Who Do We Say He Is?

The Sunday morning message given in the United Methodist churches of the Wheatland Parish on February 11, 2024.  The Bible verses used are Matthew 16:13-20.

 

            One of the things that can be frustrating when we read the words of Jesus is the number of times that he seems to be almost deliberately mysterious about what he means.  Jesus would use parables.  He would use figures of speech.  He would make analogies.  Sometimes you’d like to be able to go to Jesus and say, “Would you just come out and say what you mean?”  

In fact, at one point, the disciples kind of did that.  In John Sixteen, when Jesus is making what has been called his Farewell Address to the disciples, right before he goes out to the Garden of Gethsemane to be arrested, the disciples say, “Now you are speaking clearly and without figures of speech.”  You can just hear the relief in their voices, that finally, after all this time, Jesus is just coming out and saying what he has to say.

            And yet, for all the figures of speech and parables and all the other things Jesus used, he could cut right to the heart of the matter when he wanted to.  That’s clear from our reading for today.  Jesus first asks his disciples who the public is saying he is.  And they tell him, some say John the Baptist, some say Elijah, some say Jeremiah, some say one of the other prophets.

            And then Jesus asks the big question.  “What about you?...Who do you say I am?”

            That’s the big question.  It was the big question for the disciples.  It’s the big question for us.  Who do we say Jesus is?

            Now, we’d like to think, in a Christian church, that we would all say what Peter said.  Jesus is the Messiah.  The Savior.  The divine Son of the living God.  The one who can give us salvation and eternal life.

            And maybe all of us here today would say that.  Maybe everyone watching the livestream would say that, too.  I hope so.  But maybe not.  

            A recent survey of people who claim to be born again Christians--now again, these are not just people who claim a vague, general belief in God, these are people who claim to be born again Christians--a recent survey said that nearly seventy percent of those people say that belief in Jesus is not the only way to heaven.  They said that belief in Muhammed or in Buddha is just as valid a belief, and just as able to get you to heaven, as belief in Jesus Christ.

Well, if you believe that, then you don’t agree with Peter.  You don’t actually believe that Jesus is the Savior.  You don’t believe that Jesus is the divine Son of God.  Not because I say so, but because Jesus said so.  Jesus said, “I am the way and the truth and the life.”  Jesus did not say “I am one of several ways.”  Jesus said “I am the way.”  Jesus did not say, “I am one of several truths.”  Jesus said, “I am the truth.”  Jesus did not say there are lots of people who can lead you to God the Father.  Jesus said, “No one can come to the Father except through Me.”

            People say, well, that sounds awfully exclusionary.  You’re saying that people who don’t believe in Jesus as the Savior don’t go to heaven.  Well, again, I’m not saying anything.  Jesus is the one who said that.  What I say makes no difference to anything.  I have no ability to get someone into heaven or to keep them out.  And I’m very glad of that, by the way.  All I’m doing is repeating what Jesus said.  People can believe it or not believe it.  It’s their choice.  But anyone who does not believe it does so at their peril.  And anyone who does not believe it does not agree with Peter about who Jesus is.

            Another recent survey said that about half of American Christians say that we get into heaven by our good deeds.  And again, if you believe that, you don’t agree with Peter.  You don’t actually believe that Jesus is the Savior.  Because if we could get into heaven by our good deeds, we would not need a Savior, right?  We could earn our way into heaven.  All we’d need to do is be good enough, do enough good things, and we’ll get to heaven.  We don’t need Jesus for it.  We can do it ourselves.

            People say, well, are you saying bad people can go to heaven?  Yes.  Yes I am.  In fact, those are the only people who can go to heaven.  Because, compared to God, there are no “good people”.  Jesus said that, too.  In Mark, Chapter Ten, someone referred to Jesus as “Good teacher” and Jesus said, “Why are you calling me good?  No one is good except God alone.”  

Only God is good.  Jesus said that even he is not good--unless you accept the fact that He is the divine Son of God.  So unless you know someone who’s as good as God--and I certainly don’t--there are no “good people” in heaven.  There are only bad people--sinners, who are saved by their belief in the divine Son of God as the Savior.

And again, none of this is true because I say it.  I’m just repeating what Jesus said.  And again, people can believe it or not believe it.  It’s their choice.  But again, anyone who does not believe it does so at their peril.  And anyone who does not believe it does not really agree with Peter about who Jesus is.

            So, I ask the question again.  Who do we say Jesus is?  Do we agree with Peter that Jesus is the Messiah, the divine Son of the living God?  Or do we believe Jesus is something or someone else?  Do we believe Jesus is who He said He is?  Or do we make Jesus whatever we want Him to be?

            It is tempting to make Jesus whatever we want Him to be.  Because if belief in Jesus is the only way to heaven, that means there are people I know, people I care about, who will not go to heaven.  That may be true for you, too.  I don’t like to think about that.  I don’t want those people to not go to heaven.  But if we believe what Jesus said, then unless those people change their minds and come to faith, that’s the way it’s going to be.  

            But the story does not end there.  Because after Peter says, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God,” Jesus says that Peter is the rock on which He will build His church, “and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.”

            Jesus did not say this because Peter was so smart, or so holy, or had such a great personality, or because of any of the things humans tend to think of as important.  Jesus said this because Peter had shown his faith in Jesus.  It was Peter’s faith that made him the strong rock on which Jesus could build His church.  It was Peter’s faith that would help make that church so strong that the gates of Hades would not overcome it.

            And that’s what our faith can do.  Our faith in Jesus can make us a strong rock as well.  You and I can be a rock Jesus can build on, just like Peter was.

            We hear that, and we think, well, but Peter was one of the greatest heroes of the Bible.  I could never be Peter.  My faith could never be that strong.

            But it can be.  Who was Peter?  He was an ordinary fisherman when he met Jesus.  He made all kinds of mistakes.  

In fact, the next thing that happens after the Bible verses we read tonight is that Peter starts arguing with Jesus and Jesus calls him Satan.  When Jesus was arrested, Peter three times denied knowing that he’d ever been with Jesus.  After Jesus was killed, Peter was so confused and scared that he decided to go fishing.

