My Go-To Resources  These are just some of the resources that have been helpful to me in my walk through spiritual abuse, and I hope that they help you too.
A Church Called Tov by Scot McKnight and Lauren Barringer A good study on the concept of the Hebrew word, tov and how it relates to a church's culture. Very insightful as we plant currently. We Too by Mary DeMuth Still reading this, but so many insights into the sexual abuse ripping through the evangelical church today. Boundaries by Henry Cloud and John Townsend Classic work on creating boundaries in your life so you can live with space. Safe People by Henry Cloud and John Townsend Not sure you're in a healthy relationship? Cloud and Townsend walk through what makes a safe person versus an unsafe person in relationships. When Narcissism Comes to Church by Chuck DeGroat This one blew my doors off. It was like he had seen the abuse I had at church but wasn't actually there. There's a lot to unpack, not just about narcissism, how narcissists infiltrate the church and wreak havoc upon the sheep. Bully Pulpit by Michael Kruger From a more pastoral perspective, and geared toward fellow pastors, this book seeks to counteract the pastors who use bullying tactics to as a way of controlling the church. Very insightful. In the same vein as a A Church Called Tov, this book gives guidance to see what a bully pastor looks like and encourages bullies to repent. Jesus and John Wayne by Kristen Kobes du Mez More on the political side, but still timely. Du Mez walks through the history of evangelicalism and politics. Sometimes heavy handed, but overall an enlightening look on why we've so conflated evangelicalism and politics in the current world we live in. Definitely gives some vocabulary for the misuse of power and control in the current day. Redeeming Power by Diane Langberg Another fascinating and enlightening read, by a pioneer in understanding the dynamics of power and abuse. Anything Dr. Langberg writes is golden and well worth it. This book in particular unpacks the proper use and misuse of power in the church and how we can understand our own power in how to fix it. In The House of Friends by Kenneth Garrett A succinct book on how the church should be. Garrett answers that question, "What about an organization that is doctrinally orthodox, but acts like a cult?" See my review here. Something's Not Right by Wade Mullen This was the first book that I read that gave me vocabulary for what had happened and what was (unbeknownst to me at the time) was happening right then. This book opened my eyes to the tactics abusers use individually as well as corporately. A timely read, don't think it's less than because it's on the bottom of the stack. Becoming Free Indeed by Jinger Dugger Vuolo A survivor story of someone (like me) in the IBLP homeschooling cult, her unpacking of so many of the things that Gothard taught wrongly is well worth the read. Worthy by Elyse Kitzpatrick and Eric Schumacher This book looks at the crucial role women played in the story of redemption and throughout the history of the church. A great read, and Fitzpatrick and Schumacher also host a podcast that is really good. The Lord is my Courage by K J Ramsey An exposition of Psalm 23 and how it speaks to the sufferer. This Too Shall Last by K J Ramsey What happens when the suffering doesn't stop? Both of the books by Ramsey are insightful from someone who has been (and still is) in the trenches of abuse and suffering. The Kingdom of the Cults by Walter Martin The granddaddy of them all, even though I would agree with Garrett that we can know cults not only by their unorthodox teachings, but also by how they treat people. Martin's book goes a long way to describe specific doctrinal issues with cults (at least in the 70's). Good resource. Other helpful resources not pictured: Domestic Violence and Abuse by Jeff Crippen I haven't finished listening to this series, but this is a really good one, showing the relationship between abuse (specifically domestic abuse) and sin. Mary DeMuth's website has meditations and exposition on sin and abuse in the church. I truly hope that these resources are helpful and a blessing. My Amazon Affiliate account expired, so I don't get anything out of it if you click a link. O Lord, you are the ruler of the universe,
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Book Review: In the House of Friends: Understanding and Healing from Spiritual Abuse in Christian Churches by Kenneth Garrett
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Is the church safe? If it isn’t, what would make church safe? Kenneth Garrett seeks to answer those questions in his book, In the House of Friends: Understanding and Healing from Spiritual Abuse in Christian Churches.
Garret describes through a conversation that just because a church is doctrinally orthodox in its stated beliefs, that it cannot also be a cult, or in Garret’s terminology, an abusive church. The term “cult” can and has been overused in modern society to (rightly) describe a wide variety of heretical and oppressive organizations. In his definition of a cult/abusive church, Garret writes, “[Cult] is powerful but poorly defined, and, in the minds of many, never to be suggested of a Christian church.”[1] A cult has historically been defined as an organization or a group that does not hold to an historical and biblical understanding of the person and work of Jesus Christ. Garrett pushes the definitional boundaries to include organizations and groups that sounds great from a doctrinal perspective, but inwardly devour the weak sheep in their midst.
Garrett continues by describing five instances of spiritual abuse recorded in Scripture: Hophni and Phineas in 1 Samuel 3; David in 2 Samuel 11; Yahweh condemning corrupt Israelite leadership in Ezekiel 34; Jesus condemning the scribes and Pharisees in Matthew 23; and the Apostle Paul and his writings in the Pastoral Epistles to Timothy and Titus.
When reading the above accounts in light of the concept of spiritual abuse (taking advantage of another individual or group under the guise of spiritual authority), one can immediately see how this problem of spiritual abuse in the Christian context is not a new phenomenon. In fact, one being taken advantage of another for their own twisted, evil ends goes as far back as the serpent’s temptation of Adam and Eve in Eden.
Garrett describes “the most powerful tool of the spiritual abuser—a tool that becomes a weapon used against the members of his church: his speech.”[2] Garrett writes, “We are often fixated on the horrible things we hear of religious phonies doing…however, not every type of spiritual abuser misbehaves or indulges in the more sensual types of sin. Some lead very disciplined, outwardly moral lives while they rule over those who follow them with an iron fist.”[3] For abuse to happen, there must be a power differential between the abuser and the abused, and abuse generally comes from a pastor or someone else in spiritual authority in the church. Garrett lists out “three solid indicators of predatory pastors: their mindset, their speech, and their extraction of material, physical, and spiritual resources from those who follow them.”[4]
OK, so now what? How does one heal from a traumatic spiritual experience? Garrett writes, “I believe recovery from spiritual abuse—and all of its torturous subcategories of abuse, is more an issue of choosing what to undo than it is trying to figure out what to do.”[5] Garrett offers three helpful actions to aid the healing process: “empathetic friends, kindness to self, and exploration of solid, fact-based teaching on spiritual abuse—are three powerful resources that can start the healing process within hours of your leaving the abusive church.”[6] For this reviewer, all three of those steps have been a source of grace and peace from God. It can feel a bit obsessive to always have spiritual abuse on the brain, but knowing what spiritual abuse is and giving oneself grace in a community of understanding friendship is healing.
For churches that desire to be refugee camps for those leaving abusive churches, Garrett offers some advice for ministering to survivors. “Survivors of abusive churches and pastors struggle with overwhelming, gnawing feelings of isolation, loneliness, insecurity, lack of confidence, embarrassment, indecisiveness, and a host of other emotional maladies.”[7] Survivors of spiritual abuse have crises of faith, wounded souls, marriage and parenting wounds, all of which make a maelstrom of doubt and despair that can make it easy to ignore the wounded. One of the more controversial points, but in the opinion of this reviewer correct, that Garrett makes is as follows:
It is critical that survivors of abusive churches be shown gracious acceptance should they choose to stop
attending church services, refuse to become a member of a church, or stop identifying as Christian. (If that
last point seems excessive, inappropriate, or simply unfaithful, then you may not be grasping the
depth of the pain and loss that those who have been abused in the church have experienced.)[8]
In all of this, God’s grace for the hurting can shine brightly through a loving, accepting church. There will likely be fallout from leaving an abusive church or pastor. It may result in loss of faith altogether, but God’s grace is greater, there is hope for the hurting.
Along the same lines, Garrett writes to pastors who want to be safe, tying safety in a pastor (shepherd) with how well they emulate Jesus as the Great Shepherd.
Most pastors feel they are ill equipped to respond to the needs of the survivors of abusive churches. Aside
from the broad discussion of those religious groups historically deemed cults by orthodox, evangelical
Christianity, seminaries do not provide extensive training in how to address the phenomenon of churches
that abuse their members with a cultish fanaticism and arrogance. But just as the proper care of a
physical wound is necessary for successful healing and recovery, a proper response to the wounds of the
survivors of spiritual abuse have experienced is indispensable.[9]
Garrett calls believers in all walks of life to care for those hurt in the name of Christ. How glorious would it be if those who claimed to follow Christ lived like they believed they were? We have prayed for revival in Western Christianity, maybe the exposure of sin and the opportunity to lament and repent from it are a gift from God.
Overall, In the House of Friends is a helpful and encouraging book for both those who have endured and survived abusive spiritual organizations and those who seek to love and help those survivors. Kenneth Garrett has provided the church a helpful guide for not only escaping abusive churches but also helping those escaping. The book is highly recommended for members who suspect they are in an abusive church, pastors, church members and leaders, and friends and family of abuse survivors.
[1] Kenneth J. Garrett, In the House of Friends: Understanding and Healing from Spiritual Abuse
in Christian Churches, (Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2020), 4.
[2] Garrett, 12.
[3] Ibid., 15.
[4] Ibid., 15.
[5] Ibid., 57.
[6] Ibid., 62.
[7] Ibid., 70.
[8] Ibid., 71.
[9] Ibid., 81.
Garret describes through a conversation that just because a church is doctrinally orthodox in its stated beliefs, that it cannot also be a cult, or in Garret’s terminology, an abusive church. The term “cult” can and has been overused in modern society to (rightly) describe a wide variety of heretical and oppressive organizations. In his definition of a cult/abusive church, Garret writes, “[Cult] is powerful but poorly defined, and, in the minds of many, never to be suggested of a Christian church.”[1] A cult has historically been defined as an organization or a group that does not hold to an historical and biblical understanding of the person and work of Jesus Christ. Garrett pushes the definitional boundaries to include organizations and groups that sounds great from a doctrinal perspective, but inwardly devour the weak sheep in their midst.
Garrett continues by describing five instances of spiritual abuse recorded in Scripture: Hophni and Phineas in 1 Samuel 3; David in 2 Samuel 11; Yahweh condemning corrupt Israelite leadership in Ezekiel 34; Jesus condemning the scribes and Pharisees in Matthew 23; and the Apostle Paul and his writings in the Pastoral Epistles to Timothy and Titus.
When reading the above accounts in light of the concept of spiritual abuse (taking advantage of another individual or group under the guise of spiritual authority), one can immediately see how this problem of spiritual abuse in the Christian context is not a new phenomenon. In fact, one being taken advantage of another for their own twisted, evil ends goes as far back as the serpent’s temptation of Adam and Eve in Eden.
