Mother’s Day

Acts 10:44-48; Psalm 98; 1 John 5:1-12: John 15:9-17

I thought today about writing a sweet, touching tribute to Mothers because it is Mother’s Day. After all, the champion for this special tribute to Mothers, Anna Jarvis, waged her campaign only a few miles from here, from a house just south of Grafton. When Anna’s mother died in 1905, Anna began her campaign and was successful when the first Mother’s Day celebration occurred in 1908. Two years later, in 1910, West Virginia officially celebrated the day, and four years later, President Wilson proclaimed Mother’s Day throughout America. It is now celebrated in most countries throughout the world.

It is the mothers who most commonly put into your mind that there were good forces in the world and bad forces in the world. How many of you had a mother that told you, “If your best friend jumped off a bridge, would you do that too?” Mothers, it seems, were very quick to begin a tug of war for your souls. And so I thought I would simply write a sweet, touching tribute to Mothers.

But then I looked at the text for today, and I saw that this part of scripture is so important, so vital, so interesting that any Christian mother would prefer I said something about this to her children so that they might rest assured in the promises of Jesus Christ, and one day join their mother with Jesus in the next life.

In our third reading, the Apostle John writes: 5 Who is it that overcomes the world? Only the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.6 This is the one who came by water and blood—Jesus Christ. He did not come by water only, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth. 7 For there are three that testify: 8 the Spirit, the water and the blood; and the three are in agreement.

Let’s look at this in some detail.

John tells us that only those people who believe that Jesus is the Son of God are able to overcome the world. What does John mean by these words: “Overcomes the world?”

The Apostles understood from their conversations with Jesus that there is a cosmic, supernatural war going on between God’s forces of good and the devil’s forces of evil. God is much stronger, but God has set a special task for his side – God does not plan to win this war as an evil or human ruler would win, through the destruction of open warfare, but God plans to first convert as many people as possible from the side of evil to the side of good. God understands that warfare is damaging not only for the losers, but also for those who are victorious. God plans to win a victory that is good for God’s people, and even more so, rescue as many people as possible from the devil’s side.

There are multiple places in scripture where “the world” is talked about as a synonym for the devil’s side in this war. Make sure you understand this: This world is enemy-occupied territory, and God, through Jesus Christ, began to grow an underground, subversive movement that has already changed the world, and will continue to change the world as more and more people follow the teachings of Jesus. When your mother told you not to follow your friend’s leading, your mother was concerned that your best friend was part of the dark side and she wanted to keep you on the good side.

Thus, for someone to “Overcome the world” means for that person to break free of the system of evil thought that is commonly found in the world. This includes such ideas as revenge-taking, the rejection of all people who are different, and the use of money and other prestige items to determine the value of a person. The new system says that we teach people about the love of God, we embrace people of all types, that we understand that each person is an image of God, an intensely valuable portrait of God, and that we recognize that each person, no matter how rich…or how poor… is a damaged image in need of repair and healing. Jesus did not condemn people for sins they committed because they felt forced into those sins, but instead gave them forgiveness and a second chance and a third chance to change their ideas and follow Him.

But to follow Jesus, a person needs a deep assurance that Jesus is telling the truth when He claims to be God himself upon this earth – the Son of God. And so, John tells us that there are certain pieces of evidence and testimony which – if we understand them – can help us feel more certain that Jesus is indeed the Son of God and give us the assurance that we will indeed have eternal life.

The first line of evidence is Jesus “came through water and blood.” Our rescue from God’s wrath is only possible if we take care of two issues:

First, we must become spiritually pure. God will not associate with those who are tainted by the filthiness of sin – any sin. So God demands that we clean and purify our souls through the water of baptism. Baptism is how a person’s innermost heart is made pure through God’s action, as God applies a spiritual water to the heart at the same time the physical water is applied to the outer skin. As we step forward and ask that God clean us and forgive us from all sins, we show that faith – that trust – in God’s ability and goodness to fix what is wrong inside of us. This is the water part.

Second, we must satisfy an external requirement. In the law of Moses, God decreed that all sins must be atoned for – there must be a fine paid, a sacrifice made, and that sacrifice must be of the life-giving blood of some living creature. We saw in the Cain and Abel episode that vegetables and grain are not sufficient – only blood. And so for over a thousand years, the people of Israel sacrificed their best cattle and other livestock to pay for their sins. Yet, there were always sins that were not atoned for, sins that were not paid for. A tremendous debt had built up in the ledger that showed what people owed God for their disobedience.

And so, Jesus Christ offered Himself as a sacrifice upon the altar of the cross. Jesus was killed and sacrifice to pay our sin debt for all people, for all time. God mailed you a letter which clears your account of all your debts forevermore. And it is the blood of Jesus Christ that has paid that debt. All you have to do is open the letter and agree to it.

Do you remember what happened soon after Jesus died upon the cross? A Roman guard, checking to see if Jesus was dead, took a spear and punctured Jesus’ side. Out of the wound, according to John, flowed water and blood, which is completely consistent with a death partially due to the tremendous beating which Jesus endured, because the beating would have led to a loss of blood pressure which leads to water collecting in the lungs. The spear thrust would have penetrated the lungs, causing both water and blood to run out of Jesus’ body. Cleansing water and the sacrifice’s blood.

