C, Third Sunday of Advent - Luke 3:8a, 16 "Joyful Repentance"

Luke 3:8a, 16 (ESV) John the Baptist said, “Bear fruits in keeping with repentance. I baptize you with water, but he who is mightier than I is coming, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire”.

What is it that separates a Christian from all other people?  Is it sin?  By sin I include everything that threatens to dilute or weaken God’s holiness.  No!  We Christians are no less sinners than those who are not Christian.  Hopefully for us, though, we have knowledge of our sinful nature and the sin that comes from it.  In fact, if a Christian, does not believe they’re a sinner, they actually add sin to sin in their unbelief. 

We’re all warned, “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.”  (1 John 1:8–10 ESV)

If a person can be free of sin, then why aren’t they free of decay and death? 

From the moment we’re born, our existence decays day by day through death.

So, if sin isn’t what separates a Christian from others, is it that we are good?  Are all Christians good people free of evil?  This really is no different to the question of sin. 

If a Christian holds the view that to be a Christian one should be good, then all Christians should be good!  We know this not to be true. 

Are you one who makes judgements through your own knowledge of good and evil, rather than a right judgement made through a knowledge of Jesus Christ?  Why do we judge some as good, and some as evil?  We do so because we’re sinners!  We like to put aside right judgement, in God’s Word, and become the authority of good and evil, standing in the place of God, standing over his Word, sinning against the First Commandment. 

The Lutheran understanding of a believer or Christian, sees in God’s Word, we’re one hundred percent saint, and one hundred percent sinner, (simul iustus et peccator).  That is, “at the same time righteous and a sinner”.  This was rediscovered by Martin Luther who as a monk was seeking and failing to justify himself before God.  Rightly, he knew his love or good was never good enough in God’s eyes!

The joy Luther learnt, through the Holy Spirit showing him, in God’s Word, that although he failed to love God perfectly, God already loved him perfectly.  He was made right and holy in the work of Christ at the cross and the continuing work of the Holy Spirit in his earthly existence.  Luther discovered he didn’t have to work his own righteousness.

But it’s not even a matter of being good.  Believers surpass goodness by being made holy, despite being sinners.  The holiness of God covers one’s sinful nature and its deeds in baptism.  As a result, the baptismal life is one of being continually led by the Holy Spirit, into the holiness of Jesus Christ, out of the sinful condition of our human nature. 

As we pray and learn in the Lord’s Prayer, we trust Jesus’ Word and deed, as the Holy Spirit delivers us from evil, leads us out of temptation, wills us to forgive others while he works the forgiveness of sin within us.  We live in peace existing on the daily bread God gives for our physical and spiritual needs according to his earthly and heavenly will, so we seek his kingdom and glorify his holy name.  The Lord’s Prayer actually teaches us how the work of Jesus and the Holy Spirit, moves us from evil to God’s holiness, through repentance.

The human desire to not repent, to not believe one’s forgiveness, to not forgive, to resist being led from temptation, to remain in evil are the very deeds Paul talks about in Romans chapter seven.  He does not give into sin, by saying, “all sin, I sin, so I’ll keep on sinning!”  That would be resisting the Holy Spirit’s work within, who seeks to daily return the sinner to the holiness of Jesus’ blood spilt on the cross.  

Rather he says, “For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.” (Romans 7:15–20 ESV)

Our Lutheran understanding of being a saint and a sinner, stands out as pure Gospel against other beliefs.  Such as, once one is baptised, the act of baptism saves, so the person can do whatever they like.  Or baptism is the decision of the person and once baptised, the decider has to work to keep their salvation.  Both of these strip the Holy Spirit of his power and dilute the necessity of Jesus’ work at the cross.

But the Lutheran understanding, is pure Gospel, because baptism is the work of God, and one’s Christian life is a work of God that we allow to continue within.  After baptism, when others fall into sinful deeds, or when the Holy Spirit chooses to reveal their deeds as sin, they have a crisis of faith.  “Am I really a Christian?”, they worry!  And others who observe their sin, are quick to hand them over as lost sinners unless they work their way back into the observer’s “good books” in their “good time”.

When a Lutheran falls into sin.  Yes! The Holy Spirit gives one a hatred of the sinful deeds and shows the sinner the Law. And the Law’s holy perfection rightly causes fear!  

But in God’s Word, the Holy Spirit also shows us Jesus Christ on the cross in our place.  He shows us the love of God.  Our revealed deeds of sin, testifies to the truth of God’s Word, that human nature is sinful. 

So, others see deeds of sin and immediately pass judgement that a person is condemned by their sinful nature because their decision for Christ and baptism appears contrary.  However, you and I understand our sinful deeds show our sinful human nature.  This is the very reason why we need God’s work in Holy Baptism, and every day after it, in the work of the Holy Spirit, to make us holy before a perfectly holy God.

So, the thing to truly set a Christian apart from all other people on earth, is a believer although a sinner, has freedom through Christ to come into God’s presence to joyfully repent of sins.  Covered in Christ, we don’t dilute God’s holiness, with our sinful humanness of being human.

Sin can see a person flee God or seek to stand before him in self-justification or through one’s works.  Both of which, make God’s love out to be a lie. 

But in the freedom to repent, we joyfully rush to the foot of the cross and pour our sins out in confession, repentance.  We throw ourselves completely at the mercy of God trusting our confession is not just a good work, but a mega-work worked by the Holy Spirit, now that Jesus is at the right hand of the Father in Heaven.

