Reformed Wisdom

On John 1:37 -- "When the word of the gospel is foully desipised by pigs or madly rejected by dogs, it must be preached constantly and in good hope, and it must be commended to the Father to make it effectual when and in whom it seems best to him." -- Martin Bucer in Reformation Commentary on Scripture, New Testament IV, John 1-12, 54.http://smile.amazon.com/John-1-12-Reformat…/…/ref=sr_1_sc_2…

"Who Are You?" Sermon: John 1:19-28

“Who Are You?”

[John 1:19-28]

February 1, 2015 (January 18, 2015) Second Reformed Church

            Jesus is the Incarnate Son of God – the Promised One Way of Salvation – the Revealing of God in the flesh to all who believe in Him.

            We turn to look at the forerunner of Jesus this morning – His cousin, John the Baptist.

            “And this is the testimony of John,”

            We will remember that John the Baptist was the son of Elizabeth and Zechariah, the high priest.  Elizabeth and Zechariah were older people, and Elizabeth was known to be barren – she did not have any children and she could not bear children.  But God sent the angel, Gabriel, to announce that God was going to open the womb of Elizabeth for a special purpose.

            “And there appeared to [Zechariah] an angel of the Lord standing on the right side of the altar of incense. And Zechariah was troubled when he saw him, and fear fell upon him. But the angel said to him, ‘Do not be afraid, Zechariah, for your prayer has been heard, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call his name John. And you will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth, for he will be great before the Lord. And he must not drink wine or strong drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother's womb. And he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God, and he will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready for the Lord a people prepared’” (Luke 1:11-17, ESV).

            God opened the womb of Elizabeth, and she bore John the Baptist.  And God said through Gabriel, that John the Baptist would be an important person who would bring joy.  He would be indwelt by God the Holy Spirit, even while he was in the womb – we will remember that when Mary went to visit Elizabeth, John jumped for joy in the womb since he was in the presence of the Savior, Who was in Mary’s womb.  John would minister in the “spirit and power of Elijah” – fulfilling the prophecy of Malachi – that Elijah would return before the Day of the Lord – and John would turn the people back to God and prepare them for the coming of God the Savior.

            John was around thirty at the time of our text, and he was baptizing Jews who were repentant of their sins.  Although there were washing ceremonies in Judaism, it was understood that only Gentiles – non-Jews – needed to be baptized as part of their conversion to Judaism.  Jews had Yom Kippur – the Day of Atonement – when the goats were sacrificed for the sins of Israel.

            John’s baptism was attracting hordes of Jews, and word got back to the Pharisees who wanted an explanation as to why he was baptizing Jews and as to where his authority was from.  The only explanation they could think of – which was almost right – was that he was someone from the past who had been resurrected, or that he was the Christ – the Promised Savior, or that he was entering the Levitical priesthood of his father, Zechariah.

            And so they sent a large delegation of priests and Levites to interrogate him.

            We see, first, this morning, that the delegation came with impure motives.

            “when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, ‘Who are you?’”

            If the Pharisees wanted to know who John was and by what authority he was baptizing Jews, they could have sent a single person – or two or three – to interview him and report back – but they didn’t:  they sent a large delegation, from which we can infer that they did not believe that John was acting with proper authority.  He was taking people away from the Temple and the work of the Pharisees, Levites, and priests.  They came – not merely for an explanation – but to shut him down.

            This understanding is supported by the way that John reacted to their coming to the Jordan at all.  Matthew records:

            “But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, ‘You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not presume to say to yourselves, “We have Abraham as our father,” for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham. Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.

            “’I baptize you with water for repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire’” (Matthew 3:7-12, ESV).

            When John saw them, he was angry, and he exposed their impious motives in coming to him.  He warned them that they were teetering on divine condemnation and warned them of the work of the Savior.

            Still, they proceeded in asking him who he was – with the underlying question of, “Who gave you the authority to baptize Jews?”

            Second, the delegation came with wrong expectations.  They had in mind a very few possible reasons why what he was doing would be acceptable – they only missed the right one.

“He confessed, and did not deny, but confessed, ‘I am not the Christ.’”

The delegation came to see a man of power, who was dressed in camel’s hair and ate locusts and honey.  He looked and acted like a prophet, but there hadn’t been a prophet in Israel for over four hundred years.  Their conclusion was that he must be the Christ – the Savior God promised to send.

