By means of introduction to this, I just want to share with you how much we actually pursue a good and a full life.
We all want to have a full life.
So much so that back in the 1930s and 40s, Harvard started a study that has been running for 75 years.
They were college students at the time.
I imagine there's not going to be much more than 75 years, bearing in mind that life expectancy hasn't changed that much.
But they've run a study for 75 years trying to uncover the key to long-term happiness.
We're so invested in this living a full life, living a happy life, living a life that's rich, that we will invest all kinds of efforts in achieving that.
And we think of that fullness in a number of ways.
I mean, for example, I want to live a life that will be admired.
I want to be thought of as a good person.
I lend my lawnmower to the neighbors when they ask.
I worry about it the whole time, but I still lend it.
I want a life that's rich with experiences.
Every now and then, Facebook reminds me of things that just make me smile.
You know, the holiday I went on 2, 3, 4, 5, 7 years ago, it lets me know the things that I've done, which reminds me of the things that I still have on my bucket list.
That's what they call it when you get to 50.
I also want a life of deep friendships.
And that 75-year-long study that I said, their conclusion to a happy life, the number one thing is deep friendships, deep relationships.
I want to know and I want to be known.
I want a life marked by personal achievement.
And by that I mean I want to make a difference in the world.
I want people to remember me for my contribution to their lives.
And I want a long life, too.
When I'm gone, I want people to say, he had a good life.
And friends, one of the things that our culture sells us in terms of pursuing that life is this.
A full life means I need freedom.
That full life demands freedom.
We need to be free to pursue life to the full.
Free to define who we are.
Free to make choices for ourselves.
Free to eat Chinese food when I want.
And when I do, freedom to choose the dumplings and not the chicken feet.
As I was offered in recent times.
Freedom to choose who I love.
Who I marry.
I am so committed to this freedom.
And I think we are as a culture that we will fight to the death for this freedom.
And we do it because our lives are that important to us.
Well, today we are going to look at the Gospel of John, as I have already said.
And John was a man who met Jesus.
He lived alongside Jesus.
He learned from Jesus.
He saw how Jesus lived and died.
And lived again.
That's a spoiler.
Sorry.
But he saw how Jesus lived and died.
And John's conclusion was that there is life to the full to be had.
And if you read his book, the Gospel of John, you'll also find out that that life, that life, abundant life, life to the full, is a key theme of his.
But when it comes to pursuing life to the full, one of the things that John says is, there are a number of wrong ways of pursuing fullness of life.
There are a number of wrong ways, but only one right way.
And with John's help, we're going to look at three of the wrong ways that he presents.
And the one right way.
Okay, so let's start with the three wrong ways.
And I'm going to move a little bit around the Bible, around the Gospel of John at least.
So you're still in the same book.
The verses will come up on here if you're not very good at navigating the Bible.
But if you are, by all means, you can flick to them.
So the three wrong ways.
A self-improvement.
You've got these on your bulletin.
Self-improvement, self-indulgence, and social structures, or political structures if you prefer.
So first, self-improvement.
Very early in John's book, in fact, if you've got one of these Bibles, it's still on that first page, you know, first open page at the bottom here.
Chapter 3.
Very early in the book about Jesus, John introduces us to a man called Nicodemus.
Nicodemus wanted fullness of life.
And he was trying to build that life for himself through self-improvement, the religious branch of self-improvement.
He worked hard at his religion.
He was perhaps the best, the Dalai Lama of his time, if I dare say.
He knew all about God.
But he couldn't give you life.
He had even learned and the title Teacher of Israel.
So he knew the Bible better than anyone.
Before Wikibible, there was Nicodemus.
If he had a question, he could answer it.
But he didn't know as much as Jesus.
And Jesus, when he came to Jesus, Jesus told him the truth.
Jesus said in verse 3, John chapter 3, verse 3,
Truly, truly, truly, I say to you, unless a person is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
Unless a person is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
What does that mean?
Well, it means that no amount of effort, no self-help strategy, no action that we can perform can get us what we desire.
They've explained the reality of sin last week.
It's universal, he said.
It's total.
It affects every area of our life, he said.
Deep down, we know.
I'm not sure how to cough with these, I'm sorry.
We know that brokenness exists within us.
We know that we're not perfect, but still we try to fix it ourselves.
I used to live like this.
I don't live quite so much like that as I should, I guess.
I used to live like this when I was a kid.
I used to be the good kid.