Jesus says, “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father. Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.”  (John 14:12–14 ESV)

God has forgiven us as repentant sinners! God forgives us now as repentant sinners! And God promises to forgive repentant sinners! 

Our sins are horrible, and they cause us hurt and death. They caused Christ to come and suffer and die for us, too.  But the willing confession of our sin, glorifies God, in the salvation Jesus brings us through the cross.  Our confession is a joyful “Amen” and “Yes” to God’s good works for us and in us.  God the Father’s and Son’s good works are glorified by the Holy Spirit’s good works within you, when you repent and confess your sin. This is the salvation event that sees your existence in death be transformed into life, even today in this existence of death!  But these days of death will give way to the light of eternal life!

At the resurrection, when Christ returns, the salvation event will finish.  Beforehand, any who make judgements, about who’s good or bad, are susceptible of falling under one’s own judgement, before God. 

So, joyfully I say, joyfully repent, sinners!   

God is patient where we are not.   Like an onion, God works with sinners during this earthly existence, to peel back the layers of sin in all of us.  So, there’s always something for which we need to repent. When earthly death comes, or Jesus returns, only then will God’s patience end. 

So, before this comes, joyfully I say, joyfully repent!  

John the Baptist prepared those at the Jordan with a baptism of repentance for the coming of Christ.  Now that we have been baptised into Christ’s death and resurrection, the Holy Spirit moves us to continue in repentance through the hearing of God’s Word.  In God’s Word the Holy Spirit peels back the layers of death in our existence, so we can repent and be revived in the life of  Jesus Christ.

Jesus himself says to his church, “Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent.” (Revelation 2:5 ESV)

Again, he says, “Remember, then, what you received and heard. Keep it, and repent. If you will not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what hour I will come against you.” (Revelation 3:3 ESV)

And a third time, “Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent.” (Revelation 3:19 ESV)

Therefore, seek God’s will in his Word!  Allow the Holy Spirit to show you your sin and keep you holy!   

Joyfully I say, joyfully repent, for Jesus’ sake, Amen!

B, The Third Sunday after the Epiphany - Mark 1:15 & Psalm 62:5-12 "Standing under Jesus"

Understanding Jesus Christ, in its simplicity, is simply standing under Jesus. 

Understanding Jesus is so straight forward, a child or an adult can stand under him, the poor or the wealthy can stand under him, a new convert can stand under him, and so too can a mature believer on their death bed.

Why then do we struggle to understand Jesus?  Is it because when one seeks to stand out from under him, that the outstanding person has little to no understanding of Jesus Christ?

From where does one get an understanding of Jesus?  One gets it from standing under Jesus’ Word! 

Standing under Jesus can only occur when the fullness of the Good News comes to us, causing one to repent and believe. 

Therefore, we trust!  We believe and receive the Holy Spirit, moving us to confession, bringing us to Jesus’ power over sin and death.

Standing under Jesus, we need the Holy Spirit, so we are willed into God’s Word.  We all know this by how difficult we can find it to engage ourselves in God’s Word. 

When you seek to read the bible, notice how easily you’re distracted by other tasks that always seem to pop up!  Before you realise it, the bible is not opened, the dust settles, and weeks pass by!  The devil then works on the spirit of the sinful self and guilt drives you further away from receiving the Word of God.  Therefore, standing under Jesus’ Word, requires the full help of the Holy Spirit. 

When one is starved of God’s Word, every other word floods in, to fill the void.  The word of the human spirit within, is led by the words of the world, so one becomes use to being without the Word of God.

This is the struggle all face who seek to stand under Jesus.  Our old nature would rather us forget and lose interest in prayer and praying.  Confessing one’s sin, hearing God’s Word preached, and practicing the faith in a God pleasing way, becomes detached and dysfunctional!  The busyness of life quickly takes over and the spirit within becomes comfortable with the status quo.

Standing under Jesus requires faith.  Faith does not come from understanding, but rather, the other way around, understanding comes from faith, and faith sees one standing under what we allow our ears to hear.

As Paul says to the Romans, “For ‘everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’  How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching?  And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!’  …So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.” (Romans 10:13–15, 17 ESV)

Jesus understands that standing under him, requires us to be put in a position of hearing.  Not just any word, but the Word of Jesus Christ.  God the Father, together with God the Son, know this.  That is why we receive the Holy Spirit when we hear the Word of God.  He leads us to the Father through the Word made Flesh, Jesus Christ.

Jesus’ spoken word drew an immediate response from Simon, and Andrew, James, and John.  So much so, they left their families and Galilean fishing boats and followed Jesus.  Through Jesus’ word the fishermen became his disciples and followed him. 

We are discipled by Jesus and grow in our understanding of Jesus, when we stand under his written Word, just as those of his disciples, who remained under his word.  All, with the exception of Judas Iscariot, and that didn’t end well for him!

To get a greater understanding of Jesus Christ you are called to stand under his written Word.  Standing under it allows the Holy Spirit to work faith in the Word within you!  The Holy Spirit continually points us back to Jesus’ way, the truth of Jesus’ Word, and his life.

We are in the season of Epiphany.  In it we hear that Jesus is proclaimed as the Son of God.  In the New Testament, Jesus is declared as the Son of God, some forty-three times.  Of these, it’s recorded only four times in the Gospel of John, where Jesus refers to himself as the Son of God.

