“The Renewed Hope of Pentecost, Part II”

Scripture: Acts 2:22-40

After Jesus ascended from earth and arrived at heaven’s gate, the angel Gabriel met him, eager to hear how His mission to the people of earth went. He worked his way through the welcoming crowd, and asked the Lord, “So how did the Divine Plan work out – has everyone heard and rejoiced over your message?”
“No”, Jesus replied, “Some have heard, but very few have claimed the hope that I offered.”
Gabriel’s face dropped and turned ashen. “Oh – I’m so sorry to hear that. How are the rest of the people ever going to know and believe?”

The Lord hesitated for a moment, then said, “Well, I’ve told my apostles all about the salvation that they and others can find through faith in me, and I told them to go and tell others, and then these are to go and continue to spread the word, and so on through the centuries until the time comes for me to return. That will give them plenty of time to spread my message throughout the world.”
Gabriel thought about this, and his face began to pale even more. “But Jesus, what if they don’t tell! What if the chain is broken? What if they forget the message? What if they don’t understand it, and change it? The world has to know the truth if they are to have any hope for eternity! If the humans fail, what will you do next? What is Plan ‘B’?”

A tear ran down the Lord’s face, and the holy voice trembled as he said “There is no Plan ‘B’!”
(From Bishop Mark Webb’s message at the Ordination Service, 2015 Upper New York Annual Conference, Syracuse, NY)

At the first Christian Pentecost, the only Plan to spread the word of salvation in Jesus Christ was put into motion.

Read Acts 2:22-28

Peter begins with words that should have caused the people to gasp! “God has used you to put the Messiah, the One whom you have waited for, to death.” Messiah was to be the One who would free the people from slavery and oppression and brutality, and death, and instead, they killed their only hope. That, in and of itself, should have been a very sobering thought.
But Peter doesn’t let them dwell too long on this fact, as he continues to tell them that the death that they had imposed on God had been overturned by God Himself. This would create an even greater angst in their lives, for now the living Messiah could bring terrible judgment on them all for their duplicity in his suffering and death! Peter had ended the Joel passage from last week with the words “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”, and he had just told them how they had denied and condemned the name of the Lord, and they knew for certain that “calling on the Name of Jesus” had never happened for them.

The truth can, at times, come to us in ways that are not very pleasant, and we have to choose to either accept its pain for our lives, or to reject the message as being irrelevant. And for the last 2,000 years, the people of earth have done both. But Peter doesn’t want the folks to leave fearing the worse and lamenting over having lost the hope of Messiah. So he then offers a word from Psalm 16. The Psalm is a celebration of the joy that comes by trust, or faith, in the Lord God Jehovah. The people are reminded that David put his all into his faith – his “heart of gladness”, his “tongue that rejoices”, his “body that will live in hope”! His soul had received a divine promise from God, that, by faith, he will not be abandoned to eternal death, and David knew that when God makes a promise, he never takes it back. Never!

Peter is telling them that the condemnation that is rightly theirs can be overturned, but only by trusting in the goodness of the God of eternity. And the apostle wants these people to know that the promise of Goodness is not completely lost, that it can still be theirs.

Read Acts 2:29-41

Peter conveys several titles on King David – patriarch, or the head of the family, and prophet, or one who has insight into God’s plan, and who, and in spite of all his Godly wisdom, has still died. But with his understanding of Messiah’s pending life and death and resurrection, as well as that of Jehovah’s great promise, he did not fear physical death, for he knew that it would not be the final pronouncement on him. And now, Jesus Messiah has overcome his own death, and by faith in him, our death can also be overturned.

But how do we know, for certain, that this promise is true? Peter tells us that when Jesus returned to the Father, he received the Holy Spirit. In other words, the Trinity, which had been divided when Jesus accepted his humanity, had now been restored. The Son, once again, had direct connection and constant access to both the Father and the Spirit, and the Spirit would be sent to all whose heart was glad, whose tongue rejoiced, and who lived in the hope of Jesus Christ. The proof is in the giving.

