17.5 John – Grace

It has come up a lot this week, but I want to go back to some of the principles brought out in last week’s lesson in regard to the notion of “dying to self”, but specifically in the area of “leadership with grace.”

When we think of leadership we think of delegation.  It is a matter of getting the right people with the right talents in the right place and getting them the resources and direction needed to excel.  You divide things into a grid, make nice little boxes on the org chart and fill those boxes.

Using a tool analogy, you look for the right people to fit into the right holes.  The position of the leader is above, putting together the pieces, but also using coaching and incentives and constructive feedback to shape the person to better fit the hole, sanding off some rough edges or cutting off bad habits or gluing on some training.

But the position Jesus demonstrates for the disciples and for us to follow is more.  He is not simply up above arranging the pieces, but he also takes on the role of forklift or jack, to raise up those he leads.  He doesn’t just look at the outside, but works on the inside.  He isn’t about hammering someone into a position, but in lifting them up to do more and greater.

This is a hard example to swallow for a leader because it means you are constantly helping lift people to move on.  You are developing people not to stay in a role, but to go out into new roles.  You are preparing the members of the church to leave and start new churches, to be missionaries, to go be leaders.  You are shaping your employees to become managers themselves in other organizations.  This is more work for the leader.  It seems easier to just hold onto the same people and keep them in the same roles – but that is how all oppression begins, by leaders doing the easier thing instead of the right thing.  Dying to self doesn’t just mean giving up your time, it means giving up your people, too.  It means growing your kids to go out in the world and be their own followers of Jesus.  It means constantly opening your circle of friends and associates rather than settling in with the same old small group.  It means paying the price with your work for someone else to grow and be lifted up.

But isn’t that what grace is all about?  I’ve heard the acronym that grace is God’s Riches At Christ’s Expense.  Jesus paid it all, we reap the rewards of being lifted up to holiness.

My Answers:

10.
I learn servant leadership.  I learn acceptance of God’s direction and plans even when I don’t like the plan.  I see Jesus’ grace in allowing Judas to make the choice he did – The other disciples would have restrained him with only a whisper.  I see Jesus love for His disciples and for us.

11.
I think they began to see the depth of His words and the layers of meaning.  I think they saw more about Jesus and Judas in the next hours.  I think they learned more about themselves.  And, as the church was forming, they learned to apply the teachings of this night – even to those they believed too unclean to have ever associated with before (people like me).

17.4 John – Evil has no new tricks

As I thought about the way Judas gave himself over to Satan, I was drawn to the actions of evil today.  Not to show too much of my inner-geek, but these actions are exactly the same steps that hackers use today.  Hacking is normally not a sledge-hammer approach.  It more commonly happens by probing along the perimeter of a network.  It tests for open ports on a firewall.  It looks for vulnerabilities in systems that have not been maintained.  It looks for weak passwords for carelessness.  It tempts action through phishing emails, luring someone to click a link or allow a download to occur.  It works through lies and deceit, using Trojans that appear harmless but secretly are harmful.  It can be targeted but most of the time it is simply trolling the internet looking for any opening anywhere.  Malicious programs are launched and go from IP address to address across devices and across nations.  Once inside the network, it is patient, lying in wait until it begins to take action.  It tries to spread through connections of one infected system to other connected systems in its network.

These are all the same tricks Satan used.  The fact that the disciples had no idea which of them would betray Jesus demonstrates both the quietness with which evil penetrated Judas, but also the fact that they all had likely been probed and tempted.

We all have weaknesses.  We all have sin in our lives.  We all have areas of our life that lack maintenance in fasting and reading the scripture and daily prayer.  But it is not of our own strength that we resist the probes of wickedness, it is only by the protection of the Holy Spirit.

One of the great reassurance is found in 1 Cor 10:13.  “No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful…”  Satan has no new tricks.  There is no temptation in the world except the same old common temptations that have been around since the garden of Eden.  Satan has no ability to create anything new and nothing more powerful in reserve.  The worst he has at his disposal is the same old tricks that God has thwarted over and over and over again.

