Tag: preaching

Real Triumph

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(1 John 5:1-6)

“Jesus Crushed” might have been what the headlines would have read on Good Friday as the story started to spread. To those present, whose eyes had watched the most unjust death sentence ever carried out in all of history, it would have felt like an appropriate description. To those whose ears were filled with his final agonizing cries as God’s Son died, “Jesus Crushed” would have felt like an appropriate breaking news headline for what they witnessed firsthand. It certainly appeared that way.

But Easter Sunday exposed the headline as fake news – or entirely incomplete, anyway. The headline had to be extended to accurately reflect the truth: “Jesus Crushed… the Serpent’s Head!”

Jesus wasn’t defeated on Good Friday; rather, he was delivering the death blow to his enemy. Jesus was unraveling all of Satan’s plans to leave mankind culpable and condemned by sin. Jesus hadn’t been overcome by the plans his enemy had carried out. Instead, by those very plans he had overcome the enemy and won the ultimate victory, guaranteeing forgiveness and eternal salvation. No, Jesus hadn’t been crushed; he had carried out the crushing blow. He had overcome. 

That understanding provides some context to John’s words in our verses. “Everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world? Only the one who believes that Jesus is theSon of God” (v.4-5). The victory, the triumph is real, and it belongs to those who belong to Jesus by faith.

The certainty of our connection to Christ and his victory on our behalf is one of the beautiful blessings of baptism, spelled out for us in Romans 3, where Paul wrote, “Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life” (Romans 6:3-4). Just as surely as he died and rose, so in baptism we have died and risen with him. He has overcome; so, therefore, have we!

But what are we talking about? Really, what does it mean for us as believers to have the assurance of this victory, this triumph? What does it mean that we who are born of God “overcome the world?”

Admittedly, it does sound like a pretty pumped up pep talk to know that we’ve overcome the world, but that elation will fade pretty quickly if it doesn’t translate into understanding for us. Otherwise, it would be like flipping through channels to stumble upon some infomercial that grabs our attention because of the guy’s energy level and excitement. While we pause because we are drawn to that energy and excitement, if after a few moments we still can’t figure out what product he’s peddling, then we’ll just resume flipping through the channels. So for this confidence that we “overcome the world” to resonate with us, we really have to understand what John is telling us. 

Let’s not overthink it. Take that word “overcome” and flip it around. We know what it’s like to be overcome by something. Someone trying to explain their out-of-character behavior might chalk it up to being overcome with emotion. Parents watch their child’s team play a great game, only to see the other team overcome them in the end and steal the victory. 

Perhaps another common word speaks to us a little more clearly: overwhelmed. When we talk about being burdened or overcome we are saying that we’re overwhelmed. It’s too much. We have too much on our plate. We can’t keep our head above water. We aren’t getting done everything that needs to get done, or at least aren’t getting it done as well as it needs to get done. We’re failing. We’re suffocating. We’re overwhelmed and overcome. Sometimes it may even just be a feeling or emotion we’re experiencing and aren’t sure why. One way or another, we’ve all experienced that overwhelm to some degree! So how do we get the upper hand when we’re feeling overwhelmed, overcome? We tell ourselves the truth.

A pastor friend shared an insightful encouragement that he had recently come across that he found helpful to pass on to others: “Talk to yourself more than you listen to yourself.”

Think about it. Nobody talks to you on any given day more than you talk to yourself. The conversations, the dialogue – it’s going on non-stop in your head. It’s the thoughts you have about another person who enters the room. It’s the way you react when you read something online. It’s the memory that is narrated in your head when a nostalgic aroma arises.

Every experience we have throughout the day involves some back and forth inside our minds. That’s fine – so long as we realize we’re in control of what we tell ourselves. We determine the narrative. And we can tell ourselves either the lies that the devil would have us repeat or we can tell ourselves the truth that God reveals to us in his Word.  

So hear again the truth that God reveals to us in his Word for any who for any reason whatsoever are feeling overwhelmed and overcome in this world: “Everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world? Only the one who believes that Jesus is theSon of God” (v.4-5). Do you believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God? Then the world doesn’t overcome you; rather, you overcome the world. In and through Jesus, we have victory. We will triumph. 

Let’s also understand what this does not mean. It isn’t a guarantee that he’ll get the girl or that she’ll get the guy. This is not a blank-check promise that you’ll land the job of your dreams or get accepted into your first choice for college. This is not the promise of some divine forcefield that will shield you from every financial woe or sickness. 

No, it’s actually better than all of that. John’s promise that we overcome is directly connected to some of the most powerful, peace-possessing words our Savior ever spoke. “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world” (John 16:33).

I absolutely love these words of Jesus! He tells us like it is. He doesn’t pretend to hide the ugliness of our broken world with some flowery greeting-card language, but gives it to us straight. Yes, ours is a dysfunctional and distraught world… and Jesus has overcome it. This world’s troubles are not permanent. The best is yet to come, and it is ours because he has overcome. Take heart! Have peace!

Occasionally at a sporting event, you may hear the players or fans cheering a familiar chant at some point in the game. They’ll repeat the words, “We believe that we will win. We believe that we will win.” Each refrain gets louder and more intense, as the players do their best to rally and win. Such a chant can inject the confidence needed to pull out the victory. 

As Christians we can chant something similar. But we need to change it slightly because we already know the outcome. “We believe that we have won! We believe that we have won!”

We have. We know where we’re going. We know the worst of this world is temporary. We know we overcome. We know it. How can we be so sure?

John provides proof to eliminate any doubts that may exist. He points to the evidence in verse six. “This is the one who came by water and blood—Jesus Christ. He did not come by water only, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth.” Even though there are a number of ways these words could be interpreted, any way we take them, John’s purpose is the same – he’s pointing to proof that Jesus was and is who he claimed to be. The Messiah. Our Savior. Our Redeemer. 

One interpretation takes John’s words to refer to his own eyewitness testimony of Jesus’ crucifixion. To make sure Jesus was dead, when his side was pierced, John’s Gospel points out that not just blood, but blood AND water flowed from the wound. Jesus had really died.

A second interpretation takes the water to be a reference to the start of Jesus’ public ministry at his baptism and the blood to refer to the completion of his ministry by his sacrifice on the cross.

A third interpretation takes the water, blood, and Spirit to picture the means of grace. The water refers to baptism and the blood to Holy Communion. Together with the powerful promises of the Word, the Holy Spirit uses those means to testify and proclaim the truth of the gospel, by which he creates and strengthens faith.

Whichever interpretation one takes, they all serve the same purpose of the author here: to provide proof that we can know beyond mere speculation or feelings or emotions that because of Jesus’ completed work as our Savior, we overcome. We have the assurance of real triumph. Live in that triumph as you remember your baptism. Celebrate that triumph through the Supper. 

In light of our triumph, our victory, consider some of the differences between the behavior of the losing side versus the winning side. Losers are dejected. Losers make excuses. Losers blame the refs. Losers give up. Losers complain about it not being fair.

We aren’t losers. In Christ we are triumphant. We win because he wins. Winners are joy-filled. Winners celebrate each other. Winners keep working hard. Winners give credit where it’s due. Winners love God by carrying out his commands. Live like it! Love others like it. That’s how we celebrate that Jesus crushed the serpent’s head and has overcome. That’s how we celebrate real triumph!

Real Love

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(1 John 4:7-11, 19-21)

Who is it for you? An organization or a cause? A political candidate or political party? When you know the topic is love, you already know there isn’t going to be some profound revelation or new discovery regarding what the Bible has to say about love. It’s simple. Love God. Love others. Why? Because God loves you. There’s no way around it, and that will be the same message about love that you will hear from the Bible as long as you keep on reading it, listening to it, and studying it.

But it would be quite naive of us to think that just because we know what the Bible tells us about loving others that we would somehow arrive at a point when we wouldn’t need to hear it again. By that line of reasoning, a parent should only have to tell a child to go to bed at bedtime once and it should never be an issue again, right? At most, none of us should ever get more than one speeding ticket, if that, because once the officer informs us that we’re breaking the law when we exceed the speed limit, it shouldn’t happen again once we have that information. If doing what we’re supposed to do was merely a matter of information, then life would be a piece of cake!

Ah, if only it were that simple. But loving others isn’t merely a matter of transferring information; it’s a matter of transformation. If we are to carry out the kind of love God calls us to, a pretty monumental change has to take place. Where? In us.

We actually do know how to love. That isn’t the problem. We’re actually really good at it naturally. The problem just happens to be where our love is directed. I love me. And you love you. And everything in our own little personal bubbles essentially revolves around that. So if I am instead going to redirect that love toward others, as God would have me do, well, that’s unnatural. So something has to change. Something supernatural.

That’s really the message we need to keep hearing, and John repeats it for us. “God is love. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another” (v.8-11). It isn’t likely new news to anyone reading this that God is love. We’ve all heard it before. We’ve seen it on wall art or displayed on the back of the car in front of us or any number or places. But for those three words to hit home, we have to personally apply them. That God who is love doesn’t just love everyone; he loves me.

Me who knows what it’s like to feel unappreciated and unloved… by my own parents. Or my children. By my supposedly close friend. By my own family. By my coworkers or classmates. By my teacher. By my coach. By my spouse. By my boss. We all have our own list, which may change for us in different seasons of life, but we all know too well, whether it’s reality or our perception, what it’s like to feel unloved. 

And these words from John remind us that that feeling is never actually reliable, because the “God-is-love” God is the God who loves me. And you. And always will.

