church

INI
First Sunday in Advent
November 30, 2008
Ascension Lutheran Church, Tacoma WA
Paul Naumann, Pastor

JESUS BRINGS US TRUTH
I John 4:1-6

To the King eternal, immortal, invisible, to God who alone is wise, be honor
and glory forever and ever, Amen. On This Third Sunday in Advent, our text is
taken from the first letter of John, chapter four, beginning with the first verse ,
as follows:

Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of
God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you
know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come
in the flesh is of God, and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ
has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of the Antichrist,
which you have heard was coming, and is now already in the world You are of
God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is
greater than he who is in the world. They are of the world. There fore they
speak as of the world, and the world hears them. We are of God. He who
knows God hears us; he who is not of God does not hear us. By this we know
the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.. Thus far our text.

In the Name of Jesus Christ, the Child of Promise, and the Savior of the World,
Dear Fellow Redeemed,

Test your Bible knowledge - which scriptural character asked the famous
question: "What is truth?" Do you know? It was Pontius Pilate, at the trial of
Christ. Jesus had just made an incredible claim. "...I am a king," He said. "For
this cause I was born, and for this cause I have come into the world, that I
should bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice."
Pilate responded with a sneer, "What is truth?"

My Christian friends, the world around us is still sneering. And, surprisingly
enough, the sneers seem to be loudest during this season of Advent and
Christmas. Now, when nativity scenes will be appearing in church yards of
every denomination. Now, when loudspeakers on every street corner will be
proclaiming "Christ the Savior is born." Now, when churches will be calling for
interdenominational unity in the name of the Babe of Bethlehem -- right now is
when the sneers are the loudest. "What makes you Lutheran people so stuck
up?" they ask us. "How can you know for sure that your tiny Church of the
Lutheran Confession has the truth?" And when you come right down to it, isn't
that, after all, the same sneering question of Pilate, "what is truth?"

Our claim is simple: God does not give different truths to different churches.
There is only one truth. That's why, on this First Sunday in Advent – when we
enter the season in which we welcome our Savior once again into our hearts –
our theme is:

JESUS BRINGS US TRUTH

Our text for today shows clearly --
I. What the truth of Advent is NOT.
II. What the truth of Advent IS.

First, let's look at what the truth of Advent is NOT. If you hark back your high
school chemistry, you might recall a procedure called the "litmus test." A pink
piece of litmus paper is lowered into a solution. If it turns red, the solution is
acid; if it turns blue, the solution is alkaline. The test is simple, and gives you a
definite answer, one way or the other. Did you know that there's a "litmus test"
for preachers, too? God gives it to us right here in our text!

There are a lot of preachers out there today who go by the name of "Christian."
Different denominations teach widely-varying doctrines on the same scriptural
subject. They can't all be right. So how do we distinguish those who have the
Spirit of God from those who have another spirit? John says, test the spirits,
whether they are of God. We're to use the scriptural "litmus test," and John tells
us what it is: By this you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses
that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, and every spirit that does not
confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. This is the proof
that distinguishes the truth from error.

It's the truth of Advent, that Jesus Christ came to earth in the flesh. It seems
very simple, but there's more to it than meets the eye. This confession involves
several crucial beliefs. Let me ask you – do you believe that Jesus Christ is true
God from eternity? Do you b elieve that He came to earth as a child that first
Christmas just like the prophets said He would? Do you believe that Jesus truly
was born of a virgin, as Scripture attests? Finally, do you believe that He
substituted His life for yours on the cross in order to redeem you from eternal
death? All that is included here. It's all wrapped up in the phrase, Every spirit
that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God. And indeed,
this is our belief and our confession. But this is a litmus test that many modern
denominations can't pass.

The more you study this passage, and the rest of God's Word, the easier it
becomes to see what the truth of Advent is NOT. It is NOT that Jesus came to
earth simply as a good man, and a fine moral teacher, and to provide for us a
good example to follow, as today's most-liberal theologians say. It is NOT that
Jesus was "a Son of God" in the same way that we are "sons of God," as the
Jehovah's Witnesses say.

The truth of Advent is NOT that Jesus came to help make us better people, so
we can go forth and cure the world's social problems, as many Reformed
denominations say. Jesus did not come to make us rich and successful in
worldly terms, as the purveyors of the “Prosperity Gospel” claim. Rather, He
came so that "...you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and
that believing you may have life in His name." Jn 20:31. Jesus came to
RESCUE YOU FROM HELL! I think you'll agree with me that that is a
slightly more important priority than "gaining financial independence,' or
whatever.

The truth of Advent is NOT that Jesus came to "infuse" us with grace, so that
we could earn our own way to heaven by doing good works, as the Roman
Catholics t each. In fact, in our text John says that this particular false doctrine
is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard was coming, and is now
already in the world. We talked about this in our Bible class discussion of II
Thessalonians a couple of weeks ago. No matter how innocent the individual
who holds the office of the papacy may seem, the doctrine of the papacy hasn't
changed. The Roman Catholic Pope still leads men to trust their own good
works for salvation. This is diametrically opposed to God's Word, which says,
"By the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified." Rom 3:20.

