MAY 11 2025 | 50 Days: Road to Pentecost S1E3 | Lean & Linger

Sea Change Church · MAY 11 2025 | 50 Days: Road to Pentecost S1E3 - Lean & Linger
John 21:20-25
Automated transcript. Not reviewed for accuracy.

And we love our mothers. They have framed us and loved us in ways that men don't. Men love us in a different way. But we step into your heart of generosity. Help us be a generous church that transforms San Diego and the world beyond. We ask this in Jesus' mighty name. Amen. Amen. The Gospel according to John, chapter 21, verses 20 through 25. Peter turned and saw the disciple whom Jesus loved following them.

The one who also had leaned back against him during the supper and had said, Lord, who is it that's going to betray you? When Peter saw him, he said to Jesus, Lord, what about this man? Jesus said to him, If it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you? You follow me. So the same spread abroad among the brothers that this disciple was not to die.

Yet Jesus did not say to him that he was not to die. But if it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you? This is the disciple who is bearing witness about these things and who has written these things. And we know that his testimony is true. Now, there are also many other things that Jesus did. Were every one of them to be written?

I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written. This is the word of the Lord. This is the word of the Lord. Oh, right, come alive. Come down. Man, I love that intro. I don't know why. I just love it. Love that movie. It makes me happy. Want to come alive? I don't know if you want to come alive on this Mother's Day. Happy Mother's Day to you all.

I'm Pastor Adam, the pastor of Sea Change Church. Great to have you. And we are continuing in this story of the Holy Spirit's arrival on earth. Happens 50 days. That's why this sermon series is called 50. 50 days after the resurrection of Jesus. 10 days after the ascension of Jesus. Jesus hangs out for 40 days on the earth. He leaves and there's a 10-day period where they're like, is what Jesus said going to happen going to happen?

Holy Spirit comes in the 50th day. As I was listening to this, this wasn't really part of the sermon, but go to verse 22, and it just really struck me, and I think it really does sum up what I want to kind of focus on today. It says, when Peter saw him, that's John. John's writing this story about himself and the story of Jesus. He said to Jesus, Lord, what about this man?

And Jesus said to him in verse 22, if it is my will that he should remain until I come, what is that to you? I mean, what a statement, right? Like, how often are we thinking about things with a distracted following where Jesus is like, hey, what does that have to do with you? We're asking him all these things. And this is my belief, that Jesus was not nice, but he was really kind, right?

Like, Jesus can just go at the heart of a matter. If you read the scripture, you see Jesus. Maybe he was nice. He's being people following all the time. But I've always seen Jesus as like, he can be a little stern, right, and say what he needs to say to who he needs to say it to. One of the people that heard a lot of what Jesus had to say is John.

John the evangelist. And that's who we're focusing on today. We're focusing on Janine spirituality. To look at this apostle who followed Jesus in a very different way than the rest of the apostles. Celtic spirituality, which is the, it comes from Europe and it's associated a lot with Ireland and Great Britain. Christians a thousand years ago had a term that was called the thin place.

A friend of ours, he's spoken here before, Timothy Pitt wrote a book. We have it in our bookstore. I encourage you to get it. It's called Echoes. It's about Celtic Christianity and their search for the thin place. And what do I mean by the thin place? The Celtics by the thin place meant that geographical, spiritual, emotional place where the veil between heaven and earth became thinner and thinner, almost paper thin, where you could just, you could almost reach out and touch the kingdom of heaven and you find that thin place.

And they intentionally live lives to cultivate the thin place. In a world of distracted living where we fill our lives with obstacles to the thin place, the Janine spirituality that you see, and you'll even see as he speaks, the way he speaks about himself, is completely contrary to the way in which John followed, to the way in which many the Celtic Christians followed.

We live a distractive life. We live a life with an instrument now, one of the most powerful, maybe the most powerful instrument in human history in your pocket. The sum of all the world's knowledge is now in your pocket. If you want to find out about how you split an atom, it's in your pocket. If you want to know how to make a hollandaise sauce without breaking the sauce so it doesn't turn into two distinct parts, it's in your pocket.