But John denied that immediately and strongly.

We remember that in ancient Hebrew, they didn’t use words like “very” for emphasis, but repeated what they were saying to emphasize the point, and so John said, “No, absolutely not, I am not the Christ.”

 “And they asked him, ‘What then? Are you Elijah?’ He said, ‘I am not.’”

They knew that the prophet Malachi had prophesied the return of Elijah before the coming of the Savior, but they thought this meant that he would rise from the dead.  That is why they asked him if he was Elijah – if he was the resurrected prophet.  And again, John said, “no.”

 “’Are you the Prophet?’ And he answered, ‘No.’”

It’s not clear whether they had a specific prophet in mind, but they were again asking if he was some other prophet resurrected from the dead.  And again, John said, “no.”

“So they said to him, ‘Who are you? We need to give an answer to those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?’”

They were obviously aggravated by this point.  So they put it to him, “Who are you?  We have people to answer to, laws to uphold, and duties to perform.  Tell us who you are and by what authority you are baptizing, so we can tell those who sent us and decide how to deal with you.”

“He said, ‘I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord,” as the prophet Isaiah said.’”

            “I am the voice of preparation that the prophet, Isaiah, prophesied would come.”

            Now, today, if we heard that, we might think that was an unfair answer – it doesn’t really say much, does it?  However, these were the experts in the Law of God – they knew God’s Word forwards and backwards, and they should have understood what he was saying.

            The prophet Isaiah was addressing the exiles in Babylon when he wrote:

            “Comfort, comfort my people, says your God.  Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that her warfare is ended, that her iniquity is pardoned, that she has received from the LORD's hand double for all her sins.

            “A voice cries:  ‘In the wilderness prepare the way of the LORD; make straight in the desert a highway for our God.  Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain. And the glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of the LORD has spoken’” (Isaiah 40:1-5, ESV).

            Isaiah was relaying God’s hope to the people in exile – that the exile was going to end, and that God was sending “the voice” – who was John the Baptist – to call the people to repentance of their sin in preparation for the coming Savior Who would reveal God to them.

            Jesus later confirmed that this is who John the Baptist was:

            “As they went away, Jesus began to speak to the crowds concerning John: ‘What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken by the wind? What then did you go out to see? A man dressed in soft clothing? Behold, those who wear soft clothing are in kings' houses. What then did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet. This is he of whom it is written,

            “’”Behold, I send my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way before you.”

            “Truly, I say to you, among those born of women there has arisen no one greater than John the Baptist. Yet the one who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence, and the violent take it by force. For all the Prophets and the Law prophesied until John, and if you are willing to accept it, he is Elijah who is to come. He who has ears to hear, let him hear’” (Matthew 11:7-15, ESV).

            The delegation should have understood that John was authorized by God to do what he was doing as the one God prophesied would come to prepare the people for the coming of the Savior – Jesus.  But they were blinded.

            Third, the delegation had a wrong understanding of sin and baptism.

            “(Now they had been sent from the Pharisees.) They asked him, ‘Then why are you baptizing, if you are neither the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?’”

            They didn’t understand the seriousness of sin.  They didn’t understand that Yom Kippur was not enough to make the people sinless, much less holy.  They were forgiven in the moment, but they still bore their sin nature, and within a moment, they sinned again, and they were back under the condemnation of God.

            They thought they could be saved by their works.  They thought if they kept the Law meticulously – and they did – it would be enough to be eternally forgiven, but it is not – for any sin is too much sin to be received by the Holy God.  God cannot stand any sin in His Presence, but banishes it from Him eternally in the end.

            They knew they were better than most people, and they thought that was good enough.  Many people feel that way today – but to say that is either to not understand the depths of the evil of sin or to not understand the heights of the Holiness of God – or both.

            They thought baptism was a ritual to bring the Gentiles – the non-Jews – into Judaism – but, as John the Baptist shows and we understand from the whole of the Scripture – baptism exposes us as sinners and symbolically portrays the only way to become clean – to be forgiven – to be right in God’s Sight.

            How is baptism administered?  Someone other than the one being baptism pours water over the person seeking to be baptized.  No one baptizes himself.  This symbolizes that salvation can only come by Someone Else making us clean – forgiving us – making us right in the Eyes of God.  Baptism does not save a person; it shows that a person must be saved by Someone Else.

