Jesu Juva

“John’s Confidence, and Ours”

Text: Acts 8:14-25; 1 John 4:1-6

In the Name of (+) Jesus. Amen.

He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.

It doesn’t always seem like it, though. It can seem like the world is winning. A world, as John says, filled with false prophets, antichrists, and evil and unclean spirits. A world which sees and interprets things through the prism of power, oppression, and supremacy. A world filled with ungodly influencers and TikTok gurus, with algorithms that cater to sinful natures, designed to draw people in and keep them there, that the false teaching begun might continue and increase. To take hearts and minds captive to the latest “truth,” which is no truth at all.

And people listen. Our people listen. You hear it. But Pastor, how can we say that’s wrong? How can we deny them marriage? That’s the way they were born. We’re not being loving. We’re not being caring. They’re not hurting anyone. We know more now. Science. Progress. Enlightenment. In these many put their trust.

And we are not immune. The one in the world isn’t called the deceiver for nothing.

And yet still it is true. He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.

Because He who is in you is the Spirit of the one true God. The Spirit of the one who hung on the cross as a curse. The Spirit of the one who looked utterly defeated, discredited, and discarded, and in the worst possible way - by crucifixion at the insistence of the religious leaders and the hands of the Roman authorities. The Spirit of the one who used all that to win the victory over the one who is in the world. A victory revealed three days later.

That’s what gives John confidence. It wasn’t the transfiguration, the feeding of the 5,000, the widow of Nain’s son, the lepers who were cleansed, or the deaf, blind, lame, and mute who were healed. It was the resurrection. It was that the world and the one who is in the world threw all they had against Jesus, and lost.

And that gave John confidence even as he continued to witness the worst of the world. When he and his brothers were arrested, imprisoned, and flogged. When his brother James was put to the sword by Herod, and then all his fellow apostles martyred. Like Elijah, he was the only one left. But he didn’t run away like that prophet, though he would be exiled. He was firmly planted in the one who won the victory over sin, death, and hell. They could kill him, but they couldn’t take his life. It might have taken him a while to get there, for that truth to sink it, but it did.

So now, too, does John want his flock, his little children, to be firmly established in this truth. Test the spirits, he says. Don’t just believe what you hear. Test the spirits. None is greater than the Spirit of truth. Test the spirits. None is greater than the Lord and Giver of Life. Test the spirits. Whether they confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh. Come in the flesh and who died in that flesh and who is risen in the flesh. That spirit is the Spirit of God. And that confession is what the gates of hell cannot withstand (Matthew 16:18).

John witnessed the power of that confession when he went to Samaria. When the church, scattered because of the persecution happening in Jerusalem, went on the offensive against the gates of hell with this confession. And the Spirit which cries Abba, Father (Galatians 4:6) is given to the Samaritans, overcoming that ancient hostility, and even overcoming Simon and all his magic. That they, too, cry out to the Father and confess the Son by the power of the Spirit.

And that gives us confidence today as well, dear brothers. In a world filled with spirits of all shapes and sizes, spouting all kinds of so-called truths. In a world filled with our own Samaritans and Greeks. There is still only one truth above all others that can stand against all the assaults of the devil, the world, and our sinful nature: that the tomb is empty. That Christ is risen from the dead, our sins atoned for, and our life is safe, hidden with Christ in God (Colossians 3:3). For Baptized into the Name Most Holy (LSB #590), the name of Christ, we went through His death and resurrection with Him. So take they our life, goods, fame, child, and wife, though these all be gone, our victory has been won. The kingdom our remaineth (LSB #656 v. 3).

Little children, you are from God and have overcome them - no matter how big, strong, powerful, or successful they look - for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. That is what John told his flock, for it is what Jesus told him, right before he went to the cross. I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world (John 16:33).

And so like John, this is what we proclaim to our flocks. But what we need to hear, too. When the fight is fierce, and the warfare is long, when disappointment and discouragement are our daily bread. When those we thought faithful, aren’t. When lambs turn away and leave. When it seems like all the world is a cross, and the world is winning.

It’s not. It can’t. For it already lost. The tomb is empty, and the font and the chalice are full. The one who is greater than the world is not absent from the world, but here in you and here for you. His forgiveness is yours. His life is yours. And the one who is in the world cannot take that away, any more than he can put Jesus back in the tomb. And if he can’t do that, he can’t have you.

The Word of the Lord grows. And will not stop. To the ends of the world. And to the end of the world.

In the Name of the Father, and of the (+) Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.