"On New Year's Resolutions: A Change Of Heart"
Sermon Transcript for February 1, 2004
Scripture Reading: John 5:30-47
By Rev. Dan Sinkhorn
We have reached the third and final part of the sermon series that began where we were looking at God’s Word for us about our New Year’s resolutions. Now I don’t know about you, but I feel like I’ve come to the end of the journey here. We traveled all over Scripture and seen throughout time God’s consistency. God’s consistent desire to change us into the people that He designed us to be which no doubt you’ve figured out far exceeds your own expectations.
We learned last week as we looked at “The Heart of the Matter” that one of the reasons we have trouble fulfilling the things that we want to, the resolutions that we make, is because we have a tendency to take the things that make us feel better, our cures and our fixes, and uplift them and worship them as false gods. Just as we heard the Israelites did with that snake on a pole. We’ve probably come to realize then, in our daily meditations, that our bad habits just might be signs that we have not yet surrendered our will to the will of our Lord, Jesus, the Son of God. We’ve probably figured out that Jesus is everything that He said He was. That Jesus in fact fulfilled the old covenant even as Jesus ushers in a new covenant. Everything we’ve learned so far is summed up quite succinctly by Jesus. So I want to share these words with you from Jesus found in the Gospel of John, Chapter 5. And this is Jesus speaking to the Pharisees. But if you are like me, you’ve probably come to realize that there is a little Pharisee in all of us. And maybe there is a word or two in here for us. Jesus says:
“If I were simply speaking on my own account, it would be empty, self-serving witness. But an independent witness confirms me, the most reliable Witness of all.” (By the way, in my translation that Witness word is written with a capitol “W” which, in case you are wondering, means he’s probably talking about God himself.) “Furthermore, you all saw and heard John (the Baptist); and he gave expert and reliable testimony about me, didn’t he?
But my purpose is not to get your vote, and not to appeal to mere human testimony. I’m speaking to you this way so that you will be saved. John was a torch, blazing and bright, and you were glad enough to dance for an hour or so in his bright light. But the witness that really confirms me far exceeds John’s witness. It’s the work the Father gave me to complete. These very tasks, as I go about completing them, confirm that the Father, in fact, sent me. The Father who sent me, confirmed me. And you missed it. You never heard his voice; you never saw his appearance. There is nothing left in your memory of his Message because you do not take his Messenger seriously.
You have your heads in your Bibles constantly because you think you’ll find eternal life there. But you miss the forest for the trees. These Scriptures are all about me! And here I am, standing right before you, and you aren’t willing to receive from me the life you say you want.
I’m not interested in crowd approval. And do you know why? Because I know you and your crowds. I know that love, especially God’s love, is not on your working agenda. I came with the authority of my Father, and you either dismiss me or avoid me. If another came, acting self-important, you would welcome him with open arms. How do you expect to get anywhere with God when you spend all your time jockeying for position with each other, ranking your rivals and ignoring God?
But don’t think I’m going to accuse you before my Father. Moses, in whom you put so much stock, is your accuser. If you believed, really believed, what Moses said, you would believe me. He wrote of me. If you won’t take seriously what he wrote, how can I expect you to take seriously what I speak?” John 5:30-47 (MsgB)
Now remember, Jesus was speaking to the Pharisees. And do you know what the Pharisees’ problem was in a nutshell? They had turned church in to a false God. The temple, the torah, the word of God, the symbols and signs, the structure of all of their religion had become their God! The danger that Jesus pointed out to them was that once again a snake had raised up on a pole; and they had turned the signs and symbols of God’s presence into a god. So Jesus reminds them, “You must always hear the words of the messenger. You must always remember who sends these signs and these words.”
And so after fulfilling the promise that Moses had led the people to, Jesus imparted on people the power of the Holy Spirit for that very reason. So that we could understand the source of all of these signs, the source of our healing and our comfort. Do you understand that Moses thought he was leading people to a Promised Land, but it didn’t take long over a period of years for people to realize that the promise wasn’t about a place; it wasn’t about things? It was about a personal relationship with God. And it still is. That this personal relationship with God occurs when we engage God and take Him at His word through Jesus. And then the spirit of God comes in us and suddenly things begin to make sense.
