We Share His Glory

Rev. Deacon Allen J. Batchelder

Trinity Church
Waltham, Massachusetts
May 12, 2013 – Easter VII
Ascension Sunday – Mother’s Day

Acts 16:16-34, Psalm 97, Revelations 22:12-14, 16-17, 20-21, John 17:20-26

From the book of Acts:
And the jailer said: “Men, what must I do to be saved?” And they said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.”

From the Revelation to St. John:
Blessed are those who wash their robes, that they may have the right to the tree of life and that they may enter the city by the gates.

And from the Gospel of St. John:
The glory which thou hast given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and thou in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that thou hast sent me and hast loved them even as thou hast loved me.

Let us pray:
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts be acceptable in thy sight, O God, our Rock and our Redeemer, our Strength and our Salvation.
Amen!

It’s been about a month now, since the terrorist attack at the finish line of the Boston Marathon. This horrible event continues to be in the news. The FBI and other law enforcement officials continue to gather evidence; government officials are working backwards to see if they missed some intelligence that might have prevented this attack from happening. Perhaps this information might help to prevent another attack from happening. The last couple of weeks we had the drama of where to bury the body of one of the terrorist. “Not in my backyard” was the common response from one town after another. We now know that under the cover of darkness, his body was buried in a Muslim cemetery in Virginia.

If we can see some good to come out of this, it was the uniting of the people in love, compassion, grief, pain and sorrow. Those directly affected, will have to carry these feelings with them for the rest of their lives.

As Jesus neared the end of His ministry here on earth, He begins to pray for His disciples and for us who live today; for the whole church throughout all ages. His prayer is for unity. He is concerned that His people experience a spiritual unity that is like the oneness of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Christians may belong to different fellowships, but they all belong to the Lord and to each other.

We would like to think of Jesus’ disciples as devote and holy men, but that was not always to case. Like us, the disciples had often exhibited a spirit of selfishness, competition, and disunity; and this must have troubled the Savior’s heart. I wonder how he feels when He sees the condition of the church today! The Puritan preacher Thomas Brooks wrote: “Discord and division become no Christian. For wolves to worry the lambs is no wonder, but for one lamb to worry another, this is unnatural and monstrous.”

What is the basis of true Christian unity? It is the person and work of Jesus Christ and His glory (John 17:2-5). He has already given His glory to us, and He promises that we will further experience that glory when we get to heaven! All true believers have God’s glory within, no matter what they may look like on the outside. Christian harmony is not based on the externals of the flesh but the internals and the eternals of the Spirit in the inner person. We must look beyond our physical characteristics, such as race, color, abilities, etc. – and build our fellowship on the essentials of our new birth in Jesus Christ.

Over the last few decades, the mainline Protestant denominations celebrated diversity. Unfortunately they got it backwards. They welcomed people’s different beliefs and then incorporated them into the church’s beliefs and values. It didn’t matter too much what you believed; all roads lead to heaven. Our Christian beliefs were watered down thinking that somehow that would unite us. They forgot that the only uniting force is the belief in Jesus Christ as our Lord and Saviour.

There was also the feminist movement, where the way to equality was the removal of any and all reference to men. Liturgy and hymnals were rewritten for this purpose. There were even some women clergy, even Bishops who refused to worship God the Father, God the Son, because of the male reference. Around the 1990’s some women clergy and even women Bishops chose to worship the goddess Sophia and nothing was done about it. This heresy is still going on today.

Grace Chapel in Lexington had a very successful men’s ministry. There were several men from our church that went to it. They often had over 700 men from around New England that attended the once-a-month meeting. They would start with fellowship and a lasagna dinner, followed by a speaker. Then the church hired a feminist, a male, and the ministry was shut down because it excluded women, yet all the women ministries (that exclude men) were allowed to continue.

Did these changes in the church unite the people or divide it? Did our churches experience growth or decline? Unfortunately our church leaders concentrated on the physical external elements of the person and forgot about the internal and eternal spiritual elements to unite us. United we stand, divided we fall.
We already possess His glory within, and one day we shall behold His glory in heaven (John 17:24). As we grow in the Lord, the glory within begins to grow and to reveal itself in what we say and do and the way we say and do it. People do not see and glorify us; they see the Lord and glorify Him (Matt. 5:16).

After His resurrection, Jesus remained on earth for forty days and ministered to His disciples. He had already opened their minds to understand the Old Testament message about Himself (Luke 24:44-48), but there were other lessons they needed to learn before they could launch out in their new ministry. Jesus appeared and disappeared during those forty days, and the believers never knew when He might show up. This is how it is today. We never know when our Lord will return. God has not revealed His timetable to us and it is futile for us to speculate. We need to be ready at all times.

Our Lord’ ascension into heaven was an important part of His ministry, for if He had not returned to the Father, he could not have sent the promised gift of the Holy Spirit (John 16:5-15). Also, in heaven today, the Saviour is our interceding High Priest, giving us the grace that we need for life and service (Heb. 4:14-16). He is also our Advocate before the Father, forgiving us when we confess our sins (1 John 1:9-2:2). The exalted and glorified head of the church is now working with His people on earth and helping them accomplish His purposes (Mark 16:19-20).

As the believers watched, as Jesus was being taken up to glory, two angels appeared and gently rebuked them. The two messengers gave the believers assurance that Jesus Christ would come again, just as He had been taken from them.

