Blog Archives
The Mission: To Reveal Jesus Lifted Up
English: Lord Jesus at St Joseph Oratory, Montreal. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
The Mission: To Reveal Jesus Lifted Up
John 12:20-33
† In Jesus Name †
May you realize the gifts of God that are yours, the mercy, the peace, the love of the Father, which is yours because Jesus was glorified on the Cross.
Why didn’t they recognize the Father’s voice?
That’s His mission and ours…
When I sit down to study a Bible passage to preach on it, I usually read the passage a few times – and wait for questions to develop before I start looking at the original languages, or at what people have said in the nearly 2000 years since the Bible was completed.
The questions are usually simple observations, the odd things I notice that make me wonder about our relationships. First our relationship with each other, then our relationship with God.
Some of those questions stick with me a while, and so it was this week. The question this week that bugged me.. that creates the basis for this sermon is this,
“Why didn’t the crowd recognize the Voice speaking through the clouds?” Why didn’t they recognize the voice of our Heavenly Father?
After all, how many times have voices spoken from the heavens? Who else could it be?
On this day, as we dedicate our preschool staff, as we start a series looking at God’s mission in this world, the answer to that question is critical. For His mission becomes our mission.
“Why didn’t the crowd recognize the Voice speaking through the clouds” Why didn’t they recognize God’s voice?”
When we realize the answer – we will realize what we are asking our staff to do. Really what we are asking all that are part of this community of faith to do….
Simply put – God’s mission, our mission is to reveal Christ lifted up, entering His glory… that He can draw all to Him.
The Greeks and the Jews… same problem?
Which Jesus would they see?
Today’s gospel reading starts out with the Greeks, the non-Jewish people looking for Jesus. They had come up for the Passover feast, and whether they were simply curious about Judaism or they were in the process of conversion, we do not know. It would be an uncomfortable place to be, for many Jews resented their presence. Which is why they looked for one of the apostles, to ask permission to see Jesus.
Compare that to the Jewish leaders and people themselves who saw Jesus, but did not really see Him. They could grasp that He was, and is the Son of God. It seems ironic – those who desired to see Jesus could not but those that could didn’t really see Him either.
I think we have the same problem today, when we “look” for Jesus, and especially when we want to see Jesus in all of His glory.
Some of us look for the cute Jesus, like in a movie where the star prays to the “sweet 6 pound 8oz baby Lord Jesus”. A Jesus who is not threatening, one we can’t see judging our actions as sinful and self-destructive, but is precious, cute, and cuddly. Like the Greek pilgrims, this is a romanticized version of Jesus to look at, to wonder about, to ooh and ahh about, to expect blessings from when we adore Him.
Others look for the risen and reigning Jesus, the One who will return in all glory, and then everything will be put into its place! Everything will be perfect! Like the Pharisees, we expect God to fulfil that promise – now and here, and according to our plan. When we do not see that happening, we look other places. When we expect God to do things our way and He doesn’t – we give up. When we expect Him to applaud our pride, our self-righteousness, our sin. Instead, He calls us on it and as we ignore Him we cannot recognize His voice, His authority, or His glory.
Like those in the days when Jesus walked and taught in Galilee – too often in our time people want to Jesus on their terms, or they are incapable of seeing Him at all.
What we need to do is see Jesus in all of His glory, when He was glorified.
Then the virgin birth and the 2nd coming can be seen properly… but when was He seen in all His glory?
When was He glorified?
That is the key. It is the reality behind Jesus statement about loving life means losing it – and caring nothing for it in this life…means everything for eternity. He demonstrated that truth on the cross.
You see, when Jesus spoke of it being time for Him to enter into His glory, it is the same as when he talked about being lifted up from the earth… for He is glorified, He is to be praised and honored and exalted, for what happened on the cross.
