Wilderness Wanderings

A Sunday Sermon edition of Wilderness Wanderings! The text is John 20:19-23 from the New International Version of the Bible. Dive In discussion questions are below for further reflection!

To see this sermon in the context of the worship service it comes from, find it here on YouTube. Or, head to our website to connect with the worshiping community of Immanuel CRC: immanuelministries.ca

1. What do you do when afraid? What frightens you about living as a Christian?
2. What mission does the church have? How do we learn about that mission? What keeps us from carrying it out? How does Jesus encourage his disciples?
3. Jesus blesses his disciples as he sends them out. How does this combined blessing and sending work itself out today?
4. What emotion replaces the disciples' fear? Do you think we are lacking in this today? How can we find it?
5. What is central to the mission of the church? How can we keep it in clear focus?
6. What gift does Jesus leave with his disciples? Does that encourage you?

Christ himself is our peace. He has destroyed the hatred that was like a wall between us…On that cross, Christ put to death [our] hatred toward one another. He came and preached peace to you who were far away. He also preached peace to those who were near. Through Christ we both come to the Father by the power of one Holy Spirit… You are also members of God's family. You are a building that is built on the apostles and prophets. They are the foundation. Christ Jesus himself is the most important stone in the building. The whole building is held together by him. It rises to become a holy temple because it belongs to the Lord. And because you belong to him, you too are being built together. You are being made into a house where God lives through his Spirit (Ephesians 2:14-22).

Contemporary Testimony: Our World Belongs to God: We grieve that the church, which shares one Spirit, one faith, one hope, and spans all time, place, race, and language, has become a broken communion in a broken world. When we struggle for the truth of the gospel and for the righteousness God demands, we pray for wisdom and courage. When our pride or blindness hinders the unity of God's household, we seek forgiveness (40).

Today, we continue our deep dive into the truth about the church of Jesus. Our text is full of action: destroyed, put to death, preached peace, a building that is built, held together, rises. It is essential we recognize that Jesus is the actor. We, believers in Jesus, are acted upon. We receive what Jesus has done and is doing.

Every action belongs to Jesus. He is our peace. On the cross, he destroyed (put to death) the hatred between us. He preaches peace to people throughout the world, bringing each one to the Father by the power of the Holy Spirit. People from every nation are being built into one church, with Jesus as the chief stone. He holds the structure together. The Holy Spirit is building us into a house in which God lives right now.

In the Old Testament, Israel built a tabernacle and later a temple. When these structures were completed, God's presence came and took up residence in them. Because of Jesus' work things are different, God lives in an unfinished building. We are being built into a house in which God already lives.

We do not have to make peace. Jesus has made peace on the cross. Each one of us is bought by the precious blood of Christ. Therefore, the Lord's Supper must be understood as the table of grace and not as a place of reward for spiritual accomplishment. Here we recognize that the only common ground we have is the grace of God in Christ. Eating from the one loaf and drinking from the one cup impresses upon us that this common ground is the only thing that matters. We all stand before God because of his grace.

So reread the passage. Pray it. See what God has done and is doing. And receive it. Especially when you cannot see it, believe it is true. Frolic in the grace of this passage. Believe for yourself and for everyone else "that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion" (Philippians 1:6).

Faith is one of our responses to this good news. We need to believe in Jesus, what he has accomplished on the cross and what he is doing now through his Spirit. The church rightly tends to focus on the cross, but she must not neglect what Jesus is doing right now. He is making peace between us.

How else shall we respond? The Contemporary Testimony leads us in the right direction: we seek forgiveness. How different would the church look to the world if she was known as the community that forgives and seeks forgiveness? Rooting ourselves in the grace of God, we need to train ourselves to be forgivers. We need to decide each day that when we are offended or hurt, we will choose to forgive, that we will not hold grudges.

Forgiveness does not mean that sin doesn't matter, nor does it mean that we refrain from holding each other accountable for sins committed. Rather, forgiveness comes from the faith that we have something which is stronger than sin. We have grace. We have received it. There is plenty to pass on. Further, it is grace that "teaches us to say 'No' to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age" (Titus 2:11).

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. (2 Corinthians 5:17-21)

Restored in Christ's presence, shaped by his life, this new community lives out the ongoing story of God's reconciling love, announces the new creation, and works for a world of justice and peace. (OWBTG 39).

