New Wine: Sermons from Passages Unique to John

By T.A. Prickett

This is a book of sermons based on passages in the Gospel of John which are not included in the synoptic gospels. The book contains some interesting episodes and teachings of Jesus. T.A. Prickett preached these sermons while he was pastor of the former Seven Hills Baptist Church in Kentucky. He served this church for thirty-four years.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Oct 2, 2015
• ISBN: 9781490897349

T.A. Prickett

T.A. Prickett, a native of Verbena, Alabama, was born near the end of the Great Depression in 1934. In 1950, his family moved from rural Verbena to Montgomery, Alabama. In Montgomery, he attended Starke University School, a military school for boys, from which he graduated in 1952. After graduating from Samford University in Birmingham in 1957, he served for three years as associate pastor of Forest Lake Baptist Church in Tuscaloosa. He continued his education at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky, from which he received two post-graduate degrees. During his seminary days, he was pastor of the Bethabara Baptist Church in Daviess County, Kentucky. He served as pastor of the Seven Hills Baptist Church in Owensboro, Kentucky, for thirty-four years, retiring in 1999. He was active in Baptist life in Kentucky, having served in positions of leadership on numerous committees and as an elected officer of the Kentucky Baptist Convention in 1973. Since retirement, T.A. has served as interim pastor in several churches. He has published the following books: We Preach Christ, For Our Age of Anxiety, A Portrait of Jesus, and Faith in Ever'day Clothes. He has also written his memoirs, A Cold Day in July: The Memoirs of a Baptist Preacher.

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All scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide.

www.zondervan.com The NIV and New International Version are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.™

Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright 1952 [2nd edition, 1971] by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture taken from the King James Version of the Bible.

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ISBN: 978-1-4908-9733-2 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4908-9734-9 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2015916276

WestBow Press rev. date: 09/21/2015

CONTENTS

Preface

A Down-To-Earth God John 1:14

New Wine John 2:1-11

Life From Above John 3:1-21

God And His Love John 3:16

Surprise, Surprise! John 4:4-38

Poolside Manner John 5:2-18

The Living Bread John 6:41-51

Amazing Grace John 8:1-11

The True Disciple John 8:31-36

The Light Of The World John 9:1-12

The Sheep And The Shepherd John 10:1-18

A Faith For Life John 11:17-27

On Death And Dying And Living John 12:20-36

Royal Service John 13:1-17

Promises John 14:12-17

Our Life In Christ John 15:1-27

The Advantage Of The Holy Spirit John 16:7-15

Mission Possible John 17:1-8, 18

At The Cross John 18:28-38

Breakfast With Jesus John 21:4-21

Appendix

Bibliography

DEDICATION

This book is dedicated to my longtime friend Bob Ford of Jacksonville, Alabama. Bob was a coworker with me at Shocco Springs, the assembly grounds for Alabama Baptist, during the summers of 1951 and 1952. We were also roommates at Howard College, now Samford University, for a short period of time. I am indebted to him for his help when I was writing my first-ever term paper in freshman English. Without his help, I would have probably never written anything, much less a book. However, I am not dedicating this book to him because he helped me with my first writing assignment but because he has been a special friend throughout my life as a minister of the gospel.

—T. A. Prickett

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PREFACE

The Gospel of John is not just another gospel that is found in the New Testament. John’s work is unique in that he wrote about unusual events in the life of Jesus. The Gospel of John does have some of the same episodes found in Matthew, Mark and Luke, but much of John’s Gospel is about events in the life of Jesus that are not found in the Synoptic Gospels. It is fair to say that much of John’s material is unique to John. The sermons in this book are based on passages that are unique to John.

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A DOWN-TO-EARTH GOD

JOHN 1:14

The gospel of John is unique among the gospels in the New Testament. Matthew, Mark, and Luke report most of the same events from Jesus’ life and ministry. Likewise, John includes many of the same events. However, John also includes other events and things Jesus said and did that are not reported by the other gospel writers.

One of the unique features of John is the absence of the story of Jesus’ birth. John does not include the historical story of the manger, the angels, and the wise men and the star. Instead John begins with a theological statement about Jesus. The text for the message that follows is a part of John’s theological statement. Look with me as John describes Jesus as the down-to-earth God.

We Can Know God

What does this mean, the down-to-earth God? It means we can know God. Because God has come to earth, we can know him. We can know the primary characteristics of God. We can know the uniqueness of God.

God exists at a different level from us. He is other than man, and this creates a real problem for us. Since God is other than man, how can we know him? How can we have human knowledge of something so different and so removed from us? This is the reason Jesus taught us in parables. He told us heavenly things in earthly stories.