Now in the old days before Jesus came and died and rose again, the Spirit was only given to certain people for certain occasions to accomplish a certain purpose. That was even true, for a little while, during Jesus’ life as people like Mary, John the Baptist, Elizabeth, and Zechariah were touched for a time by the Spirit. But after Jesus rose again, He let His Apostles know that because they had seen the truth and believed the truth, He now would impart on them that Spirit. And the Spirit would be available to all who followed.
The Holy Spirit is the source of our power to achieve and overcome. You can’t really resolve to do anything unless you are willing to embrace the power of the Holy Spirit to accomplish it. The Spirit is the source of the life-changing word of God. We believe that the Bible, from which we base so much of what we say, is the spirit-driven word of God. We believe, I hope, that as we come together and worship and sing hymns and pray together and preach the word of God, that it is the Holy Spirit of God that is guiding and directing what we hear.
Jesus is the key to receiving that Spirit. In John, Chapter 3, Jesus says this, “I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to Spirit. You should not be surprised at my saying to you”… (by the way, in the Greek it sounds like he’s southern because it says ‘you all’). He says, “You should not be surprised at my saying to you all that you must be born again.” John 3:5-7 (NIV)
Jesus says that flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. No one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. Now this is a very controversial phrase and the source of a lot of suffering in the history of the church. But being a little reckless, I’m going to take it on anyway because I believe that I understand what Jesus might be trying to say here. I think it’s really very simple. And I get my confidence from the writings of the church fathers. You know, those people who were the earliest scholars and interpreters of the teachings of Jesus and the purpose of the church. And they gave us some insights into the significance of water and God’s design and plan for things. We have some of those words right in front of us in those hymnals that you have in your pew there. In our baptismal liturgy that we have in our hymnal, there are words in there that come all the way from the church fathers hundreds and hundreds of years ago that remind us that God puts great significance on water.
And it even says very specifically in our liturgy, the waters of a mother’s womb are the first place where water becomes a part of our life. Now I will argue that Jesus is saying something very simple here. Jesus is saying, “In order to enter the kingdom of God, first you have to be born.” Literally born of the waters in the mother’s womb. I remember, you know I’ve been through five pregnancies with my wife, great adventures, all of them. The one thing I always knew was when the waters came it was time to get to the hospital. And I’ll say no more about that. I just want you to know though that that is a very basic understanding that humans have known throughout all time. When you are born first, it is from the mother’s womb.
I think that is all Jesus is saying. And so flesh gives birth to flesh. But in order to be born of the Spirit, in order to be born again, then you have to let the Spirit give birth to your Spirit. We are born again in the Spirit when we accept Jesus as our Savior, our Lord. We are like the Apostles on that first time they saw Jesus after he arose again from the grave. Suddenly they got it. Suddenly they realized that everything that Jesus had said about Himself was true. They finally surrendered their will to the will of Jesus and said, “It’s true. It’s irresistibly, undeniably true. Jesus is alive! He is the Son of God. He is the answer to all of our prayers. Jesus is the source of all forgiveness.” And when they accepted that, Jesus breathed on them and said, “Now receive the Holy Spirit.” And in the same way, when we accept the truth, when we realize irresistibly that Jesus is everything Jesus claims to be, that the truth is true, then suddenly we are available and Jesus can breathe that same Holy Spirit on us. And that is when we are born again of the Spirit. And it is that Holy Spirit, that third person of the Trinity, who is our power to overcome. It is the Holy Spirit that causes the change of heart that we seek and desire so much. When we are born again of the Spirit, we are sons and daughters of God. Do you understand that when you are born you are the son or daughter of your parents? Born of the waters, you become a son or daughter of the parents of the water. When you are born again of the Spirit, you become a son or daughter of God.
In the Gospel of John it says, “Yet to all who received Him” (and of course, he’s referring to Jesus), “to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God.” John 1:12 (NIV) The Apostle Paul in that wonderful, marvelous book of Romans, Chapter 8 sums it up so beautifully by saying that “those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive a Spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, ‘Abba, Father’.” (And when he says ‘Abba’ that’s the Aramaic way of saying ‘daddy’. You are invited to call God, ‘Daddy’.) “The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in His sufferings in order that we may also share in His glory.”
