A Kingdom Not of This World

Texts:  2 Samuel 23:1-7; Romans 1:1-6; John 18:33-37

WHAT KIND OF KING DO we want?

As good Americans, of course we will reply we don't want a king.  That's why we fought a revolution.

All right, then, what kind of president do we want?  What kind of leader do we want at our head to guide us and guard us and make decisions in our behalf?

Well, taking it from history and recent events, typically we want rulers with the common touch.  We want someone who can sympathize with our needs, aspirations, and desires-- and help fulfill them.  Someone who can identify with us as his fellow human beings. He should be down here and present with us.  We want his kingdom to be a kingdom of this world.

At the same time, we want our leader to be a little better than we are, just like us but more so.  Accomplished and superior enough so we can look up to him, but not so high that he's totally detached.  We want him to symbolize our own aspirations for power and greatness, because we want to think of ourselves as great.

We want our leader to be accountable to us.  Even the most powerful of emperors could be taken down by a vote of his nobles, or by a palace coup.  We want him to bear in mind that with all his power and riches and fame, he's only our ruler as long as we allow him to be.  We want him to reign over a kingdom of this world and answer to us, because we're very much of this world.  That's the kind of king we want.

So how does Jesus Christ fit into this?  Today is Christ the King Sunday, the day when the Church has traditionally celebrated our Lord's exalted status as king of heaven and earth. Is He the kind of king we traditionally want?

In some ways, yes.  In 2 Samuel 23 we have a valedictory psalm of David, his official last words.  In it, among other things, he celebrates that God has made with his house and family an everlasting covenant.  This refers to the fact that the Lord God promised that there would never fail to be a descendant of David sitting on the throne of Israel. And who was David?  He was the despised shepherd boy whom God had raised up to shepherd His people Israel.  And who is Jesus?  As St. Paul reminds us in Romans chapter 1, Jesus is the descendant or son of David.  Jesus has humble family origins.  We can identify with Him.

And also in Romans 1, the apostle speaks of Jesus' human nature. Jesus as He walked this earth and proclaimed His coming kingdom was a human being just like we are.  He was subject to the physical laws of this earth.  He needed food and sleep.  The rain wet Him and the dust of the road dirtied His feet.  Jesus shares our humanity.  Very good, He's like us.

In His ministry we see how Jesus definitely had the common touch.  He gently and tenderly dealt with those who were sick and hungry and hurting.  Mothers eagerly brought their children to Him to be blessed.  He stood up for the poor and oppressed and defended them against the powerful.  His heart was with the people and their needs, and His actions were, too.

In all these ways and more, Jesus seemed to be the kind of king people traditionally want.  A king of a kingdom of this world, taking care of our worldly needs and desires.  Think of what St. John tells us about the crowd after Jesus fed the 5,000, how they wanted to take Jesus and make Him king by force.  They knew a good candidate when they saw Him!

But even in His time, people knew that if Jesus was a king, He wasn't the ordinary kind.  He was also fulfilling the expectations for the great king who would be the special Anointed One, the Messiah of Israel.  Through Him God would work in a unique way.  It was only to be expected that Jesus should identify with the people by performing signs and wonders and miracles for their sake.  At least, they figured it was all for their sake. What else?  The crowds were filled with admiration at how the powers of nature took a back seat to this Man whenever He spoke a word.  They were thrilled at the authority with which He taught.  And they delighted in how He overturned the pretensions of the religious leaders who opposed Him.  Jesus was that ruler who could be looked up to and admired.  As David sang long ago in his farewell psalm, Jesus the Son of David was One through whom the Spirit of the Lord spoke.  He ruled over men in righteousness, and in His day He was like the light of the morning sunrise to those who labored under oppression of every kind.

So far, Jesus was and is the kind of king we humans naturally want.  But there's a problem.  Jesus refused to be bound by our desires and expectations.  Yes, He fulfills our need for a king who is like us and from among us, One who sympathizes with our weaknesses because He has known them Himself.  But Jesus came to be a far greater king than that, and His kingdom is not a kingdom of this world.

We see this starkly in our reading from John 18.  Here we have Jesus standing His trial before Pilate, the Roman governor.   "Are you the king of the Jews?" Pilate asks Him.  Is he asking a serious question?  Of course not.  The idea that this beaten and battered Man before him could be the king of anything is absurd.  Something else must be going on.  So Pilate asks, "What it is you have done?"  And Jesus replies, "My kingdom is not of this world."  And just in those words we have the basis of the religious authorities' charges against Him.  He refused to be the king of a mere earthly kingdom; He asserted ultimate divine power.  His kingdom is not of this world, and as such He and it were an offense not only to the Jewish leaders, He is an offense to what we are in our natural sinful state.

For now Jesus is really claiming to have control and authority even over the terrible situation He finds Himself in.  Pilate has pointed out that the Jewish people and chief priests have handed Him over to him.  Jesus replies that the very fact that His servants didn't fight to prevent His arrest is proof that His kingdom is from another place, and doesn't follow the rules of kingdoms here.  Maybe Jesus was including the disciples among His "servants" in this verse, but much more likely He's referring to the holy angels.  As He reminded Peter in Matthew 26:52-53, when the apostle drew his sword to try to protect Jesus from arrest, "Do you think I cannot call on my Father, and he will at once put at my disposal more than twelve legions of angels?" But He did not put in the call, because like a good king and general He was working out His plan to bring in His kingdom which is not of this world.  If an ordinary man made this kind of divine claim we'd laugh at him.  And it's true, people laugh at Jesus and His royal talk, too. But they're forgetting the innumerable displays of power over nature, sickness, Satan, and sin He displayed throughout His ministry.  They're ignoring all the times the authorities tried to seize Him and He miraculously eluded their grasp.  No, the very fact that Jesus allowed Himself to be arrested showed that He was in charge of a plan that went beyond simply bringing in a new earthly kingdom.

Pilate, in his worldly cynicism, responds, "You are a king, then!"  Like, "Sure, right, tell me a new one."  Jesus, however, takes the governor's bare words and confirms the truth of them.  "You are right in saying I am a king."  I'm a substitute teacher, and sometimes a kid will say something to be funny or sarcastic that is more true than they know.  You have to latch onto that and confirm it to snap them out of their silliness and bring them face to face with true knowledge.  Yes, Pilate, it's true.  I, Jesus of Nazareth, am a king.  As king my first duty is to testify to the truth.  Those who are on the side of truth listen to me and are my natural subjects.

Our gospel passage leaves out Pilate's flippant reply, "What is truth?"  But it's worth answering.  According to the Scriptures, truth first and foremost is God Himself, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  Truth is all God says and all God does.  Truth is His word communicated to us in Holy Scripture.  And truth supremely is the testimony that, as John records in chapter 3, that "Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil," but "whoever by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God."  And how do we come into the light?  As Peter writes in his first epistle, it is God Himself (and God alone) who has called us out of darkness into his marvellous light. We need to be ruled by something or someone outside of this world for us to be part of Christ's kingdom, and His divine power reaches in and conquers our souls for our own good.

