Category: Midweek Advent

Pastor Steve Bauer

Perfect Love is Powerful Love (Midweek Advent 3)

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Perfect Love is Powerful Love

What is the perfect way of showing love? Months ago I was watching videos on Youtube. And there was a whole series of videos of wedding proposals gone bad. In one, there was a young man who proposed to his girlfriend in McDonalds. And, I suppose it’s not too surprising to learn, that she did not say, “yes.” If there was an image of perfect love in her eyes, that was not what it looked like. What then is perfect love in God’s eyes?’ That’s where God’s word begins here this evening. In 1 John 4, we read: “And we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and the one who remains in love remains in God, and God remains in him.” (1 John 4:16 CSB17)

Perfect love in God’s eyes means remaining in him. Now, when John says that simple phrase, “remain in love” he means so much more than the bare meaning of the words on the page. Remaining in God is knowing perfectly and completely who God is: his absolute fairness and his absolute forgiveness. And it means holding that complete understanding in our hearts and minds continually. But there’s a problem with that, isn’t there? John tells us what that is: “In this, love is made complete with us so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment, because as he is, so also are we in this world.” (1 John 4:17 CSB17)

God asks us to have perfect love. The enemy of and opposite of perfect love is fear. And the huge source of fear for us all is what John speaks about here: Judgment Day. How am I supposed to love the God who knows that I sin and how much I sin? Fear is the opposite of and enemy of love. But this isn’t just true when it comes to God. It’s also true when it comes to others. How can I show true Christian love towards others when there is real fear in my heart? I am afraid that I’ll mess it up. I’m afraid that, if I reach out and give some caring correction to that person, he or she will hate me. I’m afraid that when I show this perfect love towards another person, if that person knows me at all, he or she will say, “You stop sinning, then you can speak to me about sin.” God calls on us to have a perfect and complete love. But fear drives that out. Fear leads us to conclude that we are doomed on Judgment Day when we face our God and demoralized here as we face those in our every day lives. But look, my friends in Christ at what God says next: “¹⁸ There is no fear in love; instead, perfect love drives out fear, because fear involves punishment. So the one who fears is not complete in love. ¹⁹ We love because he first loved us.” (1 John 4:18–19 CSB17)

Fear drives out love. But notice what God’s word tells us here: Perfect love drives out fear. And then John makes is clear the sort of love that he is speaking about. God’s love for us is the first love. Here, the word, “first” isn’t just first in time, it’s also first in priority. It’s first and foremost. When we start talking about perfect love, where do we need to start? We cannot start here in our hearts. Instead we need to start there in that child placed in a manger. We cannot start here on earth, we need to start with our Father’s love for us in heaven. That’s the priority: first look at God’s love for us in Christ. That love that he has for us drives out our fear toward him. For, if Jesus was born as true God and true man, and if he lived a perfect life in my place and died in my place, then all my sins are payed for and forgiven. And we can look forward to the Day of Judgment with peace and joy in hearts. the first place we go to; the foundation we build on is God’s love for us. And that love is a powerful love. Because of that love we are able to worship our God and lift our eyes above to him with a clean and clear conscience. One of the things we forget is to put ourselves in God’s shoes. That is risky sometimes. But here it is useful and even necessary. God loves us and proves it at Christmas. And because of that he does not want us to be afraid of him. I remember when I was a child there were two things my dad got angry at: fixing the car in the garage and when we children messed up. And I remember him walking into the living from from the garage with that determined look of pain and anger on his face. So I did what every child who wants to survive would do. I cried out in fear and ran into the corner, remembering that I had done something wrong and that Dad had, no doubt, found out. And when he saw me run to the corner, he stopped and stared at me. And the face full of anger became the face full of pain. For no one wants to be the father that is feared and people are terrified of. It’s true of our earthly fathers. It’s also true of our God above. His love for us drives out all fear. We are forgiven. So we can look up to him boldly with love towards him in our hearts. But John also directs our love in another direction. We read: “²⁰ If anyone says, “I love God,” and yet hates his brother or sister, he is a liar. For the person who does not love his brother or sister whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. ²¹ And we have this command from him: The one who loves God must also love his brother and sister.” (1 John 4:20–21 CSB17)