Jesus is the Son of God, but as Paul tells us in Philippians, “though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped,  but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.  And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” (Philippians 2:6–8 ESV)

Jesus put aside his standing as the Son of God and stood under God the Father, and indeed stood under all of humanity as the Son of Man.  He served you, and still does, in human flesh!

Standing under the Father, Jesus Christ demonstrated great faithfulness towards the Father and all who trust in him.  His understanding or nature was such, he put aside his self-assurance in his  divinity, and lived in the weakness of the flesh, allowing himself to be guided perfectly by the Holy Spirit.

When Jesus, the Word made flesh, went away to pray, he prayed his Word, the Word of God.  The Psalms are Jesus’ Words of prayer, given and written down years before he was born. 

When we stand under the Psalms as an anthology of Jesus’ intimate prayers, our faith is encouraged by the depth of his faithfulness to God the Father.  He allows his servanthood to stand, not on his Godliness!  But rather, is led by the work of the Holy Spirit.  Therefore, the Psalms give a very personal insight into Jesus’ life as he submits to the will of God the Holy Spirit.

In the same way, when we stand under the Psalms, the Holy Spirit increases our understanding of the perfect relationship between the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.  Standing under God’s Word of the Psalms will increase faith!  So, we allow the Holy Spirit to lead us just as Jesus was led by the Holy Spirit. 

Jesus was led by the Spirit to do the will of the Father, having put aside his heavenly divinity.  As faith grows within us, we are led to do the will of the Father, when we put aside our human spirit’s self-assurance and desire for ill-gotten selfish divinity.  Faith allows us to surrender and lets the Holy Spirit point us to God the Father and God the Son.

To understand Jesus’ life, understanding the Word of Jesus’ prayers written in Psalms is as simple as standing under the word by questioning; who is speaking, who is the speaker addressing, and who is the speaker speaking about?   Is a singular person speaking or listening?  Or is it a group of people, usually Israel represented by those gathered in the temple? 

We get understanding of the Psalms and can stand under the Word of the Psalms when we realise, how we, as individuals, or, as a heavenly congregation, are grafted into Words of the Psalm by Jesus himself!  Into Jesus either, as the only Son of God, or, as the head of his body, the new Israel, the church.

Psalm sixty-two demonstrates the perfection of the Triune relationship, and the faithfulness of God’s perfection into which we are grafted by Jesus.

(Psalm 62:5-12)  For God alone, O my soul, wait in silence, for my hope is from him. 

Here, the speaker is speaking about our Father in heaven to the hearer.

He only is my rock and my salvation, my fortress; I shall not be shaken. On God rests my salvation and my glory; my mighty rock, my refuge is God. 

The speaker hear is King David having been given these words from the Word made flesh, the King of kings, Jesus.  So, Jesus is the real speaker of these words having inspired King David by the Holy Spirit to write them down.  By the Holy Spirit, it’s Jesus who confesses and knows God the Father is his rock, salvation, and fortress.  He trusts God despite the weakness of his flesh.

Trust in him at all times, O people; pour out your heart before him; God is a refuge for us. Those of low estate are but a breath; those of high estate are a delusion; in the balances they go up; they are together lighter than a breath. 

Jesus trusted in God our Father at all times on earth, and he calls us to do so too.  Jesus our King calls us to pour our hearts out to our Father in heaven.  Jesus, the Son of God, put aside his divinity and gave up his human spirit on the cross.  God is a refuge for us because Jesus is our Good News.  

Jesus did this for Israel; he is the New Israel, into which we have been grafted.  When weighed up, next to Jesus’ perfection in the flesh and sacrificial suffering as the Lamb of God, our human haughtiness and lowliness are as long lasting as a warm breath on a cold morning.

Put no trust in extortion; set no vain hopes on robbery; if riches increase, set not your heart on them. 

Israel failed in the wilderness for forty years, then continued in failure right the way through to Jesus’ revelation as the Son of God.  Similarly, we fail time and time again in our lives too.  Jesus, the new Israel, did not fail having been tempted by the devil in the wilderness for forty days.  Jesus calls us to trust in his work, rather than our lifetime of fruitless works, vain expectations, or earthly riches!

Once God has spoken; twice have I heard this: that power belongs to God,  and that to you, O Lord, belongs steadfast love.  For you will render to a man according to his work.

Alone Jesus hears only God speak.  Therefore, we hear him proclaim two things he hears and abides by about our Heavenly Father.  That power and steadfast love belong to God! 

We know from the gospel; God the Father rendered the man Jesus according to his work.  We know; the Holy Spirit led Jesus to finish his work of suffering and death and was then raised to life by the Holy Spirit having completed this work for our sake. 

The Holy Spirit works faith within us to trust the power of God.  We become willing recipients of his steadfast love made complete, for us, and in us, by the Holy Spirit.  The Holy Spirit creates and maintains our faith in God’s promises, in his Word.  God the Father renders or completes our salvation when we believe the work of his Son Jesus Christ, hearing by the power of the Holy Spirit. 

When we stand under Jesus and his Word, we allow the Holy Spirit to foster faith within.  Then we understand, standing in daily repentance and belief, is standing under Jesus.  Trusting the gospel or good news of our salvation is knowing the kingdom of God is ours eternally.  Amen.

A, Easter 6 - John 14:12-21 "The Spirit of Truth"

John 14:12–14, 15-21 (ESV) “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father.  Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.  If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.” 

