Can I have a witness?
May 21st 2012 22:40
We Have seen His salvaiton..
therefore we have a testimony
1 John 5:8-15
† IN JESUS NAME †
May you be completely convinced of the testimony of the Father, that He has given us mercy and peace and life, as we live forever in Christ!
The Original Testimony
It is the sixth day , and the Jury is seated… and the Witness takes the stand…there is no need for an oath, for who would doubt His testimony?
He looks out, over all His creation, most of which He has testified before of, and has said, “It is good”. There is something new, and though some would observe it as two individuals, in God’s eyes, they are one, a family, and having been made in His image, they will become His family.
Individually, His children, together, with those who will follow: His People, His Son’s beautiful, holy, precious Bride.
His testimony, that which He bore witness to before all of heaven, before all of creation changed, for no longer was it good….
“It was very good!”
As we accept Moses testimony of those words on the sixth day, so to do we accept God’s witness that His creation was very good….
I think we struggle in realizing that His creation is still…very good.
For if we accepted His testimony then, passed down through the ages, we need to realize as well, that the testimony in today’s epistle, as the Father bears witness of the son, is the same testimony…
And as God sees His creation, as He sees the Son’s work in tending to it, caring for it, the testimony is still….. it is very good.
Many Don’t Think so..
Some of you might just be thinking that I am crazy, a bit off of my rocker, in saying that I believe God would bear witness, that God would testify, that our Father in Heaven would swear that His creation is, right now, not just good, but very good.
One could point to the brokenness of the world, from the collapse of nations, to the collapse of families, to the brokenness of our bodies, and challenge the position that God would testify that it is all very good.
One would say we don’t even have to get to the consequences of sin, but just the prevalence of sin and think they had a logical challenge to the claim that God would testify that His creation is very good.
Look at the sin in society, the successful television shows, both “reality shows” and dramas. The most popular focus on breaking God’s law, whether murder investigation shows, or shows about lawyers, or gossiping and slandering those who do, or just about sex! Any kind of sex except the kind which God honors and created our bodies with the ability to enjoy – the kind between a husband and wife, committed to each other before God and their community. Truly we are in another time described by Paul to the church in Rome,
32 They know God’s justice requires that those who do these sin deserve to die, yet they do them anyway. Worse yet, they encourage others to do them, too. Romans 1:28-32 (NLT)
We don’t even have to look at sin in society, we can see it in churches. For if television loves a nice juicy scandal, journalists of every kind seem to rejoice when they can report of a scandal in God’s churches. Most of us could testify to the sin in churches, even the sins found in this church. Many of us bear the scars of such unrighteousness, and if we are honest, we have caused the scarring of others as well.
And that doesn’t negate the testimony of God, that which He bears witness to, “It is very good!”
In contrast to witness, one might dare to say, “Pastor, you know the sins of the world, the sins even in the church, but would you dare to say God testifies that is it all very good, if you knew my sin?”
My first inclination is to say, while I don’t know your specific sins, for most of you don’t take up the opportunity for private confession and absolution, I do know mine. Well, at least I know of some, for we confess we don’t even realize all our sins, only God knows them all...
And yes – no matter the sins of the world, or those in the church, or those in ourselves, not by my opinion, but by scripture’s testimony, I believe God bears witness that all is good,
For He testifies of His Son, and of what He has given us because of the Son!
And that testimony, the witness the God our Father bears of His son, that witness is what we place our trust in… it is why we have hope… and that testimony is that all is very good,
List to the witness of God
Hear that testimony again,
“And this is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. 12 Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life. 13 I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life.”
This is the message that we need to believe in, to trust in, to find hope in the midst of a world, that distracts us so easily from what God is crafting in and through our lives.
You have life…. Eternal life that the Father has given you, that is found as you dwell, as you remain in Christ.
Think of how easily we believe rumors, and urban legends. We are so trusting in what is told us that there exists a multi-million dollar website called “Snopes”. It exists just to challenge those urban legends and rumors. Think about how easily we believe gossip – shouldn’t we, as John encourages us, trust and believe in the testimony, the witness that God reveals to us?
We have life – that life is eternal!