Pilate made a flippant reply about truth because he was the mighty Roman governor dealing with a prisoner who was totally at his mercy.  But when we in our sin make belittling comments about Jesus and His truth, we show our discomfort that with the fact that Jesus' kingdom is not of this world.  His kingdom of Truth shows up all our dishonesty and lies.  Jesus the King of Truth convicts us of our sins and calls us to repent and believe in Him, who is the Truth.  As heavenly King He has the ultimate right to judge, for He answers to no earthly constitution and is accountable to no earthly court.

This is not like the kings and kingdoms of this world!  And see how Jesus the King ascends to His throne-- through the cross!  The servants of an earthly king would fight to protect His person and His realm.  But Jesus the Son of God goes forward to fight and die alone to win for Himself a kingdom that is not of this world.  As Jesus says in John 12, "But I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself."  Some He will draw for salvation, some for condemnation, but by His death Jesus won the right to be the eternal ruler and King.

In our natural sinful way of thinking, Jesus is not the kind of king we want.  He claims to be in control of the forces of history-- and in control over us.  He claims to personify Truth-- and His truth judges not only our sin, but also our goodness, and finds it wanting.  Jesus claims that His kingdom is not of this world-- and refuses to let us co-opt Him and it for our own earthly purposes.  In short, He asserts that in all His humanity, in all His status as the Son of David, in all His sympathy with us and our needs,.He is more than that and beyond all that.  He was, as Paul says in Romans, "through the Spirit of holiness . . . declared with power to be the Son of God by his resurrection from the dead."  But the glorious and comforting thing is that on His cross Jesus won the victory over sin and death, and that included our sin and our death.  Jesus our King has removed the blindness from our eyes and the stubbornness from our hearts, so that we can recognise Him and long for Him as our true and only King, whose kingdom is not of this world.

What does this mean for our every day lives?  For one thing, it would keep us from confusing our own government or any other earthly system with the kingdom of Christ.  Bad earthly rulership does not tear God's kingdom down, neither does good human government cause God's kingdom to come.  All is in the Father's control, and His kingdom will prevail when every human administration has passed away.

And since we are not merely subjects, but also children and heirs of Christ's kingdom, we know that whatever happens to us in this world we belong to  a heavenly commonwealth that will never be destroyed.  This world is a wonderful place to travel through, but it's even better to know that one day we're going home.

And because Jesus' kingdom is not of this world, we know that He will definitely succeed in His ultimate purpose, to call us with all His saints to the perfect obedience that comes by faith.  We have been called to belong to Jesus Christ, and King Jesus will not fail to transform you into His image, no matter how guilty and sinful you feel you are.  He is the King whose kingdom is not of this world, and He can and will do it.
So let us depend on Him for all things and honor Him in all we think and do and say.  He is your Lord and King-- mighty, powerful, high and lifted up-- but also humble, gracious, and able to sympathize with your every sorrow and need.  Give Him praise and glory, for Jesus Christ is just the King we truly want and truly need.  Amen.

Does the Truth Speak Well of You?

Texts:    Psalm  1; 3 John 11-14

    BROTHERS AND SISTERS, HAVE YOU ever been tempted to fight fire with fire?  There's that coworker who always interrupts at meetings, why not be more aggressive and interrupt him back?  If someone is spreading nasty rumors about you, it'd serve her right if you let slip a few things about her.  Or maybe you've observed that if you really want to get things done in this world, it's best to imitate those who seize the reins whether they've got the right to or not.  Why not?  That arrogant, bossy person deserves to have a fall!  And wouldn't life be so much better if you and I were the ones with the power?

    Well, not exactly.  In today's passage from the Third Letter from John, the elder and apostle calls us by the Holy Spirit to refuse to be tied up with those who do evil, and instead to compare ourselves to and imitate what is good.

    Last week we learned about a bull elder named Diotrephes who was disrupting the local church by his tyrannical, arrogant behavior.  And there might just be a little part of you that envies a man like that.  Oh, you and I know we could never get away with it, but what if we could?  St. John knows his beloved friend Gaius is human.  Just possibly Gaius was entertaining visions of marching into the church and dealing with Diotrephes once and for all, the same way Diotrephes had served the missionaries John sent from Ephesus.  They didn't get a hearing, neither should this overbearing leader.  But John nips that in the bud.   In verse 11 he writes to Gaius, "Do not imitate what is evil."  Don't be like Diotrephes!  Do not do evil for the sake of dong good!  But neither is it enough for us to be glad we "aren't like that" and settle for the creeping comfort of our boring, humdrum sins.  No, if we want to be commended by the truth, we must go on to imitate what is good.  For, John writes, "Anyone who does what is good is from God."

    Oh.  That should be easy, right?  We all know all sorts of people who do good in this world, some Christian, some not.  Take this online community I belong to.  It's dedicated to cats and the people who like them, but the conversation isn't only about felines.  These people are good to one another; they've been good to me.  They're there with concern, good advice, and support in times of trouble. They donate money to help other members and their pets.  They visit one another in the hospital, even stepping in as advocates so sick and injured members get the best medical care. Going by the standards of the world, these are very good people.  Sometimes I compare the good they do with how badly a lot of church members treat one another, and it seems the church would be a lot better off if we were more like this worldwide community of cat lovers.  In many ways, we'd do well to imitate them.

    But is this kind of goodness enough?  Is this a perfect picture of the good the Holy Spirit commands us to imitate here in the Third Letter from John?  John the elder and apostle states that anyone who does what is good is from God.  May I conclude from that that my cat-loving cyber friends don't need the saving blood of Christ?  Some of them admit they don't believe in God, some are involved in anti-biblical sexual relationships and are proud of it.  Are they good enough for God?  Can you and I take a pass on telling our nice unsaved friends about the Gospel, since they're as good and helpful as we know them to be?  Or does this word "good" in this letter go way beyond simply being helpful and nice?

    We've seen these past two weeks that we need to understand the words John uses.  When he calls his friend Gaius "beloved," he speaks of no mere earthly love, but of the deep, unselfish, pure love of God in Christ.  When he speaks of "the truth," we are to think of the reality of all God says and all God is, especially as expressed in His Son Jesus Christ.  For St. John, "good" signifies the perfection of God demonstrated in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and lived out by each Christian as we pattern our lives after His image.  "Good" is God's love in action, as John taught in his first letter, writing
    This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him?  Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.  This then is how we know that we belong to the truth, and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence whenever our hearts condemn us. For God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything.

Well, thus far that sounds a lot like the good that unbelievers can show us and each other in this world.  But remember what Jesus Himself did with this word "good" in Matthew 19, Mark 10, and  Luke 18.  There was that rich young man who asked Jesus, "Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?"  And Jesus replied, "Why do you call me ‘good'?" or "Why do you ask me about what is ‘good'?  No one is good-- except God alone." Jesus was not denying being God, as some skeptics claim.  No, He was cautioning against using this word "good" lightly or in a purely earthly way.  God alone is the ultimate standard and perfection of goodness, and no one can claim to imitate the true goodness that is God without being good towards Him.  Remember what Isaiah the prophet said, that apart from God's salvation all our righteous acts are like filthy rags.  True goodness cannot begin until we have been clothed with the true goodness and righteousness of Jesus Christ who gave His life for us.

    In this letter, John writes to Gaius and to all of us who confess that Jesus is our Savior, not to those who don't know Him or accept Him.  Jesus is the Good whom we are to imitate.  When we as Christians do good to one another, when we return good for evil when unbelievers persecute us for the Name of Christ, we prove that we're telling the truth when we say we belong to the truth. 

