The Seventh Lover

How could a woman come to have five husbands in Jesus’ time? It wasn’t easy. It was easier for a man to have five wives than a woman to have five husbands. Divorce was not easy for a woman. Her husband was abusive or unfaithful, she would have to prove it. Otherwise, they assumed that she needed a beating. If a woman divorced a man, she would be on her own, without resources or ability to live. So how did this woman come to have five husbands? She must have started early—about thirteen or fourteen. She would have married a man at least twice her age. She was beautiful—she had to be beautiful to attract so many men. What did she do to displease him? Maybe she was not a good cook. Or maybe she was a nag. Those were grounds for divorce in those days. Maybe she refused her husband. Maybe her husband just got tired of her. A woman had no rights except to obey her husband. Whatever it was, her first husband dropped her quickly and she went back to her family in disgrace. Imagine this rejection for a little girl. She was damaged good, and she was still in her teens. In spite of this, though, she married again. What kind of a man would he have been? He probably seemed to be a gentle man. When a woman has been hurt, she looks for someone who will not hurt her. She looks for some white knight, riding to the rescue. Then one day, a white knight appears, and she is more than happy to get on the back of his horse. But things do not go well. The white knight has tarnished armor. After a few years, he showed his true nature. Maybe he was abusive, or maybe he enjoyed rescuing fair maidens more than living with them. But in the end, he dumped. He divorced her, and put the blame on her. So here she was, a twice married woman—probably with a child or two. Her family is skittish about taking her in. People in town think there must be something wrong with her. The first time, they may blame the man, but the second, they start to turn on her. They question whether she should be living in a good town like that. Righteous little villages have a way of pushing out people with bad reputation. Now, though, she is desperate and alone, with children to feed. So she trades the only commodity she has for survival--her body. She is willing to marry any man who can get her out of that town, give her a place to live, and put food on her table. That’s where husbands three, four, and five come in. She married a man, thought things would be perfect for a while, and then he dumped her again. She was a woman to be used up an d discarded. There may have been relocations. With every husband, she moved somewhere else and started over, trying to be a respectable wife. But Samaria is a small country. Her reputation followed her wherever she went. This Samaritan woman had been beautiful. But if she were a rose, she was a fading rose. As her looks faded, so did her ability to attract and keep a man. Love based on physical beauty is doomed to fail. A woman needs to be treated with affection and respect even when beauty had faded. And this woman was seeing her beauty fade. For the fifth time, this woman was divorced (assuming one or more of her husbands did not die on her.). What could she do for a living? Eventually, she finds a small measure of security and affection in the arms of a man who does not respect her. He will live with her, but he will not marry her. All he gives her are false compliments and sex. Nevertheless, after five other husbands, this sixth lover is better than nothing. He will do until she can find someone who can offer her some security.. Then one day, this woman went to the well to draw water, and there is this man, sitting there alone. He is a foreigner—a Jew. Ordinarily, the Jews had no dealings with the Samaritans. What is he doing there, all alone in the middle of the day? Women come to the well. Maybe he is looking for a woman. Then she thinks this could be an opportunity. This man could be heaven-sent. He could take her with him, to where she could really have a new life—in the country of the Jews, away from the whispering gossips of Samaria. Maybe they treat their women better in Judea. . This stranger could be her ticket out of here. She could have hung back until the man left, but she didn’t. She have waited until someone else came to the well. Instead she went up to the well, and up to the stranger. He spoke first “give me something to drink.” She was coy, and sassy “How is is that you a Jew ask me a Samaritan for a drink?” "If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water." If this was a flirtation, it was a strange one! What could he possibly mean by living water? Nevertheless, she decides to play along. Vs 11-15 "Sir," the woman said, "you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his flocks and herds?" There was a playfulness in what she said. She really has no way of thinking that he is anyone great. She is just carrying on a conversation a potential next lover. But then things got even stranger. Jesus answered, "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life." She understood nothing. Living water! Running water? Is he saying he has some kind of magic spigot, she can get water whenever he wanted? What does he mean by “eternal life?” Maybe he’s saying that he wanted her eternally—take care of her for the rest of his life. Maybe he was just joking. I am a romantic in many ways, but I am not fond of romance as a substitute for God. We think our lovers will solve our problems—that they will give us self-esteem or confidence and take care of all our ills. Lovers never do that. That’s God’s business. Eternal life cannot be found in a lover’s eyes. Nor will anyone give us by themselves a new