If you want to find out if the Padres won last night, which I don't even know if they did, they might have. 21-0, that's right. I did see that actually. 21-0 against the poor, hapless Rockies. Thank God they have the Denver Nuggets that are doing their thing. It's in your pocket. You have something in your pocket that is claiming space in our lives, that is trying to be God of your life, and you can bet that those who write the algorithm rhythms are doing it on purpose to call you back over and over again, to trigger your emotions, your thoughts, to control your very life, to get you to be on this as much as possible.

This is just one distraction in their lives. There's many others. The one thing we see about John, he was never seen as a distracted follower. The things that you hear about John, he's loving Jesus. He's being loved by Jesus. He identifies himself as that. He's leaning on Jesus. He's lingering with Jesus. I will say that all of us lean on something or many things.

There's no one in here today that does not have something that you lean on. I mentioned the first service. For good or for bad, I lean on my morning coffee, right? I'm not saying it's bad. I'm just saying I can't have a quiet time unless I have my first cup of coffee. Now, I try to be a spiritual person, and how humiliating is it that I can't even pray until I get a cup of coffee in the morning?

I've got to get that brew. It's like, Jesus, just hang out. I know you're God. You can do all things except give me the power to pray without a cup of black coffee in the morning. That's just one of these distractions that oftentimes keeps us from falling. You see, John, look where he is. He's always got his nose in Jesus' business, always following Jesus.

Just look where he is in this story. Peter's been redeemed. Peter has been taken from the beach. Jesus says, follow me. So they're going on a little walk, and there's this guy behind him just hanging out, just John. Would that be annoying, right? If you were Peter, that'd be annoying. I'm trying to get a moment with Jesus. But Peter's like, or excuse me, John is like, he got away from me once on the cross.

He ain't getting away from me again. I'm going to hang out. I'm going to linger. He lingers with Jesus. He leans on Jesus. As I begin the sermon, I want to ask you, what do you lean on? And how often are you creating opportunities to lean on Jesus? Do you seek the thin space, or do you seek the distracted space? I often want the distracted space. I want to get just enough thin space so I can go have my distracted space.

John was not that way. The main point, again, is using the word following in the main point. You can't follow Jesus from afar. This is the third week that we've talked about following Jesus. But in this chapter 21, it is mentioned over and over and over again. And we need to follow Jesus. And so you can't follow Jesus from afar. Two points today.

One, leaning on Jesus. That's part of Janine's spirituality. He was leaning. He wrote himself into the narrative as a leaner. As one who leans on Jesus. And then the second one is following Jesus. We'll look at that and how to do those same things as we head towards our Pentecost service. We are in a season of Pentecost right now. June 8th, I believe, is our Pentecost service.

We're going to have anointing with oil at the front like we do every single year. It's also a communion service. But this is a time where we can lean. What are you leaning on? Go to verse 20 if you would. Leaning on Jesus. Peter turned and saw the disciple whom Jesus loved, circle Jesus loved, following them. The one who would also lean back against him during the supper and said, Lord, who is it that is going to betray you?

I think it's interesting here because as a writer, you want to write things that are concise. You want to get the point across. And we know John's a great writer. He couldn't have written John chapter 1. I mean, one of the greatest treaties in all of spiritual writing of human history. John chapter 1 is up there in the pantheon of spiritual writings, right?

But in this verse, there's all this fluff, right? All he really needs to say is, go back to verse 20, Peter saw the disciple following them and that it asked the Lord, who is it that's going to betray you? But instead, he adds a couple things. And the first thing that he adds is that Jesus loved him. Well, look at that in a moment. Because your understanding of your relationship to the Father and how he thinks of you, of how Jesus thinks of you, your understanding of that will affect your proximity.

You will stay closer often to the ones you know who love you. And so he calls himself the one who disciple that Jesus loved. The next thing he adds that really doesn't need to be there is that he was leaning on Jesus. Like it's just a fact that doesn't need to be in there, except 2,000 years later, he is known as the disciple whom was the beloved of Jesus and who leaned on Jesus.

One of the most things known about John is his relationship to Jesus. He wasn't about the doing, he was about the being. He was more of a Mary than he was a Martha. He wasn't about creating or doing, he was about being with Jesus, and he's known as the friend of Jesus. This physical, this leaning then as he calls himself, because this is his own himself writing this, it shows a physical expression of a spiritual closeness.