The walkways at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky, were made of brick during the time when I was a student there. In the spring, the ants almost always built their anthills right in the middle of the walkways. You would think after all the years of having their anthills stepped on, the ants would figure out this was not a good place to build their anthills, but they kept doing it every year. It seems to me the only way to tell them about the pitfalls of building their anthills on the walks at Southern Seminary would be to become an ant, and then they would listen and understand.

This is precisely what God did. The only way he could show us the folly of our ways and show us a better way was to span the chasm that existed between God and man. This he did! He took upon himself flesh and entered time. In Christ, the invisible became visible, and the incomprehensible became comprehensible.

Concrete expression is basic to human understanding. It is difficult to describe truth or beauty or goodness in words alone. It’s like trying to teach a child the color red. You may describe red in many ways, but the only way to teach a child the color red is to hold up a red object and say, This is the color red. Paul said in Colossians 1:15, Jesus is the visible image of the invisible God.

When God became flesh and dwelt among us, we could see, hear, and understand what God is like. This is the glorious truth of Christianity, and it is the miracle of Christmas that God is a down-to-earth God.

God Can Know Us

The glorious truth of Christianity is not only that we can know God, but it is also that God can know us. Through full participation in the human experience, God can know us. When God became flesh, he took on our limitations and lived under our circumstances. Through the incarnation, God learned firsthand what it is like to be a human being. God established a bond between man and himself. Sometimes at a funeral, you will hear someone say to the bereaved, I know what you are going through. Because of the incarnation, God knows what we are going through.

A man came to see his pastor who was deeply discouraged because he had lost his job after twenty years with the company. He told the pastor that the company had been sold, and as a result of that, the work climate had changed. He had been treated unfairly, and the insecurity was too much for him. The man was on the brink of an emotional breakdown. The minister listened to the man and then said, I cannot change the outward situation or erase the past, but I can remind you that God knows what is happening to you, and he understands. This is the miracle of a down-to-earth God. We can know God, and God can know us.

Prior to Christmas in 1979, the newspapers in this country carried a picture of an elementary school boy from Easley, South Carolina, riding a camel in Giza, Egypt, with the Great Pyramids of Egypt in the background.

The name of the twelve-year-old boy was Sam Brown. He was in Egypt as the special guest of President Anwar Sadat. Sam and his classmates had each written a letter to a world leader they admired, and President Sadat was Sam’s choice. Sadat was so impressed with the letter he received that he invited Sam for a week’s visit in Egypt at Sadat’s expense.

Several years later, when President Sadat was assassinated and an official entourage of Americans attended the funeral, walking alongside of the living former American presidents in the funeral procession was Sam Brown, who was by then a teenager.

It was amazing indeed that a boy from Easley, South Carolina, had the opportunity to visit with a world leader. However, how much more amazing it would have been if President Sadat had come to spend a week in Easley, South Carolina. A world leader leaving his palace and accustomed amenities to visit a boy in a small town in America would have been rare indeed.

Let us remember that when we read the familiar story of the birth of Jesus, it is not an Easley-to-Cairo story. It is not an account of man getting God’s attention through good works or ingenuity and thus winning an invitation to heaven.

The gospel is rather a Cairo-to-Easley story, telling the amazing good news that God left heaven’s glory to come and see about us. God exchanged heaven for Bethlehem, angels for shepherds, and a throne for a manger—for our sake! And that truly is good news!

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NEW WINE

JOHN 2:1-11

This section of Scripture recounts the first miracle of Jesus. Jesus performed many miracles, but none of them are as well known as this first miracle when he turned water into wine. Men often argue about the validity of the miracles. More than a few have asked, Do you really believe Jesus turned water into wine?

A coal miner who had been known for his drinking and otherwise boisterous lifestyle was converted. There was little doubt about the change in his life, for he who had once been a notoriously heavy drinker was now sober and dependable.

Though convinced their friend had changed, some of the coal miners had some doubts about some of the things Christians believe. During lunch hour one day, a fellow worker asked the former drunkard, What about all those miracles? Surely you don’t believe that yarn about Jesus turning water into wine, do you?

The converted miner had a simple, straightforward answer. He said, I haven’t education enough to answer hard questions about the Bible and miracles. I don’t know whether Jesus turned water into wine or not, but there is something I do know. I know that at our house, he’s turned wine into bread and beer into bedroom furniture, and that’s miracle enough for me.

John says of this miracle that it was the first of Jesus’ signs. We could engage in a lengthy discussion of signs, but let it suffice to say that a sign in the New Testament was something that pointed beyond itself and that bore witness to Christ and his mission and purpose in the world.

Given this understanding that this miracle is a sign, what then can we see in it?

The Presence of Christ

The first thing we want to notice in the miracle is the presence of Christ at the wedding feast. John wrote in verse 2,

Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding.

Jesus was at the wedding. He was there because he was invited. The bride and groom wanted him to be there, which shows us Christ was not a recluse. He was not a misfit. People were not uncomfortable in his presence. Conversations did not stop at his end of the table when he sat