The
Glory
in
Good Works
A
Study in the Gospel of John
Sermon prepared for the week
of
Dr.
Larry Thorson
First
Presbyterian Church,
Small Group Format
This sermon was prepared to be part of a six week
Lenten small group series course at the First Presbyterian Church of
Select One Person to be a Group Facilitator to keep the group focused on the questions and
activities.
Opening Prayer – sample provided or use your own
“Almighty God, thank you for your Word
and Your presence. May we grow together
in this time and come to a greater understanding of your Word and each
other. In Jesus’ name. Amen.”
Read John 14:1-5
1 "Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust
also in me. 2 My Father's house has plenty of room; if that were not so, would
I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? 3 And if I go
and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that
you also may be where I am. 4 You know the way to the place where I am
going."
5 Thomas said to him, "Lord, we don't know where you are
going, so how can we know the way?"
Today’s
New International Version Copyright © 2001, 2005 by International
Bible Society
Background to this
Passage: Jesus
has just told Peter he knows he will deny him soon. Peter has been so sure of his own devotion to
Christ, and the others have seen Peter as one of the inner circle. He was given the name Peter to signify his rock
solid character because of his profession of faith. Peter of all people knew who Jesus was and
was committed to him. When Jesus said
that Peter would deny him three times, that threw everyone into
uncertainty. Peter could not imagine
himself being such a failure at faith.
He had left everything to follow Jesus; how could he deny Jesus? Peter was confused and that threw everyone
else off.
Jesus said “trust in God; trust also in me.” The disciples believed in a God they could
not see. That was the clearest
distinctive between Judaism and any other religion. They believed in one God not many, and that
one God could not be seen. If the Jews
were accustomed to worshipping a God they could not see, could they then trust
Jesus who they could see now…but soon would not. Could they follow a path when they didn’t
really understand where it was going?
There is a triple command: do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. If something is important enough to be
repeated three times, it must be central…and it must somehow be under our
control. Do we know how to calm our
hearts and minds? For most people once
they start worrying, it takes on a life of its own. Worry can be a whirlpool sucking us in,
dragging us down…especially if it includes self-doubt. But Jesus wasn’t trying to get Peter to doubt
himself. He wanted him to be realistic
about human ability to be loyal under pressure and begin to rely on God rather
than himself.
Thomas knew he had his doubts. He wasn’t sure what Jesus was talking about
and didn’t mind saying so. It felt like
Jesus was talking in riddles and Thomas was not content to continue in
confusion.
Discussion Questions:
What problem did the disciples have at this time? How would you respond if you were Peter? If you were Thomas? What helps you believe in a god you cannot
see?
Comments: In verse 6 Jesus’ reply
is personal. “He did not claim merely to
know the way, the truth and the life as a formula he could impart to the
ignorant; but he actually claimed to be the answer to human problems. Jesus solution to perplexity is not a recipe;
it is a relationship with him.”
(Expositors p. 144) Jesus knows
God intimately and wants to know us intimately.
The knowledge is not book learning, intuition or theoretical
knowledge. This knowledge comes from
personal interaction experience.
Read John 14:6-7
6 Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life.
No one comes to the Father except through me. 7 If you really know me, you will
know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him."
Discussion Questions:
What do you think about Jesus claiming to be the only way to
the Father? What about Hinduism,
Buddhism and Islam?
Comments: The year was 325 AD,
and the place was a small town called Nicea in what is now
The Emperor was worried. He was the
first of the Caesars to embrace Christianity, and he was counting on keeping
the Empire unified through the church that had spread into every corner of the
Roman world. But a great debate among the bishops was about to split the church
in half. One of these factions was led by a man named Arius, who believed that
Jesus was a creature, upon whom divinity was bestowed. The other party was led
by Athanasius, who claimed that Jesus was the eternal Son of God, upon whom
humanity was bestowed.