It shows a disciple who feels safe, welcome, and known in Jesus' presence. It connotes vulnerability, interdependence, and faithfulness. There's an old story about a Salvation Army general, and they're just scorched earth, right? Salvation Army guys are like scorched earth. They just go for it constantly. And it says that what happened was somebody came up to this general, because they have, you know, they're an army, right?

And they have like generals and corporals, if you don't know about Salvation Army. And they said to him as he was preaching on the street corner, that Jesus of yours is a crutch. He says, no, he's not. He's a wheelchair. I need more than a crutch. I need a wheelchair. And there's just one other story. I got to tell one other, because I want to get back to that point.

There's another story. They walk up to the founder of the Salvation Army, and some guy spit on him on his chest, and one of the privates comes up to wipe it off. He goes, don't wipe that off. It's a badge of honor. And I was like, oh, you guys are so scorched earth, hardcore. John was one who wanted to follow, who leaned on Jesus, who looked for him in the moments.

How do you know what you lean on? It's what you go to when things are hard. It's that thing that you need. It's that thing that you want. For me, so often, I just want a moment of quiet, right? So I go to this, and next thing I know, like yesterday morning, I'm scrolling for two hours, and I'm wondering, would Carrie like to live in Switzerland? You know, there's some houses in Switzerland, and could I pull it off?

You guys do that. I don't know if anybody does that. Like, there's no chance I'm moving to Switzerland and buying a house in Switzerland. But next thing, it's just a moment to get away. And I had that moment where I could create that thin space, but I want to do other things. I want to throw things in my way and just get distracted. John wasn't that guy.

That was one of the things about John. He was known about being with Jesus. He had an intentional closeness, a resting with Jesus. He was constantly seeing being near Jesus, constantly resting with Jesus. There's a couple scriptures I want to give to you, but I'm going to give you a quote by D.L. Moody first. Trust in yourself, and you are doomed to disappointment.

Trust in friends, and they must die, and maybe die and leave you. Trust in money, it may be taken from you, but trust in God, and you are never confounded in time or eternity. Lean only on the everlasting arms of Jesus. And maybe you know that song, the hymn from the 1800s, and we sung it before. Leaning, leaning. Leaning on the everlasting arms. Leaning, I'm leaning.

I'm leaning on the everlasting arms of Jesus. What are you leaning on? Matthew 11, 28 says, Come to me all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. And then Psalm 46, 10. Be still and know that I am God. Let me just tell you this. Stillness is the place where God can be known. God can only be known in silence, as we can know him. Every word, if I were to give you a word, write a treatise, a thousand words.

Thomas Aquinas wrote, you know, the summa theological, the sum of all theology. In the end, he had a dream, and he saw Jesus in a dream. And he said to those around him, I would burn, it was like straw, I would burn everything I wrote, because nothing I wrote can compare to what I saw in the dream when I was actually with Jesus. He wanted to spend time.

And so one of the things that you can understand about knowing God is you can only know God in the silence. Why? Because if I say God is love, I'm right. But I'm not right enough. I've left an eternity about love out. If I say God is peace, I'm right, but I'm ultimately wrong. Because I can't tell you in the word peace, it can't sum up God. The only way to actually know God is to keep your mouth shut in silence and dwell in the silence that is God.

That is as close as you can get to God. It is in sitting. It is not in all the words, and the words are important. The Bible's important. We can know him, but the way to truly know him is to be silent with him. And this is something John understood. He had a life of the thin place. He was constantly trying to create a thin place in his life, and so he would rest.

And there's ways you can do that. I don't know if you've seen them. I have bought two recycled material, just for anybody, environmental people. A recycled material, orange rocking chairs. And maybe you've seen them here. And I bought them for a reason. One, I wanted to do a visible symbol of spirituality. To say that spirituality isn't just about doing and moving, it is about being so often.

