John 5:39
39: You search the scriptures,
because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that
bear witness to me;
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Different Priorities
 What we see in this story are the different
priorities between the religious folk and Jesus, who is demonstrating the
priority of God. The Pharisees have really gotten a bad rap because the
Pharisees were a lay movement. They were non-professionals who cared
deeply about God. They felt that all of life should come under the law of
God. They were against this separation of church and state. God is God and
everything on planet Earth should be under the law of God. I want to be
honest. I would probably have been a part of the Pharisees. They were the
purists. They were a movement that was a reaction to the watered down,
institutional religion of the Sadducees. The Sadducees were the educated,
professional priests who had been polluted by materialism and cultural
humanism. The Pharisees focused on rules and laws. They were committed to
the scriptures. They thought that knowing the Scriptures was the same as
knowing God. Jesus said to the Pharisees, "You search the scriptures
because you think that in them you have eternal life. Life is not in the
Scriptures. Life is in me." Because they were focused on rules and
laws and knew the Scriptures inside out, they focused on the righteous. In
other words, they believed that God rejoices in those who keep the law and
condemns those who don't. They believed that the angels in heaven strike
up the band for those who are obedient. But, when did angels in heaven
strike up the band? Is it for the ninety-nine who are keeping the law? No,
the music plays when one repents who is not where they are supposed to be.
They focused on rules and laws. Jesus focused on knowing God and loving
people. Jesus said, "You all cling to the letter of a particular
passage while you miss the meaning of scripture as a whole. And the
meaning of scripture as a whole is to love God and grab people."
There is no rejoicing over the ninety-nine who are doing what they're
supposed to be doing. There's rejoicing in heaven over the one who
repents. About 12:30 that night we heard scratching at the back door and
Toby came in. We forgot that he had chewed up the chair. There was
rejoicing for the one who was on the outside had now found his way back
home.
II. A Lost Coin
Turn
Everything Upside Down
Here is the second story, the story of a lost coin. In verse eight, a
woman had ten silver coins. She lost one and literally stopped everything
and turned the house upside down to find the one coin. Who hasn't had the
experience of losing your car keys? You have to be someplace in a
half-hour and you look where the keys always are. Where are my keys!
Everything stops! I'm upstairs looking through my closet, thinking what
pants did I wear yesterday. Then I go downstairs to the coat closet,
thinking what coat did I wear yesterday. Everything stops. One day Kristen
called Carolyn from school and said, "Mom, I left my retainer on my
lunch tray." Carolyn and Kristen went through the big trash container
behind the school. Everything stops. Do you know what this story is about?
It's about kids who lose retainers and dogs who chew them! This is the
gospel! God is a God who turns everything upside down seeking lost people
with an obsessive passion. |
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