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Jesus Wants You to Have Joy – John 2:1-12

Jesus here in his first miracle, the first of seven signs recorded by John, is making a first impression. He is beginning his ministry in a way that tells us something about how his ministry is going to go.

John begins this story with the words “on the third day”, calling back to the creation story and ahead to the resurrection. The third day was the traditional day for a wedding, and the wine involved has many roles and connotations, and it was very important to the wedding celebration.

In a shame/honor culture, running out of wine would not just have been an awkward event, but potentially a shameful event that could have stained their reputation for the rest of their lives.

So Mary asks her son to fix it, but he replies enigmatically “it is not my time.” He means that a public miracle would begin the countdown to his death and resurrection, but Mary is unmoved and tells the servants to do what he says. So Jesus does a miracle quietly, creating the best wine the emcee had ever drunk.

This is the beginning of the symphony of seven signs John writes about, which will crescendo with the raising of Lazarus. It is a miracle almost entirely devoted to joy. 

Jesus wants us to have joy. Salvation is not just about getting a ticket punched at the end of your life, but rather about the Kingdom of God, age all the joy that comes with it, coming into our lives here on earth.

We don’t one why the wine was gone. Maybe the groom was poor, or they were irresponsible, or maybe it was because the disciples crashed the wedding and drank it all. But it clearly doesn’t matter to the purposes of God, or to the joy that He wants to bring to us. 

Our religious selves might have responded differently. We might have had Jesus preach about how he is the water that satisfies, or that the wine of his blood brought salvation, or that he is the bridegroom and we are his bride.

But Jesus didn’t preach a sermon. Instead, he specifically took the jars set aside for the religious ritual of purification and turned it into wine for celebration. He could have done it any way he wanted, but instead he took something set aside for dry religiosity and turned it upside-down – setting the tone for the rest of his ministry through the end of his earthly life and even up through today. 

– Sermon Notes, Tim Schaaf, Seed Church, Lynnwood, WA, January 27, 2019

John 2:1-12

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Don’t Limit God – Psalm 78 1:1-22

Psalm 78 is the longest of the history psalms. It is the story of the Israelites in the wilderness and a reminder that when we go through times of wilderness in our own lives, God is all we need.

This is a psalm of Asaph, reminding Israel – and therefore us, because we have been grafted in – of what God has done. It begins with instruction to listen carefully even though (or especially because) we have heard these stories before, because there are lessons to be learned. We are to trust and pass on these stories to the next generation.

Specifically, we are too teach them three things: the glorious deeds of God, his strength and his mighty wonders. Knowing the ways of God and how he cares for us is more important than knowing facts about God. 

It goes on to say the God has established a testimony through the Law, which we are to review and repeat so that the next generation will set their hearts anew on God. 

This is in contrast to earlier generations who abandoned God and did not set their hearts aright. They did not deal with the “idol factory of the heart” as Tim Keller calls it, even when God does many miracles and even makes water pour from a rock. 

Instead, they were ungrateful, complaining and murmuring, ungrateful for what they had been given. They did not trust God to care for them or even believe that God could. 

Does this stir anything in your heart where you are limiting God? Our hearts are “prone to wander” which means we have a need for self examination. We are called up prepare our hearts so that we can maintain confidence in God even in the wilderness. 

– Sermon Notes, Brad Weir, City Church International, Dallas, TX, January 20, 2019

Psalm 78:1-22

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Who is John the Baptist, and who are you? – John 1:19-34

John here shifts from the 50,000 foot view steeped in cosmic philosophy, into “story mode.” We zoom into a story that takes place over three days, the story of Jesus’ baptism and the beginning of his ministry. This is a story also told in the synoptic gospels, but with notable differences.

John jumps right into the story, but we can learn more about John the Baptist in Matthew. He lived in the wilderness and ate locusts, which were considered clean under Mosaic law, but was still weird. He wrote camel-hair cloak, which sounds fancy but is in fact a poor person’s garb, in the style of Elijah and the other prophets. He was born miraculously, to an elderly priest and his wife. He is like a character out of the Old Testament.