“If you love me, you will keep my commandments.  And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever,  even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.  “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.  Yet a little while and the world will see me no more, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live.  In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you.  Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.”

For the best part of two thousand years, the church has struggled to understand what the love is,  into which God calls us.  And, to know the Holy Spirit and his function in our lives, in the wake of Jesus’ resurrection and ascension. 

Love has been misunderstood, and the Holy Spirit has been buried, time and time again, as one looks back through the history of the Christian Church.  This should not surprise us, as the forces of evil confront us and seek to suppress what love truly is and what the Holy Spirit seeks to do for us.

It also might surprise you that Luther’s battle in the Reformation centred on the misunderstanding of love which stood at the heart of the mistaken function of justification and righteousness before God.

Because righteousness and justification were being wrongly centred on what the individual did before God, the Holy Spirit was then the forgotten third member of the Trinity.  But more on that in a moment.

Firstly, love; how does one love God?  How can you love God?  The gospel reading begins with Jesus saying, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” Then ends, “Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me.  And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.”  (John 14:15, 21 ESV)

This call to love, seems like a riddle.  The Israelites and Jews could not keep the commandments which are summed up in loving God, with all one’s heart, with all one’s soul, and with all one’s mind, and loving one’s neighbour as oneself.  (Matt 22:37-39, Deut 6:5, Lev 19:18b)

In fact, this is the reason for Jesus coming!  He came to love God and love humanity because under the Law the Jews couldn’t.  He found the Jews and the rest of humanity debased, and rebased us, by doing what we could not do, he perfectly pleased God by keeping the Law, and made atonement for humanity by dying for our sin.  He did not sin, yet he suffered to save us from our sin.

Despite this, the church struggled to stand under this love, to understand this love, and many throughout history and still today think the order of salvation is that Jesus died and now we must obey with self-focused good works.  They forget, “we are his (God’s) workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” (Ephesians 2:10 ESV)

The love to which God is calling us is a love that always comes down in creative, and re-creative power.  It finds the unlovable, and those incapable of love, and loves them.  This love is a receptive love, and it has to find us because, like the Jews, we cannot love God or our neighbour as ourselves!

So now we return to the third member of the Trinity.  God sends the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of truth, because he knows without him, Jesus’ death and resurrection, would have just faded into history, and been forgotten, and so would our opportunity to ever love God.

Yet having sent the Holy Spirit, the church struggles to receive and submit to the Holy Spirit, even though he is the only reason, generation after generation remember Jesus in the first place! 

Instead of recognising we are recipients of God’s love, generation after generation, have sought to climb up to God, through the “greater good” and love him.  This type of ego-centred love crept into the early church through Greek thinking.  From that, the grace of God is turned about so it becomes a man-made method of salvation.  Jesus came and did the right thing, and now through his example, we too must do the right thing, and climb up to God.  However, this only returns a person to a law that one cannot perfect.

Jesus names the Holy Spirit, “the Spirit of truth”.  The Greek biblical word for truth is “that which is not hidden”.  The Holy Spirit is he who reveals, he is God who unhides and opens our eyes and ears to the reality of God the Father and God the Son.  He also puts in plain sight who and what we are before God, as sinner, and as saint.

One may have claimed ignorance before Jesus ascended and sent the Holy Spirit.  In Acts seventeen Paul proclaims to the Greek thinkers of Athens, “The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent,  because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.” (Acts 17:30–31 ESV)

In other words, Jesus’ resurrection, ascension, and the sending of the Holy Spirit, gives one the opportunity to be returned to Jesus’ righteousness and victory over death, from self-designated good works.  These are the works one does to earn their righteousness before God.  Or works that fail when seeking to climb up to God and love with a love that desecrates his holiness. 

This does not please God because it’s not in accord with his plan of salvation, and once seeking entry into God’s presence through partial goodness, Jesus’ death and resurrection is treated with contempt.

Added to this, once goodness is elevated to holiness, then love becomes presumptuous, conceited, and full of vain glory.  The Holy Spirit is no longer allowed to uncover the truth.  There is no longer need for God’s love in Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection, and the Spirit’s call to repentance.

But what pleases God is when we turn from our own efforts and trust in him:  in the resurrection of his Son, Jesus Christ, and the work of the Holy Spirit, who gives faith and gathers us in faith. 

God is pleased and glorified when we daily drown our human spirit, with its knowledge of good and evil, and trust in Jesus Christ, having been given a knowledge of him by the Spirit of Truth, as he wills us, and returns us, time and time again, to hear God’s Word.

Finally, I draw your attention to the verses just prior to the Gospel reading for today.  Jesus proclaims  something quite peculiar.

He says, in John fourteen verses twelve to fourteen, “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father.  Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.  If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.”  (John 14:12–14 ESV)

So, the believer does the works of Jesus because he goes to the Father and the Holy Spirit comes to uncover Christ within.  We pray as Jesus prayed for others, we help others as Jesus helped others, we bear our cross as Jesus bore his cross.  And we do so only because the Holy Spirit comes from God the Father, and God the Son to bring us to the Father and the Son.

But this is not all!  Jesus says, “whoever believes, does greater works than him because he is going to the Father”.  What are these greater works?  In Greek, these are mega works.  How can we do greater works than Jesus?  It seems incorrect, but Jesus said it, so it’s not!  What are these mega works?

