I don't think Jesus is just making a promise that one day in the sweet by and by thousands of years from now eventually after you die and wait a long time you'll be raised. I think what he is speaking about primarily is you're going to see me alive and that's when you're really going to come alive. You're going to experience a whole new level of life that you've never experienced before because of the indwelling Holy Spirit.
Welcome to Connect with Skip Weekend Edition. Promises come in all sorts of packages. Some promises come with a ring, some are written and notarized, and others are broadcast on video for the world to see. We love promises if they are kept, but keeping promises is a flawed business at best.
Only one person has ever done it perfectly. Well today in Connect with Skip Weekend Edition, Pastor Skip will show us that God's promises are so radical and reliable that they can bring your life to a whole new level. We'll be in the Gospel of John again, chapter 14, starting off in verse 19.
So be sure to open your Bibles up there and hear with the message, Pastor Skip. We live our lives by promises. When you buy a car, the manufacturer makes you a promise. They give you a warranty, it's called.
That car is reliable up to so many miles or so many years, and if anything happens, bring it back and we'll replace it for free. That is unless it's tires or brakes or engine or transmission or just about anything that really matters, but they give you a promise. You then make a promise to the bank to make monthly installments to pay that car off. It's a promise you make. You sign your promise, you sign on the line. When couples get married, they make a promise to each other, public vows, for better for worse, richer for poorer, sickness and health, love and to cherish, till death do us part. That's a promise.
I feel as a pastor, I make a promise to you that every week, if you're going to make an effort to get out of your bed and put clothes on and get in your car and drive all the way here, that I make the promise to you that I'm going to study hard and pray hard and hear from God and we'll come together and meet on that basis. But promises can sometimes be broken and when they are, disappointment always follows. Some people are big on over-promising but under-delivering.
I'll give you an example. The diet industry. You've seen ads on how to lose weight and Americans are big on that. We spend billions and billions of dollars on it and the advertisers know that and so they will make you promises that if you get their diet, this will happen to you. Listen to some of the promises.
Here's one. Eat as much as you want and still lose weight. That's a promise. Is it true or false? Absolutely false but they make it.
Here's another one. Lose eight to ten pounds every week easily. Really? That's a huge promise. Now because of these outlandish promises, the Federal Trade Commission decided to examine 300 diet advertisements and 218 diet supplements and in their research they said, I'll just give you one line of it, 55 percent of these ads make at least one claim that was very likely false or lacked adequate substantiation. Translated, they lied.
And so the Surgeon General weighed in and said, quote, there is no miracle pill that will lead to weight loss, close quote. A promise is only as good as the person who makes the promise. If a person is reliable, the promise is too.
If the person is unreliable, so is the promise. Now God makes promises in this book, the Bible, lots of them. Within the pages of the Bible that you brought to church this morning, between the two covers, the Old and the New Testament, there are 31,173 verses of scripture. And a lot of those verses are filled with promises.
How many? Well, Time Magazine years ago featured a man from Kirchner, Canada named Everett Storms who read through the Bible 26 times and on the 27th time through, took him a year and a half, he cataloged all of the promises in the Bible. And he discovered, this was printed in Time Magazine, not that that matters, that there are 7,487 promises that God made to man.
7,487. That'll get you through anything if you live by them, the promises of God. Joshua in the Old Testament said to the people of Israel, deep in your hearts you know that every promise of the Lord has come true, not a single one has failed. And then Peter in the New Testament calls them exceedingly great and precious promises. But here's my question. What do you do with the promises of God? Someone might say, I underline them. Okay, cool.
What else? Someone will say, I memorize them. If you're a teacher, you might say, I exegete them. But the highest and best answer is, man, I live by them.
I make them my daily sustenance. Years ago when America was being settled and a traveler was trying to get across a river, there were no bridges then. It was early winter and the water in the river had frozen. It was ice on the river, but he wasn't sure how deep it was, if it would sustain his weight. So he got on all fours and started creeping across slowly this river on the ice, displacing the weight evenly, he hoped, on two hands and two knees. As he was in the middle of this river, he heard singing behind him and he turned around to see horses drawing a huge load of coal and a driver sitting, whistling, singing his way across the ice-covered river.
Now he felt pretty stupid because he knew if it can sustain that weight, I can surely stand up. They're singing over this river, I'm creeping over this river. There's an old hymn, Standing on the Promises of God, Our Savior. Remember that hymn?
Some of you do. Standing on the promises of God. Are you standing on the promises or are you creeping on the promises of God?
Some people could even say that. They'd have to sing sitting on the premises rather than standing on the promises. In this section of the upper room discourse that we've been studying, our Lord Jesus gave his disciples many promises. He promised to prepare a place for them when he returns. He promised that they would do greater works than even he had done. He promised that he would dispatch the third person of the Trinity called the Holy Spirit who would be their comforter, counselor, helper. Now, because he knows what they're going to face, he gives them four more promises and we're going to look at these promises this morning. The first one is in verse 19, the promise of a supernatural life. A little while longer and the world will see me no more but you will see me because I live, you will live also.
