September 17, 2025 • 23 mins
Have you ever heard someone say "I'm spiritual but not religious" or "everything happens for a reason"? These well-meaning phrases attempt to bring comfort and order to life's chaos, but they often represent a blurred vision of Christianity—one that promises easy answers instead of genuine transformation.
Pastor Stephen challenges us to consider whether we've reduced Jesus to a vague spiritual concept that makes us feel better without demanding anything from us. Drawing powerful parallels between ancient Gnosticism and modern spirituality, he reveals how both distance us from the real, flesh-and-blood Jesus who transforms lives. The apostle John confronted this distortion by emphasizing he had personally seen, heard, and touched Jesus—a defense against those who would turn Christ into merely an idea rather than a person.
When we blur Jesus into a comfortable spiritual concept, we create a faith that works fine when life is easy but crumbles when facing real challenges. The diagnosis we didn't want, the strained marriage despite our best efforts, the dream job that becomes a nightmare—these realities require more than spiritual platitudes. They demand a real Savior who entered our messy world and walks with us through pain rather than simply explaining it away.
"A blurred faith thrives in isolation, but clarity grows in community," Pastor Stephen reminds us. He challenges everyone to identify areas where they've made faith more about comfort than Christ and to invite Jesus into concrete aspects of their lives—eating habits, relationships, work ethics—while sharing struggles with trusted companions. This embodied discipleship transforms not just individuals but entire communities.
Ready to move beyond vague spirituality to experience the real Jesus who can carry you through life's hardest moments? Join us next week as we continue exploring how Scripture's view of the body differs radically from our culture's perspectives of either escape or perfection.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
And welcome to our Madison Church online audience.
I'm Stephen Feath, lead pastor,and I'm wondering if you've
heard anyone recently say oryou've seen it posted I'm
spiritual but I'm not religious.
You've seen that.
Would any of you, like me,define yourself that way?
Because I kind of do.
Still, I'm spiritual, notreligious.
(00:22):
Maybe you've seen a post thisweek.
It's been a long week for a lotof different reasons, but
you've seen this kind of getposted.
Everything happens for a reason,implying that anything that
does happen God was behind it,like there's got to be something
good.
Now, phrases like this they doseem harmless.
They're meant to be hopeful.
(00:43):
I mean, they try to offer a wayto make sense of life.
Why did this bad thing happento me?
I'm trying really hard to be agood person.
Well, everything happens for areason.
So God must have just put methrough this and it gives a
reason behind all of the painand suffering.
God, why don't I feel well, god, why aren't things going the
(01:04):
way that I want them to go?
Well, this must be part of agrand master plan and this is
very attractive to you and me.
And if you're here today, you'rewatching or listening online
for those of us who arespiritual and we're leaning into
the divine.
We want those answers when lifeis hard or when things don't
make sense.
We want to know there's a why,that there's a meaning that I
(01:27):
didn't go through all this painand suffering and bad stuff just
because the world is sinful andbroken.
But I'm here to tell you thatany religion can offer that to
you.
It doesn't have to beChristianity.
If you're looking for a rhymeand a reason for the bad stuff,
the pain and suffering in yourlife, the challenges and the
(01:47):
hardships, any religion outthere, any system, can offer you
those answers, because religionexplains, it gives us
categories, it gives us reasons.
But here's the thing for ustoday, as Christians, as
followers of Jesus, that's notwhy he came.
(02:08):
That's not why Jesus took onflesh.
It wasn't to give us a why.
He didn't come to just providean explanation for the things
that are, in fact, out of yourcontrol.
So if it wasn't that, then whydid Jesus come?
Well, some of the cool answeris that he came to give us
himself, to be with us, and,instead of giving you an answer
(02:31):
behind why you're going throughpain and suffering, you follow a
God who walks with you throughpain and suffering.
Cs Lewis, one of the greatestChristian thinkers of the last
century, puts it this way.
He says I didn't go to religionto make me happy.
I love this next line.
I always knew a bottle of portwould do that.
If you want a religion to makeyou feel really comfortable, I
(02:55):
certainly do not recommendChristianity.
Now, lewis is right Christianityit isn't about easy answers,
it's not about comfort to all ofthe things going on in life.
I kind of have a spiritual eyeroll when I see those posts of
everything happens for a reasonand there must have been a grand
plan behind it, because theJesus that we follow, the Jesus
(03:19):
we read that the disciplesfollowed, the, the early church
centered their entire livesaround, was the Jesus who
unsettles us, who challenges usand meets us in the real flesh
and blood realities of our lives.
And that's why this series thatwe're calling Blurred, I think,
has really gone to matter to toall of us.
(03:41):
A blurred Jesus leads to ablurred faith, a faith that
can't hold up when life getshard.
And some of you know exactlywhat I'm talking about because
you're there right now.
