MESSAGE FOR SUNDAY, 2025/06/29
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Reading:
Luke 9:51-62
Text:
Luke 9:62 “Jesus replied, ‘No one who puts his hand to the plough and looks back is fit for service in the Kingdom of God.’
Message:
Following Jesus is total commitment. Today’s Gospel reading is a difficult one. It’s confrontational and it doesn’t leave much. If any, wiggle room. “No one who puts a hand to the plough and looks back is fit for the Kingdom of God.” We’re either looking toward the Kingdom or we are not. Jesus’ harshness toward those who expressed a desire to follow him but first had to clean up the details of their lives seem contrary to what we like to see in our gentle Jesus. None of the requests to delay seem unreasonable – burying one’s father, saying farewell to family – these hold their own importance for all of us, but Jesus’ response do seem harsh and deliberately so. The act of following Jesus is never easy. Jesus recognizes and holds before us the tension in which we live. On the one hand we say to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.” On the other hand we say to him, “But first let me go and …” You probably know what that’s like.
When have you experienced that tension? When has it felt like you were being pulled in two directions, the way of Jesus and some other way? In what ways have you said, “But first let me go and…?”
I will follow you but..”
“Pastor Dale Barrick got so tired of hearing excuses from his people why they don’t attend church, that he came up with this novel idea, A NO EXCUSE SUNDAY.
It said:
There will be:
• Cots in church for those who like to sleep in
• Blankets for those who find the sanctuary too cold.
• Fans for those who find the sanctuary too warm.
• Sand for those who prefer the beach
• Television sets for persons who prefer services on the screen.
• Poinsettias and lilies for those accustomed to entering the church only on Christmas and Easter.
• Stop watches for those who want to go in exactly an hour and a whistle to stop the service.
• Putting greens for those who enjoy golf.
• Masks to hide the faces of those who have been gone for so long they are embarrassed or feel funny coming back.
• Money for those who don’t want a financial commitment but feel funny not putting anything in the offertory plate.
• Meals to carry out
• Exercise bikes
We look at the professional athletes, we see their total dedication for their health and strength in their practicing and refining their skills in working harder to get stronger. Their’s is a total commitment. We can see in their commitment to their physical performance as a picture of what our spiritual dedication to our Savior ought to be. But before we talk about ourselves we do well to think and talk about Jesus first. In our Gospel for this morning, we’re approaching the latter part of Jesus’ ministry. The time for him to die outside of Jerusalem had come. And yet, we don’t see him shrinking from this or running away from it. Instead we’re told Jesus was determined to go to Jerusalem. Literally Luke says that Jesus “set his face to go to Jerusalem.” He locked his gaze on what was ahead. And even though it meant horrendous suffering and death for him, he was determined to see it through. Nothing could veer him off this path. He was determined to see it through. Nothing could veer him off this path. He was totally committed to this work.
But why? Why does Jesus have this total commitment to something that would be so brutally painful, that would bring such unimaginable suffering? In short, it is God’s love for us – love that we do not deserve. That love is what makes Jesus determined to go to Jerusalem. Our sins meant eternal ruin for us and God is totally committed to saving us.
We are good at making excuses aren’t we? Jesus doesn’t want our excuses but our faithfulness, our commitment to follow Him in all the areas of our life, not just church on Sundays. Jesus calls us to a committed way of life which places Him first and everything else second. A faithfulness which is reflected in all that we say, in all that we do in all that we are. Jesus wants us to set our priorities on the most important areas of life. Those are loving the Lord your God with all of your mind, with all of your soul, with all of your heart and to love your neighbor as yourself. When this comes first, then everything will fall into place. This commitment takes dedication, it takes faithfulness, it takes a mind set to follow through. It is not easy, however, in the long run it will be rewarding as you and I spend eternity with the Lord. And in the short run living in this commitment will give meaning and purpose, comfort and strength, guidance and courage as you and I walk the faith journey.
A pastor tells the following: “Joel goes out and plays with the neighbor kids, some of whom have already at the age 6, learned every profane word there is. Joel has learned that as a Christian there are better ways of dealing with negative feelings than using profanity. One day a friend was starting to use those words when I overheard Joel say: “Jason, God doesn’t like that kind of talk. That’s not what your tongue is for, why do you talk like that? In the next moment, Joel learned a very difficult lesson. The boys started making fun of him and then they pushed over his bike. He came running into the house crying and saying, ‘They said I’m dumb and that you don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Joel learned at a young age that this committed life is not easy. He learned if one lives each day committed to the Lord, and is willing to stand up against the world, it will be tough, it will not be easy. Christ did not say our lives would be easy as he has sent us out into the world to be lights, to bear witness to his glory. Many I am afraid are not like Joel. They are not willing to stand up for their Christian convictions in this world.
They are like the tubas in the following. “A marching band of a small college wanted to play for homecoming and impress the crowd. But they didn’t have a big enough band. So they recruited some students who would march along even though they couldn’t play. They could carry the tubas. And they looked very impressive, great big shining horns. As they came marching down the street a little boy who was watching intently said, ‘Momma there’s nothing coming out of those big things.'”
Many Christians, I am afraid, are like that, all show but nothing coming out. They enjoy saying they belong to such and such a church, but when the rubber hits the road they are the first ones to say and do nothing. They enjoy the great feeling of Sunday as they worship in church, but come Monday you wouldn’t know where they had been on Sunday. Jesus calls us to a committed life each day. Each minute of life we are called to be a shining example in this world of darkness. Not only when it is convenient but when it isn’t. Not only when we feel good about our witness, but when it is difficult. Jesus is calling us to such a commitment, no promises of an easy life, no promises of an uneventful walk with him. All he promises is his companionship and the promise of eternity in the golden rooms prepared by Him. As you and I surrender our lives, our property, ourselves to him, we will find the way easier, with few burdens weighing us down.
We see that when Jesus calls the two people to follow him the one says but first let me go to bury my father now there is nothing wrong with that and then the other says first let me go and say goodbye. There also is nothing wrong with that. The problem with both these is that the order is the wrong way round. We tend to find lots of excuses for putting God and Christ second or third or somewhere else in our list of priorities in our lives. We may have decided to follow Christ in our lives but then we get caught up in everyday living, family and friends and business and these may push Christ aside and our desire to fully follow Christ. When we put Christ first then all things will fall in their rightful place. For example when we put Christ first in our marriages and relationships they will all find fulfilment.
It’s easy and simple to follow Jesus, in principle. Love your neighbor as yourself, love your enemy, welcome the stranger, visit the sick and imprisoned, feed the hungry, clothe the naked, give the thirsty something to drink, turn the other cheek, forgive not just seven times but seventy times seven. These are values Jesus holds. That’s where Jesus is going. That’s the direction in which he has set his face. That’s the road to Jerusalem and it sounds good. Most of us probably agree with those values. It’s the road we too have chosen to travel, in principle.
But it’s so much harder and messier to follow Jesus in life than in principle. I suspect we are all in favor of love, hospitality, forgiveness, and nonviolence until we meet the unlovable, the stranger who scares us, the unforgivable act, the one who throws the first punch. Then it’s a different story and that story usually begins with, “But first…”
Jesus, however, puts no qualifications, limitations, or exceptions on where he is going, who is included, or what he is offering. He doesn’t seem to care who we are, where we are from, or what we have done or left undone. For him there is no why, no conditions, attached to love, hospitality, forgiveness, or giving. He does not allow for a “but first” in his life or the lives of his followers.
“But first” is the way we put conditions on the unconditional.
• Yes, I will love the other but first let me go and see who the other is, whether she or he is deserving of love, whether I like him or her, whether he or she agrees with and is agreeable to me.
• Yes, I will open my door to, and welcome the stranger but first let me go and see who’s knocking, how different he or she is from me, what she or he wants, what I am risking.
• Yes, I will forgive another but first let me go and see if she or he has acknowledged her or his wrongdoing, is sorry for what they did, and has promised to change.
• Yes, I will give to and care for another but first let me go and see why I should, what it will cost me, and what’s in it for me.
We need to turn and lead with our hearts that deep heart that loves the unlovable, forgives the unforgivable, welcomes the stranger and gives without seeking a payback or even a thank you. This is a difficult gospel. I wish I could resolve this in some neat and simple way, as much for myself as for you, but I can’t. It’s not about resolving the gospel. It’s about resolving ourselves, resolving our heart. That resolution is not a simple or one time decision. It’s a way of being in this world, a way of relating to others, a direction for our life. It’s a choice we make every day. It’s the road to Jerusalem. Just think how our world would look like if we were to put Christ first and love, give, forgive and welcome each other?
Conclusion
The common thread in all of these people seems not to be total rejection of Jesus but a wavering commitment. Other things, to certain degrees, were taking priority over Jesus in their lives. And Jesus makes clear that he and his mission to save are too important to have anything less than total commitment to him. How’s your commitment to following Jesus? Is it total and complete? Or does it have cracks? Are there things that, at times, are more important to you than Jesus? Jesus expects the same dedication to him that he has for me, but does he find it? Hardly. When my frustration with other things leaks out and negatively impacts my family, I’m committed to my frustration or anger, not Jesus. When my laziness leads me to prioritize leisure over responsibility, I’m committed to recreation, not Jesus. When I let my focus and energy be on money, I’m committed to my greed, not Jesus.
When we face challenges to following Jesus, to living our lives as he wants, to prioritizing time with him in his Word, Jesus is there to forgive those stumbles as well. Yes, following Jesus calls on us to have total commitment to him. But for every time that we fall short of that total commitment, Jesus’ forgiveness removes those stumbles, and we face a new hour or day or week or year to follow our Savior with our whole life. You and I are not rejected by our Savior because we’ve had poor commitment today, this week, this month, this past year, or even the past decade. Our lack of commitment to Jesus is completely solved by Jesus’ total commitment to us. And then, in turn, his total commitment to us is what produces our total commitment to him.
In the end, it all comes back to relationships … what and who will become the top priorities in our lives. Everything in our lives should flow out of the essential relationship we hold with the Lord who gave us life, who gave his own life for ours, and who daily gives us the grace to fulfill our lives for the sake of God and others. Yes, that would include our families and our neighbors. Our ability to really be there for others begins with our willingness to let Christ be first in our lives. Everything – every need, every hope, every desire, every intent and loving connection we have in our lives flows from the essential relationship we hold with Christ. And though we know it is not easy, though we know it takes a lifetime of fits and starts, we also know that when we put Jesus first in our lives, we have the strength, power and grace to fulfill all the promise God sees in us. Life and living may not get easier but it will certainly be more satisfying.
MESSAGE FOR SUNDAY, 2025/06/22
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Reading:
Luke 7:1-10
Text:
Luke 7:9 “when Jesus heard this, he was amazed at him and turning to the crowd following him, he said, “I tell you I have not found such great faith even in Israel.”
Message:
After Jesus had finished the Sermon on the Plain in Luke chapter 6 Jesus went to Capernaum, the base from which he operated when He was in Galilee. This is where Jesus spent much of his time and where He performed many of His miracles. This little city in Galilee is a hot spot for healings.
Jesus heals a man of an unclean demon in the Capernaum synagogue (4:31 – 37). Jesus heals Simon’s mother-in-law of a “higher fever” (4:38-39) at Simon’s house in Capernaum. And “all those who had any who were sick with various kinds of diseases brought them to him; and he laid his hands on each of them and cured them..” (4:40-41). Guess where this happened? Capernaum. So when we are told that Jesus entered Capernaum, we should realize what is about to happen. More miracles. The centurion had heard about this man Jesus, who was going around doing healings and being a blessing to people and speaking words of divine wisdom as a man sent from God. And Jesus was right there in Capernaum. So the centurion sends some messengers to Jesus, to bring him his request to come and heal his servant. But why doesn’t the centurion go himself? Why does he relay the request through messengers? The messengers he sends are elders of the Jews, leaders of the local synagogue. But the man making the request is a centurion, a Roman centurion, and thus a Gentile, a non-Jew. It seems the centurion was respecting Jesus’ Jewishness, to not have to deal directly and publicly with a Gentile. So he sends these Jewish elders in his place.
In our passage, it is not a miracle that Jesus performs a miracle. We’re in Capernaum. The centurion expects Jesus to do that after he “heard about Jesus.” That’s why he sends Jewish elders to ask him to come and heal his slave. And what does Jesus seemingly do, what is implied without Jesus even speaking a healing word as the centurion requested? The slave is found in “good health”. Healing occurs. Another miracle in Capernaum as expected.
The story concerns the slave of a centurion. A centurion was an army officer with, as his rank indicates, one hundred men under him. He was presumably attached to the Roman garrison in the town or one of Herod Antipas’ forces. The Roman military, in general, had a reputation for cruelty and brutality. However, those mentioned in the Gospel do not appear in a bad light. This is a good example of the danger of stereotyping any group of people – something we are all very easily prone to do.
He was not necessarily a Roman, but he was certainly not a Jew. He was a gentile outsider. His slave, who was very dear to him, had fallen seriously ill. This, in turn, implies he treated his slave well. Undoubtedly, he had heard the stories of what Jesus had done by way of healing and wondered if his slave could also be helped. However, as an outsider he did not dare to approach Jesus personally. He sent a delegation consisting of Jewish town elders. These are not the ‘elders’ mentioned during Jesus’ passion, but simply respected members of the local Jewish community.
They apparently were only too willing to help because they said he was very friendly to the Jews and had even built a synagogue for them.
The slave was ill and close to death. One who was already isolated by his lower location on the social strata ladder. Now even more isolated because of his sickness. Even during his illness this slave is on the fringe at the mercy of others especially those in power like the centurion. Centurions were Roman Army officers who generally commanded 100 soldiers. Most of them were Gentiles, though sometimes they were half-Jews –Samaritans, so the Jewish people tended to despise centurions. Not only were they symbolic of Roman rule, they often abused their power and took unjust liberties. But such was not the case with this centurion. We get a glimpse of his character in Luke 7:2, where we read that he had a servant who was dear to him. The word dear literally means he was held in high honor or value. Such compassion on a servant was unheard of at the time of Jesus. But this centurion cared for his servant. And this dear servant became sick. When the text says he was sick, the Greek literally says he was having it bad. This servant had it bad. So the centurion loved his servant and hated to see him in such distress and agony so having heard that Jesus is in town he sends people from the local Jewish community to ask Jesus to heal his servant.