I used to be the kid with a clean room.
I used to be the kid at school who sat in the front two rows of the classroom.
As you know, that's the two rows that no one sits in generally.
I used to be the kid with the top button done up.
We had uniforms with ties and jackets.
And the middle button on my blazer done up.
I used to be the kid who always had an answer to the questions, always did his homework,
always, always behaved in a polite way.
I was the good kid.
And I thought that that goodness actually was guaranteeing God's favor.
And then my parents' relationship started to fall apart.
And suddenly, I was faced with the reality that my goodness, it wasn't such a simple transaction
between me and God.
I was good, and then he followed suit.
I cleaned my room, as one of the kids said.
I get to heaven.
It didn't work like that.
I was building my life on how I lived.
But no amount of effort, self-help strategy, no action that we can perform can do that.
We can't earn it.
It has to be given to us, is what John was saying, what Jesus was saying to John.
We can't earn it.
It has to be given to us.
Now, the second thing that John takes us on a trip to, and it's the very next chapter,
so he goes from self-improvement to self-indulgence.
In the very next chapter, we meet the Samaritan woman.
And I'm skimming over these because we have actually been doing a John series on these,
so you should be reasonably familiar with them.
And if you're not, it's page 888.
Please, by all means, either go back to our sermon catalogs online,
or at least read the chapter later.
See, the Samaritan woman, she was also trying to build a life for herself.
But for her, it was through sexual freedom.
She had five husbands, we find out in this story.
We don't find out why she had five husbands,
but we do know, from the fact that she draws water in the middle of the day,
that her choices had consequences.
She was on the outside socially.
She wanted to connect with someone so much.
She wanted to belong, to love, and to be loved,
more than anything else.
And she proved it by sacrificing everything else for this goal.
But five husbands later, she was further away than when she started.
The man she was with now wouldn't even marry her.
And again, Jesus spoke challenging, truthful words to her.
Jesus says to her, and this is a paraphrase of John 4, verse 10,
which you can see in full on the screen.
Jesus said to paraphrase,
You are drinking from the wrong well.
And we know, even 2,000 years later, we know this is still the case,
and yet people still drink from that well.
I know this song because it's been played on the radio.
I don't own it, but I know this song,
and it's Beyonce's song, All the Single Ladies.
Hands up if you do know it, if you have heard of it.
All the Single Ladies.
Beyonce is a bit of a representative kind of person,
a woman who really tries to fight for women's rights and women's freedoms.
And she writes this song, All the Single Ladies,
at the end of a three-year relationship that ended up breaking up.
And the problem was that she broke up,
the relationship broke up,
and then when she started to date other guys,
the other guy, the first guy, got jealous.
And so she writes this song as a response.
She gets all the single ladies in the room to stand up
as part of the singing when she sings it live.
And then she says to the girls that when the guy gets jealous,
when you exercise your freedom of choice in terms of sexual partners,
you tell him this,
If you like it, you should have put a ring on it.
Why does she say that?
Because she recognizes that in pursuit of sexual freedom,
somehow it's a two-edged blade.
It's cutting her even as she's pursuing it.
She's finding herself in a situation where people
within this kind of realm of sexual freedom
won't commit to each other.
And she doesn't like it.
So she encourages her fellow women to hold out
until the man commits.
We idolize absolute freedom.
We see it as the way to have fullness of life.
But absolute freedom isolates us.
And what Jesus says to the Samaritan woman is,
you need to come to the source of life.
If you want fullness of life, you need to come to the source.
So we've got self-improvement, self-indulgence,
and then social structures.
The final wrong way that I'm going to share from John's book,
there are others, but the final wrong way I want to share it,
is a little bit further into the book.
And this is chapter 6, so if you turn over to page 891,
if you've got these Bibles.
This time a crowd of over 5,000 people
was trying to build a life for themselves
by choosing the leader who could provide it for them.
This massive crowd had followed Jesus,
just to paint the picture.
They'd followed Jesus into a remote area,
no shops, not even a McDonald's,
and it's pretty hard even in Australia
to get into a place where you're a long way from McDonald's.
There was nowhere to buy food,
and so Jesus fed them all miraculously.
They ate until they were full,
and there were still leftovers,
way more leftovers than they even had to start with.
So they thought,
this man will make a good leader.
We like what he says,
and he can provide what we need.
So they planned to make him a leader by force.
They choose the one that they thought
could provide the circumstances
that they needed to thrive in life,
and they choose to try and make him king.
