JOHN166 - A Troubling Trend for Some, a Promising Trend for Others

One of the things that I think is really cool about people is that we tend to be pretty good at pattern recognition. We can see when something is on the uptick, it's on the rise. I'm noticing this more in society and the world around me. And I also think we tend to be pretty good at knowing which things that are on the uptick we should be concerned about and paying attention to, and which things that are on the rise we kind of just shrug at and not worry about.

For example, some trends that I don't think we probably need to worry about at all. Mullets and mustaches on young men, ducks on the dashes of jeeps. How about kid language? Skibity, 6'7, Sigma. It doesn't matter. Every generation has got goofy little words that they make up so they don't have to use their parents and grandparents' slang.

But here, at the risk of offending, and I very well may offend here, thank you in advance for your patience with me. If you see this different, here are some trends that I see lately that I do think are worth being concerned about. Let's go big to start with. Islam in the West. I don't think that's a great idea.

We've got a really, really big sample size of history to say that the values and ideas of Islam as a religion are pretty different than those of the Christian West. One of the two is probably gonna have to win if you throw those two sets of ideologies in the same place together. You can mingle the people.

I mean, you can mingle anybody when you arrive at some sort of shared values, but there are expressions and strains of Islam that I don't think are gonna play well in the West. And I think it's gonna cause a lot of tension. I think it's gonna be a difficult thing to work out. I am concerned about that trend and keeping an eye on it.

I am also concerned about how much stuff costs. Inflation, healthcare, housing. This is a big deal. This is not a partisan issue. Both the red team and blue team in my country have had a crack at getting that under control, and they have not been able to do so. That's a problem. That is a justice issue.

That affects a lot of people. It's bigger than a political football. I'm noticing that trend, and I think I'm rightly concerned about it. Okay, here's another one. This is gonna sound like an old man get off my lawn thing, and I don't care. I'm mad about this one. Gambling apps, the normalization and mainstreaming of gambling.

It's everywhere. It used to be like discreet and under the table, like some people, you know, will put down a little friendly wager. But it wasn't in front of everybody's faces all the time. Gambling apps, their advertising, it's paying for all of sports. It compromises sport, it ruins people's lives.

I saw a statistic that I haven't verified it, but I saw it. My dad showed it to me that something like between 50 and 60 percent have placed a bet on a sporting event. You might think that's great. I don't think that's great. The point of this little exercise with these three trends not to worry about and three trends to worry about is not so much to persuade you of my rightness.

I haven't taken enough time to really make a case for any of it meaningfully. Rather, it was meant to see the hopefully one of these would sit with you and you'd be like, Yeah, that made me feel something. Yep, I can relate to that. I know what it's like to see a trend and shrug at it. I know what it's like to see a trend and feel a healthy degree of concern about that.

We gotta keep an eye on it and we better discuss it. That is exactly what is happening in John chapter three among two different groups of people. We're seeing that anxiety start to develop from John three and into John four among the religious leadership. Now, overwhelmingly in John three, we have a nice interaction with somebody from the religious leadership who apparently sees the trend of Jesus on the rise, and he responds rightly to it.

He goes to Jesus and is like, help me understand the thing, and just mostly shuts up and listens. Great job, Nicodemus. But as we get to the beginning of John chapter 4, Nicodemus's buddies and co-workers, they're seeing the trend of Jesus on the rise. They are very concerned about this trend. The Pharisees heard that Jesus was gaining and baptizing more disciples than John.

The point is, the Pharisees are one group of people who, as humans can do, know when a trend is occurring. And in this case, they feel like this trend, the rise in popularity of Jesus, is trouble. They've got John the Baptist kind of nailed down. They've made peace with that. It doesn't feel like a threat to them.

It's kind of the devil they know, if you will. But the Jesus thing, that's troubling to them. He feels like a wild card. Jesus feels to them like something that could be a complete sea change, more on that later. The other group of people who see the trend of Jesus on the rise and are concerned about it are the disciples of John the Baptist, like we've been talking about over the last couple of episodes.

And they come off as kind of petty here at the end of John 3. Looks like they're charging Jesus with being a copycat. He's copying you. John, did you know he's copying you? And they come and they kind of tattle to John the Baptist while he's baptizing people. But you know what? That's why they're disciples.

They don't know yet. That's why they need to be trained up. That's why John the Baptist is the adult in the room. But you gotta give these guys credit, both the Pharisees and the followers of John the Baptist, they know a trend when they see it, and they're pretty good apparently at knowing which kind of trends are eh, no big deal, mullets, mustache, ducks on the dash, skibbity, who cares, whatever, and which trends are shaping up to be a very big deal.

This is going somewhere, we don't know what to do, but this demands our attention. And you gotta tip your cap to him for knowing that it was a big deal really early on. There's another dude who knew it was a big deal really early on, and this is going to take us out of the Gospel of John and over to the Gospel of Luke.

