No Greater Joy than this...

Read 3 John

This is our last Sunday where the topic is truth.  That doesn’t mean that truth won’t come up again.  You can’t really carve out a single topic from the full biblical witness that we are charged to receive.  You can’t talk love without encountering truth.  You can’t talk obedience without faithfulness.  You can’t focus on justice without coming across mercy, but as far as the main topic goes, this is our last Sunday on truth.  We pick up with mercy next week.

But this week we go to a very unique letter from the apostle John.

The apostle John was an interesting man for sure.  Almost everyone who follows Jesus knows the words from the third chapter of John’s gospel.  In speaking to Nicodemus, he spoke to all of us who have professed Jesus as Lord when he intensified his discussion with one of Israel’s teachers, saying:

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.  For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.

We think it was John who raced Peter to the grave on that resurrection morning.  John followed Jesus for about 3 years around 30 AD.  John was one of the leaders of the church in Jerusalem for over 3 decades.

John left Jerusalem for Ephesus from which he wrote his gospel and three letters.  By 95 AD, John has been exiled to Patmos and spent about 2 years there.  From this island exile, he wrote the Revelation of Jesus Christ.  But he did not die there.

John returned to Ephesus for a few years after he was released from Patmos.  He remained in Ephesus until he died near the beginning of the second century.  He was perhaps the longest living of the original apostles.

While I can’t confirm this in scripture, it is believed in those last years in Ephesus, when the worship service was complete, an elderly John would stand and simple say, “Love one another.”

I can’t confirm this but it sounds like the person that we know from scripture.  When I think of this apostle, I can’t help but think of Jesus giving his followers a new command, that they love one another.

Love one another.  What a gentle yet powerful command.  Jesus said that we would be known by our love and I think John was known by his love.

In his third letter, truth dominates the discourse.  This is the shortest book in the Bible with only 4 main characters.

·       John – the letter’s author

·       Gaius—the addressee

·       Demetrius—the postman

·       Diotrephes—the antagonist

Let’s start with the trouble-maker.  Diotrephes is trying to make the church in his own image. He rejects the counsel of John, who likely has been shepherding many churches in Asia Minor, but now this one church becomes about its local pastor or elder who has rejected being under the instruction and counsel of John.

He is doing more than stirring the pot with his own interpretations and agenda, he will not receive the letters of John and rejects anyone who won’t reject this apostle known for his love.

We don’t know much about Diotrephes or the church that he has apparently hijacked desiring to be first, put in the spotlight, the center of attention.  We don’t even know what the basis of the primary dispute was.  Was it theological?  Was it financial?  Was it the color of the carpet or the dishwasher? Was it something else?

We don’t know, but from John’s letter we see how other believers were treated and a wayward believer who somehow had taken the helm at this church.

John noted that he would deal with this matter face to face.  We don’t know if that happened or not.  Had Paul been dealing with this, we would probably have a book of the Bible with at least a dozen chapters, but John said he would sort that part out later.

The focus of this letter for us is truth.  John mentions truth 4 times in the first 4 verses and another 3 times in the rest of this very short letter.  He expresses his joy at what he has heard about Gaius.

I have no greater joy than this: to hear that my children are walking in the truth.

In the midst of turmoil in this body, Gaius was living in the truth.  He was faithful to the truth.  Let’s put it this way.  He was genuine in his love for and his life given over to his Master.

John does give a piece of counsel with his affirmation of Gaius.  Imitate that which is good not that which is evil. 

He is affirming that he is doing the right things in helping the believers who have been sent with the gospel, even though many are not personally known to him.  His discipleship is genuine.

He is not looking for personal glory or notoriety.  He is genuine in his service to the Lord.  He lives in stark contrast to Diotrephes—the name means nourished by Jupiter—and surely contends with the Judaizers that Paul had to address in this same neck of the woods.

Gaius stuck to his faith and was not persuaded by the flavor of the month or the pagan heritage that had prevailed for centuries.  I think to last week as we talked about the words that Jesus gave his followers.  I am the way, the truth, and the life.  I think Gaius fully embraced that his life was in his Lord and not in himself or his perceived standing in the body.

