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University SDA Church- East Lansing

Jesus On Religion

Jermaine Gayle

Jesus on Doctrine

And welcome to night 2 of our series, Jesus on Religion.

I actually took the liberty of labeling the stool for you.

We're going to talk about this in just a second, but if you don't mind just bowing your heads with me as we pray together.

Holy Father in heaven, we would like to thank you for another day of life.

We ask you now, Lord, that as we come to your word that you may give us even more life, and life abundantly.

We ask there Father that you be our teacher this evening, and that you may guide us into all truth.

We pray, Lord, that as we allow our lives to be molded by your word, that we too may see what you intend for us, is our prayer in Jesus' name.

So you remember we talked about the 4 witnesses.

If you were here last night, you remember that each witness has a name according to John chapter 5.

And these were the names that Jesus gave to those 4 witnesses.

We're going to go through them again because we're laying the foundation, okay?

And who was the prophet that Jesus made reference to?

And then the second witness was the works of God.

Now these 2 are hidden back here, and I'm going to see if you can...

I have no prizes, by the way, on this quiz in particular, but let's see if you have it.

What's the other witness according to Jesus in John chapter 5?

So we have the Word of God and the voice of God.

We say that if someone wants to live a stable life, This would be the foundation on which they must rest their experience and their existence.

If a society wants to be stable, that society must sit on this solid foundation.

So our personal lives depend on these 4 witnesses stabilizing us.

I want to talk to you about a man by the name of Thomas Jefferson.

I'm talking about the Thomas Jefferson, the president, the third president of the United States.

Now I didn't know this about Thomas Jefferson, but he actually really made an impact in the world at the age of 33.

Anyway, the point is Thomas Jefferson was very very smart.

He was the kind of intellectual that really made an impact in the world around him and Thomas Jefferson actually wrote in the Declaration of Independence, He was the 1 that coined the term that all men are created, you know the rest of it, equal.

Thomas Jefferson really had a challenge though, because really 1 of the 4 witnesses made him very uncomfortable.

1 of the 4 witnesses made him very uncomfortable.

1 of the 4 witnesses made Thomas Jefferson so uncomfortable that he decided to take a razor blade and cut out portions of the Bible.

Thomas Jefferson decided that he would take the volume, the book, this witness, the Word of God, and he would narrow it down to about 44 pages.

Thomas Jefferson actually, like I said, he took his razor blade and cut out portions of the Bible.

Everything that he thought that did not represent in the Gospels, that did not represent God, he felt, had to be removed.

So he cut it out and he narrowed down the life of Christ in the Gospels to what he called just simply the morals and the philosophy of Jesus.

He said, I have performed this operation for my own use by cutting verse by verse out of the printed book and arranging the matter which is evidently his and which is as easily distinguishable as diamonds in a what?

So he calls the rest of the Bible a dunghill.

And his goal was to isolate the diamonds from it.

So he cut pages out, portions out, sections out, and that's what he was doing.

The result is an octavel of 46 pages of pure and unsophisticated doctrines.

Thomas Jefferson took his Bible, cut it up, and he said, what I wanted was pure and unsophisticated doctrines.

He said, The care I've taken to reduce the Gospels to their core message should prove that I am in fact a what?

That is to say, a disciple of the doctrines of Christ.

Doesn't mean that you're a real Christian if you take a blade to the scriptures and cut out the portions that you don't feel comfortable with.

But he had some doubts though about his rendering of the gospels.

In fact, Thomas Jefferson did not want his book to be published.

The time, the point in which it was found actually, was after he was dead.

And then the Thomas Jefferson Bible was published.

He hid it in his room and he would read it every single night, his own volume of the Word of God, 44 pages.

Oh friends, are you like Thomas Jefferson?

See, you may not put a blade to the Bible, but there are portions of it that you may feel very uncomfortable with.

People are doing this more and more today, more than ever.

They try to dissect and they try to resist or deny portions of the scriptures.

By the way, there was a curator who found the book of Thomas Jefferson, and this is what he had to say.

