All posts by Bruce Henry

Faith, Gospel Centrality

“What must we do, to be doing the works of God?” Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.”” (John 6:28–29 ESV)

Aside

“Do not labor for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For on him God the Father has set his seal.” Then they said to him, “What must we do, to be doing the works of God?” Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.”” (John 6:27–29 ESV)

Aside, Theological

But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.” (John 1:12–13 ESV)

Aside

“But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.” (John 1:12–13 ESV)

Gospel Centrality, Growth/Pursuit

Jesus is after our Joy

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 Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. If anyone serves me, he must follow me; and where I am, there will my servant be also. If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him.” (John 12:24–26 ESV)

This is a difficult saying for us to hear in modern America.  We don’t like anything that sounds like sacrifice, giving up or dying.  We have heard this passage preached and read through it, but somehow have a difficult time filing it so we tend to do our best to forget about it.  This passage is in the same vein as what Luke records in 14:26-27:  “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.”  Why would Jesus say such a thing?  Why all this talk about death, dying, and hating.  We know that hating is a Semitic term to love less, but what is Jesus getting at?  Yes, we must deny, follow, love everything less than Christ and be willing to give it all for Him and His kingdom.  The question is, “Why?”  Is it just our duty?  Is it just what is required?  Is it because Jesus does not want us to enjoy anything in this life?  No!  It is because Jesus is after our greatest joy.  He is calling us to exchange that which is fleeting and temporal for that which is ultimate, eternal joy.

This may be a new concept to many of us, but God is not out to stifle our affections and suppress our feelings, but is rather after our greatest joy.  The problem is that when Adam & Eve sinned (Genesis 3), everything that was good and perfect in Eden was fractured and now true joy evades us.  We now prefer to worship created things more than the Creator (Romans 1:23-24) of all good things.  This is the root of sin, we prefer that which is created over the Creator.  This idolatry of the soul is so pervasive that it is the controlling influence in all of our lives.  We make things, even good things (like family, marriage, children), ultimate things; we make good things, god things.  But nothing in creation is designed to hold the weight of our worship except for God himself.  That weight will crush those good things because they were not designed to hold it.

So when Jesus tells us that we must lose our life to gain real life and hate everything else in comparison to Him, it is because He is after our joy.  You will never have joy when your spouse, children, job, success, image or _________ is that which you look to to provide ultimate meaning, value and significance.  These things will fail you, they weren’t designed to hold the weight of your worship; when these things are our idols, we corrupt them and strain them to the point of breaking.  The ironic thing is that we cannot fully enjoy the good gifts of God (like marriage, children, success or a good name) until we loosen our death grip that we have on them.  Until they are no longer ultimate things, joy will evade us.  Therefore, this saying of our Savior is good, not harsh.  He came to redeem and restore, He is restoring all things and is making all things new (Revelation 21-22, Isaiah 65:17).  We all rejoice in something; these sayings of Jesus are aimed at redeeming our rejoicing.  They are aimed at restoring a proper order in things.  Jesus “came that they may have life and have it abundantly” (John 10:10 ESV).  “Jesus calls his followers, not to a dour, lifeless, miserable existence that squashes human potential, but to a rich, full, joyful life, one overflowing with meaningful activities under the personal favor and blessing of God and in continual fellowship with his people.” (ESV Study Bible comment on John 10:10).  Only the one who walks in this truth is free to enjoy God and His gifts.

Growth/Pursuit

Jesus Loved Mary, Martha & Lazarus so He Stayed Two Days Longer

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“This illness does not lead to death. It is for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.
Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. So, when he heard that Lazarus was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was.” (John 11:4–6 ESV)

Wow!  Jesus said the illness would not lead to death, but Lazarus died.  Jesus knew that God was going to use the physical death of Lazarus to bring Himself more glory by raising him from the dead.  The interesting thing is that verse 6 tells us that he loved Mary, Martha and Lazarus so he decided to stay where he was for two additional days.  What?  If you love me, come and deliver me!  If you love me, spare me from this pain!  If you love me, help me now!  Jesus loved them, so He let Lazarus die and let Mary and Martha grieve and mourn?  Yes.  This is hard for our western minds to comprehend!  Then He says, ““Lazarus has died, and for your sake I am glad that I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.”” (John 11:14–15 ESV).  Jesus knew that allowing Mary, Martha and the disciples to go through such heart wrenching pain would lead them to a deeper and more abiding truth.  Deeper faith that leads to joy is in focus here, not their immediate comfort.  Suffering has a way of moving us in to closer proximity to Jesus because it causes us to depend upon Him more; it often times reveals our complete lack of control over our lives and world.  Martha, Ms. Type “A”, meets Jesus before He even made it into town and said “if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you.” (John 11:21–22 ESV)  She has real faith as she proclaims “Yes, Lord; I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world.” (John 11:27 ESV).
In one of the most encouraging passages in the New Testament, we see Jesus “deeply moved in his spirit and greatly troubled,” (John 11:33), weeping (verse 35) and again in verse 38 He is described as being “deeply moved.”  He felt deeply and strongly.  Jesus mourns over the pain and difficulty of loss of His friend and for Mary and Martha.  This passage is encouraging because He did not tell them to “have faith,” “suck it up,” “stop crying,” or “just trust.”  No, he entered in and wept with them.  What a great pattern for us to model when we are engaging others in deep despair.  Sometimes, we just need to weep with those who weep (Romans 12:15).  Undoubtedly, Jesus was thinking “this is not how I created things to be; death and the separation and grief that it causes was not part of the design!”  Lazarus’ died because sin entered the world and the harmonious rhythm of the perfect paradise of Eden was fractured (Genesis 3).  God’s original design was broken and we now are forced to mourn deeply because of this fracture, because of sin.  But, Jesus came to destroy death (1 Corinthians 15:23-28), “wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away,” (Revelation 21:4) and “make all things new” (Revelation 21:5).  No more pain, no more brokenness, no more agony.  Jesus came to remake the perfect paradise of Eden.  There is coming a day when this world, and all of its brokeness will pass away.  Suffering helps us to recalibrate our heart’s affections and the object of our hope!