John 3:16-21: Snake Clowns

Presented to the Alberni Valley Community during the Ministerial Lenten Service at Christian life Church, 10 March 2024 by Major Michael Ramsay

 

The following is allegedly from a Peace Corps Manual for volunteers working in the Amazon Jungle. It tells what to do in case an anaconda attacks you:

1. If you are attacked by an anaconda do not run. The snake is faster than you are.

2. Lie flat on the ground. Put your arms tight against your sides, your legs tight against one another.

3. Tuck your chin in.

4. The snake will come and begin to nudge and climb over your body.

5. Do not panic.

6. After the snake has examined you, it will begin to swallow you from your feet and always from the end. Permit the snake to swallow your feet and ankles. Do not panic.

7. The snake will now begin to swallow your legs into its body. You must lie perfectly still. This will take a long time.

8. When the snake has reached your knees, slowly and with as little movement as possible, reach down, take your knife and very gently slide it into the side of the snake’s mouth between the edge of its mouth and your leg, then suddenly rip upwards, severing the snake’s head.

9. Be sure you have your knife.

Our Gospel reading today is also about snakes. At least the first verses, John 3:14&15: “Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.”

 

We know to what this is referring, right? Remember the Exodus? God delivers the Israelites; they began complaining and so suffer the natural consequences. In this case the consequences are snakes. Numbers 21:6-7:

6 Then the Lord sent venomous snakes among them; they bit the people and many Israelites died. 7 The people came to Moses and said, “We sinned when we spoke against the Lord and against you. Pray that the Lord will take the snakes away from us.” So Moses prayed for the people.

 

Who here likes snakes? Who here likes big snakes and poisonous snakes? And there is even more. “The Hebrew phrase hannehashim hasserapim, [here means literally] ‘the burning snakes’ or ‘the snakes that produce burning’. The Lord sent these poisonous serpents among the Israelites and they bite them and they die - probably painfully.

So the Israelites then realize what they are doing by blaming God and rejecting the very life that He is providing for them. They realize their sin and they repent of it. God then tells Moses that He will yet again save these people. Vss 8-9:

“The Lord said to Moses, ‘Make a snake and put it up on a pole; anyone who is bitten can look at it and live.’  So Moses made a bronze snake and put it up on a pole. Then when anyone was bitten by a snake and looked at the bronze snake, they lived.”

 

This is great and this is exciting. This deliverance from the serpents meant so much to the Israelites that they actually kept that bronze snake around for a long time to remember this miracle. They kept this symbol of what God had done with them their whole time in the desert. They kept this bronze snake with them throughout the whole life and leadership of Joshua, son of Nun during the conquest of Canaan. They kept the bronze snake safe and secure for generations. They kept it through the roughly 400 years of alternating oppression and liberation in the time of the Judges. They kept this bronze snake with them through the entire existence of the United Kingdom: through the reigns of Kings Saul, David, and Solomon. They kept this bronze serpent during the divided kingdoms, using it during worship, through many kings and political administrations, through many wars and trials and tribulations and throughout all these generations. They used this snake in worship for much longer a time period than Canada or the US has even existed. For hundreds of years they used this bronze snake as part of their worship and then, 1 Kings 18:1-4:

In the third year of Hoshea son of Elah king of Israel, Hezekiah son of Ahaz king of Judah began to reign… He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, just as his father David had done. He removed the high places, smashed the sacred stones and cut down the Asherah poles. He broke into pieces the bronze snake Moses had made, for up to that time the Israelites had been burning incense to it. (It was called Nehushtan.)

 

To worship also means to adore. They had started to adore, to worship a symbol of their salvation instead of or as well as God. We know it is only Jesus - as John 3 reminds us – through whom our salvation actually comes.

 

A question for us here today then: do we commit the same sin? Is there anything in our life or our worship that needs to be smashed like Nehushtan? is there anything that we have used as an aid to worship God that now we may adore alongside God? Maybe a church practice – singing certain hymns? Maybe the way one dresses on Sunday, the church choir, the pipe organ – these are historical things that maybe have been broken from our worship?

 

One of the Good things that came out of the Protestant Reformation was the smashing of many ceremonial Nehushtans. Sadly they possibly took up some new ones.

 

What about us today? Are there practices that maybe we have used as part of worship for hundreds of years that may need to be smashed because we adore them too much? What about our sermons? Do we worship those? Do we say we are not a church if we don’t have a 15-to-45-minute sermon? (I was actually scolded once for have too short of a sermon, believe it or not?) What about our ceremonies? Do we worship ceremonies alongside or instead of Jesus? What about something as important – or not as important – as baptism? Do we say that if you don’t baptise people the ‘right way’… immersion, as an infant, as an adult believer, by sprinkling, or by some other means… Do we say that if you don’t utter the correct words when you baptise people… or if you don’t offer them communion in the right way then God can’t, won’t or didn’t save them? Our ceremonies, our traditions, or anything else that has been ordained to help us worship God – they are a benefit as long as they bring us closer to the Father, Son and Holy Ghost. As soon as we worship them alongside God even if we have practiced them for millennia, they need to be smashed like Nehushtan.

 

Now our relationship with God is corporate but it is also individual so if there is anything in our lives: a person, place, or thing, that is a rival for God in our hearts – someone or something we adore more than or as much as Him. That is a Nehushtan and needs to be destroyed.

 

I think it is significant that God and the Bible placed this reminder right here in our text and our story, right before one of the most memorized verses in the Bible. God reminds us here that our salvation is only through Jesus and adding anything to that is idolatry. It is only Jesus through whom our salvation comes. And that brings us to John 3:16.

 

John 3:16 is one of the verses in the Bible that almost everyone knows. If people memorize no other verse in the Bible, they usually memorize this one. Let me hear you all say John 3:16 together: “For God so loved the world that He sent His only begotten Son that whosever believeth in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life, John 3:16.”

The fact that we pretty much all know it is neat because here today, we have people of many different ages from many different parts of the country who were brought up in many different traditions and yet we all know John 3:16 by heart. I think that points to its importance. Martin Luther said the words of John 3:16  are “able to make the sad happy, [and] the dead alive if only the heart believes them firmly”[1]  John 3:16 has long been my favourite verse in the Bible.

 

Now maybe I am dating myself a bit. Any of you who are at least my age and who are or used to be sports fans do you remember back in the 1980s when it seemed that you couldn’t turn on a sporting event even without seeing someone hold up a sign that said ‘John 3:16’ on it? Do you know the story about how that got started? (The following is based on the account by Dr. David Wendel)

In 1976, hoping to gain some attention, Rollen Stewart had the idea to become famous by popping up in the background of TV sporting events… It didn’t work – not at first.

