4 addresses on Bible Characters

… Wollen Sie bitte umdrehen? Zuerst einmal zum 2. Korinther 5. 2. Korinther 5, Vers 14 2. Korinther 5, Vers 14 2. Korinther 5, Vers 14 2. Korinther 5, Vers 14 2. Korinther 5, Vers 14 2. Korinther 5, Vers 14 Ephesians, Kapitel 4, Vers 28. Lasst ihn, der gestohlen hat, kein Stahl mehr, sondern lasst ihn lieber Arbeit, mit seinen Händen das, was gut ist, arbeiten, das er vielleicht geben muss, dem, was er braucht. Kolossiens, Kapitel 4, Vers 7 All my state shall Tychicus declare unto you, who is a beloved brother and a faithful minister and fellow servant in the Lord, whom I have sent unto you for the same purpose, that he might know your estate and comfort your hearts with Inesimus, a faithful and beloved brother, who is one of you. They shall make known unto you all things which are done here. And then lastly, the epistle to Philemon. Philemon, Vers 10 I beseech thee for my son Inesimus, whom I have forgotten in my bonds, which in time past was to thee unprofitable, but now profitable to thee and to me, whom I have sent again. Thou therefore receive him, that is, mine own bowels, whom I would have retained with me, that in thy stead he might have ministered unto me in the bonds of the gospel. But without thy mind would I do nothing, that thy benefit should not be as it were of necessity, but willingly. For perhaps he therefore departed for a season, that thou shouldest receive him for ever, not now as a servant, but above a servant, a brother beloved, specially to me, but how much more unto thee, both in the flesh and in the Lord. If thou count me therefore a partner, receive him as myself. If he have wronged thee, or oweth thee aught, put that on mine account. In meditating upon some of the many bible characters included the text of the word of God, so far we looked at Lydia on Saturday night, we looked at Nicodemus on Sunday night, we looked at Sarah, Rebecca and Rachel at the women's meeting Tuesday afternoon, and we thought a little bit about Gideon in the youth fellowship on Tuesday night. And then on Wednesday we looked at Timothy. And tonight, as will be obvious by the scriptures that I've read, we are going to spend a little time thinking about what scripture says about Inezimus. This is one of those occasions where we won't be going over a major exposition of doctrine. No doubt you'll be thanking the Lord for that. But if it's not one of those occasions where the mind will receive major instruction, certainly what is contained in the scripture is such as is well calculated to touch our conscience, and we certainly need that. And as we consider the relationship of Philemon and Inezimus, and Paul and Inezimus, and Paul and Philemon, it may well be that our hearts are touched as well. I like to give value for time, and I would normally, I suppose, have some slight misgivings that what I have to say may well be considered by many to be very lightweight. I might even be struggling to keep speaking till about half past eight. And I like to give full value for all this energy and prayer that you've put in to coming here tonight, some of you travelling great distance under grave difficulty. But we'll take it as it comes. I feel it right that we should dwell on this tonight, and we'll see how we get on. This little epistle, Philemon, is something of an addendum, a little bit added on. We have the major teaching epistles, in particular the seven major teaching epistles of the Apostle Paul. The foundation epistle, Romans, the top stone, Ephesians, both instructive, instructional rather than corrective, and then in between that we have the five corrective epistles, in the order in which they come, Corinthians, Galatians, Philippians, Colossians, Thessalonians. Now in each of them there is the same trend, indicated early in scripture by the distinction, but the relation between chewing the cud and the production of the cloven hoof. Or in the language of Isaiah 30 verse 21, that you'll hear a voice behind thee saying, this is the way, walk ye in it. And if you haven't heard it before, or if you have heard it before, hundreds of times the major epistles in the New Testament are built up in the same way. First of all, a teaching part, a doctrinal part, this is the way, the truth of God outlined, and then the hortative part, exhortations based upon the teaching, walk ye in it. Now after those major teaching epistles, you get something of the same order of things in the pastoral epistles, to Timothy and to Titus, and lastly here, Philemon. And so, if this is the last, before the Holy Ghost presents to us those of a special nature, or for a specific particular audience, as in Hebrew James, Peter, Peter, and then the final round up of the general truth in John's epistles, before the prophetic outline in Revelation, we can expect that in this particular epistle of Philemon, so nicely poised between the various parts of the New Testament, we can expect a link between the two, and so it is. And we can expect a living demonstration, a manifestation of the truth that has been put in the first part, or the earlier part of the New Testament. So we have the teaching epistles, the pastoral epistles, then we have this sandwich between those and the general epistles, we have the epistle to Philemon. Now I'm not going to go through it, but I want to consider and make a minor, if you like, a minor character study of this man Enesimus. We learn from the text here that he had been a slave, and legally and officially he still was a slave. He was, we might say, in the employ, more precisely I suppose in those days, he was under the ownership, the proprietorship of Philemon. And to compound his position, he was not only a slave, but he was a runaway slave. He'd run away. He was in bonds. He thought that he could escape by activities and energy and a strategy of his own, and he surreptitiously in some way got away from Philemon and he ran away. A reminder to all of us, if we are believers, that there was a time in our spiritual and moral experience where we thought we'd broken free from all the things that would captivate us, but unbeknown to ourselves at that time, we were still really in deep bondage. And Enesimus compounded this, it would certainly seem by inference, we can infer from things that are said by Paul to Philemon, that before he ran away, he filled his pockets with some of the belongings of Philemon in those days. Activities punishable by the death sentence. So that was Enesimus, that was the mess he'd got himself into as a result of his own activities. And whether or not we recognised it or not at the time, we were in a similar spiritual moral position as a result of our own activities on our own behalf. We can well understand what is said again in the pastoral epistle, Titus is it, if we were to be saved, it was not by any works of righteousness that we could have done. Our father, happily, bit like Jonah, Jonah remember, he ran away and he got further and further away until he realised that like the psalmist, like the younger son in Luke 15, the further he went as a result of his own activities, the more he was getting into a cul-de-sac, a dead end, he realised that God had his eye upon him. Now God had his eye upon Enesimus for blessing. And in a way that we don't know, Enesimus was brought into contact with the great apostle Paul as a result of which he trusted the Lord, his sins were forgiven, he was liberated out of the bondage of sin and he was truly free, something that he'd always wanted to be but could never achieve, always looking over his shoulder, always having a conscience and yet now, spiritually and morally, he'd been set free from the burden of sin. Not only had he been converted through the service of Paul, but he developed so quickly, remember, we were challenging ourselves on Wednesday night, was it, by looking at what scripture says through the epistles, in the record that is given chronologically, that Timothy was no flash in the pan. As soon as was reasonable, he began to be a help in his local assembly and step by step, he was given opportunity for latent gift to develop until he became a major servant in the work of the Lord. In association with Paul, who could see of him, he worketh the work of the Lord even as I do. Now how many years were involved, I don't know. But it would seem that Enesimus, from what we are told about him, he was willing to help and he was recognised to have an ability to help by this major worker in the service of the Lord, the Apostle Paul. And furthermore, very quickly, he settled into the assembly at Colossae, which is why we read from Colossians 4, and he was a help locally and as opportunity arose, Paul took him with him and he was able to help Paul. Let us consolidate, those of us who study Timothy, let us consolidate what we've already learned during the week, that if we are to be useful in the service of the Lord, it's no good beginning by imagining a great platform for service thousands of miles away. The way to begin our service for the Lord is in our own locality, in the local assembly, to which the Lord has attached us. If any gift, any major gift is going to come to light later on, it will come to light, subject as we said the other night, to the elder, more mature brethren being wise, discreet, observant, and giving latent gift the opportunity to develop, but it will be normal that someone like Enesimus, brought into a local assembly, will stick in, he will apply himself, he will read the scriptures, he will pray every day, he will take every opportunity to be at every assembly function, unless he's physically or medically prevented, as his commitments allow, and it will be normal that he will get on with things in the local setting and that also others will recognize whatever potential there is for special responsibility. Now the Colossians realized, and the Apostles Paul realized, that this man from an extremely difficult background, whether born into slavery or bought into slavery, that here he was, having made a mess of his earlier life, that here he was, he trusted the Lord, he'd