Isn't that an interesting thing?
We still idolize that concept,
us choosing our leader.
Democracy, again, our ultimate ideal for leadership.
It's something, again,
that we would fight for in our culture.
We would fight and die for
the preservation of democracy,
and it still doesn't work.
Even when we choose the right people,
we choose the right people for the wrong reasons.
It's all about me exercising my freedom
to do it my way,
to get what I want,
to get the conditions in life that I need,
that I desire.
But it doesn't work.
Do I need to play the trump card?
Or do we go to Boris now?
Or do we go to our own culture now,
where we're starting to see politicians make decisions
that we just couldn't have imagined
10 or 20 years ago?
Friends, whether we pursue life independently,
through freedom of choice,
or through political or social structures,
it doesn't work.
John presents them as three wrong ways
of pursuing life.
But even as he says that,
he presents it in the context of the life of Jesus,
through whom he has found the one right way
to pursue life.
You see, we know that life is an internal thing.
We know that life is found in connection.
Surprise, surprise.
We know that life is affected by leadership structures.
These things are all real things.
But John found all of these things
in one person.
Jesus.
And he said,
Jesus came to give this fullness of life
that we pursue,
to give it away.
So who is Jesus?
Not who do we think Jesus is,
but who is Jesus?
Well, John opens up by actually answering that question
at the very beginning of chapter one.
And so we're back into chapter one now,
and you can stay here for the farewell now.
John opens up by saying that Jesus is the word,
or the logos in Greek.
It's an interesting word,
if you'll excuse a pun.
It's full of meaning
for pretty much everyone,
really, in a sense.
Because it represents something
that we're actually trying to pursue.
So for the Jews,
the concept of the word
carried thoughts of God's powerful
and effective action
in creation,
rule,
judgment,
and deliverance.
For the Greeks,
logos was a philosophical term.
It was a shaping,
ordering,
and directing principle in life.
Something that was at times
personified in literature,
but never in reality for them.
In the Chinese Bible,
as we try and translate this word logos
into Chinese.
I think I've got this right.
Is it Tao?
Tao?
Yep.
Tao is,
again,
it's a philosophical term,
a philosophy,
about the proper path in life.
And that's a very,
very narrow definition of it.
If you're a Taoist,
then you'd probably be offended by that,
but there is so much to Taoism beyond that.
But the concept is kind of similar.
It's this philosophy of living life well,
richness of life.
And so there are these kind of terms and themes
that resonate within all kinds of different cultures
because we all pursue life.
But none of these terms are actually meant to define Jesus.
So as John writes,
in the beginning was the word,
he's not saying,
so this is the one who is the actual person
of the Greek term.
They,
those terms,
are meant to carry,
are to tell us
that whoever can carry this title
must be important.
They're not meant to define Jesus
so much as he is meant to actually say,
John is meant,
trying to say that Jesus is the one
who all this,
you know,
this thing that we're searching for
and we just can't quite grasp a hold of,
he is the one
who actually has it.
John's point is that we're all searching
for that full life
and that Jesus is the answer to that search.
Jesus is meant to show us
what life is all about.
If you're looking for answers,
then Jesus is the person to come to.
If you don't know Jesus,
John is saying that Jesus is a big deal
and you should find out about him.
In fact,
John goes on to say,
Jesus is more than a big deal.
He is actually the ultimate being.
Jesus is God himself.
Not a minor God
like the JWs will try and convince you.
He is God.
We read in those words,
nothing was made
except through him.
He made everything that was made.
He is God.
So he has more than answers.
And then next thing John does
is he introduces Jesus as the creator,
the creator of everything
that has been created.
In our first talk in the series,
if you remember,
we looked at Romans chapter 11,
the last few verses,
33 to 36.
And we looked at who God is
in relation to us.
He is the source.
From him and through him
and to him are all things.
So he doesn't need us.
We need him.
The word,
God,
creator.
These are all massive categories.
And then John becomes a little bit more
specific or relevant to us,
starts to land them
in the next two categories that he uses.
Jesus is described
as the source of life
and light.
The source of life.
Life.
That thing that we are trying to get right.
That thing that frustrates us.
That promises so much
and even kind of delivers at times.
But that just keeps on letting us down.
Do you know that frustration?
Do you feel it at times?
Does it keep you awake at night?
Maybe I can illustrate
with a simple example.
We've had quite a few babies
born in recent times.