quality of life. This had been this woman’s mistake all along—she thought she could find salvation in a lover’s arms. If she could just find the right man, everything would be fine. But this man had something else in mind entirely. She played along. "Sir, give me this water so that I won't get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water." Is it a legitimate request or water? Or is it a double entendre. Is she really talking about water, or is she talking about men? Could she be saying—are you the kind of man who can satisfy me, so that I would never have to go looking among strangers for another? If there was a double meaning un what she said, the next words crushed it. Vs. 16 "Go, call your husband and come back." I cannot imagine a thing that would destroy a woman who thought she was being flirtatious more completely. Call her husband? How could he say that? Clearly, she had misread him. Maybe she is misreading him. Maybe he just wanted to know if she was available. “I have no husband.” She replied Then he answered, "You are right when you say you have no husband. The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true." She was truly astounded. How could he know this? Had he been spying? That was impossible. No one in the village knew her whole story. How could he know about all five husbands? Then she realized the truth. This was no potential lover at all. This was a prophet. See verse 19 "I can see that you are a prophet. What is a prophet? It is not, as we often think a person who foretells the future. A prophet by their understanding was someone who spoke for God. So this is God standing before her and telling her that he knows her past and her background, and he doesn’t care. The course of the conversation abruptly changed from a light flirtation to a religious discussion. Much to our surprise, she is not that disappointed. What does a woman want more in a lover? First she wants someone who understands her. When we meet a new person, the first thing we tell them is our history. Then, as we come to trust them, we tell them our secrets. We first reveal a little of ourselves, then eventually et them know about the secrets we keep locked away in our hearts. What we seek from them is acceptance and forgiveness. We want to know that whatever we have done doesn’t matter--that they love us as we are today. Jesus did love her, though not in an earthly sense. He knows about our former lovers, our deepest mistakes, and he doesn’t care. He is not in love with our past, but our present. He does not care about where we’ve been, but where we are going. The religious leaders of Jesus’ day were much like many religious people today. They cannot get over a person’s past. If a person had committed adultery, or been divorced, or once used drugs, then fat chance getting their acceptance! In some cases, even if your parents were sinners, they don’t like you. Some writers have suggested that Jesus’ statement was a kind of rebuke. He was pointing out her six lovers because he wanted her to know he disapproved. It was just the opposite. This was no rebuke. It was a release.. Then the conversation takes another strange term. All of a sudden, this woman wants to kow about theology—verses :20-24 Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem." Jesus declared, "Believe me, woman, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth." The oddest thing about this discussion is that they are having it at all. Why is she of all people interested in theological matters? It tells us a little about her background. At one time, she studied about God. But time had stripped God away from her. Being abused by men, she came to believe that God was also an abuser. Her curiosity about Him ended. But deep down, she still craved to be close to God. People are born with an interested in their creator. Sin and the abuse of this world takes it out. Just like people are born with appetite, but the emotional trauma of the world can make us into anorexics, we are born with a hunger for God, but abusive religious people kill our appetite for Him. So what’s her theological question? Can I worship God on this mountain? You Jews claim I’m in the wrong place. Will he meet me where I am, on this mountain, or do I have to go to Jerusalem to speak to him? It doesn’t matter what ground we stand upon, where life has taken us, we an always worship Him. If we stop looking at our surroundings and start looking at our loving and accepting God, we can have hope. It doesn’t matter where you are now in live. It only matters where you want to be. Do you want to worship God in spirit and in truth? Then you can. Now, lets look at one more thing Jesus tells in verses 25-26 The woman said, "I know that Messiah" (called Christ) "is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us." Then Jesus declared, "I who speak to you am he." What does “messiah” mean? We always think of it as “king” or Lord. But the concept of a king is to distant to adequately explain what Jesus is. A woman in those days called her husband “lord” as well. So Messiah, Christ, Jesus was saying he wasn’t her lover in a physical sense, but he was her Lord. He was her husband. He would te the ont to protect, her comfort her, guide her, as a husband loves and protects his wife. He wa not only her lord, of course. He was the lord of the whole world. But for her personally, he would be her husband—her seventh and final lover. God did not send Jesus in the world to judge you or condemn you. He sent Him to love you, save you, lead you. He sent him to be your Lord and savior. Will you accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior? He is the only lover who will never let you down.

