Text: John 6:30-40 Psalm 126
Facebook live: Love and Death!
35 Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.
Life is good and death is bad, or at least that’s what we believe and understand from the perspective of this life - in the flesh that we live.
Jesus Christ: The Way, the truth and the life. Has been the theme that we have focused on over these
Advent midweek services.
Pastor Moyer focused on the Way and how the word and the Holy Spirit, like GPS gets us to our desired destination.
Pastor Johnson through eloquent speech and a few 10-dollar words thrown in as well, brought the Truth, pitted against a lie, as it pertains to the temporal and the eternal; and now I get to … as old J. Vernon McGree use to say on the radio, “Keep the cookies on the bottom shelf so the kiddies can get them.” I’m going to talk about Life, in a sense contrasting the life we lead now with the life eternal promised in Christ.
Or, what the Way and the Truth bring us to.
Life and death.
It makes sense to us in a temporal human way.
We know it all too well and we live it all too often.
For pastors, we measure time to a degree, from funeral to funeral and we see those in our minds-eye that have been so important to us in so many ways in ministry, whether by the things they’ve done, or the things they’ve said, or as pastors, if we are honest with ourselves, at times the things they didn’t say – choosing to be kind rather than right.
So, rather than looking at life and death, I’d like to talk about Love. Love and death.
Love and Death is kind of a strange phrase.
We might think life and death, as words that compare and contrast each other; but love and death seems odd to me, and maybe to you as well?
Going back to my 20’s, I remember a movie of Woody Allen’s that came out in 1975 with that same title, Love and Death.
It was a comedic period piece, set in Czarist Russia in the early 1800s, with the story of Boris played by Woody Allen who marries the beautiful Sonia played by Diane Keaton and together they set out to impersonate Spanish nobility with the end result to assassinate Napoleon, – thus the title Love and Death.
But, it’s not so odd of a phrase as we might think.
Love and death or death and love!
The theme for our midweek Advent services proclaims as Jesus says to Thomas in John 14:6 - that there is one way to the Father and that way is only through him, saying:
6 … “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
So friends, if Jesus is - the way, the truth, and the Life, then it stands to reason that if he is speaking the truth then all other ways - not through him - lead to death.
As Jesus said to Nicodemus who came, by cover of night, looking for answers from this teacher, come from God:
16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
The blessed John 3:16
Perish can mean, to die or pass away or even waste away and disappear
But dying or passing away does not bring eternal life.
And neither does to waste away or disappear? – not really.
In a recent story this year, the remains of U.S. Army 2nd Lt. Gene F. Walker of Richmond, Indiana who killed in Germany during World War II, were identified by military scientists after nearly 79 years.
The remains, remain.
So, to parish mush have a fuller meaning.
16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish – should not be destroyed fully and without hope - but have eternal life.
And that is friends where love comes in.
The Love of God, and the death of his son brings hope and this hope leads to eternal life!
The sacrificial love of God is the key.
As we watch, prepare, and rejoice in the coming of the incarnate son of God,
As we look to Christmas,
As we behold the joy of the Christ child, we need to prepare for Love and Death, as well.
Recognizing that life in the flesh broken by the fall - leads to death – As the Apostle Paul writes in Romans 6.
23 For the wages of sin is death, but [also joyfully reminds us that] the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord Rom. 6:23
And this is the love of God, shown forth in the coming of his son Jesus, in the flesh, for you and me and for all who call on the name of our Lord. And that is the love of God shown forth in the coming of his son Jesus. For you and me and for all who call on the name of the Lord.
We wrestle with:
Life in the flesh … vs life in the Spirit!
The former leading to death - the later - life eternal.
In the gospel reading for today those who had been following Jesus:
30 … said to him, “Then what sign do you do, that we may see and believe you? What work do you perform?
O holy Child of Bethlehem. Descend to us, we pray Cast out our sin, and enter in, be born in us today.
The wonderful Christmas hymn, O little town of Bethlehem brings to mind the Prophet Micha’s writing in Chapter 5 of his book.
2 But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah,
who are too little to be among the clans of Judah,
from you shall come forth for me
one who is to be ruler in Israel,
whose coming forth is from of old,
from ancient days.
This Bethlehem Ephrathah, this house of bread as it is called, will bring forth the true bread of life, the Messiah, the King of Kings and Lord of Lord’s - this Jesus the Christ Our Lord!
Born of women.
Born under the Law.
Yet without sin.
This bread of life, this food for the soul, is the God/man himself – Jesus Christ, the way, the truth and the life, who in love - is the one sent to be the savior of the world.
He frees the world through his active obedience, being obedient to his father’s desire to redeem all.
He releases those that are bound in sin and death - in this life - to the joy of life eternal in him through the work of his Spirit.
35 Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.
36 But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe.
A comment has been made many times over the years.
Wouldn’t it have been great to have lived at the time of Jesus, to see him and his work! To walk and talk with him? To be in his presence?
But here again Jesus says:
36 But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe.
That is the problem.
Sin blinds us to who Jesus is.
Sin causes us to find comfort in the things of the world that leads to death.
Sin gives us false hope in ourselves and in this life, for a moment.
Sin lulls us to a peace that the world and its promises give.
So, Jesus says in the parable of the rich fool in Luke 12:20
20 But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ Luke 12:20
Love and death in a world that is in bondage to sin.
So, you and I dear friends, rest in the work, not of ourselves but of God through the work of the the Holy Spirit in his son for our redemption.
For Jesus says:
37 All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out. 38 For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me.
At my congregation, Peace, in Waterford, we have Advent banners and our final banner for Advent calls us to behold:
To Behold, the Christ of God, sent in the womb of the Virgin Mary, sent to bring Peace between God and man.
To see the Love of God sent forth in his Son given in love unto death, so that all who believe in him might live.
39 And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. 40 For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”
In our Midweek theme text in John 14 Phillip askes Jesus:
8 … “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.” 9 Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.”
Love and Death!
It all points to the Son of God coming down to redeem the world from sin and death; and that by this Love of God - we will not parish but have life eternal in his name!
May God’s blessings, may God’s comfort, may God’s peace, in the Christ child, the babe of Bethlehem, be yours now and always!
In the name of the Father and of the Son + and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen
That is the problem.
Sin blinds us to who Jesus is.
Sin causes us to find comfort in the things of the world that leads to death.
Sin gives us false hope in ourselves and in this life, for a moment.
Sin lulls us to a peace that the world and its promises give.
So, Jesus says in the parable of the rich fool in Luke 12:20
20 But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ Luke 12:20
Love and death in a world that is in bondage to sin.
So, you and I dear friends, rest in the work, not of ourselves but of God through the work of the the Holy Spirit in his son for our redemption.
For Jesus says:
37 All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out. 38 For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me.
At my congregation, Peace, in Waterford, we have Advent banners and our final banner for Advent calls us to behold:
To Behold, the Christ of God, sent in the womb of the Virgin Mary, sent to bring Peace between God and man.
To see the Love of God sent forth in his Son given in love unto death, so that all who believe in him might live.
39 And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. 40 For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”
In our Midweek theme text in John 14 Phillip askes Jesus:
8 … “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.” 9 Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.”
Love and Death!
It all points to the Son of God coming down to redeem the world from sin and death; and that by this Love of God - we will not parish but have life eternal in his name!
May God’s blessings, may God’s comfort, may God’s peace, in the Christ child, the babe of Bethlehem, be yours now and always!
In the name of the Father and of the Son + and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen
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