bound up the broken, nor brought back what was driven away, nor sought what was lost; but with force and cruelty you have ruled them. 5 So they were scattered because there was no shepherd; and they became food for all the beasts of the field when they were scattered.
2 Menschensohn, weissage gegen die Hirten Israels, weissage und sprich zu ihnen, den Hirten: So spricht Gott, der Herr: Wehe den Hirten Israels, die sich selbst weiden! Sollen die Hirten nicht die Herde weiden? 3 Das Fette verzehrt ihr, mit der Wolle bekleidet ihr euch, und das Gemästete schlachtet ihr, aber die Herde weidet ihr nicht! 4 Das Schwache stärkt ihr nicht, das Kranke heilt ihr nicht, das Verwundete verbindet ihr nicht, das Verscheuchte holt ihr nicht zurück, und das Verlorene sucht ihr nicht, sondern mit Gewalt und Härte herrscht ihr über sie! 5 Und so haben sie sich zerstreut, weil sie ohne Hirten waren, und sind allen wilden Tieren des Feldes zum Fraß geworden und haben sich zerstreut. 

v2a… Son of man… This is a title of the Messiah…
v2b… prophesy against the shepherds of Israel...  In this prophesy…. God Rebukes the false shepherds and says that He will seek and protect the flock…v11,12…
Ezekiel 34: 11,12     NKJV   slt 2000
11 ‘For thus says the Lord God: “Indeed I Myself will search for My sheep and seek them out. 12 As a shepherd seeks out his flock on the day he is among his scattered sheep, so will I seek out My sheep and deliver them from all the places where they were scattered on a cloudy and dark day.
11 Denn so spricht Gott, der Herr: Siehe, ich selbst will nach meinen Schafen suchen und mich ihrer annehmen! 12 Wie ein Hirte seine Herde zusammensucht an dem Tag, da er mitten unter seinen zerstreuten Schafen ist, so will ich mich meiner Schafe annehmen und sie aus allen Orten erretten, wohin sie zerstreut wurden an dem Tag des Gewölks und des Wolkendunkels.
v11… I Myself will search for My sheep and seek them out... God says…. I will shepherd and gather my sheep…  
look at verse 23... Then He points to the Messiah as the true shepherd to come…  He says… I will
Ezekiel 34: 23,24                       NKJV   slt 2000
23 I will establish one shepherd over them, and he shall feed them—My servant David. He shall feed them and be their shepherd. 24 And I, the Lord, will be their God, and My servant David a prince among them; I, the Lord, have spoken..
 23 Ich will ihnen einen einzigen Hirten erwecken, der sie weiden soll, nämlich meinen Knecht David; der soll sie weiden, und der soll ihr Hirte sein. 24 Und ich, der Herr, will ihr Gott sein, und mein Knecht David soll Fürst sein in ihrer Mitte; ich, der Herr, habe es gesagt!
v23… My servant David…  David lived long before… Who is He talking about?  He’s talking about the Son of David… The Messiah… He will become the true Shepherd who will gather His people… not only from Israel… but from all the nations…  
This prophecy in Ezekiel 34 is fulfilled by Jesus…  He is that one true Shepherd…  Back to John 10 … v1,2… scroll down…
v1…  A thief and a robber The Pharisees have shown that they are ungodly leaders… False shepherds of Israel… Proved  by their rejection of Jesus… the Messiah and the only hope of humanity…
v2… He who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep As we see in these texts… Shepherds were  common Old Testament pictures of the leaders of God's people… The good shepherds fed and protected the sheep…
Scroll down…  John 10: 3-6  
v3a… To him the doorkeeper opens… In towns, sheep from many flocks were kept for the night in a common sheepfold… They were overseen by one "doorkeeper….
v3b… He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out The shepherd calls the sheep by name… The shepherd has a personal connection with the sheep…. They knew His voice… The shepherd leads them out… Here, Jesus speaks of calling his own sheep from the fold of Judaism…
v4… he walks ahead of them, and they follow him because they know his voice... In the common sheepfolds of ancient times… the shepherd merely gave his distinctive call and his sheep came out from the others… following him out of the sheepfold… Sheep are experts at discerning their shepherd's voice
Scroll down… John 10: 7-10…
v7… I am the gate for the sheep… Jesus is the gate… the only way into the fold of God´s people…   When Jesus speaks of the door in this passage… He refers to a   type of sheepfold that was used out in the fields…
It was an enclosure for sheep with only one entrance... It might be a cave… Or a stone or mud-brick structure with walls to protect the sheep…
The shepherd actually laid his body across the entrance… to keep the sheep in and to keep out the wolves… The shepherd was in fact the gate or door... Foto…
v8… All who ever came before Me are thieves and robbers Jesus is pointing to the false shepherds…
v9… I am the gate…Those who come in through me will be saved… They will come and go freely and will find good pastures… Jesus shows the choice and the contrast between Himself and the False shepherds who claim to speak for God…. They are deceived and they lead many astray…
 v10… the thief… kill and destroy… There is great danger for every believer... False teachers… They have poisoned their own hearts by filling themselves with pride…. They are Hypocrites…. They are like robbers and thieves… They are after us… How do we stay safe…? We follow Jesus… We must not loose sight of Jesus… Even as believers… We are in danger of a form of temporary Blindness… Let´s call it The Beam in the eye syndrome… Matt ch7… We are quick to hit someone over the head with our Bible… We apply the Word of God to others…  Without first searching our own hearts… We make 2 big mistakes….
Avoiding temporary Blindness

1 We compare ourselves with others instead of with the Word of God… That Scripture is for brother so and so… oh man… Sister blah blah needs to read this…
2 We do not let the scriptures shape us… We read and even memorize the Bible… But we don´t let it sink into our own Hearts and minds…
3 We do not let the Word of God move us to repentance… They become mere texts that we say we believe… We Call Jesus Lord…. But we do not do what he Says… Luke 6:46…
How do we avoid the same pride and hypocrisy that poisoned the Scribes and Pharisees?
1 We apply the Word of God to our hearts first…. Then we can see well enough to humbly help our brothers and sisters…  Then we all learn obedience and thankfulness 
2 We listen to His voice… The voice of our Good Shepherd… We see with our ears as we study the Word of god and apply it to our own hearts first… Then and only then… Can  we truly follow him…
Scroll down to John 10: 11-15…
v11… The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep The bad shepherd thinks the flock exists for his benefit, but the good shepherd lives for… and even lays down His life for the sheep…  
The Good Shepherd and His Sheep
The good shepherd sacrifices for the sheep
The good shepherd knows his sheep
The good shepherd is known by the sheep
The faithful pastor is an under-shepherd… Shepherd´s assistant… He will with the Lord´s help…  display the same characteristics as the Good Shepherd… He will sacrifice for the sheep… know the sheep… and be known by them…  The title pastor translates the same ancient Greek word used here for shepherd… poimēn(greek)   Scroll down to v16-18…
v16… I must bring them also... They will listen to my voice… and there will be one flock with one shepherd.… These "other sheep" are Gentile believers… It includes the nations of the world… not just the fold of Israel... There is one flock and one shepherd  Jesus calls out His sheep from more than one fold... He makes them into one flock… The redeemed…
v17… Therefore My Father loves Mebecause I lay down My life that I may take it again...  Anyone can lay down his life… only Jesus can take His life up again… Because Jesus has the power to take up His own life… it is proof that He is God… And proof of His unique relationship with The Father.
v18a… That I may take it again … I have power to take it again In this sense, we can say that Jesus "raised Himself" from the dead… He had the power to lay down His life, and He had the power to take it up again… This is very important truth…  
v18b... This command I have received from My Father The death of Jesus was the plan of God… It was pictured in every OT sacrifice… Jesus willingly submitted to death on the cross... He knew that  then He would rise from the dead in victory over death and the grave… That was the command Jesus received from God the Father…. Let´s look at the last section…19-21…
v19… the people were again divided…
v20… He’s demon possessed and out of his mind… Jesus made such radical claims about Himself that people divided over Him… Some believed that anyone who claimed to be God… Must either have a demon or be mad...
v21… This doesn’t sound like a man possessed by a demon! Can a demon open the eyes of the blind?...   Some of these people Repented and believed the good News of the gospel… They believed He was who He said He was... They saw the miracle with their eyes…. They saw the truth with their ears…  They Listened to His voice… They were moved to follow the Good Shepherd… They followed Jesus
Many of us have seen the truth of who Jesus is with our ears…. We read and learn about Jesus as we study the Bible… The Holy Spirit uses this book to show what is in our hearts and minds…And then to correct us and to transform us step by step into the very image of Jesus… We become more like Jesus day by day… We follow our good shepherd and he blesses and transforms us to be like Him… That affects every relationship that we have… look with me at Colossians 3 v12-17…   
Colossians 3: 12-17                   NLT   Neues Leben
12 Since God chose you to be the holy people he loves, you must clothe yourselves with tenderhearted mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. 13 Make allowance for each other’s faults, and forgive anyone who offends you. Remember, the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others. 14 Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds us all together in perfect harmony.
15 And let the peace that comes from Christ rule in your hearts. For as members of one body you are called to live in peace. And always be thankful.16 Let the message about Christ, in all its richness, fill your lives. Teach and counsel each other with all the wisdom he gives. Sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs to God with thankful hearts. 17 And whatever you do or say, do it as a representative of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through him to God the Father.
12 Da Gott euch erwählt hat, zu seinen Heiligen und Geliebten zu gehören, seid voll Mitleid und Erbarmen, Freundlichkeit, Demut, Sanftheit und Geduld. 13 Seid nachsichtig mit den Fehlern der anderen und vergebt denen, die euch gekränkt haben. Vergesst nicht, dass der Herr euch vergeben hat und dass ihr deshalb auch anderen vergeben müsst. 14 Das Wichtigste aber ist die Liebe. Sie ist das Band, das uns alle in vollkommener Einheit verbindet.
15 Euren Herzen wünschen wir den Frieden, der von Christus kommt. Denn als Glieder des einen Leibes seid ihr alle berufen, im Frieden miteinander zu leben. Und seid immer dankbar! 16 Gebt den Worten von Christus viel Raum3 in euren Herzen. Gebraucht seine Worte weise, um einander zu lehren und zu ermahnen. Singt Gott aus ganzem Herzen Psalmen, Lobgesänge und geistliche Lieder. 17 Doch alles, was auch immer ihr tut oder sagt, soll im Namen von Jesus, dem Herrn, geschehen, durch den ihr Gott, dem Vater, danken sollt!
When we see Jesus with our ears… When we let the Word of God soak into our lives… We are daily transformed to become more like Jesus… And others see Jesus in us… That is why we are here… To love and encourage each other…. And to show Jesus to this lost and dying world… Let´s pray…



2016.09.04                    John 4: 26-42   

               The Woman at the Well
            A lesson in Evangelism Part 2
Good morning everyone…. It´s great to see you this morning… I am glad you are here…. I have good news for you… His Name is Jesus…   He is Savior and Lord…
As we pickup the Word of God in the Gospel of John this morning… Let´s review for a minute… Jesus has finished offering the Gospel to the teacher in Israel… John ch 3… Nicodemus knows the Scriptures…. He obeys them with all of his strength... But He knows that he needs a Savior… Nicodemus will be born again as he hears and believes the Good News… We turn again this morning from the most righteous… to the least righteous person in all of Israel…. Today we will continue in Ch4… Here again we see the woman at the well… She is a   Samaritan woman who has quite a difficult past… She has 3 strikes against her… 1 She is a Woman… 2 She is a Samaritan..3 she seems to have a problem with men… She has been married five times… She is not exactly  living a good life… And because she is a Samaritan… She does not know the scriptures… So she has not tried to obey them at all… She is hopelessly lost… Her life is a mess…. She has lost all hope… She is ashamed of her life… But she cannot fix it…. She needs a miracle… She also knows that she needs a Savior…
As Jesus gives the Gospel to this woman… Jesus is showing us how to Evangelize… All during His earthly ministry… He is proclaiming the Good News of the Gospel to everyone who is willing to listen… Even a dirty rotten sinner like this 5x married Samaritan woman…He offers her grace and mercy and forgiveness… He has come to seek and to save the lost… Luke 19:10… As we study the Word of God this morning… Let´s read starting at verse 26… John ch 4… v26…
John 4: 26,27                        NLT
26 Then Jesus told her, “I am the Messiah!”
27 Just then his disciples came back. They were shocked to find him talking to a woman, but none of them had the nerve to ask, “What do you want with her?” or “Why are you talking to her?”
John 4: 26,27                        Neues Leben
26 Da sagte Jesus zu ihr: »Ich bin es, der mit dir spricht!«
27 In diesem Augenblick kehrten seine Jünger zurück. Sie waren erstaunt, ihn im Gespräch mit einer Frau zu sehen, aber keiner fragte ihn, warum er das tat oder worüber sie gesprochen hatten.
As we come to the last part of the story…  There’s a lot here about missions and evangelism… This woman is on the wonderful journey of faith…. The journey from desperation and hopelessness… From a thirst that could not be quenched by men or by anything that this world offered…. Rather to the Life giving Living water that Jesus alone can offer… She is on her way to a transformed life… To a living and enduring Hope in the Lord Jesus the Messiah… The Savior of the World… Look at verse 26… That is what we just heard Jesus say…
v26“I am the Messiah!” I am… He… What a revelation… He revealed Himself to be the Messiah for the first time… Not to Nikodemus… Rather He reveals Himself to this desperate Woman… He says… I am…He… look at verse 27…
v27… They were shocked to find him talking to a woman
Remember… this whole event is not culturally acceptable… This Samaritan is a woman… Jews have nothing to do with Samaritans…. And they would not normally talk to any woman out in public…  And she must certainly a sinner to be hiding and drawing water in the heat of the day…
All of the events of her life… The good the bad and the ugly…. Have brought her to this divine encounter with the only one who can help her… It was God´s Divine Providence that brought her to meet Jesus that day… I am sure that as she looked back on her life… On all of the terrible mistakes that she had made… She experienced sadness and regret… But she also experienced wonder and joy at the Grace and mercy that she received that day… We see God´s Divine Providence best when we look in the rear view mirror of life… We see where we have been… We understand our pride and sin and Rebellion… All of our pain and suffering has brought us to the place where we began to look for answers… The place where we were willing to cry out to God for mercy… Listen to me now…. We are all like this woman at the well… We have all been in this place… Some of us are still in this place…. This place of desperation and hopelessness…
We need the Life giving… Heart Transforming… Living water that only Jesus can give us…
My Friend if you are still holding back form repenting and crying out to Jesus… You are dying of thirst…. Dying in your sin and rebellion… Why do want to die of thirstWhy do you want to die in your sins?
Look with me at Isaiah 55: 1-3…
Isaiah 55: 1-3                          NLT  Neues Leben
1 “Is anyone thirsty? Come and drink— even if you have no money! Come, take your choice of wine or milk— it’s all free!
2 Why spend your money on food that does not give you strength? Why pay for food that does you no good? Listen to me, and you will eat what is good.You will enjoy the finest food.
3 “Come to me with your ears wide open. Listen, and you will find life. I will make an everlasting covenant with you. I will give you all the unfailing love I promised to David.
1 »Auf, ihr Durstigen, kommt zum Wasser! Geht los, auch wenn ihr kein Geld habt. Geht, kauft Getreide und esst. Wer kein Geld hat, versorge sich kostenlos mit Korn. Geht hin und besorgt euch Wein und Milch, ihr braucht nicht zu bezahlen.
2 Warum solltet ihr euer Geld für etwas ausgeben, das kein Brot ist, euren Lohn für etwas, von dem ihr nicht satt werdet? Hört zu und esst Gutes und eure Seele wird satt werden.
3 Kommt zu mir und sperrt die Ohren auf! Hört mir zu und eure Seele wird leben. Ich will einen ewigen Bund mit euch schließen. Er soll so verlässlich sein wie die Gnade, die ich an David bewiesen habe.
v1a “Is anyone thirsty? Come and drink— even if you have no money! This living water is freely offered… We do not deserve and we cannot buy this living water…
v3 “Come to me with your ears wide open. Listen, and you will find life. I will make an everlasting covenant with you. I will give you all the unfailing love I promised to David.
Are you listening this morning?
Stop resisting the Lord Jesus… Today is the day… If we learn anything from this desperate Samaritan woman… It is this… No one… No sinner is beyond the grace and mercy of God… His offer of grace is freely giving to all who come to Him… Come to the source of living water…. Come to me with your ears wide open… Listen and you will find life… And Unfailing love… That is God´s kind of love…. Never ending… never gonna stop loving you love… that only God can give… What Good News… look at verse 1… come even if… Abwohl (though) you have no money… No righteousness to offer… We bring nothing to our salvation… Just our broken hearts and busted up lives
It was living water indeed that Jesus gave her…  And we will now get to see this fountain of living water begin to bubble up… It will flow out of her to reach and entire village with the Good News… Look with me at the next section of the text… John 4:28-30…
John 4: 28-30                          NLT Neues Leben
28 The woman left her water jar beside the well and ran back to the village, telling everyone, 29 “Come and see a man who told me everything I ever did! Could he possibly be the Messiah?” 30 So the people came streaming from the village to see him.
 28 Die Frau ließ ihren Krug neben dem Brunnen stehen, lief ins Dorf zurück und erzählte allen: 29 »Kommt mit und lernt einen Mann kennen, der mir alles ins Gesicht gesagt hat, was ich jemals getan habe! Könnte das vielleicht der Christus sein?«30 Da strömten die Leute aus dem Dorf herbei, um ihn zu sehen.
This had all happened while the disciples were not there… She is the only one to hear Jesus say it… She doesn´t even take her water jar with her… She has a mission… She has Good News to offer her fellow sufferers… She runs to her new mission field… she is Filled with hope and joy… This woman has been transformed…. She is no longer afraid and ashamed of what she has done… She has lost her fear…That is because her sins have been washed away in the flood of Living Water that Jesus has given her…
She has a simple story to tell…. A story of shame and hopelessness… that has been transformed in an instant by the life giving Good News of the Gospel… She boldly proclaims…
Jesus the Messiah is here… The Lamb of God who takes away the sins of world…. He is here in our village… He told me everything that I have ever done… Isn´t this the Messiah?!!!
She simply gave her testimony of what Jesus told her…  and how he has washed her fear and shame away… We can do that too…
We can testify to what the Lord Jesus has done in our lives too… Every one of us should work on a short clear testimony of what Jesus has done in us…
I want you to notice that she did not go to Bible School on the way to the village… She did not study and get appointed to the Mission field…
And yet her simple testimony is laying the foundations of the Gospel Message in that Samaritan village… A message that Philip will continue in all of a couple years later… After Persecution scatters the disciples… Acts 8: 4-8… Verse 8 says there was great joy in the city… At this time the disciples returned with food and they want Jesus to eat… But Jesus has an important and practical lesson for them…
Let´s continue on in John ch 4…verse 31…
John 4: 31- 38                 NLT  Neues Leben
31 Meanwhile, the disciples were urging Jesus, “Rabbi, eat something.”32 But Jesus replied, “I have a kind of food you know nothing about.”33 “Did someone bring him food while we were gone?” the disciples asked each other.
34 Then Jesus explained: “My nourishment comes from doing the will of God, who sent me, and from finishing his work. 35 You know the saying, ‘Four months between planting and harvest.’ But I say, wake up and look around. The fields are already ripe for harvest.
36 The harvesters are paid good wages, and the fruit they harvest is people brought to eternal life. What joy awaits both the planter and the harvester alike! 37 You know the saying, ‘One plants and another harvests.’ And it’s true. 38 I sent you to harvest where you didn’t plant; others had already done the work, and now you will get to gather the harvest.“

