Trinity2010 - Redeemer Evangelical Lutheran Church, Los Alamos, NM

In today’s gospel text, Jesus says, “Truly, truly, I say to you, if anyone keeps my word, he will never see death.” (John 8:51, ESV) And again, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.” (John 8:58, ESV) Jesus teaches that He is eternal God, Abraham saw Him, and that His words give eternal life.

Now what kind of teaching is this? No body else can make such a bold claim!!! This is no ordinary man. There is something strikingly different about Jesus. Either He is wrong or He is right. There is no middle ground. Many have attempted to make the words of Jesus easier to swallow. Throughout the ages people have debated about who Jesus is and what Jesus has said. This debate has gone on outside of the church and within her walls.

Around the year AD 300, the debate rolled through the whole church causing enormous division. It was all centered in Egypt of all places. Alexandria was one of the major theological cities of the Roman Empire. The bishop of Alexandria was a man by the name of Alexander. Under his oversight, a pastor by the name of Arius began falsely teaching that Jesus was a created being and not the One eternal God.

Arius let his logic get the best of him. He let his mind transform the Scriptures rather than let the Scriptures transform his mind. He wrongly figured that if Jesus is the Son, He must be inferior to the Father as an earthly son is inferior to an earthly father. He wrongly figured that if Jesus is the Son, there must have been a time when Jesus did not exist. He wrongly concluded that Jesus must be a created being and not God. His teaching began to spread within the church.

The question arose, “Who is keeping the word of Jesus?” In order to resolve this debate that was destroying the church, the Emperor Constantine gathered bishops from all over the empire in the city of Nicaea in AD 325. The hope was that as the church was scattered throughout the realm, those gathered could confess the Christian Faith that was handed down to them from their fathers. They couldn’t just claim that we have the apostles as our fathers. They had to confess, teach, and believe the same thing as the apostles. Doctrine does not divide. False doctrine divides while true doctrine unites.

This was no silly debate. The salvation of the world was in the balance. The disciples of Jesus on earth were instructed to keep His words. Earlier in John chapter eight Jesus said, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” (John 8:31-32, ESV) After hearing these words, the people responded that they are not slaves because they have Abraham as their father. The words of Jesus began to expose sin in order to take it away

However, they felt no need to have sin taken away. As we are of the same substance with them, by nature we feel no need to have our sins exposed. We act like our father Adam who did not abide in the word of God very long before he fell into sin. Instead of saying, “We have Abraham as our father,” We say, “We have Luther as our father.”

Fine and dandy that we take the name of Lutheran, but just like Jesus told those people in His day I say to you this day, “Then believe like your father.” Abraham heard the word of God and believed. Luther heard the word of God and believed. Listen to the word of God and believe. Now this is not a one time act of the will. This is a life of keeping the word of Jesus and trusting in it for life. This doesn’t mean keeping a pocket Bible with you in your purse or glove compartment. This doesn’t mean keeping a Bible on your book shelf or computer. Rather, it means keeping the words of Jesus in your mind, in your heart, and upon your lips.

Those gathered to hear Jesus in John chapter eight began to believe. But, they convinced themselves that they were right and Jesus was wrong. They concluded that He was a Samaritan who was misguided in His teaching. On top of that, they accused Jesus of being possessed by a demon. They let their logic get the best of them and could not believe that Jesus was eternal God.

Here we have two drastically different claims about Jesus and His teaching. Jesus promises eternal life by keeping His words. The Jews desire to put to Jesus to death because of His words. Jesus claims to be God. The Jews claim that He is possessed by the devil. So whose words should we believe those who claim to be sons of Abraham or the One who claims to be the Son of God?

Jesus says, “Truly, truly, I say to you, if anyone keeps my word, he will never see death.” (John 8:51, ESV) Those Jews present in John chapter eight did not keep the words of Jesus for very long. Therefore, they had no life in them. Yet, the words of Jesus promise life. For this reason we want to be clear and certain that we are keeping the words of Jesus.

In the earthly realm we can understand the need to be clear in our communication. If I want something shipped to my house, I cannot just merely say, “Send it to New Mexico.” Where in New Mexico? I can’t even say, “Los Alamos, New Mexico.” There are actually two places called Los Alamos. There is Los Alamos in Los Alamos county and Los Alamos in San Miguel county. The other one is north of Las Vegas, New Mexico. For this reason I give a zip code. But that is not good enough. I need to give a street name. But, I can’t just give the name I need to give a street address number to identify the exact house. Now if I go through all that trouble just to be clear on where I live, how much more should we be careful on getting the words of Jesus straight?

Jesus says, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.” (John 8:58, ESV) And again, “I and the Father are one.” (John 10:30, ESV) And again, “that all may honor the Son, just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him.” (John 5:23, ESV) And again, “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.” (John 14:9, ESV)

See, when the pastor named Arius came on the scene he was quoting from the Bible. He was using words of Jesus, but putting a different meaning on them. For that reason, another teacher from Egypt came on the scene. He was named Athanasius. Later, Athanasius would become the bishop of Alexandria. Athanasius was the driving force to maintain the meaning of the words of Jesus. His desire was a church filled with true disciples who keep the word of Jesus.

Although the words of the Arians sounded the same, they did not have the same meaning. Instead, they were just noise. If you teach a parrot to say the word of God, the bird is merely mimicking the sounds. It does not know the meaning of these words let alone believe them. Keeping the word of Jesus is not about keeping the sounds of those words.

For this reason, the creed that began to be formulated at Nicaea intentionally went to great lengths to be precise. Jesus is confessed not only to be “of God,” but rather, “God of God and Light of Light.” He is “of one substance with the Father.” Jesus is not a creature but rather the Creator. Thus we say, “begotten not made” and also “by whom all things were made.” To even make this confession clearer, the following teachings were out right rejected, those who say: “'There was a time when he was not;' and 'He was not before he was made;' and 'He was made out of nothing,' or 'He is of another substance' or 'essence,' or 'The Son of God is created,' or 'changeable,' or 'alterable'”

Unlike a parrot, we are disciples who do not just make the sounds of the creed. We are not merely reciting. Instead, we are to understand the meaning and believe it as our own statement of faith. For this reason, we say, I believe. To truly believe is to keep the word of Jesus. Jesus says, “Truly, truly, I say to you, if anyone keeps my word, he will never see death.” As we keep the word, the Holy Spirit continues to keep us in our minds, hearts, bodies, and souls. Amen.

The Holy Trinity, 2010