The End is the Beginning

 

Text: Revelations 22:12-21

Focus: Invitation to Christ

Function: to see how the invitation is open to all

¹²“See, I am coming soon; my reward is with me, to repay according to everyone’s work. ¹³I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.”

¹⁴Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they will have the right to the tree of life and may enter the city by the gates. ¹⁵Outside are the dogs and sorcerers and sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters and everyone who loves and practices falsehood.

¹⁶“It is I, Jesus, who sent my angel to you with this testimony for the churches. I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright morning star.”

¹⁷The Spirit and the bride say, “Come.”
And let everyone who hears say, “Come.”
And let everyone who is thirsty come.
Let anyone who wishes take the water of life as a gift.

¹⁸I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to them, God will add to that person the plagues described in this book; ¹⁹if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away that person’s share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book.

²⁰The one who testifies to these things says, “Surely I am coming soon.”

Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!

²¹The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all the saints. Amen.

Today we are looking at the last passage in the bible.

It ends with “Come Lord Jesus, and God’s grace be with you. And that seems to be the beginning of our salvation.

I love the ending of the bible because it focuses on God’s love -demonstrated in Jesus Christ-, grace and God’s word.

I don’t mean the Bible. I mean Jesus Christ, whom the scriptures say, is the Word of God in human flesh.

It is an important distinction to make. We mistakenly place the Bible supreme as our source of faith because we call it the Word of God, but the bible calls Jesus the Word of God and we are to worship Jesus.

I think that is why at times I have been guilty of worshiping the bible, or my limited knowledge of it, over worshiping the Jesus that all the scriptures point us to.

This is a sort of mixed passage. There are both words of judgment and words of blessing in this passage. It is interesting to note that the lectionary actually culled out the judgment passages except for the first verse where Jesus proclaims to us that he is coming to judge the earth, or in this passage, to repay according to everyone’s work.

We believe that because of the sacrifice of Christ on the cross, we are forgiven the sins that we have committed when we place our faith in Jesus Christ.

So, according to scripture in 1 Corinthians 3:11-15 we read that our judgment will be in reference to our reward, not our sins. The metaphor he uses is about the works that we do will be tested by symbolically, and if they are based on Christ’’s teachings to love others, they will survive the fire. But the bad works that we have done will simply be destroyed by the fire and will not count against us except for the loss of the chance of heavenly reward that our greed costs us.

Jesus told us to lay up treasure in heaven instead of earth. Every greedy person is going to be disappointed when it comes to heavenly reward if they refused to be generous with their resources, grace, mercy and love.

The rest of the judgment passages are excluded from our assigned reading, but I included them for ease of reading.

This morning I want to focus on verse 17:
¹⁷The Spirit and the bride say, “Come.”
And let everyone who hears say, “Come.”
And let everyone who is thirsty come.
Let anyone who wishes take the water of life as a gift.

It reminds me of a great theme in scripture, and that is the free and generous nature of God’s love and provision for those who rest in God.

The passage from Revelations reminds me of a similar scripture in Isaiah:

¹Hear, everyone who thirsts;
    come to the waters;
and you who have no money,
    come, buy and eat!
Come, buy wine and milk
    without money and without price.
²Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread
    and your earnings for that which does not satisfy?
Listen carefully to me, and eat what is good,
    and delight yourselves in rich food.

The prophet is showing us the possibility of what happens when we rest in God.

And the passage has an underlying meaning for everyone, and that is that everyone is welcome regardless of who they are. Specifically, he mentions their financial status He doesn’t tell us who is going to pay for all this food, but to rest in God’s abundance.

I suppose the miracles of feeding the 5,000 Jewish people in Matthew 14 and the feeding of 4,000 non-Jewish people in Matthew 15 is a direct fulfillment of this power behind what this prophecy proclaims.

In our passage today we read the words of invitation from God the Holy Spirit and the Church -called the bride-, to call us to come into the presence of Christ.

One of my favorite Easter Anthem’s is “The Holy City.”

It chronicles the story of redemption, the terror of the cross and the power of the invitation to salvation through faith in Jesus Christ.

One of my favorite rendition is the one sung by Jim Neighbors, you know, Gomer Pyle, but he had a fantastic baritone voice.

Because of Jim Neighbor sexual orientation, sadly, the majority of Evangelicals believe he is in hell right now because he was born gay. And yet, they rejoice to hear him sing that song. And when I hear him sing it, I realize something about the song. He believes it. He knows, according to the third verse, and he sings it with a great emphasis as he belts out “And all who would might enter and no one is denied.”