For like the serpent on Moses’ pole it is when we look to Jesus on the cross, that we know we will be okay. God is here! God is aware of what we are going through! We realize that He will deal with all that burdens us, and all that challenges us, all that sin that would poison our lives and quench the life He gives us.
You see, the greatest thing, the most praiseworthy thing Christ does, was on that cross. When we look there, it is not about the sin that we have committed, it is not about whether we were a Pharisee or a prostitute, a pastor or a tax collector.
It is about realizing that it was because God loves us that he was there, that is was the away God deals with our rebellion, our pride, our sin, with love that only we can only see when we look to Christ. That is why we worship Him, which is why we praise Him, which is why, according to Paul; our Father in heaven glorified His name above every other name. We do not have to do anything to deserve His love – He poured it all out on the cross, when He was lifted up.
That is what our church and our preschool are about – that is what we are all called to do. Simply to reveal the love of Jesus, that love that drove Him to the cross. One of my favorite verses is found in the book of Hebrews – which talks about the joy that was set before Him, the reason He went and did that for which we praise Him.
For the joy that was before Him, Christ endures the cross.
The joy of knowing that we would be drawn to Him, that we would be able to hear the see Jesus, that we would be able to hear the Father. We do not need to lift him up on the cross again, but our praises need to remind us of the love He showed, of the work He has done, of the very claim He has on our life, because of that cross.
For it is there the difference is made, He was lifted up, and we are drawn to Him and praise His name for what He has done in love for us. This is why we will be in heaven. This is why we can forgive others and live free of resentment and guilt, why we don’t have to hate,
Then we know why he was born, and why He will come back again….
For we see Him in all of His glory…in all of His love.
And knowing we are loved, we live in the Father’s peace, a peace that passes all understanding, and guards our hearts and minds which are secure in Jesus. AMEN!
The Church that Needed to Repent and Be Reconciled to God’s Will
The Holy Spirit depicted as a dove, surrounded by angels, by Giaquinto, 1750s. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Acts 11:1-18
† In Jesus Name †
May you be encouraged, and rejoice as God shows you the love and mercy He has given you, as you witness it given to others.
I wonder if Peter was reading from the prophet Jonah?
As Peter starts to describe the way in which salvation had come to the Gentiles, I’ve wondered something. What was it he was praying about? What had he been meditating upon?
Was Peter working through the lessons he had been taught over and over and even a third time by Jesus? Was he considering the incredible grace of God that restored him each time he sinned, each time he tried to play God?
I wonder if he was reading the book of the Old Testament prophet Jonah…who would likewise be called to a place, to bring word of God’s love? Was he being sent to bring the blessed gift of repentance to a place his upbringing said wasn’t eligible or worth God’s mercy. Was he going to a people that his culture said was beyond God’s love.
Peter as always, struggled with where God was leading him to serve. It seemed that the third time God gave him the message; he actually “got” it. That is the story of chapter 10, which he recounts to those who were struggling with what he did here. This chapter isn’t really about what Peter did, to share God’s love with the Gentiles, it is what he did to help his fellow Jews to grasp how deep that love of God was, for every person of every ethnicity in the world.
It is amazing to me that Peter didn’t take on the criticism directly, nor did he take it personally. Instead, he simply focused on what God had done, and laid out the story as it happened. As Peter did this, led by the Holy Spirit, people changed.
Two Groups to Win…
Peter Is summoned to talk with those concerned about “those people” receiving the word of God. They are concerned about Peter compromising the gospel by fellowshipping with them. There will be a conversion here, a needed one, as people are reconciled to God’s will.
It is not the obvious one though, though that too is marvelous! The work of God is so incredibly evident there, as those who were far from God, and in bondage to sin. It is amazing and yet unexpected to hear that God was already working in them, that an angel miraculously intervened in Cornelius’s life, and he sent officials to bring Peter to him, for Peter was to bring them the message that would save him, and all of His household.
How amazing! That God work so bluntly, so clearly, so undeniably! By the time the vision is over, the words of God were burned into Peter’s heart. “What God has made clean, do not declare common!”