Why is this person, John the Baptist, in the bible? Why is he covered across the gospels? In Matthew 11, Jesus makes it clear: John is the exclamation point at the end of the age of prophecy, coming after a long time of silence. He himself was prophesied about 700 years prior, as a “voice crying in the wilderness.” He himself was apparently a captivating speaker, making a significant impact with his message of repentance.

John was an important prophet whose words carried weight. He also made it clear to his own disciples that Jesus was the one who he was prophesying about.

The “Jewish leaders” broadly speaking are the key villains of the gospel of John, and this is our first glimpse of them. In true “know your enemy” fashion, they wanted to know what and who he was.

Even then, they saw parallels between John and Elijah, and even though John specifically denied being Elijah, Jesus later called him Elijah. While John was not the reincarnation or return of Elijah, he filled the role of Elijah in prophecy (in Malachi).

But he wouldn’t tell the Jewish leaders this, or answer their questions at all, instead pointing ahead to Christ. John does this both because this is his role and because it is his entire identity and purpose.

Here we also get a call back to the opening of the gospel, calling out Christ’s eternal nature, noting that he was “greater because he was before.” Additionally, we get foreshadowing of what is to come, calling Jesus the “lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” The connection between a lamb and the removal of sin would have been very clear to the Jewish people there – John correctly identified Jesus immediately, not just as the son of God, but as the one who would die in order to mediate the sin of all humanity.

This would have been rather confusing, though, because the notion of Jesus being a great leader and being a sacrifice would not have lined up in the minds of the people.

Despite being Jesus’ relative, it appears that John did not actually know Jesus by sight. Instead, God gave him specific criteria by which to identify him – seeing the spirit descending on him like a dove.

This also gives us some application: we also must correctly identify Jesus. John was not viewing Jesus through the filter of what he needed in his life,but rather through the truth of who he actually was. Others saw him as a threat to their power or a chance for political liberation, looking at him through their own filters. We have the same temptations.

The answer may be to follow in the footsteps of John the Baptist who humbled himself and emptied himself of his own identity to the extent that the question “who are you?” returned the answer “someone greater is coming!”

  • Sermon Notes, Aaron James, Seed Church, Lynnwood, WA, January 13, 2019

John 1:19-34

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John’s Perspective on Christ – John 1:1-18

When you look up at a night sky away from cities and light pollution, and see all the billions of stars, it can give you perspective on our small size in the midst of the massive universe. It is an indication that there is much more in the universe than we run into in our day to day lives.

John’s gospel is very much about perspective. It provides a very different perspective than Matthew, Mark and Luke, the synoptic gospels. John is all about Jesus’ nature: who He is and how he relates to other people. John’s gospel is the most clear that Jesus is 100% God. It has a developed Christology that may be the result of being written later than others, once Christians had an opportunity to reflect on the implications of everything.

The gospel opens with the startling assertion that this man Jesus, son of a carpenter from a small town in Palestine, was present at the creation of the universe. He is the one who hung those stars in the sky, speaking of perspective. This is a key belief of Christianity, and also one opposed from early days, by Arians in the fourth century and by Mormons and Jehovah’s Witnesses. But the gospel of John makes it very clear that Jesus was fully divine and fully man. We sometimes take for granted the wildness of this claim. Imagine working as a construction worker next to someone who claimed to be God.

The opening of John echos the opening of Genesis. “In the beginning…” In Genesis, God speaks a word and brings the world into existence. In John, Jesus himself is the Word. In Genesis, light is the first thing created. In John, Jesus himself is the light. In Genesis, Elohim is clearly set apart as the only God, the creator of the universe and far greater than the gods and goddesses of the surrounding cultures. In John, Jesus is the exclusive path to Elohim.