I Lets firstly look at this centurion
We see the remarkable concern and care that this powerful and wealthy man had for his slave, a servant who had no social standing in the community. This man was concerned about the well-being of his slave that he sent a message to Jesus to heal his slave. This man cared deeply about those who were under his command all the way down to the slave working for him in his house.
To demonstrate and manifest that concern he sent a message to Jesus begging for Jesus’ help. What a challenge for us not to look down on others but to reach out and care for each other no matter the status they hold.
II The way the people approached Jesus their faith.
They pleaded his case, “He is worthy to have you do this for him, for he loves our nation and he is the one who built our synagogue. Now maybe these Jewish elders do not exactly have their theology straight. We do not come to God with our requests for help and mercy based on how “worthy” we are. If we did, we’d be in a lot of trouble. For we are not worthy, truly. ´We are neither worthy of the things for which we pray, nor have we deserved them, but we ask that He would give them all to us by grace, for we daily sin much and surely deserve nothing but punishment.” That is so. God does not answer our prayers because we are “worthy”, but rather because he is gracious.
III The way the centurion approaches Jesus
Jesus went with the centurion’s messengers and when they were not far from the house the centurion sent friends to Him saying that it was not necessary for Jesus to come personally. As a friend of Jesus he knew that a devout Jew and especially a rabbi could not enter the house of a gentile. He did not want to be a source of embarrassment for Jesus. The centurion said, “Lord, do not trouble yourself for I am unworthy that you should enter under my roof”. This is the second thing I love about the centurion. Everybody else was telling Jesus “You have got to go and help this man. You have to heal his servant because he is a man who deserves your help.
In contrast to what the Jewish elders said when they were pleading his case and said, “He is worthy”- in contrast to that, the centurion says about himself. “I am not worthy.” And this is real humility. This is good. “God gives grace to the humble but resists the proud.” This Roman centurion, as powerful a man as he was in the worldly realm – he recognizes his own unworthiness before God. “Lord, do not trouble yourself, for I am not worthy to have you come under my roof. Therefore I did not presume to come to you. But say the word, and let my servant be healed.” Would that we all would have the humble approach of the centurion! To recognize our own unworthiness. And yet at the same time to recognize the authority of Jesus, and the compassion of Jesus, to accomplish the mercy we seek from him. The authority and compassion of Jesus to forgive sins and to heal in body and soul. And that Jesus can do this with a word. This is true humility and true faith. The humility of the centurion as he approached Jesus. Many Jews considered themselves defiled if they entered a Gentile’s home. He did not know that Jesus was not concerned about such things. But what it reveals is that this centurion was more concerned about others than he was himself. He thought of others first. He cared for his servant, and now he cares for the cultural and personal inhibitions Jesus might have.
First, he believed in his own lack of merit. He was courteous. He was humble. Yes, he was a good man. Yes, he loved the Jews. Yes, he built a synagogue for them. But that doesn’t mean he deserves anything from God, or from Jesus Christ. He knew he was unworthy to go meet Jesus, and he knew he was unworthy to have Jesus come meet him. He was unworthy. Most people do not believe this. Most people think they do deserve favors from God. Most people think they are pretty good people, and God owes them something. It is much harder to believe that all we have and all we are given is simply and only by the grace of God. But that is the first thing the centurion believed.
IV The Authority of Christ’s Word
The centurion recognized the very special authority that Jesus had an authority in some respects not unlike his own as an army officer. “I say to one ‘Go’, and he goes and to another ‘come’ and he comes and to my slave, ‘Do this’ and the slave does it.
When we talk about Jesus, we are talking about the One who is God incarnate. He has authority over heaven and earth, and the centurion recognized that. He said: “I understand authority. I’m a man who is under authority. I’m a man who has authority over others. I say ‘Go’, and they go, ‘Come’, and they come, ‘Do this’, and they do it. I understand, Christ, that You have authority You have authority over life. You have authority over death. You don’t have to be in the room. Just say the word.”
It is the authority of Christs’ Word to do what it says, that is what the centurion understands about Jesus. He compares it to his military experience and the authority of his own word as an officer: “For I too am a man set under authority, with soldiers under me: and I say to one, ‘Go’, and he goes; and another, ‘Come.’ And he comes; and to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.”
God carries this life-giving power. And that is the basis for the centurion’s appeal and the centurion’s confidence that Jesus can heal his servant with just a word. This insight into Jesus’ mission – that Jesus was sent from his Father in heaven and authorized to do these great and mighty works – this is what so impresses Jesus and causes him to marvel: “when Jesus heard these things, he marveled at him, and turning to the crowd that followed him, said, ‘I tell you, not even in Israel have I found such faith.'”
The centurion believed in the power of Jesus. He was confident in Christ. He believed in the authority of Jesus. He likened Jesus to military commanders. He knew that what Jesus commanded would be done. He knew that the words of Jesus were sufficient to accomplish the healing. Again, most people do not believe this either. We have promises in Scripture that Christ will make us more and more like Himself. He tells us that He will never leave us nor forsake us. He tells us that He will provide for all our needs. He tells us that He has given us everything we need for life and Godliness. He tells us that getting the Word of God into our lives will wash us and transform us into His likeness. His Word is sufficient. Most people don’t really believe these things. And I’ll be the first to admit that some of these are hard truths to believe. But the centurion showed great faith because he believed in the power and authority of Jesus to do exactly what He said He would do. The centurion believed that Christ’s word was sufficient.
This is what this centurion does. Yes, he is confident, brash and bold. But he is confident in Christ. He is confident in the word of Jesus. He is confident that Jesus can heal. This confidence springs from something he comprehends about Jesus and the nature of commands. This is what we learn in Luke 7:8. The centurion believed in the ability of Jesus to heal from a distance. He believed Jesus did not have to be physically present with the dying servant to heal him. Jesus did not have to wave his arms, or say any special words, or make any special anointing. Do you want to please God? Do you want to do great things for God? Do you want God to do great things through you? It’s not enough to just have faith. Faith by itself does nothing. Faith must be based on the promises of God.
Conclusion
Jesus is so shocked at the man’s faith, he says to the crowd, “I say to you, I have not found such great faith, not even in Israel!” It’s like He is saying, “Wow! Now that is faith!”
And so this marvelous faith of the centurion is exemplary for us. We too approach the Lord in humility, as unworthy, empty-handed beggars. No merit of our own we claim. But we do approach in faith, knowing the Lord to be a gracious and merciful Lord, throwing ourselves on his mercy. And we come confident in faith, the faith that Jesus’ authoritative word is powerful to do what it says.
Friends, Jesus loves you no less than he loved that centurion or the centurion’s servant. Take a moment to ponder that and to take in what Jesus is doing here today. Jesus is speaking his life-giving word to you here today. Authoritative word, marvelous faith. It is Christ’s own authoritative word that calls forth this marvelous faith. Marvel at what Jesus is doing here today, by means of his mighty word: He is giving you forgiveness, life, and salvation, and healing you in body and soul for eternity. And that is simply marvelous!
MESSAGE FOR SUNDAY, 2025/06/15
Please note that there are no longer any YouTube messages available
Reading:
John 16:12-15
Text:
John 16:13-15 “But when He, the Spirit of truth comes He will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on His own; He will speak only what He hears and He will tell you what is yet to come. He will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you. All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will take from what is mine and make it known to you.”
Message:
Looking at today’s gospel, Jesus speaks of God the Holy Trinity in a rather interesting way. Jesus speaks of the unity, the oneness of God in three persons when he says: “All that the Father has is mine. For this reason I said that he – i.e. the Holy Spirit – will take what is mine and declare it to you.” Over the centuries there have been different ways of explaining the unity, the oneness of the three persons of the Holy Trinity. The basic teaching of the Trinity is baffling to human reason: there is only one God but God has three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Each of those persons is wholly and completely God not 1/3 God but still there is only one God. We know 1+1+1 = 3 but when it comes to God 1+1+1 = 1
We cannot understand or comprehend the “how” of the Triune God. But even if we can’t understand how God can be triune, Jesus in our Gospel for this morning comforts us with the what of the Triune God, namely, what the Triune God does for us, each person being united for our eternal good. There are not three Gods in the one Trinity or each “person” of the Trinity is not one-third of the one God. The terms for the Trinity, Father, Son, and Spirit, are three different titles for the one God, describing a functional relationship. Just as the same person is father, husband, son, and brother, depending upon who is at the other end of these relational terms, so the same and one God is behind these three titles. Furthermore, each of these titles have subtitles. The Father is also, in various contexts, called Creator, Sustainer, Most High, even Rock, Fortress, etc. The Son is also called Son of Man, Messiah, Redeemer, Savior, etc. The Spirit is also called the Paraclete, Spirit of Truth, even the Breath of God. So, the three terms that encompass and express the Trinity are different titles for the one God.
He is one God, but there are three parts to Him, but He’s always all of the parts all of the time. There’s God the Father, who is the creator of all things, and provides for us and cares for us. Then, there’s Jesus the Son. Jesus is God in human form, the image of the God we don’t see with our eyes. Jesus is God on Earth, but while he was on Earth, He was still God (that’s the kind of confusing part!) Then there’s the Holy Spirit. Sometimes He is a little tougher to describe, but the Holy Spirit is God’s presence with us, working to continue God’s work and helping us to believe in Him. All of these existed from the beginning, and always will be together.
When we talk about the mystery of the Trinity of being three in one, I think about a beautiful illustration when a man can be a son, a brother, a husband or father. It is three different things, it just depends on where the man is at the time. The Trinity is God. All three persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit are the same but different at the same time. Here is a simple example of how the Trinity works. God loves us and he is hurt when we turn away from him through sin. Jesus came to restore our relationship with God by paying the price for our sins. The Holy Spirit reminds us of everything Jesus and God said and did and guides us on our daily walk of faith. The Holy Spirit lets us know that we are loved and that we can experience God’s love in an immediate, personal and transforming way.
On this Holy Trinity Sunday, we need to look at the work of God, the creator in our lives, the work of Jesus as redeemer in our lives, and the work of the Holy Spirit who brings God’s presence, who brings God himself into our lives. We are quite familiar with the work of the Holy Spirit who brings God’s presence, who brings God himself into our lives. We are quite familiar with the work of God the creator, and Jesus the redeemer in our lives. We look all around us, and we are caught up in God’s creating work. God is still creating, still molding, still forming his creation. As we discover more and more about the workings of this world, God is unfolding to us more and more of his creative power. The more we discover, the more we believe and trust in a creative force behind the wonders of creation. And we have no difficulty in understanding, and trusting in the saving work of Jesus. Sometimes, we get so engrossed in talking about Jesus and his redeeming efforts in our lives, that we forget about the creator, and the spirit who are also at work.
The Holy Spirit opens our eyes and minds to who Jesus really is. The Holy Spirit reminds us that Jesus is both Son of God and God Himself in the flesh. The Spirit makes Jesus, now hidden presence manifest by recalling for us and interpreting for us the very words and deeds of Jesus during His earthly lifetime. The Spirit is both the preaching, the wisdom and the prompting, the Power of Jesus who is God. The Spirit interprets what Jesus said and did in the historical past for the present generation and situation, as the living and continuing presence of Jesus.
The Trinity is the basis for all human relations!!
But there is another truth to be gained this day, one that originates in the language of Jesus. “When the Spirit of truth comes, he will not speak on his own, but will speak whatever he hears, because he will take what is mine and declare it to you. For all that the Father has is mine.” In another place in John’s Gospel, we hear Jesus declare, “Do you know that the Father is in me and I in the Father?” Still elsewhere he prays that his disciples may be one “even as the Father and I are one.” This is not the language of form and function; no, this is the language of relationship, the language of mutual devotion. No, what we see in the Trinity is a dance of Persons who are mutually affirming, mutually caring. For the very essence of God is relationship, community, unconditional love.
All three members exist in perfect love and harmony, but the Holy Spirit submits to both the Son and the Father and the Son submits to the Father. They submit to each other but they are equal.
We can see this unity in the Trinity most clearly in God’s plan of salvation. If we go back to the Garden of Eden, the Triune God made mankind in his own image,, that is, that mankind was in perfect harmony with God. But that harmony quickly evaporates when Adam and Eve sin. But the Father’s love for his creation cannot deal with his people being sent to hell for their rebellion. So the Father, drawing on the truth of his love for us but also on his justice, tasks his Son with a mission: he is to go to earth, take on our human flesh, live, suffer, and die in our place to save us. We were lost in our sins and by following his Father’s will, Jesus released us from that sin by paying the price for every sin ever committed.
The problem is that without faith to believe these things, it doesn’t benefit us in the least. If we do not know what Jesus has done, we are still lost in our sins. And so for this reason, God needed to teach us his truth. So the Holy Spirit comes and points to the love of the Father that sent the Son that we would have the free gift of eternal life. Without the Father, the Son does not come and the Holy Spirit has no good news to teach and share. Without the Son, the Father’s love goes unfulfilled and the Holy Spirit, again, has nothing to teach us that would be of any good. And without the Holy Spirit’s gifts of God’s Word and the faith to believe all of these things, neither the Father’s love nor the Son’s sacrifice matters at all for us. Without the complete unity of the Triune God we are lost in our sins forever in hell. But because there is that unity, because they are all working together, we are no longer condemned. By the Holy Spirit’s work we have God’s Word, taken from the Father and the Son preserved for us in the Bible. By his work we also have the faith that trusts that what Jesus did for us actually removes our sins and gives us the free gift of eternal life in heaven. The Father’s love executed his plan to save us in his Son’s life and death, taught to us by the Holy Spirit.