You're like why isn't my faithholding up a little bit better.
Perhaps it's blurred.
A blurred faith leads us to afaith that feels fine when life
(04:05):
is easy.
Well, if life is good, god isgood, because right now I'm
comfortable and things are goingthe way that I planned it, or I
wanted it to, or I hoped.
But the minute life crumbles,the minute the trajectory of our
lives change, when life getsreally hard, you know what I'm
talking about the diagnosis thatyou didn't want to receive but
(04:25):
that you got.
When your marriage is strainedbut you did all the things that
the pastor who officiated yourwedding told you to do.
So how did we get here?
When your dream job turns intoa nightmare, where is God then?
Where is our faith then?
Half-truths, a blurred faith, ablurred Jesus won't help you
(04:49):
get through those things.
Only Jesus will.
And so, for the next month,we're going to unmask the
distortions that sound spiritual.
They're spiritually sounding,but they're hollowed out and
they've got the gospel.
My goal throughout the next fiveweeks is that we develop a
faith that doesn't just live inour head.
(05:11):
It's not just information,words on a page, read and put
away, but a faith that reachesinto our body, our relationships
, those everyday choices, afaith that is rooted not in a
vague religion that's like afortune cookie when I'm going
through a bad thing, oh, I needa good word today but the real
(05:35):
Jesus who is speaking, leadingand transforming us.
I think that if you giveyourself to this series, this
study, you'll walk away with afaith that is just a little bit
more resilient than it is rightnow, a faith that's a little bit
more embodied than it is rightnow, a faith that is way more
(05:55):
capable of carrying you throughthe hardest parts of life, even
if it means having less answers.
And so today we're going to 1John, right at the beginning.
1 John, chapter 1.
This is where John begins theletter, and the earliest
Christians faced the same exactchallenges that you and I do
today, that we do today.
(06:17):
There was a system spreading inthe first century and it was
called Gnosticism, and that'swhat we're going to be talking
about.
And I said this is a big word.
Some of you might know what itmeans, some of you might not,
but what Gnostics did is theyclaimed that faith was about
secret knowledge, that your bodydidn't matter and that Jesus
was more of an idea rather thana real person.
(06:38):
Those don't sound like ideasfrom 2,000 years ago, do they?
They sound like modern ideas,and that's the relevancy for you
and I Now.
The apostles didn't ignore it.
They spoke up and they spokeagainst it.
They reminded believers thatthe gospel is embodied, it's
public and this gospel is is foreverybody.
Listen to how John opens hisletter.
He says we proclaim to you theone who existed from the
(07:01):
beginning, whom we have heardand seen.
We saw him with our own eyes,touched him with our own hands.
He is the word of life.
This one who is life itself wasrevealed to us and we have seen
him.
You're kind of seeing arepetition here, aren't we?
(07:23):
And now we testify and proclaimto you that he is the one who
is eternal life.
He was with the Father and thenhe was revealed to us.
We proclaim to you what weourselves have actually seen and
heard, so that you may havefellowship with us, and our
fellowship is with the Fatherand with his Son, jesus Christ.
(07:45):
We are writing these things sothat you may fully share our joy
.
The repetition I was pointingout is that we saw him, we
touched him and we heard him,which should insinuate to you,
without having any context, of 1John somebody's questioning
those things, because John isreally hammering it.
(08:05):
So somebody must be askingquestions about seeing him,
touching him, hearing him.
Now, some time has passed.
This is the same John who wrotethe gospel, our fourth gospel
the same John.
Some time has passed, he'salready written that and now he
needs to add to it.
There's more stuff going onthat needs a response.
(08:26):
The church has grown, newgenerations have risen up and
they didn't walk with Jesuspersonally, and it's in that gap
that new teachings have creptin.
You can't find people whowalked with Jesus around anymore
.
This is the end of the firstcentury.
Most of them have died off.
So now someone who did see him,touch him, heard him, writes as
(08:50):
he's coming to the end of hislife, he realizes that as he
goes, so does one of the lastpeople who could claim those
things.
As one of the last people whocould claim those things, some
were saying that Jesus wasdivine.
Yes, but he wasn't really human.
In Greek culture, the godswould show up all the time, but
(09:10):
they would take on theappearance of a human.
So if Zeus were to show up inyour life, he wouldn't show up
as Zeus the god, because well,who could imagine what that even
looks like.
But Zeus would come to you andhe'd look like me, or he'd look
like you, a bearded old whiteguy that we've conjured up in
our comic books.
And that's what the Gnosticteachers were saying about Jesus
(09:31):
.
Yes, there is a God, and Jesuswas that God.
But he wasn't real, he just wasappearing to us like that.
To John's audience, this soundedplausible.
Sure, that makes sense.