Garrett describes “the most powerful tool of the spiritual abuser—a tool that becomes a weapon used against the members of his church: his speech.”[2] Garrett writes, “We are often fixated on the horrible things we hear of religious phonies doing…however, not every type of spiritual abuser misbehaves or indulges in the more sensual types of sin. Some lead very disciplined, outwardly moral lives while they rule over those who follow them with an iron fist.”[3] For abuse to happen, there must be a power differential between the abuser and the abused, and abuse generally comes from a pastor or someone else in spiritual authority in the church. Garrett lists out “three solid indicators of predatory pastors: their mindset, their speech, and their extraction of material, physical, and spiritual resources from those who follow them.”[4]
OK, so now what? How does one heal from a traumatic spiritual experience? Garrett writes, “I believe recovery from spiritual abuse—and all of its torturous subcategories of abuse, is more an issue of choosing what to undo than it is trying to figure out what to do.”[5] Garrett offers three helpful actions to aid the healing process: “empathetic friends, kindness to self, and exploration of solid, fact-based teaching on spiritual abuse—are three powerful resources that can start the healing process within hours of your leaving the abusive church.”[6] For this reviewer, all three of those steps have been a source of grace and peace from God. It can feel a bit obsessive to always have spiritual abuse on the brain, but knowing what spiritual abuse is and giving oneself grace in a community of understanding friendship is healing.
For churches that desire to be refugee camps for those leaving abusive churches, Garrett offers some advice for ministering to survivors. “Survivors of abusive churches and pastors struggle with overwhelming, gnawing feelings of isolation, loneliness, insecurity, lack of confidence, embarrassment, indecisiveness, and a host of other emotional maladies.”[7] Survivors of spiritual abuse have crises of faith, wounded souls, marriage and parenting wounds, all of which make a maelstrom of doubt and despair that can make it easy to ignore the wounded. One of the more controversial points, but in the opinion of this reviewer correct, that Garrett makes is as follows:
It is critical that survivors of abusive churches be shown gracious acceptance should they choose to stop
attending church services, refuse to become a member of a church, or stop identifying as Christian. (If that
last point seems excessive, inappropriate, or simply unfaithful, then you may not be grasping the
depth of the pain and loss that those who have been abused in the church have experienced.)[8]
In all of this, God’s grace for the hurting can shine brightly through a loving, accepting church. There will likely be fallout from leaving an abusive church or pastor. It may result in loss of faith altogether, but God’s grace is greater, there is hope for the hurting.
Along the same lines, Garrett writes to pastors who want to be safe, tying safety in a pastor (shepherd) with how well they emulate Jesus as the Great Shepherd.
Most pastors feel they are ill equipped to respond to the needs of the survivors of abusive churches. Aside
from the broad discussion of those religious groups historically deemed cults by orthodox, evangelical
Christianity, seminaries do not provide extensive training in how to address the phenomenon of churches
that abuse their members with a cultish fanaticism and arrogance. But just as the proper care of a
physical wound is necessary for successful healing and recovery, a proper response to the wounds of the
survivors of spiritual abuse have experienced is indispensable.[9]
Garrett calls believers in all walks of life to care for those hurt in the name of Christ. How glorious would it be if those who claimed to follow Christ lived like they believed they were? We have prayed for revival in Western Christianity, maybe the exposure of sin and the opportunity to lament and repent from it are a gift from God.
Overall, In the House of Friends is a helpful and encouraging book for both those who have endured and survived abusive spiritual organizations and those who seek to love and help those survivors. Kenneth Garrett has provided the church a helpful guide for not only escaping abusive churches but also helping those escaping. The book is highly recommended for members who suspect they are in an abusive church, pastors, church members and leaders, and friends and family of abuse survivors.
[1] Kenneth J. Garrett, In the House of Friends: Understanding and Healing from Spiritual Abuse
in Christian Churches, (Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2020), 4.
[2] Garrett, 12.
[3] Ibid., 15.
[4] Ibid., 15.
[5] Ibid., 57.
[6] Ibid., 62.
[7] Ibid., 70.
[8] Ibid., 71.
[9] Ibid., 81.
Affiliate disclosure: As an Amazon Associate, we may earn commissions from qualifying purchases on Amazon.com.
Jesus and New Birth
Jesus and New Birth
Andrew Crawford / General Adult
The Gospel of John / John 3:1–21
Introduction: Overview where we’ve come so far in the gospel. Reference John’s purpose of writing the gospel in
John 20:30-31
“Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God and that by believing you may have life in his name.”
Who is Jesus?
ESV
Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.” Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.
John the apostle crafts his gospel in such a way that Jesus alludes back to the Prologue in
John 1:12-13
ESV
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.
Already, John the Apostle has a theme that salvation is not just for one ethnicity, but it’s for the whole world.
First, Nicodemus asks Jesus a question, by way of a statement. He’s saying the Pharisees at least are confused about who he is. Is he the Messiah? He’s doing signs that the Messiah should do, but he’s also not a military leader/king who is overthrowing the Roman occupation.
Nicodemus says “we”, not a royal “we”, not an editorial “we”, likely either a group within the Sanhedrin who were at least open to Jesus being a legitimate prophet/rabbi, or a group of Nicodemus-like people who were more moderate in their views of Jesus’ claims and ministry
Nicodemus may not be upset that Jesus drove out a lot of the riff-raff from the temple courts, the temple was the domain of the Sadducees, and as a Pharisee, Nicodemus probably was ok with a little cage-rattling.
The words unless he is born again could be understood in the sense of being born from above, or of drawing attention to the birth’s spiritual character. Nicodemus clearly understood them in the first sense and rejected the possibility of a second birth. But Jesus meant them in the second sense, i.e. a totally different kind of birth. Many of the early fathers understood the statement to refer to baptism in the light of v 5, but the most natural understanding is of spiritual regeneration.
Guthrie, Donald. 1994. “John.” In New Bible Commentary: 21st Century Edition, edited by D. A. Carson, R. T. France, J. A. Motyer, and G. J. Wenham, 4th ed., 1031. Leicester, England; Downers Grove, IL: Inter-Varsity Press.
How does one enter the kingdom of God?
ESV
Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”
Nicodemus assumes that entering the kingdom involves him being and doing something. He gets hung up on what he has to do to be born again.
According to the Mishnah Sanhedrin 10.1, the common belief of the days was that all Israelites would take part in future glory except for the apostate and overtly sinful. (Kostenberger, 122)
Some versions put a note that the pronoun “you” here and in several places in this passage is plural. That could be that Jesus and Nicodemus are not alone, they have brought some followers and it’s a nighttime theology party. Or, is Jesus speaking to Nicodemus as a representative of the Jewish leaders as a whole? Or Jesus is talking to Nicodemus as a representative of each of us as we come to Jesus?
I would say it’s some of each. Jesus does call each of us to be born again. How? By faith in the work of God the Holy Spirit, not because of something that we have done, are, or are doing.
What is New Birth?
ESV
Nicodemus said to him, “How can these things be?” Jesus answered him, “Are you the teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things? Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know, and bear witness to what we have seen, but you do not receive our testimony. If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things? No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.”
Ultimately, Nicodemus assumes that because he’s ethnically pure and a keeper of the law, he’s going to make it into the kingdom of God. Jesus turns that assumption on its head. True life comes via new birth, and new birth comes not because a person wants it, works really hard to get it, is tied to physical birth, but because the Spirit moves in their heart.
ESV
I will take you from the nations and gather you from all the countries and bring you into your own land. I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.
Nicodemus is contrasted with the Samaritan woman in chapter 4 in just about every category.
Leon Morris writes,
“It is part of John’s aim to show that Jesus showed forth His glory not in spite of His earthly humiliations, but precisely by means of those humiliations. Supremely, this is the case with the cross. To the outward eye this was the uttermost in degradation, the death of a felon. To the eye of faith is was (and is) the supreme glory.” (Morris, 226)
Belief in the name of Jesus. v. 18 contra 2:23 - Jesus is talking about something different from the belief in the name of the Son from belief in the Son along with the signs (i.e. wine at Cana and cleansing the temple)
There is some debate, but because Nicodemus doesn’t make a faith statement and John just lets him fall off the narrative until after Christ’s crucifixion, it doesn’t appear that Nicodemus believed in Jesus, ergo he didn’t have regeneration or the new birth.
Like the story of the rich young ruler when Jesus exposes his idol of power and possessions, Nicodemus doesn’t turn and follow Jesus.
Great comfort in witnessing, in that Jesus himself is preaching the gospel to Nicodemus, and Nicodemus’s heart isn’t changed.
Andrew Crawford / General Adult
The Gospel of John / John 3:1–21
Introduction: Overview where we’ve come so far in the gospel. Reference John’s purpose of writing the gospel in
John 20:30-31
“Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God and that by believing you may have life in his name.”
Who is Jesus?
ESV
Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.” Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.
John the apostle crafts his gospel in such a way that Jesus alludes back to the Prologue in
John 1:12-13
ESV
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.
Already, John the Apostle has a theme that salvation is not just for one ethnicity, but it’s for the whole world.
First, Nicodemus asks Jesus a question, by way of a statement. He’s saying the Pharisees at least are confused about who he is. Is he the Messiah? He’s doing signs that the Messiah should do, but he’s also not a military leader/king who is overthrowing the Roman occupation.
Nicodemus says “we”, not a royal “we”, not an editorial “we”, likely either a group within the Sanhedrin who were at least open to Jesus being a legitimate prophet/rabbi, or a group of Nicodemus-like people who were more moderate in their views of Jesus’ claims and ministry
Nicodemus may not be upset that Jesus drove out a lot of the riff-raff from the temple courts, the temple was the domain of the Sadducees, and as a Pharisee, Nicodemus probably was ok with a little cage-rattling.
The words unless he is born again could be understood in the sense of being born from above, or of drawing attention to the birth’s spiritual character. Nicodemus clearly understood them in the first sense and rejected the possibility of a second birth. But Jesus meant them in the second sense, i.e. a totally different kind of birth. Many of the early fathers understood the statement to refer to baptism in the light of v 5, but the most natural understanding is of spiritual regeneration.
Guthrie, Donald. 1994. “John.” In New Bible Commentary: 21st Century Edition, edited by D. A. Carson, R. T. France, J. A. Motyer, and G. J. Wenham, 4th ed., 1031. Leicester, England; Downers Grove, IL: Inter-Varsity Press.
How does one enter the kingdom of God?
ESV
Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”
Nicodemus assumes that entering the kingdom involves him being and doing something. He gets hung up on what he has to do to be born again.
According to the Mishnah Sanhedrin 10.1, the common belief of the days was that all Israelites would take part in future glory except for the apostate and overtly sinful. (Kostenberger, 122)
Some versions put a note that the pronoun “you” here and in several places in this passage is plural. That could be that Jesus and Nicodemus are not alone, they have brought some followers and it’s a nighttime theology party. Or, is Jesus speaking to Nicodemus as a representative of the Jewish leaders as a whole? Or Jesus is talking to Nicodemus as a representative of each of us as we come to Jesus?
I would say it’s some of each. Jesus does call each of us to be born again. How? By faith in the work of God the Holy Spirit, not because of something that we have done, are, or are doing.
What is New Birth?
ESV
Nicodemus said to him, “How can these things be?” Jesus answered him, “Are you the teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things? Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know, and bear witness to what we have seen, but you do not receive our testimony. If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things? No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.”
Ultimately, Nicodemus assumes that because he’s ethnically pure and a keeper of the law, he’s going to make it into the kingdom of God. Jesus turns that assumption on its head. True life comes via new birth, and new birth comes not because a person wants it, works really hard to get it, is tied to physical birth, but because the Spirit moves in their heart.
ESV
I will take you from the nations and gather you from all the countries and bring you into your own land. I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.
