Hey Alexa, Where is Jesus? The Word

A bunch of Impostors

There was a story a couple of weeks ago out of London. A priest showed up at the British Army barracks right next to Windsor Castle, the home of Queen Elizabeth. After identifying himself as a friend of the priest stationed at the barracks, he was welcomed to dinner and drinks where he spent the evening talking about his own military exploits. He was offered a bed and spent the night and then the next morning was promptly arrested. Apparently this man was not a priest, simply an impostor looking for a good time… and what tipped off the soldiers something might be amiss is that during the evening he had claimed to be have been a military ejection seat test pilot. The man did not belong. He was an impostor.

Spotting impostors has become increasing difficult thanks to technology. There are websites dedicated to creating virtually fool-proof Fake IDs for teenagers who hope to imbibe in forbidden activities… all for the price of $100 or more. We now have a scientific term for those who feel as though they are not as smart or accomplished as other people thing they are: impostor syndrome is the feeling that you don’t belong because you don’t really measure up to the way people talk about you or the expectations they have of you.

This is just the personal stuff. Add in all the Fake News being cranked on by conservative and liberal media and you get the sense that it’s impossible to know what is true anymore. Increased feelings of isolation and loneliness contribute to a sense a global impostor syndrome: we aren’t sure of anything anymore. We aren’t sure if we belong anymore. How do we know the next guy talking to us in the barracks isn’t a priest? And how do we know we aren’t the impostor?

How do you know you belong to Jesus?

Which brings us to the question of this morning: How do you know that you belong to Jesus? How can you be certain that you are God’s child?

We’ve spent the past few weeks in our series asking the question: Hey Alexa, where is Jesus? And we’ve answered this question a couple of different ways so far: baptism and the Lord’s Supper. The Sacraments. We’re going to spend the next couple of weeks asking the question behind the question: How do we know that Jesus can be found in baptism and the Lord’s Supper? And how can we be certain that Jesus is doing in baptism and in the Supper what he says he will do?

All these questions. We’ll start with where we tend to answer these questions, being good American Christians. There are two ways we’ve been told that it’s possible to be certain that we are going to heaven when we die. And I’ll say right up front that I almost never talk about our salvation in terms of going to heaven when we die because 1) the point about salvation is not heaven, the point is Jesus and 2) our ultimate landing place is the new heavens and new earth, which is a bit different than the way heaven is typically explained.

How do we think we know?

But we’re not going to talk about that this morning. Anyhow… the first way we know we’re going to heaven is

Works

Feelings

Decisions

works. Our good works prove that we are saved. Our good works prove that we know Jesus. The problem with that being our certainty… where is the emphasis? Can I be trusted? Can my works be trusted? No. They can’t be trusted to tell me whether or not I belong to Jesus. If my works are the barometer… all of those same works can be done by an atheist. Or a Muslim. My works are no better than their works. The works are the same. They can’t be proof.

feelings. Our feelings prove that we are saved. Especially feelings as we worship. Just like good works, there’s nothing wrong with feelings. But like good works, what happens when these things go missing? What happens when the elated feeling you felt in worship goes away? How do you know you can trust your feelings?

decisions. This is the biggie. My decision. That day that I chose Jesus. I point to that and I say, yes, I’m in. I know I belong. That’s my ID card. It proves I belong. I said the sinner’s prayer, I raised my hand, I chose Jesus. All of my assurance of salvation comes from that decision I made in order to get saved.

That sounds biblical. But at the end of the day… where’s the focus? Me. My decision. Thank my lucky stars I decided to say the magical words in the sinner’s prayer.

We cannot trust our feelings or our good works or our decisions. Again… who is the point of all of it? What’s the reference point for all of it? That’s the critical question here. What do all of those we’ve listed have in common? They all start with “me”. We are taught to trust ourselves. We are the center of our base of knowledge. Our experience and our feelings and our decisions become the center for our entire existence.

We do this with Jesus. Our focus is turned in on ourselves. We are taught to do this. So we use the Bible to attempt to create all sorts of standards to live by. We come up with Bible-based checklists. We measure our decisions, our works and our feelings by the checklist. And if the checklist all checks out, hey… we’re good with God, we’re headed to heaven. But we are not trust worthy. On the best day, the Bible says, the best we can muster is just nothing but a bunch of dirty rags.

You know how we know? You know how we belong? You know how we know we are not impostors?

The Word

We read it moments ago. It’s really very, very simple:

The Word. The Word. Jesus himself and the Word he gives. But it’s not the Word that we manipulate into giving us behavior checklists that somehow tell us we are good with God. We’re going to use a different kind of checklist that doesn’t involve us. That doesn’t center itself on what we “do”.

We know that we belong to God because of what the Word is doing to us. How does the Word come to us, then?

God’s Word comes to us through:

Jesus

The Bible

Preaching

The Sacraments

Look, John is talking to people who want to be sure that they belong. That they are in. At the very end of his book, he writes this:

John 20:31 “But these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.”

These are written so that you would believe that Jesus is the Messiah and by believing have life. So that you would believe. And just who is that Messiah? John says it at the very beginning of his biography of Jesus:

John 1:1 “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”

You want to know where this eternal life is? You want to know how to find your Savior? The Word. The Word that spoke all things into existence at the very beginning of time. The Word has spoken life to all of creation. The Word speaks life into you.

And that Word is as certain as the grass and the sky and the wind we feel right now. Here’s why:

John 1:14 “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.”

That Word took on flesh. It’s not an impersonal Word. That Word that spoke all of creation into existence is the Word who became one of us. Jesus.

How do you know you’re in? Jesus says you’re in. Jesus promises you life. Jesus gives you life. He’s the Creator of the Universe with his Word. That same Word says “you’re mine, I have you.” That Word is the Truth. He can be trusted.