been given the opportunity, and he had taken the opportunity to develop in his own soul and to be a help in his own locality and with major servants for the Lord as opportunity gave rise. And here we have a letter from Paul to Philemon. Perhaps Philemon hadn't heard anything about Enesimus from time to time. Perhaps, as a diligent master, he may well have written off Enesimus with others who had likewise run away. And then he gets a letter. How would you and I receive such a letter? We thought the other night about Timothy, 1 Thessalonians 3, remember. If Paul was sending a delegate to inquire how things were getting on in another part of the country, have you and I the moral qualifications that mean that Paul would select us and say, right, there's a job to be done. I know your heart and you know mine. We are like-minded. I want you to go there and represent me. This is the other end of the same story, isn't it? Paul writes to Philemon and said, I've got good news for you. I've got some great news. In a world that's full of bad news, isn't it nice just now and again, just to get a little snippet of good news that we can thank the Lord for. Well, Paul writes to Philemon and he says, I have some excellent news for you. Remember Enesimus, he's trusted the Lord and he's involved in the work of the Lord with me. Oh Enesimus, if he was a normal Christian with normal feelings and normal motives, after his first intake of breath, Enesimus, oh yes, he cost me a packet of money when he ran away for finding a replacement and training him. I trained him up to take a responsible job and then just when he was ready, fully trained, he ran away. Now the flesh in Enesimus would rush to that negative kind of thought. But Paul, who knows his own heart and knows the heart of Philemon, he writes and he says, now look, this is good news. You lost him, but he's now my game. I don't know what sort of professional accountant the Apostle Paul would have made, but he has some very, very good simple teaching, hasn't he, on profit and loss or gain and loss. And he says to Philemon here, look, when he left you, you said, right, I'll have to write that off as a dead loss. It's an irrecoverable debt. I won't get him back and I won't get what he put in his pockets when he ran away. But Paul said, the Lord knoweth all things. The Lord knoweth the heart. And that word that keeps coming again and again into your mind and mine as a blessing and as a challenge. When Philemon realised that Enesimus had run away, if it had been written, yes it was, if it had been written by then, I wonder if he'd read the epistle to the Romans by then. And he could say with the Apostle, all things work together for good. I wonder if he knew that, if he said that when Enesimus ran away. Now this is the sort of practical lesson that we get tonight. How do we react to bad news or apparently bad news? If we have plans to do a certain thing on a certain day or in a certain way or something seems to be maturing along the lines of our expectations, then there's a sudden shift or we get a disappointment or the weather changes or the bank manager doesn't like us any longer and we find that what we'd planned to do, it just can't happen. What is our immediate reaction? Now we are not buffoons. We don't go around with a silly grin on our face all the time. But is there that deep inner conviction that everything that the Lord brings upon us day by day is for our eventual spiritual good? Whether he did, we are not told. But Paul is saying, look back, think back to that day when you realised that your slave had run away. I guess it's nothing new for most decisions to be made on a financial basis. I guess even then, people like Philemon had a budget. And he might well conclude on many a day, I'd like to do that or people would prefer me to do that and then he explained, I'm sorry, the budget won't allow. All the textbooks, even to we lay people, tell us that every decision has a financial connotation. We know that. We don't need the textbooks to tell us. And something like a runaway slave would certainly have affected Philemon adversely, wouldn't it? But would he? Would we in that position say, well, the Lord must have a purpose. And my exercise is to find out the Lord's purpose in bringing this apparently adverse circumstance on me. We have feelings. Won't be sad if we had no feelings. But we aren't governed primarily by feelings. To some measure at least, we are the instructed of the Lord. We have a framework of the teaching of scripture. And we know that the Lord's will for us is far better long term than any of our immediate plans. And here Paul writes to Philemon and says, whether or not you gave thanks at the time, in view of what the answer would eventually be, he says, now I can give you the detail as to why it was proper. Like the one in the Old Testament when an adverse circumstance to hear the Lord's voice saying, this thing is from me. And Paul says, you lost them for a little while, temporarily, he says, so that you and I can have permanent, indeed eternal gain. Wouldn't it be worthwhile? Wouldn't it be a cause for thanksgiving if we realised that every adversity in time provides the springboard for spiritual eternal blessing? Forming us as vessels for the service of the Lord and forming a capacity within us to joy in our God. Now something of this comes through in the little practical lesson that we get here. So the temporary loss of the bond slave, Inezimus, led to, in the mercy of God, to his conversion, to his integration into the assembly at Colossae, and to his being involved in the work of the Lord with the apostle Paul. Now why? Why was that possible? Why did the Lord order the circumstances in that way? We get a clue from the text, of course. Paul said, now look, previously he was unprofitable. He cost you something. It was all negative. All but in future he's going to be profitable, both to you and to me. What a change! And the apostle writes, and he says in his letter, that there's been a tremendous change. Now for that reason I read 2 Corinthians chapter 5. It sums up the Christian teaching. You may well think that there was a moment in your experience, and it was necessary, when everything hung upon your deciding to be a Christian, on you repenting of your sins. And of course that was true as to your responsibility. But even greater issues than that were at stake. In the sight of God, your old life was being brought to an abrupt terminus. It was being brought to an end. And a new life was beginning from that point, which you could never have lived before. Paul wrote to Philemon. I wonder what would have happened. If the day you were converted, the day you trusted the Lord, if someone like Paul had written to your family, your school friends, your neighbours, particularly your neighbours, and said, I've got good news for you, and naming you by name said, the old life of that person has come to a complete end, they've completely changed, and a new life for them has just begun. If you knew that letter was being sent. And it was given to you to put through the letterbox. Would you be happy and say, oh yes, I'd be glad to post that. Or might you be tempted to think, oh I'd better wait and see. Mightn't work out like that. I mightn't get rid of my bad temper all at once. Some of the old habits might stick. I think I'd better wait just to see how it goes before I post that letter to my unconverted relatives, or school friends, or workmates, or as I say, particularly the neighbours. Perhaps it's even more testing if you say to me, right, you trusted the Lord ten years ago, say. You've lived where you are for thirty years, so we're going to write to your neighbours, and we're going to tell them, now your neighbour, Jack, he trusted the Lord, he became a Christian ten years ago. Would you like to search your memory and reply, please, and tell us all the changes you noticed overnight, ten years ago, when your neighbour became a Christian. Would be telling, wouldn't it? Let me tell you one experience, perhaps. I knew a very energetic Christian man. Oh, he was certainly a believer. He'd lived quite a debauched life previous to his conversion. Everything he did, like Saul of Tarsus, everything he did, he did in a wholehearted way, not by half measure. A hard drinker, a hard fighter, everything he did, he did to the ultimate. He trusted the Lord, and a few years later, two people were asked what they thought of this person. Now, the two people that were asked to comment were both Christian believers, and they made what one could expect to be a balanced comment. Now, one Christian, who'd known the original party most of his adult life, he beamed, and he said, the day he trusted the Lord, he changed completely. Someone was asked for his verdict, and he said, he's just the same today as he was before he trusted the Lord, he's still got to be the boss. That's one simple example, I'm sure multiplied by the thousand, in the experience of many people that we've met. You've met it, and in some ways, the life is revolutionized, but if we aren't careful, there are certain things about what we used to be, as attached to the old life, that if we aren't careful, still persist. From childhood, many of us have sung happy little words, like, I may not get it verbatim, something like, things are different now, something's happened to me, since I gave my life to Jesus. Oh, we can sing that at five years of age, can't we? And we can mean it. And trusting the Lord does revolutionize your life. In the sight of God, judicially, the old life is gone, and gone forever, in the cross of Christ. Those of you who are currently going through Romans, will have been through that point, where you come to a point in the experience of your soul, that you know that when Christ died, that brought to an end before God, all my old life, which I used to live, as a natural person, a natural man, as scripture uses the term. To use the term in Corinthians, which we read, and it's put in a very graphic, staccato way, isn't it? Any man, in Christ, there you are, an example