Nicodemus is contrasted with the Samaritan woman in chapter 4 in just about every category.
Leon Morris writes,
“It is part of John’s aim to show that Jesus showed forth His glory not in spite of His earthly humiliations, but precisely by means of those humiliations. Supremely, this is the case with the cross. To the outward eye this was the uttermost in degradation, the death of a felon. To the eye of faith is was (and is) the supreme glory.” (Morris, 226)
Belief in the name of Jesus. v. 18 contra 2:23 - Jesus is talking about something different from the belief in the name of the Son from belief in the Son along with the signs (i.e. wine at Cana and cleansing the temple)
There is some debate, but because Nicodemus doesn’t make a faith statement and John just lets him fall off the narrative until after Christ’s crucifixion, it doesn’t appear that Nicodemus believed in Jesus, ergo he didn’t have regeneration or the new birth.
Like the story of the rich young ruler when Jesus exposes his idol of power and possessions, Nicodemus doesn’t turn and follow Jesus.
Great comfort in witnessing, in that Jesus himself is preaching the gospel to Nicodemus, and Nicodemus’s heart isn’t changed.
- Have you been born again?
- Do you respect Jesus as a moral teacher, but don’t follow him as a disciple?
- Are you resisting the work of the Holy Spirit in your life?
- What are you placing your trust in?
- How do we encourage each other in our walks with Jesus?
Jesus Calling His Disciples
Jesus calling his disciples
Andrew Crawford / General Adult
The Gospel of John / John 1:37–51
Disciples follow Jesus
Following the Lamb of God
Two Disciples Follow
ESV
The next day again John was standing with two of his disciples, and he looked at Jesus as he walked by and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God!” The two disciples heard him say this, and they followed Jesus. Jesus turned and saw them following and said to them, “What are you seeking?” And they said to him, “Rabbi” (which means Teacher), “where are you staying?” He said to them, “Come and you will see.” So they came and saw where he was staying, and they stayed with him that day, for it was about the tenth hour. One of the two who heard John speak and followed Jesus was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother. He first found his own brother Simon and said to him, “We have found the Messiah” (which means Christ). He brought him to Jesus. Jesus looked at him and said, “You are Simon the son of John. You shall be called Cephas” (which means Peter).
Day schedule. John the Apostle is setting up a week of Jesus’ early ministry. If Day 0 is the day Jesus is declared to be the “Lamb of God” by John the Baptist in 1:29, John says the same thing the next day in 1:36. Keep that in mind, as we move forward in the text, John is specific about what day he’s on.
John the Baptist points out Jesus and says, “Behold the Lamb of God!
Two of John’s Disciples leave him to follow Jesus
Andrew and an unnamed disciple leave John and follow Jesus. One is unnamed, likely the Apostle John. John is cagey when referring to himself. If the unnamed disciple is John, then he’s an eyewitness from the very beginning.
Matthew’s calling was a bit later
Mark’s likely writing his gospel based on the memories and preaching of Peter
Luke tells us he’s not an eyewitness, but wrote his gospel using eyewitness testimony
John is the one gospel writer that was with Jesus from the very beginning of his ministry
Read
1 John 1:1-4
ESV
That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life— the life was made manifest, and we have seen it, and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was made manifest to us— that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. And we are writing these things so that our joy may be complete.
Remember if you will, the purpose behind the Gospel of John. John wants you to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, that he is the Son of God, and that you may have eternal life by believing in him.
Read purpose statement of the Gospel of John,
John 20:30-31
ESV
Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.
Jesus turns around and sees Andrew and the other disciple following. A bit of an odd question, “What are you seeking?”
Rabbi = Teacher. This is the first of three Hebrew or Aramaic terms that John translates for his readers. Indicating that his audience is not in Judea.
Where are you staying? - A bit of an odd question to our ears. In that day, disciples of a teacher of many kinds would live with their teacher. The on-campus life that is the modern university grows out of concepts like these.
Discipleship implies community with the one making disciples.
They ask where Jesus is staying. Greek, meno. Same word is used in
John 15:4
ESV
Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me.
in the NT, and specifically the gospel of John, meno has theological connotations.
Are you abiding in Christ? How can you make disciples unless you’re abiding in Christ?
For the disciples, abiding looked like literally living with Jesus. How does that look for us today?
<<If Jesus and the disciples lived like this, self-denial, generosity, love for one another, how much more should we live like that?>>
Jesus invites them into his life. “Come and you will see”
Map of Galilee
Andrew finds Peter
Andrew went and “found” Peter. Andrew’s first reaction is to go find his brother Peter and declare the gospel to him. Looking at the map, assuming Bethany beyond the Jordan is where it’s marked out, Peter and Andrew are likely together. Andrew wouldn’t have time to run to Bethsaida and back to drag Peter there at 4PM.
Andrew declares that Jesus is the Messiah
Messiah = Christ. Both the Hebrew and the Greek mean the same thing - anointed one. This transliteration only appears in the NT here and the Samaritan woman in
John 4
.
Jesus Renames Simon
Jesus meets and renames Simon - Renaming happens sometimes in the Bible when God is going to use the person to advance his purposes. Abram to Abraham, Jacob to Israel. Not always of course, there are plenty of times that God uses people in special ways and doesn’t change their name.
Jesus looks at Peter and then speaks
Cephas = Peter. Both Cephas and Peter mean rock in Aramaic and Greek, respectively, see ESV note on v. 42.
Jesus goes to Galilee
ESV
The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, “Follow me.” Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. Philip found Nathanael and said to him, “We have found him of whom Moses in the Law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.” Nathanael said to him, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Philip said to him, “Come and see.” Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him and said of him, “Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no deceit!” Nathanael said to him, “How do you know me?” Jesus answered him, “Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you.” Nathanael answered him, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!” Jesus answered him, “Because I said to you, ‘I saw you under the fig tree,’ do you believe? You will see greater things than these.” And he said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.”
Jesus found Philip - Now the tables are turned. In the previous passage, disciples were seeking Jesus, now Jesus is hunting Philip down.
Philip “found” Nathanael.
Where Andrew uses the shorthand “we have found the Messiah”, and Philip expounds upon that.
John 1:45
ESV
Philip found Nathanael and said to him, “We have found him of whom Moses in the Law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.”
Nathanael scoffs, “can anything good come out of Nazareth?”
Philip doesn’t even engage him on that level, his only response is “Come and see.”
Jesus “saw” Nathanael before he was physically in front of him when he was hanging out under a fig tree.
Jesus calls Nathanael
Are you impressed by my skills of supernatural sight? Just wait, there’s so much more
Jesus is declaring that he is a “New Bethel” Bethel as was where Jacob had a dream when he was fleeing Esau in
Genesis 28
. He has a dream of a ladder reaching to heaven with angels ascending and descending on it. He sets up an altar and declares the place “Bethel” or “House of God.”
Jesus is a better “House of God”
The
Questions
Andrew Crawford / General Adult
The Gospel of John / John 1:37–51
Disciples follow Jesus
Following the Lamb of God
Two Disciples Follow
ESV
The next day again John was standing with two of his disciples, and he looked at Jesus as he walked by and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God!” The two disciples heard him say this, and they followed Jesus. Jesus turned and saw them following and said to them, “What are you seeking?” And they said to him, “Rabbi” (which means Teacher), “where are you staying?” He said to them, “Come and you will see.” So they came and saw where he was staying, and they stayed with him that day, for it was about the tenth hour. One of the two who heard John speak and followed Jesus was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother. He first found his own brother Simon and said to him, “We have found the Messiah” (which means Christ). He brought him to Jesus. Jesus looked at him and said, “You are Simon the son of John. You shall be called Cephas” (which means Peter).
Day schedule. John the Apostle is setting up a week of Jesus’ early ministry. If Day 0 is the day Jesus is declared to be the “Lamb of God” by John the Baptist in 1:29, John says the same thing the next day in 1:36. Keep that in mind, as we move forward in the text, John is specific about what day he’s on.
John the Baptist points out Jesus and says, “Behold the Lamb of God!
Two of John’s Disciples leave him to follow Jesus
Andrew and an unnamed disciple leave John and follow Jesus. One is unnamed, likely the Apostle John. John is cagey when referring to himself. If the unnamed disciple is John, then he’s an eyewitness from the very beginning.
Matthew’s calling was a bit later
Mark’s likely writing his gospel based on the memories and preaching of Peter
Luke tells us he’s not an eyewitness, but wrote his gospel using eyewitness testimony
John is the one gospel writer that was with Jesus from the very beginning of his ministry
Read
1 John 1:1-4
ESV
That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life— the life was made manifest, and we have seen it, and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was made manifest to us— that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. And we are writing these things so that our joy may be complete.
Remember if you will, the purpose behind the Gospel of John. John wants you to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, that he is the Son of God, and that you may have eternal life by believing in him.
Read purpose statement of the Gospel of John,
John 20:30-31
ESV
Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.
Jesus turns around and sees Andrew and the other disciple following. A bit of an odd question, “What are you seeking?”
Rabbi = Teacher. This is the first of three Hebrew or Aramaic terms that John translates for his readers. Indicating that his audience is not in Judea.
Where are you staying? - A bit of an odd question to our ears. In that day, disciples of a teacher of many kinds would live with their teacher. The on-campus life that is the modern university grows out of concepts like these.
Discipleship implies community with the one making disciples.
They ask where Jesus is staying. Greek, meno. Same word is used in
John 15:4
ESV
Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me.
in the NT, and specifically the gospel of John, meno has theological connotations.
Are you abiding in Christ? How can you make disciples unless you’re abiding in Christ?
For the disciples, abiding looked like literally living with Jesus. How does that look for us today?
<<If Jesus and the disciples lived like this, self-denial, generosity, love for one another, how much more should we live like that?>>
Jesus invites them into his life. “Come and you will see”
Map of Galilee
Andrew finds Peter
Andrew went and “found” Peter. Andrew’s first reaction is to go find his brother Peter and declare the gospel to him. Looking at the map, assuming Bethany beyond the Jordan is where it’s marked out, Peter and Andrew are likely together. Andrew wouldn’t have time to run to Bethsaida and back to drag Peter there at 4PM.
Andrew declares that Jesus is the Messiah
Messiah = Christ. Both the Hebrew and the Greek mean the same thing - anointed one. This transliteration only appears in the NT here and the Samaritan woman in
John 4
.
Jesus Renames Simon
Jesus meets and renames Simon - Renaming happens sometimes in the Bible when God is going to use the person to advance his purposes. Abram to Abraham, Jacob to Israel. Not always of course, there are plenty of times that God uses people in special ways and doesn’t change their name.
Jesus looks at Peter and then speaks
Cephas = Peter. Both Cephas and Peter mean rock in Aramaic and Greek, respectively, see ESV note on v. 42.
Jesus goes to Galilee
ESV
The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, “Follow me.” Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. Philip found Nathanael and said to him, “We have found him of whom Moses in the Law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.” Nathanael said to him, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Philip said to him, “Come and see.” Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him and said of him, “Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no deceit!” Nathanael said to him, “How do you know me?” Jesus answered him, “Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you.” Nathanael answered him, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!” Jesus answered him, “Because I said to you, ‘I saw you under the fig tree,’ do you believe? You will see greater things than these.” And he said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.”