Now understand who Paul is and who he is writing to in the passage you just heard. He is a Roman citizen writing to other Roman citizens and he says, “You are not slaves any more when you are born of the Spirit. You are sons and daughters. You are adopted.” You know, much of our legal system can claim its root all the way back from Roman and Greek and Jewish law. And so the reasoning and logic in the book of Romans is good today, too. Paul is saying, “Once you’ve been adopted into the family of God, you are entitled to all benefits. It cannot be reversed when you are a co-heir with Christ. As son or daughter of God, you are entitled to all of the benefits.”
And chief among them are the benefits that come from what I call the family likeness. When you become part of the family of God, you begin to take on the family likeness because the Spirit is in you. You know, I saw “Good Morning America” the other day. They had a bunch of people in there with their pets and they were showing how people and their pets look alike. I’ve heard that men and women who have been married for long period of years begin to look alike. I’m worried about my dear wife, Laura. But it is true that when we have an intimate relationship with someone long enough, we begin to take on each other’s characteristics. We begin to look alike and present ourselves alike. And it is the same way when we are adopted in to the family of God. When we receive the Holy Spirit, then the Spirit of God begins to transform us. Do you remember from last week in Galatians, Paul gave you some examples of the fruit of the Spirit. “The spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control.” You want to know whether you are taking on the family likeness? See if these things are happening in your life. See what other people see when they look at you.
You begin to take on the moral likeness of Christ as well. In the 2nd Letter to Corinthians, Chapter 3, it says: “Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into His likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.” 2 Cor. 3:17-18 (NIV) You know, I think Paul is referring to a couple of well-known instances in the Bible here because he says…, I think first of all he’s touching on what happened in Exodus, Chapter 34, where Moses has been up on the mountaintop with God for a long period of time. And when Moses came down from the mountain, he radiated with the glory of God. He’d been in the presence of God so much, he started to radiate with God’s glory. And the people were so awkward and uncomfortable with it; they made him wear a veil. They covered Moses’ face because he glowed too much with the radiance of God’s glory. And then Paul is referring to the transfiguration of Jesus where the Apostles, a few have been taken up to a mountaintop. And they have seen Jesus in all His glory. They have seen the radiant glory of God shining brightly so much so that they can’t look upon it. I think Paul might even be referring to the veil that separated ordinary people from the presence of God in the center of the Temple of worship. Because the Bible tells us a little later that that temple is torn in two so that there is nothing separating us from God any more. Our sin is what has separated us from God. Our tendency to want to do things our own way and turn from God, that’s really the essence of sin that separated us from God. And for our own sake, we couldn’t stand being in God’s presence or we might not survive. But because of Jesus, the veil is torn away and we can stand in the presence of the Holy God forgiven sinners, reconciled and redeemed sinners, and live to tell about it.
Could it be that there are those of us who have received the Spirit of God but have bailed ourselves because we are a little embarrassed or uncomfortable with the radiance that comes from within? I’ll talk more about that in a second. So how can you be filled with the Holy Spirit? Well, here are some suggestions.
Submission: Number one in all things related to our God. You must believe what you have heard about God, about God’s abiding presence, about God’s deep passion for you, about God’s willingness to sacrifice part of Himself, His own son Jesus, as an offering for our new life, our restoration, our eternal salvation. And then you must submit to your own intellect; you must surrender your own intellect. You must be willing to take a leap of faith. You know, I think this is the hardest thing for most modern, western people--that leap of faith! Define what seems logical and reasonable, and just stepping out in faith, just doing something that doesn’t make sense once, just to test to see what happens.
You see, when God made us he made us in his own image. And one of those benefits and problems that come with being made like God is that it is up to us. We have to choose. We have to make the first move. You can set up the chessboard with God, but God will not make the first move. You must make the first move. And that is a leap of faith. When you say, “Lord, I will step out in faith even though I’m not sure I understand how it works. I will believe that you are three persons in one. I will believe that you care deeply about humanity and that there is a purpose and plan in it all. I will believe that you sent your only son to die on the cross to pay the debt for my sins. I will believe that you rose again from the grave. I will believe that you ascended into heaven and there you wait to complete the plan. I’ll believe it even though I’m not sure I understand it. I’ll make the first move.”
