Book Cover

Introduction

Takeaways

  • Patience and thoughtfulness are the keys to insight, especially with Scripture.
  • If you spend the time and assume the proper attitude of openness and trust, God will speak to you through His Word.

Key text - Hebrews 4:12

“For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.”

Chapter 1: The Skeptical Student

Takeaways

  • The Greeks believed that the universe had a rational and moral order to it, and this “order of nature” they called the Logos (see John 1:1)
    • For the Greeks, a well-lived life was one that conformed to this rational, moral order, often involving philosophical contemplation and intellectual pursuit
  • Like the Greek philosophers (and unlike many contemporary ones), John affirms that there is a telos, or purpose, to our lives.
    • Telos is a term used by philosopher Aristotle to refer to the full potential or inherent purpose or objective of a person or thing
  • John follows the principle of 1 Corinthians 9:20-22 and says that the Logos is the living word and person of Jesus Christ

Key text - John 1:43-51

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.”

  • The skeptical student, Nathaniel, could not believe that somebody from a place like Nazareth had the answers to the big questions of our time. Sneering, Nathaniel rolls his eyes at the thought of the Messiah coming from Nazareth
  • Many people today view Christianity much like Nathanael viewed Nazareth
  • Keller gives two suggestions to people with this attitude
    • This kind of dismissiveness is deadly. It kills creativity, problem solving, and more importantly, relationships
    • By despising Christianity, you sever the living taproot to what are probably many of your core values
      • Values like peace/civility, human dignity/rights, care for the poor
  • Book of Genesis gives a glimpse to what cultures were like before the revelation of the Bible
    • Practice of primogeniture: the eldest son inherits all the wealth
      • Yet God goes against the norm, against what the world expects and rewards. He chooses the younger sibling (Abel over Cain, Isaac over Ishmael, Jacob over Esau, Joseph over eleven older brothers)
    • Praise of women with many children
      • Childless women were shamed and stigmatized. Yet again, God uses the despised women and through the men or boys nobody wanted through the women or girls nobody wanted (Sarah, Rebecca, Hannah, Elizabeth)
  • The essence of what makes Christianity different from every other religion and form of thought is this: every other religion says “if you want to find God, improve yourself, attain higher consciousness, connect with divine, etc, then you have to do something (i.e. gather your strength and will, keep the rules, free your mind). Christianity says “Christ has done it for you”
    • Other religion: “Obey and ‘God’ will accept you”
    • Christianity: “God has accepted you through Christ. Now go obey”
  • Christianity is for people who have the particular kind of strength to admit that their flaws are not superficial, their heart is deeply disordered, and that they are incapable of rectifying themselves
  • Do not be like Nathaniel. Do not let a conviction that Christianity is simply outdated or intellectually unsophisticated blind you to what it offers. Watch out for your pride and prejudice. Be aware of contempt and dismissiveness.
  • Underneath the loud, public assertions of skepticism, there is a lot of covert spiritual searching going on among young, ambitious, and brilliant people, who often want to look like they don’t care too much about answering the foundational questions or that they had found them in whatever they were furiously pursuing.
  • The operational principle of the natural world is that the strong eat the weak. So if it’s natural for the strong to eat the weak, and if we just got here only through the natural, unguided process of evolution, why do we suddenly turn around when the strong nations start to eat the weak nations and say, that is wrong? On what basis can we do that? On what basis can we say that genocide in the Sudan, where a strong ethnic group “eats” the weak one, is wrong? If there is no God, then my views of justice are just my opinion - so how then can we denounce the Nazis?
  • Jesus’ response to Nathaniel
    • “An Israelite in whom there is no deceit”
      • Jesus can see Nathaniel to the bottom but is nonetheless gentle with him
    • “I saw you under the fig tree”
      • Fairly insignificant detail that shows that this is truly an eyewitness account. Fictional stories don’t have details that don’t move the plot forward and raise distractions like this
    • “Because I said to you, ‘ I saw you under the fig tree,’ do you believe?”
      • Jesus gently rebukes him for being too quick to believe.
      • Nathaniel reveals the two ends of the spectrum for belief
        • To remain forever skeptical is intellectually and morally self-defeating.
        • To surrender yourself to the first idea that you hope would solve your needs is not helpful. Turn to Christianity only if it’s true.
  • Verse 51
    • Reference to Jacob’s vision of the ladder between Earth and Heaven in OT
    • Angels are a sign of the royal presence of God
    • Jesus is making the claim here that he is the way into the very presence of God
    • Jesus will always exceed our expectations and be more than we can ask for or imagine