One of the things about the Christian faith that most impresses the world is the way Christians love each other and live together in harmony. What better example is there than the love that a mother has for her child. It is this witness that our Lord wants in the world “that the world may believe that Thou hast sent Me” (John 17:21). This is a very big responsibility. Because the world will hold us to this very high standard; but have a very low standard for themselves. The lost world cannot see God, but they see Christians; and what they see in us is what they will believe about God. If they see love and unity, they will believe that God is love. If they see hatred and division, they will reject the message of the Gospel.

There is every reason why believers should love one another and live in unity. We trust the same Saviour and share the same glory. We will one day enjoy the same heaven! We belong to the same Father and seek to do the same work, witnessing to a lost world that Jesus Christ alone saves from sin. We believe the same truth, even though we may have different views of minor doctrinal matters; and we follow the same example that Jesus set for His people, to live a holy life. Yes, believers do have their differences; but we have much more in common, and this should encourage us to love one another and promote true spiritual unity.

Jesus declared that many in the world do not know the Father and that is true today. But we believers know Him because the Son has revealed the Father to us. The world certainly has many opportunities to get to know the Father, but it prefers to go on in blindness, darkness and hardness of heart. Our task as Christians is to bear witness to the lost world and share God’s saving message.

He also declares the importance of truth and love in the church. Believers know God’s name (nature) and even share in that divine nature. Jesus makes it clear that truth and love must go together. It has well been said that truth without love is brutality, but love without truth is hypocrisy. The mind grows by taking in truth, but the heart grows by giving out in love. Knowledge alone can lead to pride (1 Cor. 8:1), and love alone can lead to wrong decisions.

“What must I do to be saved?” was the cry of the Roman prison guard who had the responsibility of St. Paul and Silas. Paul had saved a demonized girl who had made her masters wealthy by telling fortunes. The owners had no concern for the girl; they were interested only in the income she provided, and now that income was gone. So, the owners complained and had Paul and Silas arrested. Paul and Silas were stripped and beaten and put in prison.

Instead of complaining or calling on God to judge their enemies, the two men prayed and praised God. God responded by shaking the foundations of the prison, opening all the doors, and loosening the prisoners’ bonds. They could have fled to freedom, but instead they remained right where they were.

Paul’s attention was fixed on the jailer, the man he really wanted to win to Christ. It was Roman law that if a guard lost a prisoner, he was given the same punishment the prisoner would have received. As it turns out, it was the jailer who was actually the “prisoner” (to sin); not Paul; and Paul not only saved the man’s life, but pointed him to eternal life in Christ.

“What must I do to be saved?” is the cry of the lost people worldwide, and we had better be able to give them the right answer. The answer is faith in Jesus Christ! And Paul spoke the word of the Lord to the jailer and to all in his household. The jailer in turn washed Paul and Silas’ wounds and he and his household were baptized at once.

It is touching to see the change in the attitude of the jailer as he washed the wounds of these two prisoners who were now his brothers in Christ. One of the evidences of true repentance is a loving desire to make restitution and reparation wherever we have hurt others. We should not only wash one another’s feet, but we should also cleanse the wounds we have given to others.

In the Revelation to St. John, John assures us that Jesus Christ will return. God is mindful of our sufferings and our service, and nothing will ever be done in vain if it is done for Him. “Blessed are those who do His commandments, that they may have the right to the tree of life and that they may enter the city by the gates” (Rev. 22:14).
Those who accept His Word may enter; those who reject His Word are excluded. Obedience to God’s Word is a mark of true salvation.

The “morning star” announces dawn’s soon arrival. Jesus Christ will come for His church as “the Morning Star.” But when He returns to judge, it will be as “the Sun of righteousness” in burning fury (Mal. 4:1-3). Because God’s people look for their Lord’s return, they keep their lives clean and dedicated to Him (1 John 2:28-3:3).

Christ’s return has been “delayed” for some 2000 years! Yes, He has; and Peter tells us why: God wants to give this sinful world the opportunity to repent and be saved (2 Peter 3:1ff). In the meantime, the Spirit of God, through the church (the bride), calls for Jesus to come; for the bride to meet her bridegroom and enter into her home. “Even so, come, Lord Jesus” (Rev. 22:20).

It is up to believers to invite lost sinners to trust Christ and drink the water of life. Indeed, when the church lives in expectancy of Christ’s return, such an attitude provokes ministry and evangelism as well as purity of heart. We want to tell others of the grace of God. A true understanding of Bible prophecy should both motivate us to obey God’s Word and to share God’s invitation with a lost world.

After God’s beloved Son, Jesus Christ’s glorious resurrection, He appeared to His disciples; and in their sight ascended into heaven, to prepare a place for us; that where He is, there might we also be, to reign with Him in glory.

Shall we join John in the Bible’s last prayer? “Even so, come, Lord Jesus!”
Are we ready?

Let us pray:
O God, the King of glory, you have exalted your only Son Jesus Christ with great triumph to your kingdom in heaven: Do not leave us comfortless, but send us your Holy Spirit to strengthen us, and exalt us to that place where our Savior Christ has gone before; who lives and reigns with you, and the Holy Spirit, one God, in glory everlasting.
AMEN †

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>