One might ask themselves what Jesus did, which we could not do?  The answer is to be perfect and holy in a God pleasing way.  But in addition to this he suffered and died to atone for our sin, even though he did not sin.

Jesus doing no sin is the hint!  The greater work that Jesus could not do, because he was without sin is to confess sin and ask for forgiveness.  We certainly need the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of truth, to confess and ask for forgiveness!  This is because it costs our human spirit its pride, to allow the Holy Spirit to uncover the truth of our sin, which reveals us as debased and unholy before God.

Confession and seeking forgiveness are so counter cultural to human nature.  Every child since Adam hides sin rather than confesses it.  Since the beginning, the devil has been making us guilty because of our sin, telling us our sin is too great for God to forgive.  Or he tells us our sin is not really that bad and to ignore what God says in his Word about sin.

Yet, the beauty of the resurrection is that despite the debased nature of every human being, we now have access to God, without fear of desecrating his holiness, or being annihilated by his holiness.  The Holy Spirit may allow us to feel guilt, but only so we rush to the cross in confession asking for forgiveness.

This work is a mega work of God the Holy Spirit in us, as it demonstrates faith in God, when we are led to turn from ourselves, to do the works God has prepared in advance for us to do. 

In addition to this, it also justifies God sending his Son to the cross, it justifies Jesus’ suffering and death for our sin, it justifies the work of the Holy Spirit, leading Jesus in servanthood as the Son of Man.  It also glorifies the Holy Spirit in raising Jesus from death and raising us daily, so we can die to self and live in the righteousness of Jesus Christ, and in the peace of God our Father.

Having been forgiven, we love God in sincere appreciation for what he did and continues to do.  So much so, the Holy Spirit makes us bold enough in our death of self, to risk ridicule and loss of name in proclaiming to others our sin and why God has forgiven us.   Amen.

A, Lent 3 - Exodus 17:1-7, Psalm 95:6-9, Romans 5:1-11, John 4:5-42 "Water and Word Aeration"

A new town and new experiences.  Not knowing what to expect, one hopes when turning on the tap one will have good water to drink. 

So, the tap is turned, the water seems clean, but there’s a strange metallic smell.  What on earth is this smell?  Suddenly sceptical of the scent, I warily taste the water.  Not great, but not bad either!  One might say, “mediocre”.  I thought to myself, “I’m just going to have to get use to this.”

Later on, I put a load of washing on.  After the cycle finished, there on my clothes was an orange stain.  “Woe is me, what on earth is this”, in all my life I had never seen anything as vile as this.

There was stain all over my clothes and orange gunk in some of the folds.  From where, had it come?  Later, I found out this was normal for the water supply.  The water reservoir was not enough for the city of forty thousand.  And the area where the water was dammed was high in iron, that is, the orange stuff staining my clothes.  I couldn’t believe an Australian city in the late twentieth century could have such an antiquated and disgusting supply of water. 

Three months after I arrived, the grand opening of the new water treatment plant was at hand.  Because I was working in the media, as a camera operator, I had the privilege of videoing the opening and the workings of the new plant.

This new plant did not use excessive chemicals to clean the water.  Instead, it used thousands of tiny air bubbles, pumped through the water, lifting the iron scum to the surface, and cleaning the water of orange metallic substance and smell.  Such a simple process and thankfully from then on, with all the other residents, I had town water that was refreshing, had no smell, and was colourless.  Liked the chocolate Aero bar advertisement, “it was the bubbles of nothing that made the water something!”

In the Old Testament reading today we hear the Israelites grumble to Moses about going thirsty in the wilderness.  Like me they whinged about water.  “Woe is me; we have no water!” 

Jesus in Samaria, likewise, is thirsty.   He asks a Samaritan woman, stained from ill repute, for a drink.

Rightly, “the woman said to Jesus, ‘Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep.’ Jesus said to her, ‘Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again,  but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again.  The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.’” (John 4:11a,13–14 ESV)

Jesus, like the Israelites, is without water.  He has nothing with which to gain access to the water.  The Israelites in the wilderness have no water.  Why is it that Jesus trusts the Samaritan woman for water, yet the Israelites do not trust God working through Moses to quench their thirst?

The Psalmist says to the hearer, “Oh come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the LORD, our Maker!  For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand.  Today, if you hear his voice,  do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah, as on the day at Massah in the wilderness,  when your fathers put me to the test and put me to the proof, though they had seen my work.” (Psalm 95:6–9 ESV) 

This Psalm together with the account from Exodus seventeen, places a warning before us to realise we need to come before God our Father, trusting he is our Maker, and he will shepherd us through the wilderness of this life.  Indeed, Lent is a time to stop and take stock of how God has sent Jesus to shepherd us in the wilderness of this life.

Jesus came not as the shepherd but as the Lamb of God.  But now, in the wake of his victorious death and resurrection, he is the Shepherd of his people, and he guards us with the Holy Spirit in his Word. 

Yet, we do well to clearly see the picture of Jesus at the well and understand just how lowly a picture this is.  We also do well to heed the warning of testing God, as the Israelites tried him in the wilderness.   But also see just how kept the Israelites were, having been freed from slavery in Egypt, and protected by God through the words of Moses in the wilderness.

Here Jesus has nothing, and he was thirsty.  He was in Samaria, Samaritans were nothing to Jews, but Jesus in all humility asks an adulterous Samaritan woman for water.  She is nothing to a Jew and yet Jesus comes to her with nothing but his Word.