Ambassadors. Continuing with what Pastor Michael challenged us with yesterday, do you see this as an identity that fits the church at present? Does it fit you? Are you a diplomatic statesman or woman who represents the best of the kingdom of God in which your citizenship resides? Are you a practitioner of that counter-cultural art of Christian statecraft that before all else is the offering of a message of forgiveness, reconciliation, and peace?

There are a few arresting realities given to us in this brief little passage. Firstly: Christ became sin for us so that we might become the righteousness of God. There are a number of Christians anxious today about the wrath of God coming against sin and sinners, as if the burden is on our shoulders as individuals or churches to escape this wrath. But that misses a critical point: the wrath has fallen on Christ. Not on his church. He became sin for us. When God looks at us: he sees righteousness—no matter how badly we continue to struggle with sin in this life. For those in Christ, our sins are not counted against us. Jesus paid it all. Period.

That brings us to the second arresting reality this passage drops on us. We are, already right now, utterly new creations in Christ. The old has gone, period. The new is here, period. Our identity and reality has changed completely. It may not look that way when we glance in the mirror or reflect on our lives, but again, the challenge is to see reality as God sees it, not as it looks from here. In the eyes of God, the kingdom has already come, we have already become his righteousness, we have already become the new creations that we look forward to in that new heaven and new earth. Challenge yourself to see in the mirror this strange new reality of new creation that God sees. Let it shape your self-perception and your perception of the church—and let it shape the way that you live! Live like the you are the person that God says you are!

When we believe and live these things—these things that no eye can see and no ear can hear, save through the gift of faith—we do, by our very presence and witness in the world, bring the good news of God's redeeming love, of his new creation come, of the justice and peace of his kingdom and reign. This is what it is to be Ambassadors of the reconciliation of the Kingdom of God.

You are God's chosen people. You are holy and dearly loved. So put on tender mercy and kindness as if they were your clothes. Don't be proud. Be gentle and patient. Put up with one another. Forgive one another if you are holding something against someone. Forgive, just as the Lord forgave you. And over all these good things put on love. Love holds them all together perfectly as if they were one (Colossians 3:12-14).

Contemporary Testimony: Our World Belongs to God: The church is a gathering of forgiven sinners called to be holy. Saved by the patient grace of God, we deal patiently with others and together confess our need for grace and forgiveness (39).

Imagine with me: what does the typical Christian look like? How does this person behave? What stands out as the driving motivation of their life? Hang on to these questions and images for a moment.

Yesterday's Hamilton Spectator included an opinion piece by Michael Cohen. It was more of a rant. It began with Canadian census data which indicates that the number of people claiming to be Christian is steadily declining. Michael wondered why Christian leaders are alarmed by this. "There are seemingly endless stories of abuse, examples of hypocrisy, gruesome tales of historic oppression, anti-vaccination hysteria, mobs proclaiming their faith as they scream support for Donald Trump…" he writes. He does not want to be identified with this expression of Christianity. Many who think like him refuse to check Christian on the census form.

I've ranted about this myself. And then I wonder if I am partially at fault. Maybe I have not lived grace well enough. Maybe I have not preached grace well enough. I've long believed that there is only one topic for preaching, and that is grace, God's grace. And the church needs to hear it now more than ever.

Passages like our text frequently catch me up short. Why are they not front and centre in our churches? It tells us what Christians should look like: merciful, kind, gentle, patient, quick to forgive, not holding grudges, loving. When others think Christian, this is the image that ought to come to their minds.

The Contemporary Testimony gets it right: "saved by the patient grace of God, we deal patiently with others and together confess our need for grace and forgiveness".

Why, if this is our confession, is it not deeply engrained in our communities? As I was growing up, each Sunday evening I heard a sermon based on the Heidelberg Catechism which begins with these brilliant words, "I am not my own, but belong-body and soul, in life and in death-to my faithful Savior Jesus Christ…Because I belong to him, Christ, by his Holy Spirit, assures me of eternal life and makes me wholeheartedly willing and ready from now on to live for him."

This catches the content of our text quite well. Once we know that we are God's chosen people, our lives can begin to change. Again, I wonder, why are Christians not known for this. Who wouldn't want to be part of this kind of community?

What do we do about it?