I've been trying myself to sit in that chair one hour a week while I'm working. You know how hard it is to come to church and pray as a pastor? This place sits pretty empty all day long, and it's like, Pastor Adam, please come pray with us. You know, like the angels, whatever. You know how hard it is to actually make that happen? And so I bought those for a reason, and I tried to sit in them, and now so every Monday for an hour, I've been trying to sit, and I told the staff, staff, those chairs, if I see you sitting in that chair, you're not gonna get in trouble.

Bring your Bible. Sit there. I wanna tell you, congregation, the two orange chairs, the recycled material orange rocking chairs are available to you if you need a place to come and sit and be still, because rest is not inactivity. It's intentional closeness with Christ. You will know the amount of rest and creating the thin places in your life that you have found based on the peace that you have in your life.

What is the first thing Jesus said in the beginning when he comes back? He shows up in the upper room. He says one thing, and he breathes it. Peace be with you. We cannot continue to go after thing after thing after thing, project after project, desire after desire, all the time running from the still place with Christ and be spiritual people. John was a spiritual person, a spiritual man, and he was one that went in rest.

The next thing that we see is this idea of following Jesus. Go to verse 20 again. Peter turned and saw the disciple whom Jesus loved following them, the one who had leaned back against him during the supper, and it said, Lord, who is it that's going to betray you? The disciple whom Jesus loved. Proximity to Christ is so often, as I said earlier, based upon how you experience God.

That's why fathers matter. This is why fathers definitely matter when it comes to presenting something that looks at all, closely, as much as we can as human beings in our weakness, something that looks like God would look. To have a father who is rejecting or harsh words or pushes you away, this will definitely skew individuals. It seems odd to me that God would allow us to be fathers and then him be the ultimate father and let us be, as he's the archetype, to be a model to actually do that.

But John understood himself who was loved. I realized about 10, 15 years ago, actually right when I got to this church, I was having a conversation with Pastor Jim. We were talking about the Trinity. I realized that I just didn't have a great relationship with the Father God. I had a real good relationship with Jesus. Jesus was my homeboy, right? Sorry.

He was my homeboy. First message I ever preached at OB. I had the youth group come down and I preached a message. It was entitled, Jesus is my bro, right? And good theology there. It's good theology. We were hanging out. And so I remember that and I just had no problem with Jesus. About five, eight years later, I was introduced to the person of the Holy Spirit at a charismatic church and then I went into a Pentecostal church and had about a 10-year run with that group and Holy Spirit is like your crazy uncle at the party.

You know what I'm saying? You never know where he's going. It was awesome. I've come to find out that the Holy Spirit actually sits a lot. He sits in chills. He's not just always like, hey, what's the Holy Spirit doing next, you know? It's funny, I meet a lot of Pentecostals and charismatics and I was this way myself. It's like the Holy Spirit is always like ready to run to the next party.

You know what I mean? Like there's no, like I don't meet many Pentecostals that are like, hey, you know, the Holy Spirit just wants to sit for seven hours with me by the lake and just contemplate the goodness of God. Like, you know, so finding that balance is key. But I had no problem with Jesus. Loved Jesus. Had no problem with the Holy Spirit. Liked the Holy Spirit.

We had fun. Had a good time. Father, whoo, don't need that. I remember I was challenged. I went to a three-day, right when I became pastor here, I went to a three-day retreat, silent retreat at a friend's house and they had an extra cabana in the back so I was staying there and I started trying to experience the presence of the Father and I had a panic attack.

I was like, whoa, we gotta dive into that. Slowly God, you know, seeking after the Father, God has begun to reveal himself. He's so faithful. I sat yesterday and just began to thank him for his faithfulness. How good he is. How loving he is. How kind he's been to me. How he saved my life so many times. Over and over again. I began to extol and speak it out of how good he is and I realized that as I've come to understand how much he loves me, that I am his beloved, that like John, I can say that I am the beloved of the Father, which some of us have a hard time saying, but it is the truth.

That my proximity, my desire to be near him is based on how I understand him and how he loves me. Proximity matters. You know, here's what's interesting about John. John was known for his proximity. You know, John is never mentioned doing anything cool in the Bible. Like, there's no miracles. John never did a miracle. Now, he was with Peter at the gates when Peter did a miracle.