Jesus knew who Peter was, of course.  He knew Peter was far from a perfect person.  And yet, because Peter knew who Jesus was, Peter became the rock on which Jesus built his church. 

Jesus could deal with Peter’s failings because He knew Peter’s faith.  Jesus can deal with our failings because Jesus knows our faith.  It’s like a saying I read on facebook:  “When God put a calling on your life, He already factored in your stupidity.”  That’s funny, but it’s also true.  The Lord knows everything about us, the good and the bad.  And yet the Lord still calls you and me to serve Him, just as the Lord called Peter.  The Lord calls us, not because we’re so smart or so holy or have such great personalities, but because of our faith.

That faith can make you and me a rock Jesus can build on, just as Peter was a rock Jesus could build on.  But it all comes back to the question.  Who do we say Jesus is?  Do we say, as Peter said, that He is the Messiah, the Son of the living God?  Or do we say he’s something else, something a little more comfortable, something a little less exclusionary?  Do we say that Jesus is a Savior, but not the Savior?  Do we say that Jesus is one of many ways to heaven?  Or do we believe what Jesus said, that He is the way to eternal life, and that no one can come to the Father except through Him?  Will we be the solid rock Jesus can build on?  Or will we be, as the old hymn says, sinking sand, something that nothing solid could ever be built on?

Who do we say He is?  Our eternal life, and the eternal life of others, may depend on our answer.

 

Sharing the Proof

The Sunday night message given in the Gettysburg United Methodist church on February 4, 2024.  The Bible verses used are 2 Timothy 2:8-19.

            The Apostle Paul did a lot of writing.  Most of the New Testament is the letters of Paul to various churches or, as in this case, to individuals.  There are thirteen of Paul’s letters in the New Testament, some of them pretty long.  And I have no doubt that Paul wrote a lot of other letters which, for whatever reason, are not included in the Bible.

            And yet, for all of his writing, Paul never lost sight of his essential message.  He states it time and time again.  It’s the very first sentence of our reading for tonight.  “Remember Jesus Christ, raised from the dead, descended from David.  This is my gospel.”

            For all of the things Jesus did while he was on the earth–for all of his teaching and healing and miracles and driving out demons and all that–for Paul, these were the essential things to know about Jesus.  He was descended from David, and he was raised from the dead.

            Why is that?  Why would Paul not focus on the love of Jesus?  Why would Paul not focus on the power of Jesus?  Why would Paul not focus on the wisdom of Jesus?  Why are those two facts–that Jesus was descended from David, and that he was raised from the dead–why are those two things the essentials of Christian faith, according to Paul?

            The reason is because those two things–that Jesus was descended from David, and that he was raised from the dead–are the two things that prove Jesus actually is the Messiah.  He actually is the Savior.  He actually is the divine Son of God.

            After all, there have been lots of people who have talked about the importance of love, and lots of people who have shown love.  There have been lots of people who had power.  There have been lots of people who have wisdom.  And don’t get me wrong, those are all good things.  I’m not criticizing them.  But if those things are all that you know about Jesus–that he loved people, that he had power, that he was wise–you would not recognize him as the divine Son of God.  He might be a great guy.  He might be a great teacher.  He might even be a prophet.  But you would not know he was the Savior.  You would not know he was the divine Son of God.  To know that, you need to know that Jesus was descended from David and that he was raised from the dead.

            Now, today, we sometimes think, what’s the big deal about being descended from David?  But it was a big deal, and really it still is, because of the Old Testament prophecies.  The Old Testament prophets had said the Messiah would be descended from David.  We read in Jeremiah Twenty-three, Verse Five, “‘The days are coming,’ declares the Lord, ‘when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, a King who will reign wisely and do what is just and right in the land.’”  That’s why the gospels of Matthew and Luke both give us lengthy genealogies of Jesus, showing that he was, in fact, descended from David.  That Jesus is descended from David was and is proof that Jesus is the Messiah, the divine Son of God.

            But of course, there had been lots of people who had been descended from David, too.  After all, King David lived somewhere around one thousand B. C.   A thousand years later, he’d have had lots of descendants.  Jesus being descended from David was still important, but he shared that distinction with a lot of other people.  What distinguished Jesus from all those other descendants of David is that he was raised from the dead.

            That’s the proof.  Human beings, even great human beings, are not raised from the dead.  When a human being dies, they stay dead, at least in earthly terms.  And when Jesus was killed, everyone expected that to happen to him, too.  

And I mean, everyone.  Even his closest followers.  Remember how the women went out to the tomb on that first Easter morning?  They were not going out there to see if Jesus was in the tomb.  They knew he was in the tomb.  They were going out to prepare his body for burial.  And when they saw that he was not there, they did not assume he’d been raised from the dead.  They assumed his body had been moved, and they were trying to figure out where it had been moved to.

            That Jesus had actually been raised from the dead was the last thing anyone expected.  It was the ultimate proof that Jesus was who he said he was.  That he was the Savior, the divine Son of God.  That’s why, when the Pharisees found out what had happened, they bribed the guards to say that they’d fallen asleep and Jesus’ disciples had stolen the body.  They knew that if the truth came out, if people knew Jesus had been raised from the dead, they would know who Jesus was.  They would know that he was, in fact, the Messiah.

            That’s why, for all the things Paul wrote in his letters, he made sure this stayed at the forefront–that Jesus was raised from the dead.  No matter what else he wrote about, no matter what other issues he was dealing with, Paul made sure not to lose that main point–that Jesus was raised from the dead.  

In fact, he said that was so important that he was willing to endure anything in order to spread the word about it.  He did not care about what might happen to him as a result.  If he died, he’d be with Jesus.  Listen to what he says:  “If we died with Him, we will also live with Him.  If we endure, we will also reign with Him.”

That’s faith.  That’s an incredibly strong faith.  To say, if I die for Jesus, it’s okay, because I’ll go to heaven and live with Jesus.  And if I don’t die, but simply have to endure suffering until Jesus comes again, that’s okay, too, because then I’ll reign with Jesus.  Either way, I win.

How strong is your faith?  How strong is my faith?  Could we say what Paul said?  Could we say that if I die for Jesus, it’s okay, if I have to endure suffering for Jesus, that’s okay, too, because as long as I have faith in Jesus, I’ll win?

If not, why not?  Because we’re not the Apostle Paul?  Well, we’re not, but is that really an excuse?  I mean, suppose I’m standing before the Lord, and the Lord asks why I was not able to endure suffering for Jesus, and I say, well, come on, I’m not the Apostle Paul.  You think that’s going to fly?

Paul goes on to say this:  “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth.”  

That phrase, “do your best”, is important.  It’s good news in one sense, because it says God does not expect perfection from us.  God knows we’re going to slip, we’re going to make mistakes, we’re going to fail.  There will be times when our resolve does not stay firm, when our faith does not stay strong.  God knows perfection is beyond our ability, and God does not expect it of us.  God just wants us to do our best.

But having said that, it’s also important that we actually do our best.  Because it can be really easy to use that as an excuse, too.  “Sure, I’m not as good as the Apostle Paul, but I’m doing my best.”  Now, if that’s actually true, that’s fine.  But here’s the question–are you doing your best?  Are you really doing your best?  Am I really doing my best?  Or are we settling for something less?  Are we settling for a mediocre faith, a lukewarm faith, a faith that does not want to make waves or cause problems for anyone?  Including ourselves?

Now, I want to make clear I’m not saying we need to earn our way into heaven.  We go to heaven by our faith in Jesus Christ, not by the things we do.  But if we have faith, we need to do the things Jesus told us to do.  And Jesus told us to go and make disciples.  And to make disciples, we need to make sure people know who Jesus is.  And they cannot know who Jesus is unless they know Jesus was raised from the dead.

So, we need to do our best–to truly do our best–to make sure people know who Jesus is.  Not because we’re trying to earn our way into heaven by doing it.  But simply because it’s what Jesus told us to do.  Simply because it’s the right thing to do.  Because our goal is to help other people find their way to faith in Christ.  Our goal is to help other people find their way to heaven.

“Remember Jesus Christ, raised from the dead, descended from David.”  That was Paul’s gospel.  It needs to be our gospel, too.  And we need to share it with everyone we can.

 

Childlike Faith

The Sunday morning sermon in the United Methodist churches of the Wheatland Parish on February 4, 2024.  The Bible verses used are Mark 10:13-16.

            Do you remember what your life was like when you were a little kid?  How did you feel about life?  What was your attitude toward life?

            I’m not talking about when you got old enough to start working and helping out.  I mean, I grew up on a farm, and even though I could never be a farmer I’m glad that I was a farm kid and had that upbringing.  But I’m talking about when you were little.  Three, or four, or five, or six, something like that.  

            Remember what the world was like for you back then?  As I think about it, what I remember most is playing games in the back yard.  In my memory, it was a really big back yard.  In fact, when I looked at it as an adult, it was not very big at all.  But when I was a little kid, it was huge.  I loved sports, even back then, so that back yard became a baseball field, a golf course, and a football field.  We had a basketball hoop over the garage, so that area became a basketball court.  I would play games out there for hours, sometimes with my brothers, but often alone.  It shows how little athletic ability I have that even though I spent all those hours playing sports, I never was any good at any of them.

            And I remember too, as a little kid, how much trust I had in my parents.  If Mom or Dad said something, I totally believed it.  Not only did I believe they would always tell me the truth, I also totally trusted their judgment.  For example, if there was bad weather, and Dad said we should stay home because of it, I had no doubt that he was right.  And if Dad said it wasn’t that bad, that we could make it okay, I had no doubt that he was right about that, too.  Now, as an adult, I realize that Dad was probably no more sure of what to do in those situations than I am.  But as a little kid, I totally trusted that he was right.

            In our Bible reading for today, Jesus says this:  “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.  Truly I tell you, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.”

            That’s a saying some of have heard many times, of course.  But why did Jesus say that?  What did he mean by it?  Why does the kingdom of God belong to little children?  Why do we need to receive the kingdom of God like a little child?  What does it even mean, to receive the kingdom of God like a little child?

            As we think about that, one thing we need to keep in mind is what a revolutionary statement that was at the time.  Today, it’s a cliché to talk about the importance of children.  We hear all the time that children are our future, that children are our most valuable resource.  Politicians constantly tell us that we need to do things “for the children”.  We constantly hear about how valuable and important children are.  Our actions don’t always live up to our words, but we at least pay lip service to children being incredibly important.

            That was not the way it was in Jesus’ time.  Children were not considered important at all.  Having children was considered important–it was sometimes considered a scandal or a punishment from God to not have children.  But the children themselves, once they were born, were not particularly valuable.  Once they got old enough to work and contribute, then yes, they were important.  But as little kids?  They were a drag on the family.  They were, as the saying goes, to be seen and not heard, and often they were not to be seen, either.  That’s why the disciples were trying to keep the little kids away from Jesus–they did not want people bothering the Savior with these unimportant little beings.

            So when Jesus said the kingdom of God belongs to little children, and that we need to receive the kingdom of God like little children in order to enter it, people were really surprised.  That was not a statement that made sense to them.  So again, we ask, why did Jesus say that?  What did He mean by it?

            That’s why I asked you to think about what your world was like when you were little.  Because the way we looked at life when we were little kids is the way God wants us to look at life–with a sense of joy, with a sense of wonder, and with a sense of trust.

            I read a quote recently from Marianne Williamson.  She said, “Children are happy because they don’t have a file in their minds called ‘All the Things That Could Go Wrong.’”  It seems to me that there’s a lot of truth in that.

            When little kids start to do something, they don’t think about all the things that could go wrong.  They just do it.  They do it, and they see what happens.  Maybe it works the way they wanted it to.  Maybe it works better.  Maybe it doesn’t work at all.  When it doesn’t work, what do they do?  They take a minute, then they do something else.  But little kids are not afraid to try things.  They’re not afraid of failing.  They live in the moment.  They take joy in the moment.

            Little kids live with a sense of wonder.  When you’re a little kid, you think everything in the world exists for you to play with.  Sometimes, of course, that includes things they should not play with, and parents have to step in and stop them.  But for a little kid, the smallest thing can be amazing.  An anthill.  Leaves blowing.  A pile of snow.  Everything can be wonderful when you’re a little kid.