Whose the Leader?

Remember the old game “Simon says”? Everyone plays it as children, but few play it later. You can tell the moment we go from playing Simon Says and not playing it. It’s the moment we start asking, “Who is Simon, and why should we do what he says?” As children, we are taught to respect authority. Then we discover it can be dangerous to blindly follow someone who sounds authoritarian.. Sounding right doesn’t make you right, and whenever somebody says “trust me.” we have every right to be suspicious. People had this same suspicion of Jesus. He claimed he was the Son of God. So how could Jesus claim this and expect people to believe Him? Today, the rest of the world is asking this about us. The scientific world questions our faith. They live by a creed that says nothing is true unless it can be quantified and tested. Scientists believe there is no truth without science to back it up. Politicians define truth by polls. If the majority believes it, it must be true. Lawyers define it by legality. If something is not written, then it cannot be true. Religious leaders define truth by creeds and confessions. The Reformation broke away from the Catholic church by denying the authority of a thousand years of papal pronouncement. Then there’s tradition--if we heard it as a kid, it must be true. The final answer to every argument is “That’s not the way I learned it.” Against so many different authorities, Jesus asserts His authority. He claims to be above all human authority and cannot be proven by any of them. Instead, He asks you to accept on faith--the most fragile of all proofs--and let him prove Himself.. The Gospel of John is full of places where Jesus asserts his authority. But the longest and boldest passage is John 8:12-59. where Jesus argues with the Pharisees When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, ‘I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life." The Pharisees challenged him, "Here you are, appearing as your own witness; your testimony is not valid." Jesus boldly asserts that He is the light of the world, and the giver of eternal life. The Pharisees went by the Law which said. “By the witness of two or three people is a testimony to be confirmed.” You cannot be his own character witness. Where are the other witness? Can Jesus call up even one other witness, to say that He is the light of the world? Therefore, His testimony is not valid. From a human standpoint, it makes sense. The skeptics make this same point today. Where is the hard evidence, the scientific proof that Jesus is the Messiah? By scientific evidence, they mean evidence that can be quantified and measured by scientific standards. Where’s the cross? Where’s the empty tomb? Where are the photographs? of Jesus coming out of the tomb? Jesus offers no such proof. Instead, he makes another kind of appeal—to God Himself! Vs. 14-18 "Even if I testify on my own behalf, my testimony is valid, for I know where I came from and where I am going. But you have no idea where I come from or where I am going. You judge by human standards; I pass judgment on no one. But if I do judge, my decisions are right, because I am not alone. I stand with the Father, who sent me. In your own Law it is written that the testimony of two men is valid. I am one who testifies for myself. My other witness is the Father, who sent me." Jesus has no proof by human standards, but that does not mean what He says is untrue. Jesus’ greatest evidence of his divinity is the cross and empty tomb, and they haven’t happened yet. Sometimes, evidence is not available. Times like that require faith. Philosopher Immanuel Kant wrote a book called The Critique of Pure Reason. Using rigorous standards He proved there is very little we can know. By pure reason we cannot know whether or not there is a God, whether morality exists, or even whether we exist. Then he wrote another book called The Crifizue of Practical reason where he proved we cannot function purely on reason. Judging the methods what we use every day, he showed that God exists, morality exists, God exists, and we exist.. We cannot prove by pure reason that the Jesus is God. But then we can’t prove a great many things. We believe because it is the only practical thing to believe. Can we prove love exists, or beauty? It is not logical to fight a war, but if we don’t fight to defend ourselves, we will all die. What I cannot prove I take on faith. The irony is that the religious leaders who were arguing with him also wanted to be taken on faith. They wanted people to believe in their version of Judaism. When two people who must be taken by faith square off against each other, then the contest between them is a little like playing poke. Which one do we believe has the real goods? Jesus continued upped the ante, in vs. 19-20 Then they asked him, "Where is your father?" "You do not know me or my Father," Jesus replied. "If you knew me, you would know my Father also." . . . Faith is a form of madness. It asks us to take leave of our senses, and embrace the irrational over the rational. In fact, the only thing madder than having faith is not having faith. If we do only what is certain, we will make no progress. Madness is doing the same thing over and over, in spite of getting no results. Like washing out hands to remove guilt, and