Bishop Ogles’
Sermon
The Fifth Sunday in Lent, commonly called
Passion Sunday.
The
Collect.
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E beseech
thee, Almighty God, mercifully to look upon thy people; that by thy great
goodness they may be governed and preserved evermore, both in body and soul;
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
And due to the rubric, the Collect for the Day is
followed by the Collect for Ash Wednesday, which is found on Page 124:
The first day of Lent, commonly called
Ash Wednesday.
Ash Wednesday.
The
Collect.
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LMIGHTY and
everlasting God, who hatest nothing that thou hast made, and dost forgive the
sins of all those who are penitent; Create and make in us new and contrite
hearts, that we, worthily lamenting our sins and acknowledging our
wretchedness, may obtain of thee, the God of all mercy, perfect remission and
forgiveness; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
¶ This Collect is to be said every day in Lent, after the
Collect appointed for the day, until Palm Sunday.
The Gospel
John 8:46-59
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esus said, Which of you convinceth me of
sin? And if I say the truth, why do ye not believe me? 47 He that is of God heareth
God's words: ye therefore hear them not, because ye are not of God. 48 Then answered the Jews, and said unto him,
Say we not well that thou art a Samaritan, and hast a devil? 49 Jesus answered, I
have not a devil; but I honour my Father, and ye do dishonour me. 50 And I seek not mine own glory:
there is one that seeketh and judgeth. 51 Verily, verily, I say unto you,
If a man keep my saying, he shall never see death. 52 Then said the Jews unto him, Now we know
that thou hast a devil. Abraham is dead, and the prophets; and thou sayest, If
a man keep my saying, he shall never taste of death. 53 Art thou greater than our father Abraham,
which is dead? and the prophets are dead: whom makest thou thyself? 54 Jesus answered, If
I honour myself, my honour is nothing: it is my Father that honoureth me; of
whom ye say, that he is your God: 55 Yet ye have not known him; but
I know him: and if I should say, I know him not, I shall be a liar like unto
you: but I know him, and keep his saying. 56 Your father Abraham rejoiced
to see my day: and he saw it, and was glad. 57 Then said the Jews unto him, Thou art not
yet fifty years old, and hast thou seen Abraham? 58 Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am.
59 Then
took they up stones to cast at him: but Jesus hid himself, and went out of the
temple, going through the midst of them, and so passed by.
In this text, Jesus is speaking to the religious leaders of old Israel. The
episode ends with these same leaders taking up stones to kill the Son of God.
Make no mistake - were our Lord to come to the mainline churches of our day in
like manner, the response would differ not in the least.
God speaks to His own, and His own hear His Voice. If we are born of God, we
shall surely enjoy His counsel and comfort. When God’s Word is proclaimed with
power and conviction, no argument can stand against it. Since the enemies of
God cannot brook the preaching of the Word, and cannot refute it, the weapon of
choice is to attack the messenger. Their great problem in attacking Christ is
not only the fact that He is the Messenger, but also the Message. How often
have we seen their futile attempts to trap Him in His Words redound to their
detriment? Even the Church has often struggle with faith. The Church of the
modern era no longer struggles with faith – they have lost it! Can it be true
that those who believe upon the Lord Jesus Christ shall never see death? If we
believe God, we will believe all that He has told us. Every material entity in
a material world must fade away and die, but those who are born of the Spirit
in Christ have spirits that shall never perish in death or Hell. What is it
that makes a man own a reputation of character and strength? It is not his own
boasting of himself for reputations are established by more than mere words –
it is the testimony of others who know the man and his life that establishes
strong reputation and character. Christ did not testify of Himself because His
Father in Heaven had already given, and was giving, a Holy Testimony and
Revelation of His Son. When we are under God’s care and protection, the most
violent of criminals cannot lay hands on us without the Father’s permit.
46 Which of you convinceth
me of sin? And if I say the truth, why do ye not believe me? Has any man present brought charges against
Christ? How often did they tempt Him to make a misstep, but He always turned
the tables on clerical rascals every bit as greedy in nature and egregious in
false teaching as those modern day wonders who populate pulpits across America
in our own day. Even when He proved to them their error, they never turned from
it. To be honest, they could not turn, for they were of their children the
devil.
