John Chapter 2:23-3:2

You're serving the Lord. You're not serving man. And that's important to remember when things happen that remove your motivation if you're serving because of man. Because let me assure you, that motivation will be tried. If you're doing it just to please another person, God will put the fire under that and say, okay, I need to remind you why you're doing what you're doing.

You're not doing it for them, you're doing it for me. God sees, God remembers, God knows. If nobody else knows what you do for the Lord, it's all right.

Because you know what? He who you serve sees everything. Welcome to Cross the Bridge with David McGee. David is the senior pastor of the Bridge in Kernersville, North Carolina. And we're glad to have one of David McGee's associate pastors, D.A.

Brown, here with us as Pastor David continues through the book of John. Yeah, Bob, it's important that we realize we're not trying to gain a reward from people, but it's God we're serving. But D.A., we're in a world where there are people around us. As we're serving God, there are people around us. And don't we want them to see our good works and say, oh, well, praise God, He's doing something for God.

But not for us to get the reward, Bob. We're trying to point all the attention to Jesus. And when we point the attention to Jesus, He's glorified, and that provokes others to want to follow Him too.

Well, let's listen. I'm sure David McGee will explain more as he continues teaching in John, finishing up chapter 2 and beginning chapter 3. Well, turn with me to John chapter 3. We teach verse by verse, chapter by chapter here. We don't skip anything.

We don't leave anything out. Now, I said chapter 3. We're actually going to pick it up in chapter 2, verse 23. The reason I said chapter 3 is really these three verses.

Understand that the chapter divisions and the verse divisions came much later, well after the guys had written the Bible through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Sometimes the divisions are in great places. Sometimes they're in unfortunate places. In this place, it's kind of an unfortunate place. So we've decided to group the last three verses of chapter 2 into chapter 3. And I just ran out of time last week, but this sounded like a really good excuse. No, I'm kidding.

I'm kidding. So let's pray. Lord, we thank you for the treasure that is on our laps right now. Lord, what an awesome thing that you have entrusted in our lives, to speak to our lives, to be a light into our path, a lamp into our feet. And Lord, we ask that it would go from our ears to our minds to our hearts this morning. Lord, that we would, by your Holy Spirit, really understand what it is you're saying to us, Lord, because it is so important. And Lord, we thank you that you desire to speak to our lives.

You desire to teach us this morning. So Lord, we ask that you would open our hearts to your word and open your word to our hearts in Jesus' name. And everybody said, amen.

Praise God. So John chapter 2, verse 23 says, Now when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover during the feast, many believed in his name, when they saw the signs which he did. So here we have Jesus in Jerusalem for the Passover. John actually records the three Passovers of his ministry where he is in Jerusalem. It says, Many believed in his name, when they saw the signs which he did.

Let me ask you a question. Who do you think was in Jerusalem during the Passover? Jewish people. See, we have the mistaken notion that for the most part, the Jewish people rejected Jesus.

Now we'll see in chapter 6, he starts to lose some people that had before committed to himself. But a lot of Jewish people were converted during the ministry of Jesus. And certainly when you go into the book of Acts, you see people being converted that were Jewish. Now, some of the Jewish leaders, in fact, did reject the ministry of Jesus, but a lot of them accepted it. And notice also that Jesus was being obedient to the Hebrew Scriptures, to the Old Testament, and going to Jerusalem during the Passover. Now, a lot of people say, well, you know, Jesus broke a lot of the laws in the Old Testament.

I disagree strongly with that statement. What Jesus broke and what they had a problem with Jesus was over what was termed the rabbinical law. Now there's two types of law. There's the Levitical law.

That is the law that we're given in scripture. We really don't have an instance, I don't believe a clear instance, where Jesus broke a Levitical law. What we have is him shattering rabbinical laws. The rabbinical laws were the laws that they added after the fact. They started adding so many laws that it took 36,000 pages for them to record. And they got into a lot of silliness, for instance, about the Sabbath where, you know, you could only travel 1500 feet from your home on the Sabbath, but if you tied a rope to your house that was long, you could extend that 1500 feet by the length of the rope. You see, they begin to get into some legalism.

