Searchlights from the Scriptures

Come and See - John 1:45-51

noreply@blogger.com (Rev. J. Russell Reaves) — Tue, 29 May 2012 18:23:26 PDT

Audio (poor audio quality this week)

Today we are commonly told we live in the “visual age.” Television, movies, magazines, the internet, all appeal to the eye with a barrage of constantly changing images. Among church leaders, there is a growing debate on the validity of preaching, the oral delivery of a lengthy sermon. It is becoming increasingly common to use images and video while preaching in order to appeal more to the eye than the ear. In fact, in society as a whole, the idea of coming into a room and sitting to listen to someone talk for 30 to 60 minutes about anything is becoming something of an oddity. The world has changed, we are told, and therefore, we must now communicate through the door of the eye, and not the ear. But I think this claim may be overstated. It seems that seeing has long been the favorite way for humans to gather information. In the Garden of Eden, Eve was deceived by the serpent as he said to her that by eating the forbidden fruit, her “eyes would be opened.” And the Bible says that she considered the fruit “a delight to the eyes” (Genesis 3:4-6). We have not graduated to a new state of dependency upon the sense of seeing in our day. If anything, we may say that we have succumbed to the desire for seeing. Just as a place of business may have five doors, with four of them marked “No Entrance,” so it seems that today, like never before, humans have labeled all the other senses with “No Entrance,” forcing all traffic to enter by way of the eye. All of this is alarmingly premature however. Though we long to see things as they are and to behold them with our eyes, it seems from God’s perspective that we have not yet entered the “visual age.” We are still in the age of the ear. Though the world tells us that “seeing is believing,” the Bible tells us that “faith comes by” what? Not seeing, but “hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ” (Romans 10:17). And Paul says, “We walk by faith, and not by” what? “Not by sight” (2 Corinthians 5:7). Hebrews 11:1 tells us that “faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” And in that brilliant passage, 1 Corinthians 13, Paul says that “now we see in a mirror dimly, but then (pointing us to a later time) face to face.” And that later time will be the visual age when our eyes are set on God Himself, on the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. Then we shall “see Him just as He is” (1 John 3:2).

Notice how Philip, in our text today, set out to find Nathanael and tell him about Jesus. Now Nathanael, who is also called Bartholomew in the other Gospels, is interested in this discussion. He was a student of Scripture. When Philip said, “We have found Him of whom Moses in the Law and also the Prophets wrote,” Nathanael knew who he was talking about. He’d read the Law and the Prophets. He knew that Philip was referring to the Messiah. But one thing Philip said caused him to lose all interest: “Jesus of Nazareth.” When Nathanael heard that, his curiosity waned. We wonder why, and some have speculated that Nazareth was a despised town in Galilee that even other Galileans sought to avoid. Little is known about the town before the time of Jesus. It was never mentioned in the Old Testament, nor by any ancient writer before the time of Jesus. But its bad reputation among local people is perhaps captured in Nathanael’s statement, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Whether or not anything good could come from Nazareth seems to have been a matter of personal prejudice. But Nathanael also knew his Hebrew Bible well enough to know that, whatever else may come from Nazareth, the Messiah most certainly could not. He knew what the prophet Micah had written, that the Messiah was to be born in Bethlehem. Now of course, Jesus was born in Bethlehem, and moved to Nazareth as a boy after the brief sojourn in Egypt. But Nathanael doesn’t know that, and maybe Philip didn’t either. It didn’t seem to catch Philip’s attention, but it caught Nathanael’s, and he is highly suspicious of anyone claiming to be the Messiah who is not from Bethlehem. But Philip’s response to him is a simple one: “Come and see.”

And thus, we find the first of six occurrences of the word “see” in these seven verses. But it is an interesting thing: nothing is said of what Nathanael saw. The emphasis is on what Jesus saw, and on what those who believe upon Jesus will see as they follow Him. So, it is these two thoughts – the Christ who sees, and the Christ we shall see – that I want us to consider this morning.

I. Come and see the Christ who sees us! (vv47-49)

One of my favorite places to eat is Stamey’s. I don’t think I’ve ever been to Stamey’s when something unusual didn’t happen. Last Thursday, I was eating lunch at the counter there with the kids, and the man beside of us struck up a conversation with me. After a while he left, and when we got ready to leave, I went up to pay for our lunch, and they told me that the man with whom I’d been talking had paid for my bill. But oddly enough, that is not the most unusual thing that ever happened to me there. I was there at the counter one day with Geoff a few years ago, and a man came and sat beside of me and said, “Are you a preacher?” Now, I’d never seen that man before in my life, and to this day I don’t have a clue how he knew I was a preacher. That’s eerie isn’t it, when you meet someone who knows things about you that they ought not know? Nathanael is about to have just that sort of encounter.

Immediately after Philip says to Nathanael, “Come and see,” the next words we read are, “Jesus saw Nathanael coming to Him.” Before Nathanael ever saw Jesus, Jesus saw Nathanael. And then He said to him, “Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no deceit.” To get the full thrust of this statement, you have to recall something from Genesis, in the account of the life of Jacob. You perhaps recall that Jacob, whose name means something like “deceiver” or “cheater,” earned a reputation for having a nature that lived up to his name. He deceived his father to cheat his brother out of his birthright. In Genesis 27, when his old and blind father asked his name, he said that his name was Esau, and he received the blessing of the birthright from his father. But in Genesis 32, when Jacob wrestled with a mysterious man, the man asked him a strange question: “What is your name?” And at the point, Jacob could no longer speak deceptively. He said, “Jacob,” and the man gave him a new name: “Your name shall no longer be Jacob, but Israel.” And after the encounter, Jacob recognized that this was no ordinary man; he had encountered the Lord on that day. Jacob, the deceiver, had become Israel.

Now, when Jesus speaks of Nathanael, He says, “Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no deceit.” It is as if He is saying, “Here is a man who is all Israel, and none of Jacob.” He was a man of honesty and integrity, who had been genuinely seeking God in his life. And Nathanael does not protest the acknowledgement in false humility. He says rather, “How do You know me?” And Jesus said to him, “Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you.” The ancient Jewish rabbis spoke of the fig tree as the place where one would sit to meditate upon the Scriptures and to pray.[1] Perhaps Philip had a habit of pondering the Word of God under the fig tree and talking to God there. Jesus says to Him, “I saw you there.” Perhaps he’s been studying the story of Jacob there, and Jesus’ statement about him being an Israelite in whom there is no deceit strikes Nathanael even more profoundly. It’s as if the Lord has said to him, “I know what you’ve been praying about, and I know what you’ve been meditating on in your heart as you sit under that fig tree. I saw you there.”

