May 5, 2024     Text:  1 John 5:1-8

Dear Friends in Christ,

In our English language we have words that can have two opposite meanings.  One of those words is “overwhelm.”  On the news this week, we saw towns “overwhelmed” by tornadoes.  A city can be “overwhelmed” by an invading army.  We can be “overwhelmed” with grief at the death of a loved one.  In all these examples, “overwhelmed” is negative.  But it can also be used in a positive way.  I was “overwhelmed” with joy at the outpouring of support.  

The disciples saw it played out in their lives.  They were called to work alongside the Savior of the world and their world was turned upside down.  They were “overwhelmed” by the miracles and the healings and the way this man spoke.  Positive.  They also had times of being “overwhelmed” by the waves at sea or the soldiers marching into the garden or the trial and horrible crucifixion.  Peter’s denial and Judas’ betrayal “overwhelmed” them with sin and guilt.  Negative.

John knew the feeling.  John writes today to the Christian congregations so that they would not be “overwhelmed” by the world.  Which way is it going to be . . . 

“OVERWHELMED OR OVERCOMING?”

False claims were rampant when John writes this.  The virgin birth was denied, Jesus and the Christ were divided, and Jesus was buried but had not risen.  People had been conquered by the world.

People are still conquered by the world.  The virgin birth is still denied.  God becoming man is denied.  Jesus rising from the dead is denied.  All we have are new faces being put on the same heresies. 

We do not want to be “overwhelmed” by these deniers.  We don’t want to become complacent, or compromise our faith.  We do not want to stand in fear of rejection or conflict.  The world is powerful.  The voices of the world are powerful.  The devil is working.  How do we know all this?  Because there are pews in this sanctuary this morning that were formerly occupied by every Sunday worshippers and leaders in our church.  They now sit in silence because their hearts and minds have been “overwhelmed” by the world.  It is probably about the saddest thing a Pastor and congregation can experience.

John’s encouragement is that we “overcome” the world.  “Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God.” (v. 1).  We overcome as we love and live out the command of God in our lives with one another.  Christ sacrificed on the cross our sins of doubt and complacency and compromise and silence.  

This faith in Jesus as the Law-keeping, sin-bearing Redeemer of the world is the “victory that has overcome the world.” (v. 4). The world’s desires pass away and the one who “does the will of God abides forever.” (1 John 2:17)

The object of our faith is Jesus the Christ.  He secured the victory for us by “the Spirit and the water and the blood.”  The life-giving Holy Spirit, by the life-cleansing water of Baptism, connects us to the life-redeeming blood of Jesus, who has overcome the world.  Jesus is God enfleshed coming to us yet today in his body and blood here in the sacrament of the Altar.  The church is nourished and overcomes the world.

In Christ we have overcome the world.  Without him the world would “overwhelm” us.  Victory in Christ.  That is the theme by which Sat. John lived and with which St. John died.  Christ breathed that divine theme into the Revelation of John, his last testimony to the churches John so loved.  In the New King James version of the Bible John uses the word “overcomes” seven different times.  Here are just two of those verses.  Revelation 2:7 – “To him who overcomes I will give to eat from the tree of life.”  Revelation 3:5 – “He who overcomes shall be clothed in white garments, and I will not blot out his name from the Book of Life; but I will confess his name before my Father and before his angels.”

We are not “overwhelmed” by the world – or by whatever may happen to us in it – because we are, as St. John says, those who, in Jesus Christ, are overcoming the world.

Amen. 

April 28, 2024 Text:  1 John 4:1-11

Dear Friends in Christ,

You are familiar with Catherine the Great and Alexander the Great, but do you know Abbas the Great or Cnut the Great, or even that Herod was called Great.  We have the Great Lakes and Great Wall of China.  In the last ten years someone came up with GOAT – Greatest of All Time.  We use this in sports.  Is Michael or the Lebron the greatest basketball player.  For football is the greatest a quarterback, running back, or wide receiver.  In baseball, pitcher or hitter.  The only sport where everyone agrees is in hockey, where Wayne Gretzky is known as “The Great One.”  This all means they are greater than others.

Our text identifies the one who is truly and eternally and universally greater than all others, and it assures that “he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.” (v. 4)

“GREATER THAN . . . “

The world has always been made up of competing belief systems and ideologies.  We might call them the “spirits of the age.”  They want to claim us as their own.

John warns his hearers, “Beloved, do not believe every spirit.”  Every belief system is not the same.  If you are not connected to the “vine” of Jesus Christ as heard in our Gospel, then some other ideology is controlling your mind.  

In our First reading today, we had Philip and the eunuch.  The eunuch lived in a culture not connected to Christ.  As Philip talked this man was changed and eventually baptized.  He had overcome the “spirit of the age.”

The aged John wrote this letter around AD 80. The prominent city in this Greco-Roman culture was Ephesus.  It was a diverse city by the sea.  Its temples and works of art attracted tourists.  Unbridled sexuality was expressed openly in the public theater and arts.  It prided itself on religious diversity.  Ephesus was internationally recognized as a “sanctuary city.”  All of this challenged the faith of John’s “little children.”  Therefore, he warned that these “spirits” could lead them astray.  They were to test these spirits.  Were they of Christ or apart from Christ.  He stayed connected with them as they engaged in this spiritual warfare.  Just like a parent today whose son or daughter leaves home to study or work in Chicago, New York, San Francisco.

