Easter 2 April 19, 2020 The Sunday of Jesus’ Appearances to the Disciples
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Easter 2
1 John 5:1-11 & John 20:19-31
April 19, 2020
“Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God”:
Believe It and Overcome the World
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Now let’s get the overall picture of what we’re doing today. St. John is going to argue that our faith and love as Christians overcomes the world. So if you’re going to go home today with this message that in Jesus you’ve overcome the world, you probably need to understand what God means by the world. What exactly have you overcome? The Bible uses the world to mean different things.
For instance, I’m going to give you two statements that are absolutely true from the Bible and yet seem to be absolutely contradictory.
1. The world is good.
2. The world is bad.
Either one you can easily defend from the Bible. Over and over again we’re told that God made the world. In this sense, of course, the world is good. Because God is good. We see beauty and harmony everywhere. There’s pleasure and joy to be found in the world. So, yes, the world is good.
Yet the Bible also very clearly tells us the world is bad. And this is the sense, of course, that the world has been corrupted by sin, death, and the devil. So even though God made the world good, it is now bad in that it’s full of pride, lust, greed, anger, death, temptation, evil, and so forth. Now that corrupted, evil, sinful world is the world which you’ve overcome in Jesus.
Another example of how this gets confusing is that the Bible clearly says that God loves the world as in John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son…”. And yet in John 16 and 17 Jesus seems to have no love for the world. He says that He’s overcome the world, that He’s not of the world, that He’s not praying for the world, and that the world hates Him. Furthermore, in 1 John 2:15 we’re told, “Do not love the world or the things in the world.” You see how this gets confusing? “God loves the world. But don’t you love the world.” Yikes.
So all of this today will make much more sense for you if you know that the world you’ve overcome is the world of sin, death, and the devil. You’ve overcome all the bad world. The bad and evil parts of the world. If I use a very specific example, you’ve overcome coronavirus and all other viruses. Because no virus can kill you. You have eternal life in Jesus and your body will be raised. So you’ve overcome sickness and death in Jesus Christ because He’s the Son of God who died for you and was raised for you.
Look at Jesus in our Gospel reading today. There’s a picture of what it means to overcome the world. There’s Jesus who died three days and now He’s living. “Look at my hands and side,” He tells them. “Look at Me! I’ve won. I’ve overcome the world!” And then He shows His disciples that this victory is for them. “Peace be with you,” He says. “I’m sending you. If you forgive the sins of anyone, they are forgiven.”
And this victory is for you. John says, “These are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God—and that by believing you may have life and victory in His name.” In other words, just as Jesus has overcome the world of sin and death and the devil—now you may overcome it as well and live in Jesus.
So this would seem to be a pretty important message that you’re going to go home with today, right? You’ve overcome the world in Jesus. That is to say, you’ve overcome all that is bad and wrong in the world. You’re forgiven. You have eternal life. And you have the love of God in you.
So now let’s dig in to these verses and follow St. John’s argument that you’ve overcome the world through faith in Jesus. Verse 1. “Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God…” So if we’re going to say that our faith overcomes the world—then the obvious question is, “What is our faith? What do we believe?”
What do Christians believe? Sadly, if you ask a random American, “What do Christians believe?” you’ll be 99% likely to get an answer something like this, “They believe people should be good and love others.” Did you get that? Most people think that the main teaching of Christianity is, “Do good and love others.” That’s it. Now that’s a big problem. “But wait a minute,” you say, “Don’t we teach that? That people should love others?” Of course we do. Absolutely.
But that is our second teaching. It’s not the first. Not the main teaching. The first teaching is what we just read in this verse, “Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ.” That’s the first teaching. It has to be or everything else falls apart. So what do Christians believe? They believe that Jesus is the Christ. We believe Jesus is our Savior. That He died for us and forgives our sins and gives us eternal life. That’s number one. And when you know that then the second teaching will always follow right behind—that we should do good and love others just as Jesus has done to us.
But you can’t get the second teaching without the first. Today many Christian churches have pretty much ignored the whole first part about Jesus being the Christ and they only teach the second part about being good and loving others. That’s called progressive Christianity or the social justice Gospel, etc. It’s called the Christ without the cross. It’s saying, “I believe all that stuff Jesus taught about being good and loving others but not all that first part He taught about us being sinners and how He had to die for our sins.”
So John sets the record straight here. What do Christians believe? That Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. When Jesus appears to His disciples in the Gospel reading today—that’s what He’s showing them. “Look, guys, here’s My hands and My side. Look! I’m the Son of God. The Christ. I died and now I’m risen! Peace be with you. I’m sending you.” Do you see the order? First is “Jesus is the Christ”. Second is “go do good and love others”.