If you can imagine a church doing that, I just can't imagine that. And then they started doing the thing where you couldn't carry a kerchief in your pocket because that was works. You were working to carry that handkerchief.

But if you took the handkerchief out and pinned it to your clothing, it became part of your clothing and then you weren't really carrying it. So you can see they started to slip in the stuff that Jesus just didn't really have any respect for. Do you realize that Jesus still has very little respect for our man-made traditions?

I'm glad because there's so much stuff to get stumbled over and caught up in in man-made traditions that we need to leave the man-made traditions alone. Amen. Well, you know, when people ask about the service here, what do y'all do? You know, what do y'all do? What's your service like?

Man, it's really pretty simple and pretty straightforward. We worship for a while. We have some brief announcements and then we dig into the Word for probably longer than you may be used to. You know, they're coming from another church. A lot of people are used to 15-minute sermons, 10-minute sermons.

If you're new here, go ahead. You might as well take your watch off, maybe put it under your chair because we dig into the Word because, you know, what I'm trying to do, I have a limited amount of time to help prepare you for the coming week and the stuff that's in your life. So I want to take the time to really dig into the Word and to present the Word of God to you. And verse 24 says, But Jesus did not commit himself to them because he knew all men and had no need that anyone should testify of man, for he knew what was in man. And this is an interesting couple of verses. It says, Jesus knew all men and had no need that anyone should testify of man because he was assured of his relationship with his Father.

And of course, at this point when Jesus realized what was in all men and knew what was in man, he decided to abandon his ministry and his mission and head up into the hills, didn't he? That's not what happened, is it? And yet how often do we use that excuse not to serve God? I call it an excuse.

It's not a reason. We use the excuse of people. Jesus didn't abandon his mission. He realized it was part of the deal.

He realized we need to realize it was part of the deal. It's part of the deal that in serving God, sometimes we will meet opposition. Sometimes people will say things. Sometimes people will do things.

And you know what? It doesn't really matter because Jesus died for us. And because of what he did, we should serve him. So please don't use that as an excuse not to serve the Lord. Well, I was serving the Lord, but somebody looked at me wrong.

Somebody looked like they were thinking something. So I just, I'm not going to do it. No, you serve God because God first served you. I love Colossians 3 23 and 24. It says, and whatever you do, do it heartily as to the Lord, not to men, knowing that from the Lord, you will receive the reward of the inheritance for you serve the Lord Christ. See, that's who you serve. If you serve here in children's ministry or Sparkle or hospitality or greeting or, or wherever you're serving the Lord, you're not serving man. And that's important to remember when things happen that remove your motivation. If you're serving because of man, because let me assure you that motivation will be tried. If you're doing it just to please another person, God will put the fire under that and say, okay, I need to remind you why you're doing what you're doing. You're not doing it for them.

You're doing it for me. Hebrews 6 10 tells us for God is not unjust to forget your work and labor of love, what you have shown towards his name and that you have ministered to the saints and do minister. God sees, God remembers, God knows.

So if nobody else sees it's okay. If nobody else knows what you do for the Lord, it's all right because you know what? He who you serve sees everything. He knows.

I take such comfort in that. There's a lot of things that go on here going behind the scenes. A lot of the people serving in ministry, people aren't aware of what they're doing, but if they didn't do what they were doing, they'd be sorely missed.

They use, for example, the media guys, you know, if they didn't do what they did, then you'd be unable to hear the teaching on Sunday morning. It wouldn't be out on the radio. It wouldn't be on the internet.

It wouldn't be going into the prisons like it is, but they're committed and they don't care. If nobody ever goes back there and goes, man, I really appreciate you. They don't care because they're here to serve the Lord. Now you guys are probably going to be bombarded after service.

People say, thank you, man. Just steal your reward right away from you. Life lesson number one, we may be serving people in ministry, but it is God we are really serving. You need to remember you need to remember that because if you ever get in doubt of that, do you understand God will remind you? God will remind you. He has a mandate to remind you. If you forget and you think it's about serving man, God will remove that motivation so that you're clear that it is the Lord you're serving.

