Tag: Gospel

Gentle Reader,

Every sermon matters. Some sermons are duds, no matter how much prayer and work you put in. Some that you expect to be duds really resonate with the listeners. Some are clear home runs from the get-go. Most fall somewhere between the great and the awful. But every sermon matters.

I write this because I want to be clear that each message I shared with the Rocky Mountain District teens mattered to me. But the one you’ll read below, preached on the evening of July 31, 2024, was the most important. A preacher can never take for granted that the Gospel is brand-new information for some of the listeners. What an incredible privilege to share that Good News!

God loves you.

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The only factoid about me tonight: I love Jesus. I really love Jesus. If you don’t remember a single other thing about me, that’s okay. And we have a lot of really good Jesus stuff to get into, so let’s take our bird’s eye view of 1 John 2:18-3:10.

• Chapter 2 Ending –
  • Salty John comes through again as he takes aim at false teachers
    • A false teacher is anyone who teaches anything that is contrary to the Gospel
      • Anyone who denies either the Divinity or the humanity of Jesus
      • Anyone who denies the real life, real death, and real resurrection of Jesus
      • Anyone who says that darkness and light can mix just fine; that it doesn’t matter how you live
      • Anyone who says that you can combine different religions together because all roads lead to God
  • He’s salty because he cares about them
    • They are his family
    • He wants them to be safe and to stick with the truth
  • Antichrist
    • Anyone who takes a position about Christ contrary to orthodox, or correct, Christian teaching
      • Denying his Divinity
      • Denying his humanity
      • Denying the resurrection
      • Saying that he got married or had kids
      • Adding anything more to the story
    • Anyone who sets themselves up to be a savior
      • Political figures
      • Cult leaders
    • If you deny that Jesus is Christ (Anointed One/Messiah/Savior) then you are liar
  • No lie comes from/with the truth
    • You can’t have true and false mixed together
  • Anointed by the Holy One
    • Empowered to live as God wants you to live
    • Wisdom to discern true/false
  • Abide
    • Be settled in God
      • Study Scripture
      • Pray
      • Encourage each other
  • Sets up a discussion of how all of this impacts how we live

• Chapter 3 Beginning –
  • Everyone who does right/righteousness shows that they belong to God
    • Lived out in the routine of ordinary days
    • Maintaining a teachable spirit
  • God lavishes love upon you!
    • A gift
    • Starts with prevenient grace
      • The red carpet of grace
      • The grace that invites you in
  • Actual children of God
    • Claimed by God
    • God’s character becoming part of who we are
  • The world doesn’t get us – that’s how it’s supposed to be
    • We are shaped by God
    • Fully at God’s disposal to direct/guide/use
  • Sin is real
    • We are born selfish and with an anti-God attitude
    • The only solution to our problem is Jesus
  • Jesus frees us from the power of sin
  • The way you live your life shows what/who you are allied with
    • You can’t actively love God and actively disobey God as a habit
    • You have to choose

We pick up our reading in verse 11. I invite you to stand as we honor the reading of Scripture. Hear the word of the Lord.

For this is the message you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. We must not be like Cain, who was from the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own deeds were evil and his brother’s righteous. Do not be astonished, brothers and sisters, that the world hates you. We know that we have passed from death to life because we love the brothers and sisters. Whoever does not love abides in death. All who hate a brother or sister are murderers, and you know that murderers do not have eternal life abiding in them. We know love by this, that he laid down his life for us – and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers and sisters. How does God’s love abide in anyone who has the world’s goods and sees a brother or sister in need and yet refuses help?

Little children, let us love not in word or speech but in deed and truth. And by this we will know that we are from the truth and will reassure our hearts before him whenever our hearts condemn us, for God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything. Beloved, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have boldness before God, and we receive from him whatever we ask, because we obey his commandments and do what pleases him.

And this is his commandment, that we should believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us. All who obey his commandments abide in him, and he abides in them. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit that he has given us.

– 1 John 3:11-24 (NRSV)

This is the word of God for the people of God. And we say together: thanks be to God.

John says that, “this is the message.” I’ve been saying that God is writing a story, but I haven’t told you what that story is. So let’s get into it. 

The first three chapters of Genesis are a record of our beginnings. God decided that God wanted to create the universe and everything in it, right on down to the atom and all the things inside the atoms. How exactly God did this – was it seven literal days, was it seven seconds, was it seven bajillion years – doesn’t matter. The thing that matters is that God is real, and that God creates. God isn’t contained within creation. God isn’t the moon, or a special tree, or a specific river. It might seem funny that I clarify what is probably obvious to us, but our human ancestors often got stuck on worshiping the creation. And if we’re honest, we can be tempted to do the same thing – money, possessions, social status. So the author of Genesis goes out of their way to make it really clear that God is not a part of creation. The beauty of nature points to God, but God is outside of all that God has made.

This means that God has the right to set the rules. God creates the first people – Adam and Eve – and tells them to take care of a gorgeous, peaceful garden. The only thing they can’t do? Eat the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Why does God tell them not to do that? Honestly that’s not a question anyone can really answer. I don’t know. We just accept that God makes the rules, that God knows best.