Perfect love is powerful love. It’s powerful as I show that love to God. But it’s also powerful love as I show love to others. How terrifying it is to want to reach out in love toward someone in our lives, but yet realize the problem is me. In the book of James it says, “Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers and sisters, this should not be.” (James 3:10 NIV11-GKE) What happens when, out of love for that person in our life, we say, “you need to stop lying” and then that person says, “you need to stop cussing”? What do we do? How do we show love toward that person? Notice where John directs our focus. We love because he first loved us. Again, not just first in time, but first in priority. Knowing God’s perfect love for us gives to us a powerful love toward others. For we are able to say, “I apologize for my sin for Jesus has forgiven that sin.” And those words are powerful. They are powerful because the person we are speaking to realizes that we are not speaking down to them. Those words are powerful because they show that, if God can forgive a sinner like me, he can reach out and stretch out with his perfect love and forgive that person too. And that sort of love frees us with its power. Instead of being afraid of showing love towards others, we are free because we know that God has forgiven us and God has forgiven the person we are speaking to.

And so, my brothers and sisters in Christ, love others just as Christ has loved you. But don’t start out there at home or at school or work. Don’t start with your love for others. First and foremost, start with God’s love for you proved to you in God taking on human flesh. Amen.

Pastor Steve Bauer

You Have Conquered With The Truth (Midweek Advent 1)

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You Have Conquered With the Truth

How do you know? Just a few short weeks ago we cast our votes and our local and state representatives were chosen. But one of the parts of that process that got to be really frustrating were the ads. You would hear one ad saying “Bob Jones hates you and all people.” And with an ominous voice the ad would tell you how bad that candidate was. And then, the opposing candidate would do the same. And at the end of the month leading up to it you end up asking the question: how do you know what the truth is? The words we find ourselves in this evening have much the same context. But the issue the Holy Spirit brings to us is not politicians, but instead, preachers. In 1 John 4, we read: “Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see if they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.” (1 John 4:1 CSB17)

John the Evangelist tells us that just as we shouldn’t believe every ad we hear or every article we see on the internet, we also should not believe every spirit. And he makes it clear in this verse what he means by the word, spirit. The spirits here are false prophets. And here it’s important also to understand the context in which John is speaking. The false teachers aren’t those on the outside of the church. Those on the outside of the church were a real threat. But that’s not what he’s speaking about here. Here in these words he’s speaking about false teachers on the inside of the Christian Church. And so, what John says is true: We are not to believe everyone who calls himself a Christian and preaches some semblance of the truth of God’s word. Instead we are to test them. But what is the test we should use? John tells us: “² This is how you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, ³ but every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming; even now it is already in the world.” (1 John 4:2–3 CSB17)

The litmus test, the knife that cuts through all the confusion is this: Does that preacher present all of who Jesus is? John places in front of us this amazing and massive truth that we celebrate this time of year. If we ask the question, “who is Jesus,” the answer is that Jesus is both fully and completely God and also fully and completely human. That’s the test. That’s the tool we can use to filter out false from true teachers. At Jesus’ conception there was one person, but there were two natures. Jesus was both fully God and fully human. And at the moment of his conception, Jesus continued to be both God and human forever.

Now all of this sounds like simple theology that we know already and can quickly pass over. But it’s not. There are two huge ways false teachers get this wrong. First, they are offended at Christ’s humanity. Long ago, Martin Luther had a long discussion and debate with a man named Ulrich Zwingli. And at the end of their long discussion, Luther and Zwingli agreed on 14 out of 15 theological points. That’s pretty good, right? But Luther refused to be in fellowship with Zwingli. He refused to commune with Zwingli because Zwingli said that, in the Lord’s Supper, Jesus’ body and blood weren’t there because Jesus body was at the right hand of God in heaven. Luther was frustrated that Zwingli couldn’t accept the clear and plain words Jesus spoke in the upper room, “This is my body,” and “This is my blood.” But what frustrated Luther even more was Zwingli’s lack of understanding of Christology. In Christ, there is one person. But there are two natures. Now think that through for a minute. Where Jesus is, both his divine and human nature are. Jesus doesn’t cease to be human in the Lord’s Supper simply because Zwingli wished it to be that way. Or to put it differently, what frustrated Luther was Zwingli’s lack of understanding of what happened on Christmas, not Maundy Thursday. And how did Luther arrive at this conclusion? He used the tool and test that John speaks about here. If a preacher is a true teacher he needs to know and teach all of the truth about Jesus, that he is fully human.

