The
Rev’d Stephen E. Stults
St. Paul’s Anglican Church
Easter
I
April 24, 2022
1 John 5:4: “For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.”
John
the beloved Disciple begins our Epistle selection for the day with a strong
statement of victory and achievement. It
is fitting that he should say so in this blessed season of Easter, for this is
the time of Christ’s exultation over death, despair and perdition.
In bold
and stirring words, John says we who believe in the Son of God can overcome the
world. In fact, in Christ, we the church
through faith have overcome the world.
Yet, for many of us, it may be a gradual realization of our
victory. In my own case, I have heard
all my life of the Christian victory over death. As a child, I simply accepted it, not really
grasping its implications. As a
teenager, during my first flush of conversion, I took it to heart more
seriously. At an EYC meeting at our
church in Hendersonville, TN, we were reading the First Letter of John. Chapter
Four, where it says, “(1 John 4:18-20) 18 “There is no fear in
love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that
feareth is not made perfect in love. 19
We love him, because he first loved us. 20
If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that
loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not
seen?”
This was, I believe, my first experience of a tangible
touch of the Holy Ghost. Did I break out
into tongues? No. I did not. I did,
however, have a wave of emotion that I had never had before. Even at the tender age of 15, I knew it was not
of this world. It was the touch of God.
This led to an interesting period of my life where I
sought to “be led of the Spirit” in all things that I sought to do. I didn’t
want to do this halfway. Perhaps this is good and praiseworthy, but it can lead
to some spiritual schizophrenia. For example, I even sought the Spirit in what
outfits I should wear for school! This
went on until I got a bit more mature understanding of what being led by the
Spirit meant. Although I will never
criticize anyone for their level of guidance sought from the Holy Ghost, I did
come to realize that in some things it is OK to trust our own judgement.
There is one area in which all of us need and should
crave the Holy Spirit’s guidance and direction.
It is a recurring theme in St. John’s letters, especially in the first
one. Simply put, it is this: we should
love one another. We, as Christians,
should love one another. We should prove to the World that we are Christians by
our love. This has always been
difficult. Watching some historical
Biblical dramas recently, I pondered just how brutal the ancient world really was. It was simple: might made right, period. “Flexibility” was not a frequently used
word. Rules were rules, not made to be
broken. Peoples were conquered, populations
enslaved, and the victors were enriched by it.
How massively Christianity changed this outlook! Into the
brutal, unyielding Roman occupation of Palestine came Jesus Christ. He didn’t subjugate; he salved the hurts of
mankind by healing many. He did not seek
to enslave, but rather to set free those held by Satanic bondage. He didn’t hate or hurl epithets at his
adversaries, but spoke words of love, combined with acts of mercy. Yes, no doubt mercy existed in the ancient
world, but it was few and far between the common acts of violence and rigid
applications of justice prescribed by the authorities.
Certainly, there were some humane conditions codified
into law that benefitted those fortunate enough to be Roman citizens. For example, St. Paul himself was given the citizen’s
right to a quick death by beheading, rather than linger on a cross praying for
death or being used as a plaything for lions in the Colliseum at Rome.
Jesus changed things.
He demonstrated, in his own body, the love that all of us should give to
one another. How? To a pagan, Christ’s death was senseless. Perhaps it had value to show how one good man
would die for many, recalling the High Priest Annas’ statement that it was better
for one man to die rather than the entire nation. Other than that, its value to the unredeemed
is limited.
Yet, to us, and to all who accept Christ’s death as a
personal ransom for their individual souls, His love for us cannot be numbered
or measured. As bizarre as it sounds to the unredeemed ear, that limitless love
was demonstrated by a bloody, painful sacrifice. Only Christ could pay the bill for the debt
that we, mankind, accumulated. This is
love at its fullest.
We Christians cannot let it stop there, however. Our job is to demonstrate Christ’s love to us
by loving each other and the world.
First, we love one another and expend ourselves for each other. Then, as difficult as it is, we love the
world through Christ. We do not love the
World by accepting and sanctioning its sinfulness, no. Instead, we pray for it and for ourselves to
be converted into sons and daughters of God. In this sense, we will overcome
the world.
What? On
the surface it seems that any overcoming or conversion is unlikely when one
surveys the state of the world around us.
Consider all those who are persecuted for the faith. Although we are still
free in this country from persecution, in many places it is not so. In China, in the Middle East, and in parts of
Africa, persecution is real and active.
There are people, even today, who are suffering and dying for their
faith in Christ.
One
might be tempted to look upon these martyrs and say, “Convert and overcome the
World? Rather the world has overcome
them…” This would be the obvious
conclusion to our survey. It would also be patently wrong.
As
faithful disciples, those suffering for the faith, through faith will be
glorified like their Master. They will
experience the glorious overcoming of the world, just as Christ did. They may
be cast down for a while, as was Christ, but their glory will forever outshine
the malignancy of evil. They will
overcome the world through faith.
When we see the hardships of the Church in the World, we
ponder St. Paul’s words in First Cor. 1:26: (1 Corinthians 1:26): For you see your
calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty,
not many noble, are called.”
St. Paul was referring to the
origins of the early Church. It grew, not from an endorsement from the rich and
powerful, but rather despite indifference
from them. This changed into an active
persecution of Christianity by the time of the Emperor Diocletian. Again, how can it be that we Christians
overcome the world, especially when we consider what our Lord Himself said in
Luke 16:8: “for the children of this world are in their
generation wiser than the children of light.”
John answers this when he
says, “5 And who is he that overcometh the world, but he that
believeth that Jesus is the Son of God? In
accepting this, many Christians have “confessed that they were strangers and
pilgrims on the earth.”[1]
We honor the Earth and our earthly
existence as good and holy things, but they are not ultimate. Earthly life should not hold complete sway
over us. We note its glitter and illusions,
yet we are above them.
The Apostle John reinforces our
faith that Christ is the One that Overcame as he presents Christ’s “credentials.”[2]
That is, there are witnesses to Christ’s existence, His glory and his Victory.
First, there is the Spirit of God,
who bears witness to Christ constantly in our hearts, through our worship and reception
of the Blessed Sacrament, and through our reading of the Word of God. All this comes through grace by the Holy
Spirit. He is truth.
Continuing, John tells us: “7
For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the
Holy Ghost: and these three are one.”
Only in the Gospel and writings of John is Christ constantly referred to
as “the Word”. The most familiar reference being in John 1:1, where we read: “In
the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” The Divine Son of God in the Glory that he had
before the Worlds, certainly bears witness to his human nature, as well as his
divine nature. We know that the Father
bore witness to His Son directly, first at his Baptism, when God the Father
spoke: “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” The Father spoke again at the
Transfiguration, when Jesus spoke with Moses and Elijah, becoming glistening
white. He said, (Luke
The importance of this Scripture
cannot be understated: it is proof text for the Holy Trinity: God the Father,
God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost.
Just as these three bear witness to Christ, they witness to us about the
nature of God. He is One God in Three
Persons, not three Gods, three Fathers, three Sons or three Spirits. These
three Persons bear witness to Christ.
John echoes this, as he says, “And
there are three that bear witness in earth, the Spirit, and the water, and the
blood: and these three agree in one”. Thus,
we have a wonderful parallel of witness, both in heaven and on earth to
Christ.
The witness of men is important, but
the witness of God is greater. When we
see the Scriptures through new, spiritual eyes and see the overwhelming
evidence for the work of Jesus Christ, we receive the witness in ourselves. Thus,
we have witness that Jesus Christ is Lord.
To God’s eternal glory, we can only confess that Jesus is Lord by the
power of the Holy Spirit. If we have the grace to confess this, it is well with
us. We are beginning to overcome the world.
The record God has given us is quite
simple: it is the sum of the Gospel: “And this is the record that God hath
given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. 2 He who has
the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.”
We give thanks to God that He has
seen fit to call us into the fellowship of His Son… We give thanks that we,
through Christ, have overcome the World. AMEN
7 “For there are three that bear record in heaven, the
Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one.”