What makes this love difficult for us to embrace and accept is that deep down inside, we know how undeserving we are of it. We have a pretty good of how many daily reasons we give for God not to love us – through our thoughts, works, and actions. Verse twenty hits just one of them, and there are so many more. John warned, “Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen” (v.20). I might think “hate” to be too strong a word to describe me, but John expands it to include any failure of loving our brother or sister, or anyone for that matter. As if that wasn’t bad enough, it makes us out to be liars to claim to love God while loathing someone else. 

And you’ll notice there are no disclaimers or allowances or exceptions. God doesn’t say we’re off the hook if it’s someone who is really hard to love. Or someone who posted something nasty online about you or someone you care about. Or someone who stole from you. Or even if it’s someone who has really hurt us or traumatized us or messed with our heads and hearts.

There are no love loopholes. We are called to embody Jesus’ perfect love to all people. And we don’t. And our guilty consciences tell us what we deserve when we don’t. 

The awareness of this guilt is evident to me as a pastor. One of the most common fears people share with me is wondering where they really stand before God because of a person or relationship they can’t bring themselves to love. Or, they agonize over how much of a struggle it is. So yes, our own consciences convict us of not loving others perfectly or completely.

And if we have somehow managed to fleece or foil our own conscience into thinking that we have no problem loving others, God’s Word makes clear what the consequence is for anything less than 100% complete and total love for others. Just one chapter earlier in this very letter John wrote, “Anyone who hates a brother or sister is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life residing in him” (1 John 3:15). There’s no way around it – we know what even our lukewarm love deserves!

Yet… still God loves us!

How can we know? That’s the part of John’s description we must never tire of hearing. “This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins” (v.10). God’s Son was not sent into this world only for those who love well, not for those whose love has never faltered, and not even for those who are pretty convinced their love for God meets his expectations. If those were the type of people God had sent his Son into the world for, he would have come up empty-handed. No such person has ever existed. No, Jesus came into this world to render the payment necessary for the pervasive lack of love. 

Jesus offered up himself as the atoning sacrifice for our sins, including but not limited to our lack of love. Jesus has restored our relationship with God that had been totaled by our sin and he has shown us what sacrificial love in action looks like. His love for others – for you and me and all people – was not deterred by selfishness or self-love. He loved – and loves – perfectly.

He loved you by never faltering in the face of temptation. He loved you by loving his enemies perfectly in your place. He loved you not just with words and speech about loving his neighbors, but by showing them in so often meeting their physical needs and healing their hurts. He loved you all the way to the cross and out of the empty tomb. The Resurrection reality is that in Jesus Christ we not only see what real love looks like; we also see that real love is ours. That real love is for us. 

So, we can now love others, too.

Why does it matter so much that we pour ourselves into loving others? So that others may come to know the source of that love. “Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God” (v.7).

Yes, God is love. You know that. I know that. Others may have heard the phrase, but they don’t know what we’ve just been talking about. They don’t know that kind of radical love. In his Gospel and all of his letters in the Bible, John more than any other writer stresses how important it is for us as Christians to love – so that the source of love can be made known. So that others, through our love, would come to know the One from whom it all emanates: God their Savior. 

Without knowing that kind of love, the world’s understanding and definition of love is really quite pitiful.  Somebody suggests a fun activity together and we’d love to. We love this place or that place to eat. We’re in love with this store or that style. We love your outfit. We love it when that happens. We love that book/movie/song/etc. We love so many things so much that we’ve diluted love altogether to essentially strip it of any real meaning. 

So let’s show a better love. A real love. Let’s love the erratic driver with a prayer for him. Let’s love the protestor who cares enough about a cause to do something instead of just spewing snarky words from behind a screen or behind closed doors. Let’s love the walker or hiker with the never-ending stories by taking the time just to listen to them on occasion. Let’s love the neighbor whose language and customs and culture are so different from ours. Let’s, even after a drama-filled, mentally and emotionally exhausting day ourselves, love our children with the gift of time together. Let’s love our spouse with more yeses and fewer excuses. Let’s love our coworker by letting them receive the praise for the project. Let’s love the addict by trying to better understand what his world is like. Let’s love by offering the ride even when it is utterly inconvenient. Let’s love by opening our home more often for meals with others. 

When we love in these ways and so many others, we take the world’s diluted love and saturate it, making it something special. When we love in these ways we demonstrate another kind of love that only finds its source in Jesus. And our prayer – and God’s intent – is that through our love others would eventually be channeled to the source of that excellent love that we find only in Christ. 

Then, like dominoes, Christ’s love begins to flow through their lives as well. Secured with the gifts of peace, joy, forgiveness, and the assurance of eternal life, they are free to love others, too. And the cycle continues, always seeing love draw others to Christ like a magnet, to show them a radical love that lasts into eternity. Not like the best kind of love the world could ever offer, but far better: real love. 

Real Assurance

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(1 John 3:18-24)

We are no strangers to pharmaceutical companies promoting the latest ground-breaking medication or treatment for everything under the sun in commercials filled with active people living their best lives filled with joyful smiles. Of course the commercials all end with the same disclaimer, listing every possible side-effect from those that are inconvenient up to and including some that may even be life-threatening. 

But perhaps what is more commonly overlooked is that oftentimes in the commercial, the intended results of the medication or treatment cannot make the reliable claim that it will work in all the people all of the time. Instead, the results are couched in language that indicates possibility without making promises. “Some participants experienced positive results.” “A certain percentage of those treated noticed a difference.” “Patients may respond well to the treatment.” Whatever the language, rarely is there a guarantee that something is effective all of the time. In fact, it isn’t just pharmaceutical companies; we’ve gotten used to products across the board the really do nothing more than offer the possibility of improvement in one way or another.

While that may be the new norm for a culture who is used to being marketed to nonstop, there’s one area that we cannot ever find peace in merely the possibility of or high percentages. We cannot rest easy unless nothing but a full guarantee is provided. Only REAL assurance will do. To what am I referring? Our status before God. 

John grabs our attention as those interested in this assurance with a phrase from our verses. He addresses how we can “set our hearts at rest in his presence” (v.19). That’s what we want! That’s what we’re after! The peace of mind of not having to worry if we should be stressed in his presence, but can be confident of rest in his presence. We don’t want guesses. Not wishful thinking. Not possibility. Just real assurance. And it’s found only in Christ.

Outside of Christianity, optimism and possibility are the best offers anyone will find. Like the pharmaceutical companies, the best other religions can offer is possibility if you’ve lived a good enough life or tried hard enough. Maybe a higher being or god will be satisfied enough. But only Christianity says that’s not good enough. You can be assured of being at peace with God. You can be confident that your soul has every reason to be at rest in his presence – because of Jesus Christ.

Now that we’re paying attention to John, we’re listening to what he says next to find out how our hearts can be at rest in his presence. He writes, “If our hearts condemn us” (v.20). Doesn’t that apply to us all? We all have or even right now are dealing with heart that condemns us.

And there are different reasons for that. If your heart condemns you, in many cases there is probably a reason why! You’ve probably done or thought or said something deserving of such condemnation! When we did something wrong, when we broke a rule, our conscience accuses us. We know we weren’t entirely truthful with our spouse, and so our heart condemns us. That’s what the conscience does.

But it’s not just always because we’ve done something wrong. Sometimes our hearts go over the top in tearing us down. They convict us with feelings of guilt. Feelings of shame. Feelings of inadequacy. Feelings of insecurity. They’re all there, sometimes justifiably; other times not. But while your heart doesn’t care why those feelings or emotions are there, it definitely will make sure that you’re aware of them. That’s what John meant by the phrase, “If our hearts condemn us” (v.20).

We show that we recognize when our hearts accuse and condemn us because we try to address it. I could try to pretend what I did wasn’t that bad – but my own heart won’t be fooled. I could try to rationalize my wrong to someone else, but I still know why I really did it. I could try to shift the blame entirely onto someone else, but it would still linger because that never entirely lets me off the hook. I can try to imagine that God doesn’t really exist or that there’s no such thing as sin or wrong doing, but there’s too much in the world that seems to indicate otherwise. If so many billions have been convinced that there is a God, can I really be so confident that they’re all wrong and I am in the very small minority who is right? No, there is nothing we can do to get to that place of having a heart that is free of self-condemnation. 

John had an answer for when our hearts condemn us, as he continued, “If our hearts condemn us we know that God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything” (v.20). God knows everything. Wait, God knows everything??? How is that a comfort for when my heart condemns me? You mean I cannot hide from God what I think I can hide from my parent, my teacher, my spouse, my friend, anything that God doesn’t already know about? How terrifying! How is that a comfort that God knows everything?

Because God knows something else that is even more important that all the sin that we could never hide from him. He knows the solution to that sin because he himself is the solution to that sin. It was John who quoted Jesus in his Gospel with saying that very thing! “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned…” (John 3:16-18). Whoever believes is not condemned. Believing in Jesus = no condemnation! I don’t know about you, but that’s the kind of confident assurance I want before God! Jesus didn’t come into this world to condemn me but to rescue me.  

That’s why John emphasized the need for faith in Jesus in the verses from 1 John. He wants us to realize how and why we can actually be in a place of confidence before God where our hearts don’t actually condemn us. There is only one path that ends up in that place, and John highlights it in verse 23. “And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ.” Believe in Jesus Christ, and you are no longer condemned. That’s his command. So if we think God is most concerned with how we live or how we behave, we’re missing what matters most: what we believe and who we believe in for our assurance. Believing in the Son means we have assurance that we do not stand condemned before God.