What's the big deal about thatGod taking on human image and
(09:52):
appearing real?
What's the big deal?
But John is going to tell youwhat is at stake.
You see, if Jesus only seemedhuman, then he never truly
shared our lives.
If he only appeared human, henever truly suffered.
If Jesus never truly died, hada body that could die, then the
(10:17):
cross and the resurrection loseany sort of saving power that
they would otherwise have.
You see, this Gnostic teachingthat Jesus was just kind of like
an optical illusion carriedmore weight than meets the eye.
Initially, john pushes back witheverything he has.
He goes no, no, no, no.
Hold on a second.
I heard him, I heard his voice,I saw him with my own eyes.
(10:39):
We even touched him.
Fellas, ladies, he was real, iswhat John is saying.
It wasn't a shadow of divinity.
It wasn't a passing appearance.
This was the eternal son of God, both fully divine and fully
human.
(10:59):
John warns them a bit later.
This is what he was getting atwhen he starts the letter.
He says friends, do not believeeveryone who claims to speak by
the Spirit.
You must test them to see ifthe Spirit they have comes from
God, for there are many falseprophets in the world.
This is how we know if theyhave the Spirit of God.
(11:20):
If a person is claiming to be aprophet acknowledges that Jesus
Christ came in a real body,that person has the Spirit of
God.
But if someone claims to be aprophet and does not acknowledge
the truth about Jesus, thatperson is not from God.
Such a person has the Spirit ofthe Antichrist, which you heard
(11:41):
is coming into the world andindeed is already here.
This is a society, as we'vetalked about a lot, that had a
lot of spirits and visions andappearances, and people were so
used to hearing new spiritualclaims.
Somebody could say I had adream last night.
I had a vision this morning.
I received hidden knowledge atlunch and it would carry weight.
(12:02):
You'd believe them, because whynot?
If they were wrong, who cares,but if they were right, you
don't want to disagree with that.
John is telling the Christiansdon't accept, don't just accept
every spiritual sounding messagethat you hear.
If somebody says they had thevision they received hidden
knowledge, whatever it might be,would you question that?
(12:23):
Push back a little bit on that.
Don't let the voice of someonewho wasn't even there outweigh
my testimony.
They're claiming Jesus wasn'treal, but they weren't even
there.
John says but I was and I hadfriends who were, and I'm not
(12:49):
lying to you.
You can trust us.
To believe these new spiritteachers was to reject the
eyewitnesses who ate with Jesusand traveled to synagogues with
Jesus and touched hisresurrected body.
They saw him sleep.
They said this was not a mirage, this was a human.
For John's audience, the choicewas real.
It was a kind of an either or.
Who will you trust these falseteachers who weren't there,
(13:13):
promising you secret wisdomnudge, nudge, wink, wink or will
you trust what the apostles whoactually were there said?
We were there, we saw him, hecame in the flesh.
We live in a culture that oftendoubts the supernatural
altogether.
(13:34):
So if somebody were to approachyou and say I had a dream, I
had a vision, god spoke to meand gave me this secret
knowledge that I'm going to giveto you.
You would feel very defensiveand dismissive.
You'd be like thanks but nothanks.
Their challenge was decidingwhich of the many voices to
trust.
Our challenge is the temptationto explain everything away.
(13:56):
Well, god couldn't possiblyhave spoken to you in a dream or
a vision, or spoken to youwhatsoever.
That's kind of how we fault.
They lived close to theeyewitnesses.
John could write to them andsay we touched him and we saw
him.
But we live 2,000 years later.
We can't go down the road orlook someone up and say did you
(14:19):
see and touch and hear Jesushimself?
That's not possible.
We have testimony preserved forus in scripture.
This latter first John again,as he knows he's coming to the
end of his life.
He says I'm one of the lastones.
I have to write this down sothat churches in like Madison,
wisconsin, 2000 years later willknow Jesus was real.
(14:43):
For them, the danger wasdistortion inside of the church,
teachers reshaping Jesus intosomething that was more
comfortable for them, somethingthat was less costly.
But for us today?
I think the Gnostic problem forus today is that the distortion
often looks like a watered-downversion of Christianity.
(15:04):
It's a faith that we only wantto inspire us and not ever
demand anything from us.
It's a spirituality that staysvague and we try to keep it very
private, but avoids the fleshand blood reality of following
the real Jesus.
These distortions threatentheir fellowship and joy.
(15:25):
For us, the same danger existsOur fellowship and our joy.
When my Christianity becomes mytruth, my spirituality, and we
cut ourselves off from thefullness of community, we in
part cut ourselves off fromChrist.
That's why the principle herein this passage is so important.
(15:48):
Every generation must guardagainst distorted versions of
Jesus, because a blurred gospelalways leads to blurred
discipleship and, as I saidearlier, a blurred Jesus, a
blurred faith, it won't get usthrough the pain and suffering
of this life.