We don’t know much about the church to whom John wrote, but his counsel applies to us.  Live in the truth.  Walk in the truth.  Be faithful to the truth.  Be genuine in your faith. 

We are called to mix it up in a godless world but not belong to that world.  Jesus jumped into the middle of a world of sinners not because he wanted that lifestyle.  He wanted to share words of life with the lifeless.

We can’t do that if we are faking it.  We can’t go into the godless world with words of life unless we walk in the truth.

Paul would say, work out your salvation with fear and trembling—living out your life lived in God’s favor as the most important thing that you do.

John says walk in the truth.

I ask, are we doing that?  How are we responding to grace—God’s unmerited love and favor?

Some people need a checklist.  Give me a list of God’s laws and let me see how close I can get.  This is how some are called to walk in the truth.

Some people—I think of Mother Teresa—who just went out into the world to be God’s love.  She walked in the truth.  This is giving everything that you have in response to God’s grace.  Living in God’s favor was enough sustenance and abundance for her.

I think of the airline pilot who faithfully goes through the checklist before takeoff.  I want him or her methodically going through the checklist.  I also think of the running back who knows the plays, but when the hole isn’t open has the instinct and desire and passion to find a crease in the defense and run towards the goal line.

Both live in the truth and respond in the manner that they know.  Most of us are somewhere in between the pilot and running back and don’t live in the world of analogy.  We live in the world of schedules, and bills, and ballgames, and idols, and fundraisers, and funerals.

Most of us, do our best to keep God first, to seek his kingdom and his righteousness before every other distraction of our lives.  But we still struggle.

Most of us are called to walk in the truth in our homes, our schools, our jobs, and our ministries—whatever they may be.

Most of us are called to walk in the truth proclaiming the good news of Jesus Christ, not because Tom won’t let up on this Great Commission thing, but because our hearts cannot contain the truth of how much God loves us.

We are to walk in the truth living a life that says God loves us and has shown us how to live.

We are to walk in the truth praising the name of Jesus every step of the way.  Only through his atoning sacrifice are we made right and can live the life we were designed to live.

We are to walk in the truth knowing that the glory of Christ Jesus surpasses everything that God has done for us.

For this reason, we must not be persuaded or dissuaded by the state of the world, the flavor of the month slant on scripture or socialism, or whether we have a pianist or not.  Whatever the controversy at hand, we must never lose sight of or relegate to a subordinate position, that Jesus is Lord!  Neither things large nor small must get in the way of walking in the truth.

Listen to John’s words once again.

I have no greater joy than this: to hear that my children are walking in the truth.

John noted that while there was much controversy at the hands of this man named Diotrephes, those John had mentored and discipled and sent out gave him great joy when they didn’t get wrapped up in the gnat straining and camel swallowing but stuck to the truth that is Jesus Christ.

Diotrephes disruptive practices would be dealt with in due time.  This was the time to commend Gaius and perhaps all believers who stay the course of seeking God first in the middle of controversy and distraction.

You know, this is the only writing that we have from John where he does not use the name Jesus or Christ.  He simply notes that for the sake of the Name, disciples went forth in their ministry.

Remember how excited Peter was that he was beaten for the sake of the Name. Jesus is in heaven but for the sake of his name, our discipleship is multiplied to the point that the world will not overcome our living in the truth.

Walking in the truth is living for the sake of the Name.  Are we doing that?  Can we even do that?  Will we do that?

When we say the words that we got from Joshua, as for me and my house we serve the Lord do we translate them into action that says we walk in the truth?  Are we working Jesus in where we can or are we working out our salvation never leaving the Name of Jesus out of anything?

Will we be bold enough to speak the truth in a spirit of love and let people who are dead in their sin know there is life, life abundant, and life eternal in Jesus Christ.

Will we do that for the sake of the Name?

I think what gave John great joy will do the same for our Master.

Let’s walk in the truth.  Let’s live in the truth.  Let’s be people of the truth.

Amen.