getting no relief. The Pharisees had been saying to the people for years they should have faith in the law, yet it produced no happiness or joy. When we live without faith, we continually seek for relief from despair, but get none. There is a way to find eternal life, but it requires more than knowledge. It requires faith in Jesus. He is the only basis for a life that makes sense. What would an airplane trip be without faith? If we didn’t think the plane would make it, would we ever get on board? Why would we buy anything on e-bay or from a catalogue without hope? If we didn’t think we would get the product, would we pay the money? There is no rational basis for believing, yet we believe. So it is with God. We need faith to reach out to Him and faith to continue with Him. Faith may sometimes fly in the face of reason,. But without faith, there is no hope of rewards. In the face of justifiable skepticism, Jesus says “trust me. And trust My Father also” St. Augustine once said that we do not understand in order to believe. We believe in order to understand. Without belief ad trust, there an be no understanding. Jesus is playing poker with the Pharisees. He is not showing them his cards, but he ups the ante again in vs 23-28. Is he bluffing? "You are from below; I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world. . . . if you do not believe that I am [the one I claim to be], you will indeed die in your sins." "Who are you?" they asked. "Just what I have been claiming all along,". . . "When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am [the one I claim to be] and that I do nothing on my own but speak just what the Father has taught me.” Instead of backing down and trying to prove, Jesus made larger claims. Now he says that if they do not believe, they will die in their sins. Furthermore, he claims, that when they lift Him up, they will know he is right. They had no idea what He was talking about, but he was talking about the cross and His resurrection. There is a story about a philosopher who once appeared before the emperor Napoleon. He claimed to have invented a new religious that could become the basis for Napoleon’s new empire. Napoleon smiled and him and said that it sounded good. In order to get the religion started he would order his guards to take him out and shoot him. When he rose from the dead, his new religion should begin. On the cross, Jesus will show whose bluffing. The resurrection of Jesus is the only proof that made sense to prove He was of God. In verses 30-46 Jesus calls the Pharisees bluff. Even as he spoke, many put their faith in him. To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, "If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free." They answered him, "We are Abraham's descendants and have never been slaves of anyone. How can you say that we shall be set free?" . . . "We are not illegitimate children," they protested. "The only Father we have is God himself." The authority of the Pharisees was based on the premise that they were the true followers of Abraham. But Jesus tells them they are doing what Abraham did, so how can they be followers of Abraham, Their real “father” or rabbi is Satan, who they follow truly. But if they follow Him, they will be set free by the truth He teaches. The Pharisees answer with sputtering and inconclusive argument. In verse 48, "Aren't we right in saying that you are a Samaritan and demon-possessed?" Jesus just continues to raise the stakes in verses 49-51 "I am not possessed by a demon," said Jesus, "but I honor my Father and you dishonor me. I am not seeking glory for myself; but there is one who seeks it, and he is the judge. I tell you the truth, if anyone keeps my word, he will never see death." “Now we know that you are demon-possessed!” The Pharisees sputtered in verse “Abraham died and so did the prophets, yet you say that if anyone keeps your word, he will never taste death. Are you greater than our father Abraham?. . . Who do you think you are?" Jesus replied in verse 56 “Your father Abraham rejoiced at the thought of seeing my day; he saw it and was glad." The Pharisees answered in vs. 57"You are not yet fifty years old, and you have seen Abraham!" 58 "I tell you the truth," Jesus answered, "before Abraham was born, I am!" Jesus lays his cards out on the table. I Am is the literal translation of YAHWEH, the name of God. Jesus claims to be God. How can Jesus prove that? He can’t by words. He can only prove it by actions. How can we prove this to the world. We can’t. But by believing, He can prove it. When we treat Jesus as if He were God, and honor Him as God, then he an prove that he is God. The cross is one way he proved that. Today He continues to prove He is god by every answered prayer, every miracle, every gift of strength and endurance. What is the greatest witness to Jesus we can give to this world. We witness by words, to be sure. But there is no reason for a person who is one of us already to believe our words. We must witness by deeds of strength, love, and power. It is in the doing that Jesus proves Himself, not in the saying. Do you believe Jesus is God? Then treat Him as if He were God. Obey Him. Honor him. Praise him. An most of all follow him. When we follow the leader, other will want to follow

How can the Old be Born Again?

