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Good morning my “Walking with Jesus” friends;
Integrity is a big deal, isn’t it? What other words help define “integrity” for you? How about ‘trustworthiness’ or ‘reliability’ or ‘honesty’ or ‘faithful to truth’ or ‘transparency’? Sadly, these are very rare in our world, isn’t that true?
There’s a monumental debate raging now about the ‘integrity’ of China with regard to the truth about the origin and scope of the Coronavirus in their country. Of course politics in every country is a continual ‘snake pit’ of skepticism, accusations, rumors and the assumption of some degree of corruption, right? The media, in every country, is always suspect of reporting the news with some degree of ‘spin’ or bias, and sometimes outright deceit. Few media voices have maintained a ‘full integrity’ reputation for long. In recent years we’ve seen failure of integrity cause the resignation of leaders and collapse of major, respected corporations.
So how do you measure ‘integrity’ in your friends, your family, those you allow to influence your life, and especially yourself? And how have you see God honoring “integrity” affect a potential crisis?
In recent days I’ve invited you to join me in spending time with John the disciple and some of the things he alone recorded in his record of the life of Jesus.
Today I’d like to focus just on two verses, we actually ended with them yesterday, John 6:68&69. You may recall the setting… it’s fairly early in Jesus’ ministry.
In John 6, John records that Jesus spoke some words that were hard to understand, about His body and blood, and many people were so confused that they deserted Him at that time. So John records that Jesus asked His disciples: “Do you want to leave too?” to which Simon Peter responded with the words I want us to focus on today: “Lord, to whom shall we go? You alone have the words of eternal life. We believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.” Wow, what a powerful statement of integrity! For Peter and the others, there would yet be many months of miracles, Jesus’ teachings, confrontations with the religious leaders, and ultimately Passover/Easter weekend, but here Peter makes a very bold statement of integrity.
Do you notice Jesus’ response? “Jesus replied, ‘Have I not chosen you, the Twelve? Yet one of you is a devil!” My friends, can you imagine the looks on their faces? Some of them had known each other since they were young boys, like Peter, Andrew, James and John. But several of the others were unknown to each other. Some had integrity problems. Matthew, for instance, had been a deceitful tax collector. Nathaniel had a prejudice problem regarding people from Nazareth. I would guess several of the disciples looked right at both of them when Jesus said “one of you is a devil”!
But John gives us a commentary here, based on what happened months later, in the upper room that Passover weekend. John writes: (“He meant Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, who, though one of the Twelve, was later to betray Jesus.”) (John 6:71)
I have an important question for us: When you look at people do you look for the best in them and think of how Jesus could make them even better for God’s glory, or do you tend to look at their flaws and assume they’ll only get worse with time? In a moment I will give you one of the most remarkable stories I’ve ever heard of a boy looking for the best in a violent man who had killed the boys’ father, and choosing to forgive him!
When Jesus selected the Twelve, none, as far as we know, had stellar reputations, all had some character flaws, as we all do! As they spent those months with Jesus, we occasionally get a glimpse of their jealousy, anger, selfishness, pride and other less than honorable traits. Yet it was to these men that Jesus entrusted His life, His Gospel and His mission, it’s amazing! It gives you and me hope that as Jesus works in our lives, He might have some special things He’s wanting to do in and through us.
Consider with me Peter’s bold statement: “Lord, to whom shall we go? You alone have the words of eternal life. We believe and know that YOU are the Holy One of God.” (John 6:68,69) There it is…Jesus is the model of integrity, for He is the Holy One of God and there is, therefore, no sin, of any kind, in Him. Jesus speaks only God’s Truth (John 8:28; 14:6). Jesus does only what God the Father leads Him to do. (John 5:19,36) Jesus is “Immanuel” God with us! (Matt. 1:23)
Consider the significance of Peter’s statement “You alone have the words of eternal life.” In a world filled with a wide array of religions, religious teachers, spiritual theories and traditions, Jesus and His words are unique. Look ahead to John 7:16-18 where Jesus said “My teaching is not my own. It comes from Him who sent me. If anyone chooses to do God’s will, he will find out whether my teaching comes from God or whether I speak on my own. He who speaks on his own does so to gain honor for himself, but He who works for the honor of the One who sent Him is a man of truth; there is nothing false about Him.”
Then my friends, consider this in John 8:31-36 where Jesus said “If you hold to My teaching, you are really My disciples. Then you will know the truth and the truth will set you free…So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.”
Now let’s tie all this together. Jesus claims His words are God’s truth, and that God’s truth can set a person free from the bondage of sin, and transform them from living a deceitful life to being a person of integrity! Peter claimed that Jesus’ words were the words of eternal life. Life eternal is more than life in heaven after we die. Life eternal begins NOW, living here on earth in a truthful relationship of integrity with Holy God through Jesus Christ as our Savior, our Lord and our daily guide. It’s living a life of freedom from sin bondage. Paul describes this life like this: “Therefore if anyone is in Christ they are a new creation, the old has gone and the new has come. All this is from God…” (2 Cor. 5:17,18)
Now I have a powerful video clip for you which makes this very real. A few days ago I told you about Jim Elliott who was speared to death, along with his four missionary friends, in January 1957 by Auca (Warani) Indians in Ecuador, as they tried to befriend them to tell them about Jesus. Of the five men, one was a pilot, Nate Saint, who flew over this remote, jungle village repeatedly dropping gifts from his little, yellow, single engine plane. Nate flew his four missionary friends into the jungle and landed on a sand bar just down river from the primitive village. Nate Saint had a little son, Steve, about 5 years old at the time.
The story of what happened AFTER Nate Saint, Jim Elliot and their three friends were speared to death by the “Warani’ is nothing short of remarkable, and is tremendous tangible evidence of the power of Peter’s words that Jesus alone has the words of eternal life. And Jesus’ promise that His truth can be life-changing, and can set a person free from all the ravages and bondage of sin. Some of the family of these slain missionaries actually moved into the village and lived for many years among the savage ‘Warani’. They brought their children with them, and learned the language of the ‘Warani’, and told them about Jesus.
This video clip is Steve Saint, the son of martyr Nate Saint, telling the story of how he was able to forgive the men who speared his father and the other four missionaries to death. But much more, as young Steve went to live in the jungle, with that tribe, he saw the power of Jesus change the lives of those murders, and actually came to love the man who killed his father, and even call this man ‘grandfather’.
This my friends is one of the most powerful evidences of the integrity and power of the Gospel of Jesus, and the profound change Jesus can make in a person, a family, and an entire community of people, for generations!
I urge you to watch this clip and then consider what you understand to be the power of forgiveness and what a life of God honoring integrity looks like.
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Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
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Pastor Doug Anderson 262.441.8785
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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