Listening to the Word

Psalms 117,119:81-176; 2 John; 3 John   “Praise the Lord, all you nations; extol him, all you peoples. For great is his love toward us, and the faithfulness of the Lord endures forever. Praise the Lord.” Psalm 117 God’s faithfulness and love extend, not just to his covenant people, but also to all nations. We have life and breathe because God willed it. We experience the provision of harvest and the faithfulness of the seasons because our Creator upholds creation with his Word. If we know God personally, we, too, will speak to nations calling them to worship God. We, too, will testify to God’s love and faithfulness in our lives as a better way to live. We, too, will call nations and our nation to turn away from the idols of nationalism, pride, materialism, and false gods, toward the living God. The greatest witness of our lives is our testimony of daily worship and praise to God for who he is and what he has done. When our words and life are congruent in this daily worship, the wor...

1 John 1-5   “…But we know that when he appears we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as he is pure…No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God’s seed remains in him; he cannot go on sinning, because he has been born of God.” 1 John 3:2, 3, 9 The apostle John points to our hope in Christ’s return and our eternity with him as a purifying influence in our lives. Like a bride for her bridegroom, we are preparing for our wedding day. We are also being transformed from the inside out because the Spirit of God indwells us. To be “born of God,” or “born again,” is to experience our human spirit united with the Holy Spirit so that Christ’s life flows through us. The Holy Spirit changes our desires, our goals in life, our values, and how we view temptation and sin. We will not continue in repetitive sin-habits because the indwelling Holy Spirit will convict us and equip us to resist sin.   Are we gr...

John 19-21 “Then Pilate took Jesus and had him flogged. The soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on his head. They clothed him in a purple robe and went up to him again and again, saying, ‘Hail, king of the Jews!’ And they struck him in the face.” John 19:1-3 The Christ-child “wrapped in clothes and lying in a manger” (Luke 2:12), would be tortured, mocked, and killed thirty-three years later. At his death, the announcement that a Savior had been born who was “Christ the Lord” was echoed in mockery by the Romans. “The punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.” (Isaiah 53:5)   What and who we celebrate at Christmas and remember at Easter has brought salvation to millions and transformed nations. The head of Christ was pierced and wounded for our sin. We now worship this resurrected Savior as the Head of the Church and Lord of our lives. As we picture this price of our salvation, our response must be worship and gratitude. Knowi...

John 15-18   “’…Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name – the name you gave me – so that they may be one as we are one.’…’I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.’” John 17:11, 22, 23 The prayer of Jesus is for the unity of his followers, around the world and in every age. Toward that end Jesus has given us his name and his glory. Satan opposes the unity of the church, so Jesus gave us his name to both resist Satan and to give us identity. We are “Christ-ones,” or “Christians.” When we live under the banner of Jesus Christ, rather than the banner of another leader (Menno, Luther, Calvin, etc.), we live into Christ’s prayer for our unity. Jesus also gave us his glory, or his very presence, to unite us as one. We grow in unity with Christ and other Christ-followers as we pursue our cen...

John 12-14 “’Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you are not just my own. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work.’ …’Because I live, you also will live. On that day you will realize that I am in the Father, and you are in me, and I am in you.’” John 14:10, 19, 20 The incarnation, which we celebrate as God himself coming as a child to show us the way to salvation, is now repeated every time someone invites Christ, through the Spirit, to live in them. Just as the Father indwelt Jesus and spoke and worked through him, so also the Lord Jesus now desires to indwell each of us and speak and work in us and through us. We refer to this reality as life in the Spirit. We who have given our lives to Christ experience Christ living through us by his Spirit. Will we stop this morning and offer our bodies again to the Lord as his temple? Will we quiet our souls and listen to his voice? It’s in receiving his love that we h...

John, 9-11     “’As long as it is day, we must do the work of him who sent me. Night is coming when no one can work. While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.’ Having said this, he spit on the ground, made some mud with the saliva, and put it on the man’s eyes. ‘Go,’ he told him, ‘wash in the Pool of Siloam’ (this word means Sent). So the man went and washed, and came home seeing.” John 9:4-7 What is the meaning of “day,” “night,” “darkness,” and “light” in this parable and miracle of Jesus? The “day” is the age of grace we are still living in where there is work to be done in the Father’s mission to reconcile all things to himself through Christ. This gospel of salvation through Christ points to Jesus as the light of the world. All of us were born spiritually blind, like the man Jesus healed. All of us require cleansing at the ‘Pool of Siloam’ for our sin. All of us are then sent to share with our community the good news that we can now see, and sight is possible ...