Sermon 5-18-25

Pastor Ray Lorthioir

Trinity Lutheran Church

W. Hempstead, NY

Based on the Gospel Lesson for the Fifth Sunday of Easter. John 16:12-22

Giving Birth

If only Easter had fallen a week earlier this year, we would have had today’s Gospel lesson for Mother’s Day. For then, I could have zeroed in on the verse I’m going to zero in on anyway.  Jesus says in John 16:21, “‘When a woman is giving birth, she has sorrow because her hour has come, but when she has delivered the baby, she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a human being has been born into the world.’” See how this could have been appropriate for Mother’s Day?

The context for these words was Holy Thursday. Jesus was about to go into the pains and agonies of Good Friday. Now, we all know that a man can’t give birth. (Although, these days you never know because the radical left desires to overrule God and grasp at equality with God.) Anyway, a male can’t give birth — unless, we’re talking about a nation, institution, invention, industry or some other such thing. Therefore, Jesus could correctly say that He was about to give birth. But to what? His Church.

The Church is a strange institution. In the prayer Jesus prays in John 17 He says that the Church is “in the world.” But then He says that the Church is not “of the world.” Unfortunately, throughout its history, what was meant to be not of this world has been too much of this world. Indeed, the Reformation got started for that very reason.

But, the same thing also is true today. The liberal church has declared things like abortion and homosexual behavior to be of God. And on the other hand, vast portions of the evangelical church have wandered off into the health and wealth gospel error to one degree or another. All of it is “of this world.”

Not being of this world is difficult for the Church. For, there is also much competing religious stuff that is “of this world.” Throughout history we sinners have recognized that there must be something more than just this physical world. There’s got to be some unseen power behind this physical universe. But who and what? So, various so-called wise men, gurus and prophets have set out on paths of enlightenment trying to discover what’s behind it all. Some of these have developed religions that compete with Messiah’s Church. But such competing religions have all been “of this world,” since nothing in them comes from Yahweh.

Some of these religions even have a competing Jesus. For instance, there’s a Jesus in the Koran who is mentioned numerous times. But the Jesus of the Koran is not the Jesus of the New Testament. He didn’t die on a cross for anyone’s sins. The Mormons also have a Jesus who is entirely different. The Mormon God is also very different from the God of the Bible. Mormonism’s founder, Joseph Smith, supposedly spoke continuously and directly with an angel from heaven. But obviously it was no angel of Yahweh. We can easily tell that if we compare Mormon doctrine with true Christianity.

One of the salient characteristics of all religions is the insistence that they alone are the truth. And this insistence breeds a lot of acrimony, even hatred and war. Over the years I’ve had numerous people claiming to be Christians who say that there are many ways to God. They say this simply to avoid family or public acrimony. However, such talk is also “of the world.”

Here, we’ll stop for a minute to define what Jesus meant by “the world.” He meant the total world system that’s powerfully influenced by Satan. It encompasses all the rebellion against Yahweh, both in the unseen and seen realms — both in heaven and on earth. The world system is described this way in Ephesians 2:1-3, “1 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience — 3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.” Jesus said in John 12:31 “‘Now is the judgment of this world; now will the ruler of this world be cast out.’” That ruler is Satan.

However, passionate rolling around in all the piggy mud available on this earth is not the only definition of “this world.” Very high minded, so-called “spiritual” people, also can be entrapped in the system of this world by their religious rebellion against Yahweh. And, this is just a normal outcome of Original Sin. Jesus said in Matthew 7:13-14, “13 ‘Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. 14 For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.’” The reason the gate is narrow and the way is more difficult is because the narrow gate is not of this world. The narrow gate is Jesus Himself. Everything else in the unseen spiritual realm is the wide gate that leads to destruction.

Jesus put it this way to Pontius Pilate during His trial before Pilate. John 18:36-38, “36 Jesus answered, ‘My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not from the world.’ 37 Then Pilate said to him, ‘So you are a king?’ Jesus answered, ‘You say that I am a king. For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world — to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.’ 38 Pilate said to him, ‘What is truth?’”