There is only one thing to do. Begin at home, in one's own life. This week's prayer practice is called the 'Welcoming Prayer.' It invites us to be mindful of all the times we face temptations to grasp for 'security, affection or control'. And when faced with such, we then surrender ourselves to Jesus, believing that he offers all the security and affection that we need, and we give control of ourselves to him.

We release ourselves to Jesus and welcome him in. We are the ones who can change the image other folks have of Christianity.

Our new life in Christ is celebrated and nourished in the fellowship of congregations, where we praise God's name, hear the Word proclaimed, learn God's ways, confess our sins, offer our prayers and gifts, and celebrate the sacraments. (OWBTG 36)

I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord's holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. (Ephesians 3:17b-19 Note: this is a different text than listed in the Prayer Guide, because we covered Acts 2:41-47 on October 20!)

There is a strong thread in North American Christianity today that says: "I don't need the church in order to be a Christian." But that's wrong. Here's why…

Love is a relational word. You cannot love in the abstract. This verb requires an object in order to be enacted.

It's a lovely thing to think that you love "neighbours" or "the poor," but without a real, concrete person with a name, face, and story attached to that verb of love—you actually don't love anything or anyone at all. It's easy to "love humanity" in the abstract, for instance. But to love the real neighbour that blows their leaves onto your yard or the real homeless person that leaves their shopping cart in the middle of your street is quite a different matter, isn't it? Loving the real Christians that gather together in our church on any given Sunday is no easier.

To be a part of a church community is to be annoyed, offended, hurt, suspicious of or disappointed in the real person in the next pew over whose name and face you know and whose voice you can hear. But it is only in being confronted with this real mess of humanity—this real mess of Christ-redeemed humanity—that you can ever begin to grasp how offensively wide and long and high and deep the love of Christ actually is. Because to be in the church, you will be forced to admit that your love simply isn't up to the challenge of loving the people that God loves in the way that God loves them. What a stiff-necked and hard-hearted people this is! It's enough to make anyone contemplate leaving any church.

But it's actually only in committing to this mess of folk who are on the way that we live into this odd prayer of Paul, because it is only together with all the Lord's holy people that we come to know the offensively expansive nature of Christ's love for us.

Of course, God has to do the heavy lifting if we are to remain together long enough for this to happen—which is why this is a prayer. But God does do that work, as the testimony says: he nourishes us in the fellowship, giving us a word of praise, a word to follow, a word that turns us around and transforms—a word that is even confirmed tangibly in sacrament. So: trust this work of God. Commit to the church. And, may this prayer eventually also be answered in you.

Here is what love is. It is not that we loved God. It is that he loved us and sent his Son to give his life to pay for our sins. Dear friends, since God loved us this much, we should also love one another. No one has ever seen God. But if we love one another, God lives in us. His love is made complete in us (1 John 4:10-12).

Simon Peter answered, "You are the Messiah. You are the Son of the living God." Jesus replied, "Blessed are you, Simon, son of Jonah! no mere human showed this to you. My Father in heaven showed it to you. Here is what I tell you. You are Peter. On this rock I will build my church. The gates of hell will not be strong enough to destroy it" (Matthew 16:16-18).

Contemporary Testimony: Our World Belongs to God: The church is the fellowship of those who confess Jesus as Lord. She is the bride of Christ, his chosen partner, loved by Jesus and loving him: delighting in his presence, seeking him in prayer-silent before the mystery of his love (35).

The Bible includes many images for the church, the final one being "the Bride of Christ", appearing first in Revelation 19. Because not all of us identify with being a bride, it may feel odd at first blush.

Nevertheless, this image of a wedding celebration, with the church as the bride, has captured the imagination of Christians throughout the centuries. Amid a world in turmoil and facing constant persecution, the notion that we are heading towards a grand celebration has lifted our spirits. It helps us carry on running the race.

There is a particular aspect of the wedding that God seeks to impress upon our imaginations. And it runs counter to normal marriage preparations. In many cultures there remains this: its bad luck for the groom to see the bride before the wedding ceremony. I don't know where this originated and I don't put stock in it, but it remains a thing.

Now here is the point: Jesus, the groom, has been preparing the church, his bride, for the wedding celebration from the very beginning. Jesus' declaration, "I will build my church", is the first time the word, church, is used in the Bible. He is dressing us in righteousness, right living.

John gets at the essence of the Christian life when he says, God loves us first. Because he has acted on this love by dying for our sins, we are able to love each other. More than that, when we love each other, its God's love in us. And its only when we love each other that this love is completed.