What seems like five seconds later, Adam and Eve break the rules. They do their own thing. In that moment, everything in creation, right on down to the atoms and all the things inside the atoms, is cracked. Dysfunctional. Adam and Eve are ashamed. Scared. Angry. They feel things they hadn’t felt before in that peaceful garden, as they worked and walked with God.

God could have left them in that state. Left them to suffer. But God doesn’t. God finds them – because nobody can ever hide from God. God invites them to confess what they’ve done. Instead, they blame each other. The pattern for human relationships is set. The pattern for human relationship with God is set. It’s all knotted up and ugly.

Except. 

Hold on to that word. It’s a beautiful word.

Except – right in the middle of the knotted up ugliness, God says to the serpent who tempted God’s people to do wrong, “I’m declaring war between you and the Woman, between your offspring and hers. He’ll wound your head, you’ll wound his heel.” That’s Genesis 3:15. That is the first promise that Jesus will come and make things new and whole. The promise of a Savior who will crush the head of the serpent. Who will have victory over sin and death. 

There are thousands of years, languages, and cultures between Genesis 3 and Luke 2:31-33, where we find the angel Gabriel telling a teenage girl named Mary that she’s going to give birth to the Savior. That the Holy Spirit will enact upon her body in such a way that she gets pregnant with no sex involved. A miracle. God keeps God’s promise.

Thirtyish years later, that Savior, the God-man named Jesus, stands on a hillside and tells people that God’s got a new way for them to live. We looked at some of that amazing sermon during our devotional time. Specifically, we touched on Jesus’ words about love. To love our enemies, which we now understand means to learn to see the people God loves through God’s loving eyes, because nobody really is our enemy. To pray for those who hurt us. And we wondered, “Is that fair, Jesus?” I mean, really. That’s a tall order. 

But you see, there’s two things about Jesus: he is God, so he gets to make the rules. Second, he doesn’t ask us to do anything that he didn’t do himself. Because a few years after that sermon, he is arrested in a moonlit garden. Dragged through an unjust trial. Beaten beyond recognition. Stripped and nailed to a cross. He chose to go through all that. Nobody made him. From the outside it looks like a bunch of people teaming up to murder Jesus. But he laid down his life. Because sin is real and serious. It must be radically dealt with. Jesus, who is God, is stupendously gracious and deals with it for us. He takes on the consequences of what we have done.

Some of his last words: “forgive them.”

Forgive them.

Jesus never did anything wrong. He was tempted, just like we are. But he never succumbed. He lived the perfect life that we could never hope to live in our own strength and power. There was no earthly reason for him to be put to death. And yet he says, “forgive them.”

Thankfully, after the horror of the cross and the silence of the tomb, a new day dawns. Jesus is done being dead. He sits up and just leaves the tomb. Alive. Alive then, and alive now. Death and decay could not hold him! He stomped that serpent’s head right into the ground! He sets us free!

That is the story God is writing.

That is the story John is swept up in. He insists again and again that if we know Jesus, if we understand the great, extravagant, unending, undeserved love that Jesus has for us, then we must love others, especially each other. He contrasts this call to love with an example of evil. He reminds his readers of the story of Cain and Abel, the children of Adam and Eve. Cain murders his brother. I have a little brother. I know what it is to be so, so angry with my little brother. But I have never wanted to murder him. That is an intense, dark place that we never want to find ourselves in. But any one of us could end up in that place if we don’t choose to be swept up in this story of God.

I know. I know, that sounds like exaggeration. But here’s the thing about sin – there’s no favoritism. We each have our own unique weak spots, yes. Something that really tempts you might not tempt me at all, and vice versa. But without Jesus, we are all selfish. More than that, we’re zombies. We’re the walking dead. 

The walking dead are swept up in the story of sin, which is a distortion of God’s creation and purposes. That’s why John says that, while you may not have actually murdered anyone, and while you may not have ever thought about murdering anyone, if you hate someone, you might as well have. He echoes Jesus here. In Mark 7:21-23 Jesus talks about our actions beginning in the mind. God is just as focused on the state of your mind as God is on what you actually do. And God gets increasingly picky about it the longer you know God. It’s because God wants us to live. To not be the walking dead. To not be stuck in this pointless, dark story of sin. There’s a better story! There’s a better way! The life and work of Jesus ensures that we can have real life!

Whether we have real life or not is shown in our love for others. I want to emphasize something here: this is not a call to remain in abusive relationships or situations. That is not something God asks of anyone. Based on what John writes here, I can confidently say that anyone who is abusive is drowning in death and is spreading that darkness to others. Harming others is never of God. So it is right for you to remove yourself from those relationships and situations. It is right for you to ask trusted adults for help if you need it every single time.

Love is not a one-way street in which one person always takes while the other person always gives. John writes that the love we are to have for each other is mutual. It’s not based solely in feelings, because sometimes we annoy each other. It’s okay to admit that. It’s not centered on one person whom everyone else serves. Mutual love involves looking out for each other. Wanting the best for each other. Encouraging each other to dive back into God’s story when we get distracted this way or that. It’s tangible actions – giving to meet a need as you are able, pulling up another chair to the table, letting someone else go ahead of you in the food line. It’ll look a little different each day for each of us, which is fine. We don’t all have to be exactly the same. We do all have to love others.