Imagine if you had that level of confidence in approaching your boss about a concern or a request. Imagine having that level of confidence about a tough conversation you need to have with your spouse. Imagine having that level of confidence with the officer approaching your driver’s side window who just pulled you over.

With God, you don’t have to imagine, you just believe, and it’s the reality! You know exactly where you stand before a holy and righteous God thorugh faith in Christ Jesus. And where you stand is “not condemned.”

Not condemned.

Living in this kind of real assurance of eternal life is also one of the most freeing things a person could ever experience. And what does it change us to do? “Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth” (v.18). Real assurance means we can be real with others. There’s enough that’s fake in this world. There are enough pretenders. Yes, sometimes it’s us, too. We scroll past them on social media. We see them on the news. We get emails from them. We don’t need more artificial intelligence, but more real assurance. When we find that real assurance in Christ, we can then be real with others. Often times that means we can go beyond words, as John encourages us, and make a real difference with actions and truth.

To better appreciate what this means, let’s start by acknowledging how exceptional we are at manipulating words. For example, in an effort to soften the blow or avoid conflict or more pressure from someone else, even though we are virtually 100% committed to not following through or attending, we tell others we’ll try or see if we can make it work or get back to you. Be honest – those are empty words. They mean nothing and carry no weight, and we really only throw them around pretending we’ve let ourselves off the hook. We use verbal sleight of hand to avoid the words that would more accurately reflect what we actually mean.

Instead of all of that, we can be honest about what we really mean by speaking the truth. We can spend more time in action instead of a lot of mental time hiding our intentions or wishes with verbal camouflage. And where we struggle in any of these areas, let us take advantage of the added blessing that comes with the real assurance we have in Christ: the privilege of prayer.

“Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God and receive from him anything we ask…” (v.21-22). Because we have complete assurance of where we stand before God, we also have direct access to God, with the added promise that he will hear and answer our prayers. When we ask of God what God wants for us and others, he’ll grant it.

And guess what? God just made it clear what he wants for us and others: to love with actions and truth instead of words or speech. If that’s what God wants and our prayers are tied to making that happen, then count on God coming through. In other words, if you genuinely want to grow in loving others with real action and in truth instead of being fake or pretend, you need only to ask. The God who assures you that he hasn’t condemned you also assures you that he will complete your requests. Unlike the website that times out or the app that cannot complete the requested action, God hears – and answers – your prayers. Really.

That’s the blessing of real assurance. If you want it, stop paying attention to your heart. Don’t listen to it. Don’t follow it. Don’t let it guide you. God is greater than your heart, and he says what your heart can never know on its own: in Jesus Christ, you are not condemned. Believe it, it’s true. Then, go live in that truth by putting your faith and love into real action. 

Real Threats

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(1 John 4:1-6)

Whether you’re driving around a relatively new car or still chugging along in one that’s been around for a decade or two, chances are good that you’ve had the opportunity to become familiar with the dash board indicators that light up when something is wrong. When those light up, indicating that something has failed or needs maintenance, it’s probably best to schedule an appointment with the mechanic sooner rather than later. The mechanic can then run a diagnostic test to determine with more precision exactly what needs to be fixed. Then he can put together a plan and estimate to let you know how much he’s going to overcharge you to fix it 😁.

No matter how much you may dislike car trouble or dealing with mechanics, it would be foolish to ignore the warning and just keep driving your car. Doing so would likely cause more damage or could even end up leaving the vehicle unable to be driven. The indicators are there for a reason. They tell you something’s wrong so that it can be tested and fixed.

Car trouble is one thing. Spiritual trouble is quite another. Even in a worst-case scenario when it comes to your car, you could manage to get by without it for a time by depending on others.

But that’s not the case spiritually. The ramifications of spiritual trouble going unchecked or neglected are potentially eternal. So John provides us with a warning that is to be taken very seriously – and not to be avoided or put off the way we might an auto repair. “Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world” (v.1). 

With he uses the word “spirits,” it might sound as if John’s writing belongs in a Halloween story involving ghosts and spooky things. However, that’s not the use of the word spirit that John is employing here. With that term he means to include any and all groups or individuals that claim any sort of religious responsibility or authority. Examples of this today could include the online promo for this conference or that webinar sponsored by such and such ministries. Or any book or devotional by an author with a faith-related theme or goal. Or a clip or YouTube Channel of someone preaching or teaching anything from Scripture. Any group or individual speaking on a biblical topic/theme is included with that term spirit.

Why does it matter that we test these spirits? Two reasons: 1) they aren’t all from God, and 2) there are “many false prophets.” 

There is a clear conclusion we need to draw about every spirit that is not from God. If a spirit is not from God, then where is it from? Don’t be fooled into thinking there is some wide range of answers to this question. There are no teachers in this category (those who are not from God) who are more harmless or less harmless than others. This isn’t a multiple choice question. If a teaching is not from God, then it is harmful, because it is from only one other place, from the one who opposes God: Satan. John later identifies this type of teaching as “the spirit of the antichrist” (v.3). 

And lest we think this might just be a case of a few bad apples ruining the whole bunch, John’s warning clarifies that there are “many false prophets [who have] gone out into the world” (v.1). What does that mean when it comes to the discernment we exercise in listening to other religious authors/teachers/singers/preachers? Perhaps a little more caution is in order. Maybe rather than simply presuming that we’re in safe waters every time the words “Christian/church/faith/pastor/etc.” are involved, our first step ought to be to exercise caution and tread lightly. 

While I was growing up in our WELS, it was generally frowned upon to read books or use materials that were not produced by our own WELS Northwestern Publishing House. While that sentiment isn’t as wide-spread today as it was then, the longer I’ve been in ministry, the better I understand the reason for that concern (especially given the circumstances of that time – our church body was navigating the waters of having officially declared ourselves to no longer be in fellowship with another Lutheran church body that had a different spirit about it than it had in the past when we shared a common blessed unity and fellowship for many decades). False prophets that stand in opposition to God are everywhere.

And if they are everywhere, that means you also have a responsibility to test me. Yes, I have been called by Shepherd of the Hills Lutheran to be a pastor, under shepherd to the Good Shepherd. Yes, I have received some of the best theological training available at our Martin Luther College and Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary. Yes, I have twenty years of pastoral ministry under my belt this year. And yes… I am also capable of falling into the very category of spirits John is warning you about. So when he says to test the spirits, I must be included among them. 

But you might be feeling inadequate. After all, who are you to be qualified to do such a thing? That’s where you do well to follow the rest of the guidance John provides. “This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God” (v.2-3).

There is a specific doctrinal teaching here, the incarnation, which refers to the Bible’s teaching that Jesus Christ is God in the flesh. However, we are not doing a disservice to John’s words here to stretch that teaching to include anything and everything about Jesus Christ. If God in the flesh in the person of Jesus Christ is the litmus test John wants us to use to identify real threats, then every teaching that pertains to Jesus Christ is fair game to help us expose threats. And by extension, since the whole reason we have the Bible is so that it can point us to Jesus, then all of Scripture is useful in helping us steer clear of those spirits that are not from God. 

It’s like pulling a thread on a sweater. It doesn’t matter where you pull the thread from. The sleeve. The collar. The front or back. The hem. Wherever you start to pull on that thread, eventually it will do damage to the whole sweater.

So it is with Scripture. Any attack on Scripture is an attack on Jesus. Therefore, any attack, any false teaching that is unchecked, will eventually undermine the whole point of the Bible – to show us our salvation in Jesus.

That is a tall order! There is so much contained in the Bible and so many different ways it could be twisted or maligned. How can we ever really know for sure if what we’re hearing or reading is true or false? 

You’re more qualified than you may know. If you’ve ever been to a professional theater production of a popular play or musical, you know what it means once the lights start to dim. It’s exciting because you know the show is about to start!

But did you ever stop to think why the lights are dimmed in a production like that? Wouldn’t more light – not less – enable everyone to better see everything that’s happening on the stage? One might think so.

However, depending on where everyone is seated in the audience, it’s not always easy to clearly see which actors are doing the speaking or singing. But when the lights are dimmed, it allows the spotlight to draw everyone’s attention to the appropriate actors carrying out the dialogue or song. The audience isn’t left scanning the stage to try and figure out which actor is speaking at any given time. The spotlight makes that obvious.

It’s also how we identify spirits that aren’t from God. When someone’s teaching, speaking, singing, preaching, etc. does not shine the spotlight on Jesus Christ, it is a different spirit. Take caution. Be aware. When the spotlight isn’t on Jesus, that ought to give us pause. 

And to be more precise, I don’t just mean paying lip service to Jesus, as if he gets a few mentions here and there. Specifically, I mean proclaiming the good news that Jesus Christ is our Savior from sin. He became man (here’s why the incarnation matters…) so that as one bound to the same law that we are all bound to, he could keep it perfectly for us. He became man so that he could die, and by his death on the cross suffer not only physical, but also the spiritual punishment our sins deserved. Though he himself was without sin, he took our sin upon himself so that real payment for sin could be offered up. And in this season of Easter, we celebrate that he really rose in that same physical body. That means that the payment for sin has been accepted by the Father and the sentence of eternal death has already been served for us. We have nothing to fear!

When that Jesus is not central to the message of anyone you are listening to, then it’s time to tune that message out. And whatever confidence we lack in being able to do so is restored to us through the Resurrection, which proves to us how powerful God is. Listen to John’s encouragement. “You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. They are from the world and therefore speak from the viewpoint of the world, and the world listens to them. We are from God, and whoever knows God listens to us; but whoever is not from God does not listen to us. This is how we recognize the Spirit of truth and the spirit of falsehood” (v.4-6). 