“Do not believe every spirit.”  The spirit of compromise or the confession of Scripture?  The spirit of relativism or the “the way, the truth, and the life” as uttered by Jesus?  The spirit of immorality or making the God blessed choice?  The spirit of toleration or calling something wrong?  The spirit of intimidation wrought by political correctness or standing firm in the pages of the Bible?

Test all of this.  “We are from God.  Whoever knows God listens to us; whoever is not from God does not listen to us.  By this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error.” (v. 6).   St. John says the “spirits” are discernable.   How?  “By this you know the Spirit of God; every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God.  This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already.” (vs. 2-3)

It is and always will be about Jesus.  Jesus is greater than…the spirits of every age.  Jesus is greater than…the spirit that minimizes or denies human sinfulness.  Christ dies for it.  Jesus is greater than…the spirit of the antichrist working in the world.  Jesus is greater than…our sin of giving in to those spirits in thought, word, deed.  Jesus is greater…than our heart when it condemns us.  Jesus is greater than…the world working to overcome us.  Christ’s dying and rising overcomes.

As we confess Christ, God abides in us.  The Ethiopian eunuch received Christ through Baptism.  We too as we are baptized into Christ.  John spoke about the Word of life.  We see with our eyes and receive with our hands the crucified and risen body and blood in the Holy Supper.  This greater than meal sustains us.

As the “Spirit of truth” moves in us we love one another.  We bear Christ and confess Christ to one another and to the spirit of the age.   We dispense with fear.  We are not afraid of the world and who is in it.  Holden told me recently of a group of men sharing Christ in and around the bars of downtown Bloomington on a weekend evening.  Could you and I do that?  They can.  We should have it in us because we know this truth, “he who is in us is greater than . . . he who is in the world.”

Amen.      

April 21, 2024 Text:  John 10:11-18

Dear Friends in Christ,

Remember the game show Let’s Make A Deal?  Hosted by Monty Hall, the players had choices.  Many times, the choice would be between something they already had and what was behind door #1, door #2, or door #3.  Sometimes it was a better prize – a car or vacation – but at other times it would be a donkey or big stuffed animal or a car that wouldn’t run.  

In our text for today it is about Jesus being the Good Shepherd.  In fact, John 10:1-18, is all about this theme.  Preceding our text, in verses 7 & 9 Jesus calls Himself “the door.”  I like that.  A door has two sides.  There is a blessed thing about Jesus:  Jesus is both the Good Shepherd and a door.

John 10 gives us this good news that Jesus the Good Shepherd and the Door . . .

“PROTECTS HIS SHEEP”

Hello fellow sheep.  Do you need some protection?  Again, a door has two sides.  On one side Jesus is providing his grace and mercy.  He opens His gracious hand to provide us pasture and living water – food and drink.  On the other side He closes the door so that we receive protection from the thieves and wolves.  We need help so the false shepherds do not steal our soul.

In the First Reading from Acts, the leaders of Israel were annoyed because the disciples were teaching about the resurrection of Jesus.  After all that had happened, they still didn’t believe.  The wolves, the Sadducees and high priests, wanted to scatter the flock.  Peter, moved by the Holy Spirit made this wonderful witness, “There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12)

Let’s go back to a famous door.  One day, on orders from the Almighty, Noah and his sons built an ark.  This ark had a door.  The rains started up and at some point, Noah and his family boarded the ark.  Then what did they do?  They closed the door.  When that happened, the rain fell for God’s judgment.  For the people who still had faith, this small group of eight, the door provided protection.  Eventually, the rain would subside and Noah was able to open the door and reveal God’s Blessing on the earth.  Judgment was also present.  The door was shut on those who did not believe.  It was the same door, but your eternal fate was determined on which side of the door you were on.

Like on Let’s Make A Deal, we enter doors all the time that reveal something new.  Someone’s home you have never been to, a new school you will be attending, a hotel room in a foreign city, a restaurant you have been excited to chow down at, a medical room awaiting a doctor’s diagnosis, a funeral home to pick out a casket.  Some doors you can’t wait for.  Some doors you would like to never face.

No matter what you find behind the door, the Good Shepherd is there.  You receive Jesus as your Lord and master.  Outside these doors, many are rejecting Jesus.  They are outside the ark we might say.  Judgment is raining down.  

But you are safe.  Just like Noah was safe from the wind and waves and flooding waters, you are safe from God’s judgment.  You are protected from the wrath of God.  Sheep are put into pens with doors closed to keep out the wolves.  In the same way, Jesus is watching over you and keeping you safe from the devil and his evil angels.  Inside these doors of our church, God feeds and nourishes you.  You hear His voice in the preaching and proclamation of God’s Word.  You drink from the living water that flows from the baptismal font.  You eat the food that he has prepared at his banquet table, bread and wine that is his body and blood that offers you forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation.

Don’t be afraid.  Let the Holy Spirit take your hand.  Reach out.  Turn the knob.  Open it.  Go ahead.  Heaven and all its glory, all the blessings of God Almighty given for you. Come, enter through the door that is Jesus and find your Good Shepherd waiting for you.

Amen.