Speak the truth from the heart

Read Psalm 15

The fool declares in his heart that there is no God.  We get that.  Or at least we think we do.  We see and hear atheists espousing their theories of anything and everything.  Their babble has become more and more acceptable in this modern world.  We know it not to be true, but that does not stop the endless spewing of nonsense.

But the psalmist knows that truth resides in the heart.  The fool not only says with his lips that there is no God, he actually believes it.  His heart compels him to share what he believes to be true.

There are plenty of atheists out there today that know they are on shaky ground.  Their lips say one thing but their heart is tugging at them to wake up.

The fool has no such dissonance. 

We are not talking about the physical heart.  This is not about pumping blood.  We are not talking about emotions.  Emotions can lead us astray.  We are talking about the core of our being.  Is it the same as our soul, perhaps?  At least the distinctions between the two are difficult to discern.

The psalmist knows that truth comes from the heart and if your heart tells you there is no God, then you are a fool and the truth is not in you.

But what about those of us who are certain that there is a God.  He is Creator.  He is sovereign.  He is just.  He is holy.  He is Redeemer.  He is Friend.  We know him best through his Word and his Spirit.

We come to him through the mercy and favor we know in Christ Jesus.

We declare not only with our lips but we believe in our hearts there most certainly is a God.  He is a God of love, love so great he paid the price for our sin in his own blood.

We speak the truth from the heart.

I know that I promised you analogies from my vehicle wreck where I totaled my truck and from hitting a deer and from having my heart stopped, but those will probably have to wait until 2020.  They have to  have time to marinade or percolate or whatever other metaphors account for the internal process to take place to get these experiences into a sermon.

So, this morning, you get yet another Marine Corps analogy.  When young men and women arrive at boot camp, they are greeted as soon as they get off the bus.  It’s sort of the Marine Corps version of the Welcome Wagon.

These young men and women are met with people enthused about what they do.  How do I know?  They get right up in the face of these new arrivals and start screaming commands and compliments in the face of these recruits.  

Sometimes they go straight for the ear so none of the message is lost.

Within a few short hours, everyone who has not had a mental breakdown has learned basic obedience.  You do what the crazy man in the round hat tells you to do and you had better do it correctly and immediately. 

It’s quite the welcome aboard event that you might expect.

It takes a very short time to get obedience, but obedience is not the goal.  What?  Of course obedience is the goal.

Actually, instant and willing obedience is the goal.  Simple obedience is driven by outside forces.  Instant, willing, obedience to orders only works from the inside-out.  Instant, willing obedience takes longer to achieve but you can see the difference.

This instant and willing obedience comes from the heart.  It is who these young men and women are now. Yes sir, aye-aye sir, and overwhelming motivation to accomplish the order are these young Marines trademarks.  It’s who they are now.

Who can enjoy the presence of the Lord?  The one without blame and who does what is right and, who speaks the truth from his heart.

What comes from our heart is our identity, our character, our very being.  God receives those who speak truth from the heart.

The psalmist says, here’s some examples. 

You don’t slander others.  The command says don’t bear false witness.  The psalmist says, don’t do the passive-aggressive thing either.  Don’t smile in my face and slander me behind my back or with generalities.

You don’t wrong your neighbor.  You don’t put down your fellow man.

You don’t subsidize those with vile intentions.  The extent of your discussion with these folks is repent, and believe the good news.

We stand with those who honor and revere the Lord.  We don’t say good luck with that when they come under attack. 

Our integrity is not inversely proportionate to our pain.  Our yes is yes and our no is no and there are no gray areas.

We are honest in all of our personal financial transactions.  If we loan our neighbor a hundred dollars, we don’t tell them to pay back two hundred or even a hundred and ten. 

We also are not swayed by money or power or anything else that would cause us to deal unfairly with another person, especially one with little means to defend themselves in the arena of the world.

The psalmist is not making an all-inclusive list.  Much of what he offers up in psalm you know from the Decalogue or the Proverbs. 

He is also not saying that doing these things makes you truthful.  He is saying that if the truth is within you and finds its way to your lips, these things follow naturally.

This is not an outside-in outcome.  It is completely inside-out.