Conclusion
I love a story about a courthouse in Minnesota in the USA that has a clock tower on top of it. The clock has four sides so no matter from which side you can see the clock. And someone said there are three faces that tell us something about God of the universe: God who creates, God who is powerful. God the Son Jesus who shows us the love of God, the saving, redeeming quality of God the Spirit shows us the God who is with us all through our lives. God the Spirit who brings the Son into our very souls, hearts and minds. We may not be able to explain the how’s of the Triune God, but we know the what’s and the why’s: God loves us. We are freed from the debt we owed to God. We are rescued from hell. We will be with our Triune God face-to-face in eternal life, just as he originally intended for us to be. Thank you, Father, Son, and Spirit, for these and so many other blessings! Amen
The Trinity is not a riddle to solve, but a rhythm to live. God is a community of love – and we are invited to reflect that love in our world.
MESSAGE FOR SUNDAY, 2025/06/08
Please note that there are no longer any YouTube messages available
Reading:
Acts 2:1-21
Text:
Acts 2:1-4 “When the day of Pentecost came they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.”
Message:
Remember those times when you watched teams play against each other and the cheer leaders of the different teams shout at each other: “We’ve got spirit, yes we do. We’ve got spirit, how about you?” Then the other team’s cheerleaders shout: “We’ve got spirit, yes we do. We’ve got spirit, how about you?” So the two opposing sides would take turns giving the cheer back and forth hoping their fans were louder. Most of us believe in Jesus Christ and much of what goes along with Him but when it comes to speaking about Pentecost and the Holy Spirit we do not speak so boldly.
Now for the most part, we are familiar with the Holy Spirit’s name, and we know that the Holy Spirit is the Third Person of the Trinity. But can we confidently say, “We’ve got spirit, yes we do! We’ve got spirit, how about you? What do we think of when we think of Pentecost? Many of us think of fire and wind and the onslaught of a violent storm. We think of speaking in tongues and that unusual experience of ‘foreigners’ hearing and understanding the ‘noble things of God’ without the assistance of an interpreter.
On Pentecost Sunday we focus on biblical stories in which God’s Spirit, God’s presence with us, encounters ordinary humans and wonderful and unexpected things begin to happen. On the day of Pentecost, the first Christians were huddled together in a room praying. And all of a sudden they heard the sound of a rushing wind. And they saw tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. And the next thing they knew they were out in the streets proclaiming the good news in languages they had never learned. Of course, most Christian people are familiar with the story of Pentecost that we find in Acts, chapter 2, written by Luke, where the symbols of wind and fire represent God’s presence in powerful and dramatic ways to the disciples of Jesus, who engage a diverse group of spiritual pilgrims, who speak a variety of different languages from various parts of the Roman Empire and who have made their way to Jerusalem to celebrate the festival of Pentecost. These same pilgrims are enabled by the descent of lively, creative, unpredictable and uncontrollable Spirit to comprehend a universally understood language. It’s a reversal of the story of the Tower of Babel that we find in Genesis, chapter 11 where the narrator says, “The Lord confused the language of all the earth.”
So Luke is saying in his story that Pentecost is the beginning of the reunification of humanity, the creation of a new kind of community in the church. And a once timid, frightened, and discouraged group of Jesus’s followers, his disciples, become forceful, confident, and unified advocates for their experience of the risen Christ, and a new faith movement, and community, is born.
Pentecost is the day the Holy Spirit came in fire. And throughout the Scriptures, Fire is a sign of the presence of God. God spoke to Moses through a bush that was on Fire. God led his people through the desert in a pillar of Fire. When God gave the Ten Commandments, Mount Sinai was on fire. When Solomon’s temple was dedicated, the presence of God was manifested in fire. When Elijah faced the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel, the Lord consumed his offering in Fire. When John the Baptist came preaching in the desert, he said, “The One who comes after me will baptize with the Holy Spirit and with Fire.” Fire is a sign of the presence of God. When the Holy Spirit came in fire, that was the birthday of the church. The church is a movement born in Fire.
Thinking of this I cannot help but think of those times when from time to time we lose our enthusiasm, feeling burnt out or getting to a place in life where the thrill is gone, we just don’t care. How we started a new job with enthusiasm and excitement and found ourselves on an emotional high. But then it wore off as time went on, we got caught in a routine. In our marriages the emotions grow cold and we just go through the motions. Life loses all its fun, it is just a dreary journey.
So setbacks, disappointments and failures let you down and betray your confidence in our lives, causing us to lose our fire. Another way we lose heart is that our lives are filled with all the clutter. So we hear so many conflicting views that we don’t know what to believe, we sit on the fence. At other times we simply lose interest and don’t know why. It is not uncommon for the fire within us to grow cold.
On this Pentecost Sunday let us focus on our faith and our walk with God. When you lose your zeal for the Lord; when God seems distant and far away; when scripture no longer speaks to you as it once did; when you find it hard to pray, what can you do to get back on track? The reality is that the Holy Spirit moved the disciples from sadness to joy and from survival to renewal. When the Spirit came upon the disciples they were accused of being drunk. But Peter said no they are not drunk, they have been filled with a new wine. The new wine is the power of God to change and transform our lives. At Pentecost a new Spirit, the Holy Spirit fills us with God’s love, God’s mercy, God’s grace, and God’s generosity. God’s beauty and God’s deeds of power in our lives. The reality is that the Holy Spirit empowered Jesus’ followers at Pentecost. So what does Pentecost really mean?
Have you ever received a gift that caught you so completely by surprise that you were left speechless? I mean the kind of gift that is completely undeserved, unexpected, and unimaginable. It wasn’t just an object or an action that you received. It was a grace that took you to a place of sober drunkenness. You were dizzy with love, joy, and gratitude and at the same time completely grounded and clearheaded about the significance and meaning of the gift. That was another Pentecost and the wind of God’s generosity had blown through and somehow changed both you and the giver.
I Pentecost means that Jesus is forever present
The Ascension has occurred and Jesus has gone. The followers of Jesus are together on this first Pentecost and they have no clues as to how to carry out Jesus’ last directive “to be His witnesses to the end of the earth”. All of a sudden he’s present with them. Mysterious and powerful, He’s alive and near. The Holy Spirit comes. The same God who moved and worked through the earthly Jesus continues to move and work in the present.
Most of the time we give our attention and interest to what happened at Pentecost. We focus on “a sound like the rush of a violent wind filling the house;” divided tongues of fire resting on each disciple; and their speaking in other languages. Sometimes the story is so big and the images so fantastical that it’s difficult to make sense of and find Pentecost in our lives. But today let us focus more on our experience of Pentecost. Have you had “a sound like the rush of a violent wind” from heaven fill your house? No, but I am sure that we have felt the winds of change blowing in your life. Sometimes we are amazed by what has happened in your life and mine.
Has a divided tongue of fire ever rested on you? No, but we have felt the fire in us when we were driven by a new passion that connected us to something larger than beyond ourselves. Have you felt that fire burning inside of you? Have you ever spoken or understood a foreign language? There are times that we need to change the voices we listen to within and outside us. We need to find new ways to communicate with others. The change of language we speak and listen to changes how we see, think and understand the world.
Pentecost means that God is empowering the church to reach out “to offer them Christ”. At Pentecost, the Holy Spirit shoves the church from the safety of locked doors in the Upper Room into the struggles and realities of the world’s needs and meaninglessness without Christ. Pentecost means that there are certain languages that everybody understands! One of the real miracles of Pentecost was not so much charismatic speaking but charismatic listening. The listeners heard about “God’s deeds of power” in their own multiple tongues or languages. Thus, Pentecost was a powerful miracle of hearing as well as speaking. The Gospel message should also address the people where they actually live. Then, it should speak to them in languages they can truly understand and move them to ask the question, “What does this mean?”
We stand in awe the way God’s Spirit is moving. The Wind of God, the Breath of God is breathing new life and fire into me and you that we may in His power spread the Word of God to all people. That’s the power of Pentecost. Pentecost is not about only the Spirit’s movement. It is also about our movement in this time and place. It is an invitation to act and do something. Christianity could not have survived for long on the strength of its historical memories of Jesus of Nazareth. Explaining why prayer was so difficult for her, a woman stammered, “It’s just that Jesus seems so long ago and so far away.”
It is simply astonishing that Jesus has not been forgotten long ago. As you recall, He lived a very short time in a backward part of the world. He wrote no books and left no pictures. He shied away from all publicity. Even after his miracles, He would whisper, “Don’t tell anybody.” He died on a lonely hillside between two thieves, and even His resurrection occurred rather quietly. Thus, every day Jesus is ignored or denied or overlooked by countless numbers. So why has He not been forgotten? There is simply no other explanation than the activity of God through the Holy Spirit. What happened back then 2 000 years ago is made contemporary by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit makes the manger, the cross and the empty tomb all relevant to us today.
II The Church community is empowered Pentecost
On Pentecost we see the empowerment in the community “coming together” Acts 2:1 “when the day of Pentecost had come they were all together in one place”. They were all in one place. In Luke 24:49 Jesus invited His followers “to stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.” It is almost as if being together in the context of community, ready and expectant, provides the way for the coming of the Holy Spirit. At any rate, Pentecost was a communal experience, and it was only because they were together that “all of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability. Stay connected. It’s hard to be a recluse and maintain a healthy enthusiasm for living. Most people who withdraw from community become inwardly focused and chronically depressed. There’s a certain stimulation about getting out and about. Meeting new people piques our interest. Seeing old friends gives us affirmation and support.
If you take a coal out of a fire it quickly grows cold while the other coals keep each other warm. As Christians we are called into the community, we are family.
While each of us has his/her own destiny to fulfill, God calls us to live together, work together and worship together in community to the glory of His name. As we do, the spark of faith within us is rekindled and spread to warm and enlighten others. Pentecost means that God is empowering the church to reach out “to offer them Christ”. At Pentecost, the Holy Spirit shoves the church from the safety of locked doors in the Upper Room into the struggles and realities of the world’s needs and meaninglessness without Christ. But on the day of Pentecost, it was Peter on fire, empowered by the Holy Spirit to be a courageous witness. And we are told that what happened to Peter happened to all the disciples. And, indeed, it can happen to us. Pentecost means that the church community is empowered.
Conclusion
Are you feeling stuck and not growing or changing or you are not getting anywhere. I love what someone said to someone who was struggling. “The wind of God is always blowing but you have to put up your sail, “The fresh wind of God is blowing, put up your sail today. How brightly does God’s fire burn? within you?
Just as God poured out his Spirit on the disciples on the day of Pentecost, God comes to us in wind and flames. Yet, from time to time, the fire grows cold. When it does, we need to break the cycle and get out of the rut we’re in; go back to the basics of Bible study, prayer and service; and stay connected and work together. Pentecost is all around us. It fills us. Pentecost is not just an event in the history of the Church. It is that, an event, but it is also a grace that precedes, fills, and follows the event. The grace of Pentecost transcends time, space, and the circumstances of our lives. The Spirit of God is continually being poured into our lives, with the new wine of Christ’s life. Pentecost is a gift and a grace to be lived. Living under the influence; that’s what Pentecost is about.
Let us pray:
“Breathe on me, breath of God;
Fill me with life anew,
That I may love what Thou dost love,
And do what Thou wouldst do.
Breathe on me, breath of God,
Till I am wholly Thine,
Till all this earthly part of me
Glows with Thy fire divine.
MESSAGE FOR SUNDAY, 2025/06/01
Please note that there are no longer any YouTube messages available
Reading:
John 17:20-26
Text:
John 17:20-22 “My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in You. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that You have sent me. I have given them the glory that You gave me, that they may be one as we are one.”
Message:
So, today’s Gospel lesson is a continuation of Jesus’ discourse at the Last Supper. The last earthly meal that he shares with his loved ones, his friends and family, before the events of Good Friday and Easter Sunday. And, as we come to today’s gospel lesson, Jesus has, at this Last Supper, already washed his disciples’ feet, the great sacramental act of vulnerability and lavish love … that demonstrates for his friends, including us, how they and we are to serve and care for one another. Further, he has already shared with his friends his “New Commandment”, the commandment to love one another … just as he has loved them … a sort of love that looks like washing one another’s feet … like a mutual caring for one another’s bodies, hearts and minds … like cleaning each other up, when we and the world have made a mess of things.
Jesus then concludes the Last Supper by praying for His beloved ones, those in the room with Him and all those who will follow after them including you and me. As Jesus begins to pray for them, they get to overhear his sweet words … asking God, their loving and eternal parent, to protect them, make them whole and complete, to fill their lives with wonder and joy … and to deeply connect them … one to another … and all together … to God. I really can’t begin to imagine how entirely filling and encouraging and wondrous it must have been to hear Jesus praying for them, out loud … prayers that surely kept them afloat in the difficult days that would follow … through Good Friday and Easter and the great challenge of beginning their own mission to share the love of God in Christ with everyone who has life and breath. Indeed, today we just heard a part of Jesus’ prayer for his beloved. The whole prayer takes up the entirety of John chapter 17 … 26 verses in all … of which we heard just 7.
As we read the seven verses of Jesus’ prayer today where Jesus used the word “one” four times. The four times Jesus uses the word one He prays that His friends and followers might become completely one. Though again Jesus in this prayer asks for God to shower many blessings on His friends, protection, joy, wonder, wholeness we can surely say the primary focus of the entire prayer most especially the 7 verses we read is one-ness or to use another word for “unity” among God’s beloved people. The prayer profoundly suggests that Jesus deeply desires that his friends and followers throughout time and space would be intimately connected, again, one to another … and all together … to God. So, what might this mean for our life together … what might being “one” actually look like as a lived experience…and to what end… Why does it seem that Jesus’ own heart’s desire is for us to live in unity…to be one?
Jesus invites all who believe in Him into the one-ness of the Triune God. And this one-ness is grounded and rooted in love that gives its all. This is the kind of self-giving love that is more than a feeling. It’s a choice to reciprocate the love God offers us. It’s a choice to love God back by loving each other. This kind of love challenges us “to be enough of a self to engage in self-giving love. Any failure to live in unity is usually a failure to reciprocate – a failure to love God back. Think about that. On His last night with His disciples, when He pours out his heart to them and for them, he prays this prayer – and it hasn’t been answered yet.
