Jesus: Pure and Simple – Come Home!

Jesus: Pure and Simple
John 21:15-19

INTRODUCTION:
“The most conspicuous way to know when a person is ready to lead others is when he is able to lead himself.”

Too many people want to tell others what to do when they do not have the quality to lead themselves. Jesus told us to get the log out of our own eye first before we can get the speck out of our brother’s eye (Matt. 7:5).

We often talk about leading others to Christ; can you lead yourself to Christ? When you drift away from Christ, can you re-engage Him? If you find yourself drifting, can you find renewal? If you find yourself in a rut, can you lift yourself up and find your way back? To be honest, spiritual renewal needs to be as frequent as waking up in the morning.

I have read that our outer layer of skin renews itself every seven days and every cell in our bodies are completely renewed every seven years. While Israel was camped at Mount Sinai, 26 times God told Israel to keep the Sabbath day - 15 times in Exodus, 11 times in Leviticus - and that was before they ever left Mount Sinai! Then He commanded them to keep every seventh year and then every 50th year. Clearly, God wanted His people renewed on a regular basis.

The story of the Prodigal Son in Luke 15 is a story of renewal.

A cowboy was going to bake biscuits for the wranglers; he hardly knew what he was doing. When they came in for breakfast, the biscuits were like wafers, flat as crackers. He had left out an ingredient or two. “What happened to these biscuits!?” the guys yelled. The cowboy said, “I’m not sure; they were in the oven and they squatted to rise, but then cooked in the squat.”

If we are not careful, we will let ourselves get “cooked in the squat” - we’ll get into a slump or a rut. And we can become better at making excuses than making changes.

As we end another year and anticipate a new, fresh year, my question to you is: Do you to renew yourself? Do you need to find your way back home? Or back to the warmth of the fire? When God sent the prophet Samuel to anoint David, son of Jesse, as the next king of Israel, God told Samuel: “Do not look at his appearance or at the height of his stature, because I have rejected him; for God sees not as man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart” (1 Samuel 16:7). God knows our motives and God weighs our hearts, and God looks at our actions to see if our behavior is consistent with our words.

After King David committed adultery with Bathsheba and then had her husband murdered, he needed a renewal. And he prayed to God: “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me away from Your presence and do not take Your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of Your salvation and sustain me with a willing spirit” (Psalm 51:10-12).

When you find yourself consumed by the world, can you lead yourself back to Christ?
When you get bitter or offended and feel far from God, can you lead yourself back to Christ?
When you are caught in a spiral of anger or a feeling of self-righteousness, can you lead yourself back to Christ?
When you feel separated from your spouse and you know it isn’t right, but you are still angry, can you lead yourself back to Christ?

WE ARE SHEEP:
In picturing the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, Isaiah stated, “All of us like sheep have gone astray, Each of us has turned to his own way; But the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him” (53:6).

We are frail. We are vulnerable. We are prone to accidents. We are prone to get lost easily. We are prone to overestimate our spiritual strength.

Sheep need a shepherd.

Listen to the words of this verse from the song “Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing:”

“Prone to wonder, Lord, I feel it;
Prone to leave the God I love.
Here’s my heart, oh, take and seal it.
Seal it for Thy courts above.”

Why do we drift?
1) We don’t guard our strengths and we allow them to go to our head. Some have strong feelings of compassion, but they allow those feelings to make them feel guilty for not doing more. Then they burn out and they don’t do anything.

Some have a lot of wisdom, but like Solomon, it goes to their head and they become prideful.

Some have a lot of influence, the ability to influence others, and they fall into the trap of needing to control others.

Strengths can turn into weaknesses if we don’t submit our strengths to the teachings of Jesus Christ. Paul warned Christians: “Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption” (Eph. 4:30). If we don’t submit even our strengths to the teachings of Christ, we wander and find it difficult to find our way back.

Sin usually doesn’t start with one big, major decision. It usually starts with a small, seemingly insignificant decision. James writes in James 1:13 that our spiritual death begins with lusting after things that God has not given us permission to have.