It’s time we faced facts--our church is aging. We are not alone in this. Many congregations are aging, too. What will it take to rejuvenate our church? In order to rejuvenate our church, we have to first rejuvenate ourselves. Unless we change, the church will not. It isn’t the young people we don’t have. it’s the age of the people we have that is the problem. Jesus said in John 10:10, “I have come that we might have life, and have it more abundantly.” Jesus came to extend our lives. He did not come, just to take us to heaven, but to extend our lives on earth, not just in length, but in quality. He came to grant us eternal life which springs like living water from an ever youthful Spirit. John 3 tells us how we get that eternal life, and how we can come rejuvenated—through Jesus. John 3 begins with Nicodemus paying a call on Jesus. That was probably not his real name. Nicodemus means “ruler of the people.” Nicodemus was a code name, to protect his status on the Sanhedrin. There are two interesting things about the way Nicodemus approaches Jesus. First, he comes by night, for fear of being seen. Nicodemus was impressed with Jesus, but not enough to risk his status by letting the gossips see him come. Though he was cautious, he could not deny Jesus’ power. He said to Jesus, “We know you came from God.” He did not say “I”. He said we. Who is the “we?” The Sanhedrin, or at least a part of it. There were many highly placed men who knew that Jesus could not do what he did unless he was from God. Where were the others? They were playing it safe. They were not going to risk their positions, even for the revealed and manifested Son of God. Notice also that Nicodemus never actually came out and said what he wanted. He was being cautious. He had learned from a lifetime of experience to be careful what he said. Jesus does not wait for Nicodemus to beat around the bush. Instead, he framed Nicodemus’ question. Jesus was in charge of this conversation and there was something he wanted to say. “Truly, I say to you, you cannot enter the Kingdom of Heaven unless youa are born again.” Born again! No passage in all the Scriptures so defines out belief as that simple phrase. Even so it is well to remember that Jesus said it only to once, and Paul never said it at all. It was something Jesus said in the context of a particular conversation. This statement is really a set-up. Jesus is waiting for Nicodemus to ask the next question. So in the next verse, verse 3, Nicodemus asks “How can a man be born again when he is old?” We cannot overestimate the importance of this question, for Nicodemus and for us. He is not asking it literally, Nicodemus was smart enough to realize that Jesus was not talking about physical birth. He really means, how can we start over ehwn we are old? How can we reboot our lives? As a church, we ask that question. We’ve seen out church turn gray, and yearned for youth. We’ve seen So many we love pass on. We’ve seen so many young people pass through. We wonder how much longer we can continue. We must be reborn as a church or face institutional extinction. How can a church be born again? If you could go back in time, and you could live in any age of your life, where would you live? Childhood, perhaps? Your twenties, or your thirties? It seems that many of us spend our lives trying to get back to some golden age. The same is true for churches. We remember a time when the halls were full of young people, and the sanctuary was filled, and we say “Why can’t we be like that now?” But we can’t go back to then. Times have irreparably changed. Just as we can’t go back to our childhood, we can’t go back to some previous time when we were strong and youthful. But Jesus doesn’t say we should go back in time. He says we need to be born again. He is not talking about regenerating our old life, but starting a new life. So it is with the church. We have no business trying to recapture the past, when he wants us to receive a new future. We must be regenerated, not restored. We cannot pour old wine into new wineskins, neither can we just repeat what worked in the past and expect to get the same results. So how can we be born again, when we are old? Jesus answers that two ways:. First, New birth is a function of the Holy Spirit. He says this in verses 5-6 5 Jesus answered, "I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. 