Lord, who may dwell in your sacred tent?

    Who may live on your holy mountain?

The one whose walk is blameless,

    who does what is righteous,

    who speaks the truth from their heart;

    whose tongue utters no slander,

    who does no wrong to a neighbor,

    and casts no slur on others;

    who despises a vile person

    but honors those who fear the Lord;

    who keeps an oath even when it hurts,

    and does not change their mind;

    who lends money to the poor without interest;

    who does not accept a bribe against the innocent.

Whoever does these things

    will never be shaken.

Whoever lives with the truth in his heart is disposed to trust the Lord.

Whoever speaks the truth from the heart is not disposed to give in to her own understanding.

Whoever is governed by the truth acknowledges the Lord with every step.

Whoever rejoices in the truth will know the path the Lord has set before him.

The truth must reside within us.  We must speak it.  We must live it.  The truth is a huge part of who we are now.

Amen!

Full of Grace and Truth

Read John 1

And the word became flesh and pitched his tent among us.  The Greek word is σκηνόω (skay-no'-o).  You might think that you missed that part in the gospel.  You didn’t.  Words have changed over the past two thousand years and somewhat in translations.

The word became flesh and tabernacled among us.  You probably have not seen tabernacles used as a verb in most of your readings, but that’s what happened.

For the Christian, Jesus did more than pitch a tent.  He came to dwell with us as his Father dwelt in him.  It’s more than just claiming a camp site and making sure that your satellite television antennae is set up right.  It’s about intimacy between the Creator of the universe and us.  He is with us and within us.

We have been talking about truth for a few weeks and we come to this wonderful pericope about grace and truth.   The gospel author notes that Jesus came in glory that could only belong to the one and only Son of the God who sent him.

He came from the Father, full of grace and truth.  Grace and truth have a nice ring to them but in actuality may seem to be opposed to each other.

Let’s look at truth.

We know God is the Creator of all things.  He has the right to make the rules.  He has authority to reward and to punish.  He is eternal and not swayed by man’s thoughts about what is right. 

We miss the mark on a recurring basis.  Truth says that we deserve punishment.  We deserve punishment. 

Truth says that we do not have a passing grade.  Truth says that we did not live up to expectations and requirements.

Truth is sometimes a bitter pill to swallow.  Had Jesus come only in truth, our pucker factor might have been off the charts.

But he came from the Father full of grace and truth.  I have earned nothing as far as right standing with God goes, but he loves me more than I can comprehend. 

I have missed the mark so many times, but Jesus tells me that he took care of that.

John wrote that the law came through Moses but grace comes through Jesus Christ.  Both are from God and essential to our relationship with the Almighty. 

We know that we have all fallen short of the glory of God.  We know that.  I don’t know anyone here who thinks otherwise.  We have all fallen short, but that is not the end of the story.

In some cases, realizing that we missed the mark is truly our beginning. Having eyes to see that:   We can’t fix it.  We can’t mend it.  We can’t make it like it was.

But God can.  David, a man that sought after God perhaps more than others noted in the Old Testament, knew that he was broken.  He knew that he could not fix his own brokenness.

David had done many great things in the Lord’s name.  David was a warrior’s warrior.  David was a poet and musician.  David brought a broken kingdom together.  David had many accomplishments to his credit but he could not cleanse himself of his transgressions.

Sure, there were sacrifices required by the law but David pleaded with the Lord to create in him a clean heart.  Create in me a clean heart.

David knew the truth.  He had sinned against God and his fellow man.  He had lived in the favor of God and God had richly blessed him but now, he had thrown all of that away.  God had done so much for him; yet he gave in to his selfish nature.

But David had some insight that we could all learn from.  He sought to be made right again.  He pleaded with God, he petitioned God, to create in him a clean heart.

Truth said, “You blew it.  You threw it all away.”

Grace said, “Let’s move forward after I put you back together.”

Truth brings us to the cross.  Grace leads us to life.

Truth brings us to confession.  Grace says, I have already forgiven you.

Truth shows us our acts of omission.  Grace tells us, there is still time so long as it is called today.

