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Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, the text for this morning comes from the gospel reading you’ve heard read. You may be seated. All of Satan’s lies begin in God’s name. Every single one of Satan’s lies to you begins in God’s name, or else you and I wouldn’t listen to it, would we? Amen. Because if it’s so far-fetched and out there, most of us would turn our back and say, you know, that’s just crazy. But all of Satan’s lies that influence you and with which you struggle all begin in God’s name. When God’s word is a part of it, he wants to bring lies into it. When it’s about the worship of God, he wants to bring lies into it. How you worship, the way you worship, when you worship. When it has to do with your godly life or the lack thereof, he loves to bring lies in there so that you judge and account the reason this is happening to me is because of my godly life or the reason this is happening to me is because of my past and my ungodly life.
All of Satan’s lies begin in God’s name. Philip and James are who we are highlighting this morning. Now, James, there’s not a lot known about him. He is one of the twelve apostles, and we give thanks to God for choosing him. All we know about this James is that he is the son of Alphaeus. He is not the James who was the brother of John, who Jesus picked up on the Sea of Galilee. He is not the James who wrote the epistle of St. James that was the half-brother of Jesus, who was the first bishop of Jerusalem. This is just James, the son of Alphaeus, who’s often called James the Lesser, because James, the brother of John, is called James the Greater.
Now, Philip, where the text is talking about this morning, he’s the one that we’re going to talk about. And a little bit about Philip. Most of the things, if not all, about Philip are written in the Gospel of John. He came from the same town as Peter and Andrew, the brothers. He came from Bethsaida. He was one of Jesus’ first converts and first apostles chosen. In fact, it was in his excitement that he ran and talked to Nathanael and said, “Nathanael, we have seen the Messiah.” And Nathanael goes, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” You remember that story? Rather than argue with Nathanael about Jesus, he just said, “Come and see.” Philip’s great words.
Well, in this morning’s text, Philip shows his struggle as a sinner just like you. Philip is one of God’s chosen apostles, but he struggles just like you. Philip had been with Jesus three long years, and yet he questions just like you. Philip asked, “Lord, show us the Father, and that’ll be enough for us.” Now, it seems an innocent question, does it not? Where it is, Satan’s lie always begins with God’s name is this. He sincerely wanted to see the Father. That’s not a wrong request to ask of Jesus. But the sin is that Philip thought… everything that Jesus had been saying the last three years isn’t true because the Father surely isn’t revealing himself through Jesus, so Jesus must be holding back something. And that’s the lie.
But it made sense to Philip’s mind, did it not? The lie is that Jesus says, “Philip, have I not been with you so long and you do not believe? If you’ve seen me, you’ve seen the Father. So how can you say, ‘Show us the Father?'” Jesus had been telling Philip and the other 11, “Here I am. You want to know what God thinks of you? You look at me. You want to know what God thinks of your past life? You look at me. You want to know what God thinks of your holy life? You look at me. I’m the answer.”
So Philip believed it, but he also doubted just like you. It was what Philip wanted that was beyond the scope of what Jesus had revealed. See, when you and I get in a pickle, or when you and I try to assess ourselves by our own reason or strength, we will always, always start out with a little bit of God’s truth. And if we don’t stick with what Jesus has said, it will always be filled in with Satan’s lies that he’s more than willing to offer us as ideas.
“Do you not believe that I am in the Father and that the Father is in me?” said Jesus. “The words I speak I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works.” What works had Philip seen thus far? Philip had seen all the resurrections. Philip had seen all the miracles of people being healed. Philip had seen the feeding of the 5,000, the feeding of the 4,000, the walking on the water, the stilling of the storm. He had seen it all. And yet he still thought, “I still haven’t seen the Father, though.” And Jesus is telling them, “If you’ve seen me, you’ve seen the Father.” Jesus doesn’t like to play hide-and-go-seek. Why? And not be found. Jesus loves to be found, but he loves only to be found where he tells you he can be found, not where you think he can be found.
All of the devil’s lies begin in God’s name. Jesus has promised that baptism saves. You heard it read, and you saw it read in the hymnal and the scriptural references that go with it. And yet people say this is not anything but water. To say that that is different than what Jesus has said is to say that that is an idol, and it’s not. Jesus said, “Whosoever sins you forgive, they are forgiven.” So when I, a sinner, tell you what God says, “I forgive you all your sins,” and you choose not to believe it, that’s idolatry because that’s going where Jesus has said he’s to be found, and for us not to is sin.
Being like Philip, looking for Jesus somewhere where he said, “I’m not found there. Don’t look for me there.” Every time Jesus offers us his body and blood with the bread and wine, he says, “It’s given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins,” right out of Matthew 26. He does not ever say that this is a symbol or a memorial feast, but it’s given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins. And if we think anything other than that, we’re looking for Jesus somewhere where he’s not. He’s there. That’s where he said to find him.
