Today we were honored to witness five baptisms. What a wonderful day it is to be part of the family of God! Congrats to Curtis, Brian, Jeanette, Thomas, and Justin. Something’s happening at church almost every day this coming week: choir practice on Monday at 4, Food Pantry (with Prayze Dogs) Tuesday starting at 5, Bible Study on Wednesday at 6 (still studying Exodus), and Board Meeting Thursday at 6. And then welcome back to church next Sunday with Sunday School at 9:45 and Worship Service at 11. We’ll be celebrating Mother’s Day by announcing how much we raised for our mission project with donations to Heifer International.
2 May 2021 Sunday Message: “Looking for Truth, and Found Him”
Call to Worship: John 15:1-8
“I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. 2 He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit, he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. 3 You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. 4 Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.
5 “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. 6 If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. 7 If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 8 This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.
Invitation, Praises, and Prayer Concerns; Father in Heaven and universe beyond, Lord today we humbly thank you for all that you are doing in the world to reclaim your people. Sometimes we get overwhelmed by all that is negative in our lives, and we would ask for you reassurance in our walk in and with you.
Amen!
Message Reading: John 18:33-40
33 Pilate then went back inside the palace, summoned Jesus and asked him, “Are you the king of the Jews?”
34 “Is that your own idea,” Jesus asked, “or did others talk to you about me?”
35 “Am I a Jew?” Pilate replied. “Your own people and chief priests handed you over to me. What is it you have done?”
36 Jesus said, “My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jewish leaders. But now my kingdom is from another place.”
37 “You are a king, then!” said Pilate.
Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. In fact, the reason I was born and came into the world is to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.”
38 “What is truth?” retorted Pilate. With this he went out again to the Jews gathered there and said, “I find no basis for a charge against him. 39 But it is your custom for me to release to you one prisoner at the time of the Passover. Do you want me to release ‘the king of the Jews’?”
40 They shouted back, “No, not him! Give us Barabbas!” Now Barabbas had taken part in an uprising.
Message: “Looking for Truth, and Found Him”
Today, unlike back then, we have people choosing Jesus! I almost titled today’s message; “What is Truth?” But it sounded too glib me, and to much like our modern-day discussions on philosophy and coffee house rhetoric that I opted for what we have in common; “Looking for Truth, and Found Him”. Thanks be to Him!
While reading a book from one of my favorite Theological thinkers Joseph Ratzinger (Pope Benedict), called “Values in a Time of Upheaval” ©2006. It’s a series of essays he has written over the years on this subject. I came upon an essay by the then Cardinal at the time called “The Significance of Religious and Ethical Values in a Pluralistic Society” or more specifically; “What is Truth”.
The Cardinal was citing John 18:38 (hence today’s Message reading), and speaking to the need for all people, including those of faith to look closely at themselves, their society, and the government(s) they support. To remember that our faith is a great and essential contributor for the existence of healthy and ethical government, community, and family.
I was captivated with the passage of Pilot asking Jesus, the Lord who he doesn’t recognize; “what is truth?”. And then Pilot continues the conversation because he doesn’t expect an answer. In short, for many, the idea of truth is a hard concept to come to grips with. Many have given up on even finding any truth in life.
So, without going further in Popes Leo’s excellent essay (that you can read for yourselves), let me pose the question to you. What is truth? Because in our culture, in our ailing society, there are all kinds of truth available for those shopping for a personal creed, epitaph, or principles to live by. Essentially, people are looking in the dark for a deeper meaning to their lives, hoping to find something to hang on to. Superficially, Television and our culture are rife with examples of truth:
I remember as a child the commercial with Orson Wells depicting the truth of a particular Wine that was being advertised in the 1970s “Paul Masson will sell no wine before it’s time” Now that’s truth you can depend upon! At least my Grandma thought so, and had a medicinal unit available just in case.
There is the truth of “dying and taxes”, the concept of compound interest and accumulating returns, or monthly payments. There is the widely held thought that “no good deed goes unpunished”, or the age-old adage in the nick-nack shop of “you break it you buy it”. Then there is a personal favorite of mine, Captain John’s wild Seafood Emporium; “Pick the Fish that you Wish”.
There is the truth my little brother had when we were growing up. He believed that cash was best kept cold (so he hid it in the freezer out in the Garage), and then, in simple interest on a loan (10% a day). This is why I can count on my right hand the number of times I borrowed from the house of Craig! (But it was always available if needed, and that makes me the most blessed of brothers!)
All are truths in their own way, and many lead us to conclusions about our lives and where we are going. And yet, there must be more to our lives than a catchy quip and bogus grandiloquence. The truth is out there!
I am reminded of the words from our Lord in today’s “Call to Worship” from John and what our Lord says about God the Father in Heaven, who Jesus is, and our relation to Him as mere branches bearing the fruit of God’s doing. John 15:1-8
“I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. 2 He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. 3 You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. 4 Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.