The debate at Nicea was fierce, but
eventually it became clear to the vast majority of the bishops that the whole
Gospel was lost if Jesus was a man who became divine. So they voted with
Athanasius, who claimed that Jesus was always the same essence of God, and thus,
divine. The theology they hammered out became the first of our ecumenical
confessions—the great Nicene Creed.
Discussion Questions: Do you
think it makes much difference if Jesus is a god who became a man or a man who
became a god? Why?
Comments: In verse 7 Jesus had hoped that the
disciples had gotten to know him in all their time together. He was hoping they had seen beyond his role
as a good teacher, beyond the excitement of the miracles and healings, and into
a deep personal relationship that revealed his essence. When we can get beyond seeing Jesus for what
he says and what he does, we begin to see who is with us…we begin to glimpse
the glory of God. Jesus is the way…to
God…the truth …of God…and the life …of God.
Read John 14:8
8 Philip said,
"Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us."
Discussion Questions: Why has it been difficult for humans to see God?
Why do you think we have a
need to see God?
Comments: We as people struggle to
see beyond the material. We want to experience
with our senses and the creator is greater than those limitations. When we have communion we sometimes
say…”Taste and see that the Lord is good.”
But we know this is only a hint of the glory of God to come. The good news is that Phillip wanted to
experience God for himself. He had a
spiritual hunger and Jesus worked with what he had. If Jesus could physically feed 5000 people
with a few fish and loaves, Jesus can spiritually feed the world, if we give
him our honest desire for a personal relationship. Though Jesus may get frustrated with us and
push us to look beyond the limitations of this life, he is still with us and
wants that personal relationship with us.
We have probably all echoed the words of Philip…
“Jesus, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied.” The most pressing
yearning that arises from our souls is to find the Heavenly Father because we
know that nothing in life will be right unless heaven and earth are reconciled
for us. So how do we get back to God?
That may not be the first question that comes to
your mind in the morning. You may be thinking only about the many things you
have to do in the day. But behind every agenda in life is the drive to get your
life to the right place. That’s what you want for your health, career,
relationships and family. You want them to be right. And that is why you work
so hard to get to the right place—because in your soul you know that you’re not
there yet. “Show us the Father, and we will be satisfied,” Philip says. Yes,
Jesus, do show us how to get home to God where life feels right again.
From at least the fourth century, Christians have
been debating how it is that Jesus gets us to the right place. In other words,
exactly how does Jesus the Savior save us? If Arius was right, and Jesus is
just another creature upon whom divinity was bestowed, then salvation means
that Jesus showed you how to do it. He is the human exemplar for finding our way
to the right place. So Arius would tell us that we are right to be knocking
ourselves out in life. “You had better
be working as hard as possible at the office.” “You had better be striving to
become the super Mom who can ferry the kids to school, soccer, piano lessons,
karate, and who can still maintain an immaculate home, prepare gourmet dinners,
and hold down a career or volunteer in the community.”
Arius would tell our kids, “ You had better get
the A in school, so you can get in the best grad school, so you can get the
best job, so you can get the best life in the best place in town.”
If he were our preacher today, Arius would say,
“The function of the church then is to show us how Jesus did it, with
remarkable sacrifice while still being compassionate.” He would say “But you
can do it, too. You have the potential.” If you ever get confused, just ask
yourself, “What Would Jesus Do?” (By the way, the church’s typical answer to
that question is: “More.”)
Discussion Questions: Do you ever believe that you do enough to be like
Jesus?
Read John 14:9-13
9 Jesus answered: "Don't you know me, Philip, even after I have
been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father.
How can you say, 'Show us the Father'? 10 Don't you believe that I am in the
Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you I do not speak on
my own authority. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his
work. 11 Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me;
or at least believe on the evidence
of the works themselves. 12 Very truly I tell you, all who have faith in
me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things
than these, because I am going to the Father. 13 And I will do whatever you ask
in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son.
Discussion Questions: What is the “evidence of the works themselves”
that Jesus mentions? Have you ever
personally seen this evidence?