But Peter turns the tables on them once again. He quotes Psalm 110, in that God will make all the enemies of Jesus a “footstool”, they will be placed under his heel, which is a symbol of conquest and subjugation. The Psalm goes on to state that the Lord Messiah will have an all-encompassing rule – even over his enemies, that God will never change his mind, and that Jesus will rule as a priest in the line of Melchizedek – the one who brought God’s blessing to Abraham. (Genesis 14:17-20)
And the people, once again, felt the burden of God’s condemnation.

And Peter then moves to remove this new anguish of finality, by telling them that their only hope is repentance for the wrong they have done in God’s eyes, and to enter into an eternal relationship with the Lord through baptism. And when they do, they will receive the promise of the Holy Spirit.

Have you ever wondered why it was Peter who was chosen to offer this word of hope? The truth is that he was the most experienced in this matter, wasn’t he! He knew all too well the feeling that comes from betrayal and denial of his relationship with Jesus. He had known a closeness when he followed the Lord’s words and ways, and he knew the misery that comes with rejection of that same Divine Word. But Peter also knew the forgiveness of Christ that came when he expressed his undying love for his Lord. Peter could speak from first-hand experience, and he knew exactly how the people felt that Pentecostal Day.

We read that the message that day included many other words of hope and promise, and that when the sermon was complete, 3,000 people took those words to heart and accepted the apostle’s call to restoration and renewal by faith in Jesus Christ.

The word about Jesus had, most likely, been circulating extensively among the holiday revelers, but it would have been the Pharisee’s version of Jesus’ life and death that they had heard, and not God’s - until this day, that is. Peter had now offered them a very different view of Jesus - the true version - and it didn’t paint a very pretty picture for them. And yet, they not only heard of their complicity in Jesus’ death, but they also heard the truth of the love that God in Christ has for them.

The truth can be a hard nut to swallow, and the people of today can be hard nuts to crack! “Truth” has become a relative term, and somehow, the truth of God must be presented to them in a way that they will receive it.

Rob Renfroe, the president of Good News, recently wrote a book entitled “The Trouble with the Truth” (Renfroe, Rob, Abington Press:Nashville, TN, 2014). Now before the title of the book begins to trouble you, let me explain that the premise of his work is that God’s truth alone is not a complete or proper truth. John 1:14 tells us that “We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only … who [was] full of grace and truth.” Jesus is full of grace and truth! Grace is the display of the Lord’s love for us, and Jesus told us to ”Love one another as I have first loved you.” (John 15:12-17) Renfroe writes that Truth without love is a lie (pg. 32)!

Remember Jesus’ encounter with the woman caught in adultery? He knew the sorrow she felt over her thoughtless act, and he forgave her with the words “Go and sin no more.” (John 8:3-11)
Remember Jesus’ meeting with the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well? Because of the life she had been subjected to, she was despised and oppressed and rejected by the people of her own village. But Jesus offered her, an outcast and hated woman, a new life through faith in him. (John 4:7-26)
Remember Jesus’ experience with the man filled with a Legion of demons? By the compassion of Christ, he was not only freed from the power of Satan, but he was freed to tell others of the love of Christ. And he did. (Luke 8:26-39)
Every one of these folks, as well as all who have ever experienced the compassionate touch of Jesus, have come to know not only the truth of God in Christ, but the love of God that is shown to all who will accept it.

When we share the truth of God with the people of today, they will never hear the truth, let alone accept it, unless it is offered in the fullness of Christ’s love for them. The truth can have a devastating effect on those who have never known the love of Christ, but the brutal truth is no truth at all – it will fall on deaf ears.

The renewed hope of Pentecost is not only “truth” – it is grace filled truth. That is the only way that most will ever know how much the Lord has done for them, and how much it is based in his love for them. The message of Pentecost must be filled with the entirety of Jesus.
There is no other way that the world will ever come to know.

“The Renewed Hope of Pentecost, Part I”

Scripture: Acts 2:1-21

Pentecost was originally a Jewish holiday, celebrating the time when the Lord gave the law to Israel. It is known collectively as Shavuot, or the Festival of Weeks (50 days after Passover), or the Day of First Fruits. Pentecost is one of the three main Jewish festivals, along with Passover and the Feast of Tabernacles, and as such, many people would come to Jerusalem from near and far to make their offerings at the temple.