5 “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. 6 If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. 7 If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 8 This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.
When we are in and with our Lord, we have a future. Without our Lord and on our own, life is a horrible joke that invokes no laughter, only sadness. Kind of like how many of our lives were before we found our new selves in Him and with each other.
Today, we have seen this truth in action in our own lives. Here in God’s Livingroom, the Sanctuary of the Lord, we were privileged to witness what happens when we follow the promptings of God’s Holy Spirit, by loving God with all of our being, through loving our neighbor (His creation) as ourselves, and sharing the Good News of the Gospel. If we would have hoarded the joy, we have found in Him to ourselves, or had been paralyzed by our own fears of the unknown or given into paranoia, today wouldn’t have happened through us.
Yes, today we serve as the Lord’s branches in His garden. We have been charged with the growing of new fruit that has been added to the tree of life. New wholesome healthy fruit dedicated for eternal life. We get to be a part of the flow of vital nourishing and development, the maturing and sustaining of new members of God’s family. Future Christians of the working day, that will in turn share the Good News, and bear new fruit in their own turn.
Apart from our Lord, none of this is possible or it’s just a façade, fake, a cheap imitation that will crumble upon its own weight. With our Lord all the possibilities in this life become certainties and onward we go to new heights, new insights, and new adventures in a God that has no limitations what-so-ever!
When we share the truth of God with those we meet in this life in real love, care that drives our concern for our fellow man (our neighbor), we open up all the possibilities that we all get to share in the Lord. The truth that is simply stated by our Lord in John 14:6-7;
6 Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7 If you really know me, you will know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.”
Regardless of how you have lived this life; in and with our Lord, or on your own, in your own version of your truth, you will one day speak with the Lord God Jesus Christ who has created and sustained, and saved His family in this world. He (not you or me), will judge the quick and the dead (thank goodness), and we get to contribute to that conversation today in the here and now, by our attitudes.
We get to make the mindsets in our lives today, the outlooks that effect eternity. You are a vessel that gets to decide what you want to try to carry around in your life;
- Love or fear
- Care or selfishness
- Kindness or aloofness
- Reaching out or looking inward
- Rejoicing with others or hoarding your feelings
- Forgiving or carrying a grudge
- Blessing or cursing
For more instruction on a way ahead, we have the first letter of John that gives a no kidding assessment to how we should approach this thing called life and our relationships in each other. 1 John 4:7-21
7 Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. 10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11 Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.
13 This is how we know that we live in him and he in us: He has given us of his Spirit. 14 And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. 15 If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God. 16 And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.
God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them. 17 This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: In this world we are like Jesus. 18 There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.
19 We love because he first loved us. 20 Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. 21 And he has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister.
What is truth?
- Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.
- 8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.
- …since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
- 12 No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.
- …we will have confidence on the day of judgment: In this world we are like Jesus.
- 18 There is no fear in love…
And now my words; not sloppy agape, but following our God!
This is not some panacea of mumbo jumbo nonsense but a new way of life made possible only through a God so kind, so generous, so full of grace, that he loves you in spite of you! Today, we have witnessed people called into our family. Offered the same opportunity to be a part of the solution and betterment of this hurting world as Pontus Pilot had. All of us have the free choice to make when the ultimate question arises; “What is truth?”
And if you are really looking for truth you will find your Lord who has been there with you from the very beginning. Let’s hear that conversation again from Today’s Message reading, and remember that you are really hearing what the Lord is saying. This time John 18:33-38
33 Pilate then went back inside the palace, summoned Jesus and asked him, “Are you the king of the Jews?”
34 “Is that your own idea,” Jesus asked, “or did others talk to you about me?”
35 “Am I a Jew?” Pilate replied. “Your own people and chief priests handed you over to me. What is it you have done?”
36 Jesus said, “My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jewish leaders. But now my kingdom is from another place.”
37 “You are a king, then!” said Pilate.
Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. In fact, the reason I was born and came into the world is to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.”
38 “What is truth?” retorted Pilate.
The truth was before his very eyes, and has been with you all along. Because we were immersed in sin, we struggled to see, to feel, to comprehend the purity of our Lord God. Unlike Pilot, we were actually looking for the truth, and have found our Lord.
Pilot opted to turn the Lord over to the depravity of his world. Today our new family members and this congregation dedicated themselves to being conduits, open doors, a roadway towards the Lord’s Good News of salvation for all willing people.
It is my hope and prayer for all of you, that you remember the commitments made here today. This morning people committed their lives to Jesus, and we pledged to help them in their walk, as they will pledge for other people in our future family.
May God bless you in your advocation of His incredible grace;
Amen!
Benediction; Psalm 23 and Numbers 6:24-26