Jesus found Philip - Now the tables are turned. In the previous passage, disciples were seeking Jesus, now Jesus is hunting Philip down.
Philip “found” Nathanael.
Where Andrew uses the shorthand “we have found the Messiah”, and Philip expounds upon that.
John 1:45
ESV
Philip found Nathanael and said to him, “We have found him of whom Moses in the Law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.”
Nathanael scoffs, “can anything good come out of Nazareth?”
Philip doesn’t even engage him on that level, his only response is “Come and see.”
Jesus “saw” Nathanael before he was physically in front of him when he was hanging out under a fig tree.
Jesus calls Nathanael
Are you impressed by my skills of supernatural sight? Just wait, there’s so much more
Jesus is declaring that he is a “New Bethel” Bethel as was where Jacob had a dream when he was fleeing Esau in
Genesis 28
. He has a dream of a ladder reaching to heaven with angels ascending and descending on it. He sets up an altar and declares the place “Bethel” or “House of God.”
Jesus is a better “House of God”
The
Questions
- Are you following Jesus? Do you have a relationship with him?
- How are you leading people to Jesus?
- What does it mean to be a disciple?
True Light and New Birth
True Light and New Birth
Andrew Crawford / General Adult
The Gospel of John / John 1:6–13
The True Light has come into the world
Background
For the last two weeks, we’ve been studying the Gospel of John. John is writing to all people as evidenced by
John 20:31
“but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.”
John the Apostle starts out by describing the Word of God who is somehow also with God, and also is God at the same time. Jesus is this Word, he created everything, He gives both life and new life, and as we’ll see in the coming weeks, he became flesh and came to earth.
John the Baptist (vv 6-8)
John the Baptist’s Mission (vv 6-7)
John was sent by God to prepare the way for Jesus.
John 1:19-23
“And this is the testimony of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, “Who are you?” He confessed, and did not deny, but confessed, “I am not the Christ.” And they asked him, “What then? Are you Elijah?” He said, “I am not.” “Are you the Prophet?” And he answered, “No.” So they said to him, “Who are you? We need to give an answer to those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?” He said, “I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord,’ as the prophet Isaiah said.””
Mark 1:1-3
“The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. As it is written in Isaiah the prophet, “Behold, I send my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way, the voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight,’ ”” One commonality of all 4 Gospels is the ministry of John the Baptist. He’s integral to the rest of the NT because he is a tie between the OT and the NT. He’s like an OT prophet in that he calls people to repentance and reminds them of God’s judgment, but he’s also a bit different in that he points to the Messiah right there! The OT prophets also pointed to the Messiah, but never a complete picture.
It’s not that John the Baptist woke up one morning and decided to proclaim the Messiah’s advent, he was commissioned specifically by God to go before Jesus as a herald.
John the Apostle often uses foreshadowing in his writing. Foreshadowing in literature is when an author gives a hint of something that they pick up on later and explain more fully. In this section John the Apostle introduces John the Baptist and hints at his mission and message and then jumps back to Jesus being the Light. We can see even in this section, how John introduces the light, jumps over to John the Baptist, and then returns to light, expounding more fully that the light is Jesus.
Why was John the Apostle being so clear about who John the Baptist was not?
It may be that some of the original readers of this gospel were putting too much emphasis on the importance of John the Baptist (cf.
Acts 19:3–4
) and that John was aiming to rectify any misunderstandings at the outset (cf. also vs 15, 26–27).
Guthrie, Donald. 1994. “John.” In New Bible Commentary: 21st Century Edition, edited by D. A. Carson, R. T. France, J. A. Motyer, and G. J. Wenham, 4th ed., 1026. Leicester, England; Downers Grove, IL: Inter-Varsity Press.
John the Baptist came to bear witness so that all might referred to Jesus as the Messiah and went to believe through him. As we’ll see in the next section, not everyone believed, so was John’s mission a failure? No! John the Baptist faithfully pointed to Jesus as the Messiah and he went great lengths to differentiate himself from “the one greater than he” — Jesus.
John the Baptist’s Message (vv 7-8)
John’s message was calling people to repent from their sin and prepare their hearts for the coming of the Messiah.
Matthew 3:7-12
“But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father,’ for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham. Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. “I baptize you with water for repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.””
John the Baptist pointed to the Messiah (vv 8)
As we will see in the coming weeks, John was very careful to not claim to be the Messiah or even claim to be anything close to the Messiah. He’s a signpost, that’s it. If I’m driving on the road, and the sign says, Dallas to the left, I don’t stop at the signpost and think I’m in Dallas. I may have quite a distance to go still.
The Light has come (vv 9-13)
Jesus is the Light (vv 9-10)
John uses many metaphors for Jesus. An example of metaphor is a line from Shakespeare, “my love is a red, red rose.” He’s not in love with a literal rose, Shakespeare is making a comparison of his love and a rose and how they’re similar. Then, we as readers get to explore all the nuances of a metaphor. In the preceding section, Jesus is the Word of God. In some sense Jesus is the embodiment of God’s self revelation. Later in this chapter John is going to call Jesus the Lamb of God. Jesus refers to himself as the bread of life (
John 6
), a good shepherd (
John 10
), the door that protects the sheep (
John 10
), the true vine. Not only will Jesus be resurrected, but he IS the resurrection and the life. (
John 11
)
Calvin Page 37 The true light was. The Evangelist did not intend to contrast the true light with the false, but to distinguish Christ from all others, that none might imagine that what is called light belongs to him in common with angels or men. The distinction is, that whatever is luminous in heaven and in earth borrows its splendor from some other object; but Christ is the light, shining from itself and by itself, and enlightening the whole world by its radiance; so that no other source or cause of splendor is anywhere to be found. He gave the name of the true light, therefore, to that which has by nature the power of giving light
Light illumines, shows the things in the dark. When you’re a kid and you KNOW there’s something lurking in your dark closet, a good parent can turn on the light and let you look inside and see there’s nothing there.
Jesus was Rejected (v 11)
Jesus refers to himself as the Light of the World
John 8:12-20
“Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” So the Pharisees said to him, “You are bearing witness about yourself; your testimony is not true.” Jesus answered, “Even if I do bear witness about myself, my testimony is true, for I know where I came from and where I am going, but you do not know where I come from or where I am going. You judge according to the flesh; I judge no one. Yet even if I do judge, my judgment is true, for it is not I alone who judge, but I and the Father who sent me.”
This rejection of Jesus by “his own [people]” doesn’t mean that Jews can’t trust Christ — all of the disciples, and the first 120 believers in Acts were Jewish. What the Apostle John is teasing out for us is that Jesus came to bring people from all nations and languages into the Kingdom.
Jesus brings new life (vv 12-13)
Jesus is the fulfillment of everything in the OT.
Ezekiel 11:19-20
“And I will give them one heart, and a new spirit I will put within them. I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh, that they may walk in my statutes and keep my rules and obey them. And they shall be my people, and I will be their God.”
Jesus came to bring us abundant life
John 10:10
“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.”
The Pharisees thought that life came from obedience to the minutia of the law, and searching the scriptures as an end to itself.
John 5:39-40
“You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life.”
That Jesus brings new life is the point of John writing his gospel:
John 20:31
“but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.”
What is this life that Jesus talks about? Nirvana? An eternity of your favorite hobbies? Reunion with dead friends and family?
John 17:3
“And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.”
The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. 2016. Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.
New Birth (vv 12-13)
Through Christ we are made new
The theological concept here, is regeneration. where GOd the Holy Spirit makes a spiritually dead human heart alive. Without regeneration, we cannot know God; we cannot be made new.
What we need is a new heart that can love God. Our hearts by themselves cannot love God as we were created to do.
The new birth doesn’t depend on anything except God’s grace
Just as a baby cannot create itself and be born, so we cannot recreate ourselves and make ourselves reborn.
Verse 13 explicitly describes the new birth — it’s not from normal parentage lines, it’s not from the will of the flesh, it’s not from the will of man, it’s according to God’s will.
The new birth brings us into a new family.
As physical birth or adoption brings us into a new family, so spiritual birth brings us into a new adopted family.
Even if you didn’t have loving parents, even if you only have one parent for whatever reason, by faith you can be born into a much greater family than anything the world can offer.
John the Apostle will pick up on the theme of new birth in
John 3
.
Application Questions
Andrew Crawford / General Adult
The Gospel of John / John 1:6–13
The True Light has come into the world
Background
For the last two weeks, we’ve been studying the Gospel of John. John is writing to all people as evidenced by
John 20:31
“but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.”
John the Apostle starts out by describing the Word of God who is somehow also with God, and also is God at the same time. Jesus is this Word, he created everything, He gives both life and new life, and as we’ll see in the coming weeks, he became flesh and came to earth.
John the Baptist (vv 6-8)
John the Baptist’s Mission (vv 6-7)
John was sent by God to prepare the way for Jesus.
John 1:19-23
“And this is the testimony of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, “Who are you?” He confessed, and did not deny, but confessed, “I am not the Christ.” And they asked him, “What then? Are you Elijah?” He said, “I am not.” “Are you the Prophet?” And he answered, “No.” So they said to him, “Who are you? We need to give an answer to those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?” He said, “I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord,’ as the prophet Isaiah said.””
Mark 1:1-3
“The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. As it is written in Isaiah the prophet, “Behold, I send my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way, the voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight,’ ”” One commonality of all 4 Gospels is the ministry of John the Baptist. He’s integral to the rest of the NT because he is a tie between the OT and the NT. He’s like an OT prophet in that he calls people to repentance and reminds them of God’s judgment, but he’s also a bit different in that he points to the Messiah right there! The OT prophets also pointed to the Messiah, but never a complete picture.
It’s not that John the Baptist woke up one morning and decided to proclaim the Messiah’s advent, he was commissioned specifically by God to go before Jesus as a herald.
John the Apostle often uses foreshadowing in his writing. Foreshadowing in literature is when an author gives a hint of something that they pick up on later and explain more fully. In this section John the Apostle introduces John the Baptist and hints at his mission and message and then jumps back to Jesus being the Light. We can see even in this section, how John introduces the light, jumps over to John the Baptist, and then returns to light, expounding more fully that the light is Jesus.
Why was John the Apostle being so clear about who John the Baptist was not?
It may be that some of the original readers of this gospel were putting too much emphasis on the importance of John the Baptist (cf.
Acts 19:3–4
) and that John was aiming to rectify any misunderstandings at the outset (cf. also vs 15, 26–27).
Guthrie, Donald. 1994. “John.” In New Bible Commentary: 21st Century Edition, edited by D. A. Carson, R. T. France, J. A. Motyer, and G. J. Wenham, 4th ed., 1026. Leicester, England; Downers Grove, IL: Inter-Varsity Press.
John the Baptist came to bear witness so that all might referred to Jesus as the Messiah and went to believe through him. As we’ll see in the next section, not everyone believed, so was John’s mission a failure? No! John the Baptist faithfully pointed to Jesus as the Messiah and he went great lengths to differentiate himself from “the one greater than he” — Jesus.
John the Baptist’s Message (vv 7-8)
John’s message was calling people to repent from their sin and prepare their hearts for the coming of the Messiah.
Matthew 3:7-12
“But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father,’ for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham. Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. “I baptize you with water for repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.””