of new creation. Old life gone, a new life begun, and yet, we know that it's not always as easy as it sounds. Now, what's the problem? There is a verse, which deals with the problem, Galatians 5, and about verse 17. The spirit lusteth against the flesh, and the flesh against the spirit. Putting it in simple words, when we trust the Lord, God implants within us a new nature, with new instincts. Instincts to please God. Instincts to live in such a way as God can look upon with pleasure and satisfaction. A new life is begun, and in God's sight, the old life is finished. The complication is, that as long as we are in this life, until the Lord shall come, or he shall remove us from the sphere of responsibility, the old nature is left in the kind of things that were common and natural to us before we trusted the Lord. And there is a new nature, again zealous to express itself, and life has this tendency to express the nature of that life, and the new nature implanted within us has a nature according to God, and expresses itself in a way that pleases God. And the tug, this tug of war, only begins when there are the two natures there. The natural man has no tug of war, he only has one nature. But once we've trusted the Lord, and we've had the new nature implanted within us, and we are indwelt by the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit encourages and empowers us to express the new nature according to God in a way that pleases God. So if we find there's a struggle going on, don't be too upset, because it's evidence that there's two natures there. But in every situation, we don't give up, we don't yield to the old nature, we have the opportunity of demonstrating yes to neighbours, yes to relatives, yes to workmates, work to fellow scholars, yes, our lives have changed, yes, as the chorus says, some things happened to me since I gave my heart to Jesus. Well, this had happened in the case of Philemon. It seems to me that after all the teaching epistles and the pastoral epistles, that the way the canon of scripture was built up is that God so controlled things, that before we are turned to the more general epistles and the more special epistles, that we have an example given of what I would call normal Christianity. One example of normal Christianity is, we might say, Philippians chapter 3, an illustration of what happens when the old life comes to an end and we say, well, if God's finished with it, I'm finished with it as well. That's the kind of life I used to live, but now with God's help and by God's spirit, it's now possible. And I intend to take every opportunity to live in a way that pleases God. So Philippians 3 is an outline of normal Christianity. And the example of Enesimus, again, is an example of normal Christianity. We use the word normal rather than average. Whether the average is better, the same or worse than normal is secondary. But here we have an outline of the fact that someone who tried to run away from the circumstances of life, that God followed through and claimed him for himself and produced a revolution in that life, so that the new nature implanted, the new life imparted could express itself, which not only pleased God, although that was of first-rank importance, but that even his old master, according to the circumstances of life, his old master, could receive him back and see the change that had been brought about. I like the way that Philemon, the master, the earthly master, Enesimus, the earthly slave, and Paul, the great apostle, all show evidence of Christian feeling, Christian motive and Christian activity in the way they blend together to demonstrate. Paul says to Enesimus, before you can really serve the Lord with diligence and a good conscience, there are matters that need to be settled, or the old life is finished before God as to judgment. God can say that, and I can yield to that, but what I cannot say is, what happened in the old life's got nothing to do with me, God has brought it to an end in the cross of Christ, and I don't care what happened before. If there's unfinished business, if there are debts to pay, if there are matters to settle, the earlier that's done, the more honestly, the more conscientiously, the more diligently I'll be able to get on with serving the Lord. We cannot just assume that any previous debts can be written off. I did hear of a very good example a few years ago. A man fell into debt in his business, was made bankrupt. A few years later, he was brought to his senses spiritually. He had confessed the Lord previously, but he was restored in communion with his Lord, and the first thing he did, he got a list which, in accountancy terms, had been written off, debts written off. He got a copy of the list, and he went round, he knocked on every door, and he says, excuse me, he says, the world thinks it's written off, but I owe you 120 pounds. He said, well, I want you to know that I'm a committed Christian now, and I don't want to take the easy way out. He says, I cannot pay that all at the moment, but will it be satisfactory to you if I pay you 10 pounds a month for 12 months? And he went round all his creditors like that. Now, you and I would say, yes, of course, that's normal Christianity. That's the obvious thing to do. Oh, but I wonder how many of us, if it had been years back, and it had been written off in everybody's audited accounts, and it was all forgotten about, I wonder how many of us would have had consciences tender enough that the Lord could say, yes, all your debts are written off in heaven, but that doesn't mean you should ignore your responsibilities on earth. And how many of us, I wonder, would be moved, as that man was, to make sure that there was nothing outstanding against him on earth that would bring the witness to his master into disrepute. I'm sure, again, many of you have examples. My time is finished. Thank you for listening to these simple remarks. But I do find in reading these simple epistles, if I take it as an example of normal Christianity, and put my name, whether substituting it for Paul and his attitude, or whether it was put my name instead of Philemon, or whether I put my name instead of Inesimus, I wonder to what extent I would match the plumb line of scripture. Let us leave that with the Lord and think about it. Let us sing in closing our hymn number 288. O thou whose mercies far exceed all we can do or say, as in thy people thou indeed dost daily more display. 288. O thou whose mercies far exceed all we can do or say, as in thy people thou indeed dost daily more display. Blessed art thou, O God, blessed art thou, O God, miner to all my debt and love, thy richest blessing flow. Preserve thy power, O gracious Lord, by thine own powerful hand. Amen. …

… I want to read my scripture now, John's Gospel, Chapter 2. John, Chapter 2, beginning at verse 23 and on into Chapter 3. Now when Jesus was in Jerusalem at the Passover, in the feast day, many believed in his name when they saw the miracles which he did. But Jesus did not commit himself unto them, because he knew all men, and needed not that any should testify of man, for he knew what was in man. But there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. The same came to Jesus by night, and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God, for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him. Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter the second time into his mother's womb and be born? Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again. The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh and whither it goeth. So is every one that is born of the Spirit. Nicodemus answered and said unto him, How can these things be? Jesus answered and said unto him, Art thou a master of Israel, and knowest not these things? Now in chapter 7, beginning at verse 50, Nicodemus saith unto them, He that came to Jesus by night being one of them, Doth our Lord judge any man before it hear him, and know what he doeth? They answered and said unto him, Art thou also of Galilee? Search and look, for out of Galilee ariseth no prophet. Now chapter 19, beginning at verse 38, after the record of the crucifixion and death of the Lord Jesus, we read in verse 38, After this, Joseph of Arimathea, being a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear of the Jews, besought Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus, and Pilate gave him leave. He came therefore and took the body of Jesus. And there came also Nicodemus, which at the first came to Jesus by night, and brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about an hundred pound weight. Then took they the body of Jesus, and wound it in linen clothes with the spices, as the manner of the Jews is to bury. Now in the place where he was crucified there was a garden, and in the garden a new sepulchre, wherein was never man yet laid. There laid they Jesus therefore, because of the Jews preparation day, for the sepulchre was nigh at hand. The Lord will, we hope to make some comment on those verses, but before that we will sing hymn 137. A ruler once came to Jesus by night, to ask him the way of salvation and light. The master made answer in words true and plain, ye must be born again. Hymn 137. Last night some of us began a series of studies on bible characters, and we looked for a little at what the bible says about a lady with the grand name Lydia. But tonight, to be open handed, we are going to look at what the bible says about a man, in this case called Nicodemus. But first of all, there is someone far more important to think about than Nicodemus, and that's the Lord Jesus. It would be no gospel message unless we start and end and concentrate upon the wonderful person that Jesus, the son of God is, the way he's loved us, and the way he gave himself for our sins. Now that will come out as we think about this man called Nicodemus. I suppose Nicodemus is a picture of many people that are here tonight, outwardly nice, respectable, clean, religious perhaps, outwardly everything that anybody that's sensible and fair-minded could