John 4: 31-38                       NLT  Neues Leben
31 Inzwischen drängten die Jünger Jesus, etwas zu essen. 32 »Nein«, sagte er, »ich lebe von einer Nahrung, von der ihr nichts wisst.« 33 »Wer sie ihm wohl gebracht hat?«, fragten die Jünger einander.
34 Da erklärte Jesus: »Meine Nahrung ist, dass ich den Willen Gottes tue, der mich gesandt hat, und sein Werk vollende. 35 Meint ihr etwa, dass erst in vier Monaten zum Ende des Sommers die Zeit der Ernte beginnen wird? Schaut euch doch um! Überall reifen die Felder heran und sind schon jetzt bereit zur Ernte.
36 Der Erntearbeiter erhält guten Lohn, und die Früchte, die er einsammelt, sind Menschen, die zum ewigen Leben geführt werden. Welche Freude erwartet beide zugleich: den, der pflanzt, und den, der erntet!37 Ihr kennt den Spruch: `Der eine pflanzt und ein anderer erntet.´ Das ist wahr. 38 Ich habe euch ausgesandt zu ernten, was ihr vorher nicht selbst erarbeitet habt; andere hatten diese Arbeit schon getan, und ihr werdet nun die Ernte einbringen.«
In this section Jesus is helping the disciples understand what it means to be spiritually minded… He speaks of spiritual meat and drink… Now  It is true that we must have food and water or we will die…. But There is more to life than that… So Jesus uses this opportunity to get the disciples to think of heavenly matters...
He wants them to see what It means to put the Lord Jesus first…  and He wants them to proclaim the Gospel as a priority in their lives… It is spiritual food it is nourishing…. It gives us strength for life in this lost and dying world… Then v35… He says look… The harvest is ripe the fields are ready…. It is time to proclaim the Good News of the Gospel… Then he gives them a very important key…. The key to the Joyful Christian life…
v36… What joy awaits both the planter and the harvester alike!  We all want to be happy right…. We could use a strong dose of joy in our lives right… Christian joy is to serve the Lord with your whole heart and to proclaim the Gospel… We open our mouths…. The Holy Spierit does the work… Amen…
let´s look at the next section…. John ch4… v39-42…
John 4: 39-42                          NLT  Neues Leben
39 Many Samaritans from the village believed in Jesus because the woman had said, “He told me everything I ever did!” 40 When they came out to see him, they begged him to stay in their village. So he stayed for two days, 41 long enough for many more to hear his message and believe. 42 Then they said to the woman, “Now we believe, not just because of what you told us, but because we have heard him ourselves. Now we know that he is indeed the Savior of the world.”
 John 4: 39-42                        Neues Leben
39 Viele Samariter aus dem Dorf glaubten nun an Jesus, weil die Frau ihnen erzählt hatte: »Er hat mir alles ins Gesicht gesagt, was ich jemals getan habe!«
40 Als sie dann mit Jesus zusammentrafen, baten sie ihn, bei ihnen zu bleiben. Deshalb blieb er noch zwei Tage
41 und noch viel mehr Menschen hörten seine Botschaft und glaubten an ihn.
42 Zu der Frau sagten sie: »Nun glauben wir, weil wir ihn selbst gehört haben, und nicht nur aufgrund deiner Worte. Jetzt wissen wir, dass er wirklich der Retter der Welt ist.«
v39… Believed in Jesus because the woman had said, “He told me everything I ever did!”… Her simple declaration…. He told me everything… Is lighting a light for others to follow…

v40a…  When they came out to see him, they begged him to stay in their village… You know, it was wonderful that they received her testimony… but it was much more important that they wanted more… They begged Him to stay and speak to them… To Speak the truth of the Word of God to them…
v40b… So He stayed for two days…
We don’t know what those two days were like… but they must have been awesome… It reminds me of when After the resurrection…. When Jesus opened up the scriptures to the disciples on the road to Emmaus… It’s the only time in His earthly ministry  where He actually spent two days ministering to a whole town… revealing Himself who He was… I’m sure He talked about the cross and the resurrection… And of course… “many more believed because of His Word…  Jesus´ message is the same as every prophet that has ever lived…. Judgment is certain…. Repent the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand…
They say… Now we’ve heard for ourselves and know that this One is indeed the Savior of the world.’”
Let´s take a look at what has happened…  Giving our testimony to  unbelievers is very important… But more is needed… It is important is that they move from our testimony to the testimony of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself… It is wonderfully contained in the Scriptures…
Summary and Application
There is a wonderful transformation happening among these Samaritans… All of it is happening because Jesus is the Savior of the World… He has come to seek and to save the lost… And they hear and believe the Gospel…
First because they heard and believed her testimony of Jesus…. And Second… Because they spent 2 days listening to Jesus Himself…. He poured out His life giving…. Heart and mind transforming Living Water… He offered it to them freely… And they joyfully believed…
Let´s look at the truths revealed here in this encounter with an undeserving sinner…. The Woman who started it all… And then her simple testimony to an entire village that also did not deserve to be forgiven… They were not even Jews…. They were basically ½ pagans…
1 Jesus meets us where we are in the middle of our personal disasters… He does not demand that we clean up our act and deserve to be forgiven…
2 Some People will respond to the Gospel… But they must hear it… That´s our job…. We speak… We give our testimony… We tell what Jesus has done for us… We plant… we water… sometimes we will even get to harvest… We do any or all of these things with our mouths… That is our assignment…  But the Holy Spirit is the one who causes some to be born again…
3 Jesus offers freedom from fear and shame… This woman’s paralyzing fear has dissolved away with her sins…
4 Our personal testimonies are powerful tools in Evangelism… The Word of God is what the Holy Spirit uses to transform hearts and minds… And when we give our personal testimony to someone… We are putting our real life experience with sin and pride into the Equation... Because we testify that we have received mercy and forgiveness… Things that we did not deserve…
5 The Grace of God shines through the mess that we have made of our lives… How wonderful to discover that no one is beyond the grace of God… That even though none of us is good enough….. There is none righteous… no not one… Romans 3:10
I would like to finish our time this morning by letting the Word of God give us a summary of The Grace that we find in Jesus… Look with me at Romans ch3…v20-26…
Romans 3: 20-26            NLT Neues Leben
20 For no one can ever be made right with God by doing what the law commands. The law simply shows us how sinful we are. 21 But now God has shown us a way to be made right with him without keeping the requirements of the law, as was promised in the writings of Moses and the prophets long ago. 22 We are made right with God by placing our faith in Jesus Christ. And this is true for everyone who believes, no matter who we are.
23 For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard. 24 Yet God, in his grace, freely makes us right in his sight. He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for our sins. 25 For God presented Jesus as the sacrifice for sin. People are made right with God when they believe that Jesus sacrificed his life, shedding his blood. This sacrifice shows that God was being fair when he held back and did not punish those who sinned in times past, 26 for he was looking ahead and including them in what he would do in this present time. God did this to demonstrate his righteousness, for he himself is fair and just, and he makes sinners right in his sight when they believe in Jesus.
 20 Denn niemand wird in Gottes Augen gerecht gesprochen, indem er versucht, das Gesetz zu halten. Im Gegenteil, je besser wir Gottes Gesetz kennen, desto deutlicher erkennen wir, dass wir schuldig sind.
21 Doch nun hat Gott uns unabhängig vom Gesetz einen anderen Weg gezeigt, wie wir in seinen Augen gerecht werden können - einen Weg in Übereinstimmung mit dem Gesetz und den Propheten.
22 Wir werden von Gott gerecht gesprochen, indem wir an Jesus Christus glauben. Dadurch können alle ohne Unterschied gerettet werden.
23 Denn alle Menschen haben gesündigt und das Leben in der Herrlichkeit Gottes verloren.
24 Doch Gott erklärt uns aus Gnade für gerecht. Es ist sein Geschenk an uns durch Jesus Christus, der uns von unserer Schuld befreit hat.
25 Denn Gott sandte Jesus, damit er die Strafe für unsere Sünden auf sich nimmt und unsere Schuld gesühnt wird. Wir sind gerecht vor Gott, wenn wir glauben, dass Jesus sein Blut für uns vergossen und sein Leben für uns geopfert hat. Gott bewies seine Gerechtigkeit, als er die Menschen nicht bestrafte,
26 die in früheren Zeiten gesündigt haben. Er handelte so, weil er Geduld mit ihnen hatte. Und er ist auch jetzt, in dieser Zeit, vollkommen gerecht, indem er die für gerecht erklärt, die an Jesus glauben.
Just like this sin filled Woman… Jesus comes to us… He shows us what is in our hearts… Then filled with grace… He shines the light of truth into our hearts… and reveals the deepest darkest sin and pride… He shows us our hopelessness… And then because of His grace and unfailing love…. He offers us a way out… He offers us Living water… And when we receive it… He washes away our guilt and sin and shame… He transforms us into new creations…
This is the Savior of the world… His name is Jesus… Do you know Him? It is not too late… Today is the day of salvation… Nothing that you have ever done… No sin…  will prevent you from coming to Him…  And nothing that we have ever done will prevent Him from washing our sins away… If only we will cry out to Him for mercy and forgiveness… Some of you have never done this… Do it today… Some of us did this long ago… But we still need to come to Him regularly…. We confess our sin and pride… And just like the disciples  at the last Supper… We let Jesus wash our feet again...
Let´s pray…