Jesus proclaimed Himself King of Truth, King of the Kingdom of Truth — a kingdom that is not of this world. Jesus’ proof was that if His Kingdom had been of this world, He would have raised an army to overthrow Rome and all this world’s kingdoms. Jesus said His Kingdom is a Kingdom from “above” and not of this world. He also inferred this when He said to Pilate in John 19:11, “. . . ‘You would have no authority over me at all unless it had been given you from above. . . .” In other words, Pilate would not have been able to do a thing to Jesus unless it had been determined in the Kingdom of God above. And that Kingdom above is where the real Truth about everything resides. Unfortunately for Pilate, he walked away from the Kingdom of Truth.

Since Yahweh is the Creator of everything that exists, He alone is the sole source of the real Truth about everything that exists — including Himself. Everything from any other religious or metaphysical source is a lie to one degree or another. For all alternative religious and philosophical sources lead back to Satan. And Jesus called Satan a liar and the Father of Lies. Everything based on a lie is a temporary thing that will pass away when Jesus, the Truth, is finally revealed. Thus, when Jesus returns, the world system itself will perish in both heaven and earth. The only part of the present world system that will remain will be found in the eternal Lake of Fire where it will be magnified to the fullest extent possible.

Truth always narrows things down. For instance, this is a church building. Think of all the kinds of buildings it’s not. It’s not a house, factory, hotel, nightclub, gym, hospital or anything else. It’s a church. And that truth narrows things down tremendously. Doesn’t it? Yahweh’s Truth does the same. That’s why Jesus said there’s only a narrow, skinny door into the Kingdom of God. And Jesus Himself is that door. Every other way is a lie.

Going back to the verse we started with, Jesus gave birth to His Church, that the Church might proclaim Jesus as the only Way, the only Truth and the only Life. Now, to become the Way, the Truth and the Life, Jesus had to follow the script written for Him in Moses and the Prophets. He had to do so perfectly. At the end, that script involved the agony of the cross in order for Him to give birth to His Church.

Let’s return again to the hymn found in Philippians 2 to discover what Jesus had to do. That hymn begins: Philippians 2:5-7, “5. . . Christ Jesus, 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.”

Jesus is Yahweh, the Son. So, He is already God — equal with God. But Jesus is also true human, the son of Mary. He was conceived and born as a true human being into this world. Theologians call the union between Jesus’ divine nature and His human nature The Personal Union of Christ. Therefore, also being a true human, Jesus had to deal with the issue that all creatures of Yahweh have to deal with. Will we have Yahweh as our Creator — the sole source of our existence, life, and truth — or not?

Satan decided, Not. By doing so, he made himself his own creator, his own source of truth and his own source of righteousness. Thus, he grasped at equality with God. And because Satan abandoned Yahweh — the only source of existence, truth and righteousness — he fell totally into evil. Satan convinced other spiritual beings to follow him into grasping after equality with God. He also tricked our first parents into doing so and thereby stole God’s children from Him.

As we saw during Lent, when Jesus came to earth to redeem humanity from the ruler of the present world system, Satan attempted to get Jesus’ human nature to grasp at equality with God. If Satan had been able to do so, all would have been lost. But Jesus remained faithful to the script for Messiah written in Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms. He did this to His dying breath on the cross. That’s why the ancient hymn praises Jesus because “He did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped.”

Our hymn goes on in Philippians 2:8, “And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” As we know, crucifixion was a horror and nightmare to its victims. It was the lowest form of death that anyone could die. Rome reserved it for non-citizens, rebels and common criminals.

But, it wasn’t just the kind of death Jesus died that was so terrible. Added to it was the rejection. The sign over Jesus told of the charges against Him — Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews. This was the total rejection of Jesus by His own people. They crucified their King.

