John 8:48-59 We
live in a world that tells us that it does not matter what we believe—so long
as we believe something. They say that what
we Christians really ought to be about as the people of God are: “deeds not creeds”. Parts of the church have bought into it. An old slogan for the World Council of
Churches is: “Doctrine Divides, Service
Unites.”
After the sermon we are going to confess our Christian faith in the
words of the Athanasian Creed. With
doctrinal precision we will confess our faith in the Triune God as the one true
God- and we will confess our faith in Jesus Christ as the God/Man Savior of the
world- and we will confess that unless this faith is kept whole and undefiled
one cannot be saved.
Can there be a greater divide between those who call for “deeds not
creeds” and those Christians who confess their faith this way? And so who is right? Which of these two parties can claim Jesus
Christ as Lord and Savior? Who is closer
to the Spirit of Christ?
In our Gospel lesson we will see that Jesus was a staunch contender
for the Faith because it is ONLY those who know the truth about God and who can
be saved. The Bible says that:
The Jews answered Jesus, “Are we not right
in saying that you are a Samaritan and have a demon?”
The events of our text take place in
the midst of a lengthy conversation—really a confrontation—that Jesus is having
with the Pharisees about his identity and their claims to know the truth about
God. During this confrontation…
Jesus
proclaimed himself to be the light of the world. He said that those who do not believe in him
will die in their sins and the only way to be free is to be set free by the
Son. He said that he is the one who
speaks for the Father and that anyone who claims God as their Father must love
the Son and that those who do not love the Son do not know God and are not of
God.
This is why the church contends for
the faith that is confessed in the creeds—because Jesus contended for that
faith—vigorously and without compromise!
The
only hope that man has for salvation is found in knowing the truth about God and
the truth about Jesus. That is not what
we believe because we are rigid and hard-headed—it is what we believe because
that is what Jesus believed- and taught- and showed-- in his life.
The
response of the world to our contending for the faith is exactly the same as it
was in Jesus’ day: opposition,
name-calling, and the questioning of motives.
The
Pharisees said that Jesus was a Samaritan (the worst insult they could think
of) and that he was speaking for the devil.
The world around us (and sadly even parts of the visible church) claim
that Christians like us who contend for the faith expressed in the creeds are
rigid, unloving, and judgmental when we say that what is actually believed and confessed--matters.
And
so why don’t we just go along to get along?
Why do we let ourselves be criticized and castigated by the world around
us when we refuse to compromise on our confession of faith? It’s because what is confessed by the church-- is a matter of life and
death for the world.
Jesus answered, “I do not have a demon, but I honor my
Father, and you dishonor me. Yet I do not seek my own glory;
there is One who seeks it, and he is the judge. Truly, truly, I
say to you, if anyone keeps my word, he will never see death.”
This is what’s at stake when it
comes to our confession—life and death—because the words of Jesus tell us the
truth about God and the truth about salvation and to know and believe what
Jesus says is to have eternal life.
Now, because it’s going to come up in just a few moments, I will point
out that Jesus is obviously not talking about physical death—Jesus knew that
people died, he encountered death throughout his ministry—he knew that he would
die—it’s why he came. But what Jesus is
talking about is eternal death—separation from God for eternity.
This is what death really is—to be separated from God forever—and no
one who puts their faith and trust in the promises of Jesus ever has to fear
death for we will never be apart from God:
not in the dark times of life—not when we draw our last earthly
breath—not in eternity. That is what
Jesus promises-- and we hold fast to his words.
That is where our confidence and life is found—in the words of
Jesus—and that is why contending for the faith is so important—because it is
the ONLY place where life is found!
Just a few days before these events many of those who had followed
Jesus were turning away and he asked his disciples: Will you leave me too? And Peter answered for all of them: Lord,
to whom shall we go? You have the words of
eternal life!
Jesus was sent by his heavenly Father to save the world. The words he spoke and the works that he did
where not his own—but what he was sent into the world to do—and to reject his
words and to reject his saving works is finally to reject God because Jesus is
God’s Son.
The Jews said to Jesus, “Now we know that
you have a demon! Abraham died, as did the prophets, yet you say, ‘If anyone keeps my word, he
will never taste death.’ Are you greater than our father Abraham, who died? And
the prophets died! Who do you make yourself out to be?”