Our confidence comes in knowing that through Jesus Christ, God has overcome. He is greater than the evil one running roughshod over the world. That confidence allows John to implore his audience to keep listening to him. That isn’t arrogance on John’s part, but rather a confidence that his message is always going to be centered on Jesus Christ our Savior. 

As it will be here on this site and in my preaching. I know that because it is the promise I made (along with all pastors in our church body) when I was ordained into the pastoral ministry. We make a promise to remain faithful to the Scriptures and what they teach as confessed in our Book of Concord. That promise is no more and no less than faithfully preaching and teaching Jesus Christ lived, died, and risen as our Savior.

And I am confident that Jesus will continue to be my main message because here his sheep know his voice and long to hear it. Ears will perk up if some voice that does not belong to the Good Shepherd begins to be heard. So then, never tire of listening to the Good Shepherd’s voice. Hear it frequently, announcing your forgiveness in the absolution and Supper, and claiming you as his very own sheep through the water of baptism. For so long as you listen to his voice and believe it, you have nothing to fear.

Real Repentance

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(1 John 1:5-2:2)

Even if you didn’t have your special glasses to watch the solar eclipse, unless you live in a cave or under a rock, you surely heard about it or saw pictures of it online. People made plans to travel to other states to get the best possible experience with such a rare phenomenon. While California only had about 35% coverage, there were other states in the path of totality that were able to witness the sun being covered up entirely at different times of the day. 

It’s one thing for the sun to be blotted out momentarily to reveal an eerie darkness, but could you imagine if the world was like that all the time? I’m not just talking about the gray skies and gloom sometimes associated with the Pacific Northwest or the Midwest, but actual darkness because of a lack of light. Not only would our mental health be affected, but some of the very basic, fundamental errands and day-to-day activities would be much more difficult with less light.

It’s our own experiences with light and dark that help us relate to the distinction John is makes in the verses from 1 John, where he connects God with light and unbelieving sin with darkness.

What is it that bridges the gab between darkness and light? Repentance. Even though the word itself isn’t used in these verses from John, repentance is nonetheless described. The basic meaning of repentance is to turn around. The Bible uses the term in primarily two ways, which have been called the wide sense and the narrow sense.

At times when we hear Peter or Paul preaching, they exhort their hearers to repent and believe. That is the wide sense of repentance. It is another way of referring to a person coming to faith. When repentance happens in that sense, a person has been converted from unbelief to faith in Jesus as Savior.

The narrow sense of repentance is more specific. It refers to the recurring process that has been described as having three steps: 1) contrition (“sorrow”) that confesses sin, 2) faith that believes Jesus has forgiven that sin, and 3) a change of heart/mindset that seeks to struggle against that sin in the future and aims to overcome it.

For most of us reading this, repentance in the wide sense has probably already taken place – the Holy Spirit has converted us from the darkness of unbelief to the light of faith in Jesus. But repentance in the narrow sense will never stop taking place in our lives. It is an ongoing practice. That activity is both made possible by the resurrection of Jesus, which guarantees our forgiveness, and is fueled by it as well. We wish to remain in God’s light, and real repentance keeps us there. 

Why is repentance so important to John? Because it is essential to achieving one of his goals in writing this letter. He stated as clearly as it could possibly be stated in verse one of chapter two: “My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin.” John wants what God wants: to put a stop to sinning. Here’s a question for you to wrestle with: do you want what John wants? Do you want what God wants? Do you want to stop sinning?

I assume that almost everyone reading this knows the answer to that question. Absolutely we are supposed to want to stop sinning! Duh! No brainer, right? 

Except that we aren’t made up of just a mind. We have hearts, too, and our hearts have this nasty tendency to reveal our true colors. Our hearts expose us. Our hearts convict us. Our hearts give away the truth that our lives are riddled with countless examples of times that our actions clearly demonstrated that we were not interested in putting a stop to sin. 

I know I shouldn’t do this or that… as I proceed to carry it out. I know exactly the circumstances, the scenario, the conditions, that lend themselves to engaging in this sin or that one, and I do nothing to safeguard against them. I spend more time thinking through how I will either hide or get away with a certain sin than I do battling against it. I slip back into the damnable lie that convinces me that because God is all-forgiving, I have nothing to fear, because an all-forgiving God has bound himself to forgive me no matter what, so I’m in the clear. Consider how much premeditation goes into our sinning and ask yourself if that’s a reflection of a genuine desire to stop.

Then consider the other end of the sin. It has already been committed. It is in the past. When we perform the postmortem, what do we see?

How do you respond when either your own conscience or another person calls out your sin? Do you remorsefully spill the beans and spiral into feelings of shame and regret because you can’t believe you did it yet again, even though you want so badly to stop? Hopefully that is our response at least some of the time!

But we also handle it another way. We deflect the accusation and with calculated precision detail all of the factors beyond our control that took place and led to the sin, masterfully attempting to shift the blame where we feel it really ought to be. We resort to personal attacks against the one who would have the gall to point out our sin. Maybe we just go with one of the oldest standbys of all: deny it. When you look at how you tend to respond to your sin being pointed out to you, is your response really a reflection of a genuine desire to stop – or just a genuine desire for the other person to stop accusing you?

How we love the darkness! How steeped in it we truly are! God help us! God save us! God rescue us from eternal darkness!

Good news – he has!

Listen again to John. “This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all” (1:5). In God alone is there not even the slightest speck of darkness! Only light! So if someone, if something is going to save us from the darkness, it can’t be ourselves or anyone else who is only steeped in darkness. No, it must be someone who is only light, one from whom light emanates. One who can overcome the darkness and not be overcome by it. 

Because that is what light does. Light exposes and dispels the darkness. It’s never the other way around. Darkness cannot cover or hide the light. We can wear a pair of sunglasses to protect us from the bright sun, but those sunglasses don’t actually lessen the light at all – the sun shines just as brightly whether we’re wearing them or not!

Sin puts up a wall of darkness between God and us, but his light still shines regardless. That light will expose the darkness of our sin, but darkness will never put out the light. Therefore, we need to confess that darkness of sin that separates us from his light so that we can be rejuvenated by it. How comforting! His light is always shining. We need only to remove the covering from our eyes. We need only to confess our sins and then we see the light again. 

That’s repentance. It calls out the darkness of sins and shows a much better way – the light of God, the forgiveness and grace that emanate only from him. That repentance is real because of the reality of the resurrection. Had the dead body of Jesus Christ remained in the tomb; had the stone remained intact to shut out the light and keep the tomb covered in the darkness of death and sin, then the light would have been snuffed out. Then darkness and the one who reigns in darkness would have been victorious. 

But Easter really happened! The Resurrection is real!

So then, is your repentance. We take our darkest sins to the source of all light and see what he does with them. Look at how many different ways John describes what God does with that sin! “The blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin” (v.7). “He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness” (v.9). “[Jesus Christ] is the atoning sacrifice for our sins” (2:2). See what the Light does to the darkness of sin?!? Sin doesn’t stand a chance!

So let’s keep killing sin. Let’s repent – really. If sin is a part of our day-to-day lives – and it is! – then let’s also make repentance a part of our day-to-day lives. Whether it’s when you wake up every morning, go to bed at night, or as often as it might happen somewhere in-between, let’s be intentional and very conscious of killing our sin by repenting of it and letting the Light decimate it and destroy it, leaving nothing but purity and righteousness in its place.

When that becomes a regular part of our daily routine, the benefits are ongoing, because repentance rewires your heart. It just does.

It’s a terrible thing when a corrupt church or teacher twists the Bible to make forgiveness into some conditional arrangement wherein a person is only forgiven if certain stipulations are met. The rationale behind that foolishness is that if everyone is freely forgiven without any conditions or requirements, then people will just keep sinning and live however they want. 

But that reasoning sells grace and the power of the gospel too short. Instead, what happens when real repentance becomes a regular part of our daily routine is that it renews and rewires our hearts. The more the darkness is exposed, the less appeal and power it has. Instead, the light becomes far more attractive. Not sinning becomes a genuine desire. Walking in Jesus’ footsteps makes our heart sing. Blessing others through our obedience satisfies our hearts. Doing that which brings delight to God fills our hearts with joy. Living in the light and embracing the fellowship we have with not only the God who himself is light, but also others who walk in the light – that’s when we’ve arrived. That’s what matters. That’s the real deal. That’s real repentance. 

Real Fellowship

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(1 John 1:1-4)

It can feel a bit like a sucker punch when it happens. It can happen in a number of different ways, but somehow you discover that a friendship you share with someone doesn’t have the same level of closeness for the other person as it does for you. It may have became obvious that you were just being used as a means to an end when interaction in the friendship comes to a halt after they got what they wanted. Or something that you shared in confidence was shared with another person. Or you heard through the grapevine that this friend supposedly shared something rather negative about you with someone else.

It stings. It hurts to find out that a friendship or relationship with someone that you valued highly does not carry the same weight for them as you thought it did. 

While John doesn’t use the word “friendship” in these verses, his use of the word “fellowship” certainly includes the idea of it. Fellowship is often the term used to describe relationships that exist within the church of believers. However, there really is one fellowship, one friendship we have that matters more than all others – our relationship with God. In these verses John draws attention to both that special fellowship, as well as the fellowship with other believers which flows from that. 