Friends, when you came to meet Jesus, you were meeting someone who did not look upon you as a stranger. He knows you inside and out. He knows your name, your nature, your desires, and the meditations of your heart. He knows your past, your present, and your future. He knows your hopes and fears. There has never been a moment of your existence lived apart from His sight. Hebrews 4:13 says, “There is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do.” The Psalmist said, “The Lord looks from heaven; He sees all the sons of men; From His dwelling place He looks out On all the inhabitants of the earth, He who fashions the hearts of them all, He who understands all their works” (Psalm 33:13-15). David writes in the 139^th Psalm, “O Lord, You have searched me and known me. You know when I sit down and when I rise up; You understand my thought from afar. You scrutinize my path and my lying down, And are intimately acquainted with all my ways. Even before there is a word on my tongue, Behold, O Lord, You know it all.”

Nathanael realized on that day that nothing he had ever done had been hidden from the sight of Christ, and no word ever spoken was apart from His knowledge. He heard every prayer that Nathanael ever uttered under the fig tree, and yes, He even heard him say, “Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?” He knew all of his good deeds and bad deeds. And He knows the same about you and me. That night that you cried yourself to sleep in despair, He saw you. That day that you trembled in fear in the doctor’s office, He saw you. The day that you rejoiced with your child, the day you exchanged vows with your spouse, the day you were most thrilled, most excited, most proud – He saw you. The time you found yourself wondering if He was really there or if He cared about you at all – He was, and He does. The time when you longed to know Him like never before and cried out to Him in desperation, He saw you. That time you did something that you hoped no one would ever see, or said something you hoped no one would ever hear, He saw, and He heard. There’s no getting around that. There’s no need to try to hide from Him, for no one can. And there’s no need to try to pretend you are someone you are not as you come to Him. He knows you better than you know yourself. You are what He knows you to be, and nothing more and nothing less.

Now, I don’t know how that strikes you, but notice how it strikes Nathanael. He exclaims, “Rabbi, You are the Son of God; You are the King of Israel!” These are both titles which indicate his convinced belief that Jesus is the Messiah. The two titles come together in the beautiful Messianic picture presented in Psalm 2:6-7, where the Psalmist gives voice to the very words of God saying, “As for Me, I have installed My King upon Zion, My holy mountain. I will surely tell of the decree of the Lord: He said to Me, 'You are My Son, Today I have begotten You.” And the prophets spoke of the coming of this Messiah, the King and the Son of God. He would come with extreme justice and righteousness, but also with mercy and grace. Thus, for instance in Zechariah 9:9, we read, “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout in triumph, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; He is just and endowed with salvation.” He is just, and therefore He will come to deal with the perpetual evil of human sinfulness; but He is endowed with salvation, and therefore will come to redeem those who turn to Him by faith and repentance. And Nathanael recognizes that Jesus is that One whose coming was promised. But he wasn’t convinced by what he saw. He was convinced by the Word of the One who saw him. Notice Jesus said in verse 50: “Because I said to you that I saw you under the fig tree, do you believe?” For Nathanael, as for everyone else, faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of Christ – the Word of this one who sees and knows all. The importance here is upon what Christ saw in Nathanael and what Christ said to Nathanael, and what He sees in us and says to us all. As for what we see, the Lord Jesus speaks in the future tense, and we turn our attention to that now. Not only are we beckoned to come and see the Christ who sees, but also to …

II. Come and see the Christ who will show us even greater things! (vv50-51)

Last year, several of us were sharing an Indian meal with Harry, our friend from Nepal, and Nimai, an Indian student whom some of you know. I took a bite out of something and it was extremely spicy, causing me to get somewhat choked up. Nimai chuckled at me, and he said, “This is nothing like what you will eat in India and Nepal! This is just the trailer, you will see the movie in India and Nepal!” In other words, no matter what you’ve seen or heard so far, there is more see. No one ever said it better than Bachman Turner Overdrive: “You ain’t seen nothin’ yet!” And that is very much like what Jesus said to Nathanael, but not to him only. He says it to us all. In the Greek text, there is a subtle shift in the pronoun usage through verses 50-51 that we cannot perceive using proper English. Only Southerners can get this. In verse 50, every time Jesus says the word “you,” it is singular, referring to Nathanael. In verse 51, every time Jesus says the word “you,” it is plural. Proper English translates both of them as “you.” Southerners would say “ya’all” for the plural. So read this like it is supposed to be read: “You (Nathanael) will see greater things than these. … Truly, truly I say to ya’all, ya’all will see the heavens opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.”

Now, who is the Son of Man? This is the first time this title has shown up in John’s Gospel. It will occur 13 times in John, and over 80 times in the four Gospels combined. When the phrase occurs in the Gospels, it is spoken only by Jesus Christ Himself, and only in reference to Himself. No one else calls Him that, no one else is called that within the four Gospels. It is His most frequent way of referring to Himself. It seems that Jesus preferred this title for Himself, because it was free from so much misunderstanding that usually accompanied titles like “Son of God,” “King of Israel,” and “Messiah.” Yet, amazingly, for those who were informed of the Old Testament’s teachings (as Nathanael certainly was), the title “Son of Man” encapsulated all of these concepts, and even exceeded them. Thus in claiming to be the Son of Man, Jesus was not claiming to be less than “Son of God,” “King of Israel,” or “Messiah,” but astonishingly MORE than those titles alone implied. The phrase “Son of Man” is used in various contexts in the Old Testament, and often it merely means “human being.” But the most theologically significant passage of the Old Testament that employs this term, and the one that Jesus seems to reflect in His usage of the term, is Daniel 7. There, beginning at verse 13, we read about Daniel’s night vision in which he saw “One like a Son of Man” coming with the clouds of heaven. “And He came up to the Ancient of Days and was presented before Him. And to Him was given dominion, glory and a kingdom, that all the peoples, nations and men of every language might serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion which will not pass away; and His kingdom is one which will not be destroyed.”

