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John 13:36-38  Simon Peter asked him, “Lord, where are you going?” Jesus replied, “Where I am going, you cannot follow now, but you will follow later.” Peter asked, “Lord, why can’t I follow you now? I will lay down my life for you.” Then Jesus answered, “Will you really lay down your life for me? I tell you the truth, before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times!

Peter wants to be with Jesus, bragging that he would lay down His life for Jesus. He didn’t know that is exactly what it would take. And Jesus predicts that Peter would deny even knowing Jesus before the night was over. Yet there is a hint of mercy and forgiveness and restoration here. He tells Peter that He would follow Him later. Peter would indeed lay down His life for Jesus. Peter’s death would not be to pay for sin, like the death of Jesus, but he would give His life telling others who Jesus is and what He did for all people.

In the verses that follow this, the beginning of chapter 14, Jesus explains a little more about where He would be going. After His death and His resurrection, He would be returning to heaven, His Father’s house, where He would prepare a place for His followers, so that you and I can be where He is. This is when Thomas says,

John 14:5-6 Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?”  Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

Remember, all this is being said before the crucifixion, before the resurrection. As the evening progressed, the disciples watched in horror as everything unfolded. Peter took a stand in the Garden of Gethsemane, chopping off a guy’s ear, but later he denied that he knew Jesus. Jesus was paraded back and forth between Pilate and Herod, enduring brutal beatings and false accusations. They watched Him nailed to the cross. They saw Him die. He was buried. But there was something better coming, something Jesus wants to share with everyone. Not only did He lay down His life for you. He took it up again on the third day for you and all people, giving us the certainty of life forever with Him.

https://www.google.com/search?q=resurrection+scene+from+the+passion+of+the+christ&rlz=1C1ONGR_enUS969US969

John 13:31–32 Jesus said, “Now is the Son of Man glorified and God is glorified in him. If God is glorified in him, God will glorify the Son in himself, and will glorify him at once.

I came across a quote years ago from and old Lutheran song writer, a fellow by the name of Johann Sebastian Bach:  “The aim and final reason for all music should be nothing else but the glory of God and the refreshment of the spirit.” 

 That reminded me of an old Gospel Song, “To God be the Glory.”

To God be the glory great things He hath done,
So loved He the world that He gave us His Son.
Who yielded His life an atonement for sin,
And opened the life gate that all may go in.

O perfect redemption, the purchase of blood,  
To ev’ry believer the promise of God;
The vilest offender who truly believes, 
That moment from Jesus a pardon receives.  

Praise the Lord, Praise the Lord, let the earth hear his voice
Praise the Lord, Praise the Lord, let the people rejoice!
O come to the Father thro Jesus the Son,
And give Him the glory, great things He hath done.

About fifteen years ago Cheryl and I were getting ready to leave town for a vacation. It was late July and we were going to meet some friends for a week at South Padre Island. We had just finished packing the car when I got a phone call that one of the members of my congregation had been hospitalized in Dallas. We go right through Dallas on our way to South Padre, so I decided to make a hospital visit before we left town.

When we arrived, I parked in the garage, went to see the member, had a devotion and prayed with him, and then went downstairs. In those days, if you went to the information booth they would validate parking tickets for clergy so that you didn’t have to pay. I waited in line, got to the front and handed the lady my ticket and asked her to validate it for clergy parking.

I mentioned I was going on vacation to the beach, right? I was wearing shorts, sandals and a brightly colored Hawaiian shirt. The large lady standing behind the booth had her hair pulled back in a bun, was wearing reading glasses on the end of her nose, and had a stern look on her face. She slowly scanned me up and down, took note of what I was wearing, and with her voice dripping with skepticism she asked me a two word question: “You Clergy?”

I realized the situation, how things looked, but I simply replied, “Yes, ma’am, I am.” She leaned forward and looked me straight in the eye and said, “I’m going to be talking to Jesus tonight and I’m going to ask Him about you.”

I immediately leaned in toward her and smiled and said, “I’ll be talking to Him, too.”

With that, she smiled and laughed and validated my ticket so I could be on my way.

I guess I could share some thoughts about not judging a book by its cover, but remembering that story reminded me of the importance of our prayer life. I find myself talking to Jesus throughout the day. I thank Him for being my Lord. I ask Him for help on my projects, especially when I am having trouble. I thank Him when He helps me get things done. I pray for friends and family members. I pray for those who have not yet come to believe in Him. And I thank Him for dying to pay for my sin and rising to assure me of life everlasting.

Prayer is simply talking to God. I’ll be doing that again today, including this evening. I wonder if that lady from the information booth is still doing that. How about you?

1 Thessalonians 5:17 pray continually;

1 Peter 1:17-21 Since you call on a Father who judges each man’s work impartially, live your lives as strangers here in reverent fear.  For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.  He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake. Through him you believe in God, who raised him from the dead and glorified him, and so your faith and hope are in God.

I have attended a lot of different worship services in my life. Some have been in large, beautiful buildings with stained-glass windows that were filled with astounding, awe-inspiring music. Some have been around a campfire under the stars with folks strumming guitars. Some have been in conventions centers with a makeshift stage and thousands of participants. Some have been in hospital rooms with just a few people. In all of those services we have heard words that have echoed down through the centuries. We listened to the readings from God’s Word. We heard a message based on that Word of God. We received the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of our Lord. All of those services, while not the same, had the elements that gave a sense of dignity, reverence and awe to the participants. We were linked to the hosts of heaven, given a foretaste of the feast to come.

