6th Sunday after the Resurretion 5/29/11 John 14:15-21

6th Sunday after the Resurrection
5/29/11
John 14:15-21
Title: You are a Keeper.

This coming Thursday at 2 and 7 we will celebrate through our worship the Ascension of Jesus to the side of God the Father. The Ascension of Jesus has almost become a forgotten holy day which is a shame, for it is in Jesus’ ascension that we truly learn of the reason for the giving of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. Today’s Gospel though gives us a little preview of Pentecost.

Have you ever heard someone say, “Talk is cheap”? It’s easy to say you love someone. It’s easy to say “I will stay faithful to you until death parts us.” And it is really easy to say, “I love God.” It is easy to say those things, but much harder to live them.

Talk is cheap. I know it. You know it. Everyone knows it. And according to today’s Gospel, Jesus knows it. He doesn’t say, “If you love me, then say so,” but he says, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” And a little further in our reading, “Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him."

That puts us in an awkward spot to say the least. For we know deep down that even though we have a good shot at outwardly keeping God’s Commandments we fail miserably at keeping them in our thoughts. It leaves us in a dilemma. What are we to make of his command, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” and “Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him."?



It is very easy to misunderstand these two verses because they don’t translate as well as they could in English. According to the oldest Greek Bibles there are two separate words for the “keeping” of the Ten Commandments, as in the Old Testament and the “keeping” of Jesus’ commandments in the New Testament.

The keeping of Jesus’ commandments is not a New Testament rehashing of the Old Testament Mosaic Law. The New Testament itself warns against this in Galatians 3:10, "Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law, and do them." This is New Testament writing. Cursed are those who do not do everything written in the book of the Law. No wiggle room there.
Then to what is Jesus referring by the word “keep”? The word used here is not the word for keeping law, but a word that describes keeping a treasure. It’s not “keep” in the sense of going down a checklist of dos and don’ts, but “keep” as in taking care of something very important.

Here is a little illustration to show you what I mean. When a Christian couple gets married, they make vows to love each other. They carry a sign of their love by wearing wedding bands. They honor each other when they are together and when they are apart. At the same time, no Christian husband or wife expects the fulfillment of a perfect standard from the other. Instead, there is constant forgiveness in the marriage and striving daily to do one’s best for the other.

That is the picture Jesus is describing in our text. Because you love him, you really do strive to honor him. His “commandments” are the living out of his gifts of Word, worship, and your neighbor. When you love him, you will take care of these things; you will keep them with the highest care and devotion.



The problem that arises as we strive to honor Christ, is that on account of our sin we fall short of keeping God’s gifts as you wish to do. We neglect devotion in his Word, which is supposed to be the lamp for our feet and the light for our path. We do not always hunger and thirst for his body and blood in his Supper as we ought to. We do not love our neighbor as we should.

This is a terrible offense, because in whatever way you neglect your neighbor, you neglect Jesus Christ, for he tells us in Matthew 25:35 and 36 "For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, 36 I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.” And we all know how often we do those things don’t we?

Thank God that Jesus knows that the only way we can even begin to keep his gifts holy and sacred is if we receive help, so he promises that he will send another helper, another advocate. Jesus is the first; the Holy Spirit is the second acting on his behalf.

What does this mean for us who are living long after the promise of the Holy Spirit was given to the disciples? Besides the Holy Spirit’s main function which is to give faith he is like a public defender. He helps us in our weaknesses. He does this by bringing into our memory the words of Jesus by bearing witness to Jesus, and by taking what is Jesus’ and showing it to us. He helps us by giving us the true knowledge of God, and by actually remaining not only alongside us, but in us.
Think of it this way. Imagine a courtroom in which you are the defendant. The prosecuting attorney is the devil. He has brought before the court a whole list of serious crimes you have committed. You are guilty of each and every one of them. You don’t want to admit to it, but you are guilty.