2016.06.05                                           John 3: 1-10

             Salvation and Genuine Transformation

Good Morning everyone… I am glad that you are here…. I have Good News for you… His Name is Jesus… We are studying thru the Gospel of John… As we saw in the last few weeks… Like every Prophet who has ever lived… Jesus has the same message…. Judgment is certain… Repent… The kingdom of heaven is a hand… All through His Ministry… Jesus has demonstrated the Seriousness of sin….. It is so serious that unless we have a substitute…  We will die in our sins… and be condemned to hell forever… The Gospel is Good News…  Precisely because Jesus… Has provided Himself as our Substitute…
He has made it possible for us to be born again…. To be born from above… As we come to John chapter 3… we come to the great truth of regeneration... We must be born again to enter the Kingdom of heaven…
Knowing what it means to be Born Again is foundational in our understanding of the work of God... God is active in saving His people… God is by nature a Savior… For God so loved the World that he gave… John 3: 16-17…
Last week we saw Jesus cleansing the Temple… He powerfully rebuked the Priests and the Pharisees for their hypocrisy and pride… They were not great keepers of the law of God… He knew what was in their hearts…. He knew that they did not love the Lord their god with all of their hearts and soul and strength… He knew that all the good things that they did…That all of the laws that they so carefully obeyed… Were just part of their attempt to place God in their Debt… God owed them because they were good people who obeyed the law… But sadly…  They secretly hated God… even while they seemed to be the most godly people on earth… Of all of the various groups of religious leaders…The Pharisees were the most religious… the Most careful to obey the laws and traditions of the Elders… They were perfect… At least they appeared to be perfect to the people… But their hearts were black with sin and greed and pride… They despised and criticized others… Only they were godly…. Only they were really serving God…
All through Jesus Earthly ministry…. He reserved his strongest warnings for these hypocrites… And yet… Even when he did rebuke them with forceful words... Jesus was reaching out to them…. He was calling them to see their sin and repent… He rebuked them precisely because He loved them and wanted them to repent from their hearts…
Well at least a few of the People in the Temple that day… Were shaken… Some knew that their hearts were cold and empty…. Some knew that they were lost… They knew that they were lost in their pride and sin and greed and rebellion… These Scribes and Pharisees knew the scriptures… At least one of these Pharisees was so shaken that that he went to see Jesus… His name is Nicodemus… Let´s read what happened… Look with me at the first 10 verses of John ch3…v1…
John 3: 1-10                     NKJV   slt 2000
1 There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. 2 This man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, “Rabbi, we know that You are a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him.” 3 Jesus answered and said to him, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” 4 Nicodemus said to Him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” 5 Jesus answered, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. 6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7 Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ 8 The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.” 9 Nicodemus answered and said to Him, “How can these things be?” 10 Jesus answered and said to him, “Are you the teacher of Israel, and do not know these things?
John 3: 1-10                            slt 2000
1 Es war aber ein Mensch unter den Pharisäern namens Nikodemus, ein Oberster der Juden.
2 Der kam bei Nacht zu Jesus und sprach zu ihm: Rabbi, wir wissen, daß du ein Lehrer bist, der von Gott gekommen ist; denn niemand kann diese Zeichen tun, die du tust, es sei denn, daß Gott mit ihm ist.
3 Jesus antwortete und sprach zu ihm: Wahrlich, wahrlich, ich sage dir: Wenn jemand nicht von neuem geboren wird, so kann er das Reich Gottes nicht sehen!
4 Nikodemus spricht zu ihm: Wie kann ein Mensch geboren werden, wenn er alt ist? Er kann doch nicht zum zweitenmal in den Schoß seiner Mutter eingehen und geboren werden?
5 Jesus antwortete: Wahrlich, wahrlich, ich sage dir: Wenn jemand nicht aus Wasser und Geist geboren wird, so kann er nicht in das Reich Gottes eingehen!
6 Was aus dem Fleisch geboren ist, das ist Fleisch, und was aus dem Geist geboren ist, das ist Geist.
7 Wundere dich nicht, daß ich dir gesagt habe: Ihr müßt von neuem geboren werden!
8 Der Wind weht, wo er will, und du hörst sein Sausen; aber du weißt nicht, woher er kommt und wohin er geht. So ist jeder, der aus dem Geist geboren ist.
9 Nikodemus antwortete und sprach zu ihm: Wie kann das geschehen?
10 Jesus erwiderte und sprach zu ihm: Du bist der Lehrer Israels und verstehst das nicht?
Five times in these ten verses… The Lord Jesus speaks of being born again... Nicodemus says…Born again… Whatt? Now what are you talking about…? How can this happen… I do not understand… This was new to him…
This is a very familiar idea to believers... We often speak of being a born-again Christian… It is a short and easy way to speak about genuine believers… These phrases help us to make a simple difference or separation from being merely a religious traditional Christian… And being a genuine believer…. Someone who has had their sins forgiven…
Of course… The very idea of being born again is completely impossible… It is foreign to anything that a sinner could do… That’s why Jesus chose this analogy…. It is a perfect picture of the sinner’s part in Salvation…  Jesus is saying something has to happen to you… It is not something that you can or must do for yourself…  When we were born… We had nothing to do with it… When we were conceived… We were nothing more than a twinkle in our parents’ eyes…   We made no contribution to it…
That is why the Lord Jesus chooses this analogy… because we also make no contribution to our spiritual birth… none…
He chose this example to make it crystal-clear that new birth happens to us… It is not a decision by us...
No one gives himself or herself physical life… and no one by any means gives himself or herself spiritual life… That’s the whole point… It is entirely a work of God… The first work of God on our behalf is election… God chooses us…
The second work of God for us… is regeneration… He gives us a new heart… He makes us a new creature… Just like Election… It is also entirely a work of God…
Nicodemus came to see Jesus… The Lord’s message to Nicodemus is very simple... You must be born again…  
The point of our Lord’s analogy is… Being born physically is something that happened to us… And being spiritually born is also something that happens to us… It’s a transformation… A new birth…
This is the Doctrine of Regeneration... What does it mean? It is a Theological term that describes the necessity that a person be born again… When God saves and regenerates us… We receive a new life, a new nature, and a new heart and mind from God…  
Now to understand the doctrine of regeneration is to understand that salvation is a work of God... And that’s the point here… Our Salvation is an act of God to save and redeem  sinners… If you have repented of your sins and cried out to God for forgiveness and mercy…. You are a Miracle…
Now let´s look at this discussion between Jesus and Nicodemus… Nicodemus came to Jesus at night… I can imagine that they talked for a very long time… Maybe all night… It was certainly longer than the 3 minutes it took to read these verses…
What Jesus says here only introduces the subject of being born again… The entire New Testament enriches and expands on the miracle of salvation through the Gospel…
Nicodemus was a Ruling Pharisee… he comes to Jesus by night…  ch 3…  v2…
John 3: 2                             NKJV   slt 2000
2 This man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, “Rabbi, we know that You are a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him.”
2 Der kam bei Nacht zu Jesus und sprach zu ihm: Rabbi, wir wissen, daß du ein Lehrer bist, der von Gott gekommen ist; denn niemand kann diese Zeichen tun, die du tust, es sei denn, daß Gott mit ihm ist.
There is a lot to learn in this verse…
v2a… This man came to Jesus by night…
The fact that he did this in secret tells us that Nicodemus was curious and cautious…
v2b… Rabbi, we know…
We know… In some sense they believe… What did they believe?
Nicodemus understanding of Jesus
1 That He was a great teacher… He calls Him “Rabbi”
2 That He had come from God…
3 He was at least a great prophet… Maybe the Messiah…. But for sure one of the greatest prophets..
That is certainly a good start… He is moving in the right direction… Jesus certainly  had to be a Great Prophet… There hadn’t even been a prophet for 400 years… there hadn’t been miracles for a long time before that… You have to go way back to Prophets like Moses and Elijah to find Miracles… But they do not yet understand that He is the Messiah… The long promised savior and Redeemer…  They don´t yet know that He is the Son of God… That’s why it’s not yet saving faith…
Look at v3…
John 3: 3                        NKJV    slt 2000
3 Jesus answered and said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
3 Jesus antwortete und sprach zu ihm: Wahrlich, wahrlich, ich sage dir: Wenn jemand nicht von neuem geboren wird, so kann er das Reich Gottes nicht sehen!
 v3… unless one is born again… Jesus ignores what Nicodemus says… He Looks into his heart and mind…  And says, “Truly, truly I say to you, unless one is born again he can’t see the kingdom of God.”
What was in Nicodemus’ mouth was this declaration of what they know already about Jesus…   What was in his mind was… I don’t know how to get into the kingdom of God… And so Jesus bypasses his polite declaration of respect and understanding…
He goes right to the cry of his heart…
The Number one issue on Nicodemus mind… Is the fact that he knows that he is a sinner.... He is afraid that he is missing something… He is a very careful and obedient follower of the law… He is a great Pharisee… as we see in v10… He is THE teacher in Israel… But He is insecure and afraid… He knows in his heart that even perfect obedience to the law…  is not enough… Despite all of the good things that he does… He knows that he does not love the Lord with all of His heart and soul and strength… He knows that at least sometimes he is being a Hypocrite… Legalism produces Hypocrisy…. Because it feeds our pride…
Jesus is going to teach him a great lesson this night… Nicodemus will learn that He cannot… and he never will earn his salvation…. He will never be good enough to please God…  It is a lesson that all of us need to understand…
Salvation is not earned by those who try harder…. Salvation does not come to those who become more religious… The kingdom of God is not gained by anything a person does…
Nothing that we do will ever be enough… Nicodemus knows that something is missing…. He has tried all of his life to be a good boy… To be a man of God… It is not working… The world around him is impressed… But… He has no assurance of Salvation… He cannot quite grab hold of God´s love and approval…  Think about this…. He reads and memorizes Scriptures…. He tithes of everything… He fasts and prays…. He carefully keeps every little detail of the law…. And yet he knows that it is not enough… His heart is cold…. He is going through the motions… But nothing is here is his heart… he is afraid…
He wants to know what is missing… That is His secret question for Jesus… And so… Jesus gives him an excellent illustration to help him see what is missing in his life…  Birth… He needs a new birth… The kingdom of God only opens to those who are born again… The phrase is from the Greek (gennaō anothen)…    it means to be born again or… born from above… Nicodemus… You have to be given life from above…
Genuine Salvation comes only to those who abandon all human effort as a means of salvation… Salvation comes only to those who cease trying to earn their way in… Instead they cry out to God for mercy and forgiveness…. They renounce their self-effort and pride…. They repent from their hearts… and are literally born from above by the Grace, Power and… The  will of God... That is the picture in the phrase to be born again…. But
Nicodemus doesn´t get it… He knows that something is missing… He is empty inside… What is the problem…? Pharisees were already perfect concerning the law… yes… Perfect hypocrites...
They were models of what hypocrisy was
They essentially are liars... They are phonies… Jesus described them as whitewashed tombs… Pretty and clean on the outside… But inside they were full of corrupt dead men’s bones… Lust and pride…
Nicodemus was one of those… Yes he looked good… He was a man who was like the apostle Paul… zealous for the law…  blameless before the lawExternally he kept every law, every ritual, every little rule and tradition…. Remember the Law has 613 commandments…. But for a Pharisee…. It was important to keep the law perfectly… So they built fences around the law… To make sure that they stayed far away from disobedience… They had volumes of rules and regulations…. They had rules about the rules… They were killing and choking themselves with them…. And even though they came to hate the law and God… They were filled with pride at their keeping of them…. But there was no peace…  No joy in their religion… It was all rules and sacrifice… all rules and sacrifice… Does  that Sound familiar? Are we obsessed with rules and outward behavior and at the same time… Refusing to let God search our hearts and transform us from the inside?..
John 3… v10… Describes Nicodemus as The Teacher of Israel…  So here is a man who is extremely religious…  He is following every detail of the law… But on the inside…   He has no assurance of the forgiveness of his sins…
He is a hypocrite… He has no relation to God… No hope of heaven… The greatest problem is his rejection of the only true way of salvation… We are saved by grace though faith…. It is demonstrated when we cry out to God in sorrow for sin… and in genuine repentance from the heart…
So he comes to Jesus…  He comes by night; he needs some help... He knows that he is not in the kingdom…  What do I need to do? I’ve done everything I know to do... I’ve kept every law I know to keep...    What more do I need to do? And Jesus says to him… You must be born again…
Jesus is illustrating the truth that All religious works… all moral activities are useless… They cannot transform our hearts… Listen… We cannot earn God´s blessings… We must be born again… There is no other way to enter the Kingdom of Heaven…  
This is the truth of regeneration... And it is based on the fact that the best that a man can do is still worthless… All  of our religious activity will never please God… We have a big problem….
The point of Jesus cleansing of the Temple was to illustrate the extreme seriousness of sin….
And to warn of certain…. Devastating Judgment on all who refuse to repent… We need a miracle…. We need a new heart
Another famous Pharisee… The Apostle Paul said it this way… Once you were dead in sin… look with me at Ephesians 2: 1…
Ephesians 2: 1-5                  NLT  Neues Leben
1 Once you were dead because of your disobedience and your many sins. 2 You used to live in sin, just like the rest of the world, obeying the devil—the commander of the powers in the unseen world. He is the spirit at work in the hearts of those who refuse to obey God. 3 All of us used to live that way, following the passionate desires and inclinations of our sinful nature. By our very nature we were subject to God’s anger, just like everyone else. 4 But God is so rich in mercy, and he loved us so much, 5 that even though we were dead because of our sins, he gave us life when he raised Christ from the dead. It is only by God’s grace that you have been saved!
1 Auch ihr wart früher tot aufgrund eurer Sünden. 2 Ihr habt genauso in der Sünde gelebt wie der Rest der Welt, beherrscht von Satan, der im Machtbereich der Luft regiert. Er ist der Geist, der in den Herzen derer wirkt, die Gott nicht gehorchen wollen. 3 Wir alle haben früher so gelebt und uns von den Leidenschaften und Begierden unserer alten Natur beherrschen lassen. Wir wurden mit dieser Natur geboren und waren Gottes Zorn ausgeliefert wie alle anderen Menschen auch. 4 Doch Gott ist so barmherzig und liebte uns so sehr, 5 dass er uns, die wir durch unsere Sünden tot waren, mit Christus neues Leben schenkte, als er ihn von den Toten auferweckte. Nur durch die Gnade Gottes seid ihr gerettet worden!
v1… you were dead because of disobedience and sin…
Dead in the Greek means dead… Not able to do anything at all… That is a very bad place to be…
Nicodemus is a dead man… He is blind with pride and self-righteousness…  Jesus is saying…. You will never get to the Kingdom of Heaven by obeying the law…. Not even if you do it perfectly for the rest of your life…  Unless you’re born from above… born again… You will die in your sins… But there is Good News in the Gospel…. There is Hope for him and for you…. look at v4…
v4… But God is so rich in mercy… 
This is where God steps in and draws you to Himself…
v5… that even though we were dead because of our sins, he gave us life…  He makes us alive in Christ… And we are born again…  This is where God drags us out of the grave… This is regeneration… This is what enables the dead sinner to believe, to repent, to call out to Christ… This is what enables us to come to Christ in faith… It’s always God who makes us alive… who creates us… He gives us life…
We see here and in Ezekiel 36… That our salvation is God´s work… and it is for His own purpose and His Glory… Let´s look at what Paul said about God´s purpose in our redemption…. Ephesians 2: 6-10…
Ephesians 2: 6-10                    NLT   Neues Leben
6 For he raised us from the dead along with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ Jesus. 7 So God can point to us in all future ages as examples of the incredible wealth of his grace and kindness toward us, as shown in all he has done for us who are united with Christ Jesus.
8 God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. 9 Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it. 10 For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.
6 Denn er hat uns zusammen mit Christus von den Toten auferweckt und wir gehören nun mit Jesus zu seinem himmlischen Reich. 7 So wird er für alle Zeiten an uns seine Güte und den Reichtum seiner Gnade sichtbar machen, die sich in allem zeigt, was er durch Christus Jesus für uns getan hat. 8 Weil Gott so gnädig ist, hat er euch durch den Glauben gerettet. Und das ist nicht euer eigenes Verdienst; es ist ein Geschenk Gottes. 9 Ihr werdet also nicht aufgrund eurer guten Taten gerettet, damit sich niemand etwas darauf einbilden kann. 10 Denn wir sind Gottes Schöpfung. Er hat uns in Christus Jesus neu geschaffen, damit wir zu guten Taten fähig sind, wie er es für unser Leben schon immer vorgesehen hat.
God Himself…. Loves us and moves to Save us… He takes out our hearts of stone…. He gives us a heart of flesh… Ezek 36…  He puts His Spirit in us and we are born again… But God… What Mercy and Grace… What unfailing love… The Gospel is Good News… He does the work… He transforms us…
Close
In closing look with me at 1 Peter…ch1…v3…
1 Peter 1: 3                     NKJV   slt 2000
3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead
3 Gelobt sei der Gott und Vater unseres Herrn Jesus Christus, denn er hat uns in seiner großen Barmherzigkeit das Vorrecht geschenkt, wiedergeboren zu werden. Jetzt haben wir eine lebendige Hoffnung, weil Jesus Christus von den Toten auferstanden ist.
The German text is great here… (wiedergeboren zu werden. Jetzt haben wir eine lebendige Hoffnung)…. Now we are Born again to a living Hope!!!
We are talking about the miracle of transformation… of regeneration…. Salvation…  The testimony of Scripture is that this is all a work of God…   It comes from above; only God can do it...  look with me at Titus ch3..v4,5…
Titus 3: 4,5     NLT   Neues Leben
4 But When God our Savior revealed his kindness and love, 5 he saved us, not because of the righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He washed away our sins, giving us a new birth and new life through the Holy Spirit.
4 Doch dann zeigte Gott, unser Retter, uns seine Freundlichkeit und Liebe.
5 Er rettete uns, nicht wegen unserer guten Taten, sondern aufgrund seiner Barmherzigkeit. Er wusch unsere Schuld ab und schenkte uns durch den Heiligen Geist ein neues Leben.
v4… But when God revealed His kindness and love…
v5… not because of our righteousness … but Because of His mercy… He causes us to be born again…. The greek word here (paliggenesia) translated as a new birth and a new life… can be translated Regeneration… This is a very interesting word…. It is associated with the restoration of all things by the Messiah… Now…  in the hearts of all genuine believers… and at His coming… in the complete restoration of all things in Heaven and earth… What grace… Even though we do not deserve it…
God sets His Love on Us…. He causes us to be born again…   We receive a new birth… a new life… So…. How does this happen…? How do we become born again…?
Well  For sure it doesn’t happen in a vacuum…
What happens… is that we hear and respond to the preaching of the Gospel… James calls the Gospel… the Word of truth… James 1: 18-21
You can’t be regenerated apart from hearing the Word of truth…   
We hear the Good News of the Gospel…. God uses it to wake us from the dead…. We are regenerated…. Born again…. We   repent of our sins… and believe The Good News…  Look at 1 Peter ch1…v…23…
1 Peter 1: 22,23              NKJV   slt 2000
22 Since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit in sincere love of the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart, 23 having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever
22 Jetzt könnt ihr einander aufrichtig lieben, denn ihr wurdet von eurer Schuld befreit, als ihr die Wahrheit Gottes angenommen habt. Deshalb sollt ihr euch wirklich von Herzen lieben. 23 Euer neues Leben hat keinen vergänglichen, sondern ewigen Ursprung, nämlich das lebendige und ewig bestehende Wort Gottes.
Have you been born again…? Not sure? Today is the day… cry out to Him… ask God in His mercy and in His grace… to forgive you and give you a new heart... Come to Jesus now… Repent and believe the Good News… Jesus said…. “Him that comes to Me, I will never turn away… John 6:37…
Then we can do what Peter encourages us to do… v22b… love one another fervently with a pure heart… 23 having been born again… We begin to fulfill the law from a Grateful… Thankful… transformed heart…
Let´s pray...
2016.05.22                                  John 2: 12-17
                 The Cleansing of the Temple
Good morning… It is wonderful to see you this morning…
We are studying the life of Jesus in the Gospel of john… As we continue in the Gospel…  Last week we saw Jesus performing His first miracle…. He turned Water into wine… It was instant and supernatural…. And everyone who was there was amazed… It was a private miracle for His family and friends at the Wedding in Cana… John is going to go back and forth between the words of Christ Jesus… and the miracles of Christ Jesus…   He’s going tell us the things that Jesus said and did that revealed His deity…  Jesus will do what no one but God can do… Our text for today is very important... We could outline the main teaching in two points… Jesus demonstrates and teaches us about the Grace of God as He enters the Temple to begin His Public Ministry… Here is the outline…
The Cleansing of the Temple
1 Substitutionary Atonement
2 The Seriousness of Sin
Let´s read the first 2 verses… John 2 v12,13…
John 2: 12,13                           NKJV   slt 2000
12 After this He went down to Capernaum, He, His mother, His brothers, and His disciples; and they did not stay there many days.13 Now the Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.
12 Danach zog er hinab nach Kapernaum, er und seine Mutter und seine Brüder und seine Jünger, und sie blieben wenige Tage dort. 13 Und das Passah der Juden war nahe, und Jesus zog hinauf nach Jerusalem.
v12 After this He went down to Capernaum, He, His mother, His brothers, and His disciples…
Immediately after the marriage of Cana…. Jesus went down to Capernaum…  Mary… The disciples  and the ‘brethren of Jesus’ went with Him… Ancient Capernaum was called… Kephar Nachum… This is the place where so many of His miracles were done... Jesus preached in its Synagogue… According to scriptures… Jesus preached in all of the Synagogues in the area of Galilee…  Matthew ch4 v 23 , ch 9v35… The Synagogue in Capernaum had been built by that true and faithful Centurion…   The Synagogue is a ruin… But you can still see the walls and many of the details of the Synagogue in which He taught... From its ruins we can still measure its dimensions… and trace its fallen pillars… We discover over the lintels of its entrance… Stone carved pictures… For example… A pot of manna   The seven-branched Menorah… The Star of David and of course… the Passover Lamb… Many of these powerful symbols were pictured on and in the Synagogues… I made a small slide Show of Capernaum for you… I posted it on Facebook…. It will run after the sermon too… Have you been to Israel? You must go… Start saving your money…. The Lord willing we will have a CCW trip to Israel next year… Either the spring or Fall of 2017…
As I said… Capernaum becomes the home of Jesus…   But, on this occasion… He is only there for a few days… The Passover was coming… and He wanted to keep the feast in Jerusalem… look at V13…
v13 Now the Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem...
The Passover was one of the three required feasts…. Every one who was able… Was required to go up to Jerusalem and celebrate them... It is a great picture of the Substitutionary Atonement… That is one of our points for this morning…
The Doctrine of Substitutionary Atonement… Turn with me to 1 Peter ch2… v24,25…
1 Peter 2: 24,25       NKJV   slt 2000
24 who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness—by whose stripes you were healed. 25 For you were like sheep going astray, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.
24 Er hat unsere Sünden selbst an seinem Leib getragen auf dem Holz, damit wir, den Sünden gestorben, der Gerechtigkeit leben mögen; durch seine Wunden seid ihr heil geworden. 25 Denn ihr wart wie Schafe, die in die Irre gehen; jetzt aber habt ihr euch bekehrt zu dem Hirten und Hüter eurer Seelen.
This is a great text… There is a whole sermon in these 2 verses…  Look at v24… 
v24 who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness—by whose stripes you were healed
This great verse speaks of Jesus as our substitute  He is the one who took our place... Here in 1 Peter ch 2 and 3…  Peter  is pointing to Isaiah 53: 4,5, and 11 In those verses… Isaiah writes about the substitutionary sin-bearing death of Christ…   The great doctrine of Substitution… Is the heart of the Gospel…
Now all of the sacrifices in the OT point to The Atonement
This is especially clear on the Day of Atonement and in the Passover…  Christ was our substitute…. He died in our place…. The Just for the unjust… 1 Peter 3:18...
What does the text say?  It begins with these words, “And He Himself bore our sins… He Himself means to emphasize that this is God in human flesh bearing our sins… He Himself bore our sins… And  He did it alone…  The Greek emphatic personal pronoun… Tells us that He did it alone… and that He did it voluntarily…  Voluntarily and alone God took on our sins…  He came into the world to save His people from their sins… John ch3… Jesus is the Lamb of God… John 1:29…  To “bear sin” meant to endure the penalty of sin… Paul taught us that The wages of sin is death… Romans 6:23…
The great doctrine of the Substitutionary Atonement points us to the second point for this morning… The extreme seriousness of sin…. It is a fatal disease… Because of the seriousness of sin and rebellion that characterizes our lives…
We deserve the death penalty… Somebody has to die… Substitution helps us to clearly understand what Jesus did on the cross…  He bore our punishment as our substitute… Our Stellvertreter…  The wrath of God against sin was put on Him instead of us...  That’s precisely what it means...
And so for this morning the picture I want us to see… is that the Passover is a picture of Jesus… Suffering and dying for us… In our Place… That is Substitutionary Atonement for sin… We could study this subject for the rest of the year…
Would you like to know more?... Awesome…
Vertikal and Fundamentals every Sunday Afternoon at 4 pm…!
The perfect place to learn more about the Grace of God…  And have all of your questions answered… Back to our text for this morning… John 2: 12,13
John 2: 12,13                           NKJV   slt 2000
12 After this He went down to Capernaum, He, His mother, His brothers, and His disciples; and they did not stay there many days.13 Now the Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.
12 Danach zog er hinab nach Kapernaum, er und seine Mutter und seine Brüder und seine Jünger, und sie blieben wenige Tage dort. 13 Und das Passah der Juden war nahe, und Jesus zog hinauf nach Jerusalem.
Looking at verse 13…   because the time for the Passover is near… and they all go with Jesus to Jerusalem… The Passover… It´s an annual feast… It is followed by another feast of seven days called the Feast of unleavened bread…   You remember when Israel was delivered from Egypt… Exodus chapter 12… God sent 12 plagues… the Children of Israel were told the last plague is going to be the death of the firstborn… He said that the angel of death is going to come and kill all the firstborn… And if you want the angel of death to pass over your house… You must sacrifice a lamb… sprinkle its blood on the doorposts and the crosspiece… Quickly eat a meal together eating only unleavened bread,… And get ready to go… The angel of death will pass over you and deliver you from judgment… If you have obeyed and  if the blood is on the door… That was a symbol of the work that Messiah would do when He put His blood on a cross and provided deliverance from divine judgment... So the Passover is instituted in Exodus 12… In Exodus 23 God required that they keep that Passover every year…
 A month before the Passover the entire nation began to get ready to celebrate the Passover… Bridges and roads were repaired…
The tombs and graves were painted white to prevent accidental defilement of the pilgrims… Then, some would select Passover…. One of the three great annual feasts… As the time for the Children of Israel to tithe their flocks and herds… Tithing was done once each year as the reminder of the great truth that everything we have has been given to us by the Lord… We are His Stewards…
The Scripture shows us that Jesus was always obedient to the Word of God… He fulfilled all righteousness… He obeyed everything that was  in the Law of God…   Jesus did not always do the traditions of the scribes and Pharisees…. They were often angry with Him about that…. But everything that was written by God…  Jesus did... And so…  as He always did… He comes to the Passover…  
Jesus ministry begins at a Passover… and it ends at a Passover… And at both of those Passovers… He cleanses the Temple… First as we see in our text this morning… He strikes out at false religion and hypocrisy to  begin His ministry… Later… at the end of His earthly Ministry…  He cleanses the Temple again… And then He becomes the Passover Lamb… And   during His ministry… there will be two more Passovers… John tells us about one in chapter 6, and another in chapter 11… He always kept the Passover… He fulfilled all righteousness… These sacrifices all pointed to His Sacrificial Atonement for our sins…
This time… as He enters into the Temple to begin His Public Messianic ministry… He displays His divine and Holy anger… His cleansing of the temple now and at the end of His earthly ministry… Were previews of future judgment… A judgment that would come in the destruction of the Temple and Jerusalem… And the final judgment that will become a reality forever at the Great White Throne… This tells us very much about the seriousness of Sin… That is why Jesus… and Every Prophet of God has had the same message… Judgment is certain… Repent… The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand
Do you know what causes Jesus to do what He does here is an age-old problem…. Hypocrisy…  This is a problem today as well…
If you go back to Isaiah chapter 1… We see Isaiah warning the People to repent…. He rebuked their hypocrisy…. Yes… they were worshipping and making sacrifices…. But they were wicked and unrepentant in their hearts… Isaiah speaking for the Lord said..   What are your multiplied sacrifices to Me?...  Isaiah 1: 11-20… Great text for your own personal quiet times… In this text Isaiah rebukes hypocrisy and false worship… He calls for repentance and genuine worship instead…
He was saying that we must repent from our hearts of our sin and pride and rebellion… 
He is prophetically saying…. You are wasting your time praying to Me… Repent of your sins and pride… v18…
Isaiah 1: 18                          NKJV   slt 2000
18 “Come now, and let us reason together,”Says the Lord,“Though your sins are like scarlet, They shall be as white as snow; Though they are red like crimson, They shall be as wool.
18 Kommt doch, wir wollen miteinander rechten! spricht der Herr. Wenn eure Sünden wie Scharlach sind, sollen sie weiß werden wie der Schnee; wenn sie rot sind wie Karmesin9, sollen sie [weiß] wie Wolle werden.