This holiday also marked the end of the first grain harvest, so it was a celebration in many different ways. It marked the end of heavy labor for the harvest, and it also was a reason to thank God for a successful season. But most importantly, it was a reason to remember and rejoice over the fact that God had come to them on Mount Sinai to personally gave them his commandments.

This was the setting for the first Christian Pentecost, and it relates to the Jewish significance in so many ways.

Read Acts 2:1-4

“.. they were all together in one place.” In Acts 1:4-5, we read that the faithful had been directed to remain in Jerusalem and wait for the gift that the Father would be sending to them. They were staying in an upper room, very possibly the same one where they had celebrated that last Passover with Jesus, and Luke 24:52-53 also tells us that they spent a great amount of time in the temple, praising God for all that had been revealed to them.
But how long would they have to wait for this unknown “gift”? For most people, waiting is the last thing they want to do! Time drags, we get impatient, we have better things to do. What’s taking so long? We have busy lives, and waiting sits very low on our list of priorities. But for the faithful, as they waited for God’s gift, it was a joyful time, and their waiting was well occupied.

Other than praising God, the only other activity that we read about during this time, is that the 11, through God’s inspiration, chose a replacement for Judas. Other than that, they just worshipped and praised! Waiting was not a chore - they knew that something wonderful was on its way, and that it would be bringing a blessing into their lives.

And then it came! It came with a roar like the sound of a violent wind, and it appeared visually like tongues of fire that touched each and every person in the room. Do you think the wait was worth it? You had better believe that it was! The Holy Spirit had arrived and life would never be the same again. And every one of the people in that room began speaking in languages that they never had spoken before.

God had arrived once again. For Israel, this festival celebrated Jehovah’s coming to give the people his laws. Years later, Jesus would come to earth to teach the world what the law was all about. But on this day, the Holy Spirit arrived to provide the next step in the lives of those who believed in Jesus Christ. The Spirit came to empower the faithful to become one body, one Church, one voice on behalf of Almighty God. Before this day, it would only be the prophets who would carry the message of the Almighty, but now, the Church Universal would inherit that responsibility.

Read Acts 2:5-13

The rush of the Spirit, combined with the voices of the men would cause quite a uproar that day. Remember that people from all over the known world would have come to Jerusalem to worship the Lord and to make their offerings at temple. We read that at least 15 different nations were present in the neighborhood that day, and the amazing thing is that every single one could perfectly understand every single word that was being spoken. Many of these people, even though they were all Jews, could only speak their own country’s language – Hebrew had long been replaced with the local tongue.
But that would never be a hindrance to God! And the fact that the faithful had never been able to speak these languages wouldn’t be a problem, either. In Luke 12:11-12, Jesus tells his followers that whenever they are pulled into court and have to defend their faith, and by extension, whenever they are called on to speak the word of God, the Holy Spirit will provide all the words that are necessary for the moment, and at the moment, that they are necessary.

And on Pentecost, that is exactly what happened. The disciples, and most likely anyone else who was in that upper room, were uneducated people. They would know their own language, but nothing more than that. And yet, the Spirit gave them words they didn’t know, to teach people they had never met, about the truth of God that these Jews from other places had yet to know.

But there will always be those who will deny the word of God, and this day was no different. The accusation was that the men were all drunk, and therefore the message that was being offered was just one big joke. But if it had truly been the alcohol that was speaking, how could the message be understood by anyone, let alone everyone?

Remember the cartoon strip “Cathy”? In one strip, Cathy's father is meeting her at the airport.
“Are you sure Irving was picking you up, Cathy?” her father asked.
Cathy responds, “Who knows?
Once I waited down here for half an hour while he was waiting on the upper level.
Once he went in to meet me at the gate and it took us half an hour to find each other.
Once he waited for 45 minutes at the wrong airline.
Once I got the dates mixed up, and he spent two hours paging me while I was in a different city.
We never run out of ways to miss each other.”
- Homelitics OnLine

And it seems that we never seem to run out of ways to miss God, either! Too much wine? Not on your life!