Then in his depression after the 1980 Super Bowl, he had a conversion experience while watching a preacher on TV. he then began showing up at sporting events holding the soon to be very famous sign which read, "John 3:16". Later accompanied by his second wife, he spent his time traveling to sporting events around the United States, living in his car, existing on just savings and donations. All in all, he figures he was seen on TV and in person at more than a thousand sporting events causing many people to open their Bibles and read, starting with John 3:16, the Gospel of Salvation…. Until… his wife left him… because he choked her for holding up a sign in the wrong location… his car was totalled by a drunk driver… his money ran out, and he wound up homeless in L.A.
Feeling harassed and convinced that the end was near, he then set off a string of bombs in a church, a Christian bookstore, a newspaper office, and other locations. He sent out letters warning of the end time and compiled a hit list of preachers. On September 22, 1992, Rollen, the man who brought the gospel in John 3:16 to the North American sports fan, believing in the Rapture, that it was only six days away, and wanting to make a big media splash; he took a maid and two other workers hostage in an LA airport, and demanded a three-hour press conference. Instead, the police threw in a grenade, kicked down the door, and Rollen was sentenced to three life-sentences. [2]

As Paul Harvey would say…now you know the REST of the story.

 

This anecdote actually brings us quite nicely to John 3:17. John 3:17  always reminds me of Jolene. Jolene was a young lady in a youth group we led when Susan and I first came to a Salvation Army as young marrieds many, many years ago. Jolene and her family are wonderful, faithful people. John 3:17 was her favourite verse. John 3:17 records that Jesus did not come to condemn the world but rather He came so that the world may be saved through Him.

 

Many years after we met them, after we became ordained, after we moved far away and back again to the Island and after we had grown children of our own, we were alerted - Jolene’s mom was looking for her on Vancouver’s DTES. Addiction had wrapped its hands around her and clenched Jolene tight in it’s grasp. She – like so many of our friends through our life and ministry - had been struggling against addiction for so long; for so long it had been seeking destroy her mind, body, and soul and drag her through all the circumstances, environments and choices through which addiction drags us and she suffered the same brutality that many suffer when addiction grabs hold. She was found, PTL. And I hope, I really hope that she always remembered and remembers – even in her darkest days, even when it seemed and seems that there is no hope, even when it seemed and seems what she has done or has had done to her is so horrible that there is no recovery, I hope she always remembers that verse God gave her as a young child, to help her live out her salvation, to help her grow in holiness, to help her get through everything that life throws our way, John 3:17 – For God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world but that the world would be saved through him.

 

The other week I had three friends overdose and two die. Tragically, this is not uncommon anymore. The enemy seeks to destroy. A friend of mine here in Port Alberni just lost her 28-year-old son to addiction and everything else that the Enemy throws at people who are suffering in addiction’s grasp.

 

We have many friends whom the Enemy has trapped by some other really horrible choices, events, and circumstances. People who have lost loved ones. People who have killed loved ones by accident or design. Many friends of ours have been captured by sins of assault, robbery, theft and other things. I have had one person tell me in tears that they can’t be saved because of the things they have done. I disagree. For God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world but that the world might be saved through him. We can all be transformed!

 

My first sermon as an ordained minister was to my friends in Stony Mountain Penitentiary. On my first day of freedom from seminary after being ordained as a minister of the Gospel, I walked into Stony Mountain penitentiary to see my friends as I had done every week for almost the whole time we lived in Winnipeg. Many of them are in the Kingdom today. Many of them have probably tripped and stumbled along the way. Many of them were released; some of them probably returned to prison and are still slowly be conformed to the likeness of Christ and many of our friends  -those free or caged- are living with Christ for now and forever.

 

John 3:18 tells us that any of us – no matter our past, no matter our circumstance - who actually believe in Jesus are not condemned but saved.  It is interesting that John 3:16 says that Jesus died for the whole world. The Greek word for world here is ‘Kosmos’.[3] It refers to all civilization, all humankind. He died for us all so that we can now all live life abundantly and freely follow God’s will (cf. TSA d. 6). There is no need for any to perish but yet some people do.

John 3:18 “Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.” This is particularly sad because we know that God loves us. He loves us so much that He laid down His life for us (John 15). God loves us so much that He sent His only begotten, his only natural, his only sired Son to die so that we may live. I can’t imagine how much this must hurt God that some of us do actually perish. I have met people who have rejected God’s love and salvation. It breaks my heart. I am a parent. I think of my friend who just lost her son to addiction. God is our heavenly father think about how he must feel if a child perishes. Think of how He must feel if you and I have the opportunity to tell our brothers and sisters about Him, to point them to salvation – and we don’t. It must break his heart. I truly believe what John 3:14-21 here says: God raised Jesus, any of us who look to him will live – there is no condemnation in Christ Jesus and as we serve Him, we will be conformed into His likeness. Like 1 Thessalonians 5:24 says, “The one who calls you is faithful, and he will do it.” He will lead us to walk into the light and away from the darkness.

Jesus is the light, Jesus is from the beginning. Jesus is God incarnate. He lived, He died and Jesus raised from the dead and all who look to him, like those who looked to the bronze serpent in the desert, are saved. John 3:18: “Those who believe in Him are not condemned; but those who do not believe are condemned already…” because 3:19, “people loved darkness rather than light.”

But there is hope even for those still walking in darkness and that is the good news of John 3:16-17 which is this: as long as we are still breathing, we still have the opportunity to walk in the Light that is Jesus; through whose death and resurrection God made it possible for us each to walk from certain death to certain life today for, John 3:17-16, “Indeed, God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through Him”, “For God so loved the world that He sent His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life.”

 

2 Corinthians 2:10-11: Forgiving

Presented to 614 Regent Park, Toronto; 09 August 2015 by Captain Michael Ramsay

 It has been great starting to get to know everyone here a little bit. It has been great getting to know the wonderful ministry that the Lord is doing through everyone at 614. As many of you know Susan, the kids and I have spent the last decade on the prairies and loved every moment of it. That being said we have been very much looking forward to being a part of what God is doing with 614 again. Now I say 'again' because as many of you know, Susan and I 'went into the work' from 614 Vancouver. This past week, I actually stumbled across an old brief (bulletin) I made in 2004 for 614 Vancouver. We saw amazing miracles there as we were involved in street combat (prayer walks), cell groups, running a community house, and other ministries in Vancouver's DTES. It is neat because a lot of my 614 Vancouver memories have come flooding back as I am getting to know everyone and the ministry at 614 Regent Park in Toronto.

Now I had no direct experience with 614 Regent Park in those days but I actually met Major Geoff Ryan once when I was at CFOT (seminary) in Winnipeg. One day he came and spoke to us cadets and Geoff Ryan actually led a chapel session. As part of that we had the opportunity to receive bread and non-alcoholic drink and Geoff quoted Jesus as saying 'this is my body' and 'this is my blood'. It was a very powerful chapel for many of my session mates. But…this was not without a little bit of… controversy… which, I wound up in the middle of… I grew up in a Baptist church and this ceremony that Geoff led us in was almost exactly how we would celebrate communion at times. Now, this WASN'T a communion service because -of course - The Salvation Army doesn't administer communion (and if they did it wouldn't be in this way) but at that point I didn't know the finer details about what constitutes the forbidden administration of communion in the Army tradition and what doesn't.[1] (Later, of course, I have seen similar ceremonies across the Army world called 'Love Feasts' or some other names BUT then, to me, a simple cadet, it seemed just like a communion service.)