This is the message being given by Jesus as He cleaned out the temple... It’s the exact same issue… It is the age-old problem of hypocrisy… false religion… superficial worship… And the Lord Jesus is angry at the sin and rebellion… Their worship is nothing but Hypocrisy…
Another prophet… Amos Said…. Thus sayeth the Lord… Stop your songs; I don’t want to hear your songs… The Lord is calling for genuine repentance and true worship…The Lord despises false   superficial worship… He wants our hearts… So let’s look at this story and how it applies to us…
They are all in Capernaum… It was the place where Jesus did many miracles… But still… Many did not repent of their sins…  In Matthew 11 Jesus said… that if it had been done in Sodom and Gomorrah what was done in Capernaum, they would have repented… Now Jesus and the others head up to Jerusalem…
Look with me at v14-17…
John 2: 14-17                             NKJV   slt 2000
14 And He found in the temple those who sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the money changers doing business. 15 When He had made a whip of cords, He drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and the oxen, and poured out the changers’ money and overturned the tables. 16 And He said to those who sold doves, “Take these things away! Do not make My Father’s house a house of merchandise!” 17 Then His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for Your house has eaten Me up.”
John 2: 14-17                            NKJV  slt 2000
14 Und er fand im Tempel die Verkäufer von Rindern und Schafen und Tauben und die Wechsler, die dasaßen.
15 Und er machte eine Geißel aus Stricken und trieb sie alle zum Tempel hinaus, samt den Schafen und Rindern, und den Wechslern verschüttete er das Geld und stieß die Tische um;
16 und zu den Taubenverkäufern sprach er: Schafft das weg von hier! Macht nicht das Haus meines Vaters zu einem Kaufhaus!
17 Seine Jünger dachten aber daran, daß geschrieben steht: »Der Eifer um dein Haus hat mich verzehrt.
v14… in the Temple those who were selling oxen and sheep and doves, and the moneychangers seated at their tables.   
There was a lot going on…The slaughter of the animals officially took place between the evenings… That is between three o’clock and six o’clock on the afternoon of the Passover… There were many sacrifices to be offered… Lots of people and lots of animals…
So when you get to the Temple… In addition to the sacrifices… Others were bringing their tithes…. There could be  ten or twenty thousand people in the Temple area at any given point in time…
In the middle of all of this there are people selling oxen, sheep and doves… Some would buy an animal when they arrived there… If they brought one from home…. It could be injured…   It would possibly be rejected by the people who inspected the animals…  and if the animal was refused… Often they were… Then they would have to buy one of the temple animals anyway…
There are also moneychangers seated at their tables... Many of the pilgrims were from other countries… Their money had to be changed… Some historians say the exchange rate was between ten and twelve percent…   So there was big business going on  in the temple... They were ripping off the people…
Jesus sees all of this… They have totally polluted His Father’s house… Their hearts are the same as the hearts of the people to whom Isaiah and Amos prophesied… Many of you are familiar with Psalm 51… It is the great Psalm of repentance…. David wrote it when he repented of his sin and adultery with Bathsheba… The last few verses of the Psalm point us to genuine worship…Look with me at Psalm 51…v16,17…
Psalm 51: 16,17                     NKJV  
16 For You do not desire sacrifice, or else I would give it; You do not delight in burnt offering.
17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, A broken and a contrite heart— These, O God, You will not despise.
Psalm 51: 18,19                       slt 2000
18 Denn an Schlachtopfern hast du kein Wohlgefallen, sonst wollte ich sie dir geben; Brandopfer gefallen dir nicht.
19 Die Opfer, die Gott gefallen, sind ein zerbrochener Geist; ein zerbrochenes und zerschlagenes Herz wirst du, o Gott, nicht verachten.
The problem has always been the same… The problem has always been our hearts… Genuine worship begins in the heart… That is where the battle is… This is where our pride and lust pull us away from genuine repentance and worship… David understood that… David made the required sacrifices…. David Tithed unto the Lord… These things are good…. But David knew that he needed to repent from His heart first… He knew that his Genuine Repentance is what really made everything else he did… Pleasing and acceptable to God…
The Temple was an Awesome place…. The place chosen by the Lord for Worship and sacrifice… It should have been a place of repentance and worship… A place to praise and Glorify God… Instead… It has become a place to play the Hypocrite and to steal… From God and from the pilgrims who came to worship…  Instead of worship from the heart…. We see sin and wickedness in the Temple… No wonder the Lord was so Wütant… Beside Himself with anger…
And This scene is what provoked His outburst of Anger… Jesus´ cleansing of the Temple… Here… and at the end of His earthly ministry…  Are the most severe things Jesus did in His ministry…  They are calls for genuine repentance… And a solemn warning of Judgment that is certain to come if they refuse to repent…
Jesus sends an unmistakable message that judgment is coming on them…  Back to John 2 v15…
v15a… When He had made a whip of cords… Cords would be lying all over the place… When I was 10 years old We lived on a cattle ranch in the desert… We loved it… There were cords and ropes everywhere… We would tie them together and make Lassos…. We wanted to be cowboys…. We thought that we could lasso a calf…. It is probably a good thing that we never succeeded… A calf could have dragged us right into a pile of Manure or a Cactus…  Jesus picked up some of these cords and braided them into a whip... Now remember…   this is the beginning of His ministry…  They don’t know who He is...
And then He unleashes His Holy Anger… v15b…
v15b… And drove them all out of the Temple…
How did He do it? He did it in the Power of the Holy Spirit… I think of when Elijah killed the false prophets of Baal… 1 Kings 18  He was an old man when He did that… He drives all of the people that were buying and selling out of the Courtyards… He drives all of the animals out too… He flips over all the tables of the moneychangers… We are talking chaos… They scramble to get whatever they can and they Evacuate the place… We have no sign that anybody was injured… This was not an act of cruelty to the people that were there…  This was an act of judgment on a system of religion…
This is a preview of the power that Jesus has to judge…
v16a… He said to those who sold doves, “Take these things away …
v16b… Do not make My Father’s house a house of merchandise…  
 “My Father”—what a statement… The Jews didn’t say that about God… That fact that Jesus said this is already a statement that He is God come in the fleshJesus is saying…  Don´t do this to my Father´s House… Stop it… He pronounces judgment on the entire religious system… And on their Greed and Hypocrisy… Later they will try to Kill Him for saying it… John 5:18… v17…
v17… Then His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for Your house has eaten Me up…
Now remember… These disciples were true Old Testament believers… They were followers of John the Baptist… It was John who pointed them to Jesus…  and they had followed Him... They have been with Him now for a while…  They know the Scriptures…  And when they see Jesus do this, they remember a text…
Do you memorize scripture? I hope you do… It is a real treasure… My first elders made me memorize Romans ch 8 as a young Christian... As time went on we committed many passages to memory… That is good… It is what the Holy Spirit uses in our lives… 2 Timothy 3… He used them to speak to my heart when I ran from the Lord in sin and rebellion…
Well these OT saints memorized vast quantities of  scripture… And they did not have chapter and verse in their scrolls… They remembered passages by important statements in a section of text… When they remembered this text…. They remembered most or all of it… This is a great Messianic Psalm… They will remember it often as they see the ministry and crucifixion of Jesus…
Psalm 69 was written by David…
And this is another Psalm where David was calling the people to true worship…
Sadly…  He was getting only resistance and hatred… The people were in the same condition then that they are in Jesus’ time… David is doing his best to call them back to faithfulness… David says they’re mistreating me… They hate me for no reason… look at it with me… starting with v7…
Psalm 69: 7-9                          NKJV  
7 Because for Your sake I have borne reproach; Shame has covered my face. 8 I have become a stranger to my brothers, And an alien to my mother’s children; 9 Because zeal for Your house has eaten me up, And the reproaches of those who reproach You have fallen on me.
Psalm 69: 8-10                    slt 2000
8 Denn um deinetwillen trage ich Schmach, und Schande bedeckt mein Angesicht. 9 Entfremdet bin ich meinen Brüdern und ein Fremder geworden den Söhnen meiner Mutter. 10 Denn der Eifer um dein Haus hat mich verzehrt, und die Schmähungen derer, die dich schmähen, sind auf mich gefallen.
In this Psalm… David is speaking of his own situation… And He is prophesying of the Lord Jesus too
This shows us that David was a great man of God…. Not perfect but a genuine lover of truth and goodness…  A man who worshipped the Lord our God from and with His whole heart…
When God is dishonored… His people suffer… When Genuine believers feel the pain… We are reflecting true discipleship and love for God…  That was David…   When he saw God dishonored… he felt the pain… And now they see Jesus doing the same thing…   Here is Jesus showing the same devotion… Naturally…  Jesus felt the pain far more than David...
But like David… Jesus is consumed with this same truth… God is to be glorified  And He was not being glorified by the things that were going on in the Temple…
So what does that have to do with us? There’s no Temple anymore… Oh, at least there’s no building that is the Temple, but there is a temple… We are the Temple… Oder? Are we not?
We are the Temple of the living God… He lives here in  His church… Are we reflecting Jesus to a lost and dying world? Not very well I am afraid…
And it is time for us to begin to understand the seriousness of sin… The Wickedness of pride and selfishness… We must Stop pretending to follow Jesus…  He has redeemed us… We are here to reflect Jesus… He has called us to Holiness… To live Godly lives… We are here to be full of grace and truth…. Just like Jesus… And here in the church…  This is where we start… Let´s close our time together by looking at a Word of encouragement from Paul to the Church in Colossai…
Colossians 3: 12-15                 NLT    Neues Leben
12 Since God chose you to be the holy people he loves, you must clothe yourselves with tenderhearted mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. 13 Make allowance for each other’s faults, and forgive anyone who offends you. Remember, the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others. 14 Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds us all together in perfect harmony. 15 And let the peace that comes from Christ rule in your hearts. For as members of one body you are called to live in peace. And always be thankful.
Colossians 3: 12-15                 NLT    Neues Leben
12 Da Gott euch erwählt hat, zu seinen Heiligen und Geliebten zu gehören, seid voll Mitleid und Erbarmen, Freundlichkeit, Demut, Sanftheit und Geduld.13 Seid nachsichtig mit den Fehlern der anderen und vergebt denen, die euch gekränkt haben. Vergesst nicht, dass der Herr euch vergeben hat und dass ihr deshalb auch anderen vergeben müsst. 14 Das Wichtigste aber ist die Liebe. Sie ist das Band, das uns alle in vollkommener Einheit verbindet. 15 Euren Herzen wünschen wir den Frieden, der von Christus kommt. Denn als Glieder des einen Leibes seid ihr alle berufen, im Frieden miteinander zu leben. Und seid immer dankbar!
These are Good Words of encouragement for us today… Let’s pray…