This message isn’t just for some special people in ivory towers, it was said to people like us! People like Peter and James and John and Andrew and Paul, who realized that they were in God’s presence, and that His witness remains. Every time we see a child baptized, everytime we partake of His body and blood – we hear that testimony again – you have life – life with the Son, life in the Son…
And all that would claim that this isn’t very good, has been already done away with – the brokenness, the sin, the unrighteousness,
If one asks how I can claim that as He looks on His creation God testifies that “it is very good”, it is because He sees the life we have, in Christ. For Jesus has completely dealt with all that we would say is broken and sinful, and less than perfect……as He lived, and died, and rose again…and we are brought into that life – by the Holy Spirit, the Lord and Giver of life…
And we trust in this testimony and know it is true….
Because of that…
Because we know it is true, because we know God has dealt with all sin and unrighteousness to give us such life, we realize that our eyes presently cannot see it completely. Hear again John,
10 Whoever believes in the Son of God has the testimony in himself.
We know it, for the Holy Spirit who dwells in us testifies of it to us, we grasp that what we cannot put our minds around is true, for we know, intimately know the One who testifies to it. We know what He creates is beautiful and good, so we know what He re-creates in Christ is just as good, just as beautiful, just as very good….
and we begin to trust in His testimony, His witness, more than we do our own, for our souls soars, as we realize what He has given us, how He has blessed us, the price paid, that we would not be held captive by sin and death, but know life – and life abundant, for He is our abundance!
That’s why John writes:
this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. 15 And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him.
What does God desire? That all men would come to have this new life, this transformation of mind and soul and heart, and yes, one day of body as well. That man would walk with Him, righteous, merciful, knowing that we depend on His for all of that, and more.
And so we do pray that our ministry is blessed, and that there will be a day when this building will no longer be adequate – not just for our combined services – but that the two Concordia Congregations, and Passion – each see this place filled beyond capacity – for we know that is what He desires, that is His will…
Not that we have numbers…
But that people know they have life in His name….
That people know the promises poured out on them in baptism,
That people know the presence and blessing of God as He shares with us in a feast that is beyond compare…
As we dwell – now and forever, in the very unexplainable peace of God our Father, kept their securely, our hearts and minds, because we live in Christ.
AMEN?
therefore we have a testimony
1 John 5:8-15
† IN JESUS NAME †
May you be completely convinced of the testimony of the Father, that He has given us mercy and peace and life, as we live forever in Christ!
The Original Testimony
It is the sixth day , and the Jury is seated… and the Witness takes the stand…there is no need for an oath, for who would doubt His testimony?
He looks out, over all His creation, most of which He has testified before of, and has said, “It is good”. There is something new, and though some would observe it as two individuals, in God’s eyes, they are one, a family, and having been made in His image, they will become His family.
Individually, His children, together, with those who will follow: His People, His Son’s beautiful, holy, precious Bride.
His testimony, that which He bore witness to before all of heaven, before all of creation changed, for no longer was it good….
“It was very good!”
As we accept Moses testimony of those words on the sixth day, so to do we accept God’s witness that His creation was very good….
I think we struggle in realizing that His creation is still…very good.
For if we accepted His testimony then, passed down through the ages, we need to realize as well, that the testimony in today’s epistle, as the Father bears witness of the son, is the same testimony…
And as God sees His creation, as He sees the Son’s work in tending to it, caring for it, the testimony is still….. it is very good.
Many Don’t Think so..
Some of you might just be thinking that I am crazy, a bit off of my rocker, in saying that I believe God would bear witness, that God would testify, that our Father in Heaven would swear that His creation is, right now, not just good, but very good.
One could point to the brokenness of the world, from the collapse of nations, to the collapse of families, to the brokenness of our bodies, and challenge the position that God would testify that it is all very good.
One would say we don’t even have to get to the consequences of sin, but just the prevalence of sin and think they had a logical challenge to the claim that God would testify that His creation is very good.
