Monthly Archives: May 2020
Questions From our Youth: A sermon based on John 14 and our confirmands.
Questions from our Youth
John 14:1-14
† In Jesus Name †
May the grace and peace of God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ provide “the” answer to your question of life!
The questions overlooked?
Since September, we’ve had a confirmation class of 4, plus my own youth who was confirmed before. We finished going through the small catechism and these young people asked incredible questions, Noah, Nathan Isabelle and Jonah. They really are trying to understand who God is and what He does, and how He is with us.
Sometimes it is good to get another set of eyes on the passage I am going to preach on, and this week, I did just that. I asked the 4 young people to look at the passage from the gospel, and come up with a question on it, that I would make part of the sermon.
So here are these three questions,
Since we were talking about God preparing a place for you when we go to be with Him, one asked, “Where did God put you before you were born.”
The second question echoes the apostle Phillip’s comment, and asks “why hasn’t anyone ever seen God.”
And the third was more a request to talk about what Jesus means when he says, ““I tell you the truth, anyone who believes in me will do the same works I have done, and even greater works because I am going to be with the Father.”
Where were we before we were born.
The first question is one that a potential future pastor might ask. I say that because it is difficult to answer because scripture does not directly tell us. Instead, we stay up late at night and discuss these things, debating various theories, trying to determine what is true, despite God not telling us directly.
The question, “Where were we, when before we were born, where did God put us?”
I only found a couple of verses on this, the first being in the Old Testament prophet 5 “I knew you before I formed you in your mother’s womb. Before you were born I set you apart and appointed you as my prophet to the nations.” Jeremiah 1:5 (NLT2)
Notice it does not say God put us in this corner of heaven or that back closet.
It does say that God knew us, who would be. Before He formed us in our mother’s wombs, God knew all about us, after all, He created us. Because He knew us, he also created us with a plan, in Jeremiah’s case, to make Him a prophet to the nations. He does the same for each of us, crafting our lives and the opportunities we have to love Him, and love those around us, by sharing with them the love of God.
Why hasn’t anyone seen God?
The next question was, Why hasn’t anyone seen God?
While there are a few people that have in history, like Adam and Eve who walked with God, and Abraham who scriptures say talked with him as a man talks with a friend. The 70 elders and Moses and Aaron saw God and ate with Him in the desert. Phillip and the other apostles saw God as well, hear again Jesus words
“ Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied.” 9 Jesus replied, “Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and yet you still don’t know who I am? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father!”
So what about us today, who haven’t seen God, and am not sure we have heard Him talk?
I would say we have often seen God, not as I see Bob over here, but we see God when we see him. I see God like I know if someone is on the beach, I see the marks that He leaves in my life, and in the lives around us. There are things we see God doing in people’s lives, bringing peace and love. We hear God in the voices of those people we love, who remind us God is with us, that remind us that God forgives our sin, to remind us that God loves us.
And we look forward to the day when we will see Him face to face, when we will hear His voice directly, rather than through His word and the love God shows us.
He will provide views into His life.
Greater works than I have done
The last comment is one that intrigues me as well, a promise that Jesus makes. We should hear this again, ““I tell you the truth, anyone who believes in me will do the same works I have done, and even greater works, because I am going to be with the Father.”
We know what Jesus did, he taught to thousands, without the benefit of sound systems or youtube channels, and no one, absolutely no one, has had more followers in History. He healed people, he even raised some from the dead, and He conquered death. He was even able to get stubborn people like Peter to become saints, and killers like Paul and King David to repent.
So what can we do, that is ever greater than all of that?
The interesting thing is, we don’t know when we do! We just simply follow God and try to depend on Him to love like only He can love.