Have you ever watched a baby sleeping?
Ever looked at how peaceful they are
when they're asleep?
And envied them
that peace that they have?
Every now and then,
as you'll know,
as a baby,
even while they're asleep,
their face can scrunch up.
And even at that point,
your heart goes out to them.
I mean,
they're only dreaming.
They're perfectly comfortable
where they are.
They're only dreaming
or maybe they've got a bit of wind
or something like that.
But still,
you find yourself,
sort of,
your heart reaching out
to that baby
and promising them
that you love them,
that everything's all right
and that you'll do everything
to keep it that way for them.
You make massive promises
knowing that you just can't keep them.
Life isn't that simple.
But for Jesus,
it is.
Jesus is the source of life.
And Jesus breaks this open
in two ways.
He talks about life
in the sense of quantity
as we go through John
and life in the sense of quality.
So in the sense of quantity,
in John 3, 16,
while he's talking to Nicodemus,
Jesus says,
For God so loved the world
that he gave his only son
that whoever believes in him
should not perish
but have eternal life.
The man who was trying to live
the self-improvement lifestyle
was doing it for a reason.
He was religious
because he wanted
a part of heaven.
He was angling
for eternal life.
And Jesus claims
that he is that source,
the source of that life.
So quantity,
but also quality.
In John 10, verse 10,
Jesus claims to be
the source of abundant life.
He says in verse 10,
chapter 10, verse 10,
The thief comes only
to steal and kill and destroy.
I came that they may have life
and have it abundantly.
And in John 14, 6,
John again describes
Jesus as the life.
He says,
I am the way,
the truth,
and the life.
No one comes to the Father
except through me.
Abundant life,
full life,
everlasting life.
And this is not
an in the future
kind of promise.
The force of Jesus' words here
are that we find life in him
when we believe in him.
Not at some point
in the future,
but as soon as
we believe in him,
that life begins.
But how does this work?
I mean,
you could be tempted to say,
life doesn't seem any better
or any longer
as a Christian
than it does
for people who aren't Christians.
If anything,
this is something
that even Jesus said,
life gets harder
as a Christian.
and all the more
for knowing
that God can sort out
any hardship we face
if he chooses to.
He could make life dreamy
if he chose to.
But I think
this is part of the problem
that John is trying
to break us out of
with these big terms
that he's using.
Our dreams are born
of our desires.
As Dave said last week,
we're all just so busy
playing God,
exercising our freedom
to indulge ourselves,
elevating our opinions
about what that requires
to the status
of unquestionable.
Exercising our freedom
to indulge ourselves,
that's what sin is.
we're so busy
playing God
that we don't know
how good it is
to be reconnected
to God.
And even despite
being post-enlightenment,
we can't see
that this world
is suffering
because of our freedom
of choices
that we've pursued.
This mess is ours.
The darkness
in this world
is ours.
I can get concrete,
more external,
things like global warming,
plastics in our oceans,
a Western lifestyle
that's sustained
by unethical
business practices,
relationships that are
less permanent
and seemingly
more painful than ever.
And despite
our best efforts,
we still struggle
to set things right.
The modernist dream
is ended.
We've given up on that.
Apart from God,
we live in the dark.
And John says,
into this darkness
has come Jesus.
The only light
is Jesus.
God himself
come to us.
The one who reveals
the character
of the God we ignore.
Think about that.
Because whether you believe
in John or not,
this is a huge claim.
Whether you think
John is right,
surely this Jesus
is at least worth a look
if someone's going to
claim these things about him.
So what kind of light
is this Jesus?
What kind of God is he?
Well, the best way
I can sum it up
is this.
We got into this
huge mess ourselves,
pursuing life
our own way.
And the best way
I can suggest it
is this.
That Jesus
is the ultimate
cross-cultural
church-planning
missionary
to a people
in an absolute mess
of their own making.
He's ultimate.
And if we just skim
through this first 18 verses
or skim over the first
15 or so of them,
he's ultimate
in the sense
that he's God himself.
We see that in verses 1 and 2.
He's cross-cultural
and we can see that
in verses 3 and 9
that he came from heaven
to earth,
creator to creature.
He's a church planter.
In verses 10 to 13,
he came to gather
those
who received him
to himself.
The image John uses
here is so intimate
as well.
It's a family gathering.
He's gathering the children
to himself.
And he's a missionary
and we see this
in verses 14 and 15.
Jesus is God himself
who came and lived
among us.