Now then what happens when you believe this? We continue with verses 1 and 2: “Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves whomever has been born of him. By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments.” Here then is that second part I’ve been telling you about. When you believe Jesus is the Christ, awesome things happen to you. You’re born again of God. You have new life. Your old sinful life is put away. You’re forgiven. Renewed. Made alive. Raised with Christ. And you know you are because you believe that Jesus is the Christ.
And then—when you’re born again and made new—then you love God and love other people. Do you want to see concrete examples of Christians overcoming this world of sin and evil and death? Then look for places where Christians are loving God and loving others as Jesus has loved them. Look at a Christian who encounters a problem and immediately prays about it. Look at a Christian who has a rough life going and yet doesn’t ever miss Church and the Holy Communion. Look at Christians who are overcoming hunger and starvation with food pantries and soup kitchens. Look for Christians who are overcoming abortion with pregnancy centers and post-abortion counseling. Look for a Christian who’s treated entirely unfairly and instead of throwing a tantrum shows patience and forgiveness. Look for a Christian who is dying and overcomes it with the joy and peace of Christ. I’ve seen all these things. As a pastor I get to see it all the time in you people. And it’s inspiring what God does through many of you when you believe Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God.
So you believe in Christ, you’re born of God, and you love Him and others. Then comes verse 3: “For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome.” John mustn’t have gone through Lutheran confirmation class. We drill this point home that the commandments are hard and you can’t keep them perfectly no matter how hard you try, right? That’s true but that’s not what St. John is saying here. He makes that clear elsewhere. Here he’s describing what happens when you believe in Jesus Christ as the Son of God. Now you don’t consider it a great burden to do good and love others. To keep God’s commandments. It’s not a burden, it’s a joy! Faith in Jesus brings strength from Jesus. Strength to love God and keep His commandments. This is what we Christians are working on every single day. Loving God and loving others. And it’s a joy!
And that brings John then to this big climactic point. Verse 4: “For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world- our faith.” Now I’ve already said quite a bit about this but I want to be even more specific. You who believe that Jesus is the Christ have overcome the world. I’ve already said, for instance, you’ve overcome any virus because you will not die but live forever with Jesus. But there’s much more than that.
You have overcome all death. You don’t know how many years of life you will have on this earth. Could be twenty. Could be 100. But no matter how many more years you have left, Christians don’t need to be afraid. We will not die, Jesus says, but will live.
You have overcome all sin. Hard to believe it as much as we sin every day but it’s true. We’ve overcome sin. Sin can’t send us to hell. We’ve overcome it because Jesus is the Christ. When Jesus appears to His disciples the first word is “Peace”. “Peace be with you.” And some of them in that room had some pretty great sin. But Jesus shows them it’s all been overcome. You and I have some pretty ugly sins in our past. Even in our not very distant past. But we have overcome them in the blood of Jesus Christ. We are forgiven and Jesus shows us His hands and side as the proof.
You also have overcome all the false lures of this world. Other people may be led away by the lie that more and more stuff will make you happy. That more and more money and buying will make you happy. But you’ve overcome that in Jesus. Jesus makes you happy. Not stuff. And others may be led away by the lie that sex is the most important thing in the world. But you’ve overcome that lie in Jesus. You know that Jesus is the most important thing in the world. That love is the most important thing in the world.
Do you see all that you’ve overcome in Jesus? You’ve overcome all that is bad in the world. All the lies. All the sin. All the death and temptations. You’ve won in Jesus. That’s Easter victory.
Now John continues because he knows that most people want to know the evidence. Where’s the evidence? Where’s the witnesses? How do we know that Jesus really is the Christ, the Son of God, and that we have really overcome the world? He says there are three that testify—the Spirit, the water, and the blood. We have the water of Jesus’ Baptism where the Father declared, “This is My Son.” We have the blood of the cross where Jesus died and God raised Him from the dead. And we have the Spirit—who was given to Jesus and then given to the apostles so that we have the Word of God right here in our hands declaring to us that Jesus is the Christ. We have all the evidence and it all agrees that Jesus is the Christ.
We have the Word of John and all the other apostles who stood there and put their fingers into the nail marks on Jesus’ hands and into the wound on His side. They saw and believed. And we have their witness. We have the entire witness of the Word and Sacraments. And St. John says, “These are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God!”
All of God’s witnesses and all of His testimony point to the same thing—that Jesus is God’s Son and our life. He’s our life! Brothers and sisters in Christ, I hope the message of God’s Word today has comforted you and encouraged you. Nothing that is bad in this world—none of the sin, sickness, death, and dread of this world—can overcome you. Because you have already overcome it all in Jesus Christ. You have true and everlasting life in Jesus Christ. He is truly the Christ, the Son of God, and believing in Him you’ve overcome all that is wrong and evil in this world. You have life and victory in Jesus’ name.
Amen.