Chapter 2: The Insider and the Outcast

Takeaways

  • The Insider: highly moral insider, a leader in the civic and religious establishment (Nicodemus)
  • The Outcast: social, moral, and religious outsider, an outcast (the Samaritan Woman)

Key text - John 4:7-20

A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” (For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.) The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?” (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.) Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” The woman said to him, “Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock.” Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water.” Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.” The woman answered him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband’; for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true.” The woman said to him, “Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship.”

  • Context of Samaritan Woman
    • Jews and Samaritans were bitter enemies. Centuries before, most of the Jews were exiled to Babylon by their conquerors. Some of the Jews who stayed behind intermarried with other Canaanites and essentially formed another tribe, the Samaritans.
    • Samaritans took part in Jewish and Canaanite religion so Jews considered them racially inferior and heretics.
    • It was scandalous for Jewish men to speak to any strange women in public
    • The Samaritan Woman came out to draw water at noon alone in the heat.
      • Even among women, the Samaritan woman was a moral outcast like due to her promiscuity
    • So, Jesus is deliberately reaching across a racial barrier, a cultural barrier, a gender barrier, and a moral barrier to radically reach the outcast.
  • Jesus’ approach in ministering to Samaritan Woman
    • Clearly open and warm to her but still confronts her in a gentle, artful way
    • Mentions living water then shifts conversation to her history with men
      • Jesus: “If you want to understand the nature of this living water I offer, you need to first understand how you’ve been seeking it in your own life. You’ve been trying to get it through men, and it’s not working, is it? Your need for men is eating you alive, and it will never stop.”

Key Text - John 3:1-7

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. 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.’

  • Context of Nicodemus
    • Nicodemus is a civic leader, a member of the Sanhedrin, the assembly of Hebrew high court judges
    • He is prosperous
    • He is a devout and upstanding Pharisee, yet the fact that he calls Jesus “Rabbi” indicates that he is more humble and open-minded than his Pharisee peers
    • Nicodemus is an altogether admirable person - pulled together, successful, disciplined, moral, religious, yet open-minded
  • Jesus’ approach in ministering to Nicodemus
    • Jesus is more forceful and direct
    • Jesus confronts Nicodemus right up front, saying, “You must be born again”
    • Rather than pressing Nicodemus on his lack of satisfaction (“I can give you living water”), Jesus presses Nicodemus on his self-satisfaction (“you must be born again”)
  • Both the pimps/prostitutes and the religious elite are equally lost as far as God is concerned.
  • Sin is looking to something else besides God for your salvation.

Chapter 3: The Grieving Sisters

Takeaways

Key Text - John 11:17-44 Now when Jesus came, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days. Bethany was near Jerusalem, about two miles off, and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them concerning their brother. So when Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, but Mary remained seated in the house. Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you.” Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” Martha said to him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.” Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?” She said to him, “Yes, Lord; I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world.” When she had said this, she went and called her sister Mary, saying in private, “The Teacher is here and is calling for you.” And when she heard it, she rose quickly and went to him. Now Jesus had not yet come into the village, but was still in the place where Martha had met him. When the Jews who were with her in the house, consoling her, saw Mary rise quickly and go out, they followed her, supposing that she was going to the tomb to weep there. Now when Mary came to where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet, saying to him, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in his spirit and greatly troubled. And he said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to him, “Lord, come and see.” Jesus wept. So the Jews said, “See how he loved him!” But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man also have kept this man from dying?” Then Jesus, deeply moved again, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone lay against it. Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, “Lord, by this time there will be an odor, for he has been dead four days.” Jesus said to her, “Did I not tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God?” So they took away the stone. And Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I said this on account of the people standing around, that they may believe that you sent me.” When he had said these things, he cried out with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out.” The man who had died came out, his hands and feet bound with linen strips, and his face wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.”