I love to worship God along with the artist as I sing along in my car with the stereo going full blast. When I get to that line, I oftentimes tear up and weep a little bit when I realize the scope and expanse of God’s grace.

So I go back to the text, and let anyone who wishes take of the water of life as a gift.

That is God’s gift to us.

I am reminded of Jesus and the woman at the well.

She was divorced or widowed 5 times and was living with a man outside of marriage.

Many people are not generous with grace and would not believe that a woman like that deserved God’s mercy because she seemed to be unrepentant in her sinful ways.

But that is not the way Jesus saw her. He offers her living water. The water of life without cost. The water that will quench the longing of a thirsty soul. He gave it to her without any judgment or criticism or call to repentance. He just blessed her with living water and used her to be the evangelist that brought His saving grace to the whole town of foreigners.

And that water that He gives not only quenches the thirst but flows out of us to be the same healing mercy that the world needs.

So, the end of the book is an invitation to beginning a walk with Christ’s life giving power inside of us.

Where's God?

 

Text: John 14:23-29

Focus: The Holy Spirit

Function: to help people see the comfort we have by the continued presence of Christ through the Holy Spirit

²³Jesus answered him, “Those who love me will keep my word, and my Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. ²⁴Whoever does not love me does not keep my words, and the word that you hear is not mine but is from the Father who sent me.

²⁵“I have said these things to you while I am still with you. ²⁶But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything and remind you of all that I have said to you. ²⁷Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid. ²⁸You heard me say to you, ‘I am going away, and I am coming to you.’ If you loved me, you would rejoice that I am going to the Father, because the Father is greater than I. ²⁹And now I have told you this before it occurs, so that when it does occur you may believe.

Titling a sermon: “Where’s God?” seems either a little bit presumptuous, because God cannot be defined by humans or put in a box for our convenience. Or the title is a little silly since we believe that God is everywhere and there is no where we can go to escape from God’s sight according to Psalm 137.

I like to think of the answer to the question, “Where is God?” in more existential terms. It is not so much as the physical location of God since God is everywhere, but it is the presence of God in human suffering.

When my mom died last week, it was a beautiful death. We were together singing hymns and praying, just as she would have wanted. One of the things that I have found most rewarding is to be at the death side of someone and to see and sense the comforting presence of the Holy Spirit as God brings the loved one home. I have found that God always brings comfort in the time of grief.

But I also like to picture Jesus in the midst of human suffering all across the world. I picture Christ in the city of Marioupol with the refugees who are sheltering from war. I picture Jesus in a shack holed up somewhere on our Southern border waiting for the same chance to survive that we have.

So, let us go back to the text. The passage starts with “Jesus answered him…” The question that Jesus was answering was how He would reveal Himself to the apostles and believers but not to the rest of the world.

Jesus plan, as He told the apostles was to go away so that He could come back to them in the form of the Holy Spirit. And the purpose of that is so that the life and work and ministry of Jesus Christ could expand to the entire world through the millions and billions who would follow Jesus.

So, to answer the question, “How will the world see Jesus?” we look to this passage.

People are looking for God in many ways through their life. The question, “where is God?” is relevant and Jesus wants us to understand how the presence of God is going to work in the Kingdom of God.

He says this to answer the question “How will they see me?” He says, they will see me because my disciples will obey me. Literally He says, “They will keep my word.”

And John explains this passage a little bit better in his letters. In 1 John 5:2-3, we read: ²By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments. ³For the love of God is this, that we obey his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome,

For Loving God is doing this: obeying His commandments.

And then he makes a promise to us. Obeying His commandments is not hard, or it isn’t a burden.

I do most of my bible reading in the Old Testament since it makes up the most the scriptures. It is the scripture that Jesus referred to and still has its authority since it points us to Jesus Himself.

One of the things I have learned studying the OT is that the commandments were very burdensome. The Jewish people were not able to keep the commandments to love others in their own power.

If we decide to obey Jesus, Jesus promises to send His Holy Spirit into us so that we are better equipped to love and forgive others as Jesus Christ commands us to do.

Brother Paul tells us at the end of 2 Corinthians to test ourselves to see if we are in the faith.

What test is there? Jesus said it clearly, you will know my disciples by the way that they love one another.

The test is how do we love others?

In this passage, Jesus Himself is telling us how to know what is going on inside of our own hearts. Do we love Jesus? Then we will keep His commandments. And again, they aren’t hard.

But they were too hard for the ancient Jewish people.