So when Jesus speaks of Himself as “the Son of Man,” He is making some radical claims about Himself. He is the one whose coming was promised, who is resplendent in divine attributes, who has come forth from His Father, the Ancient of Days, with authority and dominion, and glory, to establish a Kingdom that will consist of people from every tribe and nation and tongue who serve Him. And His Kingdom will be established forever.

But what about this enigmatic statement about angels ascending and descending on the Son of Man? Remember that when Nathanael first approached, Jesus made that oblique reference to Jacob, saying that Nathanael was an Israelite indeed in whom there is no deceit. He is all Israel without a trace of Jacob. And we suggested a few moments ago that when Jesus saw Nathanael sitting under the fig tree, perhaps Nathanael had been contemplating Scripture and praying, as Israelites often did in the shade of a fig tree. And it is a possibility, from the context here, that the very passage of Scripture Nathanael had been contemplating dealt with the account of Jacob. There are many accounts of Jacob in the book of Genesis, but one of the most familiar ones concerns a dream he had in Genesis 28, in which Jacob saw “a ladder” which “was set on the earth with its top reaching to heaven; and behold, the angels of God were ascending and descending on it.” And the promise Jacob received from God there was a restatement of God’s covenant with his grandfather Abraham and his father Isaac. That covenant blessing concludes with the phrase, “in you and in your descendants shall all the families of the earth be blessed.” This is a promise that the Savior of the world would come forth from the seed of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. When Jacob awoke from that dream, he realized that he had experienced an awesome encounter with the Lord, and he said, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it. … How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.” Jacob called that place “Beth-El,” which means “the house of God” (Genesis 28:12-19).

Now, Jesus uses the exact same language that is recorded there, but rather than a ladder that stretches from heaven to earth on which the angels ascend and descend, Jesus is saying that He Himself is that ladder. He is the place where heaven and earth meet; He is the gate of heaven; He is the house of God – the true Beth-El. This is the Jesus that all who come to Him will see. The Son of Man, God-incarnate, who came from Heaven to earth to open the way to eternal life. The way to heaven is not a ladder like Jacob saw; Jesus is Himself “the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through” Him (John 14:6). If you desire to see heaven opened to you, you must see Jesus as the link between heaven and earth, as the Apostle Paul said in 1 Timothy 2:5: “There is one God and one Mediator between God and man, the Man Christ Jesus.” Jacob’s ladder has been refashioned into Jesus’ cross, and “by the cross heaven is thrown wide open, God draws near to man, and man is reconciled to God.”[2] The familiar hymn, Beneath the Cross of Jesus, contains a stanza in its original version that is rarely sung today.

As to the holy patriarch that wondrous dream was given, so seems my Savior’s cross to me, a ladder up to heaven.

Come and see. See the Christ who sees you. See the Christ who will show us even greater things. What are these greater things? We sang it earlier: “Ask ye what great things I know, that delights and stirs me so? What the high reward I win? Whose the Name I glory in? Jesus Christ the Crucified!”

[1] Andreas Kostenberger, John (Baker Exegetical Commentary; Grand Rapids: Baker, 2004), 83.

[2] F. F. Bruce, The Gospel and Epistles of John (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1983), 1.63.

The Cold, Cynical Eye of the Historian

noreply@blogger.com (Rev. J. Russell Reaves) — Tue, 22 May 2012 12:50:04 PDT

When Carl Trueman's book Minority Report came out a few years ago, someone posted this quote, and it resonated with me so much that I cut it out and taped it to the door of my office. I'm reading the book now, and the quote still rings true in my heart and mind:

"A world, and a church, which is hooked on novelty like some cultural equivalent of crack cocaine needs the cold, cynical eye of the historian to stand as a prophetic witness against it. And make no mistake, when it comes to my approach to trendy evangelical claims to epoch-making insights, beneath the cold, cynical exterior of this particular historian beats a heart of stone."

The Distinguishing Mark of a Follower of Jesus (John 1:43-46)

noreply@blogger.com (Rev. J. Russell Reaves) — Mon, 21 May 2012 12:07:51 PDT

Audio

John 1:43-46

The Distinguishing Mark of a Follower of Jesus

In the days of Colonial America, several decades before the Revolutionary War, churches across the colonies began to experience unusual growth, spiritual fervor, and unprecedented spread of the gospel. But this “Great Awakening,” as it came to be called, was not without its counterfeits or its critics. Some people began mimicking the phenomena associated with the revival, and it became hard to tell what was a genuine work of God and what was a counterfeit. Others seemed so afraid of a spiritual wildfire that they were reluctant to permit even a spark. To them, the whole affair seemed to be an overly emotional display of excessive theatrics. Meanwhile, America’s most brilliant theologian was right in the middle of it all. As a pastor, Jonathan Edwards was seeing and experiencing the mighty outpouring of the Holy Spirit. As a biblical theologian, he was aware that not everything that was happening was of God. So, Edwards began to write several documents that sought to provide a historical chronicle and a theological analysis of the movement. Now, in those days, people really knew how to title a book, so the whole title of one of Edwards’ works is: The Distinguishing Marks of a Work of the Spirit of God, Applied to That Uncommon Operation That Has Lately Appeared On the Minds Of the People of New England: With a Particular Consideration of the Extraordinary Circumstances With Which This Work is Attended. Today, our penchant for brevity compels us to refer to it simply as The Distinguishing Marks of a Work of the Spirit of God. In this book, Edwards contrasts those phenomena which are never sure signs that the Holy Spirit is at work, with those indications, or “distinguishing marks” that accompany the work of the Spirit. For example, Edwards says that “a work is not to be judged of by any effects on the bodies of men; such as tears, trembling, groans, loud outcries, agonies of body, or the failing of bodily strength.” Though we may be impressed by such a display, Edwards says those things can be produced apart from a genuine movement of God. But once he describes a number of things which are “no sure sign” of the Holy Spirit at work, he turns his attention to those things which are “distinguishing marks” of the Spirit’s activity. The first is that people’s esteem of Jesus is elevated. A growing opposition to sin and an increasing regard for Scripture are distinguishing marks. If people are moved more to love God and men, the Holy Spirit may certainly be said to be at work.