    All of us will mess up at times.  We all struggle with the old sin nature and stumble in places along the road to God's perfect kingdom.  But if we persistently do evil; if we never care about one another; if we take pleasure in vicious gossip, egotistic power plays, and uncontrolled gluttony and greed; if we defiantly disregard God's gracious plan for marriage and sexual purity; if we refuse to worship Him as He deserves, we prove that we have not seen God.  The light of the resurrected Christ has never dawned in our hearts; we have no regard for the truth, rather, our "Jesus" is a god of our own making.

    John the elder and apostle knew we need models to imitate as we strive to do good in the name of Christ.  He calls Gaius' attention to a Christian named Demetrius.  We don't know if this man was a fellow-member of Gaius' church in that town, or if he was one of John's students, maybe the bearer of this very letter.  Regardless, John holds him up as someone worth emulating. 

    Demetrius, he says, is well-spoken of by everyone.  Now, Jesus told His disciples (in Luke), "Woe to you when all men speak well of you."  But St. John is not speaking here of "all men," but of sound Christian men and women whose good opinion is worth having.  If people like that can commend your attitudes and behavior, you can know you're on the right track.

    But there's a commendation more valuable still.  John says that the truth itself speaks well of Demetrius.  What does he mean?

    He says "truth itself," so most likely he's not saying he had a personal word from Jesus Christ in heaven about Demetrius' character.  But the truth is what we know of God, what He has revealed about Himself in His Law and especially in Jesus Christ.  Sometimes we can say about someone, "Oh, he's a wonderful Christian man" or "She's a remarkable Christian woman."  And if we're mature Christians and people look up to us, they might conclude that that person's actions line up with the will of God right down the line.  But we can get lazy and slip.  We can overlook things.  We can make allowances for little deviations and sins, especially when they're sins we share.  But what does the Bible say about that woman or man?  The New Testament is the faithful testimony of the apostles and evangelists to who Jesus was and what He did.  To say that the truth speaks well of Demetrius or anyone is to say that his life lines up with what the Word of God teaches us about Christ and His will. 

    Sometimes, often, if we want the truth of God to speak well of us it'll mean saying or doing what this upside-down world regards as evil.  We must put Christ and His holiness and glory first, even when the world says that's insensitive and intolerant.  It may call us humbly and lovingly to take a stand against popular lies about the nice, harmless Jesus who'd never, ever make anyone give up anything that makes them happy or makes them feel affirmed--!  And do it even though our very friends call us bigots and haters.

    And always, if we want to be well-spoken of by the truth, we will remain aware of our own sins and shortcomings and constantly run to Jesus for forgiveness and guidance in how to imitate what is good.

    John himself can vouch for Demetrius.  He knows him and his godly character personally, not merely by reputation, and John's own reputation for truthfulness is well-known.  Whenever you and I can forward someone's ministry by putting in a good word for them, let's certainly do it.  And let us strive to be the kind of people whose good word is valued and heeded.

    We see by verse 14 that John has decided almost certainly to come visit Gaius.  He will be able to encourage him face to face, and that will be better than mere pen and ink.  That's something to bear in mind in this age of easy electronic communication.  Good as we have it, nothing can replace being in each other's presence as we build up one another in the Lord.

    In the meantime, John closes with a benediction of peace, and sends the greetings of the friends in Ephesus.  The letter ends with a request that Gaius greet the friends in his town by name.  Each Christian is individually important to God, and we should be individually important to one another.  That is yet another way we imitate what is good.

    Life in the church isn't always easy.  It's not necessarily conflict-free to walk in the truth or to work together for the truth.  But if we strive to be spoken well of by the truth, together we will grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.  And trusting in His goodness shown for us in His death and resurrection, we will know more and more the precious communion He promises us, until we enjoy it in perfection in His heavenly kingdom.

Working Together for the Truth-- or Not?

 Texts:    Acts 4:1-31; 3 John 5-10
  

    HAVE YOU EVER DAYDREAMED ABOUT the glories of the ancient church?  Oh, if we could've lived back then, when everyone faithfully drank up the apostles' teaching and the Spirit had His way in every heart and all believers worked together in love and unity to spread the gospel of Christ!

    But you and I all know that's nonsense.  Only people who haven't actually read the New Testament can get all dreamy and romantic about the early church.  They had troubles and conflicts just like we do.  Which works out well for us.  Really.  Because if they'd had no problems, we wouldn't have the Apostles' words written down for us to help us work out our difficulties. Because like our 1st century brethren, we too are called to keep on working together for the truth.

    As we continue our study of the Third Letter from John, today we'll be looking at verses 5-10. As we noted last week, this is a personal pastoral letter to a Christian named Gaius.  So John the writer, elder, and apostle, doesn't go into a lot of detail.  I'll try to flesh out the situation from what I've gleaned from the commentaries, and if the Holy Spirit commends my explanation to your mind and soul, good.  Take the best and leave what isn't accurate or helpful behind.  But this letter is in the Bible for God's good reasons, and when it comes to what is plain and open in the text, let's accept it gratefully so we may work together for the truth, as Christ's own church.

    In verse 5 John writes to Gaius, "Dear friend, you are faithful in what you are doing for the brothers, even though they are strangers to you."  Who are these brothers?  We see from later in the passage that they were sent from John.  As I mentioned last week, John acted as a kind of presbytery executive, or, as Pittsburgh Presbytery is arranged, he was like the Pastor to Presbytery.  These days, it's only in times of trouble or transition that a congregation has much to do with representatives coming from presbytery.  But in Gaius' day the New Testament was not yet concluded.  The apostles-- who were eyewitnesses of Jesus and His works-- were still speaking to the church in the authority of Christ, and still teaching men (and yes, possibly, women) to carry on after them.   The brothers John sent would be his personal students in Ephesus, where he lived before he was arrested and exiled to Patmos.  They'd go out to the local churches as missionaries and evangelists, to build up the believers in the faith and help them settle disputes in the peace of Christ.  These brothers from John were not personally known to Gaius; they were strangers to him, as John says.  But Gaius was faithful in serving them, because they came with the Apostle's authority.

    What might Gaius have done for the brothers?  First and foremost, he probably provided them room in his home, or made sure someone else in the church took them in.  He made sure they were fed, that their worn-out sandals were mended or replaced.  He might arrange a time and place for them to speak to the members of the church-- not necessarily an easy matter, as we'll see pretty soon.  Whatever he did, we know he did it lovingly and graciously, because as we see in verse 6,  the missionary brothers had come back from previous trips and told the church in Ephesus all about his love.  Now John writes that Gaius will do well to send them on their way in a manner worthy of God.  This tells us that a fresh team of missionaries is presently staying with Gaius, and brought this very letter to him.  When they finished their work in Gaius' town, with his help they'd go on to the next town or village on their itinerary, to preach the Word and strengthen the church.

    As Christians we should always do what we do for the church and its ministers in a manner worthy of God.  Remember that our God and Savior Jesus bought the church with His own precious blood, she is His, and when we serve the church, we serve Christ.  And keep in mind always the service God deserves in Himself.  His name is to be honored and feared, and, as John writes in verse 7, it is for the sake of the Name that these evangelist brothers went out.