Read Acts 2:14-21

And Peter reveals a completely new side to his nature. This is the same man whose faith only allowed him to take a tentative step or two on the Sea of Galilee before he began to sink beneath the waves. (Matthew 14:22-33) But in Caesarea, he would be the one who confidently proclaimed that Jesus was the Messiah. (Mark 8:27-30) On the night that Jesus gave himself up, Peter would proclaim “I will never desert you, … and even if I have to die, I will never deny you.” (Matthew 26:33-35) And then a few short hours later, he would do the very thing that he claimed he never would. (Matthew 26:69-75)
In faith, Peter had been all over the board, but now, there is no hesitation, no uncertainty, no bravado, no false step. Peter would be completely filled with the Spirit of God, and the message would be clear and true and unmistakable. And he begins by quoting a passage from the Book of Joel (2:28-32). He calls the people to listen closely to what he is about to say, because they all may have been familiar with the words of Joel’s prophecy, but not with the timing of the message. All who will serve in the name of Jesus will receive this outpouring, and the day had finally come.

The speakers were under the influence of the Holy Spirit, not the wine. Those who stood there that day were hearing the very word of God, and not the incoherent rambling of a bunch of ignorant, intoxicated men. Peter was announcing to all that this was a new day, one that had been foretold 800 years before. “The last days” had begun, and Israel could no longer claim to have exclusive rights to the Lord’s favor. The Spirit would be poured out on all people, and all who believed in Jesus Christ would be saved.

Hope had been renewed, not just for Israel, but for the entire world, and salvation was now available to all who heard and believed the word of God. Messiah now has a name, and it is Jesus! He had come to prepare all the earth for his final coming, and even though he had returned to glory, he will, one day, return to claim the faithful of earth as his own. And Peter begins to lay out the message of salvation for all who had come that day, and for all who would hear in the centuries to come. And next week, we will look at the significance of that message for the people who heard it that day, as well as for the people of all days.

Pentecost is the day of the Church. It is the day of “first Fruits”; it is the day when the first harvest of souls occurred; it is the day to rejoice in the proof of prophecy; it is the day to celebrate the coming of the Spirit of God to begin working the Lord’s ways in our lives.

Pentecost is our day, and it is the day when we celebrate the Holy Spirit by seeking his work for each of our lives. Hallelujah – may he work in every possible way, in every possible life, just as God sees fit.

“The Evidence of God’s Love”

Scripture: 1 John 3:16-24

Have you ever tried to actually define the word “love”? The American idiom has far too many interpretations to really do the word justice. “I love chocolate ice cream!”; “That baby is so cute – don’t you just love her?”; “I love my new car!”; “Do you love my new hair-do?”; “I love the Red Sox!”; “I love my wife.”;
How about “Love one another as I have loved you.” (John 15:12) Where do we even begin in trying to understand the meaning of “love”?

I even went to my Webster’s Dictionary for some help on what love is, and discovered that they list 9 general definitions of love, with quite a number of sub-categories. The word has been so overused and cheapened, that no one really knows what the word means anymore.
I did a word search in my computer bible, and discovered even the various translations of scripture differ on the use of “love”. The number of hits varied, but most were in the range of 450 to 550 occurrences in each translation or paraphrase. I think I was actually surprised that there weren’t more! But maybe that’s the point– if we’re careful on how we use the word, we just might eliminate the trivialization of “love”!

But John’s first epistle uses the word “love”, on average, more than any other book of the Bible, except for the Psalms. And it is always in the context of the love that God has for his creation. We know that this is a profound and unshakable passion, but how do we know just how deep his love, his true love, really is?

Read 1 John 3:16-20

We discover the depth of the Lord’s love for us, not by his words, but by his actions. Actions don’t lie; actions aren’t vague; actions give us insight into the act. “I love spaghetti!” Really? How often do you eat it? How much do you eat at any one sitting? When I was in Navy boot camp at Great Lakes Training Center in the mid 60’s, there was a period of 10 days in which we had spaghetti 3 times a day, but then only twice a day for the rest of the month. I used to “love” spaghetti, but since then I can only say that I “enjoy” it! It seems that “love” can get worn out!
God’s love isn’t like that, though. If we experienced his love 3 times a day, or 30 times, or even more, I doubt that any of us would never tire of that kind of love. As a matter of fact, God’s love is something that we could never get too much of! Why? Because his love has nothing to do with him – it is always directed toward his creation, and specifically, toward us. The Lord’s love is, primarily, all about humanity, and we see that love in every single thing that God does on our behalf.