            In theological language, we would say that John’s baptism mortifies – it shows the way that sin is to be put to death – by Someone Other than the person being baptized.

            They didn’t get it.

            Fourth, the delegation had a wrong understanding of the Savior.

            “John answered them, ‘I baptize with water, but among you stands one you do not know, even he who comes after me, the strap of whose sandal I am not worthy to untie.’ These things took place in Bethany across the Jordan, where John was baptizing.”

            John explained that his baptism was with water – it did not save anyone – but pointed to Someone Else Who would make those who believe right with God.

            John explained to them that there was Someone in their midst – Someone they had seen – Someone they knew – Someone they had seen in the market place and in the Temple – Someone they should have noticed! – the One Who comes after John to take up the work of baptizing – but He is greater than John – so much greater that he was not worthy to untie the filthy strap of His sandals.

            Remember – in those days, most people walked on the dirt roads, and the animals walked on the dirt roads, so people’s feet and sandals would have been covered with dirt and animal refuse.  And John said he was not worthy – it would be too high an honor for him – to untie the filthy sandal of the One Who comes after him.

            Something similar today would be to say that it would be too high an honor for you to clean someone’s toilet.  Get it?

            Earlier, we mentioned Matthew’s account of this event, and John said of Jesus – the One coming after him, “He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.”

            In theological language, we would say that Jesus’ baptism vivifies – Jesus’ baptism brings to life. 

            John’s baptism – which is one of the Sacraments – is for all people who confess that they are sinners and unable to make themselves right with God – and the Sacrament of Baptism is one of the visible signs of the Gospel approved by our God and Savior which shows that they only way to be right with God is for Someone Else to make a person right with God.

            Jesus’ baptism is received by all those who believe in Him savingly – by all those who believe the Gospel.  And His baptism has two parts – fire – it purifies a person – removing their sin from them – Jesus takes our sin and its punishment upon Himself, and the indwelling of God the Holy Spirit – Who leads us in becoming holy – in growing and perfecting faith and obedience to God – as Jesus’ perfect sinless and holy life is credited to us and we grow in it – to be fully received on the final day.

            Jesus’ baptism is a spiritual baptism in which Jesus forgives our sins through His suffering and death, and credits His Righteousness – His sinless and holy life to us – for He lived such a life and gives us its credit as our Substitute before God.

            The savior many of the Pharisees was looking for was one like themselves – a scholar-king who would keep separate from sinners and overthrow the Roman government, restoring the kingdom to Israel.

            But God’s plan was not that small.  God’s plan was to send His Son for all those who would believe in Him – to conquer the world, the flesh, and the devil to provide the Enteral Kingdom for all those who believe.

            Why did you come to the worship service this morning?

            Did you come with impure motivations?

            What did you expect would happen?

            Did you come for bells and whistles and lightshows?

            Do you understand that you are a sinner and there is nothing you can do about it?

            Did you think your baptism saved you, so you can do whatever you want now?

            What savior do you believe in?

            Did you come thinking that Jesus would make you healthy and wealthy?

            Or did you come this morning to acknowledge that you have been an unprofitable servant, and there is nothing you can do to be made right with God?

            Did you come to ask God for forgiveness and to hear what He has to say in His Word, intending to receive it by faith and obey that your joy in Jesus would be full?

            Who do you think you are?

            Let us pray:

            Almighty God, we thank You for sending John to prepare the way for the coming of Jesus, our God and Savior.  We thank You for the Sacrament of Baptism in which we confess our sins and acknowledge that there is nothing we can do to save ourselves.  We thank You for sending Jesus that He would be the Substitute of all those who would believe in Him and His Gospel that we would be forgiven for our sins, be made right in Your Eyes, and grow in holiness under the guidance and by the Power of God the Holy Spirit Who lives in us, until that final day when Jesus returns and glorifies us and brings us into the Kingdom of Life and Light.  Lord, help us not to lose sight of these things, and lead on, O King Eternal.  For it is in Jesus’ Name we pray, Amen.

February Sermons

I am back on my feet and hope to stay there!  D.V., the preaching schedule for February will be as follows:

2/1/15

 John 1:19-28  “Who Are You?”

2/8/15

 John 1:29-34  “The Lamb of God”

2/15/15

 John 1:35-42  “What Are You Seeking?”