His name is a man by the name of Cyrus Adler.

Cyrus said, In 1886, I was engaged when a fellow of Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, in cataloging a small but very valuable Hebrew library.

He wrote, amongst the books were 2 copies of the New Testament.

The 2 highly edited English New Testaments he discovered also came with a note indicating that they had once been the property of Thomas Jefferson who had used them to make an abridged version of the Gospels.

Jesus on Scripture

Before I begin, I just want to give you sort of a back story as to why we started this series of meetings.

We discovered, having done some research, that there are a lot of people who believe that there's some kind of discrepancy between Jesus and religion itself.

There are a lot of people who are saying nowadays, I am a believer but I am not religious.

In fact, just this very week, weekend, we went door to door and got to interact with some people and I remember running into someone that told me that very same thing I'm not religious I'm a believer but I'm not religious the question is is there a difference between the 2 and how do we view Jesus within this context?

How do we analyze his teachings and what do we learn there as we dive deep into Scripture?

We are going to spend our time in the Word of God.

That's where we're going to put our focus this evening.

But before we do, why don't you bow your heads with me as we pray 1 more time.

Loving Father in heaven, we ask in a very special way that you guide us and that you lead us into a study of your word.

We pray, Lord, that you may allow our minds to comprehend that which you would have us learn.

We thank you, Lord, for those who are here in this meeting, and we thank you for those who are watching online as well.

We pray for a blessing on this time is our prayer in Jesus name.

I Really appreciate the fact that you've made it a priority to come out this evening And join us as I begin.

I want to share with you a story the year was about 1986 and just like any normal day, a man by the name of Walter McMillan was doing his business.

He was going about his business, doing his work when all of a sudden he found himself in quite a conundrum.

Walter McMillan was on his way home when he got arrested.

He was arrested, and when he got arrested, that's when he learned that he was being charged for murder.

45-year-old Walter McMillan realized only later that with regard to his case there was but 1 person who testified in his case.

I have a picture on the screen of Walter McMillan.

He is the guy that's further up front and then beside him is his lawyer.

Actually Bryan Stevenson wrote a book called Just Mercy and in the book he tells the story of Walter McMillan and what happened to him.

There was 1 witness and then there are other witnesses too that knew where Walter McMillan was on the day of the crime there were 11 witnesses that were ignored with with regard to his case and were never consulted in fact Walter McMillan the day of the murder was at a church gathering.

And all of his church friends were there at the gathering, it was at a cookout, and Walter McMillan got arrested and no 1 else was consulted regarding the case.

1 of the things you begin to learn in life is the importance of consulting the right witnesses with regard to a case.

Walter McMillan, by the way, was given his case, went through the courts, and then he was finally convicted and was serving a life sentence.

Actually, not a life sentence, but he was actually serving the death sentence, awaiting the day of his execution.

Bryan Stevenson, the lawyer, actually spoke about the experience.

As a lawyer, he found out that it's important to consult all the witnesses.

And he says this, he said, he remembered, He says, Stevenson, quoting him here, he says, you can't understand, he says, after remembering what his grandma had taught him, you can't understand most of the important things from a distance.

He was taught to examine the details, to question all the witnesses, and that's what he did.

And eventually Walter McMillan served 6 years in prison and then finally released.

No longer serving the death penalty, he was released because someone decided to consult the witnesses.

He had talked to everyone, and finally the truth came to light, as he realized that this man was innocent.

What if we decided to consult all the witnesses in order to get to the bottom of what is really true?

What if we were to spend the time to dive deep and to understand all the things concerning Jesus instead of Assuming that we know all about him We turn in our Bibles to the book of John.

We're in John chapter 5 John chapter 5 and there the Bible gives us the scene the setup Jesus is at a moment in his ministry.

It actually actually is a very decisive moment in this ministry in fact at this point in time, Jesus himself was on death row the Bible tells us in John chapter 5 and verse 18 the Bible tells us there therefore the Jews sought all the more to do what?

To kill him because he not only broke the Sabbath but also said that God was his what?