We can wander when we don’t submit our friendships to God’s teachings; when we don’t submit our strengths to God’s teachings; our compassion to God’s teachings; when we don’t submit our hearts to the teachings of God’s word.

We drift because:
2) We allow Satan to steal our joy. “Restore to me the joy of Your salvation and sustain me with a willing spirit” (Psalm 51:12), David wrote.

Sometimes we drift, because we allow Satan to steal our joy from our service to Christ. When he does that, we back off and we quit. And when we quit, its hard to get back into good habits.

The governor of Judah named Nehemiah, encouraged his Jewish compatriots: “the joy of the Lord is your strength” (Neh. 8:10). We need to find our joy in our service to Christ and not allow Satan to steal that joy.

In the context where Jesus tells us that He is the Good Shepherd, He said, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly” (John 10:10).

3) We drift away from Christ when we fail to recognize His voice. Back to John 10, we hear Jesus say in verse 4: “the sheep follow him because they know his voice.”

There are a lot of voices out there that are clamoring for our attention and if we’re not careful, we’ll allow other people to overwhelm the voice of Jesus speaking to us. When agents for the Treasury Department study how to identify counterfeit bills, they do that by studying the characteristics of true, genuine bills. When you do that, you don’t have to know all the different forms of counterfeits; you simply have to recognize that they are not the genuine. When it comes to our spiritual health, there is lots of people out there on TV, the radio, internet, podcasts, who are not teaching the truth according to the Gospel of Christ. Satan is using them to deceive and mislead and if we don’t know the voice of Jesus, we can drift and be led astray.

You have to know the voice of Jesus, by listening to His word constantly, or you won’t recognize the voice of the thief.

A woman was touring a sheep ranch in Portland, OR. They were standing on a small hill across from the sheep and the shepherdess whispered to the woman: “As soon as they hear my voice, they’ll come running.” Sure enough, when she called out: “Sheep, sheep, sheep,” they all came running.

Can you recognize the voice of your Shepherd? Can you distinguish between the voice of Jesus and the false of false teachers? If you are not reading the Bible more than you are listening to other people, it is doubtful that you can. The question is not, “God, are you speaking?” The question is: “Am I listening?”

WHEN WE NEED RENEWAL:
Joan of Arc said, “Act, and God will act.”

Jesus is the Good Shepherd and He wants to find us when we are lost, but it is going to take some effort, some cooperation on our part. Growth might be automatic, but maturity is a choice.

1) If you feel yourself drifting, you have to intentionally correct your path. Are you struggling with a problem you had last year? Do you have the same anger issue you had five years ago? Are you still struggling with grumbling and complaining when things don’t go your way? Are you still in the habit of expressing anger when someone doesn’t meet your expectations?

What your you intentionally doing to make the corrections? Of course, corrections are not enjoyable. The Hebrew writer wrote: “All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness” (Heb. 12:11).

I have read that in Bedouin culture, if the shepherd has a sheep that continues to stray and wander off from the flock, the shepherd will take that recalcitrant sheep, hold it firmly, and intentionally break one of its front legs. The shepherd will then splint the leg, wrap it, and return it to the flock, carrying the lamb on his shoulders. The shepherd will be tender and gentle with the lamb until the healing is complete. When the sheep is now able to support its own weight, a transformation has taken place. The sheep will then stay much closer to the shepherd who healed and nurtured the sheep.

God corrects us in our behavior and our thinking because He wants to protect us from the onslaughts of Satan. If we have the idea that God’s sole job is to save us from the negative consequences of our choices, we are worshipping an idol. We might have been doing that all along, creating a God in our own image. But we need God’s correction if we want to enjoy God’s rewards!

If you are trying to take lessons to learn a new skill, and Rachel is now taking viola lessons, if you ever say, “Stop correcting me!” then the learning is over.

Jesus’ brother calls us to draw near to His older brother: “Draw near to God and He will draw near to you” (James 4:8).

