Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Today is a day that signals the middle of our series on 1 John and also a celebration of a journey with several students who are graduating today. Today will be the LAST lunch until September, between services at the EMU Site. We will have ONLY ONE Worship Service at 10:15am starting next week at the EMU site. Today we recognize three students who are part of our Cross and Res family and are graduating and so we celebrate with them... Joshua Brudi (U of M) Joan Stauffer (EMU) and Joe Kosel (Cleary University) Congratulations!!
Our series on the BIG "SO What?" of Easter continues by looking at 1 John 3:16-24
16 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. 17 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? 18 Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth. 19 This then is how we know that we belong to the truth, and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence 20 whenever our hearts condemn us. For God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything.
21 Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God 22 and receive from him anything we ask, because we obey his commands and do what pleases him. 23 And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us. 24
Those who obey his commands live in him, and he in them. And this is
how we know that he lives in us: We know it by the Spirit he gave us.
Verse 18 and 19 really strike me as speaking to what we looked at last week when we spoke of LOVE and how we BELONG, BELIEVE and BECOME in our relationship UP, IN and OUT to God, the church family and others. St. John is letting the church know that we cannot love just with words or tongue but with actions and truth. This is what happens when we are being purified as belonging and believing children of God. St. John further states that it is by our actions we have confidence that we belong to the truth. The Gospel lesson today, from John 10, reminds us that Jesus is our Good Shepherd and that he has died so the that we can belong. St. John reminds us here in 3:16 that we respond to belonging by believing ("yada" in Hebrew "to know") that is more than just thoughts and words but ACTION. He reminds us that the Good Shepherd, Jesus Christ, took action by laying down his life, now we will copy his actions.
The BIG "SO WHAT" of Easter is the TRUTH that we love because he first loved us, we sacrifice because he sacrificed. My desire today is that people have great confidence before GOD and live this truth by acting as Children of God. We tend to put so much emphasis on justification that we only give half of the truth because it is obvious that sanctification (to be made holy) is a huge part of this truth. SO WHAT does belonging to the truth do for us? It provides a way for us to act, become who we are. We tend towards comfort when I think the Lord wants us to move towards commitment.
I will never forget being told as a young person "remember who you are." I would have much rather had a detailed list of things I should not do rather than having to think about HOW what I did affected my parents and family. If it is just rules we can make excuses but if it reputation it is a huge responsibility.
Today we think about what it means to know the truth that sets us free! Today we think about the truth of "Christ has Risen! He has risen INDEED! Hallelujah!!" and understand how knowing this gives us confidence and by the Spirit he gave us we can show LOVE by ACTIONS and TRUTH in a world that sees everything as relative. This is priceless!
I watched the movie "The IRON LADY" and appreciated Margaret Thatcher's saying, that is a quote from Gandhi: “Your beliefs become your thoughts,
Your thoughts become your words,
Your words become your actions,
Your actions become your habits,
Your habits become your values,
Your values become your destiny.”
―
Mahatma Gandhi
This was a good reminder that what we do in Hebrew understanding cannot be separated from what we think. It is the western, Greek mindset that we separate these. May we understand that we are to hear Jesus, St. John, St. Paul and so many who teach us by the Holy Spirit to know the truth and the truth will set us free! St. John 8: 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.” Jesus wants us to have a relationship with the truth, to intimately know the truth and be set free so that our actions, our behavior will become our habits and will become our values and will become our destiny! We will be people of truth that the world so desperately needs.
Love in Christ, our risen Lord and Savior,
Pastor Bryan
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