Belonging to Jesus

 

[The following is a manuscript of my message delivered on Sunday morning, the 9th of July, 2023, at Pilgrim Reformed Church.  A recording should be available on our YouTube streaming channel: 

https://www.youtube.com/@pilgrimreformedchurch1992/streams.]

Family, most of us have had doubts, at some time or another in our life.  I guess it’s just human nature to doubt something, to wonder about something that we can’t actually prove or know for sure.  Some may be mundane, like I doubt if this cake is going to be any good.  Some may have a greater impact on our life at the moment, like I doubt I’ll get that promotion at work.  Some may drastically affect our outlook on this life and the next, like I doubt that God could ever love me after what I’ve done.

So yeah, doubts are pretty natural for us.  But this is why God gave us faith, and His word in our Bible.  If we believe in His Son Jesus as the Christ sent to free us from sin, follow His voice and keep our faith strong, then we really should not doubt the security of our salvation or the steadfastness of our heavenly Father’s love.

But sometimes, especially those dark times when nothing is going right, sometimes we still question if our faith is enough.  We cry out, “Where is Jesus, why isn’t He helping me, am I one of those who He’ll say to, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me’”?  Doubts creep in and dampen our spirit, chill our heart.

And if it’s hard for us today, with our Bible and all our modern research tools, imagine what the early church must have gone through.  With only around 500 people having witnessed the risen, resurrected Jesus, the vast majority of those early Christians believed in the Christ based on the testimony of others, and the faith God gave them.  I can only imagine how many doubts they must have had regarding their belief and the impact of their belief.  Chief among these doubts, and one still in many of us today, must have been whether they actually were cleansed by the blood of Jesus and were His.  How could they…  how can we be sure we are one of His sheep, truly one of His flock?

Well, they did have eyewitnesses to help reassure them, and we have the testimony of those eyewitnesses to help us.  Take for instance the Apostle John, one of the first four followers hand-picked and called by Jesus.  In his letters to the early church, and to us today, John tells us how to know when we belong to Jesus.

Please listen and follow along as I read from verses 1 through 11 of the 2nd chapter of the Apostle John’s 1st letter to the early church, and I’ll be reading this from The Living Bible translation of our Holy Bible…

1 My little children, I am telling you this so that you will stay away from sin. But if you sin, there is someone to plead for you before the Father. His name is Jesus Christ, the one who is all that is good and who pleases God completely. 2 He is the one who took God’s wrath against our sins upon Himself and brought us into fellowship with God; and He is the forgiveness for our sins, and not only ours but all the world’s.

3 And how can we be sure that we belong to Him? By looking within ourselves: are we really trying to do what He wants us to?

4 Someone may say, “I am a Christian; I am on my way to heaven; I belong to Christ.” But if he doesn’t do what Christ tells him to, he is a liar. 5 But those who do what Christ tells them to will learn to love God more and more. That is the way to know whether or not you are a Christian. 6 Anyone who says he is a Christian should live as Christ did.

7 Dear brothers, I am not writing out a new rule for you to obey, for it is an old one you have always had, right from the start. You have heard it all before. 8 Yet it is always new, and works for you just as it did for Christ; and as we obey this commandment, to love one another, the darkness in our lives disappears and the new light of life in Christ shines in.

9 Anyone who says he is walking in the light of Christ but dislikes his fellow man is still in darkness. 10 But whoever loves his fellow man is “walking in the light” and can see his way without stumbling around in darkness and sin. 11 For he who dislikes his brother is wandering in spiritual darkness and doesn’t know where he is going, for the darkness has made him blind so that he cannot see the way.

--1 John 2:1-11 (TLB)

Let us pray…  Almighty God, Thank You for giving us the gift of faith.  With faith in our hearts, we can believe in what can’t be seen, what can’t be proven.  And by our belief, we can be saved.  Thank You, Father, for loving us this much.  Sadly, though, Father, sometimes our faith grows weak and the devil can begin to sow seeds of doubt into our minds, clouding our thoughts, further eroding our faith.  Forgive us these times, Father.  Please help us keep our faith strong.  Help us put all our trust in You and in Your word.  Please remind us of our salvation through Your Son Jesus.  And please protect us, Father.  Shield us from those who serve Satan and carry out his evil deeds.  Please keep us strong in our faith, of one mind and one purpose in our love, worship, and service, and healthy and safe in the days ahead.