47 He that is of God
heareth God's words: ye therefore hear them not, because ye are not of God. I never heard the counsel of another father
and mother in my own home though it was given in every home in my neighborhood.
I heard only the counsel of my own God-given parents. If we are
sheep of our Special Shepherd, we may even hear the mumblings of other
shepherds with other flocks, but is the Voice of our own shepherd that we hear
and follow. It is a fact that wolves will not hear the gentle commands of the
Good Shepherd. It is not their intent to hear, but to tear and destroy the
sheep. They do not hear and follow because it is not in their nature to hear
and follow.
48 Then answered the Jews, and said unto him, Say
we not well that thou art a Samaritan, and hast a devil? Since
Christ has truly identified these culprits as not true members of the family of
God, they return to their old, trite argument of bloodlines. They call Christ a
Samaritan (which they do not consider members of Israel). Suddenly, just by
merely speaking words of reason and logic – and doing or saying nothing vile –
Christ is labelled as having a devil! Need I remind you that rulers of the Jews
have committed blasphemy and, this, not the first time?
49 Jesus answered, I
have not a devil; but I honour my Father, and ye do dishonour me. Christ has accused these men of nothing that
is not an absolute of the Holy Scriptures. Since Christ honors the Word of God
the Father, and these men do not, which of the two have a devil? The Pharisees
and Jews refuted, in custom, tradition, and action, the Word of God. They
dishonor God thereby and even so His Son.
50 And I seek not mine
own glory: there is one that seeketh and judgeth. Christ came to redeem and not to judge. The
judgment has already been made by God’s Holy Word. It is by the standard of
that Word that men are judged. If we are IN Christ, we are not under the terms
of the Law and condemnation. But these men were far from the gates of the Holy
City of God. Their deeds would judge them by that perfect standard of the Law.
If we judge sin around us by God's Law, and not our own opinion, then it is
that Law of God that judges and not us.
51 Verily, verily, I
say unto you, If a man keep my saying, he shall never see death.
This solution is too simple – too plain bread – for the sophisticated oracles
of Judaism. How short a stride from hate and condemnation to freedom and
liberty in Christ, but East is East and West is West and never the twain shall
meet:
Oh, East is East,
and West is West, and never
the twain shall meet,
Till
Earth and Sky
stand presently at God's
great Judgment Seat.
Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936)
“In Christ all shall be made alive; but that the depth and extent of the
Scriptural term life can never be limited to the mere revival of the soul from
death or unconsciousness seems obvious on the most cursory inspection of the
sacred volume. So far is mere immortality from answering to this gift of life,
that there is a species of immortality to which the title of death,
"eternal death," and the "second death" is given. It
appears hence that this life, as well as the death spoken of in the text, is
essentially a moral, not a merely physical, state or notion; that it is a
blessed and spiritual vitality. To express His highest spiritual bestowments no
term is more frequently employed by our blessed Lord than "light."
Now, this light is itself perpetually connected with His descriptions or
intimations of the life He was to bestow. My
followers shall have the 'light of life, He declares to the
Pharisees; while the shadow of death is, as you know, the constant type of a
state of hopeless spiritual ruin to those who do not know Christ and understand
that shadow to have no power over them.”
Rev VM Taylor
Peter the Apostle
52 Then said the Jews unto him, Now we know that
thou hast a devil. Abraham is dead, and the prophets; and thou sayest, If a man
keep my saying, he shall never taste of death. They are actually
accusing Jesus of denying that Abraham followed God. They know that there is a
grave in Machpelah that contains the bones of Abraham. Their dim wits, lighted
by darkness only, cannot comprehend (or refuse to) the words of Christ. All
they know and understand is the “here and now”. An eternal Heaven escapes their
imagination. They may make allusions to that Heaven, just as false professor of
our own time do, but they do not believe that any “sophisticated and educated”
marvel could ever seriously believe it - just like most modern false teachers.
53 Art thou greater than our father Abraham, which
is dead? and the prophets are dead: whom makest thou thyself? They
know DEATH, but they do not know LIFE! Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the
Life. Their scale-covered eyes do not see because they have dwelt in darkness
so very long that they are blinded to Light.