2/18/15 Ash Wednesday 7 PM

 II Corinthians 5:20b-6:10  “Be Reconciled”

2/22/15 Lent 1

 Luke 24:13-35  “The Road to Emmaus:  The Word”

Sunday's Worship Service

Due to sleet snow rain sleet snow rain cold cold cold, tomorrow's worship service at Second Reformed, Irvington, is closed. D.V., the church will be opened, we will worship together, and I will be well enough to be with you all next week. Who's up for three sermons?

Review: "Their Name is Today"

“Experts inform us that overpopulation is destroying the earth.  I disagree:  greed and selfishness are ruining the planet, not children.  They are born givers, not takers” (1).

Although I disagree with Johann Christoph Arnold’s portrayal of children as born innocent, his book, Their Name is Today, is a clarion call to a world that considers children a burden or a nuisance.

King David’s son, Solomon, wrote,   “Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb a reward.  Like arrows in the hand of a warrior are the children of one's youth.  Blessed is the man who fills his quiver with them!  He shall not be put to shame when he speaks with his enemies in the gate” (Psalm 127:3-5, ESV).

Through quotes, reflections, and anecdotes, Arnold shows the value of children and responsibility of the adult world to raise them and to benefit from them, as they benefit from us.

Some that stood out to me:

Children must not be told or allowed to feel that they are a burden – they are a gift from God – and they ought to be told so (10).

Children learn through play and through following after those things which are of interest to them.  Exposure to variety is good, but a college style of curricula might be more advantageous to children (15).

The grading system can kill brilliant and creative minds (29).

Creativity – and not screen time (necessarily) – is to be encouraged:  “How curious will children be, how mentally agile, creative, and persistent in seeking answers to their questions, if, from a young age, they learn to Google it first, and ask questions later (or not at all)?” (51).

Love is the most important thing we give our children (71).                                                 

Discipline and forgiveness are intertwined:  “It also taught me a lesson I have never forgotten – one I drew on in dealing with my own children years later:  don’t be afraid to discipline a child, but the moment you feel he is sorry, be sure there is immediate and complete forgiveness on your part” (93).

And if you have been gifted difficult children in whatever sense that takes spend the time to find the way that they can best be reached and become the men and women they were born to be (109).

Parenting is a high and difficult call, and if our children are going to know that they bear the Image of God (129) and were given life for more than just being right on a standardized exam, we must work hard with them to find what they have been given and may develop to be.

Forget the manuals.  Consider the creative genius of life.  Maximize your joy in the joy of your children.

[This review appears on my blog and at Amazon.com.  I received a copy of this book free from Handlebar Publishing and Plough Publishing House in exchange for the review.] 

#ThereNameIsToday

http://smile.amazon.com/Their-Name-Today-Reclaiming-Childhood/dp/0874866308/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1421964363&sr=8-1&keywords=their+name+is+today

Today's Worship Service

Any Second Reformed Irvington people on this morning:  the pastor is sick and the ground is icy, so Consistory has decided to cancel service this morning.  Be safe, stay well, and D.V., we will be together next Sunday.

Free Community Lunch

Join us today from 12 - 1 PM for our free community lunch.  All are invited -- no strings attached.  We offer this lunch once a month (D.V.) in thanks to God for sending Jesus to be our Savior.

Reformed Wisdom

"John's baptism mortifies....  Christ's baptism vivifies...."  Reformation Commentary on the Scripture:  New Testament IV:  John 1-12, 40.

http://smile.amazon.com/John-1-12-Reformation-Commentary-Scripture/dp/0830829679/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1421166610&sr=8-2&keywords=reformation+commentary

"Seeing God" Sermon: John 1:14-18

“Seeing God”

[John 1:14-18]

January 11, 2015 Second Reformed Church

            Have you seen God?

Our One God is a Trinity; He exists in Three Persons – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. 

The Son of God is the Word, the Life, and the Light.

We are born in sin, and we can only be made right with God by God adopting us as His sons and daughters – by being born by the Light – by God, through the Son, by the Power of the Holy Spirit.  Because we have sinned against the Holy God, God is angry with us for our sin and will punish us according to His Justice, unless God makes us righteous and holy, through His Son, by the Power of the Holy Spirit.

In this morning’s text, we see how this happens, and we see that the sons and daughters of God have seen God and will see God.

First, the Word – God the Son – became flesh.

            “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us,”

            God the Son – God the Word – God the Light – God the Life – the Second Person of the Trinity became flesh. 