Now, I say all of that by way of introduction to our study of this brief text today. Just as, in Edwards’ day, it was sometimes difficult to tell which were the true movements of the Holy Spirit when there was so much display of religion all around, so too there has always been a challenge to identify the true follower of Christ from all others when so many claim to be Christian. And so we may wonder, “Is there some distinguishing mark of being a follower of Christ?” It would seem that if we were following Christ, we would be doing what He is doing, going where He is going, and saying what He is saying. His mission will be our mission. And as we look at the Lord Jesus, we find Him defining His mission, among other places, in Luke 19:10: “The Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.” I would venture to say that there are any number of things that would distinguish someone as a Christian, but none more so than being a Gospel witness. So many other things can be manufactured artificially, selfishly motivated, and seen as commendable by the world. But being a Gospel witness to a lost and dying world requires transparent authenticity – you can’t fake it and be effective. It requires an emptying of self, because there is absolutely nothing in it for you. And rather than being applauded by the world, you will be hated, criticized, and condemned by the world as you seek out the lost and seek to bring them to Jesus. So, why in the world would anyone do it? (1) to obey Jesus’ command; (2) to follow Jesus’ example; (3) to join in Jesus’ mission. Thus, it may well be that the single most distinguishing mark of a follower of Jesus is sharing Jesus as a gospel witness. I believe the truth of that statement is borne out in this passage.

I. Notice first, the catalyst of our witness (vv43-45a)

In John 1, we’ve been reading about Jesus’ initial encounters with the men who would become His disciples – Andrew, John, Peter, Philip, Nathanael (who is also called Bartholomew in the other Gospels). We learn from the other gospels that there were more, and that a number of these men were fishermen. The brothers, James and John, worked for their father in his fishing business; Andrew and Simon Peter, another set of brothers, were also fishermen. Philip may have been a fishermen, as that was a common trade in his hometown of Bethsaida. Bethsaida means “house of fishermen,” or as F. F. Bruce calls is, “Fishertown.”[1] Perhaps Nathanael was also a fisherman, as we find him out fishing with some of the other disciples later in John 21. But when Jesus called these men to become His disciples, Matthew 4:19 records that He said to them, “Follow Me and I will make you fishers of men.” In other words, “No longer will catching fish for the family business be your primary occupation, but rather, you will be catching men for My Father.” Those words, spoken by Jesus, were not a wish but a promise. If they will follow Him, He will transform them into fishers of men: passionate Gospel witnesses. Thus, the catalyst for our witness is our call to follow Jesus.

In verse 43, we read, “The next day He purposed to go into Galilee and He found Philip.” The New American Standard capitalizes the third person pronouns, which leads us to understand that the “He” refers to Jesus. Some other English versions insert the name of Jesus here, though His name is not found in the Greek text. Now, it is not altogether certain that John is talking about Jesus here in verse 43. Who else might he be talking about? A strong case can be made that he is referring to Andrew. You may recall a few weeks ago when I said that every time we see Andrew in John’s Gospel, he is bringing someone to Jesus. Verse 41 says that once Andrew began to follow Jesus, “he found first his own brother Simon (Peter),” and “he brought him to Jesus” (v42). It could well be that the word first is used there to indicate that Simon was the first of many that Andrew went out to find, and on the very next day, he went to Galilee to find his friend Philip and bring him to Jesus. But, of course, the text is vague enough to leave room for the interpretation that it was Jesus, not Andrew, who purposed to go into Galilee, and that it was Jesus, not Andrew, who found Philip. If so, then Philip is unique among all the disciples described in John’s Gospel, for every other one of them was brought to Jesus by someone else. In the end, it doesn’t really matter all that much who found Philip and brought him to Jesus. What matters is that he came to Jesus! But John’s Gospel is clear that for most human beings, the normal course of things is that a person is brought to Jesus by someone who is already following Jesus. Though Philip could possibly be a rare exception to that rule, I would doubt that anyone present here today is an exception. Some of you were brought to Jesus by a parent or grandparent, a sibling or a friend, a pastor or a Sunday School teacher, a traveling preacher or someone making evangelistic visits, or a perfect stranger whom God used to speak a word about Jesus into your life. In many cases, it may have been a combination of several of these, but almost invariably, I would suppose that you first met Jesus because you were introduced to Him by one of His followers.

When Philip met him, Jesus said to him, “Follow me.” That’s a single word in Greek, and John Calvin says that “Philip’s mind was set on fire to follow Christ by this one word.”[2] No sooner does Christ call Philip to follow that Philip goes off to find Nathanael. Just as Jesus came to seek and save the lost, now Philip has joined the ranks of His followers who are also engaged in that mission. And this is how the Gospel has infiltrated the world since the beginning of Christian history. Jesus calls followers to Himself, and transforms those followers into fishers. Following Him is the catalyst. There can be no fishing for Him unless we are following Him, and if we are following Him, we will be fishing for Him. The key to being His witness is not trying harder or gaining more information to share, though there is nothing wrong with those things. The key is following Him more faithfully and more closely. As we follow, our witness will flow from the overflow of the abundance of joy and love that He produces within us.

II. Notice also, the content of our witness. (v43b)

If you were to ask the average “man on the street” what they know about Christians, what do you think they would say? Ask them to describe a Christian, and perhaps you will hear that Christians are people who have a certain view of marriage, or a certain view on abortion, or who do certain things and don’t do other things. Make no mistake, a consistent Christian will have a biblically informed worldview on social issues like marriage, abortion, gambling, and other things, and a biblically shaped perspective on morality. But these matters are not the content of our witness. Ironically, many people, if asked to define what it means to be Christian, would make no mention of the Lord Jesus Himself. It bothers us to hear that kind of caricature portrayed of Christians, but we have to admit that the world has gained this impression of us in large part because we have sent so many mixed signals.