Regarding Jesus' case it was because of what He did and also because of what He claimed.

There was a man who really needed some help.

He was lame and Jesus saw him on the day of the Sabbath.

They had gathered together wanting some help from Jesus.

And Jesus extended the hand and said, Listen man, I realize that you're in a bad situation.

So what I'm going to do for you is to perform a healing.

Jesus said to him, rise, take up your bed and walk.

The day on which the man was healed was the Sabbath.

And we'll talk more about the Sabbath a little bit later.

But the Jews really had a problem with that.

But not only did they have a problem with that, when Jesus actually did this work and they found out about it, they figured this was enough to kill Jesus.

But then having a conversation with Jesus, they found out that not only did Jesus heal on the Sabbath He also made himself equal with who?

With God They clearly understood his claim They understood that Jesus was claiming God ship and that to them was blasphemy.

There's a biblical principle that serves as sort of a checks and balances when it comes to analyzing the cases that we see around us and especially this case in particular.

Jesus here making his claim is the kind of person who would substantiate those claims.

In other words he doesn't grab this claim out of mid-air.

He grounds it on something very very important that we're going to spend our time looking at this evening.

The biblical principle can be found in Deuteronomy chapter 17 and verse 5.

There the Bible says, "...in the mouth of 2 or 3 witnesses shall everything be established." Not 1, but how many?

Now usually when you find yourself in a situation where you are being charged with a particular crime, It's important that witnesses are consulted and not just 1 but more than 1.

When Jesus was confronted by the Roman judicial system, which at the time was being administered by pilot he too was being convinced and convicted on the basis of false testimony.

When asked, is it true that you are what they accuse you of?

Jesus responded to Pilate by saying, I'll read it to you, Jesus said, you say rightly that I am a king.

"'For this cause I was born, "'and for this cause I came into the world, "'that I should bear witness of the truth.

"'Everyone who is of the truth hears my voice.'" So you could say that Jesus stood for truth.

So then the question is, is he really truthful?

And how do we test his honesty in the things that he says.

Jesus had always taught the value of multiple witnesses, and in this moment of finitude, meaning this is the last moment of Jesus' life as he's before Pilate, where words can be used against you in this case.

In the presence of false accusers, false accusers and misunderstandings, he states that he is the witness to the what?

His modus operandi was confined to the space of truthfulness.

Because of his primary responsibility of truth-telling, He couldn't skirt the blurry lines of a white lie or any lies at all because he would render his mission a failure.

Jesus on Shame

Loving Father in Heaven, we thank you Lord for this new day that you've given to us.

This Holy Sabbath day, Lord, we come to you asking you that you be our teacher.

And that you guide us through this wonderful passage of Scripture.

And that you may allow us to experience that change that transformation that we so desperately need.

We come to you now Lord asking that you take over we pray all these things in Jesus name, Amen.

I was reminded to tell you that tonight we do not have a meeting within the series that we've been doing Jesus on religion we've been meeting every night throughout the week we started on Monday night and all the way to Friday night and we had a small group gathered here to study the Word of God and to talk about some important subjects.

Now some of you might have been watching online, we do not, again just a reminder, we do not have a meeting tonight, We will be meeting tomorrow night.

Continuing in the same vein of the series, Jesus on religion, today we approach this very important subject, shame.

It's the common lot of humanity to feel some measure of shame.

Back in 1858, a man by the name of Abraham Lincoln, you might know him.

An Illinois senator was running the race and he had, he was battling between, there was a battle I should say between him and another senator who was also running, a man by the name of Stephen Douglas.

The votes were cast and finally the results came in and Abraham Lincoln lost the race to the Senate.

Abraham Lincoln was hurting because he had invested so much time and so much resource into this 1 race and still he lost it.

It's 1 thing to lose a race but it's another thing to lose a race publicly.

Usually when you lose a race like that publicly, there is some measure of hurt, some measure of shame that comes with it.

I mean, no 1 likes to be on the losing team.