That was true for John'saudience and it's true for us
(16:10):
today.
The whole arc of Scripturepoints to this.
Think about the Israelites inthe Old Testament constantly
trading God for idols.
We talked a little bit aboutthat last week.
They blurred his reality and asthey blurred his reality, their
lives unraveled.
In the Gospels, Jesus himselfwarned that false messiahs and
(16:33):
false prophets would indeed come.
Then he told his followers tobuild their lives not on sand
but on the rock.
Paul wrote to the Galatiansthat if anyone preached another
Jesus, they would be under God'scurse.
In this arc of scripture, thestory of God pursuing a people
(16:55):
ends in Revelation, with Jesushimself as the faithful and true
witness, the one who standsagainst every false spirit and
blurred truth.
You see, from the beginning toend, the biblical story is
consistent.
God's people, you and me, weare always tempted to blur who
(17:16):
he is, sometimes intentionally,sometimes unintentionally, but
God always calls us back toclarity.
When things get blurred, godcalls us back to clarity.
And so the challenge I want youto carry into this week where
have you blurred Jesus?
Where have you reduced Jesus toan idea or an inspiration or
(17:44):
private comfort, instead offollowing him as the real Savior
who came in the flesh?
That's the challenge for ustoday, and how you might live
that out this week is takingtime to reflect on the question
honestly.
Ask yourself where have I madefaith more about my comfort than
(18:06):
Christ?
And don't just think about it.
Maybe jot some notes down on apiece of paper.
You can act on it.
Maybe jot some notes down on apiece of paper, you can act on
it.
Choose one concrete or physicalarea of your life this week and
invite Jesus into it.
Maybe it's what you eat or whatyou don't eat, or what you
drink, or what you don't drink,how you rest, how you treat your
body, how you treat your family, how you handle all of your
(18:27):
relationships.
Invite Jesus in to the physicalaspects of your life and don't
keep this to yourself.
Share with a trusted friend.
You know we have elders at ourchurch, tim and Kyle.
We have trustees.
I'm here, liz is here.
You have trusted companions onthis journey.
Share with us what's hard inyour life, what's not going well
(18:51):
.
Where do you feel disconnected?
I promise you, me and my team,we're not going to try to fix
you, but we'll walk with youthrough what you're going
through.
We have that together as acommunity, and it's so important
that we have it, because ablurred faith thrives in
isolation, but clarity grows incommunity.
(19:13):
Okay, Blurred faith thrives inisolation, but clarity grows in
community.
The good news isn't hidden orabstract.
It's not just ideas in ourheads or explanations on why
life is hard.
The gospel is so much biggerthan those things.
The gospel is embodied.
The gospel is real.
(19:33):
The Jesus John touched was thesame Jesus who meets us in our
flesh and blood lives today.
A blurred gospel.
As I've said a couple timesalready, a blurred gospel will
always lead to blurreddiscipleship.
But when we follow the realJesus, he transforms all of us
mind, body and spirit.
(19:58):
So imagine what would happen ifwe all lived this way.
I mean, what would your homelook like, your household look
like, if love and forgivenesswasn't something talked about on
Sunday morning but somethingpracticed Monday through Friday?
What would that look likearound the dinner table in text
(20:18):
messages?
What would our workplaces looklike if people saw Jesus in the
way we worked, by being honest,having integrity, being
dedicated, going above andbeyond, by the way we treat
those around us our bosses, ourco-workers, our customers, our
(20:38):
clients with dignity?
What would it look like ifMadison Church wasn't just faith
, limited for an hour on Sundays, but showed up in our daily
rhythms?
Where generosity isn't somethingI practice once a week or once
a month or once a year.
It was a regular part of mylife.
Where hospitality isn'tsomething I plan for a couple
(21:01):
times a year, but it's somethingI live out every day.
Where I'm ready to help carefor someone when those things in
life come up that they didn'tplan for, and you know what I'm
talking about because they comeup for you too.
When the things come up thatyou didn't plan for, will we be
a community that is ready tocare for those?
(21:23):
That's the vision of embodieddiscipleship.
It starts in our own lives.
Yes, you have to make thechoice.
You have to be responsible.
You can't control the personsitting next to you.
You can't be responsible forthe person sitting next to you
because you're responsible foryourself and the choices that
you make.
And as you do that, your lifebecomes a spiritual fountain of
(21:45):
sorts, in which the Holy Spiritworks through you and impacts
other people.
It transforms not just churches, but communities and cultures.
This stuff, this God, changesthe world, and so, as we head to
the communion table today, askyourself where have I made my
(22:09):
faith more about comfort thanChrist?
Where have I reduced Jesus toan idea, instead of letting him
be the Lord of every detail ofmy life and then invite him back
into that space?
