Truth - John 8:31-36 - Reformation

 

John 8:31-36 NIV

³¹ To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. ³² Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

³³ They answered him, “We are Abraham’s descendants and have never been slaves of anyone. How can you say that we shall be set free?”

³⁴ Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. ³⁵ Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. ³⁶ So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.

Truth

Does Truth shake belief?

What is real?

What is false?

Is salvation given in relationship with Abraham, or only available through Jesus?

Just in a few short verses, and a question from Jews that believed in Jesus, many more questions arise, AND, Jesus teaches His followers Truth.

And here in these few words, I find, that when it is God that opens my eyes; He finds me! Sounds a little reversed doesn’t it. You would think that when God opens your eyes, you would see God and find Him. But, no! When God opens your eyes, sure, you see, but what you see, is that He found you.

Likewise, the believing Jews, of this passage, weren’t concerned that they needed freedom. As Abraham’s relatives they assumed they were free. Yet, when Jesus opens their eyes to Truth, they discover that God has found them through Jesus, not that they found God through Abraham.

The Truth we see of God in Jesus, does not bind or enslave any people. The Truth Jesus shows us sets us free. Truth that frees us, comes from God in Jesus.

How’s that?

The sadness of it all, today and in the past, is when people enter God’s Kingdom, or even enter God’s church, and settle in, BUT, don’t grow, yet remain crude underdeveloped children, you have made the Kingdom about yourself and won’t grow.

And again, “How’s that?”

I think of it this way…

Life with Jesus and growing as His disciple is like a hike in the Smoky Mountains. You travel from one peak to the next. You walk through unending peaks and valleys of growth, grace, understanding, and life lessons, following Jesus, IN, His Truth. You travel through life in the Church, and in the Kingdom of God, on a journey that sets you free, with Jesus, of one glorious view after another.

As we see, in this passage, Jesus moves to the outside.

And again, “How’s that?”

The believing Jews had an interpretation of family and loyalty to Abraham, their father in family. Yet, to show the believing Jews, AND us, that the REAL Truth exists in Jesus, not in a man, not even in a good man. Truth is God in Jesus, alone. Sure, Abraham was a good faithful man, a wonderful leader, yet still a sinner and a man, Abraham was not God. And Jesus was both man and God.

But you may say, just as the believing Jews said, “I am not a slave!”

Yes, you are! Open your eyes also to your sin with eyes wide open. See your sins of lust, power prestige, control, and all of the various idols you have formed in your life that you have made or trusted in, that replace God.

Yep! You ARE a slave!

Everyone who sins are a slave to sin, stuck in their own sinful messes.

All of us, are stuck in the stench of our own sins. Yes, we are humiliated and carried away by our sin. Just witness so many of the Old Testament patriarchs, including Abraham. Delve into the lives of people past and present and you will smell the stench of sin. Then, open your nostrils to your own life and smell that stench! Don’t deny it and try to pretend, all is okay, it was just what I couldn’t help myself to avoid!

And then, once you smell that sin, you can’t help yourself but to hate it and to resist it!

But… You can’t free yourself like you want to. That smell just hangs on and you go back to it!

Yet…

There’s another side of your sin.

If… Jesus frees you… You ARE free!

Hear and see the words of Paul to the Corinthians…

2 Corinthians 3:17 NIV

¹⁷ Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.

Jesus is the Son of God. Jesus alone, both God and man, makes you free from the power and death of sin.

Yes! Jesus takes us stinky, sinful, children and fashions us, reforms us, peak and valley by peak and valley, that we may stand free from the power and death of sin to LOOK God in the eyes and fall into the arms of Jesus, God in Jesus, makes you free from the power of sin and death. AND, if we stay in God’s Word, following and “Pointing to Jesus,” Jesus’ Truth will make us free.

You see, the slave does not continue in the House forever.

What House?

God’s House. Huh?

Why am I, as a sinner in God’s House, God’s Church, God’s Kingdom?

Well, I’m a descendant of sin. In God’s House, in God’s Church, in God’s Kingdom, I can’t rely on MY self, MY faith, even MY belief.

NO!

Rather, I am in God’s House, Church, Kingdom, to be freed from MY sin in the Truth that ONLY Jesus can set me free, from MY sin and deserved death, TO, live in God’s House, Church, and Kingdom forever.

Now that’s an amazing lifetime of Reformation, for me and you… today… tomorrow… and forever.

So, as a Lutheran layman, sure, I celebrate Reformation Sunday, but in my own personal reformation, I hear an eternal Gospel message, that causes me to still myself, and open my eyes to know God, the Great I AM, who finds me in my sin, to save me, to give me faith, to follow Jesus and to “Point to Jesus.”  Not by anything that I could do or ever do with works of my own, but by what God has already done, since the beginning of time through Jesus.