    In our reading from Acts 4 we see how weighty it is to invoke the name of God in Christ, in the church and in the world.  Peter and John healed a crippled beggar and consequently preached  Jesus as the only Christ and Saviour.  For this the Jewish authorities threw them into prison and are now trying them before the Council.

    Peter and John aren't daunted.  They declare that it is by the name of Jesus that the man was healed.  Friends, the name of Jesus has power.  Peter maintains that there is no other name under heaven besides that of Jesus by which anyone can be saved.  The name of Jesus brings salvation.  The Council consult together and decide to order the apostles never again to speak to anyone in this name.   But Peter and John assert that to preach the name of Jesus is to declare the truth of what they had seen and heard of Christ and to obey what God has commanded them to do.  To speak in the name of Jesus is to declare what He has done.

    The Sanhedrin don't know what to do, and release the apostles.  When Peter and John return to the church, do they say, "Oh, guys, please tone it down about Jesus, you're going to get us all into trouble!"  No!  They recognise that the persecution the apostles have faced is just one more example of the unbelieving world's resistance to God and His Messiah, Jesus Christ.  And they pray that the Lord God will "Stretch out your hand to heal and perform miraculous signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus."

    The name of Jesus carries His power and authority in this world, whether the world likes it or not.  For the brothers to go out from John for the sake of the Name is for them to speak the healing and salvation of Christ. It's to command obedience to His Word.  So it's only right for the church in each town to house and feed and worthily send on evangelists and missionaries who come in Jesus' name.

     There was a time during our Lord's ministry, before He died and rose again, when it was appropriate for His disciples to find lodging for Him with friendly folk who didn't yet understand who He was.  But now wherever Christ's church has been planted, it's not up to the pagans to support our travelling preachers and teachers; in fact, they might well refuse to do so.  No, it's the church's privilege and duty to receive and entertain those who come to us in the name of the Lord, whether they drive over from Pittsburgh or arrive from the other side of the world.  As John writes in verse 8, "We ought therefore to show hospitality to such men so we may work together for the truth."

    Think of that!  You don't have to be a missionary or evangelist to work together for the truth that is Jesus Christ.  Simply opening your home or helping at a church supper in support of a preacher or teacher is pleasing and profitable in God's sight!

    But even in the early church, not all hearts were willing to be hospitable.  John says, "I wrote to the church, but-- "

    Wait a minute.  In verse 6 John said the brothers had told the church about Gaius' love, but here he talks about writing to the church.  Which church, where?  From the context, the verse 6 church is the congregation in Ephesus, and here in verse 9, it's the congregation in Gaius's town.  But I think it's on purpose that John doesn't make the distinction.  For the Apostle, the church is everywhere that Christ is faithfully preached and believed, all one body united in His love. There are local manifestations of the body, but one church, one apostolate, one saving Word; one Spirit and one Christ, to the glory of God the Father.

    But too often there are brothers and sisters in the local church who want to make it their private kingdom.  Men like Diotrephes, who loved to be first.  We've all known some Diotrepheses, and Diotrephas, too, in our time.  Judging from the power he wielded, Diotrephes was one of the pastoral team or a ruling elder, but a Diotrephes doesn't have to be ordained.  He-- or she-- is distinguished by his attitude.  Your typical Diotrephes would never say, "Yes, I want to cause disruption and disunity in the church and destroy the faith of many, because it feeds my ego."  No.  He'd plead, "I'm only doing it for the sake of the church!  I work so hard around here, if I stepped back nothing would get done!"

    John says Diotrephes will have nothing to do with him and his apostolic circle.  Diotrephes would answer, "Apostles?  We don't need no stinkin' apostles!  We know everything about Jesus Christ right here, we're doing just fine!"  Jesus sent out His apostles in His authority to be heeded and obeyed, but Diotrephes refuses.  He doesn't merely ignore John and his emissaries, he says nasty things about him, not openly in the church as official charges, but as gossip behind the scenes.

    Friends, it's shocking the malicious stories people will spread about pastors and church leaders.  I'm sorry to say I had a Diotrephes once who falsely accused me of everything short of murder and child sexual abuse.  We can conclude that for John it's bad enough for himself to be slandered at a distance, but Diotrephes willfully extends that evil personally to the brothers John sends.  He refused to welcome them-- by which we know he prevented them from speaking to the church in the Lord's Day services--and he wouldn't even permit other church members to extend hospitality to them.  Members who did, he put out of the church.

    Which brings us back to Gaius.  It really appears that he himself has been excommunicated for welcoming the brothers from John.  Notice that John doesn't make a victim out of him.  There's no "Poor you, that mean Diotrephes has treated you so badly."  No.  He commends and supports Gaius as he does the right and godly thing for the brothers, as they and the other wrongly excommunicated members work together for the truth, despite the in-house persecution.  But because of Diotrephes' attitude, this indictment of his behaviour can't come to the church, it has to be addressed to faithful Gaius. 

    For surely Gaius knows from experience what this bull elder-- as my EP calls them-- has done!  John doesn't need to tell him!

    Yes.  Surely Gaius knows.  But unlike a lot of modern church authorities, John will not leave Diotrephes in the dark as to the charges to be levelled when the Apostle arrives to exercise church discipline.  No fake niceness.  None of this vague "Well, you're not a good fit for this church" or "oh, the dynamics here are just bad."  No, Diotrephes will know exactly what he has to answer for.  And if he will wake up out of his self-deluded blindness and humble himself to hear, he'll know what he needs to repent of.  For even Christians like Diotrephes are called to work together for the truth, who is Jesus Christ our Lord and the church's only Head.

    One thing more, then I'll close.  Don't be too quick to assume someone in the church is a Diotrephes.  Sometimes people genuinely believe what they're doing is for the best.  You do the church no good by gossiping about them or keeping your mouth shut as you drop your membership. If someone in the church is pursuing a policy that's unhelpful or even harmful, go to him openly and honorably and let him know.  Most of the time you'll come to a deeper understanding of one another and be able to work together better than ever.

    In his Letter to the Ephesians, St. Paul writes that we are all

    . . . fellow citizens with God's people and members of God's household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. 

    To work together for the truth is to support and uphold and proclaim the message that John and the rest of the apostles preached, that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father, for there is no other Name under heaven by which every human being must or can be saved.  As we come to one another with this message, as we work to promote this true word, let us humble ourselves to serve and support one another.  May we welcome and be gracious to our brothers and sisters in the faith, whether they're sitting in the pew next to us or come from afar.  This is how we demonstrate the love of Christ that overcomes the world.  This is how we work together for the truth.

Walking in the Truth

Texts:    Psalm 26; 3 John 1-4

I WONDER, WHAT WOULD YOU WRITE if you thought a personal letter of yours would end up as Holy Scripture?  Maybe you'd work to pen something grand and glorious, with eloquent, soaring phrases fit to go down in history.

    On the other hand, if you were an apostle of Jesus Christ whose words were likely to go down in sacred history, likely you'd write just the way John does-- as a humble servant of God addressing the concerns of a brother in Christ. You'd look out for the good of Christ's church and always keep in mind the Lord you both served.

    These next three weeks we'll be looking at the third epistle of John.  Today we'll be focussing especially on verses 2-4.