And you know what else this means? This means that when you don't serve, it's the Lord you're not serving when you're not an active member of the body of Christ. It's not that you're not serving me. It's not that you're not serving a team leader or ministry here. It's that you're not serving the Lord himself. You should not be okay with that. See, we are all part of the body. You should be going home.

You should be ready to serve the Lord because if you're not, it's not healthy. It's not right. You're part of the body, but you're a part that, well, the analogy that the Lord gave me, you know, sometimes when I'm seated for a long time, it seems to happen more now that I'm getting older. One of my legs will fall asleep. I hate that. It probably bothers you when something falls asleep and, you know, and I go and I get up to go do something and, you know, one of my legs is it's useless.

As a matter of fact, it's worse than useless. It makes it harder because, you know, it's like, oh, I want to walk over there, but invariably somebody will see what's wrong. You hurt yourself? No, I'm fine.

I'm fine. I'm just, you know, things asleep. Do you realize that if you're not serving the body of Christ, you're like that leg that's asleep. Something's gone wrong.

Something is not natural about somebody that is in the body, but not serving. Now, if that convicts you, then praise God. Let it be the word of the Lord for you. See, because Jesus, it didn't matter.

They said this, they did that. It didn't matter. Didn't matter to Jesus because he was serving his father. He was serving us. And if he could have been turned around, don't you know he would have been after being accused of blasphemy, after being accused of this, of that, of being beaten, of being spit on, if he could have been dissuaded from it, don't you think he would have been?

See, and the enemy wants to dissuade you from serving. He'll throw stuff at you. And if he can dissuade you, then he's won. Don't let him win guys.

Don't let him win. What if Paul had used a gauge of how people appreciated him, whether he ministered or not. We would be missing a lot of the New Testament because Paul would have given up. He'd have said, golly, you know, I mean, I went to that town and I wasn't necessarily expecting an honorarium, but they beat me up to an inch of my life. I'll never go back there again.

He didn't do that. Actually, he went back to that very place that beat him within an inch of his life and established a church there. Guys, this can be a trap. If you use the motivation of man to serve God, it can be a trap.

Don't fall into it. We'll be right back with more from David McGee on Cross the Bridge. Right now, here's a word from associate pastor DA Brown. Hey, Bob, we want to pray for some listeners today in these California cities, Maple Creek, Mariposa, Marysville, Mount Shasta, Muscogee, Napa, and North San Juan.

God, we thank you for the people living in these cities and those tuning in today. Lord, we pray that they would get excited about following you. Lord, that they would use that excitement to be a blessing and love other people.

That they would get plugged into godly churches. And we pray for the pastors in these cities, that you would give them wisdom and discernment, how to lead their flocks and point them to your word. In Jesus' name, Amen. Amen.

Thank you, brother. And now, let's get back to David McGee as he continues teaching verse by verse. The amazing thing is, and we don't know all that's in the heart of man, but Jesus knew all that was in the heart of man. He knew what was in the character of Peter. He knew what Peter was going to do with his denial. He knew what was in the heart of Jesus, I mean, in Judas. He knew that Judas was going to betray him. He knew what Nathaniel was like. He knew what the Samaritan woman was like, but he kept serving.

And what an amazing thing. He sees your fears, your doubts, your mistakes, your past, if you haven't asked him to forgive you of those things. But it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter because he's committed to you. He's committed to you. You know, commitment is something that is kind of lacking in some Christians today. Commitment in the light of opposition. That's what Jesus had.

He was committed. And how often, it's an amazing thing being a pastor. I get to see a lot of things that are very interesting.

I get to see a lot of things that are awesome. People grow and people responding to the Holy Spirit. And sadly enough, I also get to see the other side of people that say, you know, I love this fellowship, man, I'm committed.

And then I'm hearing like the next week, well, somebody said something about me, I'm out of here. That's not commitment. And guys, we, you know, as a church, as a fellowship, we may not get everything right, but I can assure you that we are focused on the Lord Jesus and we want to do what the Lord wants us to do. And the Lord is leading this fellowship, no doubt about it. And what is your commitment to the Lord?