Thanks be to God.

How could I NOT leave you with this YouTube music video of Martin Luther’s

A Mighty Fortress… Enjoy

A Mighty Fortress IS Our God!

 

Give It Up - Mark 10:23-31

 

Mark 10:23-31 NIV

²³ Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God!”

²⁴ The disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus said again, “Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! ²⁵ It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.”

²⁶ The disciples were even more amazed, and said to each other, “Who then can be saved?”

²⁷ Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God.”

²⁸ Then Peter spoke up, “We have left everything to follow you!”

²⁹ “Truly I tell you,” Jesus replied, “no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel ³⁰ will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age: homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields—along with persecutions—and in the age to come eternal life. ³¹ But many who are first will be last, and the last first.”

Give It Up

Genesis 18:14 NIV

 

¹⁴ Is anything too hard for the Lord? I will return to you at the appointed time next year, and Sarah will have a son.”

 

The LORD speaking to Abraham, in the words recorded above. Words that echo through time and space. Words that teach, and words that speak Truth. “Is anything too hard for the LORD?”

 

Think of these words of God and reflect on the passage of this reflection, the impossible notion of a camel passing through the eye of a needle. With God, even this is possible. “Is anything too hard for the LORD?”

 

The riches and power of this world, can put man in a dream. Riches and power and prestige can leave man with a false sense of well-being. Prestige leaves man with the false sense that man alone is important by man’s own efforts.

 

In this false dream of prestige and wealth, man’s center moves from personality to a false sense of personal power. Well, that’s all a dream.

 

Jesus teaches us that entry into the Kingdom of God is NOT a human achievement.

 

These words of Jesus can be hard to take. Jesus turns the prosperity of God favoring the self-righteous person, away from yourself, TO righteousness only in God and by God. Righteous and prosperity do not come from yourself. You just can’t pull yourself up by your own bootstraps and escape to a place of righteousness and power and riches on your own. You may think you’ve made it out of your own environment into something else because of what you have done, but you really have only been dreaming all along.

 

Why can’t man save himself by his own works? Man doesn’t want to “Give It Up”!

 

And here Jesus displays a serious sense of humor! Think of a camel passing through the eye of a needle. What a ridiculous thought. And Jesus entertains us with this thought. And, I don’t think He’s speaking about a loaded down camel on it’s knees, unable to pass through a gate called Needle. I take this to be a ridiculous, funny, idea when Jesus has a serious sense of humor about a serious message.

 

The message? Entrance into the Kingdom of God is impossible by man’s own efforts. Entrance into the Kingdom of God is only a gift FROM God.

 

Remember the Old Testament reading from earlier in this reflection…

 

Genesis 18:14 NIV

 

¹⁴ Is anything too hard for the Lord? I will return to you at the appointed time next year, and Sarah will have a son.”

 

 

 

 

And also, as Jeremiah prays to the LORD in vs 17 and the LORD’s answer in vs 27…

 

Jeremiah 32:17, 27 NIV

 

¹⁷ “Ah, Sovereign Lord, you have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and outstretched arm. Nothing is too hard for you.

²⁷ “I am the Lord, the God of all mankind. Is anything too hard for me?

And then in the New Testament, as the angel of God speaks to Mary about her pregnancy…

Luke 1:37 NIV

³⁷ For no word from God will ever fail.”

So, the question arises…

Who can be saved?

Well… No One! Yet… Every One!

Huh? Now what?

Well, no one can be saved without God’s grace and love. Salvation is a gift from God. It’s only through this Gift that man can be saved. You see, God has His own perspective and His own way of giving and His own way of sharing His grace.

Through the works of man, salvation is impossible. Salvation is THE GIFT of God which nothing from myself can purchase, not my works, not my prestige, not my power, not even my own personal faith can purchase my salvation.

Listen carefully to these words from the letter to the Hebrews…

Hebrews 4:1-8 NIV

4 Therefore, since the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us be careful that none of you be found to have fallen short of it. ² For we also have had the good news proclaimed to us, just as they (the Israelites/Hebrews) did; but the message they heard was of no value to them, because they did not share the faith of those who obeyed. ³ Now we who have believed enter that rest, just as God has said,

“So I declared on oath in my anger,
    ‘They shall never enter my rest.’”

And yet his works have been finished since the creation of the world. ⁴ For somewhere he has spoken about the seventh day in these words: “On the seventh day God rested from all his works.” ⁵ And again in the passage above he says, “They shall never enter my rest.”

⁶ Therefore since it still remains for some to enter that rest, and since those who formerly had the good news proclaimed to them did not go in because of their disobedience, ⁷ God again set a certain day, calling it “Today.” This he did when a long time later he spoke through David, as in the passage already quoted:

“Today, if you hear his voice,
    do not harden your hearts.”