Let me explain, in the judgment scene in Matthew 25, we read,
34 “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the creation of the world. 35 For I was hungry, and you fed me. I was thirsty, and you gave me a drink. I was a stranger, and you invited me into your home. 36 I was naked, and you gave me clothing. I was sick, and you cared for me. I was in prison, and you visited me.’ 37 “Then these righteous ones will reply, ‘Lord, when did we ever see you hungry and feed you? Or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38 Or a stranger and show you hospitality? Or naked and give you clothing? 39 When did we ever see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ 40 “And the King will say, ‘I tell you the truth, when you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were doing it to me!’ Matthew 25:34-40 (NLT2)
Did you see what King Jesus will praise them for, they don’t even remember they did it? They simply were loving the people around them. They saw needs and met them, they visited and cared for and loved those that others ignored.
And Jesus recognizes us and says that we are obviously blessed by our Father for doing these things. We show God’s love in doing these things, in reaching out and loving those people as God would do it if He was here.
This shows the Holy Spirit at work in us, This shows us that united to Jesus, fused to Him in our baptism, doing the very things God the Father planned for us to do, we see God at work, in each other. From young kids like those that paraded around our parking lot to the older folk like Kurt, who called me this week to encourage me.
We might not think anything about it, but that is God at work….and when we love as Jesus, did, there is no work greater… and we show God’s love and work in us.
Some great questions… all pointing to God’s work in our lives…
For the Lord is with you! AMEN!
The Battle for What is Right
Devotional Thought of the Day:
20 “But I warn you—unless your righteousness is better than the righteousness of the teachers of religious law and the Pharisees, you will never enter the Kingdom of Heaven! Matthew 5:20 (NLT2)
10 “Two men went to the Temple to pray. One was a Pharisee, and the other was a despised tax collector. 11 The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed this prayer: ‘I thank you, God, that I am not a sinner like everyone else. For I don’t cheat, I don’t sin, and I don’t commit adultery. I’m certainly not like that tax collector! 12 I fast twice a week, and I give you a tenth of my income.’ 13 “But the tax collector stood at a distance and dared not even lift his eyes to heaven as he prayed. Instead, he beat his chest in sorrow, saying, ‘O God, be merciful to me, for I am a sinner.’ Luke 18:10-13 (NLT2)
943 Be careful that in dealing with other people you don’t make them feel like someone who once exclaimed (and not without reason), “I’m fed up with these righteous characters!”
The problem of dealing with the hypocrisy of pharisaical people is that we often become as pharisaical as they are! We grow in disdain over their self-proclaimed righteousness, and we begin to compare ourselves to them. We might say, “Yes, I am better because I know what a sinner IAM, and God has saved me, while he is off thinking God should just honor him.”
It is too easy to become self-righteous in our own eyes. This results in the situation that St.Josemaria mentions. The horrible thought that our righteousness act would drive someone away from the love and mercy of Jesus. That we could rob them of the peace of Christ because we are simply a bunch of assholes, pretending to be holy. That we could become so pharisaical that we would not enter God’s presence…is beyond horror, beyond sadness…
And yet we do it, every time we compare our faithfulness, our doctrine, our actions to those around u.
he tax collector, desiring the Lord’s mercy, doesn’t compare himself to the pharisee. He seeks absolution, He seeks to be cleansed of his sin, he seeks to be healed of his brokenness. He prays there and walks away righteous, having encounter the God who promised to be merciful.
Having been shown mercy, we become merciful. Having been loved, we are able to love. Without even realizing it, we are revealed to be in the presence of God.
Where we belong.
Lord, have mercy on me…a sinner.
Escriva, Josemaria. The Way . Scepter Publishers. Kindle Edition.
Do We Need Escapes or Sabbath Rests?
Photo by Wouter de Jong on Pexels.com
Devotional Thought of the Day:
1 Israel, the LORD who created you says, “Do not be afraid—I will save you. I have called you by name—you are mine. 2 When you pass through deep waters, I will be with you; your troubles will not overwhelm you. When you pass through fire, you will not be burned; the hard trials that come will not hurt you. 3 For I am the LORD your God, the holy God of Israel, who saves you. I will give up Egypt to set you free; I will give up Ethiopia and Seba. Isaiah 43:1-3 (TEV)
Christians often want to die when they have any trouble. Ask them why, and they tell you, “Because we would be with the Lord.” We fear it is not so much because they are longing to be with the Lord, as because they desire to get rid of their troubles; else they would feel the same wish to die at other times when not under the pressure of trial. They want to go home, not so much for the Saviour’s company, as to be at rest. Now it is quite right to desire to depart if we can do it in the same spirit that Paul did, because to be with Christ is far better, but the wish to escape from trouble is a selfish one. Rather let your care and wish be to glorify God by your life here as long as he pleases, even though it be in the midst of toil, and conflict, and suffering, and leave him to say when “it is enough.