            God did not take on the shell of a human being and live His life before us and then cast away the shell after the Ascension.

            God did not make a human divine and live His life before us and then ascend Jesus back to the Father – perhaps adding a fourth member to the Trinity.

            No, what God did was send the Son to earth – God the Son and Jesus of Nazareth were united in One Person in the womb of Mary, while remaining the One God Almighty and the real human, Jesus of Nazareth – with a human nature and the divine nature, and a human will and the divine will – distinct and unmixed.

            It means that God the Son united with Jesus of Nazareth in one person and, in so doing, God condescended to take on the weakness and the frailty and the responsibility of real human beings.  While the Incarnate Son was on earth, He grew as human beings grow, He got sick, He may have whacked His thumb with a hammer in Joseph’s shop – and felt that pain, He may have had acne, He submitted to His parents and to the Law of God.

            And there’s the point – that’s why God came to earth in the person of Jesus – that’s why Jesus had to really be God and really be a human – in every way, except for sin – in one person.  The author of Hebrews wrote:  “Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord” (Hebrews 12:14, ESV).

            The only people who will ever see the Lord God are those people who are holy – those people who have never sinned and have kept the Law of God perfectly.  Jeremiah describes us as naturally being thus:  “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?” (Jeremiah 17:9, ESV).  And that’s a problem, right?  Because you and I sin and you and I have not kept God’s Law perfectly.  And the same is true of every mere human being.  We are born with a deceitful and desperately sick heart.

            The only way to get around this bad news is for Someone Who never sinned and kept the Law perfectly to volunteer to be our Substitute – so we would get the credit for His sinless and holy life, and He would get the credit of our sinful and not holy life.  And the only way a person could do that was if He was – at the same time – in one person – the One True God and a real human being.

            You see – salvation is by works – by the works of Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of God Incarnate:

            Paul wrote:  “For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die—but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation” (Romans 5:6-11, ESV).

            We are saved through Christ’s work because He is at the same time in one person, the One Almighty God and the man, Jesus of Nazareth, Who lived a perfect and holy life and credited it to our accounts while taken our sin and the punishment due us on Himself.

            Second, those who knew Jesus on earth witnessed the Glory of God.

“and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father,”

John and the others that knew Jesus saw His Glory – the heaviness – the weightiness – of His praise and honor and worthiness and wonderfulness.  Even though His Glory was veiled by His humanity, those who believed in Him could see His Glory.

And notice that John does not say that they merely saw His Glory, but that His Glory was that “of the only Son from the Father.”  It was the Glory of God the Son Who came from God the Father.  Again, John makes it clear that they understood that Jesus is God Himself.

That’s why, when Jesus asked the disciples who they believed Him to be, “Simon Peter replied, ‘You are the Christ, the Son of the living God’” (Matthew 16:16, ESV).

As God the Father was willing, He lifted the veil to show the disciples the Glory of Jesus – God the Son, so the only proper response was to see that Glory and recognize Him for Who He is:  Jesus is the Savior, the Only Son of God

There are many places where we can look with twenty-twenty hindsight and shake our heads and say, “Those stupid disciples, why don’t they get it?”  But they didn’t have the whole Word of God that we can read and look through and say, “There is no other conclusion, as we read God’s Word, but to proclaim Jesus as God the Only Savior!”

But in that moment when He was living in Israel, God did not allow all to see His Glory, as we read, “And when Jesus had finished these parables, he went away from there, and coming to his hometown he taught them in their synagogue, so that they were astonished, and said, ‘Where did this man get this wisdom and these mighty works? Is not this the carpenter's son? Is not his mother called Mary? And are not his brothers James and Joseph and Simon and Judas? And are not all his sisters with us? Where then did this man get all these things?’ And they took offense at him. But Jesus said to them, ‘A prophet is not without honor except in his hometown and in his own household’” (Matthew 13:53-57, ESV).

We would be just as dumbfounded if God had not opened our eyes to see His Glory.  Even today – I asked a non-believing friend to read the Bible – and he actually read through the entire Bible – and he raised questions to me – but at the end, he said he didn’t believe it.

So, we ought not be discouraged in our evangelism – in our proclaiming the Gospel to others – but we ought to be continually in prayer for those we have told and are telling the Gospel – because we are all born in “cosmic rebellion” against God, and until God opens our eyes and changed our hearts, we will not and cannot see His Glory and believe in Jesus savingly.