  • Mary and Martha say the same thing to Jesus: “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”
    • But Jesus’ responses are sharply different
      • To Martha, Jesus essentially rebukes her doubt and gives her hope.
      • To Mary, Jesus enters into her sadness and grief and cries with her
  • Jesus’ response in the text shows that this is not a made up story
    • Imagine that you were making up a story about a divine figure who had come to earth in disguise as a human being. In the story, this divine being arrives at the funeral of a friend, knowing that he has the power to raise his dead friend to life and that he is about to wipe away all the mourners’ tears in the space of a few minutes. What would be this person’s most likely inner emotional state? You’d expect him to be rubbing his hands with anticipation, saying under his breath, “Wait until you all see what I’m about to do!” Or perhaps you as the story writer would just keep him speaking in an elevated tone: “I am the resurrection and the life.”
    • Why was Jesus so strong one minute and so vulnerable the next?
  • Jesus is fully God and fully human
    • Direct and indirect claims to divinity
      • Luke 10:18 - Claims to have seen the prehistoric fall of Satan from heaven to earth
      • Mark 2:5 - Forgiving someone else for their sins
      • John 8:58 - Takes on the divine name, I am
      • John 20:28 - Thomas calls Jesus “my Lord and my God”. Jesus accepts this worship without comment
    • No other religion other than Christianity believes that the transcendent creator, the author of life, became a weak, limited mortal who felt the full horror of death.
  • The Trilemma (from 19th century Scottish Presbyterian minister John Duncan and 20th century author C.S. Lewis)
    • Jesus was either
      • Liar (conscious fraud)
      • Lunatic (self-deluded)
      • Lord (divine)
    • Jesus could not have been just a great thinker, teacher, or prophet
  • Objection #1: How can you trust the historical reliability of the New Testament accounts?
    • There is good evidence about Jesus’ existence and life from historical documents outside of the Bible. (Even secular historians don’t disagree with Jesus’ existence)
    • There is good scholarship to make a convincing case that the Gospels are not oral tradition filled with legendary materials but an oral history, based on eyewitness accounts.
    • Jesus’ divine claims extend beyond the Gospel accounts themselves (look at documents of early Christian communities)
  • Objection #2: Why couldn’t he have been a conscious fraud?
    • Consider the fact that all of Jesus’ first followers were Jews 1st century Jews had a view of God that was so transcendently high that they refused to even write out or pronounce his name. Any suggestion that God could become a weak, flesh-and-blood human being would have been violently denounced.
    • This means that the idea of a God-man would never have occurred to Jewish men or women, no matter how high their regard for their leader.
    • A charlatan would not have ever tried to convince Jewish followers that he was divine because chances of success were nil (history proves this to be the case. Jewish figures who claimed to be the Messiah were never worshiped as divine)
  • Objection #3: What if Jesus was sincerely self-deceived?
    • It is impossible to convince LOTS of people that you are God if you have any normal flaws of human character like selfishness, impatience, uncontrolled anger, pride, dishonesty, and cruelty. People close to the divine claimant would see the flaws and see through the illusion
    • Historical scholarship shows that, after Jesus’ death, a fast-growing body of people, insisting that they were faithful to Jewish monotheism, began to worship Jesus as the one True God.
    • What kind of life must Jesus have led to accomplish what no other person in history has ever done - convince people that he is the Creator and Judge of the universe?
  • Jesus gives Martha the ministry of truth and Mary the ministry of tears
    • Strength without harshness
    • Unhesitating authority with a complete lack of self-absorption
    • Holiness and unending convictions without any shortage of approachability
    • Power without insensitivity
    • Tenderness without weakness
    • Humility without the slightest lack of confidence
  • Verse 38: Unhelpful translation of “deeply moved,” which contains a Greek word that means “to bellow with anger”
    • Jesus is raging against death, the loss of life, the loss of loved ones and of love
    • He is mad at evil and suffering
  • If God is unhappy with the world as it is, why doesn’t he just show up and stop it? Why doesn’t he just appear on earth and end all evil?
    • The Bible says - and we know deep down - that so much that is wrong with the world is because of the human heart. If Christ had come to earth with the sword of God’s wrath against evil, none of us would have been left
    • God desires all to repent and is patient with evil
  • God the Writer
    • Our relationship to God is more like Shakespeare’s relationship to Hamlet. We’ll only know about God if God has written something about himself into our life, into our world. And he has through Jesus Christ.

