Mid-Week Lenten Vespers, 2022
Pastor Gregory L. Jackson
This will be the RESI encoder tonight if all goes well.
The Hymn #523 Why Should Cross and Trial Grieve Me
The Order of Vespers
p. 41
The Psalmody
Psalm 24
p. 128
The Lections
The Passion History
The Sermon Hymn #345 Jesus Lover of My Soul
The Sermon – I AM the Bread of Life
The Prayers
The Lord’s Prayer
The Collect for
Grace
p. 45
The Hymn #554
Now Rest Beneath Night's Shadows
The Name of God is
unique and should fill us with wonder and praise. The thousands if not millions
of divine names in paganism are connected with animals and many kinds of gross,
human references. I AM is all-encompassing and puts to shame all the local gods
and goddesses. This Name unites the Old and New Testaments because Jesus
Himself employed it in His Gospel of John sermons. Unworthy scholars would make
Jesus in the Fourth Gospel to be Gnostic – occultic – and not Jewish. Nothing
is truer to Israel than Jesus as the human face of God, using His Name again from
the Burning Bush – I AM.
John was the disciple Jesus loved. He was present at the
cross, when he was given the honor of taking care of Mary, the mother of Jesus.
He was one of the first the empty tomb, and the risen Christ came to him and
the disciples while they were fishing, providing a cooked meal before they
could bring their catch ashore.
The hot air merchants of rationalism have much to say
about the Four Gospels, mostly wrong. One thing is very clear – the Fourth
Gospel is the capstone of the Gospels. John’s Gospel completes and comments
upon the events we know from Matthew, Mark, and Luke. The Fourth Gospel also preserves
unique sermons and narratives, and reveals the public ministry of Christ as
three years with the disciples.
Those who want to understand the Torah, the Five Books of
Moses, whether they are Jews, Christians, or non-aligned, should study the Gospel
of John. The Fourth Gospel is a commentary on the Books of Moses, revealing to
us that many unusual stories from that era foreshadowed the Christ of the New
Testament. By reading and meditating on John, we see the Christian Faith in Moses,
and by reading the Torah again, we understand how God fashioned the future to
fulfill the Promises of the past.
Chapter
6 of John’s Gospel is rich with lessons, starting with the feeding of the
multitude, followed by Jesus coming to the disciples as they were dealing with
a great windstorm at night on the sea.
KJV
John 6: 19
So when they had rowed about five and twenty or thirty furlongs, they see Jesus
walking on the sea, and drawing nigh unto the ship: and they were afraid. 20
But he saith unto them, “It is I; be not afraid.” εγω ειμι μη φοβεισθε – Literally
– I AM, do not be afraid.
Some would take issue
with that, but the disciples, knowing Greek, also knew the language of Exodus
3, when the Angel of the Lord named Himself as I AM, εγω ειμι. Who but the Word
incarnate could walk on water?
People came looking for Jesus, after the great miracle of
healing, and He challenged them about their motives, which anticipated the last
few decades of the Gospel bringing material success instead of the cross. After
this miracle, the people wanted even more, so Jesus questioned their motives.
KJV
John 6: 26
Jesus answered them and said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Ye seek me, not
because ye saw the miracles, but because ye did eat of the loaves, and were
filled. 27 Labour not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which
endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of man shall give unto you: for
him hath God the Father sealed. 28 Then said they unto him, What shall we do,
that we might work the works of God? 29 Jesus answered and said unto them, This
is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent.
This is a fine example
of Jesus teaching something that would have enormous importance if it were not
ignored. How do we work the works of God? On the Roman Catholic side, there is
a long list of works, including praying for the dead to stay a shorter time in
Purgatory. Money given to the priest helps too. That is a “reparation offering,”
meaning literally in Latin that they are paying for sins – reparations. But
this also addresses the limit of works.
The work of God is to believe on Him He has sent – Jesus Christ,
the Son of God. The Midwestern Objective Justification scheme has clergy wildly
and dramatically saying, “You are making faith a WORK!” The Bible does not
speak about works on their own but the works which are the fruit of Gospel
faith. This faith does not happen as a decision or an effort of intelligence
but develops from the Spirit conveying Jesus to the individual. What is spoken
is heard and understood, even by babies. Anyone can see that when the baby moves
his head to hear his mother’s voice and cries when seeing a stranger the first
time. When nurses tried to teach Jesus to Erin, her response (without words)
was, “I know Him.” She was baptized and brought into the Kingdom of God as a
tiny baby.
In viewing this accusation of faith being a WORK – that is
exactly what Jesus said, and it is sad that clergy do not know or believe that.
The effective Work works on those who have been taught error. It is not the
speaker but the Word that converts.
The Gospel of John especially emphasizes faith in Jesus
Christ as the One who teaches His Father’s teacher and does His Father’s will. Faith
– as trust in the Savior – is powerful because it gives us access to God’s
grace through faith in Him. (Romans 5:2) Those who oppose this are against the
Fourth Gospel and the Apostle Paul. Faith in Him must be first or else human
solutions and attitudes will prevail with bad consequences. The religious
opponents then, like those today, knew the truth enough to hate it and remove
it, any way possible.
The curious then said to Jesus – show us a miracle
(literally a sign, which meant much more then than our watered-down idea – “I
saw… it was a sign from heaven.” These signs in John are divine miracles to be
seen and experienced, not a daydream. They went on to brag about Moses providing
bread in the desert (Exodus again). “What can you do?”
KJV
John 6:31 Our fathers did eat manna in the desert; as it is written, He gave
them bread from heaven to eat. 32 Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I
say unto you, Moses gave you not that bread from heaven; but my Father giveth
you the true bread from heaven. 33 For the bread of God is he which cometh down
from heaven, and giveth life unto the world. 34 Then said they unto him, Lord,
evermore give us this bread. 35 And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of
life:
εγω ειμι ο αρτος της ζωης
he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall
never thirst. 36 But I said unto you, That ye also have seen me, and believe
not.
I
AM the Bread of Life:
he
that cometh to me shall never hunger;
and
he that believeth on me shall never thirst.
Our tendency is to focus
on the bread of life. Since this is about His divinity, I AM is more appropriate
for emphasizing the meaning of the Bread of Life. One of the Beatitudes is – He
who hungers and thirsts for righteousness shall be satisfied. Faith in Him
means that hunger and thirst will be satisfied, just as food and water take
care of us when we are faint with hunger and dehydrated.
This is the dramatic difference between the opponents
dealing with material things and relying only on their reason and senses. What
Jesus teaches is intangible and eternal.