Is it? Well, you know, as long as I agree with the Lord, I'll serve him. That's not commitment. That's not submission. You understand it's not submission when you're agreeing with somebody.

So you can see in a marriage or you can see in a relationship, perhaps a business relationship, perhaps a pastoral relationship. As long as you're agreeing with somebody, that's not a test of submission because you're in agreement with them. Well, what happens when you disagree with them?

Are you still submitted to them? That's the test. That's the test of submission. That's kind of a surface Christianity that lacks a commitment because a faith that has not been tested cannot be trusted. A faith that has not been tested cannot be trusted. And often we say, well, if I could see something, then I would believe it.

You understand that's backwards? For a Christian, you believe it and then you see it. That's life lesson number two. For the Christian you believe, then you see.

Not seeing is believing. Go deep in your faith. Don't give up, back up, or shut up. Back up or shut up.

Go for it. Well, I don't know. I don't want to be one of those crazy Christians. You know what? There will be a lot of people, if you're worried that there won't be enough Christians sitting on the fence, I promise you there'll be plenty of Christians that'll stay on the fence and sit right there.

Be one of those that goes for it because at some point you will be looking back at your life. And what do you want to see? What do you want to see? Then start living that way now. John chapter three, verse one says, there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. Now see here, we have a Pharisee that's coming to see Jesus. Again, we've gotten this mistaken notion that all Pharisees rejected Jesus and that all Jewish leaders rejected Jesus.

And it's just not so. Acts chapter six, verse seven, there's other references, but then the word of God spread and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem and a great many of the priests were obedient to the faith. A great many of the priests were obedient to the faith. So many of the spiritual leaders, the Jewish leaders did accept Jesus as the Messiah. The Pharisees were the conservative branch or sect, if you will. They believed in resurrection, they believed in the supernatural, they believed in all of the Old Testament, the Hebrew scriptures, where the Sadducees did not believe in those things.

They were the more liberal of the bunch. And we see places where Pharisees came to the Lord. We never see a place where the Sadducees came to the Lord. Now verse two, this man came to Jesus by lightning and said to him, Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him. This is interesting that Nicodemus did not doubt the miracles. Actually, it was the miracles that caused this spiritual leader in Jerusalem to check out this upstart from Galilee.

It was the miracles. But Nicodemus says something that's actually incorrect there, and we need to understand that. He says, no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him. What Nicodemus says there is simply not true. Now don't take my word for it, take the Bible because many places it talks about in the end times, there's going to be lying signs and wonders. So if you base as Nicodemus here, now Nicodemus did it correctly because he was referring to Jesus, but if you base your estimation of what a ministry is about on signs and wonders, you can be deceived. Scripture is very clear about that because we have this coming lying signs and wonders.

So be careful with this. And I've heard some people say, well, look at Nicodemus. He came to Jesus by night. That's pretty lame that he came to him by night.

How prideful and legalistic we can be. Guys, don't you realize that every one of us come to Jesus in the middle of the night. Oh, you may come to him this morning, but really you're coming to him in that darkness of your life. You're coming to him in the darkness of your sins.

You're coming to him in the privacy of your heart, communicating with him, even if you do it publicly. But see, Nicodemus knew the law. He knew his weakness. He knew his disease, his sickness, but he also knew where to seek out the cure. He came to Jesus. He was convinced that he couldn't fulfill the law.

So he came to Jesus saying, asking, what's the deal with the kingdom of God? And you, you need to understand that because as long as you think that you can keep the law, you won't seek out a savior. You'll think, well, I can do this.

I can handle this. There's people all over the triad this morning sitting in church that think they can fulfill the law, that think they can obey the law a hundred percent of the time. And it's nothing more than spiritual arrogance because friends, brothers, sisters, family, we can't do it. That's why we need a savior because there's an inability in us to keep the law.

And if you're sitting out there and you think that you've kept the law, we've done this before. And guys, one of the reasons I repeat this, if you've been here for a while and you've heard this so many times, is that so you will use it in exchange and communication with other people because so many people will say, well, you know, how are you getting to heaven? Well, I'm basically, you know, I'm obeying the 10 commandments.