But the evidence of this - where’s the proof?
John begins with the most convincing confirmation of all – that Jesus “laid down his life for us.” So what does that do for us? It affirms the opportunity for eternal life in him. And on our part, it only requires a commitment to his way. No payment, no reciprocal act, no obligation, not even an expectation of our rejoicing over his sacrifice for us. And what did the Lord gain from that incredibly selfless act? Nothing but pain, suffering, humiliation, insults, lies, hatred, death, and all of the sin that we ever have and ever will commit – and he willingly accepted all of this so that we might avoid the condemnation and judgment that we so rightly deserve. “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8) That’s a love unlike any other, and it is the truest example of what love must be!!

So how do we show the Lord that we value his gift of life above all else? By living our lives in a way that brings honor and prestige to his name. Now, I will readily admit that this is easier said than done! How could we possibly do anything that could bring glory to the One who IS glory? But whether you know it or not, we can! We can live the kind of life that Jesus led. Oh, I know that we will never do that perfectly, but in this case, desire and intent and effort and heart DO matter.
John gives us a few ideas on what we can do to live a Jesus kind of life, but they certainly go against all semblance of secular reason! And I won’t go into the list that is presented in the letter – you can read it again for yourself - but just let me say that every item in the list has one thought in common – if you have a resource that someone else needs, don’t even hesitate – give it willingly and joyfully for their benefit.

I was once asked about that level of generosity, that the person had been so humbled by a gift like that. So I asked a question in reply. I said “Why do you think the Lord allows some folks to have more resources than they need, while others are in extreme need?” The person replied that they didn’t know. So I answered my own question with “So we can help each other.” The unspoken answer was actually “So we can be Jesus to each other.” That is how we bring glory to God – by setting our secular humanism aside so that the spiritual side of our life can immerge.

Read 1 John 3:21-24

A man was seated on a park bench when a small lad about 5 years old sat down and started winding what appeared to be a prized possession - a Mickey Mouse watch.
“What a neat watch! Does it tell you the time?” The stranger asked.
“No”, the boy replied, “You ‘gotta look at it.”
- Homeletics on Line

In our fast paced world, we don’t want to take time to look for ourselves, to do our own research, our own study – we want to be fed with every answer and every need of life. We want life to be served up on a silver platter, we expect that a fork will be provided for our use, that someone will put the food in our mouth, and that someone else will help us to chew and swallow the nourishment. We want all the benefits of life, with very little, if any, involvement in the process.
The author of our letter writes “if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God”. When we lack involvement with the Lord in this life, it means that we have no confidence in the teaching that Jesus spent 3 ½ years presenting to us. And without confidence and trust in Christ, and the living out of his teachings, we will never even begin a movement away from the condemnation that is already in our nature. John writes that we must “obey his commands and do what pleases him.” LIVE his love with others!

But you are probably thinking “How in the world can I ever live out all of the commandments in scripture?” There are over 600 of them, but most of the laws in Scripture are from Moses, not the Lord. If we scour the gospels to discover what Jesus taught about those difference, we will have a much smaller number to worry about, and even those can be boiled down into 2 commandments. When the Pharisees grilled Jesus on which of all the commandments is the greatest, he told them that there are actually two – that we are to truly love the Lord our God with our entire being, and that the second is comparable to the first – that we are to love our neighbor as our self. He then added “All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” (Matthew 22:34-40)

Loving God and loving our neighbors! If we truly love God, how could we ever be content with the plight of the people around us? And if we truly love our neighbor, how can we possibly ignore all that God has taught us and called us to do? And by the way, John further identifies what loving God is all about – and that is believing “in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ,”. We are to let the power and love of Christ live within each of us, to the point that it is unmistakable. And that comes to be by letting the Holy Spirit work in and through us.

