based on John 8:5

Fighting the Deceptions

based on John 8:51

Trinity Sunday – June 3, 2007

Pastor Richard Mau

Immanuel Lutheran Church – Des Plaines, IL

Today’s Scripture

Psalm 8           Proverbs 8:1-4, 22-31             Acts 2;14a, 22-36        John 8:48-59

            Today we celebrate the Trinity, the fact that God is one God yet three persons in that one God. Today we celebrate God who loves us as he gives all of himself to us as he is this one triune God. We profess the Triune God as he commands us in baptism in all three persons of God; Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We begin so many of our services calling on the Triune God; Father, Son and Holy Spirit. So many of our hymns declare the glories of the Triune God; Father, Son and Holy Spirit. When we read from the Psalms, we again give God glory acknowledging all three persons; Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We conclude our prayers in the name of Jesus who lives with the Father and the Spirit, one God now and forever. Then we all speak in one voice of acclamation, “Amen!.

            As faithful believers, we celebrate God as he reveals himself to all people through the wonders of creation. God, our heavenly father, made all things. He made each person. He made you.

            As faithful believers we rejoice in God our Savior, as he comes to us as the Son, Jesus Christ, true God and true man, Son of God and Son of Man, who lived, suffered and died for all of our sins. God the Father raised him from the dead restoring Jesus to all glory as he ascended to heaven and in those events, shows us how he has redeemed us and will deliver us into his eternal arms too.

            As faithful believers, we know we cannot believe except by the Holy Spirit whom God sends to work that miracle of faith in our hearts, to give strength and credibility for each one to proclaim who Jesus is as well as who all of God is, and who works that miracle of faith in the hearts of those who hear the saving grace God gives in and through Jesus Christ.

            Today we celebrate the Triune God who gives all of himself to you, holding nothing back. All of creation is for us to enjoy as well as to take care of it for God’s glory. Jesus died for all the sins of all people, so you have that confidence that you are not left out by any unusual quirk. The Holy Spirit comes on you as you hear the word of Jesus Christ, and in the waters of baptism so you have all of the confidence that your faith is real and that it is the only way to salvation.

            Today, we hear from Proverbs the words about wisdom. As we study that verse we see that wisdom is Jesus who is with God from before creation and until all times. In Peter’s great sermon on Pentecost we hear him proclaim the Triune God and how salvation is won by Christ.

            Today, the world is full of naysayer’s who deny God as the creator, watering down the truth of creation by even those good-sounding alternatives. Today the world is full of persons who deny that God right now works any power whatsoever in the heart and soul and being of any person. Today, the world is full of people faithful to their own ideas of what it takes to get into heaven, deciding who is and who is not “good enough” or “deserving” by whatever parameters are popular in the circle of discussion that day.

            In Jerusalem that day in the Gospel reading, there were well-intentioned leaders who continued to challenge Jesus in any way they could. This was a public debate. Jesus had continued to rebut and silence their inquisitions. Today, in frustration of not being able to override God’s word that Jesus was proclaiming, they went personal and called him a derogatory name, a Samaritan, someone who was “unclean” by Jewish temple standards and were to be avoided at all costs. It was like saying, “Jesus, you have cooties, and no one is to be near you.” Then they went one step further and accused Jesus of being of the devil.

            Jesus does not need to answer to these personal attacks as they were. He cuts directly to what he is here and what God is all about. God loves his people. God loved even those wicked temple authorities. God loves you. Look out the window, God loves each and every single person out there. Jesus proclaims the Gospel message saying, “I tell you the truth, if anyone keeps my word, he will never see death.” Jesus is emphatic about this as he says, “Amen! Amen!” or, “Truly, truly!”

            Keeping Jesus word, “Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved.” Keeping Jesus’ word, “No one comes to the father except through me.” Keeping Jesus’ word, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him will have eternal life.” We often forget Jesus’ next words, “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, but whoever does not believe in him stands condemned because he has not believed in the name of the one and only Son.”

            Martin Luther spoke of those who refuse to believe and try to convince other means of salvation. “Such people do a beautiful cover-up job and allow themselves to think they are doing right and are thereby serving God.”[1] Luther continues with the promise that God has for any sinner who confesses, “…in contrast a sinner involved with other wrongdoing can, to his shame, be shown his sin and be led to repent of it.[2]

            That is what Jesus’ word is all about: a) knowing your sins, b) confessing those sins, c) trusting God’s forgiveness in his Son Jesus. That is what saves. Watering down, changing God’s word to suit one’s self, is what condemns. You are no longer trusting God but your own means. That was the sin of the temple leaders questioning Jesus. That is the sin of those who argue against God’s word today. Following his word you are his child. Denying his word you are a child of the devil.

            Today, as we celebrate the one true, triune God, let us remember these three points that Luther gives in regard to this passage:

We are to eagerly listen to and learn God’s Word. By doing so, we are his children. Refusing to do so we are the devil’s children.

By virtue of the Word’s power and capacity to save, those who believe on it will not see everlasting death (but everlasting life).

Christ is the true, eternal God, who has such power that by his Word we come to live forever and will not die. [3]

            Let us conclude with Luther’s closing prayer: “May our dear heavenly Father give us by his grace, so that by his Holy Spirit we firmly believe his Word and by it are saved eternally, for the sake of his beloved Son, Jesus Christ. Amen.”[4]