Seeing Jesus Through the Fog - Part A

Why did Jesus spend three and a half years on earth in public ministry? I know he taught people during that time. He did miracles. But principally, why did he spend three and a half years on earth? It's really not a long time, but a lot of people say, well, Jesus only came to die on the cross. Well, if that were true, he only needed a weekend. But he spends three and a half years.

And he does that because he's building up the lives of men that he's going to release into this world. Welcome to Connect with Skip Weekend Edition. Fog is a fairly simple phenomenon. It's essentially a cloud floating at ground level. Fog obscures things, making it more dangerous to drive or even fly. Fog keeps things just out of view, which, quite frankly, is a rather spooky effect. There are a lot of things in today's culture that make things rather foggy when it comes to Jesus Christ. But we don't have to get lost in that fog.

It can be cleared away, and we can see Jesus quite clearly. And we'll find out how in today's story. But first, let's see what's going on in the Connect with Skip Resource Center this month. For this Easter season, we've put together a special set of resurrection resources by Skip that include five of his finest Easter messages for audio download or on CD and a full video titled On the Road. We want to send you a copy of this package of messages as thanks for your gift to support Connect with Skip Heitzig and help grow this teaching ministry to reach more people in major cities in the U.S. this year. So request your package when you give your gift of $50 or more today and take a walk with the risen Lord on the road to Emmaus. Just call 800-922-1888 or visit connectwithskip.com slash offer.

That's connectwithskip.com slash offer. Today we start in John Chapter 7. So open your Bibles as Skip Heitzig gets us started by asking a tricky question.

I realize that the question I'm about to ask is a tough one for people living in the Sun Belt. But what is the foggiest place on the face of the earth? First service, somebody said Alabama.

And that's not true. Last night somebody said England. Where? London. Somebody said London. I hear that.

I've heard that a lot. It's actually Canada. Not Canada as a whole, but one particular place. It's called the Grand Banks in Newfoundland.

Off the coast there, there's a couple of currents in the ocean. The Labrador kernel which is cold from the north and the Gulf Stream from the south create this interesting mixture that produces 206 days of fog every year. Steve Stucker, our weatherman, did you know that?

Okay, you didn't even know that. Okay, so it's like the opposite of us, isn't it? We have 310 days of sunshine a year. They have 206 days of fog a year. Sort of a trick question, actually, because the foggiest place in the world is the human heart. When it comes to truth about God, when it comes to the identity of Jesus Christ, people are by and large foggy.

They have foggy notions about who He is. Now fog can be beautiful. Objects are rendered sort of magically, mystically, softer, and they look beautiful, but it can also be very dangerous because you lose visual perception. You don't know if a car's 10 feet or 20 feet ahead of you, and that's the reason whenever it gets foggy in certain areas, they're always worried about pile-ups on the freeway. I heard recently about a pile-up in India during a fog bank where two or three hundred cars at one time piled up.

Hundreds of people were injured. Now in chapter seven, a fog has settled in over the hearts of men and women concerning Christ. There's the fog of unbelief in chapter seven.

We're told that even Jesus' own brothers didn't believe in Him. There's the fog of hatred in this chapter. Jesus' enemies that have always been down south in Jerusalem are intensifying their hatred toward Him.

They want to get rid of Him. He's a deceiver to them. Then there's the fog of religion in this chapter. Some would look at Him and say, well, He's a good person. He's a good man. He's a good rabbinical teacher or religious leader. And you know, some people actually prefer to see Jesus through the fog because just like fog renders physical objects more beautiful, to some people it's just more beautiful to imagine Jesus as being this way or that way than how He really is.

But that too is very dangerous. Let me add another fog that is prevalent in our culture. It's the fog of media. The media fogs Jesus. Every Christian holiday, Easter and Christmas, they feel bound almost to release some new story or documentary on the real Jesus as if nobody knew until now. And all sorts of different ideas are postured.

There's a steady stream of these ideas. Some say that He was an illusionist. Others say that He was a guru.