6 Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. There are three kinds of age—physical age, psychological age, and spiritual age. Physical age is the age of our bodies. Clearly we cannot be born again physically. We just have one physical body. When it wears out, we can’t trade it in on a new one. Psychological age is the age of our minds. Our minds are the product of our times and upbringing. Our tastes were formed in our youth and rarely change throughout life. That is why generations differ in their music, humor, and taste. These are not easily changed, if at all. Our physical ages and psychological ages vary from person to person, even of the same age. They are not changeable, because they are the product of time. Our spiritual ages, however, is different. Our spirits may be young and new, even turned back to the beginning. But what about spiritual age? Ask yourselves these questions. Ø Are you stuck in the past? Do we spend our time reliving days gone by? Ø Are you curious? Is there anything we are trying to learn, master, or understanding? Ø Are you spending more time in grief or hope? Jesus is not just talking about the human spirit, of course. He is talking about the Holy Spirit. But the Holy Spirit connects with the human spirit. He does not say, keep your spirits young, but have your spirits reborn. The Spirit is the only part of us that can be reborn without experiencing death. Unless we face the future with hope and expectation, the Spirit cannot lead us. “The wind blows where it will,” Jesus said, “So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.” In our youth, we look forward to the unknown with hope. We revel in the idea that the Spirit can blow us anywhere. In age, we like safety, regularity, and caution. We like coming to church and seeing the bulletin, and knowing that things are going to happen I a certain order every week. But when we allow the Holy Spirit to blow through us, regularity goes out the window. We cannot predict what He will do in us. It is a joyful mystery. We cannot be born again until we first yield to the Holy Spirit, and let Him lead us forward. But the Spirit of itself does not cause us to be born again. We need something else, too—Jesus. 9 "How can this be?" Nicodemus asked. 10 "You are Israel's teacher," said Jesus, "and do you not understand these things? 11 I tell you the truth, we speak of what we know, and we testify to what we have seen, but still you people do not accept our testimony. 12 I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things? 13 No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven — the Son of Man. 14 Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, 15 that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life. 16 "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. Now, Jesus brings up one more aspect of being born again—eternal life. Most of us think we’ve got eternal life figured out. We live, die, and go to heaven. So we think eternal life is just going to heaven. But eternal life does not wait for death. It is the rebirth of the Spirit. It is not just an extension of this life. It is a life of a different quality, running concurrently with the remains or our earthly life. It begins when we surrender our past to Jesus. Most of us love this life as we have known it. We loved our childhood. We loved the way we looked when we were young. We love our family and our friends. So when we think of eternal life, we basically think it’s going to be like this one, only forever. We get to heaven, and our family and friends are there. Our bodies are back the way we were. We get a house like the old homestead, etc. But we have it backwards. Eternal life is not an extension of this life. When we are born again, eternal life begins then. What we see of it in this life is a foreshadowing of a greater blessing before us. It is not a time of continuing, but beginning. Part of the problem with our view of eternal life is that whatever happened that was bad in our life gets carried over too. We say, “how can this be heaven if my life heer is so miserable? How can I go to heaven if I lived such a miserable life before> You can’t. But then, you can’t take the good things of your life to heaven, either. It is the beginning of something much, much greater than that. So how does eternal life begin? It begins with repentance. Repentance is to stop clinging to the sins or the guilt of the past. It is to recognize we have been on the wrong course. It continues with forgiveness. Forgiveness is necessary for us to break loose of our old life and start anew. The blood of Jesus cleanses us not just from our sins, but from our past as well. We begin a new life in Him. Baptism symbolizes this, being washed from the dust. It continues by trusting him. This is what Jesus was saying to Nicodemus. Be born again in Jesus. Begin a new life as a new disciple. The reason we feel old when we have already trusted Jesus is because everything we have received from him is old news. Sometimes God upsets our lives, so that we can receive something new. Herman Melville’s novel Moby Dick begins with these words. “Call me Ishmael. Some years ago -. . . I thought I would sail about a little and see the watery part of the world. . . . Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth; whenever it is a damp, drizzly November in my soul; whenever I find myself involuntarily pausing before coffin warehouses, and bringing up the rear of every funeral I meet; and especially (when) it requires a strong moral principle to prevent me from deliberately stepping into the street, and methodically knocking people's hats off - then, I account it high time to get to sea as soon as I can.” Ishmael is describing the universal antidote for aging—begin in a new direction. When our faith in Christ is weak, when our life in Him seems dull, when God is a distant star instead of a burning, inner flame, it is time for us to be born again, to start the adventure all over. It is time for us to go down to the cross, which is the port of our souls, from which we launch into the adventure of the Spirit. God loves you. He offered Jesus for your sins. When we trust in him, we begin this new kind of life—this eternal life in him. We have a life that lasts forever, and following him is living as if we have a life that lasts forever, not the old worn-out life of he body, but the ever-changing and ever renewing life of the Spirit

The Boys from Fish Town

Once upon a time in a town called Bethsaida, there were two brothers—Jonas and Zebedee. They were fishermen. The name Bethsaida means ‘place of fish” and it can refer either to a particular town or a part of a town where the fishermen live. There were more than one place called “fish town.” This was probably the one connected with Capernaum, the largest town on the Jewish side of the Galilean lake. These two men owned together a fishing business. Their business employed about a dozen men. They each had a boat/ Each boat was crewed by a half dozen men, though they could double that number when they needed to. They may have had more, but those two boats were the only ones we know about. They fished for three kinds of fish. The most important were tilapia, a fish resembling a crappie. They also fished for sardines and for the sturgeon. They would catch tilapia by spreading nets on the top of the water in a u-shaped pattern. As one boat did this, the other boat would locate school of fish and beat on the water, to scare the fish into the waiting nets. Then, they would take the fish over to Magdala, keep them in salt-water pits until ready for shipment to Jerusalem. Then they would take their fish to Jerusalem and sell them there. It had been going on that way for hundreds of years. The father passed the business on to his sons. That’s how Simon and Jonas got their boats. That’s how their children got them, too. The two brothers had four sons between them---Simon and Andrews, son of Jonas, and John and James, son of Zebedee. They eventually inherited the fishing business from their fathers. They had a crew of about a dozen. We know some of their names—Phillip, and possibly Nathaniel, Thomas, and Judas. Simon was the leader, and they all did fairly well. That is, until something happened that almost ruined the business. Two of the cousins—Andrew and John, the youngest, heard John the Baptist preach. They left their nets and followed him. This led Simon and James short-handed, which they probably resented greatly. Still, they continued catching fish while John and Andrew followed John the Baptist along the southern shored of the Jordan. One day, John the Baptist called James and Andrew to his side. “See that man?” He said. “That’s the Lamb of God. He’s going to take away the sins of the world. He’s much greater than I. Go follow him.” John and James were puzzled. Why would John call him a Lamb? Lambs went to the slaughter house or the shearing house. If you followed him, you would wind up dead or fleeced. But they obeyed their master, and followed. Jesus turned out to be nothing like they expected. He was strong, earthy—in every way a leader. They were very impressed, and decided to stay with him. They also decided their brothers had to meet him. Simon could not have been happy that they followed John the Baptist, especially when the fish were running. So John and Andrew decided to let Jesus handle Simon. When Jesus met Simon, he handled it beautifully. Simon was in Judea, probably selling fish. “You are Simon, son of Jonas. From now on you will be called Peter. Follow me!” Jesus did not ask Simon to be his disciple--he commanded. At first, Simon did not obey. It was not until later that he followed. Jesus was a lion with Simon. So why did they call him a lamb? With Jesus’ oversight and command, Andrew set out to dismantle their old fishing crew. First, he found Philip and introduced him to Jesus. Then Philip found Nathaniel, who was surely