54 Jesus answered, If I
honour myself, my honour is nothing: it is my Father that honoureth me; of whom
ye say, that he is your God:
How can men know intimately a great King and not recognize His sons and
daughters? It is actually impossible. The King sends His Son to greet those who
claim His sovereignty. He forewarns them of His son’s Coming. He has written to
them of it, spoken of it to them by the prophets whom they killed, and now the
genuine Article stands before them and they know it not – or DO they?
55 Yet ye have not
known him; but I know him: and if I should say, I know him not, I shall be a
liar like unto you: but I know him, and keep his saying. It is likely that the Jews have a head
knowledge of God, but they have changed His character and description from that
which He claims to be, to one which suits their own passions. When we know God
of a truth we cannot disavow His sayings as the Chart and Compass of our lives.
56 Your father Abraham
rejoiced to see my day: and he saw it, and was glad. Quite often we fail to remember that Abraham
was a Christian like unto the true Christian of this day. His view of
Christ was ALL of faith. He looked forward, in faith, to the Coming Redeemer in
Christ. He was preached the Gospel and he believed the Gospel. Even as
Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness. Know
ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of
Abraham. And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen
through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall
all nations be blessed. (Gal 3:6-8) It was not the Stones of
Sinai, or of Moses, that saves, but the Grace of God in Christ Jesus.
Abraham rejoiced to see
the day of Christ. He had a glimpse of that day of the birth of Jesus Christ,
born of the Virgin Mary, as He had a glimpse also of the manner in which Jesus
Christ should work out our redemption. He took his son Isaac and offered him up
on Mount Moriah—that Isaac so exceedingly dear, of whom it was said, that
"in Isaac shall thy seed be called." He offered him up, his
one hope of becoming the father of many nations. And that act of Abraham—that
act of faith, was counted unto him for righteousness; and he is held up for
ever as the father of the faithful. To him, as St. Paul writes, "The
Scripture foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached
before the Gospel, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed."
Jesus Christ Himself lived
before Abraham was born. Whenever God is spoken of as holding communion and as
being visible to man, it is in the Second Person of the Holy Trinity, God, the
Son, Jesus Christ. It is He who declares to us the Father. It is He who
represents God to us, and is Himself God, even Jesus Christ. This was He who talked
with and was called the friend of Abraham. It was He who was the Giver of the
Law to Moses, it is He by whose agency the worlds were made, God the Supreme
Deity dwelleth in the light which no man can approach: but Jesus Christ who is
the image of the Invisible God, hath manifested, made known, declared to us,
what God is; how good, how gracious, how ready to forgive, and how rich in
mercy to those who call upon Him. It follows, then, that we should honour and
worship Him as God, we should draw near with all reverence, with all holiness,
with bowed heads and bowed hearts, to present our supplication before Him.
57 Then said the Jews unto him, Thou art not yet
fifty years old, and hast thou seen Abraham? God is the God of the
living and not the dead. Of course, Jesus has seen Abraham. As a matter of
fact, grasp this: He saw Abraham before Abraham saw himself.
58 Jesus said unto them, Verily,
verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am. Yes, He was before Abraham, He was before
Adam, He was before the worlds (which He made) were cast into orbit by the
artful Finger of God. He was before Gabriel and all created angels. Don’t we
recall that He was before the beginning of all things? There was never a time
when Christ was not in the Eternal Presence – I AM!
59 Then took they up stones to cast at him: but
Jesus hid himself, and went out of the temple, going through the midst of them,
and so passed by. Ah, yes, the Ancien’
Regime! Destroy all opposition – if not by words, then, by all means,
with stones. Though truth may lie trampled beneath the iron heel of hate, it
cannot be destroyed. Like the Spirit Itself, Truth shall arise time and again
after the futile attempts of the ungodly to silence it. But, alas, it was not
the appointed time of Christ to offer Himself. Though they would have stoned
Him, He wonderfully passed through them, out of the Temple, under cover of
Light. So may we all be protected from the wiles of the devil!
It is a great comfort to realize that our Lord is Eternally Present with His
people, and He passes by unobserved by those who reject Him.
Do you know the Presence
of Christ in your heart today?