This is what it means. In a few hours, Jesus is going to be killed. He'll be crucified. The unbelieving world will never see him again. Jesus will rise from the dead and he will not appear to the world anymore. He will appear to only his disciples. And when he appears to his disciples and they see the guy who died now alive, that is going to be visible proof to them that just as he has resurrected, they too will one day be resurrected because I live, you will live too.
But I believe it's more than that. I don't think Jesus is just making a promise that one day in the sweet by and by thousands of years from now, eventually after you die and wait a long time, you'll be raised. I think what he is speaking about primarily is you're going to see me alive and that's when you're really going to come alive.
You're going to experience a whole new level of life that you've never experienced before because of the indwelling Holy Spirit. Now, do you think there's a difference between existing and living? Think about those two for a minute. Existence and life.
I think you know what I'm getting at. Some people just exist but they're not really living. They have a job, they work, they put money on the table, they go to bed at night and sleep, get up, routine starts all over again. In the process they make a few friends, they buy a few nice things, they call that life but that's just existence.
Then there's life, really living. One psychologist Harvard trained by the name of William Marston asked 3,000 people a very important question, a very simple question. The question was this, what do you have to live for? He was shocked that 94% of the people he asked that question to, 94%, said that they were simply enduring the present while waiting for the future.
Their answers range from I'm waiting for next year, I'm waiting for a better time, I'm waiting for a change, I'm waiting for somebody to die. I don't know who. Apart from Christ you can have physical life but you're really dead man walking. That's what you are, dead man walking. Here's another dead man. Every day you encounter dead people. You go to the bank, dead people, gas station, there's dead people filling up their cars, go to the store, dead people buying groceries, you drive around the roads. I see a lot of dead people behind wheels of cars driving.
The Bible says this, and you has he made alive who were dead in your trespasses and sins. My mind always goes to this movie. You remember Princess Bride, classic, one of the best movies ever made. The hero of that movie was named Wes. They thought Wes was dead in the movie and they brought Wes to Miracle Max. Miracle Max was played by Billy Crystal if you remember the film. And so this is Miracle Max, you got to do something for our friend, he's dead.
And Miracle Max goes, oh you know so much. Well I'll have you know he's only mostly dead. Well the Bible says that when you are born into this world, you are all dead. Spiritually speaking you might have physical life but you are separated from the life that we could have.
And I think he promises that to his disciples. I want to recap on something that I said many, many, many, many months ago when we first started this series. The very first study I remarked that in the Gospels, in the Bible, that there's three different words the Bible uses for our English word life. And I don't like to dangle words in front of people because we typically don't remember them but this is important. The first word that the Bible uses to describe your life is the Greek word bios, B-I-O-S or bios. We get the term biology from it. It means physical, the now life, the physical life. All outward, all physical, all here and now. It's where most people spend most of their time and most of their energy. Jesus said, be careful or your hearts will be weighed down with the anxieties of this life, that's biological life. Years ago, a poll was taken to ask Americans if you could change one thing about your life, what would it be? Almost no one said my character or my personality.
Almost everyone said my outward appearance, age, body type, weight, etc. That's bios, biological life. Another word the Bible uses to describe life is the Greek word psuke, psuke. Our term psyche or psychology comes from that. It's the inward life, the thought processes.
Whoever wants to save his life must surrender it. So you can have physical life and an active psychological life but still be, according to the Bible, mostly dead. To be really alive it takes a third type that the Bible speaks about, not bios, not suke, but the term zoe, translated life, zoe. It's a term that shifts the focus from the earth to eternity. It's used 143 times in the Bible and it doesn't just speak about an ongoing life forever and ever. Everybody, everybody, everybody has that kind of life.
Every single person will live forever and ever, depends where. The Bible uses that term zoe to speak more of a quality of life that goes on, a quality of life. Jesus said I have come that they might have life and have it what? More abundantly, to the max, to the brim. How many people do you know that really live their lives that way?
To the brim. In abundance because of the Lord. That's the first promise, promise of a supernatural life.
Because I live, you will also live. Here's the second promise, promise of supernatural knowledge, verse 20. At that day you will know, that's the promise, that I am in my Father and you in me and I in you. That's a little hard to unravel.
Admit it. Every time we read statements like that, we go, what does that mean? When he says I am in the Father and you in me and I in you, it sounds like that old Beatles song, I am he as you are me as you are we and we are all together.
Remember that? What Jesus is telling his disciples, and they're worried, his worried disciples, is that his death is not going to end their relationship. That the union they have is indissoluble, it's permanent. They're going to know that. They don't know it now, they're confused now, but they will know it. There will be a supernatural knowledge. The word here for knowledge doesn't mean textbook, I read it somewhere knowledge. It means I know it, I understand it because I've experienced it knowledge.