Now… I used to have quite a popular web log when blogs were popular, where people would read my daily musings on-line and so after that chapel service at CFOT I updated my blog…as I always did… and I wrote something like, 'at CFOT chapel today Major Geoff Ryan administered communion to the cadets.' Tip: if you ever want to get into a lot of trouble in The Salvation Army world - and deservedly so -  then that is how to do it.

The CFOT principal saw the blog and she -quite rightfully - almost blew a circuit. TSA does not offer communion and I had just blogged for all of my readers plus whomever else, that Geoff Ryan had given the cadets communion at HER college. As the principal later rhetorically asked me, 'Can you imagine me having to explain to my boss, the Territorial Commander, why cadets are saying that I am giving communion at CFOT?!' She was obviously more than a little concerned that I had posted such a thing. And on top of that she was at chapel that day and didn't see the ceremony as a problem. It was not communion in Army tradition, doctrine, or experience - it just appeared that way from the viewpoint of my Baptist history; so she probably thought that I was trying to cause trouble for her and/or Geoff. She was mad and rightfully so. Now, PTL, Susan happened to stop by her office about another matter and was able to explain my - and some of the other cadets confusion - before I met the full weight of her response. (I, of course, immediately deleted the entry when I realized my error.)

Now that being said, CFOT had a new field instructor at the time and as I was walking past, he called me into his office and started actually yelling at me loud enough for people to hear and rumours to grow. Our new field instructor was a fan and/or a friend of Geoff and he thought that I was attacking Geoff Ryan and trying to impugn his reputation or something like that -which I wasn't- so he really did let me have it.

I admit I had had enough now. I was quite contrite about my error and - if I hadn't already called or emailed, even Geoff Ryan (who had no idea about any of this storm) then I was about to. I had had enough and then it was time for next class…and guess what next class was? Field class. I was sitting in the field instructor's class and I was trying to be on my best behaviour. I didn't even want to make eye contact at this point. This communion scandal, where I had mistakenly read the elements in the ceremony in the chapel as a part of a communion ceremony, I wanted it all behind me but you know how sometimes you just say things and you wish that you hadn't. The field instructor - no doubt still angry because of me - was having an argument with one of my fellow cadets and at one point he said, 'if it walks like a duck, if it talks like a duck…' and I couldn’t help myself, I pipe up and say, '…it's communion'. The class laughed. The instructor didn't. I put my head on my desk/table.

So that was my first in-person introduction to Major Geoff Ryan, Corps 614 Regent Park, and the somewhat unrelated fallout. I am sure he knows or remembers nothing of the event but I certainly do. And I did apologize fully to everyone involved and I believe and I hope they all accepted my apology because my CFOT principal then is now my DC. Actually my then field instructor is also in this division. I made a mistake and a bad decision that led to a need for forgiveness and forgiveness is what our pericope today is about.

This is an interesting pericope. Scholars like to guess as to the nature of the sin and/or event that transpired here and whether it is referred to elsewhere in scripture or not. We do know a few things from the immediate context. We know that someone in the church family has done something to cause some people some grief. We also know that most of the people who were affected directly or indirectly by whatever transpired took some action; referred to here as a 'punishment';[2] we know that if Paul was not directly involved in this whole mess that someone has brought it to his attention and Paul here is recommending to the grieving parties that indeed they should forgive the person who hurt them. He goes on to get as close as I think Scriptures gets to formalizing the 'forgive and forget' concept. Vs 10, he says, "if you forgive anyone, I also forgive him. And what I have forgiven - if there [even] was anything to forgive - I have forgiven them in the sight of Christ for your sake."

This forgiveness is key and -of course- forgiveness is central to the whole Christian faith. This is one of the things that actually demarcates a Christian. This is one of the things that shows the world that indeed you are a Christian. It is part and parcel of being a Christian. To be a Christian is to be a forgiven and a forgiving person. As we pray in the Lord's Prayer, 'forgive us, as we forgive those who sin against us.' And immediately after praying this (Matthew 6:14-15) Jesus says, "For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins." Forgiveness is very important.

The Apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians puts it this way for us to understand just how important is forgiveness: Verse 10, 'If you forgive anyone, I also forgive him...',  Verse 11, 'in order that Satan might not outwit us. For we are not unaware of his schemes.'

This is very important for us today in general, I think. Our world, our culture and our very country is surrounded by hate and un-forgiveness right now. An election campaign has been called and the latest round of attack ads against real and imagined enemies has been launched. Our nation since just prior to the turn of this century has left our traditional role as peacekeepers fatally wounded on the field of history. And as this has happened, I have even had to stop watching the news at times as our own country's politicians and media continually promote more fear, hatred, mistrust, scorn, and derision; instead of Christian love and forgiveness in order to justify our own acts of aggression towards people in other countries.

This hate and un-forgiveness is reflected in our entertainment industry: I don't even have cable but even I have seen shows this century where sometimes I cannot even distinguish -by their actions- the 'good guys' from the 'bad guys'. Both sides are equally pursuing retribution and in most shows we are supposed to cheer for the 'good guys' because someone has decided their un-forgiveness and revenge is 'justified' whereas their opponent's is not.

This aggression and un-forgiveness translates into our own life where we feel we can no longer trust politicians, police, churches, officials, or even people in general, or even other people specifically.[3] We have more locks on our doors, we have more alarm systems, we have people who turn the other way when they see others in crisis. We start to call for retributive rather than restorative justice.[4]Our hearts - like Pharaoh's- start to become hardened.  And we know where that ends. But do we know where this begins?

This spiral - if not always than almost always - begins with un-forgiveness. This past week the world marked the 70th anniversary of some of the worst crimes ever committed against humanity - the intentional slaughter hundreds of thousands of innocent people by atomic bomb detonation and radiation. Did you know that the US picked the time and place to drop the bomb based on when Japanese mothers dropped off their children for school so that they could kill the greatest number of women and children? Did you know that almost certainly even up to 3 whole weeks before the first atomic bomb, the US had already received the Japanese offer to surrender? Did you know that they then dropped a second bomb before they eventually accepted the offered surrender. Did you know that after the US dropped those two bombs they dropped even more atomic bombs on islands in the Pacific Ocean continuing right up into the late 1950s so that some islands are still uninhabitable to this day? This week Japan remembered this as they have for 70 years: campaigning not for revenge and retribution but for peace and forgiveness. There is this one story, related by Bishop Mary Ann Swenson at official remembrance ceremonies about a little girl named Sadako:[5]

Sadako was two years old when the atomic bomb struck one mile from her home. Soon she began to experience the devastation of radiation disease. Her response was to set about making a thousand paper cranes, because one crane symbolizes a thousand years of peace and happiness. After her death, her classmates continued making cranes; and today there is a statue of her holding a peace crane in Memorial Park [ground zero]. In response to unspeakable violence, a powerful cry for peace was born.