2) When you need renewal, look at the road you are on. In the days of the Babylonian siege against Judah, the prophet Jeremiah said, “But now what are you doing on the road to Egypt, to drink the waters of the Nile? Or what are you doing on the road to Assyria, to drink the waters of the Euphrates? Your own wickedness will correct you, and your apostasies will reprove you; know therefore and see that it is evil and bitter for you to forsake the Lord your God, and the dread of Me is not in you,” declares the Lord God of hosts” (2:18-19).

On what road are you? What do you want to be known for?

Watching football or baseball?
Making money?
Having hundreds of followers on social media?
Traveling?
Running your own business?

Wouldn’t we all prefer to be known for:

Having influenced our children to have a strong trust in Jesus Christ and His gospel?
Being a genuine disciple of Christ?
Being a spouse who stayed committed until death came?
Being a wise person?

Now, do you have plans and goals - a vision - in place to accomplish what is most important in life?

A single man might want a Christian spouse, but if he is dating someone who will not help him get to heaven, he’s probably “on the road to Egypt.”

A husband who wants his kids to respect him as a spiritual leader who flirts with other women might find himself “on the road to Assyria.”

A woman who wants a good relationship with her husband who continues to make her children a priority over her husband, might be on the road to Egypt.

A young Christian who wants to have a strong, mature faith but spends all his time checking the scores from the games last night and scans through his social media sites but never opens the Word of God and never talks to God in prayer, is probably on the road to Assyria.

Newlyweds who want to be financially secure one day but can’t stop buying everything that catches their eye, even if it means putting stuff on credit cards, is probably on the road to Egypt.

3) We usually don’t get lost intentionally; but it happens after hundreds or thousands of small steps in the wrong direction.

So if you find yourself having moved further away from Christ over this past year, and being in worship does not mean you are in the arms of Jesus, return to God. Go back to Calvary. Meet God at the foot of the cross. If your marriage is drifting, meet God at Calvary. If you are discouraged, meet God at Calvary. If you are anxious about the future, meet God at Calvary.

The apostle Peter had drifted far away from where he had intended to be. He had bragged that he would die with Jesus, but he would never deny Jesus. But then Satan lured Peter away from the other apostles - where there is strength in fellowship - and then Satan tempted Peter - and he gave in - to deny that he knew Jesus and asked God to curse him if he wasn’t telling the truth! Three times!

Jesus met Peter and looked into his eyes and Peter wept uncontrollably. Here in John 21, Jesus calls Peter back to renewal. The Shepherd has once again found a lost sheep and called him home. But Jesus also gave Peter work to do: Feed My sheep.

Do you need renewal? Do you need Jesus in your life: pure and simple?

CONCLUSION:
A wealthy man was a widower and a collector of prized art works from the most well-known painters: Rembrandt, Monet, Van Gogh. The man had one son who joined the military. He was very proud of his son. War came and the son was killed in battle.

The man was deeply discouraged and heartbroken. The house that had been filled with laughter and happiness was now empty and quiet. For years.

Then one day, there was a knock on the door. It was a man who had served in the military with this man’s son. He came by because he had a gift for the man; he handed it to him and left. The man opened it and saw an amateur’s drawing of his son. It was actually a remarkable drawing. Tears flooded the dad’s eyes. That drawing naturally became the dad’s most prized piece of art work. It brought him consolation and joy every time he looked at it.

The dad passed away and his art collection was put up for auction. The first piece of artwork was the drawing of the man’s son. Nobody wanted it. The auctioneer started off the bids at only $100 but nobody wanted it. Finally, a neighbor was in the audience and he spoke up and said he would buy it. He knew the dad and the son and was friends with them.

Nobody wanted to raise the bid, so the man got the drawing for $100. But then the auctioneer closed the whole sale. Because the man had left it in the will that whoever bought his son’s drawing would receive the whole art collection.

Jesus promised us that if we’ll embrace Him and trust His teachings and obey Him from the heart, the whole inheritance that is heaven will be ours. Jesus: Pure and Simple.

Take home message: Come back home to Christ when you wander away. He will reward you richly.