    It follows the pattern of a typical letter from the 1st century A.D.  It begins by stating who it's from.  The sender doesn't name himself; he merely notes that he is "the elder."  Or, following the Greek, "the presbyter."  Nevertheless, there has never been any serious doubt that 1, 2, and 3 John were indeed written by the Apostle John, brother of James and writer of the gospel being his name.  We know this from unbroken church tradition, and the style of all four books matches so well, it puts it beyond all doubt.  So here we have the Apostle John writing a private Christian a personal letter.  Imagine, when John wrote to churches and individuals, he really could have thrown his weight around.  He could have given all his titles and reminded everyone who he was-- the disciple whom Jesus especially loved.  Instead, in both 2 and 3 John he chose to be known simply as "the elder."

    True, John wasn't just any elder.  As an apostle who walked with Jesus, John was rather like an executive presbyter or a diocesan bishop.  He had churches under his care and his joy and duty was to make sure they were fed and nurtured with the truth of Christ.  He also wanted the pastors and evangelists who served those churches to be received properly.

    He writes to a man named Gaius.  John doesn't identify who his friend is or even where he lives.  This is a personal letter, after all.  It appears Gaius had a position of some responsibility in his local church; possibly he was a ruling elder or a deacon.  In any case, we know that Gaius was a very dear friend to John, and not just a dear friend as the pagans might have, he was "agapete," beloved with the pure love of God shown to us in Jesus Christ.

    I'm sure you've heard before about the difference between the various words for love in Greek-- eros for romantic love, philia for brotherly love or close friendship, and so on.  The Church didn't invent this word "agape"; it was used in every day life before the New Testament was written.  You could use it to refer to the high esteem you had for some object you thought would make you very happy.  But more often it meant the love of man for the gods, the love of the gods for man, and the love of supernatural beings for one another.  Especially it meant to love someone more than one's own life, like a mother would love her child. By the inspiration of the Holy Spirit and by Jesus' own example, the New Testament writers took this word for love and made it the Church's own.  For what greater love could anyone know than the love of Christ shown for us on the cross, and what greater love could one human being have for another than to love one another in the agape love of our mutual crucified Lord?

    It's sad, but sometimes we Christians use the love of God as a substitute for really caring about each other.  I'm talking about those times when we say, "Oh, I love her in the Lord," but our hearts are not warmed with any affection for that sister and our hands aren't willing to do anything to help her. 
Christian friends, the agape love of God is not some pale substitute for human love and concern, rather it includes and transforms and makes holy whatever human love is appropriate in the relationship.

    And so John is concerned about his friend's welfare in all aspects of his being.  We see this in verse 2.  John notes that Gaius' "soul is getting along well."  The friend is trusting in Jesus Christ as his Savior, he's growing in the faith.  We'd expect a spiritual father to be concerned with this.  But John also prays that Gaius' bodily health and material circumstances are good, too.  "[T]hat all may go well with you" signifies financial security.  We Christians don't put our trust in earthly wealth, but neither are we called to despise the good gifts God gives us in this life.  Any religion that rejects the proper use and enjoyment of the good things of this world is not Christianity.  In holy love, John prays health and prosperity for his friend, even as he rejoices in his spiritual progress.

    And now (verse 3) John shares his joy in what he has heard from some brothers who had returned to him from Gaius' town.  Gaius, he has learned, remains faithful to the truth and continues to walk in the truth.

    But what does John mean by this expression, "the truth"?  It occurs four times in verses 1-4 and he doesn't go into detail about it to Gaius, because his friend knows what he means.  Let's make sure we understand it, too, so we'll get the good out of this passage the Holy Spirit intends.

    The best thing is to go back to John's gospel and see how he uses the term there.

    In John 1:14 he writes,

    "The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.  We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth."

    Truth is an attribute of God, an expression of the reality of who the Father is, that Jesus the Word of God shares and brings to light in this world.

    In chapter 3, verse 21 Jesus tells Nicodemus that

    "‘Whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God.'"

    So the truth is something one can and should live by.  Our lives should match up with God's character, and when that happens, we don't have to be afraid to let Him see what we are doing.  Our actions and attitudes will reflect his glory.  More than that, when we live by the truth we will acknowledge that whatever good we do we do it through God.

    Jesus teaches the woman at the well in Samaria (4:24) that

    "‘God is spirit, and his worshippers must worship in spirit and in truth.'"

    We know from this that truth, this same expression of the character of God, must characterize our worship.

    In John chapter 8 Jesus makes it clear that those who do not accept and love Him are children of the devil, who does not hold to the truth, for there is no truth in him.  So we see that to hold to the truth is to believe in Jesus Christ as the Son of the Father, who was to come into the world to save it.  In 17:17 Jesus prays the Father that He will sanctify this disciples by the truth, for God's word is truth.  The truth, then, is what God is and does; and it's also what God says and has written by the ministry of the Holy Spirit.

    And most significant of all, in 14:6 Jesus tells the disciples,

    "‘I am the way, the truth, and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through me.'"

    The truth is Jesus Himself.  Jesus wasn't just an example of the truth, he embodied it in this world, especially as He died for us on the cross.  He was and is the exact image of God the Father.  He continues to be the truth at the right hand of God on high, and the world will be judged by Him at the last day.

    Gaius is faithful to the truth: he is faithful to Jesus his Lord. He is not afraid to confess who Jesus is and what He has done for him.  He understands and accepts that the Son of God became flesh in this world to be the one true and perfect sacrifice for his sins.  His hope is in Christ and in Christ alone, even in the midst of a pagan society.

    There are those, even in the church, who love to remind us that people these days believe in many different concepts of God and often in no god at all.  So, they say, we should be loose and flexible in our commitment to Jesus Christ.  These are pluralistic times, things are different, and we shouldn't be so intolerant as to say that Jesus is the only truth who can bring us to the heavenly Father.  But don't they realize how pluralistic the world was when St. John wrote this letter?  Unbelievers back then thought Christians were terribly narrow-minded for not accepting  Caesar as lord along with Jesus the Christ.  But Christians like Gaius knew that faithfulness to the truth of Christ was essential to salvation.  Not only that, it was what our God and Savior Jesus Christ deserved. 

    Are you faithful to Christ as your only Lord, and is your Christ the One who is revealed to us in the writings of the Old and New Testaments?  It's crucial that we be faithful to Him and Him alone, and not make up false Christs and false gods out of our own desires or out of the pressures of popular culture.

    But Gaius wasn't merely faithful to the truth, he also continued to walk in it.  Now you know how old the expression is: He didn't just talk the talk, he walked the walk.  He carried out the duties and actions that belonged to a man of faith.  Psalm 26 which we read this morning describes what some of those behaviors might have been.  We can also turn to Galatians 5, where we read of the fruit of the Spirit.  To walk in the truth is to treat our neighbor with love, joy, peacefulness, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. To use an old-fashioned phrase, it's to make our lives an ornament to the Gospel.  When we walk in the truth we encourage other Christians.  And we show the unbelieving world that the word of Christ dead and risen again really is the truth-- for them as well as for us.

    But to walk in the truth signifies something even greater than that.  We can do all sorts of good things in this world and our lives would still be a lie.  To walk in the truth as Gaius did is to live our lives in the strength and merit of Jesus Christ.  Not trusting in ourselves to please God in our own selves, but putting all our faith in Christ alone.  It's conforming our lives to His word and following the guidance of His Holy Spirit, giving all the glory to God the Father through Christ our Lord.