We pray for that peace that only comes from being willing to forgive: the peace the surpasses all understanding. Think about your own life. Think about what upsets you the most. Think about what or who makes you really angry. Think about what or who it is that if it is introduced into a conversation your mind starts wandering, frustrating your thoughts and incapacitating you from ministering to others. This is what un-forgiveness can do. Paul says that holding a grudge, failing to forgive people is a way that the devil can beat us.[6]

Here's a quote I want you to remember: 'un-forgiveness is a self-inflicted wound.' Un-forgiveness is the devil convincing you to turn your weapons ('Hoopla', Armour of God) on yourself. When we fail to forgive someone we do them no direct harm at all - not that we should want to do them harm. When we fail to forgive someone we do them no direct harm - that person may not even know that we are upset with them. When we fail to forgive someone we do them no direct harm - but we do hurt ourselves. When we fail to forgive someone it is ONLY ourselves that we hurt. The person you are mad at has no idea what you are thinking about them right then; the person you are mad at is not distracted from his or her work by YOUR un-forgiveness; the person you are mad at is not being made ineffective for the Kingdom of God due to being preoccupied with anger, bitterness and un-forgiveness - you are. The person I refuse to forgive is not being made ineffective for the Kingdom of Heaven by my un-forgiveness, I am. Un-forgiveness is a self-inflicted wound.

This is what Paul is talking about when he says, Verse 10, 'If you forgive anyone, I also forgive him...', and Verse 11 'in order that Satan might not outwit us. For we are not unaware of his schemes.'

Satan outwits us by keeping us angry at our fellow Christians so that we are not even able to grow in the love of Christ let alone work together to build the Kingdom of God; one by one the enemy can pick us off - no - one by one the enemy can convince us to pick ourselves off by bottling and/or blowing up from un-forgiveness.[7]

Now I know that many people here today have been hurt and are hurting. Do you know what the first thing some people told me when I told them how excited I was to be here at 614? It was, 'there is a need for a healing ministry there'. People kept telling me the people here, we need to heal. And when I arrived and asked many here about our recent history, do you what you told me? You told me we need healing. We need healing. There is so much that has happened to each of us individually in our lives, yes, but there is also a lot that has happened collectively. Some of us are still carrying grudges or bitterness and many of us are hurting. Now I don't know what your hurt is from. It could be from many things that have happened in general or to you personally but I do know that if that real hurt is magnified, re-opened, or exploited by our own un-forgiveness than the devil can win by keeping us hurting, long after the cause of our hurt has passed into history.

So today if indeed we are continuing to hurt ourselves -by picking at the real wounds inflicted upon us- through our un-forgiveness, today I invite us to tell the devil that we will not let him do that to us anymore. Today I invite you to throw off the yoke of the enemy, remove his influence and power over you by forgiving our enemies and those who have done us wrong - and as we do, I promise, as you resist the devil in this way, he will flee you and then may God use you to continue to do amazing and wonderful things for His Kingdom. 

Let us pray.

www.sheepspeak.com  

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[1] Cf. International Doctrine Council, The Salvation Army in the Body of Christ, (IHQ, London, UK: Salvation Books, 2008.

[2] Cf. Issiaka Coulibaly, "the purpose of punishment is restoration" in Africa Bible Commentary (Nairobi, Kenya : Word Alive Publishers, 2010)1427

[3] Cf. NT Wright, 2 Corinthians,( Paul for Everyone: Louisville, USA: WJK, 2004), 20-21 about the role of forgiveness in community.

[4] Cf. Murray J. Harris, The Expositor's Bible Commentary, Pradis CD-ROM:2 Corinthians/Exposition of 2 Corinthians/I. Paul's Explanation of His Conduct and Apostolic Ministry (2 Cor 1:1-7:16)/B. Paul's Conduct Explained (1:12-2:13)/4. Forgiveness for the offender (2:5-11), Book Version: 4.0., re. justice

[5] Bishop Mary Ann Swenson, 'Peacemakers for Life'. Presented to the joint Anglican-Catholic Peace Memorial Cathedral, (Hiroshima, Japan: 05 Aug 2015).

[6] Cf. Ernest Best, Second Corinthians, (Interpretation: Louisville, USA: John Knox Press, 1987) p. 23

[7] J. Paul Sampley, The Second Letter to the Corinthians (NIB X: Nashville, Tenn.: Abingdon, 2000), 53-54: Paul uses the term forgiveness to refer to reconciliation and the restoration of relationships.

Matthew 28:16-20: Join Us Aboard The Salvation Float!

Presented to Swift Current Corps of The Salvation Army, 15 April 2012

By Captain Michael Ramsay

 

Since all authority has been given to Christ, as evidenced by His resurrection, there is one thing now that He commands His followers to do. Jesus not only commands this of His followers who were present at the resurrection, He also commissions each and all of us to do this, even now. Matthew concludes his gospel account with these, his last recorded words by Jesus. Thus, I think it is very important and a very good place to begin in the Scriptures on the first week after Easter, Resurrection Sunday. Matthew 28:18-20:

Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

  

 Jesus commissions us to go and make disciples of all the nations (Verse 19), through the following means (and this is not an exhaustive list by any means):

-         Baptizing (initiating) people in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit (Verse 19)

-         Teaching people to obey everything that I have commanded you (Verse 20)

-         And knowing that I am with you always until the end of the age (Verse 20)

 

 The imperative command here is this: Go and make disciples of all the nations.[1] This is something for all of Jesus’ followers to do.[2] This isn’t optional. This is what Christians do. All of us who call ourselves Christians will indeed tell others about Christ. This is His Great Commission for us. As the Scriptures record, you will know a tree by its fruit, Luke 6:44: “Each tree is recognized by its own fruit. People do not pick figs from thorn bushes, or grapes from briers.” As good Christians we are commissioned to produce more good Christians – and, like with a tree, it’s only natural to produce like fruit; it won’t be an onerous chore to bear good fruit.

 

It is like being in a parade with a group of children – especially in a small town. We, as Salvation Army Officers, have been in a number of parades and if you are following along in a parade on a float with a group of children and you go past friends or cousins or other relatives of those young children, what do the little children on the sideline want to do when they see their friend or their brother or sister marching in the parade?  They want to join, right?

 

 I remember one parade in Nipawin, which is a community of between 4000 and 5000 people. We have a number of young children in our junior youth group. They are great. They are our friends and as we continue along the parade route, we have many more of our friends coming to join us –some of whom we have never met before: more and more small children all pile onto the float. I don’t know if we could even all fit by the end of the route. This is what serving our Lord and fulfilling our Great Commission to make disciples of all nations, is like. As we Christians follow the Lord along the parade route that is our life, it should be so much fun that all of our friends watching from the sidelines will naturally want to jump on float, celebrate, and enjoy the ride with us; so we should invite them to do just that.