This week, I was thinking aboutit.
You know, as we come to thecommunion table, we're not
remembering an idea of Jesus.
(22:30):
This isn't just simply symbolic.
We're remembering the realJesus, who took on real flesh,
who was really broken for us andwho really rose again.
And I concluded that communionis the opposite of Gnosticism,
because it's something that youcan touch, it's something you
can taste.
(22:50):
It's something you can tasteand it's something you can see.
It's tangible, just as Jesuswas, and I know that for some of
you, you walked in todaycarrying questions that feel
heavier than your faith cansupport, and that's okay.
I'm not here to offer you aneat explanation or to say
(23:13):
everything happens for a reason.
I am here today to point you tothe real Christ who will walk
with you and through thissituation or circumstances that
you find yourself in today,following Jesus is never
disembodied.
It's not abstract, it's realand it changes lives, and next
(23:35):
week we'll dive in deeper tothis concept.
Our culture today often treatsthe body like something we
either need to escape anddisassociate from, or something
that we need to make perfect,but Scripture tells us a
different story, so I hopeyou'll join us next week.
Let's pray.
And welcome to our Madison Church online audience.
I'm Stephen Feath, lead pastor,and I'm wondering if you've
heard anyone recently say oryou've seen it posted I'm
spiritual but I'm not religious.
You've seen that.
Would any of you, like me,define yourself that way?
Because I kind of do.
Still, I'm spiritual, notreligious.
(00:22):
Maybe you've seen a post thisweek.
It's been a long week for a lotof different reasons, but
you've seen this kind of getposted.
Everything happens for a reason,implying that anything that
does happen God was behind it,like there's got to be something
good.
Now, phrases like this they doseem harmless.
They're meant to be hopeful.
(00:43):
I mean, they try to offer a wayto make sense of life.
Why did this bad thing happento me?
I'm trying really hard to be agood person.
Well, everything happens for areason.
So God must have just put methrough this and it gives a
reason behind all of the painand suffering.
God, why don't I feel well, god, why aren't things going the
(01:04):
way that I want them to go?
Well, this must be part of agrand master plan and this is
very attractive to you and me.
And if you're here today, you'rewatching or listening online
for those of us who arespiritual and we're leaning into
the divine.
We want those answers when lifeis hard or when things don't
make sense.
We want to know there's a why,that there's a meaning that I
(01:27):
didn't go through all this painand suffering and bad stuff just
because the world is sinful andbroken.
But I'm here to tell you thatany religion can offer that to
you.
It doesn't have to beChristianity.
If you're looking for a rhymeand a reason for the bad stuff,
the pain and suffering in yourlife, the challenges and the
(01:47):
hardships, any religion outthere, any system, can offer you
those answers, because religionexplains, it gives us
categories, it gives us reasons.
But here's the thing for ustoday, as Christians, as
followers of Jesus, that's notwhy he came.
(02:08):
That's not why Jesus took onflesh.
It wasn't to give us a why.
He didn't come to just providean explanation for the things
that are, in fact, out of yourcontrol.
So if it wasn't that, then whydid Jesus come?
Well, some of the cool answeris that he came to give us
himself, to be with us, and,instead of giving you an answer
(02:31):
behind why you're going throughpain and suffering, you follow a
God who walks with you throughpain and suffering.
Cs Lewis, one of the greatestChristian thinkers of the last
century, puts it this way.
He says I didn't go to religionto make me happy.
I love this next line.
I always knew a bottle of portwould do that.
If you want a religion to makeyou feel really comfortable, I
(02:55):
certainly do not recommendChristianity.
Now, lewis is right Christianityit isn't about easy answers,
it's not about comfort to all ofthe things going on in life.
I kind of have a spiritual eyeroll when I see those posts of
everything happens for a reasonand there must have been a grand
plan behind it, because theJesus that we follow, the Jesus
(03:19):
we read that the disciplesfollowed, the, the early church
centered their entire livesaround, was the Jesus who
unsettles us, who challenges usand meets us in the real flesh
and blood realities of our lives.
And that's why this series thatwe're calling Blurred, I think,
has really gone to matter to toall of us.
(03:41):
A blurred Jesus leads to ablurred faith, a faith that
can't hold up when life getshard.
And some of you know exactlywhat I'm talking about because
you're there right now.
You're like why isn't my faithholding up a little bit better.
Perhaps it's blurred.
A blurred faith leads us to afaith that feels fine when life
(04:05):
is easy.
Well, if life is good, god isgood, because right now I'm
comfortable and things are goingthe way that I planned it, or I
wanted it to, or I hoped.
But the minute life crumbles,the minute the trajectory of our
lives change, when life getsreally hard, you know what I'm
talking about the diagnosis thatyou didn't want to receive but
(04:25):
that you got.