He explains, “We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ” (v.3). The reality of Jesus’ Resurrection is that it cements the blessings of fellowship we share both with Christ and with his church, with all believers. Those bonds, those relationships and friendships, surpass all others, not only in their quality, but in their duration: they will be forever!

This blessing of fellowship that Christians share is vastly underrated and underutilized today. The way John speaks about it here directly dismisses today’s common take on religion/spirituality – one that has crept its way into Christianity, too – that one’s faith is only between God and that person. “I don’t need to belong to a church or attend one to have faith in God. I can feed my faith and grow in my faith on my own in so many ways nowadays. The significance and role of the church isn’t what it used to be. It just isn’t as necessary as it used to be.” That approach actually reveals a level of immaturity and misunderstanding, not to mention selfishness, when it comes to understanding church and fellowship. While it’s true that faith in Jesus is personal, it isn’t private, nor did God ever intend it to be.

John stated very clearly his purpose for passing on his eyewitness testimony, and it wasn’t only for others to be brought into fellowship with God, but also with God’s people: “…so that you also may have fellowship with us” (v.3). No one is ever just brought to faith in Jesus, but also into fellowship with believers. And that is God’s intent, since he uses fellowship to funnel his blessings to us – and through us to others!

Consider the imagery that the apostlePaul often refers to in his letters when talking about believers. When he writes about the different ways God has gifted individuals within the church, he likens it to a body (see Romans 12 & 1 Corinthians 12). A body has lots of different parts and unique responsibilities, but as each carries out its own unique task, the whole body ends up being served.

That picture of the body also captures the oneness, the unity, the fellowship within the church, which flows from the body being connected not only to all the respective parts, but also to Christ, the head. Without the head, the rest of the connections would be meaningless, because the body could not exist. But with Christ as the head, connected to the rest of the body, the body functions in harmony and with purpose. Each part is valued and appreciated, and each part carries out its work to serve the whole body, not just its own selfish purposes. It’s a beautiful thing – and it’s real. 

How can we be sure though? When we’ve been burned before by past relationships that still sting, how can we be sure it will be any different within the church? Because of the Resurrection. 

It’s understandable that we may not get it at first. Neither did Thomas. Thomas was not with the disciples that Easter evening when Jesus appeared to them. The reports of Jesus being raised from the dead had been pouring in all around, from the women as well as those disciples in the upper room. Yet Thomas struggled to believe it could be true because he wasn’t present to witness it and experience it himself. Not only did he have his doubts – he didn’t even try to hide them or keep them to himself. He bluntly expressed to the others that he refused to believe what his own senses were not able to confirm! 

Surely that doubt left an impression on the disciples who had seen and touched the risen Jesus, to the point that it made John aware of how natural it was for others to doubt or be skeptical of the Resurrection. For that reason, John emphasized that he and the other disciples could confirm the Resurrection because they weren’t settling for some second-hand report about it. Rather, they themselves were eyewitnesses. 

“That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched—this we proclaim concerning the Word of life. The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us. We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard…” (v.1-3a). Since in Christ, God really dwelled among men, and John and others really witnessed it, what we have in him is real. Since they witnessed a very alive Jesus, the Resurrection was real. Therefore, what we have here within the church – is real.

The older I get, the more I can relate to what John repeatedly expresses in his letters – that he has no greater joy than to see his children walk in love and truth. Seeing Christians connect with each other is a joy. When those connections are real and strong and meaningful, it’s a beautiful reminder of what God does and continues to do when he builds up his church. It’s built through the Word and the Sacrament, but don’t discount that what God is also building is real relationships with each other through the good news of the gospel, which is rooted in the Resurrection of Jesus. It’s real, and so is our connection with each other because of it. 

John isn’t just passing along theological bullet points here, either. He is talking about real relationships that exist within the body of Christ because Christ is risen. And just as he does in his other letters, here too, he highlights that those real relationships are for him a source of joy. His final words in these verses capture that. “We write this to make our joy complete” (v.4). It fills John with joy to see the fellowship that Christians share. 

In fact, his joy doesn’t reach its fullest potential until he communicates it to others. Yes, John himself knows Jesus. He knows he’s forgiven. He knows heaven is his home. He knows a Jesus joy and peace that cannot be experienced ever anywhere in this world apart from him.

Yet even with all of that, John is still lacking… until he writes and tells others about it. Then his joy is complete. It has to be expressed, both to his fellow believers (to whom he’s writing) and to others who through his gospel message might be brought into the same fruit-bearing fellowship with Jesus and his church.

What is keeping you from discovering that same joy? Skepticism? A refusal to open up because you’ve been burned in the past? Drifting away from Jesus and his church? Letting misplaced priorities rob you of the genuine joy of Christian fellowship? 

If I drew a picture of circles within a larger circle and each shrinking circle represented greater engagement and connection and commitment to Jesus and his church, with the very center of the circle being the absolute most engaged a person could ever be in their congregation, which circle would you place yourself in?

Are you on the fringe – you’re listed in the directory but hardly know anyone and when you show up, others take you for a guest? Are you a step inside that circle? You attend occasionally enough to know a few faces but aren’t really interested in more than that? Are you one step inside that circle? You attend pretty regularly, perhaps your children are enrolled in the school, you give regularly and are likely to sign up for things? Are you a step inside that, actively attending a Bible class or small group, and serving consistently? Are you inside that, leading others, giving generously, and regularly making your joy complete by telling others about Jesus as John did? Which circle would you place yourself in, and what would it take to work on getting closer to the center?

The bonds that are forged and fortified within the church are different than any other because the foundation of those bonds is different. When Jesus is what we have in common, then we have something far more substantial than just a common interest or cause. It’s not like joining a Facebook Group of hikers that you check periodically when you’re planning a hike. No one will check in on you if you don’t post or comment for weeks or months. You can be as engaged as much or as little as you like. You have no real commitment or responsibility to the group.

But when Jesus is the basis of our bond, we have from him all that we need. We also have from him anything that others might need from us. He won’t make a promise he can’t keep. His feelings toward us are not conditional. His love and forgiveness toward us are not based on the merit of our contributions to the group. When HE is the shared bond, then HE provides all that we need.

Not only does he do that for us in Word and Sacrament; he also does it through us as we fellowship with one another. When you think of the ways we experience the blessings of Jesus in our lives, so many of those are experienced through fellow believers.

A girlfriend patiently listens to and cares about your frustrations over coffee. A godly man that you admire greatly offers marriage advice when you hit a rough patch. An anonymous gift buoyed you up when you were struggling financially. The prayers that you never heard that were being offered up for you. The conversations others were having about how best to help you in your time of need. The care and concern shown when you were drifting away. The focused accountability to remind you of your commitments and the importance of carrying them out. The compassion expressed in so many ways when you were hurting.

Many of us can testify that we experience these things to a greater degree within our church family than we do even within our biological family! This is the fellowship that we have in Christ that John is celebrating. It’s real, because Jesus and his Resurrection are real.

Do you want to experience this level of connection and fellowship, but wonder how to? Then foster that fellowship. Attend a Bible class. Sign up to serve. Show up for activities. Worship together. Offer to help others. The list is endless. Make my joy complete by taking the next step. Better yet, put a smile on Jesus’ face by being deliberate about growing in your faith and fellowship. Oh, and you can be sure you’ll end up finding plenty of joy yourself, too. It’s real – as real as the Resurrection!

He’s Risen – Really!

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(John 20:1-18)

A friend recently ordered us seafood takeout from a specific place that he liked because it doesn’t use imitation crab in its dishes like other places often do. He wanted the real thing. If you’re visiting a friend for a few days and he tries to pass off turkey bacon as the real thing at breakfast well, that might just be enough to rethink who your friends are. You might be able to fool an amateur with a generic brand of clothing, but someone who knows their stuff can tell if it’s not a designer label. Even with AI on the rise, AI-generated images often still have glitches that reveal them to be fake. While their are some pretty good attempts at imitating the real thing, for the most part we still have the ability and means to be able to distinguish between what is real and what is fake. 

Nowhere does that matter more than on Easter Sunday. On Easter, Christians of every nation, tribe, and language gather together to celebrate the most significant event in human history: the resurrection of Jesus. If this event is not real, if it is in fact made up or a complete fake, well then, what Paul wrote in First Corinthians 15 is soberingly true: our faith is useless and we are still stuck in the damning reality of our sin. If the Resurrection of Jesus Christ isn’t REAL, then neither is forgiveness, grace, or eternal life. Instead, we’d be destined to find out just how real hell is. Without those realities, the only thing that would be REAL would be our hopelessness. 

This would be a great place to reference the number of convincing proofs that strongly support the reality of Jesus’ resurrection from the dead. But I’m going to skip right over that in this post (besides, you can always just google it). Why? For one, because John’s account recorded for us simply doesn’t read like the stuff of made-up fairy tales. It’s an unblemished look at flawed participants who not only could have painted themselves in a much more favorable light if this was all fake, but also would not likely have included so many unnecessary details.

But there’s another reason I’m not going to spend more time making a case to prove how plausible the Resurrection really is. Because the Resurrection isn’t the real issue for most skeptics. No, the resurrection is actually not so implausible… if one acknowledges there actually is a God.

After all, if there is a divine being, an entity who created and oversees and governs all things, then Jesus being raised from the dead wouldn’t be much of a stretch at all for God to pull off, would it? No, the real issue isn’t the resurrection, but whether or not there is a God behind it. So rather than spending time trying to prove the Resurrection, we simply proclaim it. We testify to it, and we let God show us the difference in made in people’s lives that first Easter and still today.