Chapter 4: The Wedding Party

Takeaways

Key text - John 2:1-11

On the third day there was a wedding at Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. Jesus also was invited to the wedding with his disciples. When the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus said to him, “They have no wine.” And Jesus said to her, “Woman, what does this have to do with me? My hour has not yet come.” His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.” Now there were six stone water jars there for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons. Jesus said to the servants, “Fill the jars with water.” And they filled them up to the brim. And he said to them, “Now draw some out and take it to the master of the feast.” So they took it. When the master of the feast tasted the water now become wine, and did not know where it came from (though the servants who had drawn the water knew), the master of the feast called the bridegroom and said to him, “Everyone serves the good wine first, and when people have drunk freely, then the poor wine. But you have kept the good wine until now.” This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested his glory. And his disciples believed in him.

  • Context
    • Perhaps just a day or two into the festivities the family ran out of wine, the single most important element of an ancient feast.
    • Not a mere breach of etiquette but a social and psychological catastrophe, particularly in a traditional honor-and-shame culture. Jesus saves the couple from public shame and guilt
    • Why would Jesus decide that a quintessential signifier of all he is about would be to keep a party going?
      • Another indication that this gospel is not mere fiction
    • Master of the banquet was a master of ceremonies. Their goal was to call people to celebrate and to make sure the conditions for that celebration were all in place
  • By turning water into wine and saving the party, Jesus is saying “I am the true master of the banquet. I am Lord of the Feast.” He came into the world to bring joy
  • Everyone knows deep down that something is really wrong with them. That’s why people work so hard, strive to be right all the time, and worry how others perceive them.
  • Jesus, who is incredibly patient and not easily irritated, responds to Mary in an unusually insensitive manner
  • Why does Jesus connect a simple request for wine with his time of death?
    • In Jesus’ mind, he is likely thinking of the fact that in order to bring people joy, he will have to die.
    • “Yes, I can bring festival joy to this world; I can cleanse humankind from its guilt and shame. I have come into the world to bring joy, but, oh, Mother. I’m going to have to die to do it.”
  • By choosing the ceremonial jars (representative of the whole Old Testament sacrificial system), Jesus is signaling that he will fulfill the Law.
  • Every time God chooses a metaphor to help us see him better, it also shows us how he sees us.
  • The metaphor of the bride and bridegroom shows us that Christ absolutely delights in His people
  • Deal with the present by looking to the future
    • Jesus sat amidst all the joy of the wedding feast sipping the coming sorrow so that today you and I who believe in hum can sit amidst all this world’s sorrow sipping the coming joy.
    • We can have enormous stability because of the coming joy
    • As a Christian, you possess something that will enable you to face anything

Chapter 5: The First Christian

Takeaways

Key Text - John 20:1-18

Now on the first day of the week Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early, while it was still dark, and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb. So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him.” So Peter went out with the other disciple, and they were going toward the tomb. Both of them were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. And stooping to look in, he saw the linen cloths lying there, but he did not go in. Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb. He saw the linen cloths lying there, and the face cloth, which had been on Jesus’ head, not lying with the linen cloths but folded up in a place by itself. Then the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed; for as yet they did not understand the Scripture, that he must rise from the dead. Then the disciples went back to their homes. But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb, and as she wept she stooped to look into the tomb. And she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had lain, one at the head and one at the feet. They said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” She said to them, “They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.” Having said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing, but she did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?” Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.” Jesus said to her, “Mary.” She turned and said to him in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means Teacher). Jesus said to her, “Do not cling to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’” Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord”—and that he had said these things to her.