When your marriage is strainedbut you did all the things that
the pastor who officiated yourwedding told you to do.
So how did we get here?
When your dream job turns intoa nightmare, where is God then?
Where is our faith then?
Half-truths, a blurred faith, ablurred Jesus won't help you
(04:49):
get through those things.
Only Jesus will.
And so, for the next month,we're going to unmask the
distortions that sound spiritual.
They're spiritually sounding,but they're hollowed out and
they've got the gospel.
My goal throughout the next fiveweeks is that we develop a
faith that doesn't just live inour head.
(05:11):
It's not just information,words on a page, read and put
away, but a faith that reachesinto our body, our relationships
, those everyday choices, afaith that is rooted not in a
vague religion that's like afortune cookie when I'm going
through a bad thing, oh, I needa good word today but the real
(05:35):
Jesus who is speaking, leadingand transforming us.
I think that if you giveyourself to this series, this
study, you'll walk away with afaith that is just a little bit
more resilient than it is rightnow, a faith that's a little bit
more embodied than it is rightnow, a faith that is way more
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capable of carrying you throughthe hardest parts of life, even
if it means having less answers.
And so today we're going to 1John, right at the beginning.
1 John, chapter 1.
This is where John begins theletter, and the earliest
Christians faced the same exactchallenges that you and I do
today, that we do today.
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There was a system spreading inthe first century and it was
called Gnosticism, and that'swhat we're going to be talking
about.
And I said this is a big word.
Some of you might know what itmeans, some of you might not,
but what Gnostics did is theyclaimed that faith was about
secret knowledge, that your bodydidn't matter and that Jesus
was more of an idea rather thana real person.
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Those don't sound like ideasfrom 2,000 years ago, do they?
They sound like modern ideas,and that's the relevancy for you
and I Now.
The apostles didn't ignore it.
They spoke up and they spokeagainst it.
They reminded believers thatthe gospel is embodied, it's
public and this gospel is is foreverybody.
Listen to how John opens hisletter.
He says we proclaim to you theone who existed from the
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beginning, whom we have heardand seen.
We saw him with our own eyes,touched him with our own hands.
He is the word of life.
This one who is life itself wasrevealed to us and we have seen
him.
You're kind of seeing arepetition here, aren't we?
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And now we testify and proclaimto you that he is the one who
is eternal life.
He was with the Father and thenhe was revealed to us.
We proclaim to you what weourselves have actually seen and
heard, so that you may havefellowship with us, and our
fellowship is with the Fatherand with his Son, jesus Christ.
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We are writing these things sothat you may fully share our joy
.
The repetition I was pointingout is that we saw him, we
touched him and we heard him,which should insinuate to you,
without having any context, of 1John somebody's questioning
those things, because John isreally hammering it.
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So somebody must be askingquestions about seeing him,
touching him, hearing him.
Now, some time has passed.
This is the same John who wrotethe gospel, our fourth gospel
the same John.
Some time has passed, he'salready written that and now he
needs to add to it.
There's more stuff going onthat needs a response.
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The church has grown, newgenerations have risen up and
they didn't walk with Jesuspersonally, and it's in that gap
that new teachings have creptin.
You can't find people whowalked with Jesus around anymore
.
This is the end of the firstcentury.
Most of them have died off.
So now someone who did see him,touch him, heard him, writes as
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he's coming to the end of hislife, he realizes that as he
goes, so does one of the lastpeople who could claim those
things.
As one of the last people whocould claim those things, some
were saying that Jesus wasdivine.
Yes, but he wasn't really human.
In Greek culture, the godswould show up all the time, but
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they would take on theappearance of a human.
So if Zeus were to show up inyour life, he wouldn't show up
as Zeus the god, because well,who could imagine what that even
looks like.
But Zeus would come to you andhe'd look like me, or he'd look
like you, a bearded old whiteguy that we've conjured up in
our comic books.
And that's what the Gnosticteachers were saying about Jesus
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.
Yes, there is a God, and Jesuswas that God.
But he wasn't real, he just wasappearing to us like that.
To John's audience, this soundedplausible.
Sure, that makes sense.
What's the big deal about thatGod taking on human image and
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appearing real?
What's the big deal?
But John is going to tell youwhat is at stake.
You see, if Jesus only seemedhuman, then he never truly
shared our lives.
If he only appeared human, henever truly suffered.
If Jesus never truly died, hada body that could die, then the
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cross and the resurrection loseany sort of saving power that
they would otherwise have.
You see, this Gnostic teachingthat Jesus was just kind of like
an optical illusion carriedmore weight than meets the eye.
Initially, john pushes back witheverything he has.
He goes no, no, no, no.
Hold on a second.
I heard him, I heard his voice,I saw him with my own eyes.
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We even touched him.