John also opens with a clearly universal message – that path, though exclusive, is open to all. Unlike the Law, which came through the same Torah where we find Genesis, Jesus is full of the grace and truth we need in order to follow that path. This is the perspective John provides.

How does looking at the world from this perspective impact us when times are good or when they are bad? We live in a time-oriented culture, which can mean that we run from activity to activity and lose this bigger perspective even when times are good, and certainly when times are bad. As we as a church go through a difficult season, we need to acknowledge and talk about the pain and grief we are going through. But we also should have perspective that the same Jesus who created the stars created Seed Church, and He is full of grace and truth.

As we open 2019, consider what you have always wanted a church to do and be? Do you have a dream or vision of a ministry at the church? Things will change in the world and in our church, and change is hard. But one thing that will not change is the perspective outlined here in the opening of John. Jesus is the creator of the universe, and He offers us the opportunity to become Children of God.

– Sermon Notes, Dave Lester, Seed Church, Lynnwood, WA, January 6, 2019

John 1:1-18

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The Tunnel of Anxiety and the Light of Grace – Philippians 4:4-7

 

Anxiety is an emphasis on the parts over the whole. It is a distortion of our perspective of life, seeing the individual problems in our lives rather than the fullness of life that Christ offers. It is like a tunnel through a mountain – narrow, dark and entirely missing the grandeur of the larger picture.

So how do we get out of this Tunnel of Anxiety? Paul offers several instructions.

First, be conscious of and rejoice in God’s grace. “Rejoice in the Lord always.” It is an emphatic command, not just a suggestion.

Second, we must be gracious with God’s grace. “Let your gentleness be evident to all.” We must follow Jesus in adhering to the spirit of the law and not keeping so tightly to the letter that we fail to show love and gentleness to the world around me. We have been shown grace and must show it in turn to the world.

Third, we must recognize the closeness of God’s grace. “The Lord is near.” The Psalms tell us that God is close to the brokenhearted, and James writes that if we draw near to God, he draws near to us. And not just near physically, but near in time. This life is brief and our time to be with Christ in eternity is closer than we realize.

Fourth, we must request God’s grace, seeking it earnestly, “by prayer and petition,” making bold requests of God. God is willing to take those complex individual parts of our lives and help us see how it fits into His bigger picture. God has a far broader perspective than even just our mountain, let alone our tunnel.

Fifth, we are to be grateful for God’s grace. Our requests are to be “with thanksgiving,” even in the midst of anxiety, troubles and persecution.

The result of all of this is peace. Peace is the restoration of wholeness to all these complex individual parts. This is itself a small picture of the gospel: a perfect creation, broken, but redeemed and restored to wholeness by the work of Christ.

Anxiety calls is to put a higher priority on the individual parts of life, but God’s grace reminds us that God has higher purposes and plans no matter how those individual problems sort themselves out. And this wholeness is not just an individual thing, but a wholeness that binds is together with the body of Christ.

The true cure for anxiety is not a lessening of emotional pain but a restoration of the whole picture of God’s grace. In the “aha” moment between anxiety and peace, we must remember that it did not come from within, but rather is a gift of God.

Peace is a garrison within our hearts that protects, strengthens and heals us. And as Paul writes, this all comes from the Prince of Peace Himself. “Peace I give to you; my peace I leave with you.”

When anxiety comes, we must be conscious of God’s grace, gracious with that grace to ourselves and others, be aware of the nearness of that grace, seek His grace in prayer, and be grateful for that grace. Through all of this, God offers a peace that transcends all our limited understanding.

– Sermon Notes, Jeff Krabach, Seed Church, Lynnwood, WA, October 14, 2018

Philippians 4:4-7

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Our Destiny, God & Glory – Philippians 3:17-4:3

Sometimes it is good as a church to look up and see how what you are doing is connected to the church as a whole. Here in this passage, Paul is looking ahead to a difficult future. He is nearing the end.