Unity is essential for success, for a team divided amongst itself does not make it. So it is not surprising that Jesus prays for unity among His followers. He prays for unity that’s deeper than any kind of unity in the world. Unity in the church is not just something that makes our lives more enjoyable. But it is absolutely critical for the church’s witness to the watching world. We see it in verse 21: “May they be in us so that the world may believe that you sent me.” And verse 23 He repeats Himself, “that they may be perfectly one so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me. So the church’s unity is a vital part of our witness to the world.
The way we treat one another, the way we relate to one another as believers is a huge part of our witness to the world. It is the key evidence that proves the church’s gospel message is true. How can people know that the gospel’s true? How can people know that Jesus really came from God and died for our sins and rose again from the dead? It’s by the way that the gospel message changes us as followers of Jesus. It’s by the effects the gospel produces in our lives – especially the love and unity we display as we relate to one another.
Church unity is such a big target for Satan. One of Satan’s favorite ways to attack the church is to stir up conflict because he knows how much that does harm our gospel witness. So do not let him catch you off guard. Do not be surprised if you frequently find yourself tempted to gossip about someone in the church or hold a grudge against someone or something relatively small that hinders your relationship with someone. When these things come up, pray to God to help you relate to other believers in a loving way.
What does this unity look like?
Jesus compares the unity He prays for among believers to the one-ness of the Trinity to the way that the Father, Son and Holy Spirit relate to one another in verse 21. Jesus prays that His disciples “may all be one just as your Father are in me and I in you. And then in verse 22 Jesus prays: “That they may be one even as we are one. Jesus and His Father are one. We also see from the scripture that the Spirit is also included in that oneness. So the Father, Son and Holy Spirit enjoy perfect oneness in their relationship. So Jesus prays that we will have the same oneness with one another. How the Father, Son and Holy Spirit enjoy oneness.
Jesus was praying that all believers in him would be one just as Jesus and the Father are one. That’s really close. Jesus desires another – worldly unity among his people. But that’s not all. Jesus also prayed that these believers would be “in us”. In other words, Jesus doesn’t only desire for his people to be close to each other, but also close to him and the Father. Indeed, the only real unity is unity around and in the Trinity. Jesus desires that, through Christian unity, the world might believe that he was sent by the Father. Note that Jesus doesn’t pray for the world directly. Instead, he prays for the world through the unity of his people. The unity of the church is a witness to the world. It is fundamental to the church’s mission.
The father and the Son and Holy Spirit dwell in eternal love for one another and it is that love that brings them together. Jesus tells the Father down in verse 26 that he wants that same love enjoyed among the members of the Trinity to be replicated among believers. He says to the Father, “I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.” So Jesus wants us to have among ourselves the same love he enjoys with the Father. That’s what brings the Trinity together, and that’s what should bring us together also.
Love plays the same role as oil in an engine. An engine has lots of moving parts and without oil those parts rub up against each other and cause friction that would destroy the engine. So we need love among each other otherwise we will rub each other up. If we have God’s love we will be able to forgive one another. This love comes to us through the Gospel of Jesus. To love one another like Jesus loved us. That’s how we grow in love. We are called to a mission to tell everyone about Jesus and the salvation that Jesus offers through His death and resurrection. This mission should bring us all together into a oneness. If we are going to accomplish this mission we need to live into the vision that God set before us, we could do so if we were deeply connected, profoundly committed one to another and all together to God.
The oneness for which Jesus prays is modeled on the unity of the Father and Jesus their shared life. He prays that we would be completely one as He and the Father are one. Jesus is praying to the Father for our oneness rather than giving instructions means that unity is of and from God. It is not something we do or create. It is the very life and being of God. We do not establish unity we participate in and manifest to the world the already existing oneness that is God. The oneness exists at the intersection of our love for God and our love for each other. It is the intersection of the vertical axis and horizontal axis unity is cross shaped.
Jesus desires that through Christian unity the world might believe that He was sent by the Father. We are called to humble and sacrificial love for brothers and sisters in Christ.
Conclusion
So why did Jesus pray for unity for his disciple’s, pray for a sense of one-ness to be found in the life they shared together, well, at least in part, because only together, only together would they ever begin to accomplish their mission, to begin to live into the vision for the creation of a beloved community that God had set before them. And, this is, of course, our story as well.
And, it is important to say, that the one-ness that Jesus prays for his friends and followers, for us, is not the same thing as ideological agreement on all things political, communal, or even theological. Instead, God-inspired one-ness is expressed in an abiding love for each other, which is rooted in friendships of substance. One-ness is discovered in love … our love for one another, always first and foremost. Understanding the mind of God that directs our unified mission for the life of the world can only be discovered as we lean on each other, listen respectfully and attentively to one another, valuing our diversity of opinions and experiences. And, further, living into this vision will require each and every one of our very different and unique gifts and backgrounds to be offered, appreciated and shared, if we ever hope to just begin to accomplish it, and, more so, to be and become it, our God-given vision of “growing in relationship, loving all well, and seeking intimacy with Christ.”
So why, again, does Jesus pray for one-ness among his beloved? Well, for the very life of the world, no less. That in love and faithfulness toward one another, and all together, toward God, that we might, as one, shape a beloved community of rainbow-colored people that continually invites others from all sorts of backgrounds into God’s family. A beloved community that thrives because of the rich diversity it welcomes and holds together, like a many-colored stained-glass window that tells a unified story about the love of God. A beloved community that is bound together not by ideology, but by a willingness to love and appreciate one another through and because of our differences, for those differences make us rich and complex and interesting and colorful. A beloved community that demonstrates for all those around us, that everything we hope and dream for, everything that Jesus hopes and dreams and prays for, for our lives and the life of the world, begins and ends in one-ness, which is achieved by love for one another, alone.
Bonhoeffer in his book “Communion of Saints” writes about the church. The community is constituted by the complete self-forgetfulness of love. The relationship between I and thou is no longer essentially a demanding, but a giving one.” Jesus practiced true self-forgetfulness of love for us, restoring our relationship with God and each other by giving himself. Now he sends us to give ourselves self-forgetfully to one another so that all the world may know him and believe.
MESSAGE FOR SUNDAY, 2025/05/25
Please note that there are no longer any YouTube messages available
Reading:
John 14:23-29
Text:
John 14:25-27 “All this I have spoken while still with you. But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.
Message:
Bible scholars often call chapters 14-17 “The Final Discourse,” as if Jesus were standing behind a podium giving a long speech. But this is really a conversation among friends. And at the center of this conversation is the relationship that has been developing among these friends over the past three years. Now, as his mortal life is drawing to a close, Jesus invites his friends into an even deeper friendship than the one they have shared. He invites them into the eternal relationship he enjoys with the Father.
When someone we love leaves us, it’s natural for us to not want to see them go, but if we really love them, we have to let them go. Real love allows us to release those we care about. When we try to hang on to the ones we love, we are being selfish. Jesus was preparing to die and eventually return to his Father, but the disciples did not want him to leave. He urged them to rejoice because he was leaving. His departure would allow the disciples and all believers to do great things, including growing Christianity.
Jesus was more concerned for the disciples than he was for himself. He reassured them that they would not be alone. He promised them peace and hope – the same peace and hope he offers to all believers.
The resurrected Jesus kept appearing to his followers over a period of six weeks before he ascended into Heaven. The disciples must have thought deeply about everything that Jesus had said to them during the previous three years of his ministry and especially during the time leading up to his crucifixion. They were starting to understand things that they had previously not understood, such as the passage we have heard read today from John 14. Jesus didn’t waste words. Here we find three things which were important to Jesus’ first followers and should be important to Christians today:
I Jesus said, “If you love me obey me!”
When Judas asks “How is it we get to see you in your fullness, but the world doesn’t? Jesus tells him that the answer lies in this eternal relationship with God and this requires our obedience to this new commandment. “Those who love me obey my words, and my word is to love one another as I have loved you.” Jesus says. “What’s more, the Father will love you who loves and obey me, and the Father and I will make our home with you. But the converse of this is also true – if you don’t love me, you won’t keep my words, and this isn’t just me talking here – this word comes straight from the Father.”
It is easy to say that we love Jesus but is there any evidence for such love? Jesus repeats what he’d said earlier, such as in John 14:15-21: If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. Obedience is one test of genuine love for God. It is in fact one test of whether a person is a genuine Christian or not. Jesus put the same idea in a negative form as well: He who does not love me will not obey my teaching. To be a Christian involves accepting Jesus as our Saviour, our rescuer, the one who paid the penalty for our sin on the cross. But it also involves accepting Jesus as our Lord, our boss, our master. To have Jesus as our Lord means that we live for him and obey him. As someone has said, If Jesus is not Lord of all then He is not Lord at all!
This is one excellent reason to be regularly reading the Bible. If we want to obey Jesus then we need to know what He says. If we want to improve our golf, our cooking or anything in life then we go to the experts, to books or DVD’s or attend courses so that we can learn and grow in our particular interest. If we want to grow as a Christian and our obedience to our Lord then we need to go to the maker’s manual! Here Jesus urges us to find value and careful use of His Word. He reminds us that we do not hold onto this treasure by ourselves, the Holy Spirit himself brings it to us and keeps it with us through this life.
So when Jesus tells you to hold on to his Word, he doesn’t expect us to do that solo or in a vacuum. He gives us the Holy Spirit to create that faith and help us hold on to those promises. The Holy Spirit uses the means of grace, the gospel message as it comes to us both in the Word and the sacraments, to strengthen our grip on what Jesus has promised and done. The more we are surrounded by God’s Word, the more valuable it becomes to us.
Here Jesus is preparing His disciples for much of the difficulties that were before them that threatened them to quit. So what does Jesus say to dissuade them from giving up during those difficult times? If anyone loves me, he will hold on to my word. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. The one who does not love me does not hold on to my words. Giving up on Jesus’ words and the things he had done are tantamount to saying “I don’t love you Jesus. I don’t value what you’ve done.” Likewise, holding on to and prioritizing Jesus’ words show a love for Jesus and the forgiveness he won by his life and death in our place. How are you at holding on to Jesus’ words? If you think through your thoughts and actions this past week, how did it go? Were you obedient or not? If we are not loving each other that is a pretty good indication that we don’t really love Jesus.
When Jesus was with his disciples, they could listen to his teachings and ask him questions. When he was gone, the Holy Spirit assumed that role. For the rest of their lives and as Matthew, Mark, Luke and John wrote the Gospels, the Spirit reminded them of all the things Jesus did and said. The Holy Spirit reminded them of all the things Jesus did and said. The Holy Spirit stood with them and guided them, just like it stands with us and guides us today. Jesus made it clear that His followers love him by serving others. That message is just as relevant to us today. To live that kind of love requires the constant presence of God in our lives. There are times when we feel alone and we don’t know what will happen to us. At times like these it’s natural for us to ask ourselves, “What’s to become of me?” How do we take care of ourselves in such moments? For us as Christians, the answer is clear. God wants us to trust in Him. When we do, we will receive both the Holy Spirit and God’s peace.
II Jesus promise of the Holy Spirit
Jesus made an extraordinary statement at this time about those who genuinely love Jesus: My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. Jesus was speaking about the coming of the Holy Spirit into the lives of all of those who repent of their sins and accept Jesus as their savior, as we see from John 14:25-26. This Holy Spirit will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.
Jesus had taught his Disciples about many things before his death. Now, the Holy Spirit brought those things to their minds and they began to understand! Jesus’ promise was being fulfilled. As we read the Bible and listen to sermons and read good Christian books, the same Holy Spirit will help us to understand. In conversation with others, He will bring to our minds parts of God’s Word that would be helpful to mention. “Those who love me obey my words, and my word is to love one another as I have loved you,” Jesus says. “What’s more, the Father will love you who love and obey me and make their home with us where we are. God has made his home in our hearts,, and the Father and I will make our home with you. But the converse of this is also true – if you don’t love me, you won’t keep my words, and this isn’t just me talking here – this word comes straight from the Father. The Holy Spirit will help you remember what I am teaching you. Jesus calls the Holy Spirit an Advocate. An Advocate comes alongside us, walks with us through the difficult times, and stays beside us without getting in our way or pushing from behind. The Spirit doesn’t force us into one direction or another, but guides gently while walking next to us, standing up for us, keeping us company, giving us comfort.
The Holy Spirit keeps our relationship with God vibrant. It holds us together in love with Jesus and with God. The Holy Spirit allows us to see God at work and learn about him. It allows us to communicate with him and learn from him, especially when we read the Bible. Love for Christ demonstrated by keeping his commandments. Obedience flowing from love is very different from obedience performed out of obligation. Jesus promises his presence as people join him in his work. God is always with us, because the Father and the Son have made their home with us where we are. God has made his home in our hearts, and in return he has made a home for us in heaven. Home is where we are with the Lord – and we are with the Lord now – and will be with the Lord forever.
By keeping us holding on to Jesus’ Word, the Holy Spirit brings Jesus’ peace to our troubled hearts. Sure, we can look at the past week and see failure after failure to live as the child of God, to live as one who holds on to and loves Jesus’ Word. But the Spirit continues to bring us to the cross and the empty tomb, to show us what Jesus did, to show us Jesus’ forgiveness for those failures to hold on to his Word in our life, and then to wrap our fingers around that word and tighten our grip, so see his Word as the most precious gift we’ve ever been given.
III Jesus gift of Peace
While the Holy Spirit is certainly a great gift to every Christian, Jesus gave the Disciples another one as well. The Disciples were anxious about Jesus leaving them; they were afraid. Jesus gave them peace: Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. When Jesus appeared to the frightened Disciples in the Upper Room after he had risen from the dead, John records that he said to them on at least two occasions: Peace be with you!
How we need God’s peace: in family life, in the life of our church, in our personal life, in our concerns over money, wayward family members, in times of drought, fire and flood; the loss of our job, as we age, as our memories are challenged, in times of illness and bereavement. There are so many circumstances in life which have the potential to cause us stress and anxiety. How we need God’s peace!