2016.05.01                                         John 1: 19-51
                        The Lamb of God 
Good Morning everyone, I am glad that you are here… I have Good News for you…. His name is Jesus… We  teach through the Bible verse by verse because we want to see the big picture… We want to know and understand our great God and Savior… The Lord Jesus Christ…
Please turn with me to the Gospel of John… chapter 1… We are  working our way through this wonderful presentation of the Lord Jesus Christ… Remember John’s purpose is very simple... His purpose is to present   the proof that Jesus is the Messiah… the Son of God… so that we might repent of our sins and rebellion and believe… and by believing the Good News… have eternal life in His name…
Last week we saw the wonderful description of Jesus… We saw His Glory…  full of Grace and Truth…
We talked a lot about grace last week… And as we continue to study… we will be eyewitnesses of His Grace and Mercy in action… as we listen to the truth revealed to us in the Word of God…
in verse 15  we read that John the Baptist testified about Him…  
Now as we pick up the text in John ch 1… verse 19… We see the testimony that John gave… Look with me please John 1… v19…
 John 1: 19-28                           NKJV   slt 2000
19 Now this is the testimony of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, “Who are you?”
20 He confessed, and did not deny, but confessed, “I am not the Christ.”
21 And they asked him, “What then? Are you Elijah?”He said, “I am not.”“Are you the Prophet?”And he answered, “No.”
22 Then they said to him, “Who are you, that we may give an answer to those who sent us? What do you say about yourself?”
23 He said: “I am The voice of one crying in the wilderness: Make straight the way of the Lord, as the prophet Isaiah said.”
24 Now those who were sent were from the Pharisees. 25 And they asked him, saying, “Why then do you baptize if you are not the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?” 26 John answered them, saying, “I baptize with water, but there stands One among you whom you do not know. 27 It is He who, coming after me, is preferred before me, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to loose.” 28 These things were done in Bethabara beyond the Jordan, where John was baptizing.

John 1: 19-28                           NKJV   slt 2000
19 Und dies ist das Zeugnis des Johannes, als die Juden von Jerusalem Priester und Leviten sandten, um ihn zu fragen: Wer bist du?
20 Und er bekannte es und leugnete nicht, sondern bekannte: Ich bin nicht der Christus!10
21 Und sie fragten ihn: Was denn? Bist du Elia? Und er sprach: Ich bin's nicht! Bist du der Prophet11? Und er antwortete: Nein!
22 Nun sprachen sie zu ihm: Wer bist du denn? Damit wir denen Antwort geben, die uns gesandt haben: Was sagst du über dich selbst?
23 Er sprach: Ich bin »die Stimme eines Rufenden, [die ertönt] in der Wüste: Ebnet den Weg des Herrn!«,12 wie der Prophet Jesaja gesagt hat.
24 Die Gesandten gehörten aber zu den Pharisäern.
25 Und sie fragten ihn und sprachen zu ihm: Warum taufst du denn, wenn du nicht der Christus bist, noch Elia, noch der Prophet?
26 Johannes antwortete ihnen und sprach: Ich taufe mit Wasser; aber mitten unter euch steht einer, den ihr nicht kennt;
27 dieser ist’s, der nach mir kommt, der vor mir gewesen ist; und ich bin nicht würdig, ihm den Schuhriemen zu lösen.
28 Dies geschah in Bethabara, jenseits des Jordan, wo Johannes taufte.
This section begins with more of the Testimony of John the Baptist… He becomes the first one to witness to the Lord Jesus as the Redeemer and Savior…
John the Baptist was the most believable witness to the Lord Jesus…  He was called by God to be a prophet… He spoke the Word of God with great power…  and Everyone respected this radical servant of God… He had tremendous street creds… Credibility…
John the Baptist was no ordinary man…  He came from a priestly family… And he was Jesus` cousin… John’s  birth was extraordinary… It was miraculous because his parents were barren…  His mother Elizabeth gave birth in her old age after an Angel appeared to John´s father Zacharias in the Temple…. We often study these events near Christmas…. The account is in Luke ch 1… It was miraculous… He preached under the power and anointing of the Holy Spirit…. He had been filled with the Holy Spirit from him mother´s womb…
The Angel said that he would be filled with the Holy Spirit from his mother’s womb… And  that he would come in the spirit and power of Elijah… That he would turn many of the hearts of the people back to the Lord God… He mission is to and prepare them for the arrival of Messiah… So even the scribes and Pharisees knew that he was a true prophet… He is the first one in 400 years…   
He was bold and fearless…. He called for repentance form the heart… Once when the religious leaders came to him… He said… You brood of snakes, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?.. Luke 3…
He is both feared and respected…
The nation acknowledged John the Baptist as a spokesman for God… He is the most believable and trustworthy voice in Israel... And the people have been coming by the tens of thousands from all Jerusalem… Judea… and the surrounding territories to hear this great prophet…
v19,20… Who are you?.. I am not the Christ… His mission was to point to the Messiah… It was unthinkable that attention would focus on him… He was not the Messiah…
v21a… Are you Elijah?.. No… I am not… He was calling for radical repentance and obedience to the Lord… He was preparing the way for the Messiah…  the priests and Levites   associated John with Elijah because of the promise in Malachi 4:5-6... so… If he is the forerunner of the Messiah… then is he Elijah?.. He said no…
But In one sense… John was Elijah… Because he was ministering in his office and spirit… Matthew 11:13-14 and Mark 9:11-13…
v21b… Are you the Prophet?... This refers to God's promise through Moses in Deuteronomy 18:15, promising a prophet to come. Based on this passage, they expected another Prophet to come.
v23… I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness… Here John is quoting the text in Malachi… John sees himself as the forerunner of the great King… His baptism was a preparatory cleansing for the coming King… The Messiah…  
In John's day the Jews practiced baptism… It was a form of ceremonial washing... But baptism was typically reserved for Gentiles who wanted to become Jews… In order to submit to John's baptism… They had to identify with the very wicked and lost…  Gentiles… This was a genuine sign of repentance form the heart…
v26… I baptize with water… True Israelites…God fearers… “ believing Jews” knew they were sinners… John’s baptism was a baptism of repentance... John's baptism cleansed them in a symbolic way… They were confessing their need for grace and mercy… They were responding in faith to God…  Baptism was a practical response to their need for forgiveness…  It is like what we saw when the repentant Tax collector cried out in the Temple…. He demonstrated sorrow for sin and showed genuine repentance… He cried Have mercy on me a sinner… Luke 18… v14… Jesus said that the man went home justified… This is what the people were doing when they came to John to be baptized… John … like every Prophet before him…. Preached the same message…. Repent the Kingdom of heaven is at hand… John preached the wrath of God against sin… and he preached repentance form the heart…
v27… Who sandal strap I am not worthy to loose… foot washing was duty of the lowest slave in the house… John is showing His genuine Humility by comparing himself with the least… John says he is unworthy to do even this… John was himself a very humble servant of the Lord… Look at the next section… v29-34…
John 1: 29- 34                           NKJV   slt 2000
29 The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! 30 This is He of whom I said, ‘After me comes a Man who is preferred before me, for He was before me.’ 31 I did not know Him; but that He should be revealed to Israel, therefore I came baptizing with water.”32 And John bore witness, saying, “I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and He remained upon Him. 33 I did not know Him, but He who sent me to baptize with water said to me, ‘Upon whom you see the Spirit descending, and remaining on Him, this is He who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’ 34 And I have seen and testified that this is the Son of God.
John 1: 29- 34                           NKJV   slt 2000
29 Am folgenden Tag sieht Johannes Jesus auf sich zukommen und spricht: Siehe, das Lamm Gottes, das die Sünde der Welt hinwegnimmt!
30 Das ist der, von dem ich sagte: Nach mir kommt ein Mann, der vor mir gewesen ist; denn er war eher als ich.
31 Und ich kannte ihn nicht; aber damit er Israel offenbar würde, darum bin ich gekommen, mit Wasser zu taufen.
32 Und Johannes bezeugte und sprach: Ich sah den Geist wie eine Taube vom Himmel herabsteigen, und er blieb auf ihm.
33 Und ich kannte ihn nicht; aber der mich sandte, mit Wasser zu taufen, der sprach zu mir: Der, auf den du den Geist herabsteigen und auf ihm bleiben siehst, der ist's, der mit Heiligem Geist tauft. 34 Und ich habe es gesehen und bezeuge, daß dieser der Sohn Gottes ist.
v29… Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!..   Jesus is greeted by the great Prophet with these words… They point to the Glorious purpose of His earthly ministry… His Sacrificial Substitutionary Atonement for our sins… He took our place… He redeemed everyone who cried out to Him for forgiveness…  The shadow of the cross was cast over the entire life and ministry of Jesus… He was born to die…. He said…. No man takes my life from me…. I lay it down… It is way He came…
He came to seek and to save the lost…
v30… For He was before me… John the Baptist was actually born before Jesus… Luke 1… In this verse… John referring to the eternal pre-existence of Jesus… John knew that Jesus was God… God had shown Him for certain that Jesus was the Messiah… v33…
v33… Upon whom you see the Spirit descending, and remaining on Him, this is He who baptizes with the Holy Spirit… God the Father gave John the Baptist this sure sign… The Messiah is the one on Whom the Holy Spirit descends...
v34… I have seen and testified that this is the Son of God… John the Baptist gives his solemn testimony…  Jesus is the Son of God… He is the Son of God…  The One who perfectly reveals and declares the nature and personality of God the Father…  John 1:18
The Gospel of John emphasizes John's role as a witness… Witnesses give testimony as to what they have seen and experienced…  John is a reliable witness… He knows who Jesus is… He boldly declares the coming of Jesus…  the Messiah… the King… to everyone who is willing to listen… Let´s look at the next verses… v35-37…
John 1: 35- 37                           NKJV   slt 2000
35 Again, the next day, John stood with two of his disciples. 36 And looking at Jesus as He walked, he said, “Behold the Lamb of God!” 37 The two disciples heard him speak, and they followed Jesus.
John 1: 35- 37                           NKJV   slt 2000
35 Am folgenden Tag stand Johannes wiederum da und zwei seiner Jünger.
36 Und indem er auf Jesus blickte, der vorüberging, sprach er: Siehe, das Lamm Gottes! 37 Und die beiden Jünger hörten ihn reden und folgten Jesus nach.
v36… Behold, the Lamb of God!.. John already said this of Jesus in John 1:29… Look! Behold…! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the World…! This is only 16 words in the Greek… I am sure that he preached a full sermon on this subject from time to time… John is showing his understanding of the OT prophesies concerning the Suffering servant the Messiah… He knew that every OT sacrifice pointed to substitution and atonement for sin… I am sure that he often spoke of these things and preached at length after the appearance of Jesus as Messiah… With the announcement of the Messiah´s presence…. Jesus ministry begins…. He is about 30 years old… That was the age when priests would begin their service to the Lord God…
v37… The two disciples heard him speak… and they followed Jesus… These 2 disciples of John now follow Jesus… This is the goal of all genuine preaching… That those who hear the Word of God proclaimed follow Jesus… Not any man… John did not care about gathering disciples after himself… He was delighted to have these disciples leave him and follow Jesus… It fulfilled his ministry… it did not take away from it… We know that one of them was Andrew… v40… And that the other is John the apostle… Even though He does not identify himself… Here we see the first 2 disciples called by Jesus… v38-42…
John 1: 38-42                                   NKJV   slt 2000
38 Then Jesus turned, and seeing them following, said to them, “What do you seek?”They said to Him, “Rabbi” (which is to say, when translated, Teacher), “where are You staying?”
39 He said to them, “Come and see.” They came and saw where He was staying, and remained with Him that day (now it was about the tenth hour).
40 One of the two who heard John speak, and followed Him, was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother. 41 He first found his own brother Simon, and said to him, “We have found the Messiah” (which is translated, the Christ). 42 And he brought him to Jesus. Now when Jesus looked at him, He said, “You are Simon the son of Jonah.You shall be called Cephas” (which is translated, A Stone).
John 1: 38-42                                   NKJV   slt 2000
38 Als aber Jesus sich umwandte und sie nachfolgen sah, sprach er zu ihnen: Was sucht ihr? Sie sprachen zu ihm: Rabbi (das heißt übersetzt: »Lehrer«), wo wohnst du?
39 Er spricht zu ihnen: Kommt und seht! Sie kamen und sahen, wo er wohnte, und blieben jenen Tag bei ihm. Es war aber um die zehnte Stunde.16
40 Andreas, der Bruder des Simon Petrus, war einer von den beiden, die es von Johannes gehört hatten und ihm nachgefolgt waren.
41 Dieser findet zuerst seinen Bruder Simon und spricht zu ihm: Wir haben den Messias gefunden (das heißt übersetzt: den »Gesalbten«17).
42 Und er führte ihn zu Jesus. Jesus aber sah ihn an und sprach: Du bist Simon, Jonas Sohn, du sollst Kephas heißen (das heißt übersetzt: »ein Stein«).
v39a… Come and see… This was not just an invitation to see where Jesus was staying…. This was the beginning of the typical Teacher (Rabbi) and student type of discipleship… Jesus invited John and Andrew to be a part of His life…  
v39b… Now it was about the tenth hour… This was such an important and life changing event for John that he remembered the exact hour that he met Jesus... So do I… This is another subtle clue that one of the two disciples who came to Jesus from John the Baptist was the apostle John himself… He met Jesus and He followed Him… How about you…. ? Is there a time like that…. A time when you say…. Yes this is all true… Lord Jesus forgive me and save me… Not only did they follow Jesus without hesitating…. But they began to tell others the Good News…
v40,41a… He first found his own brother Simon … Andrew went and found his brother!... He told him the Good News first… It is the nature of Christian experience… We want others to experience the same grace and mercy that we have discovered in our lives…  
41b… We have found the Messiah… This Andrew's testimony about who Jesus is... Already Andrew knows that Jesus is the Messiah…
v42a… he brought him to Jesus… Andrew bought the Good News to his brother Simon… One of the first things that I did was to tell my family about Jesus… I am the oldest of 6… only one… My sister Vicky responded… She repented of her sin and cried out for grace and mercy…  She found Jesus as her Savior and Lord… She is wife of a Pastor in the USA today…
v42b…You shall be called Cephas… In giving Simon a new name… Cephas or Peter, meaning A Stone… Jesus tells Andrew's brother what kind of man he will be become…  Before Jesus is done with Peter… he will be a solid rock for Jesus Christ….
Let´s look at the next section…. V43,44…
John 1: 43,44                              NKJV   slt 2000
 43 The following day Jesus wanted to go to Galilee, and He found Philip and said to him, “Follow Me.” 44 Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter.
43 Am folgenden Tag wollte Jesus nach Galiläa reisen; da findet er Philippus und spricht zu ihm: Folge mir nach! 44 Philippus aber war von Bethsaida, aus der Stadt des Andreas und Petrus.
v43… Follow Me… There is nothing dramatic recorded about the call of Philip… Jesus simply says "Follow Me," and Philip does… This is what Jesus is saying to all of us today… You… Follow me… v45-51…
John 1: 45-51                              NKJV   slt 2000
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 And Nathanael said to him, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Philip said to him, “Come and see.”47 Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward Him, and said of him, “Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom is no deceit!” 48 Nathanael said to Him, “How do You know me?”Jesus answered and said to him, “Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you.” 49 Nathanael answered and said to Him, “Rabbi, You are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!” 50 Jesus answered and said to him, “Because I said to you, ‘I saw you under the fig tree,’ do you believe? You will see greater things than these.” 51 And He said to him, “Most assuredly, I say to you, hereafter you shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.”
John 1: 45-51                              NKJV   slt 2000
45 Philippus findet den Nathanael und spricht zu ihm: Wir haben den gefunden, von welchem Mose im Gesetz und die Propheten geschrieben haben, Jesus, den Sohn Josephs, von Nazareth.
46 Und Nathanael sprach zu ihm: Kann aus Nazareth etwas Gutes kommen? Philippus spricht zu ihm: Komm und sieh!
47 Jesus sah den Nathanael auf sich zukommen und spricht von ihm: Siehe, wahrhaftig ein Israelit, in dem keine Falschheit ist!
48 Nathanael spricht zu ihm: Woher kennst du mich? Jesus antwortete und sprach zu ihm: Ehe dich Philippus rief, als du unter dem Feigenbaum warst, sah ich dich!
49 Nathanael antwortete und sprach zu ihm: Rabbi, du bist der Sohn Gottes, du bist der König von Israel!
50 Jesus antwortete und sprach zu ihm: Du glaubst, weil ich dir sagte: Ich sah dich unter dem Feigenbaum? Du wirst Größeres sehen als das!
51 Und er spricht zu ihm: Wahrlich, wahrlich18, ich sage euch: Künftig werdet ihr den Himmel offen sehen und die Engel Gottes auf- und niedersteigen auf den Sohn des Menschen!
v45… Him of whom Moses in the law, and also the prophets wrote… This is Philip's testimony as a witness of Jesus Christ. He declares that He is the Messiah and Savior predicted in the Old Testament.
v46a… Can anything good come out of Nazareth?... With this, Nathanael prejudices himself against Jesus. If Jesus comes from Nazareth, that is all Nathanael cares to know about Him!
v46b… Come and see… Instead of arguing against Nathanael's prejudice, Phillip simply invites him to meet Jesus for himself.v47… Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom is no deceit!... The Lord is using a word play on Israel and Jacob… Israel´s name was Jacob…. Heel grabber…. Trickster… Jesus is saying this son of Jacob… is really a true son of Israel… Israel means ruled by God…
v48… Under the fig tree, I saw you… The phrase under the fig tree was a phrase Rabbis used to describe meditation on the Scriptures… Nathanael was spending time with the Lord… meditating on the Scriptures… and Jesus tells him "I saw you" there… That´s right folks…. This godly young man was having his regular quiet times in the Word of God and the Lord saw it