Look at the sin in society, the successful television shows, both “reality shows” and dramas. The most popular focus on breaking God’s law, whether murder investigation shows, or shows about lawyers, or gossiping and slandering those who do, or just about sex! Any kind of sex except the kind which God honors and created our bodies with the ability to enjoy – the kind between a husband and wife, committed to each other before God and their community. Truly we are in another time described by Paul to the church in Rome,
32 They know God’s justice requires that those who do these sin deserve to die, yet they do them anyway. Worse yet, they encourage others to do them, too. Romans 1:28-32 (NLT)
We don’t even have to look at sin in society, we can see it in churches. For if television loves a nice juicy scandal, journalists of every kind seem to rejoice when they can report of a scandal in God’s churches. Most of us could testify to the sin in churches, even the sins found in this church. Many of us bear the scars of such unrighteousness, and if we are honest, we have caused the scarring of others as well.
And that doesn’t negate the testimony of God, that which He bears witness to, “It is very good!”
In contrast to witness, one might dare to say, “Pastor, you know the sins of the world, the sins even in the church, but would you dare to say God testifies that is it all very good, if you knew my sin?”
My first inclination is to say, while I don’t know your specific sins, for most of you don’t take up the opportunity for private confession and absolution, I do know mine. Well, at least I know of some, for we confess we don’t even realize all our sins, only God knows them all...
And yes – no matter the sins of the world, or those in the church, or those in ourselves, not by my opinion, but by scripture’s testimony, I believe God bears witness that all is good,
For He testifies of His Son, and of what He has given us because of the Son!
And that testimony, the witness the God our Father bears of His son, that witness is what we place our trust in… it is why we have hope… and that testimony is that all is very good,
List to the witness of God
Hear that testimony again,
“And this is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. 12 Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life. 13 I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life.”
This is the message that we need to believe in, to trust in, to find hope in the midst of a world, that distracts us so easily from what God is crafting in and through our lives.
You have life…. Eternal life that the Father has given you, that is found as you dwell, as you remain in Christ.
Think of how easily we believe rumors, and urban legends. We are so trusting in what is told us that there exists a multi-million dollar website called “Snopes”. It exists just to challenge those urban legends and rumors. Think about how easily we believe gossip – shouldn’t we, as John encourages us, trust and believe in the testimony, the witness that God reveals to us?
We have life – that life is eternal!
This message isn’t just for some special people in ivory towers, it was said to people like us! People like Peter and James and John and Andrew and Paul, who realized that they were in God’s presence, and that His witness remains. Every time we see a child baptized, everytime we partake of His body and blood – we hear that testimony again – you have life – life with the Son, life in the Son…
And all that would claim that this isn’t very good, has been already done away with – the brokenness, the sin, the unrighteousness,
If one asks how I can claim that as He looks on His creation God testifies that “it is very good”, it is because He sees the life we have, in Christ. For Jesus has completely dealt with all that we would say is broken and sinful, and less than perfect……as He lived, and died, and rose again…and we are brought into that life – by the Holy Spirit, the Lord and Giver of life…
And we trust in this testimony and know it is true….
Because of that…
Because we know it is true, because we know God has dealt with all sin and unrighteousness to give us such life, we realize that our eyes presently cannot see it completely. Hear again John,
10 Whoever believes in the Son of God has the testimony in himself.
We know it, for the Holy Spirit who dwells in us testifies of it to us, we grasp that what we cannot put our minds around is true, for we know, intimately know the One who testifies to it. We know what He creates is beautiful and good, so we know what He re-creates in Christ is just as good, just as beautiful, just as very good….
and we begin to trust in His testimony, His witness, more than we do our own, for our souls soars, as we realize what He has given us, how He has blessed us, the price paid, that we would not be held captive by sin and death, but know life – and life abundant, for He is our abundance!
That’s why John writes:
this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. 15 And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him.
What does God desire? That all men would come to have this new life, this transformation of mind and soul and heart, and yes, one day of body as well. That man would walk with Him, righteous, merciful, knowing that we depend on His for all of that, and more.
And so we do pray that our ministry is blessed, and that there will be a day when this building will no longer be adequate – not just for our combined services – but that the two Concordia Congregations, and Passion – each see this place filled beyond capacity – for we know that is what He desires, that is His will…
Not that we have numbers…
But that people know they have life in His name….
That people know the promises poured out on them in baptism,
That people know the presence and blessing of God as He shares with us in a feast that is beyond compare…
As we dwell – now and forever, in the very unexplainable peace of God our Father, kept their securely, our hearts and minds, because we live in Christ.
AMEN?
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