We can often make the mistake of confusing the Gospel message itself with certain implications and applications of the Gospel. We may think that we are being a witness as we try to persuade others to agree with our Christian convictions on a social issue. But, the other person has no basis on which to agree with us, because they do not know Christ, therefore they have no regard for His will or His word, and we are only beating the wind to try to persuade them to take our side on a social issue. Rather, the core of our conversation with them must be the message of who Jesus Christ is and what He has done for us through His life, death, and resurrection. It is only as they come to know Him that the Holy Spirit will open their minds and hearts to His will and His word, and we can trust Him to change their opinions about social issues. We could say the same about specific behaviors. Often, we want to discuss the way someone acts, and we want to tell them that they must not act that way. We consider that we have witnessed to them because we admonished them to give up a particular vice, or to begin doing some noble deed – perhaps even attending church. But, people act like they act because they are what they are. Therefore, I might as well expect a pig to fly as to expect a lost person to desire a moral change in his or her life. I am not witnessing to them by asking them to do the impossible – to change their nature apart from Christ. My witness to them must be centered on Jesus Christ Himself, and as they come to know Him, they will experience the life-changing power that He brings into their lives. Apart from Him, even if a person could or did change their opinion about social issues and moral behaviors, they would still be lost eternally apart from His saving grace.

Notice in the passage before us that when Philip finds Nathanael, he presents a witness to Him that is thoroughly and exclusively about the Lord Jesus Christ. He does not say, “We have found the answers!” Neither does He say, “We have found a better lifestyle!” He says, “We have found Him!” Who is Him? He is the One that Moses wrote about in the Law, and the One of whom the Prophets spoke and wrote. He is the One whom Moses said was coming into the world as the greater Prophet, the One the Prophets spoke of as the virgin-born, eternal King, who would suffer and die to ransom humanity from captivity to sin. And He is the one who is called Jesus, who is associated with the humble little town of Nazareth, and who people know from his association with his earthly foster-father, Joseph. Many had come, and would continue to come, claiming that they were the One of whom Moses and the Prophets had spoken. Jesus Himself said these false-Christs would continue to appear. But Philip made it clear in his witness to Nathanael that the One, the True Messiah, was none other than Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph. In the ancient world, these two statements (one’s hometown and family origin) would be sufficient to identify anyone. Philip’s witness was specific and precise, and pointed Nathanael to the same Christ whom we worship today.

Now, Philip’s description of Jesus was as precise as he know to be, but as we look at it, we can’t help noticing that it was incomplete to say the least, if not inaccurate at points. Jesus came to be known as “Jesus of Nazareth,” but we all know that He did not hail from Nazareth. He was born in Bethlehem, the town which had been prophesied as the birthplace of the Savior. And He was most certainly NOT the son of Joseph. He was and is the Son of God, born of Mary while she remained a virgin. But, God was pleased to use even an incomplete and inaccurate witness of Jesus to bring Nathanael into the family of God. I recall one night several years ago when I pastored another church, and some of us went out to visit a home in the community. I said to one of the ladies with us, “I want you to do the talking.” She began to witness to the man at his kitchen table, and it was so bad, I just wanted the floor to open up and swallow us all. When she finished talking, and not a moment too soon, she asked the man, “Do you understand what I have said?” I thought to myself, “What a stupid question! Who in the world could understand that?” But to my glorious surprise, the man said, “Yes I do.” I was flabbergasted. I said, “Are you sure?” And the man began to recap the Gospel message, and he got it more correct than she did! And that night, he gave his life to Jesus as his Lord and Savior. God was pleased to use her flawed presentation of the Gospel to bring this man into new life! How can I explain that? Only this – the content of her message was Jesus, and though she got many things wrong, she got Him right, and thankfully He is all that matters.

So many of you wonder, “How can I witness to my friends and family members?” You try sometimes to “sneak in the back door” of the conversation by talking about issues, about church, about a book you have read, or something like that. And it seems you are getting nowhere. Can I suggest that you try the front door instead? Talk to them about Jesus! Look at the conversations Jesus has with people in the Gospels. Look at the conversations the Apostles have with unbelievers in Acts. What do they have in common? They are all singularly focused on who He is and what He came to do. Why do we think we need to improve on that? Let the Lord Jesus be the content of your witness. I find that people are very comfortable talking about what is most important to them in life. If the Lord Jesus is the most important person to you, you will have no problem bringing Him into every conversation you have. And you will be amazed with what God can do in those conversations.

III. Notice finally, the characteristics of our witness (vv45-46)

I can remember the cool, beautiful day that we visited a temple devoted to the worship of many different deities. I encountered an old man there, and he initiated conversation with me. “I would like to tell you a story about something that the god I worship did 2,000 years ago.” And he proceeded to tell me the wildest sort of fairy tale that I have ever heard, and how this deity had made such a profound impact upon him. I patiently endured the tale, and when he had finished, I said to him, “Now, sir, I would like to tell you something that the God I worship did 2,000 years ago.” And I told him that this God, the one and only God of the universe, became a man and came to dwell among us. He went about doing good and teaching truth, performing signs and wonders that authenticated Him and His mission. And then this perfect, sinless, righteous, God-man did the unthinkable: He took all of our sins upon Himself and died on the cross. In His death, all of our sins were punished, and He defeated sin and death by His resurrection. As a result of this, we can be forgiven of our sins and made righteous in God’s sight, and have abundant and eternal life that cannot be earned or deserved, but which is given freely to us as a gift from God that we receive by faith. I told him how I had once been an atheist, but that this God had changed my life, and I would like for him to know the God I served. He said, “Oh, you mean Jesus. Yes, I know about Jesus, and I like Him too.” And quickly, he turned and began to rehearse the same fairy tale he had just told me to another person passing by.

Herein lies one of the challenges of being a Gospel witness. One of the most effective and important things we can share with other people is how Jesus has changed our lives. This is our “testimony.” It is a first-hand account of our experience with Jesus. Philip does that here as he tells Nathanael, “We have found Him!” I once heard someone say, “No one can ever refute your personal testimony.” That may be true. But do not be surprised when you share your testimony if the person with whom you are sharing responds with a testimony all their own. And then you get this sort of conversation where the other person is saying, “Thanks for sharing your story. I am very happy for you, but this is not for me. As you can see from my story, I’ve got my own thing going on.” I’ve experienced this in South Asia, in Africa, in Eastern Europe, and in Greensboro. But I keep sharing my testimony anyway. It is important, and many times, it is effective in opening the door to beginning a conversation. But, as my example illustrates, it is not enough. Our testimony is not the Gospel. It is a personal account of the Gospel’s effect upon us. Notice how Philip had to move beyond the testimony of his subjective experience to the objective facts of God’s truth revealed in Scripture. And so must we.