John the Baptist pointed to the Messiah (vv 8)
As we will see in the coming weeks, John was very careful to not claim to be the Messiah or even claim to be anything close to the Messiah. He’s a signpost, that’s it. If I’m driving on the road, and the sign says, Dallas to the left, I don’t stop at the signpost and think I’m in Dallas. I may have quite a distance to go still.
The Light has come (vv 9-13)
Jesus is the Light (vv 9-10)
John uses many metaphors for Jesus. An example of metaphor is a line from Shakespeare, “my love is a red, red rose.” He’s not in love with a literal rose, Shakespeare is making a comparison of his love and a rose and how they’re similar. Then, we as readers get to explore all the nuances of a metaphor. In the preceding section, Jesus is the Word of God. In some sense Jesus is the embodiment of God’s self revelation. Later in this chapter John is going to call Jesus the Lamb of God. Jesus refers to himself as the bread of life (
John 6
), a good shepherd (
John 10
), the door that protects the sheep (
John 10
), the true vine. Not only will Jesus be resurrected, but he IS the resurrection and the life. (
John 11
)
Calvin Page 37 The true light was. The Evangelist did not intend to contrast the true light with the false, but to distinguish Christ from all others, that none might imagine that what is called light belongs to him in common with angels or men. The distinction is, that whatever is luminous in heaven and in earth borrows its splendor from some other object; but Christ is the light, shining from itself and by itself, and enlightening the whole world by its radiance; so that no other source or cause of splendor is anywhere to be found. He gave the name of the true light, therefore, to that which has by nature the power of giving light
Light illumines, shows the things in the dark. When you’re a kid and you KNOW there’s something lurking in your dark closet, a good parent can turn on the light and let you look inside and see there’s nothing there.
Jesus was Rejected (v 11)
Jesus refers to himself as the Light of the World
John 8:12-20
“Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” So the Pharisees said to him, “You are bearing witness about yourself; your testimony is not true.” Jesus answered, “Even if I do bear witness about myself, my testimony is true, for I know where I came from and where I am going, but you do not know where I come from or where I am going. You judge according to the flesh; I judge no one. Yet even if I do judge, my judgment is true, for it is not I alone who judge, but I and the Father who sent me.”
This rejection of Jesus by “his own [people]” doesn’t mean that Jews can’t trust Christ — all of the disciples, and the first 120 believers in Acts were Jewish. What the Apostle John is teasing out for us is that Jesus came to bring people from all nations and languages into the Kingdom.
Jesus brings new life (vv 12-13)
Jesus is the fulfillment of everything in the OT.
Ezekiel 11:19-20
“And I will give them one heart, and a new spirit I will put within them. I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh, that they may walk in my statutes and keep my rules and obey them. And they shall be my people, and I will be their God.”
Jesus came to bring us abundant life
John 10:10
“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.”
The Pharisees thought that life came from obedience to the minutia of the law, and searching the scriptures as an end to itself.
John 5:39-40
“You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life.”
That Jesus brings new life is the point of John writing his gospel:
John 20:31
“but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.”
What is this life that Jesus talks about? Nirvana? An eternity of your favorite hobbies? Reunion with dead friends and family?
John 17:3
“And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.”
The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. 2016. Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.
New Birth (vv 12-13)
Through Christ we are made new
The theological concept here, is regeneration. where GOd the Holy Spirit makes a spiritually dead human heart alive. Without regeneration, we cannot know God; we cannot be made new.
What we need is a new heart that can love God. Our hearts by themselves cannot love God as we were created to do.
The new birth doesn’t depend on anything except God’s grace
Just as a baby cannot create itself and be born, so we cannot recreate ourselves and make ourselves reborn.
Verse 13 explicitly describes the new birth — it’s not from normal parentage lines, it’s not from the will of the flesh, it’s not from the will of man, it’s according to God’s will.
The new birth brings us into a new family.
As physical birth or adoption brings us into a new family, so spiritual birth brings us into a new adopted family.
Even if you didn’t have loving parents, even if you only have one parent for whatever reason, by faith you can be born into a much greater family than anything the world can offer.
John the Apostle will pick up on the theme of new birth in
John 3
.
Application Questions
- Have you experienced the new birth? Are you a new man or woman following after Christ?
- Are you pointing others to Christ like John the Baptist?
- If so, what step is the Holy Spirit telling you right now to do?
- If not, I invite you to pray right where you are and call out to Jesus to save you. If you call out in faith, he will. Do you feel the Holy Spirit moving now?
- If you have no clue what we’re talking about and all this is going over your head, talk to me, talk to another one of our house church pastors, we would love to tell you more about following Christ.
Healing through Ephesians, Ephesians 6:1-9
Ephesians 6:1-9
Introduction
As we’ve studied the last few weeks, Paul is giving the Ephesians practical ways to live out the doctrine he’s written to them for the first 4 chapters of the book. Last week, Daniel preached on how the Gospel informs the relationship between husbands and wives. In the same way that Paul doesn’t allow the cultural power dynamics to remain unchanged in marriage, Paul also doesn’t allow the cultural power dynamics between children and parents and slaves and masters. In each of these sections, Paul speaks first to the weak, then to the strong and calls both to Christlike love for the other.
1-4
Introduction
As we’ve studied the last few weeks, Paul is giving the Ephesians practical ways to live out the doctrine he’s written to them for the first 4 chapters of the book. Last week, Daniel preached on how the Gospel informs the relationship between husbands and wives. In the same way that Paul doesn’t allow the cultural power dynamics to remain unchanged in marriage, Paul also doesn’t allow the cultural power dynamics between children and parents and slaves and masters. In each of these sections, Paul speaks first to the weak, then to the strong and calls both to Christlike love for the other.
1-4
- Children and parents
- In the context of the book, the father or grandfather of the household had absolute control over the members of the household: children, wife, slaves. The counter-cultural idea in these verses isn’t that God calls children to obey their parents. The counter-cultural idea is that God has a standard for fathers. In this culture, the standard for the head of the house was to BE the head of the house. Be the boss. Be in charge. That God would intentionally limit the power of fathers in the household is quite radical in face of this first century culture. Our culture tends to have the opposite problem. We worship youth, beauty, virility in a way that has swung to the opposite problem. Stick it to the man! Don’t trust anybody over 40! Our culture tends to shy away from calling children to obedience for many reasons, self-expression, thinking the child is better off not having boundaries. Unfortunately, that releases upon the world a group of people so selfish that they cannot love others properly. It’s a kind of cultural narcissism. But enough commentary on our culture. Suffice it to say that every culture in every epoch struggles to find the balance that Paul is calling us and children and parents to.
- This passage has been used horribly in the history of the church – from false guilt for adult children for not following their parent’s advice, to enabling child abuse. But neither issue is the thrust of the passage. Paul retools the 5th commandment from Exodus and Deuteronomy for New Testament believers and expands the application of it. Far from Paul promising long life if you obey your parents. Which you could argue for if you ignore the context of the rest of the Bible. Paul sets it up much more proverbially. And here's a point of Bible interpretation we can look at. If this is more of a proverb than a specific promise, we can square it with our experience and church history better. Generally, if when you’re a kid, you obey what righteous things your parents tell you to do, things tend to go well for you. “Don’t eat that!” “Get off the roof!” “That waffle iron is hot and will burn you if you touch it.” “Don’t hang out with kids that are going to influence you to sin more.” These are generally going to help kids mature into adults who make wise decisions, and by obeying we and our kids are practicing wisdom. <<Read Proverbs 22:6>> It certainly doesn’t mean that if we just have all the right inputs and quote Proverbs 22:6 to ourselves, that God is promising that our kids will be faithful to follow Christ, and everything will be OK. There’s still sin, you can do all the right things and your kids are still able to choose to follow their heart (which is full of sin) and rebel more against a holy God. It doesn’t mean you didn’t do enough. It’s a proverb, not a tit for tat promise.
- Remember, this section (including the section before regarding wives and husbands) is speaking to one person consistently – that is, the one person in power in the culture, the free male. So, while there is application for wives, children, and in the next section, slaves, the thrust of the passage is speaking to people in power in that culture and calling them to Christlike love for those they are in authority over. Far from the Bible simply mimicking the culture around it, it speaks against the sin in every culture, no matter the timeframe. What does it mean to not provoke your children to anger? This Greek word for anger is comparatively rare in the NT and Greek literature, but it is a cause of anger. If anger is a reaction to an injustice, then Paul is calling fathers to not be the cause for their children’s anger. There’s plenty of times my saying “no” or “do this” is a cause for my children’s anger. And quite often, I confess, it is not for righteousness, but my own selfishness. This does not preclude righteous discipline however, and walking that fine line takes wisdom and the indwelling Holy Spirit.
- So, if you’re a child, obey your parents. The definition of a child varies from culture to culture, but in ours it’s generally legal plus self-sufficiency. So, if you’re 26 and still playing video games in your mom’s garage and eating her food, you’re probably going to have to do what she tells you to. There are plenty of mature, ready to go 18-year-olds who can make their own wise decisions live life following Christ on their own. Great! That’s a worthy goal for each of us as parents to raise our kids with the purpose of growing up and leaving.
- In the context of the book, the father or grandfather of the household had absolute control over the members of the household: children, wife, slaves. The counter-cultural idea in these verses isn’t that God calls children to obey their parents. The counter-cultural idea is that God has a standard for fathers. In this culture, the standard for the head of the house was to BE the head of the house. Be the boss. Be in charge. That God would intentionally limit the power of fathers in the household is quite radical in face of this first century culture. Our culture tends to have the opposite problem. We worship youth, beauty, virility in a way that has swung to the opposite problem. Stick it to the man! Don’t trust anybody over 40! Our culture tends to shy away from calling children to obedience for many reasons, self-expression, thinking the child is better off not having boundaries. Unfortunately, that releases upon the world a group of people so selfish that they cannot love others properly. It’s a kind of cultural narcissism. But enough commentary on our culture. Suffice it to say that every culture in every epoch struggles to find the balance that Paul is calling us and children and parents to.
- 5-9 Slaves and masters
- The passage has also been used horribly in the history of the church. But, just because a passage has been misinterpreted and misapplied doesn’t make the meaning of the passage any less true.
- First-century slavery in the Greco-Roman culture was by no means a picnic, but it wasn’t anything like race-based generational slavery practiced in the American South in the 17th through 19th centuries. In the OT law, slavery is regulated as a functional bankruptcy system in ancient Israel. There was no single race profile of a slave in either the wider Greco-Roman or Israelite worlds. Not to say that either system was without abuses. Slaves captured in war and sent to the mines in the Roman Empire had a very short, brutal life expectancy, and slavery in ancient Israel had plenty of instances of mistreatment. What we do know from history is that slavery slowly died out in the Roman Empire partly because of the influence of Christianity. If you have a religion that teaches that all humans are made in the image and likeness of God, sooner or later those bonded in servitude are going to connect the dots.
- What Paul calls both slaves and masters to Christlike love for each other. Christ gave up all his power and came to our world to serve and die for us. Christ is the ultimate Servant who gives up everything for his bride, the Church. God is sovereign, but does not use his power in unrighteous, unloving ways, but is always acting in love for his glory and the joy of his people. Paul commands the slave/bondservant to not just work when the master is looking – “eye-service” like “people-pleasers.” And the astonishing thing that Paul then writes is for the masters to treat them in the same way! How? By submitting their own desires for the good of their slaves because their capital M Master is the God of Heaven, and he sees all and doesn’t grade on a curve.