demand. But again, before we get to Nicodemus, let us see what the preliminary verses have to say. It said Jesus was in Jerusalem at about Passover time. Now for about 1,500 years, the nation of Israel had made a special point of gathering together at that time of year in order to celebrate the Passover. And when they celebrated the Passover, year by year, they were celebrating the fact that the nation had been in slavery in a foreign country that they didn't belong to, and for a long, long time they were slaves in Egypt, and they were governed by a tyrant who had the title of Pharaoh, and to use the term, they were in bondage in slavery to Pharaoh. And then, mercifully, God, by an act of God, delivered them out of the slavery in Egypt and liberated them, and they went over the Red Sea, into the wilderness, and then a long, long time later, about 40 years later, they eventually got into the promised land that God had always had in mind for them. And thoughts about slavery, thoughts about the goodness of God, thoughts of regret, no doubt, as to why they'd been in slavery in the first place as a nation, all these mixed feelings would be going through their mind. I suppose annual events, birthday celebrations, milestones of one sort or another, tend to bring mixed feelings, don't they? Holiday times, Christmas, New Year. For instance, in my own family, my mother was always sad, always subdued, always quiet about Christmas time and New Year, because over a period of 18 months, she lost her mother, her favourite brother, and her husband, all about holiday time, and forever after that, she had mixed feelings about holiday times. Well, I'm sure the people of Israel, or that part of them who became known as the Jews, they had mixed feelings at Passover time, thankful that they'd been liberated from that bondage, and yet still knowing something of the same feeling, because their land at the time was occupied by the Roman Empire, and they still didn't have full liberty, they couldn't always please themselves. And the Lord Jesus, born into that nation to offer himself as the long-promised Messiah of the nation, one might think that he would have high expectations that in response to all the Old Testament prophecies, that he would be highly expecting that he would be received with great acclaim, and that all the Jews would get together and say, this is it, now Jesus is here, we can have a king of our own. But this is the Gospel that tells us again and again, and we read the words, that Jesus knew, Jesus knew, Jesus knew, he knew everything that was going on, he knew every thought that was in every mind, he knew to what extent every conscience was disturbed, because this is the Gospel that tells us that the Lord Jesus who came to die for us because he loves us, that he is really in his person, he is God, and God's omniscient, God knows all things. So several times in this Gospel we read that he knew all things. Oh, it's still true, God, the Lord Jesus who is God, alive in heaven now, he knows each of us better than we know ourselves. Things that we wouldn't dare tell our best friends, never mind our worst enemies, he knows. He knows us through and through. He's not deceived by anything on the outer surface, he knows us through and through. And he knew all men, and he wasn't deceived by anything on the outer surface. The Bible tells us, doesn't it, that man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh upon the heart. And we are told, as we read, that the Lord Jesus didn't commit himself to any temporary movement amongst the people that seemed to be moving in his direction. It says he knew all men, he wasn't deceived. He knows you and me as we sit here, he knows that while we might appear to be attentive, we know where John's Gospel is, we know that Nicodemus is spoken of in three chapters, chapters 3, 7 and 19, yes, he knows we know that, but he looks upon the heart and he knows our condition of soul, whether our sins have been forgiven or whether they are outstanding against us. And then we read, but there was a man who was interested enough, a bit shy, and a bit reserved, but it says he was interested enough to come to see the Lord Jesus. But it says significantly, it says he came by night. Well you've come here by night, and it's dark. Is there anybody you know, relation, friend, workmate, school friend, anybody that you know and knows you, is there anyone you can think of, about whom you would be ashamed or embarrassed if they knew that on a Sunday night you are sitting here in the Gospel message? Well if you do feel like that, that's apparently how Nicodemus felt the first time he came to the Lord Jesus. It says he came by night. Famous evangelists many, many years ago have equated the three visits that Nicodemus came into contact with the Lord Jesus under three kinds of light. They say first of all he came at midnight, then they say in chapter 7 he was in the twilight, and then in chapter 19 he comes right out into broad daylight. The purpose of a Gospel meeting is that you're not a secret disciple, as was said of Joseph of Arimathea, but that you're prepared to let anybody know that's prepared to listen, I believe that Jesus loves me, that he died for my sins, and that I'm going to heaven to meet him someday, and it's my hope that he's coming for me soon. Now if we are prepared to say that to anyone that's prepared to listen, we're already in the broad daylight, amen to that. If you're still a secret disciple, you don't mind coming to the Gospel meeting, it's light and it's warm and some of your friends come, but there's people that you respect and would like to respect you, well you're not sure whether you'd like them to know or not. Maybe you're still like Nicodemus, that you're in the blackness of night as far as your soul is concerned. Now, what was Nicodemus like? Socially, and I suppose in natural life, he was a nobleman. He was one of the rulers, we learn, a ruler of the Jews. He was in the top brass. If there was a banquet, he sat at the top table. If there was a conference, he was one of the invited speakers. Everybody looked up to him and said, oh yes, Lord Nicodemus, there he is, and they would bask in his reflected glory if they were a friend of his. Personally, well, we read he was a Pharisee. He was in that special elite sect where it would appear that the most important thing in their role in life was to tell other people what to do. Oh, it's easy to tell other people what to do, isn't it? Some people perhaps, some of us perhaps, might think we are in a position to tell other people what to do and we may consider that to be more important than doing the right thing ourselves. Now, you couldn't quite make that accusation against Nicodemus because he was a respected member of the council, the Sanhedrin, this body, this group who ruled the Jews in their religious activities and he was looked up to and he was a good example. Now let me tell you about the nation of Israel, God's lesson book to the world. When you get time, all that tremendous spare time you have and you don't know how to fill it in, read Isaiah chapter 5, read the second half of Matthew 21 and there we learn God's lesson book, that God gave special favours to the nation of Israel, he brought them into being, he gave them every favour and privilege, he hedged them about and he protected them and he put them in the best part of the world, the hub of the universe, certainly the hub of the world as it will be seen to be one day, and they were God's lesson book and he gave them the best brains of any nation in the world, no surprise to me that if you look at most of the nations in the world that like Jacob, they've been clever enough and they've schemed enough and they've planned enough to get right at the top of the government in many nations of the world, they are equipped to yield, I'm not a Zionist. The Lord Jesus singled out one of the best of that nation, Nicodemus by name, so you have one of the prime examples of the best nation in the world, nationally and naturally speaking and the Lord Jesus says to him, you're not good enough for God. Now the lesson for me and you is that if God says to one of the prime examples of the best nation in the world, you're not good enough, it applies to all that nation and it applies to everybody in every nation that there's ever been. If the Lord Jesus had singled out a nondescript like you or me and said, you're not good enough for God, people would have said, so what? But taking this good, respectable, religious man and saying to him, you're not good enough, it means that nobody is, or we see the wisdom of the Son of God and taking one of the best of men and saying, now for you, you need a new start. In the prayer meeting before the gospel, without knowing what the subject was, I was very pleased to hear one of the Christians present that something that would be said that would cause someone present to be able to begin a new life with God. Now that was what the Lord Jesus said to Nicodemus. He says, all you've done, all you are, it's not good enough for God, you've got to start again. Nicodemus, for our benefit as much as his own, he misunderstood what the Lord Jesus said. He said, how can I make a new start? He said, I'm a mature man. He says, how can you compress my body into the body of a little baby and how that I can start again, draw my first breath and make a new start in that way? Or the Bible teaches in many other parts, that would be no good anyway. I don't know about you, but by experience and observation, it seems to me that if I have a tendency to go wrong in a certain direction, and I'm bound to, if you said, right, let's wipe the slate clean, start again, make a new start and go back to square one and in the light of your previous experience, start again. The Bible tells me, my experience of life, my observation of others tells me that if you did that to me or any of you, I would go twice as far in the wrong direction at twice the speed that I did before. The disaster would be compounded. But the Lord Jesus wasn't saying that. He says, the