Fellas, ladies, he was real, iswhat John is saying.
It wasn't a shadow of divinity.
It wasn't a passing appearance.
This was the eternal son of God, both fully divine and fully
human.
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John warns them a bit later.
This is what he was getting atwhen he starts the letter.
He says friends, do not believeeveryone who claims to speak by
the Spirit.
You must test them to see ifthe Spirit they have comes from
God, for there are many falseprophets in the world.
This is how we know if theyhave the Spirit of God.
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If a person is claiming to be aprophet acknowledges that Jesus
Christ came in a real body,that person has the Spirit of
God.
But if someone claims to be aprophet and does not acknowledge
the truth about Jesus, thatperson is not from God.
Such a person has the Spirit ofthe Antichrist, which you heard
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is coming into the world andindeed is already here.
This is a society, as we'vetalked about a lot, that had a
lot of spirits and visions andappearances, and people were so
used to hearing new spiritualclaims.
Somebody could say I had adream last night.
I had a vision this morning.
I received hidden knowledge atlunch and it would carry weight.
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You'd believe them, because whynot?
If they were wrong, who cares,but if they were right, you
don't want to disagree with that.
John is telling the Christiansdon't accept, don't just accept
every spiritual sounding messagethat you hear.
If somebody says they had thevision they received hidden
knowledge, whatever it might be,would you question that?
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Push back a little bit on that.
Don't let the voice of someonewho wasn't even there outweigh
my testimony.
They're claiming Jesus wasn'treal, but they weren't even
there.
John says but I was and I hadfriends who were, and I'm not
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lying to you.
You can trust us.
To believe these new spiritteachers was to reject the
eyewitnesses who ate with Jesusand traveled to synagogues with
Jesus and touched hisresurrected body.
They saw him sleep.
They said this was not a mirage, this was a human.
For John's audience, the choicewas real.
It was a kind of an either or.
Who will you trust these falseteachers who weren't there,
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promising you secret wisdomnudge, nudge, wink, wink or will
you trust what the apostles whoactually were there said?
We were there, we saw him, hecame in the flesh.
We live in a culture that oftendoubts the supernatural
altogether.
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So if somebody were to approachyou and say I had a dream, I
had a vision, god spoke to meand gave me this secret
knowledge that I'm going to giveto you.
You would feel very defensiveand dismissive.
You'd be like thanks but nothanks.
Their challenge was decidingwhich of the many voices to
trust.
Our challenge is the temptationto explain everything away.
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Well, god couldn't possiblyhave spoken to you in a dream or
a vision, or spoken to youwhatsoever.
That's kind of how we fault.
They lived close to theeyewitnesses.
John could write to them andsay we touched him and we saw
him.
But we live 2,000 years later.
We can't go down the road orlook someone up and say did you
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see and touch and hear Jesushimself?
That's not possible.
We have testimony preserved forus in scripture.
This latter first John again,as he knows he's coming to the
end of his life.
He says I'm one of the lastones.
I have to write this down sothat churches in like Madison,
wisconsin, 2000 years later willknow Jesus was real.
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For them, the danger wasdistortion inside of the church,
teachers reshaping Jesus intosomething that was more
comfortable for them, somethingthat was less costly.
But for us today?
I think the Gnostic problem forus today is that the distortion
often looks like a watered-downversion of Christianity.
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It's a faith that we only wantto inspire us and not ever
demand anything from us.
It's a spirituality that staysvague and we try to keep it very
private, but avoids the fleshand blood reality of following
the real Jesus.
These distortions threatentheir fellowship and joy.
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For us, the same danger existsOur fellowship and our joy.
When my Christianity becomes mytruth, my spirituality, and we
cut ourselves off from thefullness of community, we in
part cut ourselves off fromChrist.
That's why the principle herein this passage is so important.
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Every generation must guardagainst distorted versions of
Jesus, because a blurred gospelalways leads to blurred
discipleship and, as I saidearlier, a blurred Jesus, a
blurred faith, it won't get usthrough the pain and suffering
of this life.
That was true for John'saudience and it's true for us
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today.
The whole arc of Scripturepoints to this.
Think about the Israelites inthe Old Testament constantly
trading God for idols.
We talked a little bit aboutthat last week.
They blurred his reality and asthey blurred his reality, their
lives unraveled.
In the Gospels, Jesus himselfwarned that false messiahs and
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false prophets would indeed come.
Then he told his followers tobuild their lives not on sand
but on the rock.
Paul wrote to the Galatiansthat if anyone preached another
Jesus, they would be under God'scurse.
In this arc of scripture, thestory of God pursuing a people
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ends in Revelation, with Jesushimself as the faithful and true
witness, the one who standsagainst every false spirit and
blurred truth.
You see, from the beginning toend, the biblical story is
consistent.
