Jesus is More Than Enough

[Below is the text of the message shared during today's worship services with the people and friends of Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio, as well as live stream video of both services.]

John 1:6-8, 19-28

Every Church Year, we listen to an account of Jesus being tempted in the wilderness by Satan. But before that happened, someone else was tempted: John the Baptist. Today’s Gospel lesson written by John the Apostle shows that John the Baptist was also tempted in the wilderness, near Bethany, on the other side of the Jordan. And he endured it in order to point the world to Jesus Christ for forgiveness and eternal life from God.

Apparently, John the Baptist was an impressive person. Of course, we can assume that it was God Who made John so impressive and caused the whole Judean countryside and the city of Jerusalem to go out to listen to John call people to repent and be baptized in preparation for the coming of the Messiah.

When people started saying John was the Messiah, or Elijah returned to the earth, or the Prophet that Moses had long ago foretold, John could have caved into the temptations to accept people’s accolades, to let himself be pampered and treated like a king. He wouldn’t have been the first person to believe what adoring crowds said of him. But John the Baptist didn’t do that.

Our lesson says, “He did not fail to confess, but confessed freely, ‘I am not the Messiah’ [and] ‘I baptize with water,...but among you stands one you do not know. He is the one who comes after me, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie.’”(John 1:20, 26-27)

In a hauspostille, a message about the day’s appointed gospel lesson that he shared with his family and guests on a Sunday evening in his Wittenberg home, Martin Luther observed that today’s gospel lesson is “one of the beautiful, glorious [gospel lessons] about the highest article of our faith, where we do not hear anything about the Ten Commandments, or what we are to do, but about something higher; namely, what Christ is and what He has done…” And in this lesson, Luther goes on to say, we hear John the Baptist, certainly a holy man who walked closely with God, as he “freely confesses” that he was unworthy even of untying Jesus’ sandals.

Why did Luther think the passage that makes up our Gospel lesson is such good news for us?

It’s this. This universe in which you and I live for a few years is a dark place. Sin has brought the darkness of death, suffering, human cruelty, disease, and conflict. And none of us is exempt from the sin that brings these ills to us. “We are in bondage to sin and cannot free ourselves,” we Lutheran Christians often confess to God and each other. The Bible says about the whole human race descended from Adam and Eve: “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God…” (Romans 3:23)

What’s more, our sin condition blinds us to the sins we commit because of it. I’ve told the story before, but years ago, Ann and I were talking with our good friends, Pat and Steve. Some mutual acquaintance came up in our conversation and I said, “I find him awfully opinionated.” The room went silent. “What?” I asked everyone. “What? Do you think I’m opinionated?” Finally, Pat said, gently and honestly, “Mark, you’re very opinionated.” I had been blind to this obvious fact about myself. I have to say that, in this area, as in the rest of my life, I’m only a recovering sinner. But from that moment, I became aware of yet another of my enduring sins that I need to bring out into the light of God for him to crucify and raise this old sinner to new life.

The gospel of John says that Jesus is the Light of the world. He also says that “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” (John 1:5) No amount of the darkness that is spawned by sin can extinguish the powerful light that is God! But John also tells us that Jesus, God the Son, the Light of the world “was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him…” (John 1:10)

This is why John the Baptist was sent “as a witness to the light,” sent to point blind people to where the holy God Who reconciles God and sinners can be found. (John 1:8) Now that’s a ridiculous statement on its face. I mean, if you walk into a dark room and flip on the light switch, nobody will have to tell you where the light is…unless you’re blind, which is precisely what we all frequently are, insensitive to how our sin alienates us from God and causes us not love God and not love our neighbor. We can be so focused on ourselves that we can see nothing and nobody else, not even God.

John turned away from the temptation to become a big shot. He pointed others to Jesus, the Light! He was like the apostle Paul who later wrote to the first-century Church at Corinth. “When I came to you,” Paul says, “I did not come with eloquence or human wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.” (1 Corinthians 2:1-2)

For John the Baptist, for Saint Paul, and for billions of people who have confessed Jesus as Lord through the centuries and Who confess Jesus as Lord today, Jesus and what He did for us at the cross and what He gave to us when He rose from the dead–forgiveness, eternal life, peace with God and ourselves–Jesus is more than enough.

John the Baptist was executed for his faith–his imperfect and sometimes faltering faith–in Christ.