            Little kids live with a sense of possibility.  When you’re five years old, everything seems possible.  You can dream of being a baseball player, as I did when I was five.  You can dream of being an astronaut and going to the moon.  You can dream of owning a candy store and being able to eat candy every day.  When you’re a little kid, you have dreams, and you believe that your dreams could come true.

            And little kids live with a sense of trust.  They trust that their parents will love them and take care of them.  If they have older brothers and sisters, they trust them, too.  They believe that their parents are looking out for them and that their parents will protect them from anything that might hurt them.

            Somewhere along the line, we lose all that.  We create that file called “All the Things That Could Go Wrong.”  Things like leaves and snow become a nuisance that we have to deal with.  We stop dreaming, and in fact decide dreams are stupid.  

            To an extent, of course, that’s inevitable.  And it’s not all bad, of course.  Some of it is necessary.  We do have to grow up.  We do have to mature.  Little kids are wonderful, but we don’t put them in charge of things.  We need adults to be in charge–adults who are realistic and can see potential problems and realize that not everyone can be trusted.

            But when it comes to our faith in God, we do need to keep those traits of children.  We need to be willing to follow God, and do the things Jesus told us to do, without worrying about All the Things That Could Go Wrong.  We need to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ, without thinking about what the reactions of others could be.

            And we can do that if we keep that sense of possibility.  We need to have dreams–dreams of a church, of a community, of a world, in which everyone puts their faith and trust in Jesus Christ as the Savior.  And we need to believe that those dreams can come true.  Not because of our own goodness or greatness, but because of the goodness and greatness of God.  Because in fact, as Jesus told us, with God, all things really are possible.  Incredible, unbelievable things, things that might have seemed impossible to us, can actually happen with God’s help.

            And that brings us to the other thing we need:  trust.  We need to trust in God the Father the way I trusted in my Dad when I was a kid.  If God says we should do something, then we should do it.  If God says we should not do something, we should not do it.  We need to trust in God’s judgment.  We need to trust in God’s wisdom.  We need to trust God.

            And we can do that with a sense of wonder.  Wonder at the world God created.  Wonder at God’s wisdom.  Wonder at how God takes care of us.  Wonder at God’s love.

            The kingdom of God belongs to those who approach God like little children.  Those who put their faith in God.  Those who do their best to serve God and love God, no matter how others may react to that.  Those who are willing to dream.  Those who truly believe that, with God, all things are possible.

            Let’s be those people.  Let’s recapture our childlike faith.  Let’s feel the joy and wonder of God’s world.  Let’s close the file of All the Things That Could Go Wrong.  Instead, let’s dream of all the things that could go right.  Let’s live with a sense of possibility and trust in God.  And let’s see what happens.  I think there’s a pretty good chance it’ll be something good.

 

The King of Glory

The Sunday night message given in the Gettysburg United Methodist church on January 28, 2024.  The Bible verses used are Psalm 24.

            There are a lot of names by which we refer to God.  Jehovah.  Lord.  King of kings.  The Almighty.  The Holy One.  I’m sure you can think of many others.

            But our psalm for today, Psalm Twenty-four, uses a name for God which we rarely use.  In fact, I don’t know if I’ve ever heard anyone use it other than in this psalm.  In Psalm Twenty-four, God is referred to as “The King of Glory”.

            The psalm uses that phrase over and over.  Five times, in this psalm, God is referred to as “The King of Glory”.  But what does that mean?  What does it mean to call God ‘The King of Glory”?  And what does that phrase tell us about God?

            Well, let’s look at the word “glory”.  The first definition of “glory” is “high renown or honor won by notable achievements”.  And in fact, one of the things our psalm does is go through some of God’s “notable achievements”.  Not all of them, of course–that would not be possible.  But let’s look at what the psalm says about God’s achievements.

            It begins with this:  “The Earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it, the world and all who live in it; for he founded it on the seas and established it on the waters.”

            That’s quite an achievement.  The creation of the world.  The seas.  The waters.  The dry land, too, of course.  And the rocks and the plants and the animals and the birds and the fish and everything else.  I think we’d have to admit that the creation of all that is a pretty notable achievement.

            It goes on to say that the King of Glory is “The Lord, strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle.”  God is so strong, so mighty, that God is undefeated.  God wins every battle.  God may allow it to look like He’s losing, for a while, but He’s never really losing.  It’s like those old melodramas where there’d be a cliffhanger where it looked like the hero was really in big trouble and the villain might be going to win.  It might have looked that way, but you knew better.  You knew that, somehow, the hero would have to do something where he’d defeat the villain and win in the end.  That’s how it is with God.  It may look like God could be defeated, but we know better.  We know that, somehow, God is going to win in the end.  God is too strong and too mighty to ever be defeated.  Being undefeated is a pretty notable achievement, too.

            But God’s glory goes beyond notable achievements.  Because the other definition of glory applies to God, too.  Glory is “magnificence or great beauty”.

            God is magnificent.  God is magnificent beyond our ability to understand magnificence.  Just look around at God’s creation.  Look at the beauty of it.  Look at the colors.  Look at the shapes.  Look at the incredible variety of it.  There are so many different kinds of animals.  There are so many different kinds of plants.  There are so many different kinds of birds and fish.  There are even so many different kinds of rocks and dirt.  I mean, think about that.  God is so magnificent that He created all kinds of different rocks and all kinds of dirt.  I mean, to me, a rock is just a rock.  But not to God.  God even made the rocks different and special.  That’s pretty magnificent.

            But that’s not the only way God is magnificent, or even the most important way.  God is truly magnificent because of the way God cares about us.  About you, and about me.  

            It’s been estimated that there have been around a hundred seventeen billion people who have lived on earth since God created it.  And God has known everything about each one of those one hundred seventeen billion people.  God has known their names.  God has known their addresses.  God has known their height and their weight.  God has known the color of their hair and the color of their eyes.  God has known the number of hairs on their heads.  For every single one of those hundred seventeen billion people.  Including you.  And including me.