So Philip began to speak of Christ as He had been made known through Moses and the Prophets. We call this the “Old Testament,” and we forget sometimes that the God who is incarnate in Jesus Christ is the God of the Old Testament and the New Testament. In fact, what we call “the Old Testament” was the first Bible of the Christian Church. After His resurrection, Jesus gathered His disciples to Himself, and in Luke 24, we read that He told them, “All things which are written about Me in the Law of Moses, and the Prophets, and the Psalms must be fulfilled.” These things included the fact that Jesus would suffer and rise again from the dead, and that repentance for the forgiveness of sin would be proclaimed in His name to all nations. But in addition to the things that were prophesied about Jesus in the Old Testament, we have what the Apostle Peter calls “the prophetic word made more sure.” We have the writings of the Apostles and their companions, inspired by the same Holy Spirit who inspired the writings of the Old Testament, and the promises of God are amazing about what He will do with His word. He says, “Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of Christ” (Rom 10:17). He says, “My Word … will not return to Me empty without accomplishing what I desire” (Isa 55:11). And those are promises we can count on.

So our witness is characterized by testimony, by Scripture, and also notice, by apologetics. Now, apologetics sounds like the word apologize, but it is different. When we make an apologetic for the Christian faith, we are not apologizing for it. We are giving a defense of it. Apologetics is giving a response to the questions and criticisms people have about the Christian faith. It comes from the Greek word apologia, found in 1 Peter 3:15, which says that we must always be “ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you.” Philip does that here. Notice how Nathanael says here, “Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?” It is not an overstatement to say that Jesus put Nazareth on the map. It was such an insignificant town in Galilee that it was never once mentioned in the Old Testament, the Talmud, the Jewish Midrash, the writings of Josephus, or any ancient Gentile writing. Just as the entire region of Galilee was despised by Jews living in Southern parts of the land, so it seems that Nazareth was despised even by other Galileans. We might speak of it as being “on the wrong side of the tracks.” So Nathanael says what many others have thought: “Jesus cannot be who you think He is, because nothing good ever came out of Nazareth!” And though Bethlehem, not Nazareth, was the place of His birth, Nazareth became His hometown when He was just a boy. But Nathanael’s objection to Jesus was without merit, as so many objections to Him are. As F. F. Bruce says, “Nazareth might be all that Nathanael thought, but there is an exception to prove every rule, and what an exception these young men had found!”[3] So Philip was not deterred by Nathanael’s critical response. He only pressed in further to provide Nathanael a reason to move beyond the objection and encounter the living Lord Jesus. Sometimes we can do that with argumentation and sound reasoning. At other times, words are not enough. Words alone, though, are never sufficient. We must beware of what one of my professors called “sledgehammer apologetics.” There are no magic words to make someone believe on the Lord Jesus. All of us who believe are led to faith by the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. But words can go a long way toward demolishing arguments and strongholds and overcoming objections. This is what Paul meant when he said in 2 Corinthians 10, “For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh, for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses. We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ.” In other words, we engage in the task of apologetics in order to show that following Jesus is not a blind leap of faith, but a reasonable and intelligent decision. If one continues in unbelief, it is in spite of the evidence and not for lack of it.

With or without reasoning, it is still necessary for a person to have a personal encounter with the Lord Jesus. And that is exactly what Philip offers to Nathanael. In response to Nathanael’s critical objection to Jesus, Philip says, “Come and see.” And those words indicate that whatever your objection may be to Jesus, if you would have a personal experience and encounter with Him, it would all fade from view. I have shared with you before that I had many questions and many objections to Christianity before I became a believer. And frankly, I never found anyone who could answer some of them. But what I realized was that when Christ overwhelmed me in a personal encounter, when the Holy Spirit invaded my life, I could no longer use those questions as an excuse to not believe. His presence and power became for me the ultimate apologetic. I came to Him and saw, and it was enough. And in any of our witness and apologetics, what we are ultimately doing is saying to the unbelieving world, “Come and see.” Come and see this Jesus and meet Him for yourself. And if you do, you will never be the same.

What is the distinguishing mark of the Christian? It is most assuredly a life of consistent Gospel witness. This Gospel witness is the overflow of a life that follows Him; it is thoroughly and exclusively centered upon Him; it is personal testimony, biblical truth, apologetic reasoning, and an invitation to the lost to come to Him and meet Him, and be transformed by Him. I pray that my life and yours will bear this distinguishing mark as we go into our neighborhoods and into the nations for Jesus’ sake. And if you have been brought here today by the providence of God, not knowing Christ in a personal way, then we would say to you what Philip said to Nathanael, “Come and see!”

[1] F. F. Bruce, The Gospel and Epistles of John (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1983), 1.59.

[2] John Calvin, John (Crossway Classic Commentaries; Wheaton, Ill.: Crossway, 1994), 43.

[3] Bruce, 1.60.

Remembering a Brother and a Friend

noreply@blogger.com (Rev. J. Russell Reaves) — Wed, 16 May 2012 10:55:17 PDT

Below is the message I delivered at the memorial service of my brother-in-law and dearest friend, Geoff Kugel.

A Man Who Walked With God

I have heard the fifth chapter of the book of Genesis described as the graveyard of the Bible. There is a statement repeated throughout that chapter that rings in our ears like the tolling of a funeral bell: “AND HE DIED.” It is said of several men, one right after another, verse after verse through the fifth chapter. Of course, that is not all that is said about them. We also read that they lived, they had families, they lived for so many years after that, and then, of each one, we read that he died. We could say the same thing about so many people we have known. They were born, they grew up, they went to school, they got a job, they had a family, and they died. But in Genesis Chapter Five, one person stands out from all the rest. One man among all of them was unique. This man’s name was Enoch. Enoch was like no one else that anyone of his generation ever knew. And I would say the same thing about Geoff Kugel. Geoff is like no one else I have ever known – like no husband, like no father, like no son or brother, like no uncle or friend, that I have ever known! I am sure that many of you would say the same about him.

