save me

Now among those who went up to worship at the festival were some Greeks. They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and said to him, “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.” Philip went and told Andrew; then Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus. Jesus answered them, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. Those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there will my servant be also. Whoever serves me, the Father will honor. “Now my soul is troubled. And what should I say—‘Father, save me from this hour’? No, it is for this reason that I have come to this hour. Father, glorify your name.” Then a voice came from heaven, “I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.” The crowd standing there heard it and said that it was thunder. Others said, “An angel has spoken to him.” Jesus answered, “This voice has come for your sake, not for mine. Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be driven out. And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” He said this to indicate the kind of death he was to die. (John 12:20-33, NRSV)

Glory comes from God.

And we can give Him glory by following what He is leading us to do.

Which you can see from the reading sometimes isn’t even what Jesus wants to do.

Jesus said, “Now my soul is troubled. And what should I say—‘Father, save me from this hour’? No, it is for this reason that I have come to this hour. Father, glorify your name.”

So even Jesus didn’t like what God told Him to do, but He did it. Because that is what gives God glory.

And ultimately Jesus’ faithfulness is what saves us!

Shout Aloud and Sing!

You will say in that day: I will give thanks to you, O LORD, for though you were angry with me, your anger turned away, and you comforted me. Surely God is my salvation; I will trust, and will not be afraid, for the LORD GOD is my strength and my might; he has become my salvation. With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation. And you will say in that day: Give thanks to the LORD, call on his name; make known his deeds among the nations; proclaim that his name is exalted. Sing praises to the LORD, for he has done gloriously; let this be known in all the earth. Shout aloud and sing for joy, O royal Zion, for great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel. (Isaiah 12, NRSV)

I give thanks to God!

For you Lord were angry with me, and you were right to be. But you turned away from your anger as a loving parent and picked me up and loved me. Even in my dirtiness! Even in my sin!

You loved me and I praise you for your love and give thanks to you!

I will sing to you for you are my salvation and the rock of my life.

I will praise you with my life and shout aloud your praises to all the world!

Paul as Popeye…

Now I would remind you, brothers and sisters, of the good news that I proclaimed to you, which you in turn received, in which also you stand, through which also you are being saved, if you hold firmly to the message that I proclaimed to you—unless you have come to believe in vain. For I handed on to you as of first importance what I in turn had received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers and sisters at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have died. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me. For I am the least of the apostles, unfit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me has not been in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them—though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me. Whether then it was I or they, so we proclaim and so you have come to believe. (1 Corinthians 15:1-11, NRSV)

Paul here told the Corinthians, “But by the grace of God I am what I am!”

I yam what I yam…

I am a sinner saved by grace!

We are all dependent upon the grace and love of God. and we look up to Paul, but he says he is the least of the apostles, unfit to be called an apostle because of his past. Yet he is the model for most of us in our faith walk.

and if we looked at the heroes of our faith we would see that they really aren’t the kind of people we should be modeling our lives after, but they are, because they have been transformed by God’s grace, and so have we, so we can all say, “But by the grace of God I am what I am!”

no longer I

We ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners;  yet we know that a person is justified not by the works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ. And we have come to believe in Christ Jesus, so that we might be justified by faith in Christ, and not by doing the works of the law, because no one will be justified by the works of the law.  But if, in our effort to be justified in Christ, we ourselves have been found to be sinners, is Christ then a servant of sin? Certainly not!  But if I build up again the very things that I once tore down, then I demonstrate that I am a transgressor.  For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not nullify the grace of God; for if justification comes through the law, then Christ died for nothing. (Galatians 2:15-21, NRSV)

We know that we are not justified by the law.

We can not work our way to heaven, or earn salvation. It is a gift of God.

Apart from the Law, so that no one may boast they are better than any other.

So then why do we act like we are better than other people?

The Jews of Jesus day were saying the Greeks were out because they were not Jews, and they were outsiders.

Are we really any different today? Now some of us are, but we all have moments where we fall into an elitist state, and think we are better than others. We shut outsiders out.

We are called to love as Christ loved us, which means we see no separation between us and others. Christ came to bridge the gap for all of us with God.

So there is no Jew or Greek, Slave or Free, Male and Female, Christian and non-Christian, we are all united and need to look on the other as we look upon ourselves.

Spirit ~ Water ~ Blood

Who is it that conquers the world but the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God? This is the one who came by water and blood, Jesus Christ, not with the water only but with the water and the blood. And the Spirit is the one that testifies, for the Spirit is the truth. There are three that testify: the Spirit and the water and the blood, and these three agree. If we receive human testimony, the testimony of God is greater; for this is the testimony of God that he has testified to his Son. Those who believe in the Son of God have the testimony in their hearts. Those who do not believe in God have made him a liar by not believing in the testimony that God has given concerning his Son. And this is the testimony: God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life. I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life. And this is the boldness we have in him, that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. 15 And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have obtained the requests made of him. (1 John 5:5-15, NRSV)

The one who will conquer the world is the one who believes that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God!

And this is how we know that Jesus is the Son, because He came by water and blood and because the Spirit testifies to the truth in each of us.

These are the 3 that testify, water, blood and Spirit. The Spirit gives us the truth deep down in our lives, and gives us the power to come to God, and gives us the truth and the hope of the relationship we have in Christ!

As Martin Luther said in his explanation of the third article of the Apostles Creed:

“I believe that by my own reason or strength I cannot believe in Jesus Christ, my Lord, or come to him. But the Holy Spirit has called me through the Gospel, enlightened me with his gifts, and sanctified and preserved me in true faith, just as he calls, gathers, enlightens, and sanctifies the whole Christian church on earth and preserves it in union with Jesus Christ in the one true faith. In this Christian church he daily and abundantly forgives all my sins, and the sins of all believers, and on the last day he will raise me and all the dead and will grant eternal life to me and to all who believe in Christ. This is most certainly true.”