If you are a sports fan, if you go to the stadium and watch a game of football or basketball or any 1 of these famous sports, you really don't celebrate when the team, your team loses, do you?

You don't call everyone home, let's get together, our team lost.

In fact, sometimes we walk away in sadness, our hearts hurting, and we feel a measure of shame.

We don't want anyone to realize or see us representing that team.

Some still do boldly, but again, we feel a measure of shame.

Abraham Lincoln was really hurting, and a friend of his came to him and asked him, Abe, how do you feel?

And he described this feeling in a way that I think really describes all of us in our adult life.

He said, I feel like the boy who was walking and stubbed his toe really hard.

He was too hurt to laugh about it, but at the same time he was too big to cry about it.

The pain was felt to the point where really it hurt so much that he couldn't respond with any kind of joy to what he was experiencing.

But he was too old, too big to cry about it because he knows that as an adult you just don't cry when you get a boo-boo.

Can you imagine that just this week I saw a child you having an experience you know she and she was walking around and and bumped into something and got hurt.

And the first response of the child was to go find her mother and held up her hand.

And immediately the parent knew what was going on.

And the parent was, Let me kiss it for you.

You walk outside, you stub your toe and you just roll on the ground.

And then someone walking up to you, you got a boo-boo, didn't you?

Friends, in life, there is a particular stage in our experience in life when really our response to pain is very different.

Where we don't expect any measure of consolation and we don't expect to cry about our pain.

In fact, we come up with sayings such as this 1, you just can't cry over spilled milk.

You make a mistake, don't cry over spilled milk.

I've been reading a rather really good book.

A man, I forgot the name of the author, but it's called The Seasons of a Man's Life.

And the authors were driven to do some research because they recognized that really there is nothing written, no research done on the experiences that we have in adulthood and how we deal with them.

So he tries to identify the seasons a man goes through once he hits his 30s.

How he deals with his problems, and how he deals with his frustrations, and how he deals with his pain.

When you get to adulthood, it almost seems like a very lonely place.

I imagine the man in our story today, he's an adult, but his life was characterized by shame.

He was, like Abraham Lincoln said, he was really hurting, but he couldn't laugh about what he was feeling.

But he was too old, so he couldn't cry about it.

So his only option was to Sit on the roadside and try to make the best of the situation.

If you'll turn with me in your Bibles to the book of John.

I know that all of you are Bible students and you've been studying your Bible so wonderful.

And really the Bible doesn't give us a back story to what's going on.

It engages immediately when he's recognized with a theological question rather than his story of his story.

This man, he is old enough, we learn later, But the situation is this, Jesus had been teaching, he's been preaching, he's been discussing some very profound truths in John chapter 8.

And when we did our series, we talked about the fact that in John 8, Jesus talks about the validity of witnesses and the 4 witnesses we've identified, the prophets, the scriptures, the word of God, the prophets, the scriptures, the voice of God, and the works of God I should say.

And as they're walking, Jesus is passing by this adult, this man.

But he's not just an adult, he's an adult in pain because he's been blind from the very day he was born.

And so what he's doing here on this roadside is sitting down and begging in the dark.

Maybe there was a, maybe a container there resting right beside him, as he waited for maybe a Roman coin, a denarii or a drachma to be dropped into that pan.

But you see, when you're blind, your hearing, hearing, I should say, your ears, develop a level of sensitivity, an extreme sensitivity to sound.

A man by the name of Stevie Wonder, you might know Stevie Wonder.

You've probably heard his name, hopefully.

Anyway, you're not listening to his music, that's what I was gonna say.

Nonetheless, Stevie Wonder grew up in Detroit.

He was in a classroom 1 day as a young person, and in that classroom, a little mouse was running around.

And Stevie Wonder was in this classroom by the way he was blind and so so really no 1 really paid attention to Stevie Wonder because he was in a very unfortunate situation.

She saw something in everyone and praised God for teachers.

And this teacher recognized something in Stevie.

And so Stevie Wonder was in this classroom And the teacher then said to him, Stevie, I want you to find the mouse.