So was Paul.

But they faced persecution and death knowing that Jesus, the Light of the world, has an eternity of blessings for those who trust in Him.

This is why Paul, on the brink of death for his faith, could write to his young protege, Timothy: “I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time for my departure is near. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day—and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing.” (2 Timothy 4:6-8)

Christ, the Light of the world, has appeared.

He will appear again.

He has finished His salvation work at the cross.

He has risen and sits at the Father’s right hand.

He has sent the Holy Spirit by whom we who dwell in the darkness of sin can see and be covered by the light of His great and conquering love, the only love that overcomes our sin, our death, our fears, and that gives to all who, by His grace turn to Him repentance and faith, life with God that never ends.

These are Christ’s gift to you today, given in His Word and in His body and blood in, with, and under the bread and the wine.

One of my favorite promises in Scripture is one you’ve heard me mention many times, promises Jesus first gave to a grieving friend, overwhelmed by the darkness of our fallen world and angry at Jesus for not preventing their grief. “I am the resurrection and the life,” Jesus says. “The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?” (John 11:25-26)

In a world of darkness, it’s easy to cave into fear, or egotism, or indifference, or hatred, or being a control freak who tries to block reality from view.

But Christ has pierced the darkness and destroyed death and every dark power that taunts us, deflates us, or harms us.

Jesus Christ gives us Himself.

And, for living these days and looking beyond death itself, Christ is more than enough for you and me.

The One Whose sandals we are unworthy to untie long ago decided that we were worth the suffering and death He went through to buy us out of our bondage to sin and death.

And if you remember nothing else today, remember this: That’s how desperately God loves you!

Friends, you can entrust your whole life to Christ and, believing in Him, know that no matter what, you belong to God always.

Amen

Again and Again (AUDIO)

Here.

[I'm the pastor of Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio.]

Again and Again

[This message was shared during worship with the people and friends of Living Water Lutheran Church this morning.]

John 1:6-8, 19-28
The other day I was working a crossword puzzle that included this clue: Double French affirmative. The answer, of course, was, “Oui! Oui!” Strange as it may seem to us, French speakers will sometimes actually say, “Oui! Oui!” “Yes! Yes!” like that.

But it’s really not that strange. In the years when Jesus walked the earth in Judea, where people spoke Aramaic, words were often repeated twice like that. Jesus Himself spoke this way.

In John 3:3, for example, Jesus is speaking to a Jewish teacher, Nicodemus, and says, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again." That’s our English translation. But in the Greek in which John wrote his gospel, he retains a typically Aramaic way of speaking. Jesus says, not “very truly,” but, “Amen! Amen!” “Truly, truly!”

The repetition of a single word like that is a way of emphasizing a point. Jesus is saying, “Truly! Truly” tells us, “This is important. You need to catch this.”

There’s a reason why I’m making this point. It’s because in the one verse I want to focus on in today’s message, John the gospel writer emphasizes something about John the Baptist, something it’s important for us all to catch, something it’s important for all Christian disciples to apply to our lives.

It’s John 1:20, where we’re told about John the Baptist: “He did not fail to confess, but confessed freely, ‘I am not the Messiah.’”

John never failed to confess and confessed all the time.

When asked whether he was the Messiah, the Christ, God’s anointed King, John would confess and confess again, “I am not the Christ.”

“Get this clear,” John is saying, “I’m not the King you’re looking for. I can’t save you. I’m just a witness for Him.”

John insists that he is not the Messiah and that no matter how many thousands may come out to hear him preach and receive his baptism of repentance, he is nothing and the Messiah to come, the Savior, is everything.

Why is that such a big deal? For one reason, had John gone along with people’s desire to treat him as though he were the Messiah, he could have gotten out of that ridiculous outfit of his and maybe eaten something tastier than locusts and wild honey. Who knows, maybe he could have wangled his celebrity into a kingship or gigs at the first century Judean version of Las Vegas?

John the Baptist could have become an important person in the world’s eyes. Imagine the faith required of John to turn away suggestions that he was hot stuff!

