St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church

St. Andrew's exists to proclaim the Gospel and to share the love of God in our church and in our community

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April 18, 2021

April 18, 2021, “See what Love” Acts 3: 12-19, Psalm 4, 1 John 3: 1-7, Luke 24: 36b-48 Friends, this week, between these words from John’s First Letter and our other readings (especially our reading from the Gospel of Luke), we are offered a question: “What does it mean to see the Risen Jesus?” What does it mean to see, as the disciples did, that Jesus has risen from the grave? Or, for us, what does it mean to hear that He has and to try to live our lives by this Good News? Friends, this question, however exactly we want to put it, of “what it means” for our lives that Christ has died and risen from the grave is not just an important question for the third Sunday of Easter or for the Easter Season, it is an important question for all who confess faith in Jesus Christ, and all who are trying to. It is an important question, perhaps the important question of our lives. What does it mean? What does it mean that Jesus has risen? What does it mean that His promises, His miracles, all of His foreshadowing messages throughout the Gospel point to the truth that He has, in-fact, come back from the grave to show us the way to eternal life, that we might know our sins are forgiven, and that we have been set free from every power of sin and death? It can be argued, in fact, that this question: What does it mean? What did Jesus accomplish? Is the question that has been filling letters, sermons, and books, and libraries of Christian thought for more than two-thousand years. And (as I like to say) the wonderful thing about Christian thought and Christian theology, is that if you can think of a question, chances are someone (probably Augustine or John Calvin) has written a whole book about it hundreds of years ago. And even if you don’t find your answer, you will know you’re not alone in your wondering. So, if we are not alone, that is fine, but what does it mean to see the Risen Jesus? Well, according to John, it can be summarized in one word: “love” “See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and that is what we are.” According to John, the reality of Christ’s resurrection from the grave on Easter morning means that we are loved; that we are loved as children of God, that is what we are, and that is what I hope you will take away from this Sunday’s message. Why, though, should we think of ourselves as children of God? Because we have been adopted by God. Because in the witness of the disciples that Jesus has defeated death, in the mission to tell this Good News to the whole world, and in our hearing it and praying for the faith to believe it, and be transformed by it, we have been adopted. Or as Paul, one of the other great apostles put it: formerly we were children of darkness, but now, now we are children of light. All because of what Christ has revealed to those who believe. “See what love” this is… …that God, Our Father, seeing a humanity that could not save itself, that could no more remove itself from sin as it could stop breathing or eating, sent His Only Begotten Son in order that they would not fear but believe that the end of sin was already accomplished for them… …that if we would only accept the help offered to us, if we would only stop resisting the God who calls us to love God and Neighbour, we would be truly free. “See what love” this is. In the 33 years after God sent Himself into the world at Christmas, this God, this Jesus, went around previewing all that was about to take place. He was baptized in order to preview our baptism He was tempted in order to preview our temptation He healed in order to preview the Kingdom of God where death and illness would be no more He performed miracles in order to preview the greatest miracle of his resurrection And He came back from the dead in order to give us a preview of the life everlasting He has in store for us Yet, this itself is the challenge, the space between what has been and what is in store. As followers of Jesus, as those who have heard and have read the Good News of Jesus’ work and salvation, we live as human beings in a peculiar place. We are, those of us who live after the resurrection of Christ, and yet before the second coming are like people in a movie theatre, waiting for our movie to start, watching previews of other movies that are not available yet. And as each one passes, as each preview is shown, we say to ourselves “I wish that was the movie that is about to start, no I wish that was the movie…” and so on until we don’t remember why we went to this movie in the first place. The present moment, for both Christians, non-Christians, and even critics of the Christian church has always been a bit of a puzzle. ‘If things are going to be so much better in the future, why is the present moment often so difficult?’ ‘If the Kingdom of God is so much better than this world, why are we here?’ ‘If Jesus is going to come back and do even greater works than these, offer even better salvation than this, why are we slogging through the present, with all its trouble and all its suffering?’ This puzzle is so engaging that (as I have said) even critics of Christian faith enjoy playing with it. In my years (formerly as a critic of the church) and now as a representative of it, I have found several times that atheists and agnostics often become great Christians, because they are well practiced in dealing with the puzzles of faith. In answer to the puzzle of the present moment, the so-called “Now and Not Yet”: Now we are in and of the world, but soon we will be in God’s Kingdom. Now we see through a glass dimly, but soon we shall see face to face. In answer to this puzzle, John offers this simple observation: “Beloved, we are God’s children now” Beloved by Christ, the Good News is that we are God’s Children now Even though we are still mired in sin Even though we can still no more save ourselves than stop breathing We have nevertheless already been adopted; we are already loved by God. Those of us who proclaim this Truth with joy and those who struggle with it, or even against it. We are all benefactors of God’s loving action in Christ Jesus In our Gospel reading this morning, after Jesus had risen from the grave, after he had rejoined the disciples, Christ appeared with these words: “Peace be with you” ‘Peace be with you, do not fear, do not doubt, only believe…’ And yet, what happens next according to Luke? Did the disciples immediately believe, did they put aside all of their fears and their doubts? No! They were surprised! They were joyful! But Luke himself tells us: “While in their joy they were disbelieving and still wondering, he said to them, ‘Have you anything here to eat?’” Jesus asks about food, not because He was hungry but because it was the only thing He could do to get them to believe. These disciples, His closest friends, these people who had been present at all of His miracles and all of His healings, all of the moments previewing this moment of His resurrection, even these guys needed convincing. So He took some fish, and He ate it in front of them, to show that it was really him, in the flesh. In that moment, in that moment when the original followers of Jesus saw the first signs of the resurrected Christ, what did it mean for them? What did it mean to them to see the Risen Jesus? Jesus Himself speaks the words of meaning: “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you—that everything written about me in the law of Moses, and the prophets, and the psalms must be fulfilled. Thus it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things.” You are witnesses of these things. Having seen me, having seen the marks in my hands and my feet, having seen me eat before you, you know it is me, Jesus of Nazareth, now risen from death. And you are witnesses. Witnesses to the fact that what was started in the Laws of Moses and the prophets, and the Psalms, has been fulfilled in Him who rose on the third day, who now stands before you. Throughout these books, the Laws and the prophets, what we call now the Old Testament, there is a running theme: the God of Israel is a trustworthy God. Or to use an older and more accurate word, the God of Israel is an abiding God. The God who created the world abides that world. The God who created humanity abides that humanity. The God who chose Abraham and made the covenant abides that covenant. Even when things go terribly wrong Even when God’s people turn away Even when God’s people seem determined to forget the God of their salvation This God still abides So much so that He has a plan, not just to abide with His chosen people, but in order to save them from the sin that they cannot cast off themselves It is a plan of deep beauty, of truth, of pain, of sacrifice, and of unbelievable mercy and love. It is the plan made in Jesus Christ and fulfilled in his death, resurrection, and coming again. You are witnesses. You disciples, and you faithful Christians of every age. You are witnesses to the Good News of who Jesus Christ is and what His resurrection from the grave means for a humanity struggling under the weight of sin and death. And yet, Even more amazing than this, Even more amazing and joyful than the things that have taken place, is the thing to come, the coming of the Kingdom of God, a Kingdom in which death will be completely put to death and sin will be no more. This is the greatest news of all. Earlier, I mentioned that one of the many outcomes of Jesus rising from the grave for us means that we are free. What is this freedom, what does this freedom mean? In one sense, it is the freedom of being able to enjoy life with all of its ups and downs, sorrows and joys; that reading the Gospels, watching the movie previews of ‘life to come’ means that we are “free” to enjoy the movie we are in, drawing strength, rather than dismay by comparing our current world with the Kingdom to Come. Another sense of this freedom, is that it means we are not defined or condemned by our worst. Not our worst day, or our worst year, or even our worst selves that still surprise us from time to time. Tim Keller, the great preacher, defines this freedom this this way: “The Gospel is this: we are more sinful and flawed in ourselves than we ever dared believe, yet at that very same time, we are more loved and accepted in Jesus Christ than we ever dared hope.” So, what does it mean to see the Risen Christ, the proof of the amazing things done and the more amazing things to come? It means we are loved. We are loved with a love beyond imagination. We are loved by the very author and creator of life, in a love that sacrifices itself in order for us to know we are God’s Children, that we are adopted, and having been adopted, we will never be let go. Friends, this is the Good News of Jesus Christ, and I pray that you are encouraged by it… Encouraged by love visible and invisible Encouraged by your adoption by God the Father And encouraged that whatever the future brings, this we know: When He is finally revealed at the coming of the Kingdom, we will be like him, for we will (finally) see him as he is. Or, to put it another way, we will understand fully what it means that He rose from the grave and came again for us. Amen.