It is not that God shows up when we love. Rather, when we love, it is God's love working in us. When this happens, God's love is fulfilling its purpose. That is what "completed" means. God intends to love others through us; so, when we don't love each other, it's a big problem. The church will fall apart.

Too often we focus on our failings to love. The church needs to keep her focus on God and his love for us. That is why the Contemporary Testimony says, "delighting in his presence, seeking him in prayer-silent before the mystery of his love". God is always the initiator of love. By loving us and moving us to love each other, Jesus is building his church. He is preparing us for the final grand celebration. Through his Spirit, Jesus is getting the church ready for the 'wedding feast of the lamb" (Revelation 19:7).

The church is not ready yet. Sometimes we see her still dressed in the filthy rags of sin. This can be very painful, especially when we hurt each other. But Jesus is at work. Jesus will build his church. He will make us ready. Trust him and live in anticipation of that final party.

An extended Sunday Sermon edition of Wilderness Wanderings! The text is 1 Peter 2:4-10 from the New International Version of the Bible. Dive In discussion questions are below for further reflection!

To see this sermon in the context of the worship service it comes from, find it here on YouTube. Or, head to our website to connect with the worshiping community of Immanuel CRC: immanuelministries.ca

DIVE IN QUESTIONS

1. Where do your time, energy, and money go to? What kind of pursuits? How much of your identity is wrapped up in those things?
2. What sticks out to you about CS Lewis' story of the ghosts vs. the "solid people?"
3. What are some reasons that we (or you) might be feeling thin and ghost-like these days—uncertain of our (your) identity?
4. What are ways that we seek to "solve" our identity crisis by giving ourselves to other tempting sources of security, affirmation, or control? Do any of these "altars" resonate in your life?
5. How does the story of the Creation and Fall help us to see these alternative sources of identity as the nothingness that they are?
6. Who are you according to 1 Peter 2? And: what does that mean for where you place your time and energies?

My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires. Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you. Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do. (James 1:19-25)

The Bible tells us the story of God's mighty acts in the unfolding of covenant history. As one revelation in two testaments the Bible reveals God's will and the sweep of God's redeeming work. (OWBTG 33)

The thing about James is that he gets to the point. It's pretty simple by his reckoning. When it comes to the Word, there are three easy steps to follow. Stop talking, start listening, and do something with what you hear.

Stopping is no easy task, though, is it? It's not just talking that we're guilty of. It's a chatter of constant activity. Some of that is words—but more so it's movement. It's our lips moving, our fingers moving, our feet moving, our cars moving, our lives moving: everything moving. Fast. Constantly on the go. Tackling to-do lists and leisure activities, assignments and social engagements. It's a cultural problem. We work more and sleep less than any other developed nation in the world, second only to the US. And so S-T-O-P-I-N-G takes a great work of cross-cultural slow down: fighting our own feelings of getting left out and left behind in order to keep the boundaries we've been called to and take our place as creatures rather than gods of our own making. It's hard, but it's necessary if we are to hear the word and do it. So, first things first—you've got to stop.

Listening is also hard though. There are a million voices, videos, pictures, and messages flying our way in a myriad of formats. The built world of infrastructure, technology, and architecture tell us who we are and what to do. So do schools, advertisers, and governments. So do friends, family, and influencers. Of course, God does too: but his voice is still, small, and easily drowned out by the others. That's why we need to stop: but listening takes more than that. It's an act of focused attention—of cutting through the distractions of the heart and mind long enough to attend to God and what he is saying to us. But listening also takes longer than that. It's not enough to focus in and hear God in the moment: we've got to hold on to what we've heard and remember it through the day and week! Our focus and attention have to carry on such that the word works through and transforms our habits of attention throughout our lives!

These are the pre-conditions of Christian action though. That might sound strange, because if we're anything, we're doers! But without stopping our doing long enough to listen, the doing we do is our own alone. In order for the Word to flow through our lives (and not just our own ideas of helping others and being good people), we have to stop and we have to listen so that God's will and work are done on earth, and not just our own.

Jesus performed many other signs in front of his disciples. They are not written down in this book. But these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God. If you believe this, you will have life because you belong to him (John 20:30-31).

Contemporary Testimony: Our World Belongs to God: It is the Word of truth, breath of God, fully reliable in leading us to know God and to walk with Jesus Christ in new life (32).