What changed?

The letter of the law that kills us through disobedience was done away with through the sacrifice of Christ.

But more than that, the presence of Christ now dwells inside of the believer and the presence of Christ fills our hearts with the love for others that Christ has called us to live out in this world.

So, back to the text.

After the promise of the power of the Holy Spirit to help the believer, we realize what that means in the world as we live out our faith.

It does answer the question “Where’s God?” from another perspective. God is right here, in our hearts.

And that really is the point of the passage. The apostle asks Jesus how Jesus will appear in the world and Jesus tells him that He will appear inside of the hearts of His followers.

The idea that wherever we go we bring God with us is not out of context with scripture. In talking about purity, Paul says that we are now filled with the Spirit of Christ and we shouldn’t bring the Spirit of Christ into a prostitute. I believe that is because the sex industry exploits women and Jesus would never exploit another. That is my belief on the subject.

But in the passage, Paul is reminding us about the very real sense and presence of the Holy Spirit of God inside of us when we walk in this world.

When I interact with the homeless on the streets, I am reminded that Jesus is with me ministering to them, and that very possibly, I am ministering to Christ as I minister to the homeless.

And finally, in our text, Jesus leaves us with His peace.

My peace I give you. And I love the promise that says, Not as the world gives. I believe it means that He is giving it without condition, without us having to earn it, and without the possibility of losing it.

My sense of peace is an indication of my faithfulness to the command to love others.

When my spirit is not at rest as ask myself if I am obeying Jesus by loving others. Almost always, there is an issue of pride and unforgiveness which gets in the way of the peace of the Holy Spirit in my life. The Spirit of Christ will lead us to love others and forgive them.

This is walking by faith in what Christ has done for us. And when we practice loving others without condition, like Jesus loves us, we will be walking blessings of God’s Spirit pouring out of us.

Still Following

Text: John 10:22-30

Focus: Security in faith

Function: to help people see the truth that God has them in God’s hand and will not drop them.

²²At that time the festival of the Dedication took place in Jerusalem. It was winter, ²³and Jesus was walking in the temple, in the portico of Solomon. ²⁴So the Jews gathered around him and said to him, “How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly.” ²⁵Jesus answered, “I have told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in my Father’s name testify to me; ²⁶but you do not believe, because you do not belong to my sheep. ²⁷My sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me. ²⁸I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one will snatch them out of my hand. ²⁹What my Father has given me is greater than all else, and no one can snatch it out of the Father’s hand. ³⁰The Father and I are one.”

Happy Mother’s day everyone. Today’s lesson is not very long, but it has a lot of meaning and hopefully, a lot of encouragement and depth.

My focus is on the security we have as believers who know and trust Jesus Christ as their lord and Savior. As a mother loves to comfort her children, I pray that this morning’s scripture will comfort you.

That is not to assume that you are not without comfort, but a hope, that the remembrance of what we already know will be there and present in your minds as you live your lives in the hope of Jesus’ salvation.

I find great comfort in verse 27 of today’s scripture lesson. Jesus says: “My sheep hear my voice, I know them, and they follow me.

I have always heard the verse to say, I can hear the voice of Jesus. I have always been mystical in my faith and have had what I believe to be several very deep and personal interactions with the Holy Spirit and what appears to me to be the presence of angels.

So, when Jesus says, “My sheep hear my voice,” my spirit resonates with the promise that is there in that verse.

I find myself listening for the voice of Jesus in my ears. You have heard me testify to the power of my calling into ministry when I heard the voice of God in my ear speak to me, “Luke 4:18.” It was the verse God used to call me into ministry and it says, ‘The Spirit of the Lord us upon me and He has anointed me to preach the good news to the poor, the release of the captives, the recovery of sight to the blind, and to set free those who are oppressed.”

So again, when I read those words, to reminds me of my own call to salvation and then in to Christian service for the Lord.

Jesus calls us toward Him.

And those who are willing to live their lives loving their neighbor as themselves, those who are willing to live their lives accepting others without judgment like Jesus preached are those who are listening to the voice of God calling them.

Let me paint a small picture of what is going on here.

By this time, Jesus has a crowd following Him. He has made His teaching about social justice clear. He has called out the systems that are continuing to oppress the least of these and He has given us ways to take back the power from those who oppress us.

Those who were doing the oppressing were pretty mad at Jesus for upsetting the systems and informing the people that there was a better way of living if they would just give up greed and love their neighbors as themselves.

They killed Jesus for telling them to love others.