God's people, you and me, weare always tempted to blur who
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he is, sometimes intentionally,sometimes unintentionally, but
God always calls us back toclarity.
When things get blurred, godcalls us back to clarity.
And so the challenge I want youto carry into this week where
have you blurred Jesus?
Where have you reduced Jesus toan idea or an inspiration or
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private comfort, instead offollowing him as the real Savior
who came in the flesh?
That's the challenge for ustoday, and how you might live
that out this week is takingtime to reflect on the question
honestly.
Ask yourself where have I madefaith more about my comfort than
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Christ?
And don't just think about it.
Maybe jot some notes down on apiece of paper.
You can act on it.
Maybe jot some notes down on apiece of paper, you can act on
it.
Choose one concrete or physicalarea of your life this week and
invite Jesus into it.
Maybe it's what you eat or whatyou don't eat, or what you
drink, or what you don't drink,how you rest, how you treat your
body, how you treat your family, how you handle all of your
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relationships.
Invite Jesus in to the physicalaspects of your life and don't
keep this to yourself.
Share with a trusted friend.
You know we have elders at ourchurch, tim and Kyle.
We have trustees.
I'm here, liz is here.
You have trusted companions onthis journey.
Share with us what's hard inyour life, what's not going well
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.
Where do you feel disconnected?
I promise you, me and my team,we're not going to try to fix
you, but we'll walk with youthrough what you're going
through.
We have that together as acommunity, and it's so important
that we have it, because ablurred faith thrives in
isolation, but clarity grows incommunity.
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Okay, Blurred faith thrives inisolation, but clarity grows in
community.
The good news isn't hidden orabstract.
It's not just ideas in ourheads or explanations on why
life is hard.
The gospel is so much biggerthan those things.
The gospel is embodied.
The gospel is real.
(19:33):
The Jesus John touched was thesame Jesus who meets us in our
flesh and blood lives today.
A blurred gospel.
As I've said a couple timesalready, a blurred gospel will
always lead to blurreddiscipleship.
But when we follow the realJesus, he transforms all of us
mind, body and spirit.
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So imagine what would happen ifwe all lived this way.
I mean, what would your homelook like, your household look
like, if love and forgivenesswasn't something talked about on
Sunday morning but somethingpracticed Monday through Friday?
What would that look likearound the dinner table in text
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messages?
What would our workplaces looklike if people saw Jesus in the
way we worked, by being honest,having integrity, being
dedicated, going above andbeyond, by the way we treat
those around us our bosses, ourco-workers, our customers, our
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clients with dignity?
What would it look like ifMadison Church wasn't just faith
, limited for an hour on Sundays, but showed up in our daily
rhythms?
Where generosity isn't somethingI practice once a week or once
a month or once a year.
It was a regular part of mylife.
Where hospitality isn'tsomething I plan for a couple
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times a year, but it's somethingI live out every day.
Where I'm ready to help carefor someone when those things in
life come up that they didn'tplan for, and you know what I'm
talking about because they comeup for you too.
When the things come up thatyou didn't plan for, will we be
a community that is ready tocare for those?
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That's the vision of embodieddiscipleship.
It starts in our own lives.
Yes, you have to make thechoice.
You have to be responsible.
You can't control the personsitting next to you.
You can't be responsible forthe person sitting next to you
because you're responsible foryourself and the choices that
you make.
And as you do that, your lifebecomes a spiritual fountain of
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sorts, in which the Holy Spiritworks through you and impacts
other people.
It transforms not just churches, but communities and cultures.
This stuff, this God, changesthe world, and so, as we head to
the communion table today, askyourself where have I made my
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faith more about comfort thanChrist?
Where have I reduced Jesus toan idea, instead of letting him
be the Lord of every detail ofmy life and then invite him back
into that space?
This week, I was thinking aboutit.
You know, as we come to thecommunion table, we're not
remembering an idea of Jesus.
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This isn't just simply symbolic.
We're remembering the realJesus, who took on real flesh,
who was really broken for us andwho really rose again.
And I concluded that communionis the opposite of Gnosticism,
because it's something that youcan touch, it's something you
can taste.
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It's something you can tasteand it's something you can see.
It's tangible, just as Jesuswas, and I know that for some of
you, you walked in todaycarrying questions that feel
heavier than your faith cansupport, and that's okay.
I'm not here to offer you aneat explanation or to say
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everything happens for a reason.
I am here today to point you tothe real Christ who will walk
with you and through thissituation or circumstances that
you find yourself in today,following Jesus is never
disembodied.
It's not abstract, it's realand it changes lives, and next
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week we'll dive in deeper tothis concept.
Our culture today often treatsthe body like something we
either need to escape anddisassociate from, or something
that we need to make perfect,but Scripture tells us a
different story, so I hopeyou'll join us next week.
Let's pray.
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