John 3:34  For He whom God has sent utters the words of God, for He gives the Spirit without measure.

Someone once said, "Church is a place where a group of dull and respectable people listen to a dull and respectable sermon about how to keep being dull but respectable." The sermon was dull but respectable. Most of the people looked on the dull side, but very respectable!

Just when eighteen people glanced at their watches. Just when that child won the wrestling match with his parents, again. Just when three people nodded off, again. Just then, a fire broke out on the altar, on the baptismal font, and on the pulpit! The usher got up to put it out - but to no avail. The fire kept spreading. It couldn't be contained. Everyone was going up in flames!

Could it happen? It will happen. That's the promise. Jesus gives us the Holy Spirit without measure. On Pentecost, the Spirit came with fire to enliven Christ's followers. Even today, God's holy fire breaks forth when we receive Holy Communion, live in our baptismal grace, and hear the Gospel of forgiveness. This fire ignites our faith in Christ - our crucified and triumphant Savior.

Gone are the blank stares. Gone are the ho-hum lives. Gone are the lifeless looks and the drifting prayers. Boldness, courage, and spine are unleashed when Jesus gives us the Spirit without measure.
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Helping people live life with Jesus everyday,

John 3:19  The light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light.

On July 26, 1945, the heavy cruiser USS Indianapolis delivered components for the atomic bomb, which was dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, eleven days later. World War II was almost over, but for the crew of the USS Indianapolis, the worst was yet to come. Four days later, a Japanese submarine torpedoed the ship. The Indianapolis sank in twelve minutes, taking down three hundred men. The remaining nine hundred men were adrift in the South Pacific for five God-forsaken days. Only 316 survived. It was the worst disaster at sea in the history of the United States Navy. Someone had to be blamed, so the navy court-martialed the ship's captain, Charles Butler McVay. After years of mental anguish, McVay took his own life.

It wasn't until 2001 that the navy finally confessed. Naval personnel failed to notice that the Indianapolis was overdue as its next port of call. Then the navy failed to investigate. Nine hundred sailors were left in the Pacific Ocean for five days. Thank God that the navy finally confessed it.

Jesus invites us to come out of the darkness of denial. It's easier to keep our skeletons in our closet. Christ's light steps into this darkness. He looks at every sin and says, "My blood paid for that." Why live with regret and remorse? Instead, walk out of darkness and into your Savior's marvelous light! When it comes to sin, God gives us five wonderful words: Confess it. I forgive it.
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Helping people live life with Jesus everyday,

John 2:19  Jesus answered them, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up."

The Old Testament prophet Ezekiel provides the background for this promise of Jesus. In Ezekiel 47, the prophet envisions a rebuilt temple with water trickling out from under the altar.

He then sees these drops of water become a river that flows to the Dead Sea - a body of water 1,400 feet below sea level with a saline content of 35 percent. The prophet's vision concludes with the Dead Sea coming to life. "Wherever the river goes...everything will live" (Ezekiel 47:9).

Jesus fulfills this vision - and then some! Living water flows from Christ to us. It begins with just a trickle. Jesus tells Nicodemus that we are born again through water and the Spirit. The river picks up momentum when Jesus tells the Samaritan woman that He gives living water. Then the surge. "Whoever believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, 'Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water'" (John 7:38).

Then, in one ironic twist for the ages, this raging river of life is reduced to just a trickle, until it completely dries up. "I thirst" (John 19:28). Here is Jesus, crushed and cursed by the sin of your life and mine.

"Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up" (John 2:19). Jesus is alive. His river, when coupled with God's mighty Word, is a baptismal river of life. It forgives our sin, quenches our thirst, and defeats our death.
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Helping people live life with Jesus everyday,

John 1:46  Philip said to him, "Come and see."

"First, secure your own oxygen mask." This directive is familiar to anyone who travels on commercial airplanes. In the event of an emergency ("a sudden loss of cabin pressure"), we're told that an oxygen mask for each person will drop from the overhead control panel. In such an anxious moment, parents might instinctively try to get air to their children. Adult children might focus on preserving the life of elderly parents seated next to them.

Such kindness might be instinctive, but it isn't wise. If we pass out from a lack of oxygen, our helpless seatmates won't survive. "First secure your own oxygen mask."

That's what Philip does. Jesus - the One whom Moses and the prophets announced - found Philip and said, "Follow Me" (John 1:43). Philip then finds Nathanael. But Nathanael doesn't think anything good can come out of Nazareth. Philip responds, "Come and see" (John 1:46).