This makes us very, very uncomfortable. You know why we like making our works, or our decision, or even our feelings the basis for our certainty? Because we get to be in control. The moment we say that The Word is where our certainty lies, well then, we’re no longer in control. Our certainty comes from outside of ourselves, because we are sinners and we can’t be trusted. We cannot save ourselves. We admit that. But if we cannot save ourselves, we can’t do anything to make ourselves certain. That comes from somewhere or someplace else. The Word.

Not only does God’s Word come to us in Jesus the divine human, it comes to us through the Bible.

The Bible is a book. The Bible is ink and paper.

The Bible isn’t just another book. The Bible has power.

The Bible, in many respects is like other books. It has human authors. It is written on ink and paper. A lot of the stuff written here is in the form of letters. Some of it is music and poetry. One of the fascinating differences about the Bible from other religious texts that are important to some religious groups is that the Bible is human. It was not given in a manner in which a guy had a dream and was told to write… we have one book that was like this, the book of Revelation. Everything else was written to address real world problems.

But the Bible isn’t just like another book. The Bible is divine. God did author the Bible through human authors. Much like Jesus becoming flesh… one hundred percent God. One hundred percent man. And the Bible has power. Power to save. Power to change lives. Power to forgive. Power to give peace and rest. We see this most when Jesus is on the earth. Here’s how one author writes it:

Hebrews 4:12 “For the word of God is living and effective.”

The Word of God is both living and effect. The Word is living because Jesus, the Word is alive and speaking. And it is effective. This means the actual speech of the Word causes life to come into existence. Numerous instances of this are in the Bible:

Let there be light.

Rise and walk.

Waves, be still.

These are all instances in which Jesus, the Word, spoke, and caused life or healing or action. The Word is effective. So much so, it’s fascinating that when Jesus has a conversation with the devil, the devil tempts Jesus by saying “command these stones to be bread”. Satan knew that Jesus has the power to speak with his Word to change, to heal, to make alive. Of course, Jesus didn’t. But it’s interesting. But the most important power Jesus has when it comes to his voice and his speech, His Word, is to save us. To forgive us. The great missionary Paul says this:

Romans 1:16 “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes.”

The Word saves us. The gospel, the Word is the power of God for salvation. The Word itself saves us. Just as the Word breathed life into the first human being, Adam, so the Word breathes life into us. The Gospel, The Word of the Gospel is God’s power to save. Jesus says “believe” and we “believe”. This Bible I’m holding is where the power is to save you. Not a work you do. Not a decision you make. God’s Word. And where does this faith come from to believe?

God’s Word comes to us through Preaching. Paul, writing to the same church about the power of the Word as it comes to us as a Promise in the gospel… says this:

Romans 10:17 “So faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes through the message about Christ.”

This is why we have a Bible talk every week. Jesus promises to be with us and among us as His Word, as He is preached. These Bible talks aren’t meant to be a pep talk. I know that’s a popular way of thinking about preaching. We don’t do that here. The Bible tells us that the Word gives life. The Word, the Promise, the Gospel, gives salvation. The Word gives forgiveness. We’re here to receive forgiveness from the Word. We’re here to receive salvation from the Word. We’re here for Jesus to change our lives, not using the commands… commands don’t give life. Jesus’ word of Promise in the Gospel, his promise to save, to forgive, to give life because of His death on the cross.. that’s the power of the gospel. It’s why we spend time every week hearing from His Word. We spending time reading His Word and preaching his Word because his Word is power of God unto salvation.

You want assurance? The Word. You want to know if you’re in? God’s Word. You want to know if Jesus loves you? His Word. This happens in the Word because Jesus became flesh. God took on blood and flesh and bones and lived here on earth so that He could speak salvation to our ears. Forgiveness comes from preaching this Word because this Word is both human and divine. Jesus is both human and divine. He uses words to save, words that go in the ear and into the heart where it creates faith in us. Telling the waves to be still? Telling someone to rise and walk? That’s nothing compared to the forgiveness that Jesus speaks into your ears week in and week out.

This becomes even more important for us when we consider what happened this week to our neighbors about 300 miles north of here. You could feel it last night at the stadium where they were holding graduation ceremonies. I’m sure the same was true at all the other graduation ceremonies this weekend here in the valley. Jesus, the Word, also speaks comfort and performs comfort through his word. How do we make sense of the world? Where is the hope in the midst of grief, anger, and pain? How do we calm our own anxiety and fear? How do we address a broken society? Jesus, the Word, speaks grace and forgiveness through His Word. There is a big temptation, in our increasingly polarized culture, to use the Bible as a weapon… using the Bible as rules, using the Bible as law to get people to behave the way we want them to behave. But that kind of use of the Word is not where the hope is. That can’t begin to cure the first problem. The only hope we have is for Jesus to speak grace and forgiveness and life and salvation to us and into us through His Word. That’s where the help is. That’s where the hope is. That’s where the comfort is for our anxiety. That’s where the peace is for our grief and anger. Jesus meets us in His Word where he tells us again that we are His, and our destinies are safe with him.

No need to feel like an impostor. There’s nothing fake about the Words of life and salvation and forgiveness. You know you are God’s child because not only does Jesus tell you that you’re God’s child, Jesus has spoken the Word to you to make it so. He created you. He continues to create when he makes you God’s child. His Words of Promise. That’s your assurance. Jesus is as good as His Word. He is as certain as His Word. Jesus has you. Hey Alexa, Where is Jesus? Jesus is in His Word because He is the Word.

Let’s Pray.

This table is God’s word to you this morning. This table has forgiveness because Jesus says this is His forgiveness for you.