  

 Last week, Donna jumped onto the Salvation float with us here in the Jesus parade. It was exciting. She made a decision on Thursday, I believe; she prayed with us just before the Son-rise service and she testified on Sunday morning in front of the whole congregation gathered about the experience of welcoming Christ into her life, of her experience of jumping onto the metaphorical Salvation float. This is wonderful; this is transformational and this is what we are all supposed to do: jump on the Salvation float and invite others to join us there.[3] As we all jump on the Salvation float, we are to extend our arms and invite all our friends to join us. This, in Matthew’s gospel, is so important that it is Jesus’ very last recorded words.

  

 Jesus, while commissioning us to invite everyone to join us on this Salvation float, encourages us to help people climb up onto the float. He says was can help others aboard by:

-         Baptizing (meaning initiating) them in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit (Verse 19),

-         Teaching them to obey everything that Jesus has commanded us (Verse 20),

-         And knowing that He is with us always until the end of the age (Verse 20).

 

1) Baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

 

 BAPTISM BY FIRE:

 

Now, given our Salvationist context, we should take a little bit of time to talk about what this phrase does not mean: This passage does NOT refer to baptism by fire; Baptism by fire, for those of us here who aren’t familiar with the term, is simply euphemism for baptism by the Holy Spirit.[4]

 

 This passage is not talking about baptism by fire. The words ‘To baptize’ form a command to all believers: we are told to baptize others in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. We, believers, actually cannot baptize with people with fire – so don’t try it at home. Neither you nor I cannot baptize anyone with the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is not some genie in a lamp awaiting our command to do our bidding. Far from it! That is actually the very opposite of what this phrase is trying to communicate: The Holy Spirit is God Himself and God is not our foot soldier; we are His. Jesus would never commission us to rub some mystical vase and to order around the God of the Universe, as if He were simply some ancient genie, awaiting our command to come and wash off our friends for us. Quite the contrary, the Scriptures record that we should fear the Lord (Proverbs 1:7, 9:10; cf. Job 28:28, Psalm 111:10, Ecclesiastes 12:13); we should show respect for and deference to the Lord and we should never under any circumstances put the Lord our God to the test (Deuteronomy 6:16, Matthew 4:7, Luke 4:12).[5] This passage is certainly not telling us that we can manipulate God, by conjuring up His Spirit to do our will.

 

 BAPTISM BY WATER:

  

This passage is not referring to fire baptism; this passage is referring to water baptism but – lest someone erroneously reports me as a rebellious, denominational heretic – it is important that you understand me when I say this: Jesus here is NOT saying that if we take someone for a swim in the pool full of water or if we have them take a shower after the Sunday service then they’ll be saved for eternity.[6] Even if the shower that one takes has holy water blessed by the clergy of your choice pouring out of its nozzle, it will not save anyone. This passage isn’t saying that we have to sprinkle or immerse people in water for them to be saved. This passage is actually making no comment about sprinkling, immersion or whether we even need water to baptize people. When we speak of baptism in this passage, we have to understand exactly what baptism is today and what baptism was in the first century. When Jesus and John the Baptist were walking the earth together baptism was an initiation ceremony.[7] Baptism is, even now, a very important initiation ceremony for much of Christendom.[8] Much like our soldier swearing-in ceremony or even like Donna’s testimony and proclamation of faith for us all here last week.

 

BAPTISM INTO CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY:

  

What this pericope is saying is that we, as Christians, who are fulfilling the Great Commission; we, as Christians, who are going and making disciples of all nations; we, as Christians, who are inviting all of our friends to come and join us aboard the Christ float in the eternal parade; we, as Christians, need to make sure that we are initiating them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. [9]

  

 What I and what the text is saying here (and indeed what the Spiritual Life Commission articulates quite well)[10] is that you are supposed to tell people about Jesus and when you do baptize people, when you do lead people in the Sinners’ Prayer, when you do kneel down beside people at the penitent form, when you do swear them in as soldiers, as members, or as adherents to Christ through whatever means is deemed appropriate; when you do lead people to the Lord, when you obey the commandment we are talking about today to make disciples of all nations, when you do invite all of your friends aboard the Christ float, you need to make sure that they are initiated in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit (cf. Ephesians 4:6, 1 Corinthians 12:12,13).[11] We need to actually initiate our friends as Christians.

  

 When we lead someone to Christ, we should make sure that they know that indeed Jesus is God and God is the Holy Spirit. As the third doctrine of The Salvation Army articulates, “ We believe that there are three persons in the Godhead - the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost - undivided in essence and co-equal in power and glory.” This I think is what I think Tip # 1 for inviting people aboard the Salvation float in the eternal God parade is all about. This is saying that we should make sure that we initiate them in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit (Verse 19). In other words make sure that you actually initiate them into Christianity - not just into some nebulous belief in a vague god-type being. Does that make sense?

  

 When we fulfill our God-given responsibility to tell the world about Jesus, we need to make sure that we are actually telling them about the Christian God and initiating them into the Christian religion. It does no eternal good if you show up at someone’s door and pray with them on Wednesday and then when Sunday rolls around, they show up at the Mormon, JW, or Unitarian church; a synagogue, or a mosque. If that happens, that’s a big waste. That is like someone winning a cake at the fair and immediately dropping it face down in the parking lot. Sure she won the cake, but it didn’t benefit anyone.

   

 I had two separate business associates of mine in the old days -before I was an Officer- to whom I would speak about the Lord all of the time. One was a Taoist, the other a Secularist. We spoke about Christianity all the time because that is just what I do and what I always have done. Well, at the end of the day both of them converted – to Judaism. If that isn’t a hollow, pyrite victory I don’t know what is? They, as far as I can tell, aren’t any closer to Salvation now then they were when I first met them. I think this is what Tip #1 is helping us out with. Yes we need to share the gospel but let us make sure that at the end of the day that our friends are actually signing on the dotted line or it doesn’t do them any good whatsoever. Again, it’s like them winning the cake at the fair and then dropping it in the parking lot before they ever taste any of it. So Tip #1 is that we should make sure we close the deal: initiate our friends, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. This brings us to Tip # 2 for fulfilling the great commission and helping people aboard the Salvation float.

  

 2) Teach them to obey everything that Jesus has commanded us.

  

 This is very important. Jesus says, “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations.” He doesn’t say just baptize them. Jesus doesn’t say just lead them in the sinners’ prayer and everything will be okay. We can’t just collect confessions of faith as if they are notches upon a belt. It is very important that each and every one of us as a Christian leads people to Christ – like Tip # 1 says - but that is not the end of it. We are also to help make disciples for Christ out of each of them. And how can we do that?