Others say He was a world traveler. I saw one documentary that said that Jesus and Mary Magdalene were married and they were trying to create a secret lineage to rule the world. A steady stream of weird ideas, foggy ideas concerning Jesus. Chapter 7, the fog is lifted. And really that's what happens in the Gospel of John. John lifts the fog and lets us see Christ for who He really is, who He claimed to be and people's reaction to that. Let's look at the first 13 verses then of chapter 7. By the way, this is week number 30 of our studies in the Gospel of John. So we're already in chapter 7.

If you're wondering how long this series is going to be, that's probably a good indication. After these things, Jesus walked in Galilee for He did not want to walk in Judea, that is to walk about. Because the Jews sought to kill Him.

Now the Jews feast of Tabernacles was at hand. His brothers therefore said to Him, depart from here and go into Judea. For your disciples, that your disciples also may see the works that you are doing. For no one does anything in secret, while He Himself seeks to be known openly.

If you do these things, show yourself to the world. For even His brothers did not believe in Him. Then Jesus said to them, my time has not yet come. Your time is always ready.

The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify of it that its works are evil. You go up to this feast. I am not yet going up to this feast, for my time has not yet fully come. When He had said these things to them, He remained in Galilee. But when His brothers had gone up, then He also went up to the feast, not openly, but as it were in secret. Then the Jews sought Him at the feast and said, where is He? And there was much complaining among the people concerning Him. Some said, He's good. Others said, no, on the contrary, He deceives the people.

However, no one spoke openly of Him for fear of the Jews. There's four things that I want to draw your attention to as the fog lifts on Christ this morning. Number one, I want you to notice His unwavering priority. Jesus had a task that He was performing that is alluded to by John. Now you'll notice the phrase that says, after these things, one of John's favorite little two-word phrases in Revelation and in the Gospel of John, meta tauta, after this, after these things.

It's a transitional phrase. It says, after these things, Jesus walked in Galilee. We're not told by looking at it, but if you compare two verses, one with the other, you can see how much time we're talking about. Go back to chapter six and notice it says in verse four, now the Passover, the feast of the Jews, was near. That's chapter six.

That's the setting. Now look at chapter seven, verse two. Now the feast or the Jews' feast of tabernacles was at hand. So chapter six happens at Passover. Chapter seven happens at tabernacles. That's a six-month gap. Passover is in the spring. Tabernacles is in the fall.

This is a six to seven-month gap. And all John says about it is, after these things, Jesus walked in Galilee. That's all we're told. Now there's a lot of things that happen in that phrase that aren't told to us by John. I have to tell you on John's defense, the reason John doesn't include what the other gospels include, and I'll tell you what those events were, is John isn't trying to give us a chronology of events, but rather an anthology of events. Select events that show who Jesus is so that we might believe in him.

That's his purpose. But what things were happening during those six months that John is silent about? Well, the other gospels fill in the gaps.

The events between Matthew chapter 15 and 18 happen between chapters six and seven of John. And that's interesting because if you were to look over those chapters, though Jesus did meet with people publicly by and large, those six months were spent alone with his disciples. He was training them. He was readying them for what they were going to be in for. So he does go up to like Caesarea Philippi with his disciples alone and says, who do men say that I am? And then the second question, who do you say that I am?

He wanted them to get that under their belt. Then he takes three of his disciples to a high mountain. He's transfigured before them.

Then Jesus deals with the whole issue, who will be the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? Something the disciples asked. Then he gives a series of parables that he unlocks only for his disciples.

So do you get the contrast? In chapter six, he spends two days with 15,000 people. And then he spends six months with his disciples alone. What does that tell us about his priorities? What does that tell us about what was most important to him at this point? He was training these 12.

I'm going to delve into it a little differently. Why did Jesus spend three and a half years on earth in public ministry? I know he taught people during that time and he did miracles, but principally, why did he spend three and a half years on earth? It's really not a long time, but a lot of people say, well, Jesus only came to die on the cross. Well, if that were true, he only needed a weekend.