How incredible that this became true – not just about bacon and lobster, but about Cornelius and all his family! How amazing that those who were thought to have no hope, were given hope, were given life… were given the presence of God in their lives.
Which leads us to the second “conversion”, the second group that needs to be reconciled to God. They weren’t as far off, these who wanted this issue examined thoroughly. It was a foreign idea to them that God would work with these foreigners. It would be a difficult transition – they needed to see more than just information about God, they needed to see His heart, they needed to understand His will that no one should perish in bondage to sin. They needed to be reconciled to God, to come in line with His will….
And the Holy Spirit did that – again through the God’s love shared patiently through Peter.
The Critics Silenced…
God’s consistent will seen
In the midst of Peter sharing what God had done, as he explains that the men where there, that will of God is hinted at – when he says “And the Spirit told me to go with them, making no distinction. That word is the same as the word criticize above – again it means to thoroughly examine things – except in this case, no examination, no criticism. Peter, inspired directly by God’s Spirit, fully reconciled to God’s word by the vision goes…to bring words of life
He starts sharing about God’s love – He starts to lay out the gospel, to share with them the incredible love of God demonstrated through the incarnation, through the life, death, resurrection. He didn’t even get to the part about baptism, before it was evident that this was a God moment, a time when the Holy Spirit was creating life and faith and transforming them, bringing them to repentance. The very same things that happened at Pentecost – with the Spirit falling on the people of God, with the word being proclaimed, with people’s heart’s being opened and healed as they were washed and cleansed, as they received the gift of the Holy Spirit.
God’s consistent love – showing a depth and dimension unforeseen despite the prophecies, despite the promises that foreigners and immigrants would be welcome. God’s consistent love – so praised in the Old Testament, made evident even for those who were wrongly considered “far off”.
They realized God meant it when he said the Messiah would be a light to all nations,
They realized God meant it when He promised Abraham that all nations would be blessed by his descendant,
They realized Jesus meant it when He said that His blood would be shed on behalf of many, for the forgiveness of sins.
I love the way Paul would describe it,
19 you are no longer outsiders or aliens, but fellow-citizens with every other Christian – you belong now to the household of God. Firmly beneath you in the foundation, God’s messengers and prophets, the actual foundation-stone being Jesus Christ himself. In him each separate piece of building, properly fitting into its neighbour, grows together into a temple consecrated to God. You are all part of this building in which God himself lives by his spirit. Ephesians 2:19 (Phillips NT)
Peter, the one who was a bit too quick to speak, who overreacted, took his time, laid out what God had done, and when it was complete, there was silence. The doubt dropped to the floor. No one could object to God’s work. They had neither the strength, nor the desire. Just as Peter realized, when he sad,
17 If then God gave the same gift to them as he gave to us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could stand in God’s way?”
and the party began began.
The Reason for Praise
I have to admit – I love the spontaneous praising and glorifying of God, as these circumcised Jews realize that God loves the long time nemesis – the people of the world. The barriers are down, we are one…
That is what they are realizing, it is what we need to realize. It is what can and should break down every barrier between people – this idea that God has made us one, that God has granted to us “the repentance that leads to life.”
You see, there is something special in watching a brother or sister become part of the Body of Christ, as we did last week. There is something incredible about seeing that – or those “aha’ moments as we gain a little in understanding more about the depth of the Lord’s passionate love for us.
This is the work God does in both Jews and Gentiles. The change is what Luke describes with the word repentance here – this transformation of both our heart and will, redeeming us from our being oppressed by sin, and reconciling us with the will of God. That is the work of repentance – a total transformation of our heart and mind, both are used in the prophecies to describe God’s work.
And God has transformed, He has granted this repentance – this change to living a transformed life in Christ.
We see it here, when a child, or a youth, or even someone who has lived 8 decades comes – and is given the promise of that change as they are baptized into Christ!