Paul makes an initial plea that the Philippians follow him, to the extent that he follows Christ. Conversely, the are many who turn aside from Christ. This means they are rejecting the very purpose of the universe.

It is not that they aren’t good people. Many of them are better people than you are. But it is their end that Paul is concerned with: their destiny, their god and their glory. Ecclesiastes gives us a clear picture of the futility of life when your destiny is nothing but the grave, and when the highest thing in your life is mere consumption and personal glory.

Most important, though, they become enemies of God, doomed to ultimate destruction. In contrast, we who follow Christ are redeemed from all those same situations that we still live in and given an eternal purpose. We are citizens of heaven, which means our destiny, God and glory go far beyond the things of earth and self.

This also means we have hope in Christ’s second coming. The resurrection was a down payment. His walking out of the grave was proof and promise that our citizenship is based in something real, and that His second coming will come with that same sort of power.

Not only that great cosmic promise, but Paul also points to something very specific: transformed bodies. This is more than just improvement in our physical selves, but a healing of the relationships broken at the fall: with God, with ourselves, with each other and with our world.

Being a citizen of heaven means that we can grab onto these future promises and pull them back into the present. The values of heaven can become our values here. This will not make everything work out ok, but it will mean we are used by God to accomplish His great purposes. We must believe that He has our best in mind, though in ways we cannot comprehend.

If you are an achiever who thinks about the world in terms of your abilities and what you can accomplish, this is a challenge to your worldview. We are not called to achieve but to die. Witness the story of the rich young ruler.

If you are the reverse of that, if you see yourself as a victim or a failure, the difficulty comes in accepting your worthiness. As Jesus said when he read from the scroll of Isaiah in the temple, His favor is extended to the poor, the weak and the captives.

Paul then shifts seemingly abruptly from the cosmic and eternal to something that seems much smaller, and addresses a fissure within the church. But he did not really shift all that far. Because these two women are citizens of heaven, their dispute matters in eternal ways, and their ultimate reconciliation is one of the great eternal purposes of God.

What are the ways that you can participate in God’s great purposes this week?

– Sermon Notes, Jim Fikkert, Seed Church, Lynnwood, WA, October 7, 2018

Philippians 3:17-4:3

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Momentum vs. Stagnation – Philippians 3:12-16

Stagnation and momentum both can lead to growth, but very different kinds. Stagnant water will grow bacteria, algae and other unpleasant things, while running water gives us life.

Here, Paul writes about the momentum he seeks in his own life, and that he calls the Philippians to.

He cites the “momentum of maturity.” Paul is not perfect, but recognizes his own deficiencies and opportunities for growth. True perfection lies in grasping at the life that Christ lived.

Here at Seed we try to live this out by accepting people where they are, but not being content that they stay that way. This is true no matter whether someone is an unrepentant sinner whose life is in a self-made shambles, or an upstanding, well-respected person of faith and love. None of us have yet reached the goals set for us by Christ.

Christ himself takes hold of us to move us forward in the plans He has for us to do His work, in addition to living out the example for us.

Paul was motivated by two things, then. First, his own depravity – just how far he has to go – and second, how much Christ loves him and what He wants for him. As Tim Keller has said, we are worse than we think we are, but more loved than we can possibly imagine.

So Paul has done a self assessment, has taken the internet quiz and knows there is work to be done. Where we don’t match up with Christ, we must change in order to change that. But rather than reflecting on the past, Paul looks to the future. We should learn from our past but not dwell on it. We cannot let either past pain or past glories rob us of our momentum. We can’t let memories of the “good old days” cause us to miss out on what God has for us in the present.

And what is that? Paul’s language is aggressive and forward-moving: “press on,” “take hold”, “strain towards”. We are not to live in apathy or to “let go and let God.” Rather, even though we know the race is won for us, we must keep running.