On the other hand, the Israelites quarrel with Moses, they fight with the one through whom God’s word came. 

What is going on, in these two events?  The Israelites saw God’s Word as inferior in Moses and forgot his work.  Jesus trusts the work of God, and therefore his Word works.   

How does this play out practically for you and me?

It’s as simple as the bubbles of air removing the orange iron from the water.  In fact, the issues the church faces at the moment, understanding just what the substance of love and unity actually is, and how it plays out in the church’s cleansing, understanding, and obedience to God’s Word. 

In distinguishing issues of gender equality in the church, apart from society, discernment must return to, and be seen in, the simple process of how the Holy Spirit gives faith and understanding of God’s Word.  Just as the water is made clean with bubbles of air to remove impurities.

The Holy Spirit wells up the purity of God’s refreshing Word in us.  We cannot do this ourselves and nor should we begin the futile exercise of trying!   One will end up sinning against the Holy Spirit if they do!

When we are baptised, we are washed with water and the Word.  Like the Israelites, we are cleansed of sin in the water, just as the Israelites were of the Egyptians in the Red Sea, and at the end of forty years were led by Joshua (the Hebrew name for Jesus) across the Jordan into Canaan, into a paradise, the land of milk and honey.

But because Israel continued to sin in the land of milk and honey, Jesus reverses the order to fulfil all righteousness.  He comes from paradise, from the right hand of God the Father, is born into the bondage of humanity, baptised into death, and given the Holy Spirit at the Jordan,  and goes into the wilderness of human existence to be tempted, but does not succumb to the temptation.  From temptation he enters the Red Sea of death, where his innocent blood was spilt in bondage on the cross.

Today, we live with God’s Word too, so we might have faith in Jesus Christ.  But what is this faith, how do we get it, how does one believe?  Seeking faith  in oneself, individualism, vainglory, or self-worship are always the reasons for confusion and chaos in the church.  When these occur, the ways of the world invade our thinking, muddying the waters of God’s Word, and stain his church!

Jesus gives clarity in what he says to the Samaritan woman.

“‘But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him.  God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.’  The woman said to him, ‘I know that Messiah is coming (he who is called Christ). When he comes, he will tell us all things.’  Jesus said to her, ‘I who speak to you am he.’” (John 4:23–26 ESV) 

Like Jesus, who received the Holy Spirit in baptism, so too do we.  The water and Word are one in baptism.  The water receives its power from the Word.  We receive the Word made flesh, Jesus Christ, and we receive the Holy Spirit. 

The Holy Spirit aerates the Word of God with in us and separates the sin from the self.  He removes our stained being and gives us faith in Jesus and his Word.  He wills and moves us to place ourselves in submission to God.  Rather than disagreeing with God, returning to the bondage from where we’ve been freed, we bow to God hearing the Word of our Lord Jesus Christ, with the effervescence of the Holy Spirit bubbling within.  

Saint Paul gives us a theological trinitarian summary in Romans five, saying, “Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.  Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God… …and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.” (Romans 5:1-2,5 ESV) 

Let us come and worship God, not what we love, or think, or feel.  These are the idols and ideologies the Holy Spirit is trying to cleanse from you.  These are not bubbles of nothing, nor are they hot air coming from our own nothingness, puffing, or pumping up our ego.  No!  These bubbles are the loving works of God the Holy Spirit, with the softening waters of God’s Word within.  So, our hearts are not hardened by our goodness or our evil.

Jesus Christ seeks to aerate his Word in us by the Holy Spirit, to bring the muck and stain to the surface to be removed.  Like Jesus, we have nothing with which to get the water, but his Word together with the water are freely given through which the effervescence of the Holy Spirit works, welling up within to eternal life.  The fizz of the Holy Spirit kills and clears the muck, pouring the loving purity of Jesus Christ into our hearts.

Do not let your sin, my sin, or another’s sin harden your heart, so you cut yourself off from hearing the Word of God, hearing God’s forgiveness, and receiving the love of God in Jesus’ body and blood, through which the Holy Spirit unifies and wells us up to eternal life.  Amen.

A, Lent 2- John 3:1-17 "Unbinding Nicodemus' Flesh"

John 3:11–15 (ESV)  Truly (Amen), truly (Amen), I say to you, we speak of what we know, and bear witness to what we have seen, but you do not receive our testimony.  If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things?  No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man.  And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up,  that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.

Nicodemus was a champion of the Israelites.  He was a pharisee, and a leader.   He was victorious amongst those bound together by their Jewish culture and temple practice.  He was a leader and a ruler in Jewish society.  And he comes to Jesus at night.

This man of God’s people comes to Jesus somewhat confused, not knowing who this Jesus is, but knowing to do the signs Jesus was doing, he had to be somehow connected with God.  But how?   It appears Jesus mysterious signs were amazing the Jews but at the same time confounding and mystifying them.

The language of signs is right the way through John’s Gospel.  The first sign recorded in John’s Gospel is the Wedding at Cana in Galilee where Jesus turns water in to wine.  The second is in the temple at the Passover, when Jesus overturns the trading tables and is asked for a sign as to why he acted so destructively.  He gives a sign by saying, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” (John 3:19 ESV)

We are told by the author of the Gospel of John, as a side note, that the disciples only realised Jesus was talking about the temple of his body after he was raised from the dead. 