Why does that message upset so much?

I keep having a fruitless argument with my Aunt on FB about refugees at the border. She often posts about how she loves Jesus and Jesus has saved her and what a blessing it is to be saved.

And I like those posts. But then she posts really negative stuff about the kind of people that Jesus was when He was a child. I am referring to Jesus as a refugee. I remind her that Jesus said that the way we treat the least of these is the way we treat Jesus Himself.

I remind her that calling refugees “Illegal” is the same as calling Jesus “Illegal.”

And I get loving responses from my Aunt, after all, she is a Christian. But I get hatred from others for posting that Jesus loves the ones they call Illegal and if we claim to love Jesus then, we too, will love the people that Jesus loves.

Remember, Jesus said. My sheep hear my voice. They will follow me, Jesus said.

But pride and sin keep us from hearing the voice of God.

And then He goes a little bit deeper and He tells us that He knows us.

I always read that verse to say, “I know Him.” It wasn’t until I prepared this sermon where I saw its true context. He knows us.

I had a friend who raised sheep and one thing he told me is that sheep are dumb. They need a shepherd to lead them.

Jesus leads us. Jesus calls us. And because we know His voice, we follow Him.

Jesus cares for us. When he says he knows us, it reminds me of an illustration I heard a preacher say once reflecting on the picture of Jesus carrying a lamb on His shoulder.

He said the shepherd would place the lamb on his shoulder to bond with it so that the lamb would know the shepherd and follow the shepherd.

Jesus bonds with us through the presence and the power of the Holy Spirit inside of us.

Romans tells us that the Spirit of God dwells inside of us and bonds us to God as a child is bound to a loving father.

But today is Mother’s day.

And I am reminded of a couple of verses that go along with the theme that Jesus has a secure.

At Kairos, early Sunday morning, in the chapel, during a time of prayer and reflection as we prepare for the lessons God has for us, we hear either sung or read, the words from this prophecy in Isaiah:

Can a woman forget her nursing child
    or show no compassion for the child of her womb?
Even these might forget,
    yet I will not forget you.
¹⁶See, I have inscribed you on the palms of my hands;

The prophecy is that just as a nursing mother loves us, so God loves us and will not abandon us.

The second verse I consider is from Jesus Himself:

When He says: Oh Jerusalem, Jerusalem, ...how I would have gathered you under my wings…

In both of these, we see the nurturing image of God loving us.

Genesis 1 says that we were created male and female in the image of God.

The Jewish name, El Sheddai means the big breasted one and speaks to God’s nurturing attributes.

So, when Jesus calls us His sheep, and He says He knows each and every one of us, I am reminded of the nurturing quality of El Sheddai, God the nurturer.

Yes, believer, we are reminded today of the security we have because Jesus knows us.

How do we know it is true? It is evident in the way we love others according to John 13:35.

Do You Love Me?

 

Text: John 21:1-19

Focus: Following Christ

Function: to help people see that loving Christ means loving others

21:¹After these things Jesus showed himself again to the disciples by the Sea of Tiberias; and he showed himself in this way. ²Gathered there together were Simon Peter, Thomas called the Twin, Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two others of his disciples. ³Simon Peter said to them, “I am going fishing.” They said to him, “We will go with you.” They went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing.

⁴Just after daybreak, Jesus stood on the beach; but the disciples did not know that it was Jesus. ⁵Jesus said to them, “Children, you have no fish, have you?” They answered him, “No.” ⁶He said to them, “Cast the net to the right side of the boat, and you will find some.” So they cast it, and now they were not able to haul it in because there were so many fish. ⁷That disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, “It is the Lord!” When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put on some clothes, for he was naked, and jumped into the sea. ⁸But the other disciples came in the boat, dragging the net full of fish, for they were not far from the land, only about a hundred yards off.

⁹When they had gone ashore, they saw a charcoal fire there, with fish on it, and bread. ¹⁰Jesus said to them, “Bring some of the fish that you have just caught.” ¹¹So Simon Peter went aboard and hauled the net ashore, full of large fish, a hundred fifty-three of them; and though there were so many, the net was not torn. ¹²Jesus said to them, “Come and have breakfast.” Now none of the disciples dared to ask him, “Who are you?” because they knew it was the Lord. ¹³Jesus came and took the bread and gave it to them, and did the same with the fish. ¹⁴This was now the third time that Jesus appeared to the disciples after he was raised from the dead.