way you've gone, showing that in your heart you're not right with God, the necessity of a new beginning is not a natural beginning, it's a spiritual beginning you need. You need to start again, or in the graphic way that the Lord Jesus put it, ye must be born again. You Bible students, I don't know if you agree with me, new birth is a difficult subject to talk about because new birth is not a matter of exaltation. You had nothing to do with your original natural birth. You've lived your natural life which began with a natural birth and you are as incapable of making a new spiritual start as you were originally incapable of making a natural start in life. So what's the point? Oh, it may well be that with any of us, while we can't cause ourselves to be born again, that maybe that the realization that we are not good enough for God in our own natural state, it may produce in us a sense of need which God can use and bring about new birth within us by the Word of God. Well, we'll leave that for the moment and we'll come back to Nicodemus. He came to Jesus by night. His puzzlement, his lack of full understanding, gave the Lord Jesus the opportunity to say to him, to all Jews everywhere, to every man and woman, boy and girl, that's ever been born into the world, in yourself you're not good enough for God. The proof is in the Gospel message. If you could work your own salvation, it wouldn't have been necessary for Jesus to come from heaven into the world to die at Calvary that your sins might be forgiven. If I ask you, are you alive? You may well say, yes, I can tell there are things that my senses appreciate. I can feel things, I can touch them, I can smell them, I can see them, I can hear them. Yes, of course I am alive. Or similarly, when you've been given spiritual life, you are aware of it. God grants you a special sense that your sins are forgiven, you're on your way to heaven, and you have interests and aspects of life in the spiritual sense that you were completely disinterested in before. Well the Lord said to Nicodemus, he says, there are many things about it that men can never understand and never will. Can't tell where it comes from, like the wind, or where it goes to, but you can see the result. And the Lord said to Nicodemus, ye must be born again. Now whether we say that we leave him there in a fog, or we leave him there in the blackness of the midnight hour, we move on to chapter 7. Nicodemus, being an influential man, was called to a meeting of the council who were completely puzzled as to what to do about the Lord Jesus. They wondered how the coming of Jesus into their civilisation, into the precincts of their temple, how would it affect their sphere of influence? How would it affect their reputation? And to some extent, how would it affect their livelihood? Lots of commercial activities, whether they got 2%, 5% or 10% cut, it's not for me to say. But they had an interest, they had, if you like, a social interest, they had a political interest and they had a financial interest in what went on there under their control. But they had a council meeting to say, now, this man's upsetting the apple cart, he's putting the cat among the pigeons, what are we going to do about him? And this man, Nicodemus, who'd gone to see Jesus, maybe midnight, but certainly in the hours of darkness, somewhere between 6pm and 6am as we speak of it, he was prepared at that stage to make public his sympathy and his understanding of the need to be completely fair. Didn't work out like that, as we'll see. But he was prepared to stand up and be counted and say, now look, let's give the man a fair hearing, let's see what he has to say. If anyone said to you, are you a Christian? Are you one of these religious nuts? Are you a Bible puncher? Would you be embarrassed into making some vague remark and say, well, I think we have lessons to learn and I think he was a good example? Or would you say, he's my saviour and I love him and I'm going to meet him, he's coming for me? Well, in this midway point, and we don't dwell on it, Nicodemus says, now look, come on, let's be fair. The time comes when you have to jump off the fence where you'd rather be balanced, neither one thing nor the other, and you've got to be prepared to say, yes, I believe. I'm very grateful that at the age of two and a half, I was sent to a good, traditional, orthodox Bible teaching Sunday school. And from that bright age of two and a half, I've been content to believe that the Bible is God's word, that Jesus is the son of God, and that he loves me and he died on the cross to save me from the penalty of my sins. There are some people about that age or slightly older here tonight, I would never underestimate the intelligence, the understanding of a boy or a girl. All my body's changed, I've aged a lot since those early days. As far as I can tell, I don't think any differently now to what I did then. Well, some of my friends might say it shows how underdeveloped you are, you've made no progress at all since you were two and a half, but I'm sure most of you know what I mean. Adults gossip, they talk about people, they talk about things, you're playing with your toys or you're writing or sketching, and they think you don't know what they're talking about, but you do, don't you? You know exactly what they're talking about, you know the implications, and you know right from wrong. Many of you have gone through that, many of you, perhaps boys and girls, still at that position. I'm grateful that I've never had any doubt that this is God's Word to me and that deep down I knew I was a sinner, little as I was, I did things I shouldn't have done, I thought things I shouldn't have thought, and occasionally even I said things I shouldn't have said. And I knew exactly what the Bible meant when it says you're a sinner, and if you don't trust Jesus as your saviour, you don't believe that when he died on the cross that it was for you, you'll go to hell, I knew all about that from two and a half onwards. What was years after that, before I came out openly in broad daylight and said, I believe. Are you still a secret disciple that's never come clean, like Nicodemus was at midnight? Are you still in the twilight of wanting to appear fair and reasonable, but still sitting on the fence, betwixt and between, as the Bible says, halting between two opinions? Or has there ever been a moment when you've told your mother, your father, your brother, your sister, your grandparents, your grandchildren, whoever was prepared to listen, I want you to know that my sins are forgiven because I trust Jesus. He was a secret disciple previously, but it had got to the pitch where Joseph of Aramia, Matthias said, it's time to stand up and be counted. And he went to Pilate and he begged the body of Jesus. John's gospel is the gospel of threes, because God is at work, and three times in quick succession we read the body of Jesus, the body of Jesus, the body of Jesus. Why does he say that? Why does John say that? It's to emphasize that Jesus really died. He didn't go into a trance. He wasn't secreted away by his disciples. No one manipulated circumstances to confuse people. The body was lying there because Jesus really died. I need to know that. Unless he really died, I cannot be sure that my sins are forgiven. And this secret disciple came out into the broad daylight and Nicodemus said, well, if that's good enough for Joseph of Aramathia, it's good enough for me. Not now in the darkness of midnight, not in that funny obscure period that none of us like driving in, twilight, neither one thing nor the other, but in broad daylight Nicodemus said, that goes for me as well. If you've never told anybody in public, if you've never actually confessed Christ as saviour, if you've never actually said to someone, yes, I believe the Christian gospel, I know that Jesus loves me and gave himself for me, are you prepared to do what Joseph of Aramathia did and Nicodemus said and say, that's what I mean. I'm totally committed, I'm for Jesus. He loved me, he gave himself for me and now I'm going to stand by him and stand for him in the world that crucified him. An early book after this one says, if thou shalt confess with the mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. Not perhaps you'll be encouraged to live a better life, maybe, but that's not the vital point. It doesn't say if you do the best you can, you might get to heaven in the end because God's a loving God. It says if you believe in your heart that he died for you and rose again and you're prepared to tell someone about it in words, openly, yes, I believe that Jesus died for me. It's the Bible God's word that says, when you do that, you're saved. The matter's settled, heaven is assured, your sins are gone forever. Isn't it worthwhile just to take that little step and say, yes, I believe that. You know, God knows, and the people that would be listening would know, if you just said, I believe, I trust the Saviour, I'm glad that he loves me and gave himself for me and with his help I'm going to live for him as long as I'm left here on earth. What the first move the Bible says is to confess the name of Jesus as Lord. This was said on one occasion a few years ago, they sang the last hymn and then the preacher commended them to the Lord in prayer and then as soon as the meeting was finished, a young man was seen, while everybody was gossiping and seeing their friends in the normal way, a young man was seen to walk about the hall, he stopped at every group, he had just a little word with them and they smiled and they shook hands with him, then he went to another group and it turned out that he'd put into practice what the preacher said. He went to the first group and said, I just want you to know that I believe that Jesus died for me on the cross and my sins are forgiven and I'm going to heaven because Jesus is my Saviour. He went to another group and he said the same thing and he went to another group and he said the same thing. What was happening? He was confessing Jesus as Lord. Oh, there are other ways of doing it, but