That's what it means. So if I could put it together for you so far, after the resurrection, when you're really alive, you're going to know by your own experience and apprehension just how close we are. Understand something that the resurrection of Jesus Christ brought sort of a sudden realization to the disciples of who Jesus Christ really was. They were wondering up to this point, when he gets up from the dead, they're going to understand it.
Have you ever thought this? Have you ever wondered what it was like to hang out with Jesus for three and a half years, up close? And all the while you're going, now who is this guy? They asked that question, who is this guy? When he calmed the storm on the Sea of Galilee, they said, who is this man? They were in a process of discovery, but then after it's all said and done, it's all over, and he dies and then gets raised from the dead and goes into heaven, then to suddenly realize, oh my goodness, I was hanging out with God.
Right? What that would be like to have that dawn on you. It's exactly what happens to the author of the book you are reading, the Gospel of John. The author John, listen to how he begins another book he writes, 1 John chapter 1. He writes, the one who existed from the beginning is the one we have heard and seen.
I've been hanging out with God. The one from the very beginning of time is the one we have heard and seen. He goes on, we saw him with our own eyes and touched him with our own hands. He is Jesus Christ, the Word of Life. When Jesus rose from the dead, it proved that everything he had said about himself was true. You know, it's one thing to say, I'm the way, the truth, and the life. Anybody could say that.
I could say that. You could say, I am the way, the truth, and the life. It's quite another thing for somebody who said, I am the way, the truth, and the life, to die, and then three days later, get back up. Now what he said is all important, and credence is put to it, because he validates his claim by his deeds. So the resurrection is what separates the men from the boys, the big leagues from the minor leagues. Jesus from Buddha, Krishna, Muhammad, Deepak Chopra, Oprah Winfrey.
You can say great things. Jesus said what he said and rose again from the dead. It was a promise of a supernatural knowledge, and the disciples would get that knowledge. Jesus said when they would on that day.
I think that's the day of Pentecost in particular, when the Holy Spirit comes upon them. Here's the principle. It's only when God puts his supernatural life within us that we really get it. Our spiritual eyes are open.
They can't be any other way. We can't apprehend or know certain things unless God does a supernatural work within our lives. The disciples, they came alive with boldness and power because of this knowledge. Thomas, after the resurrection, when Jesus appeared to him, it's like he instantly got it. First he goes, well, I don't believe, and I won't believe unless I can put my fingers in his side, in his hands, and then Jesus just stood there.
And Thomas got it. He goes, my Lord and my God. If you've ever seen the Peanuts cartoons in newspapers, they were published for many years. I read once a Peanuts cartoon, and it had four little cubes, four little sections to it. The first section, the first cube, it shows Lucy and Linus talking. They're both looking out a window and it's raining outside, and Lucy says to Linus, it's pouring. I hope the whole world doesn't flood. In the next frame, Linus says, don't worry, it won't.
It'll never happen. In Genesis 9, God told Noah it would never happen again, and the rainbow is the sign of that promise. In the third frame, it shows Lucy again looking out the window with a big smile on her face, and she says, you've taken a great load off my mind, Linus. And in the fourth frame, Linus says with a smile, sound theology has a way of doing that. You and I are able to read God's word and have him confirm things to our hearts, and this understanding that he gives brings a sense of security to us, something though the most brilliant, trained minds in the world can never know unless they experience it.
Wow, what an incredible teaching. That was only part one of the message, Promises, Promises. Today's teaching was part of an in-depth teaching series through the book of John titled, Believe 879, because it takes us through all 879 verses of this Gospel. If you'd like a copy of today's message, you can find it at connectwithskip.com, or you can call us and order one at 1-800-922-1888.
And it's also where you can find out more about this month's special offer. We are witnessing an escalation in Christian persecution like we have rarely seen since the first century. Many people don't realize that today thousands of Christians are dying cruel deaths throughout much of the world. The new book of Christian martyrs commemorates these modern day heroes, highlighting key martyrs of past centuries and featuring stories of contemporary martyrs around the world. This compendium of heroes from the first century to the 21st century, from Europe to Africa, and from Asia to the Americas, is sure to inspire you to courageously stand up for your Christian faith, just as they've done for countless Christians around the globe. The new book of Christian martyrs comes as our thanks for your gift of $50 or more to keep messages like this one today on the air for you and others, equipping you to know God's Word and follow His will with courage and conviction. So request your copy when you give today.
Call 800-922-1888 or give securely online at connectwithskip.com slash offer. We'll continue through our series Believe 879 with more from the Gospel of John next time. 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. Cast your burdens on His Word. Make a connection, a connection, a connection. Connecting you to God's never changing truth in ever changing times.