John’s letter has put quite a challenge before us today – to live and love in Jesus’ way, and not by the world’s ideals. The ways of earth are, generally, a whole lot easier and a lot less controversial than God’s, but they will never bring a single ounce of glory to the name of Jesus. We can never ignore the people of earth, but at the same time, we can never acquiesce to their standards.

“And this is how we know that he lives in us: We know it by the Spirit he gave us.” When we love God and all that he is, we will live as his Spirit directs. That is the evidence that proves our love for both God and neighbor, and a life in faith displays the evidence of God’s love for us.

There can be no other way. Amen.

“To Know Fully, and To Be Fully Known”

Scripture: 1 John 3:1-10

How well do you know your friends? How about your family members? Do you know every single issue that has ever occurred in these lives? And regardless of what you know, or don’t know for that matter, do you still love them? I mean really love them – willing to give everything you have for them, care for every unmet need that they might ever have, sacrifice your own well-being on their behalf? Regardless of what they may have done to you, regardless of what they may have said about you?

God’s love for us, given through Christ Jesus, answers a resounding “YES!” to all of these questions. He loves us beyond all reason, beyond all expectation, beyond our greatest need, beyond all understanding! He loves us to the extreme, even though he knows our failures and imperfections intimately – even better than we know ourselves. And that is the love that he calls us to show to others (John 13:34-35).

Our text for today is about the depth of God’s knowledge of us, and the love that he has shown us, in spite of who and what we may be.

Read 1 John 3:1-3

These 3 verses are not just about the Lord’s understanding and love for us – they are about unity with the Lord. The author states that through faith in Jesus Christ, we have become children of God. Israel has always thought that they were the only ones who God had chosen, and for centuries, that may have been the case. But in the coming of Jesus Christ, the door has been opened to all who will accept him as their Lord and Savior.
And not only are believers saved in Jesus, but just as Jesus is the Son of God, we, too, have become the sons and daughters of God. Now note that the text doesn’t say that we have been adopted by God – it says that we are his children! That means that we are direct descendants of God! And not only that, we are also told that when we stand in his presence, it will become obvious that we are truly like him. Any doubt that we are a child of God will vanish, and we will know him, as well as our relationship with him, for certain. Born of him, like him, his offspring, of equal standing with Jesus. We will even be seated with the Lord at the right hand of God! (Ephesians 2:4-6)

Knowing yourself as well as you do, are you humbled and awed by this fact? Have you ever thought that you were deserving of this honor? Awed – absolutely! Deserving – NEVER. It is only by the grace of God and the love of Christ Jesus that we can receive this gift! And in that perfect relationship, we are made right with God through the purification of our lives and the forgiveness of our sins.

Think about this for a minute. It isn’t just by obligation that we gain these rights – it is by the undying love of the Father for each and every person on the face of the earth. And if his joy flourishes in the salvation that he can offer to those who believe, just think about the heartache that he has over those who will not believe? The pain must be just as deep and intense as the Godly love that has been denied.

The choice that humanity has is between the purification of Jesus Christ, or remaining lost and sinful and condemned without him.

Read 1 John 3:4-6

Jesus came to take our sin away, and if we continue to sin, we don’t yet know him. Pretty harsh words, don’t you think? But do we take this simply at face value, or is there an even deeper significance here?
Remember from last week that sinfulness, and the condemnation that comes from it, is in our opposition to Christ, and in that, we become “antichrists”. And from this week, we learn that we will “know” the Father and Son when the Lord returns to claim his kingdom on earth.

So what does this all mean? Verse 3 tells us that everyone who has hope in Jesus will begin to separate themselves from the lawlessness of sin. It doesn’t mean that it happens immediately, but that it must begin when we confess Jesus as Lord and Savior, and will only become complete when we see him face to face.
But even so, any sin that continues to live within us is a break from the will of God. When we surrender our lives to Christ, it is by his grace that sin’s hold on us is broken, but for some reason, it does not break the hold that we have on sin. It gives us an awareness of our sin, it gives us a desire to set our sin aside, and by the power of prayer through the Holy Spirit, we can actually begin letting our sinfulness fall away.
But it isn’t easy and it doesn’t happen all at once. It’s tough to let go of those things we have always done in this life, and by faith in God, it will begin and it will continue to strengthen us throughout the age. And the closer we get to letting all of our sin go, the closer we get to truly knowing him, to actually live in him, to be “like him”.