¹⁵When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my lambs.” ¹⁶A second time he said to him, “Simon son of John, do you love me?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Tend my sheep.” ¹⁷He said to him the third time, “Simon son of John, do you love me?” Peter felt hurt because he said to him the third time, “Do you love me?” And he said to him, “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my sheep. ¹⁸Very truly, I tell you, when you were younger, you used to fasten your own belt and to go wherever you wished. But when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will fasten a belt around you and take you where you do not wish to go.” ¹⁹(He said this to indicate the kind of death by which he would glorify God.) After this he said to him, “Follow me.

The theme for today is following Christ. Jesus said it to the disciples, the third time He appeared to them after He was raised from the dead. He commanded them -as if He needed to- to follow Him.

What does it mean for us to follow Jesus?

Well, I can’t sum it up in one sermon, it is a vocation that takes a lifetime to fulfill, that is why we are told to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling. But today we are going to look at from the perspective of the second time Jesus calls Peter to the task of service.

And the spirit behind it, the power that drives it, the force that compels him has to do with Jesus’ question with which I titled the sermon, “Do you love me?”

It is a question we ask ourselves when it comes the time for us to make a choice of obedience to Christ and the way that He showed us or going our own way.

Peter, after the third time Jesus asks him if he loves Jesus gets a little bit uncomfortable with the question and resists it by saying to the Lord, “you can look into my heart and know the truth, so why would you ask?”

By uncomfortable I don’t mean that Jesus was overstepping His boundaries, but I mean that Peter must have, I imagine, started to squirm because of the line of questions. I wonder if Peter began to question it himself?

And that comes from the reason why we believe that Jesus asked Peter three times.

You know the story of Maunday Thursday, how Peter bragged that He would never abandon Jesus and Jesus exposes his pride and Peter ends up denying Christ three times.

He wept bitterly because he failed Jesus.

I wonder if he had doubts that he loved Jesus.

Do you love Jesus?

I don’t want to shame anyone with the question.

I know that you love Jesus. And Peter gives a wise answer, he tells Jesus that Jesus knows better than Peter himself if he loves Jesus.

There is no shame in Jesus question.

We have to be careful not to shame with the question: do you love Jesus?

During the height of the Cold war when we were told that the Godless commies were going to come and take away our religion, we were asked in youth group if someone were to put a gun to your head and tell you to deny Christ or die, would you do it or not?

It was the extreme scenario and of course, we were not sure. And the Bible tells us we don’t have to be sure. Peter was sure he wouldn’t and yet he denied Christ. Luke 21:15 says that the ability to confess Jesus comes from the Spirit of God Itself and we don’t have to worry about our answer because Jesus promises to be by our side.

So, don’t waste my time on shame is my answer to the way the question was asked.

Again, Jesus asks Peter three times. Maybe not to see if Peter doubted, but to reassure Peter that Peter knew that He loved the Lord.

The lesson taught Peter that he was far from perfect and that they only way he can make this Christian life work is by depending on the grace, mercy and presence of the Holy Spirit in his life.

I notice something wonderful about Jesus’ answer to Peter’s response. Jesus does not say to him, “Then why did you deny me?”

NO!

After his failure and the lesson learned about pride, Peter is reminded that Jesus has called him. He isn’t reinstated, because he never lost his position in the first place. He was Jesus’ man in the middle of his triumph and in the middle of his disgrace.

When we come to Christ, we belong to Him.

He lives inside of us and promises to be with us to make us successful in our mission by the power of His Spirit inside of us.

Jesus doesn’t remind him of his failure. Jesus reminds him of his purpose, his calling, and most importantly, his Love for Jesus.

I feel assured that by the end of this conversation, Peter can begin to say that he has a fundamental understanding of the grace, mercy and patience of God.

As your pastor, I ask you, do you love Jesus?

And I am sure that your answer is, Yes!

So make sure you receive the gift of God’s grace every time you think that you might have failed in your love for Christ.

We are not perfect. Jesus is. And we come to Jesus for forgiveness of our sins and He loves to forgive.

And, He doesn’t remember the sins against us. He loves us and restores us to a proper relationship with Him.

Loving Him means that we obey Him. John 14:15. And that does not mean that we have to follow the letter of the law that never saved the Jewish people because we need grace, but it is simple. At least the scripture says so. 1 John 5:3, If we love Jesus (Him) we will keep His commandments and His commandments ARE NOT BURDENSOME.

It was never intended to be a burden to love our neighbor. But we are commanded to love each other as much as we love ourselves.

Have you failed God? God forgives you, forgive yourselves. And always live in love by forgiving others.