   

 We can do that by -Tip #2- teaching them to obey everything that Jesus has commanded us. We do this by praying with people and reading our Bible with them. Friends – I know that those of us here who are Christians, we all want to do what Christ has commissioned us here to do. I know that none of us wants to disappoint our Lord, to let the Lord down. So then I will ask us this: how many of us here this morning actually read the Scriptures eagerly and religiously? How many of us pick up our Bibles daily? Friends, how can we know what we do not learn and how can we learn what we do not study and how can we teach what we do not know? We can’t! I encourage us all to pick up our Bibles and read them every day. Doctrine #1 of The Salvation Army reads, “We believe that the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments were given by inspiration of God; and that they only constitute the Divine rule of Christian faith and practice.” If anyone here is not involved in a Bible study, we have one on Tuesday evenings for anyone who is interested and we have a women’s Bible study on Tuesday afternoon. If you would like to join one of these or another at a different time or place, just let me know.

   

 Now too, we should point out that these aspects of leading people to Christ, these tips –as we are calling them today- they aren’t chronological steps. We don’t have to initiate people before we start to study with them. We don’t have to teach them the Bible inside and out before we baptize them or lead them in a confession of faith. These things are all intertwined. This brings us nicely to the third point that is also intertwined in helping our friends to climb aboard the Salvation float with us.

  

 3) Know that Jesus is with us always until the end of the age.

 

 Jesus will never leave us nor forsake us (Deuteronomy 31:6,8; Joshua 1:5; 1 Kings 8:57; Hebrews 13:5). “We believe that we are justified by grace, through faith in our Lord Jesus Christ; and that he that believeth hath the witness in himself (TSA doctrine 8)”. Jesus is with us; we have the witness within ourselves; therefore, we can confidently invite all of our friends aboard the Salvation float: it is not going to blow a tire, it is not going to veer off the parade route, it is not going to crash into another vehicle or into the crowd. Jesus – who is in the driver’s seat – is not going to turn around and all of a sudden kick us all off the float because we are making too much noise or because we are having too much fun. On the contrary Jesus encourages us to:

  

 1) Initiate (baptize) everyone:  invite everyone we see in the crowd to jump on this, the Salvation float with us.

  

 2) Teach everyone: teach everyone all about being on the float as they hop on. Teach them the songs we are singing, teach them the scriptures we are memorizing and reciting out loud at the top of our lungs, teach them the timbral routines we are doing, and teach them the lifestyle we are living. And,

  

 3) Know that Jesus is always with us.

  

 This is important. As we already said, God is not going to turn around and all of a sudden kick us off the float because we are making too much noise or because we are having too much fun. He is not going to kick us off because we mix up the words of a song or a memory verse. He is not going to kick us off the float because we can’t figure out how to work the timbrals. He won’t kick us off because we slip up and give into our addiction. He won’t kick us out of the parade if we fall off the wagon. On the contrary He will be with us always, trying to help us back up. If we slip and fall, if we get tripped up by sin or self-indulgence, Christ, and all the rest of us on the float, will still be there singing our anthems of Salvation and calling us all to be at home on the Salvation float as we continue with our Lord, who is driving this joyful parade route homeward until the very end of the age (cf. Romans 3:2,4).[12]

 

 So to quote our risen Lord and Saviour, this is your mission, if you choose to accept salvation, Matthew 28:19-20, “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

  

 In that vein, I would encourage us all here to accept Christ’s Salvation and His commission and in so doing, it is my hope that all of us will leave here today:

-         Inviting and initiating, baptizing everyone we meet in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit,

-         teaching all who will listen to us to obey everything that Jesus has command us,

-         and knowing that He is with us always even until the end of the age

 

If there are any here who have never led a friend to Christ, I invite you to look for opportunities this very week and if you need any help in this regard just come and ask us: God has used us to teach others to lead their friend’s to Him before. We can help!

   

And if there is anyone here today who simply hasn’t jumped on the Salvation float yet, I invite you to join us on board. I guarantee you it will be the ride of your life. If you are not already on board and would like to join the eternal parade by hopping upon the Salvation float with us, come on up now. In The Salvation Army we have the Mercy Seat up front here, where you can come and meet God; so, if you want to join us, I invite you today to come forward and do just that. Join us aboard the Salvation Float.

 

Let us pray.

www.sheepspeak.com

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[1] D. A. Carson, The Expositor's Bible Commentary, Pradis CD-ROM: Matthew/Exposition of Matthew/VII. The Passion and Resurrection of Jesus (26:6-28:20)/C. The Risen Messiah and His Disciples (28:16-20)/2. The Great Commission (28:18-20), Book Version: 4.0.2: In the Greek, "go"—like "baptizing" and "teaching"—is a participle. Only the verb "make disciples" (see below) is imperative. Some have deduced from this that Jesus' commission is simply to make disciples "as we go" (i.e., wherever we are) and constitutes no basis for going somewhere special in order to serve as missionaries (e.g., Gaechter, Matthaus; R.D. Culver, "What Is the Church's Commission?" BS 125 [1968]: 243-53)

[2] Cf. Douglas R.A. Hare, Matthew (Interpretation: Louisville, Kentucky: John Knox Press, 1993), 335. This is NOT just for missionaries or clergy – this is for all of us to do!

[3] D. A. Carson, The Expositor's Bible Commentary, Pradis CD-ROM:Matthew/Exposition of Matthew/VII. The Passion and Resurrection of Jesus (26:6-28:20)/C. The Risen Messiah and His Disciples (28:16-20)/2. The Great Commission (28:18-20), Book Version: 4.0.2: "it is binding on all Jesus' disciples to make others what they themselves are—disciples of Jesus Christ."

[4] Captain Michael Ramsay, 'A Salvationist in the Protestant Reformation?' in The Officer (MARCH/APRIL 2010), p. 4.

[5] D. A. Carson, The Expositor's Bible Commentary, Pradis CD-ROM:Matthew/Exposition of Matthew/VII. The Passion and Resurrection of Jesus (26:6-28:20)/C. The Risen Messiah and His Disciples (28:16-20)/2. The Great Commission (28:18-20), Book Version: 4.0.2: "The syntax of the Greek participles for "baptizing" and "teaching" forbids the conclusion that baptizing and teaching are to be construed solely as the means of making disciples (cf. also Allen, Klostermann, Lagrange, Schlatter),"

[6] Cf. The General of The Salvation Army, The Salvation Army in the Body of Christ: An Ecclesiological Statement, 6.

[7] M. Eugene Boring, Matthew (NIB 8: Nashville, Tenn.: Abingdon, 1995),504.