“full of grace and truth.”

What does this mean?  His Glory was full of “grace and truth”?

It means that since Jesus is God and a real human, He was able to keep and fulfill all of the Law.  As Jesus said, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them” (Matthew 5:17, ESV).

The Law and the Prophets – all that God has commanded us in the Moral Law and promised in His Word – remain.  Yet, Jesus has kept every point of the Law and the Prophets perfectly – never sinning and fulfilling the prophecies about Him.

Third, Jesus is before John the Baptist.

“(John bore witness about him, and cried out, ‘This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me ranks before me, because he was before me.’)”

Jesus called John the Baptist the greatest of all mere men – the greatest prophet of the Old Testament – because John the Baptist announced the fulfillment of the prophecies about the Savior in Jesus.  Yet Jesus is greater than John the Baptist, because Jesus is not merely a human, but the Incarnate Son of God – He is God in the human person of Jesus.  Jesus is the Savior that all the prophets pointed to.

John said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29, ESV).

But how are we to understand John the Baptist saying that Jesus “was before him”?  It is quite clear in the Scripture that John the Baptist was six months older than Jesus.

This is a confession that Jesus is the Eternal God – Who existed before John the Baptist – even before space and time and all of Creation.

John the Baptist was proclaiming that Jesus is greater than him, because Jesus is the fulfillment of the prophecies about the Savior and that Jesus is even greater than that, because He is God Himself in the flesh.

Fourth, Jesus gives grace upon grace.

  “For from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.”

What does it mean that we who believe have received “grace upon grace”?

Surely, it means that we have received the divine blessing of salvation through Jesus Christ.  That is the greatest grace we have received – that God chose to send His Son to save all we who would believe.  Yet, there is more to it than that – and that is not to say that the gift of Jesus is not enough – He is – but the greatness of the blessings that we have received continue to pile up along with that supreme blessing, if we but think for a moment.

Are you breathing?  Most of you seem to be…

Do you have clothes to wear?

Do you have food to eat?

Do you have a place to live – some sort of shelter?

Can you see, and smell, and touch, and taste, and hear?

Are you living on a habitable planet?

Is your body processing your food well?

One of my doctors is an Orthodox Jew, and he has told me that there is a prayer he recites after every time he relieves himself, giving thanks to God to the ability to relieve himself.  And we might smile at that, but isn’t it true?  If you have ever had a kidney stone or a UTI or any type of blockage in your body, didn’t you give thanks for the grace to relieve yourself normally once you were well?

We are a very ungrateful people in the Unites States – we are even more ungrateful in the Church – because we know everything we have, every ability we have, everything – comes from the Hand of our Loving Father.

Our Lord, Jesus Christ, gives us grace upon grace.  Why aren’t we thankful?

The person with the most wretched, pain-filled life has reason to thank God, because it could be worse.  Job had lost all of his money, all of his possessions, all of his children, and he had lost his health, “then his wife said to him, ‘Do you still hold fast your integrity? Curse God and die.’ But he said to her, ‘You speak as one of the foolish women would speak. Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil?’ In all this Job did not sin with his lips” (Job 2:9-10, ESV).

If he still wasn’t receiving grace upon grace – even in the midst of all that disaster – life would be meaningless – it would be vanity – it would be empty.  But he understood that – even in tragedy – we have reason to be thankful.

We have to move on:

John tells us the Law came through Moses.  Moses was held in very high esteem as the chief lawgiver of God.  But, as we have said before, the Law was never intended to be a way to salvation.  Paul explains the purpose of the Law:  “What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, ‘You shall not covet’” (Romans 7:7, ESV).

Paul tells us that the purpose of the Law is to show us what is approved by God and what sin is.  The Law was given to set up boundaries and to convict us of sin when we break them.  The Law tells us that we have broken the Law and are at enmity with God – we are sinners against God!

But “grace and truth” came through Jesus Christ.  What is he saying?

He is saying that Jesus kept the Law because He is Grace and Truth.  Jesus is the Only One Who could keep the Law – and that is why He is the Savior.