In the class I am taking, there is the usual insistence on pastors and those in ministry taking time to rest, to take a sabbath, a vacation from all the stresses that we encounter. They point o Jesus going away, sometimes with the disciples, sometimes alone. He went off to pray to the Father, and one to converse with Moses and Elijah.
It hit me, as I was reading the words of Spurgeon in blue above, that we can want those times of rest for the wrong reason. We want them, much as we might long for death, as an escape from life. An escape from the problems.
We need to change that, we need to re-orient and want these times as a sabbath, a time of rest in God, a chance to be nurtured and to see the healing. We need to remember what God is communicating through Isaiah this morning, that God saves us.
We may not be comfortable in the fire, or in the storm, or in the midst of the troubles that we are caught up in at the moment. We may weep, and cry, and struggle, and yes, even want it all to end. It is in those moments, we have to see the cross, we have to see the love, we have to cry out, “Lord have mercy,” and find our rest, in Him.
We need to learn ot run to Jesus, not just escape, but to glorify Him, as we realize His love for us all. The love that will sustain us, even in these times.
C. H. Spurgeon, Morning and Evening: Daily Readings (London: Passmore & Alabaster, 1896).
The Difference…
Devotional Thought fo the Day:
But they were no match for Stephen, who spoke with the great wisdom that the Spirit gave him. Acts 6:10 CEV
28 When Jesus finished speaking, the crowds were surprised at his teaching. 29 He taught them like someone with authority, and not like their teachers of the Law of Moses. Matthew 7:28-29 (CEV)
In other words, loving neighbor means not only coming under God’s law but coming into God’s life. It also means coming under God’s law but in a deeper sense than obeying the precepts. Law in Scripture sometimes means not just precept or prescription, but also a principle or origin of living.
I have pondered the idea of Jesus teaching with authority often. Indeed, I have often thought it would be a blessing to compare His manuscripts (which we have in the four gospels) to the manuscripts of the teachers of the law. Imagine, being able to sit down and look at some of the greatest teachers in rabbinical history, and compare them to Jesus, to find out what is missing, and then be able ot include that in my preaching, teaching, and writing.
As I’ve grown older, I ‘ve realized that it is not the manuscripts that would hold the answer. I am sure there were men as erudite, that there were those who included more references to back up their teaching, who could also enthrall crowds. So comparing the manuscripts would not lead to an answer.
Jesus gave that ability to His disciples, we see it in the scriptures, for they to taught, empowered by the Holy Spirit. You can see that in their writings, but it is also seen in the way people react to them. Stephen, one of the first deacons, spoke in a way that astounded people. He spoke of Jesus, and as he does, they described his face as like one of the angels.
There was no mistaking it, it was unnerving.
I think Professor Kreeft has an insight into it, that I didn’t think about until my devotions lined up this morning. It is not when we study the law that we can teach it, it is not when we feel its weight, but when we realize we are in Christ, when His logos, His order is rooted in us because He is there. When His love, for He is love, has taken root in us. When we become intimately aware that we are in His presence, and His glory transforms everything.
Including us, and therefore, including our teaching.
Not just the instruction that occurs in a sermon, or a lesson. But the teaching of our lives. The teaching that points people, not to us, but draws them into His glory. It is the impact of knowing you are loved.
As Jesus taught, the Father was revealed, may as we teach, the Spirit reveals Jesus, and the love He has for those who are listening.
Peter Kreeft, The God Who Loves You (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2004), 170.