that young man understood that if he believed in the heart that part of the outlet for that, part of the way of showing that he really meant it was that he was prepared to tell somebody and in fact he told everybody that was in that gospel meeting that night that he'd decided that having believed, he'd been believing some time, but he knew that the joy of salvation would be his if he told someone that he was a believer on the Lord Jesus Christ. Now we're going to sing a closing hymn. Think about what I've said. The age spread here, oh I would say, is at least perhaps, I don't know, 75 years perhaps between the youngest and the oldest, but the gospel message is plain to us all. We need to believe in the heart and confess with the mouth and if we do believe and we are not sure if we've confessed, take the opportunity to tell somebody, somebody that you know, somebody that you love, that you believe that Jesus died for you and that he's your saviour and joy will fill your soul. Now the last hymn is number 70. When we believe, when we confess, there's still a lot we don't know and we feel very much like the words of this hymn. I am not skilled to understand what God hath willed, what God hath planned. I only know at his right hand stands one who is my saviour. We'll sing the whole hymn, number 70. I am not skilled to understand what God hath willed, what God hath planned. I only know at his right hand stands one who is my saviour. I take him at his word indeed, Christ died for sin, as this I did. And in my heart I find a need of him to be my saviour. That he should leave his grace on high. …

… Psalm, Psalm 41 und Vers 9 gegen mich. Das Gospel von Matthäus, Kapitel 10. Und als Jesus seine zwölf Disziplinen an ihn rief, gab er ihnen Macht gegen ungesunde Geiste, um sie herauszuwerfen und um alle Art von Krankheit und alle Art von Krankheit zu heilen. Nun sind die Namen der zwölf Aposteln diese, der erste, Simon, der Peter genannt wurde, und Andrew, sein Bruder, James, der Sohn von Zebedee, und John, sein Bruder, Philipp und Bartholomew, Thomas, und Matthäus, der Publikan, James, der Sohn von Alpheus, und Lebeus, dessen Namen Thaddaeus war, Simon, der Kaninit, und Judas Iskariot, der auch ihn betrug. Diese zwölf wurden Jesus zurückgegeben. Nun Kapitel 26. Vers 14. Dann ging einer der zwölf, genannt Judas Iskariot, zu den Chefpriestern und sagte ihnen, Was wird er mir geben? Und ich werde ihn an euch übergeben. Und sie gaben mit ihm vierunddreißig Stücke Silber. Und von diesem Zeitpunkt suchte er die Möglichkeit, ihn zu betreuen. Vers 20. Nun, als der Abend kam, saß er mit den zwölf und wie sie gegessen haben, sagte er, Ich sage euch ehrlich, einer von euch wird mich betreuen. Und sie waren überragend traurig und begannen, jeder von ihnen zu sagen zu ihm, Herr, bin ich es? Und er antwortete und sagte, Er, der seine Hand mit mir in die Pfanne mit mir in die Pfanne, der gleiche wird mich betreuen. Der Sohn des Menschen geht, wie es von ihm geschrieben ist, aber wundere auf den Mann, mit dem der Sohn des Menschen betreut wird. Es wäre gut für den Mann, wenn er nicht geboren wäre. Dann antwortete Judas, der ihn betrat, und sagte, Herr, bin ich es? Er sagte zu ihm, Du musst es sagen. Vers 36. Dann kam Jesus mit ihnen zu einem Ort genannt Gethsemane und sagte zu den Disziplinen, Seid ihr hier, während ich nach unten gehe und bete. Und er nahm mit ihm Peter und die beiden Söhne von Zebedee und begann, zu traurig und sehr schwer zu sein. Dann sagte er zu ihnen, Meine Seele ist übertragen traurig, sogar bis zum Tod. Seid ihr hier und schaut mit mir. Vers 44. Und er ließ sie und ging wieder weg und bete das dritte Mal, die selben Worte. Dann kam er zu seinen Disziplinen und sagte zu ihnen, Schlaf jetzt und nehmt eure Ruhe. Seht, die Stunde ist vorhanden und der Sohn des Menschen wird in die Hände der Töter getragen. Aufstehen, lasst uns gehen. Seht, er ist vorhanden, der mich betreuen wird. Und während er noch sprach, kam Judas, einer der zwölf, und mit ihm eine große Menge mit Schlägen und Stäben von den Bürgern und Eltern der Bevölkerung. Nun gab er, der ihn betrat, ihnen ein Zeichen, sagend, Wer auch immer ich küsse, der gleich ist er. Haltet ihn fest. Und fortwärts kam er zu Jesus und sagte, Heil, Herr, er hat ihn getötet. Und Jesus sagte zu ihm, Freund, woher kommst du? Dann kamen sie und legten die Hände an Jesus und nahmen ihn. Kapitel 27, Vers 3 Dann sah Jesus, der ihn betrat, als er sah, dass er getötet wurde, hat er sich verabschiedet und wieder die 30 Stücke Silber zu den Bürgern und Eltern gebracht, sagend, Ich habe gebeten, indem ich das innovierte Blut getötet habe. Und sie sagten, Was ist das für uns? Sag dir das. Und er hat die Stücke Silber in den Tempel gesetzt und verlangt und ging und hat sich hingegen. Kapitel 6 Vers 67 Dann sagte Jesus zu den Zwölfen, Wird er auch weggehen? Dann antwortete Simon Peter ihm, Herr, zu wem sollen wir gehen? Du hast die Worte eines ewigen Lebens und wir glauben und sind sicher, dass du den Christen bist, den Sohn des lebenden Gottes. Jesus antwortete ihnen, Habe ich dich nicht gewählt, Zwölf, und einer von euch ist ein Dämon? Er sprach von Judas Iscariot, dem Sohn von Simon, denn er war derjenige, der ihm betreten sollte, als einer der Zwölf. Kapitel 12 Vers 1 Dann kam Jesus, sechs Tage vor dem Feierabend, zu Bethany, wo Lazarus war, der tot war, den er von den Toten erholt hatte. Dort haben sie ihm ein Essen gemacht und Martha serviert, aber Lazarus war einer von ihnen, der mit ihm auf dem Tisch saß. Dann nahm Mary einen Pound Eintrag von Spikenaude, sehr teuer, und hat die Füße von Jesus angenäht und hat seine Füße mit ihrem Haar gescheitert und das Haus war voller Eintrag. Dann sagte einer seiner Disziplinen, Judas Iscariot, dem Sohn von Simon, der ihm betreten sollte, Warum wurde dieses Eintrag nicht für 300 Pensionen gegeben für die Armen? Das sagte er, nicht weil er sich für die Armen kümmerte, sondern weil er ein Feigling war und den Eintrag hatte und das, was dort drin war, mitbekommen hat. Kapitel 13, Vers 1 Jetzt vor dem Feierabend, als Jesus wusste, dass seine Stunde gekommen sei, sollte er aus diesem Welt auf den Vater zurückkehren. Hatte er seine eigenen Liebe, die in der Welt waren, liebte er sie bis zum Ende. Und das Feierabend endete. Der Teufel hatte nun in das Herz von Judas Iscariot, dem Sohn von Simon, ihn zu betreten. Vers 10 Jesus sagte ihm, Er, der gewaschen ist, braucht nicht, nur um seine Füße zu waschen, aber er ist sauber in jedem Wissen, und ihr seid sauber, aber nicht alle. Denn er wusste, wer ihn betreten sollte. Daher sagte er, ihr seid nicht alle sauber. Vers 18 Ich spreche nicht von euch alle. Ich weiß, wem ich gewählt habe, aber dass die Skriptur verfüllt sein kann. Er, der mit mir gebraten wurde, hat seinen Hebel gegen mich aufgehoben. Nun sage ich euch, bevor es passiert, dass, wenn es passiert, ihr glaubt, dass ich es bin. Ich spreche nicht von euch alle. Er, der mit mir gebraten wurde, hat seinen Hebel gegen mich aufgehoben. Und er, der mit mir gebraten wurde, hat seinen Hebel gegen mich aufgehoben. Als Jesus so sagte, war er im Geist beschworen und hat bestätigt und gesagt, Ich spreche nicht von euch alle. Einer von euch wird mich betreten. Dann schauten die Disziplinen einen nach dem anderen, in Zweifel darüber, mit wem er gesprochen hat. Nun standen sie auf Jesus' Brust, einer seiner Disziplinen, die Jesus liebte. Simon Peter hat also zu ihm gebeten, dass er fragen sollte, wer es sein sollte, mit wem er gesprochen hätte. Er, der auf Jesus' Brust liegt, sagte zu ihm, Herr, wer ist es? Jesus antwortete, Er ist es, zu wem ich den Sock geben werde, wenn ich es getrunken habe. Und als er den Sock getrunken hatte, gab er es Judas Iscariot, den Sohn von Simon. Und nach dem Sock kam Satan zu ihm. Dann sagte Jesus zu ihm, Was du tust, tue es schnell. Nun wusste kein Mann an der Tafel, wofür er es gesagt hatte, zu ihm, aber einige dachten, weil Judas die Tasche hatte, dass Jesus zu ihm gesagt hatte, über die Dinge, die wir gegen die Feier brauchen, oder, dass er etwas den Armen geben sollte. Er dann, nachdem er den Sock bekommen hatte, ging sofort raus, und es war Nacht. Kapitel 18 Vers 1 Als Jesus diese Worte gesprochen hatte, ging er fort mit seinen Disziplinen über das Buch Pedron, wo ein Garten war, in den er kam, und seine Disziplinen. Und Judas auch, der ihn betrug, wusste den Ort, denn Jesus besuchte oft mit seinen Disziplinen. Judas dann, nachdem er eine Gruppe von Männern und Offizieren von den Bürgern und Pharisäern hatte, kam mit Lampen und Pfeilen und Waffen. Jesus dann, nachdem er alle Dinge, die auf ihn kommen sollten, ging fort und sagte zu ihnen, wem suchst du? Sie antworteten ihm, Jesus von Nazareth. Jesus sagte zu ihnen, ich bin er. Und Judas auch, der ihn betrug, wusste mit ihnen. Jetzt zum Schluss, für den Moment, Aktien, Kapitel 1, und Vers 12. Dann kamen die Disziplinen nach Jerusalem, von der Mauer, nennt sie Olivet, die von Jerusalem her ist, eine Reise am Samstag. Und als sie kamen, gingen sie in einen oberen Raum, wo beide Peter, und James, und John, und Andrew, Philip, und Thomas, Bartholomew, Matthew, James, der Sohn von Alpheus, und Simon Zelotes, und Judas, der Bruder von James. Dies alles folgte mit einem Akkord in der Betrachtung, und Begegnung, mit den Frauen, und Mary, die Mutter von Jesus, und mit seinen Brüdern. Und in diesen Tagen stand Peter in der Mitte der Disziplinen und sagte, die Zahl der Namen zusammen waren etwa 120, Männer und Brüder, diese Skriptur muss die Bedürfnisse erfüllt sein, die der Heilige Geist durch den Mund von David sprach, bevor es sich um Judas handelte, das war ein Beweis für sie, die Jesus nahm, denn er war mit uns aufgenommen und hatte einen Teil dieser Botschaft erhalten. Nun kaufte dieser Mann ein Feld mit der Beziehung der Ungewohnheit, und fallend mit dem Kopf brachte er in der Mitte ein Zander und alle Sehnsuchten kamen raus, und es wurde bekannt an alle Bewohner in Jerusalem, insofern wie das Feld in ihrer echten Sprache Akkordama heißt, das ist das Feld des Blutes, denn es ist in dem Fels und es ist in dem Blut und in dem Feld ist