The question I want to focus on is the one asked of Mary to help her uncover the real significance of what has happened. The angels asked it first. “They asked her, ‘Woman, why are you crying?’” (v.13). Now angels aren’t omniscient, but one would not have needed the sleuthing skills of a Sherlock Holmes to figure out why Mary might have been crying. The answer was really quite obvious. Nevertheless, Mary provided the reason. “‘They have taken my Lord away,’” she said, ‘and I don’t know where they have put him’” (v.13).  Mary was saddened by the obvious lack of Jesus’ body in the place where she had seen him laid. He wasn’t where he was supposed to be so that she could carry out her last act of humble service for her Savior.

Immediately on the heels of her answer, Mary turns and is asked right away again by a man she takes to be the keeper of the garden, “Woman, why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?” (v.15). Had he not been within earshot to hear the response she had literally just given? Was it really necessary to repeat the exact same question? 

It was. But not for the angels’ sake, because they might have somehow missed her answer. And not for Jesus’ sake, who doesn’t ask questions for his own sake, but for the sake of others. No, the question was asked – and repeated – for Mary’s sake. It was really asked to set the stage for the revelation of the greatest miracle that has ever taken place in the history of the world: the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead! 

Mary was not really in much of an emotional state of mind to consider the significance of the question that had been asked twice of her. From her vantage point, she saw nothing unnatural at all about the tears she was shedding. She had wanted to honor her Jesus by properly caring for his beaten and bloodied body. It was a simple thing, but it was something she longed to do. So when there was no crucified corpse in the tomb, her heart sank. In the end, she didn’t care about why the body of her Jesus was not there or who was behind it – she just wanted to know where it was, so she pleaded for the man she thought was the gardener to point her in the right direction. 

But we can consider how remarkable the question really was, for we know why there was no body in the tomb. Christ had risen! Death could not detain him! Hell could not hold him!

Knowing that, when we consider the question asked of Mary, it leads us to realize how backwards everything really was that first Easter morning. The only crying at Jesus’ empty tomb that would have made any sense would have been tears shed in sheer joy!

Tears of grief or sorrow would only have been appropriate if the body was still in the tomb, wrapped in the linens and covered in the cloth. But John goes out of his way to spell out that detail for us – there was no body – just the coverings. Therefore, there was no reason to cry! Had Jesus still been dead, had Mary and the other women and Peter and John all arrived at the tomb that Sunday morning to see what they expected to see – the dead body of Jesus – then there would have been reason to cry! A dead Jesus would have been reason to cry uncontrollably because it would have meant no Easter. No Resurrection. No victory over death. No forgiveness. No salvation. That would have been cause for tears!

Because we’d still be in our sin. We’d have reason every day of our lives to absolutely dread death and be terrified of when it might strike us at any moment. Because we’d know deep down inside that we’d finally have to answer for our past and we’d be left to what rightfully awaited us: hell. Condemnation. The punishment our daily sins deserve.

But since Jesus wasn’t in the tomb, we see the question asked of Mary in a different light! He lives – really! He’s risen – really! It really happened! So then… why was she crying???

It’s a good question for us to ask ourselves. Why are you crying? Maybe the tears are literal, physical tears that run down your cheeks. Maybe it is just a sad, heavy heart – one that you might hide well from others, but still carry with you wherever you go. What is the cause of it? What is pressing down, weighing on you heavily?

It is so easy for us to downplay this Easter stuff in favor of “real” issues we have to deal with. Sure, we’ll do the Easter Sunday thing. We’ll sing a familiar Easter hymn or two, probably followed by a brunch. The family photo of everyone all dressed up has been taken. The kids will have snatched up their eggs filled with candy. Perhaps we have Sunday afternoon or evening plans with family or friends. Yes, it will all be a nice little escape from the daily grind of life. 

But then it’s right back to real problems on Monday morning, if not sooner. Another Easter will have come and gone, but the real problems still remain. The money going out exceeds the money coming in but those bills and debts don’t care. That means I still have to show up at a job I hate, working with people I don’t care for. The roof still leaks. The car is still having trouble. I can’t figure out what is behind my child’s recent behavior. Being single is wearing thing. Depression and anxiety are real. There’s the health issue I’m putting off because if I go to the doctor I know it’s going to be something that I just can’t handle right now. I’m still crawling through so many firsts without a loved one in my life. So many “real” issues!

But that’s the point of asking the question. If Jesus really rose, then why are you crying? Let’s not so quickly default to the “yeah, but’s…” as we breeze past Easter. Enough with the “real” problems that we don’t see how Easter could ever fix.

Jesus REALLY rose and it REALLY matters more than anything else on your mind right now. Yes, it may feel like the boulder-size problems plaguing you right now are slowly crushing you – and Jesus doesn’t diminish those problems! In fact, it’s just the opposite! The One who denied eternal death its claim on him by REALLY rising from the dead is the same One to assure you he’s here to handle the other stuff! If Jesus Christ can unloose hell’s grip and deny its rightly-deserved demand on our souls for our track record of more sins than we could ever possibly count, then Jesus Christ REALLY can deliver us from anything and everything else we’ll ever face!

Do you hear Jesus asking you what he asked Mary? “Why are you crying? Why are you worried about ______?” No, he’s not diminishing your REAL problems at all; rather, he’s amplifying the significance of what we celebrate at Easter! With his “Why are you crying,” Jesus was stacking up all of our worldly concerns right next to the reality of his Resurrection and showing us how small they suddenly appear!

Yes, those things are REAL problems, but the Resurrection is also REAL. If death and hell could not prevail against Jesus, is he so weak to rise from the dead only to turn around and succumb to your much smaller problems? Of course not! He’s risen – really! He lives – really! And his promise to you who have been freed from the damnation of your sin is that he can – and will – also handle the smaller things. 

He’s risen – really! Why are you crying? May the only tears we shed be tears of joy over how small and insignificant our worries begin to appear when stacked up against the enormity of Jesus’ resurrection!

Christ is risen! He is risen indeed, Alleluia!

His Why Is Joy

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(Hebrews 12:1-3)

I think it’s already hit the pinnacle of popularity, but you are probably familiar with the encouragements on the part of businesses, organizations, and even individuals to really focus on your “why?”. Authors and TED talk speakers like Simon Sinek made it popular once again for organizations and businesses to emphasize their “why.” When the emphasis is on the “why,” people are attracted to working for you and with you. When they are clear on the “why” then the “what” and the “how” come much more naturally. 

Churches do the same thing. It’s a popular notion among Christians that belong to a local congregation that having membership simply means that you show up sometimes on Sunday morning. But the “why” is actually much more than that. It’s about joining together and carrying out the mission and ministry that Jesus has given us to do together. Where I serve at Shepherd of the Hills, our why is “Seeking the Lost and Serving the Found. 

Individuals may have a “why,” too. Mark Twain is credited with saying that the two most important days of your life are the day you were born and the day you figured out why. My personal why is quite simple: to bring people closer to Jesus. Whether you already know him by faith or not, my why is the same. My fulfillment, my satisfaction, my joy in life is when God can use me to bring wherever you are closer to Jesus. 

Speaking of Jesus, he had a “why,” too. Understanding it is key to grasping what he did during Holy Week. Why would he do what he did? What drove him? What fueled him to knowingly take on all the suffering and be willing to be crucified?

It’s one thing for the criminals crucified with him – they had no choice! They committed a crime. There were consequences. They didn’t have the option of saying, “That’s all right. I’ll skip the cross, thank you.”

But Jesus did not have to endure it, so what drove him? Here are the first three verses from Hebrews, chapter 12. As you read through them, see if you can capture Jesus’ “why.” 

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy that was set before him, he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.”

Did you catch it? Was his why clear?

“For the joy that was set before him, he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” For the joy set before him! That was Jesus’ why! And you know what I love about this section is that the writer to the Hebrews does not expand on what that joy was. He doesn’t say, “By the way, here’s the joy that Jesus was focused on: …” And so we are kind of left on our own. We’re on our own knowing Jesus’ words and actions recorded for us in Scripture and God’s gracious promises, trying to wrap our hearts and our minds around exactly what that joy was.

There are so many possible answers, aren’t there? And maybe it’s not just one or the other, but collectively all of them. The joy that would come from knowing he was going to finally crush Satan’s head, that he was going to win the victory.

The joy that would come from knowing that he set sinners free from the condemnation of sin.

The joy that would come from knowing that he made salvation possible so that literally no one else would have to experience the hell that he did on Good Friday.

The joy of being able to see his people forgive one another.

The joy of returning to his rightful place in heaven.

The joy of being with his Father once again and having perfectly fulfilled his Father’s will.

The joy of being there, not just with his Father, but with you, too. To know that because of what he would endure on the cross that he would not spend eternity alone in heaven but would be with all of those who by God’s grace through faith cling to him as their Savior. We cannot begin to imagine the agony, the pain of being separated from and abandoned by the Father as Jesus was, and yet imagine how great that joy must be if the level of joy exceeded that level of suffering!

Jesus had his why and you are included in it. And so Jesus naturally becomes our why, too. Now we turn that around as the writer to the Hebrews did. The joy that Jesus won for us is also the joy that drives us to follow in his footsteps.

I captured the writer’s encouragements as I saw them in these verses with three simple words: Release, Refocus, and Reflect.