            But that’s not all God has known.  God has known the talents and abilities of each of those hundred seventeen billion people.  God has known the likes and dislikes of each of them.  God has known the personality of each one of them.  God has known what makes each of them laugh and what makes each of them cry.  God has known the goals and desires of each of them.  God has known the hopes and fears of each of them.  God has known the loves and the hates of each of them.  And God has known the faith–or lack of faith–of each of them.

            But here’s the most important thing.  God has loved each one of those one hundred seventeen billion people.  And God continues to love each one of those one hundred seventeen billion people.  And if the world lasts long enough for there to be a hundred seventeen billion more people, or two hundred billion more people, or a trillion more people, God will love each and every one of them, too.  In fact, God already does love them, because God already knows them before they are even born.

            Now, don’t get me wrong.  I am not saying that God approves of what each one those one hundred seventeen billion people do or did.  I am also not saying that all of those one hundred seventeen billion people are going to heaven.  But even if people choose not to believe in Jesus Christ as the Savior, and so choose not to go to heaven, God still loves them.  There has never been and there never will be a person whom God does not love.  That’s magnificent.  That’s incredibly magnificent.

            God is glory.  God has more glory than anyone else ever will have or ever could have.  God is the king of glory, just as the author of Psalm Twenty-four says.

            But why does the author say it?  Why does the author make such a big deal out of it? I mean, it’s true.  But why is it important? Why does the author of psalm twenty-four go to such lengths to make sure we know God is the king of glory?

            Well, life, quite often, is not an easy thing.  As you know, I’ve prepared a lot of funerals lately.  And I’ve learned about the lives of a lot of people.  And one of the things that strikes me about that is all the things people have to go through and have to overcome in their lives.  Lack of money.  Health problems.  Family strife.  Losing loved ones, sometimes at a young age.  Going to war.  Isolation.  Most of us go through an awful lot of things in our lives.

            And if we try to get through them by ourselves, on our own power, by our own wisdom and strength, we won’t make it.  Sometimes we might, but a lot of times we won’t.  We need someone we can rely on.  Someone who’s powerful.  Someone who’s strong.  Someone who cares about us.  Someone who will always be there for us.  Someone who will always love us, no matter what may happen.

            That’s who the King of Glory is.  He is that strong, powerful one we can rely on.  He is that one who always cares about us and will always be there for us and will always love us.  And if we put our faith and trust in Him, the King of Glory will see us through all of the hard things life can throw at us.  He may not just make all the hard things magically disappear.  But He will be with us as we go through them, and He will lead us through to the other side of them.

            Listen to what the psalm says:  “The one who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not trust in an idol or swear by a false god.  They will receive blessing from the Lord and vindication from God their Savior.”

            When it refers to “clean hands and a pure heart”, that does not mean we need to be perfect.  It means that we put our faith and trust in God and nowhere else.  It means we do our best to serve God and be faithful to God.  If we do that, the psalm says, we will receive blessings and vindication from the Lord.  Again, that does not mean we get everything we want and our troubles all disappear.  It means that God will see us through whatever we’re going through, and God will help us triumph over them in the end.

            “Who is he, this King of Glory?  The Lord Almighty–he is the King of Glory.”  If we trust in God and put our faith in God, God will always be there for us.  God is strong and mighty.  God is magnificent.  And God is the King of Glory.

 

How Deep Is God's Love

The Sunday morning message in the United Methodist churches of the Wheatland Parish on January 28, 2024.  The Bible verses used are John 3:11-21.

            Today’s Bible reading includes one of the most popular Bible verses.  John Three, Sixteen.  “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

            Every time there’s a survey of favorite Bible verses, this one is at or near the top.  When I ask my confirmation classes to choose a favorite Bible verse, some of them always choose this one.  It’s one that almost everyone knows, and almost everyone loves.

            And it’s easy to see why.  We like hearing that God loves us.  We like hearing that God loves us so much that He would sacrifice the earthly life of the divine Son, Jesus Christ, for us.  We like hearing that if we believe in Jesus, we will have eternal life.

            And if we read a little farther, we really like the next verse, too.  “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.”  We like hearing that Jesus did not come to condemn us.  We like hearing that Jesus came to save us.

            But too often, we stop there.  And that’s too bad.  I mean, all those things we’ve just said are awesome.  They’re great to hear, they’re great to know.  They’re all true.  But if we stop there, we cheat ourselves.  We don’t realize the true depth of the love God has for us.  And we don’t understand how awesome the salvation and eternal life we can get by that love really is.

            So let’s look at it.  Jesus said:

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.  For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.  Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.

“Whoever does not believe stands condemned already, because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.”  Think about what that really says.  Without the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, you and I and everyone would all be condemned.  None of us would be saved.  Not one.  Not the best, the most giving, the most caring person you can think of.  Not Mother Teresa.  Not Billy Graham.  Not Martin Luther King, Jr.  Not one of us would be saved if God did not love the world so much, that God gave his one and only Son.  If Jesus Christ had not died for our sins, each and every one of us would be condemned.

In fact, it’s not that each one of us would be condemned.  It’s that each of us is already condemned.  That’s what it says:  whoever does not believe stands condemned already.  But the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, and our belief in Him as the Savior, takes away that condemnation.  We are people given a death sentence.  We’re just waiting for it to be carried out.  

And the thing is, it’s a death sentence we deserve.  Because none of us is good enough to get into heaven.  Maybe you say, well, but I know some really good people.  And you probably do.  Maybe you’re even one of them.  But to be good enough to get into heaven, we’d have to be as good as God.  And we cannot be as good as God, because God is perfect.  That’s what Jesus meant in Mark Ten, Eighteen when he said no one is good but God.  God is perfectly good.  You and I, no matter how hard we try and no matter how many good things we do, cannot be perfectly good.  And so none of us is good enough to go to heaven.  Again, we are condemned people, just waiting for that death sentence to be carried out.

And then, at the last minute, we’re given a pardon by God.  That pardon is the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.  Think of the love God has for us to do that.  To allow the divine Son to die, in a cruel and painful way, just to save each of us.  Each of us sinners.  Each of us undeserving people.