You take that leap of faith and then you’ll find as I have found that more experience makes for more faith. And more and more as life goes on you begin to step out in faith. I’ll tell you a little secret. Five or six years ago I don’t think I would have dared go on a trip to Israel. But now, because of experience, I feel confident after praying, after seeking God’s will, after trusting the prayer and counsel of other experienced Christians, I’m going. And that faith was born out of experience. Many, many years ago I took that leap of faith and since then it’s just been one faith building experience after another. And so there are no doubt some here who need to take the leap of faith. Begin now, even today!
Pray: The next thing you have to do is pray. And begin with a prayer of repentance. Honestly ask God to forgive you and know that He will. Honestly admit that even as you reconcile with the truth about Jesus, you have to reconcile with the truth about yourself. We are sinners and that’s why Jesus came in order to break that barrier between sinners and God. And then you have to receive that forgiveness. And that’s always a hard thing for us to do. How many times have we apologized to someone for something we did wrong and then beat ourselves up continually for days, months, even years because we weren’t willing to forgive ourselves. If you repent before God, know that you are forgiven and then believe it! And accept that forgiveness. And then as you close your prayer, ask God to transform you so that your own transfiguration begins. So that in time you radiate with the glow that is the Spirit of God within you. Because once you have made that decision, once you have accepted Christ as your Savior and Lord, once you have accepted the truth of what you’ve been taught, what you have witnessed, you will be filled with that Holy Spirit.
What if I have already done these things? This is what I will say in conclusion. Then you need to ask the Lord to increase your faith. But be careful because faith comes with experience and so God will give you faith-building experiences when you pray for that. It’s not so bad once you get the hang of it. In fact, it’s kind of an adventure really. Then, in the second chapter of Acts, a large number of people received the Holy Spirit. It was said that they had something like “tongues of fire” on their head. Well, I’m not sure what to make of that. I wouldn’t recommend that you light your head on fire. But we get this sense that there is a fire burning. When I think of a “tongue of fire” I think of a pilot light on my water heater, on the stove. When you receive the Holy Spirit, that’s how it is you know? When you’ve accepted Christ, you get that pilot light lit. You get the little “tongue of fire”. Well, for those who have received that gift, then the next thing that has to happen is that you ask God to help you turn up the fire. Turn up the fire, take off the veil, and let the spirit of God glow in all his glory from within you. And don’t be embarrassed and don’t be ashamed. Be a light into the world.
And my last piece of advise for all, for myself, is wait. If you think about it, the last three sermons, no matter whether we were talking about the Book of Genesis or whether we were talking about the Book of Corinthians and John and the end of the Bible, Revelation, it didn’t matter where we ended up. We always concluded with this one important reminder. You’ve got to wait. You have to be willing to wait. You pray these prayers, you ask for these disciplines to be fulfilled through you, and then you wait. And boy I tell you that’s a hard thing for us to do in this world isn’t it? When everything comes so fast, so instantly. But God’s timing is not like ours, thank God for that! And so be willing to wait. Realize that it may be some day down the road you look back over your years and your journeys and you realize how far you’ve really come. You just have to be willing to wait.
Let’s pray, “God, today I hope and pray with all my heart that there are those who have suddenly realized that everything You’ve said about Yourself is true and they want to embrace that. They are irresistibly drawn to embracing that. Lord, help them to do so now. God, we pray that for those of us who have accepted that gift of salvation, who have accepted Your Lordship and received the tongue of fire that is Your spirit in us, that You will help us to turn up the flame and to radiate with Your glory so that others will be drawn to You and so that Your name will be praised throughout the land. Oh God, we give You ourselves. Help us to surrender our will; help us to submit to Your truth. Burn on our hearts now everything that has been from You and discard the rest so that we are sent forth praising Your name and glorifying all that You are. Amen.”
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