And this is a temptation we can fall into as well. Just as Zwingli was offended at Jesus’ humanity in the Lord’s Supper we can be tempted to be offended at Jesus’ humanity too. What happens so soon after Jesus is born? Our Savior has to run. And not only does he have to run, he is so frail and helpless as an infant, his parents have to carry him down to Egypt. It’s easy to be offended at how frail and human Jesus really is.

But the other part of the test is just as real. Jesus is fully human. But he is also fully divine. If Jesus isn’t God then you don’t have to be accountable to God. When Jesus says, “do this,” you don’t have to listen. When Jesus says, “stop that,” you don’t have to listen. But if he’s really God, then you have to listen.

So this test of confessing that Jesus is both one who has come in the flesh and is also from God is not just useful for seeing the false teachers out there. It’s also useful for seeing the false teacher in here, my heart. And that’s why the words which follow are so important to us as we prepare for Christmas: “⁴ You are from God, little children, and you have conquered them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. ⁵ They are from the world. Therefore what they say is from the world, and the world listens to them. ⁶ We are from God. Anyone who knows God listens to us; anyone who is not from God does not listen to us. This is how we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of deception.” (1 John 4:4–6 CSB17)

You have conquered. What a strange statement to make to people who had been conquered by false teachers out there and the false teaching in their own hearts. They hadn’t conquered anything. But look what John does: Christ has conquered in our place. And now he gives that victory to us. And that’s a victory that we need. We need a Savior was completely and perfectly human to pass this test that we cannot get straight. And that’s what Jesus did. The boy Jesus goes to the temple at age twelve. And in the final verse of that section we hear how he grew and became strong in wisdom.¹ Jesus knew who he was and grew in that knowledge—even when we did not. And his growth covers our lack of understanding. And through that growth we can say that we have conquered.

We need a human to grow in wisdom in our place. But we also need a God to die for us. There is no human, no matter how perfect that person might be, who can take away the sins of the world. The only payment that can pay for our sins of not wanting to obey our Good and Gracious God is the payment that only God can provide. And this child that was born grew up and died. And Jesus, as fully human and fully God, died. And God said, “amen” to his payment. And so, because of that, we can say that we have conquered. Amen.

¹ “ηὔξανεν καὶ ἐκραταιοῦτο πληρούμενον σοφίᾳ” (Λουκᾶν 2·40 THGNT-T)

Pastor Steve Bauer

Who May Ascend The Mountain Of The Lord? (Midweek Advent 3)

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Who May Ascend The Mountain of the Lord?

Iwant to see it with my own eyes. There are so many states in our nation that have places that are beautiful. The internet has now figured out that I live in Minnesota. And so, now I see all these pretty places in MN. But evidently the prettiest place in MN is the north shore. You see the light houses and the pretty sunsets and you say to yourself, “I want to be there; I want to see that with my own eyes.” This evening, God’s word takes us to an even better place. Which would you rather see with your own eyes—the prettiest part of the North Shore, or our Triune God who made the North Shore and every other pretty place in the whole world? At the beginning of Psalm 24, we read: “¹ The earth and everything in it, the world and its inhabitants, belong to the Lord; ² for he laid its foundation on the seas and established it on the rivers.” (Psalms 24:1–2 CSB17)

Climbing up a hill and seeing beautiful lake Superior would be pretty. But that’s nothing to being able to climb up the mountain of the Lord and see the Lord himself—that would be wonderful. But there’s a problem. And in the words that follow we see what that problem is: “³ Who may ascend the mountain of the Lord? Who may stand in his holy place? ⁴ The one who has clean hands and a pure heart, who has not appealed to what is false, and who has not sworn deceitfully. ⁵ He will receive blessing from the Lord, and righteousness from the God of his salvation. ⁶ Such is the generation of those who inquire of him, who seek the face of the God of Jacob.” (Psalms 24:3–6 CSB17)