We are told many believed as a result of his signs.  But we know the disciples did not yet believe the Scriptures, until the after the resurrection.  Therefore, we know the belief of those who saw the signs with the disciples was bound in the sinful thoughts of humanity too.

It seems that Jesus had a problem proclaiming the Good News.  How could he unwrap years of Jewish expectation and assumptions?  A problem that every evangelist faces when they are called to take the Good News of Jesus Christ into a culture bound up by its expectations and understanding.

We hear of Jesus, “Now when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover Feast, many believed in his name when they saw the signs that he was doing.  But Jesus on his part did not entrust himself to them, because he knew all people and needed no one to bear witness about man, for he himself knew what was in man.” (John 2:23–25 ESV)

These are the verses immediately prior to Nicodemus coming to Jesus.  Therefore, we know Nicodemus was bound in the same thoughts as everyone else at the Passover.  We do not know what the motivation was for  Nicodemus’ coming to Jesus.  We are not told whether he was spying on behalf of the Pharisees or if he was genuinely interested in following Jesus.  But, regardless of the reason he came to Jesus at night, we know he and Joseph of Arimathea lovingly took Jesus from the cross and prepared his body, binding and burying it in the tomb.

Jesus’ word to Nicodemus did its work on unbinding Nicodemus!  A Pharisee bound in Jewish tradition and leadership would not have become associated with a dead human body during the Passover preparation and then expect to celebrate the Passover meal.  Something had to of changed within Nicodemus to unbind him from his temple tradition to allow him to do what he did.

What was it in Jesus’ word that had effect on him?  As I mentioned earlier it seemed Jesus had a problem in bringing the Gospel of salvation to a man who was a champion in the teachings of Jewish Law and culture.  But something had changed.  What is it in Jesus’ word that brings change, brings faith, belief?

Jesus says to Nicodemus, “If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things?” (John 3:12 ESV)

This question captures the struggle Jesus had with Nicodemus, and indeed, the difficulty anyone has in taking the Gospel to those whose ears, have not heard it, or, are closed to hearing it, as a result of cultural conditioning from their environment.

But Jesus launches straight into the heart of the matter to begin unbinding Nicodemus.  He makes three personal, “truly, truly, yes, yes, amen, amen” statements.

The first: “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”  (John 3:3 ESV)

The second: Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.  That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” (John 3:5–6 ESV)

And the third:  “Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know, and bear witness to what we have seen, but you do not receive our testimony.  If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things?  No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man.  And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up,  that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.” (John 3:11–15 ESV)

Three times Jesus addresses Nicodemus, but the third time the culture and history of Jewish teaching in Moses’ lifting up a bronze serpent in the wilderness, together with the lifting up of the Son of Man is brought into the light.

A great practical thing happens in these threefold, yes, yes, truly, truly, amen, amen proclamations.  In his word, Jesus announces the Holy Spirit.  But, at the same time the Holy Spirit is deposited within Nicodemus through his word.  From this deposit to Jesus’ death and resurrection and beyond, the Holy Spirit is the one who unbinds Nicodemus. 

Ironically, the one who is unbound by Jesus’ word and the Holy Spirit, binds Jesus, after he was taken from the cross and prepared with expensive spices, then placed in the tomb.

What Jesus says is true!  We do not know how the Holy Spirit works.  But in hearing the Word we know faith is given, in hearing the gospel the Holy Spirit works!  How does one believe earthly things and heavenly things?  Through the work of the Holy Spirit together as one hears the Word of God!

You and I are called to hear God’s word.  In God’s Word we trust the Spirit is given and works in us.  This first happened with water and the Word.  Together with the water and the Word, the Spirit was given in Baptism.  Now every time we hear the “yes, yes, truly, truly, or amen, amen” of God’s Word of forgiveness, we know the Holy Spirit is given and is raising faith within us.  Like Nicodemus we are being unbound to be victorious among God’s people.

As we leave here today and head back out into the culture around us.  You and I know we take the “yes, yes” of God with us.  When you engage with your family, your work colleagues, or those with whom God decides you to cross paths, trust that the Holy Spirit will give you the ability to speak the words and be the person through whom eternal life can flow.  Through whom the love of God can declare, “Yes, truly, amen, your sins are forgiven when you believe.  And “Yes, truly, amen, belief is possible” in those who are receiving the Gospel because the Holy Spirit, opens hearts with the Word of God, when you speak it.   

When Jesus was raised from the dead, he was born again.  Before he died, he was washed in the sin of humanity, yet he faithfully allowed the Holy Spirit to lead him without sin.  He was baptised into death and having laid down his life in love, God the Holy Spirit raised him up.  The temple was destroyed, and God raised it up.  He raised it on Easter morning, he raised this temple in Nicodemus with the Holy Spirit, and in the same way he raises it in you and me. 

We can now let God use us, to raise his temple in those he seeks to build with the Holy Spirit, in the yes, yes, truly, truly, amen, amen of sin’s forgiveness and eternal life.  

Like Nicodemus you have been unbound so you are victorious in God’s kingdom.  What a privilege and joy it is to be the instruments of the Holy Spirit in giving the same victory to others.  Amen.

C, Pentecost - Romans 8:14-17, John 14:12-18 "The Holy Adoption of Orphans"

Romans 8:14–17 (ESV) For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.  For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!”  The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God,  and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.

John 14:12–18 (ESV) “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father.  Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.  If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.  If you love me, you will keep my commandments.  And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever,  even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.  I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.” 