I'm doing the best I can. And they think that that will allow them in the heaven. I'm kind of jumping into the next verse a little bit, but go with me. They think, well, you know, and they'll say, well, I've basically kept the 10 commandments. Really?

Well, that's amazing. Well, you know, and then ask a couple of questions. Let me ask you a question. Have you ever stole anything?

And everybody, most people go, oh no, no, no, no, no. Never stole anything. You don't have anything in your house that belongs to someone else. Maybe something you borrowed that you never returned.

Nothing. Well, if you have to go all the way back to school, remember that phrase, and it was always an interesting phrase to me when you'd say, let me borrow a piece of paper and you borrowed the piece of paper and you never gave it back, did you? So you need to repent for that. Even if you've not stolen anything since then probably borrowed a pencil that you didn't get back. Okay. So what does that make you?

Well, basically a good person. No, that makes you a thief. Have you ever told a lie?

Some people go, no, no, no. Yes, you have. You just did. You just did.

I mean, whether it's an exaggeration or whatever. I was so disappointed as a child because my dad used to tell me these stories about, you know, having to walk the school three miles uphill, both ways. And I was at my grandmother's house one day, you know, and I was looking and I said, dad, the school that's at the end of the driveway, isn't that the school you went to?

Well, yes. Dad, there's how, what did you do? Walk around it eight times. It can't be three miles to get to there.

I was further away when I was younger. Yes, you've lied. What does that make you?

Basically a good person. No, it makes you a liar. Makes you a thief and a liar. Have you ever used God's name inappropriately? Hit your thumb with a hammer and said the wrong word.

Chances are, yes. What does that make you? Basically a good person. No, it makes you a blasphemer.

Have you ever looked with lust at another person? Raise your hand. No, I'm kidding.

Don't raise your hand. Then what does that make you? Well, according to Jesus, that makes you an adulterer. So you are lying, thieving, blaspheming adulterer. We're all about self-affirmation here.

Are you feeling warm and fuzzy? No. See, you have to realize that you can't obey the law, that you can't fulfill the law perfectly before you realize you need a savior. You have to come to that. And you know what, guys, very often when we're witnessing, we present the answer before we present the problem. People have to understand their inadequacy to fulfill the law, to go to heaven before they want to hear about Jesus Christ. Friend, do you know for sure that your sins have been forgiven?

You can know right now. I want to lead you in a short, simple prayer, simply telling God you're sorry and asking Him to help you to live for Him. Please pray this prayer with me out loud right now. Dear Jesus, I believe You died for me, that I could be forgiven. And I believe You were raised from the dead, that I could have a new life. And I've done wrong things. I have sinned.

And I'm sorry. Please forgive me of all those things. Please give me the power to live for you all of my days. In Jesus' name.

Amen. Friend, if you prayed that prayer according to the Bible, you've been forgiven. You've been born again. So congratulations, friend.

You just made the greatest decision that you will ever make. God bless you. If you prayed that prayer with David for the first time, we'd love to hear from you. You can visit crossthebridge.com to receive our First Steps package with helpful resources to help you begin your walk with Christ.

Or you can write to Cross the Bridge at P.O. Box 12-515, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, 27117, and share how God is working in your life. Well, DA, before we go, what are some ways that we can bless our listeners? Each day, you can wake up with encouragement from Pastor David through the Word of God with his email devotional, life lessons to consider, a daily reading plan, and a thought to meditate on throughout your day from the heart of David McGee. That sounds good, Pastor DA.

And again, it's been great to have you with us on the program today. But tell us, what else can our listeners find on crossthebridge.com? If you're not able to make it to your home church this Sunday, why not join us for our live stream at 10 a.m. Eastern Time or on Thursday nights at 7 p.m. Eastern Time? Just visit crossthebridge.com and click on our live stream link. There, you'll experience a live service from David's home church, The Bridge in North Carolina. Again, that website is crossthebridge.com. Thanks again for listening and join us next time as David McGee continues teaching verse by verse in the Gospel of John.