  • Christian faith is both impossible and rational
    • Impossible
      • In our current state of flawed moral and spiritual sensibility, no on has within them the ability to produce vibrant faith in Christ
      • Jesus had been telling his disciples over and over that he would die and then rise on the third day. Yet despite these warnings, Mary Magdalene comes to Jesus’ tomb, she runs back and says “They’ve taken the body.”
      • All the compelling evidence for Christianity may be laid out in front of us. The message might be as clear as can be. But there is in every human being an inherent spiritual blindness.
      • Encourage unbelievers to doubt their doubts and be skeptical of their own skepticism
    • Rational
      • Neither the Jews nor Greeks nor Romans thought the bodily resurrection of an individual was possible. The Greeks (and later the Romans) believed that all things physical, including the body, were the source of weakness and evil, and the spirit the source of strength and goodness. And so salvation was the liberation of the soul from the body. The resurrection of the body in that view would not be a desirable thing at all. What god would want to do such a thing?
      • Jews had an utterly transcendent view of God.
      • Ancient people believed all sorts of claims about magic, miracles, supernatural beings, and powers that we don’t believe today. Therefore people reason that Jesus’ followers would have been very gullible about the claim of his resurrection.
        • This is wrong. The Gospel accounts of the resurrection do not show the disciples expecting the resurrection at all. They required the same kind of multiple sightings and hands-on, eyewitness experience that we would require in order to convince them that Jesus was really alive.
      • Nowadays we are taught to think of faith as something that relates inversely to logic and evidence - as you get more facts and certainty, your need for faith goes down. But that’s not what Christians mean by faith. Faith doesn’t mean hoping in what isn’t true; it means certainty about what you can’t see.
      • Mature faith is an act of a whole person, so your intellect has to be committed as well as your will and emotions
  • Who is the first eyewitness? (Another reason that the resurrection accounts are not made up)
    • Mary Magdalene, a woman!
    • Women could not testify in Jewish or Roman courts. Their testimony was considered unreliable and so inadmissible as evidence.
    • This means that if you were fabricating an account of the resurrection in order to promote your religion or your movement, you would never make a woman the first eyewitness
    • Don’t believe in Christianity because it’s exciting and practical and relevant - believe it because it is true
    • God confronts people who are seriously mistaken or wayward not with intimidating declarations but with gentle, probing questions
      • Asking questions helps the person to recognize their errors, to discover and embrace truth from their hearts
  • Jesus could have easily arranged to make anyone the first messenger. He chose her. And that means Jesus Christ specifically chose a woman, not a man; chase a reformed mental patient, not a pillar of the community; chose one of the support team, not one of the leaders, to be the first Christian.
    • Jesus’s action is his way of saying, “It doesn’t matter who you are or what you’ve done. My salvation is not based on pedigree, it’s not based on moral attainments, raw talent, level of effort, or track record. I have come not to call those who are strong, but to call those who are weak. And I am not mainly your teacher but your savior. I’m here to save you not by your work, but by my work.”
  • Thesis statement of chapter: “So faith is a gift of God. Built on thinking and evidence, activated by God’s miraculous intervention, based on the radical discovery that Jesus has accomplished everything we need and we can be adopted and accepted into God’s family, and all of this by sheer grace.”
  • You have to admit you are a sinner. You have to believe he died in your place. You have to rest in his work rather than your own good works. You must commit your life to him in gratitude for his finished work. But there are so many pathways to this kind of faith.

Chapter 6: The Great Enemy

Takeaways

Key Text - Matthew 3:13-4:11

Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to John, to be baptized by him. John would have prevented him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?” But Jesus answered him, “Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he consented. And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him; and behold, a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.” Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And after fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. And the tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” But he answered, “It is written, “‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” Then the devil took him to the holy city and set him on the pinnacle of the temple and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written, “‘He will command his angels concerning you,’ and “‘On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.’” Jesus said to him, “Again it is written, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’” Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. And he said to him, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.” Then Jesus said to him, “Be gone, Satan! For it is written, “‘You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.’” Then the devil left him, and behold, angels came and were ministering to him.