"First, secure your own oxygen mask." If we don't, we downplay our Savior's most alarming details. An innocent man dies so we don't have to. His heart started beating again on the third day. When we don't breathe in the oxygen of the Gospel, we forget its freshness, its utter and unexplainable joy. I invite you to breathe in Christ's spiritual oxygen. Christ chose you. Christ found you. Christ loves you. Christ forgives you, and Christ pardons you. Our response to the world? "Come and see."
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Helping people live life with Jesus everyday,

John 1:32  I saw the Spirit descend from heaven like a dove, and it remained on Him.

In Genesis 6, the sons of God marry the daughters of men. God then says, "My Spirit shall not abide in man forever, for he is flesh: his days shall be 120 years" (v.3). While still active throughout the Old Testament, the Holy Spirit's full presence left.

One day, though, John tells us that the Holy Spirit, flying like a dove, spotted a man standing in the Jordan River, a man who committed no sin and in whose mouth was no deceit - Jesus. The dove descended on Jesus. John tells us the Spirit remained on Him.

After His sacrificial death and mighty resurrection, Jesus breathes on His disciples and says, "Receive the Holy Spirit" (John 20:22). After His ascension, Christ sends the Spirit from heaven, fulfilling Joel's words, "I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh" (Acts 2:17; Joel 2:28).

The Holy Spirit departed from people because of evil intentions and sinful rebellion. In Jesus, however, because the Spirit remains, the Savior now pours out the Holy Spirit through the Father's appointed Means of Grace - Holy Baptism, the Gospel, and the Lord's Supper. The Holy Spirit comes into our lives and dwells in our hearts. Indeed, we are "sealed with the promised Holy Spirit" (Ephesians 1:13). The curse of Genesis 6 is undone, and the Holy Spirit, the Lord and giver of life, is back. Thanks be to God.
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Helping people live life with Jesus everyday,

John 1:18  No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father's side, He has made Him known.

Howard Rutledge was an American fighter pilot. The North Vietnamese shot him down and took him captive in 1965. Then his captors threw Rutledge into the infamous Hanoi Hilton prison, into the building called (by the Americans) Heartbreak Hotel.

We all know what it feels like to be imprisoned by our sin in the Heartbreak Hotel of our own making. The problem for us, though, is that at first it didn't look like Heartbreak Hotel. It looked like the Promised Land! It even was the Promised Land - at least for a while. That moral indiscretion? "No big deal!" That financial dishonesty? "No big deal!" That small little lie?" No big deal!" Eventually, though, "no big deal" becomes a really big deal!

I've got bad news for you. We can't fight our way out of our prison of sin. We can't think our way out, buy our way out, or educate our way out.

We're not permanently stuck, however, in our sin, languishing in our Heartbreak Hotel.

The tokens of Christ's Passion make known to us the loving heart of our heavenly Father. The whip, thirty pieces of silver, dice, nails, and spear point to one overwhelming fact. The Father doesn't recoil, run, or retreat at the sight of our ugly prison. He comes to save us.

One day, Howard Rutledge saw a glimmer of light dawning through the bottom of his prison door. He knew God would set him free. For us, that light dawning is Christ's Easter victory. May the Holy Spirit keep us steadfast in faith to see the light of Christ.
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Helping people live life with Jesus everyday,
 

John 1:16 For from His fullness we have all received, grace upon grace.

When he was in highschool, once a year, for two weeks, he dedicated every ounce of his strength to one goal - making the basketball team. Then the day came when the coach posted the list of who made the team. The process left him with the understanding that to get anything in life, he would have to sacrifice, sweat, and give it all he had - and then some.

We are pros at performance. God is a pro of grace. From God's fullness, He gives us - unworthy sinners - not just grace. Grace upon grace!

There are other options than grace. We might try salvation by sincerity. "It doesn't matter what you believe, just as long as you're sincere." Yet we've all been sincerely wrong about a lot of things! Then there's salvation by subtraction. If being saved wasn't doing anything, then everyone in nursing homes would be saved. You don't do a lot in these places! Or how about salvation by service? Do good. Be nice. Help people. None of this works. We will never generate enough sincerity, subtraction, or service.

Remember The Little Engine That Could? "I think I can, I think I can, I think I can." Grace isn't for the little engine that could. Grace is for the little engine that couldn't. Grace is for the little engine that turned out to be a massive train wreck! God's magnificent grace in Christ's cleansing blood is His gift to you!
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Helping people live life with Jesus everyday,