But we get the power to keep running from Jesus as well. We can have confidence that God works in our lives, moving us closer to the perfection He desires for us. God loves us, as a church and as individuals, more than we ourselves do.

Mature people, Paul writes, think this way, seeking always to die to self and live in Christ. While the goal itself is presently unattainable, the mature understand this and rely on the power of Christ to move us forward.

This maturity is an attitude of perseverance and never giving up, as we seek to live up to what Christ has attained for us.

– Sermon Notes, Jeff Krabach, Seed Church, Lynnwood, WA, September 30, 2018

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Jesus Plus Nothing – Philippians 3:1-11

Paul here writes strongly against the Judaizers, the “circumcision group” who insist that circumcision is required for salvation. He is laying down a diss track up there with anything you’ll find anywhere today. He recasts them as “the mutilation” because he has seen the damage such beliefs can cause to a congregation.

Not just that, but he goes after them from a position of authority. “That’s not a knife,” he observes about these ethnically focused, legalistic opponents. “This is a knife,” he says, as he pulls out his heritage and zeal as an ethnically, theologically, zealously pure Jew. What these Judaizers aspire to is what Paul had accomplished while still young.

And yet, like a cargo ship in danger of sinking, all this precious cargo has become a liability. It isn’t just null, but is actively distasteful in comparison to knowing Christ. God’s act of allowing Paul to truly see and know Jesus has ruined Paul for everything else. It’s like a young man falling in love, with everyone and everything fading away in comparison to his beloved.

Against this ritualistic, ethnically-based righteousness based on works, Paul places the grace of God and the righteousness freely given to us by God. This grace, this opportunity to know Christ means that the suffering in account of Christ is worth it. “A crucified Lord results in cruciform disciples.” Knowing Christ happens in two phases: both now and in the future. Without being conformed to Jesus’ death now, there can be no participation in the resurrection in the future.

The same Jesus who hangs on a cross to justify us also calls us to come and die and be raised again with Him. Hanging on that cross is only Jesus, and Jesus-plus-nothing is what offers us this grace. We have a hard time with this – the statements of Christ throughout the New Testament are too hard for us to easily accept. So we create a religion of Jesus-plus-comfort, Jesus-plus-happiness, much like the Jesus-plus-circumcision righteousness of the Judaizers.

How do we live out this Jesus-plus-nothing righteousness in our lives? First, we must spend time getting to know Him, not just through church services one day a week. Second, we must spread the news of Christ and his work on the cross.

– Sermon Notes, Brian Bailey, Seed Church, Lynnwood, WA, September 23, 2018

Philippians 3:1-11

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Paul’s Anxiety and Ours – Philippians 2:25-30

Despite Paul’s own troubles, he is concerned for the Philippian church and feels somewhat helpless to help them deal with their internal and external troubles. He wanted to send Timothy, his most trusted disciple, to help them, but was not immediately able to do this for whatever reason.

His second choice, then, was Epaphroditus, who I will call E. E was originally from Philippi and was most likely a Greek convert, since the name itself is a purely Greek name. E had been sent to bring monetary relief to Paul and help out generally, but now was homesick for Philippi.

Paul uses three words to describe E. Brother means a fellow believer. Coworker, meaning he had been assisting Paul in his ministry. Soldier, fighting side-by-side with Paul to share the gospel. He was likely the person who actually carried the letter to the Philippians originally.

Paul had been dealing with a lot, between imprisonment and persecution, so the illness of E would have been an additional trial. His recovery was a significant blessing to Paul, but because of what happened, E went home earlier than planned.

Paul reassures them not to freak out about E’s early return, that the reasons are solid and that they do not reflect poorly on either E or on the Philippian church. He instructs them to honor E (and all people like him) and welcome him with joy.

So what can we in the 21st century learn from this snippet of life in the 1st?

The first thing we can learn revolves around anxiety. There is an idea that, if we just trust God enough, we won’t have anxiety or be worried. Here we see the Apostle Paul himself, though, actively worried for the spiritual health of the Philippian church.