v49… Nathanael gives his testimony regarding Jesus… You are the Son of God… the King of Israel…
This supernatural knowledge caused Nathanael to immediately recognize that Jesus was the Son of God…. He testifies to this great truth…. Immediately…
v51a… You shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man… Jesus promises Nathanael a greater sign than he has seen before... The angels of God…
Jacob had a great dream in Genesis 28:12… Jacob saw a ladder from earth to heaven… and the angels ascending and descending upon it… Jesus says that He is the ladder… between heaven and earth… When Nathanael comes to understand that Jesus is the mediator between God and man, it will be an even greater sign (you will see greater things than these).
v51b… Son of Man…This phrase is from Daniel 7…
It is a Messianic title… Jesus used this title often to avoid the common belief that the Messiah would free them from Rome… No… He had come to do so very much more… Starting with our hearts… Jesus has come to free us from slavery to sin…to set us free from our pride and rebellion… The Son of Man is come to seek and to save the lost… Luke 19:10…
He will establish an Eternal Kingdom… And he will reign forever and ever…
Andrew and John started out as followers of John the Baptist… John looked at Jesus as He walked… and he says to these two disciples… “Behold, the Lamb of God!” Look there is the Messiah… What are you doing hanging around me? Follow Jesus!
John the Baptist said…  He’s here… Look! He’s the Lamb of God…   Follow Him!
This is why John wrote this book… So that we would understand and believe and have Life in Him… John 20: 30,31… That life… That Grace and truth… makes us agents of grace… His representatives in this world…
As we study the book of John… we will hear Jesus proclaim…. I am the way… The truth and the Life…. And all through the centuries…. We have heard the Good News Proclaimed… understand who He is… And commit your life to follow Jesus no matter what the cost... That’s what it means to be a Christian… We deny ourselves and take up our cross and Follow Jesus… Luke 9:23…
Today the call is the same…. Jesus is full of Grace and truth…. He is calling out today… Follow me… When we do we find life…. Salvation and Eternal life in Him…
We become agents of grace and mercy for a lost and dying world… 1 Peter 4: 7-11…
1 Peter 4: 7-11    NKJV   slt 2000
7 But the end of all things is at hand; therefore be serious and watchful in your prayers. 8 And above all things have fervent love for one another, for “love will cover a multitude of sins.” 9 Be hospitable to one another without grumbling. 10 As each one has received a gift, minister it to one another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. 11 If anyone speaks, let him speak as the oracles of God. If anyone ministers, let him do it as with the ability which God supplies, that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belong the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen.
1 Peter 4: 7-11    NKJV   slt 2000
7 Es ist aber nahe gekommen das Ende aller Dinge. So seid nun besonnen und nüchtern zum Gebet. 8 Vor allem aber habt innige Liebe untereinander; denn die Liebe wird eine Menge von Sünden zudecken. 9 Seid gegeneinander gastfreundlich ohne Murren! 10 Dient einander, jeder mit der Gnadengabe, die er empfangen hat, als gute Haushalter der mannigfaltigen Gnade Gottes: 11 Wenn jemand redet, so [rede er es] als Aussprüche Gottes; wenn jemand dient, so [tue er es] aus der Kraft, die Gott darreicht, damit in allem Gott verherrlicht wird durch Jesus Christus. Ihm sei die Herrlichkeit und die Macht von Ewigkeit zu Ewigkeit! Amen.
Grace in Action
1 Serious and Watchful prayer…
2 Fervent love for each other… It covers sin…
3 Be gracious and hospitable…
4 No grumbling and complaining…
5 Minister to one another…
We have received mercy and grace… What gracious and loving people we should be…
Let´s pray…


2016.04.17                                        John 1: 4-13

                         Jesus

           The Word    The Life    The Light

Good morning! I´m glad that you are here! I have Good News for you! His name is Jesus!

Last week we began a new Bible study! The Gospel of John! If you missed last week… You can go to the web site and listen online… The notes for the sermon are on my blog… That address is at the bottom of the Web page…. Ron´s blog…

John shows us that Jesus the Word… The Life… and The Light... Each of those descriptions tell us that Jesus is God come in the flesh…. John wants us to understand and believe so that we can have life… John 20:30,31… As we saw last week…. Already in the first 3 verses John has presented Jesus to us as the Word of God…. The Memra…  We will pick up our text and read beginning at the beginning for context… John 1: 1- 5
John 1: 1-5                             NKJV    slt 2000
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 nothing was made that was made. 4 In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. 5 And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.
John 1: 1-5                              NKJV    slt 2000
1 Im Anfang war das Wort, und das Wort war bei Gott, und das Wort war Gott. 2 Dieses war im Anfang bei Gott. 3 Alles ist durch dasselbe entstanden; und ohne dasselbe ist auch nicht eines entstanden, was entstanden ist. 4 In ihm war das Leben, und das Leben war das Licht der Menschen. 5 Und das Licht leuchtet in der Finsternis, und die Finsternis hat es nicht begriffen.
In the beginning was the Word…. The Logos… The Memra of God… We talked about the Memra last week… It is the way the ancient Rabbis talked about the Messiah…
As they use this word Memra  instead of the Names of God in the OT…. They show the Messiah as Creator and redeemer…. They present the Messiah as the visible Image of God…. God in the flesh…. The Living Word….. That is Jesus…. He is the Memra… look with me at verse 4…
v4a… In Him was life…. As creator with the Father He is the giver of Life…. But He is more…  and He is The Life… because He is   eternal life itself…. And because He gives life to everyone who cries out to Him…
v4b… the life was the light of men…
Jesus is truly Life itself…. And because he is the life…. He is also the light…  He is the Light because He is the one true illuminator… It is this living manifestation of God that shines into the world… look at v5…
v5… the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it… The light shines in the darkness… Comprehend is an old word…. The NLT gives the phrase this way… and the darkness can never extinguish it…
The Light also shines into our hearts… He shows our sin and pride for what it is… Jesus is the living Manifestation of God… This Word… This Life… This Light…. Transforms hearts and lives…
John is identifying the Light... Over and over He calls Jesus the Light… Later on Jesus will Declare Himself to be the Light of the World…. It is a Messianic title….
John is going to turn The Light on some very important spiritual truths…  John´s Gospel is very Evangelistic…  He wants all of us to be saved…
John begins by explaining true ministry to us as we look at The arrival of John the Baptist…  John 1 v6…
John 1: 6-9                         NKJV  slt 2000
6 There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. 7 This man came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all through him might believe. 8 He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light. 9 That was the true Light which gives light to every man coming into the world.
6 Es war ein Mensch, von Gott gesandt; sein Name war Johannes. 7 Dieser kam zum Zeugnis, um von dem Licht Zeugnis zu geben, damit alle durch ihn glaubten. 8 Nicht er war das Licht, sondern er sollte Zeugnis geben von dem Licht. 9 Das wahre Licht, welches jeden Menschen erleuchtet, sollte in die Welt kommen.
v6,7… There was a man sent from God, whose name was John… This man came for a witness… John came as a witness… He came to testify about the Light… That was exactly why John was here… He came to testify of Jesus…
As genuine believers… That is why we are here.. We are called to Proclaim the Good News… Basically the Lord wants us to be witnesses for the Lord Jesus Christ... That is the nature of all Genuine Ministry… Everything we say and do…. Should point to…. And should Glorify our Lord and Savior… Jesus…
As we study this Gospel… John is going to teach us   lots of things that give testimony to Christ…
But he begins by pointing us to the testimony of a man sent from God….  John the Baptist…
He came to prepare the way for the Messiah… He called a nation to genuine repentance from the heart… He rebuked the people and told them that they needed to repent and get their hearts right… and to symbolize their desire to be cleansed from sin… John baptized them… This is what was normally done to Gentiles… By doing this… He called for genuine public repentance…
John was the last Old Testament prophet… There hasn’t been one for 400 years…  John had been filled with the Holy Spirit from his mother’s womb…  John was fearless… and yet he so also humble… He knew that his Mission was to point the people to the Light of the World
John´s ministry is defined in verse 7…
John 1: 7                                NKJV slt 2000
7 This man came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all through him might believe.
7 Dieser kam zum Zeugnis, um von dem Licht Zeugnis zu geben, damit alle durch ihn glaubten.
In this verse 7, you have the model for gospel ministry…  his purpose is to proclaim the Good News of Jesus... And to cause people to believe that Jesus is the Christ… the Son of God… so that in believing… They might have life in His name… This is the mission of every genuine believer and Bible teacher…  All genuine Christian Ministry points to Jesus…  
The Gospel is about Christ… It is giving the facts about the One who is the Word… the Life.. And the Light of the World…  The Lord Jesus Christ…. All Genuine… Godly Christian ministry is here… It is in this book…. And this book is all about Jesus… The Gospel of John points people to the Savior…
Paul describes in 2 Corinthians 4: 5-7… gospel ministry as proclaiming Jesus as Lord, the one in whom the glory of God is shining, none other than Christ.
Some people thought that perhaps John was the Messiah… The leaders of the people asked John if he was the Messiah…  He said no way….  
Look at verse 8…
John 1: 8                               NKJV   slt 2000
8 He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light.
 8 Nicht er war das Licht, sondern er sollte Zeugnis geben von dem Licht.
John the Baptist was not the Light…  He came to testify about the Light… That’s what we need to do… Testify about the Light of the World… We have the privilege of shining the light and love of Christ Jesus the Lord… Into a lost and dying world… we can proclaim the Good news…. There is mercy and forgiveness… There is hope… His name is Jesus… He is the Light of the World Light is a very important theme in this Gospel… John uses this word… 24 times in the gospel… 2 times Jesus says… I am the Light of the world… later Jesus says…. Believe in the light so that you can become children of light… John 12:36…
Proclaim the Good news… Shine the light of truth and mercy on this World of Darkness
People get saved by listening to the proclamation of the Gospel…   And those who come to Christ… Come to Christ through hearing or through reading these Words of Life… If we are truly converted ourselves…. We will want others to come to know the Lord Jesus…. We will show our love and thankfulness to The Lord for our Salvation… by opening our mouths…
Paul said… “Woe is unto me if I preach not the gospel.” “I’m not ashamed of the gospel of Christ; it’s the power of God to salvation to everyone who believes… Romans 1:16…  
As he also wrote in 1 Corinthians 1:18…  It may be foolishness… but to those who are being saved… it is the power of God unto salvation…
So Jesus offers Life… And the Light Is shining! Look with me at verse 9…
John 1: 9                         NKJV  slt 2000
9 That was the true Light which gives light to every man coming into the world.
9 Das wahre Licht, welches jeden Menschen erleuchtet, sollte in die Welt kommen.
What we learn in verse 9 is… “there was the true Light which coming into the world enlightens every man.”
We are learning a lot about Jesus… As we continue in this gospel we will see the second member of the Trinity more clearly… Jesus… Do you know Him… Cry out to Him today! John shows us Jesus! So that we can repent and believe the Gospel…
And as we look at Jesus… we see the light of the glory of God…   shining in the face of Jesus Christ… 2 Corinthians 4: 6… Still looking at verse 9…
v9a… He is the true Light… We see that… The Greek word is  alethinos… genuine… real… legitimate and not false…
The glory of God shines in Him and through Him… The shekinah Glory of God has returned to light the World… His name is Jesus…
v9b…which gives light to every man… What does that mean…?
It means that No one really could see the full glory of Christ until He came into the world… It also means that when we repent and cry out to Him for forgiveness… The Light of truth shines into our hearts and we are transformed How? By receiving Him… as Lord and Savior… verse 10
John 1: 10-13                           NKJV  slt 2000
10 He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. 11 He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him. 12 But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: 13 who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
John 1: 10-13                              NKJV  slt 2000
10 Er war in der Welt, und die Welt ist durch ihn geworden, doch die Welt erkannte ihn nicht.
11 Er kam in sein Eigentum, und die Seinen nahmen ihn nicht auf.
12 Allen aber, die ihn aufnahmen, denen gab er das Anrecht, Kinder Gottes zu werden, denen, die an seinen Namen glauben;
13 die nicht aus dem Blut, noch aus dem Willen des Fleisches, noch aus dem Willen des Mannes, sondern aus Gott geboren sind.
v10a… He was in the world, and the world was made through Him …  Here again John is proclaiming the truth that Jesus is God come in the flesh… He was present and active in Creation…  Active with the Father since before the creation… Jesus Himself says the same thing… When he prays near the end of His earthly ministry... in John 17… You are allowed to read ahead!… You are invited to read the Whole Gospel…. I am thrilled to hear that some of you did exactly that last week…
Look at the middle of verse 10….
v10b… “The world did not know Him. He came to His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him…

