Be Sure of What You Believe!

Let us pray: O God --- creator of all things, Father of Jesus, Spirit that filled and directed all that Jesus did --- speak to us through your word and teaching. Help us to know what to believe and how believing brings life. We pray this with desirous hearts and open minds. Amen.

[Read John 20:19-31. Interject the Boy Scout scare story and how the disciples had to have been incredibly frightened at first!]

Well, that’s the end of the Gospel of John --- except, that is, for the commissioning of Peter. What do you think? Are you satisfied? The Gospel writer ended saying, “All this was written that you might believe…” Do you believe? Do you know what you believe? Do you know what the Gospel writer hoped you would believe?!

Well, it’s clear that Thomas and the other disciples didn’t believe --- they doubted! (Do you doubt?) They didn’t believe Jesus had risen from the dead! Not only did Thomas doubt, but so did the other ten! They sure didn’t believe Mary’s report! Instead, they cowered in a locked room! ---I think we should call them all the “doubting disciples!” What do you think?

But, is that all that the Gospel writer wanted us to come to believe – that Jesus was resurrected? …Why did Jesus have to die?!

The Gospel writer ends his message saying, “These [accounts] are written that you may believe … that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ (the long-awaited Messiah), the Son of God --- and that, by believing, you might receive life in his name!”

So, that’s what the Gospel writer hoped you would believe … and that you would receive. …Do you believe? Have you received?

Back in the 60’s, dishwashers promised to revolutionize the homemaker’s life. Life would be greatly improved for the woman of the home! She would still have clean (even cleaner) dishes! But more than that, she would have more free time to enjoy life … to spend quality time with her family! “Everyone should believe this! Everyone should receive their own dishwasher and start enjoying life,” the television ads proclaimed!

Now, my grandmother believed in the dishwasher. She believed it would wash dishes just fine. She believed the dishwasher could save her time in the kitchen too. She believed! But, she wouldn’t receive a dishwasher! She didn’t really believe it would improve her life! She found washing dishes by hand just fine … and perhaps even relaxing! My grandmother believed in the dishwasher … to an extent … but she didn’t desire to receive one!

Actually, grandma finally gave in to grandpa and allowed a dishwasher to be installed in her kitchen. But she never used it! She believed, she gave in … but it didn’t make any difference in her life!

Simply to believe to some extent, to acquiesce under pressure, but not to allow it to really make a difference … now isn’t that’s how it can be with faith too? (I remember our first dishwasher. Linda believed in it. She used it. …Yet, she first washed everything she put in it! What a difference that made!!)

So do you see?! The Gospel writer doesn’t want us to simply believe that Jesus was the Messiah … or simply that he was resurrected from the dead. That’s not the end of it! He wants us to believe so that we will receive something, really make use of something --- something that will truly make a difference in our lives! And that something … is the Holy Spirit!

The resurrected Jesus --- the one who came to deliver the world from sin and death --- from the chaos that comes of greed, fear, and heartless complacency --- Jesus said, “Now, therefore, as the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” And then, the Gospel writer recorded that Jesus breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit!”

Now, this translation, “…as the Father has sent me, I am sending you,” is, unfortunately, not a very clear translation! It makes it sound as if Jesus is giving the disciples their commission: “The Father sent me to make disciples, so now I send you!” But that wasn’t what Jesus was saying and that wasn’t the Gospel writer’s intent in quoting him here at all! What the Gospel writer wants us to hear Jesus saying is, “In the same way that the Father equipped me for life, so I now equip you. Here, receive the Holy Spirit!”

Believe and receive! Have life in the way that Jesus lived life … by receiving and following this same Holy Spirit! …This is the Gospel of John in a nutshell! This is what we are called to believe and to receive! This is why Jesus came, worked, died and was resurrected!

Look, you know that this Gospel tells us that Jesus is the truth and the way --- right?! So first, Jesus had to show us the truth … about ourselves and about who and what God is. God, he showed us, is love --- not just convenient love, but love that would wash another’s feet, love that would die for a friend … and for an enemy! That’s why he had to die!