[8] Cf. Jaques Courvoisier, Zwingli: A Reformed Theologian, (Richmond, Virginia: John Knox Press, 1963), 63: “to Zwingli, a sacrament is thus a kind of induction or pledge. To receive it is to enlist in Christ’s forces, and to receive in return a token, a reminder, that one must not yield but remain faithful.” cf. also Peter Stephens, “Zwingli’s Sacramental Views,” in Prophet Pastor Protestant: The Work of Huldrych Zwingli After Five Hundred Years, ed. E.J. Furcha and H. Wayne Pipkin (Allison Park, Pennsylvania: Pickwick Publications, 1984), 159.

[9] R. T. France, Matthew: An Introduction and Commentary. Downers Grove, IL : InterVarsity Press, 1985 (Tyndale New Testament Commentaries 1), S. 420: “Baptizing has been mentioned in this Gospel only as the activity of John, though the Gospel of John makes it clear that it was a characteristic also of Jesus’ ministry at least in the early days while John was still active (John 3:22–26; 4:1–3). It was against the background of John’s practice that it would be understood, as an act of repentance and of identification with the purified and prepared people of God (see on 3:6, 9, 13).”

[10] The Salvation Army, The Report of the Spiritual Life Commission, Appendix 4 in Handbook of Doctrine, pp. 296, 299-300.

[11] Cf. William Hendricksen, Matthew (NTC: Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Academic, 2007), p. 1000.

[12] Cf. R.C.H. Lenski, The Interpretation of St. Matthew, (Minneapolis, Minnesota: Augsburg Publishing House, 1964), p. 1180.

John 6:22-40: The Bread of Life.

Presented to Nipawin Corps 04 January 2009
By Captain Michael Ramsay

This Christmas season was a lot of work. It was a lot of fun. There were a lot of people who helped the Army serve the Lord by showing our love for our neighbour in the way we do during the Christmas season.

The income from our Christmas campaign and kettles was a record high this year – surpassing even last year which was the previously highest year by far (I believe that Nipawin may have even been the highest givers per capita in the entire province). We are very thankful to all the people and groups who helped with this ministry –standing on the kettles, organising the kettles, helping me count the money from the kettles.

We also had the opportunity to help out a number of people who were dealing with terrible loss this season; the Lord allowed us to provide counselling, emotional and spiritual support as well as material assistance to many in need.

From Nipawin here we coordinated the hampers for the Yellowquill reserve and for Tisdale as well as for Nipawin. I thank the Lord for the help of the Hildebrandts (for their hard work and organisation), the Gages (especially for all their heavy lifting and keeping me company as I headed up and down between the towns) and for all of those who volunteered to pack the hampers.

The Lord used Sheila effectively in coordinating the Christmas meal as well. We had many volunteers, two seatings, lots of food and no one went away hungry.

In our text today, John 6:22-40, Jesus calls himself the ‘bread of life’ and the day before he makes this claim, John tells us that Jesus performed the miraculous feeding with the fish and the bread, where no one needed to go away hungry. Do you remember? Chapter 6:1-15, Jesus feeds as much as the population of Nipawin – even more than that actually, it says there were 5000 men alone – and all these men (and others) were following Jesus around the countryside and they didn’t have any lunch. It says that six months wages would not by enough bread to feed them but one small boy brought a few fish and loaves of bread and as Jesus broke this little bit of bread for his disciples to give out. When they were handing out this little bit of bread and fish, they found out that it did not run out! Not only did they have enough to feed the 5000+ people but they also had twelve baskets of bread pieces left over… this was the miraculous feeding of the 5000, the miracle of the bread (and fish) that did not run out.

In our text today this crowd catches up with Jesus, who had escaped from them in the interim, and Jesus tells the crowd that he knows – verse 26 – that they are looking for him because he fed them and in the miraculous way that he did but that indeed –verse 27– they should really be looking for him because he will give them eternal life.

Answering him, the crowd acknowledges that they would like to do the work of God themselves –verse 28 – if he would just tell them what they must do. Believe in me, Jesus says –verse 29 –believe in me …and then they, these same people who had just eaten the miraculous bread (and fish), these same people who had just been a part of the miracle of the feeding of the five thousand, these same people who had just tried to seize him and make him king because of this miraculous sign, these same people they ask him for a sign. How short our memories are, it seems…

I know in our own lives this is sometimes the case too, isn’t it? Sometimes, one day we are praising God because He has miraculously fed, clothed, healed, or saved somebody and the next day we are asking – well, what have you done for me lately? This is sad but I fear all too true.

With the crowd in our story, rather than getting mad at these people or refusing to discuss these things with them any further (as he is sometimes apt to do), Jesus addresses their concerns while making reference to this miracle of the bread that he performed yesterday. He compares himself also to the bread from heaven, the manna that God sent down to Moses and the rest of the Israelites in the desert at the time of the exodus. Jesus says that indeed, he himself is even more than these; Jesus says that he is this ‘bread of life’, as it were (v.35); he is this bread of life so that anyone who eats him, anyone who eats this bread will not perish but have everlasting life. Now this is important – but this is also confusing.

What does it mean to eat this bread of life, that once we eat it we are never hungry again? This is an important question to the people of Palestine here as well as to us today. Apparently in general there weren’t too many times in the history of Palestine and of the Israelites when they weren’t on the verge of starvation and in specific these people, we remember, have just been hungry and have just been fed by Jesus himself.[1]

Today there is also this problem across the whole world where people are starving to death (up to 50 000 every day!) [2] and even in Canada, whose parliamentarians pledged in 1989 to end child poverty; even in Canada, which in the past used to be much better off than most first world countries even; even in Canada now, we are not so high on the list of nations who bother provide for the poor and the needy as we should be given our nation’s great wealth[3] (cf. Matt 19:21, 25:31ff, 26:9-11; Mk 10:21, 14:5; Lk 6:20, 11:41, 12:33, 14:13, 18:22, 19:8; John 12:5-8, 13:29).

We know that the poor will always be with us (Matt 26:11, Mk 14:7, John 12:8) We know also that how we treat them is indicative of our nation’s very salvation (Matt 25:31ff) and we will notice as well that spiritually we, in most of Canada now (maybe not Saskatchewan yet), are starving.

Atheism is at an all-time high in Canada; pornography production and consumption has reached incomprehensible rates and more and more people have become more and more desensitized to sex and violence: many here even offer it up to their own children in the form of unsupervised television access and even interactive video games that promote sex, violence and self before others and instead of God - (Children spend more time watching television than any other activity!).[4] Nationally, we are indeed a starving society. But what is the solution?

What is the solution to hunger that Jesus offers to the people of Palestine in the first century? When they ask him about it, he says, ‘eat me’. He says whoever eats him we not perish but will have everlasting life. Well, that is great but what does it mean? It doesn’t mean to physically eat him, does it? I don’t think so.