But he spends three and a half years and he does that because he's building up the lives of men that he is going to release into this world to do his work. Question. Did Jesus know that the whole world needed to hear his message? Is that true or false?

That's true. Jesus knew the whole world needed to hear his message. So what was the strategy to reach the world? Was it to have personal crusades and mass meetings? I mean, why didn't Jesus go from Tyre to Sidon and then Capernaum and all the way work his way down to Jerusalem and have mass meetings where he's going to feed 5,000 and 10,000 and 15,000 and then talk to them? Why didn't he do that?

That's not a strategy. It's rather to pour his life into other men and reproduce himself in them and then send them out. And when he sends them out, he tells them to do the same thing.

To go into all the world and make disciples of all the nations, teaching them to observe all the things that I have commanded. Now Paul, who was an apostle, though later on he did not follow Jesus in the flesh, he picked up on that same principle. He reproduced himself in Timothy and in Titus and in others and told them to do the same thing. The classic passage in 2 Timothy 2, 2. The things that you have heard from me among many witnesses, commit these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also. That's discipleship. That's reproducing your life in a life of another person. And this kind of one-on-one or one-on-two or one-on-twelve goes a long way in winning the world over to the message of Christ.

In fact, it's the best way. There's a statistic I've quoted to you before that it's staggering, but it's true. It's been estimated that if we had an unlimited budget, which we don't, but let's say we did. We had an unlimited budget and we could do mass evangelistic crusades so that we could fill a stadium with 50,000 people every single night for 35 years straight.

So we went to one place and another place and another place. We had 50,000 people every night for 35 years. And let's say that every night 1,000 people in that 50,000 seat arena came forward to receive Christ. Well, in the end of one year, you have 365,000 new believers. At the end of 35 years, do you realize we would be further behind the task of world evangelism than the day we started? You go, I don't see how that's possible.

Simply because of the birth rate. The birth rate on the globe right now is exponentially growing so fast we couldn't offset enough people being born with people who are being converted. You go, well, that's sort of depressing.

But here's the good news. If you were the only saved person on the earth and you prayed that God would allow you to win one person to Christ in 12 months. If that happened, then at the end of one year, there's now two saved people on the earth. If both of you commit to doing that again in the second year, after year two, you have four. After year three, you have eight. And then 16 and then 32 and then 64. And it exponentially grows so that within a half a century, the entire earth could potentially be one to Christ.

That's one on one. Jesus had a priority of getting these men aside and teaching them for six months while only spending two days with this crowd in Galilee. That's his priority. Now that's how we have to look at success. Success of a church is not the size of its congregation, it's the depth of its discipleship. Anybody can get a crowd. I guarantee you, give away food, have really cool music, have harmonica playing monkeys or something, and people will come just to see something, wow. But discipleship will take your life, pour it into another life.

But the benefits are incredible. Two questions I have to ask at this point. How long have you been a Christian? And number two, where are your disciples? How long have you been a Christian and where are your disciples?

That's sort of an arrogant thing. I don't have disciples. You know, Paul the Apostle wrote to the church at Thessalonica and he said, You are the way you are and you've grown the way you've grown because you have become followers of me as I follow the Lord. Twice he said to the Corinthian church, Imitate me, follow me as I follow Christ. There's nothing wrong with following someone if that someone is following Christ. That's how discipleship takes place.

Now if you happen to be in ministry of any sort, if you're a ministry leader, if you're a small group leader, if you're starting up something in the church, some new group, and you're always, or a missionary, and you're always wondering how come there's not more people that come, there should be more people that come. Listen, you concentrate on depth and let God worry about breath. Just concentrate on discipleship and let God take care of the math. That's the New Testament principle. That's the principle of Acts chapter 2. You know that famous verse in verse 42, Acts 2, 42? And they devoted themselves continually to the apostles' doctrine, to the fellowship, to breaking of bread, and prayers. That's discipleship.