- So, how would we apply this to today’s culture? We don’t have the same system of slavery that existed in Ephesus. Do we simply write off this passage a relic of ancient literature that has no bearing upon today? I would argue that there are three applications to our modern world:
- Even though slavery as an institution doesn’t exist in the same way in our context, if you have power, how do you interact with those who are out of power? And I would argue that all of us in this room have varying amounts of power. Do you use that power for good? It’s not just Spiderman who can live by the maxim, “with great power comes great responsibility.” We all have power in various forms, do we use it for the good of our neighbor and the glory of God?
- Do you speak against those abusing their power? From the very beginning of sin in Genesis 3, part of the curse was that Adam and Eve’s struggles in their relationships was going to center around power. The man is going to push his wife down, and the wife is going to grasp power that isn’t hers.
- I’m convicted that each of these passages is speaking to me: I’m a husband, I’m a dad, I’m a manager at work. I have immense power over other people’s lives. I’ve got a wife who depends on me to not use my power to coerce her into sin and abuse. I’ve got 5 kids who depend on me not using my physical and verbal power to coerce them into sin and abuse. I’ve got 4 co-workers who depend on me for their livelihood. Even speaking to all of you today, I have immense power in that I’m the one talking. If I twist the Scripture that I’m preaching on for my own purposes rather than preaching what the text means, I’ve abused my power. I have immense power. You have power in your own contexts. Are we going to use that power for good as Jesus did? Or are we going to use that power for evil as the world and our sin nature would have us do?
- Application
- God does not allow us to be unchanged by contact with his Word. Each one of us are either going to change and be more like Christ or be more hardened against Christ and his Word.
- How does this passage point us to our need for the cross? None of us loves our neighbor (children, those out of power) as we ought. We’ve all fallen short. Jesus was gently and lowly, always pursuing those on the outskirts of the culture of the day, lepers, women, children, Gentiles, tax-collectors. Jesus died for us, while we were still sinners as Romans 5:8 says. Jesus gave up the conscious exercise of his power in his incarnation. He could have stopped the crucifixion before it even began. One lash of the whip, He could have called the whole thing off and we’d all be damned. But He didn’t. He went through the sacrifice, was murdered for our sakes, and rose again for our justification.
Ephesians 4:25-32
Recap Ephesians 1-4:24
Now we’re getting into the practical part of the book of Ephesians. What Daniel preached last week was big picture; here’s what Christian life is supposed to look like. Paul uses the same word for “put off your old self” in verse 22, here in verse 25, “having put away falsehood.” Deceit is tied to the old self, and we are called to put it off like Mr. Rogers walking in and changing his shoes and sweater.
A lot of what Paul is going to describe in this text is “this, not that.” Don’t do this; do that. In case you think we’ve gotten away from the theological implications of the rest of the book, this is Paul’s normal letter writing method. He starts on doctrine, what we as Christ’s disciples believe, then moves into the practical implications of that belief. Just looking at this passage apart from the rest of the book would be a mistake. Generally, if you go to the Bible for a how-to manual on what to do in every situation, you’re going to be disappointed. Paul’s even painting in broad strokes in this passage.
So, Paul writes of behavior differences in this new life, this new body that God is creating. The old self that we’re supposed to put off looks like verse 31, always wanting its way, angry for no reason with other people, bitter, shouting. But the new self looks like kindness, tenderheartedness, forgiving, loving the things that God himself loves. Being careful to walk in step with the Spirit. In application, are you walking by the Spirit? Do you want what this new life looks like? Are you saved? Do you know Christ for yourself? It’s possible to look at this list as a rulebook of behavior and grit your teeth and just try harder, but in the end that’s only going to end in either despair or pride, neither of which will get you into heaven. Repent, trust Jesus, call out to him in brokenness, and he will forgive you of your sin, give you a new heart, and fill you with His Spirit.
Now we’re getting into the practical part of the book of Ephesians. What Daniel preached last week was big picture; here’s what Christian life is supposed to look like. Paul uses the same word for “put off your old self” in verse 22, here in verse 25, “having put away falsehood.” Deceit is tied to the old self, and we are called to put it off like Mr. Rogers walking in and changing his shoes and sweater.
A lot of what Paul is going to describe in this text is “this, not that.” Don’t do this; do that. In case you think we’ve gotten away from the theological implications of the rest of the book, this is Paul’s normal letter writing method. He starts on doctrine, what we as Christ’s disciples believe, then moves into the practical implications of that belief. Just looking at this passage apart from the rest of the book would be a mistake. Generally, if you go to the Bible for a how-to manual on what to do in every situation, you’re going to be disappointed. Paul’s even painting in broad strokes in this passage.
- Putting aside falsehood. What are you speaking to one another? What truths are you telling yourself? Pastoral plagiarism is a massive problem. I truly hope that I don’t even accidentally plagiarize another author. I need accountability on that front; please help me. I don’t think I have, and I’ve googled some phrases to hopefully not accidentally plagiarize. We should be known for telling the truth to one another. Preaching the Gospel in a way that’s true. There is a cost to discipleship, Jesus wants you to change. Grace is free, but following Christ comes with a cost.
- “Be angry” it’s an imperative. Anger by itself is not a sin. I’ve been talking with a friend, and we’ve been discussing how anger is an emotion that in and of itself is neutral. Anger is an emotional response to injustice. Where the “do not sin” part crops up in us becoming angry at that which is not an injustice. Kids leaving shoes in the hallway isn’t really an injustice against me personally; they’re just being kids. There’s correction that needs to happen, but there’s not much call for me to become angry at them about it. Even just thinking logically, if all anger was a sin, then we would have to accuse God Himself of the sin of anger, and He’s not sinful. He is angry at injustice for sure, He’s angry at sin, and if you’re not trusting in Christ for redemption, then he’s angry at your sin still.
- Because we’ve put away falsehood, because we’re angry at the right things, then we can speak truth to one another. Why are we supposed to be marked as people of truth? Because we’re members of each other. If one part of your body is injured, then the rest of your body has natural responses to take care of that injury. If you gashed your leg, your platelets don’t decide to call in that day and not work. If they don’t do what they’re supposed to do, there’s something wrong with your body. Your adrenal system has powerful rerouting abilities to move your blood supply where it’s needed most in an emergency. One part of your body doesn’t tell lies to the other parts of your body. Unless your brain is telling your body to get over it during a workout (but I’ll leave that to the workout folks).
- Since we’re turning away from falsehood, Paul calls us to speak truth with our neighbor. Then, we have “be angry” and “don’t sin” and then “don’t let the sun go down on your anger.” You could probably twist this horribly and say that if you go to bed while angry with someone something horrible will happen to you. But that’s not the force of the passage: are your relationships in such order (especially in the church) that you’ve confronted others for their injustice? Have you processed what injustices actually are in a way that gives grace where grace should be given and righteousness upheld?
- Parorgismos and Parorgizo are used in the Greek OT to describe how both the nation of Israel and Judah provoked God to anger. So, one question is, if the provoking that Paul is talking about, someone else has done something to make you angry? Or is the provoking something you’ve done to make someone else angry? Is it both? Is there sufficient semantic overlap between these two words that they’re just synonyms for the same emotion?
- Giving place to the devil and holding on to anger seem to be parallel. If I’m angry at someone for a wrong reason (i.e., there’s no injustice), then I am sinning against them. I’m holding someone guilty who isn’t guilty. Therefore, I’m not putting away falsehood. If anything, I’m lying to myself and others about the truth of who they are and what Christ holds them to account for. On the other side, if I don’t become angry over the things that grieve God, then I’m also not telling the truth about sin in that I’m not loving the things that God loves.
- (vv 28) I’ve got an accounting background, and it never ceases to amaze me the lengths to which someone will commit fraud or other white-collar crime. If you just channeled that same drive and energy into something legitimate, they’d be great! But, our sinfulness wells up in us and we think we have to steal because there’s no other option. There’s plenty of reasons for theft, but Paul calls us to not walk in that anymore. To divert our energy to working to share. This concept dignifies work in a way that in the Greco-Roman context and today is very strange. Back then, work was something common people and slaves did. The ruling people did the thinking and philosophizing and running things. Now, not a lot has changed, although we have a culture of work and wealth-building as an end to itself that doesn’t have anywhere anything about sharing with those in need. One point of work (at the very least for the reformed thief), is to share with those he may very well have been ripping off before. In Luke 19, Luke tells the story of Zacchaeus, a tax collector who repented and followed Jesus. Part of the evidence of his changed heart was the he made fourfold restitution to anyone he had stolen from, and also gave half of what he owned to the poor. Zacchaeus loved one thing (wealth, power, prestige), and then loved another (Jesus and his neighbor).
- (v 29) Let no corrupting talk. The word translated “corrupting” is sapros, and it has the connotation of rottenness. It’s used of a “bad tree” in Matthew and Luke bearing bad fruit. There’s supposed to be some revulsion when you hear that word. Oh yeah, that rotten talk, gross. Are what you’re saying building fellow believers up, or tearing them down? Are you using your words to strengthen or rot your brothers’ and sisters’ walk? James 3:1-12: the problem is we have a tendency to use our tongue to both bless God and curse our fellow humans.
- (v 30) Do not grieve the Holy Spirit. What in the world does that even mean? Jesus promised that the Advocate (the Holy Spirit) would always be with us. Is there one thing that we can do to make God the Holy Spirit not want to be with us? Is this a pattern thing? Is grieving the Holy Spirit like the falling away passages - if we see that and turn around and don’t grieve Him, then is this passage God’s means to keep us from doing that? If we’re sealed by the HS, then we’re in God’s kingdom, but what does grieving look like? It could be a warning against falling away from belief in the Gospel. Because the Holy Spirit is a real being, he does have emotions in some sense. God can be grieved over sin (Genesis 6:6). I hold that grieving the Holy Spirit is in apposition to vv 22-24 earlier. Taking off the old man, being renewed in the spirit of your mind, and putting on the new man seems like it’s the opposite of grieving the Holy Spirit. In the end, true repentance looks like a change in tastes. I have never ever enjoyed the taste of yellow squash. It is, to put it in biblical terms, anathema. If I woke up tomorrow and asked for a big plate of yellow squash for breakfast, the whole world would know that Andrew Crawford has had a radical change in tastes.
- Put away:
- Bitterness – treating someone harshly. Unrepentance may be on someone else who has wronged us, but bitterness is on each of us. What Paul is not talking about is having healthy boundaries with others who have abused us. If someone has abused you, there are certain boundaries that they must never cross again. What Paul is describing here is holding someone’s sin over their head in such a way that you cannot have a healthy relationship with them.
- Wrath – The same word is used in Revelation 12 for the “wine of God’s wrath.” To a large degree, damning someone is to take the place of God. Wrath within the body of Christ is a blasphemy. There is a precedent (in the Psalms especially) of calling down God’s judgment on those who hurt God’s people. I think that is biblical to pray. There should be a yearning within us for God to bring our suffering to a close and usher in the fully consummated kingdom. But, we’re here right now, we’re still in the “already” part of the “already, but not yet” kingdom. But it's not for us to take God’s place in holding wrath. Being grieved for the things that grieve God is a good place to be, though.