We understand that mankind is cursed because of sin and rebellion… Romans 1 reminds us that the real problem is not that some cannot believe the Gospel…. The real problem is that they know it is true deep in their hearts… But they do not want God to rule in their lives… They continue to deny the truth… and refuse to turn from their sin and pride… They sentence themselves to death by rejecting their only hope…. The Lord Jesus Christ… Certainly living here in Germany… We understand the depth of human depravity… It is also the history of the Old Testament and   all human history up to the very moment we live… This is a lost and dying world…
But never has that wickedness and lostness… Been more visible than when people rejected the Light of the World…
v11… He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him…
The world has rejected their only hope….  It is insanity to reject the Lord Jesus Christ… He came to the world and exposed all that was hidden in the darkness of the human soul... And many rejected Him… Because they were wicked and unwilling to admit it… They were unwilling to repent and be forgiven…
Rejecting the Lord Jesus Christ Himself… What wickedness… Someone might say…. Well I don´t need to be forgiven… I´m a good person… I have never killed anyone…  look ahead with in John 3: 16-20…
John 3: 16-20                  NKJV   slt 2000
16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. 17 For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.18 “He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. 19 And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. 20 For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed.
16 Denn so [sehr] hat Gott die Welt geliebt, daß er seinen eingeborenen Sohn gab, damit jeder, der an ihn glaubt, nicht verlorengeht, sondern ewiges Leben hat.
17 Denn Gott hat seinen Sohn nicht in die Welt gesandt, damit er die Welt richte, sondern damit die Welt durch ihn gerettet werde.18 Wer an ihn glaubt, wird nicht gerichtet; wer aber nicht glaubt, der ist schon gerichtet, weil er nicht an den Namen des eingeborenen Sohnes Gottes geglaubt hat.19 Darin aber besteht das Gericht, daß das Licht in die Welt gekommen ist, und die Menschen liebten die Finsternis mehr als das Licht; denn ihre Werke waren böse.20 Denn jeder, der Böses tut, haßt das Licht und kommt nicht zum Licht, damit seine Werke nicht aufgedeckt werden.
v16,17… I have read v16,17 for the context…. We will get to these wonderful verses in time… But I want to focus on the others ones today… look at v18…
v18…He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God… Unless and until we repent of our sins and believe the Gospel… we stand before a Perfect and Holy God as condemned sinners… We were born in sin and have no hope… unless we repent and believe The Gospel…This verse tells us everything about the difference between people who grow up in a “christian home”… And genuine believers… Growing up in a Christian home… cannot save us…. Going to church every Sunday… Cannot in itself save us…. We must do 3 things…
Finding Genuine faith
1 We must hear the Word of God taught….
2 We must repent of our sins…
3 We must believe the Gospel…
1 We must hear the Word of God taught… It is the Word of God that the Holy Spirit uses to show us our sin and pride…  2 We must repent of our sins and 3 believe the Gospel… The scriptures tell us that today is the day…. Tomorrow is promised to no one…. Today is the day… Repent and cry out for mercy and forgiveness… Unless we do… We are condemned to hell forever… v19…
v19… And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil...
The Light has come into the World… It shines on all of us… And we are shown to be… sinners who need a Savior… But some   refuse to repent and believe… And Judgment falls on them because they reject the light… The Light shines but… men love darkness rather than the Light… They plunge deeper and deeper into the darkness… To those that are perishing… They decide that the light is foolishness... I don´t need a Savior I´m a good person… False…  We are not good people… The scriptures say 1 that our hearts are exceedingly wicked… and 2 We don´t even know the wickedness of our own hearts… Jeremiah 17: 9,10…  The scriptures also say that it is the Light of the Gospel that shows us the ugly truth…. We are sinners…. We are condemned to Hell… We are without hope without Christ…
The World is full of evidence of human sin and depravity...
Look at you own pride and lust and anger… Look at this world…. Wickedness continues to increase…. The answer is not out there in the secular world…. I recently heard an atheist proclaim…. We do not need God to be good people…. We are good people… Look at China…. It is a secular society…. Translation…They don´t believe in God… We don´t need God… We don´t need to be forgiven….
The preacher said Ok, let´s look at China…. The secular societies of China and Russia who rejected God and the need for a Savior….. Have killed more than 120 million people in the 20th century alone…. That means that they murdered  more people than were killed on all of the centuries since the time of Christ…
The Word of God is true…. Stop lying to yourselves…. Without Christ Jesus… We are lost in sin and pride and rebellion… You we… Desperately need a Savior… Wickedness and darkness is folding the earth… It has infected every heart… it is a stark reality… We need a Savior… The Glorious light of the Gospel shines in the face of Jesus…
When people know about Christ… Have the truth in their hands… and still reject Him… They are blinding themselves to the truth…  because the light is never shone brighter than in Christ… and the world and the people who plunge deeper into Sin… Deeper into the penetrating darkness… They  demonstrate the sinfulness of sin…
verse 11…

John 1: 11                    NKJV  slt 2000
11 He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him.
11 Er kam in sein Eigentum, und die Seinen nahmen ihn nicht auf.
v11…“He came to His own.” What does John mean…?  
His own creation and His own people…  And sadly the world rejected Him…. Even many of the Jews rejected Him… That was also the fulfillment of Prophesy…. Because when the Jewish people rejected Him… The door to the Gentiles was opened…. And now not only are we part of God´s plan of Salvation…. But God will use us… to make the Children of Israel jealous… And they will also come to genuine faith…  v12…
John 1: 12,13                               NKJV  slt 2000
 12 But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: 13 who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
 John 1: 12,13                               NKJV  slt 2000
12 Allen aber, die ihn aufnahmen, denen gab er das Anrecht, Kinder Gottes zu werden, denen, die an seinen Namen glauben;
13 die nicht aus dem Blut, noch aus dem Willen des Fleisches, noch aus dem Willen des Mannes, sondern aus Gott geboren sind.
v12a… But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God… this verse tells us the plan of God was not destroyed in spite of the world’s rejection…  And that the rejection of Israel will be the salvation of millions of gentiles… Gentiles…  you and I…  can become Children of God…. What Good News… What grace…
Here John shows us the true nature of believers… We are children of God… As genuine believers…
We cry “Abba, Father”…  we speak to God as our personal Father because we are His everlasting children… look at the next phrase…
12b… even to those who believe in His name.” What does it mean to receive Him? It means to believe.
If and when we believe…. We are grafted into the family of God…. Our hearts and lives are transformed…  Because we repented… And believed in Him…
So the true nature of a believer… not a follower… not a fan of Jesus… The true nature of a believer… is that he is a new creation…
What about you…? Have you heard the Gospel…. Have repented and believed…? What are you waiting for….
Today is the day… This morning can be the best day of your life… The problem is our pride and rebellion against God… The problem is sin…
Now If men are as sinful as they are…  Since ( Weil)they love the darkness rather than light…  Since they are spiritually dead blind… how can they possibly believe?  
How can they possibly become children of God?   How can it happen? I am glad you asked… look at v13,14…
v13… Who were born not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God… the NLT reads… They are reborn… with a birth that comes from God… We must be born again…. John 3:16… And listen… we are Born again by the will of god… What a miracle… What Good News…
I know that many of us have grown up believing that there is a long list of things that we must do to be saved…. Things that we must do to deserve to be forgiven… We think that we take a big part in our own Salvation… Not true…. When it comes to the miracle of Salvation…
Only God can do this… Already in this first chapter we are shown more of the true nature of God…  God is by nature a Savior… A redeemer… God Himself works to give life to dead sinners… The apostle Paul again and again and again… God our Savior…God our Savior… God who is the Savior of all men, especially those who believe…1 Timothy 4:10… Our God  is a saving God… Who is a pardoning God like You? And because of the Trinity we see something wonderful!  Look with me at 2 Corinthians 5… v19…
2 Corinthians 5: 19-21              NLT   Neues Leben
19 For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them. And he gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation. 20 So we are Christ’s ambassadors; God is making his appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, “Come back to God!” 21 For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ.
19 Denn Gott war in Christus und versöhnte so die Welt mit sich selbst und rechnete den Menschen ihre Sünden nicht mehr an. Das ist die herrliche Botschaft der Versöhnung, die er uns anvertraut hat, damit wir sie anderen verkünden.
20 So sind wir Botschafter Christi, und Gott gebraucht uns, um durch uns zu sprechen. Wir bitten inständig, so, als würde Christus es persönlich tun: »Lasst euch mit Gott versöhnen!« 21 Denn Gott machte Christus, der nie gesündigt hat, zum Opfer für unsere Sünden, damit wir durch ihn vor Gott gerechtfertigt werden können.
God by nature is a saving God… He is in Christ Jesus… John has just shown us that Jesus is the Life and the light of the World…. He gives life to dead sinners… Come to Him for life today…. Step into the light… Let´s pray…
2016.01.17                   Ephesians 5: 21-33
                   Walk in Wisdom in Family Life
Good morning everyone…. It´s great to see all of you… I am glad that you are here….. I have Good News for you…. His name is Jesus… As most of you know… Here at Calvary Chapel Wiesbaden we teach through the Bible verse by verse… Because we want to see the Big picture…. We want to know and understand our great God and Savior…. The Lord Jesus Christ…. We are studying Paul´s letter to the Ephesians this morning… This morning we will pick up the 5th point from last week…
5 Walk in Wisdom ch 5 15-33
We all need wisdom for the many challenges that face us in 2016… In this day and culture… Our families and our marriages are in great danger… We desperately need wisdom…. Wisdom to survive and protect our families in these difficult times… This Wisdom must come from the Word of God… That is what the Holy Spirit uses as He teaches us and shapes our hearts…
We need the Holy Spirit´s help to love and care for our each other and our families… Once again this morning… Our text for today points us in the right direction… We are going to look at God´s plan for marriage and Family…  I will back up a few verses to  remind us of the context… In Eph 5… v10… First Paul says…
Ephesians 5: 10             NLT     Neues Leben
10 Carefully determine what pleases the Lord.
10 Findet heraus, was dem Herrn Freude macht.
That´s very good advice… Since God in His grace and mercy has forgiven us… Since because of His unfailing love… He has washed away our sins… We should… We need to…  Carefully determine what pleases the LORD… then in ch v..15… we read
Ephesians 5: 15                      NLT  Neues Leben
15 So be careful how you live. Don’t live like fools, but like those who are wise.
15 Achtet sorgfältig darauf, wie ihr lebt; handelt nicht unklug, sondern bemüht euch, weise zu sein.
Paul says come on now… be smart… be wise… Then in verse 17 we read
Ephesians 5: 17             NLT Neues Leben
17 Don’t act thoughtlessly, but understand what the Lord wants you to do.
17 Handelt nicht gedankenlos, sondern versucht zu begreifen, was der Herr von euch will.