Jesus said all of these things by way of preparation of the Disciples for the time when he would no longer be with them physically: All this I have spoken while still with you. … I have told you now before it happens, so that when it does happen you will believe. What a loving Saviour! The peace that Jesus brings through His Word, through the Holy Spirit, is the peace that comes from knowing our sins are forgiven. It is the peace that comes from knowing we will be safe in eternal life. It is the peace that comes from knowing that no matter how difficult life here becomes, we need not have a troubled or fearful heart, because we have the Spirit in us and are safe in Jesus’ love for eternity. The peace that Jesus brings is greater than anything you can get from the world. Jesus’ peace comes from His Word. Hold on to that Word; value that Word. By the grace and work of the Holy Spirit, that’s exactly what we will do. Thanks be to God.
The peace Jesus offers is not the same peace that the world offers so do not be troubled and stop being afraid. We need His peace within us and between us.
How is the peace Jesus gives different from the peace that the world gives? And why does It matter?
The Biblical idea of peace is grounded in the Hebrew word, ‘Shalom! Shalom is more than an absence of strife or conflict. In fact, one of the indicators for Christ’s shalom, is the way it sustains us in the middle of conflict and strife.
Shalom indicates completion, wholeness, a time in the future when everything is made right and put into God’s intended balance for Creation. Christ’s peace brings this hope for wholeness into the present. The Kingdom of God is at hand. Christ’s peace is not just some future hope, it’s something we can experience now. So while the peace that Jesus gives is eternal, in contrast to the temporary nature of any peace we might find in the world, we don’t have to wait for Christ’s peace to become real to us. Eternity begins this moment. But it is so easy to get stuck in an endless cycle of looking for peace in all the wrong places, constantly striving for the kind of peace the world gives us.
Christ offers real peace. We can see that peace in the lives of ourselves and fellow believers. We will receive a calm strength. We can use Romans 8:31 as our motto – “If God is for us, who can be against us?
The world situation today is scary. There are wars, disease, hunger, famine, terrorism and other problems. If we think that we live in a country that is free from trouble, we are wrong. As Christians, we need to be concerned for our world and pray for it, but we do not need to be afraid because we have the Holy Spirit within us, and it offers us the peace of Christ.
Christ’s peace is the kind of peace we feel inside even when the world around us is falling apart. Christ’s peace is peace of mind, peace in our conscience, peace with our fellow believers. Peace with our bosses and coworkers, peace with our environment and peace with our world. Jesus gives us this peace freely, without expecting anything in return except for the hope that when we are changed by this peace, we might pass it on to others.
Jesus tells his disciples and us not to be troubled. Trusting him does not mean that all of life’s circumstances will change for the better, but that his followers will have peace as they endure trials and difficulties. When we receive the peace of Christ, we can take our problems to the cross. Christ’s peace gives us peace in our hearts.
But the peace the world offers isn’t really any peace at all. At best, it’s a bandage we put over the wounds of our fear and frustration. It won’t last. It is only a temporary fix. “Stop being afraid. Let your hearts be free from worry,” Jesus says. “I give you my peace. And it is nothing at all like the world’s peace. You don’t have to earn it or build it or create it out of your own meager resources. I give it to you. Just receive it.”
This is the peace that Jesus offers. It has nothing to do with earthly armistice agreements or treaty negotiations or conflict resolution protocols. Christ’s peace is both an inner peace we know in our hearts, and an outer peace we experience when we love one another. But more than that, it is the peace Christ gives us when we believe in Him and we receive life in His name.
Conclusion
Before Jesus was crucified, he prepared his Disciples by teaching them things that would be helpful when he was no longer with them: He exhorted them about obeying him. He made the amazing promise of the coming of the Holy Spirit. He gifted them peace for their troubled minds. May God help us this week to live for Jesus as our Lord, made strong with the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. And may we experience the peace of God every day and in every situation.
MESSAGE FOR SUNDAY, 2025/05/18
Please note that there are no longer any YouTube messages available
Reading:
John 13:31-35
Text:
John 13:34-35 “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples if you love one another.”
Message:
Our text this morning goes to the very heart of what it means for us to follow Jesus. Here, Jesus sums up Christian teaching in a couple of short, simple sentences: “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this, everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” At the end of the day, when all the hymns have been sung and the liturgies read, we are ?left with just one thing: love. It’s all about love – In the final analysis, love is all that is important.
Our church must be a place of love where people encounter the love of God for them, where people feel loved and accepted for who they are, without judgement, where people are free to express love for others and back to God. Here we see when and where Jesus said these words. Sometimes when and where we say something is as important to the meaning as the actual words that we say. Jesus here in John 13 is in the upper room with His disciples. Thomas is there who will doubt the resurrection, Peter who will deny knowing Jesus and Judas who will betray Him. Knowing all this Jesus still washes each of their feet. Normally the washing of feet was the task of the servant. Now here Jesus, their master?, is washing their feet, knowing ?w?hat was going to happen. Jesus still got to His knees and washed their feet.
If you want a picture of love, picture Jesus on His knees, washing the feet of His betrayer, Judas. That’s love, isn’t it? And Jesus tells us that this is what we need to do for one another. Love one another, as he has loved us.
And when Jesus gave this commandment to love, it wasn’t at a random time in his ministry: the timing of this statement by Jesus was so important. Because Jesus gave this teaching to his disciples the night before he was crucified; it was his final teaching to them before he died, so he wasn’t going to waste time telling them stuff that isn’t important. Instead, he goes to the heart of the Christian faith and is saying to them, “Before I die, this is what you really need to know: love one another…” It’s almost as if the three years of his ministry had been building up to this moment and he was saying to them, “In conclusion, this is what you need to remember…” It’s all about love.
I Love According to Jesus
But we might wonder, what’s new about it? The commandment to love wasn’t new, of course. It’s mentioned often in the Old Testament. The greatest commandment is to love God, and the next is to love our neighbor. These are repeated often in the Old Testament. They are not new. But Jesus’ commandment is. What’s new about it? Not love. But loving just as Jesus loved.
We must be careful how we use the word “love”. It has such a wide range of meaning, does it not. I love my work, chicken pieces, and my iPad. But the word “love ” means different things in each of those contexts. So the definition of love that is given here is really important: love one another as I have loved you.
OK, so what does that love look like? What does it mean for us to love one another as Jesus has loved us? How are we to live out the Christian faith as a lifestyle of love?
II Love sacrificially
At the very heart of the Christian faith is the fact that Jesus died on the cross; not some empty, meaningless, failing type of death, but a death that won a significant victory over the power of sin and death so that we could live in a beautiful relationship with God. But of course, that death was immensely sacrificial. Jesus had to give up everything so that we could live to give up his birthright, his power, his majesty, his glory, his own life. In his letter to the Philippians, Paul had written that “Christ emptied himself, taking the form of a slave …” The ultimate act of self-emptying so that he could show sacrificial love towards us.
There was no limit to Jesus’ sacrifice – because there was no limit to his love for us. In truth, Jesus didn’t just make sacrifices for us. He became a sacrifice for us .. And so the fact that we love God and love others is a response to that. In another part of the Bible, also written by John, we read that, “We love, because he first loved us.” Christ has shown sacrificial love to us and, as a response, we model sacrificial love to others.
I wonder what that means in your life and mine? How can we show truly sacrificial love towards others? What can we give of ourselves – who we are and what we have – in order to love better? Christ is the model for us to follow and we have a lifetime to work out what that means for ourselves. So first, we love one another sacrificially.
III Love without Expectation
Jesus teaches us to love without expecting anything in return. When Jesus washed their feet it was not in the hope that they would return the favour. He washes their feet with the knowledge that they would soon abandon Him, that He will die on the cross alone. His love is unconditional with no strings attached. He loves without agenda, other than demonstrating God’s love for us, and showing us what love looks like.
This is so different from how our world works. It’s hard to even get our mind around it. But one thing I have learned about loving in this way is that it is actually very freeing. In some ways, it is easier to love without keeping score. It’s easier to love without hoping to get something in return. It’s very freeing. But even if it was not easier to love in this way, it would still be necessary. Because Jesus teaches us that this is what true love looks like. “If you love those who love you, what reward do you have?” Jesus once asked. “Do not even the tax collectors do the same?” (Matt 5:46) Loving those who love us is what everyone does. Loving those who don’t love us is what Christians do. And by this the world will know that we are Jesus’ disciples, if we love unconditionally, without agenda, and without expecting a single thing in return.
Jesus didn’t die for us because we deserved it. He didn’t die for us because we had somehow earned God’s grace and love. There is nothing that you or I have ever done that has made us deserving of a relationship with God. Instead, as the Bible tells us, he died for us even when we were far off and lost from God. Jesus didn’t set conditions on his love. He never said that we need to do something first in order for him to love us. He never waited until we had proved ourselves worthy of love. Jesus’ love was absolutely unconditional. And that’s just as well – because we can never do anything worthy to earn his love.
Because Jesus loves us unconditionally, despite our weaknesses and failings so we are called to love others unconditionally too. We are called to a different way of living. We are called to gentleness and non-judgmentalism and a showing of unconditional love to all those we know, even the weak and vulnerable; and those who make a mess of their own lives. After all, that is what God has done for us: he is gentle with us, isn’t he? God doesn’t bear a grudge or give us a hard time for messing up so regularly, and we should follow in his footsteps by treating others with the same gentleness and patience and kindness as God has shown to us. So, this new commandment to love means sacrificial love and unconditional love.
And it also leads us to love people who are not like us. Jesus loved people who were not like him. He loved people who disagreed with him. He loved people who looked at the world very differently from him. There is no one that Jesus did not love. It is the one thing that he was incapable of. He could not help but love everyone. It doesn’t mean that he didn’t challenge them, or get frustrated with them, or even occasionally rebuke them. I could give you examples of all of these from Jesus. It doesn’t mean that. It simply means that he loved them, no matter what, and teaches us to do the same.
IV To have means to become vulnerable
Brene Brown talks about the vulnerability of love. “(Love is)? waking every day and loving someone who may or may not love us back, whose safety we can’t ensure, who may stay in our lives or may leave without a moment’s notice, who may be loyal to the day they die or betray us tomorrow – that’s vulnerability.”
And vulnerability is the next thing that Jesus teaches us about love. The word “vulnerable” literally means “able to be wounded.” When we are vulnerable, we open ourselves up to the possibility of being wounded. And that is exactly what Jesus teaches us – that we should open ourselves up to one another in love, even if it opens us up to the possibility of being wounded. That’s what Jesus did, right? Jesus loved Judas, who betrayed him. He loved Peter, who denied knowing him. He loved Thomas, who doubted him. He loved those who abandoned him, and even those who crucified him. Jesus loved in a way that opened him up to these wounds. And he teaches us to do the same.
Brene Brown goes on to say that:
“To love is to be vulnerable, to give someone your heart and say, ‘I know this could hurt so bad, but I’m willing to do it. And there is an increasing number of people in the world today that are not willing to take that risk. They’d rather never know love than to know hurt or grief, and that is a huge price to pay.”
God created us to be in relationship with God and one another. We were created for love and for belonging and for community. And when we reject these things, there is always suffering. Jesus came to restore our relationship with God, by suffering for us. And he came to show us how to love. And loving in the way he taught us makes us vulnerable. It opens our hearts. Which is risky. But open hearts are the only kind that can be filled with God’s love.
The old commandment, from Leviticus, is to love our neighbor as ourselves?. But the new commandment, from Jesus, is to love even those who are not our neighbors. Jesus loved lepers, for example, who were considered unclean and unloved by God. Jesus loved tax collectors, even calling one to be his disciple. Jesus loved Samaritans. He loved prostitutes. He loved the poor. He loved those that society didn’t even see. He considered them all our neighbors. All loved by God. And all deserving of our love. Jesus completely redefined who our neighbor is. Our neighbor is now anyone and everyone we have an opportunity to love.
But not only that, Jesus taught us to love even our enemies. Just as he did. Now, this does not mean that we accept or agree with what they are doing. Love according to Jesus doesn’t mean accepting actions that are wrong. Jesus met people where they were, but didn’t leave them there. He called them to repent. He loved them, and forgave them, but also invited them to change their ways. Jesus never loved sin. But he always loved sinners. He still does. And he shows us how to do the same.
V Conclusion
Loving as Jesus loved is not easy. Jesus never said it would be. And looking back at his life, in the light of his death and resurrection, we can see that it was not easy for him either. It is never going to be easy to love unconditionally, without agenda or expectation. It is never going to be easy to love unconditionally, without agenda or expectation. It is never going to be easy to love in a way that makes us vulnerable, that opens us up to bring hurt. It is never going to be easy to love people who aren’t like us.
Jesus didn’t say it would be easy. But it is certainly possible, or he wouldn’t have commanded it. And it is exactly what he did. He is not asking us to do something that he didn’t do already, and do perfectly. But here’s the good news: When we fail – and we will – Jesus will still love us. When we doubt him, deny him, and even betray him, he will still love us. Because that is what true love looks like. It looks like Jesus. Kneeling at our feet. Loving us. And asking us to do the same.
Love is not merely an emotion but in reality it is intensely practical. And Jesus’ death on the cross was intensely practical. It wasn’t a glorious chapter in his life; he was alone, he was in pain, he had to grit his teeth and just get on with it. That is practical love in action. And we too are called to practical love: to meet the needs of others in pragmatic ways that speak of love and care and compassion. We can’t walk by on the other side of the road. We are to meet needs wherever and whenever we can. So Jesus has a new commandment for us: not a new commandment to love but a new commandment to love one another as he has loved us. Sacrificially, unconditionally and practically.
That is the life we are called to. It is not easy – but love must be the hallmark of our church and our own lives. As Paul says in 1 Corinthians, if we don’t have love, we are nothing, our worship is empty, our hymn singing is empty, and all the activities of this church are empty and meaningless.
It’s all about love. Sacrificial love. Unconditional love. Practical love that is worked out in kindness and gentleness and patience and hospitality. And we pray for ourselves that, as time goes by, we may increasingly model ourselves after the example of Jesus and fulfil the commandment to love as he has loved us.