As we also struggle with anxiety, Jesus calls us to to peace we can find in him. During the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus addresses questions of anxiety – pointing to the birds of the air and lilies of the field, and the peace we can have if we trust in God. (Note that for many people, anxiety is also a biological issue that may require biological intervention.)

Anxiety is also different than momentary fear, which is a built-in survival tool that is designed to keep us alive. But anxiety as a lifestyle is destructive, physically, emotionally and spiritually.

Was Paul living in anxiety like this, as he worried about the Philippian church? It would be understandable. Here at Seed there is some anxiety as we go through a season of transition and seek a new teaching pastor. Change is hard and can often cause anxiety.

But no matter how cliché it sounds, in these times, we need to trust Jesus. The first step of this is to know Jesus in the first place. Jesus’ life, sacrifice and resurrection offers us peace with God. This is the most important thing you can do, and the first step towards the eternal peace God offers.

What comes next?

  1. Prayer, meditation and scripture.
  2. Be realistic about what you can and cannot change.
  3. Take a break from social media (and possibly cable news) .
  4. Try to gain perspective and consider the bigger picture that God sees, as well as the way at have been blessed.
  5. Don’t feel anxious about being anxious – give yourself grace, and give others grace. God already has.

– Sermon Notes, Dave Lester, Seed Church, Lynnwood, WA, September 16, 2018

Philippians 2:25-30

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The Godfather – Philippians 2:19-24

There is a vulnerability to Paul in this letter. You can very much feel the weight of all that came before, the successes and failures, the deaths and the new life, the frustrations and the joys. Paul here, writing from a prison cell, is simply concerned with for the Philippians and wanting them to be in the Lord, or “on mission.”

Recall that in the section just previous, Paul cited the Philippians as a key marker of his service to God, something that makes all his toil and suffering worthwhile. So when he sends Timothy to the Philippians as a spiritual godparent, there is a lot that comes behind that.

In Paul’s letters to Timothy, he spends much time encouraging boldness. Timothy was young, which means that in the Greek culture he lacked the authority that came with age. He had been raised and brought to faith by his grandmother Eunice and mother Lois.

Paul assures the Philippians that Timothy has “no equal in soul” in terms of his concern for the Philippians. This is what makes Paul confident that Timothy is the right person to serve as godfather to his spiritual children. In Corinthian he calls him out in his way as well, noting that the Corinthians had “many teachers but few fathers,” and that Timothy can take on that role of godparent.

The role of a godparent in Christ is to continually be intentionally pointing others to Christ. As we grow in maturity, we are all called to this role of godparent in some way. How do we do this.

First and most importantly, you must know Christ. It is not about you or what you have accomplished or are capable of, but about the righteousness imputed by Christ’s death and resurrection. You must have humility and be aware of your own sin, but also leaven that with an acknowledgement and embracing of our authority in Christ.

You must continually develop yourself in Christ through the process of sanctification. This is the continual life process of growing and sharpening and movement towards the person of Christ. To be a good godparent means that you are moving forward in the lord rather than sliding backwards or staying stagnant. Peter describes sanctification in 2 Peter 1:5-7, “make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love.”

Third, you need to know and own the assignment as a godparent. In Matthew 28, Jesus outlines what that assignment is: “go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.” We are called to be godparents, not spiritual baby daddies, discipling, not just telling and moving on.

How do you godparent? First, pray and seek guidance. Second, take an inventory of who you are in a position to godparent and who is godparenting you? Third, assess their needs and engage and build a relationship. Fourth, assess the level of effort needed, and then determine how to move forward. Maybe this means taking the small things first, maybe the big ones. Finally, pray over the entire thing again and invite Jesus into the mission.

– Sermon Notes, John Lehigh, Seed Church, Lynnwood, WA, September 9, 2018

Philippians 2:19-24

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