Instead, in the face of the fame and the accolades, John said, “I am the voice of one calling in the wilderness...I baptize with water, but among you stands one you do not know. He is the one who comes after me, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie.” (John 1:23, 26-27)

The other reason I think that John’s double confession of not being the Messiah is so remarkable is that his message is so counter, not just to first century culture, but even more to twenty-first-century culture. John couldn’t care less about whether his achievements in this world stroke his self-esteem or make others bow down to him. What John cares about is being faithful to the God Who would send the Messiah Jesus to save all who surrender to Him from the eternal death we deserve for our sin.

John had no need to be important in the eyes of the world. It was enough for him to know that God loved him and the whole human race enough to send His Son to die and rise for them...for us, you and me.

John didn’t need a trophy for participating in the bowling league.

He didn’t need to win an argument.

He didn’t need people telling him, “Thank you.”

He didn’t need the affirmation of the crowds. John knew that the God Who made him was going to save and remake all who trust in His Messiah. And that was enough.

Is it enough for you and me? Is Christ enough for you and me? If Christ isn’t enough for us, we need to repent and trust in Christ. Again. Today and every day.

The team planning a discipleship conference for our district of the North American Lutheran Church, which will be held this coming February, met in this building yesterday. Doug and I are on the team and I’m hoping that every member of Living Water will attend.

But after the meeting, two of the pastors and a layperson chatted a bit with Doug and me. We were talking about the subject of congregational decision-making. One pastor underscored how important it is for every disciple to be heard. And, he said, it’s equally important that when making decisions, every church member ask themselves a simple question: “What does God want?”

It’s no trouble for any of us to identify what we want, what we think, what we feel.

But the real question we should ask when making decisions is, “What does God want? What is God showing me through prayer and Scripture? What is God telling me through the godly wisdom of other disciples rooted in God’s Word? What is God telling all of us as we prayerfully seek His will as we meet and talk?”

And these sorts of questions apply as much to our personal lives as they do to our congregational lives.

What does God want? What does God think about our desire to buy a new house, work with the poor in a Third World country, take the promotion with the bigger pay even though I love the work I’m doing right now and don’t really need the raise? What does God say about someone's desire to end their marriage rather than working things out? What does God want?

This is the question of a disciple seeking to be faithful to the God they know in Jesus. It’s the question of the person who, like John the Baptist, confesses and confesses repeatedly that they, that we, aren’t God. We aren’t in charge. We don’t have the final say.

The fundamental war every Christian disciple must wage is the fight to subdue our own egos, our inborn desire to “be like God,” and to instead, surrender totally to Jesus Christ.

But know this: When, like John the Baptist, we put God first and ask that His will be done and not our own, God will ask us to take risks of faith.

• God told Abraham and Sarah to go to a place He would show them. 
• He told Moses to traverse the wilderness with the whiny people of Israel until He said to stop. 
• He told David he could take on a giant. 
• He told Gideon that his army was too big; he needed to rely on God by whittling the army down. 
• He told Ezra and Nehemiah to rebuild Jerusalem even though they didn’t have the resources, didn’t have the technical skills, and were surrounded by enemies.

The risks of faith God asks us to make often don’t make human sense. In fact, when a course of action meets our human standards of "common sense," it's probably the wrong way to go. God's sense usually doesn't make common sense.

And most of you here know about that.

• When a group of people left a congregation of which they’d been members for decades because they believed that congregation was no longer faithful to the gospel, then formed Living Water, it didn’t make sense. But God was faithful. 
• When Living Water faced division over disagreements, some wondered if it made sense to continue the life of this congregation. But God was faithful. 
• When this congregation was forced to move out of a 38,000 square foot school building that would be torn down five months later, some thought it nonsensical to think that we could continue. But God was faithful and here we are.

God doesn’t promise that when His people confess and keep confessing their faith in the God we know in Jesus, everything will turn out great in this life.

John the Baptist lost his earthly life in taking the risk of doing what God called him to do. In confessing Christ as his Lord in his words and in his life though, John also gained something that will never be taken away from him: The life with God that belongs to all who repent and believe in Jesus Christ!

As Jesus promises believers in John 16:33: "...In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”

Despite the odds. Despite what his intellect or his fears or his heart may have told him, John confessed and kept confessing his faith in Jesus. We are called to do no less!

And when we keep confessing Jesus with our words, our lives, our worship, our witness, and our discipleship, we can rely on a promise from our Lord: “...the one who stands firm to the end will be saved.” (Matthew 24:13)

Stand firm and keep confessing Jesus always!

Amen

[I'm the pastor of Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio.]