The word dwelt
or tabernacle,
set up his tent,
set up his home
among us.
He was a carpenter
for crying out loud.
He could build homes.
He is so glorious,
says John,
in these verses.
And literally,
he is so glorious
that it was painful
to look at him
and yet he chose
to become a brother,
a son,
a neighbor,
a friend,
a savior.
through Jesus
we see God.
All the goodness
of God.
John is saying
that if we want to know
what it's like
to live in the light,
if we want to know
fullness of life,
then we need to know
this Jesus.
Jesus is a source
of the life
that we long for.
And this Jesus
is the God
who gives life away.
That thing
that we so relentlessly
and frustratingly
pursue,
God gives us.
He's so full of life
that he actually
can pour it out
into us.
John says in verse 14
that Jesus is full
of grace
and truth.
Grace
in the sense
of its undeserved
favor.
It's a gift.
Truth.
Well,
I think you know
what that is,
don't you?
I know some of you
have been stretching it
with your children
telling them
they get to heaven
if they clean their rooms.
But,
you know,
we know that's wrong,
don't we?
We know what truth is.
We really want truth
but we don't always like it
when it starts being spoken
to us.
The good life
that we strive for
within,
the rich life
that we pursue
by any means
we see fit,
the prosperity of life
we try to nurture
through political
or social systems,
the life that eludes us,
Jesus is giving it away.
And to explain how,
he brings up
John the Baptist again,
the one who was supposed
to witness to Jesus,
Psalm from verses 6 to 8
in this first chapter.
It's no coincidence
because John the Baptist
did witness to Jesus
and in this chapter as well,
just not far forward
in verse 29.
And the very first time
John the Baptist
witnesses to who Jesus is,
he explains how grace works.
Look at verse 29.
John the Baptist
sees Jesus coming toward him
and he says this,
Behold the Lamb of God
who takes away
the sin of the world.
Jesus is a lamb.
It's a metaphor,
not literally a lamb.
But in Isaiah 53.6,
Isaiah prophesies
about the coming Savior
and he uses this same metaphor.
Isaiah 53.6,
All we like sheep
have gone astray.
We've turned everyone
to his own way.
Does that sound familiar?
3,000 years ago?
Same words apply.
And the Lord
has laid on him
this Savior to come,
the iniquity of us all.
Their sin and ours
is to time and time again
play God
and refuse to let God be God
as Dave talked about last week.
And through grace,
fullness of life
comes to us free.
And the truth of it,
it comes free
because we
could not achieve it ourselves.
So Jesus came
to bear the cost.
Jesus,
our God,
took the punishment
we deserve.
And he calls us
to receive him.
To believe.
To simply believe.
Friends,
we strive for this
fullness of life
and we get tasters of it.
We do.
At times it seems
like we get it all.
But then something happens
that kind of lets us know
that we were
kidding ourselves.
Nicodemus,
he got closer to the good life
than any of us ever will.
But still,
he came to Jesus
with questions.
Still,
he just wasn't sure.
And the Samaritan woman,
man,
she pursued life
harder than most of us will.
But still,
she came up dry.
Still,
she thirsted
for something more.
And the 5,000,
well,
they saw an opportunity
to secure their lives,
so they thought.
But still,
they were looking
at the darkness
in the world
and trying to preserve
themselves from it
instead of running
toward the light.
And then Jesus
breaks in.
He shows us
that self-improvement,
self-indulgence
and social structures
are not enough.
We can't make this life
for ourselves.
We need him
to give it to us.
And it begins now
as we learn
to abide in him,
to connect back to him
relationally.
We need to come
to Jesus
to find true life
and freedom
and security
in him.
Let me pray.
Father God,
I pray that for
those of us here
who know this truth,
that we will be encouraged,
that it will build
our confidence
in the truth
of coming to you,
receiving Jesus
and believing in him.
And for those of us,
Lord,
I pray that
who don't yet know you
as their savior,
we pray that you would
show yourself to them
through the words
of the gospel of John.
And at least,
Lord,
be interested enough
to inquire
about who this man is,
who this God-become man is
that John makes
such big claims about.
And Lord,
as we daily
seek to
relinquish
our God-like control
of our own lives,
help us
to
be nourished
by being
reconnected to you.
Help us to see life
as,
the fullness of life
as beginning
and ending
with being in a
right relationship
with you.
Fill us to
full with the life
that only you can provide,
we pray.
In Jesus' name.
Amen.