We are wise to protect our hearts, but it is not our work or our action that provides the real protection, it is putting our faith in God and the mighty power of our Savior and the Holy Spirit.

My Answers:

7.
The fulfillment of prophecy is not simply a broad overview that could apply to Jesus but might also apply to many other things.  It is specific, down to the fulfillment of the one who ate was the one who would betray Him.  This shows me the cyclical nature of time and how events overlay and overlay as foreshadows of each other.  Jesus did not shy away from what He knew was coming because He knew and trusted in God.  David goes on to say that God is gracious to him and lifts him up and delights in him and upholds him and sets him in His presence for over.  He does the same for us.

8.
Satan is prowling to harm and destroy anything created by God and particularly anything associated with God.  He asks to sift us like wheat.  he tests and prods and looks for weaknesses to exploit.  He seeks only harm and hatred.  He lies and is the father of all lies.

17.3 John – Connection

Our questions today discuss “humbly serving.”  While I believe we are called to humbly serve, I think we are called to more than that.  There are a number of people and organizations that “serve”.  Some do it for a living, such as waitresses and waiters and care givers in hospitals and nursing facilities.  There are some that do it financially.  Some as part of a community organization.  Some who do it as a requirement for community service hours.  But, if we really look at Jesus act of washing the disciples feet, it was more than humble service… it was making a connection.

Jesus didn’t just place himself at their feet.  He reached out and touched them.  He cleansed them with his hands.  He stripped himself down of his outer garments and became personally connected with them.  I think this is a big part of why this act resonates with us so much.  We don’t need a God who spends His time washing our feet – we don’t need a God who serves us.  We do desire with all of our hearts a God who connects with us, who is intimate with us and fills our souls with love.

This is the difference between true Christ-Like service and most of the service men provide, it is the connection.  It is far more than drive-by service.  It is not just a service penance that makes us feel better because we help those people, them, over there.  To be truly Christ like there isn’t a them and us, there is just a connected unity of us, the church, children of God.  It has to build connections, build communities that we are a part of not separate from.  Not just something we do to help but something we do with love for our God and for the person we are serving.

Think about where the disciples’ eyes would have been throughout this.  They would have been watching their Lord, the Messiah, tendering loving them and gazing back up into their faces, not in pain or disgust over their gnarly feet, but in an overflowing of love and compassion.  Psalm 145:8-9 says, “The Lord is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and rich in love. The Lord is good to all; he has compassion on all he has made.”

Could you use a little more grace, love and compassion in your life?  You know exactly where to look.  He is waiting with a towel around him, waiting to wipe away your tears and your sins.

My Answers:

5.
He is God.  He is their teacher.  He is the Lord, the Messiah, the center of all prophecy, and He got down and scrubbed the grime from their feet- a job for the lowliest of servants.  I learn that humility and service is the model of Jesus.  That our place as His followers is not to stand on and above others to oppress them for our gain, but to get down and lift them up

6.
a.
To children.  To wait patiently for His direction and calling.  To be anonymous in some actions.

b.
It brings me closer to the Lord.  I see insights in the scripture I would not see with a lofty chin and stiff neck.  I see more and more of Jesus’ love.  I see how much He humbled himself and how low I truly am (no boasting).

17.2 John – Love to the end

I love the story of Jesus washing the feet of His disciples.  There are so many amazing elements to it and such depth.  The fact that he was moved to do this mid meal.  The fact that he tied the towel around his waist so that the filth he removed from them was attached to himself.  The fact that even Judas received the blessing (and the offer of forgiveness inherent in it).

I’ve seen great leaders emulate the washing of feet.  I’ve seen church leaders do it.  I recognize it is the beginning of a business and civic mindset called servant leadership.