Says in verse 25 of Luke 2, there was a man in Jerusalem called Simeon who was righteous and devout. He was waiting for the consolation of Israel. Love that line. And the Holy Spirit was upon him. So this isn't just some guy who's pretty smart and likable. That line right there, the Holy Spirit was upon him.

Whoa! Like the Holy Spirit hasn't even been given to the church yet. That happens in Acts chapter two at the day of Pentecost. We're a long ways from that. Something remarkable is happening with this Simeon fellow. Let's see what he has to say. It had been revealed to Simeon by the Holy Spirit that he would not die before he had seen the Lord's Christ, the Messiah.

That is Jesus. Moved by the Spirit. So again, this is not him just, you know, spitballing, doing a little blogging or something here. This is from God. This is prophetic, affirmed by Scripture. Moved by the Spirit, he went into the temple courts. When the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him what the custom of the law required, Simeon took him in his arms, he took Jesus, little baby Jesus, in his arms and praised God, saying, Sovereign Lord as you have promised, you now dismiss your servant in peace.

For my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the sight of all people, a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for the glory of your people Israel. What you're getting here is a dude on the front end of things who has the right motivations, backed by God, who is sort of a third party who sees the trend as to where Jesus is headed.

Now, unlike the other two parties we've discussed today, the Pharisees who are threatened, and John the Baptist's disciples, who are just kids and they're jealous. I mean, they don't get it. Well, over here we got Simeon, who's older and wiser and more mature. Oh yeah. And has the Holy Spirit upon him, and he looks at the trend that is Jesus, even as just a tiny little baby, and he knows, oh, this is going to change everything.

The passage goes on, verse 33. The child's father and mother marveled at what was said about him. Then Simeon blessed them and said to Mary his mother, This child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be spoken against, so that the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed, and a sword will pierce your own soul too.

Obviously, there's a lot of layers to that, but another person appears in this story, very next verse. There was also a prophetess, Anna, the daughter of Fanuel of the tribe of Asher. She was very old. She had lived with her husband seven years after her marriage, and then was a widow until she was eighty-four.

She never left the temple but worshipped night and day, fasting and praying. Coming up to them, at that very moment, she gave thanks to God and spoke about the child to all who were looking forward to the redemption of Jerusalem. So we got this prophet and this prophetess, and guided by the Holy Spirit, they recognize the pattern.

They see there's a trend here, there's an uptick, and it's it's this baby, it's Jesus, the promised one of God, the Messiah, the descendant of David who is to come, and they can, they know this should be taken seriously. This is something to be reckoned with. Well, once again, we flip back over to John 3, John 4, and we see two other groups who might not have the Holy Spirit upon them, but they know a pattern when they see it.

They know something that needs to be reckoned with when they see it, and they're grappling with it, kind of groping around in the dark a little more, trying to figure out what to do with it, and they feel the threat of it, but they don't really have a plan. They just know it needs to be taken seriously.

And of course, they're exactly right. Here are a few reasons that we know that they were exactly right. One, people are going to Jesus to get baptized. Why would they do that if there's already a perfectly good John the Baptist right over there who's more established? Well, there's something about Jesus that is compelling, and John the Baptist has been pointing people that way.

Two, there were a lot of people who looked at Jesus and saw that was a big deal. Later on, these same Pharisees in chapter 11 are gonna say, What are we supposed to do? This man is performing many signs. If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and then the Romans are gonna come and take away both our place and our nation, our jobs, our positions.

In Mark chapter 11, the chief priests and scribes get upset and they start looking for a way to kill him because, quote, they were afraid of him because the whole crowd was astonished at his teaching. So we know these guys were right in identifying the trend of Jesus is a really big deal and must be reckoned with.

One, because Jesus was doing a lot of baptizing and we already had a perfectly good John the Baptist baptizing. Why are people going to Jesus? Two, because all kinds of people, not just Pharisees and John's disciples and prophets, are recognizing this trend has staying power. It's a really big deal. And three, I guess they're kind of vindicated in what they predicted would happen.

I mean, history vindicated these guys who said this is a big deal and must be taken seriously, because I don't know how reliable my numbers are, but I went over to the Population Research Bureau's website and did some quick finger and calculator math and figured out that maybe as many as 25% of people who have ever lived since Jesus have been Christians.

There's certainly room for debate on that number, but whatever the case, it's a lot, like the biggest thing ever. And these guys, for better or worse, whether they knew what to do with it or not, identified the trend early. And John the Baptist's disciples go right to him and are like, give us guidance on this.

Tell us what to do. This trend is happening. And next time around, well, we'll look at what John the Baptist had to say about that. All right, that's plenty for now. I'm Matt. This is the 10 Minute Bible Hour Podcast. Let's do this again soon.

JOHN166 - A Troubling Trend for Some, a Promising Trend for Others

Kapitelklicken springt direkt hin

Shownotes

Transkriptvom Podcast bereitgestellt · Zeitmarken springen hin