His Name is Our Security
Notes
Transcript
Encyclopedia of 7700 Illustrations 6630 How to Secure the Security
A man came into a bank and wanted to borrow $5. He was told that the bank did not lend such small sums.
“But,” he went on, “lending money is your business, isn’t it?” The banker admitted it was.
“Well, I’ve got good security,” said the stranger, “and I want to borrow $5.”
Finally the banker agreed to make the loan. When the note was drawn and the interest of 30 cents paid, the stranger drew from his pocket $10,000 worth of Government bonds and handed them over as security.
Before the banker could recover from his astonishment the stranger said, “Now, this is something like it. Over at the other bank they wanted to charge me $10 just for a safety deposit box to keep these things in.”
Lord God, bless Your Word wherever it is proclaimed. Make it a Word of power and peace to convert those not yet Your own and to confirm those who have come to saving faith. May Your Word pass from the ear to the heart, from the heart to the lip, and from the lip to the life that, as You have promised, Your Word may achieve the purpose for which You send it, through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.
10 The name of the Lord is a strong tower; the righteous man runs into it and is safe.
The difference between the power in the name of the Lord and the power that people claim for themselves is as large as the difference between that $5 that the man borrowed and the $10,000 worth of government bonds that he put up for collateral. Of course, the wisdom that he used in borrowing that money as opposed to paying twice as much to rent a safety deposit box is also something to think about, as well being a great punchline.
There is also great security in the name of the Lord. It is this security that Jesus claims for His disciples in this prayer. When we are faced with temptation, opposition, or disappointment, these words from Christ’s lips can point us back to the One who is “a present help in trouble.”
11 And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one. 12 While I was with them, I kept them in your name, which you have given me. I have guarded them, and not one of them has been lost except the son of destruction, that the Scripture might be fulfilled. 13 But now I am coming to you, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves.
When Jesus came to fulfill the Missio Dei - the Sending of God - He knew that he was not establishing a permanent residence on earth. God, who cannot die, came to die. God, who would return to God, would establish a kingdom on the earth. As John writes in the first chapter, “And the Word (which was God) became flesh and ἐσκήνωσεν” - took up a temporary residence, from σκηνή: a tent, - “among us.” In order for us to live, the Firstborn must die. In order for the Kingdom to be established, the Son must return to the Father.
We wonder why it is that sometimes, we must go through “the dark night of the soul,” why it is that God allows us to suffer, to experience loss, disappointment, struggle, even failure, while we follow in the path of the generations of saints before us who also had to learn to “walk by faith and not by sight. Yes, Jesus did say, in Matt 28:18 that “All authority in heaven and on earth has ben given to Me.” In the weakness of our flesh, we ask, “Why doesn’t Jesus use that authority on my behalf; doesn’t He love me?” As we look around us, feeling the weight of living up to 150 years of ministry, we ask, “Why doesn’t the Lord do for us what He did for the 11 on the Day of Pentecost, and add 5000 to the Church from one sermon?”
In the first three verses of our Gospel reading two other things stand out as well: first, Jesus acknowledges the Father’s ability to “keep” everyone whom Christ commits to His name, and secondly, that the loss of Judas cannot simply be chalked up to Satan’s skill in seduction. In fact, the Word of God declared the role of the “son of perdition,” as Peter, under the influence of the Holy Spirit, would recognize later:
15 In those days Peter stood up among the brothers (the company of persons was in all about 120) and said, 16 “Brothers, the Scripture had to be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit spoke beforehand by the mouth of David concerning Judas, who became a guide to those who arrested Jesus. 17 For he was numbered among us and was allotted his share in this ministry.”
20 “For it is written in the Book of Psalms, “ ‘May his camp become desolate, and let there be no one to dwell in it’; and “ ‘Let another take his office.’
The Word of God has already told us that the world is not inclined to accept the message of the Gospel on its own; as it is written in Romans 5:10, we are, by nature, enemies of God. Unless God separates us from the world, we will remain in the world. We cannot separate ourselves, no matter how hard we try, no matter how far away we go. The walls of the Convent or the Monastery are not thick enough to keep Satan at bay, as the Roman Catholic Church discovered to its chagrin, nor will the establishment of a “Christian social subculture,” complete with its own imitation of secular art and culture, as we have seen with both the Trinity Broadcasting Company with its “Holy Land Experience” and the Gospel Music industry, where singers, musicians and songwriters are treated like pop stars, among other things.
We cannot physically separate ourselves from the effects of the Fall because the Fall is part of us too. God can separate us from its effects, and He does so in the Holy Spirit.
The Small Catechism: Art II, Para. 6 - I believe that I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ, my Lord, or come to Him. But the Holy Spirit has called me by the Gospel, enlightened me with His gifts, sanctified and kept me in the true faith. In the same way He calls, gathers, enlightens, and sanctifies the whole Christian Church on earth and keeps it with Jesus Christ in the one true faith. In this Christian Church He daily and richly forgives all my sins and the sins of all believers. On the Last Day He will raise up me and all the dead and will give eternal life to me and to all believers in Christ. This is most certainly true.
It is true, I believe, that people who are born of water and of the Spirit desire to live holy lives because of the presence of the Holy Spirit in them. Romans 7:7-24 is a lengthy exposition of the struggle of the Christian to live as the Holy Spirit has awakened his or her heart to desire to live, not of the unsaved, spiritually-dead person who seeks to justified by his civil righteousness or obedience to the parts of the Law of God that appeal to his or her sense of justice, while ignoring the other parts which he feels are inconvenient or incompatible with modern sensibilities. The latter feel that they have nothing of which to repent, while the former are painfully aware of their inability to perfectly “do what Jesus would do,” and cling to God’s promise to forgive those who confess their sins in 1 John 1:9.
Jesus prays for these men whom He loves, with whom He has spent three years. He has shared meals, labors, and insights with them, but in order that they would become more than what they are, He must go where they cannot yet follow, not yet.
15 I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. 16 They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 17 Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. 18 As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. 19 And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth.
If you want to argue with Jesus, be my guest, but since He asks, in this prayer, for the Father to sanctify us, I must say that to think that God expects us to handle that all by ourselves is to think just a little bit too highly of ourselves. As it is written:
14 For he knows our frame; he remembers that we are dust.
Jesus cares for us enough to pray for us.
25 Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.
We don’t need Mary, or St. Anybody, to intercede for us - sorry Pope Whoever who came up with that foolishness. We don’t need to make nice with our ancestors, or line up our lives with the stars, or build up good karma. Jesus is God’s “Yes” and “Amen” to us!
He cared enough to die for us.
14 Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, 15 and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery.
Jesus already took care of everything, and He has everything - including the things that are, in fact, meant for evil, under control. He always has, and he always will, until the last enemy - death - is destroyed, and God is all in all.
Keep on “looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith,” and you won’t have to look anywhere else, and let the peace of God, that passes all understanding, guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus our Lord, Amen.