But in all of those things and all those reenactments or applications, it is easy to miss the most important part.  Look hard at the last sentence in John 13:1, “Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.”

This act wasn’t just a teaching moment.  It wasn’t just a foreshadowing.  It wasn’t just a living parable.  More than any of those things, it was an act of love.  He didn’t have to wash their feet, they had already come in and gone through all of the normal preparations before beginning a meal.  He was moved to do it out of love.

When we emulate this activity and serve others, do we do it to show others that we are “like Jesus”?  If so, are we truly like Jesus, doing it in pure love for the person?

It is an act like caring for an elderly dying parent.  It is an act like sacrificing your life for another.  It is a total giving of self, of letting go, to flow out to others.  There is nothing Jesus gains from this act, but He is moved to it purely in love.  Love to the end!

My Answers:

3.
He demonstrated servant leadership.  He, the Lord, was willing to wash the feet of each of the disciples at the table (even the one He knew was going to betray Him).  He didn’t have to do this, but chose to – in the same way He chose to die for us.

4.
Those who have accepted Christ are clean (saved), but still need to repent of daily sins.  All but Judas had accepted Christ into them, but he had chosen Satan instead.  I am cleaned by the blood of the lamb who died on the cross for my sins, but I still commit sins in both the things I do and say and the things I fail to do or say.  Of those I need daily (hourly) cleaning through confession and repentance.

16.5 John – Would not

In these final verses of John 12 we get into some deep theological thoughts.  If faith is a gift, then does everyone receive the gift?  If God is in control of everything then why doesn’t everyone come to faith?  Doesn’t God want everyone in heaven and if He has the power to ordain that, then why would there be a hell?

Instead of going into the weeds of that discussion, I think a major answer to all of this is found in John 12:37 when it says that “some would not believe.”  Notice it does not say “did not believe”  or “could not believe”, it says they “would” not believe.  They started with the decision not to believe.  God, in love, gives them this choice and they choose not to believe.  Without choice, we would be robots or slaves.  For God to not honor our choice would be the same as if there were not to be a choice at all.

As we saw earlier in the week in the verse from Isaiah, the proper and logical response to coming into the presence of the holy perfect creator God is to immediately recognize the undoing within ourselves and to see our own sin.  Think about this in any other context, it would be sheer lunacy to come into the presence of such a supreme being and not recognize our own inadequacy.

But, coming face-to-face with God is not faith.  Faith is an unseen quality.  It is a step, not a push.

For those who “would not believe” to have been forced then to see, in full light, the works of Jesus and the full meaning of the actions of the Lord as the Son of God and Son of Man, would have been to force them to do something they had chosen not to do.  That would not be faith, but nor would it have been free will.  In grace, God allows their eyes to be blind and their hearts calloused to honor the choice they choose to make.

My Answers:

11.
Some would not believe.  It isn’t that they could not believe, but they would not.  As a result of their “faith” decision, they were blinded to the full magnitude of the signs because no one could have looked fully at the signs and miracles and not seen that Jesus was the Son of God.  Some recognized the signs, but in fear or pride or for other reasons chose not to acknowledge what they were believing in their heart but, instead, wanting to hold on to old ways.  They will be judged @end

12.
a.
Isaiah sees the throne room of God and receives the same message that Jesus provides.  Because they refused to bend their hearts to the Lord, it has been turned calloused and they will be unable to see the signs that would result in them falling on their face in awe and wonder of the living God, just as Isaiah did.

b.
I look for clues and hints of the belief of one I’m talking to and I’m more open and direct with fellow believers.  To those who have a calloused heart and closed mind, I do not press them but am respectful.  I don’t know that respect is the right response and if that is being kind to them or harmful to them.

16.4 John – Stewards and Lieutenants

I appreciate the question in today’s study about “lose your life”.  I completely get the reference to vs. 25 and I understand and am humbled by the teaching about this principle by Jesus and throughout the epistles.