  • The word then which connects the two chapters can be seen as the word therefore
    • After great blessing and success came trial and temptation
  • It’s almost like Matthew is trying to tell us, “Read my lips: No one is exempt from trials and tribulations. In fact, this is often what happens to people God loves very much, for it is part of God’s often mysterious and good plan for turning us into something great.”
  • True goodness and godliness attracts and stirs up demonic powers to attack
  • To believe that moral goodness will result in a good life is also a simplistic understanding of God’s purposes for su. He is infinitely wise, can see the end from the beginning, and has good purposes for us hidden on the far side of the wilderness. Just as Job’s patience in suffering turned him into an example that has helped hundreds of millions of people, and just as Jesus’ temptations prepared him for his history-changing and world-saving career, so God’s spirit leads us into our wilderness for our good.
  • To face true evil, wwe need to answer three questions
    • Who is the enemy?
      • You can’t confine evil to human choices, or in social systems, or in psychological problems, or in a simple lack of education
      • Historically, there are two main rivals to the biblical view of evil
        • Dualism or Ancient Polytheism
          • Says that there are equal and opposite forces of evil and good in the world (God isn’t really any more powerful than Satan in this view)
        • Monism or Pantheism
          • Says that all reality is one. Everything is part of God; God is everything.
          • Individual selves, in this view, are something of an illusion.
          • The pantheist can look at a person dying of cancer or extreme poverty and say, “If you could only see it from the divine point of view, you would realize that this also is God.”
      • Modern secular culture regards evil in a rather fragmented, incoherent way, borrowing from both of these views
        • World is not created by a single, all-powerful Artist but as the product of violent and uncontrolled forces.
        • Human beings are not inherently evil.
        • Evil is all in the eye of the beholder. It is an illusion
      • Christianity says there’s more evil than you can account for in the world just from the cumulative effect of wrong individual choices. And you acn attribute some of that evil to actual demonic forces.
      • Christianity is not dualistic. The devil is a fallen angel leading fallen angels, and God is infinitely more powerful.
    • Where is the front?
      • Satan wants Jesus (and us) to lose the certainty, the assurance of God’s full acceptance, of his unconditional fatherly love
      • When we are saved, we now want to turn away from any sin or thing that displeases our Father. We no longer do so out of fear of punishment or out of need to prove ourselves. Those motives are exhausting and inevitably create narrowness, self-righteousness, and hardness of heart.
      • Instead, out of grateful joy and sheer desire to resemble, delight, and serve the one who saved us, we amend our lives with a new effectiveness. The fears and anxieties and insecurities that haunted us begin to dissipate. Success and failure in our work neither puffs us up nor devastates us. We are not driven by unhappiness over our looks, or our status. We are not deflated by criticism as we were before
    • What is our best defense in this fight?
      • Our best defense in the fight against the influence of Satan’s lies is generally not the production of incantations but the rehearsal of truth
      • Jesus uses Scripture every time he is assaulted by the devil
      • As we fight Satan’s lies in our hearts, and his works in our world, let’s rely not only on the Word of the Lord, but also on the Lord of the Word.

Chapter 7: The Two Advocates

Takeaways

Key Text - John 14:15-21; 25-27

“If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you. “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. Yet a little while and the world will see me no more, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.” “These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.

  • Here Jesus says that the Spirit is not merely a force (or some nebulous divine energy), but a person.
  • Greek word for “Helper” or “Counselor” or “Advocate” is paraklete
    • Para = to come alongside
    • Kaleo = to call or direct someone
  • This word is a union of prophetic challenge and priestly support
  • Jesus Christ is the first advocate (1 John 2:1-2) and the Spirit is the second
  • If the Bible is wrong and there is no God, if there is no bar of justice, then what hope is there for the world? If there is a bar of justice, then what hope is there for you and me?
  • What is a defense attorney to you? In court, you disappear into your advocate.
    • If you stammer but your lawyer is eloquent, what do you look like in court?
    • If you are ignorant but your lawyer is brilliant, what do you look like in court?
    • In some cases, you may not be required to speak or even to appear personally in court. Your attorney appears in your place, as your substitute.
  • Jesus Christ can say, in effect, “Father, my people have sinned, and the law demands that the wages of sin be death. But I have paid for those sins. See, here is my blood, the token of my death! On the cross I have paid the penalty for these sins completely. Now, if anyone were to exact two payments for the same sin, it would be unjust. And so - I am not asking for mercy for them; I’m asking for justice.”
  • We will never understand the work of the second Advocate until we understand the work of the first.
  • The first Advocate is speaking to God for you, but the second Advocate is speaking to you for you.
  • The Holy Spirit’s ministry is much like that of a floodlight. If you walk by a building at night and it’s floodlit, you say “Look at that beautiful building”. You may not even see where the slight is coming from. The floodlight’s job is not to show you itself but to show you the beauty of the building, to throw all of its features into relief.
  • It’s the job of the second Advocate to argue with you in the court of your heart, to make the case about who you are in Christ, to show you that you’re rich. And it’s your job to listen.
  • How can you listen better? Dwell in the means of grace - Word, prayer, worship, sacraments, church community
  • The world “deals” with fear and offers “peace” by telling people to think less and ignore it.