MESSAGE FOR SUNDAY, 2025/05/11
Please note that there are no longer any YouTube messages available
Reading:
John 10:22-30
Text:
John 10:27-28 “My sheep listen to my voice. I know them and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one an snatch them out of my hand.”
Message:
One of the most comforting and memorable images portrayed throughout the Old and New Testament Scriptures is the picture of the loving and protecting Shepherd and His faithful, following flock. The beautiful words of the 23rd Psalm come to mind, “The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want…” And in chapter 10 of his gospel – the Good Shepherd Chapter – John, the Evangelist, records the words of Jesus, about Himself, “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep.” (v. 11) and again, “I am the good shepherd; I know My sheep and My sheep know Me, and I lay down My life for the sheep.” (John 10;14) Jesus was predicting that the time would come when He would take our place; give Himself up; and die sacrificially for the forgiveness of our sins and the sins of all time, of all people, all over the world!
My sheep hear my voice. Jesus says in today’s Gospel reading: “I know them and they follow me.” Would we not want it to be true for us who hear his voice and that we would always want to follow Him. But is it sure that we do? After all, we live in a very noisy world these days. A world filled with all kinds of different voices, all competing for our attention. And it seems difficult in the midst of all the noise, to hear the voice of our Shepherd does it not?
Amidst this noise, among these voices calling to us, are the world, the devil and our own sinful flesh. But, if we know the Shepherd intimately, we can pick out His voice as He calls to us. He calls us to know Him, personally and intimately – as the sheep know, listen to and follow the voice of their shepherd! He sweetly, tenderly, lovingly, mercifully calls to us through worship, His Word, the Sacraments, and throughout our time of fellowship and service together. Our trust in the voice of Christ is not our own natural possession. Our faith is a gift from God.
Think of the number of different voices this week to be sure all are competing for our attention. And some of these voices are incredibly good at convincing us to pay attention to them. They create ads, geared just toward us. They convince us that we need whatever they are selling, to be safe, or to be popular, or to be successful, or simply to feel better. Modern technology and social media means that companies know us better than they ever have, and they use that information to convince us that we need whatever they have.
But they are often false shepherds, making promises that they cannot keep. There is only one true shepherd. And we are all his sheep. And today, we are reminded to listen to his voice. Because at the end of the day, there is only one voice we can trust, one voice that truly matters to our soul. And that is the voice of the Shepherd, the voice of our Savior, Jesus Christ. So why don’t we always hear that voice? And how might we hear it more effectively? I want to put aside the obvious reasons why we don’t hear his voice – that there are too many other competing voices, and we don’t always take the time to listen to his voice.
There are three things in the Scriptures that show us why we don’t always hear His voice as well as we might and three ways of how we can do something about it.
I Jesus is not saying what we expected
The first reason why we sometimes miss hearing Jesus’ voice is that He is not saying what we expect. That was true of the Jewish leaders in today’s gospel reading. They were right there, listening to Jesus. But they didn’t really hear him, because he was not saying what they expected to hear. They expected the Messiah to act differently. They thought he’d be like King David, and lead them into battle to overthrow Rome. Jesus was different. And he didn’t say or do what they expected. So they didn’t really hear him. And isn’t that often true of us? We miss Jesus’ voice because he is not saying what we expect to hear.
Jesus identifies the problem “I did tell you, but you do not believe.” He had been speaking plainly to them, but they weren’t listening because they were looking for something very different than what he was providing. Jesus had not come to be a physical or political rescuer as those they were celebrating that day in Jerusalem had been. He had come to be an eternal Savior.
It is more important than ever to listen to Jesus with an open mind, and an open heart, not to listen for what we expect him to say, but simply to listen. Let our minds be changed. Let our hearts be changed. Put aside all the voices in our world, and listen for the loving voice of our true Shepherd.
II We are too ashamed to listen
It is that sometimes we are too ashamed to listen to Him. Our sin and guilt causes us to feel too unworthy of Jesus speaking to us so we fail to hear Him. We see this in Adam and Eve when they committed their first sin. When they heard Jesus walking in the garden they hid from God then God asked “Where are you?” Adam answered “I was afraid because I was naked and I hid myself”. (Genesis 3:8) That can happen to us, too. Our sin can cause us to feel naked and ashamed. And we are tempted to hide ourselves from God, so that we can miss hearing his voice calling us.
I have talked to people, and maybe you have, too, who won’t come to church until they get their act together. Or who won’t come to church until we get our act together! But church, as Martin Luther reminds us, is not a hotel for saints; it is a hospital for sinners.
We need to acknowledge that we are not worthy, that we don’t have our acts together. And to confess that. But also to receive God’s forgiveness. To be reminded of God’s grace, mercy, and love. And then, because we have been made worthy by Christ, we can listen to the voice of the shepherd.
III He is saying something to us that we don’t want to hear.
We see this in the story of the Old Testament when the Lord spoke to Jonah to go to Nineveh but Jonah fled from the presence of the Lord to Tarshish. Then there is the rich young ruler who came to Jesus who wanted to inherit eternal life. Jesus then told him to sell all he had, give it to the poor and then come to follow Him.
Jonah, the rich young ruler, and others in scripture did not want to listen to God, because they didn’t like what they were hearing. That can happen to us, too. We don’t really want to go where the shepherd is calling us to go, or do what the shepherd is calling us to do. We give up listening to him. Often when this happens, we need something to happen in our lives that forces us to listen. Our own version of finding ourselves in the belly of the whale. The astonishing thing, of course, is that sometimes God does send a whale. Or speaks through some other life event.
C.S. Lewis says that “God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our consciences, but shouts in our pains. It is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world.”
And sometimes that is the only way we will hear him. Like a shepherd in search of lost sheep, Jesus looks for us. And doesn’t stop until he finds us. “My sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me.” We can and do ignore this voice, but still the voice persists. And we often find ourselves restless and unsettled until we hear and respond to his voice, and follow him. We have heard his voice enough to know and believe that our lives are not complete until we hear and respond to the voice of the Shepherd; until we allow that voice to lead us through our days on earth and to finally lead us home.
No one will snatch us out of His hand
Jesus is our Good Shepherd. Jesus says He will not let you go. “No one can snatch you out My hand”. (John 10:28). Whatever suffering you see, whatever tribulation you touch, whatever evil you endure, Jesus will be there. He will hold on to you and carry you through. No one will snatch us out of his hand. and even more than that, Jesus says that God the Father has given us to Jesus, and that no one can snatch us out of the Father’s hand either. Jesus speaks in simple words that speak baffling truth: I and the Father are one. They are one in so many different ways, especially in their mission to save us from our sins. God the Son, Jesus, came to do this work for us because God the Father sent him. Our Triune God is perfectly united to save us from our sins and bring us to be with him in eternal life.
As we move through this life, we will face struggles and trials. Some of them will come from outside of us, like wolves attacking a flock of sheep. Others will be self-inflicted, like sheep wandering away from safety and plenty and into danger and scarcity. But no matter what trials and hardships come on us, our Good Shepherd is with us, guarding us and protecting us. He is certainly concerned about our physical, temporal welfare. But make no mistake: our Good Shepherd is ultimately our eternal shepherd and all of his work is focused on our eternal safety. Don’t mistake him for one who will make life easy; see him as the one who will rescue us from this world of hardship and heartache and bring us to himself, to those eternal pastures of heaven, to be safe and secure forever.
Conclusion
Jesus is calling us sheep, rather than followers or disciples. This is important, because the people who first heard these words would have pictured the shepherds that they knew. They would have known that these shepherds would often get together with their sheep at various times during the day, a bunch of shepherds all together with lots and lots of sheep. Say at a watering hole. The shepherds catching up on events, the sheep getting something to drink. It was noisy and chaotic, to say the least. But at the end of the day, the shepherds would call for their sheep. And the sheep would follow their own shepherds to a safe place to sleep. In the midst of all that chaos and all those competing voices, the sheep would hear their shepherd’s voice, recognize it, and follow him. And I think that is why, in today’s gospel reading, Jesus describes himself as a shepherd, and we his followers as his sheep. “My sheep hear my voice,” he says, “I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish.”
You and I have heard a number of different voices this week, to be sure, all competing for our attention. But at the end of the day, Jesus seems to be saying to us, it is only the voice of the shepherd that can lead us home, that can lead us to safety. It is the voice of the shepherd that has called us to this place. It is the voice of the shepherd that calls us to follow him. and it is the voice of the shepherd that leads us home.
“I am standing at the door, knocking; if you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to you and eat with you, and you with me.” Today, we are invited to listen again to the voice of our shepherd. To hear his voice. To open the door. And to follow him. and in so doing, to discover once again that there is nothing else that we shall want, when the Lord is our shepherd. For his goodness and mercy shall follow us all the days of our life. And we shall dwell in the house of the Lord. Forever.
Jesus calls His faithful flock to be calm and confident in His almighty care. “My sheep listen to My voice; I know them, and they follow Me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of My hand. My Father who has given them to Me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of My Father’s hand. The Father and I are One.” (John 10:27 – 30). We truly are, “Safe in the Shepherd’s hands!”
MESSAGE FOR SUNDAY, 2025/05/04
Please note that there are no longer any YouTube messages available
Reading:
John 21:1-19
Text:
John 21:7 “Then the disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, “It is the Lord” as soon as Simon Peter heard him say “It is the Lord” he wrapped his outer garment around him (for he had taken it off) and jumped into the water.”
Message:
I have come to know people in the various congregations that I had the privilege to serve in that restored old cars. How they have spent time to restore these old cars to their former beauty. They spend hours searching for original parts, mending, polishing until one day they start the engine and listen to the purring of the finely restored vehicle. What a beautiful analogy for seeing what is happening in this story from John’s gospel we read today.
Here is Jesus restoring his disciples; showering them with love and care and attention, restoring them to their former beauty, and loving them through the process. So here we have a story of Jesus restoring his disciples and by implication, how he seeks to restore each one of us too.
This was the third time that Jesus had revealed himself to his disciples. The first time was to Mary Magdalene when she thought he was the gardener. The second time was behind closed doors when he had invited Doubting Thomas to touch his wounds. And here Jesus reveals himself again to the disciples, this time by the Sea of Tiberius, which is another name for Lake Galilee.
And it’s quite significant that the disciples were fishing on Lake Galilee because it shows us that, since the crucifixion and even since the appearance of Christ to them the last time, the disciples had given up hope completely and gone home, gone back to their previous lives and jobs. Lake Galilee was 80 miles from Jerusalem where Jesus had last appearances. That was no short distance in those days, so they really had given up and gone home – they were not hanging around Jerusalem wondering what was coming next.
And the disciples, in their desolation, had dispersed too. They aren’t all together here – there are only 7 of them. Perhaps the others had given up completely. The group had disbanded. And so, when Jesus appears to his disciples, he is appearing to broken and vulnerable men who had no sense of hope for the future. Disciples, like us, desperately in need of a fresh start with God, desperately in need of finding value and worth and a sense of identity, to know that they are loved and that their lives are worth something.
Then at the crack of dawn Jesus stands on the beach and begins a beautiful conversation that shows us the absolute grace of God. As we go through this conversation we will get to the heart of what is happening here. Jesus begins the conversation in verse 5: “Children, you have no fish, do you?” The word Jesus uses to address them is ‘paidia’ – children. What a beautifully intimate way to address his disciples. He doesn’t call them ‘Men’ or ‘Friends’ or ‘Brothers’. He knows how weak and vulnerable they are feeling. He knows how much they are hurting. He knows how much they need to be met with love. And so he calls them his children – an indication of the depth of love and sense of protection he has over them.
And then Jesus tells them to put their nets down on the other side of the boat and they will catch fish there. And sure enough, when they follow Jesus’ instructions, their nets fill up. And in this very act, again, Jesus is showing them how much he loves them and wants to forgive everything they have done wrong since the crucifixion. Their nets were empty, this is where Jesus meets them and this is where Jesus meets us when our nets are empty. Those times our own efforts add up to nothing and we have got nothing to give and we have come to the limits of our own self-sufficiency. Are your nets empty today? Do not abandon your nets. For they are the very places Jesus is showing Himself to you. The places of resurrection fish to nourish your life.
So here is Jesus meeting the disciples, after all their failure during Passion Week, after they have run away, after they have given up hope and gone back to their old lives. Here is Jesus meeting with them in the same way he met with them on Day One, doing the same thing that introduced them to him at the beginning. And it’s as if he is saying, “Do you remember how it was before all this mess happened? It can be like that again. Let’s start afresh. Let’s go back to the beginning. Let’s start again together. I forgive you and am still calling you.” Such a beautiful act of grace and mercy. Jesus is restoring them.
And it is at this point that John recognizes Jesus and shouts, “It is the Lord!” Simon Peter, ever the impetuous disciple, tucks his fisherman’s smock into his belt and swims to shore to see Jesus, leaving the other disciples with the hard work of getting the boat back safely to land.
When they get back to land, we are told in verse 9 that Jesus and Peter are sitting together round a charcoal fire. Again, another beautiful detail that shows the depth of Jesus’ restorative love. The last time that Jesus and Peter had been together near a charcoal fire was in the courtyard of the High Priest Caiaphas on Maundy Thursday – the night that Jesus was being tried. In Luke 22, we are told that Peter sat by a fire in the courtyard while Jesus is being interrogated and he denies knowing Jesus and the cock crowed and in verse 61, the damning words: “The Lord turned round and looked straight at Peter”. But here they are again, sitting together by a fire and Jesus, again, is looking straight at Peter. But this time, there is no element of judgement in his eyes. He sits and looks at Peter with nothing but compassion and loving kindness. Jesus is restoring him.
So they sit down to eat together and in verse 13 we read, “Jesus gave them the bread”. How reminiscent that would have been for the disciples of the last time that Jesus gave them bread at the Last Supper, where the denials and the betrayals and the cowardice had all begun. But here is Jesus sitting with them again, sharing bread with them, still offering hospitality, still serving them, still loving them. Jesus is restoring them.