I mean, really think about that.  God did that just to allow each of us to get into heaven and have eternal life.  Why?  Why does God even want us in heaven?  Why does God want us fallen, bumbling, sinful, ungrateful people messing up heaven?  Why does God want us around at all?  We don’t belong there.  We don’t deserve to be there.  And yet, God wants us there.  God invites us in.  God is eager for us to come.  God is so eager for us to come that God sent His divine Son to die, to take the punishment we should get for our sins, so that you and I can go to heaven and have eternal life.  Why?

It’s love.  That’s the only answer there can be.  When we say, “God so loved the world”, what we’re really saying is God so loved you.  God loved you, and me, so much that he gave his one and only Son, that if we believe in Him we will not be condemned, even though we deserve to be.  Instead, we will have eternal life.  That’s amazing.  That’s an amazing love.  That’s how much God loves you.  And it’s how much God loves me.

In explaining this, Jesus said that we should look to him for salvation in the same way that looked at a snake that Moses lifted up in the wilderness.  That’s a story the people listening to Jesus would’ve known.  Maybe some of you know it, too, but maybe some of you don’t.  It’s a story from the book of Numbers, Chapter Twenty-one.  This is while the people of Israel are still out in the wilderness, before they get to the Promised Land.  The people of Israel are plagued by poisonous snakes.  A lot of them are dying.  Moses prays to God, and God answers.  

And in answering, God gives the people of Israel a way out.  God says, you know, the way the people of Israel have complained about me, the way they’ve rebelled against me, they really do deserve to die.  But, because the people of Israel are my chosen people, I will give them a chance to be saved.  So here’s what you do.  Make a bronze snake.  Put it on a pole.  When someone’s bitten by a snake, they should look at this bronze snake.  If they trust me enough to do that, they’ll live.  If they don’t, if they won’t put their faith in Me, then they’ll die.

Each one of us is dying, too.  Not right away, I hope, not the result of having been bitten by a poisonous snake.  But still, we know we’re all going to die at some point.  It’s just the way it is.

But God gives us a way out.  God says, I know that by the way you live, by the sins you commit, you really do deserve to die.  But because I love you, I will give you a chance to be saved.  So here’s what you do.  Look to Jesus.  Repent of your sins.  Ask for forgiveness.  Truly try to change.  And look to Jesus.  Have faith in Jesus.  Believe he is the Savior, the divine Son of God.  If you trust Me enough to do that, you’ll live.  If you don’t, if you won’t put your faith in Jesus, then you’ll die.  And you’ll die for eternity.

This is how much God loves us.  God loves us so much that God does not give us the death we deserve.  Instead, God gives us a way out.  God gives us the chance for salvation and eternal life, a chance that we do not deserve.  But God gives it to us anyway, because God loves us that much.

But, God does not force us to accept the way out that God offers.  God still gives us a choice.  The way out is there, if we’ll only take it.  But we have to make the decision to take it.  It’s our choice.

Do you suppose, back in Moses’ time, that there were people who were bitten by a poisonous snake, but refused to look at the bronze snake?  I suspect there were.  There were some people who probably thought that was stupid.  What, just looking at a bronze snake is going to make me all well again?  Yeah, right.  And so they died, because they did not trust God.  They did not have enough faith to take the way out God offered them.  

And there are people today who do the same thing.  There are people who think faith in God is stupid.  What, I believe in Jesus as the Savior, and that’s going to give me eternal life?  Even though I die here, I’m going to go to heaven and live with God forever?  Yeah, right.  And so they die.  They do not receive eternal life, because they do not have enough faith to take the way out God offers.  God allows them to make that choice.

Some people wonder why a loving God would allow people to make that choice.  If God loves us, why does God allow people to choose death over life?  But to me that shows just how much God really does love us.  Because true love does not force people to do things.

God does all kinds of things to try to persuade us to choose life.  God gave us His Holy Word, the Bible.  God gave us the divine Son, Jesus Christ.  God has given us prophets.  God’s Holy Spirit works in all kinds of ways, large and small.  God does any number of things to try to get us to turn to Him, to accept Jesus as the Savior, and choose eternal life.  

But God does not force us.  Love does not force people.  Love allows choices.  But of course, choices come with consequences.  God gives us the chance to choose eternal life.  But God allows us to not choose eternal life, and God allows us to accept the consequences of that choice.

John Three, Sixteen is a great verse.  But it’s more than just a nice, sweet verse that makes us feel good.  It’s a verse about the awesome love of God.  A love so strong that it gives us sinful, ungrateful, undeserving people a way to go to heaven and have eternal life.  Let’s make the right choice.  Let’s accept that way.  Let’s believe in the divine Son of God.  Let’s accept Him as the Savior.  And let’s be in awe of the incredible love of God that allows us to make that choice.

 

The Come to Jesus Moment

The Sunday night message in the Gettysburg United Methodist church on January 21, 2024.  The Bible verses used are John 1:29-51.

            Jesus is ready to start his ministry on earth.  He’s been baptized.  He had the Holy Spirit descend upon him like a dove.  A voice from heaven said, this is my Son, with Him I am well pleased.  All the preliminaries are done.  It’s time for Jesus to get started on what he came to earth to do.

            We generally think of Jesus starting by calling the disciples.  And you know, this shows how sometimes we really need to take a closer look at some of these Bible passages that we think we know.  Because we all have said it that way:  “Jesus called the disciples.”  I’ve said it that way, too.  But if you look at John’s account here, which is the first five of Jesus’ disciples being called, Jesus actually only called one of them.  He accepted them all, of course.  He wanted them all.  But he was not the one who initiated things with four of the first five disciples.

            Look at how this works.  John the Baptist is standing there with two of his disciples.  Jesus walks by.  John the Baptist says who Jesus is.  And immediately the two disciples leave John the Baptist and start following Jesus.

            Those are the first two of Jesus’ disciples.  We’re told that one of them is Andrew.  The other one is not named.  We assume it’s the disciple John, the one who wrote this gospel, and that he simply did not want to use his own name.  There are other places in the gospel of John where he avoids using his own name, so we assume that’s what’s going on here.  But the point is that these first two disciples were not chosen by Jesus.  They chose to follow Jesus, not the other way around.