Speak to us now, Father, that we might hear Your voice through Your Spirit within us and better understand the message You have for us this day.  Please help us look within ourselves to see if we are truly living as Christ did.  Help us as we strive to do what our Lord wants.  This we pray in the precious name of Your Son, Christ Jesus our Lord.   Amen.

You all know of Rodney Dangerfield, right?  His tagline was, "I get no respect".  He often didn't even get respect from himself.  One of my favorite stories he told went like this:  "I applied for membership in a very exclusive country club that had a great golf course.  A couple weeks later I received an acceptance letter welcoming me to the club.  I turned them down.  I didn't want to belong to any club that would have me as a member."

I can almost relate to that.  If a club would accept someone like me as a member, would I really want to belong to it?  Of course, Rodney was playing it for laughs, but the point is kind of valid.  If there’s an organization that I do not think myself to be worthy enough to be a member of, and they accept me anyway, are their standards really that low, so low that I’d turn down their invitation?

Well, there’s one club where we’ll never be worthy enough to join, but they ask us in anyway.  And we’d be utter fools to turn down the invitation.  The “club” is God’s family, and Jesus offered the invitation when He said, “Follow Me.”  We don’t deserve membership, but Jesus paid our dues already, and they’re good for all eternity.  All we have to do is what He tells us to do: to love one another.  This is a club even Rodney would want to join.

If you were paying attention and remember last week’s scripture reading, here in the beginning of his 2nd chapter of this 1st letter, John is repeating some of what he said in the 1st chapter.  Now this isn’t because John is forgetful or getting senile, although he is quite old at this point.  No, it’s to emphasize what he said earlier, to show us how important this information is.

What I’m talking about is John’s description of Jesus as the light of mankind.  He is again comparing Jesus to a light shining in the darkness, showing us the safe and sure way.  And he makes it clear that he is indeed speaking metaphorically, talking about spiritual darkness, being lost in sin.

No matter what we may say we believe in, no matter what we may call ourselves, if we dislike our fellow man, we are still walking in darkness and not in the light of Christ.  We’re still stumbling around in our sin, blinded by the darkness, with no idea of where we’re actually going.

Yet the solution is so simple.  The light switch is easy to find.  There’s nothing new about this.  It hasn’t been hidden from us.  We’ve been told how to avoid the darkness all along.  All we have to do is as Jesus commanded us and love one another, and then all the darkness in our lives will disappear and the light of life in Christ will shine in us and out from us for all to see.

I began this discussion by saying that John tells us how we can be sure we belong to Jesus.  Well, John poses that very question in verse 3 of our reading: “How can we be sure we belong to Christ?”  And then he answers it: “By looking within ourselves to see if we are really doing what He wants us to do.”

John is calling us to purposeful self-examination, deep introspection - open up all the cupboards and drawers, look through every nook and cranny, and honestly determine if we are living the way Jesus wants us to live.  Are we truly loving our fellow man?  Or do we still harbor hatred and resentment?  Do we curse those who hate us, who wish us harm, or do we pray for them, that they may somehow see the light of truth themselves?  Do we envy what someone else has, or do we rejoice with them for their good fortune?  Are our acts and deeds self-serving, or selfless, unconditional, performed out of love?  Do we stand up to injustice, speak for the silent, uphold the weak, have mercy even on the merciless?

In short, do we try to live as Jesus lived?  None of us are His equals; we’re all sinners.  But we can strive to do as Jesus would have us do, and cast the darkness out of our hearts with the light of life in Christ.

Family, this is all about love.  All we need is love to drive out the darkness.  Love is what Jesus commanded us to do.  Love is what He gave to the world.