Our text comes near the end of John's account of Jesus' life and ministry. He informs us why he included the things he chronicled. They were recorded to awaken faith in Jesus, the Messiah, the Son of God.

These are two titles that have always been significant in the Christian faith. They have deep Old Testament background. Best known among Christians are the words of Isaiah, "For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us; and the government will rest on His shoulders; and His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace (9:6).

Some of Jeremiah's prophecies also became tied to the hope of God's Messiah, "Behold, the days are coming," declares the Lord, "When I will raise up for David a righteous Branch; and He will reign as king and act wisely and do justice and righteousness in the land'" (23:5). Micah says it this way, "Bethlehem Ephrathah, you might not be an important town in the nation of Judah. But out of you will come for me a ruler over Israel. His family line goes back to the early years of your nation. It goes all the way back to days of long ago" (5:2).

For many Christians, Jesus' ministry has been reduced to the forgiveness of sins. Of course, this is an essential part, as the angel told Joseph, "You must give him the name Jesus. That's because he will save his people from their sins" (Matthew 1:21). Recognizing our own sinfulness is central to our faith in Jesus. He forgives as he brings us back into fellowship with our Heavenly Father.

But there is more. Believing in him means we come under his reign, we enter his kingdom and all its glory. We are given life as expressed in these and so many other Old Testament passages. This life was discovered by many who met Jesus during his days on earth. Such are the stories John told.

At the end of his gospel, he then askes, "Do you believe that Jesus is the one? Do you believe that he is the Messiah, the Son of God, sent from the Father above to bring life to this world, to you?"

The Contemporary Testimony invites us to read the entire Bible from this perspective. The whole thing is God's gift to us to reveal Jesus and through Jesus to know God and walk in the new life he offers. The whole Bible reveals that without the Holy Spirit we walk away from God, and it invites us to turn towards Jesus to receive forgiveness and walk with him in this new life.

Without the Bible, we cannot know Jesus and we cannot know this new life. Thank God for the Bible. Explore it! Ponder it! Treasure it! Let it show you Jesus. Let it show you the wonders of God's redemption.

For we did not follow cleverly devised stories when we told you about the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ in power, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. He received honor and glory from God the Father when the voice came to him from the Majestic Glory, saying, "This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased." We ourselves heard this voice that came from heaven when we were with him on the sacred mountain. We also have the prophetic message as something completely reliable, and you will do well to pay attention to it, as to a light shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts. Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet's own interpretation of things. For prophecy never had its origin in the human will, but prophets, though human, spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. (2 Peter 1:16-21)

The Bible is the Word of God, the record and tool of his redeeming work (OWBTG 32).

Do you notice that it is often (not always) the case that when the New Testament authors speak about "Scripture" or "the Word of God," they start with an incarnate rationale for why we ought take it seriously? That was true of yesterday's text and it's true of today's.

As Peter seeks to vindicate the Gospel of Jesus Christ to his recipients, he begins by telling them of his experience of Jesus. It is the experience of The Word made flesh that authorizes Peter to speak of the Word that has been written. This was the credential used by all the apostles to vindicate their message. They did not appeal to some dead or abstract sense of truth propped up by some propositions. No, listen to Peter. He says: "We were eyewitnesses!" "We ourselves heard the voice!" Nowadays we would call that subjective and dismiss it out of hand. Can any real spiritual truth depend on human experience?

The Bible says yes. It was in fact, the most fully human of human experiences—the experience of Jesus, in the flesh, sent by the Father—that authorized the Scriptures we now hold for use by the Christian community. Peter goes on from his lived experience of Jesus being glorified on the mount of Transfiguration (see Matthew 17:1-9 for that story) to confirm to us that the written Word, is of this same God. The Scriptures were spoken by human authors, prophets, who were carried along by the Holy Spirit, faithfully speaking the Word of God into the lived history of their times. This Holy Spirit-inspired speaking was yet another experience that Peter himself could relate to after Pentecost.

In this in between time of waiting for the day of Jesus' return, the scriptures, illumined by the same powerful work of the Spirit, remain the reliable light that guides our path day by day. The scriptures remain for us the place of living encounter with God, His Spirit, and His Word. If we're faithful in seeking God in this place where he has promised to be found, we may just find some experiences of our own to witness to in telling the good news of Jesus.