Raise Your Right Hand, Please

1 John 5:7-9

          Giving testimony in court used to be something sacred. You would raise your right hand, place the left hand on the Bible, and swear to tell the whole truth with God’s help. God was actually invited into the courtroom! That was a different day.

          Today the character of so many has collapsed to the point that you never know if someone is going to tell the truth on the stand. Often, if they think they can get away with it, they will lie. We of course has some very famous liars. For many of us, the Bill Clinton lying stands out. “I did not have sex.” Hah! To be proven wrong, there must be physical evidence. Hard to get. So now we erase hard drives. Oops, I am getting sidetracked again.

          Our text tells us that there are three sources of testimony that John appealed to that proved Jesus’ identity as the Messianic Son of God. John feels like he is in the fight of his life in preserving the integrity of the Gospel message being spread in his day and age. Others were coming in and changing the foundational blocks on which the Gospel was laid. And he knew that if the foundation was changed, the whole building would collapse. The Gospel, that for which he had been exiled, for which so many of his friends and fellow Jesus-followers had been killed, that Gospel would be emptied of its power.

          John’s argument is that if we accept human testimony, we should certainly accept God’s testimony. This has been a theme from the beginning of this letter. He had been an eyewitness to Jesus’ life, burial and post-resurrection appearances. He was not dealing with a phantom, a ghost, a vision. This was Jesus, fully human and fully God. Seen, heard, touched and handled.

          Part of the struggle of our society now is the lack of trust in authority, any authority. The trend blossomed with the baby boomers, into the universities, and led to the ‘throw off all restraints of the past’ 60’s and 70’s. The social experiments that began to infect the way people think about personal freedom and choice is now center stage of the dialogue about marriage, gay, straight or otherwise. Since there is no authority structure, other than the “as long as I don’t hurt somebody else” ethic, we have not anchor for our decisions. It is a failed ethic which thinks of people as isolated individuals rather than an interconnected and interdependent being.

          So now we have every word up for redefinition based on whatever every individual wants it to mean. Marriage can now mean man-woman, man-man, woman-woman, and even woman-dog. There are pushes to include multiple partners in the term. Parent has gone to ‘anyone who contributes in some way’ to the life. Genetic material contributions can now carry obligations. Or there can be no genetic contribution, but that doesn’t mean the ‘parent’ term can’t be applied.

          So when John tells us that God’s testimony should be the deciding factor in the identity of Jesus, the modern person simply says, “Why?” Since they reject every authority except their own authority, the authority of God carries no more weight in a definition than my dog’s opinion. And I don’t even have a dog!

          But for those of us who have submitted our will to His will, God does retain the right to write definitions. He can tell us what relationships are healthy and why. He can tell us about Himself and how we can properly relate to Him. He can tell us about ourselves and we must accept His definition.

Testify

1 John 4:13-14

          What happens when a process in finished? What happens at the end of an assembly line? What happens when a woman has carried a baby for nine months? When you see big, red, juicy apples hanging heavily on a tree, don’t you just want to pick one and eat it? When things are at the end of their process, when they mature and meet their intended design, then they are ready to be fully used.

          When God’s love is fully at work in our lives then we are meeting God’s design for us. There is a connection that wasn’t there before. We live in Him and He lives in us. This is something new, something unexpected. And we know this because God’s Spirit lives in us. We get a taste of intimacy with God. We don’t have the full measure of God’s Spirit. Our human bodies couldn’t take all of God in us. I think we would explode. The sin in us would have to be removed. Kapowee!

          So how could John be so confident in what he was writing? That is easy. He had been any eyewitness to Jesus’ life, death and resurrection. He had been there on the Day of Pentecost and was filled with the Spirit. The message had been confirmed repeatedly as he and the other Jesus-followers had scattered and spread the Good News. Everywhere they went people accepted the message and were transformed by the power of God. There is no other logical explanation for this explosive growth other than the reality of Jesus being sent by the Father as the Savior of the world.

          And yet people still try to explain away the transformation that happens across time and cultures. They just can’t accept the reality of Jesus. To do so would require admitting their sinfulness and their powerlessness to stop its ravages. To do so would mean that their way of living was a lie. The Gospel means dying to the old way of life and choosing to live in line with God’s character instead of our own.

          Narrow is the road that leads to life and only a few find it. This dying to self is hard work. I am sure dying as an innocent for the guilty was pretty tough as well. But that is exactly what Jesus did. Some call it the Great Exchange. His life for our life.

          How much are you testifying about Jesus? How much with words? How much with action?

Leading the Way

Mark 10:32

      Have you ever noticed that the person in the front of the crowd, the one with the camera pointed at them, is usually the one that gets shot in the movie. Of course in typical Hollywood style, that same person miraculously continues in their valiant pursuit of the enemy, despite having lost use of their arm, leg and perhaps even an eye. And of course they die in the beautiful woman’s arms after the death kiss.

      Leading in any context can be a very lonely journey. Often modern leaders become isolated from their followers. The demands of leading seem to take over and consume time and energy that would otherwise be spent with the followers. For some, the demands of leadership and the honors that get bestowed by the followers lead to a false sense of importance. They begin to believe the adulations of those who follow. The drink the cool aide themselves. This is a dangerous position as a leader. When you believe your own spin, you are in trouble.

      Jesus is on His way to Jerusalem. He knows it will mean His death and all that entails, and yet He leads the group headed in that direction. Perhaps it is the crowd of devout Jews who are headed to Jerusalem for the Passover Feast. There would have been thousands who would make that journey each year. It was required of all devout Jewish men. The roads would have been filled with fellow Passover pilgrims.

      But Jesus wasn’t going to celebrate as so many others were going to do. He was going to His crucifixion. Not quite the same journey!

      And yet, we see Jesus leading the way. What would make someone who knows they are going to be killed so eager, so bold, to lead the way? What drove Jesus to lead? I am not so sure I would want to lead. How about you? I might want to get lost in the crowd.

      But Jesus knows the final outcome, and what that journey will bring about for us. He is willing to serve us, even at the cost of His life. There is no cost too great for Him. He knows the suffering that lays ahead. He knows the humiliation and the torment. And yet He moves forward, leading the way.

      One of the greatest testimonies that I have witnessed is when someone knows they are dying, and still takes the opportunity to witness and encourage those who come to visit them. They are in great pain, and yet they can speak of God’s goodness and faithfulness, even in the pain. And what is more amazing is that they are genuine in their proclamation and everyone knows it. They are not putting on an act for an audience. They are being true to themselves and to their Lord.