Release is really what he had in mind when he said “Let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles.” Release. Let go of it. Imagine running a race if you were the only one on the track who still had his warmups on. Not only would everyone look at you foolishly, but you’d lose the race! Take it off. You don’t want that extra material dragging you, and neither would you have your watch or your headphones or a backpack or anything else. You take that stuff off so that you can run more effectively.

Jesus encourages us to do the same as we follow him. Release those things, not just the stuff that tangles us in sin – clearly that as well – but notice he says even the things that hinder us, and not just some things, not just a few things that are easy to release or let go, but everything.

I think there are a lot of us within Christianity who are pretty solid, pretty content to say, “I can part with or give up 50%, 75%, or 90%, but what is that remainder for you that you can’t let go of? That may not even be sinful. It may be a good thing, and yet it’s hindering you from a closer walk with Jesus.

Is it the validation that you’re seeking from somebody else? Is it a toxic relationship that needs to be done in your life? Is it some goal that you have been pursuing for far too long that is distracting you from the one thing needful?

And my encouragement for you, especially this Holy Week, is to reflect personally on that and ask, “What is it that I, for maybe as long as I have been a Christian, have been hanging on to that I need to release and let go because it is hindering me from a deeper walk with Jesus and a stronger faith?

Release that.

And then refocus.

That’s what the writer to the Hebrews is saying when he encourages us to “fix our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith.” If you’re running that race and you take off your warm-up gear or maybe your backpack and all of your stuff with it, that’s great, but if you are still looking back at it while running then it is distracting you and you need to refocus. And the same is true if you were to turn and look back at all of the other competitors that you are racing against.

We do that too in Christianity, don’t we? We think that the competition is really gauging myself against other Christians. How do I match up? How do I compare to this Christian or that Christian?

But that’s not the game. That’s not the race that we’re running. Jesus has not said anywhere, “Make sure that you’re just a step ahead of another Christian.” We’ll always find somebody behind us. We’ll also, always see people ahead of us. Ahead of us is where Jesus wants us to look, but not at the other competitors; rather, at our Savior, the one who has already crossed the finish line for us, the one who has already won the victory for us. It’s already guaranteed. And that’s why you can exert all of your strength in the race. That’s why you can be fully focused on crossing that finish line. Imagine your Savior Jesus there waiting for you, the loudest one cheering for you with open arms, ready to greet you, to embrace you when you spill across that finish line.

Refocus. Fix your eyes on him as often as you need to.

The final one might be the one that we struggle with the most: reflect.

The writer to the Hebrews said it this way, “Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.” Consider doesn’t just mean, “Hey, you know this information, right?” Consider means chew on it. Reflect on it. Meditate on everything that your Jesus has done for you.

That’s what we were doing earlier when we were reflecting on the joy that was driving Jesus to endure what he did. To reflect is to stop and ponder and think, how much must my Savior, love me to endure what he did for me?

We are so busy and so preoccupied running from one thing to the next that we rarely pause, not just to read the Bible, but to reflect on what it means for us. To consider who it reveals Jesus to be for us and the difference that makes in our lives.

Reflect, and you will find more inspiration and more gospel – good news – motivation to keep running your race faithfully.

Jesus, our why, prompts us to do these three things: release, refocus, reflect. It’s an ongoing and repeated pattern. And it’s one that we carry out because we know the finish line has already been crossed by our Savior. But we don’t have to wait till we get home to heaven to experience the taste of the joys that he won for us. Those joys can be ours right now because Jesus allowed that joy to be his “why” and drive him to do all that he did this week for us.

Fifty Years of Seeing Jesus

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(John 12:20-33)

I recently attended our School’s 50th Anniversary Gala. It was a fantastic evening. Getting to dress up for a nice evening out is just plain fun to do. Doing it surrounded by those I get to do life together with in my church/school family made it extra special.

Yet, as enjoyable as the auction was, as fun as it is to win an item you bid on, or enjoy cocktails and a nice meal, or music and dancing, or an occasional laugh here and there, what made the night amazing was something else altogether. It left me in awe of the number of lives past, present, and future, who have been and who will continue to be so strongly impacted by our school. So this post is a celebration of our school. More accurately, it’s a celebration of the Jesus who is the center of our school. 

There are surely other verses in Scripture that summarize why the church exists, but we words from John 12 might capture it as simply and succinctly as any others: “we would like to see Jesus” (v.21). In the 1960’s, members of Reformation Lutheran, our sister congregation in Clairemont, saw a growing community in La Mesa that needed to see Jesus, so they established Shepherd of the Hills in 1965. About a decade after that in 1974, a school was established in what was essentially an effort to help more people see Jesus. That school has been doing just that for fifty years. We celebrated with a formal Gala, exceeding our goal of $40,000 to enable us to continue helping people see Jesus for future generations as we care for and improve what God has blessed us with for that purpose.

Five decades is no small thing! Most small businesses that start up fail within the first year or so! Being around for fifty years also means that we have outlasted the US space program, the Choco Taco, the Sony Walkman, and Blockbuster Video, to name a few. Sadly, during that same time, many congregations within our church body that operated schools have had to close their doors. By God’s grace, not only are we still operating, but in recent years we’re doing so at higher enrollment levels than we’ve seen in the past fifty years! That has allowed for more and more students to continue to get to see Jesus here. And what does that mean?

Jesus explained to Philip and Andrew what people looking for him would see. He used an agricultural picture to point to his death and why it was necessary. “Jesus replied, ‘The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.” (v.23-24). Some of you know what it’s like to have a fruit true that is so productive that it grows more fruit than you can even give away each season. It’s easy to forget how that tree started out. Just like every other plant, it was at one time just a seed. And if that seed had never been planted, it would never have become the tree that now produces such an abundance of fruit. 

Jesus’ death was necessary. It had to happen to bear a much more valuable kind of fruit. He had to die and be buried so that through his saving work others would be saved and blessed. Still today God is producing much fruit through that seed, through Jesus. That fruit continues to be produced where Christians gather around the Word of God and invite others to do so, so that through the Word others are brought to faith. This happens through the ministries that congregations carry out, including those with a school like ours. 

And those blessings come to those who embrace what Jesus said next. “The man who loves his life will lose it, while the man who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. Whoever serves me must follow me; and where I am, my servant also will be. My Father will honor the one who serves me” (v.25-26). But losing one’s life and following Jesus are not easy! Not in a world that encourages the exact opposite: love this life here and now and don’t bother with anything else. So we look for support and encouragement to help us along the way. And for fifty years, students and families have found that support and encouragement in our school to keep focused on the real target: eternal life. 

That help is needed. It is needed because we look around at the world today and we are troubled. Although Jesus himself asserted that wars and rumors of war would continue until his return, it still seems shocking that we see the astounding level of violence in the world between nations and among civilized societies. People lack both self-respect and respect for others. People brazenly walk in and out of stores grabbing whatever they like and stealing it in broad daylight. Attorneys promote divorce on billboards. We’ve contributed billions and billions of dollars to the pornography industry and wonder why sex trafficking is such an issue. We’re religiously passionate about politics while indifferent toward religion. And we aren’t only troubled because the world is this way, but also because we’re a part of the problem. We contribute to the very things that trouble us about the world. Our sin factors right into all the trouble we see, and so we are troubled all the more by our own role in it!

Does it help to know that you have a Savior who can relate to feeling troubled? “Now my heart is troubled…” (v.27). Jesus knows how you feel! Admittedly, the intensity of trouble/turmoil facing Jesus was on a level we’ll never come close to experiencing, but that makes us both more appreciative of him and connected to him. He has experienced any level of trouble we’ve faced – and then some! And because he faced the impending trouble of death by crucifixion and desertion by his Father, we’ll never have to process that crushing level of anxiety! Heart wrenching as it was, he knew he had to face it. “No, it was for this very reason I came to this hour” (v.27). 

What compels someone to face that trouble and follow through with it? His love for and commitment to you. “Now is the time for judgment on this world; now the prince of this world will be driven out. But I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself” (v.31-32). Jesus was intent on destroying the enemy who pesters and plagues us with his hellish desires. Through the cross, he not only dealt a devastating blow to the devil, but also built the bridge necessary for all of mankind to have access God. Two birds with one stone! By the cross, Christ both destroyed and delivered!

How unselfish of our Savior! We live in a world filled with so many clawing and clamoring to get known, to use this platform or that to put themselves out there and secure a following. We’re used to it. We get friend or follow requests from people we don’t know because they’re trying to get known. And why? For themselves. They may or may not have a talent or skill that enables them to actually produce something good, worthwhile, or valuable to others, but it doesn’t matter. They want to draw people to themselves to suit their own purposes.

Not Jesus. Jesus desired to draw all people to himself not because his delicate ego needed validation, but because condemned souls needed salvation. And he provided it. 

For fifty years, faithful teachers have taken their place in the front of our classrooms declaring that truth. Have all the students who have ever graduated from our school gone on to graduate from prestigious universities? Have they all become hugely successful in their lives, because we churn out nothing but lawyers, engineers, doctors, and physicists with PhDs and other pedigrees? Have we equipped them so well emotionally that they’ll never have to worry about struggling with burdens like anxiety or depression? No. We can’t make such claims. But neither are any of those goals first and foremost why our school has existed for fifty years.

But here’s what every student who has ever graduated has heard and seen: Jesus. And you know what happens when people get to know Jesus? They grow. And others get to know Jesus through them. I couldn’t say precisely how many families have become a part of our congregation’s ministry directly as a result of one or more of their children having been enrolled in our school, but it’s a significant number. Because that’s what happens when people come to see Jesus. When Jesus changes a heart, he changes the whole life, and when others see the difference he has made in their life, they wish to see Jesus, too. And we show them – in church every Sunday and in our school Monday through Friday. We show people Jesus. It’s why we’re here. It’s what we do. 