See, the problem with the Jews was that they kept looking for him someplace else and then that person named Jesus. And Philip was succumbing to that question and that doubt. Where is God to be found? Jesus says, “Find God here.” Well, that’s great if we’re talking simply reason. Reason. How do you get the goods? That’s what matters. How do you get the forgiveness that he won? How do you get the peace that he offers? How do you get the hope of eternal life if it happened so far away and so long ago? In a feeling? In a meditation? Or where he said you can get it? He said you can get it here.
If you’ve been baptized, he said, “I gave it to you in your baptism. I made you my child. I don’t change. Earthly fathers and earthly mothers may change. I don’t change. I never let go of my children, and I claim them as mine. That’s where you find me, giving you the goods.” That’s it. Yes, your pastor’s a sinner who says, “I forgive you all your sins,” but Jesus said, “You find me where I’ve told you to find me.”
“If you forgive anyone their sins,” Jesus said, “they are forgiven.” Believe it. That’s where he said, “Here’s the goods. Receive the goods.” Philip wanted confidence. That’s all Philip wanted. “I want confidence to know that I have what you’ve done for me.” Is that not what you want, is confidence? Yes. Yes. But Satan loves sinners who want confidence because he loves to supply you with ideas about God that aren’t what God has revealed to you in Jesus. Satan would love to say, “The reason that you can be confident to God that he loves you is because life is going so well for you. Look how he’s blessed you.” And what if God decides to take all of that away?
Now, how does that reasoning think? “Oh, God must not love me anymore.” That’s not what Jesus said. That’s what Satan and your own mind said. It doesn’t beget confidence. It begets doubt. Or the other extreme. “I have done so many horrible things in my life and my past. How can God ever forgive me?” Satan is more than willing to help you with that depression and darkness and say, “Yeah, you’re right, he can’t.” But that’s not what Jesus said. That’s what Satan said, and you love to listen to it because I love to listen to it in my down times as well.
Every one of Satan’s lies begins with God’s name. That’s why they’re so tempting. Jesus said, “Find me, find the Father. See me, you’ve seen the Father. Hear me. You hear the Father.” There was a miraculous thing that Jesus had happened to him in front of Peter, James, and John. They were up on the mountain. In fact, it’s in the upper right-hand corner of the window up there. There’s Moses and Elijah with Jesus, and it was called the Mount of Transfiguration. A voice from heaven, God the Father said, “This is my beloved Son.” And then he added these three words: “Listen to him.”
Don’t listen to Satan. Don’t listen to your mind. Don’t listen to your feelings. Listen to where he said you can find him. Listen to where he said he delivers to you the goods. Listen to where he said I’m going to build your confidence, not your fear, not your doubt, but your confidence. He even said it in this morning’s text, did he not? “No one comes to the Father except through me.” To seek to find Jesus anywhere where he has not revealed himself is idolatry. And to seek to find Jesus anywhere where he has said he has revealed himself is also idolatry. It’s a creation of our own mind.
All of Satan’s lies begin with God’s name. That’s why they’re so difficult. But that’s why Jesus said, “Listen, listen. If you hear me, you hear the Father’s voice. If you want to know what your standing is before God the Father, look at it in me. Don’t look in your mind. Don’t look anywhere else. Look at me. Did I pay your price? Yes. Have I delivered you the goods? Yes. Then receive the goods. Your Christian faith and your dealing with God is not about your giving. It’s about your receiving. Then you know. Then you know it’s been done. Because then you can’t make amends for anything. You can’t fix any past. You can’t say because you’ve done this you fixed the past and that’s why things are going well. You can only say it’s because of what Jesus has done that I stand before God righteous. But nothing else.
If you want to know what God thinks of you, listen to Jesus. Did he not say, “Let not your hearts be troubled? Believe in God, believe also in me?” Did he not say, “I prepare a place for you?” He said this to Philip before Philip asks this boneheaded question. He said, “I will come again and take you to be with me.” And he said that to Philip before Philip ever let those words out of his mouth. And Jesus knew full well that he was going to ask such a question. Jesus did not turn his back on Philip and say, “Philip, you bonehead.” He said, “Philip, listen, listen. I want to give you that confidence that you desire, but not in the way that you think it, in the way that I’ve revealed it. And though it doesn’t make sense, it’s okay.
Cuddle up in my lap. Close your eyes and ears. Listen to me speak to you in your baptism. Nestle yourself in my bosom. Close your eyes and ears to your own mind and to the world who screams at you, and listen to me tell you in that word, ‘I forgive you your sins.’ Open your mouth and receive my flesh and blood with the bread and wine of the Lord. And take me in in my forgiveness so that you do have confidence and not fear. Jesus and God are the one who has decided to use these masks, as it were, to bring himself to us. But he’s promised him. It’s in the scripture.
To say that it’s not is to say God’s a liar, and that’s idolatry. To not receive it is to say God’s a liar, and it’s idolatry. God has given it to us not for fear, not to check a block, but to receive him who comes to us with forgiveness and peace, that we may have confidence. Philip had confidence after Jesus gave him this. And so do you. And so do you.
In the name of Jesus. Amen. The peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and your minds on Christ Jesus, the life everlasting. Amen.