    This is what the brothers came and reported to John, and it gave him great joy.  His spiritual son was walking in the truth!  Those of you who have children are so happy when they grow up and keep on practicing the good habits you've taught them, even when they've moved away; how much more joy do fathers and mothers in Christ have when we hear that those we've discipled remain strong and committed to the Lord in word and deed!

    And you know who else is filled with joy when we walk in the truth?  God our heavenly Father.  St. James writes that God "chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of all he created."  Psalm 26 says

    "For your love is ever before me,
        and I walk continually in your truth."

The agape love of God draws us on to walk in His truth.  In the love of God our Father, may we continually entrust ourselves to God's own truth, who is Jesus Christ our Lord.

Our Perception, God's Reality

Texts: Psalm 46; Luke 24:13-35

THERE’S AN EXPRESSION OUT THERE in the world: "Perception Is Reality." I’m sure you’ve heard it. You may even have had it aimed at you. The idea is, it doesn’t matter if something is true or not, if people think it’s true, it may as well be true.

"Perception Is Reality": We see this idea work in the world in economics. The economy may actually be in pretty good shape, but if enough people think it’s bad, they’ll act like it’s bad. We see it in politics. A politician may be a very wise man, but if the Press catches him in a momentary error, the public can perceive him as stupid and treat him as stupid, and never listen to him again.

We see it operating in the world in our jobs. I once served a church in a tiny village in the Midwest, where the executive presbyter told me I should always drive wherever I went, even if only for a block or two, because if anyone saw my car parked at the manse, he said they’d think I wasn’t working. That would jeopardize my ministry, he said, because after all, "Perception Is Reality." And I’m sure you can supply examples of this from your own job.

We see "Perception Is Reality" at work in the world in our relationships. How many couples get married, how many get divorced, how many parents and children become estranged and alienated from one another, due to perceptions each had of the other that might or might not have been true? But when they were in the middle of the situation, it didn’t matter whether their impressions were true, because, after all, "Perception Is Reality."

I hope you noticed: we’re not talking about true perception at all. True perception has to do with really getting to the bottom of things, truly discerning what’s going on. But this kind of "perception" is all about making up our minds by what appears on the surface.

That’s the way we naturally operate in the world. Our whole human-based world system says we should trust the testimony of our senses and feelings, whether we have the facts straight about the matter or if our conclusions are based on a lie. It’s the way of this world to make lies into the truth, or rather, to make decisions about people and things and act on them as if lies were the truth.

But it’s not the way of the Lord our God. And it shouldn’t be our way as followers of the Lord Jesus Christ. As followers of our Lord Jesus Christ, we should look to God’s truth, to God’s reality, regardless of what our senses and feelings tell us. For His reality is the only firm ground we have to stand on in this shifting and shaking world.

This is especially true in times of disaster, difficulty, and grief. If Perception is truly Reality, when things go wrong we’d have every right to question God and His goodness and power. "Where is God? Why doesn’t He help me? How can these things happen and a loving, all-powerful God still be in control?" But our human perception is not God’s reality; and if we act as if it is, we’ll miss the comfort and benefits that our Lord would give us in distressing times.

Psalm 46, verses 2 and 3 describe a situation where we might well be tempted to let our human perception influence our view of God. The earth caving in under us! Whole mountains sliding into the sea! Tidal waves in the ocean, undermining and toppling more mountains! Nowhere to run, nowhere to hide, nothing trustworthy we can see.

When I read these verses, I can’t help but think of events in our recent history.

Like seven years ago, when the mountains of the World Trade Center towers came peeling down like monstrous gray mouldy bananas. And three years ago, when New Orleans and the whole Gulf Coast were inundated, washed away by the wind and water of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Whether we want to or not, we haven’t forgotten and we do remember. We remember loved ones lost, injuries suffered, property and livelihoods wrecked and ruined. Such disasters happen; they happen to us, they happen to people we love, and to people we come to love, when we go to help them pick up the pieces.

When things like this happen the follower of Christ does not rely on his human perceptions. No, he says with the psalmist, "God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble." God is our help, even while we’re trapped in the burning tower. He’s our comfort even as the waters are rising and we’re trying to break a hole through our attic roof. He’s there with His hand holding ours even when we learn our teenaged son or daughter has a drug problem, even as the doctor tells us our cancer is terminal. Even at the moment of our death, right there in the midst of trouble, God’s reality is that He is our refuge and strength. Despite what seems like every reason to fear, His truth is that we need not fear at all. He is wholly trustworthy and will never fail us at all.

Some people might say, "What’s the use of that? I’m still in pain, I’m still going through agony, I’m still in distress." Is trust in God just wishful thinking? No, because the trustworthiness of God depends on His eternal character, on who and what He is. He is the Most High, the creator of heaven and earth. He made us to love and worship Him, not just in the time of our earthly lives, but all through eternity. God is He who calls us into covenant with Him and brings us to dwell with Him in His holy city. These verses 4 and 5 are partially talking about the earthly city of Jerusalem, as it was known in the days of the Sons of Korah. But they look beyond that to the eternal Jerusalem that will never be shaken and can never fall. Nations may be in an uproar, kingdoms will fall, but the Lord protects His city and His citizens day after day and forever. He is not controlled by the evil forces of this world: He is Lord over them and He can even use them as He wills to bring us safe through fire and flood and disaster to the holy place where we will dwell always with Him.

We can rely on God’s trustworthy reality despite our human perceptions because He is not a tame god. The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ is not a nice god.

Does that shock you? But think about it. If by "nice" we mean being a pushover, God is not nice. If by "nice" we mean overlooking things that are wrong because He doesn’t want to offend anyone, God is not nice. If by "nice’ we mean He just wants everyone to be happy and satisfied, no matter what we do to each other or to Him, no, God is not nice.

The Lord God is not nice, but He is good. He is good with the purifying goodness that sees sin as a parasite on His creation and judges our sin for our own good. As it says in verse 8, He is good with the overwhelming goodness that will allow hardship and even desolation to come into our lives, if that’s what it takes to get our attention. He is good with the fear-inspiring goodness that commands our foolish warfare to cease, that makes us stop babbling about our shallow perceptions and start facing up to His awesome reality.

These verses 9 and 10 remind me of a fight going on among a group of squabbling children, and dad or the principal walks in and everything just goes quiet. Suddenly whatever it was they were fighting over is no longer important; the important thing is that they have incurred the righteous wrath of their father. His presence straightens out their perceptions. What’s odd thing is how some people misquote verse 10, and show how sinful and human their perception is still. They quote it, "Be still and know," period, the end. Do they believe we can magically gain wisdom simply by quieting ourselves, maybe by practicing some form of meditation? Be still and know what?

But the verse actually reads "Be still, and know that I [the Lord] am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth."

This Scripture has nothing to do with anything we can do for ourselves or perceive for ourselves; it has everything to do with God breaking in from outside of Creation and replacing our misperceptions with His rock-solid reality. Do we think God is somehow low and ordinary until we exalt Him, as if human praises were the gas burner in a hot air balloon? Oh, no, friends, God will be exalted because He is the Exalted One. Exaltation is simply the response His reality commands and deserves. In these days, it is given to us His people to truly perceive something of His praiseworthy power and glory. But there will come a day when all peoples of the earth, all nations will perceive and recognize that He is high and lifted up, and give Him the honor and praise that He deserves.