A couple of weeks ago we had a videographer on our campus for two and a half days to gather video footage and record interviews to put together a high-quality video showcasing our school. We were looking forward to being able to share the finished product at our Gala. I say “were” because we never got the video. Unfortunately, as the videographer was putting the finishing touches on the video, his hard drive crashed and he lost all of the footage he had captured. It was a huge bummer to not be able to watch the finished product.

But the real reason it was so disheartening was not just because it would have been a snazzy, well-done, professional video. No, the real reason was because it captured our stories about the impact this school has had. It highlighted the difference Jesus makes in the lives of those who are here to see him. Even though there is no video, I did get to talk with the videographer after he had interviewed a number of our parents, and it was clear to him that our school was making a difference. That’s not surprising. That’s what Jesus does. 

And so that is what we’ll continue to do through our church and school for as many years as the Lord allows it. Show Jesus. 

Sin’s Solution: Self or Savior?

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(Numbers 21:4-9)

One of life’s small joys is the satisfaction of being able to take something that is broken and fix it ourselves. Yes, it’s nice to save money not having to call a repair guy to come and fix it or take it in somewhere to have it looked at, but ultimately there is simply a satisfying sense of achievement in fixing something ourselves. It’s also easier than ever. You can find just about any video on Youtube to walk you through the process of fixing something. You can buy just about any specialty tool or replacement part for the job online and it will arrive on your doorstep faster than ever. 

Yet it’s for those same reasons, when we utilize all of those resources to tackle a fix-it-yourself project, following the steps in the video, replacing the part, and voila! – it’s still broken, that our frustration levels also rise higher than ever. To have all the resources available that we do and still not be able to successfully fix something is a tougher pill to swallow. At least in the past we could chalk it up to not having the right tool or part!

Why is fixing something that is broken such a challenge in the first place? Because we can get it wrong in multiple ways. We either misdiagnose the problem, and instead of fixing the part the needs fixing, we focus on a part that doesn’t. Or, assuming we do correctly identify the issue, we then misdiagnose the solution. We buy the wrong part or install it improperly. When either of these things happen, what are we left with? Something that’s still broken.

We know that there’s much that is broken in our world today. There’s no shortage of solutions offered to fix things and make them right. Moreover, we supposedly have access to far more resources than ever in the history of the world to fix things, yet here we are in a world that is still every bit as broken (and many would argue even more so!). How can so many solutions fail so miserably to fix everything? Well, sometimes it’s misdiagnosing the problem, and other times it’s misdiagnosing the solution. Just ask the Israelites how hard it was as they continued to wander there way out of Egypt, through the wilderness, and into the Promised Land.

Israel identified what they thought was the problem and voiced their concern to God and his representative, Moses: “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? There is no bread! There is no water! And we detest this miserable food!” (v.5). They were longing for the steady, stable food they had in Egypt… while seemingly forgetting the oppressive slavery that came along with it. That didn’t matter, though – the problem as they saw it was a lack of bread and water and a miserable menu. So they supposed the solution was simply to let God know the problem so he could fix it. And while they had the right idea in going to God, they came to him with the wrong problem to solve. And, as they would discover, when we bring the wrong problem to God, we may not like the solution he offers.

The problem had nothing to do with their eating and everything to do with their attitude. This is evident from what precedes their complaint. “But the people grew impatient on the way; they spoke against God and against Moses…” (v.4-5). Food was far from being the real problem; all the food did was expose the real issue: their impatience. And, when the problem is misdiagnosed, we’re unlikely to seek out the correct solution. Again, they had the right idea in looking to God for the solution, but they had the wrong attitude in their approach. They didn’t come before him in humility, but in insolence, brazenly speaking directly against God and Moses! This detail of the account is crucial to a proper understanding of the whole story. 

Because if we overlook this when we see how God responds, we could confuse the problem with the solution. “Then the Lord sent venomous snakes among them; they bit the people and many Israelites died” (v.6). If we fail to correctly pin the problem on the Israelites for their insolence, then God’s punishment could be perceived as the problem. We question how he could do such a thing. We wonder how God could have this kind of violence in his heart to want to harm his own people. How do we process these questions?

Remember, God’s response was not the problem; it was a part of the solution. Yes, that’s right – God sending venomous snakes was not the problem, but rather a part of the solution. If you find that hard to believe, don’t quit reading just yet. To help us better understand, let’s take an example from the world of how-not-to-parent-today that illustrates how the venomous snakes were actually part of God’s solution. 

Have you ever been in a public place when a child wasn’t getting his way and he was making it painfully obvious not just to mom, but to everyone within roughly a square mile? How the parent responds at that point is either going to be a part of the solution or the problem. When mom makes a deal to give the child what he wants (or something similar) as he stops whining, mom has now just become a part of the problem.

The mom’s behavior in those cases is not uncommon, because it deceptively feels as if she’s still in charge. After all, she is the one that proposed the offer. And, she very likely intends to follow through with it if her child stops whining. It feels to her like she successfully resolved the issue. But that is not at all what just happened. Instead, what just happened was that mom taught her child that whining was actually a productive method in getting his way. He simply has to act up and make a scene until mom promises something good if he’ll stop.

So mom thought she had provided a solution, but in reality she only contributed to the problem by reinforcing for her child that whining is an easy go-to to get his way. What she ought to have done instead was told her son that there would be consequences if he didn’t stop (i.e. no snack, an earlier bedtime, no screen time, etc.) and then – and here’s the only way this is ever going to work – she followed through with the consequence if her child continued to whine. 

Back to the wilderness. If God had dealt with his impatient people brazenly speaking against him by telling Moses, “I can’t handle their complaining anymore. Go ahead and give them juicy steak dinners, but only if they stop whining,” what do you suppose the Israelites would have realized? They would have concluded, “Hey, we just figured out how to turn God into our personal butler! Who needs a magic lamp and a genie – we have God! Turns out all we had to do all along was just complain loud enough and long enough!”

But God didn’t deal with them that way. Instead, he showed them that there were consequences to speaking out against him and sent venomous snakes.

And what was the result? It might surprise us! “The people came to Moses and said, ‘We sinned when we spoke against the Lord and against you. Pray that the Lord will take the snakes away from us’” (v.7). Imagine that! They owned up to their sin and repented of it, turning back to the same God they had impatiently spoken against and basically said, “We were wrong! We’re sorry! Please help us!”

Do you know what that kind of message is to God? It’s music to his ears. There is nothing more pleasing to God than a humble, penitent heart that both owns up to its sin as the problem and turns to God for the solution.

The prophet Isaiah described God like this: “For this is what the high and exalted One says— he who lives forever, whose name is holy: “I live in a high and holy place, but also with the one who is contrite and lowly in spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite” (Isaiah 57:15). And God’s permanent promise is that when anyone approaches him with contrition, that is, sorrow over sin, he will always rescue and revive with his deliverance. 

Among the snake-bitten bodies of the dead, God chose to demonstrate both his desire and his ability to deliver. And he did it in a way that so uniquely solidified that he was the one providing the solution; he was the one saving. “The Lord said to Moses, ‘Make a snake and put it up on a pole; anyone who is bitten can look at it and live’” (v.8). A snake on a pole? The very same thing responsible for causing so much death was now going to be responsible for delivering from it? That makes no sense. Why would God choose such a method?

To make it abundantly clear that rescue and deliverance would only come through him. There are half a dozen methods that would have made much more sense than a snake on a pole: suck out the poison, drink some sort of antidote, apply some medicinal oil on it, amputate, etc. As extreme as any human solution might have been, it still would have made more sense than simply looking at a snake on a pole!

So by using something as far-fetched as a snake on a pole, God pretty clearly ruled out that any snake-bitten Israelite would be able to save himself. His solution made no logical, reasonable, scientific or medical sense whatsoever. But it was also the only solution that was going to work. “So Moses made a bronze snake and put it up on a pole. Then when anyone was bitten by a snake and looked at the bronze snake, they lived” (v.9).

Do you get it yet? This whole account isn’t just about learning not to complain before God. It isn’t about snakes – venomous ones or a bronze one on a pole.

It’s about Jesus.

Did you see Jesus in the wilderness with the Israelites and the snakes? His own words recorded in John’s Gospel help us see where Jesus was all along. “Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him” (3:14-15).

As absurd as we might think it was for a bronze snake on a pole to heal people bitten by venomous snakes, how about the perfect, innocent Son of God nailed up to a cross to pay for all of mankind’s sin? Many today reject such a notion in favor of countless solutions under the sun that would seem to be much more logical or reasonable. But just like any logical or reasonable solution that could have been devised in the desert, none of them would have solved the problem. We cannot ever solve the problem of our sins ourselves. 

Only God delivers from sin, and only in one way. Only the blood of Jesus forgives. Only his sacrifice saves. Only his death delivers us from death.  

This whole account? It’s not about the snakes; it’s about sin… and most importantly God’s solution to sin, his Son, the Savior.

One of life’s small joys may certainly be the satisfaction of finding a solution to a problem and fixing it ourselves. But one of life’s great joys – the greatest, in fact! – is the satisfaction of knowing and believing that in Jesus Christ, God has already provided the only solution we need for the problem of our sin. We have that joy.

Do you know anyone who doesn’t? Let’s be a part of the solution to that problem by directing them to Jesus, their Savior.