If you want to ascent the mountain of the Lord and see him with your own eyes, what do you need to have? You need to have clean hands and a pure heart. You need to have never ever done anything wrong in your entire life (clean hands). you need to never ever have thought any evil desire in your life too (pure heart.) And just to make sure that we aren’t so foolish as to think we have had clean hands and a pure heart, the psalmist gives some examples. First, he says that if you have ever told a lie, you cannot stand on God’s holy mountain. Second, if you have ever made a promise you didn’t keep, you cannot stand on God’s holy mountain. This is not a small issue, is it? More than anything, when we die, we want to be with the Lord on his holy mountain. But our sin separates us from God and his holiness. But note where these words go from here: “⁷ Lift up your heads, you gates! Rise up, ancient doors! Then the King of glory will come in. ⁸ Who is this King of glory? The Lord, strong and mighty, the Lord, mighty in battle. ⁹ Lift up your heads, you gates! Rise up, ancient doors! Then the King of glory will come in. ¹⁰ Who is he, this King of glory? The Lord of Armies, he is the King of glory.” (Psalms 24:7–10 CSB17)

The Psalmist urges us to receive the King of Glory. And then he asks the question that we all want to ask: who is the King of Glory? Here is where it’s good to know what glory is. The glory of the Lord was that pillar of cloud by day and that pillar of fire by night that followed the Israelites as they made their way from Egypt to Israel in the desert. It settled on the temple and filled it with smoke when King Solomon dedicated it for use. What did it mean? This was God’s special way in which he showed his people that we was with them, but not just in some abstract, distant way. No, instead, he was close to them to rescue them. That is what the glory of the Lord is.

But what else do we learn about this King of Glory? He is also the Lord of heavenly armies. He is the one who goes out and wages war for with angels at his command. For he is their king and commander.

Now, can you think of any time where the Glory of the Lord appeared and angels were present there at the same time? Who is the King of Glory. Jesus is the King of Glory. When he was born Luke tells us that the Glory of the Lord shone around them and the shepherds were terrified. And also we are told that the night was filled with powerful angels. And that was perfect and appropriate because that baby born in Bethlehem was their king and commander.

Jesus is the King of Glory. But, let’s return to the question we first asked: Who may ascend the mountain of the Lord? The only one who can ascend the mountain of the Lord is the one who has clean hands and a pure heart. What does Jesus have to do with that? The King of Glory came to us to make an exchange with us. He takes our unclean hands and all the unclean actions they committed and exchanges them for his innocent hands. He takes our filthy thoughts and desires and exchanges them with his own pure thoughts. And the result is that, in those waters of baptism when we are brought into God’s family, God does not see our sin. Instead, he sees Jesus, the King of Glory and the commander of angels. He sees his own Son’s purity and sacrifice in our place.

And that cleanness and purity comes to us in a very simple, but special way. It comes to us through God’s word. Through God’s word he forgives our sins. Notice how that shows itself in our worship on Sunday mornings. Just about every Sunday morning how do we start our our worship. We confess our sins. We honestly confess the fact that our hands are not clean and our hearts are not pure and that our sins have put a wall between us and our God on his holy mountain. And then what happens? We hear that amazing news that the wall is torn down. Our sins are forgiven. And we have the privilege of spending the rest of our time in worship having more of our sins forgiven, growing in faith and encouraging one another.

Who may ascend the mountain of the Lord? The only one who may ascend the mountain of the Lord is the one who has clean hands and a pure heart. Is that you? We started out tonight saying, “no.” But we finish saying, “amen” and “yes.” Jesus the King of Glory and commander of angels has exchanged his glory for our sin and his purity for our sin. And now, whenever God calls us home, we have the joy of ascending his holy mountain and not seeing the North Shore. Instead we see so much more and better. We see God face to face. Amen.