We are witnesses to it happening here as well! As we gather at the family feast – where God our Father provides us with the Body and Blood of Chris! As He again grants us the power of the transformation, He has promised. For it is here that He reconciles us with His will, as He reconciles us together as one people – no matter our place of birth or whether the times since can be easily measured in days, years, or decades. He reconciles us together no matter the language we speak, or have spoken, no matter our height or weight or anything else.
We are One, in Christ.
And that is something so glorious – for God has transformed us all into His people. To Him be all the praise, all the glory and honor.
AMEN?
Us and Them…. both granted by God repentance to life!
One of the greatest blessings I have is to work with men who are in training to serve the church as deacons, some who go on to be trained to serve as pastor. Vicar Mark is one of those. I’ve had the blessing of being his instructor, his supervisor, his mentor – and especially his friend. We work each week through the sermon passage, as we encourage each other to preach Christ crucified – the hope of God’s people to share in His glory. Here is his sermon this week, another look at the passage I also preached on. May both sermons lead you to rejoice in God’s work in our (humanity’s) life.
Getting our of God’s Way
Acts 11:1-18
Greetings in the name of Jesus Christ who fought the fight and emerged victorious over sin and death, winning our salvation through the cross and that open and empty tomb.
He is Risen!
Alleluia, amen!
I was looking online this weekend ay pictures 27 years later of the nuclear accident at Cheyrnobal in what was once the Soviet Union during the Cold War. The cities and the area around the power plant look like a ghost town. It took me back to a time in which the world feared nuclear holocaust or M.A.D. mutually assured destruction.
Them and us or if you prefer, us and them.
As a child growing up in the shadow of the Cold War, this was a frequent term that I remember hearing. It pertained to the former evil empire called the Soviet Union who is the them and the God fearing, freedom loving United States who naturally was us.
If you listened to all the propaganda and rhetoric that spewed forward during this time and watched the finger pointing you would have thought that these people who were ‘them’ were some kind of monsters who rejected God, didn’t believe in human rights and didn’t love their children and wanted to crush us out of existence.
I mean can you imagine a country that doesn’t believe in the Triune God, kills its unborn children, makes certain human beings drink from different water fountains and make them sit in the back of a bus and wants to crush a country out of existence?
Oh yeah, that would be us.
This them and us attitude actually had the world on the brink of WWIII a few times but that was political and governmental. Our countries had vastly different ideologies and political doctrines, but what really separated the people?
There were believers there just like there was here or lack of believers. They loved their children and each other just as much as we did ours. All they wanted like we wanted was to live. Both sides wanted to live in peace free from the threat and actual happening of war.
One other thing that both sides shared is that both sides were sinners in desperate need of the peace that passes all understanding.
Both sides needed Christ.
Them and us.
The attitudes of ‘them and us’ does nothing but cause harm. It produces distance and misunderstanding between the two parties and it manifests pain and hurt.
There was a case of them and us as we read from Acts today. Peter is headed back to Jerusalem after meeting with uncircumsized men or if you prefer Gentiles. He had been sent there to share the Gospel with those unclean Gentiles? Them!
The circumcision party as they are called or Jews who believed in Christ are not happy with Peter. They are the usor I guess for us, the Jewish Christians are the them?
Christ did not come to save these unclean Gentiles, they weren’t born into this, they had no training in the religious ways or Laws of Moses. They probably even ate bacon and ham!
Well, these Jewish believers had heard that Peter had shared the Gospel with a Gentile family and even ate with them they were very unhappy and began to criticize Peter saying, “You went to uncircumcised men and ate with them.”
You might be thinking, “What’s the big deal, so he ate a meal with them?”
A meal was a major deal and if you ate with someone that was interpreted as a mark of acceptance and fellowship. It could have major ramifications if a leader such as Peter were eating with them, the unclean!
Were they thinking that Peter had gone to them and was no longer part of us?