der Blut und es ist der Blut und es ist der Blut und es ist der Blut und es ist Joseph erinnerte sich an Bartholomäus, der von Justus und Matthias genannt wurde, und sie beteten und sagten, Du, Herr, der die Herzen aller Männer kennt, zeige, ob Du diese beiden ausgewählt hast, dass er Teil dieser Kirche und Apostelschaft nehmen kann, von der Judas durch die Transgression fiel, dass er zu seinem eigenen Ort gehen kann. Und sie gaben ihnen ihr Lott, und das Lott fiel auf Matthias, und er wurde mit den elf Aposteln genannt. Um das zu lassen, und um den Gefühl zu retten, lassen wir uns das Hymn Nummer 90 singen. Gott ist Liebe. Und wir, die in die glückliche Beziehung der Kinder Gottes gebracht werden, genießen die Liebe Gottes. Wir kennen etwas von der Vollständigkeit, von der Heilung, vom Gospel von Christus. Und wir unterstützen einander, etwas von den tiefen Dingen zu lernen, und zwar von der Tiefe Gottes. Wir kennen von der Leben, wir kennen von der Skriptur, dass Dinge nicht immer einfach sind. Probleme entstehen, mit denen man handeln muss, aber nicht immer einfach. Die Umstände des Lebens sind so, dass die schmerzhaften Dinge, sowie die präsenten, erledigt werden müssen. So ist es mit der Wahrheit Gottes, dass wir, während wir uns genießen, in der Höhe des christlichen Privilegiums, der Notwendigkeit, den ganzen Glauben an Gott betrachten müssen. Wir müssen die Verantwortlichkeiten der Christlichkeit, sowie die Privilegien, betrachten. Und in den Charakterstudien, die wir diese Woche durchgeführt haben, bis jetzt, in den Hauptstudien, sehr glückliche Studien, von störenden spirituellen und moralischen Featuresn, die in den Menschen Gottes in jedem Tag und in jeder Generation erledigt werden. Aber wir können die Tatsache, dass es tiefe, wichtige Lektionen gibt, von bösen Menschen, sowie von guten Menschen. Ich habe es heute Abend richtig gefühlt, zu einer Meditation auf Judas Iscariot zu gehen. Etwas, was ich noch nie gemacht habe. Ich denke, es ist nicht überraschend, dass wir auf die glückliche Seite der Dinge gedreht sind. Aber, da ich von Gott überzeugt bin, in diese Meditation einzugehen, habe ich gedacht, der beste Weg, unsere Gedanken für eine solche Meditation zu befestigen, ist, zu lesen, was die Skriptur sagt. In unseren privaten Meditationen zu Hause ist es der einzige Weg, oder? Wir tun es mit langen Händen. Wir sind interessiert, wir sind geführt, um ein Thema zu beurteilen. Der einzige Weg ist, die Skripturen zu suchen und alles zusammenzudrehen, was die Skriptur über sie sagt. Und dann zu sieben, es in der Präsenz des Herrn zu filtern, Dinge umherzuschütteln, Dinge ordentlich und in Ordnung zu tun, und dann zu versuchen, Formen, Trends, Lektionen zu erstellen, die uns gut tun werden. Also, in der Sicht von heute Abend, habe ich alles gelesen, was ich über Judas finden konnte. Ich habe den prophetischen Psalm gelesen, den Schmerz, den Schmerz des prophetischen Messias, von dem, sogar bevor er in die Welt kam, der Schmerz war, dass jemand in einer nahen Beziehung zu ihm, sein eigener bekannter Freund, den Hebel gegen ihn aufheben sollte. Ich habe dann in meiner eigenen Lesung gelesen, was die Synoptik sagt, Matthew, Mark und Luke, was John sagt, und was in dem Buch von Acts gesagt wird. Ich kam zu der Begründung, dass, als, naja, aufgrund der Definition der Synoptik, eine ähnliche Sicht, deshalb sind sie Synoptiken genannt, dass, abgesehen von einer oder zwei interessanten Details, die Bedeutung und Gewinne eines besonderen Studiums, dass, abgesehen von feinen Details, die Synoptiken die gleiche Geschichte erzählen, über das Rufen, und den Dienst, und den Verschwinden von Judas Iskariot. Deshalb habe ich beschlossen, alles zu lesen, was Matthew zu sagen hat. Der beste Dienst, den ich dir leisten kann, ist, zu lesen, was die Skriptur sagt, und deine Aufmerksamkeit, das, was der Geist vor dir bringen kann, in zukünftiger Meditation. Also habe ich alles gelesen, was Matthew zu sagen hat, über Judas Iskariot. Deshalb, habe ich das beschlossen, um ein wenig Zeit zu versparen, habe ich nicht von Mark und Luke gelesen. Wiederum, mache einen komparativen Studium zwischen den Synoptik-Gesprächen, und du wirst weitere Hilfe und Gewinne erhalten. Und dann habe ich auf John geschaut, welcher ein selbstverständliches Gespräch ist, mit einem besonderen Geschmack, um zu sehen, was wir davon lernen können. Und dann, nach dem Tod des Herrn und der Resurrektion, das Rekord, das in den ersten Kapiteln des Buches von Acts gegeben ist. Zunächst einmal, ein oder zwei Punkte, die dich erinnern, an Privilegien, die an Judas eingeschränkt wurden. Und dann, als wir darüber nachgedacht haben, an die Verantwortung, die auf ihn eingeschränkt wurde, weil er von solch großen Privilegien zur Verfügung gestellt wurde. Jedes Privileg in der Lebe bringt eine gemeinsame Verantwortung. Besonders in spirituellen Dingen bringt jedes Privileg, das an uns eingeschränkt wurde, eine entsprechende Verantwortung. Ja, es wird interessant sein. Ja, es wird ein Herz suchen, wieder zu lesen und Dinge anzuschauen, die zu und von Judas Iscariot passierten. Aber einer der Gründe, warum wir auf der Skriptur meditieren, ist, dass unsere Leben, unsere Gedanken, gegen die Plumbeine der Skriptur gestellt werden, um zu sehen, wie wir gegen die gleiche Standardierung messen. Es ist nicht nur akademisch. Es ist nicht vollkommen intellektuell, was die Skriptur an Judas Iscariot sagt, was die Skriptur an Judas Iscariot an Judas Iscariot sagt. Es kann sein, dass Gedanken manchmal in unseren Köpfen erheben. Wenn es nicht persönlich zu Christus ist und wenn es nicht relativ zu der Kirche ist, sollten wir, wenn nicht unsere Zeit in solchen Dingen verbrauchen. Wir brauchen die ganze Skriptur. Die ganze Skriptur ist von der Inspiration Gottes gegeben. Und wir bekommen diese moralischen Lektionen zu lernen, wenn wir auf solchen Dingen meditieren. Also habe ich in meinem Geist bestimmte Privilegien zusammengefasst, die an Judas gegeben wurden. Habe ich die Skriptur gelesen, kann der Heilige Geist die Versen vor uns bringen, die wir gelesen haben, die die Wahrheit präsentieren, die ich zu Ihrer Aufmerksamkeit bringen werde. Der erste große Privileg von Judas war, dass er von dem Herrn entschieden wurde. Von all den Menschen in Palästina damals erzählten uns die synoptischen Gospel. Matthäus erinnert es, Mark erinnert es, und Luke erinnert es, dass, als der Herr Jesus seine öffentliche Dienstleistung auf der Erde begann, sagt es, dass er die ganze Nacht in der Feier verbracht hat. Und dann hat er zwölf geordnet. Er wählte zwölf, damit sie mit ihm sein könnten und damit er sie zurückführen konnte, um zu beten oder um zu beten, um in den Gospel zu werden. Aber dass es zwölf Männer gab, die geordnet wurden, um mit dem Herrn Jesus, dem Sohn Gottes, in diesen wichtigen dreieinhalb Jahren in der Geschichte der Welt zu verabschieden, konnte nichts anderes sein, als ein unglaubliches Privileg. Und Judas war einer der zwölf. Es gibt keinen Grund, zu beurteilen, dass, als der Herr die zwölf geordnet hat, um nach draußen zu gehen, um zu beten und um zu heilen, auf seiner Seite, gibt es keinen Grund, zu beurteilen, dass die zwölf Judas Iskariot beteiligt waren. Nicht nur, um in den zwölf zu sein und von den zwölf, sondern um in diejenigen zu sein, die es ermöglicht haben, um für den Herrn zu arbeiten, um diese große Zeit der Präsentation zu der Nation des lang verabschiedeten Messias zu beurteilen, indem er gut gemacht hat, den Kranken heilte, Wunder verabschiedete. Es gibt keinen Grund, zu beurteilen, dass nicht wegen irgendeiner Wucht in sich selbst, sondern als eine Ausweitung des Privileges, dass Judas, als einer der zwölf, beteiligt war und so ausging. Nur um zu anticipieren, wenn, und das ist der Grund, warum wir Johns Gospel gelesen haben, der Narrativ in Johns Gospel hier und da durch das Statement ist, dass Jesus wusste, Zeit und Zeit wieder, er wusste, was er tun würde, er wusste, was in den Herzen des Menschen war, er hat sich nicht unzureichend gemacht, weil er alle Menschen wusste. Die Präsentation der Person des Sohn Gottes, der omnischer Gott, manifestiert in der Flesche. Wenn Judas nicht eingegangen wäre, in den zwölf, nicht einer der Lorden, sofortige Disziplinen, oder wenn Judas nicht eingegangen wäre, mit den anderen zu gehen, wir, vielleicht, sicher Unglaubwürde, hätten uns enttäuscht, zu sagen, oh, wenn nur Jesus Judas unter den zwölf eingegangen hätte, wenn er ihn im Dienst benutzt hätte, vielleicht hätte er ihn nicht betrogen. Jedes Privileg war an Judas eingegangen, um die Tatsache zu zeichnen, dass er kein Privileg war, dass er ihn nicht betrogen hat, und dass, hatte er jedes Privileg, es seine Verantwortung erhöhte, als derjenige, der seinen Meister betrogen hat. Nun, nicht nur das, in Bezug auf das generelle Privileg als einer der zwölf, hatte er ein besonderes Privileg zu ihm eingegangen. Er war, wie wir ihn nennen, der Treasurer. Sie haben Palästinens umgekehrt, und es brauchte, naja, Dinge, die ordentlich und ordentlich gemacht werden sollten, und die grafische Einfachheit der Skriptur, wir, wenn Peter, oder Philipp, oder Bartholomew der Treasurer gewesen wären, würden wir enttäuscht sein, zu denken, oh, wenn nur Judas der Treasurer gewesen wäre, es hätte ihn vielleicht nur gehalten. Denken wir nicht manchmal, dass es ein bisschen leichter geht und besondere Privilegien geben, für diejenigen, denen es möglich ist, wegzugehen, es wird sie halten, es funktioniert nicht, oder? Judas war der Treasurer, er hielt die Tasche, und etwas, was er war, kam durch, weil wir gesagt haben, erstens, er begrüßte die Tatsache, dass ein verehrter Liebherr von Christus sehr wertvolles Gemüse auf seinen Meister erweitern wollte. Judas begrüßte diese Dienstleistung für den Meister, er hätte es lieber in seiner Tasche gehabt, oder was für eine Lektion. Wenn wir privilegiert sind, den Herrn in irgendeiner Art und Weise zu servieren, lassen wir uns nicht auf einen Pedestal und sagen, dass es unser ist, dass wir es haben, dass es uns gehört. Am besten sind wir Steuern von dem, was uns vertraut ist. Lassen wir uns nicht über den Topf