7 Easter 06 b

Nine-year-old Jeremy’s mother asked the boy what he had learned in Sunday School. “Well, Mom, our teacher told us how God sent Moses behind enemy lines on a rescue mission to lead the Israelites out of Egypt. When he got to the Red Sea, he and his engineers built a pontoon bridge and all the people walked across safely. Then he used his walkie-talkie to radio broadcast headquarters and call in an air strike. They sent I bombers to blow up the bridge, and all the Israelites were saved.”

“Now, Jeremy, is that really what your teacher taught you?” his mother asked.

“Well, no, Mom, but if I told it the way the teacher did, you’d never believe it.”

St. John in our first lesson today says these words, “If we receive the testimony of men, the testimony of God is greater.”

I am often amazed at how quick some people are to believe anything except what God has said in the Bible. When I went to Episcopal Seminary it seemed that all they wanted to decide was what God did not say, rather than what God did say in the Bible. So many today are titillated by the thought of The Da Vinci Code being true, even though the overwhelming evidence indicates otherwise, while they have convinced themselves that the Bible is not true, or at least is not relevant to their lives today, even though the evidence to the contrary is overwhelming.

The disciples of Jesus were chastised by the Lord after his resurrection when he said, “How foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken.”

The Bible also says that the god of this age (meaning Satan) has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, which is the image of God. There are some, the Scriptures say that “refuse to love the truth and so be saved.”

Satan so blinds the minds of people putting doubts in their hearts that the normal reaction to what the Bible says is to doubt it, while the normal reaction to anything that casts doubts on the Bible is to believe it.

The Bible is called the Word of God by Jesus in our gospel lesson today. Jesus said that the Word of God is truth. That Word of God can help to transform our lives into lives of holiness…as Jesus said, “Sanctify them in the truth; thy word is truth.”

There is nothing more that Satan would like to do than to keep people from reading and believing God’s Word. Why? Because that word brings faith into the hearts and minds of people. If he can keep people from believing in the Bible, then he can keep them from believing in Jesus and being saved from his hell. He has come to steal, kill and destroy. He will not be content until everyone is under his control.

When St. John talks about the testimony of God being greater than man, the greatest testimony God has given us is in his Son Jesus. Listen to the testimony that God has given us about Jesus. “He who believes in the Son of God has the testimony in himself. He who does not believe God has made him a liar, because he has not believed in the testimony that God has borne to his Son. And this is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He who has the Son ahs life; he who has not the Son of God has not life.”

Whose testimony will you believe? The testimony of a scholar alone? The testimony of a scientist alone? The testimony of a religious man alone? The testimony of a celebrity alone? Or, will you believe the testimony of God and His Word.

Our Epistle goes on, “I write this to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may KNOW that you have eternal life. Did you realize that you can know that you have eternal life? That is not presumption, but rather faith. It is faith in God’s word.

When God’s Word says that if we come to put our trust and confidence in the saving grace of Jesus Christ, and if we believe in the power of his name to save us from eternal damnation, then we will be saved, do you believe that? If you do, then the Bible says you have eternal life right now. We can say we are saved based on our confidence in the Word of God.

When we have confidence in the saving grace of Jesus then we feel confident to ask him for the things we need in life. We have confidence to ask him anything. St. Paul said in Philippians 4, “Rejoice in the Lord always, I will say it again, rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.”

We have confidence to boldly come before the throne of grace because of our faith in Jesus. When we come before Christ in prayer we know that if we ask anything according to his will, he will hear us and grant our request.

As we walk in the Spirit and as we walk in the Word of God we become more in tune with and more sensitive to the will of God. As we become more aware of the will of God, then our requests can become more in line with what God wants. Our desires become more in line with God’s desires, and then he will give us the desires of our hearts.

Ultimately, God desires to answer our prayers and to show us how much He cares for us. But he cannot answer a request that is not in line with his will. The apostle James talks about that in his epistle when he says, “You do not have, because you do not ask God.”

Part of the reason we don’t receive more from God is because we don’t’ ask God. James, continues, “When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.” Wrong motives can keep us from asking something according to God’s will.

I would urge you in the coming weeks to think about what you believe related to God’s Word. Think about what you believe related to Jesus. You might find that you come to realize that you have not been trusting in God’s word. As a result you have not been praying in faith and believing that God is hearing your prayers. You may come to the realization that you do not know that you have eternal life. If that is the case, turn away from your sins, tell Jesus you are sorry for them, and then say, “Please, Lord Jesus, come into my life and fill me with your Holy Spirit and with your eternal life.”

Having done that, we all can seek a closer relationship with Jesus. That relationship will motivate us to bring our prayer requests to Jesus on a more regular basis. Prayer can help confirm the testimony of God’s Son Jesus Christ.