           And the third disciple, Simon Peter, was not called by Jesus, either.  He’s Andrew’s brother.  We’re told that after Andrew decided to follow Jesus, the first thing he did was go find his brother Simon Peter and tell him they’d found the Messiah.  Then it says, “and he brought him to Jesus”.  Jesus did not go find Simon Peter.  Andrew brought Simon Peter to Jesus.

            The next disciple is the only one of the first five that Jesus calls.  It’s Philip.  We’re told that Jesus “found” Philip, and said to him “Follow me.”  But then, look at what happens.  Philip goes and finds Nathanael and tells him they’ve found the one Moses and the prophets wrote about.  Nathanael is skeptical, but Philip just says, “Come and see”, and he does.

            So four of the first five disciples were not called by Jesus at all.  Two of them came on their own, after hearing what John the Baptist said, and the other two came because someone they knew brought them to Jesus.  And maybe you’re thinking, “So what?”  What difference does it make how they got to Jesus as long as they got there?  And in one sense, you’re right.  As long as we get to Jesus it really does not matter how we get there.  But I think there are some lessons here for us.  Because I think the way these disciples found Jesus mirrors the way we find Jesus today.

            Some of us are like Philip.  Some of us are just kind of going about our business, living our lives, and suddenly Jesus comes along and speaks to us.  It could be through a direct contact, actually hearing the voice of Jesus or of an angel.  That may seem far-fetched to some of you, but I’ve talked to enough people and heard enough stories that I believe it does happen that way sometimes.  Or, it could be the Holy Spirit speaking directly to our hearts and souls somehow.  But that’s one way we find Jesus--through the Lord taking the initiative and speaking directly to us.

            But there was only one of the first five disciples who found Jesus that way.  It was not the way it happened for the majority.  And I think it’s not the way it happens for the majority of us, either.  It’s great when it does, don’t get me wrong.  But for most of us it happens in another way.

           One of the other ways it happens is the way it happened for Andrew and John.  They were already following John the Baptist.  They’d heard John the Baptist’s preaching about repentance and forgiveness.  They’d heard him tell them that he was preparing the way for when the Savior came.  What that means is that Andrew and John had a background in the faith.  They were open to the message of salvation.  And when they found Jesus, the one who could give them that salvation, they were ready to follow him right then.

            Some of us are like that.  Some of us have grown up in the church.  We’ve heard the word preached.  We’ve heard about repentance and forgiveness and God’s love.  We’re open to the message of salvation.  And when we find Jesus, the one who can give us that salvation, we’re ready to follow.

            But some of us are like Simon Peter and Nathanael.  Jesus did not send us a direct message.  We did not grow up in the church.  We were not looking for the message of salvation.  But then, someone came along and told us about it anyway.  And they brought us to Jesus.  Maybe some of us were like Simon Peter, who seems to have come right away when his brother went to get him.  But some of us are like Nathanael, openly skeptical of what we hear.  And someone says to us, “It’s okay if you’re skeptical.  But come and see.  Come and see for yourself.”

            What this shows, I think, is that God has all kinds of ways of calling people to him.  God gives some people a direct message.  And that’s awesome when it happens, but it’s not something in our control.  God either does that or God does not, based on whatever reasons God may have.

            God calls some people through their parents or others making sure they grow up in the church and have a background in the church.  And that’s a wonderful thing, too, when it happens.  But if you’re an adult now, you either grew up in the church or you did not.  We cannot go back and change the past, even if we’d like to.  However we grew up is how we grew up, for better or worse.

            But sometimes, God uses people to call other people.  God used Andrew to call Simon Peter.  God used Philip to call Nathanael.  And God can use you and me to call people to God, too.

            Now, notice, God did not have Andrew and Philip call complete strangers.  Andrew was Simon Peter’s brother.  Philip and Nathanael don’t appear to have been related, but from the way it’s written they clearly knew each other.  The people Andrew and Philip went to were people they already had a relationship with.  Simon Peter knew he could trust Andrew.  Nathanael knew he could trust Philip.  That relationship had already been established.

            And notice, too, that Andrew and Philip did not use any fancy words to persuade Simon Peter and Nathanael.  Andrew simply told Simon Peter, “We have found the Messiah”.  Philip uses a few more words, but he basically says the same thing.  “We have found the one Moses wrote about in the Law, and about whom the prophets also wrote.”  And when Nathanael is skeptical, Philip does not argue with him.  He does not go into a big spiel to try to persuade him.  He simply says, “Come and see.”  See for yourself.  We’ll show you what we’ve found, and you can decide whether I’m right or not.

            That’s all God asks us to do.  We don’t have to go onto a street corner and confront strangers with the gospel.  All God asks us to do is to go to people we know, people we already have some sort of relationship with, people who know they can trust us.  Go to those people, and tell them what we’ve found.  Tell them what our faith means to us.  Tell them how important our faith is to us.  Tell them how our faith helps us.  Tell them what this church means to us, how important this church is to us, how this church helps us.  And if they’re skeptical, we don’t need to argue with them or go into a big spiel to persuade them.  All we need to do is say, as Philip did, “Come and see”.  See for yourself.  We’ll show you what we have here, and you can decide for yourself whether we’re right or not.

            We won’t always succeed.  For all we know, Andrew and Philip might not have always succeeded.  Maybe they went to some other people and got turned down, we don’t know.  But we’ll succeed sometimes.  And when we do, we’ll have done what Jesus told us to do.  We’ll have made disciples of Jesus Christ.

            We come to God in all kinds of ways.  Sometimes God brings people to himself directly.  But sometimes, God uses us to bring people to him.  May we always be open to sharing our faith.  And when people are skeptical, may we always invite them to come and see.

 

Chance Encounter

The Sunday morning message given in the United Methodist churches of the Wheatland Parish on January 21, 2024.  The Bible verses used are John 4:1-26.

            The story we read today is one of my favorite stories in the Bible.  I mean, I suppose I have a lot of favorite stories in the Bible, but this is one of them.  And one of the things I love about it is the sheer randomness of it.

            Now, when I say randomness, I cannot say whether it was random from Jesus’ point of view.  It’s entirely possible that Jesus had this all planned out from the beginning.  Jesus may have known that there was this woman in Samaria who always went to this same well at the same time.  He may have deliberately timed his trip to Samaria so that he would get to the well just before the woman got there, so he could meet and talk to her.  I mean, after all, he’s Jesus.  He told Nathanael that he saw him while he was still sitting under a fig tree, before they’d ever met.  So Jesus can do stuff like this if he wants to.