I think, as sinful man, we, however, distort this whole “die to self” concept.  We take pride in the sacrifices we make.  We carry guilt that we aren’t sacrificing enough.  We almost make a show of it, if not to others in words at least to ourselves in our thoughts.

But I think the heart of this teaching is not to feel bad when God has entrusted us with things.  Jesus had been friends with Mary and Martha and Lazarus for a very long time and not once do we see Mary be in trouble for owning a bottle of perfume worth a year’s wages.   Nor was she burdened every day with trying to figure out who needed this more than she did.

Instead, I think the better translation of this would be to tie it to the principle of being a good steward or, if the title is more comfortable, a lieutenant, of ourselves.  We are to be trained up.  We are to be prayerful.  We are to be listening and taking care of ourselves physically and mentally.  We are to practice and build our talents.  We are to give thanks both for our blessings and our trials.  But, most importantly, we are to recognize that we do all of this not for ourselves, but to be at the ready for the command of our commander.

A lieutenant does not feel guilty for the troops under his authority.  He prepares them and builds them.  He doesn’t shun food or proper clothing or shelter or rest or work for them.  He recognizes the importance of investing in those in his ranks so that they can perform, at a moment’s notice, when the command comes from above to deploy.  He also does not jump ahead of those orders, sending them out so they are not at the ready when the true orders come.

In the same way, I think we are the lieutenant of ourselves, of our bodies, of our thoughts, of our resources and money and relationships and emotions.  But, we serve not for ourselves or our own glory but for that of our commander.  We don’t wear our name on our foreheads, but the name of Jesus Christ. That is giving up this life to a life of service and the promise of that is a better, greater, holier life for all eternity.

My Answers:

8.
The time for Him to come to Jerusalem to die.  The time for Him to take on the sins of the world, die and then rise again

9.
As a human He was human, but through His death He was the first born again.  The warning and promise was that he was going to, very soon, die, and be born again greater.  It was a promise to believers and a warning to the pharisees.

10.
Believing fully in Christ in faith is an “all in” commitment.  We give up ourselves and control over our own life, to the extent that we offer to go where He leads even in harm, pain and possible death of this life, knowing we have eternal life with Him.

16.3 John – In the name of

What does it mean to come in the name of something or someone?  We experience this less today than people have in the past because of the flow and speed of communication.  Today, if a document requires a signature, it can be signed electronically or signed and faxed or over-nighted.  But at a time when transportation was measured in days and weeks instead of milliseconds, this was not the case.  A person of authority, having business or other affairs in different areas would send representatives to those houses or areas.  This representative was not there on their own behalf, but they represented their master or benefactor.  They were there not in their own name but in the name of someone else.

We still see this today in some instances.  In a wedding ceremony it will often be said, by the power vested in me by…  We see the same wording in inductions and sometimes in legal proceedings by a judge or lawyer, especially the attorney speaking for “the state” or “the people.”

But when Jesus triumphantly enters Jerusalem, in the midst of palm branches and cheers, with shouts of praise and jubilation, riding on a donkey (not as one coming in as a conqueror but as a ruler in times of peace), He comes in His own name and the due title accompanying that name, Lord.  He is the promised one.  He is the perfect son of God and He is worthy of all praise.

Why don’t we recognize Jesus this way every day?  When we first believe, we recognize His majesty and we are humbled in His presence.  But, over time, we sometimes become almost too casual.  Yes, Jesus is our brother and friend, but He is also our Lord, our God.  It is right to have a personal relationship with Him, but if our approach to that relationship yields to failing to consider His title and authority, i.e., becoming inconsiderate, then we cross a line.  When we cross that line, we are the ones who lose.  Jesus doesn’t love us less, but we connect just a little less.  But what would it look like if we started each day in true praise and celebration?  What would our days look like if we started the day with a big loud Hosanna?  Would your day be better if it started with a praise song instead of a rush to look at email or facebook?

