Listen here.
Welcome to
Devotions for Worship where we meditate on the appointed Scripture readings for
the upcoming Sunday. I am Pastor Eric Tritten from Gloria Dei Lutheran Church
in Hudson, OH. Thank you for
being with me today.
As we approach
the 6th Sunday of Easter, we once again read from 1 John for our
epistle lesson. John has focused our attention on love and God’s commandments
throughout this letter. He keeps the focus there, making sure that we know that
Jesus is the Son of God who overcomes for us, and the evidence for this is
found in His death and resurrection – by the water and the blood which point us
to the very physical and real body of Jesus.
Let’s read the
lesson. The epistle lesson for the 6th Sunday of Easter is ….
The Reading: (1 Jn. 5:1-8
ESV)
Everyone who believes that Jesus is
the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves
whoever has been born of him. 2 By this we know that we love the
children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments. 3 For
this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments
are not burdensome. 4 For everyone who has been born of God
overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world-- our
faith. 5 Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who
believes that Jesus is the Son of God?
6
This is he who came by water and blood-- Jesus Christ; not by the water only
but by the water and the blood. And the Spirit is the one who testifies,
because the Spirit is the truth. 7 For there are three that testify:
8 the Spirit and the water and the blood; and these three agree.
Comments
The first
sentence of this reading says some very important things. First, everyone who
believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God. Belief that Jesus is
the Christ, the Messiah, the Savior that God promised would come for us, is a
gift from God. It is like a new birth.
In the natural
course of things, we do not choose to be born. Life is a gift that God gives us
through the action of our parents. In a similar way, to be born of God is a
gift that God gives us through the work of the Holy Spirit as we hear the
Gospel and He makes faith in us … He makes us alive in Christ so that we
believe … and as we believe in Jesus we come to love the Father, because we
have experienced His love through Jesus.
There is a very
important implication of loving God, however. If we love God, we also love
everyone who has been born of Him. We are called to love our brothers and
sisters in Christ. I fear that we give this more lip service than actual
attention. It is easier to just generally wish people well than to love them
the way that God speaks of through the apostle John.
Recipients of
Gods’ love, however, begin to love. We begin to recognize God’s commandments
are fulfilled in love. They are not burdensome because they flow from our love
for God and our love for others, and our love, in turn, flows from having been
loved by God in Christ. And this is how we overcome the world – by God’s love
filling us up and overflowing through us to others. We overcome through faith
that Jesus has overcome the world by His death and resurrection, and He gives
us the victory as he reigns at God’s right hand.
John wants us to
be clear: every matter is established by two or three witnesses. The three
witnesses that testify about Jesus as our Savior are the water, the blood, and
the Spirit. The water and blood speak to Jesus’ physical body. Some were
teaching that the Christ was only a spirit who rested on Jesus, and Jesus’
resurrection was merely the appearance of that spirit. John says, “No, Jesus is
the Christ, and His body and blood were given for you.” It is as if he
testifies to us, “I was there at the cross. I saw the water and the blood that
flowed from His side. I saw Him dead, and three days later I saw Him raised
from the dead.” The resurrection is proof of Jesus being our Savior. The Spirit
of God testifies to this as well as He creates faith in us to receive the truth
that Jesus is the Son of God. This is, in essence, God’s testimony to us that
Jesus has done what was necessary to save us from sin.
I do not believe
that it is accidental that the Spirit of God delivers Jesus’ salvation through
three vehicles – three means of Grace. The first is the Word, through which the
Spirit testifies about Jesus, creates and sustains faith, and gives forgiveness
of sins, life, and salvation. The second, however, is water – connected to and
combined with God’s Word – in Holy Baptism which washes our sins away and gives
us new birth into the life of faith. And the third is the Lord’s Supper, where
the Spirit uses bread and wine to deliver the Word of God to us, Christ’s very
body and blood in, with, and under the bread and wine to feed our faith and
give us forgiveness. The Water, the Blood, and the Spirit testify … your sins
are forgiven and you are born of God.
Meditate on this
today: The water, the blood, and the Spirit testify that Jesus is the Christ.
And even today the Waters of Baptism, the Body and Blood of Christ in the Lord’s
Supper, and the Spirit of God testify to us that God has loved us, still loves
us, and empowers us by His Word and Sacraments to love one another.
Prayers
Lord Jesus, You
are the Christ who came and saved us through the water and the blood which flowed
when You died for our sins. Thank You for Your love and sacrifice. Thank You
for the Waters of Baptism, the Blood of the Lord’s Supper, and the Spirit who
testifies in the Word so that we might believe and be born of God into a new
life of faith. Forgive us for not loving as we ought to love. Forgive us for
not following the Father’s commandments to love Him and to love one another.
Strengthen our faith. Fill us with Your Spirit. And help us to live and love as
those who are born of God, for that is what we are through faith in You. Amen.
Memory Verse:
This is he who
came by water and blood-- Jesus Christ; not by the water only but by the water
and the blood. And the Spirit is the one who testifies, because the Spirit is
the truth. (1 Jn. 5:6 ESV)
Thank you so much
for using Devotions for Worship, I pray that our time together has blessed you
and given you something to meditate on – some reminder of God’s grace to rattle
around in your brain – for the rest of the day.
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God bless you!
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