The third sunday of easter
Shepherd
of the Hills Ev. Lutheran Church (WELS)
1 John 1:1 – 2:2
1 That
which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our
eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched—this we proclaim
concerning the Word of life. 2 The life appeared; we have seen it and testify
to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and
has appeared to us. 3 We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that
you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and
with his Son, Jesus Christ. 4 We write this to make our joy complete.
5 This
is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him
there is no darkness at all. 6 If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet
walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth. 7 But if we walk in
the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the
blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin. 8 If we claim to be without
sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins,
he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all
unrighteousness. 10 If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a
liar and his word is not in us.
2:1 My
dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody
does sin, we have an advocate with the Father—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One.
2 He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for
the sins of the whole world. (NIV)
CIR HIRI! (Christ Is
Risen; He Is Risen Indeed!) A life worth
living lives on the promises of God.
It dismisses doubt. This
morning we see that it speaks the truth.
Speaking of truth, please be honest with me, does this alb make me look
fat? Husbands, perhaps such a
question conjures up painful memories of having been asked a similar – albeit
much more terrifying – question by your wife about an outfit she was trying
on. The most horrifying thing
about being helplessly pinned down with that question in that situation is not
determining the truth, which is generally pretty easy; rather, it is
determining whether your wife wants to hear the truth, or if you are in one of
those situations where you’re supposed to tell her what she wants to hear
(hint: your wife always looks good).
Of course we’ve all been brought up being told always to tell the truth,
and sometimes it leads us to see the reality of the expression, “the truth
hurts.” True as that might be, the
alternative – not telling the truth – hurts much worse. It almost always tends to bring a whole
lot of extra baggage and problems with it as well. That’s one of the reasons we speak the truth.
Another reason we speak the
truth is because spiritually speaking, the difference between eternal life or
eternal death hangs in the balance of truth. Man must know and acknowledge the truth of who he is and
what his natural state before God truly is. More importantly, he must come to know the truth about what
God has done in Christ Jesus to forever change that status before God. Only one place shows both truths: the Word of God, so in order to know
and speak those two truths of who we are and what God has done for us, we look
to the words of John in God’s Word this morning, and in so doing, we find a
life worth living.
Why should the words of John
have any merit when it comes to looking for guidance in speaking the
truth? Yes, his Gospel and three
letters are included in the inspired Scriptures, cementing the reality that,
through the Holy Spirit, John’s words are every bit God’s Words. That is sufficient for us, but
nonetheless, John goes further and explains why he should be qualified to speak
to the issue at hand: he was an eye witness, experiencing Jesus first
hand. He explains, “That
which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our
eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched—this we proclaim
concerning the Word of life. The
life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the
eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us. We proclaim to you what we have seen
and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us” (v.1-3). John
didn’t hear it from a guy who heard it from a guy, who heard it from a guy,
etc. He didn’t have to draw on
some other individual’s description or experience. He was with Jesus.
He saw him with his own eyes and touched him with his own hands. So when John wants to share what he saw
and heard while with Jesus, we do well to listen.
The truth that John speaks
has much to say about Christian living.
John clearly connects right believing with right living in his
letters. That is to say, a person
lives what he believes, and believes what he lives. Belief and behavior are two sides of the same coin. As one commentator put it, “orthodoxy
of doctrine is no substitute for righteousness of life” (Bruce). To draw the wrong conclusion that “I
may live in whatever way I please because I have pure doctrine” is no better
than the false assumption that “it doesn’t matter what I believe because I live
a pure life.” Right believing is
right living.
That brings us to the first
of three truths spoken by John: “If we claim to have fellowship with him
yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth” (v.6). If God
is light, having no darkness whatsoever, as John had just established, then how
could a person claim any degree of fellowship with God while at the same time
walking in darkness? It’s an
impossibility. A light is either
on or off. While some may be dimmer
than others, finally, even if only dim, it’s either on or off, light or
dark. Ask the unbelieving world
about the criteria it has for determining whether or not a person is a
Christian. The unbeliever cares
little what the Christian believes;
rather, he will make his judgment based on how the Christian lives. In his
mind, walking in the light is how he identifies a Christian. It would seem that his assessment of
who is and who isn’t a Christian isn’t so far off from John’s. It’s a sobering reminder for us that it
is necessary for us not only to talk the talk, but to walk the walk of light as
well.
Why? “If we walk in the light, as he
is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus,
his Son, purifies us from all sin” (v.7).
It almost sounds contrary
to every thing we’ve learned, doesn’t it?