That really was the farthest thing from the truth. Peter was still very much a part of this group but he proceeds to tell them what God gave to him in a vision.
God shares with him that it is ok to eat bacon!
In Peter’s vision he sees animals, beasts of prey, reptiles and birds of th air, all animals that had been considered unclean and unfit to eat. Upon seeing all these different animals, he is then told to kill and eat them!
This is my kind of vision, now if I am only to drink hefeweizan along with it…
But seriously folks, Peter says that he can’t because they are unclean.
The Voice answers him saying, “ What God has made clean, do not call common.”
Scripture says this happened to Peter three times! What is with Peter and groups of three?
All I know is because what was once unclean God made clean. Bacon all around, for everyone!
These things are made clean because of one thing.
He has Risen! Jesus has done what had to be done. He took our sin and carried it to the cross for us!
All things unclean have been washed in the blood of the Lamb and made new. We were unclean in God’s eyes and now we have been cleaned up.
We were unrelatable because of our sin and rebellion and disobedience but because of the perfect sacrifice of Jesus our high priest, we are no longer held to to be unclean and we now have received a relationship wit our Heavenly Father.
This is what Peter is explaining to them about his vision.
Jesus just didn’t atone for the Jews. He did this work for all people, all nations. He did it for them and us. Peter then talks about at that very moment men showed up to take him to the Gentile Cornelius and his family and Peter says the Sprit told him to go with them without making any distinctions. They go and the Holy Spirit comes and this Gentile and his whole family including servants are converted!
Peter’s defense to the Jewish believers didn’t come from himself and what he did but instead from God and what He did and who shows no difference between Jew or Gentile, them or us.
Our Father showed no difference between them and us or us and them because we all need Christ. We all fall short and we all need deliverance and redemption and forgiveness.
But yet like them, those Jewish believers, we can get caught in the ‘them and us’ in dealing with the world around us or even dealing with fractions within the church or our very own church here at Our Savior.
This ‘them and us’ mentality can stand in our way of God and hinder our vision and idea of how, where, when and why of what our Father is doing at all times for His beloved children.
Peter tells in verse 17,
“If then God gave the same gift to them as He gave to us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could stand in God’s way?”
How brash and rebellious and arrogant we are to ever think that we can stand in God’s way and hinder Him. But we try consciously and sometimes subconsciously to do just that. How can you possibly stand in the way of God? You might as well stand on the tracks in the path of an oncoming freight train with a paper plate as your shield.
We are like the believing Jews questioning Peter. We believe according to what we determine and we put limits and requirements on things. We receive this incredible gift of grace and love from God but don’t always show grace and love to others.
It becomes that game of them and us and we don’t stand in God’s way but in each other’s way not remembering that God’s gift of reconciliation is for all people, them and us, Jew and Gentile, believer and un-believer.
These Jewish believers had to have known the fulfillments of all the prophecies such as Abraham being promised that His offspring would be a blessing to all peoples and all nations. What about the Song of Simeon that we sing in the Nunc Dimittis, A light to lighten the Gentiles and the glory of thy people, Israel just to name a few but they were standing in the way with their rigid ways.
When we try to stand in the way it does become a them and us kind of thing. But if we trust and have faith depending on our Father and not our own reasoning or scheming, knowing that Jesus sits at His right hand and intercedes and advocates for them and us, His people, and knowing that the Holy Spirit comes to us, sanctifying us and strengthening us in faith through Him then the them and us goes away and we are one people under and through the saving power of Jesus Christ.
As Peter tells the group about the fact of this Gentile family gifted by God with belief and redemption Scripture tells us in verse 18,
” When they heard these things they fell silent. And they glorified God, saying,” Then to the Gentiles also God has granted repentance that leads to life.”
The them and the us are now the we who are no longer unclean. We are now cleaned up and made righteous, called by Christ to live in a relationship with God and be His forever.
To Him be all glory!
Alleluia, amen!