That is part of what Peter is referring to when he admonishes you to “live your lives as strangers here in reverent fear.” As those who by faith have stood at the foot of the cross and have seen the stone rolled away from the tomb, we know this life is not all there is. We await our eternal home with Christ, which is ours by virtue of what He has done for us through His death and resurrection.

Peter is sure to drive that home as well: “For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.”  

It is amazing that the world puts value on some things more than others, but they are perishable. Do you remember the gift of frankincense mentioned in the Christmas story? At that time in history, that was one of the most valuable substances around. No one considers it valuable anymore. Silver and gold are mentioned here, and they appear to have lasting value. But even those are nothing compared to the most precious thing ever: The blood of Christ.

Luther makes same point in his explanation to the Second Article of the Apostle’s Creed. Some of you memorized those words when you were in Confirmation Class. Others of you may have just skimmed over them in an Adult Instruction Class. It is good for all of us to remind ourselves of this blessed teaching on a regular basis.

I believe that Jesus Christ, true God, begotten of the Father from eternity, and also true man, born of the Virgin Mary, is my Lord, who has redeemed me, a lost and condemned person, purchased and won me from all sins, from death, and from the power of the devil; not with gold or silver, but with His holy, precious blood and with His innocent suffering and death, that I may be His own and live under Him in His kingdom and serve Him in everlasting righteousness, innocence, and blessedness, just as He is risen from the dead, lives and reigns to all eternity. This is most certainly true.

We affirm this teaching of Luther because it is a summary of the Scriptural statements about Jesus and what He as done for us.

This past Sunday Cheryl and I attended worship at St. Paul Lutheran, The Grove, Texas. It is a country congregation where a friend of mine, John Heckmann, is the pastor. The church was packed, the members enthusiastically sang out the hymns and liturgy, and the pastor shared a Christ-centered, gospel-filled message. It was a wonderful worship service. He was preaching on this passage.

John 13:34–35 “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

He shared that we had a hard enough time trying to keep the 10 commandments we already had, so we didn’t need another one. Then he pointed out that we really only needed two commandments. He was not suggesting that we could pick and choose which commandments we wanted to obey, but was referring to what Jesus said in Matthew 22.

Matthew 22:37–39 Jesus replied: “ ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’

Pastor Heckmann then suggested that maybe we should call ourselves “The Church of the Two Commandments.” He quickly added that the confirmation class/catechism students would love having to only memorize two commandments instead of ten!

He reminded us that we don’t have the commandments so that we can earn our way into heaven. Jesus already did that for us. It is because we know and believe that Jesus paid for our sins and gives us forgiveness that we have a desire to live according to the commandments – ten, eleven or two – to show God how grateful we are for His grace, mercy, compassion and redemption.

Paul summed up the life we should live in response to God’s goodness even more succinctly.

Romans 13:10 Love does no harm to its neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.

1 Peter 5:8-9: Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.  Resist him, standing firm in the faith.

As we continue to think about the passage above, today I want you to focus on the words “Resist Him.”

In the late 1700s a 14-year-old girl named Marie Durant was told by authorities to renounce her beliefs. She belonged to a Christian group known as the Huguenots, a French nickname for Protestants. The request was simple. All she had to say was “I renounce.” But she refused. As a result, she was placed in a single room with 30 other women who also refused to renounce. They remained there…for 38 years. Occasionally, they would be asked, “Do you renounce?” They replied, NO! In fact, they carved another word on the wall: RESIST. I’m told that tourists can still see that word on the wall of their cell.

People in our day and age shake their heads in disbelief at this story. In a time when religious beliefs are so easily thrown aside for expediency, or if they are inconvenient, this kind of commitment is beyond comprehension. Thinking about those women sitting in the room day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year, knowing that nothing in their situation would change as long as they held to their beliefs … you might be tempted to dismiss them as fanatics. But what they were doing was what Peter tells us to do: resisting the devil. They stood firm in their faith, confident that God was on their side.

James wrote Resist the devil, and he will flee from you (James 4:7). That is the same thing Peter encourages here: Resist Him.

An example of courage comes from the cross of Christ. Jesus was brave enough to suffer and die for something He had not done. It was a “must” situation, a “have to” set of circumstances. All of humanity faced eternal death and destruction, eternal damnation and separation from the Creator because of sin. The only one who could change this was the one who lived without sin. So He did what had to be done. He paid the price with His perfect life. And then He rose again on the third day to let us know the victory is ours. We live now hearing Him say to us, “I am with you always.”

The devil is going to continue his assaults and attacks on you and yours. You will face hardships and temptations as a follower of Jesus. How can you live with them? Joseph Scriven put it this way:

Have we trials and temptations? Is there trouble anywhere?
We should never be discouraged, Take it to the Lord in Prayer.
Can we find a Friend so faithful Who will all our sorrows share?
Jesus knows our every weakness–Take it to the Lord in prayer.   
The Lutheran Hymnal #457 stanza 2