Truth examines our history.  Grace leads us to eternity.

Both truth and grace came in one package.  The only human flesh to have lived in God’s heavenly presence who was in fact God in the flesh, came in grace and truth.

We love the grace part, but sometimes we avoid the truth. 

We live in a world of idolatry.  We don’t want to admit it, but we have more idols than Rome or Greece or Asia Minor had two thousand years ago.  

They come in the form of star athletes, our favorite teams, movie stars, and even in shows named America Idol and all of its spinoffs.  We adorn our homes and our cars with posters and stickers and license plates.

We covet like no other nation in no other time.  It’s not so much that our neighbor has something, it’s that the world has something and I want one.

God is seldom first.  We work him in after ourselves and our kids and the things we just have to have.

We often do not worship in Spirit and in Truth.  More and more, we look at our phones during worship.  Are we bored with this He is worthy stuff?

Sometimes it seems easier to throw some money at somebody’s problem instead of speaking the truth in love.  How many times do we forget that to come to salvation we first repented of our sin and then rejoiced in the good news.

I’m not going to go on.  We could be here a long time.  When you get home, look in the mirror and ask the man or woman in the mirror who is first in your life.  Do a fearless and searching inventory of your life.  Anyone who has been through a 12 Steps program knows this as step 4:  Conduct a searching and fearless moral inventory.

You don’t have to be an addict to conduct this inventory, but if we did a searching and fearless inventory instead of the surface level look we give ourselves day-to-day, what would we find?

And here is what I can say with confidence to every one of you.  God still loves you.  In spite of everything that truth revealed to you, grace has yet embraced you.

The mercy of God is more than we can fathom.

The love of God is more than we can comprehend.

The grace of God that we know in Christ Jesus goes far beyond any sin that the truth has revealed to us.  We need the truth to receive God’s grace.  If we do not have eyes to see that we have fallen short of the glory of God, why would anyone believe they need the grace of God.

The western world today is so afraid of offending someone that God’s truth has been glossed over if not outright set aside.  Why do we need grace if the world says that however we live is just fine?

There is a quote attributed to Abraham Lincoln that goes like this.

How many legs does a dog have if you call his tail a leg?

Four. Saying that a tail is a leg doesn't make it a leg.

We who seek to follow Christ must stand in and live in the truth of God every moment of every day.  We are not going to get everything right, but knowing God’s way and seeking it are essential to our well being.

Remember, God told his own people, I’m giving you these directives for your own good.  The law came through Moses, but grace and truth came through Christ Jesus.

We need to know where we stand with God.  The law helps, but the truth that came with Christ is what prepares us to receive his grace and continue to live in his grace.

The law without Christ was incomplete.  Jesus came to complete the law, not so that we could be condemned but so we could finally live.  Jesus completed the law.

Truth and grace came in one package.  His light shone in the darkness and the world did not comprehend it but that same dark world cannot overcome it.

We are a mess.  We who follow Christ know that we are a mess.  We have the truth.  We can’t fix our condition.

But the truth also introduces us to grace, favor from God that has always been there but which we could not see before the truth set us free.

God has never stopped loving us.  He will never stop loving us.  We are his and he wants to keep us close to him for all eternity.  Where we are weak, his strength is even more visible.

We are saved by grace.  To which everyone says, “Amen!”  But we already knew that.  Couldn’t you save this verse for Christmas.  The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.  Merry Christmas!

We know this but are we conversant in what we know.  Can we, without condemning another person, explain the truth to them, and lead them to the grace of God that we know in Christ Jesus?

Can we do that?

If we are following Jesus, we need to be people of truth and grace.  We need to help people understand that we all have fallen short of God’s glory.

We all have fallen short but he loves us anyway.  If we can’t speak the truth, why would people think they need Christ?  The world has convinced them otherwise.

Jesus showed us the glory of the Father.  He came in grace and truth.  We are to live in grace and truth.  We should not be afraid of the truth for it prepares us for God’s grace.

Again, you say, we know this.

So again, I say, share this.

This is our message that leads people to Christ.  Let us live as people not only of grace but of truth.

Amen.