It sounds like in order for us to be purified from all sin, we must
first walk in the light. But if we
recognize that John is simply writing in the same spirit of James, who pointed
to our lives and works as evidence of saving faith, then it isn’t such a
difficulty. Walking in the light
is a fruit of faith, and if we have faith, then we have fellowship with one
another and with Jesus, whose blood purifies us from all sin. We don’t walk in the light to bring
about purification from sin; rather, we walk in the light because we have been purified from sin. Where’s the proof of such purification?
CIR HIRI!
The second truth John
establishes has to do with the reality of sin in our lives. “If we claim to be without sin,
we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us” (v.8). Though they may be rare, there are some this side of heaven who claim
to be perfect; to be without sin.
We know that many strive to achieve such a state of sinlessness, indeed
believing that they can, but few are those that would actually make such a
claim. To such people, and any of
us who have bought into that notion, John says, “ we deceive ourselves
and the truth is not in us.”
Equally as bad as those who
believe sinlessness is a state than can be achieved are those who believe it’s
not something that is needed to be achieved, because they were never sinful in
the first place. These are the
people who subscribe to the “man is basically good” philosophy, people who
apparently ignore the evening news and countless headlines over the course of a
day. Rather than the picture of
being steeped in sin before birth, as the Bible paints us, they believe in
man’s inherent capacity for good.
They deceive themselves, and the truth is not in them.
In either case, the futility
of pretending to be without sin, or pretending that such a state can be achieved,
will be met with about the same success as efforts to rid a naval ship of
yellow fever. Some time ago a naval ship that had had a case of yellow fever
break out among its crew returned to the naval yard for repair and fumigation. After the ship had been scraped and
repainted, and all the proper procedures had been endured, the ship was put
back to sea again. However, not
even a full month later, yellow fever appeared again on the ship. More drastic action was to be taken
this time. Since it was said that
yellow fever spores could not live through the cold weather, the ship was to be
opened up and exposed to freezing weather during the winter. When spring arrived, the ship was
repainted and made ready for sea again, but again the fever broke out. Finally it was determined that,
although a most noble naval vessel, death was in it, so it was eventually towed
to sea and sunk.
So it is with all of us by
nature: try as we might, sin naturally clings to us, and no matter how hard we
try, no matter the method, we cannot rid ourselves of it. It has been passed
down from generation to generation, threatening a fate that would sink us
spiritually and eternally into the depths of hell. To avoid such a fate, only one remedy can rid a person of
the effects of that original/inherited sin: the blood of Christ. Only the blood of Christ can fully and
completely purify us inside and out, so that not a trace of such sin
remains. That purification is
applied by the Holy Spirit, either by means of the cleansing waters of baptism
or through the Word of God alone, but always through the Word of God.
What a difference there is
for those who confess their sins!
John says, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and
will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness” (v.9). We’re
sinners – that’s the truth! Don’t
claim otherwise, or you reject the very forgiveness that is received following
that confession of sins.
The third and final truth of
which John speaks may not appear all that different from the previous one. He writes, “If we claim we have
not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our
lives” (v.10). It sounds nearly identical, but there is
a subtle difference: the difference between having sin and the act of sinning itself.
The one is a lie that man can be without sin this side of heaven; the
other is a lie that refuses to identify sin when it is being committed. This lie refuses to call sin, sin. Sin is either watered-down (“a little
white lie”), euphemized (living in sin is called “cohabitation”), or outright
denied (homosexuality is acceptable).
To deny our actual sins is to call God a liar and to show that the Word
is really no part of our lives.
With these truths it is clear
that John is serious about helping his readers connect the dots between belief
and behavior. Speaking the truth
means not trying to hide or ignore our sin, but confessing it freely. For when we have that truth down, then
John wants to lavish us with the most important truth: “if anybody does
sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense – Jesus Christ, the
Righteous One. He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours
but also for the sins of the whole world” (2:1,2). There
simply is no greater truth than knowing that the One interceding on our behalf
has made us at one with God, paying for the sins of the entire world. But one cannot and will not appreciate
that life-altering truth unless he first speaks the truth of his own sin. Yes, we sin daily, we sin much. But dear friends, that sad truth cannot
begin to snuff out the bright Easter joy that reminds us that God the Father
fully accepted his Son to be our atoning sacrifice. Even if we forget all other truth while here on earth, may
we never tire both of hearing and speaking that truth, a truth of which we can
be certain because… CIR HIRI!
Amen.
“For the freer confidence is from one’s own works, and
the more exclusively it is directed toward Christ alone, so much better is the
Christian it makes.” (Luther)