This the question that all of us must answer: Who is Jesus?
Is he a created being like the Jehovah’s Witnesses tell us? Is he a great prophet as the Muslims want us
to believe? Is he a wise teacher and
moral example as so many in our world believe him to be?
Everyone has an opinion about Jesus—who he is and what he has
done. But it is eternally important to our
salvation that we do not have merely a personal
opinion: but that we confess the objective truth about the person and
work of Jesus and then contend for that faith.
We have a Trinity Sunday- and we have the creeds of the church-
because over time this question has been asked and answered in ways that deny
the real divinity and humanity of Jesus.
Far, far from abandoning the creeds of the church and the Faith that
is confessed in those creeds it is imperative that the church of Jesus Christ
be a confessing church which is willing to contend for the truth that Jesus is
the Son of God and the only way to have a life with the Father.
Jesus answered, “If I glorify myself, my glory is nothing.
It is my Father who glorifies me, of whom you say, ‘He is our God.’ But
you have not known him. I know him. If I were to say that I do not know him, I
would be a liar like you, but I do know him and I keep his word.
The one thing that our religiously pluralistic culture cannot
tolerate is for Christians to make absolute truth claims not only for
themselves but for everyone else in the world besides. To say with the apostles that “salvation is found in no one but Jesus for
there is no other name given to men by which they can be saved” is considered
to be intolerable hate speech.
And so it has become fashionable for Christians who do not want to
offend to adopt the language of the culture and say, “Well, this is what’s true
for me” as if the person they are speaking to could also have some truth that
stands opposed to what they believe and confess. Even pastors who ought to know better go on
CNN and cannot bring themselves to say that Jesus is the Son of God and the way
of salvation and those who do not know him are lost eternally.
Jesus NEVER suffered from that kind of spiritual cowardice because he
knew that eternal souls were at the risk of being lost forever. Jesus NEVER hesitated to tell the truth about
the spiritual condition of those around him because he knew that unless they came
to grips with the fact that they were lost without him-- they would be lost
forever.
There are countless people around us who do not share our faith in
Jesus and yet claim to know God and love God and have a life with God. Just like the Pharisees, they say: He is
our God. Is this possible? Jesus says:
No! The judgment of JESUS is that
they are liars and do not know God BECAUSE they will not glorify the Son he has
sent who has always been the only way
to the Father.
Jesus said: Your father Abraham rejoiced that he
would see my day. He saw it and was glad.” It’s not as if Jesus were telling the Pharisees something new
about the way to have a life with God.
All the way back in the Garden of Eden God promised that he would send a
Savior to crush Satan. He promised Abraham
that through his offspring all the world would be blessed and when he held
little Isaac in his arms he knew that the LORD was the God of kept promises and
that he could be trusted for salvation.
That
is the content of saving faith: the
promises of God fulfilled in the person and work of Jesus Christ and there is
no other way to salvation. For God so loved the world that he gave his
only Son, that whoever believes in HIM should not perish but have eternal life.
These
words of John 3:16 are the content of the creeds: This is the God who loves the world. This is the Son is who has saved the
world. When we confess our faith in the
words of the creeds, we simply say what Jesus has said about himself and about
God: that he is the Son of God and that
to know him is to know the Father.
So the Jews said to him, “You are not yet
fifty years old, and have you seen Abraham?” Jesus said to
them, “Truly,
truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.” So they picked up stones
to throw at him, but Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple.
You will note that Jesus did not say: Before Abraham was—I was—as if Jesus had a
beginning before Abraham (as remarkable as that would be!). No! He
says: Before Abraham was: I am.
Just exactly what God said of himself when Moses asked about his
identity at the burning bush is what Jesus says of himself right here: I am!
I simply exist without beginning and end because I am God. The Pharisees understood Jesus’claim and they
tried to stone him.
That scene takes us back to the beginning of the sermon and the
opposition of the world to the confession of the church. Contending for the Faith takes courage to
face the opposition of the world. It
takes clarity about what we believe. And
it takes the conviction that what we confess in the creeds about who God is and
what Jesus has done is true: true for us
and true for the world. Courage. Clarity.
And conviction. That is what it
means to contend for the faith. May God
grant it for Jesus’ sake! Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment