Mid-Week Lenten Vespers, 2022
Pastor Gregory L. Jackson
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The Hymn # 240
Father Most Holy
The Order of Vespers
p. 41
The
Psalmody
Psalm
14
p. 124
The Lection
The Sermon Hymn #179 On My Heart
I AM the One Witnessing about Myself
The Prayers and Lord’s
Prayer
p. 44
The Collect for Peace
p. 45
The Benediction
p. 45
The Hymn # 558
All Praise to Thee
In
Our Prayers
I AM One that bear Witness
of Myself
18 εγω ειμι ο μαρτυρων περι εμαυτου και μαρτυρει περι εμου ο
πεμψας με πατηρ
KJV John 8:13 The
Pharisees therefore said unto him, Thou bearest record of thyself; thy record
is not true. 14 Jesus answered and said unto them, Though I bear record of
myself, yet my record is true: for I know whence I came, and whither I go; but
ye cannot tell whence I come, and whither I go. 15 Ye judge after the flesh; I
judge no man. 16 And yet if I judge, my judgment is true: for I am not alone,
but I and the Father that sent me. 17 It is also written in your law, that the
testimony of two men is true. 18 I AM one that bear witness of myself, and
the Father that sent me beareth witness of me. 19 Then said they unto him,
Where is thy Father? Jesus answered, Ye neither know me, nor my Father: if ye
had known me, ye should have known my Father also. 20 These words spake Jesus
in the treasury, as he taught in the temple: and no man laid hands on him; for
his hour was not yet come.
This chapter of
John’s Gospel is often given a lot of attention at the beginning, because the
much later, dubious codices did not have the story of the adulterous woman. The
ending is quite dramatic, with the ultimate declaration, Before Abraham was, I
AM.”
In between are
two important declarations of divinity – “I AM the Light of the World,” (8:12)
and this one.
18 I AM one that
bear witness of myself, and the Father that sent me beareth witness of me.
This is a message about the Holy Trinity, which is abhorrent
to the rationalists and apostates. They not only teach the humanity of Jesus
without the divinity, but also reject the Trinity and scoff at it. As Jesus
said so many times, the Word blinds and deafens the people who resist and
reject the truth.
That is also why the Fourth Gospel
is so comforting. Where there could be doubt or puzzlement, John’s Gospel
reveals the important points that unify and clarify the message of all four Gospels
and the Apostle Paul’s message, plus the other apostolic witnesses. John’s
Gospel is easy reading because the vocabulary and words are simple. It can be
easily translated into any language. As one of our editors said, “I think God
planned it that way.”
Yes, the Trinity is a difficult
topic to teach and discuss, because – like the other mysteries – is apprehended
only through faith. Those children are blessed when they are baptized and
taught gradually the meaning of these mysteries:
·
The Trinity
·
The divinity and
human nature of Jesus Christ
·
Miracles
performed by Jesus
·
The cross
·
The Resurrection
and Ascension of Jesus
This language of
the Son and the Father witnessing together is another example of enraging the
opponents. Immediately they begin to ask about His father, lower case, because
they want to undermine Jesus.
If a man heals the sick and raises
the dead, performing other miracles as well, the issue is not His power but
what the establishment is going to do about that. We have seen a similar
reaction to a good leader who improved many things as once, kept the world
peaceful, and went after world-network crimes like child trafficking. Somehow
that was all evil while a blustering Altzheimer’s patient is a fine president.
I have seen this many times, when
something should be taught, there are angry outcries and personal attacks to
change the subject. This will continue, but the Gospel Word breaks through.
Every time we understand a Biblical concept better, it enlightens us about so
many more.
Just as many neglect or deny the
divinity of Christ, so they also neglect or deny the work of the Holy Spirit.
People comment on how the religious of today give no credit to the always
powerful and effective Spirit at work in the Word (preaching, teaching, and the
Means of Grace). The Spirit is a witness too in this John 8 dialogue. The
Spirit directed the Apostles to write down what happened, as Jesus predicted.
All things would be remembered. And where is that? – in the latter part of John’s
Gospel.
A simple way of teaching the Trinity
is to say – the unity of the Three, the three-ness of the One. St. Patrick is
credited with teaching the Trinity with the clover, since there are three
leaves, but one clover.
When any aspect of the Trinity is
slighted or removed, the entire nature of the mystery, the Biblical doctrine,
is lost. And that is what the apostates want. What they cannot have – faith –
is to be filtered into believing hearts so the faithful become faithless.
George Barna, the PR guy for Fuller
Seminary and others, has released a poll saying only 40% of parents teach their
children about God. (Public polls are bought for a reason, to create opinion. Private
polls with the facts are kept secret.) Although I think it is an attempt to
increase enrollment at Fuller Seminary, there could be truth to these so-called
facts. How could there be parents teaching children about faith in God if the
clergy are faithless themselves. That is not only clear in the mainline
denominations of the National Council of Churches (the same ones who own the
RSV and ESV paraphrases) but also in the “conservative” groups where the clergy
and professors are infected with the same rationalism and apostasy.
What is simple to teach and believe
in the Gospel of John is too difficult and opaque for the clergy and seminary
professors. We deal with the older Lutheran writers all the time and with the
change in Bibles. There is a chasm between one age, which began in the 1800s
and now, where we think we know so much.
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