Chapter 8: The Obedient Master

Takeaway

Key Text - Matthew 26:36-38 Then Jesus went with them to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to his disciples, “Sit here, while I go over there and pray.” And taking with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, he began to be sorrowful and troubled. Then he said to them, “My soul is very sorrowful, even to death; remain here, and watch with me.” And going a little farther he fell on his face and prayed, saying, “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.” And he came to the disciples and found them sleeping. And he said to Peter, “So, could you not watch with me one hour? Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.” Again, for the second time, he went away and prayed, “My Father, if this cannot pass unless I drink it, your will be done.” And again he came and found them sleeping, for their eyes were heavy. So, leaving them again, he went away and prayed for the third time, saying the same words again.

  • Christians went to the lions singing hymns and into the flames with their hands raised in prayer. Then why was Jesus not calm or poised or at peace? Because Jesus was dying a different type of death by drinking from the cup.
  • “The cup” was like the electric chair in ancient times; it represented a judicial death.
  • In Scripture, “the cup” refers to God’s own judicial wrath on injustice and evildoing.
  • The essence of sin is “I do not want to have God in my life.” And the essence of God’s judicial wrath is to give us what we have asked for.
  • In his passive obedience, Jesus took the penalty we deserved; he died the death we should have died.
  • In his active obedience, he lived the life we should have lived.
  • To the first Adam, God said “Obey me about the Tree, and I will bless you”. To the second Adam (Christ), God said “Obey me about the Tree (cross), and I will curse you”
  • Christ is not just a dying savior (passive), he is a doing savior (active)
  • Example of Christ’s righteous imputation
    • On a TV detective show some years ago I saw a story of a man in his eighties, an ex-Marine, sadly broken down and accused of a crime. Two big, strapping military police and a snarling Navy lawyer come to arrest him. They are speaking brusquely and barking orders when suddenly one of the old man’s friends reaches over and pulls away his tie. There is revealed the Congressional Medal of Honor, which he had won decades before at Iwo Jima. At the sight of that medal, the lawyer and the MPs snap suddenly to attention. They are not saluting him personally, of course. In himself he might be a criminal and in many other ways is certainly a failure. But for the sake of the medal - which represented not only his sacrificial deeds but the valor of hundreds of others in military service over the centuries - he was treated with honor.
  • Jesus in the garden is an unparalleled model of integrity
    • In the dark, with nobody looking, knowing that he is called to do the hardest thing anyone has ever done, Jesus still does the right thing
  • Jesus in the garden is a great model for prayer
    • Jesus is brutally honest about his feelings and desires and yet absolutely submits to the will of God
    • Guide for prayer: you must neither repress your feelings nor be ruled by them.
  • Jesus in the garden gives a tremendous example of patience with people In the depths of his agony, Jesus finds something affirming to say to his drowsy friends: “Spirit is willing but the flesh is weak”

Chapter 9: The Right Hand of the Father

Takeaways

Key Text - Acts 1:9-11

And when he had said these things, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. And while they were gazing into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes, and said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.”