When Peter, and the other Disciples, reached the shore, they found that Jesus had a fire prepared with fish already cooking. They found there, with the Savior, all the things they needed after being out on that boat all night long. They found food, warmth and fellowship. They found a Savior who loved them and who had all the provisions in place that they needed. Everything they lacked out on that boat, they found when they came to Jesus!
Then Jesus looks at Simon Peter and says, “Simon son of John do you love me more than these others do?” This was a conversation about love, freedom, and moving forward. “Do you love me?” Jesus asks Peter, not once but three times. One question for each of Peter’s denials. Three times Peter gives the same answer, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” And I think he did. I think Jesus knew that Peter loved him but Peter needed to know that he loved Jesus. Peter needed to understand that he was not bound to or identified by his past. How many of us also need to hear, understand, and experience that again and again as if for the very first time? That’s another detail or circumstance of our lives in which Jesus is showing himself.
We see that Jesus asks him three times. He asks Peter, “Do you love me with total and utter commitment (The Greek word agape is used here). Each time Peter responds with, yes Lord you know that I love you. Here he uses the Greek word “Philo” which means I love you like a brother. This is why Peter denied Jesus three times, That’s why Peter could not live up to his words that he will never fail Jesus. He thought he was the bee’s knees.
Each time Jesus says it is in order, Feed my Sheep. We read in verse 17 that Peter was sad because he knew in his heart of hearts that he could not claim to have even brotherly love, such was the depth of his sin and betrayal. So Peter replies, ‘Lord, you know all things, you know I love you!’ And it is ‘philo ‘ love, which Peter uses here. And each one of us, when we attend to the truth in our own hearts, stands with Peter at this moment. We look at Jesus and we sense him looking at us and we say, ‘Lord, I want to love. I really, really want to do what is right. I want to serve you. my intentions are good, honestly… but I am weak and frail and I get it wrong so often. I let you down, I betray you, I run away. My best is just not good enough. But please know, Lord, in my heart of hearts, despite my behavior, I really do love you to the best of my ability. The love I have for you is not what you deserve, but it’s the best I can offer.’
And Jesus looks you in the eye and he looks me in the eye and today he says to us: ‘That’s OK. The best you have to offer is good enough for me. I love you. I forgive you. I want to be with you.’ Today, Jesus is restoring us.
In these verses, we find the Lord Jesus re-commissioning Simon Peter for service. I am sure that Peter felt that his work and ministry was forever gone, but Jesus came to call him back into the fight! This was a time of unique fellowship and restoration between Jesus and Simon Peter. In these few verses, Jesus freed Peter from the bondage of his sin and failure and set him back about the business of serving the Lord and His church.
As Jesus restored Peter and restores us He asks only one thing, “Take care of my sheep”. And, as Jesus restores us, he asks only one thing of us: ‘Take care of my sheep’.
Love one another.
Take care of one another.
Forgive one another.
Have compassion on one another.
Show kindness and tolerance and patience towards one another.
Share hospitality with one another.
The last thing Jesus does is to give Peter this command, “Follow Me!” The last call is the same as the first. When Jesus found Peter and called him the first time, this was His command. When he recommissions Peter, He issues the same call. This tells us that the Lord hasn’t changed His mind about Peter, or about Peter’s duty before the Lord.
And so we come to the very end of this incredible encounter; an encounter through which Simon Peter is restored, an encounter through which the disciples are restored, and an encounter through which we have the assurance that Christ restores us. And the closing words in verse 19 are this: ‘Then Jesus said to him, ‘Follow me.'” The ultimate act of reconciliation and restoration. Jesus finally brings Peter back to the beginning, right back to his original calling more than three years ago.
On that day Jesus commissioned this fisherman with the words, “Follow me.” And now, after all that has happened – the drama of the three years following, the ups and downs, the lows, the highs, the crowds, the healings, the raising of people from the dead, the adventures of faith and mission, the torture, the betrayal, the death, the burial, the resurrection – after all this, Jesus is back on the same shore of the same Lake Galilee. He is looking at the same fisherman called Simon. And on this day, Jesus re-commissions the same fisherman with the same words, ‘Follow me.’ Jesus has restored him. All has been put right in this moment of reconciliation and restoration. And so it is with us today. Jesus has restored us. Our past sins and failings have been forgiven and forgotten. This is a new moment, a new beginning.
Jesus has restored us. Such is the grace and mercy and compassion and loving kindness of God. So Jesus says – again – to each one of us, “Follow me.”
How the story ends is up to you.
MESSAGE FOR SUNDAY, 2025/04/27
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Reading:
John 20:19-31
Text:
John 20:27-28 “Then he said to Thomas “Put your finger here see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe” Thomas said to Him, “My Lord and my God!”
Message:
And now, two days later, these stories from the woman who went to visit the tomb, that the tomb was empty, and Jesus was raised from the dead. Just imagine the swirl of emotions those disciples must have been feeling when Jesus came and stood among them that evening! They felt joy, of course. But also sadness over what Jesus went through. And confusion over what his resurrection meant. And fear; we know that they were very afraid. And, I strongly suspect, they felt guilt, too, over deserting Jesus, in his hour of need. And in response to all of that joy and sadness and confusion and fear and guilt, Jesus simply said:
Peace be with you
What Jesus did on that first Easter evening was to show those frightened disciples the same grace and mercy and forgiveness and love that he always showed. He came and stood among them and simply said, “Peace be with you.” And then, to ease their doubts, he showed them his hands and his side. No wonder the disciples rejoiced to see him! Not only was Jesus alive and among them, he had also forgiven them for all that they had done – and not done – over these last dramatic days.
A week after this story takes place, the first Sunday after Easter, we find those disciples back in the upper room; the door locked again. Has anything changed? Jesus shows up again, and this time he’s upset, right? This time, he’s going to give them a pep-talk, and tell them to get out there and do what he asked, right?
Well, no. The first thing he says when he shows up this time is – surprise, surprise – “Peace be with you.” Then, he turns to Thomas. Now, Thomas was not there a week ago, when Jesus first appeared to the other disciples. We are not sure why, but I’ve always wondered if Thomas was the only one brave enough to leave that upper room to go and get some food for everyone. But, at any rate, when the others told Thomas that they had seen the Lord, Thomas famously said, “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe.”
So, what does Jesus do when he appears to Thomas? Again, Jesus shows patience and forgiveness and mercy. He said to Thomas, “Put your fingers here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe.”
What patience Jesus had – not only with Thomas, but with all the disciples! What patience he has with you and me.
The same thing can happen today. Jesus Christ would like to touch your life. He would like to give you a new purpose and passion. With His touch He transformed a discouraged, defeated, doubting disciple into a new man. Do you need to regain your passion? Do you feel stuck in your spiritual life? Maybe you have been through something that has caused you to stop growing in your spiritual life. You are discouraged. We can now see what happened to Thomas.
When Thomas touched Jesus he was transformed. He was changed from a pessimist to an optimist. He was changed from a discouraged disciple to a passionate disciple. I pray that every one of us will receive that touch today. Do you know the end of Thomas’ story? Do you know where he died? He died in India. He was the apostle to the people of India. He brought the gospel of Christ to India. He died a martyr after he was run through with five spears by five soldiers. That doesn’t sound much like a doubter, does it? It sounds like someone who grew and changed, someone for whom the resurrection of Christ was real, someone for whom the empty tomb made a difference. It just took a little time, as it does for most, maybe all of us.
We know Doubting Thomas but let’s not forget Confessing Thomas. He’s in today’s gospel as well. “My Lord and my God!” With those words Thomas has recognized and named a new relationship, a new worldview, a new way of being. Somewhere between Doubting Thomas and Confessing Thomas is the story of resurrection in Thomas’ life. All that stuff about Doubting Thomas, the fact of his disbelief, is just Thomas’ starting place, nothing more and nothing less. It’s neither good nor bad. It’s a starting place. And we all have starting places.
What are the things that cause us to lose our spiritual passion?
Unbelief and discouragement
What are the issues that cause us to lose heart and to become discouraged in our walk with God? What is your starting place? What are the facts of your life today? The starting place for the story of our resurrection is whatever is. Whatever your life is today, whatever your circumstances are, that’s the starting point for your story of resurrection. So, if you’re dealing with deep loneliness, sorrow, and loss, that’s your starting point. That’s the room which Christ enters. If you are locked in a house of fear, confusion, or darkness, that’s your starting point and the place in which Jesus stands. If illness, old age, disability, or uncertainty are facts of your life, that’s your starting point and the place in which Jesus shows up. If you feel lost, betrayed, disappointed, overwhelmed, that’s your starting point and the house Jesus enters.
We also lose our spiritual passion when we get distracted by our busy schedules, excuses.
What are the consequences of losing our passion?
(a) We go Awol we drop out. Thomas was absent the first time Jesus appeared to His disciples. People drop out of church and stop going to worship, opportunities and church responsibilities.
(b) As we lose our spiritual passion we live defeated lives. Thomas had lost his joy and was filled with doubt. He was pessimistic. When we lose our passion we might be defeated by any number of negative emotions. Several years ago at a passion play an incident took place during Jesus carrying the cross. A man in the audience was heckling the character playing Jesus, throwing out jeers, taunts and dares. Finally the character could no longer tolerate the heckler, he dropped the cross and went over and punched out the man. The director was aghast and after the play pulled the actor aside and told him in no uncertain terms was he ever to do that again. But the next night the same heckler was back and again the same thing, Jesus this time had to be restrained. The director called the actor in and gave him an ultimatum of either quitting or keeping his composure. The young actor assured the director he would keep himself under control. The third night, the heckler was present again and taunted even stronger than the two previous nights. The man playing Jesus rose to his full stature, gritted his teeth and told the heckler, “I’ll see you right after the resurrection.”
Our passion is restored by
Being honest about our conditions is how we begin to restore our passion. Jesus helped Thomas come to terms with his condition. He caused him to look in the mirror and He caused him to see himself in a true light. Then Thomas opened to change. He was willing to put his finger into Jesus’ wounds. Thomas was open to change and to being taught. Jesus was the change agent, Jesus was the teacher. Thomas was open. Passion is often fueled by new adventures in your spiritual life. It could be fasting. It could be a conference. It could be an extended time in prayer. Such events can and will move you out of your comfort zone. How willing are you to change and trust Jesus when He calls us to reignite the passion in us to be with other believers, to be active in service and want to know God and be filled with enthusiasm.
Touched by Jesus
Notice what happened when Thomas touched Jesus. He spontaneously shouted “My Lord and My God.” (Verse 28). That short simple phrase revealed volumes about Thomas. It also revealed volumes about Jesus.. Suffice it to say that Thomas was ecstatic. He was transformed by the touch of the master.
Here is a beautiful bit by Myra Brooks Welch (Contributed to Sermon Central by Elliot Ross)
The touch of the Master’s hand.
It was battered and scarred, and the auctioneer
Thought it scarcely worth his while,
To waste much time on the old violin,
But held it up with a smile
What am I bid for this old violin?
Who will start the bidding for me?
A dollar, a dollar, who’ll make it two?
Two dollars, and who will make it three?
“Three dollars, once; three dollars twice,
Going for three,” But no;
From the back of the room a gray-haired man
Came forward and picked up the bow.
Then wiping the dust from the old violin,
And tightening up all the strings,
He played a melody pure and sweet,
As sweet as the angels sing.
The music ceased, and the auctioneer
With a voice that was quiet and low
Said, “What am I bid for the old violin?”
And he held it up with the bow.
“A thousand dollars, and who will make it two?
Two thousand! And who’ll make it three?
Three thousand, once; three thousand, twice;
And going and gone,” said he.
The people cheered, but some of them said,
“We do not quite understand,
What changed its worth?” Came the reply,
“The touch of a master’s hand.”
And many a man with life out of tune,
And battered and scarred with sin,
Is auctioned cheap to a thoughtless crowd,
Much like the old violin.
A “mess of pottage,” a glass of wine;
A game, and he shuffles along.
He’s going once, and he’s going twice,
He’s going and almost gone,
But the master comes, and the thoughtless crowd
Never quite understands
The worth of a soul, and the change that’s wrought
By the touch of the Master’s hand.
Conclusion
Again and again, in the midst of our doubts and fears, and in the midst of our sin and failings, our crucified and risen Lord and Savior comes to us and says: “Peace be with you.” Again and again, he comes to us and says, “Do not doubt, but believe.” Again and again, Jesus forgives us, breathes new life into us, and offers us the gift of new life in Christ, and the promise of the Holy Spirit.
And again and again, our risen Lord reminds us of our mission; to go and share the peace and the joy and the hope of this new life, with our world that struggles to find peace, joy or hope. Again and again, the risen Jesus comes to us. To give us peace, to give us new life, to forgive our sin, and to gently remind us not to doubt but to believe. And again and again, he invites us to go. To go in peace, to serve our risen Lord. Thanks be to God. Amen
MESSAGE FOR SUNDAY, 2025/04/20
Please note that there are no longer any YouTube messages available
Reading:
John 20:1-18
Text:
John 20:14 “At this she turned around and saw Jesus standing there but she did not realize that it was Jesus.”
Message:
Life without the Resurrection is flat because life without Christ can be heavy and flat. Just like biscuits without baking powder are flat and heavy. We tend to think of the Easter message as a message for the end of life. But, frankly, I think we need the Easter message right now, cause as many of us know, death can come long before the end of life. How many people do we know who are walking this earth physically alive but dead of spirit? Maybe you are one of them. How easily life can beat us down.
It is easy to celebrate the resurrection of the body on this glorious Easter Sunday. But what about the resurrection of the spirit? What about tomorrow morning, when the alarm clock goes off at 6 am and our spirits sink – where is the resurrection then?
• Where is the resurrection when we work night and day in a thankless job and yet find ourselves deeper in debt?
• Where is the resurrection when after working forty years we realize we’re about to lose our home?
• Where is the resurrection when we wake up one morning and realize nothing matters to us anymore?
• Where is the resurrection when at the end of life our family and friends are all gone and we are left alone to negotiate in a world that does not honor its old ones?
