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This Week's Sermon ST. JOHN, APOSTLE & EVANGELIST 27 December 2009 "The Witness to Love" John 21:20-25 LSB Series C Pastor Philip G. Meyer Soli Deo Gloria!

The three days after The Nativity of Our Lord seem out of place to some people, yet they increase our worship of the Christ. Two of the days really seem out of joint with the mood of Christmas because they are about death. On 26 December the Church celebrates St. Stephen, Deacon and Martyr. Stephen is the first adult martyr for Christ, dying at the hands of the mob which stoned him. The third is even more puzzling, Holy Innocents, celebrated on 28 December, a day when the Church remembers the infant martyrs to Christ, the baby boys of Bethlehem murdered by Herod in a mad attempt to kill the Christ Child. Sandwiched in between these two days is St. John, Apostle and Evangelist, celebrated on 27 December. Understanding these three minor festivals separately lends to the confusion, but taken together they enhance the Holy Gospel of Christ's birth. Together these three days are known as "The Witness Days." Each festival bears witness to Jesus in its own unique way.

We probably know much more about John than Stephen or the Holy Innocents. John was, after all, one of the disciples, but more, he was part of that famous inner circle of the Twelve, usually mentioned by the well-known description, "Peter, James, and John." James and John were brothers. They, like Peter, had been fishermen. Jesus had named them "the Sons of Thunder" because of their fiery disposition and willingness to call down God's wrath on people. Yet, we really don't remember John by that title. We know him better as "the Apostle of Love." A search of the word "love" in the New Testament shows that almost half of the references are in connection with John, particularly in his Gospel and his Epistles. His letters are full of exhortations to love others because God has first loved us. For example,

"In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another." (1 John 4:9-11, ESV)

John is a witness to all of this, as was Stephen. A witness, properly speaking, is an eye and ear observer of what he speaks. As in a court trial, persons are asked, "What did you see, hear, etc.?" It is a firsthand account. If a person was not present at the event, such testimony is called hearsay evidence. John was present with Jesus from the beginning. He witnessed everything that Jesus said and did that is recorded in the Holy Gospels. He states:

"This is the disciple who is bearing witness about these things, and who has written these things, and we know that his testimony is true." (John 21:24, ESV)

John adds this interesting footnote to his Gospel, the last verse of his Gospel:

"Now there are also many other things that Jesus did. Were every one of them to be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written." (John 21:25, ESV)

John's focus is the love of God for our world as it happens in Christ Jesus. But his focus is more than merely mouthing words of love; John himself experienced it as a disciple. He went from one of the "Sons of Thunder" to "The Apostle of Love." Therein lies a remarkable transformation. What accounts for it? The love of God in Christ, just as John testifies over and over again.

Love begets love, John says.

"Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God." (1 John 4:7, ESV)

To us John speaks by directing us back to the love of God in Christ. Look at how God loved our world, how he loved you! These are without doubt the most well-known words of John about love:

"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life." (John 3:16, ESV)

Here is the direct connection to The Nativity of Our Lord. God gave his Son to the world so that the world would not perish in sin, so that the world would know the love of God. Can there be any greater witness to the love of God than this?

After Jesus absolved Peter of his sin of denial, Jesus spoke about the manner of Peter's own death. Peter then asked Jesus about his friend, John:

"Lord, what about this man?" (John 21:21, ESV)

Jesus' answer leaves it in God. Peter should not concern himself with how John would die. John alone, of all the Apostles, did not meet a martyr's death by violent means. John went on to become head of the Church in Ephesus, but was banished to the Island of Patmos in the Mediterranean because of his witness to Christ. There John wrote his testimony, especially his Apocalypse, as well as his letters to the Church.

You and I can never be witnesses in the strict sense. We were not physically present to witness the miracles Jesus did nor hear the words Jesus spoke. We know of them because of the eye and ear witness of St. John. He tells us of them so that we will believe.

"Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name." (John 20:30-31, ESV)

And so we are not witnesses, but we are confessors. We speak forth what we believe because of the testimony of John. We believe because we have heard the words about the love of God in Christ. "Faith comes by hearing," writes Paul [Rom. 10.17]. We have faith because we have heard, and we confess this faith with our own lips because we have received the Holy Spirit in Baptism.

More than that, we also love because we have experienced the love of God in Christ. Christ has been born in us through the washing of regeneration and the renewal of the Holy Spirit. The love of God has entered your heart. Simply, yet profoundly, John wrote:

"We love because he first loved us." (1 John 4:19, ESV)

John tells us of a specific event on the night when Jesus was betrayed. He was reclining at the table close to Jesus. Older translations say that John was leaning on Jesus' chest when he asked who would betray Jesus. No other human being enjoyed a closer relationship to Jesus than John, not even Peter. As Jesus hung on the cross John stood nearby, the only disciple not to flee in fear. To John Jesus gave the charge to take care of his mother, Mary. A closer, more trusted friend cannot be found than John.

And yet, that close bond does not outdo the bond that Jesus has with you! Jesus was physically close to John at the Passover, but Jesus is even closer to you in the Holy Supper of his body and blood. Here Jesus comes to you. He invites you to come to him and receive him in a miraculous way so that the burden of your sin is again forgiven and that you receive his unending comfort and strength for your earthly life. How dearly Jesus loves us! How intimately he comes to us in his Blessed Sacrament.

And this holy meal does more. It empowers you to love as Christ desires. As you receive the love of God in Christ, that love flows through you so that you can love others. It is the message that you have learned from the beginning, that you should love others as God has loved you in Christ [1 John 3.11ff.].

God's testimony comes to us through the spoken word or the Scriptures. John has given us those words. He has witnessed to the love of God as revealed in the Incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ. He has connected the love that God has for us with the love that flows through us to others, continuing that love of God to yet more people. For John's witness, we give thanks to God today!

In the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.