Comments: As the bishops at
Nicea dissected Arius’ teaching, they rightly began to wonder if this is really
salvation. Is this our great hope—to claim that the purpose of religion is to
motivate you to do more, to add a bunch of spiritual oughts onto your already
demanding schedule, or to tease you with the unrealistic hope that you, too,
can become a son or daughter of God and get life to the right place if you only
try harder? “No,” they said. There is no hope in that. There is only despair because
we’ll never be as good as Jesus.
It is ironic that both conservative
and liberal Christians, for all of their many differences, are tempted to
Arius’ theological model. The conservatives tend to reduce Jesus’ teaching to a
moral code of oughts that they seek to legislate for others, believing that
then we will get the nation to the right place. “We ought to mandate
traditional family values,” they say. “We ought to restrict a woman’s right to
choose. We ought to support the president. (At least, this president.)”
The liberals reject such a
conservative agenda, but replace it only with a different set of oughts that reduce
Jesus’ teaching to yet a different social agenda. Some of them say “We ought to
work for a more equitable distribution of wealth. We ought to work for farm
workers, immigrants, and gay rights. We ought to boycott, divest, and march our
way into the right place.” And when Arius hears these debates from the right
and the left, he smiles from his grave because he cannot lose. These are all
just competing ways of imitating Jesus, in the hopes of getting home.
But it won’t work. As Athanasius and the Nicene Creed remind us,
Jesus has his own mission, and it is not to show us how to fight, debate, and struggle
our way to the right place. His mission was to bring the right place to us. Once we become clearer about the mission of
the eternal Son of God who was “made man,” as the creed claims, then our mission
in life becomes clear also. No longer do we have to strive to get to the right
place because Jesus is not an example for getting to God. He is the God who has
come to us, and now the right place is wherever he may be found.
Discussion Questions: What do you see as Jesus’ mission? How does Jesus’ mission in life help make
your mission in life clearer?
Conclusion
He can be found among conservatives
and liberals. He can be found in the library, the office, or the hospital. He
can be found among the poor, the rich, and in the minivans that shuttle around
the suburbs. Jesus, the Son of God, can be found in the tears of a friend who
has come to you, in the joy of a wedding like the one at
Philip said to Jesus, “Show us the
Father, and we will be satisfied.” We’ll stop striving. Jesus responded, “The
Father is in me … I am the way.” Arius was wrong. Jesus doesn’t show us the way.
He is the way. You’ll never be satisfied until you see that what you want is
already in front of you. And his name is Jesus.
We still commit ourselves to mission,
social agendas, and political debates. We still have a lot of hard work, and we
still have to get those kids to soccer practice. But now we enter all of that work
not out of a desperate effort to get life right. Now it’s because we might just
see the Son of God out there. Nothing else will satisfy.
Suggestion: Read the Nicene Creed out loud together.
The Nicene Creed
We believe in one God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible.
And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all worlds, God of God, Light of Light, Very God of Very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father by whom all things were made; who for us men, and for our salvation, came down from heaven, and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the Virgin Mary, and was made man, and was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate. He suffered and was buried, and the third day he rose again according to the Scriptures, and ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of the Father. And he shall come again with glory to judge both the quick and the dead, whose kingdom shall have no end.
And we believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and Giver of Life, who proceedeth from the Father and the Son, who with the Father and the Son together is worshipped and glorified, who spoke by the prophets. And we believe one holy catholic and apostolic Church. We acknowledge one baptism for the remission of sins. And we look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come. Amen.
Joys and Concerns: share with one
another as you are comfortable starting with something like “Does
anyone have a joy they’re grateful for today or a concern that we can pray
about?”
Closing Prayer
– Pray for each other if you are comfortable doing so. You might want to close with the Lord’s Prayer below:
Our Father, who art
in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy
Kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our
debtors. And lead us not into
temptation, but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory for ever and ever.
Amen
NEXT WEEK
The Glory in a Request
Read John 16:16-24