- Anger – Ironically, this is the noun form of the verb from verse 26. So, what do we do with this? God commands us to “be angry” in verse 26, and now in verse 31, He’s telling us to “Let all…anger…be put away from you” in verse 31. What gives? The sins that Paul describes in this list focus on injustice in relationships within the body of Christ (and outside the body of Christ too). I can’t be bitter toward someone with also being unjust toward them – i.e., I’m holding a sin over them that either Jesus died for, or they will pay for for eternity. I can’t be wrathful against someone else unless I feel like I must take the place of God to make justice happen.
- Clamor – shouting. When everyone is shouting, no one is listening. If our gathering as a church were to devolve into a shouting match, we’re not treating each other as created in the image of God.
- Slander – Greek blasphemia, where we get our English word, blasphemy. It has the connotation of abusive speech. Remember, Paul in verse 29 writes of us having “no corrupting talk coming from our mouths.” Not slandering or abusing one another with our speech brings God glory.
- Malice – Paul lists the first five, bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and slander and then adds along with all those, “all malice.” This word is more generic than the others, it’s like Paul went very specific about behavior, and then backed up and ended the command with a more generic. Think about it, if I can by the power of the Holy Spirit to rid my heart of malice toward my fellow image-bearers, I’m not going to be bitter, wrathful, angry, shouting at them, or slandering them. It won’t happen this side of eternity, but by God’s grace, that’s what he calls us to.
- Be: Crazily enough, Paul doesn’t use the Greek verb, eimi here. He uses ginomai which has the range of “to be” but also has the range of meaning to mean “to become.” Paul knows they aren’t there yet. But he’s calling the Ephesians and us to that level.
- Kind – 4:32 is one of our memory verses for our homeschool. It’s easy to say, but much harder to be kind. And Paul does delimit the kindness, that is, “to one another.” We may not be able to be kind, stick a happy face on and head off into the world like some strange Pollyannas. And kindness doesn’t mean shallow pleasantry either. These behaviors are in marked distinction to what Paul listed in the last verse. If you’re being kind, you’re not going to be bitter toward someone else. If you being kind, you’re not going to slander a fellow believer (or anyone else for that matter).
- Tenderhearted – having healthy intestines. In Greek culture, the seat of the emotions was the guts. In English, (at least in literature, not necessarily science) the seat of the emotions is the heart. I know the heart just pumps blood, but in our thinking that where our emotions come from. Having a tender heart toward someone can mean giving them grace when they’re messed up. It can look at other people how God looks at us, that we’re created in his image, but we’ve fallen and rebelled against him. Look at others with the grace that God has shown you.
- Forgiving – God has forgiven me of so much more sin than I could ever hold against anyone else. Matthew 18:23-35 and the parable of the unforgiving servant. If God can forgive me, I certainly can forgive others. How dare we expect God to forgive us our infinite sin while we don’t forgive our neighbor a finite sin. Forgiveness certainly doesn’t happen automatically, or even quickly, but forgiveness should be the posture of our heart.
So, Paul writes of behavior differences in this new life, this new body that God is creating. The old self that we’re supposed to put off looks like verse 31, always wanting its way, angry for no reason with other people, bitter, shouting. But the new self looks like kindness, tenderheartedness, forgiving, loving the things that God himself loves. Being careful to walk in step with the Spirit. In application, are you walking by the Spirit? Do you want what this new life looks like? Are you saved? Do you know Christ for yourself? It’s possible to look at this list as a rulebook of behavior and grit your teeth and just try harder, but in the end that’s only going to end in either despair or pride, neither of which will get you into heaven. Repent, trust Jesus, call out to him in brokenness, and he will forgive you of your sin, give you a new heart, and fill you with His Spirit.
Healing through Ephesians, Ephesians 4:7-16
- Introduction. Recap Ephesians 1:1-4:6
- Theology matters
- Why should we study theology? It’s not just so we can win an argument or have extra knowledge. The point is to know and love God more. If we know and love the God of the Bible more, then when false teachers or life’s difficulties come our way, we’re better prepared to combat them with truth. False teachers and wolves don’t show up to the flock flaunting themselves. The Jehovah’s Witnesses don’t knock on your door saying, “We worship an aberrant conception of the God of the Bible and deny salvation by grace and the deity of Christ. Would you like to join?” No, what they do is they try to worm their way through a back door of supposed commonality and through that inject their poison like a parasite.
- Theological truths seen in this passage
- Jesus is God – Paul adapts Psalm 68:18 for his purpose and changes it from the second person to the third. In Psalm 68:18, David writes about God:
leading a host of captives in your train
and receiving gifts among men”
But in Ephesians, Paul writes:
“When he ascended on high he led a host of captives,
and he gave gifts to men.”
Why the difference? Paul is getting the point across that Christ has richly provided for us all things. He is the fulfillment of the OT and is keeping His promise of never leaving us nor forsaking us.
- God gives us grace to do what He’s called us to do – the grace that God poured out on the church as a body is the same grace God is pouring out on us individually in that each one of us has grace according to Christ’s gift. God not only calls us to what He wills us to do, He also empowers us to accomplish it.
- Jesus, confirmed as a pleasing sacrifice for sin ascended back to God the Father
- God provides for his people all thru the Bible
- God has given us everything we need to be the church
- Who has God given us?
- Apostles - wrote the NT, or were closely associated with an NT writer. Acts 1:12-26, the requirements for being an apostle to replace Judas. Paul’s defense of his apostleship is along those lines too. He was a witness to the risen Christ on the road to Damascus. So, I don’t believe we have apostles today because no one alive on Earth has seen the incarnate, risen Christ. We have with us now in the Bible what we need of the apostle’s writing.
- Prophets - In one sense, prophecy in the biblical sense is a proclamation of God’s revelation. A lot of prophecy in the OT was fulfilled within a century of it’s being spoken. There are some prophecies that had a longer horizon - virgin birth of Isaiah, a lot of Daniel’s prophecies, for instance. Prophecy in the biblical sense is not always predicting future events, but it’s a proclamation of God’s revelation. Acts 13:1 prophets and teachers in Antioch, Acts 15:32 Judas and Silas, Acts 11:27 and 21:10 Agabus. Now, because we have the written word of God, I’m in the camp that we don’t need continuing new revelation, the canon is closed and we have everything we need for faith and practice in Scripture. Does God open our understanding to a text of Scripture? Yes! Does God use others to open and expound Scripture to us? Yes! If prophecy is new revelation that’s authoritative, then I believe that it’s ended. If prophecy is expounding revealed Scripture, then I’m all for it.
- Evangelists - Those who proclaim the Gospel to those who have not heard it before. Think someone like a missionary in an unreached people group. They’re crossing linguistic, cultural, or geographical barriers to preach the Gospel somewhere where it’s not already at all or not common. That too, can be in our context. Someone who has a God-given passion to see people come to Christ. We got some opportunities as a church for this at Fall-der-all and other events coming up.
- Shepherds - Our word pastor is descended from the Latin for shepherd. These are people who care for the flock. Not exploiting the flock. Not building their own kingdom on the backs of the flock. Not abusing the flock. Caring for the flock. A pastor is not a spiritual CEO, a visionary leader who the sheep follow without a word of question or doubt. If you’re abusing sheep, you’re not a shepherd. I pray that God is raising up among us men to shepherd well.
- Teachers - What does the word say? What does it mean? Why should I care? That’s what a teacher answers. The ESV footnote has “Or the shepherd-teachers” as shepherd (pastor) and teacher tends to go together in the church. We think of the requirements for elders in 1 Timothy and Titus and “able to teach” or “give instruction in sound doctrine” is on both lists. If someone wants to be an elder or teacher, they must have the ability to teach well and teach according to sound doctrine. Any fool can collect a crowd, but the teaching that Paul has in view here is something specific to what the church needs, namely, to equip the saints for the work of ministry.
- By extension, Scripture – The writings of the apostles and prophets make up all Scripture, which is “is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work” as 2 Timothy 3:16-17 says. Knowing Scripture, really knowing it, allows you to tap into each of these that God has given us. Knowing and hearing the Word of God in the fellowship with other saints allows us to encourage and build one another up in the truth.
- Why has God given us these people?
- Equip you, the saints – Equip to do what? Grow in holiness. Become more like Christ.
- Build up the body of Christ
- Unity of faith – Christian unity is about something much deeper than geographical, socio-economic, or national unity. There’s a unity I share with a Palestinian Christian in the West Bank that I may not with a North Texan who may vote like me.
- Know the Son of God – what is there to know other than the knowledge of Christ? What else is there to know? What is eternal life? John 17:3.
- Christian maturity – Paul is not speaking of “men” as in males. Mature manhood should in this context be “mature adulthood.”
- Not be theological babies
- Tossed to and fro – not stable and steadfast in their beliefs. Some kids have a handle on what they believe. But, a lot of growing up is putting away your old understanding and taking on an understanding of reality.
- Carried about by every wind of doctrine – some false doctrine sounds correct. But, the only way to know what true or false is by comparing it with accurately understood Scripture.
- Human cunning (negative connotation with dice-playing. Something seriously sketchy going on. Card sharps.
- Craftiness in deceitful schemes – again, false teachers and wolves aren’t forthright. No one walks into a church, “hey, just so you know, I’m a wolf and I’m here to destroy what God is doing here in the lives of His saints.”
- Who has God given us?
- How does the body grow?
- Speaking the truth in love – sometimes hard conversations must happen, but everything we do must be out of love for God and love for one another.
- Growing together – No one disciplines their kid for not growing. If a child isn’t developing like they should, a responsible parent doesn’t rest until they figure out what’s going on. But, they don’t give their child pills to build muscle when their bones aren’t developing.
- Each part doing its part – Each of us has a job in the church. Some of us teach, some of us serve in various ways. All of us are called to love one another and build up the church.
- Builds itself up in love – We start and end in love. Love is everything because that’s all that God has for us is love in Christ.
- Conclusion
Healing through Ephesians: Eph. 3:14-21
So far in the book of Ephesians, Paul has reminded the Ephesian believers in 1:1-14 of the truth of the Gospel, that they are saved by grace. He prays for them in 1:15-23 that God would fill them with all the riches of His grace. Paul lays out for the Ephesians that salvation is all of grace in chapter 2:1-10. In 2:11-22 Paul describes how both Jews and Gentiles are one people under the grace of God. Paul begins in 3:1-13 describing how the OT was always about God creating new a people from all the peoples in the earth. There’s a mystery that’s now revealed on this side of the cross that God was always working toward. In v. 13 Paul also reminds the Ephesians that what he is suffering is for their glory.
v.14-15
Paul picks up his train of thought from 3:1 “For this reason” What reason? That the Gospel is for Gentiles the same way it is for Jews. That we’re one body in Christ. Paul writes a bit of a pun in using “Father” and the Greek word for “family” here is patria which Pater is related. Another way to put it is, “I bow my knees before the Father from whom all fatherhood in heaven and on earth is named.” Paul launches into another prayer in this section as he’s bringing the doctrinal section of the book to a close and fixing to move into the practical implications of the doctrine of salvation by grace he’s just described. So often, we want to skip all the “head stuff” and go to “just tell me what to do.” Paul doesn’t let us do that, and by the grace of God, let’s not either. Sit under the awe of God and His amazing grace. That He would save a wretch like me. That I, a member of the nations of the OT, would be saved to inherit Christ and His kingdom along with the rest of God’s people is enough to blow anyone’s mind. Any contemplation of God’s grace should result in thanksgiving. Paul is asking God to empower the Ephesians in the way that to see in the next several verses. I confess, I don’t pray for my brothers and sisters like that on a consistent basis. God grant that we would be a praying people.