I have that Barnabas did miracles, Silas did miracles, Paul did a ton of miracles, James, the son of Zebedee, did miracles, Stephen did a miracle, like I said, Barnabas. Even the 70, Jesus sent out 70 randos, let's just send them out. They all did miracles. John, no miracles. So interesting. The only thing John is known for is being a really close friend of Jesus, being loved by Jesus, and being near Jesus a lot.

Like, that's what he's known for. He's an incredible author. Like I said, the first John treatise, the first three chapters of John, I mean, it's just, it's brilliant. Blow your mind. It's about the universe. He just ties everything together. He's such a good author. He's a writer. But, he was there in the first calling of the disciples. He was there when Jesus was crucified.

I have some of the places that he was when he was near. I put in John 19, 26, he was at the cross. We know that he was at the cross. He was in the courtyard. He had gotten John, or Peter, remember it said that he got Peter into the courtyard. He was the one he had the relationship. So he got him in. He was there and he watched Jesus being whipped and beaten and persecuted and spat on.

So he was there. He was at the cross. He was in the courtyard. He was at the tomb. First of all, he was there at the tomb. Remember, he was there and he was, I think it was, was he outrun by Peter? I think, no, I think he outran Peter, I think he wrote. That was the one thing that he did right that I thought was funny. He was there the first morning. He was in the upper room the first time Jesus showed up.

He was on the beach. Every time Jesus showed up, he's just there. Matter of fact, he's so close, he's so responsible that when, when Jesus is on the cross, he looks down and takes a moment and on this Mother's Day, don't forget this. He says to John, will you take care of my mother? How much of a bro do you have to be if Jesus says, when I die, take care of my mother?

And it is believed that he took his mother. They moved to Ephesus. They lived in modern day Turkey in Ephesus and he was with his mom and cared for her until the day he died, or she died. I think the biggest thing that, the biggest cross that John had to bear is he did, he was the only apostle who wasn't killed for Jesus. He wasn't martyred for Jesus. Imagine how bummed that guy must have been.

Jesus died for him. He was just, now he was boiled in oil but he survived. God's like, no, plucking you out of that. Okay, it's believed that he was boiled in oil. I don't know how you get boiled in oil and don't die but it was believed that he was there. He was put in solitary confinement in prison. He was on the Isle of Patmos, like Papillon. I don't know if you remember Papillon.

I'm reading that right now, Papillon, the original. He's a French prisoner. He was put there but he died of natural causes. How bummed is that guy? Even Peter gets to die, crucified upside down. Some are cut in half. Some are skinned alive. Others are cured. You know, we read Thomas. He was with a spear in India. He opened all these churches in India, went there and they took a spear and they killed him but John, not allowed.

What is he known for? He's known for being with Jesus and wanting to be with Jesus. John didn't do anything cool except be with Jesus. He is different. He hits different than any other disciples and I think he's somewhat underrated and the thing that I wanted to say is he was near enough to hear, he was near enough to see, he was near enough to believe.

How near are you to Jesus? How often are you creating those thin places? Just paper thin where the kingdom's on one side and you're on the other and you can just feel it. You can't quite get through but you can just feel it there or is your life just full of distractions and obstacles and stuff and cottages in Zermatt, Switzerland that you're never gonna move to and just stuff and building things at churches and ah.

There's nothing wrong with any of that stuff. We got an ice cream machine. It's awesome. I think we've reached it as a church, right? We have an ice cream. We have a literal, I heard it broke down and so we're trying to fix it. I think Tony's on. Oh, it's working. He's got thumbs up. All right, Tony. Way to go, Tony. We got the ice cream machine working.

It's too hot. All that stuff's so cool. It makes acai. We're gonna have an acai day. It's so cool. But I just wanna be with Jesus. I wanna sit in the rocking chair. My daughter said to me recently because I was with her driving and I said, oh, I'd love to sit by that. I'd love to sit by that lake over there. She goes, do you realize all you talk about anymore is sitting places?

I said, really? She goes, yeah. We saw that rocking chair and you're like, I want that rocking chair for my house. All you ever talk about is sitting places. I think it's kind of, for a guy who's pretty high octane and has been his whole life, I wouldn't mind landing it like John as opposed to Peter. Peter's, I always wanted to be like Peter, Paul, that whole thing.