v17… Understand what the will of the Lord is… This is what real wisdom is… It is the opposite of being selfish and foolish…  
Our knowledge of the will of God comes from a solid understanding of His Word
It helps us to be careful how we live… It helps us to love and care for each other…
then in verse 20 Paul says…
Ephesians 5: 20             NLT   Neues Leben
20 And give thanks for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
20 Und dankt Gott, dem Vater, zu jeder Zeit für alles im Namen unseres Herrn Jesus Christus.
v20… give thanks for everything to God the Father… The NKJV says… Giving thanks always for all things to God… We are commanded to be filled with thanksgiving….
We among all people…. Should be so filled with thankfulness…. That we overflow with it… We can and should give thanks for everything… Yes… Even the hard times…
Even difficult marriages and family life… God uses the hard times… The difficult challenges to shape us and transform us… verse 21…
Ephesians 5: 21                  NLT   Neues Leben
21 And further, submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.
21 Ordnet euch aus Achtung vor dem Herrn bereitwillig einander unter.
v21… submit to one another out of reverence for Christ…. The NKJV says…. Submitting to one another in the fear of God… The motive for all submission is love and respect for the Lord Jesus Christ...   It has to do with our relationship with the Lord Jesus…. We need to have an attitude of mutual submission in the church and in our families…   In this next section Paul gives us practical advice for our families…  We could call this…
God’s plan for marriage and the family
And by the way gentlemen… Paul focuses on us… and men… As leaders in the home… we are responsible…. Paul is going to help us understand our responsibitities…  Especially   as husbands and fathers… Paul spends a lot of time exhorting us… Most of this next section is aimed at counseling us… Paul does not hold back anything when he gives us godly advice… So Hold on to your seats…
look with me at the next section in Eph ch5… starting with v21…
Ephesians 5: 21-24                     NLT   Neues Leben
21 And further, submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. 22 For wives, this means submit to your husbands as to the Lord. 23 For a husband is the head of his wife as Christ is the head of the church. He is the Savior of his body, the church. 24 As the church submits to Christ, so you wives should submit to your husbands in everything.
21 Ordnet euch aus Achtung vor dem Herrn bereitwillig einander unter. 22 Ihr Ehefrauen sollt euch euren Männern unterordnen, so wie ihr euch dem Herrn unterordnet. 23 Denn der Mann ist das Haupt seiner Frau, wie Christus das Haupt seines Leibes - der Gemeinde - ist, für die er sein Leben gab, um sie zu retten.24 So wie die Gemeinde sich Christus unterordnet, sollt ihr Ehefrauen euch auch euren Männern in allem unterordnen.
v22… For wives, this means submit to your husbands as to the Lord… 
We have just read about mutual submission…. As genuine believers we submit to each other as unto the Lord… Most of the time we can express our love and trust with mutual submission…. We can function as a team with the same goals… Using the analogy of a team from last week… We do still have coaches… leaders…. And we follow our leaders… We have pastors and elders in the church…. They carry a great responsibility to love and disciple and protect the church…
Our leader… The Lord Jesus Christ… Is our perfect example… He is the one we look to… Paul continues now with very practical advice for our families…
When we look at the family… We have structure in place as well… Ideally the husband takes on the role of loving and protecting the family… He lovingly leads and serves them… When a man is Spirit-filled… when he is so filled with joy and gratitude to God for all that Christ has done… And when he loves his wife as himself… he will serve her and sacrifice himself for her… and will not lord over her… his authority will be gentle… And sacrificial… and he will help her to feel safe and secure… and she will be willing to follow him…
When we submit to God… we recognize God's authority… Which he uses for our good…
Submission is a very difficult subject in today´s culture… We live in a time of self-fulfillment… I am the boss of me…
But Submission does not mean inferiority… As well, submission does not mean silence… Submission means "sub-mission." There is a mission for the Christian marriage… and that mission is obeying and glorifying God in everything that we are... look at the last part of v22…
v22b… To your own husbands as to the Lord… This is a very important context for submission… This defines the limits of a wife's submission... The Bible never commands a general submission of women unto men in society... This order is commanded only in the areas of the home and the church… God has not commanded in His word that men have exclusive authority in other areas… The example in in the church and in the home is the LORD Jesus Himself… How we need Him in our homes and in the church… Now Men we have the ball… But with it comes great responsibility… let´s look at the next section… v28…
Ephesians 5: 25-28                   NLT   Neues Leben
25 For husbands, this means love your wives, just as Christ loved the church. He gave up his life for her 26 to make her holy and clean, washed by the cleansing of God’s word. 27 He did this to present her to himself as a glorious church without a spot or wrinkle or any other blemish. Instead, she will be holy and without fault. 28 In the same way, husbands ought to love their wives as they love their own bodies. For a man who loves his wife actually shows love for himself.
25 Und ihr Ehemänner, liebt eure Frauen mit derselben Liebe, mit der auch Christus die Gemeinde geliebt hat. Er gab sein Leben für sie,
26 damit sie befreit von Schuld ganz ihm gehört, rein gewaschen durch Gottes Wort.
27 Er tat dies, um sie als herrliche Gemeinde vor sich hinzustellen, ohne Flecken und Runzeln oder dergleichen, sondern heilig und makellos.
28 Genauso sollten auch die Ehemänner ihre Frauen lieben, wie sie ihren eigenen Körper lieben. Denn ein Mann liebt auch sich selbst, wenn er seine Frau liebt.
A clear principle is given to us in verse 25… the husband’s responsibility is to love his wife…  It doesn’t say rule over her…. He already has that tendency… even a tendency to dominate her… to control her… to command her…  The curse does that…  He is told here… He is to love and protect her…  She is submitting to him as unto the LORD….  His leadership is the leadership self-sacrificial love  and care…  It is his responsibility to give direction… and to provide for her…   and to display godly leadership…  But it is always in the context of love… Paul exhorts the church in Colossae about these very same things…. Look with me at Col 3: 16…


Colossians 3: 16-19              NLT   Neues Leben
16 Let the message about Christ, in all its richness, fill your lives. Teach and counsel each other with all the wisdom he gives. Sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs to God with thankful hearts. 17 And whatever you do or say, do it as a representative of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through him to God the Father. 18 Wives, submit to your husbands, as is fitting for those who belong to the Lord. 19 Husbands, love your wives and never treat them harshly.

16 Gebt den Worten von Christus viel Raum in euren Herzen. Gebraucht seine Worte weise, um einander zu lehren und zu ermahnen. Singt Gott aus ganzem Herzen Psalmen, Lobgesänge und geistliche Lieder. 17 Doch alles, was auch immer ihr tut oder sagt, soll im Namen von Jesus, dem Herrn, geschehen, durch den ihr Gott, dem Vater, danken sollt! 18 Ihr Frauen, ordnet euch euren Männern unter, wie es für Menschen angemessen ist, die dem Herrn gehören! 19 Ihr Männer, liebt eure Frauen und behandelt sie nicht grob!
This text is wonderful and clear…. It talks about our ministry to each other in the church… We teach and counsel each other… We follow the biblical pattern for the church… and for our families… Then here Paul exhorts  the men…
Do not be harsh with your wives…  There is always the danger of the loss of love in a marriage…  There is a great risk that the husband  forgets the loving example of the Lord Jesus... His simply loved us and laid down His life for us… No preconditions…. Well if she respects me enough…. Then I will love her… No… It is not that we loved Him….. It is that He first loved us…. Jesus loved us and redeemed us when we were dirty rotten sinners…. There was nothing good about us… It is just  like we read in Ephesians 2…. We were dead in sins…. V4… but God who is so rich in mercy…  
When Paul says to husbands… “Love your wives and sacrifice your lives for them as Christ gave Himself up for His church… this is radical…  It is a self-sacrificing love…  It is humble and unselfish… look again at Eph 5v 25…
Ephesians 5:25                    NLT   Neues Leben
25 For husbands, this means love your wives, just as Christ loved the church. He gave up his life for her
25 Und ihr Ehemänner, liebt eure Frauen mit derselben Liebe, mit der auch Christus die Gemeinde geliebt hat. Er gab sein Leben für sie,
v25a… 25 For husbands, this means love your wives, just as Christ loved the church. He gave up his life for her… Husbands… We are to love our wives…  That is a command...  You cannot say…  I don’t love her anymore…  You cannot say…You don’t understand…. You don´t know how she’s treated me…  How she treats you is not the issue…  We are commanded to love them…   The Lord Jesus loved sinners when they hated Him…  Didn´t He?  And Jesus is our example and our standard… 
v25b…just as Christ loved the church. He gave up his life for her…    The godly husband loves his wife… not for what she can do for him… but what he can do for her...  That’s how Christ’s love works…  He loves us not because there’s something in us that attracts Him… He loves us because He decided to love us in spite of our sins and ugliness…  He loves us with a love that never fails… It is based on His promise and faithfulness…. Not in any sense on us… We did not deserve His love… We still do not deserve his love…. He promised to love and save us….   We don’t deserve His love...  There’s nothing attractive in us...  Jesus simply loves us…  It is a love that never dies….  It cannot be killed…  It is a love that is utterly and completely self-sacrificing…
If there’s   one simple way to explain what this love means for us as husbands… it would be to say it means death to self…  Swallow your pride… swallow your personal desires… swallow your personal ambitions… swallow your fantasies and dreams about how life might have been with someone else…  put all of that aside… it is all meaningless…  It only boils down to temptation…  And love your wives with a love that knows nothing of self… Focus on her needs… nurture her heart… And lay down your life for her… Impossible you say… Stimmt das… It is impossible without the Lord´s help…   
This is the kind of love that only the Spirit of God can give  us… He gives us the capacity to love like this…   This is the very love which Christ Himself demonstrated toward us…. And now because of His work in us and through us…  we live in that love…. And we are able to love others through Him…  It is the Holy Spirit produces this incredible love in us…   This is the kind of love that belongs only to people who have been born again… People who have had their lives transformed…
In 1 Corinthians 13… every characteristic of love listed in that chapter is  a verb…        Love acts…  Let´s look at 1 Cor 13… v4…
1 Corinthians 13: 4- 7                NLT   Neues Leben
 4 Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud 5 or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. 6 It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. 7 Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.
4 Die Liebe ist geduldig und freundlich. Sie ist nicht neidisch oder überheblich, stolz
5 oder anstößig. Die Liebe ist nicht selbstsüchtig. Sie lässt sich nicht reizen, und wenn man ihr Böses tut, trägt sie es nicht nach. 6 Sie freut sich niemals über Ungerechtigkeit, sondern sie freut sich immer an der Wahrheit. 7 Die Liebe erträgt alles, verliert nie den Glauben, bewahrt stets die Hoffnung und bleibt bestehen, was auch geschieht
v4… Love is patient and kind…
That’s the character of God´s love… and that’s how we are to love our wives…
It is always a verb… it is always acting on someone…  We have been given the capacity to love like this by the Holy Spirit…  Because we have been transformed and born again… the Spirit of God has come into us… we have received the fruit of the Spirit which is love… and we can actively share that love…    Christian…  you cannot  say… “Well, I’m sorry I really tried to love her…  but I don’t have the ability… I can´t love her anymore…  Yes, you can…  God´s supernatural love is there for you to tap into… 
And it is a love that is not dependent on the object… In other words… Because of Jesus work in me… I can decide to love my wife no matter what...
In verse 7… Paul says… Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance… To summarize this list… love forgives everything done against it…  The loving person doesn’t keep a record of wrongs…
Would you like to know what destroys marriages…? It  is unforgiveness…  If you continually forgive one another all the time… there’s no record of wrong kept… If we refuse to forgive we start to build a wall of bitterness… It is poison to any relationship…. IT can be death to a marriage… Nothing is more important in our marriage than forgiveness… Immediate and  spontaneous forgiveness will protect your marriage…   
I suppose, men, we might even ask the question: when was the last time you made a sacrifice for your wife?  I’m not talking about something trivial, something significant.  Have you crucified self, set something aside to focus on her?  I know many men are anxious to be leaders and spiritual giants, and they want to appear as they’re in control of everything and they are the pious leader of the family.  True godly leadership is death to self… 
Death to self is the issue...   It saves us from being defensive and hostile… Even when our wives are accumulating that list of things against us…  You know… You never…. You always…. You should have… We want to defend ourselves…  We are tempted to build a list of our own…. Big Mistake…. The scriptures say that a soft answer turns away wrath…Proverbs 15… v1…

When your good is evil spoken of… when she misunderstands you… when your desires are not important to her… when your advice is disregarded… and your opinions are ridiculed… and when you are abused… when you are mistreated… or misunderstood… and you refuse to let anger rise in your heart or even defend yourself… that is dying to self… John MacArthur
Do you want to know what makes you the leader God wants you to be in your home…? It´s not when you show her who´s boss…   It’s when you die to yourself…  The manner with which we are to love our wives is the manner with which Christ loved the church...  It is a sacrificial love that demands death to self...    To constantly deny ourselves is a great spiritual challenge...  But that’s what God calls for…  And when we lead in an environment of sacrificial love and self-denial… We create the godly and loving home that a woman longs for… let´s take the next section beginning at verse 26…
Ephesians 5: 25b -29                         NLT   Neues Leben
He gave His life for her 26 to make her holy and clean, washed by the cleansing of God’s word. 27 He did this to present her to himself as a glorious church without a spot or wrinkle or any other blemish. Instead, she will be holy and without fault.  28 In the same way, husbands ought to love their wives as they love their own bodies. For a man who loves his wife actually shows love for himself. 29 No one hates his own body but feeds and cares for it, just as Christ cares for the church.
Er gab sein Leben für sie, 26 damit sie befreit von Schuld ganz ihm gehört, rein gewaschen durch   Gottes Wort. 27 Er tat dies, um sie als herrliche Gemeinde vor sich hinzustellen, ohne Flecken und Runzeln oder dergleichen, sondern heilig und makellos. 28 Genauso sollten auch die Ehemänner ihre Frauen lieben, wie sie ihren eigenen Körper lieben. Denn ein Mann liebt auch sich selbst, wenn er seine Frau liebt. 29 Niemand hasst doch seinen eigenen Körper, sondern sorgt liebevoll für ihn, wie auch Christus für seinen Leib, also für die Gemeinde, sorgt.
Ephesians 5: 30-33                 NLT Neues Leben
30 And we are members of his body. 31 As the Scriptures say, “A man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one.” 32 This is a great mystery, but it is an illustration of the way Christ and the church are one. 33 So again I say, each man must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.
30 Und wir gehören zu seinem Leib. 31 In der Schrift heißt es: »Deshalb wird ein Mann Vater und Mutter verlassen und sich an seine Frau binden und die beiden werden zu einer Einheit.«
32 Das ist ein großes Geheimnis, aber ich deute es als ein Bild für die Einheit von Christus und der Gemeinde.
33 Deshalb sage ich noch einmal, dass jeder Ehemann seine Frau so lieben soll, wie er sich selbst liebt, und dass die Ehefrau ihren Mann achten und respektieren soll.
This is a beautiful picture… Paul drives home this comparison of man and wife in Marriage… He reminds us of Christ and the church… Jesus loves His church with a sacrificial and   sanctifying love…  He forgave us everything… forgotten…. I love you…. I refuse to remember the things that you have done to me…. It´s all under the cross… The Lord Jesus loves His church enough to cleanse her from every sin and failure…  He loves His church enough to present her without spot or wrinkle or any such thing but holy and blameless… In His eyes we are all perfect…. Men…. In your eyes your… our wives and families should be perfect…. Because we refuse to hold things against them…
In verse 26 we see that He does this process of making the church Holy with the Word of God… As men we need to disciple our wives and children… We need to help them grow in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ…
Jesus is at work purifying His church… and a husband needs to help his wife towards holiness… 
How ?
By discipling and living out the Word of God for her… By teaching and sharing the faithful study of the scriptures with your family… Being here and making church life the most important part of learning to do life together…
Close
look at verse 33…
v33…  So again I say, each man must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.
Here Paul sums it all up…. Here is the formula for an excellent marriage… Love and respect…. These are commands… Impossible? Yes in our own strength… Impossible…  But… Because of Jesus´ work in our hearts and lives…. We love and serve her with the love that Jesus has made alive in us…. She loves and respects us because of Jesus´ work in her heart and life… This is the secret to a wonderful and Godly marriage… Love and Respect… Easier said than done… I fail my wife… Perhaps every day… We have wonderful resources at our disposal… First… Right here… The Word of God…
But we also have the examples of Godly men and women who shared their life experiences and understanding with us… A web page of resources for marriage…
Counseling God´s way and Love and Respect ministries…
Biblical Manhood and Womanhood…
Let´s review the first 2 verse of Eph5… beginning at v1..
Ephesians 5: 1,2          NLT    Neues Leben
1  Imitate God, therefore, in everything you do, because you are his dear children. 2 Live a life filled with love, following the example of Christ. He loved us and offered himself as a sacrifice for us, a pleasing aroma to God.
1 Folgt in allem Gottes Beispiel, denn ihr seid seine geliebten Kinder. 2 Euer Leben soll von Liebe geprägt sein, wie auch Christus uns geliebt hat, denn er hat sich selbst als Gabe und Opfer für unsere Sünden gegeben. Und Gott hatte Gefallen an diesem Opfer, das wie ein wohlriechender Duft zu ihm aufstieg.

Now a final word from James to end this morning…

James 1: 2-4                NLT   Neues Leben
2 Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles of any kind come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. 3 For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. 4 So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing.
2 Liebe Brüder, wenn in schwierigen Situationen euer Glaube geprüft wird, dann freut euch darüber.3 Denn wenn ihr euch darin bewährt, wächst eure Geduld.4 Und durch die Geduld werdet ihr bis zum Ende durchhalten, denn dann wird euer Glaube zur vollen Reife gelangen und vollkommen sein und nichts wird euch fehlen.
Let’s pray.







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