Where is the resurrection then?
It’s not just resurrection after death we’re talking about, it is resurrection during life. Like biscuits without baking powder, life without the resurrection can be heavy and flat. But, today, I say we bring that missing ingredient back.
We read in John’s gospel today that Mary goes to the tomb while it is still dark. It was dark inside of Mary as well. Now Jesus was crucified, dead in a tomb. Her heart was heavy and in her soul it was still dark. Sadness, disappointment, and emptiness had been her companions since Friday. It had been a good three-year run, but now it is over. Let’s face it. We all have our days when we stand with our dreams in shambles around our feet. Our children go astray. We get the pink slip from our employer, or worse still, the test comes back from the lab as positive. This happens to good people as well as to those who haven’t been so good. “Why me, Lord?’ I go to church with regularity. I’m even involved in my church. My life was going so well and now this darkness.
However, a close examination of the text reveals something helpful. When it was yet dark, God was at work on her behalf. He was making a way where there was no way. Have no doubt about it, when things get tough, and they will, it does not mean that God has abandoned you. When the darkness comes upon you, God is still working on your behalf. She didn’t leave Jesus or deny him. She remained faithful to him while waiting for the light. A colleague, Rev. Trevor Hudson always said to me, each Sunday as you look out over the congregation, every one there is sitting in a pool of tears. No one is immune.
She finds the stone rolled away and Jesus’ body gone. Weeping, she looks inside the tomb and sees two angels. “Woman, why are you weeping?” they ask. “They have taken away my Lord,” Mary said, “and I do not know where they have laid him.” Just then, she turned around and Jesus was standing there. But she didn’t recognize him.
“Woman, why are you crying?” “Sir”, Mary said, “if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.”
“Mary,” Jesus said.
And the second he says her name. Mary realizes that this stranger standing before her was the risen Christ. “Rabbouni” she says to Jesus.
Mary recognized the Living Christ. She recognized that life force in her midst. And it’s exactly the same for us. We have the risen Christ right in front of us. We have a life force in our midst. And that’s the missing ingredient we must reclaim.
It is always so beautiful in Namaqualand. We see each year how barren the fields look but then the rain comes and all of a sudden there are beautiful colors as far as the eye can see. What a beautiful symbol of renewal of life from no life. Rain was the “baking powder.” Like those little dormant seeds, there is still life in us all. We just need to find that missing ingredient to bring it back. And that ingredient is Jesus.
So let us this Easter open our lives to that missing ingredient in our barren and empty lives and let Jesus into our lives. What are the things that are preventing Christ from coming into our lives things like anger, negativity, fear, doubt, things that shut us down, weigh us down, the things that life renewing of Jesus working in our hearts. As the song writer says: “I know my Redeemer lives because He lives in my heart.” As Ann Lamott said: “God can’t clean the house of you with you in it.”
Another great truth in life is this: Deep down, the human spirit yearns for joy, yearns to soar. We all long for a spirit of joy and lightness but more than often our lives become flat, heavy and bleak. For everyone out there who feels that their dreams have been destroyed, their hopes dashed, their spirits crushed, here is the good news of Easter morning: The risen Christ can take our flat, heavy hearts and put back that key ingredient:
• So that our spirits are not stuck on the ground,
• So that our spirits are not dictated by human pain or loss or disappointment,
• So that our spirits are not mired in a tomb.
Easter brings each of us a second chance. A chance to see the life force in our midst. A chance to recognize the risen Christ right in front of us. A chance to start again.
Mary. Still weeping, she saw the grave clothes and realized that the powers of heaven had been at work. She sees two angels; they were presumably sitting where Jesus’ body had been. She is not frightened and they inform her of the good news. While she was speaking, Christ suddenly appeared behind her. She sees the object of her concern, but does not recognize him. Jesus comes to her with great love and gentleness.
We need to realize that in our most difficult situations God is working on our behalf even if we do not know it at the time. He is working to bring light and to dispel our dark situations. The good news is not only that Jesus was raised from the tomb, but the character of God is revealed in Jesus. He is light and He is also love. In her darkness she is ministered to, and her life goes in a different direction when Jesus calls her to go and tell the brethren. Note that His first command as the resurrected Christ is to tell a woman to go preach to his disciples. She becomes an apostle to the disciples.
God is piercing her darkness and ours. He not only ministers to her with comforting angels, he calls her into usefulness. Go and tell the apostles. The dispelling of our darkness demands that we tell others in order to complete the cure. As believers, we have difficulty acknowledging that the same power that rolled away the stone that covered the mouth of the cave where Jesus was buried can roll away the stones that have plagued our lives. The power of the resurrection will dispel our darkness and enable us to live resurrection, empowered lives.
MESSAGE FOR SUNDAY, 2025/04/13
Please note that there are no longer any YouTube messages available
Reading:
Luke 19:28-40
Text:
Luke 19:38 “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!” “Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!”
Message:
Jesus entered Jerusalem on what we as Christians call Palm Sunday and for all time thereafter that last week of His life on earth would be known to his followers across the world as Holy Week. Today we as Christians once again celebrate Palm Sunday and the beginning of Holy Week. It was a difficult week for Jesus. It began so triumphantly in our text with people spreading their garments on the road to make a royal carpet for his entry. Other passages in scripture tell us that cut branches were laid out before him. Our text from Luke records a multitude of his disciples joyfully shouting, “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest heaven!” Other scriptures proclaim crowds of people shouting, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!”
By Thursday of that week crowds of people began to cry out against Jesus and after the last Supper one of His followers betrayed him with a kiss! By Friday of that week, the crowds seem to have completely turned against Him. And cried out crucify Him, Crucify Him and Crucify Him. And Saturday He lay in the grave all seemed quiet, ominously quiet. There are times when silence seems appropriate.
Sunday morning Jesus rises from the dead. A difficult week had an incredible conclusion. Holy Week is confusing. His disciples had borrowed a donkey for his ride into the city. That alone told the people that he was a man of peace and that he was not in the mold of the Roman generals who always rode into town on a warhorse. He was a servant. As he rides into the city of Jerusalem on a borrowed donkey, the people crowd the streets to hail him Messiah: “The One who comes in the name of the Lord!” They placed palm branches in his path, and they give every indication that they know he fulfills the picture of the Messiah found in Zechariah 9:9. But they melt away as they see that during the week he is not going to fit into their popular image of the Messiah; and by his teaching and action, he calls them to make difficult decisions about himself and about their own lives.
We wonder what could have possibly happened in that week that caused people to turn against Jesus so rapidly. This event begins Holy Week. This week is eventful and revealing. In it we can see how the tide of popular opinion turns against him as the week progresses. On Monday he cleanses the temple of the money changers. This violent scene provokes the Jewish leaders to intensify the effort to get rid of him. On Tuesday he engages in discourse with the Jewish leaders and curses the fig tree for being barren, a clear message to Israel. Wednesday, he was anointed in Bethany much to the discomfort of Judas. And Thursday, which we call Maundy Thursday, he was preparing for Passover. It was also the evening of the betrayal, arrest in Gethsemane and the beginning of the trials. The crowds call for his crucifixion. Friday was the day of the crucifixion. Saturday was in the tomb and Sunday the day of the resurrection, the day of victory.
The same crowds that cried “Hosanna” on the first day of the week cried “Crucify him!” at the end of the week. Why? Could it have been because they wanted an instant kingdom, and he offered them an eternal kingdom? Or could it have been because the crowds wanted entertainment, not enrichment? Or simply, when during the week, they saw the demands of his kingdom and they were not willing to change their lives, much less their lifestyle for Him?
It is very simple. Jesus resisted any attempt to make his message or ministry a handmaiden to the culture, to the government, or any other religious group. As this became clear, the crowds began to melt away. They were not much different than we are. A religious commitment that will not support my political view or my economic opinion is not for me. Any faith that claims first place in my life is not acceptable; after all, my faith should support me, my world view, and demand nothing of me.
We live in a day of instant everything, from instant cake mixes to information and entertainment. We no longer can wait for anything. We are like the lady who prayed, “Lord, give me patience – and I want it now!” We no longer have the patience to let character develop, or to postpone gratification. A God who does not give us what we want now is of no use to us. Jesus would not adjust his message to the popular ideas of the Messiah that prevailed in his day. He called his disciples to a life-time commitment and not to a short-term ministry. He would not adjust his message to their whims or gain following by stroking their prejudices.
However, we like the crowds on that Jerusalem street, are no different.
• God calls us to repentance. We want to make a deal.
• God says his kingdom is forever, and we say it is as long as I need it or can use it.
• God says all things are mine. We say try and get them from me.
• God stretches us. He does not stroke us.
I do not think God is particularly concerned with our happiness, but I do think God is very concerned with our holiness. He is concerned with our commitment and not our pleasure.
Christian faith can only be understood when it is a life-time commitment. This serious commitment leads us through the moments of temptation when we are tempted to be less than we are made to be. It takes us through the valley of doubt when we see the futility of the uncommitted life and ask, “Is this all there is?” Holy Week invites us to look deeper at our commitment. They may have felt that their potential hero had let them down. They may have been so caught up with the things of this world that they could not see that Jesus was talking of a higher realm as much more important. They may have realized that they had misunderstood Jesus and his mission. He did not seem to be as interested in the politics of the day as he was in the holiness of God’s people.
And when you combine this with Zechariah’s prophecy that Jerusalem’s true king would come into the city riding on a donkey (Zechariah 9:9) it’s clear that Jesus is making a statement with this mode of transportation: he was openly claiming to be the King of Jerusalem, the rightful successor of David, who would bring peace to Israel.
Finally Jesus was acting the way the people wanted him to … and that’s why that crowd grew so big so quickly – they thought that he was getting ready to reestablish David’s throne in Jerusalem. They were expecting Jesus to be the king they wanted; a king who would throw the Romans out of the Holy Land and restore prosperity and power to Israel. That’s the version of Jesus the world can – and does – gladly accept. No more of this bloody Jesus and his cross. No more of this Jesus who builds his kingdom through foolish things like words and water, bread and wine.
The Jesus the world wants .. that’s the Jesus I want too. And I suspect the same is true of you. I don’t really want bloody Good Friday Jesus. I want glorious Palm Sunday Jesus. I don’t want a king who is rejected by the world, and says that the world will reject me too if I follow him. I don’t want a Jesus who picks up his cross and then tells me that if I’m going to follow him I must pick up my own cross, too. I want a Jesus who stops at Luke 19:40. I want a superhero Jesus that I can brag about at parties – not a bloody, beaten, loser Jesus who says that we must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God. (Acts 14:22)
Are we not at times like the people that first Palm Sunday the crowd is here shouting praise to King Jesus in His time of glory, but where will this crowd be on Maundy Thursday and Good Friday when King Jesus bleeds and dies? The truth is that if we want Jesus to be a King who comes to make this life and this world better, then we don’t want the true Jesus, the Jesus of the Bible. And this is more than just a mistake, this is sin, this is idolatry. It’s time to repent.
It’s easy to make mistakes about Jesus on Palm Sunday because the appearances can be deceiving. He appears to march in as David’s legitimate heir who has come to be the earthly King the people want. But if you look past the palm branches and adoring crowds, you can see the real reason Jesus came. And finally, not the Palm Sunday crowds but the Good Friday stones proclaim the King we need. We don’t need a Jesus who hangs out in a palace, we need a Jesus who hangs on a cross. A Jesus who is popular in the world wouldn’t want anything to do with you or me. We don’t have the power, the money, the looks, the talent, the charisma the world values and praises. A Jesus like that would be out of touch and out of reach.
We need a Jesus who meets us where we are; who knows what it is to grieve and weep; who knows what it means to be weak and helpless; who is despised and hated by the same world we are. When we are suffering, we find comfort in a King who suffers too. When we are burdened by sin and haunted by demons, we run to a King who knows sin’s weight and the devil’s fury. More than we need a King who is popular with this world’s elite, we need a King who isn’t ashamed to associate with sinners; because that’s what we are. The Jesus the world wants comes and demands to be served. He expects people to give him the shirt off their backs. He expects them to sacrifice everything for him. This Jesus fits the paradigm of power and glory in this world. But this is not the Jesus I need. I don’t need a Jesus who demands the shirt off my back; I need a Jesus who offers his back to take the beating I deserve from God and covers my shameful nakedness with the robe of his righteousness. I don’t need a Jesus who will take over the world but a Jesus who willingly loses the world to save me. I need the Jesus of Philippians 2 who lets go of heaven to grab hold of me. Let the rest of the world have health and wealth Jesus; I need the Jesus who gave up his health and wealth to defeat sin, death and the devil and win eternal life for me.
Now as Christians we are now called to spend our lives proclaiming to the world the salvation that Jesus brought and to live holy lives of mission, ministry, and service in his name. We are to live into the love, mercy, and grace that Christ, our Lord, brought to us from the forgiving heart of God.
The Holy Week we need to make sure that we understand Jesus Christ and what He can mean to our hurting world. If we are praising the name of Jesus at the beginning of this week, let us be sure that we are praising him for the right reasons. Following Jesus let us love everyone in the name of Christ even as we love ourselves. Let us care for those who do not have enough. Let us reach out to the least, the last, and the lost. Let us seek peace with justice for all people. Let us give ourselves to the ministry of reconciliation that God, who reconciled us through Christ, has entrusted to us so that the whole world, forgiven of their trespasses, may be reconciled to God through Christ. Let us never cease to follow Christ’s example by feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, healing the sick, welcoming the stranger, visiting the prisoner, and loving our enemies.
Christian faith can only be understood when it is a life-time commitment. This serious commitment leads us through the moments of temptation when we are tempted to be less than we are made to be. It takes us through the valley of doubt when we see the futility of the uncommitted life and ask, “Is this all there is?’ Holy Week invites us to look deeper at our commitment. The apostle Paul calls us to be steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord. The triumphal entry invites us to re-examine our understanding of the mission of Jesus and our commitment to him. As we see the crowds melt away as the week becomes more difficult and the challenges to commitment become more intense, we must ask ourselves, “Have we the Lord of our lives?”