My Answers:

6.
PS: “blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord”, shouted at His entry with Hosanna
My house will be a house of prayer (but you have made it a den of vipers) = from the house of the Lord we bless you

ZE: King comes, righteous and victorious, lowly and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey

7.
a.
the whole crowd of disciples and those who had seen Jesus with Lazarus, some Greeks, the Pharisees, the Jews there for Passover, the sellers in the temple

b.
With boldness, by following and praising Him, by leading to Him not away from Him by the way I live and teach

16.2 John – Greater/Lesser

As we read our lesson for today I was reminded of a verse from earlier in John, John 3:30 when John the Baptist said, in relation to Jesus, “He must become greater; I must become less.”

Mary lived out these words as a disciple of Lord Jesus.  She assumed the role of servant to this man whom she loved and who had brought her brother back from 4 days in the grave with a single command.  She recognized Jesus greatness and honored it, she didn’t envy it.  She took probably the most valuable thing she had, a bottle of perfume that came from the root of a plant that only grows in the foothills of the Himalayan mountains, and poured out the full contents of it on Jesus’ feet and cleaned them with her hair.  Pause for a moment and let’s think about this.  The full bottle of perfume was not required for this task.  A very little bit of perfume goes a very long way.  She easily could have honored the man Jesus with a gesture and a gift and still had months or years supply of perfume left.  But she poured out all that she had on Lord Jesus.  She wiped his feet with her hair, not because she wanted to coat her hair in the perfume, but because that was what happened when she prostrated herself at His feet, getting into as low of a position as possible to honor His greatness.

Judas, on the other hand, shows the exact opposite.  Instead of lowering himself in Jesus’ greatness, his view is on how to ride the Jesus train up to Judas’ own greatness.  He sees the act of Mary as a waste.  Not only does he monetize the gift, but he sees what it could have bought.  Good deeds for the poor done with sufficient self-promotion bring the honor and recognition of other, powerful people.  It buys goodwill in the community and it is totally in line with the teaching of the Pharisees.  His after the fact rebuke tears down Mary and sends a message to others.  It is not delivered as a brother or peer or co-disciple, it is delivered as from one in authority to a servant.

But, Jesus settles the dispute not by sending them to their corners or making them shake hands.  Instead, He rebukes Judas, as He would rebuke the devil (no coincidence there since it was likely the influence of Satan’s presence in Judas heart that caused him to suddenly speak so boldly).  He praises Mary, not for what she did, but for what had long ago been set into motion and ordained for her to do and then He elevates the conversation from the pettiness of Judas’ words to the announcement that Jesus would soon die.

Can you imagine the hush that must have fallen on the room at this point?  Mary still at Jesus’ feet.  Judas commanded into quiet.  The rest of the guests looking on with wide eyed expressions.  Jesus’ has spoken about death before, but this group that is still rejoicing about the resurrection of Lazarus would have been very alert to the words of death for the one who brought him back to life.

My Answers:

3.
caring, generous, honoring of God, self-sacrificing.  She wasn’t prompted, she didn’t wait, she was bold and giving and gave from her heart.  I want to be generous without concern, not for others.

4.
Jesus rebuked Judas.  Jesus also pointed out that this had be reserved for the day of His death to prepare Him for His burial.  It also revealed Judas heart – He was concerned about money, not honoring Jesus.  He saw it as waste and that the poor were more valuable than Jesus and that other people were more deserving of the perfume.

5.
He rebuked and chastised Judas and recognized and honored Mary’s actions.  He explained that this had been ordained by God and saved for the time of His death.  It made it clear that it was time for Jesus to die and that He knew He would die.