What is the function of the Holy Spirit? 

Or put another way, why do we need the Holy Spirit to be Christian; one who is a confessor of sins, a believer of our Heavenly Father’s forgiveness, a confessor of our Father’s forgiveness, and a forgiver of those who sin against us?

In the Nicene Creed we say we believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son. 

The Holy Spirit gives us life as God’s children.  What is that?  Jesus says without the Holy Spirit we would be orphans, we would not receive him when he comes to us in his Word, nor would we receive him at his second coming. 

Without the Holy Spirit we would have no faith in God, without the Holy Spirit we would only have faith in ourselves, our fallen human spirit.  You and I wouldn’t know God the Father or God the Son, nor would you want honest truthful fellowship with them or anyone else.

The Holy Spirit gives us faith and with faith filled hearts, he walks with us as the Spirit of truth.  On receiving the Holy Spirit, he enlightens us to the reality of our human self.  You and I know that without the Holy Spirit we have no understanding, like the disciples did until Jesus breathed the Holy Spirit on them and opened their minds to the Word of God.

It’s the Holy Spirit’s job to continually gather you and me, feed us with faith when we receive God’s gifts, and makes us holy in Jesus Christ so we don’t gravitate back to the untruths of the narrowness of ourselves.

In Romans eight Paul tells us we have received the Spirit of adoption as sons.  You and I are orphans until the Holy Spirit gives us the hearts of faith, so we call on God with holy fear rather than a fear that leads us back into slavery.

A fear that leads back into slavery is a fear that hinders us from freely confessing our sins.  A fear of slavery hinders us from believing Jesus’ word when he tells us we will do greater works than the works he did, now that he is with his Father in heaven.  Where does this fear come from?

Before we were Sons of God, we were sons and daughters of men.  This meant at our very best we may have lived morally decent lives.  But this very best, this knowledge of good, made us self-righteous, and it hinders us from trusting in God. 

Why would we need to trust in God if our good is good enough?  But it’s not good enough for God because it treats him with contempt as we desire to climb up to God through our effort of greater good, just as the builders of Babel were attempting to do.

Desire is also at the heart of our very worst as we live as sons and daughters of men.  Burning desire for pleasure can usually be found at the root of criminal activity, tribulations, and the fracturing of communities.  In fact, desire never seems all that bad until the deed is done and the guilt kicks in.  It’s been the same ever since Adam and Eve desired the forbidden fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

However, the Holy Spirit was sent from the Father and Jesus Christ, the Son of God, just ten days after he, ascended into heaven.  This fulfilled what God’s Son promised.   This is the promise of the Holy Spirit.  The Holy Spirit works to place faith in us, which welcomes all that God does for us in our day to day lives, and also allows the deposit of eternal life to be placed in us.

This is the seal of God’s adoption that makes us, God’s own, and God, our Father.  The Holy Spirit continually testifies to our human spirit that you and I are Sons of God.  Our Sonship is a gift to us from the Son of God.  Jesus Christ, came as one of us, he came as the Son of Man, giving up his privilege as the Son of God, doing what all other sons and daughters of man could not do.

The Holy Spirit continues to reveal this to you and me in God’s Word.  The Son of Man lived the life you and I could not live.  He died in your place.  He literally gave his life for your life.  Now we, who were sons and daughters of men, are Sons of God.  This is God’s holy adoption of orphans. 

Sons and daughters of men are orphaned through sin, through birth and deed.  Sons of God are adopted because of the Son of Man, through his birth to Mary, his deeds, and his death on the cross.  We now do greater works than Jesus by confessing our sin to God the Father.

We now have more to fear if we do not confess our sins to God and forgive others their sins. 

When we reject confessing our sins and forgiving others, we resist the Holy Spirit. 

When we refuse to confess and forgive, we hinder the greater works Jesus said we would do, now that he is with the Father.  We impede his crucifixion and resurrection for us. 

When we put a stop to confessing our sin and forgiving others, we orphan ourselves, and return once again to not trust God as our Heavenly Father. 

When we don’t confess and forgive, our inability to love becomes real. 

We move dangerously close to sinning against the Holy Spirit.

But, as sons of God the Father, we can love others as God has loved us, as we live and move and have our being in Jesus Christ, the love of God. 

The work of God’s love is done in us by the Holy Spirit.  Yes!  It does cause us pain and suffering. 

Confessing sin and forgiving others causes death of the old Adam in us.  The human spirit is exposed in all its weakness.  This is not an easy thing to do.

This is why we need the Holy Spirit to work these things within us, and as he does, he bears witness in us, and through us, that we are heir of salvation with Jesus Christ.

One last thing the Holy Spirit does in each of us.  He allows us to cry out “Abba Father” to our Heavenly Father. 

Practically speaking doing this testifies to our children a number of things. 

We teach our kids about our weakness.  We teach then to grow up trusting is him and not us as mothers and fathers. 

So, they do not become despondent because they cannot live up to our expectations.  Or so, they don’t become conceited and reject God because of our fallen hypocrisy.

As Sons of God, we teach our children to allow the Holy Spirit to make them Sons of God.  Sons and daughters of men can never be grandchildren of God. 

Rather, as the Holy Spirit leads us as Sons of God, confessing and forgiving, he makes an example of us to our sons and daughters, so they too allow the Holy Spirit to seal them in their adoption as Sons of God, and as our brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus our Lord.  Amen.