gehen und denken, wir sind eine großartige Person, weil der Herr in seiner Gnade uns ermöglicht hat, in irgendeinem Aspekt oder anderem für ihn zu arbeiten. Das zweite, was es über Judas sagt, und wiederum im Gospel von John, wo der Herr alle Männer durch und durch wusste, es sagt, Judas war ein Feigling. Darauf bin ich interessiert. Ich will nicht zu viel zurückgehen. John 10, erinnert ihr euch? Er redet über Feiglinge und Robber. Und in dem Kontext des Gospels von John werden wir erzählt, was wir von einem Feigling und einem Robber verstehen können. In diesem Kapitel, den ich gelesen habe, sagt es, Judas war ein Feigling. Und später sagt es, Barabbas war ein Robber. Und die Antworten auf die Fragen, die die Skriptur stellt, werden in dem Text der Skriptur gefunden werden. Und Judas, wie wir lesen, war ein Feigling. Selbst dann, als der Herr seinen eigenen zusammengebracht hat für das letzte Essen, das er mit ihnen genossen hat, Teil dieser Begegnung, dass ein Klimax, ein Klimax, vielleicht nicht der Klimax, aber ein Klimax dieses Essens, dieses Art von Essen, war, dass es eine besondere Portion gab, nennt sie die Suppe. Und der Beteiligte, naja, der VIP, der wichtigste Person da, wurde ermöglicht und ermutigt, die Suppe zu nehmen, das entscheidendste Teil des Essens. Und er wählte jemanden, mit dem er die extra besondere Beteiligung der Suppe erhielt. Und der Herr Jesus nahm die Suppe und gab sie Jesus. Die Fragen, die Männer stellen, werden in der Skriptur beantwortet, bevor die Fragen gefragt werden. Ja, er war einer der Zwölf. Ja, es gibt keine Zweifel, dass er in der Arbeit des Herrn als einer der Zwölf genutzt wurde. Er war der Treasurer und der Anwalt. Vielleicht dachte er, wenn das Königreich kommt, werde ich der Chancellor des Exchequer. Ich werde für diesen Job gegrüßt. Solche Gedanken passen durch die Gefühle der Männer, nicht wahr? Und dann, diese besondere Beteiligung, wenn sie an jemand anderes gegangen wäre, würden die Männer sagen, du solltest nicht überrascht sein, dass Judas enttäuscht war. Er dachte als Treasurer, dass er der Einzige wäre. Er hat die größte Arbeit gemacht. Er hatte die größte Verantwortung. Warum hat er die Suppe nicht bekommen? Er hat sie! Wir lesen in Romans, wie wir selbst, der ganze Welt ist ohne Ausdruck. Judas, der Betreuer. Manche Gospel sagen, der Betreuer. Andere Gospel, der Betrüger. Oft, weißt du, wenn die Übersetzer von einem Wort in der ursprünglichen Sprache überschreiben, denke ich, es ist eine Gnade, dass in verschiedenen Begründen sie einen etwas anderen Geschmack zu dem Bedeutung geben. In verschiedenen Wörtern sagen wir die gleiche Sache aus verschiedenen Anglen und wir brauchen sie alle zusammen. Was auch immer du als Betreuer verstehst, was auch immer du als Betreuer verstehst, war Judas das, der jedes mögliche Privileg zu ihm eingestellt hat, inkl. der Suppe. Wenn sie seine Privilegien waren, was waren seine Verantwortung? Du wirst bemerken, ich bin mir sicher, dass die Skriptur durch den Geist sehr vorsichtig ist. Judas hat nie Jesus Gott genannt. Er hat ihn Master genannt, Lehrer, oh ja. Aber jedes Proben der Bewusstsein, jedes Verbeugnis, jedes Privileg, genießt es. Judas hat nie einmal etwas davon ermöglicht, ihn zu dem Punkt zu bringen, Jesus Gott zu nennen. Wir lernen in der Neuen Testament-Lehre, dass in der Realität, nicht nur mit einer Formel, aber in der Realität kann niemand Jesus Gott nennen, nur durch den Geist. Und Judas hat nie Jesus Gott genannt. Es war keine spirituelle Realität da. Seine Verantwortung, nachdem er jedes Privileg ausgewählt hatte, bringt diese Verantwortung zu Licht, dass er, wenn er alles getan hat, geblüht, wie er war, gewählt, gewählt, genutzt, Blessung nach Blessung, seine Antwort war begrenzt mit der Begründung des Herrn als Lehrer oder Meister. Und sogar auf diesem Niveau hat er seinen Meister betrogen. Nun muss ich für Ihre Meditation bleiben. Der delikate Balance zwischen dem Sovereignis von Gott, der Einfluss von Satan und der persönlichen Verantwortung von Judas. Sie sind alle da. Nicht einer gegen den anderen. Es gibt keinen Konflikt zwischen dem Sovereignis von Gott und der persönlichen Verantwortung des Menschen. Sie sind beide da, und sie sind beide zu sehen. Judas war verantwortlich für alles, was er tat, in dem Sovereignis von Gott. Oh ja, es muss ein Schiff für ihn sein, aber Judas konnte nicht umdrehen und sagen, Gott hat es mir gemacht. Ich würde gerne einer der Geflüchteten sein, aber ich wurde nicht erlaubt. Jedes Geflüchtete, jedes Privileg, das er erhielt, gab ihm eine Möglichkeit. Aber wir lesen, er suchte die hohen Priester aus, das ist seine Verantwortung. Satan nahm den willenswerten Servant seines und verpflichtete ihn, das vorzubereiten, was Judas bereits hatte in seinem verantwortlichen Herzen. Oh ja, der mächtige Gott war immer in vollständiger Kontrolle von allem, was passierte. Aber das reduziert in keinem Fall die Verantwortung des Menschen, für das, was er tut. Wir untersuchen die Wörter der Skriptur vorsichtig und finden, dass er Widerstand zeigte. Er war bitter für sich selbst entschuldigt, als Resultat dessen, was er getan hatte. Er hat Selbstmord gemacht, wenn es zu spät war, etwas darüber zu tun, als er seinen Meister betrat. Es gab keine wahre Verzeihung. Ist es Esau, dass es in den Hebräern gesagt wurde? Esau, als es zu spät war. Er verlor die Gelegenheit zur Verzeihung, obwohl er bitter mit Tränen umschlug. Vielleicht ein kleines Bild von dem, was in der Angst der Seele von Judas passierte. Er wusste, was richtig war. Er wählte, was böse war. Er war und ist verantwortlich für Gott für das. Und in bitterer Verzweiflung der Seele ging er raus und schlug sich selbst um. Wie vorsichtig und exakt die Skriptur ist, wir haben die Worte gelesen, es war absolut notwendig, Aktion 1, er ging zu seinem eigenen Ort. Oh, da sehen wir die Sovereigenschaft Gottes. Judas in seiner verantwortlichen Lebe war ein Verletzter. Wir sind alle Verletzte. Aber er erlaubte sich, der Servant von Satan zu sein, in der Suche nach dem Abfall des Sohnes Gottes. Wie Heymann mit Mordecai, Satan wurde auf seinen eigenen Pfad geworfen. Er wurde von seinem eigenen Gerät heruntergebracht. Und Judas, der willige Servant von Satan, Gott sagt, er ist speziell. All die Wütenden, die den Gospel nicht glauben, werden ihren Platz haben, aber von allen. Judas ist ausgewählt und sagt, er ging zu seinem eigenen Ort. Ausgewählt, vor allem für ihn. Jetzt möchte ich lesen, bevor ich schließe, ein paar Versen aus dem Epistle zu den Hebräern. Kapitel 6 Hebräer 6, Vers 1 Vers 1 Vers 2 Haben wir die Lektion gelernt? Haben wir in Judas gesehen, was das Herz eines Menschen in der Verantwortung für sich hat? Haben wir in Judas gesehen, die Tiefe der Zerstörung, die ein Mensch tun kann? Wir können die Herausforderung nicht ausbrechen. Der Schriftsteller des Epistles zu den Hebräern, schreibt zu, was wir genannten, gemischten Mehrheiten, echten Glaubenden und denjenigen, die vielleicht oder nicht echte Glaubenden sind, alle zusammengemischt, in derselben Art und Weise, in einem Publikum, man konnte auf der Oberfläche nicht wirklich sagen, wer echt war und wer nicht. Das macht es für manche schwierig. Das Epistle ist nicht geschrieben, um Zweifel in den Glaubenden zu verursachen. Es ist da, um das Bewusstsein der Menschen, die nicht echt sind, zu beherrschen. Haltet das in Erinnerung, wenn ihr das Epistle zu den Hebräern studiert. Und hier haben wir eine dieser Sektionen, die die Menschen ein wenig schwierig finden. Entschuldigt in irgendeiner Art und Weise. Wir können das Abend nicht mit einer 2-Stunden-Bibelaufnahme auf diesen 6 Versen beenden. Ich bin mir sicher, wir bräuchten es. Ich möchte für euch zusammenfassen, was ich denke, es geht darum. Und hier zählt die Herausforderung. Schauend herum sehen wir alle, ohne Zweifel, außerhalb des Stils, ohne Zweifel sehen wir uns genau gleich auf der Oberfläche wie die Hebräischen Glaubenden, zu denen der Schriftsteller geschrieben hat. Rein, respektabel, interessiert, nett, kulturell, alle gleich auf der Oberfläche, aber ein Herz kann nicht wie ein anderes Herz sein. Manche sind echt, manche vielleicht nicht einmal konvertiert, nicht gerettet. Andere vielleicht, nachdem sie den Herrn verabschiedet haben, aber weniger als vollkommen verpflichtet. Nun, in diesen Versen schreibt der Schriftsteller dies zur Aufmerksamkeit der Leser. Er sagt, man kann mit der generellen Aussehen der Dinge auf der Oberfläche zusammengehen. Er sagt, man kann die Glücke probieren, man kann die Vorteile genießen. Das ganze Schriftstück ist klar. Es gibt Erschaffung, es gibt eine Art Erschaffung, die genießt wird, indem man zu einer christlichen Familie gehört, unabhängig davon, ob man den Herrn persönlich vertraut oder ihn vollkommen verpflichtet. Es gibt einen Aspekt praktischer Erschaffung, es gibt eine Art Verteidigung, es gibt eine Art Umbrelle, die dich schützt und dich glüht, weil du in dieser Umgebung bist. Es gibt eine Erschaffung, verbunden mit dem Vertrauen in eine Familie. Es ist ehrlich, es ist ehrlich, eklesiastisch, eine individuelle Person, ohne christliche Relativen, in einer lokalen Assemblage genießt die guten Dinge, die dort vorhanden sind. Genießt die guten Dinge, so sagt das Schriftstück. Aber jedes Mal wieder kommt ein wichtiger Test. Judas genießt die Gnade, mit Jesus von Nazareth in seinem öffentlichen Dienst zu sein. Aber endlich, in der Präsentation des größten Privilegiums, der Präsentation der Gnade, das mitgebracht hat, der größte Herausforderung, der wichtige Test. Wir genießen, auf eine ausgehende Art und Weise, die Privilegien des christlichen Umfeldes. Aber seien Sie sicher, machen Sie keinen Fehler, der Tag wird kommen, die Umstände werden kommen, der Moment wird sich vorstellen, wo es einen wichtigen Test gibt, wo wir die Möglichkeit haben, die Realität zu zeigen, dass wir in einer solchen Umgebung präsent sind. Nun, das ist die Herausforderung, die ich mit Ihnen und mir heute Abend vorstellen möchte. In der Macht des Heiligen Gottes, legen wir Jesus Christus an und machen keine Provision für das Fleisch, sondern für das Fleisch der Welt. …