And it’s not optional. It’s a command. And it’s a command for two reasons: first, acting toward others in loving ways is the supreme evidence that Jesus has changed us from selfish and closed-off to open, kind people. Second, we can live this way because we have the Holy Spirit. God graces us with the power we need each moment of each day to do as God wants us to do. This real life is made possible because God is with us.

That’s all good. I think we can get on board with this. We love God, we want to please God, this all makes sense. But what about when we do mess up? This has been a long struggle for me. When I tell you I love Jesus, I am not kidding. I’m not giving you the Sunday school answer. I love Jesus. I want to please Jesus. And sometimes, I don’t do that. I wake up on the wrong side of the bed and then I cut off someone in traffic and then I get snappy with my husband…and then I’m just hit with this awful feeling, like a punch in the gut. I didn’t live the way Jesus wants me to. I didn’t love others like Jesus wants me to. And it is the worst feeling. What do we do with that?

John has an answer. When you’re tempted to condemn yourself, to think that there’s no possible way that God could still love you, the Holy Spirit reminds us of all that Christ has done for us. He didn’t come to us when we had it all figured out. He didn’t acknowledge us when we’d cleaned up ourselves. We can’t figure it out and we can’t clean up ourselves. Christ came to save sinners. So remember that. Remember that God forgives. Remember that you can trust God.

In our theological tradition – which is a way of talking about how we understand the Bible and what it teaches – we believe that habitual, constant sin isn’t the pattern of life for someone who is swept up in God’s story. John has said that several times. So don’t take what I just said about God’s forgiveness as permission to just go do whatever. I’m not saying that. John isn’t saying that. If he was saying that, he wouldn’t even be writing this letter. We believe that God gives us the power to live as God wants us to live. But we also believe that it’s a process. We have to grow. And sometimes we forget who we are and that God gives us what we need. In those moments, there is grace.

It’s important for us to remember that grace when we’re doing well, too. If we’re doing our best to love God, love others, and living like God wants us to, it’s all because of God’s grace toward us. At no point in time do we become so amazing that we aren’t utterly dependent upon God. So wherever you are today – wondering how God can still love you even though you messed up or feeling pretty good about your choices – you are dependent upon the grace of God.

John closes out this section by reiterating the importance of obedience. Again, he kind of repeats and rephrases himself a lot in this letter, which I think is great because it shows that he’s very aware of how forgetful we are. We need to hear things over and over again for them to sink in. What we do, how we live, reveals the presence of Christ in us. As he writes in verse 18, “Little children, let us love not in word or in speech but in deed and truth.” Your talk and your walk in alignment. Not without stumbles. Not without the need for growth. Just you and me and us together choosing to love the God who first loved us.

“All who obey his commandments abide in him, and he abides in them.” To abide is to be held and kept by God. Isn’t that marvelous? Just a little hint of where we’re going tomorrow.

But for now, we end by knowing that we do as God says because we understand two things: God makes the rules, and God loves us. We see the full extent of God’s love and grace toward us in Christ on the cross. This is the most lavishly loving act in all of history. God declares Godself as being for us, not against us. God could have left us alone in our dark ugliness. Left us as the walking dead. But God didn’t. Our only appropriate response is to repent and surrender to God.

Repent: to turn from sin, from the dark, and toward God, toward the light.

Surrender: to give God the pen of your story.

Isaac Watts, a songwriter who lived a very long time ago, put it this way:

See, from his head, his hands, his feet,
sorrow and love flow mingled down.
Did e’er such love and sorrow meet,
or thorns compose so rich a crown?
Were the whole realm of nature mine,
that were a present far too small.
Love so amazing, so divine,
demands my soul, my life, my all.

– When I Survey the Wondrous Cross, 1707

You are what you can give to God in response to all that God has done for you. Well, not even give, really. You can recognize that God makes the rules, not you, and that God made you, and then enter into relationship with God. That’s what God wants. God loves you. God doesn’t want you to be the walking dead anymore. If you already know in your bones that Jesus lived, Jesus died, Jesus lives again, and Jesus will return one day, and that Jesus alone is the solution to that problem of sin – fantastic! I love that!

If you don’t know that, if you feel a tug on your heart or a pain in your gut tonight – don’t run. Don’t hide. That’s Jesus telling you that he’s here. Tonight is an excellent night to admit that you can’t fix it. That you can’t clean yourself up. That you don’t want to be the walking dead anymore. That you’re tired of hate and you want to be full of love.

If you would like to admit that Jesus is Lord and you need Jesus to save you, I invite you to come forward and pray. Nobody here is gonna judge you, because it’s something we all have to do at one point or another. We are all in the same boat. And your prayer doesn’t have to be fancy. Prayer is just a conversation with God, and God wants to hear from you. Plus you won’t be alone. There’s plenty of people here who will pray with you. If you need to, grab a friend and bring them with you. Come and meet Jesus.

GRACE AND PEACE ALONG THE WAY,

MARIE

Image Courtesy of Priscilla du Preez