And it says the Lord added daily those who were being saved. That's God's business. So you concentrate on discipleship.

Let God take care of the rest. Here's why I'm sharing this with you. Because no matter what you do or where you are in life, even if you feel like you're restricted and you can't give more of your time, this you can do, this anybody can do.

And this is a healthy church when people are doing this. You say, well, I work at a job. I'm chained at a job. I have to give so much of my time to a job.

Do you have any workers around you? Maybe one's a Christian or maybe one's an unbeliever that you could lead to Christ and then disciple that one. Somebody else might say, I'm a mom raising kids.

I'm stuck at home. You can disciple those children. That's your mission field. I love what one woman had over her kitchen sink, a sign that read divine service rendered here three times daily. That's how she saw her cooking of the meals and training of those children. So his unwavering priority, those disciples. You know, it's easy to forget sometimes that Jesus had a family. He had a mother, brothers and sisters just like the rest of us. That's just one more reason why Jesus is someone we can all relate to.

He lived a life not all that different from our own, making him the perfect arbiter between us and God. We'll continue to explore how we can see Jesus more clearly through the fog of today's culture next time. But here is Skip and Lenya with some insight about how to clear things up when sharing Jesus with close friends and family. Skip, you and I have members in our own, you know, earthly family that are unsaved. And sometimes it's really hard to witness to the people you love the most. You know, you can be out and about and share the gospel of Jesus, but then when it comes to that moment with a sibling or an aunt, uncle, cousin, it can be a little more difficult.

Do you have any tips for our audience on ways they could try and be relevant and share Jesus with their family members? Do you remember when you first broke the news to your family? Yeah, they were not excited. And mine, I wouldn't say they weren't excited.

They were a little bit baffled. I'm just going to say, break the news to them first. You've got to figure out a way, how am I going to tell my family what has happened to me? And I would do it in a way that shows the excitement that you have for your new life in Christ.

It could be something like, I want to tell you guys something that's very important to me. I remember telling that to my parents. I've given my life to Jesus Christ. Now, I was raised in a church, so they looked at me like, what are you talking about?

You've always done that. But I hadn't. And I wanted to share them the difference between something authentic that was deep inside, that was with repentance and was now a relationship with Christ, and how I still wanted to honor them. It didn't resonate well.

They took it as an offense, and it did create some strife. But as they saw a life lived out, there was more acceptance and understanding. And that's the hard part, isn't it?

Living it out after you make the announcement. Yeah, light shines into the darkness, but the darkness does not enjoy the light. I mean, that really is. Some of my family or friends' responses were, you know, I was kind of raised around the Timothy Leary era, so some people thought I'd had an acid trip and seen God. You know, that was like, oh, poor thing. It needed to be like— Exactly. I had an uncle that I think he was going to kidnap me and have me, you know, deprogrammed. Right, right.

I remember that. And so, you know, it's just so various, the ways people respond. Some people just go, oh, that's nice. That's good for you.

Yeah, it's good for you. Others will say, what, do you think you're better than us or something? You're holier than thou? Yeah.

There's a lot of different responses. But I think it's the word indeed. You know, you needed to tell them, but then you need to show them as well. And a life well lived is as poignant or as, you know, speaks as loudly as some words fitly spoken.

That's true. And so the important thing, at least for me, has been to love my family well and to show them Jesus as well as tell them about Jesus. Well, thanks, Skip and Lenya. And I know that'll bless a lot of people today. And if you'd like a copy of today's teaching, it's available on CD for just $4 plus shipping when you call us at 1-800-922-1888. Or when you visit connectwithskip.com. Is there any way for us to really know who Jesus was?

Well, that's what we'll explore further in our next study. So I hope you can join us right here in Connect with Skip Weekend Edition, a presentation of Connection Communications. Make a connection, make a connection at the foot of the cross and cast all burdens on His word. Make a connection, a connection, a connection. Connecting you to God's never changing truth in ever changing times.