When we come to Enoch in Genesis 5, the pattern is broken. Of Enoch, and no one else in this chapter, we read that he “walked with God,” and we do not read that “he died,” but rather that “he was not, for God took him.” But the text is clear that Enoch had not always walked with God. Indeed, those words cannot be said about any mere human. The Bible teaches, and human experience confirms, that we are all born with a nature that is bent toward sin. It began with Adam and Eve, and it passes one like a genetic disease from one person to the next. The Bible says that we have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God; it says that there is none righteous, not even one. The great Christian leader of the fourth century, St. Augustine, tells a story about how, as a child, he and his friends used to steal pears off of a tree in a neighbor’s yard. He remarks that pears are not attractive to look at, and he did not even enjoy the taste of them. They did not steal the pears to eat them, but rather to throw them to some pigs nearby. He says, “Our real pleasure consisted in doing something that was forbidden.” There is not a person in the room today who does not understand what he is talking about when he says that, though there may be few who would openly admit it. By nature, we are driven toward rebellion and disobedience. But for some, there comes a turning point in life. For Enoch, the Bible says that the turning point was when his son was born. “Then,” the Bible says, “he walked with God.” There was a conversion from the former way of living to a new way of living. No longer was he walking against the way of the Lord. He was walking with him. It was a deliberate, conscious, volitional change of mind, change of heart, change of belief, that led to a changed life.

Now, let me tell you something about my relationship with Geoff. I met Geoff in the Spring of 1995 at a friend’s wedding. I was told very unexpectedly and abruptly that I would be sharing a hotel room with Nicole’s boyfriend whom I had never met. I didn’t really care for that idea too much. And Geoff came into the room there that afternoon, you know Geoff, smiling, bouncing with every step, and he was saying, “Hey man! I’m Geoff! We're sharing a room!” And he was just being so chatty. And I thought, “Oh great! I’ve got to share a room with this guy!” But you know, we just started building this bond of friendship that I would have never imagined. Now, there came a point when Geoff was going through a really hard time with some stuff, and I wrote him a letter. I told him about my own bouts with discouragement and depression, and how my faith in the Lord Jesus Christ makes all the difference in the world at those times. And rather than helping Geoff, my letter really upset him. He thought I was judging him and condemning him, and it hurt me so bad to think that he had misunderstood me. But we had a chance to clear that up and I told him that I just wanted to be there for him and help him in any way I could, because I knew what he was going through that the God I knew and worshiped could help him. It was not long after that, I was part of a leadership team in Philadelphia that brought Pastor Greg Laurie to town for the Harvest Crusade in 1999. We learned that there was going to be another one in Hickory, and Donia and I came home to visit family and invited Geoff and Nicole to go with us that night. It was October 2, 1999.

The place was packed. We couldn’t even get into the baseball stadium. That stadium seats 5,000 people and 15,000 showed up that night. It was the largest crowd ever assembled in Catawba County. We were sitting on a hillside outside of the stadium, listening to Greg preach. I have a copy of the sermon he preached that night. He spoke about death, and heaven and hell, and fear. Greg said, “Death is no respecter of persons. Everyone will stand before God one day. Death is the great equalizer. Everyone is headed there.” He said, “Listen! Every wrong in the universe will ultimately be paid for! Either it will turn out to have been paid for by Jesus Christ when He died on the cross if the offender repents of their sins and puts their faith in Him, or it will be paid for at the final judgment by those who do not trust in Jesus for salvation.” And when Greg concluded, He said the words, “Prepare to meet your God!” And he asked anyone who wanted to receive Jesus to come forward to the field and meet with a counselor. And I don’t know if any of you ever saw Geoff in a sense of urgency, but he would get this real serious look on his face and his upper lip would kind of tighten, and he would just speak really short, staccato, words, and he said to me and Nicole and Donia, “Hey, I’ll be right back, I need to go down there.” He took off running, and I took off running after him, and Donia and Nicole took off running after me. And there were 1,300 people standing on that field, and there were counselors trying to get to everyone, and I just said, “Geoff, let’s do this, me and you.” And the greatest blessing of my life was leading him to receive Jesus as his Lord and Savior that night. Geoff would speak of that night to me and say that before that night, he really didn't know if he had ever truly put his faith in Christ or not, but after that night there was never any doubt. And I want to tell you that there was a decisive turning point in his life. “THEN Geoff walked with God.”

You might say, “What are you talking about?” I knew Geoff before 1999, and he was a good guy then.” I would agree. But that is not the point. The point is not that Jesus makes bad people into good people, or good people into better people. The point is that it does not matter if you are a good or bad person. The Bible says that we are all sinners, and we know that it’s true when we are alone with our own thoughts. And the Bible says that spiritually, all of us are dead in our sins. So, it isn’t that Jesus came to make bad people good, or good people better. It is that He came to make dead people alive, to make sinners righteous, and to make rebels into His worshipers and servants! And that is what happened to Geoff on that night in 1999. You saw the effects of that every time you were around him.

Now the Bible tells us more about Enoch than just this little bit about how he began to walk with God. It tells us something about what Enoch did with his life from then on. In the little book of Jude in the New Testament, we read that Enoch began to speak to others about the God he came to know and serve. Enoch began to tell others that they needed to know this God, and to turn to him in repentance and faith before it was too late. You see, when you are a beggar, and you find bread, you want to help other beggars find bread too. Geoff had found Jesus Christ as the bread of life, and he eagerly desired that others would have that bread too! We used to talk a lot about it. He would tell me about someone he was concerned for, and ask me, “How do you think I should talk to them?” And we’d talk a little bit about it. And one day Geoff called me, and he was so excited. He said, “I did it! I did it!” And he started telling me how God had given him this opportunity to talk to a friend about Jesus and to help his friend think through some spiritual issues. He said, “I’ve told him, now it is up to him to believe and turn to Christ!” And we just rejoiced together. And Geoff kept on telling people. And you know, Wednesday night, at the Emergency Room, Dan Flood told me, “You know, just earlier today, our last real conversation, Geoff and I were talking about what it really means to be a Christian!” And there are many people in this room who had conversations like that with Geoff. And if you never had that conversation with him, it isn’t because he didn’t want to.