the most cynical and skeptical of the bunch, outside of Simon himself. Philip said. “We have found the Messiah—Jesus of Nazareth.” Nathaniel’s comment was, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” This would have put off anyone else—but not Jesus! He said, “Here’s a guy who will not stand for anything false!” “How do you know me?” Nathaniel said. “I saw you sitting under the fig tree before Philip called you. You will see he heavens open, and the angels ascending and descending on the Son of man.” A bold statement! Once again, Jesus was a lion. So why did they call him a lamb? So, here’s what we’ve seen about Jesus. We saw Him shut up Simon. He was the only person who could make Simon run. He saw their future and their past. Cynical men, straightforward working-class good old boys were right at home with this man. He arms like tree branches, and legs like trunks He was a natural leader, confident and strong, and with superpowers. So why did they call him a lamb? People see in Jesus what they want to see. Usually Jesus comes out looking like the culture that imagines Him, with all their strengths and failing. But in truth, it did not matter who Jesus was, so much as what He did. It was his function in the world, not his personality, who made Jesus important to us. “Lamb” is what He did, not who He was. He came to take the place of the sacrificial lamb of the Passover. Once a year in the temple Jerusalem, the high priest would take a lamb and butcher him on the altar. I know it sounds barbarous, but is was no more barbarous than butchering a cow or dressing a deer. Before he butchered it, the priest would lay his hand on the lamb and pronounce the sins of the people. In the slaying of that lamb, the sins of the people were wiped out. That’s what the Lamb of God was. He was the recipient for our sins. He was the one who died to pay for our sins. Jesus was a big, powerful guy, but that did not matter. Jesus said many wise things, but that did not matter. Jesus performed many miracles, but they did not matter, either. Neither his wisdom nor his power made Jesus important to us today. It was what he did that made him important. He was our lamb who took away the sins of the world. Jesus picked his first disciples mostly from the same fishing crew. Peter eventually followed, and so did James. He also picked up some other unlikely disciples. Matthew, Peter’s tax collector (how Peter must have hated him!) Matthew brought his nephew—another James. There was Simon the Zealot. He was a terrorist, who belonged to a sect which killed tax collectors. Then there was Judas Iscariot. Judas, like Simon may have been a zealot, or he may have been from a priestly family from Jerusalem. Whoever he was, he did not belong in the group. But Jesus wanted him here. We have to be impressed by how ordinary these men were. They were nothing really. But what was important was who they became. They became Jesus’ disciples. They followed the Lamb of God—in most cases to their own slaughter. Then they were not just fishermen They were martyrs, apostles, saints, not for who the were, but for wht they did in following Jesus. Who we were before makes no difference—only what they became. This motley group was held together by the force of Jesus’ personality. They became saints and apostles because of what Jesus did for them. He became the lamb for God for them, who took away their sins. Are we any different from these men? Is Jesus any different for us? Jesus may or may not do miracles in your life. He may heal your diseases. He may or may not give you prosperity and riches. But one thing he is for you—the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. He is the sacrifice that transforms us. The power of God can redeem any man through the sacrifice of the man. Jesus can take a sow’s ear and make it into a silk purse. He can take a group of beer swilling, country music listening, cussing and fighting good ole’ boys who inhabited fish town and change them into saints and apostles. He can change you. He can blot out the sins of terrorist and greedy capitalists; he can blot out your sins as well. Jesus calls us today to follow Him. But why we follow is just as important as that we follow Him. If we think we are going to follow him to victory and prosperity, forget it. It’s just proof that we don’t understand. Him. If we follow because we are afraid of him, we don’t understand Him either. But if we follow Him because He is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, and that through Him we have eternal life, then we might have a real reason to make Him our LordJesus is not just the Lamb. He’s our Lamb. He’s not just the Lord, He’s our Lord. Down through the ages, the call goes out, to follow Him to the ends of the earth.