John chapter 9. Let’s jump in. This is a wonderful story. John, sometimes they’re long chapters and sometimes he kind of speaks in a way that is a little bit hard to process and understand. But this is just so good right here.
Who Holds the Power?
We’re going to be in John chapter 8. We’ve been tracking with John. John the evangelist, as he’s called. John the apostle. John the best friend of Jesus, as best we can say. John was a guy that we don’t know exactly how old, but he’s probably late teens, early 20’s, somewhere in there, when he came across this guy Jesus. When he and his brother were fishing, Jesus said, “Come, hang out with me.” And they said, “Okay.” And they did.
Disappointment with Jesus
It’s exciting to be back. We’re going to be in John Chapter 7. I thought the best way to start this next phase of our church was with a teaching called “Disappointed with Jesus.” Some snickers there. John Chapter 7 is where we’re going to be.
There’s a guy named John Cheever. He says, “The main emotion of the adult American who has all the advantages of wealth, education and culture, is disappointment.”
Spiritual Warfare
The title of this message is Spiritual Warfare. It’s kind of spiritual warfare Jesus style. It’s going to be a little different than you think. And I’m going to say the word spirit or spiritual a lot in this message. For some of you it’s like,“Oh, that’s not me,” Or “It gives me the heebie-jeebies.” I understand where you’re coming from because I feel a lot t of that as well. However, you need to understand or realize that you are primarily a spiritual being.
The Social Justice of the Social Jesus
We’re going to go to John chapter 6 and I want to read it to us, get in our minds, and then we’re actually going to read another passage that tells the same story. John 6, we’re going to start in verse 1:
Some time after this, Jesus crossed to the far shore of the Sea of Galilee (that is, the Sea of Tiberias), and a great crowd of people followed him because they saw the signs he had performed by healing the sick. Then Jesus went up on a mountainside and sat down with his disciples. The Jewish Passover Festival was near.