I don't know, man. That John guy, he's got something about it because he's got peace and proximity to Jesus. There's two verses I wanna give you. Draw near to God, he will draw near to you. Draw near. John 15, for abide in me and I will abide in you. So how do we do that? Well, here's how we do it. I'm gonna give you some practical takeaways. How do you create the thin space, the thin place?

How do you live, how do you lean? One, take an inventory of what you lean on and try to remove some of the things you lean on you don't need. I might even try to start reading the Bible before my coffee's ready. I might. We're gonna see. Here's the first one. Begin your day with him. Start each morning with prayer, scripture, and reading. Last week on Saturday, I was, I thought, ah, I'm gonna do my quiet time.

So I did my quiet time in the morning and as I was there, I felt the Holy Spirit say, hey, there's an emotional trap. You know that emotion you're feeling right now? It's a trap. I felt it was a trap and I need you to pivot off that. I pivoted off it, had an incredible day and I realized how if I would have let that emotion go throughout the day, it would have just messed the whole day up for everybody including myself.

Awesome. Yesterday, two hours just surfing stuff that's never gonna happen in my life. You know what I mean? Didn't put him first. Made a difference. I noticed a complete difference. One of the ways you lean is you begin with him. Pray honestly and often. Be honest with Jesus. You can't hide anything from him. Just tell him how you're feeling. Use scripture as your foundation.

Worship through difficulty. Ask for guidance before you act. Rest in his sovereignty. Like believe in him. That's faith. Connect with Christ-centered community. Practice spiritual rhythms. Told you one of the things we, I've put these in the back and there's nothing magical about them but every Tuesday we have a candle. I wanted to see how long it took so it's been five months.

We light it for an hour of prayer. We pray every Tuesday at noon. You're welcome to come. So we're almost done. So it's about two of these a year we can burn through. So they last about 25 hours each. And I just, sometimes I'll just light that just as a symbol that you are the flame in my life. You're a consuming fire. We got these little, these little holding crosses that are in the bookstore and no, it's not a shard of the cross, the original cross.

It doesn't have any magical power but I just want to hold it because it centers me down that the cross is what matters in my life because it helps me create that thin place and that space. Those are just some of the things that we can do as we continue to seek after him and for him. And then the final thing is just surrender daily. Besides practicing spiritual rhythm, surrender daily.

Keep surrendering. Last night I was just like, Lord, what I need to surrender. He's like, surrender this, surrender that. You're taking too much responsibility there. And then like he said to Peter, it's none of your business. It's none of your business. I got about a whole handful of stuff that's none of my business or I don't belong there. It's like an analogy I used last week.

It was like, God's like, hey, we're done there. We're not going there anymore. Follow me. Amen? Let's stand if you would. We're gonna have the prayer team come forward. We've had a lot of people who are not believers at church and if you are one of them and you want to make a decision today to follow Jesus, come forward. The prayer team will pray for you.

We will lead you to Jesus. We will see you baptized like we saw baptism. We are having, God is on the move in the country. I don't know if you know that. Christianity has had a 12% upswing since 2022. It's being led by young men is what I heard in an interview that I was listening to in some of the statistics. God is moving. The interesting thing is he's not really using the church to do it.

God is just reaching to people and they're seeking out on their own and we're seeing that here as well. If you want to be saved, if you want to know Jesus Christ and have God's spirit within you to see the sin and the things you have done, watch the way come forward, we'll pray for you. Or if you just need prayer for healing or for relations or whatever it is, we want to pray for you as well, come forward.

If you extend your hands, let me bless you today. Lord Jesus, we want to thank you for your people, Lord God. Would you bless them? Would you cover them, Lord God? Especially the mothers that are here. We bless them, Lord God. We bless their relationships, Lord. God, we want to find the thin place. I pray that we can seek out the thin place, that you would meet us in that place and those that are struggling with their relationship with you, that you would let them know that they are your beloved and they would, in proximity, move back to following you, myself included.

I send you out now in the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen. God bless you. Come for prayer, but if you just want ice cream, it's out there too.