In the 15th chapter of his Gospel account, verses 9 through 17, John recorded Jesus saying this to His disciples, including us…

9 “I have loved you even as the Father has loved Me. Remain in My love. 10 When you obey My commandments, you remain in My love, just as I obey My Father’s commandments and remain in His love. 11 I have told you these things so that you will be filled with My joy. Yes, your joy will overflow! 12 This is My commandment: Love each other in the same way I have loved you. 13 There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. 14 You are My friends if you do what I command. 15 I no longer call you slaves, because a master doesn’t confide in his slaves. Now you are My friends, since I have told you everything the Father told Me. 16 You didn’t choose Me. I chose you. I appointed you to go and produce lasting fruit, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask for, using My name. 17 This is My command: Love each other.”

--John 15:9-17 (NLT)

This is John’s message to the early church.  This is Jesus’ message to us.  Love one another.  As long as we bear ill will against a brother or sister, as long as we hate an enemy, as long as we wish harm or even damnation on someone else, we are still stumbling around in the darkness of our sin and not living as Jesus wants us to.

“Love one another” was not a suggestion, but a command.  Jesus loves us just as much as the Father loves Him.  He obeyed His Father’s commands, and we must obey His if we are to remain in His love.  To remain in His love we must show our love by loving one another.

You know, family, when it comes right down to it, there is very little going on in the world right now that we can do anything about.  None of us can go and stop the war in eastern Europe.  I dare say most of us aren’t trained or physically able to head off and fight the wildfires in western Canada.  We can’t single-handedly fight world hunger or homelessness.  I can’t even do anything about all the SPAM calls and scam calls I get on a daily basis.

But we can love one another.  We can put all the world’s problems in God’s hands, knowing He is still in control.  We can help provide food for the needy, support those places and organizations that shelter the homeless, things that we are doing as a church family but that we as individuals can do too.  And we can love the unlovable, love those who hate us, love them enough to pray for them that the light might penetrate the darkness of their sin and free them from Satan’s grasp.

We just need to rid ourselves of our little hatreds.  We don’t have to like someone to love them.  We don’t have to like or approve of what they do to pray for them that God’s Holy Spirit will show them how to stop and to walk in the light.  We do have to stop hating them, despising them, wishing them harm.  And we certainly have to stop damning them.  After all, we don’t need to do that.  Jesus says we damn ourselves by our words and our actions, even by our thoughts and our inactions.

Let’s be careful not to damn ourselves.  Instead, let’s keep on walking in the light so we can keep on belonging to Jesus.  In the blessed name of Christ Jesus our Lord, the one true Son of God.  Amen.

Let us pray…  Almighty God, thank You for loving Your creation enough to send Your Son into the world to shine His light of life into the darkness of our sin.  You took out Your wrath for our disobedience on Your own Son, sparing us the punishment we rightly deserved.   Forgive us those times, please Father, when we step back into the darkness, when we let our pride or hatred overrule what we know to be right in Your eyes.  Forgive us when we fail to do the things we know we should do, and when we do the things we know we shouldn’t.  Please help us live closer to how Jesus lived.  Help us love as He loved so that we might remain in His love.  And Father, please shield us from Satan as he attacks our faith and tries to pull us away from You.  Help us be better servants, glorifying You in all we do so that the world can see You in us, through our deeds, in how we live.  And help us remain strong, faithful, and true to You in all things, no matter what the world throws at us or holds out before us.

Please hear us now, Father, as we pause for just a moment to speak to You through Your Spirit within us, promising to be more obedient to Your commands, and seeking Your help to do so…

Lord Jesus, You gave us one simple command: to love one another.  And yet, dear Lord, we struggle so mightily to carry it out.  We let our foolish pride trip us up.  We lash out in anger against our fellow man, and too often for silly reasons.  Thank You, Lord, for showing us the way to righteousness by shining Your light into our darkness.  We pray, dear Lord, to please help us obey Your simple command.  Please, Jesus, help us reach out to those that we hold ill will against and show them our love instead of our spite.  Help us show them Your love.  And help us endure any persecution this may cause us.  Shield our minds and our hearts from the world’s lies and empty promises.  Guide us around all the devil’s traps and snares.  Help us see though his temptations.

And Jesus, please help us be faithful and true to You, putting all our trust in You, all our hope in You.  Please heal the hurts that separate and divide us one from another.  Help us keep our focus on the things of heaven and the needs of others rather than on anything this life might offer.  This we pray in Your blessed name, Christ Jesus our Lord and our Savior.  Amen.