You need the best attorney there is which naturally is the Holy Spirit. He makes his appeal directly to God the Father who is sitting in the seat of judgment. Your attorney the Holy Spirit calls on Jesus the perfect Son of God who while standing before God the Father with his nail pierced hands tells God the Father that you are not guilty, not because you have not committed sin, but because he has already taken your punishment. Just who do you think will win the case; Satan or the Holy Spirit?

The Holy Spirit of course! But he does even more, for when you have him in you; that is on your side you have Christ in you. To have Christ is to have victory over sin, death, and the power of the devil in this lifetime! Having Christ, then, is to live in faith, as Luther has described it: “From this you must learn, as the disciples did that day, to know of and think of life alone.

But it does not even stop there for when you have Christ in you, you also have the Father. For Christ while being one of the persons of the Trinity is God. He is in you now, even though you are not completely obeying his commandments, for you, in your baptism were sealed forever with Jesus Christ in his death and resurrection.

But, you say, “How do I know that?” You know because Christ manifests himself to you through love; your loving of God and your loving of neighbor. For you see your loving is not something you do on your own, your loving is always a result of his loving you first, and his love for you gives you life.

Jesus didn’t just say that he loved you or that he was going to point you to a truth, or that he was going to show you to the way, so you can find life. No, as we learned last week he loves you because he is the Truth, the Way, and the Life. There is no other Way, Truth, or Life.



He keeps you from being destroyed by sin when he died for you, he keeps you from being destroyed by death when he rose for you, and he keeps you alive today in his Word and in his Spirit. As a result, you now love him and keep his Word. Amen.

5th sunday after the Resurrection 5/22/11 John 14:1-14

5th Sunday after the Resurrection
5/22/11
John 14:1-14
Title: I Am the I Am

Yesterday at 6pm the world was suppose to come to an end. Well it does not appear to have happened. That means one of two things. We were left behind or the end of the world prediction was false. What do you think?

People love to make predictions, I do too, so my in Friday Thought for the Day email I made a prediction concerning what will happen until the end of the world, as we know it comes to an end. I guarantee you that is a true prediction.

The Bible will still have all the answers; Prayer will still be the most powerful thing on Earth; The Holy Spirit will still move; God will still honor the praise of His people and Jesus will save the lost when they come to Him.

While we may want to laugh at the followers of Herold Camping, for believing that the end of the world was coming to an end yesterday they sincerely thought it was. Thousands bid farewell to loved ones. Many sold homes and businesses. Others quit jobs and gave away all they owned. Millions of dollars were spent on getting the word out across the world.

They believed in the words of a false prophet, one of many that that have come and will come in the future. They believed and last night at 6pm in whatever time zone his followers were in all hopes were dashed. As of this morning Mr. Manning has not come up with a good reason why his prediction was wrong, but I have a feeling he will soon.

What heartache and sorrow he has left his true believers in as they try to figure out if they can trust him again. Ridicule, financial failure, broken relationships, and I am sure, for many severe depression has set in. It is sad, for they were Christians our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ. They don’t need our ridicule. They need our prayers.

If only they had known. If only they had been taught the truth about Jesus, who is the only truth, the only way, and the only life in a way that they could have understand they would not have followed a false teacher who, as we learned last week did not come into God’s Christian Church through the door of Jesus but came in through other means to mislead people who did not know the truth.

Truth, what is truth? Most people today would say that that there is no such thing as truth, for truth is only what each person or group of people believe truth is. They would say that the truth is that there is no truth. That is the truth they would say. Of course by their saying that there truth is the truth they have defeated their own argument against truth.

I can’t even imagine a world without truths. Think about what it would be like if the law of gravity was not true. What if sometimes things drop while other times they don’t? It would be really weird that is for sure. . We live our lives according to certain truths whether we like to admit it or not. There is without a doubt truth.

What has happened or maybe I should say what did not happen Saturday makes the Gospel reading even more relevant for us and the entire human population this morning. Every day thousands, if not millions of people die in the world without believing and trusting in the truth of Jesus Christ and his saving act.