⁸ For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken later about another day.

Did you hear it like I did? Through MY work, salvation is impossible! Salvation is THE Gift of God which nothing from myself can purchase. It’s so subtle in these words of the Letter to the Hebrews. But it’s a BIG WOW!

So, when God rested on the first Sabbath, He rested from ALL His works. Does this mean that in Jesus’, “It is finished!” comes to us, God created this from the get-go?  I think so. It seems to me, that when God rested on the first Sabbath as mentioned in Genesis; God also rested in the plan of salvation through Him in Jesus. That’s a deeply profound thought! This thinking drives home the love of God through Christ Jesus and the action of the Holy Spirit in the lives of all God’s Children throughout all time. God IS God and we are His creation that he loves completely and thoroughly enough to grant us the grace of salvation, before, we even knew we needed to be saved!

And because of this, how could we not, as Jesus’ disciples, give up everything here, for a new forever family.

Remember the “Give Up List?”

²⁹ “Truly I tell you,” Jesus replied, “no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel ³⁰ will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age: homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields—along with persecutions—and in the age to come eternal life. 

Vs 29 … Give up

Vs 30 … Receive in eternal life

Don’t be trapped into “Prosperity Gospel” thinking. The “Give up” list is not easy. The “Prosperity” comes not from your action of giving up. The “Prosperity” comes in the Gift of God. Notice how I capitalized Gift? That Gift is Jesus who has come and will come again. And notice also, what we receive. Sure, we receive a new family of disciples, but in this life, we also receive the “along with persecutions” part as well.

So, just because you do “Give It Up,” doesn’t mean that you deserve anything. Remember, it’s not your actions that save you. It is the gift of God. We “Give It Up,” due to, and in thanks for, that Sabbath rest that God prepared for us at creation, as His created, as a Gift from God. That’s some really deep love!

Our reward? Our response to God?

Our reward and response is that God makes us into something NEW. We receive a something Larger, and something Expanding to Infinity and Greater … WITH our new family, the Friends of Jesus. This IS the REAL stuff. This IS the Real Church. This IS the catholic Church, the universal Church, the ONLY Church.

And in THIS Church, we have fellowship here and now and forever with God and our NEW family, all planned out from the beginning of time.

Today’s wealth and power and prestige? It all comes from God to begin with, SO, “Give It Up.” Give it to your neighbor in the love of God. Instead… treasure God’s Word in your heart, the very center of your being… today… tomorrow… and forever.

Thanks be to God!

I leave you with this YouTube Music video --- “It’s a fun listen”

Dance

Planetshakers - Dance - (with lyrics) (2014)

What Pill Has Jesus Prescribed for You? - Mark 10:17-22

 

Mark 10:17-22 NIV

¹⁷ As Jesus started on his way, a man ran up to him and fell on his knees before him. “Good teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”

¹⁸ “Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered. “No one is good—except God alone. ¹⁹ You know the commandments: ‘You shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not give false testimony, you shall not defraud, honor your father and mother.’”

²⁰ “Teacher,” he declared, “all these I have kept since I was a boy.”

²¹ Jesus looked at him and loved him. “One thing you lack,” he said. “Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”

²² At this the man’s face fell. He went away sad, because he had great wealth.

What Pill Has Jesus Prescribed for You?

Here we have a rich, possibly young ruler, that seeks a concrete solution to entry into the Kingdom of Heaven that he can obtain by his own works. But we learn from Jesus, that anything that takes the place of God, must go.

Salvation CAN’T be had by DOING one or many things. Eternal life is not given by doing. Eternal life comes from God and our relationship with God. And to inherit eternal life is to enter God’s Kingdom. We don’t inherit by what we do, we inherit by whose we are. And the whose we are is something given to us by God and God alone.

Our life with God is not a list of acts we DO. Our life with God is not brought about by our list of good things or bad things that we DO.

In these few verses, we hear a message. Jesus teaches us to lose our life for Him and have the Gospel or God Himself save us.

Hear and see the words of Jesus in Mark…

Mark 8:35 NIV

³⁵ For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it.

We inherit eternal life by God lifting us up, out and away from ourselves.

Yet this man tries to butter up Jesus with flattery. Good Teacher, he says. Don’t let or think flattery or buttering up gets you anything. Flattery is an addictive drug you give and an addictive drug you receive. Be careful in the giving and be careful in the receiving. Flattery leads to many a fall in the giving and the receiving.

Jesus even questioned the words of the man when being called Good. Perhaps Jesus was trying to point the man to the knowledge that really good is God. Was Jesus trying to show the man that He was God? That’s something to think about. So, once again, be careful with flattery. Rather be truthful and caring in giving or receiving flattery. Only God is really good.