In the meantime, we who belong to Him, we who bear His name can be confident that no matter what happens, no matter what our perceptions might be, "The Lord Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress." He is called the "God of Jacob," for by that name we are reminded of the covenant He made with His chosen people Israel. We are the heirs of Jacob and Isaac and Abraham, and the promises God made to them He also makes with and keeps to us.

We inherit those promises through the new covenant sealed in the blood of His Son our Saviour Jesus Christ. Whenever your perception tempts you to doubt God’s faithful reality, remember what happened on the Road to Emmaus. Cleopas and the other disciple thought their perception was reality. Once, they’d perceived that Jesus might be the Messiah, but that’d been destroyed by His crucifixion. So they replaced it with another human perception, that their hope in Jesus was over and done and they may as well give up and go home.

But our Lord comes alongside them and replaces their faulty human perceptions with God’s perfect reality: "Did not the Christ have to suffer these things and then enter His glory?" Yes, He did. It was ordained for our Lord to die for our sins and to be raised for our life. The death of Jesus Christ calls us truly to perceive God’s view of our situation. For whatever sorrow or trouble we might experience in this world, our worst trouble is our own rebellion and warfare against God. It was always planned by God that the sacrifice of Jesus the Lamb of God would propitiate the wrath that God justifiably felt against our sin. God had willed from the beginning that the heinous murder of the incarnate Son of God, the worst disaster in human history, should result in the greatest and most lasting and most glorious blessing for the children of Man, eternal life and unity with God.

The crucifixion and resurrection of our Lord call us to recognise how God brought life out of death, strength out of weakness, and joy out of sorrow. The world’s perception could never discern that divine reality, not in a million years. We could never perceive it, if the Holy Spirit did not invade our lives and turn us from our own lying perceptions to God’s holy reality. We need to be still and know how Jesus willingly allowed Himself to be judged for our sins that we might become citizens of God’s holy city. Our perception must be divinely cleared and corrected, that we might recognize the risen Christ and enter His presence and have fellowship with Him.

The beautiful thing is, Jesus Himself makes sure this happens. He will not appear physically and walk with us along the road. But He gives us His Scriptures, that tell of Him from Genesis to Revelation. And He gives us His Holy Sacraments, where we can truly perceive Him in the living waters of Baptism and the bread and cup of Holy Communion. He is here with us, guarding us, guiding us, redeeming us. Our human perception does not create that divine reality. Rather, the Lord Himself has promised that He will be present in the witness of His Word and in the breaking of the Bread. The Holy Spirit blesses our hearing of Christ’s Word and the receiving of His Body and Blood, sanctifying our perception, that we may lay hold of the truth that is our crucified and risen Lord.

Human perception is not necessarily reality, and believing a lie does not make it the truth. But beyond all our limited perceptions lies the reality of God: Who He is, What He is, and what He has done for us in Jesus Christ. Be still, and know that the Lord is God. He will be exalted among the nations, He will be exalted in the earth. And may His holy Church say amen, and praise and glorify Him with confidence and joy, now and forever.

Finding the True Way to Life

Texts: Isaiah 30:19-22; 2 Peter 2:1-3; John 14:1-14

HAVE YOU EVER CHOSEN THE wrong path? Could that choice have led you to disaster?

I’m thinking of a time back in 1989 when I went hillwalking in south Wales. I was heading to the top of a mountain called Pen-y-Fan, which means "the topmost beacon." Which makes sense, since the range is in the Brecon Beacons National Park.

It wasn’t the best time of year to be climbing Pen-y-Fan. It was April 1st and cold and wet. The fog was so thick you could literally trip over other hikers sitting by the side of the trail eating their lunches, because you couldn’t see them in the mist.

But I was on a year abroad program and had to go home right after school was out in June. If I wanted to tackle this hill, it was Easter break or never.

Luckily, the trail was very well marked-- It was a mess of ruts. You couldn’t miss it, even in a blinding fog. Eventually I reached a spot where there was a big pile of stones-- a cairn--and I walked around a little to see if the trail went farther up. It didn’t.

There were two elderly men standing by the cairn. I asked them, "Is this it?" Meaning, "Is this the top?" In the fog, I really couldn’t tell.

They assured me it was, and headed down the trail. I stayed at the top a little longer and then started down. After a bit, I caught up with the two elderly Welshmen-- they’d stopped to put on their foul weather gear-- and we continued down together.

Then we came to a fork in the trail, two paths leading down. One of the Welshmen said to me, "All right, which way do we go now?"

I knew it was a test question. They wanted to know if I were competent to be up there by myself on this mountain.

And me, I wanted to prove I was. Which nineteen years ago meant not stopping to check my Ordnance Survey map or to think about how the trail had looked on the way up. Immediately I pointed to one of the paths and said, "That way!"

Wroooonnnngggg! Not only wrong, but worse than wrong. Those experienced local climbers told me that if I’d taken that trail, it would have led me down the back side of the mountain. Down there it was steep and rough, there were no houses or farms, and it’d take me several hours, maybe past nightfall, even to reach a road. And here I was, they pointed out, up there by myself with no flashlight and no food and no foul weather gear, wandering around in the fog with no idea which way I should go. Even worse, I’d thought I did know the way, and the way I’d chosen could have led me to injury and illness, maybe even to disaster and death.

They lectured me but good! Served me right. Those Welshmen knew what they were talking about. They’d been up and down that mountain many times. And in the end, they were able safely to lead me back down where I needed to go.

All through our lives we have to make decisions about which way to choose. If pride and over-confidence can get us in trouble when we’re out hiking or driving, think how much more disastrous it can be when we’re directing the course of our lives!

Ask almost anyone what the ultimate goal of life is, he’ll tell you it’s Personal Fulfillment. Or becoming truly Spiritual. It’s about achieving a Higher Purpose. Most people will say that higher purpose has to do with God, that individuals should strive to please God in their lives here on earth, so he’ll welcome them into heaven when they die. Our choice, then, is to decide on the best path to lead us to that happy destination.

In our reading from John 14, Jesus is speaking to our desire for happiness and heaven. The time of His death is fast approaching, when He will be taken away from His disciples. Though they will see Him again for awhile after He rises again, the time will come when He will ascend into heaven and no longer be visible to their physical eyes. Jesus wants to assure them-- and us-- that His physical absence from us has a purpose, that it’s to our benefit. He is going-- in fact, even now, He has gone-- to prepare a place in God’s heaven for all His disciples; not just for Thomas, Philip, James and John, but for all of us who believe in Him as well. Then when the time is right-- at the end of all things-- Jesus will return to guide us where we need and want to be.

In the NIV, verse 1 reads, "Trust in God; trust also in me." It can also be translated, "You trust in God; trust also in me." The disciples were already God-fearing, God-trusting, God-acknowledging Jews. The law and the prophets had taught them about God’s character and power and how He can be trusted. Now, "Trust me just as you trust God," says our Lord Jesus. Do you want to reach heaven and live forever in the presence of God? Then trust Jesus Christ, crucified, risen, and ascended to be your guide to lead you there. He’s been up and down that mountain before, and you can trust Him with your eternal life.