Now, what am I saying with all this? That only Lutherans can be saved? That
only signed-up members of the Church of the Lutheran Confession will go to
heaven on Judgment Day? That's not true, and we must be careful never to give
that impression. The truth is that there are many people in false-teaching
churches who continue to hold a simple faith in Jesus Christ as their only Savior
from sin, despite the false teachings of the churches to which they belong. And
God be praised and thanked for that! "He who believes and is baptized shall be
saved," the Scripture says. But that doesn't make false doctrine any less
dangerous and soul-threatening. And it doesn't release us from our obligation to
preach the true doctrine, and condemn every false doctrine. Over and over in
the Bible, our God exhorts us, "He who has My Word, let him speak my Word
faithfully."

Yes, there are a lot of different theories about what the truth is. But, in the
end, there is only one absolute truth. It's the truth that Jesus brings us in His
Word. It's the real truth about Christ's advent: exactly why He came here,
exactly what His mission was, and exactly what He accomplished for us. And
it's a truth that you already know, because God's Holy Spirit is in you, too. Our
text says, You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He
who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.

What the truth of Advent IS, frankly, is hard to believe. Because, in human
terms, it doesn't make much sense! Think about it - why should the eternal Son
of God, equal with God the Father and God the Holy Spirit, leave the splendors
of His heavenly home and descend to earth? Why in the world would the
Almighty God come into the world as a poor Child of poor parents, to be born
in a stable, to grow up in poverty, and to live His life without even a permanent
place to lay His head? Why would He suffer the torments of the Roman
scourge, the crown of thorns, and a shameful and agonizing death by
crucifixion? Why??

Well, in once sense, He did it so that you could have a merry Christmas! -He su
ffered all that so that you can gather with your fellow Christians in a warm,
comfortable church and, in the words of Paul, "...rejoice in God through our
Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation."
Rom 5:11. For us, who know the real truth, that Child in the manger isn't just a
symbol of brotherly love and mushy sentimentality - He is the answer to every
question that confronts us in life. He's the One who, through His blood, has
reconciled us once and for all to God. When the devil confronts us with our sin,
Christ answers, "Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow."
When we're lonely, Christ says, "Lo I am with you always." When we're worried
about where the money will come from, Christ assures us, "Your heavenly
Father knows that you need all these things. Seek first the kingdom of God."
When the dark specter of death rises up before us, our risen Lord Jesus says,
"Because I live, you shall live also."

There was a humorous movie of years ago whose main character, whenever the
anxieties of life became too much for him, would into a special chant. Over an
over he’d repeat to himself, "It just doesn't matter -- It just doesn't matter -- "
Well, you might think that’s just sticking your head in the sand, but I think we
believers could use that phrase a lot more often than we do! And why not?
Consider what unspeakable joy awaits us Christians when we finally wake up,
and clearly understand that this Advent Savior holds the cure for all our ills!
We've all got problems – we all have worries. Perhaps you have a particularly
difficult challenge facing you in your life right now. But when depression
threatens to set in, please take a moment to look at it from the heavenly
standpoint. Whatever the anxiety or the challenge may be, think about what
your attitude will be toward that problem when you’re lo oking back at it one
day from your home in heaven (now that changes your perspective a bit, doesn't
it!) From that point of view -- it just doesn't matter! Not that you shouldn’t be
concerned and responsible about your duties in this life – you should. But take
it in the larger context! On Judgment day, you're going to be standing on the
right hand of God, ready to enter paradise - Christ guarantees it with His blood!
Regardless of what problem confronts you in life, as a Christian, you might very
well be excused for saying, with a smile on your face, "It just doesn't matter!
I've already won the race. Because of Jesus, I'm bound for heaven, and nothing
and no one can keep me from the crown of glory my Savior won for me!" It’s
not vain boasting but rather the promise of Almighty God Himself that allows
us to say with the hymnist,

"Who can condemn me now, for surely
The Lord is nigh Who justifies .
No hell I fear, and thus securely
With Jesus I to heaven rise!"

This is what the real truth of Advent IS. So let the world go on with it's
sentimental pipe dreams about world peace that will never happen. Let the
world go on devising it’s own new religions out of human reason and human
feelings. John says, "They are of the world. Therefore they speak as of the
world, and the world hears them. We are of God." And we will listen to God,
and take our truth from His holy Word, and from nowhere else. We won't throw
out the parts of Scripture that don't please us, or don't seem to fit in with
today's "enlightened" society. We will not add anything to God's Word, or take
anything away from it. Because we take very serio usly the promise of our
Savior Jesus Christ: "If you abide in My word, THEN you are My disciples
indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free!"
AMEN.