And don’t be confused or blend Christianity into “Being Good.” This confusion happens all the time. You see, Christian love to God and neighbor is not the LAW we DO. No, it is the LAW made complete in Jesus.

You can be a good guy, but that doesn’t make you a disciple.

In Jesus’ day, the rabbis believed that all 613 commandments were all important. But here, with this man; Jesus cites only the second table of the 10 Commandments, as we know them today. The second table of the 10 Commandments are the commandments that deal with “neighbor.”

It was taught, at that time, that man should, and could, keep all 613 commandments of the day.

But, this rich man, wanted something different to do to prove his own godliness. And here is where Jesus teaches this man and us as well. Man’s actions are unreliable in producing perfect good in God’s sight.

We need to realize that it’s not about my works, your works, or our works, that make us good in God’s sight. No, it’s by faith. Hear and see the words of Paul in Galatians…

Galatians 3:24 NIV

²⁴ So the law was our guardian until Christ came that we might be justified by faith.

Jesus sees people as what they were AND what they could be.

And here in this passage, regarding the rich man, Jesus was prescribing a unique pill to this man for his particular situation. For this man, wealth was holding him back from discipleship and eternal life with God. Perhaps and very likely, Jesus has a unique pill prescribed for your life as well.

It’s a disciple that goes beyond personal good. Rather than chasing riches, power, prestige, honor, glory, or whatever idol we make for ourselves, a disciple is instructed here, by Jesus, to let it go to the other. By loyalty to Jesus, and in absorption in Jesus, the disciple of Jesus lets go of self. A true disciple is devoted to self-sacrifice to God and neighbor for the journey of life.

As we follow Jesus we witness, how the cross came at a great cost. Don’t deny the cost that the cross caused Jesus. As Jesus lost himself for us on that cross, Jesus lost his “man” but not the Gospel.

How many new disciples, excited by the Gospel message of new life, run up to Jesus, but, when they learn the cost, turn away? The cost of the cross is real.  The grace of God came at a great price. See it and don’t deny that grace is not cheap. Yes, grace may be free, but that definitely does not make it cheap. Jesus paid the price for grace. Understand this.

If we be disciples, we can look to Jesus and see, as witnessed in Hebrews 12…

Hebrews 12:2 NIV

² fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Jesus makes this price of grace very deep for Himself, very costly for Himself, yet the price of the disciple will be personally small as compared to what God has done for you and me and all people through Jesus, life, suffering, death, resurrection and ascension.

As is witnessed here, Jesus didn’t even promise eternal life even if the rich man sold his all. Jesus only promised the rich man treasure in heaven. To live, we must toss away what “hinders.” Remember Jesus telling his disciples to not “hinder” the little children from coming to Him?  That goes for children and disciples. Jesus calls us out of ourselves, Jesus calls us away from whatever we idolize, to toss all of that away, and follow Him.

Why would we follow Jesus?

Jesus offers friendship and a lifetime of development in relation to God and with God.

Why? Back to the children image… here is a reading from John 1…

John 1:12 NIV

¹² Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—

Jesus calls all of us, each and every day to adventure with Him, to follow Him, with the gifts God gives us through the Holy Spirit, through the raising of new life daily in our baptism. Remember? Can Billy come out to play? Jesus calls each and every one of us to come out into this world with Himself and all the saints past and present, to leave our idols behind and follow Him in action and love for God and all those Jesus leads us to each day of our life now and into eternity.

How are we to respond? Run! Run to Jesus and play! For Jesus has set in our presence something eternally valuable. Witness these “kingdom of heaven” words of Jesus from Matthew 13…

Matthew 13:45-46 NIV

⁴⁵ “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. ⁴⁶ When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it.

In this case, with this man, he was perfect in the “DON’Ts” But Jesus prescribed the DO pill which would bring the ZOOM of life for this rich man.

This is the only time in the Gospels when someone refused to follow Jesus on Jesus’ invitation.

And finally, my week’s study led me to this possibility. Maybe or maybe not?  But maybe also, in some way, for one of us who turns away from Jesus’ invitation to follow him at great personal cost of something we have idolized.

Some think that maybe this rich young man turned out to be Barnabas. Maybe? Just maybe. Barnabas was named Joseph, a rich Levite from Cyprus. He owned land and sold that land and brought the money to the feet of the Apostles. And… they gave Joseph and new name…. Barnabas.

If you have run from the call of discipleship because of something you have made an idol, in this life, perhaps it’s time to think it over. God’s grace and love and salvation are still present. Leave those idols behind and turn to freely received the costly grace of God in Christ Jesus.

Yes, seek the LORD and live. Lord, may we count our days and give us the wisdom to see your love and grace. May we all take care NOT to turn away from God… today… tomorrow… and forever.

Thanks be to God!

I leave you with this YouTube music video…

“Come to Jesus” – Chris Rice

Come to Jesus