Jesus came to show us that we, on the other hand, are all about law – a law that is fallible, that’s always incomplete, and that can always be bent and manipulated given a desired outcome --- something the powerful can control! Laws and police work … to an extent … like the dishwasher; but, they can’t really make life complete … for all! (Not when they can be manipulated by the powerful … those without the Holy Spirit in them!)

So, Jesus came to make us see that the only way to complete life --- life as God designed it --- comes from believing in this God and receiving His Holy Spirit. ---It was the Holy Spirit that came down from heaven from the Father-God, and gave Jesus all he needed in order to figure out what he was to do with his life, how to do it, and the strength to do it. …And, as Jesus was given, so he desired the same for his disciples: “As my Father gave me, so I give you. Receive!”

Do you see?! What the Gospel writer wants us to believe is that Jesus was God made flesh by the full indwelling of God’s Holy Spirit in a human body! He wants us to believe that Jesus’ whole mission was to bring people to receive this same Holy Spirit and, through receiving, become one with the Father … just as Jesus was one with the Father (through the Holy Spirit) --- and therefore, one with the kind of life Jesus lived!

What this ultimately means is that life is no longer about laws, rules, or cheap recipes! Life is about listening to the Holy Spirit and doing exactly what it tells you! Life is about connecting again with God at the base of your heart and soul! It’s about listening to your Holy-Spirit-informed-gut … not just your philosophical and intellectual, reasoning mind!

Jesus is the Savior of the world who calls us back to life on a spiritual level! Many believe that Jesus was just a good role model and that all we have to do is enumerate all the things Jesus would do and then try to do them ourselves!

But that can’t be it! That would just lead us right back to Judaism, to the 10 Commandments, and to all the rest of the rules, regulations and recipes that we read about in Leviticus and have in our society today! Is that what we’re to believe?! Why did Jesus have to die and be resurrected for that?!!!

The difference is, Dearly Beloved, that Jesus is more! Jesus calls us back to the Spirit behind the law, the Spirit behind the rules, the Spirit behind the regulations and the recipes! Jesus calls us back to the Spirit behind the man … behind the human being … to God, who is Spirit! That’s why he died and was resurrected! Jesus was sent so that we would reconnect to that Spirit and therefore to life in God!

Look, Jesus gave one command in the Gospel of John: “Love one another! As I have loved you, so you must love one another!”

Jesus’ love went beyond infatuation, it went beyond friendship, it went beyond good … it went beyond reason! Jesus loved the way the Holy Spirit called him to love … the way the Holy Spirit empowered him to love … over and above all the world!

“Receive this Holy Spirit!” he said. And, in the same breath, he continued, “If you forgive anyone their sins, they are forgiven! If you don’t, they are not!”

Wow! Receive this Holy Spirit and now go do the irrational, do what the world believes to be useless and impossible! Go do the most powerful thing anyone can do! Go forgive your worst enemy … and change the world! Believe! Receive!
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Confusing? A lot to absorb? Sure it can be! It took years for Jesus to get a few to believe. But, some did!! Some who hadn’t even seen!!!

We’ll unpack this more over the next few weeks. We’ll try to better understand it and to talk about what it looks like in a number of specific life situations. But, for today, what I’d like you to walk away with is this:

Jesus didn’t fix the eyesight of every blind person.
Jesus didn’t cure the skin disease of every leper.
Jesus didn’t stop the pain of every person who mourned.
Jesus didn’t bring back to life every child who died.
Jesus didn’t overthrow the Roman oppressors.

What Jesus did was – humble himself and wash the feet of his disciples!
What Jesus did was – give his mortal life to show the difference between what love really looks like … and how the world drastically limits it --- even murders it!

So, as you leave today, ask yourself: “Have I received? Have I given my whole heart and soul over to this Holy Spirit? Does the Spirit of God make all my decisions and direct all my thoughts, words, and actions? …Or does the world?!”

Stop now and again this week and ask yourself, “Am I listening to the world … or to the Spirit of God? Did I just do what the world told me to do … or did I do what that still, small voice called me to do?!”

“…these [accounts] are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.” Believe! Receive!

The altar is open if you desire to come down to pray, to be prayed over, to talk more about this with me, or to just be silent before God. As we sing our hymn of going forth, please don’t resist the Holy Spirit’s nudging.