Read 1 John 3:7-10

The reason for this letter becomes evident once again – some people have been trying to lead the faithful away from the truth of God, very possibly by telling them that all you need to do is believe in Jesus, and then you can do whatever you want to do. And the writer bluntly proclaims that those who do God’s will are righteous, and those who will not are still under Satan’s authority.
The purpose of Jesus’ time on earth, we are told, was to destroy the work of Satan. Even though Jesus spent 33 years with us – not a small amount of time for us – he took 3½ years to teach and prepare and lay the ground work for our faith, and only 3 days to win our salvation from Satan's grasp.

Salvation comes only by the Blood of Jesus, and by personal faith in the redemptive love that took Jesus to Calvary. And when we come to the realization of Jesus’ gift of eternal life for us and what it required of him, we begin to live a life that brings honor to our Triune God. And it is by our response to Christ’s sacrifice that we begin to become more and more like him.

In the last verse of this passage, John refreshes our memory of Jesus’ words to the Pharisee when he was asked “What is the greatest commandment?” (Matthew 22:34-40, Mark 12:28-34) The correct response to God’s righteousness, Jesus tells us, is to show love and respect to both God and all of humanity. Living a righteous life includes more than simple belief – it requires worship and service and prayer and study and giving and witness to the world around us. Living a righteous life occurs when we serve within the church as well as outside the church. A righteous life loves the faithful and the sinner equally. And with every step we take in faith, we come to know the Lord just a little better.

A life in faith is a journey unlike any other that we will ever take. It begins with a confession that we aren’t who we should be, and that Jesus is the only way we can ever be right with God. But our journey will never be complete until we stand in the presence of God and can finally know him as fully as he has always known us.
And that will be an incredibly glorious day, to say the least!

“The Anointing of Truth”

Scripture: 1 John 2:18-27

At Jesus’ trial before Pilate, he witnessed to the fact that he had come into this world to testify to the Truth, and that you can only understand and accept Truth by listening to him. He was saying that there is no truth outside of God, and Pilate responded, possibly as either a test or in confusion, “What is truth?” (John 18:37-38)
John’s gospel doesn’t indicate that Jesus said anything in reply. We can almost hear the unspoken reply, though – “If you haven’t heard the Truth that I’ve already spoken, you will never listen to what Truth is now.”

Presbyterian pastor William Coffin wrote:
Fear distorts truth, not by exaggerating the ills of the world . . . but by underestimating our ability to deal with them . . . while love seeks truth, fear seeks safety.
--William Sloane Coffin, The Courage to Love (New York: Harper and Row, 1982), 60.

Jesus was always about the Truth of God, and the problem that people have had throughout the centuries is that God’s Truth is seldom compatible with the human version. Is Jesus’ unspoken reply to Pilate the same one that we struggle with day in and day out? It certainly is for most of the people of earth! But John’s epistle is offered to the Church as one more attempt to bring Jesus’ words to light, and to offer some insight into the Lord’s intentions that are the basis for all of them.

Read 1 John 2:18-19

As we begin to read this passage, we start to get a feel for why John wrote this letter to the Church in general. Evil ways had infiltrated into the lives of the faithful, and the letter is intended to not only remind the people of God’s love, but also to warn them of the underlying hatred that is also spreading in their lives. The mention of antichrist – the “counterChrist” – the one who opposes Christ – is the first apocalyptic teaching that we find in scripture. Jesus spoke of evil in the world, he named the Satan as one who’s way runs counter to his, and he even had an encounter with the great Deceiver in the wilderness.
But the “antichrist” – the evil equivalent to Jesus - had never been introduced before. Things must have been pretty bad in the church for John to bring this subject up at this particular time. And even at that, his words are a little confusing for us. He says that there are many “antichrists”, while in current Christian theological understand, there will only be one.