  • What is the ascension?
    • It is a new enthronement for Jesus, ushering in a new relationship with us and with the whole world.
    • It is not simply Jesus leaving the surface of the earth.
    • Ascension to a throne is not defined by change in physical elevation but rather a change in legal status and relationship
  • At the ascension, Jesus leaves the space-time continuum and passes into the presence of the Father. He is now from heaven actively engaged in the continuation of his mediatorial work all across the globe.
    • He is still our prophet - teaching and instructing us with his word, but now he does it everywhere through the Holy Spirit
    • He is still our king - but now he guides and directs his entire church through the spiritual gifts he gives his people
    • He is still our priest - counseling, and supporting us, but now representing us before the very face of the Father
  • “Right Hand of the Father”
    • In ancient times, whoever sat at the right hand of the throne was something like the king’s prime minister, the one who executed his kingly authority and rule in actual laws and policies.
  • The deepest desires and longings of our hearts can be engaged with and satisfied in Christ in a powerful way
  • Sovereignty of God illustration
    • Tim Keller: “The reason I am in New York City today is because one particular teacher in seminary convinced me to go into Presbyterian ministry. He was teaching that semester because, as a British subject, he had been granted a visa to come and teach. He had had a great deal of trouble getting that visa and had almost given up coming to the United States until someone in the State Department helped his application along. That was possible because a member of the family then in the White House was attending our seminary. That family was in the White House because the previous president had to resign. The reason he had to resign was because of the Watergate wire-tapping scandal. The Watergate scandal only came to light because a night watchman noticed an unlatched door. If that door had been latched, and the scandal had not happened, and the changes in government had not occurred, I never would have sat under that professor. At this point I ask my hearers: ‘Are you glad Redeemer Church is here?’ When they nod, I respond, ‘Then Watergate happened for you.’”
  • The ascended Christ guarantees that you can know you are forgiven, accepted, and delighted in by God the Father because He is our high priest

Key Text - Hebrews 7:25-27

Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them. For it was indeed fitting that we should have such a high priest, holy, innocent, unstained, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens. He has no need, like those high priests, to offer sacrifices daily, first for his own sins and then for those of the people, since he did this once for all when he offered up himself. For the law appoints men in their weakness as high priests, but the word of the oath, which came later than the law, appoints a Son who has been made perfect forever.

Key Text - 1 John 2:1-2

My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.

  • The verdicts of the earthly courts don’t matter when you know how you are regarded by the heavenly one, the only one who mattered, in the only verdict that would last.

Chapter 10: The Courage of Mary

Takeaways

Key Text - Luke 1:26-45

In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. And the virgin’s name was Mary. And he came to her and said, “Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!” But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be. And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.” And Mary said to the angel, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?” And the angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born[d] will be called holy—the Son of God. And behold, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son, and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren. For nothing will be impossible with God.” And Mary said, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her. In those days Mary arose and went with haste into the hill country, to a town in Judah, and she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. And when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the baby leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit, and she exclaimed with a loud cry, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! And why is this granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For behold, when the sound of your greeting came to my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord.”

  • The annunciation account shows us how we are like Mary, receiving a message about Jesus without physically meeting him.
  • Some say all religions are wrong, others that they are all equally right. This position aims to prevent the attitude of deadly triumphalism that many religious people - including Christians - have adopted, with tragic results. It is also motivated by underlying fear. If one grants that any religion made unique claims, then one would have to decide whether or not those claims were true. People often do not want the responsibility of having to ponder, weigh it all, and choose. Among young secular adults it is common to adopt this belief that all religions are roughly the same.
  • Mary was a disgraced, pregnant, unwwed peasant (poorest of the poor because her family offered two birds) girl. Yet she is one of the most famous human beings in the history of the world.
  • What made Mary great? It is how she responds to God and his message. She does four things
    • Think
      • Mary wondered or deologistico (used logic and reason)
      • Mary was Jewish. The news certainly did not fit with what she knew.
      • Mary had different kinds of rational barriers to believe the prophetic message but the pens she had wwewre just as big as ours.
    • Express her doubts openly
      • Two kinds of doubt: dishonest and honest doubts
        • Dishonest doubts are proud and cowardly; they show disdain and laziness
        • Honest doubts are humble because they lead you to ask questions, not just put up a wall; they are open to belief.
    • Surrender completely
      • Jesus tells us to count the cost. Instead, many people try to negotiate it.
    • Find community
      • Mary goes to someone with the Holy Spirit (Elizabeth)
  • Jesus will win salvation through weakness, suffering, and death on the cross. He will achieve power and influence through sacrificial service.