But that night long ago in the Upper Room, the disciples didn’t get it. And we have a hard time getting it, too.

Thomas says, "Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?"

Thomas, dear Thomas! Jesus just told you He was going to come back and lead you to His Father’s house! You don’t have to get the street address of heaven and punch it into your spiritual GPS system!

But you and I might’ve said the same thing in Thomas’ place. He and the other disciples didn’t yet understand that Jesus would gain admission for us into the kingdom of heaven through His suffering on the Cross. They couldn’t conceive how through His rising again Christ would lead us into eternal life.

Jesus answers Thomas and us by saying in effect, "Don’t worry about the street address of heaven! I’ll take you there!" Or as He actually says, "I am the way and the truth and the life."
Do you want ultimate fulfillment here on earth and bliss in heaven hereafter? Then trust in Jesus Christ. He is the Way: He is the very path or trail or road you walk along. He is the Truth: the reliable and trustworthy Guide who will never deceive you or let you go astray. And He is the Life: Jesus Himself is the goal we are really after. Life in Him is everlasting fulfillment and pleasure and joy. It is the only life there is!

If Jesus had stopped His answer there, we might think there could be other ways we can get to eternal life, should we decide that following Him is too costly or too hard. Our Lord will not allow us to entertain that idea for one second. He declares, "No one comes to the Father except through me." All that business about Jesus being the way, the truth, the life? Our Savior meant it. It’s like it was with me on top of that Welsh mountain in a thick fog-- one path with experienced guidance leads to life and happiness; the paths we make for ourselves bring us to misery and death.

I think most of us within these walls would happily confess that this is so. Yes, yes, Christ is the only way to the Father! He’s the only Guide to happiness and fulfilment, in this life and in the life of the world to come!

But have you ever considered how easy it is for all of us-- for any of us-- to get off that right path, to stop listening to our truthful Guide, and to totally miss the goal of life Christ would lead us to?

As I pointed out before, everyone wants to get to God. But the Man Jesus Christ, with His human flesh and His bloody cross and the glorified human body He took back with Him to heaven? Not so much. Talk to people sometime about what they mean by heaven or God. I’ll wager you they’re thinking of something entirely bodiless. Something more "spiritual" than a Deity who got His hands dirty and humbled Himself by being born with a body like our own.

It’s the same with the popular idea of "Christ." People will speak all sort of glowing things about following His teachings or walking in His footsteps of compassion, forgiveness, and love. But when it comes to trusting in His bloody death as the only way to reconcile us to God the Father-- good grief, say all we children of the world, how disgusting and unspiritual can you get? No, we fallen human creatures don’t want the crucified and risen Jesus Son of Mary to be our way, our truth, and our life! We want Him to hand us His life story as a kind of map and let us find our own way to God the Father by ourselves!

You’d expect unbelievers to reject the way of Christ and Him crucified. You might even expect it from those parts of the Christian Church that deny the importance of the Holy Scriptures and traditional doctrine. The sad thing is, refusing to trust Jesus Christ to be the way, the truth, and the life has crept into churches that claim to be evangelical and Bible-believing as well.

Knowing your pastor, I can trust that she is giving you Jesus Christ in His fullness. She is pointing to Christ and Him crucified as the only path, guide, and goal of eternal life. But there are churches and preachers who maybe without even realizing it preach a Jesus who is not and never could be the one and only way to the Father.

They present Jesus as our Good Example: "Work really hard to be as good as Jesus is and God will accept you!" Or Jesus as our Great Teacher: "Follow everything He taught the best you can and you’ll be good enough for heaven!"

Or they preach the earthly gospel of Happy Homes and Financial Success and Having Your Best Life Now!!! How can you achieve all that? By using Christ as a road map, not as the way, the truth, and the life. By turning your back on sharing in Christ’s sufferings and instead seeking your ultimate goal and fulfillment in this world. By choosing to choose your own path to life instead of the path of Jesus’ death and resurrection.

These teachings are not the truth! They are No. Gospel. At. All! Any "heavenly Father" they would lead us to would be a false god, a mere idol, and not the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Should we be shocked and appalled that these kinds of false paths and false Christs are being proclaimed in the Church? Appalled and saddened, yes; shocked, no.

For what does St. Peter say in his second letter? He warns that there will be false teachers among us! Throughout the history of the Church false guides have tried to convince Christians that the Jesus of Scripture is not the only Way, Truth, and Life. Some deny that He is truly God. Others deny that He is truly human. Often they preach Him as the supreme Teacher of the Law, a new and improved Moses, instead of as the Savior who breaks the power of the Law over us. They have pieced and patched and presented false Christs, Christs without demands, Christs who are not the perfect human image of the eternal God, Christs without claims to be the only way, Christs without the cross.

These false guides convince a lot of people that what they’re saying is true! How many people attend Joel Osteen’s so-called church down in Houston? How many piled into Mellon Arena to hear him up here? Teaching people to find their own ways to eternal life and fulfillment is screamingly popular! It always has been!

Don’t be shaken by any of this, our brother Peter says. It doesn’t mean that Jesus Christ has failed. It doesn’t mean that His Church and all her true members will not reach the heavenly mansions Jesus has gone to prepare for us.

It does mean that we should be on our guard. Against false teachers who preach any way to our Father in heaven other than through, by, and for Jesus Christ crucified and risen again. Against our own sinful inclination to find our own way and be our own guide. On our guard against hankering for something more exciting or "deep" or "spiritual" than the humble Son of Man who walked the roads of occupied Israel two thousand years ago and hung shamefully on a cross so we could have triumph and joy forever.

Especially, we must be on our guard against heading for the wrong destination. Did I seem to agree that our ultimate goal in human life is fulfillment on this earth and life and happiness with God hereafter? Forgive me. I was talking like the fallen human being that I am.

Brothers and sisters, our ultimate goal and purpose in life is not our own happiness and fulfillment. Not in this life, not in the life to come. Our ultimate goal and purpose in life is to sanctify the name of God. It is to glorify Him according to His infinite merit and give Him the honor, praise, and worship He deserves.

When we trust in Jesus as the way, the truth, and the life, we will be heading towards that ultimate goal. His whole life on this earth He lived to the praise and glory of God the Father. For when we trust in Jesus we participate and join in everything He said and did, in everything He accomplished and all that He is. To live in, through, and for Christ makes us able to glorify God as Jesus does. To walk in Jesus Christ is to have His Father-exalting power working in all we do in Jesus’ name.

But what about our own happiness and fulfillment? Oh, let not our hearts be troubled! What is blessing and fulfillment except to receive the salvation of God and give Him praise forever? What is rest and peace but to let go of our pride and over-confidence and desperate compulsion to work, work, work, and let Jesus work in us instead? Giving thankful obedience to our Father in heaven, just as Jesus always does, that brings us the eternal pleasure God created us to enjoy!

Our loving heavenly Father does not leave us blind in the fog of this life, guessing which way to go. No, He gives us Jesus Christ, crucified and risen. Your Savior says to you, "This is the way; walk in it." The way is Himself, He Himself is the only truthful guide, and He Himself is the goal of eternal life and fulfillment He leads us to, in the communion of the Holy Spirit, to the glory of God the Father. Amen.