So what was our author referring to? With the pluralistic reference, we can assume that these were the minions of Satan – those who had bought into the lies of earthly teaching. While it may not exactly be our understanding of antichrist, we can still get the point – that these people had, at first, been part of the church, but they had deviated from God’s truth to the point that they were no longer one of His. They were, most likely, denying that Jesus is Messiah, and if he isn’t, then who is? Satan, through his followers, will continue to try to do this very thing – to create dissention and discord and divisiveness within the Church. And at times, they have been very successful, and the church must take this threat, and this warning, very seriously.

The other point that the writer seems to be making is that the prevalence and acceptance of these perverted teachings is an indication that the day of Christ’s return is very near. This has been a recurring theme since the 1st century Church first recognized the presence of satanic influence, not only in their lives, but in the life of the Church. But the hour and day of Jesus’ return has still not arrived! Is the teaching false?
God the Father is the only one who knows for certain when that day will be, so it is in his “time” that the day will arrive. And the interesting issue in this is that God has no time – 2 Peter 3:8 “With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day.” We don’t take these words in a literal sense – they are more figurative in nature. It simply means that time has no meaning for the Lord – his time, his timing, simply is. Jesus will return when Jesus returns.

Read 1 John 2:20-25

And now we are back to “truth” again. In John 8:39-47, the Lord tells the Pharisees that they are from their “father, the devil”, and are bent on doing his will. And their allegiance is all based on lies and deceitfulness, because “there is no truth in him.” And in John 14:6, Jesus tells us “I am the way, and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” Whoever we follow, wherever our allegiance is, whatever our hearts love, that is who and where we will be. Parentage can never be denied, regardless of whether we like them or not, and denial of Jesus – every aspect of him and his word – is tantamount to denying all aspects and promises of God.

And to make the situation even worse, we read that this letter isn’t for those who don’t know the truth, but for those who do! Are those who have left the Church being written off? Is John telling us that their situation is now hopeless? He says that those who deny Christ are liars and have bought into Satan’s lie. He says that those who “lie” about Jesus are “opposers” of Jesus.
Friends, it appears that there is no possibility of “fence sitting” when it comes to the Truth – there are no broad lines and no gray areas when it comes to salvation. Either we are in the truth of Christ, or we are on the outside. Period.

Read 1 John 2:26-27

The Church is being told of these issues, not as a correction, and not to teach them something new. It is to alert them to the danger that others are bringing to their lives – that they are being targeted, with the intention of leading them away from eternal life.
Those who are in the Lord receive an anointing, but what is that all about? There are several issues being clarified here regarding the anointing that they are receiving:
1. The anointing is for those who are remaining faithful, and it is not for those who have left the Lord for other pastures.
2. The anointing is from God and no one else. It isn’t from John, it isn’t from any other church leader – it comes directly from the Lord to his Church.
3. The anointing remains in those who have received it – and presumably, nothing can take it away.
4. The Spirit who anoints is the one who reveals all Godly truth, and John says that that is sufficient – that no additional teaching by human means is ever necessary.
5. It is real, it is true, it brings truth to the anointed one, and let no one claim that it is false or wrong.
6. The author encourages the recipients of this holy anointing to not be fooled by the lies that others are telling, and to remain close to the Lord Jesus.

And just to add one more dimension to the issue, author Susan Andrews writes this about truth:
Truth without grace is cold and empty. But grace without truth is shapeless — [It is] warmth simply dribbling away.
—Susan Andrews, “Full of grace and truth: Demonstrating the divine,” Sermon preached January 24, 1999, at National Capital Presbytery, Covenantnetwork.org.

Even God’s truth must be shared with a healthy portion of grace. It does little good for us to bluntly proclaim the Lord’s message if it is so painful that no one will listen to it. Even Satan’s messengers know how to massage God’s truth to the point that it sounds and feels right. After all, that’s why this letter had to be written!

We had be better be ready to share Truth with all who come into our lives, and in a way that attracts people to Jesus, and not made it seem so abrupt and difficult that they turn away.
Let’s lead them into the “anointing in truth” that Christ offers, and not to a beating by us.