            But that’s not the way John presents the story to us.  The way John presents the story, this was just a chance encounter.  It’s sort of like one of Wanda’s Hallmark Channel or Great movies, where two people meet by accident and the meeting changes their lives forever.  Except that here, this chance meeting did not just change a life.  It led to people receiving eternal life.

            And certainly, from the point of view of the Samaritan woman, it was a chance encounter.  She had no idea that she’d be meeting the Messiah, the Savior, on that day.  She probably did not expect to meet anyone.  For her, this was just another day.  A day like any other day.  She needed water, this was where the well was, so she went to get water.  Just like she probably did every day at about this time.

            She sees a man sitting there.  She can tell it’s not a Samaritan.  It’s a Jewish man.  As our reading says, Jews did not associate with Samaritans and vice versa.  I’m sure she was quite ready for this man to ignore her, and she was prepared to ignore him as well.  But then, amazingly enough, he speaks to her.  He asks her for a drink of water.  

            She could not believe it.  Why is this man, this stranger, this Jewish stranger, talking to her?  She asks him that.  And just to make sure he understands the situation, she goes out of her way to point out why he should not be speaking to her.  She says, “You are a Jew.  I am a Samaritan woman.  How can you ask me for a drink?”  Like, maybe this guy does not see very well or is just kind of stupid or something.  Maybe he does not realize I’m a Samaritan.  I’d better spell it out for him, so he does not get us both into trouble.

            And Jesus answers, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.”

            Do you think the Samaritan woman knew what that meant?  I doubt it.  But here’s the surprising thing.  She does not cut him off.  She does not walk away.  Even though she’s not supposed to be talking to a Jewish man, there’s something about this Jewish man that makes her stay and have a conversation with him.  She may not have understood what Jesus meant, but she knew he meant something, and it was something important.  She knew there was something different, something special, about this Jewish man.  And so she asks him, where are you going to get this living water from?  Are you greater than our great father, the Jacob of the Bible?

            And Jesus answers, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

            Do you think the Samaritan woman knew what that meant?  It seems obvious to me that she did not.  She’s still thinking of regular water, water to drink.  She thinks, man, I don’t know what that living water is, but I sure wish I had some.  To never be thirsty again?  To never have to come back to this stupid well and draw water every single day, the way I do now?  Boy, sign me up for that!  So, she asks Jesus for some living water.

            And Jesus says, “Go, call your husband and come back.”

            Now, really try to put yourself in this woman’s place here.  You’re talking to this strange Jewish man.  You can tell there’s something different about him, but you really don’t know what.  You don’t understand all this living water stuff, and for all you know it might not even exist.  It might just be a line this Jewish man is giving you.  He might just be trying to make fun of you.  But now, it’s starting to get personal.  He’s asking about your husband, and you don’t have one.

            But then you think, well, he does not know me.  He probably just assumed a woman my age would be married.  So you say, “I have no husband.”

            And Jesus says, “You are right when you say you have no husband.  The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.”

            Okay, that’s pretty freaky, right?  I mean, here’s this guy you’ve never met, and he knows all this stuff about you.  How’d he do that?  I mean, it’s not like he could’ve looked up your facebook profile.  Has he been to town and heard gossip?  Are people really talking about me all over town?  Doesn’t seem likely.  But how could he know all this?

            And she realizes there’s only one way.  He must be a prophet.  And so she asks him a question.

            Have you ever thought about what question you’d ask a prophet, if you could?  We could probably think of all kinds of questions.  After all, a prophet knows the will of God.  We’d all like to know the will of God, right?  And probably this woman would have, too. She probably had a lot of questions, too.  But she knows she probably does not have a lot of time, so she asks one question, a theological question about the proper place to worship God.  

            And Jesus answers, “You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews.  Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”  And then, when the woman says someday the Messiah will come and explain it all, Jesus answers, “I am he.”

            That’s the end of the conversation, as far as we know from the Bible.  But then, what does this woman do?  She goes back to town, tells people what happened, a lot of them come out to see Jesus, and we’re told that many of them came to be believers.  Any number of lives were changed, just because of this one chance encounter between Jesus and a Samaritan woman.  This chance encounter that happened on what, up until the moment she met Jesus, seemed like just another ordinary day.

            So what’s the point?  Well, tomorrow morning, you’re going to get up.  You’re going to go to work, you’re going to go to school, you’re going to do whatever it is you do.  Maybe you have something special planned for tomorrow, but most of us probably don’t.  For most of us, tomorrow is going to be just another ordinary day.

            And maybe it will be.  But maybe it won’t.  Maybe something special is going to happen tomorrow.  Maybe something life-changing is going to happen tomorrow.  Maybe you’re going to meet Jesus tomorrow.  

            And maybe Jesus is going to come at a time and in a way you don’t expect him, just as he did for the Samaritan woman.  You probably won’t meet Him at a well.  But maybe you’ll see Him at the convenience store.  Maybe you’ll see Him at the cafe.  Maybe you’ll see Him at a ball game.  You could be minding your own business, just doing what you do every day, and all of a sudden, there He is.  

You may not recognize Him.  You may have no idea that He’s Jesus.  It may appear to be just a chance encounter with some random stranger.  You may wonder why He’s even talking to you.  You may wish He’d just mind His own business and quit bothering you.  You may even be tempted to ignore Him.

Don’t ignore Him.  See Him.  Talk to Him.  Hear what He has to say to you.  Trust it.  Believe it.  And tell others about it, so they can come and believe.

Does that sound far-fetched?  Well, maybe it is.  But it would’ve sounded far-fetched to the Samaritan woman, too.  She’d have thought there was no way she would ever meet the Messiah, the Savior.  And she’d have kept thinking that, right up until the moment it happened.

I’m not saying you will meet Jesus tomorrow.  But you know, with God, all things are possible.  So pay attention.  There’s always the chance that something could happen on your ordinary Monday that will change your life.  And it might change a lot of other people’s lives, too.