15.5 John – There is always a “better” with God

In these verses in Chapter 11 we finally get to the heart of the Pharisees’ issue with Jesus.  They had been beaten down, forced into submission to the Roman government.  They had little control, little say and little hope.  In their eyes, things were either going to stay the same or get worse.  There was no third door.  If Jesus didn’t stop, wasn’t stopped, then things would only go from bad to worse.  It is a tale that had followed the people of God over and over again.  Remember the Hebrews after leaving bondage in Egypt.  Within days, they were grumbling and wanting to go back to the way things were before.  Restore the status quo.

This mindset can happen to us, too, today.  When we are beaten down by life’s events, by trials and tribulation and problems all around us, it is easy to begin to believe things either stay the same or get worse.  We lose hope in promises of improvement and we are not surprised when our leaders stand in the way of those who call for a different path.  With our head hanging low, we can only see a downward path.

But, with God, there is always a better.  Even when we can’t imagine what better looks like, God already knows and has it ready.  Even when we feel things are hopeless, God says, put your hope in me.  When all we see are attackers and battles, God says be not afraid.  When we cannot take another step, God sweeps us into His arms. When darkness closes in, His is the light of the world.

There is always a better.  That isn’t a wish or a dream, it is a fact.  When we can’t imagine what it might be, that is OK.  It isn’t our job to imagine it, it is our job to put our faith in Christ.  When we turn our eyes to the Lord, we look up.  Our focus is no longer on the valley, but on the mountaintop.  Our journey is not more of the same but a destination of holiness and purity and perfection and peace.

My Answers:

12.
Many believed.  Others went and reported to the Pharisees who called a meeting of the Sanhedrin.

13.
a.
What are we accomplishing.  He is performing many signs. If let him go on, everyone will believe in him, then the Romans will come and take away both our temple and our nation.

b.
The status quo.  The temple. Themselves and their position and role in the temple. They saw only a worse, not a better.

14.You do not realize that it is better for you that one man die for the people than that the whole nation perish.  As high priest he was, (probably) unknowingly to himself, prophesying of Jesus’ sacrificial death to take on the death of all to defeat sin and death that we may be redeemed.

15.4 John – Take off the grave clothes

Jesus gives three commands. 1. Take away the stone.  2. Lazarus, come out. 3. Take off the grave clothes and let him go.

There is a lot we could discuss about the fact that Jesus did not enter the tomb, he didn’t touch Lazarus, he didn’t give him medicine or a shock or anything else.  He simply commanded him to come out.

But the part that I think has an application to us are the grave clothes.  Lazarus was bound up.  His hands were bound, a cloth covered his face so he couldn’t see.  At this point, he was alive but he wasn’t free.  Jesus’ command to Lazarus and to us is not only to believe and live, but to be alive, free of the baggage of the tomb, and to go.

Our sins are forgiven when we turn them over to Christ, but many of us carry them around with us.  We are bound up by our past transgressions, by our sins, our failures, our faults.  The bind us and blind us.  But, when Jesus gives us new life, when we commit to Him, we are commanded to take off these grave clothes and go, to be let go.

Our grave clothes do not define us.  Lazarus death does not define him, Jesus’ love does.

Are you ready for some new clothes?  What binding is still holding you to the grave?

My Answers:

9.
That people would see this was God and “that they may believe that you sent me.”

10.
a.
Lazarus, come out – Take off the grave clothes and let him go.

b.
We are dead in sin, but Jesus has the power and authority to bring us out of that death into life.  The gift of spiritual life is greater than even the gift to Lazarus because Laz would physically die again, but his and our spiritual life is eternal.  We will be able to enter with God and the Spirit will move in us, we will be free and resurrected with Christ

11.
j10: Thief comes only to steal and kill, come so they may have life to full – Jesus gives full life, filled w/spirit

j17: at cross – glorify son that may glorify you, authority over all people to give eternal life to all give Jesus

e2: We have all been dead in our transgressions, God in mercy made us alive in Christ even while dead

c3: raised in Christ, set eyes on the eternal.  Old life hidden in Christ.

1t4: For the Lord himself will come down and call the dead in Christ to rise first