I’m really struggling here to keep referring to Geoff in the present tense, not the past tense, because he lives on. He lives on in heaven with Jesus, because Jesus saved Him. Jesus said, “I am the resurrection and the life, and whoever believes in Me will live even if he dies. And the one who lives and believes in Me will never die.” And I am saying what I am saying today because I know Geoff wants me to. He cannot speak to us anymore here, but I am telling you what I know he wants me to say to you. I know that because he told me. He wanted nothing more than to share the good news of Jesus Christ with everyone he knew. He didn’t get the chance to tell you all that, but you saw it in his life. You saw it in his smile. You felt it in his love. You knew it from his joy. And there are many of you who know that Geoff has something that you do not have. And it’s not a thing, it is a Person, and the Person is Jesus. And so, it’s up to me to tell you what I know he wants you to hear. He wants you to have what he has. And what He has is Jesus.

It is one thing to say that you believe in Jesus, or to call yourself a Christian. It is something altogether different to experience His saving grace in a truly personal way. It is one thing to say that you believe Heaven is real, and that Geoff is there with God. It is another thing altogether for you to know that is an absolute truth based on the promise of God’s Word. It is one thing for you to say that you are praying through these circumstances, and it is another altogether to know that Christ is present with you and within you carrying you through this. And if you don't know what it means to really know Him and experience Him in a personal way, let me explain.

God, in His infinite love for you, has made a way for you to know Him – for you to be forgiven of all of your sins, to be covered freely and undeservingly in the righteousness of Jesus Christ Himself. The Bible says that God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him would not perish but would have everlasting life. Jesus Christ is God, and He became a man, and He lived among us. He lived the only sinless life that has ever been lived – a life of perfect righteousness. But He was put to death by the hands of the sinful people He came to save. And in His death, all of my sins, all of your sins, all of Geoff’s sins, were placed upon Jesus at the Cross, as He became the sacrificial substitute for us. The Bible says that without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sin, and it is Christ’s blood that was shed to redeem us. He died so that you might live, abundantly in Him in this life, and eternally with Him in the next. And on the third day following the death of Jesus, He arose from the dead, having defeated our sin and its penalty forever. So, now, all who turn from sin and trust in Him by faith as Lord, will be saved! The Bible says that “God made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” Your life will be made brand new in God’s sight, and you will be adopted into His family. God will be a Father to you, and you will be His sons and daughters. And His Spirit will take up residence with you and empower you to live for Him so that the light of Christ will shine through you. That is what you see in Geoff, and it can be true of you! This has been our prayer all week long. “God, if you can be glorified through all of this, through Geoff’s death as You were in Geoff’s life, do it Lord!” And we are praying that some of you, dare I say, MANY of you, will know Jesus because you saw Him in Geoff, and you want Him for yourself.

There was a book that I gave Geoff a number of years ago that helped him grow as a Christian. It was a book called Mere Christianity by a brilliant guy named C. S. Lewis. I KNOW that Geoff has given some of you copies of that book. And in that book, C. S. Lewis, who was once an atheist and became the most intelligent defender of the Christian faith in the 20^th century, says this about Jesus:

I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: “I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept His claim to be God.” That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic—on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg—or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.

Jesus is Lord, or else He is a lunatic, a demoniac, or a compulsive liar. Those are the only options. And in Geoff Kugel you see a man who knew Him as Lord, and worshiped Him as Lord, and served Him as Lord. I heard a story once about a man named Joe who served the Lord faithfully with his life. One day, someone came upon a man praying and heard him saying, “Lord, make me like Joe. Make me like Joe!” And the passer-by stopped and said, “My friend, don’t you mean, ‘Make me like Jesus’?” And the man said, “I don’t know Jesus. Is He anything like Joe?” And I know from talking to so many of you over the last few days that there are people here in this room who are praying right now, “Lord, make me like Geoff.” But Geoff would be the first one to tell you that Geoff is Geoff because of Jesus. You want to be like him, because He was being transformed into the image of Jesus. So you might say, “I don’t know Jesus; is He anything like Geoff?” And I am going to tell you that everything you saw partially in Geoff can be found fully and abundantly in Jesus and only in Him.

Enoch was the kind of person that people liked to be around. He walked with God. And though it could be said of every person of his generation, “and he died,” of Enoch it was said, “God took him.” He took him to be with Himself, and when He did, it wasn’t a meeting of two strangers. God knew Enoch because Enoch had walked with Him by faith ever since that turning point in his life. The Bible says that Enoch’s life was pleasing to God. And when God took him, the Bible says in Hebrews 11 that Enoch “was not found because God took him.” He was not found. That means that people were looking for him. They missed him. They noticed his absence. And you and I are going to really notice Geoff’s absence from us. We miss him. We’ll be looking for him, for anything that reminds us of him. But we won’t find him here, because he walked with God, through Christ, Geoff’s life was pleasing to God, and God took him. But don’t you dare ever say that we’ve lost Geoff. You have only lost something if you do not know where it is. And I know exactly where Geoff is.

Because of his faith in Jesus Christ, I know that Geoff is seated forever before the awesome throne of God in heavenly glory. Everything he believed by faith has become visible, tangible, touchable to him now. When King David’s son died, the Bible says that David said, “He cannot come again to me, but I can go to him.” And the way, the one and only way, for you go to Geoff is for you to come to Jesus. As Greg Barnes read moments ago, the Lord Jesus Himself said this: “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life, and no one comes to the Father except by Me.” Geoff would want you to know Jesus. He would tell you, “Don’t do it so you can be with me. Do it so you can you can be with Jesus, forever! Because He is infinitely and eternally glorious and gracious!”

In a few moments this service will end. People have used the word “closure.” I hate that word. In a sense, I sincerely hope you never have “closure.” I do pray that we can all get beyond the shock, and the sorrow and grief, and the confusion, but I pray that we will never forget. Never forget that life is short and it is hard, and we must make the most of every moment of every day, because we are not promised another one. Never forget that God is good, and that He will carry you through things that you cannot even imagine. Never forget Geoff Kugel. Never forget about Nicole, George and Annie. Remember what a gift we were given to know him for such a short time. And you remember what makes Geoff so special. It is Jesus.

We may never know why God took Geoff the way He did, and when He did. But if God can be glorified in Geoff’s death, as He is through Geoff’s life, then know that this family will rejoice together in God’s presence because of that.

How Then Shall We Live?

noreply@blogger.com (Rev. J. Russell Reaves) — Tue, 15 May 2012 09:08:22 PDT

Our Assistant Pastor, Dr. Jack Benzenhafer, delivered this message on Sunday May 13, 2012.

Audio