Paul is also making a statement about the nature of God Himself. He’s not a mere tribal deity. In Greek and Roman paganism the gods are just extra powerful humans to some degree. They have limits to their ability. If a god is over the sea, they’re useless on land. They’re beset by wrong desires (looking at you, Zeus) and fight amongst themselves. Paul is describing God in VERY different terms from that. God is the God of all the peoples of the earth. Not that everyone is saved through faith, but that there’s nowhere on the globe that God in his immanence is not.
V. 16 – 17a
Paul prays that the Ephesians would be empowered at the same level of power that God’s glory is. Back in Ephesians 1, Paul writes about the riches of God’s grace, about the glorious inheritance of the saints and how He’s working at that level in our lives. Paul is not referring to material riches, but spiritual richness of God Himself that we get by the empowering Holy Spirit in our “inner being.” Where does this power come from? And what is this power for? This power comes from God as a gift, it’s by grace. And it comes in order that Christ may dwell in our hearts through faith. Some may object, “Aren’t we already saved? Aren’t we already believers?” Yes. Paul is praying that they would have more – that they would go deeper. The same Gospel that saves is the same Gospel that sanctifies. We should pray for more of the Spirit, to know Christ more. That Christ Himself would dwell in our hearts, that He would increase our faith.
John 15:1-11
V.17b – 19
Our root and foundation is always and only the love of Christ. If it’s anything else, we’ve missed the boat. This is the point of power from v. 16. Paul prays that the Ephesians would be strengthened, not for their own aggrandizement, not so the Ephesian church would be a “great church”, or that they would accomplish lots for God’s kingdom, or give tons of money away, or attract a huge crowd, or turn away a huge crowd. The power Paul is praying for is an inner power to love and understand the Gospel through Christ’s indwelling. What you’re rooted in matters. What your foundation is built on matters. A plant is only as good as the soil it’s planted in. Amy has a lot of houseplants, some of them need this kind of soil or that kind. The plant that needs a dry, sandy soil won’t do well if she were to plant it in moist peat moss. Or vice versa. Some plants thrive in rocks and little bit of water. Others wouldn’t last 5 minutes like that. A building is only as good as its foundation. If cracks appear in the wall and they’re caused by foundation problems, filling the crack and painting only does so much. The house is still shifting.
This knowledge that Paul prays in v. 18 for doesn’t exist in a vacuum. Paul prays that the Ephesians would be strengthened to comprehend the “breadth and length and height and depth.” Where does this strength come from to understand all these things? I would argue that Paul is writing about knowledge of God and His Word. That as we know God and His Word more fully, we are changed to know and love Him. God must grant this. He alone can empower us to take His Word and He roots it deep into our lives. Paul doesn’t say “just use your reason, or feelings, or a great teacher, or a pastor, or a commentary.” All those are good tools, but there’s something different that Paul is referring to – the illumination of the Holy Spirit. God must reveal Himself in His Scripture for our lives to be changed. Paul prayed that for the Ephesians and, by extension, us. We can pray that same prayer for ourselves and one another. That we would be empowered by the Holy Spirit to love God’s Word and the God Who reveals Himself in it, and that we would have fellowship with all the saints through that.
How do you know this love? How do you deepen your fellowship with other believers? How do you commune more deeply with Christ and be filled with the Spirit? Know your Bible. Dig deep into Scripture. There’s an embarrassment of riches in the Western world to help you further your study of Scripture. Study Scripture in community. “Knowledge puffs up” as we know from 1 Corinthians, but Scripture studied in community gives an outlet for knowledge of Scripture. The love of Christ surpasses knowledge, but rather than despair that Christ’s love is unknowable, let’s dive into that pool and drown in the knowledge of His love. We can’t figure out all of God and Who He is. Even the study of one attribute of God is just scratching the surface of the knowledge of God Himself.
V. 20-21
Paul ends his prayer with a benediction, summing up what he just wrote in the preceding verses. May God be glorified in our sanctification. May He look marvelous to a watching world when they see how He is working in us through His Spirit. May we, as we preach the Gospel to each other and the lost, make much of God and His glory that it would always and only be able to be attributed to God. May God heal us from our past hurts and sin and use us as willing vessels to carry the light of Christ to the world. Remember from v. 16 how much power that God has empowered us with? “According to the riches of his glory.” God has empowered us to the level of His own glory, and He’s glorifying Himself in the worship of his saints in all times and places and in the work that Jesus has accomplished and is accomplishing in His people.
Application
God wants us to know Him in His Word. Drink deeply from the fountain of His revealed Word. There’s so much treasure there. The Bible isn’t a magic book that “a chapter a day keeps the Devil away.” I’m praying for us a body that we would be filled with such a love for Christ that we would be so enamored with God’s Word that we would become what Paul prays for in this section. That we would study Bible and have such a love for the Bible that it would change us to love one another and abide in Christ.
v.14-15
Paul picks up his train of thought from 3:1 “For this reason” What reason? That the Gospel is for Gentiles the same way it is for Jews. That we’re one body in Christ. Paul writes a bit of a pun in using “Father” and the Greek word for “family” here is patria which Pater is related. Another way to put it is, “I bow my knees before the Father from whom all fatherhood in heaven and on earth is named.” Paul launches into another prayer in this section as he’s bringing the doctrinal section of the book to a close and fixing to move into the practical implications of the doctrine of salvation by grace he’s just described. So often, we want to skip all the “head stuff” and go to “just tell me what to do.” Paul doesn’t let us do that, and by the grace of God, let’s not either. Sit under the awe of God and His amazing grace. That He would save a wretch like me. That I, a member of the nations of the OT, would be saved to inherit Christ and His kingdom along with the rest of God’s people is enough to blow anyone’s mind. Any contemplation of God’s grace should result in thanksgiving. Paul is asking God to empower the Ephesians in the way that to see in the next several verses. I confess, I don’t pray for my brothers and sisters like that on a consistent basis. God grant that we would be a praying people.
Paul is also making a statement about the nature of God Himself. He’s not a mere tribal deity. In Greek and Roman paganism the gods are just extra powerful humans to some degree. They have limits to their ability. If a god is over the sea, they’re useless on land. They’re beset by wrong desires (looking at you, Zeus) and fight amongst themselves. Paul is describing God in VERY different terms from that. God is the God of all the peoples of the earth. Not that everyone is saved through faith, but that there’s nowhere on the globe that God in his immanence is not.
V. 16 – 17a
Paul prays that the Ephesians would be empowered at the same level of power that God’s glory is. Back in Ephesians 1, Paul writes about the riches of God’s grace, about the glorious inheritance of the saints and how He’s working at that level in our lives. Paul is not referring to material riches, but spiritual richness of God Himself that we get by the empowering Holy Spirit in our “inner being.” Where does this power come from? And what is this power for? This power comes from God as a gift, it’s by grace. And it comes in order that Christ may dwell in our hearts through faith. Some may object, “Aren’t we already saved? Aren’t we already believers?” Yes. Paul is praying that they would have more – that they would go deeper. The same Gospel that saves is the same Gospel that sanctifies. We should pray for more of the Spirit, to know Christ more. That Christ Himself would dwell in our hearts, that He would increase our faith.
John 15:1-11
V.17b – 19
Our root and foundation is always and only the love of Christ. If it’s anything else, we’ve missed the boat. This is the point of power from v. 16. Paul prays that the Ephesians would be strengthened, not for their own aggrandizement, not so the Ephesian church would be a “great church”, or that they would accomplish lots for God’s kingdom, or give tons of money away, or attract a huge crowd, or turn away a huge crowd. The power Paul is praying for is an inner power to love and understand the Gospel through Christ’s indwelling. What you’re rooted in matters. What your foundation is built on matters. A plant is only as good as the soil it’s planted in. Amy has a lot of houseplants, some of them need this kind of soil or that kind. The plant that needs a dry, sandy soil won’t do well if she were to plant it in moist peat moss. Or vice versa. Some plants thrive in rocks and little bit of water. Others wouldn’t last 5 minutes like that. A building is only as good as its foundation. If cracks appear in the wall and they’re caused by foundation problems, filling the crack and painting only does so much. The house is still shifting.
This knowledge that Paul prays in v. 18 for doesn’t exist in a vacuum. Paul prays that the Ephesians would be strengthened to comprehend the “breadth and length and height and depth.” Where does this strength come from to understand all these things? I would argue that Paul is writing about knowledge of God and His Word. That as we know God and His Word more fully, we are changed to know and love Him. God must grant this. He alone can empower us to take His Word and He roots it deep into our lives. Paul doesn’t say “just use your reason, or feelings, or a great teacher, or a pastor, or a commentary.” All those are good tools, but there’s something different that Paul is referring to – the illumination of the Holy Spirit. God must reveal Himself in His Scripture for our lives to be changed. Paul prayed that for the Ephesians and, by extension, us. We can pray that same prayer for ourselves and one another. That we would be empowered by the Holy Spirit to love God’s Word and the God Who reveals Himself in it, and that we would have fellowship with all the saints through that.
How do you know this love? How do you deepen your fellowship with other believers? How do you commune more deeply with Christ and be filled with the Spirit? Know your Bible. Dig deep into Scripture. There’s an embarrassment of riches in the Western world to help you further your study of Scripture. Study Scripture in community. “Knowledge puffs up” as we know from 1 Corinthians, but Scripture studied in community gives an outlet for knowledge of Scripture. The love of Christ surpasses knowledge, but rather than despair that Christ’s love is unknowable, let’s dive into that pool and drown in the knowledge of His love. We can’t figure out all of God and Who He is. Even the study of one attribute of God is just scratching the surface of the knowledge of God Himself.
V. 20-21
Paul ends his prayer with a benediction, summing up what he just wrote in the preceding verses. May God be glorified in our sanctification. May He look marvelous to a watching world when they see how He is working in us through His Spirit. May we, as we preach the Gospel to each other and the lost, make much of God and His glory that it would always and only be able to be attributed to God. May God heal us from our past hurts and sin and use us as willing vessels to carry the light of Christ to the world. Remember from v. 16 how much power that God has empowered us with? “According to the riches of his glory.” God has empowered us to the level of His own glory, and He’s glorifying Himself in the worship of his saints in all times and places and in the work that Jesus has accomplished and is accomplishing in His people.
Application
God wants us to know Him in His Word. Drink deeply from the fountain of His revealed Word. There’s so much treasure there. The Bible isn’t a magic book that “a chapter a day keeps the Devil away.” I’m praying for us a body that we would be filled with such a love for Christ that we would be so enamored with God’s Word that we would become what Paul prays for in this section. That we would study Bible and have such a love for the Bible that it would change us to love one another and abide in Christ.
Andrew
Trouble-making Zealot
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