How can one actually eat Jesus? After all he died two thousand years ago, rose from the dead, and we right now are still awaiting his imminent return; so how can we eat his flesh if we are still waiting for him to return in the flesh? I don’t think we can eat something that is not here, can we? And right now his flesh is not here. Now some people would argue in favour of transubstantiation or consubstantiation saying that somehow when a Lutheran, Roman Catholic priest, or another distributes communion, the Eucharist, or the Lord’s Supper to his parishioners, that the bread (or wafer) actually turns into Christ’s skin, his flesh, his body; I personally don’t think so. I am pretty sure, at any rate that this part of the Gospel of John is not talking about this kind of thing anyway.[5]

So what does it mean for us to eat him so that we can have life (6:35, 49-50, 53-56)? John says later in this chapter that as well as eating this bread of life, we must listen to it (6:45, 63, 68). How do we do that? How do we eat it and listen to it at the same time? Is it like Rice Krispies – Snap, Crackle, Pop? When is the last time that you listened to your food? How do we listen to this food that will make us never hungry again while at the same time we eat it? What does it mean to actually listen to (and not just hear) this food?

Jesus tells us that indeed, by itself, ‘the flesh is useless’ (6:63)[6]; the bread is the body of Christ but the body by itself, ‘the flesh is useless’ in that it does not provide eternal life.[7] Just like those who ate the manna, the bread in the desert died, and just like those who ate the little boy’s fish and loaves yesterday are hungry already (cf. 6:27, 49) and they are not spared death by eating them, physical feeding by itself at best delays death. Likewise simply listening to the spiritual is no guarantee of life. You can go to a church every Sunday of your life and never go to be with Jesus at the resurrection of the just.[8]

We can’t just hear the word of God; we have to listen to it and to do it. In our world today the equivalent of simply hearing the word without doing it would probably be heading out to church on Sunday, listening to Christian radio, reading Christian books, or watching preachers on TV. The religious leaders of Jesus’ day did the equivalent of all this and more and many of them, it seems from the NT scriptures, will not be by his side on the last day.

We can’t just watch as the bread of life is being distributed and decline to eat it as if we are on some kind of a diet, as if we were partaking of some kind of a fast. We need to consume, we need to internalize the whole life of Jesus Christ. In the book of John alone, we are told many (49) times that we must believe, we must put our actual faith and trust in Christ, if we want to live. We must, John tells us, as recorded in Chapter 15, we must be willing to lay down our lives for God and for our spiritual brothers and sisters in Christ just like Jesus laid down his life for us.

Isaiah 50:10-11 and 55:1-2 calls the bread of heaven the word of life. The Prophet Isaiah (2nd Isaiah) calls the bread from heaven, the word of life. John tells us in Chapter One of this very letter, like Susan[9] preached on last week that Jesus is this word of life and that this word was with God from the beginning and this word that is also the bread of life is indeed God himself. This bread of life that we must eat is indeed the same bread and the same word that we must listen to. This bread and this word is Jesus Christ. So what does it mean to eat this bread? What does it mean to listen to and to eat this bread?

Jesus tells us that if we love him we will obey his commandments (John 14,15) and he commands us to love our neighbour as ourselves. He commands us to look out for the poor, the widow, the immigrant. Doing this, and fulfilling the great commission (Matt 28:16ff), is a physical application or response, maybe even a manifestation of sorts of the spiritual reality that is love for God and that is Christ in our lives.

Eating the bread in this way is how we display that indeed we believe. It shows that we indeed have accepted his salvation and indeed these actions, these works only mean anything if we do believe. Because if we believe the word that became flesh, if we truly believe and consume and internalise his teaching, through prayer and Bible study, if we truly commune with the Lord in this way then we will eat of the bread of life and you will see that we will perform the acts of righteous, and then we will truly enjoy our salvation.

Remember that God did not send His son into the world to condemn that world but to save the world (John 3:17-16) and that whosoever of us believes in Jesus Christ in this way; whosoever listens to the Word of God and consumes this bread of life; whosoever actually believes in the Lord in this way and eats of his eternal bread will not perish but will have everlasting life.

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[1] See also the story of the women at the well in Chapter 4 where Jesus refers to himself as possessing living water; cf. also John 7:37-39.
[2] “At the start of the 21st century 1.2 billion people live in abject poverty, most of them women. More than 800 million people go to bed hungry and 50,000 people die every day from poverty-related causes.” - makepovertyhistory.ca
[3] Cf. makepovertyhistory.ca – “in the midst of wealth, almost 5 million Canadians live in poverty. Poverty is increasing for youth, workers, young families and immigrant and visible minority groups. Poverty among Aboriginal groups remains appallingly high both on and off reserve. In fact, if the statistics for Canadian Aboriginal people were viewed separately from those of the rest of the country, Canada's Aboriginal people would slip to 78th on the UN Human Development Index — the ranking currently held by Kazakhstan.”
[4] Children spend more time watching television than in any other activity except sleep; 54% of kids have a TV in their bedroom.- Huston and Wright, University of Kansas. "Television and Socialization of Young Children." 44% of kids say they watch something different when they're alone than with their parents (25% choose MTV). 66% of children (ages 10 to 16) surveyed say that their peers are influenced by TV shows. 62% say that sex on TV shows and movies influences kids to have sex when they are too young - http://www.parentstv.org/ptc/facts/mediafacts.asp
[5] Cf. For a discussion of this: Gerard Sloyan, “John” in Interpretation. Eds. James L. Mays and Paul J. Achtemeier (John Knox Press, 1988), 76. Cf. Gail O’Day, “John” in NIB IX, Ed. Leander E Keck (Abingdon Press Nashville, 1995), 613, where she argues that the author of John argues for a full spectrum of meaning in the words. Neither author argues for either transubstantiation or consubstantiation.
[6] Cf. Captain Michael Ramsay. “Ulrich Zwingli: the Third Reformer.” Presented to William and Catherine Booth College (October 2008) available on-line: http://www.sheepspeak.com/Michael_Ramsay_History_TSA.htm#Zwingli : “Zwingli argued that when Jesus is recorded as saying, ‘this is my body’ as it relates to the sacrament, the word ‘is’ can and should be translated ‘signifies’. Zwingli, who generally rejected the authority of the church fathers, draws on Augustine, Tertullian, and Origin’s arguments to make this point. He further cites John 6:63, “It is the Spirit who gives life, the flesh is of no avail” claiming that this text renders impossible all views of eating the flesh (including but not limited to ideas such as transubstantiation and consubstantiation). He cites from 1 Corinthians 10:14-22, “we many are one bread and one body”, to argue that by eating the bread we are merely binding ourselves to an oath (much like he argued for baptism) rather than consuming Christ in any practical way. Communion like Baptism is a sign, a symbol.”
[7] Cf. George Richard Potter, Zwingli. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1978), 288;Ulrich Gabler, Huldrych Zwingli: his Life and Work. Translated by Ruth C.L. Gritch, (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1986),133; and Rillet, 213-225 and Potter, 287-315 for detailed discussions on the differences between the stances of the Reformers Martin Luther and Ulrich Zwingli on the matter of the Eucharist.
[8] Cf. Gail O’Day, 612.
[9] Captain Susan Ramsay