Jesus does love the Lord His God with all His heart and all His soul and all His mind and all His strength, and His neighbor as Himself.  Jesus does worship the One God Almighty.  Jesus does not commit idolatry.  Jesus does not take the Name of the Lord in vain.  Jesus does keep the Sabbath perfectly.  Jesus did honor His earthly father and mother.  Jesus does not murder.  Jesus does not commit adultery.  Jesus does not steal.  Jesus does not commit false witness.  Jesus does not covet.

Jesus kept all of the Law perfectly, so He was able to be our Substitute, crediting us with His Righteousness and taking the penalty for all of our sin upon Himself, so we are now seen as righteous and holy and sinless, in the eyes of our Father.

That’s why Jesus is superior to Moses.

Fifth, no one has ever seen God.

“No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father's side, he has made him known.”

            “No one has ever seen God” – why not?

            When Moses was on Mount Sinai, Moses asked to see God’s face, and we read, “And the LORD said to Moses, ‘This very thing that you have spoken I will do, for you have found favor in my sight, and I know you by name.’ Moses said, ‘Please show me your glory.’ And he said, ‘I will make all my goodness pass before you and will proclaim before you my name “The LORD.” And I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy. But,’ he said, ‘you cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and live.’ And the LORD said, ‘Behold, there is a place by me where you shall stand on the rock, and while my glory passes by I will put you in a cleft of the rock, and I will cover you with my hand until I have passed by. Then I will take away my hand, and you shall see my back, but my face shall not be seen’” (Exodus 33:17-23, ESV).

            So, we can’t see God, because to look upon His Face would kill us.  Why?  Because we are sinners, and to view His Pure Glory would kill us.

            Paul wrote to Timothy, “I charge you in the presence of God, who gives life to all things, and of Christ Jesus, who in his testimony before Pontius Pilate made the good confession, to keep the commandment unstained and free from reproach until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, which he will display at the proper time—he who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone has immortality, who dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see. To him be honor and eternal dominion. Amen” (1 Timothy 6:13-16, ESV).

            So, we can’t see God, because He lives in “unapproachable light.”

            Paul spoke of Christ, “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation”

(Colossians 1:15, ESV).

            So, we can’t see God, because He is invisible.

            But, John writes, “No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father's side,”

            John tells us that no one has ever seen God.  Then he tells us that God sits at the side of God the Father.  Who is he talking about?

            In this context, it can only be God the Son.  What has God the Son done – God Who is at the Father’s side”?   “he has made him known.”

            The word that we translate “known” means that God the Son revealed the Father – so He could be seen.  How?  By becoming incarnate in the person of Jesus.

            Jesus said, “All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him” (Matthew 11:27, ESV).

            And again Jesus said, “Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?” (John 14:9b, ESV).

            The Son made God visible through the Incarnation.

            The people Who knew Jesus on earth all those years ago saw God in the flesh.

            And you know what, we are going to see God.

            We’re not going to see the Father or the Spirit – they are invisible, but the Son remains in the flesh of Jesus of Nazareth.  And we will be resurrected in our flesh – with our human eyes.  Job said, “For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth.  And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another.  My heart faints within me!” (Job 19:25-27, ESV).

            Job looked forward to the day when – in his resurrected – yet human body – he would see the Lord Jesus – God in the flesh – His Redeemer.

            Do you?

            Do you long for the day when all we who believe will be with Jesus, and we will see Him and hear Him for ourselves – and worship Him in His Presence?

            We wouldn’t be twenty-first century Americans if we didn’t ask, “But what are You doing for me now?  I can’t see You now?  You’re at the Right Hand of the Father, waiting to return in glory – but I can’t see You there!”

            Or, can we?

            Paul writes, “For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known” (1 Corinthians 13:12, ESV).

            Part of what Paul is saying here is that we can see God now – not as fully as He sees us and knows us – in holy perfection.  Not face to face yet – but we can see Him now.

            How?  What is the mirror Paul is talking about?

            It is the Word of God read and preached, and the Sacraments.

We see God dimly – not face to face yet – but we can see enough to know that Jesus is God the Incarnate Son – the One Who is the Only Savior of all we who believe.

Have you seen Him?

Let us pray:

Almighty and Gracious God, we rejoice that You chose to save us for Yourself and that You sent Your Son to become a real human being so He could take our place and save us from the wrath due for our sin.  We rejoice that we can see You – through the Son – even now – through the Word and the Sacraments, and we ask that as we see You more clearly, we would long all the more for the day when we will see Jesus face to face.  For it is in Jesus’ Name we pray, Amen.