And so these two, the water of baptism and the blood of the atoning sacrifice of Jesus became the first two testimonies for John. Are you baptized? Do you believe the sacrifice happened? These two are the first three legs of a three-legged stool supporting our understanding of Jesus Christ as Son of God.

The third leg on the stool is the Holy Spirit’s testimony. John continues: “And it is the Spirit who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth. 7 For there are three that testify: 8 the Spirit, the water and the blood; and the three are in agreement. 9 We accept human testimony, but God’s testimony is greater because it is the testimony of God, which he has given about his Son.

When a person is baptized, the pastor lays hands upon the newly baptized and prays for the Holy Spirit to come into the person. And an amazing thing happens – over the next few days and weeks and years, the person – if he or she listens to the Holy Spirit – experiences a change. Following the guidance of the Holy Spirit, the new Christian finds a new, inner strength that helps them kick bad habits and adopt new habits. The new Christian becomes a kinder, gentler person who now genuinely cares for others. The new Christian, in short, becomes “filled with the Spirit” and truly changes. Of course, this only happens if the new Christian listens to the Holy Spirit.

And so, the Holy Spirit becomes the third testimony. Are you baptized, do you believe in the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ, and are you listening to the Holy Spirit?

The neat thing about this is that the Holy Spirit gives both an internal and an external testimony. Internally, if you listen to the Spirit, the Spirit will tell you when you are following God’s will – and if you are, then you have eternal life. Externally, your friends and relatives will notice the personality change over the days and weeks and years, and may tell you so, particularly if you ask them about it.

Thus, there are three questions for you to answer if you want eternal life. These questions are in no particular order, and the events are not in a particular order.

First – have you been baptized? It doesn’t matter if you were very young, or if the baptism happened last week, for it is God who acted with permission – either yours or your parents – upon your heart. If you have not been baptized, contact me this week, for we will be having a group of people baptized next Sunday.

Second – Do you believe in the atoning sacrifice of Jesus, the Son of God, upon the cross? If you are unclear about this, or need to have some questions answered, join us some Sunday evening at 6 pm at the Defending the Faith study, which is a small group that discusses these sorts of things each Sunday evening.

Third – What does the Holy Spirit tell you and the people around you? Ask someone you trust, and ask that still, small voice inside of you whether or not you are a member of God’s Kingdom. Are you controlled by that Holy Spirit, or are you still controlled by a spirit that is of this world? See me if you cannot figure it out.

You know, many of us have mothers and grandmothers that have already gone to be with Jesus. Others are still here – many are sitting beside you today. If you want to truly make your mother proud, sit back and think through your ideas regarding the church. I know that some of you showed up today only because your mother asked you. And so I’m asking you – on behalf of your mother – to look once more at Christianity with an open mind, a mind that considers that there may be some people who hate Christians but don’t know Christianity, people who hate the church, but don’t know this church, people who consider Christian ideas to be foolish and unscientific and stupid, but who have never really considered why such people as the physicist Isaac Newton, the great politicians Winston Churchill, and Abraham Lincoln, the reformer Martin Luther King Jr, the inventor of genetics Gregor Mendel, the brilliant writers Harper Lee and Leo Tolstoy, the philosophers Augustine of Hippo and Soren Kirkengarde, and the mathematician and philosopher Rene’ Descartes and a third of the world’s population today are all committed Christian believers. Why do all these people believe in a "foolish, unscientific, and stupid" idea? Perhaps someone had an axe to grind? Perhaps someone started with a bias? Perhaps someone rushed to judgment? Perhaps that someone was you.

Perhaps you need to make your mother proud and take some time to examine the claims of Jesus of Nazareth once again. Feel free to email me your questions or send me a comment.

You know – we make a great deal of the time Mary spent on the donkey traveling to Bethlehem when she was pregnant, and the suffering she must have had. But there was a worse time for Mary. When Jesus was on the cross, a few minutes before He died, Jesus spoke to the apostle John. He motioned toward His mother, Mary, who was standing there, and said to John. “This woman is now your mother” and He said to Mary, “This man is now your son”.

The moment must have been terrible for Mary, for only one who has lost a son or a daughter can fully appreciate this terrible time. Mary must have felt that this was goodbye forever. But it wasn’t. Jesus came alive once more and spoke with her and then He saw her again, years later when she went to join Him with His Father. And our sons and daughters will also live again, and we will speak to them once more in just a little while when we go to be with Jesus and His Father. The waiting is hard, but God’s promises are solid.

In the meanwhile, Jesus was a good son. Jesus made sure His mother was well taken care of in her old age through his friend and student John. And history records that where John traveled to, Mary followed. Legend has it that she is buried somewhere in Ephesus, an important Christian center of the time in southwestern Turkey.

And I guess I’ve just given you both an important teaching about a text – and a sweet story about a boy and His mother.