Notice I said believing and trusting in the truth of Jesus Christ and his saving act. I said believing and trusting because there is a wide difference in those two words even though we commonly say they have the same meaning.

You can believe and not trust, for believing in something is an intellectual act. We read or are told about something, it could be anything and if it makes sense we believe in it. Trusting in something goes beyond believing in it, for as I just said you can believe in something without trusting in it. Trust is having faith, that sixth sense God gives those who belong to him, in something in such a way that you put your very being, your core belief on the line.

A quick example might help here. It is an old illustration that I am sure that most of you have heard before. In June of 1859 a Mr. Blondine, a tightrope walker strung a cable over the Niagara Falls. He walked across it. He even cooked a meal while standing on the rope. He did all kinds of wonderful feats, but his biggest feat was when he carried his manager across in a wheelbarrow.

Rumors have circulated ever since that Blondine had asked for a volunteer from the crowd, but could not get anyone to ride in the wheelbarrow. You see everyone but the manager while believing that he was capable of doing what he said he would do did not trust him to do it.

That my dear brothers and sisters in Christ is the difference between just believing and believing and trusting in something. That day no one except the manager trusted in Blondin to get them across safely and did not lose out on anything. They all went home back to their regular lives.

But it does make all the difference in our lives whether we just intellectually acknowledge; that is believe in Jesus as our Savior and believe and trust in him in as our Savior, for we stand to lose everything. Our very lives are on the line. We must know him; that is believe and trust in him, for Jesus in the Gospel reading says to us today, just as he said to his disciples that day, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."

That takes care of any other ways of being saved from the damnation we deserve doesn’t it? Jesus who willingly put himself on the cross to save all people is saying that he is the only way to be saved. Now the common belief today even among many Christians is to say that Jesus’ death is our way to forgiveness and eternal life, but there are other ways to God. they might not admit it, but many believe it. The problem with believing that is that they are saying that what Jesus is saying is not the truth when it is the truth.

Look at verse six of our Gospel reading again. Let’s read it together. “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."

Notice that Jesus does not say, “I show you the way,” as Moses did when he gave the Commandments to the people; but, “I am the way.”

Nor is he saying, “I have the truth,” like Elijah did as proclaimed the truth of God’s Word; but, “I am the truth.”

Nor is he saying, “I lead to life,” as his Apostles did as they wrote down the Word of God for us; but, “I am the life.”

Jesus, the Word become flesh, the Son of the identical essence with the Father and born of the virgin, made man, sent and came on his mission as the one mediator between God and man, in all that he is and that he does.

The moment we discount this and make it less, as when we believe that there are other ways to God we are in trouble.

God tells us in Isaiah 53:6 "All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned--everyone--to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all."

Only Jesus, this One Way, takes us to the Father. The astounding thing is that this Way is a person, the one person. This is not a dead-end road that one travels with his own strength, but a Way such as never existed on earth. This Way picks us up in its arms and carries us to the destination. His Way is the cross that stretches across the great chasm of life to the Promised Land.

You know, as I think about it there are only three ways to understand Jesus, as being the true way to eternal life. One, Jesus is delusional. He only believes his is the true way to eternal life. Two, Jesus is a liar. He does not really believe it, but wants to mislead us into thinking he is the true way to eternal life, or third Jesus is who he says he is "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."

Which is he? You must decide, for everything depends on it. I pray that you have decided or will decide that he is your Savior the Way to the Father. For without the way there is no going; without the truth there is no knowing; without the life there is no living.
While this teaching is exclusive his dying was inclusive, for he died in the place of all, even those who reject him. The truth of the matter, is, even though you might wish that there were different ways to reach God there is only one way, for no one comes to the Father except though Jesus.
I don’t know why people can’t except that, for anyone that has ever been lost in a forest or other wilderness knows that taking the wrong path makes a person even more hopelessly lost. So it is with the spiritually lost. Only one way leads to safety, to salvation; Jesus. Amen.