This was bad, but there’s still worse. We read in Isaiah 53:5, “But he [Messiah] was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.” And again in Isaiah 53:10, “Yet it was the will of the LORD to crush him; he has put him to grief; when his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days; the will of the LORD shall prosper in his hand.”

These verses mean that the sins of every human who has ever lived or will live were placed upon Jesus so that He might atone for them before Yahweh by the sacrifice of His life. Only someone as strong as Yahweh, the Son, could have handled this. And that’s why Jesus was sent. As the Apostle Paul wrote in 2Corinthians, 5:21 “For our sake he [Yahweh] made him [Jesus] to be sin who knew no sin, [born without Original Sin] so that in him [Jesus] we might become the righteousness of God.”

As we’ve said many times before, only those who are purely righteous can dwell in the presence of Him who is pure righteousness. That would not be possible for any of us without Jesus. When Jesus atoned for human sin, all human sin was forgiven by Yahweh. Therefore, all who come to Jesus in repentance for forgiveness of their sins absolutely receive what they came for. And when sin is removed, what remains is the righteousness of Christ — a perfect righteousness sufficient in Yahweh’s sight, that enables us to dwell with Him forever.

How do we know these things are true? Well, our hymn goes on in Philippians 2:9-11, “9 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” The exaltation of Jesus was His resurrection from the dead in an immortal, truly human, physical body. And the resurrection of Jesus is one of the best attested facts of ancient history that we possess. These days, no true historian denies that Jesus of Nazareth lived and was crucified under Pontius Pilate. That’s established historical fact. Few historians reject the historical fact that within two years of the event, the Christian Church was proclaiming the bodily resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth. It doesn’t matter if they believe in Jesus’ resurrection or not. They now recognize that the proclamation of Jesus’ resurrection by the Church within two years of the event is established historical fact.

The terrible agony of Jesus’ death was followed by the triumph of His resurrection. He was rewarded with resurrection because He had been obedient even to that wretched death on the cross. Jesus followed the Messiah script to the end. And so the blessing part of the script became His also. Jesus was elevated to the highest position in creation that any creature may attain. For although Jesus is God the Son, He is also the son of Mary. And it’s as a true human that Jesus has been given the Name above all names. As a result, every creature of every kind in the whole universe owes their allegiance to Jesus. Every human certainly does. For Jesus has been placed at the head of the human race by Yahweh Himself. At the apex of creation there’s a true human being. And it certainly doesn’t hurt that He’s also Yahweh, the Son.

So, having fulfilled all things, we read this about Jesus in Colossians 1:15-20, “15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. 16 For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. 17 And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18 And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. 19 For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, 20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.”

By not grasping equality with God and by being obedient even unto death on a cross, Jesus has become the head of all things for His Church — His chosen ones. And He has transferred all of what He won for humanity to His Church, so that forgiveness of sins, life and salvation might be distributed by His Church to all. He did this in the fifty days following His resurrection. So, based on our starting text from John, we might definitely say that the Church is Jesus’ “baby” the living thing He gave birth to.

Therefore, it is our task to hold fast to everything Jesus has won for us. It is our task to maintain the narrow way and not broaden it. It is our task to make sure everyone enters by that narrow way. Should we in any we be embarrassed that Jesus is the only way to God? Should we be embarrassed that Jesus called Himself the Way, the Truth and the Life? Should we be embarrassed that only through Jesus can anyone enter the Kingdom of God? Should we be embarrassed that only in Jesus is there real recognition of sin? Should we be embarrassed that only in Jesus is there forgiveness of sins? Should we fold under criticism and persecution? By the grace of God, let it never be so.

The pains Jesus underwent to give birth to His Church were tremendous. Therefore, let us always honor those pains. Let us always honor His courage and the strength by which He did these things for us. Amen.

All Bible quotes are from the ESV.

(I would have loved to have used a joke to title this sermon as — A Man Gives Birth — but without explanation it might be so misunderstood these days and cause problems.)